Sunday, September 21, 2008

Cricut Expression Electronic Diecutter

I had my 40th birthday while traveling for my 2 conferences. Before I left, my husband gave me a birthday card indicating that we would go get me a Cricut diecutting machine which was on my wish list. Today was my first full day back from the trip and it was just one of those lazy, do nothing but relax Sundays (I really needed that). Anyway, my relaxation for the day was to do more research on the Cricut to determine which machine I wanted and make sure that a Cricut was the right machine for me. I started my first scrapbooking project (actually 2 at the exact same time) in August, but I've been collecting scrapbooking materials for the last couple of years, just never found the time to sit down and do anything. So about a month ago I sat down to do my first page. It took FOREVER!!!! I had no idea it could take so long. I did not have enough of the letter stickers I needed just for the first page. Nor did I have the right stickers in the right colors. After 6 hours I finally had 3 pages started, but none of them were completed because I did not have everything I needed. I went to WalMart, Hobby Lobby and Michael's and bought a few things, but of course the one thing I needed was the same letter style stickers I'd bought 2 years ago which none of them had in stock. So a month later I still have 3 partially completed pages.

Shortly before my birthday I recalled an infomercial I'd seen on tv a few months ago for the Cricut. I thought it was interesting but did not see a use for it at the time. But after struggling with those 3 pages, I WANT one!! I love the idea of printing out letters on my choice of paper stock, color, etc. and in the size I want. I will no longer be stuck with white or black letters in just one size. I can also print shapes and designs all I want!! After researching all day and evening, I've decided on the Cricut Expression. Part of the decision is based on the paper size it can print on. Now that I know which one I'm going to get, I want it NOW. I can't wait to try it out, but realistically it will be probably after October 22nd before I get to really use it since I have another big conference coming up the 21st and 22nd. Once I get it though I'll post back and let you know what I really think of it.

Have a wonderful week!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Good Evening from San Antonio

I'm in San Antonio having just finished managing registration for 2 back-to-back conferences, one in San Antonio and another in Austin. Both conferences went very well and now I'm taking a few days vacation to "rest and relax". The weather in San Antonio is beautiful. When we arrived on Saturday it was very hot, but a cold front moved in Sunday and has kept temperatures in the mid 80s and humidity at a reasonable level. I've met a few people here who are evacuees from hurricane Ike. The ones I've met are staying at hotels in the area. Most left after the hurricane so they know how their homes weathered the storm. Most said they left due to lack of power, water and functioning toilets. The most heart-warming story was of a family at the Marriott Rivercenter who had a home in an area where nearly all of the homes were destroyed. They left before the storm so they did not know what had happened to their home. But that evening their 13-month old daughter took her first steps there in the lobby of the hotel and was going everywhere. Dad was crying and telling everyone who would listen about his daughter's milestone. He was so proud of her and it just made you feel good to how proud he was of her.

Speaking of being proud, I have to say right now I'm very proud of my 16-year old daughter. After having fought with her for years about homework, she has made an incredible turn around so far this school year. She is a junior and enrolled in a new high school as we've never liked her other school. We told her she had to prove herself and show us that it is worthwhile to drive her across town to attend this new high school. So far she has done just that. For this first month of school, she has done her homework every night without us reminding her and currently is standing at 7 A's and 1 B. Compared to 3 F's at the end of last year this is a huge improvement. Way to go Taylor!!! Keep it up and we will have serious discussions about a new cell phone and letting you get your driver's license.

The power of the hurricane and the damage done reminded me of how easily we can lose records of not only our daily lives, but also those who came before us. Gone are photos, family letters, official documents, etc. Today there are many official documents to tell the stories of our lives, but in history there was not so much documentation. Take for instance my mother's brothers and sisters. My mom had 6 brothers and sisters born about 25 years before her. Most of their births nor their deaths (all before they were 5 years old) were ever recorded. I've only been able to discover the names of 3 of the 6 children (Albert, May and Hubert). What is more strange is that 4 of the 6 were supposed to have been 2 sets of twins but other than a picture of my grandmother holding one set we have been unable to find official or unofficial documents of 2 sets of twins alive or dead. We've only been able to locate 1 birth certificate (for Albert) which does not indicate that he was a twin. Apparently my mom's surviving brothers (my grandmother had 7 more children after the first 6 died), do not know the names of those first 6 brothers and sisters. None had any idea of the names and there is disagreement among them about how many were twins and how many boys & girls there were. I recall my grandmother telling me a little about those first children, but I was only 12 at the time and don't remember everything she told me. I thought she told me that there were 3 sets of twins (1 set of boys, 1 of girls and a set of boy and girl). My mom is sure there were only 2 sets and then 2 individual births but the sexes are accurate so 3 boys and 3 girls. We just can't find the proof yet. We know where 3 of them were buried according to their death certificates, however apparently they did not have carved headstones and we've been unable to locate their actual graves in the cemetery.

So this brings me back to how easy it is to lose even official documents. As most genealogists know, courthouse and halls of records have been destroyed in fires, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and other natural and unnatural disasters. I know I would be heart-broken if I were to lose the family history research I've done. Much of my work exists on my laptop in either my family tree file or as jpeg or pdf files. Even though I've made many copies of my FTM genealogy file on flash and backup disks, all of these reside in my home and a fire or flood would wipe out all of those files. I've posted my family tree file to ancestry.com so at least I could recover the electronic file. I wish to suggest to everyone right now that you make backups that are kept away from your home or office. I now have an online backup service (Mozy.com) which I use to back up my computer documents automatically every single night. For most of my hard copies of documents, I've made an electronic copy to that I can recreate most documents. I do not have any original documents in my files so I don't have a need to keep those in a safe or safety-deposit box, but if you have those you might consider such protection. At the same time, let us not live so much in the past that we forget to document our current lives and enjoy them before they pass us by.

So to recap, here are some ways to protect/save your family history:

Use On-line backup services like Mozy.com (this is not an endorsement, just a service I use)Make backup disks on CD/DVD/external hard drives and store in location away from home
Make digital scans of original documents and keep in separate location, maybe with those backup CDs/DVDs
Publish your family history online via own website or sites like Ancestry.com
Print a hard copy of your family history file (Ahnentafel report is a good format to print lots of details) and store in safety deposit box along with original documents. Be sure to use acid-free paper to ensure long life of the information
Make a pdf copy of the same family history report and include it in your backups
Decide who should receive your family history collection should something happen to you
Share copies of your family history file with other family members
Make a digital copy of your scrapbooks to share with family members

My last suggestion is that you make a GEDCOM copy of your family history electronic file. GEDCOM is the "industry-standard" and can be opened and read by most family history software programs. However, while GEDCOM may be the standard now, in 5-10 years that may no longer be the case. If you put away your family history for a few years, it is important to open it and save it in a current format every couple of years just in case the software program you use goes out of date and production. Imagine in 10 years trying to open a file built with your favorite family tree software which went out of business 8 years before with no updates available. Also make sure that the media on which you copy you file is still in use. Just like the 5" floppy disk, CD's will soon no longer be the media of choice.


CD to make a backup of your family history file - 50 cents
Making a digital copy of your scrapbooks - $5
Printing a hard copy of your family history file at Kinkos - $25
Recovering your family history information after a catastrophe - Priceless

Wishing you a wonderful evening!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Welcome to My Blog!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Tammy and I am the mother of a 16-year old daughter and 7-year old twin boys. And no, twins are not double trouble. However their sister is a different story!

I am the co-owner of iPlanIt, LLC. We are a meeting planning and online registration company. Our clients are non-profit associations, membership organizations and some of the largest corporations in the United States. We currently have 3 full time staff, 1 almost full time independent contractor and numerous part time/temporary contractors. We are based out of Longmont and Arvada, Colorado, near Denver.

When I have time, my hobby is genealogy. I love playing detective trying to figure out who my ancestors are. I have so many branches off my main tree because I include everyone I am related to directly or indirectly. I have been doing genealogy since 2001, but had to take a 3-year hiatius from it when I started my own company (iPlanIt). For those 3 years, I was working 18-20 hour days, 7 days a week nearly every single week. I recently brought in a partner and we hired our first full time employee in May. Since then I've actually been able to get back to working on my genealogy. I use Family Tree Maker 2008 (which I don't like as well as the 2005 version) and have over 6,500 individuals and over 19 generations in my file. This seems like a lot of people until I see other trees with over 20,000 people. I have a lot of information I still need to add to my tree, but I've just not had the time. I still consider myself an amateur genealogist. Most of my research has been on the internet along with a couple of trips to the genealogy library in Salt Lake City and a number of cemetery transcription projects. I have not had the opportunity to do much onsite research or visiting court houses, local libraries, etc. I can't wait until iPlanIt starts operating on its own and makes me enough money to be in semi-retirement so I can do more genealogy.

I'm also working on writing a mystery novel about an amateur genealogist. I am still developing the characters and the situations. I wake up at night with ideas for the book so I've started keeping my laptop in my room at night so I can write them down. I had to start using my computer because I can't read my writing if I write by hand :-). So far it is very preliminary, but it has been fun. Who knows, this blog may become a way of trying out ideas or posting status updates.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!!