Cemetery records

I spent quite a lot of time today searching cemetery lists of Ripley County, Missouri. I thought my great grandfather, Emerson Laney, might have died there. His daughter was supposedly born there and not long after, he died. I realize it was a long shot. There were so many cemeteries for one county. I was tired and my back was aching from looking so long. The woman who did this research has photos of all the tombstones and will send you one if requested. For every single name I looked at, she went traipsing through sometimes very overgrown, neglected cemeteries. What wonderful people, who do all this work so the rest of us can look for our ancestors. The spirit of Elijah is so strong in some people.

Happy 1 Month Birthday

Here's our babies at one month old. They're looking kind of scraggly. But they'll get more feathers in and be looking quite pretty in time. We haven't had baby chicks in about three years, so the grown ups are getting pretty up there in age. We are getting a decent amount of eggs from the older ones still. We give them lots of grass and greens to supplement their layer feed. It makes the egg yolks almost orange. The grocery store eggs we bought in the winter looked anemic compared to these.

Family Search

I read an article not long ago in Mormon Times. It was about Family Search on lds.org. It sounded so easy to get started. So I went there and I am having so much fun. I don't know if others consider the research fun, but it's not that hard. Granted, there are some things I just can't find. But I just go on to the next name. I'll go back to the hard ones when I've learned a little more. I've found family on census records which I hadn't found before. In some cases, I was able to make a copy of the actual census page. Luckily, my Great Aunt Vera wrote lots of information down which I use as a starting point. She typed her pages using carbon paper. She wrote on one page, "Don't throw this away". Don't worry, Aunt Vera, you work is useful and appreciated.

My Latest Blonde Moment

I was reading an older copy of the Church News this morning. There was an article about help the church gave to Haiti after the quake. It said we've sent the equivalent of more than 60 truckloads of relief supplies - including air shipments. And I thought, for just a moment mind you, "We sent them air?!"

Seedlings

I used egg cartons to start my seedlings this year. I had an overabundance of cartons since our chickens haven't been laying any eggs over the winter. It seems to be working well. They're very handy to water in the kitchen windowsills, and are getting plenty of sunlight. It's quite fun to check each morning to see any new sprouts. Now I wish I had done more. The only thing that hasn't come up yet is the nasturtiums. The seed might have been too old. I'll give it some more time, and then get some new seed. They're supposed to help deter some of the insects that invade the vegetable garden. My biggest problem last summer was the cabbageworms on the broccoli. The book said to put paper collars around each plant. I used plastic soda bottles, cut off the top and bottom and put around each plant. The worms found the plants anyway. They were so bad, I pulled the broccoli up early because I was so annoyed with trying to get off all those little beasts. Better Homes Gardens says to plant tansy to deter cabbageworms. I looked up tansy and its an herb. I'll try to find seed and plant near the broccoli.

Pray for the Mormons

I was watching this thing on the religious channel. There was this man talking about the Mormons. The unfortunate Mormons who are so misguided. Pray for your Mormon friends, he said. Well, I don't have a problem with anyone praying for me. In fact, I kind of like it. He was talking to a young couple, asking them questions and obviously trying to trip them up. They sounded like they knew what they were talking about. I would have liked to hear the Bible reference on at least one of the statements he made. In a world where there is so much strife and sadness, earthquakes and tsunamis, AIDS and children going to bed hungry, I'm surprised he's worrying so much about the Mormons. But, if you want to pray for me and my friends, then I thank you. And don't forget to pray for all those people hurt by the earthquakes and tsunamis, and AIDS, and hunger. And maybe for that guy on the religious channel.

Getting Started

I once made the mistake of telling Kelly I wanted a blog. So she started it for me and even wrote the first entry. I told her it wasn't nice to write something pretending to be someone else. And now she's sitting behind me (sick and home from school) forcing me to get on and write. So....I'm not a great writer. Not even much of a thinker. But I'll try to blog when I feel I have something important or interesting to say.

The story of how I got my blog. . . .

Okay well for the past few months I have been deliberating if I wanted a blog or not. My daughter, nieces, and friends have them. So I've been telling my daughter I want one and she got sick of me changing my mind, so she just made it. We're sitting in the family room watching a movie and the next thing I know shes telling me my username and password. So thats the story. Nothing to publish in a book but good enough for my first blog post.

Some things about me are I love the color yellow, I think my daughter's reading choices are weird (honesty), I love my family and church, and living on a farm is not in my list of things to do.

My daughter completely made everything, title, URL, settings, template, everything. So things will probably be changing. But she did get a lot of things right. She's being like every other teenager girl on the planet and was watching the TWILIGHT premiere on the TV from L.A. So every now and then we would hear her scream of yell OH MY GOSH!! or HOLY CRAP!! or MOM!!!!! So that was pretty funny. She won't let us forget that tomorrow is the release. Plus she insists on reading her favorite passages to us. Favorite passages equals every book from beginning to end.

My daughter will kill me if I don't mention this, www.kellyandpj.blogspot.com that's the blog she shares with her bet friend Pj.

Parenthood is calling, otherwise known as making sure my daughter hasn't started a fire, or caused a catastrophe. Which knowing he she might have in her excitment from Twilight, the vampire romance novel series. woo hoo!!!