Thursday, August 16, 2007

Dear Kids,
      We finished moving Grandma and Grandpa into the Seville today, and I think they’ll be really happy there. They have a great room with a view looking west into the sunset, and a balcony big enough for a couple of resin chairs and a cat. Then, there’s all the amenities: besides three meals a day, they have bus service to Walmart and the temple, movie nights, a library, a beauty shop, church right there, and a game room with a pool table and the coolest ice cream machine ever. You put in a dollar, and there’s a window where you can look inside and see the lid of the freezer chest open up, and a robotic arm picks up your ice cream and drops it down the slot. I bought two different ice cream bars, it was so much fun to watch. That was after I finished putting together their new computer desk, and set up their computer system. But Dad’s still got to tweak it, so we’ll go back Sunday night. I’m sure they’ll love to have you visit them, probably more than ever now. They’re in room 310. And if you want to send them mail, their new address is 325 West Center Street #310, Orem, Utah, 84057. They’ll have the same phone number, but a new e-mail address.
      Meanwhile, their house is up for sale. It’s listed for $359,000, and at least two older couples have already walked through it. One older man was measuring the rooms, last time I went there. So I’m guessing it'll sell pretty quickly. And Bonnie is selling their car. And I’ve sold a few of their books on half.com–the ones nobody chose. But I made Grandpa keep all his Louis L’Amour books. I bought him one of those under-the-bed rolling totes, and packed them up for him.
      Meanwhile, here at home, I planted our front yard with new lawn seed, (a low-moisture, low-maintenance fescue,) and the next day about a thousand birds landed all at once and started pecking at the seeds. I ran outside and chased them away, but the next day, they were back again. (Donna says I need to buy a scarecrow at IFA, but I don’t know if any seed is left to sprout.) Somehow, I haven’t had the greatest luck with planting lawn seed lately.
      Other news: Amy and David Anson are moving to St. Louis, where David is going to be in charge of the temple grounds. He’s been the assistant grounds supervisor at the Timpanogos Temple, and he’s designed a lot of the plantings, so I guess they were impressed with his work. Amy and Dave are pretty excited about the move. Judd and Jackie just barely moved to St. Louis, where Judd is starting medical school. What’s with St. Louis? Remember how Nora spent some time there waiting for her visa to Brazil? Some of our ancestors caught cholera there and died. I have a jacket from the Cosco there. Lots of St. Louis connections.
      My brain is giving me the “low-battery” message, but here’s one more thing: I’ve been collecting pictures off your blogs, to use in my photo albums. But I can’t get the ones you’ve put in slideshows. (Tom says they get changed into a special flash format, so you can’t download them.) So if you have really cool pictures I could use, I would really like it if you just uploaded them on your pages, the higher resolution the better. Thanks.
      I love you all! Mom