Category Archives: Friends

Washington Floods!

Oh my, oh my. I’ve been working all day with water problems. We do not have it as bad as our friends the Terreson’s. Here’s a picture of the water on their street today coming into their basement! We were there with you in 1996 filling sand bags and putting them at your garage doors. We’re hoping for the best for you dear Terreson’s!

I’ve been working on our basement too. After shop-vacuuming up over 16 gallons of water I decided to just pull up the carpeting and padding because there was no way I’d be able to dry that carpet and padding without the tell tale mildew smell lingering forever. Dan came home early from work to help me and Katie helped when she came home from school. I will not be driving anywhere for the next day or two as so many roads are flooded and closed. Dear is feeling bad being in California where it’s sunny and warm and not being here to help us…

The last time we had flooding this bad we were declared a disaster area. We lost our home because the damage from the flooding. A landslide behind our home compromised our foundation and the fix was going to be so costly that we’d never be able to afford it. (100’s of thousands of dollars) We gave our dream home back to the bank! We do not live on a slope this time around and we are happy about that. We will probably replace our carpeting in the basement with ceramic tile.

This is the slope in the back of the home we gave back to the bank in 1996!

Keep us in your prayers bloggy friends. Counting it all joy….

 

Friday Feast #11 ~

Appetizer
What is your favorite carnival/amusement park ride?

I really enjoy several rides at Disneyland. My favorites are Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Carribean…

Soup
How do you react in uncomfortable social situations?

I generally try to ease the situation, change the subject. If I can leave the room I will. It depends on what kind of uncomfortable it is. If it too uncomfortable I would flee the situation…

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy discussing deep, philosophical topics?

Oh probably a 5 and that depends on whether the discussion is heated or just an exchange of thoughts…

I do not like mean debates.

Main Course
Did you get a flu shot this year? If not, do you plan to?

No I did not, never have, and I won’t be getting one this year. Maybe next year….

Dessert
Approximately how many hours per week do you spend watching television?

I watch Survivor, Amazing Race, Bones, Numbers and Project Runway so ….5 hours. Oops then there’s Seahawks football and any Soccer game that’s televised at the right time so add 5 more hours. Up to 10 hours!

For more Friday Feasts click here.

Thanksgiving 2007

Some images from our Thanksgiving Day in Washington…

Laura, Katie and Dear

Our son Josh and Laura

Our lovely daughter in law Laura

My sister Lana G. (who took some great photos of our day here)  and Steve

Our daughter Katie

Our son Dan

The lovely Bridget

Finn who belongs to Bridget and Beau

Dear carving the turkey!

 

Our beautiful Thanksgiving setting overlooking the Puget Sound in Washington.

2nd row Jeremy L., The Mighty Finn, Josh and Beau (Finn’s daddy)

 

Over the River and Through the Woods!

Over the River and
Through the Woods

 

Over the river and thru the wood,
To grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh,
Thru the white and drifted snow, oh!
Over the river and thru the wood,
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes,
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.

 

Over the river and thru the wood,
To have a first-rate play;
Oh, hear the bell ring,
“Ting-a-ling-ling!”
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day-ay!
Over the river and thru the wood,
Trot fast my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.

 

To all my blogging friends in the U.S.A. a very Happy Thanksgiving Day to you. For those of you outside the U.S. blessings on the rest of your week! We are headed over the freeways and through the streeted woods to our dear friends for a large gathering of family, food, fun, and fellowship. We’ll be rolling home stuffed to the gills later this evening.

 

Thursday Thirteen #8 ~ Friends

Thankful for my Friends!

Thirteen Quotes About Friends/Friendship

1. Ah, how good it feels!  The hand of an old friend.  ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2. It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. The best rule of friendship is to keep your heart a little softer than your head.  ~Author Unknown

4. A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should.  ~Author Unknown

5. I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.  ~Katherine Mansfield

6. Friendship is a sheltering tree.  ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

7. If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.  ~George MacDonald

8. Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.  ~Plautus

9. A friend loves at all times… ~ Proverbs 17:17 (ESV Bible)

10. A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked.  ~Author Unknown

11. Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer.  ~Author Unknown

12. You can always tell a real friend:  when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.  ~Laurence J. Peter

13. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. ~ John 15:13 (ESV Bible)

To see more Thursday Thirteen click here.

Blessed With Good Friends

Monday Evening November 5th…

The Table is set ~The Candles are lit ~

Our dear friends Dave and Jody arrive from Washington for the night ~

We are truly blessed ~

 

For an extra treat here’s a great recipe from the Barefoot Contessa for Mustard-Roasted Potatoes ~

2-1/2 lbs. small red potatoes (I used gold), 2 Yellow onions, 3 Tblsps. good olive oil, 2 Tblsps. whole-grain mustard, 2 tsps. kosher salt, 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 C. chopped fresh parsley ~

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters, depending on their size, and place them on sheet pan. Remove the ends of the onions, peel them, and cut them in half. Slice them crosswise in 1/4 inch-thick slices to make half-rounds. Toss the onions and potatoes together on the sheet pan. Add the olive oil, mustard, 2tsp. salt, and the pepper and toss them together. (I mixed these ingredients all together before I tossed them with the potatoe/onion mix) Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the potatoes are lightly brown on the outside and tender on the inside. Toss the potatoes from time to time with metal spatula so they brown evenly.

Duhlicious (I spelled that wrong on purpose!)

Serve hot sprinkled with the chopped parsley and a little extra salt.

For dinner with Dave and Jody we had these Potatoes with Filet Mignon, Mushrooms and Onions sauteed with white wine and cream, and a Fiesta Salad.

For dessert we had Milk Chocolate & Hazelnut filled Brioche Bites.

And Dear mixed up a Kensington Dream for Jody and I.

Good Friends, good food, good conversation, good times….

And with all this fun I’m having you’ll understand why I’m a little slow in getting around blog world today to comment…

A Day with Friends…

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley

On Saturday Dear and I spent the day with our old friends Jim and Jeanie. Jim is my cousin and I was friends with Jeanie in college before they met. Jeanie and I both majored in Home Economics and we both became teachers. She’s still teaching in high school in the Fresno area.

When we were just married we lived in Huntington Beach and attended the same church. All of our children were born in the same years 1979, 1981 and 1985. Jim was a policeman in Huntington Beach but then left this work and started his own business building pools. We moved to Washington, they moved to Central California so now we see each other maybe one or two times a year. When we get together we can still catch up quick and relate and pray and laugh with each other. Oh and we eat too…I’m still stuffed.

There’s a great story behind this little booth that now sits at the entrance of the driveway to J & J’s house. When Jim was younger he worked at Hume Lake Christian Camps in a security position. He’d be in this booth stopping traffic into the camp conference grounds to make sure people knew where to go or be turned away because they had no business there. Hume Lake Christian Camp is located in the Sequoia’s. This booth went up in auction after it was replaced and Jim had the winning bid. Now he has a fun piece of his and Hume Lake’s history at his home.

These are some photos of their beautiful home that they had built on 4 acres of property they purchased. Jim is gifted in landscaping and of course he’d build a beautiful pool to have on his own property.

After lunch at their home we drove over to get a tour of Jim’s Pool Company. It’s located on the main drag through their town in a remodeled old home. He’s done a beautiful job with several partial pool designs on display and water features and water falls etc. It was a fun tour of Vineyard Pools in Clovis, California!

These are the photos of some of the pools, waterfalls, and water features…

Across the street from Vineyard Pools was Rossetti’s Biscotti and Fine Foods. We had to run across and do a little shopping. We bought some Triple Almond Biscotti to take home. We headed back to J & J’s house via Starbucks.

We went out to dinner and headed back to Southern California very full of fellowship and food…

I have to share one more photo with y’all that I got such a kick out of on our way to J & J’s on Clovis Ave.

 

 

Have a wonderful joy filled week….

Fall Y’all! Bloggy Giveaway ~ October 29th – November 2nd

Update: Besides the U.S. and Canada I’m also opening up this drawing to anyone in Great Britain or Ireland just because I’m so drawn to these countries…

Ellen B. at the Happy Wonderer is giving away an Apron for the Fall Giveaway sponsored at Shannon’s BloggyGiveaways.com

The apron I’m offering is an April Cornell Classic Floral ~ “Bring nature into your home with classic colorful floral prints.”

Hope you enjoy my Classy Ironing Board Model!

Just leave a comment with a good email address and I will randomly draw the winner when the contest is over. Blessings on you all and may the best Homemaker win 🙂  My giveaway is open to anyone in the United States or Canada! Giveaway will close at noon on Friday. I will announce the winner by 6:00 PM on Friday!

To see many more giveaways go to bloggygiveaways.com.