Olney - Home of the White Squirrels

I just spent 4 1/2 days in Olney, Il helping Eric paint the home they will be moving into on Monday. We did 4 bedrooms, living room and family room. Everything needed 2 coats and one room took 3. I am stiff, sore, and tired, but pretty proud that I could still do it! These are my top 10 observations.

1. If your pants get ripped on day one, you can wear them 3 more days with a little duct tape repair.
2. If you are in a town where absolutely no one knows you, you can go to Walmart as you are...looking like you've been painting for days (I did not wear the duct tape pants, though.) When I got there and looked around, I saw most people looked as bad as I did. Some even had paint on their clothes, and I don't think they had just come from a paint job.
3.If you let 3 teenagers pick their own bedroom paint colors, you get some wild-looking bedrooms.
4. If the paint is brown and the carpet is variegated brown...so much the better for paint drips and spatters!
5. I thought I was the only one who could trim the top edges. After I struggled and wasted a lot of time on 5 rooms, as this was a really difficult ceiling edge, I found Eric edging out the last big bedroom, with almost a perfect edge! "Well, Mom, I painted at least 20 whole duplexes when we lived in Athens, Al." Now you tell me!
6. In my book it's OK to get some paint on the woodwork, but please, wipe it off immediately! The lady who painted before us left white paint dripped and swiped all over everything.
7. If all you've got to clean with is dishwashing gel, go ahead and use it! It not only cleans, but leaves that little extra sparkle!
8. Time goes fast when you're painting. About the time you think you should stop for lunch, you realize lunch is past and it's time for supper. I lost 3 1/2 pounds!
9. I was ecstatic that I didn't fall off any ladders, knock over any paint cans, or have my back go out...but I did manage to pull down one whole set of window blinds, damage one ceiling fan, clog up the garbage disposal, and wear out the CD player.
10. Olney might be called the Home of the White Squirrels, but I only saw one squirrel and he was definitely gray - dark gray, not to be mistaken for white.

Oh, and one more, I went 4 1/2 days with no cell phone service, no internet, and no TV! and I survived! Glad to be back!

Request and question

Request: This morning I sent an e-mail update to the blog list but several were returned - Linda, Cathy, Eric, Cleve, and Judy. Apparently I had old e-mail addresses, so could someone who received my e-mail forward to the above if you have current addresses?

Thank you to those who have responded - we really appreciate your interest and prayers.

Question: Well, spring is pretty much over, but I have wanted to ask what your favorite spring tree/flower is? As for me, I love dogwoods. I just love it when they start to bloom. Their season is now over, but I really enjoyed them this year.

So - what is yours?

Pre-School Prom

On Friday, they had a prom for the preschoolers at Nathan's daycare. We dug up an old tux, and he came up with the glasses and hat idea. Here are some pics of him trying on his tux the night before, and at the dance the next day.

He thinks he's pretty cool!


All the kids throwing balloons around:


With a good friend from his class:

Heiniger Family Update

We moved about a month ago. We're still in the same town, just a bigger house. In fact, we're pretty close to Angela and Jerry. (Does Heater babysit?)

Ethne is finishing up school in a few weeks. She lost her first tooth last week.

Catie surprises us every day with her imagination. I don't know where she comes up with some of this stuff.

Riley and Gavin are 9 months now. Hard to believe I was on bedrest a year ago, thinking we'd have micropreemies. Look at them today: They both are healthy, happy, and active. VERY active.

Brett is still working at Caterpillar. I'm starting to run again. We're both looking forward to the Klop Family Fun Run. Hope to see you all at the reunion this summer!

GOOD MORNING

I really have nothing of importance to post, just getting tired of seeing the turkey - yes, it was a beautiful turkey and a beautiful girl - but time for a change.

It's a lovely sunny day in Gridley but supposed to turn cloudy later. Jerry's volunteering at the hospital this morning. I plan to get the laundry done and the house cleaned while he's gone. That means I have to get away from this computer asap.

We've been working at putting a bathroom in our basement. Big job but hopefully it will be finished before the EJK reunion so out of town guests who might use that bedroom will have their own private bath. Plus I won't have to run upstairs every half-hour when I'm downstairs sewing!
Jerry installing lights - good story to go with that project, but that's his story to tell. Can you believe he was confined to a recliner and a walker just 9 months ago!?! Praise the Lord.

My Daughter the Turkey Hunter

Mary Lee had a day out of classes on Wednesday due to a huge competition taking place on campus. So she came home Tuesday night, and you can see what she did with her dad on Wednesday morning. Both were very happy with her success!

Hands, Part II

Some of you rec'd an e-mail from Ada about Grandma's hands. (It was neat - maybe she can post it on here.) Here is the accompanying pic.  Anyway, it reminded me of a previous post by Judy, shown below.

Conversation with Ben:

Ben: I know why you're my grandma.
Me: Why?
Ben: Because you're my mom's...you're my mom's...because you're my mom's...
Will: She's Mom's mom.
Ben: Yeah, you're my mom's mom. And her hands are real smooth...and your hands are...popping out.

Just this week Reagan was looking at my hand, poking at the veins, and said, "You're hand is just like Grandma Great's."  (my kids/grandkids say Grandma Great instead of Great Grandma).    *sigh*

Cathy

Watch Your Mailbox!

Watch your mailbox for EJ Klopfenstein reunion news, coming very soon! We've had some interesting ideas presented that I hope will pique your interest. Mark your calendars for July 31! You won't want to miss it!

more of our "Easter" week-end

We were glad for a warm weather day so the children could be outside. Uncle Preston hid the plastic eggs filled with candy all over our yard. It is an annual event the children enjoy. There were 19 of us for a roast beef supper since Glenn's Aunt Marilyn joined us. We missed our KC family. Carol

WEEKEND WITH GRACE AND OWEN

We got home around 9:30 last night after spending three enjoyable days with Grace and Owen. I took my sewing machine and they both had fun with it. With ideas from Owen's craft book and a trip to Joann's fabric store for supplies, we had a very productive weekend.

Grace is sewing squares together to make a pillow. She plans to redecorate her bedroom soon and these colors should fit into her decor.

She did a great job sewing all these squares. The fleece fabric is very stretchy and slippery and difficult to work with especially for a beginner's project.

Owen and Grandpa made a plaque for his blue and red bedroom. He has a new "loft" bed which he and Drake will be putting together soon.

Owen and Grandpa spray-painting an airplane that they made from materials found in their recycling bucket. This is one of two airplanes they made.

Grace, Owen and the completed projects. The little striped bags were their "learn to run machine/practice" projects.

Slight Change in Commenting Structure

Several weeks ago I changed the settings on my personal blog so that people would have to type in the letters shown before commenting. This was because there were more and more random ads and spam comments appearing on my own blog. I just realized that that affected this blog as well, since both are under my name. Hope no one minds this extra step, as we were starting to get spam comments on the EJK blog as well. Please don't let it cut down on the volume of your comments.

Have a good week - I'm back to school this week. Kinda hard after 10 days off!

Our "Easter" week-end

We're having most of our family here for "Easter" dinner tomorrow. Bruce & Elizabeth's family stopped by briefly enroute to Forrest where he is helping serve Communion tonight. I got a quick picture of Laura & Sarah with our blooming Rhododendron bush. I enjoy spring flowers very much! Carol

I SAW CATHERINE

This morning, during the Today Show, I was "spacing out" during the commercials as I usually do. All of a sudden I thought "that looks like Catherine" then immediately realized that it was an Evergreen commercial and it actually was Catherine. I just got a momentary glimpse of her, but she looked good. It was so exciting!!

Photo

They might not want me to post this - but it's too nice a picture (taken by Mary) not to share. :-)

Pollen, pollen everywhere

I am looking out the window at a yellow haze. Tree pollen is dusting everything. Roads and parking lots are yellow. Cars are covered. There's a yellow film on top of the lake or any other standing water. I'll have to vacuum the furniture on the porch before we can sit out there, and clean the glass table tops out there before anything can be put on them (but not until right before we're going to use them, because all will soon be covered again). And everywhere you go you hear people sneezing! The only way to get rid of it is to pray for rain. Does any other part of the country have pollen issues this bad?!!

A Night of Terror - in Memory

April 3, 1974 - Do you remember that night? It is still vivid in my memory.

On the way to Wednesday evening service, we saw a huge cloud with a very unusual color . . . Dad commented, "Something's going on in that cloud."

When we got to the church building, no one was there. Finally a teenager who attended came and told us there had been a tornado. We went driving around and little by little news trickled in of who had been killed or injured, whose homes had been destroyed. We stopped at the hospital on the way home to check on some people.

After arriving home, another tornado, this one in our town. Mom and Dad had no idea of the extent of the storm and had gone to another hospital to check on some other people, not realizing that there was another tornado just a couple miles south of us. (For the younger readers, weather reporting was nowhere near what it is today!)

All in all, I remember having a double funeral at our church for a couple who was killed. I remember the many who came to help rebuild and who sent clothing for us to distribute. I remember that night putting a healthy respect of tornadoes in my spirit. I remember this date every year as a Night of Terror.

Mom had this picture of Dad and Grandma in her later years. Looks like a good conversation! Hope everyone has a blessed Easter weekend.