October 27, 2009

Dear Children,
I neglected to take any pictures this weekend while Morty was here! We had an enjoyable, non-Blazer visit with Morty this weekend. He said he enjoyed the cool weather break from Las Vegas. He introduced us to his friend from Moses Lake, Nicole Baker, who came down for part of his visit. Nate and Aaron met her in Las Vegas but I don’t think anyone else in the family has met her. We enjoyed a trip to Five Guys, a treat for Morty, bean soup, also one of his favorite soups and a movie on Friday night that Morty had rented for his plane trip, The Proposal. It was a relaxing night.
Saturday morning Dad and I were at the church for the Primary Harvest activity. Dad helped with pumpkin bowling which he said the children loved. We also had pumpkin cookie decorating, pumpkin painting and the children made thank you cards for their teachers. That afternoon I went back to the church for Relief Society Super Saturday and had signed up for way too many crafts before I knew Morty was coming. I tried to hurry home to not miss out on the fun at home.
Morty had to take an extra suitcase home with him since his Cardinal fan friend, Patti from Utah, was here for a CES speaking assignment and got him into the Nike employee store. Dad suggested that Morty might need a closet addition too soon! He also took home some homemade pumpkin bread. I love that it is pumpkin season and hope that my exercising can pay off enough to splurge for a Burgerville pumpkin milkshake while Adrianne is here for Paige’s wedding in a couple of weeks. She loves them also and last fall, when she was here for Mrs. Gueck’s funeral, there wasn’t any time to make it to Burgerville.
Even though Morty’s weekend was Blazer mania free, there was still a lot of sports with all the college football games he likes to follow. The most important one, to Dad and me, was the BYU game Saturday afternoon. It was an utter disappointment to say the least; I just hate watching the Cougar’s get defeated by so much on TV, just shameful! I planned dinner in front of the TV during the game; one of Morty’s favorite, sour cream burritos with pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread as dessert. I made the pumpkin pie for Nicole since she heard us planning to make pumpkin bread and she requested pie. I love this season’s traditional food! It is all great comfort food. Plus, this time of year I always get a craving for Abuela’s recipe of garbanzo bean dinner (REAL comfort food) since I used to always request it for my birthday while growing up.
I have several sad news items to share today. I spent Thursday morning with Marie Floyd. She passed away Friday evening. Some friends were taking turns being with her while Jim had to go to work. She had a very weak heart and so she was very weak when I was there, had almost quit eating altogether but as Marie always is, pleasant and grateful for anything done for her. Her funeral will be next Tuesday. Maybe they are waiting for her mother to come from Germany.
Ammon Gustafson, one of Nate’s scout leaders, is very ill with cancer. He has pancreatic cancer which has spread to numerous other organs. He felt back pain all summer and tried to relieve it with therapy but finally received this surprising diagnosis just last week. Of course, they are praying for a miracle.
And lastly, but more close to our family, we had to put Sammy to sleep today. She hadn’t been eating her regular food for a few days. Yesterday when she refused to eat her doggie treats and didn’t follow Dad around the yard as he raked the leaves, Dad and I knew something was very wrong. She had eaten only a couple of bites of turkey with some medicine. Last night when we came home and I called to her, she came out of her bed with a very confused and spacey look. She would barely come inside and you know how aggressively she bounds into the house when invited in. Her back legs were barely holding her body. She showed no pain but was not breathing normally for Sammy so we took her to the vet this morning. The vet found that she had a huge mass in her abdomen near her liver that was causing a lack of air flow and pressing on several organs. She suggested that Sammy wouldn’t be able to recover well, or possibly not make it through, from any surgery since something was also causing her nerves to not work to one of her back legs. She was over 11 years old and had already lived past the life expectancy of a Labrador.
I wish Sammy could have just died in her sleep at home. It was hard to make the decision to end her life even though we knew she was not comfortable at that point. The vet said that her breed does not show pain until it is something very bad. It was hardest to call Adrianne and let her know. She was able to tell Sammy goodbye over the phone. Adrianne requested that we bring her body home and bury her in the yard. Dad has started digging a huge hole on the side of the hill in the front yard next to Fred the turtle. Dad said she can watch the fire trucks go by!
She has been a good dog to many people and all the neighborhood children will really miss feeding her those doggie treats besides all the grandchildren that she loved to watch play in her yard. She protected our home from strangers up to the end. Last week she was just as ferocious as ever when the meter reader tried to get into the yard. We will miss her whisper bark ever time we drive into the garage and Dad will miss her morning welcome as he loads his tools each day. And mostly, Adrianne will miss playing and cuddling with her when she comes home in a couple of weekends as she visits for Paige Jensen’s wedding and to visit Mrs. Gueck’s grave a year after she passed away. Yesterday and this morning Sammy just wanted to head for Adrianne’s room when she was in the house. Plus, when she heard Adrianne’s voice on the phone in the vet’s office, she lifted her head to look for Adrianne. She loved Adrianne as much as Adrianne loved her. Our home will feel different without her.
In my institute class this week we studied 2 Nephi 9 with an exercise that would make a fun and interesting family home evening. We searched for the O’s and Wo’s throughout the chapter and discussed them. We discussed repentance and decided it was best to minimize the need for it by obedience and maximize the use of it when necessary. It is certainly a great gift.
I learned this week that Adrianne has added yet another interesting aspect to her life. She went with the Pre-Vet group to volunteer fixing fences at a horse barn in Springville where they hold therapy lessens. Afterwards, Adrianne spoke quite a while to the owner and, when she learned that Adrianne had trained gaited horses, she asked Adrianne if she would come back and volunteer to teach lessons and train her horses.
Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting on enduring to the end. Risa Whitaker gave a great talk; she is becoming more and more like her mother. She pointed out that enduring to the end was not just suffering until it is over but finding joy along the way and adding Christ into the equation (which adds the possibility of joy and healing).
Lastly, Dad and I enjoyed family home evening at the Stangers with the Daniels and Wollers. We carved pumpkins. We had one large pumpkin in our garden. It had beautiful insides, enough meat for lots of pies it looked like (but it was destined to be a Halloween jack-o-lantern instead). It was fun to line all the pumpkins up by their fireplace, put candles in them and turn off the lights.
I love you all. Love, Mom