June 17, 2001 Farmington, Utah

HAPPY, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE WONDERFUL MEN IN MY FAMILY!!! I hope you are all having a very happy day - I'm VERY proud of you and I think you are all "Super Dads". I think about my grandchildren who are away on this special day - Mary Ann, Michael, Russell and Jessie - and I know where their thoughts are. When children are younger and at home they seem to take things for granted but when they get older it means more to them. I sat by a couple this morning at church who are about my age and I wished the man a Happy Father's Day and then I asked if he had been served breakfast in bed - he looked at me as if he had never heard of such a thing. Did any of you Fathers get breakfast in bed??? I went to Lehi yesterday and put a beautiful planter on Daddy's grave. I don't really know who the planter belongs to. Don and Cheryl came to see me on Thursday and brought this planter from Daddy's grave because since they had had their baskets of artificial flowers stolen they didn't want this stolen too. I really believe it is a planter John took on Memorial Day because he has taken planters like that before - any way it is really pretty and Daddy knows who made it for him. I also took some roses from my garden but they won't last long.

Russell - Thank you SO very much for your letter yesterday. I was SO surprised to hear from you and have it on my refrigerator so I will read it every day and LOVE it. I talked to Annie earlier this week and I told her I had sent Russell a copy of my weekly letter and she said, "Mother, he has never read one of those letters you have written all these years". I don't care if he or Michael read them but I will continue to send them "JUST IN CASE" - Ha!!! I am betting the language will come quickly for Russell - he says he has learned a lot already. I am just amazed at how quickly the missionaries learn the foreign languages and are able to communicate with the people in the countries where they are sent. The missionaries in Thailand spoke the Thai language as well as the natives very soon after they arrived in Bangkok and it is a very hard language.

Speaking of foreign languages - I couldn't believe how well Bob spoke Spanish in the video that Brett made on their trip to Guatemala. I hope you will all be able to see that video sometime. Bob was treating two little children and it would have been much more frightening for them if he hadn't been able to speak their language. I have so many questions about their trip - I wonder if they make "follow up" visits to the same patients when they go back. I also want to know about the "markets" and if they were able to eat anything they could buy there.

Barji and Boyd are home and yesterday was Boyd's birthday. Boyd went golfing with his Father and Brother and Brothers-in law and then I believe they had a birthday dinner last night. Jeannie was so excited to have them come home for a few months - they will spend a lot of time at Boyd's parent's home because his parents are going to be out of town a lot. Boyd will also spend most of his time practicing golf and playing in tournaments. Ricky cut his hand at work last week and had to have some stitches but Jean says it has healed good. Mary Ann called her Dad from Austria last week and asked permission to go "hang gliding" or "sky diving" or something in the Alps. I about died and told Jeannie that I hoped Rick said no but she said he said "Mary Ann, if you feel good about it then go for it". THIS NEW GENERATION - Ha!!!

Annie has a few more days of teaching and then I believe she will have a little vacation - I'm glad I don't have to keep up with her!!! She says that Jessie just loves being in Boston and is learning a lot - I hope Ann can go be with her for a little while before she comes home - Boston is an exciting place!!! Susanna has a job at the "Alta View" hospital for the Summer - she is surely going to be well qualified for work for the rest of her life - nurses are in demand here and she only has one more year before she will get her R.N. I went to Alta View one night to see Don and Cheryls' new baby grandson and it is a very nice hospital.

I was so thrilled on Friday to have Katie and her friend, Kelsey, drop in to go swimming. I had already promised Margaret and the Guthries that I would go to the movie, "Pearl Harbor" with them so I just left them at the pool - I hope I'm not in trouble with Bob and Claire. The pool rule is that anyone under 14 must have an adult with them and Margaret's family (some adults) were at the pool so I knew they would be okay - besides they are both good swimmers. I hope they will come often - our pool is SO nice and well cared for and I am sad when it isn't used often. Laura said she would come and swim sometime too.

Have any of you seen "Pearl Harbor"? I just never go to movies but I thought it was very, very good. I don't usually get emotional in movies but this one was hard for me as I thought about Lynn flying off those aircraft carriers and of my brother Bob who was killed in that war. I have read about the great expense of making the movie and I can understand why after seeing it. I could really relate to the clothes and hair styles of the people in the movie - that was my era!!!

Jesse - I went out on my back deck last night to talk to Margaret and we saw a raccoon on our neighbor's back porch. The neighbor had put a dish of cat food out for her cat but the raccoon was eating it. We watched it for about 15 minutes and then I got my camera and took a picture of it - it stayed right there and close to us for at least half an hour and I thought the flash of the camera would frighten it away but it didn't. The cat watched it eat all its food but I guess raccoons can be mean so it didn't get very close. We have a lot of skunks come to our backyards and I'll bet they come for the cat food. I want to know what you will do at the Arkansas Jr. Arts Academy - I know you will love it. We're anxious for Emily to come visit all of us. What is Timothy doing this Summer. Roy and Patrice - I get e-mails from Dorothy and Dan and they get upset when I don't answer them right away but when I do they write right back so I am always in their "letter debt" - Ha!!!

John - I rode past your home in Orem yesterday and evidently they have had a lot of wind. There were many branches on your grass by the big tree - I hope your neighbors will pick them up and put them in your garbage can. I won't stop and go in unless you want me to - everything really looks nice.

I went to our Relief Society Enrichment night last week and they had a special class on "Emergency Preparedness" - they have special books for each family with names, phone numbers and addresses of everyone in this area and then they have area supervisors to help in case of problems. Then today our Sunday School lesson was on "The Second Coming" and I couldn't help but wonder if there was some connection - Ha!!! It's a wonderful thing though the way the wards and stakes are organized so if an emergency occurs like an earthquake, flood, etc. one phone call puts everything into motion to get help for all the people.

I didn't go to Glen Pinegar's 75th birthday celebration last night but I found pictures of the party we had for Lynn's 70th birthday at our cabin in Scofield and he was there so I had enlarged copies made of them and sent to Shirley. I'll send some to you on another page since I want to copy this to send to Michael and Russell and pictures don't copy very well. In one of the pictures it looks like I am holding Jimmy - WOW - what a difference ten years makes. The pictures show that Ann, Ron and their family, and Jean, Rick and their family and John were all there along with Ramona, Winston, Shirley and Glen. I don't know where the Bob Mellors were but they aren't in the pictures. Do you remember we made birthday cakes in dutch ovens and used toothpicks for candles because I forgot the candles? That was a fun party but Lynn's family got lost and we had to wait for them for hours. We roasted fresh corn in the bar-b-cue grills and had hamburgers, etc.