January 17, 2000 Farmington, Utah

ANNIE - Thank you so much for your e-mail. I have worried about Jessie and I am SO happy to hear that she is doing really good and her eyesight will improve - a miracle if you ask me!!! I thought about her on Saturday and I hope her appointment with her doctor went well and that she didn't have problems driving back to Logan - I'm glad she had a friend with her!!! I can't believe that Lee Anna is driving - I try to keep up with their birthdays but I completely lose track of their AGES!!! She surely doesn't seem old enough to drive - my favorite memories of her are when she spent a lot of time with PaPa and me in our Orem house and I NEVER saw her without a big smile on her face.

PATRICE - Thank you so much for your phone call - I would have called you back when I got home from work but it would have been 11 o'clock your time and I knew that was TOO late!!! I have a recipe for you - 1 can of pork and beans drained, your jalapeño sliced peppers (as many as you like), 1 clove of garlic, 1/4 tsp. cumin - put this in a blender and blend until smooth and then stir in some grated cheese. It is a dip for chips and I just love it and your peppers make it SO much better than the canned ones in the store. I also forwarded you a funny joke this morning - read it because it is cute!!! I get a million of those forwarded things and I'll bet you do too but this one is really funny and quite true, I think.

Barbara Sondrup sends me a lot of e-mail messages. I can relate to what she is going through and it's good she can communicate with her friends often - Kevin is doing well for now. I had an e-mail message from Linda Smithers last night telling me that Marge Lucas is in a coma - she gave me their phone number so I called them. Ed had put a message on his phone saying they were at the hospital and they didn't expect Marge to come out of her coma - WOW, can I relate to that too. Barbie and Marilyn (bang 1 and bang 11) are with Ed - I believe Marilyn has been there for several months taking care of her Mom. It makes me sad because even though Marge was a very different person and quite a trouble maker, she was very interested in our family and sent many LONG letters inquiring about all of you.

I am expecting a phone call from Dianne this morning - she is coming to Utah to be with her daughters at BYU and we always have lunch together when she comes - it will be fun to visit with her. Dianne and Garry are very special friends.

I have talked to Bob and Claire several times on the phone this week and they are doing good. Bob says MANY people have the flu so he is busy, busy, busy!!! There have been articles in the paper saying that Utah has been almost epidemic with the flu outbreak - it doesn't go away easily either. My neighbor, Margaret, brought me over a little bottle of some liquid that is supposed to kill 99.9% of germs on your hands and other things you might come in contact with. I think I got my bug from the telephone at work because the other lady who uses it had the flu and was off work for about 2 weeks - I am going to use this stuff every time I go to work from now on.

I have also talked to Jeannie several times this week and they are doing good. I took pictures of their home during the home tour and also at our Christmas Eve party and they turned out GOOD. I haven't had very good luck with my picture taking lately so I was happy to have some success. I love to look at them and see how intent all my grandchildren were when they were making the mints - THAT WAS SERIOUS BUSINESS.

We really got carried away with the coloring of the mints and one picture shows John and Bob with their hands in the mint mixture and it is bright red and looks like blood. Did I tell you that I took some of the mints to work and the people there thought they were WONDERFUL - I did too.

I guess I will still be working even though the store will be closed. I don't have the faintest idea what I will be doing because surely people won't be calling the store. I have an idea that the May Company wants to give all the employees the same hours they used to have so they asked all of us to come in. The employees on the floor will be taking inventory and maybe I will be doing some book work or something - if I don't like it I will quit but it is fun to be there with all the changes being made. They have put some phones on the wall and they told me they were for customer service and that is different. I had to go to a "Benefit Meeting" one day last week and it was interesting to learn all the things that will be SO good for the regular employees - I don't qualify for many of them because I am part time but I couldn't help but compare ZCMI benefits with those of the May Company and the May Company is more generous. I had to laugh because many of the age limits on some of the benefits end at age 69.

Today is Don's 70th birthday!!! I almost hesitate to call him because I know they have had some kind of catastrophe since I talked to them last - Ha!!! Cheryl is so cute and I love her - she is having a hard time dealing with Don and also her little autistic grandson.

I had a permanent on Saturday and WOW am I ever frizzy!!! It took the beautician almost four hours and as I left I said, "I feel like I have been here all day". She apologized but then she said, "It's a long process when you want that much curl" - Ha!!!