Second Try

The Steffens are giving it another go on adding a dog to the family. I have met "Memphis" and have to say, I approve of this dog. It's calm, it doesn't jump, it doesn't run away, and it puts up with 5 boys hanging on it all at once. So far, so good!

Easy Beef Stroganoff

Every once in awhile someone posts about what they made for supper. For about a week I've been hungry for stroganoff, and Wednesday I finally had the time to make Aunt Ada's Easy Beef Stroganoff in the original Klopfenstein cook-book.

However, I realized I didn't have cream of chicken soup so I substituted cream of mushroom and then I didn't have rice so I had it over noodles.

I'm not sure if changing 2 of about 5 ingredients classifies as making her recipe, but I have enjoyed it anyway.

COULDN'T WAIT

I went to Bloomington today - had breakfast at Steak-n-Shake with Jerry, then we went our separate ways. I picked up some drapes from Penny's, a picture from Hobby Lobby and a few other miscellaneous items. When I got home, the tile guy was just packing up to leave - for real this time. Here's a picture of the finished shower - although it still needs the plumbing, door and grab bars. I love it and just had to share it.

Thou shalt not compare...

A friend invited me to join the YWCA with her, so I've been going quite often to walk the treadmill and work weights. I do some swim aerobics classes and my favorite, swimming laps.

This morning I was in the pool doing my laps, when I saw a woman come in. She got in the lane next to me and started her laps. After a while I noticed that I was actually a little faster than her. And she was a good swimmer!

How did I know? She did those fancy flips at the end of the pool to turn around.

Why did I not get puffed up? I estimate her age at about 75 - 80.

Mike's view of the Japanese situation

Hi Everyone. This is Mike writing under Ann's name (I'm not much of a blogger).

I have been asked many questions related to nuclear power and the situation at the Fukushima Power Plant on the island of Honshu, Japan. So I will try to give my two cents' worth.

Let me say first that there is very little in the way of cold, hard facts to be able to come to any solid conclusion. What we hear comes from the Japanese government and filtered through the news media. So, even though there is a lot that can be said about nuclear power, we just don't know yet what the people there are up against. We can say however, that it is a serious situation. The potential from exposure to radiation is well known by the scientific community. And it can certainly be life-threatening. That is why countries have used threats of atomic bombs. But we all know that from history.

Here is something to consider though. There have been ten thousand (plus) people who have lost their lives in this devastating event. However none have been the result of exposure to radiation. Those Japanese people have been the victims of a horrific natural disaster, namely earthquakes and tsunami. And for now, that is the real story. This tragedy has claimed the lives of thousands, and affected the lives of many more. And we all need to find ourselves praying for those whose lives have been forever changed as a result of of this event.

As for the nuclear plant specifics, the radiation is coming from spent nuclear fuel that was exposed when the facility which houses that fuel was breached by the earthquake/tsunami. And with the interruption of electrical power, the pumps that would normally recover the borated water that covered that fuel were disabled. Supposedly now that electrical power has been restored and I'm sure every effort is being made to put the facility back in a safe configuration. But until we know more facts, we cannot be dogmatic about the situation.

So what about nuclear power in the USA? Are there risks? Yes, there are risks. But we have come a long way in our understanding since the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island events. And I believe the benefits we receive from nuclear power far outweigh the risks. So is it safe? I would say yes. Is it 100% foolproof? I would say no ....... but tell me something man-made that can boast that it is fool-proof? If you can tell me please do, I would like to buy some stock in it!

So what about the future of nuclear power? Right now, there is nothing else out there that can meet the power needs of our country. But if someone comes up with a viable substitute with less risks, I will be one of the first to say "Let's go for it." Until then, we who work in the industry must give our utmost to ensure the health and safety of the American public, while producing the electrical energy that we depend on.

I hope this helps a little ........................... Mike

YEAHHH!! IT'S DONE!

I'm so excited, the B&B project is complete! The tile guy is packing up his equipment and will be out of here soon. He is a very meticulous guy and the result really shows his talent. All the other guys have done good jobs also - including MY MAN!! Now all we have to do is put the furniture back in and get on with a normal life. Can't wait to see if all my purchases and decor ideas will be as expected. It has been a long six weeks or so and we're tired of living in the disorganization, but it all looks so good that it has been well worth the wait. Jerry has a large area of the garage filled with things to take to the Gridley Community Sale tomorrow. I think it's supposed to be a nice day so hopefully there will be lots of buyers and we will make some money. :) One last sneak picture - will post more when everything's back in place.

APRIL FOOLS TO YOU!!!

Hello!

I know it's been awhile since I posted...but it's been pretty quiet around here, just trying to get to Spring. I can feel it coming, and with it is coming the realization that there are a lot of things I didn't get done this winter that I intended to do.

There's a funny little cartoony thing I have about the difference in dogs and cats. I don't have it in front of me, but it goes something like this:

The dog says:
Oh, it's time to eat! My favorite thing!
Oh, the leash! Time for a walk! My favorite thing!
Oh, someone's at the door! My favorite thing!
Oh, we're going to sit on the couch and cuddle! My favorite thing!

The cat says:
It's day 256 of captivity.
The humans oogled over the silly dog again today, and yet failed to notice my impressive leap from the bed to the floor, with no hesitation whatsoever.
Etc...Etc.

My point is that I have been trying to clean up the basement...yes, still from Christmas. The problem is that as I pick up and sort out, I find myself saying:

Oh, Christmas pictures! My favorite thing!
Oh, puzzles! My favorite thing!
Oh, a box of crochet books! My favorite thing!
Oh, I'm tired! The couch! My favorite thing!

You get the idea! I hope to have the basement done this week. Then I can start upstairs, where I will find my computer, and the books I'm reading, and food close by...all of my favorite things!

I hope I'm ready when the nice weather sets in!

CHALLENGE

It has been a real challenge for the last couple weeks to remain patient when noone showed up to complete our bathroom project. Finally, we are making progress again, and the word is that they will be here everyday until the job is finished. Great News!!

This is the new shower - in progress. . .

The tile is ready and waiting. . . My current quilt project - I hope to get it all together today.

The final completed pictures will be on here as soon as possible.

We Saw Mike!

Joey and I were in Taiwan last week. In our hotel room on Wednesday evening, we were watching the news and a report about nuclear power plants came on. They showed the one at which Mike works. "Joey - that's where Mike works!" The cameraman panned the room after filming the Senator. "Mary - that's Mike right there!" His back was to us, but we're sure those broad shoulders were our brother-in-law's. So wasn't that something - to be sitting in a hotel room thousands of miles away and see someone you know.

I always hope I'll unexpectedly see someone I know in an airport. Have you?

And Here is My Version. . .

of Grandma's Special Beef Stew. Since we will be out of town tomorrow, my folks came over tonight for a birthday supper for Mom, and I decided to try the recipe that Ada posted. I thought about doing some things a little different, and almost bought V8 juice instead of tomato juice, but decided to make the real, authentic thing just like Grandma would have. And Dad vouched for it! Along with a loaf of homemade bread (so glad for a bread machine), a fruit salad, and brownies, it was the perfect menu for a cold, rainy, March evening.

PROJECTS AND PARTYS

This is a picture of some ladies quilting the latest quilt. This was an easy one for me as it was all put together and all I had to do was mark it and put it in the frames. I will also bind it when it's done - probably take them another 3 weeks to complete it.

Finished this one today - yeahh!! Maralon Stauter embroidered the squares. I had to pick out the background fabric and sew it all together, mark for quilting, put it in the frames, cut 50,000 squares and fold into triangles to make the points, fit them to the sides, sew them on and attach the back!! Lots of hard, frustrating work, but turned out good in the end. There is also a 4-square wall hanging that goes with this queen sized quilt.

As I previously posted, Nathan had his #5 pirate-themed birthday party on the 12th. Looks like there were a few crazy pirates at the party!! I wouldn't let anyone like that in MY house!!

Crazy Hair Day

This is "Spirit Week" at Nathan's daycare. Today was "Crazy Hair Day," so I buzzed a strip of his hair and spiked up the sides. After school today, I buzzed the rest off, so he's back to normal again.
As for the rest of us...Heather C is training for a management position with Chipotle. Kelsie is almost done with her second year at JU. Heather W is on Spring Break this week. Jerry's still driving to Springfield everyday for work. I am planning to run the Lake Run and the 2nd Annual K5K!

Week-end Trip to KC

Perry and I returned today from a quick trip to KC. This was probably the most impulsive/spur of the moment trip we've made---but we were glad we did. Alice Caroline had her first birthday on Friday and it was fun to help celebrate. Carol

THIS AND THAT

Happy Birthday to Noah who is 12 today - one year away from being a teenager! Miles celebrated his 11th birthday last Wednesday.

Saturday night we had the pleasure of attending a fundraiser for the Downers Grove Christian School which is where Jason and Janice's boys go to school. It was a fun evening and we even knew a few people who we have met over the 8 years of going to the annual Grandparents Day program. It's hard to believe that Zac will be graduating this Spring and heading to high school next year.

Sunday morning we went to church with Jerry's nephew Steve and his wife Robin then out to lunch with them. We try to keep in touch with them as much as posssible as he is Jerry's only direct-line relative. It is always good to see them and catch up on their lives.

We've had to learn a little patience with our remodeling as we have completed all we can do and have been waiting for a couple weeks on the "professionals" to come and do the tiling and carpet. They should begin their work later this week - finally!!

We're glad Spring is here and are hoping to get outside soon and spruce things up a bit.

Save the Date

July 9 has been chosen as a get-together date for all Klops who are interested. This won't be a big reunion like last year, but a Saturday run/walk in the park and a nice big buffet restaurant meal at noon. I, for one, am looking forward to it! I will send a postcard to all, but mark the date if you are interested.

Friends in Japan

Some of you are aware that I have dear friends in Japan from an English as a Second Language (ESL) class as well as a Bible study. The husbands work in Japanese/US plants in Decatur and all know that they will be in the States for months or years and then return to Japan. During this time I have become very fond of some of them and so the earthquake news was especially alarming. Thankfully most of them live in the Osaka area, which is 350 miles from Tokyo. But I did get an e-mail from Mari Shimazu in Tokyo and they were fine--toys and dishes fell to the floor but otherwise OK. Sadly few realize that death and suffering result from the sin that marred the perfect world that God created in the beginning. But there is hope to be found in Jesus Christ.

First time for everything

Well, last Sunday I had the opportunity to do something I've never done before. On Thursday night Retta informed me that our Pastor had called and was not going to be able to preach on Sunday due to an illness. He had asked Retta to pray about asking me to preach on Sunday and for her to ask me to pray about it. On Friday morning, Jerry called me and asked if I had prayed about it and if I could lead the service, preach and serve communion as he was sick and could not be at church. I agreed and for the first time, I preached. Actually, I like to say I taught. It was very interesting to be completely nervous, yet completely at peace at the same time.

If you are interested in listening to the sermon it can be found here for download or listening online. I pray that God was (and is) glorified by the message. I had two days (of which I worked both) to complete and practice. I felt like I needed another day or two to practice, but I know that it went the way it did, not because of me, but because of God. I look forward to the next opportunity to teach others God's Word in that way.

As a side note, as we walked out of the house on Sunday morning for church I remembered that I also had to teach Sunday School and that I had forgotten completely about it. Oops. Fortunately my class is great and we worked our way through Exodus 27 together.

EDK

Update

For those who aren't on our e-mail list, our area isn't expected to be threatened by the tsunami. We're protected by other islands; however, areas to the north of us are predicted to be hit (or have been already-haven't heard so far). A friend who has friends in Japan say the devastation there is horrible.

Just wanted to let y'all know that we're fine but our thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives are now turned upside down.

Gridley Cheese

I think it was Angela who had something on Facebook recently about Colby cheese. Which made me remember how one of the treats of going to Gridley was when Dad would buy a big hunk of Colby from the Gridley Cheese Factory to take home. I always think about that when eating Colby cheese. How did the little town of Gridley get a cheese factory? Whatever happened to it? What do you remember about Gridley cheese?

SUNDAY NIGHT

Nathan spent an overnight with us last Wednesday. It's been awhile since he stayed with us and he was SO excited. He meticulously painted (by number) a dinosuar and did a very good job! He was also excited to see his special bed on the floor - it was our nice queen mattress which is currently resting against the buffet in the dining room while we are sleeping in the guest room. It also served as a great trampoline. Can't you imagine his fun?!?

I painted our crown moulding boards last week. It was definitely one of the easier jobs we've done in this project as I didn't have to bend over, stand on a ladder, or lift anything - just paint.

Due to a sump pump failure, we had about 1.5 inches of water in the basement Thursday night. We discovered it about 9:15 pm and were up until about 11:30 "sweeping" the water back into the tank and/or using the water vac on the carpet. UGH!! We've had fans and dehumidifiers running and it is slowly drying out. At 11:30 we treated ourselves to a pepsi and cheese and crackers. We have not been having evening snacks lately and figured we deserved it that night!!

Jay Restored

Jay

Perry wonders if someone would know how to get the spots out of this photo. Thanks! Carol

Vintage items

I am working on a design project and was wondering if anyone had any old magazines, postcards, etc that would have vintage pictures or graphics. I only need to scan them and can give them back. Thanks!

Peter & Sophia's Living Grandchildren

Upon awakening early (very early) recently, a certain thought created a wide awake condition. This thought was that I am the second oldest remaining grandchild among the first cousins of Grandpa and Grandma Klopfenstein. Staggering!!! The following is a list. (Omissions and/or Corrections always welcome!)

Merle W. '25
Lynn K. '30
Alice S. '31
Carolyn S. '33
Nancy D. '35
Perry K. '38
Larry S. '38
Gene K. '41
Jim K. '42
Ada C. '43
Jerry K. '44
Paul K. '47
Jane C. '50

We are the remaining 13 from 33 total grandchildren. Reminds me of the old song, "We are going down the Valley One by One." I reckon READINESS remains the watchword!

CD Now Available

Several of you have asked me to let you know when Andrew's quartet's new CD came out. It was released Saturday night at their reunion concert, and it is available at the Calvary Quartet website. Click on the store, and it's the featured CD at the right. I hope that those of you who are interested will be pleased with how it turned out.

GRANDMA'S SPECIAL BEEF STEW

Friday I bought a package of stew meat and made a roaster of Mother's special beef stew recipe. We will have the left-over this evening. This recipe is in the Klopfenstein Family Favorites book and if you haven't ever made it, I suggest you try it. It is SO easy and delicious. It is also in the original Klop recipe book which I still use ocassionally even though it is totally falling apart.

And just in case you don't have either book: here is the recipe - let me know how you like it.

approx. 2 lbs stew meat
1/2 cup tomato juice
3/4 - 1 cup water
1 T salt
2 T sugar
3 T tapioca
onions, carrots, potatoes and celery, cut in chunks - enough to fill your casserole (I use a small roasting pan). Mix all together and put in pan. Cover and bake at 250 for 4 hours (do not open in meantime). YUMMY!

I made bisquick biscuits to go with it - also yummy.

HARD WORK

Ummm - this is becoming much more WORK than it is FUN!! We are, however, making good progress. We have about another three weeks before the "professionals" come to do their part so we don't have to rush, which is good because we CAN'T rush. We have finally picked out and ordered most of the necessities: carpet, floor tile, shower tile, counter top, toilet - still working on faucets, window treatments and other smaller items.

Heather came and helped us paint one day. She's a good sport and a good painter.

I had a Dr. apt. one day and when I came home, Jerry was taking out the tub/shower. He was covered in white dust from head to foot - looked like the abominable snowman! He also removed the counter top and put it in the garage. That and a few other items will hopefully find new owners at the Gridley Community sale this Spring.

Yep, the tub's gone and the area cleaned up waiting for the plumber. I have picked out some tile I love and the saleslady helped me plan a pattern of different sized tile pieces, embellishments, etc, and I can't wait to see how it looks.

We have the closet and three walls of the bedroom painted - looks good, but I think I'll wait until the entire project is finished before showing any "finished" pictures. We finally got the bathroom walls all smoothed out and primed and will probably paint in there today.

We're glad we did not have the huge snow storm last night. There might be an inch on the ground, but not the 4-8 as predicted. We plan to go to Downers Grove to watch Noah and Miles play basketball tomorrow - we need a break from all this.

Father-Son Cake Bake

It's that time of year again. Time for our annual Cub Scout Cake Bake. It's something that Sam and the boys look forward to every year, but they're also glad when it's finally over. It's a lot of work. This year they had 3 cakes to make and our brother-in-law Dennis Brummitt came over again to help out. They made one Saturday night, one Sunday night, and one Monday night. I did a good job staying out of their way and running for extra supplies when needed.

Formulating a plan
Uncle Dennis had lots of helpers

Ben's finished cake. The hockey skate was made out of Rice Krispies and covered in fondant frosting. He won 1st place for Sports Themed Cake.

Thad's finished cake. It involved quite a bit of engineering. Once it was completed the side walls caved it, so the guys got this idea to use styrofoam and meat skewers to hold them up. Then they frosted the styrofoam to look like pillars. It turned into quite a project but it paid off, as Thad's cake won 1st place for Judges Choice and also for People's Choice.

Will's finished cake - he didn't win anything but had fun and was a good sport about it.

Here was a creative one - with 50 boys voting I was surprised this didn't win for People's Choice.

When the judging was over everyone got a chance to sample the cakes. After seeing what went on in our house with the baking, Sam didn't have the stomach to sample any of the others. I tried a few and they were actually quite good. Even the kitty litter cake.

Facebook - Grrrrrr

I don't know what it is about Facebook, but we do not have a good relationship. I thought I had commented under Ada's status, in response to Linda's comment, but nope, no comment shows up from me. I won't go on about Facebook, but just say that I mostly just read what others are doing and leave it at that.

Linda responded to Ada and Jerry's remodeling project, and suggested that maybe a visit and a meal at Toluca would be in order in the future. So I thought:

Is anybody interested in another Klop run/walk some Saturday this summer, and then a big dinner together at Toluca? Would anybody be up for that?

Judy

WORK IN PROGRESS

We're slowly making good progress with our huge project. We're tired of living with the mess, but just keep thinking of the finished job. It's going kinda slow as we have other things to do such as Jerry's volunteering and my quilting. The ladies at Sunrise have two big quilts ready for me to bind another waiting to be marked and put in the frame. One step at a time, we're getting it done.

Jerry is standing on the bathroom counter while using the joint compound to fill the rough spots made while stripping the wallpaper. In some places it came down real easily, in other places it was very difficult to remove and left a rough wall.

I'm did all the painting on the door and window trims.

We are living with bedroom furniture all over the house. More furniture is in front of the door leading to the deck. We have moved most of the clothes into the front bedroom closet, the guest bathroom closet, and the office closet. I feel like we're always hunting for something.

Today, we put the first coat of primer in the bedroom and feel good because we can finally see something positive happening. Just before Jerry took this picture, I said to him "go get the picture and take my camera." He got a good laugh from that - then got the camera and took my picture. . . :)