 | | |
| | |
|
Spaces home  Orbitting the HivePhotosProfileFriendsMore |  Tools   |
Orbitting the HiveDare to Dream
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
June 30 June 30, 2008Good Morning! Just got home from a week of merriment up north. The Colt's Pride Booster Club Bowl-a-thon was a success. Sheila wrote the press release, I took the photo, the piece was printed on the front page of the local weekly ... ABOVE THE FOLD!
We made three Renaissance costumes (photo in family album). We are going to be one good-looking bunch at the Sterling Festival this year. Anybody who wants to join us needs to let me know. I agreed to pay everybody's entrance fees. We're attending in two weeks.
That's it for this morning. I have to get to work. Have a great day. June 13 Relax ... it's a beautiful day.It occurs to me that I should really start putting together some pertinent family stuff for our new cousins. You'd think that would be easy, but where do you start? I guess I'll start with the photo album I put up. I'm not sure why I posted Gary's pic ahead of my own, but that's the way it is, so we'll go with it. My husband and companion for almost 20 years now ... we met in July and married in October of 1988. Now that's a story worth telling, but it is best received in person. Like stand-up comedy, it's funnier that way.
After that comes a photo of me and Sheila at Adam's wedding. That was a really nice party. A lot of these pictures are from that day just because everybody was together then. We adults haven't changed much, but the children ... OMG! Anyway, Sheila and I are very close, much to the dismay of our respective spouses who generally can't stand us when we're together. Too bad, we had each other first. She's my first and always bestest friend and will be until one of us is no longer kickin'.
The next one is obviously me and Gary again with our daughter Amanda on the day she graduated from high school. That pretty gold braid across her shoulders is for graduating with honors. I am extraordinarily proud of her. I guess if you're only going to get one chance to screw up a kid, I didn't do such a bad job. She's smart, caring, organized, and conscientious. Her first year of college ended with a 2.87 GPA which is exactly perfect for her. Right now she's juggling two summer jobs hoping to have enough in her pocket next year to make things a bit less stressful. Since she's very frugal when she has a goal, I'm sure she'll at least be in a single dorm room if she doesn't manage enough to live off-campus.
The next one is Amanda again with Tracy's kids, Brandon and Sabrina. They had spent the day tie-dying the shirts they were wearing so they wanted to show off. They've been very close cousins since Brandon was born simply because we lived close to one another. Tracy is my step-sister (daughter of my father's second wife, Jane), but we really don't make that distinction except on paper. She's my sister and I love her. Her children mean as much to me as any of my nieces and nephews do (and that's a lot). Her husband and mine are very good friends and enjoy a closer bond than some brothers do. There are more pictures of Brandon and Sabrina at the end of the album. I just added them this past weekend as we gathered for a birthday dinner at her house. Sabrina is a year old and Brandon will be 7 in July.
The next picture is my brother Adam holding his then-infant son Gregory. Taken at an anniversary party that Sheila, Tracy and I organized for Clifford and Jane (20th), we managed to have everyone present except for David who had last minute things he needed to attend to. Gregory was Adam's first child, but he and his wife Christina now have three, Gregory, Sarah, and Gabrielle.
The handsome young man in the next picture is our youngest brother C.J. (Clifford James II), sometimes called Cliff or Clifford, but always C.J. to me. He's the son of Clifford and Jane and so, half-brother to all of the rest of us. He is 25 this year and currently attending college in Arizona.
We're back at Adam and Christina's wedding for the next one. This would be Adam and Christina. They had a very cute "cowboy" thing going on as their theme complete with a wagon wheel cake topper! C.J. sang for them as he did for his parents a year later. He has a very nice voice and we press him into performing whenever we can. The next seven pictures are at that wedding. First, C.J., Michael and David (Jane's sons, my step-brothers); then me and Dad (Clifford); my grandparents, Edley and Joyce Brown (Joyce is William's first wife making Edley my step-grandfather); then Jane (my step-mother) and Clifford; my mother Jo (Clifford's first wife); with her sisters, from left to right, Nancy, Jo, Fran, Helen, Kate and Mary; and finally, on the dance floor, Tracy with Clifford ... David is dancing with his mother Jane behind them. This was actually a really nice day. We haven't had a lot of those, so I try to focus on the good when I can.
The next set are at Dad and Jane's anniversary party just over a year later. First up Jane with her grand-babies, Amanda holding Brandon, Sheila's boys, Erick & Jacob, Michael's first son, Kyle, and Jane holding Michael's daughter Cheyenne. I'm not sure if Adam and Chris had left yet or not, but in any case, there weren't enough arms to add Gregory into the shot, but he's the only one missing at that time. Next is Tracy holding Brandon and Todd holding Tracy. There's a lot of love in that household. These pictures showed that for me so I had to include them here. The last one of this set is all of us except David. From left to right, C.J., Sheila, Tracy, Michael, Gina and Adam. It's pretty unlikely we'll ever get another chance to be all together like that, so I cherish this one. We were happy in that moment ... or at least we didn't let on otherwise.
The rest are more recent. Jake and Erick last summer. Those boys are growing up so fast! Brandon and Sabrina last summer. Then Michael and his fiance, Justina. Those were taken last February. I didn't get a picture of Justina's daughters ... they disappeared with the boys to play some video games upstairs. The next picture is Amanda dressed for Junior Prom (when she was a senior). She went with friends to both proms and had a great time. Besides, she loves "costumes" as you can see in the next photo I took at the Sterling Renaissance Festival in 2007. Don Juan and Miguel are her favorite part of the faire.
The last four pictures were taken at Tracy and Todd's Memorial Day Weekend. Sabrina, Brandon, Todd and Sabrina, Tracy and Sabrina. It's hard to believe Brandon is only turning 7 next month. He takes after his dad and is going to be very tall. They're such good kids ... I do miss not being able to see tham more now that we have moved an hour away.
Ok ... That's it for the pics I have up for now. Please direct any questions through email. I'll be happy to answer. Gary and I are headed to Sheila's in a week and I promise recent pics of everybody I can catch. Dad & Jane, too, if I can sneak up on them. They're staying nearby for a while. We'll see more family in July and I'll try to be a shutterbug then, too. Maybe I'll even get to see some of the children of our cousins then or at Michael's wedding in August. It should be a very eventful summer.
BTW ... my hair is now blue ... it's not the just the lighting. Photo to follow. ;)
May 21 Family Photos AddedSince my original purpose for this blog is now back, I have added a family photo album. I will continue to add pictures to the same album as I get them scanned in with the end goal being to show the most up-to-date faces of everyone I can find (or take) pictures of. I have attached first names and years to the photos for chronology, but for details, you'll have to send me a personal email. I know that not everyone wants to create a space just to talk to each other, so here's my e-mail. Feel free to drop me a line anytime.
Please type carefully. Its easy to skip that last "g" or the number 1. If you don't hear from me within a few days, I probably didn't get your message. If you have a different e-mail for me, that's okay. I have lots of them, and I check them all regularly.
If anybody has a problem with having their face posted here, please inform me directly. I will not stop what I'm doing unless I hear from the offended party myself. A lot of what happened before was the result of too many opinions butting into somebody else's issue. If you have anything to say about my motives or the way I choose to bring my goals to fruition, say so. We're all adults here. I can take it.
We are all flawed humans. We all have a past. We also all have a future. I won't make excuses for my own darkness, and I will try to explore without judging anyone else's. The truth is that making the connections to complete this family circle will bring things out that some would like to forget. I don't agree with that. I believe that if these hidden things were known, that knowledge would make us all stronger. I don't want to be divided. I want to know how alcohol affects my genetics so I can stay away from something that might hurt me and mine. I want to know about criminal histories that have repeated so I can deal with those feelings in a more constructive way. I want to know about the artists, the chefs, the businessmen, and the bums. I want to know where I come from so I can find the right path to follow toward my future, and I want my children to know all of that, too.
This is about finding the core of who and what we truly are. Beneath all the crap is a great group of people who know pain and sorrow and loss ... who have grown and learned from the mistakes of others ... who struggle to teach that wisdom to the next generation. We're all just doing the best we can. Can't we please try to do it together? May 06 Amazing ConnectionsToday's the day ... I called my grandmother last night so she'd be the first to know. She is and always has been a pillar in my life. A lot of my "good" can be traced to her. She deserves to be first with me. I needed her to know that before I told the rest of the world.
NOW ... the secret that I've been keeping since Friday last ... I got an unexpected email at GBEES.ORG. For those that don't know, this is the website that we set up years ago to house the family trees. There is a lot of information in those trees, but there are a lot of gaps, too. We have managed to gather enough substantiated evidence to get three of the four lines back to the orginal emigrees. The Meyer line doesn't show this, but that's because the information is housed in another family member's tree program.
The one line that has proved problematic is the Downey line. I know my father and his siblings, their children and most of their children's children. I know who my grandfather was, who his first wife was (my esteemed grandmother) and the name of his second wife. I know that his parents names were Harland and Eunice. The few tidbits available made Harland of Irish descent (I somehow had it in my mind that he was English) and Eunice as Iroquois, possibly Onondaga.
The only other information that I was able to gather was from my Grandmother telling me what her first husband had told her years before I was old enough to ask. He had siblings ... how many and what their names were was mostly "iffy". I wrote it down anyway and included the information in my tree.
I was never able to establish any real contact with my grandfather. He was always just a short, round, cowboy who lived in Arizona and had horses. I can count the visits he made to us on one hand. He brought us silver dollars. I thought it was exotic because they matched his silver belt buckle and the tips of his snakeskin boots. I think I was 11. The last time I tried to contact him was to send him a birth announcement for my daughter. I don't even know if he ever got it. That was 19 years ago. He died in 2003.
The message I got on Friday was from a woman named Wendy who had been internet surfing and found the Downey tree. It turns out that she is the daughter of the one sibling of my grandfather's that I had an erroneous name for. Not Erma, but NORMA. After sending a little information back and forth, we established that we are indeed COUSINS! Actually, she's dad's cousin. Her children are second cousins to me ... well, its all convoluted family stuff, but it's finally a real connection.
I was able to speak to her by phone later on. As thrilled as I am to have this piece of the puzzle, it was a bittersweet call. Admittedly, I had on rose-colored glasses and fervently hoped that other branches of the tree had escaped some of the trials and tribulations that I knew existed in ours. I was wrong. Family is what it is. In a way, though, confirming the demons is also a way to confirm the connection, so in the end, it's good.
Throughout the weekend, we exchanged names and dates, places and circumstances, opinions and truths ... I also recieved messages from Wendy's older sister Becki and Louise's daughter Janet. More facts and tidbits came from those directions and in between, we updated the family tree program with all the new information. I know that one great aunt is still alive. Most of the information that these newfound cousins had about us was from her, so maybe we all have Aunt Georgia (Georgianna) to thank for finally connecting this chain.
Wendy had the name of the town Grandma Eunice came from. Looking it up on Google maps (I love Google maps!), I discovered that there can be no doubt that she was Onondaga. I will attempt to make inroads to her path sometime soon. I learned the name of my grandfather's grandfather, so that gives us one more layer to explore.
Wendy clued me in on a few "why"s, too. Like why my grandfather and his siblings lost track of each other, and why we have troubled paths at times. It doesn't make it any easier to have lived, but in my heart, it makes things easier to accept, and maybe that's the end of the journey anyway. Acceptance. I won't post these things, but will share them privately with family members who are interested.
Finally, as explanation for a lot of things, a quote from Aunt Georgia ... "some things should be spoken but not written down". I understand why you said it, but I respectfully have to disagree. This is why we have searched so long to find our lost pieces and to begin to heal.
Wendy, I hope you write that book. May 05 Revelations of a different sortThis weekend I found out that I'm probably Irish ... really. Not English like I thought, so the whole crest thing is wrong and I'll have to re-do it. I guess the pull toward Druidism has teeth after all. I still favor crop circles over celtic knots, though.
EDIT: I looked it up and the crest is right. No changes necessary. May 03 Ladies & Gentlemen, I have an announcementWhen I wrote what I thought would be my final post last August, I entertained the idea of deleting this site. Today, I'm glad that I didn't. Right now, I am announcing the re-opening of the MSN wing of the Hive because something has happened that I thought never would. Some of you will remember that this was the original theme ... back when I spoke frequently of family and troubles and angst, of desperately trying to work through feelings and hurts, of trying to make sense of the sensleless. I feel like it's the right theme to announce that we're coming back to a family-centered space once more .......... with a twist (to be announced shortly).
I have a few more messages to send first, but I wanted to get this blurb online before I got to busy to do it. The time has come, my friends, for expansion and for healing. Stay tuned. August 21 Happy New YearSeptember has always been my new year, no matter what the calendar says. The trend is clear once more that MSN Spaces is just a serious waste of time. Cas, you know how to reach me ... but I'll read as long as you write. Manda, ditto ... and I'm still following everything like the groupie I've become. Lynn, feel better, please ... missing you and loving you and scared to death for you ... I'll keep checking. Gayle, your endless quest for romance is admirable and I sincerely hope you find it, but your life is full enough without chasing me. I'll be around to see you as often as I can. Tani, the gardens are beautiful, but leave me longing to get down in the dirt when I can't. Tough love with B ... he needs it, but remember to get what you need, too. Y'all know how to reach me if you ever decided you really need me, anyhow.
Peace-Mama, Tracy, and Mary ... I know you read even when I don't hear from you. Family is what it is.
I don't have the motivation to do this anymore. There are too many millions of blogs and too many obligations to take care of. My attention has wandered too far and I don't want to pull it back this time. I want to draw again an read and write fiction. I want to get to know my new surroundings. I want to be in the physical world for a bit.
See me at GBees (which I have plans to merge all other sites under within the year). E-mail me ... call me ... IM me ... hell, even snail mail still works. I want to be part of your lives, but this tired space has finally ... irrevocably ... got to go.
Waste not, want not. Love you all. G
{this space will self-destruct in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...}
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Invite as friend