Primary Candidates Debate tomorrow

(This is the U.S. Congressional District where I live. These Republicans are seeking to run against Democrat David Price.)

Triangle Conservatives Unite! have teamed with NBC 17 News to co-sponsor a debate between the Republican primary candidates in the 4th Congressional District. NBC's Kim Genardo will moderate the debate.

NBC will air the debate live on Saturday, May 1st from 10:00am to 11:30am. You can also watch the live web cast on NBC's web site.

If you want to participate in the debate, just email your questions for the candidates to:

myvote@wncn.com


Please remember to include your name and city/town. Your question may be read live on t.v.

ALSO, PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE IN THE PRIMARY ON TUESDAY MAY 4 !!!!

In case you are wondering, I am voting for William (B.J.) Lawson (Attention: After the debate I changed to Frank Roche. I am no longer voting for Lawson.) for Congress District 4, and for Tom Murry for NC House District 41, Ann Marie Calabria, NC Court of Appeals judge, Rick Elmore, NC Court of Appeals judge, Barbara Jackson NC Supreme Court Judge, and Kris Bailey for judge,

Judge Ann Marie Calabria, INCUMBENT www.calabria4judge.com

Judge Rick Elmore, INCUMBENT www.judgeelmore.com

NC Supreme Court Justice:
Barbara Jackson
www.barbarajackson.org

Dustbuster or Dirt Devil

To my kids: For my birthday/Mother's Day I think I want these features in a Dirt Devil/ Dustbuster type vacuum.

1) cordless, rechargeable.
2) a flip-down tube or hose or nozzle to get into crevices
3) lightweight and small


http://www.dirtdevil.com/products/details.aspx?id=M0896RED Has 9.6 volts of power. Is a bigger volt number better? I want it to have good suction.

http://www.oreck.com/small-home-appliances/zipvac.cfm (This one has a headlight, which might be very nice.)

https://www.buyflexvac.com/Features.aspxThis one has a filter that would have to be replaced every so often. The ones above have a dirt cup to empty, and I wouldn't have to buy filters.

Well, thats all the time I have to research this. Any of those three looks good, or something else if it has the features I want.

Carlos is a Mission President

Every time I get the Church News, I look through the new mission presidents and new stake presidents to see if I know anyone. This time I was shocked to see an old friend from BYU as a new mission president in Mexico.

Carlos V. was a guy in our BYU ward who used to ask me out. And I used to say no. While I was still single, he came back to visit me just before he left on his mission, and we posed for a photo with his arm around me. I suppose he would have written to me during his mission if I had just encouraged him. (And of course I got engaged to Wayne right after that.)

Carlos is 49 now, and I never would have recognized his picture, except I remembered the name and kept staring at the face until I realized it was the same guy. How weird! He was just a funny guy, I never could have predicted he would be a mission president someday.

I told Wayne I made a mistake, I should have married Carlos.

Project Runway finale

Last Thursday, I had the exciting time of watching the finale of "Project Runway". It was great! I had my choices narrowed down to two (Mila and Seth Aaron) and I had decided I didn't like Emilio anymore. And the winner was......Seth Aaron! I was very happy.

He is such a talented designer, I would especially like seeing him do the costuming for something as bizarre and far-out as Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" or a new "Wizard of Oz" or anything of that nature, with extremely costumey costumes.

I also really liked it that Seth Aaron wore one of his extremely costumey designs while he was showing his fashions (as opposed to Emilio, who wore a dumb T-shirt and an old hoody sweatshirt.)

And I also really liked it that Seth Aaron has a wife and two kids. Almost all the other males in the competition were gay.

I liked Mila's finale fashions also, I would be happy to wear a few of them. But Wayne didn't think hers could be changed into a clothing line. They were too retro sixties with no way to translate them into today's fashion. I disagreed, and thought they were great. I didn't like a lot of her stuff from earlier in the season, however.

I am going to be extremely impatient waiting for the next season to start, I really love this show.

P.S. I LOVED the way Anthony (from Georgia) talked. He cracked me up! The funny stuff he said every week was the highlight of the show for me. (Like when he said to the laughing silly 8-yr-old girls, "Do ya'll have an off-switch?" and when he said to Nina Garcia "I feel like you and I are girlfriends now" and he said "You don't have to wear a crown to be a queen.") I want to petition Hollywood to hire him as a cartoon voice actor. He would do a Southern gay black character so well!

Two Years in Bishopric

(Photo: April 27, 2008)


Two years ago today, Wayne was sustained as the second counselor in the Raleigh University Ward bishopric. They meet 25 miles away, but he has loved every minute of serving in that ward. He is such a talker, he enjoys visiting with all those twenty-to-thirty-year-olds.

Recently he has started hosting a Saturday afternoon Family Home Evening in our home. The ward members come over, and they have a cooking class every week. Different people take turns teaching their specialties.

Examples of Baby Quilts for Stake Project

There are several women in our stake who enjoy putting together charity baby quilts as much as I do. Amelia B. made the quilt tops in the top photo (the Faith in God girls tied them), and I made the quilt tops in the bottom photo.





She and I both get a kick out of taking a load of random fabrics and figure out what goes with what, and how to use the sizes to the best advantage.

I made about 27 baby quilt tops in the two weeks before the stake day of service last Saturday. It was very fun.

Pippin

Tara was in the play "Pippin" at her high school Thursday-Saturday. We had to take these photos without a flash but you can get the general idea. Everyone has tattoos drawn all over their faces, arms and legs.

In the top photo, Tara has her sword down, and is wearing black lace "arm socks", standing just to the right of the female character who is front center.

In the lower photo, Tara is seated looking up at the main character. There is one girl in between them.

Wallowing in Fabric

I just got back from the stake service day, where I was in charge of the baby quilt project. About 15 women helped me. Lots and lots and LOTS of fabric was donated, and we sorted it, cut lots of it into 6" strips, cut lots of backings, cut batting for each one, and packaged them into kits. Then the kits got taken to the various wards to finish. (All the people who take the kits are supposed to turn them in at the General Relief Society broadcast in September.)

Today was really just the start. We created 32 kits today, plus cut enough fabric to go into about 50 more kits (we just don't have the backings and battings cut for them yet.) I will be scheduling at least two other work days where we will do this same thing again. Last year we got 65 done. This year I hope we finish more than that.

I cannot tell you how much fun I have when I have a roomful of donated fabric and I get to design which fabric goes with what, and how to best cut it and sew it to make a decent little quilt. IT IS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! Yesterday was my birthday, and I spent all day doing that, and it was one of my best birthdays ever. (Plus the brownie hot fudge sundae was stupendous, thank you Zac.)

Next we have to unload our 15-passenger van, which was pretty full when I drove it to the stake center this morning. Now it contains even MORE fabric, because so much was donated. It will be great fun to sort it all out again as I put it away, in preparation for those upcoming work days.

Also.....

Yesterday Wayne and I (and our dau-in-law Tiffany) got to watch Tara perform in the musical "Pippin" at her high school. I really enjoyed the costumes, and the humorous dancing, and my favorite character was the wicked stepmother. It was fun to see Tara really relaxing and dancing in her role as one of the Players.

Birthday and Eyeglasses

It's my birthday, and I am planning to sew baby quilts all day for the stake baby quilt project. That is the funnest thing I can think of. I am also going to bake brownies, and eat a hot fudge brownie sundae, because that is my favorite dessert.

I went for an eye exam yesterday, to the optometrist we have been going to for years, because that is where our insurance is. They carry normal regular eyeglass frames. Every year for about 10 years I have gone there with the intention of buying fun, colorful, exciting frames, and every year I settle for normal ones because that is all they have.

I read a book a few years ago, (one of the Sweet Potato Queens books) and the author was criticizing people who are getting old and they haven't yet done what they want to do. She said, (paraphrasing) "If you are fifty and you don't have pink gogo boots yet, it is your own fault."

I have thought about that a lot. I am fifty-one, and I spend a little money here, and a little money there. If I can't get my act together to buy those things that I really really want, it is my own fault.

So, back to the optometrist story. I told the lady nicely that I wanted bright colors, with rhinestones or something, and I was going to buy them somewhere else. She asked me to come over to the computer, and then showed me some different colored frames on a website, and said that her suppliers carried them but she never ordered them because they were hard to sell. BUT ESPECIALLY FOR ME, she was going to call her suppliers and have them bring in a special selection of more exciting frames, then send them back after I chose some.

Now I am excited to see what cute glasses I can finally get. As Bill Murray said in "Groundhog Day", "I'm not going to follow their rules anymore!" I might buy funky flowered reading glasses AND plaid or sparkly distance glasses, so that means I get double the fun.

I told Wayne my goal is to get new glasses and a really tall hairstyle and look like the women in Far Side cartoons. He was thrilled.

Motherly Frustration

I heard this story:

There was a mom who had lots of little kids. One day she was so frustrated with them she didn't know what to do. To let off some steam, she went into her closet and shut the door, and SCREAMED.

When she felt better, she opened the closet door.

Her little kids were standing right outside the closet looking at her.

"See, Mommy, we told you there were monsters in there."

Despair Not Acceptable

"Despair, doom, and discouragement are not acceptable views of life for a Latter-day Saint. Even in the most severe of times, anciently or in modern times, those problems and prophecies were never intended to do anything but bless the righteous and help those who are less righteous move toward repentance. However, it requires a living faith to see the signs of the times, and to endure them."

President Howard W. Hunter, speaking at Brigham Young University, February 1992.

"Not only do I hope that we are familiar with these coming events, I hope also that we keep the vision of them continually before our minds. This I do because upon a knowledge of them and an assurance of their reality and a witness that each of us may have part therein rests the efficacy of Christ's admonition, 'Be not troubled'."

Elder Marion G. Romney

(Both quotes from an article written by E. Dale LeBaron "The Savior's Ministry to the Nephites: A Millenial Prototype". (p. 6-7, Transcript, F.A.R.M.S. Book of Mormon Lecture Series, (c) 1995 Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies)

Campfire Carrots

(Written Monday morning)
I just got home from seminary and, as usual, I was reading all my favorite websites while I ate my cold cereal. When I got the milk out of the fridge, I saw a bunch of carrot sticks and thought I would multi-task and put them on the stove to boil while I ate.

Of course I got distracted while eating and surfing the web, and after awhile I smelled something burning. Of course all the water had boiled away and I found the carrots all scorched and stuck to the bottom of the pan.

But good news! They taste just like the carrots inside a campfire foil dinner. So I will eat them anyway.

(Just another helpful recipe from Amy's kitchen.)

Increasing in Frequency

To continue on the "signs of the times" subject from my April 16th post....

From an article written by E. Dale LeBaron "The Savior's Ministry to the Nephites: A Millenial Prototype"

"Why will many be unprepared for these events? Because they ignore the prophets and because the destructive events, while they increase in frequency and power, blend together, and little regard is given to them. In October 1992 general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard said, "Recently, I read a newspaper article that cited statistics from the U.S. Geological Survey indicating that earthquakes around the world are increasing in frequency and intensity...."

(still quoting Ballard) "According to this article, only two major earthquakes---earthquakes measuring at least 6 on the Richter Scale---occurred during the 1920's. In the 1930's the number increased to five, then decreased to four during the 1940's. But in the 1950's nine major earthquakes occurred, followed by fifteen during the 1960's, forty-six during the 1970's, and fifty-two during the 1980's. [Note this was given in October 1992.] Already, almost as many major earthquakes have occurred during the 1990's as during the entire decade of the 1980's." (close quote Ballard)

"In light of this tremendous increase in one of the signs of the times, are people flooding to their churches...? Hardly. Why not? Nearly thirty-five years ago...President Joseph Fielding Smith testified, "The words of the prophets are rapidly being fulfilled, but it is done on such natural principles that most of us fail to see it."


(p. 5-6, Transcript, F.A.R.M.S. Book of Mormon Lecture Series, (c) 1995 Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies)


Note from Amy: Elder Ballard was referring to earthquakes over 6 on the Richter scale. Now earthquakes are measured a bit differently, but I assume the measurement numbers are somewhat the same. I just wanted to point out that the earthquakes I listed on my April 16th post didn't even include the Solomon Islands quake or the Taiwan quake or the Spain quake, which all happened since February 2010 and were all at least 6.0, but since they didn't cause any deaths or hoopla in the news I didn't list them.

So there have been 7 big earthquakes (bigger than 6.0) just since Jan. 12, 2010, within 90 days. As opposed to only 6 in the entire ten years of the 1920's (from Elder Ballard's quote).

Fabric and Politics on Saturday

Saturday morning I got up at 5 am, and my friend Amelia and I drove to Carrboro for an estate sale that was all fabric. I was especially hoping to find vintage fabric, and I bought some but not as much as I wanted. I just love unusual fabric, and yard sales and estate sales are usually where I find the strangest stuff.

Then I went straight to the N.C. Fourth District Republican Convention in Raleigh. I was one of 51 delegates from Wake County to go on to the Fourth District Convention. It is amazing that a Jane Average like me could see an announcement in the newspaper, and then just walk into the precinct meeting in February, and from there become a delegate to the Wake County convention, and then go on to the Fourth District convention. From here, if I wanted to, I could still go on to the State Republican Convention, but I am busy that weekend.

The only requirement was that I was a registered Republican. No one asked me anything, I didn't have to necessarily agree with anyone on anything, and yet I am a delegate. That just shows you how easy it is to participate in government. If I went to the state convention, my little voice combined with all the other delegates in all the states would be what makes up the decision-making process in the National Republican Party.

I really enjoyed hearing the candidates give their speeches to a room full of involved Republicans. They weren't trying to convince Democrats and Independents to vote for them, they were trying to show us why we should vote for them in the Primary against other Republicans. I think it was fascinating to hear the topics they choice to speak about, in order to differentiate themselves from their opponents.

The candidates for North Carolina positions were for: increasing the numbers of state charter schools by removing the caps, law enforcement, job creation in NC.

Candidates for the US House of Representatives were for: DEFEATING DAVID PRICE, cutting taxes, reducing spending, reducing the size of government, rejecting cap-and-trade, protecting private property, promoting a free market, controlling immigration, Pro-life, promoting energy exploration in the US.

When I see those words as simple sound bites, I am also for everything they say they are for. The complication comes in wondering HOW they are going to do it, and how good they will be at accomplishing their stated goals. It is still a hard decision knowing who to vote for. But I am more informed now than before I heard all their speeches.

Adam's Birthday

My baby is 28 today. Wow, I sure learned a lot raising him. He has turned out to be a wonderful adult, patient, loyal, faithful, great wicked sense of humor, very talented artistically, great singing voice, with a lovely talented wife to accompany him in life. I'm praying for him every day as he graduates from NCSU in the School of Design and goes out into the world. He will be a great asset in any video-game company or digital animation movie studio.

Here is his website: http://clockworkangel.com/

Past three weeks

Well, we've been home from the cruise for almost three weeks, and I still have piles of stuff to do. The first week and a half was spent getting ready to teach in Tennessee, then we came home from that and I needed to sew a little jacket for Rachel so she could wear it over her bridesmaid dress tomorrow.

I have also been getting ready for the stake day of service, which will happen on Sat. April 24. I'm in charge of the baby quilt project. People have been donating fabric and I have been making some patchwork quilt tops. On the 24th we will be cutting fabric and batting and making kits to give to the Relief Societies and Young Women to finish.

I finished painting my master bathroom, but the other two bathrooms are only partially painted. I probably won't get back to that project for a month or two.

My molar chipped last week, so I just got a temporary crown yesterday, and will get my permanent crown in three weeks. Now I can't chew gum, which was my way of dealing with food cravings, so I know I won't be losing weight until I get that new crown on.

I am still looking forward to writing a novel in November with NaNoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/. But I was surprised to find out that Tara decided to participate in the companion Script Writing contest, which is called Script Frenzy http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/. In that one, you are supposed to write a one-hundred page script during the month of April. I don't know yet how committed she is to finishing it.


Since I am a "natural-disaster-junkie", I've had a lot to dwell on lately. In 2010 we've had big (6.9 and up) earthquakes in Haiti (7.0 Jan. 12), Chile (8.8 Feb. 27), Baja California (7.2 Apr. 4), and China (6.9 Apr. 14). Four big earthquakes within 60 days of each other. Plus, the same day of the China earthquake, the big fireball/meteorite exploded in the sky over the Midwest USA and now the volcano in Iceland is causing airlines to cancel 17,000 airline flights a day over Europe.

Can you say "signs of the times"?

It might be a good time to get a few more emergency preparedness supplies.

A Gammill in my Future?

While I was in Tennessee, I visited at my friend Judy E's house. She proudly showed me her Gammill long-arm quilting machine. This isn't a great photo of the sewing machine (see it at the far left of the quilting frame), but it is a huge sewing machine which is on a movable frame (on ball bearings or something) so you can move it around really easily.


You put the quilt in the frame, then you move the machine all around over the quilt as you quilt it. This is WAY easier than the way I do it, which is to wad up the quilt and move it around under the sewing machine needle.

Maybe, just maybe, I might want to buy one of these someday. But the price makes me croak. (Judy's cost almost $17,000.)

One Second After- Book Review

One Second After- by William R. Forstchen

Remember how disappointed I was in the movie "2012"? I wanted it to be about the end of the world, how people coped after all of civilization got ruined by natural disasters, but the movie wasn't about that at all.

Well, in this book I got exactly what I wanted. At the start of this novel, an enemy nation sets off Electro Magnetic Pulses (EMPs) by detonating nuclear bombs over all the countries they hate.

Every computerized gizmo in the free world is fried.

And chaos ensues.

In reading the Book of Mormon all these years, I know that the prophecies contained therein are true, and they are going to happen again. So I look for those types of things to happen when I read "end of the world" novels. And this one really does hold true to the image I have formed in my mind.

When transportation, food and water supplies, and governments are crippled, the people in this novel start breaking down into smaller groups depending on leaders to help them. (In the Book of Mormon, people break up into tribes.) Militias are formed to guard the city's supplies from the outsiders. Disease and plagues and sicknesses break out because there are no medical supplies and no fresh water. It is a grim picture, and in the book a lot of it happens within about three weeks of the EMP. After that, there is starving and more disease. I agree with the author, I do think all those things can happen in a short amount of time.

This was a really gripping book, and I recommend it to everyone.

Stargazing

Wayne has owned this 8" telescope for about 25 years, and Zac has just gotten interested in using it. Here are photos of them looking at the stars on our driveway one night last week.

Apartments for Seth and Janette

Wayne and I went to Raleigh Saturday checking out the three different apartment complexes that Seth and Janette had chosen. We told them our preference, and we hope they lease it and enjoy living there. Seth hopes to be accepted into the NCSU masters program for engineering.

Also, I was eating something Saturday and bit it just wrong, and part of a molar broke off. Now I am going to have to get a cap, I bet. There is a jagged place on my tooth that is hurting my tongue.

I've been working on my garden. I am expanding the amount of garden space we have this year, because I am very intent on learning to grow more kinds of food. Last year I was only successful growing Roma tomatoes and cucumbers. The rest were very sparse or didn't grow at all. I really hope the peas grow this year, I absolutely love eating peas right out of the pod.

Also, on the way home from Tennessee we ate at a Cracker Barrel. There was a magazine cover on the wall with a picture of Greta Garbo. I was surprised to see how much Janette looks like her. Woo Hoo! My daughter-in-law looks like a famous movie star!

Wythe County Miracle with Photos

As Wayne and I drove home from Tennessee on Friday, we drove through Virginia (because I-40 is closed due to a rockslide). We discovered that we were going to go right through Wytheville, VA, where a real miracle happened to me in 2005. We went and took photos of the details in the following story. With these visual aids, now I hope you can see what a miracle it really was. (This story, without photos, was also on my blog on 5-19-2009.)

(This miracle happened Nov. 2, 2005, and I wrote the following account of it very shortly afterward.)


MY WYTHE COUNTY VIRGINIA GENEALOGICAL EXPERIENCE

On Tuesday Nov. 1st, 2005 I drove 3 hours to Wytheville, VA to teach quilting. I usually check the website Mapquest to see how many miles and how long it will take to drive to my destination, but this time I just took Wayne's word for it because he had been to Pilot Mountain several times and it looked about an hour farther to him. So on Tuesday I got a little worried about the time estimate so I got ready and left too early, giving myself too much time so I accidently got there 2 and a half hours early.

I wondered what I could do to use the time wisely, and thought I would see if I could find some stores and do some Christmas shopping. It was a little town of 8,000 people, so it had an old downtown like Chatham St. in Cary. I drove all the way through town, and on one side of the street saw a little storefront with what I thought said "Wythe County and Tazewell County Historical and Genealogical Society". All my young life, my mom dragged us around as she went on genealogy vacations, and I had heard her talk many times about Tazewell County and knew we had ancestors there.

Since I didn't find any stores to shop at, as I came back through town I pulled up in front of the Gen. Society and looked at the door and it said it was closed on Tuesday.




(Photo of the door.)



I thought to myself that I could come back the next day, so I called my mom on my cell phone. She told me later that I told her that I was at the Tazewell County and Wythe County Genealogical Society and if she could find me some names I could look them up the next day.

That evening while I was having dinner with the guild ladies, my mom called me back and I told her I was in Wythe county, and she told me to call her back later and she would give me the names to research. I taught my slide lecture, then went back to Carol Britt's house to sleep. My cell phone was almost dead, and I had forgotten to bring my recharger, so Carol let me use her home phone. I felt bad making her pay for my long distance use, and called Wayne and said I was coming home early the next day.

Then I remembered that I had called my mom about the genealogy, and that she was waiting for me to call, and thought "UGH! I don't want to do genealogy tomorrow! I already told Wayne I was coming home early. Maybe she won't have any names for me." So I quickly called her, and she said look up Shupe, Slimp, Happas, Cannoy, Garrison and Ballinger.

Wednesday morning I had to hang around until the place opened at 10 am, so I spent more money at the fabric store, and got to the genealogy place and was a bit surprised to see that the door said "Wythe County Genealogy Society" and didn't say a thing about Tazewell County. An intersection close to the building was Tazewell Street, so I guess the images just mixed themselves together in my brain. I don't think I ever would have stopped in the first place if I thought it was just Wythe County, because I never heard my mom talk about that county.




(Here is a photo of the big picture window of the Genealogy Society. Then in the next photo, you can see the window across the street.)








I went in and asked the volunteers there about my 6 names, and they had me look in an index of all of Mary Kegley's books. Mary Kegley had indexed almost all of the documents in that county, and when I looked in the index of all her work I could go to the separate books and find the names. I got about 25 pages marked with sticky notes, and suddenly the power went out in that whole section of town. I could only stay 1 hour because I thought I had to pick up Tara from play practice, so I paid them $10 to copy everything for me when the power came back on, and to send it to my mom. I had no idea what I had found or if it was important, I just got everything copied that had those surnames mentioned. I assumed that if I did find anything, it would be inconsequential because so much of that side of the family has already been done. I didn't think any of it would be useful to my mom.

Just about the time I was leaving, Mary Kegley herself walked into the building. I told her who I was looking for, and said that my mom might be interested in hiring her to do some research. She asked me where my mom lived, and I said my mom lives in Salt Lake City, and volunteers at the Family History Center. Mrs. Kegley said, "Oh, she doesn't need me! They have purchased all of my books!" But I got her brochure anyway in case my mom needs it.

I came home and didn't really think anything about the genealogy for awhile, and then my mom called me on Sunday very excited, because she had received the package of papers. She said "You found people we couldn't find."

She and her sisters are such good genealogists, and have been doing this for their whole lives. And yet a stupid person like me, who didn't even know what county I was in, walked in and found the very churches they attended, (Zion Church, and Kimberling or Kimbrell Church), with all the records of marriages and christenings of our ancestors. Records that Mary Kegley just indexed-- some of her books were published in 2004 so my mom and aunts didn't even know they existed yet.

My mom said I found two different generations of Johan Shoops that she didn't even know were in Wythe County. (Johan Shoop married to Catherina Anna Slimp, and their son Johannes Shoop married to Louisa Ferguson.) Since these two Johan's were on a pedigree chart I have here at my house (but I didn't have it when I was on my trip) I said, "But you already had their names." She said, "Yes, my Grandpa William Kyle Shupe knew all the names many generations back, but we didn't know the dates or places, and couldn't find the records."

And she said the papers give the names of their children, brothers, inlaws, etc. mentioned in the land records or christening records, and now they know where to look for all the other information that they need. My mom said that she thinks her Grandpa Shupe led me there. He did over 5000 endowments in his life, and really loved his ancestors.

To explain what a miracle this is that I found this, my mom and her sisters are huge genealogists. My aunt Alice has 80,000 names in her genealogy computer database, and the church has asked her to be one of the first ones to input it into the Church's new Unified System, to test the system to see if it can handle that many names at once. But instead of letting my mom and aunts find it, the Lord knew this Shoop information was just sitting there, and led me right to it.

Taught Quilting in Tennessee

Wayne and I drove to Loudon, Tennessee on Wednesday, and I taught quilting at the Village Quilters of Loudon, TN Quilt Guild on Thursday and Friday. Then we drove home Friday afternoon and evening.

Wayne was excited to accompany me on this trip, because he was going to spend all day Thursday in the Smokies while I was teaching. However, Mother Nature ruined his fun, because the forecast said it was going to be heavy thunderstorms all day Thursday. Therefore, we only got to spend 2 hours in the park on Wednesday as we drove toward Loudon, and he didn't go back at all on Thursday while it was pouring. Instead, he read his novel and watched two movies at the theater.


(Photo of Wayne taking a picture of Newfound Gap, Smoky Mountain National Park, as we drove through it on Wednesday evening.)

I had a great time teaching the women my class "Crooked Log Cabin for the Precision Impaired". Here are some of the quilt blocks they made in class:

Rock Crusher

In case you don't know, my grandpa, my dad, and my brother have all owned and run rock crushers in Oklahoma their whole lives. They dynamite a section of earth to break up the limestone, then big loaders load the rock onto dump trucks. The dump trucks dump it into the crusher, and the crushed up rocks go on conveyer belts like this to the rock piles. Then it is loaded into dump trucks to sell it to make roads, etc.

I am thinking about submitting this photo to Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs." Maybe he would like to go and film one of his shows at my family's rock crushing plant.

Gun Rack

Here we are, in my living room when I was about one or one-and-a-half years old. (L to R: me, Larry, big doll, Cindy).

Yes, my dad didn't just own A gun, but MANY guns, to necessitate owning a gun rack. (Note: I can see that "Amy-doll" is on the shelf by the guns.)

It was totally normal for us to have guns in the house. I suppose my parents would be arrested for that today.

I remember that my dad would sometimes pull out his bullet loading equipment. He would pour gunpowder into the shells. Then he would let us pull the lever to clamp the bullet together.



Later, we put our TV in front of this fireplace (see my photo with Clarissa, my Raggedy Ann doll, in my post of Dec. 6, 2009).

Tally Up

I just read a letter from a young man, a missionary that we know. He was talking about General Conference, which was just this past weekend. He wrote:


"I did a little experiment. So yesterday for both sessions of conference I tallied every time I felt the Spirit testify to me that what was being said was true. So by the end of the two conferences I was quite surprised on what the number was. It added up to 42 confirmations through the Spirit that what was being said was true. It was about the coolest thing I could have ever done! It helped me stay focused and it made me recognize how true this church is."

What a great idea. I know that tears came to my eyes several times, just from the wonderful feelings I was having as I listened to the talks myself. I want to do a tally when conference comes around again in October, but I don't plan on telling you the total number, thats too personal.

Beautiful Children

I have to say that my parents had some beautiful little children. I love the soft look of this photo.

(L to R: Larry 4, Cindy 5, me 1, Cheryl 7, wearing a poodle skirt). Notice that we lived in the boonies. Not a house in sight. (Later, Carla and Jamey were born.)

And I am sorry that my mother didn't dress me modestly.

Quiz for General Conference

Every six months, I make a quiz from the Sunday session of General Conference for my seminary class. Here is the April 4, 2010 quiz. Remember, I was typing this quiz from live TV, so forgive me if the paraphrasing is not quite perfect. You can always wait until the transcripts come out on the internet or in the Ensign and correct anything that needs correcting.


Sunday conference session Apr. 4, 2010

Dieter Uchdorf, 2nd counselor First Presidency

1) Statue in a German city, damaged in WWII bombing. What was missing from the statue?
1a-head
1b-hands
1c-feet
1d-legs

2)What was the offensive name the old members gave the new members who joined the church in Germany after WWII?
2a-carpet bagger Mormons
2b-line-up Mormons
2c-canned food Mormons
2d-little feet Mormons


Donald L. Hailstrom, Presidency of the Seventy

3)He contrasted two families. The first lost a 3a ______ and subsequently left the church.
The second lost a 3b_______ AND 3c________, but did not leave the church. Each family's decision of how they handled their loss influenced the next 4 generations of their family.

4) Pres. Hailstrom told the story of Simonds Ryder. In the early days of the church, Mr. Ryder left the church because
4a-his wife died
4b-he was offended by business dealings he had with Joseph Smith
4c-his cow died.
4d-his name was misspelled by Joseph Smith.

Cheryl C. Lant, General Primary pres released yesterday
5)We are the ________ that Heavenly Father has sent today to encircle the children.
5a-angels
5b-guardians
5c-teachers
5d-women

Quentin L. Cook, Quorum of the Twelve
6) He talked about the tsunami in Samoa. He related it to us, He said to be saved we must run as fast as we can to seek the 6a____________.


Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church
7)He told about a painting of two women
7a-picking grain in a field.
7b-walking down a lane carrying milk pails
7c-mourning the loss of an unreturned fisherman
7d- fashionably dressed, sitting on a park bench.


8) President Monson received a letter from a father of a son named Jason, who was ill in the hospital. The father talked to Jason, whose eyes were closed."Please don't ever lose your testimony of Jesus Christ". Jason opened his eyes and said "__________!"
8a-Agreed!
8b-Never!
8c-You got it!
8d- I won't!

9) Jason's brother Kyle received his mission call just before Jason died. Showed a photo of the brothers together. The father wrote something on the photo. What did he write?
"Called to serve t_______ m_______ together, on b____ s______ of the v_____."


End of Morning session.

AFternoon session

Russell M. Nelson, Quorum of the Twelve
10) New Family Search is a step toward making one ______ for all of God's children.
10a- gospel plan
10b-family tree
10c-church building
10d-computer game

Robert D. Hales, Quorum of the Twelve
11) My grandson wanted me to go to a popular but inappropriate movie. I told him that
11a-he had disappointed me greatly.
11b-we would go get ice cream instead.
11c-we would see the movie after it came out on TV.
11d- I'm not old enough to see that movie.

12)My little grandson was snuggled up to me while I was reading the newspaper. Finally he pushed himself between the newspaper and me, and took my face in his hands and said,
12a-"Grandpa, are you in there?"
12b- "Grandpa, stop reading and start paying attention to me!"
12c- "Grandpa, lets go eat"
12d- "Grandpa, I have to go to the bathroom"


Bradley D. Foster of the Seventy
13) Little boy kept correcting his daddy when dad was reading him a story book without words. Said it was a coat, not a jacket, etc. Dad asked, “Why do you keep correcting me, this book has no words.” What did the little boy say? 13a

14) Calves kept getting lost on the cattle drive. Men tried to gather them up but the calves were too scared. What did the men do?
14a- Brought a truck to pick them up.
14b- Brought the calves' mothers to lead them.
14c- slaughtered them for meat.
14d-lassoed them and tied them up.

James B. Martino of the Seventy
15)After the boy threw a ball in the air many times and tried to bat it, he never hit it. He finally said,
15a-"Practice makes perfect"
15b- "I'm not cut out for baseball"
15c- "What a pitcher!"
15d-"I think I can, I think I can"

Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy
16) He spoke about having good judgment. He said we often judge Martha because we hear that Martha loved doing housework instead of sitting and listening at feet of Christ. But he pointed out that we need to remember the other story about Martha in the New Testament. She also did this: 16a-


17)As a young physician, I was working the midnight shift at the emergency ward. A very unkempt couple came. I midjudged them. I later found out that
17a-they were very wealthy.
17b- they were leaders in their community in Haiti
17c-they had just been through a fire in their apartment.
17d- the husband loved the wife very much.


Elder Neil L. Anderson, Quorum of the Twelve
18) Bill Forest and Debbie Hutchins got married and had 7 children. Ten years ago today, what happened in their family?
18a-Their 8th and 9th children were born, twins with disabilities.
18b- Bill was killed in a car wreck.
18c- their house burned and three of their children were killed.
18d- their missionary son was shot and killed in France.



Answers:




Dieter Uchdorf, 2nd counselor First Presidency
1b-hands
(It was a statue of Christ. The townspeople added a sign at the bottom, "We are his hands".)

2c-canned food Mormons
(The old members thought they joined the Church just because they were receiving free food from Church welfare services, and would fall away soon.)

Donald L. Hailstrom, Presidency of the Seventy

3) The first lost a 3a___ baby_____ and subsequently left the church.
The second lost a 3b__mother_____ AND 3c___twin babies_____, but did not leave the church.

4d-his name was misspelled by Joseph Smith.

Cheryl C. Lant, General Primary pres released yesterday
5a-angels

Quentin L. Cook, Quorum of the Twelve
6a__High Ground__________.

Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church
7c-mourning the loss of an unreturned fisherman
(Name of the painting "A Hopeless Dawn")

8b-Never!

9) "Called to serve their missions together, on both sides of the veil."

End of Morning session.

AFternoon session

Russell M. Nelson, Quorum of the Twelve
10b-family tree

Robert D. Hales, Quorum of the Twelve
11d- I'm not old enough to see that movie.

12a-"Grandpa, are you in there?"



Bradley D. Foster of the Seventy
13a "Mommy told me"

14c- slaughtered them for meat. (Ha Ha, just kidding)

14b- (correct answer) Brought the calves' mothers to lead them.

James B. Martino of the Seventy
15c- "What a pitcher!"

Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy
16a-Martha was the one who met Jesus and said, "If thou had been here, my brother would not have died” John 11.

17d- the husband loved the wife very much.

Elder Neil L. Anderson, Quorum of the Twelve

18b- Bill was killed in a car wreck.


How many did you get correct?

Good Shots

Tara got her first camera, from her siblings for her 18th birthday. She caught Elizabeth being very cute the other day, sitting under our entry-hall table with Tara's old American Girl doll.

Books I read on the Cruise

I read these books while I was gone:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
Absolutely outstanding. This will go into my list of favorite books I've ever read. It is a novel completely written in letters (kind of like "A Woman of Independent Means"), and you get to know the characters through their letters back and forth to each other. The main character, Juliet Ashton, is a writer just after World War II, who finds out about the German occupation of the channel island of Guernsey, and writes letters back and forth to the people there. The suffering they went through was heart-wrenching.

I adored each and every character in this book






Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

I have to say that I liked this book less than I liked a similar Austen-rewrite, Sense and Sensibility and SeaMonsters. But that is natural, because I really really enjoy the original Sense and Sensibility better than I like the original Pride and Prejudice.

Both of these re-writes are fascinating and funny, because of course we all know the original plots, and it is so hysterical to see the "P and P" plot mixed in with a zombie invasion, or in the case of "S and S and S", all sorts of maneating octupii and sharks.






Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

This was just a bit of fluff, quite enjoyable though. The main character is a woman from 2010 who suddenly wakes up in Regency England, living the life of a woman in a Jane Austen novel. I loved the contrasts between what she was used to in our century and what she had to go through there (no baths, no toilets, strict social conventions, class boundaries between commoners and gentry, marriages of convenience.)

Fun Times on the Ship

Photos: Walking around on the promenade deck. Eating dinner at the first formal night, which was Sunday night. (I bought a strappy black formal and a black lace jacket. Then I wore a nude-colored Tshirt under the strappy formal, so it looks like skin showing but it isn't. )

I really enjoyed the entertainment on the ship. Every night we went to either a production show with singers and dancers in the theater, or to a comedian in one of the lounges. I really liked the comedian Carlos Oscar, and the comedian Steve Moris.

I also went to the ship's Trivia game, and while there I heard these dumb jokes:

A blonde and a brunette jump out of an airplane. Which one landed first? The brunette. The blonde had to stop and ask directions.

Did you hear about the new Divorce Barbie? She comes with all of Ken's stuff.

What do you call a cow with 3 legs? Tritip.

Cow with 2 legs? Lean beef.

Cow with 1 leg? Steak.

Cow with no legs? Ground beef.

Where would you find a dog with no legs? Where you left him.

What do you call a donkey with 3 legs? Wonky.

Why don't cannibals eat clowns? Because they taste funny.

What is green and red and goes round and round? A frog in a blender.

What do you call a dinosaur with one eye? Doyouthinkhesaurus

My brother Larry sang in the "Princess Idol" preliminary competition, but didn't make it to the next round. He sang "Marguaritaville".

Go Backwards for more photos

IMPORTANT: I got on the computer last night and added some photos to all the blog posts I wrote about the cruise so far. So go back clear to March 23 and you can see the pictures that go along with each day.







We had fun dressing up for the two formal nights on our cruise. (Sorry, I still don't know how to turn a photo using this Mac.)


Wayne says his favorite 12 hours of the whole week was the day he spent sailing in Long Beach Harbor with my brother Jamey.

I completely disagree (mostly because I was overdosed on anti-nausea medicine while we were sailing.) I loved the whole cruise experience. Looking back, I think having so many options to do at any one time on the cruise ship was great, and I loved going to dancing classes, the Ultimate Ship Tour (because I love exploring behind the scenes), and EATING nonstop. If I think of any of my other favorite things, I will let you know.
(Photos of the 40 ft. sailboat we rented for Saturday after getting off the cruise ship.)