November 3, 2008

Dear Children,

Well, the consolation to the months speeding by and it being November already is that we are getting closer to the holidays! I love taking the Halloween decorations down as it signals Thanksgiving approaching and then . . Christmas coming! I have wonderful news: I heard back this week that Alina and Wendi will be coming to Beaverton for our early Christmas celebration. I am so happy and look forward to all the grandchildren being able to play with each other.

Even though Halloween was on a Friday night, we still didn’t get many trick-or-treaters. In fact, I only had neighborhood and church children come this year, all except one little girl that I didn’t know. I know the longer driveway causes some children to skip our home being that it is a long walk for a piece of candy when they could hit two homes in the same amount of time! This year though I passed out little containers of play dough with the candy. They were SO cute. I loved them and wished that I had set some aside for my grandchildren at Christmas time!

Speaking of Halloween, did you all get your Halloween card/announcement from Shawn and Aubrey? It was so cute! At first glance I thought, “Wow, Shawn doesn’t look too good!” and then as I looked closer my second thought was, “I never realized that Aubrey looked like Sarah Palin.” Finally, it dawned on me that it was a picture of their Halloween costume, a McCain/Palin look alike! It was so funny. And, now you all know that they are having a baby boy!

. . . Which leads me to my baby! Adrianne was home during the Halloween weekend. Well she was here but not home much. Sharon DeFord, Mrs. Gueck’s daughter, flew her home to help set up and attend a huge event to celebrate Mrs. Gueck’s life. It was held at the barn and they made it look great with displays all over and covering most of the walls. Adrianne was out there setting up all day and evening on Friday and then again Saturday morning. They had hundreds of people attend; some people Mrs. Gueck hadn’t seen for over 20 years. Mrs. Gueck said most of her previous barn girls attended, even some brought their own children. Mrs. Gueck has been in the horse industry since she came to the United States from England (well, before then also) so she is well known in the horse world. Her family from England also flew here for the week. Mrs. Gueck has recovered from many bouts of cancer but this time, the treatment was not working so she stopped and is not expected to live much longer.

Adrianne found that she was so preoccupied on Saturday and so many visitors were with Mrs. Gueck that she realized afterwards that she hadn’t had very much time with Mrs. Gueck. Luckily, Sharon invited Adrianne to their family dinner on Sunday so she had some alone time with them. The Guecks and the DeFords are a big part of Adrianne’s teenage years.

Adrianne visited the ward on Sunday; it has felt like a long time since we went to Beaverton First ward. I feel like an outsiders now when I attend there. I really felt like an outsider when I read this month’s Relief Society newsletter that they passed out yesterday and I was no longer on the birthday list; two other sisters have taken my place on MY date! Maybe that means that I will not get any older this year. Adrianne also gave Sammy some attention; she even got to sleep in Adrianne’s room.

Grandma came over Sunday evening for dinner and Adrianne made it back to the house for dessert before we started the packing process. I prepared some leftovers to travel back with Adrianne so she didn’t have to spend much time cooking the apartment dinner on Tuesday evening; she of course, has quite a bit of catch up school work to do with being gone. She also wanted to try taking home some Tillamook Ice Cream. We froze the carton inside another container so it is surrounded by an ice layer. I will be curious how it made it. Luckily, her flight was an early morning cold one! I also sent her back with some of my mint and orange chocolate so she could experiment. If you are interested you could get on her list of tasters.

And speaking of being gone, I have a hard time keeping track of what part of the country Morty is in. I spoke with him on Friday thinking that he was in Las Vegas for the weekend for sure since Nate had traveled down there for the weekend. Then, I get pictures in an email of Shawn and him at the Duck game in Berkeley that I know was this weekend! Anyway, he later explained to me that he was in Las Vegas until Saturday morning. He and Shawn got soaked watching the Ducks lose in a downpour. This weekend Morty comes here for two Blazer games and another Duck game!

The sad news for Dad is that his new worker, Jesus Gallegos, was called back to his original work and may not be back for a while. The good news is that he has a brother in Tualatin that has been working with Dad this past week. Dad says he is a great worker also, just not as good as Jesus. The best news is that Jesus was reminding Dad that he promised to bring him some Spanish literature about the church. The very day he did, moments later the parking lot started filling up with missionaries for a zone conference! Dad was able to get some Spanish speaking Elders to talk with Jesus and they set up a Sunday evening appointment. Dad later learned that he has another brother in Forest Grove who is a member and has been asking if “his boss” has given him any materials yet to read! This week they are working at the temple so that will be a good place to work for Francisco, his brother in Tualatin.

Well, that is about it for now. I am anxious to hear about Katie’s upcoming trip to St. Louis and Nate’s trip this past weekend to Las Vegas. I love you. Love, Mom