This is a picture of Frank's parents on their wedding day. In honor of Frank's father, I want to write a little about them. They met at a skating rink when Betty was 15. Junior was 4 year older than Betty. They got married 4 years later.

Junior was not a man to express his emotions much. Towards the end of his life his was an invalid. Betty took care of even his most basic needs. She did this for many years. One day she walked into his bedroom. It was shortly before his last serious setback. As she walked into his room, he opened his eyes and said. "Betty, I have always loved you."

This simple statement meant so much to her and made everything she did for him worth it. She does not regret one minute of the care she gave him.

I think this is a beautiful story and I hope we all remember to tell our loved ones how much they mean to us.

I am thankful my husband had a good father. I am thankful he is a good father. And I am thankful for my wonderful father.

Our Day in Minas (by Julianna)

Wow we had quite a day. We went and saw a zillion people and did some great sightseeing. Daddy is the best driver in the whole world. First we drove down to Punta del Este just to see it. Thats where that picture of just daddy and me is from. Then we went to Minas to the Crums house. It was wonderful. We had a good lunch and then we talked for awhile. I sure love them. Then we started visiting people. I sure love all these wonderful Uruguayans that I have met. They are so special, so humble. It was wonderful to see that the people I left 3 months ago are still strong in the faith. Alejandra, one of the people baptized while I was there is still strong and going. That makes me so happy! Blanquita is a very dear friend. She is 22 years old and in a wheel chair, very disabled. She lives with her mother and they are very poor, they hardly live from day to day. They have no electricity in their house. When we got to their house she had a present for me. She had crocheted a doily for me. It was so sweet and kind and a big sacrifice for them. We saw many other people. We also went out to the statue of General Artigas. He is like the George Washington of Uruguay. When we got there the bugs were so thick and hitting us. We had to like swim through them. It gave mommy and daddy good experience. :) We took some pictures and then got on our way. We stopped and got gas and I totally could speak Spanish with the guy. That was my first time ever filling a car with gas in Spanish! Then we drove a long way and finally got back. It was a really good day. I love being a missionary. It really was a good day. I cant believe I only have one more whole day in this beautiful country. I feel so blessed that the Lord called me to serve Him here in Uruguay. I have been so happy here. I love you all!!!

Soy la Hermana Dittmar (from Julianna)

Marianne and Marianne

Anita and Julianna

Buen Dia! Como estan todos? Mommy and daddy and I are sitting in our hotel room in beautiful Montevideo. Its called Montevideo because a long time ago a man in a ship was lost and he saw the mountain of Montevideo and in old old Spanish he said Monte veo yo but it came out because it was old Spanish sounding like Monte vid eo and for that they named it Montevideo. We are going to go to Punta del Este today and then to Minas. I am so excited to see the Crums again.

Last night mommy and daddy attended my last baptism as a missionary. It was beautiful. Gaston was so funny, he tried to share his testimony but it didnt work very well. Daddy gave him a tie and showed him how to tie it which was really cute. Hna Blocker, Richard and I did a duet, them singing and me playing the piano. It went over well. Afterwards there was a big dinner where we ate asado. Anita couldnt stand that I didnt have any meat on my plate so she cut off half of hers. The branch gave mommy and daddy a picture of the branch and that was sweet. It was a really great night.

My life feels very surreal right now. I cant describe how I feel. One minute I am crying and the next I am jumping up and down. I love being a missionary. It has been so hard, but so wonderful. Alma 26 perfectly describes my mission. I am thankful for the mercy the Lord has poured out on me. I am so thankful for the baptisms I have seen and the joy I have felt. I am especially thankful to see how the gospel has changed my own life.

I love you all.

Love Hna Dittmar

I will see Julianna in 2 days!!!

Tomorrow Frank and I leave for Montevideo. We will not arrive there until Thursday morning. We will meet Julianna at the mission home at about noon. I am so excited!!!
We will be in Uruguay 4 days and will visit her 4 areas. We will arrive back in SLC on Tues. May 26.
Julianna is coming home to a new town, a new home, a mom with new eyes and a sister who is married and expecting. Lots of changes but I know she will be happy here. We are so proud of her.

Memorial Day 1992

It is time for another of Mom's journal entries. I am going to skip over a bunch of mundane entries that are all quite similar and jump to some entries that will be of interest to all of us because they include us. Memorial day 1992 was a huge day for Mom. All of the Tuttles came and they had a party for Omi.

May 27, 1992

Memorial Day was nice-we served about 140 people. I had 21 stay over at my house. We honored Mother and it was 0k. Lloyd, Vera and Janet were honored also. (Lloyd was Omi's second husband and father to the Tuttle's. Vera was Lloyd's first wife. Both were long deceased at this point. It had always been traditional for the Tuttle's to gather at Omi's house for Memorial Day.) I hope they cut it down some It is really too big to handle.

Alice came and helped and Nancy and Rebecca were here from Sat on so it was nice.

Marianne and Frank come this next month on the 5th or 6th Then Norma on the 20th I don't know when Beckie is coming with her girls its hard to get away when you have teenagers

We have a big day at the temple on the 8th and 9th we will be gone from 7am to 9pm I hope Marianne and Frank will go to SLC then so we can have more time to visit

We have had lots of rain this past week about an inch-Texas had 20 inches in the same time frame. But for us and inch is lots of rain. Everything looks so green and pretty.

I am worn out I need a vacation from everything but I don't see how I can get away with so many people coming to stay. I hope in July we can go someplace fun.

A Mystery Solved

It occurred to me that it was really easy to get an answer about why Sara was blind in her right eye. I called Aunt Norma. Norma said that when Sara was a in college she got a cinder in her eye. As soon as she said that I remembered hearing about the cinder in her eye. Beckie will remember it, too. But I still don't remember ever knowing she was blind in that eye.

Norma said the cinder came from the Bamberger railroad that ran between Salt Lake City and Lagoon. It apparently no longer exists. Norma remembered that Sara put drops in her eye every day, hoping to heal her eye.

Quiet Books

Since Pam wants to make a quiet book and Heidi expressed interest too, I will give a few suggestions. I do have a lot of patterns. The problem is I don't know where they are since we moved. I will keep looking for them. When I find them I will scan and post them.

In the mean time there are some really good ideas on the internet. Google lds quiet book pattern. You will find two links there that will be really helpful. One is at theideadoor.com and the other is at mormonchic.com. Google it first and then click on the link because it is hard to find the quiet books if you go directly to the web site home pages.

The idea door suggests making the quiet books on heavy pellon. I made mine on muslin and I think it is probably more durable. Otherwise she used a lot of the same methods I did. Tracing pictures with a Sharpie and then coloring it with crayons works really well. Be sure to iron over the crayon with a paper towel over it. This sets the color into the fabric. For more intense color you can color it with the crayon again and iron it again.
I also suggest sewing a thin ribbon to each separate piece and attaching it to the page so pieces don't get lost.

An idea for some pages would be to use transfer paper to put photos of family members onto muslin and cut them out. You could do a family tree page. And a page with your immediate family-perhaps with a simple drawing of your house or of your city in the background. (You could do this with photo transfer paper, too.)

Dutch isn't old enough yet, but Heidi could us some of her kids artwork as background for some pages or even have them draw on the muslim pages and add her own elements to it.

I will add more ideas when I find my patterns. Let me know if I can help.