Who Do We Think We Are?

Parrish and I have been watching the new show "Who do you think you are" where different celebrities track their ancestry to find out where they came from. It inspired me to start an account on ancestry.com, and I found some rather fascinating stuff about our little ol' clan. I ran into dead ends on the Polings, Jamesons, and Youngs, but the Merricks...oh, the Merricks. Here are a few highlights...

• Either William Hays (Great Grandpa x 7) or Hardy Hays (Great-Grandpa x6) fought in the Revolutionary War and thus received a land grant of 200 acres in Georgia.
• Jean Jacque Reneau (Great Grandpa x 6) was born in 1739, immigrated from France, married a girl from North Carolina (Mary Ann) and lived to be 100.
• Richard Glover (Great Grandpa x 10) was born in England in 1611, fathered William Glover with Mary Booker in Virgina, but then somehow made it to Indonesia in time for his death in 1684.
• Arthur Jordan (Great-Grandpa x11) was born in 1595, died in 1635, and immigrated from England to Virginia somewhere in between. (The first Thanksgiving was in 1621)

I'd love to find more info out about the Polings, Jamesons, and Youngs...does anyone know the names and birthplaces of John Milton Poling's parents, Grandma Poling's parents, or Granny Merrick's parents?

Finally

Well, I finally used my "find" from the crap swap that we had last summer at Walt's house. I inherited some frames from Linda that I planned to use in Charlie's nursery but it just took me forever to decide how I wanted to use them. If you haven't already seen them on our blog, check it out here. The frames are on the second to last picture... the three frame set on the far left and far right. We put some of Carson's "fishing" pictures in them to fit the nursery's theme!

Sorry we're not the best about posting on here, it's hard enough to keep up with our personal blog. If you want to see what's going on with us, come on over to our blog here.

Thanks Linda, they look cute! Stop by soon and come see them yourself!!

Thanksgiving in the Robert Poling house....

was rather unorthodox this year. You see, Genny was diagnosed with swine flu the day before Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving Day consisted of taking care of our very sick Genny as she barfed and watched the Macy's parade and several episodes of Dora the Explorer.

The highlight was when she consented to eat some plain pasta and drink some sprite and watch funny cat videos on YouTube. (this was while Robert was eating a lovely Thanksgiving meal with Audrey at his mom's house.... )

Here's Genny's favorite cat video right now. It's fun.


Audrey didn't get sick until Saturday. She's better now.

There was snow. Since our assignment was to include something funny that someone said, I've put this picture in here. Genny got up Monday morning to snow and yelled at me (accusingly) "MOMMY, WHAT HAPPENED?"

We're ready for Christmas!

Thanksgiving Post

We had a blast this year! Cute quote of the year was Carly, as we were leaving Mimi and Jeff's and she said, "Jeff is your step-dad?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Well, you sure got a nice step-dad." And he is! He fixed Carly's bike tires AND took her to see a movie.
I have a funny memory to share. You know that, "Where am I?" look that I have on my face so often? Well, it's because I don't know where I am. Or, very often, I am in a parking lot and I cannot find my car. So I can tell this story without feeling guilty.
One year, Granny Merrick was at our yearly Thanksgiving (or was it Christmas?) celebration at the ranch. And she was at the age where she was beginning to become a bit confused (hello, me on a daily basis.) And she asked Mom, "So, what do you teach?" Mom replied, "Fourth grade." She didn't hear mom, and asked her to clarify. And so it went over, and over again, until Mom was shouting, "FOURTH GRADE," while holding up four fingers in an attempt to communicate through sign language. Finally, we all saw the lightbulb go off, and Granny Merrick said, "Oh, you teach FIRST AID." We all nodded and grinned.

Our First Turkey

Since Parrish's Grandma is going through Chemo right now, we offered to host Thanksgiving at our house this year. Which ended up being a group of 20 people! It was lots of fun, lots of work, and I now have a huge appreciation for every host and hostess in my life! We bought a 20 pound turkey a few weeks ago...we named him Bob. Bob the Bird.

Fun Day in Benbrook

We had a fun time on Thanksgiving day. We ate early, decorated our own table cover, watched ball games, laughed at the funny kids, and enjoyed the 70 degree weather. Quote for the day was from Conrad, as he held his half eaten cookie, asked Molly, "Can I have a cookie?" He ate probably a dozen all together. I thought that was just fine, as I had about that many too. Thanks, family, for a wonderful day.

Thanksgiving at Linda's

We had so much to be thankful for this year. Good food prepared by Mimi was at the top of my list! Mom skipped the turkey this year and made a yummy roast. Carly, Conrad, and Shelby had lots of fun chasing each other around and exploring the neighborhood. Haley slept most of the day as long as she was being held.

Over the past few years, it has become a Thanksgiving tradition for the Morris, Pfaff, and Rowland families to take a group photo for Mimi's Christmas card. Every year, we take at least 10 photos, and every year, not one of them has everyone looking at the camera. This year was no different! Here's my favorite:

At least Bryon and I are looking at the camera! Oh well...we can always try again next year!