January 13, 2002 Farmington, Utah

I just came home from having a delicious salmon dinner with the Weinert family. Barji and Boyd were home for a brief period of time and Mary Ann was home from college for a missionary farewell of one of her friends so it was a special day. Barji and Boyd will leave in the morning to go to the Bahamas for a week and then to Florida for three weeks for special golf practice and a few golf tournaments. We tease them about vacationing but I can relate to how they feel - it's difficult to leave school and home activities and really put things on hold and then they always have to "catch up" when they get home. Mary Ann wants to run in a marathon in St. George so she is training for that - she has sore and bruised thighs and today she showed me a very hurt looking big toe but she said she had run 13 miles yesterday. Rick came home for dinner and then went to run some compassionate service errands - Jeannie said his Sundays are a full week long and we all remember those days with PaPa - Rick leaves home at 7 a.m. and he really isn't finished with everything until about 7 p.m. I know it's the same for Bob and Ron. Jeannie says she is still learning about her new calling but she is enjoying it and I LOVED to hear everything they have planned - the Young Women in her ward are very lucky to have her and her counselors to lead them.

Emily - I was SO thrilled to receive a letter from you this week. I hope you will be able to spend a lot of time with me next Summer and also your family. I wish you could all come for the Olympics in February - do you hear very much about them in Little Rock? I am surprised about all the preparations and it's fun to drive into Salt Lake and just feel the excitement. John Ridge (is that right?) who is the homeland security man for the government came out last week to inspect the security and he said it was the best he has ever seen. I sat by a young woman in our meetings this morning who plays the flute like you do and we had a good visit - she is a senior in high school and her goal is to become an anesthesiologist - she gave a talk in our church meeting.

Annie - what a thrill to have you drop in to visit for "TEN MINUTES" - Ha!!! When I opened the door I was SO excited to see her and she quickly reminded me that she was in a hurry but she had ten minutes. I TRULY do understand and if you only have one minute I hope you will stop by. She had been to Davis High where she is supervising a student teacher and she had to go to a High School in Salt Lake before going home. I don't know how she does everything she does.

Claire - I LOVE your pictures and look forward to finding them on the e-mail each day. I couldn't access the actual song that Brett had written but I saw the animated drummers - did he do that too? I was THRILLED to see the picture of Bob when he was young and played his electric guitar - I don't remember ever seeing that picture. I have always regretted that we gave that guitar to D.I. when we moved to Lehi and put things in storage - actually it got wet somehow and was damaged. Thank you and Bob for inviting me to go to dinner last night - I had just bitten off more than I could chew and had to stay home and get caught up.

John - thank you for your e-mails and phone messages. I feel so sad when I find your phone messages because it seems like I am never home when you call - I leave them on my machine so I can hear your voice whenever I want to. It is hard for me to believe you are having such warm weather in New York when it is SO cold here. I think it is just great that you can walk home from your work and I love to hear the commotion in the background when you call. My Home Teachers came to visit today and I showed them the gifts you gave all of us for Christmas - they were impressed and said "not everyone can get a gift like that". Do you ever go to the place where the trade centers used to be - ground zero? I received a LONG web site and letter from our former neighbor Terry Woods where she had pictures and histories of her six living dogs and memorials for two who have died. I forwarded it to John and he said "it's nice but a little weird". Can you imagine taking care of six dogs and taking them everywhere you go - she takes all of them to Little Rock when she goes to visit her parents. They are American Eskimo (four) and Border Collies (two).

Michael and Russell - I was SO thrilled to learn that the church has changed its policy on missionaries having access to the internet. I'm sure the tragedy that has caused such a change in the mail system is responsible for this and I'm glad the church authorities recognized how difficult it has been for parents to not hear from their sons and daughters for months at a time. The Woolleys can surely relate to this situation. Now it will be interesting to find out just how much access there will be to computers in Madagascar. Michael will probably not have many problems getting on the internet in Italy. I would have REALLY been miserable in Thailand if I hadn't had the constant e-mail letters from my family!!!

Last week was a busy one for me. We had our annual condo association meeting to elect new officers for 2002 and Navine Roberts and I planned and served a light supper. I made 60 chicken salad sandwiches, the punch and brownies and ordered a vegetable tray from Smiths - Navine made ham sandwiches and bought cookies, chips, etc. We had a large attendance of condo owners and voted to hire a manager as well as elected new officers and I won't be in charge of the swimming pool anymore. Margaret was a good sport and volunteered to serve as pool manager. I will NEVER have that responsibility again but having a general condo manager will make everything much easier.

Margaret invited me to go to a Jazz game with her and I still can't believe how special that was. She had V.I.P. tickets and we were on the second row from the playing floor. Karl Malone just about landed in our laps several times during the game. We were served a delicious dinner first and it was a constant three hour entertainment time - I LOVED it and the Jazz won so it was exciting.

Margaret and I were the speakers in our Sacrament Meeting this morning and the way it turned out was almost a miracle. There were three speakers all with the same theme and our talks were all different. I was the first speaker and when I sat down I turned and asked Margaret what she was going to talk on and she said "I don't know - you didn't leave me anything" and we laughed. I was kinda' worried and felt bad but as it turned out she hadn't planned to use any of the material I used anyway. The Theme came from Isaiah 54:13 in the Old Testament and was how important it is to teach the children about God and His love for them and I used our church scriptures and she focused on the importance of missionary work to reach out to children all over the world and not just L.D.S. The other speaker works in a home for disturbed young children and she talked about the things she has learned in her work. I am so GLAD it is over - things like that used to be easier for me than they are now. Margaret and I both decided our husbands helped us - actually I think they help us a lot all the time.