Tag Archives: Family

Blue Mosaic Monday ~ Celebration!

Things have been busy around our home in Washington State. We had 18 people near and dear to us over for a celebration on the 4th. Dear barbecued Tri-tip for sandwiches and we had some great veggie sides. Cookies and Cheesecake for dessert. The center photo in the collage is of our daughter Katie. The lovely ladies in the bottom photo are Jamie, Laura (our DIL), Lucy, Katie and Bridget. Jamie, Lucy and Bridget are sisters.

On Sunday morning I drove Dear to the airport and we’ll be apart for about 4 weeks. Boohoo!  On Sunday afternoon we picked up my niece Debbee from the airport for a 3 day visit. This coming Sunday I’m helping my daughter with a Bridal shower at our home. We hope our vision for decorating the gazebo for the shower comes together…

Thanks for stopping by. To see more Mosaics visit Mary at Little Red House. To see more Blue visit Smiling Sally.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ July 3rd

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. This weeks favorites come from the State of Washington.

1. My first favorite was crossing the Columbia River into Washington from Oregon and knowing we had just 3 more hours to be at our home. We made the road-trip from California to Washington on Sunday. I will be in Washington for the next 6 weeks.

2. Having all our kids around the dinner table. It’s always fun to enjoy a meal together.

3. Getting the patio put together and ready for our 4th of July party.

4. My old double oven was getting questionable so we ordered a new one. It arrived on Thursday and Dear installed it. I’m going to bake some cookies on Friday to break it in and test it!

5. I love summer fruit. My favorite is a Nectarine. I’ve been enjoying some this week.

If you are living in the U.S.A. I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July.

 

Tablescape Thursday ~ In Honor of the 4th!

Well I’m thinking we are going to see a lot of Red, White and Blue this week on our tables. It’s time for Tablescape Thursday so visit our hostess Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to see a variety of tables decked out for our viewing pleasure!

Dear and I arrived to our home in Washington on Sunday night after 15 hours on the road. We drove from California. I will be in Washington for the next 6 weeks. Dear flies back to California on Sunday. Boohoo! On Monday evening we had all our kids around the table for a meal. Now that is a wonderful thing.

I decided to bring out the red, white and blue for the week. On Saturday we’re having a gathering so this will serve as the buffet table for that event.

For those of you who live in the U.S.A.,  hope you all have safe and sane 4th of July celebrations. Thanks for stopping by…

 

Jeff & Heather ~ June 27, 2009

On our road-trip to Seattle we stopped in Clovis for Jeff and Heather’s wedding. Jeff is my cousin Jim’s youngest son. It was a wonderful ceremony and reception. I appreciated how relaxed and unpretentious the whole event was. The couples youth and college pastor performed the ceremony and it made it very personal as he had many great experiences with the couple as they’ve grown and matured. We laughed  a lot, even during the ceremony. The recessional was to the Indiana Jones theme…

The colors the bride chose were vibrant summer colors. The reception hall was a gymnasium but the elaborate ceiling feature with the flowing fabric and string lights softened the room beautifully. Thank goodness for air conditioning because it was 102 degrees in Clovis during the wedding.

That’s a lot of yards of fabric! The centerpieces were individual mini cakes. Each table had a different flavor layered cake. Fun idea. After Jeff and Heather cut their cake and had a bite we all were able to serve ourselves at our individual tables.

My cousins with their spouses and kids. One of Jim and Jeanie’s sons isn’t in this photo.

The Father and Mother of the groom. My cousins and sister Kathy. The bottom left photo is of Jeanie, her sister Kathy, (who is Kathy B. from Count it All Joy) and me. The last photo is of my long time friends.

My parents. My cousin Katrina and her daughter Kristen. My long time friend Heidi and Ken. In the last photo we managed to get a shot of the Ben who was missing in the other family photo with my parents, the bride and groom and my sister Kathy.

Fun times. You should have seen the dance moves the groom and his brother Ben have…quite impressive! They were really cutting the rug! Congratulations Jeff and Heather! May God bless you richly and protect your marriage!

And in the world of the mundane… my time at the computer is limited these days. Today Dear and I are off to the hairdresser and then we have to buy a replacement oven and get it installed. I hope to get some free time soon to visit…

Roadtrip!

We’re hitting the road today to Seattle. On the way we are stopping overnight in Clovis for Jeff and Heather’s wedding. Jeff is my cousin Jim’s youngest son. Jim’s wife Jeanie was my best friend in college at Cal State L.A. I introduced her to my cousin and they got married the same year Dear and I were married. At the wedding we’ll get to see family and friends. I’m looking forward to seeing Jeanie’s sister Kathy B. who has become a wonderful bloggy friend of mine. My parents and sister Kathy will also be at the wedding. We’ll hit the road bright and early on Sunday morning and drive straight through to Seattle.

If you don’t see me around the blogisphere for a few days you’ll know why…

Friday’s Fave Five ~

Time to look over your last week and recall your favorites!  Click on over to Susanne’s blog Living to Tell the Story to join in or see others favorites.

My favorites were very easy this week and revolved around our son Josh flying in for a quick overnight visit!

We picked Josh up at the Long Beach airport Saturday morning and drove across town to L.A. (right next door to Glendale) to have lunch at Tam O’ Shanter. Wonderful prime rib and wonderful old fashioned service!

From the Tam O’ Shanter we headed to the Heritage Square Museum in Los Angeles to see the great preservation efforts of some wonderful homes and for a classic car show.

So here’s the real reason our son flew down to L.A… For the Seattle Sounders Soccer game against the 1st place L.A. team, Chivas! We were just killing time at the restaurant and Heritage Square until game time :0)  There were 9 of us from my family at the game and a very boisterous Southern California Sounders fan base that we sat next to! We lost 1-0 but we still had a wonderful time.

Here’s our son Josh making friends with our opponents! Josh is such a great peacemaker!!

On Sunday before we took Josh to the airport we had a family lunch at my sisters house. Fun times with Baba and Deda and cousins and aunts and uncles on my side of the family and Dear’s side of the family, too. The time flew by and we dropped Josh off at the airport and then tried to recover from all the fun!

My last favorite from this last week was discovering the historic area of Oxnard. I love old wonderful architecture and wide tree lined streets filled with fabulous homes!!

I look forward to seeing your favorites from this past week. Thank you Susanne for being our hostess for this great weekly event!

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!!

 

Friday’s Fave Fives ~ Memorial Weekend

My favorites for this week are all from Seattle. Sweet Susanne from Living to Tell the Story is our gracious hostess for this event. Click on over to join in or to see more favorites!

1. Enjoying time with our kids. We ate together, shopped at Goodwill together, worked together, watched soccer together, and played Rock Band together. Fun times.

2. Enjoying the Sunshine in Seattle. There’s nothing like a sunshiny day in the Seattle Area. It was even warmer than Camarillo.

3. Getting our house semi-organized now that the tile is down in the basement. We were able to move things back to where they belong and freed up our guest room area again. We still have a lot to do in the basement to call it “done”.  That will be our summer project.

4. Eating out after all our hard work instead of eating in and creating more dishes to wash :0)

5. Walks in the Seattle area when it’s a little cloudy with the sun peeking through…wonderful. Click here to see all the birds I saw at Juanita Bay Park.

Hope you all have had a good week. I look forward to reading about your favorites!

Foodie Friday ~ Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars with Chocolate/Butterscotch Topping

It’s time for Foodie Friday and I’m re-posting this very popular Rice Krispie Bar recipe. Gollum at Designs by Gollum is the hostess for this weekly event. I made these for my kids for our Memorial Day Celebration in Washington State!

To make these wonderful bars you will need 1 cup sugar, 1 cup Karo Light Corn Syrup, 1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter, 6 cups Rice Krispies, 1 cup Butterscotch Chips and 1 cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.

Bring 1 cup sugar and 1 cup Karo light syrup just to a boil mixing well. Take off heat and add 1 cup peanut butter and mix till smooth.

Add 6 cups Rice Krispies and mix till all the krispies are coated well.

Put this mixture into a well greased 9×12 pan and press down evenly into the pan. Empty chips into microwaveable bowl and microwave at 3-30second intervals, mixing well after each 30 seconds. Mix together till smooth. (You can use the double boiler method to melt your chips if you prefer). Pour entire mixture on top of the pressed down Rice Krispies and spread to cover. Let them cool and then enjoy!

All righty then…I’m going to do some shameless name-dropping so if you can’t stand that sort of thing stop reading right now. The very first time I enjoyed these bars was at a Young Marrieds Sunday School event in the late Seventies. The gal that made these bars and brought them to share is George Lucas’ sister. Yes, the George Lucas of Star Wars fame.  She and her husband were in our Sunday School Class at Huntington Beach E.V. Free Church. Fun times.