February 19, 1990 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:
Wow - have we had a wintry weekend!!!! We had one of the worst blizzards yesterday morning that I have ever seen and today it is cold and windy. I believe the news said that Utah County got six inches of snow and I think it must have all come in a few hours. Daddy went to his meeting at church yesterday morning at 7 and came home for me at 9 and we just barely made it and I don't believe we would have if we hadn't had four-wheel drive!!!
We had such a wonderful day yesterday even though it was wintry. Ron was ordained a High Priest and we had a family get together at the Woolleys to honor him. (I always think it is so funny that when things like this happen and we want to make it a special day it ends up being a lot of work for those being honored - Ha!) He received this calling some time ago but wanted to wait until his father could come to ordain him - his folks can't leave their farm just any time and with their temple assignments they had to wait until they could make arrangements for everything. I know they didn't plan on the weather being so bad but everything worked out okay.
When the Weinerts heard about Ron, they wanted to come to be with them too - SO we had a big party. Bob was on call so they couldn't come and John couldn't miss his meetings so he couldn't be there for the ordination but he came later in the day to be with all of us. When the weather was so bad yesterday morning Daddy called me from church and said, "You call the Weinerts and tell them to reconsider driving down" - I waited until 8 to call and they didn't answer (Jean told me later that they always turn their phone upstairs off and with all their preparations they couldn't hear the phone downstairs). I'm SO glad I couldn't get them because they got here and back safely and we all had such a wonderful time. WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT DIDN'T SNOW ONE BIT WHERE THEY LIVE.
It was SO bad here that they even cancelled the Woolley's church meetings. One of the members of their High Council came to their home and the ordination took place there at 10:30 a.m. and then after that they had their own sacrament meeting and Ron's Father said it was one of the best ones he had ever attended. Daddy and I left to come home so Daddy could check on the Priesthood meeting that he was in charge of in our own ward. We got back to their home about l o'clock and they were all out sledding and just having SO much fun - the old folks all stayed inside by the fire and visited - all except Ron's Mom and she was out sledding with the kids - she's such a doll!!!
We're proud of you Ron and hope you are rested up from yesterday - he worked all the time we were there!!!!
Roy just called - it always alarms me when we get long distance calls in the middle of the day but then I remembered it was "President's Day" and a holiday. We LOVE it when you call like that just to say "Hi". It's hard to believe your weather is in the 70's and you have your windows open and you're washing your cars when it is SO cold and wintry here. We talked about you and Patrice & Emily so much yesterday as Rick & Jean told us about their trip to San Antonio and how much they enjoyed it - we loved the pictures you sent and we gave the one of Sarah at Sea World to her yesterday. Daddy has really enjoyed the book "Texas" by Michener and keeps saying "Roy & Patrice need to read this".
Daddy & I walked at the Mall every morning last week - I prefer walking on the track outside but it has been too cold. We walk around in the mall three or four times and I believe that is about three miles. Daddy is doing REALLY good - anxious to go fishing. We plan to go to California for about a week soon. Bob says he and Michael are coming down this weekend and they want to go ice fishing with PaPa - I hope they can go - they say the ice is frozen down three feet at Scofield and I don't believe Daddy's auger will do down that far. Daddy keeps driving out by Utah Lake and watching the men ice fishing out there but they don't catch the kind of fish he likes to catch. We went to Fred Meyers this morning and bought some more of those white plastic chairs for the cabin - they had them on sale - we're trying to rush Spring I believe. Daddy has SO much energy - we put Ann's quilt on the quilting frames one day last week and my thought was that we would have fun working on it leisurely for several weeks while it was too cold to do anything else. Before I knew it, it was all done and all I did was thread the needles. It is a beautiful quilt and they will really enjoy it in their den - Ann bought all the materials for it - she has good taste (I will always think she did it because she thought it would be good therapy for us). We would be happy to make quilts for any of you if you let us know what you want - we have a perfect place to quilt in our downstairs' family room. We will just make "tied quilts" - the hand stitched ones are too hard!!!
I worried so about Jeannie when I saw her yesterday because she is much too thin. When we talked to her about her health she said she feels better now than she has in years - she is on a new medication that they are trying for Crohn's disease and she says it is really helping her. We didn't hear anything about that disease for many years and it seems that lately there is a lot about it in the news and it is quite prevalent. Jeannie - PLEASE - gain some weight!!! I really don't think it is wise to be so thin!!!
We are going to our Family Home Evening party tonight - it is going to be held at a couple's home who just came back from a month in St. George. They rent a condominium there each year during the Winter so they can golf - we laughed because our Winter has been so mild and then we had our biggest snow storm the day they returned. We love each one of you so very much.