January 27, 1997

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:

Claire - thank you SO much for your long email letter. It was fun to come to the computer and find a letter from you. You sound like a VERY busy but happy family - I am glad when the children are involved in things like gymnastics, piano, etc. Katie is the perfect size for gymnastics and I know how much she loves it!!! I hope Laura feels good about how she does in her piano recital - I HATE pressure not only for myself but for my children and grandchildren. I guess it is a necessary part of life though. I can just see Brett drawing his maps for your trip to Disneyland - he is such a "detailed" kind of guy. Michael and I should go on a diet together - Ha!!! I love people who love to eat!!!

Annie came over last night by herself and we had such a good visit. The children were all involved in different activities - Ron and the boys were watching the "Super Bowl" - I just about called and told them to not come because of that but then I decided they would stay home if they wanted to. Ann is working at BYU and I don't know how she manages to do all that she does. Ann and Ron had gone to the houseboat meeting - it was held in Provo this time. I think it is much too expensive for all of you - she wouldn't tell me what the assessment is this year but when there are 12 families using it there are always a lot of repairs. I personally feel like there are other vacations that would be as much fun and less expense and work. We only use it once a year and most of the others use it more often.

Jeannie called and invited me to go to Zion's Park with them over the Easter Weekend. That sounds like a lot of fun - I believe the Weinerts, the Bob Mellors, and the John Mellors will all be going. We had such a wonderful time last year. They will stay from Thursday through Monday but I will have to come home on Saturday for my Temple Assignment. The Woolleys' Spring Break isn't the same time as the others so they won't be able to go.

Julianna just came over and we went to Prestwich Farms for lunch. She is going to try to teach me how to fix my albums with acid proof paper to preserve the pictures. She didn't have time to stay today because she and John have to do some business things before his trip the end of the week. Julianna is off school for this next month. They are going to have a "dog run" put in their backyard to try to "corral" their dogs. I am becoming much more aware of "Golden Retrievers" and "Labradors" now than I ever have before. There was a wonderful commentary on television the other night about Labrador dogs that were trained as "seeing eye" dogs. I guess they are very smart and quite easy to train for many things.

I have worried about the Roy Mellors after hearing about the tornadoes in the South. I hope your weather is better by now. It won't be long until it will be Spring in Arkansas and you will have lots of beautiful azaleas, dogwood, etc.I

I am SO excited for Bob and John to go on their trip to Chile. They will leave on Thursday and will be gone until Feb. 8th or 9th, I think. I hope so much that John will be able to see some of the people he taught while he was there on his mission. I also hope they will have a WONDERFUL time fishing. It is going to be interesting to see if either one of them will remember enough of their Spanish to communicate. I hope they will be careful in the things they eat so they won't have food problems - Bob didn't especially like the food in Colombia while he was there.

I had a phone call on Wednesday morning last week from our Relief Society President. She told me about a man in our ward who had died and we were to take dinners to the family and then plan the funeral dinner. This man and his wife have been completely inactive for at least 15 years - I didn't even know him. I took dinner in on Wednesday night and then got others to take it in on Thursday and Friday. I spent all day on Friday calling people to see if they would contribute money so I could arrange a buffet. People were VERY willing to help. I bought two big honey baked hams, got 10 dozen rolls, two vegetable trays, had others make cheese balls and cookies and I made a huge acini-pepe salad and a cake. The family said for us to plan to serve 100 so we did but there were only half that many that came. We had a lot of ham left so they are going to serve it at Relief Society the end of this month. The weather that day was one of the worst I have ever seen in Utah - there was a lot of snow on the ground and it rained and rained and there were huge puddles of water all over!!!

I talked to my brother Don yesterday. Their youngest son, Chad, is going to get married in the Spring. They have bought a condominium in Salt Lake. All their children will be married now. Don & Cheryl had been taking care of their little grandchildren all weekend and Don was tired. Their little autistic grandson just wears them out.

We are having pretty weather today - the sun is shining and it feels warm. There have been a lot of avalanches in the skiing areas and some deaths. There was an avalanche at Sundance over the weekend and it crashed into a home and about crushed a mother and her daughter in their kitchen - the father got them out in time so they weren't badly injured. It is unusual for things like that to happen.

I am enjoying the tutoring I am doing. The little boys are SO polite and sweet. One of them is really struggling but the other one is just about up to the right level.

I can't think of anymore news. I surely do love each one of you and hope so much you will be very careful in everything you do.

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