Searching for Rachel
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Genealogy
So I spent part of the weekend looking for Rachel - she is (or was) technically my great-great aunt.  My maternal grandfather's, mom's sister.  All I knew about Rachel is the year she was born and that at the time of my great-grandmother's death in 1930 she was listed on the obituary as Mrs. Rachel Givens from Missouri.  No one knew what her husband's name was and typically at that period of time if a woman is listed as Mrs. (her name) Surname - that generally means they were widowed or divorced.  Awhile back I finally found her in the 1900 census living in Kansas City, Missouri with her husband, Morris and 2 step-sons, William and Wheeler, and a 1 yr old daughter - (looked like) Shawn.  So yesterday after realizing that I was going to have to spread the net out a little trying to find her in the 1910 or 1920 censuses, I started using variations of the Givens.  Finally after I spelled it without the "s" on the end, I found Rachel and Maurice (spelled differently) in 1910 about the same place they were in 1900.  This time there were additional children.  Wheeler was now listed as Charles W., "Shawn" was no where to be found but Mary (about the same age as "Shawn" would have been) was there along with a son, Nathaniel and a son Arthur A., and twin daughters, Pearl and Mearl.  Rachel had listed that she was the mother of 6 children but only 5 were living - so somewhere in there was a child who was stillborn or died sometime between 1900 and 1910.  In fact I ran across the Missouri death certificate (thank you Missouri for digitizing the old death records!) so I now have a more complete look for this elusive branch of the family.  I found William in the 1920 census already married with children.  Now in 1920 Morris and Rachel were living in Wyandotte County, Kansas - so they hopped the state line somewhere in the 10 years previous.  I'm not sure my great-grandmother ever saw her sister after Rachel moved to Missouri from Indiana (where she was born and grew up).  So now I'm trying to locate Morris or Maurice in the 1890 census to see who he was married to before Rachel when the 2 oldest boys were toddlers.  Since Rachel grew up in Indiana, need to figure out if she was in Missouri visiting other relatives when she met Morris or if he was living in Indiana when they met.  I did find a Givens family living down the street from some of her relatives - but no Morris in the family - maybe he was visiting them (his relatives) when they met and he whisked her off to marry & mother his 2 children.  Oh, those elusive family members!

Miss Me?
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: family

Naw - you had way too many other things to do than wonder where I was!  So for my list of where I've been (right here) and what I've been up to this week:

1. Busy - hubby fixed the dryer last weekend so I spent all day Saturday washing sheets, clothes, etc. Then of course drying & folding or hanging up and putting away.

2. Trying to research the candidates.  I'm oh so not sure about any of them this year.  And I get so tired of the rhetoric & stuff other people say - please stop forwarding me emails about certain candidates that you don't like that puts a really bad spin on them.  This just perpetuates the dissemination of WRONG information.

3. Doing more genealogy work.  When I'm on a role - I tend to forget time.

4. Praying for various family members who have been ill, plus a preemie was born recently who really needs lots of prayers.

5. Took one of the vehicles to the shop on Wed.  Hubby took my ride so I could get his into be fixed. Glad I did!  It was dangerously close to falling apart on the road.  That meant I walked home (not so bad) & then walked back up several hours later to pick it up.  The weather that day was 70-ish & was a very pleasant walk.  But that meant that things I wanted to get done on Wed. had to wait a day.  Oh, well, more time for genealogy - right?

6. Ran errands on Thursday - some groceries, birthday presents for hubby, that sort of thing.

7. Still on Thursday - in the afternoon after getting the kids from school, hurried & fixed dinner & ran Senior Daughter to work. Home for awhile & then 1st grader had his program after the PTA meeting. Ran up there to get a parking spot & a decent seat.  He did great!  Unfortunately not very good pictures as he was behind some taller kids.  Home to drop him with hubby & then across town to pet-sit for a friend. Home in time to see the last 2 people voted off Idol & then Lost!  Then after Lost ran to pick daughter up at work!  Whoo!

8. Lost - how cool was that show!  Did anyone realize the kid might be Aaron?  I had a fleeting thought half way through the show but kept thinking it might have been Sawyer's.  Though I had to wonder as the show progressed why we had not seen the unveiling of another of the Oceanic 6!

9. American Idol - ok, gals - you need to start singing better than the guys. Although some of the guys weren't that great - all in all there was a greater percentage of them who did better than the gals.  Not sure about Amy leaving but I thought the 2 guys who left were spot on.

10. More TV - PopShawn's death on "Days of Our Lives" - did you have the hankies ready? Or when Caroline told him good bye after the rescue?  The unveiling of the TMK on General Hospital.  Diego? Are you kidding me?  Or is this one of those "bad twin" stories?  I mean Diego's father had a twin so what's to say that Diego's mother never told anyone that she had twins? Or could this be Luis' son?  MMM!

11. Pet-sitting all this weekend.

12. Taking 1st grader TODAY to a birthday party. I am not a "birthday party" parent.  Too many kids, too much noise.  In a home, I'm fine. But at one of those party places - you've got to be kidding me!

13. Hubby's birthday yesterday - made an angel food cake on Thursday & it promptly fell out of the pan when I tipped it over on the bottle to cool.  So it ended up deflating. I'm going to use it to make a butterfinger cake for our church lunch tomorrow.  So I bought him a beautiful angel food cake.  Plus he got off early from his new job (Friday's are early days!).  We discovered a great place to go to hear live music - thanks to a friend of his. Gotta wait to go when Senior Daughter is home & can babysit.

That's it - I know what you've done this week as I've been lurking on your blogs - sorry haven't had time to shout out a Hey!

 

Too Much to Do!
Mood:  party time!
Topic: Things to Do

So today is Valentines!  Happy Valentines to all out there who celebrate - either by taking your lady out to dinner or treating her to something nice, or for you ladies who make the day extra special for their men. 

Today is also the First Grader's class Valentine's party.  And did I mention I'm the room parent?  Luckily the kids in his class have wonderful parents & everyone pitches in somehow.  I have plenty of food that will be donated by the parents, several will show up to help & the kids are all wonderful.  It's just the getting ready for it part that typically stresses me out!  What craft to make?  And I'm not one for messy - no glitter, as little glue as possible - something simple.  But not too simple that first graders will think it's a "baby" craft.  Then once I've decided on what to have them do, need to go find the supplies!  Which I did yesterday - yes, procrastination should be my middle name. 

Also on tap for today - dr. appt for Senior Daughter.  I think I might have at least an hour (maybe longer) in between getting her back to school & the party.  But basically my day is shot! 

And I have tons of laundry to do - but that has to wait.  A piece of the grate in the back of the dryer drum pulled away so there's a big hole & we sure don't need an article of clothing to fall into the motor.  So hopefully hubby will get that taken care of REAL SOON!

Have a baby shower I'm going to on Sunday afternoon.  Should be fun!  It'll be the gal's 2nd baby but first boy - so the lot of us are very excited for her.  Her daughter is coming up on 3 & is the cutest thing!

Had the house torn apart yesterday looking for something the hubby is looking for.  I didn't see anything (it's a notebook of stuff) that even resembled what he wants to find.  This is more of a "wouldn't it be great if I could have it" - then needing it for real!  So I'm sure he'll go through stuff this weekend - that I've already pulled out - and do his own search.  Which will mean comments like this: "What is this & why do we still have it?"  "There is just too much stuff in this . . . " (pick a room, any room!)  "If this isn't going to be put away, it's going to be thrown away."  Well, I did my own throwing away yesterday.  I know there is more to do - just tell me where the time will come from for me to do that?

And on & on & on . . .

Just a reminder - DON'T CALL ME TONIGHT!
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Television
Just want to be clear on that!  Tonight is the 2 hour American Idol - Hollywood Week begins.  That at 9 (central time) Jericho is back!  See, I was completely wrong - I thought Jericho & Idol would be opposite each other.  Now this is way too cool!  So at 7 I will be settling in at the end of my reclining couch watching Simon either bash or praise these Idol hopefuls and then at 9, watch the citizens of Jericho learn how to handle the new order.  So you better call me before 7 if you need anything!

Climbing . . . and Falling . . . from the Family Tree
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Genealogy

So I've been on this journey to find my "roots" for the last (almost) 8 years.  Mind you, stories about my ancestors have always dotted my life.  This is one of those "wish I would have listened more to my grandmother" type things - or at least asked her many more questions.  Or told her to write the names of the people on the backs of the pictures!  If you poke around on my website, I have a genealogy page called All My Branches which has generated a lot of emails from distant cousins, relatives and whole assortment of folks wondering if I have info on "their" line.  I consider myself very lucky that I'm not one of those "don't know you, don't want to" type of people.  Hey - you're related!  How cool is that! 

Anyway the point of this post is actually to give you a hint as to what I've been up to the last few days.  Finally starting to put all my genealogy paperwork into some semblance of order.  Right now I have files with each of my branches stuff into them.  Next I'll go through those and weed them down even further - censuses, death certificates, newspaper articles, etc. 

Now back to those photos I referenced above - my mother has given me tons of old photos that she got after my grandparents died.  Luckily she knows most of the people in them so that was a major help!  Unfortunately there are some that she thinks they might be related - but not sure how - and others are just "friends" of my grandparents and she doesn't know who they are.

My husband (bless his everloving heart) indulges me - through humor - about my hobby.  Though there have been times when I hear him mutter "we'll need another wing to hold all this stuff".  As we were driving through the midwest last summer, I saw a billboard touting the wonders to be found in Rush County, Indiana.  Smart mouth that I am, said "Hey I know people buried there!"  Never missing a beat, hubby turns to me and asks - "And do you speak with them often?"  When he notices me doing more research, he asks "Back to the dead people again?" 

No, I'll never learn exactly who some of my ancestors are & when I keep hitting brick walls, it can be a struggle to keep going.  That's usually the point when I stop for awhile and concentrate on other things.  Over the last few weeks, I've heard from a couple of cousins I never knew existed and one who I hadn't heard from in a couple years.  And then I know - this quest makes it all worthwhile!

So what did you do over the weekend?

Feelin' Better - NOT THE FLU
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: family
So I'm doing better.  And it was a stomach virus.  However Senior Daughter spent all night Friday throwing up.  My hubby has the head congestion thing going.  And the person who probably unintentionally started it all - First Grader - is wonderful!  No, it's not his fault.  He had a sinus infection so I think by sitting in the dr's office with all the sick kids, I ended up with the bug.  I've been lysol-ing (is that even a word?) everything in this house.  Husband realized that Zicam works if you use it as directed!  Hopefully he'll start to feel better today.  Most of us are getting our appetites back.  Just want to reiterate once again - we do NOT have the flu!  No one has had a high fever - just the real low grade - everything hurts, can't get comfortable, too hot but chilled - fever.  I bet stock in Proctor & Gamble (Puffs tissues) & Pepto Bismal has rised in just a few days!

Superbowl
Mood:  happy
Topic: Television

So who did NOT watch the Superbowl last nght?  Or do you just have it on to see the new commercials?  Or is it just an excuse to throw/go to a party for the fun food?  Since I wasn't invested in either team (i.e. - not the Cowboys or the Chiefs), I was for either team.  Yes, I would have liked to see Belichek & Brady & the Pats have a perfect season!  But I also wanted to see Eli break free of big brother, Peyton's, shadow.  And, um, in case you didn't hear - that's what happened!  By the fourth quarter, I was yelling at either team to GO! And even got excited at a couple fumbles!  I just wanted to see some action! 

Think I should own stock in WingStop!  I ordered our wings at 4 - they said they'd be ready by 5 - 18 minutes before kick-off.  When I got there about 4:40 to pay & wait, there were at least 10 people waiting & three people in line.  By the time I left, the line was out the door!  But I think we've decided what our ultimate favorites are - Lemon Pepper & Garlic/Parmesan.  So we muched on wings through the first quarter.  Had a piece of Chocolate cake during the 4th quarter.  And how was Tom Petty?  Thought they did ok - kept it simple.  Would have liked to have heard the complete version of "Free Fallin'" - but that's ok.

And the ads - my favorite was the Bridgestone: Headlights - and that's only because Alice Cooper appears for like 3 seconds!  Enjoyed the Stewy/Underdog/Coke commercial where Charlie Brown ends up with the prized soda!  Too cute!  The baby E*Trade ads - the first one baby spits up at end - the 2nd with the "creepiness" factor of the clown!  I was a little slow about the Audi commercial doing a take-off of Godfather until Senior Daughter said "Is that supposed to be like the Horse Head scene?"  The JT magnetic pull ad was also pretty decent.  Loved the dalmation & the Budweiser horse commercial - I call it "Rocky" Horse!  Too cute.  Those I could have done without: Will Farrell, the guy who hooks himself up to charge the car battery, the Shaq commercial - poor horse! and I missed the Godaddy ad this year - and no, I'm not going to go watch it on youtube.

So did you watch the game? And what were your favorite ads?

Feelin' Crappy!
Mood:  lazy
Topic: home
Woke up & my stomach decided to do tap dancing most of the morning.  Was growling & nauseous at the same time - ugh!  Ate a few bites of jello then took a dose of Pepto Bismol.  If it was just the stomach - that's one thing but then I started getting chilled, everything aches & I feel like I have motion sickness.  And it was not only a work day but had to dash out early from work to take a kid to a dr. appt & then back to work.  Didn't quite make my regular 3 hours today - but got in 2 hours & 15 min. by the time it was all said & done.  Thought I'd come home & sleep.  First I took my temp - basically normal.  But still chilling & achy.  Set the alarm so I could wake up to get 1st grader off bus but couldn't sleep.  Just sort of laid on the couch like a zombie!  As long as I was laying down, it wasn't too bad.  Just when I had to get up & move around.  Oldest daughter called & I need to call her back (well, I did try - phone was busy!).  Dog ended up outside most of afternoon. She had wanted in before I finally got comfy on the sofa but she had dirt & dried grass all over her so she had to stay out - at least it's sunny & I think not too bad of a temp. & the wind isn't blowing a gazillion miles an hour.  Dinner is going to be whatever anyone fixes, buys or scrounges in the fridge.  I don't even want to look at food let alone stand there & cook it!  Wish me better health tomorrow!

Random Stuff
Mood:  spacey
Topic: family

• First grader came home feeling bad on Tuesday, had a low grade fever, dr. on Wed. a.m., no flu (thank goodness!), only a sinus infection (hey, it can be treated with antibiotics!), spent 98% of day on couch watching movies, sleeping or looking bored!  Back at school today.
• "Lost" was a recap last night, was too funny, someone apparently had the wit to insert text at the bottom of the screen throughout the recap - which recapped even better than what we were watching. "And since there's a break in the credits, let's talk about . . ." was just one of the funny lines.  Can't wait for this evening. DON'T CALL ME BETWEEN 7-9 P.M. central time!
• No homecooked meal for the masses yesterday - I had to meet with someone at work before 5:30 so we did a quick run through at the Arby's drive-thru.  Love those roast beef sandwiches (especially when they are on sale).
• I drank all the orange juice - should have warned Senior Daughter as she went to get some later & there wasn't any! Sorry!
• Senior Daughter will officially be out of school in March.  Hopefully (for her) she'll get more hours through the week at work.
• Got all the tax info - now I can prepare our tax return.  I'm hoping for anything back - hate to pay! But one thing - if I get it prepared early & we do see that we have to pay - still have a few months to get the cash together!
• Think hubby is coming down with a cold. I'm being optimistic tho & hoping it's allergies with the way the wind here in North Texas has been whipping crap everywhere.
• And speaking of the wind blowing crap - whose box blew into my yard?  It's empty, rather big, looks like any other cardboard box.  I'll let it go because it's really not your fault that it's here. I had to drive down the street on Tuesday looking for my trash can which a wonderful neighbor found lying in the street & at least moved to the sidewalk out of the way of people driving. Thank you, kind neighbor!
• "Days of Our Lives" is getting good - today Shirley Jones will make her debut as the "thought she was dead" Colleen Brady.  Love Shirley Jones!
• Did I mention "Lost" begins tonight?  Did I also mention that you should NOT CALL ME between 7-9 p.m.?  Ok, good, just want to make sure. 

See ya all later!

For My Daughter
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: family

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR OLDEST DAUGHTER!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Today is Oldest Daughter's 26th birthday!  So thought I'd share . . .

You came into this world after 19 hours of labor!  19 hours that I wondered just what sort of mother I would be.  But the worry turned to pure joy the moment you emerged into the world & they placed you in my arms. What a perfect baby!  Your head really didn't have that "cone" shape most babies have.  You really weren't all that "messy" from your trip to the real world.  You were pink & beautiful! Unfortunatly, because was dr. was such an a**, they wouldn't let me feed you immediately or hold you very long & they put you in this cold, metal incubator & said I had to wait 8 hours to feed you.  I have thought over these past 26 years how much I wanted to hunt that stupid dr. down & give her (yes, this is what turned me off of women drs) a piece of my mind (& maybe a bit more!).  How my arms ached to hold you during those 8 hours (at least 5 hours later they finally let me give you water & hold you for just a short period of time), to nourish you as a mother is intended, to bond with you in those first important hours of life, to place angel kisses on your perfect cheeks, and to warm you with love.  Even now, 26 years later, I want to reach back into time and have the opportunity to do it all ok.  Maybe so many things would have turned out differently. 

I watch your baby sister's birthday video and see you, a child on the verge of pre-teen-hood.  What I see is a little girl desperately wanting someone to put their arms around you all the time and tell you how special you are. I didn't do that often enough (though it wasn't just you - as there weren't enough hours in the day or enough arms to hold 4 wonderful children).  I cry for the missed chances to praise you, to tell you what a joyful miracle your birth was to me, to shower you with kisses and love. 

It took me awhile to figure this whole strange thing called motherhood.  Some things, too me longer!  But the love - oh, the love - was there from the moment you were conceived.  For so long all I ever wanted was to be a mom.  And YOU were the one who made that happen.  For those who came after you, didn't get to do that for me. ONLY YOU! 

Each of you kids have special, unique, and really neat qualities.  And I know sometimes each of you thought there was favoritism toward one of the other.  Every child on earth (who is not an only) thinks their parents do more for the others.  That's just a part of growing up.  You are my firstborn and yes, as it so happens, a part of parenthood is the ideals that flash through your mind when you discover a child is on the way.  What they will become.  What they will be like.  And on & on.  And it takes awhile - but parents have to accept the fact that their child will never be what they want them to be.  Because they are their own person.  You are who you are.  A beautiful woman with your own goals, hopes, joys and sorrows.  A mother wants to take away any pain and sorrow - but we can't - no matter how hard we try.  The ups & downs of life make us into the people we become - gives us the character we need and the strength to forge through life when rocks are being thrown. 

I miss you because you are so far away.  But I rejoice with you that you have found your niche in life.  That you are making your life - your own.  Not one that I "got" for you or one that other's got for you. But through your own choices & decisions.  You seem truly at peace and happy at this time in your life. 

Just know, my daughter, I love you - through all the ups and downs.  You are my firstborn.  You brought to me a perfect joy on this day 26 years ago.  Thank you.

I love you,

Your Mom