Monday, April 16, 2007
R.I.P.
And prayers to all who were injured or lost a beloved one today. Carol
My Maddie
Thursday, April 12, 2007
This was a rough week both at work and in terms of my personal life. I've been handling a death case at work...those are never easy...and this week was the anniversary of my father's death. Quickly coming at me will be the anniversary of Mom's death. Add to that, I've also been on the road a lot for the job; I shudder to even think about the number of messages in voice mail.
However, as I sat on the sofa this evening, working on medical records summaries, I looked up and saw Maddie across the room. She was sleeping on her back on her favorite chair, surrounded by her favorite toys. She was simply...adorable. All my tension simply evaporated. Another important anniversary is coming up, the day she came into my life, and I'm going to have to come up with something special for her...like a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
:) Carol
The Stephenson-Sear Clan
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
My sister snail mailed some photos to our English relative, and I tried emailing others. However, due to unforeseen difficulties, he couldn't receive the emailed photos. So...I'm going to post a few here in the hopes that he can view them. Here's my handsome father, C. Leon 'Steve' Stephenson; I just observed the anniversary of his death yesterday:
His sisters Jean [the tall one] and Thelma:
Dad and his brother Edward [the short one]
And for the grand finale, Grandmother Gertrude, my sister Ann and myself [the short stuff]. :) Carol
Mission Accomplished: Grandmother Stephenson
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Mission accomplished tonight. I managed to locate photos of my paternal grandmother Elizabeth Gertrude Sear Stephenson and of the four siblings, including my father, and email them across the sea to England. Now my long lost cousin will be able to see his American relatives. I also now have a new project to try to organize/preserve the photos better. I had been scanning them but then my laptop crashed. I suspect the drive will be stripped when it's fixed so it may be back to square one on scanning them. I then want to burn CD's so my sister has a complete set. There are two albums, though, that I may have to leave as is because they're so fragile. But anyway...tada!!! Here's a 1930's photo of my grandmother. :) Carol
The Amazing Internet/Computer
Sunday, April 8, 2007
One of my early memories was tales at family gatherings that once there had been a completed family tree subsequently lost in a flood. Then years ago my sister began working on the family tree but hit dead ends because probate records had been burned during a courthouse fire. One New Year's Eve, I decided to give genealogy research a 'go' on the internet and found leads to our mother's side of the family. However, I kept hitting dead end's as to Dad's family, hampered even further by the fact he never wanted to talk about his family.
A few years ago I joined myancestry.com and made some more inroads. I haven't worked on it continuously due to the writing deadlines. However, here and there I check searches out as more information becomes available on the net.
Lo and behold over this weekend I was contacted by a woman who was helping a British man looking for a long last relative who had moved to the States: it turns out the missing relative was my paternal grandmother. The intermediary has been super, forwarding me all sorts of information that helps fill in a few banks...both my sister and I and our long lost British cousin.
We'll be compiling a packet of photos to send him. Only a few years ago this could not have been possible. But because I maintained a family tree on myancestry.com and answered a query, some pieces of the family puzzle have been found.
Amazing. Carol
The anti-American Idol nuts
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
I was amazed to hear that there's this 'campaign' to vote through the worst singer on American Idol.
1) If people don't like the show, change the channel. Better yet, read a book.
2) If you don't like the winner, don't buy the CD. Better yet, read a book.
3) If you don't have anything better to do with your time, read a book OR volunteer. There are so many organizations that have such a great need for help.
I don't understand such nasty, uncharitable, destructive conduct. There are talented people with dreams who are competing. Why deliberately hurt them? By voting for the worst, the twits are hurting the dreams of viable candidates for no good reason other than being mean. If people are voting because they genuinely want a singer to win, that's great. But to vote to hurt, that's unconscionable.
And for the ring leaders, I can't even say get a life because obviously the cretins don't have one. Of course, they could do the world a favor and drop dead, but we're probably can't get that lucky.
I know I'm voiting because I love watching the performers develop and grow over the course of the competition and have bought the CD's of those I enjoy. Should I ever get tired, then I'll simply switch the channel or read a book.
Or better yet, write one. :) Carol
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