HAPPY ANNIVERSARY--37 YEARS!

  

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

 
We had a party at 105 Ikes to watch Les Bleus soar on into the final 8! Yippee! It was a lot of fun and we went all out as I thought that perhaps this was the "Great Zinedine Zidane's" last game. Hope you all enjoyed the game. Don't forget Saturday at 3pm to watch the game against Brazil. 

Rainy Day

We had some pretty torrential rains last week. Daddy found a perch for Miriam where she could watch the whole show. 

Micaiah's new duds

Thank you for my new birthday outfit, Uncle Daniel & Auntie Brenda, and Elise, Benjamin & Isabelle! I really like my new sweater vest, especially!

Love,
Micaiah 

Business in Lincoln

Well, we just got back from our trip to Lincoln, NE. While we don't recommend Lincoln as the city with the most things to do, I think the family managed to have a good time. While Daniel worked all day, the kids swam. They pretty much had the pool to themselves. On the way home we stopped at the Omaha Zoo and had a wonderful time. We highly recommend it. Definately the best zoo we've ever been too. Brenda even liked it better than the San Diego zoo, though the rest of us can't compare it to that. I'll let the kids tell you what their highlights were.

Isabelle
I liked to pet the goat.

Ben
My favorite thing to do was to go swimming and going to the zoo. We watched lots of movies on our way there and our way back. Dad bought us a PS2 World Cup 2006 game and we played quite a bit of that. And I beat him in it today (France 2, England 1)!!!!

Elise
Our cool hotel and the van with the DVD player were awesome. The zoo was really fun and we got to see a lot of animals we had never seen. We got to eat out at restaurants every single night, which was a lot of fun (not having to do dishes!). The hotel had a kitchen so we at our lunches there.

As you can see, we had a lot of fun. 

Happy Anniversary, B & J!

Truly a landmark year. We hope you enjoy your evening with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Love, All of US

15 years and Still Madly in Love!

  

A New Blog for kicks (pun partially intended)

Yup! I want to rant and rave, but not undercut the dignity of my other blogs, so I have started a laid back place to comment on stuff unimportant like World Cup Soccer at Nachos and Dip.

Brown Family Mini-Concert

I don't know if you all have heard of the five Brown siblings or not, but we were able to go hear them play a few pieces at a piano store the other night prior to their concert at Brevard School of Music. It was a lot of fun. Jo and Ruth were able to get CD's signed. They ran out of them, so the rest of us didn't get any. Pics don't do it justice as it is hard to see, but they were pretty impressive. They range from ages 20-27! All are or have graduated from Juliard. They just recently started their concert careers as professional pianists travelling together and doing 10-hand pieces specially arranged for them. (Tim stayed home with Miriam who has been sick, but the rest of us enjoyed the evening out.)
 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

To the world's most wonderful fathers! (Posted by Donna--verbatim as dictated by Mom!) 

Relaxing...

Our Wonderful guys planned a great relaxing evening for us. First they let us shop for a few hours sans enfants while they put the girls down for naps! We then teamed up girls vs boys for a little lawn bowling. The guys won both games... but that was the plan, right Brenda? Then Brenda made us a wonderful steak dinner with the aid of her sous chef Daniel manning the grill. After a little more lawn games we topped off the evening with baths for the girls and a splendid strawberry & Lemon trifle by Brenda! We all had a great time!!! Thanks Dan and Brenda for the fantastic B&B, R&R and MOA!

Cousins + MOA = A Great Time!!

This is Patience and Isa on the Lil' Shaver with Daddy/ U. Bob.... The smiling pic is the first time around the track... then they all made "scared" faces for the camera.

Are you having fun???

Here are the four cousins on the hot air balloon ride... I'm sure there was just enough space for two more small cousins!

The little mothers could not be talked into getting babysitters for their little ones.... It was a fun day together and we all made lots of wonderful memories.

Family Reunion at the Pahnke Farm

Well, we enjoyed a full weekend at the Pahnke homestead last weekend for the occasion of the Blackburn (my grandmother's family) Reunion. As always, Micaiah enjoyed feeding the cows and riding some tractors with his Papa Pahnke & Uncle Richard. Other highlights included all the good eating and visiting with some distant relatives that I hadn't seen in years, many of whom Tim had never even met. However, Tim did experience a little fame. If you can, notice the markers on the below maps which represented the "diversity" of the family (i.e. how many lands we have spread to). You'll see that most of the flags are located in the Southern region of the States (especially around Savannah, Ga., where much of the family is still located). However, Tim, as a grandson-in-law, has helped to diversify the Blackburn family line by being born in CAR. :-)

Recognize any Old Friends?

We surprised everyone (including ourselves!) and came back to Greenville Sunday night. We went a total of 3,500 miles on the first trip and we needed to unload the car and re-organize before heading north again. It was a great trip. After being with the family in Illinois and Minnesota, we went to Michigan. We stayed with the Gearharts in Flint (no picture :-( ) and enjoyed the company of Mary's parents, Dr. and Mrs. Cummins. We also had a brunch with the DeVores--JoJeanne and her husband and family live in the same neighborhood, so they were there, too. That is her baby that I am holding. We were surprised to find out that Rebekah and her husband are faithful members at Faith. We took them out to lunch so we could get to know Jeff. They are a sweet couple.

Next we headed to Grand Rapids to see the Elmers. Aunt Cheryl organized an Old CARer's meal. It was lots of fun. Besides the Elmers and us, Aunt Clarissa was there (77 years old), Dick and Nancy Teachout and Larry and Sally Fogle. The only non-old-african missionary present was Donella, a friend of Donna's who recently moved to GR to work with Bibles International. (that is where they all work now!) It was a delightful evening of cathcing up on each other. Elmers, Teachouts and we were at candidate seminar together 37 years ago!













The next evening we had supper out at Vicky's. Her husband is a farmer. They have three children and a foster child who they have had from birth. Shawn and his wife were there and then Lane and family came for dessert. They have 7 children (one was not there). It was so much fun to be with them again and to see them as adults. They send their greetings to you all. As always, we had a wonderful time with Uncle Eric and Aunt Cheryl.
 

"I'm not two anymore ... I'm free!!!"

That was Micaiah's breakfast announcement to us this morning. We had a great time yesterday. We celebrated with Auntie Donna, Auntie Jo, Mr. Brian, Miss Amy & Miss Jeanine. We enjoyed homemade pizza and a choo-choo train birthday cake (although Micaiah had a hard time seeing how the frosting blob in the middle of the cake looked like a train--OK, so my artistic abilities more closely resemble Picaso than Rembrandt). We all enjoyed the celebration, and our little boy is growing up ...

Three Years and Counting!

Happy Birthday to Micaiah! Hard to believe that he is already three years old. Seems like just yesterday I was sitting in that hospital room waiting to hold him. Can't wait for the party tonight which I am sure his mommy will blog for the rest of you. 

Tim's Book Review of 1776

Title: 1776
Author: David McCullough
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review: The year 1776 was a colossal year for the newly united continental states of the Americas and this is an epic telling of it. The book is divided into three parts: Part I: The Siege (of Boston); Part II: Fateful Summer (in New York); Part III: The Long Retreat. For a person who associates history only with a high school textbook, this book will convince him or her that history can be as exciting as the present--it just happened a long time ago.

Though the book opens in London with King George III addressing the opening of Parliament on “the increasingly distressing issue of war in America,” the scene quickly switches to the American Colonies and to the newly appointed general (of a newly appointed army) George Washington. Characteristically unpretentious, Washington wrote to his wife Martha, “far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity ... It has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service.”

As previously mentioned, the first major division of the book describes the siege of Boston. Technically, it was the “rabble in arms” (the British designation for what Washington called the “Troops of the United Provinces of North America“) who were laying siege to the British troops held up in the city of Boston. But in actuality, it was difficult to ascertain who it was that had the upper hand, for, while the British were confined to the city, the Americans--in their makeshift and unsanitary camps, with no flag, no uniforms, and an evanescing supply of ammunitio--were no better off. A general stalemate ensued which lasted for months. [Though a certain Lieutenant from Connecticut named Samuel Bixby described at least one skirmish in which “many regulars (British) fell, but the riflemen (Americans) lost only one man” (39).]

In early 1776, the élan in the American camp could not have been worse. Washington himself confessed: “If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies; for surely if we get well through this month, it must be for want of their knowing the disadvantages we labor under” (79).

The “finger of Providence” was indeed “in it.” Everything changed when, at the end of January, Henry Knox, the big, gregarious Boston book-seller, arrived with the “guns of Ticonderoga.” Knox had been gone for two months and had exceeded all expectations, “despite rough forest roads, freezing lakes, blizzards, thaws, mountain wilderness, and repeated mishaps that would have broken lesser spirits several times over” (82). He had succeeded, on a budget of $1,000, to transport 120,000 pounds of cannon nearly 300 miles through the dead of winter.

On the morning of March 5, the British of Boston awoke to the guns of Ticonderoga looking down on them from Dorchester Heights. In one night, the Continental Army had employed more than 14,000 men to establish the fortifications and position the cannons, all without being noticed. Now within range of the American cannons, the British were forced to choose between attacking the heights or abandoning the city and escaping by sea.. “Never [were] troops in so disgraceful a situation,” wrote a British officer. The British chose to take to the sea. The “rabble in arms” had outsmarted the British army and won control of Boston. Though the British would return (this time to New York) and the war itself would continue for another six and a half years (the Treaty of Paris ending the war was signed in 1783), the siege of Boston served as a prognostication of the success of the American cause.

As a Christian it is impossible to read history, even secular history, and not find it redolent with evidences of the “finger of Providence.” Unlike many historians of our day, McCullough does not glory in the execrable elements of society but simply tries to recount it as it happened. Perhaps a little slow at the beginning, the pace quickens up once the focus switches to the colonies. With no pedantry whatsoever, the book reads almost like a novel--except that it’s history, and history is always better than fiction!