Family Time

Don't forget to check out my quilting and other needle work projects at Webs of Threads.  And while there, go ahead and follow me on that blog too.

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Above is the only existing photo of the five of us siblings in existence that was not taken when we were still teenagers and younger and living at home.  You might say we haven't been a very close family.  This was taken in my Mom's hospital room after she'd been placed on hospice comfort care and before she was transported to the house.  She used to say "None of you kids can get along long enough to be under the same roof for more than five minutes."  Well, on one hand, that was pretty much accurate.  This 'all under the same roof' lasted only about long enough to get this photo!  And she was still aware enough to know we were all there at the same time.  I would have had us gather around her to include her, but had promised I wouldn't take any photos of her in the hospital, and I kept that promise.   It isn't that we don't get along, we just have different life styles and three of us live in different states.  The two in the same state live an hour and half apart. The brother with the beard was only 12 when I left home at 18.  The one with the red head band has a job that takes him to job sites all over the country under contracted durations, but he has also spent time in Antarctica and St. Croix.

Here, we have L-R, my daughter, my sister, my dad, my sister's son and his two children.

Taken during my week at home in mid-March, my daughter (Victoria), Marty, and Nick.  I would have really enjoyed having my daughter stay with us longer than just the couple of days she was able to be there.  I really miss her and she's about 1200 miles away in a different direction. 

My dad, his youngest daughter from his first marriage and her two daughters.  I had not seen her since we were teenagers or younger.  Stuff like that happens when you live 900 miles apart and didn't have a close relationship.  I was, during my teenage years, close to her oldest sister, in part because we were close to the same age and she and I had stayed in touch in my early years away from home but as life goes, we eventually drifted apart.  I've spoken with her a couple times though while I was there, and hope to take my dad over to visit with his daughters, he has three, when I get back up there.  I enjoyed meeting this step-sister's daughters.  One expressed an interest in learning about her family's genealogy and I can certainly fill her in on that as I've done quite a lot of research on my dad's ancestry.