Stopping By to Say Hello

Greetings, All,
It has been a very, very long time since I've commented or posted anything . . . so thought I'd stop by the blog and say hello to everyone.  HELLO!  Some of you may have seen our little town on the national news for flash flooding. Last Wednesday we experienced a deluge and around 25 homes are uninhabitable and many more have wet basements and damage. Fortunately, we sit high enough that we were spared. Some of you others probably had some flooding also. Other than that, we are busy with work and grandkids - the usual. Tim opened an office in Monmouth, Illinois, as a second location, so he now spends 2 or 3 days a week there. I always enjoy checking in to read the posts, so thanks to you "old faithfuls" for keeping the rest of us informed and entertained. You older folks probably were aware that cousin, Merle Wuethrich, passed away - his funeral was Saturday in Eureka. Til next time . . .
Cathy

Here is a photo of one of my favorite scenes:  the beautiful rocky-bottom creek directly down the hill from our rear upper deck.  We often see a small herd of deer grazing on the grassy hillside during late evenings but they will scare easily and soon leap across the creek and into the woods.  One evening in January, we saw 9 deer grazing.  In this photo I was able to capture 5 of the 7 deer that were lazily grazing, yet nervous while seeing me.

Better yet, with most of you aware of my adolescent fetish of looking for arrowheads, I was overjoyed in September to have an 11-year-old guest, Levi Manz, of Latty, Ohio find a beautiful 2" spearhead in this creek -- about 50 yards downstream from my very own backyard.  Then, about 3 weeks later, on September 30, 2012, my own 3 grandboys were exploring the creek like they often love to do, and Carter, age 8, found a 1.5" spearpoint in the creek, directly behind our condo/home!  This creek has produced about 5 other arrowhead/spearpoints about 1 mile downstream, but never this close to home. Both local September finds are between 1,500 - 3,000 years old, minimum.   Hard to believe by many, but yet true.
If any of you would want to go "hunting" with me sometime, I'd love to take you to some good "hot spots" for some great outdoor exercise and scenery.

Square Foot Gardening

This will be repeat for some of you, but I thought I'd share my latest project. As you know in MI I had a rather large garden (that got bigger the first 3-4 years I was there and then smaller every year after that), but there isn't much room in the backyard here. My friend and I still want to make our salsa and I like using my own tomatoes and peppers so I'm using the square foot gardening method here.

Here is my stash of items to build 2 4'x4' boxes. The box is 6" deep and the "soil" mix is equal parts peat moss, vermiculite, and compost.

An unconventional method to building the box, but it worked for me.

One box completed and placed.



Here are both boxes placed, filled with mix, and planted. I plan to put some beans in the remaining squares.

 

My BSF group gave me the square foot gardening book as a going away gift. I've really enjoyed reading it and putting this together. I'm looking forward to this different way of gardening and adding items to the various squares into the fall to keep having fresh veggies for a long time.

 

Has anyone else tried this? I'd love to how it worked for you.

A FEW PICTURES

We're basically done with our "redecorating" project and thought I'd share a few pictures with you. It's a BIG change from the black wallpaper in the family room and the flowered wallpaper in the kitchen/dining room. Fortunately, we got it done just in time for Jerry to begin working in the yard - which is his very favorite thing to do - really!

Three Grand Ladies

Mom had this picture and I asked if I could post it...isn't it a good picture of the three of them? Do you know where they are? And where do you suppose they were going? I knew Aunt Florence better than Aunt Hilda...but I know the latter was a live-wire. Do you have any stories, unique traits, or memories to share?





Sippy cups

Judy's post about the kids getting their own drinks reminded me of one of my favorite memories of two of Mark's kids.

One summer day I was wrestling on the family room floor with Lindsey and John Michael who were probably 4 and 6 at the time.

After a bit of rather wild play I realized JM was gone and soon he came around the couch with 3 sippy cups of ice water in his arms. "Hey guys, I got us all some water."

Lindsey was old enough to realize that a 30+ year old woman didn't need a sippy cup even if it was Aunt Rhoda and exclaimed, "John Michael!!!"

I, however, gladly took my cup and drank. It was the only time I remember drinking from a sippy cup.

Progress!

I had three Steffen boys here for a short time yesterday. Dave fed them pancakes, which they love, if you remember to get it right. Syrup for one, WARM syrup for another, and plain and dry for the third. But the real fun for me came after the pancakes....they were able to pretty much get the microwave popcorn out of the drawer and open and into the microwave. I popped it and put it in their bowls for them. ONE bag PER kid, at their specific request. I got one complaint that one kid took "one piece of popcorn out of my bowl!" but they all three ate it all gone.

Then a near miracle happened.

"I need a drink!"

Well, I responded that Grandpa says they are all old enough to get their own drinks. "You know where the cups are and the milk is inside the fridge and the water is in the door of the fridge. So go help yourselves."

They all looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I didn't move, and shortly all three had a drink in their hands.

That is PROGRESS in the right direction for me! Of course, I did have to scrub the toilet this morning! They do THAT themselves, too!

Downtown Gridley business renovation

Update from Casey & Jamie Knobloch, as some may know we are in the process of doing a complete renovation of the Gridley Hardware Store!  We are rebuilding with the intention of opening Rob's Ice Cream (operated by Philip Romersberger - one of my employees who's father was Rob Romersberger) and Knobloch Catering.  Hoping to be open around July or August.

 Philip with his hard ice cream machine - currently at my shop, the former home of Rob's Ice Cream Hous

One More

Just thought I'd post another of Thad's book reports from earlier this year.  This was actually the first one he did - his teacher said he set the bar pretty high!  He's a pretty quiet kid so it's fun to see him get excited about these reports and showcase a little of his 'acting' skills. 

For extra credit points, who can name the antique machine located to the right of 'Jamie'?  It belonged to Thad's great-grandpa and grandma, Sam and Anna Steffen.  It's something they used on a regular basis, and not as a plant stand (as I do).  

KINDA ANGRY!!

This morning I was awakened in the middle of a crazy dream. I was meeting Alice someplace to go to a fancy dinner. When I got there, she was standing in the lobby with some other people. I noticed that she was wearing a fleece sweatsuit while I had dressed up in my "Sunday Best". I was so embarrassed to see her dressed like that for a nice dinner, but as I looked around, it was ME that was not dressed appropriately and everybody else just looked tacky. Then I was really embarrassed AND mad. About that time the doors to the banquet room opened and we headed in - there were lots of tables, none of them were set, and it was just a junky old room . . . and I woke up before I had a chance to say anything. So Alice, next time you invite me out, let me know what to expect ahead of time!!!

Palm Sun...Saturday

Due to the threat of snow on Palm Sunday, the Stevig Easter dinner was moved to Saturday.  It was the first road trip for Silas, and he of course lit up the house.  We do love being grandparents!  Photos of great-grandma and grandma included here.

Happy Easter to all!
- Larry

Jake Update

Many of you were aware that Jake has been in need of cervical surgery on his neck. He finally had it done yesterday after many painful days and disheartening delays.

He was in surgery for 3 hours where they cleaned up the disc, and put in a cadaver bone and metal plate, which will all create a fusion as it heals. He came out of surgery with no pain in his shoulder, no numbness in his arm, and of course a sore throat and neck. I just talked to Malissa and she said he is doing great and is taking no pain pills. (There was a concern he would be addicted to the pain pills after 7 weeks of use of heavy narcotics.)

So all around, we are thanking the Lord for what has transpired so far, and we are praying for a quick, thorough recovery. He has to stay home from work for 10 days until he sees the doctor again, but his only restriction now is no lifting. He has no collar on and only a large bandaid covering the incision site. Modern medicine...what a miracle...once you can get it done!

 

(I only took one picture of Jake in the wheelchair getting ready to go home. He was feeling like you can imagine and looked it too, so I refrained from posting the picture. You can thank me, Jake!)

Steffen Stuff

Just a quick update on what's been going on in the Steffen Household.  Not too much new and exciting (thank goodness).  Mostly just homework, practicing instruments, running kids around, and trying to keep up on the laundry.

We have had a few projects recently, mostly concerning Thad.  The annual Father-Son Cake Bake was held last night.  I've posted pictures of our cakes in the past so thought you would like to see what we did this year.  They found a really neat cake on Pinterest (actually I found a really neat cake on Pinterest).

 It didn't look too complicated, so I got them some supplies and they got started on it Monday night.  Unfortunately they ran into a little problem with the engineering of it and the whole cake collapsed down in a pile.  Thad was a good sport about it all, and they decided to go ahead and take it in anyway.  They named it "Father-Son Cake Bake Epic Fail".  They actually won 3rd place in the Yummiest Cake category and even got several votes in the People's Choice category!

He also finished up a book report that I thought I'd share too.  He was assigned to read a fantasy book.  He chose The Lightning Thief, which I didn't care for.  It is so hard to find good books for boys.  It seems they go straight from the booger and potty-talk books to the dark, scary, underworld books.  If anyone is a good writer and wants to find a niche, we could really use some good book series for preteen boys.  But enough about that... here's his report:

Texas

After what seems like months of moving I arrived in Little Elm, TX on Saturday about 5:30 CDT. The temp was in the 80s with lots of sun. Each day since has been sunny and in the 70s although the weekend could be "only" in the 50s. I'm loving it!!!

Before this trip though I enjoyed about 48 hours in central IL the previous week getting to see all of my aunts and uncles except for Uncle Keith and several other family members on this short trip. Beyond seeing family a highlight of the trip was seeing Klopfenstein's Office Supply Store in Pontiac. I had never seen it before and it was probably my first time in Pontiac since I was about 6 or so when Grandma took Mary and me there on an errand one day.

Last Thursday I picked up a 16' truck and had 3 friends help me load it. Thankfully all of the big stuff and furniture for my friend and me had been moved earlier so this trip was boxes and a lot of miscellaneous stuff. After loading I went back and had the car trailer loaded and put my vehicle on it. The next morning at 8:20 my friend from church Nancy and I drove off. We planned to meet a former co-worker in St. Louis for dinner so we had lots of time driving through Illinois. That made it possible to meet Judy for lunch at Avanti's. I think I kind of impressed her how I manipulated the truck and trailer through downtown! We made it to St. Robert, MO on Friday night about 8:00 and then were on the road about 8:00 the next morning. We were not in a rush either day as there was no need to get too tired and risk going too fast.

A truck driver at church had this advice for me: The deer are running this time of year so if one runs out Penske can fix the truck but you will lose control very easily with the car trailer attached and you can't always fix you so JUST HIT THE DEER. I was prepared to hit the deer but thankfully I never had to choose between swerving or hitting the deer.

I am so thankful that God provided many friends who helped with the actual move and for the many people who were praying for me on the road.

I am getting unpacked and settled. Pictures will follow at some point.

MAKING PROGRESS

We are slowly making progress with our redecorating project. The kitchen area is basically complete and ready to "decorate" soon. Monday Jerry hopes to begin removing the black wallpaper in the family and we plan to paint green in that area. I've already been to Pier One and Gordmans and Jeffry Alan to get ideas for decorating. Sounds like fun, right? Notice the crown-molding along the ceiling. Perry Jr. put that up for us today. It really looks nice. He will add more to the other areas when we get them ready.

Birthday party

Celebrating Great Grandpa's 98th birthday with Silas!  Great Grandma is already pretty attached to the little guy!

Some Misc. from South Carolina:

• I think all you Uncle Ralph offspring need to know that I have been air-typing my way through life ever since Crystal's question was posted!
• Major lesson learned:  Be very careful not to drop half a can of frozen lemonade (thawed) between the sink and the refrigerator.  It took four moppings. . .
• I loved the pictures of Ada and Jerry's renovation of their kitchen.  (Some may have been on FB.)  It has given me the bug to get Mike going on our kitchen with its dated wallpaper.  Maybe when we're done paying college tuition.  :-)
• Very glad to hear that Charity and baby are back home.  Hope they are all doing well and that Charity is getting her strength back.  My brother-in-law, a family practice doctor, says that any new mother should get 24 hours in the hospital and an additional 24 hours for each child already at home.  Makes sense!
• Also glad to hear about Baby Silas and looking forward to seeing a pic of the little man - maybe with his grandparents as well?!!
• Hope all you Ks have a good week.  Spring is coming - our temps are in the 70s this week.

Postscript - One other thing I forgot to mention - I'm curious to know if Duck Dynasty is as big a deal in the midwest as it is here in the south?  People around here are crazy about that show!

Klopfenstein Family Newest Member

With pleasure, I'm pleased to say that Silas Daniel Frankie is number 46211 in the Klopfenstein Genealogy File!!!  Lynn K.--(My blog is not functional)

New grandson

Well, I guess becoming grandparents makes it high time to post on the K-blog!  February 28 - a big day in the Stevig family.

Larry & Barb

 

 Silas Daniel Frankie

 



Erin and Thomas

 

Anderson's home!

Big brother, Carter, age 9, is delighted to have a new brother.  Ellie, age 6, Caleb, age 12, and Ashton, age 13, are also very happy. 

Thankfully Charity's blood pressure was normal today after not having any meds for 48 hrs.  She had what is called HELLP syndrome and her high blood pressure was a concern the last two weeks.  The latest blood work showed that her liver enzymes were improved but not yet normal.  She is still very tired and needs lots of rest, but things are looking good!

Glenn, Ellie and I went to St. Francis to bring Anderson home in a special car bed for preemies.  He was born 2 weeks ago today, weighing 3 lbs 6 oz. Today he weighed 3 lbs 13 oz.  ---Carol

IT'S A BOY

Erin and Thomas had a baby boy this morning at 9 am.  They named him Silas Daniel Frankie.  He weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. - 21 inches long.  Larry said he is a beautiful baby.
Larry and Barb are now grandparents and Keith and I have become great grandparents.  It's exciting!!!

Alice

Ralph

I am wondering if anyone could share some humerous or silly memories of my grandpa Ralph - whether he was your sibling, in-law, uncle, father, grandfather, or even great-grandfather.

A few I just thought of...
I always liked how he said grandma's name:  CATH-ERN ( as opposed to CATH-REN)
I remember how he'd give us grandkids a nickle for taking off his shoes & socks while he sat in his recliner.
I thought it was so funny how he'd sniff Vicks Vapo-Rub to open up his sinuses.
There was always an open can of cashews or peanuts in the cupboard.
He hummed alot - I think this is where I got the habit too!

Crystal

"Serendipity"

Serendipity is a word that has fascinated me ever since long ago passing a gift shop with that name and then  learning that the definition is "something found that was not sought for and is agreeable or valuable."

Today in glancing through the AFA journal, I found a serendipity as follows:

                 Through the tempest
                   and night He went
                           seeking,
                And He sought it at
                   at such fearful cost,
                But I'm glad that He
              sought till He found it,
                  For I am the sheep
                      that was lost.
  

Mmmm...

 

You know what I thought about this morning? Supper. A real, home cooked supper. At my home.

Oooh, I pictured a pork chop, some mashed potatoes (OK, Hungry Jack instants), some corn,  and some Hawaiian bread. Probably not a salad for me, but Dave would pour applesauce on his plate and eat it with his food. That’s a nasty habit he has, in my opinion.

I used to do that…cook supper. People ask us now, “Well, what do you eat?” And I don’t really know. To cook that meal above, I would have to go grocery shopping. But we usually have something in the fridge we can find to eat. It’s just not a good home-cooked meal like it used to be.

Today I missed it. BUT, tomorrow or the next day, if I make it happen, I know I will be halfway through the mess of it all and I’ll be saying to myself, “Is it really worth it?” Basically, I hate to cook.

What do you like to cook for supper?

Anderson Glenn Schieler

Anderson was born Friday, February 15th, at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria.  He weighed 3 lbs 6.8 oz.  The day before his birth he rode in a helicopter with his mother from St. Joseph Hospital in Bloomington to Peoria. 

Charity is home from the hospital and doing much better but very tired.  Tomorrow we plan to go back to be with Anderson.  This will continue (back and forth to Peoria) until the baby is able to come home.  He is breathing fine on his own.  He was under the bilirubin light today for jaundice but the numbers are coming down.  They plan to begin feeding him his mother's milk tomorrow.  He is and has been receiving nutrition through an IV in his tummy.  This will gradually switch over to the bottle.  If he gains weight from the milk and can thrive without the added assistance of the IV, he will be able to come home.  When he is able, he will get his milk from his mother without the bottle.  The earliest he will be able to come home is likely next Monday.  But they don't know, because they don't know how he will respond to the feedings.  Today we got our first pictures of him with his eyes open.  His nurse said he has opened them a lot, but not when we were there.

Yesterday, Glenn and the children got to see him for the first time.  Glenn had the flu was told by the hospital staff he couldn't be near the baby when he was born.Yesterday, he wore a mask and his doctor had him on an antibiotic and said he is no longer contagious. (We hope.)

Because of the flu, Glenn couldn't go in with Charity to have the baby (c-section) so I was there with her instead.  I got a couple pictures on my cell phone I could text to Glenn.

We are glad Mother and baby are doing as well as they are. ----Carol

ANOTHER PROJECT BEGINS

We've - rather Jerry - has begun another project that might keep him busy until the grass is green and needs mowing. He is stripping the wallpaper from the kitchen and possibly from the family room, if all goes well. He searched online and found a "product" called "Simple Strip" which is supposed to make the project "simple"!! :) He plans to work slowly and carefully. The product, which was shipped from the United Kingdom, seems to work well. He received a package of some white strips which he has to soak in a bucket of the special liquid, place the paper on top of the wallpaper and spray with a specially provided liquid that dissolves the wallpaper paste. A "scorer" was included in the package which was actually the first step of the process. He says it was much easier than stripping the bedroom paper. So, we'll see how the rest of it goes.

Southeast Snow

Our corner of the world got snow today.  Unfortunately we were about ten-fifteen miles south of the southern line of activity, but most areas north and east of us got a nice snowfall, and apparently it was the nice kind of snow that sticks and makes good snowballs.

This is my niece (Mike's brother's daughter), husband, and adorable daughter, enjoying the snow at her folks' house, an hour northeast of us.  I know y'all don't know them, but thought it was such a pretty picture, and so classic of people enjoying rare southern snow, that you would like to see it anyway.

Birthday Party

The RDK family celebrated Mom's birthday today at Steak N Shake. We were missing Cleve and Kathleen and David's Linda. Marty brought a friend to join us, as you can see sitting by Cathy. Mom turned 86 today. She is in good health and is enjoying her new home at Mercy Creek. We had good food, as usual, and really enjoyed visiting around the table.

On a sadder note, Carolyn Schlipf's grandson, Matt Schweigert, was killed in a car accident yesterday in Tremont. He is the son of Joe and Nancy Schweigert. The obituary should be in the Peoria Journal Star tomorrow. I'm sure they would appreciate our prayers.

Houston, Tx

Hello All,

This post has been a long time coming...we were in Texas for two weeks and I just didn't have everything I needed at hand to post some pictures like I wanted to. We are home and I am back at my computer, so I will fill you in our activities of the last two weeks.

Gloria wanted to go to Joe and Jamie's in Houston for a 1 or 2 month stay. She has always driven herself down there - by herself - with her birds and her dog - straight through - taking her about 20 hours. This time, Dave and I offered to take her down in Dave's van and then we would go back and get her when she was ready to come home.

We started with a side trip to Indianapolis to see Dave and Jodie's Emma peform in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." She trains with YAT (Young Actor's Theatre) in Indy and she was given the award for the "young actor of the year" with their program. She proved to us that she is a great performer and we had such a good time spending the evening there.

Gloria, Dan and wife Tami, Jodie, Myself, Amy, Dave, and EMMA



 

We left Indy about 9 pm and hit the road for Houston.

This is the van, packed up with the three large bird cages and the dog cage. Gloria held "Doggie" all the way there. The trip took us 17 hours. It was cold outside so we didn't even stop long for bathroom or meal breaks as we didn't want to leave the birds for too long of a time in a cold van. The birds were covered up and were pretty quiet all the way, except for the occasional squawking outburst of "Goodnight, Angel!" or "Mom!" or "Dog-gie!" or any number of things the birds say.

We arrived at Joe and Jamie's and enjoyed two nice days and nights with them. It was a great opportunity to spend some time with them and getting to know Dean and Benjie. Dean is a senior and Ben (as he prefers to be called) is in 7th grade.

Then we left Gloria there, and Dave and I headed to find a place on a beach for a much-needed vacation for us. He has worked the last 10 years for IDOT and could (would) not get away in the winter, in case it snowed and he would have snow plow duty. So this year, his first winter of retirement, he promised me some beach time. We found a very nice little condo in Port Aransas, TX. We stayed there for 6 nights and had the good luck of being there on the warmest week of the winter so far, and one day it was stated on the news that we were in the warmest place in the USA for that day.







We drove down to Padre Island National Seashore on the last day, when it was a bit windy and overcast.

After our week away, we returned to Joe and Jamie's in Houston and found that Gloria was ready to return home with us. So we stayed one more night, and then packed things up and headed for home. Again, it was a 17 hour trip, we had good roads, and all the animals survived the long drive.

A couple of random photos of "Baby" and "Doggie."

On our last evening, Jamie's friends cooked us a "real" Mexican dinner. We had a good time spending the evening with them.

So this was a long post.

I, for one, will set a goal of doing more posts in 2013!



South Carolina News

 --Ada and Jerry came through here on Tuesday.  They spent the night with Mom and Dad before heading back to IL early the next morning - they were ready to get home!  I only got to go over there for about an hour, due to it being one of those busy teacher-responsibility nights.  But it was good to see them.  The four of them went to G'ville and ate at Outback - they requested a certain waiter named Andrew and I assume he did a good job!  Sorry no pics of A&J's brief visit here.

--Here is a "little-girl blanket" I made for Mary and Joey's granddaughter Emma (Lindsay's little girl).  It was supposed to be done by Christmas, but. . .you know how that can go sometimes.  Mid-January is better than not getting it done at all.  I figure since Ada is always making such beautiful things, I should put my once-a-decade creation on here.  You can't tell in the picture, but both colors of yarn include a metallic thread that makes it shine really nicely.

--And finally, Andrew and Mary Lee went on a retreat to the mountains with the college group of a church they have been attending, and sent me this pic this morning.