Me again

So currently I am sitting in a hotel room with my kids in Grand Junction Colorado and they have Internet here. Very nice!
I wasn't sure if we'd make this trip because of all the snow lately, but things were looking good, so we up and left at 5pm tonight.
Just before I left, one of my old Young Women from when I was in a presidency 9 years ago let me know that a lady I use to visit teach in Provo passed away on Christmas Eve. I spent a chunk of my drive here thinking of her.
Leona was one of my very first visiting teaching experiences. Since then I have had many other really great experiences with visiting teaching, but she was my first. I ended up seeing her for a couple of years I believe. Maybe closer to 3 years. I think she was about 70 at the time. I am not sure. And I was 20. Her husband had just passed away and she lived alone. We had nothing in common. At first she was a tough nut to crack. It was strange. I decided to take her out to lunch to see if that would soften her up and it did. We had a great talk on the way to the restaurant and the rest of that outing.
Soon I was in love with the lady. We had so many awesome talks and we always enjoyed seeing each other. I didn't have a companion for much of that time that I saw her so things got pretty personal between us. There are a couple of conversations that we had that I will never forget and I have thought about many times since.
Well, we moved to Idaho and for years I tried to keep in touch with her and keep her in my prayers. When we moved back to Utah I thought of how I needed to see her. When I was sending off my Christmas cards I had this thought that she was either not alive anymore or was about to pass and I better get on it and go see her. Guess what, I didn't. And I feel so bad now because I missed out on a really special opportunity to say goodbye to her. I am such a loser!
Anyhow, I just felt like writing about that experience.

On another topic:
I have to say also to my sweet husband how much I love and appreciate him. Sorry we ditched you --I just don't want to be cooped up at home with 4 rowdy kids all week while they are out of school on vacation. We will have fun, but we will NOT be breaking the family rule. (Our "family rule" as we call it is: We are not allowed to have too much fun when we aren't all together.) We'll keep it at bay honey. Thanks for working hard to support our family. You have always done a fantastic job of providing for us. And your voice message I got on my cell phone while my service was down tonight, made my heart melt. I will listen to it again and again and try not to cry when I do. Thank you.
I love you.

And to the rest of you who have borne through some really boring and possibly even downer posts of mine, I'll try to pick up the mood later. Thanks for checking in and lending an ear so to speak.