Old Soul, Young Heart

My second cousin, Barb, stopped by from out of town today and dropped off a copy for me of what she has of our family tree. This would be my dad's mother's side (my grandma, Susan Grey Scheffert). I was lucky enough to hear some stories from my grandma about her family members and other ancestors. One story that always stuck with me was about a woman who befriended and took care of a sick Native American, who then came and saved the woman and her family from an ambush on the town by other Native Americans. This story was retold in the family tree documents! There were other things like letters from family members during the 1920s who were trying to learn more about their ancestors and lists of people, who they married, where they lived (most in central Illinois, even two hundred years ago!), how many children they had, and when they died. It was so fascinating. I had to laugh at one letter in 1929 that ended by saying that everyone in the family has served and loved thi...

As I get older, I'm becoming more interested in history, specifically the history of Bloomington/Normal and central Illinois, since the history of my family is so rich here. The other night in class (Community Colleges), Dr. Palmer showed this link and I've since looked at it again. It's a copy of the catalogue from the Bloomington Female College during the years of 1862-1863. Jesse Fell (as in Fell Hall and Fell Avenue) and David Davis (as in David Davis Mansion) were on the advisory board and there were only about 150 students, most of which were actually from Bloomington. It's just so interesting to read about what sorts of courses, programs, and rules they had. I think someday when I have time for hobbies again I'll do some work and find out things about our house because I know it's been around for a long time. I also want to learn a lot more about the Schefferts (dad's dad's family), Greys (dad's mom's family), and Hamblins (mom's mo...

I am disappointed in myself that I let myself procrastinate this much. I mean, all of the assessments aren't that much work, but I should've started doing them sooner. I'll get them done--I'm almost half done now--but it's just so overwhelming at first to see what you have in front of you. I took the day off today so that I could work on them. I'm glad I did because I'm sure all day at work I would've been thinking about how I should be doing homework. Really I have all day tomorrow and Sunday to work on them too because Philip is working. But it's nice to have the whole day to just write today. Last night I got to reading my Grandma Scheffert's journal from 1969 and she talked about the moon landing. How weird is that?! I feel like I'm stepping back in time reading her journals and I love it. I think during my two weeks off between classes I'll try to read them all (and re-read the rest of Twilight, and re-read New Moon, and read Eclip...