Summer lovin' had me a blast...Summer lovin' happens so fast

I can't believe how fast the summer is progressing. But, first let me say, RIP my dear brother, Chuckie. He passed away 26 years ago today. I can still remember so much about that day and it's too painful to share with anyone so as I tend to do with the things that hurt the deepest, I hold it in. Thank goodness my children know about him and are able to understand when I say today is the anniversary and frown, they walk away and leave me to my pain. God has truly blessed me with great children.

So much has happened this summer. Cameron made the honor roll for the first time EVA!!! He is so proud but couldn't be as proud as his parents. For his efforts, Family Video has given him 7 free game/movie rentals and we gave him a Droid phone of his choosing. Why no, we don't spoil our children, why would you ask?!

Kelly and Jake's schedule works out that I only have Lucas 1-2 afternoon/evenings a week. Except last week when Jake went to Alaska and I had him every day. He's rolling over and smiling alot. 18 pounds now. My little chunky monkey!

Last year Glenn reconnected with his aunt's on his biological father's side. (We will not mention that man by name). After a few lunches, dinners, and picnics we planned a weekend camping trip. With a little bit of trepidation and a lot of joy, we ventured out in our "new to us" camper this weekend to traverse the hills of Route 28 to Brookville, PA.

Now, anyone who truly knows me knows that I am NOT, I repeat NOT an outdoor girl. I do just fine sitting on my sofa with a laptop, cable tv and cell phone at the ready. Campfires, sleeping bags and bugs...not so much. But, when asked why I was going if I hated camping, I could only reply "the things we do for love." Glenn's aunts have accepted me with nothing but kindness and acceptance. As long as I didn't have to sleep mere inches from the ground in a tent, I was okie dokey.

We ventured out hours late on Friday due to typical Hazletts leave 3 hours late, a need to replace a thermostat and Glenn's inability to drive anything that does not look perfect. Yes, he painted and restriped the camper, not completing it until about noon on Friday. Passed the campground twice but finally arrived.

7 kids and 7 adults later we were having a ball. Cameron said he had the best time ever with his 2nd cousins, Julie, Landon, Mason, Natalie, Christopher and Marley. He even professed to enjoy playing with the little girl from the neighbor camp, the one that karate kicked his arms leaving welts. She's an orange belt and I was a bit disgusted but held myself in check. For those in the know, another big surprise there!

We all had the chance to fish, make s'mores, tell stories around the campfire and peruse the Hazlett family history book provided by Aunt Joann. She brought it so I could gleam information for ancestry.com. But, when children are a bit bored, they'll do anything and the book was their anything. They discovered two major finds that blew their mind (1) Aunt Patty was married and (2) someone had 32 gold teeth. Amazing what children find as interesting.

Saturday night my heart hit my chest as I scrambled, not so elegantly or efficiently, out of my chair. The neighbors brought their fireworks to our site and let them off. One of them took off in a spiral and flew toward us at the campfire, almost hitting a few children on the way. By that point, I couldn't take it anymore and headed back to the camper to finish my book and watch a movie.

Sunday dawned with the pleasant surprise of my husband cooking me breakfast. Think if I moved into the camper he'd do it everyday? Yeah, me neither. Finally headed home and stopped for ice cream, I just tried a dreamsicle shake of "aunt" Jane and it was delicious. Mason liked it so much, we thought he'd finish it himself.

Upcoming is 4th of July and we've yet to finalize plans, maybe 1 day downtown at the Regatta, one day at Scott Township and still up in the air for the other. The Pirates are in town on the 4th for an afternoon game. Maybe I can convince the family to go and stay for fireworks.

Happy 4th of July, my friends. Please remember why we celebrate. Many of our elected leaders want us to throw away or forget what our ancestors did for us and what they envisioned when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. I will never forget. I will be sure to say the Pledge of Allegiance and my version includes "one nation under GOD." I hope yours does too. Thank you to every man and woman who makes or made the sacrifice of their time, family and/or life to keep us free from kings and tyrants. God Bless America!

Family tree

I have spent the past four months working on my family tree. It started out (this time, I had worked on it in 2004 also) with two occurrences.
1. My basement flooded and I had to dry out all my pics and family info passed down from my grandmother, Margaret Clark Pierce.
2. Right about the same time, my second cousins were on facebook discussing our great great grandfather, Reese Jones and his lineage.

Well, smarty me chimed in and claimed I had the missing key, my grandmother's notes. That sent me on a whirlwind, virtual world tour of our family dating back to 1676 on my mother's side and 1848 on my father's side.

I've been to Ireland, Wales, Prussia, and Germany. Yet, Reese Jones still sits lonely.

I found the other day, that it pays to open yourself up. I was talking to my sister, Tammy, and telling her about the dilemma. She thought, much like I originally did, that she'd jump on the computer and find him in a matter of minutes. 4 hours later, our visit was concluding with no additional info on him, but some funny, interesting facts about our other relatives.

She has taken on the task of a future visit to Mahanoy City, PA to find Reese's birth certificate. I was able to find what book his marriage license to my great great grandmother, Susanna M. Snyder was in. Hoping that the marriage license may even provide info to send us on a new virtual trek. I'm glad she has volunteered. I live over 5 hours away and she is a mere 1 1/2 hours.

If any of my relatives know any information regarding our line, please contact me. I will be happy to pass on my ancestry.com u/n & p/w so you can see what I have and compare and/or add to the tree. When you contact me, please let me know how we are related. I don't want to just give this info to anyone.

You can view my photo in my albums to read Gram's notes about the lineage. He was supposedly raised by an aunt, Gussie Swanson nee Friend. I don't know her formal name, so I've been unable to find any census records on him. The first census he appears in is 1900. I have not found him in an 1880 census. He was born in 1793 to a Sarah Jones. She later married (no husband name) and had two more children Franklin and Miriam. This differs a bit from other family notes, but I have the Gussie Swanson info that no one else seems to mention.

There was a Sarah Jones age 15 in the 1870 census, she was the domestic servant to a William and Mary Jones from Wales. There were three or four boarders in the home. She was originally from Ashland, PA. William and the boarders were all miners.

Hopefully, this family mystery will someday soon be solved and the multitudes of Clark/Jones descendants will rejoice. What makes this so interesting is that he, and ultimately, our great grandmother, Anna Jones Clark was the heir to an estate in Wales. But, my grandfather refused to allow her to go to Wales to claim it. Which sucks because he died in 1946 leaving her destitute with children still at home.

Hope to hear from some of you soon.