"The Wedding-Feast"

"'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. 

This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church."

beautiful chapel

beautiful ceremony

beautiful bride

She is there......I am almost there.......

Thank you, friends, for your travel prayers today.  Willa has arrived safely to the wedding weekend destination....bringing both the bride and the groom and a couple of groomsmen.


We are so excited to get to see them!


I have safely arrived in one of the most famous cities in the world:  San Francisco.  My other best friend lives here....with my little godson, and the rest of their family.......so we get a very short bonus visit.  We plan to come back for a slightly longer visit on Sunday evening. 


I have the maid of honor and two of the bridesmaids.

I also have a completely empty camera.......ready to take lots of wedding weekend pictures.


It was an uneventful ride down here........about a five and a half hour drive.......what with a couple of short stops.  I was never tired......but boy did I finally succumb to exhaustion when I sat down at the kitchen table.


And.......that is where I am right now......ready to go to bed......actually typing in bed.


And so I shall say good night........I expect I will awaken naturally about sevenish or so......and then we hit the road for the second leg of the trip.........which is about seven hours away, south, down the 101.  Our hotel awaits us......with pool and spa.  Looking forward to that! 

I hear there is a girls' night for the bridal party and friends.........


Goodnight & God Bless,


                             Chari


PS  No pictures today.......but definitely tomorrow.


Oh!  Today someone used the keywords: careless driving mortal sin to find their way over to TUAR.  Go figure.  :)

A Road Trip Kind-of-Day

Both Willa and I are on the road today.....with the same destination in mind:  a wedding weekend!

I will try to post when I can.....even if it is just a picture. 

Prays for travels would be appreciated. 

See ya'll soon!

Blessings,  

       Chari & Willa 

I Took Myself Out For Lunch

      While the kids were at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival seeing My Fair Lady, I took myself out for lunch at a cafe with free Wi-fi......and I started this blog post then. It was a delightful couple of hours, with yummy, healthy food, but it was cut short and I was unable to complete this post because I met my oldest daughter for our daily exercise walk.

To the right is my view of downtown Ashland while partaking of my coffee and vittles.. And below, is my lunch.......which I made into two meals by saving half of it for dinner. I did not want to be stuffed on my walk. That ended up being a good move.

Here are a few photos from our exercise........taken in the well-known Lithia Park.......

Haha.....I just kept slowly walking up on this duck......just to see how close I could get a picture before he was too wary of me.......this was his final allowance.

This was a beautiful house seen from our walk.  I wants it.

 I just love finding reflections in the water.

 

 

 

 

These photos were taken with an iPhone......there were more......but they seem to have disappeared.......so you are spared.  ;)

Photos for May: Graduating Daughter!

Here's a picture of the new grad and her husband-to-be: 

More on the 2013 Commencement at Thomas Aquinas College

Let's pray for all graduates, all those traveling for graduations and other events, all entering post-grad education (Chari's oldest daughter is one of those!) and also all the young couples marrying in this spring and summer season.  I know there are a lot!

Photos for May: Schoolroom in Progress

This weekend was busy with my daughter graduating down south of us in California (pictures in the next few days I hope!) and the wedding to come next week!

Today I will share our little schoolroom in progress. We've never had a devoted schoolroom area in this house. We basically had our books and materials and then we just worked on them wherever we found ourselves.

However, when reorganizing the house this spring I decided to try to carve out a space in our big upstairs loft. It actually is a very sunny place most days, which is why I settled on it for our schoolroom, but we were having a rainy spell, so these pictures are kind of dim.



Mostly I was trying to take a picture of the armoire.  It is from my oldest boys' room, but they live up in Oregon now, so I brought it upstairs.    In the foreground you can see the old round game table that I hope to use for seatwork.  Both the table and the armoire are from the 30's or 40's, and built like castles.  I bet they will last another 80 years easily.   Kieron and Sean lugged the armoire upstairs for me. 

I love having a place to keep this year's materials.   I bought Kumon resources for Aidan and several Memoria Press books for Paddy.    For Aidan, I want materials he can work on independently, since he loves being independent.   For Paddy, I wanted some basic resources for Grammar, Latin, and Geography that are easy to just pick up and use.    

In front is a decoupaged sandal box.  After I made the customized notebooks I decided to try altering some boxes.    I have Mod Podge now, so I wanted to see what happens when you put it on top as a covering.   There are Mod Podge tutorials here but I didn't really use a tutorial since I was just playing.   I used scrapbook paper for the covering. 

 I thought I would keep memory cards in there but there aren't any yet.   

Here is the open out part of the armoire.  I love it; it could almost be a small laptop desk.  But for now I put Kieron's books for next year in there.  I decided to use mostly Kolbe Academy's Year 12 for him.   

I am not going to get anything more done in home organization this week, since it is all about the upcoming wedding, but I have lots of plans for this summer. 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM!!!!!

 

And to my Grandma!!!

And, to my sisters.......and my cousins.....and my aunts........and all of my friends and blog visitors!
 

 

And especially to Willa, my favorite co-blogger and best friend.....who is this week........
 

 

The Mother of the Graduate

&

The Mother of the Bride

!!!!!

+++++++++++++++++++

Going back only a few generations, my grandma was the offspring of these two people....

My Great-grandparents, William Henry & Era Lee

She was a Winn & he was a Goodwin. Kind of funny.

They were only 11.5 and 17 years when they married.

Then, they gave birth to my grandmother, below, who then married my grandfather.

This is May Alleen & Ira James.

She hates her first name and goes by Alleen,

but mostly "Mom" and "Grandma," and he went by Jim.

 

I think this is their 25th wedding anniversary....

...in which case, I must have been born already, I am guessing.

And Alleen & Jim gave birth to BeverLey Kaye, my mother.
 

My mother was born in Texas, but here above, my grandma with my mom as a toddler, and my Uncle Louis, her older son, are visiting California. This is Morro Bay and Morro Rock which looks much more busy now than it does in this photo!

My grandpa with my mom as a toddler, and my Uncle Louis.

My mom and her younger brother, Stephen.

 

 

My mom with her older brother Louis and her younger bro, Stephen.

A school photo of my mom.

 

The next bunch of photos were taken in 1955 when my mom and her parents and younger brother came from Texas for a visit to California, just before they moved to California.

Their first visit to the Pacific Ocean?

....my grandpa, always ready to play, with my mom and Uncle Steve.

My mom and her younger brother Steve.

My mom.....

 

 

My mom......

 

 

My mom........
 

My mom and her brother Stephen with a friend or cousin in the middle.


Then, my mom grows up and gives birth to me after one year of marriage to my dad.

+++++++

You are going to love the sixties look in these photos......

My mom with me.....notice the clock, the scarf.......the clothes

My mom with my first sister......notice the chairs, the sandals.....glasses and "sideburns"

 

My mom and my dad and me at her elbow, at a Christmas meal.

Am I whining???

My mom with the black scarf.....with me next to her.....my sister Teresa in the high chair......Uncle Louis and Aunt Martha on the right......and my grandparents on the left, with my cousin Mark. That's my dad's arm. We often went to this Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles......very authentic.......I only remember tortilla chips...........and a man singing with his sombrero......"Ai, Yi, Yi, Yi" :)

 

My mom in the blue dress, me in the red..........Uncle Rex......who later abandoned Aunt Ruth. :/

I always loved this photo of everyone dressed up.....and posing in front of a tent!

This is my mom, my little sister Teresa........my dad's mom....and me!

Love their dresses!

+++++

My mom did lots of really cool things for me when I was growing up. I have a serious amount of samples below..........

 

My sister Teresa and I with our cousins Mark and Michael.

My mom would always set a lovely "children's table" for us at Christmas and Thanksgiving.

She also sewed our matching dresses.

 

Oh, and curled my extremely STRAIGHT hair!

She always made a beautiful Christmas tree for us.

My grandma feeding cousin Michael..........Aunt Martha in the blue....my mom in the red...and my sister and I and Cousin Mark opening many presents.

Another Christmas.........and another dress my mom made for me...........this time she knit it. I may still have it. Though you can barely see my sister behind me........she crocheted that dress.

My mom and Aunt Ruth are on the couch.

 

My mom threw great birthday parties for me!

 

A bunch of friends and relatives.........at the park in Westchester, California.....

......the park I "grew up" at. My dad in the Mickey Mouse shirt.....he has not changed much!

My mom in blue with sun glasses. I am in center with present.

 

Another year, another party........same park :)

Must have been a cool April day in Los Angeles.

I am the gal with her head bent, to open a present.

Cousin Mark is front and center, with my little Cousin Jimmy to the right.

Mark is now a Professor of Psychology in a Southern California Cal State school....

...and Jimmy is now an Internist in So. Cal.

I have no idea who most of those kids are....

...my Aunt Sue, Jimmy's mom, my dad's sister.....is to the left.
 

My mom.......looks my sister-in-law Dana right here......

one of same parties as above......me with pony tails....

.....my sis Teresa with the short blonde hair.

My mom made great cakes for us.........her first being for my first birthday.

Here, she lights a yulelog cake that she made for one of our Christmas dinners.

Isn't it a sweet cake!

 

 

My mom always worked hard to get our family together to see my Cousin Julie,

whose mom (my dad's sister) died when she was one year old.

I always appreciated that........

and now I have been able to maintain that relationship through my adult years.

Julie and I were buds when we first met........like sisters then.

We are only 15 months apart.

Above, you have a lot of cousins, two generations......my dad's cousins and my cousins.

Starting on the left, is my dad's cousin Leslie holding my littlest sister Jennifer Leslie, her namesake.

Leslie and her twin sister Lynn, whose name is the same as my middle name (Lynne), are only nine years older than me.......and Leslie's kids are same age as Anne, so we have a lot in common.

I am in the center front.......in the row behind me are Cousin Julie, my sister Teresa, my cousin Cindy.

Aunt Nancy is holding her baby Garry..........and she is cousins with Lynn and Leslie, because she is my dad's youngest sister.

Lynn is the cousin standing on the right.........

and the grown up in back are Julie's step-mother (I am having a blank on her name) holding her baby, my mom and my Grandma (dad's mom).

 

She took me to Johnnie's Pastrami as many times as we were able.......so KNOWS visiting Johnny's is always priority in Southern California!!!

My mom "tried" to teach me how to sew.........I am still barely just past novice.......I do not sew naturally.......at least my girls do! But, she was able to help me sew this quilt while we had four generations hanging out in Louisiana with my great-grandmother and grandmother (see them above!). She helped me to sew a quilt when I was 12 years old, too. I still have that one. The one above I made for my new husband..........it has since disintegrated. :/

Lesson learned.......NO Wal-Mart fabrics for permanent quilts!!!

 

 

My mom helped with all of the planning of my wedding.......in only three months.....

.....my veil, my cake and the decor.

Our family in 1985:

Baby sister Jennifer, my mom, me, my new husband, Marty,

my dad and my sister Teresa.

THANKS, MOM, FOR ALL OF THE GREAT MEMORIES>>>>>

>>>>OF WHICH THERE ARE MANY MORE.......

......but, not enough pictures to prove it! :)

+++++++++

Finally, Happy & Blessed Mother's Day to the Mother who gave birth to my husband.

 

 

 

Marilyn Burkhardt Bryan & baby Marty,

 

just moments before they left his birthplace of Louisville, Kentucky to relocate to the beautiful and sunny state of California.......just in time for him to meet me and make me a mother...... :)

 

 

 

 

The elegant Marilyn is 18 years old here.

 

My dear mother-in-law passed away only six months after our wedding. 

We miss her dearly, but remember her in every single Rosary we have prayed since she died.

 

Keep praying for us, Marilyn!!!

 

++++++++

Blessings to all on this Mother's Day, 2013!

Love, Chari

This is a revamp of a blog post originally posted in 2009......and obviously still relavant.  :)