Hanging Nana

"Once more into the breach," is how I felt this week as I woke up my sourdough starter to make bagels again.

I made sure the starter had tripled so there would be plenty of rising action, and the dough rose!

There is rarely just one thing going on in this house.  My bagel baking was interrupted with a special delivery.  Some background is necessary, and that is the purpose of this photograph.  After the recent death of Aunt Janet, I inherited Nana's love seat.  I have always loved this piece of furniture.  Always.  I once spent an entire evening sitting right where Sammie is sitting, trying to read Daddy Cannon's French novels.  The books had cartoon pictures or I would have been completely lost.  I showed Jacob this picture.  After a minute, he was surprised to recognize his dad!  He knew the other two kids had to be Uncle Jeff and Uncle Sammie, but he got them mixed up.  I pointed out my Grandmother Cannon and I told him a little bit about her.  We called her Nana, and she didn't have any toys.  Thus, my attempt at French novel reading.

The love seat needed some repair.  I found the best man for the job in Springville, Mr. Hansen.  He is certain that this piece of furniture is at least a century old.  Aunt Joan doesn't remember this being in their home until World War II, so I'm guessing Nana bought it used, maybe when she and Daddy Cannon went to Belle Fourche, South Dakota, during the War.  

Mr. Hansen was certain the love seat has been recovered at least once.  Notice the difference in the placement of the nail heads between the photograph with Nana and this picture.  Mr. Hansen thinks that during the War, gimp, or the fancy braid the nail heads are pounded into, could not be obtained.  Instead, the nail heads were placed next to each other to hide the absence of the gimp.

Mr. Hansen gently refinished and lightly re-stained all the wood.

He also increased the depth of the padding behind the tucks.  He believes this is how the love seat was originally built.

Dad gave me this rocker when he moved to Idaho Falls.  This was part of Nana's wedding furniture, but Dad inherited it when she died.  Dad recaned the back (Mr. Hansen was impressed with that). I had recovered the seat twice, but I was never happy with it.  Mr. Hansen recovered the seat of the rocker at the same time he worked on the little sofa, and it looks great.

Ben and I weren't sure how this was all going to work, but we like the new look.

Jacob immediately fell in love with the sofa.

Dad had given Aunt Janet a portrait of Nana as a young woman.  That portrait came to me with the love seat.  This afternoon, Ben got out Dad's tack hammer and hung the picture in our family room.

In thinking about the hammer, one of my prized possessions, I realized that only one child has requested anything from me.  That would be Sammie, who asked for my cooking fork, which originally belonged to Mom.

Wait. I'm remembering that Corinne asked me for this tea cup.  When Mom was about 8, her older sister Gladys gave this to her.  Shortly after that, Gladys died.  Mom kept the tea cup and saucer through her entire life.  I asked Dad for it when Mom died.

I don't think anyone besides Corinne and me knows the meaning of this cup.

Nana's picture looks lovely on the wall, across the windows from Kofi.

My bagels came out of the oven.  They felt light.  They looked great.  Unfortunately, while cleaning up the kitchen, I realized that I had not held back any starter for next time.  Uh oh.

Ben, Jacob and I had lunch together and enjoyed some mousse cake.  We discussed the Ghirardelli chocolate again.

Then I popped Jacob in the car and we went tramping.

Papa Ben contributed some red socks for this activity.  They have grips on the bottom.  Jacob loves the socks.

Unfortunately, the socks don't have grips on the toes, so Jacob was forced to switch out for the orange ones.

Jacob's toes occasionally make contact with the trampolines.

Not too often, but you can see why he likes the toe grips.

But you can also see my point that this isn't always necessary.

On our way home, we stopped to feed the fish.

Jacob likes the koi.

They like him.

I had a bagel for dinner.  The flavor is good.  The texture, well, it's simply not as good as my normal bagels.  If you are thinking I'm stressed about not having any more starter, don't give it another thought.  Some things are meant to be.

Big Bang!

I was thrilled to meet these three handsome men at the temple this afternoon.  Only moments before I took this picture, we realized Jacob's recommend was still at home.  The temple solved that problem in 35 seconds.

The same three handsome men selected Burger Supreme for lunch afterward, a first for Will, nowhere close to firsts for Ben and Jacob.

But also first for me.  Will and I came home and got his laundry going.

Papa and Jacob brought the food home.

Lunch was delicious.

We "hung out" with Mom and Dad, who enjoyed catching up with their two wayward children.  Other kids joined in the chat.  We talked for a long time, and I'm not sure why Dad ended up getting poked at so much, but he did.  He's a good sport.

There was not much room for dessert, but I had made mousse cake with the Girardelli chocolate, so we ate it.  A good sign was the three of us who had eaten it before noticed the change in chocolate, perhaps an improvement, but definitely noticeable.

I have been making this dessert since 1983, but today was Will's first time to eat it.  This met with his approval.

Jacob's, too.

I'm not sure why the pistol came out, but it did.

Will's opinion of Papa soared through the roof.  He knew about the gun but had never held it before.

The bullets were on the table, never in the gun.

Jacob, of course, was as interested as Will.

Papa was teaching the boys about rifling.

Look closely -- for sure no bullets in the gun.

What a great day, from start to finish!

The Three Jamigoes

Jacob has made some new friends this summer.

Meet Jason and Joseph.

You've met Joseph before.  Jason is taking a break on the chair.

I took them tramping earlier this week.

They are all pretty good at horsing around.

My camera, however, is quite faithful to Jacob.

He has learned how to fly this summer.

Maybe soar.

This was an Uncle Steve-quality jump.

The kids played pretty hard.

I treated them to dip n dots afterward.

Jacob shared with me.  These little dots are pretty good!

While the boys were jumping, I sneaked away for some groceries.  Rumor has it that Will has been acquiring a taste for chocolate, but his tastes are high-end.  We'll see.

Jacob continues to broaden his Star Trek horizons.

He watched an episode where Commander Tucker saves the Enterprise in his underwear.  It's one of my favorites.

I continue to work with him on backstories.  This is not Shran.  Nor Weyoun.  It's Krem.

Jacob enjoyed the episode with the dog.  He misses Sirius.

When ice cream isn't on the menu, Jacob can make his own dinner.

He likes my sesame bagels, and he prefers sausage in his eggs.  I'm noticing that he prefers his cream cheese spread a little more neatly than I care to do.

Yesterday, we had California roll and gyoza for lunch.

This was followed by a wonderful conversation about high school, college, and where he would like to serve a mission.  His high school doesn't offer Portuguese, but he thinks he can take it online.  That way he'll be ready for Brazil.

Sometimes we don't have ice cream for dinner.  On Thursday, this was dessert after lunch.

Many things are happening in the background of Jacob's summer in Utah.  Yesterday I made 120 meatballs for our family gathering next month.

I also made Jacob dinner.  When I scramble the eggs, I remember to put the sausage in while the eggs are still cooking.

Jacob is excellent about helping Papa care for the birds and the fish, but so far he hasn't helped me much with photography.  I might work on that.