Steve and Lenie’s Blog

Well that was a feeble attempt at social networking suicide. I lasted all of one weekend. I am officially declaring an addiction at this point. My new twitter account is @Steve_Vernon if you care to follow/re-follow me. I’m off now to re-create a new facebook account.

I went and did it. I committed social networking suicide today.

The noise in my life was just getting too loud, so I have deleted my Facebook, Twitter and MySpace accounts. I may be back later on, but right now I’m enjoying the peace and quiet. If you need to contact me, try calling or emailing. This is Steve going dark in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

(click this link to play song)
Something In The Way She Moves by James Taylor

There’s something in the way she moves,
Or looks my way, or calls my name,
That seems to leave this troubled world behind.
And if I’m feeling down and blue,
Or troubled by some foolish game,
She always seems to make me change my mind.

Chorus:
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Just about all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now,
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.

Every now and then the things I lean on lose their meaning
And I find myself careening
Into places where I should not let me go.
She has the power to go where no one else can find me
And to silently remind me<
Of the happiness and the good times that I know, got to know.

It isn’t what she’s got to say
But how she thinks and where she’s been
To me, the words are nice, the way they sound
I like to hear them best that way
It doesn’t much matter what they mean
If she says them mostly just to calm me down

WARNING – this may be painful to watch!

i don’t know what your families do for traditions at thanksgiving, but in our family, when the meal is done, we push back the tables and all the girls do the hoe down from hannah montana … oh yeah …

A short history of the Vernon family and the family name as well.

Our Vernon family story begins around 888 to 906 AD when the Vikings led by “Marching Rollo” invaded and conquered the northern part of France. The leader usually rode a horse while leading his marching men. Legend has it that Rollo was so large that no horse could carry him, so he marched along beside his men.   This area of France was eventually called Normandy after the Northmen or Norsemen who invaded. This invasion included the town of Vernon France, located in a beautiful valley on both sides of the Seine River, and dates back to Gallo-Roman times. (Some 30 miles NW of Paris.}

Rollo’s son William Longsword became Duke of Normandy after Rollo’s death.The successive sons followed for several generations down to William the bastard who eventually was to be known as William the Conqueror. The family was wealthy and powerful holding many large estates in Normandy. Richard de Reviers was a loyal officer serving the Duke of Normandy. Richard was rewarded by being given the little town of Vernon-sur-Seine in 1050 AD. From that time forward Richard de Reviers took the name of Richard de Vernon to show his appreciation of the gift of the town. The Vernon family Crest also originates from the town of Vernon. This was the beginning of the Vernon family name.

Sixteen years later William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England and at least two of his high ranking officers were Vernons, including Richard de Vernon. The English were defeated at the famous battle of Hastings, and William became known as William the Conqueror. The area around Chester England became a Norman stronghold. Prior to the Norman conquest there were no surnames in England. Many of the families coming from Normandy changed their names to more Anglo-Saxon sounding names but the Vernons did not. The Quaker Vernons descended from Sir Richard de Vernon, Baron of Shipbrook.

Our line can be traced directly generation by generation including brothers who came across the Atlantic with William Penn. William Penn was given the land that is now the entire state of Pennsylvania, possibly as payment of a debt from the King of England. At that time Penn was the largest private landholder in the world. The brothers had land in several places in early Pennsylvania, and eventually a few moved south into what is now Virginia, and the Cub Creek Settlement. Lt. Isaac Vernon, a fighter in the French and Indian Wars eventually moved to Rockingham, North Carolina.

A son or grandson Isaac Vernon moved back to Virginia to settle in Cana, Carroll County, and is buried there in the Vernon-Leonard private family cemetery along with his son Billy Vernon. Isaac begat William (Billy) Vernon, who begat Charles D. Vernon. Charles D. Vernon is buried at the Flower Gap Church cemetery in Cana, Carroll county, VA. I have more details to fill the gaps, and will do so later when I have more time to compile it all.

The information has come from many sources from North Carolina and Virginia, through Pennsylvania to England and France (Normandy). The Vernon Crest on the Front Page is not just a crest attributed to some person with the last name of Vernon, it is derived from the town of Vernon much like the name. Our lineage is directly traceable from Isaac Vernon buried in the Vernon-Leonard Cemetery all the way back, generation by generation to the Viking Rollo. The motto “Vernon Semper Viret” is Latin meaning roughly, “Vernon always flourishes”. Welcome to the world of really knowing who you are and where you came from.

Many thanks to Edward Vernon for the content above. – Steve

This is the book we are currently studying in our community group that meets in our home on Thursday nights. Anyone that knows me quickly finds out how huge of a Francis Chan fan I am. Anything he produces is highly recommended.

Made a little video of my Nieces son Colton of some clips I had from one of his games.

and I concur !! click this link to listen  –>  MP3 Audio file