Don’t know who she is? Here.
You see, I have a history with the haircut. And I’m good at squealing “ernaments.”
That, combined with the fact that my husband does an awesome impersonation of Justin Timberlake as the stock boy (not featured in the clip I linked) — “I hope a third thing doesn’t happen to them!” We’d make quite the duo.
I’ve been busy.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been logging some graves, doing some research, falling into happy accidents.
I’ve learned my mother’s ancestors didn’t make it to Texas from North Carolina in what I’d consider the “normal” fashion. Instead of a wagon, (according to the journals of one of the people on the trip) they took a flat bottom boat around the tip of Florida, up through the Gulf of Mexico, up the river, all the way to Texas.
As of last night, I think I have found the man we’ve been searching for this whole time. He went by the nickname of “Shader” and no one seemed to call him by his real first name. That makes trying to find a person pretty tricky. But I believe I’ve got him and more importantly — his wife. She is our link. Her name was Susan and now I have to find her.
On the other side, my Nannie’s folks, I know practically nothing. Stories my Granny has told me and things that Nannie shared with me when she was still living. I lived next door to her my whole life until she was moved to the nursing home and I feel so lucky that I was afforded the chance to spend that kind of time with her. Not many people get that with their great-grandmother.
This weekend I was back home and Granny drove me out to what had been the Garvin family farm (in Garvin County, but as far as we know we are not related to any of the Garvins that the county is named after). I had been there before, but it’s been years. Back when Uncle Erbie was alive and living on the farm. A distant relative still lives on the land so we didn’t drive all the way back to the house.
It was a perfect October day. The sky so blue and bright, Granny sharing stories from her mother’s childhood, just barely a breeze (a wonder for out here)…perfect.
There is a long way to go, but I feel like I’m finally on the right track.
I’m posting over at GodlyGals today about what is really in a life and what we make of the days we’re given. Check it out.
The evening we arrived at Pop-Pop’s, we went over to Crabbie’s for dinner and were surprised to find all of Kevin’s mom’s family waiting for us. It was nice to be greeted by all of them since we hadn’t seen them since our wedding. Dinner there was great. I had some fresh broiled scallops that were pretty big compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen, though they were still dwarfed by the ones I had in Prince Edward Island (those were as big as my fist).
The next morning, I woke Kevin before dawn and we went outside.
Because given the chance, I was determined to see an ocean sunrise.
Kevin…eh. Not so much.
After seeing our sunrise, we headed back into the house and to bed. It was only 5-something in the morning.
That day we drove out to Nag’s Head and up and down the island. We stopped at the Currituck Lighthouse, which has a different look to it than the lighthouses I was used to seeing in photos. It’s also completely different looking from all the ones we saw in Maine and PEI.
This was my first trip to the Outer Banks and my first time to dip my feet in the ocean (on our honeymoon it was too cold). People are always astonished by that fact, but there’s something about salt water and sand that I don’t like. However…
I would do this again in a heartbeat. And I would take more photos next time. This time I was too busy looking for shells and standing in the water. Sometimes the camera gets in the way of life.
Total pages read: 728
Total time spent reading: 382 min
Titles finished: Love That Dog, What My Mother Doesn’t Know, Belle & the Beast (prequel graphic novel I’ve had since 2nd grade 
), Behind You
Total finished titles: 4
Mini-challenges completed: The intro meme, Six Word Celebration, Show Me the Books, Indie Pride
Prize I’ve won: —
This is my Read-A-Thon post. I’ll be updating it throughout the day to keep everything tidy.
8:16AM – I stayed up too late last night (I started early on this thing) reading about my Saxon horde ancestors. And they totally bummed me out. Need some lighter fare this morning! And coffee. Where is my coffee! Oh yeah. I am the only one awake.
9:45AM – Best Read-A-Thon ever, so far? It just may be. Got a couple of light reads done, may hop into something scary since there’s daylight and I know I won’t be able to read anything the least bit creepy with my husband out of the house later today. Now, this girl needs some Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper.
12:32PM – Worst thing about epics: you can’t get attached to characters. THEY DIE.
2:17PM – Second worst thing about epics: UNPLANNED NAPS.
2:34PM – Husband just called from Barnes & Noble. He bought me Linger! It is my prize for finishing this thing strong, so I should probably get to reading Shiver again soon.
4:53PM – Back into Shiver now and making some progress on Sarum. Behind You was good; not sure how it would hold up if I hadn’t read the previous work featuring these characters. It’s lyrical and really isolates some tough issues in a way that might work even if you were unfamiliar with what happened to these characters before this book. I can’t honestly say though, having read If You Come Softly some years ago.
Saving my cheerleading for later in the evening, when it gets tough for a lot of people!
7:00PM – Read-A-Thon is officially over for me. Didn’t get in as many hours as I planned, but it’s been 24 since I started. I guess after a week of being sick I really did need that extra sleep. Ah well.
I finished more books this time than ever. Read more pages. Did more mini-challenges. Hosted my first one as well. I declare this Read-A-Thon a success.
And I will finish Sarum! Huzzah!
Oklahoma girl through-and-through. Writer, aspiring domestic goddess and totalitarian dictator. Taking on the world one carb-induced coma at a time. Founder of GodlyGals, a ministry for women established in 2002. Co-host of Picture Shows & Petticoats. More...
