Promotion..Right before Christmas Jerry got unexpectedly promoted. He had been the Receiving Manager, and was about to be moved to the floor to prepare for a promotion that would be coming in the spring when the next store opened. Well, one employee was suddenly fired, and Jerry was hurriedly moved up. He is now the Operations Manager, and is technically second-in-command in the store now.

Visitors... In the first week of January, Jerry’s sister Heather came out to visit with her boyfriend Ted. We were hoping lot a week-long visit, but the heavy snows in St. Louis caused the airlines to delay most flights. So it ended up being about 3 1/2 days instead. We had a good time nonetheless. They took a day to go skiing in the nearby mountains. We went to several restaurants, and played a lot of games. Rio liked them, no surprise. Jerry had to go to Denver on business for a day and a half during the visit; he was really disappointed about that. But he had a lot of time to chat with his sister in the time he was home. The visit was too short, and we were sad to see them go.

How’s The Weather? Snowy! But not all the time. It seems to snow about once every l-2 weeks. Then, the other times, it is always really sunny and bright, even warm. The only gloomy days are the days it snows. It is very nice. Of course, the few hours it is snowing, it is unpleasant to drive or walk up the hill to the mailbox, but the rest of the time, it is fine.

The Rio Report... At almost 2 1/2years old, Rio is thriving as usual. He went to the doctor’s office to get his eczema treated, and had such a good time he wrote a story about it. (See below.) These days he is learning about other countries. We look at the place on a map (we hope to get a globe soon), look at the flag (sometimes we make a model of the flag for Rio’s wall), go to restaurants from the countries, listen to their music, play their games, and say some words in their languages. The only thing is that, with a few countries under his belt now, he sometimes gets confused, so he will request chopsticks with his ravioli, or will say that Oslo is the capital of Mexico!
     We had a little scare a few days ago, when Rio cut his left hand very badly. Suzanne wrapped it up and put a sock on it to reinforce the message that he was not allowed to use it. (Rio is left-handed.) He was really cooperative about it. The wound is healing well though he refuses to have a bandage on it any more, so it is healing open instead of closed. Oh well—it’s on the palm, so the scar won’t be noticed! He has full use of his hand, so we are not worried.

That’s It For Now. Next time we will have news of a vacation, since Suzanne and Rio are planning on going to California next month. Everyone take care, and don’t get too cold.

A Day at the Doctor’s
By Rio

     Rio go to a doctor’s office. Rio loves Dr. Gustin. Rio’s happy of her. A doctor put a detch-a-cope (stethoscope) in her ears, let Rio put it in Rio’s ears and put a little drum on Rio’s tummy. Listen a Rio’s heart beating like duh-duh- duh-duh. Light in Rio’s eyes. Look at Rio’s stomach. Has eczema. Rio press a buttons on a scale. Put on a bed with a paper.
     Rio have a lot of doctor’s cream Rio have a lot of doctor’s medicine on Rio’s skin. That cream made a eczema better. Rio’s ouchie feeled better.

Meet... Roxanne Bettonville
     Suzanne’s mother, Roxanne Bettonville, was born on September 17, 1940, in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there and in Livonia, Michigan during her childhood with her parents and two brothers. Since then, she has lived all over tile country: Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon, and has enjoyed different lilfestyles, from living in small apartments to running a farm. She taught school for three years before her first daughter, Judy, was born, and many years later started home-based school with several other families in Selma, Oregon
     She is married to Jim Bettonville, and writes, "Jim & I met on an elevator, and it’s been up & down ever since!" They have five children, who were born in four different states. (Judy: IL; Suzanne: PA; Robin: CA; and John & Allie: OR). Today, she & Jim live wilt their two youngest kids in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, (she adores living in Sunny California!), and they have a dog named Cookie.
     Roxanne wears many hats—secretary, actor, and club president. She has done a lot of "extra" work (being in the background of scenes) in various movies and television shows, and now enjoys doing live theatre. She is the president of Palos Verdes Players, a local community theatre group. Acting is her favorite hobby (she would like to some day have a professional acting career), and she also likes reading, writing, walking, doing Tai Chi, and calligraphy.
     Roxanne describes herself as joyful, intelligent, and enthusiastic, and hopes "to grow old gracefully, with elan and enthusiasm." The saddest thing about her life is that she doesn’t get to see her grandson Rio very often. She writes, "I never had any idea how it would feel to be a grandparent and now I know it can cut deep when the object of my affection is so far away. I’ve tried not to get too sentimental about my three oldest kids living all over the country, but now that you have Rio it sheds a whole new light on my feelings."
     Roxanne is the type of person whose life still holds many future delights. She says, "Life is a banquet—eat hearty!"

Rio Renames a City

     We went to an Indian restaurant a few weeks ago, and we taught Rio how to say "gulab jamun" (the name of an Indian dessert), so he could order it by himself. We practiced the words for a bit. Meanwhile, Suzanne was drilling him on some other facts about India she’d taught him earlier. The conversation went like this:

Suz: What do the women wear in India?
Rio: Saris.
Suz: What kinds of animals live there?
Rio: Peacocks and tigers and ele’ants.
Suz: What is the capital of India? (A pause)
Suz (hinting): New…
        (Another pause, then)
Rio: New Gulab Jamun!

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