Tag Archives: Niece

So many things….

Posted on by

Hmm.. Where to start.

Nothing major going on, just lots of little stuff.

I am working overtime, for a month, until the end of this month.  Started last week.  I am already tired.  But…I LIKE THE MONEY!  Well, I will, when I get paid. :)

I got a raise.  YAYAYAYAYAYAY

My sister is in San Diego, with her two kids, on vacation for about 11 days.  I was SUPPOSE to go, ended up not being able to afford the whole trip.  Might try to go for a long weekend when summer is over.  I want to see my Grandmother.  She is 94.  Miss her a lot. I was really bummed when I could not go.  The airlines hiked up the rate on the tickets about 60 days before we were leaving and I had not paid yet.  Then…work hadn’t said it was ok to go yet, so I had to put it off.  If I could not go I could not afford to lose the money I would have paid for the ticket.  My sister is going to bring me back a little San Diego beach sand to put in a jar.  :)   Wish she could bring my Grandmother with her too.

Remember we had snow and rain almost two weeks ago?  Or did I mention that?  Well, the day before yesterday it was 101 degrees.  Yesterday about 94.  At night tho, when I am out watering the flowers at work, as I usually do during the “Summer”, I have HAD TO WEAR my flipping COAT!  It was 40 degrees I guess, about 2 am. I am freezing my butt off.  ‘Course, I get water all over me too, which doesn’t help at all!

I paid off my car.  YAYAYAYYAYAYA ME!

There is a site, WikiTree, that is attempting to link everyone they can through their family trees.  You can upload your ged.com files to help do this. I uploaded mine.  They told me to trim it down.  If they took mine, it would create approximately 7300 pages on the WikiTree, one for each and every single person in the tree.  They want the info, however, as they explained, as you go further back in time; there are less people, so you end up being related to just about everyone.  :)   They also said my tree appears to go back to the 1500′s.  Guess I haven’t seen the whole family yet, the little side branches and stuff.

So, I am trying to trim it down.  FUN!  When I first downloaded a copy, don’t wanna use the original, I started deleting my sister’s husband’s family.  She is researching his side, not me.  I kept coming up, as I went back, across people I knew were in my DAD’s family, they had married.  So, I thought, maaaayyyybbeee the file is corrupted?  My mom started out using this file 20 years ago, from one of the original family tree programs.  She would update the software but it allowed you to keep the original from the prior version of the software.  Thought maybe after 20 or more years there were a few glitches.  Would not have surprised me at all.  You know?  So, I deleted my copy, downloaded a copy of the original three more times.  It kept happening.  I figured, finally, I better just check and see if it was so.

Guess what?

It is SO so!

My sister’s husband’s first cousin, 2 removed (I think that was it) had had a child, who had children, of course, and one of those children married my dad’s brother’s wife’s aunt. Can you imagine?  I hope that made sense.  WOW!!  I found another too, but haven’t checked it yet.  I will in a bit.  Not blood related of course, as my aunt married into my family, I sure didn’t expect that particular finding.  Very exciting.

So far I have only gotten the number of people down to about 6500.  Still working on it, deleting the unknowns first.  (If my mom didn’t know the maiden name or surname of a  person she would create a profile anyway, least she would know not to look from the beginning, where she had no info at all, a name is a good place to start)  So, I am writing notes on each and every person’s profile, within the fields provided for “comments” on each profile,  that was a spouse of an “unknown” or the parent of an “unknown” child and then deleting the “unknown” person.  Rather keep the information on all those that are known if I can.  Even if I have all of them in the original file.  Feel like it doesn’t help anyone to get rid of the stuff that is for certain.

My niece, the 14 year-old, had knee surgery Saturday, I think it was Saturday, and my brother had a golf tournament the next morning. (He paid for the tournament before knowing about the surgery, lose your money if you are a no-show) So I went to their house the day after so he could go to his golf tournament and so his daughter would not be alone.  I had to work that night so went home about 1pm.

Shadow was beside himself when I came in the door!  He was bouncing around the walls when I came in.  Jumping on me.  Very excited.  Now, I have never had a small dog before.  I had NO IDEA that their tongues could fit inside someone’s nose when they are trying to greet you after a long, to them, absence.  Yep, yep, yep.  They sure can.  Got my eyeball too.  My EYEBALL!  ‘Course, he didn’t know, or care.  I was slapping myself silly all over my face trying to get the slobber off.  Not that such a little dog has much, but still.

Shadow is funny.  When I try to go to sleep, he wants to play. Oh, yes, he can jump on my bed now, barely, but he can.  Yesterday he tried to jump up and slid right off, the sheet wasn’t giving him much in the way of grip.  Sheet went with him too and he slid right back down the side of the bed. :)   Anywhooo….When I try to sleep, the little bugger wants to play. Do you know how excited a small dog gets just by wagging your finger?  Moving it an inch, one way or another?  I don’t do much, fall asleep and before I fall completely asleep I twitch my finger once in a while.  He is ALL OVER IT!  You’d think my finger was attacking him if you saw the vigor with which he returns the attack. Never knew a pet could be so easily entertained!

I lost my Kindle too!  Well, I thought I did.  I was in panic mode when I could not find it.  I could not imagine telling my sister that I lost her gift to me. :(   My brother found it at his house. YAYAYAYYAYAY  I was so happy.  I turned my house and car upside down looking for it.  Kept calling work to see if they could find it.  I left it at my brother’s house tho, not at my house at all.  Which in a way made me feel better as I couldn’t even remember taking it out of my backpack when I went home later that day, I pretty much just went to bed because I had to work that night.  I was very relieved he found it!

About these ads

I had a very nice day yesterday.

Posted on by

My brother and his two girls, ages 11 and 13 live with me.  They are moving out beginning this coming weekend. :(   While I was staying at work, one niece had been at my sisters house since Thanksgiving Day because she, being 11, could not stay by herself at my house while I was gone and her Father was working.  Her sister, the 13 year old, had stayed with their Mother since Thanksgiving Day.

When they both came home my sisters daughter came to spend the night.  The 11 year old, after staying at her cousins house for three days felt a little put out because she knew once the two 13 year olds were together under the same roof she would be kinda left behind. ;(

So, she and I spent most of the day in my room.  Me on my Kindle reading or watching the numerous shows I had saved on my DVR and she on my Netbook because the other two were doing stuff on my other computer.

I was sitting. with pillows all around me, reading.  She was stretched across the width of my bed playing on the ‘puter.  We had a lot of fun.  She kept showing me YouTube videos she likes, music, funny stuff and all that she found amusing on the internet.  The BEST thing, which might sound like the most stupid thing of all, was when she asked me about my cell phone.   I have a “slider” cell phone.

She wanted to know, if  when the cell phone is closed and turned on, you can still talk.  I told her I honestly didn’t know because I have a habit of sliding it open when I have it turned on for using. So, she called my cell phone with her cell phone.  It was amazing, she was sitting there laughing because of being able to hear herself on both phones.  It was as if it were amplified.  I could hear every word she said too.  (Heheh Just reread the prior sentence, of course I could hear her, I was sitting a foot away from her.  I mean I could hear the words from the cell phones very well too).  Then she started singing and messing around with the phones.  While doing so she told me about a girl who was in the talent show at school who sang a song about dancing.  When my niece mimicked her while on the two cell phones we couldn’t help laughing hard, it echoed.  Least it sounded like it was echoing, partly because of the way the you sing the song.  We decided that my niece is gonna be in the next talent show, singing that very same song, but with one difference, or two, she is going to bring two cell phones and sing while holding the phones next to the microphone.  :)   It was fun just being silly.

I really enjoyed it.  Mostly because this 11 year old keeps her cards close to her chest.  Her sister is totally different, wears her heart on her sleeve and you know what she is thinking and feeling, for the most part. She’s still a teenager so you may not always get the WHOLE picture, but you get a pretty good idea of what is going on with her.  The 11 year old tho, while she is an imp, loves playing jokes on people, knows how to push peoples buttons and always has a smile on her face, keeps things close.

A few months ago she was elected President of her elementary school.  I don’t get to see many of their school activities like concerts and plays because they are usually held in the evenings while I am asleep.  I was able to go to the assembly when she was elected President, it was held in the morning.  I felt sooooo good when she tried to hide a HUGE smile on her face when she saw me.  (My brother, her dad, had to work, so he could not go).

I felt good for two reasons, one quite selfish, that she was happy to see ME.  I make them clean and stuff,  ya know? :) The other that she let it show through, even though she tried very hard not to.

I worry about her staying closed, quite often.  Because that is how I am myself.  I don’t let many close.  I want her to be braver than I was/am in how she deals with people.   How do you instill that in someone as young as she is?  Is it even possible?

So, I didn’t do a thing on here yesterday but I am okay with that, what I did do was much more important to me for a lot of reasons.

Next weekend, all three nieces and myself, are going to pick out my new little puppy.  I think it is a miniature schnauzer?  They are very excited, already picking out names, like Mr. Pickles (??!?!?!), Snuggles, Bingo and a few others.  I insisted, as it will be MY puppy, I get to pick out a name, and I am not doing that until I see the personalities of the puppies. ;)   I am going from a giant dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, Marlo, that I had to have put down a few years ago, to a small doggie.

Anyway, I had a GREAT DAY yesterday with my niece, just relaxing and having a good time.