18 June 2009

Becoming a Family Historian

I've always been fascinated by the idea of searching out information about my ancestors.  Notice, I said the idea of finding information.  Sadly, I've not worked on my family history as much as I would have liked over the years.  Well, that needs to stop now.  Mrs. O should become a family historian.

With that goal in mind, I started listening to The Genealogy Guys podcast (http://www.genealogyguys.com/) several months ago, hoping to get some direction on where to begin.  And to be honest, I also was hoping that by listening to the podcast I would be inspired to start working on my own lines with more regularity.

The Guys started their podcast  in September of 2005 and being the logical person that I am I started listening to the podcasts in chronological order.  At present, I'm only up to their July 2007 shows, but I have to say that so far they have been both entertaining and stuffed with useful information.

The past few episodes have talked about http://www.findagrave.com/.  The Guys made it sound so intriguing that earlier today, curiosity got the better of me and I took a quick peek at the website.  It was fantastic!  By the end of the day I had signed up as a member, added a page for my brother (they call it a memorial), and uploaded a picture of his tombstone.  There is even a service included with the site that allows you to request pictures of graves.  I just got through telling Mr. O that I've signed us up to take 6 pictures of graves in the cemetery near our home this weekend.  He was thrilled.

11 June 2009

Becoming Fit

My relationship with exercise has been on-again, off-again for years.  During the good times, I exercise regularly and can't wait for my next workout.  At one point, I got up in the wee hours of the morning, traveled to a Gold's Gym that was 45 minutes away, got in a morning workout, showered, changed, and was at work by 8 AM...and I did this 4 or 5 times a week for well over a year.  Yep, those were the good old days!  Unfortunately, it's been awhile since I was on such good terms with exercise.

It seems that for the last year or so, I've really struggled to get back into the exercise groove.  You know how it works, you get busy one night so you put off your exercise for the evening, and then before you know it, an week has flown by without a workout.  That week turns to a month, and then a year.  Well, that has to change.  I'm declaring here and now that Mrs. O needs to become fit. 

With that thought in mind, I went downstairs tonight and got in 30 minutes of cardio on my elliptical.  I then did a few crunches, and some bicep curls with my hand weights.  By the time I was done I was almost dead...I kid you not, the first few workouts after a break of more than a month is always the worst.

10 June 2009

Becoming a Knitter

I think that Mrs. O should be a person who knits.  Now, she might never be an Elizabeth Zimmerman, but she should at least know the basics.  And who knows, with time and practice she could become a pretty great knitter.

My knitting journey began one summer long ago when I joined a 4-H knitting group with some of my friends.  Our leader, Mrs. W, was the mother of one of those friends.  Since Mrs. W lived across the street from me I spent a good deal of my childhood at her house as I played with her daughters.  She was always knitting, sewing, or taking care of her house plants.

That summer, everyone in our 4-H group learned how to knit by making a pin cushion to enter into the county fair.  My pin cushion was so poorly done that Mrs. W told me I had to make another one.  So while I worked on a second pin cushion the rest of the group learned how to knit something else…I think it was a scarf.  Ironically, my second attempt at a pin cushion won first place at the fair that year.  That second pin cushion was my last knitting project for roughly 25 years.

Last October my mom and I spent a week at my Aunt M and Uncle B’s house in Arizona.  My mom is a crocheter (she doesn’t knit because it’s too slow for her).  My aunt M on the other hand does both.  During that visit my aunt re-taught me the basics of knitting.  I say re-taught, because I had long since forgot the skills I learned as a child from Mrs. W.  After working on a short sample made with some scrap yarn, I picked up my needles and started my first project since that second pin cushion I had entered in the county fair so many years earlier.

Now most new knitters probably start off with a scarf for their first project (I’ve still never made one of those).  Instead of a scarf, I choose to make a dishcloth, which was a natural choice since I had taken cotton yarn with me to crochet with.  The pattern I choose was the typical knitted dishcloth that you see everywhere.  On Ravelry it is known as Grandmother’s Favorite by Traditional Design.  And speaking of Ravelry, if you are either a crocheter or a knitter and you haven’t joined Ravelry yet, you should head over there pronto and sign-up.

09 June 2009

Becoming Mrs. O

Getting married for the first time as a 37-year old woman was not quite what I expected when I was dreaming about boys as a teenager. Back then I thought that I would go away to college, meet someone fantastic who would sweep me off my feet, marry me, and then work with me to start building a family of our own. I kind of took it for granted that Cupid would be more than anxious to set me on the road to married bliss before I reached 25. Well, I guess Cupid was overworked in the area where I went to college because he sure didn't have time for me then.

 
Once I hit the ripe old age of 30, I was certain that anytime two people got married a miracle had occurred. And I'm not talking about just a small miracle, I'm talking a MAJOR miracle, something more than what Cupid could handle on his own. This was something big that would require the help of Zeus and maybe even Hera as well. I mean seriously, anytime two people find each other, fall in love with each other, and are both ready to settle down and commit to each other at the same time, well that has higher power written all over it.

 
By the time another five years had passed I was certain that I wasn't going to get any help from Cupid, Zeus, Hera, or any other mythical god. I was almost sure that the marriage bus had passed my stop while I was tying my shoe or doing something else that was equally non-significant. I had almost given up hope...and that's when I met Mr. O, my future husband.

 
Now the purpose of this blog is not to relive my dating years...or rather lack-of-dating years to be more precise. The idea for this blog came to me a few weeks ago, right before I married Mr. O.  One day I was thinking about the changes that I would be making in my life as I moved from being Ms. T, a single woman who was getting a little long in the tooth, to Mrs. O, a 37-year old newlywed.  Now of course, one of the first changes that would come would be to take Mr. O’s name.  And truthfully, it was a little intimidating to realize that my actions would reflect upon my husband’s reputation.  And that got me thinking about what kind of person I wanted Mrs. O to be.  What would her hobbies be, what kind of activities would she enjoy with her husband, and how would she spend her time were just a few of the many questions that started swimming through my brain.  It was then that I decided to blog my journey of becoming Mrs.O.