Addicted

This week I discovered FamilySearch Indexing. If you don't know what it is, basically all you are doing is looking at a scanned version of some records and entering the data digitally.  Once this information is entered and checked and checked again it will be made available online for anyone who is searching for their family tree.

If you know me, then you know that I have always been fascinated by old things. For instance, when I see an old house as we drive down a road to the middle of nowhere, I can't help but study it for as long as I can and wonder; why was it abandoned? who lived there? is there anything left inside that will give me a clue? If I could, I'd stop and explore every one.

Now I have discovered Indexing which allows me to read old documents that gives me a bit of a glance into lives of people who lived long before I ever existed. Mostly I have been doing census records for New York for the year 1930. I love the info that is there. It tells me who lives in the house and their relationships. Weather they own or rent and how much the house cost or how much rent was. It tells me their occupation. Where they were born, Where their parents were born. Weather they are single or married or widowed. How old they are and how old they were when they got married. And if they came from another country it tells me when they came over to America. That is a lot of information. Each sheet contains about 50 names that make up a little neighborhood. It gives me a glance of what that particular neighborhood would have been like. Some neighborhoods, most people own their own home, others must be apartment blocks where most people are renters. In these renting neighborhoods it is interesting to see how people of different ethnic backgrounds sometimes tend to congregate. Other times it is a real mish mash of Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, English, and Italian and then a few born and bred New Yorkers that are young and have only been married for a short time. In this one neighborhood most of the houses were rented, but there were a few that were owned. Most of these homes were owned by born and bread New Yorkers. And then there was this 60 year old widower who owned his own home worth $10,000(the most expensive one on the sheet). He was Polish, had come to America in 1896. He was a grocery store owner. It was just so out of place on the sheet. But I found myself intrigued by this man and wished I could learn more.

Yesterday I was indexing some WWII draft records from Pennsylvania. I started with the name "Sporer" and continued on alphabetically. There were a lot of men with the name "Sporer", and mostly from the county of Lackawanna. I wondered if they were brothers or cousins, and how sad to be sending so many of them off to war. I felt for their next of kin that was listed on the card as the person to contact. And then today I started indexing 1930 census records from Pennsylvania, and it just so happened to be from the Lackawanna county. As I went along I came across the name "Sporer" and immediately wondered what the relation might be. I started to look closely at the ages. Most of the men on the draft cards had been between 40-55years old. the first family of Sporer's were a husband and wife in their 60's living alone. I wondered then if some of the men had been their sons. The next family was again a husband and wife in their 50's with children in their mid to late 20's still living at home. Was it possible that these names that I was reading from 1930 were to be the same ones that I had read the day before while doing the WWII draft cards? They looked somewhat familiar...but with names like John and Richard there is now way to tell for sure.

I can't get enough. I could seriously just sit and do this all day long. If you haven't tried it yet, you really should. It will totally be worth your time.

an obsession

Kymberly just came to me and said  "mom, do you know this song?" and then she sang me these words
"Someday love will find you.."
I laughed out loud.

You see, my girls are obsessed with this song...actually not just the song, but this very video.


We have the greatest hits DVD in the van and the girls ask to watch it all of the time, and then they want me to repeat this song over and over... again. One day I heard them discussing who they were. Kathryn was the piano player, Tansley was on drums and Kymberly was the guitar player. Today when I brought up the video on youtube, Kymberly said, "mom, you can be the guitar player, I'll be the drum player" but I wasn't doing it right, she tried to tell me how I was supposed to do it, but I guess I just wasn't getting it because she said "mom, you can be the drum player and I'll be the guitar player".

Daddy is so proud.

 ****UPDATE**** 

For all my American readers that are dying to know what the song and video is, because apparently this one is not available to you folk, the song is "Separate ways" by Journey. Maybe you can google it or search it on youtube and find a version that will work in your wonderful country. It is a killer classic 80's music video.

FHE fun

Tonight for Family Home Evening the girls and I made a banana cake. Well I suppose I made the cake, but they decorated it while we talked about prophets and apostles, specifically our latter day prophet and apostles. I was pleased with how much Kathryn could tell me and how many names and faces she could recognize. It was a fun and simple evening. But by the time they had finished decorating the cake, they had "sampled" so much icing that they picked it all off of their piece of cake and left it on the plate. Silly girls.

Working really well together. Not one squawk or complaint about someone touching their part of the cake.

The top view of the masterpiece.

The side view of the masterpiece.

Snow, again

I was out shoveling snow again today. When I was just about done, Kymberly asked if I wanted to build another snow fort. I told her that I didn't think that there was enough snow to build a fort, but maybe we could build a snowman. She said she wanted to make a snowgirl. So we set out trying to make a snowgirl. The snow however, would not cooperate. It was sticky, but it wasn't very roll-able. So instead we made a big snow mound and tried to shape a snowgirl out of it.

When we were done, we came in and had snowman soup. What a delightful morning...in spite of the snow.

Playing by the rules

Kymberly loves to play "I Spy". She spies some very interesting things.While driving to Lethbridge one day she spied something that was "yellowish/brownish". It took me a while to figure it out, the wheat stubble in the field. She also makes some pretty interesting guesses, often things that I would never have thought of myself.

Just the other day we were all in the van and Kymberly wanted to play I spy. The big girls were not interested, but dad said he would play with her. She started things off. "I spy with my little eye, something that is orange." Dad made a few guesses, there wasn't much around that was orange. Dad said "I give up". Kymberly quickly responded with "That's not the way we play I spy dad. You don't play I spy with give ups!" I laughed right out loud. Dad ventured one more guess "the sky" he said. This did not fool the child, "Dad, the sky is blue and white!". She then said "do you want me to give you a hint?" Dad agreed. She looked around and must have realized that while she was lecturing dad on the rules of I spy, we had driven past what ever orange object she had originally spied. After a slight pause she said "it was the house"...an orangish/brownish brick house that could not have been spied when we first started the game. Too funny. What a kid. Later she spied something green and after only one guess she asked dad if he wanted a hint. The hint, "it's those trees". So, just so we are clear; It is NOT acceptable to give up, but if you want a hint, she will give you the answer.

Grouchy

I feeling grumpy today.
Completely miserable.
This would not be a good day to get in my way.
My patience is basically non existent.
I would like to just go hide under the covers so that I don't say or do something that I might regret.
Unfortunately, there are these little people that I must care for...they may or may not be a part of the reason for my mood....I can't put it all on them. They are currently playing happily, and I still feel grouchy.

I had a great idea. I would go and create something new. But then I remembered that I promised my hubby I'd get some jerseys crested. So instead of sewing something fun and therapeutic, I'll be sewing boring, un-inspirational jerseys....this is not likely to sweeten my mood at all.

Sew Much Fun

Back in December I won this book called Sewing School from a give away over at Sew, Mama, Sew!. What a fun book for teaching kids the basics of sewing. It is written at a second grade comprehension level. All of these projects are super cool and easy. Most of them are hand stitching projects. All pattern pieces are included with instructions complete with colour pictures. In short, I think this book is FAB.U.LOUS.

Today I decided that I would help the girls make their very own softies.

The first step was to get a piece of plain white cotton fabric. Then the girls drew an animal or creature on the fabric with wax crayon. After they were finished colouring. I placed a plain white sheet of paper over the design and ironed it to remove all the way. Then I helped them cut out the rough shape of their creature and then it was sewing time.

This project was so easy that even Miss Kymberly could do most of it on her own with supervision. At first she started out really  carefully doing a whip stitch around the edges. After awhile she would say "can you do it for me". So I'd help her out and then she would want to do it by herself again.





Tansley did a very good job and keeping her stitches small, most of the time. Right near the end she was wanting to be done so her stitches got a little large. After she had it stuffed we found a few places where she needed to add  a few more stitches to keep the stuffing in.

Kathryn did a great job, but she has had quite a bit more experience than the other two. Even so, she still had so much fun with this project.









There is something special about watching a child create their very own something. When it is all said and done, they are so proud of themselves and what they have created.  Here are the girls final projects.

Kymberly loves her new teddy bear. She has named it Kymberly.

Tansley made a parrot, and a simply awesome parrot at that.

Kathryn created a fire breathing dragon...how clever.

OH. MY. WORD.

I can't even begin to imagine what these people are feeling. It is honestly like watching one of those movies where earth has been hit by a comet and people are trying to out run the water. But this is no movie. These are really people. I found myself cheering on the cars that are trying to out run the water. Devistating that they didn't all make it. Today I'll be praying non stop for the people of Japan.



There is sound, but you need to turn it way up.

Snow much fun

Yesterday we had a nice warm(2C) morning with no wind. I decided to attempt to clear off the snow on our driveway that I had been avoiding during the much colder and windier days of the past few weeks. It was well packed, but it broke up pretty easily into these nice big chunks. This gave Tansley an idea. She started to build a snow fort by stacking them. Once I had the driveway clear she had plenty of chunks to make her fort and Kymberly and I aided her in her efforts.

The kids threw a few chunks at me. I took a few pictures. And then we went inside for some Snowman soup. The fun was had in the making of the fort, not so much in the playing with it once it was completed. Kymberly has since asked why we only have one side to our fort. A good question. What kind of protection does one wall give anyway?

A day later and our fortress is reduced to this.

It won't take too long for it to all melt away IF the weatherman's predictions are correct.

Kymberly Lenae

When Kymberly was born, she looked like a boxer that had been punched in the face and one eye had swollen shut. My poor baby girl, must have been pretty squished before entering this world at 10lbs 13oz. And she came so quickly her poor face was all bruised adding to the boxer look.

My little big boxer

When she was a baby I called her Munchkin.
Kymberly is my cautious child. She’s not a fan of new things. However once she tries them, she is usually OK. But usually she is content to just watch. At the age of about 10 months she developed a fear of heights. When I would put her up on the change table to change her diaper she would go stiff as a board, grip the sides and scream, making if absolutely impossible to change her diaper. As a result, I started just changing her on the floor.
Kymberly has a set of lungs that allow her to be heard from miles away. This kid is LOUD! Whether she is squealing with delight or out of anger you are sure to hear her.

The funniest part about this photo is that she is naked under there.

Kymberly has the craziest imagination. Give her any two random objects and she can make them come to life. She’ll play with them for hours. At the dinner table her fork and spoon talk to each other. Out side a rock and a stick become best friends and go on some pretty crazy adventures. And if there isn’t anything to play with, her fingers come to life. One time when she was about 2, I forgot to bring something to keep her busy while we watched General Conference at the church. To keep herself entertained she played hide and seek with her fingers. One hand would count, while the other one would hide. This kept her busy for a good part of conference.
From a very early age, she loved to do things to get a reaction out of people. This kid has a natural gift of humor. Even before she could talk she could make you laugh and she always knew exactly what she was doing. 
Kymberly is a homebody. No matter where we are, or what is going on, she will always end up by my side. She will go off and play with other kids for awhile, but before long she becomes my shadow again. She doesn’t necessarily need my attention, she just likes to stick close, even when we are just at home. If I am down stairs sewing for instance, you can find her sitting behind me with two random objects keeping herself busy.
Kymberly(not Kym, just KYM-BER-LY, and she'll be sure to correct you if you forget) changes her name frequently. She has gone by Princess Potty, Super Girl,Ski Girl, Rockstar, Kung Fu Girl, and Tinkerbell. She went through a stage where you couldn't just call her Kymberly, you had to use her middle name too. However Monkey, Cutie pa-tootie, silly gallute and other such names are not acceptable. I can usually still get away with Munchkin.
Kymberly is a copy cat. She wants to do and tries to do everything her big sisters do, as long as it doesn’t involve heights. I really believe that she sees herself as an equal to her sisters, like she is the same age. She often talks down to kids her own age, like they are babies.
Kymberly needs to be reasoned with. By this I mean that if you give her all of the facts she is likely to do whatever it is that needs to be done. For instance, when she was almost two we were leaving the church, it was cold out side and I wanted her to put her jacket on. She told me flat out "NO". I knelt down beside her and told her that I needed her to put her jacket on because it was cold outside and if she didn't put it on she would get cold. She simply said "OK" and let me put her jacket on her. She is also easily distracted. If she is throwing a tantrum over something, like a toy she wants that someone else has you simply have to take her mind off that particular toy by presenting an equally attractive or entertaining item to play with. This worked about 99% of the time when she was really little. That stat might be down a bit (85%) now that she is older.

This kid cracks me up. It is hard to find a picture of her just simply smiling at the camera. She always has to be doing something silly. I love her to bits and can’t wait to see what the coming years bring.

What's in my bag?...everything!

OK, My SIL tagged me in her post. And this looked like fun. But be warned...you might be here awhile as I show you pictures of everything that was in my bag...except the little pieces of garbage. If nothing else it gave me a chance to clean out my bag.

OK, so here is the bag I am carrying...I mean lugging around right now.

It is big! But I was tired of carrying around a purse, a diaper bag, and a church bag. So I went on the search for a great big bag with lots of compartments to keep my three bags separate and organized...but altogether at the same time. Right now I love this bag. I can carry everything, and find it all too. There is so much room that I can add extra things, but I have to be careful because if I keep adding and forget to take things out it can get REALLY heavy.


Lets start with the front pocket.

 OK, I have a note book that my mom gave me for my birthday. I use for writing down random information that I am bound to forget, like a phone number or address. There is a pen, some bandaids that shouldn't be there, they should be in a different spot, a tissue cozie with tissues, a script to a readers theater I'll be doing for the RS party in March, and my wallet. I LOVE my wallet. It holds everything and remains nice and slim. and it's totally sparkly. I can just pull this out of my bag to take into a store. Did I mention that I LOVE it?



Next is my Purse section

 I have Kathryn's wallet that I made her, a compact dollar store mirror, Two things of tictacs, cough drops from when I had a wicked cold, 4 packages of gum in varying flavours, two containers of fruity icebreakers, a few random mints(you'd think I had a fear of having bad breath, but really most of it is to keep my kids happy when on the road...not that I don't like to have fresh breath), my perscription sunglasses that I bought from Zennioptical.com (for $25), an unopened nail file, and one of my snack bags that I am using as my mini emergency kit. right now it just has bandaids and polysporn.

In my purse section I have a little pocket that has some hand sanitizer in three varieties, dental floss, Rolaids, Tylenol and two paint chip cards so that if I ever one day see some fabric to make a valence for my living room, I'll be able to check to see if it will match the walls.

The middle section is my general need-to-get-to-it-quick section.

 A Random assortment of baby toys to keep the boy happy where ever we might be.

Three crayons and a pen for kids to draw with at church. Three empty snack bags, a baby spoon(that should be in the diaper bag section). A mini photo book of girls, this is great for keeping younger children happy when grocery shopping. A measuring tape, for measuring things OR for keeping young children entertained while grocery shopping. A kid can pull out the tape and push the button to make it retract over and over and over again...or until it whips them in the face and makes them cry. A Book of Mormon adventures magnetic play set to keep kids happy at church(unless they are fighting over it). An Oilers tuque and mittens for keeping the boy warm, and unfortunately they will stay in the bag for awhile yet...winter doesn't seem to want to go away. OH and I almost missed it, up at the top just above the snackbag by the crayons is Kymberly's bling-bling ring.

The back section is my diaper bag section.

We are in Lethbridge a fair amount, and I hate it when I forget to bring formula or baby food, so I just keep it in my bag. The little container with the green lid has baby snacks, the bigger one has baby cereal. The container with the blue lid is formula. Just below those is a onsie and sleepers. Of course I have a couple of diapers, change pad, wipes and vaseline. There is also a soother cover, but no soother to be found. Up at the top is my Take-it high chair. I created this after seeing one like it on the internet. Here you can see one that I made in action.

On the very back of my bag is another little pocket.

One lone fruit snack, an extra soother and some baby lotion.

And that is what is in my bag. I have to say, I look forward to being able to carry around a smaller bag again. But for now, this one works great, even if it does weigh a tonne.

What's in your bag? Do you wanna share?

point of view

I hear Kymberly(age 3) carefully shut the door to her's and James' bedroom. James was supposed to be napping in there, hence the reason the door was closed. She comes to me and says, "Mom, I've got some good news and some bad news. What do you want first?"
"Tell me the bad news." I say. 
"OK, I'll give you the good news." she says with a sigh. After a slight pause she says, "The good news is....I woke up James. The bad news is I found my pony."
I laughed right out loud and said "I think you have that backwards. The bad news is you woke up James, and the good news is you found your pony."
"No mom, the good news is that I woke up James." she replies most adamantly.

Well, I guess that all depends on your point of view.