Gendreau Bonding

Perfect flooring for me is solid flooring in the public spaces and carpeting in the private ones.  This past week that vision came true for us, at least on the main floor of our house.  While we were away visiting daughter Jessica, Chris and family, workers were busy installing and refinishing hard wood on our main floor.

Jessica in Bumbershoot Books.

In the meantime, Layne and I drove to Seattle (Normandy Park, actually) so that Layne could help Jes with her bookstore records.  We spent most of our time in the bookstore.  Sometimes I forget how much fun it is to just browse the aisles of a good selection of books.  I searched through the art books (it is a tradition with me) and the children's books mostly.  I bought some, as I always do.  I don't want to appear biased in any way, but Jessica's store is the nicest bookstore I've been in.  There are bigger ones for sure, but none match the charm and warmth of her little shop.  Comfortable chairs share space with books, pictures adorn the walls and a fireplace is always burning its welcome.  Music is plays in the background.  There is something to feed every one of our senses.

Jessica and I visited a glass museum in Tacoma during some of her time off.  We had such fun watching glass being made and seeing all of the exhibits.  Jes and I found time for several good visits.  All three children seem happy and involved in good things.  Chris and Jes are very attentive to their kids. I often worry that there isn't enough time with family but perhaps occasional but close exchanges are enough.  I hope so.

Glass in the ceiling at the Glass Museum in Tacoma.

Jessica holding lighted letters at the Glass Museum.

Here I am doing the same thing.

Lighted letters at the Museum for patrons to organize any way they wish.

Me and Jess at the Museum.

Layne got the bookstore paperwork done and we mended some of the bookstore furniture.  Between visiting and working I think we made the most of our two days together.

                                                                        Peyton

                                                                          Gemma

                                                                            Miles

 It rained most of the time we were there.  We haven't seen rain for some months now, so it was a treat to get wet outside.  We headed for home on Friday morning amidst, you guessed it, rain.  Lots and lots of it.  So much that the windshield wipers had trouble keeping up.  But once outside the Seattle area the rain and the traffic lightened, then left and the rest of our trip was in the sunshine.  We got home Friday evening and entered our freshly varnished home.  Whew, what a smell!  It was hard to take.  Anticipating that, I made arrangements to spend the night with my good buddy, Pat Green.  But Layne opened all the windows and turned on two fans and soon the worst of the smell was gone.  So, to my disappointment, Layne pressed to stay home.  We did and we lived through it.  By Saturday there was little odor left.  It all feels quite normal today, smell-wise.

Pouring rain in Seattle on our drive home Friday.

                                 Our new floors!

I love the floors!  I was thinking that we could move things back on them this weekend.  But our workers said nothing on the floors until Tuesday and no rugs for two weeks!  Wow.  I was a little surprised at that but we will stick to it.  So we have set up meals, such as they are, in the garage.  It is a whole new experience to munch at our table next to the work bench and in the company of the cats.  They seem to think it is a bit strange too.  But we will stick to the schedule and live in a bit of chaos until our new floors are ready for us.  It'll give me time to shop for a new living room rug!

Going and Coming

Scott left for home on Wednesday morning.  We loved having him here and I feel that we got much closer to him than we have before.  As my sister told me recently, one on one time is one of the blessings of living away from family.

My cholesterol is elevated these days.  So says my doctor.  Knowing my aversion to drugs, she recommended that I take niacin.  Sometime during our busy summer months I began to feel lethargic and tired.  I thought it was all the extra activity that we experienced.  When the doctor asked me to take three times as much niacin, I really felt the effects.  Not only did I feel tired but also nauseated.  I finally considered that it might be the niacin and stopped taking it. Sure enough, in just a day without it I began to feel better.  I told all of this to my pharmacy friend, John Amini, who is an expert in supplements and such.  He said my reaction was not unusual and that 1500 milligrams was too much to take.  He suggested 500 milligrams at night, along with two doses of fish oil instead.  I've been doing that for several weeks now.  I'm not sure what that will do to my cholesterol, but I feel great again.

This coming week we are going to replace our living and dining room carpet with hard wood.  I'm so excited about it.  Once it is in, we can use our dining room with abandon; no more worries about white carpet.  The kids helped us empty out all things on hard wood as the installers are going to install new flooring, then refinish both old and new to match.  We have to be gone while they do it, so on Tuesday, after Audrey and kids leave, we will head to Seattle to visit Chris and Jess.  We will come home on Friday to new floors.  I feel so blessed!

Our empty living and dining rooms.

We talked to Gerald on face time and took this picture of him and Angelica.

We have two mature fruit trees in our yard that didn't produce much last summer.  But this summer is different.  We discovered to our surprise that we have a plum tree that produces delicious, sweet little plums.  The tree is full of them.  Right next to it is an apple tree that was empty of any fruit last year. This year it is loaded.  Not knowing what it would do, Layne didn't spray it for worms, so every beautiful apple has a worm.  Still, once the worms are cut out, the apples are very good.

Our apple tree is on the right and behind it the plum, both loaded with fruit.

Audrey, Isaiah and Allegra with some of the fruit of our labors on Saturday.

Audrey, Allegra and Isaiah arrived here for the weekend on Friday.  I presented them with the fruit tree challenge and they were excited to help me pick and bottle the fruit.  So on Saturday Isaiah led the way making applesauce.  Allegra and I made plum jam.  Audrey helped too.  We picked over the garden and, by Saturday night, we had bottles of fruit and a dinner out of the garden.  It was all such fun.  So much so, that they have agreed to work on the fruit some more tomorrow.  We'll see how that goes.

Getting Creative

When I was a girl, we lived, for a time, in a small tract house in San Leandro, California.  It had one bathroom, shared by all 4 of us.  Maryanne and I each had our own room; mine was powder blue.  I picked the color.  I can't imagine what I was thinking in picking blue; it is now one of my least favorite colors!  But I digress.  Daddy bought nude furniture for my room and painted it to match the walls.  I thought it was wonderful.  He made other improvements too.  He built shelves in the hall and made an odd shaped table top for the kitchen eating space.  I loved that especially.  He and Mom made a couch and Mother made drapes for the living room windows.  The house, as you can tell, was uniquely ours. It was a green house and, one day, Daddy painted the front door red.  I thought it looked fabulous!  Ever since then, red has seemed like the most desirable color for a front door.  I see our green house on Grace Street in San Leandro with its red door in my mind so clearly.  And it set a precedent.

So this week I painted our front doors red.  In honor of our San Leandro house.  In honor of Daddy. To celebrate the wonder of the color red.  And I love it.  I love it enough to paint the back door red too.  I'm going to do that tomorrow.

The red front doors, seen under the newly pruned tree.

Scott is a temple worker in the Oakland Temple until he leaves for his mission in November.  He and I went temple shopping on Monday to get him the temple items he still needed then took him to the temple on Tuesday.  It was a lovely time.  

Scott and Layne have just about finished their fall work in the yard.  Scott loves to work and he has been a great help to Layne.  As it happens, one of his best friends, a lovely girl named Taylor, happened to come to Idaho to visit her sister, in nearby Meridian this very week.  She and Scott have recorded some music they made together and have become close.  Just how close is Scott's secret, but as he talked about her I could tell that she is important to him.  They made plans for her to come here on Saturday.  Since her birthday is next week, Scott wanted to celebrate it.  So he asked me to help him make up a CD of their music for her, complete with originally designed label and storage case.  We worked on all sorts of designs until he was satisfied.

"Grandma," Scott said, "Taylor loves the beach.  Can you draw her a picture of the beach with a sunset?  You can do that pretty quickly, right?"  And so we picked out some pictures of the beach and sunsets that he liked and I set to work.  I combined the ocean from one picture with a sunset from another one and made the effort.  As usual when I attempt an art project, I got lost in it.  But I finished it in a couple of hours, matted and framed it and presented it to Scott for approval.  He did, and so all was prepared for the birthday celebration.

The beach scene I did in pastel for Taylor's birthday.

Except for the food.  "Enchilidas and apple pie, Grandma," suggested Scott.  And so, yesterday Taylor arrived and partook of all our preparations.  She is a lovely, pure-hearted girl by all appearances.  She and Scott get along very well and both are into such things as good music and scripture study, which they spent their time together pursuing.  How can you wish for more than that?

Scott and Taylor, about to eat Taylor's birthday apple pie.

Our time with Scott has been fun and bonding.  He has become more talkative as the days have
passed and I am beginning to feel that I know much more of his heart.  This time with him has been fun and such a blessing.

Our Time with Scott

                                                     JOSEPH SCOTT GALBRAITH

Layne told our grandson Scott that he would be welcome to work for us for a couple of weeks, to earn money for his upcoming Church mission to Thailand.  He decided to do it.  Since then Layne has been collecting projects for Scott to help him with.  For awhile now every time we discuss what has to be done around here, he says, "I'll save that for Scott."  So he had quite a list of "to-do's" by the time Scott arrived last Tuesday.  With little time to settle in, they set to work.  A routine soon emerged:  work outside until 4 PM or so, eat dinner, watch a movie.  We've shown Scott the movies that we most admire and find inspiring:  "The Scarlet and the Black", "The Impossible" are at the top of our list.  We also watched "Courageous" at Scott's recommendation.  That was powerful.  So much so that we ordered some 10 copies to share.

Scott is a very musical guy.  One of the first things he did was play for me a collection of music that he sang, accompanied and solo played the piano in.  It was all lovely and uplifting stuff.  He told me that he wanted to make me a copy, which I will love.  As we talked, an explosion of ideas regarding his music came forth.  He's now working on that with great enthusiasm.  The lovely girl that sings some of the songs in the collection is going to be here in Boise this coming weekend.  Scott is hoping that he can get together with her here and, perhaps, celebrate her birthday.  I think he likes her.  But Scott is a man of few words so it is hard to tell for sure.

Scott is comfortable to have around.  He and Layne have accomplished quite a bit in the yard and, thanks to Scott, it is going pretty quickly.  The guys have occasional sore muscles and growing farmer's tans.  Scott will be here another week.  I'm looking forward to it.

The big job:  spreading new gravel along the front of the yard.  Layne says it was grueling.

Scott, shoveling the gravel into the wheelbarrow.  He was pretty sore after this.