Special K and the Smoke Alarm

We try to feed the missionaries about once a month. We appreciate the fact that they've left home & taken two years away from school & life to share the gospel. Also, with three sons we can foresee the day when our three boys will be able to serve as missionaries & hopefully be fed occasionally.

Chris served for a while as a ward missionary and worked with Elder Mauer.

Ryan perfecting his double Windsor knot.

When we were living in Maple Valley, Washington, we invited the missionaries over & I cooked something that sounded wonderful from Cooking Light magazine. I wasn't paying attention (hello, two little boys running all over!) and the kitchen filled up with smoke. Our smoke detector was connected to the whole house alarm system so when it went off, the entire neighborhood knew that I was having a rough day in the kitchen!! The alarm started sounding just as the missionaries arrived. We opened the front door & the back sliding glass door for some cross-ventilation & then I looked for something to fan the smoke away from the smoke detector in the hallway. I spied a box of Special K cereal & started fanning the box to clear the smoke. The top of the box was closed, but soon opened with the weight of the entire box of cereal pounding against it. Special K flew down the hallway & back into the kitchen.

A few weeks ago I was trying to fill out a survey for Relief Society when I read the question, "What is your funniest story?" My kids told me that I'm just not that funny. :) I was happy to remember this story & tell them that I can do some pretty ridiculous things.

I like the following video about young men preparing for missions. If you have 5:08, it's worth a watch.

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/why-missionaries-must-be-morally-clean?cid=HP000064&lang=eng

Settled

I have been working on my degree since 1984. That's a lot of years even without the math. I started as a junior in high school, took AP courses & exams, attended the U before chasing my boyfriend to the Y after two full years. I became very sick & had to transfer yet again to the UW and still didn't finish before I had Chris. Chris had to submit a semester by semester graduation plan during the first month of his first semester of college. I think I might have attacked college differently with a graduation plan!!

Clayton children, SLC

Now, and for the past five years, I am working on completing my degree through the Y's independent study program. I started in Family Life - I love my family, right? How hard could it be? Well, it turned out to be very difficult for me. My brain is wired for problem-solving - follow a certain pattern & find a solution. Math & physics are not well-suited for independent study so I have landed at genealogy. I take the given information, known formulas for finding solutions (census records, obituaries, cemeteries, birth records, etc.), and arrive at a conclusion. I check and recheck my work and hopefully it all works out.

And here's the point...

I love my coursework! I am happy & look forward to working on the classes that I am taking. Last semester I wrote my autobiography (seventy-pages or so). This semester I am writing a narrative biography (think "Who Do You Think You Are?") about one of my ancestral lines. I get excited when I start explaining the coursework to people. Excited!!! Usually their eyes glaze over and I think one of two things. First, I have landed in the right spot for me. I like researching families and history and trying to put stories together. Second, if the stories were about their people and their past, they would probably be fascinated. In each of us is a desire to know. Who am I? Where did we come from?

Lawrence & Ella Madoche family

Including my current class I have about twenty-two credits to go until graduation. The best part? I only have to take one non-genealogy class - persuasive writing.

Also, I have another blog. I have only written two entries. My plan is to share family stories and genealogy tidbits. The website is: http://justthewaythingswere.blogspot.com