Hi everyone,

Well it's been back to school week this past week, with James starting back on Thursday and myself on Tuesday. A few of you sent messages to me for Australia Day and thank you very much for them. It was a fairly quiet day for us here, but there were certainly lots of celebrations all around the country. Our Australian of the Year was a man who has been instrumental in
immunizing children in 3rd world countries, a very worthy winner I think, and the Young Australian of the Year was Ian Thorpe, who is a very well known young swimmer out here. If you don't know his name yet you might after the Olympics, because he is expected to do very well. He is a very tall young man, but only about 16 I think...very shy and unassuming. He
seems really nice.

I have seen quite a few movies and theatre things lately, just at the end of the holidays. I saw American Beauty and also Snow Falling on Cedars. Very enjoyable. As you can tell there's not a lot of Waltons news I can share with you this week, so you get Kearney news instead, and there's not even a lot of that! Oh well. Talk to you all again next week. I hope you're not absolutely freezing over there. There seems to be a lot of very bad storms from what I see on the news. Stay warm.

Goodnight everyone,
Karen.

Dear Karen,

I have just returned from a trip to Tennessee to see my college age children. I thought that since I was that far north of the Atlanta area (where I live), I should drive on up in to Virginia. I really love the rolling hills, old houses and barns. I did have it in my mind to go by the Walton Museum but when I got to that area of the country, I found out that it is open seasonally. According to my information, it will not be open until the first Sat. in March. I just thought other Walton fans
would want to know this. Even though I was disappointed at not being able to go to the museum, I enjoyed visiting Monticello and other historic places in the area.

Sincerely, Susie

KAREN'S COMMENT: What a shame you missed the museum Susie. I believe it does close for the winter. Thanks for making us all aware of it.

Regarding Jim Bob getting married---
I believe according to what was said Jim Bob was the one who never got married. Of course it is possible for there to be a double wedding of Elizabeth and Erin

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: It's certainly not unheard of in a large family, for one child to remain unmarried, so you could be right about that. What about Elizabeth not marrying, but putting her life into some sort of missionary work? :-)

Actually they might have Elizabeth and Erin marrying in a double wedding! They could have a tribute to Grandma too, as the family members get ready for the wedding and each could remember their own special Grandma moments. :-)

This would sure be a fantastic story line. I started keeping a diary when my own dad died and my kids were just 11 and 8..... I wrote to "letters to daddy" of things I knew he'd have liked to know about me and my hubby, Tim, and our sons as they grew...

My sons have taken a few to read now (they are 37 and 34) and find it interesting how I really related with my dad and how what he was like... they were so busy growing to be 8 and 11 and he was so sick that they often didn't realize how truly neat he was..... so the idea of the flashbacks would be neat.....

Carole

KAREN'S COMMENT: I've always thought that this sort of thing is such a nice idea Carole. I often think about starting to write down bits and pieces, simply because I don't want stories to be lost. My children aren't really interested now, but they might be in the future, and maybe their children will want to know what their Grandmother (me :-)) was like growing up. I have an Aunt who's a writer, my Dad's sister, and she keeps me supplied with all sorts of stories about my Great Grandmother and her sisters, whom she stayed with when she was growing up. My GG died when I was a baby.

Sandy,

You can't order by e-mail, but you can down load an order form. I would recommend mailing in the order. I had trouble trying to fax it. They are very reliable.

Don

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for your help Don. Mailing it doesn't take long and I think it's preferable if you're including a credit card number too.

Hello Karen,

Have just received the digest today. Excellent news about Tim - congratulation to him on both the license and the University place. I do so enjoy your weekly digests and hearing from every one. A quick introduction from Christchurch. I'm an only child and have always loved the Waltons - my own children tease me about my unwavering devotion to the program. Anyway we have twins who are 18 1/2years old (Roberta and Philip) and Sam who is 15yrs old. We have a large home part of which my Parents (Grandma and Grandpa Moore!!) have as their own flat. We also have 1 (or sometimes 2) overseas students living here. We have 5 cats, 1 dog, birds and fish - hens are on their way. I have worked as a medical receptionist but this year I am starting teachers college to train as a kindy teacher (3years). I would love to email or snail mail any one who would like to write. My other interests are quilting, country music (John Denver), reading, movies, gardening especially herbs. Thanks again Karen.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Nice to hear of a Waltons fan from NZ. You'd need a large home with everyone and everything which needs to fit! Good luck with the studying. I went back to train as a teacher some years ago and it was just the best idea for me. I loved it.