Belated Happy Birthday to my Krissy Lou

Well, I missed a shout-out to my darling baby girl on Friday, when she had her 27th birthday. I'm afraid she pretty much missed it herself, as she was absolutely drowning in finals for her Masters degree. What a way to spend your birthday. I did call for my usual "this is the time you were born" call, but her phone got wet and was not working, so she didn't even get that. Ah, the perils of having a Christmas-time birthday. At any rate, Happy Birthday, darling girl - your celebration is yet to come. Kristen, you are my best Christmas present EVER!!!!

Queen of Everything

I have long joked that my title is "Queen of Everything," but in doing some goofing around with genealogy stuff, it turns out that it's not far from the truth! The longest line I am able to trace goes back to the year 80 AD (can you believe that??) with a guy named Godwulf, who lived in Asgard, Asia or Eastern Europe, and includes many generations of Kings and Princes of Wessex, Kent and Mercia. A couple of lines go through William the Conqueror and his son, Henry I, King of England. I found numerous lines (some crossing at the same people - in particular, John Ferrers, Earl of Derby) with royalty of Finland, Bohemia, Sweden, Scotland, and my favorite, Queen Swietoslava, Queen of Sweden, Norway AND Denmark (born in 970 AD). That's very nearly the Queen of Everything, isn't it? Oh, and another King of England.

So you know I will now be insufferable with my claim to the title of Queen of Everything.

Banana Banana

Banana Banana. That's my new name. We were talking the other day about the kids possibly calling me something besides "Grandma" ... because they have so many of them! I said, "How about Nana?" and that was pretty much the end of it. Well, the next time they came over, you can see what Kaiya took away from the conversation ...



This apparently evolved from Nana to Nana Banana, and finally, to the grand prize winner. I guess this is pay-back for all the years I have called Stephanie "Anna Banana" (for no logical reason, in her opinion). If it were another child, I would accuse Steph of coaching, but I do believe that Kaiya came up with this all on her own.