October 18, 2009

Dear Children,

We have had a quiet week here but the rest of the family has been busy. Aubrey called today after her marathon. She actually ran the entire marathon and made it in less than two hours and thirty minutes. That is a GREAT time! Congratulations. She said that the weather in San Francisco was beautiful. Lots of people were walking the route and she said that would have been so fun since the scenery is so nice. Shawn and the boys met her at mile fifteen and the finish line. She said mile nineteen and twenty four were the hardest. They presented all the runners with a Tiffany necklace at the finish line! She said that they may come up for the Starlight Run next year as a fun running event to enter with the family.

Heidi is back doing her blog regularly now so most of you already are up to date on their family. This week was Canadian Thanksgiving so that was a celebration in their home. Bill has been very busy at work and has landed two wonderful new accounts. He was so busy that he didn’t have time to make chili for their ward chili cook off which was ironic since he kept baiting the other men in the ward with what he called “trash talk” to inspire them to be competitive about the chili cook off. The funniest part is that Heidi made the chili and she WON! Rebekah was very descriptive as she told us all about the trophy that they won. Today they were at the conference center with the prophet for a regional conference!

We had Sunhee and Meeja here this weekend. Angie was also doing an all-women run in Portland with several of her friends. She said that she made her goal of finishing a half marathon in two hours. Now she is training for the Hood to Coast. Dad and I had fun with the girls. The thing they wanted to do the most was play games so we did a lot of playing games. They talked of going to the zoo or the pumpkin patch but with the downpours this weekend, we stayed close to home. They did enjoy some backyard time on the bars and trampoline. They even picked some beautiful apples from the apple tree.

I appreciate visits from the grandchildren since they teach us to quit working and have fun. They also teach us to keep a good schedule and be good examples. As I rehearsed that after dinner we would visit the neighbor girl, Eden, who loves to see them, come home and have a bath and then bedtime stories, Sunhee reminded me that we couldn’t forget our journal time and family scriptures. I love that they remember, with fondness, those special traditions that we have with them and depend on them. This visit was especially easy since Angie brought them up here from Sweet Home.

Grandma Bitter had lots of attention on her birthday, starting with Aunt Julie’s whole wheat waffles. She told us that Heidi brought her some quiche and French pastries and Katie brought over, guess what . . . cupcakes! Grandma is getting on the computer every morning now to read the grandchildren’s blogs. So, if you have a blog, send her the connection to it. Don’t you think that is great that Grandma is starting to use the computer!

I went to a fun gardening class to which I have been looking forward for months. It was about getting your garden ready for the winter. I got some really helpful ideas. Most of the people taking these classes know so much more about gardens than do I. I feel like my questions are so rudimentary!

I also went to a Saturday morning full of classes at the church for scouting, specifically Eleven-Year-Old scouting since that is one of my responsibilities in Primary. It was very good and most teachers were so helpful and knowledgeable but it was kind of disappointing that my two Leaders of the Eleven-Year-Old scouts were not there (even after all the reminders and candy treats that I gave them). I wonder what some of these people are thinking when they miss opportunities to be inspired. I certainly needed a shot in the arm since I thought I was all done with scouting (especially being over those Leaders of the Eleven-Year-Old year scouts since it is so hard to explain how important that year is).

Mostly, I have been consumed with Children’s Sacrament Meeting Presentation that is coming so quickly. I handed out parts today and was running around to find all the Spanish parents that I don’t know very well since they meet in a separate sacrament meeting. It should be an interesting presentation since some of our parts will be in Spanish. Katie will be here the weekend we are having it. She will help me not be so nervous. Morty comes this week so I am looking forward to that. I should think of a home improvement for him to do while he is here!!! Adrianne is planning to come the weekend of Paige Jensen’s wedding which is the week after Katie will be here. Maybe she will help me make (well, just frost by the time she arrives in town) the 100 cupcakes that Krista Jensen asked me to make!

I had another interesting institute class and afterwards went to the temple so it felt like a great day. It was about agency; we were studying 2 Nephi chapter 2. In order to have agency, you must have 4 things (found in that chapter):

P-power to choose (2 Nephi 2:15-16)

O-opposition (2 Nephi 2:11)

L-laws of God (2 Nephi 2:13)

K-knowledge (2 Nephi 2:5)

We also studied Elder Christofferson’s conference talk. His picture reminds me of Uncle Jack. I liked his thought to “reject the self-absorbed life”. There is so much selfishness in the world.

Adrianne is enjoying her six hour vet class every Monday and is doing everything that she would do as a vet tech right now. She loves it and sees that she is very capable and comfortable with the work. She is very busy with the Sun bear research; luckily her job on campus is the Sun bear research so most of the time she is in the lab, she is making money. Katie is at graduation count down with only one class next term that she needs to take. She is a pro behind the scenes as director in the news studio on campus. Everyone in the family knows that she is good at telling people what to do; actually, she does have an eye for seeing what needs to be done and taking care of it! Katie finally found a dentist that is good in Provo and on the discount plan for students. Adrianne, you should get that name from her since you will be in town more years than Katie.

We had a little bit of a computer scare this weekend with a malware called Windows Police Pro that just wouldn’t quit. Thankfully, instead of having to do all the many steps described online to get rid of it, I just recently learned that our neighbor, Notto Jensen does that sort of thing with his new business, Technology Butler. He was nice enough to work on it this morning. Although my goal of getting the news I had written out on Sunday evening had to be slightly delayed, I am relieved that problem is fixed.

I love you all. Enjoy the beautiful fall colors!