I've been tagged...sorta

Patrick at Born Again Redneck had been tagged and rather than pass the tag onto specific people he said, "Now I'm supposed to name 5 or 6 people I want to know more about but I'm just going to tag anybody who reads this because I'd like to know more about everyone who reads my blog."

Well, since I read his blog on a regular basis, I guess I should consider myself tagged.

Here are the rules of this tag.

The rules:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was a mom with 5 young kids who ranged in ages from 7 on down to 1.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Grocery shopping

Pick up some things from my mom

Clean the kitchen

Do some laundry

Fix dinner

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Ritz crackers and cheese

Popcorn with lots of butter

Jumbo shrimp (cold with coctail sauce)

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

-Buy the property behind my house. Plant lots of trees and install play areas for these kids.

-I would start a fund to help families torn apart by meth and other desctructive drugs.

-Buy a nice house for my parents or remodel (overhaul) their existing home because they wouldn't want to move from the house they have lived in for more than 40 years.

-Provide college educations to all 9 kids in this house.

-Then I would save the rest.

5) Three of my bad habits:

Staying up too late at night

Talking too much

Leaving the dishes till the next morning

6) 5 places I have lived (not in any order):

Salt Lake County, UT (Salt Lake City, Kearns, West Jordan, and Herriman)

Ft Collins, CO

Orem, UT

Pembroke, VA

Bluefield, WV

7) 5 jobs I have had:

Kitchen help in a small hospital

Cafeteria help in a large hospital

Reading aide in an elementary school

Webmaster for a small company

Child day care (at home)

Now I need to pick 5 or 6 people to tag. I like Patrick's line of thinking...so I am going to tag anyone who reads this blog. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Earth Day (my perspective)

"...The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." Alma 30: 44

All of these pictures were snapped by me--except the last one--which is of me with my twins when they were just wee ones.

Cascade Falls
Little Stoney Creek (Pembroke, VA)

Sunrise over Wasatch Mountains Utah

Double rainbow over Wasatch Mountains Utah

View near Southern Utah/Northern Arizona

Cecret Lake near Brighton Ski Resort, Utah

View of Mountains in central Utah

Purple Pansies from my garden

Mountain Lake Road (Pembroke, VA)

My twins (a few years back)

Happy Birthday Paperclippings.com

As you may know, my blog and website have the name of Paperclippings. Originally I wanted to call the website, The Paperclip. Since that domain was not available, I came up with Paperclippings instead.

My website, Paperclippings.com, turns 5 years old this week. According to my server records, April 18th is the day. Prior to that time I had a website posted on one of those freebie servers that put their adds where they wanted to put them.

Though the site is not necessarily about paperclips, I do have a section on them. My fascination (not really the word I want, but it will do) with the paperclip started when I was a university student many eons ago. I was getting paid to type papers for a senior who couldn't type to save his life. He would bind his hand written papers with a plastic-coated paperclip...each time in a different color.

One day I looked at one of those paperclips and thought...that thing will fit as an earring. I currently have blue shiney paperclips as my earrings...plastic-coated, of course.

Since the onset of my website I have researched all I could on the history of this tiny little tool. I learned some amazing things.

The paperclip was first invented, according to most sources, in Norway. This little bit of trivia actually became a big deal during WWII.

During the five year long Nazi occupation of Norway, in World War II, the paperclip became a symbol of national unity. It was worn with pride even though these simple show of loyalty risked wearers being arrested, deported, or even executed. BBC

During World War II, Norwegians were prohibited from wearing any buttons with the likeness or initials of their king on them. In protest they started wearing paperclips, because paperclips were a Norwegian invention whose original function was to bind together. This was a protest against the Nazi occupation and wearing a paperclip could sometimes have gotten you arrested. Everything2.com

So, now, as I celebrate the birthday of Paperclippings.com, I pay tribute to a little tiny piece of metal that made a difference to a whole country...to the country of my childrens' great grandpa.

Another pic...

This picture was taken on an island in the Great Salt Lake. The term ISLAND is used loosely. You can actually drive to this island by way of a causeway. We took the kids out here a few years back.

History made real

In the early spring of 1988 we (two LDS missionaries) were on our way to an appointment in Amelia County, Virginia when we noticed a plaque next to a house on the side of the road. In the background was a lone cannon. This kind of thing was not uncommon as I had seen many Civil War and Revolutionary War era sites over the previous months. This was, afterall, Virginia.

We got out of the car to see what the plaque said. It read:

Battle of Sailor's (Sayler's) Creek

This is the Hillsman house, used by the Unionists as a Hospital in the engagement of April 6, 1865. From the west side of the creek the Confederates charged and broke through the Union infantry. But were stopped by the batteries along the hillside here. A mass surrender followed, including a Corps Commander, Gen. R.S. Ewell, several other Generals, many Colonels, about 7000 rank and file and several hundred wagons. It was the largest unstipulated surrender of the war. (over)

The other side said:

At the same time another engagement took place two miles north, on the main Sailor's (Sayler's) Creek, where Gen. John B. Gordon repulsed pursuing Union troops. He lost most of his wagons but saved the majority of his men. At this same time Gen. Robert E. Lee was tretreating from Petersburg toward Danville, closely followed by Gen. Grant. Lee lost half of his troops in these two memorable rearguard actions, which foreshadowed the surrender at Appomattox three days later.

Though it did not give the exact casualty count, I knew that it was no small number of men (young men, mind you) who had lost their lives on that spot of ground adjacent to the Hillsman house. The reality of what this piece of land, in the middle of rural Virginia, meant sunk into me. The Civil War was no longer just something found in high school text books. Real men lost their lives in that war. Real families lost their sons, fathers, and brothers.

Less than one month later, as I was moving from Farmville, Virginia to Roanoke, we stopped by the McLean House in Appomattox, CH. This was the culmination of the events that were set in motion on April 6, 1865 on a rural plot of ground in the middle of Virginia.

That was the beginning of my quest to learn all I could about that piece of history.

I love sunsets!

Just wanted to share this picture I took last summer while my hubby and I were on a small dinner cruise on the Great Salt Lake with his employer.

Sunset on the Great Salt Lake summer 2007