Hi ...

I just wanted to say hello.  I have been busy all day visiting my bloggy friends, and wanted to leave a short post for you instead of the Sepia Saturday one of Uncle John below (though that is a great post if you have the time).

Things are going well.  The picture above was taken in mid-October when Cary and I went to Eugene for the weekend.  I am shown here with my daughter Kristin and her boyfriend Scott.  It is just a cell phone picture and the quality isn't the best, but it is a good one of all three of us.

Hugs, and thanks for stopping by!  Miss you guys, and I miss blogging.   

Kathy M.

Sepia Saturday's 200th Post Celebration!

Sepia Saturday is 200 weeks old today.  I have enjoyed participating in this meme, and interacting with the wonderful group of friends that I have met over the past several years.  It seems that I joined up with Sepia Saturday sometime around March 2011.  Sadly, I have been inactive on my blog, mainly because I began working full-time in March. (FB is so much easier, though it isn't the same as blogging at all.)  I miss you guys a lot!

To celebrate this special 200th milestone, the leaders of our group have come up with an outstanding idea, and Alan Burnett explains the rules:

"Trumpet fanfares :  My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to that celebration of old and curious photographs that is known throughout the world as Sepia Saturday. Indeed, welcome to a very special Sepia Saturday, because four years and 199 themes ago, Sepia Saturday was born. And we are celebrating this important anniversary by asking everybody who has ever joined in with Sepia Saturday to look back on their contributions and choose a favourite one. Simply republish that favourite Sepia post and we will gather together all the contributions and publish them in a little "The Best Of Sepia Saturday" book which will be available for anyone to buy on-line. As you would expect from Sepia Saturday, there are very few rules and regulations involved in this special Sepia Saturday post. It can be any of your Sepia Saturday posts, but unfortunately we will have to limit it to one per participant. If you would like to amend or update the post, that is fine so long as it remains recognisably related to the original post. I would also like to include a short paragraph about each of the contributors - something along the lines of the Blogger profiles that appear on most of our blogs."

I had so many options to choose from as I searched through my old posts.  I wanted something that would be interesting to others and also meaningful to my Mom and to me.  I decided on this one, originally posted on February 7, 2012:

The War Letters: Uncle John Visits a Cemetery in Natal, Brazil 
 
This is a War Letters post.  The War Letters are a manuscript compiled and typed by my cousin Lyle Hedrick.  Lyle was my Great Uncle Hobert Hedrick and Great Aunt Flora Fletcher Hedrick's boy, and Danny Hedrick's brother.  In the following letter, my Great Uncle John Hedrick (Hobert's younger half-brother) was stationed in Natal, Brazil in World War II.  Uncle John wrote this letter to his sister-in-law, Flora.  

I find the content of this letter very fascinating indeed.  Leave it to a Hedrick or a Letsom (ancestors on my Mom's side) to find it great fun to visit a local cemetery in Natal, Brazil in their free time!  

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

John Hedrick, World War II

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 

Hobart and Flora Hedrick with baby Danny 

and Flora's Dad, E.B. Fletcher in 1925

Source:  Google Maps

Brazil, in relation to the U.S. and Oregon, where John Hedrick is from.

(By-the-way, the AACS stands for the Army Airways Communications System, and that was Uncle John's job while in Brazil.)

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Oh, you must know that I searched and searched for images of cemeteries in Brazil during 1944.  I also searched in vain for The Belle of Napal.  All that I could come up with is this much more recent photo:

 Source: Deep Brazil.com

Just in case you are wondering what in the world the U.S. was doing in Brazil during World War II, I have gathered up some information about that.  Apparently, Brazil had decided to side with the U.S. and to boycott all things German.  In 1940, the U.S. began building and staffing bases in Napal and Recife (among other cities).  After Pearl Harbor was attacked, they increased their presence there.  Here is a comprehensive article of the ins and outs of that:

The Establishment of United States Army Forces in Brazil Navy History.com

For a blog featuring lots of Navy photos taken in Recife, Brazil between 1931 and 1944 by Charles Rumsey, please check out this link:


Navy History.com


So, there you are, my friends.  I hope that you enjoyed this post as much as I did!  That Uncle John is quite a writer, isn't he? 

Take care and God bless,


Kathy M.

Welcome to "Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy".  My name is Kathy Matthews and I live in Central Oregon with my best friend husband, Cary. I am a fifth generation Oregonian who loves to spotlight early Oregon history, take pictures, write, create, spend time with my large family, teach preschool and travel around the U.S.  My main blog, Oregon Gifts, is an online journal, where I try my best to celebrate the positive portions of everyday life. My other blogs are off-shoots into my particular interest areas.  I began blogging in November 2008, and this is my 2008th post on this blog! Please enjoy your visit, and leave a comment if you feel led. If you would like to email me, here is my email address: oregongiftsofcomfortandjoy@ hotmail.com   

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Enjoying Life:

I am so glad that we are getting some better weather.  Those windstorms freak me out, and the two hours that I live away from my family seem a long way away when I am worrying about them.  

I am going to be going to Eugene next weekend to celebrate my Mom's, niece's and my own birthday, and I can't wait to see everybody.

It was so pretty yesterday, and will be again today.  Though it was only 17* at 7:00 in the morning, it warmed up enough for us to go on a nice walk at preschool.  It was one of those days where we had only a few kids, and no babies.  We walked out to the remains of the old cabin that was formerly part of the community named Harper.  It is now surrounded by the golf course at Caldera Springs. 

After that, we walked to the library and picked up colorful leaves, and then went inside and got some books.  I let the kids choose the ones that they wanted, and used my library card.  It was fun to read a few of the books when we got back, especially one fairytale called, "Snoring Beauty".  I gathered all of the library books and put them up high in one spot, because I don't want to have to pay any fines for a lost or overdue book.  We will just pull them out when needed.

Our hard work at the school has turned into something magical and positive.  We are forming a great community, and becoming our own type of family.  It also gives me a creative outlet, which has taken away from my blog tremendously.  I use my blog as a resource all of the time though; pulling of my pictures to use and print off for the classroom.

The kids enjoy my efforts, and they wake up from their naps and look around to see what I did to trick out the room while they were asleep.  It is fun for me to keep evolving the room, and fun when they use things the way that they are meant to be used (versus just dumping things out and walking away).  I sometimes have children from 15 months to 8 years old in there, so there is a tricky balance.  I do a lot of picking up!

On other news, we are getting used to seeing Tyler on t.v., but are very much looking forward to when he gets to play for more than a couple of seconds.  There is a TCU/Oklahoma game on today at 4:00 our time, and we will be watching!  Hopefully, this will be the came where he spends a lot of time on the field. 

And then there is Tyler's little brother, our grandson Cameron, who is an outstanding quarterback in his own right.  Here is a summary that his sister Halie wrote about last night's game:

"Saying I'm proud of Cameron is a complete understatement. He played an AMAZING game tonight!  He threw for 408 yards, 29/35 completion rate (83%), and threw 4 td passes."

Their Mom added:  "Not to mention he threw winning TD pass with only 4 sec left on clock!!!"

Grandpa Cary and I sure wish that we could have seen that game.

Well, not much more to say for now. I have a lot of cleaning up to do today, and we might be going a drive.   Oh, I have found a fantastic weather site that I want to plug: The Weather Space.com
They are accurate and give early warning for severe weather.  Make sure to check out their FB page, it has great maps and frequent updates on conditions.

Take care, God bless, and have a wonderful week!

~ Kathy M.

Oh, one more football picture.  I took this in July of 2011 at Nike's "The Opening".  Jake Rodriguez (on the left), is a QB for Oregon.  He has been getting in a lot of playing time this year, because Oregon is always so far ahead during the games.  The middle guy, in the white shirt, is Zach Kline.  Zach is a QB for Cal and has been playing a lot this year too.  Last Saturday, Zach and Jake were playing against each other during the Oregon/Cal game.  It was so fun to have met these boys a couple of years ago and then to watch them on t.v. now.  Our grandson Tyler is the one on the end, and I'm sorry but I don't remember the boy's name who is sitting next to Jake.  He plays for a Florida team, I think.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Last week's storm was pretty much a dud, but it was a preview to this week's.  So far, not much has happened in Central Oregon this weekend weather wise, though yesterday there was a ton of rain in Oregon and Washington on the other side of the mountains.  Tonight is supposed to be the big storm, going from Northern California and on up to Alaska.

We are fine here so far, but we may lose power tonight.  I spent yesterday doing last minute preparations.  Hope that you all stay safe, wherever you are.

Hugs,

Kathy M.

Just wanted to drop in and say hello.  I don't really have a lot to say, except that things are going well.  The kids and I made these cute lion masks last week.

A super large tropical storm is heading our way today.  For the most part it is going to hammer the west side of the mountains and will concentrate on Washington and northern Oregon.  I hope that everybody stays safe.  Fill up those bathtubs, guys, so that you can use the water to flush the toilet if you are on a well and you lose power.

The Weather Space.com

Hugs, and here is to a great upcoming week!

~ Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

A Nice Weekend:

This weekend, we went back to Toppenish, Washington for the annual Washington State Patrol Retirees Association reunion.  Cary retired from the State Patrol a few years back, and it is really neat to meet the people that he used to work with.

It has been a very relaxing time.  We didn't bring the dogs, and I am so glad that we didn't.  It is very hot here (98*) and humid.  It wouldn't have been much fun for them, but I had fun swimming in the pool yesterday.

I have the 5th wheel set up the way that I want it now, and am enjoying the fruits of my labor.  The new lamps are just what we needed, and it is great to have the laptop.

I took these pictures from my cell phone last night.  That silk bouquet is something that Cary won at the auction for $60.  Amongst the flowers are little bottles of booze!  He thought that it was a great design idea. 

It has been fun getting to know Cary's old friends and my new friends better.  We have been spending a lot of time with Lee and Fran.  Fran is a retired teacher.  She designs and sells some of her work on a website called  "Teachers Pay Teachers".  I'm going to look into that; I think that I might be able to sell some of my flashcards over there.  Fran also gave me some tips on formatting my writing work and using Powerpoint.

Well, that is about it.  I really haven't taken any pictures this weekend except for these.  Here is a link the photos of the Toppenish murals that I took last year though, if you want to take a look:  "CLICK HERE".

Hope that you all have a wonderful upcoming week!

Hugs,

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.