Dear Kids,
          Dad and I are hanging out in Heber today. Dad is at Tom’s house, helping trench the front yard for sprinklers. Tom and Donna and Bevan are all working on it, too. I thought I was going to be helping, but the trencher was putting out a lot of exhaust, so I had to leave. I went to Walmart, and then to John’s office, and now I’m at his house. Heather is down the street helping clean up their Young Women’s garage sale, which we donated lots of stuff to. In fact, Dad and I went by the garage sale early this morning, to see how things were going. It was weird to see my clothes hanging up. I saw my dress from John’s wedding, along with my dress from Vanessa’s wedding, along with lots of other stuff from our house, which we didn’t need. Everything that wasn’t sold is being donated to the thrift store by John’s office, and I hope it all gets sold and used eventually.
          In the same vein, I have to mention driving by our West Valley house last week. Actually, we were out on 4100 South, driving past. I looked over towards our backyard, and I saw lots of chairs on the deck and a picnic table on the grass. It felt indescribably good, knowing other people were really enjoying our house. We certainly hadn’t been using it for picnics and barbecues.
          Our birthday party for Dad is just a week from Monday, on Memorial Day. I hope lots of you can come! We’ll probably eat around 2:00 in the afternoon, or later, if some of you can’t come till later. Dad and I will provide hamburgers and hot dogs, and a drink. If any of you can bring chips or salads or desserts, let me know. We’ll have fun breaking in the new barbecue. I’m sure it will enjoy many fine parties.
          While you’re at the cabin for the barbecue, if anybody wants to drive over to our new house and walk through it, this is the perfect time. Most of the framing will be done by then. Since they started framing last Tuesday, Dad and I have gone there every day at 6:00, after the framers have gone home. We have lots of fun walking around inside. Out the back windows, you can see a cool horse farm. Out the side, you can see our church steeple. Out the other side is a picture perfect view of the mountains and the river bottom and Victory Ranch. I’m very excited to live there!
          Heather and Julie just came home from the garage sale. Julie is wearing one of my old sweaters, and it looks really good on her. Aubrey showed me that she got a ceramic cat, which used to be in our house. It’s all good!
          Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,
           You know it’s spring here at the cabin because the magpies are swooping around looking for good nesting spots. Two very silly ones decided to build in the pine tree by the back door. I don’t think they’re the same ones who tried it last year–if so, they don’t have the intelligence that Tom claims they have. Anyway, in just a couple of days, their nest was nearly done. Then I climbed up a ladder with a crow bar and destroyed it. It wasn’t easy, because they use thick twigs and weave them together, plastering everything with mud. They mix in a few rocks, too, so it’s really heavy duty. But I brought it all down with the crow bar, and Dad burned their twigs in the stove. Then they came back to the tree and hopped around among the branches for a while. Finally they flew off. It’s OK with me if they build someplace else. I’m not as hostile towards magpies as I used to be. They didn’t choose to be born magpies.
          Two weeks from tomorrow is Memorial Day AND Dad’s birthday! We’ll have a barbecue at the cabin, and we’ll probably eat about 2:00 in the afternoon. We have to try out the new barbecue you all gave us for Christmas! Dad put it together several weeks ago, but we haven’t really cooked on it yet. I’ll probably make hamburger patties, or you can bring your own meat if you want something fancier.
          Our house on Scenic Heights Road now has a foundation! I wish the grandkids could have been there last Tuesday when the cement trucks and the pump truck were working there. The chute arches way up in the air, and they move it to where they’re pumping next. The next day, they took the forms off the foundation, and now they’ve already done the sub-plumbing, water line, and electrical. They’re supposed to start framing this Thursday. That’s the best part of all.
          On Friday, Dad and I went to Heber for Grandparents’ day at JR Smith Elementary. Both Emma and Aaron invited us! We got to hang out with the Bentleys, eat school lunch, do a little school work, walk around the playground, and watch a program. I wish we were closer to all of you, but it sure is nice having three families in Heber Valley! Life is good!
          Love, Monm

Dear Kids,
          We had a lot of fun at Paul’s graduation Friday. Dad and I drove to Logan with Donna, Bevan, Anna, and Paige (to entertain Anna). The most fun was standing outside the Spectrum and watching the graduates walk down the sidewalk. Paul stood out, of course. If the graduates were really smart, they would peel off before they got inside, and go to their various parties, because the ceremony was very dull. When the masters degrees were done, we thought we were home free, but then they started the PhD’s, and they were taking half a minute per person! I decided that Anna needed to run around outside, so she and Paige and I made our exit. Outside, Anna decided that the cemetery was the best place to play, and she went in through a break in the fence. In a few minutes she was crying, so we went in and found her with blood on her face. I took her back inside to the first aid station, where they cleaned it off and showed us she had a puncture wound that needed stitches. (She probably fell against one of those sharp headstones.) All six of us gladly left to find the instacare. It took more than an hour for the stitches, but Dad and Paige and I watched the movie "Up" in the waiting room. It was definitely more interesting than watching PhD’s get hooded.
          Later we had a picnic at Merlin Olsen Park with Stefanie’s family, and the little girls played. That was probably the best part of the day.
          Back here at the cabin, things are always fun. We had a raccoon in the greenhouse (he probably came in through the kitty door) and he ripped open a cardboard box with dried beans and macaroni in it. He made a total mess of the greenhouse. I think he’s the one who destroyed Oreo’s cat feeder, not Oreo and Tomcat. The wrong people always get the blame!
           Over on Scenic Heights Road, our hole in the ground now has footings! The big dirt hills around the hole are still the biggest excitement, however. When we tended Nora’s kids on Tuesday, the highlight of their day was climbing all four hills. (Even Isaac.)
          Hopefully some of you will want to come to a Memorial Day picnic here. It’s a double holiday, because it’s also Dad’s birthday! We’ll have to have an extra big party!
      Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          It’s been a week today since Dad and I moved out of the house in West Valley. It’s all a blur to me now. We had made ten trips to the cabin earlier, with the truck loaded up, and all that stuff was packed in the garage. I thought the rest of the move would be a cinch. It wasn’t. We never could have done it without all the help. James and Tom and Bentley came Saturday morning to help us load the big stuff in a U-Haul truck (the biggest one they rent.) Then Dad and James drove it to the cabin, and Tom and Bentley went along to help unload. Meanwhile, I was still packing and cleaning at the house. I loaded up the truck for one more trip to the dump, and after that, I loaded the truck and the car with more household stuff. And I still hadn’t even started on the den and the shop. By 9:00 that night I could see we simply weren’t going to make it, but Nora called and asked what she and Addie could do. So they came and cleaned. John and Tom came to clean the carpets at 10:00. And Tom took charge of keeping us moving. About 12:30 I sent Dad off to the cabin in our truck, with still another load. Trouble was, the gate code had changed, and he sat at the gate (with Xena in her carrier) until 5:00 am. Meanwhile, I was still cleaning and packing more stuff. Tom and Nora and Addie probably left about 1:00, but John stayed on to reminisce about the house. I think he left about 2:00. By 3:00 am, I was too tired to do any more, so I lay down on the living room floor with a blanket and a pillow, but I couldn’t sleep. The house seemed to be talking to me. (I know, I was totally out of my gourd by then. ) It said, "Don’t worry about me. I’m up for a new adventure." Dad came back a little after 6:00, and we said our final goodbyes to the house. Of course I cried. I think Dad did, too.
          Now we’re settled in with all our house stuff at the cabin. I’ve been trying to find places for things for a week now. But we feel good about our move. And, of course, there’s the usual cabin entertainment, like deer eating all our trees and shrubs. Oh, here’s a new one: woodpeckers made a hole in the outside wall of the bunkhouse and pulled out a lot of the insulation. The back yard is a mess. I chased them away and put duct tape on their hole. Hopefully they won’t be back.
          Here’s more news: Our lot in River Bluffs finally has a hole dug on it! (It had been seven weeks since we finalized the deal, but they said they were waiting for the permits to come through.) Dad and I go by the hole every day. Hopefully there will be a foundation soon.
          Is anybody interested in a Memorial Day barbecue at the cabin? We have to try out the new barbecue you guys gave us for Christmas.
          Life is good! Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          Dad and I are winding down from the fun and excitement of Paul and Stefanie’s wedding. We had a blast visiting with all of you, and we hope you all got home safely. Thanks to everybody for all they did! Thanks to Paul for finding a beautiful bride (who is also sensible and modest) and asking her to marry him. Thanks, also, to Paul for arranging for the wedding luncheon. The food was fabulous. Thanks to all of you for getting your kids dressed up and trying to keep their shoes on them. I hope everybody will have great memories of the whole fun day we had!
          Right now I’m sitting in Primary, behind the piano, watching sharing time. They just built the Church as a pyramid of paper cups. A puff of air will blow everything down. The kids are just waiting. Oops, the foundation is going, because the apostles are dying. Whoa, there it all goes! Too bad they built the Church on such a flimsy foundation. Was that the object lesson?
          As most of you know, Dad and I are in the middle of cleaning out our West Valley house and moving all our furniture and stuff to the cabin garage. We’re also using the greenhouse and the storage shed (aka the bunkhouse) to store stuff. We’re not storing everything, however; more than half of it has gone to the dump or the DI or to Heather’s yard sale, that she’s having for their young women in May. There wasn’t time for all of you to walk through our house and take what you wanted, so if you had your eye on something, it’s probably in Heather’s garage. (But we’re keeping the bears. And the grand piano is going to hang out at Tom’s house.) It’s a huge job, sorting out 35 years of our lives, and we need to finish this week.
          Of course, the sale could fall through. We’re scheduled to close on Wednesday, and it’s not a sure deal until then. But I don’t think the Guatemalans will back out. They had looked at a lot of houses in our price range, and ours was a lot better than anything else they saw. Which means, of course, that we could have asked more, but we’re getting enough. The Guatemalans loved the wood-burning stove and the little loft bed in the den closet. They really wanted me to leave the white bunk beds and the dining room table (which is from Mexico), but I said we’re taking those things. Evidently they’re planning for a lot of people to live there, because they were interested in turning the basement shop into a bedroom, too. They will probably park their cars on the lawn, but I knew this was inevitable. Well, we had 35 good years there.
          And our new house? Will it ever be built? Will it ever be started, even? The backhoe has been sitting there for more than 2 weeks, but nothing has happened. It’s been six weeks since we paid our earnest money. It’s been four and a half months since I first contacted them. Holmes and Jensen had our first house finished in that time.
          But we’re doin’ great and lovin’ it. Hope you all are, too. Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          I hope you’re all having a happy Easter this morning. There’s a big chocolate rabbit sitting in front of me on our dining room table, and his ears have already been eaten off. Some things never change. I hope you had fun at the Easter picnic. I wish we could have been there, but yesterday Dad and I were driving home from Arizona.
          Our trip went pretty well. Nancy came with us, so we had a lot of fun talking about people and books and music and everything else. Driving down, we discovered that the road south of Page was closed for construction, and they sent us out on a long detour on the Navajo reservation. We had to stop for gas, and a couple of Indians told us about a shortcut to get us back onto the main road, below the construction. It was supposed to be five miles of dirt road and then a really good highway. Trouble was, we took the wrong dirt road, and it was twenty five miles of bumpy washboard with piles of sand on the edges. Dad was afraid of getting stuck in the sand, so we bounced down the middle at 15 miles an hour for almost two hours. We were so grateful to finally reach a paved road that we had no complaints after that, and the rest of our trip south went fine.
          My Aunt Elma’s funeral was a blast. Sure, we looked into her coffin and said, "Yep, there she is," but otherwise, it was a continual party, from the viewing to the funeral to the cemetery to the luncheon to the afterparty at my cousin Jennifer’s house. Charley and Andy and Bonnie flew down on Southwest, and Rich and Jeanne drove from Las Vegas, so they added to the fun. Our Milano cousins are loud and crazy like us, and they still make jokes about farting and bodily functions. Uncle George’s kids are just the same. So we laughed a lot and ate a lot. Some of my cousins are really wealthy, and the house we stayed at looked like an Italian villa. But they had a son on a mission, and LDS stuff all over the house, so we felt right at home. We drank real orange juice, squeezed from oranges off their trees. We walked around their neighborhood (more villas) and saw flowers blooming and fruit trees blossoming. I’ve always loved Mesa in the springtime.
          Now we’re back home where it’s winter still. No leaves or flowers or blossoms. But the air is clean! We drove past our lot this morning, and a big backhoe is sitting there. Another basement has already been dug. So life is moving forward! Last week in West Valley, a Mexican couple came to see our house there. We’re not even putting it on the market for another month, because we’re painting and repairing things, but I think the house will be really easy to sell.
          So life is really good! Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          Aunt Elma died on Friday. She’s Grandpa Allen’s older sister, which leaves Grandpa the only member of his family who’s still alive. I’m sure all his family will welcome him, too, when his time comes, but it’s evidently not yet. Dad and I visited him yesterday at his house, and he was really cheerful. He was reading Louis L’Amour stories and listening to music. We talked to him about lots of things, because he’s such a good listener. It doesn’t matter whether he remembers anything we say. I hope I’m that cheerful when I get old.
          Anyway, about Aunt Elma . . . . Dad and I won’t be at the Easter Picnic on Saturday because we’re going to Mesa for the funeral. We’ll be leaving Thursday morning and coming back Saturday afternoon. Aunt Elma died at exactly the right time, because I was yearning for a road trip. This time of the year, I always want to go south. When we got the phone call yesterday morning, it was 18 degrees outside and snowing. I said, "Mesa? We’re there!" We might be taking Nancy and Barbara with us. Charlie and Andy are flying down together, and Rich and Jeanne are driving from Las Vegas, where they’re staying now. It’ll be a fun get-together with my brothers and sisters, as well as my cousins.
          Stefanie’s grandma had a stroke last week and she’s in the hospital in Logan. We hope she recovers! She was so excited about the wedding! I had fun getting to know her at the bridal shower in Logan, and she also came to the shower at Missy’s a couple of weeks ago. We’re praying for her recovery.
          Dad and I have been working really hard on our West Valley house. We bought a new stove top, the old-fashioned electric-coil kind, because it was so cheap, and Dad put it in. We’ve been painting and repairing, too. We got a new attic ladder to replace the old broken one in the carport, and that will be one of our projects next week. (By the way, if any of you have stuff in our attic, please come and get it out as soon as possible.) We’re planning to put the house up for sale around the first of May.
          So much to do! So much fun! Love, Mom