Scrapbooking My Heritage

I really should be cleaning. That being said--I have been doing some more scrapbooking today. I got another kit or two that I have been working on. Some I will share later as they aren't quite ready for prime time but will be in the next week or so. I have been eying one of the kits for a few weeks now. It is a Mercantile kit designed by Polka Dot Pixels and it is absolutely perfect for this picture of my grandfather and great grandfather from 100 years ago. So I decided to redo the original one.

Henry Dodsworth opened a grocery store in the 1880's in Elroy, Wisconsin. I have seen internet posts from Juneau County that state "H.C. Dodsworth-Grocer and Bakery". At some point his brother-in-law, John Britt, must have become a partner in the business because I have also seen an advertisement from 1906 that calls the business--Dodsworth and Britt-Leading Grocers. My grandpa, Lee, followed his father's footsteps and also went into the grocery business running A and P stores in Kenosha and Tomah, Wisconsin.

This photo was given to me about 10 years ago by my father. It stirred all sorts of feelings in me and made me want to look into my family history more. It was a huge undertaking--trying to learn more about my family and then creating both paper and later digital scrapbooks from the pictures I was able to find and the stories that I learned. But I am so proud of what I have accomplished in finding out and only wish that I could learn more real stories about the family instead of dates of birth, death and marriage which is all I could find out about for many of my ancestors. I am so happy to have this wonderful picture that started me on that journey.

Scrapbooking Weekend

I have spent a lot of time scrapbooking today. I had the house to myself for most of the day. While Bill, Chris and Beverly went to the Met in HD today, I was enjoying using a new scrapbooking kit that I acquired. Polka Dot Pixels came out with an Easter kit this last week. And being that I am a sucker for anything related to bunnies, I spent some time scrapbooking. I found a picture of of Sherrill and me in our Easter outfits and Sherrill sitting on a bunny, Mallory from her first Easter and of course, a picture of our Ranger. Fun spending time doing something I love so much today. Here is what I worked on.

Found Ourselves in Hot Water

Bill and I have enjoyed going to Bonneville Hot Springs for almost ten years now. At first, we went about once a year but it has been several years since we have gone. It ends up being a bit of a spendy weekend once you figure in a night of lodging, eating dinner and using the spa facilities. So it truly is a treat to ourselves when we go. A group of people from our flying club decided to go this weekend so we thought we would take advantage of spending time with them and going there for a spa weekend. We drove out to North Bonneville on Highway 14--a two lane highway along the Columbia River. It is a prettier drive through the gorge than going on I-84 on the Oregon side (although I love both for different reasons). We had two o'clock massage appointments. Then had dinner with 22 of our friends from CAA. It was Anita Davis' birthday so we celebrated with birthday cake as well. Then this morning, I wanted to spend a little time in the hot tub. I like the one outside in the courtyard. We had a great relaxing weekend.

A Birthday Celebration

Chuck arrived Thursday night to help Beverly celebrate her birthday. We always enjoy when he comes to visit. Yesterday was Bev's 79th birthday and we spent most of the day together. She has been stressing over the fact that she was turning 79 but we had to remind her of the alternative and that it is just a number. We went out for bagels in the morning. Beverly and Chuck had never been to the Clark County Historical Museum so we took them there and enjoyed the exhibits on the I-5 bridge and women's equality. After that, we traveled a few blocks to go to a winery that we hadn't visited yet. Gouger Cellars has a small corner of a building that is also used for people to store their wine at the perfect temperature. We enjoyed the wine tasting and conversation with the owners. Then we got Thai takeout for dinner, enjoyed a chocolate torte cake and watched Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Man Who Knew Too Much." Tom leaves today to go back to school. Chuck leaves in the morning. So we will be back to relatively normal routines again. Although I officially start my new job tomorrow so that will be a bit of a change for me--hopefully a good one--and Beverly is having a cardiac catheterization procedure on Wednesday so I will need to take care of her afterward and spend the night with her. Please pray that everything goes well and that she doesn't need any further surgery. We are hoping she doesn't need open heart surgery. We were so grateful she didn't need to have it a few years ago and hope she doesn't need it now as well.

Best Buddies

Tom and Chris are enjoying spending time together over Tom's spring break. They have been playing Magic and went to buy Chris some more cards at the Bat Cave today. It is fun to hear them laugh with each other and having such a good time.

Packer Fanatics

This is sort of old news but I bought Tom a Packer Super Bowl champion t-shirt for Valentine's Day and Darren sent me one and a Packer wine glass. Tom is home for spring break this week so this was the first opportunity to get our picture taken together in them. Enjoying having Tom home for the week. I miss him when he's gone.

Congratulations Tom!

Tom got some good news this week. He has spent the past several months getting things in place to compete for what is called a "rated position" in the Air Force. The board for these positions chooses who will get to be in them during junior year of ROTC. Rated positions are those that are aviation related--pilots, combat systems officers (a newly created position to combine navigator, weapons specialists and electronic warfare officers into one job), air battle managers and remote aircraft pilots. It is fairly competitive and there is a scoring system that is used based on ratings from your ROTC commanding officer, GPA, PT test, field training performance, Officer Qualification Test, a pilot aptitude test and you have to meet the medical requirements to be a pilot. If you don't get a rated position, then you have to figure out what other branch of the Air Force you would like to work in like public affairs, intelligence, etc.

Tom found out on Tuesday that he has been selected to be a combat systems officer. He is so excited. His first choice was pilot but he is so excited and looking forward to being a combat systems officer and fly in the back seat. He had already thought about becoming an intelligence officer if his rated position didn't come through but is happy that he got a flying position like he wanted. And he is on an alternate list for pilot should any positions open up that he could move up to. I am thrilled for him and so proud.

I've tried to look up what I could about it on the internet. Looks like he will have more than a year of training once he graduates from college which obligates him to six years in the Air Force. After six weeks of basic training in Alabama, he should be headed to Pensacola for a year of training. I think I will want to make at least one trip down to Florida to see him. I have never been to Pensacola so that sounds fun. There is supposed to be aircraft specific training after that but I suppose it depends on what kind of aircraft you get selected for as to where that training occurs.

Congratulations Tom! One more box checked toward getting your Air Force career started.