My Girl is Growing Up

My oldest daughter is 15. She will be 16 in December. Now all of the sudden there's a boy. I call him "9:30". The reason I call him "9:30" is because that is when he likes to show up here. She says he has hockey and baseball and works. I say that is too late to be showing up. She says it is summertime. I say I have to work for a living and that's too late! He is going into 11th grade and she is going in 10th. He drives. I have heard they're "going out". I am having a hard time with all of this. It's so hard when they grow up. It's very scary as a parent. There is so much going on out there these days and I am hoping that I have taught her well. To top it off, my next daughter is 14 so all this fun will be happening with her soon, too. Wish me luck getting through this!

Blast From the Past

I took advantage of an offering on ancestry.com and was able to do some free research on my father's side of the family. I really enjoyed investigating things. My father passed away in 2001 and it hurts to realize that there were so many things that we did not know about him and his family. We were told that his father was an orphan so it would be hard to find out things.
Well, I found that his father's parents came from Germany. My great grandfather Martin came alone, and his soon to be wife, Anna came with her father and 2 sisters, Marie and Martha. Martin and Anna married in New York on June 7, 1906 (need to confirm). They lived in Kings county NY accoding to the 1910 cencus and had 4 children Martin, Frederick, William, and Louise. Anna died July 22, 1918. Jumping ahead to the 1920 census, I can see that Martin, Frederick, and William were living in the New York Juvenile Asylum as "inmates" They were 12, 11, and 9 years old. I found their sister was adopted by a family in NJ which come to find out was Anna's sister, Marie's family. I am having a difficult time finding out what happend to their father, Martin, but I do have his World War I draft card which was filled out in 1918 and he listed Marie as his nearest relative. Later in 1930, I can see that the boys Martin, Frederick and William were living with Marie's family in NJ as well. At that time they were 23, 21, and 19 years old. William who was my grandfather married Virginia and they had 9 children. My father was the oldest of them. Virginia died May 18, 1965 and William died May 15, 1973. My father, William Jr. of course, married my mother and they had 6 children.
My research on the rest of the family is still ongoing. It is alot of fun learning about the family and trying to put all the pieces together. One family member who is, I believe, my genereation has listed herself as a contact in one of the ancestry databases. I am going to try and contact her to see if she has any more pieces of the the puzzle. I have learned alot and there is alot more I want to know.

Growing Kids

My son has been gone all week at 5th grade camp. It has been very hard on me. I miss him alot. He is the last one to go. When my daughters went it was very hard on me as well. Sure it has been quiet around here but the quiet times will come soon enough. I am really going to work on savoring and enjoying the next few years with my children. Chelsea is 15 and she is very independent. At that age friends are all that matter. Amanda is 14 and very active. She is a little more of a home person. She needs her down time. Jake is 11 and he'll be getting to the point where he won't let me hug him as much. Time goes by too quickly.