I am the oldest of 5 children, I have three sisters, a brother, and six nieces, 2 brother inlaws, 1 sister inlaw all in other states than I. It would be nice to have them closer but that isn't the way things have worked out. I have 3 cats, one an eighteen pound cat, Mr. Blond, who I've had since he was a kitten, he is half Siamese and quite large. I adopted two other cats fall of 2001 as I thought he was lonely. Really only wanted one, but to make a long story short ended up with two. I have a dog as of the last week of March 2001 when he was 7 weeks old, he is a Queensland Healer. He is named Mule for the obvious reason, he's the stubbornest dog I've ever seen. He's also quite large for his breed, way bigger than his parents. Mr. Blond hates the dog and has pretty much taught the dog to stay away from him. Two of the cats, the males stay inside and the dog stays outside at least until he can learn some manners which hasn't happened yet.. He has company since one of the two cats I adopted thought she could go where ever she felt like. I have 2 medium sized planted aquariums (1 44 gallon corner, and one 29 gallon) and 3 smaller (two 10 gallons, one 2.5 gallon). I have swordtails, Angel fish, Guppies, cory cats and assorted alage eating fish. Pet Photos
I've been working on my family genealogy for a few years. Thanks to all the work that has been done by various relatives, I can go back a complete 6 generations and as far back as 14 generations in a couple of cases. My work so far has been collecting what others have done into one database. I don't see the need to repeat what others have done. If your interested in the Genealogy, I have an RSI (Roots Surname Index) on the main genealogy page which is linked to my ancestral chart. The link is also at the bottom of this page along with links to other pages of my Website. It's a fairly big site, with lots to see and verity. I also have genealogy on another site Descendants of Capt. Henry Woodward, which was a project that took me many years transcribing a book of collected history and genealogy of Descendants of Capt. Henry Woodward and entering it into a database.
I am LDS, a member of (NOTE: embedded links to external sites will open new windows)
The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.
Commonly known as the "Mormons", which is a nickname given us because we accept The Book of Mormon, as scripture in addition to the Bible. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and a history of Israelite people who were lead to the American continents. See my Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon and God's Plan of Salvation AKA Plan of Redemption pages before you leave. Links are also at the bottom of the page.
I became active in the church around the time I was 17; I was somewhat agnostic prior to that time. My father's family joined the Church in pioneer days and my mom's family when she was a child. I am third generation native of the San Luis Valley. When I turned 19, I was called to serve eighteen months as a full time missionary in the California, Sacramento Mission from April 1983 to October 1984. I served in the Rancho Cordova 8th, Central Valley, Paradise 1st & 2nd, Gridley 3rd wards and spent my last 7 months in the Roseville 1st and later the 2nd ward as well. Serving a mission changed my life, I can not imagine what I'd be like today if I had not become active in the Church when I did and gone on a mission. I'm sure I'd be a very different person and likely not a very good one at that. Hopefully my teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ changed other people's lives as well.
I was born in 1964, in Alamosa, Colorado (where the hospital was). I grew up in La Jara, which is 14 miles south of Alamosa in Conejos county. La Jara is a small town of about a thousand people in central Southern Colorado. It is in the San Luis Valley, which is the largest alpine (high mountain) valley in the world. It is bordered by the San Juan Range on the West which is the contental divide and the Sangre De Cristo range on the East (Spanish for Saint John and Blood of Christ), part of the Rocky Mountains, the southern end of the valley extends in to New Mexico. If you live in the south west and see a topographical weather map you can see the valley in central Colorado extending North and a little South of the Colorado/New Mexico line. The headwaters of the Rio Grande start in the north west part of the valley high in the mountains. The valley is mostly farming, ranching, tourism and some mining. It is home to the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. During high school I had an early morning paper route and painted propane tanks one summer. I even picked mushrooms for a short time, the worst job I've ever had.. I worked for a while on a potato farm for my Bishop after high school. After my mission I did that during the day, and worked for A&W in the evenings as a cook until I moved to Phoenix to go to school.
I live in Phoenix Arizona, where I've been since 1986 when I moved here from La Jara to go to school. I have two technical associate degrees: Automotive & Diesel Technology and Computers & Electronics. I don't work in either of those fields now, but those are long stories, as is a lot of what has happened to me since I moved here.. I have worked as a sewing machine technician since 1989. I currently work for Viking Sewing Gallery in the Phoenix area as a technican and am Webmaster of their site. I work 48-52 hours a week on average and don't have much time or energy for socializing.
My interests are varied; I like a wide range of music. I prefer rock, but listen to classical, jazz and church music when in the mood. I find myself listening to adult contemporary a lot lately and talk radio during the day. I find I'm getting mellower as I get older. Some who know me now will find that hard to believe, but they didn't know me when I was younger.. ;-) I'm just more outspoken (not as shy) now and don't put up with being messed with. Sometimes speaking my mind gets me in hot water, but you will usually know where I'm coming from.
Reading, computers, and Genealogy are my primary hobbies. I'm mechanically inclined, which seems to be my primary talent. There isn't much mechanical that I can't fix, given a bit of knowledge about it. I've made my living doing so all my adult life. I read a lot, but not as many books as I used too, I read e-mail/e-text more now. I enjoy Science Fiction, and reading about technology, church doctrine, and politics. I enjoy doing stuff on the computer and I probably spend way too much time in front of it. If I gave up computing, I probably would have a lot more time to do other things, like read all these books and magazines laying around and some of my other hobbies; astronomy, collecting, models, shooting both firearms and archery, bicycling, and hiking. Even exercise more, I bicycle when I have time and the weather is nice. Sometimes I weight train, do aerobics, etc., but not as often as I should. Who does? There never seems to be enough time to do it all, including sleep. I have an interest in astronomy, but don't have much time to explore it. I have two telescopes a 10" Dobson, an AstroScan and a good pair of binoculars that could see more use, though not much use in a big city with lots of sky glow..
I keep busy all the time; I always have some project going. One major genealogy project that I worked on for quite a while, was entering a book "Descendants of Capt. Henry Woodward" into a database. There are 5300 people and 1798 marriages in the database from the 1700's to present. I am Webmaster of several sites; my Web Pages (you're here now), the 9 Generations of Descendants of Capt. Henry Woodward, 4 USGenWeb sites where I am volunteer county coordinator; Alamosa, Rio Grande ,Costilla and, Mineral, Saguache Counties, Colorado, webmaster of the Colorado State GenWeb site Colorado state GenWeb Project, Viking Sewing Gallery where I work as a sewing machine technician, and the newest site the home page for my weather station.
I run a few email lists LDS Singles List, I teach a lesson each week from the Gospel Principles manual, you can sign up for the Gospel Principles List by going to the List home page; there is also a backup list and a discussion list that tends to be very quite.. :-(
I am interested in politics, I don't fit in any clearly defined category. I call myself a Constitutionalist, Republican-Libertarian, or a far right wing conservative take, your pick. Some were left of the Libertarians and right of Rush Limbaugh. I am a strong supporter of the 2nd amendment of the Bill of Rights, as will as the rest of the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. I believe the government is way outside the bounds set by the constitution and needs toreignedgned in. If strong opinions don't upset you and you won't be offended by what I say, considering what I've already told you, then click on my Opinions Page link below. If they do upset you, you were warned so don't complain to me about it! :-) As the T-shirt one of my sisters gave me for Christmas a while back says, "I'm not opinionated, I'm just always right!"
Please sign my Guestbook before you leave. I'm always curious who is visiting my site.
