Category Archives: personal

Our God Cares for His Children…

My dear friend from Count it all Joy and The Matson Sisters has been having the struggle of her life this past week. Some of you may have visited her blog. She’s been in I.C.U. on a ventilator and unconscious. Kathy B. is my cousin Jim’s sister in law, my good college friend Jeanie’s sister. I introduced Jim and Jeanie to each other in college and they got married!  We’ve had a wonderful friendship over the years and through blogging Kathy B. has become my dear friend. Kathy B. has struggled with her form of cancer for 28 years. Our family and friends have been praying for consciousness and for Bill and Jeanie to be able to communicate with Kathy. We received amazing news on how God has been answering our prayers and Kathy regained consciousness and has been able to speak and give input on her care.  She was released from I.C.U. today. She will be released soon from the hospital to hospice care. We love you Kathy B. and thank God for your life and the impact you have had on ours! May God continue to prepare you and all of us for what he has for us…

Update on my 60 Things in my 60th Year List…

1. Finally make it to the top of the Space Needle. Completed on Wednesday January 26th!

2. Dinner with the Mennonite Girls and their husbands. Met for dinner at the Chuckanut Manor on March 13th!

3. East Coast Trip. Things are shaping up for a trip to Washington D.C.  (Any suggestions about what to see and where to eat would be highly appreciated) We were there from May 10th-18th. We saw more than our brains could take in!

4. Apply for my enhanced license so my trips to Canada will be easier. Completed in January!

5. Birthday getaway with my 3 sisters. Plans are afoot. Victoria B.C., April 1-3, 2011

6. Try one new restaurant every month of this year. Looks like this one is really going to be easy especially with trips planned.  Eastlake Bar and Grill~ Lake Union. The Hitching Post~ Monroe. Racha Thai ~Seattle.  Bishops Alehouse ~ Juanita. Chuckanut Manor-Bow. Barolo ~ Seattle. The Cabbage Patch ~ Snohomish. Pescatores ~ Victoria, B.C.

7. Send my parents a bouquet of flowers on my 60th birthday thanking them for loving me all these years. Sent on March 14th and my parents were thrilled.

8. Visiting a a new garden. Hillwood Garden in Washington D.C., Bishop’s Garden in Washington D.C. and Botanical Gardens in D.C.

9. Plant something new in my yard. I planted some Sweet Peas and 2 Top Hat blueberry bushes.

10. Have my flagpole installed. Installed on my birthday March 14th.

***11. Lose 10 pounds. Oh Nellie! I should have said gain 10 pounds! Woohoo!! Before I gain it back I want y’all to know that as of 7/18/11 I have lost 10 pounds. I started my program on June 12th. Now I’m moving on to lose 10 more. This past Sunday I fit into the jeans one size down that have been draped over the couch for a year waiting…

12. Enjoy a book by an author I haven’t read before. I’ve read a couple books by Jeanne Birdsall that I’ve enjoyed and I’m on the second book by Rick Riordan that I’m enjoying. I also read a non-fiction book by Lewis B. Smedes on Forgiveness.

13. Explore 6 cities/towns in Washington. Lake Union~  Monroe~  Snohomish~ Olympia ~ Lynden ~ Port Townsend

14. Try 2 new recipes every month. As you can see by my mosaic at the top of this update I have been trying lots of new recipes.

15. Go on a easy day hike.

16. Walk more.

17. Go to a new Tea Room. White Heather Tea Room in Victoria, B.C. (Oak Bay)

18. Purge 60 books off my bookshelves. Well on the way

19. Begin going through old boxes in the garage loft. Working on this with 4 boxes down to work on…

20. Go on an adventure with my daughter Katie. I’ve had many adventures. One fun one is going with her to register for her wedding! We just got back from a wonderful California adventure with family members. Our Bag-O-Rama Jamboree was a wonderful experience in Southern California from July 22nd to July 30th 2011~

21. Re-arrange some things that have been the same for 13 years in this old house. Moved antique hutch around and changed some wall hangings.

22. Buy a Welsh Sideboard. I’ve wanted one for years. Instead of a Welsh cabinet we found an Indonesian cabinet that fits our space perfectly.

23. Make and serve our Russian favorite recipes for family gatherings. Golubtsi, Pelemeni,

24. Find a couple new blogs to add to my favorites. Pondside, and more to be added soon…

25. Clean out my closet.

26. Take some time to journal.

27. Invite someone new over for a meal.

28. Invite old friends over for a meal. Had our dear friends over on April 8th for dinner.

29. Meet Dear downtown for lunch.

30. Do some volunteer work. Fulfilled on March 28th although I’d like to do more. United We Serve

31. Try baking a pie including the crust.

32. Bake cinnamon rolls from scratch.

33. Write some letters and mail them.

34. Surprise someone. Sent cookbooks to Dear’s Aunts and to a dear lady who encouraged me in college.

35. Get a manicure and pedicure. Fulfilled on July 18th, a gift from my brother’s family for my 60th.

36. Have more than one hour long massage. Fulfilled on June 20th, a gift from Josh and Laura for my birthday.

37. Use my sewing machine.

38. Be brave enough to get a new generation phone.

39. Call Dear’s Aunts on their birthdays. Called Aunt Audrey on April 14th ~ Called Aunt Carol on June 26th

40. Try something new with my camera. Tried doing some angled shots.

Now here are the final 20 of my list of 60 things to do in my 60th year!

41. Take a ride in a limousine with people she loves. Completed on my birthday March 14th with our sons, DIL, and Dear.

42. Treat people for her birthday. Bought drinks for all our season ticket neighbors at the opening game which was the day after my 60th birthday.

43. Find a purse that will accommodate my stuff plus my camera with a long enough strap to fit over my shoulder. Completed, I’ll share it soon.

44. Meet bloggy friends in person that she has never met in person before. Met the lovely Pondside in Victoria B.C. and she treated my sisters and I to a fine tour of her town. Met Jill from Jill’s World of Research, Reaction, and Millinery when she flew in to stay with us for the Lavender Farm Faire Tour.

45. Reorganize cabinets and purge some Chotskies.

46. Make those every so many year appointments you dread but need to do. Yearly-check, The Squeeze – check, Got my bone density done! check! Colonoscopy done!

47. Write a Psalm to God. Done!

48. Find a dress for our daughter’s wedding.

50. Learn to put the flagpole up and take it down. It’s not as hard as I thought and I’ve done it several times already.

51. Back up the files on my computer.

52. Create some photo books.

53. Mail a box of goodies to Katie’s Andrew while he is deployed. I’ve been adding things to Katie’s boxes.

54. Order a DVR. Got one March 24th!

55. Get a new modem that might actually make her internet work well. Got one and things have improved but we need more improvement! Finally got some good service and much improvement the week of May 23rd!

56. Send flowers to some unsuspecting person.

57. Detail my car.

58. Write poetic tribute of my history as seen on Debora’s blog.

59. Take a canoe ride on Lake Washington this summer with Dear. Him rowing, me taking photos.

60. Do a blog tribute to some of my favorite blog posts on other people’s blogs.

Coming up with 60 things was not an easy task. Maybe there will be some modifications along the way. It was a good exercise and I’ve already enjoyed the benefits of completing many of the 60.

Taking a Couple Days Off…

 

 

I’ve had a busy week with some extra responsibilities and find the need to take a couple day breather. I’ll be back with the Sunday Hymn. Hopefully my scratchy throat isn’t going to move on to anything worse.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Buh buh buh buh B!

It’s time to present something for the letter B at Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursday. I was scratching my head wondering what to post and then I thought why not bore all of you with some brief bullet points about ellen b. I hope by now you’ve noticed the letter b‘s in this post are highlighted in blue!

 

I’ve always been ellen b. My maiden name and married name begin with the letter B. Here I am in my predominately blue apron doing a cooking demonstration with some of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook at Lepp Farm Market in British Columbia.

I’m not Mennonite but the Mennonite Girls adopted me because many of our recipes are similar since my heritage is 100% Russian. We started with a blog together and now we have our very own cookbook!

 

This is one of my recipes in the book from my mother Nadia Bagdanov for Blintzes! You can order the book at Amazon! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have some recipes in a published cookbook but blogging has a way of taking you to places you never dreamed of.

Speaking of being published, another brief story I wrote was published in this book…

It’s the story of my father coming to Christ at the Billy Graham Crusades in Los Angeles in 1963 and the impact that had on the Bagdanov family. You can read my post about that here.

 

After my father came to Christ we stayed in a church he was raised in until he decided to be baptized. At that point the group we were part of ostracized him and we joined the Russian Baptist Church where my Babushka attended. Babushka is the name for grandmother in Russian. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful lady who raised 3 children and was an amazing embroiderer even though she only had one hand. She lost one of her arms from the elbow down when she was a little girl in Russia. My mother had been raised Baptist but left the church when she married my dad and then we all ended up rejoining the Baptist church. Here’s a photo of my little maternal Babushka. We all really loved her!

 

Funny side note: There was a rumor in the Persian Village where my parents were married that my father could not have children. Well that rumor was put to rest when my parents ended up having 9 children. You might be wondering how my parents ended up in Persia since they are Russian. Both of their families fled Russia separately in the early 1930’s because of religious persecution. They traveled on foot into Iran and settled in villages outside of Tehran.

Russian Baptists can sometimes be quite legalistic. No dancing, drinking, smoking, playing cards, or going to movies. Thankfully my parents weren’t strict Legalists. They even took us to the drive-in theater to see all the great Walt Disney Movies growing up. But they’d still be surprised to know their daughter enjoys one of these every now and then.

 

A Bloody Mary. Maybe I’m on the carefree, wild side because of my birth order. I was #4. I have 2 older sisters and an older brother. The fact that I was the baby of the family for 7 years before 3 more brothers and a sister were born into our family might have something to do with my “who cares” attitude!

Before I stop my babbling I wanted to share that we are planning a wedding for our daughter and her Marine husband Andrew in January of 2012, after Andrew returns from his first deployment. We booked the wedding venue today. We chose Blue Ribbon on Lake Union in Seattle because of their total package weddings and the fact that they have a military clause that will allow us to change the date if we have to. Andrew and Katie got married in a civil ceremony on March 11th of this year in North Carolina. Our friends and family will come together to celebrate that union at a wedding ceremony to offer belated witness to their vows. One of my younger brothers who is a pastor will perform the ceremony next January.

 

Hope you made it to the end of my bullet point post. I’ll be coming around before you know it to see what you’ve been up to with the letter B! Thank you Jenny for hosting this meme!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

The Final 20 & My New Cabinet!

In which she cheats and puts things on the final 20 list that happened before they appeared on the list and she knows will happen in the near future!

#22 was… Buy a Welsh Sideboard. I’ve wanted one for years. This isn’t a Welsh Sideboard but it fulfills it’s purpose and fits in my space well. It’s an Indonesian solid wood piece and we are pleased with it’s function.

Now here are the final 20 of my list of 60 things to do in my 60th year!

41. Take a ride in a limousine with people she loves. Completed on my birthday March 14th with our sons, DIL, and Dear.

42. Treat people for her birthday. Bought drinks for all our season ticket neighbors at the opening game which was the day after my 60th birthday.

43. Find a purse that will accommodate my stuff plus my camera with a long enough strap to fit over my shoulder.

44. Meet bloggy friends in person that she has never met in person before.

45. Reorganize cabinets and purge some Chotskies.

46. Make those every so many year appointments you dread but need to do.

47. Write a Psalm to God.

48. Find a dress for our daughter’s wedding.

50. Learn to put the flagpole up and take it down.

51. Back up the files on my computer.

52. Create some photo books.

53. Mail a box of goodies to Katie’s Andrew while he is deployed.

54. Order a DVR

55. Get a new modem that might actually make her internet work well.

56. Send flowers to some unsuspecting person.

57. Detail my car.

58. Write poetic tribute of my history as seen on Debora’s blog.

59. Take a canoe ride on Lake Washington this summer with Dear. Him rowing, me taking photos.

60. Do a blog tribute to some of my favorite blog posts on other people’s blogs.

Coming up with 60 things was not an easy task. Maybe there will be some modifications along the way. It was a good exercise and I’ve already enjoyed the benefits of completing many of the 60.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

 

Happy Saturday Daffodils!

 

I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

~Wordsworth

This is just a portion of this Wordsworth poem. How wonderful it is to have some sweet little signs that Spring is coming. Today is Saturday and we are just messing about the house with no grand plans. Dear will do some sanding on some drywall in the new laundry room. I’ll make sure the doors are closed and the drywall dust is contained to that room. Tomorrow is Sunday and we do have some grand plans. We will be trying another church in the morning and then we are headed north to meet up with some special people for dinner. I’ll share later when I have photos to show.

Welcome March ~ The Next 20…

 

For those of you who humor me and follow my meanderings and whimsy on my blog you know I’m working on a list of 60 things to do in my 60th year of life. Because I’m getting older and it might be a little difficult to complete all 60 in a years time I started early and I’m on my way already. You also need to know that cutting myself a lot of slack is something that has allowed me to be more content then I should be with myself. All that to say if I don’t get around to all 60 this year they’ll just fall to my 61st year!

The first 20 on the list are here. Here are the next 20.

21. Re-arrange some things that have been the same for 13 years in this old house.

22. Buy a Welsh Sideboard. I’ve wanted one for years.

23. Make and serve our Russian favorite recipes for family gatherings.

24. Find a couple new blogs to add to my favorites.

25. Clean out my closet.

26. Take some time to journal.

27. Invite someone new over for a meal.

28. Invite old friends over for a meal.

29. Meet Dear downtown for lunch.

30. Do some volunteer work.

31. Try baking a pie including the crust.

32. Bake cinnamon rolls from scratch.

33. Write some letters and mail them.

34. Surprise someone.

35. Get a manicure and pedicure.

36. Have more than one hour long massage.

37. Use my sewing machine.

38. Be brave enough to get a new generation phone.

39. Call Dear’s Aunts on their birthdays.

40. Try something new with my camera.

This isn’t as easy as I thought it might be.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Going Retro…

Today is the anniversary of the Flag raising at Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

 

This was in 1970 when my girlfriend Heidi and I toured Washington D.C. That’s the last time I was in Washington D.C. I’m looking forward to visiting D.C. for the 2nd time in May of this year.

 

Heidi and I spent a while in Michigan and the East Coast with several different Russian families we knew.

 

I’m looking forward to being in D.C. with my digital camera.

 

I’m pretty sure this was Christmas in 1974 just after we were married. This photo was taken at Dear’s parents home.

 

Our traditional Christmas morning breakfast at my Babushka Vera’s apartment next door to the Russian Baptist Church in Los Angeles. This is a photo of our family and our maternal cousins. My Babushka is in the pink and white next to my mother.

 

This is our niece Jenna. She was our first niece and she is just as cute today!

Oh and the snow that was suppose to come hasn’t yet. Now they are threatening us for this evening. We aren’t holding our breath.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Wednesday’s Child is Full of Woe?

I was born on a Wednesday and this is just not true about me.  One evening this week we were talking about what day of the week we were born on and the old rhyme…

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

 

Well come to find out Dear was born on a Wednesday, too. All three of our children were born on Friday. Our daughter in law was born on a Sunday. Our future SIL was born on a Wednesday. So what day of the week were you born on?

We are getting some dry days with sun peeking out here and there. We hope to take advantage of the dryness to get some outside work done. On Tuesday I pruned the pear tree. We’re hoping to prune the apple tree and get the flag pole installed before the weekend is over. I have 3 different flags for my flag pole. I hope to be able to show them to you soon.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

Heading out Early…

 

Good Saturday morning to you. After our early morning coffee Dear and I are hitting the road and will find a breakfast adventure on our way to Whidbey Island today.  We prefer drinking our coffee at home. I’ll be missing in action till Monday but hope to have photos to share next week if the rain holds off here and there. They are warning us about possible flooding on some major rivers here in Western Washington. Time will tell. Enjoy your weekend.