Thinking About My Life

My Grandpa Bob came to live in Lebanon about 3 months after Kasey was born. He's my father's dad and I had never met him until about 7 years ago, I guess. I knew about him all my life, but he and my dad were never close and didn't really have a relationship. Grandpa Bob and my grandmother divorced when dad was really young and their lives were just too far apart. So about 7 years ago, I had done a little research about the family and learned that his 2nd wife had died. That really made me think about things like what if my Grandpa Bob died, would I even know? And would I even realized what I had missed in my life by not knowing him? So I decided to take the first step and make that call to him. So I did and I am so pleased with how things have worked out. That first year, we took a long trip to Maine where he lived in the summers. He had 3 children with his 2nd wife and we got to meet all of them and their families. Being an only child, I now have 2 uncles and an aunt and a half dozen cousins! That was amazing to me. So over the years, we have gone to his home in Florida and he's been to our house a couple of times. He is now married to Carole and the last time they came up to visit right after Kasey was born, they decided to move up here.

I was never fortunate enough to remember my maternal grandfather, I do remember my maternal great-grandfather though. It is really nice to have my Grandpa Bob in town with us now and my Grammy Carole!

So what has got me thinking is that my Grandpa Bob has written all of these stories on paper. I think there is probably about 40 pages. He writes a lot about his military stories and they are really interesting. I love the fact that this is about his life and the things that were important to him. I will have something to give to Kasey to remember his great-grandfather. I don't think many people are that fortunate to have a document like that in their families.

I have posted Grandpa Bob's blog on my favorite blog listing, along with my favorite quilting blogs, so he's in good company. I don't always understand his blogs, they are usually political in nature, which I'm not really too up on, but I enjoy reading them and commenting on them. Keeps him on his toes. :)

So here are a few pictures, we went to a Mexican Restaurant for my Mom's birthday, April 22nd.
Starting at the left is Grammy Carole, Grandpa Bob, Nicky, my Mom, Me and Kasey. (bad pictures of mom and me, but that is the best I could get from Mark taking the picture and Kasey being onery!!!)

Here's Kasey playing peek-a-boo. He loves to flirt with everyone. We went to Hardee's yesterday and he walked around the whole restaurant and waved at everyone and said "bye-bye, bye-bye".

This is a good picture of my Mom and Kasey. We were at the Civic Center, they were having a showing of Eagles. It was really neat and he liked watching the birds.
So what I have been thinking about after reading Grandpa Bob's narrative, is that I need to do something for Kasey like that. I found an old scrapbook document that was called "Journal Jar". It has about 10 pages of double spaced questions that help you to document your life. So I have started a document and have been surprised about how easy the words flow when you just type in a question. Here are a few of them:

• Did you walk to school or ride a bus?
• Tell about your first car
• Describe your Sundays as a child

So I already have about 10 pages typed and it is just my growing up years. I think I am going to divide it up by 3 sections, my growing up years, my life before Mark and my life with Mark. I think it will be a neat way to document things I have done and what my feelings are. I have to get my mom started doing this. She has so many cool stories about our families and as much as I try, I can't remember some of them and usually get them all confused anyway! So, Mom, are you up for the challenge???

Blogging seems to be a great way to share your stories with your family and friends, but this is just one other way to do so. What makes it easier is if you are a fast typer too! I think it has made it so much nicer having the laptop too because I just take it where ever I feel like typing.