Best Laid Plans...

Some days it seems no matter how hard I try to sit and work on genealogy it just doesn't happen!  I had planned out the entire week,  lots of time to sit and do data entry, work on my scanner images, do some transcribing, some cropping, some linking.  Alas, it was not meant to be.

As much as I hate it, sometimes life gets in the way.  Little things like making body butter (something I've been wanting to try but never really got around to until yesterday!), organizing and straightening the pantry,  putting together menu's for the month of Feb.(which is quickly approaching), then toss in things like delivering auto show tickets to a couple of the Ford Plants on the other side of town, Ortho appointments (decision time for braces removal) and of course making time for lunch with my best genealogy buddy! 

The three grandsons all ended up here last night as well, with everyone having home made pizza for dinner.  Bedlam, but the sound of the boys laughing and enjoying being with each other and being here at our home sure makes up for the craziness.  They won't be little forever and soon (much sooner than I care to think) I'm sure girlfriends and such will intervene so I'll just enjoy them while I can!

Festive Friday

 Christmas 2010, Mom, Mr. Brown Eyes and myself

The grandsons are excited, the big countdown has begun.  I can't say I'm not excited.  When it comes to Christmas I think sometimes I'm as much a kid as they are! 

Every year for one of my gifts Mr. Brown Eyes, my wonderful husband gives me a research trip.  It has to be taken between Christmas & New Year's and it has to be driving distance.  Both are fine with me.  I have plenty of research I can do within driving distance.  This year we are going to research in Montgomery County, Ohio.  We stay at the hotel right across the street from the Record Center & Archives.  Its four minutes door step to door step.  Does it get any better than that?  (They won't let me stay locked in so this is best option!)  So I'm busy prepping my to do list.  Several blocks away is the main branch of their library - loaded with all sorts of newspapers & other information. 

The big Christmas dinner is here at the Krugman castle and the menu is in place, the shopping is done, the tree is decorated - all that is left is for Santa to come and put all the goodies in the stockings hanging down on the fireplace.  Our son is home for the holidays from his job in Texas.  Mom is here from Florida.  Mr. Brown Eyes is done with work after a few hours today.  It's prime family time!  Four generations together again this year for the Christmas holiday!

I'd like to take this time to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a joyous, safe New Years!  Genealogy Frame of Mind is going to take a break.  We'll return January 2nd with more great newspaper articles, vital records and much more on all the lines we've been researching! 

See you next year!

This & That And More

Yesterday I worked at more data entry from the trip, although I think most of what I entered was from the recent research trip to the Garst Library & Museum in Darke County, Ohio.  Most of what I am entering are obituaries from newspaper clippings in the surname files there.  I also have some cemetery plot entries and estate files that I was working on scanning and linking.

Our son has been working in Canada for a while and is now finished with that job.  He will be coming back to stay with us while he house hunts.  While he is here is boys will be here more, meaning every Wednesday night and every other week our house goes from a quiet empty nest plus one to a noisy bustling place with two busy, rambunctious boys tearing about.  Not that its a bad thing but it can be a bit taxing on the mind & body!  Its okay, that's what being a grandparent is all about.  A place to be a kid!

After doing some stuff to prepare for the boys & son changes, I decided to do a little more digging on my "marriage" project.  I've been using the multitude of records over at Family Search to fill in the marriage dates I'm missing in my data base.  It's an ongoing project, whenever I get a few minutes I just jump over and chase a few.  Its amazing how many I've found so far.  Yesterday I kept finding "t" recorded as "l" and vice versa! Sure makes the hunt challenging.  I can't gripe about the indexing, my mom always told me unless I'm willing to take on the job, I  have no reason to complain.  Interesting way of thinking!

Today we're off to spend the weekend with the grandsons at the waterpark.  Despite being up until almost 11 last night they've been up since the crack of dawn, ready to go play!  Hopefully they'll sleep tonight after they exhaust themselves in the water.  I'm taking a folder of stuff to work on after they crash, and who knows maybe I'll even work on my marriage project!

Have a great weekend, try to stay cool!

Happy Researching!
Karen 

A Little Done..

Research trips are such fun!  Especially when you combine them with vacation time, some shopping and some fun time with your main squeeze!  I'm blessed that Mark enjoys the thrill of the hunt... aka researching almost as much as I do!

I've been working on the data entry from that last trip.  I've gotten all the deeds & wills from the two days in Raleigh, North Carolina scanned and on my flash or thumb drive as they are sometimes called.  And yesterday I finally finished recording all the marriage records I pulled in Medina County, Ohio.

I've still got tons of obits to get done, both from Medina County, Ohio and from Miamisburg, Ohio - and I've got to get those wills & deeds transcribed from North Carolina. 

With the census count down to 1940 in full swing and only about 296 days (Depending on when you read this!) to go I've got some census work I want to complete as well.  Then there's all the prep work for my trip the first week of July.  I've got the two cemeteries in Kentucky printed off that we need to photograph - over 200 headstone entries to chase, and then all the other work back in Ohio to get printed and bound as well.

The new cousins would love a copy of the genealogy I've done on the family so that needs to get printed and ready to go as well. The fun never ends eh?  

The two oldest grandsons are here all weekend and we've a wedding to attend so I don't know how much I'll get done this weekend.  Promise you, It will all be right here on this desk where I left it come Monday morning!

Happy Researching!
Karen

Treasure Chest Thursday - Christmas 2008

Two great photo's from Christmas 2008. Top one is of the two oldest grandsons, Nick & Carter after a ride down the back hill with grandpa's help!

The second one (bottom) is the closest we have gotten to a four generation photo. My mom (center), with our son, Eric and our daughter Amanda. Eric has his youngest son, Carter and mom his older son, Nick. Amanda is holding her son, Jonathon. I decided the safest place was the back of the couch for me!

Getting the boys to sit thru this was next to impossible! Photo's I'll cherish forever!

Week in Review

So here we are, its Saturday! I don't normally blog on Saturday but I thought I'd check in today since I was out yesterday.

I've been working more on that slowing down thing - I'm making progress on my data entry from our trip to Pennsylvania - its slow go, as I am searching out other missing information when I do the entry on the things I found. Mark & I have decided that during his week off July 3-10, we're going to do a mini research trip down to Darke County, Ohio.

So now I've got to go over my to do list for that county, fine tune it & prepare for a few days there. I imgine while there I'll slip over into Dayton for a few more obituaries from there. Seems like its a never ending process. Also have some headstone photo's I want to grab while there.

The gardening continues, the weather has been very helpful this week, with mild temps - so I've been putting down more of the organic composted black mulch and pulling weeds. If you want some photo's of the front beds I put up an album on my facebook page.

Today's temps are not condusive to working in the garden so I'll be here doing data entry. Did I mention the oldest two grandsons, Nick & Carter are here since yesterday afternoon and will probably be here most of the day? Youngest grandson will be here later today, so we'll see just how much I get done.

For now grandpa Mark is looking for breakfast as are the two grandsons. Sounds like a "cuppa" tea is in order for this still waking up grandma!

Have a good weekend everyone!
Karen

Friday Already?

With the holiday Monday it just doesn't seem like it should be Friday. Any time Mark is off on the beginning of a work week aka Monday it always plays with my brain for the whole week!


I'd like to say that I worked more on those Kreitzers I wrote about yesterday but I can't. Remember when I posted I was slowing down & taking time to walk away from genealogy & do something else? Today was one of those days.


I've been doing a bit every day - weeding, planting, transplanting etc.. but today I spent with some of the living genealogy type - my daughter & youngest grandson.


We did some shopping of my favorite kind - garage sales and more! Found some nice little red bowls, match the big red ones on my kitchen counter already. The youngest grandson got a Lightening McQueen car that talks and moves on its own for a whopping $1. Wait on the link if you decide to follow it. Its there just slow to load. Needless to say he's a happy camper! Daughter got some small bowls still in the original packaging. Not a great day but a fun one non-the less! We had an awesome lunch at our favorite lunch place - Logan's Steakhouse!

Daughter went to work & youngest grandson & I hung out until the other grandma came on duty. So now I have the oldest two grandsons for the evening and I am about to start dinner before Mark gets here.

Productive day? Probably not what I would call productive. But in the realm of family - Its been an awesome day! That Lightening McQueen car scored some MAJOR brownie points for this grandma! And that's a VERY GOOD THING!

Happy Researching!
Karen