Tuesdays With Moisi ~Dzeda and Baba

A memory popped up on Facebook that our niece Michelle shared while our Pop was still alive. I wanted to make sure and add it to my ‘Tuesdays With Moisi’ posts. The last of that series of posts was in May of 2021.

Michelle was visiting our Pop, her Dzeda and she shared his words:

“You know, it’s hard without your Baba. I have tears. But God is with me. And so I get up and go on again. God is love. And when His love is in you, you feel His comfort. I’m thanking Him for all He’s given me. He is good.”

And then when I talked to him on the phone he said,

“I’m not going to lie, it’s hard.” We talked about how great it is that he has good memories. “Yes, he said, God has been good to us.”

Then he told me how he went to “Staplers” (Staples) to buy a board so he could put together a jigsaw puzzle that Ryan and Michelle bought him…

We love our memories of our Pop and our Mom. Our mom died on their 70th wedding anniversary in 2013. Pop lived 5 more years after her. He died at 95 years in 2018.

Throwback Thursday

1958

I turned seven shortly after our brother Tim was born in 1958. Today is his birthday so I decided to post some flashbacks that include him. After Tim, our parents had 3 more children ending up with 4 sons and 4 daughters. Tim and I are in the middle, number 4 and number 5. I was thrilled when he was born.

My four younger siblings, Tim, Steve, Lana and Leonard (twins).

We had fun times with Tim and Letty while we were living in Camarillo, California for a few years.

2013 at our niece Debbee’s wedding.

Tim and Letty visited us on many Thanksgivings while we lived on the Western side of Washington.

Tim was a huge help at Dan and Jamie’s wedding.

In October of the same year, Tim and Letty flew up to help our son Josh with their remodel of their first home.

We are trying to convince Tim and Letty to visit again this year! Letty has not been to Colville yet. Neither of them have seen our country bungalow.

Happy Birthday Tim! Still thankful for you. You are a good brother! We love you, we love you, we love you.

A Deep Hodgepodge

This photo from January of 2016 (10 years ago) was from a few days spent in San Francisco while Greg was at an Oncology Conference. The words below the first photo are about that day in 2016.

Today was a full day of sight seeing with an old friend from my college days who grew up in San Francisco. She happens to be Russian/Chinese and knows the city well. We had several stops and enjoyed lunch and shopping in China Town where everyone is getting ready for the Chinese New Year. I don’t think I need to tell anyone what bridge they are looking at in my photo…

My friend, Alice, at our delicious lunch in Chinatown. She did the ordering. My friend passed away in 2018.

Back to…

…Another winter Hodgepodge with a flashback to ten years ago thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond.

1. Ice skating, skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, playing in the snow, or a snowy walk…which winter activity do you choose? Have you done any of these activities so far this winter?

Nothing this winter. We have not had any measurable snow this season.

At this stage of life, the only winter activity I would choose are the walking kind.

When we have a good dump of snow I have gone out our door to snowshoe. This is from 2019.

This one is from 2022.

2. Everyone is posting pictures from ten years ago on their social media sites so let’s jump on the bandwagon too. Share one photo and one thought to go with said photo from the year 2016. And maybe everyone isn’t doing this, but many are and we’re going to be part of the fun.

This was one of the best memories of 2016! This is the photo that was shared with us and I shared it on the Hodgepodge with the words below the photo.

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We have the best of news that we have permission to share now with the world. Dear and I are grandparents for the first time and will be able to see our new little granddaughter for the first time in person sometime in March or April of 2017 depending on when she pops out. Even though our little granddaughter is not born yet we consider her our granddaughter already as God is wonderfully forming her right now.

At the end of 2016, this review of the year from July to December was published on my blog. What a year!

3. What’s a trend you hope disappears in this new year?

Stalking, attacking and verbally assaulting Law Enforcement.

4. ‘They’ say there’s a day for everything and January 21st proves it. National Granola Bar Day. Do you like granola bars? How about just regular granola? Do you like bars of other kinds?

I’ll have one if I’m desperate but they aren’t something that is purchased and available in my pantry. I do enjoy granola as a cereal with milk.

5. A frozen lake, a trickling stream, a raging river, or a deep well…which one describes something about your life right now? Elaborate as much or as little as you like.

A deep well. There is so much to learn that I do not know. So much to see that I haven’t seen. So much about God that I do not know. I believe the ache to know more, see more and do more comes from a deep longing from our inner being that wants to see God as He is. It is a hard thing to explain. Someday that will be a reality. Until then I’ll keep digging in God’s truth and in the world God created for us to enjoy and give glory to God in the discoveries along the way that show me more of Him. My deep desire will become reality when I graduate to heaven.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of 2016, this is another amazing memory and experience we had in September/October of that year.

The “Girls” and most of our husbands have just returned from a seven day trip to Indiana and Ohio to see a production using our name in Amish/Mennonite Country. The Blue Gate Productions hosted us and treated us as VIP’s. All ten of the girls were together at the Blue Gate Garden Inn where we enjoyed “Faspa” on Sunday night before we had our cooking show and saw the production for the first time. As you can see from the first photo above we have fun together.

We took this opportunity to get some photos of all ten of us since Betty and Charlotte live in Manitoba and miss many of our get togethers in British Columbia and Seattle.

I shared many posts about our time in Amish Country. This is the initial one here.

Happy Wednesday, Hodgepodgers and all who stop by here.

The Birthday Finale

Today is our firstborn’s birthday and that brings our family January birthdays to their finale. He is a joy to us and to so many others.

Happy birthday, dear Joshie! Here’s to a year filled with many good things and lots of love and growth in the Lord.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above.

Glad we could celebrate you in person back in December.

Here’s a celebration from a few years back.

Seahawks are in the playoffs so this collage with you sporting your Seahawk Jersey seemed appropriate to share.

Of course soccer and the Sounders have a lot of extra loyalty for you and our whole family.

You are loyal fans when they are home and away.

I love that you and Laura made it all the way to Toronto to see the Sounders win the MLS cup!

Family times at the games are a great memory.

With FIFA World Cup coming to the USA again it brings memories from 1994 when the USA hosted this popular world event. Seeing prices and how hard it is to get tickets for games this year makes the fact that both you and Dan got ticket packages for less than $100 for a few games in each package seem like a miracle. Not only did you get tickets but we were able to meet the whole U.S. team at their practice field and their hotel. What fun that was to experience.

Hopefully, tickets will become available for you this time around!

Another memory is popping up for the year.

Looking ahead to October, this experience from 1997 comes to mind. You and Dan have been back to Hawaii since 1997 but it will bring back memories when we are all back there together again. I won’t be renting any beach rafts this time around!

Hope you have a special day today and that you know how much you are appreciated and loved.

Go Sounders…oops…Go Seahawks!

Spokane Celebration

We gathered together to celebrate these two at the Rusty Moose in Spokane.

We enjoyed our meal and our time together.

This little guy had a cavity filled before our lunch time celebration so his smile was a little off kilter. He did great for the procedure but wasn’t a fan of the numbness and the ‘weird’ feeling as the novacaine wore off.

The restaurant that we gathered at was in the neighborhood of the airport so Greg and I took the opportunity to stop at the airport before our lunch and apply for our TSA Pre-check. It was a smooth process and we are happy to have it done.

A Trifecta of Birthdays

This was last January (2025). Today we begin celebrating these three. Today is Jamie’s birthday. Tomorrow is Dan’s birthday and then on Monday it is Joshie’s birthday.

We celebrated these three early in December but that doesn’t mean we’ll ignore their actual day!

We are meeting for a birthday lunch in Spokane tomorrow with Jamie’s family to celebrate Jamie and Dan’s birthdays again. It is the big 4-0 for Jamie. We’re trying a new to the group restaurant near the airport, the Rusty Moose.

Today is Jamie’s Day. A very happy birthday to the wonderful mama of our Grands! We thank God for his goodness to our son in bringing Jamie into his life. She’s a good mama, wife, daughter, granddaughter, sister in law, daughter in law and friend.

We are still snowless here at our country bungalow and things outside look more like the beginning of Spring. The grass is green. We’ve had dense fog and rain off and on. So far this has been a mild winter in our parts.

How are things in your corner of the world?

Partying

Our church hosted a Princess Pajama Party this past Friday evening. It was a fun night for girls and their moms from our church and from our community. There were all sorts of stations of fun. Addy chose the Lego station and she along with some friends each built part of this Princess Lego Castle.

Granny, Addy and Mama chose some animal facials.

Addy won a prize for her coloring.

On Saturday on the other side of our state, our Westside kids all enjoyed our son’s annual employee appreciation party. Our daughter works for her brother so she gets in on the fun, too. Josh and his partners treat their employees well.

The theme was 80’s – Prom Night. It was fun to get photos from the event.

JJ has his own special party every Monday afternoon at Baba and Gramps’.

He found that our family room ottoman was just the right size for a cozy spot to watch TV.

I tried introducing him to the Lone Ranger which was okay for a bit but then we moved on to Silly Symphonies.

Here’s my kind of party…

I started my World of Jane Austen puzzle which was a Christmas gift from Andrew and Katie. This will be a fun one to put together.

Today is massage day. What does your day hold?

I’ll come around later to see what my blogging friends have been up to.

Birthday Party x Four!

Saturday the 27th, the girls arrived home from our Tea Party in Idaho to the aroma of ribs cooking on Bayles Mountain. Dan was in charge of dinner for our birthday x4. There was a happy birthday sign up and a helium balloon for each of the 4 along with presents for each. Laura and I got busy decorating the little bundt cakes that were baked the day before. Each cake had it’s own unique twist.

Applesauce Spice cake for Katie who turned 40 on this epic day, the 27th of December.

Jamie’s birthday will be the first of 3 family birthdays in January. Her cake is lemon with lemon frosting.

Dan’s follows the day after Jamie. His cake is Applesauce Spice cake.

Three days after Dan comes Joshie’s birthday. He is our firstborn. His cake is chocolate with chocolate frosting.

Lots of birthday love all around.

Our birthday girl with dad.

After dinner and before cake we had each one open their gifts. Josh is reading a hilarious card he received from Andrew and Katie. We were all laughing.

Photo Fail: I did not get photos of each of the birthday kids sitting in the birthday gift chair.

The brothers got matching jogging suits. The girls were each treated with a very special gift from Tiffany’s from Josh and Laura. Fortieth birthdays are treated with special flare in our family and I’m sure in other families, too. There were other gifts for the four like, hoodies, coats, a massage certificate, and a Buck Skinning knife. There is one other special event planned for our two fresh forty year olds, a trip to Maui in October of 2026. There will be 12 of us making that trip, Lord Willing, our ten and Jamie’s mom and granny.

The four with their individual cakes and balloons.

When it was time for the oldest in the group to go home, another surprise was lit!

We all went on the front porch for some unknown reason and there to our surprise was an epic fireworks display preplanned by Dan! What fun that was. I wish I was able to share the video here.

It was a wonderful day from beginning to finish.

After all our birthday celebrations on Saturday we were all in church taking a full row for the last Sunday of 2025. Addy played a special number, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, on the piano.

Addy does not have that common fear of performing in front of a crowd. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in her life.

The last sermon of 2025 was excellent and we all were challenged and encouraged.

After the service, Andrew and Katie started their long drive home. The rest of us gathered again on Bayles Mountain for the day. Table games, Prime rib sandwiches for lunch, hearty soup for dinner that the two oldest of the crew had ‘to-go’.

The Grands helping gramps get up off the couch. He made it more fun by being a ‘dead weight’!

On Monday morning after Josh and Laura left for home, I changed up the table linens and pulled out this puzzle gift from Josh and Laura. I finished it on New Year’s Eve. It was a fun one to put together.

The last days of 2025 at our country bungalow were quiet with little accomplished and that was okay.

New Year’s Eve we spent at home. We got a photo of our local kids enjoying the fireworks in town.

Those sun roofs come in handy!

Moving on to 2026 and trusting God for what He has in store for us.

Creamed Corn

This Creamed Corn Recipe has been around in our family since the 70’s. It originally came from a restaurant in Southern California called Gulliver’s. I still have the recipe card they were happy to hand out to patrons of the restaurant. This restaurant is still in existence. It makes a great side dish for Prime Rib or steak. I realized I hadn’t posted the recipe on my blog. This will help next Christmas when I search for this dish that I only make once a year!

32 ounce package of frozen corn
8 ounces whipping cream
8 ounces milk
1 teaspoon salt
6 teaspoons sugar

——————

2 tablespoons soft butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 pinch of White Pepper

Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile blend the flour, butter, and white pepper together.
Add the flour mixture to the simmering corn and stir and watch carefully as the mixture thickens.
Serve and enjoy.

Note: Instead of 8 ounces of whipping cream and 8 ounces of milk, I most often just use 16 ounces of Half and Half.

Boxing Day 2025

On Boxing Day (just a week ago)

After our traditional Swedish Pancake breakfast, the kids gathered at the Rotary trail for a walk. Greg, who is half Swedish, does the honors of cooking the pancakes at every special family gathering.

We all look forward to his Swedish Pancakes with Little smokies. They are enjoyed with sour cream and real or not so real Maple syrup plus fruit syrups, especially boysenberry which has been impossible to find in recent years!