November 18, 2001 Farmington, Utah

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EACH ONE OF YOU!!! I am looking forward to being with my Utah family on Thursday and I'm SO glad John is coming from New York and he will bring Laura and Bren. I also believe Ricky is going to bring one of his Utah State friends who is from Tennessee and I'm anxious to meet her. I wish the Roy Mellors could be with us too. I think about Michael and Russell and I remember all the dinner invitations the missionaries used to get when we lived in Little Rock so I'm not worried about them. The Elders serving in Arkansas always managed to get to at least two dinners - Ha!!! Annie had written that they wanted everyone to hike to Twin Peaks but I doubt the weather is going to cooperate for that so we'll plan indoor activities and that will be fun and more enjoyable for me.

I have waited until late this afternoon to write my letter thinking I would hear from Bob and Claire or Roy so I could give a little report about their trip to Guatemala. Jeannie called me yesterday to tell me Rick had called her from Atlanta so I knew they were on their way home and then Mary Ann came over this afternoon and she told me her Dad and Ricky had come home last night. She said they had had a WONDERFUL trip and I'm anxious to hear all about it. I can imagine how busy they are getting caught up on all the things at their homes as well as their sleep so maybe it will be Thanksgiving before I hear - THAT'S OKAY!!! Jeannie told me that Ricky had had plenty of opportunities to use his Spanish.

Patrice - thank you SO much for your messages this week and also for forwarding Roy's messages. I know you, Emily, Timothy and Jesse are happy to have Roy home - almost as happy as he is to be home. I'm thinking that you are planning a Thanksgiving dinner for your Mom and probably some of your friends too - will Roy smoke a turkey like he has done in the past? I think about Joan and Andy and I'm wondering how their adoption procedures are going and how is Liz and Bobs' little Samantha? I wish you could all be together for the holidays.

John - thank you SO much for your telephone messages this week. I always feel so much better when I have a little visit and can hear your voice. He calls me occasionally as he is walking back to his apartment from work and one time he was waiting for his dinner - he said he had ordered teriyaki chicken and it was good. He is such a good cook I'm surprised he doesn't cook it himself.

Annie - thank you for your GREAT directions to get to the Pack's church. Their meeting this morning started at 11 o'clock and I left my condo about 10 and got there in plenty of time - reminded me of the last time I tried to direct Jeannie to it and we got lost and wasted more than an hour. The meeting was a missionary farewell for Lyndall (26 years old) who has been called to serve in the Ventura, California mission. I am VERY impressed with that family - Paula has worked her heart out all these years teaching piano lessons to support their family because Mel couldn't find a suitable job. Their children (five) have all excelled (sp.?) in school and had scholarships to BYU and four of them have served missions. The girls are all married except for Lyndall and their one daughter has two adorable little girls - I don't believe the others have children yet. Their son, Jeff, is going to the University of Utah and living at home. Jeff and his sister, Laura, sang a gorgeous song today - they have beautiful singing voices. Jeff served in Korea and has been home about two years and he spoke today. Nancy and her family were there - their son who is in medical school at the University of Utah was there with his wife and two little boys, three and one and she is expecting again.

I was thrilled to be there with "the Aunts" today but disappointed that I didn't get to visit more with them and of course, I took my camera but didn't get any pictures. It was fun to meet Carol's Bill - he seems like a nice man. Elaine is much, much too thin but then she always has been - Shirley and Glen are the same. Ramona looks WONDERFUL and is SO happy to be in her assisted living home - she was in the hospital for a while recuperating from a bruised pelvic bone. Carolyn and Gerald were there and they are doing good - their daughter Angie is living at home with them in Logan. Paula had invited me to go to their home after the meeting to have lunch and I followed the others to get there but then I lost them. Try to envision a thousand people in my living room and you get the idea how crowded it was and I never did find where Ramona, Elaine, Shirley and Glen were. Carol and Bill were the first ones in the food line and I believe maybe they were fixing plates for the others and maybe they waited outside in their car. Carolyn and Gerald left to go to Provo because one of their daughters was in a church program there - they told me they would come back to visit. I truly hate to go to places like that by myself so after visiting for a few minutes I left and came home.

I went to Salt Lake last Monday with Ellen Mae and Mel. Mel had to have his quarterly check up with his doctor so we went to the hospital first and then met Clinton and Eris (our high school friends) for lunch at the "Sweet Tomato" restaurant - it's always fun to be together and talk about old times. Mel is doing fabulous after his hip replacement (his third).

Tuesday was our condo board meeting. We voted to have Darrell Guthrie take over the condo managerial position - I think he will be very good but there are others who are against it. Darrell has four grandsons besides his son who REALLY need jobs and they will be able to do a lot of the work previously done by our gardeners and others. He won't start this position until March. Darrell's son, Todd, works for Range Rover (?) now detailing cars and he only makes an hourly wage. Many in the condos think this will increase our dues but Darrell's proposal doesn't indicate that - it hadn't better!!!

We had our D.U.P. meeting on Wednesday and it was very nice. It was held at the home of the mother of one of Jeannie's good friends. (bad sentence) This has been SO good for me - I had to give a "pioneer history" at our meeting so I had to get into my genealogy box to find one and we have many histories of our pioneer relatives who arrived in the valley before 1859. I decided to give the history of my great, great grandmother, Sarah Ann Bushman - some time I would like for all of you to read that. She is on my Mother's side and was a very outstanding woman who suffered a great deal as she crossed the plains with her husband who had another wife - they had twelve children together. Jeannie has consented to have our D.U.P. Christmas party at her home on December 5th - it is always a potluck luncheon so she won't be involved in any of the food - I appreciate SO very much her letting me have it at their home. Most of the members are in their eighties and can't climb stairs so we'll use her back entrance.

The "Harry Potter" movie has opened this week and it is absolutely amazing how popular it is. Little Jesse is reading the third book after reading the first two and I imagine Emily and Timothy have read them too. I am thrilled that it has encouraged so many young people to read instead of watch television and play internet games. My neighbor, Margaret, is a real fan of the books and she has also listened to the tapes - she LOVED the movie too!!! The advice we hear is that you read the books before seeing the movie so I am going to do that - which means I may get too old before getting them all read - I AM A SLOW READER. By the way Patrice, I just finished "The Painted House" and I liked it very much - brought back many Arkansas memories. I will pass it on to someone when we are together at Thanksgiving - thank you for leaving it for us.

I must write to my friends who are presiding over a mission in Russia and also to Helen, my former missionary companion, who is serving in Mexico. Helen will be home in December and so will Janet and Darlene who are serving in Turkey. Marc and Cherri in Russia will be home in July - they are having very severe Wintry weather and I'm sure they will be happy to get to their home in California. I had a phone call from Wantana in Thailand yesterday and it was SO good to talk to her - I really miss my Thai friends.