It is Officially Hump Day!

Middle of the Day, Middle of the Week = Hump Day, this is how missionaries keep time. Jordan must be at the MTC by now and this will be his method of measuring time now. It won't be long now before I can get out of here and do what I want. I am not referring to Jordan but to me, just two more hours to quitin time. I am going to go home and finish putting the last boards on my desk that we are building in the basement, then I am going to paint it an we will set up our computers there and get rid of Richard's ugly old broken desk and wow things are going to happen in that office.

I am supposed to be working on the presentation that I have to give next week in Ft. Collins at the AVIC/AO Conference. Ha, Ha they think I know what I am doing, I can't even get my password to work in the system. It will be an interesting 30 minutes.

I have found a neat blog to visit, you really need to check it out the link is on my 'Favorites' list. Her name is Ree Drummond, and she calls herself 'Pioneer Woman" she is funny and the girls here at work love her saga that she is writing about herself and her husband that she calls 'Marlboro Man'.

I for one like the recipes, although I have not tried on yet but there are some that I intend on trying. I like the gardening on her blog as well and her stories, really check out her blog.

Also if you like to scrapbook and make cards check out the unitystamp.com web site, they have some way cute stamps and card Ideas, I will add their link to my "Favorites" too.

My nephew's wife is having a baby and I have buying stuff like crazy, it seems that I cannot stop. I found a Web site yesterday and got a free gift from them, they call it the 'Udder Cover" how funny is that. Well Brandy I got you and udder cover, ha ha. You can't beat that it was free, can't wait till it comes. I have just finished a blanket for the baby and I am still working on a knitted afghan, if it turns out in the shape of a blanket I will give it to her but it might become a blanket for the cats, Molly loves to help me knit, she just loves all of that yarn.

Well gotta get back to work. Happy Hump Day.

MEET THE MARBLES IN MY BAG

Here are somemore of my favorite pics of the kids in the Marble Bag.

This picture is for MOM (Jaimee), this just might be the last time you see this.
This is Corwin, our quiet, courious and on the move kid. He so wanted to get inside, notice the old lock in the center of the door, give Corwin a couple of more minutes he would have had that lock opened.

This is William, he looks a little michevious here but don't let that fool you he is a sweat heart and he loves 'bugs'.

This is Gwen, the oldest of the kids, she is eight years old and loved getting Baptized twice last November, it made her giggle.

This is Brook, she is our ham and loves the camera, she would make a great model or movie star.

This is Mindy, she too loves the camera, but is a little more reserved than her sister, but look at that smile.

This is our Brie, she is dainty and loves posing as well, as it turns out she loves horses. Look what we found hiding under a bit pine tree, it is as if it was put there just for her.

This is 'Megan', what can I say she is not the typical teenager for she is warm, sweat and so good with her younger ciblings, Gwen, Brie and William. We greatful for her.

The other Marbles that make up our family bag are Richard's kids; Jaimee and her husband Paul Rapier, Ben and his wife Catrina, Mathew and Jonathan. I'll have pictures of them soon.

HAPPY SPRING

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!! Better late than never. I only have the opportunity to post messages at work and lately it has been harry here but the big D is out of the office for one of his long sessions (lunch) so I am going to take an opportunity to catch everyone up on our news.

Easter at our house was GREAT!! The weekend before I had an opportunity to take Jaimee (our daughter) and her little girl (Brie) out to shop for Easter outfits and then we met up with Richard for a birthday lunch with Brie. We also took Brie to the "Teddy Bear Stuffin Factory". We had lot of fun at the factory, she chose a horse and she named her "Sparkle". We ate lunch at Chic-Fil-A where her uncle Ben works, she was hoping to find uncle Ben but he was not there. Instead she visited with the big old Bull that hangs out there, he would rather that people at "CHICKEN" all of the time. Then the bull had to go and wouldn't you know that uncle Ben shows up and misses the fun altogether but just then Chic-Fil-A workers brought Brie a big piece of chocolate brownie because before the bull left he told them that is was her birthday. Brie tried and tried all afternoon to figure out how the bull knew her name and that it was her birthday.

Well we shopped until we dropped but not before we found the dresses that we wanted for the girls, but "Oh Man!!!!" they only had one in the color and size that we needed. It was a lucky day though because the store also had an "on line" store so we ended up going back to Jaimee's and buying on line anyway. The clothes were delivered on Friday just in time for the Saturday appointment with Amanda and Scott for picture taking and here are some of the pictures of my grandchildren; Megan is the 15 year old, Gwen, Brie and William are in the orange - Mindy, Brook and Corwin are in the blue. They are such a blessing to us.

On Saturday that weekend Amanda and Scott came up and took pictures of the grand kids in their outfits. They looked "soooooo!!!" cute and we got allot of wonderful pictures of them.

We found a Reception Center that let use their front lawn for the picture backdrops and it was a really nice place to take pictures. Here is a picture of all of them and a few of my favorite pictures that we got.

Sunday the kids came over for Easter dinner. We cooked up the usual ham and potatoes, it was delicious and I have to say that after all of these years it is so wonderful to have a family to cook for and enjoy and especially the family that I have gotten, I could not ask for more, they are so wonderful and I thank my Heavenly Father for the opportunity that he has given me to experience being a step mother and grandmother, it is the best ever.

We enjoyed the Conference talks so much this time, but then we say that each time. I am so glad that we have been working on our food storage but we still have a long way to go. That leads into the other thing about Spring is planting the garden.

Richard and I cleaned out the biggest part of the garden and took a truck load to the dump. We tilled with the mantis, Richard loves that toy, and furrowed our rows and buried soaker hoses along them. This is the first time that I have used the soaker hose system and it is working great. We buried the hose along the mounds where the plants are planted and then all that we have to do is hook up the water hose to the soaker and let it soak a while and then we move the water hose to the next one.

Richard promises to put together some plumbing so that I only have to hook up the water hose to one spicket and we can send the water to what ever soaker that we want watered. It will probably be winter by the time he gets that done, but it's a good idea.

I tried to start our peas from seed but they didn't make it so we bought some and we have 5 tomato plants in and one artichoke, I have never grown an artichoke so we see how that goes. I planted a bunch of flower seeds three days ago and they are already starting to peak out. I will post the gardening pictures in a day or so.

Well the big "D" is back so I have to get back to work. Hope you all have a great afternoon. My niece Amanda used to always say 'it is a beaut-e-full day".

Congrats to John and Jill Cimmers, their second baby, a boy 'Parker John Cimmers' arrived last night at 7:47 pm, 8 lbs and 21 inches long. This is the 12th grandchild for Mark and Ruth. John and Jill have another boy Evan, 14 months and he is adorable, I don't have a current picture of him but I will try to get one. I am so excited to see the famly growing, I love you guys.

Dr's, Dr's and more Dr's

Richard had a second ultrasound or to put it properly a Transesophageal echo on his heart on Tuesday and they said that the hole in his heart was bigger than they origanlly thought so they want to get it fixed as soon as possible. He is scheduled for the repair procedure on March 6th. they will put a device like this one in the hole to plug it up like a dam. It is called an AMPLATZER Septal Occluder, hmm I'll never remember that name. If all goes well he will only have to stay one day but if they find that he also has artery blockages they will stop the procedure and reschedule him for bypass surgery. I don't think that I am ready for this, I told him that he better not make me a widow now.

On a lighter note my nephew Jordan Bracken has just received his missions call to the Tulsa Oklahoma Mission. Richard's son Jonathan served there and on of the Van Rij boys, I think it was Mathew served there. they both had great missions and I know that Jordan will to.

Mindy congrats on graduating this spring, we are looking forward to being there. Your on your way lady.

Well everyone keep in touch, no leaves comments so I can't tell if anyone is visiting, so leave a line or two from time to time.

I keep posting Richard's progress, everyone please remember him in your prayers, please and thank you.

I was just thinking about all of the great people in my life, my friends and especially family. Our family is growing in leaps and bounds. I have a couple pictures of the newest members of the family. Karolyn and Justin Adderly had a boy last October. These pictures that she sent me are adorable of Bekham Mark and Ariah. Cheryl and Mike also have a new son and Julia and Adam have a little girl. I will try to get pictures added of them this week. If any one would like to have a picture posted just email them to me at joyce.marble@aphis.usda.gov I love getting them.

St. Clair/Sinkler Ancestry

I am so excited, for on Wednesday I got a phone call and an email from a man by the name of Steve St. Clair. I had actually contacted him regarding our St. Clair line, I had noticed on the St. Clair website that they are doing DNA testing of the family and I had a couple of questions. It turns out that Steve is a cousin of sorts, we are both descendants of Alexander Sinkler who came here in 1698 from Scotland. We both descend through his grandson Robert St. Clair. I have added the link to the DNA research project on on this blog so please visit and follow his instruction to sign in below.


On the left you'll see a link called "Our YDNA"
When you click you'll be prompted for user name and password.
user name - dnast
password - r3search200



Once your in this website click on Research and there you can run a query below are some suggestions;


Prince William County
Virginia
Sinclair
Sinkler
Maryland
Scotland
Ireland
Richmond County
Rosslyn

Loyalty



We need any male in the family to participate in the research but there is a cost for the lab test of $199.00. I hope someone out there will be willing to donate DNA and maybe we can get several of us to help with the cost. Tell me what you think.



You must be a male over the age of 18 and be a descendant of my father Richard Yeates, the Sinkler line comes in through his mother - Ridgeway, Waldron, Sinkler.



Here is some of the information that I have copied from the website.



A whole new theory on why Alexander came to America. Source - A History of the Scottish People, 1560-1830 - T.C. Smout, Fontana Press, '85
Scottish people of the 1600's relied heavily on the oat crop. It was the staff of life. Oats could be mixed with milk to make porridge, with water to make gruel, or made into a paste and baked into oatbread or bannocks.
In this society which relied so heavily on a single grain, failure of the oat crop even on a local scale could lead to a situation in which the peasants dropped from their normal plateau of rough plenty into a deep trough of deprivation, even of famine. There were 17 bad years before 1660, many of them concentrated in the period between 1630 and 1650. Then, apparently quite suddenly, there was an improvement. Between 1660 and 1695 only four seasons, and they were marked by high prices (signaling a scarcity of oats). But, then, between 1695 and 1699, four successive years of serious scarcity followed by a murrain among the cattle, causing perhaps the heaviest famine mortality for a century.



The catastrophe of the 1690's was presumably an accident of the climate (particularly in the early spring) with it's effects accentuated, perhaps, by increases of population in the 3 good decades that preceded it.


The peasants in time of scarcity attempted first to fall back on other goods. The Highlanders tried to live off cheese, the Lowlanders off herring; excessive consumption of either could lead to serious and unpleasant bowel diseases.


The minister of Torryburn said that the number of burials in the parish rose from an average of about 21 a year to 114 in 1697 and to 81 in 1699. In the large parish of Old Machar, the average number of burials was half as high again between 1696 - 1698 as it had been in the previous decade. In some counties it was said that a third or even a half of the population died or emigrated.


There are many other descriptions of the horrors of these years, of the bodies lying at the roadsides with grass in their mouths, and people dragging themselves towards the graveyards to be sure of a Christian burial. One theory that's been raised by one of us is that perhaps Alexander's wife died that year. Perhaps some of his children. And, with no connections left, he decided to start over again in the new world. We can begin to look for Margaret and Mary Sinclair in the OPR records who may have died about 1697-98.



Alexander came to America in the fall of 1698 as an indentured servant.



I have also posted a link to the Sinclair USA website. There are pictures of some of the family properties and castles and more links to other websites such as the Roslyn Chapel. They are planning another trip to Scotland for 2009, if you want to sign up you will find the information on this website.



If you want more information on the family I have tons of it so just contact me.



Have fun exploring your family's past.