A Date With Grandma

"I want to go to a movie," Grandma Calder said, but she didn't know which one. It was hard to decide what to take Grandma to--no skin, no violence, no science fiction, no cartoons. We chose "Emma," a biography of Emma Smith. Afterwards, Grandma treated us to soup, salad, and cookies at Paradise Bakery. As I chewed my coconut chocolate chip cookie, I thought of the many fun times I met Jenny, Jonny, and/or Michael at Paradise Bakery for a quick supper before going back to work.


"You don't need to worry about who will flip the pancakes or grill the bacon," the bishopric told us, as Dave and I, Nancy and Darrell planned the neighborhood Fourth of July breakfast. "The older guys have their places all staked out. They hang onto their jobs, year after year." We handled the less coveted tasks--bringing the paper plates and name tags, cleaning up.


It was great to see Herb and JoDee Flindt at the breakfast. JoDee had surgery last week, and said this was her first outing, after getting out of the hospital. "Which would you like, food or flowers?" I asked, and JoDee replied, "Just your love and your prayers." Dad and I dropped a bouquet of pink carnations and a card off, in addition to the love and prayers. "That was a global event," Annie Poelman said on Sunday, describing the breakfast. One couple had arrived from Bagdad just two weeks before, and the wife wore a headscarf at the breakfast. Han and Julie, our next-door neighbors, are from China, and there were also neighbors from Africa and Iran. Just as exotic were the sons and daughters of ward members, lured from obscurity by the platters heaped high with eggs, pancakes, bacon and ham, and fruit. Steve Kimball was there with Bill, and all three Petty boys are now home, although Shannon is still in England, getting a masters degree.


Dave and I did Installment #2 of the 15 installments it will take to finish painting the inside of our house. We finished the entry and the study. I promise a picture of Dave and his new ladders and scaffolding for next week.

We are excited about Lisa and Camille both arriving, with their families, this Sunday. Lisa and Kyle will be in Spokane on Saturday, where Kirsten, Spencer, Grant, and Michael will all run in the regional track event. They are all very talented. If their luck is good, someone might even qualify for nationals! Happy birthday to Kyle and Bryce this last week--June 30 and July 1! We can't imagine our family without the two of them.

Camille and Steve flew into Las Vegas last weekend, and planned to travel right on through, by car, to Newport Beach for a week with Steve's family. As they drove out of Vegas, it took two hours just to get to Primm, usually half an hour's drive away. The freeways were clogged with California people trying to get home after the long weekend. Camille and Steve turned around and went back to Vegas to wait for another day.

The big event for next week is Jono's baptism on Monday. Dave will give a speech on the Gift of the Holy Ghost which he has spent several hours writing and reading to me for my comments. I'm sure Dave's talk will be more sedate than my talk on the Holy Ghost at Grant's baptism, for which I used Grant's panda bears as props (although Dave does say he is bringing a tomato plant as a visual aid). Afterwards, it is pulled pork, fruit, salad, and cookies at Evergreen Park with vast hordes of Jono's admirers.

We follow Michael's blog with fascination. Check out Michael posing with a belly dancer and chasing down red sand dunes in Dubai.

Jenny and Jonny also have an update to their blog, showing their trip to Jaipur and Agra. Look at the photos of the Amber Fort in Jaipur. Whoever takes the photos for their blog is getting more and more artistic. I want lessons.

Grandma Spendlove is feeling better, after the second operation on her back. She can walk, with her walker, nearly as fast as Grandpa Spendlove, who is very spry after his hip replacement surgery. Grandpa likes to walk from the condo to Temple Square to talk to the lady missionaries.

Return of Odysseus

Michael has returned, unscathed, from his two-week hike to the base camp of Everest. Check out his adventures, including up-close pictures of Mt. Everest, and equally up-close pictures of wild yaks and photogenic monkeys, at 2008epic.blogspot.com. Now it's on to Dubai and trekking through Ethiopia. I have told my friends that I divide Michael's trip into the somewhat dangerous and the more dangerous parts. I thought of the trek to the base camp of Everest as only "somewhat dangerous" until I saw Michael's photo of one of the bridges over a rushing river that he crossed.



Jonny and Jenny spent the weekend on a trip to Agra and Jaipur, which I will duplicate when I travel to India at the end of July. I got a quote from a travel agency for a five day trip from Delhi to Agra and Jaipur and was quite excited about traveling in my own air conditioned car, with driver, and having such adventures as a "slow elephant ride" in Jaipur and a stop at an "ethnic village." Dave was quite horrified at the thought of his wife riding elephants, unaccompanied, in India, and Jonny confirmed, after taking the trip himself, that I would be better off with Jonny as my guide. Jonny and I will tour Agra and Jaipur during my first few days in India, I'll spend a couple of days in Delhi as Jonny and Jenny finish their last week of work, and then all three of us will explore together for another few days. Jonny and Jenny think renting bungalows at a tiger reserve sounds fun. So do I! See India, through Jonny's and Jenny's eyes, at jennyandjonny.blogspot.com.



Lisa's children are fast, fast runners. Lisa and Dave have planned for Dave to race in a 10K event on July 24, at which some of the Flindt runners will also participate--Kirsten? Michael? Spencer? Grant? Lisa and Kyle? Dave is excited, but afraid of being beaten, bigtime. I have already beaten Dave recently at the type of athletic competition we now participate in--who has the lowest resting pulse rate, as measured by the Smith's grocery store machine (my 56 versus his 66--not bad for fogeys). Dave will train hard to try to beat his grandchildren's times on the 24th!


Camille's family is really into blogging. Camille does the family blog, which featured, this week, the tale of their recent trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Historic Deerfield, and other fun places in western Massachussets and upper New York State. Emilie, Jonathan, and Annelise, now each have their own blogs, with addresses referenced at camilleebert.blogspot.com. One fun item on Jonathan's and Annelise's blogs is their response to 20 questions about their mom. Jonathan says Camille is 5 feet tall and Annelise says she is 8 yards tall! You'll learn things about Camille you never dreamed.


Grandma Calder was feeling depressed earlier this week, but is better now. Uncle Scott is home from 6 weeks abroad, and Dad and I had Grandma to Sunday dinner in our garden, with a big bouquet of bright coral roses, and a baggie of bread and rice pilaf to take home afterwards. Grandma Spendlove messed up her wound site when she fell in the shower, and she has to have a second operation on Tuesday. She would love calls and prayers. Darrell's dad died last week and Darrell was at the hospital to hold his hand as his dad slipped away. It has been a tough week for Darrell.


Dave and I spent the weekend in St. George. I enjoyed attending a session at the St. George Temple, while Dad preferred to wash windows and weed at home. I also enjoyed the beautiful flowers at the temple.


Dad and I also enjoyed swimming in the perfect, just lower than body temperature, water in the swimming pool. We then drove to Cedar City to see "Taming of the Shrew" in a hilarious performance, with a traditional (for us) dinner of coconut shrimp and a baked yam at Rusty's Steakhouse, up the canyon towards Brianhead. We are reminded of how distinctive the West is, as we checked out the moose and deer trophies all over the restaurant walls.

Moose Loose

Dad and I had a great weekend at the cabin. That face on the left is a moose, sitting right in front of Grandpa Spendlove's dining table. He looks like he's waiting for Grandpa to break out the Dutch oven ribs! The moose was sitting there when we got to the cabin, and made himself at home for a couple of hours. The other picture is Dad with our new TV at the cabin. We don't like to splurge, but last week we watched "Juno" with a dark green tinge, as the picture tube went out. That convinced us to buy a new TV.

We spent Sunday dinner as Grandma Calder's guests at Chuckarama, after we brought her home from Church. As usual, Grandma told us that she really likes the food at Chuckarama, but doesn't approve of the clientele. As usual, I told her that we look as scruffy as everyone else, what with my once-stylish linen suit that now just looks wrinkled, and the chubbiness that the three of us were not alleviating by the Chuckarama buffet.... Grandma said that she is ready, willing, and able to take the whole family to Chuckarama when Lisa's and Camille's families arrive in July. That is always a favorite event, as each grandchild fills a plate full of macaroni and cheese, scones, and mashed potatoes and gravy (just as did their parents before them).

Grandma slipped and fell on Sunday morning. She seemed relatively OK when we took her to Church, but her leg kept aching all night. Uncle Scott took her to the ER this afternoon. I think she has a sprain, but she wasn't home when I just tried to call. I'll let you know.

The big news this week is that Dad is painting the house, with me as his minion. This after Dad repeatedly told me that he is much too busy to paint, and Michael told me that he can tell, just by looking at me, that I have no talent for painting. My job is to do what I am told, quickly and without complaint. So far, I have specialized in wrapping banisters with newspaper and tape. I may graduate to taping the sides of the wooden stairs, where they meet the moldings. Certainly, I will never graduate to painting, which is only for those who have talent. I marvel at Dad's change of heart--we talked, this morning, about how we might even go window shopping at Costco for some new ladders!

Dad and I are enjoying the family blogs--Camille's tales of raising five children in small family Massachussets, Jenny and Jonny discovering the most intricate and artistic Hindu shrines and forts, and Michael wandering around Bhutan. Michael is incommunicado for a week or even two, as he hikes to the base camp of Everest. He has bought me a few treasures--lacquer from Myanmar and silver pendants from Bhutan. He will also pick up a few of those exotic Ethiopian crosses.

Yesterday, Dad and I finalized our trip to Seattle over Labor Day and to Boston in October. Lisa and Kyle's Christmas gift was a family trip with us. We have decided on a weekend in Victoria, B.C. over Labor Day. I found the Royal Scot Suites Hotel on Hotels.com, and we are excited about it. From the advertising, at least, it appears that a Scotsman in a kilt is stationed by the front door, and there are all sorts of kid-friendly amenities, such as a pool table, swimming pool, jacuzzi, and lush gardens. The hotel is also just two blocks from the "Inner Harbor." We will ride the ferry from Seattle to Victoria on Friday morning and stay until Sunday. Lisa and Camille may remember the summer trip we took to Victoria when Michael was a baby. We visited Buchardt Gardens, which we'll do again with Lisa, Kyle, and their tribe.

It will also be fun to see Lisa and Kyle et al. in July. They will be coming for two to three weeks, with at least a week spent at the cabin. Lisa says the kids look forward to their summer trip to SLC all year. Spencer decided that a week at the cabin will be the highlight. Lisa just says, "I hope I can last that long." (Camille remembers, from her slumber party at the cabin last summer, suffocating heat and strange sounds in the middle of the night that had the whole family huddling together downstairs before the night was over.)

The Flindt kids have been running races this spring, and beating their "personal best" times over and over (as well as most of the competition). Dad says they are as fast already as he was in his prime (and he assures me he was very fast when he was in his prime).

It will also be a delight to have Camille, Steve, and their little kids home with us. Jonathan turned eight last week, and he will be getting baptized on July 14, here in SLC, with a big party for family and friends. Steve turned 37 (?) last week, too, and Spencer turned 11 (or is it 12?). Camille will be in SLC until mid-August, when she and Steve join Jenny and Jonny for a trip to Thailand. One fun portion of their SLC trip will be a drive south, with Dad, through Goblin Valley, to our St. George house and its swimming pool.

Dad doesn't approve of my trip to India and so is pretending that I'm not really going. I have taken responsibility for all the aspects of a big trip that he normally handles--sending away for visas, buying the plane ticket, making arrangements to take enough money. I'll arrive on Friday night, July 25, spend the weekend with Jonny and Jenny seeing Delhi, and then take a tour of Agra (the Taj Mahal) and Jaipur the next week. On Friday or Saturday, Jonny and Jenny will be through with their jobs and we'll head off together somewhere fun, such as Nepal or Kerala.

Dad and I miss Michael, but I have taken to heart Camille's advice to make this an opportunity to enjoy just being with Dad. I fix intimate little suppers every night and we plan fun projects like painting the house.

Grandma Spendlove has had a tough time recovering from her back surgery. She collapsed in the shower one day last week, from the pain, and woke up to wonder what she was doing, lying on the shower floor. Grandma and Grandpa really appreciate your phone calls--they say you are the grandchildren who call them the most. We had a very fun Sunday dinner last week, in the garden, with Grandma Calder and Grandma and Grandpa Spendlove. The flowers on our hill were all in bloom, in wonderful shades of purple and pink and white. I wished Kirsten and Emilie and Annelise and Sophie and Alyssa were there to fill my miniature flower vases full of flowers.

We also showed the Grandmas and Grandpa the two treasures we brought home from our trip to Europe--a beautiful blue and white, hand-painted vase from Delft, Holland, and a hand-painted porcelain box in the colors of our living room--rust and blue and sage green. Someday, I'll be like Grandma Calder and write out a list, on a yellow legal pad, of what each of my descendants gets when I die. The Delft vase and box will definitely be on the list, as will the red silk dragon which is the centerpiece of Chinese New Year meals, the statue of the Chinese man having his ears cleaned, and similar items that I know you all want. I have also thought of inviting each of my descendants to wear one of my necklaces at my funeral--there are plenty for all, male and female.