• Happy Thanksgiving!

    ThanksgivingI received this precious Thanksgiving greeting card years ago from my firstborn’s firstborn.  It traveled all the way from Peru where my son was a missionary doctor.  He and his family lived and worked among the Quechua Indians for almost seven years.  They are back in the states now, thankfully for this grandmother.  The photo above was taken in the Sacsayhuaman ruins in Cusco, Peru, when I visited them.

    I will spend ten hours tomorrow in a mini-van with my daughter and her family…seven of us…PLUS Kiana, the Hungarian Vizla!  We are traveling to Kentucky where I will spend a wonderful week with my son and his precious family.  My daughter and her family will travel an hour farther to spend Thanksgiving with my son-in-law’s family.  I can’t wait to see them all!  There is a pan full of “party mix” in the oven for the road trip and I’ve been stirring it every 15 minutes.  It smells delicious!  Why does riding in a car for so long make you hungry?!  😉  I have so much I’d like to do with my three beautiful granddaughters in Kentucky.  We’ll have to work hard to get it all done in a week!

    On December 4, I will fly from Kentucky to Dallas for ten sweet days with my youngest and his family.  With a two year old granddaughter and a three-month-old granddaughter, I will be in grandmother-heaven!  I was visiting with my two year old granddaughter the other day on Skype and mentioned that I couldn’t wait to play with her.  She promptly picked up her Dad’s iPad and carried me into the playroom with her…setting “me” down in the little chair beside her!  I was playing with her!  I loved it…

    Wishing each of you a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving with your family and friends.  May you have safe travels and make wonderful memories that will last a lifetime…

  • Autumn days…

    The weather has turned cool here at last.  The trees are finally wearing their Autumn shades of gold, crimson, deep ruby and russet orange. It is time to drag out the sweaters and place a warmer blanket on the bed.  My favorite time of year, Autumn makes me happy.  It brings back memories of harvest festivals of years gone by…apple picking…apple dumplings…homemade apple pies.

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    My daughter purchased two bushels of apples, and tomorrow I will help her turn those apples into delicious apple butter!  Years ago, when we lived in Indiana, my sisters and my niece Sharon came for a visit.  We traveled to Nashville, Brown County, Indiana.  It’s a wonderful little town with quaint shops, resident artists and wonderful food.  There, at the Nashville House Dining Room in the historic Brown County Inn, I had some of the best oven baked apple butter I have ever tasted.  I came home and tried to duplicate it and actually came close.  Now, years later, they actually share the recipe here!

    Tonight, I will go with my daughter and her family to “The Great Pumpkin Party” at church…just as we did last year.  The large church is equipped all over (indoors) with all sorts of fun events for children – including different “jumping” houses and games.  There are also pony rides outside.  They love it and it is so much fun!

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    My thanks to those of you who’ve stuck with me through this “postless” last month.  Excuses?  I’ve been traveling and spending time with precious grandchildren – both near and far.  These days, I am also traveling back in time as I spend hours working, once again, on my family history.  Yesterday, I found myself missing Dot, my late oldest sister and the one who dreamed of being able to trace our ancestors as far back as possible.  We were actually “stuck” on Mama’s maternal grandmother, Mary Frances Cooper.  I wrote for her death certicate.  Fifteen years ago – that was how you had to do it.  There were a few clues but also the wrong first initial of her father.  The information about her was being given over the telephones of yesteryear.  Her father’s first name was Vincent.  My Dad was listed as the informant and gave the individual asking for the information the letter “V”.  Over the phone, “V” can sound like “B” and that’s what they wrote down!  In the old days, they used a lot of initials for first names and that can throw a curve.

    Yesterday, I finally traced Mary Frances Cooper’s family all the way back to her immigrant ancestor and my 6th great-grandfather, William Cooper, who was born in 1669 in Warwickshire, England!  He immigrated to America and arrived in Virginia with his wife Elizabeth Lawrence in 1718!  The find was so bittersweet…for I wanted to share it with Dot.  I hope she knows.  There are more branches of this family tree to complete now.

    I’m rather surprised to say that THIS is my one-hundredth post!  I’m looking forward to sharing more of my Sweet Journey Home and I thank you for following along with me…

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  • Precious days…

     I flew back to the Midwest last Saturday after nine precious days in Dallas. 
    There is absolutely nothing in this world like meeting a new grandchild for the very first time. 
    Pure joy…
    Sweetness personified! 

     
     Newborns like to sleep a lot, but when she was awake, those gorgeous blue eyes looked right into mine.
    Sometimes she smiled at me.
    Be still, my heart. 
    So precious and beautiful…
     
     
     
     
    Two days after I arrived, we celebrated her big sister’s second birthday!
    With Minnie Mouse!
    I can’t believe how fast she has grown and how smart she is – of course!
    So precious and beautiful…
     
     

     

    We had a wonderful, BUSY, fun nine days and I miss them all already!

    I miss my granddog Bernie too!  😉

     

     
     
  • Pure joy…

    Yesterday was a day of pure joy and thanksgiving as my newest grandchild made her way into this world…with mom and daughter doing fine.  She was born at 10:34 a.m. weighing a healthy 7 pounds, 14 ounces and with enough hair to know there may be some strawberry blonde for this sweet baby too…just like her big sister and her Dad.   

    My son called me on “Facetime” from the hospital in order for me to “meet” her in “real-time”.  I talked softly to my beautiful brand new granddaughter and watched closely as she peacefully slept and moved her little hands.  Sweetness personified. 

    I will fly to Dallas on September 5 to meet her in person and hold her in my arms.  I will be there to celebrate her big sister’s second birthday!  What fun that will be!

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     I couldn’t help but reminisce a bit and remember when my son was born…just a little over 33 years ago.  Here he is in the hospital with his dad not long after he was born.  Notice the strawberry blonde hair even then.  Sweet memories.  I love this circle of life and the incredible joy of being a grandmother!

     

     

  • The sixth day of August…

    There are some days in life that are just bittersweet…today is one of those days.

    On a sweet note, today is Cindy’s birthday.  She is my sister Gerry’s firstborn.  Cindy is beautiful with a heart of gold…just like her late Mom.  She has an ever ready smile and a wonderful sense of humor.  We are always laughing when we’re all together.  An amazing pianist and wonderful teacher, she must bless the hearts of the students at the college where she teaches.  No doubt, she blesses the hearts of our entire family…just as she blesses mine.  Happy Birthday, Cindy!  I love you.  Wish I could be there to celebrate with all of you!

    Love this photo from about 1957.  Cindy was almost 5 and I was 12.  (Guessing at the year and ages here.)

    Apparently, I’d propped her up in the car window!  I was a really good baby sitter!

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    Sadly, today also marks the ninth anniversary of my beautiful sister Dot’s death.  She fought a courageous battle against AML (Acute Myloid Leukemia) but Heaven needed her.  She had such strength and optimism.  She believed in FAMILY more than anyone I have ever known.  Dot remembered special days with a card, a note or a call.  She organized family reunions and made sure that we all got together.  She had a gift for staying in touch.  Dot had the burden/privilege of being the oldest…maybe that comes with the territory.  As I shared in the previous post, searching for our family roots was Dot’s inspiration and I will honor her by finishing it.  She would like that.  

    How I would love to answer the phone and hear her quip one more time, “Hello!  What’s going on besides the rent?” with that smile in her voice.  I miss her every single day…but I will see her in Heaven.

     I love this picture of my sister when she was about 21 years old. 

  • A mystery in Scotland…

    I wonder if the same thing that makes me wish I’d been an FBI agent is the same deep thing that makes me love a mystery?  Finding clues, sorting them out and solving a mystery is more than just a challenge – it’s actually intriguing.  This time, I’m talking about searching out clues in my family history.  Years ago, my late sister Dot had the dream of finding our ancestors.  I joined her in the exciting search.  It didn’t take a whole lot of imagination to know that with the last name of McGregor, our ancestors had come from Scotland.

    We began the journey back through the years and enlisted the help of our other two sisters.  The four of us traveled to the archives of Mississippi and various other libraries.  We wrote many letters requesting information from archives in several states.  Amidst the laughter on each trip we’d take, we discovered answers – in birth records, death records, marriage records, old newspaper clippings and family Bibles.  You would have thought we’d won the lottery when we “proved” a date or name.  There are three large rubbermaid containers stacked next to my chest in my bedroom…filled with several years worth of hard work.  I purposely did not put them in the storeroom for a good reason:  they’re there to remind me that I must finish this family history.  When the snow starts to fall in a few months, I will rejoin Ancestry.com and begin the journey back through time once again.

    Several years ago, my husband and I were traveling through North Carolina where my immigrant ancestor, Rev. William McGregor, had lived almost 300 years ago now.  There at the foot of Fall Mountain, he built a homestead – complete with a sturdy log house and outbuildings.  He established a large apple orchard.  He “preached in the meeting houses of America”…which had been his reason for coming to America in the first place.   He sold his home and land to Dr. Kron, the first physician of North Carolina.  The house has been rebuilt as an exact replica and is in Morrow Mountain State Park in Stanly County, North Carolina. 

    It was somehow humbling, yet awe-inspiring, to stand on the land of my ancestor, a Baptist preacher from Scotland (there weren’t a lot of Baptists in Scotland at that time).   I stood on the porch of his home and wondered where the answers lie.  So many of the actual records burned in fires over the years according to the archives there in Stanly County.  There are hundreds of his descendants who are searching – as I am.  Supposedly, Rev. William McGregor was born in Ossian’s Glen, Scotland.  Other records indicate he came from the Isle of Skye. 

    The mystery lies in Scotland but there is much to prove here first.  This is just part of the mystery that I will be working on this Winter, when the snow begins to fall…

     

    Below:  The front of Rev. William McGregor’s house in Morrow Mountain State Park, Stanly County, NC…

     

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    Below:  The  back of Rev. William McGregor’s log house in Stanly County, NC 

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     Below:  The back door of Rev. William McGregor’s house…wmmcgregor3