March 20, 2000 Farmington, Utah

EMILY - Thank you SO much for your e-mails and your information on how to send greeting cards. I am very proud that you are "internet literate" - I have MANY friends my age who are absolutely scared to death of computers and the internet. I am grateful for many things and at the top of the list is my ability to use the internet even though I am not very good at it!!!

BOB called me last night to give me a report of his and Michaels' trip to Little Rock and Memphis and he told me about the delicious dinner Patrice had prepared to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Emily had written and told me they were going to have an "Irish" dinner when Uncle Bob and Michael were with them. Bob said it was a lamb and cabbage dish and WONDERFUL.. Patrice - you must have an "in" with your butcher because we could never get good lamb when we lived there and Lynn loved lamb (he grew up on it).

It was SO good to hear about Little Rock and Bob called me from the driveway of our former home there - it made me VERY homesick!!! Bob said our home looked great and the backyard was beautiful but they have taken out the big tree that was just South of our patio - I am wondering if maybe the tree roots were "uprooting" the cement patio. Bob didn't say if he had visited with any of our former neighbors there - Pete would have been thrilled to have him go to see her and Betty Luten. I had written to Dorothy and Dan and told them Bob and Michael were going to Little Rock but since they had moved and Dorothy is preparing for surgery on her back I didn't pursue that further.

Bob LOVES Roy and Patrices' home and he and Michael went to their church and Roy took them to see his garden plot - Bob was very impressed with that. Their church members were so friendly and nice to them and Bob said the lesson was on "friendship" and he enjoyed it very much. Bob said they are SO happy with Sammie and he sleeps with Jessie who didn't like him at first - Ha!!! He went to Otter Creek where the Stake Center is and also many of our former church friends attend their meetings - Floy and Mary McKell, Tom and Barbara Brown, Jim and Lois Morgan, the Swaims, Leo and Barbara Aday and of course my faithful friend Joy Geisler. Joy had given Bob directions on how to get there and I guess she is as bad at giving directions as I was in Thailand - Ha!!! It was SO good to have Bob tell me about Little Rock last night. It is funny that Bob, Roy, John and I all have such WONDERFUL feelings about Arkansas and Ann and Jean don't!!!

Michael remembered many of the places where he lived in Memphis but he didn't remember Little Rock at all - that's understandable since he moved from there when he was about two years old. I'm SO glad they could go back and see all of that before Michael leaves for two years!!!

Chris Jordin has been in Salt Lake since last Wednesday. Linda Smithers, Chris and I met for lunch last Thursday and we had so much fun - Linda had to get home right after lunch so we took her home and then Chris and I found a McDonalds and bought a coke and sat and visited for another couple hours - Ha!!! She told me all about people I haven't heard anything about for years and I LOVED it. Marnita and Connie Bisbee are doing GREAT - one of them (I can't remember which one) is getting a doctorate and that REALLY surprised me!!! Jim Morgan has invented a hinge that is light weight but extremely strong that is being used in building small aircraft and he has it patented and is extremely wealthy - his son who was in Saudi Arabia while we were living in Little Rock is now a Bishop in one of the wards South of L.R. Joy told me that Jim finances many of the missions for young church members in Arkansas. They still live in that very small home next door to Judy and Roy Millard (Joy's daughter and son-in-law).

Chris Jordin loves raspberry freezer jam and since she can't get raspberries in Arkansas I wanted to take her some before she leaves to go home. I didn't make any last year but I knew Jeannie did so I called her this morning and asked if I could have some. I got it from Jeannie and took it to Salt Lake for Chris about 10 o'clock this morning but I had real problems getting anyone to answer at the apartment where she is staying. Her nephew is renting an apartment in the Summit apartments and it is like getting into Fort Knox to get in there - it's the same place where Virginia lives and the front doors are locked and you have to phone the apartment and they open the doors for you. I could never get anyone to answer but finally one of the residents saw me and came and let me in - THEN I couldn't get anyone to answer their door. I WOULDN'T LIVE IN THAT PLACE IF THEY GAVE ME THE WHOLE APARTMENT COMPLEX. I finally left it at their door and came home. The only good thing about their apartment is that it is right next to the new church conference center.

JESSIE AND BARJI had a WONDERFUL time in Chicago last week!!! Jean and Rick and Ann and Ron met them at the airport on Saturday night to bring them home. I hope I will get to hear more about it. Jean invited me to dinner yesterday but I couldn't go. One of the volunteer teachers from the second group who went to Thailand came home last week and she gave her report in her ward sacrament meeting yesterday in Plain City. I went to it with Janet Asper - it was just a fabulous meeting and we went to her home afterwards for sandwiches and cake. The cake they served was SO unusual - they had had it made at Sam's and it had a picture of La Rae with a Thai friend on the top. I have never seen that done before - a frosting picture that you could eat. LaRae has a cute family - three daughters and one son - she is a widow. She told about the volunteer teachers all being in their sixties except for one who was 72 - Ha!!!

You wouldn't believe all the things La Rae bought in Thailand. She is having the following things shipped to her: a big spirit house, a big teakwood dining table with 8 chairs, a teakwood bedroom set, chest of drawers and another cabinet. Two of her daughters and sons in law with their older children went to Thailand to help her come home and I laughed as they told me about having to buy more suitcases to bring everything home - I could relate to that. La Rae is a darling woman and she was a great teacher. It was fun to hear her report and hear news about people we knew in Thailand. Virginia is coming home today - it will be good to see her again.

I forgot to mention in my letter last week that Margaret and I had fun hosting the National President of Alpha Chi Omega. She is from Carthage, Missouri and she brought her husband and three daughters with her. Margaret was Alpha Chi President about five years after I was so we had a lot to talk about with her. She told us that the Greek Social Sororities are making a "comeback" after many years of not being so popular on the college campuses. I told her that my two granddaughters who are attending my alma mater at Utah State are not one bit interested in joining a sorority. It was the "thing to do" when I was their age - Ha!!!

I had to give an "ancestor report" at DUP last Wednesday and I researched one on the "Rhodes" line. I gave a report on Sarah Ann Bushman who was my great grandmother and I was interested to learn that her husband, Alonzo Rhodes Sr., was a violinist for the city of Lehi and played for dances as well as being Marshall for the city - maybe that's where Jessie, Lee Anna, Mary Ann and Sarah inherited their abilities to play the violin. He was one of the men who went to rescue the unfortunate handcart company where so many perished in 1856. Sarah Ann was a widow for 12 years and when she died in 1917 she had 80 grandchildren - they had 12 children. Her husband was arrested in a polygamy raid at Lehi, 1888 and he died in 1893. I am determined to do more research on my family lines. My mother's father was Alonzo Rhodes Jr.

Ricky - I wish you could see our snowstorm today. It is bitter cold after being very Spring like last week and it is snowing off and on. We got spoiled with our very mild Winter and now it is hard to have it cold again - it won't last much longer though!!!

This is MUCH TOO LONG. Maybe it is a good thing I haven't heard from John this week or it would be even longer - Ha!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU. Grandma B XXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOO