September 9, 1996

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

I do believe I have lost the letter I just wrote and I don't have the faintest idea how I did it. It was two pages long and I must have hit the wrong key because it disappeared. I will write another one but this will be brief so I can get it mailed today - Ha!!!

Kim Harris, the new Relief Society President, came over this morning and I gave her all the things I have had for the last three years. I walked home with her and carried the tablecloths and when I went into her kitchen I about cried - she had boxes of tomatoes and pears waiting to be canned. She REALLY has a lot to do. They have an exchange student who is not working out very well, a daughter who is a senior this year in high school, a daughter who is expecting a baby in a couple months, a daughter who is a sophomore at BYU, and Kim has a big PTA job. I didn't have any of that and it was almost a full time job. She is a wonderful person though and will do a great job and it was fun to unload all my material on her.

This has been a busy and fun week. I ended up going to the cabin on Monday morning to be with the Woolleys and Weinerts - I LOVED being there. We went up into the mountains for a picnic - the children rode the four-wheelers and also the smaller four wheeler and motor bike that Ron has just bought for their family. I am going up sometime this week to put out mouse bait.

Tuesday I went to the Thayne's Summer Home in Parley's Canyon for a farewell party for our friends, Clinton and Eris Holmes who are going on a mission to San Jose, California. Emma Lou served the most delicious lasagna I have ever eaten - she got it at Ruby's delicatessen at Dan's Grocery story at Foothill in Salt Lake - the number is 583-3267. She had two - a vegetable one and a sausage one. She also served other delicious things - a raspberry homemade ice cream. Marian and Malcolm took me with them and then they came home and spent the night here and then they left the next morning for St. George.

Wednesday I had the R. S. Board Meeting here. We had the largest attendance we have ever had and it was kind of a funny meeting - I didn't want to over step my bounds I knew I was being released and Kim and Anne didn't want to help. I served root beer floats, coconut macaroons from the Lehi Bakery, pumpkin cookies and cheese crackers.

Thursday I spent the day with Dianne Power. We had such a good time. We went to Gardner's Village for lunch and then shopped - she is such a special friend. I worry about her because she isn't very well but she keeps going full speed.

Friday I went to the Davis High School football game. Barji was in a special half time program with the Dee Ettes and she was just beautiful - they have very elaborate costumes and I was very impressed with their program. It was fun being with Jeannie and Rick and Sarah and then I saw Ricky as I was leaving - Mary Ann was involved with a surprise birthday party for one of her friends. I also went to see Ellen Mae and Mel and we had a good time visiting and I also called and talked to Bob and Claire and that was fun!!!

I wrote in the letter that disappeared how much I LOVE THIS COMPUTER. I am SO excited to spend more time with it and really learn how to use it. John spent most of Saturday afternoon with me trying to teach me how to use it. Ron and I tried to see if anyone had left me a message on it last night but we couldn't figure it out. I need to STUDY the manuals. Bob - I thank you every day for getting this for me - I feel so MODERN - now if I can just get smart.

I went to do some welfare visiting on Friday night before I left for Farmington and a dog jumped out of the house and attacked me and bit me on the leg. I was SO angry - I hate dogs that bite!!! I had had a tooth pulled that morning and THEN when I got to the football game I discovered that the only glasses I had were my dark ones. I was in a fix. BUT I got home safely - my only problem was that I couldn't see how fast I was going because I couldn't focus in on the speedometer.

Patrice - thank you SO much for your phone call yesterday. It was WONDERFUL to get up to date on your family and it sounds like you are doing great. Emily, Timothy and Jesse were so fun to talk to too - WHAT A HAPPY FAMILY!!!

I am going to hurry and print this before I do something wrong again and it disappears.

Love,

Mom

Below is the letter that Mom thought she lost.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TIMOTHY, SUSANNA, ROY AND PATRICE THIS WEEK!!! WOW - WHAT A BIRTHDAY WEEK. I hope each one of you will have a super birthday. I have nightmares about the gifts I sent to Little Rock - of all my children, Roy is the one I least dare do "daring things" to but I did it. I will write more in my letter next week after I get their reactions. Susanna has already celebrated her birthday. They had a surprise birthday party for her on Saturday night and Ann says it was a whopping success. They had over 25 young people at their home for dinner and then they went to the haunted house by the mental hospital in Provo. It was a cold and kinda' rainy and spooky night and perfect for that kind of a party. I didn't dare talk to Susanna or anyone who knew her before her party for fear I would "spill the beans" - she didn't find out and that's a miracle. Her friend boy, Ryan, helped Ann plan it and keep it a surprise. She has such a wonderful group of friends and they have a lot of fun together. Timothy - will you have a party and if so will it be a Halloween party? I don't believe Roy & Patrice will have a Halloween party.

This computer always amazes me - it knows the date and John fixed the salutation so it is already printed - I LOVE IT. John came over one day last week and showed me how to get the Deseret News on it - we found the conference addresses and printed the ones we wanted. I wrote a lot of letters last week and found different letterheads to use and it was so much fun.

Jeannie is in San Antonio to a dietitian's convention. She left on Saturday and will be home on Thursday. Rick is home with the children but I worry about Jean traveling alone. When I said that to her she said, "Mother, there will be 25,000 dietitians there". I don't like to see young women traveling alone. Let me know if I can help your Rick.

Julianna is going to Phoenix this weekend (I believe that's right) to attend the baptism of one of her nephews. She said her folks will be there also and I know they will have a good time being together. She is off track now for three weeks and hopefully she will get feeling better - she has been out of school for most of last week and the week before with a flu type illness.

John has "gone to the dogs"!!! I can't believe the things I am learning about Golden Retrievers and how they are trained and John and Julianna are spending a lot of time with them. They are working with a trainer in Murray on how to train them to be good hunting dogs - they use live pigeons. They had two of them with them when they were here on Saturday. It makes me feel bad but John says the pigeons aren't hurt (maybe a little). Their dogs are growing so fast - I'm sure they eat a lot. Did you know there was such a thing as "pig ears" for dogs to chew on? They are genuine pig ears that have been treated some way and they are big. John told me about them so I got some for Frauie and Hans and they love them!!!

Laura, thank you for your e-mail message. I answered it. I hope your school is going good and that you are able to get to all your activities. Are you playing soccer? I would LOVE to have a small school picture of you if you have any extra ones. That would be the only picture I have of you with long hair. Did Michael's paint gun come yet?

I believe I have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. I have committed myself to two days a week at an elementary school in Lindon to tutor in reading. It is only an hour a day but by the time I get to Lindon and home it will be an entire morning. I went to the training session all day last Friday.

I went to the new Mount Timpanogos Temple Dedication last Wednesday morning. We have had such gorgeous weather with really high temperatures until that morning. I left here at 6:30 a.m. and picked up three other ladies in a driving rainstorm and it was bitter cold with a wind blowing. One of the ladies with me needed a wheelchair so we got easy parking and that was good. There were many volunteers lined along the way going into the temple directing traffic and they were freezing to death - I felt so bad for them. We didn't get into the celestial room where the prophet was but we were in a very nice room and they had videos set up all over the place. It was a very WONDERFUL spiritual experience and one I will never forget. President Hinckley dedicated it the morning I was there and that was special. They had dedication services every day last week and I believe there were four sessions a day - some were held in tabernacles and others in stake centers as well as the Temple. Many thousands attended them.

I will work in the temple on Saturday evenings from 4 until closing which is around 9:30. I told them I would be gone the first two Saturdays in November while I am in Little Rock and they said that would be okay since I was just starting. After this I will have to get substitutes every time I need to miss and that's hard. I went for a training session yesterday (I have already been for two other ones) and will go back several days this week for more. It is a beautiful temple and quite different from the Provo temple - there are no escalators in this one - steps and elevators!!!

I hope my calling as compassionate service leader in our ward won't take a lot of time. I made two visits last week and took meals to the families but I enjoy that when I have time.

I found a large bucket of white granules in the shed when I cleaned it out. I decided it must be fertilizer so I spread it on the lawn on Saturday morning. We were supposed to get a lot of rain and snow. Well - we got a very few sprinkles so I am watering the lawns today. I hope it was fertilizer. I pulled up all my geraniums this morning before the garbage man came. It was 28 degrees in Orem last night. I still haven't drained the sprinkling system but I'll probably do that this next weekend. It's hard to remember all the things there are to do before Winter. We had a fireman come to our Home Making meeting in Relief Society last week and he told us to check our smoke detectors - I have two electric ones that were okay but the other one needed a new battery. I guess it's better to not have electric ones but I'm not going to change them. Are you all ready for Winter??? We didn't know we were supposed to unhook our hoses that come from the house and had them freeze one year and that was a mess - SO BE SURE TO UNHOOK YOUR HOSES FROM THE HOUSE!!!

I went to the cutest meeting last week for the Orem Women's Club. The speaker was a lady from Springville - she is 82 years old and she is the mayor. She said one of her grandchildren said she sounded like a frog when she talked. She said she didn't mean to sound like a frog and her grandchild said, "Oh, that's okay. My Mother told us that when you croaked we could go to Hawaii". Her main theme was "preserving the past" and she brought out so many things from my generation that reminded me that I must WRITE MY BOOK. I will get at it soon.

I don't have any more news. I hope you are all doing GREAT. I love you very much. Let me know how I can help you.

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