family photo Sunday

Congrats to the happily married couple: Rachel and Brandon Franklin

the wedding day

Finally the big day is here. Brandon and Rachel will be married today at Victory Baptist in Jacksonville. The service begins at 6:30pm. Josh, his oldest brother, is performing the ceremony. His other brother, Stephen, will be one of the groomsmen. Natalie, our oldest granddaughter, will be one of the flower girls. Congrats to the happy couple!

Happy Birthday Josh

Our oldest son, Joshua, has another birthday today, the big 3-0. We will get to see him this weekend at the wedding and maybe celebrate some birthdays too. This photo was taken in November in SC.

Happy 82nd Birthday

Today is my Dad's birthday. We celebrated last Friday night with the family in SC at Ryan's and almost 30 of our family members were there to enjoy the dinner. I think he liked the green stuff in the cards the most! The pictures above were displayed two years ago at his birthday party in honor of his service in World War II. He served in the US Navy from 1944 - 1946. He likes to tell everyone that the Japanese heard he was on his way over and so they surrendered.

a cute little clown

Josh sent this picture via email taken at school last week for "Clown Day."

Brielle is a cute little clown - her daddy is starting her out young!

family photo Sunday

After church on Easter, we always enjoyed hiding Easter eggs for the kids to find. This photo is from the late 1980's.

a little humor helps

Duke survives Belmont 71-70

I am not sure if God answers prayers when it comes to college basketball games, but I was doing my part praying for a win at the end of this game. And I have learned to be careful what I wish for, because usually the Dukies are winning the first game of the tournament by such a large margin that CBS will switch to another game. This game was a well fought battle by both teams from beginning to end, and Duke survived this one, winning 71-70 over Belmont. You might remember they lost the first game of the tournament last year to VCU. If you missed the game, check out more at ESPN.com

On Saturday at 2:10pm, Duke will play the winner of Arizona and West Virginia game, which is being played later tonight.

march journey...

It has become a hectic March in the family making the "March Madness" of sports take a back seat. Two of our sons are planning for BIG events in the family.

Leah and Stephen are expecting a baby girl to be born soon, hopefully before next week. Our three sons were all born two weeks early, so maybe this little one will get here soon. Special advise: Mam-ma (Cindy) always played a game of volleyball right before the babies were born. It seemed to help speed up things.

The countdown begins today as it is 10 days until the wedding of our youngest son. Brandon and Rachel will be married on Saturday March 29th at Victory Baptist. I can hear Mrs. Simpson now saying, "I used to change him in the nursery!" There are a lot of things to be done in the next 10 days. So the month has become hectic, our own family "March madness" you might say.

To add to this, I filled in for our music pastor for the last two weeks at church, preparing the choir for the Easter program while he was recovering from surgery. We will travel to Cowpens for my dad's 82nd birthday party this Friday, and then a few days later, we will travel on Jacksonville for the wedding. We are looking forward to see our family and the many friends from Jax - we have been gone almost 8 months now!

Through all this, we have been blessed to watch the Lord work in our family. My sister's husband, Charlie, was in the hospital for tests for a week, and is now home recuperating. My wife has been able to work every day as a substitute teacher except for 2 days since mid January. We will soon have another grand-daughter and another "daughter" in the family!

NCAA brackets

The brackets are set for the NCAA tourney - view them at ESPN.com

Duke plays in West region - first game against Belmont at 7pm Thursday.

family photo Sunday

Cousin Gloria shared this cute photo of her grandkids taken last year - Dylan and Kaitlin and Luke.

duke loses to Clemson in semi-finals of the ACC

The loss of this game will not keep Duke out of the NCAA tournament, so to keep things in perspective, read this article from goduke.com:
Duke Not Returning From Charlotte Empty-handed

Dukies survive the Yellow Jackets

Survive is a good word for the game, because the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets surged back from being down by 15 points at the half and cut the lead to two points. Duke was able to turn up the defense at that point and went on to win 82-70. The Techies did not have enough to keep up after that, especially since they played Thursday night. Duke now plays this afternoon at 4PM against a strong Clemson team. Clemson had a big win over Boston College last night.

read more..... Duke downs Ga Tech, 82-70 ..... Photo Gallery ..... game stats

morning in America

As I travel to work each morning, I listen to a variety of talk radio, news, ESPN, or my own collection of music CD's. Unfortunately, there is no Christian radio station in this part of GA. Today I tuned in to Bill Bennett's radio program and was very glad I did. "Morning in America" is the official title of his radio show and the show includes politics as well as educational information, book reviews, and similar "thinking man's topics" (no loud debates.) This morning he was interviewing Tony Orlando, a popular singer when I was in high school. His #1 hit from the early 1970's was "Tie A Yellow Ribbon." In the interview he recounted how that back in 1973 none other than Bob Hope called him one day. He thought it was a joke at first. Bob Hope was planning a USO type show in a stadium in Texas and this show was to be done as a "thank you" and "welcome back home" for the thousands of POW's who were returning home from Vietnam. Mr. Hope wanted Tony to sing that song at the stadium, as the first verse begins, "I'm coming home, I've done my time." Hope knew that song resonated with all the families of the soldiers. Tony continued to recount how that when he started singing the chorus, all the soldiers began to sing along with him, like a huge male glee club. He looked at Bob Hope, who gave him a wink and a thumbs up. Right in the middle of the POW's, still unable to move his arms from being held captive, was John McCain. Wow! What a memory that must be for him.

acc tourney begins today

March Madness is finally here as the ACC tournament began today. Duke will play the winner of the Virginia vs. Georgia Tech game tonight at 7pm Friday night. It would be nice to see a rematch of the Duke-UNC game from last week during the ACC tournament. North Carolina became the top team in the regular ACC season by beating Duke last Saturday night. Duke had beaten UNC earlier in the season, so I feel they are tied 1-1. The championship game of the ACC tournament could become the tie-breaker for the season. Regardless of who wins, both teams will be in the "Big Dance" also known as the NCAA tournament. read more at . . .
Duke Learns
Kyle Singler named as ACC Freshman of the year

This is my Word

I am posting another choir selection from the Berean Baptist Church Choir. 

I really enjoy singing this song, and Christine did a really a nice job with the slideshow presentation.  

The words and music were written by Pepper Choplin:
THIS IS MY WORD 

As the snow falls from heaven,
As it comes in swirling showers from the sky, So is my Word.
As the rains bring the water to the earth that is thirsty and dry,
So is my Word.
And the Word of my mouth, it shall not return empty:
It will bless the earth wherever it is heard.
This is my Word.

As the rain brings renewal
And the tender buds begin to come alive,
So is my Word.
Giving seed to the sower,
And the bread to the hungry 'til
they thrive, So is my Word.
And the Word of my mouth, it shall not
return empty;
It will bless the earth wherever it is heard.
This is my Word.

O Lord, when I am weary,
When I fell the days I'm living are in vain,
My God, help me be faithful to the Word You have given to proclaim.
Proclaim the Word, and you will go out in joy,
And be led forth in peace,
And the hills will break before you into song.
So be faithful, brave and true,
For I will go before you,
And when your earthly journey here is done.
I'll say well done, well done!

As the snow falls from heaven,
And the rain comes in showers from the sky,
This is my Word.

family photo Sunday

Today is my younger sister's birthday, so I thought I would post some cute photos from the past. The photo of the three of us was taken at Olan Mills in 1961 when she was 2. The next photo at bottom left was taken in 1967 with my "new" Polaroid instant camera. The third photo was taken in the mid 1970's.

Happy birthday, Sis and just remember that old saying, "you're not getting older, you're getting better!"

Dukies end regular season at home vs UNC

What a way to end the regular season for college basketball! Duke plays their last game at home against their biggest rival, the UNC Tarheels. Only negative about this game will be that DST begins tonight, so we will lose an hour of sleep, with the game starting at 9pm and ending after 11pm. While most college basketball games are played in two hours, the Dukies games usually last about 2 1/2 hours, so it should be over by 11:30pm. If you missed the hype so far, here are a few links to articles and videos about the game tonight.

Rivals Clash in Battle for ACC Championship

Paulus Brothers on Opposite Sides

ACC Title At Stake - article with videos

WRAL-TV in Raleigh video preview

spring forward

Don't forget to change your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night!

March Birthdays Slideshow

family photo Sunday

My cousin gave me this copy of my family photo taken when I was 4 years old. Mom would have been 26 and Dad 33 years old. My two sisters, baby Loretta (born March 9, 1959) and Deborah was probably 7 years old when this photo was taken.

birthdays in the news

Not too many of us will be able to celebrate our 99th birthday like George Beverly Shea. He was the featured soloist for the Billy Graham crusades when I was growing up. I still hear his deep baritone/bass voice on the radio from time to time.