Family History

I love this quote..."Knowing who our family WAS reveals part of who we ARE!"

This photo is of my Aunt Ina, we lived in her home with her from the time I was born, till she passed away when I was 10 years old. I loved Aunt Ina like a Mother and she loved me just as much. Aunt Ina never had children of her own, and was married later in her life ...to a man much older than her. After he passed away, she invited our family to move from our small apartment and live with her in her home
. She lived upstair,s and that is where I spent many, many wonderful hours and days with her. She was a fabulous cook, she shared her love of jewelry and hats with me... and always let me play and dress up with her. She taught me how important I was to her! That was probably the greatest gift she could have ever given me. I was LOVED! What a great gift to pass on to the next generation!

This photo below is a of my Grandma Johnny ( her last name was Johnson )

I had to laugh when I saw this photo of her, because it is quite out of her character. I don't remember her doing any snow mobiling, but the fact that she did at her age was inspiring to me. Grandma Johnny was the one who first taught me to crochet and sew! I spent countless hours in her home. Her home was a safe place for me. I loved my time with her! She loved cornbread and made the best around. She taught me how to cook, and told me that I could do anything that I set my mind to! Oh how eternally grateful I am for her in my life. She loved me and I felt it!

So how did these ladies effect my life? They taught me that I was important and loved. They told me it was ok to do what I loved...the arts!

So at the age of 12 I started selling my crafts in a craft shows.

 Here is a photo of me in 1974  ( age 15 )at a craft show. I was sharing a booth with a dear friend.  She was a painter,  and you can see her artwork behind me.

Then here I am 39 years later in Texas at a Quilt Show with my dear friend! Still loving the opportunity to do what I love and meet new people!

So as I look back at the photos of Aunt Ina and Grandma Johnny, I hope that they can see ( from Heaven ) where that Love and Encouragement they gave me all those years ago...has taken me. 

And how many lives it has effected. My marriage, my kids and my grandkids!

I love passing on to my kids and grandkids the love of CREATING!

Grateful that I have the time to be with them, that I get to tell them how loved they are! I love being able to hold them in my arms and tell them how proud their Aunt Ina and Grandma Johnny would be of them too! 

Yes, family roots are important!

Good Night dear friends!

Family Tree

Today in church I taught the children the importance of Family History. I gave them an example of how fun it is to learn about someone in your family tree. I started with my own. I but pictures of mine on there and let them point to a certain one, and then I would tell them a story or information about it. I love stories, I remember stories better than anything else.
It was fun, and when I pointed to Jeff and I's wedding picture and asked this 4 year old if they knew who it was...she said " NO"! :)
Working with children can be rough on your self esteem at times! They are very honest! :) But I sure love them! They teach me soooo much more than I ever teach them!
They probably left knowing more about me than they ever wanted to know! But they left sure excited to read off the questions I gave them to interview their family members.
How grateful I am to remember my ancestors, to have such an amazing family and to know that Families Can Be Forever! 
Good night dear friends!

Day Three

   Well today started out at Leroy's Auto Shop again. This time he put 4 new tires on the car, so we should now be ready to head out of town tomorrow. We walked around town for the hour that he put the tires on the car. There wasn't really alot to do in the town, most shops we closed or empty. I kept asking myself what do the people do in this town. 
   After we picked  up the car we went to Lexington, Virginia and went to see some of the homes that had a lot of history in the town. Actually my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was a well known mason and we visited one of the mansion that he built. That was on my grandmother Austin's side of the family. That who our son Lee was named after. Interesting enough, the street that the Manson was built on was called Lee Street. We took pictures of the bricks that he made the sidewalk out of, I think some of the patterns would work for a beautiful quilt. We took photos of the house from the street and then I told Shirley we should ask the family if we could take photos of the house outside. She said no, we shouldn't... but I thought what do we have to lose. So we walked up the long walk way and bravely knocked on the door. After telling her who I was, she invited us in and then had her husband come down stairs.
His name was Grigsby and he was a descendant of our family. He and his wife had bought the house just 4 years earlier, and he had done extensive search on the history of the home and the whole town. It was unbelievable how excited he was to meet us and hear what genealogy information that we had. He went around and showed  us some really neat things about the home. Like the orginal windows that the glass maker etched his name in one of the window panes. Yes, it was great that we knocked on that door!
   Next we went down in to town and to a local book shop that was suppose to have some more books with information about our family history. I noticed that outside the weather was getting really stormy. We turned on the radio to find out that there was a storm watch and a tornado watch going on. I am not really fond of big storms so I told Shirley that we should probably head back to our hotel. She however doesn't have the same fear and so she told me that everything  would be fine and so we went on to a local Antiques store. We bought an umbrella earlier but there was no use to open it up, between the hard wind and rain there was no use. We got into the Antiques shop called Dukes and the electricity was out from the store but they had emergency lights on and so Shirley said that was good enough. She is a die hard collector I believe! Sounds like me and the Quilt Stores! But there aren't any Quilt Shops around here, can you believe that?
Luckily the tornado touched down in Richmond and in one other town closer to Buena Vista, where we were this morning. Lucky for us that we were visiting in Lexington instead! :)
We finished up the day with dinner and then back to the hotel to swim and pack up for tomorrow. What a fun day.
Good night dear friends.

"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future"

Author: Alex Haley

"But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you from the wisdom of former generations."