Catherine's new living accommodations...

On Oct. 3, all of us 7 kids helped Mom move out of Evergreen Place in Normal into the brand new Meadows at Mercy Creek facility.  It is also in Normal, on the east edge of town.  She is now nicely settled into her apartment and reports "I love it here.  I know so many more people, the place is sparkling clean and new, and the food is great!"  Here's a photo....

Three days in Oklahoma City

Some of you may remember the Ergenbrights and the Warners that came to the big K reunions Grabill, IN.  They invite Lynn to their reunions for the K branch that settled in Oklahoma years ago.   When my dear husband wouldn't go without me and with a little prodding from our daughters, I flew there with him.  On the plane I
had an interesting chat with a young India Indian medical school student.   He posed some challenging questions to me as a Christian.  

Saturday was spent going over genealogy records.  Thankfully Carol Warner's sister was there and we had a delightful time together.   One of the highlights was the heart rending experience of going to the National Memorial for the 168 victims of the Timothy McVey bombing of the Murrah Federal building in 1995.  A Field of  Chairs on one end of the plot has a chair for each victim; the number of chairs in each row is equal to the number of those killed on that floor.  Nineteen chairs were smaller to represent the nineteen children that died in the bombing.  The name of a victim was engraved in the translucent base of each chair.  We will long remember that sobering sight.
And as most of you will agree, the best part of any trip is arriving home again!

Thought I'd share my latest creations. Picked these kits up in Shipshewana, just couldn't resist. It was more difficult than I thought, but with "perseverance", I managed to figure it out! The individual pieces of the "puzzle" had to be cut from fabric and stuffed into the slots on a foamboard.

 

 

 

Now taking orders for Christmas! NO NO NO - JUST KIDDING!!!

Disney

I mentioned I would post, so here it is:

Last week I continued the tradition of taking a grandchild to Disney World when he/she turns 10 years old. Now I will admit, when I started this, I did not research how much it would cost, nor did I know how many grandchildren I would have...but I would not go back now and I thoroughly enjoy each week I've spent with each individual child.



Here Thad and I are at the airport ready for our big week-long trip.



Thad's first airplane ride. He was nervous, but filled his time drawing in his "Doodle" book.
If you can blow up the picture, you can see his clever drawing of "The Wizard of Oz" characters going over a cliff.

Swimming at our hotel the first night.

 

Thad is mocking up a picture of the "headache" of doing homework while on vacation. I hated it, too.

Thad was interested in Walt Disney and all his successful ventures.
Thad was more into educational aspects of Disney (there are some!) than the scary, loud rides.

Waiting for a show to start. Thad loved making faces into the camera.



This is kind of a poor video, but you can see how excited Joe is to see Thad.

You can't hear it, but just before the end, Nate is anxiously asking what Thad brought him for a souvenir.

Reunited with Mom and Dad. He never really got lonesome, but he was happy to see them.
Thad is still waiting for his souvenir question to be answered.

And here is one final shot of the Steffen family with all the personalities showing up quite well!

I'm pretty much back into the swing of things back home. Mom is enjoying her new place and this week we are putting some of the finishing touches on of hanging pictures and placing knick-knacks. Stop in to see her if you get a chance. As she says, "I'll be here!"



Another Good Old Picture

Found this one tonight in my cache of scanned in pictures.  Doesn't this bring back memories of that paneled den and Grandma in her chair!

Routine Blog Business

A member just asked to be added to the list of those receiving comments via email.  If anyone else would like to be added to that (or deleted for that matter), just let me know.

This header picture is a little large - I'm just figuring out how to get them smaller on the header - so I will probably change it soon.  But I thought it was a nice change - as well as the autumn colors.

Hope the midwest weather is as beautiful as that in the southeast.  Hope all family members have a beautiful fall weekend!  Thanks so much for all the wonderful support of this family connection.  --Ann

Dad to the Rescue

Last night my folks stopped by with a huge container of soup for us.  As Mom and I were walking out into the garage, we both jumped back at what we saw.  Mike had put a "sticky board" by the steps, intended to catch crickets and other unwelcome bugs before they jumped into the house.  Somehow, a Carolina wren had flown into the garage and gotten stuck on the board.  Thoroughly stuck.  She was flopping, trying her best to get off, but there was no hope of removing her from that board.  We motioned for Dad to get out of the car, so he came and removed the board, then somehow (I'm not asking any questions) humanely dispensed with the bird and put the whole thing into his trunk to dispose of without me having to look at it any more.  Thanks, Dad!

Marguerite, Char, and Mary

    How many of you next generation recognize the names in the title?  They are daughters of Aunt Florence Krones, who was a Gridleyite all her life.   All three girls are graduates of Gridley High.  Marguerite Zupansic has lived in Largo, FL many years, Char Hozie is in Bloomington and Mary Hermann in Peoria.
    All three were in Easley, SC last weekend for the wedding of Marguerite's grandson, Cory Zupansic.   Cory's dad is Joe Zupansic, who has been in South Carolina for about thirty years, having married a South Carolina girl.   Anyway, Lynn and I went to Easley, only twenty miles from our home,  on Saturday night to see the cousins (the wedding at been the previous night). 
    A slow housing market caused Joe to quit the stucco business.   He now operates Poppin Joe's Kettle Corn concession at the Jockey Lot, the world's largest flea market, ten miles out of Anderson.   That kettle corn is yummy and we'll take you there when you come to visit us.

Daughter, Sister-In-Law, Niece

Thought you would like to see a picture of three lovely K ladies who have been spending time together this weekend and here are on a girls' night out.

THIS AND THAT

We had a very busy today. Got up at 8:30, sat around until 10, cleaned the house until 2 (with lunch from Subway tucked in there), took a nap, "computerized" here and there between tasks, had dinner and are now just passing time.

Mr. Chef-Boy-R-D and I made pizza for dinner. One of our favorites - Jerry was so excited when I told him what I was going to make. We ate the WHOLE pizza.

Happy Autumn to Everyone!

This is my latest project. I found these kits in Shipshewanna and have the snowman about half finished. I thought it looked easy! But when I got started, I thought I wasn't going to be able to get it going! It got easier as I went. As you can see, it is a puzzle with numbered sections - see the guide behind? Kinda like a paint-by-number thing only it's "stuff the fabric in the cracks"! I'll show you the completed projects when they are done.

MINI-VACATION

We left Tuesday morning and headed to Michigan City, Indiana for an overnight stay - enjoyed the quaint little town with its interesting shops. On Wednesday morning we drove to Portage, Michigan, where we had lunch with some OLD college friends. From there we went to Shipshewana, Indiana. I thought their flea market was on Thursdays, but discovered that it was on Wednesdays! And it was closed by the time we got there, so that idea was null and void! Today we browsed a few shops, bought a few items, and came on home.

We hope you enjoy this short video of our road trip!

It might make you smile - or it might make you just shake your heads!! 

The really amazing thing about this post is that I actually made this video AND was able to get it posted on here. I'm just getting soooooo good at modern technology!  ha ha ha

Good pictures of Good ladies

I came into the office to clean out the closet a little, when I found a couple of Gloria's photo books that I have to get back to her. So I had to look through them, and then I had to pull some that I wanted, and then I had to post a few to the blog. I can find more reasons than you can think of to put off cleaning out that closet! These are just a few of the good, strong women who left good memories in the Klopfenstein clan.

 

Aunt Ruth and Aunt Minerva

Betty



Last weekend to be 4 _

Several weekends ago my friend Renae asked if I had plans for this weekend. She planned a trip but didn't tell me where we were going. On Friday when I left work I found out we were headed to Boyne Mountain for the weekend. It's a ski resort about 3 hours north that has year round activities, and this weekend was Skitoberfest. The colors of the leaves were just amazing the entire weekend. We did have some light rain at times, but the weekend was just perfect.

Twice we rode the chairlift to the top of the mountain to enjoy the view.

 

  

This is at the top. I felt like the parent with the gloves, ear muffs, camera, etc. in my jacket pockets.

 

We rode the zip line twice so we can cross that off our bucket list. On the second trip Renae felt brave enough to get a picture of me. Notice I'm still holding on tightly with one hand. As I looked at the pictures I realized it looks more painful than it really was. It was fun to zip over part of the campus including a pond by the lodge.

We also enjoyed a 90+ minute horseride through the woods and the grounds to enjoy the beautiful colors.

And one of the best parts of the weekend is that the first digit of my age isn't changing soon!!!

Some true quotes?

I kinda liked Aunt Ada’s clever quotes awhile back on this Blog. For the sake of a new Post, I’m posting a few of my favorites, some of which I’ve found amazingly true.


(Safety Disclaimer: Not all are true for me and/or Kathleen!)

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item she doesn’t need.

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.
A man marries a woman expecting she won’t change, but she does.

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and try not to understand her at all.

Men wake up as good-looking as when they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Mice? UGH!

I can't imagine what in the world I was doing dragging mice out to Ralph and Catherine's. I don't even like mice although the lab white ones aren't nearly as obnoxious as the sneaky gray house mice. Guess I was trying to get on the good side of Gloria. That had to be the only time the mice left the lab. Lynn surely was highly tolerant and appears so in the pics, but then we were newly weds! By the way, he still is quite tolerant.

Savannah, finally!!!

Apparently the solution to my uploading pictures is that the Google product Blogger doesn't like uploading pictures to Internet Explorer, a Microsoft product. I had problems uploading a file to another application for a class I'll be teaching and the fix was to do it in Foxfire or Google Chrome. When I downloaded Foxfire I could then get the file I wanted so I thought I'd try it with the Savannah trip pictures. Here are few pictures of out trip to Savannah a couple of weeks later.

Savannah is on a river that accommodates large ocean crossing cargo ships. If you are along the waterfront for any amount of time you will see a large ship like this pass by. We got to see two.

 

Mom and I did an overnight trip so to make sure we saw as much as possible in the 26 hours or so we were there we did a two-day trolley on and off tour. In the two days we toured two historic homes, visited the history museum, and spent some time on the water front both days. This is one of the homes designed by a European architect. Symmetry was so important that there are several places where an object with no function is placed just to be symmetrical. Notice steps on the right and left, etc. You can kind of see the two oval above and to each side of the door. One is a window and one is filled in. Even though a window didn't work on the right they still made the oval shape. There are several doors in the home that don't open but they have to balance out another door. A young couple took this picture of Mom and me in the small garden in front of the house.

Here we are on the water front with the very high bridge in the background

I thought this was a nice picture of Mom as we sat on the waterfront waiting for the trolley and hoping another ship would pass by. The waterfront has lots of shops and restaurants. We had shrimp and grits for lunch. The next night Mom made shrimp and grits back at their home, and I'd take hers any day!

We had a very nice time together and enjoyed not only out time in the city but also the 4-hour drive each direction.

Picture Time

I remember this day. It started out as a typical Saturday morning...until the doorbell rang and a photographer showed up at the door. Mom had hired him to come to the house, but had forgotten all about it. We took the picture anyway. Notice Marty in full Davy Crockett gear, Cleve's tennis shoes, my bubble gum bubble, the lamp askew and the end table a mess...and the scowl on Dad's face. Mom, on the other hand, looks quite unrattled. The baby is David, who wore that brace on his shoes for several months due to a hip dislocation at birth.

I vaguely remember this day, when Aunt Mim brought over this container of white mice. Gloria was enraptured as she was a lover of any type of animal. I'm quite sure I did not hold any of the mice. I also remember one evening Dad chasing a mouse in the basement with a paintbrush in hand. I always thought it was one of those white mice, but maybe for Aunt Mim's and Gloria's sake, I will say I can't really say that for sure!



Featuring Catherine

To get the attention off of me, here are a few more pictures to enjoy! Doesn't Mom look great?

Catherine and Gloria
Where is this?

Looking so good! I love this picture!

What does anyone know about where this is?

**NEWSFLASH** **NEWSFLASH**

Unfortunately, as of today, the K5K is cancelled.

I will be having gallbladder surgery on Thursday.

I turned 60 on May 29. Since then, I feel like I am falling apart!

On June 2 I had a nasty injury to my foot in a fall, which is still not 100%...

...then Friday night/Saturday morning I had a gut-wrenching (literally) gallbladder attack. Now it has to come out, and Dave says, "Right now!" He does not want to go through that again! :)

I am on antibiotics now and surgery will be Thursday.

Incidentally, I had to go this morning to get impressions for a TMJ mouthguard...I have had some trouble in the past...and the clenching of the teeth that went on Friday night brought it on fullblast. I didn't have much trouble eating bland food all weekend...I could barely get my mouth open enough to insert food!

K5K...another day...another time...

Judy

Isaac Is Coming

Well, the original forecast track for Isaac was that it would hit north Florida and then arch over our way.  If you are a weather junkie like I am, you know that it's now hitting more west of that track and then headed your way!  You need it worse than we do this year, but the weatherman this morning said we may get some peripheral storms from it since it is such a large storm.

Want to take some pre-Isaac guesses of which way it will go and how much rain you will get?  Or share your history with hurricanes?  Or make any general comments at all?

I learned vividly about hurricanes when Hugo hit the SC coast in September of 1989.  Mike was in Charlotte for the week, getting the basic training for his job (as he was for nine months).  I was home alone with Andrew, who was 10 months old.  The storm was supposed to go directly inland, affecting us with high winds and rain, but instead made a northward turn at Columbia, and instead Charlotte took a direct hit from winds that stayed very strong surprisingly far inland.  I was talking with Mike on the phone and could hear the trees snapping off in the background.  His siblings living on the coast came inland; however, his brother-in-law stayed to take care of their brand-new house, and the winds were so strong he was fearful that the brick house was going to come off its foundation.  The biggest need after the storm, in Charleston and the lower part of the state, was ice.  There was no electricity and the heat and humidity were oppressive.

A DAY AT THE FARM

Yesterday we spent most of the day at a farm near Dwight that is owned by a man (Curt Christenson - no relative) who was a student of ours many, many years ago when we were in Dwight. Later, when Jerry went to work at U-High, Curt was working there and they became good buddies. Curt's "farm" is mostly a "man's place". He likes to hunt and fish and is always talking about his farm. He has some young grandsons who spend a lot of time on his farm and so he invited us to bring Nathan to the farm. We were there most of the day on Saturday, and here are some pictures of Nathan's great day. 

 

 Nathan ready to ride after instruction and practice from Curt.

 

 Curt is leading the way, followed by Nathan and Grandpa.

The field to the right is Curt's and they have a trail circling the field.

 

 I was content sitting under the shade trees, but Curt made me get on with Jerry and go for a ride. Still haven't decided if it was fun or not. Nathan kept up with us around the field then down the lane and back. Jerry was a typical man in trying to go fast enough to scare me!! :) Do they ever completely grow up?!?!

 

 Remember, I said the place is very primitive - I meant it literally!!

 

Nathan and the boys also had a great time in the muddy river!

 



Andrew's Train Trip

 

Andrew will be 7 next month so it is time for his special train trip to Kansas City with Grandma.  He's all ready to go at the Galesburg Amtrak station and his mom and siblings are seeing him off.

 

Maria and her children took us to the KC zoo.

 

Feeding the birds is a special part of the zoo adventure.

 

 

Alice loved the ride!

 

Next summer will be Timon and Ellie's turn.  Then there are 5 more (at least?) after that.  We were gone two nights and one full day with Maria, Brandon and the cousins.  After the zoo, was swimming in Emch's pool followed by a special place to eat out.  This time it was the T-Rex because Andrew really likes dinosaurs.  We had a great time!  ---Carol

More Pics...Same Theme

Here are a couple more pictures. Enjoy!

Ada, Gloria, Cleve

I have to ask...what's with the swim caps?

Can you identify the kids in this picture?

A Few Pics

I did get Gloria to bring over a couple of picture albums and I scanned in a few you might enjoy. I see many of these are in my files already, so they have probably been posted before...but I still enjoy looking at them again, and hope you will too. We finished the two books, but she has many more, and I will be twisting her arm to get them here. I know there are pictures of interest in them that haven't been posted before.

These first ones are of Ada and Gloria as little girls:

FUN FAMILY DAY

We had an "end-of-summer" family day at Drake and Michelle's house yesterday - delicious food, good conversation, watching the kids play in the backyard. What could be better? 

Can you believe we actually got everyone to sit still and pose for a picture?

 This made the grandparents a little nervous . . .

Boys Shooting Hoops

Grace and Owen