Names

I have a tendency to get sucked into things pretty easily. Most of the time this happens with books, movies, or TV shows but this time it was genealogy. I have been interested in family history for a while but is seems to come in stages. Because of this interest, I have always wanted to name my children after my ancestors. It has been easy for me to find boys' names that I like but the first four generations of girls' names are a little abnormal so finding ones that I like has been a challenge. My Mom found a way to print up nine generations of a pedigree onto one sheet; it is called a fan chart:

She printed up one for her awhile ago and put it on the kitchen wall. Almost every time I pass it I stop to look at it for a second. The other day I asked my Dad if he had his printed up yet. He had, so I borrowed it and a copy of my Mom's as well so I could sit down and look at them. Well I kind of got sucked in at that point and no longer was it enough to just look at all the cool names. Pretty soon I started writing a list of all the girls' names, a list of all the boys' names, and a list of all the last names. My Mom thinks I am crazy but it was fascinating so I thought that I would share a few of the fun facts with you, my readers, since most of you have the same ancestors as I do.

• The most popular female name was Mary. Between both lines there were 69 women with the first name of Mary! The second most used female name was Elizabeth, which was used 52 times. 
• The top male name was John, which was used 58 times. William came in second, being used 45 times.
• Around 54% of all the names were from the Bible. Wow! I think that says a lot about their priorities.
• My Dad's grandma and grandpa were fourth cousins, making him is own sixth cousin. 
• My great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandma's name was Running Deer. I think that that is the only non-Anglo part of the family.
• Many of the ancestral last names are the same on both sides of the family. Some examples are: Ward, Clark, Lowe, Brooks, Williams, Stoddard, Scott, Lewis, Gray, Harrison, Thompson, and Butler. 
• I must be related to John Wayne because my Dad's line ties into the McClintock line ;) My Mom's line also ties into the Redfords so I am thinking that Robert Redford must be our distant cousin. jk!
• I found two different lines with the last name of Lathrop on the ninth generation. After researching a little more I found that the line does indeed tie into the Reverend John Lathrop line. He is a well known Reformist who lived in England around 1600 who was imprisoned for being at the heart of the Puritan's reform. After two terrible years in prison they let him out on the condition that he move to New England and never return to England. I first learned about him in my Church History class because he was the great great grandfather of Joseph Smith. In my research I found out that there are millions of his descendants alive today. Through this line I am distantly related to Joseph Smith, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith, George Albert Smith, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. and Orson Pratt, N. Eldon Tanner, M. Russell Ballard, Quentin L. Cook, Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Bush, Sarah Palin, and even Mitt Romney. Who knew!

 It was really fun to look through all the names! And I also now have a list of boys' and girls' names that I like for my future children. Now I just have to hope that my future husband likes them too :)

On a side note, on the family search site I was able to follow on of John Lathrop's lines all the way back to Adam!! Holy Cow! I didn't even know that that was possible at this point. I am just so grateful to all those before me who contributed to recording my family history. Because of their hard work I can sit and sift through hundreds of names at my leisure without having to do any work!

IT'S AUTUMN TIME! IT'S AUTUMN TIME!

I happen to think that autumn is the ABSOLUTE best time of year, hands down! I keep thinking of all the reasons why it is the best, so now I am going to write them down mostly for my own benefit, and hope that some of you agree with me.

• The colors are AWESOME! There is still green on the earth and then the leaves change and create a beautiful contrast.
• The weather is perfect. It is warm but not too hot and sometimes there is a little chill in the air that feels great.
• The lighting in my home is so cool. The sun has just started to shift to the south, shining into all the south windows of the house. It is so direct and warm that Mom pulls the sheer curtain in the living room to save the couch from sun damage. Walking in the front door with the curtains pulled with sun still shining in on the Halloween decorations is just perfect!
• It is harvest season. You work all summer long planting, watering, weeding, irrigating, and whatever else it takes and you are finally rewarded in autumn with all the fruits of your labors. I know that it is a lot of work to pick everything and preserve it all but there is such a feeling of satisfaction to it!
• School starts just before autumn so autumn has a fresh-new-year-of-school feel. You haven't gotten bogged down by months and months of classes yet.
• It is football season. I know, I know, cliche but it is true. I love the excitement of homecoming and Friday nights in the dome watching the games. Even though I don't watch much football anymore, it is still associated with warm fuzzy feelings.
• It is soccer season. It is still warm enough to spend hours and hours outside playing (or watching my nieces play) the sport that I absolutely love! 
• Raking leaves! This is one chore that I really enjoy. I love having a big cottonwood in the front yard that has given me opportunity to rake. I also did some raking in Utah and it is associated with such wonderful memories.
• It is the beginning of the holiday seasons. I loved when my Mom would decorate the house for the holidays. 
• Change. I don't know why I can see the earth changing so much more in this season than the others but I do. Watching the change makes me reflect on my life every year and think about all of my good memories and the things that I have accomplished. Very rarely do life's disappointments pop up during these reflections. 
• It's my birthday! I am sure that this carries quite a bit of wait in forming my opinion about the season, but I hope that after you have read this list you can see that it isn't the only reason.

I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!

Me and My To-Do Lists

I have always loved making To-Do lists. It is just SO satisfying to physically cross things off when they are done! I love it! I have discovered that I gain a good chunk of my self-esteem from being productive. Crossing things off of my To-Do list makes me feel very productive. Therefore, I love them! I have noticed some funny things about my To-Do lists lately though. 

College To-Do List:

• Write five-page paper
• Read chapters 15-17 in history book
• Cleaning check- THIS morning!
• Work meeting at 10 am
• Read p. 335-400 in adult development book
• Journal entry for D&C
• Ward activity at 6pm- bring cookies
• SFL assignment- DUE 12am!
• Grocery shopping
• Laundry

Current To-Do List:

• Wake up when alarm goes off
• Family scriptures
• Make bed
• Exercise
• Shower
• Do hair
• Eat vegetables!
• Personal scripture study
• Eat lunch
• Do lunch dishes
• Read novel
• Eat dinner
• Watch movie with Dad

Hmm.....funny how my current To-Do list is longer than my college one. It is also funny how almost all of the things on the second list have to be done in college too but some how never make it on the list. Okay, so maybe I am a little desperate in my need to feel productive! I have even noticed that sometimes I do good things that weren't on my To-Do list originally. That just won't do. After I finish them, I will write them on the list only to promptly cross them off. Maybe I am a little more than a little desperate!

I am hereby called to....

This post is a little long in coming but it is now finally here. On August 8th I got my mission call to the EL SALVADOR SANTA ANA/BELIZE mission. I will be speaking Espanol and entering the Provo MTC on December 19........FOREVER away!!! In the mean time, I have moved home for the semester to enjoy my family and to have some time to prepare to leave. Now that I am here I love it!......but I have a lot of time on my hands. So with some of this time I decided to do a little research on the area of the world in which I will be living for the next year and a half (this research is only coming over a month late.....shhh!). My mission contains about a third of El Salvador and all of Belize so sit back and enjoy some of the fun facts that I found.

EL SALVADOR

Actual Name: Republic of El Salvador

Religion: 57.1% Roman Catholic,............0.7% Mormon (I guess I am needed)

Life Expectancy: 73.69

       Male: 70.41

       Female: 77.12

Fertility Rate: 2.04 children per woman

Major Infectious Diseases: rate of risk= HIGH  (gulp!)

Area: slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Terrain: mostly mountains with narrow coastal belt and central plateau 

Natural Hazards: it is known as the Land of Volcanoes; frequent and sometimes destructive earthquakes and volcanic activity; extremely susceptible to hurricanes.  (double gulp!)

Randoms Facts:

- El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and the only one without a Caribbean coastline.

- It is home to 65 airports: 5 paved runways, 60 unpaved runways. (oh dear!)

-The national anthem of El Salvador is one of the world’s longest.

BELIZE

Name: Belize; used to be British Honduras, renamed in 1973

Official Language: English but 50% speak Spanish and 75% speak Kriol

Independence: Granted by Britain in 1981 but Guatemala tried to claim them as a territory. Ever since there has been tension between the two countries.

Terrain: 60% over Belize is forested but some in coastal plains while some is mountainous.

Elevation: 0-3688 ft (that's going to be a change!)

Natural Hazards: hurricanes, hurricanes, and HURRICANES!! After the capital was destroyed twice by hurricanes in thirty years, they decided to move the capital to another city. (Smart!)

Crime: homicide rate in the capitol is the sixth highest in the world (another gulp!)

Fertility Rate: 3.6 children per woman

Religion: 40% Roman Catholic...15.6% proclaim to be irreligious (Mormon didn't even make it on the list!)

Random Facts:

-Area is only slightly larger than El Salvador.

-Only country in Central America with British colonial heritage; they are a parliamentary democracy but  don' t drive on the left side of the road.

-The economy of Belize is based on agriculture and tourism.

I am sure that this might have been a bore to read but I definitely learned a lot! Hopefully when I return in the summer of 2014 I be able to give a much more spiced up and personal account of these countries! 

*I would like to thank wikipedia and the CIA website for this information

Tie-dying with the Guys

The last time that I attempted to tie-dye a shirt it was a disaster. The only colors left were pink and brown and there wasn't really much of them left either so the shirt ended up mostly white. I have been wanting to successfully tie-dye a shirt for a while now and finally found some willing comrades with which to do it: Taylor and Tyson! (We invited Amanda too but she didn't come.)

We went to Wally World to get our supplies. You would think that girls take more time and are picker about clothes shopping but I beg to differ. We were in the men's t-shirt section forever trying to find shirts that were long enough but not too wide for both Taylor and Tyson. Ha! Who knew that men's clothes are so complicated?!

Once we made our purchases we drove back to the "Brown House" to start creating our master pieces. We had each tie-dyed a shirt once previously so we had an equal amount of experience. I went for the safe/typical tie-dye shirt pattern but both of the boys were being more creative. I got done quickly and was very entertained watching their creativity flow. :) 

 

We finally all finished:

 

Tyson's and my gloves had holes in them so we ended up with very colorful hands. I had concluded that I would just have to go to work the next day with a green hand but Tyson was not pleased with his colorful fingers. He came up with the idea to use rubbing alcohol to get it off. It worked so I joined him in color-removing. We eventually found out that bleach works even better but you have to wash your hands pretty quickly afterward or else it starts to burn.

We finished cleaning and then parted ways for the night. We left the shirts with Taylor (who doesn't have to pay for laundry) to wash and dry the next day. Thank you Taylor! For the sake of the blog I forced them to get together the next day and model our finished products:

I thought that they were all pieces of art but both of the boys refused to leave the house wearing their lovely new shirt. What a shame! 

I am so glad that I have some friends from home going to school with me up here. Seeing a familiar face is so refreshing sometimes! Thanks Taylor and Tyson for helping me accomplish my goal of producing a good tie-dyed shirt and having fun with me in the process!

Who Knew?

On June 9th I ran my very first half marathon! My sister Wendi signed up to run in a while ago but ended up going on a cruise instead. I week or two before the race I decided, what the heck, I will run her race. I hadn't trained for it at all but if it was already paid for I might as well burn some calories, right? I have tried twice in the past to train and run half marathons but both times I got sick the week of the race and couldn't run. I had never run more that eight miles straight before in my life and that had even been two years ago. I was expecting to walk a good chunk of my race. Well I started off running and never stopped! I ran it in 2 hours and 15 minutes which is about 30 minutes faster than I had been hoping! Because I crossed the finish line at an unexpected time there was no one to cheer me on or take a picture so this picture taken before the race is the only one I have. I am sure that the only reason why I could run the whole way was because it was nearly all down hill. Thank goodness! I didn't do much the rest of the day because I was tired and my knees were killing me so I just relaxed. What a good day! Thanks Wendi for letting run your race!

Warning: Pure Silliness Ahead

In my spare time this semester I have preoccupied myself by making a patchwork quilt. This has been a VERY time consuming project but I guess that is exactly what I wanted it to be. As I have been sewing and quilting recently I have been watching some of my favorite movies: Christy, Pride and Prejudice, and Anne of Green Gables. I have thoroughly enjoyed them, probably more than I ever have before. I LOVE THEM! (Since I am a girl,) as I look back and reflect upon why they are so amazing I have to admit that it is because they are all good romances. I promise that I like them for more than the romance though! The other day I sat there thinking about all these movies and I started comparing the men and asked myself which one I liked best. It was a hard choice because they are all so good!

This is Neil McNeil from the tv series Christy. He is an amazing doctor who chose to work in the tiny backwoods town of Cutter Gap because he is loyal to and loves his people. He is stubborn but rugged and has a Scottish accent!

This, of course, is Mr. Darcy from A&E's version of Pride and Prejudice. He is extremely wealthy but yet is still teachable and learns kindness and humilty in the movie. He doesn't smile much but when he does...look out!

This is David Grantland from Christy. He is the preacher for Cutter Gap. He works so hard to bring religion and what he knows is right and good to the people in those mountains. He also has to compete with Neil McNeil for Christy's affections.


This is Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. Gilbert and Anne have grown up together since Anne came to Green Gables at age 12. He has always secretly loved her but she is too headstrong to see it and accept it for many years. Through all the years and rejections from Anne he stays ever loyal and in love with her. He is also amazingly smart and becomes a doctor.



Like I said, they are all GREAT choices! But I was able to choose the one I liked the best. Drumroll please..............




GILBERT BLYTHE!!

I chose him because he is just a normal but amazing guy who fell in love with an awkward looking and acting redheaded twelve year old. He didn't give up! He is smart and could have had a prestegious career but chose to just help normal people who needed him. He always put Anne first, giving up jobs and opportunities when he knew it would benefit her. I can't even describe how great he is! You will just have to watch the movies :) I was probably a little biased to him though because, out of all three stories, I think that Anne and Gilbert's the most romantic. Actually I might venture to say that it is the MOST romantic story I have ever heard, watched, or read! That is saying something because I have read and watched more romance novels and chick flicks that I would like to to admit.

Thanks for putting up with my random ramblings! And if you know these stories and men please feel free to share who you would choose.