October 29, 2001 Farmington, Utah

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JESSE ON FRIDAY - "8" YEARS OLD - WOW - THAT'S PRETTY OLD!!! I called the Roy Mellors on Timothy's birthday and talked to everyone except Emily and talking to them makes me SO homesick to be with them. I LOVE where they live and their schools and their friends and EVERYTHING and I will go visit them sometime probably next Spring. Little Rock will always be a favorite place for me and I'm so glad we lived there when we did. Jesse seems so grown up when I talk to him and I remember when they visited a year ago and I chased him around the couches upstairs in my family room because I wanted to take him to the Weinerts to go swimming - now I wish I had let him stay here - Ha!!! I hope you have a WONDERFUL day on Friday Jesse. Emily is playing her flute in her school band and she was at a football game when I called so I didn't get to talk to her - isn't that GREAT??? Do you all remember Dana Woods Adams? She sent me a picture of her son with a beautiful "Ewe" - he had won first place in the Arkansas State Fair and they were thrilled. They are all very active in 4-H.

ABOUT MY WEEKLY LETTER!!! I started to write it yesterday when I came home from Logan where I had gone with Annie and Lee Anna and I had just about finished it when Bob and Claire came over to visit. When they left I wrote a couple more paragraphs and then hit "send" - it came back and said it rejected one of the recipients, Claire Mellor. I thought I could just take her name off the "To" but when I did that I lost the whole letter - I WAS SO MAD!!! I tried everything I knew but decided to just go to bed thinking maybe I could get it back this morning - Ha!!! I remember when this happened after I came home from Thailand and Michael came over and got it back for me BUT he didn't show me what he did so I am stuck. I miss you Michael!!! Claire has had problems getting my letters and for some reason her name was off my family list so I put it back on - I have taken it off to see if this letter gets sent (I'll save it first) and then try to send hers alone. Computers are such wonderful things and I haven't had any problems for a long, long time - it has to be Claire's computer - Ha!!!

I had such a WONDERFUL time yesterday and I wrote all about it in my "lost" letter. Annie and Lee Anna came to get me about 9 a.m. and we drove to Logan to be with Jessie for the day. Annie had taken all the ingredients to make fried potatoes and vegetable omelettes and also delicious pumpkin bread and orange juice and it was so much fun to be in Jessie's apartment - I LOVE her apartment!!! I watched the Thai people make many omelettes but I have never tasted one as good as the one Annie made yesterday and of course the potatoes were heavenly. Jessie's roommates were SO happy to have some real food and a boy friend of one of them thought he had gone to Heaven. Annie had used mashed sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin in her bread and it was DELICIOUS. I knew they wouldn't eat out on the Sabbath but I had no idea she was going to do all that.

Jessie took us around the campus and showed us where Laura, Sarah and Mary Ann lived but they had gone to church so we didn't get to see their apartment. I had already seen where Ricky lived because he lives in the same place where Barji and Jessie lived a couple years ago and he was in church too. Jessie was the teacher in her Relief Society and she gave an excellent lesson - it was about having faith in the Lord to help us during stressful times. Jessie and Lee Anna played a violin duet, "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and it was beautiful and they hadn't had any time to practice - I WAS VERY IMPRESSED!!! I also LOVE her ward and just the whole thing - we attended all her meetings and I visited with a young man who had served his mission in North Little Rock and knew all our friends there and that was special. One of the speakers at her Sacrament Meeting kept talking about his Mission President and it all sounded so familiar to me and at the end of his talk he mentioned his Thai contacts - he was in the Thailand Mission when I was and he also attended the last missionary reunion where I was - A SMALL WORLD!!! I couldn't believe the young people who were in attendance knowing they were away from home and didn't really have to go to church - they could have "slept in" or something. The meetings were all very crowded - Jessie is in a good place and doing good things and I'm proud of her.

Jeannie - thank you for the delicious dinner yesterday. I had written her an e-mail telling her I wouldn't be here but I'm SO glad she didn't get it in time. I was hungry when we got back to Farmington and I tried to talk Lee Anna and Annie into coming in so I could fix them a bite to eat but they wanted to get home so they just left and I had the dinner all to myself - there would have been enough for all three of us. Jeannie had fixed dinner for Sarah and her friends on Saturday night and she said she was going to fix Cornish game hens for 14 young people - WOW!!! There was a Halloween dance at Sarah's school and they had a progressive dinner before - main dish at the Weinerts and dessert and salad at other homes. I know they had a wonderful time. Jeannie had invited me to go see them in their costumes but I had been to the football game of Utah State and a Florida team and it was too late when I got home. I want to hear all about it. Barji and Boyd were in North Carolina all last week and I'm glad they are home now - Jeannie, do they know you were born in Raleigh?

John - I have been listening to the news about the Memorial at the World Trade Center yesterday and I just can't imagine anything sadder. One of the commentators said "Just when we think we have seen it all, we find there is more to be seen and heard". My heart aches for the family members who have lost loved ones - when they presented them with a bottle of the dirt at ground zero I thought of how you filled some of your water bottles with some debris soon after it happened - what a keepsake!!! I appreciate so much your little messages and I'm glad you are doing good.

Annie brought the pictures that Russell had sent from Madagascar and Russell looks GREAT. The animals in the pictures are native of Madagascar and they couldn't be more weird - I just hope he learns which ones are poisonous and which aren't. They really are very, very beautiful animals if you like animals - the picture of the little frog is my favorite and the one that looks like a monkey with a long tail (a Leemur, I think). I hope John will be able to put them on the web site soon. Some of Russell's friends (girls) were SO happy to see them yesterday. Michael - I was happy to find out that the bridge where you were sitting in your last picture is close to your apartment - that looks like such beautiful scenery. Do they celebrate Halloween in Italy and Madagascar? I know you won't be able to go tricking and treating but I hope you will be able to have some good old American Halloween fun without getting into ANY trouble. They are predicting cold and stormy weather here so I won't have many children come.

I had a fun week last week. I went to the football game in Logan with Margaret on Saturday and that is always a lot of fun. I sat right behind two of my former college classmates and we visited during the entire game - I didn't watch much football but I do know Utah State won by a field goal!!! It was a perfect football day. I am also trying to do a little genealogy - I am "coloring" a four generation pedigree chart and any of my grandchildren could do a better job. I can learn and remember so much better when I can see something so maybe this will help me think of my grandparents, great grandparents, and great, great grandparents as real people and not just names. I have colored all the Mellor people with blonde hair and the Forrest people with dark hair - Ha!!!

I have Stake Conference next Sunday so I will be able to prepare dinner for my family. I would like to make Bob a birthday cake since he won't be here on his birthday. Annie said she wasn't sure they could come but she would really like to wish Bob a Happy Birthday so they will try. I will plan to have dinner about 5:30 - 6:00 and you are all invited - I want the young married couples too and any of the college "kids" who are home. LET ME KNOW!!!