How time flies

My husband and I celebrated our 12th anniversary a couple weekends ago. We finally got a chance to get away from the kids for a while as well. We called up grandma and grandpa to see if they would take the kids for us so we could drive all the way to Spokane for an evening of dinner and each others company (with no kids!). Well grandma and grandpa, stilling having a life, had made plans for Saturday to go to my mom's sisters for the day (party and games I'm sure it was). But good for them, I'm glad my parents have never given up on life. So we agree that Sunday would be fine for us as well.

So Sunday we went to Clinkerdager's for dinner. Had I not had a gift certificate to cover our dinner I would never have gone there. Don't get me wrong I loved it the food was delicious and the view would have been beautiful if it hadn't already gotten dark, but they were so expensive. My pockets don't run that deep. James' plate was $27 alone. But it was great.

Anyway I enjoyed our anniversary. Sometimes I look back and think I don't feel that old, or look that old, so how can I have been married for so long? At times it feels like just yesterday that I married my high school sweetheart.

It was our junior year in high school, at Thomas Downey High in Modesto, CA. I was sitting in the library at school with a friend of mine. In walks this good looking kid wearing a cream and black sweater (which I think I still have) with shoulder length black hair. He walked up to my friend Sarah and they talked for a minute. I remember looking at him and wishing she would introduce us, but she didn't. When he left I slapped her. "Ouch what was that for," she said. "You didn't introduce me!" I replied.

I didn't see him again until the second semester when I got my schedule changed so I could be a teachers aid for a teacher I never had, but really liked her, Mrs Jackie Jones. I think of her quit often. She had a debilitating degeneration of her hips. I know the last time I went back to visit her she was no longer teaching. I hope she is doing well, because she is often in my thoughts. Anyway, I think she knew James and I were meant to be together. She never stopped us from spending time together, and even took pride in the fact that we meet in her class and later were married. Now I remember the last time I went to visit her was to introduce her to our little boy Christopher when he was a little baby. She would have loved to have meet him.

What I didn't know at the time was James had been putting himself in my path many times since our sophomore year, but I wouldn't give him the time of day that year. He finally talked to one of our other mutual friends and found out I didn't like ear rings, his holy shirts, or the long scraggly hair. So that morning when we meet in the library he had trimmed up his hair, lost the ear ring and was wearing that beautiful sweater. Then when I meet him again in Mrs Jones class I was so excited. We had many times to set and visit and get to know each other.

Then on Valentines Day that year he asked me out with a single rose set beautifully in a container with Baby's Breath. Of course I said yes. Our friends and teachers thought we were a perfect couple. It was my parents that we would have the rocky road with. But after I broke up with him twice (parental influence) we were engaged, and then of course I had to hand him back the ring once too, and then take it back and leave home for the weekend. Even my mother-in-law remembers the morning that I showed up to break up with him the last time. He was still in bed and I went in to give him the ring. I was too upset to talk so I just walked out and he went running up after me in his underwear. Talk about an embarrassing moment for mom. Eventually my parents learned to except that we were getting married weather they liked it or not.

A lot happened that year in 1993. I graduated a few days after going to my grandmother's funeral, and then James and I were married on the 12th of November that year.

I won't say it has been perfect or without our hard times, but we have always stuck together and listened to each other, talked out our problems, never fight in front of the kids, actually we rarely fight, and above all we always make up (that's the best part). I think what has made our marriage so strong is that we both have a great respect for each other, we are best friends, and great lovers.

I hope for many more great years.

Stumped

Well I got as far as I could with the new information I had obtained about my husbands mother's family. Now it's time to take another break from the genealogy search. I don't go at this non stop.

If you are on the hunt for your family be prepared for this to take a long long time, maybe even years to find all the lines of your family. Don't get discouraged. I highly recommend when you hit several road blocks and you are feeling discouraged, then put it aside. I've done this several times because I didn't want to get burned out. I have other hobbies as well that I pick up when I need something new. I find that when I rotate my hobbies I don't get sick of them and I tackle them with new enthusiasm each time.

I picked up my daughter's quilt again this morning. As well as some cake decorating I'm going to tackle today. I've got two birthdays around the corner that I need to practice my cakes again for. My middle boy and daughter will both be having their birthday's next month and I'll make both of their cakes. I'll tell you it have gotten rediculouse how much a cake costs now, when I have found that my cakes taste just as good and look well almost as good.

This preciouse little think will be turning 1 year old in about three weeks and I need to come up with a cute cake idea for her birthday cake.

Then our middle boy will be four at the end of December and he has become a big fan of Bob the Builder. So for him I need to practice building a Bob and one of his trusty tractors. That should be a challenge.

Genealogy, Getting Started 2

I stumbled across a list of helpful hints on Oprah.com tonight. By Regina Lewis, AOL Online Advisor

Genealogy Getting Started

This is some of the same advise I gave before and more. As well as a list of more websites you will find useful in your search for you ancestors.

My latest success story has been with my husband's mother's family. Her and her mother visited this last week, and over the last two weeks I have uncovered a great deal about Grandma's Connor family and even about the Martin part of the family we didn't know about. I was searching on Rootsweb again, looking over some of the same notes and research I had seen before when I happened to notice an email of William Conner's great granddaughter listed as a source of information. I emailed her, and to my surprise not only was she willing to share information, but she also shared photos which I spoke about before. So keep going back over old sites and notes when your stumped, and you'll discover something you missed the last time. Don't forget to share with others also researching the same surnames, and in the end it will be a very rewarding experience.

Now if only I can find information on Grandma when she and her siblings were in an Oklahoma orphanage, or information on her mother either.

I have enjoyed the stories some of you have shared with me about your searches for you family. Keep it up, and happy hunting.

Something Special

I have found my genealogy research to be very addictive, fun, interesting, and so much more. But the best part is how rewarding it can be when you can share what you have found with others, especially those close to you.

As a genealogy researcher don't be stingy with you finding. When you share with other it will come back to you ten fold. I recently stumbled across the email of the great granddaughter of my husbands great great grandfather William Monroe Conner. Donna was more than happy to share information with me and I shared what I could with her. Later I got the very pleasant surprise that she was more than happy to share pictures with me. That's the best! It's great to find information and even stories about your ancestors, but to get pictures is icing on the cake!

My mother-in-law Kathy and her mom Estell showed up Saturday for a visit with us. I set down and shared all the new information with them that I had just discovered, some of it while they were driving up here. They were so excited and happy, but the best part was to see how much Grandma looked like an ancestor she didn't even know she had. Rachel E Martin was William Monroe Conner's mother, so she would have been Grandma's great grandmother. Here is a picture of each.




Now Grandma and Mom are on their way to pick up Grandma's Sister to bring back here so I can share all the stories and pictures about their family with them.

Now if we could only find information on Grandma's mother and her family. All we know is her name was Flora Mae Manning, daughter of Tom Manning, her mother's name is unknown. She was born in OK in 1911 and died after child birth in TX in 1940. Grandma was only 10 when she died and wants to know more about her mother than anyone else.

So get on the internet and find other relative. Let's share our stories and pictures in order to preserve the history of our ancestors who weren't famous enough to end up in the history books.