"The more I practice, the luckier I get."

Quote attributed to Jack Nicklaus on being complimented on a lucky shot he made while golfing.

Well, I had a first last week... I led the singing AND spoke. You may pooh-pooh this, saying, "Oh that's nothing, Leilani, you wimp!" But wait! There's more!

This was at special meeting. With a wireless microphone. At Cheyenne. And lest this mean little or nothing to you, 'at Cheyenne' should bring to your mind an image of the stage from which you speak... which is at least 200 or more (I stink at mental measurement) feet long. So not only am I sitting in the front row, off the stage, in approximately the middle, singing my little lungs out; but I have to drop the mike, charge across the stage, remember what I had to say, then race back and snatch up the mike while John was patiently hovering waiting to announce the next hymn.

Pantpantpant.

special mtgs

Cheyenne - Nov 29

Pine Bluffs - Dec 2

Torrington - Dec 6

Lusk - Dec 9

Gillette - Dec 13

Buffalo - Dec 16

Sheridan - Dec 20

Then I go out to Oregon - Jan 1 - 17.

BEAR

(so sorry, Jen!)

Well.  

Where to start?  At the (almost) end, I think.  

Monday, a few mondays ago, Nichole and I set out to Dillon on our way to Yellowstone on our way to Billings on my way to *drumroll* Wyoming!

We drove south, through Centennial valley (where are supposed to live many moose, but they are of the mythical variety, as we saw nary a one.)  But it is a beautiful drive none-the-less, and Nichole and I saw several houses we would be quite happy to live in.  We finally decided on one in particular, and happily divvied it up between ourselves as we drove past.

Then we got stuck behind a cattle drive.  This has happened to me once or twice before - cows walk exceedingly slowly, if you weren't aware of it.  We gave up at last, shut the car off, and sat in the road waiting for them to get far enough ahead that it was worthwhile driving after.  Good thing we were on a not-very-traveled gravel road!  No one came along to honk at us for hogging the road until the cows turned off and we were gone. 

Yellowstone was gorgeous.  We went in at the west entrance, and down to Grant Village.  Along the Madison River (I think that's the right one?) we saw quite a few elk, but only one bull.  He was quite the patriarch though - I think he had 6 points on each side.  We stopped to see Old Faithful, and found we were only about 20-30 min ahead of when it was scheduled to erupt, so decided to stay and watch it.  (This decision had Consequences, I will tell you, but such is life.)

Then on to our campground.  Consequence #1 was that we didn't get there until it was dark.  We were informed at the gate that there was a grizzly who had made this area part of his or her territory, and to be extra cautious about anything smelly in tents.  We promptly decided to follow the rules to the hilt, and didn't leave anything in the tent at all except our two selves, our sleeping bags and our air mattresses.  We didn't even eat in it, for fear of stray grizzly-attracting crumbs.  

Consequence #2, arising from Consequence #1, was that we decided to turn our car lights onto our campsite, and set the tent up in their light.  After about 20 minutes spent putting together poles and threading them through nylon tunnels, we retired to the car to plot our next move, noticed the lights looked dim, and discovered Consequence #3.  Our battery was not in the flush of its strength, and had gone dead. Consequence #4 has been alluded to above.  We set up the tent by flashlight.  Thankfully, it wasn't complicated.  Consequence #5 was that we didn't get to have a campfire, having neither matches nor car to go and get firewood from the ranger station.  Consequence #6 was that we went to bed early.  This one might be a good one... it would have been, surely, if I'd gotten any sleep!  

I can't say that getting no sleep was a consequence of having stopped to wait for Old Faithful.  Nor was it a consequence of learning there were grizzlies prowling our campground.  I had successfully convinced myself there was nothing to fear from a bear - everyone around us had a campfire, and any grizzly who wanted to come wandering past would have to dodge a maze of smoke and fire with nothing tasty-smelling at the end of it all.  However... the elk kept me awake.  They started bugling at about 11 pm, kept it up until about 12:30, stopped, then started up again around 2 am.  It was gorgeous.  Really it was.  It sounded like there was one about 200 yrds to the north of us, and one 200 yrds to the south of us, and they were calling back and forth to each other.  But it would have been a lot more gorgeous if I hadn't wanted just to Go To Sleep.  

Consequence #... 7!  We got quite a nice amt of exercise bright and shivery early Tuesday morning!  No one nearby us had jumper cables so we got to walk out to the service station.  It was at /least/ 700 miles, I'm sure.  (Ok, ok, only probably 1.5.  I think.  Not sure.)  The rest of the day went much better.  We went to see the mud pots, stopped at several of the prismatic springs, and zipped on out the east entrance towards Cody - and saw a grizzly bear!  Right along side the road.  I got a picture of him from about 20 ft away.  That was very exciting.

The rest of the trip is dull by comparison.  Got to Billings, headed on to Buffalo, ate brownies, arrived in Torrington, and now am awaiting Laurel's arrival.

K, here are my two favorite quotes for the week.

"We have enough youth!  How about a fountain of wisdom?"

"Don't become like other people.  There are enough other people in the world already!"

Della had never yet seen a rodeo, so when we saw that the fair in Twin Bridges was going on this week, and that tonight was the Ranch-hands Rodeo, of course, we had to go! 

In order to enter the rodeo, you had to be working for a ranch in the three neighboring counties here.  So it was the Real Thing.  At least mostly.  I some how doubt that Wild Cow Milking comes under your normal everyday ranching duties!  

There were about 15 teams of 4 cowboys each entered; and they raced (on horseback, of course) after cows in a pen to separate out their specified one and rope it and brand it with lime, and let it go again;  raced after cows in the arena to rope it and catch its nose and tail and milk it (you had to have enough milk to pour after you'd raced over to the judge in the pen); raced after cows to rope them and throw them and give them a 'shot' (marked on the head with a pen) and let them go again; and raced after cows to rope them and haul them into a trailer.  Then you had to get all four of your horses in the trailer with the cow, all your ropes /out/ of the trailer, and your four selves into the cab of the pickup.  This last one was my favorite.  

All in all, we had a great time. Oh, and we walked around the rest of the fair too, and ate funnel cakes (which if you never have had, you should!  Just once!) and admired the chickens and ducks and goose and pigs and cows and steers and goats and sheep and... Speaking of cows, there were some Scottish Highlander cattle, which I think should have gotten an award solely for the virtue of not being Angus.  We also saw some of the milk goat judging.  Did you know that milk goats are partially judged on their femininity?  I didn't.  So if you ever want to enter a goat in a fair to be judged, be sure to get out your curlers and little lace hankies and the like.  

Della took a little video clip on her camera, which I would post, if I could ever figure out how to do it.  :/  I thought I was doing it right, but it had taken over 3 hours and still wasn't uploaded - which /can't/ be right.  (And if it is, y'all will just have to live without videos!)

The Perseid Meteor Shower is tonight!  Go out and look!  No excuses, what?  It's cloudy?  Bah.  Go anyways, wimp!

I stayed out last night until about 12:15 - which was when the moon got so bright that you could hardly see the stars.  But we saw a good number before that, and one really really bright one that actually left a trail behind it of heated air.  That was cool.  So - planning to try again tonight, even though it's a bit cloudier.  

(I hope you all have noticed my gorgeous Beartooth Pass pictures in the slide show, as well as Nichole's moose!!)

It was so nice tonight; we had a little biblestudy with the family where we are staying.  They have a son who is 5 or 6, and a daughter who is around 9, and both children read with us.  The girl on her own, with a little help for the harder words.  And the mom read a couple words at a time of the boy's verse, and he repeated it after her.  It was so cute.  I've never seen anyone do it like that.  

HOORAY!  Nichole has seen a moose!  (and me and Della too).  See slideshow for details.

It was very exciting; Nichole has for a long time now asserted that moose were mythical creatures, along the lines of dragons or gargoyles.  And for her first sighting, not only did we see the creature, but it was a gorgeous bull, and not obscured by bushes or branches.  

:D 

Beartooth Pass. Mmmmmm. When I'm not on dial-up, I shall post pictures.  

We started keeping a list of what we'd seen in the way of living creatures, because there weren't very many!  

1 crow.

1 unidentified songbird, grey.

1 robin (heard, not seen)

several chipmunks, 1 very fat and greedy.

massive numbers of grasshoppers and butterflies.

Once we got into the park, things began to look up and we could add:

1 grizzly bear (!!)

several herds of bison

1 more crow

3 antelope resting in the rain

a very large herd of elk

a smaller herd of elk lounging on the courthouse lawn

an infestation of fishermen who were clearly scaring away all the moose

Up in Billings to see Stephanie off to Russia.   She leaves this evening at quarter to 5 or so.  Tomorrow, we're plotting getting up early (ugh) and driving through Yellowstone (woo!) on the way back to Dillon.  

This may require a trip over Beartooth Pass (hooray!!).

I haven't posted anything for, um, a really long time.  Probably nobody's even reading this anymore, because there's Never Anything To Read!

My excuse for the last two weeks is that I was at Darla and Michael's and waaaay too busy playing to be bothered.  (did it work??)

So anyways, we took a drive up into the mountains the other evening and saw two moose.  We also saw a bunch of cows, snags and stumps who were immoosinating.  Evil immoosinators!  Immoosination should be prohibited!

Three !s in one post... surely that makes up for 3 months of no posts?

Well, well, well, well.

Who knew that Alberta was such a font of reason and civilization?  Not me, for sure, but now that I do know, I am mightily impressed!

Breakfast, I will have you know, is at 8:00 before convention and at 7:30 during.  7:30!  What sanity!  What brilliance!  I still plan on sleeping through it, but it's the sheer wonder of the thing that has me in raptures.  I wonder if I can bring back with me any of the infectious air....

On the other hand - I am speaking twice.  This is not so civilized.  Some of the preps crew are not speaking at all, which would be highly civilized if I were on the preps crew.  As I am not, it is quite a barbaric custom.  

hooray for prunes!

For 15 years, Dr. Bahram Arjmandi has studied how our bodies react to certain foods. His latest study followed Jeffery and more than 100 other women to see if bone density could be improved just by adding dried plums or prunes to their diet.

"I have never seen anything this consistent that not only prevents bone loss but increases bone mass," says Bahram H. Arjmandi, Ph.D., R.D., Professor/Chair of the Department of Nutrition, Food and Sciences at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Dr. Arjmandi's several successful animal and human studies document that special phenolic compounds in dried plums up-regulate growth factors linked to bone formation (such as IGF-1) and counter the activity of factors that inhibit bone formation (such as TNF-alpha). It probably also helps that prunes are one of the foods highest in antioxidants and also contain generous amounts of various key bone nutrients including potassium, boron, and copper. While Dr. Arjmandi has found other natural substances capable of halting bone loss, prunes were the only food found to actually restore lost bone.

This summer Dr. Arjmandi and colleagues will complete a landmark, controlled human clinical trial on prunes and bone health. For this study, 120 post-menopausal women have been taking either 100 grams of prunes (9-10 a day) or an equivalent portion of dried apples for one year. While it will be a few more months before all the research data is in, thus far 30 women in the prune group have had at least a 6% increase in hip bone, and one woman had an exceptional 11% increase consuming prunes over the year. Preliminary data from a segment of research subjects found that all prune-eaters showed at least some improvement in bone mass by six months into the study.

Interesting, no?  Ladies - rev your engines!  Eat them prunes!

If you are inclined to join us, take Dr. Arjmandi's advice and start slowly with a few prunes a day, working up to the full 9-10 over time. I have found soaked or stewed prunes are easier to digest, and Dr. Arjmandi has found that prunes do not lead to either weight gain or increased blood sugar levels. Also they should help build new bone in men as well as women.

We read in Joshua 4 this morning, where the children of Israel crossed over Jordan.  A lot was mentioned about the 12 stones, and about telling your children what they meant.  I remember hearing how my parents (grandparent... great-grandparent...) heard the gospel - when I was young it was just like a story mom and dad told us.  An exciting one, too - I had the names of the two workers who came to my great-grandma memorized, I remember.  Still do, for that matter.

It's sunny today - at the moment.  Ha.  I hope it stays that way!  

donedonedonedonedone

Hooray!  I'm done!

I don't feel like writing anything, so I am putting up pictures instead. Enjoy!

Photo A:  Gopher whistling.

Photo B:  Yesterday in Conrad. Like the combo of dandelions and 5 ft drifts?

Photo C:  Norm and Joyce Benjamin's - out the front door Wednesday morning.

Photo D:  West Butte a few weeks ago, taken from the Gold Butte cemetary.

Photo E:  Yesterday in Great Falls.

Photo F:  Pelicans; yesterday in Conrad.  Did you know that pelicans fly in spirals?  I don't know if they always do this, but these were spiraling.  Not up like hawks do, but laterally.  One huge circle that overlapped the next huge circle that overlapped the next, and so on.  So that very slowly, they were moving north, though at approximately the same altitude.

Badgers!
They are the new cool thing.
Julia and I went out to the buffalo jump south of Great Falls a bit, and I walked along the cliff, and saw three badgers and a coyote. They were below me maybe 20 ft on a ledge that was about 20 ft wide; just enjoying themselves immensely. I'm pretty sure they didn't know I was there - the badgers, not the coyote. I don't know if he saw me or not; he got up and left but that could have been because of the badger heading straight for him.
If you ever see one, you will recognize it at once by how it runs - from behind, it looks like a flat, fur rug that undulates along. I thought 'raccoon' first, but the tail isn't striped.

Trains Are Good.
I shall enumerate:
* Cheap. * Comfortable. * Close to the scenery, and slow enough to enjoy it. * Good food. (A bit expensive, not what you'd want to be doing regularly, but not so outrageous that you can't splurge for a meal.) * Interesting people. * Train stations! Have you ever noticed the relative coolness factor between train stations and airports? Trains win hands down. * I will admit that it is hard to sleep in the seats, but there are beds available (ever seen a bunkbed on a plane or in your car?), and even if you stick to the seats, they're easier to sleep in than on the plane, and if you're driving, you'd better not be sleeping!

I took the train out to Washington for my grandmother's funeral, and thoroughly enjoyed the trip, both ways, minus one small portion at about midnight somewhere near Spokane when the Co-Passenger From The Netherworld Region of Your Choice had his light on and was talking on his cell phone MUCH too near me.

I left Shelby Monday evening and got into Seattle Tuesday morning. Scott picked me up, and we raced off to Michael's to pick up supplies for a picture board. In the afternoon, (after a nap...) we put it together. It ended up looking really nice, if I do say so myself. Wednesday was just a nice stay-at-home day with my bro. :) And Thursday morning, we picked up Brandon and headed south to Vancouver. The funeral was Friday afternoon and went quite nicely. My aunt, who is Mormon, wanted to sing one of their songs, so all the family (that is, all the family who felt up to singing) did that right at the beginning. I think it sounded quite nice; and then the whole congregation sang a hymn at the end. Jenith Hamon and Darryl Doland spoke. There was a bit of a glitch at the graveside... my aunt and my great-aunt both ended up being late! Auntie Anna got lost. But all ended well, no one got rained on much, and the lost were found. It was really nice to get to see so many Vancouver folks both at the funeral and the dinner following. I haven't seen them for years and years.

I spent Friday night at Mom and Dad's in Olympia, then had a quick-stop visit with Sara Stickland who's on her way back down to California for preps; and lunch with an old roomie in Seattle - and then Scott and I went to the Boeing Aviation Museum. That was fascinating. I wish we'd had more time. I would have liked to have spent a lot of time in the WWI and WWII exhibits. As it was, we dashed through the WWII one, and barely poked our heads into the WWI one. But I did get to see the original, unrestored, first fighter plane built - in Italy. The cloth of the wings has frayed, and some other things, but it is in remarkable condition. I hear that in Everett is the place where they do the actual restoration (lots of the planes; most of them, really, were either replicas or restored) and that is free. I have it on my list of things I'd like to do if I'm ever in the area. The museum in Seattle costs, but is worth every penny.

Then back on the train to come home (this is the segment with the Evil CellPhone User). I splurged for supper - had salmon and rice and vegies and chocolate HaagenDaz icecream. As a side note, did you know that Haagen Daz has absolutely no meaning at all? It just sounds good. I got in Sunday morning at 11:30 or so, had lunch and a nap, and drove to Great Falls (80 miles south) for gospel mtg at 3:30. Julia was just coming back from Plentywood, so it worked well for her to pick me up in Shelby. I am told that the meeting was very nice, but I haven't much idea what I said. ;) Or what Julia said either, for that matter, but I want it on the record that I did /not/ fall asleep!

THEN we had lunch with Gary Myers and his mom, which was great, even if I was about face-planting in my soup by that time.
I guess that's about it. Fade curtain with me sacked out in bed.

Money

This is very interesting, and somewhat scary, depending on your point of view.
I myself feel rather fatalistic - there's nothing I can do about it anyways, so I won't worry about it. But I do feel a bit better informed now.

The Beginning

Well, not the /true/ beginning.  I suppose the true beginning would have been when I saw a picture of a woven ribbon purse in a magazine and thought, "That's kind of cool, but I don't want a purse..."

But close enough!

ps.  This picture doesn't do justice to the colors.  I had to use the flash, and it always changes things. For the worse.  Take it from me, it's lots prettier in person.

Yes, cough, well.  I've been avoiding my blog.  Bad Leilani.

But now I have something fun and exciting to share, so I am back!  

**I am making a jacket for summer - this is semi-fairly-exciting, because I don't like to sew, and avoid it whenever possible.

**I am making the fabric to make said jacket out of - this is the really-fun-and-exciting part!  Aaaaand

**I am making it out of ribbons.  

My 'jacket' is currently spread out all over the living room floor.  Blessings on people who are kindly and generous with their space.  Pictures to follow, when I get some taken.

I thought I would make a collection of quotes of really bad grammar because of reading the following - but I haven't gotten far, because I keep forgetting.  So here is the one that started the whole thing off; and more may or may not follow.

You tell me - are Emus in need of more fields or of more forest???

"They [the emus] are suffering for lack of land being cleared for agricultural purposes."

In other, not nearly so interesting or confusing, news - I'm in Great Falls now.  The weather was gorgeous today - sunny and clear and about 50.  A bit different from Fort Benton yesterday, where it snowed all day, and never got above about 12.  S'all good.  :)