Category Archives: Family

While They Are Sleeping…

It’s early and my company is still asleep and since I don’t want to make a lot of noise washing the pots and pans I decided to show you who is and will be visiting us from California.

My brother Steve, his wife Kelly, and youngest son Joe arrived on Monday. Joe just graduated from high school. Joe and his 3 brothers were all home schooled and Joe is the 4th son that will attend Westmont College in Montecito (Santa Barbara) Ca. Joe just finished a week of directing their churches VBS program and he showed us some videos he and a couple of his co-workers put together on the Armor of God for VBS. We were all very impressed! (VBS is Vacation Bible School)

On Saturday my niece Michelle, her husband Ryan, Jackson and Avery arrive. It’s been a few months since we’ve seen Jack and Avery and it will be fun to see how they’ve grown.

On Thursday the 29th my sister Kathy and my niece Melissa arrive. Melissa and Michelle are sisters. I’m sure Avery and Jack will be happy to see their aunt and nana by then!

I haven’t taken one photo yet but I’m sure I’ll get my act together soon. Enjoy!

Messing About in Boats…

” O God, Thy Sea is so great and my boat is so small.”

“Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat”  Jean Paul Sartre

“We are all in the same boat in the stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

“There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats” ~ Rat from The Wind in the Willows

“A person should go out on the water on a fine day to a small distance from a beautiful coast, if he would see Nature really smile.  Never does she look so delightful, as when the sun is brightly reflected by the water, while the waves are gently rippling, and the prospect receives life and animation from the glancing transit of an occasional row-boat, and the quieter motion of a few small vessels.  But the land must be well in sight; not only for its own sake, but because the immensity and awfulness of a mere sea-view would ill accord with the other parts of the glittering and joyous scene. ” ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

“He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.”  ~George Herbert

“Praise him, O heaven and earth, the seas and all that move in them.” ~ Psalms

“So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis


The sea hath no king but God alone.  ~Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The White Ship

We really had a lovely 3 hours out on the water on this beautiful day. For most of us this was our first kayaking experience and now that we know what to expect we hope to go out again with a little experience under our vests. Hope you enjoyed the quotes I found for this post. This trip was out of Bowman Bay in the State of Washington close to Deception Pass. Thanks for stopping by today.

I’m linking up with Susan at The Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Another Milestone Completed…

 

On Sunday our daughter Katie walked at her Graduation Ceremony from the University of Washington Bothell.

 

We found our seats and hoped we were on the right side of the arena but we were on the opposite side so we really had to zoom in with the cameras to spot her in the crowd.

 

We found her and she saw us!

 

She received her empty graduation degree certificate holder and soon the very long ceremony would be over.

 

The happy graduate with her boyfriend Andrew.

 

The proud parents.

 

Josh and Laura with little sister Katie.

Katie and her boyfriend Andrew visiting from Florida. Andrew starts Marine Bootcamp on June 28th.

 

The family shot. Our son Dan was not able join us for this occasion. We’re looking forward to seeing more of him at the end of the year when his training is complete and he comes back to Washington.

We had a nonstop weekend and I have a lot of photos to share. This is another busy week as well and we hope to get a breather soon…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ Descanso Gardens

Last Saturday my daughter and I were in the Los Angeles area and we met some family members at Descanso Gardens in La Canada. It was a beautiful day in Southern California and not too hot. Please visit Susan at a Southern DayDreamer to see more of the great outdoors.

 

Our Daughter Katie

My niece Melissa, Katie and my sister Kathy

Niece Melissa and daughter Katie

My niece Michelle with her husband Ryan

Their son Jackson

 

Their daughter Avery

My sister Kathy and me

Kathy with her granddaughter Avery

Hope you enjoyed Descanso Gardens and I recommend a visit when you are in the Los Angeles area. I think March is one of the prettiest months there or early April.

Meeting For the First Time…

 

Katie met her cousin once removed for the first time this past Saturday at Descanso Gardens. After Avery gave Katie the initial critical look she decided this cousin was OK to be around.

Avery thought Great Aunt Ellen was OK, too, for short periods of time, if I kept moving, and there was something for her to grab, and if her mom or dad weren’t too far away…or her brother…or Nana.

We had so much fun. Isn’t that a cute skirt Avery is wearing? :0)

Brunch at Mom & Pops

My mother went all out for us again. Katie and I were in the greater L.A. area on Saturday and Sunday and told my mom we’d pop in for breakfast. We weren’t surprised to be greeted with a morning feast. I’ve said before that my Mother’s Love Language is preparing food for people. I missed photographing the cantaloupe and strawberry plate that looked like a flower. She made Vareniki stuffed with potato this time and served them with asparagus with zest of orange and topped with grapefruit. My sister Vera and nephew Tim and his wife Jessica joined us. It was nice to enjoy a smaller group for a change.

Katie, Jessica and Tim

Katie with my mom and dad

From brunch Katie and I traveled north to the La Canada/Flintridge area of Los Angeles to meet up with other family members at Descanso Gardens. I’ll be sharing those photos soon. We packed so much into two days my head is still spinning.

O Blessed Home Where Man and Wife ~ Hymn

O Blessed Home Where Man and Wife

O blessèd home where man and wife
Together lead a godly life
By deeds their faith confessing!
There many a happy day is spent,
There Jesus gladly will consent
To tarry with His blessing.

If they have given Him their heart,
The place of honor set apart
For Him each night and morrow,
Then He the storms of life will calm,
Will bring for every wound a balm,
And change to joy their sorrow.

And if their home be dark and drear,
The cruse be empty, hunger near,
All hope within them dying,
Let them despair not in distress;
Lo, Christ is there the bread to bless,
The fragments multiplying.

O Lord, we come before Thy face;
In every home bestow Thy grace
On children, father, mother,
Relieve their wants, their burdens ease,
Let them together dwell in peace
And love to one another.

Words: Magnus B. Landstad, 1861; translated from Norwegian to English by Ole T. Arneson, 1908

Boxes, Boxes, Everywhere…

…I’m glad I had a place of retreat away from the Box Chaos…

And of course besides a nice retreat, good food with good company is comforting…

The condo was all emptied out by noon. Willow arrived with a hairdryer so I could speed dry the toothpaste I used to fill some holes. We went to the Panini Place in Camarillo for lunch then said our goodbyes. sniff sniff…

I headed to the Home Depot to pick up some super duper glue (clear) to fix some flooring issues and got a throw away paint brush to dab a little touch up here and there. I swept and cleaned up all I could without a vacuum. Before I left I lifted my hands in a prayer of gratitude to my great God who blessed me and Dear so richly during our stay in Camarillo. I didn’t lower those hands without asking that God would bring us a buyer for our condo soon.

I’m now in Fullerton at another hotel waiting till 9:30 to drive to LAX to pick up Katie. Tomorrow at 9:30 we’re headed to my mom and pop’s  for breakfast… Vareniki…yum. My Mennonite friends will know what those are! :0) After breakfast we’re meeting up with more family members to take a little trip to Descanso Gardens. The rest of the day we will play by ear.

Hope you all are having a great weekend wherever you are.

She’s Our Energizer Bunny!

Our niece Debbee ran in the Boston Marathon this morning!

15487 Titov, Debbee 33 F Orange CA USA
Checkpoints 5k 10k 15k 20k Half 25k 30k 35k 40k
0:25:13 0:50:17 1:15:23 1:40:37 1:46:10 2:06:02 2:32:02 2:58:31 3:26:12
Finish Start Time Offset Pace Projected Time Official Time Overall Gender Division
00:01:34 0:08:21 3:38:42 9682 2461 1811
Those are some impressive numbers. This was her first time at the Boston Marathon! We are all so proud of her perseverance in her training! We think you are amazing Debbee.

The photo is from another marathon she ran in not the Boston Marathon. When I was watching the coverage this morning I was so excited to spot her in the crowd of runners at her start time. Whoohoo!

Update On My Pop ~

I just got off the phone with my Pop and he sounds good, tired but good. Anyone who has ever been in the hospital knows it’s not a great place to rest! They did an ultrasound and are waiting on doing a stress test. Some of the tests have come back negative.

So here’s what my Pop said to me on the phone. “You know Lyenah last night when I was awake I was thinking, I’m so thankful, so thankful for all these years and God never let us down. For whatever God did…all His blessings and guiding, for all my children, I’m so thankful. I cannot complain. I love you Lyenah. I love all of you. When God calls me home I’ll say Ok…”

Thank you so much for all your kind words of support and your prayers and well wishes. I appreciate them all. He’ll probably have to stay in the hospital one more night, at least. I guess he has a roommate who yells obsenites when he’s in pain and that’s not a great formula for relaxation for my Pop so I’ll be praying the roommates pain is managed better…

Just got this update from my niece Debbee after she visited my Pop this morning…

Hey everyone~
Just got back from visiting with Deda, he was feeling pretty good this morning, chipper and rested. He was able to sleep a lot last night, fell asleep during Jeopardy:), then woke up at 1, then slept again til 5 then 7. He was very thankful for the restful night of sleep and no profanity from the guy next to him.  He said that his chest still feels a little heavy, but that it did feel better today:).   He is still scheduled for the stress test this afternoon and hopefully can go home this evening. But if not, according to him, ” Que sera sera.”  (I have no idea how to spell that) it was hard to hold in the laughter hearing those words come out of his mouth.
So, there is my update of the morning. Hope everyone is doing well. Love you all.  Ok, back to work, 1st period will be starting soon.
Love always,
Debbee

Debbee is a high school math teacher. I’m adding these updates because I want to document this history :0). Glad God answered our prayers for more rest for my Pop and for his roommate having less pain and profanity …

Update 3/24/10 in the evening. My father is being released tonight from the hospital. Nothing in the tests show the need for him to be at the hospital any further. This afternoon my mother fell at the hospital and hit her head and ended up being propped up in my father’s hospital room with an icepack on her head. Oye! We are trying to convince my mother she needs to use a cane because of some hip issues that throw her gait way off. They’ll be happy to be home to take care of each other…