March 25, 1991 Orem, Utah
Dearest John; Roy, Patrice, Emily & Timothy; Bob, Claire, Michael, Laura, Brett & Katie; Rick, Jean, Ricky, Barbara Jean, Mary Ann & Sarah; and Ron, Ann, Susanna, Jessie, Russell, LeeAnna & Jimmy:
A beautiful day here in Orem - it's supposed to get windy and colder through the week but it's SO pretty now. We are all ready for Spring but we have appreciated all the good moisture we have had lately - no big storms but every little bit helps.
We have talked to each one of you this week and that always makes us happy. We appreciated your phone call last night Roy - we get envious when we talk to you and hear about Little Rock in the Spring. When we were there last Fall we loved their yard and their big oak trees but now Roy says they have lots of beautiful azaleas and all different colors. I remember when we lived there we used to drive through the area where they live to see all the azaleas and dogwood in bloom - we had problems with our azaleas for some reason and we loved to see them in other areas. It seems like I remember someone telling us they needed pine needles around them to give them an acid fertilizer - WHAT DO I KNOW??? We wanted to talk to Emily but she was asleep - Roy says she gets up at 5 o'clock in the morning and goes like a "house a fire" until she drops about 7 p.m. - Patrice insists that she rest during the afternoon but she doesn't sleep. Little Timothy is doing fine - what a good baby he is!!! Patrice said in her last letter that they had been to Greer's Ferry lake to do a little fishing and last night Roy said he had been invited to go fishing on Maumelle - doesn't that bring back a lot of memories!!!
We appreciated all your calls too Bob. John had planned to go see Bob & Claire on Friday night to return all the books Bob had loaned him for a research paper he was doing on "lasers" in his biomedical engineering class. John called Friday afternoon and learned that Bob was taking his scouts on an overnight camping trip so he didn't go. Bob called yesterday morning and said they may drive down in the afternoon to see us. Our church doesn't end until 5 p.m. so they decided to spend the afternoon in the park with the Weinerts instead (we didn't blame them). Bob called last night to tell us why they didn't come. They are doing fine - I guess the camping trip went well but it was too cold for me to go camping!!!
Thanks for your call too Jeannie - they have invited us to have Easter dinner with them next Sunday and we will love being with them - I believe we will try to go up early and attend their church meetings. We tried and tried to call them all day on Friday to see if they would take the Woolleys' City Rep tickets and go with us but we could never get them. Rick had business in Sun Valley and Jean & the children drove up to be with him for a couple days and didn't get home until Friday night late. They are doing fine - Jeannie says she is feeling really good.
The Woolleys are doing fine. They decided kind of at the last minute to go to Jerome, Idaho to visit Ron's parents - they haven't been there for quite a long time and I know Russ & Bev & Mimi were SO happy to have them come. I hope the weather was warm enough for the children to enjoy going around on their farm - there is nothing more fun for their children than being on the farm and I'll bet there would be some newborn animals. We felt bad that their City Rep tickets weren't used - we called some friends after we couldn't get in touch with the Weinerts but they already had plans for the evening. The program was Lerner and Loewe songs and it was absolutely wonderful - Daddy & I really enjoyed it.
John is doing good. Gayla's family was in town to go skiing and her sister, Jana, came by to see John. She is a darling girl and very much like Gayla. I wanted to invited the family for dinner but John decided against that. John went "board skiing" on Friday afternoon and when he came home he was soaking wet and when I asked him if he had had a good time he said "NO" - he just isn't a cold weather sports enthusiast!!!
Daddy & I went to see a show put on by the cruise line going to Alaska last Tuesday night. We loved it - we were familiar with so many of the places they had filmed. Right now we plan to drive our van and go with Chris & Wayne in their van but if something happens between now and August, I would like to go on this cruise - it would be so much easier and I think Daddy would enjoy it too once he was on the way. Chris & Wayne called last week and Wayne has his van all customized and they're really proud of it - I hope it is what they want because they surely do deserve it after all their bad experiences with vans and motor homes. I believe Wayne's brother & his wife are planning to go with them in their van and I can't think of anything better than having our own transportation!!!
Daddy is feeling really good - he has all his Spring yard work done and is now waiting for the warm weather so he can plant his flowers. He got up on our high ladder one morning early (before I had my eyes open) and cleaned out all the rain gutters on our house. He also dug up a lot of tree roots that keep coming through our lawn. He is going back to the dentist this morning ªthe crown that Dr. Miller was supposed to put on last week didn't fit so he had to have another one made. I have an appointment to go to Chris Crawford in the morning - I really want false teeth but I don't believe he will pull my others quite yet.
I gave my lesson in Relief Society yesterday. It was on "Teaching Compassionate Service in the Home". Ron had given me some heavy poster-like material that he had left over from one of his business projects and Daddy made me the cutest house to use as a visual aid. I used Ann's "cat story" in my lesson and it really went over - you'll have to have her tell it to you. Ann has been released as Primary Pres. & Jeannie is out of her Presidency too!