Dear Kids,
           I’m well into my second week of living at the cabin now, and my life is settling into a routine. Only a few things are important: Do I have enough firewood? Is it dry? What will I eat for breakfast? Should I shovel the snow or just let it pile up? Where is the magpie flock? What movie will I watch today? What project will I work on? I brought the little Clavinova here from Donna’s house, so I have a piano to play, when I’m in the mood. My life is like Rapunzel’s, in “Tangled:” I have plenty of fun things to do, but I keep singing to myself, “When will my life begin?” Dad comes every Friday night and stays until Sunday night, so that’s fun. Right now we’re tearing up the floor downstairs, because it kept looking worse and worse, and I had no way to refinish it again. We’re going to put in ceramic tile, same color as before, but it should look a lot better. It isn’t easy, though, tearing out the old tile. It’s like brick, and they cemented it to the particle board underneath. The first weekend we chipped away with hammers and masonry chisels, and mostly made a lot of dust. The second weekend Dad whaled away at it with a 3- pound sledge. Tiles were coming off, but the whole house was shaking, and that didn’t seem good. Sure enough, later, I found that some tiles in the upstairs bathroom came loose. So we bought a rotary hammer, like a combination drill and jackhammer, and a masonry chisel bit. The original idea was that we’d sell it on KSL.com when we’re done, but Dad is very excited to use it, and I don’t think he’ll want to part with it. So, if anybody needs a rotary hammer (also called a hammer drill . . . ) we’ll have it on hand.
           I’m looking forward to the dinner at Nora’s house on February 6, and I’ll be cooking Sunday dinner at the cabin the following weekend, February 12. It will be nice to see so many of you again. Really, I’m not that isolated, and I come home every Tuesday afternoon and stay until Wednesday night, besides having Dad here on weekends, but it just seems really lonely here. I was actually looking forward to going to a Relief Society meeting last night, but then a blizzard blew in, and I decided to stay put.
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           It’s Saturday now. I couldn’t come to town yesterday to upload my letter because I had a couple of insect bites that completely disfigured my face. My cheek looked like I was holding a golf ball in it, and my eye on the other side was swollen. Besides that, I had some kind of intestinal flu that luckily has blown over today. Dad is here now, and we’re in the deli at Kamas Food Town. It’s a great place to eat and surf the web at the same time. I’ll try to upload this now. I love you all! Mom