I'm such a nerd.

I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise to most of you!  Dr. Ross and I have started a little "project" - the Ross Family tree.  I'm also doing one with my parents for the Hogan Family tree.  Let me tell you we have some LARGE families!  My mother is 1 of 9.  Dr. Ross is 1 of 6 boys.  Mrs. Ross is 1 of 6.  Grandfather Hogan is 1 of 10....the list goes on and on! 

I wanted to do this because both families have such rich histories.  Plus I wanted to see all of these names I hear rambled off all the time in writing!  Both families have some very interesting names, too :-)

 The furthest I was able to go back to [so far] was on Grandmother Hogan's side.  We went back to her grandparents!  This is the French family.  For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of meeting my grandmother, Georgette, you are missing out.  She is a hoot.  [My other grandparents passed away before I was born, and the same goes for all of Andrew's grandparents - so she is very special to both of us.]  Georgette Louise Marinette Loques is from Provence, France.  She met my grandfather, Elroy Dallas Hogan during WWII when he was stationed in Marseille, France with the US Air Force.  She's the epitome of a war bride.  My middle name Monique is her sister.  I think it has a better ring to it than Georgette.  [but...during all of this "research" we found out there is a Georgette somewhere on the Ross side, too!]  My dad's middle name Baptistin is her father's name.  My grandfather Elroy's grandfather came to America from Ireland...so that's where the Irish comes in.  My maternal grandmother Amelia's grandmother is a Native American...but we can't figure out how to spell her name (ha!).  And Amelia is my sister's middle name.

On Andrew's side of things, I loved hearing everyone's names.  Andrew and Peter were both born in Egypt, and both of his parents' families are from Egypt and all still live there.  The "naming" tradition in Egypt is for the boys to have their father's first name as their middle name.  For example, Andrew Samir Ross and Peter Samir Ross' father is Samir (Anis) Ross, and Samir's father is Anis (Samuel) Ross...and you get the idea.  So it's easy to figure out who belongs to whom.  Another new fact is that when girls marry, they don't change their name.  Also, all of their family names are Christian names (very different from the Muslim names), but some are "English" versions of the name, and others are the "Arabic" versions of the name.  Andrew's parents are Samir Anis Ross and Mervat Hakim Gergis.  His grandparents are Anis Samuel Ross + Linda Ewada Shehata and Hakim Gergis + Celia Abass. 

I can't wait to take a trip to Egypt.  The Ross' are going in March and I am soooo jealous.  We hope to go whenver I graduate [1 year, 4 months, 19 days remaining, but who's counting?].  In fact our conversation over dinner tonight revolved around riding camels.  Seriously.  Neither one of Andrew's parents have ever ridden one - Mrs. Ross says she's too scared!  It's also funny to think that they've never seen a lot of the "touristy" things in Egypt.  They were comparing it to the fact that I've never been to California, never seen the Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore, and so on but I've lived in the US my entire life.  So there's still a lot of things they want to see in Egypt, too.  Plus they still have a house there, which is another perk!  And an uncle with a house right outside of Alexandria overlooking the Nile River. Yes.

Now I've successfully bored you out of your mind...I apologize!