M.I.A. (LIKE THE MILITARY, NOT THE SINGER)

Confession. I have been MIA. That might not be such a revelation but it's true. This blog has lacked over the last several weeks for reasons out of my control. I have a new position at church - second counselor in the Relief Society presidency. Talk about intimidating! So I went from hanging out with 11 year olds and making friendship bracelets to hanging out with ladies, well, several years older. So things have changed around here. My first big assignment was organizing an evening activity for all the ladies of the ward about family history. Confession #2 - I don't do family history. I know, I'm awful! But the truth is I was intimidated about the process and didn't even know where to start. So instead of skirting the issue for the next few decades I was faced head on with not only tackling the subject, I was actually responsible for teaching others about it!? Yikes. So I called in reinforcements (aka the women who are basically professionals) to teach the classes on family history and then I taught a class about doing your own personal history - blogging, writing in your journal, writing your own memoir, ect. Oh boy was I nervous! I was positive disaster would ensue and the earth would open up to swallow me whole and then worse they would kick me out relief society altogether. But you know what? We had fun. The night turned out great and everyone seemed to actually learn something. So over the last few months of this calling I've come to realize that the Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways.

We had that family history activity a few weeks ago and then last week my uncle coincidentally gets on facebook and starts sharing all these pictures from dad's side of the family. He had no idea that I've been going through my pedigree chart over the last few weeks wishing I had pictures of ancestors beyond my grandparents. But WAH-LA! There they were served to me on a silver platter. Thank you Right Click and Save Image As, you are lifesavers.

The above picture is of my great-aunt Rita. Isn't she fabulous? I'd take those glasses and cardigan any day.

So am I now some aficionado on family history? Heck no. But do I have a pedigree chart 4 generations back? Indeed I do. I can finally stop feeling guilty.