My Pop!

On thursday I was able to travel from Huntington Beach to La Habra, California to see my 92 and half year old Pop. It’s been 10 months since I’ve seen him face to face. We had lunch at The Habit close to Cal-State Fullerton. My pop said he wasn’t hungry for lunch but my niece and I were so he said, “Okay let’s go. I’m going to pay because what else am I going to do with my money?” So when we got to the habit we all ordered the #1 and he ate the hamburger and every last fry! I get to see him again on Sunday before I head home on Monday night. He has aches and pains and still would rather be in heaven than here on this earth but doesn’t he look great!?

Another great Moisism (my dad’s name is Moisi in English) that we heard again today was…”he sold the house in Thirty Nine Palms instead of Twenty Nine Palms.” He will not be corrected on that and we don’t care…we love Thirty Nine Palms!

Hope you are all doing well. I fly back home on Monday night and hope to be able to visit you all later next week.

The Last Two Days…

Thank you for your prayers for my BIL. Things remain pretty much the same. My first day here was 20 hours filled with lots of back and forth, in and out, ups and downs and freeway driving. My BIL was airlifted to a renowned hospital in the Los Angeles area the evening I arrived. A long drive from my sister’s home. There are some impressive views from the critical care waiting room. I’m having quality time with my sisters and today I’m going to go visit my 92 year old pop. I hope to see more of my family on the weekend.

Headed South…

…to rally around my sister and her family.

Don’t know when I’ll be back online.

“All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 (The Message)

All In A Days Work…

…the first stage of the kitchen cabinet installation was completed! We had a weekend filled with hard work and lots of fun. My brother Tim (on the right) arrived with his dear wife Letty late on Thursday night for the weekend. On Friday, because of Tim’s expertise in cabinetry and installation, Dear, Josh and Tim had all the cabinets installed in Josh and Laura’s kitchen. Our son in law Andrew has also been working alongside Dear on the complete renovation of the kitchen/eating area of J & L’s home but he has classes on Friday and had to wait for Saturday to join in the fun.

While the guys worked on Friday Letty and I shopped at a couple Goodwill stores and had lunch at Ariana (an Afghan restaurant). We bonded with the hostess/owner who spoke Russian to us and offered us the most delicious roasted pumpkin appetizer (pictured in the center) which was her mother’s recipe. I will be on a quest to try to duplicate it. When I asked her about the spices in the dish she was close-lipped, guarding the family recipe! We enjoyed Lamb Shashlik for our main dish and each had a cup of the restaurants special steeped tea.

On Friday night we had a full house for dinner and dessert. Letty and I made chicken fajitas and Letty made her signature Mexican rice and beans. I was photo challenged and only got one shot of the fajitas in process not the nice finished product with tri colored peppers and onions mixed in. Oye! We had a pumpkin dessert that I will be posting on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog on Thursday.

On Saturday the men (Dear, Tim and Andrew) headed back to Josh and Laura’s to work on trimming out the cabinets, electrical, installing the island pendant lights, and taking out a few more walls to add much needed insulation in the home. The girls, Letty, my sister Lana, Katie, Laura and I had a girls day out shopping and eating lunch together.

Our favorite store of the day was Charming Charlies. Do you have this store chain where you live? We all were able to find something we liked and we each left with an item or two or three.

On Saturday the guys took a lunch break, too, and ate at a Mexican restaurant together while we were eating at Coho. We all gathered in the evening at our house when the days activities were done and enjoyed left overs.

On Sunday after church we headed to Josh and Laura’s again and Tim and Dear added some finishing touches to the kitchen. Tim added the knobs and pulls, in less than an hour with the jigs he made. We were all so impressed! Dear tweaked the electrical while Josh added insulation to some walls. The ladies gave their expert opinions and guidance! We went out for one more meal together before Tim and Letty had to fly back to Southern California.

Our kids really appreciated the willingness of their uncle to fly up and add his expert assistance and skill in completing the kitchen cabinets. They would have never been able to complete this project so quickly without his help. Because my brother has the gift of helps and service this was not work for him but a joy! Thank you Tim and Letty!

Happy Monday to all of you. We have a free day today so time will tell what calls to us…

New Space…

Our son Josh and his two partners have recently acquired new office space and were ready to invite clients and friends to celebrate with an open house. Josh and his partners are branch managers of Capstone Home Loans.

This is our son, Josh.

His new office.

A wonderful spread of good eats.

This was a great cascade of veggies that I’d like to recreate at a future event!

Everyone we spoke to at the open house had such good things to say about Josh and his work ethic. Dear and I were happy to hear these reports and we are so thankful to God for how he has blessed Josh and his work.

While I’m on the subject of Josh and his company I’ll share some photos from a Client Appreciation Event he had at Sounders game the last Sunday of August.

Josh is a huge soccer fan and this was an event he really enjoyed hosting.

Free tickets for the game and a pre-game buffet in the Coach’s Loft with VIP entrance. A fun way to show appreciation. And the cherry on the top was the fact that we beat the Portland Timbers!

Wednesday already and September is half over! Hope your week is going well.

Dear and Me B.C.

For my flashback post today I’m posting photos of Dear and me after we were married but before we had children.

Here we are just after our wedding all ready to take off for our honeymoon. I’ve already shared our honeymoon photos but hadn’t scanned this one yet.

In 1976 we took a trip across the country. We stopped in to see Dear’s Great Aunt Matilda in Oberlin, Kansas on our way to Michigan. She never forgot anyone’s birthday and she and I shared the same birthday.

This is Dear’s grandmother Nettie from Illinois visiting us at our first apartment in 1974.

Dear, Grandma Nettie, and Dear’s father.

Christmas at Dear’s parents’ home.

Our first apartment and our first couch that we bought with our own money. We had lots of hand me downs when we were first married that furnished our apartment. We also bought a few items from second hand stores.

Today we have a nice cloud cover with some rain promised for today and the weekend. Everyone is excited about the prospect of the rain and hoping it also helps put out the fires that are still raging here…

Hope you all have a great last weekend of August!

Joys and Trials…

Our kids are getting together for a siblings weekend. This brings me joy. There are 5 hours or so of distance between Dan and Jamie and our kids that live on this side of the mountains so they are meeting about halfway.

My dear old Pop is doing pretty good. He has pain in his legs and back and is losing strength but in general his outlook has been so much better since he moved in with my sister and brother-in-law. I’m thankful for my Pop’s living arrangements and thankful for Len and Kathy who are housing him and taking care of him. Working on jigsaw puzzles help his days go by faster.

We have dear friends through the friendship of our son Dan with their son. This son of theirs has a new wee baby boy who was born very early at just 1#7ounces. He has had such a struggle as you can only imagine. He is now 3# and is a little fighter, beating many odds thrown at him. We rejoice for his weight gain. We pray for him without ceasing. He needs our prayers. We pray for his parents who must be exhausted with the ups and downs that come with the intense cares and concerns for their little boy. We pray for the grandparents that are doing all they can to lessen the load. We are making our requests to God.

We pray for Dan and Jamie’s little flower girl who is fighting leukemia and in intense treatments against this illness. We rejoice with every step forward made in her bodies fight against leukemia and pray for healing.

We also pray for a blogging friend’s son who is fighting disease and is in intense treatments, too.

The Lord is near, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” ~ Philippians 4:5b-7

We pray for the firefighters and the homeowner’s in all the wild fire areas of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California. We rejoice that Dan’s friend’s home was spared. We grieve for the 3 firefighters who lost their lives in the fires near Twisp, Washington. In California the Bible Camp where I received Christ as my Savior is being threatened by a wildfire, too. We rejoice for the wonderful work that opened the door for salvation to so many who went to camp at Hume Lake.

We rejoice with my brother and his family because he has a new job after being let go from his job of over 20 years due to his company’s downsizing.

We are still in the waiting room on a new job for Dear.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ~1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 (ESV)

With everything that is going on it’s hard not to pray without ceasing. There are lots of things that I didn’t list that require prayer, too.

This weekend we are having a barbecue with our small group. We haven’t met since June so it will be good to catch up. On Sunday our church is closing it’s doors and we are headed to schools in our community to spruce them up for the new year. Community Serve Day is a great event every year that 6 local churches take part in.

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Make New Friends but Keep the Old…

…One is silver, the other gold.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday for O is for Old and for the fact that this post will go on and on! Thank you Denise Nesbitt, Roger, and the ABC team!

One day, four events! I flew from Seattle to Santa Ana (California) on Saturday and had a full day filled with time with old friends!

I arrived at John Wayne Airport at 8:30 A.M. and drove to La Habra, California. My pop and I went to his favorite breakfast spot and I treated him to breakfast. This is what he always orders, 2 sunny side up eggs, hash browns and sausage. He enjoyed every bite of food and each slurp of his coffee.

My pop is now living with my oldest sister and thriving. He lets me know frequently how much he loves the chair Dear and I bought him. Lately he’s occupied with jigsaw puzzles.

At 11:30 A.M. I drove down Whittier Blvd. to our dear friend Alice’s home for a Baby shower in her beautiful back yard!

This is Alice with her son who will be holding his new son soon and this will be Alice’s first grand baby! Alice has always had an open home and is the most hospitable lady. Many of us at the shower have been graced with hours of good times in her home with good food to eat.

The new dad and mom to be with our friend Natalie in the middle praying a blessing on them, the baby and the festivities.

My best friend from college days and beyond, Heidi, with her daughter Nikki.

My nieces Melissa, Michelle and my SIL Kelly.

Heidi, Alice and I had some fun adventures in our college days. Alice lived in San Francisco and we spent time with her there and she came down to L.A. to spend time with us. We hadn’t seen each other for over 35 years!

I caught my sister enjoying her food with my blast from the past friend, Alice.

I took off from the baby shower before gifts were opened to drive on 2 more freeways to get to my high school mini reunion.

We had a great turnout with close to 50 grads from Montebello High School showing up.

I was so happy to see my friend from elementary school days through high school at the reunion. I hadn’t seen her for over 46 years!

Lots of good memories came back to me and I have to admit some of the people that were there didn’t drum up any memories from my dear old brain.

These girls I’ll never forget. Nancy on the left was my good buddy and Anne her cousin is on my right.

I left the reunion after 4 hours and finally headed to my hotel to check in at 6:30.

My dear nephew David and niece Kristin picked me up at the hotel door to take me out to dinner at 7:00. They had been out on a boat with their friends for the afternoon. How sweet of them to take the time and treat me to dinner and catch up conversation.

My hotel experience was good to start with and I fell asleep exhausted since I had been up since 3:15 am. At 1:15 the room next door was visited by some very loud guests who were pounding on the door. I woke from such a deep sleep that I was disoriented and didn’t know where I was for a few moments. My heart was racing. I called the front desk and they said they’d come up and talk to them. It took me a long time to fall back to sleep and then they woke me up again at 5:30 a.m. oye and bother!! When I talked to the front desk in the morning the person behind the desk said they’d take a percentage off my room. When I got back to my room I got a phone call from another person on staff who told me how sorry he was for my experience and that they would comp my room and I didn’t have to pay anything.

One day filled with so many old memories and friends. I’ll put the hotel experience way behind me!

The Boston Marathon!

Our niece Debbee is running the Boston Marathon today! Her husband Lenny is from Boston and they are enjoying lots of pre-marathon fun there.

We are all cheering Debbee on from afar and happy that Lenny and some of his Boston family and my sister Vera and brother-in-law Nick are there to cheer her on, too! An epic experience for all of them!

We are proud of you Debbee. You’ve worked hard and we are all behind you! Go Debbee, Go!

And…here she is at the finish line!

She’s amazing! Way to finish strong, Debbee!

History and Heritage…

I posted this on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog on Sunday for our Bread for the Journey and I’m re-posting here for my own records on The Happy Wonderer. That’s wonder not wander. I’m adding a few more photos from Russia and Persia in this post. Today I’m linking up with ABC Wednesday with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt, Roger and the ABC Team! I’m also linking up to Testimonial Tuesday #5 at Jerrelea’s Journey.

We are in the middle of a new series on Sundays called “Movement”. As we launched into this series our pastor encouraged us with this statement: “The book of Acts tells the story of a group of first-century, rag-tag followers of the Risen Christ who became the movement that would change the world; it’s God’s movement because He is a God on the move, and He invites us to get on the move with Him.” As a follower of Jesus “I am an integral part of the most powerful, life-changing movement in the history of the world.”

It’s an encouraging exercise to look back over your life and the life of your ancestors to see how God has led and moved you to where you are today.

My father’s family

My mother with her brother and younger sister.

For me part of my story is God moving both sets of my grandparents to flee Russia on foot with their children to Iran in the early 1930’s. Both sets of grandparents settled near Tehran where my parents later met and got married. God moved my father with the desire to come to the United States. One of the things that influenced this desire was how my father was treated while working in an U.S. Army base kitchen in Iran. The soldiers were kind to my father and let him take food home to his family because they knew my father’s family was struggling.

My parents with my oldest sister shortly after arriving to Los Angeles, my mother is pregnant with my sister Vera in this photo.

My parents filed the proper paper work and were granted permission to immigrate to the U.S.A. With my oldest sister they traveled to the U.S.A. settling in Los Angeles shortly after World War II ended. In 1963 my father went to hear Billy Graham at the Los Angeles Coliseum and my father was born again. My father’s decision to follow Jesus turned my family’s world upside down in the right way. That same year I accepted Christ and my new life in the greatest movement of all time began. We won’t know the whole story on how our own lives impact God’s movement till we see Him face to face but we can see part of the story now and be encouraged to carry on and follow Him where he leads us. He doesn’t call us and then leave us alone. He has given us his Spirit, He intercedes for us, He gives us strength. He multiplies the little that we have when we are willing to step out in faith with Him. What an amazing movement to be a part of! You, too, can be a part of this movement. Ask God to reveal Himself to you, to show you the way.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

Jesus said to them, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Here are a few more photos from Russia and Persia that I promised… Sorry about the quality of some of these but after all they have traveled a long distance!

This one was taken in Russia before my father’s family fled to Iran. This is my paternal babushka’s relatives, the Sisoev’s, in Prelestnaya Village in Russia.

This is my mother next to her brother Paul on the right. My mother is standing next to her future sister-in-law, Nina. Nina is to the left of my mom and Nina’s brother Nikolai is next to her on the left.

My mother with her brother Paul.

These are two families, who were close friends in Iran and considered family to each other. There were also marriages that connected these two families together further. This was taken in Persia after my parents had immigrated to the U.S.A. I believe all but two of them made it to the U.S. My maternal grandfather seated on the lower right was killed in Iran and my maternal grandmother seated next to him immigrated to the U.S. as a widow with my Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina (pictured together upper right). Aunt Nina was part of the Katkov family and the others in this photo are her siblings and mother and father. The little boy between my grandmother and grandfather is my cousin Alex. One of the sisters from this family married a U.S. Soldier stationed in Iran and she is not in this photo. I’m not sure if who I lovingly called babushka Manya (seated next to my babushka Vera) came to the U.S. as a widow, also, or if her husband Nikolai was able to immigrate with his family.

Well this post is long enough for now. When I scan more photos that I came across from Russia and Persia I’ll share.

Hope you have a happy day…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Family