Sat Afternoon
13 July 85

Dear Mom & Dad,

We are starting to recover^(?) from our early summer events. Today has been slow and relaxing - so far.

We had a good visit with the Woollys. They will tell you all about it, I'm sure. They got some kind of 12-24 hour virus that slowed us down a little. Other than that we all had a good time. I think Laura & Bill were ready to go back to Little Rock, but Diane probably would have stayed longer to shop more. She liked the markets & all the bargains. It is a good thing we had a horse trader for a daddy - we bargain better in the markets than a lot of people do here. Get Diane to tell you about the linen towel man and the man who kept grabbing my arm to pull me back into his booth to try to sell me something-anything. And the woman with the "crazy mama."

Laura takes after her mother. She loved to shop for shoes and jewelry & clowns, etc. Bill was sort of so-so about the shopping. I think he enjoyed playing computer with Michael as much as anything else. They all enjoyed Pompei, Capri & Sorrento. Anyway, they can tell you more about it than I can write. You probably will have already seen them by the time you get this letter.

Thanks for the shoes! All 5 pair fit just fine. It was like Christmas around here. The hat & headband were nice also.

Michael got his leave cut short while Diane & Bill were here due to the Beirut hostage situation. The plane was taken hostage about the time we went to Scotland. They (Navy) took 17 people from our hospital and put them on the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier, which went to the Beirut area shortly after the crisis started. If Michael had been here, instead of in Scotland, he might have had to go with them. When he returned he was on standby to go if there were an actual medical crisis. He did get one week of leave time, but he had to call & check in with the hospital twice a day to see if the situation had changed. Then the next week they told him to come on back to work since they were short-staffed. Fortunately, that didn't change our plans too much. He was very disappointed, though.

After we saw the Woollys plane take off, we came out and found our Fiat had been towed away by the police for being parked in a no parking zone. That took about 25 minutes to clear up. Cost about $21.⁰⁰. We finally got back home about 10:00 pm.

The next day Michael went to work and the kids and I stayed home and cleaned house. About 2:00 pm Michael called from the clinic saying I needed to come get him. Someone had stolen his Volkswagen. He is quite perturbed. Our insurance policy says we can't buy another car for 6 weeks in case the police recover our stolen car. Fat chance! I'm sure that car is long gone and in another country by now. The only thing left was his door handle. I guess they broke it to get in. There has never been any trouble with cars being bothered at the clinic before. I guess there is a first time for everything.

So, anyway, we are a one-car family for the next 6 weeks unless we can find some way to get around it. Michael will probably not get the true value out of his Volkswagen. He had a new (or rebuilt?) engine put in not too long ago. Steven is confused with all this bad guy business.

We have new neighbors behind us. They have 2 boys, ages 5 and 3. They are noisy & fussy kids. I hope they settle down and calm down soon when their furniture arrives. The 5-year-old has already hit one neighbor's boy & went home crying to mama. He has chicken pox now and has been out with other children the whole time. I am trying to keep my kids away from him until he is well.

There is another new family 3 houses down from us. The woman's name is Sally. Her husband is Italian with American citizenship. He graduated from some culinary school in New York and may be giving cooking lessons later on. They have a 22-month-old named Nathaniel and 3-month-old named Benjamin. They seem nice for New Yorkers.

The whole neighborhood is changing. Bob & Ann Cummings are leaving in August to go back to Washington state. We will really miss them. They are having a garage sale today.

Angelique is planning her birthday party. She wants to have a slumber party with 3 or 4 girls over. We found Rainbow Brite party plates, cups & napkins at the Exchange, so that's what she's doing for her party. She's getting excited.

Steven is getting excited about being 4 soon. Billy & Freda will be here for his birthday. They want to visit Venice, Switzerland and Austria this trip. I don't know if they are planning on seeing southern Germany or not.

Swimming classes start July 22 for our kids. I'm not sure how we will manage swim classes with only one car. Angelique is ready for her classes. Steven is not sure he wants to go. We went to the pool while the Woollys were here. Steven was hard to get into the pool. He did fine once he got in. He didn't stay more than 15-20 minutes. Angelique & Laura stayed in for an hour. I need to take them back again before classes start. Angelique is still not tall enough to reach the bottom of the pool. I'm not sure which class they will put her in. She's too advanced for the tots class, but not tall enough for the regular classes. I'll let them decide what to do with her.

Love,

Jeannie