Family and Friends

My father-in-law just bought this car and sent me some pictures of it. If there are any nostalgia or old car buffs reading this, then it’s probably a familiar vehicle. Just for fun, instead of telling about this car right now, why don’t I have you post your guess into the comments. In a few days/weeks/years, or whatever it takes to get a few comments, I’ll come back to this and give the answer. Have fun.

On Monday, July 16, I had just arrived home from work at about 5:30 when we received a phone call from Debbie. She was in obvious distress as she explained to me that their house had just burned. At that point, the fire department were still at their house working to finish spraying down the hot spots.

Dad and I jumped into the car and immediately drove over to Maple Valley to get Zachary and bring him back to Toppenish. Ted and Debbie felt that it would be best for him to get away from the trauma while they get their lives re-settled.

The fire began in the garage and moved up the side of the house to the upstairs. Everything in the house was completely destroyed, except a few photos that Debbie pulled off the walls of the living room.

Most importantly, though, everyone got out of the house, fine. Debbie and Zachary were the only ones home at the time. Since it was in the afternoon, they were awake and quickly alerted to the problem and able to get out.

As we left their house, Zachary let us know that he wasn’t forgetting to bring anything that he would need for the trip. He said, “I’m wearing everything I own.”

Please pray that God will surround them with his love and his comfort as they deal with this devastating event in their lives.

Dad’s brother John and his wife, Joan, were visiting for a few days this past week. They are always a pleasure to be around.

Like Dad, Uncle John has a great sense of humor. There are plenty of stories, jokes, and laughter whenever John is here.

I enjoy getting to know Joan better with each visit. She is a special blessing of companionship for John and I’m so happy she has joined our family.

Because I’m my Uncle Stan’s nephew, I have to post about the Seattle Mariners once in a while.

Those doggone Mariners have been a huge frustration this year. They can win 5 games in a row and get us all thinking that they’ve turned the corner to become a winning team. Then they’ll turn right around and drop 5 in a row.

Right now, they’re on a good win streak and looking like they can win another tonight. I hope they will go ahead and win this one for Stan and Gloria, who are at the game with Sterling and Jane, tonight. I’ve been watching Stan waving to me from inside the television.

We enjoyed the pleasure of a visit, this past weekend, from Uncle Art and Aunt Ruth.

Art was in the Yakima Valley for his high school class reunion in Grandview. He brought his sister, Ruth, to our house to visit while he attended the activities in Grandview. Following those activities, Art returned to our home and spent the night, Saturday.

We had an enjoyable time – visited and played table games.

I enjoyed hearing about some of the early years of my Grandfather. The conversations reinforced my belief that I have a very strong heritage and that I owe much of my successes to the groundwork that was laid out by my forefathers.

I thank God every day for my great Christian heritage.

We had the pleasure, yesterday, of visiting with Harold and Karen. Harold taught school at Kirkwood with dad early in their careers for a few years until they moved to Edmonds.

During the time they lived in Toppenish, they all attended church together and shared many activities. Ted and I were both born during that time period. Harold and Karen’s first child, Debbie, was born very nearly the same time as Ted.

After they had moved to Edmonds, I remember visiting them at their home several times. Their son, David, was a year or so younger than me. I always enjoyed going to their house to play with David.

While Harold and Karen were here yesterday, we spent most of our time just visiting and reminiscing. I had a great time listening to them and my folks share the highlights of their times together.

Later in the evening, we went to the Yakama Indian Nation’s Heritage Cultural Center to walk the trail around the neighboring RV Park. That include much more visiting and reminiscing. After that, we sat around the table to play the “Sequence” board game.

We all had a very pleasant time.