October 21, 2001 Farmington, Utah

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TIMOTHY, SUSANNA, PATRICE AND ROY - WOW, This is birthday week in our family and we should have a BIG celebration!!! Since the majority rules we would all have to go to Little Rock - Ha!!! Timothy will be 11, Susanna will be 23 and Roy and Patrice will be 30 something - I hope you will have WONDERFUL birthdays. I remember when Roy told us he wanted to ask Patrice to marry him, he said "we both have birthdays the same day and Patrice's Mom's birthday is the same day as Grandma B's birthday so that has to be a good sign"!!! That has turned out to be true. I have such wonderful memories of Susanna as a baby - we came right after she was born and I remember going out in the middle of the night with Jeannie to get a pacifier for her - I wish we had lived closer so we could have been with her more - thank you for your sweet note Susanna. I'm SO glad Timothy is playing soccer on a good team - he is a "natural" athlete!!!

I had such a WONDERFUL time last Tuesday night. Claire called and said she would come by to pick me up to go to the "Davis Cup" band competition being held in the Weber College Football Stadium. I can't remember that Ogden is North of Farmington - I have it in my mind that it is South - so I didn't even offer to meet her at their home and she had to come for me. I still can't believe what an elaborate event that was - there were about 25 schools entered in that competition and when we walked through the stadium we saw HUGE trucks and vans parked that held all the schools' equipment and instruments. Brett is in the Davis High School band and he plays the xylophone as well as the drums and it is a thrill to watch him participate in EVERYTHING wearing his uniform!!! American Fork High School won first place, Davis High second and Timpview third - I personally thought Davis should have been first - maybe I'm biased. It was SO fun to watch the award's ceremony - each school had representatives line up and when the awards were announced each school had a little "act" they did - filled with pageantry and I LOVED it!!! Bob had to take Katie to a dance practice so he was a little late but got there in time to see the Davis High Band perform. It thrills me to see all the effort put into cultural things like that.

Mer - I wish I had been here when you brought the delicious dinner over today. I felt SO bad that I missed you yesterday at the Utah State Football game. I went to the game with Margaret and Mer put a little note on the windshield of Margaret's car but we didn't discover it until we were just about out of Logan. I left the game early so I could go over to the student side to see if I could find some of my grandchildren but I couldn't. It was a GREAT game - Utah State played terrible during the first half but they ended up winning the game by one point because they really rallied the second half. Thank you SO much for the dinner - our church times will change after the first of the year so I'll be able to supply the dinners more often. I think about inviting my family for dinners and then I think of what a hassle it is to work around our church time schedules but it's too hard for you to do it every Sunday. I made a soup this morning with left-over cauliflower and broccoli pieces and I was glad I didn't have to eat it - Ha!!!

John - thank you for your notes during the week. I'm glad you are doing good but I can't help but worry about the anthrax scare in the office where you are working. Is anyone from your office traveling to Israel now? I hope you don't have to go. When are you going to put some pictures of your cruise on the web site? I'm anxious to see them. I wish Laura and Bren would come visit me.

Woolleys - I think about how difficult it must be for you to not hear from Russell regularly. I know he writes regularly but I don't believe you get his letters weekly. Margaret has a grandson serving in Mexico and he doesn't write so his Mother has appealed to his Mission President as well as the Area Presidency and of course that only irritates the missionary. We depended on those weekly letters and worried when they didn't come. I hope Russell is able to get a good camera. Michael - your Mom sent your last picture via e-mail and you look SO good and the buildings in the background look SO typical of anything I have ever seen of Italy. Is that place close to where your apartment is? I'm wondering what kind of food you have stored in case you need to stay in your apartments.

Annie - thank you for your message. The cabin, for all practical purposes, is sold but we won't close the deal until April because I have the rent paid on it until then and really the roads going into it will be closed before long. If any of you want to go there and see if you want anything just let me know - we have sold the furniture with the cabin but there are other things like some cooking pans and some blankets, sheets, etc. I want to do anything I can to help with Thanksgiving and would have it here if you all don't mind being crowded. I hope Russell and Mimi can come.

I went to the DUP Museum again last Monday to be a docent and that was fun. I want SO much for my family to go there and see all the pioneer historical things - you have all seen so many of those things when you have visited Aunt Marvel's home and also the things I have in my home. There were a lot of people touring the museum on Monday and one of them was a woman who was baptized in London by two young men from Utah. She had never been here before and she was baptized 32 years ago - she was staying with the missionaries who baptized her - in Malad, Idaho and in Salt Lake. She left her name and address and invited everyone in the museum to go to London and stay with her - a delightful woman.

I had our condo board meeting here on Tuesday morning and it was VERY long. Darrell Guthrie came to present his proposal to manage the condo association and it took all morning - usually they are over in an hour. We are all in agreement that he and his son should take over the management but it won't take place until March. I can't imagine anyone wanting to be responsible for all that is involved but they will do a good job and after serving on the board this last year, I understand why there should be a change made.

We had our DUP meeting on Wednesday and I felt bad because when the minutes were read of our last meeting, the Secretary said Barbara's daughter served a delicious salad and dessert. The next day, I met a woman who had been to the meeting and she said, "I didn't know that beautiful woman was your daughter - why didn't you tell us?" I could hear so many there talk to Jeannie so I didn't even introduce her - many of them have been in her ward at different times. It isn't going to be a big job being Captain of our camp but it is still stressful.