Leaves, Donuts and More Leaves

Hello, All!

AUTUMN LEAVES. I think fall is falling...the front yard has enough leaves that Frank can't mow the grass. We need to rake. (David and Teresa are probably getting a little sad and emotional in Utah, eyes tearing up some, because they won't be able to participate in our annual raking ritual this year...)

Kara finished up her last week of soccer, so that is kind of a bummer. It's a good group to play soccer with! Now maybe she can get her homework started BEFORE 8 p.m. each night, and get a little more sleep? It's a nice goal, anyway :)

Besides some rain that we are in desperate need of, nothing earth-shattering this week. Frank had a couple of interviews and conversations with recruiters. That always feels better than "just" networking and researching companies for hours and hours. Which he is still doing anyway. We slowly plod along in the job search.

DONUTS FOR SALE. Kara organized the junior class Krispy Kreme fundraiser, where they sell boxes of doughnuts at the soccer fields, and the town dump. The Wayland Town Dump is a tradition here in Massachusetts. Everybody in town takes their trash and recycle stuff to the dump every Saturday. It's a social event!

There is also a table there where people leave used items, and others can pick up their used bikes, skates, kids toys, books...you name it! Kind of a "used item swap."

(WE just have someone come get our trash each week. But a lot of other people go to the dump on Saturdays.)

Cool mushroom in the front yard:
it's as big as a PLATE! :)

Anyway, all that explanation was so you know that to sell donuts at the town dump, is actually a good idea on a Saturday morning. LOTS of people come by.

FALL FOLIAGE. I'm including some fall pics I took a couple of weeks ago. Frank was coming home just as the sun was going down. He called me, and said "if you're not outside taking pictures right now, you're missing out!" It was a beautiful afternoon with some great colors.

My self-imposed blog time is up! Have a great week!

Love, Kari

Wet Leaves and Listening to Books

Hello, All--

It's been a week of sunny weather, clouds, downpour, clouds, and now sunshine again!

SCOUTING. Frank took the scouts on a campout, Friday/Saturday.  (Do you want to GUESS which part of the weather hit during the campout??)

Yes, they camped in tents, during the only 24-hour period of the week that gave us over an inch of rain. Ugh! He planned for it, and told the scouts about what they could do to prep for rain. "At least" the temperatures stayed above freezing! Freezing temps would have been ultra-miserable.

During their overnight rainstorm, the temperatures stayed in the 60's. Still soggy wet, but not FREEZING wet. Tolerable. This is camping in New England.

DRIVING THE VAN. Kara has enjoyed the freedom, I believe, of being able to drive all by herself, to seminary and school, on small errands and to soccer practice. She would probably love to drive a vehicle "cooler" than the minivan. But the 14-year-old blue minivan is what we have for her. 130,000 miles so far :) :) :)

FALL COLORS. Leaves are beautiful around town! Here are a couple of pics I took a few days ago.

(Also the header -- photo at the top of the blog -- that yellow-leaf tree is next to a church, a couple of miles from our house.) After this weekend's heavy rains and wind, many trees are showing bare limbs.


BOOKS ON CD. I love libraries. I think Benjamin Franklin was a genius for thinking them up! If you are looking for books to listen to as you drive around...this month I listened to:
1) Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner,
2) The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck, and
3) The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

Hope your week has gone well!
Kari

New Driver and New Siding

Hello, All!-- (click on the pics for enlargement! Especially the house pics at the end :) )

TEST DAY. We now have another driver in the family! Kara took her Road Test early Saturday morning...and passed, Ding-Ding-Ding! She can drive herself places, and family members only, for the next 6 months.

We did have to finagle the timing, since the PSAT was scheduled at the high school for that same morning.
She got up bright and early and was FIRST in line. Starting at 6:30 a.m., she drove around with the driving school people for maybe 20 or 25 minutes. Then at 7 or so, she took the test. Awesome. Congratulations, Kara!! :) :) :)

She went from there, directly over to the high school to check in for the PSAT at 7:30 a.m. It worked, whew!

They all run across the field together, at the end of the game:
Kara is on the far right

SOCCER. Here are some pics of Kara playing soccer. I may have mentioned before, for home games they wear white, and for away games they wear black. Soccer cleats come in some amazing colors these days! Last year she wore these neon orange Nike cleats. This year she's wearing bright blue ones.

They had a game last night, and it was action-packed and the girls played really well. We didn't win...but it was a really good game, 0-1.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS. The before/after pics I wanted to show, are of our house. We have been in Massachusetts for 8 years 2 1/2 months now...we are approaching our ninth winter. (And yes, I'm counting. No use pretending I'm not.)

Over the course of those years, we have worked lots, and PAID to have lots of work done to this 1950 house in every room. This includes:

Cleaning out and making livable a nasty, old garage.
Full remodel of kitchen and bathrooms.
Painting. Almost everywhere.
Building a closet and hallway.
Building front porch steps.
Changing lighting.
Adding lighting.
Adding ceiling fans.
Changing all doors to 6-panel.
New front door.
Changing from oil heating to gas heating.
Adding heat/ac units to 2 separate rooms.
Adding French drains to the garage, and replacing drywall and flooring in the basement (remember our awful flooding year? I do.)
Widening the driveway.
Adding a heat zone upstairs where the MBR is.
New fireplace.
New slider doors out to the deck.
Stone steps down the front/side yard of the house.

This is my off-the-top-of-my-head list! If we went back and really looked, the list would be twice or 3 times that long. This is the backstory for the following...

LOTS OF HAIL. SO. Last August (2015) there was a quick hailstorm in Wayland. 15 minutes tops. It zipped on through, really weird. I posted pics in the blog then...here is Frank holding some hail, and you can see it in the yard.

Well, we had damage to the roof of the car, so in the next few months we had that fixed.

All of a sudden, though, there were roofers coming to the door every few days. "Can we do an estimate on your roof for hail damage? You might get some insurance money for a new roof!" Nah, nah, we didn't believe them so we brushed them off.

Then for some reason we decided to let them go up and look. They thought we could get a new roof, paid for by insurance. "I see dings on your siding, too. Why don't we see if you can get new siding?"

The roof company made their estimate and then the insurance guy came out. Guess what, both agreed that we could get a new roof AND siding! Wow, cool!

FRONT PORCH OVERHANG. Then we said "Well if you're taking off the roof and siding, we should actually get an overhang built over the front porch. We've always wanted that, and this is perfect timing for it."

Well. Things always take longer than you think they will. Estimates, carpenter appointments, blueprints, permits. Getting on the calendar. Things got pushed out and pushed out, so then it was December, then April...then June, then August again (2 months ago).

But it's done now. 1 year and 2 months after the storm, we have a new roof, new siding, overhang over the front porch, and a new awning over the deck! (I didn't take a picture of the awning but it looks TONS better than the old one...it was in bad shape, hammered even more by the hail.)

BEFORE: 2008

I'll include a before picture, when we bought the house. FYI, "before" is a scanned photo of the Realtor's packet, and I did not take it...it is a little grainy and so of course it will not be as clear as the "after" pictures! But here they are.

AFTER: 2016

I have typed a lot more than I planned -- hope you're still awake! The leaves are changing now, and it's a beautiful drive around town, to church or to school.

Have a great week!
Love, Kari

Open Houses and Kangaroo Rats

Hola!

Just checking in from the northeast corner of the country. (Reminder: you can click on these pics to make them bigger.)

It rained on us all Saturday night, and all day Sunday. We found out that it was a loooooong reaching arm of hurricane Matthew, all the way up into Maine. No complaints here, though...we have had a really dry summer. The ponds and lakes are hurting.

This week is the first week the temperatures will stay below 70. Waaaahhh! I'm still holding on to summer! But I think Fall is actually upon us.

The leaves around town, though, are changing and they are beautiful! We drove west, to central Massachusetts over the weekend, and it was a really pretty drive.

TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE. Last Monday, we went to the Open House for the Hartford, CT temple! It's a smaller temple, and so beautiful. We "stopped by" UMass Amherst and picked up Angela, and we 4 (myself, Frank, Kara & Angela) went to the open house. Kara did not have school that day, and it was a nice drive & chance to catch up with Angela.  Here are some pics of the temple grounds.

SOCCER. Kara continues to have 1 or 2 soccer games every week.  For away games, they wear black & orange, and for home games they wear white & orange. When they play neighboring towns Sudbury or Weston, we can get to those within 15 minutes, so we attend those away games. Here are some pics from the Sudbury game.

INTERVIEWS AND RESUMES. Frank continues with the job search. It seems like he'll have a week with a couple of interviews, which is encouraging, then a week with NOTHING. Booo. It's kind of a slow process. So many pieces to the puzzle, when a company tries to fill a position. He has interviewed with a few companies in this area: Waltham, Cambridge, and Billerica. We've always tried to keep the commute small. There are 2 out of state positions that he interviewed for: he got through a first or 2nd round of interviews, then quiet. No more news from them.

You never know if "no news" means they are done with you??!?! They may have internal candidates who have applied, they may put hiring on hold, and in Frank's case, he may be "over-qualified" and they'd rather pay somebody less money, who has less experience. Of course, it doesn't have to mean they have forgotten you. But you do have to continue to drum up new leads, in case they have!  Ha. It'll all work out. It's just a slow process.

Meanwhile, I continue tutoring 2 days a week. The kids are enthusiastic for the most part, and I like the teachers I work with.

ON CAMPUS JOBS. David and Teresa keep on keeping on, with classes and homework.

David has been working concessions, when BYU has a home football game. He's not crazy about watching football, so that job suits him well!

Teresa was asked by one of her wildlife science professors if she wanted to help them in the lab or in the field, whatever they needed, since "the department has some money to pay a T.A. this semester." A little extra cash can only help, right! (Oh, especially since David and Teresa are making more in their 10-hour-a-week jobs than their dad is making right now?!?!? Ha!)

Internet photo

CAMPING EDUCATION. Oh, the fun "field trip" Teresa told us about, was camping for 2 days last weekend with one of her wildlife classes. They learned how to catch animals with their bare hands, to study them. The professor took them on night drives, and they set traps along the way. Someone in each car had a powerful spotlight, shining it out the window at the surrounding woods/fields they were driving by. When they saw movement (an animal), they stopped, and all the students in the car jumped out and chased the animal. They surrounded it in a circle, and one student would catch it. Then the professor would give a mini-lecture on that animal. One night they caught a kangaroo rat, and a jack rabbit. Here are some internet photos of those animals.

Internet photo

Better get on with the day! Have a great week!
Love, Kari