Feb. 4, 2002
Dear Mice,
One day last week we woke up to ICE all over the cars’ windshields, and the trampoline was white with frost. We scraped the ice off with credit cards, and Jonnie was picking up the frosty scrapings and admiring them. Poor kid’s never seen snow. We also had an earthquake a few days ago - supposedly one of 50 recent aftershocks of the Northridge quake of years back – but it wasn’t too bad. Just like being on a ship while it rolls over some big waves.
There was vandalism at the Moorpark ward building (someone smashed a lighted cigarette into the face of the Savior in a picture, burned a Book of Mormon on the pulpit, scratched some obscenities and the word “Satan” on the pulpit with a ballpoint pen, and razor-slashed a few of the pews.) In our building they smashed the big front window next to the front door, but didn’t enter. It was all boarded up for church the next week. I heard there was damage to other area LDS buildings, but can’t report details. The LA Times carried a report of it. The Moorpark building showed no signs of forced entry, so now they’re thinking it might have been left unlocked for a time.
Mish made French bread all by herself for the missionaries, and it turned out better than my bread! I was released from my achievement day calling yesterday (Sunday), and will be getting a new calling – probably on the ward Preparedness committee. Jonnie loved playing Star Wars Monopoly at Alex’s house; a neighbor had brought it over and said it cost $50.00. Jonnie wishes he lived close to other little boys, so they could migrate back and forth to each others’ houses.
Ginger has a wicked bad habit of jumping up on people enthusiastically, when they show her a little affection. She’s much too big for that, and I don’t know how to break her of it. Mrs. ___ (our piano teacher) has a daughter who just developed toxemia of pregnancy with high blood pressure, so they had to take the baby 3 months early by caesarean. The baby’s tiny, and has absolutely no fat on her at all. She had to strain with all her might just to breathe when she was born, and stopped breathing several times. They’ll keep her in the hospital at least a month.
I hear Sammie’s had several articles published in the BYU Daily Universe, with her first one being front page news! David, the ---'s told me how grateful they were to you for being such a good friend to ----, and warning her to stay away from certain particular boys you didn’t deem worthy of her attention. (I’m sorry such guys have to be at BYU, but as Laura observed, maybe they’ll be improved by the experience.) They said you had been just like a good big brother to her, and were very grateful for all your kindness.
I was visiting with older Sis. ---, who has diabetes, and she can only drink about 4 glasses of water a day, and no more, as her body can’t process the liquid – even if she’s thirsty! She said Harrison Ford drives up in his limo every so often to come and ride motorcycles with his good friend who lives down the street from her on ). She has a big screen TV, and keeps it on a lot of the time to keep her company. She used to be a model, a professional photographer, a stained glass artist, and a world traveler! She also has a very nice family history album with photos of all her family and ancestors. She gets lonely, and I sure wish I had several clones of myself so I could do a lot more for people than I do. Sis. --- had surgery for a detached retina, and has to stay at home without much excitement for awhile. You know how sociable she is. It must be driving her crazy. We had a service come and spray all the trees and landscaping for mites, etc. plus to fertilize. David will be glad to know that we’ll have one less chore for him to do when he and Sammie come home during Olympics week in February. Jonnie and Mish and Mattie (Meg) have been weeding and cleaning up all the landscaping, several hours every weekend. Jonnie keeps very careful track of what Dad owes him. ! (He said, as I probably told you, “Mom, you’re going to lose a lot of money when your husband pays me what he owes me.”)
There are white puffy blossoms on a lot of the trees out here; it looks so pretty. (yes, in Feb - in Ca)
I took -- to the dermatologist to check out a strange rash she’s had forever, and he told her to stop taking long hot baths and showers, as it was causing eczema (very common). Jonnie had it as well. The Dr. prescribed a cortisone cream which cost $60.00 at the pharmacy, so on a whim I asked if they had a generic version, and they did – for half the price! It always pays to ask for generic meds (which are almost always virtually identical to the brand name ones, I gather.) Poor --. She totally loves her long hot soaks in the tub. (Note: not sure why that the previous stuff all got crossed out while I was just deleting a few selected names for privacy, but left it in to look forbidden and intriguing just - because. People will ALWAYS read what's crossed out - especially carefully. And probably remember it a lot longer too. Somebody should do a psychological study about it and get written up and become collegiately important.)
Also, awhile back Michelle solemnly announced that “Today is my half birthday, Mom. What are we going to do to celebrate?” Apparently her friends all make a deal about their half b-days (the day that marks the exact halfway point until their next birthday), and some even get gifts, etc. We told her we loved her so very much, but in our current state of ":Life in this corner, Mitchells in the other corner; come out - Fighting!" we weren’t exactly up to celebrating halfs in a huge way – other than hugs and kisses, etc. (2020 update: she turned out exquisitely well for having been half-b-day abandoned. At least on the outside. Not sure about enduring inner trauma - yikes.)
Dad wishes he had a laptop so he could do power point broadcast illustrations for talks, etc. (the image on your computer screen gets broadcast up to a big screen)…(remember this was written in 2002 - by a sadly serious non-techie).
The church has developed an "exciting" new youth program to replace scouting in the event that scouting had to be abandoned (due to lowering of standards or whatever), or for countries that don’t have scouting. It’s supposed to be very meaty and demanding, not just a “fluff” program of meaningless awards. Go meat.
Bro. ---- gave a "testimony" account yesterday in church about how he’d been sent to a surgeon to remove some suspiciously swollen nodes his Dr. thought could be cancer. But his wife had been continuously praying for him, and when they got there, the surgeon couldn’t find anything wrong with him. The lumps had disappeared! He said he wasn’t ever going back to a doctor again, it was such a nerve-wracking experience! – but he was so overwhelmed by the outcome. (Motto?: Prayer works- sometimes even visibly. Doctors also (sometimes?) work. Mostly invisibly? (nonsequitur- meaning: it don't necessarily follow, as Mark Twain would say-in his 19th century grammar)
Sis. ---r’s parents were both baptized into the ward, and are very sweet people. We have the missionaries coming for dinner, and I guess I ‘ll make a huge pot of mashed potatoes to go with the barbecued beef. I can’t believe how much some of these elders eat ('course there was that one dude from Idaho who loaded up with thirds but couldn't plow all the way through; I winced a little having to scrape it into the "round file"... Maybe some of Grandma Mitchell's wartime thrift has permanently rubbed into my psyche?) Anyway, not sure if the upcoming Elders are Idaho farmboys, but still need to go to Costco for yet MORE food - just to be safe. Love you guys, and stay warm up there at balmy BYU - where the palm trees sway - NOT (but ours do; just not at BYU- not to rub it in..) - Madre who is REALLY for real checking out now -buh bye ;)