Tag Archives: Family

Friday’s Fave Five ~ The Happiest Place on Earth…

FRIDAY!! This week got away from me. Thank you Susanne for encouraging us with this weekly exercise of “looking back” and being thankful for our favorites from the past week. Click on over to Living to Tell the Story to join in…

 

1. So we made it safe and a little bit crazy back to Southern California on Sunday. My favorite part of our 18 hour trip in the car was listening to Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix on cds. There are 23 cds and we only got up to #15. Listening to books on cd really helps me endure the boredom of road travel especially through Central California.

2. Came home to a nice clean condo which quickly had every inch of floor space filled with inflatable beds because my daughter and her boyfriend made the trip with us and are staying here for a week.

3. On Wednesday I met up with 10 family members to enjoy the day at Disneyland. My sister Lana G! treated me royally that day paying for my ticket and all my food.

4. Spending time with my brother Leonard, his wife Mandy and my niece Hope. We get to see them once or twice a year since they live in Texas.

5. Watching Miss Hope (my niece) and Jackson (my grand nephew) interact with each other. Miss Hope really enjoys having Jack in her sights. She is pointing out his nose for him in the collage.

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.

North and South…

 

We left our home in Washington Sunday at 5:15 A.M. and made it to our Condo in Southern California at 11:30 P.M. This photo was taken in Southern Washington before we crossed the border into Oregon.

Today I’m unpacking and trying to get organized for the week. We have our daughter and her boyfriend here, too. I’m dodging 2 extra inflatable beds on the floor in the living area and our bedroom. Ben and Katie are busy and away each day doing all the dizzy parks. I’ll have a couple days of floor space this week while they stay with our nieces in Orange County. Wednesday is family day at the “Happiest Place on Earth”. A lot of us are meeting up to spend the day together and see Miss Hope in action.

Hope everyone’s week is going well…

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.

Road Trip, Overnight Guests, and Reunions Oh My!

Today I’m doing all the last minute things I need to do for our trip back to the Condo in Southern California. Our daughter Katie and her boyfriend Ben are road tripping with us and then staying in Southern California with us for a week. My brother Leonard and his wife Mandy and their daughter Miss Hope arrive in Southern California on Tuesday. We have extended family events planned for the week. I do not know how much blogging will occur.

I wanted to share some fun events coming up in blog land with you before I disappear for a while.

On Tuesday August 18th I’m pleased to announce I’ll be guest posting on Sandy’s blog ~4 Reluctant Entertainers. If you’ve never visited her blog you should. She really is a gifted lady and has great ideas on incorporating hospitality in your home. You’ll also enjoy her recipes and photographs.

On Saturday August 22nd the next Round Robin Photo Challenge is Birds! Don’t let this one fly by! You can sign up for this challenge by following the simple directions here.

On Tuesday August 25th there’s a Let there be White Party hosted by Kathleen at Cuisine Kathleen. Click on over to get the details…

On August 28th there’s a Show Us Your Roosters party hosted at Bella Vista by Barb.

Then on September 11th there’s a 2nd Cloche Party hosted by Marty at A Stroll Thru Life.

Hope to see you all soon.

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ The Great Northwest…

Thank you to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for starting this weekly event where we consider the last week and share some of our favorite things.

My favorites this week are the things I love about being home in The Northwest. On Sunday we leave the Seattle area bright and early and drive 1200 miles back to Southern California where Dear and I have been living the last 3 years.

 

One of my favorite things about the Northwest are the trees. I really enjoy big trees. When I look out the windows of my house I can see sky and trees. I can see the sun setting from my bed in my upper story. Early for bed you think? Maybe, but remember in the summer the sun sets later in the great Northwest!

I enjoy pampering my kids and feeding them when I’m here even though they are adults and can fend for themselves. I probably run the dishwasher once maybe twice a week at our little condo in Southern California. When I’m home in Washington I run it once sometimes twice in one day! It’s also fun to see the kids spend one on one time with their dad. Each of our kids is so unique and it’s fun to see this come out in what kind of things they do with their dad…

 

I love my hairdresser here in Seattle and Friday I’ll get my hair cut and roots taken care of  before I head back South.

 

This is Sherri cutting my daughter Katie’s hair…

Some of my favorite places to shop are Goodwill in Washington and the Fred Meyer stores. I know there are Goodwill stores in every state but the ones in Washington just seem to be cleaner and better organized.

I really enjoy the space I have around my home in Washington. It’s not huge just about 1/3 acre but that affords privacy and quiet that I don’t get in Southern California.

 

Now just to be fair to Southern California I will post my favorite things about Southern California and my little condo soon!!

Click on over to Susanne’s on Friday to see more favorites or to join in the fun!

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.

Mosaic Monday ~ Our Beauty Amongst the Flowers…

Please Scroll Down for Thrifty Monday…

 

All these photos were taken at Butchart Gardens this past week. The beauty in the center is our daughter Katie! :0)

To see more mosaics visit Mary at Little Red House.

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.

A Week Filled With Favorites!

It’s time to visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun of remembering our favorites from this past week.

 

At the very top of the list is the good extended time we’ve had with our kids this past week. We had meals together, went to church together, traveled to Canada together, enjoyed sporting events together, and cared for each other.

 

On Tuesday when Dear, Katie and I traveled to Vancouver Island and back we saw a great Sunrise and Sunset.

 

Finding great places to eat when we’re traveling is a favorite thing of mine! We really enjoyed our eating adventures on Vancouver Island and back home, too.

 

Seeing signs that remind us of good books we’ve read  is always fun.

Enjoying all of God’s creation intensified in a beautiful garden and out on the waterways…

Looking forward to seeing all your favorites from this past week!

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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Where’s My Brain?

When I woke up today and wondered what day of the week it was it dawned on me that I forgot all about Friday’s Fave Five. Scramble, scramble here we go. Thank you Susanne for helping me keep my days straight! Visit Living to Tell the Story for more favorites or to join in.

 

1. On Sunday I was still in Southern California and Dear and I met his brother and wife for a birthday brunch at the Tam O Shanter in L.A. We don’t get together very often with T and C and it was fun to catch up a bit and enjoy a good meal together. Turning 60 is a very good excuse for a nice meal.

2. On Monday Willow and I were able to get a early morning walk in and it was hot, hot, hot already. It was good to catch up since we hadn’t walked for a couple weeks. What a surprise to see the  Jacarandas still blooming.

3. Monday evening I flew to Seattle in a smaller plane where the seats were closer together and smaller then usual (is that’s possible?) but I had a window seat and got some fun shots of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. I arrived in Seattle to warm temps, too.

4. Tuesday evening I joined my kids and a friend at the U.S. Open Cup game at a small venue to see the Sounders beat Houston 2-1 in overtime. It was an exciting game and fun to be right on the field. Again it was very hot.

5. Making blueberry muffins with blueberries from my bush was another fun treat this week.

My daughter’s sunburn is finally in a tolerable stage and it’s good to see her feeling so much better. Wednesday was a very hard day around here. Friday is really looking up!!

Blessings and I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve been up to.

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.

Give Me My Babushka’s Cooking

IMGP9094

For Foodie Friday I’m posting this paragraph my daughter wrote about her Babushka’s cooking and a recipe and how to make my mom’s Borsch following it.

  • Gimme my Babushka’s cooking and I’ll be content

  • The sort of Russian/Persian cuisine that my Baba (Grandma) makes… I would be a happy camper for a year with yummy borscht, galupsi, kulyich, syrny paska, lapsha, varenky, shashlik, and a million other treats that I would butcher just as badly trying to spell in English…I can say most of them but they’re sure hard to type. Just make sure you give me a good supply of sour cream, and can I bend the rules to include my Mom’s “green borscht” which is spinach soup we chop up hardboiled eggs in? I was never entirely sure where that soup’s origins really lay…I could never get sick of all the lamb and cabbage and butter filled goodness, heck I even like the Russian candies my Deda (Grandpa) keeps around though none of my cousins do. My mouth is watering already. ~ Katie
  • borsch-snoqualmie-001
  • Many Borsch recipes include beets in them. The familiar Borsch that we grew up with and that we had at Molokan Church Meals did not have beets in it. Here is my mother’s recipe.

    Nadia’s Borsch

    For the Stock:
    1 Chuck Roast (with bone would be good)
    1 onion
    1-3 celery stalks with leaves
    2-3 carrots
    2 bay leaves
    5-10 peppercorns
    Salt to taste

    In a big stock pot, cover chuck roast with good water. Bring just to boil. Take roast out of water and discard the water. Put chuck roast back in pot and cover with fresh water again. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Simmer and cook until roast is fork tender. Strain the stock. Reserve the roast.

    1 head of cabbage shredded (green is what we use)
    1-3 carrots grated
    1-2 onions diced
    1 bell pepper diced

    2-3 stalks of celery diced

    (saute the bell pepper, onion, celery and jalapeno then blend before adding to stock)
    2-3 potatoes diced
    2 cans stewed tomatoes blended in blender (we have those that don’t like chunky tomatoes)
    1 can tomato sauce
    1/2-small bunch of dill (to taste)
    1 handful of chopped Italian parsley
    salt and pepper to taste
    optional – 1 can of garbanzo beans
    option #2 – add a small jalapeno diced to the saute group above.

    Put the strained broth back into a stock pot. Add all the above ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer until cabbage and carrots are tender. Taste and see if the soup needs more salt or pepper at this time.

    The Borsch is ready now.

    My mother doesn’t include this in her recipe but when she made borsch at my house once I saw her add a half a cube of unsalted butter at the end. :) My mother mashes most of the potatoes to thicken up the soup a bit.

    You can bake the chuck roast with a little of the stock, salt, pepper, and sauteed onions to serve alongside the borsch with a good loaf of bread and of course…sour cream. This was my welcome home meal for my kids on one of my trips back to Seattle a couple years ago.

    I hope you enjoyed this post from my archives. I think it is high time I make borsch again and take some new pictures.

  • 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.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Seattle?, L.A?, Where Am I?

Thanks to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story we’re encouraged to look back over the last 7 days and remember a few of our favorite things.

 

My life confuses me some times. Dear and I are living in Southern California right now and for the past 3 years because of his work but we still call the Seattle area “home” and that is where our house and kids reside. For the past couple years I’ve spent about 6 weeks in July and August at our home in Seattle. After 2 weeks in Seattle I unexpectedly had to fly back to Southern California this week to attend a funeral. I’ll be in So. Cal. for 6 days and head back to Seattle on Monday night. So here are 5 of my faves…

1. My blueberry bush has ripe blueberries and every morning in Washington I go out in my jammies with weird hair and in front of the birds and the early going to workers and pick a good bunch for my cereal. I love this ritual.

2. My daughter and I had a great time transforming our deck gazebo into a Moroccan tent for a shower she gave her friend. It’s fun to work along side each other and enjoy the time and the results.

 

3. Being unexpectedly reunited with Dear for 6 days. It breaks up our time apart which is a good thing. He’ll be flying to Seattle on July 31st for two weeks and then we’ll return to Southern California together.

4. Attending Sophie’s funeral. I know this probably sounds weird to a lot of you that it is a favorite but this great old lady (95-1/2) wanted to die and be with Jesus and she finally got her wish. The wonderful part of attending the funeral was being reunited with church family from 35 years ago and singing together again and boy did we sing a lot and every stanza and with music and a cappella.

5. It was also nice to see my older brother at the funeral. I hadn’t seen him for at least 5 years and it was good to see him face to face.

Looking forward to seeing your favorites!

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.

Sophie Wozniuk ~ December 25, 1913-July 9, 2009

 

What a wonderful celebration of Sophie’s life we had at her funeral on Wednesday. Sophie is my oldest sister Kathy’s MIL. Kathy and her husband Len cared for her for several years right up to her death last Thursday night. Sophie was a spunky hard working lady. She has 3 daughters Lil, Laureen, Ruth and one son, my BIL Len. Len charged us from the beginning of the memorial service that we were going to rejoice with his mom who was finally in heaven. Sophie loved her Savior Jesus Christ.  Heaven was her theme and desire for the last 20 years. This last year it became her daily prayer to God, for Him to please take her home.

 

Len and my sister sang a duet in Russian and English. Len’s sisters Ruth and Laureen, 2 of my sisters Kathy and Lana G, my niece Michelle, and an lifetime friend Diane sang a sextet of Psalm 121 put to music. My father gave a word from Micah. My nieces shared some stories about their Baba. The oldest grandson Phil (Lil’s Son) read her Eulogy. Another Grandson Greg (Laureen’s son) spoke of remembrances of her and read her favorite Psalm 121. My brother Steve spoke and wove a wonderful message about Sophie’s Song using some great old hymns and referencing the songs of women in the Bible.

 

 

Len was our choir director at Bethany Baptist Church in L.A. (A Russian Baptist Church) many years ago and we were led in song again by him at the funeral. It was a great reunion of so many of our Russian friends and relatives who have all gone their separate ways. Fun times looking at a face we recognized but forgetting the name attached to it. Wozniuks, Semenchuks, Leonovich, Katkovs,  Menns, Bagdanovs, Titovs, Shvetzovs, Kudraves, Kaluzny, Goncharenko, Rudametkin, Kowalski, Wlasiuk, Poulsons, Kuzichev, Moure, Philipchuk and more.  We sang at the service, we sang at the graveside and we kept singing at the dinner reception afterwards.

 

My nieces are trying to sneak a photo of me taking photos but I caught them!

 

All Sophie’s grandchildren that were at the funeral released a balloon for her…

 

My niece Michelle with her husband Ryan and their son Jackson. Doesn’t she look so cute pregnant. They are expecting a little baby girl in September. I got my sister Lana G! to pause a moment to get a photo taken with Michelle. The case that this bouquet of flowers are in belonged to Sophie’s husband Tony.

 

My cousin Jim and his wife my friend Jeaneen and my friend Heidi and her husband Ken. Heidi and I met and became friends at the Russian Baptist church. I met Jeaneen in college and introduced her to my cousin Jim.

 

Shirley, Bobbi and their mom Nura Menn. Shirley is another one of my buddies from the Baptist church. Her mom Nura is my Aunt Nina’s sister. Phil Semenchuk (Phil’s mom is one of Sophie’s daughters) with his fiance Anna. Milla and Susie. Milla’s father was our aunt Nina’s brother. Milla’s parents were friends with my parents in Iran and remained close when they both immigrated to the U.S.A. Milla’s sister Tamera was at the funeral, too, but I didn’t get a good photo of her. We always called their parents aunt and uncle.

 

My brothers Steve and Fred with my sister Lana G!  This is the very first current photo you’ve seen on my blog of my brother Fred. I was happy to see him at the funeral.

 

My brother Fred and my cousin Jim with my nieces, nephews and SIL Kelly in the background.

 

My partner in travel and crime in my early college years…

 

 

My cousin Jim, sister Kathy, brother Fred, sister Vera, our Aunt’s niece Milla, ellen b, my sister Lana G!, and my brother Steve.

 

Kathy, Vera, Fred, Ellen, Lana, and Steve. (Tim and Leonard are the two siblings missing in this photo)

I have found that people are so loving and attentive at funerals. It’s as if our mortality sinks in for a time and we take care to let each other know that we love them and care for them. It truly was a great time of reunion for me. We ended our time by singing  “God be with you till we meet again”

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.