Great Grandchildren Picture

Our great grandson, Ethan, is holding his new sister, our new great granddaughter, Abigail Lee.
I believe he thinks she's a keeper. Aren't they precious? These are our only great grandchildren.

Our Second Great Grandchild

Madeline and I are once again proud great grandparents.
Our grandson, Eric, and his wife, Summer, were blessed today with their second child, a girl.
Abigail Lee was born today at 1 PM in Texas.
She is 19 1/2 inches long and came in at a healthy 7 pounds and 7 ounces.
She has a big brother, Ethan almost 3 yrs old, waiting to watch after her.
We can hardly wait to see her. A trip to Texas is on our mind.....

Madeline's Birthday

I want to wish my wife, Madeline, a very Happy Birthday.

Not only is it her birthday, but it's also one of our granddaughter's birthday. How cool is that?

Karl....

Adam Won Again

Our grandson Adam won the Jefferson County Spelling Bee, for the second time, today. It went 27 rounds and I'm sure they must have all been exhausted at the end.
He will now compete in the State Spelling Bee next month.
Great job Adam. We are so proud of you.

Young Love

Our youngest grandchild Bryce with his friend Elise. His sister Peyton is chaperoning.

NOCCALULA FALLS

This 100-foot natural wonder waterfall, located in Gadsden, Alabama, is named for Noccalula, a young Cherokee maiden who plunged to her untimely death rather than forsake her true love. She is memorialized by a statue and the engraved story of her fate.
The above picture is a more normal flow than the ones below after about 8 inches of rain in 2 or 3 days. During the dry months it slows to a trickle so we made a special trip today to see what a big rain would do with it.

The above is a brass plaque telling the story of Noccalula, the Cherokee maiden.

This is a statue of her. Notice the rainbow behind her. The air was full of mist coming from the falls.

The rainbows constantly moved around as the water plunged over the falls. The mist reminded me of what we experienced at Niagara Falls.

The flow was quiet a bit more a day or two ago or so a park worker told us

A double rainbow

There is a huge cavity under the falls

This train runs all through the park when it's operating.

This is a downstream view.

The water was too swift for the ducks so they are taking a break.

This is a footbridge over the creek. They had access blocked because of the danger.

This duck stood out from the rest. Probably an alien.

Top edge of the falls.

The City is building this Chapel for weddings. It will be ready to rent soon.

This is the park's new entrance. The park will reopen in March I believe.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Christmas decorations have been put away and Madeline has hung the new calenders.
I hope the new year keeps us all Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Well at least Healthy andWise.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.... May 2009 be the best yet. Karl

Count Your Blessings

From Doves Retreat

Karl & Madeline Wish Everyone A Very Merry Christmas.

Triple Event Day

Thursday was quiet a special day for us. It was Thanksgiving day which we always celebrate with as many of the family as possible. We had 15 this year.

The turkey and all all the trimmings, including this "Turkey cake", were enjoyed by all.

The second event was our 54th Anniversary which happened to coincide with Turkey day.

This card was posted by our daughter Deann on her blog. Thank you sweety.

The third event was the clever way our oldest daughter let us all know the sex of her newest expected grandchild, her second. We knew her daughter- in-law Summer was expecting but the sex was kept a secret from us until they could reveal it to us all at once.

She asked me if she could borrow the legs of the turkey that I was carving. I never know what to expect so I said sure. She used them to dress up the plate above, with pink, to let us know it was a girl..We have 8 grandsons, 3 granddaughters, and 1 great grandson so I believe everyone was thrilled to welcome another girl.

As if those triple events weren't enough, I believe we hit a home run if we include the beautiful day. It had to be the most perfect Thanksgiving day,weather wise, that I can remember.

We all enjoyed trampling in the leaves and walking off that turkey.

Our grandsons, Joseph and Adam, enjoyed playing with Ethan, our great grandson.

Ethan found an old mop and had fun pushing leaves around.

He will soon have a baby sister to play with.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2008

These wild turkeys visited my yard about 4 months ago. Mommy turkey with 5 of her poults were getting fat here but didn't have the nerve to return when I could have used one of them. Maybe they are smarter than the average turkey.

That's okay though, we have a fat one in the fridge that will be on the table tomorrow with all the trimmings.

Freedom Isn't Free

As one Veteran to all other Veterans..Thanks for your service.
This is a picture of me while in Korea in the early 50s. Gosh, I was young.

A No Brainer-- Vote Country First

Never has an election been so important. Vote "COUNTRY FIRST" not for "slight of hand" change.

Giant Bell Pepper?

No, not a giant but a rather small one. This is the last pepper in my patch and it turned red because it was hidden under the leaves. Madeline found it and requested that I blog it since I blogged my first one of the season. I'm going to chop it up for my "World famous" veggie-beef soup that I'm cooking for lunch today. The tiny wagon is the one Santa left me in the mid 1930s. You can see it was well used but they were well made out of steel in those days. The kneeling boy is made of crushed pecan shells.

Old Family Photos

My brother recently found these pictures of our mother and part of her family. This is a picture of our mother but I have no idea of her age when it was taken. Below is a photo of my mother with her dad and brothers. She was born in 1907 and looks to be about 2 here. Her Papa, our grandfather, was killed in a mine explosion at Palos mine in 1910.
( A story about that explosion is published way below on this blog)
Three of our uncles are shown but it seems someone destroyed Uncle Ethan's face. Notice the antique bicycle that is evidently Uncle Willie's only means of transportation. I bet it took quiet a beating on the trails and roads back then. Uncle Ross probably had to walk.

Heart Tomato

My tomato patch didn't exactly set records this year but it seems it at least had "HEART".

2008 Trip to Kara's

We made our annual trip to Battle Ground, Washington to visit Our daughter, her husband and our 4 youngest grand children. We were treated like royalty and had a great time.

It's usually cold out there this time of year so we were pleasantly surprised to find it near 90 degrees on our arrival.

The kids had begged their Mamaw to bring her bathing suit to swim with them so they went to the pool soon after our arrival. The next day turned cooler so this was the last use of the pool.

It seems everything grows better out there. Better soil and more moisture I assume.

Here are Drake and Peyton to add more beauty to the roses. Bryce is in the background.

Here is Logan, on the left, practicing Taekwondo. He has a green belt.

We attending every practice to watch them kick, wrestle, etc.

This is Drake, on the left, also practicing Taekwondo. He also has a green belt

That is both of them on the right doing a "duck walk" race.

My birthday occurred the second day we were there and my daughter baked her "old" dad a cake. Only one candle was used to prevent any more forest fires. "Smokey's" rule I've heard.

It's almost impossible to get them all together for a group photo. Logan, Peyton, and Drake cooperated but Bryce is way behind on the floor.

Drake had his 6th birthday party a few days early so that we could attend. We had a house full and everyone seemed to have a great time. Our daughter is helping Drake with all his presents.

9/11 Remembered Again.

September 11, 2001, two minutes after the plane struck the first Tower.

Madeline and I were getting dressed in a motel room in a small town in southern Washington state. The TV news suddenly announced the tragic news of a plane crashing into one of the twin towers. I thought it might be a small plane that accidentally crashed since I remembered that in years past a plane had crashed into the Empire State Building.

We were having a wonderful vacation as we traveled across the west visiting National Parks. We had visited Olympic National Park the day before and were heading to Portland Oregon that day to visit our daughter and grand children. We left the motel still not knowing the full extent of the crash but the news was on the radio as we traveled. We stopped for breakfast and everyone was reporting rumors of every type not knowing themselves how much more we could expect.

The country came together as one that day and for a short time later.

Even though our president has kept us safe for 7 years, there are those that now blame him and our country for this terrorist act and anything else they can think of. How pitiful..............

How soon some forget.

God Bless America.

Feathered Visitors 4 Months Early

We were surprised yesterday with a visit of mommy turkey with her 5 poults.

This is Mom telling her poults to follow her

Mom leads her troop to the woods slowly. I couldn't get a picture of the whole group .

She didn't appear frightened but just a little apprehensive as I got closer.

I bet they don't show up close to Thanksgiving Day.

For more and better pictures of this flock, click the "BrasherGirl" link on left.

Ethan's Birthday

Our great grandson Ethan turned 2 and happily celebrated the event.

Where does time go?