Christmas 2008

What a blessing! We had everybody under one roof for Christmas Day. We played with the babies, played with the Wii, spent quality time together with family and ate entirely too much. It was a dream come true for Sue and me to have both Nicklas and Luke at home and we are appreciative of the efforts of Jonas & Melissa and Robert & Jennifer to make that happen. Melissa's family (Gay, Carly, John & Jason) made the trip over from Duluth to have lunch with us. We really enjoyed sharing Christmas with them. We know it was difficult for them to travel on Christmas day and we appreciate them coming to our home. Heath, McKenzie & Alexis also joined us for lunch. You gotta see McKenzie play the Wii. Paul (Sue's brother) was to be there as well but car trouble meant he had to spend the day at home alone. We really missed having him with us. He and I always catch up on the lastest in the electronics business.

We've had advice from many other grandparents about how great it is to have grandkids. "Great" doesn't describe the blessing of these little ones. I used to "put up" with other grandparents who wanted to show off pictures of their grandkids. I was polite and said things like "How cute!". Now the shoe is on the other foot. I show all my customers this site and the pictures of my grandkids and they say "How cute!". They just don't understand!

With all the babies around on Christmas it made the celebration of Christ's birth just that more meaningful. It gave us a somewhat better idea of the challenges that Jesus' parents faced with having a newborn (but under much more difficult circumstances). Indeed, it would be very difficult to even imagine giving up Nicklas or Luke for the sake of others as God did with his Son.

What a great Christmas Day, 2008!

Grandchildren!

This Christmas is especially meaningful to us as we celebrate the birth of our Lord. We've had two new additions to the family in the last 3 months and the house will be buzzing this Christmas morning like never before. Nicklas and Luke are still too young to understand all that will happen but it will be first of many Christmas celebrations to come. We are so proud of Jen & Robert AND Jonas & Melissa and the enthusiasm they show in their parenting. We are working on our "spoiling" skills and personally I think we will be World Champions. Bring 'em on!

There is no lake!

We came up for the weekend only to find the lake is virtually gone! Hartwell is now over 21ft down from full pool and continues to drop. There is still about 46ft of usuable water in the lake (around the dam) but most the lake is closed to recreation. The is a small creek running where we normally have 8-10 feet of water. The lake passed it's all-time low on October 21st, 2008. Each day sets a new record. It will take years for Lake Hartwell to recover. Click on the pictures to get a better view. The lakebed is cracked and looks stable but don't try to walk on it. It is really about 2-3 feet of soft mud. As it bakes in the sun, it will soon be hard enough to walk on.

Nicklas in action............

Nana got some great video of Nicklas as he begins to learn eye-hand cordination. This will be a critically important step for this future Rock N Roll Hall of Fame drummer!!

The lake is now only a creek.

Due to severe drought in South Carolina and North Georgia our lake house is now located on a creek. The water is gone! As of October 19th, 2008, Hartwell Lake is over 17 feet below full pool and still droping. We are left with about 2 1/2 feet of mud and a small creek. It seems the COE could do a better job of water management but I guess they have to keep letting water out of Lake Hartwell for the others downstream. We winterized the boat today and it will probably be in storage for at least a year. I just don't see the lake recovering for 18-24 months.

About time I updated!!

I am forgetful at times. Today I realized that it has been quite some time since I updated our blog. Let's see....what has happened since the last post??

1) Jennifer and Robert became parents. YEAH!
2) Sue and I became GrandParents! YEAH!
3) Sue and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. YEAH!
4) We took an anniversary trip to Niagara Falls. YEAH!
5) Jonas and Melissa are about a month away from becoming proud parents. YEAH!
6) Congress decided to bail out Wall Street! OOOHHHH!

This is our first favorite picture of Nicklas William.

You can see it has been boring around here. LOL!!

This Grandparenting is a ton of fun! We can't wait to see Luke!!

Still cooking......

Jonas and Melissa were down and we had a good visit at the lake house on July 4th. We really enjoyed spending time with them and Melissa has her "baby bump" going. We tried to get her in the water but no dice. No problem with Jonas, though. He is the first skier of the summer. Ask Melissa sometime about her fantastic boat ride across the lake. I don't think boat rides and pregnant women necessarily go together. Leanne, Heath, McKenzie & Alexis came by as well. Jonas, Heath and I worked on a fireworks display for the 4th. We had a great time blowing stuff up and it was nice to have Heath to keep us from burning the place down (he's a firefighter).

Jennifer spent last weekend with us at the lake while Robert studied for his finals. She is still very active but is getting pretty uncomfortable these days. The final month is the toughest but she is a trooper. She still has a few weeks to go and we are getting pretty excited. Robert passed his orals and has a couple of days of testing to complete his Masters. We are really proud of him. They takeoff this weekend for a trip to Waycross for Robert's high school reunion.

Sue is looking GREAT! She started working with a personal trainer recently and is is in the best shape ever. She is starting to really get into the workouts but does get those aches and pains from doing new exercises. I, however, avoid doing any excessive running, walking, lifting or training.