It is not really December 3 but I need to just send this without trying
to update it!
Dear Children,
This fall we
have done a lot of fun little trips. The
first weekend in October we had a great visit in Clovis with Aunt Carla and Uncle Scott. They both went out of their way to make our
stay extra nice with lots of great food and doing our favorite things. We were able to enjoy their new patio to eat
breakfast and dinner lazily outside in the warm sunshine. The weather was so nice. It was perfect for the Triathlon Sprint. Carla and Scott did a great job of planning
and mapping it out and then Scott and Dad ran it on Saturday morning. We started in the dark so we would be done by
the time the general conference session started.
I was the only
one who took a wrong turn! The sun was
in my eyes and I didn’t see one of the signs but, once I realized I was headed
in the wrong direction, I decided to just ride out 6 miles on the bike and then
head back, making my own trail! It
worked out fine except for having to stop and phone in to tell them what I was
doing. I felt OK afterwards and
surprisingly, my hip felt more of the affects than did my knee. My doctor said I couldn’t run at all until
after the MRI on my knee the following week so I was the pokey little
puppy! Carla is planning for another one
next year at her place. Swimming in a
pool makes for a lot easier swim segment!
In the afternoon
Dad and Scott went for a 30 mile ride and Carla and I visited with Laura and
Andrew and also David came by. Dyllan
entertained us with her gibberish language.
We got to see Laura’s new home during the Sunday morning session of
conference. We had breakfast at their
place. Adrianne would like her place;
she has beautiful gray granite counter tops and decorates with lots of gray
tones.
I enjoyed the
feeling of general conference this year; lots of basic living the gospel;
serving others, power of prayer, loving others, following Christ. I
loved the prophet’s always emphasis on the positive as he admonished us to
count our blessings. I am trying to live
more positively which shouldn’t be so hard in this wonderful life we live
in! There were some great talks on the
Holy Ghost and living by the Spirit including Craig Christensen’s thoughts on
living to be open to hear the Spirit and Quinton L. Cook’s teaching that being
unkind to family or having impure thoughts hinders us from feeling.
I guess I just
felt encouraged after conference. As
always, President Uchtdorf’s message on Regrets and Resolutions is so worth
reading over and over again. As he
encouraged us to give our best personal self, his three points were:
- Spend more time with people I love.
- Live up to my potential.
- Let myself be happier.
We
had to leave during the afternoon session to get to the airport. Getting home this time routed us through Seattle. Lately, we have taken some different routes
to get back to Portland; the last one being to
fly from Salt Lake
to Phoenix and
then back home. I have found it
interesting that there seems to be so many people who live elsewhere but fly
into Oregon
to work each week.
Each time we
were home this fall we had three days to work and then get ready to leave
again. At times, I had a hard time
remembering what day it was, especially when you come home on Monday
afternoons! Dad had lots of work and
bids as people started to panic wanting things done in their yard before the
weather turns poor. Now, the work has
been very slow in coming. Homeowners are
already in their winter mode of thinking.
Being football
season, Morty visited quite a bit to come for Oregon Duck games. A couple of times he was able to double up
and see the Blazers play while here in Portland. He and Katie went to a crazy exciting game
that was fun to hear him talk about. While
he visits, we see more sports that we can imagine; our TV gets used!
We had a second
trip to Utah
this fall to celebrate Grandma Bitter’s 50th birthday. There was a nice dinner and program at Dave
and Karla’s ward building that Julie and Randy organized and then Jerry and
Laurie put on a fun tail gaiting party before the Oregon State
homecoming game. But, I do not like to
watch the Cougars lose so I won’t talk about that game! I appreciate the family gathering for these
events; that is the best part.
My business has
grown a lot this fall. Regularly, in
October and November I hold several workshops for my customers to give them
ideas for their holiday cards. Now, that
is funny since I do not have mine started!!!
Yikes! I wanted to put a QR code
of a song that Dad and I would sing about the year in the card. Sunhee and Meeja even were helping me write
it on one of our long rides but I tabled that idea.
I had several
business presentations with some professional organizations this fall but my
favorite ended up being the one that concerned me the most. I was asked to be a speaker at an
Entrepreneur Day for a select group of high school juniors and seniors. The keynote speakers were two Oregon girls who went on
Shark Tank with their Wild Squirrel Nut Butter.
That was fun to hear them speak.
After their presentation the students rotated to several other small
business owners most of whom had created and funded their own start up
businesses. It was a real eye
opener. My assignment was to speak about
the Network Marketing model.
Honestly, one of
my reasons for accepting the assignment, besides it being a privilege to be
asked, was that I knew if I spent time preparing and teaching about the
positive benefits of Networking Marketing myself, I might be able to overcome
some difficult feelings with which I struggled myself about the
profession. Which is exactly what
happened and I attribute my business growth since then to the things I have
learned and for which I have gained much confidence.
One ah-ha moment
came as I was speaking to one of my groups.
I explained that I did not create the idea of my business but instead,
found a business that I loved and paid a franchise fee to own my business with all
of its financial backing. I then
explained all the support, tools, websites, etc that I received from the
company upon paying that small fee. They
had just heard the tens of thousands of dollars that others had spent on having
the same things that I have at my disposal.
When one young man was flabbergasted after he asked, “Just how much is
that small franchise fee?” it finally dawned on me what I had and how lucky I
was!
With not much pre-planning,
I was able to travel down to be with Greg and Bryson asShawn and Aubrey were
able to go to Monterrey
for their anniversary. That was so much
fun to be there with the boys. I love
that part of my life. It is exhausting
fun! They have such a nice group of
friends living there and of course, even in November, it was warm enough to
play outside with the neighbor friends.
Their common back yard is like a park where the moms gather and the
children play. I love smelling the
eucalyptus trees in the Bay Area; it reminds me of my growing up years since we
lived next to a canyon full of the trees.
You wouldn’t know that I grew up in the Bay Area the many times I got
lost driving around this time. The boys
and I had a fun trip to Bethel
Island to see where Aunt
Denise is living. It was very relaxing.
Wow, we had a
Thanksgiving holiday filled with laughs with Nate and Morty home to entertain
their nieces and nephew. Kyre and the
children were here from Wednesday to Saturday evening. Alina is an easy target to poke at with her
vast knowledge of Justin Bieber and her ability to turn most conversations
around to be about him! Morty stayed
over the weekend to travel to the Duck game so he is relentless about the
Duck-Beaver civil war. I told Alina that
she was very lucky that Dad was sacrificing being able to watch BYU’s football
game while she had precedence over the large TV for the Duck Beaver game.
Over
Thanksgiving we went to the opening night of Zoolights, did some early baking
for Christmas neighbor gifts played lots of games, Alina beat me at Ping Pong
and even some Black Friday shopping. I was pretty disappointed that some of the
stores were opening on Thanksgiving so I refused to go until midnight.
Alina and Adam helped and we got done what we needed then came home and
slept until Penney’s early morning opening, shopped there and then we were
done. Morty, Nate and Katie took Adam
and Alina to their first Blazer game at the Rose Garden.
On Saturday we
took Kyre and the children and cut down our Christmas tree. They helped me get out all the decorations so
almost everything was decorated for Christmas before November was even
over! I love the years when we have an
extra week in between Thanksgiving and Christmas! That evening Kyre and the
children rode ho me on the train.
Late Saturday evening
Katie joined us and we went to the Screen Door in Portland, a southern style restaurant, to
celebrate my birthday. Everything was
very tasty. Even more fun was I think I
hooked Nate on the Ticket to Ride game when we returned late from dinner! After Morty and Nate left on Sunday, we
started getting ready for our next visitors and I think, as of tonight, we are
ready! Just a couple more beds to make, decorations
to hang and some lighting outside and we are finished.
Before we know
it, Christmas will be here. Sunhee and
Meeja come this week for our annual Christmas visit where they help me with
Christmas baking and delivering neighbor and friend gifts. Since the Brady family cannot come for
Christmas now, Heidi is bringing William and Rebekah also this weekend, thanks
to Katie. It will be fun for them to go
to our ward Christmas breakfast. I am
relieved that Heidi will be with us there since I will be in the kitchen and
she can help Dad with the girls at the event.
We will end their visit with a trip to Sweet Home after a visit on
Sunday at Kyre’s home.
As far as
Christmas travels, it looks like, weather permitting, Shawn and Aubrey’s family
will arrive the Friday before Christmas after Aaron and Morty come in earlier that
week. Nate will be coming from a trip to
Tahoe so he will probably arrive just before Christmas. To get the cousins together, we will go down
to visit with Kyre and the children the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas. We are trying to involve Sunhee and Meeja in
that gathering also.
Our visits with
Scott have been great. He has a lot of energy
and excitement for his fitness plans. He
ran a marathon on Thanksgiving and is planning one for Christmas! His times are coming close to Boston Marathon
qualifying times. He does everything he
can to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit against all odds there.
Grandma gave me
my birthday book after she came home from California.
THANK YOU to all those who contributed!
That will be so wonderful to sit and reread all those kind words and nice
acts of service that were dedicated to my birthday. I love it!
Thank you for taking that time to not only do service but to write about
it in the book!
I love you
all! Love, Mom
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