Tribute to Two Exceptional Women

Hello--

Frank has two aunts who have had declining health.  One of them has struggled for years (his mother's sister Celene), and one of them for months (his father's sister Mary Lou).  In a little bit of a strange coincidence, they passed away on the same day last week.

Both of these women have been such a positive influence in his life.

Mary Lou (former college professor) loved to camp and study birds.  She came to our house in Colorado years ago, with her customized van, all set up for her to camp across the country and look for birds.  Frank and I explored the inside of the van and thought, "now, THIS is camping!"  Mary Lou belonged to the "700 Club" of birdwatchers, meaning that she had seen and identified and logged 700 different species of birds in her travels.  Here is a picture of Mary Lou (with her brothers, including David, Frank's dad) maybe 12 or so years ago.

Bill, David, Sam, Mary Lou

holding Frank at 2 mos old

Celene, also known as "Aunt Mommy" to Frank and his sisters, was always a big part of their lives growing up.  She was there for all the big events, and small ones too.

Here she is with baby Frank in the 60's:

Aunt Mommy sent birthday cards to everybody WAY into their adult lives.  She liked to receive photos of our kids each year, and see how they were growing.

Here is Aunt Mommy and Frank, at the house in Fairfax Station around his high school graduation time:

And here she is with her sister Diane (Frank's mom) and brother Bob, maybe 10 years ago.

I just found another one.  This one is a picture of her at our wedding reception with Pam and Mandy (2yrs), and the twins Carter and Weston, her grandkids. (Mandy just graduated college.  Carter and Weston are both married now, I'm pretty sure.)

A fun little trip down memory lane.  I'm sorry that I don't have more photos of Mary Lou.

We leave Saturday to get together with Frank's parents, and Dana and her family in Virginia for a week.  Celene's funeral is Sunday, so we'll go there first.

It's sunny and in the high 90's today!  The kids just took their last final at the high school, and it was Kara's last day (yearbook-signing) at the middle school.  Kind of exciting to have end-of-school-year events going on.

Have a good weekend.  Kari

Happy Father's Day!

Hola!

Another glorious weekend--the sun shines, the flowers bloom.  We got to wish the Father in our house a Happy Father's Day today!

Kara provides the signage for all festive events.  This time David made one too, on the whiteboard.

The requested favorite meal...southern style!  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fruit salad and biscuits.  And of course we can't forget chocolate pie for dessert.

Kara made Frank a funny little placque: a painted rock with eyeballs for each of us, glued to a painted plaque.  The gold label at the bottom says: "The Whitesell Family Rocks" -- ha-ha!  I'll take a picture of that one.  It's very cool.

We have cool dads to thank and be grateful for.  My hubby would not be who he is without his dad, so that makes me eternally thankful to him!  Here they are back in the 1970's.

Frank & his dad David

And, of course, I'm thinking of my own Dad this day!  If I could call him, I would tell him all about the end-of-year school activities the kids are doing.  Music concerts, piano recitals, graduation parties of the outgoing seniors.

David and Teresa study for their finals at the high school, which will be this week, Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday.  Then they are out for the summer.  Pretty weird.

very handsome at 20

We had a high school awards assembly this week, too, and both David & Teresa received awards.  They both received the Principal's award for perfect attendance and good citizenship.  David also got an award for Physics, Spanish, and a Service award for his hours of participation in S.A.D.D.  That is the school & community group that focuses on teen substance abuse and awareness.

(I love this picture of my parents! 22 years ago.)

So here are two photos of my dad, who I cannot call on the telephone but I think about him all the time anyway.

And here's a (cranberry juice) toast to my husband Frank, who is a really cool dad to our really cool kids.  May I follow your example and say "yes" more often than I say "no."  And may I join in the playing instead of usually trying to stifle it because it's too loud or the wrong time.  Thanks for reminding me to smile and relish life a little more.

Frank loves to play :)

Happy Father's Day.  You're the best.

Kari

Glorious weather, finally

Hola!

It seems like we are back to springtime in New England!  Yes, temperatures in the 70's, sunshine and a great Saturday over the weekend to get the lawn mowed.

Ok, that last piece may not sound like that glorious of an activity.  But it has rained so much this past week off and on, that we had LOOOOOOOOOOng grass in the yard, and the bushes have been growing like crazy.  You can't mow the grass when it's actually raining...

So we had to find the magical time when it was NOT raining, AND someone was physically present, to mow.  This has proven to be more difficult than it seemed.

The accomplishments of the day (Saturday) were these:

MOWED GRASS.  Doesn't the lawn look nice?  Thank you to David, Teresa and Kara, who all contribute this summer and mow a third of our lawns each.

PORCH LIGHT AND NUMBER ON OUR HOUSE.  We've lived here for almost four years.  All that time, we have had no number on our house, and we had a really lame light that was from the 50's and painted over sloppily.  NOW, we have a nicer, crisp porch light that lights up our nicer, crisp house number at night.

PUT NUMBER ON MAILBOX.  Seems small.  But it's always been hard to see the house number when it's dark.  Not anymore!
CLOSET LIGHT.  I found this light in its box, tucked away in the garage.  I think we bought it 2 years ago, and never got around to putting it in our bedroom closet!  Now it is installed.
(Sorry, no photo!...it's better than it was, take my word for it.)
NEWS OF THE WEEKEND.  Kara got her ears pierced this weekend!  Yep.  Clean them 3 times a day and wear the studs for 6 weeks.  She talked it up at school and had her friends saying "I want to come!"  So Friday evening we loaded up 7 girls plus our family, and took them to The Mall.

GET EARS PIERCED.

EAT DINNER IN FOOD COURT.  It is great to be in a food court where every child can order dinner from a different place if they want, and we can still sit together to eat.

Frank ordered sushi for us and it was so yummy.

All in all, it was a productive weekend.  Kari

Confusing June

Hola!

I hear that this summer is predicted to be "hot."  Maybe somehow tied to the "mild" winter we just had.  And yet I'm sitting at the computer in long pants and a jacket in June.  Sigh.

Rain and clouds, high humidity and etc. make a combination for some weird weather!  Whenever I get belligerent and put on capris or shorts, I'm back in 30 minutes to change because I'm freezing.  My Arizona relatives moan about 100 degree temps already this season!  Oh well, what do you do.

Concerts, class parties, field trips and other culminating events mark the season/end of school year for the kids.  Seems like every other night we're back at one of the schools for a performance.  This is May and June. :)

Kara's Select Chorus went to be judged last Friday, with 30 other choruses from around the state.  They earned an "Excellent" rating.  We saw that same show 2 nights ago.  The kids did a really good job.

Teresa has studied every day for the past month, it seems (an eternity--just ask her), to brush up on topics for the Biology SAT subject test.  She's only a Freshman, but they encourage the kids to take the test as they finish Honors Biology.  That was last Saturday, in the pouring rain.  Whew, that one's over!



This is what he'd probably LIKE to drive...

And I think I told you that David passed his Driver's License Road Test a few weeks ago--he is enjoying the freedom of driving by himself, and I do enjoy "sending" him places.  He doesn't mind running errands for me, or picking up his siblings from their activities.

Nothing earth-shattering this week.  Happy Wednesday!  Kari