Heiniger update

This drawing pretty much sums it up:



(Ethne reading in the middle, Catie on the left asking if she can read, too, and me on the right with a twin in each arm, yelling.)

Old Pic

I was looking through some old pictures last night, looking for some for a presentation I have to make later this week, and came across this. On the back, in Carol's handwriting, is "Ann K. & Perry II, 4 yrs. 12/31/81" He is a little cutie!

Update on the Allensons

Hi there all,
Jodie is still sore today and some bruises are beginning to show. She is trying to rest as much as possible and I am glad that I could take a few days off to be around for her.

Thank you all for your posts, prayers and concern. It is really heartening to know so many of you care about us and to read your words of comfort.

I met with the adjuster at the tow yard where our car was deposited after the crash. She explained what goes into repairing the car and what is considered if the car is to be a total loss. As it turned out the car was a total loss -- she stopped adding the numbers when she came to a damage total of $13,600. She hadn't made it to the rear interior since the wagon hatch couldn't be opened to view it so we assume that the actual total was well above that!

We will definitely be shopping for another Volvo!

We'll keep you updated!

Jodie update

Hopefully Dave and Jodie won't mind me posting this for them. Dave posted this on her facebook page today and thought those who didn't follow facebook would like to know the status.

Jodie is doing much better today -- her headache has finally passed. She has a lot of bruising and is still a little shaky but overall, thankfully in one piece with all her bones intact! We thank you for the prayers, suppers and extremely tasty treats that you’ve been delivering.

In case you don’t know, Jodie was in a 4-car crash on Friday morning. She was stopped at a light in Clay Terrace when a minivan plowed into her. The driver “just wasn’t paying attention” and hit her at a high rate of speed with no last minute braking. Jodie’s front end then crashed into a car ahead of her and that car in turn crashed into the one ahead of it - coming to rest in the intersection.

The driver’s mini-van was smoking and leaking a little fluid but our car and Jodie took the brunt of the impact. I’ll be meeting with the adjuster tomorrow and expect that the Volvo is totaled - the wagon portion (directly behind the front seats) of the car has creased and is now about 6 inches off the road. The car performed well - the drivers seat dislodged and despite the force, none of the windows were broken! We are already searching for a replacement and are hoping to find a model identical to the one that we had.

Needless to say, we are thankful for so many reasons: that Emma was not in the car, the Jodie wasn’t seriously hurt, that no one was in the crosswalk, that I was in Indy and was able to see Jodie before she was taken to the hospital...and that everyone’s insurance was up-to-date!

Hello family,

We wanted to let you know that Jodie was in a 4-car crash on Friday morning. She was stopped at a light at a local outdoor shopping center when a minivan plowed into her. The driver “just wasn’t paying attention” and hit her at a high rate of speed with no last minute braking. Jodie’s front end then crashed into a car ahead of her and that car in turn crashed into the one ahead of it - coming to rest in the intersection.

The driver’s mini-van was smoking and leaking a little fluid but our car and Jodie took the brunt of the impact. Jodie is doing much better today -- she had a terrible neck/headache which has finally passed. She has a lot of bruising and is still a little shaky, but thankfully, she is in one piece with all her bones intact!

I’ll be meeting with the adjuster tomorrow and expect that the Volvo is totaled - the wagon portion (directly behind the front seats) of the car has creased and is now about 6 inches off the road. The car performed well - the drivers seat dislodged and despite the force, none of the windows were broken! We are already searching for a replacement and are hoping to find a model identical to the one that we had.

Needless to say, we are thankful for so many reasons: that Emma was not in the car, the Jodie wasn’t seriously hurt, that no one was in the crosswalk, that I was in Indy and was able to see Jodie before she was taken to the hospital...and that everyone’s insurance was up-to-date!

However we are most thankful for our family here in IN -- Kara (and Aaron and the boys, too!) has been wonderful as always. She has delivered delicious dinners two nights in a row and cheerfully took Emma for the majority of the day yesterday. Emma loves being with them and considered it to be a real treat to spend time with them without us! We feel privileged to have them so close and to be sharing our time and children with one another.

We'll keep you updated...

With love to you all,

Dave, Jodie and Emma

p.s. here are a few recent pics!

Prayers requested.

If you are connected to any of our FB pages, you may be aware that Eric's family is mourning the loss of this young man. He was Adrian's boyfriend in Alabama, and remained good friends since they moved to Illinois. They call him a "second son," and they immediately left for Alabama when they heard he had suffered a brain aneurysm and stroke. He has passed away. By his testimony, they believe he is with the Lord, but his family, and Eric's, will miss him deeply.

YEAAA!! JERRY'S A GENIUS

I actually did have "the book" and Jerry got the problem fixed. He gets ALL the glory and credit and I totally acknowledge that he's smarter than a 5th grader and also smarter than ME! (although I am also smarter than a fifth grader!)

These should be fairly east to decide who, what and where.

PROBLEM

I decided tonight to delete a few unnecessary and/or blurry pictures from my camera. Don't know what button I hit, but obviously the wrong one as a skinny line started moving and it said "removing all internal memory" or something like that. I quickly shut it off. Went back and everything is gone. I first thought, Oh well - I have all the pics on the computer anyway. But those are just recent family pictures - not the ones I've been posting the blog.

So I thought I'll just start all over and got the next three pictures out to take a picture of them - and the camera says Internal Memory is Full and won't take a picture. Soooooo - maybe one of you tech people can help me out here, but in the meantime - no more pictures from me. SORRY!!

Jerry said to "get the book out" - I have no book of instructions and probably wouldn't understand them if I did. There is a disk in the camera - but I don't know what to do with that either.

Now you know that I'm not only crazy, but also ignorant - well at least technologically speaking only.

THE CRAZY THINGS WE'VE DONE

These are some pictures from a "murder/mystery" we had a long time ago in Minonk. The boxed game came with detailed instructions for each "character" as well as new details throughout the evening. We each had a booklet and every 20 min or so, we had to read the next section in which we each had different things to bring up in the conversation.

We sent the invitations to these people complete with their character and asked them to dress somewhat appropriately. Jerry was the "brainy"/math/science guy, I was the class prim/proper girl, others were a football player, cheerleader, class rebel etc. It just happened to be a 5th reunion of the Class of '54 and this group of people had gotten together for dinner at Maltie's Cafe, and just as they were about ready to order from the menu, the radio (a tape was in the box) interrupted with an announcement that a classmate had been murdered on the way to the reunion. We spent the evening trying to figure out who killed him, each of us had a booklet with "clues". We all had a fun time and laughed a lot. I have no remembrance of how it actually ended, but we DID solve the mystery.

As you can see, we went all out in making our kitchen into Maltie's Cafe and had a good dinner included. A tape of 50's rock-n-roll music was included in the box. So now you know, we're the crazy ones in the family. Also, this occurred on the night of the bombing of the first Iraq War - Desert Storm - and we did take a moment for silent thoughts/prayers for our soldiers there.

SOMETHING SPECIAL

Well, these did not turn out in the order I expected them to, so we'll just have to deal with it! The first and third pictures are related - both taken at a special event. What is the event?

The middle picture is another one of the trip Mother and I took to Colorado Springs - and it appears that we are either checking in or out of a motel. There is something very special about this although it is very difficult to see clearly. The original pic is somewhat blurry, and this "copy" is even more so. If you're really sharp, you might be able to figure it out.

SEE IF YOU CAN IDENTIFY WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE

Sorry the last picture is sideways - you'll just have to tilt your head to view it. I think the Who will be easy, but the What, When, and Where may be a little more challenging.

"Ats a funny car!"

It's funny what kids will say. Cathy used to say, "dik oh-ho" for "Get over!" when getting in the old car filled with 7 kids. Eric used to say, "Turn on the heconaditioner" when we got in a hot car. There are lots more sayings that the family still uses that we picked up from kids over the years. What are some of your family sayings?

THREE MORE

These are not in the order I thought the would appear, but I'm not changing them. The Bailes family pics speak for themselves. Beautiful wedding and adorable children.

The pictures of the Stevig family and me was taken in 1962, the summer Mother and I drove the old blue buick to California, stopping in Colorado for several days to see Keith and Alice and Larry Jay. I think Perry was stationed in Colorado Springs - am I right on that? - and we all spent some time together. I think Larry was about 2 or 3 and Alice said he "stood" on the floor looking over the seat all the way from Morton to Colorado Springs AND everytime they saw a Volkswagon on the road he yelled " 'Ats a funny car!" Am I right on that memory, Alice?

MORE PICTURES?

I've been going through a big tub of old pictures and trying to sort them, pitch them, or whatever. It's quite a variety of years and years of pictures. I thought I'd pick through them and post about three pictures every day until y'all get sick of it, then I'll quit. The pics will pretty much speak for themselves.

New to me!

This morning's e-mail had an invitation to an online Scentsy Party. By purchasing some scents at 22:00 for the next two weeks, I will be participating in an online party and benefitting the hostess.

Since first attending Tupperware parties years ago, I have been invited to all kinds of parties selling all manner of items. But online--that's a little much. Or am I just out of touch with modern merchandising.

Trip to California

We got back Monday night from a six-day trip to California, but with going back to school Tuesday morning (and facing six sets of tests to grade), this is my first opportunity to share some pics. on here.

We were in CA for a conference; here is the main reason we went (a picture posted on my personal blog). There are some other picture posts here and here if you are interested.

We left the Greenville/Spartanburg airport at 7 am, so when we arrived in Burbank it was only about 10 am. Therefore we had a long time that day to explore. We drove out to Ventura to see the Pacific. So beautiful.

We went to the Reagan library just like you did, Perry and Carol. This is the view from the front entrance. Those mountains have a beauty all their own.

This is our shot of Air Force One - just no Preston in the foreground!

Mike and me in front of Reagan's grave. It was really fun, six days later after returning to SC, to watch the Republican debate and think "We were just there less than a week ago!"

Fruit stands everywhere on the drive to Ventura. Huge boxes of oranges for $3 a box. I would have loved to have brought some home. Funny, Mike wasn't willing to pay $100 surcharges for baggage over 50 pounds.

YELLOW BIRD

I awakened early this morning, was reading the paper and kept hearing bumps against the picture window in the dining room. I went to see what it was and noticed several little yellow birds playing in the Rose of Sharon bush. I got my camera and carefully tried to get some pictures. They never stayed in one place very long and by the time I got the camera focused and enlarged, they had moved. I did get a pretty good shot of this one. Isn't it cute? Anybody know what it is? I'll bet there were 8 or 10 of them flying back and forth between our two bushes.

A few days ago I noticed in the back yard there was a pair of small black birds with bright yellow on the head and slightly down on the back. Pretty birds - they were playing in the water coming out of the sump pump.

One more photo

I loved seeing this old McD's while on our trip . . . had to post the photo. Those golden arches are from the days of "1 million served"!

Dream Come True

Last week Joey texted me, "Would you like to take a trip this week?" Who am I to say No? So we headed down to St. Simons Island, Georgia, a place I've wanted to visit since high school days. As a teenager, I read Eugenia Price's Lighthouse trilogy, which triggered a fascination with historical fiction. I've read the trilogy several times and always came away feeling like I knew the characters (Lighthouse and New Moon Rising are the best of the 3).

So to visit the little island, see the site of James Gould's Lighthouse (it stood just in front of the present-day lighthouse), walk through the cemetery at Christ Church (that structure too is post-Civil War), and see the beautiful Spanish Moss hanging from the trees (sorry, the photo doesn't do it justice) - all were a dream come true. We also visited Fort Frederica where Oglethorpe built a fascinating fort and village in the 1700s, and we learned about the John & Charles Wesley connection to S. Georgia, which was very interesting.

On our way home Saturday, we stopped in Savannah and did a 4-hour walking tour. Oglethorpe also laid out this beautiful city, just as methodically as he did Fort Frederica. We had so much fun exploring it all. It was a great time together.

LABOR DAY

We had a great Labor Day with our family. These kids were having a good time running around the house, playing hide-n-seek in the basement, laughing and teasing as young people do. Someone suggested they go to the park and they ran out the door enthusiastically - but we grabbed some cameras and took a couple pictures before they left the yard. So fun to see them have a good time with each other. We missed Kelsie who is beginning her Junior year at Jacksonville University. Heather had to work until 3, but she came and was able to enjoy some time with everyone for a couple hours.

Just to make some of you jealous - we had home-made ice cream from Grandma K's ancient recipe and it tasted just as good as it always did! Yummy!! Also made my hot fudge sauce to go with it. I think all the kids (and some adults) came back for seconds and thirds so I guess they liked it also. Zac commented a couple times "this is really, really good".

Kinda missed the old days of hand cranking the old wooden freezer, the rag rug on top, my big brothers turning the crank, and us kids fighting for our turn to sit on it - some of you will know what I'm talking about. Those were the days!! No, I wouldn't want them back, but they are good memories.

FYI

The generic crackers at Dollar General tasted a little stale...just sayin'...
but the salty crumbs at the bottom of the pack were delicious!

I got nothing more important to say, really. I've enjoyed the summer updates and always love to see a new post up.

Drake...have you been taking your boat our this summer? And are you still eating fresh area-grown foods? Is Grace busy with her reign and does she enjoy it?

Out of battery...got to run!