The Corner of Glory & Freedom

Today is Veteran's day and for me it deserves a little more than a 140 character remark on Twitter or a few sentences on Facebook.  We as Americans owe our Veterans.  They have protected us, they have fought for us and more importantly they have sacrificed themselves in various ways for our country.

Those of you that know me, know I've been researching my family tree, in conjunction with other members of the family who are all working on different branches.  What has struck me more than anything is the number of people in my family that not only served their country, but fought in wars.  I have family in Germany that fought in the Napoleonic wars, and then served as border guards in what is now Serbia, before they emigrated to the US.  Just last night I was reading the Revolutionary War Pension files for two of my relatives and found that all four of the brothers in that family fought in the Revolutionary War - one under George Washington's command according to the writing.  My great-great-great grandfather fought in the Seminole War.  I know of 4 that fought in the Civil War.  I can't even begin to give you the numbers for WWI and WWII, but one of the cousins was killed in action in Saipan.  My uncle fought in Vietnam.  My dad, was overseas as a Medic in the Army, thankfully not in any combat.  He spent 2 years active duty and 4 years in the Reserves.

I find when I walk through a cemetery and I always bend down and clean the headstone of a veteran.  Yesterday while walking through my favorite cemetery I stopped by the War of 1812 veteran to show my respect.  I found a gentleman who fought in the 14th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War who hadn't been listed in the databases so I placed him up online.  Maybe someone in his family will find out where he's buried now.

It shouldn't take a holiday to remind you that our veterans are special, remember them year around.

Before & After Great-Great-Grandpa

Here's great-great grandpa before & after.  I'm totally impressed with my tie!  

Before and After

This week, we had a cousins reunion to work on our family tree.  The most wonderful gift of all was a large portrait of my great-great grandmother.  She was quite beat up when I first got her, but with a few hours of work, I think I've fixed her up nicely.  Can't wait to share it with everyone.  I can't wait to see what my mother said about my work.  

I'm so confused and I think I might be my own cousin.

I've been singing that song "I'm my own grandpa" all day.  Do you remember it? Well its stuck in my head.  Why you ask?  Well, I'm doing my family tree.  My mother did some work on my grandfather and then started on her own family tree with her cousin.  I got left my grandmother's family tree.  Well as you know when you are doing detective work - and trust me this is detective work - you hit dead ends and you turn around and go another direction.

So between the three main families that I'm researching - they intermarried 8 times, that I've found so far.  I realize back in the day you didn't travel far, but I mean spread out the gene pool.  Get some new blood.  I recently found a cousin who's descended from my great-grandfather's sister.  And I found that these families intermarried even more.  Granted when you have 8 or 9 kids it's not as bad as I make it out to be, but I think the family tree is kind of loopy.  I mean how do I show that one person's brother married that person's niece and her brother married that person's sister--in-law who is at the same time the first person's sister - or something along those lines.

I'm so confused I think I'd get lost in the lines traveling from one branch to the other.  I think I need an assistant or my mommy or something.  "Calgon, take me away!"

I'm putting my foot down

I must be the most ineffective parent on the face of the planet.  Seriously.  My kids don't listen to me.  They don't.  I know all of you moms are going to tell me that no kids listens and that I'm just imagining this. No, I'm not.  I think I'm going to have a household meeting tonight so that I can be informed on why they don't listen.  I figure give them the opportunity to tell me how I can do it better is probably a horrible thing for me, but it might actually help them.  Or maybe I will find there is not enough Xanax on the planet and I'll go live in the world of therapist for the rest of the year or until the insurance runs out.  Either way someone is going to make a point tonight. 

Please let it be me.  Please!

Look at Macy

Isn't she cute? This is Macy Jennifer - the baby that I got for my birthday. OK, the baby that was born on my birthday. Brandon & Lizzie did a good job of making her didn't they?

I need 5 minutes peace.

I've been at my parents house with the children for three days now. It seems that whatever I tell the children not to do they do it faster, louder and with more annoying whine that ever. I think I'm going to go insane. I'm sure they are praying for Friday so they can wave good-bye from the front porch and then run inside and enjoy the quiet. I just double locked myself in the bathroom so I could enjoy 10 minutes of peace - I needed to wash my hair too, but it was mainly for the quiet. Seriously.

Happy Birthday DAD!

To an awesome and talented DAD:  Happy Birthday.

By the way, this is the look on his face was when we accidentally told him his age in Dog years.  HA!!

Listen Up People, This is Important

You are not going to believe this.  My DAD has a blog.  Seriously, my dad.  The old guy my kids call Paw-Paw has a blog.  He has always been a talented guy, but since he retired he has taken up painting and is pretty ding-dang good.  

Check out Dad's Blog!  You can also find it on my Blog Roll, Walt's Art Space.  Go on, you know you want to look.  

Hello, can I get a timeout?

I'm having one of those days where nothing goes right. NOTHING. I woke up with a headache, probably due to one glass of wine too many last night. I forgot to get Hunter his breakfast when he asked me. Instead I got it 10 minutes later and he wasn't happy about that. The cat wouldn't move from my side last night - including sleeping on my pillow (there was then no room for my head on the pillow).

I'm at work and nothing seems to be going the way it is suppose to.  I want to run away, heck I want to take a nap. And to top it all off, instead of going home and getting comfortable I get to go to a giant family dinner. Don't get me wrong, I will enjoy everyone there. But it will probably 15+ people. Do you know how long it takes to get 15+ people served at a Steak House? Too Long! I haven't had lunch. No one will be able to make a decision, my husband will assume I want to take over with the children who I haven't seen all day because I'm at work and all I will want to do is get a little quiet time from the crazy day.

At least I won't have to do dishes!

Road Trip Baby!

Tomorrow I am off with the kids to see their grandma, pa-pa & big grandma (that's their great grandma).  I'm soooooo looking forward to the almost 5 hour road trip.  WHOO HOO!  5 hours in the car with two very loud children.

I do have a reward at the end of the road though.  MEXICAN FOOD.  Real honest to goodness Mexican food.  Not that supposed stuff we have here, but real HOT salsa, clog your arteries lard filled dishes that just make my left arm tingle.  Breakfast tacos.  Oh & FREE babysitting under the guise of spending time with grandma & pa-pa.  Oh and I get to visit my parents & grandparents.  They are the reason I'm going.  But the Mexican Food is like icing on the cake.  

Seriously, Mom & Dad its all for you, but can we have fajitas for dinner Monday? 

I love my boys!

I am a very lucky woman.  I don't say that very often, but I am.  Sometimes it is much more fun to make fun of the crazy everyday ups and downs that look at the big picture and see how life is good.  

I have a very wonderful little boy who has helped me clean the house today.  I have a very wonderful big boy who worries about me and my well being.  I have a very wonderful husband who does things for me no average husband would ever do.  All three of them drive me crazy every single day, but the good far out weighs the bad.  Seriously.

I just needed to take a little more time out of my day to praise the men in my life for making it better.  I have also hidden my happy pills on the top shelf - obviously I had one too many this morning.

Traveling & Day1: In need of a shower.

This should really be titled DELAYED.    We were delayed  1.5 hours in Dallas, then 3 hours in LA & 1 hour in Auckland.  Our flight from LA to Auckland included a call for a doctor only about 200 miles into the flight. We all turned and looked at each other and groaned and just knew that we would be turning around and heading back for LA.  Our 9 o'clock flight had already been delayed 3 hours and we actually took off at 12:30 LA time so not one was really excited to hear this over the intercom.  

Apparently some lady up front had a suitcase fall on her from the overhead bin.   A doctor from the "cheap seats" went up front and was then rewarded with business class seats.  We (my mom) quickly claimed the seats and my mom, sister and I were all lucky enough to have grabbed 3 seats a piece for the flight over so there was a little sleep gotten by all.

We made a new New Zealand friend in the airport.  He helped us tremendously getting thru the Auckland airport to get to our Wellington Flight.  Thank you Des!   

I've never needed a shower more than after all that airport and airplane.  We managed to hang around and stay up until our bedtime.  What an incredible view from the front deck at Susan's (our Aunt) deck.  Also the view our bedroom.  The big surprise of the day came from Amy, my cousin Brice's wife.  She delivered her second child while we were in the air.  Although I feel like "Auntie Dijea", I am only a second cousin to cute little Pippa.  Here's a little shot of Susan and her first grand-daughter.

Don't forget to check out my photo blog, there will be tons of New Zealand photos popping up there.

Trip Freak Out #563

Even though I have all the clothes in the suitcase, I'm still feeling "unprepared".  Its not that I'm leaving the kids, although I will miss them like crazy, because I know my husband will take good care of them.  Probably forget their medicine, but he'll take good care of them.  Not because the little kitten had an accident and is hobbling around the house.  Not because I have to spend 19 1/2 hours (or some other ungodly amount of time) in a giant tin tube either.  Its not that I'll be in another hemisphere either, but least they speak English in New Zealand.

I just won't have any control over anything.  Is that scary or what?  I won't have control over what's happening at home, I can't just "go home" if there is an emergency.  At some point, either my mom, my sister or myself will probably be offended by something the other one does.  More of a "too much togetherness" than anything or maybe "too many expectations".  I handle things really good at the time they are happening, its the anticipation of events that freak me out.

Well, I can't wait for the rest of the freak-outs before I leave on Wednesday.  I'm off to go get everything I've forgotten so far.

I'm going to New Zealand!

Holy Cr*p!  I'm leaving the country in two weeks.  TWO WEEKS.  I don't even have my clothes completely together, I'm going to another hemisphere and it is another season.  I'm leaving my children for way longer than I ever have, I'm going to go into withdrawal for a little wee one hug.  I may get used to sleeping in a bed without snoring.  I might not be able to find stuff I will eat.  Maybe I'll find too much stuff to eat.  AAAAGGGGHHHH!  I'm freaking out. 

Not really, I'm looking forward to it.  But I will miss my kids & maybe my husband.  OK honey, I will miss you too.  That part before was just my lame attempt at humor.

My husband is going to play video games every moment - oh he already does that.  But he'll now have to do laundry in between sessions.  HA!  And he'll have to make lunches. HA!  He'll even have to go to the grocery store.  HA!  Will he survive unscathed?  It probably won't even phase him.  I'll probably worry for nothing.  But hey, that's what I'm good at.

Do you think I'll survive the trip without throwing up on a plane or a ferry?

 

The girls in Vegas

My sister-in-law, Anjie, turns 35 this month and she wanted a trip to Vegas - so four of us went to Sin City to celebrate. We stayed at the fabulous The Bellagio, it was awesome. We ate Friday night at Circo, which was absolutely delicious. On Saturday we ate at the steakhouse in the Wynne casino called the Country Club.







We gambled, but truly we shopped 'till we dropped - or to be honest, we shopped till the blisters on our feet could no longer be ignored. While shopping we saw this display window and I couldn't help but think that my husband would appreciate it. Its a shop called Agent Provocateur it was an interesting shop to say the least.

Vegas Baby!!

I'm fixing to leave for Vegas Baby!! There are four of us, and as much as I would like to say its all about me, it's really all about Anjie (my husband's sis) and her 35th birthday. I'm looking for a lot of fun, a little drama & a lot of other I'm not ready to talk about.

I will miss my boys, maybe my husband and most definitely my cats. Honey, take care of my babies for me & maybe I'll bring you a little something-something!!!

Cowboys Baby!

My husband is set to graduate this December and get his X-Ray certification. He has 2 years experience on an MRI machine, and when he gets his X-Ray cert. he wants to get his certification for CAT Scan. I'm so proud of him!

Now, here's where the story gets interesting. My husband is a sports fanatic - true fanatic. He loves football, hockey, basketball, he stayed up late last night and watched boxing. I enjoy sports, I'm just not obsessed. Anyway, one of his instructors at school is the X-Ray tech for Texas Stadium and has managed to get him on the field before today's game. So my husband, my two sports obsessed children and my husband's good friend are off to see the Cowboys defeat the Rams today (I don't care what Isaac Bruce said, the Cowboys are going to win.). I'm hoping that Ethan gets to meet Tony Romo his favorite Cowboy, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

If we get a picture, I will post it either on this blog or the family blog Coplin Copy come back and check it out.

Lazy Bloggers in the family

Our family has a lot of bloggers in the family. My mother, my sister, my cousins Brice & Evan, but no one seems to update their blogs but me. Why is this? They are lazy. I used to be the one everyone called a procrastinator, but come on Brice, your blog hasn't been updated since July and you've left your island home on New Zealand and come back to Texas - and you are expecting a new kid. How can we revel in your joy if you don't post it? That may seem a little harsh, but I would rather jump for joy for you than have my mother comment on my lack of photography skills when showing my children's injuries on my blog.

Give me some blog entries you crazy members of my family. I need something new to read!!!

I love you guys! You're awesome! :)