Goodbye and Goodbye

The Eberts are spreading in all directions.  Camille and Emilie stopped by on September 10, 2021, to say one last goodbye before Camille drives Emilie to her new home in Dallas.  Emilie will work as a business consultant for two or three years and then attend Harvard Business School, where she has already been accepted. 

Camille will fly from Dallas back to Boston, where she, Steve, and their three youngest children will live for a year.  Jono and Sarah will stay in SLC to finish their degrees at BYU.  Annie is, of course, on her mission.  The Ebert kids gave each other big goodbye hugs before they went different ways.

The Boston adventure is Camille's attempt to give Sophie, Ezra, and Mia "culture".  Camille will home-school them and they will take field trips around the East Coast two or three times per week, as well as longer trips on weekends.  

"I bet you never thought I'd do this kind of thing, when I was growing up," Camille said.  "No," Dave and I teased her.  "You told us you were going to spend four years at the Lagoon amusement park, and we assumed that was where you'd end up."

Greek Festival

This fall we missed the annual Greek Festival held at the Orthodox Church downtown, but we created our own copy.  On September 5, 2021, Camille's daughter, Emilie, joined us, freshly back from a trip to Greece.  Emilie assured me that my food did, indeed, resemble the cuisine she had tried on her trip.  We feasted on stifado (Greek stew flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg); lemon chicken with tzatziki sauce; lemon rice pilaf; beans stewed with onions and tomatoes; Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and kalamata olives; and baklava with apricot ice cream for dessert.  

“This is a farewell dinner for Emilie,” I told family members.  Emilie drives to Dallas with Camille next Friday, to begin work as a business consultant for Oliver Wayman.  I encouraged Emilie to invite her other grandparents, Al and Marilyn Ebert, to dinner, since she has been staying with them since her parents left on Monday to drive to Boston.  Al and Marilyn came, and fifteen of us ate on tables outside.  This was the first time this year that it has been neither too hot nor too cold to set up tables in our garden.  

It has been several weeks since we have seen Alan and Shauna, whom we always enjoy.

Spencer baked pita bread in my RocBox pizza oven for the dinner and Naomi arranged sunflowers from North Bonneville Drive and hydrangeas from my garden into summery arrangements.  Mike had stories to tell about his own travels in Greece and other spots along the Mediterranean Sea.

Spencer brought Daisy the Dog and Audrey chased her around the backyard, as fast as her toddler’s legs would let  her run. 

Ellie gave great big baby smiles to everyone, except when she didn't get fed on time!

After dinner, we gathered around our big screen TV as Emilie showed photos of her recent trip to Greece and told us about her adventures. “How are we going to keep track of you?” I asked Emilie as she left.  “Well, you might call me,” she suggested, and I took that to heart.

 

Harvest

Our big home improvement project this year was landscaping our yard.  We improved our backyard five years ago with terraces and a gazebo, but it didn't have the lush, "English country garden" look I wanted.  Last fall, Kim Eden of Eden Landscaping drew up a new plan with hundreds of varieties of flowering trees, bushes, and plants cascading over each other.  "That design expresses me!" I said with satisfaction.

Dave and I initially thought the plan would take two or three years to finish, but we got it all done this spring and summer.  A contractor planted the 24 8-ft. junipers lining our back fence as wind-breakers, but we planted nearly everything else ourselves.  One favorite spot is the gazebo, with its trailing sweet potato vines.  I have 15 fruit trees and more than 50 rose bushes--an abundance that satisfies my "more is more" personality.  Dave looks wistfully at the yards we pass filled with just a few conifers, some grasses, and maybe some gravel!  He is a "less is more" kind of guy.

Our two peach trees yielded 25 quarts of fruit.  Riches!  Each quart is a great "bishop's wife" gift, and my trove reminds me of the boxes and boxes of peaches, cherries, applesauce, and pears that my parents canned each year when I was a little girl.  
 

Fake Bangkok

When Dave and I visited Bangkok in March 2012, it seemed the epitome of the exotic, flamboyant East--all that gold and graceful curves and eye-popping colors.  One of my goals has been to create a Thai dinner that reflects at least of bit of the tastes and colors of Thailand.  I made another try on August 22, 2021.

The napkins and table runners were right--hot pink napkins with gold-embroidered hot pink runners.  Dave said the food was "better than Thai restaurants ."  I fixed pad thai with shrimp, green curry chicken, beef satay with peanut sauce, a big bowl of fresh Oriental fruit garnished with lychee nuts, and coconut cake with mango sauce for dessert.  And the guests were first rate--Naomi and Spencer, Grant and Meg, Rebekah and Michael K, and, of course, the babies.

“It’s all Flindts today,” Spencer said with surprise.  Camille’s family is eating this Sunday dinner with the Eberts and will then drive to Boston early next week.  Mike and Heidi are still in Italy.  I have learned to enjoy each group of people who join me for Sunday dinner, of whichever family and however many attend.  At this dinner, I enjoyed seeing how fond Lisa's children seem of each other.  

The Delta variant of Covid has aggressively invaded Utah, and so Naomi masked up.

More memories from Dave's and my 2021 trip to Thailand.

Ellie is One

Ellie is now a year old!  On August 28, 2021, Naomi and Spencer hosted a small birthday party for Ellie at our home.
 

Naomi served brunch--French toast casserole with Naomi's special buttermilk cream sauce, pineapple lemonade, melon, and cupcakes.  The theme was "Daisy", since that was Ellie's first word.  The food and decorations were yellow, to celebrate the "Daisy" theme.  Actually, the true "Daisy" is Spencer and Naomi's dachshund, who is Ellie's playmate.

Meg, Grant's wife, who also tends Ellie for several days per week, made a "Daisy" cake.

Meg is not only a good baker, but she has a magical way with children.  "My mom says that when I was little, I always surrounded myself with lots and lots of dolls," Meg says. She has loved real live baby dolls ever since.

It was great to see Kirsten, up from BYU.  Kirsten has Church callings which make it impossible for her to attend most Sunday dinners.  Kirsten also tends Ellie a couple of days a week--Ellie has the best Mother's helpers!  Kirsten brought cookies, wrapped in fancy bags, as take home treats.

After brunch, Elli prepared to eat her birthday cake.  She was dressed in just her diaper and a princess wreath on her head, so she could get as messy as she pleased.

Naomi's mom fixed Ellie's hair and made her beautiful.

Naomi and her mom were a team in getting Ellie's cake ready.

Everyone pulled out cell phones and took pictures.

Daisy was right there, eating the crumbs!

Ellie didn't disappoint us.  She ripped the cake apart with gusto!

She shared a bite with her dad.

Naomi brought a craft project for the guests.  We each made a princess wreath.  

Ellie opened her presents while we worked on our wreaths.

It's a long way back to my princess or bridesmaid days!

JoDee Flindt, the other great-grandma, made herself a wreath, as well.

Lilly Meets Lasagna

A highlight of our Sunday dinner on August 22, 2021, was meeting Lilly, the two-week-old daughter of Michael K and Rebekah Flindt.  Michael K lay on the couch, with Lilly draped over his chest.  We had seen Lilly's birth pictures, but this was the first time we had seen her in person.

 

I fixed an Italian dinner of lasagna, Italian cream sodas, and lemon and pistachio ice creams with almond macaroons.  “I’m dedicating this dinner to Ezra and Mia,” I said, “since they so love Italian food.”  Ezra and Mia are Camille's youngest children.  I told Mia, “You’ve had to put up with so much weird stuff.  You deserve this.”  I asked Ezra to be in charge of making the Italian cream sodas, since that is his specialty.  “You have lots of talents,” I teased him.  “You’re good at killing flies and making Italian sodas.”  At 71, my reflexes are not as good as they used to be, so I have my grandchildren kill flies for me.  Ezra is an expert.

Dinner, this evening, was a bittersweet event.  “This is our last dinner with you before we leave,” Camille confirmed.  Next week is their last Sunday before they move to Boston for 18 months, but they’ll spend that Sunday with Steve's family, the Eberts.  Ezra is on the far left of this photo, with Mia next to him.  Sara and Jono also joined us, and I enjoyed basking in the excitement and happiness of their recent engagement.  Sara told me my pistachio ice cream was superb.

Spencer and Naomi (left) are trying to decide where to go next, professionally, and they have at least four options, including spending a year working for McKinsey in Bali.  “Mom will tell you to go to Bali,” Jonny had told Spencer,” but don’t do it.”  Actually, I told Spencer Bali was not the best place for an aspiring McKinsey analyst, far from the core work of the firm.

Spencer and Naomi's Ellie is adorable.

Remembering the Ten Virgins

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As I stole into Sacrament Meeting, a few minutes late, on August 22, 2021, Nancy Monson whispered to me, “President Oaks is sitting on the stand.”  Dallin H. Oaks is the first counselor in the First Presidency --the number two man in the 16 million member LDS Church.  Grace Wilson, our second Sacrament Meeting speaker, cut her talk very short, and President Oaks and his wife, Kristen, shared the podium for 15 minutes.  President Oaks told us that, whenever he doesn’t have a Sunday assignment, he picks a ward himself to attend, after praying and checking the demographics of nearby congregations.  He doesn’t tell the bishop or anyone else in advance.  “I want to see the Church as it really functions,” he said.  This was a big day for David, who, as bishop, accompanied President Oaks  during the two hours of Sunday meetings.  All of us were delighted that the ward performed so well.  The Sacrament Meeting speakers and Priesthood and Relief Society teachers were excellent and unflappable, and the classes participated unselfconsciously, as if the Oakses were family friends.  I thought of Jesus' parable of the ten virgins.  Our ward members are good, humble people, who host inspiring Church meetings, regardless of who is there.  We were prepared for the special visit of President and Sister Oaks.