October Update

So apparently I can't write on this blog (or any blog, for that matter) as much as I would like. I'd get an idea that I want to blog but I'm not near a computer. Then when I am on a computer I'm doing something else. Like work. Ugh. Anyway, I figured I'd spend a few minutes, while there is nothing good on tv, updating you all on my life.

Sounds exciting right? I'm being sarcastic.

So, my big new project is creating my family tree on www.ancestry.com. After my grandma passed away last October, I found out that she was adopted. I hadn't known in the 25 years I've been alive that my grandmother was adopted. Why did no one tell me?! Then my grandpa (her husband) passed away a few months ago and for some reason his death hit me harder than I thought it would. Yes he's my grandpa and he's been there since I was born but I was never super close with him. Not as much as I wanted to be, anyway. And I realized how little I actually knew about him. Then I started obsessing about what else I don't know about my family, and how sad it is that I don't know my grandparents and now I'm down to one out of six (my dad's parents split a long time ago and remarried, the couple I just talked about is my dad's mom and step dad). I seriously had an internal freak out. So, I wrote a letter to my grandmother - it was my turn after all - and I asked her if she could help me with our family tree.

Let me back up. In the seventh grade, we were supposed to create an autobiography. I've read mine several times over the years because it's funny to see how you were way back then. Anyway, part of the assignment was to create a family tree starting with yourself (duh) and going back to your great grandparents. I thought it was interesting and all, but I didn't fully understand it and here I am, 13 years later, finally wondering what it all means.

So this was at least my baseline. I had signed up for a free account on Ancestry and put in the information I knew about me, my parents, and some of their parents. Give me a break, we don't really swap stories in my family so I didn't know much, if anything, on any of them. Then last weekend we met up with my grandma while we were out cleaning grandpa's house and she handed me a large manila envelope with lots of paper in it. Someone, apparently one of my mom's distant cousins, had started researching my great grandmother's maiden name - Kammerer. Also inside was a picture of my great grandmother and great grandfather. Oh. My. Gosh. Cutest picture ever. I entered in the information from this packet and found that it was far too much to do in a few sittings, so I started working on it for an hour every day. This weekend I got a huge chunk of it done and I have nearly 450 people in my family tree, and that is just following my mom's grandmother on her mom's side. Insane! I'm so excited to work on the rest of my family tree.

Biggest news? My ancestors on that side of the family came from Germany and squatted on a huge piece of land in South Dakota that is still being run by the Kammerers. This land was used to raise cattle. Herefords, to be exact. My in-laws would be proud. Oh and I have a relative who graduated from West Point and as an officer was stationed in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Honestly, that's been my biggest priority lately. I'm going to be purchasing some lighting equipment for my photography that I will probably need for one of my two official photo shoots in November. So excited! There is way too much going on in November, I have no idea how I fit two photoshoots in there.

It rained all weekend, and I could not be happier. Normally the bad weather makes me really gloomy and, quite frankly, grumpy. Good luck to Matt when I'm grumpy and it's because of the WEATHER. He can't change it, he just tries to stay out of the line of fire. Sorry Matt :-( But this year? I'm so ready for it! I can't believe that I'm 100% a California girl and I'm completely tired of sunshine. I want rain. I want A LOT of rain. And I got it this weekend. I didn't even get dressed yesterday, I was in my pj shirt, flannel pants and my Ugg boots all day. It was amazing.

I think that's about it. This week is the first week of registration for the Spring semester. Seriously? The semester has gone by so fast and yet I feel like it has kicked my butt since it started. So this week should be pretty crazy, hopefully that means it will go by fast!