Pets #71

1. I took the Pet Picker Quiz and the right type of pet for me was a reptile. I do agree with that, since I do not have very much time to take care of an animal that requires a lot of attention, since I spend almost all of my free time taking care of my baby daughter. I also do not like animal hair wandering all over the house. I used to have a Labrador Retriever (weighed 80 pounds!), but she is now at my in-laws house, since my father-in-law walks her every day and takes good care of her. Before the birth of my daughter, I used to walk “Guera” every day around the block, feed her, bathe her, and brush her hair. A pet like that requires a lot of attention! Now, I don’t even have time to exercise for myself, so I couldn’t keep Guera. I do miss her, but I get to see her when I visit my in-laws.

2. I did a search in Pet Finder and I found a baby male iguana up for adoption at “Pets Are Us Rescue” (Cypress, TX). His name is Stripe and looks very cute. I also went to Pet Harbor and found a Chihuahua named Lulu. Here are the comments that the staff made about her:

Lulu is a sweet little girl Chihuahua that was found wandering around a parking lot. She was so sweet and came right up to her rescuer licking her and wagging her tail. Unfortunately, she was absolutely covered in fleas and quite a mess. She was also wearing a little harness that was too small and rubbing her under her arms as well as having some scabs on her ears. After a few baths and some flea medicine, she was all cleaned up and doing well. Lulu has lots of love and energy to give. Her age is estimated at 1 year old. She is about 8 lbs and gets along nicely with other dogs and children. She is quickly learning to sit before she gets her leash on, or her food. She has learned to wait nicely for her food to be made and sit nicely before it is given to her. She is crate trained and house trained with the use of a doggie door. She responds very well to corrections and walks well on a leash. She loves to play and also loves to cuddle up to you on the bed or couch. She knows to sit nicely and calmly before she is allowed to be put up on the bed since she cannot jump up on it by herself. She has quite a bit of energy and enjoys being walked twice a day. She is current on all vaccinations, is heartworm negative and will be spayed on 10/2/09. Lulu will be up for adoption starting 10/9/09. Please come and take her for a walk at Petco Humble on FM 1960 just east of Hwy 59 on weekends 12-4:30 and see if she is a match for your family!

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family finder - Old pictures

I made a Celebrity Collage and the results are posted at the top of this page. About 15 people have told me throughout my life that I look like the deceased singer, Selena Quintanilla. I see some similiarity between us, but not to the point where we were separated at birth. I also think I resemble my mother more than my father. My mom and me have the same nose (it's rounded at the bottom).

2. I visited Footnote and browsed the Member Discoveries. People are telling their family history on this site and other members may view and make comments about it. One member posted a column called "A Hard Row to Hoe", and he talked about the harsh life that his great grandmother and grandmother lived.

Genealogy #69

I searched the HeritageQuest website, and it allowed me to find an ancestor within the census date range of 1790-1930. Since all of my ancestors were not born in the USA, I could not use this feature.

I did visit Ancestry.com and I found the birth records of my mom, my husband, and myself. It also listed my mom's and husband's physical address. Under my husband's name, the site also listed his neighbors.

Genealogy #68

1. No, I’ve never pursued an oral history project. Yes, I might consider doing one to record my family history. My grandmother would be the best candidate.

I visited the Tejano Voices Project. It contains 77 oral history interviews with Tejano and Tejana leaders from across Texas, conducted by University of Texas at Arlington Professor Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez.

2. I went to Find-A-Grave and picked the Oakwood Cemetery (located in Waco, TX-McLennan County). The oldest burial listed was for Jerome B. Patterson, this is the information that was provided about him:

Birth: Mar. 14, 1815
Death: Jan. 7, 1890
Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Born in Woodford County, Kentucky, he served as a Captain in the Army of the Republic of Texas during the Indian and Mexican campaigns. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1847 and to the State Senate in 1849. With the start of the Civil War, he became part of the 5th Texas Infantry and was made Colonel in command on June 1, 1862. He led the 5th Texas in Peninsular campaign and was promoted Brigadier General in November, 1862. He led a Texas Brigade in actions at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and in 1864, he commanded the Texas state reserve forces until the end of the war. After the war, he served as passenger and emigration agent for the Houston and Texas Central Railroads.

Genealogy #67

I have never studied genealogy in the past. I would take the following steps to begin my genealogical research:

1. Talk to my parents, grandparents, aunts, & uncles and ask them about any information they would know about our family descendants. I would document everything that they tell me. Working backwards is the first step.

2. Take pictures of documents (birth, death, marriage) and keep a record of my findings.

3. Visit cemeteries where ancestors are buried and take note of the gravestone, there might be a birth or death date.

4. Research government records for vital records.

The Genealogy for Beginners website made an eye-opening remark that stated - “Don’t lose sight of the fact, that although there may be only ONE of you and you may have had 2 parents and 4 grandparents, you had 8 great grandparents, 16 gg grandparents, 32 ggg grandparents, 64 gggg grandparents, 128 ggggg grandparents, etc.”

Wellness #42

1. I tried out the symptom checker on the Mayo Clinic website and I choose “foot pain” as my symptom. It then asked me to state the specific location of the pain and I checked the “middle part of foot.” It was triggered by “injury” and accompanied by “inability to bear weight.” The results that the site gave me were either a broken foot or flat feet. The results were not very accurate, because I don’t have either of those problems. Perhaps if the site had more “accompanied by” symptoms, such as pain felt when area is pressed or pain when walking, my results would have been more accurate. The bottom part of my right foot has been hurting me for a few months now. The pain came after an incident where I was wearing high heels and my foot slipped out of the heel. My foot twisted to the side and half of it was hanging onto the floor. I think that the side of the heel bruised the middle part of my foot, so this is why I have the pain. It feels better after I massage the area, but the pain is still there. I probably need to visit a podiatrist if the pain does not go away, because there might be swelling deep inside my foot that I do not know about.

2. I visited Medline Plus and searched the doctor finder in Texas. The site took me to the Texas Medical Board website and I found two OBGYN’s under my zip code search. I want to find a doctor that is close to my house, because my regular doctor is 40 minutes away from. I think I will visit Dr. Maricela Cantu, who is 10 minutes from my house.

3. I created a sample family medical history tree using the My Family Health Portrait from the Surgeon General. The site asked me my name, DOB, and it wanted me to list any diseases that I may have or had in the past. Next step was to state how many brother’s and sister’s that I had and how many uncles and aunts from both my mother’s and father’s side. It then created the tree for me and automatically included my grandmother’s and grandfather’s. I think this tree could be a useful addition to a genealogy study, because you can track down a specific disease that has been passed on from generation to generation.

Wellness #41 - (Part 2)

The activity that is easy to do and I can start doing right away to live a greener lifesyle is recycling products at home. I visited the site, The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide, and it contained a list of products that are safe to be recycled. This included paper, magazines, newspapers, aluminum cans, clear grocery bags, some glass bottles, and a few plastics.

The second activity that takes more commitment to do, but I want to give it a try, is taking my own "green" bags to the grocery store. I've seen people carry these around, but I've never used one before. The plastic bags are much more convenient, since they are already at the store, and all of my groceries fit in them. I go grocery shopping once a week and my cart is always full, which means that I would need at least 8 "green" bags to fill up my stuff. Hauling those bags around can be a hassle. I've seen Eva Mendez on a television commercial promoting her own personalized "green" bags line, so even celebrities are taking a step to protect our environment.