It would be grossly unfair for me to call this a Webster Family Blog when the majority of it is a Tiffani & Michaella Blog. So to be completely fair here is a blog about the Male in our house hold. That's right not many of you know to much about him (because he is a hermit) he is my Husband and Michaella's Daddy... Michael John Webster.
Michael's favorite thing in the world is Duck Hunting. This lasts from Mid-October to Mid- January. This year he bagged over 100 ducks and he ate most all of those. Some he jerkied some he cooked up. I'm not a big fan of the stuff but this blog isn't about me. His duck jerky is a big hit at both his place of employment and mine. One day maybe if any of you are extra lucky you will get to try it.
Not only does Mike love hunting but Lucy loves hunting. And Michael loves Lucy. She is 7 years old and Michael is already stressing over what he will do when she dies. He loves that dog. And he swears she is the best hunting dog ever. I weeded through all the hunting pictures this year and 95% of them were all Lucy.
Since Duck hunting is now over he will move on to his next hobby. Michael does the best at everything he puts his mind to. He loves astrology (I'll have to post pictures when he gets out this summer). He loves fishing which as soon as spring comes around we will do plenty of. But right now he has found a new hobby...Genealogy. He has been working on his Grandpa Webster's side and has already found 700 relatives going back as far as 1532. And this is just stemming from his Great Grandpa Golden "J" Webster. Mike is a 5th generation John. His Dad is Jeffrey John his Grandfather John Elliot, Golden "J" and then John Alfred. But with all this work he has found that his name John goes back even further back centuries and generations. He is really loving it. I will have to do a post just on some of the stuff he has found like original pictures, passports and census reports.
Anyway. Michael is a great and wonderful Daddy and Husband and this blog is about what he likes.
Webster FAMILY Blog
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Spoiler Alert: Political Views
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
ROSA SAT
so that Martin could walk
MARTIN WALKED
so that Obama could run
OBAMA RAN
so that children could flyI saw this saying on a t-shirt and it hit me as to how far this country has come in the last 53 years since Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Although discrimination still exists it really is awe inspiring as to the fact that we just elected our first African-American president.
Yesterday while reviewing her day as we usually do once I get home from work I took the opportunity to have open dialogue with Michaella regarding Martin Luther King Jr. and the importance of this inauguration. It is really quite difficult to explain discrimination to a 4 year old. They can’t comprehend the reality of hate in the way it has been exercised in the past by human beings.
Our children don’t understand why a person with dark skin could be treated cruelly. In fact I went further to discuss the Holocaust a little with Michaella. I spoke of the Hitlers desire to rid the world of people who were not White with certain religious views and the horror of concentration camps. Michaella decided she wanted to go camping because she had never been before... Our children are so innocent.
I’m sure Rosa Parks had no inclination as to how much an impact she would have on the American Race, nor did Martin Luther King Jr. know how he would change the face of the future. We can only imagine how Barack Obama will change the outcome of our children. Let us pray that one day the discrimination will vanish. We still have so far to go. That is why I am so excited by this new Presidency.
Now I’m going to surprise many of you with my political opinions but... I am not a steadfast republican. In fact I think I sit right in the middle. I try my hardest to be unbiased and nonpartisan but, I’m actually little too left winged to be comfortable in a strongly right-winged community.
I actually didn’t Vote for Obama and not just because his political party nor his race, but at the time I didn’t agree with his economic platform. Being that this was my main concern it was something I paid strong attention to. I felt John McCain was the lesser of 2 evils on economic issues. But now I am very glad Barack Obama is going to be our Commander and Chief. #1 he has retracted his proposal to increase taxes based on the facts he has been given and #2 we need someone like him.
A tired John McCain could have never rallied America like Barack Obama has. Obama’s youth and enthusiasm is our spark. He has the motivation to reenergize this tiring nation. We all need to remember our freedoms and how lucky we are to be Americans. And seeing a black man in the White House has helped me realize my fortune to be in this Great Nation. Let us hope for continued progress and change. “Yes we can!”
A novel of a Webster Family Christmasish period of time
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Michaella's Dance recital was December 12th. I love sharing this experience with Michaella as it was something I also enjoyed as a child.
Christmas Eve of course we had to make cookies for Santa. So we suited up with the lovely matching Mommy-Daughter aprons that Dal's wife handed down to us. (I work with Dal he is the Company Truck Driver and his wife is awesome!)
I won't bore you with the 1 million pictures of Michaella opening presents. Because really they all look the same. Flying wrapping paper all kind of looking the same and Michaella with her hair in front of her face because it was of course Christmas morning. Okay fine here's one. The smile is extra big because it's Hannah Montana! (Thanks cousin Jett!)
We left for Utah the day after Christmas because the weather was so yucky. It still took us 7 1/2 hrs to get there because there was still snow on the roads and we had to detour through Pocatello. Once there we were able to do Christmas with my family.(yes Kairi is doing Rock Star Horns and headbanging)
Eating Ice cream with KairiI can't believe how much they downed. (Check out that scoop by Kairi... she was a picky eater, that is until the ice cream!)
Meg and Steven came up for New Years and we had an awesome time. It was SO wonderful having them here. On New Years day Mike & Steve went hunting and we girls went sledding! We had a BLAST. Thanks Megan for coming with us!
Michaella was SO brave and went all by herself!
When I drove home from Utah I thought that it would be awhile before I came back. Well little didn't I know that I would be back that next week. Nor Did I know that I would win tickets to Walking with Dinosaurs. It was very exciting because I had wanted to take Michaella badly and I didn't want to pay the at least 30 dollar a ticket price so I entered every contest I could to win tickets and we did! So the night before we headed back to Utah we took Olivia & Amber and we went and saw Dinosaurs!
The Girls' Favorite was T-Rex of Course!
The reason we drove back was so that Michaella & I could attend my Grandfathers funeral. It was truly a great experience. We were able to see people we hadn't seen in 10 years (well Michaella got to meet them). I have a wonderful family and I had forget how much fun it is to be around them.
The day we got To Vernal we had a chance to go to the Dinosaur Museum with my Cousins Allise & Angie (John) and their kids. It was a perfect addition to the Walking with Dinosaurs show. Now this museum has changed A LOT since I was a kid and not just the location. We really had a great time. If you ever are going through Vernal (I know chances are slim) you should all stop in.
Digging for fossils
From L-R Cole, Logan, Skylar, Bo, Michaella, Jake & Hunter
Tiffani (yay me) and Allise BFFs or BCFs you could say!
Angie John Tiffani (yay me!) and Allise
Bo-tatoe and Michaella and T REX! ROAR
My Grandparents left such a legacy of 6 Children 25 Grandchildren, 38 Great grandchildren and 4 more on the way. Our family took up half the chapel! All but 3 Grandchildren were able to make it to the funeral. All 38 Grandchildren have been born since my Grandmothers passing just short of 10 years ago. Her first Great Grandchild, Cole, was born 2 days after she died. And the Youngest Great grandchild Katie was just a couple month old. It is a true example of the circle of life.
His casket was so beautiful. 
To those of you reading this last line. WHOA I can't believe you read this whole thing! I even left out a couple small events!THE END for now
A little about my Grandfather
This past weekend I was able to travel to Vernal, UT and celebrate my Grandfathers life. He was 90 years old and he lived a very successful life. The following is an article in the Deseret News about my Grandpa O'Neil that I thought I would share. I will hopefully find time soon to update with pictures. I haven't even got Christmas on here.
Just an interesting little tidbit. My Grandfather attended Davis High School as many of my fellow bloggers have. He Graduated in 1936. He also remembered delivering the news paper to The Webster's in the old farm house. He possibly delivered to Great Great Relatives.
Deliveryman helped many on life's route By Lee Benson
Published: January 14, 2009
When 11-year-old Brian O'Neil started delivering newspapers in 1929, little did he realize what he'd started.
Not until 1986, with just one timeout for World War II, would he stop — and at that, he kept the "route" in the family, transferring the duties first to his son, Kelly, and later to Kelly's son, Shannon.
All this was recounted in detail, seasoned with much humor and nostalgia, at funeral services that honored Mr. O'Neil this past weekend in Vernal.
The man's 90 years on Earth were remembered for many accomplishments, including a posterity approaching 100 direct descendents, a lifetime of church and community service, and of course the war years, when he served in the U.S. Navy and met a fellow sailor who outranked him named Dorothy, a lieutenant who became his wife.
But over, under, around and through it all was an uncanny habit of getting up early in the morning to make sure one Salt Lake newspaper or another made it to its destination on time.
O'Neil began delivering the Salt Lake Telegram on his bike when he was 11, just in time to let residents of Kaysville know Wall Street had fallen.
He kept pedaling through the Depression, making money despite the hard times, later switching to the Salt Lake Tribune.
After World War II, he and his new bride moved to Vernal and Brian accepted a position as distributor of the Tribune to the Uintah-Duchesne territory in northeastern Utah. Now, instead of one paper route, he was responsible for distributing thousands of newspapers to the various carriers throughout the region.
In the early 1960s, after the Telegram folded, he added the Deseret News to the lineup.
It is inestimable how many porches got their papers because of Brian O'Neil.
Brian O'Neil's obituary caught my eye last week when it ran in the newspaper — appropriately in both the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune — as much for what it said about the future of newspapering as about the past.
Few 11-year-old boys, or girls, strap newspaper bags to their bicycles any more. And fewer and fewer adult distributors are left to mentor those boys and girls.
"Dad raised us with the newspaper," remembered Kelly O'Neil, the son who would inherit the family distributorship. "That's how he taught us to work and to manage our money."
In his father's personal journal that Kelly shared with me, a young Brian wrote this of his early days delivering papers:
"The newspaper route was good for me, helping me to meet people ... and to have almost everything that I wanted to have due to being able to have the money to purchase it."
In a later journal entry Brian wrote about the difficulty he had getting up in the morning — and the invention it inspired.
"I contrived a contraption that would wind a string up on a spool which in turn pulled a knife switch that would ring a bell until I got up to turn it off," he wrote. "The alarm clock was the power to set this in motion."
Practice made perfect, and over time, as Kelly recalled, his father needed no such contraptions.
"The truck (with the newspapers) would come into Vernal about 3 a.m. And when it came, it would wake Dad up," Kelly said. "And if for some reason it didn't come, it would wake him up anyway. He would know that truck was late. It was just his whole focus."
Every one of Kelly's brothers and sisters delivered newspapers in Vernal — and almost every one of Brian O'Neil's grandkids have delivered newspapers.
All over northeastern Utah, you'll find men, many now in their 40s, 50s and 60s, who delivered papers for Brian O'Neil when they were teenagers. Many were there to pay their respects at last Saturday's funeral.
But the times, they are changing. Most newspapers are delivered now by adults in automobiles — and many more are delivered through cyberspace on a newfangled invention called the Internet.
No delivery boys — or men — required.
It makes the passing of good men the likes of C. Brian O'Neil all the more nostalgic. As Arlen Peacock, an executive of the Newspaper Agency Corporation who was O'Neil's supervisor back in the day, observed, "He helped a lot of young men become good citizens."
Starting with himself.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.
© 2009 Deseret News Publishing Company All rights reserved
