Update-ish

I'm researching a relative who married her husband twice, in two states, 40 years apart, but who doesn't appear in ANY of the 5 Federal Censuses performed during her married and widowed life. I've found her marriage licenses, I've found her in a couple state censuses, and I clearly see her application for support from her husband's military pension, but she's absent from every Federal Census. It's a fascinating mystery that keeps me up at night, and I was planning to use this quiet time to work on it, but FamilySearch is down right now. I must content myself with a little blogging, then, while I obsessively and frequently check up on FamilySearch :)

James threw up a couple times last night. He's fine now, but tired, and Matthew has been inordinately droopy this morning. Hm. Both are asleep. As I watched James empty his stomach contents onto my living room carpet last night, several times in a row, I felt completely paralyzed and nonchalant at the same time. Like I've seen all this before, so it's not alarming, but I haven't seen it recently enough to act quickly. Bah humbug. Bobby cleaned up the floor while I cleaned up the boy. NOT a fair trade, by the way. Thanks, Bobby.

Droopy Matthew this morning, some laundry in the background.

I've got three loads of laundry left to sort through and fold and put away. That's just what's left of the weekly chore. James' adventure last night only added one load of laundry. Mostly towels...thanks, Bobby.

Yesterday I planted the first seeds for this year's garden. Just a few snapdragons from last year and a Bee Balm or two (new to me, but interesting flower that attracts beneficial insects). These flowers take an especially long time to germinate/grow, so they're the first ones under the grow lights. The seeds are insanely tiny. Barely the size of this period. I sprinkled them in their rows, put a little soil over them, gave them a gentle pat, and suddenly remembered with horror that snapdragon seeds require LIGHT to germinate. This is one reason I don't like dealing with flowers...a HUGE diversity of needs compared to veggies. Ugh. So, I put the grow lights as close as possible, hoping the light would penetrate somehow and kickstart their growth. Might get lucky. Or, might not get any snapdragons this year. Or, just my luck, only the pink ones will germinate ;)

Matthew in the wheelbarrow yesterday, helping me do some spring cleanup.

Crocuses always remind me of the day we brought baby Alice home for the first time.

Alice has recently taken an interest in computer programming. She asked Bobby about it often enough over a period of time that he felt we should give it a go. He ordered a robot kit they could work on together with all sorts of accessories to add functionality. I'm impressed. This is something so far out of my realm of expertise/interest that it never would have happened without Bobby. Robert has been involved, too, but he likes the physical mechanics more at this point...and getting the robot to follow Matthew around the house. Alice is the programming one. She learned how to make the lights blink and got them to spell her name in Morse Code.

Alice getting her "programmer" groove on.

Next, Bobby is going to show her something called, um, what is it? Spark? Stick? Scratch! That's it. I think it's another way to write programs, designed especially for kids.

First Date with Robert

When Alice went to kindergarten, I missed the connectedness of our former relationship. She noticed it, too. Following the advice of a friend of mine, we decided to go on regular "Girls Nights Out" to create new connections and positive memories together. We don't do it every month, but it's at least every quarter, and it's something we both look forward to.

Then I turned around one day and Robert was in first grade and I hadn't gone on a single date with him anywhere (unless taking him to swim lessons counts...). It's not like he noticed or cared, or he would have brought it to my attention 2 years ago. But, I thought I should at least be fair about it and give it a go.

Tonight was our first date. I didn't know what to expect. Robert's a big talker, but not about himself. He talks about possibilities and theories and variables. For example, Alice tells me everything she's feeling and thinking the whole time she's with me. Stream of consciousness. It never stops. She asks me to turn off the radio so I can hear her better. Robert, on the other hand, did not mention the date the entire time we were on it. He was excited, so he was trying to explain to me how he thought the universe could not be infinite because even an expanding object has a boundary. There simply MUST be a top and bottom to the universe somewhere. Then he asked about the speed of light. I told him it's the fastest thing we've ever measured (is it still? am I wrong?) and he wondered if there was something out there faster than light that we just hadn't seen or measured yet. Then he wondered if different colors of light traveled at different speeds and how would you measure that? He invented a machine/robot on the spot that would turn on two colored lights at precisely the same time and set up a camera that could record super, super, super fast to he could see which color light got there first.

Seriously, this was the conversation all the way to the indoor mini golf place.

Once we got golfing, the conversation narrowed to the task at hand. He wasn't the slightest bit competitive with me. He wanted us to keep score, and he recognized when he had had a rough hole (11 strokes on a par 3), but he didn't get upset or sad or disappointed. He just shrugged and said, "Man, that was a bad job. Where's the next one?" And he kept playing happily. About 3/4 the way through the course, he started developing strategies for the game and sharing them with me: never aim for the tricky shortcuts, always go the long way around.

When we came to the final hole where the pirate keeps your ball, we decided not to play it yet. It was pretty empty tonight, and the course was one of the wimpiest/lamest I've ever experienced, so we took the liberty of playing the first 17 holes again and comparing our scores on each hole to the previous round. Again, he was not the slightest bit competitive...just enjoying the information.

I surprised him at the end by saying we could go get a special treat. He was genuinely surprised and excited in only the way Robert is, which is NOTHING like how Alice does it. The conversation on the way to the treat was something like, "I'm really in the mood for a frozen yogurt, but if there's another treat place on the way that has something else I'll like, then I'll be happy with that."

Seriously?! He was a totally easy date. We stopped at TCBY for froyo in a color-changing cup. He was such a charming little man. Those tough, frozen gummy bears and the periodic nose freezes cracked me up. But he wasn't on stage for me. He was just being himself. And Robert's genuine self without siblings is not something I get to see very often. I really, really like this guy. At one point, he had me feel how cold the outside of his neck and chest had become from eating all the ice cream. He wanted to test if I could feel the cold blob of ice cream as it moved down his esophagus.

So much sugar! I think he ended up with five different flavors of froyo and at least that many different toppings.

I asked him what he would like to do on our next date and he said, "Well, I really liked this sports one, so let's do another sport." I suggested shooting hoops at the gym and he agreed. "Basketball is WAY more exercise than mini golf because you're running and throwing and balls at the hoop. Yeah, let's do that."

Adult Swim Lessons

I signed up for adult swim lessons at our local YMCA. Today was the first day.

First off, I wore the wrong bathing suit...my rashguard and biking shorts combo...had to tie a knot in the shirt hem and a knot in the shorts waist to keep it from flopping open in the deep water. I looked awesome. Currently debating whether I do that again next week or put on the sexy hot pink swimsuit I also own (the catalog called it "salmon" but it arrived definitely hot pink). No me gusta ese traje de baño. Siento demasiado desnudo! Quizás puedo vestir ambos...hmmmmm. Hubo una mujer en la classe que llevabó un traje de baño muy largo. It had sleeves to her wrists and leggings to her ankles.

Second, with only my childhood backyard swimming pool (yay for southern CA living!) and my junior high P.E. experience, I was far and above the best swimmer in the group. I thought this might happen, but opted for the "swim lesson" route over the "adult swim club" route because I've never had any real swim coaching. And I figured all I needed was a little guidance and a mountain of accountability to keep me practicing regularly.

Third, the teacher had 4 other adult students in the class ranging from absolute beginner to beginning circular breathing. I mostly swam laps, which was kinda what I was expecting to do anyway. It wore me out. The teacher asked about my goals for this class. I confessed that I was training for a sprint triathlon in September (with a team dividing up the course, not all by myself) and she lit up enthusiastically, "Oh! I love endurance training!" Something inside me wilted at the sound of "endurance training" but I knew it was what I needed to do to get what I wanted. Ugh.

Fourth, I must have drunk half a gallon of pool water. And my nose was burning from inhaling so much chlorine. She had me working on the freestyle stroke with circular breathing on both sides (where I swallowed all of the water), then learning how to flip turn (where most of the water went up my nose). Curse you, flip turn! My actual swimming event will be in a LAKE!

Fifth, I'm actually kinda excited to get better at this stuff.

Sixth, the boys didn't throw too big of a fit when I dropped them off at Child Watch, but we had already negotiated a trade. I get to take my swim lesson in peace and they get to skip quiet time for the day. It worked out for both of us this week. Let's see how the next 5 weeks go :)

Outside Day

Pruned the orchard.

Pruned the serviceberry tree.

Pruned the hydrangeas.

Noted the honeyberry, serviceberry, and chrysanthemums already breaking dormancy  (yikes!)

Cut back the irises that never really turned brown (guess they're used to Idaho winters?)

Played basketball against Robert to 20 points. He's pretty good.

Chased James at the park, trapping him in playground prisons that he always escaped from.

Said goodbye to Erin as she boarded her shuttle to Chicago :(

Chatted with my neighbor over the fence about her backyard landscaping and her campaign for Mayor of Urbana.

Let the hens roam free for a couple hours.

Squished the first mosquito of the season. Those guys seriously don't have an off season.

Watched the boys (even Matthew!) climb the overgrown boxwoods.

Watched Alice play a series of imaginary games with her neighborhood friend...gymnastics/martial arts/award-winning/spy-training/herbalist/domestic servant kind of game all wrapped into one.

Outside is a wonderful thing.

Mother Country

FamilySearch is a wonderful thing. Thanks to their unceasing digitizing/indexing efforts, my mom was able to find a Russian/Ukrainian/German Christening Record from 1842 that finally (FINALLY!) gives us a real, physical clue as to where some of her ancestors lived before immigrating to the U.S.

I'm so stinkin' excited about this!

Why? Because the family immigrated when the kids were older. At least four adult children did not immigrate with the parents. Would be nice to find their stories.

Turns out this family lived in a part of Russia/Prussia that became part of modern-day Ukraine, but many of the families in that area at that time were immigrants from Germany, so some records are in old-fashioned German.

Here's a peek:

Louise Link, born in Johannesthal 28 Apr 1842, child of Christian Link and Catharina Jung.

Johannesthal in 1842! Time and place. It's beautiful.

Another christening record for another one of the children came from a church registry in Worms, Russia. I haven't had a chance to see where that is in relation to Johannesthal, but it's another solid time and place.

Can't wait to learn more!