Dear Kids,
      Biggest news of the week: There’s going to be another Julie in the family! Charles finally got engaged to his girlfriend, who some of us met at the family reunion. She’s tall and thin, and I can’t even remember her last name! I think she’s from Oregon or Washington. The wedding date is December 29th. I’ll pass on more new as we get it.
      Dad and I had lots of fun at the cabin last weekend, because Tom and Kim and their kids were there. It was UEA weekend, and the weather was great. (At least on Friday.) Kim fixed wonderful meals. (Some of it she was going to freeze so Tom would have good dinners during the week.) Dad finished staining all our new siding on the cabin, and even started on the second coat of the older part. He loves to stand at the top of a tall ladder with his paintbrush and jug of stain, listening to his IPOD, (Right now he’s listening to “The World is Flat,” by Thomas Friedman), and he can paint all day long without getting tired of it. Meantime, I’m down below, raking rocks, yelling at him if the stain drops on the deck. It works. I’m hoping we can do some more this weekend, but it’s getting colder all the time.
      Monica reports that Ramona has been attacking lizards. When Monica finds a big one, she calls Ramona, and tosses her at the lizard. Ramona likes to eat them head-first. After clearing all the mice out of the cabin, she thinks lizards are easy work. Meanwhile, the wedding plans are coming along nicely. Monica is still planning to have the marriage in the backyard of the cabin. Who’s going to perform the ceremony? Monica said Neil wants somebody in a cowboy hat. Maybe it’ll work . . . . We know for certain that the food will be good! Monica said something about a band, too.
      Donna’s wedding plans are coming along, too. I think she’s decided on the chocolate wedding cake, not just on the inside, but all over, like Vanessa and Sharon had. She wants the frosting even darker than ever before.
      Yesterday I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and we had a good time. I showed them some funny videos on their computer. (Now that they have cable modem, it’s a lot easier to waste time there.) Remember how I told you that Christy Montoya Walk and her husband Jeff won $10,000 on America’s Funniest Videos? You can see their winning video if you google “over-excited dog.” It’s hysterical. We found some funny cat videos, too. Grandma was really entertained. We talked about the book by Richard Bushman, a biography of Joseph Smith called “Rough Stone Rolling.” I’m in the middle of it right now. We all have the same opinion of it. Then I put on the video “Mormons and Mobsters,” which is pretty silly, but we had a good time watching it. I really enjoy my visits there. I only wish I could go more often.
      On Sunday I went to the stake president’s office to get my temple recommend signed, and there were a whole slew of people waiting in line. Including Dennis Nordfelt. It’s still funny to see him on the outside, instead of the inside. Somebody had been commenting that he’s had the titles of Colonel, Chief, Mayor, and President, so I asked which one he liked being called. He said any of those are lots better than what they call him at work. We talked about grandchildren, and he said they’re going on 27. He says we’ll never catch up with them. There were so many people in line ahead of us, he finally had to leave before he got in. He said he was fixing Sunday dinner for some of their married kids, and he had to “get his meat on.” He said to tell you all Hi.
      Life is good! I love you all! Mom