Fire on the Way to Utah

Utah has had it's share of fires this season!

Here are some shots Christine captured on my cell phone while we were driving up for lacrosse camp and the 4th of July holiday with the family on July 1st.

 

 We were just driving along on the 15 and all of a sudden came upon this smoke that kept getting worse and bigger.  There was cloud cover and threatening rain, but none of it produced.

 

Most of my pictures are from my cell phone these days.

Hoping for a better phone soon, and hoping with that the pics will be better too!

Cute Cartoon!

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.......!

Catching Turtles

Meredith's brother, Erik, is leaving on his mission soon.

Christine and Erik are close friends.

They have been trying to do as much as possible together before he leaves.

They went turtle catching in the Coto Resevoir.

You wade in, find the turtles, catch them, and release them back.

It's fun, horribly muddy, and adventurous.

 

Cute turtles!

Love Affair

Adrianne has a love affair with sock monkeys.

She LOVES them.

I found this in the Wilk at the Bookstore.  I had to get it for the baby's room.

#1--Don't you just think it's the cutest thing ever?

#2--It's kinda a rivalry thing:  Adrianne went to the U.  She has a very good sense of humor about it since she married into a Y family.

Current Favorite Jammies

John's current favorite pajamas.

Pirate:  Argh!

He walks around saying Argh, Argh, Argh.

They are so small on him, so Natalie pulled them out of the hamper and hid them away.

So far he hasn't asked for them--yet.

Daily Q

Question:  What question would you really like to ask God?

Answer:  Why?  and probably: How Did You Know? and on occasion:  Time Out.  Throw Me A Bone, Please?

So For Today.....

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything.
There is so much to write down and remember.  I have been gone 6 weeks out of the summer already.  I don't even unpack my suitcase!
I am home for two weeks now and hope to get semi caught up.  I'm just going to put things down.  Probably not even in sequence or back dated because this is my life right now.

So for today, I'm going to say that Christine finished her registration for her SENIOR year of high school.  I used to think this day was so far off, and now it is here.  My youngest child is in her last year of high school. Sniff-Yay-Sniff-Yay! I want to savor every moment because after this, life will be very different for us.  

Saturday morning she went to the studio Tesoro uses to have her senior portrait taken for the yearbook.  This was very different from  how the other kids did it.  The pictures were taken in the high school gym and they got to wear pretty much what they wanted.  Now, there is a dress code for the senior yearbook photo, and a parent was required to attend the sitting.  Guys had to wear collared shirt, tie, and jacket preferred.  Girls, more simple and dressy.  Parents and student chose the two options for the background.  I really kind of liked it.  I glanced at all our past year books and decided that this makes for a nicer book.  And for some parents--no surprises when the year books come out!  Haha!  Can you imagine?  I haven't had that experience, but know some who have.

CRAZYness

The days have been crazy this month.
Hopefully I can get all caught up by next week.
I've been in Arizona for Natalie's baby shower this last week.  I am home for two days and off to UT to take Christine to EFY.  It will be nice to have a bit of quiet, down time.

All this cRaZiNeSs has been fun, exhausting, and all in all a beautiful thing. 

More to come.  Encourage me to take more pictures----I'm lacking there.....

Indexing: North Carolina

Yay!  Hooray!

I finished my Personal Progress goal with the indexing of North Carolina this mornnig.

It was another hard one to read.  Just when you think you know the handwriting, it changes on you.

They have an arbitration site that checks your work when you submit it.  I have been overall 97% accurate.  At this point, the indexing of the 1940 census is 80% completed, and I have been a part of that.

Indexing--South Carolina

I worked on indexing South Carolina this morning.  It was really hard.  I know there will be some mistakes.  The handwriting was very difficult to read.  This neighborhood was a mix of whites and negroes, and all were farming or laborers.  I am one more batch away from my goal for personal progress.

Indexing: Wisconsin

I can cross indexing off my list of goals for today.  It felt good to get back to it.  After I do a batch, I feel like I was part of something really important, even though only me and the computer know it.  The people on this street--West McKinley--represent what I think was a very typical group of neighbors at this point in time.  I am fascinated by my thoughts when I get this snapshot into their lives.  What did they look like?  Did they have accents?  A lot of these people were from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary.  Others were born right here in America.  I can imagine lots of row houses with so many different aromas coming from their kitchens in the evenings from all their respective countries of origin.

Employment:  hotel elevator operator.  Waitress. Laborers.  Machinist for a tractor manufacturing company.  Salesladies for dress shops and glass stores.  A 'choreman' for a private residence.  Road construction.  Hospital orderly.  Stenographer.  Tool and Die operator.  Packer for a lock company.  Punch Press operator.  Foreman.  Pipe fitter.  And an undertaker chauffeur.

Here We Are In July Already!

Well, here we are in July already.  Two weeks have gone by and I haven't posted.  We've had a family baby shower for Adrianne, gone to Utah for lacrosse camp and 4th of July.  Lisa and Craig and Linda and David came up from Arizona for the holiday week.  Josh and Meredith and Ainsley made the trip as their vacation this year.  We've been home for 3 days and it almost doesn't seem like we were gone there is so much to do.  I just keep telling myself:  one day at a time, one day at a time.  It is wicked hot around here.  Seems like that is the case all over the country right now.  Duff has had two job interviews since we've been home and he got both!  So he is off to work this morning!  Yay!  We are so grateful. I hope to catch up blog posts soon.  There is so much to report.

Today my goals are:  walk, finish blessing baby blanket, finish laundry, index, stay cool.