Dearest Family,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MICHAEL ON THURSDAY - 22
YEARS OLD!!! That is SO very young and gets younger the older I get -
Ha!!! I have been sorting through LOTS of family pictures lately and
it's fun to see my grandchildren when they were just babies and now
grown up!!! I hope you have a WONDERFUL birthday and I hope someone
will bake you a Great Harvest birthday cake! I'm thinking you will have
a birthday party on the boat on Willard Bay - I hope so!!!
I want to tell you about a special project
John has set up for me. I know you are all aware of the many pictures I
have put in albums almost all my married life. Lynn was never much
interested in pictures but he would bring me home some used albums from
his work so I wouldn't have to make alot of monetary investments in my
hobby. I can remember thinking it was very weird for me to have these
ugly albums when others would have beautiful ones with special pages and
decorations on them. ANYWAY - I have worried and worried about how I
could preserve these pictures because it seemed like everytime I turned
around someone would say "you are going to find all your pictures black
because you are not using acid proof paper". I decided to take all the
pages out of the albums and take them to Kinkos to have them printed and
when I discussed this with John, he said "Oh, Mom it would be SO much
better to have them scanned and put on discs" - I will help you!!!
Yesterday morning (Saturday) when I came
home from the temple he had a new computer all set up with a scanner and
everything I needed. He had called me during the week to make sure I
wanted to buy the computer - the one I have been using belongs to
Bob and I LOVE it. The scanner is one John bought when he was working on
my letters for the website. Ricky has agreed to work with us and he
came over so John could give him some instructions - John was impressed
with how quickly Ricky "caught on". I spent most of last week trying to
organize my albums. Ricky scanned many pictures yesterday and then
after he left I went to the computer and wrote in some information aside
each picture. It is VERY enjoyable for me and I just hope Ricky doesn't
get bored - it is very tedious work. I think it will be more
interesting for him when he gets to scanning our family pictures -
yesterday he did many belonging to the Forrest family. He can just work
when he has time and for as long as he wants and I won't have to be here
when he comes.
This is John's expertise and I am SO
impressed with the way he does things. He can figure out how long it
will take to do the project and this morning he sent me a page with the
dates and ages of each family member - that makes my information much
easier to write down. He also got a battery that will save what we have
on the computer in case of a power failure - I had told him that we have
those VERY OFTEN!!! We will have about ten minutes to set the computer
down and then turn it off as usual and the information will be saved.
I'm sure these pictures mean much more to me
than to anyone else but we are advised to do our family history and I
know pictures tell a history much better than words do. I would have
liked to have more of my childhood recorded in pictures than I have -
they didn't take pictures 70 years ago like they do now. I'm just
grateful to have what I have. I know too that these pictures will mean
more to you when you are 70 plus years than they do now.
Patrice - I saw your picture in the June
17th issue of the Little Rock magazine "Solree". Chris sent me the
magazine and it was fun to see your picture with your friend, Susan
Day. Chris thought I might know others in it but the only other one I
remember was Betty Lile. Betty was an Alpha Chi and we were active
together in the alumni group in Little Rock - I helped her with a
luncheon in her lovely home by the Presbyterian Church in West Little
Rock. I hope the Roys are doing good - how can I help you with your
trip to Lake Powell? Your sleeping bags and pillows are right where you
left them downstairs and I also have LOTS of blankets, etc., etc.
This is such an EXCITING time for the
Woolleys - they will leave next Sunday for Madagascar and their reunion
with Russell. I have never had anyone close to me go to such an exotic
place and I want to hear EVERYTHING about it and they will be there for
what seems like a long time. I can just imagine how excited
Russell will be to have them with him so he can show them what he has
been doing for the last two years and meet his friends - it will also be
VERY difficult for him to leave those friends.
The Bobs are REALLY enjoying their boat -
Laura and Michael meet them at Willard Bay coming from Logan so they
have a WONDERFUL time together. We have had some very cool weather and
the predictions are for even colder weather the next couple days - it is
supposed to be in the 50's tonight. The weather throughout the United
States has been very different this year - floods in many places and
fires in Arizona that are destroying many homes. They had a picture on
the weather news tonight of a snow storm in the High Uintas and snow on
Mt. Timpanogas - weird!!! We are supposed to be 69 degrees tomorrow's
high and 64 on Tuesday.
This week will be a very busy time for the
Weinert family - especially Jeannie. It is their ward youth conference
and they are going on a "River Run". I didn't know they were going to
Moab but in our ward meeting this morning some young people spoke and
told about their time at youth conference this past weekend in Moab and
Margaret said her daughter's ward was going there this next week.
Since Margaret's daughter is in Jeannie's ward I am assuming they are
going to Moab too. That is such a WONDERFUL experience for the young
people and such a difficult time for their leaders - so much
responsibility!!! They said they had MANY adult leaders in the group
from our ward and I'm sure they will in the Weinert's ward too. Rick
has been in Minneapolis but I believe he is home now. Jeannie had a
wedding shower in their home on Thursday night - she surely keeps
busy!!! Boyd won his tournament last week at Thanksgiving Point - WAY
TO GO BOYD!!!
I had an e-mail from Aunt Carol Braithwaite
Williamson - she and her husband Bill have left Hawaii after finishing
their mission. I hope I get to see her soon - it seems like years since
we were together. I believe this was Carol's fifth mission and she is
about 85 years old.
I keep thinking about Susanna, Steve and
little Jackson - I have looked at pictures of our days in Phoenix about
40 years ago and I remember the heat but I also remember how much we
loved it.
I also think about Jessie all the time - I'm
SO glad her eye is better!!!
That's all the news, I think. I LOVE EACH
ONE OF YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN
EVERYTHING YOU DO. GRANDMA B XXXXXOOOOO