Tag Archives: Friends

Jamie & Sarly’s Wedding

Our Son Dan’s best friend Jamie got married yesterday.

 

They’ve been friends a long time. This is the two of them on the way to and at Lakeside Bible Camp the summer of 1990.

 

Here they are 18 years later still the best of friends celebrating this wonderful event. Over the years that these two have been friends our families have grown close, too. There will always be a special place in our hearts for the Dickinson Family.

 

The wedding was held at Jardin Del Sol in the town of Snohomish, Washington. It was a beautiful outdoor setting. Dear arrived in Washington the night before and it was wonderful to have him here to enjoy this great celebration with us.

 

Sarly was a stunning bride. Jamie and Sarly composed their own vows. They had a sand ceremony instead of a candle ceremony symbolizing two becoming one. Sarly’s brother read a poem he wrote for the couple.

Sarly and her mother as she walked down the aisle.

 

The happy “Just Married” Mr. and Mrs. Jamie Dickinson!

 

On the way to the first dance showered with bubbles.

 

 

 

Dave and Beth have 3 sons, Matt, Aaron, and Jamie. These are some photos of the Dickinson Family.

 

The wedding party. Our son Dan is in the three middle shots. Oops, I kinda concentrated on the guys. Sorry girls!

 

Dan during the ceremony

 

Here’s Dan toasting Jamie and Sarly and entertaining us with stories of how he first became friends with Jamie back in grade school. All of the groomsmen and bridesmaids gave toasts.

 

After dinner it was time for the cake. Then on to more dancing. The Bride with her father and the groom with his mother.

 

I think these are such sweet mother and son shots!

 

 

Sarly enjoying the tenderness of this moment, too.

 

This is Dave and Beth’s newest little granddaughter. She is so cute and what a little trooper, she managed to stay awake through all the festivities without a fuss! Beth is so excited to finally have some girls in the family.

 

Laura, Josh, Jamie and Sarly.

Katie and Laura

 

Dear and Dan sharing a Cuban Cigar. This is a very rare moment… “The smoking the cigar part”

 

It’s so nice for Dear and I to be together finally for the next two weeks in Seattle. After that we drive back to our condo in Southern California.

 

Congratulations Jamie and Sarly. We had a wonderful time at your wedding. We will always hope for the best and God’s richest blessings for the two of you in your life together.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

Awards and Stuff

Before this week gets away from me I wanted to acknowledge simultaneous awards I received from two Bloggy friends.

Thank you Willow and Thank you Scrabble Queen

Thank you very much for this kind acknowledgement. I appreciate it. I’ve met Willow and we’ve become walking buddies in California. I told Scrabble Queen that it would be so wonderful to have a bloggy tea party so we could meet. Blessings on you both.

I’m going to share my bouquet of flowers that I bought at the Kirkland Farmer’s Market Yesterday for you all to enjoy.

 

 

Before I headed to the Farmer’s Market yesterday I managed to get a lot of steps in walking around Juanita Bay again. It was a cloudy day compared to last time I did the walk. Since I only had 4491 steps at the end of the day on Tuesday I was determined to do better on Wednesday. When I finally layed my head on the pillow I had walked 12,895 steps! Whoohoo! Here are a couple photos from my walk.

 

 

Have a wonderful day. I’m trying to get motivated to get out and walk again…

A Lily Bouquet from Jan ~

My dear friend Jan grows several beautiful varieties of lilies and she brought me a bouquet at our walk last week.

 

Aren’t they just gorgeous. She has a green thumb and loves her lilies. I think they know she does.

 

So beautiful and so fragrant.

 

Anybody else see what I see on the wall behind this fresh bouquet of lilies?

Thank you Jan! I’ve really enjoyed my bouquet…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

Friday Morning in Bellevue, Washington

 

I rode over to Bellevue this morning to check out the Bellevue Festival of Arts…

 

There were lots of interesting handcrafted, painted, sculpted, wrought, things to see. I had to take a picture of a quilt for Ivory Spring and a picture of a Knitting booth for Willow. Aren’t those masks made out of feathers interesting? I clocked 7000 steps and decided to go to where I’m willing to spend a lot less on treasures…The Bellevue Goodwill. On my way back to the car I had to take a photo of the reflections in the high rise buildings in downtown Bellevue.

 

Now off to Goodwill and here’s what I found this trip.

 

I nabbed a large what looks to be Russian Teapot for $5.99. The Cake plate and cover were $9.00. The sweet plates (6 of them) were $.99 each. The Pink glass tea cups and saucers were $2.99 each (a little pricey) but I think they look great on the mint and pink rose trimmed plates. My favorite purchase today is the “Russian teapot”

 

 

I found a couple of Goodwill items for my bloggy friends in Southern California that I’ve gotten together with face to face, Willow and Sara. I met Sara in person at the Getty Villa. I met Willow in my hometown in California. When we are both in town Willow and I try to walk Monday thru Friday.

For Willow from Willow’s Cottage who likes blue, I found this pretty blue decantor/vase (made in Italy)

And for Sara from Much Ado About Something this book that she has been on a quest to find…

I got real nervous when I saw the Edith Holdren book you found at the book store and was happy it wasn’t this one. So you can stop looking, Sara.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

4th of July at Our House

Do you know why bloggers wear aprons when they are hosting a party? Why to have a pocket for their camera, of course! So convenient, always at your side, or front as the pocket may be…

So we ended up having 14 over for a meal, conversation, Ticket to Ride, and more. The doc and his wife couldn’t make it because someone’s baby decided to be born on the 4th of July.

 

Of course there was enough food for 24. That’s the curse of growing up in a large family, you tend to make way more and buy way more than you really need :0)

 

Some of the “Usual Suspects”. We always love it when little Finn gets to come and he brings his parents along. Oops, I didn’t get pictures of his parents but I did get some of his Auntie Jamie.

 

Finn loves our son Josh. He’s helping Josh make some strategic moves in the game Ticket to Ride. Ticket to Ride is a cross country train adventure.

We learned this great trick from Finn’s grandmother, Jody. This is the quick way to baby proof your cabinets. This is a hair thingee, pony tail thingee, you know what I mean. You just twist it around the knobs.

 

We ended our meal with some Russian Royal Tea of Czar Nicholas II.

It was a wonderful day and a lovely celebration of our freedom in the USA. Blessings on y’all.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Up To The Rehearsal Dinner and Beyond…

Praise God from whom all blessings flow everything came together beautifully for the Rehearsal Dinner. We served Brisket, Barbecued Chicken, Pasta Salad, Potato Salad, Barbecue Beans, Fruit Skewers and Rolls. For dessert we had assorted goodies, Nazook, Bite size Brownies, Madelines, Scones, and Bite size blueberry muffins. The picture above is Dear loading the Barbecue to take to the Bride’s house where we were having the rehearsal dinner.

 

It was so much fun to have everyone chipping in to help make this a night to remember.

 

Don’t ask, we don’t know what my nephew Levi had in mind when he put Jackson on Josh’s shoulders here but Jackson sure is intent on reaching up to the sky. Jackson is my Grandnephew and He was the Ring bearer at the wedding. And while we are on the subject of our Prince Jackson, here is a collage of our Princess, my new niece Hope!

 

She is 5 months old now and really got loved on during all our family gatherings surrounding the wedding. She lives in Dallas with her mom and dad so this was the first time most of her cousins and Aunts and Uncles got to meet her.

We know how to cram fun into a weekend people. On Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. we met our dear friends from Seattle, Dave and Jody, for a walk at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura. We met Dave and Jody 23 years ago in Ventura at Bible Fellowship Church and we’ve been great friends ever since. They live in the Seattle area now, too, and were down in Ventura for a medical function at Ventura County Hospital. Even though the wedding was later in the day we were thrilled to be able to have an hour to walk and talk with them.

 

On Saturday after our walk with Dave and Jody we met part of the family and wedding party at Brent’s deli for brunch/lunch. There were 20 of us enjoying good Jewish Deli food. Pastrami on Rye, Matzo Ball soup, kosher pickles, lox and bagels…

 

 

Look at the size of that Matzo ball in that soup! We really had a good time here and it was great to see the groom, our nephew Tim, before the wedding.

On the way home from brunch we fit in a little shopping trip to the Camarillo Outlet Mall. We hit Banana Republic, Puma, and Betsy Johnson where Katie tried on this fun coat.

 

We made it home in plenty of time to get all dressed up for the Main Event. Tomorrow or Wednesday I hope to post the Wedding photos.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

8 Random Things About My Kitchen ~ Meme

Hello everyone! We made it to Seattle at 12:30 A.M. this morning. 17 hours on the road. I’m brain dead but I had this little meme in my drafts and decided I needed to put something new to look at on my blog. Since the kitchen and cooking and eating and fellowship were the theme of the last 3 days I thought this was a good filler for the time being. Hope to get around soon and see what you are all up to! Blessings.

Here’s a little Meme about the Kitchen. List 8 random things about your kitchen. You can combine things about your kitchen with your cooking style…

1. My Kitchen in my home in Washington is also my Dining Room. It all happens in here….

2. I have a gas stove top that is separate from my electric double oven.

3. A center rectangular work area with cabinets and a section of bar seating doubles as a buffet service area.

4. My kitchen has loads of cabinets that were an Oak finish and Dear painted them for me in two shades of green with my walls an even darker shade of the same green tone.

5. We used to have fluorescent light fixtures in this space that we jokingly said we could do surgery under. Dear replaced them with recessed lighting and drop down pen lights over my Island and a light fixture over our table.

6. We have seated up to 16 people around our dining room table!

7. We like to cook classic comfort food and also experiment with the latest recipes we see on Food Network!

We clean up all the messes in this wonderful sink. It’s deep and wide and I can fit a cookie sheet in here and my large pots and pans.

8. We love to share our space and our food with no expectations of reciprocation…

If you’d like to participate in this meme please do and let me know if you do…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Snatched from Deena!

Because I love to see my kids I snatched this from Deena’s blog. I’m going right over there to her blog to confess right now. And while I’m in a snatching mood here they are at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Project Blue ~ Take Seven

 

My friend Willow from Willow’s Cottage has a friend with a Blueberry Farm and when she gets to pick blueberries on the farm she’s sweet enough to share some with me. So I found my blue rimmed platter to put my blueberries in and then I enjoyed my high fiber cereal with my daily banana and the lovely blueberry treat. Then it dawned on me that we are in the midst of project blue so I put this collage together filled with my yummy blue…

For more Project Blue click over to Anna Carson Photography.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Our Quick Trip Home

I’m back at the Condo in Southern California after a quick weekend to my home in Seattle. I’m sharing some photos of my walks around the yard while I was there and a couple from my typical outings when I’m home in Washington.

 

The Planters are filling in. The Azaleas are at the end of their pretty blooms. The Camellias are at an in-between stage. I chopped off their tops so I hope I didn’t kill them. We’ll see. My two lavender plants are getting ready to show off. They sure smelled good when I was weeding around them.

 

Azaleas, Lavender, I can’t tell you what the center plant is *but two of my lovely commenters say Corral Bells, yippee, and my Lenten Rose that has gotten quite hardy!

 

Rosemary, pears, ferns, hydrangea, little blueberry buds, wild rose, stuff in pots, my pear tree, and another photo of my blueberry bush.

 

The wonderful Washington State Flower the Rhododendron. I have 4 bushes that are in the need of some serious pruning to make them even hardier than they are. Just so you all know, everything I’ve shown you grows by the Grace of God. I do not want to pretend that I’m a gardener. I truly appreciate gardeners and praise God each year when these plants bloom again despite my neglect.

 

While I was home I had a quick walk with my Washington Walking buddies, Jody and Jan. The Burke Gilman trail is amazing in the Springtime.

 

Lilac bush/tree along the trail. Lilacs bloom everywhere here. I’d love a lilac tree in my yard.

 

Before we headed to the airport to fly back to California on Monday, I made a quick trip to my favorite thrift store in Washington State, Goodwill, not to be mistaken for California Goodwill’s. I found this pretty hand painted tea pot and creamer from Japan. (no sugar bowl to match)

 

But I picked up this cute little glass sugar bowl to compensate!

Greeting and Farewell ~ Quote from Anne of the Island  by L.M. Montgomery

“Anne dressed in the cheerless grey dawn, for an early start was necessary to catch the boat train; she struggled against the tears that would well up in her eyes in spite of herself. She was leaving the home that was so dear to her, and something told her that she was leaving it for ever, save as a holiday refuge. Things would never be the same again; coming back for vacations would not be living there. And oh, how dear and beloved everything was – that little white porch room, sacred to the dreams of girlhood, the old Snow Queen at the window, the brook in the hollow, the Dryad’s Bubble, the Haunted Wood, and Lovers’ Lane – all the thousand and one dear spots where memories of the old years bided. Could she ever be really happy anywhere else?”

Well just so y’all know I’m not quite as sentimental as Anne is. I can be happy somewhere else and I do think that I will return to this home sometime in the future but there’s always a little sadness when I arrive home and then when I have to leave again. And until I can return “my heart will keep on singing” and I will choose to find joy each day I’m away.

I’ll be posting more photos from the Japanese Gardens we visited tomorrow. In the meantime I hope you find joy today.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!