A couple of weekends ago, on October 18th, we held our annual bonfire birthday bash in honor of my dad. It was a perfect autumn night for hot dogs and s'mores and there were almost fifty guests who showed up to help us celebrate. His posterity and guests posed willingly for pictures. 
Today is Jeremy's birthday. He has gone hunting this weekend, so we won't be celebrating as a family until next Sunday. We did call him on his cell phone and the whole gang sang. Little James got on the phone and said "I love you", which was probably the best present of all. Anyway we are so happy that he is a part of our family. There was a time when I never thought we would ever say that, but oh how we now regret our initial negative attitudes. He has proven to be a great son-in-law and we are so proud of his accomplishments. Happy birthday Jeremy!
Today my Dad is 84 years young. He has overcome many challenges in his life, including growing up without a father. Dad, the oldest of three children, was about 5 years old when his father passed away. It was in 1929, the beginning of the depression, and he ended up living with various relatives as his mother tried to make do. He served in the Navy during WWII and the Korean War and went on to have careers in civil service, real estate, and construction. He also served an LDS mission to Hawaii. He is still physically active--jogging and caring for a garden, yard, and orchard. He is devoted to my mother and cares for her in so many ways. I admire so many things about him and am grateful that he is the one that raised me. Happy birthday Dad!
One of the few nice things about our yard has always been the fact that we have mature trees, but sadly the trees are Box Elders that drop those delightful little green worms on webs when Jim doesn't spray them in time. Now we have had some other bad luck with these trees starting back when we were building our house. Jim was trying to cut down a tree that was leaning in a precarious way toward the house and managed to drop it through the roof that had just been put on that day. (Our builder was really nice about repairing it the next day.) We have had professionals come twice over the years to remove trees and limbs before they could fall down on the house and during heavy snowstorms and Farmington's famous winds we've lost others. Well, last night the wind was blowing really hard and at about 4:00 am Saturday morning I was awakened by a loud crack. Now Jim quite often sleeps through middle of the night things. For example--Sue: I can hear someone walking around in our house. Jim: Snore. (It turned out to be Stephanie who surprised us by coming home from Logan in the middle of the night without telling us she was coming.) Anyway, I digress. I asked Jim if he'd heard the noise and he said, "Huh?" So I said that I thought that a tree had fallen on the house. He got up and took the flashlight, looked out all of the windows, and saw the offending limb up by the kitchen window. Well, we tossed and turned for quite awhile and drifted off to sleep again at about 5:30. In fact, Jim was dreaming that Jeremy had come over with the Syracuse police department and they were cutting down all of our trees. That's when we awoke to the next loud crack. This limb had fallen on the house by the back door. So Jim was busy all morning clearing up the yard. I think he actually enjoys it when these things happen because he can play with man toys, aka THE CHAINSAW! I'm happy to say that there was no major damage, unless you count not getting enough sleep.
The view from our back door
In our ward Relief Society meeting each Sunday we have had the tradition of sharing "Happy News" before the lesson begins. It has been a way for the sisters to share the good things and sometimes not so good things happening in their lives with each other. Some months ago our stake asked that the practice be discontinued because they felt that it took too much time away from the lesson. I believe most of us were disappointed. Our Relief Society presidency got around it somewhat by asking if there was anything that we "needed to know", but for the most part "Happy News" has gone by the wayside. Now that I no longer have that forum to use for sharing good things, this blog will have to take its place. So my happy news for this week is that Emily and Adam have announced that they are expecting a baby in early May. Today was the first doctor appointment and ultrasound and I believe that if you check out Emily's blog that there will sometime soon be a little ultrasound picture posted on it. We are so excited! It is happy news indeed!
Jim's Saturday morning golf game was rained out, so much of Saturday was spent visiting and watching General Conference. While the men attended the Priesthood session, the ladies stayed at the condo and watched a DVD, Emma Smith, a new movie that presents her history with a totally different perspective. All I can say is that it's a good thing that tissues were in ample supply. I highly recommend this movie. Jim and I drove home on Sunday, listening to conference and taking the more scenic and leisurely Highway 89 route part of the way home. Jim's Dad's birthday was actually yesterday, but I didn't have time to post this until today. So a happy belated birthday to True!
