Jett Newsette

January 2002

Dear family,

Ready or not—it’s 2002! Any resolutions that weren’t kept in 2001 now have another chance to be kept this year! The new year is always refreshing to me for that reason.

Jim and I have a sweet granddaughter to hold and love! Natalie is so sweet and the cutest baby in the LDS hospital! I am so lucky that Dave and Rachel let me share her birth with them. I got to stay a week with them and felt that I got to at least bond with her a little. She definitely knows and prefers her mommy and daddy! Rachel and Dave are very patient with me, as I am not one to sit around much. I take to cleaning (whatever’s in front of me), sewing (blessing dress), and cooking (rocky road candy to name one thingJ!), and they are patient with me and just make me feel welcome. Jim and I will get to go to the blessing on March 3^rd. We hoped to take both boys with us, but for such a short few days couldn’t afford the transportation.

Christmas was different for us but we squeezed as much out of our time together as we could. Ben and Christy are always so good to spend time with us as we come and go places. It was special to have them come for dinner the night I left for SLC (Dec. 22^nd)—all our kids who are around were there, except Dan I guess. I enjoyed decorating the house especially in anticipation of John being home for the first time in 3 years. I love Christmas decorations—I’d leave them up always but then they wouldn’t be so special.

About 15 hours after I got home from SLC we went to Memphis to be with John at the Liberty Bowl. BYU got stomped during the football game, but what no one knows is that BYU’s Band clearly creamed Louisville Band in the Battle of the Band’s before the game started. It was held in the Coliseum. Each band takes turns playing a number. Louisville’s band left and we were still playing loud and strong! We also observed during the game that the band is a real asset in keeping the morale up during the game—at least as much as they could! J We loved watching John participate of course!

Dan’s glad to be facing the last 4 ½ months of his high school career! He has some awesome new speakers in his car. Stephen is glad wrestling is almost over. They have pretty hard workouts and he dislikes fasting before matches! He’ll probably be 125 lbs. next year. Sarah is in France for her 6-month nanny job. She couldn’t be happier. She has 3 girls to look after from 4pm-8pm. In the morning she studies and will go out with the girl missionaries, etc. She’s taking 4 Independent Study Classes. John had a good first semester after his mission. He is an example that you come home from a mission better in everything—at least from our perspective! He will now play for the girl’s basketball team in a pep band. He gets paid (tuition reimbursement) for that too, more even than football!

I hope Ben and Christy will write and tell you all their news! (hint hint)

We love you all so much—wish we could have squeezed in Brian’s farewell and gotten to see more of you.

Best wishes in all your endeavors this year! With love, the Jett’s