What have I been doing, ...you ask?

Well, among the MANY things, is......

I have been going to the libraries and researching information on my family history.

This past Friday, I went to the library here in the county that I live in (near Columbus, GA). I had recently found out that my paternal grandmother (on my Father's side) was born in this same county! (I had thought that she was born in Alabama!) I went to the library to look through the records there, hoping to find out more about her and my ancestors .

The library has a history book about MY county. It is full of names, photos and information regarding the people that lived (or still live) in the county between the years 1827-1961.

I wrote down as much information, as I could. I even brought my camera to take pics of some of the pages in the book that had more info than I could write.

Through my research, I found out that....

- I have several ancestors who fought in the Civil War.
- One that help start the Southern Railroad through Georgia.
- One that was the county coroner in 1953.
- One that won land in the Cherokee Land Lottery.
- One that fought in WWI.
- One that served on the first Grand Jury of the county and helped to develop to get the building of the county courthouse started and roads for the county.
- One was a County Senator.
- One helped to collect supplies for the soldiers during the Civil War.
- At least one was a slave owner.
- One was a Justice of the Peace.
- One helped to organize the Columbus Baptist Association.

While I was there, I also did more research on my paternal grandfather (my Mother's side) who's family also came from MY county.

I already knew a lot about them, but here's some new info that I learned....

- At least two of my ancestors fought in the Civil War.
- One was the Postmaster in 1883 for my county. The post office was in his home. He also taught school at a church.
- One was a Tax Commisioner.
- One was a teacher.

On Saturday, Miranda and I went to the big Columbus library to do more research. --- Well, she read books about London, England... while "I" did research! I knew that the Columbus library had books on surrounding counties. I wanted to see what I could find out about my maternal grandmother on my mother's side.

I didn't find out as much, but I found a lot of names and also burial locations, which I didn't know before. I also found a "Registery" book for the church that my grandparents were memebers of. The book had tons of names in it .... all handwritten! I am going to have to go back and flip through it slowly, page by page, in order to read the names. I recognized many of the names, tho!

The exciting part is that by finding so many names... I was able to FINALLY trace my grandmother's heritage, which I have dated back to 1678 in ENGLAND!!! -- WAHOO!!  - Marlborough, Wiltshire, England... to be exact!

I am sooo excited!! That is TWO family lines that I have traced back to the same area of England! I want now, to travel so badly to England!! So does Miranda, but she is mostly interested in visiting London. I am hoping that we can somehow make it work so that we can travel there after she graduates from college in two years. I can't wait to walk where my ancestors once walked!

Here's a map of England to show you WHERE in England that my ancestors lived. The red circle is circling SOMERSET. (Sorry that it may be hard to read!)

Catching Up

Hello!

Life has been rather busy around here, lately! My blog "postings" and my blog "readings" have been few and far between, it seems! I guess being BUSY is a good thing. It means that I am staying active and there are a lot of things going on in my life. If that weren't the case.... then, I would be sitting around, being bored!

Here's just a bit of what's been going on around here ---

David has been working on rebuilding our "retaining wall" in our back yard. He started the project at the beginning of April and just finished it over this past weekend. It took him a LOT longer than he had expected, but it looks great!! The wall was first built about 10 years ago, when we had our in ground pool put in. David used landscape timbers back then, but knew that they were only going to be "temporary". Ha!! Ten years later....... they are just NOW getting replaced! I should have taken a "before" photo and then a "during" (maybe more than one!) photo before showing you the "after" photos. Oops! You can get the idea from these photos, tho.

The wall looks GREAT and I am happy to now have have my Lantana planted in the flower beds again! (The other ones didn't survive.)

The steps still need to be "tweaked" just a little. We didn't measure quite right!

I am SO HAPPY that my rose bush is doing so well!!

My poor garden needs som work! And our grass..... welll, we are working on that, as well!

The bricks are surrounding a small seedling that I found. I "think" it is from one of my previous plants and is trying to survive! ~ The pool looks inviting, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it's still a too chilly to swim, just yet! Maybe by this time next month. -- Maybe!

Here's a look at my garden when I first got everything planted.

This picture is from July 4, 2006. David had almost completed our screened in porch. You can see how the "Great Wall" used to look. (These are friends of ours in the picture. Not us!)

David also built a pen for our dogs. Now, my flowers will should SURVIVE the jaws of Chester! LOL! My "Knock Out" Rose bush is coming back, beautifully!!!! And my Stella de Ora Daylilly is coming back, too! YAY!! My plans are to add more flowers and plants to this garden.

The dogs now have their OWN yard! YAY!

We have had two nights of tornado weather, too!! The first night (two weeks ago), was mostly just high winds and a LOT of rain! But, the second (just this past Friday) was VERY SCARY! We had two tornado WARNINGS!! The first one was about 7:30 in the evening and the second was in the middle of the night, about 3:15am!! Both storms, luckily, passed to the north of us. I didn't get much sleep that night! Tornadoes fascinate and scare me, both at the same time. I would love to see one ---- from a SAFE distance! --- but, I am terrified of them, just the same.

Thursday, I got my hair cut and my highlights redone. My stylist did a GREAT job! I only wish that I could style it the way that she did! LOL! I have had many compliments, which is always nice!

I switched gyms last week, too. I have gone back to Curves for Women. I used to belong to this gym and then I lost my job and quit because of the cost. Then, back around Thanksgiving of last year, I joined Gold's Gym because it was cheaper. But, after several months of "trying" to lose weight by going to Gold's.... I decided that I need to go back to Curves. I was actually able to LOSE weight when I was a member there, so... I think it is where I am supposed to be. I started the Curves Diet today. (Wish me luck on that one!!) I do great at exercise, but "dieting" is NOT my thing! I struggle with it, BIG TIME! Food temptations get the best of me.... always!

I have also been researching my family history again. This time it is my paternal grandmother's lineage that I am tracking. Genealogy is such fun! I had "thought" that my grandmother was from Birmingham, Alabama.... but, discovered that she was actually from the county that I live in RIGHT NOW!! Unbelievable!! I was blown away by this new found fact!! My plans are to go to the county courthouse and do some research there, soon. I want to see if I can find the cemetery where my ancestor's are buried. If I can find that... it will, hopefully, answer a LOT of unanswered questions!!

My girls are winding down their Spring Semester of college and are EXTREMELY stressed at the moment! I barely saw either of them last week. Thankfully, we had a very nice day together yesterday. We laughed and everyone's stress was forgotten for the day! But, today is Monday and they are already running around getting ready to start their week.

My poor Ashley has also had the added stress of having relationship problems with her boyfriend this past week! (NOT good timing!!) I won't go into details, but it looks like they have worked things out... for now. There's almost nothing worse than seeing your child broken-hearted!

I hope that catches you up a little bit on my life, lately!

God Bless!

A to Z Blog Challenge - F

I apologize for writing later in the day, today. I've been a little busy today!

I went to the library today in Columbus, GA to get help with my genealogy research on my paternal grandmother. I knew nothing more than her maiden name and brother's name. I was under the impression that she was born in Alabama, but found out today that not only was she actually born here in Georgia, but she was also born in the same county that I live in now!! I had no idea!!

I also did a little shopping today! **Smile**

Now.... on with the Blog Challenge!

Letter F

Family

Well, of course, this word was my first thought. Family means EVERYTHING to me! My immediate family, my extended family, and my ancestors.

Friends

I have... and, have had.... many friends in my life. When I was little, my very best friend was Chrissy. We met when we were about 3 years old and remained friends until high school. This was when I reluctantly had to move from the home that I had spent most of my life in to a new home, further away, in a different school system. Amazingly (before Facebook!) we reconnected thru mutual friends as adults. This was when I lived in Atlanta. Then, after I moved 100 miles away, to Columbus Georgia, Chrissy and I slowly lost touch. Sadly... she is not on Facebook and I wish that she was. When I was pregnant with Miranda, I met a wonderful friend who was pregnant, too. That was 20 years ago, and we are still friends! Unfortunately, she lives in Atlanta, too. But, our friendship has survived and I can pretty much say that she is my VERY BEST FRIEND. I have friends here, but after 13 years.... I have still not found as good of a friend as she is!   

Flowers

I love flowers, as most women do. When I was little, my favorite flower was the Tulip. Then, as I got older, my favorite became the Pansy. Now, I really like the Gerber Daisy. Flowers make me happy, but I have told David NOT to waste money on buying them for me, unless I can either plant them in a pot or in my yard! Fresh cut flowers are very pretty, but I hate that they don't last very long.

Fish

I thought of this "F" word -- LOL! -- because of something funny that I heard this week. Miranda is pet-sitting for a family that we go to church with. The family has a small catfish pond on their property. One of the "pets" that Miranda has to feed is.... the catfish!! That's not the funny part of the story, tho. The family also has a dog and apparently the dog likes to go fishing for the catfish!!! Miranda witnessed this the other night when she went to feed the fish! Luckily her boyfriend was with her and helped her get the fish from the dog! I would have loved to have been there to see that!!

Facebook

Can't have an "F" list without this word! Ha! As I have said before, Facebook is an amazing creation that I am thankful for. It has been so much fun reconnecting with high school friends, church youth group friends and family. Thank you Facebook creators!!