I'm Older

A few weeks ago was my birthday. I am now 62 years old, I love it. This is the one that counts. It's the big one. The actual best one. Know why? It's the one where the government pays me. Yep. They start to pay me back for all the years I worked and they took big chunks of my pay check. I am looking forward to drawing Social Security, going into places and getting the senior's discount, and having more time in my life for the important things. Like quilting, scrap booking and just hanging out with my honey and my friends.

Getting older is not bad, but don't be fooled,,,,,,,,,it's not for the faint of heart. Getting older is a challenge, one you can't avoid, and stay alive, that is.

Today I met an acquaintance in a fast food restaurant. I spoke to the young man, calling him by name, but he was confused as to how I knew him. His co worker said "Oh, I bet she's an old teacher of yours." I said "what's up the OLD?" And he quickly amended his comment to former.

It's stuff like that, that you have to watch out for. I know I'm getting older and slower, but I think in many ways I am better than ever. I know my faults and short comings and I do try to get better at being the kind of person people will want to be with, especially my family.

God help me to be the kind of person that is kind and caring to those around me and help me to remember that every one I meet is put there by You.

Family History

I have scrap booked for a while now. I started in 1995. I know that was a bit late. All three of our children were out of school. I mean clear out, finished with college and one was already married. I took a class with  a group of people interested in chronicling the history of our church. It turns out we moved to Texas shortly after that, but I had been bitten by the scrap booking bug. It's quite a determined bug and once it has you, it won't let go. Up until this point I had taken as many pictures of our children, family, events, occasions, graduations,etc as any one else. But they were all in boxes, or drawers or under the bed or what have you. I had started one album when Sharon was little, I think there were three pages in it, but that's all.
I am pleased to announce that I have completed well over a dozen albums now and have several more that I am working on.

Genealogy has interested me, but I have never gone to any lengths to dig. That is until now. I signed up on Ancestry. com last week and have made some progress in documenting my mother's family tree. My mother was not married when I was born and I have only a sketchy idea of my father. So I was trying to find something on him. It seems, though, that if you don't know anything finding something is pretty impossible.

I did make contact with a cousin from Syracuse, NY, however, and found that she has been digging also. I am anxious to compare notes with her and see if she has names and dates from the German ancestors. I know that all of our grandfather's family was here in this country from the late 1800's. It's interesting and pretty exciting when you find something unexpected.

The best thing that could come out of this search would be if I could re-connect with my living relatives. I haven't had much contact with any of them since I left home in the 60's and joined the USAF.
My family and I moved back to the Buffalo area in the late 80's for only a couple of years, but the contact was brief and since my uncles, and mother have passed away, I never had much contact with my cousins. We weren't really close when I was growing up either, don't really know why, but there it is.

I think family is important, and even if you don't agree politically, or religiously, you do have a common heritage that is part of what makes you you. For better or for worse, it's who we are and should not be disregarded. Therefore, I am going to look into the past for at least a little while and see what I find. Who knows what's out there. A lady I used to go to church with once discovered that her great, great, etc grand father was part of the troops with General George Washington at Valley Forge. How cool is that?
                                                      
                                                            
                                                                               

Happy Birthday, Deb

She's my friend. She doesn't judge me. But, she doesn't sugar coat it either, she tells me what I need to hear even when she knows I won't like it. She calls, and reads my blog faithfully, and ALWAYS leaves a comment. She seems to enjoy my company, and I, we, ofcourse enjoy her very much. It's your Birthday Deb. The day your mother couldn't wait for. The day you always held your breathe for when you were a little girl. A day full of great expectations, and most importantly,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the day that brings us one year closer to Social Security. Yeah, celebrate, have a blast, blow a horn, ring a bell. Remeber going to Farrel's for birthday party, and the 'Pig trough'. Now that was a good time.

                                         Loveya and miss you, can't wait for our next adventure.






 

It's Tuesday

For quite sometime my first born has been calling on Tuesday morning and announcing, "It's Tuesday". She doesn't do it quite so much any more, since I would answer rudely BY saying, "WHAT?", quite loudly. I think she was put off by it. I just meant it to be an endearing thing I said in a sort of Kathryn Hepburn sort of way. I don't think she thinks it so endearing.

My first born SS is the wife of a pastor and lives in a tiny town in Pennsylvania. They have two sons, whom I usually describe as little boys. However, as I was telling someone that last week I realized that two boys aged 14, almost 15, and 12 are no longer little boys. They are quite big boys, both in size and spirit.
SS home schools her sons every day. She tends to another young man on Tuesdays so his homeschooling mom can go to her part time job.

I think a very deep regret of both mine and my husband's is that we don't get to be with these two very much. They are kept quite busy by their church activities and we are not as able to travel as we once were.
But I do love the Tuesdays, the IM and the phone calls on non Tuesdays.

It's hard to maintain long distance relationships, it requires effort, and when one doesn't put forth the effort, the relationship suffers, wilts, withers, and fades away. I would not want that to happen. I cherish all of my children as well as any time I have with them.

I realize that most of the time, the problem is with me, but then I am the mom, and it's always your mother's fault. It's ok to blame us, we did it to our moms, and besides, we're strong and we can take it.