Old and New History Hodgepodge

This photo was taken in Persia in the late 1940’s, after our mom and pop immigrated to the USA. My maternal grandparents are seated on the right lower side of the photo. Our cousin Alex is standing between them.

The photo above is of the paternal side of our family from the 1950’s. In the middle is our Babushka and Dzedushka. Our cousin Johnny is on our Babushka’s lap. I’m seated below our Dzedushka , just to the right.

Our Paternal and Maternal sides of the family are Russian.

It’s Wednesday and time for Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce!

1. Next Sunday is Grandparent’s Day. Share a favorite memory, photo, recipe, or something you learned from a grandparent. 

Our maternal grandmother was widowed young while she and our grandfather were living in Persia so our maternal grandfather never made it to the USA. He died shortly after our mom and pop immigrated and that was very hard for our mom being so far away and getting the news that her father was killed. Our little Babushka lost her left hand and arm up to her elbow when she was a child. She only had one hand but her embroidering skills were amazing. She was very patient in trying to teach me that skill but it wasn’t something I could excel at. She was a praying grandmother and she prayed for all her grandchildren. One thing she would tell us young people, “Don’t got out when it’s dark, nothing good happens in the dark.”

The collage shows one of her wedding gifts to Greg and me. It is an embroidered table cloth and 8 napkins. I cherish this gift from her hand.

I had a closer relationship with my maternal grandmother.

2. What’s a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you? 

‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to’ – Bilbo

by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is spoken by Bilbo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring. 

Truth be told, the quote I use more often is, “It comes in Pints?” (from the film)

3. What’s your number one food pet peeve? 

I’m not a fan of someone chewing with their mouth open.

4. What’s one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young? 

I’m still in the habit of smiling not to mention my hairdo!

5. September is National Preparedness Month…does your family have an emergency plan? Do you have some sort of preparedness kit you keep on hand? If so, tell us one thing that’s kept there. 

Our sons are prepared but we aren’t. My emergency plan is to get to one of our son’s homes in case of a major emergency. We do have our important papers, etc. in a quick grab container.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

On Sunday our own Seattle Sounders made history by winning the Leagues Cup Final against Inter-Miami. Josh and Laura were there to be part of the history.

We live too far from Lumen Field to participate in these games anymore so I love to live vicariously through Josh and Laura and their love of the game of soccer!

The Seattle Sounders’ quest to their first-ever Leagues Cup trophy is complete.

With Sunday night’s 3-0 win over Inter Miami, the Sounders were crowned champions of the tournament, becoming the only team in MLS to capture every major North American soccer trophy to date.

The game was not televised on any English speaking channel that we get on Dish so I had to watch it on a Mexican station. I was happy to be able to see it in real time and thankful for the Mexican station! I just set the volume low. 🙂

Lumen Field delivered an electric atmosphere, with a record crowd of 69,314  – surpassing the old mark of 69,274. And, in a rare sight, most of that support was for the home side rather than the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner. Seattle fed off it from the start.

The Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by French magazine France Football since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season.

Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or a record eight times and he was playing on the Miami team.

Tea ~Daughter Tea Queen Mary

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This post is from December 27, 2015.

Our youngest turned thirty today. We started celebrating yesterday.

We, our daughters and me went to the Queen Mary Tea Room to celebrate birthdays on Boxing day.

Jamie was married into our family in June of 2015.

Laura and Katie have birthdays in December and Jamie, Dan, and Josh have birthdays in January.

“Such items, if properly prepared and portered, jingle and tinkle, twinkle and shine, as if to announce their approach, and all the cups and saucers, the silver spoons and the sugar bowl, the steaming hot water and the shining strainer, the teapot and the plate of delicate sandwiches – all seem to combine and say as one, “Let your worries cease for now; the world is aright again!” And in the welcome pouring of the tea and the delightful crunch of the cucumber and cress sandwiches, not to mention the promise of the coming cakes and the possible surprise of strawberries and cream to follow, all else is held at bay: the past is forgotten, the future does not exist, and all is peace. ”

Toad Triumphant ~ by William Horwood

It was Jamie’s first time to enjoy a formal tea. Pinkies up!

This is the last in my series of Tea Time 2025 where I’ve gone back and reposted all the fun tea experiences from the past. If by chance or by will we end up in another tea room this year I’ll share the experience but until then I say toodle pip to our Tea Times.

The Great Exchange #4

We are calling the long weekend of July 17th-20th, The Great Exchange. Dan flew west and Laura flew East, exchanging planes.

After the celebration at Yep Kanum Park in Colville we gathered at our country bungalow for some water fun and for dinner.

After cooling off in the water, we enjoyed an Asian noodle dish with chicken that was easy to throw together and a salad. We had a blueberry lemon loaf for dessert with a dollop of ice cream.

Sunday morning we gathered at church filling a row and then came back to our place for Greg’s famous Swedish Pancakes with little smokies and fresh fruit.

Addy and JJ have moved on to enjoying Legos.

There was some epic tug of war battles under the dining room table! They left our bungalow with more events planned before Auntie left for the airport.

Time with Auntie was coming to a close.

Meanwhile on the other side of the mountains.

Saturday morning started early with a game of golf for our boys and Jamie D. These three have been friends since elementary school.

The brothers weekend was a relaxing hit!

We are so thankful to the LORD for our two beautiful daughters in law.

It was time to say goodbye. Auntie LOLO drove Dan and Jamie’s truck to the airport, parking it for Dan to pick up when he arrived on his flight. He had driven LOLO’s car to Seatac for her to be able to drive it home when she arrived. That was the plan anyway but there was a huge glitch to this great plan.

Both of their flights were part of the huge Alaska Airlines Snafu on Sunday night. All flights were grounded with no hope of them traveling this night. LOLO found a hotel next to the airport to spend the night in and Dan drove back to Josh and Laura’s for the night. They decided the best thing for the two of them to do on Monday morning was for each of them to drive and meet up halfway, exchange cars and continue to their homes. That worked great and they were both back at their own homes in the early afternoon.

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and find a new plan. Thankful it worked out in a good way for both of them to get home safely. Thank you, LORD!

Today, a week later we are heading to the airport to pick up my brother and his son for a 4 day visit here. We have some events planned and are looking forward to extended time together. I will be scarce on the internet for several days. Enjoy the last days of July, everyone!

Great Exchange Weekend Recap #1

Our family had a full fun weekend on both sides of the mountains. I’ll call it the ‘Great Exchange Weekend of July 2025’. Our Son flew West and our Daughter-in-law flew East passing each other at the Spokane airport.

Auntie LoLo arrived to spend the weekend on our side of the mountains and our son Dan took off to spend the weekend with his brother on the west side.

Jamie and the kids waited for Auntie after dropping Dan off for his flight to SeaTac. The kids were so thrilled to have Auntie here for the weekend.

Our westside kids got together after Dan arrived for a meal together. Although it was a ‘brother’ weekend, Katie got to see her brothers. too.

Here in Colville there was hours filled enjoying Auntie Lolo. First up, time spent in the garden unveiling all the incredible produce.

Some of the crop goes right into the mouth.

Checking how tall the vines have grown. “How does your garden grow?”

Speaking of growth our Grands are growing into more independence in their leisure time. They still like to have the company of the adults they love but they can play on their own knowing the adults are close by.

There were many more ‘events’ over the weekend that I’ll need to save for another day.

I’m ever so thankful to Auntie Lolo for all the photos she shares!

Adding the latest from the Hope Fire:

7/21/2025 Hope Fire Quick Facts
🔥 Size: 7,891 Acres
👷‍♂️ Personnel: 1,027
✅ Containment: 45%

Happy Monday to you all.

Tea ~ Queen Mary Katie’s Birthday

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This post was from a day long celebration of our daughter’s birthday in 2013. Her birthday is December 27th but the post didn’t go live until December 28th.

Our first stop for our Celebrating Katie day was at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle which is located close to the University of Washington.

Katie's Day 007The waiter popped by our table and asked if we were celebrating anything special and we said, “Why yes, today is Katie’s birthday”. He asked if she’d like to wear a crown…

Katie's Day 008We said yes!

A long time friend of ours lives in the neighborhood and was able to join us for breakfast.

Katie's Day 009Queen Katie and Bridget

Bridget’s sister Jamie was Katie’s Maid of Honor. Jamie has been gone for over a year now on a trip around the world. We talked about Jamie and wondered if she’d be back home by next Christmas. Bridget is going to meet Jamie in New Zealand for several days in February before Jamie heads to South America.

Katie's Day 012Back to the Queen Mary…

Katie's Day 016The traditional tea sipping shot!

Katie's Day 017We said farewell to Santa and our breakfast buddy and headed to Destination #2. I’ll share that next week.

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Hello Summer Views and News

We’ve had a mix of blue skies and rain showers for the beginning of summer. It has been a banner year for our clematis varieties.

The yellow day lilies are always the first of the lilies to bloom.

Addy and JJ had fun at Golf Camp. We visited the camp on Wednesday held at the Chewelah Golf and Country Club.

On Thursday they were able to play nine holes of golf.

On the other side of the mountains, the Seattle Sounders had tournament games with international teams and Josh and Laura were able to attend.

Our kids had uninvited visitors on their mountain. The farmer/rancher was called to lead this girl back home…but she must have told her friends that the grass was greener here because later in the day this crew arrived. There are fencing repairs needed by the owner of these cows.

We finally decided to give this Mexican restaurant a try since the ownership and management changed. We gave it a thumbs up. For our small town with limited restaurants it’s interesting that we have three Mexican Restaurants.

We are still enjoying the many shades of green with pops of color on our property.

We had some rain on Saturday and on Sunday in the late afternoon we had thunderstorms and a real good soak.

This Monday morning would be a great time to do some weeding since the soil is very wet and softer than usual.

Quote of the week:

“Never start with your problems. Never! Never start with earth; never start with men. Always start in heaven; always start with God.”
(Martin Lloyd-Jones, Seeking the Face of God: Nine Reflections on the Psalms)
Psalm 71:1 In you, O LORD, do I take refuge…

Pend Oreille County Part 2

We were so surprised at the lack of vehicles and people on our little road trip to our neighboring county. We took this drive on Thursday June 12th, 2025. After our breakfast and shopping in Metaline Falls we continued North on Highway 31.

It didn’t take us long to get to our next stop. We took a left turn off of Highway 31 onto National Development Road 3165, also called East Side Road. Crescent Lake was a good marker for the road and guaranteed you couldn’t miss it.

It was a short drive to the parking area for Boundary Dam Vista House. Again we were pleasantly surprised with the nice restroom facilities and parking and well maintained trail to an overlook.

There was an indoor viewing house with windows all around and some great information posted. We were surprised to learn that Seattle City Light owns and operates the dam that is 390 miles from the city of Seattle. What surprised us even more is the fact that the electrical current leaves Boundary Powerhouse crosses Washington State and reaches Seattle IN LESS THAN A SECOND!

We took some photos of the dam from the Vista House before we walked the 750 steps to an outdoor overlook.

Looking north towards Canada.

This was another sign inside the Vista House. I’m glad we planned and left the house instead of just wishing on this day. One more display caught our eye. It was hard to photo with the glare but I took it anyway.

Great information and nice historical tribute.

Looking south…

We exited the Vista House that we had all to ourselves and started our 750 foot walk to the outdoor overlook.

Looking South on the Pend Oreille River.

Looking North to Canada.

Back up the 750 Feet to the parking lot. We enjoyed a few wildflowers.

We were inspired to take this trip because of the next photos our son sent when he had to work out in this area for several hours. His photos were taken in May with different cloud cover.

I’m saving our next stop for another post.

Thanks for coming along.

Tea ~ Queen Mary

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This post was originally from April 28th 2011.

Since Friday is the big day, my Friday’s Fave Five are all about the Royal Wedding! I know some people are yawning or even mocking the event but I choose to embrace it with hopes and prayers that things will go differently for this young couple and that their marriage will last as long as Queen Elizabeth’s reign. She’s been around a long time people!

On Wednesday after booking Katie and Andrew’s wedding venue we decided to have tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room to get in the mood for the upcoming wedding of William and Kate. The Tea Room is getting ready for the big event and is hosting a viewing party from 1:00 A.M. till 4:00 A.M. They have a special Royal Romance Tea for the occasion and a signature bubbly.

Katie wore her Princess Di ring. Well it’s not really a Princess Di ring but it is very similar and it’s fun to see Princess Di’s ring on Kate Middleton’s finger. Our Katie got her ring several years ago passed down from her Aunt Lana.

We enjoyed Cornish Pasties with salad and a very lovely carrot ginger soup with coconut.

Of course there were souvenirs that you could purchase commemorating the Royal event

I was tempted to get this mug to commemorate my Royal event this year!

I hope your week was a calm one instead of one filled with panic!

Are you going to watch Prince William and Kate’s wedding? We just gathered up a few of our British souvenirs and set them out for the wedding day. We even included the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Beanie Baby is the Princess Di Bear called Princess.

Back to the Present:

This post is a fun memory of many things, the Royal wedding, Katie and Andrew’s wedding and our time living in the Seattle area. Today is Friday May 30, 2025. It’s been mostly quiet this week. On Tuesday of this week my heels were injected with cortisone so we’ll see what relief I receive from that treatment against my Plantar Fasciitis.

In case you are wondering: Plantar Fasciitis is an inflammatory condition involving the plantar fascia, a thick band of connective tissue found on the bottom of the foot. This thick band of tissue extends from the heel to the ball of the foot and aides in support and stabilization of the foot (especially the arch) during walking and running.

Have a great weekend!

Tea ~Queen Mary Seattle

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This post is from May of 2008 when my sister Lana, our daughter Katie, daughter-in-love Laura, and I spent a day in Seattle enjoying tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room and time at the Japanese Gardens. The original posts are from June 2, 3, 5 and 10, 2008.

This last weekend my husband and I took a quick trip to our home in Washington. On Sunday my sister Lana (Above the Clouds) and my daughters had reservations for Tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle, Washington. So of course my T is for Tea!

 

The table settings were beautiful with a different tea cup and saucer for each of us to enjoy.

Our Tea food was delicious and plentiful. We started with 3 flavors of sorbet with a butterfly lavender shortbread cookie, Scones, Crumpets, Quiche, Sandwiches, lemon bread, and a variety of sweets. Of course we had clotted cream and jams to go with.

Laura my DIL, Katie my daughter, and my sister Lana G!

All the lovely Tea accessories and amazing assortment of Teas. Each of us had our own pot of tea. I had Lavender Earl Grey, Lana had Jack Fruit (a staff favorite), Katie had a Mango blend, and Laura had a Chai blend.

On the way home from our tea party we stopped at the Seattle Arboretum and visited the Japanese Gardens so we could see this Japanese Tea house where Katie is studying the Art of Japanese Tea for one of her University classes.

The 4 of us were really in awe of God’s glorious creation and how He has given man the eye to plant and plan the beautiful landscape in this garden.

This is the tea house on the grounds of the Japanese Gardens where Katie attends class every Thursday to learn the Art of Japanese Tea.

“I finally received my yukata! Here are some pictures of me wearing it down at the arboretum. Don’t judge my obi tying too harshly, this was the first week that I dressed myself without help from my friend Mika or my teacher.”

It’s Spring so the Rhododendrons and Wisteria were in their glory.

I can almost guarantee that my sister Lana paid for our Tea Time even if the original post didn’t record that.

I’m happy to report that the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle is still open for business!

Later I’ll include some posts about Katie’s Japanese Tea class and the Art of Chado.

S is for…

For April I’m challenging myself to an A-Z photo a day excluding Sundays and in addition to any regular posts that come to be.

Today is Tuesday, April 22nd, and we are on the letter S.

S is for Soccer and for Seattle Sounders Soccer Team

A couple of Joshua’s teams.

A couple of Dan’s teams.

Katie’s team.

There were a couple years in Junior High and High School that the boys played on the school team together. That was a fun treat.

It’s no secret that I have been a soccer fan since our kids started playing in their early years and continued into high school.

World Cup 1994 was in the United States and that solidified our national and international love of the sport. World Cup is coming back to the United States, Mexico and Canada in 2026.

After their soccer glory days were over we became fans of the Seattle Sounders and our son has had season tickets from the beginning, since 2009.

img028In 1994 our boys were 15 and 13. We flew to Southern California to catch all the World Cup excitement we could. We found the U.S.A. training facility in Southern California and were able to see some of the team practice and get an autograph.

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After finding the training ground we also found the hotel where they were staying and managed to meet up with most of the players who were very approachable and happy to sign the team poster.

Dan and I were able to attend a game between Brazil and Cameroon at Stanford Stadium.

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Josh had tickets for games at the Rose Bowl.

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Participating in this historical event was thrilling for our family.

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After World Cup the boys still had years of soccer left to play before their Soccer glory days were over.

Since 2009 we’ve enjoyed professional soccer in person in the United States, Canada, in England and Scotland and Italy. Whenever we travel to the United Kingdom with Josh and Laura, a futbol match is in the itinerary.

Josh and Laura have been able to attend a few Major League Soccer Championship games along with regular games in several states. I was able to attend two of the championship games that ended up being in Seattle, 2009 and 2019. In 2009 Seattle hosted but didn’t play. We’ve all been to Seattle Sounders games but Josh and Laura have enjoyed the most games in person.

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Josh and Laura trying not to freeze in Toronto in 2016! We won the championship!

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Then in 2019 the kids got me a ticket to enjoy the MLS Cup Champions game and Seattle won again! It’s amazing to win a championship on your home field!

And now I get to watch our ‘Grands’ play soccer.

Great Uncle Arnold wrote this poem in a letter to Greg’s mom about our boys playing soccer. 

Playing Soccer in the Rain

It’s raining steadily and hard,
So puddles, growing in the yard
Spill over, and run down the street
Past where this street and others meet.

The boys play soccer in the rain
They run and strive with might and main
To kick the ball into the net
In spite of getting soaking wet.

The teams they play on won 1st prize
It’s good that they could realize
Success for all the joy and pain
Of playing soccer in the rain.

The letter S was covered satisfactorily here today.

Hope your week is starting well.