The Shute's of Hillsboro Oregon

The Twins Celebrating 96 Years

Rest

Happy Thanksgiving

Door County Wisconsin

Manitowoc

Thanksgiving Week in Wisconsin and Lake Michigan

Why we like to be in Arizona this time of year!

Home at last (a little late with the post)

Austin schools honor Veterans with breakfast

About 6:50 this morning I received a call from Zeke inviting me to breakfast at Ellis Middle School at 7:50. He said he was playing in the band and they were performing some patriotic music. This is an annual event to honor veterans. Since Zeke was performing I decided to go. I found out it actually started at 7:40 but I still arrived in time to get a very hearty breakfast (more than I ever fix for myself). Neither the Band nor the Chamber Orchestra had performed yet so I did not miss anything.

Both the Band and the Chamber Orchestra played beautifully and it was nice to hear great patriotic music even so early in the morning.  Zeke is the tall one in the white shirt and tie.

Oregon and California

Amanda and the great city of Boise

Catching up on our Circle the West in 3 Weeks!

Trying to catch up on posts - here is Halloween!

Zoey's 2nd Birthday

Our 23rd Grandchild

Our First Grandchild Off On a Mission for Jesus Christ

Our 22nd Grandchild

Little Extras that come with the hospital

Mirror Scar

Our Staircase with Qatar and Cenny

Weird Happening

Happy BIrthday Gunnar

Happy BIrthday!

Zeke - on to the Minnesota State Fair

Relay for Life Yard Flowers

Too Fast, Too Long, Too Short

Another Great Birthday

Zeke Performing at the Gonda

Tree Walking with Video

The last post covered our tree walking experience now see a little more with video's Eileen took.  I was busy taking care of little ones so relied on Eileen to get the best pictures.
To see this video in HD click on this link Tree Walking in HD.

Tree Walking with the Bremner's and Peters'

Cenneidigh's Birthday

Paige and the 4th or JULY

I am behind on my posts - it has been so hot in Austin that not much has been done.  We got so much heat and humidity on the 4th that Eileen and I decided to pass on the fireworks - that is a first for us.

Zeke's Band Concert

Cenny and JT

Gunnar at the St Paul Temple

Today was a great day for Grandma and Grandpa.  We were able to be at the Temple when our first  grandchild was endowed.  It is so gratifying to see your grandchildren preparing for their mission to serve Jesus Christ and preach his Gospel. 

Fun Day

Click here and scroll down to see Zeke play https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1083472421

Holding an original Book of Mormon

Cordie's Choir Concert

Click here to see Cordie's solo

Qatar's Concert Choir Spring Concert

Zeke and Cenny's Spring Concerts

Chile Antofagasta Mission

Here is our oldest grandchild Gunnar Peters holding his mission call and anxiously waiting for his Dad to get home so he can open his call and find out where the Lord called him to serve.  Very exciting day for all the family as this is our first grandchild old enough to go on a mission.  I had hoped to include the video we took of him opening his call but I can't get it to post so here is a link to see it http://youtu.be/1uEkWIdZosg. Besides the family in Austin being present for the opening, we also had Steven and Connett via Skype in Kuwait - it was only midnight there.

Gunnar at 1 year old with his Uncle Randy.

Here is a link to the Chile Antofagasta Mission blog http://chileantofagastamission.blogspot.com/

School Concerts and Track Meets

Family Search Indexing

Indexing the 1940 US Census

Eileen and I have have been doing Indexing for www.familysearch.org.  The definition of  Indexing is - The process of capturing pertinent family history information from historical documents and making it available for publication on the Internet.  Basically taking a paper document (most often handwritten) and turning it into a digital document.  We started back in 2007 but I did not keep at it as the handwriting is often very difficult to decipher - very frustrating for me.  Eileen loves to do it though, as can be attested to by the number of names she has indexed (over 97,200) and arbitrated (over 75,300).  Another definition for you - Arbitrator - the person who does arbitration which is the process of reviewing differences between how two indexers interpreted a record.  All records are indexed by two people.  When there are differences between the two, then a third person (the arbitrator) has to review and decide what is correct.

The United States 1940 Census was recently released to the public, so there is a big push to get more indexers to make the records available quickly.  Eileen and I are teaching a class this Sunday to help increase the number of indexers.  By going to www.familysearch.org one can download the program and sign up to index on your home computer or laptop.  I was hoping we could also do it on iPads or other tablets but so far the indexing program for the census only works on computers.  I did find an iPad app for indexing that does other type of records.  The one I tried today was a ship passenger record.  They were extreemly difficult to read so not sure how much of those I will do.  The 1940 Census is much easier to read.

Eileen had the added blessing of finding a missing great-grandmother while indexing the 1900 US Census.

A Special Time in Boise

Bats in the house?

Moving between houses creates a little extra work.  Before we leave we drape covers over the furniture which then of course have to be removed when we return.  We also have to turn on the heat, the water heater, plug in all the appliances, start internet serve just to mention a few things and of course the general cleaning to get rid of the dust build up which in this case was seven months worth.  These of course are just the norm and we are getting accustomed to it.

Monday night however while I was working on my computer in what we call our library, Eileen walked in and said what is that smell.  I got up to see if I could smell what she smelled and it was a hint of dead animal.  We looked around but could not come up with a source or definite type of smell.  Tuesday morning there wasn't any trace of the night before.  That night Eileen was in the library and I came in and the smell hit me.  She was sitting down like I was the night before and didn't smell it so I looked up to see if there could be anything high causing the smell.  It immediately hit me the smell was coming from the torch lamp in the corner.  I looked into it and sure enough this is what I found.

They say bats can get through the smallest openings and I guess an empty house was inviting.  Anyone have any ideas how a bat can get into a tight house - all the doors and windows are fairly new.