Loreen Hansen Matkin – Great grandmother

            This lady was known as “the greatest mother there ever was, patient, loving, and enduring,” as Lorna Matkin quoted.  My Aunt Kathy Palmer stated, “She was the kind of person who did everything to the very best of her ability and that included being a grandmother, mother, wife, sister, daughter, neighbor and friend.”

            Loreen was raised in humble circumstances with ten other children in the family.  I find it so touching to read that Christmas was a frugal time and they considered them lucky to have an orange in their Christmas stocking.  I find that part so refreshing because we over give at Christmas time.  I also find it interesting to read that they loved going to the fair.  Before going to the fair they would rub buttermilk on their faces to bleach their tans.  I actually try to make myself look tan by putting tanning cream on my face.  Times have changed.

            My aunt recalls grandmother Loreen very kind and giving.  Lorna states that her mother would always eat the neck or the back of the chicken.  She always thought that she enjoyed that part, but as she grew older she realized that she was leaving the choice pieces for her family.

            As a young girl her father had a heart attack leaving ten young children and one on the way.  Loreen had to quit school at ten and go to work to help provide for the family.  She learned as she worked with the Jacobs family that they never spoke mean or unkind words about anyone and she put that practice into her own life.

            She was married and they also lived a frugal life.  They were known for eating much rice and canned milk.  These kind of statements make me consider how lucky we are in our life.  She had three small children and one on the way when her husband was called on a mission.  Loreen once stated, “The Lord could have taken him for good, be He only asked for him for 2 ½ years.”  What faith this lady had!

            I realized how she kept her home so immaculate.  She did not drive and had a terrible experience learning how.  She didn’t go all over town like I seem to do instead of caring for my home.  My Aunt Kathy said in her later years when she had cancer that “One Saturday I went over to help her and cleaned a closet and washed the floor.  She said that was the first time she’d had help like that.  She kept house very clean, but she was always happy to have you come and mess it up.”

After one of her babies Loreen had problems with her nerves.  She would cry and say it was nothing.  She started to memorize poems after this too.

            She was a very caring woman.  She took care of her mother who had a stroke and needed much care.  It was remembered she would call out frequently through the night to go to the bathroom.  Also her husband was confined to the bed too with his heart problems.  One night she asked the Lord, “How much longer?” and the voice came back, “Not much longer Loreen.”  When her mother passed she put herself on a guilt trip and had bad times with her nerves again.  But it seems that she loves caring for people.  My own mother states that she loves caring for people and have recently had thoughts of doing foster care. 

            My Aunt Kathy stated how Loreen loved giving gifts to her grandchildren.  She would work hard to get each of her grandchildren gifts for their birthday.  

Sina Olsen Ackroyd.  My great grandmother

I was able to read a about my great grandmother Sina Olsen Ackroyd.  I have to tell you the first paragraph that she wrote on her autobiography.  “Autobiography is a very self-consious effort.  You dare not make much of your success for fear it will savour of bragging, likewise you minimize your failures so people will not think too ill of you, so rather than consider this an autobiography think of it as a few of the happenings that I encountered on my journey through life.”  I find this paragraph astounding because I realize that my mother is very modest in her life too.  My mother would probably write the same thing.  It is so interesting to see these characteristics being passed down.  I also stumbled on an interesting fact that she sucked her thumb and was left -handed.  This was only paragraph two and I find this part fascinating because I sucked my thumb and was left-thumb.  My daughter, Charlotte who is only 2 months old, is also trying to suck her thumb on her left hand.  This is so fun! 

There is a story I have to mention because it makes me cringe and I don’t think I can be as brave as my great-great grandmother.  Sina and her brother Chris were playing with the feed chopper.  Sina put her hand in the chopper and her brother turned the wheel catching her hand twice through the chopper.  Sina’s mother put her on her lap and covered Sina’s eyes with her apron and cut off her fourth finger using her husband’s razor.  I am amazed that her mother was able to do that because I could not keep my cool when red ants were crawling all over my Preston.  These ladies had some courage to deal with things on their own and do the best they could possibly do. 

Sina must have been such a wonderful mother.  My grandmother, Clara had nothing ill to speak about her mother.  Apparently Sina’s husband died leaving her to care for 8 children with only one of them was married.  Their family survived since she knew how to live a provident living for them.  Clara wrote about they survived which was growing everything they needed in life.  They even had a bee farm.  They had to get rid of the bee farm when Sina kept getting more allergic with each sting she got.  One time she turned blue and had the boys help her and by miracle and faith she survived.   My grandmother asked how she was ever able to sleep with all of her responsibilities and she stated that when her head hit the pillow she would go right to sleep. 

I love her closing statement regarding her grandchildren, “As I look them over I can see both physical and mental characteristics of my own cropping out in each of them, so here is a sobering thought, these characteristics, for good or evil will be handed down eternally.  Pray God most of them may be for good.”

My grandmother, Clara was with her as she passed away.

Beginning of my Book of Remembrance

My name is Sarah Christine Peterson Teare.  I come from a family of seven children.  I fall in the group as the middle child, and the younger sister. I was born 21 April 1983 in Idaho Falls, Idaho hospital to my parents, Mark and Shelley Peterson.

I was known as a child to have big cheeks.  One instance my mom placed me on the counter while purchasing an item.  The teller looked at me and was startled to see me move.  She thought I looked too much like a cabbage patch doll.  I had blonde hair and blue eyes and fair skin.  As I grew my fair skin turned frecklier.  My blonde hair turned an auburn color and bits of red outlined my face as I matured.

I was apparently a good, obedient, helpful child.  When I was 18 months old my little brother was born forcing me to be upstairs with the older children.  My mother thought this was frightful for me being so young until she witnessed my arrival downstairs the next day.  I had packed my own bag of clothes for the day so I would not have to go back upstairs to change.  From that time on I was known to be an independent and dependable child.

I loved helping my mother with the babies.  I even cared for my older sister with her fears of being alone and afraid of the dark.  I remember caring for my little brother, Curtis.  I loved holding him.  I loved pretending I was the mother.

I did daily chores around the house.  I enjoyed doing the laundry and couldn’t wait to have my own home, in which I could do my children’s laundry.  I remember at one time dusting the furniture and realized I did not make time to go to the bathroom until it was too late.  I cried to my mom to not tell my dad in fear that I would have to wear a diaper.

As a young child of four, my mom placed me in violin lessons.  She thought I had an ear for music.  I proved her correct when she had to ask me to quit playing my older sister’s music that she was practicing. I also received my first 100 in a violin festival as a young child by playing Oh Danny Boy. I excelled as a child playing the violin. It was a struggle to keep me practicing because I lacked the compassion towards music.  It is a shame because my mother was an amazing pianist.  She accompanied Melanie and I on every recital and festival. Through my persuasive mother I kept playing violin and I have never regretted playing.

I started playing the piano at the age of eight.  I did not have a knack for the piano like I did with the violin.  It took more concentration and I gave up too easily in playing the piano.  I did not pursue it like I did the violin.  My teacher was a neighbor, Sally Geisler down the street, and I would walk myself to piano lessons.

What I did love in life is gymnastics.  I enjoyed being active and training my body to do certain things.  I jumped on the trampoline countless of hours. Even though I loved gymnastics my mother always said, “When you are old you will not be able to do gymnastics, but you will always be able to play the violin.” I guess that statement made me continue playing the violin, but I still continued what I loved which is gymnastics.  I enjoyed being with friends.  Our neighborhood was perfect for having many friends.  We lived in a young neighborhood with lots of kids.

As children we enjoyed playing in the sandbox and watching our sand volcano erupt from using vinegar and baking soda.  We loved playing no bears are out tonight.  In the summer time we would all ride our bikes to the golf course to take golf lessons.
As a family we were quite active.  My dad especially enjoyed fishing which was also a treat for me to tag along.  I loved to sing to the fish in hopes I would catch a fish with my voice.  Our family enjoyed playing catch, baseball, and badminton around the house.

We would also go in the mountains and ride four-wheelers and motorbikes.  Riding with a helmet no one could see me praying the entire time to help me to be safe.  When I was around eight years old I was driving the four-wheeler with Melanie on the back riding side saddle. We had just finished playing dolls across the street in the field. As we were coming home on the road my sister's leg got caught on the tire. Next thing she is under my wheel with her screaming "get off me! Go get dad!" Terror and sadness came upon me and I remember running to the backyard in tears. I was so worried about my sister and what I had done. Thankfully she just needed some stitches to her bottom and was quite sore.  Maybe that is why I continue to pray when riding a four-wheeler or motorbike.

We grew up with a big garden. I loved to eat raspberries, peas, and rhubarb. We would graze throughout the day on our garden. I remember even having a tomato fight since we had so many tomatoes. I also loved eating instant potatoes and gravy. Even though I grew up in Idaho I preferred the instant over real potatoes. My mom made the best gravy. Still no one can make better gravy than her. I also loved Schwann man ice cream particularly Rocky Road.

We loved our summers in Idaho. When it got really hot we would walk to the ditch and pop tar-bubbles on the road on the way to the ditch.  The ditch was a little canal that we loved floating.  We caught water skippers and picked off little worms on our legs after we were done floating. 

Winters were especially fun when you are young because the snow seemed to be so high.  We loved sledding behind the snow-machine and four-wheeler. We would make a fort out of the snow that my dad plowed in one area.  I loved making snowmen.  A great memory is shoveling off the cabin roof at Island Park.  The snow would get so high that it was safe to jump off the roof into the snow. 

            We also grew up snow skiing.  My brother, Steven and I were duos when we would go skiing.  We were so little when we started and fearless.  We loved going down the mountain fast.  I remember people pointing at us as they were on the ski lift and cheering us on. 

Island Park was a family favorite.  So many memories were made up at Island Park.  My grandpa Peterson built this cabin.  It is very simple to look at on the outside.  The outside is made of steel and is square with a steel roof on top.  Winter time was fun because we would park the car on the main road and have to use the snow-machine to drive the rest of the way to the cabin.  It was always very cold when we first stepped into the cabin, but soon we would get the fire started and the fun would begin.  Along with going snow-machining we would ice fish.  It was fun ice fishing with Steven since he was particularly good at it.  We would play games and watch movies if we were not outside.

The summer time at Island Park was fun too.  Boating, motor-biking, bicycling, and Playmill Theatre kept us busy. I enjoyed walking around the island with my cousins picking wild flowers.  One of our favorite things to do was sit on cushions and ride down the stairs.  We enjoyed each other’s company.

I enjoyed school as a young girl.  I loved getting high marks on my class and at one point kept all of my school papers.  I wanted to show my children how good of a student I was.  Silly to think back that I had kept all of those papers.  During the summer time I had found a math book and started learning how to do math on my own.  Sometimes if I didn’t have homework then I would bring my own homework home.  I loved learning. 

Reading books was my favorite.  In our old home we had a place where the yard just grew without much assistance.  Tulips and long grass were planted in this area.  I would bring a blanket and make myself a little area and just lie on the blanket and read my books.  I also loved daydreaming on that blanket too.  It was such a pretty area with the cottonwood trees making so much shade.

We were very active in the church.  My mother was particularly active and I remember her going to softball practice.  I would participate in the choir since my mom helped out with it too.  I enjoyed going to church and bearing my testimony.  I recall standing in front of the mirror practicing my testimony and also practicing how to cry during my testimony.

Then the awkward part of my life hit.  I started to think about boys and cared about my looks.  Of course when this had to occur so did having braces.  I inherited my father’s teeth.  I had two permanent teeth missing on the bottom and one permanent tooth growing the wrong way.  Of course my mouth was too little for my wisdom teeth so in grade eight I had them removed.