House fire in Gridley

There was a house fire in Gridley Sunday morning, here is link to a video showing the fire.  Toward the end of a video you will see a fireman (me) on a ladder suppressing the fire.  Everyone got out of the house and we saved five cats.  We contained the fire to the attic, kitchen and garage but with water and smoke damage must everything was destroyed. 

www.week.com/younews/42089742.html

Michigan's Race for Governor Begins

Today at the end of the day Peter Hoekstra held a rally in the factory part of my building as a part of his cross state tour to announce his candidacy for governor. Hoekstra is the current ranking Republican of the House Intelligence committee in case you don't know who he is.

I've always enjoyed a political rally.

By the way, you can see the Herman Miller Equa chair boxes behind him. These are now being sold at Costco.

One of "the guys"

This was Dave's Sunday morning. He was one of the guys called out at 3:30 am to fight the blizzard. Around 4:30 am he could not see the road and wasn't sure he was staying on the pavement. It never did really get slick or impossible to drive on, and by 4:30 pm there wasn't any snow left in sight as the temperature quickly rose to melt it away. This is actually Dave in his plow, as featured in the Pantagraph Sunday morning. Too bad you can't recognize him!

Beautiful Sunday Morning

This morning we woke up to 5 inches of snow. The trees, bushes , wires, etc. were covered with an icy snow. It was a beautiful sight. The car on the driveway was literally buried in snow, the snow on the driveway was deep, so we went back to bed. We were hoping the man who removes the snow would come to clean the drive so we could go to church. He finally came at about 9:30 so we got ready and went to church at noon. (Just in time for lunch) After church the roads were cleared and now the snow is melting fast. We can't wait for some nice warm spring days!

Big night out!

Yesterday Lynn and I went to B'ham to attend the Eagle Forum annual banquet, something we have done occasionally in our years in the South. Decided to really celebrate and spend the night at the Marriott, where the banquet was held. Met some lovely people at our table. After the meal Alabama's Senator Jeff Sessions had the message. He is aghast as what Obama and his cohorts are doing in DC and feels our freedoms as Americans are in grave danger with threats of socialism and one world government overhead. And the WILD expenditures.... He feels the hope is in the elections in two years; Clinton's goals were clipped at the Congress at the two year election. After the banquet was over, Lynn suggested we just walk through the dining room and perhaps we'd see someone we knew. Sure enough, about halfway through we heard "Klopfenstein"--Robin Mears and his wife, who we have known for many years with the Alabama Christian Educator's Association. So we had a nice chat with them. Just a day and a night away made a great mini-vacation.

Happy Birthday (1 day late!)

We've been celebrating Mom's birthday for over a week now and I'm having a luncheon for her tomorrow, so maybe it's okay that this birthday wish is a day late. Her 80th birthday was yesterday . . . Happy Birthday, Mom! Among many other things, you have taught me to give without expecting anything in return. . . thank you.

I wish you all could be here tomorrow to help honor her but know that's not possible. Now, back to my cleaning and shopping!

BRIGHT AND GLOOMY DAY

The day outside is very cold, windy, rainy, and just about as gloomy as it can be. Supposed to snow tonight. Inside, we are bright and happy and confident that Spring and warm weather WILL come soon! We have been busy cleaning house and getting ready for church potluck this evening. I think I have a little time for a nap. Jerry whipped up a trivia quiz for our guests and I will soon be fixing stuffed porkchops.
Here is a picture of my table - notice that Flat Stanley has been helping me.

Things we do in Gridley

Taking down a tree over a garage on east sixth street.  Myself and Todd Witzig -business partner.

Removing the fire siren from the tower - moving it over to the fire station.  Myself and Jon Wellwood - employee.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY

Good Morning on this nice sunny early morning. I just thought I'd give you the latest greatest news from our house -- which is nothing great, but something new to read on the blog!!

I've been working some on my patchwork project which has brought quite a few interesting guesses, but nothing close to the real thing yet. Maybe by the end of next week I'll get it done and show you a picture. Also working on an Easter project which I'll show you soon.

Yesterday, Heat and I spent some time shopping, then she came and spent the night with us. We watched a movie and had hot fudge sundaes - yummy. I'll take her home sometime this afternoon.

As most of you have probably heard by now, our cousin Bill Krones passed away Monday, his obituary was in yesterday's Pantagraph in case you're interested in reading it, and the visitation will be this evening.

My good friend, Hilde (Martin) Weisser, had a bad accident at her home last Wednesday. She was planting a plant in her garden and somehow mis-stepped and fell through the walk-in garage door which had a step going down. She hit the side of her body on the door-jam and fell to the floor hitting her head. Luckily her husband was home and heard her moaning, could tell she was badly hurt and called the ambulance (they live about 5 miles east of Morton). She has been in St. Francis since then. We just heard about it Monday. She broke 4 ribs and had a deflated lung. Fortunately the brain scans showed no damage. I called her room last night, she sounded pretty good but expects to be there a few more days. Rarely do you hear of someone being in the hospital more than 2-3 days, so obviously this was somewhat serious.

For those of you who don't know, Hilde was my best friend in high school, and while we have always kept in touch, in recent years we have begun spending time with her and her husband George and another high school friend Sue (Umland) Kunkel and her husband Martin. We all go out to dinner about once every 3 months or so.

We're hosting church potluck Saturday evening, so I will be spending time getting ready for that. I'll fix a pork loin with bread stuffing - they'll bring the other food. Sorry if this post is too long!

Ada

Grandmother Sophia.

This incident bears repeating even though some of you already know it:

When I was engaged to Lynn, Cora Stoller Frey told me this tale about Gr.grandmother Sommers Klopfenstein, mother of Grandpa Peter, who was the husband of Sophia. Apparently Gr. Sommers was widowed when her only child was but a few months old. Baby Peter was sickly in his youth and his mother never expected him to reach manhood. She would fret "The Klopfenstein name is going to die out." Well, baby Peter reached manhood, married Sophia Meiss, and fathered fourteen children---and the Klopfenstein name did not die out!

Big Birthday Party

The LCK branch of the EJK family met at Mark's house in Atlanta this weekend to celebrate Grandma's upcoming 80th birthday. Joey has missed his calling--he grilled wonderful steaks, tomatoes (covered with a pesto combination of basil, garlic, parmesan, and oil), and asparagus; Molly made a salad of mixed greens, peppers, cucumbers, pears, blue cheese bits, and caramelized walnuts; Whitney and Haley made and decorated a birthday cake; and the rest contributed various other items. Are you hungry yet? Jeffrey was the official candle-blower-outer, but he had a hard time - the candles were the kind that keep re-igniting. Notice Dad's accessory--due to the number of candles that should have been required for an age of such magnitude!
John-Michael was preparing for a formal event he was attending that night but was persuaded to pose -

. . .and here he is ready to leave.

We had a really nice time. Too bad the location wasn't a little closer to many of the rest of you or we could have had an even bigger nice time.

FORGOT!!

I get so frustrated when I go to get something that I remember putting in a logical, safe place so I could find it easily, and then when I need it I have to look all over the house and can't find it!! Like this afternoon, I needed a needle to hand-sew a seam and it took me 20 minutes to find a the stupid needle. A couple weeks ago, I made a casserole carrier out of some scrap fabric - tried to find it a few days ago and it has disappeared completely. Oh well - I still remember how to post on this Blog - aren't you glad about that?!?!

Water Issues

Here's my plea for some advice in case any of you have had this problem.

Right after Christmas we got a heavy, heavy rainfall that melted almost 2 feet of snow while I was in out of town. My basement flooded, but my good friends found it in time to vacuum up the water and put fans on it to dry out the carpet. My condo association thought it was probably a one-time event due to the melting snow and heavy rain.

About three weeks ago we got another big rain and it flooded again. Until I left a week later I was still vacuuming up water although a small amount--maybe a half cup from the carpet once/twice a day. It rained while I was gone again and another friend vacuumed up water twice a day. I continued to vacuum water and keep the fan on it. By last Friday I was no longer getting much water, but water was still coming in. The condo maintenance guy took off four sheets of paneling and found no crack. He then pulled up a corner of the carpet and found water coming in the corner; he thought it was between the floor and walls even though neither of us could see a crack. I've been able to keep an old blanket stuffed in the corner to keep the carpet from getting wet since then.

On Wednesday a de-watering systems guy came and took a look at it. He wants to tear up about a 2'x2' section of the floor in the corner and he said he could tell right away what the problem is.

Then he went outside and saw where water had moved dirt into the basement window well. The window well is about 1.5' deep and maybe 2.5' wide. We ended up using a hose to see water flowing into the window well and when it filled enough seep in the window and down the wall. Because of the insulation and furing (???) strips the paneling didn't get wet.

He thinks there are two issues. Obviously the window well needs to get sealed against the concrete wall.

My question is do I solve one problem at a time as my Herman Miller Production System (same as Toyota Production System for those of you who know that) problem solving tells to do or do I go ahead and have the window well fixed and have the floor torn up?

Somehow tearing up the floor seems like it could result in so many more issues, but I also know coming into a spring rainy season that I don't want to continue vacuuming up water 3-4 times a day every time it rains.

Any advice would be appreciated.

--Rhoda

Go Sophia!

This looks like a long post, but don't be afraid, it won't take long to read. I just finished reading The Klopfenstein Story again. This time I really paid attention to some of the details and found it quite fascinating. These are some of the facts I took the time to write down.

Great-Grandma Sophia Meiss Klopfenstein was married when she was 16 years old on Dec. 1, 1887. Exactly one year later she had her first baby on Dec. 1, 1888.
Baby #2 – 13 months later
Baby #3 – 17 months later
Baby #4 – 16½ months later
Baby #5 – 17 months later
Baby #6 – 20 months later
Baby #7 – 18 months later
Baby #8 – 15 months later
Baby #9 – 19 months later
Baby #10 – 21½ months later
Baby #11 – 18 months later
Baby #12 – 3 years later
Baby #13 – 2 years, 3 months later
Baby #14 – 2 years later
Jon and Kate plus 8 have nothing to brag about compared to Sophia Klopfenstein!

Several of the 14 children got around pretty well and married spouses who were not from their home town, which seemed a little surprising to me for those days.
Bertha married a man from Eureka.
Ida married a man from Pontiac.
Fred married a girl from Lexington.
Joe married a girl from Bluffton, Indiana.
Anna married a man from Lexington.
Harry married a girl from Chenoa.
Art married a girl from Pekin.

Coming from a family of 14 children, these children in turn had unusually small families, again for those days.
Bertha – 7
Benjamin Franklin – 2
Albert Lee – 3
Elmer Jay – 6
Ida – 1
Fred – 2
Joe – 2
Mary – 0
Anna – 1
John – 1
Harry – 0
Arthur – 1
Minerva - 2


Several of the 14 children died at a relatively young age, under age 70.
Benjamin Franklin – 34 – massive stroke
John A. – 44 – heart atack
Arthur E. – 46 – heart attack
Elmer J. – 67 – ill with diabetes, heart and kidney failure
Joe M. – 67 – heart attack
Harry P. – 64 – ill with a stroke

The Klopfenstein’s often went by names other than their first given name.
P.A. Klopfenstein
Benjamin Franklin went by “Frank”
Albert Lee went by “Lee”
Elmer Jay went by “E.J.”

You probably have the book written by Uncle Perry in 1996. It's a quick read and quite interesting. Thanks, Uncle Perry, for all your efforts.

20 week sono (19+6)

I had my ultrasound today. We know one sex for sure. The other is suspected but uncertain. Both babies are healthy and active, estimated to weigh 1-1.5 pounds.

The baby on the left was very cooperative. It was head down and in a good position, and it stayed still all through the measurements. We were done with this one in 20 minutes and were sure (as you can be before birth) that it was a BOY!

Then we moved on to the baby on the right. This one was a booger! To start, it was breech and very, very active. It wouldn’t hold still for very long, so it took almost an hour to get all the measurements done. It finally held still and refused to move when we wanted to check the sex, and of course the angle was unclear. The technician *thinks* it’s a girl but says not to hold her to it.

It appears that Ethne was correct: a boy and a girl. Though it’s still possible they could both be boys. We are working on getting in with the Perinatologist where I will probably have another ultrasound, a higher quality one where we will hopefully find out for sure. So for now, the temporary nicknames we've been using, “Clark and Addison,” still work, although it seems “Perez and Zerah” might be more appropriate.

See, they usually label twins as A and B based on which will be born first. During my first two ultrasounds, the girl twin on the right was identified as A. Today, the boy twin on the left was in the A position. That’s odd, we thought. Then, halfway through the ultrasound, we watched in amazement as the girl reached over, shoved her brother out of the way, and slipped down into the firstborn position! They’re already fighting over who gets to be first!

We also were trying to get a shot of the girl’s head when we saw the boy’s hands wildly waving in the background as if to say, “Look at me!” Looks like we’ll have our hands full with these two!

NEXT PROJECT

This is a patch of fabrics that I have put together to make my next project. I will show it again when it is completed. How about some guesses as to what I'm going to make? Hint: it is not a quilt!

HOUSE GUEST

We have a house guest for the next three weeks or so. "Flat Stanley" arrived a few days ago along with his "flat suitcase". He is a school project of Owen's and we are to entertain and journal his escapades and send him back to Owen's teacher. Can't show you too much here as we want to surprise Owen with all the activities, but here are two of our "adventures" so far. Do you recognize the high chair?

Question? Is there a way to get the picture to print under the text?

My baby is turning 1!

I can't believe Zion will be one on Wednesday (03/18)! He seems more like a kid and less like a baby everyday. Here is a video I made of the past year. (I hope this works. I'm having trouble uploading it.)

Giveaways...

I've been cleaning my house and trying to get rid of things we don't use. Two things might be of interest to family, so let me know if you would like:

1. A box of stemmed glasses and (maybe) dessert dishes that were Aunt Minerva's. They're really very dainty and pretty, but I honestly will never use them.

2. A fake wood, waist-high cabinet that was Grandma K's. If I remember right, it was by the front door in her brick house. It's good for storing small items and displaying a couple photos or a candle on top. The color is dark "wood".

If you want either of these things, let me know and we can make arrangements fo you to get them.

Jesse and Julia

Julia Ruth is 4 months. In the bottom snapshot, she is holding the finger of her great-grandmother, Ruth Schrock of Oakville, IA. Jesse Brandon is almost 5 months. ----Carol

Kansas City

Last week-end, Perry, Preston and I were in Kansas City with the Emch family. We visited the World War I museum which is new and "state of the art". It reminds me of the wonderful museums in Washington DC. I learned a lot including why our country ever got involved in that war in the first place. They had lists of the Kansas and Missouri men who served, but not Illinois. They have a basement archives which probably would have a list from every state, but we didn't take the time to check it out. It would have been impressive to see the name: Elmer J. Klopfenstein. The trench warfare those soldiers endured had to be really awful!! The museum had re-created realistic trenches with soldiers in them to see what it would have looked like. But of course, for me, the highlight of the trip was the time spent with Anna, Timon & Jesse! ---Carol (PS Ada encouraged me to post more often, so I am responding to her request.)

10,000 Steps a Day

The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous for the past three days - highs in the 70s and beautiful sunshine. I've been going out to the soccer field last period of the school day and walking with the PE girls (their teacher is a close friend of mine). I've been trying to log 10,000 steps a day with a pedometer - have any of you tried that for exercise? Anyway, walking a track with a big group of people, and talking with a good friend along the way, beats walking up and down a long straight street in the evening by myself!

Tomorrow, however, it's supposed to be cloudy with highs only in the low 50s and a chance of rain. I have a feeling my desire to walk during last period might disappear. . .

Endometriosis

I have entered a research study for endometriosis. Since I know I'm not the only woman in the family with it, I thought I'd pass on the info. To qualify, you must have been surgically diagnosed. All they need are a saliva sample (they mail you a kit) and a copy of your surgical records. They are looking for a genetic link that could lead to an early-detection test and eventually a cure.

The website is endtoendo.com.

Gridley Water Tower

Casey's comment that the Gridley water tower is coming down makes me somewhat sad. When we were children driving to Gridley we always played the game "I see the Gridley water tower!" to see who would see it first. I think Mark and Ann may have started it when we lived in Chenoa on the ride to church. However, I only remember it driving from Alabama to Grandma's house.

I'll admit when I drive to Gridley I still look for the water tower.

--Rhoda

Phone Issues

If you by chance tried to call me today, my phone was not working. We are on direct phone service with Comcast and I found out late tonight that our phone has not been connected most of the day. I just spent the last 40 minutes on an online chat with a technician and after much hassle, I am now back online with my phones. Yeah!

Ironically just today I ran across two items regarding online communicating and text messaging. The first was someone on TV saying that kids today are not learning to communicate as well verbally since they do so much of their talking through technology. He said they are less emotionally involved in their interactions with others.

The second item was a quote from the Reader's Digest: In the distant landline-dominated past people thought, "I have a feeling so I want to make a call." Today's young seem to be thinking, "I want to have a feeling, so I need to make a call."

All I can say is, I was having a few emotion-filled feelings during my little chat with my technician a few minutes ago! Switch these cords, reset this button, try this phone, try that phone...but I hung in there and you can call me now...

Well, not now, it's nearly midnight. Good night.

LATEST PROJECT

As a World Relief project, some ladies in our church are "embellishing" bags that were made by women in Jamaica. We will have an "open house" sale on April 3 & 4 and send the money back to Jamaica. There are also beautiful hand crocheted and embroidered linens but I don't have any of them. I began by sewing on the ribbons, appliques, etc. Then I got smart and found something called Liquid Stitch - and it glues them on and they become permanently bonded. Saved a lot of time by doing it that way! I did 15 bags this week. I actually like the bags "plain" better, but apparently they sell better if they are embellished. Several other church have already had their sales.

Other than that, it's been a quiet and somewhat boring week. But the sun was shining beautifully today and I went for a walk this afternoon - about a mile.

Casey Knobloch finally posts on Blog

I have decided to stop being a closet reader of the EJK blog and become a contributor.  I have posted some pics of a building demo I did a couple of months ago.  Trivia questions:  Where was the building being torn down located?  What was the building used for?  Who was Mayor at the time it was built and had his name on the dedication stone?  

White as Snow

Well this post won't be anything new to ya'll up north, but this morning we awoke to a rarity here in the south. Genuine, ground covering snow. There hasn't been this much snow on the ground since 1993, although last nights storm hasn't had the impact of the storm of '93.

The kids (and adults) spent most of the Sunday School hour out playing in the snow at Church this morning. By the end of Worship Service, the snow had started to melt already. At the current rate of melting, it will all be gone by nightfall. Here are a couple photos of the snow in our yard. EDK