Category Archives: Family

Sophie is Finally Home…

Welcome Home Sophie…Your Hope has been realized! Glory!!

 

My sister’s MIL passed away on Thursday night. She was 95 last Christmas Day. She really would get put out that the Lord didn’t take her sooner. It got to be where my sister wouldn’t want to tell her about someone else dying because Sophie would get upset that they died and she hadn’t yet. She wanted to be with her Savior and was tired of this earth. We are rejoicing with her now that she is in the presence of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My sister and BIL have been caring for her and living with her for a few years now and she was privileged to be able to die in her home and in her own bed without being hooked up to anything. Sophie’s been a widow for several years. She has 3 daughters and one son (my sister’s husband) Her 3 daughters (2 of which are widowed) live in Canada, Michigan, and Colorado. The daughter that lives in Colorado has been on a mission trip in Russia and had to have an emergency appendectomy in Russia this last week. She is recovering in Russia and will not be able to attend the funeral. Please pray for the family to be at peace with all the circumstances that they had no control over…

I’ll be flying back down to LA on Tuesday night for the funeral at Rose Hills on Wednesday. I’ll stay at home in Camarillo until Monday the 20th and fly back to Seattle then. It will be nice to have this unexpected time with Dear and make the time shorter for us to be apart.

ht: photo of Sophie taken Christmas day 2005 from my niece Michelle. Sophie is her Baba…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

A Full Day of Fun!

 

 

 

The “Girls” headed out to the University District for some shopping and fun today. We went to Suzzalo Library at the University of Washington and walked around the campus and “The Ave”. On our way home we first stopped at the Bellevue Goodwill and the girls had fun trying on some funny merchandise and then headed for Kirkland for dinner. Josh and Dan met us for dinner in Carillon Point and then we all came home to crash.

This ole gal is tired!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Mariners Baseball in Seattle…

 

Another fun day in the Seattle area yesterday. We headed downtown early for the Mariners game and had a Happy Hour dinner at Boka. We love to get half-price food and the food here was delicious!!

 

The weather cleared up nicely for the game.

 

It was Salute to Japanese Baseball night so we all got our Japanese baseball hats and saluted!

Well lookie here both Josh and my niece Debbee caught a fly ball! :0)

The girls are off and running today again…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

She Qualified for the Boston Marathon!

And she’s visiting me and I’m trying to keep up with her. My niece Debbee will be here till Wednesday. You probably won’t be hearing much from me till later in the week.

We are all so happy that Debbee gets to run in the Boston Marathon next April. It sure would be fun to go and cheer her on.

Debbee is gluten intolerant and was so excited when we found this gluten free bakery in Seattle. She has treats stored up in the refrigerator for her time here. She said it was like Christmas looking at all the gluten free baked goods in this shop!

We’re off to Downtown Seattle for Happy Hour at Boka’s on our way to the Mariners Baseball game. Blessings!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

3 Hours on the Road for Family Time…Priceless!

 

My parents with Miss Hope. My brother and our cousin Tanya. Tanya is my mother’s niece.

 

My mom is one great cook. She made us a Deviled Egg Casserole (yummy), these lovely vegetable and fruit trays and then she surprised us with Vareniki on top of everything else. We were all in culinary heaven! I’m going to get the Deviled Egg Casserole Recipe to share with y’all.

 

Miss Hope, My Sil Mandy, Raiya a Russian friend of ours and my cousin Tanya. Raiya flew down from Oregon to care for my cousin Tanya who is recuperating from surgery…

I left the house at 9:45 A.M. and got home at 3:30 P.M. All in all the California Freeways were kind to me today :0)

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Here I Go Again…

Hitting the 101 Fwy to I-5 continuing south to Orange County to see my parents and say goodbye to my brother, Mandy and Miss Hope. They fly back to Texas today.

 

It sure was fun seeing little Miss in action this past week.

Before I head out I wanted to share something we saw on a menu at the Country Cafe in Ventura this past weekend.

 

Nine Juan Juan! So clever. Dear, of course, ordered it and he thought it was quite tasty.

Can anyone say…heartburn!

Have a great day everyone and think of me as the drive back and forth on the Southern California Freeways!!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Belated Birthday Lunch!

The kids wanted to celebrate my March 14th birthday while we were all together so we headed to Downtown Seattle today. They chose Ipanema, a Brazilian Restaurant on the Harbor Steps across from the Art Museum. It was great to be all together before Dear and I head back to Cali tomorrow!

Ipanema

The Guys!

The Girls!

The Young Girls!

The Young Marrieds!

It’s been so good to be here in Washington visiting and catching up with our kids and friends in person!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Oh What A Saturday ~

The whole experience yesterday had the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream. What’s the word I’m looking for?

We woke up on Saturday morning and realized our modem had died in the night. Before the rest of the world woke up and we could call about getting our modem replaced we left for a hike in Sycamore Canyon. It was a great heart pumping hike and for the first time we heard some rattling noises. I was concerned it might be a rattlesnake but Dear was pretty sure it could be some kind of bird.

When we came home we called Verizon to let them know their modem died and what our options were. We were so pleased that John from Verizon arrived early in the afternoon and replaced our modem and gave us some great additional information about our T.V. options.

We had a tea in Pasadena planned for my mother’s 85th birthday. Nine of us were meeting for Tea at the Rose Tree Cottage at 4:00. When my sister Vera and mother arrived my mother was tripped up by an uneven sidewalk and landed flat on her face splitting open her forehead just above her left eye. She was bleeding quite a bit. We were all at her side and helping her get more comfortable on the ground and trying to stop the bleeding. My SIL Letty who is a nurse and the rest of us mothers realized by looking this was going to need stitches. You just learn those things over the years. We heard sirens and the paramedics arrived. My poor mother was so upset that she would miss the tea she asked the paramedics to just put a band-aide on her forehead. They were very sweet and told her they would have to do what was best for her. We also knew she’d need further tests because the split on her forehead was very deep. When the fire engine pulled up one of the firemen saw my sister Kathy and said hello Mrs. W. and gave her a kiss (we Russians greet each other with a brotherly kiss).  He’s the one in the sunglasses reassuring my mother. Our oldest sister Kathy went to the Emergency room with mom in the Paramedic’s van.

So what should the other 7 of us do…go ahead with tea or not??? Well we were going to have to pay for the tea if we enjoyed it or not so we decided to go ahead with the tea. It was really weird not having the guest of honor with us and we all felt a bit guilty my sister Kathy was missing out, too, but it was just what the circumstances handed us.  My sister Kathy gave us updates while we were at tea. When we finished tea we headed to the emergency room a block away. On the way I managed to back into a block wall and give my car bumper an owie! Sheesh! I never back into stuff…

It was finally determined my mom did not have any bleeding in her skull so after she got stitches they released her at 11:00 PM. I was happy to finally make it home and crawl into bed.

My mother is in a lot of pain. Her left eye is swollen shut. Please pray that all will go well and she will heal up soon and that the swelling and pain will subside. Thank you all for your prayers and concern for us. I really appreciate it :0)

Update on Monday night: My mother is doing a lot better! Thank you so much for your prayers!!

Sweet Cheese Spread for Kulich ~ Seernaya Paska

My Russian heritage affords me some really good Easter eats. Every year we look forward to having our Easter Bread which we call Kulich in Russian and my Mennonite Friends called Paska.

We also make this yummy cheese spread to spread on this Easter Bread!

Seernaya Paska for Kulich (Russian Easter Bread) The X and the B are for Xpucmoc Bockpec (Christ Arose)

paska class 005

 

Seernaya Paska  (Сырная пасха)

Ingredients:

18 – hard boiled eggs /
3 pounds Farmers cheese /a dry curd cheese like a dry cottage cheese can be substituted.
1 pint whipping cream /
3 cubes unsalted butter (12 oz.) /
3 cups sugar /

Press the Farmers cheese through a sieve. (This is the hardest part of the recipe) If you find a very small curd cheese you won’t have to do this to the cheese. I usually use a wooden spoon and press it through a wire strainer a little at a time. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. (You will not be using the whites).

Press the egg yolks through the sieve. Cream the sugar and butter together. Beat in the egg yolks. Beat in the cheese. Add whipping cream and mix well. You will place the mixture into a strainer lined with about 3 layers of cheesecloth. You will need enough cheesecloth to wrap up and over the top of the cheese. Place the cheese mixture into the cheese cloth lined strainer or another container to mold into shape. Bring the ends of the cheese cloth up and tie the ends on top of the cheese in a knot. Place the sieve into a larger bowl suspended with enough room for the cheese to drain without sitting in the drained liquid. Place a plate on top of the cheese an place a heavy rock, brick, or other weight on top of the plate. Refrigerate over night.

I have used different shaped plastic flower pots to drain and mold the cheese into a higher domed result. If you choose to use a flower pot make sure there are enough holes in the bottom of the pot so the liquid can drain well.

This recipe is enough to feed an army. If you don’t have to feed an army here’s a scaled down version :0)

If you just want a normal amount, cut the recipe in thirds. (6 cooked egg yolks, 1-lb. cheese, 2/3 cup whipping cream, 1 cube butter and 1 cup sugar. Enjoy!

Farmers Cheese or Hoop Cheese can be hard to find. There are Russian delis that sell a dry curd cottage type cheese that will work. If you can find a dry cottage cheese at the grocers that will work too.

Here are examples of the Seernaya Paska I have made over the years.

She’s Stepped Away From the Computer…

 

Today my daughter Katie arrives for a visit from Seattle. She will be here until next Tuesday. The main event she is coming for is the wedding of one of her Wheaton College friends here in Southern California. After I pick her up from the airport today we head to a family gathering in Whittier. We will be having many adventures while she’s here so if I’m AWOL from Bloggy world you will know why.

Blessings and see you sooner or later! :0)