Anderson

Tonight, Anderson was enjoying Grandpa's antics and Caleb took a picture.  7 months is a fun age!---Carol

LUNCH WITH "MY" QUILTERS

Had lunch for my quilters today. We had chicken salad croissants, lettuce salad, TGIF Potato Skin Chips, and a "no-name" desert consisting of the following items - angel food cake, vanilla pudding mixed with ice-cream, strawberries and whipped cream - even with no name it's quite good. You might notice the little jars of candies - that was their treat to take on home. The ladies in the picture are Marjorie Witzig, Helen Zimmerman, Mary Gramm, Dorothy Ringger, Mary Ringger, Joan Aupperle, and Anna Marie Reutter. As I look at these names, I believe all but Helen and Joan would be somewhat related to us.

Carol's Dad

Did you all know that Carol's dad, Robert Miller, passed away last week?   His funeral was Sunday afternoon.  He had been in failing health for some time, but apparently had a heart attack and death came several hours later.  He and his wife, Pearl, lived in Portland, Oregon for many years.   In fact, Carol grew up in Portland and four of her siblings are still in the Portland area.  Robert walked closely with the Lord for over seventy years and was an inspiration to many.  Now he is "absent in the body and present with the Lord."

Beautiful Switzerland

Kathleen, Crystal, and I returned 7 days ago from a wonderful 15-day trip to Switzerland & the Alps -- the "homeland" of both of our extended families.  After an 8-day guided bus tour throughout the country, we rented a car for the remainder of the trouble-free days seeing specific sights -- many related to our family and church history.  We stayed 3 nights/days with the extremely gracious Peter and Hanni Klopfenstein in their rental apt. above their home in the mountain village of Adelboden.  They operate a Photo Shop specializing in making and selling Switzerland scenic postcards (which we saw for sale throughout the country) and are a prominent family in Adelboden. 

K saw the original farmstead of her grandfather and great-grandfather Bahler.  There we were met with open arms of the family who purchased the farm and now reside there since the late 1800's.  We also saw many gravestones bearing both of our family names as we vagabonded around that beautiful country which offers constant irresistible photo opportunities in every direction one looks.  The scenic beauty is beyond description and the infrastructure is magnificent (perfect highways, mountain tunnels, passenger trains, etc.) and the people are educated, "westernized" in every way, and very helpful and friendly to visitors. 

Pease bear with the long train of photos here, but I just couldn't quit showing "just one more"....of my hundreds of pictures.  My camera battery was dead at the end of each day! 

 This is not a postcard or mural...it is the window flower-box on the balcony of the Klopfenstein Apartments overlooking the snowcapped Alps, outside our room in Adelboden.

On top of the highest and longest ski-lift in Switzerland, at the Jungfrau mountain.

To get to the top, one had to take 3 back-to-back lifts, transferring one to another.

That's the village at the bottom of the valley in the middle of the picture.

 

Our hosts, Hanni and Peter Klopfenstein, Jr. who operate the family Photo Shop

 on the main street in Adelboden.

 

Markus Klopfenstein, uncle of Peter, looking at photos of himself with

 my parents and Vic & Jean Rich in Adelboden in 1998.

 

Crystal and I sitting on the very same bench that Jean, Vic and Dad sat on in 1998.  Note the name on the bench!  The tower is an old military tower from the 12th century!!  Things in Switzerland are OLD!

 

 

Milk cows (with cowbells) grazing at 6,000 ft. above sea level.

 

Kathleen beside one of the many "family" gravestones we saw...

 

The very shy Klopfenstein daughters of Hanni and Peter K.

in front of the family Photo Shop.

 

 

Kathleen loved the flowers in Switzerland.  They were everywhere -- and beautiful.

 

A typical example of thousands of neat, flowery homes that dot the vast mountain foothills.

Note the old lady mowing her yard.

 

 

Absolutely gorgeous!!  And this river and buildings are pretty, too!

 

(Bern, Switzerland -- the capital city and area where many of our

acquaintances originate from)

 

 

 

 

Entrepreneur

Sam and Shelley's 9 year old Ben informed me last week that he has a new way to make some money! He is taking wood burning orders from his classmates at school. He showed me his orders. He had the student's name and what object they would like burned into the wood. He was charging $1.00. He was very enthused.

Shelley texted me a picture of Ben working hard at his project.

 

And here are some of his finished pieces. I was impressed. (Of course, I am biased, I will admit.)

The best part of the whole thing is that Ben is now ready and willing to go to school! He is not a school lover, to say the least. In his mind it is a waste of his time. He is in the 4th grade and it has been a daily struggle to get him to school in a good mood and ready to learn.

Now he can't wait to get to school and get new orders and deliver his goods and collect his money. Shelley texted; "Just waiting for the call from school that he can't be running a business out of his backpack!"

Too funny!

Cousin Nancy

At the Klopfenstein cousin reunion in late July, Mom and Dad found out that Nancy Davis lives quite close to me. Tonight we met for dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

I asked if she had always been told she looked like her father because I could see Uncle Fred in her. It was interesting to hear about her family as I really didn't know her daughters. She kept us quite entertained with her stories of trying to learn to water ski at their cottage outside Lacon and her various encounters with wildlife.

Memorabilia--Youth Saturday dinner!

Well....this post reflects on youth days of 75 years ago!  Probably Alice definitely remembers; Perry might; but I doubt if Ada does.

The standard Saturday noon dinner (and it wasn't lunch) at the EJK family home consisted of the following:

1. Quarter inch sliced potatoes cooked in water and then over spread with butter and salt;
2. Navy beans well cooked and over spread with ketchup;
3. I'm not sure of the meat selection but my memory says--home grown link sausage.  Dad almost always was raising some hogs and the first very cold morning about 5 o'clock he'd roll us out of bed and have a "butchering."  Uncle Joe would come with his rifle and shoot 2 or 3 hogs to butcher.  From that process of "butchering" we'd make link sausage that Mother would "fry down" and with all the grease store the meat in a very large crock.  The meat would not spoil because the grease solidified into lard.  When needed one of us would go to the cellar and break off about 36 inches for the meal.  Mother would heat up the sausage in the fry pan.

Well....LadyK did a great job to create a facsimilie (All but killing the hogs and frying down the sausage).  And it was good to relive the Saturday Noon Dinner!   mmmmmm-gooood.

Uncle Petely Meiss would say:  "Clear good."

On His Way

Our son is over the Pacific as I write this, headed for China.  He flew out of Charlotte this morning at 6:30 EDT to Chicago, and left there at 10:30 a.m. CDT to fly to Shanghai.  From there he goes to his city in northeastern China, and will arrive at 8:30 a.m. EDT tomorrow morning.  (That is 8:30 p.m. in his time zone in China - nice that it is exactly 12 hours ahead.)  Would appreciate your upward thoughts for him as he flies and during this transition time.

I know this will be a wonderful experience for him, both in growth for himself and in what he has to offer his students.  But it is still hard on a mother's heart to see him go.  :-)

p.s. Added Wednesday morning 8:45 a.m. - just received a brief text that he has safely arrived.  Very glad for that.

Last Day of Freedom

Today I have the former feeling from when I was a teacher.

Today is my last day of freedom.

On Monday I will begin my new job here in Texas. After almost six months I will return to the ranks of the employed as a training program specialist with a national economy hotel chain. I will be facilitating classes and managing the learning management system as my main responsibilities--at least that is basically my understanding of the job.

Many of you have encouraged me over the last few months and I want you to know how much I appreciate and value this family. Your prayers, thoughts, comments, and even visits have had a great impact. These transition months have been a time of healing and refreshment and I'm ready to put my hand to the plow again!

(I even sat in a waiting area with quite a few children getting back-to-school haircuts this morning waiting to get my back-to-work haircut!)

Ellie and Timon's train trip to Kansas City

 

waiting for the train

 

Maria, Milan, Anna, Alice, Timon, Ellie, Jesse at the zoo

                                                                    Milan and Maria

 

river otter enjoying a shrimp "popsicle"

 

Timon, Anna, Ellie, Jesse

 

Ellie is not so sure she wants a bird landing on her.

An Update

Okay, Ada, I will try to oblige and put something new up here!!  Seems like this blog runs really hot, or really cold - but it always goes back to being hot again at some point - for which I am glad.

My folks sent me these pictures from your cousins' reunion about a week ago; school is starting so I've been busy with that and didn't get these posted until now.  Would appreciate someone identifying all the people.

Dad and Mom left this morning with Uncle Chuck H. for a bus tour of New York City.  No doubt they will have quite the time!  Uncle Chuck drove down on Sunday/Monday so we got to visit with him a couple of times also - always a treat.

We are getting ready to say goodbye to Andrew for at least a year, but will post more about that later.  Even though it's going to be a great experience for him, it's still kinda difficult on this old mom and dad to see him go for that long.

FUN WEEK IN VERNON HILLS

This week Drake and Michelle have been off on a vacation and we've had the privilege of staying with Grace and Owen. They have been so cooperative with anything we suggest doing. But the first order of daily business was their participation in a summer symphony camp at their school. Grace plays the violin and Owen plays the cello. Both are WAY more talented than we realized. They had a concert for parents on Friday afternoon as the finale of their week. It was great. A couple pictures shows them in action. They also have a new dog named Trixie. She's quite active, loves me - aren't I lucky? I even play with her, who would've thought?!?!? G & O are the official caretakers and they have so much fun with her. Today we took the train downtown and went to Navy Pier where we rode the giant ferris wheel. I must say I've always been scared of that thing and thought anybody who rode it must be crazy. But today I decided to take the plunge - after all I'm 70 now and can do anything, right? It was a great ride with a beautiful view of Chicago. Later we went down to Grant Park, listened to music from a distance and wandered around awhile, then back to the train and home.

this n that...

This...
      I was on my way to the gym this morning (surprising, I know) and I was sitting at a stoplight waiting to go. Let's go! Somehow I glanced to my left and I saw the most beautiful sky. Just clouds. Nothing that unusual, but the shapes and colors and the whole sky...just in that direction...was just a gift from Above. I could have missed it so easily, by not taking my time to stop and look around. In spite of all the craziness around us, the earth is still a glorious creation.

and That...
       This week was the Livingston County Fair and Wade and Mara showed their cattle. It was a sweltering day, but thankfully it was early in the morning. They both did a great job and it amazes me that they are not afraid of those big animals and that they actually think it is fun to get out in that ring before the judges. Me...I'm just glad when it's over and everyone is still in one piece!



Preparation



Mara sweet-talking her heifer.



Wade setting his steer up for judging.



Oops. Steer unhappy. Has to walk him in a circle one more time.




Finally the judge is taking a good look.


 

Mara's pillow got a blue ribbon.
Wade got honors for his dinner rolls, but I didn't get a picture of those.



Anderson

 

                                                    Anderson enjoyed the vacation also!

Perry's family vacation in Wisconsin

                                             Caleb & Sarah on the Wisconsin Duck ride

 

Ashton

 

Preston & Matthew

 

Timon at the science museum

 

Anna at the science museum

 

Sarah, Carter & Laura in our room at the resort

 

Timon, Caleb, Carter, Ellie, Jesse & Alice back in Gridley in Grandpa & Grandma's basement

 

25 of us enjoyed a few nights together at Wisconsin Dells July 6-9.  Perry and I took three of the Emch children home with us and Brandon & Maria came a couple of days later.  The best time for me was when Matthew and Ashton played their guitars and we all sang "Higher Ground." 

 (Perry II stayed home and took care of our two dogs and one cat). ---Carol

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.