photos from our vacation

Stephen almost talked Natalie into riding the Polaris


Stephen, Leah and Natalie had a front seat for the wilderness ride at Silver Springs


Natalie in a serious conversation with the Terrells - nice view of the island lake scenery!

Natalie finally rode in the boat, thanks to Curtis

Brielle enjoys her floating turtle






Brandon and Rachel feeding the giraffe


That's Brielle touching the baby gator.








Just a few photos to remind us of our fun in the sun last week.

Happy Birthday, Joann!

A late happy birthday to Aunt JoAnn in Arkansas. We were at the lake last week with no access to the internet, so I am just now posting this birthday blog! Hope you had a good day and ate a lot of cake. The movers are coming tomorrow and we hope Cindy will be flying to her new home this weekend.

the journeys continue

Things are coming together for our move to GA. We found a ranch style house to rent for awhile until we can decide where we really want to live. This is a huge place and we really like the NE Atlanta suburbs. The house we will rent is in Duluth, in a nice quiet neighborhood. My company will be moving us by the end of the month, so there is a lot to do to get ready for that. We still have temp housing provided thro Tuesday, Aug 14th.

Now I am getting ready to head back to Florida for our family vacation. (Been a long time since I thought about going to Florida for vacation!) Janelle and Brielle arrived Monday afternoon, so Cindy has enjoyed spoiling her, especially since Janelle was sick the last few days. Josh will be flying in tonight and I just found out that my mom and dad are coming with April today to enjoy a long weekend with all the great-grandkids. Stephen and family will be flying into Orlando Friday night, and I am flying in tomorrow afternoon. We are looking forward to a full house and lots of fun for the next week. I have been so busy adjusting to my new job, new location, etc. that I have not had time to even think about vacation plans. I guess I will leave it all up to the kids this time.

there's nothing like a birthday, especially the first one

I think Caden enjoyed the cake, as you can tell by these photos

The Cadets 2007 warmup to Philip Bliss "It Is Well"

It is the middle of summer and we are in the midst of DCI competition. Logon to DCI.org to find the locations, as somewhere every night there are drum and bugle corps competing. Last night the Blue Devils competed against the Cadets in Allentown PA for the first time this season. In the meantime enjoy this warmup by the Bergen County (NJ) Cadets playing "It Is Well"

Happy Birthday, Stephen!

Our middle son, Stephen, turns 28 today! Happy birthday! This photo was taken when Natalie finished swimming lessons.

Happy Birthday, Caden!

My sister Loretta's grandson is one year old today! Happy birthday Caden!

An American Anthem

Happy 4th of July to everyone as you celebrate America today!

family photo album

Click on this link to view all of the photos from Cindy's trip to Pennsylvania.

Happy Birthday Janelle!

Wishing a happy birthday to our daughter-in-law, Janelle. Hope you have a great day!

Congratulations on your engagement!

Cindy traveled to PA and took these photos of Brielle in action

Happy Birthday Rhonda!

Happy birthday today to cousin Rhonda Bell in Arkansas!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Wishing a happy birthday today to Cindy's brother, Sam Baggett.

moving on

After an emotional few weeks of goodbyes in J'ville, I drove up to Atlanta on Saturday. When I arrived at my apartment, I was faced with the impossible task of unloading all my stuff, especially at 9pm. Taking it all up three flights of stairs did not help the situation. I finally unloaded the most important items and left the rest in the trunk of my car. So after three days, I unloaded the last boxes tonight.

I also surprised my parents by driving over to Cowpens and going to church with them on Sunday. Being less than two and a half hours from them now, we should be able to visit more often.

family photo album

Cindy, Brandon, and Rachel visited with Josh and family in PA last week. Here are a few photos of Josh, Janelle and Brielle to share.

Happy Birthday Jesse!

Wishing a happy birthday to our nephew Jesse Baggett who will be 26 years old today!

Keep on trucking!

Congrats to Rachel and Brandon!

If you have not heard or did not understand my humor in yesterday's blog - our youngest son is now engaged (click link for the music, please) I heard that Brandon proposed to Rachel on Thursday morning during the sunrise at the beach. You will have to get the whole story first hand from them! We can compare it to Nathan and Eva's story and see which is the best!

Hey, Brandon, Cuddles is sad - she wants a ring too!

longest flight delay in my life

It took me all day yesterday to recover from my flight home Friday. I arrived at the airport early because I wanted to miss rush hour traffic in Atlanta. I had spent the afternoon checking out the cities of Acworth, Kennesaw and Marietta, Ga. The areas northwest of Atlanta are a mountainous terrain and beautiful. I was surprised at the amount of traffic in Marietta. I visited the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield site. Most of the battlefield is built up and surrounded by houses. There is no "driving tour" like many battlefields and it was too hot to walk, so I visited the museum. We will have to go back when it is cooler and explore the main battlefield sites.

By the time I returned the rental car and arrived at the airport it was about 6 pm. Since my flight was at 8:40 pm I had time to relax. Little did I know how tiring relaxing could become! Our plane arrived late and then at about 9 pm we found out that the plane was "broken." Yes, that is what they told us. Makes you wonder how a plane could fly from Mexico City to Atlanta when it is broken! Delta had to "find a plane" for us, so we waited patiently. Being the hub for Delta, you would think there would be an extra plane or two. Of course not, that would be too simple. We were told a plane was flying in from Orlando at 12:45 am, so our flight would take off at approximately 1:15 am. Then at 1:30 am, we were told that we had to wait for two more flight attendants to arrive. I am not sure what happened to the other flight attendants that were with us three or four hours earlier. Finally at about 2:30 am, the flight attendants arrived, we boarded the plane and took off at 3:15 am - almost 8 hours late! The pilot apologized several times and we were all glad that Delta did not cancel our flight. Otherwise, we would still be there waiting for a seat home!

at least I like to drive!

I just returned from a three day trip to visit my new job location and was able to spend two days driving around the NE Atlanta suburbs. I tried to find all the alternate routes to take during rush hour. I checked out the distance in driving from my apartment to work and back. The Atlanta traffic is very heavy - like rush hour in Jax - only it last all day and night there. Coming back from dinner Thursday night at 10:00pm, there was still a large amount of traffic driving away from Atlanta on US 141N. I was able to miss all of the bad traffic tie-ups you hear about - they were taking place going the opposite direction, so I was thankful. I tried to check out some neighborhoods, housing and schools in the area (since my wife will be job hunting) to get an idea of the distance traveling back and forth to Norcross. One Christian school in Lilburn is not very far away, about 20 mins. from work. The other school is in Acworth, northwest of Atlanta. I traveled about 25 mins. to exit 271 on Friday morning, stopped and ate lunch at the Cracker Barrel, of course. And then traveled another 25 mins to Acworth. With good traffic, this school is about 40-45 minutes from my work. At least now I have a feel for the area. I have one more week to work in Jax and then I am off to Atlanta (Norcross to be exact.)

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Wishing a happy birthday to our nephew, Jonathan Logan. Today he catches up to Brandon at 26years old!

Happy Birthday Brandy!

Wishing a happy birthday to Brandy (Baggett) McDonald born on this date in 1978! I know she keeps busy with her four children - Payton, Noah, Tyler and Aurora - but we hope she gets to take it easy on her birthday.

Happy Birthday Layton!

Wishing a happy birthday to Layton Bell today. Hope you have a good one! This photo was taken a couple of summers ago after we went horseback riding near Mountain View, AR. Last summer we chased skunks on our vacation with you!(See photo below) Maybe you can talk your mom into coming to Florida this summer and learn to wrestle some alligators!

Through the years with Cindy - Happy 30th anniversary!

news worth repeating

Some of the links to news and photos on the world wide web that bear repeating:

Recently Ancestry.com unveiled more than 90 million records of war veterans from the first English settlement at Jamestown, in 1607, through the Vietnam war records of 1975. Access is free until June 06, 2007 at this link to ancestry.com . . . Dell computer company is finally giving in to the free market as Dell computers will go on sale at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. on June 10. We have a Dell and we really like it - also the IT guys we know encouraged us to buy a Dell computer. . . I read recently that the internet has changed the face of war and there is more personal info on the web than in anytime in history. US News & World Report feature a site dedicated to the war in Iraq . . . Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis has been featured on many news programs recently. I thought the guy filling in for Bill O'Reilly cut Ken Ham short and did not allow him to finish his answers. This posting from CBN.com about the new Creation Museum should interest all Christians, but the secular humanists of the world will not like this place. . . With the news of the gold coins found off the coast of Florida, there is renewed interest in shipwrecks and pirates. You might find this site interesting at www.shipwreck.net . . . Yahoo's people of the web has a recent post on Kirk Cameron: "At the height of his success, Kirk started worrying about something his money could not buy: salvation." It is quite interesting, especially when you realize that as a young actor in his teens, Kirk considered himself to be an atheist. After his conversion to Christ, he possible would have left the acting career completely if the Left Behind series of movies had not captured his attention. . . Finally, check out the week in space, photos posted at USAtoday.com. I have always been fascinated with space exploration! I remember staying up to about 2AM to watch the first steps on the moon in 1969! It would be neat if we could travel there someday, but probably not in my lifetime.

moving to GA

This has been a whirlwind of a week for us! After taking my mom and dad back to SC this past weekend, we have begun planning our move to the Big A - Atlanta! My company is transferring me to the corporate office in Norcross, GA. After 30 years living here in Jax, we have to pick up and move. The move is being made a lot easier by my company relocation package (they will pack and move us.) Also, Brandon is going to continue living here and pay us rent, so we do not have to sell our house in Jax. If for some reason we decide to sell our house (we have up to a year to change our minds) my company will buy the house from us and then proceed with the sale. The biggest challenge we face will be finding a place to live in the Atlanta area and finding a new job for Cindy. I will be allowed two months free temporary housing during which time we will be searching for a home to buy or rent. My company will also provide money for groceries during this time and also money for relocation expenses such as new car tags, turning on utilities, etc. The Lord has opened this door for us to move and it seems the moving package gets better every day!

Slideshow from Natalie's 3rd birthday party

NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT | Salute to the Services | PBS

This excerpt is from last year's concert. The yearly Memorial Day concert will be on your local PBS channel Sunday night.

a day at the beach

Mom and Dad enjoyed the ocean view from the pier

I took a day off of work on Wednesday to take mom and dad to the beach. We walked the Jacksonville Beach pier for $1.00. Dad said that he never imagined a few months ago, when he was down in his back, that he would ever be able to walk like this again. We tried to drive onto the Mayport Naval base but I could not obtain a pass without a military ID or a military sponsor. I guess since 9-11 security is a lot tighter now! I told the guard my dad was in World War II but that did not faze him at all! :)


We were surprised at how close we could get to the seagulls on the pier

graduation, it's that time of year!

Congratulations to Philip Logan, our nephew, who graduated Monday night from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts here in Jacksonville. He will be working at Wachovia for the summer before heading off to college at Stetson University in the fall. He has received grants and scholarships totaling about $30,000 a year and plans to major in classical guitar. We were all glad Grandma and Grandpa Franklin were able to be here for this big event!

update from the Ukraine Mission Team

Our niece, April Logan, is traveling with the Bob Jones University Ukraine Mission Team during May and June (April is dead center in the photo above, 3rd from the left on the second row, and center of photo below)

My sister sent the update below from the mission team .

Click on this link to see photos from Ukraine posted at the university website.

UPDATES FROM UKRAINE

It's been amazingly busy this week!

We painted the fence at the church, had a ladies meeting (which was great), visited an English class, had about 6 church services throughout the course of the week, had market meetings, went to the bazaar, distributed more tracts in lots of villages, and ate some pretty interesting food!

We are sending updates and pictures to the BJ website...go to our mission team and there should be a little link for pictures.
It's been really hot and we're pretty tired out, but God's been doing a great work in and through us.

Several have made professions of faith and many Christians have thanked us for the encouragement, but I think even more, God's been changing our hearts.

It's been amazing to see the sacrifice of people that have nothing so that we can eat and minister to them. Yet, even though they have nothing (materialistically speaking) I would venture to say that many of them have more of a passion for Christ than we do. That's certainly been a rebuke.

Memorial Day, 2007

A tribute video honors those who served and died for our country.

a message in song

Some songs stand out to me more than others. I spend a lot of time evaluating Christian music as to the message of the song. It should be biblical and in proper context. The song below was originally recorded as a "southern gospel" song and is titled "Crimson River." I am not sure who wrote the song, but I found the lyrics posted on line. The Steve Pettit Evanglistic Team CD "Weep No More" actually introduced this song to me. They rearranged the tune and gave it an Irish flair, so obviously it does not sound like a "southern gospel" song on their CD. This is the version I really enjoy listening too. (If you do not have the CD available, you can purchase it from their website above.) In the lyrics below, the blood that Jesus shed for our salvation is the "Crimson River."

CRIMSON RIVER

There’s a river flowing deep and wide,
Coming from the Savior’s side;
From His hands, His feet and brow,
Underneath this river I'll abide.

Crimson River, cover me,
And this blood bought one will be;
Purer than the breath of spring,
Cleaner than a sparkling stream.

Through the ages it has never dried,
Though the spring it came from died;
For the spring, reborn now, intercedes for me,
And the Crimson River sets me free.

Crimson River, cover me,
And this blood bought one will be;
Purer than the breath of spring,
Cleaner than a sparkling stream.

Then eternity will be,
A new starting place for me;
To praise the Lamb and all because,
The Crimson River covers all.

To praise the Lamb and all because,
All because,
Because the Crimson River covers all.
The Crimson River covers all!

remembering Anne Frank

The blogger Segatech has a post called "The Beauty That Still Remains" with links to many Anne Frank websites. We need to be reminded from time to time of the horrors of the Nazis under Hitler in the years leading up to World War II and then during the war. Millions of Jews as well as the mentally retarded and elderly were murdered because they were not Germans. Sadly, this could happen again.

educational videos at teachertube

This take-off on youtube is for teachers who want to create and post their educational and informative videos. The site is called TeacherTube.com

Click the link below to view info about China, India and the US . . .
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=799aaa845e1c2e8a762b&page=1&viewtype=&category=mv

Yo Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone

This is a video post of Yo Yo Ma recording "Nella Fantasia" and other pieces for his CD. "Nella Fantasia" is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. I strongly recommend the CD "Yo Yo Ma plays the music of Ennio Morricone"

to all the Mothers out there - remember they do grow up

Happy Mother's Day to my wife and mother of my three sons! And Happy Mother's Day to our own Moms in SC and Arkansas!


My three sons with their Florida cousins and grandparents many moons ago!
The cousins in Texas from a 1993 photo

Happy birthday, Leah!

Happy Birthday Grandma Baggett!

Happy Birthday wishes today to Cindy's mom, Winnie. Hope you enjoy your day and have many more!

the cause of Spiderman's dark side

click photo to enlarge

thanks to cartoonist Gary Varvel's Varvblog

National Day of Prayer

Read about the prayer at Valley Forge and George Washington at this link

Click this link for the
"National Day of Prayer" website

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Our oldest

granddaughter

turns 3 today!

(Natalie's the one on the left in this photo)

Happy birthday! Wish we could be there to celebrate!