Fall Fun

Hello my dear! I’m sorry I didn’t get a letter out to you last week. I had every intention of writing. I don’t know where the week went! Life has been extra busy as football is winding down and basketball is starting up. There are games all the time, and your Dad is lamenting that he has to go to work when all he wants to do is watch is kids play!

I’m glad to hear that you get to stay in Sibu, and I hope everything is going great with your new companion. I’m sad you had to say goodbye to Elder Dunfield. He seemed to be a really great companion to you. I notice that you cooperated with him and his selfie stick. Did you complain to him like you did to me? Did you tell him how lame it is to use a selfie stick when you can just long arm Larry it? Hmm?

How is Xi Long doing? Sorry to hear that his grandpa is not supportive. That’s very discouraging. I hope he’s able to continue attending. 

The Buddhist temples look really cool. What a neat place to go visit. And your trip out to do exchanges in Mukah sounded really fun. I’m glad you got a chance to teach an English class. Hopefully as your mission continues you will have other similar experiences. Do you have service hours that you are supposed to complete each week? Or is all of your work related to proselytizing? Do you have future travel plans? 

I hope you are feeling better and that you had a great week. Looking forward to hearing from you!

We’ve had a fun couple of weeks.

1. Ethan made the Centennial basketball team! He has had two games and zero minutes. Bummer. I thought he might not get as many minutes as some of the other ninth graders considering he didn’t play on the team the last two years. But I didn’t realize that he might not get any playing time at all. He seems to have a good attitude about it though. His coach told him that after watching intramurals and conditioning he didn’t intend to put Ethan on the team. But he had such a good tryout that Ethan forced the coach to include him. Now he needs to be an especially good cheerleader from the bench and earn every minute of play time. And that is what Ethan intends to do. He has five practices before they play again, and he’s hoping to show the coach he belongs on the court. Either way, I think this will be a good experience for him and will allow him to sort of get his foot back in the door as far as basketball goes. He’s also playing on a Hard Knox comp team, so at least that will provide him with some good playing time. His knee seems to be doing well, but he has rolled both of his ankles, so hopefully he can rehab those and start feeling strong again.

2. We’ve gone to a lot of football games in the last couple of weeks. Tate’s team lost their final flag football game. He came off the field crying from disappointment. The kid is competitive!  Jett injured his wrist at his football game last Saturday. It got smashed between two helmets, and it’s been sore all week. He decided to wear a brace and play anyway, but it’s still hurting pretty bad. His team was assigned the 8 seed in the highest bracket for their tournament games. They played Brighton yesterday who was undefeated. His team scored on Brighton, but ultimately lost, so his season is over now. It’s probably best since he needs to let his wrist heal up. Plus it’s soccer and basketball season too, so it will be good to not have so many conflicts.

3. Blake had a solid win against Weber last week. This week they played Davis and won again! That was an especially good feeling considering Davis started out the game chanting “Little Brother” at us. It was a white out game for Farmington and a black out game for Davis. After the game Farmington students rushed the field in an excited sea of white. Then a few minutes later the Davis kids in black started pouring onto the field. I was worried there would be a brawl. But nope—everything stayed cool. Blake came home happy that night!

4. Speaking for football, BYU is having a very good season.

5. Tate got to go to Cross-E-Ranch for a field trip and he got to bring home a pumpkin. He was WAY excited and had a great time. October 1st Marcy Judd started up the pumpkin stealing game again. Tate has been obsessed, and wants to go out pumpkin hunting as soon as he gets home from school every day. I absolutely love that he is outside running around every afternoon with the neighbor kids.

6. I’ve been making grape juice from the grapes in our garden. It’s not exactly my favorite task, but the juice is so good that I can’t really complain. The garden area is an absolute jungle right now. It’s going to be a major project to tackle that all in the spring. 

7. Blake got asked to the Harvest dance by a volleyball player named Clara.

8. Jett got to go spend the night with Nate at the Little America to celebrate their birthdays on Friday night. That was a fun treat for him. Jessica Scott seems to be much more fun as a mom than I will ever be!

9. Tate got to go to cousin Braden’s 8th birthday party yesterday, and they had a fun Nerf war in the park.

10. I went to see my eye doctor and asked to try something called punctual plugs for my dry, irritated eyes. He basically put teeny tiny plugs into my tear ducts to prevent tears from draining out of my eyes too fast. The jury is still out on how effective they will be, because my eyes are still dry and irritated.

11. A couple months ago Dad’s doctor told him that his blood pressure was higher than ideal and that he should monitor his blood pressure and start exercising. He has tried to limit his salt intake, and he’s been enjoying watching movies on his iPad while using the treadmill. But his doctor decided he needs to start a blood pressure medicine, and Dad’s not happy because he doesn’t like to take medicine. Grandpa Rawson told him that he had to start taking blood pressure medication when he was the same age, so it’s probably something that just runs in the family.

12. Michael got a text from Heidi Bird last week. She told him she wants him to take out her niece. Despite the fact that she is a cute returned missionary, Michael is not interested in going on a blind date. He called me to ask for advice on how to handle the awkward situation, and I told him I would pay for his date if he took her out, and he agreed. But I still think he hasn’t asked her out. We had this conversation on the phone while he was doing his shopping at Walmart. He told me that he had already been on two blind dates the previous week. And then some girl walked up to him at Walmart and gave him her phone number! Ah! The Provo life! I guess Quaid set Michael up with a girl named Elise who is a friend of his wife. I think they have gone out 3 times now, so maybe there is some interest there? I guess we will see!

13. I got to go on an overnight stay in a condo with the young women on Friday night. We ate good food, played games, pickleball and mini-golf (which I won!), and stayed up too late. It was a lot of fun.

14. Uncle Matt came over last weekend to help Blake change the brakes and rotors on the Avalon. He saved us a ton of money and then acted like we were doing him a favor by letting him work on our car!

15. I got to eat lunch with Jett at school for the October birthday table. He requested chicken strips and a Blizzard from Dairy Queen. Lol, he’s so spoiled!

16. Ethan is learning Fur Elise on the piano right now. Blake hasn’t touched the piano since last spring. What a relief that I don’t have to nag him about it anymore!

17. Last weekend we got tickets to go to the Conference Center in Salt Lake for the afternoon session of Conference. There were a lot of great talks as always. But one story that stood out to me was when President Nelson said that at one point someone had held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t go off. What?! How is that possible?! Doesn’t he always travel with security? I wish I could remember the larger point of why he was sharing the story, but my memory just isn’t great sometimes. Anyway, it appears the Lord was protecting him! 100 years old! It’s amazing what he is still doing.

18. We had Stake Conference this weekend, and President McKay was our visiting authority. Lucky us! He is such a great speaker, and so inspiring.  I wish he would speak at every conference.

19. I got news this week that Great Grandpa Bramhall has fallen again. He has two cracked vertebrae and is in some pain. He’s too much for Janet to take care of Hello my dear! I’m sorry I didn’t get a letter out to you last week. I had every intention of writing. I don’t know where the week went! Life has been extra busy as football is winding down and basketball is starting up. There are games all the time, and your Dad is lamenting that he has to go to work when all he wants to do is watch is kids play!

I’m glad to hear that you get to stay in Sibu, and I hope everything is going great with your new companion. I’m sad you had to say goodbye to Elder Dunfield. He seemed to be a really great companion to you. I notice that you cooperated with him and his selfie stick. Did you complain to him like you did to me? Did you tell him how lame it is to use a selfie stick when you can just long arm Larry it? Hmm?

How is Xi Long doing? Sorry to hear that his grandpa is not supportive. That’s very discouraging. I hope he’s able to continue attending. 

The Buddhist temples look really cool. What a neat place to go visit. And your trip out to do exchanges in Mukah sounded really fun. I’m glad you got a chance to teach an English class. Hopefully as your mission continues you will have other similar experiences. Do you have service hours that you are supposed to complete each week? Or is all of your work related to proselytizing? Do you have future travel plans? 

I hope you are feeling better and that you had a great week. Looking forward to hearing from you!

We’ve had a fun couple of weeks.

1. Ethan made the Centennial basketball team! He has had two games and zero minutes. Bummer. I thought he might not get as many minutes as some of the other ninth graders considering he didn’t play on the team the last two years. But I didn’t realize that he might not get any playing time at all. He seems to have a good attitude about it though. His coach told him that after watching intramurals and conditioning he didn’t intend to put Ethan on the team. But he had such a good tryout that Ethan forced the coach to include him. Now he needs to be an especially good cheerleader from the bench and earn every minute of play time. And that is what Ethan intends to do. He has five practices before they play again, and he’s hoping to show the coach he belongs on the court. Either way, I think this will be a good experience for him and will allow him to sort of get his foot back in the door as far as basketball goes. He’s also playing on a Hard Knox comp team, so at least that will provide him with some good playing time. His knee seems to be doing well, but he has rolled both of his ankles, so hopefully he can rehab those and start feeling strong again.

2. We’ve gone to a lot of football games in the last couple of weeks. Tate’s team lost their final flag football game. He came off the field crying from disappointment. The kid is competitive!  Jett injured his wrist at his football game last Saturday. It got smashed between two helmets, and it’s been sore all week. He decided to wear a brace and play anyway, but it’s still hurting pretty bad. His team was assigned the 8 seed in the highest bracket for their tournament games. They played Brighton yesterday who was undefeated. His team scored on Brighton, but ultimately lost, so his season is over now. It’s probably best since he needs to let his wrist heal up. Plus it’s soccer and basketball season too, so it will be good to not have so many conflicts.

3. Blake had a solid win against Weber last week. This week they played Davis and won again! That was an especially good feeling considering Davis started out the game chanting “Little Brother” at us. It was a white out game for Farmington and a black out game for Davis. After the game Farmington students rushed the field in an excited sea of white. Then a few minutes later the Davis kids in black started pouring onto the field. I was worried there would be a brawl. But nope—everything stayed cool. Blake came home happy that night!

4. Speaking for football, BYU is having a very good season.

5. Tate got to go to Cross-E-Ranch for a field trip and he got to bring home a pumpkin. He was WAY excited and had a great time. October 1st Marcy Judd started up the pumpkin stealing game again. Tate has been obsessed, and wants to go out pumpkin hunting as soon as he gets home from school every day. I absolutely love that he is outside running around every afternoon with the neighbor kids.

6. I’ve been making grape juice from the grapes in our garden. It’s not exactly my favorite task, but the juice is so good that I can’t really complain. The garden area is an absolute jungle right now. It’s going to be a major project to tackle that all in the spring. 

7. Blake got asked to the Harvest dance by a volleyball player named Clara.

8. Jett got to go spend the night with Nate at the Little America to celebrate their birthdays on Friday night. That was a fun treat for him. Jessica Scott seems to be much more fun as a mom than I will ever be!

9. Tate got to go to cousin Braden’s 8th birthday party yesterday, and they had a fun Nerf war in the park.

10. I went to see my eye doctor and asked to try something called punctual plugs for my dry, irritated eyes. He basically put teeny tiny plugs into my tear ducts to prevent tears from draining out of my eyes too fast. The jury is still out on how effective they will be, because my eyes are still dry and irritated.

11. A couple months ago Dad’s doctor told him that his blood pressure was higher than ideal and that he should monitor his blood pressure and start exercising. He has tried to limit his salt intake, and he’s been enjoying watching movies on his iPad while using the treadmill. But his doctor decided he needs to start a blood pressure medicine, and Dad’s not happy because he doesn’t like to take medicine. Grandpa Rawson told him that he had to start taking blood pressure medication when he was the same age, so it’s probably something that just runs in the family.

12. Michael got a text from Heidi Bird last week. She told him she wants him to take out her niece. Despite the fact that she is a cute returned missionary, Michael is not interested in going on a blind date. He called me to ask for advice on how to handle the awkward situation, and I told him I would pay for his date if he took her out, and he agreed. But I still think he hasn’t asked her out. We had this conversation on the phone while he was doing his shopping at Walmart. He told me that he had already been on two blind dates the previous week. And then some girl walked up to him at Walmart and gave him her phone number! Ah! The Provo life! I guess Quaid set Michael up with a girl named Elise who is a friend of his wife. I think they have gone out 3 times now, so maybe there is some interest there? I guess we will see!

13. I got to go on an overnight stay in a condo with the young women on Friday night. We ate good food, played games, pickleball and mini-golf (which I won!), and stayed up too late. It was a lot of fun.

14. Uncle Matt came over last weekend to help Blake change the brakes and rotors on the Avalon. He saved us a ton of money and then acted like we were doing him a favor by letting him work on our car!

15. I got to eat lunch with Jett at school for the October birthday table. He requested chicken strips and a Blizzard from Dairy Queen. Lol, he’s so spoiled!

16. Ethan is learning Fur Elise on the piano right now. Blake hasn’t touched the piano since last spring. What a relief that I don’t have to nag him about it anymore!

17. Last weekend we got tickets to go to the Conference Center in Salt Lake for the afternoon session of Conference. There were a lot of great talks as always. But one story that stood out to me was when President Nelson said that at one point someone had held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t go off. What?! How is that possible?! Doesn’t he always travel with security? I wish I could remember the larger point of why he was sharing the story, but my memory just isn’t great sometimes. Anyway, it appears the Lord was protecting him! 100 years old! It’s amazing what he is still doing.

18. We had Stake Conference this weekend, and President McKay was our visiting authority. Lucky us! He is such a great speaker, and so inspiring.  I wish he would speak at every conference.

19. I got news this week that Great Grandpa Bramhall has fallen again. He has two cracked vertebrae and is in some pain. He’s too much for Janet to take care of on her own. So my dad and uncle Scott drove to Idaho to pick him up and bring him back to Utah. Scott stayed with him in his Provo house this weekend, and I think on Monday they will check him in to a rehab facility. After that he will likely need to stay in an assisted living center, and I think he is not happy about it. Darn it! It’s hard to watch his health decline.

20. There is a lot of conflict and turmoil in the world right now. We’ve got about 3 weeks until Election Day. There is some concern about whether we will have a peaceful transfer of power. There has already been two (three?) assassination attempts on Trump’s life. Trump’s running mate JD Vance is refusing to answer whether Trump lost the election in 2020, and the campaign is doing its best to create fear that this election will be “rigged” as well. Netanyahu has waged war on Gaza for a year, killing tens of thousands of civilians, and now he is attacking Lebanon. Iran will be next. Will he attack today? Tomorrow? In 3 weeks? Will the US be drawn into this war? Will this affect the election? How would Trump handle the conflict? Kamala? The US has suffered two major hurricanes, and several tornados in the past two weeks. Hurricane Helene hit first and it was extremely damaging—especially in North Carolina. The death toll is over 230 people. There is still flooding and debris that needs to be taken care of, but then Hurricane Milton came. It increased in speed and strength rapidly. It was a terrible storm, but ultimately not as destructive as feared. Blake and Dad and I are scheduled to travel to Florida next week, which is really poor timing, but I’m hoping the destruction won’t be too bad in the areas we are visiting, and that it will be safe for us to be there. 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Have a great week, and talk to you soon!

Love, Mom

Ps. Tate, Jett, Ethan, and Blake are currently having a hot wheels tournament. It makes my momma heart happy!

Pps. A few thoughts from President McKay:

“In the temple we are endowed with His power to walk in His path. Lay hold on His teachings. Bind yourself to Him by covenant.”

“Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find him in the temple.” (President Russel M. Nelson)

“Write down God’s dealings with you in your life. Remember the things that will bring you to Christ”

“God weaves souls together.”

“90% of fulfilling your calling is just showing up. Give God something to magnify.”

“Live in all things outside yourself by love, and you will have joy. That is the life of God; it ought to bar our life. In him it is accomplished and perfect; but in all created things it is a lesson learned through difficulty.” (Poet Robert Browning) her own. So my dad and uncle Scott drove to Idaho to pick him up and bring him back to Utah. Scott stayed with him in his Provo house this weekend, and I think on Monday they will check him in to a rehab facility. After that he will likely need to stay in an assisted living center, and I think he is not happy about it. Darn it! It’s hard to watch his health decline.

20. There is a lot of conflict and turmoil in the world right now. We’ve got about 3 weeks until Election Day. There is some concern about whether we will have a peaceful transfer of power. There has already been two (three?) assassination attempts on Trump’s life. Trump’s running mate JD Vance is refusing to answer whether Trump lost the election in 2020, and the campaign is doing its best to create fear that this election will be “rigged” as well. Netanyahu has waged war on Gaza for a year, killing tens of thousands of civilians, and now he is attacking Lebanon. Iran will be next. Will he attack today? Tomorrow? In 3 weeks? Will the US be drawn into this war? Will this affect the election? How would Trump handle the conflict? Kamala? The US has suffered two major hurricanes, and several tornados in the past two weeks. Hurricane Helene hit first and it was extremely damaging—especially in North Carolina. The death toll is over 230 people. There is still flooding and debris that needs to be taken care of, but then Hurricane Milton came. It increased in speed and strength rapidly. It was a terrible storm, but ultimately not as destructive as feared. Blake and Dad and I are scheduled to travel to Florida next week, which is really poor timing, but I’m hoping the destruction won’t be too bad in the areas we are visiting, and that it will be safe for us to be there. 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Have a great week, and talk to you soon!

Love, Mom

Ps. Tate, Jett, Ethan, and Blake are currently having a hot wheels tournament. It makes my momma heart happy!

Pps. A few thoughts from President McKay:

“In the temple we are endowed with His power to walk in His path. Lay hold on His teachings. Bind yourself to Him by covenant.”

“Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find him in the temple.” (President Russel M. Nelson)

“Write down God’s dealings with you in your life. Remember the things that will bring you to Christ”

“God weaves souls together.”

“90% of fulfilling your calling is just showing up. Give God something to magnify.”

“Live in all things outside yourself by love, and you will have joy. That is the life of God; it ought to bar our life. In him it is accomplished and perfect; but in all created things it is a lesson learned through difficulty.” (Poet Robert Browning)