Category Archives: Birthday

Bless the Lord,

…Oh my Soul.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.

The clan…

My siblings.

My cousins on my dad’s side of the family.

Cousins on my mom’s side.

My mom’s nieces and nephews. My mom had one brother and a sister. Her sister did not survive her childhood. My mom is the only survivor of her immediate family and she keeps track of her brother’s kids and prays for them faithfully. At the party my cousins gave testimony about how much that has blessed them in this stage of their lives.

Here are the words to a song we always end up singing when we are together. My mom requested that we sing it again at their party. We also sang Great is Thy Faithfulness and another Russian favorite.

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

Blessed art thou oh Lord

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

Bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

and all that is within me bless His Holy name

He is full of compassion and mercy

Long suffering and great in goodness

He will not always be chiding

Nor keepeth He

His wrath his wrath forever his wrath forever

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

And all that is within me bless his holy name

 Blessed art thou oh Lord

This link if it works will give you the tune although they use different text in a portion of the song.

My brother Steve had anyone who wanted to stand up and say whatever they wanted to my parents. It really was moving to hear how lives have been touched over the years by my parents. My mom and dad were a little overwhelmed and didn’t like all the attention. Some of the things said were…

“They just show up when you need them”

“They gave up all their comfort in the U.S.A. in their 70’s to go to Russia as missionaries.”

“They were never perfect but they keep open to growth in their lives.”

“They never gave up on us”

“They always had room at their table for one more.”

“My deda taught me a good work ethic”

“Thank you for praying for us and keeping track of us.”

They always tell us they love us.

They always talk about the Lord in every context of their lives.

They love the Word of God and you’ll see them reading their Bibles every morning.

My brother talked about walking past their bedroom and seeing them on their knees praying out loud together.

We have been blessed by good examples from my parents…not perfect but striving.

For the party we had street tacos with rice and beans and for dessert we had a delicious cake with whip cream frosting and fresh strawberry filling and topped with chocolate covered strawberries.

Even though this was a 90th birthday party celebration it morphed into a 70th wedding anniversary party also. One person started that rumor and it just didn’t quit so Happy 70th Anniversary Mom and Pop. (Their anniversary is September 13th)

Happy Birthday Andrew!

If you and Katie were here I’d bake you a cake!

We’d have Josh and Laura over, too, and sing Happy Birthday to You!

We’d take you someplace fun to have a meal.

It would be another good reason to get the whole family here to celebrate you!

Hope the birthday card we sent arrives today. If not we only have the U*S*P*S to blame. Glad the “kids” are coming over tonight to celebrate with you and that Alex is making his famous burgers for y’all!

We love you and thank God for you and pray that God continues to bless you richly.  We ask that He will continue to protect you and keep you safe at home and when you are away serving in even more dangerous environments! Semper fi! May you always be faithful in your service to your country and God and in your marriage to Katie! Looking forward to being with you at one of your birthdays in the future!

A thank you to Jeremy Leffel for this last photo.

Celebrating Sixty Two!

This year we celebrated my birthday on two different continents and 2 states! We arrived in Milan on my birthday but after being airborne for many hours and arriving in Amsterdam and then Milan, Italy I had to be reminded it was my day. After we arrived back to Seattle our oldest and our lovely DIL decided we should head out to celebrate after the fact.

Josh and Laura picked a restaurant for brunch in Seattle close to Queen Anne Hill. They offered several great dishes to choose from.

The name of the restaurant was Toulouse Petit Kitchen and Lounge. There was a long line up but it was worth the wait.

This is the front door to the restaurant. I’m not sure what the story of the cross in the door is. I like it!

We headed to Kerry Park after brunch to get a view of Seattle from above.

Someone was blowing bubbles at the park and I was happy to catch this one on the bottom of the photo!

Before my birthday we celebrated a wee bit early with my family in Southern California along with celebrating Katie and Andrew’s 2nd Anniversary at Julienne in San Marino.

This is my brother Steve with Katie and me.

My nephew Joe, nieces Michelle and Melissa, and grand nephew Jack.

Katie, niece Debbee, and Laura.

My sister Kathy. My sister in law Kelly and grand niece Avery were at breakfast, too, but I failed to capture them in a photo.

Here’s what my kids ordered for my birthday gift …

They delivered it to me on Easter. I thought that was so appropriate bringing our celebrations full circle from the birth of Christ to His death and resurrection. Now my nativity scene with Wee Forest Folk is complete except for one wise man.

We are looking forward to a weekend of celebrating with friends at a wedding on Saturday evening and a breakfast on Sunday. What do you have planned?

Snapshot from Milan Day 1

I’m borrowing Judy’s idea and posting a snapshot from Milan.

We arrived safe and sound via Amsterdam and had a walk about the town in search of something to eat. Even though we are very tired from our flight and no sleep for 24 hours we had a nice time remembering it is my birthday today. It was fun to come upon this city street with the name of my high school alma mater.

Tomorrow we take a train to Lake Como and spend the day before Dear has to get busy with his business trip obligations!

Blessings…

The Young and The Old…

My almost 90 year old parents flew to Dallas to visit my brother’s family and to celebrate their youngest granddaughters 5th birthday. Here are some photos that Leonard and Mandy shared with all of us of my folks with our reigning princess Hope!

Fun and frightening all at the same time!

Glad Hope was flying and not my dad!

They were able to take part in Hope’s Pizza making and cookie decorating birthday party with 15 young guests. I’m tired just typing about it.

Here are the 3 of them at a Russian Restaurant in Dallas. My parents made it home safe and sound with great memories of their time with Hope and her parents!

Wow here it is the last day of January. We’re hoping for a fun filled February. How about you?

Are You Dreary?

We are still gloomy and cold in the Seattle area, weather wise.

We are suppose to get some rain and hopefully it will wash all this fog away.

In the meantime I’m setting a sparkly table for Cuisine Kathleen’s Snow and Ice challenge.

I used the same setting modified for the birthday meal we served our son Josh and our daughter in law, Laura, on Sunday. I’m off my game because I didn’t take one photo of the food I served. We had lamb shanks in a merlot tomato sauce and roasted potatoes with a cucumber/tomato salad. Yum!

I’m getting organized for my 1,000,000 hits giveaway. Stay tuned…

The Last Friday…

…of 2012!

I decided I better join in for Friday’s Fave Fives with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story since this will be the last faves this year. Oye, where did the year go?

1. We had one of the most wonderful Christmas Eve Service I’ve ever been to. From a stomp band to the candle light Silent Night it was a night of worshiping Jesus.

2. Josh and Laura came to spend the night on Christmas Eve after celebrating the evening with Laura’s family. It was so nice to spend Christmas day with them. We will be together with Josh, Laura, Dan, Katie and Andrew on Friday night and Saturday for Second Christmas.

3. Having Katie and Andrew arrive the day after Christmas. The last time we had the two of them together here was for their wedding in March.

4. Celebrating Katie’s 27th birthday on the 27th. We gave gifts and then shopped to exchange some of the gifts, :). We met Dear for lunch and then Josh and Laura joined us and brought Chinese in for dinner. We put 27 candles on the cake I baked and watched it glow as we wished Katie God’s continued blessings for her golden year.

Watch the powdered sugar fly!

Laura brought golden roses for Katie’s golden birthday!

5. When Dear and I were at the MGCC Christmas party at Judy (My Front Porch) and Elmer’s a couple Sunday’s ago we were introduced to the game of Crokinole. We had never heard of it before. We ordered a game after the party and the family has been enjoying learning how to play it. Josh, Laura, Dear and I played it on Christmas day and last night after cake and ice cream Katie and Andrew were introduced to the game.

After Josh and Laura left we waited up for Dan who drove across the mountains to join us for 2nd Christmas (his first). He arrived at 10 PM safe and sound and then I went to bed sleeping well knowing that. Fun times….

I’m hoping to get around to a few Fave Five participants but it might take a while since tonight we are 9 for dinner here and I’ll be busy making preparations for our 2nd Christmas dinner. Tomorrow morning we will open stockings, have Dear’s Swedish pancakes and Judy’s bacon wrapped smokies again. Then we will open presents and relax together and probably play some more Crokinole. Saturday night we are having a relaxed soup meal together.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Golden Birthday Girl!

27 photos of memorable events in Katie’s life! Happy Birthday to our Golden Girl who turns 27 on the 27th! We thank God for the joy she’s been in our lives. Happy Birthday Katie!

Katie and Andrew arrived safely yesterday afternoon and we are enjoying time together.

Working Together…

…was a great gift Dear got for his birthday this year.

Dear has been working on a portion of this old house replacing the siding. He has found many interesting flaws in previous work that he had to repair.

Every job can go a lot easier with the right tools. This handy dandy tool called Gecko makes it simple to space each row of siding perfectly.

Sunday on Dear’s birthday Josh and Laura came over for the afternoon. Josh helped his dad with the siding. Laura and I worked on the meal we would have together when the work was done. The work went quickly with two workers.

A few more rows to go and this side of the house will be all done.

We are pleased with the horizontal siding compared to the vertical. It will be a while before it’s completely done and painted.

After the work was done for the day we had a meal together and this Pear Tart was Dear’s birthday cake this year. Everyone gave it a thumbs up. I’ll be posting the recipe on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog in October. The kids all got together and gave Dear a generous gift card to Cabella’s. He’ll be spending it soon.

The birthday dinner setting.

Thank you Josh and Laura for the gift of “help” that you shared with us.

I’m happy to report that all my pears have been taken care of. I washed and cut the final bunch today. I made 3 pear desserts, some pear sauce, a pear topping for pancakes, a batch of sugared pears went into my Smirntopf. Dear took a couple dozen to work to share. Josh and Laura took a dozen home to use. I still need to come up with one more recipe to use up the prepared sliced pears. And yes, I’m still restraining myself! Fall Women’s Bible Study starts today and I’m looking forward to it.

Today is 9/11 and I’m still remembering that day. I’ll leave you with this photo from the Sounders game on Saturday…

Praying for our nation and for our Armed Forces with a shout out to our Marine son-in-law, our Border Patrol Agents, and all our first responders. May God protect you all from evil.

Sweet Sixteen

Our second celebration in Southern California on Saturday was a Sweet Sixteen party for my older sister Vera. Are you wondering why we had a Sweet Sixteen Party for a 64 year old? Our sister Vera was born on Leap Year so she’s only had a birthday that landed on her actual birth day 16 times now.

Happy Birthday Vera!

Vera’s kids decided to throw this party for their mom and the creative wheels started turning. They did a wonderful job.

My nieces on the right put together the decorations. Melissa is my sister Kathy’s daughter. Kristin is my sister Vera’s DIL and Debbee is her daughter. Kristin is married to my nephew David and they hosted the party at their beautiful home. There were about 50 guests.

They had each guests name written on the cups which was a great idea. Everyone was able to keep track of their cup throughout the evening.

As each guest arrived they were guided into the photo room with this prompt…I Love Vera because…

There were blank white boards for us to write our reason for loving Vera. Such an affirming act to encourage her with!

My parents lasted a long time at the party. It was great to see them. There were lots of friends from our former churches at the party and we were able to get caught up a bit on our lives.

We took advantage of the photo room for a cousin photo.

Katie and I had a quick sleep at my nieces house and headed back to the Bob Hope Airport at 6:00 A.M. Sunday morning. We were pretty useless the rest of Sunday but after a good nights rest on Sunday night we were good to go and got back to finalizing all the wedding details.

11 days to go!