Saturday, August 31, 2013

Ancestor Pride

So this is my great grandmother, Margaret June Lyons Geyer, known later in life as Jenny Geyer.   She was 100% Irish, with both parents having come to this country from Ireland in the mid 1800's.

She married George Geyer, who was 100% German, with both parents coming from Germany in the mid 1800's.  Growing up, and during my lifetime until the death of my father, what I heard about in terms of family history was my dad's mom's family, the Rosses, and my dad's dad's German heritage.  No mention was ever made of the fact that my dad's grandmother was as Irish as his Grandfather was German.

Even when I showed an affinity for all things Celtic, but particularly music, my dad didn't share the story of his grandmother.   I'm not sure why, I don't know if he wasn't aware that she was Irish, or if again it was another example of the prejudices held toward people of Irish descent.

The funny thing is that my dad resembles her more than his father, or mother's side of the family, or his grandfather.



As do I


And did even more so before I cut my hair........


I guess we will never know why she was lost in the family history, or why her family or heritage was lost.....my father was an only child, and his cousins and he not close enough for me to still be in contact with any of them, or their children.

But it has been a joyous finding for me, finding Great Grandmother Jenny, and being able to claim my Irish for real......

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Things I love about my dog




Here are some of the things I love about my dog, which are so wonderfully characteristic of the MAS (Miniature Australian Shepherd, aka Miniature American Shepherd) breed.   Today we spent two hours visiting as Therapy Dog team at St. Francis Children's Hospital .  And alas, she was not the star today. Willis the Newfie, and Heidi the Yorkie, in her Hello Kitty outfit were.

 But over and over I heard, "oh my gosh she is just so quiet and calm, is she always like this".......and tomorrow at the agility trial, or in agility class I will hear...."oh my gosh, she's so excited (and sometimes they say hyper), is she always like this".....and it's what I love...the ability to turn on the drive when needed, and to turn it off and be a soft soft dog also when needed.....

But then there is the 'other' Hope.   The Hope that we see in class and saw recently at her second agility trial.  This was a 'Teacup' Trial, for dogs 17 inches and smaller.   She was in 9 classes and placed in 8.  She won 4.  We were not perfect by any means, but she gained fans as the weekend went on, because of her absolute love of the sport, and her talent.

Here she is in action:



And with some of her ribbons from the two weekends.....



But at the end of the day.......she is love, and laughter, and she is Hope


Saturday, August 3, 2013

It's been a year????



So my intention when I started the blog (how many bloggers have said or written this I wonder??), was to write something daily or if not daily, weekly...something, anything.......and to let my pictures do the talking if needed.

Somehow it's been almost a year....it's not that I don't think of things to write, or take pictures that would make a good story.   I do think that part of my procrastination (besides that being my middle name) has to do with the world of Facebook, where it is easy for me to write a little something and post a picture or two.

Today I started a Facebook post and thought, hm, that makes a better blog entry than FB post, and here I am.   And here it is:

The oddities of life....I know some people who have lived in the same house for 30 or more years.....I lived in too many places to count between the time I was born and age 3 because we were traveling with a vibroseis crew. Then once we 'settled' in Tulsa, I lived in 4 houses before age 14, then to the lake, then on to college. Once I left home for college til now I've lived in 36 places (no kidding), with 9 since 2007...sigh.....but the odd part is that I am now only a few blocks away from the 2 places that we first lived here after leaving the crew. I started kindergarten living on 50th street, and now live 4 houses from 50th street, a half mile away.....and the majority of my life has been lived within a square mile radius....and within a half mile of the river......


I don't know if any of this has anything to do with the fact that one of my favorite songs growing up was "Don't Fence Me In"...."Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above, ....don't fence me in"

I  wonder if all that early moving experience acclimated me to the idea of changing addresses frequently.  All I know is that I seem to have moved way more than most of the people I know, especially as an adult.  There are some things in my life that have stood the test of time.  I still go to the church that we started attending when I was 4.

There is also the fact that I have repetitive dreams, and for years they have been about trying to find a place to live.  Sometimes it's a new apartment, sometimes a home, sometimes it's returning to an old home, sometimes it's just a hotel room, but they all have similarities in the search.

I supposed it's also not surprising that another of my childhood favorite songs was, "All I Want Is A Room Somewhere".   Now don't get me wrong as an only child until I was a teenager, I always had 'my own room'.

And it's not about searching for a spiritual home.  As I am fond of saying to people who come to sell their religion at my front door, "I have a church (and thank goodness spiritual, they aren't always the same thing) home as well.

Or if I'm just trying to find the  place that is, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.....