July 4th - Some of LCK Family

Last week I drove over to Mom and Dad's with a stop at all the siblings. I call it one of my trips in which I drive more miles than spend minutes with family, but I certainly had a great time.

This was indicative of July 4th in the Southeast. Rain, rain, rain. Dad, Mom, Mary Lee, Renae (who was with me on the trip), and I drove from Anderson to Mark and Molly's for the afternoon and dinner. Mark did a great job grilling in the rain. Two of Mark's children were with friends for the day and Jeff was indisposed when I took this picture of our indoor picnic.

 

I also got to spend time with Ann while at Mom and Dad's and then we stopped for a couple of nights in Madison with Joey and Mary. Today it's back to my job of finding a job.

More about July 4th at Cleve and Kathleen's

Kathleen and I were delighted to host 40 of the extended family on Thursday at our "cabin", 14 miles north of Peoria.  We truly missed those of you who could not be with us.  We enjoyed pork burgers from Gridley Meat Co. --  (only 1 of which dropped through the grate when grilling, so I ate that one on the spot and continued grilling the other 56.)  Many thanks for the huge amounts of delicious food that was brought in by many in attendance!  We all enjoyed the food, fun, and fellowship in the blessing of perfect July 4th weather.  Thanks, Nog Blog, and others, for your great pictures and nice comments.  But as Uncle Perry says, "a picture is worth a thousand words" so I can't resist attaching a few more photos here. 

      

                                           A sample of the wonderful and abundant food.

                                                      Desserts - Are - Us

                      Paddle-boating was a popular attraction, along with lots of swimming

                                              The Steffen Boys enjoyed fishing off the dock
                                             (we won't say which one caught this nice bass!)

                                           Some instruction from Grandma Knobloch....

                                        Everyone cooperated for a group picture on the deck.

                                        The "surprise hike" was to this secluded log cabin...

                                       Note the old wagon and "covered wagon" in the back...

                                              See comments from the previous post for
                                              a better explanation of this "surprise" hike......

                                         Swimming was the popular event of the day......
                                         except for eating, perhaps.

July 4th Cleve's Surprise

 

We enjoyed the hike to see Cleve's surprise.  Here's a few photos.  ----Carol

4th of July at the Klop Cabin

I was up at 3 and can't sleep so decided to post some pics from our wonderful day at Cleve and Kathleen's cabin at Santa Fe Estates. The weather could not have been better, the food was tremendous, and as you can see, everyone had a terrific time. These shots are from my phone, but others there had better cameras. I also missed the group shot, as well as the entire adventure of a mystery side trip that Cleve took us on. Hopefully, others will post pictures very soon. Thanks, Cleve and Kathleen, for a memorable day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny story from today at church.

While at a consignment shop in Michigan City, Indiana last week I bought a cute pair of pre-owned pink Nine West wedge shoes. I was there on an annual girls' trip with Gridley-ites Jodie Schlipf, Jamie Schlipf, and Christa Gramm Meister. I was excited to wear the shoes today to church. While sitting at the lunch table, it felt like something was stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I looked down to see the entire wedge bottom of my left shoe hanging on by a thread! I took it off & hobbled down the back staircase to my Sunday School room. I tried to glue it in place, but it wasn't working. So I had no choice but to hold the shoe together with 2 dinky red rubber bands.  Then during the afternoon service, I looked down to see my right shoe was doing the exact same thing! After the service, I slowly made my way down the aisle to avoid having the right wedge rip completely rip off & tripping me. I looked like a disabled person, hanging on to the pews and picking my feet up high with each step! I went into the bathroom stall to utilize one of the two rubber bands for my now-defunct right shoe. As I entered the stall, it totally ripped off & the right wedge bottom went flying across the tile. I quickly grabbed it, but not before another lady saw it bewilderedly. So now I had 1 skinny rubber band holding each shoe together. I headed out of the bathroom quickly, but the wedges were sliding around & clapping with the pink tops & with these woefully ill-working rubber bands. So I had to take them both off & walk out of church & through the parking lot barefoot! Needless to say, the shoes went into the garbage can as soon as I entered my garage.

Only me (or maybe Shelley)!
Crystal

School Days

I am going through pictures on my computer, deciding what to save and what to delete due to having to have my Mac upgraded next week, and came across a few gems that need to be shared.

You may recognize the dashing young man second from the right on the front row--some of you probably recognize other faces as well. . .

A building with a lot of memories for a lot of K's. . .

. . .and an interesting report card from the 5th grade!  (This is a tell-all blog!  Sorry, Dad!)

My New Job

I have just been hired as a Photography Instructor for Each One Teach One Literacy in Chicago. It is a non-profit that serves the Englewood community (Chicago's south side). These are at risk students with a 20% graduation rate and a 2% math literacy rate. I will be teaching 30 16-18 year olds that come from a restorative justice program. They are basically taking this class rather than jail or community service. My boss said Englewood is the "front lines" of Chicago and if I can make the program work here I can make it work anywhere.

This week I have been busy with my lesson plans. I have to write a 6-week curriculum from scratch. The students will start July 1st. I am excited and a little nervous. I really hope I can keep them under control. Any advice from teachers?

I am thinking about blogging about this at my personal blog. If you follow it you know that means I probably won't! Ha! But if you're interested it is pointedandshot.blogspot.com

Staci

Dallas!

I had the great privilege this week of spending a few days in Dallas, TX with cousin Rhoda. She had told me recently that Ann was possibly going to visit her. Last week I got an email from her that said Ann was going to be there Tuesday thru Friday of this week. Whether that was an actual invitation or not, as is typical of me...my wheels started turning fast and I thought how fun it would be to be there with them. But I pushed the thoughts aside as too expensive and too late to plan it. Then I happened to see Ada, and I mentioned it to her. As is typical of her, she didn't right away say no, but was excited to at least think about it. By the next day, Ada and I had our tickets and in a few days we were flying off to Texas.  

Rhoda knew we were coming, but our plan was to surprise Ann. And we succeeded. She was indeed surprised when we popped out at the airport to greet her.

We had a tremendous few days at Rhoda's home and she and her friend, Renae, made us feel very welcome. We had the perfect mix of visiting, relaxing, sightseeing, and good food.

 

We had a few hours to wait for Ann's plane to arrive, so Rhoda, Ada and I visited the Ft. Worth Stockyards. We had a yummy lunch, did some browsing in the shops, watched the cowboys take the cattle down the streets of the stockyard's area, and Ada and I both sat on a real live bull. It was a good introduction to Texas!





We visited the 6th Floor Book Depository Museum, which was a highlight of past somber memories and also educational. We were able to get a good perspective of the site of the assassination of JFK. The first picture is the grassy knoll area and in the bottom picture the upper, far right corner window is the window from which Oswald made the fatal shot.

 

We also visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. We enjoyed our walk-around

of this new building which featured President Bush's life and presidency, so affected by the 9/11 tragedy.



Renae and Rhoda's home was spacious and beautiful. If you look carefully you'll see them on their front porch. The four of us are in front of the porch for a posed picture.

                                     



We had a delicious and hearty meal at the Hard Eight BBQ restaurant. We had generous benefactors who had arranged to treat us to this unique dining experience. Thanks, Uncle Lynn and Aunt Mim!

 We spent our afternoons around the pool in the back yard. That was a pretty area, too, but we all voted for no pictures posted of us in or around the pool.

It was a great, quick visit and we all said we would do it again...with a little more advanced notice and planning so that more of you could join us!

Maybe the others will share some more photos and comments on our great few days together.