life in the funny papers

family birthdays for the week

We have a big month of birthdays ahead of us - 20 birthdays in the month of March - in the Franklin and Baggett clans.
**Click photo to enlarge**

We have one more February birthday to celebrate on Tuesday the 28th. Neeley Brown, the daughter of my cousin Jeff (and Charity) Brown turns 6!  Neeley is pictured at left with cousin Judy. 

The first birthday in March occurs on the 1st day of the month.  Mike Daly, husband of my cousin Donna Brown Daly, celebrates another birthday! 

Josh York, pictured with his son Easton, will be celebrating another birthday on Thursday, March 2nd.  Josh is married to Cindy's cousin Amy.

Bradley Blackstock will be turning 25 this Friday on March 3rd. Bradley is the oldest son of Cindy's cousin Mike (and Susan) Blackstock. 















On Saturday, March 4th, Denton Bell will be celebrating another birthday.  Denton is pictured with his wife Rhonda (Cindy's cousin) and son Layton and daughter Loren.




Not pictured -Andy Granderson's birthday is also Saturday, March 4th.  Andy is the son of Cindy's cousin Peggy (and  Charles) Granderson.  Hope you all have a wonderful birthday celebration! 

family photo Sunday

Another cute picture of one of our grands,  Meredith playing nurse at the Creative Discovery Children's Museum in Chattanooga.  

Video - President Ronald Reagan, Man of Faith

This is a great tribute video and reminder that President Reagan was a man of faith.(Now you know why the liberals didn't like him!)

so that explains it

Funny papers  - now that explains it, thanks to "Pluggers" on 2/21

signs of spring

 Signs of spring as flowers are blooming at our home in Georgia.  The camellia always bloom in February giving us hope that spring is just around  the corner! 

 I believe the daffodils bloomed early this year.  (I assume since we had such a warm winter.)

 The squirrels took over the picnic table this winter. They like to sit on the table and eat the acorns, while leaving the shells for us to clean up.  

Franklin Graham says "Ask Obama if He's a Christian"

I don't ever watch MSNBC but a friend posted this on Facebook last night. Rev. Franklin Graham was interviewed and asked questions about the faith of President Obama, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and New Gingrich. He clearly gave the plan of salvation several times. He also had some interesting responses to the questions about President Obama's faith. It is a 15 minute interview but well worth watching.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Coach K's Biggest 2nd Half Comeback

Last week, the Duke Blue Devils played N.C. State and were down by 20 points in the 2nd half. But they had another amazing comeback win - that's two weeks in a row. I don't know if I can take anymore of that! Somehow in the last 11 minutes, the Dukies were able to pull ahead and win the game. I am posting another nice highlight video from DUKEBLUEPLANET:

family birthdays for the week

We are celebrating two birthdays in the Baggett and Franklin clans this week: 

Matthew Williams, the son of Cindy's cousin Christina and Roger Williams, will be turning 12 on Tuesday, February 21st.  Matthew (left in the photo) is pictured with his mom and dad and brother Nick at the reunion in August.  Hope you have a great day!

Jacob Pettit, the son of my cousin Ray and Bernadette Pettit, will be turning 15 on Saturday, February 25th. 

Jacob is the grandson of cousin Dianne Pettit. 

Hope you have a fun birthday this year!  

family photo Sunday

Our oldest grandchild, Natalie, in a photo taken at the Creative Discovery Museum in downtown Chattanooga, TN.

Video-Courageous Comeback in Chapel Hill

Our youth pastor preached last Sunday night and used the Duke/NC Game as an illustration to start his sermon "Finish Strong". Needless to say, he got my attention! With the North Carolina Tarheels playing like they did in the second half and leading Duke by 10 points with 2:15 left in the game, it was quite an amazing comeback by the Dukies to win this game. For some unexplained reason, the Tarheels failed to score a point in the last two minutes. Austin Rivers, the freshman phenom, took the winning 3 point shot just as the clock ran down to 0. Nice video from DUKEBLUEPLANET:

Valentine's Day 2012

 Valentine's Day 2012 started out a cold one this morning. I was surprised to see snow or sleet on the roof this morning when I picked up the paper.  Our first snow of the season, not much to talk about - don't laugh at me y'all :) 

After a busy day at work, I came home and picked up Cindy to take her out to eat.  We had a gift card (and a $4.00 off coupon)for Red Lobster, so we both enjoyed a tilapia dinner (and those cheesy biscuits) tonight.   Two seafood lovers are happy!  

When we got home, I enjoyed some of my "Valentine Brownie" with ice cream, a hand made brownie by my dear sweet Valentine.  Hope you all had a good day, too! 

family birthdays for the week

 Family Birthdays for the Week: 

There are three birthdays to celebrate this week - two in my family and one in my wife's family . . . 

Today, Feb. 13th, is the birthday of my cousin Logan Daly. Logan turns 17 today!  He is the son of my 2nd cousin Donna Brown Daly and the grandson of my cousin Pat Brown.  Hope you have a great day! 
(Logan plays trumpet at Broome High School.)  

 Erica Pettit turns 16 this week on Weds, Feb. 15th. Erica is the daughter on my 2nd cousin Preston Pettit and the granddaughter of my cousin Dianne Dorman Pettit.  Hope you have a wonderful day! 
(Pictured with her dad and brother Austin)

Charlee Ann turns 4 this week on Sunday, Feb. 19th!  Can you believe she is already 4 years old!? Charlee Ann is the daughter of Cindy's cousin Lori and Craig Wardlaw and the granddaughter of Uncle David and Aunt Jo Ann Baggett.  

Hope you have a wonderful birthday! 

family photo Sunday

Meredith, Charlie and Ethan enjoy the water at the children's museum in Chattanooga. We went there the last week of December, but I just figured out how to download pics from my new phone.  

Duke players to watch

A year ago we were following a Duke team with a couple of seniors leading the team in Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. This year Duke has a "young" team and we are waiting and watching for the team to gel, to mature, to see who might become the "leader" of the Dukies. With only one senior this year (Miles Plumlee) Coach K has been starting one or two freshmen for most of the season.  

As the season moves closer to "March Madness" we see two players emerging as leaders of the team. The 2nd Plumlee brother and junior Mason Plumlee has become a dominating force under the basket and has become the Big man on the team.  The freshman who is known as the son of Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers, was the number one high school player in Florida last year.  At one time he was going to play for the Florida Gators, but changed his mind and now is coming on strong for Duke.  He scored 29 points and the game winning 3 point shot against the North Carolina Tarheels on Weds night.  

To read more about these two players click on the links below: 

Austin Rivers is a self-made man 

Mason Plumlee wears the claw marks of a big man

Duke comes back to win at UNC! 85-84!

Can you believe it?!  The Dukies came back from being down as much as 12 points in the 2nd half of last night's game at the University of North Carolina to win the game on a last second shot by Austin Rivers. Austin Rivers is just a freshman - he was the #1 high school basketball player in the the state of Florida for two years in a row  - but he is still a college freshman and makes those "freshmen" mistakes. He is a diaper dandy as Dick Vitale would call him!  Well, Austin Rivers came of age last night when he led the Dukies back from defeat and made the winning shot.  The final shot is fast becoming the #2 favorite Duke shot (behind the 1992 last second shot by Christian Laettner when Duke defeated Kentucky).  Can you believe Duke was down by 10 points with less than 3 minutes remaining?  Awesome, baby!   Click to read more

family birthdays for the week

 We have four birthdays to celebrate this week in the Franklin and Baggett families!  

Joshua Pettit turns 16 on Feb 8th. Joshua is the son of my cousin Jamie Pettit and grandson of cousin Diane Pettit.  Hope you have a wonderful day!

 Our youngest son, Brandon, turns 31 on Feb 9th. Brandon is pictured with his family: his wife Rachel, Charlie and Haley Grace. Hope you have a great day!  

 Cindy's nephew Airel Baggett turns 23 on Feb 10th. Airel is the son of her brother Sam Baggett.  Hope you have a good one! 

Cindy's cousin Noel Baggett is pictured with his wife, Lisa, who celebrates another birthday on Feb 12th.  Hope you have a wonderful day.

family photo Sunday

Cindy really enjoyed the Italian Ice Cream at Provinos.  It even came with a candle on top.  It's not too often that a restaurant gives you a free dinner including dessert just because it is your birthday! 

birthday week continues

I am not kidding when I say we celebrated Cindy's birthday all week!  I previously blogged about our special birthday meals starting on Sunday night.  First a free meal at Ruby Tuesday's, a free meal at Moe's on Monday night, and a free dinner at Provinos on Tuesday night.  Wednesday night revolves around church, so we enjoyed her free sub from Firehouse Subs and then headed on to church.  Thursday night I took her to Captain D's to get her free meal and then we stopped at Dairy Queen to use her BOGO blizzard coupon.  

Friday night, I took her to my favorite place, "Cracker Barrel" and used my "Christmas" gift card.  This turned out to be a special treat because they currently offer a special "Pineapple Upside Down  Cake" dessert.  I had to order this dessert as it brought back fond memories about how her grandmother (Mam-ma Baggett) always baked this cake for Cindy.  She would bake it, then box it up and mail it to Cindy every year.  This continued until the last few years of her life.  What good memories!   

Today was another birthday meal.  We had a coupon for a free breakfast at IHOP.  Afterwards, I took her to Finders Keepers Antiques,  the Goodwill store, and Ally's Attics (all located in the same shopping strip) for browsing.  I bought a couple Pepsi glasses for a friend at $1.50 each and also a small hymnal published in 1922 for $4.00 and also received 20% off today at Finders Keepers. Good deals!   At the Goodwill store I found a RAFFI record album in excellent condition for 77 cents!  I also picked up the autobiography of Ronald Reagan ($2.50) hardback published in 1990.   We then stopped by Randy's Perennials & Water Gardens to see what he had for sale this time of the year - can you say "spring fever"?  

 
Cindy has one more gift card (for Red Lobster) so we might go there tomorrow.  With all the cards and gifts and free meals, I think Cindy had a great birthday week!