One Week at a Time

Happy Monday, once again! (ok that was yesterday...)

One more week of January.  I'm counting down.  That is all.

WATER.  I'm trying to drink more water these days!  (Frank is too, even though he hates it.) The health benefits of water are astounding. Here are 6 quick reasons (from webmd.com) to drink more water.

1) Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids.
2) Water Can Help Control Calories.
3) Water Helps Energize Muscles.
4) Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good.
5) Water Helps Your Kidneys.
6) Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function.

Ta-Daaa!

FRISBEE in PHOENIX.  David went with his Ultimate (frisbee) BYU team to the "New Year Fest" tournament in Phoenix last weekend!  It was at a huge soccer stadium -- he thought there were 20 fields, with about 60 teams/colleges represented.  My mom drove over and watched the BYU team play.  She's one step ahead of us: because of distance, we'll probably never see any of his games. :(

STOMACH FLU.  Kara (8th grade) was home from school today with stomach flu.  So much for getting a flu shot, right??  (I know, there are dozens of strains of "flu..." blah-blah-blah.)  I can't think of many things I hate more than throwing up.  So she had 9 hours of it.  A perfectly miserable day for her.  Sorry, Kara!
(OK, it's Tuesday now...she's 110% back to her old self, and will be back to school tomorrow.)

SAT PREP.  Teresa is getting ready to take the next SAT test, in early March.  There are prep courses to help them with strategies, in answering certain types of questions, etc....her course will start this week.  (And BOY is she excited for THAT!  Let me tell YOU!) No, actually, she is not being coerced into it.  Rational discussion and reasoning made her decide this was the course she'd take.  We didn't even have to take a loan out for the bribe.

BABYSITTING on the EAST COAST.  Just so you know, babysitters get paid more here than they do "Out West." After watching the girls come home from their babysitting evenings and finding out their earnings, I will say it's tempting.  I may just take up some moonlighting jobs in this area. (Ok, joking, but it does raise eyebrows occasionally!)

And finally...

COUNTDOWN to THIS FRIDAY.  I can't wait until this Friday, because it is January 31st!  (Not only is it Frank's sister Dana's birthday, which is fabulous of course.)  But the last day of January means...drumroll please... we made it through January!  YESSS!!!!  This has been my goal for weeks.  Single digits will be the death of me, I think, and we have had wayyyy too many of them this month.  But Friday, we are officially through January.  There may, indeed, be hope ahead.

Have a lovely week!  Kari

Winter Wonderland and Wisdom Teeth

Hola!

SPRING-LIKE? Well let's not get carried away.  We had a whole week of "non-winter" weather, the temps staying high enough to melt the snow, and when the sun came out it melted even more.  We saw the grass in everybody's yard, and it was easy to get places.

spring friend

(Tangent: We didn't really see this toad today.  But it's cool, right?  Teresa's good eyes spotted him on a hike over the summer.)

WINTER WHITE.  Today, winter is back!  Looking outside it is a true Winter wonderland.  Huge, wet snowflakes are softly coming down, covering every branch and twig with white and fluffy snow.   (Well it's not really "fluffy" at all!  It's right about 30, where it could almost be rain, but it's snow.  So it's REALLY wet, very heavy and sloppy.)  It is, however, beautiful.  White, clean, and pristine.  Awesome!

Another couple of hours and the snowplows will come through -- actually I just saw the guy drive by who sands the road.  Add a coating of brown.  Then traffic slushes through, and it's dirty with exhaust.  Short-lived, but if you catch it with good timing, you get a few minutes of beautiful, white, Winter Wonderland!  :)

WISDOM TEETH.  David has survived his day with the oral surgeon.  With 4 impacted wisdom teeth, all sideways and below the gumline, they really weren't doing anybody any good!  I wonder why they call them "wisdom teeth," anyway?

His 3rd molars looked exactly like this (NOT his xray, though)

WIKI: Ok, I just googled it and here's the etymology from wikipedia: They are generally thought to be called wisdom teeth because they appear so late – much later than the other teeth, at an age where people are presumably "wiser" than as a child, when the other teeth erupt. The term probably came as a translation of the Latin dens sapientiae.  Now we all know.

(WARNING: Of course, as they tell the kids in school, you can't use Wikipedia as an official source of valid and factual information. Any Average Joe surfing the Internet can go in and make stuff up on Wikipedia.  BUT, you can use it for an overview of a new topic, to get some general information.)

DAVID's AFTERNOON: his teeth extractions went as smoothly as could be hoped for, I believe!  My cousin's son, Jeff, is a Jr. or Senior at BYU.  He was the designated driver and otherwise Responsible Adult.  We are forever grateful for his generosity with his whole Friday afternoon and evening!

David told me he stayed awake until the IV went in, then the next thing he knew he woke up in Shopko (the store with the pharmacy where they got the prescriptions).  I said, "You woke up IN Shopko?  You mean you don't remember talking to the dentist at the end, leaving the clinic and riding over TO Shopko?"  "Nope," he says.  "But Jeff said I didn't do anything TOO weird.  Just walk a little funny."

Normal stuff.  Get the prescriptions, start the pain medication and antibiotics.  Pick up applesauce, pudding, protein drinks, etc.  He got back and I guess the cafeteria stays open pretty late.  He had some applesauce, and "the dessert last night was coconut cream pie, and that's KIND of like pudding...  So he even got dessert that night?!? ha.

He slept about 11 hours last night, and there is a little swelling today.  Chubby cheeks.

Baby David had chubby cheeks!

Whew!  He'll have to just eat soft things for the whole coming week, but it is a huge relief to get that part behind him.


Such an unpleasant thing to have to go through.  Oh, except for my nephew Dallas, and our friend Zoe down the street: they do not HAVE any wisdom teeth!  What luck! :)

TMI. Probably more details than you wanted with the wisdom teeth.  No photos, sorry, but maybe the Internet has some good close-ups of the mini-operation -- EEEEwwwww! No, just joking, I won't be looking for those photos.

MEALS.  Kara has made dinner for us for the past 9 days.  Her goal is 2 weeks.  She's getting closer!

DRIVING.  Teresa is inching closer to the required hours of driving with an instructor.  One. Hour. At. A. Time.

Signing off now.  Have a great long weekend! (if you happen to get Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off.  We do.)  Kari

New Year Antics

Hello and Happy New Year!

I think it's okay, actually, to say "Happy New Year" for the entire month of January.  It is the FIRST month of the year, right, and you still get excused for your habitual writing-of-the-date-wrong. (Not 2013, that's SO LAST YEAR!  It's "2014.")  I know this will take a weight off of your shoulders.  It's official.  You can say "Happy New Year" all month long.

We are back into the swing of things, and we are even getting a reprieve from our obscenely cold temperatures!  YESSS!  A week ago it was getting down to (gasp) below zero at night.  Yep, your nose hairs freeze when you breathe in, and inhaling through your mouth makes you cough.  Hate that.  Yesterday, drumroll please... I think it got up to 50.

NEW MANTRA.  My very friendly, very positive neighbor said it best: during the frigid temps...I ran into him at the grocery store.  With a contagious grin, he said, "It's one day closer to spring!"  So that's what I keep telling myself.  One day closer to spring.

flowers: my symbol of spring coming! :)

DAVID. A LITTLE LATE.  David has started 2nd semester classes.  He was supposed to return last Sunday, but his flight got cancelled because of the horrid weather in Detroit (his connection city).  In a series of unfortunate events, he tried to fly standby on Monday but no luck.  He took a plane Tuesday and arrived that evening back at school.  Bummer to miss the first 2 days of school, but he's back now.  We skyped him this afternoon and he's back into his routine.

TERESA's CLEAN ROOM.  Teresa, our 16-year-old daughter, gave me this coupon for Christmas: "Will keep room clean for a week!" So yesterday I cashed it in...we attacked her desk, recycled, threw out papers from classes she took 2 years ago. We eliminated piles in the corners, and created a bin in the garage of things she really wanted to keep. At the end she looked around and sighed dejectedly, "Mom, what I really meant by the coupon was that you'd be able to see my carpet."  (She may just never give me another Christmas coupon??!?)  It makes me so happy to see her room, sometimes I just walk in there and look around.  NICE! :)
 
Guess I should have had before/after photos, but it looks good, right?

KARA 14 MEALS.  Kara (8th grade) has now made our dinners for 4 days.  One of her goals is to plan and make nutritious meals for 2 weeks!  That's 14 meals.  I agree with Jamie Oliver, in his TED talk: Teach Every Child About Food.  He says that every American child, before they leave school, should know how to cook 10 healthy meals.  (He says a lot of other stuff, too.  Disturbing, the direction we as a country and world are headed in terms of food consumption.)

Anyway, Kara is on her way to her 14-meal goal.  This is an Internet photo, but one of her salads really did look like this.

TEETH.  So you can send good thoughts & prayers David's way this Friday...he gets his wisdom teeth out then.  Yep, it has to be done, for everyone except those lucky people who somehow don't HAVE any?!? But he does.  All 4.  We'll keep you posted. :)

Have a great week!  Kari