Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Atwater United Methodist Church got 5 new members today. Jack and Kathryn were two of them. Some of their family came to share in their special day. After the service we all went into the "Fireside Room" and had light refreshments and coffee.
I was invited to go with Jack and Kathryn and family to lunch at Josie's in Atwater. I had a flour Tostada, it was delicious as usual. When we were through with lunch, I took a picture of the ones in our party outside on the red bench.

Nice looking family. Not all were able to be there, but still a nice group.
I enjoyed the day. Thanks for the invite.

Eating Out

Yesterday I had lunch at Sizzlers in Merced with a group of ladies from the Methodist Church. Carole D's birthday was the event that inspired the luncheon.

The restaurant gave Carole a big Strawberry Sundae for her birthday treat. She ate the whole thing! Well, o.k., she gave the big strawberry to Maggie.

Today my sisters and I had lunch at the Jantz Cafe in Atwater. We arrived around 11:00 a.m. and just in time, it was already crowded, like every Wednesday. Every Wednesday is free pie day, you get a slice of pie, free of charge with your lunch. We saw our cousin Debbie there. She ran outside after us to take our picture, so I had her take one on my camera. It was 12:30, the sun was directly overhead, so there is much contrast.

I surprised Debbie by taking her picture. She always looks so nice!!!

Winton Cemetery

This is one of the roadways at the Winton District Cemetery. It looks so peaceful. I love the large old trees that are growing there.
I've been taking pictures of the tombstones there and uploading them to flickr.
So far there are 1,339 photos online. I am slowly adding more information to the pictures when the information is available to me. Some of the information comes from the California Death Records; it lists the people who died in California between 1940 and 1997.
Usually I have a little more information on the people with a Mennonite surname. That information sometimes comes from the "Grandma" file that the California Mennonite Historical Society has created and maintains. I have their latest CD with 1,250,285 individuals linked to their families. Some ancestors are traced back to the 1500s in Holland.
I also subscribe to their "Grandma" online, where they update the information since the latest CD.
The online file currently has 1,285,498 people who can trace their ancestors back to the Mennonite churches in Russia or Prussia. They don't include the birth dates for the living people online, but the dates are included on the CD.
They started something new last year. If you have pictures at flickr you can tag them with the identification number from the Grandma file. Each person has a unique ID number. Of course they want the OLD historical pictures. Or tombstone pictures. So I have tagged a few individuals with the tombstone picture from the Winton Cemetery at flickr. I just started, so only a few are tagged.
This is an ongoing project of taking more pictures, adding additional information and tagging some of them to the Grandma online file. Fun -- but slow.

Cherry Trees

This is the Rainier cherry tree. It's doing good, nice growth, good color.

And then there is Stella. For about a month now, it's been looking sick, the leaves are drooping and losing their green color. I didn't know what to do for it. Talked to an expert orchard man and I found out there is nothing I can do. Just replant. He said cherry trees are like that. Guess we were lucky with the cherry trees we had in Merced. Besides the Rainier, I have a Bing that is also doing good. They will pollinate each other. It will be sad to have to remove the Stella tree.

I ordered two new Iris plants this year, I should be getting them soon. They were the closest to red that I found. Need to find the perfect spot for them. My Irises are going dormant, not a pretty sight right now. I'm not going to separate them this year, decided to let them become large plants so they'll have more flowers next spring.

Church and Estate Sale

Tomorrow, Saturday June 1, the Atwater United Methodist Church on the corner of Bellevue and Linden is having a HUGE Estate and Church Sale from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Nice furniture, lots of kitchen items, small appliances, Crystal, Silver, lots of linens, decorating items, Christmas decorations, clothing, etc. Books and music.
The Fellowship Hall is full of items for sale, all priced low to sell quickly.

The Past 2 Weeks

The past two weeks has been fun. My daughter and her husband arrived on April 28 to spend a couple of weeks here.
Our first short trip was to Chico to visit Mandy and John. Mandy works for Six Degrees Coffee Distributor and John works for the Sierra Nevada Brewery Company.
Here we are having dinner at the brewery after a tour of the plant, led by John.

Many different beer flavors can be sampled at the beginning of the tour. See more pictures here.
The next morning we had breakfast at a restaurant called "Mom's." Mandy and John know all the good places to eat in Chico.
The following Sunday we went to Yosemite for the day. Mandy drove to Atwater to go with us.
We had Sunday Brunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel.

There were lots of delicious foods to choose from, including seafood. The dessert tables were loaded down with delectable sweets. Lots of chocolate and other treats. More pictures are at flickr.
It was a fun day. We all found souvenirs to buy. So nice that Mandy was able to go with us.

Lillian's Birthday

Lillian had her big 8-0 birthday party on Sunday. It was a fun afternoon with many laughs. Some Birthday cards were a hoot.

This beautiful cake was made by her daughter.

The candles are lit on Lillian's cake. Her granddaughter had to help blow them out.

A really cute gift was from Lillian's daughter. She taped 80 one-dollar bills together; rolled them up and put them in a box with a slit cut out on top. The first dollar bill was taped to a ribbon. When Lillian pulled on the ribbon, the dollar bills started coming out.
Clever idea. Happy Birthday Lillian!!