My Brick Walls Are Crumbling!

(When you are working on genealogy, and you come

to a stopping point, you call it a brick wall.)

.

This is my Schafer family,

or more lovingly called "my brick wall" I always grew up believing I was 100% Irish, but this is not true.

... I am 1/4 German.

My mothers family was fiercely proud of being Irish and believed there were two kind of Irish - Lace Curtain and Shanty, and you must know that there was never any doubt in their minds that they were part of the former.

My German grandmother, Catherine Sanders Schafer, died in 1925 when my mother was 5, and their very Irish father removed the four little girls from their German grandparents lives for reasons we do not know. My mother and her 3 very young sisters were surrounded by a large proud Irish extended family, so the German background was lost through the years.

But now, thanks to my very talented friend Terry, she's helping me find them...

I've found the Schafers, back to Christopher Schafer, born approx 1820.

and I also believe I've found the Sanders, back to 1835.

It looks like I will soon be researching "over the pond"!

(spelling variations: Schafer, Shafer, Shaffer.

A lot depended on census takers and the spelling of

names was not crucial to people at that time)

The Girls don't like me to leave.....

I'm making this face because she grits her teeth and shakes and gets all tense. It's a special thing to see.

'nuff said.

A Day In The Park

Arizona is beautiful now!

And cool enough to play outside.

We spent some time in the beautiful park in Anthem last Saturday with Beth, Kyle and the kids and Kyle's parents and his sister, Kassie's, family.

We were here last November when our whole family was in Arizona for Thanksgiving and had a great time. It's a beautiful park! Very unplanned and last minute, it was a beautiful day to just relax and watch kids play.

It was 85 degrees and sunny so we brought our lunches and stayed until dinner!

Me and sweet Claire!

There is an awesome playground and a train that goes all around the park.

Cassie, Debbie & Beth

Gracie was having so much fun

Of course the kids had to go on a train ride

We had a beautiful sunset the whole drive home

It was a great day!

11 11 at 11

November 11, 1972 at 11:00 am, I married my sweet husband.

Or as we always say, 11 11 at 11.

1978

We already had two daughters and we were very proud of the first home we bought.

.

When we got married we were two young kids who didn't own a thing, we didn't know what we would do in the future, we only knew that we loved each other and we'd figure it out together.

1993

We had added a son, we were living in Oregon and

were off on a Western Carribean Cruise

.

It's been a great 37 years. Even though I was just a kid when I made the choice to marry this guy, I made a VERY good choice because he's a keeper!

.

(This song was sung at our wedding. You can laugh, but remember, it was the early 70's and this song was sung at most weddings!)

Happy Birthday to our Cassie!

We first heard about Cassie seven years ago when we drove from Oregon to California for Thanksgiving and Chris drove from Utah to meet us and celebrate the holiday with family. Chris showed up with a permanent grin on his face and told us all about a young woman he was very interested in, and he described her as "Blonde & Beautiful & Feisty"!

As a mom, I couldn't help but wonder what that meant...."Feisty"?!?! All the family flew to Cassie's hometown of Wisconsin and drove to the LDS Nauvoo Temple in May of 2003 for their wedding. It was an amazing trip with all the little ones in tow. Cassie had all the nieces and nephews dressed up as their attendants and it was darling.

We are so happy that Cassie "attached" herself to our Chris. They are perfect for each other! We love that Cassie doesn't do anything halfway.... if she is going to do something, she does it right and really gets into it, like the 1/2 marathon she just ran.
Cassie loves being a mom and is a fantastic, organized, fun mom. She enjoys her kids so much and is so good with little boys, and being excited about cars, trucks, construction vehicles, tools, sports, dogs, and everything else little boys love. She also loves my little boy, and what mom isn't happy about that? She gets his silly sense of humor and his hobbies and sports and trains and doesn't seem to get tired of the crazy things he teaches the little boys to say.

Cassie can be feisty, but it's exactly what Chris needs in his life. Someone to keep him on his toes, organize him, love him and care for him. I love that Cassie is so good at it. I never worry about them, they really understand and love and support each other.

Happy Birthday Cassie!

Chris was right... you are Blonde (most of the time),

& Beautiful (all the time)

& Feisty (a very good feisty!)

We are so happy we heard about you seven years ago and

that we still hear about you every day.

You are awesome and we love you!

I Really Do Love Fall!

My friend Nancy brought this to me last night and I love it! She said she makes them every year and after awhile, she just digs a hole and puts the whole pumpkin in the ground and let's it decompose, while the flowers flourish. (Remember, this IS California, and it's still around 85 degrees). I love everything about Fall. The colors, the foods,

the coming holidays, pumpkins and even football games.

By the way, my fantasy football record so far is 5 wins, 3 losses and I've done it all on my own. No help!

.

And finally, a note to Ryan,

I dropped Ochocinco on purpose.

I HATE the guys name - WHO changes their name to a number?

I only go by projections.

I don't know how the guys play or what their record is.

I ONLY GO BY PROJECTIONS and he wasn't doing me a lot of good!

So happy I made your day - so good luck with ....

85

:)

Nancy also brought us some incredibly good pumpkin cake.

I'll share that recipe soon

How to Make Your Husband Smile....

Hand him a plate of these after Church today!
Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins
(With Cream Cheese Frosting)
.
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 heaping cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup golden raisins

Topping
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or two knives), until all incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins (or don't). Fold gently until mixture is just combined. Pour into greased muffin pan. Sprinkle generous amounts of cinnamon-sugar over the top of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup softened butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 pound powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
(I just used some cream cheese frosting from a can. Put it in
the microwave for a about 10-15 seconds to make it runny and drizzle it on)