until Christmas that is, and we are so not ready. This of course won't be helped by a sick child, which means not being at school, which creates challenges of its own. There's presents for the grown ups still to buy, presents to be wrapped, and baking to be done. There's eggnog to make, and be drunk, and a Christmas shop to do so we don't run out of food..and not enough hours in the day it seems, or money in the bank for that matter.
I also have a case of the "Bah Humbug's"; I've looked at the Christmas TV guide, and though we've been here for six Christmases now, I am still dismayed and shocked, to find a definite lack of Christmas movies. No Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, etc. I know that those type of movies cater to the Northern Hemisphere Christmas, but I might 'get in the mood' a bit more if I wasn't faced with 20 action movies that have already aired more times that I can count, at other times of the year. I know it's summer here, but I still can't wrap my head round this Christmas at summer thing..and maybe I never will?
Thankfully, we are having another quiet year at home, so don't have to worry about travelling anywhere and the inevitable grumpy children from spending too much time in the car...we're saving that joy until Easter.
So what do other people have planned for Christmas? Going away, visiting family, staying home, or some weird combination? Traditional Kiwi Christmas fare or something else?
17 December 2012
09 December 2012
Santa
So our boys have never been that into the jolly red giant.....in fact, for the most part, they could take him or leave him. There's no wanting to go sit on Santa's knee or have their picture taken with him; which is fine by us as those things cost a small fortune for what they are! Anyway....it's that time of year again and this year we actually remembered to check when the santa parade was; we missed it last year because we weren't expecting it to be happening in mid NOVEMBER, and by the time we were wondering about it, we found out it had been and gone.
So this year, being well prepared, I actually checked for the date at the beginning of November... imagine my surprise to learn that it was actually going to be held IN December, even 'better', it wasn't even the first weekend in December...go figure. I now of course realise, that the reason for this, was the worldwide premiere of a certain film.
Our only conflict this year, the parade happened to fall on the same day as David's works Christmas party for the kids. Like last year, it was being held at the zoo...but that's where the similarities to last years party ended. To be fair, he was employed by a different company then. The boys had a good time though, David and I were underwhelmed, and I would have liked a bit more time to actually SEE some animals instead of getting dragged from exhibit to exhibit every 60 seconds. So after spending the morning at the zoo, we need to decide what we are going to do now. We knew the parade was on, but if I am honest I wasn't really keen to drag two, crabby, overtired children to a crowded place after they'd been awake since about 5am. We took a vote..I lost.
In the end, that was a good decision because the boys really enjoyed it. There was the usual floats; Snoopy, Batucada, Scottish band and even some Chinese Dragons. There were acrobats, people on stilts, and even angels hanging off the back of trucks. We were lucky in our chosen spot as well; The boys got to sit right on the kerb, even though we only arrived about 10 minutes before the parade was due to start. It took a while to find a park, and then we had to detour to Kaffe Eis for ice cream.
We've been home about 90 minutes...and in that time we've cleaned out the fish tank and I've started dinner, oh and I've written this post...speaking of which, dinner is now ready so I suppose we should go and eat it. It's been a long day, but all in all a good one.
So this year, being well prepared, I actually checked for the date at the beginning of November... imagine my surprise to learn that it was actually going to be held IN December, even 'better', it wasn't even the first weekend in December...go figure. I now of course realise, that the reason for this, was the worldwide premiere of a certain film.
Our only conflict this year, the parade happened to fall on the same day as David's works Christmas party for the kids. Like last year, it was being held at the zoo...but that's where the similarities to last years party ended. To be fair, he was employed by a different company then. The boys had a good time though, David and I were underwhelmed, and I would have liked a bit more time to actually SEE some animals instead of getting dragged from exhibit to exhibit every 60 seconds. So after spending the morning at the zoo, we need to decide what we are going to do now. We knew the parade was on, but if I am honest I wasn't really keen to drag two, crabby, overtired children to a crowded place after they'd been awake since about 5am. We took a vote..I lost.
In the end, that was a good decision because the boys really enjoyed it. There was the usual floats; Snoopy, Batucada, Scottish band and even some Chinese Dragons. There were acrobats, people on stilts, and even angels hanging off the back of trucks. We were lucky in our chosen spot as well; The boys got to sit right on the kerb, even though we only arrived about 10 minutes before the parade was due to start. It took a while to find a park, and then we had to detour to Kaffe Eis for ice cream.
We've been home about 90 minutes...and in that time we've cleaned out the fish tank and I've started dinner, oh and I've written this post...speaking of which, dinner is now ready so I suppose we should go and eat it. It's been a long day, but all in all a good one.
03 December 2012
Friends
Socially I am a bit out of my depth. I have never really been comfortable trying to develop relationships with new people. Maybe that's because I have been 'knocked back' so many times, maybe I really am just THAT boring, or maybe I am at times completely oblivious to social nuances. Whatever it is, putting myself out there is never really high on my list of 'must do'. I am trying to be better for the boys, so they hopefully won't be nearly as socially inept as I can sometimes be, but I still feel sometimes like I'd rather be doing almost anything else.
My motto has always been quality over quantity, but sometimes quantity AND quality together might be nice. I take a while to 'warm up', as most people who know me fairly well will probably attest to. I like to pretend that I am an extrovert, but really I think I am an introvert play acting at being extroverted; sometimes this is easier to do than others. When I do take the time and the effort, it can be very rewarding, and sanity saving.
My on-line 'friendships' haven't always translated to real life...though there are still heaps of people I currently consider friends who I haven't ever actually met, yet, who I feel I'd still consider friends once I'd met them. Nearly 4 years ago, I met a wonderful person. We started out, as most online relationships do, over similar interests; in this case parenting. Even better, we lived in the same part of the country. We decided to step out of cyberspace and actually meet each other, which at the time, I'll admit terrified me a bit. However, after having been in NZ about 2 years at this stage, I was socially isolated so thought "what the hell, what's the worst thing that could happen?" It turned into something that I still treasure to this day, and though my antenatal group has fallen apart, this person who I'd never met is still 'hanging in'. Our boys play together, and we catch up fairly often, which has been easier now we actually only live a few city blocks from each other. We hit the supermarket together almost every week, leaving the small humans with their dads, and we're there to step in when necessary..even if it's just someone to whinge to.
So thank you Jaki, for continuing to be a presence in my sometimes insane world, and even if we end up not living so close to each other in the future, I have no doubt that we'll always stay in touch.
My motto has always been quality over quantity, but sometimes quantity AND quality together might be nice. I take a while to 'warm up', as most people who know me fairly well will probably attest to. I like to pretend that I am an extrovert, but really I think I am an introvert play acting at being extroverted; sometimes this is easier to do than others. When I do take the time and the effort, it can be very rewarding, and sanity saving.
My on-line 'friendships' haven't always translated to real life...though there are still heaps of people I currently consider friends who I haven't ever actually met, yet, who I feel I'd still consider friends once I'd met them. Nearly 4 years ago, I met a wonderful person. We started out, as most online relationships do, over similar interests; in this case parenting. Even better, we lived in the same part of the country. We decided to step out of cyberspace and actually meet each other, which at the time, I'll admit terrified me a bit. However, after having been in NZ about 2 years at this stage, I was socially isolated so thought "what the hell, what's the worst thing that could happen?" It turned into something that I still treasure to this day, and though my antenatal group has fallen apart, this person who I'd never met is still 'hanging in'. Our boys play together, and we catch up fairly often, which has been easier now we actually only live a few city blocks from each other. We hit the supermarket together almost every week, leaving the small humans with their dads, and we're there to step in when necessary..even if it's just someone to whinge to.
So thank you Jaki, for continuing to be a presence in my sometimes insane world, and even if we end up not living so close to each other in the future, I have no doubt that we'll always stay in touch.
26 November 2012
New Chapter
This is about four weeks late..but you know what they say about "better late than never". :)
It seems like only yesterday sometimes, that I was sitting waiting to meet a small human, who decided that an EDD is just that! I was officially 2 days overdue at this stage, a new concept for me, and not only was I bored silly I was over being pregnant. Then he was here, that was a bit unexpected, him being a he, but we were over the moon. Fast forward 5 years and he's starting school!
Some of you will know that we ummed and ahed over WHEN to start him at school, and all of the ideas we had seemed to have their merits. In the end, the one that 'won' was the fact that the new entrant class was going to be so small and he seemed really eager to start school.
So on the morning of Wednesday, the 31st of October 2012, off we went to start a new 'adventure'. It was lost on me, that it just so happened to be All Hallows Eve, as well. He practically ran the whole way there, and we followed; me with a mixture of hope, and sadness, and apprehension about how he'd get on. I needn't have worried, he slotted right in.
Four weeks later and he's surprised even me with how far he has come. He was never in to drawing, or writing, or painting, or cutting anything so was 'behind' in those areas. Even just last week he was refusing to write anything if it wasn't over the top of what someone else had already written, then, seemingly out of the blue, he decided that maybe he could form letters on a separate line and now he wants to practice as often as he can. He still struggles with some letters, but he comprehends now that words make up a story, and that's a neat thing. He seems to never stop talking....and I thought he never shut up before!
So it turns out that starting him 'early', as in earlier than planned, has actually been the right thing to do. I'm still trying to adjust to having both boys at school, particularly as they are on a split site. I'm trying to develop relationships with parents of kids in Alex's class...but I've got some budding relationships with parents of kids in James's class too, which makes it tricky being on a split site, but oh well.
Next year of course, it will all change as Alex enters a Year 1 class and loses his teacher, and James is losing his teacher as well to a younger year group. Would have liked for James to have some stability, but I suppose a potential plus is Alex's teacher is going back to teach the older kids so James might end up with her next year, which is nice as he had expressed an interest in having this teacher earlier in the year before we found out that she was taking a bit of a 'time out' to travel.
Here's a couple of photos from the first day:
It seems like only yesterday sometimes, that I was sitting waiting to meet a small human, who decided that an EDD is just that! I was officially 2 days overdue at this stage, a new concept for me, and not only was I bored silly I was over being pregnant. Then he was here, that was a bit unexpected, him being a he, but we were over the moon. Fast forward 5 years and he's starting school!
Some of you will know that we ummed and ahed over WHEN to start him at school, and all of the ideas we had seemed to have their merits. In the end, the one that 'won' was the fact that the new entrant class was going to be so small and he seemed really eager to start school.
So on the morning of Wednesday, the 31st of October 2012, off we went to start a new 'adventure'. It was lost on me, that it just so happened to be All Hallows Eve, as well. He practically ran the whole way there, and we followed; me with a mixture of hope, and sadness, and apprehension about how he'd get on. I needn't have worried, he slotted right in.
Four weeks later and he's surprised even me with how far he has come. He was never in to drawing, or writing, or painting, or cutting anything so was 'behind' in those areas. Even just last week he was refusing to write anything if it wasn't over the top of what someone else had already written, then, seemingly out of the blue, he decided that maybe he could form letters on a separate line and now he wants to practice as often as he can. He still struggles with some letters, but he comprehends now that words make up a story, and that's a neat thing. He seems to never stop talking....and I thought he never shut up before!
So it turns out that starting him 'early', as in earlier than planned, has actually been the right thing to do. I'm still trying to adjust to having both boys at school, particularly as they are on a split site. I'm trying to develop relationships with parents of kids in Alex's class...but I've got some budding relationships with parents of kids in James's class too, which makes it tricky being on a split site, but oh well.
Next year of course, it will all change as Alex enters a Year 1 class and loses his teacher, and James is losing his teacher as well to a younger year group. Would have liked for James to have some stability, but I suppose a potential plus is Alex's teacher is going back to teach the older kids so James might end up with her next year, which is nice as he had expressed an interest in having this teacher earlier in the year before we found out that she was taking a bit of a 'time out' to travel.
Here's a couple of photos from the first day:
23 October 2012
Random Ramblings
Some days I honestly don't know how I manage to work out which way is up and which way is not. I think some days I am lucky I even know my own name. Life seems to be a constant struggle at the moment. If I am not dealing with grumpy, screaming, unruly children then we might be worrying about the fact that the car and it's new clutch could end up costing us $2,500.....and the fact that you can get whole cars for that amount of money; true they might not be great cars, but that doesn't make it any easier trying to wrap your head round an amount of money that leaves us, even if we weren't on one income, cringing.
Sleep is a precious commodity in our house..shame some of us aren't getting nearly enough of it! If it isn't David being on-call, then it's James singing at the top of his voice at 4:30 am which then results in waking the rest of the house, including his brother who has always been a 'poor' sleeper. Add in that I am a night owl in a house full of morning people..and you have a recipe for disaster, which sadly, it usually is. *sigh*
Throw in illness and family drama and voila......you have a day in the life of me. I still want to run away from home, alas, I am too responsible to do something so rash. Something will probably have to give soon though...
Sleep is a precious commodity in our house..shame some of us aren't getting nearly enough of it! If it isn't David being on-call, then it's James singing at the top of his voice at 4:30 am which then results in waking the rest of the house, including his brother who has always been a 'poor' sleeper. Add in that I am a night owl in a house full of morning people..and you have a recipe for disaster, which sadly, it usually is. *sigh*
Throw in illness and family drama and voila......you have a day in the life of me. I still want to run away from home, alas, I am too responsible to do something so rash. Something will probably have to give soon though...
14 October 2012
Another One Bites the Dust......
School holidays that is...and it's been a bit hit and miss.
The weather has been up and down, and so have we. It's been a somewhat quiet holidays, spent mostly at home, vegging out and not doing much. Part of that has been due to the weather, though we did manage to start out on a walk to Red Rocks when the weather looked okay, but got wet on the way back to the car when the weather changed. We went to Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton, but that was our only 'major' excursion. The boys had fun checking out the skate park there, so was good that they took their wheels so they could actually try stuff out.
We had movie days, complete with rentals from the video store, and also a trip into town to see Madagascar 3. There was lots of screaming and shouting...and sadly not only from the boys. There were also some great times had too, and hopefully the boys have some nice memories to share when they are older. I've managed to get sick for probably the second time this year, which has made the last few days of the holidays 'boring'...though thankfully dad has been home to pick up some of the slack this weekend.
I think everyone is looking forward to getting back 'in routine'....and Alex can't stop talking about going to school, even though that's another five weeks away yet. I'm looking forward for a chance to try and recover a bit from this cold or whatever I have...though I have heaps of stuff I need to catch up on. Why is it, that when the kids are home all the time, all domestic stuff seems to go out the window..or does that only happen in my house?
The weather has been up and down, and so have we. It's been a somewhat quiet holidays, spent mostly at home, vegging out and not doing much. Part of that has been due to the weather, though we did manage to start out on a walk to Red Rocks when the weather looked okay, but got wet on the way back to the car when the weather changed. We went to Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton, but that was our only 'major' excursion. The boys had fun checking out the skate park there, so was good that they took their wheels so they could actually try stuff out.
We had movie days, complete with rentals from the video store, and also a trip into town to see Madagascar 3. There was lots of screaming and shouting...and sadly not only from the boys. There were also some great times had too, and hopefully the boys have some nice memories to share when they are older. I've managed to get sick for probably the second time this year, which has made the last few days of the holidays 'boring'...though thankfully dad has been home to pick up some of the slack this weekend.
I think everyone is looking forward to getting back 'in routine'....and Alex can't stop talking about going to school, even though that's another five weeks away yet. I'm looking forward for a chance to try and recover a bit from this cold or whatever I have...though I have heaps of stuff I need to catch up on. Why is it, that when the kids are home all the time, all domestic stuff seems to go out the window..or does that only happen in my house?
03 October 2012
Welcome Home
We've considered New Zealand our home, basically since we set foot on her soil way back in 2006, and on Monday 1 October 2012, we made it official. David, James and I are now officially citizens of New Zealand, with all the rights and responsibilities that come with it..though we've basically had those all along as we've had permanent residency from the start.
It's been a challenging 6.7 years..in that time we've had redundancies, moved houses more times that I care to count, met some wonderful people, and a couple of times it's even looked like we'd have to abandon our dream and head back to England. Through it all though, we've managed to remain in the place we call home, through the good and the not so good.
We've been contemplating the citizenship for a while, ever since 2010 when we came the closest we ever have to having to go back to England. We put it off, once things had settled, mainly because of money....that thing we never really seem to have enough of. In the end, to secure our future, we decided to bite the bullet, and as the famous Nike slogan says, "just do it".
So off we marched a few months ago and turned in our paperwork..then the wait began. In July, the letters we'd been waiting for arrived, it was our official notice that we had been granted New Zealand Citizenship. In that letter, there's the usual formalities like what to do if our address changes, and to advise that we would receive our date for the Ceremony when it was arranged. What a wait it was, though in the giant scheme of things, I suppose just over two months wasn't all that long to wait.
So ceremony day came, and I wasn't at my best. The night before, I had landed myself in A&E, and then after hours Drs, having an issue with my left eye. Still not sure quite what happened, but it looked like I'd be going as a pirate as late as Monday afternoon. Thankfully after resting for the vast majority of the day, I managed to get the patch off and my eye open without pain. Dinner was a bit of a rushed affair, seeing as we had to be at Wellington Town Hall at 5:00pm for a 6:00 start, just when we are usually sitting down to dinner. Let's just say we were 'late'. LOL
We swing by to pick up my good friend, who is going to entertain our little kiwi (Alex) for us, and get there about 5:30, to find what seemed like a million people already there..ooops! So we hand over our letters and are led to our seats; luckily there are 2 free seats in the front row of the 'spectator section' for Jaki and Alex, who was the official photographer for this event. There is a programme for the evening, which is laid out in the folders located on our chairs. Turns out that they hold a ceremony EVERY month, and each one has about 100 people who will swear their allegiance to New Zealand. One one side of the room they put the people taking the Affirmation of Allegiance (non-religious) and on the other, the ones taking the Oath of Allegiance (religious). After you have taken the Affirmation, or the Oath, you are called up to receive your certificate and a brief 'chat' with, in our case, the Deputy Mayor. After the certificates are presented, a letter of Congratulations from the Minister of Internal Affairs is read, closing remarks are made, we sing the National Anthem, the Official Party exits and that concludes the ceremony. All up, it takes about an hour.
So it's now 7pm, and though there are light refreshments available, Alex has had enough, and so we head for home. On our way out, we grab a couple of totara tree saplings, a symbol of our new life in New Zealand, as citizens.
It's been a challenging 6.7 years..in that time we've had redundancies, moved houses more times that I care to count, met some wonderful people, and a couple of times it's even looked like we'd have to abandon our dream and head back to England. Through it all though, we've managed to remain in the place we call home, through the good and the not so good.
We've been contemplating the citizenship for a while, ever since 2010 when we came the closest we ever have to having to go back to England. We put it off, once things had settled, mainly because of money....that thing we never really seem to have enough of. In the end, to secure our future, we decided to bite the bullet, and as the famous Nike slogan says, "just do it".
So off we marched a few months ago and turned in our paperwork..then the wait began. In July, the letters we'd been waiting for arrived, it was our official notice that we had been granted New Zealand Citizenship. In that letter, there's the usual formalities like what to do if our address changes, and to advise that we would receive our date for the Ceremony when it was arranged. What a wait it was, though in the giant scheme of things, I suppose just over two months wasn't all that long to wait.
So ceremony day came, and I wasn't at my best. The night before, I had landed myself in A&E, and then after hours Drs, having an issue with my left eye. Still not sure quite what happened, but it looked like I'd be going as a pirate as late as Monday afternoon. Thankfully after resting for the vast majority of the day, I managed to get the patch off and my eye open without pain. Dinner was a bit of a rushed affair, seeing as we had to be at Wellington Town Hall at 5:00pm for a 6:00 start, just when we are usually sitting down to dinner. Let's just say we were 'late'. LOL
We swing by to pick up my good friend, who is going to entertain our little kiwi (Alex) for us, and get there about 5:30, to find what seemed like a million people already there..ooops! So we hand over our letters and are led to our seats; luckily there are 2 free seats in the front row of the 'spectator section' for Jaki and Alex, who was the official photographer for this event. There is a programme for the evening, which is laid out in the folders located on our chairs. Turns out that they hold a ceremony EVERY month, and each one has about 100 people who will swear their allegiance to New Zealand. One one side of the room they put the people taking the Affirmation of Allegiance (non-religious) and on the other, the ones taking the Oath of Allegiance (religious). After you have taken the Affirmation, or the Oath, you are called up to receive your certificate and a brief 'chat' with, in our case, the Deputy Mayor. After the certificates are presented, a letter of Congratulations from the Minister of Internal Affairs is read, closing remarks are made, we sing the National Anthem, the Official Party exits and that concludes the ceremony. All up, it takes about an hour.
So it's now 7pm, and though there are light refreshments available, Alex has had enough, and so we head for home. On our way out, we grab a couple of totara tree saplings, a symbol of our new life in New Zealand, as citizens.
16 September 2012
Reflections
If I've learned one thing from trying to do my family tree..it's that I am in awe of how little I actually know about my family. I know basically nothing about either of my grandparents, other than their names, and for one set I don't even have that. I will be able to find out names, but I struggle to come to terms with the fact that I am not likely to know much about WHO these people were. I don't have stories, I have few photographs and I have very few tangible pieces of 'evidence' that some of them ever existed.
It's led me to look hard at my life, about how little I am sharing with my own boys about stories of how I grew up, the people who were part of it. I've decided to write down A LOT of things, in the hopes that if a) I never share these stories, or b) if i do and they forget..that they will be there for future generations to be able to have a look at. I suppose in some ways, even doing this blog, is a step towards that. I've pretty much decided to cover the 'major' events, but am trying to decide what, if any, of the 'lesser' events to include. Of course, I also have to find some time to actually DO it....saying I am going to and actually doing it are two very different things.
I know life is short, sometimes way too short, and people are taken from us too soon. In researching the paternal side of my family tree I have come to realise that though my dad and I were inseparable in a lot of ways, I really knew nothing about his life before I was born. I don't know much about his military service..other than the little pieces of information I have been able to glean from one piece of his military file. I don't know for sure who his parents were, or what his life was like growing up as a black child/adolescent/man in mid-1900's America.
I've lived on three different continents in as many decades, had a vast amount of experiences on each one, and yet I still struggle with the feeling that I am missing something; not necessarily literally, but metaphorically/psychologically/spiritually. Having said that, there's little I would change in the course of my life, and so far there is only one thing I truly regret.
I'm not getting any younger...so hopefully I figure it out soon.
It's led me to look hard at my life, about how little I am sharing with my own boys about stories of how I grew up, the people who were part of it. I've decided to write down A LOT of things, in the hopes that if a) I never share these stories, or b) if i do and they forget..that they will be there for future generations to be able to have a look at. I suppose in some ways, even doing this blog, is a step towards that. I've pretty much decided to cover the 'major' events, but am trying to decide what, if any, of the 'lesser' events to include. Of course, I also have to find some time to actually DO it....saying I am going to and actually doing it are two very different things.
I know life is short, sometimes way too short, and people are taken from us too soon. In researching the paternal side of my family tree I have come to realise that though my dad and I were inseparable in a lot of ways, I really knew nothing about his life before I was born. I don't know much about his military service..other than the little pieces of information I have been able to glean from one piece of his military file. I don't know for sure who his parents were, or what his life was like growing up as a black child/adolescent/man in mid-1900's America.
I've lived on three different continents in as many decades, had a vast amount of experiences on each one, and yet I still struggle with the feeling that I am missing something; not necessarily literally, but metaphorically/psychologically/spiritually. Having said that, there's little I would change in the course of my life, and so far there is only one thing I truly regret.
I'm not getting any younger...so hopefully I figure it out soon.
05 September 2012
Birthday Parties
I remember birthday parties fondly from my childhood..but now that I have to THROW them......I just want to curl up in a ball and rock in the corner. To be fair I haven't actually thrown a kids party in nearly 3 years, but I still feel woefully out of my depth. What day do you have it, how long do you have it for, what time does it start, what kind of food, party games?
A has decided that he has to have a party this year because he is turning five; it's a big deal apparently to turn five. Thankfully he doesn't want to invite the entire kindy, in fact, his invite list consists of a respectable five other children. Unfortunately he has been sick, and not been at kindy, so the amount of notice I wanted to give for this party has kind of disappeared. Invites need to go out tomorrow, at the latest, and I still haven't decided on the important things like what time it starts and what time it finishes.....at least the date is sorted. Hopefully people will be able to come, or am going to have one disappointed little boy.
So now I have less than 2 weeks to plan EVERYTHING..and I will admit that I am slightly freaked out. At least we won't have to corral a massive number of children, and the house is big enough to entertain in if the weather takes a turn for the worst. I think the theme is pirates..so it should be fun to try and pull together...but need to shop for some things now and do a couple of test runs, in case it all goes pear shaped and there is time to 'fix' it. We didn't do that a couple of times, and there wasn't really time to put it right the way we would have liked.
Fingers crossed it's a fun day....and the weather cooperates.....and the cake turns out how it should...
04 September 2012
Roots
For some reason, ones I am still not so clear on, I decided that composing a family tree was a good idea.
Maybe it's my age, maybe it's the fact that I want the boys to know where they come from, maybe it's because I am a little bit sad and disappointed that I have lost touch with some of my family or maybe it's a combination of all the above.
Starting this journey has been slightly complicated by a lack of information, particularly on my Irish ancestors and my Dad's. I've come to realise how little I actually know about my father and where he came from. There have been rumours of adoption, but I actually have NO idea how true or otherwise that may be. I don't know who his parents were and his sister died, unbeknownst to me at the time, in 2005 so I can't even ask her. My mother is vague on the details and I haven't been able to find any tangible information on him other than what I already know. So I am trying to think of ways to find out the information that I need so that I can at least have a copy of his birth certificate. Luckily for me, or maybe not as I have no idea what it contains yet, I can have a copy of his Military file. I am hoping that this will have something like an emergency contact form with some names I don't already know on it. Because he is dead, I have to send proof of that before they will send it to me, so I have ordered a copy of his death certificate today and hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will have some new leads.
I have also sent a letter to my cousin, one of a few living Murphy relatives. I sent him one nearly 5 years ago, just after Alex was born and when I learned that my aunt, his mother, had died 2 years earlier. I don't know if he had already moved, or he just didn't want to talk to me...but thought I would take a punt, and try again, after I found an address on-line that is more than likely his current address.
My mother's side..well on her paternal side, has been slightly easier to trace and actually have quite a bit of info on them, confirmed back to my great, great grandfather. The maternal side of her tree, however, is complicated by a couple of things. One, the fact that I am having to deal with Irish records, or perhaps a lack thereof; and two, when my grandmother married my grandfather she was McFadden...but there are no McFadden's on the island I know they came from; they appear as Padden in both the 1901 and 1911 Census. I have no idea how she got from being a Padden to a McFadden, and I have no idea how she got to England from Ireland.
It's been an interesting journey so far, and I still have a bit of work to do on my side of things to try and leave some stories and memories for the boys, and for any future ancestors who want to know where they came from.
Maybe it's my age, maybe it's the fact that I want the boys to know where they come from, maybe it's because I am a little bit sad and disappointed that I have lost touch with some of my family or maybe it's a combination of all the above.
Starting this journey has been slightly complicated by a lack of information, particularly on my Irish ancestors and my Dad's. I've come to realise how little I actually know about my father and where he came from. There have been rumours of adoption, but I actually have NO idea how true or otherwise that may be. I don't know who his parents were and his sister died, unbeknownst to me at the time, in 2005 so I can't even ask her. My mother is vague on the details and I haven't been able to find any tangible information on him other than what I already know. So I am trying to think of ways to find out the information that I need so that I can at least have a copy of his birth certificate. Luckily for me, or maybe not as I have no idea what it contains yet, I can have a copy of his Military file. I am hoping that this will have something like an emergency contact form with some names I don't already know on it. Because he is dead, I have to send proof of that before they will send it to me, so I have ordered a copy of his death certificate today and hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will have some new leads.
I have also sent a letter to my cousin, one of a few living Murphy relatives. I sent him one nearly 5 years ago, just after Alex was born and when I learned that my aunt, his mother, had died 2 years earlier. I don't know if he had already moved, or he just didn't want to talk to me...but thought I would take a punt, and try again, after I found an address on-line that is more than likely his current address.
My mother's side..well on her paternal side, has been slightly easier to trace and actually have quite a bit of info on them, confirmed back to my great, great grandfather. The maternal side of her tree, however, is complicated by a couple of things. One, the fact that I am having to deal with Irish records, or perhaps a lack thereof; and two, when my grandmother married my grandfather she was McFadden...but there are no McFadden's on the island I know they came from; they appear as Padden in both the 1901 and 1911 Census. I have no idea how she got from being a Padden to a McFadden, and I have no idea how she got to England from Ireland.
It's been an interesting journey so far, and I still have a bit of work to do on my side of things to try and leave some stories and memories for the boys, and for any future ancestors who want to know where they came from.
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