signs along the journey

Some humorous "bumper stickers" are making the rounds on the internet. Here are three of my favorite ones.

family photo Sunday

OUR GRANDDAUGHTERS TOGETHER IN PENNSYLVANIA, MARCH 2009

Out of about 8 photos, we were able to find one pose with all four girls looking towards us:
Top row, Brielle and Natalie
Bottom row, Meredith and Sophia

my, how time flies

Happy Birthday wishes to our oldest son, Josh, who turns 31 today! It seems like only yesterday, we were taking him to college.

(Josh and Stephen, at Chimney Rock, NC -August, 1997)

(Josh and Janelle, BJU graduation-Masters degree)

(Josh, April and my Dad celebrate their birthdays a few years ago)

(Josh, Janelle and Brielle, December 2008)

look who's 83 years young today!

December 2006

Happy Birthday to my Dad as he turns 83 years young today! We will be driving over to SC for his birthday party on Saturday.

December 2007
December 2008

southern expressions

The other day while at work and waiting for my computer to change screens, a co-worker stopped by my cube to ask a question. I made a comment about my computer being "slow as Christmas." I realized this was either an old saying or a southern one as he responded that he had heard "slow as molasses" before, but had never heard anyone say "slow as Christmas." I explained that I think it came from my childhood because we were always anxious for Christmas to arrive (more toys!) Of course, it seems now that I am older, Christmas actually comes too soon, as time seems to be flying by! It will be April next Weds!

This incident reminded me of another old saying I picked up on my first job. After my first year of college, I worked the following summer in the textile industry in Gaffney, SC. We called them "cotton mills" back in the day. The guy who repaired all the machinery, looms, conveyors, etc. was called the "fixer." I always thought that was a strange job title because in the 1960's and 70's, a "fixer" was also the name for one who supplied illegal drugs to people. Anyway, this fixer had another old saying that he used every day. He was always telling me he that felt like he had been "rode hard and put away wet." I knew he was really telling me that the last machine he repaired had worn him down, but it was a funny expression to me. So I started using it myself from time to time. I did not understand what he was really talking about until about a year later. A co-worker at the Chattanooga Public Library actually explained the meaning of that phrase to me - that it referred to the fact that you should never ride a horse and put it away without wiping it down.

Life is full of expressions but I think southern expressions are the most unique. Most of the expressions I heard growing up in South Carolina have left my memory. I would be probably be embarrassed to use them anyway. I guess it's time to pull the old Lewis Grizzard books off the shelf and read them again as he was a master "southern" storyteller.

Video - Duke is in the "Sweet Sixteen"

family photo Sunday

Today we can officially announce to all the world that all three of our sons and their wives are expecting a baby this year. Leah (Stephen) is due in July and is having a boy. Rachel (Brandon) and Janelle (Josh) are both due in October.

Slideshow - photos from Josh's Ordination

We are very proud of our son Joshua and congratulate him as he was ordained for the ministry last Sunday in Hanover, PA. Josh has been the assistant Pastor at Hope Baptist since January 2006. The Ordination Council met on Thursday, March 12, and the seventeen pastors "heartily recommended" him to the church for ordination. Our two other sons and their families were able to come for the weekend, Brandon and Rachel from Florida, Stephen and Leah, Natalie, Meredith and Sophia, from Wisconsin. I have posted the slideshow below or you can click this link to view all the photos at my gallery.

Slideshow from Joshua's Ordination Council

The slideshow of photos below is from Pastor (Josh) Franklin's Ordination Council at Hope Baptist Church in Hanover, PA, last Thursday, March 12. Our son was examined by seventeen pastors from the area and was heartily recommended to be ordained into the ministry. The Ordination Service was conducted on Sunday morning, March 15.

Video - Duke is the ACC Champion

Duke has now won 8 of the last 11 ACC Championships. Now on to the Big Dance! Duke plays its first round game at 9:40pm tonight!

March madness begins Thursday

For those of us who follow college basketball, March madness begins on Thursday. Duke finished the regular season by winning the ACC Championship on Sunday, defeating Florida State 79-69. They will begin the NCAA Tournament as a #2 seed, playing at 9:40pm Thursday night.

click to read recap of the game at ESPN

click link to view game photos

click to view NCAA Bracket

family photo Sunday

Congratulations to Josh and Janelle as he is being ordained today at Hope Baptist Church, Hanover, PA.

cartoons with perspective

Being a Christian himself, Gary Varvel always seems to have to right perspective when he draws his political cartoons. Here are a few of my favorites from the last week. (click each to enlarge)

Joshua's Ordination Council

We attended the Ordination Council for our son, Josh, today in Hanover, PA. The session started at 9:00 AM and ended around 2:15pm, including a break for a luncheon provided by Hope Baptist Church. Seventeen pastors were there to "grill" Josh about his views and beliefs on the various doctrines of the Bible. These included his beliefs about the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, the nature of God, the works of God, angels, creation of man, Christology, salvation, pastors and deacons, and the end times (Eschatology) and anything else they could think to ask him. At the conclusion, the council recommended that Josh be ordained into the ministry. The church will hold his Ordination Service this Sunday morning.

Jonathan Krohn at CPAC

This young man just turned 14 last week and has published a book called "Define Conservatism." You can view the video below of his speech at CPAC a few weeks ago, the Conservative Political Action Committee. Jonathan Krohn lives in Duluth, Ga, and is home-schooled. We will probably be seeing a lot of this young man in the future.

just two hours from Atlanta

Last month we visited Birmingham, Alabama for the first time. We have driven through the city before, but since my wife attended a teacher's convention in there, I decided to tag along. I was surprised that it was only a two hour drive from downtown Atlanta to this city. We stayed an extra night (using our SPG points) and visited some attractions Friday and Saturday. First, we stopped at the Peanut Depot, where they roast peanuts all day long in roasters that were made in the early 1900's. Then, we drove to the top of Red Mountain. This mountain was discovered to have lots of iron ore, limestone and coal in the late 1800's. Those are the three ingredients used to produce pig iron. Furnaces were built in the valley where the city is today, and by the early 1900's there were 108,000 workers in the various industries. However, during the Great Depression, 100,000 of those workers lost their jobs.



There is also a tower with the Vulcan statue on top. This huge statue was commissioned for the first World's Fair to be held in the United States, the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. This fair was also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, celebrating the centennial of that historic purchase. We rode the elevator to the top for a beautiful view of the city. As we left Vulcan Park, we decided to drive out to the Summit, and outdoor mall. You can never trust Mapquest or even Google maps! I think we took three or four wrong turns and after what seemed like an hour of driving, we found the Cheesecake Factory. We had a gift card to eat there and I thought since it was Valentine's Day on Saturday, we could beat the rush by going there on Friday night. Wrong! We had to wait for an hour and a half to be seated, but it was worth the wait!


On Saturday, we drove to the Five Points area to walk off our free breakfast buffet. The city has many historical buildings which have been restored. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The city owns the gardens and there is no admission fee. We will have to go back when the flowers are blooming, but it was nice to see all the landscaping and I especially enjoyed the Japanese Gardens with the bamboo forest. I had never seen black bamboo before.

Click to view the photo gallery of our trip

family photo Sunday

I found this rare photo (circ. 1940's) of my grandfather, Rev. John Sherman Rice, and thought I would post it in honor of our oldest son who will be ordained into the ministry next Sunday. Grandpa Rice spent many years in the mountains of North Carolina as a circuit riding preacher. We named our first son, Joshua Sherman Franklin, after him. We did not know that Josh would become a 4th generation minister when he was born in 1978. But our pastor in Jacksonville at the time, Dr. Arthur Estes, predicted that Joshua would become a preacher because of his loud booming voice.

fun at the grand prix

Cindy and I had the distinct honor to be the design judges at our church's Frontline Club Grand Prix race a few weeks ago. There were supposed to be four judges, but two of them were no-shows. I was surprised how different our "ratings" were for the cars, so she was able to break my three tied scores in at least one age group! 28 young people participated in making their car (with help from their Dads I'm sure)




It was harder to judge than I thought it would be. In the four age groups, we chose one design winner. The kids also raced their cars four times each to find our the winner of each group.





I guess living in Florida for 30 years may have influenced us to choose this "Whale" of a car as one of the winners. I thought the "hot dog" car would win but it did not fit in the "box" and we had to mark it down because it was over the size limit.


See slideshow for more cute photos.

Slideshow - March Birthdays

Slideshow - Snow Day in GA

Duke holds on to win over Virginia Tech

(Jon Scheyer drives against VT in photo)
Saturday's game was another nail biter for us Duke fans. When the Virginia Tech Hokies tied the game in the second half, it was fun to watch the Dukies hold them off and win. As the sportscaster would say many times during this game, the Blue Devils had to do the hokie-pokie a few times to win this one. Another interesting stat was that Gerald Henderson scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half, and Kyle Singler started the second half with 2 points and ended with 21 points.

The last few weeks of the season have been full of tough games for the Dukies. This week the Blue Devils face two more tough teams to end the regular season with games against Florida State (Tues) and North Carolina (Sun.) I believe they can win both games if they play well, so expect two more exciting ball games.

Links:
Recap of the game at goduke.com
AP Photo gallery
Singler's 21 points fuel Duke to win

family photo Sunday

I just had to post a picture showing our snow today. We came out of church just after noon and the snow had already been falling. Other than a few light flurries in December, this is our first snowfall of the season. This view is from our front door and it is still coming down 3 hours later.