Real Letters

Ann, thanks for sharing the post of Grandma's letter. It's interesting how many were excited to read those words written about 35 years ago.

Letter writing is a lost art and form of communication.

This post makes me wonder when was the last time you received a hand written letter? or even a typed personal letter in snail mail excluding Christmas form letters?

Letter from Grandma

Earlier this summer I plowed through five boxes of personal memorabilia, from elementary school until the present. Much hit the trash can but much was saved also. This letter from Grandma was a definite save. I left out a little of what she said directly to my sisters and me, since it was not really of general interest, but this is 90% of the letter. I thought you all would appreciate it and see why it made me smile with the memories. I have another one to post at another time.

--------------

Boca Raton, FL Feb.

Dear Ann,

It's about time I write you a line. Mary and Rhoda have also been so sweet about writing to me, so maybe this can be for all three of you, OK? I am still here at Boca Raton FL. Arrived on Jan. 5 and will probably stay 2 more weeks.

The past week Alice & Keith are here and expect to stay another week, then Catherine is coming for another week. I have written so many letters since I'm here, you wouldn't believe it. But I write them expecting some in return, and everyone has been great about sending me letters. Last week there were a few days I didn't get any, then all at once I received 8 in one day. On Valentine's Day Lucile S. was staying with me, and there were so many it filled up the mailbox so tight it was hard to get them out.

Alice just came in. She went out to the pool. But there isn't much sun and it's been cool and cloudy most of the time she's been here. She is pretty disappointed. I hope next week will be better. As far as I'm concerned, I don't mind. I don't try to get a sun tan as I can't believe that it's good for the skin. But I realize that most people like to have a sun tan especially if they have been in Florida.

I also had a letter from your parents. They are always inviting me to come to Decatur. I hope they understand that when I leave here I'll be anxious to get home. Hopefully sometime I can take a plane right to Huntsville and pay them a visit.

Well, Alice and Keith just came up to the apartment and decided to go to the beach. The sun is getting brighter and I'm glad if they are not too disappointed.

My grandson Bruce is in college up at Tallahassee. He wants to drive down here to see me when they have their spring break. I'm looking for him on March 8th. I haven't seen him for some time and it will be good to see him. He has a job selling tickets at a bus station and trying to pay his way through school.

My sons, especially Ralph and Perry, are so insisting on me that I should take long walks every day. Starting out, short walks at first and work up to a mile or 2. Well I've been trying. I was still quite weak and would still get those awful weak spells when I came down here. Have gained enough strength not to have that awful feeling of weakness. Of course I'm on different medication too and I'm sure it all helps. I was walking every day up to 8 blocks and back. Then my shoe soles got so thin I started to get blisters. Then I bought some new walking shoes and the first time I wore them, I was doing fine and all at once I stumbled and fell on the sidewalk and skinned my knee. Today Alice wants me to try her shoes. I really would like to walk as I think one can gain strength by doing it. But my poor feet are balking on hitting the concrete that much.

I just better get this in the mail now before I miss the mailman. Ann, your valentine went to Gridley, then here. Thanks for remembering me.

I love you all and you are very dear to me. I hope and want all my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to always remember me, even long after I'm gone.

God bless you all. Love from Grandma

Drake and Owen

We noticed on the map that there was a small town of Drake on our route between Hermann and Rolla and were determined to take a picture of the sign outside the town. However, as we passed the official green sign, there were several cars behind us and we couldn't stop. Further down the road we saw this sign so we stopped for the picture. This was actually the only building we saw in Drake MO.

We were surprised to see, just a few miles down the road from Drake, the community of Owensville. One sign said population 2,500 - so it was a good-sized town and had a nice water tower that said Owensville. We found this interesting that two neighboring communities had two names from our family.

As a side note - Jerry said he picked Hermann from the googled list of Missouri tourist attractions because his dad's middle name was Herman.

Hermann Missouri

Here are a few pictures of Hermann, MO. We are standing in front of the grape-vines of the Stoney Hill Winery. We took a tour of the cellars which contains many tanks and barrels of wine in the fermentation process. It is hard to imagine how those cellars could've been built without the equipment of today. The company was shut down and all wine-making equipment dismantled and destroyed during the prohibition era, and opened again around 1980. I took a picture of Jerry, when a nice young man volunteered to take a picture of both of us.
This is a picture taken from the car as we were taking a drive suggested by the B&B owner. He said if we wanted to see some beautiful views, take 10th street out in the country. It was a very curvy drive with steep hills - and a road so narrow we prayed we wouldn't meet an oncoming vehicle. Eventually, at the dead-end, we turned around and went back into town. There were some beautiful homes overlooking the river. Certainly different than cornfields!! Impossible to take pictures that really show the beauty and depth with my little camera, but this is a "taste" as we began the drive on the gravel road.

Jerry took this picture of me along the water front of the Missouri River. The temperature was around 100. We had taken quite a walk along the river street - in and out of shops - stopping for ice cream - and as we were going to head back to the B&B, which was about three blocks away up a steep hill, I told Jerry I wanted to sit on a bench for a bit. He looked at me and said "I think I'll go get the car and come back and get you - your face is red as a beet" -- to which I replied, "thank you". He's such a sweetie.

Another surprise for me was that we met Grandma and Grandpa Wetzel at Bandana's B-B-Q in Rolla for lunch and picked up Heat and Nathan who had been visiting them for a week. They live in West Plains MO, about 1.5 hour south of Rolla. It was nice to see them, and I know how exciting it was for them to have their grandchildren for a week. It sounded like they kept them busy - and fortunately they have an above-ground pool so they could stay cool.

HERMANN MISSOURI

We arrived Hermann Missouri about 3 pm. It is a very quaint town along the Missouri River. We are staying at a Bed and Breakfast in a building that is VERY old as are all the other downtown buildings. There are VERY steep hills - scary going up and fearful going down!! The town is known for its wineries. We are planning to have dinner at Stone Hill Winery tomorrow evening. Tonight we ate in a historic building along the river. Since it is too hot to walk the streets for shopping, we are going to take an open air bus tour of the city including the wineries in the area. We'll try to keep our "tasting" to a minimum.

I'm going to get the old-fashioned Atlas out of the car to see exactly where we are. I was totally confused by all the hills and curves we followed to get to this place. It is so fun - Jerry found a treasure and we're both loving it. Hopefully we'll take some pictures tomorrow.

County Fair

Yesterday was the Livingston County Fair and Wade and Mara both entered the ring to show their heifer.

Wade showed his in Showmanship and as a 4-H project.


Mara showed the same cow in the PeeWee Showmanship Division.



Wade was disappointed in his results (interpreted mad!) but I was amazed at both of them to even work with such a beast! And my prayers were answered that no one got hurt...a successful fair morning for me!

The Rest of the Story...

See the pics below of Jake's fish. This is how he caught it...

We caught it “Hoggin” in the Mackinaw river over by Hopedale. “Hoggin” has been a tradition in Malissa’s family since her grandpa Campbell was very young. In the depression days they did not have much to eat so he went out to the river and caught fish by hand under rocks and slabs. We went out last night and found this one. four of us blocked it in under a big concrete chunk and put it on a stringer. No poles hooks or bait. We have a video that was made that tells the Hoggin history of the Williams and Campbell families if anyone is interested in getting a copy! Jake

MAN ON A MISSION!!!

This the current status of our living room. Your mission is to guess what's going on.
This is the view of the kitchen.

This is a picture of our newly painted garage floor.
And this is the "MAN ON A MISSION". I'm staying out of his way as much as possible. Can you guess what his mission is? Hint: vacuuming is not the correct answer.
As a side note - the temp on our deck is now exactly 100!!

What a Catch!

I got this picture on email this morning. I must get the story on where in the world (or anywhere near Stanford, Il) Jake caught such a huge fish! With Jake are his boys, Ashton and Carter.

THIS AND THAT

It's a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning with temps in the 90's expected today. Remember the days of sitting under a shade tree? or swinging on the front porch? or eating around the ping-pong table in the basement? when it was this hot? Today we have a wedding to go to in Bloomington and the reception will be in a tent on the church grounds. I'm wondering if they have a way of keeping us cool in there?!?!?

You may remember my posting about three weeks ago about the little "get-away" I took Jerry on as a secret trip. He is reciprocating this week. We will leave Thursday and get home on Saturday - but I have no idea where we're going. I'm sure it will be fun wherever it is. The "beans almost got spilled" a couple days ago when Jerry was sitting on the deck and his cell phone rang. I ran to answer it - some lady started a conversation about a hotel - I immediately said "just a minute I'll let you talk to my husband". I didn't want to spoil my surprise.

Our friends are serving lunch at church today. We helped them set tables last night and are going to go help them make sandwiches, fill trays etc. in a few minutes. Their parents are not available, so we're helping out.

Hope you all have a blessed and cool Sunday.

Casey Jamie update

Wade and mara getting ready for fair next week

Mara learning to jump off diving board
Moved in for one month and grass is up and established

Busy, busy, busy

More pics...

Here are a few more pics of the K5K. Missing from the group picture is Cleve, Shelley, and Staci and children. There were several more at the breakfast, bringing the total number fed to 52.

Some of the walkers. It was a hot morning but everyone was in an "up" mood.


A group relaxing and waiting for runners to come in.


And my favorite...our one year cancer survivor! Go, Angela!
It was at last year's K5K that Angela was encouraged to have a mole looked at, which was diagnosed and treated melanoma. Glad to see this successful recovery!

K5K

Saturday we held the 2nd annual K5K. It was a beautiful morning for a run, if only it wasn't so hot! We had 9 runners and about as many walkers. Here is a group photo of the runners, walkers, and those who cheered them on:


The running course last year was a little long, and this year it ended up being a little short at 2.97 miles. Next year I will try to have it at exactly 3.1 miles. Everyone put up amazing times considering the warm conditions. The finishers and their times were:

24:22 Zack Christiansen
26:22 Jason Christiansen
27:19 Larry Stevig
33:27 Janice Christiansen
33:55 Jerry Wetzel
35:23 Tim Hohulin
37:45 Kelsie Celis
39:09 Angela Wetzel
40:10 Jenn Heiniger
49:12 Heater Wetzel

A big thanks for everyone who participated. I'm already looking forward to next year's K5K!

KLOP Fun Run-Walk day 7-9-11

Here's just one photo of most of the gang just relaxing at Judy & Dave's lovely condo following the Fun RUN/WALK at nearby Tipton Park and immediately following a delicious and whopping breakfast. Judy's organizational skills once again shown brightly, along with the help of several others - such as Rhoda, Shelley, Angela, etc. who had the race started right on time (8 a.m.) The weather was perfect, the competition was light-hearted (but impressive), and the fellowship was sweet. The breakfast was served promptly at 9:30 at Judy's with most of the kids in the basement and the bountiful egg casseroles, sausage links, tasty muffins & rolls, fruit cups, etc., etc., devoured by the adults upstairs.
I was not a race participant, nor was I able to attend the other festivities later in the day, so I'm asking others to post a few more pictures and details on this memorable event. Thanks to all who helped organize this day and we missed those who were unable to attend.

Enjoying-----

Have been enjoying the recent posts: Bonnie's shower, Angela/Nathan's sunflower, Princess Grace (Congrats, Grace), naughty rabbits eating Ada's flowers, etc. Of course, I enjoy all the posts.
Lynn and I were mentally in Bloomington this morning; Rhoda reports a good time was had by all. This morning instead of running in the race, Lynn mowed the yard on his riding mower. He's also been working so hard to get the crab grass out of the good grass and is winning in the struggle.
Ada, you will appreciate the rabbits when you hear what is happening in Decatur in the area where our house is (present tense since it hasn't sold). Our former neighbor told me yesterday that eighty pets are missing in the neighborhood area--yes, coyotes right in town. One coyote was seen to jump a six foot fence, snatch a pet, jump the fence again and both were gone. The neighbor doesn't go outside at night anymore although humans have not been bothered. On the other hand, I'm thinking a small child wouldn't be safe. By comparison, Anderson is pretty
quiet!

Have a Great Time Tomorrow!

Hope you all have a wonderful time of reunion tomorrow at the run and breakfast. Would love to have come but it's just too far for that brief of a time. Also - though for the most part I'm out of the taking care of children stage, even a 20-year-old needs her mom when she's got a 102 fever and a bad case of strep throat. So it's good I'm here and not there - but I will be there in spirit!

THE NERVE!!!

I couldn't believe what I saw when getting the paper from the front door this morning at 6:30 - the NERVE of this guy eating my flowers for breakfast!! This pot was filled with beautiful pink and yellow flowers a couple weeks ago . . .

THEN . . . I went and looked out the back window onto our deck . . . and saw THIS!!

We've noticed two "frisky" rabbits playing around our deck area the last few days. Afraid we may have even more rabbits to fight off someday soon! Between the Japanese beatles and the rabbits - we may be stripped of leaves and flowers by the end of the summer.

Bonnie's Shower

As Carol asked...here's a few pictures of Bonnie's shower that Judy and I hosted at my house last week:




We had a good turnout, and Bonnie got some nice things to set up her home with Ben. She had a little photo album of the two of them, and they sure are a cute couple. They will be getting married on July 30, going on a honeymoon in Charleston, SC, and then living in Louisville.

Our Crazy Sunflower

See my previous post for the original pic of the sunflower. One week ago, it was a few inches below the horizontal board in our fence. In just 5-6 weeks, it grew from a seed to taller than Nathan. We have been amazed by this thing. When it blooms, it'll be time to start kindergarten, so says Nathan's teacher. Stay tuned for future progress reports.

4TH OF JULY IN VERNON HILLS

We got up at 4:30 am yesterday to go to Vernon Hills to watch the 4th of July parade. After stopping for breakfast and almost getting lost in VH, we made it just in time for the parade. It was a great day with family. Thought you might enjoy a few pictures.

Grace riding in a red convertable (Grandpa's dream car, by the way). She's getting candy out of her bag to throw to the kids.

After the parade, Grace had to go to the baseball field to throw out the first pitch at several little league games. Couldn't get a good picture of that, but here she is loving her little brother, Owen.

I love this picture of all of us. It was a fun day. We also were able to celebrate Owen's 10th birthday which is Wednesday.

Just had to throw this picture in also. Nathan spent a couple days with us last week and we took him to the spillway park at Lake Bloomington. We climbed down the hill (scarry for Grandpa and me) and got right to the waterfront. Grandpa is handing Nathan a rock to throw into the water.

Of course, he had to get his feet wet - almost tempted me to step into the water also! Fun time!

Grammar Question

Since Klops are known to be grammarians, I'll pose this question:

Can an inanimate object perform the work of an action verb?

This morning I read an article about a cheesemaker whose round Gouda cheeses "march across the shelves."

Or often I'll read about an object "waiting," such as "pumpkins waiting for autumn."

Can a cheese "march"? Can a pumpkin "wait"?

I know - there are more pressing questions - but will ask anyway. BTW, Happy July 4th!

p.s. I've been sorting through memorabilia - found some good stuff - will post in the weeks to come.