This school year for Glen is now on a downhill slope heading (for the second time in his teaching career) to the end of his last year! Alex has just started his college years and the rest of us continue much as we were at the end of 2021.
Hannah already posted about the room makeovers. We did a little bit more after she left. It really is SO nice to go back there now. Hannah's old room is now ready for my mom for whenever she comes to be with us.
Glen and I drove to Oregon this month to help move some things out of mom's house so it can be put on the market. We love Brookings and will miss our visits there--however, mom is now 3 hours closer to us as she is settling in Vegas at Deni's!
I was contacted by Eric Ross who found me from my posts on my family history blog (https://turningourhearts-beth.blogspot.com). He is my 4th cousin once removed and is a descendant of Joel Jervis and Elizabeth Smith through their daughter, Phebe Maria Jervis Van Buren. He has a bunch of Phebe's papers, which he scanned and generously shared with me. I've been transcribing the 140 or so pages and some of it is so fascinating! Among other things, she has some stories from her great-aunt who lived through the Revolutionary War. So, a lot of my free time in January was spent working on various aspects of family history.
And if that wasn't enough genealogical excitement:
Some years ago (5?6?) I was contacted by a professional genealogist who was doing research for a client (Kyle Riddlebaugh) writing a book about the Riddlebaughs. His book Riddlebaugh-Since 1666 was published this summer and since he had used things from my blog, he sent me a copy! However, due to transcribing Phebe's papers, I haven't done more than flip through the pages, but I'm excited to give it a closer look later.
Our book club meeting this month was spent discussing the book The Woman They Could Not Silence: the Shocking Story of a Woman Who Dared to Fight Back by Kate Moore. A fascinating true story about a woman, Elizabeth Ware Packard, living in the 1860s when men had complete and total control over their wives and their wives' property and could easily get them locked up in an insane asylum, as Elizabeth's husband did. (often thinking of family history, I thought to look her up on familysearch and she is Glen's 5th cousin 5 times removed...everyone at book club was either related to her or her husband)
Reno Taiko Tsurunokai, a Japanese drumming group, came to our library yesterday for a performance. I just happened to see the facebook notice that morning and Glen, Eric, and I were able to go. They taught a little bit of culture along with their musical numbers. We quite enjoyed it.
One of the cultural tidbits involved the Japanese lion, Shishi, who came out to dance. Being bitten by Shishi is supposed to bring you good luck (apparently during parades, parents will hold up their children saying things like "bite my child"). Glen was one of the few who was chosen by Shishi to get bitten! Unfortunately my camera was at home and I don't have a photo (these photos are from Glen's camera). We came home and played Eric's new game, The Isle of Cats, which Glen won, so that might be all the proof you need. (The Isle of Cats is a great game, by the way, and we highly recommend it)
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| Tsurunokai means the gathering of cranes, so cranes are on their outfits |
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| Not the best picture of the Shishi, but it was the only closeup we have |
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| two villagers go to wake up the shishi so they can get bitten for good luck |
