The Peace of Augsburg ~

Today, on August 8th, in Augsburg, Germany, the city that my mom and I were born in . . . annually celebrates the Peace of Augsburg.

The Augsburg Peace Festival is a public holiday in Augsburg. Post Offices, Banks, stores, and most businesses are closed.  This public holiday is celebrated only in Augsburg and not throughout the rest of Germany.

The celebration is held in the Rathaus Platz, a shopping mall, next to City Hall. If you like, you can watch the festivities on this live web cam, keep in mind, Augsburg is nine hours ahead. As I prepared this post, I watched as workers were busy setting up for the festivities.

The Peace of Augsburg, was a treaty established in September 25, 1555, between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League at the imperial city of Augsburg, Germany, present day, Bavaria, Germany. This treaty officially ended the struggle between two religious groups.

The Peace allowed the German princes to choose between the Lutheran or Catholic faith within the domains they controlled.  Subjects, citizens, or residents that did not conform to the prince's choice, were given a period to migrate freely to different regions where their chosen religion was accepted. On August 8th, 1629, Protestants were banned from practicing their faith in the city. The Peace of Westphalia reinstated the Augsburg Declaration of Religious Freedom in 1648. The first Augsburg Peace Festival was held on August 8th, in 1650.  


As I gleaned the information about this wonderful German city I was born in, it is my hopes that one day I can muster the courage to fly back to Augsburg (I do not like to fly!). I have deep roots in Augsburg with living family members there, it would also be an incredible experience to research my ancestry in this beautiful historic city. Augsburg was founded in 15 BC, making Augsburg, Germany's third oldest city.  I do recall mom telling me that you can still see the remains of the moat that surrounded the city centuries ago.

When I was thirteen years old, mom and I visited Augsburg and celebrated Christmas with my Oma, Opa, great-grandmother, cousins, aunts and uncles . . . it was an experience of a lifetime. I visited the Perlachtrum, a bell tower that was built in 989, originally a watchtower. Today, you can see the Perlachtrum on the live web cam and the city getting ready for the Peace of Augsburg Festival and feel as if you are there.



The print of old Augsburg, was given to me, the keeper of our family memories and records, by my Oma in Germany, when I was in my early twenties . . . this print, proudly hangs in my home today. The print is quite large so I used my Flip Pal Mobile Scanner and then used the "stitching" tool to resize it for posting here.

This is the Face(s) of Genealogy ~

This is in response to a very sad and offensive article posted at the LAWeekly website, about the upcoming Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree being held in Burbank, California from June 10-12, 2011. . You can read about it over at GeneaBloggers ~ The Face of Genealogy. 




To show what the true faces of genealogy are . . .  my favorite photo of my maternal grandparents, Liselotte Haf nee Kaiser-Saule and Adalbert Haf are proudly honored here.  

Liselotte Paula Haf nee Kaiser-Saule 1913 ~ 2010

Adalbert Haf  1907 ~ 1968

Augsburg, Germany

~ Now, these are the faces of genealogy ~

Jamboree Memories 2010 ~ Saturday and Sunday's Events ~

My GeneaBlogger Flair ~

Saturday, June 12, 2010 ~

After a full nights sleep, we met Elyse of Elyse's Genealogy Blog, Cheryl Palmer of Heritage Happens, and A.C. Ivory of Finding My Ancestors for breakfast in the Daily Grill. We ate fairly quick as we had early classes.

Elyse needed to be over at the Bloggers Summit, Session One class by 9:30. Elyse was one of the speakers on the panel and our class started at 10:00 a.m.. What a great class, speakers were: Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers, Destination: Austin Family, High-Definition Genealogy,  Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog, Elyse Doerflinger of Elyse's Genealogy Blog, Miriam Midkiff of AnceStories and Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings.  This class was all about how to start a genealogy blog. 

Blogger Summit, Session Two started right after session one so we just stayed put.  This panel of speakers were: Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers, Destination Austin Family, High-Definition Genealogy,  Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie, Schelly Talalay Dardashti of Tracing the Tribe, Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems Podcast, Family Tree Magazine Podcasts, and Kathryn Doyle of the California Genealogy Society and Library.

Session Two covered how to keep your blog going, marketing, and how blogging is beneficial to your genealogy research and possibly being profitable. Both sessions had great speakers that we all have come to know. It was also fun having all of the geneabloggers in one place getting together.

Holly Hansen, Amy Coffin, FootnoteMaven (behind Amy)

Steve Danko and Becky Wiseman

After session two of the Blogger Summit, we all headed over for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems Live Podcast, featuring interviews with Chris Haley, Maureen Taylor of The Photo Detective Blog and Suzanne Adams of Ancestry.com. Unfortunately, I had to leave about 15 minutes into the show. Steve and I had to be at a wedding in San Diego, returning to the Jamboree later that night. It was still a fun day at the Jamboree even though my day was cut a bit short there.

Photo held and owned by Gini Webb

A.C. Ivory of Find My Ancestor, Chery Palmer of Heritage Happens, Gini Webb of Ginisology, Miriam Midkiff of AnceStories, Ruth Himan of Genealogy is Ruthless Without Me (I am sorry, I don't know the person on the end's name), Barbara Renick...thank you Miriam! 

Sunday June 13th, 2010 ~

We got up early and headed for the "Bloggers Lounge". Instead of a full on breakfast we grabbed a muffin from the Coffee Bar right there in the lounge.

Cheryl, A.C. and myself headed for our first class: Timelines and Chronologies: Secrets of Genealogical Success, given by Geoff Rasmussen. I have to say, this was my favorite class and I learned quite a bit. Geoff really held a great lecture using the "Legacy" genealogy software (which we received a complimentary copy in our GeneaBlogger bags!!).  I really like how this program has such a great timeline feature and each event in a persons' life when entered, can be displayed chronologically.

Timelines can give you so much more info than say a family group sheet or pedigree chart can. Timelines are vital to our genealogy research. Geoff explains, "successful genealogy research largely depends on three factors: correct name, correct time period,  and the correct locality".

Elements of a Good Timeline
~ Year of the event
~ Event name
~ Locality, displayed in reverse order
~ Citation
~ Transcription of the document
~ Age of the individual at the time of the event

You are able to see if you have an age or date out of place. Legacy displays all potential incorrect localities and dates in your database...I am anxious to try it out.

Geoff also used AniMap, a software that displays maps of county boundaries for each state for all years for the United States and parts of Canada. AniMap will plot the locality on a map showing the jurisdictional boundaries of the time period.  The AniMap program is amazing. This program will also measure the distance between two localities, and will perform radius searches. When Geoff was showing us, I got the goosebumps and knew I had to have this program...right after the class...Cheryl, A.C. and I ran there and got in line to purchase AniMap and I am very happy I did, I know Cheryl and A.C. are too. I haven't had a chance to play with mine yet but very much looking forward to that too.

After class and buying AniMap, Cheryl, A.C. and I headed back over to the "Bloggers Lounge" where we found, Thomas, Amy, Holly, footnoteMaven, Miriam and many others. We sat and chatted and caught up on emails, blogging, Facebook, etc.. A.C. sat and helped me change my puter over to Google Chrome...thank you A.C., I love it. Took a little getting use to but I really do like it, much better than IE 8.

Amy Coffin, Holly Hansen, A.C. Ivory, (standing) Cheryl Palmer and Thomas MacEntee

Cheryl Palmer, FootnoteMaven, Gini Webb

FootnoteMaven taking a photo of someone!

After hanging out in the lounge until about 1:00 p.m., Steve and I said our goodbye's and headed for home. He works graveyard so he needed to get a few hours of sleep in before work.

I was sad to leave such great friends, old and new. We really had a great time, and I already look forward to next years Jamboree. If you haven't been able to attend the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, please try and make it next year, you won't be disappointed. Hope to see you there.

I want to thank Paula Hinkle and everyone who worked hard all year long to make the Jamboree a memorable event. Thank you to Thomas, Amy, Holly, Joan and Denise for our bloggers bag and all that you do...you guys really took care of us.

Jamboree Memories 2010 ~ Arrival and Friday's Events

The Southern California Genealogy Society 2010 Jamboree was an incredible event. I met so many new bloggers and met up with many that I had met at last years Jamboree. I really hope those that were not able to make it this year can make it next year! It sure would be nice to have all geneabloggers together.  I already have the days marked on my calendar!

I haven't had a chance to post sooner, trying to get back into the swing of things and reality! My granddaughter is graduating fifth grade on Monday, June 21, 2010, there has been a school activity each day this last week, so this post is a little late coming.

Thursday afternoon/evening June 10th, 2010 ~

After getting settled in our room at the Burbank Marriott Hotel, I headed down to the "Bloggers Lounge" to meet Cheryl from Heritage Happens...we had met at last years Jamboree. We had a bite to eat together in the Daily Grill catching up on everything and sharing our plans for our next few days ahead.

Jamboree 2009 (don't have a photo of just us this year so I am using last years photo this year!) 
Gini Webb and Cheryl Palmer

After a bite to eat we met up with footnoteMaven creator of Shades of the Departed, Becky Wiseman of Kinexxions, Miriam from AnceStories, Randy Seaver and his wife Linda (Angel) of  Genea-Musings and Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie in the "Bloggers Lounge", Thomas from GeneaBloggers was just checking in. What a great time we had just sitting around and chatting with each other. It's actually much more fun doing that than classes!

Cheryl Palmer, footnoteMaven, Gini Webb

Jamboree 2010, bloggers lounge

Thursday evening

Linda "Angel" Seaver and Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie 

                Thursday evening - Jamboree 2010

Becky Wiseman and Cheryl Palmer                                                                Gini Webb and Becky Wiseman

Friday - Jamboree 2010

We were also able to pre-register for the Jamboree on Thursday evening to avoid the large line on Friday. That sure made it nice and we were able to just head straight for classes Friday morning. We got our name tags (pre-beads and ribbon) - (2 photos above taken on Friday), Syllabus and welcome bag. The bag was very nice to carry lots of stuff around in! I also brought my rolling backpack for my laptop, by the end of the Jamboree, I had stuff everywhere.

Friday June 11th, 2010 ~

Got up bright and early Friday morning...didn't sleep but a few hours! Our hotel neighbor (non Jamboree person) decided to get up at 3:30 a.m., put heels on, clop around relentlessly, and bang things all over the place until 6 a.m.. I wasn't going to let that get to me, nor lack of sleep was going to get in the way of a great Jamboree day!

Amy Coffin, Holly Hansen, A.C. Ivory, Cheryl Palmer, and Thoma MacEntee

Steve and I had breakfast in the Daily Grill (courtesy of Marriott Hotel due to our noisy neighbor). I then met up with Cheryl and the other bloggers in the "Blogger lounge" where we had the GeneaBloggers meet up. Thomas over at GeneaBloggers, Amy at We Tree, Denise from The Family Curator and Joan Miller of the Luxegen Genealogy and Family History blog created the wonderful GeneaBloggers bag with lots of goodies in it, all I can say is we were very lucky geneabloggers! Thank you Thomas, Amy, Denise and Joan for all you did for us! 


Cheryl and I headed over to have our photos and documents scanned by Ancestry.com, what a wonderful job they did, they scanned each and every photo and document I had, and put it on this cute little thumbdrive, absolutely free of charge...thank you so much Anecstry.com! I love it. 

 Ancestry.com thumbdrive holding all of my precious Haf photos and documents

Jamboree 2010

 After dropping our photos and documents off to Ancestry.com, Cheryl and I did a bit of walking around the exhibit hall. We sat with Janet Hovorka from The Chart Chick and Generation Maps, with Janet's help, I was able to make my own pedigree chart using ChArtist. I love the program and plan to use it more often. The possibilities are endless and it's very user friendly. 

Then it was time to attend Lisa Louise Cooke's "What You Must Know To Save Your Research From Destruction" class.  I realized how important it is to have a "Genealogy Directive"...great class. You can download a free copy of the the Genealogy Directive by going to her site Genealogy Gems, after scrolling down, on the left hand side, click on Directive for OGS and print your own copy...thank you Lisa.


Directly after Lisa's class, I headed over to a class Thomas MacEntee was giving on "Google Docs". I learned quite a bit in this class but I really need to work with it and become familiar with all of the applications it has to offer. 


After class, Cheryl and I stopped by Ancestry.com and picked up our photos and documents that were scanned for us. Several of the other bloggers were not attending the Chris Haley banquet that evening so we all went across the street to a Greek restaurant and had dinner. It was nice sitting around exchanging cards and chatting. After dinner we all ended up back at the bloggers lounge and hung out together for a bit...great way to end a pretty exciting day.









                                                                                                                      

SCGS Genealogy Jamboree 2010 ~

 The Southern California Genealogy Jamboree Blog

I am excited to be heading out tomorrow morning (Thurs 10 June, 2010) for the 41st  Annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree! This post "Jamboree: Getting Into the Spirit" on the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree blog, elevated my excitement even more! Paula Hinkle has done an amazing job, thank you Paula.

I did attend last year, it was the first genealogy related event I had ever been to and it was outstanding. I met so many geneabloggers that we usually connect with on-line normally.  I can tell you, they are all as wonderful in person as they are in the blogoshpere.

The geneablogger presence this year is going to be huge,  Thomas over at GeneaBloggers created a list of  "Who'll Be At #SCGS10 Jamboree". I am very much looking forward to meeting new bloggers and can't wait to see my blogging friends I met last year.

Left to Right: Randy Seaver at Genea-musings, Craig Manson at GeneaBlogie, Thomas MacEntee at GeneaBloggers, Jay Holladay, Elizabeth O'Neal at Little Bytes of Life, Amy Coffin at We Tree, footnoteMaven (behind me) of  FootnoteMaven and Shade of the Deaprted, The Ancestry Insider, Leland Meitzler.
Front: Kathryn Doyle CGSL/California Ancestors, Leslie Mehana, Elyse Doerflinger of Elyse's Genealogy Blog, Gini Webb at Ginisology (myself) and Cheryl Palmer of Heritage Happens.  Jamboree: Son of Blogger Summit 2009.     


Amy over at We Tree had a wonderful post "The Rock Star's Guide to Genealogy Conferences",  to getting organized and ready for the Jamboree, thank you Amy, your post really put things into perspective for me. I feel I am much more prepared, unlike last year! I created a spreadsheet listing the lectures and classes I intend to take and the vendors I want to visit this year. Last year I only had one full day, this year I will be attending all three days so I will get to do and see much more.  I know I won't miss seeing Janet Hovorka at Generation Maps and FootnoteMaven's "Shades of the Departed" will be featured on the "TwitterTron"!! It's going to be fun.

I am pretty much ready to go. I have my photos and documents ready for my 15 minutes of scanning with Ancestry.com I signed up for. I am almost completely packed with the exception of last minute articles. My laptop will be packed up at the last minute. I am going to try and do some posting, however, there is no guarantee, I may be having too much fun and will leave the posting to when I get back! Camera battery is charged and ready for the many photos I intend to take. Hopefully, I haven't forgotten anything...I will be hitting Randy up over at Genea-Musings, for some of those M & M's, my favorite!

Looking forward to seeing you there...and the geneabloggers that are uable to attend this year will be very missed, you all will be with us in spirit.





                                                                                                           

Happy Birthday To My Beautiful Mom ~

Mom loves sewing, needlepoint, cooking, and as far back as I can remember, her career was in women's fashions, which I posted about on the Give Their Face A Place ~ The 21st Edition of Smile For the Camera...she's a wonderfully creative, warm, loving, and giving mother, whom I have always been so very proud of!

Mom is driving down to our home tomorrow and we get to spend a few days together...I get to treat her like a queen!

Happy Birthday Mom ~ We love you!



My brother, John and his wife, Myunghee, flew in on Friday evening from Milwaukee. We have been having a wonderful time making memories...family history in the making. There will be a lapse in my posting until at least the 27th of March.  John and Myunghee are expecting their first child...a boy. This will be the first for me in becoming an aunt and I am so very excited! Another Eimes to add to the family tree.

John is a Molecular Genetics Biologist...he does DNA testing for a living and he also teaches Biology...we stayed up until 2 a.m. talking genealogy, DNA and our family history. Needless to say, I am learning alot. We also watched the last episode of Faces of America together and John enlightened me on several questions I had.  John and I only met in 1992, we have the same father, different mother's. Sadly, we did not grow up together but we are very close, as if we did grow up together.

It will be a great time for mom to visit...she can tell us both a little about our dad and enjoy each other, creating some great memories together this week.

                                                                                               

Happy Blogiversary To Ginisology!

It really is hard to believe its been a year since I started blogging! I have learned so much in such a short time and have met so many wonderful, supportive and giving people. I am proud to be a part of the genealogy blogging family.

When I first started blogging I was scared to pieces! I was concerned whether I would have anything to say that others would care to read?! Cheryl over at Heritage Happens supported me unconditionally on getting started, thank you Cheryl, my friend (she's in Cabo on vacation, hope your having a good time!). I soon realized that I blog for my ancestors, descendants and myself, posting then became a little bit easier. I still find myself holding back but not nearly as much -- inspiration and encouragement is not hard to find from all of you. I am so thankful that I am amongst the greatest and that I will be learning so much more and creating priceless friendships.


I didn't post as much in my first year as I would have like to. It was difficult working full time and caring for my grandchildren. Now retired, I hope to post more in my second year and many more years to come! The more I delve into my family history, the more I will have to blog about.

Thank you all for your help, support and friendships, here's to many more years to keeping up the search and posting about our journeys and about the Ancestors that brought us here.

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!

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!

Lapse in Posting

Just want to let everyone know that I will not be here for a few weeks, we have had some family matters going on and I need to be there 100%. Genealogy will have to wait for a bit. I will hopefully be able to check in but won't be able to spend much time blogging. I will be back as soon as I can, as I will miss my genea-blog family and all that is going on.

New blog layout in progress!

Tammy over at Whos Your Daddy is helping me with a new blog layout, she is very talented and so kind to help. I have been wanting to do something with my blog for awhile. Thank you Tammy... I love it, you did a beautiful job creating it.

So we will be under construction for a bit doing additions a little here and there.

Life's Events and Too Much Going On!

It has been a while since I have been able to post, life has been crazy here. Between working full time and family events going on... all has left me very little time to post, and do any type of research and I get very grumpy when I can't do Genealogy!

We have quite a few things going on at once. We are ready to be grandparents again, Tiffany will be going in for a C -section on May 5th, this will be our 6th grandchild, the baby is a girl and she is breach. Kelly is due in Sept., that will be our 7th!

My daughter and her 2 children live with my husband and I, when I walk in the front door from work, I have these two little faces looking at me! My daughter is going to school(to be a teacher), her classes are in the evenings and start at 5:30, so we are taking care of the kids. We do dinner, homework, shopping etc, etc...all the things that keep us crazy busy! I try and fire up my laptop the minute I walk in, while it's booting up (I sneak and click on stuff!) we start the dinner process, it takes everything I have not to just block everything out and go straight to my Genealogy addiction! I have stay focused and do what I am supposed to be doing! My daughter says, "Mom, you spend more time on the dead people than you do on us living!" So I am trying to spend more time with the living! I become very torn, it's important to work on our ancestors, yet our living family is just as important. What we are doing today be will history tomorrow.

When I finally am able to get onto my computer, I check my emails, answer those. To the left of my screen are all the Genea-blogger feeds! I try and read as many as I can and get caught up, it's just something I can't stay away from! The downfall to that is that by the time I get done reading all of them, it's late and I never get around to posting my own or really even know what to post about at that point...I am pretty tired and not able to think very straight. After awhile I decided to give myself a certain amount of time to read blogs and email, I find that I am burnt out trying to keep up with everything, I was lacking sleep, not eating right and not exercising, I decided to back off for a bit, I still read the other blogs (can't stay away) but just haven't been posting regularly. I am hoping to post more often, maybe not each and everyday but more often. There are so many wonderful Genea-bloggers out there and I love being a part of this world. There is no way I can ever stay away for too long! Soon, I am hoping to have more time for everything. That will be another post down the road.

I am also working on my paternal 'EIMES' family history book. It's quite a project and feel pressed to get it done. I have learned so much by creating a family history book. I have a ways to go but it really does teach you alot. My Aunt in KY is really looking forward to me finishing it so I am trying to get this done in a timely manner. I just received my paternal Grandmother Inez (Ines) and my Grandfather's marriage certificate in the mail, I was so excited! My Aunt and I have been looking for this for quite a while. We were hoping it would give us some in site as to what happen to my Great Grandmother: LouElla 'Lula' Jarboe. She is my BRICKWALL! I will be posting about her soon. I also received my great Aunt's marriage certificate's also. Saturday was a Jackpot mail day!

So...that is my life right now and why I haven't been around. Slowly I will be here more but if I haven't posted for awhile, you'll know that I am hanging out with the kids, working, and compiling my Eimes Family History Book and staying up on all of your posts from behind the lines. Don't give up on me, I'll be back!

Getting Organized Continued~

I have been absent from blogging for a while now. Between work and daily life events I have very little time to blog or even do research these days. Too many things going on!

My Step Grandson Ronnie (6 years old) has been in the hospital since last Sunday with an infection in his throat, it's not Strep or Meningitis, it's a bacterial infection of some sort, but one that almost caused his throat to close up and may have had to do emergency surgery, thank goodness it did not come to that...today, he is doing much better and may get to go home tomorrow or Friday if his temperature stays down and the swelling continues to reduce in his throat. We were so worried about the little guy and am very relieved that he is getting better. I tell ya, it's always something! Today I am home with a bad cold...so I get to enjoy reading every ones blogs with a cup of tea!!

I have been focused on getting organized and following Dear Mryt's 2009 Organizing Checklist, it's a priority that I have had to set for myself. I am a little late but I am following it as best I can! I have made my piles...that was a big job! But once I did get my piles done it was like a big weight lifted off my shoulders! I try to do a pile a day or some of that pile! The piles are spread out on my desk and I am one that can't stand piles so I will work on them as quickly as time permits. I started with the binder system so it's not too bad but I have let things slide and didn't put them away or in binders as I acquired them. I am at the point where I just need to put everything into page protectors. I took a trip to Kentucky April 2008 and still have not organized papers, photos and misc. findings.
It's a good feeling to get organized, so I won't be here much. I love Dear Mryt's Checklist and it has helped me immensely.

The other reason I haven't blogged is I am reading more blogs than I am blogging! Once getting home from work, I do the routine tasks that need to be done and then turn on my laptop and the next thing I know it's late and all I have done is read other blogs. I am not complaining (I am addicted, laundry, dishes are all going to pot!), I love to read them and time passes so quickly that I realize I didn't post and am not sure what to post about at that point. Tombstone Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday are somewhat easy but the other days are harder for me. Again, once I get my research organized and photos scanned and organized, I think that I will be a more interesting blogger...Oh and more time would be nice! I have never let my house go under any circumstances...since I have taken up Genealogy it has suffered dearly and all of it is driving me nuts! There has got to be a happy medium! I wish I was super woman and could do it all!

Hope to be back soon....in the meantime I am keeping up with reading all of your blogs. Can't stay away!

Suddenly Sunday!

I had every intention of posting yesterday...I opened up my laptop, logged on and then life got crazy around the house. Working full time, my weekends are attempting to catch up and getting ready for the new work week! My daughter and two grandchildren are living with us temporarily and along with that are two cats, at the moment two dogs (she is babysitting a friends dog). Our dog Koda was sick and ended up at the vet and our grandson Ethan wasn't feeling well so he was at the Dr.'s! We were all running around like crazy people, laundry, grocery shopping and on and on! Needless to say there just is not enough time to get it all done.

My original post was going to be about our Neighborhood. We had dinner with our dear friends and neighbors Claire and Brian last night After dinner we watched a movie just hung out... which brings me to my point: We live in a cul-de-sac and have a wonderful neighborhood. We have been living in our home now close to 21 years. My daughter grew up here and now my grandchildren are growing up here. In the past we have tried to get together regularly with all the neighbors (about 7 or 8 families). We will all put our chairs in the center, pull out the BBQ's and hang out, catch up and have a great time. The kids can run around the neighborhood, play and be safe. We watch out for each other and help each other out. When someone needs something, one of us is their to help. When we had the Cedar Fires, we all really pulled together and stuck together at our local Wal-Mart parking lot in our Motor homes. It's a great neighborhood to live in and to have all of our kids grow up in.

When one of our descendants decide to pursue and continue our family history (I am pretty sure I have my granddaughter hooked, I am getting her started!), census reports will reflect all our great neighbors and they will remember our good times and wonderful memories. Now I understand why its a good idea to check into the neighbors on census reports to learn more about our Ancestors.