My honey’s niece heard an interesting story about me last Thanksgiving and asked if she could interview me for a project for her college Social Justice class.

Here is the result:

YouTube LINK

I made it back home yesterday and am happy to be back. I visited Wyoming (Torrington, Wheatland, Laramie), Nebraska (Kearney, Nebraska City, Hebron, Belvidere), Kansas (Concordia, Emporia, Reading) and Missouri (St. Joseph). Most of these cities hold memories and/or genealogical significance for me.

I didn’t find anything new other than the divorce papers filed by my great-grandfather’s 1st wife in 1902. He sounds an awful lot like my dead brother. It’s amazing to see history repeat itself inside the same family.

I drove just over 2,500 miles and am ready to stay put for a while (though my honey is talking about going to Las Vegas this weekend with his parents).

I fly back to Brazil on the 24th and have enjoyed staying grounded for these few weeks.

I was in sore need of some time off from work and my Brazil travels, so I took off two weeks and on Sunday I got in my car and drove 750 miles to Kearney, Nebraska. The next day, I drove to St. Joseph, Missouri via Nebraska City, Nebraska.

I’ve been visiting cemeteries, museums and in general just site-seeing. I spent some time doing genealogy today and found the divorce papers from my great-grandfather’s first marriage. An interesting read that provides a bit more flesh on this man who killed himself in 1915.

I was disappointed to see a number of tombstones pushed over in the Ashland Cemetery in St. Joseph yesterday. I can’t imagine what thrill someone receives from being destructive for destruction’s sake.

Tomorrow I may venture a little further east and continue my journey and photography.

After many years and this second physical attempt, I found the grave of Betty Maud Clements in a Blumenau, Brazil cemetery yesterday morning. Her granddaughter — who died two years afterwards — is buried in the same grave.

I genuinely loved this quick trip to Blumenau and feel like really accomplished something good.

I spent the rest of the day site-seeing, reminiscing and generally enjoying the first city of my Brazilian mission in 1978-79.

Apparently, the straight, white, Mormon, male patriarchy have all of the answers.

Homosexuality ‘not in your DNA,’ says LDS leader
(more…)

Today is the 50th birthday of my twin brothers, 11 months younger than I (I’m still 50 as well, until next month).

Larry–Have a great day and know that we love you and are thinking of you on this momentous occasion.

Jerry–We miss you.

I’m sorry we couldn’t all be together for this day.

My brother just sent a photo of the marker we had erected for my brother who died last November.

I like the Comic Sans font (chosen by his twin brother).

Today, 21 July 2008, is the 100th anniversary of my grandfather’s birth in St. Joseph, Missouri.

He died when I was four, so I have limited memories of him, but I definitely do have memories. He had a huge impact on his son’s life (my Dad), which impacted we six grandsons as well.

Though he probably wouldn’t have lived to celebrate today regardless, it would have been nice to have him long enough for our entire family to know and appreciate him.

In his honor, I completely re-did our family’s genealogy/family history website and launched it today.

Happy Birthday, Spike!

A quote from my Mom today after I sent out this picture: “Wouldn’t Grandpa Spike be proud? He always said he wanted a grandkid for every tree on the place at Wheatland. Guess this would be pretty close.”

We arrived home early this afternoon after having spent lots of time with my honey’s family in Fairview since last Thursday night. We had a great time and as always, appreciate our families even more.

There were some 60 people there between Friday and Saturday, with only our immediate family by the time we left today.

The raison d’être for this event were these five folks (my honey’s dad on the bottom left):

Me and my honey:

Christopher and Allison demonstrate how we all feel:

See you in 2009?