September 2, 2008

Dear Children,

Our trip to Utah was the focus this week and getting all of Adrianne’s things packed into the car! Dad was in charge of making arrangements so Adrianne’s bike could get back to Utah and Adrianne was busy finalizing any loose ends from work. She finally got a picture of herself by the bear exhibit. You can see her “new friends”, Jody and Vivian, in the background. Adrianne was going to the zoo for her mentorship each morning until the day we left so she was there during the big news stories: Rose Tu had her baby, the first elephant born in our zoo for 14 years (when Rose Tu was born!) and one of the Polar Bears was sick and had to be put down. Adrianne said everyone was very sad about the Polar Bear. She said she wished she was a polar bear since they get fresh squeezed fruit and vegetable juices everyday!

A surprise this week was when Adrianne was able to see Alina. She was down in Salem on her last visit with Scott for the summer and was able to take Alina to Panda Express, Pet Co to look at the baby animals and Target. They played with all the games in Target. Alina is moving this week into a different home but will stay in the same school.

The trip to Utah went very smoothly. Luckily we were able to fit in everything of Adrianne’s including, using part of the back seat. OF course, Dad and I were instructed to take small bags! The new car made it a very comfortable ride. We took turns driving and luckily arrived at Heidi and Bill’s before Rebekah went to bed. After getting Adrianne’s bedding, our next stop was her apartment for this year; she was anxious to sleep in her own place. The apartment has an excellent location, just south east of campus and around the corner from J Dogs! Bill suggested that, being that close to J Dogs, Adrianne would not have the need to ever go grocery shopping! But, seriously, Adrianne did a great job of finding a good apartment and it is close to the side of campus that she will be using the most.

Adrianne had a last minute change to her schedule. She wanted to start the bassoon again, taking a class this fall semester, so she rented a bassoon to start practicing this summer. Unfortunately, she learned that the air pressure of playing the bassoon severely affects her TMJ so she thought long about how she could add the music she wished for into her schedule and came up with being more serious about learning the organ. She had taken occasional organ lessons from Sister Jones so she has the special shoes and even some of the music. She is concerned it may be quite intimidating to be in practice rooms near all of the organ majors. But she is now settled into her apartment, has great roommates (2 of them from last year), a good cooking schedule for co-op meals, and ready to start the school year. After being discouraged about how her TMJ was limiting her and not feeling well quite a bit, Adrianne said she is tired of physical limitations and was going to get to the health center to get to the bottom of it. I hope they can give her some answers; I have unfortunately learned that there is a lot of guess work in medicine. She enjoys her new ward and went on a temple trip with them tonight.

Nate is also mostly settled in Utah. He drove in early Monday morning (about 4:30 am) and moved all his belongings into Grandma and Grandpa Bitter’s single bedroom downstairs until his contract comes available in October. It was somewhat tricky to find a contract being that he only has a few months left in Utah. He graduates in December (well, he has yet to confirm that all his requirements are met officially) and the Zappos managers sat him down last Friday and officially offered him a position there after graduation. He was told that, out of the 1700 employees there in Las Vegas, he has made himself very noticeable and impressed the right ones. We are all very pleased with what Nate has accomplished; everyone in the family is excited for him. I knew that a company like Zappos would notice that he was the right fit for their company with both his smarts and personality. His manager said that it was unheard of for an intern to jump into the position that they were offering him. He has until February to decide as Nate does have some valid concerns for himself about his future living in Las Vegas.

Now Katie, on the other hand, is not yet settled in Utah for the start of the school year. Today she is in New Jersey or at a Boston Red Sox game or no, driving through Palmyra and Kirkland on the way to Ohio! Aunt Julie said, “Is she trying to cover all 50 states this year!” Everyone asks, “When does Katie go to class?” This is her last year so she does need to get some learnin’ in. She had a friend that asked if she would drive back from the east coast before school with some friends and they are stopping a friend’s home along the way, also catching several ball parks here and there! So, she started in Kansas City and will end in Kansas City on Thursday, then on to Utah. She has been good to call and keep us abreast of her travels, calling even from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. She says that she is taking lots of pictures and expressed so much excitement to be in New York twice in one year. They tried to see Wicked on Broadway but couldn’t so she will just have to go with us in Utah this April.

Heidi’s family was a delight to be around in Utah. Jenna has changed so much since last seeing her in May. She is just as expressive as Rebekah so is quite entertaining. Dad and I traveled up to Daybreak to attend their ward on Sunday. Dad calls Jenna Sister Wiggles! We brought Rebekah back down to Grandma Bee’s home after church as she was staying with us for a sleepover. On the way, Katie called so she got a chance to talk on the phone to Rebekah. Rebekah was anxious to tell Katie that she and Jenna were wearing the pretty dresses with which Katie surprised them when she babysat them through Heidi’s week at stake Young Women’s camp. Katie asked if she was ready for school to start. Rebekah replied, “Yes, my summer break is about over and I am just miserable about that.”

After helping Nate move into his room and playing with Rebekah on Monday, we celebrated the start of a school year on Labor Day by going to Jacob and Ben Bitter’s restaurant in American Fork, La Vigna. It is a very nice Italian restaurant. We all felt as if we “rolled” out of there since Jacob insisted on treating us to any desserts that we wished for (and none of us needed!). He gave us quite a good family deal! We had a sufficient number of leftovers to crowd Adrianne’s shared apartment fridge and supply her with lots of future yummy lunches.

It was another great Utah trip with lots of generous hosting by Grandma and Grandpa Bitter. Dad and I drove back all day Tuesday. Well, Dad drove most of the way and I wrote the family news and typed notes so we could have a Bitter Concrete INC board meeting as he drove. Nate gave me some great ideas, with his new web marketing expertise, on starting a simple Bitter Concrete website with ideas on care of concrete and new trends and of course, examples of Dad’s quality work. The care of concrete information sheet has been something on our business meeting agendas forever so I could kill two birds with one stone! We were brainstorming during the car ride home for a short statement of quality for the business, a tag line. Do you have any opinions on any of these tag lines for Dad’s advertising?

1-Strength you can rely on
2-Do it better with Bitter
3-Jobs done better with Bitter
4-Strong foundations worth standing for (but we don’t do much foundation work)
5-Expectations fulfilled

Scott was able to talk with us several times on the phone while we were in Utah. He was trying to catch other family members there also on those calls and spoke to Grandma and Grandpa, Adrianne, Rebekah and Nate. He had a great weekend since he was able to teach again on Sunday. His branch president thanked him afterwards for the environment that he created to feel the Spirit during the lesson. One of the men that has been in prison for 18 years said that it was the best lesson he ever heard. That was pleasing to Scott; I am sure that he worked hard to give a good lesson.

We will be back in Utah in another month after we visit Aaron and Morty and give some help on the new home. We will make a triangle and come to Utah afterwards for homecoming so we will get there on Friday, October 10 and leave Tuesday, October 14. Tentatively we plan to go to Tucano’s early on Friday since Dad and I would like to attend the Homecoming Spectacular that Friday evening. Whether we go for a late lunch or for an early dinner will depend on whether or not any of you are going to a homecoming dance that night (oh, and class schedules of course!); we wouldn’t want to lure you away from your peer social scene! Other plans include a long awaited BYU tour on Monday morning with Grandma and Grandpa with one of Dad’s friends, Don Clark and possibly a lunch of BBQ hamburgers at Grandma and Grandpa’s on the day of the game since it doesn’t start until 4:00. Staying through Tuesday is planned so that we are in town for Grandma Bitter’s birthday on Monday and Heidi reminded us, Canadian Thanksgiving. So, Bill and Heidi have offered to put on a Canadian Thanksgiving feast as a big birthday bash for Grandma that night! Anyway, even though we just left, we are excited to make plans for our return.

Even Miss Kitty had a vacation this week. Grandma Maldonado picked her up and took her to her condo so she could get pampered while we were away. I am sure that the young neighbor children, our regular pet sitters, were very disappointed not to be able to come over and cuddle with Miss Kitty. Some of them prefer the cat and some Sammy. Speaking of pet sitting, that is why Nate didn’t get to Utah until the day before class started. He offered to pet sit for the woman in charge of Public Relations at Zappos. He said he was fixing something on her work computer when she was desperate since her arrangement fell through. She was on her way to a tennis match in New York to be with Serena Williams. In fact, one of the dogs, a white lab, was a gift from Serena.

I love you. Love, Mom