Now We Love The Yankees

Gretchen caught a cold last week that has slowly lingered. We had a slow week trying to take it easy and get better. Just when I thought things were looking up, I got hit with it Saturday morning. (I think it's a combination of not enough sleep and Gretchen's fabulous open-mouth kisses. Thanks sweetie.) Colby took the girls sledding yesterday morning and I slept in. Till one p.m. It was AMAZING. Like I was in college. Also, apparently I was tired.

To make it up to the girls in a way that wouldn't require much effort on my part (three cheers for laziness!!!) I let the girls do my makeup. It started out nice. Then it got a little less nice. Then came the face painting sticks:



I think the mustache was a nice touch. Thanks girls. (See Gretchen's little hand putting the finishing touches on me?)

Don't worry, she wasn't left out:



Remember the days when she was so sweet and quiet?



It's like she & Ella have switched personalities.



While we were in California, Poppa Randy (my dad) gave us a box of amazing old photos. His dad died when he was about 12. His parents divorced before that, so he didn't know his father very well. He looked up his paternal grandmother in the 80's and got back in touch with that side of the family. She gave him a box of TREASURES.

It's amazing that I never knew my Grandpa, but that I love him so much. Look how handsome!



Grandma got married at 17 (right? Correct me if I'm wrong...) Look at this picture. I'm pretty sure this is what she's thinking: I'M GETTING MARRRRRRRIED!!!!!!!! Hee hee hee!!!!


She told me that Billie Dee was a Big Man On Campus. She was sooooo in love. But it didn't work out. And she didn't like to talk about him much.


Finding these pictures is a small miracle. That Dad thought to find his Grandma after 40 years of separation. That she was still alive. That she kept all these mementos and passed on these pictures to him, and now to us. We would never have seen these! (They made Adrianne cry. Ha ha, crybaby.)

Above: I think this is Billie Dee with his Mom, I know they're holding my Dad.

Below: The back of the picture has this cryptic message, "Grandmother on right. Reba (I'm assuming she's the one on the left) married Sleepy." Look at those dresses. Isn't this picture gorgeous????



Adrianne & I have both made goals to do more family history work, so this was all so very fortuitious. We'd gotten onto the excellent church genealogy site new.familysearch.org. You can search for an ancestor (because of privacy, it's got to be someone who's passed away) and it'll link you in to see work that other people in the church have done on that line (if you have other LDS family members, that is). It is FASCINATING. And let me tell you, we have some serious geneology buffs on both sides of my family (Aunt Bonnie has allegedly traced us back to Adam & Eve). A lot of the work that she's done is now being put online by another family member. Just messing around, Adrianne & I followed one line back to THE KING OF FRANCE, circa 1200. Adrianne and I looked at eachother and said in as simpering a voice as we could muster, "I always knew I was a princess!" (Sorry Brooke Shields, we are totally mocking you. Because yes, if we all go back far enough, we're all princesses.) (Did anyone else see that "Who Do You Think You Are" show with her family history?)

Later that night we were telling Dad about it. He said, "You know, you're great great Grandpa was in the NY Yankees."

"What?"

"OMG, that's WAY cooler than being a descendant of Charlemagne!"

"I know, right? That's like the GOLDEN AGE of baseball. Back when they wore knickers. So much cooler."

So now we're totally Yankee fans.



If you are LDS and haven't gone onto new.familysearch.org, DO IT TODAY! (But you need your membership # to get an account. So if you don't have it, see your ward clerk and DO IT NEXT WEEK! Then call you grandma and get some birth and death dates of your great grandparents. Then GO TO TOWN!!! So fun!)

If you aren't LDS, there's also a fabulous family history site called FamilySearch.org. It's FREE!!! And it's amazing. I love our church.