A Major Milestone

So, we reached a milestone in our lives that I thought would take forever to reach. But yes, Hannah was baptized by her father on Dec 6th, 2008. It was a wonderful experience for her and for me! I felt the Spirit so strongly that it was really difficult to hold back the tears. I was one proud "mother hen" :) Hannah had been preparing really hard for this event and had been reading her scriptures diligently. One special moment for me was when Hannah had her interview with the Bishop. He told her that baptism is an important step to becoming a righteous daughter of God (or something like that) and Hannah, without missing a beat, said "Like my mom?" and then turned and smiled at me. I think that was the best compliment I have ever been given in my entire life!! Seriously!!

Here are the photos...

Beautiful Hannah

Excited but anxious Hannah


Mission Complete! Hannah was thrilled but said that the water was a little too cold. She was shivering so bad but she said it was all worth it!

Hugs for her Hero!!!

"Family History" Delaware Trip

So, during the last part of November, my mother and I went back to Delaware in search of our ancestors. We went with high-hopes that we'd find tons of information, which would then make the trip worth-while. We also went there to meet a family member that I had found while doing research on the internet. His name is George and he's just about to turn 86yrs old. George is my Grandpa's 3rd cousin, though neither of them knew of each other because there was a family feud, which separated the family. It took many phonecalls and tons of paper work to convince him that we really are related. When we first got to Delaware, he was still sceptical but when we were leaving....He was a believer!!

Overall the trip was very successful, though we did have some highs & some lows, which I will explain with the photos.


This is the "Old Swedes Church", which is the oldest, still functioning church in the USA. It was build in 1699. My great great (x whatever) grandfather was the first pastor for this church. His name was Ericus Bjork. His portrait still hangs in the church. MANY, MANY relatives of mine are buried in it's graveyard. If rating this stop on a level of 1-10 for "family history info", I'd give it a 10++. I found enough to keep me busy for a really long time :)


This is the "Susquehanna Lockhouse Muesum" located in Havre de Grace, Maryland. This is the house that my grandfather was born and grew up in. It was wonderful experience to be within its walls and to stand within the room that my grandfather was born. What a blessing in my life! Since I was raised without a father, my grandfather was like my daddy. He means so much to me and I can't wait to see him again. And I am so honored to be doing his line of family history. The older picture is of "Nanny" my grandpa's grandmother. She's standing on the porch of the lockhouse, in about 1930 or so. Oh, and that's my grandpa's dog Nelly.


Here's mom and I with George. He's a little guy, only about 5' 1" or so. He was a really nice and lovable guy but a little rough around the edges. But I am eternally grateful for all of the information he gave us, including one of his family Bibles. I'm also thankful for his willingness to take us to several cemeteries that we may have never found, if on our own. Thank you George!


This is when the "lows" of my story come in. What do you think I'm taking a picture of in this photo? Would you ever guess a cemetery?!? Well, that's what it is. My forefathers came to Delaware in the mid 1700's and this is where most of the early members of the family are buried. Talk about heartbreaking!! I had tears in my eyes even before going in.


This is what we found when we finally got into the cemetery, which was covered with overgrowth and huge sticker bushes!! Broken and vandalized headstones & monuments. Most smashed to where they were completely useless. In the photo above, you can see remains from 5 different headstones. Once shattered, they were thrown around. It was so overwhelming that both my mother and I were shocked and in tears. Who does that to a graveyard!?! Now if ruining the headstones wasn't bad enough, there were several graves that had been dug up and what made it worse, was those who were dug up were our family members.

Here's a headstone for Sarah McCrone. We found the other part of it nearby so we were able to get the year of death but this one was in surprisingly good shape compared to many others.

Here's my mom beside a "McCrone Monument" that had been knocked over and vandalized. Someone poured tar all over it. We were able to get the information off of a couple of it's sides but it was too heavy to roll or move to get the information on the bottom, which was a major disappointment. We hope to go back again soon and find a way to replace it to its rightful spot. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the headstone to the left and slightly behind my mom, is one of the many graves that were dug up. The hole is somewhat filled with leaves and branches, so it makes it hard to see but believe me, it's been dug up.

But even though this cemetery really brought us down, we were still able to get some useful information that we didn't have before, which made it a good and worth-while stop. Now my mom and I are trying to figure out what we can do to help get the State or whoever to care for this graveyard. If I lived closer, I'd do it in a heartbeat.....poison ivy, or not!

Hannah's Birthday

Hannah turned 8 yrs old on November 16th. I'm still wondering where the time went! She has grown into such a beautiful young daughter of God and I am so proud of her. It just seems like yesterday, when she was placed in our arms and our lives changed forever. I'm so grateful for the gift of her in our lives. She has such a warm little spirit that helps lift me up when I'm down. Hannah also has an extremely kind heart, which is very evident in the relationship she has with her baby brother. Hannah truly is my miracle, in every sense of the word. She's saved me in more ways than anyone could ever imagine! I'm so honored that our Heavenly Father is allowing me to raise such a special daughter of his.

Julie: I know you read this occasionally and I want to thank you for what you have given Greg and I. You know how much you mean to us and I'm so thankful that you are still a part of our lives. Hannah was thrilled by your card with the "toe nail stickers" in it. She's had beautiful toe nails ever since :) We love you so much and so does Hannah. Hopefully we'll get to see each other again soon! Please take care :)

Here are some fun photos from the special day!

Beautiful Birthday Girl....Hannah Elizabeth

Hannah cheesin' it up for the camera. She's such a ham!

This is the reaction of a little girl that asked for 8 months straight for things called "Blendy-Pens", which she wanted due to a commercial she saw while watching TV....Thanks Nick Jr. It took me a while to locate them but from her reaction, it was all worth it :)

Little Gabe was actually into the whole "opening presents" thing this year, which I'm thrilled about!! Maybe this Christmas I might actually get a photo of him "opening" a present. In the past, the photos have just been of him crying because he didn't want to....YIPPEE!!

Phoenix?

So, I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who can tell me a few good things about Phoenix Arizona? Greg and I might be going to visit there in January and I'm personally not too thrilled about it. But supposedly there's something more to it than "desert" and "major DRY heat". I'm sure I'll get to see for myself, really soon!

One more thing...

I apologize to any of you who read the comment I left on someone else's blog concering racism. As you can see, it's a tender topic for me. It frustrates me when others play it down when we've had to live with it. Some really close friends of ours have lived with it their entire lives. Unless you've experienced it, you'd never understand it. Infact, I'm sure many will disregard my comments as not true. I wish that were the case.

But I'm sorry if I offended anyone, that was not my intent. I just wanted to share my view, which I'm learning can't be shared completely until situations change in my life and until I'm once again allowed to just be "Celeste". So, until then, my opinions will only be left here and no where else. Feel free to read them if you'd like, if not, that's fine too.

Again, I apologize.

Hard to believe...

that so many people are so ignorant to the fact that racism is alive and well.

After finishing my bazillion posts today, I went and started checking all of my friends and their friends and their friends blogs. I have to say that I was very disheartened by the comments about...now that we have a black president, racism no longer exists and that affirmative action is no longer required! (not that I'm saying I'm a huge fan of affirmative action but that doesn't mean it's not needed!) I only got about 5-6 blogs/posts into it before I had to stop reading.

Doesn't anyone read the newspaper or watch the news?!? There has already been an assassination attempt on Obama that was stopped!! Are we all blind?!? I give the benefit of the doubt to those who have only lived in the mid-west but it does no good to assume that the other areas of this country aren't racist! We're only hindering our children and making them as ignorant as we are if we teach them that it's no longer valid. I am seriously just sick to my stomach about this! It's times like this when I am scratching at the walls of this clueless bubble we live in trying to get out!

It's amazing what knowledge can do. Maybe everyone out there should educate themselves!! Then we can work together to make this world a better place and not just be oblivious to the world around us!!

Presidential Election

So, it's over and McCain didn't win, which I kind-of knew would happen but I had hoped it wouldn't. But I just got to move on and start using my quote from an earlier post...."Oh Crap! A Democrat!!"

Now that I've said that I want to say something in contrast to it.

I want to say that I am really really sad that Obama isn't a conservative. I would have loved nothing more than to be a part of this historic election and be able to say that I voted for the first Black President, but I can't, which makes me sad :( I am so grateful that this time has come, I just wish Obama didn't support Abortion!

Now for those of you who are in Utah thinking..."What are you talking about? Racism is long gone and in the past! Who cares what color a person is? Aren't we past that yet?" All I can say is that NO we are not but we, as a nation, are obviously moving in the right direction. Here in Utah, we live in a bubble and not just a religious bubble. We also live in a "no one is racist anymore" bubble because people here in Utah usually aren't racist but the hard truth is that there are many places, especially down south, that are still VERY VERY racist. The KKK is very much still functioning and still teaching their children that the white race is superior. They still put ads in the papers about their meetings and they even "adopt a highway" which then states that the highway is being taken care of by the KKK. Yeah, it's still going strong!

When we lived in Texas, Greg quickly learned where he could take us when he went out of town (sometimes we'd go with him on his business trips) and where he couldn't. Even though Hannah is a lighter skinned African-American, it wouldn't have mattered. There are idiots out there and they are filled with hatred!

For the past few years I have been slowly introducing the subject of racism to Hannah because it is going to be something that she has to deal with. There are many really good books that help in this area. My favorite is "The Other Side", which teaches kids that "someday someone's gonna come along and tear down this fence" which separated the blacks and the whites. It's a really cute story and Hannah absolutely loves it! Now along with those kind of books I've been encouraging her to read about Black History and the brave individuals that have affected this country. She never seemed too interested in them until just recently. It began with Rosa Parks. I read her the story and I could see the pain in her eyes. It hit her! She finally understood that just because Rosa was darker skinned she was treated very unfairly. Something just clicked and it registered that that could have been her. We have talked a lot about it since then. She continues to bring home African American books from the school library. In fact the other day, she was saying something about "the white people" when she stopped quickly and turned to me and said, "No offense mom cuz I know you're kind-of white". To which I replied, "I'm not kind-of white, I'm extremely white!" It was a good moment to talk about the fact that many white people were fighting for the rights of black people and that not all white people feel the same way. We talked about the Civil War and I helped her understand that it's not a whole race that are haters, it's a group on individuals who are choosing to be haters and they happen to all be white. Hannah decided that if the black people would have just treated the white people the same way the white people were treating them, then the white people would've realized how much sadness and pain they were in and would then realize that they shouldn't make others feel that way. They would realize they were wrong. I thought to myself about how wonderful that would've been if that's all it would've taken but we know that some blacks did return the violence and it just created a bigger separation between the two colors. If only everyone could see each other through our Savior's eyes then we'd just see each other as brothers and sisters!

So anyway, to make a long story short, when Obama won, Hannah was sad because she was rooting for McCain (she came home from school rooting for McCain. I asked her why she chose McCain and she said that she supports his view on the war. She then brought out two fliers that the kids had been given with the views of both presidential nominees. She came to the decision by herself. I was proud of her). Anyway, I tried to smooth the loss over by explaining to her how historic this election was and even though Obama doesn't share our views, he would still keep in mind what he feels will be best for our nation and that he was still a great man, even though we disagree on the topics. It seemed to help her move on.

So then the next day, I brought in the newspaper and sat it on the coffee table in the entry room. When Hannah came home she started freaking out. I asked her why and she said, "I thought McCain didn't win?" Confused, I walked over to her to see what she was looking at. On the front of the newspaper was a picture of Obama. I clarified with her that McCain didn't win and that Obama did, then I pointed at his photo. She thought for a second and then said, "This is Obama?" and I said yes. She went on to say, "Oh, I thought this was McCain!" She thought that the white haired guy was Obama and that she liked the brown haired guy because he was brown like her. But then she said that she liked the guy who wanted to keep people safe in Iraq and not leave them. So, I'm not sure if she really like Obama all along or if she just got there photos mixed up but whatever it was, I'm glad that she had her first experience with voting and that she's realizing that she will have a say when she's old enough. When I was 8 yrs old, the only thing I knew about the President was the Oscar Meyer Wiener song that included the line, "Jimmy Carter has a way of screwing up the USA." Pathetic, I know!

So to bring this all together, I'm happy that we will soon have a black president but I'll be happier if our next black president is a conservative!!