I’m headed East over the mountains on an overnight with this cute guy. Don’t tell my husband! Oh wait…that is my husband.
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.
…I’m not but my junior high and high school buddy was leaving today out of Seattle. She and her husband and 4 friends traveled from L.A. to board their Cruise ship at Pier 91 in Elliott Bay. I picked them up when they arrived at the cruise ship and we all went to lunch before they boarded the ship for their 7 day cruise. Another beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest!
If you look closely you can see the Space Needle behind us in the distance!
It was fun to meet Nancy’s husband for the first time and her friends that have been by her side for many years.
We’re deciding where to go to church tomorrow. We still haven’t found a church home yet. Now I’m going to go put my feet up and watch the Sounders play the Red Bulls. Hope you are enjoying your Saturday wherever you are…
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.
My mother went all out for us again. Katie and I were in the greater L.A. area on Saturday and Sunday and told my mom we’d pop in for breakfast. We weren’t surprised to be greeted with a morning feast. I’ve said before that my Mother’s Love Language is preparing food for people. I missed photographing the cantaloupe and strawberry plate that looked like a flower. She made Vareniki stuffed with potato this time and served them with asparagus with zest of orange and topped with grapefruit. My sister Vera and nephew Tim and his wife Jessica joined us. It was nice to enjoy a smaller group for a change.
Katie, Jessica and Tim
Katie with my mom and dad
From brunch Katie and I traveled north to the La Canada/Flintridge area of Los Angeles to meet up with other family members at Descanso Gardens. I’ll be sharing those photos soon. We packed so much into two days my head is still spinning.
…I’m glad I had a place of retreat away from the Box Chaos…
And of course besides a nice retreat, good food with good company is comforting…
The condo was all emptied out by noon. Willow arrived with a hairdryer so I could speed dry the toothpaste I used to fill some holes. We went to the Panini Place in Camarillo for lunch then said our goodbyes. sniff sniff…
I headed to the Home Depot to pick up some super duper glue (clear) to fix some flooring issues and got a throw away paint brush to dab a little touch up here and there. I swept and cleaned up all I could without a vacuum. Before I left I lifted my hands in a prayer of gratitude to my great God who blessed me and Dear so richly during our stay in Camarillo. I didn’t lower those hands without asking that God would bring us a buyer for our condo soon.
I’m now in Fullerton at another hotel waiting till 9:30 to drive to LAX to pick up Katie. Tomorrow at 9:30 we’re headed to my mom and pop’s for breakfast… Vareniki…yum. My Mennonite friends will know what those are! :0) After breakfast we’re meeting up with more family members to take a little trip to Descanso Gardens. The rest of the day we will play by ear.
Hope you all are having a great weekend wherever you are.
Today I supervise the movers loading the moving van. I’ll be meeting up with Willow for lunch and then I’m off to Orange County to spend the rest of the weekend with my family. I’ll be picking up my daughter Katie tonight from the airport so she can join in the family fun. We’ll have breakfast with my mom and dad on Saturday and then head to Descanso Gardens with some of my extended family. Fun times. We fly home Sunday night.
Have a great weekend everyone!
…from Seatac to LAX!
There was a pretty solid cloud cover from Seattle to Los Angeles on my flight this morning. I arrived safe and sound to Camarillo. The condo is in good shape and I’ve checked into my hotel. I’ll return to the condo later to clean out the refrigerator. The packers arrive tomorrow morning.
Willow and I are meeting at All Things Tea at 3:30. It will be good to catch up over a pot of Earl Grey!
Before I left home I put up this bird feeder on my apple tree so I could see it from my kitchen window. This is my first ever bird feeder. I was so pleased that I received some cute little visitors already!
I had to zoom pretty far to capture them so the clarity isn’t that great.
~Considering what to pack for my 5 day trip to Southern California. The primary reason for the trip is to supervise the packers and movers at the Condo. All of our stuff will finally move north to Washington. Where we will put all that stuff is yet to be determined!
~Wondering if the packers will be cursing me under their breath when they see all those dishes!
~Looking forward to seeing my SoCal walking buddy Willow. We won’t be doing any walking but I’m sure we’ll fit in a cup of tea together so we can catch up on what’s been happening in our lives.
~Wondering what my daughter and I will be doing with our extended family after she arrives for the weekend down South.
~Wondering when the condo might be sold. Sooner then later I hope…
~Continually thankful for being back in my house in Washington. Last night I could hear the frogs croaking. When I look out windows I see huge trees. Windows! I have way more then 3 windows here and I like the view out of every one of them.
~Talked to my middle son yesterday and was thanking God again for His mercy and grace and protection on Dan’s life.
~Making sure I don’t forget I have jury duty bright and early the morning after I get back from California.
~Wondering if I’ll be posting anything the rest of the week. Knowing me…I’ll probably find something to post.
~Hoping the stuff from California doesn’t arrive during my Jury Duty obligation.
~Are you bored yet?
~Hoping I won’t feel too all alone or bored back in Camarillo by myself…
Have a wonderful week everyone and if you don’t see me on your blogs you’ll know why.
…to laugh and talk with these girls!
6 of the 10 contributors on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog.
Julie, Bev K. , Betty R., and Charlotte were unable to join us.
It was my first face to face with all these ladies. You know these girls are even thinner in person. I forgot to ask them their secret on how they stay so slim while cooking all that great food!! And for the record…Kathy, I think you are great!! I feel so blessed to have been adopted into the fold even though I’m not Mennonite. Many of our Russian recipes are similar to the Mennonite favorites.
Before eating we got a little shopping in. After lunch we parted ways. I headed South and they headed North with a stop at the Tulip Fields.
I brought home a food gift and the prize I won on Judy’s blog giveaway a while back.
My own Vancouver Olympic Mittens and a Canada Pin! Thank you MGCC for a wonderful day and thank you Judy for my prize. I love the mittens and the pin.
Before I met up with the girls I had a quick stop at the tulip fields and I’ll show more of those photos later. Blessings!
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.
Today I’m heading North to La Conner and I’m meeting up with 5 of the Mennonite Girls from Mennonite Girls Can Cook! We’re going to have lunch together at Seeds. I am so looking forward to meeting these blogging friends in person. My camera is all packed and ready to go!
I planted some seeds of friendship
All nice and neatly in a row
I tended to them with love and care
Then watched them sprout and grow
I’ll be sharing more about our meeting later in the week. Happy Tuesday to you 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.
The Wild Iris Inn in La Conner, Washington for a great getaway.
Dear and I had an overnight there for my birthday last weekend.
First we had lunch at Seeds-A Bistro & Bar. They have a great menu. After lunch and a little walk about town I checked in for my 90 minute massage at Salon Rouge while Dear checked into our Bed and Breakfast Inn. Later we would have dinner at the restaurant in the bottom right photo.
Before dinner we strolled through the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum which is housed in the National Historical Victorian Gaches Mansion. It’s the white house on the left…
All of the food we ate was wonderful. Top left is my lunch at Seeds, Borsch and a 1/2 meatloaf sandwich. That amazing appetizer of fried polenta smothered in a fabulous sauce and the lamb shank was my meal at Nell Thorn Pub and Restaurant. It was an exceptional place to eat with a great staff and ambiance. Our two course breakfast at the Wild Iris was very tasty and filling. Good thing it was a lovely weekend to walk around town and burn a few of the calories we ate.
Some of the shops about town. In 1869 John S. Conner purchased the trading post on the Swinomish Channel and named the area in honor of his wife Louisa Ann Conner and that’s how La Conner got its name.
The waterfront and the Rainbow Bridge crossing the Swinomish Channel. The Swinomish Indians are La Conner’s First Nation.
It was fun to come upon the wild turkeys that made La Conner their home in 2005 and that the city has declared the official town mascot.
Some sites just outside of the city center. The acres of fertile farmland around La Conner were first planted mostly with oats. The Tulip industry emerged in the Skagit Valley in the 1920’s when there were restrictions on importing Dutch Tulip bulbs. After WWII, Dutch immigrants began farming tulip bulbs. Since 1982, the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is held the month of April and has been attracting visitors from around the world to view between 400 and 500 acres of tulips in bloom. I’m going to try to get back up to this area when the tulips bloom…
On the way home on my birthday we also saw the Snow Geese which I posted about earlier in the week. La Conner was a delightful overnight getaway for Dear and ellen b.
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.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 