Dearest Family,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SARAH ON WEDNESDAY - 18 YEARS
OLD AND SUCH A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN!!! I hope you have a very WONDERFUL
birthday - I can't believe you are 18 years old - you will always be a
little dancer in the Christmas Nutcracker Ballet!!!
Today has been such a happy day for me - my Utah
family with the exception of John, Claire, Laura, Michael, Jessie, Lee Anna,
Russell and Ricky came for dinner. Sundays are such busy days for my family
and it is WONDERFUL when they take the time to come for family gatherings.
We celebrated Sarah's birthday and also a farewell for Susanna, Steve and
Jackson who are moving to Mesa, Arizona this next week. I did it the easy
way and had "Take and Bake Pizza" and bakery cakes. My condo is just too
small to prepare dinners like I used to and especially without Lynn to help
- he was the better cook!!! It was fun to see Preston and Jackson play
together - it will be very special to see them grow up - DARLING BABIES!!!
Claire, Laura and Michael are coming home from
Italy tonight - Bob left from here to go to the airport to pick them up and
he'll be happy to have them home. They had such a WONDERFUL trip and
Michael showed them all the places where he served - Bob said the highlight
of their trip was the Sacrament Meeting they went to and EVERYONE was so
happy to see Michael again. I'm SO glad they could do that.
Jessie - Thank you SO much for your sweet
letter. I feel SO sad that you have suffered alot of pain with your eye
surgery - I am not familiar with the pain medications you have been taking
but I know that different medications can cause havoc if the doctors aren't
aware of them being taken at the same time. I hope SO much that you will
improve FAST and that your sight will be as good as it is in the other eye.
I kinda' thought Lee Anna and her friend would
come but they couldn't. We all know where Russell and Ricky are. Jeannie
said that Ricky is happy in Portland - he's living with other returned
missionaries and working hard. I guess my grandchildren must grow up and
find their own way in life but I wish they could stay at home. Russell is
doing great in Madagascar and will probably be helping a new Mission
President before long - I think that's right.
It was good to have Grandpa Russ Woolley with us
today. He is having some eye surgery in Provo and will have a knee
replacement next week - I think that is exceptional for an 87 year old man
and I hope it is successful. I know some people who have had them and it
hasn't been.
I went to the Young Women's program in the
Weinert's ward on Wednesday. They honored the graduating senior young women
and I was VERY proud of Sarah - she is surely an outstanding graduate. They
honored six or seven young women and their mothers narrated a video slide
show of their lives - it was just WONDERFUL and Jeannie gave a beautiful
talk.
I keep thinking of the Roy Mellor Family - I got
some of my pictures back that I took while I was with them and they made me
homesick. I took a picture of Emily playing her flute in her bedroom and I
wish I could see more of her and hear her play. The picture that Jesse took
of Roy, Patrice, Suzie and me turned out better than any of the others we
took. I hope I have one of Timothy on my next roll of film that is still in
the camera because I didn't have one of him. I hope all your school
activities will be fun as this school year ends. I'm SO glad you are coming
for Lake Powell and I wish Emily would come too.
A good friend of mine passed away last week and
they had her funeral on Wednesday. She was in my D.U.P. Camp and was
captain when I joined. She was diagnosed with esophagus cancer in December
- I have visited her many times and she refused any treatment after being in
the hospital for about a month. She was ten years younger than I am and I
thought sure she would be with us for at least a year. She had a wonderful
family and they all spoke at her funeral. I had an "Expression of Esteem"
calligraphied and framed for presentation at her funeral by the
International President of D.U.P and she did a beautiful job.
Our weather is SO unpredictable - I thought sure
it would be hot today and I even brought a big fan into my living room and
had to take it out to the garage when it turned cold. I also thought we
could go outside on the patio for dinner but it was just too cold.
I just finished watching the end of "The
Bachelor" - these new reality shows are the future for television I guess.
I can't believe a person could find his wife after such public things - Oh
Well.
That's all the news - I LOVE EACH ONE OF YOU SO
VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.
Grandma B XXXXXOOOOO