Tag Archives: Colville

A Shopping Day…

On Tuesday we decided since it was going to be a rainy day we would head to Spokane to shop. I’m thankful that we can travel south for an hour to Spokane and enjoy shopping at all the stores we enjoyed when we lived in the Seattle area. While we drove we enjoyed listening to a couple of sermons online. That’s another thing I’m thankful to be able to do on the road.

It rained most of the day but we were treated to some clearing on the way home as we approached Colville

In Spokane we stopped at The Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, HomeGoods, Hobby Lobby, Total Wine, At Home, and we ended at Costco for shopping and refilling our gas tank.

On our drive home we stopped in Chewelah at our favorite Mexican restaurant on this side of the mountains for “linner”.

This is the auto body shop that will be working on our car. Our car is scheduled for December 16th. They are in high demand at this shop.

I’ll be doing a fair share of shopping local in Colville for the holidays, too.

WalMart has already gotten some good business from us.

We bought our overpriced natural fresh free range turkey from this store. It’s our favorite grocery store in town. When we saw turkeys for 99 cents a pound at Costco we consoled ourselves with the fact that we had helped our local economy out. 🙂

This is the part of our road where I hit the deer.

Almost home.

At the mailbox.

Looking back towards town and enjoying the clouds.

We enjoyed a quiet evening at home after our day of travel for shopping.

Corn Maze and Pumpkins

So much has happened in 7 days and I’ll start a little catch-up by going back to last Sunday and our time at the local Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch. While the guys were hunting the gals and JJ made a visit to the Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch. Lots of photos and few words. Did I mention…lots of photos?! I’ll start with the Corn Maze and then add another post about the Pumpkin Patch.

Katie is the best maze navigator and Addy was interested in hearing her instructions as to where we should go.

We stopped at each marker we found and put up the appropriate number of fingers.

 

Along the way in the maze they gave you easy ways to exit if you needed an easy out.

We made it to station #8 and at this point Addy wanted to be carried which made it a little more difficult to soldier on so we took the next Easy Out we spotted and headed to the Pumpkin Patch.

JJ was content and contemplative about the whole experience.

We are making a slow transition back to life as normal after our trip to California for the amazing conference we attended. I hope to catch up with all your blogs early this new week. As happens frequently when traveling, we are experiencing an attack on our health from being confined in airplanes and rooms with many people who are spreading their germs and illnesses with the rest of humanity.

Hope the tornado warnings in the Dallas area were without injury to anyone. We were happy to hear our family members were okay and got the all clear. Praying October ends well for y’all.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~

From Russia to Iran to Los Angeles to Colville.

Next to our grandfather (Dzedushka) to the right in the center of the photo is Michael Ivan Voloshin. He was the son of Moisi’s sister who died after the birth of her 4th child in Iran. The child also died. Our Pop’s sister’s name was Akcenya. Michael’s brother Bill Voloshin is standing in the back row on the far left. Next to him is his brother Alex who our grandparents adopted and raised after Akcenya died. Sometime after this photo was taken in the Los Angeles area Michael Ivan Voloshin was married and had children.

Now fast forward many years from when this photo was taken in 1955 or 1956. Michael’s daughter Akcenya (named after her grandmother, my aunt) married a Russian fella named Steve Filipoff in 1994 in the Los Angeles area. They eventually moved out of California to Oregon. After being in Oregon for a while they decided to re-locate to Colville, Washington. They have lived in Colville now for 7 years. I had no idea that I had a cousin once removed who lived in Colville. Akcenya who goes by the American name Cindy was contacted by her sister Manya letting her know that she thought from my facebook posts that I was living in Colville. Cindy and her husband Steve have a painting business and they were contracted to paint our church addition. Cindy asked our pastor if I attended his church and he told her that Dear and I did. Our pastor informed me that he had met my cousin and I was a bit skeptical. I went to church on the day they were painting and we put two and two together and connected the dots to exactly how we are related.

Akcenya, our pop’s sister is the one in the top row with the dark scarf on her head. Her husband must be the one on her left. (Leonard, if I’m wrong with any of my info please correct me)

While my cousin Jim was visiting the last several days we decided it would be a good time to have Steve and Cindy over since Jim had never met Cindy who is his cousin once removed, too. Jim’s father Alex, our pop Moisi and Cindy’s grandmother Akcenya were brothers and sister.

One of Steve and Cindy’s three sons, Nicholas, was able to have dinner with us, too. Me, Nicholas, Steve, Cindy and Jim.

It’s a small world for sure. We marveled that after all these years we could meet and get to know one another in Colville.

Summer Finale

Another Sunday and after church another lunch in Chewelah and on the way home we diverted here and there to see some new roads. It was our goodbye to summer drive. I didn’t have my big camera with me so had to use my phone.

 

As you drive into Colville you’ll notice a mountain above Main street. Besides the cross there is a big C on this mountain.

Continuing on through town we turn onto our road which is sometimes called skunk alley.

Sorry for the visual of why it got that name. Hold your nose and turn off your air vents.

A favorite weeping willow we see close to home.

Into our drive and we notice one of the trees changing color.

The last day of summer afforded us a nice drive and a relaxing evening. It was the calm before the storm.

The footings for the shop are ready for the support posts to be set and the concrete to be ordered. We were so grateful for our son’s help. Dear continues working hard. I’ll need to take a photo of the holes.

Hope your week is going well.

Borrowing part of a prayer from Spurgeon…

Lord let your living water flow. Flow to my family and my friends, and let it not pass me by…

Adieu to July

Some last photos from July including a few from our road trip into British Columbia to the town of Nelson and home again. I like their sign on our departure.

The Kootenay River along 3A in British Columbia.

We had some grand visits to our home along with their parents and we always have the goodbye rituals when it’s time for them to go home.

At a visit to Dan and Jamie’s with Granny Great I caught this photo.

Addy “reading” with all her favorites beside her.

Auntie Lolo flew east to spend some time with all of us and she captured so many sweet moments.

We introduced Addy to Josh and Dan’s Construct building toys.

Time outside at Gramps’ and Baba’s.

The weather has really heated up and Auntie Lolo captured these shots under the outdoor shade pavilion at Dan and Jamie’s. JJ can spot his mommy from a distance and it’s easy to see she is his favorite right now.

Before we went to dinner with our kids at El Ranchito in Chewelah, Dear and I attended an open house at the home of our youth pastor and his family. This is the view from their home looking across the valley to Colville. We could see our kids’ mountain in this breathtaking view. This is just part of their panoramic view.

Uncle Josh surprised us all and took a flight from Seattle to Spokane after work on Friday arriving late Friday night to spend a day and a half with all of us. Addy was thrilled to have some special time with Uncle Josh and Auntie Lolo. JJ enjoyed them, too. Jamie took this photo of Josh, Laura and JJ. JJ sees his mommy and he’s all smiles.

Laura caught this moment of JJ with me and Gramps. JJ loves to interact face to face. The photos above were taken at El Ranchito in Chewelah while we were enjoying dinner.

Josh and Laura are at the airport headed back to Seattle. We will all miss them.

The beginning of this week will be very busy for us. We are hosting a church event here at our country bungalow on Tuesday evening. If I’m scarce you will understand. I hope to take some photos of our event but…when we host big events I might forget to take photos as I’m all wrapped up in the details…

Hope the end of July goes well for you.

Spring Visitors

In April, before we drained our pond, we had 3 real ducks land in it. I had to look up their name on google images. They are Common Mergansers.

In May we had some more visitors. This Quail sat on top of this birdhouse for the longest time calling out.

This turkey kept pacing our side fence and it seemed like it’s bird brain could not figure out how to get out of our backyard. Dear went on the deck and made some noise and it finally realized it could fly over the fence.

Finally caught a Tom Turkey fanning it’s tail feathers!

Colville claims the title of the Turkey Capital of the Pacific Northwest.

The Swallows continue to entertain us with their flying.

Our Spring clean up continues. We are working on getting the pond liner cut and removed. It’s a toilsome job especially because of the scum. Pond scum is a real thing.

We’ve been in the 70’s and there are predictions of soaring in the 80’s on the weekend!

Hope the merry month of May is going well in your corner.

Spring in Colville

We watched Addy this afternoon and early evening so Daddy and Mommy could have a last date for a very long time. Their words not ours. This is the view from their driveway on our way home.

Dear and I worked hard in our back acres today. Our riding mower started right up after it’s winter rest. We also cleared some brush and cleaned out some planters. We tried to start our burn pile but things still haven’t dried out enough for it to stay lit. We are hoping our piles of limbs and brush will burn before we have any burn bans put in place. There is no doubt we live in the country.

We’ll be working in our back acres again tomorrow before we wrap things up for a very special week coming up. It’s Holy Week and grandson is being delivered on Tuesday.

What’s happening in your corner of the world?

 

Snow Break

We had a new snowfall on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. The snow on the tree branches melted quickly during the day on Wednesday.

When we were looking for a home in the Colville area of Washington State one of my desires was a home with views that went further then a neighbor’s carport or garage. I wanted to see more. More sky, more land, more trees. God has granted my desire and I am thankful.

I’ll be traveling and might not have much computer time the next several days. If you don’t see comments from me you know why. My Quotes of the Week and Sunday Hymn will pop up as usual.

Hope you all have a wonderful last weekend in January!

Our Country Bungalow

These are a few mosaics/collages of some of the spaces in our country bungalow. The entry above and the living room off the entry area.

The view back to the entry area of our home from the living room. All the Christmas decorations are packed up now.

The view from the entry through the living room to the dining room.

The dining room.

The photo above is from November before our dining area was painted to our satisfaction.

Glimpses from the dining room into the kitchen and from the kitchen to the family room area.

We have lots of upper ledge spaces in our kitchen. We aren’t done with the painting in the kitchen area and in the future I’ll show the finished look that we’ve decided on for our kitchen space.

Here are some photos I have of more of the kitchen with our favorite visitor and Dear busy cooking Swedish Pancakes on Christmas morning.

Looking to the entry from our family room area and looking back to our family room area.

Our area between our entry and family room and our nice wide hallway to our bedrooms.

Our artwork in the photo above is also showing some reflections that aren’t a part of the original work.

Pictures51This photo above is true to the piece. The work was inspired by a small nook in the crypt of the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. It was painted by a friend of ours.

Glimpses into our two guest bedrooms. These rooms along with our Master Bedroom Suite have not been painted yet. I don’t have photos from the master bedroom to share as of yet. I also have not shared the large laundry room area and our office yet. Stay tuned for those areas and then there is our oversized shop/garage that is not oversized enough for our stash. We will be building a new shop for Dear’s stuff come late spring/summer.

This is all for now on the interior of our Country Bungalow. We are settling in nicely and are thankful for God opening the doors for us to purchase this property despite our exhaustion in the process of selling our home of 20 years and trying to find a replacement 6 hours away and moving 20 years of stuff. We are thankful for being on a county road that is flat and plowed when it snows, except for the weekends. We have found out that Stevens County snowplows only work on weekdays. City of Colville works all days. We have a Colville address but are outside city limits.

Thank you Angie for hosting Mosaic Monday. Click over to join in the fun.

Our Satellite internet connection has been painfully slow for about a week now. You will probably be seeing fewer posts from me until things speed up. I do hope we get some speed soon because right now it is very painful…

December Snow

When we woke up on Monday morning we were surprised to see a fresh inch of snow on the ground.

It’s actually warmer on this snow day then last week when we had clear skies and were in the 20’s.

This mailbox in front of our home isn’t used by the mail service anymore. The previous owners qualified for door service because of some handicaps. They are talking about more snow on Tuesday.

I forgot to show this cute card Addy’s mommy made using Addy’s footprint and handprints to form a reindeer. This was a card for Addy’s Auntie Laura.

Those of you out there who create collages/mosaics, what site/program do you use? Since I’m working off my new laptop after Old Faithful died I don’t have Picasa anymore and am not sure where to go to create collages. Thank you in advance.

Reminder: Tuesdays With Moisi will resume in the New Year.