2011!

Happy New Years!

{image from brainz.org}

I always try to make resolutions that are specific and can actually be accomplished.  For 2010, I kept it simple but meaningful and vowed to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association and walk in my Grandpa's name in our county's Memory Walk.  Thank you to all my friends and family that supported me.

For this year, I again want to keep it simple.  I'll have a new baby in tow along with my other 2 rambunctious boys. I'm still not sure if Cliff will be in night classes yet for work either.  Ahhhh!

#1:  Eat at home more!
It's borderline ridiculous how much we spend on take-out and going out to eat.  I completely blame pregnancy for this happening so much lately!  I want to find more recipes we all will like and are fast to make.  I want to find more options for Sammy to eat too since he's on the GFCF diet. 

#2:  More books for the kiddos!
I want to hit up more garage sales and get some new books in the house.  Dylan does Book It! for school and we've hit about 40 or so books and I'm running low on new ones to add to his list that are on his level.  Sammy has also quit eating and destroying books and really loves them.  I have tons for him at the moment, but Dylan's selection is seriously lacking.  If you have any books to recommend in the kindergarten - 1st grade level that boys will love, let me know!

#3:  Be more positive
I'm not a complete grump-a-lump or anything, but I want to feel more peace and happiness.  I figure the only way to feel that way is to act that way, right?  I am pretty sure this year will be tough for me - Dylan going to school, Sammy starting all these therapies for Autism, and then throwing in new Baby Brett to the mix - I don't want to go crazy!  So I'm going to look for the bright side in situations from now on - or at least try!

Happy Birthday Papa

Today would have been your 92nd birthday.  I can't remember how you sounded when you said my name anymore, but do still remember how you would say, "Shit, Billie!", which in a funny way cheers me up for forgetting the latter.

I would steer the tractor sitting on your knee while you would sing and whistle "Zippidy Doo Dah" in my ear. Yup, I still remember that.  You would put barrettes in my hair everyday for school, even though you were missing your right arm.  You could drive a stick, cut a steak, tie a tie - there was nothing you couldn't do.  I can still smell you - Old Spice, onions, fresh cut grass, and gasoline.

There will always be a hole in my heart that no one will fill.  I think to myself it would all be easier if it hadn't felt like you were already taken away from me early due to Alzheimer's.  I wish the greatest man in my life could have really met and given me his blessing when meeting the man I would marry the day I announced I was engaged.  Thank you for always making me feel like a princess, Papa.  You'll always be my Superman.

The Wends of Texas

I had always been told by my Grandma (on my mother's side) that we are German descendants. Her mother was even able to speak back and forth German and English I've been told.  After some more genealogy research, I've found out that's not entirely true.

First let me tell you, my Grandma is like a character from a movie. Everything is overly-dramatized and stories are acted out with a lot of flair and probably exaggerated.  I know I am just like this and will be worse than she is when I'm an old lady.  The best way I can describe is her is as the mother in "The Glass Menagerie" play. Now don't get me wrong, I love her to death, really I do, but getting some sorta actual, factual info out of her for my family research is pretty hard.  Instead I get anecdotes like about her Aunt Emma having 44 yellow canaries in gilded cages on the back porch, which is pretty interesting, but are you starting to get my point here? 

She led me on to a very good clue for me to research this time.  My entire life I have heard my Grandma go on and on about the Wends of Texas.  She says it in such a dreamy type voice.  She would made it sound like we were born from kings and queens of Germany.  She always made a point to mention there's a book written about The Wends of Texas.  And hey, guess what?  There actually is.  And google and roots.com are full of info with just that little key word.

Do you know how the Mexicans have come into the US over in the Southwest area? They may be Americans; but would identify more so as being Mexican.  (Just go along with it for my analogy.)  This is somewhat how my ancestors were in Germany.  The people related to me were Wendish Sorbian people living in a concentrated area of Germany.  They were from Bautzen in Saxony, Germany (aka Upper Lusatia region).  The Wends from this area are more so of Czech descent.

The Wends immigrated over to Texas on a small boat less than 146 feet long named the Ben Nevis.  There was about 588 people stuffed on this boat where they would stay for about 3 months at sea and another month at dock quarantined for illnesses in 1854.  On my maternal grandma's side, members from her daddy's and mother's side were on this boat.  Grandma's parents are a good 2 generations younger than those on the boat, but still kinda cool to think all the family is from the same town in Germany.

Traditional traditions of The Wends are extravagant egg painting, corn husk dolls, and black wedding dresses. 

Cultural foods include sausage and thin egg noodles.

They would decorate the insides of their churches with images I can only relate to looking like the drawings from fairy tale books.  They enjoyed wood crafts - burning or carving folksy drawings into wood.  I notice a lot of these have a serpent type creature, which I haven't exactly figured out yet.  Some even have children playing with these snake-dragon like things. 

One of their holidays is called The Bird's Wedding which takes place on January 25th.  Children would leave out a little food outside for the birds and in turn receive a small gift or piece of candy. 

The women dressed very colorfully and decked out in dainty lace.  It's all so pretty and colorful. And such a change from now-a-days.

Finding Family & Tracing Roots

We've been watching that show, "Who do you think you are?"on NBC, that traces back the ancestry of celebrities.  Cliff went ahead and signed up for a free 14 day trial on Ancestry.com.  We decided we were going to track family as far back as possible before we had to pay.  In 2 days, I have found super interesting stuff.

I live in a town in Georgia.  Not the big city, not the country.  Take it this way; we have 1.5 Starbucks and 2 Walmarts.  ( I've always gauged town sizes by the number of Walmarts, big indicator in the South believe it or not. )  On my dad's side of the family, we have literally been planted in this exact same town since about 1830. This is before the town even had an actual name.  My town wasn't really built til around 1950.  The home I lived in growing up is a 5 minute walk from the family land border.  I know there is a street in town with our last name, but didn't really realize we had that much to do with the history of the town until now.  Before living in my town, the preceding ancestors came straight from England to Dublin, Georgia; which is only an hour south of my town and considered the same region of Georgia.  I seriously am a local native.

My mother's side of the family is a bit more interesting.  My mom never knew her real dad.  He divorced my grandma when my mom was 4 years old.  Grandma won't talk about it, so Momma has been clueless.  Well...  I found out a ton of information!

Her father was in the Army during World War II.  He was stationed in Hawaii for a very short time before being sent to Marseilles, France on a "hospital" ship during the war.  In the war, he is listed as a night watchman.  At the age of 18, he was 5'10 and 150 lbs.  The most random, bizarre fact of all the documents was that he was a part of undertaker services/embalmer as his job in the military. 

 Hardy "Dit" Clarence & Bertie A.

Hardy and Bertie are my mom's grandparents!  Here they are as a young couple.  I think Hardy looks a lot like my brother in ways.  Hardy was a collection agent for a loan business.

Bertie A.

My mom resembles Bertie a lot too.  Eye shape, nose, cheek lines, same snaggle-tooth before Momma fixed hers' with braces.   I see my chin in this photo.  I only can find evidence of them having one child.

"M.H." (Martin Harkin) & Wiley F. 

Wiley F. (right) is my mom's great grandfather.  M.H. (left) is my mom's great, great grandfather.  Wow, right?!  Both men were farmers with many children.

Herbin Leroy "Lee", Dink Calloway, & Moman Talmadge "Tal"

Now here's a picture I was unsure about at first.  How could these 3 men be brothers of Wiley F. from the photo above when there's a car in the background?  These men lived a very long time, all into the 90's age range into the 1970's era.  So Lee, Dink, & Tal would be my mom's great uncles.

 I have a lot more photos saved than just these and can't wait to get them printed out.  I'd like to take all the official documents and photos made into a scrapbook for my Momma.  If you ever doubted trying out Ancestry.com, I say go for it.  (And no, they ain't paying me or anything.)  I have both sides of my family traced back to 1675.  I have paperwork with my family's actual handwriting on it.  I've discovered one of my far-back grandfathers was the Colonel of the 4th Regiment of the Revolutionary War, detailed with reports of what he did in the war. I can look at silly wills promising each child a bed, a cow, and $200. I can gawk at the great, great, great, great, great, great grandpa that had 4 wives and over 30 children.  (Yes, this is all true of my family. LOL!)  It's all extremely interesting, even more so when it's your own family.

Meemaw's Special Cookies

Cliff's Meemaw was known for her chocolate-peanut butter-oatmeal- no bake cookies. Many have tried, but even when she was alive, no one was able to make them like her. Found in her purse when she died was the recipe written out on little slips of paper to hand out to people, because she was asked about the recipe so much.

Cliff's family is trying to find the person who can make them as good as Meemaw, or at least as close as possible. It's a way to remember her in a happy way and continue on the recipe's tradition. So far, Cliff is the one who has made the cookies the best. :)

So as Meemaw would, I'm sharing the recipe with yall. :)

Digi kit by Sir Scraps A Lot--Dunk, Curled Edges-- Jess Gordon, Font--KevinandAmanda.com

Now here are some important parts to the ingredients. You MUST use real butter. You MUST use Hershey's Cocoa. She only used Watkins brand Vanilla. And we didn't, but I can almost guarantee Meemaw would've used whole milk. Cliff is saying that Peter Pan brand Peanut Butter is a huge MUST, but I'm betting any non-store brand peanut butter would be fine.

Boiling to 2 minutes is a big deal as well. Otherwise, they will never harden and just be mush.

They should NOT be glossy. They should be a dull brown color, so this photo probably isn't the best to show you, as the color is completely off in this one. Do NOT try to quicken up the hardening time by putting these in the freezer or the fridge. It won't work.

The cookies should take about 1-2 hours to harden up and dry. Apparently, after talking to a lot of people, everyone prefers eating them at a different consistency in the drying process. Cindy (Cliff's Mom) likes them immediately off the wax paper when they have got to a pick-up-able stage. Cliff likes his best after being in an air-tight type container for 2 or 3 days. I like them cold after being in the fridge overnight--past the wax paper drying stage of course.

Oh, See this picture above? This is one of the happiest grandsons in the world. Cliff was jumping
around every few minutes telling me how they look right and smell right, just like Meemaw's. He was positively beaming.

Secret Spy Shopping

I don't even know what to call what I did, but it's just funny. Okay? Sooo... on a whim, I decided I was going to secretly send people gifts that would make them laugh. I wouldn't tell them it was from me or that they were gonna be getting a package. Just total random surprise!

Number 1
Recipient: My Mother!
Gift: Celebrate San Antonio: A Cookbook

My momma is originally from San Antonio, Texas. She also loves to cook. She has a thing for older cookbooks as well. She called me when she got it squealing. She's already made a list of things to buy to try out new recipes. Inside the book are pictures of San Antonio landmarks that made her tear up a bit.

Number 2
Recipient: My Brother!
Gift: Alf Comic Book, 1st Issue

This one is super hilarious to anyone that knows my brother. As a small child, whenever Alf came on t.v., he would hide behind the couch and cry. He was terrified of Alf for some reason. He is an avid comic book collector, so this was right up his alley and keeping with my theme, pretty frickin' random, right? When he got it, he probably said, "WTF" (I'll just abbreviate that for you readers...) with his mouth hung open for 10 minutes. He had no idea there was an Alf comic book either. Just to make it even better, his girlfriend was there when he opened the package and didn't know about the whole Alf-thing. I love embarrassing my little brother. :) He told me that he hates it, but loves it at the same time. He has plans on getting it framed.

Number 3
Recipient: Miss Cat
Gift: Vintage Ceramic Avon Perfume Decanter Owl

Cat has a love for all kitschy things and collects owls. She always sees things on Etsy/Ebay she loves, but seems to talk herself out of ordering it. After searching for the perfect little owl doodad, I found this little guy. She called me when she got it. She was completely confused. Her husband was like, "Did you order something? You have a package." She saw my first name in the invoice order form and figured it out after a little bit. So cute! I hope it brightened her day.

Number 4
Recipient: Katie Kate
Gift: 1920 Ice Coupon BookSo Katie knew I was doing this, but didn't know she was going to be one of the recipients. In fact, we were chatting about it online when I ordered hers. Now the story behind this one is that Katie is THE coupon queen. Like she can get $200 worth of groceries for about $30. She does have about 20 cans of oatmeal in her kitchen at the moment and at one time 120 glade plug-in refills, but hey, it works--she got 'em free, so I won't pick on the girl. Another thing, whenever I go to her house, she never has ice. Well, here's a coupon book for 500 lbs. of ice that will be delivered to her front door. Um, if maybe she lived in South Dakota about 90 years ago. She messaged me online saying she had a suspicious package. :) Love it!

Number 5
Recipient: My Step Dad
Gift: 45th anniversary Miracle Whip commemorative pocket knife

Now he hasn't got his yet. I'm even betting he's thinking he's not in on this whole thing I'm doing since my mom and brother got theirs 2 weeks ago. The man has an infatuation with Miracle Whip. It cannot be mayonnaise. In fact, his mom once put store brand mayo in a Miracle Whip jar to save a few cents, didn't think he would notice. Danny definitely did! We've caught him making fried Miracle Whip sandwiches once. The whole Miracle Whip/mayo thing is an on-going joke we all in the family have with him. My brother wrapped up and gave him a super size jug of it for Christmas one year. Daddy was genuinely happy about it. The whole jug only lasted 2 months tops. True love, got it? I promise to you update you with his reaction.

Meemaw

Ida Naomi Fitzgerald
1932-2009

I did not want to write this post at first. How could my words ever do justice in remembrance of such a fine lady that was Miss Naomi? I really just didn't want to have to realize that our Meemaw was gone. But I knew that wouldn't last for long with the presence Miss Naomi possessed. She wasn't my personal Meemaw, but she made me feel that way. I can still remember the first thing she said to me after marrying Cliff. She said, "Welcome to the family, honey." Those words still warm my heart today, but when she said them I knew it was just protocol, I had already been "family" with her for a while.

If I was to think of Meemaw in just one word, it would be HUGS. 9 years or so ago, I was introduced to Meemaw. I was tagging along to either a church or family function as the third wheel with Cliff and Shayna (former girlfriend). Before speaking, I was given a welcoming hug. Maybe it is just a Southernly lady thing to hug everyone you meet, but Miss Naomi's hugs were always sincere. Meemaw wasn't what I would have considered a fragile lady by no means. Humble, honest, hardy, a country woman, ya know? Even so, you wouldn't have expected those hugs to be that tight! Yet at the same time they were sweet and squishy, just like her. :) You would usually get a few wet smooches (never just one!) in any embrace with Meemaw. She always smelled like fabric softner and whatever good cookin' she had been up to that day. Meemaw's loving touch that was shared with everyone is what I will miss most, her openness to befriend and care.

I'm still sad. It upsets me Sam will never know Meemaw. I luckily have a picture of the two of them together, but even this picture is not the same Naomi I wanted him to know. Miss Naomi couldn't smile the last six months. Sometimes I think she didn't want this picture taken at all, because it is simply not her as her usual self. I hesistated in taking it. I'm glad now that I did. I tell myself I was being silly. Meemaw was proud as can be of her new great grandson. She was not the type of person of appearances, never self-absorbed. I just wish I could have had the experience of watching her bounce Sam up on her knee talking baby talk to him. Nothing made her light up more than holding babies.

I've been dealing with difficult questions from Dylan.
"Why is she in a box, Momma?"
"Why are they closing the box with Meemaw in it?"
"Why would we put her in the dirt?"
"Are we gonna get her out of the dirt tomorrow?"

Even more confusing...
"God is gonna get her out of the dirt?"
"I want to see her, can you put me in the dirt too then?"

There was a white heart flower arrangement from all the grandkids with red roses zig-zagging through the middle. I explained to Dylan it was a broken heart, because our hearts were sad Meemaw is gone. Dylan matter-of-factly replies, "But my heart isn't broken. I'm not sad. I'm happy Meemaw is in heaven.", to which that same heart of mine melts. He leans over to her and says, "I love you, Meemaw. I will miss you. Have fun in heaven.", and kisses her casket. I hope Dylan will remember her as much as his 4 year old mind will let him.

Meemaw made dolls. 628 of them actually. She logged them all in a book, along with the recipient. Recipients included even "waitress at Quincy's" and "little black girl across the street", in order words- complete strangers. Are you getting the gist of the wonderful lady she was? I received doll #625 right before last Christmas. The last Christmas she was still normal. Her last Christmas. I selfishly complained to Cliff how Kristy got a bride doll at her wedding shower and I still didn't have one after all this time. I told Cliff not to say anything, but of course the Fitzgerald in him doesn't make for a great secret keeper. :) She had innocently forgotten and honestly, it hadn't really bothered me. I was just being a brat with crazy pregnancy hormones looking for something to complain about. I was pretty embarrassed when I received my doll, because of how I acted. It's a sweet doll with blonde hair and blue eyes decked out like a Southern princess in her huge pink dress. It was obvious that Meemaw definitely had me in mind making that one. I am so glad she thought of me and that doll currently resides on top of my dresser. Unfortunately, I hadn't mailed the thank you card until one hour before I was told she had died. I hope she does know I appreciated the dollie and it will forever be cherished.

My Cliff is so sensitive. He will only go to viewings of those very important to him, because it upsets him so. We were running late (as usual, still haven't figured out when to start getting ready for things with Sam) and missed out on the personal family viewing, so had to stand in line to see Meemaw for a good 30-45 minutes. I've never in my life seen that many people at a viewing before, I'm not even exaggerating. Cliff got his last hug with his Meemaw. I think seeing her appear more like her usual self versus how sad she looked the last six months in various hospitals and nursing homes brought a type of relief to Cliff. He was serenly calm after that. He shared to me that if he cries now, it is from recalling happy memories of Meemaw. Cliff has plans of attempting to duplicate her famous chocolate oatmeal cookies to carry on her memory.

I wish I could feel the same as the rest of Cliff and his family, that my faith could be as strong. Dylan tells me Meemaw is going to be friends with Papa Chuck (my grandpa) in heaven. The two of them would get along for sure I know. For some odd thought, I keep picturing them playing checkers together. Neither was a crazy checkers playing person or anything, but it is just what I see in my head over and over. I am dreading her absence this Christmas. I wonder how Papa Charles (her husband) will cope from this day on. No matter what, Meemaw will not be forgotten.

April 12 of 12--Easter Edition!

How I like to start my day: on the back porch with a cuppa with ice cubes so I can drink it right then!

Cliff working on the back yard in peace before the kids wake up. The entire back of the truck is filled to the top and he's no where near done.

Dylan is thrilled checking out his Easter basket! He said he saw the Easter Bunny while he was sleeping and that he's a pink boy one.

Easter egg hunt in the front yard. Almost all of these pictures are Dylan holding an egg just like this in front of his face telling me what color the egg is.

If you look closely in the air in the upper left hand side, you'll see a flying yellow egg. Also notice the eggs in the lower right hand side. Uh, yeah, Cliff and Dylan started an egg throwing fight. Typical of them two!

Cliff got a hair in his butt (ha ha, I kill myself with cheesy puns) and decided to shave the dog. Wilson loved it and looks like a little puppy now.

Dylan doing some birdwatching with his binoculars. He claims to have seen a red eyed sloth bird.

Their Great Grandma Joan stops by to visit. Dylan decides to go to her house to play for a few hours.

Mandatory self portrait in the car with Hubs too. I absolutely love over sized glasses and don't care how ridiculous I look.

Liberty Mutual is on my street corner and every day until Tax Day we see this guy advertising for them. He happily posed for this picture I took while at the stop sign.

Stopped by my Momma's house to pick up the boy's Easter baskets. She was happy to get a little one on one time with Sam.

Finishing our day off playing with Dylan's new chalks and watching Amazing Race. I think those two girls in the background on the t.v. (the basketball player team) are floating by and oughta be out already. It was a non-elimination round with the short stuntmen team more than likely set up to lose on the next episode.

"Celebration of Kimberly"

My mother is a little crackalacka sometimes. She calls me one day proclaiming that January 24th will be the "Celebration of Kimberly." What?! I tell her straight out that she is weird and ask if she is on drugs. Basically it was a "feed-the-pregnant-chick-whatever-she-wants-before-she-pops" dinner with family night. I picked out fried catfish, grilled shrimp, coleslaw, and southern black eyed peas. :) Momma got all the good pictures on her camera, but here's some pictures of that night from my camera.

Come on, you know this looks so good! Jealous? You should be :) My camera-shy step-dad frying the yummies below.
9 days til Sam comes...aka 37 1/2 weeks. I think?I'm officially huge as can be. This was about the same day whenever I breathe my bellybutton started popping in and out. That never happened with Dylan.

Picture Heavy Recap

Thanksgiving! This is my Mom's favorite holiday. It makes her happy to feed people. We celebrated at my Grandma's house this year, something we haven't done since I was a kid. I don't cook as I don't want people in the ER. Cliff is usually great with making food. He worked at almost every restaurant in town before his job with the base. He made a Macaroni Casserole, but forgot to double the cheese. Yuck! He also made a Chocolate Pudding Pie, but put too much milk. Not yuck, just not a pretty pie once you cut it. I say oh well. Mom had so much food that it was okay. And hey! Guess what? I usually HATE green bean casserole, but always take a bite thinking I will like it. It smells good and I love green beans, but ugh! This year, the grocery store ran out of cream of mushroom so Momma used cream of chicken instead and I LOVED IT. I hope she makes it that way again.
A bunch of us were in grumpy moods, me included, before the feast. We were all starving I suppose. Here's all of us grumpy butts watching football. It cracked us up how much Grandma had kept up with football this year. Her and Dad were going back and forth about this quarterback, etc.Dylan kind of understood Thanksgiving this year, mostly on part of Noggin. He was thankful for his Momma and Daddy he said. :) He was in a silly mood with his Meme. She can always get him in a good mood. He knows when he sees his Meme that she is gonna feed him good, especially on TURKEY DAY!My little brother. who is so love with his girlfriend right now, pulled himself away from her for Thanksgiving. I'm just teasing at him, but good grief, I don't remember being like that in the lovey-dovey phase with Cliff. It's even more weird to think that when I was my brother's age, I was already married and pregnant with Dylan. I so cannot imagine him being in that stage of his life. Obligatory self-portrait of us. His 21st birthday is coming up soon. He's still my little brother though. :)