Category Archives: Birthday

Still in the Sixties!

Happy Birthday to me. Happy to announce I have one more year in my sixties, Lord willing.

The first four of the Bagdanov siblings. Four more were born from 1958 until 1963.

This has been true for me since 1963! Jesus is my Savior and my Lord and my allegiance will always be to Him because of what He has done for me and you. This is a good time to consider the claims of Jesus and where you stand in light of your eternity.

I’ll have a low key celebration this year.

We moved from living next door (Kenmore) to the epicenter (Kirkland) of the Coronavirus here in Washington State in 2018. On the Eastside things are not as stressed as our Western side of the state. Western Washington has larger population bases. Dear and I are in a hotel in the Spokane Valley right now that is, like many hotels, way under capacity in room occupancy. We brought our own bleach wipes to use in our room for our own peace of mind.

We need to be careful as we listen to so many on our news feeds who are just reporting speculation based on possible incidents rate. Not everyone needs to be tested. They make it sound like everyone needs to be tested. This is not the case. Too much mis-information is being fed to us and decisions are being made on this mis-information.

As of Monday all schools will be closed in Washington State. Other states are imposing closures, too.

Check on your elderly friends everyone!!

Hope you are finding peace where you are.

We enjoyed an early birthday celebration meal at Clover in Spokane close to Gonzaga College. We were delighted with the food and service and overall atmosphere. We will return!

This Pot de Creme was on the house because of my birthday. This restaurant has a bakery where they make their own biscotti and other goodies. That chocolate biscotti was so good.

I’ll leave you with this encouragement from our church in Colville:

During a time of uncertainty our prayers should increase, but our anxiety should not. God is in control, and we need to lean on Him, remembering that everything that God allows is for our good and his glory. Philippians 4:6-7 “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
We would all do well to follow the admonition in James 4:8 – Cleanse your hands ye sinners!

This sinner saved by grace will continue to cleanse her hands. Thank you already for all your good thoughts on our trying times and for my birthday. I appreciate all my bloggy friends! This will be a birthday to remember for sure!

Leap Day Birthday

We started celebrating early and continued all day.

We had breakfast at Babette’s in Newport Beach just across the street from the Pacific ocean.

After breakfast Vera and I did some shopping while Debbee and Melissa and my sister Kathy made some preparations for the evening dinner party.

The quote of the day was, “you only turn 18 twice!”

The top photo in the collage is my sister Vera with her two kids, David and Debbee. David opened up the evening with a beautiful prayer for our gathering and his mom.

Top photo are the siblings who could make it to the party in birth order. Kathy, Vera, Ellen, Steve and Lana.

Mom’s and their daughters, Aunts with their nieces.

Love our little grand niece, Avery, photo bombing this photo of our nieces and sister, Lana.

I leave you with our pop’s hallmark ending to all our phone conversations and farewells when visiting.

Above all, Love each other dearly!

29th of February

Since this day comes but once every four years I’m adding C.H. Spurgeon’s thoughts on this day from my Chequebook of the Bank of Faith, daily readings by Spurgeon.

February 29

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Psalm 23:6

A devout poet sings~

Lord, when thou
Puttest in my time a day, as thou dost now,
Unknown in other years, grant, I entreat,
Such grace illume it, that whate’er its phase
It add to holiness, and lengthen praise!

This day comes but once in four years. Oh, that we could win a fourfold blessing upon it! Up till now goodness and mercy, like two guards, have followed us from day to day, bringing up the rear, even as grace leads the van; and as this out-of-the-way day is one of the days of our life, the two guardian angels will be with us today also. Goodness to supply our needs, and mercy to blot out our sins – these twain shall attend our every step this day, and every day till days shall be no more. Wherefore, let us serve the Lord on this peculiar day with special consecration of heart, and sing his praises with more zest and sweetness than ever. Could we not today make an unusual offering to the cause of God, or to the poor? By inventiveness of love let us make this twenty-ninth of February a day to be remembered for ever.

My California family will make this day special as we celebrate our sister Vera with a breakfast out and then a dinner party this evening.

I finally made it to Orange County at 10:15 last night after flight delays that caused flight changes because of heavy fog at Seatac airport in Seattle. Happy to finally land at my destination. Onward and upward! It’s a new day that only comes once every four years.

Happy Birthday dear Vera! Goodness and mercy have followed you in your life and God will continue to take care of you!

Braving Air Travel

The last big birthday party our sister Vera had was for her 16th birthday eight years ago. Vera is a leap year baby so her true birthdays only come along every four years. Her kids threw her a wonderful Sweet Sixteen party back then. Now they are having an 18th birthday party bash on Saturday. I’ll let you do the math to get to her actual age.

I’m hoping to remember to get all the sisters together for a more current photo. We all will be there, Lord willing.

In searching my archives for Vera’s Sweet Sixteen party I found this wonderful photo of Moisi (our pop) with great grandson Jack.

I’m leaving for Southern California on Friday and I bought a packet of disinfectant wipes for the plane. Don’t know if I’ll have time to check in with my bloggy friends during my travels.

Some quotes from readings of late;

“Wonders of grace to God belong” It is not a small gospel message for small sinners that he has sent us to preach, but ours is a great gospel message for great sinners.” ~Spurgeon

“God’s Word is the authority over religious tradition. Consequently, tradition must yield to Scripture, not the other way around.” ~Nathan Busenitz (We Must Obey God Rather Than Men: Scripture, Authority, and the Reformation)

Also, from the same source above:

“Post Tenebras Lux.” “After Darkness Light” The dark grip of religious tradition gave way to penetrating brilliance of biblical authority. (Mark 7:1-3) “We must obey God rather than man.”

More from Spurgeon:

“The Bible exposes our corruptions and lays bare our falseness, pride and unbelief. Do not quibble with God’s faithful Word.”

And the quote of the current week from Spurgeon;

“Leave distracting concerns to those who have no higher calling.”

Enjoy the last days of February!

Flashback Friday

For Flashback Friday, since we are again covered in snow (4-5 inches yesterday) I’m choosing these photos from July of 2003 when our youngest brother and sister turned forty and hosted a luau in our brother’s backyard. The party was in Downey, California.

Sisters, oldest to youngest.

Photos from a camera with film not digital or I would have taken some of these over.

Ellen b.’s siblings in order of birth. I’m number four and the twins were seven and eight. Kathy, Vera, Fred, Ellen, Tim, Steve, Lana and Leonard. About a seventeen year span for our births. Our oldest sister, Kathy, died in Persia when she was two before Kathy, the second, was born.

The luau was a fun event with good food and hula dancers, too.

Some of the nephews. Many other nieces and nephews were at the party but I did not get good photos of them or all the other guests. I’ll blame that on the fact that we hadn’t entered the digital age yet.

My siblings with our spouses, minus Lana and Steve. Our brother Leonard was not married until 2006. This photo was taken at another family event sometime around the Luau, maybe while we set up for the party.

Our parents, Moisi and Nadia, were still in Russia for this event. They would return from Russia in time for their 60th wedding anniversary party that we had in this same backyard in September. I’ll share those photos on Tuesdays with Moisi.

Can you feel those island breezes? Our kids on “the Coast” are wanting a break from the constant rain on that side of the Cascades. It’s been relentless. We aren’t going stir crazy from our snow…yet. Spring will come…

Frosty With the Hope of Spring

We had a good time celebrating Dan and Jamie’s birthdays on Friday night with dinner and cake.

Applesauce Spice Cake was the cake of choice for both our birthday celebrants. Addy helped blow out the candles. Smile. On hindsight we lit the candles a little early and they almost melted away before we sang Happy Birthday.

Jaymison was pretty mellow the whole evening and Addy was quite animated.

Today we sent out Happy Birthday wishes to our firstborn Josh. He’s celebrating with his dear Laura and some of our extended family in Southern California.

Happy Birthday dear Josh!

Trusses and Thanksgiving

On Friday November 29th, Josh and Laura arrived to our country bungalow just before 1pm. Katie and Andrew had arrived on Thursday afternoon driving from the Coast. After we all had a hot bowl of Dear’s famous Tomato Rice Soup with Granny Great’s rolls we headed out to man our winches to lift the center trusses. It was very cold. This building is going to be Dear’s Shop. A place for our larger equipment and Dear’s truck and other projects.

4 people cranking to cadence set by another one of us. Slowly but surely the trusses gained height. The three of us gals took turns with our crank.

We raised the trusses up to about 10 inches shy of reaching the notches where they would rest and had to call it a day. The trusses were secured with blocks of wood and chains and and straps and we came inside to get warmed up and have a thrown together meal of pasta, ravioli, and steamed broccoli. We would wait until Saturday to do the final raising.

Saturday morning after a hot bowl of oatmeal we headed out again to lift the trusses the final 10 inches. At this point Katie noticed some fraying of one of the cables.  We halted and the guys put their heads together to fix the problem.

New cable was added and we manned our stations again to continue lifting but then…

…disaster! We didn’t notice that the cable on this side had frayed and after a fatal crank it snapped and the truss came crashing down landing on one of the splash boards. Thankfully the cable just swiped Joshua’s arm and no one was hurt. Now heads would have to come together again for a solution. The girls went inside for intervals to start work on our post Thanksgiving meal.

To lighten the mood we did a little jump roping. We did a lot of praying and asked God to give the guys a solution that would work for the trusses to be raised and secured. We also called on some prayer warriors to pray along with us. The girls went inside again for more Thanksgiving meal preparations.

We introduced Addy to the art of putting marshmallows on top of the buttered and brown sugared yams.

JJ enjoyed watching. Jamie took Addy and JJ home for their naps and would return later in the day for our Thanksgiving meal.

Did I mention it was really cold?

After hours and a double winch/cable solution from a different angle it looked like we were just about there.

The girls watched and prayed.

Hallelujah! One last adjustment and all went into place in the notches and it was now time to secure each end to the posts. That would take a while so the girls went inside to continue on our meal and get warmed up singing praises to God all the way into the house and for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Laura and Katie headed to Super 1 for some Brussels Sprouts and bacon to add to our meal and were happy for that short distraction after all the stress of the day.

The turkey came out brown and beautiful. Our meal together was one filled with more thanksgiving that you can imagine. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, candied yams, Brussels Sprouts with bacon, and Granny Great’s rolls. While Addy and JJ napped Jamie made a dairy free pumpkin pie to add to her apple pie for our dessert.

Before we ate our pie we were also grateful to be able to celebrate Laura’s upcoming birthday with a special gift from all of us. She adds so much care and love to our family and we are all thankful to God for her. Happy birthday dear Laura. You are precious to us.

This was a very long post but it represents two very long days of labor in freezing temperatures. There was joy, disaster, grief, perseverance and then ecstatic praise and relief for a final good result. We are so grateful for the help from Josh, Andrew and the girls. Gramps couldn’t have done it without us all pitching in together.

We were sad that Dan, Addy and JJ’s dad, had to miss out on this two day adventure.

Thanksgiving decor is all put away and I’m slowly bringing out the Christmas decor. Josh and Laura left on Sunday and Katie and Andrew left on Monday.

Birthday Fun on Saturday…

When Herb and Anneliese arrived to our camp on Saturday morning we all greeted Anneliese with Happy Birthday to You in song. It was a good beginning to a very full day. The day was full of food, fellowship, music, playing, shopping, more food, and it was all capped off with so much laughter that many of us were in tears, happy tears!

Dear made his famous Swedish pancakes on Saturday for breakfast and the pancakes, smoky links, fruit, sour cream and real maple syrup hit the spot.

Our Colville kids arrived late morning to meet our campers and Addy and Lovella delighted us with beautiful piano music, well mostly Lovella. We enjoyed singing some hymns and Sunday School songs that Lovella played from heart and from hymnals and other sheet music we had on hand. Glorious! Addy was very comfortable with each of the girls and invited them to play with her in “her room”. We hope she realizes that the room is JJ’s, too.

The guys enjoyed peppering our son Dan about his work. There are always tales to tell. Bev captured the following photos of me and Addy. Thank you, Bev.

The guys jumped in their car and the girls jumped in our car and we headed to downtown Colville to do some shopping. The girls enjoyed the end of the Farmer’s market and a few other shops on Main street before we headed home for appies. The guys ended up in Kettle Falls and enjoyed a “snack” at Backyard BBQ before they headed back to our campsite.

Harv and Bev made their famous Coconut Prawns for our Saturday dinner appetizer and Lovella added her mango salsa.

 

Forgot to take a photo of all the goodies we had for dinner. Marinated Chicken thighs off the Traeger along with an amazing rice, bean and veggie salad that Anneliese, the birthday girl, made. Lovella made scalloped potatoes and Judy made coleslaw. Judy also made a beautiful Raspberry Ripple cake for dessert.

We sang again to the birthday girl and then the laughter started. Terry got us going with hilarious stories recounting the day and other stories from days gone by, some real and some fictitious.  Pretty soon we were drying the laughter tears from our eyes.

Laughter is good medicine and we had an amazing jolt of that medicine this night. I’ll never forget it.

So happy that Anneliese’s birthday was filled with the best kind of fellowship and laughter!

Here we go into the last week of August. Are you ready for September?

All Work and No Play…

…makes Jack a Dull Boy.

We gave a lot of good energy to our back acres on Friday and Saturday morning. I am so happy to have learned about the tarp trick for gathering and moving weeds and brush!

We found new places for some of our wall art that we brought from our home in Kenmore.

As the saying applies…we are all decked out.

Birds have been flying hard into our slider and practically knock themselves unconscious. Dear helped revive one with a warm cloth as it shivered.

On Friday evening we played with Addy while her folks went out on a date.

Don’t worry they had a nice dinner before they headed to Wal-Mart.

While we were playing on the east side of the state our Coast kids were out celebrating our favorite son-in-law’s 30th birthday! They went out for German food and Axe throwing.

Looks like they played bocce ball, too.

The Birthday boy deserves one photo all by himself. He landed both those axes in the center circle, throwing them both at the same time!

The Eastsiders sent a selfie wishing Andrew a happy birthday on the Coast.

We are thinking of forming a singing group called Crowns and Axes.

This celebration on the Coast made my heart sing.

Katie, Laura, and Josh fly in Monday night to be here for BBB’s birth. Andrew will drive over on Thursday to welcome BBB. Time will tell on what or when I’ll be posting next.

In other news: Our pastor is stranded in Dallas trying to get home from Florida where he was doing some teaching. His connecting flight was cancelled and he didn’t make it home Saturday as planned. Now we hear he might not be able to get a flight until Tuesday. The weather has been the problem. Two of our Deacons had to step in last minute and deliver a message this morning for Palm Sunday. They did a good job encouraging us to spend some time this Holy week in thought and preparation for our Easter Celebration.

Are you doing anything in preparation for Easter?

One of my readings by Spurgeon hit the mark with my heart…Even in the Face of Mockery…

O Jesus, “despised and rejected by men,” how could You die for men who treated You so badly? Here is amazing love, love divine, love beyond degree. We despised You in our pre-converted days, and even since our new birth we have given the world a place in our hearts, and yet You bled to heal our wounds and died to give us life. O that we could set You on a glorious high throne in all men’s hearts! We would ring out Your praises over land and sea until men would universally adore you just as they once unanimously rejected You.

Linking up with Angie for Mosaic Monday.