The second week of my sabbatical was amazing and eventful. I took two trips, planned a birthday party for Robynn, Delivered TJ to Patriots Academy in Austin, began building a second story balcony to my man cave, celebrated my 24th wedding anniversary, Planned the family vacation the last week of the sabbatical, and began my archeology study of the first five books of the Bible.
Robynn’s 45th birthday: This July my beautiful wife turned 45 and everyone that knows us realizes that we love birthday parties. This year we had a wonderful day with family to celebrate. The kids helped me pick out a sewing mannequin for Robynn.
Ancestry Trip with TJ: Family is the world to me and I am extremely proud and grateful for my Holladay name and heritage. My hobby is genealogy and I became interested in this through research my son began three years ago. On almost every line my family was living here long before the United States was formed. The Holladay’s came to James Town around 1635 and their grandchildren were Patriots in the revolutionary war. Before that my direct line contained the Lord Mayor of London, Treasurer for the East India Trading Company, Founding members of Holy Trinity Church, and ultimately a fairly rough group in the crusades. In 2015, we took a family trip to the Cotswold in England to find etchings, drawings and graves of our English ancestries. This year I took a 2.5 day trip to Alabama with my son to hunt for the grave of James D Holladay (my 2nd GG) which has not been cataloged on find any grave and our Rev War hero Daniel Williams Holladay. We visited 5 cemeteries (3 Holladay cemeteries) and some of these required very specific GPS coordinates and miles of walking through very thick woods. While I was aware of some of the graves, I was doubtful on finding the one of James mentioned above. TJ and I were successful and had a great family bonding trip. We also stopped on the drive there to celebrate a three generation birthday with my great Aunt, her daughter and her granddaughter. On the way home I was able to introduce TJ to my favorite restaurant in Dallas, Javiers.
Drove TJ to Patriots Academy in Austin: Theron Jr., was accepted into the National Patriots Academy held this year in Austin at the Capital. It is run by conservative state senators and reps. This year 115 delegates including TJ are able to introduce bills, debate and basically run a mock senate in the chambers. The top bills they introduce are voted on by them and can make to actually be considered by the government. We were very excited about this opportunity and Robynn and I drove TJ to the event and even were able to enjoy a pre-anniversary dinner at the best restaurant in Austin, Eddie V’s.
24th Anniversary Trip: After taking TJ to Austin, Robynn and I drove to Shreveport/Bossier City for a 24th anniversary get-away. I am so blessed to have spent the last 27 years married to or dating the girl of my dreams. This year, we went to the boardwalk in Bossier City and stayed at the Margaretville hotel. We had a beautiful suite with a balcony overlooking the river. We had a wonderful time together and enjoyed many great meals, shopping and even were able to visit some wonderful family in the area.
Building Project: For my sabbatical 7 years ago I built a shop and “man cave” To relax I enjoy physical work and had always wanted to build something on a large scale with no assistance from anyone. This Sabbatical, I plan to add a 250 square foot balcony to my man cave. While I have not had much time to work on it, I did order all of my parts and have started my building project. I will add pictures in my update for week 3.
Biblical Studies: Outside of Ancestry, my hobby is biblical studies. I guess my learning style is somewhat different than most people. I do not enjoy listening to commentators discuss “what the president has said” or “what just happened in a football game.” I prefer to just watch the game or listen to the speech. When it comes to biblical learning I am the same way and prefer the source itself, the bible. I also prefer more comprehensive bible studies and do not enjoy books that others write to explain the Bible. I have a new set of books on biblical archeology and my plan is to read again the first five books of the bible while reading and referencing the applicable information in my archeology books. I am very excited about this!