12 June 2012 Taunie graduates!  Here's the family!

18 June 2012 Taunie and boyfriend get hit headon - see Taunie on the right with Medics?

Taunie in ER - 8 stitches under her chin, broken hand and torn ligaments, gash on her left knee - could have been a WHOLE lot worse!  Ryan seems to have escaped injury but his 2009 Mustang was totalled.

Painting is not for whimps!

We decided against spray painting the paneling because of our inexperience as well as the expense of getting the right equipment. So instead we bought a paint stick and a couple other tools to supplement what we had and got started. Saturday - both of us 6 hours, Monday - both of us 6 hours, Friday - both of us 8 hours, Saturday - Larry 1 hour & Kathy 10 for a total of 51 hours! Who knew it would take that long....not us! Part of the problem was covering the paneling. We bought Glidden paint with primer for the walls and it still took 3-4 coats. The kitchen and bathroom cabinets were painted with (again) paint with primer and enamel this time which did not make much of a difference - it still took 3-4 coats! But now that it is done we are happy with the results and are thankful it is DONE! Originally we were going to paint the bedrooms as well but decided against it about 1/4 of the way through this project!


Living room and dining room. The wall on the left is paint we had left over from our last home (we mixed two colors). The rest of the walls are called Boston Cream and are a light cream color.


Larry counted how many kitchen cabinets there were and I immediately blocked it out because I have painted kitchen cabinets before and knew how much fun it would be. Then when I finished the kitchen he said that we should really do the bathrooms as well. He was right - we needed to do them and luckily it wasn't a huge task! So they are done (except for putting the hardware back on) and I will get photos later.

This is the family room.

Guest bathroom.

Master bedroom.

My last post was when?????????????? Yikes!!!

Home we are flipping - less than $20,000 so come on down to the Valley of the Sun!!!

Dining room before painting

Larry painting the family room

Living room after painting

And Asher James Percy!

Where has the time gone? Well Thanksgiving came and went. Christmas came and went. New Year's came and went. Asher came and stayed - January 15, 2012 at 1:10 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 7 oz and 19 1/2" long. Serving in the Family History Center filled in some of the gaps but I have to admit that I am totally addicted (as in I need the 12-step program or some kind of intervention) and have now involved family I never knew existed to help me with this addiction! Actually these co-conspirators are very extended family I have "met" in various ways over the years and we are working on mutual lines. It has been very fun and rewarding as we put our heads together to try to figure out some of the mysteries in our family. Ohter co-conspirators are my first cousins on my mom's side of the family and they have been just as helpful working with me to gather information and photos of our ancestors. I have promised them a CD of all that I am putting together on that line. I am waiting for more photos to come before I fulfill this promise!

We had been praying about ways to generate more income to suppliment our retirement while serving our mission and almost immediately we were given the answer. We started out thinking that we should sell the doublewide mobile home we are in and find a fixer-upper to buy and live in while we try to sell it. The next thing you know we were out getting comparables in our very own park when we found a super deal (I mean SUPER) deal on one and within a few hours of looking at it we presented an offer which the owner accepted. Now we are in the process of painting (20 hours into it and still not nearly done) the living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen.

A walk in the park......

The perfect day for Duchess would be one that included the dog park. She isn't so much into chasing balls or jumping for Frisbees but she does get her exercise. We figured out early on that since balls and Frisbees aren't her thing Larry & I are. Soooooooo we place ourselves strategically in the park and she runs back and forth between the two of us. Sometimes she gets distracted and sometimes she doesn't run in a straight line but she usually gets worn out from the activity. Other dogs come along and want to say hello and most times she will accommodate them. We've noticed that sometimes she is eager to meet a new dog until she gets within 15 feet and then she makes a speedy U-turn.

After all of this activity she was pretty tired. She and Larry sat for a little while on the bench.

Looking this way....

Looking that way......

Looking the other way......

So much to see......

And it was just too hard to get down off the bench to satisfy her thirst!!!

Can't wait for next week!!!!

A long-awaited goal........

We have belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for just over 32 years and have always waited for the day when we could serve a mission for the Lord. That time has come - we are serving for 18 months in the Mesa Regional Family History Center - or as it is now called the Mesa Large Multi-stake Family History Center. We are serving as Church-service Missionaries which means we can live at home and serve. Other missionaries leave their homes for 18-24 months to go anywhere in the world to serve their missions.

As senior missionaries we were able to select the mission we wanted to serve and if there were openings we would be called to that mission. After Larry & I got home from our six-week trip to the West Coast we decided to check out the various missions available in our area. We first called the Church Employment Center and spoke to someone there who informed us there would be a leadership meeting the following night and invited us to come. There we could get an overview of the work done there. The first area we learned about was the Bishop's Storehouse. Next we learned about the Employment Center. A few days later we investigated the Family Services Center and then the Family History Center. The last area contacted was the Tempe Mission Office where we learned they were looking for Church-service Missionaries for the San Tan Branch which is where we served before we left Maricopa. Larry made phone calls to several people we knew from San Tan regarding the work needed there and then we went to the temple to get a confirmation that this was the mission for us. When we left the temple we both knew that was not the answer. We then called our bishop and set an appointment to turn in our papers for the Mesa Family History Center.

Bishop Watson interviewed us and assured Larry that if he had faith and desire the confidence would come with this new calling. (Larry has not had a lot of experience with doing genealogy and he was a little intimidated by the thought of helping others research their ancestors so this assurance really helped him.) After his interview we then were interviewed by our Stake President.

I, on the other hand, felt as if this is the work I was born to do. I have loved genealogy since I was a little girl listening to the grownups talking about the "olden days"! When I was 16 years old my grandmother gave me all of her genealogy. I mean ALL of it. She didn't even keep a copy for herself! Somehow she knew I was the one who needed to have it! Six months ago I was talking to a patient at the dental office about doing genealogy research and after she left I remember thinking that if I could have any job in the whole wide world it would be doing genealogy!

We spent four weeks in training learning as one missionary said, "just how much we don't know!" The first week we shadowed our mentors and learned the various areas of the library and what they were used for. We had hands-on experiences scanning books, greeting patrons, serving at the help desk, taking money for copies and miscellaneous items, finding books on the stacks (shelves), indexing documents online, reading microfilm and miscrofische and helping with the computers. The next three weeks we went to class from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. We usually had 1-3 classes in the morning and 1-2 in the afternoon. We learned so much! Some of the areas I was afraid to search in are now not quite so scary - land & probate records to name a couple! I also learned the difference between Immigration and Emigration! One interesting class was Paleography which is the study of old handwriting! That comes in so handy in deciphering old documents! Did you know that spelling in the United States was not standardized until about the 20th century??? Add to that the little quirks they did with writing - for example - Rofs and Rop both are really Ross!! They had a funny way of doing double "s" in those days! So if you didn't know this you would transcribe it wrong!

The two young men in our class (Jordan and Donovan Horton) are waiting to go on their full-time, two-year missions. Jordan already had his call to Utica, New York and Donovan just received his to Eugene, Oregon. Their father felt impressed to call the Family History Center to see if they might be able to go through training and serve there until they leave on their missions. The FHC thought it was a wonderful idea so these two young men came to join us for the last three weeks. Jordan leaves on November 30th and Donovan leaves December 21st. They are fine young men who will make excellent missionaries and will take with them the knowledge to help others search out their ancestors.

The other couple (Frank and Marsha Webster) actually live about four hours from the FHC but stayed with Frank's aunt during the week so they could train. They will be serving at the FHC on Mondays and Tuesdays each week. They also serve in the Gila Valley Temple and Friday and Saturdays. They are wonderful people!

Speaking of wonderful people - I cannot say enough about the others serving in the FHC! They are beyond wonderful!!! So helpful, loving, giving and even knowledgeable!!! We are blessed to be able to serve with them!

All missionaries at the FHC are asked to join a committee to help others learn more about that topic. The committee we are on is the German committee. Both Larry & I have ancestors from that part of the world and we would like to learn more about it. This seemed like a good committee to be on as we will learn a lot and then be expected to teach what we learn to others!

We look forward to this new chapter in our lives and hope to be able to bless the lives of many others as we go forward with faith and desire!


Donovan, Jordan, Frank, Marsha, Kathy, Larry


The Mesa Regional Family History Center




The Mesa Temple is across the street from the Family History Center.

#15 is........................

Due in January - #15 is a boy!!! His name is Asher James. Parents Jacob and Mandi are sooooooooooo excited and we are too! Wondering what color hair this little guy will have. Mom's hair is naturally almost white while dad has dark hair and mom's siblings have red hair. Hmmmmmm. Any bets on this one?

More of our vacation.......

Forgot to grab my camera when we were with #3 so I stole this off her fb page! She is Serina's oldest.

Here is #11 (Todd's daughter) - beautiful girl but the smudge on her nose is from our dirty van - she was trying to see inside - I didn't realize how dirty the van was until I saw her nose!!!

Here are Ty's two - #8 and #6 in the back of our van. We're on our way to a trumpet lesson for #8 and girl's camp for #6.

Candy with her mom Betsy. We had such a good time that we went back again on our way home!

Here is #9, Serina's daughter (above) & #10 , Trent's daughter (below) at Cape Disappointment. They wanted me to bury them in the sand but I had them dig the holes first!

3 of Serina's girls #5, #9, & #7. Growing up way too fast!!!