My twin bro, our Nagy Mama and me in 1986: the year of home perms and fullets (female mullet) with massive amounts of eye makeup thrown in for extra GAH!!!! I haven't written about my Nagy Mama (Hungarian for Grandmother) since when I cut her ex-husband out of the picture. It was a post that I had written and deleted many, many times, but man oh man, it felt REAL GOOD to air out some old dirty laundry. And then throw that sucker out with the trash, where it belongs. Today marks 10 years since Nagy Mama left us and,... Read more →

It's official, my parents are now on the internet. Or, at least, the 20 minutes of what I was able to show them Sunday night, because it took my husband Garth (not his real name) 2+ hours to actually get them online, which (to folks older than 20) is 2 hours, too long. A few weeks back, after introducing my father to Facebook, Apu immediately began sending messages to family in Hungary. It was not the introduction to the internet my parents were expecting -- especially, after everyone and my brother insisted that my parents really need to be on... Read more →

The kids and I took a ride to visit my folks on Sunday -- Holly was scheduled to work this weekend and my husband Garth (not his real name) stayed behind to try and get some work done here at home -- and, as soon as we walked into the kitchen, my mom began to show me some of the new tricks she learned during rehab: She can reach her arm behind her back: which, only a few short weeks ago, the pain of attempting to do so would have caused her to pass out (me too) She can cross... Read more →

Aaaaand, other lunchtime conversations that make me sound old, and hungry: Not for nothing, but imagine if I had typed this ALL out (you're welcome!) © 2003 - 2012 This Full House Read more →

This is what Hungarian Gulyas (a.k.a. Gulash, Goulash) is supposed to look like (for real!) You may or may not know that my twin brother Steve and I are first generation born Americans. Yep, we grew up in the kitchen, breathing in the delicious aromas of my mother's and grandmother's Hungarian cooking. Feel free to trust me when I tell you that there is absolutely NOTHING better than a big old steaming bowl of happiness, served up with some crusty bread, on a cold, wet, gloomy, or slightly sad sort of day. Hungarian comfort food, baby! You know that reddish-brown-gravy-laden... Read more →

Todays Prompt: describe an heirloom that has been passed down through generations of your family. What is its significance to you personally? This is my grandfather's fiddle. Although, my father doesn't remember his father ever playing it (then again, my dad escaped Hungary when he was 19) as the family genealogist, he passed it on to me. Violins play a prominent role in Hungarian folks songs -- especially, gypsy music. One of my favorite childhood memories is going to see Gypsy Joe and his orchestra play at the Hungarian Club and dancing the Csardas (ch-ahhr-dahh-sh) with my grandmother, on New... Read more →

My twin brother and our great grandmother in Hungary 1966 I've been researching my family tree for quite a while, now -- around the same time I started blogging, actually -- and it's all my mother-in-law's fault. My getting hooked on genealogy, I mean (HI MOM!) she reads my blog, sometimes. Thompsons have fought in the American Revolution, helped bury victims from the Titanic on the shores of Nova Scotia, my mother-in-law's brother was one of the original Flying Tigers during WWII and they've went as far back as tracing their lines to the early 1600's. Me? I've traced as... Read more →