14. Go Roller Skating!

Last night I got back from spending a week and a half in Utah and the weekend in Lethbridge. I had a lot of fun spending time with my family in Utah and friends in Lethbridge, which included checking a few things off my list. The first one was roller skating.  Going roller skating was one of my favourite things to do as a child with my siblings and Dad. It was good to relive the “good old days” but this time we included the younger generation: my 13 year-old sister and 7, 5, and 2 year old nieces.

We all chose to rent the traditional roller skates except for my brother who chose rollerblades instead. Before my brother stepped on the rink, he turned to me and said “I am way better than anyone else on here”. I laughed both at his pride and in knowing that he was right which I’m sure comes from many years of playing roller hockey.

It had been a few years since I had gone roller skating but I thought that with spending a winter ice skating, roller skating would be a breeze. I soon realized that it is quite different. However, after a couple of times around the rink I felt I had a good handle on it. It really was a blast! My little nieces also seemed to enjoy skating with some help from the adults and the walker-style things to hold on to. Well, I am not sure about 2-year old Miriam, she didn’t seem to like it too much.

It has become harder and harder to find public roller skating rinks; the one I went to in my youth, Stardust, closed down in 2005 and I recently learned that the one I went to a few years ago in Edmonton, Sportsworld, has also closed down. Although, from their facebook page it seems like they are looking for a new building. I was excited when my sister found a roller skating rink in Orem Utah at Classic Fun Center. Better yet, it was $1 Thursday which meant $1 Skate rentals and $1/hour to skate, can’t beat that deal!

 

13. Dip Strawberries in Chocolate

Strawberries are my favourite food so I wanted something on my list to be related to strawberries. I also enjoy chocolate and love strawberries and chocolate together, which is how dipping strawberries into chocolate ended up on the list. I also feel that chocolate covered strawberries are a great Valentines treat so I thought today would be the perfect day to check this goal off my list. I actually made them last night and planned to drizzle them with white chocolate but I was tired and wanted to go to bed so I decided that I would wake up earlier in the morning and do it then. However, that didn’t happen. They still taste good; they would have just looked fancier. I left some for my roommates and gave some to a friend of mine (who is awesome and spent part of the Valentine’s Day evening with me) and kept a few for myself to enjoy.

Although there seems to be a lot of negativity surrounding Valentine’s Day coming from single people, I can honestly say that I love Valentine’s Day. I love the colour pink, chocolate, and pretty things like hearts and flowers. Most importantly I love that it is a day to remember, show and tell people that you love how much you care about them.

12. Sign Up for Online Dating

I mentioned before that several of the people who made suggestions for my list suggested that I include “get married” but seen how everything on my list is within my control (except for one that involves having everyone in my family together, but I am sure they will do that for me) that ‘goal’ is not on my list of 30 things to do while I am 30. Although, I would be ok if it did happen (7 months should be enough time, rightJ). Similarly, everyone (I am pretty sure it was everyone) suggested I sign up for online dating, citing that it’s what people do in this technological age.

Before I start sharing my experience, I have a confession to make ... this was actually the first thing I checked off my list. I knew it would take me awhile to warm up to the idea so I first signed up using my sisters Zip code so I would show up as living in Provo and just explore for a bit. A while later I added a picture, then I changed my location to Edmonton. I then signed up for a 3 month paid subscription which has now has ended. Much to the disappointment of my parents, it didn’t work out for me.  I received and sent a few messages and ‘smiles’, made a facebook friend and ignored the guys in their 40s, 50’s and 60’s (which was the majority of the men who contacted me).

I prefer traditional dating so I hope that works out for me.

At least I tried, right. J

11. Find A New Ancestor!

On January 1, 1999 I began researching my family history which was both a New Year's resolution and what I choose to do for my Young Women's in Excellence project. It is a goal that has become part of me and who I am  - The Family Genealogist - and I love it! I love researching my own family history and the opportunities I have had to help others.

I started with very little information but as I talked with family members, some for the first time, I had enough information to start researching records. I was able to find quite a bit of information relatively quickly and over the past 14 years I have been able to accumulate 20,846 names of people I am related to. I have also had the opportunity to visit several grave sites, streets, towns and villages where my ancestors have lived in England, Scotland and Southern Manitoba. Now I just need to go to Germany, and the old German-Russian parts of Poland, Russia and Ukraine.

More recently I have had more success with finding individuals distantly related to me through descendency research and connecting with other distant relatives via the Internet. While putting together my list of 30 things I included "find a new ancestor", meaning a Great-something grandparent, because although I have hit many brick walls I was confident that I could break one down somewhere.

As the New Year started and I reflected on past New Year's resolutions and goals this one was brought to mind as well as the goal I had included on my list and decided to get to work. I know that the Family Search site continues to add more records as they are indexed so I decided to start by going through each ancestor on My Family Tree and see if I could connect them to any other records. I stopped at a set of 7th Great Grandparents, William Clacy and Ann Alright whose marriage record I had found last year; which took place on February 7, 1704 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Looking at Ann Alright I could see that another user had added her parents as Thomas and Elizabeth Alright from Arborfield. However, it seemed to me in looking at their children that there was actually two families that had been combined. Not that it would be impossible for them to have 15 children or two or more with the same name but it would be to have children a few months apart. Although, sometimes babies were baptized later as children, I didn't think it likely in this case.

I then spent several hours searching baptismal, marriage and burial records of Alrights, Allrights, Alwrights, and Allwrights in the county of Berkshire in that time period and sorting them into families. I found that there was indeed two families of Thomas and Elizabeth Alrights, both living in Arborfield, infact most of the Alright's and variations were found in the village of Arborfield. The Arborfield local History website also lists the family name as one of the most common in the village; check out the Allright page for some interesting information on the family. It was neat seeing the names of the various villages in Berkshire as I have been there. I went to England in 2001 and visited the nearby village of Binfield where several generations of my Johnson ancestors lived.

Back to my research, both families of Thomas and Elizabeth Alrights had an Ann and in order to determine which one was mine I made what I will call an educated guess ... was Elizabeth in her early 40s when her last child was born or mid 50s? I'll say that Ann Alright, the wife of William Clacy was baptized January 7, 1682 in Arborfield.

Through the Berkshire records I searched I was also able to find the parents of Thomas Alright/Alwright.  Francis Alwright and Mary Turville and the Fathers of both Francis and Mary, James Alright and Richard Turville. I have now added over 100 years and six ancestors to this branch of my family tree!

10. Go to a Theatre

On Christmas Eve my family helped me check something else off my list: To go to a theatre. We went to the Granville Island theatre in Vancouver and watched "It's a Wonderful Life". A true Christmas classic and wonderfully performed. The production followed the film very closely and was both touching and entertaining.

I actually went to see the same production with my parents a couple of years ago and last year we saw the Nutcracker Ballet at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre which was also amazing. I think Christmas is a great time to watch a theatre production with all the wonderful classic Christmas-themed stories.

9. Go Christmas Caroling

 

One of the things I love most about Christmas are Christmas carols. I love listening to and singing along to them on the radio. I also love Christmas Caroling. Its not something you see a lot of people do now-a-days but something I have enjoyed participating in many times whether going with a group of people from church or going door to door to sing to neighbours with my family.

Tonight I went to a friends home who had organized a caroling event. She got a list, from the  stake Relief Society president, of elderly people in our stake who might enjoy a visit. We first visited a lady at her home and sang a couple of Christmas carols from the hymn book and then left with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

We then went to the Good Samaritans Centre to visit a couple of people there who were on our list. We were later invited to sing in various parts of the building. I loved watching as people came out of their rooms to listen to us sing and to join in. I feel that Christmas carols really do help to spread Christmas cheer and emulate the love of the Savior while spreading the good news of his gospel.

Buddy the Elf was right when he said, "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear".

*December 24th Update*

Mikayla and Couper getting ready
 to go Christmas caroling

On Christmas Eve we continued our family tradition of going Christmas caroling around the neighbourhood. Mikayla and I made cookies to hand out to the neigbours. It was a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed hearing people say that they were excited to have us come back or "when I heard the doorbell ring, I knew who it was". We also met new neighbours who had recently moved in.

It is a family tradition that has brought many good memories and one that I hope to continue for many more years to come.

Sariah tells me that it's time to get married

I just got off the phone with my 6 year old niece that included the following conversation:

Sariah: "How old are you?"

Me: "How old do you think I am?"

Sariah:"Are you 30? .... Mommy is 30 so I think that means you are too."

Me: "Well we are twins"

Sariah: "Yes, so that means your 30 too."

Me: "Yes, I am"

Sariah: "You need to get married then. Mommy got married a long time ago".

I laughed and then we talked for about an hour about other things including Christmas, their upcoming road trip to Alabama, school and her siblings. Then she goes back to the above topic and says (while giggling):

"I know what you can do, find someone at church and just kiss him."

hahaha ... thanks for the advice Sariah.