Hi! This blog discusses some of my books, ideas for Genealogists, or it could be about my jewelry line or Mystery Books - Just lots of fun! The Store is called KastleKreationsGifts at https://www.KastleKreations.net
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What is the difference? Both hobbies are trying to accomplish the same thing. They are trying to build a bond between the living and the dead; between the past and the future. Sometimes I think the adversary uses one to focus on evil instead of focusing on messages from our angel ancestors. That's just my opinion.
With searching for Ancestors, I've had a lot of great luck. Learning about different sources, using technology, mingling family lore all together, we've been able to put together some pretty fantastic puzzles, bringing a lot of comfort to those who yearn for a link to the past.
One of the best tools a genealogist can use is findagrave.com - because unlike family lore and "...well, it's true because Grandma told us...", the data is right on the headstone. So why all the rush to gather information off of headstones? Blame it on the elements, acid rain, time, wrong type of stone for the headstone resulting in an disintegration of a monument, something far worse is coming and Genealogists need your help to go to cemeteries and preserve the headstones with digital images. Why? When a cemetery runs out of room, it has been documented that they remove the headstones, and bury the next generation right over the top of them, saving space and making room for the "new" dead. What happens to those headstones? See below!
In 2010 several mud covered white headstones were found stacked in a stream from Arlington Cemetery were awaiting being ground up and recycled. http://www.kltv.com/story/11234835/grave-markers-being-recycled
http://www.kltv.com/story/11234835/grave-markers-being-recycled Texas cemetery lets families know before they recycle headstones However some people make their living recycling headstones and do not see the need to preserve them or restore them. They try to put a positive spin on a genealogist's nightmare. So now you see my ghost hunting nightmare - the necessity of volunteers is great to document the correct birth dates and death dates for our posterity to align their feelings with the ancestors of the past. They can use those dates to look up what was happening in the town at that time, see the clothing worn, what tools they had to work with, and maybe, perhaps not feel so entitled. Maybe they will feel grateful for the sacrifices their forefathers made for their lives.
So that brings me to reverse-forensic genealogy. A friend had a picture of a family from the early 1900s but had lost track with the family 50 years ago. She wanted me to find someone, a direct descendant to that family so that she could send them a picture of their family. I traced the family back to Philadelphia and, using Ancestry, Facebook, and google, within one hour was able to find a relative who was a descendant. It got me to thinking. I was able to give a family a picture - what If I was able to communicate with a spirit and bring their family a spiritual message?
So just for fun, we planned a trip to the Grand Hotel in Jerome, AZ. This hotel has been written about in books, is talked about on television and youtube. If I had seen this video taken by the travel channel, I may not have gone because, even though I am surrounded by my own ancestors and angels who would never hurt me when I am sleeping, I am not so sure that giving up my free agency in a purportedly haunted hotel is a good thing.
It took a long time to get up there. On the 17 northbound, there was a truck on fire on the side of the road and all of the traveling Arizonians came to a screeching halt as if they were pouting they weren't invited to a marshmallow toasting party. There were times my phone said "no service" but we got there safely.
from my journal 3/25/2016.....
So apparently this hotel has been in Ghost Adventures and is the most active haunted place in America. We did not encounter a scary ghost but quite a chatty one. (She says sitting in the dark at 2:45 am because something or someone touched her foot and woke her up). Unfortunately, she was probably annoyed and bored with us because we were so completely amazed we would go blank at what yes and no questions we could ask.
We felt strange from the moment we entered the old fashioned manually operated elevator. There is definitely a unique feeling like if you had too much caffeine. Head felt buzzy, ears ringing, goosebumps all over from head to toe and kind of like 1 million indiscernible whispers in the ears ringing. Took some pictures of our room. Old fashioned antiques meets Restoration Hardware. So basically a pretty nice room. We had a garden room #37A. Which, since it used to be a tuberculosis asylum, it had like a sunny glassed in garden with fake plants and upgraded outdoor yard furniture attached to our room with French doors. Ted is a more sensitive to these things than I am and could actually tell when someone was close to him before the meter would go bezerk. I stepped out there and immediately felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck then the goose bumps all over. I looked at him and he just smiled and nodded,"they're here!" In that creepy Poltergeist-esque singsong way.
We have a Youtube channel with a few of the videos on it....
I took several pictures out there and did see one orb float across my lens, of course, after the flash went off but then later I saw that I captured it. So we got out our EVP meters and coincidentally both would register the same impulses of lights ranging on the inevitability scale from 2 or green, or "There's no ghosts and no such thing as a haunted house" to 20+ RED on the meter or "Ask her how Grampa is doing? How many holes in one has he achieved?" What we gleaned from the experience is a resounding scientifically and fact based "Heck yeah there's ghosts here".
We discerned that she was indeed a she and a former nurse here raised in this town who liked to talk. We got several instances on video of red metered responses up to 20+ on the Gauss meter. So we turned off the meter and crashed until now at 2:45 while I am sitting here texting you in the dark while watching the meter rainbow itself all over the room from green to red. My plan was to try to get a name and a message and find her family and let them see the documentation that she is in a safe wonderful place and happy. Did not get a name. You can't get a name from yes and no questions.
So I'll get one more picture or two before I have to get some more shut eye and bolster myself for a scary grandma Easter egg adventure with the grandkids tomorrow in Prescott. There are definitely some strange noises here and always followed by some sort of light flash on the meter. I asked her or it to turn on the flashlight to my iPhone and pointed to the button. Nothing happened so I went to the other side of the room and when I came back it was on. I have no explanation for that.
Do you know that we write Escape Room Games for Genealogy? Only 20.00 each text me for more information
IF YOU WANT ME TO PRINT IT AND MAIL IT YOU WILL NEED TO SEND ME THE EXTRA 13.95 US POSTAGE. GENEALOGYMAMA1@BLOGSPOT.COM - MY VENMO AND CASHAPP NAMES ARE:
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Other AREA Temple and Family History ADVISERS have asked about working with more missionaries, Temple and Family History Leaders, and Ward members. We have been working in the background towards increasing communications between members with the collective thoughts focusing on the new member. We wanted to share some positive results.
We had a meeting with EACH Mission President and told him we thought that we could help the wards with their retention rate by using a technique that we had used previously for the past three years with a former Mission President. At that time, we contacted all of our Stakes and used a template format, asking them to give us their Family History Department, roster or directory, as it were.
I am sending a sample. It was nothing for their clerk to just pop the info in from his LDS tools, yet a herculean effort should we have tried the task
familylocket.com is an excellent source for consultants
ourselves, for we do not have access to 8 stakes...only the 9th...ours.
Now, with those lists, we created a Convert Tracker for each ward to be put onto a onedrive.com ledge, using a "ward" Gmail which was only to be used as a login email for www.onedrive.com. Any leader in the ward, at any time, can see the progress of the Convert and then counsel with the TFHLeader to see if they could help with the "next step". There are certain steps that have to be done during the teaching process, before baptism, and after baptism, yet before 60 days for optimum chance of that member staying an active member for life; succinctly called "retention". I have attached a sample Ward Tracker.
So we wanted to activate a Ward to be prepared to be ready to accept a convert. Actively, eagerly awaiting....not just sitting back and saying, well, he's 11 - we'll let the Primary do it. Then the Primary saying, "Well, he 11, he is due to go into the YM....we'll let them handle this."
There is possibly nothing more downtrodden and disheartening as a couple of Missionaries who have poured their heart and souls into teaching, befriending, and capturing the spirit of a person in the process of becoming converted....only to hand them proudly to the Ward on Baptism day. What happens? The new person doesn't know who to sit next to, gets shy and ducks out after sacrament. The less he goes, the more awkward going becomes. The missionaries feel him sliding away and there is nothing they can do to intervene.
Enter our new idea. That list of all the people in the stake of family history now gets put into the back pocket of each Missionary couple. When they have someone interested, they ask them if they have ever wondered about their lineage...their family tree? They invite them to come to the Stake center on an evening then after the meeting, pull out that list and pray. Their prayer is, "Father, who would be the most compatible person to befriend the new person in the Ward family History Department?" Borrowing the quote from Gordon B. Hinckley, "Every convert needs “a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing with ‘the good word of God.’”https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/1999/02/every-convert-is-precious?lang=eng
So this presentation we had with the entire mission, which was pretty exciting. As we watched the zoom, we could see them nodding and putting their phones off mute to answer the questions. They really understood that success meant that a committed member would help find names and attend the lessons and get to know the person. On the 3rd visit, the Consultant would go with them all to the temple visitor's center and there, would find out the reason why we "gather the sheaves into the garners". "...And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted. Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listenth to carry them. (Alma 26:5-6)"
The Consultant goes to the Baptism, along with the Mission President, the Missionaries, the Temple and Family History Leader, the Ward Mission Leader, and the advisor of the Young Men, (or the same of the appropriate auxiliary). The Consultant proudly has printed out their combined work into pedigree charts and put them into a binder to give the new person (as the best possible baptism gift ever.....tickets to the Temple!) to see our way of organizing the data go to our Youtube channel and look for "FAMILY HISTORY FROM THE VERY BEGINNING"
After the baptism, the consultant continues to befriend the new person, keeping himself or herself clean to enter into the waters of baptism for proxies. If you have 200-300 names before you even enter the windows of baptism, you've got more than a year of temple trips already planned. Instead of scrambling on day 56 for a group of people, they are already prepared, on day one.
The thing we learned about this presentation was to really listen to the Mission President about how to reach the Missionaries. He mentioned that they were "young", eager and easily distracted. We needed to change it to only hit the most important concepts and add questions to guide them along. It turned out beautifully. Now, after watching that, their assignment from the Mission President was to go look up and talk to the Temple and Family History Leader, get a list of consultants for each ward they represent, then return to the President, who would challenge them to let us, the Stake Consultant and the spirits beyond help them in the process. Now, step two is the 2nd slide deck which mobilizes the ward to be proactive, helpful and considerate in befriending a person.
The whole meeting presented the spirit in such a way, it made me emotional during the end. I hope that they understood the magnitude of my testimony in this work. My husband, without skipping a beat, continued as the true partner in Christ he is. It was just so spiritually rewarding to be able to create that presentation and watch little lightbulbs up on the Zoom video boxes full of elders and sisters, all realizing just what the possibilities were or could be utilizing the "friend" system.
We will see how it turns out. They are getting us the list for the TFHLeaders/consultants, HC over FH for each ward. then we will show them #2 in a zoom.
Let us know what you think of this idea and possibly if you have any ideas of how we can further engage the missionaries and consultants to work together., let me know on your email to naswfamilyhistory@gmail.com.
Disclaimer: All of our ideas are just that, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but not paid for or commissioned to create on behalf of them. They are just inspired by the Lord through personal revelation. If you take one of our ideas and it springboards into something even more memorable, spectacular or noteworthy, we commend you on your own personal revelation with your heart attuned to the teachings of Jesus Christ for the betterment of others.
Many of you have a hobby that you would like to turn into a business. Ted and I do just that kind of thing by helping others start their own businesses. We consult for Web Design, Genealogy, Jewelry Design, Custom Tote Bags and also Avon.
I am also the Office Manager for Arizona Shutters Manufacturing. We recently moved, reorganized and hence the new name. It's a lovely factory and big enough to get all the shutters made for our Maricopa County here in the Phoenix Area.
When my kids were a little, on New Year’s Eve we had a tradition that I called “love gifts” and that was a slip paper that everybody fills out for another person. So if there are 7 in your family. each person should get at least six messages. I made a wall hanging with little compartments with zippers, like mailboxes. The children would write down with kindness or act of service that they were willing to do and commit to for the next year for that person. It might be “Daddy,I am going to shine your shoes every Saturday for one year.” Or “Suzy, I promise not to play with your toys unless you say it’s OK.”
Anyway, when I left my 1st husband, in 2007 I took only the things I had purchased myself or made and forgot to get that cute wall hanging. Last night, I created one for my daughter, hubby, and kids. It’s So much fun to sit around drinking Martinelli’s and eating homemade cinnamon rolls on New Year’s Eve and listening to them read the little notes.. I thought I would share this family tradition with you. A lot of families are looking for a tradition that they can adopt and this is certainly a good one. Doing this, helps them realize the reason fir the season, showing gratitude for others and helps the children relate to others by giving service.
How do I qualify for a free embroidered Temple Names bag from kastlekreations.net? PURCHASE 3 GAMES for instant download I’ll ship the bag separately. IN THE BOX WILL BE A BAG WITH YOUR FAVORITE INITIAL EMBROIDERED ON IT.
Purchase 3 Family History Escape Room Plans for 60.00 (ONLINE VERSION - you get all the links the same day and I’ll ship you the bag) USE MY VENMO OR CASH APP FOR THE FEE Game #1
Two Men - One War - One amazing story
Lt. Michael Concannon
March 29, 1924 - May 25, 2006
First - let me apologize for the way this is formatted - blogger sometimes is very difficult to edit...
The way Angel’s work…
I thought you would like to know why we feel Douglas’ story of his ancestors was appropriate for Memorial Day. He was guided and led by great patriots who came to this land to escape oppression at the hands of other countries (Russia). They were extremely loyal to this country and true patriots. Otto, his grandfather actually died in salt Lake City – was he a Church Member? We will find out! There are so many ties between my father and his service to this country and this young man’s family. The spiritual feeling I felt as I researched his tree was not imagined. I felt their guidance.
Here’s the Story.
I am an author on Amazon and recently finished another adventure in clean reading for any age group. It's a time travel book called, “a Matter of Time”, which is now on Amazon. You can read about the premise on one below in the clean reading section of this page, but for now, I'll just address the part which involves my soldier. One of the characters, an agent, gets transferred from the dungeon in England 1660 to the shores of Hawaii before he became a state. He is so grateful to be out of the dungeon, he asks the Scientist what his assignment is, as he will do anything to keep from going back. She reveals to him that he, indeed is in Hawaii now, but that his assignment will be to help a young man who escapes death while aboard the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to heal, write letters to his brother and inspire him to do something great to help others in their lives.
I needed a character to be a survivor who is saved from one disaster only to help others in the future and when I went to the USS Arizona Survivor page, just because I am in Arizona and my father was actually born in Tucson, Arizona), the name of the Ship leaped off the page. Then, of all the survivors, I was drawn to Lt Cmd. Douglas Hein, who was a sharpshooter and his father was a Boxing champion – so was my father. Then I found out that his family was from the Netherlands on his mother’s side. That was just a quirky coincidence. My father in 1945 was in The Philippines and was one of the 11th Airborne 82nd who rescued over 2000 Dutch and Christian missionaries from a Japanese Prison camp on Leyte Island, a secret mission organized by General MacArthur, by parachuting into the camp while the Japanese were doing their exercises from an altitude of only 500 feet at dawn. On the History Channel, the story has been made into a documentary called Raid at Los Banos, Rescue at dawn. Douglas lost his last battle as a pilot over Manila Bay in The Philippines and his name is engraved on a plaque or wall on that island in Manila coincidentally, where my father reported from the jungles of Leyte Island at the end of the war.
It's been 13 years from yesterday, May 25, 2006, that my father, Michael Concannon passed away and while I was investigating this young man’s family, the entire time, I felt like Douglas Hein wanted us to know more about his father, Grandfather and Great Grandfather and the sacrifices they made through their patriotism in leading and protecting our country. Each of them had a distinguished Military career of sorts. The novel aside, the work we do is so precious and priceless and those who have gone beyond the veil are waiting for us to realize this and do more family history for our families. Those choice blessings won’t be seen until we step across, but we can feel the influence of angels when we do this for our kin. I can only pray that Doug’s Grandfather was indeed LDS and that his family is going to work soon on this line. The research I did for them has set it all into play to make it very easy for them to link it to Family Search.
I hope to meet him one day and thank him in person for the gift of his ultimate sacrifice and for protecting our freedom.
~Karen S. Meyer
I created a free puzzle for you to give out for your kids to do. Or adults may enjoy it. I am not sure it's that simple! Just right-click on the image below and SAVE IMAGE - Then you can print it and play it. If you need a fun YSA activity or Youth activity to teach Patriotism and respect for our Country and the Soldiers who protect us from tyranny and oppression at bay, please consider this Escape Room Activity or you may enjoy one of my other ones. People seem to love them!!!!
To create your own puzzle for your primary or any other class - go to: DiscoveryEducation.com
We have 3 to choose from: Escape From Crystal Caves, The Ghost of George Alley (Help Sally find her Great Great Grandfather) or Escape from Pearl Harbor
We will send them to you electronically and you can print them. That way you can also tweak them if you feel you need to change what the locks, bags or boxes look like for the clues.
Send me an gmail at: genealogymama1@gmail.com and ask for CRYSTAL1, PEARL1 OR ALLEY1
IF YOU WANT ALL THREE YOU GET A SPECIAL GIFT FROM ME - A WHITE TEMPLE BAG WITH YOUR INITIAL EMBROIDERED ON IT FOR YOUR TEMPLE CARDS.
IF YOU WANT ME TO PRINT IT AND MAIL IT YOU WILL NEED TO SEND ME THE EXTRA 13.95 US POSTAGE for each game. GENEALOGYMAMA1@BLOGSPOT.COM - MY VENMO AND CASHAPP NAMES ARE:
If you want ALL 3 for $60.00 HERE'S THE EZ BUTTON - IF YOU WANT ME TO GIVE YOU THE LINKS, YOU GET A FREE TEMPLE NAMES BAG FOR SAVING THE SHIPPING - YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT INITIAL - contact me through Venmo today!
ADD INITIAL YOU WANT ON BAG in the notes section
The DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) has a College Scholarship Sally would like to apply for. First, she must prove lineage to someone who served in the Revolutionary War.
They only know that his cryptic messages he has left in the attic
may
be the key to either some serious treasure or may even lead them to
documentation which could land Sally a College Scholarship, being the
Great, Great, Great Granddaughter of a Revolutionary War or Civil War Hero.
Help them uncover the treasure
Complete
game plan - laid out in Powerpoint, Word, and all the clues - ready to put on this week if you want. You just supply the various locks and props that are in the script. Loads of fun and without realizing it,
the YSA or YW/YM get some lessons in how to research using keywords and valuable life learning tools!
I
searched for locks and lock boxes and puzzle boxes. Then I tried them out on all my kids (we have 12! So that was easy. I asked them to all give these a try and watched how long it took them to open them. One was a Physics Masters Graduate. He finished all three in less than 10
minutes. Everyone else was done in about 20-25. Now my goal is to keep the YSA busy for at least an hour, so I have enough of these twists and turns in my program to do that.
You can use whatever locks you want. You can change the pictures of locks or clues. It's all changeable except the story line.
Each game has over 100 hours of research and dovetailing - It is a lot of effort to work out all the twists and turns so I don't feel guilty charging for my time to create and prepare this for others. Feel free to email me and
ask questions.
Karen S Meyer,
genealogymama1@gmail.com
Here
* * * * * * * * * *
GAME #3
ESCAPE FROM CRYSTAL CAVES
Escape from the Cabin near Crystal Caves!
This is a fun YSA activity or any group interested in Family History.
It takes place in 1925 and is a real story about Floyd Collins. He loved to explore caves in the Kentucky Mountains and decided to turn one into an Amusement Park. This real life tragedy happened to be the first American Tragedy broadcast on Radio. Every night people sat around the radio to listen and hear if Floyd Collins would escape from the cave where he had fallen and was pinned below ground in between rocks.
All of America listened and prayed. People journeyed from all over the earth to kneel at the cave entrance and pray. It almost turned into a carnival-like atmosphere with thousands holding vigil. As you search for the hidden treasure, you find out more about his life and his family and part of the exercise is to put together a pedigree with the information. Each Lock Box or secret location gets you one clue closer to finishing the pedigree. Before you know it, you've completed 4 generations.
All answers are on Ancestry.
I did the research myself and all the documentation requested is there in the file and on Ancestry.
This comes with a PowerPoint to use for printing out the clues for the Players,
a PowerPoint that shows the Game Master (You!) how to put it together and how to discern any questions about the clues.
It comes with a clue and budget sheet to show how much props might be and where you might find them
It also comes with some handouts for participants from an Emeritus Seventy
I found locks like this on ebay and Amazon - also Thrifty Drug has 4 and 5 letter locks and number locks which can be adapted.
* * * * * * * * * *
Karen - what else do you do? What is clean reading?
Ever
see any of your friends on Goodreads and wonder why they are reading novels with horrendous words, pictures, and ideas that pollute your mind? I still do!
I
wanted to create something for my family that would let them enjoy the
experience of reading adventure and spy novels, but do not have explicit
love scenes or foul language. It IS possible to live a provident life
without those words and scenes. You don't have to be a Mormon to enjoy a
good Spy novel or love story.
I
hope you will give my books a chance. Even your family could read
these, though, my test group was over 80 and they said, it made their
heart race a bit. So if you are faint of heart, steer clear, my LDS
characters do get themselves into trouble and occasionally they need to
use their weapons to get themselves out.
All
of my books are .99 or free on Kindle Unlimited because it is more
important to me that the world enjoy "clean" reading (no bad language)
than to make money. To have something to hand down to my grandchildren
is the best intent for my project.
A Matter of Time
Marietta
Hensley is a Forensic Genealogist and Scientist who, using her
doctorate is using the only time machine in secret to change the lives
of others for good. She uses the lottery to help fund the project
rationalizing that sure, she may go forward in history and grab the
winning numbers but that money is doing people good.
She
looks back in time to find tragedies in which people should not have
died. Using her Quantum Entanglement Device, and plotting the exact
coordinates in time and space, she programs the vehicle to land in a
remote location, cloaks the device with a force field and saves the
victim. Doing this ensures that one of their descendants may do
something noble for mankind.
However,
she wonders what happens if you go back in time to alter a genealogical
line, keeping one person from dying in a horrific tragedy in order to
save millions by what the descendant will invent in the future, should
I? Should I play God?
Marietta
has the intel, time machine and funding by U C Berkeley to go back and
alter reality for the good of mankind but what she discovers is that you
may save one from a tragedy only to lose other generations to another
disaster; perhaps one created by a descendant of the person she saved.
One
thing she discovers is that it’s no fun playing God all the time. How
does she escape the drama? Find out in A Matter Of Time - coming to
Amazon books May 30, 2019
* * * * * * * * *
PRIVATE EYE SLOAN
Rex
Sloan was bullied in High School, and not just by non-members either.
He was driven to pursue his first love of intellectual studies instead
of a girlfriend. He sought a career after his Mission to focus on,
instead of marriage, which he put on the back burner to percolate.
Having trust issues, he has received a 20 year Reunion invitation which
causes some anxiety. In addition, his identity has been stolen. He is a
multi-millionaire and is having some trouble getting the Beverly Hills
Police department to jump in and help him solve the mystery. He does
his own sleuth work and through investigating, finds the culprit, but
keeps the mystery going as he does not reveal his
true identity.
Enjoy Private Eye Sloan and find the real thief...the one who stole his heart!
Two
teens are in their Senior year and planning their lives. They quickly
learn that when we plan and are not in symphony with what Heavenly
Father has planned for us our destiny becomes Uncharted. They try to
get on the path by being more in tune and understanding that Plan B may
sometimes just be what He really wanted us to experience. In the
meantime, as you get to know both families, you find that one has a dark
past involving World War II Stolen Art pieces. The current generations
are oblivious to this because the Great Grandfather has not documented
his family history. He has it all in his head, hoping to find the clue
his cousin left for him to clear the family of any wrongdoing by
association.
The book is a great tool for parents of youth getting ready to leave home.
What do they need to know that first year that will help them become positive thinking, assertive young adults?
Andie
and Anson are new to the FBI field. Recently graduated, their first
mission is in California. The job is to unmask Russian Spies who have
infiltrated and stolen plans for the newest Stealth Bomber. The FBI
Chief gives the couple a beautiful home across the street from the spy
and his family, allowing Anson to carpool with his neighbor to work.
Their cover is that they are a newlywed Mormon couple.
Now,
if you have ever been a convert, you know how easy it is to
misunderstand that "different" vernacular of LDS people. So how would
you like to be thrown into an undercover position without a Mormon
jargon translation book? This causes some misunderstandings which have
actually occurred in convert's lives. The funniest scene is probably
trying to have an intelligent discussion with the Bishop. Nothing gets
past him.
Katie
McMasters lost her brother in an accident. Her father always treated
him a little better but not because he didn't like her, it was just
easier for him to relate to a boy. Now, the father has lost his
testimony, his son, and is badly injured. Their sheep have to go to
market in the fall and moving them to the lake pasture for the summer
was always Tom and Pa's job. Katie takes on the challenge to take care
of them all by herself, with the help of Shep her dog, Pepper her horse
and whatever knowledge Ma has imparted all these 13 years. She is alone
in a dangerous world, exposed to predators of all kinds and her goal is
to make her Father proud.
This
is a silly kids book written to teach my children to give to others
instead of taking all the time. Hey, it worked. They are all amazing
people so maybe Harriet had a hand in that.
Harriet
is a Horse who does not hide her talents under a bushel. She is the
entertainment of the barnyard. The Farmer does not want her to go off
to try to be on Animal Star Search. He decides to give her some perks
of the job. That's not good enough. Her friends give her the Farmer's
tractor and help her with directions to a little town in California
called Newbury Park. She can stay with the Owl's cousin and his family
while she auditions. The problem is, she never learned to read. He
helps her learn the word N E W so that whenever she sees that, she will
stop. She ends up going all over America in search of her goal, but
giving service to others and helping them reach their goals instead.
It's a rewarding life that she is living and it gives her time to
rethink what she really wants to do in this life.
This
book teaches others about selfless service - it's not just another
silly horse story. Just read it and laugh...then read it to your youth
and they will learn.
Living
with someone with a big ego is difficult, especially when he is a
workaholic. Deke has a big family but he is missing out on their youth
because of his passion for his work. It's his turn to plan the family
vacation but he is missing out on their youth because of his passion for
his work.
He decides to make it the "Vacation they will never forget!" and plans a
one-day ocean excursion, which turns into a comedy of errors, terror
and possibly before the day is over felonies will have been committed.
He learns his lesson, but those with the most integrity will decide if
the correct choices were made. He has lots of options and chances to
right the wrongs and show his kids that he has integrity.
We
are all in search of the treasure of our lives of some kind. For Tom,
it is the treasure of family and the wish to be reunited with them after
a tragic accident. For Summer, it is in finding something that her
Great Grandmother left at the property Summer inherited for her when
Great Grandma Essie passed away.
Tom
and Summer meet in a comedy and adventure of errors and misjudgments
and help the police with a sting operation to capture some notorious
drug lords. This novel is a fun way to learn how to and how NOT to
communicate effectively! It is a Romantic Comedy, but also a Mystery
Adventure at the same time.
