Family Fan

One of the women from church showed me how to make an easy-to-read and -understand family fan chart using www.treeseek.com. It uses new.familysearch.org or geni.com family information to generate charts and word clouds.  Here are some of mine:

It's not perfect, but it definitely helps to visualize who has already been found, and who is still missing.  It also doesn't list multiple spouses.

Valentine 2012

My sister, Cassie, sent a picture of bacon roses, probably because on Christmas Eve Zak was singing "Merry Bacon and a Happy New Bacon."  I went with the idea, and made some bacon roses for Zak (along with a Justin Bieber poster that came with the Valentines I bought for Zak last year). I went inside Melaleuca's entryway for the first time to deliver them.  Bacon roses:  the woman's solution for the Valentine's gift question.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bacon-Roses/

O'Neil kids in the 1940s

Grandma J and her two brothers, Bob and Dale in the mid- to late-1940s or so.  It's the O'Neil line that gets stuck in the shortest number of steps.  Their mom, Auretta Empey O'Neil, documented a lot of the family history, so the Empey line is clear, but her husband's line only goes back to Ireland around 1800.  Henry J. O'Neil and Bridget Duffey emigrated from Ireland to Canada, and then lived and died in Colorado.

Moving to Idaho

Zak graduated in December with is Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, so it was time to look for another job.  He sent out his portfolio and resume to a few places (http://zporter.com/), and got a call back from Melaleuca, Inc. We drove up to Idaho together, and I canvased the town while he had a full day of interviews with various people in the Web Design Department and corporate. We heard back a short time later that they intended to make an offer, and when it finally came, we accepted. Husband is officially a Jr. Web Designer. The company booked and covered a hotel stay and cost of meals so we could go a-house-hunting.  I'd been browsing Craigslist, and found a few in our price range to see. Most were pretty small, in areas we didn't like as much, or lacked some of the amenities we wanted. We eventually met with Steve, who showed us some 4-plex housing. The street was pretty busy, but he showed us some others with the same floor plan in another neighborhood.  I liked the washer/dryer hookups, room in the kitchen for a table, and dishwasher, and Zak liked the garage and larger rooms. That week we packed, scrubbed walls, and shampooed our carpet.  My wonderful home teaching companion brought us a meal, our home teacher and my parents and siblings helped us haul our ample boxes of stuff into the 14-foot U-haul Zak was so excited to drive, and we said good-bye to our friends and family. Lots of friends offered help and love. Thank you. A week after our hotel stay and house-hunt, we moved to Idaho. Sort of. My parents did drive us back to Utah to visit with family when cousin Troy spoke in church after coming home from his mission, and when the Johnson side celebrated Daxin's birthday.  It was a great opportunity to see most of the Hoopers and Johnsons.  I'm still adjusting to living in a place where neighbors walk right past my windows, but I  crave the light and can't seem to shut my curtains when the sun is shining. Also "I have a [dishwasher], I have a [dishwasher], I have a [dishwasher], hey hey hey hey!" What a month.

Tree Swing

This is my dad.  He likes to jump out and scare you, tell wonderfully corny jokes, and look at the stars.  I love him.

As a side note, this may have been the same day my brother slipped from the swing and broke his arm.  Still looks fun.

Yellowstone 2010

When I lived in Ohio and Kentucky as a full-time LDS missionary, Dad's side of the family decided to take a trip to some of the mormon handcart pioneer sites and museums around Wyoming.  It's become somewhat of an every-other year family trip.  In 2010 we caravaned to Yellowstone National Park, and stayed in a KOA Kampground.  We didn't see many animals, but saw and smelled many amazing geysers.  One of my favorite spots was Earthquake (Quake) Lake, where my parents and siblings skipped rocks.