Family Tree Wall

This is what has been keeping me busy the past week. I am photo-shopping ancestors pictures to put on our family tree wall.

It can be quite frustrating trying to Photoshop using Dragon. But at least I can do it for the most part. Although  it takes a lot longer without being able to use the mouse. Some of the pictures I put on here are not quite done. I still can’t figure out how to add a name in high-resolution on a low resolution picture. Some of the pictures are photocopies only about 1” x 1”. So blowing them up makes them very grainy. Anyway, if anyone knows how to add high-resolution images to low-resolution images let me know. I’m not really an expert on Photoshop. Anyway it’s fun to play around with different backgrounds and stuff. I like the script writing better, for these old photographs, but it’s not as easy to read so mom said I should use the block writing.

Don’t look too closely at my work but, it’s better than the original. I think when it’s up on the wall you won’t be able to see most of the flaws. I have a few more to do and I’m excited to get them done and get them up on the wall!

Party Central

Saturday we celebrated Kingston’s  fourth birthday. Juliet had a BBQ/pool party at our house. She invited lots of monsters (strangers) which made it less fun for me but I reckon Kingston enjoyed it. Anyway here are a few pictures.

 Samson and Sherlock

Summer Splendor

Family Reunion

We had a wonderful family reunion this week. Everybody flew into Seattle to come to our home and visit. It's nice to be related to such awesome people. Here are a few pictures. I tried to put twice as many pictures on, but this is all that loaded on to blogger. :-( Maybe I will try again later to post more pictures.

There was lots of yummy food (Including all the softserve you could eat :-)) basketball, football, model T rides, swimming, foosball, and of course lots of visiting.

We are looking forward to hopefully doing it again next year.

White Tail Buck Deer Munchin' on Clover

Okay, they aren’t white tail nor are they buck deer. J Nonetheless, they were munching on Clover. This is what I saw outside the kitchen window while we were eating lunch today. I guess these two deer  decided to join us for lunch today. Pretty sweet! Thanks to Dad for taking  the pictures.

From One Extreme to the Other

Friday I attended the funeral of one of my old Puyallup ward members. He was my favorite person in that ward. He reminded me a lot of my Grandpa Sabin. He would always bring us vegetables from his garden and beautiful fresh cut flowers from his yard.  As far as I knew, he was about as celestial as a person can be on this earth.  Brother Robinson was the type of person you would want to try to emulate so that you could spend eternity with people of his caliber.


Anyway, during his funeral one of the speakers mentioned that he was a covenant keeper. That struck me because I had just given a Relief Society lesson on covenants. And one of the quotes that I remember from Elder Nelson’s talk was that the best compliment you could ever receive is to be called a covenant keeper.

I thought it was cool that Brother Robinson was called a covenant  keeper at his funeral. That is a goal I will strive to attain.  To hope to receive that compliment at my funeral.

Yesterday I was watching a DVR of 20/20. It was a Barbara Walters special about heaven. Interestingly, they had Marilyn Manson as a guest. One thing he said that also struck me was that he wouldn’t want to be in heaven because he wouldn’t be comfortable there. He said no one he knows will be there.  He said he wants to be in a place where he would be comfortable. 

I found it interesting that Marilyn Manson was teaching Gospel doctrine.   Since he is about as far away from the church as one can get.

Then I got to thinking about how Brother Robinson and Marilyn Manson are polar opposites yet they will both end up in places where they will be most comfortable. Isn’t the plan of salvation wonderful?

That’s my two cents.

Fourth Of July Festivities

I've tried 12 times over the last three days to put a video on my blog from the Bellevue family 4th festivities. To no avail. So you will have to settle for still pictures. It was fun to see Michael onstage doing his thing. Everybody was really getting into it and dancing and having a great time. They played for about an hour and a half and the crowd just loved it.

Lisa brought pulled pork and we had pulled pork sandwiches. We brought a wagon full of stuff also. So there was plenty to eat. Derrinda's parents made the trek to come see Michael play. Her sister was also there. So we had quite the group there to watch Michael perform.

It was funny because afterwards Michael put a jacket on and took his glasses off to try to disguise himself a little bit so people (mostly kids) wouldn't come bother him and ask him for his autograph and stuff. It's kind of crazy how people are.

We didn't stick around for the fireworks -- it was already too late. In fact, we saw plenty of fireworks on the drive home. Anyway, it was a fun day and as usual, Michael was amazing. We are looking forward to the next public show. August 23 also in Bellevue. Live at Lunch. Last year was great because it was like a private showing almost. Not very many people there. It was awesome.

Happy birthday America! (And Samson)