July / August 2024

 Dear Family and Friends

July started off with the visit of Dan’s oldest son Korey and his kids and the incomparable jet boat ride, followed closely by the visit of my brother Clifford’s oldest daughter Sandy and her husband Steve Czeck.  They told us about and showed pictures of their recent trip to Africa with its safari and wild animals and all. Sandy has done considerable research on our family line and would like to return to Ireland to find out more. With Linda being here with us, we were able to enjoy Tile Rummy and Steve treated us to a great spaghetti dinner using his own special sauce. We enjoyed their visit and wished them well if they do ever get to go to Australia, as Steve was saying he would like to do.

I remember a few months back when I wrote about this being a house of mystery because things were always disappearing or getting lost. Well this month, after searching for days high and low, I was sure that a ‘genie’ or a mischievous elf must be making off with things when I couldn’t find the papers containing a form I was to fill out. Then I have a pair of soft slippers that I wash frequently, one at a time.  But one came up missing after being washed this time. Where could it be? But the worst loss of all was when the little cup containing six pills that I set on the kitchen table each night for the next morning, was found tipped over and empty! Wow! How could that have happened? That was really a mystery!

But as usually happens, the mysteries are eventually solved after much wear and tear on our brain and nervous system. After more than a week of worrying and thinking that the papers I needed must have somehow gone out with the trash, I ordered another copy. But later, when I was getting something from a completely different file folder, lo and behold there were the ‘lost’ papers!

We often hear the joke of losing a sock in the laundry, but a whole slipper? No. When we were having trouble with our washer and dryer, Diane took some things to wash at her house, and she later brought them back all nicely folded. She didn’t notice a slipper in the group of clothes, so where could it possibly be? A week later, after doing a load of her own clothes, she did notice something stuck at the back of the dryer, got it loose, and lo! - the missing slipper. Yay!

The spilling of the pill container was pretty easy to blame on the cat HaiKu for doing it, but not for being unable to find the pills. Where were they? Had she eaten them? Mostly vitamins and low pain pills, so I don’t think they would hurt her, but we were worried and felt like we had to find those pills. We did find two identical capsules with teeth marks on them on the floor near my bed. Then later, we discovered a tablet in the fold of the napkin next to my place mat. And much later, lifting the napkin revealed three more tablets. But where was the big, round, dark capsule? Days later, I saw something small and dark on the floor of my workroom. Yes, it was the missing pill, but now covered with hair and crumbs from being batted around on the floors of our house for a couple of days without being noticed. So into the trash it went. Now all of our so called ‘mysteries’ were solved! That is until the next time something comes up missing again. Right?

You may remember from last month’s letter where I mentioned about Diane who lives a few doors down coming with meals for me twice a day while True is in Spokane. Well she had a plane ticket to visit her daughter in Denver from Aug. 1st to the 10th, and now True is not sure just when she will return, so the Relief Society sisters stepped in and will supply me with an evening meal each day until Diane gets home and can resume her position when True does return. So you can see that I am being well taken care of.

While being in Spokane, True had a birthday (July 20th) and was treated to a boat ride and a campout on a remote section of the lake they were on. Her son Clint owns a boat that has living accommodations so they took along their newborn baby Parker (July 6th) as well as Lindsey who is recovering from her C-section birth. They all fared well and had a wonderful time.

The 24th of July Pioneer Day was celebrated here by a nice outing at the stake center. I was anxious to wear my long pioneer dress, but felt sorry that I didn’t have a bonnet to go with it. I was glad that my long-time friend and neighbor Debbie Barr on Leonard Road (who hasn't been active in church)  agreed to take me, so I prevailed upon her to help me create a sun bonnet from a large straw hat that was available. We used the unneeded sash from the dress to drape around the hat and tie under the chin, keeping it in place with needle and thread. I was so happy it did work out well. but I was sorry that I failed to get a picture of our creation. Perhaps next year? Who knows?

A few days later, while U was still feeling sorta sad about not having taken my picture in the bonnet, a very pleasant surprise happened. I heard a knock at the door and I yelled from the kitchen, “Come in, Come in!” There to my amazement stood Ken Pennington, whose wife Christy is a very dear friend of mine that I've kept in contact with ever since they moved to Arkansas many years ago. She is the same age as True, and when she was called as Relief Society President, I served as her secretary. I have loved that sweet girl and her family of Ken and nine children as their Grandma Ree for many, many years. Ken had one of his daughters Makayla with him, and was visiting his parents who still live here. He brightened my day by saying that even without Christy he just had to come and see me. We had such a good catch-up conversation. He took a picture of the three of us before he left, but not before we shared lots of hugs and warm feelings for each other.

I’d like to end this letter by extending those same warm feelings of love to all, hoping that you are enjoying good health and happiness and pray that the Lord will bless you with His love this day and always. -- Marie