Hampton Inn

For those who check the blog frequently, and may be still planning on getting reservations at the Hampton Inn, she is holding the price until after the weekend although the website link will disappear tomorrow. You can call the front desk 309-452-8900 and mention the Klopfenstein reunion and they will honor the price through the weekend only.

Knobloch House update

Setting basement forms

Walls poured and underwater

Casey covering footing tile

Finished foundation, Jerry and Ada's house in the distance (house 3 miles west of Gridley and a 1/2 mile north of Rte 24.)

Adventure

I'm heading off today to teach a childbirth class from 9 - 5. I taught the same group last night from 6 - 9 so I already know they are a good group of people. (My mom says, "What in the world do you talk about for that many hours??) The Klop family is full of educators, so many of you know the responsibility of standing in front of a group (especially adults) and be knowledgeable, interesting, and entertaining for an entire day. Dave said, "Well, it'll be popcorn on the couch tonight!"

Mom, and a Question

Thought you might like to know that Mom was in a car accident yesterday and broke her wrist and a bone in her arm. I'm going over tomorrow to stay with her while Dad goes to his Klopfenstein genealogy reunion in Indiana. She can't get a permanent cast until the swelling goes down. Dad says she is reasonably pain-free as long as she can keep her arm perfectly still, but any movement causes problems. Unfortunately, it is her left arm and she is left-handed. I know she would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Also have a question: What color are post titles when you read this blog? I thought they appeared white, but now they are looking gray and hard to read. This new design model put out by Blogger is more difficult to change things on. If titles are hard for you to read, would you please let me know.

Casey & Jamie's new adventure

More pics of house.

Pouring footings

Casey & Jamie's new adventure

We have started progress on our new house west of Gridley.

Building site

Casey dumping pea gravel for the footings and basement

Digging begins

Basement

Swimming hole/ basement

Trip to Maine

Mike and I just got back yesterday from a 25th-anniversary trip to Maine. We hit a lot of places, including Washington DC (one day) and, for you baseball fans, one night in Boston where we took in a game at Fenway Park! What an experience!

I don't want to repost pictures here - don't want to bore people, but if you are interested, you can go to my personal blog to see several picture posts. Probably most of this week I will be putting up either pictures or other interesting things about the trip on that blog.

Maine is beautiful. Water, water, everywhere! All those "fingers" of peninsulas going down into the Atlantic, with hundreds of islands, inlets, coves - you are never far from water. Just as refreshing as the views are what you don't see - Very few chain restaurants or stores, just antique stores, art galleries, and local eateries and motels.

We also saw George H.W. Bush's house - and Bush himself driving his boat!

We put 2839 miles on the van, and except for a rock hitting the windshield on the last day, had no problems at all. The only time that was difficult was driving through Boston. The tunnels, bridges (high and old), traffic, and aggressive drivers just about finished us off. Other than that, even the driving was good.


Well, here's just one picture just to give you an idea of the views and whet your appetite.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's day EJK'ers! I am thankful for the Godly values and traditions passed on from the Father's in the EJ Klopfenstein family.

In preparing my Sunday School Lesson for this morning, I decided to do an ice breaker question to start off. I thought it might be a good subject for the blog today as well.

"What is one thing you are thankful your father taught you?"

My answer is that that I am thankful my father taught me that life must go on. That no matter what the circumstances are, how tough life is, or how big the obstacles are that you are facing, you must get up every morning and do life. Yes it's going to be tough, but it is your responsibility to go get up & participate in life, do your best and trust God to get you through it.

I'm not sure that dad even realized he taught me that, but he did and I thank him for it. Happy Father's day Dad! I love you. Eric

Alice Caroline - 3 months today

This grandma is lonesome to see her again! We plan to go to KC in July. Carol

Pros and Cons of the Public Pool

Spent the afternoon at the public pool in Normal. I can say there were positive points and some definite negative points.

Pro: I was pleased that I accomplished 18 laps in one of the two lap-only lanes.
Con: The bottom of the pool under the 2 lap-only lanes was cluttered with dirty bandaids, hair ribbons, hair and sand/dirt. Could not put my feet down on the bottom at all.
Pro: The lifeguards did keep everyone out of the lap-only lanes so that anyone who wanted to actually swim laps could do so.
Pro: I was only 1 of 2 people who wanted to swim laps the entire time I was at the pool.
Con: The rest of the pool was PACKED with people, as were all the chairs and the grassy area. (Though not quite as packed as the Japanese wave pool in the video.)
Pro: My suit, my old hat and old goggles worked just fine for lap swimming.
Pro: I saw absolutely no one I knew, so I felt totally free to swim, wear my old hat and goggles, do water aerobics, and dry out in the sun without worrying about anyone watching me.
Con: The teenage group who eventually settled in next to me were not discreet with their displays of affection and frank (frankly disgusting)conversation.
Con: "Please exit the pool for a mandatory chemical treatment" means everybody out for 30 minutes because someone doo-dooed in the pool.
Pro: "Judy, you're so tan!" Feels good, looks good.
Con: "Judy, you're so tan!" Embarrassing, because obviously it really is so bad.
Pro: Exercising, relaxing, reading a good book while drying out...what a life!
Con: That little voice in my head (I think it is Dave's) saying, "Don't you have windows to wash, floors to sweep, groceries to get??

So we'll see how often I make it to the pool, but for today, it was kind of a fun adventure.

A great Father's Day gift!

UPS stopped here today with a small box for Lynn. Since I know he would never brag about it, this is what it was:a really neat 4X4 frame with a small picture of my sweet hubby.Under the pic was this comment:"Father-in-law" on the family tree, means nothing less than "Dad" to me. Molly has been in the family for twenty years and a week and we do love her!

50/50

I just finished giving the house a rather haphazard cleaning job. I don't see how two elderly people :) can make such a mess - shoes, towels, crumbs, cluttered counter, cluttered table, dirty dishes, etc. etc. - in such a short time! Maybe? it's because we're entering our second childhood?

I'm not placing any blame on anyone - we're in this game of life 50/50 - and loving every minute (well MOST minutes) of it. Gotta clean myself up now and go pick up Catherine as we have a lunch date.

Memories of vacation

Three weeks ago we were in St. Augustine. We have great memories and I keep wishing we were back. If you've never been there, it's a great beach destination. Not very commercialized and very, very quaint. We spent one morning on George Street meandering in and out of shops. As you can see, the hat shop was a fun store! - And the girls can have a good time anywhere they go!

We rented bikes one day and rode right on the beach. The sand is so packed there that it's like riding on a sidewalk. We all took turns enjoying the bikes.

Interestingly, friends who were keeping our dog called on Sunday and said she had run away. We ALL love Roo (even this dog-challenged Klopfenstein) and were all very worried. Whitney decided to fly home to help look for her, as Roo is really her dog and there is a very tight bond there. She waited until the last minute to swipe her boarding pass and board; even so, we received a call 10 minutes after she left saying they had found her! All of us were ecstatic . . . Whit rode back the next day with friends who were coming to St. Augustine anyway so it all worked out!

EJK reunion

Judy,
Your reunion announcements are coming through and build up our excitement for the event.
The many efforts show that you have inherited some of your dad's organizational skills!
Lynn and I look forward to seeing all of you there.

Knobloch Activities

Wade taking over as the compactor operator

Wade trying out the feel of the racing seat
Preparing for the new playground equipment south of where we grow up or at the west end of Sixth St.
Wade and his new passion as cattleman!
Knobloch & Witzig crew repairing roof on the old Klopfenstein Grain elevator

TABLE BEAUTY

Ada--you certainly do beautiful work and the table center piece is a classic display. You probably would have many takers if you put it on the block! Your posts showing your work are really neat. Keep it up.

Your brother--Lynn

LATEST PROJECT ETC.

This is my latest project - a quilted table-runner from a pattern and fabric I purchased on the bus-trip shopping trip I went on a couple months ago. This was very tedious, seemed impossible at first, but once I got the hang of it and understood the pattern, it went pretty quickly and was fun to do.

Kathleen and I were coincidentally invited to a garden walk/luncheon a few days ago.

Guests were required to wear hats - aren't we cute?

Thanks for updating the blog, Ann. Change is always good.

A Change

I logged in to Blogger and they had some new templates available - so thought it was time for an update. This seemed to be something fresh and yet very readable. Hope you like it!

Every path has a few puddles...

You should be getting your reunion brochure in the mail. I am sending out an email also today to those for whom I have email addresses so you can click on the links if you want to. There's already been a couple of changes in who is helping on Saturday AM, which only makes it more fun and interesting...but the big mistake I made was that in my haste to get the mailing out, I forgot to number the postcards...so please put your name or return address on the card so I know who it is from!

Me and Sarah P

Until recently, my little Ben has shown no interest in any kind of organized activity. When his brothers did baseball, soccer, football, library programs, or anything like that he was always content to sit and just watch. Suddenly he's become excited about participating in something. And that something is hockey. HOCKEY of all things!

It's the cutest thing to watch and he's taken to skating pretty quickly.

So I guess I have something in common with Sarah Palin now... we're both Hockey Moms. I'd better start stocking up on lipstick.

Kids at Work

We served lunch at church yesterday with the help of many of our kids and grandkids. I got a couple of shots of the grandkids working...and they worked hard. I can honestly say that without their help I would have been in some serious trouble getting it all done!

Olivia putting away trays

Wade and Will (the top of his head, at least) carrying dishes

Ben and Mara washing tables

SOMETHING TO LOOK AT

Hope you don't get tired of seeing posts from me - but I get tired of seeing the same thing every day for a week. Gonna try to do my part. We're enjoying our flowers even though they're a little slow this summer - Spring brought too much cold, wind, and rain.

These are new Snowcap Shasta Daisies

Tiger Lily - we have a lot of these, both yellow and orange.

Day Lilies - started last summer and they're doing well.

Geraniums by the front door; if you stop by and we're not here, just leave a note.

POTLUCK

We're both hustling around here today getting ready for potluck tonight. The table is set with our wedding china and crystal which will be 45 years old this summer. The swan centerpiece is made from a line of Frankoma pottery which is called Ada Clay - I found it several years ago when I googled my name just for fun. I discovered that these particular pieces were made from a vein of clay near Ada, Oklahoma and were fired in the late 30's early 40's, if I remember correctly. I purchased several pieces on Ebay and Drake gave me some as a gift.

Also the cute little toothpick holder is handpainted by Emmy Steffen; she gave it to me as a hostess gift one time. The mirrored tray was Aunt Setta's. I will be using Mother's meat fork, sugar spoon, and butter knife with the white pearl handles.

As you can see, my table will be special to me tonight. We're serving BBQ'd pork chops on the grill, hash brown potatoes; guests are bringing baked beans, salad, bread and dessert. Sounds yummy, right?

GO KART FUN!!

A couple days ago we got a phone call from Jason telling us that he'd been searching online for a vehicle of some sort that the boys could drive around their back yard. He said the best one he'd found was located in Gridley, IL and he asked if we'd go check it out. So we called the number, didn't know the man but went and looked at it.

Now if you know anything about boys (of any age) . . . well, I could see the excitement in Jerry's eyes as soon as he saw the go cart. So we ended up getting it and delivered it late yesterday afternoon as a surprise to the boys. They knew we were bringing something, but not what we were bringing. They had to stay in the backyard while we unloaded it - THEN Janice drove it back to them!! She just took off like a pro!

The pictures will tell the rest of the story. Too bad this program only let me post 5 pictures.

Nice job Zac. Little rain water in the back yard splashed him a little - all the more fun!
You can tell Noah had a great time on his first drive-around.

Uh-oh -- getting a little dirtier each round . . .

oooooooo - could he really see where he was going?

That's enough for first night - clean-up time!

I think they loved the surprise their dad got for them. Actually Jason and Janice took their turns also and were almost as dirty as the boys! Miles will try at a later time. Janice's parents were there also and us old folks just watched -- such a fun evening! (I do hope these pictures will enlarge when you click them)

Cleve & Kathleen's Memorial Day @ cabin

...time to show you our 3 grandboys once again...Crystal, Aaron and Kara spent 3 1/2 days with us at our cabin 15 miles north of Peoria over the Memorial Day weekend. The boys alternated between swimming, paddleboating, fishing, catching turtles, frogs, etc. etc. all day long. We finished with a brat-roast on Monday but had to quickly move the table under the overhang during the meal when a cloudburst erupted. A great time was had by all...

picture 1 "Small, Medium, & Large" = regarding the boys AND the turtles they are holding. Caleb 7, Carter 5, Cooper 2

picture 2 The daring and athletic Carter jumping off "the stump"

picture 3 Following swimming, we hungered for brats over the open fire
Cleve