Candid Camera Mailbox

Hola!

Just have to share our candid-camera-like chuckles over the mailbox this past week.

Last Thursday or so, our mailbox door "hinge" gave up the ghost.  It was only this little plastic hinge holding it on--it has actually lasted many years--but I guess even the mailbox door has numbered days.

So it was the mailman who broke it!  Kara happened to be in the front yard when he came.  He opened the mailbox and the door came off in his hand.  "Whoa," he says, "how did that happen?"  Then he's holding the mailbox door in one hand and needs his hand to give us our mail...so what to do with the door?

He places the mailbox door on the seat next to him in the mail truck.  Gathers our mail and puts it in, then puts our mailbox door into the mailbox, too.

The door attaches at the top with a magnet, so we can put the door back onto the magnet, and it looks kind of normal, only it doesn't have a lower hinge.  You pull to open it and it comes off in your hand.

So then the NEXT day is the weekend, and we have a different carrier on weekends.  So Kara watches for him this time, and makes sure she's outside again.  Same thing.  "What??!"  And he puts the mailbox door beside him in the truck, on the other seat, while he gathers our mail.  Mailbox door goes in the box with the mail.

So over the next couple of days, Kara and Teresa go back and forth, asking the neighbor kids to "help them get the mail," or somehow work in a "need" to open up the mailbox.  Each neighbor kid pulls off the door, and thinks he's broken our mailbox.

I went to Lowe's and got a new mailbox today.  It'll be kind of disappointing to replace the old one.

Kari

Fishing in Florida

Hola--

Here's another post having to do with our Christmas break.  We started and ended the cruise (see previous post) at Port Canaveral, in Florida.  Since Frank's parents live in the middle of that state, we got to spend New Year's weekend with them!

We rented a car Saturday, New Year's Eve, and drove to their house by 2 p.m. or so.

FISHING OFF THE DOCK.  We had beautiful weather, warm and lovely, and the first obvious thing to do was head out to the backyard dock and go fishing!  The kids caught fish after fish, and tossed them back into the canal.

(We tried to explain to Teresa later, that in REAL life, fishing does NOT mean catching 50 or 60 fish over the course of 3 days.  REAL life fishing means sitting.  And sitting.  And waiting some more.  And in some people's opinions, it's a little boring.  I don't think she believes us.)

TURTLE.  Somehow those turtles seem to like the bait, too...then the kids can scoop them up in the net.  Here's one just before he bolts to the edge of the dock and jumps back into the water.

CANAL VISITOR.  During the first afternoon's round of pseudo-fishing, we had a visitor come hang out with us.  It was a little alligator!  Yes, I think he was expecting to be fed.  Maybe he was used to people fishing and cleaning the fish there in the canal, and tossing the leftovers back into the water for him.

Here he is hanging back a little, while Teresa baits her hook and waits for a bite.

Here he is a little closer...the sun was getting lower in the sky and the water was so calm, you could see his reflection perfectly.

GOOD FOOD.  Grammy D rivaled the cruise chefs, with her snacks and treats and made-to-order meal plan for us!  Country ham, cheese straws, and fried chicken were among the requested favorites.  Plus, I have now been requested to make her "$300 chocolate cake" (which is so rich you can eat one tiny square, and then you'd better stop).  She also kept the Christmas tree up, so we could enjoy opening some gifts, a little late!

GARDEN VEGETABLES.  Poppa Dave has an amazing garden--he can make anything grow, in abundance!  Ha.  There was a broccoli stalk all ready to harvest, so here is David cutting off some broccoli that we then ate for part of our dinner.  (Who knows when we'll ever see David harvesting vegetables --heaven knows his parents do NOT have green thumbs -- so I had to get a picture of it!)

THREE DAVID FRANKLINS.  I got a photo of the "3 Davids" one afternoon--a nice photo opportunity, yes.  But there's also a funny part of this picture, which I didn't notice until today when we looked at them on the computer for the first time.  Look to the right side of Frank: what is that in the photo?  Looks like a fish, doesn't it?

Well, it IS!  Teresa just "happened" to throw the fish she had caught, back into the water in the instant that I snapped the photo.  Frank has a t-shirt from Seattle that says "Low-Flying Fish."  Here we have a real one.

It was a quick weekend, but a very fun one.  We need to go again, when we can stay an extra day or two for some hiking or other fun diversions the area has to offer.

Onward!  Have a wonderful week!  Kari

Christmas 2011

Hola and Happy New Year!Well it's Tuesday, the second Tuesday of 2012, to be exact!  It's been a whirlwind of activity the past couple of weeks.  We had fun times in fun places, and got to spend time with both sides of Grandparents, too.  You can't beat it!

I will try to avoid boring you with too many details.  Here was our Christmas week, with a "roll" of photos for you to peruse.  (Remember "rolls" of film?  24 photos!  Oh, and if you click on any of the photos, you can see them full-sized and JUST look at the photos.)

CRUISE.  We took a 7-day cruise on Carnival, to the Western Caribbean.  We left Christmas Eve.  The ship was huge -- I think it was 14 stories tall and the length of 3 football fields.  How something that size can stay afloat is beyond me.  It was like a small city.  4500 guests, and 1000 crew members.

AND I DIDN'T HAVE to COOK.  Did anyone ever say there was food on a cruise ship?  An embarrassing amount of food, I'll add.  An embarrassing amount of really GOOD food.  Enhanced, of course, by the simple fact that I was not in charge of planning the meals, shopping for it, bringing it home to unload, and preparing it.  My heart leaps for joy at the very thought. They could have served me grilled cheese for 7 days, and I would have taken it with a smile.

But we did NOT have to eat grilled cheese for 7 days!!!!!!!  (It was available, don't get me wrong.  I just did not eat any.)  Steak and lobster and chicken and fruit and pastries and juices and omelets and mongolian bar-b-que and soft breads and a whole slew of desserts.  24-hour ice-cream and pizza bar, too.  A ridiculous amount of really good food.  Our comical waiter also brought out stuff NOT ordered: "Here, kids, try the snails.  Here's a sample of alligator.  And don't forget frog legs."  Now the kids have tried them.

SWIMMING.  There were swimming pools, and fancy water slides for the kids to play on during the "at sea" days.  Here's a video of Frank going down the slide--sound and everything, if you turn it up!

COZUMEL.  First day to disembark, we spent on Cozumel.  (Now, the sidenote here is that Cozumel has some of the best scuba diving in the world...this, however, was not a scuba trip.  While that was a little disappointing, Frank consented to these other activities and still had a fun time.)

4-WHEEL BUGGIES.  We bounced around the jungle terrain on 4-wheel off-road buggies, you might call them, into holes and over hills and around curves and trees.  The more mud, the better, which Frank hit with as much speed as possible whenever possible.  He and Teresa were definitely the most covered when we finished.

BELIZE.  Second day to disembark: Belize!  This was our snorkel day, and Mom surprised me by saying that yes, she would indeed like to snorkel with us.  It was so cool!  We took a little plane to a little island.  A little boat took us out to where there were plenty of sharks and rays.  It was warm air, warm water...I can get used to 78 degrees, both air and water.  It was lovely.

We also took a little movie of the rays, while our guide fed them.  You can see David (black rash guard) and Teresa in the video.  And if you turn up the sound, you can even hear the bubbly sounds in the water.

ROATAN, HONDURAS.  Day three to disembark: Honduras.  They had iguana farms and a monkey farm that the kids wanted to explore.  Types of "petting zoos," if you will.  The U.S. has many rules and regulations that would probably make farms like this inaccessible to tourists.  But we went, and Frank counted 104 iguanas.  We fed them leaves and they looked like dinosaurs.

MONKEY FARM.  Drive the length of the little island, and next stop: mini animal farm!  They had a small variety, but the highlight was the monkeys.  One cage had 2 baby monkeys in it.  One climbed around and found Frank.  He held onto Frank's bent arm and looked up at his face.  Then he climbed into the crook of Frank's elbow and laid his head on Frank's forearm.  THEN...(wait for it)...this little monkey closed his eyes!  It was so cute you can't even imagine.  Here are monkey photos: Teresa, & Frank holding the monkeys.

RUINS.  The last day was back in Mexico, where we toured some ruins that none of us had been to.  Our guide was really great.  He explained the Mayan calendar, how they have 20 days in one unit, and 20 years in another unit, and 20 X 20 years in the largest unit of calendar measurement.  So, 2012 is the end of the largest unit, like 1999 was the last year of the melinneum for us.  But the calendar will keep going!  Just like there was life after the year 2000.

This is longer than I planned, and so I will finish this segment and do the Whitesell's house in Florida (New Year's Weekend) on another post.

We reminded the kids that this would BE Christmas...well you know what I mean...that they would NOT "also" have a bunch of gifts to open or anything.  We talked about it months ago, and the kids still wanted to go.  Then, after it was over, we asked them again...if we could rewind the clock 6 months, knowing what we know now, would you still like to have that trip "be" our Christmas, again?  All 3 said definitely, yes.  Success! :)

CHRISTMAS DAY.  It was really cool because Frank planned a "Sacrament Meeting" for us.  We had asked our Bishop previously, about having the sacrament on board.  He said usually you ask the local church leader for permission, but since we'd be "at sea" he could give that permission.

So we reserved a room to gather in, and left it open for any others to join us, in case there were any other members of the church on board.  It turned out that a really nice Catholic family came and since we were the only service on board, they asked if they could join us.  There was the Mom and Dad, and 3 college-aged daughters.

Frank and David prepared the sacrament with some condiment cups from the restaurant.  We read the Christmas Story from the scriptures, and sang Christmas carols.  Frank had his laptop and we listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It was a really neat meeting.  We won't have that kind of Sacrament Meeting again, will we!  It was a very nice way to remember the birth of our Savior.

Have a wonderful week!  Kari