Category Archives: family

genealogy

October is Family History Month

I’d forgotten that, since I moved my blog over to the same web host as my portfolio site, I’d never reinstalled Retrospect, the GEDCOM database reader. So, although I haven’t done much research lately, or even added the data from the last time I did research, my genealogy database is once again available.

Expect to see my research updated in the relatively near future. I have some data from my husband’s side of the family yet to add, as well as some of my own.

(By the way, all you living family members, I’ve intentionally left out your information for privacy’s sake. No one needs to know that you’re umpty-ump years old…)

family

The Old General Store

The Old General Store

My first major project since getting my new scanner has been to digitize the photos from our honeymoon, back in May 2003. (The process went surprisingly smoothly, which bodes well for future scanning projects.)

This is where we stayed for a good part of our trip: Aaron’s grandmother’s house in Cummington, Massachusetts. The house had long since been parceled out into apartments, and Grammie kept one in reserve for herself, in case she had need to go visit her rental property. She graciously let us stay in her apartment for the week, using it as a home base of sorts.

As far as the honeymoon photos go, I still need to properly date and geotag them all… but that’s a follow-up project for another day.

family

Pictures of Mom

Sue Cook, early 1970s

My Mom asked me to scan in some pictures of her over the years, since the family photo albums are all at my place now. I posted over a dozen of them over on my Facebook… but this is one of my favorites. She’s probably about 18 years old here, and I’d like to think that the family resemblance is obvious, even though I was never quite that thin.

family

Hanging With the Fam

Yesterday, my step-brother Phil graduated from OSU with honors and a double-major. Mom and Gary made the trip from Texas to see him walk, and turned the drive into Road Trip 2009: they stopped at my grandparents’ in Centerville, spent a few days in Columbus, and arrived here in Toledo yesterday evening.

We got them checked into a nearby hotel, had dinner at Olive Garden, and talked for a while at our house before they headed back to their hotel for the night. I’m not sure what all is on today’s agenda, but I know that lunch at Zoup! will be a starter, probably followed by looking through some old photo albums they brought, and probably taking some photos of our own. Apart from that, I’m not sure what they’ll be up for — walking around the park, or just hanging out for a few hours before Aaron goes to work and we remaining three go to dinner somewhere. We’ll see.

At any rate, it’s nice to see the two of them. It’s been a couple years since I saw Mom, and considerably longer since I last saw Gary. I’m glad they were able to make the trip.

family

Christmas Cards

I know I’m in the doghouse with the grandparents when my Christmas card, the card that usually includes a letter detailing what’s been going on with Grandpa Cook’s health and with family matters, says only, “Hope you are doing well.”

o_O

I spent tonight printing out photos of Hawaii to send along with our card to them. Tomorrow or Thursday, I plan to write a letter detailing how much we loved Hawaii (in case I didn’t already tell them), how my job’s doing, what the latest genealogy finds have been (not much on his side, honestly), and what our future “family” plans are. I don’t get to see Grandpa and Grandma Cook much these days, and I don’t want to get out of favor with them, being that they’re my only grandparents left.

I also spent tonight writing in the Christmas cards that needed written in — my cousin Michael, for one, along with a couple people who are getting their presents along with their cards.

I really do enjoy sending out Christmas cards; it’s not a chore for me. Sometimes, it’s nice to go all analog on life, to get away from the computer and the iPhone and actually write out my sentiments longhand. Slows things down. Makes things a little more meaningful and mindful.

These days, we could all use a little mindfulness.