Category Archives: Addyson May

Sibs and Sips Hodgepodge

All my living siblings in 2003 in age order left to right, oldest to youngest. I’m in the middle.

Time once again for the Hodgepodge questions from Joyce!

1. Egg on your face, putting all your eggs in one basket, a good egg, walk on eggshells, nest egg, or a tough egg to crack…which eggy idiom currently applies to your life in some way? Explain

This one wasn’t easy for me. I’ll go with walk on eggshells because of my whole Plantar Fasciitis episode in 2025. I try to walk lightly and I don’t jump or run or stay on my feet in general for long periods of time. I threw caution to the wind on our latest trip in Europe and England where we walked and walked and were on our feet every day. So thankful that my feet survived.

2. April 7th is National Beer Day…are you a beer drinker? If so do you have a favorite?

I do enjoy a good beer once in a while and especially on a sunny day. (Don’t tell my mom…oh never mind she’s in heaven now and she doesn’t care anymore.) Speaking of my mom, today was her birthday when she was on earth. She was a good Russian Baptist…no drinking, no smoking, no dancing, no gambling, no cussing. 🙂

IPA’s and Dark beer, like Guinness, are favorites.

These photos, above and below, are from Bratislava, Slovakia. These are the two beers that are brewed at Bratislava Flagship Restaurant, a Slovak beer hall housed in an 18th century monastery.

I’ll have a full post soon about our time in Bratislava.

Beer battered fish, beer bread, beer can chicken, beer brats…which one sounds good to you? Have you made any of these?

Beer battered fish and beer can chicken sound the best to me.

3. Do you have siblings?

I have/had eight siblings. Our oldest sister died in Persia/Iran when she was only two.  I have seven living siblings, three sisters and four brothers. Four of my siblings still live in Southern California. Two (the twins) live in Texas. I’m the only one in the state of Washington.

Here is our oldest sister, Kathy, who died in Persia and what our Pop wrote about her in his life story.

On April 25, 1944 our first daughter was born.  She was the ideal baby – beautiful, happy, loveable.  Then in early 1946 she contracted dysentery and died. Our hearts were broken.  In addition we as parents were blamed for her death because we didn’t have a dedication ceremony for her when she was born – neither in the Baptist or the Molokan church – because we could not agree as to what church should conduct it.  This guilt added to our grief. But fortunately, it was mitigated with the birth of our second daughter, Kathy, in May of 1946.

Yes, they named their second daughter Kathy, too.

What’s the best thing about being your sibling? If you don’t have siblings, what would you say are the pros and cons of being an only child?

I keep in contact and check up on my siblings. On many occasions, I’m the communication link for us all. Over the years all of my siblings (but one) have stayed in our home for an overnight or longer visit.

My older brother has chosen to separate himself and his family from the rest of us for the past twenty or more years. It is hard to understand and sad for all of us.

4. How do you feel about floral scents in products? Do you have a favorite?

I’d rather enjoy real flowers with their scents. I’m not a big fan of manufactured scents in general. Subtle fragrance in candles are okay. I like a clean light citrus scent. If I was to pick a floral fragrance, I’d choose lavender.

5. What’s one thing in your home that begins with the letter G that you would say is a keeper, something you’ll hold on to? Tell us why.

I could have said the Grand Piano but that is slated to go to our daughter in the future.

I’m going with goblets. I like a nice goblet to set a table with. When we moved I scaled down on my goblets but I still have a nice collection in different colors and clear glass, too.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It has been so beautiful here the past several days.

I finished this very hard puzzle yesterday. It was a challenge and it felt good to put the last piece in!

I’m still basking in the celebration of Easter and my wonderful Savior who when I repented gave me immunity with his own life and not just immunity but I was delivered by God from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Spring is in the Air Hodgepodge

Our families very first celebration in Spring is Addy’s birthday. She was born on the first day of Spring!

Springing in to Wednesday Hodgepodge where Joyce asks the questions and we all respond.

1. It’s officially spring in the northern hemisphere.

Does it feel like spring in your part of the world?

Spring is definitely in the fickle stages. We had temps up to almost 60 and now have below freezing morning temps!

If you’re in the southern hemisphere it’s officially autumn where you live. Does the weather say autumn? Which do you prefer-spring or autumn? Why? 

I enjoy Spring and Autumn. Spring might get an edge over Autumn because of Easter and our Grands birthday celebrations.

2. What’s your favorite thing about spring?  

The births of our grandchildren is a favorite. Seeing the flowers push up and brighten gardens is another favorite. Celebrating Easter has always been the ultimate celebration of Spring, the Resurrection and New Birth in Christ! It truly is the best event in the history of the world!

3. Spring into action, spring in your step, spring to life, spring to one’s feet…which spring idiom currently applies to your life in some way? Explain.  

I’ll go with spring to life because it feels like we were brain dead trying to recover from jet lag. We are slowly coming to life!

4. Which spring food from this list is your favorite?

From this list I’ll go with Strawberries and Artichokes

What’s a dish you like that includes your favorite spring ingredient? 

Strawberry shortcake or Strawberry Trifle.

asparagus, strawberries, salad greens like mesclun, artichokes, spinach, eggs, peas, spring onions

5. What’s one task on your spring cleaning list? Do you actually have a list? 

I do not have a list but we do have to hire a couple of teens to do a yard clean-up. After a major wind storm while we were abroad, small branches and lots of pinecones need to be raked up and gathered to our burn pile. Our kids and grands gathered the large branches that fell while we were gone.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We celebrated Addy in great survivor fashion and my belated birthday this past Saturday. You can see the epic Survivor birthday party if you click here where we had shelter building challenges and fire starting challenges, too.

Happy #9 and Happy #75!

Addy’s 9th Birthday Party

If you are a fan or have watched ‘Survivor’ or ‘Alone’ you will understand the challenges we enjoyed at Addy’s 9th birthday party. We all gathered on Saturday dressed to survive any challenges thrown at us by our challenge host, (Jeff Probst) Dad Dan.

Addy’s most talented mom made her logs on fire cake or campfire cake! The flames were made from jolly rancher candies!

Before cake and before our survivor challenges began we enjoyed lunch of chili and homemade sourdough and cornbread.

Fortified for the challenges Addy and JJ (the captains) chose their teams.

Team Addy on the left and team JJ on the right with Dan (Jeff) giving the rules and asking the bonus questions for extra supplies to build our shelters. Each team was given a set of supplies to begin and then had the chance to earn extra supplies. The shelters would be judged as to whether they could survive a rain storm (simulated with buckets of water).

 

If you’ve watched ‘Survivor’ you will notice that Dad Dan had Jeff’s look captured to a T! Here he is giving us the rules and the go ahead!

The Shelter making challenge was borrowed more from the TV show, Alone.

There was a time limit and everyone worked fast to get their shelter completed. JJ’s team had supervisors overseeing the work.

Team Addy’s shelter!

Team JJ’s shelter.

The Bucket test would be after cake and presents!

Time for cake before either Addy or JJ would get soaked or stay dry in the bucket challenge!

Time for presents!

From presents we moved on to the very exciting fire starting challenge with only select materials to get our fires going. The team who’s fire burned through the rope first would win the challenge. No matches only a type of flint, a little kindling and other elements plus wood to get the flames going.

The rope you see was what we needed to burn through to win. Not an easy task. It was a group effort from beginning to end.

We got a flame!!!

It was a windy afternoon and we had that challenge to deal with, too.

Team Addy for the fire making win! What an intense and fun challenge this was!

The final test was to see if team Addy or team JJ would stay dry in their shelter.

Team JJ won this event. Addy got the wet end of this challenge! Well done on your shelter, team JJ!

Thanks to Addy’s mom and dad for hosting such a fun 9th birthday for Addy and guests!

After all the excitement of Addy’s birthday party there were more gatherings for dinner and cake and presents for my belated birthday.

The March birthday girls got the hats and songs at the Mexican restaurant.

We then all gathered at our home.  We enjoyed another cake that Addy’s mom made, a Persian cake, for my belated birthday celebration. I was showered with presents and kind words of encouragement.

It was an evening of reminiscing about years gone by and we talked about my mom’s last days and how we had visited her for the last time in person in August of 2013. Laura remembered she had photos from that day on her phone and quickly found this next photo which brought back the memories of our mom wanting to share this portion of Jude with all of us. This is my hand next to the verses that were important to our mom to share.

Here is part of the post that I published on my blog in August of 2013, after our visit with our mom/Baba. Our mom was received in heaven by her Savior on September 13, 2013.

MomAfter the beautiful wedding on Saturday we packed up and headed to my mom and pop’s apartment for a short visit before our flight home. We had a wonderful time around my mom’s hospital bed where she shared her favorite verses from the Bible with us with some added words of counsel. She was able to walk into the living area for a while to eat and watch the video of the wedding of grandson Caleb and sweet Marie that was recorded with my sister’s IPad during the wedding ceremony.  By this point she had to go back to her bed and rest. Dear, Josh, Laura, Katie and I said our goodbyes knowing this would be the last time we would see her alive.  Heavy…

Jude 17-25:

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. and have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever, Amen. 

It was a lovely way to end a day of joy celebrating our dear granddaughter and being celebrated by my dear family.

Thanks for surviving our 9th and 75th celebration!!

The First Day of Spring

Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo arrived early for the big birthday weekend. On Friday, Addy’s actual birthday day, we showered her with love. Preparations were already underway for her party that would be on Saturday. While cake making and other preparations were being started we also enjoyed revisiting the Rock Band days. Dan had pulled out the drums and Josh and Laura brought the microphones. Addy and JJ have enjoyed the drums for a while and with the microphones added, singing commenced. So many memories from years gone by with this interactive program. By the time we gather for JJ’s birthday party in April I won’t be surprised to see a guitar join the fun.

Friday night we had a table at a fundraiser for the local Rotary Club. It was an Irish themed event with a corned beef and cabbage meal included. The reason we were there was to see the special entertainment, the Haran Irish dancers that Addy is part of.

We all wore a little something to go with the theme of the night.

Besides the dancers there was a musician who played several Irish tunes.

We always enjoy seeing our favorite dancer, Addy May! They were the stars of the evening.

Our dinner table took advantage of the photo op before we all headed home to rest up for Saturday!

Photos from Addy’s Epic ‘Survivor’ party will be coming soon. It was so much fun!

Hello Spring!

Isaiah 61:11 
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, 
and as the garden causeth the things 
that is sown in it to spring forth; 
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
 to spring forth before all the nations.
~
Spring is such a welcomed season. It is even more special to me because our very first and only granddaughter was born on the first day of Spring. Today is her birthday. We will gather as a family and celebrate her tomorrow at her ‘Survivor’ party. Our Grands get to choose the theme for their parties. We will don our camo and other appropriate items to illustrate the theme. It will be an epic celebration of her 9th birthday!
Doubly blessed, our grandson was also born in the Spring. His celebration will be next month.
Addy we thank our Lord for you and how he created you. We are so thankful that we live close enough to watch you grow.  We love your willingness to try new things and to work hard at developing special skills like Irish dance and piano. You are storing up God’s Word in your heart with all the Bible verses you are learning at Awana. Those will come back to you to strengthen you. Gramps and I pray that you will always know how much God loves you and how close He is to you. We love you, we love you, we love you!
It is sweet that you have your Granny and Granny Great living in the same town as you, too.
And here are a jumble of random photos from the past 9 years…
You are dearly loved and you have a wonderful heritage from God.
Happy Birthday, Addy!

Land Legs

“Land legs” refers to, the ability to regain balance and stability on solid ground after being on a ship, boat, or in motion for an extended period, essentially reversing the effect of “sea legs.” It is the process of readapting to a stable environment, which often leaves travelers feeling as though the ground is still rocking or swaying.

We are in the process of regaining our stability.

We made it home from Cambridge after a 2 hour bus ride to Heathrow, a 9 hour flight into Seatac (Seattle) and a 1 hour hopper to Spokane. Our son was waiting for us when we got off the plane a little after 9pm. The back seat of our car was decorated for a happy birthday greeting for me with crepe paper and balloons and there was a card for me from Addy and JJ. Such a sweet hello. Dan left his truck at our house so that he could drive us all the way home instead of us dropping him off at his house and then us continuing on home. Very thoughtful and very much appreciated since we were very tired after starting our journey 9am England time. (8 hours ahead of our Pacific Standard Time) If I’m figuring that out correctly, it means we were traveling for approximately 22 hours!

These are the sweet cards waiting for me when I got off the plane.

We got our hugs Sunday morning at church from Addy and JJ. It seems like they grew 6 inches since we saw them last!

We had a great trip but it is always so lovely to return to all the comforts of home and family.

Seventy Five!

Today is my seventy fifth birthday. God has been so good to me. We will be traveling all the live long day today. From Cambridge to London to Seattle to Spokane and then home again, home again, jiggity jig!

It will be good to be home again and to get our bearings.

Here are some birthday photos from the past.

 

 

 

 

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Thank You, LORD!

 

A Pause…

It has been difficult to upload all my great photos while we are cruising along the Danube. The internet is slower than mud and stuck in the mud. We will be docked in Vienna later this week and I’m going to make a prediction that the internet might be working better for us there. If not, when we get to Cambridge next week, I’ll try to catch up. Until then…

Missing these two munchkins!

Farewell to February Hodgepodge

March is coming, Hodgepodgers, and Joyce From This Side of the Pond is giving us a little tease. I’m posting this a day early because I’ll be busy until the evening of the 25th. I’ll be visiting y’all then.
My photos from Washington D.C. are all from a visit in May of 2011.
1. America celebrates turning 250 years old this year. Primary cities set to lead the celebrations on July 4th are Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington D.C. Other significant locations for celebrating will be Charleston SC and the ‘historic triangle’ which includes Jamestown-Williamsburg-Yorktown Virginia. 

Of the cities listed how many have you seen in person?

I’ve had the privilege to visit Boston, New York and Washington D.C.

Of the cities listed which would you most like to visit this year?

I’d love to visit Charleston S.C. or Williamsburg some day.

Any plans to do so?

Not at the present.

What’s one place in America you think everyone should see?

Washington D.C. because there is so much history documented there and so much to see and enjoy.

If you’re not American what’s one place in the US you’d like to see? 

2. Three sounds you love to hear? 

I love to hear “hello mom” or  “baba!” I love the sound of any music that is honoring to God and lovely in general. I also enjoy pure natural nature sounds like birds and other animals or water flowing, etc.

3. Three sounds you hate to hear? 

Loud nonstop cussing. The screeching of brakes. Smoke alarms.

4. February 24th is/was National Tortilla Chip Day.

Are you a fan?

yes

With salsa, guacamole, queso, or just plain please?

Salsa and guacamole, please

Do you like nachos? With what on top?

Nachos are okay but not what I prefer to order or make.

Is there anything (besides nachos) you make that calls for tortilla chips? 

Taco salad is good to have with chips.

5. We March into March with next week’s Hodgepodge…what’s one thing on your March calendar that makes you smile? 

I cannot choose just one!

The following selfie is from this past Sunday, the 22nd of February.

Two March birthday girls, the oldest and the youngest girls in our family!

We have so much to smile about in March. In March we will visit Budapest and embark on a river cruise with stops in  Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and a bus trip to the Czech Republic, too,  and then we will end our international trip in Cambridge U.K.

We travel home from London on my birthday and then our family will gather to celebrate our granddaughter’s birthday which is in March, too. Whew!

And for the record the 14th of March marks my 75th birthday on this earth! We will be at airports and on airplanes for all of my birthday. I will count it all joy!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I didn’t think I’d be able to participate this week in the Hodgepodge but we’ll be hunkered in a hotel room this evening and I’ll have the time to participate. This won’t be the case for the next two Wednesdays. Cheers!

One more photo from Washington D.C. This is the Washington National Cathedral.

Weekend Recap

Hello Monday and hello to the last week of February!

I took this selfie on the way home from church on Sunday. We watched the USA-Canada Men’s Hockey game before church and we were happy for the historic win for the USA men. I decided to wear my USA jacket to church as a nod to the Hockey team. I love that Addy leaned over to get into the selfie!

Congratulations to all the participants in the Winter Olympics!

I’m adding a couple of photos from my archives taken in Milan in March of 2013.

The soccer stadium in Milan.

Have a great week!