Tag Archives: Engagement

Tuesdays With Moisi ~10

Our Pop’s story continued…

This is our Pop’s story dictated verbally by him a few years ago. I’ll be sharing excerpts every Tuesday. When I add to his story or explain a photo I will Italicize my words. Our Pop’s words will not be italicized. Our mom does not come into Pop’s story until “Tuesdays With Moisi ~ 9” even though I’ve posted photos of her before #9. I have very few photos from our parents’ life in Russia and Persia. At the end of my Tuesday posts I’ll add links to all the other posts.

Our mom here with her friend Zena. She got into big trouble with her father when he saw this photo of her with lipstick on.

When the harvest was finished, on a Sunday afternoon after church, Nadia and I took a walk in the forest.  It was then that I confessed my love for her and asked her to marry me. She told me to ask her mother. But I wanted to know from her – would she marry me if permission was granted.  She said she’d think about it. I told her that as her husband I would do anything she wanted. By this time we had returned back to where she was staying. Nadia did ask her mother but she replied that this decision was her father’s.  Nadia relayed that message to me. That was good enough for me – so far.

Our Pop, Moisi, with our uncle Paul, the future brother-in-law he went to town with.

The next day I, with my brother-in-law, had to go into town to take care of some business.  On the way I told him that I was getting engaged to Nadia and was going to telegraph her father to come to the wedding.  According to Russian custom whenever someone was met with good fortune, he had to treat his friends. This was called mahareech.  So when we went to lunch at a local restaurant, I bought a bottle of Iran’s finest fire water along with the lunch. As we were eating, a buddy of ours from our village happened into the restaurant.  Seeing the bottle on the table he asked what the occasion was. My brother-in-law explained that I was getting engaged to a city girl. He couldn’t believe my good fortune and so ordered another bottle and joined us.  So after eating lunch and downing two bottles of alcohol, we three were definitely two sheets to the wind. We headed for the telegraph office. The telegram my future father-in-law received went something like this: “Papa, please hurry and come to my wedding: Nadia.”

You can just imagine his reaction.  He went to his friends and acquaintances to try and find out what was going on.  He couldn’t believe his daughter would send such a telegram and was quite offended that she would do something like this without his permission.  Of course he could not know that she had nothing to do with the telegram.

Realizing there wasn’t much he could do about the situation from Tehran, he came out to our village.  For some reason there were quite a few of my contemporaries who were against our marriage. So when he arrived, he was met with a barrage of gossip claiming that I was unfit for marriage, I couldn’t have children, I wasn’t a Christian, etc., etc.  But Nadia and I stood firm in our commitment to each other.

I’m adding this photo of the Shvetzov and Katkov families because it’s one of the only photos I have of our maternal grandfather. He is seated next to our Babushka on the right. He was killed in Persia after my mother and father immigrated to the U.S. Later our grandmother immigrated with our Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina (they are standing behind my grandparents in this photo far right). Zena, who was in the first photo in this post is in the back row on the left holding her daughter Tamara. She married a Katkov. The Shvetzov and Katkov families all immigrated to the U.S. and we remained close going to the same church and future marriages intertwined our two families closer together. Our Aunt Nina was one of the Katkov girls. The three young girls in this photo are the only ones still alive in the southern California area. My cousin Alex who is standing between my maternal grandmother and grandfather (Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina’s oldest son) was killed tragically in a car accident in 1979. His three siblings, our cousins, who were born after our aunt and uncle and Alex immigrated are still living in southern California and Florida. Our babushka and babushka Manya, sitting next to her, lived out their lives as widows in apartments next door to each other in Los Angeles, a few doors down from our Russian Baptist church. 

This is a photo of our babushka Vera and Babushka Manya Katkov in the United States.

Mixing It Up!

Hope you aren’t tired of tulips! Today I’m sharing the variegated and mixed up tulips. We have had rain, rain and more rain this weekend. Finally on Sunday afternoon we got some blue skies and sunshine!

We had some fun news this weekend. Our nephew Caleb asked his sweetheart Marie to marry him. Looks like our family will be having another wedding celebration come August! Reasons to celebrate are the theme of this year!

A friend of Caleb and Marie was hiding out to take this photo and others of this fun moment.

Congratulations on your engagement Caleb and Marie!

Anything new in your neck of the woods?

K is for Katie!

K is for Katie

K is for our Katie. Katherine on her birth certificate. This photo was taken by Jamie Spiro. This is a repost from a few years back but I was stumped for the letter K and am always ready to share about our wonderful daughter Katie.

Our Katie has an amazing amount of knowledge stored in her brain and I will show you some photos that might explain where some of that knowledge comes from.

At a very young age if Katie went missing this is where you would find her.

She was most drawn to books with words, not picture books. We had a few old school reading books and these are the ones she’d pull off the shelf and carefully go through.

As you can see she did not have a shortage of toys but she always seemed to go for the books.

We didn’t realize how well she could read until a trip to Meadowdale Beach Park with our friends the Spiro’s. Jody was walking hand in hand with Katie when they came to the tunnel under the railroad tracks that took you to the beach side of the park. As they approached this tunnel with this sign Katie said quite clearly to my friend Jody, “Caution Low Head Clearance”

We realized then that we had an almost 4 year old who definitely knew how to read. Who knows how much she was reading without us knowing before this experience.

Here’s Katie in a Kilt that I bought in Scotland in 1973! Hard to believe it fit me once.

Here’s our Katie in 2010 on the night she got engaged to Andrew.

Katie and Andrew were married at the Magistrate’s office in North Carolina when she visited Andrew March 11, 2011. He is deployed at present and when he returns we will be having an official wedding. Right now it looks like that wedding could be on March 11, 2012. We have to wait on the Marines to know for sure. For those of you who pray, please pray for our Andrew in Afghanistan and for our Katie as she waits for his safe return. Semper Fi!

I’m linking to Alphabe-Thursday with our great teacher Jenny! Thank you Jenny for keeping us on track.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and photobucket stamped versions. They are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

FFF ~ Southern Charm & Epic Celebrations…

I’ve been sharing this week about Katie and my travels to South Carolina to see her guy graduate from Boot Camp and officially become a Marine. Being at Parris Island and experiencing these celebrations was unforgettable. Here are more favorites to share with y’all during our trip. Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun.

 

The food! We ate at 4 great restaurants and we were not disappointed at any of them. Fried green tomatoes were on my list to try and they were delicious. The fish tacos on top of grits with smoked gouda were pretty memorable, too. I didn’t eat that vertical cobb salad but it was a feast for the eyes. The popovers were huge and the trio of desserts was yummy. We ate at Wren, Emily’s, The Beaufort Inn, and Pannini’s in Beaufort. I’d recommend any of these places to eat if you ever travel there.

 

I really enjoyed the architecture and the beautiful water scenes we got to see. This is “Low Country”. The Lowcountry is often thought of as a geographic and social identifier. While there is a general consensus on defining Lowcountry as it relates to culture, there is a considerable difference of opinion on its geographic extent. According to some historians, the Lowcountry extends from the Sandhills of South Carolina, just east of Columbia, to the coast. This area is mostly near or below sea level; thus the term “low country”.

 

 

 

Katie and I at Wren Restaurant. This was one of the hours that my hair didn’t look like Bozo the clown. The South and the humidity don’t do anything for my hair. As charming and beautiful as the South is I could never live in that heat and humidity.

 

On our way home form the South we had a layover at the Dallas Airport. We were so excited to spend time at the airport with my brother and Miss Hope. Because Andrew was military they gave my brother and Hope a pass to go through security and sit with us at our gate! Miss Hope kept us entertained. We also got to board with first class on all the legs of our flight. I was really impressed that the airlines gave our military special treatment!

Our biggest announcement this week is that Andrew asked Katie to marry him! Katie is thrilled and we are throwing a quick engagement open house on Sunday before Andrew flies to North Carolina for 9 weeks of Infantry School.

So our heads are spinning around here. Hope y’all had a good week and I’ll be by to see your favorites in between shopping and preparing for the Engagement party!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

FFF ~ Lots of Good News!

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is the hostess of this great weekly carnival that encourages us to look back over the last week and list our 5 favorites.

 

There was lots of good news coming to us this week via the telephone and email.

1. Our dear little niece, Miss Hope, turned 2 on Monday. She called me (well her dad actually called me) on Monday to thank me for our present and card and to fill me in on the highlights of her party. She said “Expedition”, “cake”, “thank you” , “love you”. She and all her little guests got to go on an expedition to search for stickers with little flashlights. She had a Winnie the Pooh/Heffalump Party.

2. We heard of the engagement of my cousin Jim’s son Ben to Kristin. The photo of Jim and Jeanie was taken at their son Jeff’s wedding this last June. Hopefully we’ll be able to attend Ben’s wedding, too.

3. We got a phone call from our son Dan with the good news that he passed his Spanish course and will be headed to Seattle to spend a week at home in Washington before he’s gone for 10 months. Dear and I are flying home next Wednesday so we can spend some time with him. We are so looking forward to having the whole family all together for a meal or two.

4. We also got the news on Thursday that Dan’s best friend Jamie and his wife Sarly had a sweet baby girl at 8:00 P.M.  Jamie is in the picture with Laura, Josh, and Dan. It is really great that Dan will be home at just the right time to be able to see her. We have so appreciated God bringing Jamie’s family and our family together when Dan and Jamie became friends in 2nd grade. Congratulations to Jamie and Sarly and to the grandparents Beth and Dave!! We love you guys!

5. Dear and I had lunch at my mom and dad’s last Sunday along with my brother Tim and his wife Letty. We are so blessed to have parents that are faithful to God, to each other, and to all their children. My parents are 86 and 85. My father said that he has no regrets and is ready to die whenever God chooses to take them. Every time we talked about their funeral that afternoon my Father made it singular. I know this is probably weird for some of you to read but we’ve always been able to talk about death and funerals, etc. in my family. Anyway, I’ve always pictured my parents “going home” together. I think my Father does, too. They have been married for 66 years. He and my mother took care of their parents before they died and have cared for many widows and spinsters over the years who had no one to care for them. They have extended hospitality far and wide. They were missionaries to Russia in their old age. They have “run the race well”.

 

Psalm 40:5 (English Standard Version)

You have multiplied, O LORD my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.

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.