August Notecards

For Vee’s August Notecard Party

I’m sharing some shots in the Seattle area from summers past…

August 2011 ~ Josh and Laura at a Sounders Soccer game with Seattle in the background.

2010 Kayaking in Anacortes, Washington with Dear, Josh, Laura, Andrew and Katie.

July 2009 on Lake Washington with Seattle across the lake. Laura and Katie with my niece Debbee between them.

Summer 2008 ~ Canoeing on Lake Washington with Katie. You can rent canoes and rowboats at the University of Washington Waterfront to mess around the lake. “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing-absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats” ~ Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

The State of Washington is filled with Lakes and Sounds and other water ways to enjoy. It’s no wonder people invest in boats in this area. We live within 2 miles of Lake Washington and one of my favorite walks is along the Sammamish River/Burke Gilman Trails a short drive away. When I’m on the water, I prefer to be able to see the shore. I’m not fond of being out in the middle of the ocean surrounded by water with no land in sight.

Hope you are still enjoying some lazy summer days. I’m hoping to get some lazy days in before summer is over! To see what we’ve been doing this summer that has been anything but lazy, you can scroll down to the post before this one to see our floor project with before and after shots (or just click here).

Before and After

Before we had the vinyl floor and this smaller area rug and our chairs still had the cloth upholstery on them.

After with the wood floors, the larger area rug from the living room and our dining chairs recovered in leather. I should have put a less busy tablecloth on the table…

Before the new look with the kitchen cupboard open and Dear working in the kitchen.

The new look in a new season judging from my bare feet instead of my comfy slippered feet.

This is the rug that was in the living room and is now in the dining area of our kitchen. We also gave the piano to our kids and moved a lot of stuff around.

Still the old look with yet another spot for the piano before we gave it away with the secretary in the far corner of the room. The antiqued white cabinet was still in it’s corner but we have decided to keep that piece out of the living room now.

This is the new look with a smaller area rug we had elsewhere. The Cabinet in the spot where the piano used to be will show in the next photos.

This is the before at this angle with the old floors.

This is the new spot for the Secretary where the piano used to be.

Before

After

Before

After

That will be a wrap on the Before and Afters. It would have been good to take shots at the same angles but sometimes things just get away from you. Hope I didn’t make you dizzy or confused by the sequence. I know we will enjoy the new floors for years to come. We still have some finishing up of baseboards and closet work ongoing. It will be nice when this project is complete and we can enjoy nesting in this old house.

Still Working…

…on some before and afters of our floors. These are just a few of the changes that I’m enjoying. I really like our new smaller TV stand and that the TV now fits tucked in nicely under the stairwell.

The stairs to the basement are a great improvement, too. The new chocolate carpet color enhances the walls and the tile in the basement.

I’m still working on the right angles of the new shots of the living room compared to the old looks. I’ll share more soon. WE are really happy with the roomier feeling we’re getting in the living room.

We have had some “oye” moments around here. The Ikea storage units we bought for our closet in the spare room were off by 3/4 of an inch so now we need to make some adjustments to have them fit in the closet. Little things like that make a big impact on your planning.

My mom is hanging in there and my mom and pop have decided that they don’t need one of my siblings spending the night at the apartment anymore. My siblings still come by during the day to clean and cook for my parents. My pop is doing a lot better with the situation and walks to the store now that is close by to replenish milk, etc.

Katie and Andrew have made it to Denver and will be in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. We’re hoping to see them here by Saturday.

So many bloggy friends are talking about Fall already and I’m so surprised to hear about kids starting school. Are you looking ahead to Fall or are you still enjoying the long days of summer?

On the Way…

…to Gaviota for the wedding we attended on August 10th we headed off Hwy 101 just North of Santa Barbara to pick up Josh and Laura at the Santa Barbara Airport.

Josh and Laura had to travel on Saturday because Josh was directing Junior Highers at Lakeside Bible Camp for the week. They arrived after 1:00 pm and we were all hungry so we headed to Goleta Beach.

We ate at Beachside Bar-Cafe.

We missed Andrew and Dan but enjoyed the fact that the 5 of us were able to be together.

We all enjoyed something different. Dear had the fish and chips and I went with the great local treat of Santa Maria Tri-Tip.

From here we stopped in Hollister for some donuts before we headed farther north along the coast for the wedding.

The girl cousins! I had to lift this one from my niece Melissa. Somehow I missed it with my own camera! Looks like Marie didn’t make it in the shot, either.

It was so good to be with our kids. Katie and Andrew are driving West right now from North Carolina headed for Salt Lake City to visit Andrew’s mother and sister before they finish their road trip here in Seattle. We are busy getting their room ready. Dear will finish the trim on the new bedroom door and re-install the closet doors.

We got a lot accomplished over the weekend. Dear’s closet was completed and ready to get all his clothes back upstairs from the basement. I’m busy organizing my new office upstairs in the sitting room off our master bedroom. Little by little and inch by inch everything is getting more organized and fresh around here.

August is just ticking away. What do you have going these last weeks of August.

The Lily of the Valley

I have found a friend in Jesus, He’s everything to me,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;
The Lily of the Valley, in Him alone I see
All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole.
In sorrow He’s my comfort, in trouble He’s my stay;
He tells me every care on Him to roll.

Refrain

He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.

He all my grief has taken, and all my sorrows borne;
In temptation He’s my strong and mighty tower;
I have all for Him forsaken, and all my idols torn
From my heart and now He keeps me by His power.
Though all the world forsake me, and Satan tempt me sore,
Through Jesus I shall safely reach the goal.

Refrain

He will never, never leave me, nor yet forsake me here,
While I live by faith and do His blessèd will;
A wall of fire about me, I’ve nothing now to fear,
From His manna He my hungry soul shall fill.
Then sweeping up to glory to see His blessèd face,
Where the rivers of delight shall ever roll.

Refrain

Words: Charles W. Fry, 1881.

Ranch Hospitality…

When you have a wedding on a Ranch/Blueberry Farm you have to consider some extra comfort items you need to bring in…like generators to provide electricity, fancy honey buckets, and special lighting.

The drive up the coast beyond Santa Barbara was lovely with lots of views of the Pacific Ocean. The wedding venue was 16 miles beyond our first beach camping experience with our family back in 1984, Refugio State Beach.

Each table had a book by a favorite author of Caleb and Marie. Each guest found a library card on file at the guest book table to see what book and author they should look for to see where they were to be seated.

I was happy to see that our table was Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment. There were a few more Russians at our table!

Here’s the table where we found our library cards and were able to sign the guest book. They had photos of the parents and grandparents on their wedding days. Sweet!

There were a few tables that I would have been very comfortable at.

They had a special coloring book for the younger guests with crayons at the tables where they would be sitting.

Blueberry Jam for each family to take home to remember the special wedding at the Blueberry Farm.

After the sun set and on our way out of the ranch we stopped on a section of the road to look up. The sky were amazing with a view of stars I haven’t been able to see in a very long time. Wish I could have gotten a photo of it.

I am happy to announce that we were able to get both our cars in the garage again. That means we have everything out of the garage and back in the house in it’s new or old spot. Such a good feeling. Dear still has touch up and baseboard work to do along with closet shelving and organizing.

What’s happening for you this weekend?

Joining Families…

It would be good for me to make myself a list before I arrive at major functions like weddings. After the fact I realize what I missed because I get distracted in the moment. Heat and sunshine take a lot out of me and I find I’m less successful in catching everyone and everything at an event.

Enough excuses already, here are the shots I got at this latest union in my family.

Dear, Josh and Laura…

Niece Melissa with Grand niece Avery!

Our daughter Katie who flew out from North Carolina for the wedding!

Niece Melissa with Katie.

My brother Steve and SIL Kelly, parents of the groom.

My brother with my wonderful SIL Kelly and their sons.

Cousins on the Bagdanov side of the family.

Caleb’s grandparents on his mother’s side.

Cousins from my SIL’s side of the family.

Candid of our Katie.

Candid of our niece Kristin.

Candid of my brother Leonard with my niece Michelle and SIL Mandy!

Nieces and nephew and I wonder who David is looking at? I also got some other members of my family in the background.

Yippee for Friday! We are inching closer to having everything back in place including bedroom doors and closet doors. We had to make some adjustments in closets so Dear still has to go to the basement to find his hanging clothes. We are looking forward to a weekend at home to be able to wrap up some things around this old house. Our daughter Katie and our Son in law Andrew will be hitting the road from the East Coast to our coast early on Saturday. They should be arriving here next weekend. Katie will be staying with us for up to 7 months while Andrew is deployed. Hopefully the door on their bedroom will be back in place this weekend. Oh dear, I just realized I need to clear out the closet in that room for them, too.

What’s on your agenda this weekend?

The Attendees…

I really didn’t get many photos of the attendants at the wedding. There were many cameras and I-pads in my field of vision and then the wedding party was swept away to the back 40 on the ranch for the professional photos. By the time they got back it was time for dinner and the darkness descended on the venue…

The definition of attendees: a person who is present on a given occasion or at a given place

So this post will be all about the attendees and I apologize ahead of time for my tunnel vision on people I’m related to…

Our nephew Timothy with his wife Jessica and nephew Levi with his wife Kristin. Brothers and Sister in laws of the bridal couple. Looks like Levi spotted me taking his photo. Hi Levi!

These are the bride’s sisters Katie and Annie. Our nephew Joe is walking Katie down the aisle.

Our niece, grandniece and another little sweetie were the flower girls.

The wedding party getting back from their photo shoot.

From dinner we headed to the dance barn and watched a wonderful “first dance” by Caleb and Marie and the Father/Daughter Dance and Mother/Son dance. Way too dark for my camera skills!

My next post will be all about the family shots that I was able to get.

My mom continues to hang in there. Today I told her that my cousin/her niece had sent an email asking how she was. My mom then said to me “tell her to call, I can still talk!”

Happy Day to all of you!

The Bride & Groom…

I was considering calling this post the Long & Short of it or the Tall and Short of it…

I had more glimpses of Caleb before the wedding than Marie. She was being kept as hidden as possible so Caleb would see her for the first time as she walked down the aisle.

Caleb and Levi.

Caleb is a bow tie kind of guy. My pop (Caleb’s grandfather) wore a bow tie in his wedding photos. I found this photo of my pop (Caleb’s dzeda) sporting his bow tie in a photo with his brother in law (my uncle Paul).

I loved this tender moment when Caleb reached over to move away a wisp of hair from Marie’s eyes.

Caleb lifted Marie up to give her the “kiss”.

Caleb and Marie stood at the beginning of the buffet line to hand out plates to their guests. What a great gesture of appreciation of their guests.

It was a fun time of celebrating Caleb and Marie and being able to see how much their family and friends appreciate them as a couple. There were 20 attendants in the ceremony. What’s the most attendants you’ve seen at a wedding?

The Heritage…

I was struggling with how to share all the photos I took at our nephew Caleb’s and new niece Marie’s wedding this past Saturday. This new couple is so blessed with an amazing legacy of marriage. longevity so that is where I decided to start. The fathers, the mothers, the grandparents, and the great grandparents. Over 350 years of marriage was represented! 73 years, 70 years, over 50 years, over 30 years, over 20 years…those are amazing numbers in this day and age.

The father of the groom, my brother Steve, with the groom Caleb. Loved watching their interactions while they waited for the Bride to appear in the distance. (Now I’m struggling with where I should be putting commas! Added pressure with so many English majors in this family!)

My sister-in-law Kelly, the mother of the groom.

Caleb’s grandparents (my parents) watching the wedding via facetime at their apartment. How cute are they all dressed up for the wedding from afar!? They have been married for 70 years!

Father walking his first daughter to get married down the aisle. They were both fighting back the tears. Marie has two younger sisters.

Both fathers officiated the wedding side by side.

It was great, Todd prompted Caleb for his vows and Steve prompted Marie for her vows.

And then all the grandparents came up to pray a blessing over this young couple.

What a beautiful moment representing 364 years of marriage!

I’ll be sharing more posts soon because there’s the bride, the groom, the flower girls, the extended families, the venue, the tables, the fabulous way they had us find our assigned tables, etc. etc…

I’m feeling more alive today. Yesterday was a do nothing recuperation day for me. How’s your August going?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

August Notecards

For Vee’s August Notecard Party

I’m sharing some shots in the Seattle area from summers past…

Before and After

Still Working…

On the Way…

The Lily of the Valley

The Lily of the Valley

Ranch Hospitality…

Joining Families…

The Attendees…

The Bride & Groom…

The Heritage…