October 16, 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:
Another beautiful Fall day in Utah!!! Enough about the weather.
I manage to keep really busy as all of you do but I have a lot of free time too and I am enjoying that. The yard is kinda' taking care of itself and that's nice. It won't be long until I will have to rake a lot of leaves but I like to do that.
I must tell you about my experience last week for our Board Meeting. The Homemaking Counselor was out of town and at the last minute the secretary decided to go on vacation with her husband too. The meeting was to be held at the Education Counselor's home which is just down the street from my home. I spent most of the day preparing refreshments - I baked those crescent rolls rolled out in a cookie sheet and cooled and cut in individual little squares. I mixed cream cheese with ranch dressing seasoning and spread it on the squares and then cut small slices of tomatoes and cucumbers on top and sprinkled salad seasoning on them. They were SO pretty and I had about 30-45 of them arranged on a platter. I also baked some cherry brownies and had them on another platter. I was carrying both platters and when I reached Kim's home there were two young men at the door collecting food for the food coalition of Utah. One of them reached out to help me and as I handed him one of the platters it started to slip so I tried to stop it and the one in my hand slipped also and all the goodies fell in the dirt. I REALLY AND TRULY wanted to cry - they all fell upside down and I finally salvaged about 6 of the sandwiches and about 8 of the brownies. To top that off - Kim called and said she was at the hospital with her brother and his wife whose baby was just about to be born so she wouldn't be able to come to the meeting. She was supposed to give the lesson - the pianist didn't show up and there I was welcoming people into a home without the hostess and without refreshments. The sisters who came were really sweet and they said they understood but since I had a meeting with the Bishop I had to leave early too so all in all it was a fiasco!!!
I went to Ann and Rons' home for dinner last night and had such a good time. Ron is in Alaska so he wasn't there but Ann had prepared a delicious dinner. She made that "Ginger Chicken" recipe in Rosie's cookbook - no fat!!! She had also made rolls from scratch and a wonderful orange cake. The children had prepared the Family Home Evening lesson - Susanna, Jessie and Russell had been to the Youth Conference for their ward over the weekend and they had held it in two cabins in Spanish Fork Canyon. They had the cutest "Intelligence Contest" (at least that's what I call it). They had lots of letters and figures scrambled and the contest was to see how many they could unscramble into sensible sayings. I wanted a copy so Ann & I went to Ron's office and had it run off - I'll use it for my Family Home Evening. Ron's office is very impressionable - I don't recognize half the equipment he has. He has a picture of the new building he is having built on his wall and it is going to be a beautiful building. I don't believe they have started building it yet. Jimmy played a piano solo for me and he is getting So good. Susanna accompanied our songs and Jessie led.
Roy - it was wonderful to come home and receive the message you had left on my answering machine. I figured it would have been about 10 o'clock Little Rock time so I didn't return your call. It was funny because when I was with Ann I told her that I had talked to Patrice a lot but I hadn't talked to Roy for a long, long time - so it was REALLY good to hear your voice!!!
It was good to talk to Bob & Claire this week also. I wanted to reassure Bob that I didn't want him to interfere with Elaine's doctors - he had already decided that that wasn't a very good idea. Daddy's sisters concoct many things for me and my family to do.
Elaine is doing much better now. I went to see her four days last week - everyone was really worried about her. She had been on so much medication that all she did was sleep and stay in the same position - she didn't eat or drink or even move and she developed pneumonia. They had to take her to the emergency room at the hospital one night because she was so dehydrated. I need to go see her today if I can. The care center where she is, is a long ways away. She likes pineapple milkshakes so I take them to her but she can only eat about two swallows every hour. They expect her to stay there for about another month.
Chris Jordin is going to come see me next week. Her brother who lived in Payson, Arizona passed away last week so she has been there and now will come to Idaho for the graveside services for Marc. She had an automobile accident just before she left to go to Arizona and really wrecked her car. She was going north on Brookside Drive and was distracted by a police car investigating an accident on Rodney Parham and ran into the car in front of her - the other car wasn't hurt and no injuries but she feels bad.
They asked me to introduce the program for our Orem Women's Club Meeting on Wednesday. Miss Utah, Amanda Moody is going to play the piano for us and her sister, Jessica is going to play the violin. It will be fun to become acquainted with them. I have talked to Amanda on the phone and she is a very sweet person.
We are having our Home Making meeting this Thursday. There has been such a lot of effort put into it. I hope it is a Huge Success. We will have a chili cook off with the Bishopric being the judges and then we will have line dancing and a quilting bee. The husbands have been invited which is unusual for Relief Society but it should be a lot of fun.
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