Dear Grandma,

In this post of Haven Heartbeats, I will respond to your most recent letter of February 17th.

It was so nice to get a handwritten letter from somebody. :) Someday, I will write more letters by hand...just like I used to......before children. Remeber how I used to write those letters to you and mamaw?

I meant to write sooner, but I worked for a couple of days, and then got sick.........today is day 9 of my cold...actually day seven, if you only count from when I got stuffy and felt yucky. The cough preceded this by two days. And, after I got better, I had relapses.

The rain has been falling so hard here........I am wondering if we really did get the 9 inches of rain someone predicted. I sure hope so! The wind howled fierce for the whole time, too. Today we awakened to fresh snow, about 4 inches. We should be getting snow through Friday, I hear. The forecast shows Saturday clear, with more snow on Sunday & Monday. I will try to take the kids skiing on Saturday. I hope to be well enough by then. I am in the mood for scrapbooking...which I can justify doing at the ski park...but not at home. :)

I have no idea when I will next be going to Carson City...maybe in June? Probably in June. So, it does not make sense to have me bring your request in that way. Could we perhaps have you mail them to my dad's house.......and have the party pick up the package there? Jennifer expects to come for a visit in late May to see the kids in their play...but that is still so late. I do not expect any visits from any Nevada folks before that. Let me know what you think......and I can email my dad's address to you...oh, you probably have it already.

Thank you for the vegan recipes......the carrot hot dog is hilarious! :) I will pass these on. One of my vegans has decided she has been vegan so long now.....she cannot remember exactly why she went that way.....so, she has loosened her diet a bit.

Have I ever told you I LOVE your handwriting? It is so consistent, so lovely. I can always recognize notes in your writing.

It is now official that Matthew has QUALIFIED to travel with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program......now they just need to find him a country.......a host club who will take the tall, aged, unvaccinated creature. :) They feel pretty confident there will be one club willing to take him. Right now they are focusing in Italian-speaking Switzerland, because he wants to learn Italian. They have told him he will need to learn German first because it is the national language there. If Switzerland does not work out......I believe they will try Belgium, and then Germany. We are all so jealous of him. :)

Anne REALLY wants to go to Nevada-Reno...........we are waiting to see if she qualifies for any scholarships.....and then she will need to decide. There, or San Francisco State University. I think it will be May before we know for sure......I cannot remember. It is hard not knowing for sure, for so long. She just kind of wants to get on with her life......you know?

My cousin whom I asked for prayers is still in a coma........I guess last week she squeezed a finger...and something else....opened her eyes? I cannot remember. It is Uncle Howard's oldest, Tina.......so, really my dad's first cousin, not mine. She is still in the hospital, too, I believe. It is so sad...

Maddelyn is in her class right now, so I am at the college library, taking the time to write here. The round trip to the college is about 25 minutes....so, no sense in driving home for only a 50 minute class, eh?

I have to teach childbirth classes tonight. I have only one person signed up....and I have not spoken to her in two months. Once in a while someone shows up without signing up.....so, hopefully that will happen tonight.

Oh, one more thing before I have to go.......the kids have spring break the week of March 16th......we were wondering IF we could work if out....could we come for a 4 night visit? There are A LOT of things on the calendar......we would have to see if we could even make it work....so no promises. But, we have been desperately looking at our calendar for over six months, to see when we ALL could come see you. This just might work. What do you think?

Well, Maddelyn is done and she hates it when she has to wait. :) I need to wrap this up.

We love you and miss you!

Love,

Chari & family