Dearest Family,
Happy Labor Day to each one of you - I hope
you have family plans to enjoy some kind of recreation and relaxation.
The Utah weather is supposed to be just perfect - I understand from the
weather news that Texas is having lots of rain so maybe Little Rock will
be getting some of that. Utah has had a little rain this past week but
we could use a 'Texas Storm"!!!
I have thought all week about all my
grandchildren who have gone back to school and how things have become
normal again in many of your households - I remember how welcome those
days were - Ha!!! I haven't heard from the Woolleys and I want to know
where Russell is attending college. Jeannie tells me that Ricky and
Sarah don't live too far from each other and they are happy and involved
at Utah State. I was hoping Jean would find time to relax but she has
been in charge of a program for the young people in their ward that was
called "Road Rally". Margaret's daughter was also involved since they
are in the same ward and she told me it was a huge success. They kinda'
had actual experiences that would teach the young people of the dangers
on the streets and how they could avoid them. One of Margaret's friends
was dressed very "raggedly" and approached Margaret as she went to the
Post Office in Farmington - he quickly identified himself but the
purpose was to help the young people know how to act in situations like
that. I believe it was in the format of a "Treasure Hunt" and at the
Smith's store here they planned for someone to drop a bag of oranges and
then they watched as the young people came into the store. The girls
for the most part tried to help pick up the bag but the boys for the
most part just walked around them and tried to find the next "clue".
This of course was to show how we all need to be more considerate of
others. DID I TELL THIS RIGHT JEANNIE???
Susanna - thank you SO much for your
e-mail. I LOVED to hear about their experiences with Jackson when they
took him to the zoo in Phoenix and she also sent me some pictures of all
of them - they have a new digital camera and they're learning how to
send pictures on the internet. Jackson is such a beautiful little boy
and I can just see him playing in the toilet when she took her eyes off
him for a few seconds. I'm SO happy they love Phoenix and they are
involved in their church auxilliaries - Susanna is teaching the MIA
Maids and Steve is in the Sunday School Presidency and teaching a
class. I can't imagine better workers and their ward is MIGHTY lucky to
have them!!!
Mary Ann - thank you SO much for your phone
call. We plan "to do lunch" on Wednesday - I hope it works out. Mary
Ann is busy with her school and nursing job and David has started a new
"car detailing" business along with his school classes so they are very
busy doing GOOD things!!! Barji, Boyd & Preston have been in Colorado
for a golf tournament and I believe they will be home tonight.
Laura - thank you SO much for your sweet
card. I'm glad you and Michael are close together so you can help each
other. I have thought about your cousin Sarah - has she had her baby
yet? They have it made if they have endured the heat in Missouri this
Summer along with her pregnancy.
John - thank you for all your phone calls. I
LOVE it when you call me on your way home from work like you did when
you lived in New York. I'm glad you're doing good. I worked on the
commentaries for the picture project last night and finished one more
album so now I will start on #22 - I have LOTS to do before you will
want to make the trip to "burn" them on discs. I REALLY enjoy doing
that - last night I believe I accessed at least a dozen pictures of Lynn
on elk hunts and I thought about Ricky when he scanned them and I'm sure
he thought "Grandma B, one of these would have been enough" - Ha!!! The
pictures bring back SO many memories for me and I wasn't there to take
those pictures so one of his friends must have taken them and given them
to us. I also accessed pictures of a home that Roy & Patrice sent to us
- they didn't even buy the home so I probably didn't need those pictures
either but they mean something to me. I LOVE the family pictures when
we were all younger and them mean worlds to me!!!
Roy & Patrice - I thought about you this
week with all the news about "Mars" coming closer to the earth. I wish
I were smart enough to understand all that but I was far more interested
this year than ever before because of our trip to the planetarium in
Salt Lake and I thank you for taking me to that. Quoting from our paper
"60,000 years ago the Neanderthal people and early modern humans must
surely have watched a faint but familiar point of light in the
southeastern sky grow brighter and brighter until its brilliant
topaz-yellow light outshown everything in the nightime heavens save the
moon". The article goes on to say that this was Mars and it draws
closer to Earth day by day and on Wednesday, 8-27-03 at precisely 3:51
a.m. Mountain Daylight Time, the fabled Red planet will pass 34,646,437
miles from Earth - closer than it has been in the past 60 millenia. All
my Utah family was so impressed with how much they learned each night as
they watched the galaxy at Lake Powell. Do any of you think there is
life on Mars????????????
I'm going to write about a special
experience we had at Margaret's Mountain home a week ago - this is
mainly for my journal. We have been together with a lovely couple who
live in our ward for many different occasions in Wyoming, Park City and
here in Farmington since I moved here. They came to Etna on a Tuesday
night and the next day we drove into Jackson Hole to see the Bar J
program and I sat next to "Joan". She seemed very different to me but I
thought perhaps she was just tired since they had been to Reno, Nevada
for a family reunion. The next morning, Thursday, we found her asleep
on the floor in Margaret's living room and we thought that was strange -
her husband had gone golfing. When she awakened she was completely "off
base" - she talked continuously for three hours and didn't make sense
but we (three of us) sat and gave her our attention. We went into Afton
on Friday and we just couldn't believe all the things she put in her
shopping cart - we definetly knew something was wrong so we took most of
it back and the clerks understood and they were very nice. In spite of
all that, her bill was $279.00 for mostly things she would never use.
It just got worse and worse so Margaret made up a story that she had to
be back in Farmington on Monday morning - they had planned to spend the
next week with her. We all left on Sunday night and on Monday, this
woman went completely "dingy" and her husband had to call the police and
the paramedics to take her to the psychiatric ward at the L.D.S.
hospital in Salt Lake. The last we heard, she was having an MRI but
they didn't know what was wrong. It will take me a long time to forget
that - it was very much like when we found Aunt Marvel in that
situation. This friend is 7 years younger than I am - SCARY!!!
I also had another phone call from Elaine
and I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!!! Her family has put her in a
nursing home because she kept falling. She was more alert than I have
ever talked to her - she didn't cry and was very nice. They want the
pictures back and will pay me $500 for them. - she remembers that was
what we paid for them. I explained to her that we bought them at a
"gallery showing" and anyone could have bought them but she didn't want
to listen to that. She said her son, Matt, wants to put them in the
bank and then when Elaine is gone he will let her children choose which
ones they want. I told her they were hanging on the walls of my home
and I love them. I surely don't want to be selfish or mean but I wonder
if I should bow to what Matt wants when I haven't seen him in 20 years
or more. Elaine told me that Lynn told her she could have them back
when she wanted them - I DON'T BELIEVE THAT!!!
There is a saying that goes something like
this "keep your balance when everyone about you seems to be losing
theirs" - I'm trying to apply that to my life at this point - Ha!!!
Margaret has invited me to go to Park City
with her this afternoon after church. There is some kind of a Rotarian
and City Labor Day Parade tomorrow and she thinks it will be fun to go
to it. You know me - I LOVE to stay home and just "putter" but I also
don't want to go "dingy" so I'll keep going as long as I can and
Margaret is so much fun to be with!!!
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 DO YOU. Grandma B XXXXXOOOOO