Category Archives: Fave Five on Friday

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Summer!

Looking back over the first week of summer 2009 here are my top 5!

 

On Saturday Dear and I explored Malibu Lagoon State Park and saw some great sights including the historical Adamson House.

 

After walking and enjoying the sea air we had breakfast at the Marmalade Cafe in Malibu. Dear and I enjoy eating breakfast out together.

 

Oops more food. On Sunday we barbecued a tri-tip roast and got 3 full meals from it. The first night we made sandwiches with the meat and a roasted Poblano chile. On Tuesday I made these quesadillas with caramelized onion and whole green chilies that I cut up along with pinto beans. I like to get the whole pinto beans and mash them myself. We have a great Mexican market here in town that makes their own Guacamole and salsa. I can’t buy avocados and make the guacamole myself for as cheap as I buy the freshly made at this store.

 

I always love seeing this plant here in Southern California from the Agave Family. It’s called Our Lord’s Candle Yucca whipplei. Beginning in April and continuing through July, Our Lord’s Candle blooms abundantly in Chaparral and Oak Woodland in elevations up to 2500 feet. Willow and I saw this beautiful example of one on our Thursday walk in her neighborhood.

 

Now my absolute favorite thing about this week is looking forward to our road trip to Seattle beginning on Saturday. On Saturday we will stop 5 hours up the road at a wedding of my cousin’s son enjoying all the fun and then on Sunday morning we’ll drive the rest of the way to Seattle. I’m looking forward to seeing all our kids and getting the deck all set for summer festivities. I’ll be in the Seattle area for 6 whole weeks…whoohoo!

For more favorites please visit Susanne at Living to tell the story.

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.

Friday’s Fave Five

It’s Friday and time to recall our favorites from this past week. Head over to Susanne’s at Living to Tell the Story to participate or see some favorites.

 

It was wonderful to have morning walks this week with Willow without our typical June Gloom. The skies were bright and we even had a few clouds mixed in with the blue!

The hydrangeas are blooming full right now and they always make me smile.

The birds are so much more active and visible when we walk in the morning. I’m happy when they sit still long enough for me to snap a photo.

 

I really have become a person who loves photography. If I can be out with my camera I’m a happy camper. I kept getting closer and closer to this critter trying not to scare it off it’s perch.

 

I’m not a sit on the beach all day kind of person but I do love early morning walks on the beach. Seeing any beach wildlife is such a bonus.

Looking forward to seeing your favorites from the last week later in the day. I’m driving across town this morning to take my Pop and Mom out for a Father’s Day breakfast with my sister Kathy. Have a wonderful Father’s Day and beginning of Summer weekend everyone!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~

Time to look over your last week and recall your favorites!  Click on over to Susanne’s blog Living to Tell the Story to join in or see others favorites.

My favorites were very easy this week and revolved around our son Josh flying in for a quick overnight visit!

 

We picked Josh up at the Long Beach airport Saturday morning and drove across town to L.A. (right next door to Glendale) to have lunch at Tam O’ Shanter. Wonderful prime rib and wonderful old fashioned service!

 

From the Tam O’ Shanter we headed to the Heritage Square Museum in Los Angeles to see the great preservation efforts of some wonderful homes and for a classic car show.

 

So here’s the real reason our son flew down to L.A… For the Seattle Sounders Soccer game against the 1st place L.A. team, Chivas! We were just killing time at the restaurant and Heritage Square until game time :0)  There were 9 of us from my family at the game and a very boisterous Southern California Sounders fan base that we sat next to! We lost 1-0 but we still had a wonderful time.

 

Here’s our son Josh making friends with our opponents! Josh is such a great peacemaker!!

 

On Sunday before we took Josh to the airport we had a family lunch at my sisters house. Fun times with Baba and Deda and cousins and aunts and uncles on my side of the family and Dear’s side of the family, too. The time flew by and we dropped Josh off at the airport and then tried to recover from all the fun!

 

My last favorite from this last week was discovering the historic area of Oxnard. I love old wonderful architecture and wide tree lined streets filled with fabulous homes!!

I look forward to seeing your favorites from this past week. Thank you Susanne for being our hostess for this great weekly event!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ It’s June?

If it’s Friday it’s time for Favorites! Thanks to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for hosting this weekly event.

My Five this week are all about some of my favorite things about the area I am living in here in Southern California.

Let’s get the food taken care of right off the bat!

#1. I love the amazing taste of strawberries fresh from the fields that I can buy at a local strawberry stand. So much more flavor then the grocery store strawberries.

#2. In nearby Somis there is a family owned Nuthouse where we buy our nuts. They really have an amazing variety. Dear is always happy to “drive me to the nuthouse”.

 

#3. The Camarillo Library has the best Friends of the Library bookstore I have ever been in. Here’s what I bought this week. The magazines were all 25 cents each. The 3 books on cd were $10.00 each. Pricey for me but well worth it for our upcoming road trip to Seattle the end of June. Books on cd make the hours on the road go by faster and help to keep me awake when it’s my turn to drive. I’ve never read P.D. James so I hope his Death of An Expert Witness will keep my interest. I’m looking forward to hearing The Prisoner of Azkaban instead of reading it again. Dear is a fan of most Robin Cook books so Foreign Body is for his listening pleasure.  The TeaTime book just looks like a fun read. I was happy to lay down the cash for all these to support the local library.

 

#4. Thrift Store Shopping. I really enjoy treasure hunting in thrift stores. I’m seasoned enough that I can walk away from great deals if I don’t really need them. Who am I kidding? Most things I buy at Thrift stores I do not need. That said… this week I found these dessert plates from Germany for 69 cents each. The napkin rings that cleaned up OK were $1.75 for all 7 of them.

 

#5. How very blessed I am. I can drive a short distance from my condo up or down the coast and discover new beaches. This is my latest discovery, El Matador State Beach. This beach is south of us in the northern part of Malibu. I’ll be sharing more photos from this great beach next week…

Looking forward to blog hopping to see your favorites.

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.

Friday’s Fave Fives ~ Memorial Weekend

My favorites for this week are all from Seattle. Sweet Susanne from Living to Tell the Story is our gracious hostess for this event. Click on over to join in or to see more favorites!

1. Enjoying time with our kids. We ate together, shopped at Goodwill together, worked together, watched soccer together, and played Rock Band together. Fun times.

 

2. Enjoying the Sunshine in Seattle. There’s nothing like a sunshiny day in the Seattle Area. It was even warmer than Camarillo.

 

 

3. Getting our house semi-organized now that the tile is down in the basement. We were able to move things back to where they belong and freed up our guest room area again. We still have a lot to do in the basement to call it “done”.  That will be our summer project.

 

4. Eating out after all our hard work instead of eating in and creating more dishes to wash :0)

 

5. Walks in the Seattle area when it’s a little cloudy with the sun peeking through…wonderful. Click here to see all the birds I saw at Juanita Bay Park.

 

 

Hope you all have had a good week. I look forward to reading about your favorites!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ May 22

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story started Friday’s Fave Five for us to think back on our past week and remember our favorite things. Visit her by clicking above and join in…

 

1. On Monday I drove to my mom and dad’s to spend some time with them, my brother,SIL, and their daughter before they flew back to Texas. My cousin was there too and it was good to catch up with her.

2. Dear installed new blinds in our bedroom and I’ve really been pleased with the new feel and light in the room.

3. Dear ordered me a new lens for my big camera so I can zoom farther. Again I’m in learning curve mode. I look forward to practicing over Memorial Weekend.

 

4. Even though I do not have to work outside the home in this stage of my life everyday is usually filled with things I need to do. On Thursday I had a totally free day and it was fun to go to Ventura and thrift shop and site see without looking at my watch. I ate at this great Irish Pub & Restaurant called Dargan’s and I’ll be going back with Dear sometime soon.

5. Today Dear and I fly to Seattle for 5 days and this is my top favorite thing! I get to see my kids, dust my house, run the lawnmower, go to Goodwill, sleep in a Kingsize bed, walk up and down stairs all day, walk around a yard, see my kids.  I’ll be practicing with my camera and new lens in the Seattle area. Hopefully I’ll have something fun to show next Friday…Lord willing.

I hope to get around to as many of you as I can before we hit the freeway to LAX. For those of you in the U.S.A. a very Happy Memorial Weekend to you.

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~

Our first full week of May is complete already! Boy time flies when you’re gaining weight. Oops that just slipped out…

It’s time to join Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and post our 5 favorites from this past week. Here we go…

These early Saturday morning walks on the beach always make it into my favorites. Last Saturday was a breezy cold morning with threats of rain.

On Saturday afternoon Dear and I drove south to attend a mini high school reunion from my class of 1968. I was so thrilled when my friend Bet walked in. We hadn’t seen each other since my wedding…

Early in the week I drove out to Pt. Mugu to practice using my big camera. I had a good time and have posted several photos already from my time there.

I really enjoy thrift store shopping and I get excited when I find goodies like this.

I almost made it through this week without mentioning food but here I go again! I enjoyed baking this for my Women’s Friday Bible Study group. I got the recipe from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog here.

Hope everyone is doing well and found lots to be thankful for this week. 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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Food again???

Happy May Everyone!

Well I was going to be in Cancun today and not able to participate in our Fave Five but circumstances beyond anyone’s control changed our plans. So I’m still at my nice little condo in Southern California…blogging. Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is our hostess for this great weekly event. Visit her to join in or see other favorites.

 

So what is it about me and food? Food is topping much of my list this week but to cut me a break it’s not just the food but the other people around me while I’m eating good food that I enjoy.

1. I really like to eat breakfast out with Dear! Before we helped my niece and her husband move last Saturday we stopped at the Egg Plantation in Newbury Park. They have over a 100 Omelets on their menu including other things! I had Chiliquiles…yum. We really needed this great breakfast to keep us going while we packed up and unpacked the truck for the move.

2. After our trip to Cancun was cancelled I decided to “get away” to Main street in Ventura to do a little Thrift store shopping. Such a fun thing for me to do. While in Ventura I stopped at 71 Palm a French Country Restaurant for a little lunch. I had a wonderful soup with asparagus and spinach and a fresh beet, goat cheese and walnut salad.

3. I made semi-homemade chili for dinner last night and baked some corn bread to go with it. Dear was in the mood for chili earlier in the week and I decided to make it for him! I love my chili with fresh tomato, cilantro, green onions and cheese thrown on top! Last night we added some avocado, too.

4. Willow and I have seen some fun sights this week on our walks. We are seeing some great colorful evidences of Spring.

5. Also from our walk we saw this Quail sitting on top of this flimsy tree. It was really kind of peculiar. He sat there long enough to take several shots…

For more Friday Faves click on over to Susanne’s!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Family & Spring…

 

Oh these Friday’s come so quickly when you’re living life! My favorites this week are leftovers from our time in Seattle. We came home to Southern California Sunday evening after a 3 hour delay due to a dent in a door on our original plane…We then got to fly on the Tinkerbell plane so we all chanted We Believe and clapped and then when the plane finally took off successfully we clapped louder! But this is about favorites….

Absolutely at the very top of my favorites is time spent with our family. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Signs of Spring popping out all over. Beautiful apple and pear blossoms, clematis blooms, and anything pretty in pink that is blooming. Mama and Daddy duck walking over for a Spring visit…

Shopping at my favorite Goodwill stores in the state of Washington…where I always seem to find sweet treasures!  The baking dish is one of my new purchases.

Having the time to hear my son Dan’s keen sense of humor. He can really make me laugh.

Looking forward to spending a few days with our kids and Dear’s side of the family at our niece’s wedding in Cancun next weekend. I won’t be blogging for Fave Fives next weekend or blogging in general because we’ll be in Cancun.

Bonus Fave!: Getting the news that our son Josh will be down to visit us soon and that we’ll all be going to a Sounders/Chivas soccer game here in Southern California. Ole, ole, ole , ole!!

To see more Favorites from this past week visit Susanne who had lovely Spring weather and then another snowstorm oye, oye oye! Click over to Living to Tell the Story….

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Seattle

 

So it’s time for Friday’s Fave Five and all of mine come to your from the State of Washington this week. Dear and I will be heading back to Southern California on Sunday. Boohoo.

1. Spending some one on one and one on four time with our children in Washington! Our oldest son took me to a soccer game last Saturday which was so much fun. Katie and I did some shopping on Monday and she found her strappy gold shoes she needed for an upcoming wedding she’s in. Working around the house with our son Dan. Having Easter Brunch together and Taco Night. Good times.

2. Easter Tradtions! I love Easter and it’s always fun to do the traditional things each year. This year my sister Lana G! and I even made the traditional Russian Easter Bread and Cheese topping. Ok, I keep mentioning that but it was a big accomplishment for us and now we know we can do it and we’re so excited we can have fresh Kulich every year if we want it! Coloring Easter Eggs…it’s so much fun to watch Katie get creative with the colors on the eggs. Going to Easter Service. There’s something special about Easter Sunday at church. We go to church most every Sunday but Easter Sunday always stands out to me. Repeating the traditional Easter greeting to everyone we see on Easter…Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

3. Spending time in Downtown Seattle with Dear. We had a hair appointment together and then headed downtown to have lunch at the Pink Door. It happened to be one of the sunny days in Western Washington so it was nice to walk around and enjoy Downtown! The Market and all the fresh flowers, the tall buildings, our yummy lunch and buying dessert for the taco dinner we were having later that night with our kids.

4. Fresh mowed grass! I really enjoy mowing the lawn at our home here. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a freshly mowed neat looking yard! Dear does the weed-wacking and I do the mowing. The first Spring mow is always a bit time consuming and I had to empty the bag more often…

5. Flowers! It was great to see flowers blooming in the yard when we arrived. My Lenten Rose was full of blooms which made me smile. I love the shape and colors of this plant. Seeing all the fresh cut flowers at Pike Place Market was great, too. So many beautiful varieties of tulips and daffodils. I bought a bunch of yellow with orange daffodils to bring home for Taco Night!

Thanks to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story was hosting this weekly event. It’s good to look back and think about the good times and blessings we enjoy each week.