Wedding Day

Here is Sam and Solanah getting ready to make the marriage official, signing the wedding license. Sam looks a little distracted, but he was very much ready to make sure all was official.

It was a wonderful wedding. It seemed really short for me, as a witness. I remember at my own wedding, time moves slower when you are the ones getting married. After this, Sam and Solanah danced a bit, then spent much of the rest of the time posing for the wedding pictures. Fortunately, as the Grandmother and Great Aunt, MaryLou and I didn't have to worry about much posing.

It was a beautiful setting for a wedding, at the old Fort Vancouver. There's lots of green grass, trees, and historical old buildings. There was even an old car ralley on the grounds and Sam and Solanah were able to get some pictures with an old car. I found a cool place to sit in the shade and just enjoyed the scenery. I could see the Columbia River in the distance and saw a sailboat or two. It was very nice. It was also hot, but nowhere near as hot as it has been lately. According to our local newspaper, Portland can expect to hit 106 degrees tomorrow. I sure hope not though. That kind of heat in that area is unthinkable!

The newlyweds went to San Fransisco for a few days. We had left before they got home, but it surely had to be cooler in SF than back home.

Sam and Solanah are embarking on their new lives together, a time full of joy, love and challenges. I wish them smooth sailing and much love and joy!

Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation! The picture is of Moltnomah Falls along the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. The picture was actually taken 2 years ago. I have the recent pictures somewhere in my computer, but I forgot what I named the file. I guess I find them eventually. I t really seems strange to lose something in a little laptop, but if anyone can do it, I can.

We drove up by way of Wells and Jackpot Nevada. I took a wrong turn to US 30 west, thinking I was getting on I-84. As soon as the speed limit changed to 40 mph,I knew it wasn't an interstate. The road is a scenic highway called Thousand Springs road. We saw quite a bit we'd never seen before and it didn't add that much to the trip time, so it was worth it. Some of my most interesting trips have come from wrong turns.

We left at 5:20 AM mountain time and arrived at my Son's home around 7 PM pac time. We had printed out directions from google and only had to turn around once to find their new diggs. They have a very nice house.

My kids, notice how I claim them all, my Daughter-in-Law, is just like my own Daughter, so anyway, my kids have the most caring and generous friends. One couple brought over their trailer to park in front of the house and plug into the power, so we had our own home away from home. Another friend provided fresh flowers to make the trailer homey. These couples provided absolutely indispensible help and direction for the wedding rehearsal dinner, the ladies doing the decorating and much of the cooking, the men providing the grunt work of setting up and tearing down. They were phenominal!

The wedding was beautiful, espcially the Bride. The motif was the "50's".It was great! The Groom, the Father of the Groom,and the Brother of the Groom all wore colored sneakers with their suits with matching ties.Very stylish. If I ever find my pictures, I'll post them later.

Now,we're back home and I'm back to work. It's been very hot, but it's supposed to cool a little next week. On my first day back at work, my car died. I found out there's a security system that totally shuts off your electrical system if your battery gets below 9 volts. My key fob wouldn't even work, I had to use the key and when I tried to start the car, it beeped at me. Thank goodness for AAA. I've paid for it for years. some years I never use it, but when I need it, it's there and worth it. I got jumpered and got started. When I finally got home and parked, I turned off the car. I tried to start it again and couldn't. I planned on getting a jump the next morning and then going to get a battery. It actually started, but since I couldn't remember when I'd bought that battery, probably at least 3-4 years ago, I decided to buy a new one. I can't afford to commute so far to work with a car I can't trust. Other than that, we're surviving.

Vacation Time

Yesterday was my last working day for 11 days! Yeah! I need a vacation. Life in Retail has been a bit tense lately. I'm glad of the break. I'm really glad for the reason to vacation now. It gives me the reason to go on a trip rather than having a "staycation". Besides, a staycation doesn't get you out of your rut enough, you just end up being lazy, or worse, doing some home project.

We are going on a road trip to Vancouver, WA for my oldest Grandson's wedding. I might hate to admit that I'm old enough to have a Grandson getting married, but I'm so happy for him and his wonderful fiance, Solanah! Sam and Solanah seem like a wonderful pair. They seem to complement each other so well and are very obviously in love. They remind me, a bit, of my Son and his beautiful wife, Lisa, who are themselves still very much in love. Actually, My son and Daughter-in-Law are more than "in love". They are simply devoted to each other and best friends.

We are going to try driving up in one day. Usually, we spend one night in a hotel and will probably do that going home. We have to time our return to pick up our big, white, furry animal at the kennel on our way. We're trying a new route going up this time. We'll go by way of Nevada and pick up Interstate 84 from Twin Falls, ID. Hopefully we'll miss some traffic by avoiding SLC this time.

The last time I saw my Washington family was a sorrowful occaision. This time is a joyous time. I much prefer it this way.

Some Updates

I've had a little time to do some genaology this week. Ancestry.com has changed things a little so that it is easier to get around from person to person, so I've been doing a little clean-up on some of my lines. I don't think I've mentioned that we also have Greek ancestors who were in Constantinople, Turkey. We have some French and Norman forbears who did some take overs in Turkey.I guess it was around one of the Crusades. We are also related to some of the Greeks who were also playing take over in Turkey. One was named Andrinikos Dukas Kamateros. He was born in 1108, in Constantinople. His wife was Theodora Kalusine Komnera, born 1126, also in Constantinople.

We've even had some of our French and English forbears who died in Bethleham or Jeruselam, probably on Crusade. The thing that's surprising though, is that some of them took their wives along. We have one ancestor who's name I can't recall just now, proclaimed himself King of Jeruselem and actually ruled for awhile. Can't say our family didn't have nerve.

On the Welsh front, we have Llewelyn Ap Iorewerta who was born in 1173 in Aberfraw Castle in Cearnarvonshire Wales. Most of our Welsh forbears came through the Clark side. One of our Great Grandfather Jefferies married Emma Clark here in Utah,and there was born our Welsh lineage.

We are also related the "Alfred the Great". He was supposed to be one of the first great kings of England. He did have great statesman like skills and could handle men. However, there wasn't really an England, as such, then. It was in the ninth century and England consisted of London and the surrounding area, called Mercia. The northern part of the country below Scotland was called the Danelaw and consisted of, well Danes, who had decided to settle down and enjoy the spoils of viking. Wales was bigger and occupied the area east of Mercia. Still, Alfred managed to keep Mercia for his people and laid the foundation of the future England. I had read stories about that time period and felt pretty pleased to be related to Alfred.

On another note, we're looking forward to a wedding next week. We'll be loading up and heading for greener climes next Tuesday. Whee!!!!!

Just Keep Trying

I thought by now, at my age, that I'd be coasting to the finish line. Just taking things easy, having some fun along the way, my life in hand, very little angst. Guess what? It just ain't so. I guess some of us are destined to push our way to the finish line. Not that I'm expecting the finish to be right around the corner. If I had my druthers, I'd end it all in my sleep at the age of 102, having lived well and worn everything out, ready for a new life on the other side. Unfortunately, the struggle continues. Fortunately, it's not as bad as my teens, thank the Lord.

I have days when I have trouble finding anything to be thankful for. Of course, those are the days when I really need to find those things to be thankful for. After all, I'm still breathing, walking, talking, etc. I have loving family still, and friends. There's a big lumbering Dog who thinks I'm pretty great, though I'm probably 2 nd on her list, but that's okay.

My job is problamatic much of the time lately. The things I enjoyed in my job, sometimes get lost in its' demands, though a sweet child always brings a smile to my face.

Sunday, I let myself be drawn into a bit ot a political argument with a customer, that I've usually enjoyed. I really felt bad and beat myself up for the rest of the day. I get upset with myself for getting side tracked. I'd love to be perfect, but then I'd probably decide there was something wrong with that too.

You get to a point in life, when you realise you just might not make all those goals you've had. What really anoys me is that I fail to make any headway on things that I've wanted to do, it seems, all my life. You'd think that I could fix, at least, one or two things that I want to change about myself. My Son wrote about everyone being on their own path, which I firmly believe. Sometimes, though, I'm afraid that my path has gotten faint, or I've slipped off from it and I'm just wandering around. Maybe I should just enjoy the wandering for awhile,or maybe I should find a way to stop for awhile and listen for instructions.

My Opinion

I've been reading my Son's family blog about Father's day. It sounds like it was mostly good. My Son was making the point that what a child experiences with their father, molds their expectations and ideas of God, the ultimate Father. I think that may be right. Athough my concept of God has changed since I was a child, I think your first concepts probably are very influenced by thr relationship you have with your own earthly Father. My Father was very loving, though quite strict. He was careful to not make a promise that he couldn't keep. I remember once, I was supposed to wait for my Grandfather to pick me up from grade school, but I went to Primary with a friend. My Grandfather couldn't find me and finally went home without me, to get my Mother to help him look. By the time they got back, I was at the school waiting, realising that I was probably in trouble. Mom was so upset that I'd frightened everyone, that she told me I couldn't go to the play or concert that the high school was doing that night. My Aunt MaryLou was in it and I had been promised I could go. I was upset, but truthfully, I think I knew I deserved it. After my Dad got home from work, he told Mom that it had been a promise. By that time, it was too late to go to the play. Dad told me I'd been very wrong to worry everyone and need to be punished. I got a spanking, then I was taken to the drive-in in Tooele for a movie, to make up for missing the concert. I was probably 8 years old, but I've never forgotten it.

I didn't always agree with my Dad, and he certainly wasn't perfect, but he did teach me about keeping my word, or not giving it. Maybe that's why my kids heard "maybe" so often.

I must say, that my concept of God has grown as I have I guess. My belief is that God is Love. That said, I don't believe that you recieve everything you ask for, in the way that you ask for it. We can ask for anything and God, in his Love will give it to us. However, we don't have the right to tell God how to do His job, so He will give to us in His own time and in His own way. Being a Loving Father, He will give back to us beyond our dreams, since we usually tend to think too small, forgetting that God is Omnipotent and all-powerful. The trick is believing, expecting, and accepting. We need to be grateful for all that we have, the breath that we take, the fact that we live, the many things in this world that are beautiful. If we wnt love and beauty, we need to look for it and be grateful for that which we see. If we focus on the unhappy things, the ugly or the lack, that will be what we keep experiencing, because that's where our focus is. When I find myself down and not interested in getting out of bed in the morning, eventually, I'll remember to focus my attention on the things that are good and remeber to thank God for all the good I can see. Usually, things will perk up in awhile.

I don't say my belief is the only belief, only that it usually works for me.

Living Honestly

I sometimes find myself agreeing with a person I'm talking to, all the while, knowing that I don't really agree. It may be a co-worker, or a manager or a new acquaintance, or even a stranger. I'm sure that we frequently do this just to be agreeable, or because the issue isn't particularly important at the time. I guess it may not be that important if it is just an occaisional happening. There are some who would say that anytime you don't assert your own beliefs can be living a lie, therefore damaging your own soul. After 911 I often had problems when listening to some of my more militant co-workers. I'm happy yo say that I didn't validate their views on wanting vengence because I didn't agree. I mostly listened and kept my opinions to myself, deciding not to cause discent at work. This made me feel that I had been untrue to myself, though I was pretty sure I wouldn't have changed people's minds.

When I was younger, I pretty much voiced my opinion whether anyone asked for it or not. Getting older either mellowed me, making me realise that telling everyone what I think is,at best, being a bore and at worst, an exercise in futility. I have tried to learn not to judge others and to accept them as they are. Trying to convince everyone of the rightness of my opinions and beliefs is can be frustrating and usually, not worth it. Still, how do you make sure you are being true to yourself? By letting someone believe that you agree with everything they say, am I being honest? Does it even matter?

I guess you have to keep checking how you feel about yourself, whether there's a feeling of disconnectedness or a bit of guilt over something you've said or not said. Is it another person you may have wronged? If not, maybe the person you have wronged is yourself. I thought I'd have more answers to life by the time I got this old, but my ideas have changed nearly as much in the last decade as they did in my 2nd and 3rd decade. I'm not sure we ever have all the answers. If we think we do, we're probably wrong.

Looking back at this rambling post,I'm not sure I said what I wanted or if it was worth doing. Oh well, I'm just rambling anyway.

Back to Genealogy

I've been working on both our Scottish and our Welsh lines lately. The Welsh lines are a bit of a challenge since the names are nearly unpronouncable. Some of the place names just look like a string of letters, a long string, but usually include a province or county that's recogniseable. Many of our Welsh forbears came from around Glammorgan or Monmouthshire. As an example of interesting place names, there's Morgan Ap Maredudd from Cyfoeth, Meredydd, Gwynllwg in Monmouthshire. Notice the use of w and y and l in everything. There is a woman named Tangwlstl Verch Rhys. The Verch seems to be used for women. I don't know if it's like Mrs or some other form of honorific. At least with the "Verch", you know it's a woman, sometimes the only way to tell.

We are related to Daffyd Ap Llewellyn. There was a prince of Wales by that name and also a great Welsh poet. I googled the name, but it's hard to figure, as the time frame doesn't quite fit either character. Once you get back in the 12th or 13th century, it's always a little hard to be sure of dates unless the person is famous and well researched. I almost think I'd prefer to be related to the poet. We've got more than enough royalty.

I struggled a bit with the Robert The Bruce line. MaryLou seemed get the direct line just fine, but I had an extra John Bruce that skewed everything, even though my line before the king was fine. I think I've got it right finally.

We also have connections to the early Spanish Kings as well. Once you establish connections to the Capets and Plantagenets, you end up related to half the royalty of Europe and Scandanavia.

Obviously, many of our forbears were farmers and businessmen and even peasents and thier lines taper off fairly early. Some lines don't go farther than the 17th century. Some countries are harder to find info on too, like Ireland. I did get onto a message board for the Haggerty family and noticed my cousin had been doing some of the same searches that I am, but that was in 2004. Now I need to find out whether he had ant success or not. I did pick up a tidbit about some Hagerty's in the 1600s who came to fight the English with the O'Niel's (the clan we were sept to). They even ended up with a castle, actually 2, one in Ireland and one in Austria. I doubt that it's our line though, but it's nice someone in the Haggerty clan had a castle. Anyway, I keep plugging away.

So Much Pain

I was all ready to write another post on the Welsh genealogy that I've been doing, but after reading a series of posts on my Son and Daughter-in-Laws blog, I feel the need to talk a little about pain and dealing with it.

I understand that in this life,pain is probably inevitable. How much you suffer, and how you suffer can be a choice that we each can make. My Daughter-in-Law had an extreemly painful childhood. She has endured a great deal of pain and suffering. I won't say I know what she has gone through, because I don't, and nobody else can claim to either. We have no way to get inside another person's heart and mind to see their world. I can only see from the outside. I see a person who, at some point, decided to fight against her suffering and fight to lead the life she wants. I know that she is still fighting. I see a strong woman who has so much love to give. I also see a woman who fights her demons and and doubts. I would like to let her know, that even people with good childhoods have to fight doubts and their precieved weaknesses.

I worry about my Son and his depression. I am sorry I didn't see the problem sooner. I worry about how much of his childhood contributed. I am very glad he is addressing the problem and not playing the strong silent type that so many men do.

When you are fighting depression and problems, it can be difficult to focus on what's right with the world. It can be a temptation to look at everything through a dark lense. It is very important to look for the light, for beauty and love. I used to write down at least 3 things I was grateful for every night before I went to bed. I kind of got away from that. I noticed that some days, I'd wake up and not even want to get out of bed. There wasn't anything that I could point to that was wrong, just nothing much right or worth getting up for. I decided I should remember to count my blessings, nothing formal like before. I just tried to remember a thank you when things were going right, or I was feeling happy, or something good happened, or even if something bad didn't happen. I think, that if you thank God for the things you love, He'll make sure you get more of those things.

I've lived long enough now, that things that used to bother me so much, are less important, maybe because I have tried to let some things go, to obsess less. It doesn't always work, but it's better. Maybe, I'm living such an uneventful life, nothing gets to me. Maybe I've achieved, on my own what Prosac once offered me; emotions on an even keel, no lows, but then again, not too many highs either.

New Book

I've been using this book to check my genealogy with it's charts and maps. But yesterday I decided to start reading it. It's called "Robert the Bruce, King of Scotts".It is supposed to be the definative book on Robert Bruce. It's quite readable and I am enjoying it a lot.

I've discovered that my son Robert is quite excited about his connection to Robert Bruce. When we named Bob, it was to honor an Uncle on his father's side of the family. We didn't know about the famous connection. It's been quite fun. It turns out that Robert Bruce was not Celt, but Anglo-Norman. However, he did speak Gaelic, as well as Norman French and Northern English, making him trilingual. He became Earl of Carrick through his mother, who was Countess of Carrick in her own right. From his father, he was Earl of Annandale, a holding close to Carrick.These holdings were on the south western side of Scotland. In fact, Carrick was on the Irish Sea. Robert's family also had English holdings in Essex and Midlands.

There were Scottish kings before Robert the Bruce, but they did not control the whole of Scotland. Robert's distinction was the uniting all of Scotland under one rule.

So far, I'm reading about the meschinations of England's King Edward I after the untimely death of Alexander the third, leaving only a girl child as hier because his two son's had died with no issue. The child was his daughter's child from Norway's King Eric. The Scottish nobility wanted to set up a regency of 6 men. Edward agreed if they would swear fealty to him as the more powerful king. He eventually insisted that Margaret, only 6 years old be brought to Scotland to be raised and to be married to Edward's 5 year old son. By the time she arirrived, she was ill and eventually died. Through other meschinations and intimidations, Edward put John Balliol on the Scottish throne. At this time, Robert was only in his teens, and his grandfather, Robert, the Competitor, was trying to put his own family into contention for the throne, always believing in was his family's by blood right.

It is all very interesting and I am enjoying it very much. I've always had an interest in History, especially old History, so the genealogy is a good stimulus for more study.

The Importance of Pets

As all of the family is dealing with the loss of my Son's Family's adorable Sheltie, Angel, I begin to think about all the pets I have had in my life. It seems that I've had at least one animal in my life for most of my life. There have been times, usually during mourning for a lost pet, that I have been without one, but soon, the old imperative to share my life with another animal gets too strong. I find a new pet to enlarge my life.

During my childhood, I usually lived where having pets was not a problem and I frequently had more than one at a time. We almost always had a few cats around, whether outdoors,indoors or a combination. Much of my life I slept with at least one cat, sometimes two. There seemed to always be a dog at home except when I lived in 2 different Utah Power and Light company housing, but we had cats then too. I also had parakeets and goldfish at times. I remember the piglet my Dad bought to raise for future meat. He warned me it was not a pet, but I named it anyway. When it was time to butcher him, my Dad warned me and I hid under the bed until it was all over. I did eventually manage to eat some of the meat, but not without a little twinge.

I've loved and lost quite a few pets in my lifetime. We had a black cat who was a bit of a runt, so I tried to keep it house bound. I didn't know then that you need to have them nuetered or the males keep marking their territory. Bob got very upset when Sooty urinated in his new mocasins. They were totally ruined. We finally let Sooty out into the neighborhood. He came back in the morning ruffled and dirty, but seemingly triumphant over the other cats. His penchant for fighting was finally his undoing. He finally was hurt enough that he couldn't recover, though we did have him into the Vet, he ended up with bleeding stools, indicating internal injuries. I finally took him into the Vet to be put to sleep. When Bob came home from school and I told him about Sooty, he wanted to know whether we'd do that to him if he got sick. He nearly broke my heart. He was around 7 years old, I think, and really couldn't understand why there should be a distinction between people and pets. It's very hard to explain to a little boy, especially when you're not too sure of things yourself.

It's amazing how your pets can fill up your life like they do. Yesterday, MaryLou and I went to the grocery store to get groceries and dog food for our monster dog Lady. We were out at the car, putting things in the trunk when it thundered. The first thing both of us thought of was Lady. She's afraid of thunder. Of course, we hurried home to comfort her. Like I said, they're a big part of your life. People who've never had pets can't understand how important they are to us. We who have pets can't understand those who don't have pets. We're sure they are missing something in their lives.

Painful Loses

It seems that our family has been having a streak of painful losses for the past few years. I guess that's true of many families. It just seems like it's piling up sometimes. I think that it must be an indication that we are investing love in our lives, otherwise, people and pets leaving us wouldn't be so painful.

My Son and his family are undergoing the possible loss of a beloved pet. I've been though that fairly often. Each time, I tell myself that I'll do without a pet,because it hurts so much when you lose them. It just seems so unfair that animals have so much shorter of a life span than we do.I still end up with another pet, because they give so much love and really don't ask for that much, usually.

My heart goes out to my Son and Daughter-in-Law and my Grandchildren. It is so painful, but the unconditional love you receive from a pet is priceless.

More Musings

I can't believe that I used to post nearly evey day. Now I'm lucky if I post once a week. With the weather better, and yard work to do,time is slipping away again.



I got a wonderful email from my friend Zara, who was once staff for Michele. Actually, she was much more than Staff, she was a true mentor for Michele and I was thankful to God every day for her. I still am, actually. She pops up with an email just when I need it.



Anyway, Zara was telling me about an art project she was involved with on May 9th in Sugarhouse. They had artists and dancers around a creek that goes behind businesses there. They had dancers in the trees, and bright fabric floating in the water. They used umbrellas embellished by different artists scattered about. Zara said she felt Michele's spirit there. Later, she found out that Michele's supervisor, Scott, had donated the rest of Michele's umbrella collection for the project. I'm sure Michele would have loved to see all of her umbrellas being enjoyed that day.

I have a new project. I'm keying information from old records for Ancestery.com. It's Ancestery World Project, and volunteers view the records online and with some enlarging, try to fill out the pertinent information. I've been mainly doing immigration records,which is fairly easy if it's legible. The batch I did today about put me over the edge. One of the papers I was trying to do kept appearing upside down. Really hard to read that way. I finally got it working. My accuracy has been 84%, but it's slipping down to 82% the last couple of days. Handwriting was a bit different last century. Hope my eyes hold out!

Thoughts of Time

I just had a birthday.I mentioned to someone I worked with, that I don't think I ever expected to be this age, at least not for years and years. Strangely enough, it has been years and years. That's what happens when you're not paying attention.

I was reading an essay about time recently. The author's point is that time is actually speeding up, not just our perception of it. I'm certainly aware of the perception of time passing faster. Every year seems to pass faster than one before. That's perception. However, this author discussed how many things happen in a time period, like a year or a decade, or a century, then cited how many things happen each decade or century. Things occur more rapidly now and have been speeding up at a break-neck pace with no sign of slowing down. Certainly that's been happening, but I'm not sure that proves that time is moving faster.

I know that I feel, quite frequently, that time is slipping away from me. My own life, in some ways, is slowing a bit, but everything around me seems to be in a hurry. My Aunt, people that I work with, will stop every now and then and comment, "Wow, May is more than Half over! Where did it go?"

Sometimes, I just feel time slipping away from me. Then I fret that I'm not doing all that I should, I'm not using "time" as I should. I always hear, "everyone gets the same 24 hours a day", but somehow, someone's put the clock on fast forward it seems.

After Effects

Here it is May. In fact, in 3 days, it will have been one year since my daughter Michele, left us. She's been in my mind a lot lately, in fact for the last several weeks. I was remembering how hard it was to have her hooked up to machines and tubes, when I wanted, so much, to simply hold her. She was my baby, and I could only hold her hand, or pat her foot. It was very frustrating.

I also remember that I didn't seem to dream of her, at least not that I could remember. Last month, I had dreams of her several nights in a row. In these dreams, I was able to hold her, at last. When she was alive, I sometimes dreamed of her running away getting into harmful drinks,or getting lost, and I would wake in a cold sweat, having to assure myself that she was safe. At least, she was a safe as we could make her. The dreams last month would start out like my old ones, but, in the end, she was always really safe, and I was able to hug her and hold her. Maybe, it was my subconcouise, helping me to start healing.

I guess that accepting the loss of a loved one is an ongoing thing. It still doesn't seem right to lose a child. It just seems to go against the "way of things", though it does happen often enough. I am more accepting. After all, her absence is a fact, I can't change it. I still do miss her, as I miss my parents. I guess that doesn't really change. It's life, it seems.

Flip Book

I belong to a creative crafts club, and we sometimes get the chance to test new products for companies. Recently, I tested something called a Flip Book. I had to have a digital camera and computer, and know enough to take a 30 second video, then download it to my computer. I decided to take a short video of Lady, the family dog. After I downloaded it and replayed it, I was concerned because the TV was on, so there was a lot of extraneous noise. Then there was me, trying to get Lady to look up at me. She looked at me once, saw the camera and started looking anywhere but the camera. I signed onto the company's website and followed the simple instructions to download the video to their site. Because I was testing the product, there was no charge to me,but the cost for one Flip Book is $8.99, plus shipping, total is around $11.98.

I wasn't totally sure exactly what I would be getting, but I didn't need to worry about the noise, at least. What they were testing was the process of making your video, downloading and ordering. I wrote a review for the company. This week I received my book. It's about the size of my cellphone. It's got the cover I ordered. They take your video and break it down, picture by picture. You just flip the pictures quickly, and there's your video! No power or battery to run out. You can carry it in your pocket. It's really quite fun. They also offer greeting Flips books, 4 for $19.95. I'm assuming that these are shorter versions, but haven't seen them yet. This seems to be a new company with a cute idea. Only time will tell, if it's a hit.

Royalty, That's Us.

I think that I wrote once that we were not descended from William the Conqueror, but were descended from his half brother, Richard. Richard went with William and fought in the Battle of Hastings. For his reward, he was given much land and many titles. He took the name of Earl of Clare, and the area he ruled in Ireland was names county Clare in the family's honor.

I was working on another line of our genealogy, and discovered we are descended from the first King Henry of England. He became king after his father, King William, the Conqueror. So, we are directly descended, after all. This points up a discovery I've made, in my researches. Most of the royals were related to each other at least in one line, and often, in several. The nobility seemed to want to keep the titles, the lands, and the money, as much in the family as possible. They made alliances with other families, but there was just a lot of inter-marrying.

We're also descended from Henry the second. His family was the Plantagenants, who produced many of the English Kings and Queens. Henry II wasn't the son of Henry I though, different family. Don't get excited about being related to Richard, the Lion-hearted though. He and his brothers, Prince Geoffery, and Prince John were from Eleanor of Aquitane, HenryII' wife. He set her aside, and imprisoned her in a castle in France, then took up with Rosamond, who gave him a son, in his old age named William Longsepree. He is the one who is our ancestor.

In any case, we're also related to several Scottish Kings, including Robert, the Bruce and several early French kings. I'm sure you notice, however, it doesn't do much to improve our current lives. I've always loved studying earlyhistory,so now realising there were some of my ancestors living that history,has made it seem a bit more real to me. It's fun, anyway.

Updates

I haven't been posting so much lately. I actually worked all this last weekend for our now quarterly promotion, A Taste of Sam's. This time it was called A Taste of Spring. Of course it snowed, but then it was LDS Conference weekend. Storminess is pretty much a given. This next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I work to sell people things for Easter. I guess people still have to eat, and for our Catholic members, it's the end of Lent. They're probably hungry for something besides fish by now.

We had some nice days on Sunday and Monday. Today, we went out and enlarged some flower beds and nearly got blown away! It's raining now. That's okay, rain is good. Over last week, Snowbird got 14 feet of snow. Pretty nice. Sure glad it mostly stayed in the mountains.

Another thing that keeps me occupied is genealogy. It can almost get to be an obsession. What will the next century bring? How many kings are we related to. When you get back before the year 1000, it seems that there's a king behind every bush! Of course, there's so much inter-marriage, that it gets confusing. On the Peck side,(Mom's Grandfather's side) we go back to the Normans and the Vikings. On that line we aren't directly decended from William, the Conqueror. We are, however decended from his brother Richard, who became Richard De Clare. Imagine my surprise when I was doing the Scottish line to find out we are decended from William through his son Henry who became King of England after William. Then there all the Scottish Kings. There really was a MacBeth. He killed one of our royal Scotts ancestors with the help of the English king. Of course, these people were killing each other off right and left, even though they were all family. Sometimes, midevile times can seem romantic, but there were some real disadvantages. Even the richest of them would have not had a comfortable bathroom, or even one with much function

Oh, and we're related to French kings and German royalty, as well. It's quite amazing, but I guess there were a lot less people then, plus many of the royalty kept concubines in the 4th and 5th century, and it seems thier children were accepted. Probably they wanted huge families as a power base. Even so, it sure shows how connected we are to each other.

I've got kind of discouraged on the Haggerty line. The Irish don't have much of thier info online yet, or even on microfilm. They also charge for a lot of the information. I still haven't made the connection from Elias Haggerty and his father who was born in Ireland yet. I'll keep plugging away though.

More Geneology

Here is the Haggerty Crest. As you can see, there are 2 gs in the name. I think the extra one was dropped with my Grandfather Gilbert, or perhaps his father Silas Sharp( the first). I have been in contact with someone who is also researching the Haggerty line. His family name is Watt, so a cousin. It's been kind of fun comparing notes and stories.

One of the questions he had was about the change in the spelling of the name. He had heard stories that there had been a falling out over a family business that didn't go well,and part of the family dropped the extra "g" in protest. I suspect in had to do with the county in Ireland that the family came from. The Northern counties in Ulster, were more often protestants and spelled thier names with one "g". Those from farther south like county Cork were more likely Catholic and used the 2 "g" spelling. It could have been something else, as well.

I had already seen the family crest, but I was able to get a download from an Irish website. There's a website for Aran sweaters. Each family has their own design for an Aran sweater. The Haggerty design is really pretty, but $250 is a little steep for me right now.

There's also an Irish connection through the Peck line. My Grandmother Jefferies maiden name was Peck. It seems that she has, so far, the most interesting lineage. It can be traced way back bcause she was desended from royalty, making her easier to trace. The Peck line went back into the 1100's as Peck, then became Provost and finally, the names were with titles so every one was different. The names were often Fitz followed by the father's name. One ancestor was William Fitzgilbert. He accompanied William the Conqueror,(who is a cousin) to the Battle of Hastins in 1066. For his valor, he was awarded many titles and given much land. He took the name William de Clare. One of his estates was in Ireland,and he lived and governed there. He must have done a good enough job, because they named a county after him, County Clare.

It's fun to look at the royal lines because there's so much information on them and you can feel the history. Some of the lines are more difficult to research. The Hagerty line is proving to be that way. There are so many of them and many immigrated to the US so it's hard to separate the facts. Maybe someday, I'll go to Ireland and see things for myself.

Changes

I just finished reading a news column from Thomas Friedman. He quoted an article from "The Onion" where a Chinese worker in plastics talked about the crazy things Americans would buy, like salad shooters, use them for awhile, then just throw them away. You know, I used to have a salad shooter. I used it quite often for awhile. I must have thrown it away or hopefully given it away when I moved after my divorce. I've actually kind of missed it though.

Getting back to the point: Friedman says that this depression may actually be more than just a depression. 2008 may be the year that Mother Nature, and the stock market said "stop". It's time to stop spending more and more for things we don't need, stop trying to make more money than we need, and stop using up our natural resources and throwing away whatever we get tired of. He mentions that we're constantly working to grow more and make more money to buy more things made in China so they can get more money to buy more T bills so they can lend us more money to buy more..... You see where this is going.

I've always thought that a country who's gross national product is essentially it's consumers spending more and more is likely heading for a fall. Have you noticed a falling feeling? Fortunately, people are beginning to realise we need to build sustainably, recycle etc. Hopefully, it will all come out well, but the new world may be different from the old.