Happy Birthday Darrell

Wishing a happy birthday to my cousin Darrell Mitchell in SC.

I can hear him singing "Happy birthday to me!"

Happy Birthday Mike

Wishing a happy 47th birthday today to Cindy's cousin Mike Blackstock in Arkansas. Hope you have a great day and we wish you many more!

Wonder if this was a birthday smile from many years ago?>

Fresh Apple & Nut Cake

Cindy pulled out a long-time family recipe to make this weekend. It is called "Fresh Apple & Nut Cake" and she used the apples we bought at the Apple Fest in Ellijay, GA. She reminded me that this was her dad's favorite cake and they used to make it for his birthday. We shared some cake with our new neighbors since it is too much for just the two of us.

Fresh Apple & Nut Cake

2 cups sugar

1 cup Wesson oil

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts

3 cups delicious apples, chopped into small pieces, with peeling

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, apples & nuts. Let stand 30 minutes. Add flour, soda, & salt. Mix well. Pour into greased & lightly floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve immediately from pan.

Happy Birthday Paul

Wishing a happy birthday today to Paul Arthur in SC. (Paul is my cousin Gloria's son-in-law.) Hope you have a great day!

Photo of Kimberly, Paul and baby Kaitlin at Mom's birthday in August

Happy Birthday Aurora

Wishing a happy birthday to Aurora Skavatsos in Texas, who turns 7 today! This photo of Aurora is from last year, but you can see she looks just like her mother, Brandy. Aurora is going to sing a solo this year in the Christmas play. Tyler and Payton will also be in the play so I know Brandy is looking forward to that!

cool beans and other stuff

Some medical news regarding mitral valve surgery - I find this interesting since I had mitral valve replacement surgery in 2002 and have another slightly leaking valve. This gives me hope that I could have that other valve repaired someday because I really do not want to go through open heart surgery again if I have a choice.

Another medical article - this one encourages you to drink warm water after a meal to prevent a heart attack. I have never read this before and snopes.com declares it an urban myth, but it is an interesting article.

Did you see this in the news last week? SanDisk unveiled a TakeTV player. It records up to five hours of video from your computer and plugs into the TV so you can watch it.

One of the few shows I enjoy watching these days on the tube (TV) seems to come and go on USA Cable Network. New episodes were on during the August and September, and then the show will be back on the air in the winter. At this link you can watch all the episodes of PSYCH - Season 1 and Season 2 - if you have nothing else to do anyway. There are also interviews, webisodes, and more at this site.

Happy Birthday Pat!

"Now Pat, we know you're older than five!"

Happy birthday to my cousin Pat Brown in South Carolina - born this day in 1946.

friends are like a cozy quilt

As we settle into our new suburbia, we are making new friends especially at church. But it was nice to have friends and family come to visit us this month. Curtis and Bonnie were on their motorbike vacation in the mountains and ended their trip about an hour from us in Helen, GA. They came by on the way home to Florida and spent the afternoon with us.



Later that week, Cindy's brother Carl flew in to Atlanta (for his job) and stopped by to see her.










The second weekend our friend Paula, who lived next door to us, came to spend a few days with us. We went to the Georgia mountains for the Sorghum Festival in Blairsville and the Apple Festival in Ellijay - all in one day. We have enjoyed the apples, apple cider, and other goodies from there.

Last Tuesday, I took the day off from work and we drove over to SC to visit Mom and Dad. Paula had never been to Chimney Rock, NC, so we drove up for lunch. It was a nice day for a visit - the sky was cloudy but not raining so the sun did not get too hot.



Then, this past Saturday we traveled to SC again, this time for Nathan and Eva's wedding in the morning and to celebrate my birthday in the afternoon.
We were able to catch up on the latest news with family and friends from Jacksonville and Cowpens which made for a nice day.

My 52nd birthday

Finally here!
Today is my 52nd birthday! We actually celebrated it yesterday with lunch at Cracker Barrel. We were in Easley, SC, for Nathan & Eva's wedding at 10 am and decided to eat lunch nearby in Greenville. During the afternoon at Mom and Dad's house, we watched the Gator-Kentucky football game and then we ate the birthday "eagle" cake Cindy made for me during halftime. It was a nice day trip and we arrived back home at 10:30 pm. Brandon and Rachel flew back home this morning, but he left a bag of CD's that he purchased at the Bob Jones University book store in the rental car. We drove over to the airport after church to pick them up for him. Then we decided to stop at the Varsity Restaurant downtown Atlanta for lunch. We used the gift certificates that one my friends in Jax had given us when we moved to GA.

seeing is believing

Our former neighbor from Jacksonville came to visit this weekend. Paula has a house full of bears and I mean wall-to-wall bears but you can never have too many bears! So now she is buying them for the backyard. We had to strap this bear in the backseat to bring it home from the Apple Fest in Ellijah, Georgia yesterday. She bought the set of two bears that face each other with a seat between them. (The other bear was in the trunk for the trip home.) These bears were made from a tree trunk by a craftsman using a chain saw. I am posting this photo because I know only seeing is believing!

toys are now a danger to kids

I always enjoy the humor of political cartoonist Gary Varvel! (check out the link to VarvBlog on my sidebar for more)

updates to my blog

Time for some changes - the seasons change - so must my blog. I have added several new blogs to my blogroll on the sidebar. I have also added a link to my now world famous Gator blog, oh my! :)

At the News & Sports sidebar, I have deleted the link to Braves baseball - better luck next year! I added a couple of links to the Dukies, as basketball season is just around the corner.

lessons from the life of Solomon

Our pastor has been teaching from the Old Testament on Wednesday nights. We just finished the life of David and now we are studying the life of King Solomon, David's son.

1 Chronicles 1:7 "In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee."

When God asked Solomon what he wanted from the Lord, he chose wisdom over everything else. Because of that choice, God not only gave Solomon wisdom and knowledge, but also he was given riches, and wealth, and honor. Pastor Sweatt pointed out that this was an unconditional promise that God made to Solomon. Solomon would later write the Book of Proverbs which contains many wise and useful teachings. He is also recognized as the richest king to ever rule a nation in the history of the world. Pastor pointed out tonight that in the early 1900’s a group of people calculated the cost of building Solomon’s Temple to be about $2 billion dollars. I can only imagine how much it would be worth in today’s dollars.

2 Chronicles 1:12 "Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like."

Link to read the passage in context - 2 Chronicles 1: 7-12

"Amazing Grace" on DVD

Once or twice a year I look forward to a movie being released on DVD. "Amazing Grace" tells the story of William Wilberforce of England and how he led the ban on the slave trade in that country in the late 1700's. Also included is the story of John Newton, a former slave trader, and at this time in history he was Wilberforce's minister. You can watch one of the movie's trailers posted below.

Amazing Grace movie trailer

I am looking forward to the release of this movie on DVD this November 13th.

creation parody

The BJ HomeSat network visited the new Creation Museum in Kentucky recently and decided to use a little humor to spoof the GEICO commercials with a parody video titled - "Creation: So easy a caveman can get it"

You can read about the visit at this link from answers in genesis.org
Watch the video below

GEICO Caveman Spoof Creation

This parody was filmed by the BJ HomeSat network - good job!

history of small town America

It is nice to live in a small town again. I grew up in Cowpens, South Carolina, which boasts of a population of 2,000. Now we are living in Duluth, Georgia, which has a population of about 37,000. Duluth has the small town atmosphere I had forgotten about. When you live in a metropolitan city like Jacksonville with the population approaching 1 million, you tend to think that you could not live without all the conveniences of a large city. My Mom sent an email this week about attending her 56th high school reunion. Imagine that! - graduating from high school 56 years ago from Tri-High in Caroleen, North Carolina, and then getting married and moving to South Carolina (only about 40 minutes away.) Soon in December, Mom and Dad will celebrate 56 years of marriage, if the Lord wills. Her email reminded me of this website dedicated to preserving the history of Cliffside, North Carolina (pictured above.) The website is called "Remember Cliffside.com" Mom lived near Cliffside in a small community called Sandy Mush, just outside of Caroleen. (click links below for more)

Photo of the month

A Short History of Henrietta and Caroleen

Henrietta, Caroleen and Avondale

Photo galleries

Remember Cliffside(home page)

Happy Birthday Morris

Wishing a happy birthday to Cindy's cousin Morris Blackstock in Arkansas!

photo album

Click on the photo below to view my latest photo album, taken at the Duluth Fall Festival Parade, September 29, 2007





Hey y'all, It's Fall!

scenes from the Fall Festival in Duluth