Amazing Rendition of Stand By Me

Ethan, this is a really cool song that has many singers from all over the world:

What they neglect to tell you, baby boy, is that the only person you need standing by you is Jesus. He is everything you will ever need. I know your Mommy and Daddy are teaching you that but cling to that fact every day of your life.
I love you,
Granddaddy
PS. Call me sometime 931-598-9160

Goats are funny

Ethan, did you know goats are very sure footed? They love to climb very steep mountains and be up high above everybody else. Some people keep goats on their farms for milk... fresh goat milk is really tasty and good for you. The girl goats are very gentle (they like to have you scratch their heads between their horns). I had a friend in North Carolina who whenever he got in his jeep to drive around his property, his goat would jump in the back just like a dog. The main thing you'll notice about Billy goats (a Billy is a boy goat) is how BAD they smell. For some reason the Billys think that the worst they smell the more the girl goats will like them. It's kind of funny because they smell SOOOOO bad! Something else goats are known for is eating almost anything. The joke is that they will even eat a tin can. Because they'll eat almost anything, many people use them to clean up overgrown pastures and wooded areas. I am thinking about getting a few goats for their milk and to keep the underbrush in my woods under control. Speaking of goats and their sure footedness, here is a video of a tight rope walking goat with a monkey who does hand stands on his horns. I can't imagine how they taught the goat to walk the tight wire? Can you?

I love you, Ethan,
Granddaddy
931-598-9160
PS. Did you like your Spiderman hat?
PSS. I put the picture of you smiling and swinging on my computer desktop so I get to see your picture every day! I love you!

You may like this kitty cat, Ethan?

You may like this kitty cat, Ethan?

Click here

And this "stupid pet trick" from the David Letterman show:


And a song with cute pictures to make you smile: Click here

Ethan, here are some very nice photographs:
It's SPRING... HALLELUJAH!
"Do you mind if I rest here for a minute, Mom?"
Hang in there!
All together now...
I'm hungry, Mommy!
I love you, baby boy,
Granddaddy
PS. Call me sometime 931-598-9160

Here are some funny dog videos, Ethan

Childproof drawer:

Talking dogs:

I love you, little man!
Granddaddy
931-598-9160

Switzerland... what a beautiful country!

Ethan, in 1971 when I was a Lieutenant in the Navy, my ship was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea for six months. Along with all the normal "Navy stuff" that we did as a ship we also visited some really interesting ports including Naples & San Remo, Italy; Athens & Corfu, Greece; the island of Malta & Palma (Majorca) and Turkey. All of them were fun places to see - each in its own unique way. The highlight of all the places that I got to see was Switzerland. Switzerland, you say? Don't you know, Granddaddy, there are no ports for a ship to visit in Switzerland!? You're right, baby boy... in fact, here is a map of Europe showing where Switzerland is and showing clearly that it is "land-locked" (no part of the Swiss border is on the Mediterranean Sea).How did I have the opportunity to visit Switzerland? My close friend, Charlie Ingram, and I decided we wanted to see the Swiss Alps so we took several days leave (Navy terminology for vacation). We rented a car and drove from San Remo on the Italian Rivera north into France, then back into northern Italy and then into Switzerland. The countryside in Northern Italy was amazing because it was beautiful and there were lots of medieval castles on both sides of the highway.Switzerland was even more incredibly beautiful than Italy. Our trip was in October so it was autumn - cool, chilly at night and clear. Charlie and I spent the night in a neat little hotel and then drove back to the ship on the Italian coast the next day. Here are some pictures of that beautiful country:This is one of Switzerland's castles:
For some reason this building reminds me of the place where Charlie and I spent the night:
Look how squeaky clean this Swiss street is:
WOW! Isn't this beautiful!?
In another blog post I'll tell you a funny story about something that happened to Charlie and me on our trip to Switzerland.
I love you, Ethan,
Granddaddy
PS. Call me sometime 931-598-9160
PSS. This is my favorite picture of you... looks like you LOVE to swing!:

ABCs?

Ethan, has your Mommy taught you your ABCs yet? This ABC game might be fun for you to play:

Click Here

I love you baby, boy... do you like your Spiderman hat?
Granddaddy
Call me sometime 931-598-9160

Trains, trains and more trains

This is a video about a model railroad in Germany. It's the largest miniature train layout in the world. They have trains, ships, cars, buses, trucks, mountains, bridges... it's just like real life.

I love you, Ethan!
Granddaddy
Call me sometime 931-598-9160

Dogs are REALLY funny!

Ethan, this dog doesn't know his front end from his back end... he is enjoying his bone and doesn't want to share it with ANYBODY (sharing is a good thing... especially sharing with your baby brother/sister when he/she arrives this summer).

I love you,
Granddaddy
931-598-9160
PS. Let me know if you like your new hat... you should get it Monday.

Do you like getting mail, Ethan?

Do you like getting mail, Ethan? I'm going to send you a package today... it has a few things in it you may like? There's also a few things in there for your Mommy and Daddy too but I addressed the box to you because I thought you'd like to get your own mail.I love you, baby boy,
Granddaddy
931-598-9160

"Don't judge a book by looking at the cover"

Hey, little man... I know that your Mommy and Daddy will teach you the the Biblical principle to not judge people (by their appearance or otherwise) but this video is a wonderful real life example of "don't judge a book by looking at the cover." When Susan Boyle came on stage on Britain's Got Talent, you could tell by the three judges' faces that they had already determined that she would bomb during her singing performance. For heavens sake she was frumpy, "cheeky" and very nervous... but it didn't take but one or two notes and all of the judges' jaws dropped open in amazement of her magnificent voice. It's a good lesson to learn: click here.
I love you, Ethan,
Granddaddy
931-598-9160

Have fun coloring these pictures, Ethan

Have fun coloring these pictures, Ethan:

Click Here

I love you, baby boy!

Granddaddy

931-598-9160

Happy Easter, Ethan!

"He is Risen... the Lord is Risen indeed!"

I love you, Ethan,
Granddaddy
Call me sometime: 931-598-9160

When I was a little boy...

Ethan, when I was a little boy in the fifties life was very different than it is now. I grew up before cell phones or Internet or voice mail... TV was even black & white until the 1960s. I have very fond memories of living in this house in Nashville, Tennessee catching lightening bugs at night in the summer and playing hide and seek in all the nearby yards just after dark... it was really fun:

We would get on our bikes and ride for miles all over the neighborhood which was called Belle Meade (named for this famous 19th century plantation house that was located just at the end of our street... former Vice President Al Gore lives in Belle Meade now):
We knew we had to be home by dark and since there was virtually no crime in the area our parents never worried about us being gone for hours. Your Mommy and Daddy will take good care of you but you won't have the freedom that I did growing up. I'm sorry that you will miss the sweet time of the 1950s.
Here are some the things we loved to do in our play time:

• We'd lie on our backs and watch the clouds float by and imagine what shapes they made.
• Popsicles came with two "sticks" so you could break the icy treat into two pieces and share it with a friend.

• Saturday morning was great fun because of all the TV shows we liked to watch: Fury, Sky King, Tom & Jerry, Mighty Mouse:

• Here's another black & white toothpaste ad staring Bucky Beaver... "brusha, brusha, brusha... here's the NEW Ipana for your teeeeeth:We didn't drink many Cokes back then... the popular drink was Kool-Aid... a pack was just 5 cents and made two quarts of great tasting "juice."
• Before we started liking girls, we would say that girls had "cooties" (little imaginary bugs) and we would fold a piece of paper into "cootie catchers" which were like a paper bird's beak to peck around and catch imaginary cooties:

• One of the things we'd do for fun was to spin around and around to get dizzy and laugh until we hurt when we couldn't keep our balance and would fall down.

• If we'd have to make a decision, we'd do "eeny-meeny-miney-mo:"
  

• When I was a little boy you could take a dollar bill (Silver Certificate) into a bank and they would give you a silver dollar... now it takes about 20 dollars (Federal Reserve Notes) to buy that same silver dollar.
• Your Mommy will stay home with you but when I was a little boy almost all my friends' Mommys stayed home to raise their children. Each family only had one car. Here is a picture of what one of ours looked like.
• We would take a clothes pin and attach a playing card to our bike spokes so the bike would sound like a motor cycle when we rode it down the street.

It was really fun being a little boy back then... I hope you enjoyed me telling you about it.
I love you, Ethan,
Granddaddy
PS. Call me sometime 931-598-9160

Ethan, can you find the bunny in each picture?

Happy Easter, my little man... Jesus is Risen... the Lord is Risen indeed!
I love you,
Granddaddy
Call me 931-598-9160

Brrrrr... it's cold here, Ethan

I remember the first April after I moved to Tulsa (1982)... it was even before your Mommy, Aunt Kitty and Mommy's Mommy joined me in Oklahoma (Kitty wasn't born until May 3rd in Waynesville, NC)... it snowed 6 inches on April 5th. It was gone by noon but snow in April in Oklahoma (or Tennessee) is VERY unusual. Well, we got snow last night here in Tennessee... it was only an inch or so but it snowed and was beautiful:
White roof and new coat of white stucco:
Beautiful snowy woods:
Snow covered vehicles:
Ethan, this is another video that I think you'll enjoy... it took a lot of practice for these girls to coordinate their jump roping!... this was performed as the half-time program at a basketball game at the Naval Academy where I went to college... have your Mommy click here to watch it.
Pretty amazing, huh!?
I love you sweet boy,
Granddaddy
P.S. Call me sometime 931-598-9160.

The response of a Christian/U.S. Marine

This is a good story, Ethan whether or not it's true. Your Great-Granddaddy Mauldin (my Daddy and a World War II U. S. Marine veteran) would do a similar thing. When he would read an obituary in the newspaper and the deceased person had no family, Daddy would attend the funeral just so there would be someone there to acknowledge that person's life. My Daddy was a good man, a good Marine and accepted Jesus as his Savior late in his life.
A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.
'Your son is here,' she said to the old man.
She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened.
He was heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand.
The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed.
All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted
ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength.
Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest
awhile. He refused.
Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.
Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.
Along towards dawn, the old man died.
The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.
Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.
'Who was that man?' he asked.
The nurse was startled, 'He was your father,' she answered.
'No, he wasn't,' the Marine replied. 'I never saw him before in my life.'
'Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?'
'I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn't here.
When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed.'

The Holy Spirit arranged for that young Marine to be there for that old man so he wouldn't have to die alone.
I love you, Ethan,
Granddaddy
931-598-9160