Message from Mom, Etc.

Dear Family,

November was marked by the passing of my father, Risorgi Berny Bernardini, Sep 24, 1920 - Nov 9th, 2007. He lived an amazing life around the world in three different continents. A dramatic chapter in his life includes surviving the dangers of World War II in Italy. Whether he was delivering secret messages between the British and the Americans, hiding under haystacks from Nazis with bayonets, disguising himself as a priest to help escapees, or plotting to and almost assassinating Mussolini and Hitler, his adventures were passionate and sincere. Risorgi proudly possessed a diploma to serve as an officer in the Italian Merchant Marine. These adventures brought him to Canada where he married and had his family. Risorgi was famous among small grocers in Toronto for his quality produce and greenhouse plants, always the best. As his children, we learned to work hard in the family business. We carry those lessons on into our lives, and Risorgi's influence has guided us to success. What a remarkable man! We'll remember him always.

Love & prayers, Mom

Martha & Jeremy

November 2007

It's official: Jeremy has a job as a Dentist. He went to an overnight conference this weekend and begins his first day as Dr. Tanner on November 4th. Getting to this point was no easy task.

The month had a few scary moments. It's over and now I can look back and smile. Jeremy spent a few weeks doing some remodeling jobs: one for Aunt Brenda and one for Dad. In the middle of the Dad job, he came back to Vail to pick us up and took us back to Logandale with him. It was nice to be with him and spend some time with Mom and Dad. I think the kids spent most of their daily 24-hour block out on the dirt hill. It was a fun time for us all.

We came back to Vail and Jeremy began a job hunt while I began trying to get the kids settled in a routine. Now Jeremy has a job and the kids have a routine. We feel some success.

Halloween was a blast this year. We went to six different Halloween celebrations and still went trick-or-treating Halloween night. People sure go all out here. At different times the boys were: Optimus Prime, Spider Man Philly-Style and regular-style, Batman, and a Ninja Warrior. I can't even count the number of times the boys saved the world this month. Elizabeth stuck to one costume for each event: a Hula Princess.

Elizabeth took her first independent steps today. She was creeping along the couch when suddenly she let go and simply walked to the other side of the couch. That got her so much applause and attention from her brothers, not to mention her admiring parents, that she kept it up. After that, she took turns walking into the welcoming arms of her brothers. Each time she finished a round, she and her brothers would start laughing and squealing with delight. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Hyrum began violin lessons this month. I used to think nothing could be cuter than watching a 4-year-old holding the violin. I've changed my mind and decided nothing could be cuter than watching a 3-year-old holding a violin. I love watching both of them hold and play, if you can call it that, the violin. Lyle surprised his teacher last week by playing for her a Transformer song he made up on the violin. It had lyrics and even a little choreographed hip shaking. They really respond positively to their violin teacher, Aunt Becca.

Becca is hosting Thanksgiving at her home this month. Everyone is invited. See you then!

Love, The Tanners

McKay & Keresa

I was in the kitchen cooking and I heard Jackson let out a yelp/scream in the other room, then Sydney came running into me. I didn't really look at her or question her regarding Jackson, because she had run in all out of breath and I wanted to let her relax a bit. She stopped and kind of had her hands behind her back. While stirring the pot on the stove, I asked, "How you doin?" she said fine. I asked her what Jackson was doing. She said, "Well he's probably sad right now." I asked her why she thought that. She said, "Because he wants this bear." And she revealed a teddy bear she had been hiding behind her back.

We went trunk or treating at our branch meeting house and the senior missionary couple was giving out Capri suns instead of candy. So I took Jackson, and Sydney went by herself. I didn't notice if Sydney made it to the senior missionaries' car or not, so I asked her if she got a juice in her trick or treat. She looked in her bag and said no, so I told her where to find one. She went over and they dropped a juice in her bag. She squealed and giggled, "Oh fank you fank you! Dad I got a juice! I got a juice! He he ha ha he ha!" I guess everyone in our branch thinks we give our kids candy all the time, but don't let them drink juice. Whatever.

Sydney and Jackson were coloring. Then Jackson stood up like he was going to leave he grabbed two crayons and ran as fast as he could (which is pretty slow) then turned around when Sydney didn’t chase him. He gave kind of a sad look that his mischief didn’t aggravate her. Then he turned around and went back, put the crayons back in the box and went on to something else.

I had one midterm in one class during October. That teacher said she was doing us a "favor" by showing us what a law school final would be like. After it was over, I was standing in line to hand it in and the kid behind me asked how I felt about it. I told him I almost blew it because I almost missed that second essay on the back (there was no such thing). He wigged and ran out of line back into the testing center. SUCKA!

Other than that, life as usual.

MK KGW SRW JGW

Matthias & Megan

Dear Family,

Our lives seem pretty boring with just lots of school and lots of school. Here in the first week of November, we find ourselves with only 5 more weeks before exams. And if that wasn't good news already, who doesn't love the last five weeks of fall semester with a shortened week for Veteran's day, a shortened week for Thanksgiving, and the last week before exams is also shortened. So just a few more weeks and about half a dozen more exams (more like 2 dozen exams between Megan and I) and we'll have made it another semester. And I will be one happy guy to be done with this semester and I think Megan will agree. Unfortunately, the valet company kept on insisting me working many more days and hours than I originally signed up for (sometimes up to 35 hours in a week) so I had to leave the job in order to keep up with hectic school. I was really looking forward to working during the holidays too as I hear the tips are amazing. But I'll just be content to make it through the semester having passed all my classes!

Megan and I do get the chance to take a evening off here and there to have fun still. Earlier in the month, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix played at the U of A $3 dollar theater and we met up with a bunch of our friends from the ward followed by a dessert potluck. We brought Eegee's! October was cherry cider. We still need to go try November's cranberry splash!

So here's a little mini-lesson from my intro to Quantum mechanics class. The things we study, like the motion and energy of electrons and other small particles, cannot be studied directly, but instead are modeled by wave equations. From these wave equations, we can do different mathematical operations to find out a probability of where they may be located or how much energy or momentum they may possibly have. However, the wave equation collapses after a measurement is executed as we no longer have a probability, but a physical measurement. As an intro, our professor taught us about a thought experiment called "Schrodinger's Cat" where a cat is in a box with a radioactive material that may or may not explode and kill the cat. So the state of the cat's mortality is unknown to us, however we can model the cat's state of mortality as a superposition of probability waves, the alive wave and the dead wave. The cat isn't dead, or alive, it is a superposition of the probability of being alive and dead. But as soon a we take a physical measurement, ie, open the box to see if the cat is dead or not, the wave function collapses.

I applied this to the clothes that Megan and I wear. Megan usually dresses and leaves the house before I do. Yet sometimes, purely by chance, we find that when we meet up in the day, I wear the same color shirt and pants as her. This situation can be modeled by a superposition of probability waves of us dressing the same or not dressing the same. However, on the morning of Halloween, I noticed specifically that Megan was wearing a blue shirt and corduroy pants. Taking that physical measurement, I caused the wave equation to collapse as I ended the probability. When I got dressed, I would either wear a blue shirt and corduroy pants or not a blue shirt and corduroy pants. There was no probability, I'd do it or not. So I put on a blue shirt and corduroy pants and I told people that we dressed up as twins for Halloween! Later that night we dressed up as burritos and went to Chipolte restaurant to get free burritos as part of their Halloween promotion. No probabilities there, just free burritos.

Also, the scooter hasn't been working since school started, and sometimes things get difficult having to leave Megan without transportation when I have to go out to do things. So Megan and I acquired a new ride a few weeks ago.

Happy November!

Matthias and Megan

Also in our news...

We had two sets of Uncles and Aunts visit us from Canada, Eddie & Nazha from Toronto and Dan & Freida from Nfld. Our first clue that they were here was a surprise tin of bitlawa on the counter one day after work. A note accompanied the goodies, letting us know that Uncle Eddie had dropped in and "Where were we?" Eddie used his technology skills to google our address and find Logandale all by himself. Unfortunately, the directions didn't quite take him to our home, but to within several miles. He enquired at someone's house, and soon found himself at our door. Too bad we weren't home, but luckily our door was unlocked. The next evening we all met for dinner in Las Vegas, and Chris and Summer joined too. We enjoyed a fun visit, and I don't think Uncle Eddie will ever live down his brief visit to Logandale!