Category Archives: Family

Were You Invited, T-Rex?

There we were just hanging out at JJ’s Dinosaur party when Aunt Rhonda exclaimed dramatically that we all needed to go outside and see what was happening! We were all shocked to see T-Rex coming up the driveway.

Amber the dog went into full protection mode barking at this creature she was confused about.

Of course we all realized that this was Great Uncle Scott in costume. He gets the prize for this huge fun surprise at JJ’s Dinosaur party. Aunt Rhonda dropped him off down the driveway for him to get in costume to surprise all of us.

Uncle Scott gets on his knee to show JJ and Addy that it is him in costume. Time to re-create a little Jurassic Park action.

So much excitement and now we head inside to have our lunch and more dinosaur fun.

After the great effort on the part of Uncle Scott and Aunt Rhonda for this surprise at the party I think it deserves it’s own post. More party fun to come with some ‘scary’ action from a cute little dinosaur. This will definitely be a party to remember.

Time is Passing Hodgepodge

The two guys in this photo above celebrate birthdays this week.

Thank you Joyce From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge! Click over to join in the fun.

1. April 13th is National Scrabble Day…are you a fan? 

Yes, I enjoy Scrabble. Haven’t played in ages!

Do you enjoy word games in general? 

Yes, mostly.

What’s an eight letter word that tells us something about your life currently?

Peculiar; unusual, or particular or special. We are heading into a period of hospitality at our Country Bungalow that does not involve biological family. We are confident that it will be a blessing as we adjust in the month of May and into part of June.

2.  Do you have a junk drawer? Is it full? Do you know what’s in it? What’s in it? 

Yes, yes, and yes. It’s full of things like keys, tape measures, charging wires, and junk! Thank you so much for this question as it caused me to clean out that junk drawer and make it more useable!

3. When does time pass quickly for you? When does it pass slowly? 

When our family is all together, time passes quickly.

Time passes slowly when I’m awake in the night at 2am and not able to get back to sleep.

4. These eight vegetables are in season during spring-asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, collard greens, garlic, herbs. What’s your favorite? Any on the list you refuse to eat? Last one on the list you ate? 

Favorite would probably be carrots. I wouldn’t refuse any of these but I’m not a fan of collard greens. On Monday we had some asparagus, carrots and new potatoes roasted.

5. What’s the oldest thing you own? Tell us about it. 

Dear has a French Violin from the 1700’s. That is old and probably the oldest thing in our home. Dear’s dad got it from someone when Dear was 10 or 11 and decided he wanted to take violin lessons. Dear’s dad Rex has always acquired interesting things. Our baby grand piano which we got from Dear’s folks is over a hundred years old.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

This little guy turns 4 this weekend and we will celebrate him with Dinosaurs. Time flies when you have Grands!!

All of our kids will be together this weekend and on Friday evening we’ll start things off celebrating our Son-in-law’s birthday which happens to be today. Happy Birthday Andrew. Can’t wait to celebrate you on Friday!

Thankful that you stopped by to read this post and leave a comment.

Easter Day, Here and There…

Easter 2023 our western crew wasn’t able to be with our eastern crew. We will be all together next this coming weekend, Lord willing. Glad photos were taken of these two in their Easter finery that they wore to church.

We had a sermon centered on Jesus and 3 characteristics of a Risen Savior; He is calling your name, He can calm your fears, He can conquer your doubt. The Bible is a living book about a living Savior. It was good to be in the house of the Lord.

This crew a few hundred miles away had their finery on, too.

After church there was some Easter basket fun with baskets that are not of the traditional kind.

Granny was so creative using these cute umbrellas with the current themes for our Grands, Unicorns and Dinosaurs, filled with lots of fun goodies!

Finally it was time to get our rain gear on and go outside for the Easter Egg Hunt!

We didn’t get the sunshine we had last year for this Easter Sunday and we had a very rainy Easter Monday. We should be full swing into our season of mud here. We only have a couple small snow piles left in our yard. This coming weekend will be a very busy one for us as we will celebrate our grandson’s 4th birthday…with a dinosaur theme.

Cake, Presents and Party Games!

This money roll from Granny Great and Jim was sooo much fun!

It was so sweet that she tried to read each card before diving into the gift.

Our card read, “Baba and Gramps thank God that He made you and that we get to love you forever!”

Auntie Lolo and Uncle Josh bought the birthday dress, amazing sequenced unicorn jacket and shoes for Addy which was her birthday outfit.

We played a game where we had to hold a plate on top of our heads and attempt to draw a unicorn or a rainbow without taking the plate off of our heads. Addy was the judge and she looked at each drawing carefully and chose the unicorn winner and the rainbow winner…

The winners!

Outside for unicorn ring toss!

Brother preferred riding his jeep.

This party was over and we went home where our kids had planned another meal for dinner and cake for my belated birthday celebration. The fun was constant from our Friday St. Patrick’s day meal through Sunday breakfast before our ‘Westside’ kids drove home. That will be another post.

Addy is Six!

Addy had a wonderful family birthday party on Saturday a couple days before her actual birthdate. We gathered at noon and enjoyed good food, a couple of games, birthday cake and presents. This is the people post. Tomorrow will be the present, cake and candle post.

We love you dear Addy and are so thankful we get to celebrate you in person.

The Lord bless you and keep you;
 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

Putting together the balloon arch. Thank you Aunticorns!

Aunticorn: Like a Normal Aunt, But More Awesome.

Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo.

Addy’s Mommy created this amazing Unicorn Cake. If you haven’t guessed already, Unicorns were the theme for this party.

Granny and Granny Great

4 generations on the top and Uncle Scott and Aunt Rhonda on the bottom.

Gramps and Baba

Charcuterie, rainbow veggies, and rainbow fruit.

The birthday girl, food, company, and weather was magical, just like unicorns. More birthday fun tomorrow.

Looking Back Seventy Two Years…

Some thoughts and collages looking back on my Seventy Second Birthday.

Lived in proximity to the Pacific Ocean for 72 years anywhere from a couple miles away to now over 400 miles away. I’m a West Coast Girl.

A city girl for 67 years.

A born again believer in Jesus Christ for 60 years.

Sadie Sadie married lady for 48 years.

A most thankful mom for 44 years.

A grateful grandmother for 6 years.

A country gal for 4-1/2 years.

Thanking the LORD for His steadfast love to me and my family. The best eternal gift I have received is my redemption with so many added blessings through the years some in the form of trials. Many sweet earthly gifts, too. Pressing on and looking to my future hope.

“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.” Jude 1:24

We had a lot of rain on Monday and today we might get some sunshine breaking through. That will be nice for our day in Spokane for shopping and eating at a new spot to us.

I Still Call It Easter Break Hodgepodge

Time again to answer Joyce’s questions for Wedneday Hodgepodge. 

1. We’re in to a season students call ‘spring break’. Did you/your family travel over spring breaks when you were growing up?  Tell us something about a ‘spring break’ you remember (from childhood or adulthood, either one). 

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s we always had Easter break. I forget when it was changed to Spring break. I’m not sure if we had the full week leading up to Easter off or starting on Good Friday for a full week. My family did not travel over Easter holidays. My mother was too busy baking Kulich (Russian Easter Bread) and making Seernaya Paska and sewing Easter dresses to go off galavanting. 🙂 We would fast on Good Friday and then attend a Good Friday evening service and when the service was over we would break our fast together with a meal at church. On Easter Sunday we would all dress up in our Easter finery and celebrate Jesus Christ’s Resurrection and come home to a luncheon of Lamb with colored Easter eggs and of course the delicious Russian Easter Bread for dessert.

In 1997 I had an epic road trip during our kids’ ‘Spring Break’ to Southern California. Dear was working but our two sons and daughter, our oldest son’s girlfriend (whom he married in 2001) and our middle son’s best friend, joined me as we traveled down I-5 with stops in Yuba City (at Dear’s mom’s condo) and then to our destination in Yorba Linda at my Mom and Pop’s home.  Our oldest son was accepted to Westmont College in Montecito (Santa Barbara) and would be attending there come August so we made a trip there on one of our days. We had beach days, cousin days, a Disneyland day and Baba and Dzeda days before we headed home stopping in Clovis (at my cousin’s home), and Yuba city to have one more visit with Gommy (Dear’s mom). That stop and visit on April 18th/19th was the last time we would have with Gommy as she died on May 6th of that year, unexpectedly. Collages at the end of this post are from this epic road trip to Southern California. The photo at the top of the post was from this road trip, too.

3. March 7th is National Cereal Day…are you a fan? What’s your favorite? If not cereal what’s your favorite breakfast? Your typical breakfast? 

I do enjoy breakfast cereals like Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini Wheats and Granola. My favorite breakfast is our family traditional meal of Swedish Pancakes and little smokies because we are all sitting around the table enjoying that breakfast together. If we eat breakfast at a restaurant I enjoy Eggs Benedict.

A typical breakfast would be high fiber cereal with blueberries or toast with avocado.

4. Break ground, break of dawn, break down, break the bank, break one’s stride, break the ice, break a law, break a habit, break bread…choose one of the idioms listed and tell us how it applies to your life currently. 

I’m in the throws of trying to break the habit of going up on the scale after I’ve gone down on the scale. So far so good. The up and down and up again has been a yearly habit so it would be nice to break that cycle this year and stay on the low end.

5. Where do you go to connect with friends and family? What do you like to do most when you’re home alone? 

Because of our moves later in life I’m disconnected from my longer established friendships. We’ve been in our current country location for 4 years and we are establishing new friends. We go to church to connect with friends. We connect with family and friends in our home or in their homes. I’m thankful for friends and family that come visit and stay overnight. Also thankful for trips to see friends and family.

I’m a list maker so when I’m at home alone I like to tick off my list. I like to have at least one day a week where my calendar has nothing on it and I can wile away the morning in my jammies and robe.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

March is my birthday month and this part of our state is not ideal for travel on my birthday, usually. We are re-thinking a night away and postponing that to the beginning of May, Lord willing. We’ll check the weather and try to get down to Spokane for a nicer meal than we would get in Colville on my birthday but time will tell. We also want to get to Spokane to see ‘Jesus Revolution’ while it is still in theaters. Growing up in Southern California we had experience with the Jesus People at Calvary Chapel (the original one) and want to see how it’s been portrayed in this film. Have any of you seen the movie?

~

April 12th we traveled in a rented van from Bothell to Yorba Linda. We made a rest stop to kick the soccer ball around. If I remember correctly we stopped in Yuba City for an overnight (or maybe that was an overnight on the way home) before we made it to Yorba Linda. Cousins came to visit us at Baba and Dzeda’s house on the 13th. On the 14th we headed to the Huntington Beach where our rented van broke down. I worked on getting that remedied while the kids enjoyed the beach.

On the 15th we drove to Santa Barbara (Montecito) and visited Debbee (cousin/niece) and to check out the campus that Josh would be attending.

On the 16th we had more cousin time playing card games.

On the 17th we had a Disneyland day with my sister and a cousin Melissa.

On the 18th we hit the road with stops planned in Clovis to visit cousins and then in Yuba City to see Gommy again.

A Lenten Hodgepodge

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge and the Season of Lent. Head over to Joyce’s blog to join in the fun.

1. What do you find is the most boring part of your life at the moment? 

Right now there is nothing exciting on the calendar until our granddaughter’s birthday in early Spring. Our meals at home are probably the most boring thing at the moment. Tuesday was Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day so we joined in with a pancake meal, maybe that will take the boring out of our main meal for a day at least.

2. February 22nd is George Washington’s birthday. You’ll find his face on the US $1 bill. What’s the last thing you bought for roughly $1.00? (.94 €/ .83 £)

Greeting cards at the Dollar Store. Certain section of the cards are 2 for a dollar and another section they are a dollar each not like the rest of the dollar store that is now $1.25.

3. Is it ever okay to tell a ‘little white lie’? Explain. 

I don’t think it’s wise to tell lies little or big but there are times when I would tell a lie.

If I was protecting someone like Rahab did in the Bible or like many people did during the Nazi regime. I would lie if asked to reveal where people were hiding to worship God together and study the Bible together as some people have to do in China and some even had to do in Canada in recent years.

In general I find the truth a lot easier to deal with and justify then having to explain why I lied.

4. What’s the last thing you ‘chopped’?

I chopped chicken for a stuffed shell recipe I made for an event at church last Saturday. I also chopped some ice patches on the driveway with a shovel so the sections would melt easier.

Cherry pie, chocolate covered cherries, a bowl of cherries, cherry vanilla ice cream, maraschino cherries, a cherry lifesaver…your favorite cherry flavored something? 

Chocolate covered cherries or a bowl of cherries in season.

Speaking of lying, when I was in elementary school I stole money from the kitchen cupboard and stopped at the liquor store on the way to school to buy a box of cherry flavored cough drops (Smith Brothers) and then proceeded to tell the teacher I needed to have them in class for my throat. A sinner saved by Grace am I. 🙂 She didn’t buy my story. To walk to our elementary school we crossed Whittier Boulevard, a busy thoroughfare, and continued a couple more blocks to Fremont Elementary. I checked google maps and Sam’s liquor store is still at 3rd and Whittier Boulevard in Montebello.

This is a picture of me in the 4th or 5th grade, my thieving years…

5. Describe yourself with three words using your first, middle, and last initials. 

I do not have a middle name on my birth certificate. It is my parents’ Russian custom to give their children their father’s name as the middle name. That way when you are introduced to someone it will be clear who’s child you are. This is helpful in communities where the first names are common. Example: I have a sister named Vera and two first cousins named Vera and more Veras in the churches we attended. It was clarifying to say Vera, Moisi’s daughter, when introducing her.

My description using my E and my B:    Eternity Bound

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Our Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras meal.

Buttermilk Pancakes, Beef Kielbasa, a poached egg, sour cream and real maple syrup. Yes, we do put sour cream on our pancakes instead of butter.

We don’t observe Lent but we do prepare our hearts and minds for Easter and all that Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection means for sinners like us who repent, believe and are saved. We ponder this all year long not just during this time of year.

Under the Pier

The beach in winter is a favorite of mine. These were some photos from our time at Huntington Beach during our family vacation in January that I haven’t shared yet.

I find the underside of a pier interesting and love watching the waves roll through.

Our niece Debbee and Lenny were married in 2013 in Huntington Beach and they took their engagement photos here so it was fun to try to recreate that moment.

This day was also Lenny’s birthday.

Today we are nowhere near the coast and we still have that white stuff on the ground and it’s not beach foam.

Our Colville kids are coming over for dinner tonight. Speaking of dinner, tonight will be the third dinner in a row that I’ve made. It’s a Notable February for that reason and others, too. Wednesday we had an Asian Stir Fry with actual vegetables. Here’s the dinner we had Thursday night. Leg of Lamb with vegetables in my Jamie Oliver Retro Roaster. We like lamb and I know many people don’t.

Tonight we’re having Oven Baked Tilapia with rice and vegetables or salad.

Speaking of food, 18 eggs were $4.24 at our local Wal-Mart on Wednesday. They were not the brown eggs, or free range eggs, or Beverly Hills Eggs, just the white caged bird eggs.

What have you been eating these days? Happy First Friday in February.