April 30, 2000 Farmington, Utah

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RUSSELL ON FRIDAY!!! I can't believe you will be 18 years old Russell and to quote your Mother "You have turned into such a nice young man" and I am very proud of you. I thought about you last night as you celebrated your birthday in what sounded like the spectacular event in Provo - Ha!!! Annie had sent me an e-mail telling me about the party they had planned for Russell and two of his buddies who are all celebrating their birthdays this next week. The had hired a disc jockey and also a huge "blow up extreme slide" (whatever that is) and they were going to close their cul de sac - they had invited the entire senior class of Timpview. I can't imagine what it must have been like but I would hate to have a child celebrating a similar birthday and try to compete with that - Ha!!! I'm anxious to hear ALL ABOUT IT!!!

Did you know that John's neighbors in Orem are from Italy - Cinzia and Randy Noble and Cinzia's mother, Nella Donnatelli. Randy served his mission in Italy and met the Donnatellis and then he and Cinzia married and they moved to Utah. Nella and her husband were very wealthy and they built that home just West of John's home (the one that looks kinda' like a school house). Nella's husband died a short time before Daddy died - Cinzia wouldn't let him smoke in the house so he used to sit out on that little porch and Daddy would go visit with him. Nella and I have become really good friends and her English has improved SO much - we belonged to the same Family Home Evening group. She goes to Italy every Summer for about two or three months and she has sent me letters from there - I have forgotten the name of her hometown but she LOVES it there. Cinzia teaches Italian at BYU and maybe at the MTC. Do you remember the lasagna I cooked for Jeannie's birthday dinner? Cinzia gave me that recipe - she would teach Italian cooking at our Relief Society quite often. I am thinking that maybe John might have Alessandro in one of his priesthood classes - he was such a cute little boy and their daughter Marina is beautiful.

LITTLE ROCK!!! I had such a WONDERFUL time visiting with my WONDERFUL family there. I LOVED going into Timothy and Jesses' classes and telling them a little about Thailand - they have excellent teachers and it reminded me SO much about the time I spent teaching in the Little Rock schools. I love to listen to the black teachers as they direct the activities on their playgrounds - they are kind but they demand the respect of the students and have good control of them. I keep thinking of little Jesse as he would climb on the bars and then jump down and tuck his shirt in his pants and he must have done that a hundred times - I wanted to tell him to just let his shirt hang out but I didn't - Ha!!! It is SO much fun to walk to school with them - Patrice always handles Sammie and they stop for friends along the way - an ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS place to live!!!

I fell in love with Sammie while I was there - she is just beautiful and such a sweet and gentle dog and SO smart - you can tell they have spent a lot of time training her. Emily would give her commands - lay down, sit up, etc.- and she obeyed. They have given her one couch in their family room and then they have a little "fenced in home" for her in the kitchen and she is definitely a part of their family. I was waiting for Chris to come pick me up on Wednesday and she got out of the house and I was so worried that I couldn't get her back in. I would have missed my flight before I would have left her outside. I got a dog biscuit and then sat on their front steps and she came close to me as I talked to her but she wouldn't come close enough for me to get her collar. She finally went into the bushes of their neighbor's home and then into their fenced in yard and I got her cornered and got her collar. I felt kinda' bad as I took her into their home because she went right into her little pen in the kitchen as if she had done something wrong. THEY ALL LOVE HER!!!

I wish each one of you could see the way they have decorated their home - I have never seen anything like it. The children all take a lot of art classes and their walls are all filled so tastefully with their art work and then they have it displayed throughout their home on tables, etc. On their entrance table they have one of Emily's sport shoes that she has preserved in clay and then "fired". I spent a lot of time just looking at things they had made and I laughed as Roy said "That's very expensive art work" - Patrice said their art lessons are expensive. They are all very talented and will always appreciate things like that which is marvelous.

Patrice fixed a delicious Easter dinner (leg of lamb) and she had made a special mint and rosemary jelly to go with it. Suzie - Patrice's mother - came to be with us and I enjoyed visiting with her very much - she is such a lovely woman. She had had an automobile accident earlier in the week. She had just bought a brand new car and was "rear ended" and then pushed into another car in front of her. She is using a borrowed car now.

Roy took me to his "garden" and I couldn't help but think how much Daddy would have loved that - it is really a beautiful place and Roy enjoys it. They have had a lot of spinach and lettuce and I enjoyed the salads Patrice made from them. They have just planted corn, sweet peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, squash, basil, eggplant and even some flowers, zinnias. The garden is not one of Emily's favorite places but that is okay and so typical of the beautiful young woman she is. She does her own ironing and fixes her own lunches so if she doesn't want to participate in the garden activities she shouldn't be criticized. She also plays the flute and the piano and I couldn't believe how good she is - she hasn't been playing the flute for very long.

I want to tell about Annie's experience when she went to the wedding reception of one of their neighbors and friends - McKay Bateman who is the son of President Bateman, President of BYU. She said they had to go because of Ron's Bishopric assignment but they hesitated because they knew there would be a million people there. It was held at the Tuscany Restaurant (spelling?) which is owned by Mark Eaton who used to play for the Jazz. The bride's family had rented the entire restaurant and they served an entire Italian dinner to all the guests and Ann said the food and flowers were fabulous. As they were going through the line the bride's mother said, "Ann Mellor what are you doing here?" It turned out that she was a good friend of Ann's when we lived in Phoenix and her parents were good friends of ours. Do any of you remember Forrest and Marjorie Hoyt? He was an attorney and they had many daughters and I believe only one son - Janis Hoyt, the bride's mother was a friend of Ann's. Tim Hoyt who is a relative was a boy friends of Ann's and he was there. I WANT TO HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS!!! Were the Doyle's there? I wonder what would have happened to all of you if we had stayed in Phoenix - lots of wonderful memories of our time there.

Jeannie picked me up at the airport and it was SO good to see her. I had been on the plane with about 50 students from Hendrix College in Conway who were on their way to some kind of a conference in Missoula, Montana and they were darling. I met a young man from St. George on my flight to Little Rock who was going to be the new manager of the Marriott Hotel they are building in Little Rock - his name is Brandon Jarvis and since he is inactive in the church I must send his name to the missionaries - Ha!!!