Bonnie's opted to do her end of year history project on her family genealogy. She is to trace her family line back to when her ancestors came to America. Her project has prompted me to connect with my cousins and set up an ancestry.com account to map everything out. As relatives have heard what I am doing more documents have been emailed to me giving me more information. Bonnie informed me that she only needed to trace back ONE line and find only ONE ancestor that came over, NOT EVERY ancestor. lol....
Genealogy is addicting. I think my genealogist cousins would attest to that. So my latest news was about my Meeks family tree. It turns out that as you trace back their history you will discover that as they made the move from West Virginia to Indiana they spent some time in Kentucky. While in Kentucky, Daniel Boone would frequently visit their home and spend time with them. Cool!
My plan this summer is to spend time taking all of the stories and info that my family is sending my way and putting it down on the ancestry website so that future generations will have it. In fact, I think I will start sharing those stories here so that I will have it to share with family.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Last CC
Brian is finishing his last Class Connects (CC or live class sessions) today!!!! How this year is going to end for my dear boy is still up in the air. What a challenge this year has been. Do I regret it? No....I don't. Has it created a lot of challenges, sleepless nights, weeping and gnashing of teeth? Yes...but I still don't regret the decision. This year the virtual school has brought a lot of things to light about my son. Fact...he is very bright. Fact...he is very lazy. Fact...he has had to face a lot of his insecurities and has found that he is capable to do the work required of him.
The best part of this year was watching him thrive when it came to computers. I loved watching him create his computer games. I loved seeing him problem solve why his game or web pages didn't work out the way he wanted to. I loved watching him spend hours figuring out to correct his mistakes and make things work right. I see a future for him in the field of computers and really believe the technical school is the route for him in the next few years.
The best part of this year was watching him thrive when it came to computers. I loved watching him create his computer games. I loved seeing him problem solve why his game or web pages didn't work out the way he wanted to. I loved watching him spend hours figuring out to correct his mistakes and make things work right. I see a future for him in the field of computers and really believe the technical school is the route for him in the next few years.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Respite
I have taken on another side job providing respite care for an elderly couple in our church. That is the thing with older churches, you have a lot of elderly people that need help. I have been praying about taking on extra work and this seemed to be the ticket. It is twice a month for a couple of hours each time.
Believe me, it is no walk in the park. It is hard to see people grow old and not be able to take care of their basic needs anymore. For this couple, they lost a daughter and granddaughter several years ago. This tragic event had a devastating impact on the mother. She lost the will to live. She stopped living. She is breathing, eating, and sleeping, but her will is gone. She has given up on life. All day she sits in her chair and does nothing. The tv is constantly going but more for noise than entertainment. She looks at the paper but couldn't tell you what it is about. Yesterday, I spent four hours with this dear woman so that her husband could go to town for appointments and errands. I cleaned house for them and prepared her evening meal. I tried my best to engage her in conversations. While dusting I would take down each picture of the shelf and ask her to tell me who the people were in the photos and get her to talk about them.
More than ever I am thankful for my parents and their health.
Believe me, it is no walk in the park. It is hard to see people grow old and not be able to take care of their basic needs anymore. For this couple, they lost a daughter and granddaughter several years ago. This tragic event had a devastating impact on the mother. She lost the will to live. She stopped living. She is breathing, eating, and sleeping, but her will is gone. She has given up on life. All day she sits in her chair and does nothing. The tv is constantly going but more for noise than entertainment. She looks at the paper but couldn't tell you what it is about. Yesterday, I spent four hours with this dear woman so that her husband could go to town for appointments and errands. I cleaned house for them and prepared her evening meal. I tried my best to engage her in conversations. While dusting I would take down each picture of the shelf and ask her to tell me who the people were in the photos and get her to talk about them.
More than ever I am thankful for my parents and their health.
Geneology
Bonnie has an assignment for AP History. She is to find out when her ancestors came to America and what was happening at that time in American history. She figured that this should be an easy assignment since we have genealogist in the family who have already mapped everything out. All she had to do was copy their work and put it on a poster board. Ha Ha.... She had no clue how intricate a family tree is.
Knowing the complexity of a family tree I contacted two of my cousins whose hobby is to trace our family lines to see if they could help Bonnie out. My cousin, Travis, on my dad's side gave Bonnie a list that linked her pawpaw (my dad) to Stephen Hopkins who came over on the Mayflower. Cool! My cousin, Julie, has mapped out my mom's side of the family. She gave me name after name going back to the kings and queens of Scotland, Vikings, the crusades, you name it. What she didn't give me was dates and when all of these people made their way to America. So I joined ancestry.com and began putting everyone's info into the family tree. To help with the process I had a family newsletter that my Aunt Itsy, mom's oldest sister, had put together with family birthdates, death dates, marriages, etc. Slowly, I am making my way back into the past and have found several lines of family members who have traveled from Scotland and England to America. It seems that a few lines came to America right at the time of the American Revolution and fought for America.
It has been quite a journey and I am finally getting a clear picture of my family roots. My biggest revelation last night was who my Great Grandpa Jimmy was. I have heard my mom and her sisters talk about Grandpa Jimmy but had no clue of who he was. It turns out my mom's grandparents divorced and my mom's grandmother, Ollie O'Bryant Meeks, remarried James (Jimmy) Cranfill, i.e. Grandpa Jimmie. Now I know....
Leaves are popping up all over my family tree on ancestry.com. I have a lot of exploring to do this summer and I can't wait to find out more.
Knowing the complexity of a family tree I contacted two of my cousins whose hobby is to trace our family lines to see if they could help Bonnie out. My cousin, Travis, on my dad's side gave Bonnie a list that linked her pawpaw (my dad) to Stephen Hopkins who came over on the Mayflower. Cool! My cousin, Julie, has mapped out my mom's side of the family. She gave me name after name going back to the kings and queens of Scotland, Vikings, the crusades, you name it. What she didn't give me was dates and when all of these people made their way to America. So I joined ancestry.com and began putting everyone's info into the family tree. To help with the process I had a family newsletter that my Aunt Itsy, mom's oldest sister, had put together with family birthdates, death dates, marriages, etc. Slowly, I am making my way back into the past and have found several lines of family members who have traveled from Scotland and England to America. It seems that a few lines came to America right at the time of the American Revolution and fought for America.
It has been quite a journey and I am finally getting a clear picture of my family roots. My biggest revelation last night was who my Great Grandpa Jimmy was. I have heard my mom and her sisters talk about Grandpa Jimmy but had no clue of who he was. It turns out my mom's grandparents divorced and my mom's grandmother, Ollie O'Bryant Meeks, remarried James (Jimmy) Cranfill, i.e. Grandpa Jimmie. Now I know....
Leaves are popping up all over my family tree on ancestry.com. I have a lot of exploring to do this summer and I can't wait to find out more.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Maifest 2014
Bonnie with her chaperone, David Severance (Also known as Father Christmas)
Bonnie with all of the Bavarian participants for this year's Maifest.
The Idleweiss Dance Class entertaining the crowd with the May Pole dance before the parade.
The Alpen Horn players from the Enzian Inn start off the parade. (It is impossible to see these guys without singing "Riccolla" in your head.)
The Distinguished Young Woman of Leavenworth cart.
Bonnie rode with Mady Harris the 2013 DYWL
Mady handed over the title of Distinguished Young Woman of Leavenworth to Bonnie.
Bonnie then gave her speech welcoming the crowd to Leavenworth.
Bonnie with Cindy Pucket (2014 Royal Lady of Leavenworth), Mady Harris, and Carolyn Wilson (Leavenworth's Mayor Pro-Temp)
Winding Down the Year
School is winding down...I wish life was....sigh...
Two more weeks and we can close the book on this school year. Already, I have begun making plans for next year, however, when I think I have it all planned out something comes up and makes me reconsider my plans. This is what I know, Bonnie will attend a second year at Wenatchee Valley College and finish the requirements for an Associates of Art degree. The one hiccup is that I learned she will most likely have to take the Washington State history class to receive her high school diploma, so we will have to figure out how to accomplish that. I don't think they have a course at the college for it. Brian will attend Cascade High School next year. He has resigned himself to that fact and seems to be dealing better with each day. My dilemma is what to do with Bryce. This year has helped me focus on what areas we need to concentrate on next year. I had decided to purchase the Institute for Excellence in Writing and make writing our main area of focus. We would use Apologia General Science. I already have the book. More importantly, I have the book on mp3 which is important for Bryce since reading is a struggle for him. For history we will continue to work our way through history. We left off this year with President Grover Cleveland, so we will pick up with him and work our way through current events. For math Bryce is planning on finishing up 7th grade math during the summer so that he can start Pre-Algebra next year.
All of that sounds great, but last weekend another home school mom told me about a co-op in Wenatchee and encouraged me to look into it. I have heard about one of the co-op teachers ever since we moved here, and how awesome he is. Now I am thinking this might be the best route for Bryce next year. The co-op meets once a week in the mornings. I could sign Bryce up for an English class that focuses on writing, a spelling class that uses a curriculum that I already own, and a Pre-Algebra class. (They use Saxon.) The benefits of the co-op is that Bryce will be accountable to another teacher, have a group of kids to meet with, and it will help him make that transition to high school when the time comes. The cons are $$$. So....it is a matter I need to pray over this summer.
Let's just say that in two weeks you might just hear this gal let out a sigh of relief. This year can't end soon enough.
Two more weeks and we can close the book on this school year. Already, I have begun making plans for next year, however, when I think I have it all planned out something comes up and makes me reconsider my plans. This is what I know, Bonnie will attend a second year at Wenatchee Valley College and finish the requirements for an Associates of Art degree. The one hiccup is that I learned she will most likely have to take the Washington State history class to receive her high school diploma, so we will have to figure out how to accomplish that. I don't think they have a course at the college for it. Brian will attend Cascade High School next year. He has resigned himself to that fact and seems to be dealing better with each day. My dilemma is what to do with Bryce. This year has helped me focus on what areas we need to concentrate on next year. I had decided to purchase the Institute for Excellence in Writing and make writing our main area of focus. We would use Apologia General Science. I already have the book. More importantly, I have the book on mp3 which is important for Bryce since reading is a struggle for him. For history we will continue to work our way through history. We left off this year with President Grover Cleveland, so we will pick up with him and work our way through current events. For math Bryce is planning on finishing up 7th grade math during the summer so that he can start Pre-Algebra next year.
All of that sounds great, but last weekend another home school mom told me about a co-op in Wenatchee and encouraged me to look into it. I have heard about one of the co-op teachers ever since we moved here, and how awesome he is. Now I am thinking this might be the best route for Bryce next year. The co-op meets once a week in the mornings. I could sign Bryce up for an English class that focuses on writing, a spelling class that uses a curriculum that I already own, and a Pre-Algebra class. (They use Saxon.) The benefits of the co-op is that Bryce will be accountable to another teacher, have a group of kids to meet with, and it will help him make that transition to high school when the time comes. The cons are $$$. So....it is a matter I need to pray over this summer.
Let's just say that in two weeks you might just hear this gal let out a sigh of relief. This year can't end soon enough.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Apple Blossom
Today Bonnie performed her first duty as the Distinguished Young Woman of Leavenworth by walking in the Apple Blossom Parade in Wenatchee with Leavenworth's Autumn Leaf Festival Float and Royal Ladies.
The parade started at 11 am this morning. Floats had to be on sight at 8 am. Fortunately, Bonnie didn't have to be there that early. We did arrive an hour early which gave us time to walk around and visit the other floats. Bonnie found her dream car while we meandered around.
While waiting for the parade to start, all the royalty from all the floats gathered together and started line dancing. It was a lot of fun to watch. At one point, the got all of the girls to gather around the Leavenworth float and do our traditional dance, The Chicken Dance!
After the dancing everyone got on their floats and then it was time to wait some more. Our float was number 87. They said it takes about a minute a float to get in position and go so if you do the math that means it takes over an hour after the parade starts before our float would even head out the gate.
Bonnie receiving some last minute instructions on how to chicken dance. Bonnie and the Royal Bavarians chicken danced all the way down the three mile parade route.
Bonnie with her chaperone, David Severance, also known as, Father Christmas at the Leavenworth Christmas Lighting Festivals.
Bonnie with Leavenworth's new Royal Lady, Cindy Puckett.
Bonnie with the Royal Bavarians.
Finally off!
I really didn't get to see the parade. Bonnie wanted me to hang out with her until they left and since the parade had already been going for an hour there was no way for me to run down to watch it . I did hang around the gate to watch the final entries that left after Bonnie. Then headed to the car to wait for Bonnie's chaperone to deliver her back to me.
She and I had a lot of fun today.
Guess what? We get to do it all over again next week.
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