I am on vacation this next week, hopefully squeezing in a trip to the courthouse and a cemetery or two. We’ll see.  Our main mission is to relax and take some time off from “real” life.

Here are my favorite finds for this week:

Did Your Ancestors Reboot? at Clue Wagon

A Look at Columbariums at A Grave Interest

Girlfriends! at Who Knew?

Are you ready to uncover the shocking? at Heritage Happens

The Bishop of China.  Really? at Into the Briar Patch: A Family Memoir.

A few new blogs that I started following: Silver Branches, Shaking the tree, AncesTrees, and Ahnentafel.

And some pictures from this past week:

Here are this week’s favorite finds….

The Annoyance of Misleading Collection Titles at Begin With Craft

Ancestor Wall Art Part 1 and Part 2 at Gen Wish List

Wisdom Wednesday: Listen to the “Backstory” at the other Climbing My Family Tree

I added a few new blogs to my reader: Don’t Forget Where We Came From, Édes-Orbán Family, and Genealogy Addiction.

And here are a few pictures from this week {a carnival is in town and I couldn’t help but go take some night pictures}:

I haven’t done a Follow Friday in quite some time.  I’ve been so busy in the past few months with starting my photography business, that photos have been taking up most of my computer time.  If only there were more hours in the day. I’m thinking that I”m going to make this once or twice a month instead of every week.  That will give me more of a chance to peruse everyone’s blogs and websites.

Here are some recent reads I enjoyed…

1. Judy,  of The Legal Genealogist, always does such a great job of explaining the legal mumbo jumbo that most of us don’t understand.  A costly issue is a great post on bills of cost, which I have to admit I usually just file away without even really looking at.  Shame on me.

2. Is FamilySearch De-emphasizing Genealogical Research? over at Genea-Musings.  I have to agree that FamilySearch has gotten more confusing.

3.  I LOVE libraries!  And so should you at Gena’s Genealogy.   I love libraries too Gena!! 

4. Thankful Thursday: Daniel D. Lightner, The Abolitionist Part 1 and Part 2 over at Leaves for Trees.

5. Cousin Wendy at Shaking Leaves found a family secret.  I love unearthing secrets.

And here are a few pictures from this past week:

Here are some of my favorite finds from this past week:

1. Sepia Saturday 133 – baby elephants? at Images Past

2. Three Today at Geniaus – Happy Blogiversary!!

3.  Hello, Old Blog! at Shaking Leaves: My Adventures in Genealogy

4. First Day of the Family History Expo and Day Two at the Expo at The Educated Genealogist

5. Spinster Aunts, Part One: Grace Duncan and Spinster Aunts, Part two: Ruth Esther Rockwood at Who Does She Think She Is?

6. The Moment I Knew, Linda’s Story at The Armchair Genealogist

7. Postcard from Paris, 1918 (Part 1 of 3) – Those Places Thursday at Heritage Zen

And a few pictures to share:

Nothing is growing yet.  I’m beginning to lose hope…

My youngest daughter…The Mexican Bird of Paradise bush on the side of my house…The Wyler Aerial Tramway in El Paso (where my hubby and I went on a date last weekend).

I have a trip to Washington (state) planned for August.  I’m looking forward to being “home” and visiting with family.  I’ll be sure to bring my Flip-Pal along also.  I’m hoping to scan as many pictures as I can while I’m there.

Well, let’s get on with some of my favorite finds…

1. Gramma was a Hottie! at Are My Roots Showing?
2. Was Grandma’s House Haunted? at Nuts From the Family Tree
3. A Summer Chore at My Ancestors and Me
4. How Do Y’All Manage to Go to Conferences All The Time? at Marian’s Roots and Rambles
5.  And Now We Are Five! It’s My Blogiversary at The Family Curator – Congrats!!
6. We Tree is Four Years Old at The We  Tree Genealogy Blog – Congrats to you too!!
7. Horn-tooting at The Legal Genealogist  Toot your horn!!! I look forward to your webinar.
8. Celebrating Six Years of Blogging at The Accidental Genealogist Wow – six years!!
9. Sunday in the Park with Family at Life From the Roots
10. Sears Catalog Modern Homes at Tangled Trees
11.Mystery Monday – Who Owned Melissa’s Trunk? at Nutfield Genealogy

And of course a few pictures to share:

We’ve had such a busy month and it’s only going to get busier!

We moved (a few streets away) and setting up a new house always takes a while.

We also just got a shipment of things that have been sitting in storage for the past year.  I now have picture frames and knick-knacks and more furniture.  Unfortunately, I’m the world’s worst picture-hanger – it almost cripples me trying to decide where to hang things.

I’ve been taking pictures for friends a few times a week – everyone I know is moving in the next couple of weeks and I’m getting some good photography practice with willing models.

My in-laws will be coming for a visit and we’re so excited to see them!

My husband will be graduating from the Sergeants Major Academy – and he’ll be taking over a battalion.  His work days are about to get much longer…

Lots of things happening that are unfortunately keeping me from genealogy.    I’ve had cousins contact me with leads and I haven’t had much of a chance to follow up on them yet.  I WILL carve out some time for some serious in-depth research, but it probably won’t be until the dust settles in July.

Well, on to my favorite finds….

• How Should Offensive Language in Diaries Be Handled? at A Hundred Years Ago
• Day 1 at Jamboree and Are We Strangers in Genealogy Land? at Genea-Musings
• No Big Deal at Genealogy’s Star
• Swindlers Through the Ages at Family Archaeologist
• Carnival of Genealogy, 118th Edition: Reading!  at Creative Gene
• Gathering More Info Before Jumping at DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog
• DNA and the locks of hair at The Legal Genealogist
• A couple of blogs I’ve added to my reader this week: Tripping Over My Roots and Finding Forgotten Stories
• How Genealogy Can Be Inspired By Creativity at Up in the Tree
• Access to the War of 1812 Collection at Fold3 is free through June 3oth!!
• Why all the negative energy? at Shakin’ the Family Tree
• 1865 Dear Auntie at Nutfield Genealogy
• Memorial Day: Remembering Corporal Perry Hankins at Documenting the Details
• How to Spot a Genealogy Imposter at Greta’s Genealogy Bog

And a few pictures to share – yes, I finally got to go to a hot air balloon festival!!

On to this week’s (ok, maybe a couple of weeks’) favorite finds ..

• Fiance Investigation League at Leaves for Trees
• My Trip to Ellis Island: Those Places Thursday at Heritage Zen
• How crazy is too crazy to make a will? at The Legal Genealogist
• An odd fellow-missing World War I and Family poses with baby on dead dog at Family Archaeologist
• The Art of the Handcarved Gravestone at Family History with the Lineagekeeper
• Just the Hint of a Smile at Marian’s Roots and Rambles
• Legacy Cruise Vacation Compendium at Genea-Musings
• Lowell, MA Library (Genealogy Section) at Life From the Roots
• The Joy of Holding History in Your Hands at A Sense of Family
• Uncle Delbert: The Boys Go to War at Nuts From the Family Tree
• Evil step-mothers and other silly notions at DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog
• Citizens of London: Sgt. Schwartz and WWII at the other Climbing My Family Tree

And a few pictures to share…

Yes, this is an actual picture of me – I’m usually behind the camera instead of in front of it.  I went to a military ball last weekend – one perk to having a husband in the Army.  How many women can get all dressed up for a formal ball once a year?

Anyway, I was going to slip quietly out of the house without a picture.  My oldest daughter had something to say about that though.  She actually said “Mom, someday you’ll be gone and I won’t have any pictures of you!”  How true!!  I suppose I need to get in front of the camera a bit more, for the sake of my children and descendants.

I had the opportunity to take some pictures at  a wonderful local cookie shop this past week.  Here are a couple of my favorites.  They’re almost too beautiful to eat.  Almost.

I am warning you that I’m going to be quiet on here this week.  I get keys to my new house today and we have 5 days to move out of this one and into the new one. We’re only moving a few streets away, but we have a household full of stuff and it’s going to take a bit to get settled again.

On to this week’s favorite finds…

• And one from the men…. over at Who Knew?  Old autograph books make my heart go pitter patter.
• Tina Lyons at Gen Wish List posted Favorite Things in Cincinnati.  I wish I was going!! I’m planning on next year in Las Vegas.
• The Square Deal – A Different Perspective on May Day at Nolichucky Roots
• DEAD- Military Monday at My Ancestors and Me
• David Watt and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Workday: Workday Wednesday at Journey to the Past
• The Legacy of the Girl from Alabama at One Rhode Island Family
• A May Wedding, 1916 at Family Archaeologist
• Converting Your Blog to PDF Free at AK’s Genealogy Research
• From Myrt’s Wall and Twitter Feed  I have a strange aversion to Twitter (even though I have an account).  I have a Facebook page though – you can “like” my page over in the sidebar of my blog and see my posts pop up in your feed.
• Here are a couple of blogs I’ve added to my reader this week:  Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog and Jacobs of London and other families.

And of course a few pictures I took this past week…

Well, this past week we found out that we won’t be moving this June.  We’ll be staying in El Paso for another couple of years.  At first I was crushed (I had dreams of moving to Germany or somewhere close to a beach), but I’ve gotten over it.  El Paso isn’t my dream town, but I can make do and be happy here for a while.  I’ve joined the local genealogy society and I’m now planning on going to the NGS Conference in Las Vegas in 2013 since I’ll be close enough to drive.  Las Vegas and genealogy?  Sounds like a blast to me!!

I haven’t meant to be so quiet here on the blog, but life just happened.  We’re finishing up our homeschooling year and my husband is finishing up the Academy, which means tons of get-togethers before everyone moves.  I’ve made so many good friends this past year and it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to them.  I’m so thankful for Facebook and technology so that we can easily keep in touch.

Well, on to some of my favorite finds from this week…

• Jaisa over at Creative Gene put together a nice scrapbook video of her family in the 1940′s.
• I enjoyed Minding Manners in Ireland over at Irish Genealogy.  I’d like to take a trip there someday and would hate to be rude!
• Randy of Genea-Musings found the bride of Frankenstein.
• Read about the status of Geneabloggers Radio.
• Traits from our Ancestors at Leaves for Trees.
• Lullabies at Geniaus.
• It Was Ironing Day, the Day the Census Taker Came at My Ancestors and Me.

And a few pictures from this past week…

What a week!  I have enjoyed hearing about everyone’s census finds.  I haven’t had a whole lot of luck yet, but that’s simply because I have no idea where most of my ancestors were living in 1940.  I have managed to index a few pages and will try to continue to do at least one or two a day.  I’m thinking about training a kid or two to index.

My favorite finds from this week:

• Found the McCarrys in 1940 at Touching Family History
• I found them in 1940 and I still don’t know the answer at Begin With ‘Craft’
• A Pension File Reveals a Family Tragedy at Family Tree Firsts
• Princess Diaries: Looking for Ancestors in the 1940 Census at The Family Curator
• A musician’s lopped off fingers at Family Archaeologist
• Carnival of Genealogy, 116th Edition at Creative Gene
• Wordless (nearly) Wednesday: I’m in the 1940 Census at Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories
• One Entire Year! at Up in the Tree (Happy Blogiversary!!)
• The Opal Ring at Heritage Zen

And I honestly don’t have any pictures to share this week.  I’ve been too busy to take any!!  I plan to remedy that next week though.

I am so ready for some down time (and genealogy is my down time)!  I just finished up a spouses’ leadership development course, which was every night from 5-10 for two weeks. It severely cut into my evening computer time, but it was well worth the sacrifice.  I also just finished my first ever marathon (walking, not running) this past weekend and am still recovering. I have managed a bit of blog reading this week – some of it on my phone.  I just love technology.

Everyone is talking about the upcoming release of the 1940 census, so many of my favorite posts this week revolve around that:

• My 1940 U.S. Census Expectations at Genea-Musings
• Find Your Family in the 1940 Census infographic on Archives.com
• This week’s Geneabloggers Radio show is of course about the 1940 census!!
• Sins of the Father at Curbow-Montoya Family
• Dear Genetic Cousin at The Legal Genealogist
• Happy Birthday Girl Scouts! at Nutfield Genealogy
• A couple of new blogs I started following this week: Hummingbird on Her Hand, Sassy Genealogist, and Colleen and Jeff’s Roots

And a few pictures from this past week…

This is at about mile 8 of the Bataan Memorial Death March, I think.  I was still happy and carefree.

And at mile 26 I was so happy to be only .2 of a mile from the finish line!!

I have had a very busy couple of weeks.  We took a great vacation around Arizona and hit many National Parks – so much fun!!  I’m currently taking a spouses’ leadership development course (ie. how to be a Sergeant Major’s wife) which is every night from 5-10 for a couple of weeks.  It has been making for some long days.  Oh, and I’m going to be walking my first marathon this weekend – the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range.  Whew!!

Before I go on to my favorite posts, I want to mention that Google Friend Connect is no longer working with WordPress blogs.  And I have a WordPress blog.  That means that if you had me in your reader through this service, then I’m no longer there.   Please add me again!!

On to some of my favorite finds…

• Never Make Love in a Buggy.  Sounds like good advice.  I’d never heard of this little ditty before, which was posted over at A Hundred Years Ago.
•  I’m excited about the new series premiering this weekend on PBS – Finding Your Roots.  If only I was going to be at home when it aired.  I wonder if it will be available online afterwards.  I will have to check and see.
• I was interested to see the new genealogy textbooks for kids by Jennifer Holik available from Generations.  I would love to try them out with my own kids in our homeschool and I’ve often thought that I might like to teach a family history class in our homeschool co-op.   It would be nice to have a textbook to use in class rather than coming up with my own materials.  I think it’s so important to include family history along with world history in a child’s education.
• There are some interesting GeneaWebinars coming up this week.  I would really like to take the one entitled Juggling Complex Projects While Staying on Track and maybe The Pursuit from Genealogy Hobbyist to Professional.
• I love seeing how much places have changed (or stayed the same over years).  Karen at Ancestor Soup posted an old and new house picture on her blog.
• I have a lot of ancestors of Irish descent, so I found Seeking the Flock of St. Patrick over at Catholic Gene to be a very informative post!
• Who Do You Think You Are? is on tonight!  I love Helen Hunt, so I’m looking forward to this episode.
• There won’t be any Geneabloggers radio tonight – taking a week off for spring break.  Good, because it will give me a chance to get caught up on my podcasts.
• The Masterpiece over at Family Archaeologist is a great read.
• A very happy blogiversary to Debi Austen over at Who Knew?  Love the birthday cake pictures.

Some pictures from this past week:

On the genealogy front, I have done even more Swedish research and am starting to wonder if the man I think is my ancestor really was a step-father to my great-great grandmother instead of her father.  She was born out of wedlock, so I’ve been having a hard time confirming it and have been trying to find the family in the household examinations, but it’s been taking a long time.  A very long time.   I’ll keep at it though!!

I also received a precious death certificate in the mail yesterday, which really fleshed out the life of my husband’s English ancestor.  I will post more on that in a few days.

On to some of my favorite finds this week:

• Legacy Family Tree added census year reports to their program, which I’m very excited about!! I already updated and am looking forward to using these new tools. They are offering a webinar today at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
• Grandma, is that you?  Locating Your Female Ancestors.  Is the topic for this weeks’ Geneabloggers Radio show.
• Big thanks, followed by no thanks over at The Legal Genealogist is hilarious!  Have you checked the messages left in your spam log lately?  Crazy stuff.
• Down the Rabbit Hole or Digging Deeper at Nolichucky Roots.  I have had some great finds at Old Fulton NY Postcards too.  Great site if you haven’t checked it out yet.
• Myrt had a great post about her changes in data entry in Lock, stock, and barrel.
• Have you ever had trouble with a cemetery not giving you information on where a person is buried, because you aren’t a family member?  Cherie over at Have You Seen My Roots? ran into this problem recently.
• I can hardly believe it, but today is my 2nd blogiversary!!  Here are some of my first posts: My Genealogy Beginnings, Wordless Wednesday: Unknown Ancestors, and Surname Saturday: Cossaboon.

And a few pictures to share from this past week:

I have big news too.  Well, news that big news is coming.  On Monday, we should find out where we’ll be moving to this June.  It’s exciting.  I am so incredibly anxious to find out, but I have to remind myself to not get too worked up about where we’re going, because until we’re physically there it could change.  I’m a seasoned Army wife, so I”m ready for the chaos when it comes.  I can’t help but hope that wherever we move, it’s either close to where some of my ancestors lived so that I can do some firsthand research or else close to one of the big conferences so I can attend one of them.

Well, on to this week’s favorite finds….

• Did Some Dude on a Boat Decide Your Fate? over at Clue Wagon got me thinking.  I personally don’t live in the same place my ancestors lived, because we’re a nomadic Army family.  However, my mom does lived within two hours of where her Swedish grandparents immigrated to (Seattle) in the early 1900′s.  And we’ll be moving back there when my husband retires.  My husband’s family is in Douglas County, KS (and has been there since 1854).  They didn’t step off a boat, but moved from Virginia and have been in Kansas for over 150 years.  That’s a long time!
• I love family heirlooms and thought that these glasses over at Nolichucky Roots were so special!
• I’m really looking forward to the new Finding Your Roots show on PBS, which is premiering March 25th!!
• This would be More Than I Could Stand also!  How hard to have been trying to plan a wedding and not have a mother there to help out.  I can’t wait to hear what happens next over at Family Archaeologist.

And a few pictures to share…

My daughter Katie, who just turned 10 a couple of weeks ago…

Ellie, who is 12 going on 20.The bag of dead animals my children dissected this week.  Homeschooling can be messy!!And some lovely chocolate-covered strawberries I had the pleasure of tasting at a baby shower last weekend.

On to my favorite finds:

• This evening’s edition of Geneabloggers Radio is all about African-American Resources.  I don’t have any African-American roots myself (at least not that I’ve found yet!) but it still sounds interesting to me.
• Hitler, Hindenberg, & Homeland over at Collecting dead relatives…and live cousins! was a great read.  I love old letters.
• I also enjoyed the post Generational Length at Irish Genealogy.  It’s amazing how different lines can have such drastically different generational lengths, putting your various sets of great-great-greats at such different time periods.
• Fi.fa. Fo Fum!  was a very helpful post over at The Legal Genealogist.  Legal mumbo-jumbo is hard enough to understand without abbreviations.
• Happy Birthday to Marian and her twin over at the other Climbing My Family Tree.  I just love the picture of them in the pram.
• Cherie, why didn’t I get invited over to partake in the Fastnachts?  They look delicious!!   Head over to Have You Seen My Roots?  to get the recipe.
• Here are a couple of blogs I started following this week: Picking Up Breadcrumbs and Throwaway map.
• I’ve put my Flip Pal Scanner to good use, but have yet to try stitching anything together yet.  Karen over at Genealogy Frame of Mind shows an example of a document she put together.  The results are great!

And some pictures to share:

I guess I need some better time management skills or something.  Between parenting and teaching 5 kids at home, keeping the house semi-clean and everyone fed (usually – cereal can be dinner, right?), doing genealogy, helping out with ESL class, attending Bible study, blogging, taking a lot of pictures, and walking 40 miles a week, I don’t have much time left to sleep.

I’m going to continue focusing on my Swedish roots this next week as I have free time.  I’ve been really excited about what I’ve found so far.  Now if only I could actually read Swedish.  I can decipher enough to figure out it’s my ancestor, but I know that I’m missing out on a lot of great clues since I can’t figure out what some of it says.  Maybe it’s time to start studying Swedish.  I’ll add it to my list of things to accomplish….

This past week has been a busy one.  I really wish that I wasn’t such a night owl, but if I didn’t stay up late, then I wouldn’t get anything done.  Of course, I could probably do those same things in the morning, but that would require me getting out of bed early – which I have a hard time doing (7:30 is my norm). Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Well, I’ve probably rambled enough. Here are some of my favorite finds from this past week:

•  This week’s edition of Geneabloggers radio is entitled Genealogy and Technology in a Post-RootsTech World.
• I enjoyed seeing what German records look like over at Threading needles in a haystack: the genealogy journey. I have many German ancestors, but have yet to dive into German records yet.  They look like they’re hard to read!!
• I really enjoyed reading everyone’s posts about their research time at Salt Lake.  Linda of Documenting the Details posted some great pictures of the library.  I can’t wait for my turn!!
• Michelle Goodrum over at The Turning of Generations had some great posts of her time at RootsTech – here and here.
• He really loves me!!  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Linda Gartz’s series of diary entries at Family Archaeologist.
• My cousin Gwen posted a letter written by my great-great grandfather John Edgar Robertson, to his son who was serving in World War I over at her blog, The Robertson/Kuberness Connection.  Thanks for sharing Gwen!!
• Another great post over at The Legal Genealogist: Who does the census think you are?

And a few pictures to share:

Yes, you guessed it.  We made ANOTHER trip to the zoo.  It’s close by and FREE since we have a membership.  We’re there a lot.I love watching the monkeys. This guy was watching US.My daughter Ellie drew this picture.  It cracks me up.

I took some pictures for a fellow military family this past week.  A father, his son and his son’s wife all serving.  His son was on leave from Afghanistan.I hope you all have a great week!!

Phew. Walking, walking and more walking.  Oh and schoolwork with the kids.  Not much genealogy done this week or this month for that matter.  I walked 174 miles during January and managed to lose about 13 pounds along the way.  While I love to walk, it’s incredibly time consuming!!  I did a 20 mile hilly walk last Saturday  and it took my entire morning.  I will definitely slow down after my marathon on March and hopefully I will have some more free time to devote to genealogy again.

This week’s favorite finds:

• I”m so excited that there is a new season of Who Do You Think You Are?  I’m planning on watching tonight – are you?
• I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s RootsTech posts.  I’m so jealous that I’m not there, but it just isn’t possible for me this year.  I am therefore living vicariously through other Geneabloggers. Here are a few good posts so far: Day2 of Randy’s Salt Lake City Adventure, What if You Can’t Go? at Gena’s Genealogy, Pictures from RootsTech 2012 Day #1 at Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, among others.  I’m hoping for next year!!!
• Even though I love my blog, I’ve often thought that it might be nice to have regular old website to upload my GEDCOM to.  I didn’t realize how easy it could be, until I read Jill Ball’s post  about TNG over at Geniaus.
• I enjoyed Cynthia’s 2011 Favorites in Review and the iGene goes to…. over at Heritage Zen.
• Don’t forget to head on on over to GeneaBloggers Radio tonight for the big birthday bash.
• What a beautiful treasure over at Climbing the Branches of My Family Tree – I love old Bibles and this one is gorgeous!

Not only did I not do much genealogy this past week, but I didn’t take many pictures either.  Here are the only ones I had sitting on my camera – of my daughter, Tori.

I can’t believe how busy I have been lately.

I’m usually quite the hermit – not that I’m antisocial or anything, because I’m not.  But at our past duty stations, I just spent a lot of time at home (especially the 3 years I was holed up in my house in Alaska).  Things are different here.  I seem to know half the neighborhood and there are always functions and parties to go to.  I’m really enjoying meeting so many great people and actually having an active social life.  It makes it hard to get much research done though.  Add to the social functions the fact that I’m trying to walk about 40 miles a week and I don’t have a lot of free time left.  It’s just a different season of life I suppose and it soon shall pass too.  Who knows where we’ll be living this time next year.  Maybe I’ll be a genealogy hermit again.

Here are a few good reads:

• The Right to Be Forgotten - an interesting read over at Irish Genealogy: Hep!  The Faery Folk Hid My Ancestors!
• I am hoping to someday make a trip to Salt Lake City. I know that I’ll manage to work it in one of these days – probably when the kids are a bit older.  There are so many little mysteries that I just know I could solve if I had the entire Family History Library to explore for a week or two.  Denise of Family Curator has an interesting mystery of her own to solve  in Nancy Drew Goes to Salt Lake City.
• Cheryl Palmer over at Heritage Happens is talking about Sweden again!! Good luck!!!
• I loved Susan’s post The Home Place Brought Home over at Nolichucky Roots.
• The Ties That Bond over at The Legal Genealogist is a very informative read.  I have a quite a few marriage bonds and had always wondered what exact purpose they served.
• Do Students Cheat More Now?  over at A Hundred Years Ago gave me a laugh.  It’s weird to think of your grandmother as a 16 yr old student, cheating on a test.
• Where do you turn to for research guidance?  over at Marian’s Roots and Rambles has some good advice on where to turn when you don’t know where to turn.  Especially since there are a lot of good sources in the comments too!
• Introducing the National Archives Transcription Pilot Project!!
• How sad that epileptics used to be institutionalized.  Read Walt M. Runyan: He Wasn’t Born on Wednesday over at Old Stones Deciphered.
• Do you have any murders in your family tree?  I haven’t come across one yet….Thriller Thursday: The Murders at Rocky Fork over at Genealogy and Me is an interesting read.

And a couple of pictures from this past week…

I had the privilege of taking pictures of the sweetest little baby that lives down the street.  It really makes me want to have another one……

The weeks are really flying by for me. I did a bit of genealogy this past week – mostly transcribing documents from the my pile of papers that need to be scanned and entered into my computer.  It feels so good to get them entered, even if it’s only a little at a time.  It all adds up.

Besides genealogy and homeschooling the kids, I managed to walk 43 miles this week!!!  That is a lot of miles, if I do say so myself.  I have the sore legs to prove it.

Oh, we’re also starting plan a trip for Spring Break.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to include any family history research along the way. I just don’t have any ancestors who lived in Arizona and New Mexico – and we’re going to make a big loop around both states, hitting Tombstone, Tucson, Phoenix, Sedona, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, and Albuquerque to name a few places .  (We’ll mostly just be hitting the National Parks along that route – my husband steers clear of big cities when he can).  We don’t have any definite plans yet, but I think it will be a beautiful drive!!  And I will (of course) take tons of pictures.

And on to this week’s favorite finds:

• The Family Curator reminds us to always look inside the historical books and Bibles.  You never know what you’ll find inside!
• Don’t rely on what’s written in an obituary as the truth.  I have come across so many mistakes in obituaries, it’s mind-boggling.  Karen at Genealogy Frame of Mind gives some good advice.
• Keep your stories coming Linda!  Head over to Family Archaeologist and read An FBI Investigation. It’s amazing to think that things like that happened in our country.
• I love Pinterest, although I try not to get on there too often.  It’s absolutely addicting and before you realize it, you’ve spent hours looking through pins.  DearMYRTLE is right though – it will never replace blogs.  If it did, there would be nothing to pin!
• Do you know what a “breast complaint” is?  If you do, head over to AK’s Genealogy Research and help Annette out.  Some of those old causes of death are very hard to understand.
• Registration is now open for the FGS Conference in Birmingham this September.  If I only knew where we were going to be living in the fall, then maybe I could make some plans.  We’re just waiting on the Army to let us know where our next home will be!!  If we get stationed somewhere in the Southeast, then I think I might try to make it!!  Read the conference blog for more information.
• Tonight’s edition of Geneabloggers radio is Go Local: Local History and Genealogy.  I hope I can make it!!

And a few pictures from this week.  We went on a hike at Dripping Springs near Las Cruces, NM.  It was a gorgeous walk!

I have to admit that I got less genealogy reading done this week than normal.  The kids started back to school this past Monday and since I’m the teacher (we homeschool), I’ve had less free time.  I’m hoping to get caught up this weekend (which is a 4-day for us!)

That being said, I still have a few favorite finds from this past week:

• Cynthia of Heritage Zen had some great photo advice in her post More Than Meets The Eye.
• I enjoyed DNA and Paranoia over at The Legal Genealogist.
• Linda Gartz  of Family Archaeologist never disappoints with her stories, this week it’s War and Bigotry.
• Nancy of My Ancestors and Me listed some great resources if your ancestors were miners.  I haven’t come across any of mine that were, but I still find it interesting.
• Ginger had a great post entitled Determining No. of Acres of a Land Grant in the State Land States.  I have a stack full of land records I’m starting to transcribe, so I found this to be great information!  Head over to Genealogy by Ginger’s Blog to read it.

And of course some pictures from my adventures.  This week, some friends and I grabbed our cameras and took a walk around downtown El Paso.  It was interesting!!

I always love the New Year.  New beginnings.  A fresh start.  Out with the old.

And while I didn’t set any resolutions, I did make some goals.  I already posted my genealogy goals here.

I have a few personal ones too – one of which is to participate in the Bataan Memorial Death March this coming March at White Sands, NM.  I’m not doing the full march of 26.2 miles – I just don’t have enough time to get myself into that kind of shape.  I am, however, doing the “honorary” march of 15.2 miles.  Still not a walk in the park, but I think it will be doable for me.

So, what am I doing when I have a free moment now?  Walking and walking.

If there is someway to do genealogy research while out on the walking path, I’d like to hear it!  I have some podcasts on my iPod that I can listen to, but I think that’s about as far as I can get with that.

The plus is that when I get home from walking 6 or 8 miles, I just want to sit on the couch for a while.  And while I’m sitting on my couch I CAN do genealogy.  So, maybe I’ll have some extra time for it after all!

I’m interested in hearing if any of you have every done the Bataan Memorial March before.  Or even more if you have a relative that was in the actual Bataan Death March!!

And on to this week’s favorite finds.

• Susan at Climbing the Branches of My Family Tree wrote a nice post abut the packet ship Gladiator.
• From Here to There and Back Again at Collecting dead relatives….and live cousins! is a good read.  I love old letters.
• The 113th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is up over at Creative Gene.  The theme was “A Dickens Christmas”.  The next edition is the 5th Annual iGene Awards – the deadline is February 1st.
• ICAPGen Mentoring Class videos are available for free online here.  They cover topics from citing sources, evidence analysis, writing reports and more.
• Tonight’s edition of GeneaBloggers Radio is all about our 2012 New Year’s Resolutions!!
• Karen shared a tragic story of a fire over at Genealogy Frame of Mind.
• Cherie of Have You Seen My Roots?  shared her two cents about everyone’s complaints regarding WDYTYA.  I agree!
• She also had a wonderful post about her time as an Army Drill Sergeant.  Did you know that she and my husband served as Drill Sergeants together at the Defense Language Institute?  (And Cherie and I actually served together in San Antonio before that!)
• Ok, one more from Cherie (you’re on a roll this week!).  She found a newspaper article about an unrelated family that she just had to share.  Can you imagine actually getting married to someone at your wife’s funeral????
• Michelle Goodrum of The Turning of Generations posted the first of her weekly series “The 21st Century Organized Family Historian”.  It is about those greeting cards I’m sure all of us still have sitting around the house.
• The Legal Genealogist Takes Flight!  The Legal Genealogist is a great new blog, about “Genealogy, the law, and so much more”.  Add it to your reader.
• Marian Pierre-Louis has a new genealogy newsletter that will be coming out later this month.  Sign up here if you’d like to receive it.
• Heather Rojo, of Nutfield Genealogy, found out that she is a Swamp Yankee!

And, as always, a few pictures from this past week…

We went on a hike to Aztec Caves in the Franklin Mountains State Park here in El Paso.  It was only 1.5 miles round trip, but with 5 kids, a steep incline, and a bunch of icy spots near the top of the path, it felt like much farther!  And I”m telling you – going down was SOOOO much harder than going up.

We made it though!And if you want to know the story behind this bizarre photo, you’ll have to read this post on my other blog.

Here are my favorite finds from this week:

• Michelle Goodrum, of The Turning of Generations, has a great new series starting this January: The 21st Century Organized Family Historian.  I am definitely in need of some organizing – especially in the paperwork department.  It’s coming out my ears right now and I know that I need to get a good handle on it before we move again in June. I’m looking forward to the advice and projects she posts!!
• Are you ready for the 1940 census??  The NARA has a page on what we can do in preparation for the census release in April.  I’ve also signed up for a webinar in January: Introduction to the 1940 Federal Census.   
• I have been enjoying reading everyone’s goals for 2012 and plan on posting mine soon.
• Family Tree Rings had a wonderful post about “uploading the cedar chest“.
• Linda Gartz of Family Archaeologist  has quite the treasure in her mother’s diary.  Explosive News!  is a great read.
• I can’t imagine how horrific life must have been in an insane asylum a hundred years ago.  Teresa at Rogers Family History had an interesting (and sad) post about the Trenton Insane Asylum and two sisters who lived there.

And a few pictures from this past week.  We had a White Christmas Eve here in El Paso and then the day after Christmas we had a nice comfortable day at the zoo.  Crazy weather.

Has anyone else been super busy these past few weeks?  I am exhausted from all of the parties and functions and picture-taking and photo editing.  Phew!

I’m looking forward to the next week – watching the kids open their presents, eating lots of yummy food, and just spending time together with my family.  We’re even supposed to get a little bit of snow today – not that it will actually stick, but I’m sure it will close down the roads anyway.  It is El Paso after all.

I’m hoping that I get the chance to sneak in a mini scan-fest sometime this week also.  I have so many documents waiting to be digitized and entered into Legacy that I don’t even like to think about it.  I’ll feel much better when they are safely stored on my computer – and backed up on Mozy – and sent on discs to my mom.

I ended up missing Follow Friday last week.  Time just got away with me.  I’ve been doing a lot of photo shoots for friends and neighbors – everyone wants pictures for their Christmas cards, naturally.   It’s been really nice to get practice in a stress-free environment with people I know.  And I’m being paid in baked goods, wine, and restaurant gift cards.  It looks like I need to spend some more time on the treadmill!!!!

Anyway, let’s get to this week’s favorite finds (or I guess the past two weeks’ favorite finds!):

• Having documents in your ancestor’s own handwriting is such a treasure. And what is better than an official document?  Why, a personal letter, of course!  Peggy, over at Collecting dead relatives…and live cousins! shared a couple of letters her ancestors wrote.  I wish I had ended up with some of those!!
• I’m sure most of you heard about the thousands of rare documents that were destroyed in Egypt this past week.  How horrible!!!
• I enjoyed Elyse’s post entitled Are Bloggers Leading the Genealogy Community? 
• Whom Shall I Marry?  Indecision is a killer!  I’m really enjoying the diary entries (and the commentary) that Linda has been sharing over at Family Archaeologist.
• Randy Seaver had a funny post about Historical Records of a Real Santa Claus. Head over to Genea-Musings to check it out.  Can you imagine having the name Santa Claus??  I don’t know if I’d ever forgive my parents…
• Don’t forget to tune in to GeneaBloggers Radio tonight for The Festivus Show.  I actually don’t have any plans tomorrow night (my Fridays have been booked solid since Thanksgiving!!)  and I might just try to drop in.
• Maureen Taylor’s Legacy Webinar entitled Children and Genealogy in the Classroom is available to watch for free until December 26th.  I’m hoping to find a free hour and half this weekend to watch it, because this topic really interests me.

 And as always,  a few pictures to share from this past week.  We happened to attend a wonderful Christmas party at our friends’ house last weekend.  They are from Australia and really know how to entertain.  Seriously.  There were fire dancers performing for us in her backyard.  It was pretty darn amazing.  Enjoy the pictures!!

I have been so incredibly busy lately, but it’s been a good busy.  I have to admit that I as much as I dreaded our move to El Paso, this has been one of the best tours of my husband’s Army career.  While the terrain isn’t my style – I’m more for water nearby and lots of green foilage – the people I’ve met here are wonderful.  I think I’ve made more friends here than all of our other duty stations combined.  What this means is that I’m constantly busy with outings and social events and I have to admit that it’s been really nice to be busy doing fun things.  December is always a very busy month anyway, and it seems like we have a party to go to every day or two.  I haven’t had a lot of time for genealogy or blogging this week – but I did manage to spend my snow day (yes it SNOWED in El Paso) scanning in some documents, which I will be posting this coming week.

And on to this week’s favorite finds:

• I’ve really been enjoying everyone’s Advent Calendar posts. I loved Heather Kuhn Roelker’s post about Santa Claus - he kind of creeped me out as a kid too.
• I don’t think I have any famous artists in my family tree – or if I do, I sure didn’t get those genes.  I draw stick people – and not very well!  I loved the post Mini Bio: Carrie York, Minneapolis Artist over at GeneaMania.  It would be nice to have some of these family heirlooms!!!
• The 112th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is up at Creative Gene- and it’s all about “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving“. The next edition is “A Charles Dickens Christmas” and submissions are due by January 1st.
• Tonight’s edition of Geneabloggers Radio is entitled “Genealogy Gift Guide”.  Maybe I should make my husband listen to this one?  He’s always saying that I’m SOOOO hard to buy for and I don’t believe it.
• Marian had some great tips on preparing for a genea-trip.  I confess that I’ve made a few not-so-prepared trips and have wasted precious time.
• Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy had a great post about Pearl Harbor – with precious interviews.  and we got to hear the final twist to “My Dad’s College Paper”.

And a few pictures from my week…

Yes, this would be the miniature snowman my daughter made with our inch of snow.   He is now living in our freezer in front of the ground beef, because all of our snow melted.

Have you ever tried to get a family photo done??  I’ve been so busy taking pictures of other people’s families these past couple of weeks (everyone wants Christmas card pics), but I finally decided that I needed to get a picture of my own family.  I set up the tripod and put the timer on.  It was easier said than done.  What a comedy of errors!!  Trying to get 7 people to look at the camera all at one time – with no one actually behind the camera- was interesting.  Which do you think we should put on the front of our Christmas card??

Yeah, I think we might be trying this again!