Posted by taneya on August 16, 2009 under Family, Photos, Trips | 
In the last post, I talked about the beginning of our family vacation where we went to Evansville, Indiana to pick up my oldest two stepsons. Day 2 was spent on the road.
Our vacation destination was Talladega, Alabama, home of my father-in-law and his family. My youngest stepson lives in Atlanta, so we had to pick him up. So, on Sunday Jul 31, we drove through 5 states in one day!
One of the highlights along the way was Jihad’s consumption of dried venison. He’d been asking for beef jerky all week, so Kalonji bought him some smoked venison and smoked elk to see if he would eat it.
And, eat it he did!
it was a sight to see. 
The drive through Tennessee was of course beautiful as always when we approached the Chattanooga area. I always enjoy seeing the mountainside.
We arrived in Talladega around 10pm that night and I was very glad to hit the pillows. Road trips are tiring.
Posted by taneya on August 11, 2009 under Family, Photos, Trips |
We’ve just recently returned from our family vacation and I have a lot to report on! So, I’ll be doing a blog post to cover each day, along with additional blog posts on my genealogy blog for those events that are more genealogy related.
We were fortunate to be able to have all the boys with us for the vacation and I could not have been happier. The boys are 14, 12, 11, & 8 now and it had been a year since we have all been together. Kaleya of course was right up in the midst of everything they were doing and enjoyed being with all of her brothers.
Our trip started on Saturday morning, August 1 with us leaving Nashville to go to Evansville to pick up Kamau & Miles. Unlike many of our trips to Evansville, we actually left pretty early and arrived around noon. When we got there, Kamau & Miles were at a local church taking a cooking class. Kamau is interested in going to culinary school and apparently they’ve been cooking with the church group all summer. The boys made Spicy Chili Mac w/ the help of Granny Kit-Kat and took it over to the church. After everyone had their dishes together, the group sat down to “sample” the food
Here is Miles as he gets some macaroni & cheese another church member made
Meanwhile, I was keen to note that the church we were at was VERY close to the Evansville Public Library. Since I was hoping that I could spend some time at the library to do some genealogy research, this was the perfect opportunity to ask Kalonji if he’d drop me off. He obliged and I spent several hours looking up dead people. It was great! Read my genealogy blog for more details.
That evening we relaxed with the family. Kalonji gave Miles a haircut and of course Kaleya had to try and help.
Notice that she and Kalonji are wearing matching t-shirts? Hip Hop Harry is a show that Kaleya started watching a couple of years ago. Rap is used as an educational tool and the guy who plays Hip Hop Harry is the same one that did Barney. Kalonji ordered matching tees for the two of them so now whenever one wants to wear it, the other has to as well . It’s kinda cute.
The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in preparation for our road trip on Sunday.
Posted by taneya on August 5, 2009 under General Ramblings |
BIRMINGHAM SUNDAY
(September 15, 1963)
Four little girls
Who went to Sunday School that day
And never came back home at all–
But left instead
Their blood upon the wall
With spattered flesh
And bloodied Sunday dresses
Scorched by dynamite that
China made aeons ago
Did not know what China made
Before China was ever Red at all
Would ever redden with their blood
This Birmingham-on-Sunday wall.
Four tiny little girls
Who left their blood upon that wall,
In little graves today await:
The dynamite that might ignite
The ancient fuse of Dragon Kings
Whose tomorrow sings a hymn
The missionaries never taught
In Christian Sunday School
To implement the Golden Rule.
Four little girls
Might be awakened someday soon
By songs upon the breeze
As yet unfelt among
Magnolia trees.
Poem by Langston Hughes
