Arizona, Graduation, MCO & Football

Monday, May 4, 2026

On the weekend of April 18, we headed to Arizona. We had several reasons to go. We originally planned to go watch Kira play in the Millennial Choir & Orchestra and to celebrate Mariya’s graduation from high school.

As we were making plans, Ben mentioned that he was playing in a championship Flag Football game on Thursday evening. It has been a long time since we were able to see any of our kids participate in any kind of sport, so Lisa decided to take a half day off at work and Thursday (April 16) afternoon we headed to Arizona.

We arrived early enough that we were able to hang out with Ben and his kids for an hour or so and then we headed to his game.

We got to watch him play two games. His first game was a semi final game and if they didn’t win it then there would be no second game. I don’t remember the score, but they won a lot to a little. Ben’s team is in division A.

Ben played amazingly well. That is saying something because he is the old man on the team. He is the second oldest player. The oldest player is an excellent thrower, so he plays quarterback, but he never runs. Ben is the receiver. They do have him protect the quarterback sometimes because he is one of the bigger players as well.

The second game was a lot scarier. They played well the entire time, but they were tied for most of the game. Bens’ team came through with two touch downs in the last minutes of the game.

Click here to watch Ben in Action

Friday morning, Lisa and I headed to the temple to do some sealings and then we went to watch Ben do his thing. Ben manages and leases commercial property. Saturday morning he showed a 20,000 ft2 space to a customer. It was extra special because the customer he was showing the space to was Sharley and Taylor’s wedding venue business. They are thinking of expanding their business and are looking for space to do it. This space was formerly a restaurant and (in my unprofessional opinion) looks ideal for what they want.

At one point Ben and I were checking out the service elevator. It looked a little sketchy, but the door opened properly so we decided to go for a ride. The doors closed and then nothing happened. We were stuck in there for a good fifteen minutes or longer. We tried to pry the doors open like they do in the movies, but they were not going to budge unless we had a prybar. I considered climbing through the hatch in the ceiling, but it was locked.

I suggested that Ben call the owner, but he was too embarrassed to tell the owner that we were stuck in his elevator. We finally gave up and called the fire department. Almost immediately after calling the fire department the doors just randomly opened without us doing anything. It was crazy.

It was about lunch time, so we then headed to “Lil Miss BBQ”. It was perhaps the best barbecue I’ve ever had. Ben and I shared a half pound of brisket and one beef rib. I ate way too much but it was amazing.

Friday evening was Kira’s concert. This year is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the USA and the concert was all patriotically themed. I thought it was amazing and I think I enjoyed it more than any of the others. Everyone loved it but I think I was the only one who thought it was their best.

Thomas and Vickey also came up from Tucson to watch Kira, and Camerons new aid also came with her daughter.

Following the concert Justin took us all to a Taco & Sushi restaurant. That is a very weird combination, but it turned out to be quite good. After gorging myself at “Lil Miss BBQ” I now gorged myself on tacos and sushi. It was great but I made sure a couple of tums were sitting on the bed table that night.

Saturday morning Lisa and I did some initiatories and then Kira and her family joined us to do some temple baptisms. It was quite special. Landon baptized me and then I baptized him. 

We have two grandchildren graduating this spring, Mariya and Sydney. Unfortunately, Mariya’s graduation is later in the day on May 21, and Sydney’s graduation is earlier on May 22 and we couldn’t find any flights to allow us to go to both. We decided to take Mariya out to lunch and celebrate her graduation early. She seemed to be content with that.

We dropped Mariya off and on our way back to Kira’s, Lisa wanted to stop at a couple of antique stores. I normally find these places completely boring but at one of the two stores we stopped at, I found this little steam engine. It is exactly like the little steam engine I had when I was a kid. I loved that little guy.

Sunday, we went to church with Kira’s family and Kira surprised us by playing her Oboe in church. I forget what song it was, but it was beautiful. A sister missionary with an amazing voice sang a solo accompanied by a pianist and Kira on her Oboe.

After church Ben came over with his kids and we all celebrated Piper’s birthday and Stacy’s birthday. After the party we headed home.

I love it when I can spend time with my kids and grandkids.

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

The harm windmills do to birds is a myth. 

For every bird that dies by a windmill:

    400 die from powerlines

    1,500 are killed by cars

    10,000 die from glass windows

    20,000 die from cats    

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Sam’s Ankle

Thursday, April 30, 2026

The Monday before Alex’s accident (4/20/2026) Sam had surgery on his ankle. It kind of got overshadowed by the Alex’s accident. When Sam was training for the Wyomeng Highway Patrol he injured his ankle. It was bad, but if he reported the injury he would have been let go from the program. He chose to continue training on a bad ankle.

To make a long story short, Sam made it into the program but a few years later his ankel was so bad that he needed surgery on it. He had to sue the WHP to have them cover the injury. He won the law suit and was garanteed that all medical procedures for that injury would be covered for the rest of his life. At the time of his surgery he was told that the bones in his ankel would eventually need to be fused. That day has now come.

His surgery went well. It was supposed to last an hour and a half but ended up taking two and a half hours. They fused three out of four joints. Initially they thought they would only be fusing two joints. They used bone, bone marrow, and fascia from two different cadavers.

He is looking at a very long recovery. It could be up to a year before he is fully healed. They are looking for a desk job for him, but there is no guarantee. Right now, their future is up in the air. He could end up taking an early medical retirement and looking for a new career. They are in our prayers.

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

A good eight hour sleep is a modern concept. Before oil and gas lamps became popular in the 1700's people went to bed at sunset and then woke up for an hour or so around midnight. As far back as ancient Greece, Homer and Virgil refer to a "first sleep" and a "second sleep." Records from Africa, Asia, Europe and others refer to a similar sleep schdule.  The hour break at midnight was usually put to good use to stir the fire, check on animals, meditating or other "intimate" activities. This is one of the reasons many people still routinely wake up in the middle of the night and wonder why.

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Alex’s Car Accident

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Last Wednesday as we were packing the car to head to Arizona, Queen Lisa received a frantic call from Princess Lisa. Alex had been at a game night at a friend’s house in Salt Lake and she was talking to him as he was driving home. Suddenly Alex gasped “OH CRAP” followed by a horrific noise and then the line went dead. She tried calling him back, but he wasn’t answering his phone.

The Princess called the Queen and the Queen told her to call one of the guys he was playing games with, but Princess didn’t know any of their phone numbers. The Queen then asked her if she knew any of the wives’ phone numbers and she did know the number of one of the wives. A couple of the guys and their wives headed out to Alex’s rescue.

Alex was only a few minutes out from his friends’ house heading down a major road at 65 to 70 mph, the speed limit was 65. A big SUV coming 65 to 70 mph from the left didn’t realize she had a red light and went right through the light. The SUV’s right head light nailed Alex’s car in his left headlight. Alex did of course hit the brakes and while that was far too little and far too late to make much of a difference in the impact, it may have saved his life because the SUV may have nailed him right in his door if he hadn’t hit the brakes. From the pictures it is clear that an impact on the driver’s door may well have been fatal.

A bystander helped Alex out of the passenger door and the most obvious pain Alex was suffering from was his jaw. Alex knew it wasn’t life threatening so when the paramedics got there, he told them to go check out the other driver first. She was an older sister missionary. The paramedics did go and check her out and then never came back to check Alex out. He could easily have internal bleeding that could have quickly become very serious. At the very least, an ice pack for his jaw would have helped a lot.

At one point, Alex walked over to the senior missionary and gave her a hug and told her that everything would be fine.

Alex’s friends hauled him off to a hospital close to his house and then they went and watched the kids so Lisa could come to the hospital and be with Alex. It was a long night for all of them and for us too because Queen Lisa wasn’t going to bed until they had confirmed that there was no internal bleeding.

The next day a whole slew of new bruises showed up all over Alex’s body; mostly his left leg and around his waist where the seatbelt saved his life. His ribs are also quite painful as well. This is a picture of his left leg after the bruising has faded somewhat.

Lisa took him to an oral surgeon to check out his teeth, and it turns out that he has a fractured jaw. The surgeon told Alex that if it wasn’t for the permanent retainer that he has across his four front bottom teeth he would probably have lost all those teeth. I guess the money we paid for those braces was worth it.

A day or two later Alex had a wire attached across the front and the back of his teeth. The wire acts like a cast on his jaw to hold it in place while it heals. It will be there for four to six weeks. During much of that time he is on a soft food diet.

Alex is still in a lot of pain but is healing fast. Everyone who sees him, including the paramedics, the emergency room doctors and his regular doctors, can’t believe that he wasn’t more seriously injured. Many miracles happened that day and we know that the Lord is keeping him around for a reason. We are all very grateful.

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

In world war 2 Nicholas Alkemade was in plane that was hit by shrapnel. His plane was literally a giant fireball and he chose to jump out without a parachute instead of burning. He fell 18,000 feet and survived because he hit some pine trees and deep snow.

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Uncle Merlin

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

This morning Kira sent me a link to a story about Uncle Merlin. Of all my aunts and uncles, Uncle Merlin and Aunt Nola were always closest to me. After my parents passed away I kind of adopted them as my surrogate parents and they were happy to accept the job. They were like grandparents to my kids but unfortunately, only my older kids got to know Uncle Merlin well before he passed.

This was posted on Instagram

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Have you heard the story of when Elder Packer told another General Authority he needed more faith?

Elder Lybbert of the Seventy was serving as Area President of Asia. Back-to-back emergencies—a mission president imprisoned, missionaries lost in Korea—had left him running on empty.

Elder Lybbert showed up at a stake conference in Taiwan completely exhausted. Then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks took one look at him and sent him back to the hotel to rest.

When Elder Oaks later shared the experience with Elder Boyd K. Packer, Elder Packer said: “The next time you see Elder Lybbert, tell him he needs to have more faith.” And then Elder Packer told Elder Oaks what he meant by that.

At the next General Conference, Elder Oaks pulled Elder Lybbert aside and delivered the message: “You need to have more faith.”

Elder Lybbert was astonished. “How can I work any harder than I already am?” “Exactly,” said Elder Oaks.

Then he explained what Elder Packer meant.
Elder Packer wasn’t saying to do more. True faith is understanding that the Lord expects a reasonable effort and then we trust that He will get His work done.

“Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” — D&C 123:17

This is what Jethro taught Moses. Moses was doing righteous work but carrying it all alone. Jethro’s counsel wasn’t to work harder. It was to trust God enough to share the load.

True faith isn’t always doing more. Sometimes the way to have more faith is to do less and trust God more.

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To give credit where it is due, I have since learned the background behind this story. While this story is known within Uncle Merlin’s family, it is not recorded anywhere outside his family. Dale Renland (Uncle Merlin’s son-law) shared the story at a couple of training meetings he was involved in and John Hilton III (a popular blogger) attended one of those meetings. With Dales’ permission he shared it on Instagram.

The Pillar Letter

Wednesday, April 2, 2026

Last weekend I finally got the house and the pillar in our front yard ready to stucco. As I was screwing down the boards on the pillar I thought how this space has not seen daylight for nearly forty years and it will probably be another forty years (or more) before it sees daylight again. That is when I decided that I had to leave something in that space. I couldn’t think of anything meaningful to put in there so I decided to write a letter. I put in a hard copy of the letter along with a USB drive with a copy of the letter and a bunch of pictures of our yard showing how it has changed over the years and how much fun we’ve had in our yard during that time. Here is a copy of the letter.

April 6, 2016
Fred & Lisa Leavitt
13445 Thunderhead St
San Diego, CA 92129

858-761-1990

Re: The Pillar

Hi,

My name is Fred Leavitt and my wife is Lisa Leavitt. The stucco on this pillar has been flaking off for ten years or more. I’ve repaired it myself and I have had it professionally repaired but it keeps flaking off. A few weeks ago, I was repairing the sprinkler valves near the front of the house and at one point I leaned onto the house, and my shoulder went right through the stucco. That is when I decided it was time to take care of this. I repaired the house first and got it ready for stucco because I didn’t want any wildlife to make a home in the wall and now, I’m preparing the pillar for stucco.

As I was closing up the pillar it occurred to me that this cavity hasn’t seen daylight for nearly forty years, and it might not see daylight for another forty years. I thought I should put something inside the pillar for when the pillar is opened again. Kind of like a time capsule. As I was trying to think of what to put in here, I decided that I would like to share with you how much this home has meant to our family. If you’re reading this, it either means that I did a lousy job of repairing the pillar and you are redoing it, or our home has lived its life and is now being demolished. That would make me sad.

Our family moved to San Diego from Alberta, Canada in July of 1992. We rented in the area until we bought this house in February 1995. As far as I know, this house was built in 1988 and whoever lived here must have loved it as much as we do because the yard and home were immaculate and beautiful when we bought it. We moved our young family into this home, and it is the home that they grew up in. When we moved in, our youngest child was only a year and a half old and our oldest was twelve. Here is a list of our family at that time.

Frederick Arlen Leavitt born Aug 12, 1958
Lisa Gay Leavitt (Shaw) born Jul 5, 1963

Kira Anne Leavitt, born Sep 2, 1982
Brandon James Leavitt born Jun 2, 1984
Benjamin Scott Leavitt born Feb 25, 1986
Alycia Grayce Leavitt born Feb 3, 1989
Alexander Thomas Leavitt born Mar 12, 1991
Sarah Christine Leavitt born Aug 24, 1993

Sarah is the only child born here in the US. The older five kids were born in Canada. We all have dual citizenship. Here is a picture of our family when the kids were still young. We are sitting on the steps leading to our deck.

Our yard was a big part of our family’s life. We played out there all the time and, in the canyon, as well. I always said that with the canyon, we had the largest backyard in the city. We had parties out there, weddings, family gatherings, sleepovers, we ate several meals in the yard, the yard was simply another room in our home.

Inevitably our family grew, it wasn’t long before Kira headed off to college. On the previous page is a family picture taken around that time. You can see the big fig tree behind us.

We loved that fig tree, but it is what eventually led to a dramatic change in our yard. As our kids grew, the yard grew as well. I wasn’t good at keeping the bushes trimmed and the tree completely overtook our yard. The trees shallow roots cracked our patio and became trip hazards in the grass. I say grass but the grass was dead because it never saw the sun. The huge canopy of the tree covered our entire yard. The tree had to go. Ben helped me take it down in 2016.

Our deck was also a victim of time. The beautiful cedar began to rot, and termites made the deck boards dangerous to the point that I wouldn’t let anyone on the deck. While quarantined during covid I tore down the old deck leaving only the foundation and rebuilt it. It is quite beautiful if I do say so myself.

With a new deck, we also had to redo the yard. The yard still isn’t finished but, in this picture, you can see what we’re going for. 

The hill on this side of the yard kept slumping down. In fact, it slumped so much that our lemon tree is now tilted. It looks funny, but that lemon tree is amazing.

When we moved into the house the previous owners had a lemon tree, an orange tree, a grapefruit tree and a lime tree all along that side of the yard. I was too busy and distracted to take care of them properly so before I got my act together, the trees were all dead except the lemon tree. The lemon is a Meyer lemon, and it is an amazing tree. It bears the most delicious lemons all year round. We have come to love lemonade.

This leads to why I am now repairing my pillar. I want to extend that wall you see all the way to the front sidewalk. To do that I had to do a little bit of work in the front yard. Without getting into the details, that required me to move the sprinkler valves in the front yard and at one point when I leaned against the house, my shoulder went right through the wall. That was quite alarming.

As I said earlier, the stucco on the pillar started failing shortly after we moved into the house back in 1995. Every picture I can find of the pillar shows the stucco flaking off. Repairs didn’t fix it and it was now so bad that there were holes in it. I knew I had to peel the stucco all off and fix whatever the problem was. With a hole in the house as well as a hole in the pillar it was time to do just that. We fixed the house first and it is ready for stucco and I am now preparing the pillar for stucco. We fixed the house first because I didn’t want the wildlife to make a home in my walls. I haven’t put the stucco on yet, but it is ready for it. I am now preparing the pillar for stucco.

I think the stucco failed early for two reasons. First, whoever applied this stucco didn’t have any backing board. They applied the stucco directly onto the wire and tar paper with nothing behind it. Secondly, the sprinklers must have been hitting both spots causing the wire to rust over time. As the wire rusts, it expands causing the stucco to spall off. There was no wire and only about 1/8” of stucco left.

We took out the bushes growing up against the house and I adjusted the sprinklers shortly after we moved in but the previous owners must have allowed the walls to get wet for years and by the time I fixed it, the damage was done. I now have the pillar closed up and I will leave this letter and a USB drive with lots of pictures in here for you to find.

It is not likely that Lisa and I are going to be around when this letter is found but maybe you can track down some of my kids and share this letter with them. I have no idea where they will be when you read this, but here is our contact information as of today.

(because this blog is public the contact information has been removed)

Fred 
Lisa 
Kira
Brandon
Ben
Alycia
Alex
Sarah

It seems unlikely that any of my kids will be at the same address, but there is a good chance that their email addresses will not change.

Our family has now grown to the point that we have six kids who are all married, and twenty seven grandchildren.

Kira & Justin Palmer have two boys and two girls.
Brandon & Ally Leavitt have nine kids. Six of Brandons and three of Ally’s.
Ben and Sharley Leavitt have two boys and a girl and three foster girls.
Alycia & Trevor Crowley have two boys and two girls
Alex & Lisa Leavitt have a boy and a girl.
Sarah & Sam Taylor have a boy and a girl.

I would love to include a family picture of all these people, but so far, we can’t get them all in the same place at the same time. Instead, I will include this picture of our six kids as young adults.

So, there you have it. This home has created many wonderful memories.

Fred & Lisa Leavitt

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

The average lifespan of a modern American home is generally 70–100 years,

though many can last much longer with consistent maintenance.

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Missionary Journal - 28 June 1978 Wednesday

28 June 1978 Wednesday

We spent most of this morning answering questions which Lizion sent us from Morroco. She has some Amercan friends who have an antimormon book. Afer we got tired of that we went out. We had appts. with Blommaerts and Delanges. The one with Blommaerts didn’t go through so we hit up a few doors tracting and made an appointment for tonight and then went to Delanges. Mw Delanges daughter in law was there with her baby so we couldn’t teach. All of their daughters friends were there also so there was quite a bit of confusion going on.

Hilde was also in a bad mood. Elder Reber and I have made a mistake I think because we have gotten to[o] close to those girls in a way that is inappropriate for missionaries. They more or less expect it from us now and also I think the father has the wrong ideas about us now. I think he has the idea that we came to see his daughters instead of him. Elder Anderson did a good job of getting us back on the right track today.

After the daughter in law left, He and Mw Delange started talking about a ster [I think this was Dutch name for the Ensign, it means “star”] that we had left behind. She really has a lot of interest. We really have to work on getting the image of missionarys from the Church of Jesus Christ in their home. After dinner we taught Mr. Delaby with whom we had made that appointment. Him and his wife are older people but are real nice. Jan Sneyers appt. didn’t go through but we did teach a policeman, his wife and daughter. He was real friendy. He & his daughter don’t believe in God but his wife does. His wife did really want us to come back but he did[n’t]. His name is Mr Pir and we have seen him quite a bit in Vivloorde. I look forward to teaching them.

Artemis

Wednesday, April 2, 2026

Yesterday the Artemis rocket launched, and human beings headed back to the moon for the first time in 54 years. The last time we went to the moon was Dec 11, 1972. I was fourteen years old. Today’s flight is a big deal.

We won’t be landing on the moon on this trip, but we will be going further from earth than anyone has gone before. The trip will take ten days, and the crew includes a woman, a black man, a Canadian and an American man. They did their best to make this a multicultural and multinational event. I think that is good.

Yesterday the Artemis’s main engines along with two solid rocket boosters got the crew into orbit and then the boosters dropped off. The main engines boosted the capsule into a low earth orbit and then it dropped off. The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), basically the second stage, then boosted the capsule into a high earth orbit and then it dropped off. This burn is called the perigee burn because it is done at the perigee of the low earth orbit. The perigee is the lowest point of the orbit. Once the ship reaches the apogee of the orbit (the highest point) an apogee burn is made to keep it there. They will then wait a day to check everything out. This afternoon the European service module will do a translunar injection (TLI) burn to send the crew towards the moon.

No more burns are needed to get to the moon and back. The Orion will now “fall” to the moon. This will take about four days. It will then circle around the far side of the moon passing a little over 4,000 miles above the moon’s surface. The moon’s gravity will have increased the velocity of the Orion so much that it can’t stay in orbit around the moon but will now fling back towards earth. On the way back to earth some burns will be made to adjust the course of the Orion.

The Orion capsule will then separate from the service module and splash down about fifty miles from my house. I missed it when the last SpaceX capsule with the sick astronaut from the space station landed here but you can bet I’ll be watching for the Orion. Splash Down is expected to be next Tuesday, April 10. No one is mentioning a time yet but I’ll be watching.

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

The astonaught will be an inch or two taller 

when they get home than they were when they left. 

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