Dearest Family, July 23, 1998

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RON TODAY AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JIMMY ON SATURDAY - I HOPE YOU BOTH HAVE WONDERFUL BIRTHDAYS!!! The letter from Ann today telling me about having a “Birthday Bash for Jimmy” and then you all having a combined family birthday party to celebrate both birthdays sounds like something that will be a “forever tradition”. YOU ARE SUCH A GREAT FAMILY!!!

CLAIRE - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SWEET LETTER WHEN YOU WERE SO BUSY. I LOVED TO HEAR MORE ABOUT LAKE POWELL - even the slalom ski crashes!!! I was in a school class today and all the boys were in boy scout uniforms and so was their teacher so I took their picture. Their teacher was SO small he looked like one of the students. Anyway - I thought about Bob and his Scout Camp - I know he enjoys that and it is marvelous for him to be with Brett but it is also very tiring. The responsibility alone would wear me out!!! I'm SO glad that Katie will be in her neighborhood school again - I always like to see children who play together go to school together!!!

THIS HAS BEEN SUCH A BUSY WEEK IN OUR APARTMENT. Janet's daughter Diane and Diane's sister-in-law have been with us and they have been royally entertained. I will always feel badly that I don't have the “clout” that Janet has but if I did I still wouldn't let the Thai people plan vacations for my family. Janet is a very lovely person and I love her and her daughter is just like she is. I think Diane and Claire are VERY MUCH ALIKE!!! We thoroughly enjoyed having them with us but every time I wanted to use the computer it was either being used or the living room was filled with people or they were asleep on the couch or the floor. They left this morning about 7 o'clock and Janet said they didn't have any problems at the airport - Diane had brought a HUGE extra suitcase to take some of Janet's things home. I was worried that it would be overweight but I guess it wasn't.

Our school term ended this week also for Pratoms 1, 2, and 3 and they had all kinds of closing ceremonies. We start the new term next Monday for Pratoms 4, 5, and 6.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT ANN, JEAN, JESSIE AND BARJI WILL BE HERE IN A COUPLE DAYS. Helen said she would be happy to teach for me on Tuesday so I have arranged for a tour to take us to Ayutthaya. It will be hot, hot, hot but it will never be cool and I want you to see some ancient ruins. Tuesday is the best day for Helen to teach because it is our smallest class and she will be just fine. I have arranged for us to go on the floating market tour on Friday - we don't teach on Fridays. We will go to Saimai on Monday afternoon and evening like we did when the Bobs were here - YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE WHERE I LIVED FOR 7 MONTHS. That is all I will plan until you get here.

I taught at the Ministry tonight and Darlene and I came home about 6:30 and our apartment was filled with students from Channel 9 television station - Janet's class. They had brought dinner and they also set up a keyboard synthesizer (sp?) and entertained us for a couple hours singing - they are very talented - there were ten of them. They just left and I said I absolutely had to send a Happy Birthday message to my family before I went to bed.

I hope so much that Lee Anna, Jimmy, Russell, Ricky, Mary Ann and Sarah will be good while their mothers are with me. PLEASE BE EXTRA CAREFUL - I am SO HAPPY that you are all old enough and responsible enough to let your Mom be gone for a week. I will help you with your children when you want to go on trips with your husbands or wives - even though I will be ancient and probably not one bit responsible - Ha!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL. Grandma B