Blue Monday ~ Wonderful Weekend!

Welcome to Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally. Thank you Sally for hosting this event even in the midst of your move!!

What a whirlwind weekend we’ve had. Our son flew down for the Seattle Sounders v 1st place team, Chivas in Los Angeles. We packed the weekend with events around the game. From the airport we headed to Tam O’Shanter for a meal before we visited a car show at the Los Angeles Heritage square.

Six of our family members met up with us at the Home Depot Center in Carson for the game. Fun times. Before we got to the game we stopped at the Home Depot to come up with a makeshift flagpole for Joshua’s Sounder flag.  Even though our team dominated the game we could not get the ball into the net and Chivas beat us 1 – 0!

Leave it to Josh to make friends with a fan of the opposing team!

 

On Sunday my family and Dear’s brother and sister met for a Middle Eastern Potluck at my sister’s house. I’m always so happy when my kids can spend some time with family especially their grandparents! My dad fell last week and broke a bone in his hand and had to have stitches. He is so funny he said “I can fly real good but I’m not so good on the landing”. Pretty funny for a Russian in broken English!

The cousins that got together at the potluck. We do not take for granted the amazing blessing we have and the love we share with our extended family. What fun the cousins had together and what joy we have whenever we can be with eachother.

I love this photo! This was the reaction from my sister Kathy showing one of the vegetables she grew in her garden! This is my niece Michelle, our son Josh, and niece Jessica!

My sister and her girls and grandson Jackson. What a photogenic bunch they are!!

Dear’s brother and SIL were able to be at our gathering, too. What a joy to have all of our extended family on my and Dear’s side enjoying eachother. We really do know this is a special gift from our God!

My parents escaped from Russia into Iran when they were both young so they learned to enjoy and prepare Middle Eastern Food with an Iranian influence. Our potluck was a combination of yummy seasoned lamb and chicken, Hummus and Pita bread, Tabbouleh, cheese, rice, and cucumber and tomato salad. I didn’t photograph the wonderful desserts but we had strawberry shortcake, chocolate cheesecake, and fresh fruit!

 

Happy Blue Monday everyone. I’ll be working on recovering from a nonstop weekend!!

 

Fairest Lord Jesus ~ Hymn

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heaven can boast.

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
Than Thou, my Savior, art to me.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
Now and forever more be Thine.

Today…from Rain to Glorious Clouds and Blue Sky!

Here’s how the morning began in Southern California on Friday…

 

Here’s how the day turned out! I drove to Oxnard to get gas at Costco and then stopped at a couple thrift stores. I know…shocking! Then I decided to follow the blue sky through downtown Oxnard to Hollywood Beach and the Harbor.

The Channel Islands were in view…

And the clouds were amazing…

Downtown Oxnard??? Who knew! I’m going back here soon to explore the historic section of this town and in the meantime find out why Oxnard was named Oxnard!

Tomorrow is a big day. We are picking up our son Josh at the airport in the morning then heading to the Tam O Shanter for lunch. After lunch we are going to a classic car show at Heritage Square in Los Angeles. But the real reason for the trip and the most exciting part of the day will be meeting up with lots of fans of the Seattle Sounders F.C. at the Home Depot Center in Carson where they will be playing Chivas. Nine family members will be together enjoying the game. On Sunday the family is meeting for lunch at my sister’s house before we take Josh back to the airport.

Have a nice evening and great Saturday!

UPDATE: Oxnard is named after the family that developed the first major industry here, a sugar beet factory in the 1890’s.  From time to time someone suggests changing Oxnard’s name to something else–Channel Islands to name one example.  So far, it’s still Oxnard!  (Although many folks do refer to the area or Oxnard adjacent to the harbor and beach as Channel Islands.) That’s why we say “Oxnard… more than just a pretty name.“

Friday’s Fave Five ~ It’s June?

If it’s Friday it’s time for Favorites! Thanks to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for hosting this weekly event.

My Five this week are all about some of my favorite things about the area I am living in here in Southern California.

Let’s get the food taken care of right off the bat!

#1. I love the amazing taste of strawberries fresh from the fields that I can buy at a local strawberry stand. So much more flavor then the grocery store strawberries.

#2. In nearby Somis there is a family owned Nuthouse where we buy our nuts. They really have an amazing variety. Dear is always happy to “drive me to the nuthouse”.

#3. The Camarillo Library has the best Friends of the Library bookstore I have ever been in. Here’s what I bought this week. The magazines were all 25 cents each. The 3 books on cd were $10.00 each. Pricey for me but well worth it for our upcoming road trip to Seattle the end of June. Books on cd make the hours on the road go by faster and help to keep me awake when it’s my turn to drive. I’ve never read P.D. James so I hope his Death of An Expert Witness will keep my interest. I’m looking forward to hearing The Prisoner of Azkaban instead of reading it again. Dear is a fan of most Robin Cook books so Foreign Body is for his listening pleasure.  The TeaTime book just looks like a fun read. I was happy to lay down the cash for all these to support the local library.

#4. Thrift Store Shopping. I really enjoy treasure hunting in thrift stores. I’m seasoned enough that I can walk away from great deals if I don’t really need them. Who am I kidding? Most things I buy at Thrift stores I do not need. That said… this week I found these dessert plates from Germany for 69 cents each. The napkin rings that cleaned up OK were $1.75 for all 7 of them.

#5. How very blessed I am. I can drive a short distance from my condo up or down the coast and discover new beaches. This is my latest discovery, El Matador State Beach. This beach is south of us in the northern part of Malibu. I’ll be sharing more photos from this great beach next week…

Looking forward to blog hopping to see your favorites.

 

Making Having Out of Town Guests Easier…

Summer is coming and for some of us that means an increase in overnight guest traffic. When Dear and I moved to Washington away from both of our families we were introduced to holiday visitors. You can stress out if you want or plan to make it less stressful. Learn from our good and bad experiences.

At first we thought we had to be there for every little experience sacrificing our sanity. Then we learned to give our guests some freedom. We also learned to give them some responsibility. If someone was great at making pies, we picked blackberries for them. If someone was celebrating a birthday we made reservations at a restaurant to celebrate. Our guests have helped with car repairs and home improvement projects.

Over the years we have had very mellow go with the flow guests and some more pamper me guests whose eating patterns changed from year to year. (No fat, some fat, no sugar, only Diet Coke, no meat, only chicken, no carbs,  etc. etc.) Here’s what we ended up doing. Before they ever arrived in Washington we asked them to research and decide what they’d really like to experience and what they were comfortable leaving up to us. Then we asked what their favorite breakfast cereal was and their favorite beverages. When they arrived they were shown the notes on the refrigerator.

#1 ~You are welcome to anything in my refrigerator and cupboards. Please check and see if I have the items you need to be happy. If you do not see the things here that will make you happy we will make a trip to the grocery store so you can purchase the items that will make you comfortable during your stay here.

#2 ~ I do not ask you over the course of the day if there is anything you need. You are very welcome to get whatever you need and want at any point during the day without my permission. I and my family will get a snack without asking you if you want one. If you want a snack please know that we want you to treat this like your home. Get up and get that snack you want without asking permission! If there is something you need please feel free to ask and we will hunt it down for you!

#3 ~ You can use the dishwasher, the stove, the oven, the microwave,the washing machine, the shower anytime during the day.

#4 ~ We encourage our company to participate in making at least one meal while they stay with us. While they are making the meal the rest of us will set the table and have fun creating an atmosphere to go with their menu. With my sister-in-law Letty who happens to be Hispanic we really go all out with the Mexican theme while she makes the Mexican rice, beans, salsa and Carnitas for all of us to enjoy!!

This may sound harsh to some of you but you need to know that we do make several meals and drive our company all around town to see the sights and we do enjoy all of these activities. It’s just good to have the comfort of knowing they don’t have to be cared for every minute of the day. That’s why we give them the freedom to get up and get whatever they need whenever they need it without our direction.

Being pro-active in spelling out things and squashing any unreasonable expectations will make it easier on everyone and make you welcome overnight guests over and over again…

We always look forward to out of town guests since we’ve set up guidelines for ourselves and them. There are always those who don’t need any guidelines, those who just fit in with the everyday flow.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Aqua & Red

Welcome to another Tablescape Thursday. Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is the hostess for this weekly event. Click on over to see lots of pretty tables around Bloggyworld.

Since most of my tables are very thrifty I’m adding this post to Thrifty Thursday with Leigh at Tales from Bloggeritaville.

I had my new thrift store aqua blue tablecloth on the table for my scape last week I decided to change it up and throw in some red.

The old roosters are from Dear’s mother. The red martini glasses are from Target clearance. I enjoy a martini from time to time but I also like to use these glasses for serving dessert.

The red patterned plates are from tj maxx and the top salad/dessert plates (Warren Kimble) are from Goodwill as is the candle holder with red dangling crystals.

The napkins are from a thrift store on Main St. in Ventura and the napkin rings are, too. The napkin rings are pear shaped.

Window Views ~ Camarillo Ranch House

These windows are all from the Camarillo Ranch House. It’s a beautiful old Victorian Home built by the family who Camarillo is named after. It’s fun to take a tour of the home when they decorate it for Christmas. The house and grounds are rented out for weddings and other events.

Lastly I’m leaving you this view out my car windshield today. We in Southern California have just finished a week of May Grey and we’ve moved on to June Gloom!

To see more Window Views visit Mary at the Window Views Blog.