Happy Birthday, Ethan ~

 

Eight years ago today, our grandson, Ethan was born.  He's a ton of fun 

and has brought so much joy to our lives!

Happy Birthday, Ethan, we love you to pieces . . . lots of hugs and kisses to you on this

special day!   ~ Love, Oma

(okay, you can stop growing now!) 

Happy Birthday, Ethan ~

Seven years ago today, our grandson, Ethan was born.  He's a ton of fun 

and has brought so much joy to our lives!

Happy Birthday, Ethan, we love you to pieces . . . lots of hugs and kisses to you on this

special day!   ~ Love, Oma

Happy Birthday Izzy!

Wishing our granddaughter, Izzy, a very Happy 4th Birthday today!

Party on princess...

Happy Birthday Little Ronnie ~

Eight years ago today, our grandson Ronnie was born!

Happy Birthday little Ronnie...we love you!

Happy Birthday Emma ~

Eleven years ago today...we were blessed with the birth of our granddaughter, Emma! 

She is a shining star in our lives and always full of love. 

"Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation."

~ Author,  Lois Wyse

~ Happy Birthday Sweetheart ~ 

We love you Emma beans,  hugs and kisses to you on your special day from all of us.

                                                         ~ with love from your Oma ~ the keeper of our memories...

New Beginnings and the 365 Day Project~

~ Lola~

Eight months old

365 day project - 1

My intention for my first post of the year was going to be genealogy resolutions for 2010. There is a part of me that wants to post them and another that wants to just keep it between myself and the paper I wrote them down on! I don't have many as I am trying to keep things realistic for myself. I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew. One of my resolutions is to take more photos - so, I am going to do the 365 day project. (explained below.)

Genealogy blogs are not the only genre of blogs I am addicted to! I love home decor/family related blogs. They are so much fun to read and look at, they blog about their families and daily life - recording family history now for generations to come. They are working on the here and now while we are working on the past.

As I was catching up on my blog reading, I clicked on the All Things Heart and Home blog. Robin posted about the 365 day project - I was hooked. The 365 day project was created by Stephen Poff - Stephen started this project to document his year in photos with short blog entries. As family historians, this would be a wonderful way to document our lives now and to also blog about.

I had already planned on taking more photos of myself with the family. Reading Cheryl's post over at Heritage Happens brought to mind that I have not taken as many photos as I use to. I love photos and there are very few that have me in them. I do not like photos of myself so I am usually the one taking them! I need to get back to taking photos and the 365 day project is a great jump start. So...I grabbed my camera and started to take a few photos. Some I will post - many I won't because they will be of my grandchildren and I try to keep them as private as possible.

Having said that, I could not resist the above photo of my granddaughter Lola! She is so precious and I wanted this photo to be recorded in our family history and to share with all of you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I shared one of my resolutions, now for just a few more...

I would like to try and blog more. Being retired will give me that opportunity. I am very involved with my grandchildren and things get pretty hectic around my house.

I enjoy doing the "May I Introduce To You" articles on Geneabloggers. I am continuously working on improving my writing skills. I look forward to meeting many more genealogy bloggers. It's alot of fun, I learn so much and I have met some wonderful people.

I would like to educate myself in becoming a better researcher and genealogist, and would like to enroll in ProGen 4.

Continue to get organized. Even though I started only two years ago on my family history, I have quite a bit of data that needs to be entered into my Family Tree Maker program. Presently, I feel sort of all over the place. I want to continue to learn to display and compile my family history in a creative way.

To hunker down and do some heavy duty research on several of my lines.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am very sad that the Christmas season is behind us and to be honest, I am not really ready to put the decorations away. I love Christmas, winter and this time of the year, but at the same time, I am looking forward to to the new year, discovering ancestors, their stories and sharing my finds here.

The above photo of Lola, was taken by the owner of this blog ~ 2010

2010, copyright Gini Webb

Halloween Costume School Parade

My grand kids Ethan and Emma had a Halloween Costume Parade at their school today. There were so many cute costumes! The above collage shows a few of them off!

HAPPY HALLOW E'EN !!

A New Chapter in My Life ~ I've Retired!

My retirement card from my Co-Workers Original card held by Gini Webb (address for private use) San Diego, CA 28, Sept 2009

I have been fortunate to have an early retirement! My hubby retired in May from his career of 30 years with the city. He wasn't quite ready to retire but the city was messing with the employees medical insurance and imposing a 6% decrease in pay by June 30th. As hard as it was, he made the decision to retire early and has life time medical. He has now been hired by another agency and is happy to be working again doing what he loves the most!

Even though he hung out with the grand kids all summer, and loved it (grandpa is the bomb) he was ready to give up his Mr. Mom position to me! Hubby knew that I was stressed and the line of work I was in was taking it's toll on me. He said a few weeks ago, "Would you like to retire?" Uhhh, you don't have to ask me twice! I have been waiting a long time for this day! I am finally retired and loving it- and it's only been my first day home!

Retirement Autumn Flower Bouquet from my Company - Digital photo owned and held by Gini Webb (address for private use) San Diego, CA 29, Sept 2009

Sept 28th, 2009 was my last day at a job I had been at for 15 years. I am very excited to be out of the work force stress and the rat race. At the same time I will miss several co-workers that I did get very close to. We will stay in touch. I was so surprised when I received a beautiful Autumn bouquet from the company, lunch of my choice that was brought in, a very nice card signed by all of the employees (most, some were not available), 2 giant Hershey Bars (thank you Rose, she knows that I am a chocoholic) and lots of hugs and a great email from my boss saying thank you for all the years of service I had given (he was away on a cruise). It was a very nice send off.


Now I am able to pursue my genealogy as I have wanted to for several years. I will have time to post, research, organize and I am even seriously considering on line courses to better myself in genealogy. I am also going to be very active in my grand kids lives, I will be taking them to school and picking them up. Today was my first day of doing that and they were very excited to see me waiting there for them! Emma my oldest grandchild said, "how is your first day of being retired Oma?" I said, it's the best Emma!

I have the biggest smile on my face and have felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It doesn't get any better than this.


I think that my genea-blogger family will be hearing more from me and I will also be able to post more articles on Geneabloggers "May I Introduce You To..." segments for Thomas. I enjoy doing the articles, learning and getting to know new and old bloggers. Like I said, it does not get any better than this - I am extremely grateful for all that I have. So, new beginnings ahead, wow, I am a lucky girl!

First Day of School~ My grandaughter, Emma

When I did the "Smile for the Camera 17th Edition" I did not have a photo for my post, (thank you FootnoteMaven - you make me feel so young!), I will add the photo of Emma at our front door as I had described in my School Days post so that it is complete, but in the meantime here are a few photos below.

My granddaughter Emma's first day of school!

She is my oldest granddaughter, there are six more grandchildren to share (I will share in a later post)! Emma is the little lady in the middle, her two good friends on each side of her! She is such a sweetie. Emma is very interested in genealogy and wants her Oma's (me) help in getting started! Oma is more than happy to oblige.

First Day of School Sept 2009

Left to right - Marina, Emma (my granddaughter) and Alexa, 5th grade.

Photo held by Gini Webb (address for personal use) San Diego, CA

First Day of School (actually a few days later that I took, Emma's mom has first day photos)

Digital photo taken and held by Gini Webb (address for private use) San Diego, CA

This is the traditional photo we have taken since Emma's first day of school in Kindergarten. I will have to dig out the last 4 years! It would be great to see the how she has grown and what she picked to wear on the first day of school. She is getting so big. Holding up her hand is letting us know she is in the 5th grade!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Out the door for Work and School

Left to right: Lacie my daughter, grandchildren: Ethan (4 yrs old) and Emma (9 yrs old).

March 2009 - digital photo held and owned by Gini (address for private use) 2009

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!