sandraleecleary

I don’t remember ever going away for spring break while growing up.  My parents were always working, trying to put food on the table and clothes on our backs.  Then when I married the cycle continued.  But, now that my children are grown, they take their children and go somewhere for spring break.  AND Grammie gets to go too!

This was my first spring break and I had fun.  And I was good and tired when I returned! I drove for twelve hours to get to Ruidoso, New Mexico so the kids could go skiing.  I have NEVER been skiing in my life.  And, no, I did not try skiing.  I sat by the fire place in the lodge and drank lattes.  I’m telling you it was so cold my body felt like it was in the deep freeze.  Oh, yes, guess that is what you need to go skiing, isn’t it!

Day two the kids wanted to go tubing.  My grandson talked me into going down the slope with him.  Did I mention I’ve never been tubing either?  Scratch number 20 off my bucket list, I went tubing.  Did you know you had to ride the escalator to the top of the hill holding your tube?  I got on the fast moving belt and lost my balance so I stepped off—and walked!  Almost to the top a young man came running down to get me back on the belt and tried to show me how to stand.  Too late, we were already at the top and time to get off.  Out of breath and thinking I was going to have a heart attack, I reassured my grandson I was all right and ready to sit in the tube and go down the hill.

The short ride down took seconds.  I guess the hill wasn’t high enough.  It was enough for me.  I did it once and no one was going to get me back on it again, no matter what.  At least I did it once.

All in all we had a good time that day too.  Kids going up the hill and sliding down.  Me, sitting and watching.  The sun felt good!

Next year—-let me think———–

Until then……………………..

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This last week I received a note from a relative asking me for information on my Wood line.  I noticed he had information also.  We got together and combined what we had and furthered our family members.  Yea!

Sharing is good.  Keeping it to yourself not so good!

Sometimes you run into road blocks, brick walls, etc. and it gets so frustrating.  The more you look the more you keep going in circles and get no where.  That is when you let it go and look into another line in your ancestry.  Not saying that you will find more information on that line, but it takes you away from the frustration on the other line.  You get what I’m saying?

Anyway, with the help of Ancestry and the message board there my relative and I were able to piece our Wood line together.

Now then, it does help sometimes if you do the DNA also.  I’ve found quite a few cousins on my Barnes line.  From that, several of us keep in touch and message back and forth.  Now then, my Barnes line cousins live all over the United States, so I can see how far my ancestors traveled from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

So today I’m in the process of putting information in hubby’s family tree.  Most of his relatives stayed in the New England area and Canada.  Not like my gypsy family that traveled here there and everywhere!  No, they really weren’t gypsies, but sometimes it seemed like it.

Back to work.

Until then……………………………….

I’ve welcomed another new year into my old age.  I say old age, not because I feel old, but I guess I need to finally fess up, I am up there in my years.  I know, you say, you are only as old as you feel.  Well, most of the time I feel like I’m still in my twenties, but my body says, “Oh no you aren’t!”

This is the year I am going to finally, yes, finally, get the novel published.  No getting around it, I WILL get it done, with the help and guidance of my gracious Heavenly Father.  Because, you see, I can do nothing without him!

With that said it’s onward and upward!  I’m on it.  Stay tuned.

Until then…………………………

This is the time of the year most of us look back and thank God for our blessings.  Of course, we should be doing that every day, but when we think of this holiday season our hearts become mellow.  Reflecting back on the months, year, years, and we reminisce of all the good things that have come our way.  I am no exception, except I do thank God every morning for giving me a new day.  A day hemmed in prayer.  I need that to get me through my bumbling of the day!

Since I’ve found all this information about my biological father recently my mind has wandered back through my growing up years.   My step father was, for all accounts, a father who was absent most of the time.  Oh not because he wanted to be, but because he was in the Army.  There was the Korean War, his TDY’s, he was out in the field playing war, and several times he was stationed quite a few miles from our home, and only came home on week-ends.  The later was to keep my siblings and me in a more stable  atmosphere for school and friends.

When he was home I think I may have been his favorite, even though I was a step daughter.  Or maybe it was because I was the oldest and when I was learning to drive he would tell Mom he was going to the store to buy a six pack and he was taking me.  Yes me.  I think Mom knew that as soon as we turned the block Dad stopped the car and I slid over to take the wheel.  My only problem was when I took him home I drove into the drive way and ran over her ivy every time!

Pop, as I called him, always had a hug for each one of us kids.  His laugh was mischievous and infectious at the same time.  He liked to play pranks on Mom and usually had one of us kids in on it.

He was not without his faults as all of us have ours.  We are not a perfect person.  My parents were divorced after fourteen years.  Pop from then on traveled from place to place only to finally stay close to my one brother and me, going back and forth between the two of us.

Then there is my father who is named on my birth certificate.  Yes, my mother was married, but had an affair to which I am a product of that affair.  I knew from the time I was eight years old I had another father but my mother would never talk about him.  It wasn’t until I was fifty years old when I found out about the affair, but my mother had already passed away leaving me with more questions.  All those years all she said was he was a good man.

Now my biological father.  Since I have done an extensive research on him and his lineage I feel I know this man pretty well.  Perhaps more than any of my family members.  But now that I know him, on paper anyway and pictures, I can say I have been blessed.  Blessed because I had a father who fathered me, a father who gave me his name, and a father who was physically in my life when he was able to be there.  AND I had a mother, though not perfect, she gave us all the love and guidance she knew how to give.

Thank you MOM, DAD, and most of all thank you LORD.  I AM BLESSED far beyond my wildest dreams.

Merry Christmas to all and have a blessed New Year.

I am really excited……so excited……about DNA.  I’m not saying I’ve figured it all out, but each day it gets a wee bit easier to figure out mine and my family’s.  Yes, I have found my biological father through DNA.  And it’s taken a very long time, but well worth every bit of it.

First of all, I was ready to give up because I didn’t know if I was really on the right track.  I had a name and there again, I wasn’t quite sure if I could figure out if I was right or wrong.  Oh my, I’m confusing you, aren’t I.  I’m confused!

I’m not going to go into every little detail but if you had followed my other blog (which I cannot EVEN log into any more) you would know more about my journey.  But just recently when I thought I’d exhausted all efforts of finding the right person, my cousin (who hasn’t shown up on my matches) and I were having the same names come up as matches.  Then the day I saw where I had a third cousin match and she came up on my cousin’s as a distant cousin, I was sure I had the right person as my father.  WHEW!!!

Do I still have you confused?  Like the snake said to the little Indian boy in Jungle Book “Trust Me”!  I found him.  Of course, there were quite a few other things that came into the equation on finding him such as:  he was named in my mother’s divorce papers as having an affair with her and from that affair there was a child born, which was my birthday.  Then there was a small tidbit, the family my mother worked for and was good friends with; I am convinced that, that family was related to my father’s brother-in-law and both of them could have been visiting, hence, him and my mother met that way.  My biological father’s great grandmother was full blooded Sauk Indian.  When I got my DNA back I had one percent Native American blood.  Another sign……I was on the right trail! 

What it boils down to, you have to be a good detective.  Follow every single lead.  Follow your gut feeling, sometimes that proves out right.  Don’t believe everything you hear as the truth.  Things get distorted through time, but sit down and write it out.  Write the good and the not so good.  Could this have happened this way, or could it have happened that way.  Follow the paper trail.  Yes, I do have a good amount of paper.  I could wall paper my whole house…but I won’t. 

So you see it wasn’t just one thing here, it was quite a few things, with DNA being in the lead.  I will keep you posted.  Who knows, maybe one of his children will do the DNA test.

Until then……………………………….

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