Name extraction

Well, I have a new hobby in the family history field... name extraction!! Anyone can volunteer by going to http://www.familysearchindexing.org . You go through an online tutorial that's fairly involved to learn all the rules, then you can download a batch of documents and enter the data into a searchable database! I'm currently working on indexing death certificates from the 1940's from Louisiana. There is plenty of older stuff, but I wanted to start off with stuff that I thought I might actually be able to read. A lot of that 19th century handwriting is tough for me to read!!
I can't wait for Oklahoma's death certificates to be available.

Fast Sunday and Meck Mom

Today was the Fast and Testimony Sacrament Meeting. Nineteen people bore their testamonies today! Lots of the youth got up today, which was really sweet. All four of the Sutton boys were up there, and each of them said, "Mom is going to kill us when she finds out all of us gave our testamonies and she wasn't here to see it!" Since there were so many, the meeting ran LONG. My kids did really well until about 10 minutes past the regular ending time... then it got a bit ugly.

Hannah took her "new" scriptures to church today, and she did a fantastic job being responsible for them. I was pretty impressed. Someone on my 'naturalLDSmoms' Yahoo group posted these Gospel Art Stickers to put into your scriptures. Tonight, I put them in Hannah's. You have to be familiar with the pictures to tell what they are, and that is a bit disappointing. But you CAN read through them, which is really cool. I'm going to print off the footnote stickers and scripture mastery stickers for my new quad.

The Missionaries Visited Today

The missionaries came by today with Brother Peachy. Elder Stirland taught the lesson today. It was from the October conference, The Weak and Simple of the Church by President Boyd K. Packer.

It was a timely lesson (as usual) since I'm expecting a calling any time now...

Family Home Evening

We had our first Family Home Evening tonight! Hannah said the opening prayer with a little prompting. I taught about the Word of Wisdom, and had Hannah and Elijah tell me some things that were healthy and unhealthy. We ate a little snack (M & M's and Whoppers). Hannah asked to say the closing prayer! Then she went upstairs and got her new book, "More of My First Book of Mormon Stories", and wanted me to read her some more stories. She said she can't wait until bedtime so we can pray again. I can't believe how starved she is for spirituality!!

Venita's gift for my baptism came today. She sent a quad set of scriptures and a scripture tote! She also sent Hannah the book "I Spy A Nephite". Earlier she sent Elijah a gift, a felt quiet book of Book of Mormon stories.

Hannah commented that some of the kids her her Sunday School class have their own scriptures, so I said she could have my old set (a triple combo). She thought that was pretty neat.

Remember God's Blessings

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-24,00.html

This talk inspired me to start this blog. I doubt that it's a coincidence that it's the lesson for Relief Society tomorrow.

God blesses my family in so many ways. I have a husband who is able to provide not only for our needs but for most of our wants. I have three healthy, smart, beautiful children. We have a beautiful house that I adore. I have found the TRUTH! I still struggle with some ideas, but I know I'm where I am for a reason.

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I've started a daily scripture reading plan that I think I can keep up with. I read one chapter each day from each of the following: New Testament, Old Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. I'm reading Acts, Deuteronomy, 1 Nephi, and Moses right now.

72 Hour Kit

Last night as I was falling asleep, I made the decision to start getting a 72 hour kit ready for our family. On Friday, there were three earthquakes, and while they were all mild, it made me think. I did not enjoy being awakend by an earthquake, and I certainly wasn't prepared in any sense. Not two hours after making the decision to get prepared, I was awoken by ANOTHER earthquake. God is speaking, and I am listening!!!

Family History

Wow! This stuff is addictive!!! I'm trying to find info on my great-grandparents who died when my grandmother was a child. I found the 1930 census with their info, and it's just facinating. I just gave my brother the job of getting as much information out of Grandma as possible. I would do it myself, but I live 700 miles away... and he works for the grandparents every weekend.

I ordered a journal to start writing my own stuff in. I finally settled on a 3 ring binder type journal. It came today, and it's much smaller than I expected. I thought it would be 8.5 x 11. So, I suppose I need to head off to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and pick something out. I want to get all of my baptism stuff put into a journal soon.

At play group on Tuesday our topic about keeping our own history. How do we journal/scrapbook/etc. Vanessa told me about http://www.blurb.com that will "slurp" your blog into a book. Unfortunately, they don't support Yahoo 360, so I'm painstakingly transferring 350 or so blog entries to Blogger... I finished up 2005 today, but I didn't start blogging until the middle of August 2005.