Summer of Fire(s)

Well, it’s official: we’ve moved!  I brought over the last few things this afternoon.  We love our new place!  There’s so much space that we have to make sure we’re close enough to each other when we’re talking or else we can’t hear.  It came with some furnishings (couches and a kitchen table), but we needed some chairs so we could eat at the table.  The first couple of days we sat on the couch, but it just isn’t the same.  So last week, Cas and I went to DI and we found these chairs, perfect for our kitchen.  

The backs and legs are a forest green, but one of these days I mean to paint them, likely a navy blue.  It’ll be a fun project.

Otherwise, when I haven't been moving stuff, I've been chillin' or doing family history.  It's easier sometimes now that I have full access to Ancestry.com records, but there are some things that still prove to be a challenge.  I can only do so much to try to track down my great-grandfather's siblings, as they all lived so long ago and the records that would give me the vital information I need are Catholic christening records.  I don't even know where to start, especially since I have no idea in which parishes they were born.  Then, a few days ago, my dad asked me to do some research on our ancestor John Mangum, Jr. (and more specifically his wife Rebecca) so he could bring a pioneer story with him when he and my mom play ma and pa on their stake's handcart trek next weekend.  I found the kind of story he was looking for (my thanks go out to those who post family stories on Ancestry.com), but I also realized the Mangum line on my family tree on new.familysearch.com is simply a mess.  Just looking at it, I can tell that there's an extra generation in there that doesn't need to be there.  Kids and wives are in all the wrong places and it seems that no one was entirely sure who was who when they input the information.  Straightening out this line has become my next project.  I imagine it will take a while.

Also, Utah (and Colorado) has been on fire this summer.  Literally.  Seems like every few days I hear about another town being evacuated to escape yet another fire.  It has felt rather similar to the summer of 2008 in California where we breathed smoke for the entire month of July.  Today, as I was coming back from Provo, I heard on the radio that people in Alpine were being evacuated.  I said to myself, "Alpine, that's not that far away.  And I know a few people there.  I hope they're okay."  And that's when I looked up at the mountains north of Orem.

My prayers go out to everyone currently affected by these fires.  May God keep you and your families safe from harm.