The Rest of the Tour

After we left the University, Laura and I took Flat Stanley to see The Fremont Troll, some floating houses, views of the Space Needle and a statue of Chief Seattle.

Here’s a link if you want more information on the Troll. The sad thing about this fun Seattle sight is that drug addicts have chosen to use this sight to shoot up and discard their needles here. When we were there a concerned citizen had already picked up over 30 discarded needles. He was warning people with children to watch out.

Some of the floating houses on Lake Union in Seattle.

Views of downtown Seattle from Queen Anne’s Kerry Park.

This statue of Chief Seattle is in the Belltown area of Seattle between 5th Avenue and Cedar Street in the shadow of the Space Needle. I’ll add a link for anyone who wants to read more about the man Seattle was named after here. I found this quote about him interesting:

“What we know of Sealth (pronounced SEE-elth, with a guttural stop at the end) and his life is mostly conjecture based upon myth with a little bit of extrapolated fact. That he was a tyee, or chief, has never been disputed. His father, Schweabe, had been a tyee, and the title was hereditary, though it conferred no power upon the holder. The Suquamish listened to the tyee only when he said what the people wanted to hear. The remainder of the time, a tyee was expected to share his largess with the rest of the tribe during a potlatch.”

Seattle, Chief of the Suquamish, A Friend of The Whites. For Him the City of Seattle was named by it’s Founders.

This week I’m adding three quotes from my readings that I want to remember.

“Loving, not being loved, is essential.” John Piper

A line from a hymn by John Newton, 1779, that Alistair Begg shared on an interview about Prayer:

“Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring”

I’ll be sharing the full hymn on a Sunday in the future.

This last quote and the longest is from The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur, page 46.

“The call to Calvary must be recognized for what it is: a call to discipleship under the lordship of Jesus Christ. To respond to that call is to become a believer. Anything less is unbelief.

The gospel according to Jesus explicitly and unequivocally rules out easy-believism. To make all of our Lord’s difficult demands apply only to a higher class of Christians blunts the force of His entire message. It makes room for a cheap and meaningless faith – faith that may be exercised with absolutely no impact on the fleshly life of sin. That is not saving faith.”

Have a Thursday filled with good thoughts!

Before She Hides…

When our daughter-in-law and I arrived at the University of Washington a couple of weeks ago to see the cherry blossoms we first looked towards the Drumheller Fountain and the Rainier Vista beyond it. We were very excited to see that Mount Rainier was not shrouded in clouds as is the case on many days.

I’m glad we stopped to take photos before we continued to the Quad to see the blossoms.

When we were done with the blossoms and headed back to the parking garage, Rainier was hiding but all the students were out in full force! I took a couple more photos on the way to the parking garage.

It was a photo fun day at the University of Washington.

It’s time for me to admit that the days are getting away from me in this Easter season and with the short amount of days until our wee grandson makes his appearance. We’ve had a few more babysitting times so Mommy can get all her doctor visits in and mommy and daddy need to go out for a special date before they have a toddler and a newborn. Our Coast kids are arriving soon to be here for BBB’s delivery. And then there’s Spring cleaning, especially on our property. So if you don’t see much from me or you don’t see comments on your blogs from me you will know why. The times they are a changing and it seems changes are something we can depend on more and more at this stage of life.

Some things don’t change and the one thing I depend on a lot and one of my favorite verses in the Bible is this one:

Hebrews 13:8 (ESV) ~Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

And then speaking of changes…

Daniel 2:20-22 English Standard Version (ESV)

20 Daniel answered and said:

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
    to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons;
    he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
    and knowledge to those who have understanding;
22 he reveals deep and hidden things;
    he knows what is in the darkness,
    and the light dwells with him.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~11053 Arroyo Drive

Our family moved to La Mirada from Montebello in 1971. We had 5 weddings while we lived here. Our sister Vera was already married. Our brother Fred got married in 1972. Kathy and I got married in 1974. Tim got married in 1978. Steve got married in 1981. Our parents owned this home until 1983. Moisi and Nadia became Babushka and Dzedushka in this home with 10 grandchildren being born between 1974 and 1981. More grandchildren were added while they lived in Wildomar and Yorba Linda, their next two moves after La Mirada.

My parents were able to add some new furniture to their home.

We had one of our first big celebrations in our new home in May of 1971 for our sister Kathy’s birthday.

This was the first car I purchased on a payment plan. It was so nice to finally have a car that ran well.

Our little maternal babushka lived with us for a short time before she passed away in 1980.

Our first Christmas in our new home with our mom’s side of the family. Aunt Nina and my mom preparing food in the kitchen.

Two of our four cousins on mom’s side of the family with our little grandmother and our Pop and Uncle Paul at the head of the table.

Our little babushka, mom and me at a Southern California beach in 1972.

The first six grandchildren in the backyard in La Mirada with Moisi and our sister Kathy. This was 1979.

Judging from the ages of these cousins, this probably was the last Christmas on Arroyo Drive in 1982.

More photos will be added to this post when I can scan them onto my latest computer.

 

University of Washington Gargoyles

The University of Washington in Seattle was established in 1861. The gargoyles I zoomed in on are located on buildings in the Liberal Arts Quadrangle, commonly known as the Quad. The Quad is also where multitudes come to see the cherry blossoms in Spring. Our DIL Laura and I were in the Quad last Monday and I took some new photos of some of the gargoyles. If you want to see the Cherry Blossoms click here.

Gargoyles are figures often carved into the architecture of old churches, usually in the form of a grotesque animal or human. Many times gargoyles in Gothic churches were attached to the gutter system of the roof, with the mouth of the gargoyle acting as a spout for rainwater, helping keep the masonry from being destroyed.

I have a another post about the gargoyles on the buildings in the Quad here.

I’m linking up with Angie for Mosaic Monday.

We are enjoying any sunshine that peeks through the clouds these fickle Spring days. We worked on our front planters until we both needed a few good doses of Ibuprofen. They are mostly cleared and now staked out for new borders and shape before we replant anything in them. We have many projects to complete at our Country Bungalow. We’ll have to pace ourselves and spread things out in the next 5 years!

Before the Throne of God Above ~ Hymn

Sisters wknd 016

Before the Throne of God Above

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Behold Him there the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I am
The King of glory and of grace
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God!
With Christ my Savior and my God!

One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God!
With Christ my Savior and my God!’

Words: Charitie Lees Smith (1841–1923)

Cherry Blossoms

Laura and I had such a great day out and about catching some of the spectacular sights in the Seattle area. Our stop at the University of Washington was a highlight of the day. In later posts I’ll share some other views on the campus and many of the gargoyles the old brick buildings have.

This is a magnolia that I always like to get a photo of when we visit the quad this time of year.

The crowds we experienced on Monday were nothing comparted to the crowds that gathered on the weekend. A sea of humanity!

I’m slowly adjusting back to being at home and I’m slowly getting around to blogs and catching up with emails. Hope April has started off well for all of you.

Who is Flat Stanley?

And what is the Flat Stanley Project? Many of you are unaware of who Flat Stanley is and why he visits different parts of the world. Click on this link to get more information Flat Stanley. Some elementary school teachers have their students color and cut out a flat figure of Stanley. They then choose victims willing participants to send him to and ask for the willing participants to take Stanley around with them and document interesting sights in their locale. When it’s time to send him back you include information, history, photos of where Stanley has been. Laura and I had a lot of fun with Flat Stanley. He will have a few more adventures with Josh and Laura before he gets sent back to Skylar, our Grandniece in New York.

We took Flat Stanley to see the beautiful blooming cherry blossoms on these great trees in the Quad at the University of Washington.

Many more photos from the Cherry Blossoms at the University of Washington’s Quad will be in my next post.

We are home again and getting ready to attack our Spring clean up on our acreage. All the snow has melted off our property revealing all the work that needs to be done. I hope to catch up on visits to your blogs in the next several days.

Flat Stanley in Washington

We’ve been busy on the coast with some fun trips around the area showing Flat Stanley the sights so he can report back to our grandniece, Skylar, who lives in New York.

We were surprised with this bit of history in Bothell and happy that part of the Red Brick Road has been preserved.

Flat Stanley is on a flat tractor just off the red brick road. After we read this history we walked to one of the bridges over the Sammamish Slough in Bothell. The Sammamish River (Slough) connects Lake Washington in Kenmore to Lake Sammammish in Redmond. We wanted to show Flat Stanley the part of this river that Skylar kayaked on a couple years ago.

We walked to where the Sammamish Trail and the Burke Gilman Trail meet.

We continued on to the University of Washington after this stop to see the Cherry Blossoms and beyond for other iconic sights of Seattle. I’ll share my photos from the other stops after we get home to Colville.

I’m way behind in visiting but will catch up when I’m in our Country Bungalow.

Tuesdays With Moisi

For Father’s day in 1987 we gathered at a park in Southern California for food and a baseball game. We ordered t-shirts for everyone, red for all the kids, blue for all the adults. The baseball game was kids vs. adults. It was a fun gathering. I’m guessing the kids won the baseball game. Our Katie was the youngest of Moisi and Nadia’s grandchildren at this time. Moisi is next to her in this photo. We included Dear’s family for this gathering so Jenna and Annie are in the line-up along with all of Moisi’s grandchildren to date. We lined the kids up according to age.

(Jenna), Danielle, Debbee, John, David, Michelle, Joshua, (Annie), Michael, Daniel, Melissa, Stephen, Timothy, Katie and our Patriarch, Moisi. More grandchildren were born after this gathering. Timothy has 3 more brothers, Levi, Caleb and Joseph. After our brother Tim’s first wife passed away he married Letty who has two sons, Derek and Anthony. Our brother Leonard was married in 2004 (?) and has two children, Hope and Andrew. Nineteen grandchildren in all. I won’t mention the great grandchildren here.

July of 1988

April of 2013 ~children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Several family members are missing in this photo.

September of 2013 at Nadia’s, our mom’s,  funeral~grandchildren and spouses and 3 great-grandchildren.

January 2017~Grandchildren and spouses and two great-grandchildren.

July 2018 at Moisi’s funeral. Grandchildren with spouses and five great-grandchildren. As usual several are missing.

 

On the “Coast”

We are having a productive and relational time on the “Coast”, with our Coast kids. In our new part of the state, the home town folk call anything on the west side of the Cascades, the Coast. We are embracing that since it’s easier to say we are going to the Coast instead of going to the West side of the Cascades!

Our Coast kids planned a belated birthday celebration for me at Earls in Bellevue and they asked my sister and her husband to join us. It was a wonderful time together with perfect weather.

We walked to a park before we all headed home for a group selfie. Who’s missing in this photo? Dear is missing, but why?

On Friday we stopped by a great local pharmacy so Dear could get updated on his TDAP vaccine. In order for any of us to be welcome around our new grandson we have to be up to date on this vaccine. There have been Whooping Cough outbreaks in Washington state and our newborn’s doctor insists that anyone who will be around him needs to be vaccinated. The shot was painless but the side effects for Dear have not been painless. He was fine on Friday night but Saturday was a brutal day of side effects for him. We had to leave him home alone, so sad, while the rest of us enjoyed our meal out. He is doing better this Sunday afternoon but wasn’t able to attend church with all of us Sunday morning. It was my first time at our Coast Kids church and I’m so thankful to God for leading them to this great church where the Bible is the source of preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While on the Coast, we have been shopping for special items needed for our eastside kids. Laura found a used Bob double stroller on Offer Up that Dear and I were happy to buy for Addy and BBB. What a monster it is. It will work great on country trails and uneven surfaces. It came with an added accessory that an infant car seat will click into. The Coast affords many more options and availability to find used good equipment. We’ve also shopped for new items for Katie and Andrew’s home. More relational times are planned before we head home on Wednesday.

Hope y’all don’t get fooled tomorrow! Watch out and stay clear of all the fools out there!