My Top 10 of the Year

I saw some of my fellow geneabloggers doing this and thought it was pretty neat.  I then asked myself, "What were my top ten posts of the past year?"  Well since my blog is only a little over a year old (I'm still a small-time blogger here!), so I'll just list my "Top 10 of All Time" and here they are...

#10 - "Family Recipe Friday - Bunny Buns" -  Two food posts made it into the Top 10 here and this is an Easter favorite in our family.  My mom used to make them for us and I now make them for my family.  A nice bread with a hint of orange.

#9 - "Sentimental Sunday - A Senior Class Picture with No Yearbook to Call Home" - Hmmm...beware before reading this.  I let a 10 foot tall 500 lb skeleton fall out of my very own closet with this family tidbit.  You have been warned...and no laughing at my hair!

#8 - "Wordless Wednesday - My Aunt is So Going to Kill Me" - My aunt probably won't be cheering (or twirling flaming batons) that this post did so well.  It surprised me too, but what else can you expect with such a beauty!?!

#7 - "Treasure Chest Thursday - Another Reason I'm Lucky" - Oh a genealogical gold mine bestowed on me by my mother-in-law!  And I rescued it from it's slow demise stuck in a "magnetic" photo album.

#6 - "Remembering Veterans & Veterans Within My Family" - So good the first year, I reposted it the second year.  As a vet, I'm incredibly proud of all the veterans out there and those in my family that served.  I was delighted to be able to add on to that over the past year too!  Although I still need a picture of my aunt in uniform (ahem...hint, hint, Aunt Cathy!)

#5 - "Motivation Monday - Cherie's Got Her Groove Back" - How despite being pulled in all different directions by volunteerism, volunteering one hour to a friend gave me the motivation to refocus on my family and genealogical goals!

#4 - "Sunday Supper - Guinness Stew over Colcannon" - My desire to find and create Irish food that was actually good ended here with a new family favorite.  A creation of my own for Saint Patrick's Day and, well, I impressed myself with my own mad-skills.

#3 - "The Peshtigo Fire - A Miracle From the Ashes" - The Peshtigo Fire occurred the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, but is only a footnote in history, but it's not a footnote in my family history.  After a week of posts about the fire (and the Chicago Fire paled in comparison), I ended on this positive note.

#2 - "Military Monday - Vietnam Virtual Wall Searching for Pictures" - I posted about my cousin, Michael Paul Brown, and ended up getting contacted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.  An incredibly awesome project.  They are trying to get a picture to go with every name on the Vietnam Wall.  There's so much more to this post than I can briefly tell here.  I'm glad that this post ranked so high.  I hope it means that more pictures are being sent in!

And the #1 post of All Time.....

"Tech Tuesday - FilmScan35 I Negative/Slide Converter" - I was a bit stunned that this was my top post.  It hadn't been until recently.  I can only imagine that this post's popularity increased over the Holidays as all good genealogists got their very own negative converters from Santa.  I guess Santa reads very untechnologically sound reviews!

Well, that was a fun trip down memory lane.  I'll be excited to see what posts will be at the top next year!

Thanks for reading and have fun tending those roots!

My Two Cents - Complain, complain, complain

And complain some more.  I've been stunned by posts and comments I've seen regarding "Who Do You Think You Are?" and even, more recently, for "Finding Your Roots".   Everyone certainly has the right to voice their opinions and to complain a bit.  We all do it at some point in our lives, but I guess I'm a bit disappointed in the actual complaints.  They don't make sense to me at all (am I complaining...sure...I suppose I am).  The complaining has been going on for quite some time.  It hasn't been all at once, but it was a recent complaint that made me say to myself that it's time for my two cents, so here goes (and I'll be brief).

The first, and most frequent, complaint that I noticed was that only celebrities are on the shows.  Well, to be blunt, I don't think NBC's ratings would be quite so good if they advertised, "Next time on WDYTYA?, the family tree of Cheryl Cayemberg..."  I just don't think it would have the audience pull.  Now, that's not to say our genealogies aren't interesting.  Of course, they are, but honestly if we want to continue to see this show broadcast, NBC needs to worry about ratings.  I do think that it would be quite a good idea if NBC held a WDYTYA? contest and the winner got to be one of the people they did a show on.  Would it work for every show?  Most likely not.  We're drawn to celebrities, but I do think that it could showcase that everyone's genealogy is interesting.

Another comment that drew my attention was that it should showcase the skills and techniques used to get the research done.  Even to show how much research costs.  Well, what a way to scare the living daylights out of a newcomer!  I know we'd all like to sharpen our skills, but this is why we join genealogy societies, go to webinars, take classes, etc.  Sure I'd like to see just a little more explanation as to a couple of techniques used, but honestly it can't go too in depth or you'll lose your audience.

I'm not saying that these shows can't improve.  Everything can do with a little sprucing up as time goes by, but right now I think they're on the right track.  I can't speak for "Finding Your Roots" since it hasn't aired yet, but I think WDYTYA? has been doing a pretty great job.  I'd like to see more episodes in a season, but I'll take what I can get, and you know what...these shows aren't just for those of us that are already into genealogy.  They're for the newbies too.  They're there to draw more people in to genealogy.  To increase interest.

My husband hears me ramble about genealogy and family history all the time.  He reads my blog and shows mild interest in my discoveries in most cases, but he wasn't overly excited to know that there would be a TV show on genealogy distracting me too!  Being the wonderful husband he is though, he dutifully sat there and watched it with me and he ended up getting pretty sucked into WDYTYA? too!  If my hubby enjoys it, they're doing something right!  Just be happy that we have these shows out there bringing such great publicity to what we all love to do!

Those Places Thursday - What Did I Get Myself Into?

Don't even THINK of smiling for this picture!  Yes, we were actually told that!

I always wanted to be a Drill Sergeant.  OK, not always, but for the majority of my military career I did.  I joined the Army and wanted to become an officer (NCOs everywhere are making vomit-faces while reading that).  My aunt and uncle were both officers in the Army and my other uncle had been an officer in the Navy.  It just made sense.  That's what I'd do.  Funny how things don't always work out according to plan.  My basic training drill sergeants were awesome.  I went to the Defense Language Institute (DLI) the first time around (see blog post) and there were no drill sergeants. Just regular NCOs.  While some were outstanding, my platoon sergeant was a first class piece of trash.  She played favorites, her uniform looked like crap, and she couldn't physically keep up with the trainees (I enjoyed that a bit much).  Then I went on to complete my training after DLI and it was back with drill sergeants.  It doesn't have to make sense...the whole span of a year with no drill sergeants...it's just the way the Army worked back then, but what did matter was getting back with those drill sergeants, and, again, those drill sergeants were nothing short of awesome.

I dreaded leaving training and going to my first duty station.  Would the NCOs there be garbage like my DLI platoon sergeant?  Nope.  There were, naturally, bad NCOs there.  There are good and bad NCOs everywhere, but my NCOs were awesome.  They took care of me.  They trained me.  They made sure I was prepared.  My experiences to that point made me realize that NCOs really did make the difference in Soldiers' lives.  I had experienced great NCOs and I had experienced bad NCOs and I knew what affect both kinds had on Soldiers.  I realized that not only did I want to be an NCO, but I wanted to be a drill sergeant.  I was a bit concerned that my family would be disappointed, but as life would have it around the time I made my decision, my Aunt Cathy who lived in Hawaii was visiting San Antonio where I was stationed.  She stopped by for a visit and I asked her if she would be disappointed in me if I decided to be an NCO instead of an officer.  Of course the answer was that they would all be proud of me no matter what decision I made, but it was comforting to hear it all the same.

I didn't expect to see a camera when throwing this dummy-grenade!

So time passed and I was asked if I would be a drill sergeant at Goodfellow Air Force Base.  I ended up turning it down.  I had a baby by now and my husband and I were both in the military.  Goodfellow ran in shifts and there would be no guarantee that my husband and I would be on the same shift.  We could essentially go through my 2 or 3 years "on the trail" and almost never see each other.  I didn't want it that bad!  A year or two later I got a call from my branch manager.  He used to be my platoon sergeant in Hawaii (another completely awesome NCO) and he knew I wanted to be a drill sergeant.  He told me that military intelligence was in desperate need of female drill sergeants and that I could go back to DLI to be a drill sergeant.  Back to DLI?  Be a drill sergeant at DLI?  Holy cow, yes!  My husband was redeploying.  He had been deployed for a few months after September 11th and was on his way back.  I had to clear it with him first, but I was completely excited about the idea.   I picked my husband up from the airport in January 2002 and as he was driving us home I told him about the offer.  I believe "Hell, yes!" or something along those lines was his response.

Would you like to know how small a world it really is?  I had the mail sitting on my lap in the car and after my husband's response I opened a letter that I saw was from an old friend of both of ours.  It was from Jen and Andy Woods (yes, Jen Woods from Climbing My Family Tree, Jen Woods!).  Jen had written her yearly Christmas letter and in it she gave the news that Andy was going to Drill Sergeant School and then would be heading out to DLI.  Holy cow!  I immediately contacted Jen to let her know we'd be seeing her there!

So how does the title of my post fit into this?  Well, I would eventually have to head to Drill Sergeant School myself, and in October 2002 I left for Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.  I have to admit that I was scared.  Not scared of how I was going to be treated.  My fear was always a fear of failure.  That fear always drove me to succeed.  You wouldn't have known it on that first day of Drill Sergeant School though.  In fact, my Drill Sergeant Leaders (DSLs) probably wondered who the heck decided to send me there!  You see I spent the entire night before school started polishing my boots and pressing my uniform.  I wanted to look sharp on that first day of school.  I wanted the DSLs to be impressed.  They weren't...and the first day was a disaster.

Drill Sergeant School has all these "modules" that you had to memorize.  What's a module?  Well, drill sergeants have to be able to instruct Drill and Ceremony, and the Army wants it done the same everywhere, so each drill and ceremony action had a module that a drill sergeant candidate had to memorize.  A module was "pitched" (recited word for word) and those words instructed the Soldiers on how to complete the action.  You can see an example of a relatively easy module at the end of the blog post, but my point here is that I went to school knowing that we would have to memorize these modules.  I figured that if other people had done it, then I could too. What I didn't know, what no one had bothered to tell me before going off to Drill Sergeant School, was that I was expected to know the first 3 when I arrived...or at least be remotely familiar with them.  Yeah...I didn't even know the first LINE of ANY module when I fell into formation that day.  Not good.

A sea of scary people.  Can you see me?

I was in the front row of the formation.  I was about the fourth or fifth candidate in so it didn't take long before they got to me.  I thought I was being smart.  I heard the others start to recite the module for the "Position of Attention" and I thought if I could get the first few lines down before they got to me then they'd cut me off and move on to the next person.  I would amaze them with my knowledge and how sharp my uniform looked.  Nope.  When they got to me I barely got off the first line and then ran out of what I knew.  DOH! I got a "Minus 2, sergeant...minus 2!"  We had demerit cards at drill sergeant school.  If you did something wrong it was a minus 2, 3, 4, etc and you had to put it on your demerit card.  On the weekend they needed extra manual labor and they would pick the people that had the most demerits to perform this duty.  If you did something right you could earn pluses, but they didn't happen often.

Anyway, I got a minus 2 within the first 10 seconds that a DSL was standing in front of me.  Then it got worse.  The DSL looked at my boots, "Those boots aren't shined on the sides, sergeant."...and I opened my mouth, "They're jungle boots, drill sergeant.  They aren't supposed to be."..."Minus 2, sergeant...minus 2." As I've mentioned once or twice before, one of my biggest problems in life had been my inability to just shut up.  My mouth failed me again...and again.  For such a smart girl I wasn't prepared for what the goal of that first day was and the pain continued..."Your hair is touching your ears, sergeant."...me, "I'm a female, drill sergeant, it's allowed to touch my ears."..."Minus 2, sergeant...minus 2."  Basically, by the time this DSL got done with me I had over 10 demerits and school just started!  I was known to the other DSLs as well.  Later that week we were marching to class and one of the other DSLs started talking to me. He looked at the name on my uniform and said, "Oh, it's YOU! Don't you have a ton of demerits?!?"  "Yes, drill sergeant," I said embarrassed.  Needless to say, I pulled duty that weekend.

What I failed to realize going into Drill Sergeant School (and boy do I wish someone had told me this), was that they were there to find flaws in us that first day, just like we would be finding flaws when inspecting our Soldiers later on (although not intentionally with our Soldiers).  The point wasn't to be perfect.  They would find flaws with you or they would make them up, just so your would get demerits.  A way of knocking everyone down a notch.  My brain just wasn't working that way and I couldn't understand why this drill sergeant was wrong!  How could he not know that you physically couldn't polish the side of a jungle boot...it was made of fabric!?!?  How could he not know the hair standards for female Soldiers?!?!?  Well, he did, but I just wasn't getting knocked down a notch so he kept going.  I can look back at it and laugh now, but I was horrified at the time.

Things got better.  Drill Sergeant School was a "gentleman's course" now.  No more "smoking" the candidates with push ups or sit ups.  As I said, they used demerits.  Drills that went to the school previously might think that this was a "softening" of the course or standards, but not so.  The demerits did their job and the philosophy as it was explained to us by our DSLs was that we were all NCOs and deserved to be treated like NCOs.  Made sense to me.

There I am.  I'm happier than I look!

We did lots of interesting things at school.  We had to stand across a parking lot from our "buddy" and give commands.  Our buddy had to execute the drill and ceremony command we gave or it was a hit on us.  The point was to make sure we projected our voice well enough to be heard.  Good reason...but the entire class of drill sergeants was in that parking lot yelling to their buddies, so you had to also yell over everyone else. Luckily, I had no problems in that department!  I was always too loud for my own good although one of my DSLs did tell me when I was marching our squad one afternoon that I wasn't loud enough.  I got a good giggle out of that one.  I think anyone that ever knew me would disagree with him too.

So these modules that I mentioned.  They had to be memorized word for word.  Not a single "a", "an" or "the" missing.  Some modules were a page long and some were much longer.  The longest was FOUR pages!  We would be assigned them in groups.  Here's your next group of modules.  You need to know them by this time.  When we would get "free" time during school you would see candidates with their noses to walls or light posts mumbling to themselves.  I had heard of this but didn't understand why.  As it turns out what it was is candidates finding a quiet corner to recite the modules to themselves without disturbing the others.   Silly, but it worked.

Anyway, you only had to say one from each group/assignment, but you never knew which one you'd have to do.  They'd roll the dice and tell you which one you got and then you'd recite it.  I never missed a single word and after the hell I received that first day, I was delighted!

By the time Drill Sergeant School ended, I was no longer the demerit queen.  I graduated with an "exceeds course standards" (no more than 20% could get this, and there were other stipulations as well), I was the Commandant's Inspection Awardee (finally recognized for having a kick-butt uniform), and I earned my Army Physical Fitness Award patch, by getting over a 90% on each event on my record APFT.  In fact the DSL grading my sit-ups was rather excited at my score.  He yelled to the DSL next to us after I finished, "Hey she just did 98 sit-ups! (in 2 minutes)"  I was hurting during that APFT too.  I had gotten sick and was actually drinking cough syrup to stop my body-shaking coughs during the night.  My suite-mate threatened to have me sent to sick call because my cough sounded so scary.  If you went to sick call you essentially went home.  You couldn't miss more than a couple hours of class, and sick call always exceeded this time.  After I finished my 2 mile run on that APFT I collapsed and proceeded to cough my brains out, but I was done!

Drill Sergeant School was quite the experience, but it was a good one too.  I learned a lot and I felt somewhat prepared to take on the responsibilities that came with being a Drill Sergeant.  When I graduated I was thrilled.  Not just because I had "done it", but because despite starting out rough, and wondering "What did I get myself into?",  I did a pretty good job!

The Drill Sergeant Badge

The Position of Attention (module)

STEP I

1. First and Second Squad FALL OUT, U-Formation, FALL IN. RELAX. LET ME HAVE YOUR ATTENTION. The next position, which I will name, explain, have demonstrated, and which you will conduct practical work on, is the position of attention.

2. The position of attention is the key position for all stationary, facing, and marching movements.

3. The commands for this position are FALL IN and ATTENTION. FALL IN is a combined command. ATTENTION is a two-part command when preceded by a preparatory command, such as Squad, Platoon, or Demonstrator. I will use Demonstrator as the preparatory command and ATTENTION is the command of execution.

5. When given, these commands are as follows: FALL IN. Demonstrator, ATTENTION.

STEP II

6. Demonstrator, POST. I will use the talk-through method of instruction.

7. On the command FALL IN or on the command of execution ATTENTION of Demonstrator, ATTENTION.

8. Bring the heels together sharply on line, with the toes pointing out equally, forming an angle of 45-degrees. Rest the weight of the body evenly on the heels and balls of both feet. Keep the legs straight without locking the knees. Hold the body erect with the hips level, chest lifted and arched, and the shoulders square.

9. Keep the head erect and face straight to the front with the chin drawn in so that the alignment of the head and neck is vertical.

10. Let the arms hang straight without stiffness. Curl the fingers so that the tips of the thumbs are alongside and touching the first joint of the forefingers. Keep the thumbs straight along the seams of the trouser leg with the first joint of the fingers touching the trousers.

11. Remain silent and do not move unless otherwise directed. RELAX.

12. At normal cadence, this position would look as follows: FALL IN. RELAX. Demonstrator, ATTENTION. RELAX.

13. What are your questions pertaining to this position when executed at normal cadence or using the talk-through method of instruction?

14. Demonstrator, ATTENTION. You will now become my assistant instructor. FALL OUT.

STEP III

15. LET ME HAVE YOUR ATTENTION.

16. I will use the talk-through method of instruction.

Amanuensis Monday - Oh, No They Didn't!

I was in Madison at the Wisconsin Historical Society last week and while searching for obituaries for my husband's side of the family I came across this article on the front page of the Dodge County Citizen (17SEP1896).  All I can say is if Mrs Newman died suddenly, I hope there was an investigation!  Even if she died after a long illness, it was in extremely poor taste.  Not my family, but I had to share!

"Married at his Wife's Funeral

Mr. Newman of Buffalo Valley, W. Va. Makes a Double Play

Huntingon, W. Va., Sept. 14 - The funeral exercises of Mrs. Marion Newman were conducted Sunday at Buffalo Valley Baptist church.  Immediately after the ceremony Mr. Newman and Miss Melinda Daniels, a cousin of Newman's dead wife, stepped forward, handed a license to the minister and requested to be married.  The minister performed the marriage ceremony, too."

Everybody's Doin' It...

Everyone's making their New Year's resolutions, so I figured I'd put down some genealogical resolutions.  Maybe making them public will help me keep them!

First and foremost, I'd like to finish citing my family tree.  A couple years ago, I was asked by a cousin I met through Ancestry message boards about information on my tree.  I went to my tree to give him the citation and it wasn't there.  I sat there scratching my head asking myself, "Now how the heck did I come to that conclusion?"  I was eventually able to find my source and forward the information to him, but I was frustrated it took so long and I hate disorganization.  I started poking around my tree and realized that I hadn't cited so much from my early years doing genealogy and the result was UHG-A-LEE!  So I decided to start over.  Scary and not something any of us want to do, but it had to be done.  I printed out a list of everyone in my tree and I've been going through it when I have free time and making sure each person in there has a citation and that my conclusions are valid.  If there's no source information in there for someone, they're out of the tree.

Which brings me to my next resolution...to find more time for genealogy.  Cub Scouts and PTA (mostly PTA) have taken an absolutely obscene amount of my time.  I've blogged about this before and it's just so frustrating to not be getting any farther in my aspirations of becoming a professional because of volunteer obligations.  They won't go away completely.  I love Cub Scouts and feel that it is ultimately beneficial to my boys.  We've got a great Pack too which makes the energy spent on Scouting completely worth it.  The PTA, well, I'm a huge supporter of the PTA, but most everyone (including some teachers, sadly) aren't.  This is the last year that I can be the President.  Elections will be in April and then I'll volunteer or perhaps run for a smaller position.  I could never walk away from something that benefits my children and their school (boy if everyone only felt that way, things would be so much easier!).  I still shouldn't have as much to do as I do now, so hopefully that will give me the time I desire.

Resolution #3...take some step toward credentialing.  Whether it's taking a course (looking at Boston University and my GI Bill if it hasn't expired), or jumping right in and beginning the certification process (I don't think I'm ready yet).  I will do SOMETHING to educate myself and get closer to my goal!

Fourth?  I want to create a website for my family's genealogy.  I've seen so many great family sites and I've become motivated to do just that.  Not sure how I want it to look yet.  I normally wait for an epiphany with stuff like that, so this one might be a tough one!

Fifth, I want to use my new family tree software!  I picked up Legacy's Family Tree software at the NGS conference, but didn't want to transfer my .gedcom over until I finished going through my data.  I hope to be enjoying that purchase soon!

Last, I want to keep up with my blogging.  I'm usually pretty good at getting at least 3 or more posts out each week, but I'll admit to slacking off now and then.  Never too long, but I don't feel my best when I don't give my blog the love it deserves.  Blogging makes me think.  Even when posting a tombstone, my instinct it to try to find out all the information I can about it and put that up with the post.  I start thinking and working on just that one person (or couple) and many times I come to some new conclusions or make completely new discoveries.  My blog isn't just for the sake of posting (and I'm sure all of you feel the same), it's here so I can make connections with others researching the same lines, it's there to help me work through problems, and it's here so I can connect with fellow geneabloggers who have been extremely helpful with their comments and suggestions!

Well, I guess that's it for this year.  Start slow.  Six resolutions.  Not too bad.  I'm not resolving to break through any brick walls that.  I'll save that for next year when I've completed resolution #1.  I don't know what my high-priority brick walls are until then!

I'll take a look back at these when the world doesn't end in December 2012 and see what I've accomplished.  Thank you all for reading and have fun tending those roots in the new year!

Wordless Wednesday - An Easy Repair

After

Before

My grandfather Edward Brown Sr. as a child.  I love how they used to pose people with furniture!  I'm playing a little hooky from my blog right now since I'm at home with family, but I can't keep away from the blog for long, so a quick post and then back to having fun.  Many people have old photos with missing corners.  Just grab the cloning tool on your photo editing software (I use Serif PhotoPlus x2), copy a section that is similar and drag to clone.  Easy!

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and tonight we'll be spending Christmas together with all of my in-laws.  On Christmas Day everyone stays at their own houses (or their respective in-law's) to open presents and relax.  This night is for all of my Green Bay family to be together.  My brother-in-law, Mike, will be in charge of making the tenderloin, perhaps with some assistance from my brother-in-law, Joe, who will be bringing his delicious Stromboli to the feast.  My mother-in-law, Dolores, will be bringing her carrots with dill, and my sister-in-law, Lori Ann, will most likely bring her beer dip.  Everyone else will bring drinks or dishes that are needed to make the meal a success.  My sister-in-law, Cindy, will be working tirelessly all day to make ready for everyone's arrival tonight, since she is hosting the event this year.  I'll be bringing my camera in hopes that I can get all of the kids (18 months to adult in age) to sit still for a group photo (better charge my batteries)!

The kids will get to open the presents that their aunts and uncles got them (everyone pays an agreed upon amount into the "pot" a certain amount for each nephew/niece and the presents are bought as a group.  It makes it easier than having to worry about buying a present for each niece/nephew...and more cost effective!).  Then the presents are exchanged from Secret Santas (the kids and adults drew names on Thanksgiving and had to shop for one person).  Finally, the White Elephant pass around will occur.  A $10 present is passed around as a story is read.  Every time you hear the word "left" or "right" in the story that's the direction the present goes until the story is over.  The guys have their own pass around.  The girls have theirs, and the kids have a candy pass around.

There will be some drinking of soda, coffee, and beer (this IS Wisconsin) .  When dinner is served we'll remember those who are no longer with us to celebrate, but who are no doubt watching over us, especially my father-in-law, Patrick, who was the original maker of the beef tenderloin (recipe posted here).

Eventually, we'll all head back to our respective homes and my husband will read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to our boys before they set out Santa's cookies and milk, and put the stockings by the fireplace.  Then it's off to bed and time for mommy and daddy to get to work doing what we do.  Early mass on Christmas morning and then it's time to open the presents and stockings.  My trusty camera will be at my side throughout...maybe there'll even be a picture or two of me taken this year.  After all, it is the season of miracles!

So from the entire Cayemberg family, may you have a Merry Christmas!