January 31, 2000 Farmington, Utah

EMILY, TIMOTHY AND JESSE - GUESS WHAT I CAN SEE OUT OF MY WINDOWS??? I awakened this morning to see a beautiful snowstorm!!! I have thought about Roy and Patrice and their family so much for the past few days because of the very unusual snowstorm in Little Rock. I have watched the weather news and I have been SO excited to see that you have had enough snow to actually build snowmen and go sledding. PATRICE - thank you for your e-mail telling us about it. Joy Geisler called me one day and she said you probably had as much as 8 inches - I told her you didn't have any hills to go sledding on and she said she knew you could find some if you really wanted to. I remember the hill right in front of our home on Leawood and when we had snow like that all of you would spend every single minute out sledding. Have you had to buy snow clothing for all of you? We have had VERY unusual Springlike weather and I have watched the golfers out on the golf course and read sad news about having to bring snow in from Colorado for special snow events at Park City. I worry about what February and March will bring here - Ha!

JOHN - Thanks for your message this morning. John has been traveling all last week and he will go again this next week - New York last week and California this week. Thanks for your e-mail this morning. MICHAEL - Thanks for bringing me the mail last night - it was SO fun to visit with you and you look SO good. Michael is enjoying UVSC and he even walks to the campus - I guess they have made a pathway close to the President's home so the students can walk. He says his classes are hard but he likes them.

LAURA AND KATIE - I was SO proud of you at your piano recital. I am "in awe" at how good you are and I enjoyed the recital very much. Claire invited me for dinner and it was delicious and then we all went to Ogden where their teacher lives for the recital. She has a very large home - three grand Steinway pianos in one room!!! The students are all exceptional and Claire tells me it is difficult to get into her classes. The final piece was a duet with the teacher and one of her students and it was just fabulous - I know it would be difficult to find anything that good ANYWHERE!!! I think it is just wonderful that Katie and Laura are willing to practice that much - they have to play their pieces from memory and they are long and they each played two - I hope they will keep it up.

JESSIE - I am glad you are back in Logan safe and sound after going home this weekend for another eye checkup. I would like to hear about your Korean college friend who went with you. When I was at Utah State there were a lot of Iranian students - are there any from there now? I'm proud of you for working on campus in the English computer lab - what good experience for you.

ANNIE - thank you for your long letter. It was fun to read about "the rat" - Ron took it out of the trap and they put it in a plastic bread sack so they could measure it and have all the kids in the neighborhood come see it - YUK!!! RUSS - congratulations on being voted "The Most Preferred Boy" for Timpview's preference dance - THAT'S GREAT!!! LEE ANNA I would have loved to see you go on your "first date" and dressed in the silver and black formal dress - I know you were gorgeous and I want to see the pictures. SUSANNA - I am proud of you for sticking to your dreams of wanting to become a nurse - your persistence will pay off and you will be better for the challenges you have faced. JIMMY - way to go!!! Jimmy was elected to the student council in his Junior High - you get so much more out of school when you are involved like that don't you?

JEANNIE - Thank you for the delicious dinner last night!!! I can't imagine the pressure my family must feel when they think they must invite me to dinner all the time - I DON'T WANT THAT!!! I can't get up the courage to invite my family here - I don't think anything I make tastes good anymore and all my recipes have calories in them - Ha!!! I love to be with my families and I appreciate very much your thoughtfulness. Barji was home for the weekend and it was fun to visit with her. I went to Sarah's Junior High School one afternoon last week to watch her cheer for their girl's basketball game - I was impressed. Sarah is the smallest one on their team so they "throw" her up and that scares me. Mary Ann is always busy, busy, busy!!!! Ricky - it was WONDERFUL to look at the pictures you have sent to your family. You look SO happy and the members with whom you are working remind me of the people I met in Thailand.

ROY - do you remember Paul Stowell? I believe he is your age and he has been single up until last year. He married a woman with two children and then he and his wife had twins and they are expecting again. Dianne had a letter from them that she shared with me when I was with her last week and I forgot to mention it in my last letter. He had a brother, Jeff, and they don't know where he is. He also had a sister, Pam. They live in Las Vegas.

My friends, Ellen Mae and Mel, invited me to go to the "Bar J" program in Colorado Springs in September. We had to send in our money the first of January to make reservations so I gave Mel my check and he put it in the visor of their car before he could get to the bank. WELL - he goes swimming every morning and last week when he went some young boys followed him into his locker area and saw him put his car keys in his pocket. They stole the keys and since he has the kind that signals the car in the parking lot they didn't have any problems finding his car -a new Cadillac!!! The police found the car a couple days later and they had done some damage to it but it can be fixed - they didn't find the check. Isn't that weird??? I stopped payment on the check.

My visiting teacher took me to see the movie "Anna And The King" one day last week. I hope all of you will see it - IT IS WONDERFUL!!! It was filmed in Malaysia I think but it was all so very familiar to me and they mentioned places like Lopburi (where the monkeys are) and I could relate to every part of it. I want to go back and see it again.

I went to ZCMI last week to receive some training and WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!! They called and asked me to go but there is no way I am going to "clerk". The registers are very complicated and so different from the way they used to be. Meier and Frank (The May Company) is changing everything and there won't be a credit department anymore - they will call it the "Cash Office"

and they will give the cash to the associates for their registers and that is about all. I learned so many things - they had statistics to show that internal theft is responsible for most of the losses in the company. They will have "guards" at the employee entrance and if you are employed you must ALWAYS us that entrance and they will inspect anything you are carrying including your purse - even on the days when you shop there when you are not on duty. The trainer was from Oregon and she was good but the stories she told about people stealing things made us all very sad. I can't see how they can possibly offer me a job because much of what I was doing is being handled in the registers on the floor. They are tripling their camera surveillance in the store. When I think about it I am convinced that the millions of dollars that ZCMI lost was due to internal theft. Someone said their pay scale is so low that the employees think that is the only way it is worth while to work there. I have just loved it and I'm glad I have done it.

I am just about finished with my correspondence. I still have many e-mail letters to answer but the cards I have received from Thailand have just about all been answered - WHAT A JOB!!! It would help if I knew to whom I was writing - I just guess - Ha!!! I received a magazine subscription to "Taste of Home" for Christmas and it was sent to "Granna B" - who sent it to me?