Horse sense

I've been thinking about my horse-riding days when I owned Pride of Nebraska, a 16-hand quarter horse. Rich had bought some knives online recently and gave one to me--a wrangler's knife that has a hoof pick on it. It called to mind my teen years when I used such a tool frequently with Nebraska.
As I prepared for a genealogy workshop this week I experimented with some mobile apps for recording memories and recorded as an example the story of how I got me knee scar (taking a spill off Nebraska).
This weekend we took a quick getaway trip to the coast. I slipped the knife in my pocket "just in case." Near the beach we happened upon an enterprise offering horse riding along the shore. I showed Rich my Pinterest board "wishlist" and the pic of a girl on a horse on the beach, hair flying, arms outstretched as she cantered along. He said "go for it" so I did. I had high expectations but the pin will remain for the time being. But that's another story. I did get to use my knife though. Not the hoof pick, but I cut "Missy's" apple with the blade for her treat at the end of our two-hour walk along the beach together.

Learn then do

I attended a RUSA conference in Seattle last week and learned from Anne Mitchell (Ancestry Anne) @f_f_stories  about different ways of searching in Ancestry.com for varied results. Came home to my library job and got a call this morning that gave me an opportunity for hands-on practice with that very thing! The patron was looking for an application for enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes from 1896. A search of her ancestor by name yielded no results, but when I went through the collection THIS way: Search > Immigration & Travel > Citizenship & Naturalization Records > U.S. Native American Applications for Enrollment in Five Civilized Tribes, 1896 There it was! At first glance I only saw the index, which information the patron already had, but by choosing to "browse this collection" I could put in the parameters from the Index and arrived at the actual application documents. Turns out it was a DIFFERENT Thomas Giles, not her ancestor after all, but the search was productive in that it ruled OUT info and gave me new knowledge in search techniques. 

Forewarned

This morning (Sunday) I got on the computer and started looking through Pinterest, then switched to gmail, where I found an email from FamilySearch chastising me for not indexing for the past 90 days. I felt bad and did a batch from the 1940 census. After Church my visiting teachers came and gave a lesson on Good, Better, Best and the need to not waste time on unimportant things. I was glad I had stopped "pinning" and spent that time on indexing instead this morning! 

Happy Birthday to Me!

"Are you doing anything special for your birthday tonight?"

"Well, I have 4 visiting teaching appointments, so....that's special!"

Although I initially said this tongue-in-cheek, it turned out to be quite prophetic. This was a new route with a new ("greenie") companion. During our first visit, we got to hear the sweet story of a new convert who recently lost her spouse and found the gospel. At another home we were able to inform an elderly sister about the upcoming opportunity to hear an apostle (Dallin Oaks whose birthday is also August 12th!) speak and invited her to join us. As we visited and got to know one another at the last home, we realized we were all three converts to the Church, were all formerly Catholics, and all had family members who have chosen to not participate anymore in church activity. The Spirit was strong and I testified that we were the "middle" links in a chain that connected back to our ancestors and forward to our children. It is important that we be strong for them. I know I was led to find the gospel because those who have gone before me were praying for someone in their line to take on the task of finding them and providing saving gospel ordinances for them in the temple. I was the first in my family to join the Church and the only one who really was blessed with the Spirit of Elijah, motivating me to seek after my ancestors. So I truly needed them as much as they needed me. And we have been promised that if we remain strong, our children will also be blessed...

We cried, hugged and enjoyed the newly formed bond between us, making plans to get together so I can help her with her own genealogy research.

On the way home I had the opportunity to relate my conversion story to my new companion. We expressed gratitude for an inspired Relief Society president who put us together! So, yes, I had a very special birthday!