so much going on

I'll start with what Eric has been up to. First he ran for Student Body President. He made a very creative campaign poster using photoshop (thanks Dad)(see above). He didn't win there, so now he is running for Senior Class Representative. He is currently the Junior Class Rep. I posted one of his 2 hand drawn posters to the right. I just love his creativity.

In case you can't read the smaller print, it says:

"Two thumbs up!"

-Tbert and Rexskil

Eric Perazzo Senior Representative (4 more quarters!)

Hannah was involved in the Honors Choir concert this week. She had tried out and made the choir back in December. They've had a few practices and then the northern Nevada choirs all joined together for a concert earlier this week. Good thing that was last weekend, cause now she's sick. :(

Glen (who was sick himself earlier this week...slept 22 hours out of 24 from Monday to Tuesday) is currently in Idaho because as the "teacher of record" for the school's swing dance team, he traveled with them for a competition in Idaho Falls this weekend. One of our teams won first place last night for their dance "Footloose." It really is fantastic...you wouldn't believe how far the guys throw the girls in the middle of the song. Individual competitions are going on right now, I believe. Hope they do well.

Ryan has not yet returned from the boy scout's Klondike Derby...where they camp in the snow once a year. There wasn't snow this year, though, I was told. Why anyone would want to do that is totally beyond me, but Ryan must like it as he goes back year after year. Hey! He just came in the door! He said he had a good time and that there was some snow, but Uncle David wouldn't let him sleep in it. Now he's going to go and get cleaned up for tonight's church dance.

Alex had his first Blue and Gold dinner for Cub Scouts this week. Before he went out of town, his dad helped him make a cake for the traditional "Fella's Cake Bake." Alex's award was for the "Best Use of Candy." It was candy left over from our gingerbread houses this past Christmas.

Have gotten a few nice, newsy emails from Andrew lately. He'd been sick, too, so last week was kind of rough on him. But he seems to still be managing to have a lot of fun. He certainly knows a lot of people.

As for me, I got to be Glen's sub for 2 days. I can't complain much...but some students in his set building class really need attitude adjustments. (I wanted to talk about my desire for a cattle prod, but decided I shouldn't be saying things like that ;). Besides subbing 3 days, going to the temple, and working on my genealogy, I have also been reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" for our book club. It took me a little while to get into it, but now I'm really enjoying it and can't wait to see what happens. Well, it's not that I can't wait, it's that I didn't. I cheated and read the last 2 pages, so I kind of know what happens...but it'll be interesting to see how the events come about. Pathetic, aren't I???

Oh! Something fun. One of my roommates from my sophomore year at BYU, Laura Lorentzen, lives in Reno with her family (though I confess, other than bumping into her in Winco about 10 years ago, we've haven't had any contact since college). She and her husband John teach music there and their children won a chance to be on a CBS show "Singing Family Face Off" next Wednesday.

Here's a link to one of the news stories: http://www.rgj.com/article/20090223/NEWS18/90223003

Here's the song they auditioned with, which was written by their dad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA2F0AdZBXM

I wish them lots of luck!!!!!

Genealogy...my new focus

I've decided I don't like to use the word obsession...so I'm going to use the word focus for this email. I think it fits better and certainly sounds more mentally stable (whether I am or not is not up for discussion here, however, but at least I sound that way, right?).

As I've mentioned before, I jump around in what I focus on. Most recently it's been Spanish, reading and music. I guess I'm back on the genealogy track again.

It all started with a simple little email from a Suffolk county, New York list I'm on...the kind of email I often ignore. It mentioned a website for checking out some newspaper articles from the area for the 1830s to the 1960s. I just had to plug a few names in.

So, I have come up with some new leads...one says that John Henry Miller (my great-great grandfather) has a brother-in-law ex-commissioner of highways Henry B. Southard. My attempts to find out anything about Henry (like his wife's name so I know who John's sister is!!!)have been disappointing. But it's always fun to have a new lead.

Then I tracked Ezra Sammis's family only to realize that there had to have been 2 Ezra Sammises in the area and most of the info I found did not deal with my 4th great Uncle. Oh, well, that's the way it goes.

So, for the last several days I've been at the computer...and my kids aren't happy about me bumping them off. What a blessing computers and the internet are to family history work!

How long with this focus last? Until a new one comes along...however long that may be.