Dear Kids,
      It’s been crazy here! On Monday our new windows were installed, and that ran into Tuesday, but it was worth it. Our house practically looks new. And the windows aren’t foggy! We can open and shut them just fine! The weird thing is, they all open by pulling to the left. Our old windows were sort of random, so now some of them are backwards from before. Especially the upstairs bathroom window. Since it’s textured, you only see out of one side, and now I have a totally different view than I’ve had for the past 31 years. But that’s minor. The really weird thing is that they’re all so clean. (I quit washing the old ones several months ago.) Now I can see everything outside that needs to be done.
      I talked to Monica on the phone last week, and things are going pretty well there. Ramona’s fur is growing back for the winter, and she’s running amok, as usual. Monica’s taking a Spanish class in the evening, after work. We should all be so ambitious! My Spanish study involves getting the local newspaper “El Estandar” at the library every week and looking up the words I don’t know. I’m shocked at the stuff the Spanish-speaking political activists write. They definitely have an agenda for us.
      Dad and I were originally going to be in Albuquerque this weekend, with Grandma and Grandpa, but our plans changed when Charles and Julie had their baby a month early. Monica (Ben’s Monica, that is) needed to go help Julie, so we postponed our trip. We’ll be leaving October 9th, if all goes well, and coming back on the 13th. So instead of Albuquerque, we took Grandma and Grandpa to the cabin for some birdwatching. Of course lots of the birds have flown south for the winter, but we were still able to watch some mountain bluebirds and lesser goldfinches (are there greater goldfinches?) and some sparrows and a dove-colored bird we couldn’t identify. On Saturday they were having open-barn day at the alpaca farm, so we all went there, including Tom and Kim and their kids. And then we did the nature center at Rockcliff State Park. It was all fun.
      Nora spent four days in San Francisco with James, and I’m sure she’ll write about it on her blog. But she might not mention that it took at least eight people to take care of her kids while she was gone. (I know, I was one of them.) I guess that’s how you find out how important you are–how many people does it take to cover for you? Anyway, I had fun with Nora and James’s kids. I always feel like I’m playing house, when I tend grandkids.
      My new visiting teaching partner is Sally Rasmussen, Janae’s mom. Their son Jeff is Vanessa’s age, and he told me to say Hi to her. He wanted to know where she lived and what she was doing and how many kids she had. He has a cute wife and 2 cute kids, including a daughter named Adelaide. While we were talking to him, Janae came by, and she said to say Hi to Sharon. The Rasmussens are lots of fun. I’m glad we’re finally getting to know them.
      We hope to see at least some of you this weekend at the cabin, for conference. Let me know if you’re having Sunday dinner with us! Love, Mom