Dear Kids,

I hope you’re all having a happy “real” 4th of July.  I know most of the fireworks were last night or are going to be tomorrow night, but at least we can all sing “The Star Spangled Banner” in church today.  At least I hope everybody sings it.  As for fireworks–we’re probably going to pass this year.  I usually buy ariels and we shoot them off at the church below Nora’s house, but Dad and I have been out and about so much this week that I haven’t been in the mood to go “over the hill” again.  I bought a small carton of ariels at Winco, but while I was thinking of shooting them off at home, I found a notice from Francis City.  All fireworks are banned, and if you violate the edict, you’re subject to a class B misdemeanor under Utah law, or by a term of imprisonment up to six months, or by both.  Nuff said.

We sure enjoyed super Sunday last week, at the park in Centerville, hosted by Allen.  He and Jen had been in Texas for a couple of days, and they left to come home that morning.  I’m glad their flight wasn’t cancelled!  Anyway, the party was lots of fun.  Our next official get-together will be July 25, hosted by Donna and Bevan.  At first Donna mentioned hosting it at the cabin, but then she re-considered and said maybe a park.  We’ll let you know when it gets closer.  

I’m still gasping for breath.  I had a stress test-echocardiogram on Monday, where they fastened all kinds of things on me and then put me on a treadmill to pump up my heart rate.  I was worried I couldn’t do it, but they were very easy on me.  Besides, since I never exercise, it was easy to get my heart rate up.  Then, when my heart was really pounding, they had me lie down on a table, and they ran their scanners around to look at every part of my heart.  It all looked pretty good, they said.  On Friday I saw my pulmonologist, and he said he’s finished looking at my lungs.  There’s nothing wrong that could be causing my breathing trouble, except for the cancer.  So now I go back to my oncologist, and he will probably send me to radiation.  At least I think that’s the plan.  Like I keep saying, I really appreciate your prayers.  I think the Lord is going to spare my life for a few more years.  

Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,

I’m looking forward to our Super Sunday dinner this afternoon.  If you still need the address, it’s 850 East 550 South in Centerville.  It starts at 3:00, and Al is in charge.  Bring whatever you like, and prepare to have fun.  It won’t be terribly hot, since weather.com is predicting 86 degrees for Centerville at 3pm.  Hey, it could be a lot worse. 

We had a super rainstorm on Thursday, and some of you probably had it, too.  I wanted to kneel down in it and kiss the ground, like the pioneers do in one of the church movies.  Funny thing was, it never showed up in the long-range forecast–it just appeared.  Looks like the Lord heard my prayers, and the prayers of all the farmers, too.  It would be great if there could be another storm soon, to help end the drought.  The Jordanelle is depressingly low, and I’m sure the other reservoirs are hurting, too.

My brother Charley is doing really well.  He never did have to go to rehab; they just sent him home from the hospital, where he’s recuperating.  We hope he’ll recover completely, and there’s a good chance he will.  Thanks for your prayers in his behalf.

Dad and I were invited to Paul’s house yesterday afternoon for a barbeque with the Riebens, so we took the truck, and we stopped at the Lifetime store in North Salt Lake on our way and bought the new play yard for the cabin.  It’s in a big crate that practically fills the back of Dad’s truck.  They loaded it with a forklift, but to take it out, we’ll have to dismember the crate and hand down the pieces.  I’m excited to have Dad put it together.  

I’m still gasping for breath.  My pen pal Chandra in Phoenix sent me a hand-held fan that you hold right in front of your face, and it helps, somehow.  There’s no medical reason–it just does.  Anyway, my echocardiagram is tomorrow, and my appointment with the pulmonologist is Friday.  There’s no relief for the short term, but at least I’m “on the path,” as Sharon put it.   Thanks for your prayers for me, and the prayers of your kids, too.  I know they help.

Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,

Just a reminder about super Sunday next week, 3pm, at the park in Centerville located at 850 East 550 South.  Allen will provide the drinks and everybody will provide the fun. And the food.  See you there!

And happy Fathers Day to all our wonderful sons and sons-in-law.  We really appreciate the wonderful way you take care of your families and set such a good example for them.  Dad seems to be having a good Fathers Day.  For a present I gave him a new bar for his chain saw.

My brother Charley had a seizure last Wednesday night and is in the IHC hospital in Murray, the “Death Star.”  It could have been caused by his forgetting to take his medication, but they’ve done all kinds of tests to rule out other things.  He’s going to be transferred to St. Marks rehab next week, according to Andy.  I’m praying really hard for him, and I hope he pulls through without permanent damage.  He’s been living on borrowed time for three or four years now, and I hope he can borrow plenty more.

I saw the pulmonologist on Friday, and it was very discouraging, but I expected that.  The nurses gave me the breathing test where you breathe into a tube and then blow it out hard, and they kept wanting me to do it over and over, to get consistent results.  I finally told them I couldn’t do it any more. Then I met the doctor and he was very nice.  He says he has to rule out every possible thing before he assumes it’s just my cancer doing what cancer does.  He ruled out asthma right away, which I could have told him.  The funny thing is that my oxygen is always around 98 or 99 percent, which is excellent, but why am I always gasping for air?  I’ll be having  an echocardiogram on the 28th, to rule out heart trouble, and then I’ll see the doctor again July 2.  That adds two more weeks of waiting.  I guess I can stand it, but it’s really hard.  I just get through every day, one at a time.

The farmers here are really concerned about the drought.  One of Dad’s friends at the coffee club told him he has 6 more days of watering, and then he’s going to cut his hay and be finished for the summer.  Usually they hope for at least 2 cuttings.  When you live in the city a drought only means you’re supposed to “slow the flow,” but farmers lose thousands of dollars.  It was a little cloudy yesterday morning, and while Dad and I were working at the cabin about six drops of rain fell, but that doesn’t help much.  I pray every day for rain.  When I say my prayers, the Lord knows what to expect–I want help with my lungs, and I want the drought to end.  I hope He’s not getting tired of me.

I love you all.  Mom

 Dear Kids,

I’m already looking forward to the next Super Sunday, two weeks from today, and Allen will be the host.  We’ll be meeting at a park in Centerville, and the address 850 East 550 South.  Allen warned that it might be “toasty,” but I reminded him that we’re all tough.  Besides, I’m sure there are trees we can sit under.  This will be our normal pot-luck format, meaning you bring whatever you want, but I’ll see if Al can provide the drinks, since we won’t have a kitchen sink with water nearby.  

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Adelaide had finished her mission application process (or that it was a rumor) but I was wrong.  She’s in the middle of the process now.  Last Sunday she had her patriarchal blessing, and she still needs her medical and dental checkups.  Then her “papers” can go in.  It will be exciting to see where she gets called.  We hope she’ll be able to do a face-to-face MTC, but it she has to do it at home, that’ll work too.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Provo temple with Julie because she was being endowed.  It was just us, Spencer’s parents, John and Heather, and Prices.  We were the whole session!  It was really nice, but I’ll be glad when the temples are open for big groups again.

It froze here a couple of nights ago, and when I went out ministering to my ladies the next day, they complained about losing tomatoes, petunias, etc.  I don’t know why anybody tries to grow flowers and tomatoes around here.  I thought it was a relief to leave Salt Lake and have a good reason not to grow a garden!

My breathing is still really bad, but I have an appointment with a pulmonologist this Friday.  He’s supposed to rule out anything besides cancer that could be giving me trouble.  The last resort, according to my oncologist, will be radiation, and I think he means the entire area of my lungs, not just the lymph node in the middle.  They always try to tell you as little as possible, in order not to scare you, but I would rather know everything.  Then I can face it.  I’m really confident that I’ll live several more years, whatever happens.  My patriarchal blessing talks about my days being “lengthened” to “fill my mission with joy and satisfaction.”  And I think being here for you kids and grandkids is part of my mission, so I think the Lord will preserve my life.

Lots of love to everybody, Mom

 Dear Kids,

The best news of the week is that Seth is going to be a counselor in their bishopric.  I don’t know if it’s first or second–Sharon didn’t say.  We’ll be watching their meeting on zoom later this morning, and then we’ll know.  Jerry and Juanita and Lucinda flew to Maryland so Jerry can ordain Seth a high priest.  I know he’ll do a wonderful job in this calling, because of his great spirit and his compassion for people.  We’re really proud of him.

And Bentley is a trainer!  I’m sure he’ll be great at this.  He and his new trainee are working hard and teaching people and having wonderful time.  Go, Bentley!

I’m still having a lot of trouble breathing, and various things are being ruled out, but I don’t have any answers yet.  It’s not asthma, because the nebulizer didn’t do diddily, and after that I had to take a course of prednisone that didn’t help, either.  They sent the CT scan to my radiation doctor, and he said he doesn’t see anything suspicious in the lymph node in my chest, so I won’t be having radiation.  That’s great news, but why can’t I breathe?  I’m just gasping all the time.  They’re trying to get me in to a pulmonologist who specializes in lung cancer, but their main guy is booked out really far, and they haven’t been able to contact their other one.  I know there are people worse off than me, but I wish I could jump to the head of the line.  Meanwhile, I really appreciate your prayers.

Friday afternoon I went to the Heber airport with Dad, where he helped John put his glider together, and helped him take off.  Meanwhile there were Laer jets coming and going, and small planes, and an old world war II plane flown by a couple of old coots who looked like something from “Secondhand Lions.”  It was all very entertaining, and helped me forget about my bad breathing.  I just hung out in the hanger and read for a couple of hours.  

Now that the old swingset at the cabin has been demolished, we need to go get the new one.  Dad will have to put it together himself, since the directions are the size of a telephone book, and you have to go step by step.  Too bad it can’t be a group project.  I’m also re-doing the fire pit, and Dad and Donna got the watering system going.  There are always wonderful projects at the cabin, and it’s cooler there, now that we’re in this heat wave. 

I love you all and hope that summer is off to a great start for all of you.  Love, Mom

 Dear Kids,

What a great time we all had yesterday, celebrating Dad’s and Dallin’s birthdays, and the 20th anniversary of moving into the cabin, and demolishing the old swingset, all at the same time.  Thanks to all of you who brought food, and especially to Donna, who bought the meat and did the barbequing.  Our get-togethers just keep getting bigger and better.  Thanks to all of you who helped with the demolition.  Dad and I will be getting the new playset from the Lifetime store in another week or so, and Dad will put it together.  It has to be done slowly and carefully, and the directions are about the length of a large telephone directory.  But Dad’s good at that sort of thing.

Thursday we drove to Pocatello for Sterling’s graduation, and we had a great time.  There were no masks and no social distancing, except for the graduates down on the floor of the arena.  It’s crazy, because the graduates lined up and walked in right next to each other, but then their chairs were 6 feet apart.  I’ll be glad when all the hypocrisy and double standards are over with.  Anyway, the graduation was great, and it lasted barely an hour.  The talks were very short and the graduates clipped right through.  Sterling had super high honors, or whatever they called it: A gpa higher than 4.0 with at least 3 AP classes.  We were very proud of him.  After missing all the graduations last year, which were crazy because of covid, it was fun to do something totally normal.  

Rumors I’ve heard: Dallin’s baptism had been postponed.  Adelaide has finished her mission application process, (in the old days we called it turning in the papers, but there’s no paper any more), and sometime soon she ought to have her mission call.  Charlie Thacker went on his first date.  The Provo MTC is opening sometime in July.  All the temples will open in July, too.  Yeah, these are rumors.  I think they’re all true.

I had a good visit with my oncologist on Monday, sooner than I was supposed to, but I’ve been having lots of trouble breathing.  In my mind I imagined the tumors in my lungs had grown really large and were cutting off my air. It turns out that was wrong–my main tumor had only grown l mm in five months, which is wonderfully slow.  But why can’t I breathe?  Dr. Lewis suspected asthma, and sentenced me to using my nebulizer 4 times a day with stronger juice.  I’ve been doing that since Monday, and it hasn’t helped very much.  One other possibility is that there’s a lymph node near the sternum, and my cancer might be affecting it.  If so, I might have to have radiation again, which doesn’t appeal to me at all.  Whatever it is, I sure appreciate all your faith and prayers.  I know I’m going to live much longer than I would otherwise.

Lots of love to everybody!  Mom

 Dear Kids,

I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of you this afternoon for Super Sunday here at out house.  The fun starts at 3:00 (or sooner) and you can bring whatever you want in the way of food.  If the menu is lopsided, at least none of us will suffer malnutrition from just one meal.  

And this coming Saturday, the 29th, we’ll have the birthday party for Dad and Dallin at the cabin.  Donna and I will call around among you to see who’s coming and make food assignments.  Let’s plan on eating about 1 in the afternoon, and we’ll demolish the decroded playset after that.  I’m going to re-do the firepit soon, so I might have some of you stacking bricks, too.  If you want to go in on a birthday present for Dad, contact me.  I bought it already. 

And then Dallin’s baptism will be the following Saturday, June 5, at Donna and Bevan’s church.  Dallin was having a little trouble committing himself, and I remembered that he was pretty excited when Lucy was baptized in the river.  So I thought if I suggested the river, he would be more excited about the whole deal.  Instead, he was terrified, but when Bevan reminded him that he could be baptized in a nice calm font with warm water, he agreed to it immediately.  So my suggestion helped, but not like I thought.  I’m not sure what time the baptism’s going to be, but I’ll put it in my letter next week.

Last Tuesday when Dad and I were down in West Valley we drove by our old house on Stillwater, and yes, they’ve painted it white.  It looks really different.  I rang the doorbell and a nice young lady invited us in and let us look around.  What memories!  But they’ve changed so much!  There’s laminate on the living room floor, and all the kitchen cabinets are painted white.  The tower is being taken down.  (I don’t mind.  It was getting dangerous.)  I guess the Guatemalans that bought the house from us ran it into the ground, so this young couple bought it as a fixer-upper.  I’m glad we never saw it at its worst.

Our yard here is finally looking better, more like springtime, and we’ve let the meadow grass grow tall.  The horses stick their necks under the fence and try to get it, because their own pasture is nibbled down to the ground.  Sonia and Scout creep through this jungle, and when they meet up, they leap into the air, and Scout chases Sonia across the yard.  Donna tells us that tall meadow grass is prime breeding ground for voles, but that’s ok–more protein for the cats.  

Love to everybody, Mom