30 October 2016

Hello everybody,

   Grandpa and I got to talk with the birthday girl this evening. Happy 2nd birthday, Alida! Brad got to face time with the family when she got her cake and presents. Sounds like it's been a great birthday. :)

   The picture I included is of one of the old apple trees which blew down in a recent wind storm. Not too surprising...those trees seemed old when we bought the house in 1977!  I'm going to replace the long branch in my flower bed with this old tree; it has lots of history here. I think it will be nice to have it there, all knotty looking. 

   Yesterday, Dad and I cleaned the church...it took us 2 1/2 hours. The other family who was supposed to help was out of town for a funeral. 

   This morning I taught the Relief Society lesson at the Homestead Assisted Living center in St. Anthony. That's the 3rd time I've done that. It's always a neat experience. None of the rest of my presidency was able to come, but others volunteered for prayers, etc...and it worked out alright. 

   Aunt Reneta has been selling some things on facebook and I had ordered one decorative item and some pumpkins. So when she came up to get Grandma to take her to lunch on campus, I met them there for lunch and to pick up the things I'd ordered. Jared joined us for lunch, Reneta was babysitting Hyrum's baby, Cheyenne and Reneta's foreign exchange student, Sebastion, from Norway (I think). So we had a nice, quick lunch together. 

   At work they've been short handed recently and I've had the chance to go and do vitals a couple of times. This gives the nurses a few minutes to catch up on their charting and it was nice for me as well. I do miss the direct patient care, but I realize that I couldn't do it full time like I used to. 

   This coming Friday I'll have the chance to fly to Denver and spend the weekend with Ben, Lynsey, Joseph and Karen. I haven't been to their house since Bradley's baptism weekend. I'll be there by mid-morning on Friday and Joseph doesn't have school that day. I don't fly home until Monday afternoon; so it will be a nice visit!  I'm excited!

   Dad and I had planned to go to Boise for Thanksgiving but..."the plans have been changed!" Gran's sister, Joyce is going downhill, mentally more than physically. My cousin, Laurie, called and told Gran that she felt that she shouldn't wait until the fall of 2017 to come for a visit; that Joyce might not know her by then. She asked if Gran could come for Thanksgiving. She thought about it for about a day and decided she ought to do it. She asked if I would come along and since I had already gotten time off at Thanksgiving it worked out alright. I think we'll all feel better about her traveling if one of us is with her. Gran recognized that this is not what I had planned and offered to pay for my ticket. So, I'm going to Naples Florida for Thanksgiving. My cousins are very interesting people...hard for me to be around for any length of time, so I'm not really happy about this, but I know it needs to be. And the thought that I can send postcards to you all from Florida was something that made me happier about it!  Silly, I know, but it did help. 

   I'll be looking forward to seeing more pictures of the grandkids all dressed up for Halloween!  The Boise kiddos...I mean, the Boise Super Heroes pictures were really great!  Love to you all, and Happy Halloween!   Mom/Johanna/Nana