An interesting connection

President Porter, the stake president that performed Bonnie & Travis' wedding, is a distant relative. I met him the first time at Bonnie's brother Matt's wedding. Pres. Porter was their bishop at the time. He has been stake president for 5 and a half years, so Matt's wedding was about 6 years ago.

Gloria, my sister-in-law who is also Bonnie & Matt's mom, introduced us. Of course, the name Porter is fairly common, but ... you never know, there might be a connection. Gigi, who is also Gloria, said we were from Idaho. President Porter said his family comes from Southern Utah. OK, I remember going to Escalante when my folks took my Grandpa (Fred) Porter to meet some relatives. Grandpa's grandpa was Jared Porter & he settled in Escalante. So, I asked where in Southern Utah. He said Escalante. So, I got excited about that. I asked who his grandfather was. He said Jared Riley Porter. Jared Riley is Jared's son from his 2nd wife, I think it was his 2nd wife. The one that died in Wyoming crossing the plains.

Our grandmother is Harriet Preece Porter. She divorced Jared & moved "home" to Cache Valley, bringing the younger kids with her. She lived with her brother Mark Preece. Harriet named a son Mark. Her brother Mark named a daughter Harriet & called her Hattie. Our grandmother married a man named Joseph Perkins. Mapleton was originally named St. Joseph for him. Harriet Preece Porter Perkins is buried alone in the Porter section of the Franklin Cemetery.

Small world, huh?

Lent, Day 22 continued

Back from supper & watering the dog. It's getting warm & we're going to have to get something bigger to water the dog in or water him 2-3 times a day.

Back to the back or green door. When we got cats, we had to devise a way to keep the cats from pushing the door open & coming in, so we just put the sugar bucket in front of the door. It's a green pickle bucket & holds about 25 lb. of sugar. When it's full, it holds the door closed enough that the cats can't get in.

A few months ago, Nick had a rage & slammed out the green door & broke the window. I don't remember if there was a door on the "porch" or not. Anyway, he got in his pickup, gunned it, dug up holes in the new driveway & backed right into the pine tree. I told him that I've always been afraid that he'd wrap his vehicle around a tree, but never expected it to be in my own front yard.

Don trimmed the pine tree so there are no ragged edges & it seems to be healing. This was last fall, I remember because Nick wanted to sell his pickup for $2,800. When he backed into the pine tree, it bent the bumper in. This is a 1969 Chevy pickup & those vehicles were made out of steel. It takes a lot to bend them.

These are the pictures I took of the deer with my cell phone, which is why they are blurry. There are 3 deer there. In the first picture there are 2 deer together, closest to the tree. In the second picture, there are still 2 deer together, closest to the tree.

A car came by & some boys, about 10 years old, decided to chase the deer. The third picture is in front of the Hatch House with only 2 deer in flight. Actually all three are there. One took off to the right of the little adobe cabin & one is on the left between the Hatch House & the cabin. The third is the one in front of the Hatch House.

This is in Franklin, the oldest permanent settlement in Idaho, in the historic part of town. My Grandpa Porter, my mother's father, had an Aunt Bess who lived in the Hatch House. Actually all this picture shows is an addition to the house. She used to make the hill billies from Cub River wipe their feet before they could come into her house. Maybe they even had to take their shoes off. I can't remember the story. It depends on the day as to whether Mother can remember it or not.

I remember Grandpa used to tell me that he had an Aunt Bess who talked just like ordinary folk until she had a daughter go to college. Then she started reading the dictionary so she could use high-falutin' words. He'd tell me that because he said I used too big of words.

I always thought it was funny, because I love to read the dictionary. For my 18th birthday my mom gave me my very own dictionary. I used to read with it in the chair next to me. Actually, I read with her dictionary in the chair next to me & it was falling apart, so she bought me my own dictionary, which is also falling apart.

Lent, Day 20

Thursday, March 19, spring officially begins tomorrow!!! It feels like it has been a long time coming. Don says it will snow again Sunday night.

After reading that there was a Porter family reunion last summer, I was really bummed. Don & I were going to bed at the same time, 11:30, can you believe it? I was still ranting about it. I said they had a reunion & who didn't get invited??? Don said, trying to lighten the mood, "Sammy." Sammy is our yellow cat. I thought Don had taken all the cats out & so I'm looking around trying to see Sammy. "Sammy?" I asked puzzled. "Ya, Sammy didn't get invited to the reunion," Don said. I did not think it was funny.

I had a hard time getting to sleep. I thought of a lot of reunions where things didn't go well. Like the time that Miranda kicked Nickolas when he was down & knocked him flat on his face in the parking lot, the year of the water balloons. Some ones windshield got broken from those water balloons & the kids were getting splashed, yet when Nick threw one of their balloons back & it broke & splashed, she kicked him.

I remembered Uncle Woodrow saying that year that we needed to stop having family reunions, every one's family is getting so big they didn't need one for the extended family. Well, ok, my mom has one living child, 2 grandchildren & a family reunion for us is every Sunday at the dinner table. I would like for my kids to have a sense of family, yet with Asperger's & my panic disorder, reunions are hard.

Of course, there was the Taylor reunion where Don-Mike was trying to help set things out for the buffet & Don's Aunt JoAnn chastised him. I haven't been back to a Taylor reunion since & that was over 10 years ago.

When I finally did get to sleep, I slept the clock around & didn't wake up until 11:44. Don must have had a rough night too, because all the covers, except mine were on the floor on his side of the bed.

When I went to the grocery store tonight I bought more Western Family TheraFlu. I'm taking it again tonight. It's funny, it's the "daytime" formula, but it sure knocks me out. I sleep so good.

Oh, & I even worked on decluttering today, wonder of wonders. In my last foray into decluttering the end of the bed, I wondered what was in the knee hole of the vanity & decided to look. Some of Don's mother's fragile china & dishes wrapped in towels. Nick had ordered something online & it came in a small box with peanuts, which, of course, just got dropped BY the garbage in the front room. I took the box in & started digging in the knee hole & brought out a bowl that just fit perfectly in the box with the peanuts around it.

Of course, then I thought of all the things I could do today, which wasn't scheduled & since I had slept half the day away & then spent 2-3 hours on the internet, it was already 3 p.m. I couldn't believe it was so late. I took Mother's mail over to her, sorted it, went to the grocery store, fed the dog, fixed supper & it was dark.

But, I am making progress on my bedtime, it's about time though, I've been at this almost 3 weeks.

I'm going to have to schedule my time, instead of spending hours on my boards.

Time flies ...

when you're having fun. I decided my blog list was getting rather long & so was my archive list. So, I've spent the last hour or so doing some housekeeping. Not often I do housekeeping, but computer housekeeping doesn't bother me. I could spend hours computer housekeeping, which I do, & we live in squalor.

I was bummed when I found that Alashandra had wrecked her car, but even more so when I found out she was on her way to the Porter Family Reunion the last weekend of June 2008 & we weren't even invited. Always wondered if the rest of the family thought we were part of the family. I wonder who hosted it & where it was at? It's Mother's turn to have the reunion this year, guess we'll just let it go & let them have their own reunion.

I don't know Loraine's sons-in-laws names, so I had to do some reading. Found out that Alashandra's husband is Matt & Morgan's is Mitch. I only know Tanya's husband because I faithfully read Baby Jonah's blog. Sometimes I check it twice a day. Morgan's blog is private, so I haven't even tried signing up for it.

I left some blog names cuz I like them. Em's Blog is my cousin Edmond. I remember his dad calling him Em.

I had to laugh when I was talking to my friend Janene on the phone the other night. She said she remembers my blog name as Do-Re-Mi. I love it. I told her that works. Almost wish I had thought of it myself. When Don & I got our first email address we named it radon. We thought we were really clever. Nick thought it up, RaDon. Well, guess what? It says ray-don & is an explosive gas. The boys were always laughing at the ads of ridding your house of radon. They said they didn't want to get rid of their parents, LOL. I always said I was explosive, but only when set off :D

PDD-NOS is pervasive development disorder, not otherwise specified. Nick is on the autistic spectrum, the reason I have that bookmarked, but it hasn't been updated for quite a while & I don't know that diet is going to help with Asperger's syndrome anyway.