Sunday, June 28, 2009

Jamboree Memories!!

First of all I want to thank Thomas at Geneabloggers and Denise at The Family Curator for all they did for the Genea-bloggers, the gift bag they had put together was wonderful, the beads Thomas provided, I wore proudly! The Muffins Denise made were so good! The Genea-bloggers dinner was incredible and spending time with everyone was priceless. Thank you Thomas and Denise, thank you!

Just arrived home from the 2009 SoCal Genealogy Jamboree and I can tell you it was fantastic. I had the best time and met so many people...fantastic people! I had the Honor of meeting DearMYRTLE and footnoteMaven! Incredible Ladies!

I have taken photos and brought home lots of reading material. My favorite treasure is the complimentary chart from Janet at The Chart Chick, "Generation Maps", I have already been to Target, purchased a frame and will be locating a wall to hang it on! I love it. I will take photos of it and share it here. She can really do beautiful things with charts.

I have to unpack, organize, download photos and then I will be ready to post my experience and finds! All I can say is that Genealogy People are the best people on the planet, they get it! I also want to list everyone but want to make sure I don't forget anyone so I will be including that in my post too.

I am still on a high from the weekend, looking forward to next years Jamboree already!

Monday, June 22, 2009

SoCal Genealogy 2009 Jamboree Bound!!

It has been a while since I have posted, I have had alot on my plate which I will update you in this post.

I am heading for the SoCal Genealogy 2009 Jamboree and I cannot tell you how excited I am! This is a first for me, I have never been to a Genealogy event or convention. I have only done one road trip (and it was a major one) to Kentucky to research my ancestors and meet my Aunt Virginia for the first time, we did not know each other existed! It was an awesome trip and I learned quite a bit.

I am so looking forward to meeting many of my fellow Genea-bloggers and Genea-bloggers on Facebook family. Having my blog and connecting with so many wonderful, supportive people has made a huge difference in my life, my research and learning how to do Genealogy and to make awesome friends. Thomas is my mentor along with Cheryl, Becky, Tammy (Who's your Daddy), Randy Seaver, Elyse, Miriam, Judith and many many more. It's going to be a great time and I can hardly sleep! We are going up on Friday afternoon, checking into our Hotel, then Sat will be at the Jamboree all day, and then I am really looking forward to having dinner with all the Genea-bloggers and their family members that are with them. Unfortunately I will have to come home on Sunday, money kind of gets in the way so a full weekend was not affordable but don't get me wrong I am very grateful for what time that I will have there.

I am really looking forward to meeting DearMrytle and Maureen Taylor and many more that have taught me so much thru blogging. So...hopefully I will see you there.

My Mom~

Mom ended up back in the hospital once again and was very ill. In my previous posts she was in the hospital on Mother's Day with an "Aorta Aneurysm". She was kept for about a week and then released. She just was never the same. About 3 weeks ago, she became very ill again with massive chest pains and again was admitted to the hospital, this time they took it a step further which in my opinion should have been done last time, she would not have gone thru all of this had it been caught. After about 3 days of morphine and vomiting continuously and major chest pains the doctor had her rushed via ambulance from Kaiser in Fontana to St. Bernadine's in San Bernadino. The Cardiologist decided they could not wait any longer and Kaiser there in Fontana was not equipped to handle open heart surgery if needed. As soon as she had arrived at St. Bernadine's she was taken straight to surgery, it was determind that she had a collapsed main artery just below her previous stent that had been put in 4 years ago. That had been the problem the entire time!! The Cardiologist she has now is outstanding. She had had 2 heart attacks and was not getting blood to her heart. She has pre-existing Angina and blocked arteries on both sides. One side is about 80% blocked but too small for a stent. The other side has a stent but was the artery that had collapsed just below the stent. She was not in good shape, plus she has the Aorta Aneurysm. After about 2 weeks and lots of rest, I can report that Mom is getting back to normal and her old self...stubborn and full of vinegar! Thank goodness, I wasn't sure how this was going to go, it didn't look good there for awhile. She is doing much better and must be checked every 2 months if she doesn't have any problems in between.

She is now teaching me German, I call her each and everyday and say goodnight to her and I try and talk to her in German! Something I should have learned when I was little!

The Hubby~

After 29 years working with the city of San Diego, my husband has retired. It was an early retirement due to the "stuff" the city is pulling with the 6% decrease in pay as of July 1st and messing with his lifetime medical. He had signed up for the "Drop Program" 2 years ago and had 3 to go but with the changes he decided to go early. He was definitely not ready to retire and is already going nuts! He is looking for something to do and he will find it but it takes time and he has no patience! I can understand how he feels, he loved his job and is way too young to just stop.

My daughter graduated College and is going to SDSU in the fall, I am very proud of her. She is getting her teaching credentials.

Me...I am still working full time and can't wait to retire someday soon! So... much has been on my plate and I have missed blogging. I will be back to blogging much more after the Jamboree and will share my experience and what I have learned when I get back. Hopefully some of you still remember me!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Puckerbrush Blog Award~ Thank you Becky

Once again I have received an award that I hardly feel worthy of but am very grateful and surprised! Thank you Becky at Grace and Glory, you are so very sweet, and gave this to me at a time that I needed a smile on my face! In another post I will fill all in on events but I have had alot on my plate and my Mom was back in the hospital again, much more serious this time around.

As I have said before, the Genea-blogger family is an incredible group and at times I feel closer to them than my own family! We know each other and get each other! Many more deserve this award far more than I do, I have barely contributed, but I am very grateful that Becky has given this award to me, she has been one that has stuck by me as well as Cheryl at Heritage Happens and Thomas at Destination: Austin Family, like Becky, Thomas is my mentor too, what an incredible person and one that we all have learned so much from. If it weren't for Cheryl at Heritage Happens, I would not be here, she has been an incredible amount of support and makes sure I am taken care of! Thank you all, you have all received this award and so I will pass this on to 10 others that I follow daily and learn from and make a difference in my life and blog. I hope one day that I too will be able to contribute and make a difference to others. I am very grateful for being able to be a part of this Genea-blog family, thank you to all of you.


The award was created in honor of genealogy blogger Janice Brown by Terry Thornton, author of "Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi", who explained that "Janice told us all about the word 'puckerbrush' in an article she posted August 27, 2007 at "Cow Hampshire". Terry elaborated a bit further in a comment: 'On any land allowed to go fallow and left untended, a wild assortment of wild plants grow – in some areas, this wild growth results in such a thicket of plants that it is almost impossible to push your way through the growth. So it is with the growth of blogs --- so many that it is impossible to read them all. But in the puckerbrush eventually a few plants/trees become dominant and influence all who view them through the thick surrounding puckerbrush. And it is those outstanding blogs whose influence spreads beyond just the surrounding rabble of puckerbrush that I'm honoring.' Terry issued this challenge: Henceforth these awards will be called the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence. All blog authors are hereby challenged to name the ten blogs which have influenced their writing the most and list them as a tribute to Janice --- the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Awards for Excellence.

To the next 10 that very much deserve this award~


Leah at Random Notes
Tammy at Whos your Daddy
Cindy at Everythings Relative
Becky at Kinexxions
Elizabeth at Little Bytes of Life
Terri at The Ties That Bind
Sheri at Twig Talks
Jessica at Jessica's Genejournal
Janet at Janet the Researcher
Cheryl at Two Sides of the Ocean


Thank you for contributing, helping, and making a difference.