My Published Books now Available on Kindle

This is an exciting day!!!  I converted all my published books to kindle including Jim's family research book as well.  My last published book will be added in a few days.  There was a kink in the cover conversion.


I feel as if I just jumped into the 21st Century even though I have been here already for 12 years. 


The covers are exactly the same as the published cover you see to the right----

Here are the links:

Home Is Where the Heart Is Link

Home Is Where the Learning Is Link

Of One Heart: Being Single in the LDS World link

Dogs, Blogs and Hobbits: Writings from a Widow's Perspective

Jim's book on family research---

Finding Your Family


Happy reading!!!

Happy Pioneer Day!!!!

This is such a cool picture!!! Pioneers in wagons coming into the Salt Lake Valley.  How cool is that!!!

Today is the anniversary of the Mormon Pioneers finding the Salt Lake Valley to settle.  July 24!!!

To all those who have ancestors who went many miles for freedoms to worship and live as they please...this day is a great celebration!!!

My grandparents did not cross the plains but they did cross the ocean to live in this great country!!!!

A Reputation as a "Prepper"

Over the last few months, I have been attending monthly meetings strangely called "Prepper" Meetings.  This new word has come about by those people across the nation who consider themselves prepared.  Like a boy scout, we want to be prepared for any emergency so we stock up on certain items which will help us when the electricity goes out, an horrendous storms comes by or in extreme emergency--the economy/government falls or worse an EMP strike occurs.

Prepper's have interesting reputations.  Some preppers are considered very extreme and some are just wanting to keep stocked up on food. Some are considered armed and dangerous because they are so paranoid--they think the sky will fall at any moment.  Others, like myself, are just wary of being caught without any food or water in an emergency and want to be prepared. We even keep chickens and have our own vegetable gardens.

We come in all shapes and sizes---all walks of life and religions.  It really is a fascinating phenomena. As our country struggles for a better economy and life, those of us who can read the "writing on the wall" will continue to prepare ourselves for the worst.

So each week look in your pantry and make a list of what you need to sustain yourself for three months. Make sure your first aid kit is up to date.  Stash away a few cases of bottled water just in case.  Many people set up rain catching barrels for a constant supply of water. If in your heart you feel the need to have other supplies on hand--go ahead and get them. All hygiene items are in need when an emergency strikes so go ahead and stock up. Better safe than sorry in a difficult situation. Have extra clothes and shoes on hand just in case you can't get them.  Even some items which make you happy are always good to stash away as it has a calming affect such as chocolate or games and toys.

Make a plan with your family in case you are separated when disaster strikes.  This will always save everyone a panic attack if you all agree where to meet or what to do if your family is separated.

I'm a big supporter of neighborhoods banning together for safety. It keeps panic at bay and everyone can help each other. Start a neighborhood prepper meeting and find out how everyone can contribute in an emergency.  I think those living in New Orleans wish they had done so before Katrina stuck.

Being a "Prepper" makes good sense because you never know what might happen when.

Second Best Document in our Nation: The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

This is one of the most powerful pieces of writing you will ever read!!!  Remember what we have!!!