Dear Kids,
      I’m eating a gigantic cookie for breakfast. It looks like those big pink Mothers brand cookies you buy at Mavrick and other gas stations, the ones where, when you look at the nutrition information on the back, it tells you it only has 200 calories, but that’s only for one “portion,” which turns out to be maybe 1/4 of the cookie. I made a bunch of these cookies, and wrapped them up and put them in the freezer, so Dad could take them in his lunches. But I discovered (like frog and toad) that you can take them out, and eat them for breakfast. They’re very good.
      Dad spent three days in Virginia, where he went to his 40th year high school reunion, and hung out with his brother. He flew home Sunday morning, and when I picked him up at the airport, he seemed to have a serious case of jet lag or time warp or something. But later on, after we went to Church, he turned back into his old cheerful self again. At work, he’s back to driving busses, instead of sitting in an office. When his trial month ran out, he told them he really preferred driving. Sure, he was making more money in management, but he just didn’t like being shut up in an office all day (and having to write booklets and go to meetings.) And whatever suits him, suits me.
      Friday night I went to Nora’s book club at the cabin. It was a blast. They had read “And Then There Were None,” by Agatha Christie. And they talked about it, in the dark, around the campfire. They’re all very bright and thoughtful. About six of them slept over, and the rest left for home, about two in the morning. What a group! There’s no stopping the fun. For the ones who stayed over, Nora fixed a great breakfast (Kim’s German pancakes), and then a couple of us hiked the little loop. Most of the fall colors have faded, but it was a beautiful morning.
      Speaking of fall colors, Sharon reports that Michigan is absolutely beautiful now, with yellows and oranges and reds. It’s the thing, there, that you drive around the in country and buy apple cider and donuts, and go to fairs. There are also pumpkin patches where you go in and pick your own. Of course we have that, if you want to go to a busy street corner–it’s not way out in the country.
      If you check out the main page of ackerson.org, you can see that Tom has put up a whole new batch of pictures, from conference weekend. All the grandchildren look spectacularly cute. And on the main page, next to where it says “Christy’s Blog,” I’m going to have Tom add another link, to “other family letters,” because my brothers and sisters are all sending out family letters by e-mail now. I’ll put them under the new link, and then you can read all their latest news. I couldn’t possibly condense it all on my own.
      Sunday afternoon, in church, Kara McGettigan was sitting between the two of us, drawing cats. She asked me the name of that little gray kitten we had, and I told her “Mystic.” Then she said, what about that other cat you don’t have any more?” I said, “Scarlett . . . Ethyl?” She shook her head. She said, “You know, that brown one, that was half lion.” Finally I figured it out. “Ramona!” She drew a picture of Ramona with a witch. I asked her if Ramona was afraid of the witch, and she said, “No, Ramona has power over the witch. She treats it like a dog.” So, here’s a question for Monica, “Does Ramona have power over witches?” You can give us a report after Halloween.
      Jeanne’s dad, Leon Hartshorn, has written his life story, and I’m editing it right now. It’s really interesting. He taught seminary and institute first, and then religion at BYU, and they lived in Grantsville and Boise and California and Hawaii, before they finally settled in Orem, where Jeanne met Richard. Brother Hartshorn published a series of books, “Great Stories from the lives of . . . . ,” about eleven books in all. And he also served as a mission president. And I think he met every general authority there ever was. Anyway, it’s lots of fun. I’m nearly done.
      Thanks for all your phone calls and e-mails and visits and letters (Paul only) and love.
      Mom

Dear Kids,
      There’s frost on the ground this morning. Xena is fervently chomping on the cat food, bulking up for winter. Our furnace is cranking out heat. Where did the summer go?
      Well, at least it was warm for conference weekend. Saturday afternoon we were sitting outside by the swings, watching the kids play, and it was positively hot! By the way, it was great to see so many of you there, especially Vanessa and her kids, who had to come so far, and Tom’s family. We ate a lot of food and had a lot of fun. Sunday morning, Vanessa and Nora and Tom and I hiked the big loop. Tom’s gps showed that it was 5.3 miles, from the front of the cabin, back to the same spot. I’m glad to finally know. I figured it was between five and six miles, but I always wondered. Other highlights of the weekend, besides conference, of course, were campfires both nights and lots of trips on the Yerf Dog. Saturday night, I babysat six kids while the guys went to the priesthood session of conference, and the girls went shopping. It was just like doing nursery, only I didn’t have to give a lesson. I put on Bentley’s new copy of “Trucks and Big Machines,” and the boys sat fascinated for at least some of the time. After they watched the fire episode, I happened to be starting a fire out in the pit. So they kept running into the greenhouse to watch, screaming “the house is on fire!!” and then they ran back to the TV again. That was mostly Bentley, Sterling, and Jacob. Ben sort of trailed along behind them. Aaron did his own thing. Julie was pretty fed up with the whole business. She complained to me that she didn’t have anybody to play with, and I agreed that her life was difficult.
      That night, Monica called, and we happened to be at my mission reunion, but things were winding up by then. Dad, of course, was still talking to people who had stuck around, but I had a good chat with Monica. She now has two jobs, a day job in her own field (hooray!) at a food lab, where she tests gum resins, I think she said. Nights she earns more money, at Flemings, a high-end restaurant. The downside is that Ramona is now the latch-key child of a working mom, and she isn’t taking it very well. She peed on Monica, and then, while Monica was screaming at her, she pooped on the floor. Bad Ramona! Well, she was just showing her opinion of Monica’s new schedule. Good thing she couldn’t talk! Grandma Allen once said, “If cats could talk, none of us would have them.”
      Hey, Paul, I hope things are going well for you in Victoria. Have you met any Smiths? They’re all inlaws of Jim Cope, one of my old mission friends. He said to have you watch out for them. Their father was the stake patriarch, and he just recently died. I think there are about 10 brothers and sisters, probably about my age. One family lives on Mann Ave., by the Church. If you run into any of them, tell them your mom is an old friend of Jim Cope. Maybe they’ll feed you, if it doesn’t happen to be “prime time.”
      Last night we went to the wedding reception for Matt Bunkall and Jenny Anderson. Of course there were a million people in line. We were right behind Nichole Archibald and her husband. Nichole’s mom, Cheryl, who knows everybody in the world (she used to come into the dairy a lot, I remember,) was also in and out of the line. She reminded me that Nichole had once gone to a dance with Tom. I said, “Yeah, and the bride did, too.” Tom, you really got around.
      I’m on my way down to Orem to take Grandma to have a bone scan. She’s had nothing but trouble with her knee, and after two “replacements,” it hurts just as much as ever. She’s trying out a new doctor, and he had obviously decided she needs the bone scan. I remember when I was having all my neck trouble, 5 years ago, it was finally a bone scan that showed where the problem was. So I’m hoping she’s just as lucky.
      I’m doin’ great and lovin’ it. Hope you all are, too.
      Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
      We finally have a computer up and running, but of course I don’t want to go through the whole story. It works. I can write normal letters again. On schedule.
      Paul has been transferred to Victoria! His new address is: #102 3819 Shelbourne St., Victoria BC V8P 5N3. On the map, you can see that Victoria is on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, even farther south than most of Donna’s mission. It’s probably going to be a great place to spend the winter. No dog sleds. Go, Paul!
      It must be the season for romance. In fact, it must be a monsoon season for love. Can you believe that both Annice Turcsanski and Shanna Spencer are getting married? Annice is marrying Dan Osmond, a son of one of the older Osmond brothers, one of the deaf ones who didn’t sing. He’s been married before and has a 5-year-old daughter. Shanna is marrying a guy named Zach from Washington. Her aunt set them up. She doesn’t have a ring yet, but she sold her condo and moved back in with her parents to save money. We also have a wedding announcement from Matt Bunkall, who’s marrying Jenny Anderson, who’s Tom’s age, and there’s also an announcement from April Ulrich. What a batch of marriages coming up! Dave Michelson made a trip to Idaho to meet Connie Harper, and I hoped a romance would flare up immediately, but he seems to be checking out a lot of different girls, and Connie is just one of them. Well, if there was ever a year for Connie to find her man, this has got to be it.
      Last Friday and Saturday was the annual sisters’ retreat for Grandma Allen and all my sisters and me. We’ve nearly always gone to St. George, but (1) gas is too expensive and (2) we haven’t been invited to Charley’s new house there and (3) Barbara doesn’t live there any more, so we went to the Cabin instead. I had worked like crazy to finish up the inside moldings around the new windows, and put the blinds and shutters and curtain rods back up, because I knew they would look into every room and exclaim over every little thing I had done. And they did. It was lots of fun. Actually, it doesn’t matter where we have the retreat if we can eat out, shop, watch movies, and gossip. And we did it all. We ate at the Gateway Grille in Kamas, and everybody was impressed! Go, Kamas. We watched “The Terminal,” plus Hurricane Rita coverage. (Big flop. It hardly damaged anything!) My sisters shopped at the outlet stores, but I stayed at the Cabin with Grandma, and raked rocks in the yard. And we gossiped. Jane was here visiting, and she had hoped to meet Jamie’s new girlfriend. But every time she visits, things go south with the current girlfriend. Just before Jane got here, Jamie went to pick up the girl for a date, and she’d had her hair cut into a mohawk, and it was spiked. She told him she thinks it’s OK to drink coffee, and the Church is not all that important to her. Oh, and she also told him about how she’d tried to kill herself. Needless to say, he’s starting out all over again. I heard lots of other gossip, which I’ll probably let slip here and there, when I’m not careful.
      Sharon has a new church calling–ward camp director! She’ll have a great adventure, I’m sure. Their camp is going to be in July, but she doesn’t know if it’s ward camp, or stake camp. She’s hoping for Stake, so they’ll pick the theme and make most of the arrangements. You know, they have to have the matching pajama pants, and the workshops for learning camp skills, and the booklet of camp songs, and the crafts . . . But of course it’s all good.
      We’re looking forward to conference this weekend, and it will be fun to see everybody who is able to come to the cabin. Those of you who can’t . . . we’ll miss you.
      Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
      Here I sit, again typing my weekly letter on the laptop, again late, completely aggravated about our new computer. Dad’s friend had it ready for him on Saturday, but he configured it wrong (striped instead of mirrored,) so Dad spent several hours re-doing it, rather than taking it back. It has no game port to plug my music keyboard into, so I can’t work on my recital music, and the screen flickers, probably having something to do with the video card. The flicker is so bad that after just a few minutes I’m so dizzy I can’t do anything. About the game port–Dad’s friend told him there were adapters that would convert my MIDI cable to USB, but Dad couldn’t find one. So enough about that. If I even talk about it, I get too mad to think about anything else.
      Is there any good news? Your cousins Adrien and Michelle both had their babies. Michelle had a boy, Liam, and Adrien a girl-–I think her name is Miriam. I have no idea when either baby was born, oh wait, Michelle’s must have been about a week ago, because Nancy had the twins, when I was visiting Grandma yesterday. And Amy was there with Caleb, so we sat and watched the babies play and fight together. It was fun. Outside, in the street, there was yellow “caution” tape strung everywhere, because two days earlier, one side of the street had been slurry-sealed. I know, it doesn’t take two days for that stuff to harden. It doesn’t take even one day. But the two old geezers who oversee everything in the neighborhood were keeping good watch over it, and the rest of us had to crawl under the tape, even old people in wheelchairs, going to doctor appointments. So I took the opportunity, when they weren’t looking, to cut it with scissors. They tied it back together when they saw it was all sagging, and then they took to watching it even more closely. I found another chance to cut it, down at the end of the street, when they were gone inside, but by the time I made it back to Grandma’s house, going in the back way, they had tied it up again. Well, I gave them something exciting to do. The trouble is, Grandma and Grandpa and everyone in the neighborhood is too nice to them. They wouldn’t last five minutes on our street.
      Donna has had some kind of identity theft with her cell phone, because our last bill had 53 text messages that she had supposedly sent or received, and of course they cost extra. She called customer service, and the guy she talked to asked, was she sure she hadn’t received the messages, and it was weird, and he didn’t know what do to about it. We all advised her to keep trying, till she gets somebody who can fix it. It’s not expensive, but aggravating.
      Sharon reports that Charlie is now in a play group that meets outside in the sand box. The mothers sit and visit while the kids play. Sounds like fun to me! (Both the sand and the visiting.) Sharon says the weather has been beautiful in Michigan, but they don’t go out exploring much now, since gas has become so expensive.
      Heather has a fabulous garden this year. It’s all neatly arranged in raised beds, and she has everything from beets and carrots to beans and tomatoes and zucchini. Next year I definitely want to have a garden again! Those fall vegetables taste so good!
      Tom and Kim have moved into the house of a nice older couple who are serving an 18-month mission. Heck of a deal! Tom says there will be a lot of yard work, but we all know how much he loves that sort of thing.
      Conference weekend is coming up! Dad and I will be at the cabin, of course. I’ll fix Sunday dinner. If anybody wants to come for all or part of the weekend, and eat with us, let me know, so I can plan.
      Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,
     Dad and I had our last-of-the summer cabin siding work party over the weekend. Translated, that means we nailed up our last batch of logs, until next year. We’re about 75% done. You can see it all at ackerson.org. I know I’ve been consumed with the project for several weeks now, so it will be nice to go on to other things.
      Did you all hear that Ned Winder died? The obituary said it was heart failure. He hasn’t looked good for the last several months, but I sort of figured he would live forever, anyway. Dad and I didn’t go to the viewing or the funeral, because we knew that thousands of people would be coming from great distances, and we have our own good memories of him. The funeral was in the stake center, and there were TV’s in every classroom, and still, that wasn’t enough. I knew it would be mobbed.
      Remember how I said I killed 283 hornets? Well, their relatives got revenge. It was out in the field by the cabin, where I accidentally stepped in one of their nests. They went after me, and chased me back to the cabin, and inside. I grabbed some bug repellant, and sprayed down my face and arms, and they finally backed off. But they got me good in quite a few places. My upper lip swelled up until I looked like Homer Simpson, and it took a week to completely go away.
      Dad has a surprising new assignment at UTA–they’ve pulled him into management, temporarily, to rewrite a training manual. They gave him a desk and a computer and a palm pilot and a cell phone. He goes to meetings and sits in on training sessions. When he told me all this, I was flabbergasted. He said he’s the best they’ve got. I guess they know he has a college degree. I said, “Who’s going to be your editor and proof reader?” He said he’s it. I’m pretty sure he’ll bring things home for me to look over. He said nobody else would know the difference. So now he’s working 8 to 5 in an office. I don’t know how long he can do it without going berserk.
      Last Monday morning, while Dad and I were working at the cabin, Donna called us on her cell phone. She and Bevan were at the top of Timp! They had started out at 5 am, and they were at the top before 8. They must have really hoofed it! She said there were hundreds of people on the mountain. I guess everybody realized it was the last good weekend. Probably the only good one. There was still a lot of snow, and Donna told me later, they had to be careful coming down. But guess who they ran into? John Patterson and Cindy! He, of course, wanted to know who Bevan was, a boyfriend, husband, what? Donna said he wasn’t her husband. Later, Donna had to tell Bevan the whole story of John Patterson’s misdemeanors, and that, of course, led to the story of Jacob, and Donna’s patriarchal blessing, and that whole strange affair. By the way, John Patterson has been hired as city manager of Ogden. The media called it second-in-command to the mayor, but John, in an interview, called it city manager. Good for him. Go, John. (As in, “go to Ogden, OK?”)
      They’re digging up all the ground around our Church, but I don’t know why. (Maybe they announced it in Church last Sunday, when we were out of town.) All the grass is gone, and most of the shrubs, and they’re hauling away dirt, for a couple of feet down. Maybe it’s contaminated. I’ll keep you posted.
      Hey Paul, I’ll send the stuff you need. I’ll get to it right away, promise. I’m glad you’re so busy. Keep up the good work. Go for the gold. (Oh, sorry.)
      Hope you’re all doin’ great and lovin’ it! Mom

Dear Kids,
      I haven’t written in almost two weeks, because we still don’t have our computer back. So I tap out things on the laptop, but it’s a pain. Meanwhile, everybody in the family has been doing interesting and unusual things. Monica and Ramona have gone off to Tucson, and everything seems to be fine there. (There are plenty of trees with birds in them for Ramona to watch.) Donna came home from the Tetons (with Bevan, surprise, surprise) and moved all her stuff to Logan, and started school today. She’s living in a 50's style house with interesting roommates, including a Spanish-speaking older lady. Seth and Sharon arrived safely in Ann Arbor, but I haven’t talked to them much. Their phone is always busy when I call, so they must have plenty going on. Nora has started up her preschool, and she has also enrolled Addie in a “Joy School.” If you want to know more about joy schools, ask Nora, or Kim, whose Mom did one for her years ago. It’s sort of a parents’ co-op. Speaking of Kim, she had all four wisdom teeth out, but she looks pretty good again–just a little swelling still, when she and Tom were here last weekend for his 10-year high school reunion. (The reunion was too expensive, so Tom and his friends met at Rodozio Grill and had their own fun.)(It ended up costing almost as much, however, but they didn’t much care, it was so much fun to boycott the real thing.) Tom tells us that Emma has a heart murmur, and she has to see a specialist as soon as possible, which turns out to be in November. Don’t you love our health care system? Well, it’s probably better than most other places. Paul, you can probably tell us stories about Canadian health care, when you come home. Which will probably be June 2nd. Paul wrote that in an e-mail to Donna. Why she needed to know is a whole ‘nother story.
      Last time I talked to Vanessa, they had several loads of boulders in their yard, and Trent had borrowed a skidloader to make a retaining wall out of them. Now that sounds like a fun project to me! Maybe someday Trent can show me how to do it. I’ve never driven construction equipment, not even a bobcat.
     Last week when I went to the cabin, I saw that the door from the garage to the kitchen had been left open, and I heard rustling inside. I thought there might be an intruder, and I was really scared, but when I stepped into the kitchen, I noticed that all the chocolate graham crackers I made last time, a whole batch of them, had been eaten. The lid was on the floor. I heard scurrying in the pantry, and when I walked in there, I saw a little furry tail disappear down that hole that goes through the floor. It was a squirrel, and it had burrowed through a whole package of napkins and shredded two boxes of bran flakes, for nesting materials. I put a can of paint over the hole, but I didn’t know there was another squirrel still in the cabin. By the next morning, he had chewed into the banana I left on the counter, and he was shredding paper off the sheetrock on the wall. I swept it up. But later there was a new pile, and also wood chips that he had chewed off the corner of the door. So I finally got out the rat poison. He took one cube down to his nest. Poor squirrels. I hate to kill little creatures, but now I have to repair the walls and the door.
      I also killed 283 hornets in one day. I put out a bowl of chicken water for the cats, and the hornets swarmed into it and drowned themselves. I kept skimming off the dead ones and counting them. I know, sick. But I was curious how many you could kill with one bowl of chicken water. Interesting.
      I can see I’ve written more about squirrels and hornets than family members. I’ll do better next time.
      Lots of love, Mom.

Dear Kids,
      My letter is late this week, or maybe this is next week’s letter, because we don’t have a computer right now. Dad thinks our motherboard is fried, probably caused by a failing power source. Or whatever. I’m typing on the laptop, and it’s giving me a hard time.
      Sharon and Seth left for Michigan yesterday morning, and they made it to North Platte, Nebraska, by last night. Tonight they’re supposed to be in DesMoines, Iowa, where they’re staying with somebody they know. Tomorrow they’re driving to Chicago, and then on Saturday to Ann Arbor. Their new address will be: 2831 Sagebrush #208, Ann Arbor, MI, 48103. Their phone number will be 734 913 7982. It was hard saying goodbye to them (and Charlie,) but they’ll be here for Christmas, and time goes by fast.
      Cathy called Sunday night. She and Amber are settled in Buffalo, New York, and we’re already making plans to visit them next summer, hopefully about the time of the Hill Cumorah pageant. (Hopefully Sharon and Seth and Charlie will be with us, too.) Amber and Cathy’s address is 96 Heather Rd., Cheektowaga, NY, 14225. Their phone number is 716 837 1076. There. Any more address updates? I don’t know of any.
      Over the weekend, Dad and I and the Study Group went to Ulrich’s cabin down by Manti. It overlooks Palisades reservoir, which has a 9-hole golf course that costs $9.00, and sometimes the golf cart rental is free. So Dad went golfing for the first time, with the guys. He said he had a blast. We also went four-wheeling, with the gang. There’s a dirt road that goes east of there, and if you go about 35 miles, you come out in Ferron. We didn’t, but it was sort of fun, riding through the pine trees and aspens. My neck didn’t like it, though, especially when we went over rocks. So I figured it was probably my first and last 4-wheel adventure. Ulrich’s cabin, as you can imagine, is super deluxe. Five bedrooms, four bathrooms, two family rooms, a big rock fireplace–it’s really nice. It also has a fabulous view of the reservoir, and several rows of mountains behind it. It’s sort of desert country, vegetation like Albuquerque. Not what I imagined, but very beautiful. Of course we also got caught up on everybody’s news. Shanna Spencer is pretty serious with a guy in Washington, who was staying at Spencer’s house for a few days. He works for Quest and earns a lot of money, according to Martha. Ralph Spencer was very involved in the “Extreme Makeover–Home Edition” they recently did in Bountiful. He said you can see him marching in the parade at the beginning, in their yellow shirts and hard hats. I had lots of questions for him, like how did they get the cement to dry so fast, and ditto with the joint compound, and what did they do with the family’s furniture. (D.I.) He talked about it nonstop for over an hour, which is more talking than I’ve heard Ralph do in 27 years, but he was very excited about it. The show will be on in September.
      We’re up to our ears in Cat Wars. Here’s how it happened: Monica and Neil have moved to Tucson, and they’re allowed pets. (Funky older home, it sounds like.) So Monica’s here to get her stuff, and Ramona. Grandma said if she had to give up Ramona, she needed a new cat. So yesterday we went to the animal shelter in Orem, even though Grandma has hardly been able to walk in the last two weeks, and we looked over a wonderful selection of cats. She picked out a black one with white tufts coming out of his ears–very elegant. We took him home to Grandma’s house, and Ramona threw a fit. She sat under the deck and hissed at me whenever I came close, and Grandma finally had to go out and get her. I stuffed her in the cat carrier, and the new cat walked by, and Ramona let out a howl/shriek/hiss that would have curdled your blood. The new cat jumped about two feet in the air. Not to worry–Ramona was coming to our house, OK? Not OK. Because we have this new fluffy gray kitten, who’s not the least bit afraid of Ramona. Or the other cats. They hiss at her, and at Ramona, and Ramona hisses at everybody. So the hissing and growling and yowling has continued. Last night, the kitten slept on Monica’s face, while Ramona sulked in the curtains. Today it’s been one fight after another. Monica and Ramona will be leaving on Monday, however, so maybe there will be peace in the house again.
      Last Saturday morning we had a lot of fun here–Leah was getting married, and all four sisters had slept over the night before. Early Saturday morning they were all up early working on Leah: Amanda was painting her toenails, Heather was doing her hair, and Jenny was putting makeup on her. I took a picture, is was so cute. Leah left early for the temple, and Heather was in charge (with 101 other responsibilities) of making sure Jenny was modestly outfitted for the temple grounds. She appeared wearing a very short skirt, so Heather borrowed a long skirt from me, and made her put it on. I overheard her saying, “I can’t believe this!” But it was all good. Dad and I went to the reception that night, at Uncle Richard’s house in Mapleton. Hey, it’s even bigger and grander than Mark Ulrich’s house! It was a beautiful evening, and Leah was a beautiful bride. The groom, Jason, played Uncle Richard’s grand piano and sang to Leah. It was very touching. Dad and I ate way too much cake and ice cream, but it was so fun!
      I’m going to the cabin for a couple of days, because I can’t do anything here without a computer. I hope you’re all doin’ great and lovin’ it.
      Mom