A Whirlwind of Activity!

Bright and early on Saturday morning I’m flying to Southern California for a whirlwind day. The original reason for booking the flight was to attend a high school mini-reunion that my dear friend Nancy is hosting at the clubhouse in the development where she lives.

We from Montebello High School were known as the Oilers.

I enjoyed being a Song Leader for my Junior and Senior years of High School.

img347We had some fun and crazy times at Montebello Dear Old High.

251579_261130540566499_100000086664820_1179545_1986015_nOur high school was fed by a couple Junior Highs back then. I really loved the old architecture of Montebello Junior High which had to be torn down since my time there.

High School scannedTime will tell how many of my friends from the class of ’68 I’ll get to see tomorrow.

But…that’s not all I’m doing on Saturday. On Saturday morning I get to see my dear old Pop!

I’m happy to report he is thriving now that he is living with and being cared for by my sister Kathy and her husband Len. I’m so grateful to them and to God for the despair that has been lifted off my pop’s heart.

After a visit with my pop and on the way to my reunion I’m popping in to a baby shower that our dear family friend Alice is giving her daughter in law. This will be Alice’s first grandchild. The timing of the shower works out perfect.

My sister Kathy with our friend Alice.

Stopping in on the shower I’ll be able to see many of my friends from the church I grew up in. Good thing I’m not an introvert! All this people time would be overwhelming.

I’ve got to get organized now for my trip. If you don’t hear from me for a while you’ll know I packed in way too much even for an outgoing person for a day in sunny California!

Family Signs

This last weekend we enjoyed lots of great family time at some of the places featured in this “Signs, signs”  by Lesley combo post!

Six of us traveled east and then north to the little town of Chewelah.

The girls enjoyed a bridal shower on Saturday while the guys worked on flooring and plumbing at our son’s home.

Granny had several fun signs at her home.

In this part of Washington state you see a lot of these signs if you travel off the main highway.

When we made it back to our son’s home after the shower we went out to dinner to celebrate our son-in-laws birthday at El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant.

Happy Birthday Andrew. We had a real good time celebrating you!

After dinner we all went up to the lodge where Dear and I were staying and had a family photo time.

 

The soon to be married couple!

 

The girls!

 

The guys!

Our family is rounding out very nicely. We are thankful to God for blessing us with kids who get along and enjoy each other. It was good to work together, celebrate together, play games with each other, and eat together.

Just before we hit the road to travel back to Western Washington we all had brunch together at the new Main Street Bistro in Chewelah.

And then we stopped to get gas at our station of choice in this area.

“Owned and operated by The Spokane Tribe of Indians”

Shower of Blessings!

Our whole family was together in Eastern Washington this past weekend to celebrate our son and future DIL’s wedding shower and we worked in some other fun events together, too.

The Bridal shower for Jamie was hosted at her Granny’s home.

Granny has quite a view out her kitchen window.

It was fun to get to meet many of Jamie’s friends.

Tami and our daughter Katie are two of the bridesmaids. Tami on the left hosted the shower.

We enjoyed watching Jamie open her many gifts. Her matron of honor was by her side recording each item.

Jamie with her mom and granny.

Jamie with her mom, granny, and dear family friend Sylvia.

Mom and daughter.

Our girls, dil Laura, future dil Jamie and our daughter Katie.

When the shower was over and most of the guests were gone we helped get a couple things done for the wedding reception. Many hands make light work!

After the work was done we made a trip out to the venue so we could be able to visualize the route and site.

Beautiful views on the road to the venue.

It was good to make the trip out and to know what to expect. We then traveled back to Dan’s house to see what the guys had been up to while we were partying. I’ll share our evening together in my next post.

New Blooms

It’s time for ABC Wednesday and the letter N. Thank you to Mrs. Nesbitt for starting this meme and to Roger and the rest of the ABC team who keep it going.

N is for New Blooms or New Blossoms! It’s a stretch but they are too pretty not to share.

First my Bible Verse Card for the letter N…

For my next few posts I’ll share our time in Eastern Washington with all our kids!

Roll On Columbia

Roll On Columbia
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music based on “Goodnight, Irene” (Huddie Ledbetter and John Lomax)

Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through.
Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew.
Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on!

CHORUS: Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

Other great rivers add power to you,
Yakima, Snake and the Klickitat, too,
Sandy Willamette and Hood River, too;
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

CHORUS

Tom Jefferson’s vision would not let him rest,
An empire he saw in the Pacific Northwest.
Sent Lewis and Clark and they did the rest;
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

CHORUS

It’s there on your bank that we fought many a fight,
Sheridan’s boys in the blockhouse that night,
They saw us in death but never in flight,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

CHORUS

At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks,
The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks,
Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

CHORUS

And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam,
The mightiest thing ever built by a man,
To run these great factories and water the land,
It’s roll on, Columbia, roll on.

CHORUS

These might men labored by day and by night,
Matching their strength ‘gainst the river’s wild flight,
Through rapids and falls they won the hard fight,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

This photo is one view of the Astoria-Megler Bridge connecting Washington State and Oregon over the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean.

These are a compilation of photos I have of the mighty Columbia River. Some were taken this year and some in years past. The photos with Dear and I in them were taken in 2012. Some of the photos are taken in Oregon and most are taken in Washington State. The North end of the river the central part of the river and the southern part as it reaches Oregon.

 We are just back home from 4 days traveling to the Northeast part of our state to enjoy our son and his fiance. I’ll share posts later about our time there. We ended up crossing the mighty Columbia river four times during our visit. I was able to get photos of lots of great old barns.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

O for A Heart of Calm Repose ~ Hymn

O for A Heart of Calm Repose

O for a heart of calm repose
Amid the world’s loud roar,
A life that like a river flows
Along a peaceful shore!

Come, Holy Spirit! still my heart
With gentleness divine;
Indwelling peace Thou canst impart;
O make the blessing mine.

Above these scenes of storm and strife
There spreads a region fair;
Give me to live that higher life,
And breathe that heavenly air.

Come, Holy Spirit! breathe that peace
That victory make me win;
Then shall my soul her conflict cease,
And find a heaven within.

Words: Anonymous

Bloedel Reserve

When Dear and I were on our little weekend getaway a few weeks ago we visited Bloedel Reserve.

It really is a special public garden and forest preserve. The grounds make for a lovely walk. This post will have lots of photos.

We pulled up a little early and waited for opening time.

We were fortunate to get good weather for our visit despite a lousy forecast for this day. This probably afforded us a very private walk throughout the grounds!

Bloedel 069

Into the moss garden…

After dealing with tree roots on our walkway project we were intrigued with this uprooted tree.

We were so impressed with the grounds at Bloedel that we became members so if anyone wants to head to the gardens I am able to take one guest for free along with me.

We are starting a special four days of activity and fun so I’ll be away from the computer for large periods of time. I won’t be participating in some of my favorite memes but hope to visit your blogs at the end of the day during my down time.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Mister B.

M is for Mister B., the marvelous man I’m married to.

Joining in with ABC Wednesday that was begun by Mrs. Nesbitt and is carried on by the ABC team!

My Dear is quite the man. Not only is he a professional in the workplace, giving out medical information but he’s the most handy of men in the home.

Walk About the Fox 019

He’s outstanding in his field.

P1050406

Dear with our oldest son.

Here is a photo series of one of his latest home projects. It’s taken months to get close to the end of this project but other projects and weather took precedence during this time period.

Before he started on the siding on this end of the house we decided to take down this tree that was serving as a ladder for varmints to get onto our roof.

Siding 003

Siding 007

He replaced the attic window.

With this old house there is always another project ready to start. The back side of the house will be the final side to get horizontal siding. We are hoping to get that done by July. The tar paper is up and ready for the first half of that project to start.

I will leave you with my Bible Verse Card for the letter M!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter and Passover. We had a marvelous celebration. Have a good week!

A Glorious Day…

…culminating a wonderful weekend. Easter is my favorite day to celebrate. We had an overload of good things and this post will be full of photos!

On Friday I prepared our traditional sweet cheese spread to enjoy on our Easter bread. With the heavy rock in place to force the excess liquid out of the cheese mold it rests in the refrigerator for our Sunday celebration.

On our way to our Good Friday service on Friday evening we spotted this group of people who were following men bearing a cross. It was such an unexpected thing to see and we were inspired by this act of identifying with Christ.

On Saturday a crew arrived at the house to help with the Kulich, Russian Easter Bread. Katie arrived a little later to help, too, mostly with the Shrink Wrapped Easter eggs.

The dough was ready to go in the cans rise for the final time.

Into the oven they go.

Time to set the table while the bread cools.

I bought crosses made out of nails for each person to take home with them.

On Sunday after a great church service I added the last touches to the table while the lamb shoulder was slow cooking in the oven.

I’ll share our appetizer recipe later in April on the MGCC blog.

Besides the shrink wrap eggs we tried the rice dyeing method, too.

Lamb shoulder with a caper fresh mint sauce, caramelized potatoes with onions and rosemary, cucumber tomato salad.

For dessert, Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) with Seernaya Paska (Sweet cheese spread) and strawberries.

Our mom would be proud of our efforts this year. She loves a smooth top and no airy holes when you slice it.

After our filling lunch and dessert we decided to take a walk.

After our walk we enjoyed sitting on the deck in the sunshine!

We truly had a full to overflowing good time!

Now what I haven’t shared yet is that on Saturday my computer crashed. Oh my…that’s scary! Thankfully there was a repair system that we were able to access and everything is now backed up and restored. It took several hours to accomplish this but everything is up and running again.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Christ is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

Christos Voskress! Voistinu Voskress!

Христос Воскрес!

Воистину воскрес!

Christ is Risen!

Truly He is Risen!

Glorious Day ~ Casting Crowns

One day when Heaven is filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He
Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He
Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree
And took the nails for me

‘Cause Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He’s ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him
From rising again
Rising again

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming (For Your coming)
One day the skies with His glories will shine (Glories will shine)
Wonderful day, my Beloved One, bringing
My Savior, Jesus, is mine

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day
Oh, glorious day

Oh, glorious day