Merry Christmas

I haven't been home on my big computer for a few weeks. I am in Utah. I haven't been keeping up on my blog. I have a lot to talk about so when I get back to Jenny's I will catch everyone up on my life. In the meantime I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the best New Year ever. I love you all.

Proposition 8.......My Take

I have been following the posts made in some of the California papers and in the Salt Lake Tribune. I have been dismayed at the things that have been said. Just because good, decent, people voted to keep marriage between a man and a woman. The gays are calling us bigots, calling for our tax exemption to be taken away. Telling lies about the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Protesting at our Temples. Then they have the nerve to tell us we are the intolerant people.


What makes me so sad is to see the number of Church members that are speaking out against our Church leaders. Asking that their names be taken off the records of the Church. I see this as a weeding out to see who will support the Lord and who will not. Many are saying that we will see a new revelation come allowing the gays full membership in the church will full privelidges.
That includes Temple Marriage. I can't see that happening. A lot are saying when the older leaders of our Church die we will see a tolerance come in the younger leaders and they will allow gay marriage.


I love this Church. I love that it is directed by revelation through a Prophet of God. I know if we stand steadfast good will triumph over evil. We will have trying times before us and we must all gain a personal testimony of the Savior and hold to the iron rod.

Fun Things to think about

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are almost dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they already know there is not enough money?

Why does someone Believe you when you say there are four billion stars; but have to check when you say the paint is still wet?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

If people evolved from apes, Why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses Are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, 'It's all right?' Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, 'That really hurt, why don't you watch where you're going?'

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

And my FAVORITE......The statistics on sanity is that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

~~~Now send this on to your friends and make them smile too!~~~ ****A day without a smile is like a day without sunshine!****

My Halloween Night. "I'm Back"

Halloween night for me was pretty fun. Tim fixed his good , hot, chili for dinner. It is so good. That was a great start to the night. After dinner everyone but me went trick or treating but me. I got to stay home and hand out treats to all the little ghosts and goblins.

Everything was going well. I had tons of kids come to the door and most of them were really cute. One large group that came to the door were really scared because guess who was right in middle of the door. Remember my spider? That's right, there he was big as ever. One little witch asked me to kill it so she could get her treat. I didn't have anything to kill it with so I stepped outside so the kids wouldn't have to come near the door to get their treats.

This Halloween was the busiest one I have had in 8 years. It was lots of fun. Josh, Megan, and Scott made a big haul for the night.

High School Tag!

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? Yes, I could have dated a lot more but I had a steady boyfriend all 3 years of High School.

2. WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? I didn't have a car in High School. When I did drive I drove my mom and dad's plymouth, brown and white, station wagon.

3, DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVERS LICENSE TEST ON FIRST TRY? Yes , I did but I was really nervous when I took it.

4. WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? NO! My parents kept close tabs on me.

5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? Yes. My best friends were boys. I didn't get along to well with girls. They were to mean.

6. WERE YOU IN BAND , ORCHESTRA, OR CHIOR? No, I have no musical talent.

7. WERE YOU A NERD? No. I was a cowgirl.

8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? No. The closest I came to sports were going to the High School basketball games. I loved those.

9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED OR EXPELLED. No. My Dad came looking for me one day, though. Someone had called him and said that I wasn't in school. I was there, just wasn't in class.

10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? Yes.

11.WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Mr. Mele, Mr. Gee, and my Seminary teachers.

12.WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? Usually in the cafeteria.

13. WHAT'S YOUR SCHOOLS FULL NAME? Carbon High School.

14.WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOLS MASCOT AND COLORS? The dinosaur "Carbon Dino's". Our colors were blue and white.

15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING AND WITH WHO. I never went to the dance even one year I attended. I went to the Homecoming football game, with my boyfriends.

16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? Yes, I would. I would do somethings differently. I would apply myself more to my studies and get better grades than I got.

17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? Larry Nicholes coming in late , drunk on his butt, skipping down the aisle to get his diploma. I knew where I was going after High School. I had been accepted to the LDS Business College in Salt Lake City.

18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? Lagoon.

19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Carbon High Rodeo Club.

20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? Definatley!

21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? I never went to Prom , none of my boyfriends wanted to go.

22.ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR TEN YEAR REUNION? Long past 10 years, and no I didn't go.

23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? Yes, I did. I worked at the Arctic Circle all 3 years of my High School experience.

24. I TAG..... Kelley, Leslie, and Carol to do this.

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Creeps

There is one thing that I really HATE. That is a spider. After seeing the one on Kelley's blog it reminded me of what happened to me yesterday. Jenny and I were in the car going to do a few errands. For some reason I looked down to my leg and there was this great big spider crawling on me. I hurridly hit it and set it flying. It gave me the creeps.

Later in the day we were going somewhere again. I looked down at my leg and wouldn't you know it, that same ugly spider was there again. I jumped out of the car and brushed it off of me. I hope this time it's gone for good.

My Weekend

This past weekend I traveled to Utah with the Needles family. Our first stop was Lagoon. We met the Wagner family in Farmington then went on to Lagoon for FRIGHTMARES. It was lots of fun. I went on a few rides. The first one I went on was Dracula's Castle. I rode with Joshua and he kept asking me the whole way if I was scared yet. I didn't get scared until the end of the ride when I found out I couldn't get out of the ride car. Cody had to pull me out of it. The second ride I went on was the Tidal Wave. That was pretty fun. I forgot there was a step I had to go down and I almost fell down. Good thing Rachel was there to hold on to me.
Most of the time Jenny and I and Scott took Coy and Daxton on the kids rides. It got really cold the last hour we were there. I think it was just because the wind picked up.

Saturday was Matt and Jamies day at the Temple. I was glad that Jenny and Tim were able to go with them. I wasn't able to go with them but I am working on that so that I can go with them in the future. Rachel and I spent the day with all the kids. We went to McDonald's to eat lunch and found it to be a scary situation. Because of all the homeless people in the area they only gave you 30 minutes to eat your lunch. We went to the Visitors Center and walked through there. I was really impressed with the changes they have made in there. I could feel the Spirit of the Lord so strongly while we were viewing the large statue of Christ. It made me cry to think that I had cut myself off from Spiritual experiences for so long. I am so thankful that Matt has taken this step in his life. It amazes me because I could never get him to go to church, even when he was a little boy. Maybe I did something right to influence him , even if it was just a little bit.

I am so grateful to Kerry, Kelley, Mom, Heidi and Bill for being there. Also to Alan and Jo White. It was good to see them after all the years that have passed since I last seen them. Our dinner at the Lion House Pantry was really good. I thank Matt and Jamie for including me in their day as much as they could.

Later I rode to Santaquin with Rachel and then went and spent the night with Matt and Jamie. Sunday Rachel and Cody took me to Sandy to meet Jenny and Tim to go back to Idaho. All in all it was a great weekend.

6 Quirks

1. I love to sleep. It is my favorite past time.


2. I am a Coast to Coast addict. I listen to it every night. That's probably why I sleep in.


3. I hate misplacing things. Is my memory going or am I imagining it. It drives me bonkers until I finally find the thing I misplaced.

4. I hate to be interrupted when I am reading a good book. If you see me with a book , just leave me alone.


5. I love to watch LMN movies. I'm having withdrawals right now. Jenny doesn't have the station.

6. I answer my cell phone any time and any place.

Johnny

Once in awhile a pet comes into your life that fills up your heart.
This is my Beagle , Johnny. I got him when he was 6 weeks old. It was fun watching him grow and develop. He was the typical puppy. The first time he bayed it was so funny. He sat down and looked all around with an expression on his face like where did that come from!
My favorite times were when he would snuggle up to me in my chair. He never outgrew that , even when he got older.
Johnny loved to hunt rabbits. I always worried about him while he was out in the forest. As long as I could hear him I knew that he was alright. He would spend hours hunting.
I almost lost Johnny once after a big Rotwieler attacked him. She almost tore off his whole back leg. I got him to a good vet and he did a good job of sewing him back together. I sure did worry about him.
Johnny will always be a part of me. Maybe in the next life I will get him back. He was truly my friend. I had to give him up because I couldn't find a place to keep him. I pray all the time that he is healty and happy in his new home.
Maybe you could share with me something about a favorite pet that you had.

Ghost Story

Ok, here goes!!! When we moved back to Spring Glen we found out that a Spirit lived in our house. We never saw it but we heard it plenty of times.Every morning at 2:00a.m. I would hear it come up the stairs then it would walk around both bedrooms. Sometimes it would move things on my dresser or sit on the end of my bed. I always hid under my covers and prayed it would go away. It never did.

One day while mom and dad were gone we kids decided to go down into the basement to play school. all of a sudden we heard someone walking across a room upstairs and heard a chain dragging across the floor. We froze in fear. All of us ran for the basement door and ran to the front of the house. All of a sudden we realized the Steven wasn't with us. We ran to the back of the house and ran into him coming to join us. He had fallen into the big hole dad had dug in the back. We asked him how he had gotten out of it and he said he didn't know.

We went back to the front of the house and climbed up on to the fence. Bill got brave and picked up a big rock and went to the front door and told it to come out. It never did. We stayed on the fence until mom and dad came home.

I posted this comment on Kerstina's Blog, so I thought I would post it here too.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!!!!

General Conference

I just got through reading Leslie's blog and thought that I would share what I got out of General Conference this time. I liked Elder Holland's talk on Angels. It gave me a lot of hope that no matter how bad things might get for us economically, financially, morally, or by experiencing natural disasters , that angels would be found amongst us. They will be sent to give us comfort and to lift us up. Not only will we have Heavenly angels but we are to look for mortal angels as well.

I liked Elder Wirthlin's talk also. He told not to get angry about things and to laugh at times when we feel angry. Elder Nelson's talk on marriage was very good also and it was a timely one for our family. Matt and Jamie will be going to the Temple this coming weekend.

All the talks were very good. They were very uplifting and I felt the Spirit of the Lord here very strongly. I hope you all took advantage and watched or at least listened to conference.

Paul Newman dies

Today I learned that one of my very favorite actors passed away last night. Paul Newman died from cancer at the age of 86. My favorite movie of his was Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid. Robert Redford starred with him in the movie. I just wanted to share with you this news.

Changes and summer activities

Daxton Playing on the grass

Tim and Cody playing crouqet

Where did the ball go?

Samantha and Rachel

Rachel and Daxton on his 1st birthday

Matt and Courtney

Matt and Madison

At the end of March Danny decided that he was going to move to Idaho and get a job. He went on the 25th of March. He found a job and Jenny helped him find a house. I had to give Johnny away because Danny couldn't find a place where we could have a dogIt broke my heart to give him away. Tanya , I , and the kids left for Idaho on the 3rd of April.When we got to Idaho we unloaded all our belongings and settled into our new home. Beverlie started school at the Ponderosa Elementary. Everything seemed to be going good.Danny hurt his back at the end of May and was unable to go to work. Tanya had gotten a job and that seemed to help. We spent a lot of time with Jenny and Tim and the kids. Joshua helped babysit while Danny and Tanya worked.

The end of June we had a Family Reunion. We went camping just outside of Preston, Idaho. It was lots of fun. We had to keep a good eye out for the little kids because we were camped right by a river. The kids seemed to really enjoy the camping. I stayed in Matt and Jamies tent trailer with them. The first night Madison cried for about 3 hours because we were in a strange place. The second night she did just fine. The second night we sat around the campfire and sang songs and told ghost stories. It was lots of fun. Megan, Kaitlyn, and Beverlie really came up with some imaginative stories. I went with Cody and Rachel after the reunion to spend a few weeks with them. We had a little birthday party for Coy before we left. It was his 3rd birthday. Danny and Tanya decided to move back to Utah at the end of June. I was sad about it and it broke Jenny's heart for them to leave.

My next activity was the 4th of July. Matt and I went up to save us a place for the Freedom Festival Parade in Provo. We went up there at 5 a.m. Jamie, Rachel and all the kids joined us later. The kids seemed to really enjoy the parade. They were really good the whole time of the Parade. After the Parade we went and got some lunch then later that night Matt and Jamie came out to Rachel's and we did some fireworks. Madison would get scared and she would climb up on my lap and say, pretty, pretty.

July 5th was Daxton's first birthday.. Rachel gave him a little party in a park in Riverton. He took a bath in his ice cream and cake. He was really cute.

Courtney's blessing day was really wonderful. Matt gave her a really nice blessing. We had a luncheon after the blessing. It went really well. I am sure proud of Matt. He has come a long way.

Jenny and Tim got their girls tickets to the American Idol's concert so they came to Utah.On Monday we went to Lagoon. The little kids really had a blast on all the rides. The big kids we hardly even saw all day. We went and got a group picture of us in Pioneer Village. We had a pretty good time.
The next big event was that Joshua broke his arm. We were at Jumping Jacks in Provo and he fell on it going down a slide. He had to have it pinned together.

Jenny and Tim went back to Idaho. My next activity was the 24th of July Parade in Salt Lake City. We went to Salt Lake at 4: 00 a.m. This time Jamie and the kids came with us. Rachel came later in the morning. The parade was good but Carbon High's band was disappointing. All they had was a few drummers. The kids were really good again. After the parade Rachel and I went to lunch and then toured the Conference Center. I was sure impressed with it. Jenny and Tim came back to Utah to go to our Bates Reunion. We cleaned Mom's Yard and basement. Had a barbeque and played some games. Steven really got into the games. I went back to Idaho with Jenny and Tim. I am staying with them now.

Matt and Jamie came for a weekend visit to Idaho the 3rd week of Aug. We went out to Eagle Island State Park and spent the day. Madison loved the water and spent the whole day in it.Scott and Marshall spent most of the day in the sand. Megan, Josh, Matt and Jamie spent most of the day in the water also. It was a fun day.

Rachel, Cody and the boys came to Idaho on Labor Day weekend. Tim and Cody went to a football game. We just kind of hung out and enjoyed each others company. Daxton is walking all over the place now. I got a kick out of watching him. It was a nice visit. We went to the park and played around for awhile.

Easter Outing

Tanya, Ryan and Makalie out in the sun.

Brandon waiting to eat.

This is the last picture that I took of my Beagle, Johnny.

Makette fixing dinner.

Rachel stops for a pose.

Coy and Trevor at our Easter Outing.

We had an Easter outing this year and we went out on the desert. It was lots of fun. The kids climbed up in the rocks, flew kites, and had a really fun Easter egg hunt. Danny cooked us a really good dutch oven dinner. Makette made us her spagetti salad. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

My New Home

I am now living in Meridian, Idaho with Tim and Jenny. I am very grateful to them and the kids for their letting me stay here with them. I will also be spending time with the rest of my kids .

My new address is: Patty Petersen

5960 N Moose Creek Way

Meridian, Idaho 83646

Phone no, 208-629-0909

435-609-1288

I haven't seen much of Idaho yet but I did get to stop last year and see SHOSHONE FALLS. They were really pretty .

Genealogy

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - FamilySearch.org has updated its database of 1870 U.S. Census records and added two new databases with West Virginian information this week to its online pilot program at pilot.familysearch.org. The new additions represent over nine million new names. There are now over 477 million searchable names on the pilot site. =====


I am now back into genealogy. I am in the process of submitting Dad's Richardson file to the Temples. If any of you would like some names to do Temple work let me know and I will send you some. This is going to take me some time to do, the Family History Centers aren't open all week like the one in Price is.

I'm New To This

I thought I would give this a try. If Kelley can do it, I should be able to do it too.