Category Archives: personal

A Wonderful Bloggy Face to Face!

On Tuesday I drove to Orange County for a family dinner at my parents’ apartment with my sisters, SIL’s, and nieces. Cori G. form Gingerbread Crumbs & Co. and I have been regulars on each others blogs and she happens to live in Orange County so we arranged a face to face meeting close to my parent’s apartment. We had a very short time to meet and “talk” but what a joy it was to spend this short time asking questions and sharing a little bit more of our lives in person. I was surprised how fast our time went.

 

Cori also was so sweet to bring me a gift. I’ve always loved her graphics. She’s one talented lady. I was thrilled to get some beautiful creations of hers. She also gifted me with 4 beautiful Homer Laughlin plates. Oh she knows my weakness for pretty plates!

Cori G. is a Victorian Lady at heart and she proved to me that she wears petticoats and Victorian striped stockings. How cool is that. You can see her post about these stockings at her Happy Birthday Eric Post. Cori and I look forward to getting together again…

John 13:34 ~ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Last Full Day in Washington!

Praise God from Whom all Blessings flow I accomplished everything on my list today. The early morning skies were beautiful with the sun shining and puffy clouds filling the sky. I got to the post office and dropped off all the Christmas cards so they are on their way.  I bought myself some new walking tennies at the Brook’s outlet because my daily walks with Willow have put the miles on my old pair. My house is in a Christmas mood. I even was able to do a little cleaning up in a couple planters outside. And last but not least I baked some Loaded Chocolate Chip cookies for my kids and we’re having dinner together shortly. Tomorrow I’ll hopefully be posting something from San Francisco…

The God of All Comfort

 

2 Corinthians 1:3,4 ~ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Westmont Community, the faculty who lost their homes, the kids whose dorm rooms were destroyed and the whole Montecito Community who have suffered loss in the Tea Fire. Praying that the God of all comfort will comfort you.

Thanks to everyone who left comments and prayed and are praying…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

Montecito Fire ~ Prayer Request!

Update: November 17th! Sounds like classes will resume at Westmont College Monday December 1st…

Update on Tea Fire as of 10:30 Nov. 16th!

By and large, last night was quiet and today, the fourth day of the Tea Fire, should see further recovery efforts by firefighters. So far, 1,940 acres have burned and 210 homes have been lost — 130 in the City of Santa Barbara and 80 in the County of Santa Barbara. Damage assessment is continuing

Looks like my nephew Caleb’s room was spared fire damage. Still need to assess the smoke damage.

Here’s a link to photos from Westmont from the fire. Just click here.

Update: Saturday 9/15 ~  I just received this email from my SIL whose 2 sons attend Westmont. They are preparing for taking in some of the students displaced because of the fires at Westmont. I’m sure there are more people who live in the Southern California area that will have extra students staying at their homes this weekend.

Hi,

Everyone is fine, or as fine as can be.  I’m expecting several carloads of kids to start arriving shortly.  Everyone has been moved off campus until next Wednesday as  they assess damages and decide where to move people around.  There have been broken gas lines etc. so there is no way to keep kids there and to feed them.  Caleb wanted to stay closer to campus yesterday in case he could get up to his dorm.  His section is one of the ones that burned, but he’s on the bottom floor and there is a chance some of his stuff survived.  We’ll see.  They hope to resume classes late next week, some of that will depend on facuilty…since so many lost homes.  The President is making an announcement Monday night…I guess then we will learn how long we will have houseguests for:)

We are praising God that no one was hurt.  With the speed it whipped through those neighborhoods it’s amazing everyone got to safety.  Caleb said they were expecting an earthquake drill that day so people didn’t automatically respond to the fire alarms.  He heard people calling that it was a fire, so he walked out of his room…saw the flames on the hill…went in his room to get his laptop…and by the time he got out there were already flames at the edge of campus.  He’s at the farthest end from the gym and said people were hurrying by then and when they got to the gym they already had embers landing on them and the trees around them.  Once everyone was accounted for they sealed up the gym and let the fire run through…they could watch it through the glass doors at the front of the gym.  After about 5 hours or so, the worst had passed and they let people out to get provisions from the DC of water and muffins etc.  By about 1:00 they started letting people with cars at the gym leave campus so Levi left with his girlfriend who had been there for a PE class, but Caleb opted to stay with his suitemates.  Yesterday they were figuring out who was from out of state and didn’t have anywhere to go and were dividing them up…

It was also College Preview Days, so there were extra high school students on campus…I’m sure that was pretty scary for them.  Luckily many of the homes that burned are second homes and people weren’t there.  There just aren’t very many roads out of the mountain so it’s hard to move quickly…that’s why Westmont built the firesafe gym, without a fair amount of lead time they would never have gotten all the cars off the mountain.  The worst losses were the faculty homes, some of them friends of ours.  So sad.  Several of the other buildings that burned were slated for demolition anyway, as the school is int he midst of a building program.  Caleb said most of the trees and gardens survived, and it didn’t look as bad as the news made it sound.  (Isn’t that always the way)

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Scroll down for updates…

Local

Breaking News Update -TEA FIRE

9:00 P.M. 300 + ACRES HAVE BURNED

MANDATORY EVACUATIONS:
Above Hwy 192 (East Valley Rd/Sycamore Cyn Rd.) between Cold Springs Rd and Hot Springs Rd.
Evacuation Center will be located at San Marcus High School
Tune to AM1680 and your local cable news for more information

WESTMONT COLLEGE
STUDENTS BEING EVACUATED INTO THE GYM THEY ARE SHELTERING IN PLACE.
THERE ARE REPORTS OF SPOT FIRES ON CAMPUS, STUDENTS ARE NOT THREATENED

I have 2 nephews that are students at Westmont College. They and all the students have been evacuated to the Gym which they say is fireproof. Please pray that all the students will be safe and that Westmont College is spared any further damage and that the resident halls do not burn. Please pray for all the residents of Montecito!!
Here’s an update from my SIL whose 2 sons are on campus.
Roy sent me an email…he’s on the board of directors so has been kept updated.  Evidently the gym was built as a ‘safe’ building evacuation area for this sort of thing because it is so hard to get that many people out of that area.

Here is what Roy said…

The latest I’ve heard is the following….

Students, staff and faculty who were on campus will evacuate “onsite” in the gym.  This is a safe building approved by experts and will not burn.

Noozhawk.com reports that two cars in the Page parking lot burned, and that trees by the baseball field are ablaze.  But the latest is that there is no structural damage to the campus.  Firefighters are on campus.

Keep praying!


Also you can watch live coverage at this website.http://cbs2.com/firewatch

WILD FIRE NEAR WESTMONT

At 9 p.m., an update was given to everyone sheltered in place in the gymnasium. There is no threat to the gym and air quality is improving there. Those sheltered in place seem to be doing well under the circumstances, and are now watching a movie. To our knowledge, no one has been injured on campus.

The fire has damaged several minor buildings.

Photos from Westmont College

If you have students at Westmont be encouraged that there are fire fighters on campus and that not only have they evacuated students to the gymnasium but local residents have been evacuated to the gymnasium because of it’s fire safety!!  They are in the safest building in Montecito right now…

update:

A residence hall and several classrooms were destroyed at Westmont College, a private Christian university, and about 800 students were evacuated to the school’s fireproof gymnasium, where they were out of harm’s way.

I will confirm with my brother and SIL but it sounds like Clark hall has fire damage. That is probably the residence hall being referred to above…

Late night update

November 14th, 2008

1:14am

Students who are on campus who wish to leave and have means to do so are allowed off-campus. Those leaving campus will not be allowed to return for at least 24 hours.

All faculty and staff who are currently off campus should not come to the campus unless specifically requested to do so by their supervisor.

There have been more than a dozen houses at Las Barrancas (faculty housing) destroyed in addition to the structures already mentioned.

Those wishing to extend temporary housing to those displaced by the fire should send their name, phone contact information, e-mail address, house address, and the number of individuals they can accommodate to: westmonthousinghelp@gmail.com.

WILD FIRE AT WESTMONT

November 13th, 2008

Update: 11:44 . A natural gas line has broken, forcing the fire department to shut off natural gas to the college. This has brought down our generators. We have between 1/2 hour and 4 hours of UPS left, so may not be able to post further updates through the web site.

Update: 11:36 p.m.
After consulting the Fire Department and the Red Cross, the decision has been made to continue sheltering in place at the gymnasium tonight.

The Red cross is brining 60 cots and 200 blankets to the gym.

Additional cots and blankets on campus are being brought to the gym.

There will be no classes on Friday.

….

previous messages…

Conditions on campus improved to the point where staff were able to get food from the Dining Commons and bring it to the gym, where the community is sheltered in place.

Conditions in the area may make it possible now to leave the campus for a Red Cross shelter, but that option is still being explored.
Firefighters are currently attempting to put out several fires at Clark Hall. Structures lost to or significantly damaged by fire include the Physics Building, the ‘old Math” building, Bauder Hall and the Quonset Huts.

Again, we are grateful that no one has been hurt on campus, and everyone is safely in the gymnasium and in good spirits.

Thank you for your prayers.
The emergency hotline number at 1-888-565-7911 has current information..

My nephew Caleb’s dorm sounds like it’s the dorm that has been damaged by the fire. From the photos we’ve seen looks like his room is a goner…

Here’s the latest update from the Westmont College Site:

8:00 a.m.
There are no active fires on campus, no injuries, and everyone is safe.7:21 a.m.
All students and employees are fine. We are assessing damage this morning. Updates will be posted shortly.

Wesmont has 326 students remaining in the Gym; those students with transportation have been released from campus because it is safe for them to travel on area roads.

Westmont has lost eight structures, four buildings in Clark halls (F,G,M,S), the physics building, the old math building and the two quonset huts. The later three structures were scheduled for demolition soon.

Fourteen faculty homes in Las Barrancas have burned; there is damage to trees, and wooded areas on campus, but much of the formal gardens remains intact.
Fires out. Assessing damage.

No fires remain active on or in the campus area.

My Attitude Adjustment ~

 

After my wah, wah, wah, morning rant I decided to go and see about getting an attitude adjustment. I drove 9 miles to the Pt. Mugu Area of the Pacific Ocean and stopped at 3 different beaches to take some photos. I took 88 photos which I’ll share more of later. This spot showed the most drama and power. Oh and my attitude…it improved immensely.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage demanding a ransom that I can’t afford. So frustrating as I try to clean up my posts and delete their ugly squares of black and grey off my blog posts!

911! Good Morning Officer…

***Note: If you are here for the real Blue Monday scroll on down past this post…

Dear and I are a little on the “Blue Side” this morning…

 Last night when Dear and I went to bed the new resident above our condo was having a “row” of some kind. Although the previous residents were noisy walkers we never could hear voices or actual words through the ceiling. Well last night I heard more words and noise than I wanted to hear and the words were not good. It sounded like the young lady was being taken advantage of. We went to sleep and then I woke up at 2:15 A.M. because of a very loud thump and the girl was crying “Help Me, help me, you hurt me”. We heard her say help me a few more times and then heard her moaning and crying.  That was it!!  I got up and called 911. We heard the officers knock loudly on the door but we don’t think the door was opened up to them. One of the officers came to our door to make sure they were at the right condo. We now know the Camarillo Police Dept. can find our condos. Yippee! We crawled back into bed at 3:15 AM. Dear and I were not able to go back to sleep and He gets up at 5:00 am and leaves for work at 6:00 so needless to say we are both dragging. Poor guy has to go do his job and train a contractor. The only thing I absolutely have to do today is go buy some milk.

I’m thankful to God for the peace that I live with day in and day out in my married life…

Blueberry Mornings ~

 

We have one blueberry bush in our yard in Washington. Most years it gives us a great crop of blueberries in July. If I am at my home in Washington in July my usual morning ritual is to go in my jammies and pick the ripest berries that day. Thankfully there are enough berries for me and the birds. I take my stash inside and pour them over my high fiber cereal with a cut up banana and enjoy my morning treat. Simple God given pleasures really make my day. Have a great day my friends.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

Walk About the Yard

I’m in the Seattle area spending 6 weeks at my home here. I took a stroll about the yard to see what was blooming and growing.

 

We’ve got some wild blackberry blossoms, our apples and pears are maturing, the hydrangea is promising a few blooms, the lavender is in it’s glory and the blueberries are still green but plumping up.

I’m still getting my bearings here in my house. I decided to tackle a few rooms at a time for cleaning and organizing. On Tuesday I deep cleaned the kitchen and dusted the living room. Yesterday I got everything presentable except for my Master Bedroom. We’re having 16 for the 4th and I wanted the main living areas clean. Saturday I’ll tackle my bedroom, it’s on the 3rd floor all by itself so I felt fine leaving it till last and after our company on the 4th. Dear goes back to California on Sunday and then he flies back up to Seattle for the first two weeks in August. I’ll be able to get a lot of weeding in while he’s gone.

A very happy 4th to all you in the U.S.A.  and a very happy Friday to my friends in other parts of the world. My flag waving post for the 4th is just below this so scroll on down if you’d like…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

My Sweet Niece and Me and Vitiligo

 

I love this photo of my sweet little niece with her Aunty ellen b. Look at her great eyebrows. After we left Dallas she cut two bottom teeth within the week. She’s just 3-1/2 months old. Before we left for Dallas I had my first ever trip to the dermatologist because my face was discoloring. I thought I was getting brown spots. At my visit the dermatologist discovered that I’m not getting brown spots but instead I’m losing the pigment in my skin, a condition called Vitiligo. It’s the same condition that Michael Jackson has. I’m not wearing any cover-up in the photo above so you can see my loss of pigment especially next to my dear niece’s perfect baby skin. So from now on if I post any photos of myself out walking you’ll see me with my Dallas souvenir on…

 

Here I am last Saturday at Emma Wood State Beach with my new UPF50+ hat with a 3″ rim. The areas of my skin that are losing pigment are very sensitive to the sun so I need to add extra protection. A sunblock with helioplex broad spectrum uva-uvb and avobenzone 3% are highly recommended for protection. I’m using a Neutrogena product that has both of these ingredients in it. The only downside to this condition for me besides my vanity, is the fact that I don’t wear hats well and then the added condition of bad dented hair from the hat after my walks!

Between my back issues and my face issues I was happy to have memorized ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ~”Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Have a wonderful day y’all and keep on walking. I’ve had a good week of walking and I’ll be posting my average steps every Monday from now on.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!