Indexing

I learned how to index names, like from birth certificates and census records, about a year and a half ago. I did it for a few weeks, but then it kind of fell by the wayside. But the past few weeks I've been doing it again and have been loving it. It's such a fun way to do service and it can be done anytime, anywhere, as long as I have access to the internet. I do it while I'm eating or drinking a shake, watching a movie, or feeding Joseph a bottle. It's such a better use of those moments rather than getting sucked into endless hours of facebook games! I enjoy reading the old handwriting and seeing the names people had and the places they were from. Well, sometimes the handwriting isn't so enjoyable to read... pretty darn near impossible! But most people who were recording those records had readable handwriting and some had absolutely beautiful penmanship. Anyway, indexing is something that anyone can learn how to do. A very easy to learn training tutorial is available online at familysearchindexing.org and that's where you can register too. And one does not have to be a member of the LDS church to be a part of the indexing work. Indexing is basically extracting information from scanned images of historical documents so that it can be put into a searchable database, which is particularly useful for those who are working on their family history. All of the records that are indexed through familysearchindexing are available to search at no cost, which makes it such a great resource.

Anyway, I've added a little section to my sidebar on my blog to show how many names I've indexed so far.

Caught in the Middle

I'm cleaning house today... well, "house" on my computer, that is... sorting through all my digital pictures. Hence, another little post. I can never look at this picture without laughing and reliving a little of the emotion I felt as it was taken. This was from a few years ago when we were out playing in the snow up at my Mom's house. John and I were using two circular sleds to scoop snow and toss it at each other and my little brother happened to be standing in between us (unbenownst to us) at just the moment when we both tossed a sled full of snow towards each other and it all landed on him. My mom happened to snap this picture immediately after it happened and oh my heck. Look at that face. Do you blame him? I'd feel the same way getting an unexpected shower of snow! It even went down inside his snow suit at his neck. Poor kid! But boy, do I love this picture.

And because I'm weird like this, I like to come up with life analogies for things like this. I thought of a good one to go along with this picture and that is to not let your kids get caught in the middle of your fight cause they'll get a load of crap falling all over them that they don't deserve, and that, obviously, breaks their hearts. The end.

Oh wait! One more thing...

my stomach is twitching.

Why I Am Afraid of Bridges

When I was a child my family would go hiking at this place called Raven Rock. (I grew up in North Carolina for those who don't know.) The hike was beautiful, however, there were a few of these little bridges over a little, winding stream and without fail, every single time we walked over them my Dad would stomp real hard on them and in a loud, gruff voice say something or other about a troll underneath the bridge we were tromping on. And to this day I still become extremely anxious whenever I'm faced with crossing a bridge on foot, especially one with water running underneath. I usually run across as fast as I can, although occasionally I am able to put aside my fears and walk normally across.

The picture, as a note, is actually authentic. I took it myself when my sister and I went back to North Carolina in 2006 and we actually managed to find this place we always went hiking. That was so much fun to return there where we had so many memories.

Happy Easter

Blogworthy

Well John surprised me with a wonderful treat Friday night! He got tickets to the Jim Brickman concert at Tuachan where we were able to spend an "evening of romance" together. It was AWESOME. I remember going to his concerts when I was in high school and thinking how awfully romantic it would be to attend one of his shows with the love of my life. And... it was. :) Thanks babe!

That was my treat. John's treat was two weekends ago.

We went up north and got tickets to a the Jazz vs. Suns game. And not just any tickets... we were THIS CLOSE:

We were on row 5 and it was super fun. I think it's great when the Jazz make you wonder right there at the end if they'll pull through. They were ahead by a lot the entire game till the end and they got it so close that they took it to overtime but ended up winning.

It was a fun experience to be that close and John's decided that never again will he attend a game up in the nosebleeds. He figures that putting aside $5 from every paycheck will get both of us that close to one game a year. I'm sure we'll do it again.

And although I really do enjoy watching the games, I can get easily distracted watching people too. I love people watching. So in my goggling guess who I noticed:

Here's a closeup if you can't tell from there:

I'm not really an AI fan, but I happened to watch the auditions and know this Osmond guy made it to Hollywood at least!

The whole reason we went up north was to attend the baby blessing of these two beautiful babies:

We stayed at my cousin Eli & Sara's house on the way up and Joseph had a fun time with his 2nd cousin Tanner. They smiled together and held hands. Joseph even reached over and pinched his cheek. :)

Eli took some awesome pictures of Joseph while we were there that I'm hoping to be able to post soon!

We got to spend a little time at my Mom's house where there was quite the welcoming party there to greet us... well, Joseph actually. He seems to be the popular one these days, not us anymore.

Well, so that's that. I've still got a little more news... but I'll wait to post it. I like keeping people in suspense. :)

Double Chins

Why can't they still be cute when we're older?