Josh and Laura ~

Some encouragement from the Bible and John Piper ~

God pledges to Carry Our Burdens ~

Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

The word for “burden” here is lot. What is your lot in life today? What has providence brought you? In the end, this is of the Lord. And He will carry it for you. It is not meant to crush you or carry you away. It is meant to test your trust in God to carry it for you.”

Psalm 16:5, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”

Psalm 63:8, “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

God Pledges to Carry You – All Your Life

Isaiah 46: 3-4, “Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

It was wonderful to spend an extra day with you this weekend. Blessings on both of you!

ht: Pierced by the Word ~ by John Piper

Wordless Wednesday ~ An October Day at the Beach in California with our Oldest Son Josh and His Wife Laura!

For more WW click here.

Baba and Deda ~ Grandchildren ~ Heritage

On Sunday afternoon my children got a rare treat of being at their Baba and Deda’s all together. My parents have been in their Senior Apartment for one year now and Katie is the only one of my kids that has had a chance to visit them there. We had dessert then 4 more grandchildren arrived and we got to listen to my Pop tell some stories about their time in Russia and Iran before they came to the U.S. The Photo below is of my Pop’s cousin who served in the Russian Army during WWII. The story my dad told us about him is below the photo…

This is Feodor Ivanovich Aryeshen. One night during patrol of the trenches, as he walked with his rifle in his hands he came face to face with a Nazi soldier. They faced each-other with their rifles pointed at each other. Then they both turned around and ran for their lives. When he woke up the next morning his hair had turned pure white! They say it was from being so frightened.

My Father told a few more stories about his life that were great for all his grandchildren to hear. What a rich wonderful afternoon we all had with my parents. What a joy to hear how God has kept them safe and close to Him for so many years. We ended our time with my Pop praying for all of us and blessing his grandchildren again…

Wedding Day Fun In California!

We started our day with an amazing breakfast at Nick and Vera’s. Then we all got our wedding attire on and headed to the wedding in Seal Beach, California.

The first two rows of the collage: (DIL Laura), (Josh & his dad), (Katie)

(Katie, Michelle & Laura), (Brother Tim and Letty), (Melissa, Svetlana, & Kathy)

(Kelly & Steve), (Miss, Kathy & Michelle), (Dan, Ryan, & Michelle)

(The mother of the groom, Letty), (Dave, Kristin, Laura, & Josh), (The Groom Derek)

Mom & Pop

Some of their Grandchildren (The Young-uns)

The Beautiful Granddaughters and one old guy!

Some of their Children (The Older folk)

Dear and My Family

My Guys!

Here’s Amy the bride and Derek the groom

Mother and Son Dance

Thankful Thursday ~ October 4th

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 ~

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Well it’s been quite a week and we’re gearing up for a celebration filled weekend. All of our children are flying into L.A. on Friday evening for my nephew’s wedding on Saturday. They’ll be here a very short time and we’re filling up a lot of that time with family get-togethers besides the wedding on Saturday evening.

I am so thankful to all of you who have been praying for our son Josh after his TIA episode last week. He’s doing well and he’s had 3 procedures/tests inflicted on him this week. He’s done with everything the neurologist ordered now and we’re waiting for the results/findings. Dear and I and Josh and Laura are very grateful to the blog world that is so willing and ready to pray for those in the body they have never met face to face!

Josh at about 14 months old, Easter of 1980

I am so thankful I will see each of my kids this weekend and be able to give them a hug.

I am thankful to Family and Friends who have been upholding us in prayer along with our bloggy friends.

I am thankful to God who upholds us, answers prayers, and gives us peace and joy.

I am thankful to my Savior Jesus Christ whose sacrifice for us on the cross opened up the door for our relationship with the Father and because of that we have the undeserved benefits that come with being a Child of God.

God bless you all with a wonderful Thankful Thursday!

To see more Thankful Thursday posts click on Sting My Heart.

Another Tuesday Dinner at Moisi and Nadia’s

Conversation between Moisi and Ellen b.

Moisi: “Hi Elyena (Russian for Ellen) you know what mom and me do?” (said with wonderful Russian accent)

Ellen b: “No Pop what did you do?” (plain old western U.S. accent)

Moisi: “We go to Rose Hills and make funeral arrangements.”

Ellen b: “Really?”

Moisi: “We choose Memorial Chapel not Sunrise Chapel.”

Ellen b: “Good choice Pop…”

So there you have it Moisi and Nadia are all set now. I’m sure this is a typical conversation y’all have with your folks, too. My parents not only have taken care of many funeral arrangements for friends and family, they have made their own arrangements so we don’t have to. They are something else…

On a lighter note here are some photos from the evening in Brea…

The four sisters who are off the hook in making the funeral arrangements…

Jackson the Great Grandson. (Michelle, I like how you’re looking up at Jack in this photo of a photo…)

Jack again (Hope you see these M. Lou!)

Michelle and Debbee (my nieces)

Oh and the menu… Pineapple Chicken with Basmati Rice, Seven Layer Green Salad, Chocolate Blintzes with Fresh Fruit and a Creme Anglaise drizzled poured on top.

Photobucket is holding hundreds of my photos hostage and that’s why you don’t see the original photos on this post.

Overwhelmed and Thankful

I’m overwhelmed and thankful to family, face to face friends, and friends I’ve never seen, who have poured out their support, love, and prayers for my son and our family. He’s doing well and is having follow-up tests. God created us to glorify Him in community and it’s in times like these that we see how beautiful community is. Blessings on each and every one of you. I’m praying that God would return the blessing I have received back to you. Have a wonderful weekend. Ellen b.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 ~ “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.”

Ventura…Where it all Began, the Bayles/Spiro Friendship and First Hike…

On Sunday Dear and I drove North for a great breakfast at Allison’s Country Cafe in Ventura before we headed to the Ventura Fair Grounds Flea Market. The Flea market was row upon row of stuff, Antiques, Shabby Chic, New, Old, Furniture, Chotchkies, Jewelery, Treasures and Junk…

The weather was lovely but we got toasted because we forgot our sunblock. Silly Washingtonians in California!

But the real fun treat was to see Two Trees. This was the site of our very first Bayles/Spiro Hike way back in early 1985. We know it was before Katie (Katherine) was born so Jamie was a wee babe…

I stood at this intersection to take the photo of Two Trees. That was quite the infamous hike with Dave, Jody (who we think had her arm in a cast), Lucy, Bridget, Jamie (a baby then), Dear, Ellen, Josh and Dan. Of course the first thing our boys wanted to do was to climb those two trees. We were never exposed to being outdoor type people till we started our friendship with the Spiro’s. We credit them with dragging us along on their outdoor adventures and teaching us the love of being able to tell the story of survival after the fact… God Bless them dearly!

Click to read more about Two Trees.

Wedding Customs ~ A Look Back to the late 60’s…

These Photos were taken November 22, 1969. This was the day of my sister Vera’s marriage to Nick. I wanted to show y’all what we used to do to all the cars in the wedding party. We’d make these huge crepe paper flowers and string them together and decorate the cars. We’d use the colors that were going to be used in the wedding. The kids in these photos are my 4 younger brothers and sisters. Tim, Steve, Lana G! and her twin Leonard.

Lana G! has curlers in her hair. She and Leonard were the flower girl and ring bearer in the wedding…

One other interesting note was that it was very difficult to get our favorite florist to arrange and deliver flowers on this day because they were USC Alumni and huge fans and this was the day of cross town rival games so USC was playing UCLA.

Big mistake in my photo album experience is using these magnetic layered page albums that were so popular in the 60’s and 70’s that make your pictures impossible to take out and scan today….