November 13, 1989 Orem, Utah

Dearest John; Roy, Patrice & Emily; Bob, Claire, Michael, Laura, Brett & Katie; Rick, Jean, Ricky, Barbara Jean, Mary Ann & Sarah; and Ron, Ann, Susanna, Jessie, Russell, LeeAnna & Jimmy:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB - today is your 35th birthday and when we think that you are our third child that makes us feel mighty old but we're surely proud of you and hope you have a happy day. I can never keep your ages all straight - we talked to Bob last night and he told me he would be 35!!!

I am SO happy that we are having another gorgeous almost Summer like day today - Daddy & Ray left at 3 o'clock this morning to go fishing. They went to the Piute Reservoir down South by Circleville and it should be even warmer down there - they will be home tomorrow evening. Daddy was so excited I don't believe he even slept last night. His ankle is healing really good - they took more x-rays last Monday and then Dr. Steel put on a walking cast and we got Daddy a cane and you would never know it had been broken. He got some nice redwood to go with what he had left over from the deck and he built a big picnic table and benches for the cabin. When he got it all finished I suggested that it was much nicer than the one we had here and we should keep it here and take the old one to the cabin - So that's what we did. We took the old one to the cabin on Friday and put it in the skunk room and it will be great for the deck. It was a beautiful day in Scofield and there were lots of fishermen with big strings of fish but we didn't stay very long. Daddy has also planted the top tier of our hill in pansies - he just won't stop and it has been so good for him to be able to get out and get some activity after being confined for two weeks. He was really tired by Saturday night though!!!!

Roy & Patrice - forget the skiing and bring your golf clubs - Ha!!! The ski resorts are hoping for lots of snow by Thanksgiving but all the snow storms miss us and it is so pretty here now that I almost hope it stays this way for you - we wish you would come in February for the skiing!!! They had a list of the resorts with the prices for day passes and they are so high I don't know how people can afford to go. Did you hear that Utah passes the bill for spending money to get the Olympics here in 1998? There were lots of people opposed to it (including many of our geriatric friends) but it passed by about a 7 percent margin I think. Daddy and I might have just as well not voted last Tuesday except for that bill because everyone else we voted for was defeated. WE DON'T HAVE YOUR FLIGHT SCHEDULE - I'll call later in the week if we don't hear from you. We are really excited for your visit - it seems like an eternity since we have been with you - I hope you will have fun here. We had a sweet letter from Dianne and she got mixed up and thinks you are going to Connecticut and wanted us to be sure to invite you to go see them. She really doesn't like Trumbull!!!

Last Tuesday was a special day for us. Bob did more surgery on Jeannie's nose and we knew he was going to do it in his office during his lunch hour so we planned to be there about the time it would be over. As it turned out we got there just about the time he started and he let us stay in his office and watch him. It was REALLY neat to watch him work under his microscope - he took layers of skin from the area of the mole and his nurse took them to the pathologist across the street in the hospital and then that doctor phoned back the results to Bob. He finally took a quite large piece from the very center and then sent that in to the lab - they got the results back from that and they were negative, meaning he had gotten all the cancer cells out. He took a small section of skin from behind her ear and grafted it in the area where he had done the surgery and when we left them she had a bandage that was supposed to stay on until this weekend. My thoughts kept going back to when Bob was a little boy and he had a microscope and he loved putting blood and insect parts on those platelets and he would always want us to come see how big they looked. I also thought of him painting those plastic monsters by the hour. He had given Jeannie some valium and she was fine (Bob said last night that she didn't even remember him doing it) - we went for a hamburger after and I was "queasy" but she wasn't. I hope the skin graft works so she won't have too big a scar - that would be minor though compared to what would have happened if she had let it go!!!

It is such a joy to us to have Bob & Roy as doctors - whenever Daddy has gone in for surgeries the first thing he says is "I have a son who is an anesthesiologist" and then he tries to get all the "scoop" on what they give him so he can tell you Roy. I know he gets special care because of this too. You spent hours and hours with the microscope too and also building things - I think you are more like daddy in that regard. Have you built anything lately???

It's funny how you remember things that happened so long ago when you get our ages and yet we appreciate things that are happening now too. John said a cute thing the other day and we think it is wonderful to have a change from the serious side of life - he said, " Mom - there are lots of ways of making money and I'm going to do it the fun way". The only thing I would change with you John is to convince you that you don't need to make a lot of money to be happy - I love to see people contended and happy with their jobs no matter what they are doing or how much money they make.

Ramona & Winston came over last Saturday and it was good to visit with them. They had talked to Daddy on the phone but they didn't know he had been hurt - their grand daughter, Patrice, is pregnant with twins and has to stay in bed. Elaine called last night and wanted us to listen to a radio station this afternoon because they are interviewing their son Matt - I don't know why.

OUR PICTURE WILL BE TAKEN AT THE WOOLLEYS ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, NOV. 22ND AT 7 O'CLOCK - DRESS WILL BE SUNDAY BEST!!!!

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