Meeting Your Past

We had a really great day today. On my mom's side of the family we have never really met anyone. My grandparents died when we were all pretty young. I have memories of my grandmother, but was too young to have any of my grandfather. My mom had a sister and she died when I was about 1 1/2. I have been working on geneology for many years now. In the early 80's I started writing to a cousin of my mothers. The funny thing is my letter had to go from Illinois to Germany and back to Indiana! I found my grandfather's sister inlaw at the same address in Germany that my grandmother used to write to her at. She called her son and told him I was looking for our family members and that was my first contact with Rudi, my mom's cousin. I wrote his mom for a few years before she passed away and have continued correspondence and Christmas cards with Rudi and his wife Christa. All this time we have never met. They ended up retireing to Arkansa while their children still live in Indiana. While coming to visit their daughter and son they called and asked to visit us on the way out there. I was so happy I was finally going to met them. Older son took off school and younger son skipped most of the day at fine arts because I just wanted them to meet our extended family also.

We had a wonderful visit and got to know each other a little better. It was fun to here about Germany and some family members. Turns out he has pictures of his parents and grandparents and offered to send me a copy. I was so thrilled! That will be my great grandparents and my great great grandparents. I never thought I would be fortunite enough to ever see a picture of them. I showed them an album I had of my aunts. One of the pictures was of my grandparents with an other couple. I never knew who they were. Turns out they were Rudi's parents visiting from Germany in 1961! The brothers hadn't seen each other since they were in their 20's. At the time the picture was taken they were both grandfathers. What a great picture to have. Christa was able to translate a picture of my aunt at about 2 years old that was sent to my grandfather while he was living here and his wife (my grandmother) and daughter (my aunt) were still in Germany. I wondered for years what it said.

The best part of our get together was finding out what lovely people I am related to. I hope we will meet again and my sister and brother will get to make it to the next visit. It is a day my boys will remember.

Of course I am off now to post a picture from today.

Rudi & Christa

My Sons With Rudi & Christa

My Boys, My Mom, & Rudi and Christa

Page Eighty John Braden's Diary

sunday the 11
Wife Burth day 34 years old John is getting well cora is better ray has the scarlet fever

November 25
worked all day at the foundry in the evening sold my cow

tuesday 27
dad gatton was here for dinner Ray is better i am running the Engin this week fine wether a little snow on the ground i got $38 For my cow & hay

thursday the 29 thanksgiving
we had cranbery sass tirkey and apple pie mince pie coconut cake For dinner Pa gatton was here ma is sick the children are Well of the scarlet Fever We Fumigated the House to day i slept 2 hr this after noon wint over to the foundry got up steam

Page Seventy Nine John Braden's Diary

November the first

November the 6 1900
election day

Wednesday the 7
mc kinley carries New york 146---- New Braska by 6000 ohio 80,000 Bryan carries Kentucky by 11,000 montana 10,000 washington mc kinley 3,745 Bryan 2,594 colorado Bryan by 35,000 Arkansas 55,000 Bryan mc kinleys Plurity in chicago 6,685 In illinois the entire Republican state ticket was swept to victory Yates Plurality is 52,875 Mc Kinley 90,000 as a result of an election bet i let my beard gro for one year vote the Republicin ticket 4 years lost 8 gallon cogg of Beer

Page Seventy Eight John Braden's Diary

tuesday the 16th
we burried little Fay today funarl was preached at 11 o clock by preacher _________ i got my money today _____ _______ today is $20 00 paid ______ ma get back tonight

wensday 21
John got sick had the Dr monday he said he had the tonselitts come back today said he had the scarlet fever put quarntine on the house

wensday
the dr was here said john was getting along all right

thursday
the dr was here said john was getting along nicely

fryday
the dr was here

saturday
Dr was here

sunday
the dr was here ____ ______ after dinner had a drs ______ said he would be gone until ________ i worked all day on the foundry pooting up mills

wensday the 31
we had tomove john out in the sitting room as the plaster fell off in the bedroom got my money today paid the store bill $10 00 it rained to day

Page Seventy Seven John Braden's Diary

tuesday
i went up town at noon Ed Braden paid me a dollar on acount i got $10 00 out of the bank

september the 25
paid jo Barns $6 90 foundry ed B $1 00 george gatton went to work in the foundry

monday the first of october

Wensday the 3
i moved today on senica st. moved all the 8 was payday got $10 90

Wensday the 10
i went up town paid the store bill $4 68

monday the 15
pay day

fay gatton Braden was Born october 19, 1899 dide october 15 1900

A Note About the John Braden Diary

I should post every so often what this diary is and dates to let some one just coming to the blog know what these pages are and who wrote them.

John Braden is my great great grandfather. He was born December 19, 1864 in Illinois. He started this diary when he moved to Webster City, Iowa in 1898. The diary spans over a year with a few entries after.

I though since I am putting John Braden's diary on here, it might be a good idea to put some information about his family here too. I wish I had Lucina thoughts on paper too. I am thankful for the diary I have, but it just peeks my curiosity about Lucina life. Here below is the information John wrote in the back of his diary.

John Braden was born in the year of 1864 December the 19th
Lucina Gatton was born in the year of 1867 November the 11th
Lora May Braden was born in the year 1891 of May the 4th
Harry Vanburen Braden was born in the year of 1892 September the 25th
John Young Braden was born in the year of 1895 June the 26th
Cora A. Braden was born in the year of 1898 June the 29th
Ray B. and Fay G. Braden were born in the year of 1899 October the 19th
Dorothy J. Braden was born in the year of 1902 July the 17th


Lora May Braden died May 26, 1893
Fay Gatton Braden died October the 15, 1900

Sadly it looks like when he wrote this diary they had already lost one child. They lose Fay just under a year after she was born.

Has It Been 10 Days Again??

Time is sure flying by! We leave on vacation in 19 more days. We are trying to fit in all the drivers ed stuff before we leave. As soon as we started thinking about what we will be packing, we all needed some new things. Older son has more dress clothes since he has to dress up for work and younger son has more casual clothes with a suit thrown in. Me, I am mostly sweats and casual tops. We will be gone 8 nights and 9 days and we need dinner clothes and day clothes so it has been a challenge to get us all ready. Then we have to figure out if we are allowed one or two bags to check. It seems the airline isn't quite sure either. We bought our tickets back in February so I think we are ok. If purchased after April 5 you can only check one for free. Normally one a piece would be plenty, but we will have a garment bag also.

Since I have last blogged, the kids went to Michigan to see my brother and his family for his birthday. They drove with my parents and sister's family. Since we are farther away now that they moved to Michigan the kids and I take turns on staying home with the dog. It would be too long to leave him. They had a great time and it was younger sons first time seeing their new house.

My sister, mom, and niece came out for my sister's birthday and we went to lunch. It was great because even my niece took the day off and after lunch we shopped for the trip coming up. We haven't been out together shopping in ages!

Last Sunday was our church's first contemporary service. It went really well. I am doing some set up, greeting, and clean up. Younger son is singing and doing scripture readings. Older son has waited for this service to start for years. He is playing the bongo until the church gets a new drum set. We had about 350 people at the service last week. The kids are already there today rehearsing. I am leaving in about an hour to help set up coffee and snacks for after the service.

Younger son had a three and a half hour dress rehearsal for his up coming play in May on Friday. I went and took pictures. The lighting was off in my pictures. I ended up using a flash. I was trying to avoid that. The day of the play I won't be able to use flash so I wanted to get some done at the rehearsal. The kids did a great job. When everyone is in costume and the scripts are better memorized it is going to be really good.

Younger son is driving better this week. We were off to a shaky start, but with lots of practice it will get better and better. His instructor says he is doing very well and needs to relax and if you can believe it, speed up a little :)

Tuesday BOSSY from i am bossy is suppose to be in the Chicago area. I am hoping to meet up with her. With drivers ed it will be tricky. I am waiting to hear for sure when she arrives to ask an other parent to drive the kids to drivers ed. So I am crossing my fingers it all works out. Bossy is making her way across the country in I think it is 5 weeks to meet with some of the people that follow her blog! She has a car dealer that is sponsoring her and she is blogging about her adventures. Matter of fact I better e-mail the Chicago area people and ask if we have confirmation on the date. It is only 2 days away!!

I am going to go put up some photos of the past few days. Have a great day!!

Younger Son and His Driving Instructor

Younger Son Rehearsing, "As You Like It"

My Sister on Her Birthday With My Niece

It's Official!

We now have a new driver in the house. He passed two tests so I now have to let younger son practice his driving skills:) Somehow he just looks to young behind the wheel. Maybe it's me and my youngest growing up a little too soon. I saw it coming, but it still takes me by surprise seeing him behind the wheel. He is very rule conscience and safe. He drove for a few minutes and had enough. The second day we did a half hour and he asked to come home. With my older one he got in the car and took off and never wanted to stop. I always wanted more then two children, but after teaching 2 to drive, I think I would be too old to teach a third one without my heart stopping. Both of my boys are safe drivers and older son drove over a year and many, many hours before he ever was allowed to drive on his own. It is true I just started not to panic at any siren I hear when he is out and now I have to start over with the next one. I always prayed a lot daily especially after having the boys, but now it is like a running prayer throughout the day as they grow and do more and more on their own. Older son started driving to the local college by 16 and 1/2 and that is only a year and a half away if younger son does the same.

I am trying to grow along with them and let go a little, but it is hard. So much out there for them to do and too few years left at home :) I will breath and go along, but I am hopeful the next few years will go by s l o w l y and give me a chance to catch up to all the change :) Lord help me!

Younger Son amd His Driving Buddy

First Time Driving

Younger Son Took This One

We Now Have a Place to Sit Again!

Happy April to all! We had our living room set delivered last week. It looked much bigger at home then in the store. We had to take out the treadmill, both end tables, and we already moved the organ to the kids room. We ended up using the end tables in a completely different way :) Since we had to move them we had no where for the phone, answering machine and other things, so we ended up stacking the end tables (after emptying them with 15 years worth of stuff) and sliding them behind the wedge piece so we can still use it to hold everything.

Last week we took the train downtown to Navy Pier to see Romeo & Juliet. It was a wonderful version. We had great seats. We were first balcony, first row. We went with friends so it made it even better. Younger son wants to go to see more Shakespeare now.

Yesterday was younger son's first day of drivers ed! I have pictures :) I am driving him and a friend for the next 4 weeks. Monday they take a test and if they pass they can then go get their permits. In the 4 weeks of classroom they also sign up for behind the wheel so at the end they will be done with everything. In Illinois now they have to drive 50 hours with an adult over 21 and wait 9 months to get their license from the date of their permit. We are planning on waiting at least a year. The kids in Illinois can drive up to 2 years with a permit without getting insurance.

It has been a busy week already with drivers ed each day, but we can do anything for 4 weeks. Ask iambossy! She is on a road trip visiting all her blog friends for 5 weeks, hitting 25 cities and 250 bloggers! I am hoping to meet her when she is in Chicago. Now with drivers ed it will depend on the time of day and where we meet. I have been following her road trip daily.

Only 37 more days left until vacation!! We are all getting excited! The count down has begun :) Older son in in charge of video taping and I will be taking a lot of pictures of course. We finally figured out a way to put all our old minidv's and old vhs on DVD! We have been working on that a lot. We have an older trip we took with my sisters family in 2001 finally on something permanent along with older son's Eagle Court of Honor and our trip last year to Disney. We never saw the court of honor tape until now! So 5 years latter we were able to watch it. My sister already told us she will bring all hers over after we get the last 20 years of ours done so we can start on hers :)

We are very happy one of older son's friends has agreed to come and take care of the dog while we are gone. I was so worried about leaving him at a doggie hotel for 10 days. I am very relieved we found someone responsible to look after him. We think he was an abused dog and he isn't really friendly unless you see him regally. He doesn't like men or kids, so it narrowed down the field :) We love him though!

I am going to go post some pictures now. Have a great day!! :)

First Day of Driving School

The New Sofa

The Chair