People From the Past

For several years Jim and I have been involved in the church's FREP (now called Family Research Indexing) program. We view documents like census records on the Family Research website, then type a transcription of the record and send it back to the Family History department so that it can be made available for people researching their genealogy. We have found it to be interesting, enjoyable, and also another way of consecrating our time for the building of the kingdom. Some of the records have affected me profoundly, such as slave census records where the only name that appears is the name of the owner. The slaves would be listed as a black male, 24 years old, for example. It showed me how truly dehumanizing slavery is. Though I have always known that slavery was wrong, I still was thoughtful for a long while after I typed those. Death records often have a similar affect on me. Today we had the opportunity to go to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to teach the youth of our ward how to index as part of their youth conference. Most of them took it seriously and some even completed the record they downloaded before the time was up. Maybe it will spark an interest in one or two and they'll continue to participate in this important work. Anyone reading this post who desires to, can become involved by checking out the site www.familysearch.org . The pictures are of a few of the 44 youth participating today.

Happy Holidays 2008

Happy Holidays 2008 from

Back, L to R: Valerie, Jeremy, Adam, Emily, Samantha, Emily, Nate, Joel, Jennifer, Stephanie, Melissa

Front, L to R: James, Jim, Cassidy, Sue, Bonnie, Brandon

As Good As New

Every year around Thanksgiving Jim tries to avoid me because he knows it's indoor project time and I always have one in mind. However, this year he thought up his own project and decided to refinish our wood floors. He rented a large floor sander to do the majority of the sanding and then went around the edges with a little palm sander. I truly have never seen so much dust in my life! My scriptures, which were sitting on the dining table upstairs, looked like they hadn't been touched in seven years. One afternoon, during the middle of the sanding, we left to go get some lunch and to do a little shopping. When we returned home we could hear a strange noise, so Jim ran upstairs to find that the little sander had turned itself on and had sanded a perfect circle about 1/4" deep, destroying four of the parquet squares. We are lucky we didn't have a fire and we are lucky that we had kept some of the leftover tiles from when we built the house. How the sander turned on is still a mystery, but we did consider consulting an exorcist for a time. The Christmas tree got put up a little later this year, but the wait was worth it--the floor is beautiful. Great job Jim, but don't think this lets you off the hook for a project I have in mind. Anyone have any suggestions for a new paint color in the upstairs family bathroom?

After and Before

Floor squares destroyed by maniacal sander

Our beautiful, shining floor

December 7th

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a day that changed the lives of my parents' generation forever. On another December 7th, twenty-one years earlier, my mother was born. So today I wish her the happiest of birthdays. I'm so glad for her gentle, quiet ways and spirit and her example of enduring to the end. I'm thankful for the things she has taught me. How fortunate we are to still have her with us and in good health. Happy birthday Mom!

Mom and Me, Autumn 1952