March 8, 1981
Little Rock, Ark.

Dearest Ron, Ann, Susanna & Jessie,
Rick, Jean, Ricky & Barbara Jean
and Roy,


It's a cold, dreary day in Little Rock and I'm glad Daddy doesn't have any meetings and will be home all day. We just came from church and Bob and Claire have invited us for dinner at 2 o'clock so I'll have time to finish this before we go over there - Claire says she has a good recipe for clam chowder and that will be so good on a cold day. They came over last night and we had a fun time together. The Med School Alumni had given money to Bob's class for a big celebration party in honor of them all completing their sophomore year of school and it was on Friday night at the Little Rock Club - they stayed for a couple hours and then left and went to Swensen's for ice cream. Claire really looks good and so does Bob - he weighs 168 lbs. and that's the most he was ever weighed. He is really relieved to have so much school behind him and is looking forward to the rotation schedule for the next two years.

Roy - how is your school coming? Your schedule is such that you go through May and then have all those exams, don't you? Bob was saying that he was learned about all the diseases and could dissect a person but he couldn't give a suggestion on how to help the common cold - he says it is unbelievable how much he was learned but he can't remember much of it - I guess that's where the practicing in the hospitals comes in Dr. Jordin gave one of the big lectures on pharmacology and Bob said he used so many drug terms they hadn't even heard f that they felt they needed another full semester on that. I'm sure medicine is just like everything else, including teaching - you go to school and study and learn a lot but you don't really know anything until you start dong it. we surely hope everything is going good for you - it will soon be Spring up there and that will be beautiful.

Annie and Jeannie - it was so neat to have you both call yesterday morning within thirty minutes of each other. We absolutely love talking to little Susanna - I really think that's why we wanted to have a phone put in our home in Lehi as soon as we get out there - we could just crawl through the phone to hug her - she is such a little doll. She is so much like you were Ann and we will really enjoy watching her go through all the stages that you did - we have told you before that you could recite everyone of the nursery rhymes by the time you were eighteen months old. And that little Ricky - Johnny and Daddy want to go fishing with Rick and him so bad - we are constantly looking at their pictures and his hair is just to perfection in fall of them. Were anxious to hear him talk - I can just hear him say, "What???" we're so glad that Ricky and Barbara Jean have had their ears fixed and we hope so much they don't have any more trouble with them - Barbara Jean has your dispositions Jeannie (Rick's too) and what a joy she will be to be around. We're glad that Jessie is crawling - it doesn't seem possible that they could all have changed so much since Christmas time. We're thrilled about your lot Jeannie and Rick (they have bought a lot in Farmington - that's where Lagoon is - up on the mountain and plan to build there when they can afford it). We're anxious to se it and I'll bet it isn't too far from where Chuck and Frankie Coulter live. Ron - your job really sounds interesting and we hope Ann will be able go to on a trip with you when we're there to help with the children.

Daddy got his letter from Pres. Kimball telling him he would be released on April 12. It gave us a funny feeling at first but the more we think about it the more we realize it is the best thing for our family and for us. That will be a very difficult day - he has been President Mellor for most of the time we have lived in Little Rock - but once it's over we will know it is for the best. The letter said that if he wanted a post - ponement on it to just let them know and that made him feel good - we both feel that they would probably release him next year anyway - Daddy feels that by next year the Stake will change now if he decided that's what he wants to do. This is still very confidential so don't say anything to anyone who might bring the news back here.

Daddy has been working on the trailer making sure it will be ready to go. Bob is going to take two weeks off work and we're proud of Claire for not putting up too big a fuss about his going and her staying here - he's hoping there will still be snow so he can go skiing with John. I want everyone to leave me along for the first couple days and let me try to clean up the attic - I would like to get a commercial vacuum and get some of that soot out of there - I will never feel good until we try to do that and it would d be so much easier to have it done before they start climbing up and down there to do the rewiring. Daddy and Wayne kept tracking in that black dirt and it drove me crazy. I'm sure we could rent one of those vacuums. They are going to be able to put our phone in on the 23rd - we called and told them what he wanted - that will make it so much easier on the on the Woolleys!!!

I have so much school work to do that last week of school - it is the end of the nine weeks and I have to have the grades ready besides having everything ready for the beginning of the last nine weeks so I can be gone that first week. I have told them to get another teacher and they may have one by then - there is just too much to do at home to get everything organized and I am "bushed" by the time I get home from school each day. It has been a wonderful experience and I have benefited so much!!!! We have had a lot of absences - kids cut classes and go over to that cemetery that is across the street from Booker and smoke - our principal said he caught a dozen kids over there one day last week - what a place to spend the day!!!

Daddy has been teaching at Hall this past week and he was in Biology Thursday and had planned to give a test on Friday - well, he had the last period off so he came home - the last period some kids set a fire in the kindergarten room (you all remember they have the kindergarten class in connection with Home Ec. Department) and she smoke was so bad they had to evacuate the whole school and sent all the students home. The biology students couldn't get to their lockers to get their books out so they couldn't study for the test so he didn't give it and he had to think of something else for them to do. We really feel bad for Mr. Faulk (Hall's principal) - he has really had some problems this year - Daddy talked to him and he was so mad about the fire he said he was going to see that the kids responsible for it would go to jail and he seemed to know who did it. there was an article about it in the paper - I'll send it to you Roy. There are some of the meanest kids in our schools that you could never imagine. I didn't know about it but I heard the other day that the bend director at Horace Mann was stabbed in the back with a fork in the cafeteria when he tried to stop a fight - this didn't happened while as I have been there but it doesn't surprise me.

Johnny has been sick all week but he wouldn't stay home because he wants to she missing school for the time when he can go fishing - Bob has told him that when he finished this semester he would be able to got fishing and John intends to make him it. He got out of school early one day last week and came home for an hour and then drove his moped back for soccer practice - in the meantime it started to rain and by the time he got home he was socked clear though and that's where he got his sore throat. He went with Ronnie to a movie last night - Ronnie had a date and all of a sudden his date had a girl friend - Ronnie talked John into going with them - we tried to oppose it because John knows he can't date until he's sixteen but after an hour or more hassle of trying to get Ronnie out of a fix we relented and let him go. Johnny wants to buy one of those television recorders that you can rent movies for - Ronnie does that often and then brings his date to his home for the movie. We think the Cavenesses have rocks in their heads but maybe it will be short lived - dating at 14!!!!

Janet Hoskins (our neighbor where Helen used to live) had the surgery this week and is doing okay - her mother told me they found three more nodes in her stomach - it doesn't sound very good and we surely hope she will recover completely. Sister Swann is still in a coma and we are going to take turns staying with her at the hospital all night nelson Rivers is also in the hospital - they don't know what the matter is.

We surely do love each one of you - we're anxious to see you - wish you could be with us in Utah Roy. Please be careful in everything you do and let us know if we can help you in any way.
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