#33 Write Letters

Number 33 has been a hard one.  I am emotionally exhausted.  I wanted to write to 3 people who have influenced me in my life.  I have finished the letters and will send them on Monday.  Excluding family members the three names that I came up with were Phyllis 'Cleo' Griffiths.  I have thought about my relationship with her and what category it fits in.  She is equal parts friend, mentor, and second mother.  We talked, cry, and laugh.  She gets me and I get her.  Some of my favorite memories are stream testing with her in Logan, when I helped her sign up (just like 2 years ago) for a library card (hers was from the 60's I swear) and then to show her how to the ATM to get money out after she retired she needed access to cash sometimes.  With the ATM we felt like we were robbing the bank, it was hilarious.  The second letter was Veldon Izatt 'VI' who has known me all my life.  My first memory was he was the bishop when I got baptized.  Then he was one of my high school teachers, but taught me I think 4 classes of various subjects.  He influenced a lot of kids with his friendly teasing manner.  He also is from the community where I grew up Freedom Wyoming and I love to see him when I visit my parents and spar back and forth.  The last was Carroll Wood.  He is a man even though he has a girl's name.  He passed away a couple of years ago so I wrote to his wife in DC.  He was just so kind and fun as I worked in Senator Simpsons office.  He made me feel at home in the office and then invited me several times to be with his family as well.  We were soul mates that transcend age, race, or religion.  So through tears of remembering and expressing how these three have influenced me, #33 might have been the hardest of all these to finish.  Check Check!

#32 Have a Liv day!

I try to do stuff with my nieces and nephews in groups but then individually as well.  My niece Liv and I haven't ever done something with just the two of us, so I thought it would be fun to have a Liv day.  Liv is 4 and was all for it.  Liv doesn't talk much in big settings like when all the Roberts' are together.  She is one of the younger ones and sometime the noise and chaos can overpower the best of us.  She is a giggler though.  She loves to hug and sit on your lap and let you comb her hair.  She loves to be involved with what is going on.  She is a sweet girl. 

I picked her up at her house during a February snow storm.  I was planning on driving back to Salt Lake and us walking through the Gateway and going to Build-A-Bear, but Liv is a girlie girl and when I gave her the option of Build-A-Bear or getting her nails painted, she choose the nails.  It was better because it was close by and we didn't have to drive in the storm.  So we went in and she choose two different pinks for every other finger and I choose dark purple.  The guy painted hers first and then painted a flower on.  He asked her which finger and she said her pointer finger but he tried to persuade her to do the fourth finger and she knew what she wanted with the pointer, so it was the pointer.  Then we put our hands under the light to dry.  Check....fingernails painted. 

 Then she chose to go to lunch at McDonalds.  I am not sure why kids love McDonalds so much, but it was her choice so we went.  She ordered chicken nuggets and we ate in the playland.  I had just injured my knee the week before so it was actually nice to put my foot up while she played.  She didn't talk to any of the kids but her and another little girl kinda followed each other around.  She would scream my name when she was in the playland for me to see her.  When we left we got ice cream and headed to our next adventure.  After lunch we went to Barnes and Noble to find a book.  She choose a My Little Pony story with little plastic ponies.  Then we went to buy the boys a treat so they wouldn't feel left out.  I left her choose the treats and we went through each brother and she pointed something out.  She was pointing right in front of her and just in a row so I asked her if that is what they liked or she was just pointing at stuff and she said it was what they liked.  I doubted but when we got back to her house each brother chose out of the bag the one she had chosen for them.  She knows her brothers.  

What I learned about Liv in our day together that she is a girlie girl through and through (I kinda knew that already).  She is a confident girl.  Even though she is shy and doesn't say much she does know what she wants and is willing to speak up for it when she needs to.  She is smart and kind and beautiful and I am glad we had the day together and hope for many more.