Family Trees, Bad Casseroles, and VBS

I am having so much fun piecing together my family tree. I've gathered all kinds of data, and solved a few mysteries in the process. Larkin Church (Senior) was in the civil war. For years I thought his tombstone denoted a Confederate regiment, because he was in Arkansas and that was a Confederate state. Then a couple of years ago we discovered it was actually a Union regiment. The pieces still weren't making sense, though.

I have come across documents that helped me fill in some of the blanks. In 1862, he enlisted with the 3rd Arkansas Cavalary, a Confederate unit. In the summer of 1863, he switched sides to fight for the Union. In March of 1864, his name showed up on a prison roster (Confederate) in Morristown, Tennessee. At some point before 1864, he wound up back with the Union regiment and stationed in Memphis, not too far from his home. He took a leave, and was killed near his home by Confederate guerillas - quite possibly some of the same people he'd fought with earlier in the war. Interesting, huh? I just wish I knew why he switched sides.

In other news. . . our church is preparing for our first one-day VBS. It should be interesting to see how it goes. We're trying a lot of new things, and we don't know how well it will all work out. I volunteered to write skits (something I love to do), and on Saturday I'll be the one sticking a camera in everybody's faces. (I know how that shocks you.) I hope this goes well. I really, really, really do.

Finally, have you ever had high hopes for a new recipes, only to be so disappointed that you wouldn't even feed it to the dog? Yeah, I thought so. I found this great stovetop tuna recipe. It had great ingredients, and looked to be kid-friendly, quick and easy. Somehow, it just didn't do it for me. It might have been the whole wheat yolk-less egg noodles. Jeff insisted it was the pack of mixed vegetables I cooked with the noodles. (He's not one to eat his veggies, but since I cook almost exclusively one-dish meals, I have been trying to sneak them in as much as possible.) Or it could just be that the flavors simply didn't go together well. I am a fairly good cook, so I know I didn't do anything wrong - it just wasn't good. Ah, well. At least I got that package of egg noodles out of the pantry.