Tag Archives: Friends

Swingin By…

IMGP1000…to let you know I’m working on a post to share what Dear and I were “up” to while our kids were enjoying the Sounders game against Portland last night.

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Josh and Laura celebrated their 12th anniversary with dinner, a show and capped it off with the Sounders game. We were pleased that Katie and Andrew are here safe and sound from the cross country road trip from North Carolina and could join Josh and Laura at the game with my ticket and a friend’s ticket. I’m sure Josh and Laura enjoyed the added gift for their anniversary when the Sounders won their game last night.

Today I’ll be laying low and recuperating from all the fun of our kids coming “home” and Dear and my little trip for a wonderful get together. Hope your week is starting well…

Both Old But Very Different…

The finale to my Monumentale Cemetery photos are all from a indoor portion called the Hall of Fame. I’m also sharing a link to a post Lovella shared on her blog yesterday about her visit to my old house.

You can see Lovella’s behind the scenes shots of my old house by clicking here.

Yes…the ceiling was that blue!

This was one of the very few images we saw of the risen Christ.

Another week is flying by at this old house.  A free calendar has been a blessing. It has been interesting making plans for a 90th birthday party for my folks from 1200 miles away. Our 70 or so guests will just have to be flexible along with the party planner! Since most of those 70 are related to the guests of honor the pressure is minimal. How’s your week going?

Over the Top…

Monumentale Cemetery in Milan, Italy is hands down the most over the top cemetery I’ve been to yet. I’m breaking down the photos I show into categories. I’ve already shown you a few like the last supper sculpture. This post will be all about angels…

In general I feel angels are depicted too mellow and sweet. I like this one for it’s more rugged style and many more of the sculptures we saw at this cemetery.

Looking at all these statues reminds me of the Amy Grant Song from a few years ago, Angels Watching Over Me.

Got his angels watching over me, every move I make,

Angels watching over me!

Angels watching over me, every step I take,

Angels watching over me!

Now from the past to the present…

Lovella from Mennonite Girls Can Cook and What Matters Most along with her dear husband were camping for one night in our neck of the woods on their way home from Cannon Beach so we were able to get together for breakfast at this old house on Sunday morning. What a fun treat to have them in our home for the first time. I did not take one photo. Can you believe that!? I guess I was just too excited. We had blintzes with fruit topping, bacon, sausages, coffee, and fresh orange juice with maybe some champagne in it. I’m not telling.  Here’s a photo of what the table looked like after the fact…

I have a couple of weeks of quiet on my calendar. The end of April really heats up into May. Hope your week ahead is a good one. Blessings.

Oh and while I’m thinking of it head over to our MGCC blog on Monday to get the recipe for Aebleskivers!

Tour of Seattle…

…on a blustery day!

The wind and rain limited my camera from clicking much outdoors. We were again blessed with a parking spot right at the Market! Amazing! My cousin and his wife who happens to be my best friend from college are in Seattle and I tried to give them my hallmark tour but we just had to go with the flow. While at the Market we went down the steps to the famous “Gum Wall”.

It can be a little overwhelming for newcomers! Jim and Jeanie were good sports.

Jim wanted to enjoy the abundance of our seafood choices and ordered a crab cocktail to enjoy while we walked around the stalls in the Market.

When in Seattle it’s a good idea to enjoy our bounty!

Katie joined us on our tour, too. Our last stop downtown would be Boka for Happy Hour where we would meet Dear when he was done with work.

I’m grateful that Dear is willing to work hard while I gallivant about the town. We love to meet up after work for him to enjoy a good ending to the day.

Father and daughter time is always good along with some good food!

We have lots of good history with Jim and Jeanie. Jim, Jeanie and I all graduated together from Cal State Los Angeles in 1972. Jeanie and I both graduated with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Home Economics. We both completed a 5th year to receive our Teaching Credential. Jim and Jeanie were married the same year Dear and I were married. We’ve had lots of celebrations together. We lived in Huntington Beach together as newlyweds and attended the same church. Their 3 kids were born in the same years our kids were born at different ends of the year.

Our Seattle tour was on Friday afternoon. I’ll be sharing our Saturday tour on Whidbey Island soon. Today we attended church together with a great celebration of Missions around the world and in our neighborhoods. Good times and good memories continue. A great afternoon of re-kindling our memories of fun playing Rook together so many years ago…

Hope you had a good weekend!

Two Country Drive…

Have I ever mentioned I love being able to take in 2 countries on a drive starting from my front door? Two countries in one day with beautiful weather is a special treat. Having Katie along on this road trip was a delight for me. As we started out our trip we started singing “Oh Canada” and Katie managed to sing most of the words!

This wasn’t our best view but I found out that when I’m the driver on a road trip fewer photos are taken. Our views were truly magnificent and I don’t think a photo could have really captured the glory anyway. We saw our wonderful Cascade range of mountains starting in the U.S.A. with many more glorious views in British Columbia. An eagle flew over us on our way up and on our way back. We drove through a lot of country that these creatures call home…

The photos from the road that I took like this one were when we were stopped for road works or at the Border Crossing. Speaking of Border crossings, I am always appreciative of the kind courtesy we receive from Border Crossing Agents from Canada and the U.S.A. I am grateful for the work they do, as thankless as it might be, to keep both our countries safer.

Our primary reason for traveling to Chilliwack was to pick up a shower gift I ordered for our niece Debbee from Winks. Katie, Laura, and I will be traveling to California soon for her bridal shower. I was so excited about seeing Kathy (one of our Mennonite Girls) at Winks I forgot again to take any photos. Kathy did a lovely job of bagging our purchase. This photo was taken after we got home. Sorry I can’t show you the gift until Debbee unwraps it. We were only at Winks for a very short time as we had a very important date down the road.

Meeting up with these Mennonite Girls was the best part of Katie and my trip. It was fun for Katie to meet them all and to see Bev again. We chattered for quite a while over our nice lunch and then parted ways. What? You want to see what we ate? Wouldn’t you know I at least got a few photos of our food.

I was real happy to see the pickle spears on our plates. Here is another question for you. Do you eat the pickle or leave it on the plate? It seems Marg and I both enjoy eating ours and are willing to eat yours, too, if you leave it there too long!!

From lunch we followed Bev to Yarrow to check out a local pottery shop that her friend Ted Dreidiger owns and where he throws and fires his beautiful creations. Umm, it’s not food, so again my camera stayed in my purse. Oye! I did take a photo of my purchase when we got home. It’s a great piece that’s perfect to warm a round of brie in or to serve other hot or cold dips in.

It was fun to visit Ted in his workshop and to see all his great pieces. Thanks Bev for suggesting this stop on our way back to the U.S.A.

As we continued home after our nice chat with the U.S. Border Officer Katie was game to see the downtown area of Lynden, Washington. Can you guess what we brought home in that box?

Bumbleberry Pie! We wanted Dear to get a taste of our trip, too.

Look at all that yummy filling!

We will be having a nice quiet day at home today with more excitement starting on Friday. It’s good to pace yourself…

What have you been up to?

Wrapped in Love…

It’s that time of year when the signs are all around us. This week for Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five I’m concentrating on love. Some deep thoughts and some not so deep.

1. I love Jesus who gives me hope for today and my future.

2. I love fresh flowers and how they brighten up a room.

3. I love my family and friends.

4. My palate loves chocolate, especially mixed with nuts!

5. I love to watch for birds flying to the feeder. This is especially enjoyable in the sunshine!

And for the record I don’t think that “love is all you need”.

Hope you have opportunities to show love to those around you this week.

1,000,000 Celebrations!

In Celebration of over 1,000,000 hits on my blog I’m giving away our new Celebrations Cookbook to one of you who leave a comment on this post. Oops!! I forgot to mention that the giveaway will close Saturday night and I’ll announce the winner on Monday!

In March of 2007 my brother Steve sat me down and told me he was going to help me start my own blog since I was enjoying visiting so many. Since that time I have learned so much and I understand a few more things about my computer. One of the best things that has happened from my blogging experience are the new friendships I’ve enjoyed. Meeting some of these friends in person has been such a special blessing. One of my meetings resulted in a walking buddy for the years that Dear and I were living in Camarillo, California. Now that we are back in Washington, I miss my walking buddy, Willow.

During my blogging I stumbled upon Lovella’s blog and noticed that she baked Paska at Easter time. I was curious because being from a Russian Immigrant family we always had this same Easter treat year after year. I started following her blog and soon realized a lot of her recipes were similar to the Russian recipes my mom made in our kitchen. Soon Lovella decided to start a cooking blog where recipes were posted every day. She asked if I’d like to contribute. I started slow but then became more regular when I embraced this fun concept and my responsibility of being a contributor. Over the course of time the  Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog was cemented with 10 contributors and I was one of the 10. After this point Lovella was contacted by Menno Media with the idea of a Mennonite Girls Can Cook cookbook. The ten of us met for the first time all together in Canada and signed a contract and got to work. Even though I’m the one contributor of the 10 that is not Mennonite or Canadian, I’ve been embraced and accepted as their “Russian American Cousin”.

Our first cookbook has been a fun venture and has afforded the 10 of us the opportunity to share all of our royalties to build a greenhouse at the Good Shepherd Shelter in the Ukraine. From the beginning we as the authors agreed that we have all we need and we wanted to help those less fortunate with our portion of profits from our book. The whole story of the Mennonite/Ukranian/ Canadian connection is explained in the book and on our blog. Our first book is still available and you can click over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog to see where the book can be purchased. It is also available at Amazon.

This is the greenhouse at the Good Shepherd Shelter in the Ukraine. They are already growing food year round in the greenhouse!

Our 2nd cookbook will be published May 1st of this year. For our 2nd book our author royalties will again go to a mission project that we are deciding on together. The photo above was taken during our time together to sign the contract for our 2nd book. These 9 wonderful women of faith have become my partners and dear friends all because of my little blog. Who could have ever dreamed this? It is amazing what God has given to me through “The Happy Wonderer” I wonder who I’ll meet in the future?

We are excited about our new book and the themes and recipes included this time around. I really love the cover and am looking forward to seeing all the recipes and photos put together and having the hard copy in my hands!

If you leave a comment and are chosen for my giveaway please understand that I won’t be sending you our new cookbook till May of this year. Besides your comment you will need to leave a reliable email address so I can contact you to get an address to mail the book. Your email address won’t be visible to anyone but me. Thank you to all my regular readers and bloggy friends for supporting me with your kind thoughts and comments. I appreciate all of you!

Giving and Receiving…

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;

he chastens and hastens His will to make known;

We started with some appetizers. Really? Do you need appetizers at a Thanksgiving meal? Probably not so it’s good not to fuss over them.

The table is something I do like to spend time on. If this is not your thing don’t fuss over it either. The most important thing is having people around your table not what’s on the table.

We generally serve buffet style especially at Thanksgiving because we have way too many dishes to fit on the table and serve family style. When it’s just a family dinner it works fine to put all the dishes right on the table.

Did you notice, too, that there is nothing green on the plate? I gave up making salads for Thanksgiving years ago. There’s just not enough room on the plate for it. I just tell people to have a green smoothie for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning before they head over.

It’s wonderful when you can count on your guests to chip in with part of the meal. Thank you Beth for the desserts and Lana for the potatoes and turkey shaped butter!

We had a wonderful time from Thursday on. I will admit that I was dead Thursday evening. On Friday Lana, Laura and I made one short trip to Country Village in Bothell for a quick run through our 3 favorite stores. Just long enough to get a little shopping out of our systems. We dropped Lana off at home for her to continue her Christmas decorating with her new purchases. Laura and I headed to my house and suggested a meal out at our local Mexican hang out with the guys. They thought that was a great idea and it was nice not to have to cook or warm up another meal.

Because of our cookbook deadlines I made one more meal for my family to test on Saturday night. I’m happy to report it worked out great. All I have left to do is document the recipe for the book. My family might be sad when the recipes are all done and headed off to be edited.

After church today we helped Dan pack up and head back over the mountains. He made it home by 5:00 with clear roads and good weather. After we waved goodbye to Dan we jumped in the car and headed to friends for lunch. That was a nice unexpected treat after all the cooking in my kitchen this Thanksgiving weekend.

A few more days are left in the November Grace Challenge and I’m so grateful to God for family, friends, and food. I’m thankful we can share at our table. And when the dishes are cleared I’m thankful for a dishwasher that scrubs away and a friend that will scrub the items that can’t go in the dishwasher.

There and Back Again…

Last Friday afternoon Dear and I traveled to Chilliwack, B.C. and home again the same evening. Bev and Harv treated 12 of the Mennonite Girls and their husbands to a wonderful evening of delicious food and fellowship filled with lots of laughter.

Most of these photos were taken by Anneliese and Judy. Thank you girls for letting me use them in this collage. Dear and I had several offers to spend the night in Chilliwack but we had to return the same night because of Dear’s work obligations.

The main dish will be featured in our new cookbook. Our meal started with a lovely soup course, followed by a salad course, main course, and dessert of Chocolate Mousse pictured in the collage.

A huge thank you to Bev and Harv for hosting us and providing us with delicious food and opening the door to a night of laughter filled fellowship! We appreciated every minute of our time together!

I’m in preparation mode around here. Got all my meal shopping done yesterday. We might include a special breakfast in our day tomorrow since Thanksgiving dinner will not be until 4:00 P.M. tomorrow. We’re praying our son’s trip across the pass will be uneventful and that he’ll get here without delay on Wednesday night. Don’t be surprised if there is no new activity here for a while…

Downtown Seattle

On Wednesday afternoon we met Terry and Lovella at Boka in downtown Seattle for Happy Hour.

The food was all delicious but the company was better.

If you find yourself in downtown Seattle to shop let us know and we’ll meet you for Happy Hour.

Today Dear and I are headed north across the line to meet up with 6 of the MGCC girls and their husbands for dinner at Bev and Harv’s. Looking forward to this get-together. We’ll head north after Dear gets home from work. We will spend Saturday to recoup! What are your plans this weekend before U.S. Thanksgiving?