Is Spring Ever Coming?

Hello All:

We know we shouldn't complain about the weather when we have friends in Eastern Washington, Montana and New Hampshire who are covered, literally covered, in snow and sleet and other nasty winter weather, but we are complaining a little bit. Today it is cold, cold, unlike normal March weather, but we do have sunshine. Jim was just told to raise the front window shade because the cat wanted to bask in the unusual sun coming in that window. Welcome Spring! Please come.

Yesterday Jim and I were discussing how busy we are since we retired. It is amazing to me that we find any time to relax since we have so many activities. And, we can't get it all done. I've jokingly said I want to tell people I left town and not go--just stay home and do stuff here that I can't get done otherwise. We were in Seattle yesterday; I had a diocesan meeting and Jim went shopping at the boat store. We had spent the night with Libby, having a great dinner out and looking at her photos of her trip to New Zealand. She brought me four hanks of marino as a present and I plan to make scarves for our treat. She brought Jim this wonderful marino long underwear shirt, softer than cashmere and tiny, tiny threads. Wonderful for sailing in cool weather.

Our new interim preached a sermon about the new "fangled " idea of taking on something for Lent, but I had written the following piece before that. Too bad, I liked the learning that went on!

A Prayer Life

1Thess 5: 16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Sometimes I don’t think I’m very good at praying. I pray, but sometimes it seems like a long list of “I wants and I’m sorrys.” And, there is always the order and kind of prayer to be concerned about. Where do you do it? And what form does it take? I worry about doing it right so it will be most effective. You know, if you approach in just the right way, God will be more likely to listen and respond. As Lent begins this year, I am trying again to add something, that sacrifice of adding something spiritual to my life rather than giving up something. This year I am making a commitment to prayer in a different way.

In Phyllis Tickle’s book, The Shaping of a Life-A Spiritual Landscape, she shares her spiritual history from her young days as a newly wed to the beginning of her married life with her first child. As I was reading it for our Book Group, I kept finding places where she led the reader to how and what prayer is in her life. Those examples were imbedded in her story, from finding her mother in prayer each afternoon to being caught praying the Psalms before teaching her classes at her place of employment. Not only did she pray, but she was always on the look out for a process of prayer. In the end she says she found a breviary, a book of the daily office, like our own daily prayers of Morning Prayer, Noontime Prayers, Evening Prayer and Compline. As I read and studied her book, one specific idea about prayer jumped out at me.
Phyllis was having a discussion with her neighbor, Mr.King, an elderly retired missionary.
One day she asks him, “ What do you think really happens when we pray…?
‘Happens’? he repeated. ‘I guess the best answer is ‘What was the Mount of Transfiguration?’
‘You mean we are transformed?’
‘Good heavens, no that’s not at all what I meant!’…’What I mean is that prayer is a place, and Peter and James and John just happened to catch Jesus while he was in it.’…You can’t go there as long as you don’t recognize that the spirit works, because it’s made of spirit.”

That made me stop in my tracks. A prayer place was different than I had imagined. Before I read her book, I would say prayer happened in a quiet, reverential place, like churches and prayer groups and monasteries and synagogues and mosques and convents and all those places where spiritual people gathered. Those were the designated prayer places. And, of course, in my living room every morning when I have my quiet time. It seemed to be in places we set aside or in places of great drama. Hospitals and emergency rooms come to mind.

But that’s not what Mr. King said. He said we are praying because we are in a place where the spirit is. Where is the spirit? Everywhere, right? In me and you and in everyone who wishes to acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s life in them. So, at any given time, I am in prayer. My actions are a prayer, my rest is a prayer, my life being lived is a prayer. Some days my prayers are better than other days, but it is all a prayer.

That doesn’t mean I can give up on my Lenten commitment, but it does mean I should start to recognize my life is more than just walking through my days without any acknowledgment of that prayer going on. Now if I’m talking to a woman at the pool about her hip surgery and I say, “I hope you feel better soon,” that’s a prayer. And, if I say, “Have a good day,” to the lady in the check out line, that’s another prayer. If I serve a meal to someone, if I remember to do my husband’s laundry, even if I remember to be quiet and think about the beauty of the day, it’s all a prayer. If I accept the Holy Spirit is with me, then it is all a prayer.

My Lenten sacrifice has changed. Now rather than going into a quiet place to read a prayer list or pray prescriptive prayers, I am challenging myself to become aware and tuned in to the many times each day I am given a chance to pray, using the Holy Spirit within me to reach out and for others. I’ll still have my quiet time each day, I’ll still attend services to meet the community with whom I worship, but for Lent I will dedicate special attention to the prayer I can become to the world around me. Maybe it’ll become a habit after six weeks!

Blessings on our friends and neighbors. The Whidbey Wagners

Happy Birthday

Today is Karen's birthday. We miss her smile, her laughter and her spirit. We miss her everything.

All Is Well

by

Rosamunde Pilcher

Death is nothing at all. It does not count.

I have only slipped away into the next room.

Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was.

I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.

Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.

Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is absolute and unbroken continuity.

What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.

All is well.

Happy New Year! The Wise Men Arrive Today!

Welcome to the New Year. The Whidbey Wagners hope you have a good one! Today is the Feast of Epiphany, so I think I'll fill you in on the situation at our church. I read lots of blogs about the goings on in the world of Anglicanism, but today I read a prayer for bloggers! It says it is from the Prayer Book; it is probably for all writers, but it fits, so here goes:

"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord."

Two years ago, 2007, we started the year off at St Stephen Episcopal with our new priest, Rachel Taber-Hamilton. As we walked through the last two years, we grew in number and in faith. We started out feeling sorry for ourselves, meeting in the chapel next door to the "biggggg" church, and angry at our Bishop for abandoning us, and so happy to have a building of any size because we had outgrown all our homes. We also were very happy to have Rachel who had taken on our problems with great energy and honesty. As the months went on she provided guidance and pastoral care for us, finally bringing us to see the PALS, as she taught us to call them, as the "People Across the Lot" rather than other ugly names. We let go of our fury at being shuffled aside and started talking about what we want to be. I'm not sure we have any better direction for that, but some things have changed to make us shift our vision of ourselves.

We are limited in space by a room that is 19x19. No lying, it is the size of a two car garage, and we have made it our own sanctuary. The whole building was consecrated in the middle 50's and then later All Saint's Chapel was made into a Columbarium some time after the main congregation moved across the way. It was dusty, dirty, and uncared for when we moved in two years ago. Now it is decorated, loved, rearranged and our own special place. We have all the acoutrements of a full sized church. Vestments, altar hangings, banners, prayerbooks, hymnals, chalices, and Sunday School supplies. However, now we don't have a priest. We were saddened when Rachel told us in October that she was moving away to Maine to become a Hospital Chaplain. We accepted it and pulled up our socks and continued to be church. It hasn't been easy. We have had several different priests to supply on Sundays. We are far away from the center of Seattle, so we don't get the vibrant new guys; we get the older, wonderful priests, but it does seem like they are making a huge effort to get here. Some times I worry that one of them will have a heart attack on the way home!

Sometimes I worry no one will want us as a permanent position! After all we are a special problem church. We have grown -almost 4 times in less than two years. That is amazing! We have a great pledge base. Everyone gives to our budget, but we don't have enough to pay a full time priest yet. We think if we can grow a little more, we can manage that. Our problem is space. We are cramped and even going to two services, we can't fit everyone in. You see, we like each other and we want to go to church together. We are accustomed to being physically close because we were in homes for a year and a half. We squeezed into lots of living rooms that could barely hold us. And, still people kept coming. If people would truly spread out and go to both services, we could hold on a little longer, but most everyone wants to go to the 11AM service. Jim and I hold down the 9AM service and we average 8 or so there. The rest of the group, anywhere from 25-35 squish into the space that really only holds 28 comfortably. What to do? A member of our Vestry is a Realtor and he has approached the PALS to ask if they will move their Pastor's Office, their Pastor's library and their Parish Office out of the Chapel and let us have the whole thing. We also want the portable building out back of us, which has two rooms for our office and Sunday School Room. We could really double in size if we had that arrangement.

Everything happens so slowly. I lose patience, and I get depressed about it. We have struggled for so long, and when we confront those in the diocese who seem surprised at our situation, they are astonished that we even exist. No one expected us to be here. No one thought we would stick it out. No one thought they would have to deal with us. So, here we are, beginning a new year and praying and hoping for something to happen that will free us to be what we have been called to be for Oak Harbor. I am challenged every day about what I can do for myself and the church. I am on the Altar Guild, the WebMaster, and I develop special liturgy activities for the church. I am also on the Diocesan Standing Committee. I am getting burn out, I think. A vacation looks better and better all the time. Our core group works hard, but we have been holding on for a long time.

Hitting that brick wall gets down right funny now and then. Last Sunday we had a new visitng priest. We have vestments and stoles for all the seasons, but the last priest always brought his own. So, we go to the early service and the guy shows up without a stole. I am frantically dragging out all the banker boxesin the library under the table to see if one of them was hidden away somewhere. I called the Altar Guild Prez and she has a bad cold and doesn't really care if I find a stole or not and she and her husband overslept! We have things in a garage storage place, but I don't have the keys and in reality, we know the woman who does all the sewing for the Altar Guild has all that stuff at her house and she lives 40 minutes away. So, he did the early service without a stole, and he promised he'd bring his own next time. I was embarassed and horrifed because we really do have beautiful things we have gathered the last two years. But, and it is a big but, we have NO WHERE to store anything where we can get to it. Pray for us as we go through the next year of finding a priest and hopefully finding more room. We need a blessing to happen for us.

Pray for Peace in Israel. Virginia W.

Oh, Joy!

Happy Holidays from The Wagners

The house is decorated, we are getting the gifts ready, and every day is more exciting as we wait for the arrival of the entire family for our Christmas celebration. Libby will be over from West Seattle; Missy, Scott and Meg will be here from SoCal; and Rich and Pam will arrive from Longview. It will be a fun Christmas morning at the Wagner house!

Again, we’ve been busy this year with our regular activities of boating, visitors and church, but we had some highlights. We went on a week long riverboat cruise on the Columbia River, following the Lewis and Clark trip. We went through 8 locks! Missy and Scott came for 4th of July again, but this year it was a double celebration. They bought a house on Whidbey Island with the idea to rent it now and be prepared for when they retire, spending the summers here and the winters down south. That way Scott’ll get in the best golf all year round! We had several trips out in our boat. The most exciting was a trip down the Hood Canal. It was very beautiful scenery and lots of fun with our sailing group going along for support and pot lucks. In September we went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Actually we went all over Israel and parts of Palestine. It was an amazing trip, making us very aware of how much we must pray for peace in the Middle East. We learned about the delicate balance they maintain with so many faiths and different attitudes all claiming the same space. It was a trip of a lifetime.

We came back from the Middle East for knee surgery for Virginia to fix some old torn ligaments and scar tissue from her surgery over ten years ago. She’s doing PT now to prepare for our rigorous trips out in the boat next summer and fall. The surgery was just before Thanksgiving and just in time to be healed enough for Jim to make a trip back east to see his buddies from high school. He missed his 50th reunion while we were in Jerusalem and his oldest guy friends gather each year after Thanksgiving. He flew to Philly and then drove to Allentown and did the tour around and eating real Yocco hotdogs and real Philly cheese steak sandwiches!

Grandma Wagner is 98 and doing well. She lives in a retirement home in Chino Hills, CA very close to Missy. We try to get down as often as we can, but having Missy there gives us reassurance that things are going well. Grandma loves it when Meg goes over and shows her the latest computer movie Meg has directed and filmed. These films usually star Meg’s friends, the dogs, or anyone else who walks by. They show real talent, and we may have another movie maker in the family. By the way, Brett’s film, Chief, went to the Sundance Film Festival and the LA Film Festival where he won first place. That means his film can be nominated for an Oscar! Way Cool!

We wish we had nephew Brett and his wife Katherine with new baby Zoë with us for Christmas, but they are going to New York to celebrate with her mother. Niece Amanda and her husband Toby are busy with Amanda’s residency in vet school, and niece Bridget and her husband Walter are in Germany where Walter has an Air Force assignment.

Our plans for the summer include cruising to the Canadian waters, the Gulf Islands, and up to Desolation Sound. We will have our regular July 4th picnic, but we plan longer cruises and more days on the water than last year. In the spring we plan camping trips with friends, the Liebmans; they bought a new trailer and we bought their old 24 ft trailer. We can go 6 miles and be in great campsites around here; we don’t even have to leave the island. It looks like a great year for us. We hope your New Year will be the best!

Blessings and Cheers from the Whidbey Wagners.

Happy Thanksgiving

may God's blessings be with you today and always.

Psalm 136:26

"O give thanks to the God of heaven,

for his steadfast love endures forever."

Jim and Virginia Wagner

Our trip to Jerusalem and October

We are back! As you may know, we have been back since Sept 22. As soon as we got home several things happened. Jim had caught a cold while we were away, and he gave it to me! Of course, I got it all, cold and bronchitis. That took three weeks to finally get over! Then, at the same time, I was taking care of a very sore knee. It's the same knee I tore out 12 years ago, and I'm not surprised that I have wrenched it again. The ACL is in good shape, but I've torn up some other stuff. After weeks of waiting to see if it got better and using ice and meds, I had an MRI and now I go off to the orthopedic doc. Isn't it nice that he's in my Bible Study class!! All of that makes this post very late for October. In order to catch up, I am going to post two short essays I wrote for the church newsletter. They'll give you an idea about the trip to the Holy Land and how I responded. I hope you enjoy them. V. P.S. We also learned our beloved Pastor Rachel is leaving us. She'll preach her last sermon for us on Sunday!

Traveling Stories-The Wadi Qelt

5:30AM-That morning we were asked to have breakfast between 5 and 5:30 AM so we could be on the road before sunrise. Jim and I had set our clocks wrong and jumped up two hours early; after we munched a pita bread and cheese and drank a quick cup of coffee, we napped on the bus. There were 25 of us, but the group was quiet on the bus. We were told to bring our prayer books, our hats, and water and to wear good walking shoes. The bus parked along side the road, and we started the walk up a rocky hill, covered with loose stones and bigger rocks. We reached the top of the hill to see over into a valley, dropping down steeply below. We walked along the edge of a steep ravine; I had my hand on Jim’s shoulder in front of me as we walked the narrow path. It was steep and I felt the fear that I could plunge over the edge. I kept my head down and my eyes on the rocky path in front of me until we reached the level spot on a point, looking over to the place where Jesus might have sat in his time of temptation. We were there to feel the presence of Christ.

Iyad, our guide, said quietly, “I know some of you had to deal with fear as you came here. It is good sometimes to have fear. Now we will share our morning prayers and then we will be silent. We have forty-five minutes and the Bedouins will come.” We read our morning prayer together and then there was quiet, each of us finding a place to sit or stand apart from each other.

6:30AM-The sun rose orange over the edge of the hills. All around were cream colored hills, rolling like waves into the desert. The silence was complete. There was no noise from any city, planes, music, humans, only the occasional rock fall over the edge of the hillside, bouncing down the side of the cliff. No birds sang; no animal cried out. The silence was like a wave on my ears, allowing me to hear my heart beat. The hills were lined with paths made by sheep or goats, crisscrossing the steep edges. Small rust colored bushes dotted the hills, and only in the deep valley did we see a few green trees, scrubby blotches on the golden expanse below. The breeze turned cool, waiting for the noon day heat of 100 degrees or higher. The silence was a gift after the chatter of our voices. I was glad I over came the fear to be there on the mountaintop to begin one of our last days in the Holy Land.

7:45 AM-I sat and prayed for our group, for our church, for my friends and for myself. I looked at the hillside and thought about the trip and what it had meant to me. Each day was a revelation of some ancient truth about Christ and this land. The group had spread out around me, as we watched the sun rise higher and higher in the sky. We were silent.
Then, I heard a strange, low animal rumble, growing louder and deeper. I turned and looked behind me. There on the hillside was a camel and the Bedouins. They had arrived so quietly, we had not heard them. They were sitting above us on the hillside, watching and waiting for our silent time to finish so they could offer us camel rides. The Arab boys had come, too, with their donkeys. A one armed Bedouin held bone necklaces over his arm, selling them for $10. Another sold scarves, traditional Arab head pieces for men. We all burst into laughter, and picked our way back along the edge to get back on the bus. We bought necklaces, head scarves and other souvenirs, jolted back into the 21 Century, and away from our visit waiting on the hillside with Christ.
It was a morning to remember, thinking about Jesus in that landscape and knowing his isolation on his hillside. It was one of many mornings when I saw Him as a man, walking the hillsides and valleys of his birthplace. It was a reminder that I should go apart from others now and then and wait for the silence before the Bedouins of my life activities arrive to distract me from His presence.

Traveling Stories-Ramallah

St Andrews Church and The Evangelical Episcopal School

Their faces were the faces of children everywhere: five year olds with curly hair, straight hair, blonde hair, or clipped short black hair. They smiled and looked frightened at the strange people waving at them; we were Americans who had come to visit their kindergarten class. We smiled and tried to be reassuring, but few spoke to us, and all seemed shy in that first room. Sharon Beck from St A’s went right in to the next room of first graders and gave a high five to a young boy, drawing him into a conversation. In the fourth grade class they were studying English, writing in workbooks. Rachel and I went up to speak to the teacher and she told us about their needs. In every place we asked what we could do. Everyone wants money, the answer to so many of their problems, but I wanted something tangible to take back to the parish to tell our members. When I mentioned English dictionaries, the young teacher looked surprised and then said that would be a great idea. We agreed 35 would be a good number. In another room, the first graders entertained us with dancing and an Arabic version of, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.” They giggled and wiggled and jumped just like every first grade class you’ve ever seen, except they all wear uniforms, colored T-shirts to show the different grades. The 8th graders had written essays about the struggles of their grand-parents in the war between Israel and Palestine. They were heart wrenching stories about separation and loss and death. These were Palestinian children, and they only know they can not travel to Jerusalem even if they have a grandmother living there. Outside during recess, four eighth grade boys posed for photos, grinning and looking like pre-teens everywhere, but they, too, wore uniforms, black pants and white colored shirts.

The principal was open about their struggles to maintain the school. Muslim and Christian children study together and only separate for religion classes, and only 30% are Christian. They have room to board as many as 97 children who need an education, orphans or children from refugee camps, but they are not allowed to bring in children from outside any more. Today they only have 10 living at the school. They know of needy children in Jordan and elsewhere, but they are banned from entering the Palestinian area.

We were in Ramallah where they never see tour buses because it is supposed to be dangerous there. Ramallah was once the headquarters of Yasser Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, icon and long-time face of the Palestinian cause. Now few tourists come to visit their city. People waved at us as we went by in the bus, smiling at the surprise of a tour bus in the middle of their busy streets. We were in the heart of Palestine. “Israel has occupied the West bank and Gaza Strip (about 2,200 square miles) since the 1967 6-day war, and has built settlements with a population of about 220,000, mostly in the West Bank.” In 1993 Israel limited “the flow of Palestinian workers to Israel to prevent infiltration of terrorists, and by strict checks at border checkpoints. The border closing drastically reduced the Palestinian standard of living…Checkpoints around Jerusalem made it difficult for Palestinians to get to work in Jerusalem and to travel between Palestinian towns…. In March of 2002, Israel launched operation Defensive Wall in the West Bank and has since reoccupied most of the territories ceded to the Palestinians in the West Bank. (They)… set up additional checkpoints and (have) kept towns under virtual siege with extended periods of curfew, disrupting work, education and daily life. Ditches surround towns, preventing people from leaving…A security barrier [Apartheid Wall] being built inside the West Bank cuts off Palestinians from their lands and from other towns, and destroys olive groves and other property…. The route of the fence has been changed several times under international pressure.”
In the midst of this national tension, the message we were given by children and adults, both Muslim and Christian was: “Tell the world, we want peace.” They live in peace, going about their work and studies every day. They worship at their chosen places, they celebrate their special days, and they raise their families just as they have always done. They all know their leaders must see the need for peace before anything can change in their lives. They know it will be an exceptional leader who will lead them into a peaceful coexistence with those of other faiths. Perhaps that leader will come from that school we visited. Perhaps he or she will be one of those sweet faces we saw when we visited Ramallah and the Evangelical Episcopal School.

A Pilgrim in the Holy Land

Hello Everyone! I have created another blog for our trip to the Holy Land. We'll be posting almost every day. Our priest, Rachel Taber-Hamilton, will be adding comments and so will I. Maybe other people, too. Check in and see where we have been and where we're going. Go to http://pilgrimagetotheholyland.blogspot.com/ Pray for peace in Jerusalem!

The End of Summer

Hello from Whidbey Island! You can see why we are on the water so often. One photo is anchoring in Hunter Bay on Lopez Island and the other is going under the Hood Canal Bridge. It is un-believably beautiful up here. Our summer is going fast. We may get one more trip in before September but today it is raining, and we aren't that encouraged to go out. Last weekend we were camping at Ft Casey, watching the ferry to Pt Townsend come in and out. Our good and long time camping buddies, Jill and Bruce Liebman, have been trying to get us out there since we returned to the northwest. We loved the campfires and all the good meals we cooked on the grill and in our pop up camper. We were so
close to home that we ran back and forth to get the mail and newspapers. That wasn't such a good idea. Although, with gas prices, we can be thrifty and go to five campsites right here on Whidbey Island, enjoying both the outdoors and the beauty of nature. After the visitors in July, we got right out there on the water, and usually we would spend most of the month of September cruising in the San Juans and north into BC, but this year we are going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We leave Sept 9 and return on Sept 22. Our trip is being led by the husband of Rachel, our priest, Nigel Taber-Hamilton, a Brit and a past travel agent. He has us organized and already we are making plans for the great spiritual gifts we'll receive because of our trip. We went to St Mark's Cathedral for a commissioning by Bishop Nedi Rivera-we are certified pilgrims now! We have been given lists of things to do as pilgrims and ways to behave as pilgrims. As soon as I told my EFM group (my Bible Study group) someone asked if I would keep a blog. If I can figure out how to do this, I will. We were not planning to take a computer, but we might have to do that so I can send emails to everyone. We begin our trip in Seattle, flying to Atlanta and then to Tel Aviv. Then a short drive to Jerusalem will begin our trip. We'll be staying at Saint George’s College, an Anglican college in Jerusalem. That will be our home base for day trips out and about. We'll also spend three nights at the Sisters of Nazareth Convent in Nazareth while we visit around that area. I have my tour guides, my camera, a new passport and good walking shoes. I should be ready to go. If you pray, please pray for my back where my sciatic nerve is kicking up a fuss. I hope I can walk when I get off the airplane.

On this rainy day in the Northwest, we again give thanks that we live here. Our best from the Whidbey Wagners.

July/August Guests and Cruising

Hello from Whidbey Island! As you can see, we are at the height of our blooms in the garden. We are also at the end of the company this summer. We started with a great 4th picnic with 20 people here at the house, with 10 staying over. Of course, Missy and Scott were here, but this year we also got Meghan. Libby was over and her friends, Martha and Tom, and Shay and Jason, also came from Pt Angeles and Seattle, respectively. Pam and Rich came from Longview, (Pam is so cute!)and we also hosted the Liebmans, Bruce and Jill, with Kendra and Scott and kids, Kristen, Jake and Connor. It was fun, tiring, and at the end, it seemed like a boarding house. We ate, had amazing fireworks, both at the house and in Oak Harbor; from our patio, we had the perfect view. Scott was in charge and did a bang up(!) job. We have our favorites, the Toot and Twirl still ranks highest.


The next weekend we hosted Libby's friend Eva and her two girls from Knoxville, Tenn. for three days. They went all over the island, Fort Casey and the Lighthouse, to Friday Harbor to the Whale Museum, and to the Chochookum Festival in Langley. It was a great visit for them. Libby was tour guide, so Jim and I had a few minutes to make arrangements for the next meal. He bought live crabs and at my insistance cooked them outside; that really worked well, and we'll do that again when we have live crabs.


This past week end, Debbie Miller and boys, Nick and Joe arrived for five days. (See photos above!) We went to see the Beauty and the Beast play in Mt Vernon, visited with the Liebmans for a short swim and playtime with their grandkids, and went to our great Deception Pass Beach. What fun! They also got a day in at the Whale Museum where they bought those huge animals you see above! The biggest hit for everyone was the bad minton net and the croquet, although we have been told we need to upgrade the croquet set. We'll ask for that for Christmas! The back yard is the best place for everyone and if you are younger than 50, everyone enjoys it. I mentioned we might sell the house in 10 years and there was a general uproar that we could never sell as it is the place everyone wants to visit. Oh, well. Debbie's boys eat my food like I am the gourmet chef of all times. This year it was the lasagna that did it. Debbie keeps saying we need to open a B & B because we have great breakfasts, but that is a NO! We'll do it for friends but not forever. Her boys now have requests ready when they get here!


Scott and Missy were really thrilled with their new house. If you didn't know it, they bought a house in April about 3 miles from us in north Oak Harbor. They hadn't seen it, and relied on us to recommend it or not. They loved it, and yesterday, hallelujah, it was rented. (It was used over the 4th for an overflow overnight spot. Next year if we have that overflow problem, we'll have to move somebody to the boat. ) We think they got great renters; the lady was already worried about the lawn being too dry. While Scott was here, he got in two rounds of golf at the country club and loved it. He is ready to retire and has the golf course to fit the summer months. He met some great guys who encouraged him to join the club and explained the social membership. We are making plans to join in the near future.

Before the guests arrived for the 4th, Jim had finished refacing the top cupboards in the kitchen, including cherry cabinet doors. Very beautiful, too! (Photos later.)After Eva and before Debbie, he finished the bottom set. I helped a little with sanding, etc., but he did most of the work. It is amazing how good they look. We are now eager to get to the next project, but that'll have to wait until October, since summer is slipping away and we have plans to get out and about.


We are off to go cruising next week, hitting our favorite spots and marinas, starting with Rosario Resort on Orcas Island. It's a good trip for us since we don't have to pay to anchor out! We will not be available most of August we hope, especially since we are going to be gone Sept 9-23 to go on our tour of the Holy Land. We are getting excited about that.

After all the guests, we are finally getting back on our diets to try to lose another 10 lbs before we take off to the Holy Land. Debbie and I had a great talk about clothes to wear on our trip and then I ordered some things from an online source. It could be hot and Jim can only wear long pants and not jeans.

The weather here is absolutely perfect, 75 degrees, bright and sunny and cool in the evenings. We are so happy we live here. Blessings on you all and have a great summer. I'll probably post right before we leave for Jerusalem, and then after we are home. Good Day! The Whidbey Wagners

June is Gone!

(Meg at Softball Camp.)

Hello From Whidbey Island!

Again I am late in posting. Next month, I'll probably post three times -once after each guest group leaves. That's the plan for the next month: lots of company! Jim is busy getting the kitchen cabinets ready for the refacing we should receive today. We are waiting for somebody to deliver the new doors and the covering for the cabinets. We are waiting.....I am counting out sheets, towels and blankets for the many beds we'll fill over the next weeks. And, I'm cooking and doing laundry.

Here's what's going on up here. We are having a big July 4th party, and this year we get to have four couples Libby has invited over the last three years. They all decided they could come this year! Scott and Missy and Meg arrive on June 29 to stay the week. The other guests arrive starting on Jul 3. (Libby on Jul 2) We are putting people in the guest rooms, the Garden Room, Missy and Scott's house, and the pop up camper. (We even have a dog coming along for a visit!) We are so happy to include our son-in-law Rich and his wife Pam as members of the 4th party. We'll be 18-20 people for the BBQ, I think?? The number keeps changing. We'll have all the regular food and fireworks and hopefully nice enough weather for a sail during the day. The boat is scheduled to leave at noon and return in time for BBQ at 4PM. We'll send that group off on the 5th and welcome a new group, Libby's friend, Eva, and her two girls for 4 days beginning the 11th. We'll send them out and about on Whidbey Island and over to Friday Harbor for a visit to the Whale Museum. There's lots to do here. They'll leave on the 15th and our friend Debbie Miller and her two boys arrive on the 19th for 5 days. We'll take them to see Beauty and the Beast in Mt Vernon and spend a day at the animal park in Sequim (if we can get a ferry reservation). They plan to go to the Whale Museum, too. That week will be Whidbey Island Race Week so there will be lots of boats to see, racing up and down Penn Cove with their spinnakers flying.

To get ready for all this, we have replaced the bi-fold doors on the pantries in the kitchen, bought a new sofa for the family room, and Jim added a window and a ceiling fan to the Garden Room. We are still planning to add the wall board out there, but the window has changed everything and seemed the priority as we were making a work schedule. And, we are hoping we get the top cabinets done for the 4th...if they arrive in time.

We also added geraniums to all the pots outside and the window boxes in the front. Things are finally blooming and we are hoping spring will finally get here. The sun shines off and on but it is still very cool. The local strawberries are not out yet; somebody said we are three weeks late on everything this year. We'll eat good food for all the visits and include crab and salmon since that's what they all want. I'm doing some things ahead of time and saving wear and tear on my body.

In August we'll be sailing lots and have no plans for company. The weather should be great for cruising around in the San Juans.

We are still holding our own at the church, but now we are talking about how to grow spiritually and spending less time on the worry about the building. That is a Bishop worry, and we need to let him do that.

I am knitting all the time, one thing and another. I have socks going all the time, and now I have started another shawl. I finished a bag for a friend and it has to be felted. Then, I'll begin a sweater for somebody. We'll see. I also knitted two baby sweaters for babies in Africa, a project the local Methodist church is doing. It's the 5-hr sweater and really is easy, but pretty, too. I'm using up lots of acrylic yarn for that since it can be washed so easily.

Hope you are having a great summer-spring-whatever it is at your house. Happy 4th of July, The Whidbey Wagners.

Oh, Oh, May is Sailing By!

Hello Friends, we have been busy and you can tell because I have not posted to my blog in a while. April flew by! We have been very busy with church stuff (more about that later), but early April was taken up with plans for our cruise up/down the Columbia River. We left on April 11and were gone for 12 days. The cruise was only 7 days but then we took off for a tour around the wine country of the Yakima Valley and then up to Leavenworth where we stayed for two days. Our oldest friends, Jill and Bruce Liebman, went along. In fact Bruce did all the driving and let us taste wines every place we stopped. Our cruise was on the Majestic Lines, a riverboat, and we highly recommend it to all. The photo is the first morning sunrise! We had great food, traveled through 8 locks and went on a jetboat ride up the Snake River. The theme of the cruise was Lewis and Clark's trip, so we stopped along the way to view cities of interest, including Pendleton, Clarkston area and finally far west in Astoria. It was a wonderful time!

We're very busy with church right now; our group is growing and finding new activities, but we are still meeting in the small chapel. We hope that might be remedied this year. The congregation got to meet with the Presiding Bishop on the same day we left for our cruise. We were sorry to miss that opportunity, but from the reports, it was well worth a trip to Seattle to meet her and hear her advice. I am still doing the webpage and altar guild stuff. I am also trying to get trained to be a Worship Leader so that I can lead Morning or Evening Prayer when Rachel is not available. I continue to enjoy my EFM bible study class. Education For Ministry classes are local classes with a curriculum from Sewanee, covering OT, NT, Church History and Theology. It is work, but I enjoy it very much.

Scott and Missy surprised us last month by making an offer on a house on Whidbey Island. They will rent it out and then live in it half time after they retire. We had a clue because they had us going around to see houses; however, we didn't expect it so soon. We were down in Upland for a week after we returned from our cruise. Meghan is almost taller than her mother and such a grown up girl. She'll be in the 8th grade next year. We expect Scott and Missy and maybe Meg for July 4th week. They'll come up to visit us and to see their new house for the first time! Libby is flying back from the Bahamas as I write this. She has been at a training seminar and took a few days of vacation while she was there. It has been quiet without her in the area. We talk to her almost every day or so, keeping up with her business and things going on in Seattle. My niece, Bridget and husband Walter, were here on Saturday before Mother's Day. They were returning from an Alaska cruise and stayed with Libby overnight. We went over to Pike's Place Market and had lunch and strolled through the wonderful flowers. That was a gift for me: I got to pick out my favorite bouquet. Jim and I decided we don't get to the market often enough.

Jim just finished the Round Whidbey Race last weekend. He and his crew race all day and night and come into Oak Harbor early in the morning, if they have winds. He did OK,placing 4th in his class; although our wonderful Karen Marie, Too doesn't go as fast as she could in light air. He fusses about that, but we haven't made a decision to sell because we love the comfort she gives us when we cruise. We are planning many trips out this summer, going north and south. Today it is raining, but soon we'll have sunny skies and it'll look like sailing weather again.

We hope to get some renovations done on the house in June. I am praying we stick to the schedule because it has been put off for another year. We are remodeling the kitchen area a little bit and building a closet off the master bath, using part of the laundry room to do that. W are also planning a finish of the outside room into an extra guest room. It would be nice to have that done by July 4th week for the guests we have invited.

In September we are going on a tour of the Holy Land, something we had not planned for this year. We are going with a group from the Episcopal diocese. Our priest's husband, Nigel, also a priest, is leading the group. He's a Brit and so funny. We'll stay in Jerusaelem at the Anglican college and then two nights in the Sister's of Nazareth. We'll see it all! I'm starting a walking plan now so I can keep up!

May is almost over and soon we will have June flying by. Today I am reminded of cool rainy days at Girl Scout camp in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Great memories. All the best from the Whidbey Wagners.

P.S. I continue to knit great felted bags, mohair scarves, the 5 hour baby sweater for a church activity, but I am really busy folding origami birds for a memorial of those lost in the Middle East.

Happy Easter and Spring is Here!

OH, Wow! Easter came too early and now we are rushing to catch up with Spring! There are beautiful heather bushes blooming in the front along the driveway, and two daffodils that popped up in the front bed. I have more in pots, but those two cheery daffs make me smile whenever I go in and out of the house.
We had a busy, busy Easter. Our Episcopal church had a service every day, starting with Palm Sunday! It was a wonderful experience, but since I am half of the Altar Guild, we were running around like chickens. The chapel looked beautiful on Sunday and we felt like it was a true Easter. Our situation is still the same. The conservatives still hold on to the main building and refuse to do much sharing, although the covenant they signed said they would do that. We are hoping to move on soon; it is so political and we must wait to get approval for any moves we do make, including meetings, sharing information and general behavior. I can understand some of it, but other parts leave me baffled and very frustrated. I'm not good at waiting for everybody to agree we got screwed out of the building and do something about it. Our bishop promises new things. I pray for patience!

Jim and I have been dieting since Jan 4 and he has lost at least 20 lbs. I'm close to that but unsure since I didn't weigh myself before I started. I know I've lost at least one size, so it is working. We are using the Protein Power Diet, a modified low carb menu with some carbs, some fruit and lots of vegetables. We are so healthy, we have even given up our acid reflux RX! It's working slowly, about a lb a week, but it feels good. I am trying to get to the pool for water aerobics as often as I can. Some weeks are worse than others, but I try to go at least three times.

Meghan was up for her Spring break. She's 12 1/2 and so grown up. We had so much fun. She took over the guest room, making it her own with clothes, stuffed animals and books. She also made little nests all over the house, leaving her stuff strewn about, just like her mother did when she was young. We had lots of technology here, with phones, Ipods and Gameboys binging and dinging all the time. She loves coming here and relaxes, making me happy, happy. I always want her to come here to relax and find love. She got to go to the Seattle Aquarium and a short visit to the Museum of Flight. I had a meeting in Seattle and Papa took her touring around. She said the Museum was funny since Papa told her all about the planes without any docent input! He wants to go back for a long visit.

Jim is getting itchy to go sailing. He ordered and received a new mainsail but it is a little large so we are trying to figure out whether to return it to have it cut or to adapt the boom/mast configuration. He goes down to the boat almost every day now, thinking about the spring and summer sailing we have planned. We hope to do more cruises this summer than we did last summer.

We continue to have lots of company here. Missy and Scott are coming up for July 4th and Libby has invited two different groups to come to the island in July and visit her mom and dad! My friend Debbie has asked for a free time to visit, too. We still hve some renovations to do so I hope we get those finished by June. We are planning that redo of the outside room, and we still have the cabinets in the kitchen to finish. We had to wait for it to get warmer to do the painting and work outside, but now the water attracts Jim. It is a never ending struggle.

I am still on three committees, two for church and one boat thing. One day I'll quit those things and really retire to have fun and do my crafts. I haven't scrapbooked in two years-the photos are waiting. I have knitted two wonderful felted bags, but I gave them away before I could get photos. I'm planning to knit one for myself and then I will put a photo on this page.

Everyone in the family is doing well. Libby stills makes a good living as a consultant, Missy truly does have tenure and Scott still works at his engineering job. One new action on the Miss/Scott front has them looking for a house on Whidbey Island to eventually use as a retirement place. They would also have a house or condo in Palms Springs for golf. In fact, we are looking at houses for them today. They'll rent it out while they finish working in SoCal. Will wonders never cease?
The sun is shining today, the winter is over and we are happy as ever on our island. All the Best from the Whidbey Wagners.

February Days

Hello All! We have been busy this month with birthdays and trips. We took off on Feb 3 for Southern California to visit Missy, Meg and Scott. We spent the day and night before our flight at Libby's in West Seattle. We really enjoy our visits over there. As we go more often, we get more intrigued with West Seattle. It's like a little community over there! We got to SoCal in time for the Super Bowl and watched that with Scott's family and friends. The next day and for the week after we worked at Grandma's house. We cleaned out part of her workshop and filled two big garbage cans and the recycle bin. We will go back down each month for a week to finish up. Also, we made plans with the gardener to remove all the bushes you see in front of the house. After 40 years, you can't see the front. We'll replace them with low bushes in front of the house and grass for low maintanence.

We had snow on Whidbey at the end of January. We didn't expect it, but awoke one morning and there it was. We were glad to get down to the sunshine in SoCal. Everybody down there is doing really well. Missy has a light teaching load since she is coordinating the support labs for students this semester. She loves her job! Meghan is so tall and looks like a teenager. She had to be convinced I was her funny grandmother, but I did get her attention when I told her I thought I could move down for the winter months and pick her up every day after school. I could put my head out the window and yell, "Yoohoo! Meghannnnn! Over here!" When I reminded her she would have to explain that to her too cool frineds she tried not to laugh, but I caught her!! Scott's job still keeps him busy. It was fun to meet all his golf friends at the Super Bowl party. Of course, his brothers were there and wives and kids! We also got to celebrate his birthday on Feb 4.

Libby is in England right now. She has gone over for four days of work and six days of sightseeing. She and a friend are going on the Chunnel for a short trip to Paris. It's been years since she was there, so she is very excited. We sent her off with a new camera (a Christmas present) and hope to get lots of good pictures. Her business continues to be good. She plans vacations and then work!!

I am busy with the Power Sqd secretary duties and the Standing Comm secretary duties. And, I hae started a four year Education for Ministry Study, starting with the Old Testament and then on to the New Testament and then two years of church history, both in the greater world and then in the U.S. It requires homework and thoughtfulness, but it is just what I have been looking for.

Our church continues to grow and we expect great things this year. We are having a few growing pains. We need a scheduler for activities and a church calendar, but overall, we are doing very well. We tolerate the stresses and strains of being displaced better than one would think possible. Our new bishop continues to reassure us that all will soon be resolved. We pray he is right.

I went to visit a few friends in California over Feb 8 weekend and took them the shawls I had knitted. Now I am determined to finish the projects I had already started. To that end, I did finish a scarf I started over a year ago, and now I am going to get rid of all the extra yar. I have a few new things to begin, but nothing that will take too long.

Jim is getting ready for sailing season, although it is pretty cold right now! We have three schedules we have to coordinate with the three boating groups we support. Looks like we'll have a few longer cruises in August and September, and then fill in with shorter ones in June and July. The best months are August and September because the weather is perfect then. Today the sun is out so we think it is time to get ready to go!

On Jan 4 we began our diet for the new year. We are doing the Protein Power low carb diet for the time, and we are both losing weight. Jim loses faster than me, but it is coming off. There is a long way to go, but we feel so much better and we eat much better now. Jim's birthday was Feb 14 so he feels good that his pants are getting baggy! We had a lo carb birthday, but it tasted good and we felt victorious. The best to our friends and family from the Whidbey Wagners.

Happy New Year

Better Late Than Never!

The New Year has begun and we are already busy, busy. Look at the date-Jan 24th! Catching up is hard to do when I can't remember where I was yesterday!

House-We are freezing up here in the Northwest, so all projects are on hold. We are still hoping to finish the kitchen cabinets, but again our events and activities are always in the way. We did decide to finish the outside garden room into an extra guest room for those real overflow people. We are hoping to have lots of company next Christmas so we will need the room, even if Jim and I go to the boat again. We'll paint the floor, finish the walls and maybe put down carpet to help with insulation. We have an electric radiator for heat, so if we do have to put someone out there, they won't freeze right away! The project sounds like so much fun, I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can begin. We have a futon couch for sleeping, and we'll need to improve the lighting, but the space will be very nice and cozy.

Boat: Jim keeps checking on the Karen Marie II. She floats and is doing OK in the cold weather. We are already making plans to go on lots of cruises this summer. We'll have to work around my meeting schedules, but we are excited about it. We are trying to coordinate the Oak Harbor Yacht Club, the Power Sqd and WINSA, the Whidbey Island Naval Sailing Association schedules. We could cruise every week starting in April. That's a little early for us, but there is a Power Sqd activity in March that we may go to in LaConner, and we may take the boat over for that. It'll probably be cold, but we can plug in and run a heater for warmth. Can't wait for our days on the water to get here.

Family: Everybody is doing fine. Libby is off in Leavenworth this weekend, skiing in two different places . Her business still does well, and she has a trip planned for England in Feb with a side trip to Paris. She is gone more than she is home, so her Jan schedule when we had her here most of the month was a treat. Missy is doing very well at Norco Community College. She got tenure-did I say that before? They continue to love the great hot tub they put in with their pool. After the fires they were scraping the black soot off of everything, including the pool, but when we were there in Thanksgiving it was wonderful. The tub will hold at least 6 people, so it is a gathering place whenever people go there to visit. Meg is wonderful, but a normal 12 going on 30 tweener! Jim's nephew, Brett Wagner, is at the Sundance Film Festival where he is showing his short film, Chief. This is a wonderful chance for him. We are anxiously awaiting any news.

Church: We are still meeting in the small chapel across the street from the big building. We hope this year we will be given permission to make other arrangements. No telling, the group could decide they don't want to be in Oak Harbor any more! We always feel pinched for space and uneasy about our location, but we have a full schedule of church activities. I am busy being on the Altar Guild, Chair of the Liturgy Committee and the WebMaster. On top of that, I am the Secretary of the Standing Committee for the Diocese. And, I just signed up to start EFM, a study program for laity out of the seminary in Sewanee. Like I need another thing! Jim continues as the Junior Warden. Right now he doesn't have much to do since we don't have a facility, but one day he may have more to do. We are busy but we are keeping up.

Knitting: I am finishing a few projects for friends, shawls and other things. It has been a real challenge to stay focussed over the holidays. I bought a Knitting Machine. A small inexpensive one, but I plan to knit squares and sew them together for blankets for the homeless. I have a great book, Knitting For Peace, that lists all sorts of projects from blankets to socks to chemo caps. I am knitting a chemo cap for a friend's sister right now. As soon as I am finished with that project, I am going to go full out on the yarn I have for those blankets. My stash has not gone down! I have the yarn to knit a felted bag for my rector sitting there waiting for attention. I have enough for two sweaters, I have shawls and more shawls and more shawls to knit, and I have 1/2 a sock finished. Sounds normal, huh?

Us: Jim and I have been on the Protein Power Diet for a month. We have lost weight and we feel so much better. We'll continue on for many more months. Last night we ate at the local Japanese restaurant and had Teppan Yaki. We loved the vegies and meats and watching the chef chop and slice. And, it was all on the diet, since we didn't eat the rice. We also found out you can get a Healthy Diet Menu at Olive Garden, and they have lighter meals listed with calories, fat and carbs listed. All of this is good to know so we can go out now and then.

Early Feb we are off to SoCal for a visit with the kids and Grandma Wagner and Super Bowl Sunday with Scott's family. I'll stop off on the way home to see old college friends. Jim's going to the Seattle Boat Show on Jan 28. He loves it! I may or may not go. To me it's the same thing as standing around a car sales lot, kicking the tires. I can take a book or knitting and sit at the Power Sqd table. Maybe I'll go. Next month I hope my message is a little sooner. Great plans and all that. Hope your new year is going well and you are staying warm. All the best, The Whidbey Wagners

Happy Christmas and New Year 2008

Loved Ones,
Another year has gone, and again we are here wishing you happiness this Christmas season. The past year has brought us much joy. We love being on Whidbey Island ; we love cruising in Puget Sound; we love having friends and family visit; we love finding a church home; we even love the Northwest weather!
We continue to enjoy living on Whidbey Island. It is slow and small town, but just right for us. The base is a good resource, and we have made friends at our Yacht Club, the Sail and Power Squadrons, and our church. This is a great place to retire! We continue to work on our house, remodeling this and that. We got new bathroom floor in the guest bath this year.
This past summer we were out for two 10 day cruises in the Puget Sound islands, even getting to Canadian islands once. We had several shorter cruises, too, and we know we love our boat for cruising in these waters. The islands and north into Canada offer rich cruising grounds, and next year we plan to go for at least one longer trip up along Vancouver Island. Of course, we had day sails and everyone who visits get to go on the boat!

We are busy with visits from friends and family: friends from Mendocino College came over Spring break (at the same time as Missy and Meghan); Don and Barb Vasconcellos were here for a week, including a trip to Victoria, BC; the Miller/Parise clan was here with their boys; Scott’s mom, Peggy and her brother, Jim, were here for lunch; Libby was here with her friend, Marielena, from London, UK, and we had to turn down a few people. Make your reservations early! We know the best places to go. Teacher friends from Ukiah were here for the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley and saw fields and fields of blooming tulips in all colors! Our light house, Admiralty Head, is a popular spot, too.

We are busy with our church, St Stephen Episcopal Church in Oak Harbor. Virginia was elected to the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Olympia, one of 4 lay people on the committee. (That means we are getting to go to Seattle much more often than before!) Jim is the guy who looks after the building and grounds, but since we are in the small chapel, he doesn’t have much to look after. Things could change any day!
The Northwest weather isn’t all bad. Last winter we lost power after wind storms so now we have a generator on the pump house (we have a well). This winter looks like it might be as wild, with lots of wind and rain and a few snowflakes every now and then. However, we get less than half the rain as Seattle, we do not get floods, nor do we get much snow or freezing weather. And, in the summer it might hit 85, and that is considered HOT! We love the mild climate, and it loves to grow things. Our flower garden is a wonder every summer, blooming with everything I plant.
Family Report: Missy got tenure as an English Professor at her community college; Missy’s husband, Scott, played the world’s hardest golf course, Ko’Olau, in Hawaii (according to Extreme Golf); Libby’s business is going great, and she bought a new BMW; Brett Wagner (nephew) got his short film accepted at the Sundance film festival (look for Chief); Brett’s wife Kathryn is the Managing Editor of the Honolulu Magazine; Meghan is in Junior High!; Grandma Wagner is 97!!! Of course, we miss our Karen, especially at Christmas, but our family is doing just great. Come see us and find out why we love Whidbey Island.
Wishing you all the Best for the New Year
The Whidbey Wagners

Happy Advent!

Hello from the Whidbey Wagners!

Advent is here! Get ready for Christmas!
Make your plans now
for cheer and good will.
Advent is here! Get ready for Christmas!
Hold onto your dreams
for glad tidings and joy.

Happy Thanksgiving

We wish you the best day, the best food,

every good blessing on this Thanksgiving.

The Whidbey Wagners

Fall Review

Hello from Whidbey Island! This is my monthly report on the activities of a retired couple living out their dreams on a northwest island. Actually, we aren't that isolated since we have a bridge at the north end of the island and ferries in two other places. Speaking of ferries, in the last storm we had high winds and the photo to the right was taken during a ferry crossing. Sometimes we do have to stay home or drive around!
Sailing: Our sailing is over for the season. We go down now and then to check on things and make sure our home away from home is still floating. If we get a bad storm and all the lights go out, we may move onto the boat until things get back to normal. We can run the motor to get hot water and heat and we can cook on our alcohol stove. We have a very cozy retreat in the midst of chaos. We attended the annual fall conference for the Power Squadrons in District 16. That was very successful for our squadron becasue we didn't lose money! Jim continues to take classes with the group; he is taking Junior Navigator right now. It isn't like Junior Scout! He has to use a sextant and do real navigating to pass the class. Next he can take Senior Navigator which is the highest rank you can take. I am Secretary for the club, so we go to everything and stay involved with the boating community that way, too.

Gardening: As you can see from the maple trees, things are changing here. We are cutting back the perennials. I had gladiolas until the first of October! Real clean up will happen as soon as we get two days of clear weather. I have tulips ready for potting, but those will wait a little longer. In the spring I plan to put in short dahlias and some more tall ones to fill in some places where I usually have annuals, and I plan to add Japanese anemones in and around the garden As we traveled around and saw gardens in Roche Harbor and other marinas this summer, the anemones were beautiful, both pink and white. In the spring I will separate perennials to fill in around fences and other beds. We did not have much luck with our tomatoes this year. I don't think we are very good vegie gardeners; however ,our apple trees were big producers this year. I got apples, and the neighbors got apples, and people driving by got apples. Hope next year is as good.
Knitting: I've finished six more shawls made from baby fine super kid marino wool and ribbon yarn. I'm back to socks for the fall. Jim gets the next pair, but Missy says she is knitting the Whidbey Island socks which have a cable along the sides. I'm trying that next. I've been in a rut and only knitting colored socks that require no thinking. Anyway, I need to branch out and knit some cables. Still haven't started the sweaters yet. I did finish another felted bag for a gift. UFOs fill my closet in the guest room. For those who don't know, those are "Un-Finished Objects."

St Steven Episcopal Church: Jim and I are off to the Diocesan Convention Nov 2 weekend. We are alternates for our church, but I am also the Regional Convenor, so that means I get to vote! That may be a mistake. This will be the first convention for our new Bishop. It should be interesting to see how things have changed since he arrived. We are getting ourselves organized for the fall and winter activites. On Nov 4 we are having a special "remember your ancestors" day (All Saints). Our great and gifted seamstress, Lyn deShong made a felt tree banner, and I cut out 150 paper leaves which we'll stick on with names of loved ones we want to remember at this time of year. Velcro dots stick on felt really well. Lyn wants me to make knitted sheep for our nativity scene. I'll need to get busy on that if we do it.

Family: Last but not least! Everybody is fine. Libby is in Florida now, back in a few days and then off again to New York for a week after that. She has penciled us in for a SoCal Thanksgiving and three days on the island for Christmas! Her business continues to do well. Missy, Scott and Meg were not affected by the fires in California other than the ash and soot which rained down on them. Of course, they were on the alert since they live amongst trees and hills covered with grass. Grandma Wagner got through OK, too. It was a nervous time for everybody who has family and friends down there. We hold them all in our prayers. Meg is doing well in school. Her English teacher discovered she's the kid who won all the awards for her poetry in elementary school and she's truly a whiz with words, so she's a favorite now. Algebra was tough at first, but she's catching on. She has already made a trip to DC to visit her dad. I'm making a list of the things she needs to see.

Final thoughts: We're making our plans for our trip to SoCal for Thanksgiving. We've invited the whole group, so we should have a crowd at Grandma's house, all sitting on folding chairs! We'll go down early to set things up. Also, we are so excited to go on a December cruise on the Columbia River. Our friends, the Liebmans, are going along. We will start in Portland, go to the Klickatat Dock, sail to Pendleton, then to Clarkston for a Hells Canyon jet boat ride, and then Port Ranier, Astoria and back to Portland. The reports about this cruise make it sound wonderful. We expect cool weather, but we'll enjoy the scenery and the boat trip up the magnificent Columbia. If Jim likes it, maybe we'll go on another cruise where somebody else does the cooking! We'll be home for Christmas this year. I'm already thinking about decorations. Happy Fall to All! The Whidbey Wagners

A Good Reminder

Hello from beautiful Whidbey Island!

My friend Elaine Martinsen just sent me an email telling me how glad she was to find a new post on my blog. My last blog made mention of how terrible it is to go to a favorite and find nothing new there. In that light, I am pledging an update at least once a month. And, I will post new photos! Today I'll begin a new format: my blog will have subheadings. Here goes:(not necessarily in the same order all the time since sometimes some headings will have more importance than others.

Family: (Missy and Scott in Mexico on their cruise & Libby's photo on her website. )
Jim is in SoCal right now visiting with Missy, Meg and Scott and making regular visits to his mom (97 yrs Old)! He has been in charge of her trust for a few years and now has able help with a new attorney and a house manager for her house in Upland. Yesterday he went to meet his new attorney and found out she lives next door to Grandma's house. How is that for perfect location? The good Lord provides. Jim is having the house painted and repaired for future use, and even though it will be empty, it will be nice when we visit in Nov for Thanksgiving. We will be camping out on futons and folding chairs, but the family will gather at Grandma's house and celebrate together. Brett and Kathryn (Jim's nephew and wife) are coming from Hawaii, Libby will arrive on Wednesday and we hope Amanda(Jim's niece) gets to come in from Wisconsin. Of course, we'll have the Bader group, with Missy, Meg, Scott and we hope Scott's mom and brothers and families. We'll have a picnic Thanksgiving dinner on folding chairs and tables. Fun for all! Libby is doing very well with her own business. So well in fact, she bought a new BMW! She keeps telling me her business bought it, but I know she bought it. She travels lots, but she is happier than she has ever been, so we are happy, too. She keeps telling me she has an outline for her newest book (nonfiction about good business communication) and her latest book of poetry is at the publishers, so hopefully we'll be announcing those soon.

Sailing:
Sept 13 we got back from a 10 day trip on the Karen Marie II to marinas and resorts in the San Juans. (The photo is of Rosario Resort on Orcas Island. ) We loved the mansion and the organ recital one evening. We sailed with friends, Bruce and Sandy Jones, on their Hunter 30, Carpe Diem, and Mike and Janice Connel on their Catalina 27, Irish Ayes. Good food, good friends and good weather, as well as a visit to the great Roche Harbor made it my favorite cruise this season. Jim wasn't as sure about the resort thing, but I loved all the service at the marinas. We'll do day sailing from now on since it is cooling down in the northwest. Next year we plan many more days and nights on our boat. We loved cruising even more than we remembered.

Gardening:

We have been overwhelmed with beautiful flowers this second year of our garden. The blooms have been wonderful with dahlias and ecinacea and daisies and hydrangeas and lilies blooming continually all summer. I got some gladiolas in late, but even they have been blooming the last month. Next year I know I'll have more. Plans for next winter include pansies in the outdoor pots and for the spring, bulbs (daffoldills and tulips) in pots around the front and in back. The photo shows the dahlias I planted which produced more flowers than I could ever use. Next year I plan to add miniature dahlias to fill in beds.

Knitting:

I have been very busy knitting shawls for everybody. Libby got three and has had rave reviews from friends. Using ribbon yarn and mohair makes them light as a feather and warm, too. (See photo). Soon I'll have to switch to something else since I have stockpiled enought yarn to make 3 felted bags for friends and family and enough wonderful wool yarn to knit two sweaters for myself. I buy it and then it sits! I did finish a prayer shawl for a shut in, and I have yarn for many more. I could knit all day every day and never finish.

St Stephen Episcopal Church:

We are still active with our Faithful Remnant, having church every Sunday in the small All Saints Chapel adjacent to the main sanctuary. We struggle for space, but we remain faithful. The consecration of our new Bishop last Saturday was a wonderful experience. We are so lucky to get a young man with exceptional skills to lead us. I am planning to go to the Diocesan School of Ministry and Theology classes in January, and I plan to begin a Bible study with two friends at the Methodist church every Tuesday morning. Some day I'll get over to the hospital in Anacortes to visit the chaplains' program. I have the time, but find it hard to jump-start myself. We have been so busy keeping the church afloat; it has been like starting a new church when you have no resources but you want everything. We continue to pray for a resolution to the differences here in Oak Harbor.

Final Thoughts: Jim and I have a busy fall schedule. Seems like retirement does not give us much time to just sit around. I'll be visiting friends in California on Oct 5 weekend. We are working at the Fall Council Meeting for our Sail and Power Sqd. on the weekend of Oct 12. We host the event this year, so I'm doing table decorations and Jim is helping out. We go to our Diocesan Convention in Nov and then head to SoCal Nov 17 for the Thanksgiving vacation. On Dec 8 we leave for a week's riverboat cruise on the Columbia River. Hope we don't freeze to death! Christmas will be home and a quiet time for us. Hope you are having a great day! The Whidbey Wagners

Failure To Communicate

There is no excuse for telling people you have a blog and then never posting to it. Most days I check out my favorite bloggers, and I'm disappointed when they fail to check in regularly. I am guilty of doing just that.

Good excuses:

I was off to Ashland in June with friend Debbie Miller from Portland. We had a wonderful four days indulging in great plays and great food and great shopping. We saw a great Romeo and Juliet from balcony seats in the Elizabethan theater, and loved On The Razzle, a Tom Stoppard play that kept us laughing. I took the train to Portland again and enjoyed my ride both ways, getting some knitting and books on tape time in as we traveled along.

In early July I was off with a friend, Sandy Taylor, to a Liturgy and the Arts Institute at Seattle University. Seattle had a heat wave, not the most memorable event of the week, but it was significant. But, in the midst of the heat, we had a renewal of our understanding of all parts of the liturgy and how it works for each of us to develop and enhance our faith experience. We came home to work, work, work in the church with three funerals and a confirmation in a month. There is evidence of burnout for some of us!

We have been very involved in our boating activities this summer. Since we purchased the "Karen Marie, Too" last September, we have worked to make her everything we want in a cruising boat. That took buying a new sail, adding a cockpit cover, along with repairs to the bimini cover, and installing more electronics, especially Auto, the automatic helm. Jim did most of that work, but I supervised and added comments about addional needs. We were finally ready for a real cruise and left home on July 24. Our cruise was from our home port of Oak Harbor to local San Juan islands and then into Canadian waters to visit two ports. We were sailing with a boat just like ours, Carpe Diem, and another boat, a San Juan 34, Cygnus. Along the way we were anchored in Reid Harbor and the Lady Washington and The Hawaiian Chieftan came in for a night. Up close they are sooo big! After 10 days we were ready to get home, but we know we love our new boat, and we loved cruising in our great northwest region. Our next trip will be from Sept 4 to Sept 17, again into Canadian waters after we stop off in a few local resorts-Rosario and Deer Harbor. We rough it at anchor now and then, but a night in a harbor with hot showers, a great restaurant and local color makes it fun,too. As part of our boating experience, we joined the Deception Pass Sail and Power Sqd which offers classes to boaters for safety, etc. We are both active in that group, too; Jim is the Membership chair, and I am the Secretary. We just had our annual picnic and meetings start the beginning of September.

We have had lots of visitors and activities this summer, too. Early in June, our friends, Don and Barb Vasconcellos,(from California) came for a week. We toured around locally, went whale watching, and got in a two day trip to Victoria. (Photos are of Ruffles, the oldest female in our resident orca pod and Bouchart Gardens)Missy's mother-in-law, Peggy Bader (from Riverside, CA) and her brother from Seattle, stopped in for lunch one day. We had a great visit. The July 4th picnic didn't happen because all the kids from Liebman's and our group were absent, so Jill and Bruce came for a July 4th sail and lunch on the boat. Libby came over for a night's visit with a friend, MariElena, from London, England. Of course, we had our great Dungeness crab for dinner. And, we got in two short cruises on the boat, one to Sucia Island for 4 days and one to Coronet Bay for an overnight, just outside Deception Pass.

It seems every week is filled with things to do. The church takes up lots of time. As Junior Warden, Jim is responsible for the physical plant and helping with other events at church. I am on the altar guild and help out with the liturgy committee. We are both on the Vestry and I am the Webmaster, so we are involved in all activities, events and services held at the church or elsewhere. From revivals to funerals, we have had it all this year, and we have done it in a 19x19 box of a room. We finally went to two services on Sunday to fit everyone in. Some times we have used the larger church building, but that has been after requests and always seems so strained. We have not reconciled with the Anglicans across the parking lot and they have not offered any hand in peace, so we are in a holding pattern until our new bishop arrives on Sept 15. Looks like we'll miss the consecration, but we will be praying for him and for our church as we move into this transition time.

This sort of catches us up. I am knitting. I finished a sweater for Missy, short sleeved cotton, and a sweater for Libby. I also finished a prayer shawl for someone, and I have four mohair and ribbon shawls knitted. I gave one to Kendra Liebman, but the others are waiting to be blocked and then kept for gifts or ??? I have three felted bags to knit as gifts, and Missy's bag is finished and only needs felting. That will get done this month!! I started a baby blanket for Noel's baby and another scarf, an unusual bias knitting pattern. Of course, I have the yarn ready for 6 other prayer shawls. I did make wall hangings for the church for the confirmation; and I took a sewing class(sort of) this spring and had my machine overhauled. That was a very good thing. Now I am finished sewing, and I am going to be hard core knitting to finish some of my projects and get them out of the way for good! Oh! I bought the yarn to make a kimono for myself-will wonders ever cease! Two friends and I are starting a group in the fall; I'm going to learn to hand quilt!! Another great project is coming.

May you have fair winds and following seas. Good cheer to all. The Whidbey Wagners