let the vacation begin

By the time you read this post, we should be in Arkansas on vacation. Today at Victory Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, our family will be singing (along with others) for a special day of music, preaching and food. I picked out a couple of songs that we can sing with or without a pianist. Brandon is to play his trumpet, Rachel will play the flute, and Josh may even get to preach before the day is over. Uncle Joel is supposed to sing after the lunch for the afternoon service. I probably will be limited in my ability to blog during the week, so I wrote this blog on Friday night and scheduled it to post automatically on Sunday.

finally . . . our home

After much prayer and searching for a home since we moved to Georgia last year, we finally closed on our new home today. We wanted to find something closer to our church in Lilburn, but not too far from my job location. Our new home is about 10 minutes away from church in Lawrenceville, so we will be able to become more involved in church activities.

thinking about vacation

As the month comes to an end and with summer just beginning June 20th, we are looking forward to a much-deserved vacation. That is if any one really "deserves" a vacation! I can be thankful that my company's benefits include several weeks of paid vacation. It is good to take time for rest & relaxation, and just get away from the daily grind. This summer we are heading to Arkansas for our vacation and look forward to seeing many of the family again. It has been a couple of years since we visited my wife's family. Last summer, my job moved me to Georgia, so our vacation was close to home in Florida.

Some of the possible tourist attractions we might see this year are:
Petit Jean State Park
Delta River Nature Center
Museum of Discovery
4th of July Pops on the River

family photo Sunday

From one of our past vacations to Arkansas (2005) - this photo shows us at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View.

what can you do for your country?

You probably feel like I do - that there is very little I can do when it comes to the political decisions that are made in Washington, DC. But sometimes if we all work together our voices can be heard. Check out these links to conservative and Christian websites that are working to make America safer and stronger and helping to keep our freedoms alive.

American Solutions -
at this link you can sign the petition to "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less"



Newt.org is the home page of Newt Gringrich, who I believe is one of the smartest politicians to ever work for our country. Newt is not in political office currently, but I would expect he might run for President some day.

Heritage.org - The Heritage Foundation sponsors a site that is committed to building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish. This site has a link to order a free pocket copy of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

AdvanceUSA.org - Finally there is a Christian organization that is working to advance the conservative causes in our country. Carl Herbster, the senior pastor of Tri-City Ministries in MO, and former President of the American Association of Christian Schools is the leader of this organization. They are working in Washington to promote conservative issues - Pro Family, Pro Life, Pro Justice, Pro Religious Freedom, and Pro Morality.

April in New York City

Now that our niece, April Logan, has finished college, she is heading to New York City for a summer evangelistic ministry team. She hopes to find a job at a hospital in Queens, NY, later this fall.

Click to view the ministry team blog - NYSET

a little humor...

family photo Sunday

We enjoyed spending Father's Day 2008 in SC with my parents.

family photo album

Check out Leah and Stephen's family in Wisconsin at this link.
Click link above to view the latest photos of Natalie, Meredith and Sophia.

final update on the Trout River bridge

One thing I was able to do in Jacksonville was take these photos of the finally finished Trout River I-95 bridge. It was a beautiful ride over the bridge compared to the snarled traffic I had to endure while traveling to work for about 2-3 years.

last day of school

Talk about deja-vu!

It was kind of strange waiting for Mrs. Franklin to finish her last day of school this year. After so many years (28 to be exact) of helping my wife finish her last day at Victory, here we were with the newest Mrs. Franklin doing the same.

weekend trip to Florida

We traveled down to Jacksonville last Friday for the graduation ceremony at Victory Christian Academy. Since my wife taught there for the last 28 years (except 2007-2008) she really wanted to attend this year's graduation. She would never tell you this, but the Valedictorian mentioned her during his address, so you can tell she made an impact on their lives. Also in the "it's a small world category" - our current assistant Pastor from Lilburn, Ga, Randy Hurst was the special speaker for the graduation. It was great to see many of our friends again in Jax. The youth pastor's wife posted some photos of the graduates at this link.

After helping Brandon pick out a gas grill at Home Depot on Saturday morning (a late wedding present from his parents, brothers Josh and Stephen and families, Uncle Carl and Grandma Baggett) we joined Cindy, Kayla, Dave and Andy in helping Rachel pack up her teaching supplies from her classroom and take them home. We followed Brandon and Rachel and headed back to Georgia as she was singing with the group "Adoration" at Calvary Baptist Church in Gray, GA. We enjoyed listening to the ladies practice and even got to hear our son practice his trumpet solo, "It Is Well." We had time to catch up with the ladies in that group and make some new friends at the church before we headed home to Duluth.

And, yes, I did take a nap on Sunday afternoon!

family photo Sunday

This photo reminded me of the fun times in Arkansas when the kids were growing up. We will be making some more memories next month on our family vacation.

31 years and counting!

Yes, we were young once upon a time!

We celebrated our 31st anniversary on June 4th.

JUNE Birthdays slideshow

family photo Sunday

You've probably heard they do things different in Arkansas . . . like going bare foot everywhere . . . and baking bread in mason jars . . . This is a funny photo from a November 2005 as Uncle Joel, Jo Ann and Linda ponder how to get the pumpkin bread out of that mason jar.