Where has the time gone?

Alot has happened in the last year and a half.. My darling grandson Jaiden passed away at the age of 13 months (September 07), my father passed away (April 09) and my daughter was diagnosed with thyroid cancer (June 09). She had surgery two days ago to remove the thyroid, and they found the cancer had spread to her trachea, so they removed part of that, also. My daughter is all of 33. She is too young to have to think about cancer. Hell, for that matter, I'm too young to think about one of my children having cancer.

On a positive note, the memorial we attended for my father wasn't until June 09, but it was in St. Louis MO and was given my his siblings. I haven't seen them for over 30 years. It was a mixed bag of emotions. They had a great itinerary set up for our visit (all four of my siblings were there with me). My aunt, who happens to be quite renowned in the world of genealogy, created a lovely book about the history of our family through my father's generation. We studied it and had a "Jeopardy" style game to see what we learned. My team won :)

They also took us on a fabulous trip to Marion IL to see where our father grew up. We did a nice walking tour of their neighborhood while my uncle narrated about the different places they played and the people they knew. We also went to a museum, which was opened especially for us on a Sunday, and got to see the actual tables and chairs from Snedden's Soda shop, where our father had his first job. The curator even let us go into the roped area and sit at one of the tables to have our picture taken! I felt like such a celebrity :)

The museum was the former home of the jailhouse. It was built in 1901, and was used as a jail until 1975. The front of the building is where the sheriff and his family lived, while the back was the actual jail. The cells were quite small, yet housed four prisoners each. The walls were covered in graffiti from the very prisoners who were incarcerated there. Most of them were only in their late teens, early twenties.  To say the least, it was strange but exciting to "feel" the presence of those from the past.

I am now excited to announce I will be a grandmother once again...#9!  We know it's another boy (my poor Emily is so outnumbered).  I can't wait to see him....late January, early February.  I've chosen January 31 as his birthdate because my daughter-in-law had both of her other children on the last day of their birth months.  Sounds like a trend to me :)