Family History Story

I tried sharing this story during FHE with the Collett Cousins last night and was chagrined to have nearly no details.

The version I told was a little different than the one I actually found. I have a sneaky suspicion that Mom told the story to me with a few extras of her own (she can deny this, but I know how she tells stories!).

Anyway, here is the story, copied straight from the page. This story was told to Marcella (Graham) Allred by her grandfather, William Benona Graham in the spring of 1926 while helping him do his family research. William was a nephew to Margaret Graham, the star of the story.

I am not editing the mechanics or grammar. Just enjoy.

Margaret Graham, daughter of Robert and Catharine (Russell) Graham, a half sister to James Graham who is a son of Robert and his first wife Ann (??) Graham was waiting table in Carthage, Ill. when a group of men came, seated themselves around the table and began talking.

Margaret being a waitress overheard their conversation stepped into the other room, closing the door behind her, peaked thru the keyhole and knew who killed the Prophet and his brother Hyrum.

On telling her story to others, her life was threatened by the mob. Through quick thinking and action, she was disguised as a man, having her hair cut and dawning a stovepipe hat carrying a large cane she was rushed from the city.

The mob was so violent they stopped her carriage, seeking her life, but because of her disguise, her life was spared.

Pretty exciting, huh?

HOLY COW!!! Uh...I mean HOG!

I challenge you to find a picture more eye-popping! This 11-year-old boy shot this 9'4",1,051 pound wild pig while hunting with his father in Alabama. They are mounting the head (and can I just say...GROSS!), and plan to get 500-700 pounds of sausage from the rest of it.

I would never have believed that a wild pig could get so big. And just what did it eat in a day? That boy is lucky he killed it in time. He looks just the right size for lunch.

That beast must really smell bad.

Everyone should have friends like this!

Yesterday, an Elder returning from Mexico to his home in Providence, UT found this as a welcome home from his friends. It took them 3 hours to do and they left nothing bare! A little more than your average yellow ribbons! They volunteered to clean it up. (His parents were just as surprised, and at 1:30 AM, no less!)

Microphones and Kittens

Those two words don't seem to really go together, but pretend with me. It keeps me from having to post two separate times. (We really are lucky to be getting this one.)

I've had a request to blog about my stunning performance on stage Thursday night. And since one person said they were interested, I figured there had to be at least one other curious person out there. So for those two people, I will give you all the fascinating details.

First, I have to say that Daniel's TaVaci performance was very cute. Daniel did ham it up a bit, but not as obvious as the Christmas concert. All of the numbers performed were cute and well done with exception for a number did by some older boys. They didn't have enough volume to project the words they were singing. (That's probably the only time those boys are too quiet!) I've ordered a DVD of the evening, so we can relive the show over and over.

One of the funnier parts of the evening was when Daniel stepped up to the microphone for a speaking part and ended up about two inches below it. He kind of stood there in a helpless/goofy sort of way until the teacher came up and lowered it for him.



After Daniel's show was over, we all (my mom & step-dad, my dad, and my little family) piled into two cars and drove about 5 blocks to another building where our stake and the community Methodist church were combing for a night of musical talents. I had been asked to perform a song with some other ladies from church. Notice I said "perform" and not "sing." It would have been much easier to simply sing as I am not a performer. I let these women know that I was going WAY out of my sizable comfort zone to do any actions. I have to admit that only singing would have been boring (but safe).

We sang "Sisters" in 3 parts. I was first soprano. The 2nd soprano and alto are much taller than I (who isn't, right?) so we started out the song only to stop after singing about 3 measures so I could go and get a stool to stand on. We got some good laughs off of that. We did different motions throughout the song and had a part in the middle that was about 25 measures of patting out a rhythm on our legs then clapping and snapping. We never could get it perfected, but it was good enough. After a refrain and a few more measures of patting/clapping/snapping, I jumped off my stool on the last note from the piano.

I was glad when it was all over! I had been thinking and worrying about that dumb song for 2 weeks. It didn't help that I had been feeling pretty sick the whole day.

Speaking of sick, take a look at this video of the kittens. This was the last time I let them eat at the same time. It was by special invitation only after this disgusting brawl.



I was having a hard time trying to figure out how they could go from this










to this (don't miss clicking on this picture!)










in such a short time. I cleaned the bathtub AND bathed all 5 kittens twice on Friday. Normally, I don't like smells in my house. Lately, I can't stand them. So while I was getting ready to clean the tub Saturday morning, I decided that if I could take care of the kittens, so could someone else! (I had been waiting until they were a little older before trying to find them homes.)

I bathed the 3 male kittens and boxed them up with a FREE KITTENS sign. The girls and I (Chad and the boys weren't back from the Father/Sons Campout) drove to the parking lot of the town's grocery store where they were having a community garage sale. A sunburn and two hours later, I returned home without the kittens. So now we only have to two females left and things don't get quite as messy. As soon as the two kittens get older and show their personalities, we'll keep one and find a home for the other. (The females are the gray and white kittens in the litter box.)

So now, there won't be any more of this! Sheesh! You can barely see the plate!



I have cleaned this tub more in the past week than in the whole 3 years we have lived here!

I will survive!

I have been feeling better. Still not all the way there, but I have been getting more done and sleeping less. Three more weeks of this?

We temporarily gained 5 kittens this week. They are in the bathtub. I have to clean the kittens and the bathtub on a daily basis. (That goes so nicely with how I feel.) When they stop using their litterbox as a playground, things should be much nicer. I'm guessing they are 5-6 weeks old. I'll have to post pictures later. Anyone want to adopt a kitten or two?

Leah has entered a new phase in her language skills. She likes to abbreviate words. She wants a banan for a snack, a drink of wad when she's thirsty, and wants to be covered up with her blank at bedtime. If it's this hard to understand her when she's 3, what ever will we do when she's 13?

Tonight is Daniel's big TaVaci Spring concert. He's got 3 grandparents driving up to see him. Then, I have to run over to a different building and sing a song with some ladies in a community music thing. I haven't been looking forward to this night for a couple of weeks now. I'll be glad to wake up tomorrow morning and have it all behind me. It will be fun and stressful at the same time.

In honor of Daniel's TaVaci day, here are some pictures and a movie from the end of April when he sang at the zoo for Arbor Day. The movie is kind of long, but I didn't feel like editing. The group he's in is pre-K to 1st grade. Notice how he's about the shortest? (He's the boy at the far end.) Please excuse the unsteady camera. I was trying to control Leah and Rebekah.

Dare I even hope????

I think things are starting to get better. I don't feel as hopeless as I used to. The yuckies are getting a little less yucky, too. Unfortunately, they are still bad in the evening which still leaves the burden of dinner and bedtime on Chad. I feel guilty that he's doing all the work, but yucky enough not to help. And I usually don't feel like being grateful is enough. Does anyone want to take a Friday afternoon off sometime next month and come up here to go fishing with Chad for a couple of days? I think he should get away and do something he never gets to do anymore.

Speaking of getting away (and more reason for me to feel guilty), I'm going to Time Out For Women the second weekend in June. It's only 45 minutes away from here, so I don't have to be gone overnight. There are a few of us from the ward/neighborhood that are going. It will be fun to get to know these ladies a little better. Being in Primary has kind of sucked me into a social black hole.

Next week is going to be a little crazy for us. Daniel's singing group is having their Spring concert on Thursday and some of Daniel's grandparents are driving up for it. (Anyone else that wants to come is certainly invited! It's FREE.) The same night, I'm singing with 2 other ladies in a community music/talent night. Daniel's thing is at 6, ours is at 7 ish. The day before, Daniel has like a 5 hour practice and sometime in there, I'm having a practice, too. I'm counting on this morning sickness really getting better because usually by 7PM, I want to crawl under a rock. Instead I will be singing the soprano part and doing goofy actions (how do I get into these things so far out of my comfort zone?). Oh yeah, and I get to stand on a stool the whole time - part of the act because I'm so much shorter than the other 2 women.

Rebekah is still not talking, but is making some progress. She's started nodding. You can tell it's tricky because she has to pause before she gets started. It's pretty cute, though. She does it with a little grin on her face. Maybe she knows she's so cute.

Now you see me, now you don't.

Yes, I am here. It's hard to believe, even for me! I just thought I'd check in and let you know that nothing has changed. I have about 4 weeks left of this misery.


I am truthfully doing nothing around the house. Sometimes I change a diaper, sometimes I make lunch for the kids. I wash the clothes on Saturday and sometimes I fold them. Apparently, I don't sweep the floor. It is quite gross. From the amount of junk under the table and in the surrounding areas, you'd think I don't even own a broom.


The last time I swept (and mopped, even), Daniel celebrated by systematically flicking tiny pieces of tortilla chips onto the floor durring dinner. I wanted to kill him. I yelled instead (not much better). When Leah clears her spot at the table after lunch, she picks up her paper plate and holds it down by her side on the way to the garbage can. By the time she throws it out, the plate is clean enough to use again! I won't even bother describing what Rebekah can do with food.

We do have some good news to share. We were able to use our Tax Refund to get rid of all our credit card balances. Our only debt now is the house (which we just refinanced). So now we can actually create a respectable savings account and pay for this baby (I feel like I've already paid enough though).


I finally have some pictures to share. It's so cool that I can upload the pictures from the main computer downstairs while I working on the laptop upstairs. The downside is that I can't see what the picture is until it loads.




These first pictures are my lastest project in the house. Everybody gets their own frame and the sentence on top is from the scriptures; "Thou deliveredst unto me...talents" We still need to put something in the girls' frames.


The next pictures are from the combined family project to clean out Grandma's stagnant pond. We were hoping to find out the pump worked. We were disappointed. But there was some awesome teamwork for an hour or two. (P.S. VERY STINKY WATER!)

Later, was an Easter Egg hunt for all the cousins.

Hmmmm.....I don't seem to actually have any pictures of the cousins. But here are the kids!

The next morning was our Easter Sunday and the kids hunted for eggs again, in their Easter clothes. We had eggs in the fridge for a long time. Nathan started out liking egg salad sandwiches, but has since changed his mind.