"Gone away is the bluebird..."

Here to stay is the "new bird". Maybe just until the berries on the fence are gone, but I will enjoy it while it is here.

Sledding on Evergreen Hill

The weather was beautiful today for a trip to Evergreen Hill to do some sledding. I filled up my camera card with photos and then filmed some video footage at the end. Moms may not want to watch parts of this...and you might wonder where the grownups were!

Yes, it is a White Christmas!

I have enjoyed watching the changing weather from my warm home. Here are a few more pictures from the last day or two.

White Christmas!

Here is a picture of our "back yard" six days after the previous post. After several little storms moved through, I think we will have a White Christmas. Maybe there will be enough snow to make a snowman!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas??

Although I don't enjoy the snow as much as Verlin did, I must admit that it is a bit disconcerting that we are 2 weeks away from Christmas Eve and the ground, at least in American Fork, is very non-white as these photos taken today will confirm. My morning walks are quite cool (high 20's) but otherwise enjoyable. I don't know how much snow will fall in the next week or so but it looks like Heidi is bringing a change with her when she comes Saturday. We are supposed to have an increased chance of rain/snow and then snow showers for most of the next ten days. Maybe it will be a White Christmas after all.

Wood Badge--Six Months Later

Six months ago, on a very cool, rainy Monday morning, May 12th to be exact, I packed my bags, a sleeping bag and a small cot into my car and headed up Payson Canyon to spend a week at Camp Maple Dell, a campsite of The Boy Scouts of America. Destination: Wood Badge Course W7-591-05-08. By the time I reached Payson the rain had turned to snow and I was beginning to wonder what kind of a week lay ahead of me. I knew that true boy scouts don't give up, so I was pretty sure that the Wood Badge course I was to attend was not going to be canceled. Everyone was a little damp on the outside, but spirits were not dampened. The snow stopped by mid morning and things were definitely looking up. The first night was quite cold but each day was an improvement over the previous day and we enjoyed balmy weather the rest of the week. Well, not balmy enough to take off our coats until the last day or two but it was much better than Monday's forecast.

We compressed the total scouting experience into one week and learned how a boy progresses from Cub Scout to Varsity Scout and what tools we as leaders can use to help boys become successful leaders of their families, communities and nation. We cooked up quite a feast of learning seasoned with laughter, fun, delicious food, showmanship, love, and a healthy portion of the Spirit that resulted in quite an unforgettable experience.

Well, it has been six months since those fun-filled days. Although participants actually have 18 months to complete their ticket (5 goals), the staff set a target date of six months to present Wood Badge beads to those who have completed their tickets. This bead ceremony was held Saturday night, November 15th.

I am happy to say that our entire Bobwhite patrol completed our goals and received our tickets this past weekend. One person, Kristy Lamb, could not be at the bead ceremony so she received hers at Roundtable on Thursday.

I venture to say that I think we had the best staff ever to lead our Wood Badge course. I learned to love each one of them as well as those who participated in the eight patrols. It was wonderful to see them all again on Saturday night.

Maybe I have mentioned this before, but one of the highlights of my experience at Wood Badge came on Day 2 when Bro. Hansen said he felt someone that should be on our course had not signed up, and then he determined that it was Verlin Hatch who should be there. He therefore made Verlin an honorary member of the Bobwhite patrol. Throughout the week, our patrol seemed to have a little extra help as we performed extremely well in the "ropes course" challenges and we were the winning patrol in the tent pitching challenge.

Last Saturday night, after all of the patrols had received their beads, they asked me and Ammon to come forward and they presented Verlin's Wood Badge beads, neckerchief, woggle and certificate to Ammon in Verlin's behalf. As Hyrum would say, "Good job, Grandpa!"

If you double-click on the slideshow it will open up in Picasa and I believe you can view the captions associated with the slideshow so it may make more sense. You can also extend the length of the slides a couple seconds so that you have time to read the captions. I hope that works.

Time flies...

I can't believe it has been six weeks since I looked at this blog. Well, actually I used to look at it more often, but since it seemed to never change I quit looking.

Today I have a comment or two to make, and a couple pictures to share that I thought you might enjoy. First, I have enjoyed the visiting I have done in the last couple months. I have been privileged to visit with most of the children and grandchildren--with the exception of Anson, Heidi, and Aaron's families whom I hope to visit sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, I will look forward with great anticipation to the Hatch Party in December.

I enjoyed seeing pictures of everyone's Halloween celebrations. Things have really changed in this neighborhood. We only had a couple dozen trick-or-treaters. It was a pretty quiet evening at the old homestead.

I have been going through pictures that my mom and dad have collected over their lifetime. It brought back some good memories of my childhood and also of family reunions that we have attended. If you saw how my brothers and sisters and I dressed as children you might just blame it on the fact that we were just a bunch of Montana farmers (we preferred the term "ranchers")...

Did the term "redneck" occur to anyone else?

Trends of fashion, music and dance were a bit slow reaching popularity in our little community, and we looked at California as the real trendsetters. I don't remember anyone in my school looking as sophistocated in their senior picture as this California boy!

When I met Verlin (then known as Anson) he didn't wear the levi's, western shirts and cowboy boots that were typical attire for my brothers and all my friends at home so he must be a trendsetter too. After all, he was from California. I had a bit of a revelation when I found a picture of Verlin that my mom took on one of our early visits to Montana. Now here is a fashion statement!!

The hat wasn't his but the rest was all Californian!

He Was There Again Today

A few months ago while I was on my morning walk that takes me to the cemetery, I saw an older gentleman in a motorized wheelchair. He seemed to be taking the same path as I, and when I got close enough, I asked him if he had been to visit someone in the cemetery. His face was wet with tears as he confirmed that his wife was there. I asked how long ago, and he said five years. I asked if he goes there often and he said, "Yes, every day." He continued, "...sometimes two or three times (and I thought he was going to say two or three times a week) a day." Two or three times a day for five years. He must be a very lonely man. I saw him again today and offered a silent prayer of thanks that the pain is not as sharp as it was 15 months ago; thanks that I have yesterdays full of good memories and wonderful children and grandchildren to fill my todays and my tomorrows. My life is full.

A Walk in the Park

After my first morning walk in Irvine, Andrew told me there was a nice park nearby that I might enjoy. The next day, Melissa and the boys took me there for a picnic. I have walked there every morning since then.

The park is only a couple blocks past Albertsons and takes about ten minutes to get there. I wouldn't have believed it existed in this congested college community.

William R. Mason Regional Park is 345 acres that was once part of a vast 100,000 acre rancho. It has a baseball field, sand volleyball courts, playgrounds, pavilions and picnic areas, an amphitheater, a 9-acre lake, 123 acres of wilderness/natural area, and Strawberry Farms golf course. There are hiking and biking trails that traverse the park. I only saw a small portion of it, but it was a beautiful place to spend a half hour or so each day.

I took my camera with me today to preserve and share some of its beauty.

Why I Fly...

Yesterday morning I was working from my home computer. In the evening I finished up my work from my laptop in Sunny California. That is one great benefit of airplane travel. Air travel provides a savings in time, gasoline and wear and tear on both my car and my body, well maybe not my body.

This morning I discovered another reason why I fly.

I try to take a morning walk as often as possible, five to six days a week usually. I try to walk even when I am visiting the kids. I am a bit nervous the first day whether I will remember the route and get home safely. In Vegas Brian's mom gave me a little map of the streets that I could take to get in my two miles and make it back home fairly easily. No problem. Their neighborhood was pretty "square". Maybe not quite like Utah's simply amazing grid system but not bad.

Here is one of my walking routes at home.

Pretty simple, and as you can see, the directions are pretty straightforward also.

This walk takes about 35 minutes. Now Irvine is a different story!! I had been to Albertsons grocery store near Andrew's place on a previous visit and thought this would be a good direction to take my walk this morning. Here is a map of the area. (The path marked in blue was where I traveled.)

By the time I got to Albertsons I had expended less than 10 minutes of my planned 40 minutes so I decided to keep going a bit longer before heading back. Even though the streets around there are all named after colleges and universities instead of north, east, south or west something, I figured if I just did my own type of grid calculations, I could get back okay. I did a 90 degree turn and kept going. Four 90 degrees with approximate equal distances in between would bring you back to the beginning, right? Well, I don't think there is one straight street in Irvine, nor are there any 90 degree corners. In spite of that, I did make it back to Campus Drive , which is the street that Albertson's is on. I then turned right on Campus drive and thought I would soon be back at Andrew's apartment. I walked a few blocks and didn't see any familiar landmarks. I saw a lot more businesses that I hadn't noticed before. I thought I had done a pretty good job of noticing which streets I took along the way--except for the VERY FIRST STREET. After wandering a route that looked something like this...

I decided I was lost. That was hard to admit. My thoughts then turned to wondering what Andrew and Melissa were doing and thinking about my being gone so long. My half hour walk had now been stretched to over two hours.

Did I mention that I didn't take my phone with me? Since I was walking so early, I thought no one would be calling me this time of morning. That was my first mistake. After spending some time looking for a business establishment that would be open at 8:30 on Saturday morning, I finally found someone who would let me use their phone book AND phone. I called Andrew and Melissa. As I surmised, I was not really that far from home. Melissa told me that I had to go up Campus Drive to California Avenue and turn right. That was the street that intersected Campus Drive back by Albertsons. One 90 degree turn in the RIGHT direction and I was headed home. 2 1/2 hours and 6+ miles after I began my walk, Andrew found me wandering along Verano Place trying to find the laundromat that was right outside their apartment. I decided then and there that I would have been in REALLY BIG TROUBLE if I had driven to Irvine from Utah. I doubt that I would be here yet!

Baby Girl Leishman--Taylor Rain

Here are some pictures of Taylor Rain Leishman and Company. Taylor was born August 27, 2008 at 10:35 p.m. in Logan, Utah. She weighed 6 lb. 14 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. She has lots of long black hair and the prettiest eyes with long eyelashes. Shane and Sonia are tickled pink. I have never seen so much pink in Sonia's house before. In the hospital it seemed that the staff put mostly blue blankets on Taylor, and Sonia was actually questioning where the pink was!








Taylor's Grandpa and Grandma Leishman and the Leishman aunts and uncles and cousins and Kaden had their family Labor Day campout this weekend. Even though some of them had the chance to see Taylor before they went, they came over as soon as they got home Sunday from camping so they could hold Taylor. Then they went home and cleaned up and came over a couple hours later to help celebrate Kaden's 9th birthday. Taylor was passed around again and everyone enjoyed holding her.

See more pictures.

What is missing in this picture?

Did you guess "the quilting frame"?
After about nine months I was finally able to fold it up and put it away. I set it up shortly after Audrey was born last Thanksgiving, and have now finished my seventh grandbaby quilt for this year. Last night I took Alex and Laura's off the frame. I still have to finish binding three of them, but I need to give my fingers a bit of a break.
Here are the invaluable tools that I use to make the quilts:

Cutting board, rotary cutter and straight edges. They speed up the preparation process SO much!

My invaluable sewing machine.

I enjoy the piecing process of quilting, but it is always exciting to finally get the quilt on the quilting frame.

Here are the tools necessary to do the hand quilting part. I could never survive without the thimbles.

I used to watch my mom do quilting. I know she used a metal thimble on her first or middle finger but she had nothing to protect her thumb. She used small pliers to pull the needle through when she came to a tough spot.

It didn't take very long using Mom's method to know that I needed something more. I was so thrilled when I found this leather thimble for my thumb. It not only protects the thumb but it gives great grip for pulling the needle through. You can tell by the holes in the leather thimble that it has gone through quite an ordeal. It is only good for a couple quilts and then I replace it because the needle starts to come all the way through if I push too hard.

There is a verse in the Bible that says "let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth". This is in reference to doing alms (service, charity, etc.). In a little different context, when I quilt I have to kind of keep these words in my mind. With my left hand I push the needle through the fabric, and with the right hand I check the underneath side of the quilt to make sure every stitch goes clear through all three layers of the quilt. By and large, it is the right hand that controls the stitch length and uniformity. I have tried to use a protection on my right hand but I just can't tell what is happening unless I can feel the tip of the needle. It isn't a big deal at the beginning of the project, but by the end of a quilt my right hand fingers are a bit sore. After a while the finger becomes calloused and it can bear the pain a bit longer. Since I put a time constraint on the last four quilts I just completed, I did not give my fingers adequate time to recover from the effects of one quilt. When the right hand became ever more aware of what the left hand was doing, it was love that took charge. With every stitch I think about the children and grandchildren that will receive my gifts of love, and it is so worth it! Or maybe I am just crazy!

The most recent quilts that are waiting for binding.

(P.S. Keep those babies coming)

All that glitters is not gold

After we came home from our hike to Timp Cave, Aaron took Ammon and me back up the canyon above Tibble Fork to try our luck at panning for gold. We spent a few fun hours...if you call wet shoes, dust from the passing four-wheelers, muddy clothes, spider webs, ticks, (did I mention dust?) fun. No, it was fun to watch Ammon and Aaron wading in the creek, digging up the rocks and mud, putting them in their pans and swishing and sloshing until all they had left was a little "black sand" on the bottom of the pan which was supposed to contain valuable gold dust, or even finer "gold flour". You should have seen Aaron's delight when he found some large nuggets in his pan. After this, his search was on the verge of frenzy. He found a large boulder and dug the dirt and rocks from underneath it for quite a while until he had filled a 5-gallon bucket about three-fourths full. After trying to use a portable sluice box to speed the process they went back to panning out the rest of their findings. Imagine Aaron's disappointment when he checked one of the larger nuggets after he noticed it was kind of dancing along on the top of the dust as he swished it around. Gold's weight should not allow it to move so freely. On further inspection he decided he had been fooled...fool's gold or iron pyrite. Who knows, maybe there was a grain of gold in there. With that in mind, Aaron definitely plans to return for another try at gold mining. I hope I can go along.



It is kind of hard to see but this is the bounteous black sand that held the ore mined today. If you enlarge the pictures, you can see a couple flecks that glitter.

Hike to Timp Cave

Since we didn't get a chance to hike to Timp Cave for the family reunion, I was glad that Aaron suggested this as an activity last weekend when they were visiting. I asked him if they had jackets for the time inside the cave and he said he didn't think they had brought any. I said I thought we would have jackets they could use.

Early Saturday morning Aaron went and stood in line to get tickets for us. Armed with water bottles and snacks we drove up the canyon and met Ammon and Abby and family in the parking lot. We all pulled out our jackets to prepare for the cool 40 degree temperature of the cave...well almost everyone had a jacket. I had forgotten to get the jackets for Aaron's family as I promised. Fortunately Abby had a rather girlish pullover that would probably fit Morgan snugly but she boldly offered to let Morgan wear Hyrum's sweatshirt and put the girly sweater on their own boy. I am glad he has such an abundance of self confidence that he would not be intimidated by jeers of "Sissy" that he may encounter.

We headed up the trail at 8:20 a.m. anticipating a 1 1/2 hour hike to arrive in time for the 9:50 tour. We had an uneventful hike and made it to our destination 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Man, Aaron! We could have spent a few more minutes on those benches!

The cave was as dark and wet and cold as I remembered but the tour seemed longer than on previous trips. It was enjoyable though. It was hard to keep Morgan from touching the formations. I am sure if Aaron hadn't held his hand or held him he would have found it hard to resist climbing on them. He seemed especially excited about the one that resembled a St. Bernard dog.

In the hour that we were in the cave, the outside temperature had risen, but it was still a fairly pleasant hike down the trail. We encountered quite a few more hikers and they seemed tired and hot. We were super glad that we had chosen an early tour. It was perfect.


To see more pictures, go to this link:

Timp Cave

New Back To School Essentials

Some things never change...well, some things have changed a bit since I went to school...


...or even since my children went to school. This morning when I went on my walk I noticed that the parking lot at the high school was starting to fill up with cars and more kids were around than on most summer Mondays. At the conclusion of my walk, as I approached the high school, the congested streets and sidewalks near the high school confirmed the fact that this was the first day of school. I thought back on the many "first days of school" that I have experienced as a student and mom of students. There is a bit of excitement in the air with everyone sporting new clothes and carrying their newly purchased school supplies. Some are hugging friends that they haven't seen all summer. Some are apprehensive but most of the kids seem excited to be starting a fresh new school semester.

Then I saw it...the ESSENTIAL item among everyone's school supplies. It seemed everyone had one. Some students had no other supplies...just one. Teachers don't require it and most probably discourage it. I must admit probably not every student has one, but it certainly seems to be the most important item on the students' lists...THE CELL PHONE!

More Summer Fun

I have enjoyed the weeks I have spent in Richfield with Katrina and Kyle's family this summer. I don't know if the girls can say as much, but I thoroughly enjoyed each day I was there (except possibly some of the piano practice sessions, right Kadance?)

I just wanted to share a couple pictures. First, Kyle and Katrina moved into a rental house in Richfield and I had my very own "guest bedroom". It was small but comfortable. That is how I would describe their house--comfortable. It is an older home but it has been remodeled and upgraded so that it is quite nice.


During the early part of the summer the girls spent quite a bit of time at the community swimming pool. They each practiced piano for at least a half hour a day. When I wasn't working they all wanted a turn to use my computer so they could play with their interactive Webkinz pets on Webkinz.com.

In July, as part of the Pioneer Days celebrations, Katrina and the girls were in a musical production called a Broadway Review. They sang a couple songs from The Sound of Music play. Grandma sat through four presentations of the production and enjoyed every one.


Kylie is old enough to be in 4-H so Katrina started a cake decorating 4-H club. There were five girls plus Kadance and Kasidy who were only guests as they weren't old enough to be in 4-H. The goal was to be able to make a cake and enter it in the 4-H division of the County Fair. Only two of the girls actually entered a cake and Kadance and Kasidy were able to enter their cakes as "Cloverbuds" (prospective 4-H ers). Kylie also entered a skirt that she had made and displayed in an earlier 4-H display.

They dropped off their entries on Monday the 4th but they weren't open for public display until Wednesday the 6th. Just before they left for their Lake Powell trip we all drove to the fairgrounds to see how they did.

We were so delighted to see that Kadance and Kasidy won blue ribbons for their Cloverbud entries. Kylie earned blue ribbons PLUS RESERVE CHAMPION for both of her displays, and they won a little cash prize. Kylie also won a prize from the Wilton Enterprises, I believe a Wilton Yearbook (a very neat book!)
Kasidy's cupcakes
Kadance's treasure chest (the theme of the fair was "A Treasure Chest of the County's Best"
Kylie chose to make a cake of a chicken instead of a theme cake.

The word of the day is confident

While I was driving home from Katrina's Thursday evening, I was thinking about how much I enjoyed the few trips that Verlin and I took together the last couple years of his life. One was the trip to Idaho/Wyoming with the 12th Ward Young Men/Young Women that Teresa wrote about on her blog when the youth did the performance about the life of Joseph Smith. The fun part of that one was that neither of us had to do the driving. We just sat on the bus together and enjoyed each other's company.

Another enjoyable trip was when Verlin and I traveled to Michigan to pick up some boat parts that he had purchased. We decided rather than pay for shipping we would drive and pick them up and then we could spend some time with Bryce and Heidi in Ann Arbor. We spent a couple days traveling there, stayed a couple days and then drove down through Illinois and Iowa before heading home. We visited the cities of Nauvoo and Carthage.


Carthage Jail--Carthage, Illinois







We then went through the area in Iowa where my great great grandfather John Carnes lived and died. I had a copy of a map that showed the cemeteries in the area but it was not an up-to-date map. I looked at a road atlas for Iowa and saw the general vicinity near Keosauqua and told Verlin that I thought we could find the cemetery if we just start driving. It should be in this particular grid someplace.



Without questioning he just started driving. At one point we thought we were very close, but just weren't sure where to turn next. We came to a small lake and didn't know which way to go. I was kind of disappointed when we turned around without finding the cemetery. As we headed back toward town Verlin saw a house off to the side of the road that had a sign advertising services for fishing, bait, boating, etc. He turned in but we saw no one around. It was not even 8:00 a.m. He pulled up near the house and stopped the car. We sat there a minute and I said, it looks like no one is around. He said, then go knock on the door. I was reluctant to do so since I had no idea who lived there, it was very early and besides I was not one to stop and ask directions from anyone. I would rather just find things for myself--or have him do the asking. He refused. He said if I want to do genealogy research I am going to have to ask someone for help. And he sat there.

I summoned up enough courage to go to the door and knock. No one answered. I was about ready to leave. I didn't see anyone outside anyplace. Maybe they were on vacation too. Just as I turned to walk away the door opened. A woman with her hair wrapped in a towel opened the door. She apologized and said she had just stepped out of the shower. She asked how she could help. I apologized for imposing on her so early in the morning and explained that we were looking for a small cemetery called Prall Cemetery that was supposed to be close by. We thought the local residents would surely know where it was. It was very small and was not an active cemetery though. Sure enough, she didn't know where it was. But--she knew who to call. She said she would call the library and find out if anyone there could help me. She made a phone call and got a gentleman on the line and handed the phone to me. To my surprise, she had called the Church's Family History Center in Keosauqua. The man who was there had heard of the cemetery and knew how to direct us to it from the location we described to him as our current position. Within a short time we were parked at the Prall Cemetery and I had the opportunity to see Grandpa John's grave. We enjoyed some time in the cemetery and then proceeded on our journey.









Verlin took me to the Family History Center/library in Keosaqua and we spent a little time looking for more information about John Carnes, one of the founders of the town, but we didn't find anything new.

Next, I asked him to help me find the Maple Grove Cemetery in Bell Fountaine, Iowa where John's wife was buried 22 years before his death. Again, Verlin stopped at "a house" where a woman was pulling weeds in her garden. It wasn't as hard this time to explain our quest. She took me into the house and made some phone calls and gave me the name and address of the woman who knew all about those little country cemeteries and had indexed the names of the people who were buried there. We then drove to her house and she pulled out her books. We didn't find Alvina's name in the list but she said there were many many graves that had illegible headstones or no headstones. That is probably where she was buried. In spite of the fact that we probably would not find Grandma's grave, Verlin drove around until we also found this cemetery and we spent a little time looking at the graves.



This may seem like a little thing, but it is a reminder of two important things. First, Verlin was very good at acting on the promptings he received through the Spirit. Sometimes they were hard to do but we were always blessed when we did as he was prompted. Second, Verlin always encouraged me to reach beyond my comfort zone and placed much more confidence in my abilities than I did. I will work to be more confident in what I can accomplish with the Lord's help. I am grateful that I am still learning from Verlin's example.