A look to the past

William Webb
1675 – 1746

I William Webb of Harlton in the County of Cambridge, being of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding do make and ordain this my last will and testament in the following manner: I commend my Soul unto the Hands of Almighty God, my Maker and Creator hoping through the Merits of Jesus Christ to inherit everlasting life and my body I commit to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executors hereinafter named and as for the Estate which it hath pleased God to bestow on me I give and dispose thereof as follows:

All my messuages and tenements, workshops, out-houses, barns, stables, yards, herds, fences, gardens and orchards and backsiden thereto belonging or in any wise appertaining now to my occupation to my wife Lydia to be held by her for my sons and their heirs and assigns forever.

Also several sums of money now owing to me and the securities for the same hereinafter mentioned (that is to say) the sum of Forty Pounds owing to me from Frank Jameson upon a note of Hand or Promissory Note. Also the sum of Fifty Pounds owing to me from William Butler upon his note of Hand also the sum of Thirty Pounds due me from John Prince on a mortgage and also the sum of Twenty-five Pounds due to me from George Cranfall now or late of Over upon a note of his Hand or by whatever other securities or security the said several sums of money may be either are or is secured to be divided among my children equally.

Also to be equally divided among my children (20 Pounds) to each of good lawful money of Great Britain to be paid within twelve months after my decease.

There is a legacy left me by my Father who was left it by his father to be passed on to my heirs. There is spiritual unrest in the land. Beliefs are springing up and being heard. We believe with others that man should be free to worship his Maker in a manner pleasing to himself. We believe that Death is not the end but that the Soul lives on and is Judged by its Maker for the good or evil it has done, with punishment or reward according to Meritt. My father John a righteous just forgiving man was told in a dream that the time was nearing when Jesus Christ would return to set up his Kingdom. It will not happen during my lifetime nor that of my children and perhaps not my grandchildren. But the time will come soon when believers may become members in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Having grieved over not being here when that time comes because I will have layed this body to rest long since I prayed inquiring after the believers and followers of Jesus who have gone to their Eternal rest. As I prayed a calm peace surrounded me and I felt his Presence. I was assured that there will be a way for the dead to enter the Kingdom. Because of the Spirit that thrilled me while in the Presence I am sure it will be so. Therefore I am not afraid to die and my heirs should not feel fear. We will be together in that Kingdom because of God’s great Son. I admonish my heirs and descendants to live according to the law and to follow diligently the teachings of Jesus and you will be blessed. When Judgment Day comes I want that we shall all stand together to receive the happy reward of being together throughout Eternity. This is my desire and from what I know it can be so.

I love you all and will continue to love you and yours even after I have layed this mortal body down for I shall live to meet with you again.

I do hereby nominate constitute and appoint my wife Lydia as executrix of this my last will and testament and on her death my two sons Joseph and John to become joint executors and I hereby revoke all former wills by me at any time heretofore made.

In witness whereof I William Webb have to this my last will and testament set my hand and seal the fourteenth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-five. (signed) Wm Webb signed and sealed and declared by the testator as his last will and testament in the presence of us who have subscribed our names as witnesses thereto in his presence and at his request.

John Crowell Samuel Baker

Will proved by Joseph Webb and John Webb executors on the tenth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-six.

The Derby

Every year an elaborate ritual is observed - a rite of passage for young boys and their fathers - a test of sorts...the Pinewood Derby!

It is a test on several fronts: The boys are tested to see if they can follow directions (cutting, sanding, painting, etc.), the fathers are tested (do I buy a pre-cut model, do we do it from scratch, do I make the boy do more, how do I make sure we win...) and even the mothers are tested (why are they spending so much time on this..., why didn't they start earlier...). The result is grueling weeks of competing interests and the final outcome - THE RACE. The race is the culmination -preparation, or lack thereof, haste or deliberation, purchased goods or paying the price...it all comes through.

So without further ado, here is the story of the 2007 Pinewood Derby:

One month before the race: "Hi Dad. I got my Pinewood Derby car today at scouts. When can we start? I was thinking tonight....".

Two weeks before the race: "Hi Dad. Is it time to start the Pinewood Derby car yet?".

One week before the race: "Dad, the Pinewood Derby is next Saturday!"

And thus the mad rush begins. We first go scouting for a blueprint for we are not girly-types who buy precut models from the store. Benjamin and I find the web-site www.maximum-velocity.com. After searching through all the blueprints, Benjamin narrows the field to four finalists, and from there to this: http://www.maximum-velocity.com/standardrail.htm.

Our course is set - we now have to build one of the most difficult cars they sport in one week. We need to get more tools! :-D Off to Home Depot we go to get special drill bits, the right sand paper, and various other tools that can be excused away to making a good Pinewood Derby car ;-).

After cutting out the patterns and tracing on the pine block (and missing the first crucial step of aligning the wheel grooves to a perfect parallel track), the wood cutting begins. Because of the design, a coping saw is used, which makes for really fun sanding later, let me tell you!

Once the model is complete, the back end of the car is drilled out to specifications for the weights, which we purchased from Michaels. First lesson in chemistry...Zinc does not weigh the same as Lead! We try not to panic as the weights we purchased will never fit in the given area, even though we hollowed it out so much that the back had to be glued back together because it got too thin and cracked.

On contacting the Maximum Velocity company, they pointed out the difference between Zinc and Lead and graciously sent us overnight the correct materials (for a small fee of course). We're now down to three days before the race.

After several nights sanding and glueing, weighing, frantically drilling out lead to reduce the weight, drilling out more lead weight to account for the wood filler that must be added to plug the hole, we finally have a fuselage. The painting process yields several new lessons learned about how hairdryers cause bubbles to appear in paint if used too close.

Because we're now down to the last minute, we make the decision (at Dad's suggestion) to take the carefully crafted wheels and axels from last year's 2nd place car and make a few minor improvements for this year's car. A polish here, an extra sanding there, and we're in business.

Until the weigh-in. Ooooops, the car is 4.9 ounces (max is 5.0 and most boys are right there...). "It's okay", I tell Ben...weight is important, but weight distribution and lack of friction on the wheels wins the day...

So, here is Ben when the big day arrives:

Notice the cool, calm, and collected smile :-). The price has been paid, and now the fun can begin. If we don't win (after Dad's sleep deprivation-induced breakdown) everything will be okay. We did our best (given the time).

So, what do you think happened? Did Ben Win????

Here is a peek at one of many, many, many races:

That would be Ben's car on the left, and Ben cheering it on at the far left! :-)

The way the races are run, a tally is kept of number of wins and each boy competes against each other boy. There are 20 boys racing. Towards the end of the races, there are three clear winners, and Ben is one of them. And then ...

DISASTER STRIKES

On Benjamin's last race before the finals, after his car crosses the finish line in first, the wood holding the front left wheel in place snaps clean off! I tend to think that some little kid near the finish line put their hand down (there were many crowding around) and scrunched it, but I'm assured by someone I trust who was there that it just came off. The only thing we can figure out is that because the axle slots were not perfectly parallel, the car did bump a little as it went down the track. This shimmying must have finally broken the slender wheel post.

We were in big trouble - this was a fatal blow from which it seemed impossible that we could recover. I picked up the broken pieces and putting on my best face said to Benjamin's concerned look - "We'll do what we can...come on - let's go."

As we walked away from the track, another dad mentioned that he had some epoxy glue. It was the kind that takes 5 minutes to set (and then it's not full strength for a while) and we did not have 5 minutes. We had about two. But we would give it a go.

But before I could get the glue completely mixed, Ben's former Wolf leader dropped by our sad little camp with a small tube of liquid hope -

SUPERGLUE

It might just work, and we have nothing but to try... a quick application, a desperate vise grip, and the clock ticking the seconds away... when suddenly...

Our time is up...Benjamin's name is being called and there is time no more...

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

has arrived. Benjamin takes the car to the track's start and I quickly run to the finish line to instruct the car stopper person to please take it easy on the car. I figure if we make it through one race, which would be a miracle, at least he should be careful so that maybe we can race again.

The first race, Ben wins! The second race, Ben wins again, but in order to beat this guy, he's got to beat him twice! The crowd starts chanting Benjamin's number (and I start feeling sorry for the other boy, but the crowd is out of control and there is no stopping them all now).

Eight, eight, eight, eight, eight, eight, EIGHT, EIGHT, the crowd chants, reaching a fevered pitch as the cars are placed on the track. Both boys race down to the end of the track as if they are the cars. Everyone holds their breath with one question on their minds....will Ben's car break up into pieces or win the day...

ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN.....

A picture is worth a thousand words. So next year, instead of a long drawn out commentary, I'll just post the picture:

Sunday Stories - The In-law edition

Remember this post from February 25th?

Originally I thought we would do two rounds of memories from the kids. But since we all did such a good job I think it is time to hear from the in-laws. Then we will take a summer break from the memories.

So the plan is that each in-law would write a short post along the following lines:

- A memory dealing with the dating and/or first year of marriage. ie meeting the other kids, mother-in-law/father-in-law stories etc.
- Or some other memory of a more recent family activity/event
- The idea would be to convey some of the quirky/funny aspects of the family as seen from an outsider

So we will follow the oldest to youngest order.

Mindy
Cindy
April
Jeff
Russ
Mike

Look below for Mindy's post!!!

Pet on Parade

Many of you know that Eldon and I have known each other since we were 14 years old. Prior to getting married at age 23, you would think I would have met more of his family. This was not the case. He held his family gems close to his vest. My family, however, would set a place for him at the dinner table during those “friend” years. He was a regular at our family parties all through high school. When the phone rang they’d yell for Mindy to get it, it’s probably Eldon.

I was never aware of this disparity until it came to time to “meet the family” a couple days before we were to be engaged. It was the adults only dinner mom has every year. I found myself nervous. Nervous of the unknown because I was about to be thoroughly examined. If I were a horse, I was about to get my teeth looked at. When I was trying to explain my shocking feeling to Eldon I described it as feeling like a “Pet on a Parade”. (This was a show on channel 5 where they would show an orphaned pet from every angle in hopes someone would adopt it.)

Here was the cast of characters and the topics covered in the evening. We heard about how Bo Gritz should be president, the horrors of gun control, the blessing of home schooling. We heard about unusual hair styles and piercings of progeny and their friends. We heard about how out of 7 children only 1 was retarded, “Was it me?” We all know the story but this was the first out of 130 times I had heard it and it was very charming.

What this family may not or did not know about me is….. I LOVE eccentric personalities. I love that my neighbor has stuffed legs stuck in the front yard. (Glenn you liked them too - admit it) I love that one of my friends has never shaved her legs, I love that another one of my friends has never NOT shaved her legs. I love the extreme, the people full of character with "snappers" (as Jack Thomas would say).

I left the table in love. Not just with Eldon, but the cast of characters he had hidden away all those years. I was ready to tie myself for eternity with this crazy group. Now that I look back at that evening, I’m not sure who exactly was the pet on parade, them or me.

Two Going on Three

We have a little play group that gets together every week. There are a few babies and a couple three year-old boys that Thomas tries to keep up with. I think that he thinks he's three, just like Owen and Dillan. He's been trying to be three for so long that I kind of forgot that he was only one. Well, now that we got that birthday over with we can start working on three.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

This is a summary of trips, vacations, excursions we took. I am sure there are more and I welcome as many comments as possible to fill in the gaps.

1974 - We took a trip in our Holiday Rambler motorhome to Chicago to visit Jay and Marlene and family, and traveled by way of Yellowstone. This is the trip with the famous episode of getting the two oldest boys, who wouldn't settle down, to see who could run around the motorhome the most times. I know it was well over 100 times and we could hardly get Eldon to quit.
We traveled across Montana and South Dakota to Chicago. I think we visited Church history sites as well.



1979 - Flew to Washington DC and met up with the Nielsons who had taken our motorhome. They returned (using the other half of our tickets) and we took two weeks to come home with the motorhome. Highlights of the trip: the sights of the capital, Smithsonian, etc. Leaving Linnea in a Pizza Hut (when we returned she was still playing the pin ball machine, I think) Palmyra NY, Niagra, Nauvoo. Remember the rings made from nails they gave us in the blacksmith shop. Crossing the Mississippi on a small ferry at the end of Parley street, catching fireflies along side of the road and putting them in a jar (they lasted all the way to Independence Mo, where we let them go. Large grasshoppers in Texas, etc.






1982 - Catalina Island scout camp with Eldon, war canoes, buffaloes, wild pigs, etc. I think we did it again when Glenn was a scout.






Chasing rainbows when we went on an excursion to see the flowers in the desert.

Alaska trips - going fishing in Ketchikan. I think Mom, Brent, Glenn and Melissa went at different times. Glenn remember the time just you and I went there in our little Cessna plane after going on a business trip to Wanatchee, Wash. It was winter time, I think. Ketchikan: hiking through the forest picking wild berries, the 4th of July logging show, fishing from small aluminum boats, going on a 40 ft fishing boat, catching salmon and bottom fishing for weird looking fish just for the halibut.


Disneyland - staying in a nearby hotel, walking to Disneyland, breakfasts where Margaret and Martha (who came along to baby sit) had never eaten breakfast in a restaurant and when asked how they wanted their eggs, said "cooked."



Landing on a dirt road in San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California in the Cessns 182. The three oldest boys were there. We brought ice cream for the kids in the village there and they gave us scallops marinated in lime juice, I think. We camped under the wing of the airplane.


Trip to Mexico City with Linnea. Taking the subway, seeing to Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Shopping. Eating in a restaurant where they made me put on a jacket because it was so fancy.











Going to Paris and London when we went to get Melanie. Heather, Mom and I had a whirlwind tour of the Louvre, Versaille, etc. and in London we saw three plays: My Fair Lady, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Arsenic and Old Lace.


Yes, there was also the cabin, but I'm saving that one for another blog by itself.

Staying in the condo in Salt Lake City.

Trips to Thatcher to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter. The boys climbed up to the top of the sycamore trees at the side of the yard. Remember the good food, going down to the river bottom, the tractor, etc.

Train ride home from Los Angeles. I remember how hot it was, many stops all night, the whistling of other trains that would pass us in the night, eating on the train, etc.

Kate's Birthday

We are getting into busy time around our house. April is birthdays and May is just going to be crazy.

Sunday the Watkins came down from Orange County and we had a little family party for Kate. Her birthday party with kids (only every other year for our kids) is next Saturday. We sent out 18 invites sure that many would not be able to come. Of course everyone happens to be free. So look for some crazy pictures of 18 screaming 7 year olds next week.

We didn't really ask Kate what she wanted for dinner. In fact we didn't even have the kids eat with us. We made them some PB&J and threw it on the other table while we enjoyed Brisket Sandwiches, Heartburn Salad and Fruit. Another perfect meal from Mindy.



We had a little trauma getting the cake ready. You can see it on Kate's face. (home made ice cream cake)

But once we got to opening the gifts she was fine.


The big hit was the trinket we picked up at target.


A trinket I thoroughly enjoyed.

Where Did I Find This?

Melissa, your comment on Melanie's blog was probably a pretty general one but I decided to really answer it. Mostly because before I actually did it I had no idea where to start or what to do, it all seemed like a foriegn language. So here's the break down...

First, I went to the Family Search Website and clicked on the Library tab. That that takes you to the church's Family History Library. I clicked on the Family History Catalog and did a Place Search for Grandpa's hometown, Bjelovar (which I learned from Mom). Mom said her dad's family was Roman Catholic so I picked the Roman Catholic Church Records (Rimokatolicka crkva). If you click on the bottom where it says "printable version" it gives you a list of films that the church had made of parish records in that town (under "film notes" at the bottom). There are birth records (Rodeni), marriage records (Vjencani) and death records (Umrli) and the dates and film numbers. Usually you'd have to order the films you want to look at and then wait for them to be sent to your local Family History Library but I was in Provo at the time so I just drove up to Salt Lake and took a look at them. I found birth records for the year I wanted and looked for Stefani (Grandpa's mom). The whole thing was in Croatian so I found a Croatian to English dictionary online and looked up words that I couldn't guess. Mom had a birthdate for Stefani so I scrolled through to the year and then to the month and then the day. Nothing. So I just looked forward and backward and finally I found her!


I was so excited I ran straight upstairs from the basement of the library and called Mom on my cell phone. She was skeptical but I swore it was her so I made a copy of the record and sent it to her. This was the first breakthrough in about 40 years, nobody had ever been able to find any records! Something that I noticed on her birth record was a little note on the far right. It says that she married "Mirko" Omerza Sept 24th 1910 in Bjelovar. Mom had said that Mirko was short for Emerick so I now had a marriage date for Grandpa's mom and dad.

From there I searched birth, marriage and death records for Omerza's. I found an Omerza family but I couldn't find Grandpa's dad, Mirko, anywhere. We were always told that Grandpa was named after his dad, Emerick (or Mirko) Joseph Omerza Sr.. One day I found a Joseph but he died right after he was born. I found an Imbro Omerza and I was about to add him to the pile of random Omerza's when I saw another little note on the right column of his birth record.


It says that he was married in Bjelovar on September 24th 1910 to Stefani Exner! Bless that monk! We never would have known that "Imbro" is also "Mirko" if it wasn't for these little notes about their marriage (which is actually pretty unusual)!! This was my little geneology miracle and because of it we had a whole lot of temple work.

A Look to the Past

Imbro (Mirko) Omerza was born in Bjelovar, Hrvatska Hungary on October 8, 1885. When he was 25, he married 18 year old Stephanie Josephine Exner on September 24, 1910. Almost one year later they had their first child, Emerick Joseph. Not long after they decided to move to the United States. Imbro bought a ticket on the Titanic and missed the boat. I'm sure he was annoyed at the time, but someone was looking out for him. After he got situated in Chicago he sent for his wife and son. Imbro worked at Marshall Fields in Chicago. One day he came home from work to find his house completely burned down. Nothing was salvaged. His wife and kids were at a neighbors and for a day he couldn't find them. A few years later Imbro suffered a stroke. It affected his right side and he could no longer talk. Stephanie, who spoke no english, got a job scrubbing floors. Imbro would lie in bed all day, usually mumbling. One day when Stephanie came home Imbro was gone. Some neighbors came by and took him to a sanitarium because they thought he was crazy. Imbro died there, and because Stephanie had no money for a personal grave he was buried in an unidentified group grave. He died on November 13, 1921 at age 36. Emerick was 10 years old according to record, but he says he was 8. Imbro was baptized May 8, 1954 and endowed May 19, 1954 as Emerick Joseph, Sr. Thanks to Heather, who found Imbro's parents, he was sealed to them November 5, 2005 under both names.

Cake, Cake, Cake!

When the camera got busted at Legoland a few weeks back, I knew blogging would SLOW down at our house. It's just not much fun to blog without pictures. So last night I was tinkering with the camera and got it to work. YEAH! I took some pictures of Nicholas' b-day party tonight, but apparently it doesn't QUITE work all the way! It took the pictures and I can see them on my camera. I downloaded them onto the computer; they're there, but that's it. DANG! (We need to get some time and go buy a camera I guess!) Well, maybe not - now the picture is appearing! Yeah again!

TIME - We need to better use our time over here! Here's a low-down of whats been happening at our home: Ben is in baseball and they play ball two nights a week plus one practice. He also is doing piano and Scouts. The Pinewood Derby is Saturday and let's just say that that car over at Michael's Craft Store is looking pretty nice compared to the box of wood we were given last month! He and Glenn started carving last Saturday night. There's still plenty of time, right??!! :)

Zach is involved with coach-pitch and just loves it! The team plays twice a week, sometimes overlapping Ben's schedule, sometimes not. They do not practice during the week. (Thank goodness!) Basketball ended which has freed up some time for all of us.

Nicholas is doing t-ball and finds it quite boring but loves being the STAR hitter and fielder on the team! He really does a nice job! He continues to love gymnastics and the coach would like us to increase his time at the gym to prepare him for competition this Fall. He is a natural and just loves the rings! Wait and see. His t-ball meets twice a week, mainly overlapping Ben and Zach - oh well. Good thing for carpools and a very flexible Mom and Dad. We celebrated his 6th birthday tonight with a Space Shuttle cake. (He wanted mint chip icecream too.) Grandma and Grandpa came down for cake and icecream.

Christopher is growing bigger and bigger and is as cuddly as a bear! He is very excited for Garrett to come down next month. He was asked to bless the food the other night and as we all had our heads down, he is peeking through his arms - "... and please bless the pictures on the wall that they won't fall down." The prayer went on and on and on. EVERYONE was blessed that evening! He is such a hoot!

Emma Lee is testing the waters and pulling all strings available! Of course, everyone says how cute she is, but MAN - does she really try to get my goat! We have enjoyed making CAKE lately! We made cake for Grandpa's birthday on Sunday and then we made another cake three days later (today) for Nick! THIS IS GREAT! She continues to ride her bike and has the scooter down pretty good! We have been trying to nab the "thumb sucking" bug here. She wears socks on her hands at night and during naptime. (With the promise that if she keeps them on she can have an icecream when she awakes. So, at 6:11 last Saturday morning when we started this she comes barreling into our bedroom shouting icecream, icecream, icecream!) She keeps them on too! It's Amazing... she is not cured though. Time will tell on this one. (And if this way doesn't work, then Glenn has threatened to paint her thumb. I just can't see Glenn doing that to his Little Girl! Can you?)

Easter came and it was nice seeing everyone. Even though we just had ham, it was pretty good! (It tested our home smoke alarm system and all seems to be working just fine!) April brought over a WONDERFUL chocolate cake from her birthday party to share with us. Talk about chocolate! The kids had a blast hiding eggs and eating candy. They also decorated a t-shirt.

Grandpa's Birthday was a nice excuse to bake another cake! This time we had an angel food cake with strawberries. It was tasty! It's ALWAYS fun to have Grandma and Grandpa come over for a visit! It seems our kids just get so excited when they come to visit! It's always good to see them!

General Conference was a nice break from the daily Sunday schedule! I am still amazed at the power of 1. The one lady that did SO MANY baptisms for the dead before she passed on - I don't remember the number any more, BUT WOW! One person can make such a difference!

Glenn is busy as ever. He works these crazy hours which kinda' makes me work them too. Even though I have no excuse, I tend to stay up and do -- stuff. Morning seems to come all too quickly! (Especially with screamers in the night! We feel your pain Eldon!)

Tax Day

Dad, you always told us that you were born on tax day. That's how I remember you're birthday. That's how I ALWAYS remember your birthday. This year was so confusing. No worries, I didn't forget your special day. I'm married to Mike, he wouldn't let me forget something like that. I called on Sunday night but nobody answered and the answering machine never kicked on. I called Monday morning and left a message. I talked to Mom on the phone that afternoon and tried to pass along a Happy Birthday but it's just not the same and we got so involved in other topics that I don't really know if it got passed along. Well, today is tax day. I think I can safely say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you today and still consider myself on time :) Hope it was a good day!

Memories

I have enjoyed everyones memories - this has been great!
I remember the crazy names - don't really know how they got started-

Eldon- Eldon, smeldon, tumble down teldon
Glenn_ Glenjamin Benjamin or Glengee Bengee
Brent- Brent-ta-boy
Melissa- Melissa catisa catalicatisa
Linnea- Linnea capay ca-poodlie-day or Nay Nay
Heather - Heath the feath or buglette
Melanie - Mel Child

Wow, I never tried spelling some of these -

Rooster!

Well, I don't know the story behind this whole thing. Something about Eldon not know that chickens lay eggs regardless if the rooster is around. So, like I said, I don't know how this all came about but I really wanted to be included in poking fun at Eldon, so here's mine.

Jeff Foxworthy has those famous "You know you're a redneck if..." jokes. Well, you know you're a San Diego metrosexual if.... :)- you think a chicken needs a rooster to lay an egg.

We here in Mesa, Arizona, we know things. :)- In fact, I learned this about 3 years ago when my neighbor's chicken escaped and started laying eggs in my backyard. I was freaked out when a chicken of all things popped out from behind a bush and then I was freaked out to find all these eggs under the bush. I called her because I didn't want little chickens happening in my backyard and then she told me that it was okay because they didn't have a rooster. That's when the little light popped on and I went, "Oh." I was enlightened. Now you are too. :)

Birthdays and Easter

For Easter we broke with tradition and had a Seafood feast of Crab, Lobster and Shrimp at the Watkins house in Orange County. The kids even ate the shrimp and crab. Hate to say it but I didn't miss the Honey Baked Ham one bit.

We also celebrated, a bit late, Ryan's 2 year birthday.

He had cupcakes instead of a cake...

...and enjoyed every last bite.


The boys looked good in their Easter duds

And so did the family.


We missed everyone and hope you had a great Easter.

Country Wisdon

Here's a weather vane that might help you Eldon

Fortune Cookie

I just got a fortune cookie in Chinese and Hungarian. Mindy could you translate this for me?
Posted by DAD

Chickens and Eggs

Here's a little lesson on the birds and the bee's, or in this case,
the chicken and the rooster.

Chickens lay eggs.

Rooster get's fresh with the chicken... egg's hatch.
Chickens lay eggs regardless of happy roosters.
Just heard that someone in the family needed a little clarity on that subject.

(Didn't we have chickens as kids?)

More conference

This year we played conference bingo! It was a huge hit. I always got the loser bingo card though. They said "prayer", "scriptures", "Joseph Smith", and "family" a whole bunch. But they only said "family home evening" once at the very end. I would have won if they would have just said "family home evening". Oh well.

I was worried that if we played conference bingo, we might forget to listen to what the talks were really about, but I was able to listen. I also liked that talk that Heather mentioned. Jeff and I started laughing when he said that we were given our specific trials because they would strengthen us and help us become more like the Savior. The rest of the day, we kept hugging and saying how grateful we were for our trial. (Each other- hee hee) It was a really good talk though.

I felt like they really hit hard the basic gospel principles this conference. I don't know if you knew this, but the guy that made "The God Makers" (an anti-mormon video) just came out with a new one and mailed out 15,000 DVD's locally right before conference. It seemed like the general authorities refuted so many false misconceptions about our church. They bore such strong testimony about the Savior and the gospel principles, it was powerful.

I loved the choir this year. They didn't sing any up beat get ya going songs like "Carry on", but they were powerful. I wished that President Hinckley would have spoken more at the end. I always look forward to when he gets personal, and then bid's us farewell. It's like he said goodbye, and that was it. He is so lovable and humorous, I just wanted more and more.

Conference Comment

Eldon, I know this is a little slow in coming but I did have a talk that I really liked, Elder Oaks' talk about divorce on Sunday morning. No I'm not having marriage problems but we are surrounded by people who are. We've had 3 divorces in our ward in the last few months, YIKES! It was just really nice to hear him say that it's not ok when the whole world is telling us that it is. My favorite part was when he said that the solution to most marital problems is not divorce but repentence. It's so much easier to point fingers than it is to ask for forgiveness. Overall, I appreciated the affirmation that marriage and family are important and worth the work!

Memory of a Sunday Afternoon...

My memory that includes the entire family is of Sunday afternoons. I remember all of us driving out to the desert to look at flowers. I don't remember how long we stayed out there, or what we really did, but I remember loving it, and I remember we did it a lot.
(Twice would be considered a lot for a 4 year old)

Conference

So I had a hard time figuring out the theme of this conference. Usually I can come away with something but between stories of pickles and linebackers I am a bit confused?

What were your favorite talks? And did your kids watch all the in between stuff? Nothing like 6 hours of TV!

Highlights for me

- The girls had to fill out little summaries on some of the speakers which turned into a drama all itself. Me: "Hey didn't you hear him just talk about being kind?? Knock it off. Just write and quit talking"

- I did like the pickle talk

- Lots of talks on forgiveness and repentance. I wonder how a Mormon community would have reacted to 5 kids being killed?

But the highlight was Sunday morning. I was so excited to not have an early meeting. This was going to be the first time in about 6 months that the alarm was not going to be set. Just the thought of going to bed without a specific time I had to get up was great. But Garrett decided to get up at 5:30am and bug us until I got up to fix breakfast. I about killed him when he went down at 11am for a nap!!

It Begins...

our children have discovered April Fools. Benjamin, being the oldest decided to introduce his brothers to this wonderful holiday... How you may ask? By removing the ladder from Zach's top bunk! :) Now, Benjamin didn't realize that during the night, Zachary always gets up to use the toilet. So,

At 1:29am Sunday morning, the shrilling scream (a blood-curdling scream literally) comes from the boy's room. Zachary is on the floor, bleeding like you can't imagine. It's coming from his nose! When he went to get out of bed, feet first and backwards, he just assumed the ladder was there. He ended up falling backwards, head first, and somehow landed on his face. (Most likely doing a flip in the process?) Glenn got him to the bathroom while I started on the carpet.

As we got him back into bed, we noticed that the ladder had been moved. ????? we thought. What in the world! (at 2 in the morning, it's really hard to think too) As we all headed off back to bed, we noticed that a few of the barstools had been placed in other rooms. ????? we thought again. And for some reason, we had forgotten to lock the back door. Now we're thinking that the security system should have gone off if someone would have entered... right?!?! At this point, we began searching every room. Glenn was clenching his fists - ready!


The next morning, Glenn began the interrogation. Ben, very innocently, said, "Sure it was me" when asked about the missing ladder. "It was April Fool's," he said so matter-of-factly. Glenn kinda' lost it at that moment. (Very unusual for Glenn.) Glenn went on about broken knecks, wheel chairs, and DEATH!

While it was very serious (Glenn was very serious) - we were glad that nobody was seriously hurt! This will be a family tradition we are sure - boys are already scheming for next year! Hopefully this next time it will not be in the middle of the night with blood involved! :)

My Memory

This childhood memory involves "the girls." I remember hot summer days when Melanie and I would get bored of swimming. Sometimes all we had to do was look at each other and we would just know. Other times a simple clue like saying "B" was all we needed. So we didn't draw attention to oursevlves we'd both nonchalantly make our way upstairs to our room (now the yellow room) and play Barbies.

Oh yes, we would spend hours and hours up there, coming out for meals but that was about it. Unlike our friends we didn't have any of the Barbie paraphernalia, we just had a couple dolls so we had to get quite creative, which made it way more fun I think. We would turn our room into a Barbie City with apartment buildings and buses and country villas with a view. We would find fabric in Mom's stash above the sewing machine and sew our own Barbie clothes. We didn't have Ken dolls for a long time so we would go on dates with our stuffed animals. Being the two youngest I think we saw too many movies because the plots of our Barbie stories were always dramatic and always involved one of our teddy bears cheating on us (not that we really knew what that meant). I should have been a script writer for a soap opera! I remember being a little famous
for our Barbie exploits, we got teased (but we got teased for everything so it didn't stop us). It seemed like Brent was always trying to hide Dad's mini tape recorder in our room and record us playing.

Linnea always played with us and Melissa would make fun but sometimes find some excuse to join in. When she got too old Linnea soon decided that she was too old to play as well. We'd always invite her, she would turn up her nose and say she didn't want to play but she WOULD come in and do our dolls' hair. She always ended up playing. I remember at some point during our play Melanie always getting mad at us for something. It happened every time. I don't know if we were always mean to her or if it just got to be a habit but it never failed. Here's how I remember it:

Mel: That's not fair!
Me: Yes it is!
Linnea: Don't be a baby Melanie

Melanie would then lose her temper, start to cry and run out of the room yelling incoherently. Linnea and I, being the calloused children that we were, would laugh and then count slowly and quietly to 3. When we hit 3 Melanie would burst back into the room and proudly state "AND YOU CAN'T USE MY STUFF EITHER!!" and then slam the door again. Linnea and I would laugh even harder, keep playing and wait for Melanie to finish pouting and come back in and play.

I can't remember when I finally stopped playing Barbies, I'm sure it was long after I should have. I know that I LOVED that creative outlet and clung on as long as I could. When I was way too old I think I finally started "doing their hair."