Christmas 2017

Started the Christmas season off right with a visit by Aunt Susie!

We enjoyed another wonderful holiday season in Edinburgh! We did our 25 days of Christmas every day, we invited various friends and ward members over for Christmas Eve dinner (which Tyler and the girls had to single-handedly prepare and serve and clean up since I was at the hospital for some antibiotics!) and then a really fun Christmas morning. Having little boys is so much fun! A big truck and some "pop's yellow cookies" and they are thrilled! We joined up with our Scottish Cousins the Freeds for a night in the city at the Christmas Markets. We ate our weight in bratwursts and crepes and rode rides and looked at all the beautiful goods on display. Since Christmas Eve was a Sunday, we had a special sacrament meeting and then a ward nativity which was really fun! All of our kids and of course Bishop Haws participated. I loved it!

A Scottish Friendsgiving

November offers some pretty views despite the chilly weather.

This is a big difference to Boise at this time of year...flowers still blooming in the pots on the doorsteps!










If there ever was a country that needed clothes dryers, Scotland is it! Unfortunately tumble dryers are a huge luxury here, and the older generation does not believe in them. So our neighbor, who has to be over 80, heads out whenever the rain lets up and puts her clothes on the line. Makes for a pretty picture, and freezing towels.

We had a Mexican "Cafe Euro" for Scottish Friendsgiving this year. All of the missionaries we have (12, and two senior sisters) in our ward right now happen to be American (usually there are quite a few British kids too) and so they requested Mexican food rather than turkey and trimmings. Fine by us! We ate too much, enjoyed the pumpkin cookies from Sister Call for dessert, and enjoyed Elder Worley's amazing piano skills in the parlor after dinner. (He just sat down and whipped out Claire de Lune by memory. The girls have crushes on him now.)


I'm happy that one of the perks of living abroad and having a Dad as Bishop, is that my kids will have so many memories of Missionaries being in our home, or the times hanging out at the mission home next to the church building, attending baptisms, and seeing the sacrifice these good people make to be away from their lives to serve the Lord. It's a Haws family tradition that Tyler got to enjoy when he was a kid, and it's sweet to experience.

This is my beautiful grandma when she was a young, stylish woman with her life ahead of her. She could not have imagined the ups and downs, the eight children and countless grandkids, the divorce and then second marriage later in life, a mission to Australia, or now in her 70's an uphill battle with cancer. But as I look at this lovely photograph, I think most of all she could not have imagined then how many people would love her over her lifetime. She lives selflessly day in and day out. She is everything good and gentle and strong and if I could end up 1/4 as wonderful, I'll consider myself lucky. 

 Wearing her purple hat that Caroline knit for her!

September 22, 2017: Salt Lake Tribune News Article by Brennan Smith. Orem LINK

Rows of quilts filled the wardhouse gymnasium, making a rainbow of patterns and colors. More spilled out into the hallway, hung on the walls alongside multiple lifetimes’ worth of clothes and heirlooms.
Over her lifetime, 77-year-old Nacele Hart has made hundreds of quilts for newborns, birthdays, anniversaries and special events, pouring love and creativity into each one. Friday was the self-taught quilter’s first show — a culmination of a goal she made a decade ago to stitch 100 more quilts.
She decided she’d imbue each with a message — a “life lesson or a principle of the Gospel or a song or something that was meaningful in my life” — and give them to family members.

It was a lofty goal at the time, having just returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Australia.
And then, 3½ years ago, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.
She kept quilting, crafting blankets for new great-grandchildren and adding to the colorful stacks in her home. Her children urged her to think about publicly displaying the quilts she’d made so far — there didn’t have to be 100.
After treatment and surgery to remove “anything they thought carried the cancer,” it seemed she had it beat.
But the cancer returned early this summer — this time, metastasized, aggressive and inoperable.

Hart lurched back to the beginning of the process, seeking treatment options, overcoming denial — and finishing the final two quilts in time to give them away.
“I just told her: ‘You don’t need to make those last two quilts,’” Hart’s daughter Sherry Crandall says. “But she did.”
On Friday, more than 100 of Hart’s quilts went on display for for friends, family and the community before being collected by their new owners.
Among the soft masterpieces on display: a farming-themed blanket, with John Deere tractors and strips of alternating crops. Several had patriotic motifs with stars, stripes and splashes of red, white and blue. Another had pockets sewn into it for doll clothing.
“I walked into the room and I felt the emotion, the love that she’s put into all of these quilts,” former neighbor Becky Thorpe says. “It brought tears to my eyes just seeing the impact that she’s made and the many hours of love that she’s spent making these quilts.”

First stitches

Hart, born in Garland, Utah, says some of her earliest memories are of drawing patterns and pictures of skirts and dresses she wanted her mother to sew for her.

“I kind of learned from her that you can make your own patterns and do your own thing,” she says.
She never took home economics.
“I didn’t think I’d like it,” she says.
But when she started sewing for herself and her family, making her first quilt at 22, “I just loved it.”
In the decades she spent raising children — her oldest is now 57, the youngest 32 — she made blankets, sewed clothes and even stitched doll quilts for her family. And she kept quilting as the family grew: Hart has 16 children, 59 grandchildren and 63 great-grandchildren.
Kamilla Sewell, one of Hart’s granddaughters, came down from Rexburg, Idaho, for the quilt show.

Hart has given her several quilts throughout her life. The stories and emotion tied to each quilt means more than the physical fabric, she says.
“That’s kind of what it is, it’s a piece of her,” Sewell says. “She’s always been a really big homemaker, and I love it. It’ll be good to have a piece of that in our home, too.”
‘You’re getting your quilt show’

On Thursday, Hart finished her 12th round of chemotherapy, out of a planned 18. Her treatment also includes a five-week radiation regimen, and surgery is a possibility.
“It’s kind of a long haul,” she says.
As her energy sapped further and further after each round of chemo, she found she couldn’t plan the quilt show herself.
But her kids wouldn’t let her cancel.

“They just said, ‘No, Mom. You’re getting your quilt show,’” she says. “They just took over.”
Neighbors also pitched in, helping Hart with the logistics of planning and printing out descriptions for each quilt.
“You don’t stop her, I’ll tell ya. She’s an amazing woman,” neighbor and friend Kathy Turner says. “Very strong and amazing lady.”
Finishing the last two quilts after Hart’s cancer returned required extra emotional and physical determination — but the singular goal helped distract her from the toll of treatment.
She named one of the final quilts “It’ll Be OK,” a tapestry of complicated stitching and blocks of color.
The final, 110th quilt is tiny, big enough to be used only by a child or to hang on the wall. It’s themed after Mesa Verde National Park, with swathes of squares bearing the park’s name surrounded by a line of pottery fabric.

In August, she put photos of the quilts online for her children — then, in descending age order, grandchildren, then great-grandchildren older than 8 — to choose from.
After each was claimed — a fairly smooth process, Hart says, with favorites rarely overlapping — she tagged each quilt with the intended recipient’s name and a special message.
Hart will hang on to one quilt, at her husband’s request.
“It’ll Be OK” will stay with her.
Leaving a legacy

Hart sees overlapping themes in her quilting mentality and her approach to cancer treatment. It’s a methodical march — counting down each round of chemotherapy until the projected end of the cycle, around Christmas.
Her focus on this final big project was guided by the desire to leave behind messages of hope, spirituality and family that would resonate in perpetuity, even if the seams eventually unravel.

“That helped me, thinking about that it was going to help somebody,” she says. “It’s kind of a legacy.”
Dar Willes, another of Hart’s daughters, says it’s “so rewarding” to see family members, neighbors and friends gather to celebrate her mother.
“She’s just so happy, and it means everything to us that she can see how much she’s loved,” Willes says.
As her loved ones walk away with their quilts, Hart says one message rises above the rest.
“If you just do things one stitch or one seam at a time, you can really accomplish a lot. In thinking about it, that’s kind of how I’ve gotten through life,” she says. “One seam at a time.”

Dear Joan,

You know what I miss from home? Our little wood burning fireplace. I miss having a cozy fire on cold days. Most nights back home in the winter after we'd put kids to bed, Tyler would build a fire just so we could sit by it together in the living room while we worked or read. Thankfully here lots of people are burning in their own so the air still smells "right" for winter to me!

Right now I'm listening to our bungalow ring with the notes of piano music once more. After a year off, three girls are now back at it with a nice university student named Jess teaching them. Grace is going straight for the jugular...Tyler told her that she can quit as soon as he can pick any hymn and she can sight read it. So, instead of choosing fun music or contemporary pieces for her to learn with her instructor, it's nothing but "How firm a foundation" and "Come, Come ye Saints". Luckily Jess seems to just roll with it!

I'm loving our gigantic dining table. It is the centerpiece of our life, just as I knew it would be. I remember reading a book at your home once called "Big little houses" or something like that. Anyways, it appeals to me- the idea of a tiny place to upkeep and being highly organized. But my actual life requires the biggest farmhouse table ever made to feed not only our 7 but whoever Bishop Haws has invited over, or missionaries, etc. and a place where homework is done daily, and games are played. I'm grateful we found a house so similar to our home in Boise. It's a huge blessing.

I walked down to the village today (about a two minute walk from our front door) and had my hair colored and cut. I have enough grays now that this has become a necessity rather than a luxury. Anyways, I told the lady to cut off around 4 inches...I should have known better than to think that someone who deals in CENTIMETERS would know the length of 4 inches, but let's just say I had to roll with it when she was done and at least 7 inches were on the floor. It's the shortest my hair has been since I was 14, but the funny part is since it's still below my shoulders not a soul would even notice except that I cut short bangs again. When I went to pick up William from school he ran to me and said "OH my gosh Mom- what did you DO to yourself?!" The jury is definitely still out for him and this change.

We have decided to eat Thanksgiving type dinner at Christmas this year. But on the day here, since there will be work and school, I at least plan on making pumpkin SOMETHING. (Pumpkin is hard to come by- I have to order it from Amazon for an arm and a leg.)

I know you will appreciate this since you've lived as an expat many times, but we have all been dying for some mexican food. A fellow American told us about this tiny store that sells some real tortillas and canned goods and salsa so I drove downtown and sure enough this hole in the wall was filled with treasures untold. That night we had turkey tacos with REAL SALSA VERDE and Tyler and I about wept. Already Grace has asked for tacos again. And not once did Dave Ramsey comment on the $4 per can of black beans or the $6 tortillas or the $7 jar of salsa, so I think next week I'm going to trek over there again! The homemade corn tortillas alone were worth the drive.

I was glad that you and some of the kids were able to visit Grandad's grave and eat cake in his honor. I hope it felt just as beautiful and peaceful there as it did last time. We planned on writing notes and attaching them to balloons to send grandad birthday notes to heaven, but the howling wind and driving rain of a Scottish winter made sure we read them aloud and emailed you the video! Grandad understood, I'm sure!

For better or for worse, this ward has begun to feel like our new normal. Somedays Tyler comes home after meetings and just shakes his head and says "You can't make this stuff up!" and then we laugh because, you can't! I'm fixing a dinner hosted here at our house tomorrow night...a whopping 25 people signed up to come so wish me luck! (That's practically every lady that comes regularly.)

Well, Tyler just came down from his office and says it's time to go so it's off to Costco for supplies. The cashier always apologizes to us when they read out the amount. We smile. We're used to that sticker shock.

Love you Joan. I think of you often and the new world you have found yourself in. I hope you feel our love and support across the miles. 

-Jayna

A tale of woe and deceit: Rodent Edition

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• Sometimes life goes way beyond handing you lemons...sometimes, it hands you SQUIRRELS. See that trailer full of stuff that my brother is driving to the landfill? That, my dear people, holds the wreckage of what was once my Camelot, now reduced to rubble by a furry rodent. Settle in and hear the tale of woe: in our old fixer upper of a house we had two more formal rooms: the living room and the dining room. In late 2015 @bethanyrweedhelped me painstakingly decorate these “fancy” rooms. The first rooms you see when you walk in our front door. When my brother and his wife and twin 3 year old boys moved in when we headed to Scotland, we told them to save money on utilities and not use that half of the house. Plus they didn’t want their boys traipsing mud onto the white couch, heaven forbid. So they sealed off those rooms in their pristine state...only used once while they’ve been there, when Kallie hosted a baby shower. Fast forward to four days ago and we receive the news that they found a squirrel LIVING in those rooms. No clue how long it had been trapped in there or how it got in. Curt and Kallie channeled their inner “Christmas vacation” chevy chase and once the squirrel finally fled the premises, the true horror was revealed: squirrel pee looked as though it had been splashed around with a bucket, and poop was strewn around the room like confetti. Our pretty rooms are ruined. The squirrel was living inside the new white couch. The two huge jute rugs so carefully chosen were soaked with waste. We have to pay for professionals to come in and specially clean the hardwood floors and walls. Throw pillows, bench, curtains: buh-bye. Thousands of dollars of damages. And the best part: homeowners insurance does NOT cover insanely diabolical Secret of NIMH type squirrels that live on our property. So let’s review: I no longer have fancy rooms. Nope. We painstakingly saved those rooms so that a squirrel could ruin them in his own sweet time. 🐿🔫 #bringusallthetraps #anniegetyourgun#squirrelsarethereasonwecanthavenicethings #callthegoverment#cuzstrangersquirrelthingsarehappeningatmyhouse

• And..Remember that time I saved baby orphaned squirrels in my yard? #somuchforkarma 

• Anyways, just a little post today to thank everyone for being appropriately horrified by this tale of woe, and also to acknowledge that it’s true: it’s just stuff. I adored those pretty rooms, but that’s not where my treasure is. #youcanttakeitwithyou#wheremothdustANDsquirrelcancorrupt

• Mostly this story was just so unbelievable, it helped to have you dear ones join in on the collective gasping! And hey, if our rodent misfortune gave you a laugh, well...then that much better. I don’t always have a dramatic life, but when I do, it clearly involves squirrels!😂 #onwardandupward 

• P.s. the real condolences go to @kwren1028 and Curt for having to deal with the gross clean up and aftermath!!

• P.P.s. We do own a cat- and he was once a fierce squirrel killing machine. But he is old and decrepit and completely blind now. The squirrels must have heard that Tucker was out of commission and hatched their evil plan to move in!

R.I.P My Beautiful Oasis

I have been saying for YEARS that our squirrels at our house were freakishly smart. I have filmed them stealing Halloween decorations, they'd come up to our back kitchen window and stare at us, once my mom left out burned cornbread and a the squirrel ran up on the fence, picked some up and then threw it down and ran away, and one time when William was little and we were out in the front yard a squirrel tried to steal the plastic sippy cup we had set on the front steps. It would get it so far up the tree then drop it and then try again. Bizarre, no?!