Today's blessing

I am sitting here just crying.  I don't know why I never thought of this before. There is so much that can be done now about family history thanks to the internet.  I had a thought yesterday that I should look up a family history center in Malaga, Spain.  I looked it up an there was one!! It was late in the day so the center was closed.  I called today and spoke with a very nice gentleman from Venezuela who was very happy to help me find my ancestors.  I have the De Sotomayor line all the way to 1780 the death of Francisco De Sotomayor, who was born and died in Malaga, Spain. He is my fourth great-grandfather.  My line ends there and I have often wondered about these ancestors.  I have known about these ancestors since my mom got this information from a distant cousin when I was 15 or so. So for a long time my mom was stuck.  Well today when I was speaking to William, he told me that some of the records from Malaga at that time had been burned.  He said that if that was the case that he would look for another way.  I was sad but hopeful that he could help me in some way.  Right after I hung up the phone, I received an email from him that he had found an archive from 1750 and that he needed my authorization to look in them because he was not a family member or a descendant of the de Sotomayor family. I sent an email back with authorization and now I just pray that he will have success in finding my family.  He told me to call back on Tuesday.  I have faith that he will be able to help me! I am crying tears of joy.  I feel that I am being helped from up above and that my ancestors are waiting for me to help them. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brings families together forever not just the ones that are here on the earth but also those who have passed away.  When you do family history or the work for those who have passed away you feel connected to them, like you know them even though they lived long before you. They are my family and I love them and doing the work brings you so close to them, you are excited to someday meet them in the next life. It is so hard to explain. Families are forever! I love my family!

I am grateful for little things!!

Things that I am thankful for today,

Even though Brent is on his way to Utah right now and it is hard when he is gone, I am thankful that the cub scouts were cancelled tonight. You see, dinner time is very difficult around here, Conner is extremely difficult and not just that, I can't eat salt so I have my own diet.  Parker doesn't eat what I or Conner eat so he has his own food and Conner doesn't eat what any of us eat so he has his own diet!!! Brent is fine and he will eat most of what I eat and he doesn't miss the salt too much.  Because everyone has his/her dinner, dinner time is hard.  When Brent is gone I have a difficult time. For us having to go somewhere around dinner time is hard. So today I am so thankful that cub scouts was cancelled!!!!! It is one less thing for me to worry about!!

I am also thankful that Parker can drive himself to church for his Young Men activity, it gives me the time that I need to deal with Conner's. So today I am also thankful for a teenager that can drive himself.

I am thankful that Conner did great with his dinner tonight!!! He fed himself most of it which is a big accomplishment. I still had to stand next to him to make sure he was eating but that is fine.  He has an issue with picking certain foods with his hands, but he is getting better.  Tonight when his banana broke off from the peel he actually held it and ate it, now that is another great accomplishment. He will only eat his banana with peanut butter which is super healthy.  He has issues with his fine motor skills, like spreading peanut butter with a knife is hard but he did it by himself tonight, another accomplishment!!!!

I know these are little things but to me they are blessings!!!!!!

I hope things continue like this while Brent is in Utah. I don't want to be a mess by the time he comes home!!

We got pictures from our Sorella!!!

Alison and her companion in Milano, Navigli Sorella Heupel

Alison and her former companions in Savona Sorella Bringas and Sorella Pace

Alison and her MTC companion Sorella Willis

Alison and her former Companion in Bergamo Sorella Gillette

Alison with Sorella Hoppe, Sorella Willis and Sorella Durfee. These sisters were in the same MTC group with Alison

Parker's grades

We are very proud of Parker's grade.  He extremely smart and we know he can do a great job.

These are all Advance Placement classes so they are tough.

Family History: I AM BEYOND EXCITED

On Saturday Brent and I were going through my ancestors in Family Search and as we were looking down my grandma's line we noticed that it just kept going!! I had not noticed the last time that so many names had been linked.  This particular line went all the way to BC!!  I could not get myself off the computer, I was so excited but we had to go to dinner and celebrate my BIRTHDAY which was the next day, Sunday.  Then on Sunday the same thing, as I had a little more time after church we sat down to look some more and to take the time to read their names and dates and where they were from.  There are thousands of names of people from all over Europe.  It is so cool to see that when you can tap into a line that was all recorded it just keeps going back.  I was lucky that my Ramirez the Arellano line (my maternal grandmother) was so well documented.

My most favorite discovery so far has been that of Juan Ponce de Leon, yes the same who discovered Florida and was the first governor of Puerto Rico and the city I was born and raised in, was named after him, Ponce, Puerto Rico. I was just clicking away down one of the lines, when I saw the last name Ponce de Leon.  I followed that line until I saw his name!!!! I could not believe he is my ancestor, he is my 15 great-grandfather. My line comes from his daughter Juana Ponce de Leon down to my maternal grandmother, Eugenia Ramirez.  A trip to Saint Augustine, Florida is in order. It sure will mean a lot more to me now to go visit Juan Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth in St.. Augustine.

Juan Ponce de Leon

 Juan Ponce de Leon was born (1474) to a noble family in Leon, Spain. He was a captain in the Spanish force commanded by Nicolas Ovando, Spain's royal governor of the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). After putting an end to an indian mutiny, Ponce de Leon was rewarded with the governorship of the eastern province of Hispaniola (Haiti). With rumors of large amount of gold in the island of Borinquen (present-day Puerto Rico) the Spanish crown gave Ponce de Leon permission to explore the island(1509), he founded the settlement of Caparra, which is near what is now San Juan. Ponce de Leon was named the first governor of Puerto Rico. Encourage by the Spanish crown to discover more lands, Ponce de Leon decide to follow rumors of an island called Bimini, which apparently was home to a magical fountain whose water would rejuvenate those who drank it.  He set sail from Puerto Rico (1513) in search of the Fountain of Youth, and the expedition landed (April 2nd 1513) on the coast of what is now Florida, modern-day Saint Augustine, the first Spanish settlement in North America. He thought he had landed on another island and not the coast of North America. He named the site Florida, in honor of the lush and florid vegetation and because it was around Easter time which called Pascua Florida in Spanish. He was named governor Florida. He returned to Puerto Rico.  He set sail again (1521) still looking for the Fountain of Youth.  He landed on the Florida coast, while he and his men were building houses for a proposed settlement, they were attacked by indians.  Many men died but Ponce escaped, but injured by an arrow to the thigh.  He boarded his ship and set sail again, he reached Cuba where he died. He never found the Fountain of Youth. His body is buried in the San Juan cathedral in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Also I always remember my grandmother saying that we were related to the famous Puertorrican pirate Roberto Cofresi. Once my grandmother Eugenia told me that she asked her mother about him and her mom told her never to speak his name again because he was a disgrace to the family.  My grandmother never found out what her relationship to him was.  He is my grandmother's 2nd great-grandfather's brother. The Von Kupferschein family came from Austria, from there went to Bohemia (Prague) and then through Trieste, Italy.  They settled in Trieste, Italy, and one of them (five generations later) came to Puerto Rico which is my family's line. In Puerto Rico they changed the last name from Von Kupferschein to Cofresi so that the Spanish could pronounce it. My grandmother's maternal father was Jose Maria Irizarry Cofresi (Von Kupferschein).

This coloring book was a gift from my mom a long time ago.  She had the author dedicate and sign it for me.  I guess she knew him, I think a distant family of hers. I never let anyone touch it!

 Another thing that my grandmother used to tell me was that we had family that came from the Canary islands. She was right.  I found the line that goes to San Nicolas de Tolentino, Las Palmas, Canarias, Spain, a long name!! 

San Nicolas de Tolentino, Las Palmas, Canarias, Spain

I am having way too much fun with this.  I love thinking about and learning about my ancestors. This particular line is so rich in history. I am loving every minute of it.

I have been busy looking through names

My 48th Birthday

My 48th birthday was Sunday, September 15, 2013.  We celebrated with a by going to dinner with a few of our friends at Seasons 52.

With Natty, she is a dear friend and also Brent's secretary.

Maria Quddos, me, Natty, Johanna Lopez and Karen Butler

On Sunday after dinner we had cake and ice cream.  Brent had surprised me with flowers on Saturday

As I Have Loved You

I have been working on this song for a while but every time I tried to video tape it I would mess up.  But this time it worked, it is not perfect though. It is one of my favorite Hymns to play on the piano.  I have been taking piano now for three years and I love it but it is harder to take piano when you are an adult than when you are a kid.  I took piano when I was ten years old for about a year and a half.  I remember never wanting to practice.  Now that I am really enjoying it and really want to practice but it is hard sometimes to find the time to practice and it is harder to learn.  But I am doing the best I can and loving it.