Kiddos & Ancestors

I got an email this morning from my Craigslist ad. I responded and now I’m waiting to hear back again. This job is for 3 days a week for a 5 year old and a 2 year old. I really hope this one pans out!

The job with the girl from BM is only for July & August (she is a teacher, and I guess will be home with them until summer school starts in July, she just isn’t sure what the summer school hours will be yet). It’s only for 3-4 hours a day, and not every day. She was unsure about how many days a week, too. That is for a 6 year old and a 3 year old.

From what it sounds like, I’ll have my niece/nephew at least one day a week – but that won’t be until September, so I’m not even including that in the summer jobs, obviously. There was also a possibility of another little girl – but I haven’t heard anything about it. It was a through-the-grapevine kind of thing. My mom’s co-worker’s mechanic’s wife passed away, leaving behind a 1 year old girl (soooo sad!) and his sitter is unreliable, so my mom passed my info along. We’re not even sure if my location is near him, and I haven’t heard from him, so that probably won’t pan out. And it’s probably for the best – I don’t want my plate to get too full.

If I get the other two jobs nailed down, I’ll be set. Even though neither of them are full-time, there’s the chance of them overlapping here and there for a couple hours so I want to make sure I don’t have anyone else to worry about in those instances. I know the summer is really my best shot at finding kids & lining up jobs, but I really hope that I can continue to find some even after summer (in addition to my niece/nephew since that will only be 1 day and I can’t see charging my sister-in-law too much). I mean I’m not expecting to get rich by doing this (not even close!), but I know that if I have some form of income it will take some stress off of Matt and maybe I’ll even be able to decorate a little! Since I know that’s what I’m going to be dying to do from the get-go.

Also, while I could use the money asap, I’m really kind of happy that most of the jobs sound like they don’t need me until the END of June, start of July (instead of June 1st, which is when I said I was available to start) because it gives me time to pre-plan activities and menus to make everything a little easier when the time comes. 
 

I wrote this the other day and never came back to it. Oops!

One cool thing? I spoke to the craigslist girl some more, and she is moving back here after being in NC for 5 years to bring her kids closer to family. Sound familiar? lol

And, another BM-er contacted me about sitting this Winter & NEXT Spring, so maybe I’ll have some future work, too!

Anyway…

I don’t know what my deal is, but I’ve been kind of obsessive about ancestry and connections lately. I partly blame this on that who are you show, or whatever it’s called. But honestly, I was already starting it before I saw that episode. I was seriously scouring facebook for my old babysitter. I thought it was funny that we are closer in age than I was with many of my Metrolina co-workers I was friends with, yet she cared for me for quite a while and I always thought she was soooo much older than me! I’m just, dying to see how she is and what her kids look like now. She was pregnant with her first when I was like 12 or 13, and I ended up going to the baby shower for her second (I really don’t remember how I got invited – but I know I was in high school by then and her brother was dating someone from my class I was not a big fan of). I haven’t seen her since then. I couldn’t find her by her maiden name, or what I knew was her married name (assuming they are still married). I tried searching for her brother, who I’ve seen on facebook before through other friends, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember which friends those were…or find his page anywhere. I thought that’d be the best chance to find someone connected to her. No luck. 

She babysat me when I was like 8 & 9 I think. I don’t remember now how long she watched us for. I remember her coming to sit with us a few times before my sister was old enough to be alone, but she’d just come over and we’d chat the whole time and then she’d leave. I can’t remember at all how we got back in touch for her shower. Anyway….

I watched that show tonight, and it revolved around Sarah Jessica Parker’s ancestors. It was extremely fascinating. I didn’t think I’d really care much about it, but I was HOOKED. I had to know what they found out. And before it was even over I was on ancestry.com searching for my own family. And….I kept digging through the 1930 census (ps, why the hell isn’t the 1940 available until 2012? Seems a little SLOW!) and everything else I could find. I gathered so much information already – I can’t wait to talk to my Grandma & Grandpa about what else they know. I also emailed my Aunt Vix to ask her to tell me whatever she can remember from my Dad’s Mom’s side (she doesn’t know his Dad, though I have heard his last name mentioned in the past). 

I’ve always been a little obsessed with the idea of ancestry, considering half of mine was blank. I never thought it’d be possible to know exactly where I came from, which is why I made up those stupid stories about Cher being my Grandma. And I may not have a clear path to my Paternal Grandfather & all that came before him, but at least I have 3/4 of the puzzle. It’s 1/4 more than I used to have!

For whatever reason, I feel desperate to put as much down on paper for Luke as I possibly can. You’ve seen me do it – writing him his monthly letters, taking his monthly pictures, scrapbooking every single sneeze. I want to have a full, complete & accurate family tree for him (and his future siblings). It’s probably something only I really "need", but I would have LOVED to have it as a kid. 

Just….the idea of creating, carrying & nurturing a brand new life is astonishing to me. It’s a theme I’ve been in awe of since the start of Luke (back when he was just "Goopy"!).  And it just blows my mind that there’s lines of people who did that, that eventually lead to my existence, and I don’t know them. I don’t even need to KNOW them – but to not even know who they are? It’s just….weird, to me. 

Well. It’s way, WAY too late, because I can’t stop digging up my ancestors (not literally, gross), but I have to put this to bed for the night. My little descendant gets up wayyy too soon 🙂