Wednesday, September 23, 2015
The Bethel Valley Girls in a Bygone Era
On a recent stay in beautiful Seabrook, WA, j snapped a picture of this photo from a bygone era. Look, it's the Bethel Valley Girls on a retreat to the ocean that none of us can remember! Surely it is as real as the trip to Bali Elletu and I recently took...
Sure Sign of Fall
When you see pumpkins outside your grocery store, you know fall is here. As it turns out, j tells me the pumpkins were outside this store in Port Orchard the other day when she was there. It was still summer. Well, I didn't see them because I wasn't by this store. It doesn't matter. Today is the first day of fall, and these are the first pumpkins I've seen outside of any of our grocery stores. Hooray for fall! Hooray for pumpkins!
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
And one more photo from the Royal Flush Party (9-22)
So glad to get this one group picture from Elletu's 60th birthday party. We invited Elletu's good friend Sandy---a permanent fixture at our annual Bring-a-Friend Night---to join us for her birthday surprise. Elletu must have snapped this as we---as the Royal Flush Singers---prepared to sing "Skip to Your Loo" for her. Do not be misled...that's ROOT beer we are drinking. Bottoms up, Sisters (and Sandy)!
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Straight Outta Port Orchard
Okay, I already admitted that I grew up in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood, and it turned out to be as bad as Compton, California. Now I find this out about our little old Port Orchard, original home of the BVGs. Where do we go next???
WASHINGTON – A website has ranked the 10 worst places to live in Washington.
The people at Road Snacks said they looked at things people like and then decided which cities have the least amount of those things.
On the list of things people ‘like:’
Good education
Lots of jobs
Low crime
Great weather
High income
Lots of things to do
Short work commutes
Houses that aren’t vacant
Road Snacks then looked at cities in Washington with more than 10,000 people.
Out of 110 cities, these were their top 10 worst places to live in Washington:
10) Bainbridge Island – The study says this is a bad place to live because it’s in the middle of nowhere and has the second-worst commute in the state.
9) Lakewood – According to the website, Lakewood has one of the highest crime rates in Washington.
8) Parkland – The city scored in the bottom 50 percent for all of the criteria Road Snacks analyzed
7) Longview – Low marks for high unemployment rate and the Nutty Narrows Bridge for squirrels.
6) Port Angeles – According to the study, Port Angeles ranks in the bottom 20 percent for unemployment, crime and housing vacancy.
5) Aberdeen – It’s called the “Gateway to the Olympic Peninsula,” but Road Snacks suggests calling it the “Gateway to high unemployment” because of the city’s high unemployment rate.
4) Port Orchard – The city scored low marks for a high crime rate and high vacancy rate.
3) Kelso – It may have an excellent commute time, but according to the study, Kelso scored poorly across the board in all categories.
2) Bremerton – According to Road Snacks, Bremerton’s unemployment and crime rates rank in the bottom 20 percent in Washington.
1) Centralia – Low marks for high unemployment and crime rates
*************
I guess we better follow j to Gig Harbor. : )
WASHINGTON – A website has ranked the 10 worst places to live in Washington.
The people at Road Snacks said they looked at things people like and then decided which cities have the least amount of those things.
On the list of things people ‘like:’
Good education
Lots of jobs
Low crime
Great weather
High income
Lots of things to do
Short work commutes
Houses that aren’t vacant
Road Snacks then looked at cities in Washington with more than 10,000 people.
Out of 110 cities, these were their top 10 worst places to live in Washington:
10) Bainbridge Island – The study says this is a bad place to live because it’s in the middle of nowhere and has the second-worst commute in the state.
9) Lakewood – According to the website, Lakewood has one of the highest crime rates in Washington.
8) Parkland – The city scored in the bottom 50 percent for all of the criteria Road Snacks analyzed
7) Longview – Low marks for high unemployment rate and the Nutty Narrows Bridge for squirrels.
6) Port Angeles – According to the study, Port Angeles ranks in the bottom 20 percent for unemployment, crime and housing vacancy.
5) Aberdeen – It’s called the “Gateway to the Olympic Peninsula,” but Road Snacks suggests calling it the “Gateway to high unemployment” because of the city’s high unemployment rate.
4) Port Orchard – The city scored low marks for a high crime rate and high vacancy rate.
3) Kelso – It may have an excellent commute time, but according to the study, Kelso scored poorly across the board in all categories.
2) Bremerton – According to Road Snacks, Bremerton’s unemployment and crime rates rank in the bottom 20 percent in Washington.
1) Centralia – Low marks for high unemployment and crime rates
*************
I guess we better follow j to Gig Harbor. : )
"Ode to the Royal Flush" (Part 3)
ODE TO THE
ROYAL FLUSH
When five
FOE’s (Fans of Elletu) put their heads together,
It was like
five birds of a feather
Who knew your
60th birthday was a cause for celebration,
And we wanted
you to be filled with elation.
So many
weeks ago we put on our thinking caps,
And came up
with an idea that reduced us to claps.
“We should
treat my Mom like a celeb!”
Was lovingly
mentioned by Deb.
“Something
for her ‘OFFICE’ would be fine and dandy,”
Was a
tongue-in-cheek comment that came from Sandy.
While j PIPED up, “Here’s something that we ought
To do, put
our money in one POT!”
“Let’s BOWL her over with something grand!”
Spoke up
Cool, who added, “And
Make her
eyes RIM with stunned tears,
But I don’t
mean like crying in her beers.”
Firstelle asked,
“What do you all think she wants most?”
It was
unanimous, and to our decision we did toast.
On our
excitement we had to work hard to keep a LID,
And then Deb
told us something that you went and did.
A day before
our purchase came a text from her in panic—
“OK,
Emergency! She already bought one!” and we were all manic!
But soon we
all calmed down, and in time we took a vote,
And the
decision we made is right here in this note.
To our dear
friend (and Mom), Elletu, we will always be loyal,
And we want
you to always feel that you are truly a Royal.
So our theme
for your birthday gift is, aptly, ‘Royal FLUSH’
Now open the
first gift and you’ll find something that is plush.
Now the
second gift---and this is something no one ever swipes---
Here is
container of disinfectant WIPES!
Now the
third gift---and of course it will be useful, we bet--
It’s a brand
new TOILET BOWL cleaning set!
This would
be nice in itself, but here’s something keener,
Gift Number
4 is a container of TOILET BOWL cleaner!
So those are
your gifts---do you think they’re kind of blah?
Well,
there’s more, because we pooled our ‘MOO-lah!’
Are you
getting curious now? Well, don’t have a COW,
Because we
are going to give you your birthday gift now.
We know you
bought one yourself, but all is not lost,
For your
chair-height TOILET, we want to COVER the cost!
HAPPY 60th
with love from Cool, Deb, j, Firstelle and Sandy
**************
Note: Regarding the 'moo' and 'cow' reference, Elletu's old toilet made this weird mooing sound every time she would flush it. Glad to hear the new one doesn't do that, because Elletu was getting UTTERLY annoyed. But just in case she gets to missing the mooing, Cool sent away for a cow with a motion sensor for Elletu's bathroom. No further explanation needed.
Royal Flush Part 2: Toilets Happen
We were all raised to be prim and proper little girls. There were certain things you just didn't discuss in public, in particular, 'bodily functions.' Boys, they were a different animal (sorry, PC crowd, but it is just a fact of life). They loved----still love----'bathroom humor.' Nice little girls just didn't go there. And when we were in junior or senior high school, no way would we have ever talked to boys about having our period or even having cramps. 'Nice girls' kept that all private.
Even as newlyweds we didn't go around talking to our friends' husbands about private body issues. But then came the days of pregnancy, and everything changed. "My period is late!" became cause for coed group celebration. Going to childbirth classes really drew me out of my modesty. Here we were, young married couples, talking about every physiological in mixed couples---strangers!---and bodily functions became our primary topic of conversation. Talking about constipation no longer brought on consternation. Our bodies became open books.
My husband and I became close with another couple, Ken and JJ, in our Lamaze class. We became friends outside of the class, and we kept getting together after their son Eric was born just a week or so before our daughter was born. One day, a month or so in to the whole parenting realm, JJ called to talk to me but I was busy nursing my daughter. So JJ talked to my husband instead, and to this day we laugh about the fact that she was openly discussing her sore nipples with him and it didn't seem odd at all because we had discussed EVERYTHING together in our Lamaze classes. We lost track of Ken and JJ when our kids got in school, and I hear they divorced. But were we to run in to JJ today, trust me, I would not appreciate my husband discussing her nipples with her!
From changing diapers to potty training, young moms are always discussing 'pee and poo' even more often than playing 'peek a boo.' You think nothing of discussing color, frequency, amount, etc. When your toddler uses the potty chair instead of his or her pull-ups, you cheer wildly and call everyone you know to announce and discuss in detail this amazing accomplishment.
But as your children grow older, you don't really discuss all these things out loud when the neighbor kids come over or you are at a family gathering. No, it really all becomes hush-hush again. It's not that you pretend it doesn't happen, but what goes on in the bathroom stays in the bathroom and no longer becomes your favorite topic of conversation. It kind of goes underground again, and when I think about it, that is a pretty good analogy if I do say so myself.
Of my four grandchildren, the three-year-old is completely potty trained, the almost three-year-old is embroiled in the training right now, and the 19-month-old is working on it. (When I watch the baby and change her diapers, I think nothing of describing in detail for my son or daughter-in-law what I find in there, and they seem so interested!) Seeing my children's excitement as they potty train their children brings back lots of memories. I cheer out loud when my daughter calls me and excitedly proclaims that her son or daughter "just pooped in the potty!" When they are eight she won't be telling me, and I won't be cheering them on like this. This is just a very special time in life when you get back to celebrating bodily functions.
Being grandparents seems to coincide with us BVGs being in our 60's, and I don't know if it is coincidental or what, but for some reason when we women 'of a certain age' reach that 'certain age,' bathroom issues return to the forefront. In our case, it is all about the toilet, or rather the height and the shape of the toilet. And so it has been with Elltu, who as she approached the age of 60 could no longer tolerate her low, highly inadequate toilet. And quite honestly, she succumbed to 'Toilet Envy,' or to put it another way, she coveted my chair-height oval toilet. And so, with great love in our hearts for Elletu---and with the help of her friend Sandy and her daughter Deb---we decided the best gift we could possibly give her was a toilet just like mine. So we pooled our resources and started making plans to buy this wonderful thing for her. And then, just the day before I was to make the purchase, I received a text from her daughter telling me that, unbeknownst to any of us, Elletu had gone out and bought a new toilet herself!
Our creative juices had already been flowing as to how we could present her with the toilet at her birthday party, and then all our plans were dashed in one text. But alas, we regrouped, voted and decided to just give her the money to pay for the toilet she already bought. And when she was settled in the Queen Chair on our regular BVG night this past Wednesday, September 16, 2015 (a week after her actual birthday), we gathered around her, as 'The Royal Flush Singers,' and had this song to sing:
SKIP TO YOUR LOO, DEAR ELLETU
Elletu turned sixty, what should we do?
We could give her sixty dollars and a card too,
But what she really needs is a chair-height loo,
Skip to your loo, dear Elletu.
Loo, loo, skip to your loo,
Loo, loo, skip to your loo;
Loo, loo, skip to your loo,
Skip to your loo, dear Elletu.
******************************************
And then a poem, "Ode to the Royal Flush," explaining not only the gift of the money but also the other little gifts we had for her bathroom. So for Elletu's 60th birthday party we gave her a 'Bathroom Shower'! I'm not sure giving a friend a toilet for her birthday, or toilet bowl cleaner, or a new toilet bowl cleaning set, etc., is very common. But Elletu is an uncommonly awesome Sister, and nothing could make us happier than being part of this joint venture making her comfortable on her toilet! After all, TOILETS DO HAPPEN!
Even as newlyweds we didn't go around talking to our friends' husbands about private body issues. But then came the days of pregnancy, and everything changed. "My period is late!" became cause for coed group celebration. Going to childbirth classes really drew me out of my modesty. Here we were, young married couples, talking about every physiological in mixed couples---strangers!---and bodily functions became our primary topic of conversation. Talking about constipation no longer brought on consternation. Our bodies became open books.
My husband and I became close with another couple, Ken and JJ, in our Lamaze class. We became friends outside of the class, and we kept getting together after their son Eric was born just a week or so before our daughter was born. One day, a month or so in to the whole parenting realm, JJ called to talk to me but I was busy nursing my daughter. So JJ talked to my husband instead, and to this day we laugh about the fact that she was openly discussing her sore nipples with him and it didn't seem odd at all because we had discussed EVERYTHING together in our Lamaze classes. We lost track of Ken and JJ when our kids got in school, and I hear they divorced. But were we to run in to JJ today, trust me, I would not appreciate my husband discussing her nipples with her!
From changing diapers to potty training, young moms are always discussing 'pee and poo' even more often than playing 'peek a boo.' You think nothing of discussing color, frequency, amount, etc. When your toddler uses the potty chair instead of his or her pull-ups, you cheer wildly and call everyone you know to announce and discuss in detail this amazing accomplishment.
But as your children grow older, you don't really discuss all these things out loud when the neighbor kids come over or you are at a family gathering. No, it really all becomes hush-hush again. It's not that you pretend it doesn't happen, but what goes on in the bathroom stays in the bathroom and no longer becomes your favorite topic of conversation. It kind of goes underground again, and when I think about it, that is a pretty good analogy if I do say so myself.
Of my four grandchildren, the three-year-old is completely potty trained, the almost three-year-old is embroiled in the training right now, and the 19-month-old is working on it. (When I watch the baby and change her diapers, I think nothing of describing in detail for my son or daughter-in-law what I find in there, and they seem so interested!) Seeing my children's excitement as they potty train their children brings back lots of memories. I cheer out loud when my daughter calls me and excitedly proclaims that her son or daughter "just pooped in the potty!" When they are eight she won't be telling me, and I won't be cheering them on like this. This is just a very special time in life when you get back to celebrating bodily functions.
Being grandparents seems to coincide with us BVGs being in our 60's, and I don't know if it is coincidental or what, but for some reason when we women 'of a certain age' reach that 'certain age,' bathroom issues return to the forefront. In our case, it is all about the toilet, or rather the height and the shape of the toilet. And so it has been with Elltu, who as she approached the age of 60 could no longer tolerate her low, highly inadequate toilet. And quite honestly, she succumbed to 'Toilet Envy,' or to put it another way, she coveted my chair-height oval toilet. And so, with great love in our hearts for Elletu---and with the help of her friend Sandy and her daughter Deb---we decided the best gift we could possibly give her was a toilet just like mine. So we pooled our resources and started making plans to buy this wonderful thing for her. And then, just the day before I was to make the purchase, I received a text from her daughter telling me that, unbeknownst to any of us, Elletu had gone out and bought a new toilet herself!
Our creative juices had already been flowing as to how we could present her with the toilet at her birthday party, and then all our plans were dashed in one text. But alas, we regrouped, voted and decided to just give her the money to pay for the toilet she already bought. And when she was settled in the Queen Chair on our regular BVG night this past Wednesday, September 16, 2015 (a week after her actual birthday), we gathered around her, as 'The Royal Flush Singers,' and had this song to sing:
SKIP TO YOUR LOO, DEAR ELLETU
Elletu turned sixty, what should we do?
We could give her sixty dollars and a card too,
But what she really needs is a chair-height loo,
Skip to your loo, dear Elletu.
Loo, loo, skip to your loo,
Loo, loo, skip to your loo;
Loo, loo, skip to your loo,
Skip to your loo, dear Elletu.
******************************************
And then a poem, "Ode to the Royal Flush," explaining not only the gift of the money but also the other little gifts we had for her bathroom. So for Elletu's 60th birthday party we gave her a 'Bathroom Shower'! I'm not sure giving a friend a toilet for her birthday, or toilet bowl cleaner, or a new toilet bowl cleaning set, etc., is very common. But Elletu is an uncommonly awesome Sister, and nothing could make us happier than being part of this joint venture making her comfortable on her toilet! After all, TOILETS DO HAPPEN!
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
BONJOUR LES AMIS!
Bonjour les amis, or to put it in English, HELLO FRIENDS!
Is this an important day? Well, that depends...
If you know Elletu, then you know it's the best,
For she's turning sixty, to that we can attest.
We've been close to her more than half her life,
We've been by her side through joyful times and strife;
And today we tell her, as we lift our glass of wine,
Relax, Elletu, haven't you heard? SIXTY IS THE NEW FIFTY-NINE!!!!!!
Happy birthday to our dear Sister!
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Summer Songs From the '60's, Elletu About to Enter Her 60's
The days are dwindling down to a precious few. September is here, and the beginning of fall is right around the corner. After the hottest, driest summer on record here in the Northwest, the end of August brought us, sadly, a deadly wind and rain storm that wasn't really all that much help for the devastating wildfires raging in Eastern Washington. Now, not even a third of the way through September, we've had a mixed bag of cloudy skies, light showers, sunbreaks and cooler temperatures. But I hear it's about to warm up again, maybe up to 80 by the end of this week. So here comes the sun again, and I will welcome that. But as always, I will also welcome fall, because that is my favorite season.
Elletu is about to enter a new 'season' of her life. The most important thing coming up this week is the momentous 60th birthday for our dear Elletu, the 'baby' of the BVGs. In fact, this is her last day in her 50's. I wonder what she'll be doing to get "Lost in The Fifties Tonight." At least we know "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" when all who love her will be wishing her a very happy birthday.
Always remember, Elletu, SIXTY IS THE NEW FIFTY-NINE!
Monday, September 7, 2015
Happy Birthday Port Orchard!
Our little town (current population around 13,500) turns 125 years this month, and there was a party on the waterfront Saturday to mark the event. How easily we take this place for granted and fail to appreciate its beauty, hugging the shores of Sinclair Inlet, offering views of the Olympic Mountains, the Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, Bainbridge Island, Blake Island, Vashon Island, downtown Seattle and Bremerton's historic Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. It might get its fame from best-selling author Debbie Macomber (Cedar Cove on the Hallmark Channel, anyone?) or nationally syndicated radio personality Delilah, but it is also the original home of the Bethel Valley Girls. How special is that?
Happy 125th birthday, Port Orchard. Deep in our heart of hearts, we love you!
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Symbolism
Let the new football season begin! I took this picture last winter aboard a ferry pulling into downtown Seattle. If you can't tell, it was pouring down rain, and I was sitting in my car. But see how that '12' stands out on that tall building on the Seattle skyline? The 12's are the Seahawks fans---12 is our symbol. The fan support for the Seahawks is understandable. They are, after all, winners! But it really borders on something akin to patriotism. I get a lump in my throat when I see the American flag, and I get a lump in my throat when I see a '12' like this. I also get a lump in my throat when I see BVG in print, or when I come across a random picture like the one below, taken at my son's second birthday party. Sitting next to him is Cool's son who was three at the time. Such precious little boys they were, and now they are both in the second half of their 30's! Pictures are symbols of another time, a time gone by. Our toddler boys have matured in to wonderful, productive grown men, one on the East Coast (my son), the other on the West Coast (Cool's son). The joy on their faces in this photo is a true symbol of these men today. And it's a symbol of how it feels to be a BVG, to be part of something so special. Go Hawks! Go BVGs!
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