Tag Archives: Family

Blue Monday ~ Aunt Anna’s Stuff…

Last Thursday I popped in to see my mother and father. They live in a Senior Apartment complex and my Aunt Anna decided to move in a few doors down from them. Aunt Anna is my father’s only living sibling. When I was there Aunt Anna wanted me to come over and see some things she wanted to give away. Her granddaughters had no interest in these goodies. I gladly took a few things off her hands and let her know they would be used and appreciated.

This is a Blue Danube tablecloth with 12 napkins to match. I recognized the pattern right away since I have a few Blue Danube pieces including the teapot pictured.

She had a few things that my paternal grandmother had made and I was happy to nab this. I was also happy she had this photo of my grandparents to give me.

These were all from my Aunt, too. She made the apron. I really enjoy the old fashioned cut glass pitcher and glasses to match.

It’s always fun for a Thrift Store Junkie to shop for free!

Thank you to Smiling Sally for hosting Blue Monday. Please click over to join in the Blue Monday Fun!

Happy 66th Anniversary Mom and Pop!

Tomorrow is my parent’s 66th Wedding Anniversary. We are gathering today for a dinner celebration. Our family is so fortunate and blessed to have both our parents still living and still enjoying married life together. We thank God for them and for the heritage God has given us because of their love for God and their love for each other.

Friday’s Fave Five ~

It’s time to visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to share your favorite moments from this past week. Thank you Susanne for being the hostess with the mostest!

This was an amazing week filled with lots of experiences that were out of the ordinary. Dear was born on September 9th a few years ago but his birthday this year was the fun 09-09-09! We also had a long weekend here in the U.S. with Labor day giving many of us an extra day off. Dear and I took advantage of the extra time and had some extra fun celebrating his birthday early. So…here’s my five or so favorites.

1. Driving up the coast to Morro Bay and Cambria on Saturday, two Central California Beach communities. It was cool. It was beautiful. It was good to get away from the ordinary.

2. Having a wonderful creamy birthday brunch at Five Crowns Restaurant in Corona Del Mar. Corona Del Mar is another beach community but it is in Southern California. Yes, we do not shy away from driving…

3. Having my dear DIL send me this photo of our boys. She took it on Sunday. I love seeing our boys together, enjoying each other and taking care of each other.

4. Having Monday off and enjoying a totally layed back day recovering from all our travel and creamy food!!

5. This is my BFF from high school. She was rudely taken out of my life and away from all her friends half way into our junior year of high school. We spent so many hours together in high school. We memorized Leslie Gore songs together, had slumber parties, went to the L.A. Garment district together, were part of  a Y.M.C.A. service club together, went out to dinner together…and then she was gone! I was thinking about her and wondering how I could track her down but it was hard because of her very common last name here in Southern California. We finally connected on Facebook through some mutual friends! Yesterday we met for lunch after 41 years. It was so good to re-connect and catch up on our lives after all these years!!

09-09-09!

A once in a lifetime day for Dear’s birthday. It’s also the 252nd day of the year 2 + 5 +2 = 9

And it’s the day that the Beatles Rock Band goes on sale!

Happy Birthday Dear!

So glad God brought us together and has kept us together all these years. It’s been good to be married to you!

Labor Day Weekend…

 

This is going to be a fun long weekend for Dear and me. We are going to celebrate his birthday every day this weekend. This year Dear’s birthday happens to fall on 09-09-09! All the more reason to celebrate in style. On Saturday we are driving up the coast to Morro Bay for lunch and whatever else comes our way.

On Sunday after church we are headed south down the coast to have a birthday brunch at The Five Crowns Restaurant in Corona Del Mar. Monday morning the tide is low at the right time for us so we are going to have an early morning walk on the beach in Ventura. I hope to get lots of fun photos to share.

I also am documenting some things about my blog that are interesting to me and probably not so much to you….

This post is #1861.

I have had over 414,000 visits to my blog.

I am in my third year of blogging.

These last couple days I have had over 500 hits on all my Glendale Forest Lawn posts. I think this is because Michael Jackson’s funeral was there on Wednesday and people are curious about Glendale Forest Lawn now.

My most viewed post so far is my recipe for Rice Krispy Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars with 8732 views.

Coming in at 2nd is my recipe for Russian Easter Bread with 6210 views.

One of my earliest posts that comes in at third is An Irish Blessing for a New Home with 5362 views.

The fourth top post was my 2008 Christmas Tour of Homes with 4226 views.

Blogging has been a fun creative exercise for me and I’ve found a great joy in photography since I started blogging. I appreciate the little things more. One of the best benefits in blogging are all the friendships that have developed around the world. I don’t know how long I’ll keep this going but for as long as I do I’m going to have fun doing it. I love hearing from all my bloggy friends.

Have a good weekend…

 

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Changes…

It’s Partay time at Susanne’s because this is the 52nd Fave Five! Visit her at Living to Tell the Story to link up with your favorites. Thank you Susanne!!

Changes are afoot in our family. If and when I can share specifics I will. Our middle son is embarking on a new adventure in his life. He is leaving that jackhammer and concrete work behind him. Because of this change things have been buzzing here in Southern California and at our home in the state of Washington. Lots of fun calls, lots of plans, lots of prayers, lots of excitement. So here are my favorites. First three to do with the new adventure and the last three from my week here in So.Cal.

1. A fulfilling achievement for our son.

2. Friends and siblings around him that have been spending all the time they can with him before he leaves on his new journey.

3. Older brother stepping in to take care of what we can’t from miles away.

4. Walking early morning most days with Willow and seeing some fun sights. It really has made a difference to get back into this regular routine. It’s also good because as we huff and puff we share and support each other.

5. Having a day with Dear without any “have tos” except for stopping at a donut shop and feeling like we’re kids again eating a really good donut!

6. Oh yes and my extra fave is very “sweet” indeed. Our Seattle Sounders F.C. won their first trophy by beating D.C. United in the U.S. Open Cup Final on Wednesday night. I watched the game on the soccer channel and was a screaming fan in my condo with my Sounders t-shirt on!

For all of you who live in the U.S. Happy Labor Day weekend to you. Enjoy your extra day off. For everyone else have a great weekend.

 

Tablescape Thursday ~ Roosters…

Time again to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to be inspired to set your table by seeing the creativity of Bloggers around the world.

Well I should have posted this last week when we were having our Rooster Party over at Barb’s but here it is a week late and a few dollars short. Just a few because like usual I bought most of this stuff on clearance or thrifting.

I’m happy to say we had a meal at this table way back in mid July! My brother and his wife came over for the afternoon and we went out for lunch and then barbecued Salmon for dinner. My SIL made her fabulous Mexican rice to go with the coleslaw and Salmon. Dear barbecued the Salmon so I just sat on my duff! This dinner plan worked out good because my back decided to freeze up on me after helping some young folks at our church scrape their popcorn ceilings in the morning before Tim and Letty arrived. I was also happy I had the table all set the day before so I could take the photos for Tablescape Thursday which made it easy for everyone to wait on me for dinner on Saturday.

You can see I was able to get up off the couch to snap some shots of our guests at the table and sit down again to enjoy the meal!

Just to clarify this table and dinner was way back mid July. My back is just fine today!!

 

Friday’s Fave Five ~

Time to think back just 7 days and remember your favorites. Once you’ve done that head over to Susanne’s at Living to Tell the Story and join in the fun of Friday’s Fave Five!

A boring week would be very nice but I might not see that for a little while.

It was so nice to have my daughter here with us along with her boyfriend. They flew back to Seattle on Sunday.

My daughter having lots of time with her cousins and grandparents is another favorite.

Being with my brother’s family from Dallas for more then one day makes my favorites, too. We had time at Disneyland, time at our open house on Saturday and then a few more hours on Sunday at my niece’s shower before they flew back to Dallas.

Putting on an event with my family is always a lot of fun. On Sunday my sisters and nieces and I put together a Tea Baby Shower for the next little girl who will be joining our family later in September. The time together with my nieces and all my sisters and SIL’s was wonderful.

Lastly is that yummy meal you see in the collage. Dear barbecued all that for dinner on Wednesday and it was oh so good. The Corn on the cob was my favorite. So buttery garlicky corny good.

Thanks for visiting. I really do appreciate the cyber friendships blogging has afforded me!!

 

Blue Monday~ Miss Hope with Baba & Deda!

Thank you to Smiling Sally for Blue Monday! Our sweet niece Miss Hope has been visiting from Dallas and I got some shots of her with my parents with lots of blue for Blue Monday. She only sees us a few times a year but she knows she belongs to us and embraces all of us. It is a sweet blessing from our God for all of us and her grandparents!!

This was a really busy family week. On Saturday we had an Open House celebration in Huntington Beach and on Sunday we had a shower for my niece in Orange. I have lots of photos to upload and share during this next week. I’ve been on the L.A. freeways a lot this weekend and am looking forward to a somewhat relaxed week.