12:01pm Saturday, November 29, 2014
Hey Brandon,
Don't you wish you could call your informants names when they lie to you about not being able to send mail in November. I am so sorry for the pain they caused both of us. Now knowing you and your easy going attitude you might just say: no big deal, I forgive them, they probably misunderstood, and for sure they weren't trying to cause me any problems. They are such sweet helpful guys and they are filled with patience and long suffering. They know how hard it is to be here and they try to make it as pleasant as possible. In fact, I can't think of any nicer people and more loyal friends than the ones I have developed here in the last 4 years! So awesome! What a privilege! I have no idea how I will ever re-pay society for this lovely, well not quite lovely but at least comfortable and most considerate stay! I have been able to be so useful and productive while I was here. I wonder if they have extensions so I can finish writing my second book before I have to leave?
I get my mail in once a week when I am not expecting anything from you, Brandon. Wednesday night is usually the best because the grocery adds come out. Last week, I just stacked on the kitchen table and did not even sort through it. This week I stacked on the kitchen table and decided to look through it this morning to see if I could get whole milk for $2.50 a gallon. Yay, Smiths had it on sale! I love my nightly homemade ice cream. Are you feeling any twinges of jealousy yet?
Hot Dang! I got a surprise letter from you! Who would have thought. joke> Darn, now I am going to have to read and respond to make it look like I really care about what you write! <joke I do want to compliment you on being a lot more open than usual. Thank you! I feel privileged!
I called Varlo Davenport this morning, early. I told him I had just finished reading your letter and that you mentioned him and I would like to share it with him by taping it to his front door. When he is done I requested that he tape it back on mine so I can respond in more detail.
The other night after Thanksgiving I wrote my oldest son Louis a letter. One of the benefits of writing emails or letters is that I can be specific and report the best parts of the day to someone who cares. I texted him on Friday to let him know he had an email. He said great and thanks. I am including his letter with this one to you.
No one significant that I know of reads my blog. The General Authorities have been encouraging us to be as authentic as possible in our social media. (social media- latest power word!) I don't know if you have been aware but my letters to you have been part of my posts for AdventureBill. Of course, I don't retype all the stuff I hand write just so the letters are complete. You made me laugh when you said you dare not write from bottom to top or the letter would not get sent because they would suspect it of being a coded message. I loved all the cute girls in Jr. High School and the classes were so boring. After a few of my love notes got exposed I began writing in code so they couldn't be so easily deciphered. The science behind codes is extensive!! I got a NOVA video at school called "the code breakers" and I was totally fascinated by it. I loved it. My students. . . not so much.
I wondered if I could type from bottom to top to just experiment but so far it could not be easily done. !emosewa si nodnarB is still possible but not very efficient. : ) I so hoped you would get a kick out of that letter and the backwards format. That would be enough to drive a computer reader crazy!!! Can you imagine?
As you raise teenagers and 20 year olds there will be times when your kids need money and you don't want to just give it to them outright. At my house we always had the rule that if you wanted to buy something bad enough to earn half the money mom and dad would pay the other half. It was beautiful and simple.
At certain ages additional expenses kicked in like car insurance and rent etc.. I could go into great detail of the financial deals I made with each of my individual children. I kept $100 bills in an envelope on the top shelf in my closet for emergencies. One time Brian DeMille was selling a car for $300 that had a cracked block. I got down my envelope and we had a car for my kids until they tried to drive it to Caliente, Nevada with a car full of siblings to go see Louis' girlfriend give her missionary farewell or something. Needless to say, they did not arrive. I have taken more cars to the dump, dead than I have sold. In fact to tell the truth I don't believe I have ever sold a car. Just all used up and trashed.
Anyway, Rod (secret alias) has always been brilliant. You would not believe all the baseball cards he had memorized and categorized. He has the most awesome collection from the late 80's and early 90's you could ever imagine.
But as an adult, life has been totally intimidating and overwhelming for him. How I ache for all he has gone through. I will no longer need the book accounting all his fatherly loans because he paid me all of it back last night. Of course there was no interest! That is the benefit of borrowing from parents! I called him this morning and did not even greet him before singing: "I'm on the top of the world looking down on creation and the only explanation I can find, Is the money that I've found ever since you came around, my heart's put me at the top of the world!"
So I woke up this morning feeling so positive and wonderful and then I get to read an unexpected letter from you as well. You can see why, since the FHC is closed this week, it was even worth coming here to the public library to makes copies and write you!
Life is good. I am blessed. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. The joys of loving and sacrificing for family and having the bread you cast upon the water come back to you!
That was my conclusion but. . . When ever there is a sale on apple juice for a 64 oz bottle for 1$ I stock up and deliver it to my therapist. (And Rod and Amity's current wonderful one.)
They have been rolling around in the trunk of my Chevy Aveo since a week before ThanksGiving, when they went on sale. I used two for Hailey and Brooklyn welcoming their little sister Kayla into the world and I had 6 still to deliver to Mark Clayton. Since I had given Rod the two turkeys I had cooked and portioned out! . . . huge job!, And removed the 2 cases of canned vegetables I got on sale, 3/$, The 6 Apple juices were sliding from one side to the other with each turn and braking and acceleration. Counseling associates was closed and locked so I put 5 bottles in the fire escape stairwell and wrote Mark a note connected to the one I set in front of his door. He drinks bottled juice every day during his counseling. This is not the first time. Each time the sale comes on he knows what to expect, and Walmart matches prices. To start with I hid them under the stack of 3 broken chairs in the stairwell. But with sore knees or back it was to hard to retrieve when I needed the paper inside to write on, that I placed them on top of the stack of 3 chairs the next time. Counseling is so so expensive but so worth it if you have a wonderful one like Mark. So at $100+ a visit, 6$ worth of apple juice is just a pittance, a kind thought.
I took Roger Eves 2 jalapenoes and one carrot this morning as well.
: )
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