Our Week in California

Before we parked at the Spokane airport for our flight to Orange County we enjoyed our Linner at the Rusty Moose in Airway Heights which is just a hop skip and a jump to the airport.

We arrived at the Santa Ana Airport in Orange County on Thursday evening May 7th. Our brother-in-law picked us up at the curb and brought us back to my sister Vera’s home in Huntington Beach, where we would be staying for a week. Our sister Vera had been in Arizona and she arrived this night, too, and brother-in-law headed back to the airport to pick her up. BIL lives in Texas and he arrived the afternoon of this day. This Orange county airport had a total of 7 of our family members arriving at different times on this day. We all initially traveled to attend our friends memorial service on Friday morning but after that we filled the rest of our time meeting up all over the L.A. area traversing the freeway system for graduation ceremonies, Mother’s Day meals, birthday meals and farewell meals with different family groups and different venues. Whew!

Our Washington kids were able to attend our Great Nephew’s graduation from The Masters College in Santa Clarita. They drove across Los Angeles from the Memorial Service to attend.

That evening we were treated to dinner at Seasons 52 in Costa Mesa with two of my sisters and brother-in-law. I didn’t take any photos.

Saturday this crew drove from different areas of L.A. and Orange County to meet for brunch at Twoheys. Those of us who weren’t at Jack’s graduation were able to congratulate him in person at this gathering. Some of us were also meeting his bride to be for the first time.

This restaurant moved from it’s original location in Alhambra to this South Pasadena location.

Retro, family-friendly American diner known for burgers & hot fudge sundaes since 1943.

Our church youth group would end up at this restaurant frequently in the 60’s and 70’s. That was when they were still in the Alhambra location. We could down a burger and then have one of their famous sundaes. My choice for a burger was always the Stinko Burger. A plain burger with a thick slice of raw onion. I ordered the same on this day for ‘old times sake’.

Josh and Laura left the 2EE’s gathering and headed straight to the airport to fly home.

Saturday evening this crew met up in Huntington Beach at Mario’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner. My brother Steve and SIL Kelly were able to make it to this gathering, driving out from Moorpark. Our niece Debbee was turning 50 this same week so we celebrated her. The Brother in law who picked us all up at the airport is sitting next to Greg. Me and my two sisters are seated at that end of the table. My brother is next to me and SIL across from him sitting next to our niece Melissa. Our niece Debbee is to the right and her hubby is taking the selfie. There was a two hour wait time for a table at this restaurant (remember this was Mother’s Day weekend) but…our Lenny, Debbie and Melissa are good customers here and the manager of the bar came up with seating for us in 20 minutes! Muy Bueno!

On Sunday, Greg and I attended Beach Bible Church (formerly Evangelical Free of Huntington Beach) with my sister Vera. This was Mother’s Day. This was the same church Greg and I attended when we lived in Huntington Beach in the mid 70’s and mid 80’s. Both of our sons were dedicated in this church. It hasn’t changed much and it is still a Bible believing and Bible preaching church. The service with the worship songs and preaching was balm to the soul.

At some point during the weekend gatherings there was a last minute decision to gather at Vera’s home for a Mother’s Day meal. Our niece Melissa offered to bring the pies and our nephew Ryan made a special gluten free cake for the gathering. Vera and I made the decision to order a couple dishes from a Chinese restaurant close by to make the day easy peasy. The Beef Broccoli and Orange Peel Chicken with steamed rice was just right for everyone.

I wasn’t with any of our children on Mother’s Day but it was nice to be with all my sisters, a few nieces, nephews, BIL’s, one brother and SIL.

Monday was beach day and I’ll save that post for another day.

Our flight home would be on Wednesday morning so our last gathering was on Tuesday night with a skeleton crew. My sisters Lana, Vera, Greg and I had a wonderful meal at an Italian Restaurant in Newport Beach called Sapori.

It was a very nice finale to our time in Southern California.

Vera drove us to the airport on Wednesday morning. Thank you, Vera, for your hospitality and to all our family who drove miles for our gatherings. Thank you, Lana, for giving up your bed for a few nights and for the use of that amazing hair dryer! 🙂

70th Birthday Video

This is personal and for my memory here on my blog. Our Daughter-in-love, Laura, put requests out to my friends and family to make a little video greeting for my 70th. She gathered them all and put them together in this 26 minute video and then surprised me with it after our family dinner in Spokane back in 2021. We all watched it together at Dan and Jamie’s house cast onto their TV. It is so meaningful to me and brings tears to my eyes as I recount the goodness of the Lord to me by giving me loving family and friends.

I’m finally adding it on my blog 5 years later!

Thank you, Laura and thank you to each one of you who took the time to deal with the internets and the recording and sending your clips to Laura!

My extended family will often sing when we are together and two of our favorites to sing are Great is Thy Faithfulness and Bless Thou the Lord. You’ll hear those songs at the beginning and at the end of the video.

But wait…that’s not all. This is another video put together from a very old reel to reel from Greg and my church wedding shower. My brother in law, Nick filmed it. It took place in 1974 at Bethany Baptist Church in Los Angeles. No one will love this video as much as I do. Our kids showed it to us at our Family 50th wedding anniversary weekend in Walla Walla in 2024. There is no sound and the quality is poor but the memories are priceless. Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers are in the footage and they both gave us their blessing and how I wish there was audio for those words. It was our little Russian Baptist church tradition to have this church shower with both the Bride and Groom present. This is where the wedding gifts were given, not brought to the wedding. Greg’s parents and my parents were present along with Greg’s Brother and his family. A few other men were present like my uncle Paul because they were the chauffeurs. My brothers were there and brother in laws. You’ll see them in the kitchen helping with the dishes.

So many of the people in this footage have passed away. The church is still in existence in Los Angeles.

Note: It was so much fun to watch this with our kids and to fill in some commentary on our own. Hilarious with belly laughs. Thank you, Josh and Laura, for sending off the reel to get it in a visible format.

Here are some stills from our shower which aren’t the best quality either.

My paternal grandmother in the background with the pink and my maternal grandmother in the blue.

Thanks for going down this rabbit hole with me.

I’m working on my posts from our trip to California and will share them soon.

Tiny Tiger is Seven

All the usual suspects gathered for JJ’s Taekwondo/Korean themed birthday party on Saturday at noon. Another amazing cake with a green stripe belt in honor of JJ’s promotion that his mom created.

Two pros helped all of us tie our belts.

JJ showed me his moves.

The food was Korean themed.

JJ enjoyed opening all his presents and he didn’t forget to thank each one of us for his gifts.

There was a high kick contest! I won for low kick!

Last but not least, our Taekwondo pro taught us the 14 moves he is tested on. Everyone was a good sport but none of us got a prize for doing this correctly.

We had glorious sunshine and blue skies for our celebrations.

We moved on to our home for dinner and another birthday celebration.

We celebrated Andrew and by the way, he won high kick earlier in the day!

The weather was beautiful and there was a lot of fun playing ‘tag’ out doors.

We slowed down long enough for a family photo but then played games into the night. We all met up at church on Sunday morning and Addy played a special number during the service, Unashamed by Matthew West. I’m adding the chorus below.

I’m unashamedOf the gospel of Jesus ChristAnd the truth that changed my lifeFor the name above all namesI’m unashamedAnd I will live my faith out loudTake a stand and stand my groundFor the One who took my shameI’m unashamed

After church we all went to our own homes. For some that meant 5-6 hours on the road. Another wonderful weekend celebrating together. We don’t take that for granted.

The weather on this Monday is supposed to be unseasonably warm. We have a couple teens coming to help with our windstorm yard clean-up!

I hope your weekend was good and peaceful and that your Monday is starting out well.

March Was Lovely Hodgepodge

Thank you, Joyce for keeping the Hodgepodge questions coming.

1. March is rolling on out of here. Sum up your March in ten words or less.

Budapest, Bratislava, Czech-Republic, Austria, Cambridge, Seventy-Five, Nine…Travel and Birthday Joys!

2. Are you afraid of heights? No

When was the last time you found yourself dealing with a height, and did it make you nervous?

Besides flying at whatever thousands of feet, the highest was climbing with our own two feet to the Panorama Look-Out at St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest last month.

It did not make me nervous until we started down on these stairs.

3. What’s a word you struggle to spell on a regular basis, and sometimes need to double check before writing it down?

Occassion , Ocasion, Ocassion, Occasion whew…finally I got it right.

Use the word in a sentence that tells us something about your April calendar.

We are looking forward to several occasions to celebrate in April starting with Resurrection Sunday and then two more family birthdays.

4. Love ’em or hate ’em, with Easter comes the sweet treat known as Peeps. So… do you love ’em or hate ’em?

I neither love them or hate them, I ignore them.

Speaking of peeps, what’s your favorite way to have chicken?

Chicken pot pie is a favorite.

5. This week’s Hodgepodge lands on the first day of April, which happens to be National Poetry Month. Do you like poetry? Share a favorite line or two from one of your favorite poems. What makes this one a favorite?

The form of poetry I love are old hymns by people like Fanny Crosby, John Newton, Wesley, and others. I’ll share a stanza and refrain from Fanny Crosby’s, Like a River Glorious;

Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way.

Refrain:
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest

This has been a favorite for years. It was a hymn we sang often at Bethany Baptist church in L.A. and in other churches we’ve been a part of. It has a great four part harmony and the alto part comes back to my memory easily when singing it with the congregation. The longer I’ve been following Jesus as my Lord and Savior, God’s peace gets fuller and deeper.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It’s Easter week and this is another hymn that speaks of Jesus Christ and what the cross, Good Friday and Easter are about. Happy Easter, Hodgepodgers!

Lamb of God, We Fall Before Thee

Lamb of God, we fall before Thee,
Humbly trusting in Thy cross.
That alone be all our glory;
All things else are only dross.

Thee we own a perfect Savior,
Only source of all that’s good.
Every grace and every favor
Comes to us through Jesus’ blood.

Jesus gives us true repentance
By His Spirit sent from Heav’n;
Whispers this transporting sentence,
Son, thy sins are all forgiv’n.

Faith He grants us to believe it,
Grateful hearts His love to prize;
Want we wisdom? He must give it,
Hearing ears and seeing eyes.

Jesus gives us pure affections,
Wills to do what He requires,
Makes us follow His directions,
And what He commands, inspires.

All our prayers and all our praises,
Rightly offered in His name—
He that dictates them is Jesus;
He that answers is the same.

When we live on Jesu’s merit,
Then we worship God aright;
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Then we savingly unite.

Hear the whole conclusion of it:
Great or good, whate’er we call,
God, or King, or Priest, or Prophet,
Jesus Christ is all in all.

Words: Joseph Hart, 1759

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.

After 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.