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