Dad's Manger Scene

At some level, dad realized it was Christmas time. When we went to clean out his apartment, we looked at his shelves near his front door and noticed something on the second shelf.

If you look closer, you can see he had put out his manger scene. Some of the parts were missing. . .

We found the missing pieces in his bathroom. He tried to make two manger scenes. Needless to say, this was touching to me and brought tears to my eyes.

My father's Obituary

Howard Newton Frederick, age 95, died December 17, 2010 at Orchard Heights in Salem, Oregon. He was born to John and Bess Frederick the 21st of January, 1915 in Marion County, Missouri, near the small community of Warren. He is preceded in death by his wife, Margaret Estelle Rice Frederick whom he married on December 21, 1935. They were married for 60 years. They moved to Forest Grove, Oregon in 1946. He worked for the US Postal Service in Forest Grove for 28 years. He was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was the first Bishop of the original Hillsboro Ward. He served in various capacities in the Forest Grove 2 Ward until he was 90. Howard loved researching family history, sports and traveling across our great nation.

He and his wife had four children, LaDonna (Guy) Richardson of Crestwood, Kentucky, Richard (Renetta) Frederick of Monmouth, Oregon, Mick (Mary) Frederick of Hillsboro, Oregon and Linda (Michael) Harper of Duncan, South Carolina. He is also survived by 17 grandchildren, and 39 great grandchildren. He is preceded him in death by two grandsons, Michael and Scott.

Services will be held at the Forest Grove Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 2700 Leon Drive in Forest Grove at 10:00 am presided by Pres. Brad Richardson and conducted by Bishop Darren Hitchcock. There will be a viewing one hour before the services. Internment will be at the Sunset Cemetery following the service.

A Ward Christmas Scavenger Hunt!

Our ward had our Christmas party on Saturday and we went on a Scavenger Hunt to find baby Jesus. With clues, we went to different rooms and heard stories and finally found him! It was an enjoyable evening and great food!

We met with the innkeeper that turned the couple away.

We had a shepherd who told us his experience!

Joseph told us his story!

Here is one of the wise men!

Of course, we visited with Mary!

And finally baby Jesus! We left him a gift of what we could do for Him!

Kitchen goodness

It is bitter cold for South Carolina and usually the type of weather we get for about a week the end of January! Anyway, I decided I should pick some of the of our garden before it freezes away!

When we were in Oregon, Renetta had some "killer" bread that they like to buy. It was really good but I figured I could make it. Finally, about six weeks later I tried it and it's a great success. I cracked various grains and soaked them before adding them to the bread I was making and then when I made the loafs I rolled the dough in sesame, flax, oats, and sunflower seeds. This is wonderful bread and I will probably make it this way from now on. I also am playing with sourdough!

Ethan's baptism!

I am behind on my Thanksgiving blogs and pictures but our big event for the month was Ethan's baptism!

Isn't he cute. It's hard to believe he is growing up so fast.

This was mainly a family affair. His daddy was able to baptize and confirm him.

Tracy's brother Chris and his wife and children came up from Columbia.

Kevin and Bonnie came up from Florida. Little Katie was such a cutie and on the go. She thinks she's one of the big kids already.

The kids had a wonderful time together and they get along so well. I'm so glad they are such good buddies.

Greenhouse growing!

The weather is really turning cooler and fall is here but I am hoping to get a little more from the fall garden including tomatoes, green beans and peppers. So, when a frost warning was sounded, we made some black plastic tarps to go over a few beds. It seemed to work for that night but we will have some colder nights this weekend!

We are finally growing in the greenhouse. These are lettuce ponds. The lettuce is in a small cup with a hole on the bottom sitting in styrofoam with liquid fertilizer in water underneath. I just aerate the water once a day and the lettuce will live and grow in the water medium.

This is our hydroponics and perlite tubes that we plan to grow broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc in through the winter.

The little plants were hurting waiting around but looked better over night. We pump the nutrients through the tubes 1-3 times a day depending on the weather and warmth. This will be fun to see how they turn out. We have three other tubes ready that we can put in the system as soon as I have a few more plants to try!

We are getting tomatoes off our greenhouse tomatoes and also eggplant. Either way, we have plans for the greenhouse which is a hobby and an adventure!

Fall Garden Goodies

We are at the end of October and we haven't had a frost. Up until this past week, we've had a pretty dry fall also. However, we are having still having production from the garden.


This is the harvest that I've had this week. The peppers, tomatoes, and green beans are doing really well. We will soon have carrots and beets. I also had the first head of broccoli from the fall crop with more on the way. I still have a few sweet potatoes to dig up and also the jicama to dig up.

The eggplant and a couple of tomatoes are from our greenhouse. I made the best eggplant lasagna with fresh tomato sauce this week!

Time out for Women in Atlanta!

I just got back from Time Out for Women in Atlanta! What a fabulous way to spend a Friday night and Saturday!

This was made possible by the generosity of Rachel to make sure sisters she loved got to have this wonderful experience. Beth flew out from BYU to spend the weekend with us as well. Dave could not resist coming down Friday afternoon to see Beth.

We met up with Rachel and her car full of gals plus Beth at La Madeline's a French restaurant. It was great food!

We had a lot of love and laughter throughout the weekend!

Unfortunately, we got caught up in the horrendous Atlanta traffic which took us 1 1/2 hours to get to the convention center for the evening's performance. We were there to enjoy Michael McLean and Amanda Dickson's humor.

Amanda Dickson is a gal who is on the radio in Salt Lake City. She has a sister living in Greer, SC that Rachel knows from teaching seminary. Rachel got to meet her to talk about her sister! Rachael had a special evening planned after Friday night with letters of affirmation to each of us written by someone who loves us! It was a very spiritual evening full of love.

We heard from many fabulous, faith filled women. This woman is from Sierra Leon and her story is incredible and full of faith.

Here we all are at the end of the day: Ruby Timmons, Tracy Terry, Lynn Hansen, Terry Luc, Der Lor, Beth Venus, Rebecca Isham, Linda Harper and Erin Luc. In front are Paula VanValkenburg, Rachel Venus, Christina Eichhorn, and Melissa Anderson.

Oregon Family

I saved the best for last about our trip to Oregon! Family pictures.


Here is my almost 96 year old father with his children, Mick, Linda, LaDonna and Richard.

The morning after we got there, we went to the Portland Temple. Richard and Michael were ready to go!

LaDonna, Renetta and I were up bright and early. We went through the temple with Mick and Mary, Amy, Tami and Leone who had just been for the first time the month before.

After the temple, we went to visit with Johnny and Leone.

We had Mick with us who spent the night at Rich and Renetta's and we had a lot of fun playing apples to apples. The next day we went to visit dad and met back up with Mary who brought Beth and the boys on their way to Klammath Falls for a trip.

We had Amy and Megan and their families along with Malia Long for a pizza dinner and a night around the campfire.

Amy, her Richard and Annalina were enjoying the evening.

Look how cute little Katherine, Megan's daughter is. I just love those curls! She has to have surgery this week and our prayers are with her.

Oregon Waterfalls!

A wonderful treat for our trip to Oregon was being able to go up the Columbia River Gorge and see the beauty there. I had not been there through the gorge in over 20 years!

Here is the famous Multnomah Falls that is one of the tallest waterfalls in the US (next to Yosemite).

This is Wahkenna Falls.


This is Lotourell Falls. In about a 10 mile length there are probably 5 waterfalls that are all just gorgeous.

It all comes to a climax at Crown point with a beautiful view of the Columbia River gorge looking east toward the fish hatchery and Bonneville Dam.

Richard, Renetta, LaDonna, Michael and I all spent a fun afternoon together as we explored and reveled in nature's beauty.

A beautiful Pacific sunset

After our cloudy stormy dinner at the coast, we noticed some light coming from the west and decided to stop and look one more time at the ocean. We were fortunate to watch the sun sink into the Pacific ocean in the most beautiful sunset!

Oregon beauty, what can I say!

We got back from Oregon on Sunday night late. I always come home with a huge batch of beautiful pictures. During our visit, we were able to get in a quick trip to the beach for dinner. It was beautiful the whole time we were in Oregon, but at the coast it was socked in with a small storm. No worry, it's still beautiful!

The restaurant we ate at was fabulous and overlooked the north end of Depot Bay.

This is the view we watched while we ate.

These were the rock formations in the bay.

We also went to Devil's kitchen to watch the waves go over the rocks. LaDonna had to put on her hat.

Here is a video of the waves crashing over the rocks!