Tag Archives: Family

The Beach at Dawn

Welcome to the 2nd Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. This past weekend Dear and I spent a lot of time on several different beaches in California. These dawn photos are taken at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California on Saturday morning.

Being walkers with the dawn and morning,

Walkers with the sun and morning,

We are not afraid of night,

Nor days of gloom,

Nor darkness–

Being walkers with the sun and morning.

– Langston Hughes

Visit Susan at A Southern Daydreamer to view more Outdoor Wednesday posts.

 

Happy Birthday Josh!

Our first born son Josh turns the big 3-0 today! Happy birthday to you, Josh. We are so thankful to God that he has blessed you with the perfect wife in Laura. Your love for people has always been such a blessing in our family’s life. God is good to you and we thank Him for that. We are amazed that 30 years have flown by so quickly. May God continue to richly bless you and Laura all the days of your life.

Okay, since I did a delivery story for Dan I’ll add one for you, too. You were a little late in deciding to enter the world so you put on a few pounds. In the delivery room while I pushed the nurse had to push down just below my diaphram to help you exit into the world. Considering your size it was amazing that it only took 30 minutes of pushing to have you out and breathing air! When they weighed you and announced you were 10 pounds we were all amazed. What joy we had and what a spiritual moment it was when we experienced the miracle of birth for the first time.

Metamorphosis Monday

Welcome to Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. I really think this is going to be fun. I’m in different stages of metamorphosing some things so for today I’m digging one up from the past. Now don’t be too shocked when you see the “before” shot.

My daughter’s room before…

My daughter’s room after I helped her clean up (What a nice mommy, I am)

Now all we have to do is re-decorate!!

For more transformations visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Happy Birthday Dan!

Happy Birthday to our son Dan. Dan was born 28 years ago today, on a Friday, at 12:30 in the afternoon. We barely made it into the delivery room and were just inside the doorway when he had to be caught. The nurses just didn’t believe how fast I tend to dilate from 5 to crowning. It’s fast people.  This wasn’t the first doctor I shocked. (JUDITH!!) Daniel’s doctor was so upset that the nurses didn’t call him on time that he hit the hospital floor yelling and cussing at them. When he continued his diatribe through the very quick delivery and with Daniel on my tummy, Dear leaned over, covered Daniel’s ears, and said “Don’t listen to him”. I thought that was so great on Dear’s part and it made the doctor finally shut up!

Our son Dan is a hard working strong man who can make us all laugh with his wit at the most unsuspecting times. We love you Dan!

 

ABC Wednesday ~ The Los Angeles Zoo

Welcome to ABC Wednesday. We are on the letter Z. Yikes, the end of the Alphabet.

What fun I had meeting my brother, his wife, little Hope, my niece Michelle and her son, Jackson at the Los Angeles Zoo the week of Christmas!

My brother was here with his family from Dallas to celebrate Christmas with all of us. Hope will be 1 in January. What a joy to spend time with them all.

My niece Michelle and her son Jackson live in the L.A. area and they joined us for the fun.

It was a nice cool day at the Zoo and the animals were out and about. We saw a Kookabura. We were singing the Kookabura song for quite a while. But since we are on the letter Z, this song would be more appropriate…

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Zip a dee doo-dah, zip a dee ay
My, oh my, what a wonderful day.
Plenty of sunshine headed my way.
Zip a dee doo-dah, zip a dee ay

Mister bluebird on my shoulder
It’s the truth, it’s actual.
Everything is satisfactual.

Zip a dee doo-dah, zip a dee ay
Wonderful feelin’.
Wonderful day.

Lyrics by Ray Gilbert and Allie Wrubel.

 

Since we are on the letter Z, I couldn’t ignore the Zebras!

This photo is of my brother Leonard and me pushing the strollers at the zoo.

For more ABC Wednesday posts on the Letter Z visit the ABC Blog.

 

Blue Monday ~ Gifts From My Sons…

Welcome to Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally from Florida. Each Monday we’re invited to post something blue to share. Click over to Sally’s to see more blue or to join in with something blue on your blog.

Both of my sons gave me blue gifts this Christmas. My 2nd born son Dan gave me that soft Adidas warm up jacket that I’ve enjoyed wearing already. The Soccer jersey from my firstborn Josh and his wife Laura is an away jersey for our very own Seattle Sounders FC. This year is the first year Seattle has a MLS Soccer team. Josh bought season tickets. My boys know their mom learned to love soccer after years of driving them to and watching them play at school and in special leagues. Soccer became my favorite sport to watch. You’ll catch me watching English league soccer during the week on cable. When World Cup Soccer comes around I try to catch every single game televised even if they are on at 4:00 a.m.  One sport I’m sure to watch during the Olympics is Soccer.

Thanks for visiting my Blue today and I hope you all have a great week.

Pink Saturday ~ L.A. Zoo

Welcome to another round of Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

The week before Christmas I met my brother, SIL, young niece, older niece, and grand nephew at the Los Angeles Zoo. Our very first stop was to have a look at the Pink Flamingos. Leonard and Mandy were giving me a hard time and as soon as we spotted the Pink Flamingos they said “Oh perfect for Pink Saturday”. After this stop we were off to see the other animals in the Zoo. My full Zoo post will be for ABC Wednesday next week since we are on Z. Yep they had to kid me about that one, too.

This is my brother Leonard with his daughter Hope who turns 1 this month and me and my grandnephew Jackson who just turned 4 in November. He’s holding the map and helping us navigate. Mandy, Hope’s mother and Michelle, Jackson’s mom were ahead of us and Michelle took this photo.

For more Pink Saturday Posts go click away at Beverly’s!

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Black and Gold

Welcome to another round of Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Today I’m sharing the table I set for an early birthday dinner for our two sons. Both of their birthdays are in January and Dear and I will not be in Washington on their birthdays so we decided to celebrate with them while we were still in Washington last Friday night.

I bought these great black and gold dishes at Target Christmas clearance. I got 8 dinner plates and 8 salad plates for under $30. I thought they had a more masculine feel than some of my other dishes for the guys!

The heavy black iron candle holder for the centerpiece with the Fleur de lis design was a find at Goodwill a while back. Again, I liked the heavier bulkier look for the guys.

Christmas clearance at Target was great. I went on the day everything was 75% off. The Fleur de lis napkin rings were under $5 for 8 of them. The little gold cocktail napkins were $1.24 for a 4 pack. The two pack of goblets that I decided to turn into candle holders were clearance also but I forget how much. The shimmery gold tablecloth was originally from the Pottery Barn that I bought at Goodwill. Now the really great thing about this tablescape is that we actually sat down and ate dinner at it. It was a great time of celebrating Josh and Dan’s lives and thanking God for them and how they’ve enriched all of our lives!

Josh is married to Laura and all four of these young adults graduated from Inglemoor Highschool in the Northshore School District of Washington in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.  They chuckled at the fact that Black and Gold were their High School colors! Go Vikings! My sister Lana G! was able to join us for our dinner celebration, too. Fun times….

For more Tablescapes around the blogisphere visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

 

Fave Five on Friday!

1. Well it will be no surprise that at the top of my favorites for this past week is spending extra time with all my children. (And it hasn’t been a soap opera). On Saturday we did our belated family Christmas with stockings and Dear’s Swedish pancakes for breakfast. Later on that same day we had a birthday dinner for our daughter Katie. Since we will be in California for both Josh and Dan’s January birthdays we are celebrating tonight with a dinner for them.

2. It’s always great to see all the guys working together. Here they are shoveling snow off the drive to our house and two of our neighbor’s houses. We are really pleased the snow has almost disappeared.

3. I’ve been talking about wanting some more substantial nativities and Dear bought me both these sets for Christmas. They are both very different and I like them very much.

4. We revived a favorite dessert from days gone by this week that has always been enjoyed. You cook up vanilla pudding and while it is still hot you pour it over a generous scoop of good chocolate ice cream. Yum you get some great hot and cold and added creamy goodness in every bite!  Having Dear’s wonderful Tomato Rice Peasant Soup was so good, too!

5. On New Year’s Day we met our dear friends Dave, Jody, Bob and Jan at McCormick and Shmicks Restaurant in Downtown Seattle for Happy Hour. It was wonderful sitting and talking for a couple hours over great Happy Hour Menu food. We had Salmon burgers, Black Bean Chicken Quesadillas and Oysters for $1.95 each! We also tried the Cod sandwich which was $3.95 and delicious! Sheesh, can’t beat that with a stick! We love these friends who we’ve gone through thick and thin with…

To see more Fave Fives or to join on in visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.