September 1999

September 28, 1999

Dearest Nieces and Nephews:

How are you all? I have a bit of wisdom to share with you: A wink and a smile is a hug from across the room. Everyone needs at least 8 "hugs" a day just to maintain. Twelve "hugs" a day means that you can grow.

Well I am going to tell you the important stuff first. Surely everyone knows that Kay is engaged and will be married on the 3rd of December. Ryan something is his name and he was at the 4th of July party and we liked him very much. He is tall, built big and muscular. He asked permission to marry her, so Lynn is impressed. They are going to live up in the apartment above Grandma and Grandpa. Michael has his mission call. He is going to Paraguay, which is the same place that Jennifer spent the summer. He leaves the 27th of October, a week after his birthday. He will be speaking on the 24th in our church at 9:00 in the morning. Why don't you all fly in and come. I would love that. We will have a family dinner in the afternoon, to which I would love all of you to come. Really, those of you close enough to come, I would love to have you here. Holly and Lee had their second baby on Sunday about 9:00 in the evening. It is a girl, I think Brenda said Abigail (I love that name), and will be called Abbey. They last part I am sure of. It is a very good thing it is a girl. Brenda and I have already bought her a gift and we only bought girl stuff. I told Holly if it was a boy, to bad, no present. That is all I can think of that might be considered momentous so on to the silly stuff.

Grandpa and Grandma went with Kent and Sharon down to Fish Lake this month. Andrea and Jarom went down for the weekend. Ralph and I with Mark and Michael (Sara had to speak at a fireside) went down for Sunday afternoon. We ate dinner with them and then Kent and Sharon came over and we ate homemade cookies, ice cream bars and talked and solved all the world's problems. Ralph and I had just found out that Nina Mincrarelli lives around the corner from us (she applied for a home business permit) and so we had to have that whole story from the beginning. It was a very pleasant afternoon and we were home by about 10:15. Everyone down there had a good time; it is so beautiful this time of the year. The trees had turned, mostly yellow but with some red.

Grandpa and Grandma just had a roof put on their house. It took about 3-4 weeks and there were several bad rainstorms during the time they had the roof off. (They had to pull the beams and the plywood stuff and all of that, so it was a deep job.) Now Grandma needs the kitchen ceiling to be painted or new panels put in. I am for the new panels. Much less messy. Grandpa has the patio all torn up. He is going to turn it into a garage. That way they do not have to walk out to the garage in the snow and cold. If they have packages to bring in they are not walking back and forth so much. I am not sure when it will be finished. Right now he has the fence down and some of that little retaining wall broken out. But all of a sudden it has gotten cold and not as long evenings and so it is not going really fast. Needs to be done before real winter.

Quite a few houses have been built on the farm now. The office building on the corner is about done. The men hope to have the farm moved to Levan by end of July, 2000 (assuming there is a 2000. There is a place giving odds on what will happen at Y2K. Mid air plane crashes are 300 to one odds, Armageddon is 1,000,000 to one: that's safe, who’s going to collect? I am more worried about Y2K now that Michael is leaving before then. He has always planned to stick around so he and Mark could save the world together!) They will need a mild winter and for everything to go smoothly to meet that deadline. Right now they have started grading for buildings and they have dug a well. I heard this, but it could be wrong, that somehow they didn't end up with as many water shares as they thought went with it. Maybe that is why the well, but I honestly don't know.

Curtis and Alison are raising a family, what else. Jared helped Ben get elected vice president of the middle school. The girls helped too. Alison and Cheryl have opened a chauffeur business. The pay is poor, but the rewards are great. Sports, school, church... it is that time of their lives. Cheryl married Richard Church and he gave her a bran new Ford Expedition for their wedding. Brent graduated and is working for a law firm just out of Livonia and won't know if he passed the bar until November. Teri is working still. So am I. The bad thing is that I absolutely love my job, but I would still rather be home. Heath and Kathy bought a house in Magna, a two bedroom bungalow. The noise from Rocky Mountain Raceway wakes Lindsey up. (If you all send me a list of how to properly spell all your names I will write it in my address book, but please don't be insulted, just chalk it up to my senility.) Lindsey, by the way is almost walking at 9 months! Andrea and Jarom are working, Jarom is going to school, and they are still living at Kent's and Sharon's.

A fun story about Wayne. (Do you all remember Kent Wilson? Their family lived in our ward, and we have gotten to be really good friends with them.) Wayne is substitute teaching and one day Brigitte Wilson came home and told her parents: The funniest thing happened. I had a teacher today who looked just like Lynn Bateman, and his last name is Mr. Bateman. When her mom and Dad told her that Lynn had a brother named Wayne and to ask if that was his name she said, "No, I'm too embarrassed." But she said to him the next day. Do you know Lynn Bateman, and Wayne said, "Yep, he's my little brother." Well, Brigitte asked if Wayne knew her dad and he said, yes, and asked if he was still in landscaping and they made a happy little friendship. Brigitte even got a little extra credit out of it. Amy and Scott may be moving back to Utah. Things aren't working out as well as they had hoped in South Carolina. Josh is in the Air Force and is stationed in California about an hour from Hollywood. He hoped to be working on airplane engines, but he is working on big truck engines. Still a big engine to me! Julie has been here visiting and is hoping to move back. They are doing good, but she is homesick. No, duh, that is how all of us feel! Melissa got a new job at Target. She had been baby-sitting for that family that just treated her as one of their own. They are moving so her job is gone. But they are taking her to Hawaii on Vacation first! RaNae is a room mother and helping in the classroom once a week. It is great for Natalie. Chad will finish High School early and be through in December.

A few weeks ago we went down to Mesquite on one of those 2 nights and a free steak and lobster dinner for $40 deals. Which works for us, cuz we are not into the gambling thing. I think I lost a total of 75 cents. Ralph let me do all the gambling. But you go for the free dinner... it's in the casino of course... and they put your name down and you are the second name and it will be thirty to 40 minutes. Now what are you going to do? Dumb! Anyway, this whole story was to tell you that we stopped at Holly and Lee's on the way home. We picnicked (why is there a K in that word?) on their lawn, while they were at a meeting and woke Nathan up and made him mad, but he mostly forgave us before we left, because he showed me all the nails he pounded in the railroad tie. Gee whiz, I have cute grandnieces and grandnephews (can't you guys move home, we could do so many fun things, and there is no one to play in our back yard now). Let's see... Chris and Alyson will be home in October and then I am going to get all the "Haunted House" kids together and do a story for the family history. Brad is sticking with his own business of cutting trees and Marissa canned this fall. I remember the days! By the way, Brad did a great job on our orchard! Jennifer finished up Grandpa's book. She has really helped each of us to expand our family history. She has the spirit and I am so thankful to her for the wonderful work she has done. Neal will be home in the spring. He is doing really good. Brenda and Gary have taken in an adoptive child. She is a Russian girl that joined the church when Chris was there. She was going to BYU, but funds ran short and so she is living up here going to business college, and working at Applebees.

Rebecca hopes to be out of her leg thing-a-ma-jig in the next couple of weeks. That is the thing on her leg that is stretching it. It has been a long road. She got that on three days after graduation and her greatest desire is to put on a pair of jeans and to sleep in her own bed. All she can do is sit around and that just isn't that exciting. Amanda and Jake finally got moved into a three bedroom apartment over in Murray. There is a playground for the kids, and a swimming pool and even though it is not very big, it is bigger than upstairs. Kay is living there with Ryan's sister. By the way, Ryan is very good with Grandpa. Jeffery is 4 months old and doing well, he is a very good baby. Lori is due the last of November, but may be before that. They are having a girl. Good! Lynn's family needs girls. Adam started kindergarten this fall. Paul is not seeing much success right now. Scotland, like most of the European countries is hard. People aren't humble; they need a crisis to see that they are missing something. He is in Glasgow where he has spent most of his mission, though in different districts. He is not a great information giver (hint, hint) and his parents don't even know the name of his companion. He has to get a new driver's license while he is there and that must be a real trick. You have to take classes, it costs a lot, and you test in a car and have to have a lesson before you even go out to test... It's crazy and hard to do, and he has to have it. Paul, you should have gone to Africa or South America, you don't need a driver's license to walk!

Well, I told you about Michael's mission. Mark is still hoping to get a job with Kaufman and Broad. It is rather looking good again. We think he will get to be centered here in Salt Lake and just travel. I will like that much better! Even though I won't see him a lot, he will come home once in a while. Anyway, that is just maybe. Ralph, Mark, and Michael are still out to Packard Bell/NEC. They all say it is just a job. Ralph is still looking hard. Michael has given his notice, and Mark is sorta looking. Sara is doing so good in her job. They love her. (One thing we all taught you kids is to work! Grandma and Grandpa helped with that) She bought herself a car. A red '89 Probe, 70,000 miles, cute and fun! She handled everything herself. Ralph went with her to look and stuff, but she was a champ. Anne is up in Namibia now, which is part of her mission. She loves it and they are seeing some success. Not as hard as down in Capetown with the white, Dutch Reformed Church. She is loving her mission. She has a new Mission President. Both seem to be good. She is seeing wild animals. The place she is now is very dry. I am still working at the school, helping troubled kids, being in charge of flag ceremonies, pretending I know about computers... Ha, ha, ha!

Well, just a few words of advice about nomads: If we want world peace, we must let go of our attachments and truly live like nomads. That's where I no mad at you, you no mad at me. That way, there'll surely be normalness on the planet. And peace begins with each of us. A little peace here, a little peace there, pretty soon all the peaces will fit together to make one big peace everywhere. I know great earth changes have been predicted for the future, so if you're looking to avoid earthquakes, my advice is simple. When you find a fault, just don't dwell on it. I can't think of anything else. Remember, this family is important. Every piece of it. We can not let the connections fail. Think of the wonderful times of your childhoods and continue to pull together. All my love, Diana