Yes, we also ate outside today...

Be'ins you specifically asked, yes we also ate outside today in sunny Southwest Florida.

We couldn't resist posting a picture of the beautiful post-sunset tonight here at Marco Island. It was actually prettier and longer lasting than the sunset. And, Kathleen being in the photo makes it even more prettier. This was taken from our living room, looking out over our balcony, the beach and the Gulf of Mexico. During the day we regularly see dolphins jumping and swimming close to the shoreline. Oddly, that occurs pretty consistently around 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. We also see the large tour boat going to and from Key West.
CLEVE

Hello!

Emma will be jumping rope later next month (I believe Feb. 18th) to help raise funds for the American Heart Association. Last year, she exceeded her personal goal and is excited about doing the same again this year.

If you are interested in donating to this amazing organization, please contact us via email (djallenson@yahoo.com) or by donating online at Emma’s fundraising site:

https://secure2.convio.net/amha/site/Donation2?idb=1125584806&df_id=1861&FR_ID=1442&PROXY_ID=1858864&1861.donation=form1&PROXY_TYPE=20

Please note that all donations need to be turned into her PE teacher on Feb. 18th.

Thanks so much for considering donating to the AHA with Emma’s help!

Take care,

Dave and Jodie

JACKSONVILLE

We had an early birthday dinner with Kelsie and her friend tonight at the Cheese Cake Factory. Delicious food and we loved spending the evening with Kelsie. We each had our own cheesecake for desert - yummy. And, by the way, we had dinner on the patio - in January - in Jacksonville. Anybody else have dinner outside tonight? :)

Final sunset at Indian Rocks

The above series of pictures was taken just a few minutes ago as we sat on our patio over looking the Gulf of Mexico. We will be leaving tomorrow morning to see Kelsie in Jacksonville as we work our way back north. We have spent all or most of January for the last five years at Indian Rocks Beach, Fl. We leave with a ton of special memories of those years and the family and friends we have visied with while here. Hilda and George, Enid and Lila have been with us in past years and we treasure their friendship. On each trip we have met with Vic, Jean, and Marguerite as they share wonderful memories of their younger days in Gridley.

It is with mixed feelings that we have decided not to return to this area, but to seek out another exciting place to visit in future years. We have a ton of fond memories of this place, every visit we have made has either been pre or post hip surgeries. This is the first year that we could walk together for long distances down the beach. So it is with heavy hearts and excitement of the future that we bid a fond farewell as the sun sinks below the western horizon. Our love for each other continues to grow daily and this place shares a special place in our hearts.

Posted by Jerry

LAST TWO DAYS

We're down to our last two days at Indian Rocks Beach. We've spent a lot of time reading, walking, and driving around. It's been quite chilly, but as you can see - nothing keeps the man from enjoying the surf on a sunny day.

We had a little excitement Monday. There was a big shooting in St. Petersburg - the gunman shot three policemen, two were killed. The shooter was "holed up" in an attic, and it was a big deal and on tv all day. Sounded like a war zone (on tv) when the shooting actually excalated several times. About mid-afternoon, they began bulldozing the house down and found the man dead.

On Tuesday, a big storm front went through about 6 pm. Again, all three news channels had constant reporting as to where and when the storm would hit as it came inland from the gulf. We watched the sky get black and the waves pick up. The lights flickered once, but we were ready with the candles we bought earlier. We eventually had very heavy rain, wind, thunder/lightening. Sorta like a spring thunderstorm at home but they sure made a big deal about it here. There was some damaged property over in St. Petersburg and a few other places. I told Jerry -"my bathroom will be the place to go when the tornado comes" and he said "no way, I'm going out to watch it!"

I always think I won't pick up any more shells, but as I'm walking along the beach, I just can't resist a few. These are pretty typical and I'll add them to my shell bowl at home. The sponge is interesting and something I don't have.

We'll be leaving Saturday morning for Jacksonville, then on to Anderson, then home. Looking forward to cold weather and snow. Planning to cook on the grill tonight, and going out to a nice place tomorrow night.

Grandma K's - Now Jamie's - Beautiful Living Room Painting

Hi Ann,
Here is a picture of the picture. It was painted by a little-known artist whose name escapes me. The frame is from a company located in Chicago that is still in the framing business. I will have to take it down to get the artist's name and the name of the frame company in case anyone is interested.

I'd be curious to hear people's memories of the picture and any history they might know about it. I have loved it since I was a child and I remember sitting and staring at it, imagining being in that beautiful world.

Thanks for posting for me!
Jamie

Grace's Chorus Concert

Here's a video of Grace's chorus concert from last week. This was a combined chorus of the two middle schools and high school. Grace is in the third row behind a girl in a white shirt just to the left of the accompanist - you can just barely see her - again, clicking through to YouTube you can make it a little bigger.

Birds of a feather do flock together!

I can hardly compete with having the Gulf of Mexico outside our window but I'm guessing I can compete with number of birds in our back yard. This morning I counted at one time fourteen robins pecking in the grass for whatever. Robins in Alabama were more solo and rarely were there more than two visible at one time. At the same time this morning four killdeers were scavenging. Also had an uncountable number of nervous grackles that the other birds totally ignored. On Saturday Mike and Ann brought us a crook to hold two bird feeders and a bag of sunflower seeds to entice smaller birds outside our dinette window. Now two days later we have yet to see a bird at the feeder, but they will come when they realize how welcome they are. If you haven't been reading Ann's blog, do so to see some really great pics of cardinals in the snow plus other winter birds.

3rd Anniversary

This marks post 1271 on the EJK family blog, and this weekend marks the third anniversary of its existence.

Thank you so much for participating! Love to all, Ann

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH

We're enjoying our time in Indian Rocks Beach. Our condo is right on the beach. Jerry loves to sit and read/sleep. I'm trying to walk the beach a couple times a day and picking up a little speed and distance each day. Jerry usually goes with me once a day. We have plans to meet Vic, Jean, and Marguerite for lunch in Clearwater tomorrow.

Next door to us is a couple from Illinois - graduated in '68 from ISU - a couple years after we graduated!! They are friendly in passing, but we haven't actually down and visited much.

We've used the charcoal grill on our patio a few times. Last night we grilled t-bone steaks and were just about done eating our steaks, baked potatoes, and salad when the lights went out. It was about 7 pm and very DARK here on the beach. We had nothing to create light. We couldn't even see to finish eating. We waited awhile - our neighbors had company and they were still cooking out. We walked out to the street and it was dark as far as one could see.

We are just the second drive from a busy corner where the bridge comes across the waterway. There were many flashing lights - police cars, fire trucks, etc at the corner. Just like any small town people, we had to go see what was going on. There was a crash between a car and a van. Our first thought was that maybe that caused the outage, but later decided that the outage had probably caused the wreck. Anyway they were letting traffic through, so we got in the car, drove over the bridge into Largo, bought some candles, and came back. So for about an hour, we read by candlelight - isn't that romantic?

The electricity came back on just in time for us to listen to Byron's sermon - the wonders of the Internet!!

The Painting in Grandma's House

Got a question for you. I was thinking the other day about that large painting that hung over the couch in the living room of Grandma K's living room in her "new" house. It used to fascinate me, and I would study it for hours, because the scene was so beautiful, and the way the artist used a knife to slap paint on thickly was such an interesting technique. I also remember that it had a large, ornate, beautiful frame.

So the questions, plural, are: Whatever happened to that painting? Do you remember it, and if so, what about it? Also - I was thinking that maybe Marty painted it? or maybe Grandma and I just used to talk about Marty being an artist and therefore I've associated it with him.

And what exactly was the scene? It's kinda weird to remember so much about a painting and yet not really remember exactly what it was.

RAINY MORNING

We arrived at Indian Rocks Beach Saturday afternoon and found our "home" for two weeks. It is an older building with 8 units. We have two bedrooms, two baths, kitchen/living room combination, and best of all - a beach front patio. SO . . . for two weeks we will be literally "beach bums"!!

I've stocked our cupboards with food from Publix - we generally eat "in" once a day and "out" once a day. Sunday morning we walked to our favorite restaurant for breakfast. Then we came back here for some Bible reading and tuned in to Clark's sermon.

In the afternoon we went to the local flea market - we love going there. Jerry's at his favorite spot listening to the music by the same guy that was there last year. As I've probably mentioned before, his favorite thing is "people-watching". So as he sits and listens to music, I can shop and shop and shop. (NO, he is not taking advantage of the beeer garden - just the music!) Angela - I did NOT buy any sheets this year!
For the next two weeks, it's purely "what we want to do when we want to do it"! Unfortunately today we want to go walk the beach and it's been raining steadily since about 6 am so we're forced to sit in the house. Hmmm . . . there are a couple nice malls around here . . . .

LUNCH AT JASON'S

We couldn't resist having lunch at this restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious BBQ Poor Boy sandwich. We were almost done eating when Jerry noticed a group of very large young men come in and sit in various places in the deli. A table of them was right next to us - so, of course, Jerry had to ask them who they were. They were football players from all over - Illinois, Michigan State, Penn, Missouri, Notre Dame and various other universities. They are here for a training camp preparing them for the NFL draft. Interesting.

We visited the oldest home in Naples where I took this picture of Jerry with the Klendworths by an orange tree on the grounds. Were going on a dinner cruise with them tonight.

Owen's Cello Debut

Here's a video of Owen's orchestra concert last night. He's playing a cello in the first row just below the right elbow of the conductor.  (If you click through and watch at YouTube you can make the video bigger and see better):

Somewhere in the blog archive is a video of Grace's first orchestra concert. She's still playing the violin and getting really good.

POST THREE: NAPLES

We checked into the Naples Courtyard Inn about 5 pm Monday - our "home" until Saturday. Today we plan an outing with the Klendworths and dinner at their house. Tomorrow evening we're going on a dinner/cruise with them. Friday activities are not yet planned - must leave some time open for "doing what you feel like doing at the moment", right? We've given up the Key West trip - somethings are just too stressful. :)

This is the pool area, our room is just behind the clump of trees.

This is me having breakfast at the pool-side tiki hut.
Jerry picking up his breakfast.

Snowbound

Well, tomorrow will be Day 3 of being snowbound. At least we haven't lost power. The roads really are bad, and we don't have the snow removal equipment that more northern towns and cities have. A friend with a 4WD vehicle had to go pick up Andrew from the interstate yesterday morning when the quartet bus came through on their way home from Florida, as Mike was at work and I couldn't go anywhere in the van. Mike had to stay with someone from work last night as he couldn't get home. He insisted on coming home tonight (a 45-minute drive that took him two hours yesterday morning) but I am concerned about what it will be like tomorrow morning at 4:30 a.m. when he has to go back, what with low-20s temperatures tonight. I've checked on Mom and Dad every day by phone and they are fine. The kids' return to college has been delayed two days. I've enjoyed the time off but know it won't be so much fun when we have to make up the days later on. I don't know when we've been housebound for this long! You may think that's funny for 6-8 inches of snow, but for us it's a huge deal. And those of you in IL have had a lot of snow this week also, right?

FL POST TWO

This is a picture from the balcony of our motel in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Jerry spent about twice as much time as I did sitting on the beach, but we've both enjoyed this area. About a block away are several restaurants with good food. Lots of activity there in the evenings - Friday and Saturday nights had live band entertainment. While the music wasn't exactly our taste, we enjoyed "people-watching", dinner, and ice cream.

We're leaving here in the morning and heading for Naples. We have some friends from Minonk who are wintering on Marco Island, Van and Maryellen Peters and Errol and Susie Klendworth. We're looking forward to spend a day with each of them. Also hoping to catch a ferry boat and spend a day in Key West.

We will be glad to get to get to Indian Rocks Beach next weekend and "hunker down" at our condo on the beach and relax! This living out of a suitcase is getting tiresome. . . .

Had one little problem yesterday in this "apartment" - I set the fire alarm off MAKING TOAST!! It wasn't even burned or smoking - but man was that thing loud!! Jerry opened the door and it stopped pretty quickly, but not before an outside maintenance asked if everything was alright.

SHOCK TREATMENT

Moving to South Carolina has necessitated transfer of medicine prescriptions. Endeavoring to complete this process, I was explaining to the two ladies at the pharmacy the situation and the reason to be closer to family. I said that years and miles dictated such a move. Of course they wondered about my age: to-wit, one guessed 43 (obviously joking) and the other paused and sorta surveyed me when she answered--86! She was serious!!! I about died!!! Whew--that was nearly too much to handle but I recovered quickly and attempted to slough it off. Well, we all attempted to make a lighter moment of it all. This was indeed "a shock treatment" rather early on Saturday morning. How often we get a "shock treatment" in life and we have to learn to "get over it."

Writers

The new writers contributions to the family blog are an intrigue. Please keep up the pursuit. When you get several years and articles under your belt, you will review and be astounded at your accomplishments. Then, you will think to yourself--"I wish" "This could have been stated more carefully" "How could I have made such a boo-boo". You get my point!

Preston, keep up the good work!!! THE BUGLE is an interesting weekly.

Adrian, keep moving forward in your goals! Your novel hasn't crossed my desk as yet; however,

I always want to encourage a young writer to express their thoughts.

Some Elevator Tour Pics

After receiving the beautiful clock made from a board from the old grain elevator earlier this week (thanks so much Ada and Jerry!), I realized that there were several more pictures from the elevator tour at the reunion that had not been posted. Here they are, without much commentary, except to say that it's enjoyable to see Uncle Perry and my dad having such a good time educating us all about our heritage in the grain industry. Maybe they can elucidate a little on each picture and what it is about.

The last one (#7) you will recognize - it's the one that was the header on this blog for several months after the reunion.

Touring that elevator was a great experience. Love to all, Ann

Picture #1:

#2:
#3:

#4:

#5:

#6:

#7:

FLORIDA POST ONE

I was asked to post about our travels - you may be sorry you asked! We arrived in Jacksonville about 3;30 pm on Monday, got Kelsie settled in her beautiful dorm room. She seems to be really happy at JU. We loved our two days traveling with her.

We came to St. Augustine yesterday. We are staying in a Bed and Breakfast. It is quite nice, we had a wonderful breakfast of spiced-baked pears w/delicious cream sauce, cheddar-scrambled eggs baked in a ramikin, bacon, fruit bread, coffee and juice. The owners are very friendly, but we only see them in the morning.

We bought trolley tickets to help us get around "historic St. Augustine" - I believe the oldest city in the US. This picture was taken from the trolley and according to a National Geographic Magazine, shows the most beautiful street in the US because of the large oak trees and the canopy they create over the street.

Last night, after we'd eaten dinner, we saw a beautiful restaurant with outside dining under a canopy of trees and decided we'd eat there tonight. Unfortunately, about 3 o'clock, as we were relaxing, it began raining and hasn't stopped! So we took an umbrella and walked in the rain to the restaurant, but had to sit inside which wasn't nearly as nice, but great food!! One can't have everything.

This picture is me in front of the Lightner Museum which displays many exhibits of the 19th Century daily life. Very interesting.

Jerry with his new friend, Ponce de Leon. Doesn't he look much younger since he drank that miracle water??

Tomorrow we're heading to Orlando to visit the Holy Land Experience, then on to Ft. Lauderdale for a few days.

"The Bugle"

I'm going through Christmas cards on a stack that need attention or an answer. One of those Christmas letters was from Carol saying that Preston writes for "The Bugle" and can be read on www.thebuglenews.com , which I just did. Preston, you are quite a writer! It must take a lot of time to collect all that information and compile it so well for the two articles I read. Then a bonus was an article about the Klopfenstein Office store and its thirty year existence along with a nice photo of Perry, Carol and Preston. Obviously someone else wrote that. I'll try to look for Preston's work regularly; I assume The Bugle is a weekly periodical.

Hello family,

We're nearing the end of Christmas break so I thought that I would take a moment to add a few photos from our Klopfenstein Christmas this year.

We were delighted to get the news that Dave could be home the entire week before Christmas! For those of you who don't know, he is an engineer for Amtrak and for the last 2 months has been "held" in Chicago. Turns out, he could be stationed there for the rest of his career! But, we are in complete denial over this and are refusing to believe that he will not return to Indy permanently...and very soon! Anyway, the week was magical for all and having him home was the best present we could have hoped for.

We trust that the Lord blessed you during this holiday season as much as He blessed our family.

Happy 2011 with love,

Dave, Jodie and Emma