Long lost relatives...

Last year when I was working on my Auntie Bev's life history...she did a page about her heritage.  She listed her mom's and dad's families and birth and death dates etc.  When she listed her mom's sister Edna, she listed that Edna was the last one living and was "96 at the time of this writing."  I told Auntie Bev I didn't know my grandma had a living sister!  Where have I been all these years to not know that?  More importantly, why did my mom never tell me that?  Perhaps she did when I was much younger and didn't have much interest in family history, but surely she would have told me as I got older!  Auntie Bev contacted her Aunt Edna and Edna's daughter Jeanine and gave them my address.

 Was I ever thrilled to get a Christmas card from them!  And better yet, an email address!  I have been corresponding via email with Jeanine and it has been heavenly!  She has sent me family pictures!  Treasures!  This is a picture of my great Aunt Edna (my Grandma Ellen Brown's sister).  This was taken on her 90th birthday!  Jeanine says she still looks like this, only skinnier.  She turned 97 in January!  Why did my mom never tell me she had a living aunt!?  I still can't get over that...

 Jeanine also sent this picture of my Great Grandma (Edna's and Ellen's parents) and Grandpa Ellett with their first daughter Addie.  Isn't it beautiful?  And it was apparently taken at the same time as the next wonderful picture...

 The George William and Janett Leffler Shiner family...Great Grandma Clara Ellett is on the right in the back, and it's the same backdrop as the picture of her and her husband and baby (above).  This picture lists all their names.  It's a GREAT picture!  When I looked up their family group sheet, one sister is not in the picture.  Sarah.  She is just older than Clara and may have already been married and moved away.  I wish I knew for sure why she wasn't in the picture.  12 children!  Isn't this just the greatest picture!? I have never seen these pictures!

 This picture is my grandma and her siblings (Ellen, my maternal grandmother) is in the middle front, and Edna is to the right.  I had never seen this picture either.

 In this picture my grandma is on the right and Edna is on the left.  This is at their father's burial in Bicknell, Utah.  Another amazing picture that I had not seen before.  

 This is my Great Grandpa Ellett with his sons...he has a big knife and is enjoying some watermelon!  What a fun picture!

 Last summer when I met with my Auntie to start her life history...she had a copy of this picture of my Grandma and Grandpa...my mom is the little girl on the right with Grandpa's hand on her shoulder.  I loved this picture as I had never seen it before.  But my Auntie had no original, just a copy.  So I copied it, but it's a BAD copy.  I asked Jeanine if she might have this picture and she said no.  But a few emails later, here was the picture and she said, "The Alburn and Ellen Brown Family - do you have this picture?"  I do now!  A GOOD copy!  My Auntie Bev - whose history I helped with - is the little girl in Grandma's arms!  This is the last half of their children...there are 5 older ones who aren't in the picture.  10 children!  And a baby that died at birth...my grandparents were amazing people!

There have been many pictures sent to me from Jeanine (some I have seen before, some I have not) and some stories from Great Aunt Edna about my grandma.  I shed tears when I read some of them and when I looked at these beautiful pictures of long lost relatives...I am so thankful to have "found" these relatives and hope to keep corresponding with them until I can get back up to Utah and meet them in person!  Jeanine said she remembered me as the "beautiful little blonde girl who was on Romper Room."  Oh my, that was 45 years ago!  I got to be on Romper Room (a children's show on KSL TV) for a week.  How on earth did she remember that?  Yes, I cannot wait to meet this cousin (once removed?) of mine!  Here is one of my Romper Room pictures that I have...I am holding the flag.  Talk about an antique picture!  I might have to do a Romper Room post next...

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to my dad...he would be 82 today!  This is his 1940 school picture...

Love and miss him every day...I'm so glad that he's my dad!  

Google maps of old homes...

I was looking at some of my mom and dad's photo albums, and saw the page of their "first home" in Kearns, Utah.  Not the first one they lived in, but the first one they bought (I believe).  My dad had written in the address...here is the picture.

 For fun I decided to Google map the address...and here it is!  Of course it says Salt Lake now instead of Kearns, but it's the same house!  It was so fun to find it!  I cut the picture off too much at the bottom, but it has the same sidewalk and then another patch of grass before the curb.  The brick facing on the front is gone, but you can tell it's the same house.  That was so fun, I decided to try another one...

This is our house in Fort Smith, Arkansas where we lived when I was born (50 years ago!)

When I typed the address in Google maps, it took out the "South" in the address and a house came up, but it didn't look the same.  And you could see the house number on it, and it didn't match.  Of course I know after 50 years the numbers could change...but  it just didn't look anything like this picture I had.  You can move up and down the street on Google maps, and circle around and look across the street (it's quite amazing what you can do on there!) so I moved it to the house next door and ta da!  THIS was my house!  It had a different number for the address but it does say "addresses may not be accurate" and when Dave came and looked at it, he agreed with me it was the right house.

The carport has been enclosed, and I don't think it has siding anymore, but the windows and the roof line are the same, and what verified it for us was the telephone pole behind the house.  It's still there (the tree branches are in the way) and as we moved the Google map camera around to the side of the house, we could see the pole clear as day-transformer and all!  That's my house!  It's a little run down and no flowers or shrubs.  If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the Google maps car in the front window.  We have several pictures by this house...front and back yard...here are a few...

 Me sitting on a blanket in the grass, house behind me...not sure of my age...but I had more hair and am older than these other pictures which were taken on Easter, just a couple of weeks before my sister passed away...I was 5 months old...most of her hair had fallen out by this time...so we were both bald. Doesn't my mom look beautiful?

 These were taken in the back yard...I wish they were in color because me and my sister had matching pink dresses that my Auntie Lew had made for us...I think I must have been pretty heavy due to the look on my brother's face who is holding me!

Anyway, it was very fun looking at the old pictures and then finding the houses on Google Maps.  I put in a couple other addresses of my parents but couldn't find anything...and of course our military addresses, I'm sure the Google maps car isn't allowed on the bases.  But I have a few more I am going to look up.  It is sure fun to look at them...then and now!

Happy Birthday Auntie Bev!

My Auntie does not have a computer, and I know she will never see this, but it's for ME.  My journal of sorts...Auntie Bev is on the left, today is her birthday.  My grandma called Bev her "day-late Valentine."  I learned this as I worked on Auntie's life history last year.  Next to her in the picture is my Auntie Lew.  We are hoping she will start writing her history now that she has seen Bev's.   I already really love my aunties, but working on Bev's history drew me even closer to her.  I learned so much about her and I had to keep calling her with questions and we just had so much fun chatting.  She is my  mom's sister and it was like having a piece of my mom again.  I truly loved all the phone calls and letters we shared.  We also share a love of books...so that is in our conversations a lot.  In this picture I am signing some books I had given her...she insisted that I sign them when I came through her town in the summer of 2011 (when we started her history project).  I love you Auntie Bev...I hope you have a happy birthday (she is now 75 - I know this from her history as well!) and I can't wait until this afternoon when I can call you and we can chat again.  Thank you for letting me type up your history and add tons of pictures and make it a real book.  You are now an "author."  It was a fun project and I loved every minute of it!  Auntie Lew, start writing...

Honeybees and other rememberings...

I have a small project I have been working on...I have been compiling my notes from Stake and General Conferences from all the different little note pads I had them on, into one notebook.  Okay, not a SMALL project, but I did get it done!  My notes started back in 2003, and though I don't have notes from every conference, I have a lot. As well as a few other special firesides, Sacrament meetings, seminary inservices etc.  And now I will continue my note taking in the ONE book until it is full.  I enjoyed reviewing past notes, remembering the talks and the stories (most of them, some I drew blanks on) and I realize I need to go back and look at them more often.  Here are a few that particularly stood out to me recently: 

"Every temple built lessens the power of Satan and builds the power of God."

"Not making a decision is a decision itself."

"Faith is more essential than ability."

"Look at everything through the lens of eternity."

"Are we TV rich and family time poor?"

"Be the master of your time...the things of God matter most."

"Conversion is not a one time event."

I could go on and on...there were so many about temples and their importance, how they could be busier, how we need to attend often to receive light and inspiration...so many beautiful reminders of what is important in my life.  I was also surprised by how many notes I have on talks from Pres. Barrus.  What a wise man he was.  I loved serving in the stake for 5 years and being able to listen to all his talks in each ward conference.  He never gave the same talk twice!  One quote of his I heard recently made me really think about my calling, he said, "Your calling = your ministry."

One talk that really touched me in the last conference was by Elder Ballard...possibly because my dad and grandpa were both beekeepers...and with pinterest now, just a few minutes after the talks are given, people have their quotes done up all fancy to print up!  Here is Elder Ballard's:

He spoke of bees being anxiously engaged, truly converted, and how we need to focus like the honeybees, multiply our efforts.  I loved the talk and I loved looking up these pictures of my Grandpa Brown in his beekeeping apron...And by his old green Chevy truck (which is on display at Capitol Reef National Park if you ever go there) in his bee suit and with his smoker in hand...

 And my dad sharing his love of beekeeping...My Grandpa taught my dad the beekeeping business way back when...and we always had such good honey...It was a sticky mess extracting it, but it was sure tasty!

Boy do I miss that good tasting honey!  Almost as much as I miss my dad and Grandpa!

More Apron fun...

I had so much fun making aprons for my friends' birthdays...another friend had a February birthday so I just had to make her one!  She loves her coffee and she calls her kitchen "Nuri's Cafe" (I have made her things that say that on them) and when I saw this fabric at my most recent Hobby Lobby venture with Linda Saunders, I knew I had to have it for Nuri's apron!  I think it turned out as cute as the others, and she loved it!  It also turns out she loves aprons...I didn't even know that!

 And I finally finished the matching potholders for each of the aprons I made.  I was sick in December and never finished the chicken ones (two pot holders for each apron) and when I tried to finish them later, I just couldn't make them look right!  I cut them out with each apron I made, but just couldn't figure out how to finish them off so that I liked them.  So I gave each apron gift without the pot holders. I finally solicited help from my professional sewing friend Teri Stringham and she saved the day!  I added ric-rac and it was the perfect ending!   So now they all have matching pot holders!  Nuri is the only one who actually got them with her apron though.  Teri brought me some of her ric-rac collection and the red I used was a brand new package, not even opened yet.  It was from Penneys and the price was 13 cents!  She says it came from her mother's collection.  I feel honored to use it!  And it holds up really well!

What project shall I do next?  Dave is going out of town on business again this week so I can spread out my messes...first up will be making cards.  I promised some to Susan Tanner and I will get them done this week!