Dear Kids,
         Fall is in the air!  You can feel it now.  Our summer was very short, just the month of July, but that was enough.  We’re ready to move on.  I planted grass on the north side of our house, and it should be coming up soon.  I know sod is quicker, and it looks good from the very start, but I love the excitement of watching grass come up.  Besides, planting seed is way cheaper, and you can choose the exact seed you want.  This time around I’m using half sheep fescue and half Kentucky bluegrass.
         Last Monday night we went by Tom’s house to see baby Tyler. He’s doing really well:  eating, growing, and doing the rest of what new babies do.  He’s really cute, of course.  His blessing will be Sunday, Sept. 1, at 12 noon at Tom’s church.  When it gets closer, you can call Kim for a food assignment. 
         We went by John’s house to see the sprinkler pipe he’s laid in his back yard, before he covers it up.  It looks like a vast highway system in miniature.  He used 2,500 feet of pipe, and dug out thousands and thousand of rocks.  (I didn’t think any ground could be rockier than ours, but John’s is.)  His cats are like ours, loving those trenches and running through them.  They’ll be way disappointed when John fills them in.  Those cats started out as scrubbly little kittens, almost the exact same age as ours, and they’ve grown into fine creatures.  I think Blue is my favorite, because he looks like our old cat Benson. 
         I’m walking with a cane again.  There’s a  pain in my right leg now, not the left, where I still have the shingles pain.  It started at Bear Lake, and I made that walking stick, but it only got worse when I got home.  Finally I went to see our doctor, and he said it’s really my hip.  He asked if I’d done anything unusual lately.  I told him we’d been to Bear Lake, and I’d gone on a long walk.   What I only remembered  later was shoveling that entire load of topsoil, mostly from the right.  But that was so much fun!  How could I have let anybody else do it?  So now I’m paying the price. They took an x-ray, which showed my hip was only inflamed, not worn out.  So I won’t need surgery.  The doctor prescribed a course of steroid pills, which I’m nearly done with, and nothing has improved yet.  So I might be in it for the long haul.  My poor body seems to be going from bad to worse.   
         But with such a wonderful family, I have every reason to be happy.  Nothing else means as much to me.
         Lots of love, Mom