Weekly Report May 7, 2003

Dearest Family,
 
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO RUSSELL ON MONDAY - 21 years old!!!  I hope you had a special day with maybe a birthday cake and candles to blow out.  You are accomplishing the most important things and I know you know that and "21" seems very young to me.
 
I'm home from a WONDERFUL visit with the Roy Mellors - Margaret met me at the airport and everything had been just like "clock work" with the airlines.  I hear so many reports of LOTS OF PROBLEMS and I didn't have any and I enjoyed every minute of EVERYTHING!!!  Many thanks John for making all my reservations.
 
Todd Guthrie who manages the condos with his father took me to the airport last Friday and Roy and Jesse met me at the airport and I was SO happy to see them.  Have you heard the joke about a grandmother knitting three socks to send to her grandson and when he asked why she made three socks she said, "Well, Mother keeps telling me you have grown another foot"!!!  I feel like that every time I see Timothy and Jesse - they grow more than a foot each time I see them.  Jesse is so much help - he got all my luggage from the ramp and that's tricky!!!
 
We went to their home and even though I had told them I didn't want Emily to move out of her bedroom for me she did it anyway.  That is such a comfortable room - Emily moved her things to Jesse's room and he moved into Timothy's room with him.  Sammy greeted me too and she is a very beautiful and sweet dog.  We had delicious pizza, etc. etc. and visited out in their beautiful back yard - Patrice has planted her herbs and tomatoes and I sampled the parsley and cilantro (sp?).  They have a perfect place for a garden and it's amazing to me that they can keep Sammy away from it.
 
You all know how much I enjoy playing games and I found a "game mate" in Jesse.  We played "Risk" and Timothy helped me because that is a very difficult game - even with Timothy's help, Jesse won most of the time.  Saturday we went to the Arkansas Arts Center for special displays of art made from edible things - it was amazing.  It was a competitive activity and the winner had a large art work with chocolate - very, very interesting!!!  Patrice had one made of Jesse's picture with cucumber slices on his eyes and catsup on his lips and I have forgotten what was on his nose but it was darling.  They had a large container that was filled with Hershey chocolate kisses and they wanted people to guess how many kisses were in the container - JESSE WON.  He guessed 456 and there were 453 in it - AMAZING!!!  I thought his picture should have won too.  That was SO MUCH fun and since Patrice works in the library there everyone knew her.  They have a gift shoppe there and I bought a beautiful necklace - a chocker type and I LOVE it.
 
Sunday we all went to their church and that was good - Patrice teaches one of their youth groups.  They have a minister who is serving for a short period of time and he explained how the Unitarian-Universalist groups were combined.  That is such a warm congregation and I enjoy it every time I go - they have a social time after the formal meeting for people to visit together and they serve coffee and cake.  They have chosen a new minister and I will REALLY be interested in him - he is a Buddhist and their teachings are much like the Mormons.  Most of the people in Thailand felt like they could join the L.D.S. Church and still be Buddhists.
 
Timothy is playing the alto saxophone and he is VERY good - he played a solo for me.  I told him that we have never had a saxophonist in our family.  He also plays the piano. We went to the Arkansas School for the Blind where they have a large auditorium where the Arkansas Youth Orchestra performed some beautiful pieces for us.  I am SO proud of Emily - she practiced her flute for a long time before the performance and she is SO good.  Jesse played many piano pieces for me and he is also SO good and the best thing is that he enjoys it.
 
Patrice had invited her Mom to come for dinner on Sunday and I LOVED visiting with her.  She told me how much she had enjoyed seeing her new grandchildren - Joanne and her husband had brought their little son, Billy and Liz and her husband had brought their little daughter, Samantha to visit with her recently.  Patrice's dinner was WONDERFUL - they had been to Gulf Shores, Alabama and had gone fishing with Wayne Smith.  Patrice said they caught all kinds of fish and fileted and frozen them so she cooked a fish dinner for all of us.  They also brought fresh strawberries from Gulf Shores and Patrice made a strawberry/rhubarb dessert that was heavenly!!!

Monday, Chris came to get me about 9:30 in the morning to go visit some friends.  We had planned to go visit Cissy and Charles in Hot Springs but they weren't home - it was SO funny because I had a phone call from Cissy this morning and they are in Salt Lake.  She has been able to get her dialysis treatment here and they wanted to come for one of Steve's daughter's graduation from Utah State.  We plan to get together either on Friday or Saturday.  We went to Floy McKell's home and we saw most of her children and that was VERY interesting.  Floy and Keith's son, Carl, lives with Floy and his daughter and her husband and little son live next door.  Carl and his wife divorced quite awhile ago but they are still good friends.  Then we went to see Bev and Gilbert Culwell - their son Allen had just been to visit with them and they had pictures to show us.  Joy Geisler came to their home to visit with us.  We had lunch  at "The Old Mill" and then went to see Dorothy and Dan Woods and they got us all up to date on their family.  Then we went to see Bobbye and Tom Dennis - I'm worried about Bobbye because while we were there she had a phone call from her doctor telling her she had to come in for another heart checkup.

 
President Bush was in Little Rock to give a talk at Robinson Auditorium and the Woods and Dennis' went to that.  They were kinda' upset because they had to stand in line for over two hours to go through security - they accepted it but it took them longer than they had hoped.  The papers said he had spoken to a packed crowd so there are a few Republicans in Arkansas - Ha!
 
Roy and I had such a good time on Monday before he took me to the airport.  We went to Jesse's class and watched the students practice for a Mother's Day Program they were going to put on for the Mothers this week.  I was VERY impressed with how well the students did - they had memorized long speeches.  Jesse was the pianist and he did a GREAT job.  Then we went back to the Arts Center to see where Patrice works and she works in a beautiful library surrounded by very special books - there are many I would like to spend time with.  Then we went to a workshop at the center where Roy is making a table - I'm SO proud of him.  He is taking a class and can use all the great equipment they have besides the instruction he receives.  Then Roy took me to Central High School where Emily goes - they have made a museum out of a deserted gasoline station that is across the street from the High School and it is WONDERFUL.  I bought some souvenirs there for my friends here.  I'm proud of Emily - she is planning to attend a college preparatory summer session at Andover School in Boston this Summer.  She is BEAUTIFUL TOO and so very sweet and a real homemaker!!!
 
I had an e-mail from Claire this morning and she said that Bob has phoned several times from Italy and he, Michael and Laura are having a good time.  Claire and Katie are going today and I know they will be happy to be together.
 
I also had an e-mail from Annie - she told me that our friend Faye Doyle in Phoenix just died and that makes me sad even though I haven't seen her for many years.  Annie was with her daughter, Vicky, at their High School Friend reunion.  This makes four friends of mine who have passed away during the last couple months.
 
John sent me an e-mail too along with some pictures of Tar getting tomato juice all over him.  He tangled with a skunk and John said the smell was nauseating - I'm very familiar with that smell because we get skunks  from the Country Club occasionally and there is nothing worse.  John said that Tar couldn't quite figure out what had happened - Ha!!!
 
I haven't heard from the Weinerts but I know Jeannie is swamped with Young Women activites as they are graduating from High School along with Sarah's activities.
 
I think that's all the news.  I LOVE EACH ONE OF YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH.  PLEASE BE SO VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.  Grandma B XXXXXOOOOO

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