Family History Friday (FHF): New Years Resolution!

#1 Do more family history.

Two hours of research on Tuesdays

& two hours of organizing every Sunday.

Love, Joy

Let's do it again!!!

That was so fun, let's do it again!!! Speaking of the past year, that is. It's almost over, and I can't believe it!!!!! Time flies when you're having fun (or not). It has been an interesting year with lot's of changes in the world. We would not choose to have some of the things that have happened happen, but we can choose how we will respond to them. I will continue to choose joy and have faith that everything in the world and life will work out eventually. I do believe, like the song says, "The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth good will to men".  I also believe that we will never be given a problem or challenge that we can't handle. If you're having a hard time, either make a change or continue in faith.

"No one can go back and make a brand-new start, my friend; but anyone can start from here and make a brand-new end" -Dan Zadra

Happy New Year!!

2010

-it will be a great new year!

A Party on Christmas Day 2009

The Family all enjoyed themselves!

Dad reading a card.

(I'm not sure, but he might be Santa)

Me with my sweet Natasha.

My Mom!

Exhausted and snoring loud! ;)

Emily intent on the game.

Too many parties!

I love my families, all of them. I married into a great family and I grew up in a great family. And...I am the mother of a great family. I feel so blessed and thank Father in Heaven for all of them.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season!

Family History Friday (FHF): I Only Took Five Minutes.

A memorable experience my Mom had back in 2002 went like this. Working as a volunteer at one of the Family History Centers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she received a phone call from a woman in Norfolk, England, we'll call her Kate. She was seeking information about a soldier who had died during WW II. She was a professional genealogist and was trying to find the family of this soldier. She did not have a birth date, but had a death date. Kate told my Mom a little about how she came to be interested in finding this soldier's family. My mom then went to the computer and pulled up the Family Search and Ancestral File programs (the LDS research programs). She typed in the soldier's name and guessed at about the year he was born, assuming he might be about 25 years old at his death. She said a little prayer that he would be there and clicked enter. His name came up on the screen and she was able to pull up the family record. "There he was with his parents and 13 brothers and sisters, he was #7. His date of death was 10 June 1944". She didn't find a location of his death. She was able to look at the sources of the record and noticed the he was born in St. George, Utah, and there were still siblings living. All of this information

was found in only five minutes, and my Mom was overjoyed that it was found so fast. She mailed copies of the information she found  to Kate in England and waited for a reply. Just one week later Mom was called to the phone again, it was Kate calling to tell her she had been in touch with the sister to this service man, and that she was sending the full story.

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Kate was planning a trip to France and was asked by a past member of the SAS, Special Air Service Brigade, to find some 30 paratroopers of the SAS who were buried in a village in France. She found the cemetery and noticed another headstone that had the name of the soldier from St. George, Utah on it, but no other information- his squadron, base, home state- nothing. "Her interest was immediately aroused, think how little was known about him. Where in the states were his family, his loved ones?

She knew she must find out as she noted that he died the same day as the SAS members". After wandering up and down some of the small towns streets, she came upon an older man who was quite leery of strangers. After convincing him that she was only doing research for a friend, he relaxed a little and told her that indeed the SAS were buried there and that they had been executed by the Germans. She asked about the American soldier and he said, "He was, too." He told her that the soldier had been shot down over France and had been hidden by some of the towns people, but then was betrayed. The SAS and this soldier were executed as the Allied Forces advanced toward them. They were then buried in a mass grave. The German soldiers buried them in their uniforms, not knowing they would be identified, when they were discovered, because their names had been sewn in the inside of their uniforms. The American soldier, however, was dressed in French clothing. He was identified by other SAS who were out on a mission when the 30 were captured. The French man said the town had found the mass grave and had lovingly reburied the men in the cemetery. They had cared for the cemetery grounds and had a memorial service every few years to recognize these heroes from another land. They had never had family members of the US soldier attend. Kate thought to herself, "His family doesn't know that he is buried here and maybe nothing of the circumstances of his death. I really need to do something about this." The French man told Kate that another memorial service would be held in September.

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When she told the surviving family members of the soldier from St. George about the memorial, his younger sister said that members of his family would be in attendance. Where and how he had died and where he was buried had been unknown by the family for over 56 years.

What was done right?

1) Family members submitted information to Ancestral File so that he could be found.

2) Kate was prompted, and went the extra mile, then followed through to completion -she made contact with the family.

Kate said to me, "It's too bad his parents never knew what happened to him." But I told her that "They know, he has told them himself, even a long time ago." -Joanne

As you can see from this story, miracles happen. See what miracles are waiting for you. Check out the new Family Search here.

Happy Family History Friday!! Merry Christmas too! Love, Joy

Merry Christmas!!!!!

I love this time of year!

Sincerely.

But I do believe that I put a real effort into it.

First, I rarely shop, maybe once or twice in the whole month of December. That way I don't feel like I'm dealing with lots of people who are shopping and don't want to be there. 

Second, We spend alot of time with family and loving them.

Third, we have taught our children from an early age to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.
The Birth of Our Savior.

Fourth, we don't get a lot of stuff for Christmas. My children ask for one thing from Santa and one thing from us.

I truly believe that this has made a big difference in my life. One year, we didn't have any money for Christmas, and when we told the kids they said, "That's okay!". And it was okay.
We know what matters most at Christmas. We have a Savior and we celebrate His birth and His life at Christmas and always. I'm glad to be able to read about His life in the scriptures. I'm glad He gave us an example and taught what to do, and how to live in this life. I love Him.

My most favorite Christmas song is here

A little motivation is a good thing.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the best motivation for a needed change in our lives is rarely fun or pleasant. When I was tiny (yes, I remember being tiny), about the time I was potty trained, I would go potty in the middle of the night and was either too scared or too tired to go back to bed, so I developed a habit of falling asleep on the rug in front of the sink. Sometimes I slept there the rest of the night. Sometimes I got cold and went back to bed.

When I was five, we moved to a very small farm house in the country while my Daddy was building our new home. Before we could even move into the farm house, a lot of cleaning up had to take place. In fact, the home had basically been abandoned and left empty for quite some time before we moved in. Mom and Dad had 5 kids at the time, and there was only one bedroom in the house. All of us kids slept in the one room. My three older brothers slept in a full bed, and I slept on an old army cot next to the crib where my baby brother slept. Mom and Dad slept on a hide-a-bed in the living room. Sometime in the moving process it was mentioned that there "sure were a lot of mice around". This, of course, was a concern to me, because I thought they were scary. In the back part of the house was a small wash/storage room. Mom would keep her canning jars there, along with the washer and dryer. The first time I walked back in that room to get something I heard many of the canning jars shaking and rattling. I realized that the mice (not mouse) were running through the jars to escape. Ok, so now we are at the motivation part of the story. I don't think I ever fell asleep on the rug in front of the sink ever again. I avoided the trip to the bathroom in the night time, all together. I was so good at going potty before bed and staying in bed. I became a parents dream.

I know, I know -he's darling!!!

Just not in my house!

A good time was had by all!

The family 

 Christmas party was a

 big success!

Before pictures-

Party pictures!

Only one more family party to go!

I love the holidays!