Thanksgiving

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Even though we had been to Phoenix two weeks ago, and I had been there last week as well, we wanted to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends, so Wednesday around noon we packed up the van and headed east once again.

Kira had planned the weekend in great detail and made assignments. We were assigned pie. I made an apple pie

and the crust for Lisa’s pumpkin pie.

Justin’s dad volunteered to make the turkey.

I love how Jusin and his dad have matching shirts.

We got to Kira’s house in the early evening and she gave us our Christmas present. She said we needed it early. It was a beautiful advent calendar that she had made herself and she included several items in the tree that had special meaning. It included an angel playing an oboe, cats, an olive wood nativity, a ribbon that Lisa’s mother had given her, and a few others that I can no longer remember.



Landon was allowed to spend Thanksgiving day at home with his family. Unfortunately he wasn’t allowed to leave his home until 8:00 Thursday morning and he had to be back by 8:00 Friday morning. It would have been much more convenient to be able to pick him up Wednesday evening but we were just glad to have him home.

Kira had breaksfast ready to be cooked so while they were picking up Landon, Lisa cooked a delicious breakfast for the rest of us.

If I remember right, we had twenty two people for dinner. One of the many visitors was Aneaya and her son. This was the first time we met Aneaya in person but Lisa has been getting to know her on the phone for a while now. Lisa has remained close to a missionary who served in our area many years ago. Ever since he met her, Dave (the missionary) has been calling her Mama Leavitt. She really has been like a mother to him. Dave Chappel has been going through an ugly divorce and has now started meeting other women online. He met Anaeya, who lives in the Phoenix area and has been out to meet her a couple of times. Lisa invited both of them to Thanksgiving dinner. Dave was unable to get out here but Anaeya and her son joined us.

After dinner we were serenaded by Piper and her friend Sienna on violins. It was fun to listen to them.

Kira had a full schedule planned and for the most part we were able to hold to the schedule. A beautiful and relaxed hike around the Veterans Oasis Park close to their home was on the list and it truly was relaxing.

The park has a section dedicated to those who served in all branches of the military. I love that they have a plaque for the newly formed Space Force.

In the evening we all went to watch the second half of the movie “Wicked”. It was fun. Mom and I went to a movie a month or two ago and they gave us a free cup that looked like the witches hat. We didn’t think we’d ever use it and we thought Kira would enjoy and it looks like she did.

All I remember from Friday was throwing the football with Cameron and going to the giving machines. Throwing a football with Cameron can be challenging. He is actually a pretty good thrower and can catch a well thrown ball, but he really loves to kick the ball which he is not very good at. That means a lot of running around for me.

Saturday morning we took in a temple session and we bought some stuff at the Home Storage Center. We also stopped and gathered eggs from Bens chickens. Those girls are really producing. I got fourteen eggs. It was early afternoon that we decided we would try and get home at a decent time so we packed up our bags and headed for home. It was a fun trip.

--------------------trivia--------------------

On Christmas Eve 1971, a 17-year-old German girl, was traveling on LANSA Flight 508 when it was struck by lightning. The plane broke apart in mid-air, and ejected the girl, who, still strapped into her seat fell over 3,000 meters (10,000 feet), into the Amazon rainforest. She walked away, she was the only survivor and is still alive today.

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iTrade Show

Monday, December 1, 2025

We got back from Evans Amercia’s cup competition on Sunday and then Thursday at 7:30 pm I hopped on a flight back to Phoenix. Justin likes to do some of his business by Trade. He figures that he can get more stuff for less than if he worked those same hours for money.

I have eighteen tons of wood pellets sitting in a warehouse in Phoenix that I need to get rid of and one day Justin suggested that I list them on iTrade. Within a week after listing them, a restaurant in Phoenix bought 100 bags of them. That is $2,000 of trade dollars and while it isn’t the same as real money because you are limited in what you can buy, it is less inventory that I’m carrying and what was once a liability is now an asset.

November 22 was an iTrade show where iTrade members can buy a table and sell their stuff. Justin has done this for the last couple of years and offered me his table for this year. Friday Kira helped me load up their truck and we set up our table and then Friday evening they had free food while vendors had a chance to look at the other vendors and get first dibs on sales.

On Saturday the show was open to the public (well not to the public but to all iTrade users) and I showed up early. Justin had friends in town and we both agreed that I didn’t need him and Kira had to deal with children so I was at the show from 7:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon.

I was hoping to sell more, but I did sell everything you see in the picture which is 105 bags of pellets. At $20 a bag that is $2,200 so it was certainly worth the trip. I had more bags in the truck which I then had to take back to the storage unit.

Kira and I both clearly remember her giving me the keys to the storage unit, but when I arrived at the unit I couldn’t find the keys. They were in Kira’s purse so after helping me load the truck she now had to help me unload the truck. We figure that between the two of us, we moved 340 bags of pellets for a total of 6,800 pounds.

Kira is both the music director and chorister for her ward right now and she has a small and struggling choir. Since I was in town that weekend, and the choir was performing, she recruited me to sing in the choir. In the practice there was me and one other man but for the performance she had Justin and Evan as well, plus some more men showed up and she had a full choir. I think we sounded great.

Immediately after sacrament meeting we loaded everyone into two cars and headed to Peoria to visit Landon. It was the first time Kira and Justin have seen him since August. Everyone, including Landon, seemed very happy to see each other. We were allowed two hours for our visit so we headed to a restaurant, had a nice brunch and then headed back to Chandler. Kira dropped everyone off at the house and then she headed to her choir practice. I packed up my stuff and then Justin took me to the airport. It was a quick but productive and wonderful weekend.

--------------------trivia--------------------

In the 19th Century people had no idea where the birds went for the winter. Very few people even considered the idea that maybe they flew to Africa, and those who did believe that were scoffed. That is until a Stork landed in Europe with an African spear in its neck.

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Missionary Journal - 12 June 1978 Monday

12 June 1978 Monday

Today we went to Brussel again and bought some souveniers in the centrum. We didn’t really see anything new, but I did buy some little things. We saw a museum where a few of Manneken Pis’s clothes are. They dress him up now & then and today he was dressed. Last week a policeman said that the real Manneken Pis was in the museum but today the guy in the mseum said the real one was out on the corner. I’m starting to wonder if anyone knows which is the which.

Tonight we taught Eerdekens. It went alright & we got to talk a bit with Mr. Eerdekens, but he still doesn’t act very interested. He is friendly though and that is good. Mw Eerdekens is quite worried about Luke (her son) who is getting married soon to a girl who doesn’t believe in God very much. At least she doesn’t go to the Catholic church.

I saw an answer to my prayer tonight. Ever since we met that family with 10 kids, I have asked my Heavenly Father to soften the fathers heart and help him to become interested. Yesterday he didn’t listen in on us when we talked to the rest of the family, so tonight we asked if we could talk to him and we planned on asking his permisison to talk to his family etc. When we went there he wasn’t home, but they said to come back later & he would be home.

When we came back he was in the living room and everyone else was disappeared somewhere. We had a good discussion with him & gave a G.T.L. He listened good & it looks like we will be able to give all 8 discussion to him & his family. We will give a G.A. tomorrow. The weather was a little cooler today but not bad.

American Powerchair Football Confederation APFC

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Sunday morning we got up, dressed for church and then headed promptly to Kira’s ward. It was their primary program and while primary programs are always special, this one was even more so because it was Pipers last primary program and so the last one for Kira’s family.

After church we swallowed a quick lunch and then headed to the Ability 360 gym for the opening cermony for the APFC America’s cup.

It was quite the show, and we felt as if we were in a mini-olympics opening cermony. There were six countries competing from both North and South America. The teams all entered from one side of the gymn, made their way around the gym and assembled opposite from us.

The Ability 360 facility is amazing. It is cool to see what they can do when they construct a building that from the ground up is made to accommodate handicapped people. I checked out the bathrooms, the showers and even the dressing rooms. The dressing rooms have a ledge with a water proof mattress on it where the athletes can be dressed.

Back to the opening ceremonies. Jayden carried the Canadian flag but Evan was asked to hold the back of the flag to keep it unfurled so that it would show better.

Once the teams were all assembled facing us, they then turned around and faced the presenters and they had slide shows, speaches and an amputee sang several songs. He was good.

Following the opening ceremonies, all the teams left the floor except for the two playing in the first game and the competition was underway.

Evans first game was with Uruguay at 5:00 Sunday. This was a team that they should have been able to beat, but the coaches seem to think that they are still coaching little league. I suppose this would be tough for them, because they have only coached in regular games which are all about inclusivity. In fact, the entire concept of power soccer is inclusivity. I am forever grateful that Evan has been able to play power soccer since he was seven years old when a player let him try out his power soccer chair. The picture above is Evan and Jayden on team Canada and here they are when they were seven.

While that is all true, and we should never loose track of what power soccer is all about, it seems to me that once you get to the level of competing for the world championship, you should be doing all that you can to win. These coaches still have the attitude that every player should get a chance to play. If they had put their five best players on the floor for the entire game I think they would have won. Instead, each of their seven players. Got a chance to play. To make matters worse, the coach pulled their two best players at the same time. In any case they lost their first game.

It was a round robin so they had a chance to play each of the six countries for a total of five games. Game two was against Brazil at noon. This game went much like game one and we lost this game as well.

Game three was Monday at 3:00 against Argentina. The top three teams will move on to the world championship next September and the undisputed best team in the Americas league is Team USA. They have the most money, they pay their coaches and they have the largest pool from which to pick their players. The second best team would be Argentina who also have paid coaches. No one expected us to win this game. These are the kind of games where you can put your second string on the floor. If you’re clearly going to win or clearly going to lose then give those guys a chance to play. We lost so now we were 0-3.

Lisa had to get back to work and I also had a deadline of sorts, so we headed home after game three. Game four was against the USA Tuesday morning at 9:00. It was no surprise when they lost that game. Our last chance for a win was Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 against Mexico. That was a close game and at the end of regular time it was 0-0. After double overtime it was still 0-0 so it went to a shoot out. I wasn’t there and I don’t really know the rules but I think each player gets a chance to take a penalty shot.

A penalty shot is pretty much a certain goal unless the shooter really messes up. He shoots from so close that if he can hit an empty spot he is pretty certain to get it in. After the penalty shots it was 3-2 for us. While I am admittedly biased, Evan is the best player on the team in any position which also makes him the best goalie on the team. He has been playing longer, has more experience and has played in more competitions than any other player they have. This meant that Evan was the goalie. While all his saves were amazing, one of his saves was truly spectacular.

The goalie parks in the middle of the net and isn’t allowed to move until the shooter hits the ball. Normally they move the chair forward or backwards to block the ball, but this time, as soon as the shooter touched the ball he circled his chair around and smacked the ball away.

Check out this link.

 

So that was the tournament, our 1-4 record really doesn’t represent how well we played. In any case, it was a great experience.

And Canada definitely had the biggest and best group of fans.

While the purpose of the trip was to watch Evan play, we did have our day with Bens family on Saturday and celebrated several belated birthdays with Kira’s family.

The sweater that Cameron has is a funny story. They were at our house one day and Cameron found this sweater of Lisa’s. He thought it made a wonderful cape and wore it the whole time he was there. He did not leave it behind willingly. Mom decided it would make a good birthday gift and he loves it.

----------trivia----------

The human mind isn't meant to be awake after midnight. It is thought that evolution has caused us to be suspicious, uneasy, restless and paranoid after midnight. That helped us to stay alive when we were hunted by nocturnal predators. 

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American Powerchair Football Confederation APFC

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Friday when Lisa got home from work, we loaded up the van and headed to Arizona to watch Evan play in the APFC qualifying tournament to see which countries would be playing in the FIPFA world cup tournament in Argentina next year. It was an amazing weekend.

With Arizona now being an hour ahead of us, and our late start it was around midnight when we got to Bens, so we hugged and kissed our son and headed to bed.

We wanted to get a temple session in so we got up early to head to the Gilbert Temple. In the wee hours of the morning when I opened the bedroom door I was startled to see this cute little girl acting all shy standing right in front of the door. She looked unsure of what to do but when I knelt down and said come give me a hugged she was instantly in my arms. By the time we got out the door all the kids were up and giving us hugs. It is so fun to be greated like this.

We were back around 9:00 and of course the first thing I wanted was a tour of Bens yard. It is amazing what he has accomplished while working full time, raising three kids of his own and three additional kids that he has invited into his home. It wasn’t long ago that his back yard was a barren dirt patch and in a short time he has;

· leveled it,
· installed a sprinkler system,
· planted a lawn,
· planted trees and vines,
· built a beautiful garden bed,
· planted it with many flourishing plants,
· prepped the space for several more garden beds,
· built a first class chicken coop that matches his house,
· raised several chickens that keep him and several others in a constant supply of eggs,
· built a tortois house.

While he has accomplished a lot, he has many more projects ahead of him. I love following his progress.

Saturday was a day to play with grandkids. Kit decided that we needed to play with her new scooter. I wasn’t terribly excited about chasing her around on her scooter but then I saw a powered scooter sitting in the garage and decided that would make it a lot more fun. That girl travelled all around the neighborhood and it was a lot of fun. When Kit was tired of the scooter, the boys wanted to head to the park.

We played around on the playground equipment for a while and then a neighborhood friend showed up and they wanted me to join in a game of tag. That would have been fun but the rules kept changing and it was pretty hard to catch them all. Of course, I was the first one “it” (or as they called it, I was the “tagger”) and it was me and Kit against the three of them. It was some variation of frozen tag where if we tagged them they were frozen but then one of their team mates could free them.

The neighbor kids mother came and took him away so then it was the merry-go-round. They love that.

Kira came over for breakfast (Justin was at work) and then she left the kids with us while she took Evan to be classified. In these competitions each player is classfied according to their abilities. If you are severely dissabled, you are classfied as a 1, if you have more abilities you are a 2 and if you have pretty good mobility then you are a 3.

A team can only have 6 points on the floor at a time, so you want really good players who are 1’s. You can have 5 good players on the floor. You can have one 2 player but if you have two 2’s then you would have to play short handed. You wouldn’t do that unless those two players are really good. Evan was classfied as a 1.

Later in the day we somehow ended up dancing. Actually, Zanee,

Kit,

and Cameron ended up dancing.

We then headed to Scottsdale to watch a light show. The best part of the light show were some flames they have in a canal but the show started at 6:30. We got out of the house late so we missed that, but once we got there we learned that they repeat the show at 7:30 and then again at 8:30.

They had lots of cool things to see, so decided to walk around and check them out and then see what time it was. By the time we all got parked and met up it was already nearly seven so I figured it would work out well.

The whole show took place along both sides of a canal and they were quite fascinating. I don’t think we saw everything, but here are a few pictures of some of them.

One booth had clothing that lit up and changed colors if you passed polarizing lens’s over them.

There was a giant face hanging in the air and you could stand in front of a camera and your face would appear in the sky.

Here is Zanee and Kit making music on some fancy synthesizer. 

There were several others as well. By the time we made it back to where we started it was 7:30 so we hung out and waited for the show. It was quite amazing. We were able to be right up front and center.

By the time we got home we were all tired so we visited briefly, watched a TV show and went to bed.

--------------------trivia--------------------

Canada is the only country that has an island in a lake 

on an island in a lake on an island in a lake. 

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Missionary Journal - 11 June 1978 Sunday

11 June 1978 Sunday

Today has been great. In conference this morning everyone got quite a pleasant surpise. Pres Brim read an annoucement from President Spencer W. Kimball saying that the priesthood is for all worthy men regardless of race or skin colour. That will say that the negros can now receive the priesthood.

When he announced that, I was just overwhelmed by the Holy Ghost. That was a real conviction for me that it is from God. For the rest of the meeting I was in quite a daze. It was another step up in my testimoney of a living profet who speaks with God.

After the meeting we hurried home and went to our dinner appointment with that family from Hungary. The husband works from 5:00 – 10:00 so we saw him ride away on his brommer [as we we] walked down the sidewalk. It was a delicious meal & 2 of her other dughters came also to eat (married & with noisy kids) but no other men. Afterward I prepared a roast for the other two to cook during sacrament meeting.

Sacrament meeting was also alright but we didn’t have any investigaors (Mw. Eerdekens was to Conference)(That conference was Gent district).

Tonight we had our appointment with that family of ten kids. The sad part is that the father is not interested and wasn’t there & the daughter[s] with who we talked are crazy about us. The mother likes us too. Hugo was there also but his wife is in the hospital (one of the daughters). We talked to Mw DeLange, Margriet, Hilde, Anna, Angela, Johan, Hugo (married Lieve) & also a friend that they had there. Hilde is the best looking one and is 17 years old. We shared a GTL & got a return for a G.A. but things arent looking very positive. The girls still love us though.

The days have been a little cooler lately but still warm enough that we don’t need an overcoat.

A quick visit from Justin

Thursday, November 13, 2025

Evan is currently attending college on-line, but is living in Auburn, Alabama, so he can train with the Auburn University’s Power Soccer team. Griffin (Ally’s oldest child, is living with him as his trainer. It appears to be working out great for both of them.

While Evan is on the Auburn University’s power soccer team, he is also on Team Canada. The American Powerchair Football Confederation (APFC) qualifications begin on Sunday and fortunately for us they are taking place in Phoenix. The countries competing are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, United States and Uruguay. The top three teams from these qualification rounds will then compete in the world competition in Argentina next September. The world group is called the Federation International of Powerchair Football Association (FIPFA).

Evan arrived home yesterday but the only wheel chair van is back in Auburn. They have bought a new van that Evan will be able to drive, but it isn’t finished yet and Evan still needs a few more hours of driving before he gets his license anyway. We still have the old van that Justin bought years ago so Justin flew out Monday night and drove the van home Tuesday.

Monday is our dance class, so Justin got here early enough to join us for our class. Not surprisingly, he is a natural. The way Scottish Country Dancing works is that there are a hundred or so formations and several of these formations can be put together to make a dance. This means that there are billions of potential dances. A dance typically has seven or eight formations and the hard part for me is remembering which formation comes next. Justin remembered all the formations after seeing them once. It was his first day so his steps were a bit funky but you know Justin and he gave it his best shot. He was amazing.

We get several visitors to the class and while our instructor recognizes and gives special attention to all of them, she has never had the class applaud them at the end of the class. She had us all applaud Justin. Because we are near the end of the session, Jean (our instructor) suggested to the last visitors that they come back in January when the class starts over again. On Monday at the end of the class she came up to Justin and told him that he is welcome in her class anytime. It was a fun evening.

Tuesday morning, we had a nice and relaxed breakfast and then we sent Justin on his way with a hug and a kiss. It was so much fun having him here.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The oldest Scottish country dance with a known tune and choreography is John Anderson my jo, found in a manuscript from 1704, though the style itself developed in the 1680s.

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