Jacky and Shannon- my new found cousins

Recently on the social network, Facebook, a few of my cousins have recently joined up and we've all been chatting and getting to know each other all over again. Shannon and Jacky, who's mother (Neita) is my dad's sister. Well they lived and grew up in Vernal, UT (about 3 hours away) so we didn't see one another very often and didn't get to know each other as well as our other closer cousins.

So Jacky and I started talking and you will never believe this.
1. She works in Washington D.C. as Senior Intelligence Officer, for the Joint Intelligence Task Force for the Department of Defense, combating terrorism. Wow!
2. She graduated from Harvard University with her masters degree and is by far the smartest person in our whole family.

3. She's "family" in every respect too! :-) Her partner, Glynis, is from Maryland also like my Joni.

4. Jacky and I are Boston Red Sox fans, Glynis and Joni are Baltimore Oriole fans.

This is Shannon. She is 6 or 7 years older than me and she along with Jacky lost a brother, Danny, in the late 70's when he was like 18 to a terrible industrial accident. She is a mother of 3 kids and lives in Western Colorado with her husband, Doug. Jacky and Shannon and I have had some amazing discussions about our family, our lives, and I'm so glad that we have crossed paths again and can get to know each other and our families again better. I have always wanted to know my family better. It's what took me and my sister, Yvonne, to Scotland for the first time so we could meet and get to know our mother's mother, brothers and sisters and cousins too. To this day I am pretty close to most of them and have returned to Scotland two more times to visit again. A few years ago, My Aunt Margaret (mother's sister), during her last visit to America- brought with her my Grandmother's wedding ring that she was given when Grandma passed away and at the end of her trip, she and her two other sisters Elgin and Janet gave me that special gold band and I will treasure it forever.

The Campbell side of our family was pretty much in Utah County, Vernal, and Western Colorado (Grand Junction). I pretty much grew up with most of my cousins in Utah Valley and we all knew each other pretty well even to this day but as far as Jacky/Shannon and their siblings- not as much since there was such a geographic gap and we weren't very good about having regular family reunions (shame on the parents and aunts and uncles). I've always talked about writing a book on families and I even know the name of the book, "Do You Know Your Family?" Not sure it would be a New York Times bestseller but there's so much about my family that I want to know more of. When everyone in our lives comes and goes, the one thing you should be able to count on is family.

So welcome Jacky/ Shannon back to the family, not that you were ever gone but it's so great getting to know you both again and we need to stay in touch always.