January 24, 2009

Dear Children,
The speed of activity has picked up greatly, having visited St. Louis and now I am home by now. I was excited to be able to go help Katie get settled in her new place in St. Louis. This was the first time I could respond to her need since I was recovering from surgery when she had her appendicitis operation last year. Grandma Maldonado went for me thank goodness. It was fun to be in Katie’s element. I hate leaving Dad to go help our children; I would love to have him along on all my adventures. He loves an adventure.
Katie had previously asked if I would drive with her to St. Louis with all of her belongings in the two days that she had available before her first day of work there. It sounded like a fun adventure until the realization that we would be driving across those frozen states with a short deadline. Thankfully, at Christmas time, Aaron offered to drive with her. What a great brother! I was relieved since I also felt comfort with having someone else driving with Katie who knows how to drive in the snowy conditions. That plan allowed me to suggest that I visit her when she found a permanent place in St. Louis. Although, just before leaving for her trip, she had to agree to the place she was hoping to preview so she had a place right from the start. The plan changed to meet Katie her first weekend out there.
Katie and Aaron couldn’t have made the trip from Provo to St, Louis sound simpler. They met in Salt Lake at 2:00 am, where Aaron left his car at Bill’s business so he had easy access to his car upon landing in Salt Lake on his return flight. They had mostly good roads and made it all the way to Kansas City where they had dinner and slept at their dad’s home. The next day they had made the four hour trip to St. Louis, unpacked all of Katie’s things stuffed into the car, went to lunch and had Aaron at the airport for an even earlier flight than imagined! When I acted amazed, Katie said, “It was easy!” I believe the original plan to have me accompany her would have slowed her down!
After the visit this Christmas, Dad and I commented how all our children were adults now and, in a way, equalized. There is no more pecking order or really younger/older sibling relationship. Dad and I appreciate how you are all working to strengthen your bounds of friendship, love and concern for one another. That means so much. It was a thrill to have Aaron generously give his time for this trip for Katie. Thank you.
Although I experienced some cold temperatures already in Oregon this year, I knew I was headed for a shock with the unusually cold weather in St. Louis since it had been hovering at zero degrees. Plus, Katie had already learned that, while the rest of her place was staying at fairly comfortable temperatures, her bedroom was freezing. The first thing we did when I arrived was buy a blanket (since I couldn’t fit one in my suitcase) and a space heater. That helped plus the temperatures, thankfully, started to rise into the thirties.
We spent lots of time organizing her room and kitchen things. We also did a lot of driving as we scoured the many thrift shops in the area for a cheap bookshelf and a pan big enough to make a pot of bean soup. She brought the bare minimums. Katie is bold; she just takes off in a “can do it” manner. Thankfully she has an iPhone since there is no internet access in her condo. She googles what she needs to find and away she goes! Of course, that does result at times in the long way around, missed turns, ending up in Illinois and unfortunately on occasion, driving through probably some of the wrong parts of town! Hopefully, Kristin Cook, her roommate that has lived in St. Louis for four years while attending the Optometry school, will impress upon Katie some big city safety tips. I don’t know what Kristin was thinking when she told me that St. Louis had just won out Detroit as the most dangerous town!
Katie lives in a pretty good location with fairly easy access to her work downtown, grocery stores and shopping, and just around the corner is a fun little eclectic street named Del Mar that looks like small town 50’s or 60’s style revived with some trendy shops and restaurants dotted among the old theater and root beer bottling company. While I was there they had their annual ice festival with street musicians and vendors and ice sculptures in front of some of the shops, even an ice slide on which the children could play.
Katie has to travel a distance to her ward meetings. The single branch covers a huge area, some traveling more than an hour. On the way to church Katie gets to pass the St. Louis Temple. We stopped there on the way home from church.
As we drive around I am continually in awe of the beautiful brick old homes here. The streets are lined with these majestic homes some even boarded up though. It is sad to see such a waste of beautiful architecture. And, everywhere we go the people here are either wearing Cardinal or Ram clothing. Katie calls it the “St. Louis pride”! Katie and I discussed that here is St. Louis she is no longer unique! Her roommate took one look at her room of Cardinal memorabilia and said she will fit in nicely.
Even though we did a lot of work, there was also time for fun. I toured the KSDK station and met a couple of the people with whom Katie works. We took the advice of one of her coworkers and had dinner at an Italian place on the “hill.” We were able to get tickets to the theater performance of “Legally Blond” and Katie was given tickets to a charity event hosted by the Cardinals manager, Tony LaRussa, for which her station was doing the announcing which featured Vince Gill (who brought his wife, Amy Grant), REO Speedwagon and Huey Lewis and News. The latter being the best of the night even though they are old men now!
Katie came home from work Monday evening excited to announce that we needed to go to the mall early the next morning. She learned at the station that the department stores would be giving away free fragrances and cosmetics to anyone who had purchased from those departments as part of a class action suit settlement. Then she realized, “Hey, we don’t have to rush in at the store’s opening; we are in downtown St. Louis! Everyone will be glued to their TV sets watching the inauguration events.” Sure enough, we took our time and the lines for free merchandise were relatively short. I came home with a beautiful smelling perfume from France called Boucheron. I hope Dad likes it. Working at the station is going to keep Katie on the inside knowledge track of interesting events in the city, not just merchandise give aways of course!
Her co-workers know all the best places to go. On Katie’s day off we did more tourist type activities. We, of course, went up on the Gateway Arch. It was a beautiful clear, but cold day so we had a great view of the city and didn’t have to share it with many other tourists! Joe arranged free tickets for us. One lady she worked with told Katie about “The Hill” filled with great Italian restaurants. It is the area of St Louis where the Italians first gathered. We went to Cunettos’. It reminded me of Bancheros in Hayward. I surely would like to get back there someday for old time’s sake. We were lucky enough to get reasonable tickets to go to the Broadway showing of Legally Blond. It was at the most beautiful and ornate Fox Theater in downtown. It was a fun show. Katie had seen it in New York and said the lead was better there. I thought it was great.
I realized that I was traveling through Las Vegas on the way home on Wednesday so I gave Morty a call since he has an airport security pass (I only had an hour there). He changed some plans and met me at my gate; it was so nice of him. We had a nice chat. He wanted to know all about Katie’s time in St. Louis and exactly where she lived. He has an incredible memory from being in St Louis back when Joe lived in the area and most recently, for Cardinal games. He knew the area where she lived and what was around her! It was nice to visit with him. He wouldn’t show his teeth in this picture since he chipped his front tooth recently! My favorite part of our visit was Morty’s genuine interest and concern for his sister; wondering how she was doing alone in St. Louis. I appreciate that. Our family can be a great source of uplift and support.
Elsewhere in our family’s lives: Wendi received her acceptance to BYU Idaho. She is very excited but still waiting to hear from BYU. She has some friends at both schools. Remember to save and send Meeja Campbell’s “Labels for Education” as she was thrilled to receive my envelope of labels. I received a delightful phone call as soon as she opened her letter. She is at a new school this term but, before leaving her old school (where Will, who is her age, still attends), she bargained with her teacher that she could still receive M&M’s or Skittles (through Will) for every label she sends in with him! Sunhee is ready to sign up for indoor soccer; she said that she loves indoor soccer. I told her that her aunts and uncles loved the fast pace of indoor soccer. Both Meeja and Sunhee excitedly told me about their upcoming Disneyland trip in April. Adrianne was able to get into a recreation class that she hoped to add to her schedule. This week she was going rock climbing for their activity! I think Heidi had that same class. Morty was excited for the prospect of an exciting football game next September 5 in the brand new Dallas Cowboy Stadium between BYU and Oklahoma. I hope that we can hold our own! He thinks that we all should try and go there. That does sound like a lot of fun! Also, David Tobler just learned that he will be hired as the reptile zookeeper for their zoo in Fresno. He is very excited of course! Also, I just learned from Dad that TJ is engaged to be married in the Timpanogas Temple in May.
Dad and I both received fun calls from Rebekah on Thursday morning. She and Jenna had accompanied Bill and Heidi to their ultrasound appointment to learn whether they are having a boy or girl. I will wait to mention anything so that they have a chance to get a hold of each one of you in the next couple of days. They are all very excited of course!
Dad’s work is still lean. He looks at the positive side and says he is in home project heaven! He had a job in Sherwood starting this week and another prospect on an old bid when he was too busy this fall. I hope there will be enough work to continue the home projects!!! I told Dad I need to go back a strict budget like when we had ten family members in the home! I am looking forward to working more out of our food storage, especially now that is organized so well. I love my new rotation system. Last week I called them to ask if their extra shelves (I needed one more) ever went on sale and they offered to send a free one if I wrote a review for the shelving system. It took me only a few minutes . . . yeah, and now I can complete my system!
I saw an interesting movie with Grandma on Friday called “The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons.” Grandma will be leaving this Tuesday for about a month stay in California where she will stay with Reshea and Aunt Carla in Clovis and then travel up to Antioch to be with Aunt Denise. She may even get to go to Uncle Tommy’s 90th birthday party in Fremont while visiting. I wish I could go but that is just too much traveling for me right now and it is on the weekend that I have been planning for months to go to the beach with six other ladies who served together in Young Women’s. We went last winter and it was so much fun. This year, Angie Bleazard, who is now living in Sacramento, will travel here to go with us.
I was able to be home to hear the Tuesday BYU Devotional last week by Jeffrey R. Holland. It was fantastic, worth finding a rebroadcast. I think the title was “Remember Lott’s Wife” as it was about having faith in the Lord that the future He has planned for us is better than the past with which may not be right for us but comfortable. His asked the students to make a New Year’s resolution to quit dwelling on past lives and mistakes and have faith and hope in the future with the Lord. He said, “Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow and forever.” He left the students with an apostolic blessing and promise of happiness if they would follow this request.
Before leaving for St. Louis I was also able to attend the first class of my new institute term on the Book of Revelations. It will be very interesting. Institute is great. You all should take advantage of it in your area if you can. At the beginning of class Brother Stark quoted from President Monson’s Sunday night fireside to the YSA. I never had a chance to ask any of you about it (our ward rebroadcast it for their Family Home Evening since it was during our church time). The prophet said, “Work will win, where wishy washy wishing won’t!” Great quote! Brother Stark also quoted from the section we studied last term in John where Christ asked the observers who wanted to stone the woman who had sinned, to cast the first stone if they were sinless. He used that idea to suggest a resolution idea to us to put a pebble in our shoe to remind us of something we want to improve upon in our life. I like that idea since I often think about something I want to work on in my life but then forget it easily later. A pebble is a great and constant reminder!
Did you see that Darrell Janson was quoted in a Church News article about the University of Florida at Gainesville Institute? He is the institute director there now. It could have been a November Church News; I had an old stack to read on the plane! I have more quotes from reading that many papers but I will reserve them until another time!
Today Dad and I did the latest downloads and installations onto our new GPS system so Dad can start using it in the van. I have another Sunbeam lesson to prepare for tomorrow (last minute substituting again) and we are going to the temple tonight. It is closing soon for some time for repairs. Grandma Bitter left a message that Natalie and Danny had their baby boy this morning! Scott loves receiving your letters. He had a nice visit with Dad while I was in Missouri. He loves to hear about Kyre.
I love you all. Love, Mom
Katie’s new address is:
Katie Luman
6761-A Ahern Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63130