Andrea's Weblog

How Do You ‘Name’ Yourself?

Aunt Sis — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:35:51 +0000

Today I woke up thinking “Don’t forget to post SOMETHING on that blog!!”. It’s my Monday (happy Saturday to the rest of the world), and in about 30 minutes, it’s time to hit the shower and head for work. I’m not even gonna say ‘ugh’ or anything, because that just sets the tone for a long week. So, ‘YIPPEE! I have a job, thus a paycheck so I can eat and pay the phone bill and keep the house warm!’ Ok, that’s about all the party I can muster, so moving on.

My thought for today was to put a few more recent photos up of what has been going on in my life the past couple of years. Looking back, maybe I’m justified in losing track of my blog for a while because they have been doozies! I got a wedding photo of the kids up (only a year and a half late, sorry), and am prowling for the right photo of the Divine Miss Em. While I decide on the photo, I want to talk a little about how, as a grandparent, you decide what a grandbaby should call you. It’s pretty interesting actually!

When I was married and doing research on the different branches of Caleb’s family tree, I was completely fascinated by what each generation called the grandparents. On mom’s side, there was Grandma Ollie and Grandpa Bud, and the only other grandparent I remember anyone talking about was ‘Grandma Great’, which was Grandpa Bud’s mom, I think. I am pretty sure most of the grandparents up the line on that side were just Grandma and Grandpa. Now on my DAD’s side, there is a good story of how his mom came to be called ‘Other Mama’. Apparently her children all called her ‘Mama’, so when one of the early grandkids fell down and skinned himself up, he cried ‘I want mama!’. The other kids ran in and got his mother, but when she arrived to kiss the boo boo, he said, ‘Not YOU!! I want that OTHER Mama!!’ Thus was my paternal named, and all her kids and grandkids called her Other Mama from that day forward. I’ve never heard her called anything else… Other Mama and Papa. I don’t know what earlier generations of the Horton line were called. My parents were Papa Andy, who had already been named LONG before Caleb arrived, and Neeny. We were shooting for Granny Kate, but ‘granny’ came out ‘ninny’ when Caleb started talking, and mom said, ‘Well, THAT’s not something I dreamed of is one day being a NINNY!’. So, we encouraged a long E sound and she became ‘Neeny’. So there you have it, Papa and Neeny.

Now over on the Fichte side of the tree, it is quite interesting. Every generation had a unique name for the grandparents. Caleb didn’t ever really know his grandparents on that side, as Frank, who was called Grandaddy by the other grands, passed away when all the kids were quite small. There was Papaw and Mamaw (Bennie & Ouida Fichte, great grands), Mom and Poppie (the Avary great grandparents), Daddy Eddie and Mammy Spradlin, Mama Hilton and Papa Hilton, and others.

When I got a text from Caleb announcing positive results on a pregnancy test, the content was ‘How would you like to be a gma?’ Yes, I got a text. Welcome to the cell phone generation. Anyway, I am thrilled to be a grandparent, no matter how I found out the happy news. But my first thought was, ‘Hmmm, I want to have a unique ‘grandma’ name…’ and what better that picking up on what I’d already been called in the announcement?! So, I am G-Ma. That is ‘GEE ma’ if you look it up in the dictionary. Just sayin’…

So, now that Emma is approaching her first birthday, getting teeth, scooting, rocking, crawdad crawling, real crawling, pulling up (and crashing down, an unfortunate part of the process), and now starting to let go and stand on her own, we shall see what she actually calls me when she opens that cute little mouth and gives me my official title. Now I know what my mom meant when she said, ‘ Granny, Ninny, Neeny … I don’t care WHAT he calls me, just as long as he CALLS me!’ Amen, Neeny!

Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Fichte

Aunt Sis — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:46:58 +0000

May 15, 2010 was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple to get married!

Thank you, Judy!!

Aunt Sis — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:56:26 +0000

Today, being my “Sunday” (meaning I am at the end of my two days off and go back to work tomorrow), I pulled out a random box of mom’s stuff to take another stab at de-clutter-ifying. Took two recipes to the kitchen to be ‘tried out’, put bits of information into Family Tree from scrap notes, sorted two piles of printouts from her computer (ancestor trees) to be gone over to make sure I have all the information in MY tree before I toss the piles. It’s a little hard to do this because seeing her handwriting brings a picture of Mom to my mind, doing what she loved the most – family research. I don’t want any of this to be lost, but it is a lot of repetition, the same information printed out time after time, with notes jotted everywhere. One of those notes may be something new and different that fills in a missing bit on my tree, so I go over every page, using a purple marker to dot everything I’ve entered. Sometimes I smile at a little story she’d heard and written down, or go back in my mind to places we have lived when I come across where she’s noted addresses or little notes about the neighbors here and there. It’s a fun but exhausting journey.

Also, today my cousin Judy popped into my head. Actually, that is how I found my way back to this blog. Twenty years ago this month (Jan 14, 1992), we were living in Chicago (actually Zion, IL) when mom called to tell me that Judy and Paul had been killed in plane crash. I really don’t know why I thought of them today, but I googled their names and re-read information on the crash and some articles that were put out ten years after the crash. When I googled them, this blog popped up, because the last post before today mentioned them in some old video stuff I was looking at and talking about. Strange how things come about. So, 20 years after she died, my beautiful, loud, funny cousin Judy brought me back to my abandoned blog. Thanks, cuz!

Why do I Lose Track?

Aunt Sis — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:22:39 +0000

Ok, so I am trying to figure out why I keep losing track of this blog page?! There’s much much too much to “catch up” so, I’ll just start from scratch again and see how it goes. I am working as a supervisor in the kitchen at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Yes, it is a very different atmosphere. The inmates that work for me are great. The civilians that are my ‘co-workers’ are stinky turds and make me dread going to work most days. Just had my gall bladder removed (yippee – NOT) and still having a few recovery issues with one incision, but nobody is interested in that so that is all you’ll read on THAT subject for now. Got me a beautiful grandbaby that is about the smartest thing going. She’s a peach and you will see photos a-plenty. Ok, that’s all for now, but I am putting a sticky note on my computer that is intended to remind me to POST RANDOMNESS here often! Just for you, Becca!

July 4th … Look out Arkansas, I think!

Aunt Sis — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:23:38 +0000

Ok, it’s time for me to get serious about exactly WHAT I’m gonna do for the weekend of the 4th. For the last umbajillion years, that has kinda been the standing weekend for the Hesson/Trimmer reunion (mom’s side of the house). This year, that fell through at the last minute. That leaves me with three options still open: Stay in Muskogee and go enjoy Danneil’s pool… hmm..tempting. No gas money, my own bed at night, and a pool. Oklahoma City to Redbud, which would be awesome, seeing all the OKC friends. Or third, the NW Arkansas get together, which I’ve never gotten to attend yet, although I see pictures and hear stories that sound very appealing, plus, that is where my family is all going… so I believe camping out in NW Arkansas fields with friends and family is probably gonna be the winner.

And the next decision on the agenda has to do with getting all my business stuff up and running. When to head out for parts NW, (we aren’t talkin’ Arkansas this time) … like SERIOUSLY northwest US … Oregon to be exact. I am pulling legs and twisting arms on everyone I know between here and there to set up a line of parties going up, and hopefully schedule another line and party my way back home, too.

Stay tuned while I argue with myself about when to schedule THAT trip!