I feel like I got a

"get out of jail free" card today. 

Let me explain.   About a year and a half ago I got a call from a son of one of my great-uncles (his Dad was my grandpa's brother).  I had no recollection of meeting him, though I must have at his parent's funerals.  He's been by several times to bring copies of documents, and he is such a nice guy. 

Anyway, he is an avid geneologist, as was his dad, Uncle Theron.   To make a long story short, I volunteered to type in indexes that could go on the website that he and his nephew were developing for the Hall family.  He didn't ask me to do it, I told him I wanted to help and volunteered.

Well, all this time later, I was only into the "C" last names.  It had taken me hours just to get that far, and it was very tedious.  But that is no excuse.  I spend hours on many things that are tedious, but frivolous. While this geneology project is something that does matter and is long lasting.  It has just not been a priority to me.

So, everytime I saw his name on caller ID, I would cringe.  Sometimes I wouldn't answer, because I felt guilty about not spending any time doing it.   Then I felt badly about not returning his calls, but I was tired of hearing my own excuses.  Finally, I decided I was going to answer his calls, but I wasn't going to make any more excuses.  He's never once pressured me, but just calls to report on the exciting things happening with the website.  So I talk with him and truly am excited about what is happening.   I just quit making excuses, because none of them are valid.  After each phone call, I would be motived to work on the index more, but that would last about one day. 

Anyway . . .  He called last night and left a message and said he would call back.  He called today, and I cringed, but answered it.  We chatted for a minute, and then he said, "I feel badly telling you this because of all the work you've done on the index, but we've found a way to put a search engine on the website.  So if a name is searched it will take you to everything about that person (including the the information on the indexes.)"  He felt badly that I had done "all that work," and that now we didn't need it.

Wow, I was so glad I answered today's call.  I didn't tell him that I felt I like I had been given a "get out of jail free" card, but I let him know that the news made me very happy and that he had absolutely made my day. I also told him that I would scan in and send him more pictures and documents of my grandparents, so he could put on the website.  That is a commitment I plan to keep.   Really.   To prove it I'll post them on the blog as I do it.   

In the meantime, here is a really cool website (that I've contributed very little to).   http://josephsmithhall.org/