I’ll Miss You…

In February of 2008 Willow and I met face to face for the first time and here’s what I wrote about that day…

God is so good to me. He gave me two desires of my heart today! I’ve said over and over again how sweet it would be to meet one of my bloggy friends and how I’d love to have a walking buddy in Southern California after I left my walking buddies in Seattle, Washington. Today Willow and I met and had a walk and plan to walk on a regular basis, keeping each other accountable. How sweet it is! We found each other through other blogs and realized we both live in the same city. We’re in the same stage of life and have a lot in common. Willow shared how she had been praying for someone to walk with. Check out her blog, she has very exciting news today! She became a grandmother!

That was 2 years ago and so that grandson just celebrated his 2nd birthday.

We’ve had lots of fun walking adventures and a some great tea adventures. I’m going to miss my walking, blogging, drinking tea, knitting friend!

I’m also going to miss Dear and my Saturday morning walks at Emma Wood. On many of those Saturdays we’d have breakfast at Allison’s in Ventura and I’m going to miss that place, too.

 

Another Saturday morning favorite with Dear is this hike off Sycamore Canyon up the Scenic Trail.

I’ll miss the great cooking days with my family here in Southern California and

our fun tea times…and

our breakfast rendezvous at Julienne in San Marino.

I’ll miss our bloggy adventures with Willow and Sara at the Getty Properties and…

being able to meet up with Cori G. another blogging friend.
I’m going to miss our Saturdays with Tim and Letty…

I’ll miss being close to my parents…

I’ve been blessed both in Southern California and the Seattle area with good friends, loving family, great churches and wonderful adventures.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away…Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

 

Blue Monday ~ Blessing or a Curse?

For Blue Monday I wanted to share some good advice from Proverbs in the Old Testament. Visit Sally to see more Blues…

I love this little water color sketch I bought for my daughter years ago from Goodwill with this verse on it. We still get a big kick out of it. Kindness can be shown in very creative ways like understanding the difference between “morning people” and “night people”.

Have a great week!

 

Happy Valentine’s Day Hymn ~ True Love…

 

Valentine’s Day comes and goes, nothing compares to this kind of love…

O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

– Samuel Francis (1834 – 1925)

O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of His love
Leading onward leading homeward,
To Thy glorious rest above

O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore.
How he loveth ever loveth
changeth never, nevermore.

How He watcheth o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth o’er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Love of ev’ry, love the best!
‘Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
‘Tis a haven sweet of rest.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus
‘Tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me, Lord, to Thee!

 

Hope you know you are loved today and I hope you can extend that love to others…

Round Robin Photo Challenge ~ Childhood Memories

It’s time for another visit to the Robins for a photo challenge. This time the theme is Childhood Memories. I do not have any keepsakes from my early childhood. No dolls, no trinkets, no toys, no stuffed animals. I do have lots of memories, though. Some of those are fading as I grow older so these challenges are good for me to get the ole brainwaves working.

I was born in East Los Angeles. My parents were Russian Immigrants. We moved East to Montebello Gardens when I was 1. While we lived on Oak Street in Montebello Gardens (Pico Rivera) my 3 older siblings and I would walk to the Montebello library to check out books. We’d head to Whittier Blvd. and have to cross this bridge over the Rio Hondo River to get to the library. It was approximately 2 miles each way. The library was located at Montebello Park.

The library was located at Montebello Park.  I spent many happy hours looking at all those books and trying to choose just 4. Reading is one of my favorite childhood memories. I loved to look at and hold a book in my hands and read it. When the bookmobile came to my elementary school I would shake with anticipation for my turn to go into the mobile library and decide on what books to borrow.

We moved from Montebello Gardens across the river to Montebello when I was in 5th grade. This is our house on Los Angeles Ave. When we lived here until 1971.

This was my high school. Montebello High home of the Montebello Oilers. There are lots of fences around the school now so they can lock down the school. How sad is that?! That’s a reality of our times. No fences in the 60’s!

The football field that I spent most Friday nights at during football season in high school. I’m on the right standing.

To see more Childhood Memories visit the Round Robin Photo Challenge Blog and click away!

 

Laurie’s Valentine Party & Tablescape Thursday!

On Friday besides visiting Laurie’s Party head over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog where I’ve posted the recipe for this dessert that would be great for Valentine’s Day! Remember the recipe won’t be posted till Friday!

Now for some possibilities for a Valentine Day scape!

Another possibility without red…

This was last years bar scape that Dear and I had our Valentine’s Day dinner at…

Here are the two cutest Valentine’s in love that I know!! My parents who have been married for 66 years!

Hoping you have a Valentine’s Weekend filled with lots of love for all the people in your life.

 

Celebrating Family and Friends!

We invited family and friends over to celebrate our son Dan.

When our youngest little guest arrived she stole the show!

Just 9 days old here. She’s our son Dan’s best friend’s first baby.

Precious!

The new dad and Dan.

Jamie, Dan, Josh, and Scott

I didn’t manage to get a decent photo of the mom…bummer!  Hey Beth if you see this could you send me Sarly’s email so I can send photos to her…thanks.

We celebrated as much family time as we could with Dan before his move about 6 hours away.

Hope all is going well wherever you are…

See What He Will Do…

About two years ago the Billy Graham Association was asking for email stories of how Billy Graham’s Evangelical Outreach had touched our lives. I sent in the story of my Pop’s conversion. Previously to this request, when our daughter was at Wheaton College in Illinois we were able to visit the Billy Graham Museum on campus. Emotions came to the surface when I saw the photos from the Los Angeles Crusade at the Coliseum in 1963. I knew my dad and I were somewhere in that photo of the stadium filled to overflowing.

I sent in my story hoping that Billy would hear and know that I thanked God for his devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it impacted my family.

What a thrill to get this book in the mail this past month, skimming through and seeing my story about Pop published.

I can hardly wait to show my Mom and Pop the book…

My parents are soon turning 86 and 85.