Some Excitment

On Friday, you will have a new baby cousin. We are traveling the same day the baby is being born so we will be there after the fact. We really should leave for Colorado on Thursday. At any rate, it will be exciting to find out if it is a boy or a girl. We are praying that all goes well and that Kirsten and the baby will be healthy and well.

Little Jens laughs now and can roll over and can also grab things, like your plate when you are eating. We still can't tell if he is truly blond or if he has red in that blond hair. Maybe he will be like Grandpa and be a strawberry blond. He is such a good baby.

Rachel is taking Chinese at school. Grandpa asked her if she was learning to speak the language. She said she was not. So Grandpa made some Chinese-sounding noise and asked her what he said. She said, "I don't know. I told you that I can't understand Chinese." Grandpa laughed and said, "I can't understand it either."

Mary is now in the second grade and is very happy to be back in school. She has a Catholic teacher who wear a "real gold cross" around her neck. Christene is in half-day Kindergarten.

We have had some storms. I was quite happy that we seemed to be missing the copious amounts of rain the horrible storms in your home area have been experiencing and then Brother Ealey had to go and ask Heavenly Father to send us rain for our crops. It hasn't quit raining yet and it is a hard and driving rain.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the Virginia earthquake on the 23rd was half a mile deep and centered near Louisa, Va., about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. I have a cousin, Caren, who lives in D.C. I sent the current joke: The Virginia earthquake was shown to have been caused by all the Founding Fathers rolling over in their graves at the same time. She did not like it and wrote me an email telling me that I should be more thoughtful than that. So I am busily repenting.

Fierce winds, pelting rains, and a storm surge barreled into Massachusetts yesterday as Hurricane Irene weakened into a tropical storm, not as ferocious as once feared but still powerful enough to uproot trees, snap power lines, and threaten dams. Almost 700,000 electric customers were in the dark last night, and roads big and small turned into ponds, forcing traffic to be diverted. Your mom and sister were without power and your mom said that some of your trees were damaged and lost big limbs. Some were uprooted but the house and all inside was fine. There are a lot of tree limbs to cut up, your mom said. Grandpa told your mom that she could probably rent an electric saw from the lumberyard. However, Jim just laughed. He said that the saws were likely already rented.

When your mom told me that your family was moving to Texas, I thought: "Oh, great, now I will worry about tornados!" Well, it seems that I should have worried about hurricanes before you get the house sold and move.

We had a returned missionary speak in our ward last Sunday. He had dengue infection while he was on his mission and thought that he was going to die. He became delirious with fever and his missionary companion gave him a blessing He came to, briefly, while his companion was blessing him and found three men, his comp and two others, dressed in suits. Two were assisting his comp with the blessing. He then faded away again. When he came to, he asked his comp how he had gotten other missionaries to come and help with the blessing. His comp said that he performed the blessing by himself. From that point on, however, the missionary started to feel much better.

Gramps and I continue to pray for you. We hope you soon feel well again. We have kept your name on the temple prayer roll. Your dad also taught us, while we were at your house, that we should be praying for your comp as well as you so we do that. We appreciate how hard you are working and the good you are trying to do. We do love you!!