June 22, 1992 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: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MICHAEL ON FRIDAY!!!
I believe this is the longest we have ever gone without adding another name to the salutation of my letter - we either need another baby or a wife for John - Ha!!! I've already told you that John doesn't read these letters so I dare say that!!!
I just came in from picking off the dead pansy blossoms - our yard is really pretty. I believe Daddy is saying "grow" to everything including the weeds!!! I get tired and discouraged working in it until I spend a morning out there and I really enjoy that. I don't enjoy the bugs though - I told you they came last Monday and really "doused" the yard and house but in the middle of the week they started coming back and now I have just about as many as I did in the first place. I called them again this morning and they are coming back and do it over again. Keith Smith told me the government stopped them from using the chemical they used to use and the one they're using now isn't as effective. Keith doesn't have his yard sprayed as much as I do and that's a lot of the problem. I spent one entire day washing all my windows last week because I told them to spray directly against the house - now I'll probably have to do it over again.
I know Father's Day was a hard day for all of you - I thought about you!!! Daddy's military marker was delivered here on Thursday evening. I called John and asked him if he could help me put it in and he said he would love to do it on Saturday morning. I had ordered a red carnation spray from the Lehi florist and couldn't get the easel in my car so Ann said she would come over on Saturday morning too to take it in her van. Putting the marker in turned out to be a harder job than I thought it would and Ann & John spent the entire morning working in the cemetery. We decided we needed to border it with bricks so we went to the Lehi Brick yard and got some charcoal colored bricks to match the headstone. John really worked and kept saying, "Dad won't like this if it isn't level." Annie dug with her hands and was covered with dirt and it was HOT!!! When we finished we stopped at "Vittles" and had a sandwich and I felt so happy about everything. John is worried that the lawnmower will hurt it - he wanted to put it level with the grass. I'll watch it closely and if it gets marked we'll just dig it up and put it in the other way.
Ann was late in getting home and Susanna had to go to a birthday party without a gift but I hope she understood - Ann was going to take the gift later. John came home and worked on the yard and he was glad he lived in an apartment and could leave - Ha!!! I don't see very much of him - he goes to work really early now and that's a good sign - I called at 8 a.m. and he was already there.
I have had a fun week and hope you all have too. I went to our Ward Family Home Evening on Monday night - everyone was asked to bring a salad and a dessert and you wouldn't believe all the delicious food. Those of us in the Family Home Evening group left at 8 o'clock to go to the Ballards to play rock and that was fun. Thursday afternoon Ellen Mae & Mel came down and took me to dinner - we went to Joe Vera's and had a bandido - we'll all have to go there sometime. They had tickets to go to the Miss Utah pageant which was held at Mountain View High School - it's just a few blocks from us. Mel was really sweet and said he didn't want to go and offered his ticket to me - I have always wanted to go to that so I was happy and Mel stayed ere and watched television. The pageant goes for about four nights and then they choose a winner on Saturday night. The preliminary that we saw had the girl who finally won, display her talent so that was special - she is a violinist and very, very good!!!
Our bishop in Billings called me early in the week and said he and his wife were coming to Utah and wanted to see John & me. His son has been called as a Mission President in Italy and they were here for all that goes on with that and besides that they had a grand-daughter getting married. Anyway, I didn't plan anything for them and I feel kinda' bad about that. Some mutual friends who live in Lehi had a dinner for them and invited me so I went to that on Friday evening. It was good to see Bishop Anderson and Peggy (his wife) but John couldn't go to the dinner and they were disappointed to not see him. Peggy is crippled so they don't get here very often.
Another friend from Billings - Ying Custer and her son Zack - were also here. Zack was attending "Especially for Youth" at BYU. Ying called and said she would come see me on Friday but she would call first. I worked in the yard most of the day and when I discovered phone calls left on the machine the voice on the other end said, "She isn't home - I guess I just won't say anything". I had left a note on the door saying I was in the back yard but she didn't come over. Anyway - I kinda' goofed up with my Billings friends. I'll do better next time!!! If Daddy were here one of us could kinda' monitor the visits and the other do the yard work but with just me it is a different story!!!
Yesterday after church I went directly to the cemetery and driving home I almost went to sleep so I came home and went to bed - I slept from about 3 until 6. Jeannie & Rick and their children came about 6:30 and we had a wonderful visit. They had brought a video and it was WONDERFUL - it was of Mary Ann's jazz dance recital; Sarah's birthday party; Barji's ballet recital and Ricky's baseball game. Rick has coached his team this Summer and they won first place with Ricky as pitcher and he is GOOD - Jean had taken a video of their championship game and it was just perfect. I love to see little girls dance and the girls' recitals and their costumes were just beautiful and little Sarah and her friends were so cute at her party. We sat on the patio and it was so nice & cool but it was 91 in Provo yesterday