Arizona, Mexican Food and another Minute of Daylight

Hello, All!

It has been a little while since I posted. We only have one more day left in January! YESSS!

Did you know that after Christmas, we get an additional MINUTE of daylight every day? My friend relayed that cool tidbit-fact to me today. :)

I had a lovely almost-week in Tucson, so that was a definite highlight. Frank and Kara held down the fort here in Wayland, letting me have a nice visit with Mom and Grandma.

The Arizona Temple will be finished this summer!

106 years young :)

Avery + Mom & Dad

I also saw Kris/Jessica/Avery/Trent, and we even got to see Avery perform in her gymnastics meet!

THAT was a real treat--those girls were SO cute! :) :) :) And limber. Wow, they can all do the splits :0 :0 :0



Grandma, Mom and I went out to dinner at Lupes, a yummy Mexican restaurant close to their house. Yep, 106 and she can still go have dinner out! Not every day. But one day, yes!

We do not have snow on the ground at this moment, which is another happy factoid for me. The true skiers around here are not all that happy about it. I do have a couple of snow-y photos to share, though.


Kara has survived two weeks of testing: one week of quarter-finals, then the SAT, then one week of Mid-terms. I don't quite get why they had to do end-of-quarter tests AND midterms. But there you have it. Her brain is full. Ugh.

Internet photo

Teresa, on the other hand, survived getting her wisdom teeth out, just 3 days ago. Double-Ugh! But it did go smoothly, and she did not have tons of swelling. Her roommates have taken good care of her.

David is taking a beginning Chinese class this term.  He listens to Chinese via headphones, while he works his quiet part-time custodial job each afternoon. (A double-good use of time!)

Well the day is moving on...
Have a great week!

Love, Kari

Flying Away and Shoveling

Hola!

How was your first week of 2017?

We had David and Teresa home the whole week!

SCHOOL STARTS. Of course, last week Kara and I went back to school, and Frank was working (yippee for that, right? :) :) ). David and Teresa tried to visit friends or have lunch with them, or whatever, right up until hours before we went to the airport on Saturday.

I found this picture of David by the Highlander:
New Year's Eve 8 years ago

LIFE HACK: 5 drivers have to actually communicate, often repeating themselves many times in a row, to share 3 cars.  (P.S. Life Hack definition: "A strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way.")

FLYING EARLY. Then, Dark and Early on Saturday morning, we got out the door at 5a.m. to drive them to the airport! For a 7a.m. flight. And then...just like that...they were gone :( :( :(

Look there are BUDS on this tree! Really!

Timing was actually good, though, for them to fly out that early. Our first snowstorm of the new year

started about noon, and continued on into the night. Not really a blizzard, but just a steady snowstorm. We got about 6 inches.

LATE CHURCH. Another blessing of the new year: we have church from 1-4p.m.! Frank was able to "sleep in" a little, then get up and shovel us out this morning. (He shovels, and I take pictures. So nice we can divide the work evenly.) Blue skies, and the roads had already been cleared. Just hours after the snow falls, it is still WHITE! Ha. It was really pretty. Cold, but pretty.

MISSION PREP. Teresa's break was far from leisurely. She tried to check off all the boxes, to complete the application to go on a mission :) :) :) She can't choose where she goes, but among other things she tells them her availability date, and if she is willing to learn a language, etc.  (She would like to start soon after the semester ends, the end of April. Lots of factors determine her actual start date, so we won't know that until she opens the letter, maybe in a month or so.)

She had dentist and doctor appointments, tb test reading, interviews with church leaders...the very last piece is insurance. Since Frank just started with Wolters Kluwer, he sent in all the info this past week for our family for insurance. We should get the cards & policy numbers next week sometime. Then they can push the "submit" button and finish the application!

Well I hope your week was filled with productive moments, including quiet moments to reflect. Upward and onward, and remember, in the words of our ever-looking-at-the-bright-side-neighbor Rob, "Today is One Day Closer To Spring!!"

Love, Kari

Mexican Food and a Magic Show

Happy New Year!

okay this is NOT Frank or I
but I bet we ALMOST
 looked like this!

WELCOME 2017. Just thinking about our New Year's Eve...each child went to a respective friend's house, to celebrate, and Frank and I went to the church to socialize :) They had music and food, in the gym, and we saw some people we hadn't chatted with in awhile. We also learned the Merengue.

David and Teresa are trying to see people, and squeeze in any last activities they can, in their last couple of days here. Their semester starts next week, so they will fly back to Provo on Saturday.


Kara went back to school today, like me.

And today was Frank's first day in the office! (He was working last week, but from home. Now he'll go to the office in Waltham, 2 towns over, every day.) Our Christmas vacation has officially come to an end.

CHRISTMAS "STAYCATION"
Activities included:

*Board Games.

*Taqueria Mexico, Our favorite Mexican Restaurant last night :)

*Books

*Movies

*Zucchini Bread

*Magic Show in Boston: illusionist Ivan Amodei!

*Visiting favorite high school teachers

*Christmas Eve dinner with the Berreys (family friends from Michigan, 20 yrs ago)

*Music program and beautiful Christmas messages, the Sunday before Christmas and Day

*Angela spent Christmas with us, too! (She's a -- gasp -- senior this year, and will graduate from UMass in Business Marketing in May.)

All in all, it was a very full but not too full holiday break, and enjoyable time spent with family. It's fun to have more people at the table to add to the conversation or tell us about different adventures.

Have a great week!
Love, Kari