Error in Family Search

I’ve been looking at our family tree on familysearch.org and I have been looking a few people up this morning.  I was getting excited but I ended up finding an error on the family tree which means that none of these people are actually related to me.  Still had fun though.

Pacatianus was a soldier in the Danube Legions.  He was known as a usurper of the Roman Empire.  He proclaimed himself to be emperor and started marching toward Rome.  Very little is known about him and his life since his own men murdered him before he could arrive in Rome.

His grandson Valerius Licinianus advanced through the ranks of the Roman military and eventually was married to Emperor Constantine’s sister.  He was given a portion of the Roman Empire to rule.  At this time the Empire had been spilt into four sections.  The emperors turned on each other until only he and Constantine were left.  They made a peace agreement that did not last since Constantine wanted the entire empire.  Constantine defeated him and forced him into exile.

Licinanus’ great grandson was the last Roman Emperor ever to rule over the entire empire.  Flavius Theodosius also known as Theodosius the Great started out in the military.  He served in Britain as well as on the border with Germany.  He was briefly exiled but then brought back due to a desperate situation.  He served so well that he was made a Roman Emperor in 379.  As emperor he made a treaty with the Visigoths. He led the visigoth troops against a dangerous usurper and beheaded him.  After a brief excommunication he became a die hard Catholic and oppressed pagans and even closed down many temples.  After defeating another usurper he briefly reunited the empire.

His daughter ruled the empire after he died.  With the sack of Rome by the Visigoths she was carried away out of Rome and forced to marry the King of the Visigoths.  Our tree has her together with the King of Thuringia.  From what I’ve read his wife should be Amalaberge d’ Ostrogothie.  While he has a very similar name to the King of the Visigoths and they lived during the same time period this mistake is massive.  Like I said though, it was still fun.

Music Yes, Alarms No

Xander loves going to sleep with music.  Xander also loves his sleep.  He is not a happy boy when he cannot sleep or when he gets woken up.  Last night the Kindle, that I usually play his music on was dead and the battery was not charging.  So Xander did not have his music to sleep to.

He got up in the middle of the night, came into our room and climbed into bed with Pamela and I.  He was with us for about an hour.  When I put him back in bed I decided to play him music on my phone instead.  Xander seemed to like the music and all was well with the world again, or so we thought.

I had forgotten to turn off the alarms on the phone.  Instead of waking up in time for work I slept in and poor Xander woke up.  He was very grumpy when I came in and turned off the alarm.  Pamela and I had to hurry this morning but it looked like Xander had gone back to sleep.

I heard from my mother-in-law that when Xander did get up for the day he threw things into our toilet and it got clogged.  Three year old playing or toddler style justice?

Our Day Out in Memphis

Memphis and the surrounding areas were not hit as hard by the bad weather as Nashville and some other places.  Yet school was cancelled for the day and many businesses were closed.  Pamela and I wondered what we would do with our day.  Things picked up speed when I went out and brought Pamela some brownies and such.  Pamela made some phone calls to see what was open.  We ended up going to Southaven, Mississippi.  Pamela loved the area.  We went shopping and went out to eat.  It was a lot of fun for us both. 

Pamela has always loved looking at houses and apartments.  We tried our best to look at apartments and houses around the area in Southaven and Olive Branch but everything was closed due to the weather.  It was nice to go cruising with my wife.

Tonight we went out to BB King's Blues Club and ate some incredible brisket and listened to some great live music.  There were people in the club from Austria, France, Australia, England, Wales, Sweden, and Canada.  There were also a lot of people who like us were from out of town but not quite so far out of town.  It's really cool to spend the evening in a world famous location and listen to some real good music.

Only a couple of things left to do before Pamela and I fly back west tomorrow.  Here we go for another busy day in the life of the Maynard's!

Big Moments of 2014 Part II

Summer ended and our family hit the ground running.  Pamela at her new position and me with my big class load.  Pamela had a lot of success as Dean of Students.  She has had a very rewarding year helping both teachers and students.  I worked hard to keep up with Spanish I and II, Education Professions I and III, and World History Honors.  Although this year had a lot of challenges in it for both Pamela and I it has also been very rewarding for us both.

Pamela also started coaching the Cheerleading team again and I also continued my coaching in Cross Country.  Coaching has been a great way for Pamela and I to connect with the students outside of the office/classroom.  The Cross Country team was able to bring back several medals and the girls team did very well at State with our top runner coming in at 25th out of 260 runners.

During this time I decided to see just how many ties I had.  Instead of using a logical method like counting them I decided to be silly about it.  I wore a tie on every school day until I went through my entire collection.  It took about three months.  My family worried that I was becoming egotistical because I kept taking selfies.  In reality they weren't really pictures of me so much as pictures of the ties.

One of the best big moments of the year was our family trip to Mesa.  We had a Fall Break this year and we decided to make the most of it by going south and staying at a resort, visiting a zoo, and going to a farm.  We had a special moment at the zoo when a marmoset monkey started playing with Curtis through the glass.  Curtis was so happy about the interaction, he still loves monkeys.  Pamela and I also decided to celebrate the anniversary of when we started dating by going out to a fancy jazz restaurant.  Luckily we weren't in Mesa during all of the flooding.  We did see a lot of the damage firsthand however.

I had the opportunity to be the male chaperone on a Cheerleading Trip for a competition.  The final moments of the competition as we awaited the results were truly inspiring.  Young girls of every race, size, and background put rivalry aside and sang and danced in unison to some of their favorite songs.

Seems like we were taking trip after trip, but it was wonderful.  It was great to be able to travel to Utah for Thankmas.  The combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  My family has become very spread out over the last few years with my parents in South Carolina, a sister in North Carolina, a brother and sister in Utah, and a brother in Texas.  Our Thankmas trip was the first time since the Summer of 2012 that Pamela and I were able to see Sean and Chantel and their families.  We were also able to make it up to Stone, Idaho to see my grandparents.

After Thankmas my wrestling season really took off.  Every weekend I traveled to schools to coach the students in competitions.  The team is very small this year but also very successful.  Calvert Tsosie is undefeated and Tyren Yazzie has brought back 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals from every tournament.  I've seen a lot of growth from other wrestlers as well.  I have been taking things a little easier lately.  Wednesdays have been spent tutoring and Fridays are no practice days to give me more time with the boys.  At first I was doing many morning practices to make up for this but no one was showing up.

For Christmas we decided to get out of the fast lane and just stay in Pinon and take life easy for awhile.  We did take a day trip to Gallup to have pictures taken with Santa Claus and do some last minute shopping but that was about it.  We had planned on going to a Midnight Mass but it didn't work out.

Christmas morning Xander really wanted to stay in bed.  We pulled him out and tried to get him involved in Christmas.  He groggily crawled away and climbed back into bed.  We got him back out and set a present next to him which he unwrapped while laying down.  Once he saw what it was he was excited enough to wake up and enjoy Christmas.

Curtis' first Christmas was a lot of fun.  Curtis had been awake for awhile so he was able to be even more involved in playing than Xander was.

Throughout the year of 2014 we were busy with our animal rescue efforts.  This year we rescued over a dozen dogs and several cats.  We took animals out of homeless, neglectful, and abusive situations and helped them to find homes.  Our family cares deeply about animals and animal rights and it has been a wonderful experience to allow these animals to spend some time in our home before sending them to a more permanent location.