the Spirit of Elijah...in the twenty-first century

The Latter-day Saint Stake (geographical unit) we live in here (Newcastle, NSW) is one of the only (if not THE only) stakes in Australia that has access to stake/ward websites and the LDS memberonly New FamilySearch. (Many in North America take access to the ward websites for granted, I'm sure.)

In 2005 when I worked at the LDS Motion Picture Studio, we were called to shoot some preliminary training materials with Elder Marlin Jensen. When we were living in the Washington, D.C. area, they were asking for volunteers to go and help with a huge new data center the Church was building in Virginia. Both of these and I'm sure many more efforts have now come to fruition as the new FamilySearch (log in at http://new.familysearch.org - I don't think Utah members have access yet, data center not ready for the load probably... :)

Some of you may or may not have access to the new LDS member-only new.familysearch.org. If you do, and you think thats cool, you really need to go check out what they have cooking in the labs:

http://labs.familysearch.org/familytree/Main.html#start

Here's a screenshot to give you an idea of what you can do:

(blogger uploads not working...we'll post 'em soon!!)

Looking to 2029

Twenty years ago, I (Brad) was 9 years old. Our home computer was probably running some variant of MS DOS, maybe we were still on a Commodore 64, honestly can't remember. But I do remember ads like this (embedded below), and the "You Will" AT&T campaign in 1993, thinking it was straight out of science fiction and that it wouldn't come to fruition until I was heaps older.

Now I sit in church next to 10 year old kids with mobile phones that can do video conferencing, and can track their friends on the other side of the globe via global positioning satelites. I see the breakneck pace of technological advancement as a sign of the times, and a testimony that God's hand is in the process. If we've come this far in the last twenty years...what will 2029 hold??

Doing a poo...

Amelia's new favourite spot to do a poo. I've caught her here a couple of times. And each time I've noticed that she always takes the spices out and lines them up on the counter top before she goes in and "closes" the doors. Funny kid!

Dinner time...

(I've just noticed that all the photos in these next three posts are all from the same day. They've just been posted in reverse order.)

This is Amelia's new favourite thing to do at dinner time. After she has finished her meal (which usually consists of just ONE bite of whatever it is) she'll climb up on my chair and then dangle from the table.

And now, here we have her very first pony tail!!!! It's not done very well. I only did it because we were out and about and I was trying to fix one of her piggy tails and the elastic broke...so I improvised with a pony tail. I'm surprised it actually worked though. The hair on the sides is still a bit too short, but in time, I'm sure this will grow to be a favourite hair style.

And enjoying her very first bowl of ice cream.

And boy did she enjoy it!!

Weeds, weeds, and more weeds...

Just a snap shot of the way we let our back yard get...I know, it's shocking!!

And the ever present supervisor doing her job!!

In the end, it was all thanks to good old Sharon that we got the weeding done! Thanks for your hard work!! (Because we all know how Brad is when it comes to yard work, his face above says it all.)

I got clown to the left of me, jokers to the right...

Here I am, stuck in the middle with you!! (Can anyone name that song??)

So with all this packing and stuff that we've got going on around our house I've noticed Amelia will sometimes get in on the fun. The other day I found her in her room moving stuff here and moving stuff there, then I came back and she was taking a break...

"It's OK Bunny Bunny and Bear Bear (Affectionately named of course,) we're only going 8,000 miles over a huge ocean ..."

"In an airplane that flies through the sky loaded with lots and lots of weight..."

"We'll just stay in here a little longer..."

Two birds with one stone??

Can it really be this easy?? As many of you have read we've gotten rid of Amelia's pacifier this past week. And she has done really well, so well in fact, that she has slept in her own bed for the past two weeks with no problems whatsoever!! This obviously proves the fact that her pacifier was the thing that was waking her up at night. It's been so nice to have our bed back to ourselves and to get a full nights sleep.