We also have the results of Week 3 of the Friends and Family Tour. What a great week it was. And tiring. I'll let the pictures lead into a brief explanation of each.
I closed the last blog with a mention of Joyce's cousins. After church Sunday -- which, by the way, was a gorgeous day in the State of Washington -- we met her cousins at Boston Pizza in Smokey Point (a little ways north of Everett) for lunch. Lots of good catching up on relatives. Pictured are Marla and Gordon, Pat, Joyce, Barbara and Brian. There are a lot more cousins in the area but these were the ones who could make it.
After the cousins lunch, it was on to Bellingham and Sharon's house. She is Joyce's older sister and right now her granddaughter, Audra, lives with her. Sharon loves to help others which has led her to a lot of experiments in growing food products with very little water. She hopes to someday be able to share what she has learned with people in arid countries. She also dabbles in ceramics and gave us lots and lots and lots of ceramic pieces (probably enough to overload the RV). Many of these will be painted by the kids at camp next summer as one of their crafts. Some were painted tonight by some of Ginger's clients. Some will be given away. I think Sharon was trying to unload a bunch of stuff. Anybody want a ceramic pig? We have lots.
Sort of looks like the beginnings of a bathroom doesn't it? My project was NOT a storage shed this time. It was a bathroom. This is in Sharon's basement and she wants to make a small apartment down there. So I plumbed and partially framed this important room. To go into detail about how the intricacies of this small project caused it to last all week are too complicated to go into now. Ask me in person some day.
Sharon lives on a hill. There is no level ground on which to park an RV. The most level is up this driveway, around a bend, past a ditch, between a car and a bus -- don't ask! -- and as close to a van as possible. Backing up! I deemed that impossible for my limited skills so we parked in a wide spot part way up hill. I got the front as high as possible which still wasn't totally level. We found some concrete blocks to put in front of the wheels. For six nights we slept with our heads downhill or turned our beds around.
Galen was my youth pastor in Grants Pass for about the last 5 years. He married Rylee a few years ago. This past summer he moved from Grants Pass to Vancouver, B.C. to attend a Bible College. Being that close, Joyce and I HAD to go up and see them. We got a tour of their apartment (500 square feet!) and the school. Then had a wonderful meal with them and returned to Bellingham. By the way, he is loving school and Rylee is the manager (and only employee) of the coffee bar at the school.
We left Bellingham on Saturday, arriving in St. Helens, Oregon about 6:00 that evening. St. Helens is where Joyce and I pastored for nine years prior to going to Grants Pass. The church has since closed but we still have a lot of good friends there. Sunday we attended church at Warren Christian Fellowship with Tim and Connie. Unexpectedly we ran into Bob and Joann and all of went to lunch together at Sunshine Pizza. Pictured are David, Connie and Tim, Bob and Joann, and Joyce. David is Tim and Connie's youngest son. He was born while we were there and now he is as big as his dad. Time sure causes them to grow, doesn't it? These people were so important to our church. They taught classes, served on boards, and Bob was our song leader.
Barbara and Jim were teachers and wonderful supporters. One of their daughters was born while we were there and she is now married and living in Everett, WA. If we had known, we might have been able to look her up while we were there.
Shirley was our organist. It seems she has not changed a bit in the intervening years.
Jerry and Shirley were always active in the church. One thing that stands out is Jerry's participation in our annual Halloween Carnival. He developed the "scary" stuff in the "fun house" aspect of the event. In fact he still has those items stored in his garage.
Edith has a little beauty shop next to her house and was the one who kept Joyce's hair looking lovely. She still works part-time in that shop. I married her son and daughter-in-law. He was a fellow school bus driver and bought our house when we left St. Helens. Well, after all this visiting we left Monday noon for Salem. We are now at Ginger's doing some more "daddy-do's" and expect to travel home tomorrow (Wednesday). We have had some rain -- it starting raining again last Thursday -- but considering that this trip has been the last part of September and the first part of October, the weather has really has been good. But the fellowship, visiting, reacquainting, and eating together (we did a lot of that) has been really good. Now we look forward to being home again.
1 comment:
I love your long post. Nice to see all your friends and relatives. And it is interesting to hear about your different churches and the people in them.
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