Dear Kids,
         So many of you have gone  out of town: John’s family to San Diego, Nora’s to Sun Valley, Tom’s to Washington D.C. (they’re staying at Sharon’s, of course), and Allen and Jen took all their kids to Las Vegas.  This afternoon and evening will be really quiet at our house!  Donna has promised that her family will  come, though, so it won’t be totally comatose here.  And I’m sure they’ll get the kitties riled up, with the laser pointer and the play mice, so there will be lots of racing and chasing.
         But then, next weekend is conference, and we hope to have lots of you here!  Saturday night is the bread and soup dinner here at our house at 5 pm, and then the guys will go to the priesthood session at 6.  I think I’ve contacted most of you about food assignments.  Nora’s family won’t be here until Sunday, so Nora has planned to have a taco bar here at noon, between the sessions.  You can text her if you want to bring something for that.  By then we’ll know what the new announcements are.  We’ve heard rumors of people receiving mission calls that say they won’t know how long they’ll serve until after conference, so maybe they’re changing the length of missions.
        Did I say anything about spring ever coming here?  We were supposed to get a rain storm Thursday night, but we woke up Friday morning to 4 or 5 inches of snow.  It was really wet, though, and it melted fast.  But it’s been so cold!  Yesterday I planned to go for a walk, just down the street and back, but it was 36 degrees, and the wind was blowing.  Well, maybe by the time it ever gets warm, I’ll be over my shingles pain.  It’s taking a long time for both.
        John’s cats had caught seven mice by the time they left town.  Our cats only catch play mice, the little kind with boingy tails that you get in the pet department at Walmart.  They come on a card of three, and I kept buying more and more, and they kept disappearing.  I would see Scout lying on the floor by the refrigerator, with his arms reaching underneath, but I could never see anything, when I looked.  Finally I took a long dowel rod, stuck it underneath, and pushed from the center outward.  I swept out eleven mice!  (Although Scout knocked one back underneath while I was working.)   Then I put a strip of wood under the fridge to keep the mice out. When Dallin was here, he took the whole big pile of play mice and dumped them on Scout's head.
        Life is crazy and lots of fun.  I love you all.  Mom