Category Archives: personal

I’ll Miss You…

In February of 2008 Willow and I met face to face for the first time and here’s what I wrote about that day…

God is so good to me. He gave me two desires of my heart today! I’ve said over and over again how sweet it would be to meet one of my bloggy friends and how I’d love to have a walking buddy in Southern California after I left my walking buddies in Seattle, Washington. Today Willow and I met and had a walk and plan to walk on a regular basis, keeping each other accountable. How sweet it is! We found each other through other blogs and realized we both live in the same city. We’re in the same stage of life and have a lot in common. Willow shared how she had been praying for someone to walk with. Check out her blog, she has very exciting news today! She became a grandmother!

That was 2 years ago and so that grandson just celebrated his 2nd birthday.

We’ve had lots of fun walking adventures and a some great tea adventures. I’m going to miss my walking, blogging, drinking tea, knitting friend!

I’m also going to miss Dear and my Saturday morning walks at Emma Wood. On many of those Saturdays we’d have breakfast at Allison’s in Ventura and I’m going to miss that place, too.

Another Saturday morning favorite with Dear is this hike off Sycamore Canyon up the Scenic Trail.

I’ll miss the great cooking days with my family here in Southern California and

our fun tea times…and

our breakfast rendezvous at Julienne in San Marino.

 

I’ll miss our bloggy adventures with Willow and Sara at the Getty Properties and…

another bloggy friend Cori G! We met for a quick cup of tea in Brea. We had plans to meet again hopefully before heaven! :0)

 

I’m going to miss our Saturdays with Tim and Letty…

 

I’ll miss being close to my parents…

I’ve been blessed both in Southern California and the Seattle area with good friends, loving family, great churches and wonderful adventures.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away…Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

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’s Hitting the Floor Running…

Back at the homestead in Washington and I’m getting my lists going. We’ve seen one of our kids. We know another one is here sleeping so we’ll see him soon. It’s always funny to see what is still in the refrigerator left over from Christmas when I was here last. So I’ve dumped the Egg Nog and a few other things! Deciding on what’s for dinner and what we’ll serve at the party tomorrow night. The sunrise this morning was beautiful. The water tastes great and cold straight out of the tap. Just enjoying the little things that make “home” wonderful. Oh did I mention I love my king-size mattress.

Have a wonderful day!

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’s Flying the Coop!

Flying north to spend some time with my mijas and mijos! I’ll be here, there, and everywhere so I don’t know how much time I’ll have to be on the computer. We’re having an Open House/Party for our son Dan on Friday night that I’ll be spending time preparing for. Dan departs on Saturday and then we’re having an out of town guest arrive on Saturday for a few days. We might have a Superbowl party at our house on Sunday. I’m looking forward to seeing that controversial commercial. Just be assured I haven’t disappeared off the face of the blogisphere. I’ll be back soon with lots of news to share.

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.

Flashback to the Summer Olympics 1984!

For my Canadian friends, especially Marg who is going to experience the Winter Olympics in her own backyard and Susanne who kind of  missed the torch going through her city, I decided to pull up this photo of my husband with an Olympic Torch from the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. I’ll have to dig up some photos of him doing his actual run in Ontario, California. He entered the chance to represent his company and his name was drawn. It really was an exciting time for our family.

We also were able to see some Olympic rowing events at Lake Casitas.

Today I’m off running to take care of some things for Dear and then I’m driving across town again for an evening event with my family. Hoping the rain doesn’t interfere too much with my visibility while I’m driving. It doesn’t mist here in Southern California or rain lightly like in Washington. Rain here is always an event of ginormous proportions and ramifications…

UPDATE: ellen b. is staying put at her condo. We cancelled our event in Huntington Beach because the weather is deteriorating and a tornado watch has been issued! Yikes..

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.

Like a Bird Flying South…

Dear and I boarded a flight at Seatac Airport on Sunday afternoon to LAX with very little Security issues and once again made the comment …
“Flying out of Seattle is so nice compared to other airports”!! I got this shot of Rainier before everything clouded over!

Then we talked to our seating companion who flew out of Canada to the U.S. and told us he had to go through 4 security screenings and then had to have a full body search. He couldn’t have anything under the seat in front of him except for a size restricted personal bag, no carry on luggage.  So flying into the U.S. is a bit tough right now…

We arrived in L.A. and made it back to the condo in great time hardly ever needing to use our brakes which is a good thing because our brake lights were not working! Thank you to my sister Kathy and our BIL Len being brave enough to deliver that car without brake lights to us at the airport.

Dear caught a icky bug and is under the weather so I had to pick him up from work early today. I was able to pick up the part we needed for the car and it’s working beautifully now so I’ll make a visit to the CHP tomorrow and have them OK the repair so we don’t have to pay a fine. Oh right I forgot to tell you that over the Christmas break my brother from Dallas was using our car and got a ticket for not having brake lights. Ouch! We had no idea the brake lights weren’t working when we loaned him the car…

Today I’ve enjoyed the lovely winter skies here in Camarillo. Sunny and warm with great clouds. Tomorrow Willow and I will resume our walks! Yippee! So much to catch up on. Dear cleaned the condo real nice before he came north so I don’t have much to do around here. Hope you all are getting in the swing of things in 2010!

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.

Just So I Don’t End Up With…

…bags under my eyes like this guy,

I’m taking it easy the next few days. The parties are over and all the glitter has been removed. I even gave my dishwasher a few days off because she was way overworked this last week or two. We’re laying low for New Year’s Eve. Hope the last week of 2009 is going well for y’all!

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 Great Reason to Celebrate…

…our daughter Katie completed her coursework for her degree from University of Washington!

A wonderful reason to don the Oscar de la Renta and go out on the town…

We chose to celebrate at Palisade Restaurant at the waterfront on Elliott Bay…

 

The views of Seattle were great and the food and company were lovely…

 

Dear, Ellen b., Katie, Josh, Laura, Steve, and Lana G!

 

Our two lovely daughters…

 

Laura and Josh…

 

Ellen b. and Dear

 

Josh and Katie…

 

Sisters…

Our daughter in love, Laura.

The proud mama!

Isn’t she lovely!?

We are so proud of your perseverance in the challenges of changing schools and finishing well, Katie. We pray for God’s richest blessings in your life as you continue to grow and remember that God is the provider of all good things!

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.

One Week from Today…

…all that will be left are the wonderful memories and maybe a little indigestion.

 

…hope you have time to relax on the last weekend before Christmas! Blessings…

I’m headed out to meet my NW walking buddies for our 6 mile walk in the rain!

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.

Remember…

…get a designated driver lined up if you are going to be drinking at Christmas Parties!

On a lighter note…I’m 3 posts away from 2000! I’ll reach that before the end of 2009. Thanks for putting up with all my posting people!!

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.

Slip Sliding Away!

Plans can be made and plans can be changed. I woke up this morning planning to bake a batch of cookies to send away to our son. My daughter was up and headed to work. I had the first batch of cookies in the oven when the phone rang. Katie had hit a patch of black ice, spun around on the road, and landed backwards in a nice ladies front yard taking out a good section of her wooden fence. The lady was very sweet and invited Katie in while she waited for me to arrive and figure out what to do next. While watching from the window Katie saw another car spin out of control and hit the front of her car even though it was well off the road. YIKES! A total of 3 cars had to be towed from this location.

 

I was so happy that Katie was fine just shook up from the wild ride. The only damage she caused was to her own car and that poor fence. She missed 2 cars in the driveway.

 

The Brier Police that came to the scene were very kind and helpful beyond their obligation. They even waited behind my parked car with their lights flashing until the tow truck arrived.

 

The tow truck driver that came in response to our AAA call was also very concerned and kind.

 

The police stayed until the car was completely on the bed of the tow truck! When we got home Katie called our insurance company and I finished baking the cookies, packed up a box to mail to our son and packed up a gift box of cookies to deliver to the Brier Police Station for the officers that took such good care of my daughter! Thank you officers Willey and Murphy!

 

We delivered the cookies to the police station, stopped at the post office to send off the cookies and then we decided we deserved a nice lunch and boy did we find a great one at Gratzi Italian Restaurant in Bothell. As you can see Katie is fine. Even after this great lunch we weren’t done yet salving our wounds…

 

Cookies and a nice cup of English Tea continued the healing from our ordeal…

I’m thanking God for watching over Katie, keeping her from being hurt, and sending kind people to care for her.

Hug your loved ones today!

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.