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!

Sunday Quote ~ Contentment

I copied this from my email inbox from Grace Gems and am sharing it in place of my Sunday Hymn this week.

A diligent pupil in the College of Contentment

(Charles Spurgeon)

“I have learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.” Philippians 4:11

These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. Grumbling, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man–as weeds are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and weeds; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth. Just so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education.

“Ill weeds grow quickly.” But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener’s care.

Now, contentment is one of the flowers of Heaven, and if we would have it–then it must be cultivated, as it will not grow in us by nature. It is the new nature alone which can produce contentment–and even then we must be especially careful and watchful, that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in us.

Paul says, “I have learned… to be content;” as much as to say, that he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the mastery of that great truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, “I have learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content,” he was an old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave–a poor prisoner shut up in Nero’s dungeon at Rome.

We might well be willing to endure Paul’s infirmities, and share the cold dungeon with him–if we too might by any means attain unto his high degree of contentment. Do not indulge the notion that you can learn contentment without discipline. It is not an ability that may be exercised naturally–but a grace to be acquired gradually. We know this from experience. Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it be–and continue a diligent pupil in the College of Contentment.

The Presents

She wanted to put on these camo shoes as soon as she pulled them out of the bag.

It was fun to witness her delight when she pulled out the gifts.

And that’s a wrap! I’m out of here.

High fives!

There were presents for BBB (Baby Boy Bayles) to open, too. He’ll make his appearance soon and we’re looking forward to holding him and to hear what name is picked for him.

Another fun thing our Daughter in law planned for the party was handing out bubble wrap for people to pop!

The baby and baby stroller were a huge hit!

We traveled and arrived safely to the western side of the Cascade Mountain Range. Thank you to everyone who prayed for a safe journey. We have some catch up time planned with friends and family. Hope all is well with all of you and hope the last weekend of March is like a lamb instead of a lion!

So Much Love

My second post from Addy’s Bubble Birthday Party sharing all the love this little one is blessed with.

Psalm 86:15 (ESV)~

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

John 13:34 (ESV)~

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 

1 Peter 4:8 (ESV)~

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Happy Day to all of you! I will be slow in getting around as we are traveling to spend time on the “Coast” with our Western Washington kids and friends.

Tuesdays With Moisi

This is a photo taken of the paternal side of our family in 1957 or 1958 by my best guess since our younger brother Tim is not in the photo. The quality of the copy of this photo is not good. This is the Molokan side of our family. Our Babushka and Dzedushka are seated flanked by 5 of their grandchildren and holding their youngest grandchild at this time. Our sister Kathy is the only one who is still alive from this row. Two of the children seated in front of our grandparents were our Uncle Jim’s/James’ step-children from his first marriage. We have no idea where they are or if they are still alive. That marriage did not last. Seven of the grandchildren seated are still alive. I’m the third one in from the right just below and to the right of my grandfather. Our sister Vera is just below and to the left of our grandmother. In front of Vera is our brother Fred. Our sister Kathy is on the far left seated on the bench with our grandparents. Moisi’s brother Mike did not immigrate from Russia with the rest of the family. After the family escaped into Persia/Iran and were there for some time rumors were spread about things being better in Russia and our uncle Mike decided to go back to Russia. He was arrested and sent to Siberia for many years and miraculously survived the harsh conditions there. Our Aunt Anna is the last surviving daughter of Babushka and Dzedushka. She will be 94 this April. She’s the one with the flower on. Moisi is the third one in from the right standing in the back row. Nadia is the third one in from the right below Moisi.

This is the Molokan church we all attended before we and a couple of our uncles’ families moved to Kern Avenue Molokan church. I do not have any photos of the Kern Avenue building.

We shopped at Russian Kosher Markets like this one for our required Kosher meat. This market is Shubin’s market. I remember shopping at Klubniken’s market but I don’t have a photo from Klubniken’s. Molokans kept some of the dietary laws that Orthodox Jews would keep and they also observe some of the Jewish holy days.

This photo above is from the 2nd Convention of the Russian Baptists in Los Angeles in 1939 years before the maternal side of our family immigrated to the U.S. and years before we joined the Russian Baptist church. In the late 50’s and early 60’s Bethany Baptist added a Russian Grammar School at it’s building that we and other Molokan children attended. I did not like going to Russian School on Saturdays!

These are photos taken from the 75th Anniversary of the Baptist church that our family became a part of in the early 70’s. Bethany Baptist Church, 2960 East Eighth Street in Los Angeles, California.

In 1985 Bethany Baptist celebrated their 75th anniversary.  Moisi and Nadia are in the second row on the left side. After Dear and I were married we were members of other churches and did not attend the Russian Baptist church except for special services or funerals.

These Tuesday With Moisi posts will remain fluid as I add or correct information and find more photos.