Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Psalm 1- “Message Bible” Style

Psalm 1
1 How well God must like you— you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road,  you don't go to Smart-Mouth College.
2-3 Instead you thrill to God's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.
4-5 You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust—without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people.
6 God charts the road you take. The road they take is Skid Row.

 

Wow…think it’s time to have a good ole’ church council and have this proclaimed as…

I don’t know…

blasphemous to the canon of Scripture?

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Tucker, Chester & Popeye

IMG_6932This morning we headed to a Tucker family reunion in Chester, IL.  It was great to meet family we'd never seen before and we had a great time talking about military experiences, genealogy and world travels.  However, the best part may have been the fundraising auction by our most entertaining auctioneer Smile.

 

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Will anyone give me $4.25?           –          Showing the wares   

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Chester is the home of Popeye, so we stopped with our Grandpa at the visitor’s center.

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The bridge in Chester spans across the mighty Mississippi river

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Monday, August 13, 2012

Orange Belts!

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Noah’s Homemade Smoke Bomb

Practicing with potassium nitrate and sugar

Hand Dipped/Real Milk?

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Steak N Shake Drive-Thru Menu

You’d think that with this kind of title Steak N Shake wouldn’t make their shakes from a mix, but you actually have to special-request your shake to be made with real ice cream…

steak n shake

…and pay an extra 0.49/shake.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

What Happy Is-The Josties

Really enjoyed this great song by the Jost family...a delightful, truth-proclaiming song, sung by the young Amy-Jo Jost. Her voice and the ukulele in this piece really grow on you if you listen more than once. Oh and nicely done video too. Enjoy! – Lisa

The Jost family have made some great videos that can be watched on their website at www.JostieFlicks.com

CA or Bust

grable

On Tuesday we went to the home of our friends, the beautiful, Grable family. They were packing up and working hard, preparing to leave for their move to California. We snapped this shot of them before we left and said our goodbyes.

Jul 24 12

Driving to Texas

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   This morning we loaded up the car for a trip down to Ft. Worth, Texas to visit family.  We had a bit of a late morning start, but we eventually made it to the highway.  When we were approaching the Oklahoma border we got stuck in some traffic because of a vehicle that was on fire.

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  After we passed that up…how else do you stay occupied on a long drive through Oklahoma?  How about by taking pictures of the dog on your lap!

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Noah was asleep for much of the driving and Benjamin also took a very uncharacteristic nap.

 

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  The Golden Arch…es

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Very dry river near Tulsa, OK

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  We made it to Ft Worth before midnight, but we didn’t get into bed until 2 am for some much needed sleep.

7/31/12

Trip to Texas

Well, our purpose in coming to Texas was to assist Kate’s recently widowed mother who needs help painting a few things at her house.IMG_0554IMG_0556

We were going to paint the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom and also repaint a couple of doors/door frames and a breakfast room.  By the end of the first day we’d pulled everything out and the place looked like an absolute wreck!  But things have to get worse before they can become better!

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  We all tried to work together…

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…and Lydia was a great help.  She’d be on top of anyone who tried to lie down on the job!

 

 

 

 

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That is, if she wasn’t sleeping herself!

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  Thankfully by the end of day two we had wrapped everything up as illustrated by the picture of a sticky ball of tape to the left.

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  The next and final day we visited a Civil War Museum and shared a dinner with Kate’s sister and niece who also live in TX.  We enjoyed looking at their pug…SO ugly it can become cute over time.

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  We headed home the next morning…

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City skyline

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The highways/toll ways were a bit confusing through Dallas and there seemed to be a very limited amount of highway signs and directions-things that would’ve made navigating much less confusing.

We made hit thunderstorms and rain at Joplin, MO, so partly because of that we didn’t get home until 1:45am.

Aug1-4

Texas Civil War

  On our last day in Texas we went wanted to do a little sight seeing and got tickets for the Texas Civil War Museum in Dallas.

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Stonewall looks upon the gift shop

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  There was a short film we watched before going in to the galleries that discussed Texas’ contribution to the War Between the States.

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The Union items were in the left display cases and the Confederates were in the right…

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…that can be taken more than one way! Smile

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“It is well that war is so terrible, else men would learn to love it too much.”

–Robert E. Lee

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Throughout the museum they had these little “Was the South Ready for War?” informational boards that showed the great disparity of resources between the north and south.

Infantry Firearms Production

North: 1,449,369

South: 62,326IMG_0594

Population

North: 19,021,927

South (Total): 12,128,078

South (White): 8,177,547

South (Slave): 3,950,531

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Union Infantry Rifles                     Bullets used by a Whitworth Rifle

   I never realized just how large the calibers (size of the bullet) were on these rifles; it makes the frequency of amputations a little more understandable.  I think that the most common caliber was a .58 which is humongous compared to our modern military cartridge which is a .223.  Thank goodness they were still (for the most part) single-shot rifles.  The casualties of this war were still enormous, but machine guns and artillery would do their damage in the bloody battles of the Great War.

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  On this sword handle is the name of John W. Tucker from Guilford County, North Carolina.  Found this interesting because Tucker is my mother’s maiden name and genealogy work has shown that we have a lot of family roots in Rowan County, North Carolina (less than 60 miles away from Guilford).

 

 

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Shows the various corps badges used by the Union Army.  I thought that this photo would be a great reference.

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1st Edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin                    More great weapons!

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Field gear used by Union troops

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“SAY CHEESE!”  Definition: A phrase used to request that the subject of a photo pose with their hand in their coat.  Be sure not to smile.

 

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Battle flags

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A gorgeous and very costly sword give to General U.S. Grant from the State of Kentucky.

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Special display on General JEB Stuart – featuring a lock of his hair that his wife clipped on the day he died.

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  The Artillery Room                                        Rifled Projectiles

 

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  I think we all got (at least) a few goose bumps when we looked at the medical display

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Yes, this is an “Amputation Set”

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“Was the South Ready for War?”

IMG_0667Wartime Navy Enlistments

US Navy: 132,000

CS Navy:    6,000

Active Commissioned Warships, Jan 1 1865

US Navy: 618

CS Navy:  47

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The USS Constitution “Old Ironsides”

  I guess you could say we have a bit of a connection with this ship Smile. We’ve been on its decks in Boston Harbor and one of my favorite dances, “Hull’s Victory,” was a commemorative dance for one of the USS Constitution’s victories.

  It was good to know that the USS Constitution wasn’t directly involved against the South or in the naval blockade, but it was used as a training ship for Union sailors.

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Learning about the history of the USS Constitution from David Botkin in 2009

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This fantastic diorama depicts the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas and it was the last battle fought in the War Between the States on May 13, 1865.

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  At this point we entered the Victorian Dresses Gallery which featured amazing original dresses from 1860 to 1890.

 

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  The cases were placed in chronological order, so it was interesting to see how the fashions changed decade to decade.  Still, the amount of change was very small compared to today’s here today, gone tomorrow (and back again in 25 years) fashions.

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  Just HAD to take a picture of this swimsuit!

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  Overall, the amount of original items-especially clothing-was extraordinary, and the history was balanced between the North/South-with a special emphasis on Texas.  This museum was started by a husband and wife (the Richeys) who became interested in collecting items and clothing from the Civil War and were eventually able to open their own museum.

8/3/12