Dearest Family,
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JESSE NEXT SUNDAY -
NOVEMBER 2ND AND YOU WILL BE 10 YEARS OLD!!! It doesn't seem possible
that it was ten years ago that I went to Little Rock (thanks to Rick) to
greet Baby Jesse and what a beautiful baby he was and such a GOOD baby
and I knew that his Grandpa was thrilled to have him named after him. I
have accessed pictures of that time when I have been working on my
picture project and I LOVE them and to remember how much I LOVED being
with the Roy Mellor family and see how excited Emily & Timothy were to
have a little baby brother. I HOPE YOU HAVE A VERY SPECIAL BIRTHDAY - I
would love to hear about your work at Forest Park being on the student
council - THAT IS SO NEAT!!!
We have sad news for our family. Elaine
Mellor Miller passed away last week (I believe it was on Thursday) and
she was cremated as to her wishes. There will be a Memorial Service for
her on Tuesday in Provo and I hope our family will be well represented.
I know that Bob, Ann, Jean, John and I will be there and I surely don't
want Roy to feel it necessary to come. Annie called me yesterday and
left this message since I was at the temple - "Mom, your picture worries
are over" and then she told me. Evidently Elaine had been ill for
several days but had gone shopping and then had a relapse and died of
pneumonia. It is funny because just last Sunday I had told Jeannie that
I was going to put her pictures in my car and take them to Matt - I
don't want to be mean but I'm really glad I hadn't had time to do that.
It is going to be difficult for me to face him on Tuesday - he may not
even speak to me but that's okay!!! They will remind me of Elaine and
she was a very wonderful and generous woman but I don't believe Lynn
would have wanted me to cater to Matt's wishes - Lynn REALLY loved
Elaine!!! This is kind of an end of an era - the "funny Aunts" who gave
us so much joy when we were with them even though they did such strange
things. I have also accessed MANY pictures of Elaine and Lynn's other
sisters at special family get-togethers and I believe you will be
surprised to see how many times Earl is in them. I surely have thought
that Ramona would be gone before her other sisters - I understand she is
doing good in the assisted living home where she is living. I am
looking forward to seeing Carol again - I'm sure she will be there.
Elaine is with Lynn now.
I got up early this morning - having that
extra hour to sleep helped - Ha!!! I wanted to get to the computer and
access those WONDERFUL pictures that Bob had sent to me last night - I
saw them last night and then I dreamed about our PERFECT day yesterday
and it is difficult for me to believe that we could have pictures of
everything within three hours. This new technology is just overwhelming
to me!!! Bob had his lap top computer with him yesterday along with
something that gave him "GPS" readings so we could know exactly where we
were - like the ones that John had sent a week ago that showed the 40
acres. I REALLY just couldn't believe it and it is going to be fun for
me to tell my friends about all this because they are not nearly as
"technology savvy" as my family.
Bob came over one day last week and "just
mentioned" that we could go to West Canyon and find our property and
then on Friday I had an e-mail from him saying he would pick me up right
after I got home from the temple on Saturday. I had just received the
message about Elaine from Annie so Bob said he would call her from his
car on our way to the canyon and when he told her where we were going
she said "I want to go too and I'll meet you in Lehi". That was REALLY
a surprise to me because Annie is SO scheduled I would never have
thought that possible. It is difficult to explain how VERY thrilled I
was to actually set foot on our property and I LOVE it!!! We got to the
80 acres and Bob told me that the mountain in front of me was the 40
acres and he wanted to hike to it - it was SO much fun to watch Bob &
Ann hike the mountain and I hope the pictures I took turn out. When
they got back Bob said, "Mom - I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is we got to the top of the mountain but the bad news is
that that is not your property" - Ha!!! He has sent the pictures to all
of you on the internet and I believe the pictures of the beautiful
mountainside were taken of our property from the top of that larger
mountain. As I sat on our 80 acres which is all covered with "scrub
oak" I thought how much fun it would be for our family to go there
sometime and just let all the children hike and climb trees and do
"whatever" and have a picnic and it REALLY is not that hard to get to.
The bad thing is that I worried about the harm it was doing to Bob &
Claires' new car - their new "Tahoe" was absolutely covered with dirt.
We kept talking about how difficult it must
have been for John & Laura to go there on horseback and I can understand
when John tells me that Laura was "kinda worried". I believe we found a
trail to come back on that we hadn't found when we first started but I'm
not sure. That place is one of the few "undeveloped" places in Utah and
maybe down the road aways it will be developed but right now it isn't
and it is absolutely delightful!!! Thank you, Thank you Bob & Ann for
treating me to an experience I have wished for for over 20 years - Daddy
& I went a little ways in West Canyon on his four-wheeler about that
long ago. Now when it storms and is covered with snow I will think of
how beautiful it will be in the Spring even though it is beautiful now -
everything is SO DRY with our drought. I also wonder what the dangers
are - we didn't see anything alive except a squirrel but I imagine there
are rattlesnakes there - is that right???? Annie picked some sage
that she plans to use in her Thanksgiving dressing. Bob got me a branch
from one of the trees and he also found some fossilized teeth from a
dead animal - at least I can say they are fossilized!!!
Annie wore a bright red jacket but Bob and I
were in clothes that looked like deer hides - Ha!!! I didn't even think
about it being deer hunting season - Bob brought some orange ribbons to
tie on us and Patrice did you notice the "Arkansas Arts Center" cap I
was wearing and it has orange on the lining so I turned it wrong side
out. We drove by our property in Lehi on the way home and it was just
unbelievable to go by our 26 acres and Bob spotted two 5 point bucks
hiding in the bushes by the ditch - I didn't even see them but Bob did
and pointed them out to us. I thought how wonderful nature is to have
deer smart enough to know hunters are trying to find them to kill them
so they hide. They were close to the road and I'm sure they will be
killed before the season is over and that makes me sad. Our property in
Lehi is surrounded by homes, churches & schools.
More family news - John has changed jobs and
will be working for a technology company called "Omniture" in the
Provo/Orem area. I am proud of him for having the courage to leave a
job that he really enjoyed to go to one that will offer more
professional opportunities and he is excited about it. John will be
successful at whatever he chooses to do!!! He and Laura were building
some kind of a horse stable or something and couldn't go with us
yesterday - we missed them.
The husband of one of the members in my
D.U.P. camp passed away last week so I went to his funeral. Another
member wanted to go - Helen Sanderson - so I took her with me and she is
VERY handicapped. She uses a walker to get around but it was even hard
for her to walk the little "slope" going into the church. The funeral
was held at the "Compton Bench" ward where Boyd's family attends and
just about everyone at the funeral came up to say hello to Helen and
that made her very happy. She has been a widow for a long, long time
and her only relative is one grandson - kinda' sad but she is one of the
sweetest women I have ever known.
Farmington has been "on fire" for about the
fourth time this year. The mountains above the Weinert's home have
burned about 200 acres and I have watched helicopters and other planes
try to fight it. Yesterday as Bob & I were driving out of the area we
stopped and watched as a huge plane dropped gallons of water on it - SO
INTERESTING TO WATCH. There is still smoke coming from the mountains
but I believe it is about extinguished. I listen to the news about the
fires near Los Angeles and this one doesn't compare to those - there
haven't been any homes in danger here.
I laughed when I talked to Bob last night -
I asked him if had had the opportunity to rest after our long hike and
he said that Katie had lots of friends over and they had given them
their "Taco Time Orders" so he and Claire were on their way to get them
- that is such a GOOD IDEA!!!
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 XXXXXOOOO