Memories of Vacations Past

When I was growing up, we didn't have much money but my dad always took us on some kind of vacation every summer. We often went with my Aunt Beverly and Grandpa and Grandma Sanders.One year he built his own camper and we went to Yellowstone and Canada. We had a great time and stopped to play softball whenever we could find an open space that was on public land. We went also to California a couple of times which included going to Disneyland when it was very new. My brother Chris and I both loved the ocean so much. My brother stayed out in the ocean too long and got 3rd degree burns once.

Even after I was married, we would travel with my mom and dad on many trips. They were good enough to let some of the kids sleep with them in their trailer. We either slept in the truck sleeper or in the station wagon with the seats laid down. One trip to the Oregon coast was very memorable when Alex buried the kids in the sand with just their heads out. We went to the Grand Canyon North Rim, camped in Mesa Verde and to the WA rain forests as well. There were so many times we went to different places that I just can't name them all.

The last trip we took with my parents was to Branson MO. We had a wonderful time. We used walkie talkies to communicate with each other. I do miss those wonderful days of summer long ago.

New Family Member

Randy and I were married on May 16, 2009. He is now an official member of our family. He was born in Brownsville PA but he has lived, PA, West Virginia, Iowa, Nevada and California all over, mostly in Arizona. I met him online when he was living in Mesa AZ.

We hope to spend many happy years together. We both love to travel and especially love to camp. Randy won't fly though, but we can take lots of road trips. I hope all of my family can accept him, (I really think most of them do) and wish us much happiness together.

Congratulations!

To mom - she deserves to be happy and share her life with someone. Mom, I am so glad you were able to find someone to love and to love you back. I am happy that you have life to look forward to and plans for your future. Seeing you depressed and feeling so empty for so long, I now realize how great it is to have witnessed the transformation that you have gone through in the past year and a half. While no one will replace Dad, there is always room for new members. Everyone needs a place to be, someone to love them, and most of all a family who cares. Isn't this what families are for? The one thing that is also neat to have experienced is the way Savannah has grown attached too. It makes me so happy to see how Savannah just loves having a grandpa. It will be the only one she'll know and for that I am appreciative of the relationship she will gain with Randy.

Love to you both and the best of luck.

Love,
Tammy

Five Years.....

Today I am remembering my soulmate and father of my children. Alex left me 5 years ago today. I would like to write some of my memories of him.

He grew up in a home with no electricity or running water. The house only had two bedrooms and 10 kids had to share one bedroom. He made his own toys from old sardine cans with strings so he could put them together and make a train. He loved sledding and he finally got a sled for Christmas one year. He was very talented. He was very good with wood working. His woodworking tools are in the shop and when I see them, I kind feel like they are lonely since he has not used them for so long. He never forgot a special occassion. At work I always received flower or candy. He would send flowers to my mother on her birthday and anniversary. He loved giving to others. I could always count on him to fix anything that needed fixing. He loved to tease and sometimes his teasing was taken the wrong way, but that was one of his ways to show his love. He was a very hard worker and would work 8 hours or more a day at his day job and come home and work in the yard until it got dark. He enjoyed working the soil. He could not wait for Spring to start planting his garden, and his garden was wonderful. He was getting ready to plant his garden when his life was cut short. He had been working on the tractor just the night before his death. He had planned to go get manure to fertilize his garden. He was going to do that after the trip we were supposed to take with Marty and his family. He had gone through two terrible surgeries on his knees and nearly died the last time. He got a settlement and he didn't get to use most of it. He got a 4-wheeler for his birthday less than a month before he died. So every April 9th and every Easter or Good Friday brings back the memories of his death. But the memories of his life are good and he certainly left a good example for those he left behind. He taught his kids how to work hard and the value of hard work. He left his gift for fixing things to his sons. He can rest in peace knowing that all of children have turned out to be outstanding citizens and all of them have succeeded in life as kids to be very proud of. So honey, know that I miss you and I will always remeber what you did for us. I must go on with life and I am sorry yours was caught short.

A Little Utah Humor

You Know You're From Utah If....

1. You go to the duck pond to feed the seagulls.
2. Green Jell-o with cabbage mixed in doesn't seem strange.
3. You can pronounce Tooele.
4. The U is not just a letter... and neither is the Y.
5. You have actually eaten funeral potatoes.
6. You've gotten both heat and frost burns off your car's door handle in the same month!
7. You are not surprised to hear words like "Darn," "Fetch," "Flip," "Oh My Heck," and "Shoot."
8. Your tulips get snowed on three times after they come up and twice more after they bloom.
9. The largest liquor store is the state government.
10. You can go skiing and play golf on the same day.
11. 30% humidity is muggy and almost unbearable.
12. You know the difference between a "steak house" and a "stake house."
13. You've broken down on the highway and somebody stops to help you.
14. You can see the stars at night.
15. You were an aunt or uncle before you were three.
16. You have more children than you can find biblical names for.
17. Your family considers a trip to McDonald's a night out.
18. You feel guilty when you watch Monday Night Football.
19. Your kids believe the deer hunt is a national holiday.
20. You drink Coke from a brown paper bag.
21. At least two of your salad bowls are at the homes of neighbors.
22. There is a similarity between a ward basketball game and the L.A. riots.
23. You think Jack Daniels is a country-western singer.
24. You negotiate prices at a garage sale.
25. You can make Jell-O salad without the recipe.
26. You've heard about BYU football in a testimony meeting.
27. You have two gallons of ice cream in your freezer at all times.
28. Your father-in-law thinks Ronald Reagan was a liberal.
29. A member of your family wrote in Lavell Edwards for president in the last election.
30. Sandals are the best-selling shoes.
31. Hotel rooms all have the Book of Mormon.
32. You buy your wardrobe at the local grocery superstore.
33. You learn about the Mormon Church by taking history in elementary school.
34. You live in a state where Democrats always come in third place, unless a zoo animal is running. Then they come in fourth.
35. Schools stay open, even if two feet of snow falls overnight, but close for the opening of hunting season.
36. People wear shorts and T-shirts if the temperature rises above 32 degrees.
37. People wear socks with their sandals.
38. There is a church on every corner, but they all teach the same thing.
39. The most popular public transportation system is a ski lift.
40. In-state college football rivalries are bigger than the Super Bowl.
41. You don't have to breathe cigarette smoke until you walk outside the building.
42. Every driveway has a mini-van and a pick-up truck.
43. When you buy a new vehicle, cigarette lighters are optional equipment but ski racks are standard.
44. Every time a new family moves into your neighborhood, the local elementary school has to hire a new teacher.
45. Every time a new family moves into your neighborhood, your whole family has to go and meet them the next day, after you helped them unload their moving truck.
46. Your paycheck has an additional 10 percent deduction.
47. More movies are filmed in your town than in Hollywood.
48. You've never had a Mormon missionary knock on your door, unless you are having them over for dinner that night.
49. You make a toast with red punch at your wedding reception.
50. You have more raw wheat stored than some Third World countries.
51. Your idea of a good time is playing Pictionary in the cultural hall.
52. Your idea of a wild party is a six pack of Pepsi and a PG-13 movie.
53. You and all your friends come to your mother for a haircut in her kitchen. [Ed. note/full disclosure: I see nothing odd or provincial about this item. My mother was once a cosmetologist and routinely cut my hair in her kitchen, at least until I stopped cutting my hair.]
54. You measure Kool-Aid by parts per million.
55. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Utah.

Missing Dad...

Not sure of any other picture of just me and my dad but this is as close as I can get. I miss him. I know I wrote a wonderful story that I read at his funeral but I have no idea where it is now. If any of my family has it, would you please send it to me? I'd like it to have and to post here.

Love you dad,
your little girl.

Remembering Alex

Today would have been Alex' 67th birthday. Today I would like to write some things about him that made him the person he was.

When the kids would come home from school he would asked them how school was and they would say "fine" and then he would ask them "what did you find."

When John said he as going to fix potatoes O'Brien for breakfast he would say, "potatoes for Brian?"

When somebody called on the phone he would say "Go ahead it's your dime."

And when he called somebody, he would "Jello, this is the fruitcake." Or, I tried to call but the line was busy."

Whenever I called him on the phone he would say "Hi Cutie." or "Howdy Doodey."

Sometimes he called me Emma Lu or Eba Kay
He called John Ocho
He called Matt Mathusala
Tammy was Tomasa

I am sure he had names for the other kids and they probably remember what they were but I don't.

He was a very giving person, going all out for Christmas, birthdays and holidays. He always sent me flowers, candy or something to my work when there was a special occasion.

He could fix most anything and could build almost anything. And you could always count on him to help out. He loved his garden and working with the soil. He loved the mornings watching the sun come up and smell of the earth on a Spring morning.

He had faults but all of us do. His biggest fault was not taking care of himself. He would probably be alive today if had of taken care of himself as well as he did others. I don't know where he is, but I know that with all his faults he is in a better place than here and is being rewarded for all he has done while on this earth.

Time and Space and Eternity

As I get older, time goes by way too fast. There is so much we as humans don't know or understand. Even science and the most brilliant minds have not been able to answer the question of where we came from, how the universe was made or where we are going after death. We as humans have only been on the earth for but a speck of time. For billions of years, men did not live here. Our life on this Earth is but a wrinkle in time. A speck divided by many other specks. We are really insignificant when it comes to time. And our lifespan is so short that by the standard of time we really aren't
really on earth long enough to even make a statement.

It does seem strange however, that God would put us here on this Earth and then just let our light die out when we die. Some people have had near death experiences but nobody that has been really dead has come back to tell us what lies beyond. Near death experiences can be explained away by a person being in an altered state due to loss of oxygen or on drugs. Whether you believe in near death experiences or not, there is still no proof that establishes that those experiences existed.

After Alex died, I felt his spirit for about a year after his death. I swear that he even turned on lights, knocked on doors and came to me near my bedside during the night. Now I know longer feel his presence. Perhaps I just imagined him to be near me after his death because I was so alone. This happens to many people after a loved dies I know. If it is just our imagination, do we also make up God because we don't want to be alone in this life? Atheists and Agnostics will say we do. I believe however, there has been too much proof that God really exist.

If a signal can make a cell phone work or send signals to a TV, signals we can't see, then perhaps spirits in heaven can send signals too. When you come to think of it, life is a really a miracle. I am blown away by the fact that they can even get signals way out in space and find out where rockets are. It took until the 20th century to get this all this technology. Why it took so long is not known but maybe God wanted to wait until now because He has more plans for us He will let us know more mysteries in due time.

Religion tries to answer these questions but they do not fit into any scientific study or proof. What I choose to believe is that time always was and will always be. God did not create the world in 6 days; that is only a metaphor; this world is a at least 4.5 billions years old. We know that from science. We know that there is evolution. There is no doubt of it because we have proof through fossils and rocks.

To me, God is the master of all and He created evolution by natural selection. Adam and Eve could not been the first humans on Earth. They are just used as an example. Science have found many human remains that would have had to be way before Adam and Eve. I believe the story of Adam and Eve was just a story, used by God as an example.

There are so many mysteries of life and death and hopefully God will show us the whole truth someday. For me, I just know that there has to have been a blueprint for everything that we have, the universe, life, death, planets and purpose, etc. and even though science has proved many things, they have not proved how all of this happened without some intelligence of things way beyond our realization have happened.

So we as humans really live a very strange life, not knowing for sure what the future will bring or when we will die and where exactly where did we come from. We just need to believe that God will answer these question in time in His time. Right now it all comes down to faith and of knowledge. Faith is good but it must have some knowledge and proof to go along with it. We can't let blind faith lead us in the wrong direction. False prophets can come along and mislead you. Find your own beliefs through study, knowledge, prayer and faith. If the bible says the earth is only 6000 years old, science can prove that is not so. We must realize that what God says is His time not ours. Faith for all its good, must be grounded in proof.

The Strange Case of Randy's Birth

John Minor and Trenna Baer were married on Aug 3, 1939 in Brownsville, PA. where they lived until 1940. Then in early 1941, Trenna left Pennsylvania and traveled to Florida to obtain a divorce. She obtatined the divorce from John Minor in early March. Then on March 21, 1941, she traveled to Morgantown WV and married William Meighen. Meighen then apparantely left for the service in WWII. She then moved in with John Minor in Ohio MI and Florida for 8 months and then returned to Brownsville PA in Feb 1942. On March 13, 1942. she gave birth to Randall Dewayne Minor in Brownsville PA. He was premature and only weighed three pounds. She lived with Minor until Nov 1943 at which time she left Brownsville and went with her child to Portage County in Ohio to live with Meighen where they lived after his return from WWII until 1944.
Court was held in 1945 since both men wanted to claim the child as theirs. The judge awarded custody of the child to Trenna and Meighen stating that the paternity didn't matter because the child was better off with the mother because of his young age. At one time, John Minor took Randy without the the mother's knowlege and she filed a Habeus Corpus. The Meighen's then took Randy to CA until he was five and that was also not approved because they were not supposed to take him out of Pennsylvania.
So was Randall the child of Minor or Meighen? It does appear that Minor is the father because Trenna was living with him while Meighan was in the service. As to why she would because she had divorced him and then went back to Meighan and why he even took her back, is in question. But it does appear that Randall's father was indeed John Minor. One time he was known as Randall Meighen but later his name was changed to Minor. However, his Catholic baptism record shows his name as Randall Meighen.
His mother and stepfather never told Randy much about these early happenings but he always knew that there was something really strange that had gone on in his early life.

Randall did have some visits with his real father and his paternal grandfather who ran the railroad in Brownsville. He has a half sister and brother in the Minor family. In the Meighen  family he has a half sister. On his dad's side, his siblings all live in Brownsfille PA. His half sister on his stepdad's side now lives in NC.

My Other Family: My Brother Chris

My brother Chris was my only biological sibling. He lives in WA and I am sad to say I do not keep up with him very much. I would like in the Family Blog to write more about my siblings; so look for more in the future.
This photo was taken about 1965 around Christmas. He is holding Tina on his lap.

Utah Residency Test

Utah Residency Test

You must be able to answer yes to 10 or more of the following questions to qualify for permanent residency in the state of Utah. Failure to do so qualifies you as a temporary resident only.

Do you have a bumper sticker that says "Families can be Forever"?
Was the mother of the bride pregnant at your wedding?
Did a member of your family write in Lavelle Edwards for President in the last election?
If you shop on Sunday, do you post date the check?
Does your mother have purple or amber plastic grapes in the attic?
Were you an aunt or uncle before you attended kindergarten?
Do you have 2 gallons of ice cream in the freezer at all times?
Do you consider peanut butter on the seat of your car an accessory?
When you take a family to a restaurant, do you ask for extra plates?
Do you consider "dam" a swear word?
Does your family consider a trip to McDonald's a night out?
Do you believe you have to be 18 to order coffee in a cafe?
Are at least two of your salad bowls at neighbor's houses?
Do you think Jack Daniels is a country western singer?
Do you consider your temple recommend a credit reference?
When your ward basketball team plays, is it similar to the L.A. riots?
Do you have an uncontrollable urge to arrive at meetings 5 minutes late?
Did you meet your spouse at BYU or on "Your Mission."
Can you make a Jell-O with fruit salad without a recipe?
Do you bring cola home from the store in a brown paper bag?
Do your children believe that deer hunting is a national holiday?
Do you negotiate prices at a garage sale?
Do you feel guilty when you watch Monday Night Football?
Do you think red punch and green Jell-O are the main ingredients for a successful party?
Do your kids think Jell-O is a major food group?
When you pick someone up at the airport, do you bring at least 1/3 of your relatives and have a family reunion at the gate?
Do you have a "Quiet Book" as part of your library?
Are you embarrassed if any of your children are more than two years apart in age?
Do you say "Gawl", "Heck", or "Fetch" more than once a day?
Do you travel on Morris Air Service at least once a year?
Do you think "Ignernt" means rude?
Does it take more than one car to get all your kids over to Grandma's house?
Do you have any relatives named LaDell, LaVelle, LaDawn, or LaVerle (how about LaDurl)?
Does your 2 year supply of food include more than 40 pounds of candy?
Do you keep a supply of butcher paper on hand to make large "Welcome Home" banners?
Do you refuse coffee but accept all offers of Excedrin?
Do you think it is more prestigious to go to BYU than Harvard?
Do you have relatives in California doing everything they can to "Move Back"?
Do you shop for wedding gifts at D.I?
Does your family take Mormon Tequila to family reunions? (Ingredients of Mormon Tequila: Kool-aid with gummi worm in the bottom.)
Has anybody in your family ever taken Cheerios in a sandwich bag or Tupperware dish to church?
Have you ever made a major purchase at D.I (Couches, appliances, electronics)?