Adventures in Keokuk

Yesterday Greg and I had some fun adventures going to the Keokuk, Iowa area. I wanted to check some land records for people who lived across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo in the 1840s, so we went to the Lee County Courthouse in Keokuk where all of the land deeds are housed. When we first went into the Recorder's office, the lady there said, "Well, we do have records going back that far, but you can't look at any of them. They are too fragile." So it didn't sound good--but luckily they ended up finding an index of the records that we could check. Unfortunately I didn't find what I was looking for, but I always enjoy a good hunt through old books. After our courthouse escapade, we ate at Mom's and my favorite restaurant in Keokuk: the 4th Street Cafe! It was, as always, delicious. I had some yummy ham and bean soup with cornbread and Greg had a hot roast beef sandwich. While we were eating lunch, a guy from the kitchen came out and asked us how our food was. We said it was great, and he said, "Yeah, I was surprised to hear that such a young couple was ordering this kind of food." What does that mean? :-) It made us laugh though.

After Keokuk, we were so close to Nauvoo that we decided to head up the road to see our favorite place in Illinois. It had been cloudy and dreary all day until we reached Nauvoo--then the sun finally came out. The flowers around the temple were so pretty!















After Nauvoo we swung down through Quincy where we stopped at a baseball card shop. Greg and I enjoy collecting sports cards, and we have just recently started putting some on eBay--which has worked out to be quite a booming business. We bought a box of football cards and pulled out this gold Mark Ingram rookie card. I said, "Oh, look how pretty and shiny it is!" But then Greg saw the number in the lower right-hand corner of the card and said, "It's a one-of-one card!" Sometimes they only make a certain number of a particular card which makes it very collectible. We have gotten cards numbered to 10 and even 5 before, but never a 1 of 1. So that means that this is the only card of its kind. I know it sounds crazy that just because they put a number on a card it makes it more valuable, but this is literally the most valuable card we have ever gotten. It was quite exciting, and we are going to put it right up on eBay. The last 1 of 1 Mark Ingram card on eBay sold for over $700, so we have high hopes! :-)

Anyway, we've been busy around here with work and church stuff and are really looking forward to a visit from our friends Matt and Angie next week! Matt and Angie and their son Ben live in Gettysburg. We had a great time visiting them last year and can't wait to see them!

Seven in Twenty-Eleven!

Today is my sweet niece Riley's birthday! I can't believe that she is seven already. She is growing up so fast. She was such a cute, funny baby with her dark hair and bright eyes. I wish we could be there to celebrate with the family, but we know you'll have a fun party! Happy Birthday Riley!!

Randomness

Ever since Greg and I brought a box of my files out here from our last trip to Utah, it has been Tiger Lily's new favorite place to sit. It seems like it wouldn't be very comfortable, with all of the little tabs sticking up, but she loves it. Maybe the tabs rub her belly? Anyway, it is so cute how she sits there guarding my files. Who needs anti-virus when they have Lily to protect their files?

Not too much has been going on here lately--except that I get to see cool stuff at work. This is the regimental flag of the 10th Illinois Cavalry from the Civil War. Greg helped me take a picture of this very, very cool flag today for the Lincoln Home. They are doing an exhibit about Lincoln's neighbors who served in the Civil War, and three of the neighbors were in the 10th Illinois Cavalry (including the Lincolns' across-the-street neighbor who was the chaplain for the regiment). The Illinois State Military Museum has hundreds of Civil War flags--most of them are pretty tattered and worn. It is SO NEAT to see them and know that these flags were in the heat of every battle in the Civil War. It's amazing that any of them survived!

I think Greg especially enjoyed seeing the flags and some of the other artifacts that are stored at the Camp Lincoln military base. We have so much cool stuff! Here is Greg with a German officer's hat from WWII. So that's the latest from Illinois. We are grateful that our friends who live in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania all survived Hurricane Irene! And, we are also grateful to everyone who helped Mom and Dad move to their beautiful new home in American Fork! We just wish we could have been there to help. But we're glad that they are getting settled and can't wait to come see the new place.

RetroSpeak

For the past couple of weeks I have been working on something that I have wanted to do for a long time--make greeting cards! A few years back, I ordered some old photo albums on eBay for some projects I was working on, and some of the pictures were SO funny. That's when the idea to do the greeting cards was born. You can check out my new line of greeting cards, RetroSpeak Vintage Greetings, at www.etsy.com/shop/retrospeak. The card pictured at the left is one of my favorites. The picture is so funny and random. A sign on the cemetery gate in the picture says "Car Washing Not Allowed in Cemetery." So the caption on the front of the card says: "The car has been looking a little dirty . . ." and the inside caption reads: "It's your birthday--break all of the rules!" If the cards start selling, I'll probably add some more card styles (I have many more funny photos). Even if they don't sell, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time, so it's fun no matter what happens. Be sure to tell your friends!

Home Improvement

Since it has "cooled off" a bit outside (meaning it no longer feels like 100+ degrees), Greg and I decided to get some house projects done that we've been wanting to do for quite a while. In this "before" picture, you can see that things looked okay outside, but our shutters were getting really faded, and the dark wooden blinds that were in the windows when we bought the place made it kind of dark inside (and some of the blinds were broken). Also, our front porch light was looking pretty bad.

So, we went to town on the house, and now it looks GREAT! We painted the shutters and the door frame, and we installed a nice new front light. It's amazing what a coat of paint can do! Also, while I was in the State Fair Parade last week, Greg installed some nice new white plantation blinds which really brighten the look of the condo inside and out. Greg also put a new faucet on our kitchen sink, which looks very nice.


And, we installed a new light on our back porch. It is a really cool carriage-style light. It looks a lot better that the spotlight we had back there before. Now, if it would just rain here, maybe our dead grass would come back to life!






Though we have been busy working on things, we have also had time for a little fun. On Monday night we went to a Peoria Chiefs baseball game. It was neat because during the game they announced that Jim Thome, who plays for the Minnesota Twins but is from Peoria, had just hit his 600th home run--the place went wild! He's a hometown hero there in Peoria, so that was cool. Then, on Tuesday, we went to the flag-lowering ceremony at the Lincoln Tomb.

Every Tuesday night during the summer, the 114th Regiment, a regiment of Civil War re-enactors here in Springfield, lowers the flag at the Tomb. It is a really cool ceremony, and it was especially fun to see our friends Richard and Don from the museum participate in the event. It's been a busy but good week!