February 12, 1995 Orem, Utah

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

I'm writing my letter on Sunday this week. I like to make my agenda for our Presidency meeting on Sunday and since I have time today, I'll write my letter too!!!

Patrice - thank you SO much for those adorable pictures and your wonderful letter. I can't believe all that snow in Little Rock. We lived there for 18 years and I believe we only had enough snow to make a snowman one or two times and then not a very big one. It looked like the children were having so much fun and they were bundled up so nice and warm. They made two snowpeople - one was a woman with glasses and the other a man with a carrot nose. It really brings back lots of memories to hear about your school and church being closed because of the snow. At this time of year while we were there I panicked if it even got cloudy - it was always so hard to get the children from their schools and the roads were icy.

I am happy that my friend, Joy Geisler, has done so well with her surgery. I called the hospital right after I talked to you Roy and she was having her dinner - she was more excited about having you as her anesthesiologist than she was the surgery. She cares for her grandchildren a lot so she will need to get well fast.

I hope John and Bob have had a fun time on their fishing trip. I was happy that the weather was good for them on Friday but it snowed here on Saturday - maybe it was good where they were. We are supposed to get REALLY cold weather here tonight and the next few days - it is supposed to be in the single digit numbers but I don't pay much attention to the weathermen any more.

Jeannie - thank you for your phone calls. I am SO glad you and your girls can come on March 25th - I'll make reservations for us. I was happy to hear that the Snow family is doing okay - I haven't been able to get them out of my mind. I guess when those tragedies are foremost on your minds while your sons are on missions and when you serve with young men in dangerous situations on missions it brings it close to home. I am absolutely delighted that you want the negative for the picture I took at Ricky's Eagle Scout Court of Honor night - those pictures mean so much to me and you guys make me feel SO guilty when I ask you to pose. I will admit though that you are getting better than you were for awhile.

The husband of the Secretary in the Relief Society Presidency is going to have a pacemaker put in on Tuesday. I went to the hospital to see him yesterday and asked him what kind he was going to have and he didn't know. Rick, do you come here?

I don't know if the Woolleys are coming over tonight or not. They don't know sometimes until late on Sunday and their meetings go so late that I don't worry about them if they can't come. I hope Ron's eye is better.

I had a phone call from Carol one night last week. She is in Manti staying with her son, Jim and his family. She sounded sad and I wouldn't be surprised to see her start to build a home there. It would be very difficult to leave your hometown of 77 years and make a new life without your husband. She kept saying "these are my people". Carol Ann has called me several times but I keep missing her and when I return her call I have to leave a message on her phone - we would never make contact with each other if we didn't have answering machines.

I also talked to my brother Don and he had a sad story to tell about Dee's wife, Judy. Cheryl got on the phone and said it was more like a soap opera than a soap opera - Ha!!! Dee and Judys' son Tracey has been living in Salt Lake and going to school - they have two children. Evidently Tracey's wife left him and took his car and furniture from the house. Judy went to Salt Lake to help him and stayed with Don & Cheryl. They got a lawyer and he gave custody of the children to Tracey but told him he couldn't take them out of Salt Lake County. Tracey can't go to work without a car or getting someone to care for the children and Judy can't care for them because she lives in Box Elder County. Life is funny. When I was with all the family during Dee's death I was SO impressed with how the children all seemed happy and doing well. I need to help but don't know how.

I have something on every day next week. I can really tell my age - I am actually happy when I see a day or so without anything to do. I bought some material on Friday so I would have some project if our "big" storm came - a "little" storm came but the phone rang and I never did get to my project.

A lady in our ward is trying to teach me how to knit a "ski cap". I have made knitted afghans before but nothing like this. I spent many hours and got about 10 inches done on it when I noticed something I had done was wrong. I decided to take a row out and see if I could correct it. WELL - I have finally taken the whole thing out and started over. I will probably still be working on it when I go to Little Rock - I hope Suzie will be able to help me - she is an expert knitter.

You can tell I don't have anything interesting to write about. I had to go to a meeting at 7 o'clock this morning and it didn't end until just about time for Sacrament Meeting so I just stayed at church. I will NEVER be a morning person so this calling is hard for me.

I love each one of you so very much. PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO!!! Let me know how I can help you.

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