I know it's been a while

Hey guys!
It's been 2 weeks since I posted which is not how I wanted to start this blog. I would have posted last week, but I got a really nasty stomach bug on Sunday and spent most of my morning in the ER. It was the worst I have ever felt. But, anyways I'm feeling better for the most part. So I will update you guys on the last 2 weeks.

I went to a stake dance on the 29th of March and had lots of fun with my friends. Then, the next day I went to Lake Mary, which is a facility for kids and adults who have disabilities. I had lots of fun playing games with them and helping them make crafts. Then Saturday night, was the General Women's meeting for women/girls ages 8 and up. It was such a great meeting and I really enjoyed what everyone had to say. If you haven't seen it and would like to, check it out here.  Then, Sunday I was in the ER getting treated for dehydration due to the nasty stomach bug I got.

This past week was pretty boring. I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday to check up after my ER visit. Then, on Saturday and Sunday was General Conference. I enjoyed listening to all the speakers. If you would like to see it, click here! During Conference, I decided to do some indexing to help me pay attention cause I'm not a very good note taker, and if I'm not doing anything, I fall asleep. I had so much fun indexing though. I had set a goal for 100 and I ended up indexing 260 records! Once you get the hang of it, it's really fun and easy.

So I've pretty much just summed up my past two weeks. :) I will post again on Sunday hopefully! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get ready to watch Dancing With The Stars. I'm really hoping Cody doesn't get voted off this week. Oh, and listen closely tonight because he's dancing to one of his songs tonight! :)

Genealogy Conference- Kansas City

I spent 2 days of my spring break (Friday and Saturday) at a Genealogy Conference in Kansas City. I had so much fun at it and learned so much! :)

Friday

I got up at about 6:30 and got ready to head to the conference. I got there around 8:30 and got signed in and ready to listen to the Keynote speaker. I honestly don't remember a lot of the keynote cause I wasn't really listening due to being in the middle of having an anxiety attack. After the keynote, I went to my first class which was "Becoming a US citizen: A look at Naturalization Records" and learned a lot but I didn't take the best of notes in. After that I went to a "Using Social Media" class and that class explained the differences between Social Media Sites and how to use them. I got a handout and will be willing to share it with anyone who wants to see it, but I don't want to post it on here cause I don't know if it's copyrighted or not. 

After that class was lunch. Which, for me consisted of a bag of potato chips and mini oreos. I know that was such a healthy lunch! But to be honest I wasn't very hungry and that sounded delicious haha! :) 

I then went to the class "Preserving Your Digital Heritage: Methods to Preserve Your Digitally Born Files". I actually learned a lot in that class on how to keep your digital files safe. I have a lot of information that I got in that class. One thing that I thought everyone might want to know from that class is when saving files, you should follow the 3-2-1 Rule. The 3-2-1 Rule is Make 3 copies, Have them on 2 different types of media and Keep 1 copy in a separate location from your hub collection. I have 2 full pages with more info if anyone wants to know more. Once again cause of the possibility of copyright, I don't want to post it on here. After that, I went to the "Digital Scrapbooking" class. I didn't really learn anything new in that class. Basically if you have ever made a photo book, you know how to do digital scrapbooking. 

I went to one of my favorite classes of the whole conference next. You can probably guess what it was since you know I'm writing a blog post. :) The class was "How to Blog your family History". I loved this class so much! Mandy Beyeler was awesome! She explained everything perfectly and got me so excited to start this blog. 

Here are my notes if anyone is interested.

I then went to my next class which was "FamilySearch Indexing: YOUth Taking the lead". I had been doing Indexing for a long time, but then something happened and I stopped Indexing. For those of you that don't know what indexing is, it's where they have the digital documents (like right now they're doing Obituaries) and you then you transcribe the information and to help them make the information available for anyone. That probably made no sense so just check out www.familysearch.com/indexing. Indexing is actually super fun and yesterday I started indexing again! 

We then had a closing (I guess you could call it) Keynote address. It was called "Leaping Over Brickwalls: 10 tips to Fast Forward". The speaker was Kathleen Brandt from a3 genealogy. If any of you have seen the show "Who do You Think You Are?" on NBC, She was on Tim McGraw's episode. She was so funny and I learned so much from her. I took a ton of notes which are saved on my computer and I will e-mail them to anyone who wants them. 

Saturday

I was most excited for Saturday because of the fireside that evening. I was there for the keynote address, but it was basic information that I already knew, so I really wasn't paying all that much attention and didn't take notes. After the Keynote address, it was time for classes. 

My first class was "Worming Your Way through Digital Books". I learned a lot of stuff in that class, but didn't take too many notes. I am going to type my notes up that I have cause they aren't the best handwriting due to having to write fast, but I would also be willing to email those if anyone wants them. I was then on to my next class which was "Indexing for Youth Part 2". Once again, the teacher got me super excited to start indexing! In this class, he showed us how to index mostly. 

It was then Lunch time which, once again I wasn't very hungry and so my lunch was once again Potato Chips and Oreos. But, I also had some Cantaloupe and grapes, so it was a little more healthy. :)

My next class was "False Teeth Cause Death- What you can learn by Indexing Obituaries". I really didn't learn anything cause it was basically the adult version of  the Indexing classes I had taken earlier. 

I then had my "Finding the Stories" class. In that class I learned about how to find out stories about your family and how to start creating your own family history.

Here are the notes I took for anyone who is interested.

 I then had my last class of the day which was "Arise Up and Call Me Blessed - One Descendant's Journey to find Emma Smith". I didn't take any notes in this class, but it was so good! I learned so much about Emma Smith! She is such a strong person and I honestly look up to her. :)

So since I did the conference and took classes, I had the chance to go to a meet and mingle with Sister Elaine S. Dalton and her husband. I was so excited! So, after the last class, the youth who got to participate in the meet and mingle got sent to the Cultural Hall (Gym) and waited until we were able to go to the High council room for the meet and mingle. Once I got into the high council room, I went right over to Sister Dalton because I had brought my own dinner due to the fact that they were having Pizza and I no longer can have dairy. I was so excited I could barely talk at first. At first it was me and a group of girls, and we all talked to her, then the girls walked away. At that point, I told her that I had her book and I then asked her to sign it. She was more than glad to.

My book that She Signed!

Then, My mom and new friend Emily walked over and we all started talking to her. She told my mom that she thought my mom and I were sisters which made my mom's day. We talked for a little while and then my mom and Emily went to get their food. I just stood there awkwardly cause I was all alone and waited for them. After that, I went and ate my dinner. Don't worry it was a ham sandwich and cantaloupe with grapes. :)

 After I was done eating my mom told me to go back to the high council room and try to get a picture with Sister Dalton. I stood there for about 10 minutes and there were girls in front of  me that were getting ready to get a picture with her and Sister Dalton said,"Let's let this girl (Me) get a picture first, she's been waiting for quite awhile." So then, I went and stood next to Sister Dalton forgetting that I had my camera in my hand and one of the moms that were in the room was like, "Do you have a camera?" I was like,"Oh yeah! Duh! haha." The mom was getting ready to take the picture and Sister Dalton saw my dad and asked him if he was my dad. He said yes and Sister Dalton told him to get in the picture right next to me so he did.

Here's the picture of us.

So after the picture, Sister Dalton told my dad to add the caption to the bottom "Good Job Dad". For those of you who are confused about why she said to do that. In the October 2011 General Conference she gave a talk called "Love Her Mother". You Can check out the talk here. So here is the picture with the caption. :)

After I got the picture with my dad, I asked her if I could get a selfie with her. She said sure! After my selfie, I told her thanks. She then told me," You are so cute!" That is one thing I will never forget!

It was honestly one of the best nights of my life. It is up at the top with the Cultural Celebration for my favorite nights. I didn't take any notes cause I just wanted to enjoy the fireside. Brother Dalton spoke about Family History and Temple work. It was an amazing talk. He showed us a clip of Elder Bednar's talk "The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn". You can check out that talk here. In that talk Elder Bednar listed the blessing you will receive if you do Family history.

Here is a list of the blessings.

Sister Dalton talked about anything and everything. One thing that stuck out to me was that she said,"In school, I was the Unpopular nerd." That line meant so much to me cause not so much now that I do online school, but when I went to a public school, I was that girl. So to know that she was that girl really made me smile. She also kept reminding us that we are never alone. Another thing that she mentioned was how it's never to late to repent on mistakes we have/are making. She mentioned how if she was running a marathon and she made a wrong turn, she wouldn't keep going the wrong way wasting all her training and time. She would turn around as quickly as she could and make her way back to the race path. I enjoyed that fireside so much and I am so glad I was able to go. I promise my posts won't always be this long but, I wanted to cover everything that happened. :)

My First Post!! :D

Hey guys!
So I finally started a blog! I've been wanting to start one for a while but I've never really made time for it. I went to a Genealogy Conference on Friday and Saturday (More about that in another post tomorrow). But, while at that conference, I went to a class about blogging taught by Mandy Beyeler from Sugarbeecrafts.com. She was so awesome and got me really motivated to start a blog. I am really excited and can't wait to post about all the exciting things happening in my life! :)