Author Archives: Ellen

Sunday Night in Cali

On Sunday afternoon/evening my sister and I were invited for dinner at our friends beautiful home in the city of Orange. We sat in their patio and enjoyed appetizers, lots of conversations and then dinner. It’s hard to tell from the photo above but that is an infinity pool in the background.

Our wonderful host and hostess, Ken and Heidi. Heidi was my best buddy in my college years and beyond. She was living with Dear and me when she met Ken, dated him, got engaged and then married. I was her matron of honor. She is truly the hostess with the mostess.

Ta-da and toodle-pip!

Toodle pip is a very British and informal way to bid farewell.

Thank you for a beautiful evening, great food and good conversation. Till next time…

Driving home from Ken and Heidi’s I took a photo of the gas prices at this station.

While I was in Cali the local kids dropped by on Sunday to pick up a package that was delivered to us for them.

JJ and Gramps also went next door to pick up one of my packages that was mistakenly delivered to our neighbor. Addy conquered the gravel mountain in front of the shop.

Back to Colville and the Country and away from the big city lights. Tonight we are having our local kids and grands over for dinner. This will be the first time since April 29th. For much of May and into June they were in another state for a Workation.  It will be fun to have some extended time with Addy and JJ and see what new skills or vocabulary they have developed.

For those in the U.S. and Canada a Happy Father’s Day weekend to you!

Truth for Today #22

Thursday June 16th

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during the week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth this year!

1 Timothy 4:1-5

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

From Cheryl:

Psalm 19:14

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”

From Vera:

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3:2-3‬

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Beach Walk Sightings

Home again after a long day of traveling and no energy to participate in Wednesday Hodgepodge. Alaska Airlines upgraded me to First Class for my flights home and that was a nice treat. The flight attendant was cheerful and happy to serve which made things even more enjoyable. After landing in Spokane on my second leg of the journey, we made a stop at Hobby Lobby to try to find a few things for the walls of my of our guestrooms that we upgraded to a King bed, etc. My brain was in slo-mo which made making design decisions difficult. We left with two small items and headed to Costco to fill up our vehicle with gasoline and buy a few items. Back on the road home we tried to stop at a favorite spot for dinner in Deer Park but it was closed for some mysterious reason. We tried a new spot in Loon Lake and it was good enough that we will stop there again in the future. Once home we had absolutely no energy left so the unpacking will be slow. Here are some extra photos from a walk along the Beach that my sister and I enjoyed.

Besides the beautiful ocean and beaches we saw both pretty and unusual things on our walk Friday the 10th of June.

The dog walker. This made us smile. This was a group of very well behaved dogs!

And besides seeing things on the ground we spotted this group in the sky.

Getting back in the groove here at home. Thank you for following along and all the kind comments. I’ll be responding soon. And just like that we are at the middle of June!

Walk on the Pier

On Sunday my sister Vera and I were happy to see that June Gloom was nonexistent. We dropped our brother off at the Orange County airport for his trip back to Dallas and decided another trip to the beach was warranted. We had a good meal at Dukes at the Huntington Beach Pier with this view from our table…

After our meal we headed to the pier to walk it and enjoy the views.

I’ll have a full post with this pelican as the star later.

The crashing waves looked like snow from above.

This post is being published on Tuesday June 14th, Flag day. I will be in the air for a few hours and then on the road home.

Happy Flag Day from Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

Memorial and Reunions

Saturday morning June 11th was our friend Alice’s Memorial service in Whittier, California.

Her daughter Svetlana read the eulogy.

Our childhood friend Natalie is musically talented along with her husband and sons and they sang a favorite song of Alice’s, One Day at a Time Sweet Jesus. This is Natalie, her sons, and her husband is in the background on the keyboard.

We were able to take home Alice’s memoir of her escape from China. Alice’s father was Chinese and her mother was Russian.

Alice is on the left and her older sister on the right.

These are the last two paragraphs in Alice’s story of her escape and journey that eventually brought her to the United States. Her story is one of miracles traveling through China to Shanghai and then being able to sail on an American ship to the Philippines.  From there after a few years, her mother, older sister and Alice were finally able to immigrate to the U.S.A. and they landed in San Francisco in January of 1951. Alice was twelve when they arrived in San Francisco.

Five of my brothers and sisters were also at the Memorial and we took some photos together.

It was good to see so many old friends at the Memorial and to catch up on each other’s life events. It was good to great Alice’s kids, nephews, nieces and extended family and old family friends, church friends, and high school friends.

Later that evening some of us gathered at our niece’s home in Huntington Beach for a meal and more time catching up with each other.

 

Three of the four sisters and our friend Heidi with our youngest brother photo bombing.

A good but draining day. My time has been full here in Southern California with more get togethers to come.

Children of the Heavenly Father ~ Hymn

Children of the Heavenly Father

Children of the heav’nly Father
Safely in His bosom gather;
Nestling bird nor star in Heaven
Such a refuge e’er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish;
In His holy courts they flourish;
From all evil things He spares them;
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever;
Unto them His grace He showeth,
And their sorrows all He knoweth.

Praise the Lord in joyful numbers:
Your protector never slumbers;
At the will of your defender
Every foeman must surrender.

Though He giveth or He taketh,
God His children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

Words: Karolina W. Sandell-Berg, 1855.

This was my Mother-in-law’s favorite hymn sung in Swedish.

June Gloom

On Friday morning my sister and I drove to her son’s home to feed the cats and have a walk along the coast. The photo above is from the patio of our nephew’s home. Not too shabby.

This was a typical June gloom morning with the sun hiding but it was still warm. They live by ‘The Wedge’.

We ended up at over 7,000 steps and lots of nice views. The houses along our walk were beautifully landscaped with great windows positioned to get all the views. When our walk was over we did some shopping and had lunch out. Later in the day the sun broke through and we could see blue skies. Maybe by the time I fly home we’ll get a blue sky day at the beach.

Tonight (Friday night) we pick up our youngest brother when he flies in from a long day of flying.

Cali Day One

On Thursday we got up at O’dark’thirty and drove south to the Spokane airport for my trip to Southern California. It was a two leg journey for me. First leg from Spokane to Seattle which is a quick hour up and down trip with not much in the world of perks. The second leg was from Seattle to Orange County (John Wayne Airport also known as Santa Ana Airport). The airport is in the city of Santa Ana which is in the county of Orange.

I’m now in the land of Palm Trees but the sun and blue skies are not breaking through the June Gloom here.

My youngest sister works in a high rise that’s close enough to the airport to see the planes landing and she captured my plane as it came in for a landing. She was looking out for it since she would be picking me up from the airport.

Thankful for another safe landing.

Three of us ‘sisters’ enjoyed dinner out at the Black Trumpet in Huntington Beach before retiring for the evening.

The French Onion Soup was delicious and I’m sorry I didn’t take a photo before I destroyed the top of it!

Today (Friday) my sister Vera and I will have a walk along the Pacific Ocean. June Gloom is still happening here so I’m not sure what photos I’ll be snapping.

Our brother from Texas arrives tonight.

Saturday will be a day filled with many reunions with friends and family as we celebrate the life of our friend Alice.

Our daughter Katie with Alice at Katie’s bridal shower.

Our mom and our life long friend Alice. They are both in heaven now.

Hummingbirds

I’m traveling today so Truth for Today will resume next Thursday.

We hung a Hummingbird feeder up on our patio structure and it has been delightful to watch the hummingbirds come and go.

 

I’ll be scarce on the internets for the next several days. I’m hoping to document what I’ve been up to soon.

Since Thursday is when I post Truth for Today I will share this paragraph from Drawing Near, by John MacArthur.

Be Quick to Hear

…”You should be quick to hear the Word because it provides nourishment for your spiritual life and is your weapon against all spiritual adversaries. It is the means by which you are strengthened and equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) It delivers you from trials and temptations and engages you in communion with the living God. The Word should be your most welcome friend…”

Sons and Daughters Hodgepodge

Jo From This Side of the Pond is taking time out of her busy schedule to come up with questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you Jo!

1. “A daughter’s a daughter all her life, but a son’s a son til he takes a wife.” What say you? Elaborate.

Thankfully we have daughters in law who aren’t threatened by our sons continuing a good relationship with us. We are thankful for our sons who protect their wives and give them the stability and love that makes for a strong enough relationship so they don’t have to be threatened. As parents we can give them the space to grow in their relationships and not demand undue attention from them.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

We are also so thankful for our son-in-law who loves our daughter and cares for her well.

We are thankful for each one of our children in their uniqueness and for each of our children-in-law/love who compliment each other well.

2. Something you’ve seen recently that was ‘cuter than a June bug’? 

Love the photos via texts we get of our kids and grandkids having fun and being cuter than a June bug…

3. ‘You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream and that’s pretty much the same thing.’ Agree or disagree?

I have lots of happy memories of ice cream growing up. Our Pop would stop at 31 Flavors when we were all in the car after church or somewhere else and he’d treat us to a 2 scoop cone. I would choose chocolate chip and orange sherbet. This always made me happy. One of my brothers always ordered vanilla.

Later in life I’d enjoy a good scoopage of chocolate ice cream in a glass add milk and enjoy it to the last drop.

And then there was the delicious concept of cooking up vanilla pudding and while it was hot pouring a good amount of pudding over a bowl of Chocolate Ice Cream. Don’t knock it till you try it. 🙂

Last time you had a serving of happiness ice cream?  Dish-cone-milkshake-sundae…which one do you choose? 

Sadly Ice cream doesn’t sit well with my digestive system these days. If I could, I’d pick a dish of Jamoca Almond Fudge, Vanilla Swiss Almond, or just plain old chocolate.

4. What is one way/area in which you’re currently ‘swimming against the tide‘? 

Hate to bring it up but I’m in the process of losing the same 10 pounds I’ve been losing and gaining these last several years. Hopefully this time around I’ll go beyond the 10 and lose another 10. The good news is that I’m just shy of the first 10 pounds and things are fitting better already.

Speaking of swimming our little 5 year old grand is learning to swim and has abandoned her life vest. Great job Addy!

5. Three things you’re looking forward to this summer?

Enjoying summer fruit like nectarines and peaches.

Spending as much time as possible with our kids and grands.

Entertaining visitors.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It was wonderful to see all the celebrations for the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee!