2003 Christmas Letter

1. January 11th Jessie Corwin weds John Mullinex – Pattie’s sister married John Mullinex in Oneonta, NY in an LDS chapel. Pattie and her brother Lester attended. The wedding was very nice and the reception very pleasant at an Italian restaurant in Oneonta. There was an open house in South Royalton some time after they returned home which was a lot of fun. Jessie and Johnny are living in South Royalton, VT and are in the process of renovating the McIntosh homestead.

2. Bob hikes 45 miles in Grand Canyon in April – Bob was invited to join Bruce Thielan (friend from Keene Ward and High Council) and four other of Bruce’s friends and family to spend a week in the Grand Canyon during April school vacation. After help from Bob’s mother with the plane fare, he decided to make the trip. Bob spent the next months doing conditioning hikes in the area to get ready for the demands of the Canyon. Bob had never even seen the Canyon, so this was a once in a life-time opportunity. He spent one night in Phoenix, drove to the South Rim the next day (his first look at the Canyon) and stayed overnight on the South Rim. The next morning he took a shuttle to the South Kaibab trailhead to start the long descent to Phantom Ranch. The descent was beautiful and scary – all at the same time since there were many beautiful vistas and many precipitous drops along the trail. We spent that night at Phantom Ranch before heading back up onto the plateaus to reach Clear Creek camping area about nine miles away on narrower, less traveled trails. There were many blooming desert plants along this part of the trail. The next night we spent in the rain and awoke in the morning to find snow on the upper rims of the Canyon. It was a shorter hike up Clear Creek to our next campsite with Native American ruins along the way as well as views of Chiava Falls. We spent one night in the upper part of Clear Creek, returned to Clear Creek Campground for a night, and then back to Phantom Ranch for our last night in the Canyon.

3. Great-Grammie Crossett breaks her leg in May – After staying overnight at the Stake Father and Son Campout, Bob received a call the next morning saying that his mother had fallen at her mailbox and broken her leg (femur). She had to have surgery to put metal along the bone to keep the fractured pieces together. All went well, but the recovery took until the end of July, before she could go home.

4. Anne Elizabeth Crossett born June 28, 2003 – Early on the morning of 28 June 2003, Janus called to say that he and Laura had a beautiful new little daughter named Anne Elizabeth. She was born in Salt Lake City. We saw her for the first time on Pioneer Day weekend in July. She certainly is beautiful! Their family traveled to Vermont for Thanksgiving and we saw her again, this time a very active, interested, busy little five-month-old. She was not really excited by her grandparents until toward the end of their stay but then she seemed happy to be held and kissed by them. Grace is very good with her and very comfortable with her little sister. She is a great addition to the family. 

5. Bob gets his dream car in July – Bob has had this bug about getting a Corvette. For years, he has stopped to look at any Corvette with a for sale sign on it or in a dealer’s lot. Unfortunately, the price was too far out of range for a large family. On his way to the Ascutney Ward this spring, he saw another Corvette, but it was not in very good condition and the price was high for the condition. This started the “Corvette fever” again. He started looking on eBay for and other on-line sources of cars. This process went on through July! He located a car in Bridgport, CT, but the price was too high. Then he located a Corvette in Phoenix – it had a lot of miles, but the price was reasonable. So he used a travel voucher that he received on his way back from the Grand Canyon and went to Phoenix to check out the car. Unfortunately, the Corvette showed the wear of 140,000 miles and had some mechanical problems. It was a hard decision to walk away from what seemed like the exact car he wanted – but he did! While in Phoenix, he located another Corvette in Milton, Vermont!! Pattie arranged a time to see the car, but the price was a little too high, our low offer was not accepted, and another person bought it within a few days. Finally, Bob went back to one of the Corvettes that he had located in New Jersey that was priced too high and it turned out that the seller had lowered the price. Robbie and Bob went to Hackettstown, NJ and found the car shown below.

6. Pattie goes to Utah for two weeks in August – Since the Church decided to cancel the CES symposium for Seminary and Institute teachers and Pattie had already purchased her nonrefundable plane ticket, she was able to go to Utah for two weeks and visit family, friends, and do genealogy work. She had a great time with Megan and they were able to attend the wedding reception of the youngest child of Pattie’s dear friends, the Adamsons, in American Fork, Utah, as well as having a wonderful dinner and afternoon with nieces Mitsi Corwin and Mindy Sutton and her family, also visiting Toni Brough, another college friend of Pattie’s. Christopher supplied the transportation for Pattie during her stay, though he sold his vehicle after one week and provided a rental for her after that. There was cat and kitten excitement at Megan’s apartment while Pattie visited. Ask Megan to tell you about it. Also, while there Pattie gave in to the many voices who suggested she color her hair to mask the gray. She found a hair school in Bountiful, Utah where the girls had a great time changing Pattie’s “look”. She may or may not keep it up….Lots of positive comments, some so-so comments. People were nice enough not to say mean things about the different hair.

7. Bob starts his 35th year of teaching in August – Bob continues to teach mathematics at Thetford Academy. He could have retired in June, but has decided to work three more years to increase his retirement income.

8. Pattie starts her 9th year of teaching Institute at Dartmouth in September – Pattie continues to be the Institute teacher at Dartmouth College and enjoys working with an ever growing number of Latter-day Saints coming to Dartmouth as well as serving with the United Campus Ministry at the Tucker Foundation.

9. Pattie completes 100 quilts for Bangladesh project in September – For the past two years, Pattie has been spearheading the effort to make 100 quilts and blankets for an orphanage in Bangladesh. A variety of people worked on the project including: Dartmouth College students, Dartmouth Summer program students, the Concord NH stake Relief Society, and the Lebanon Ward Relief Society and produced about 120 blankets. The project took a lot of Pattie’s energy and time, as well as a large amount of space in our home. All that is needed now is to organize the delivery of the quilts and blankets, for which Pattie is not directly responsible, though somewhat involved.

10. Pattie has her cardiac catheterization in August, extra bones in her feet in September, and gallbladder out in October – Pattie went into the emergency room for chest pains and they admitted her. They were concerned that there might be heart problems, but after doing a cardiac catheterization, they found that she had a clean heart!! Good news. However, after doing an ultrasound, they found that she had a three centimeter gallstone. We decided to go ahead with the surgery and Dr. Finlayson (a member of our Bishopric) would be the surgeon. The surgery was done laparoscopicly which required only four small holes. The surgery was successful all seems to be well now.

11. Jessie and John Mullinex are injured in an explosion in their borrowed camper in October – Jessie and John decided to repair the old McIntosh home instead of building a new house. While the construction was going on they were loaned a camper which they placed adjacent to the house. One evening, the propane heater exploded! Jessie was in bed and did not received many burns. John was burned on his arms, lower legs and face. He went through lots of intensive care and skin grafts. He has made miraculous progress and looked wonderful at Thanksgiving dinner at Great-Grammie Crossett’s home in Barre, VT.

12. Rob tries it on his own – car, cat & work – After living with a variety of people for the winter, Robbie came home in May. He got a job at UPS – loading trucks from 4:30 to 8:30 AM. He worked for a friend painting old propane tanks in Windsor, VT. It was hard work and the pay was not as good as he liked. A friend helped him rebuild the brakes on his VW Jetta, but no sooner than the brakes were repaired, the clutch went. As we get closer to Christmas, he has worked longer and longer hours at UPS – loading in the morning and helping deliver for the remainder of the day. Just before Thanksgiving, he accepted a gray long haired kitten which was added to the mix of Fluffy (our long haired cat), Mickey (Jessie and John’s dog that could not be with them until the burns are healed). Three animals underfoot keep life interesting.

13. Bob and Pattie work first weekends at temple together – With Robbie on his own, Pattie was able to work at the Temple again. She decided to work first weekends with Bob. One weekend they found a cheap motel room through Priceline.com.

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