Birthdays and Mission Calls

Hola Everybody!

We have had a good week, I'd say. Lots to think about and celebrate!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. Tuesday was Kara's 17th birthday. WHAAAT? Craziness! Yes, our "baby" turned 17. She requested ice cream/oreo pie, so we had a cooooold treat to go with her choice for dinner :) Here are some pics, and you can see the Red Plate in one of them, I think. (The Red Plate comes out for birthdays and special events! Quite a history it has, by now, ha.)

MISSION NEWS. Then Teresa's fun news came on Thursday. She decided to serve a mission, like David and a lot of her friends and various relatives, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She'll have 18 months of focused studying and serving, learning more about the gospel and helping interested people learn more about Christ. She applied for the mission in January, and has been waiting, sometimes patiently and sometimes not, (ha!) for her assignment. It came in the mail on Thursday. She Skyped with us as she opened it!

the light blue lake on the lower right is Lake Tahoe

She will be going to northern California -- it's the Roseville mission, just west of Lake Tahoe. Yippee! I absolutely love that state. I told her I'd visit but not tell her...just to go to California :) :) :) (Okay, just kidding, we're not really supposed to visit them. Too distracting and they don't want them to get homesick all over again. But we can email, write, and send packages all we want, and she can call us on Mother's Day and Christmas Day.)

Kara holds the phone while facetiming Angela,
as Teresa reads the letter on Skype :) :)

She opened it with her family, then a couple of hours later she had friends come to her apartment and she told them. It was a long time coming and she has had time to practice patience! ha. She'll report to the Provo MTC on May 10. Three weeks of training, then off to CA!

SPANISH NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY. The other cool thing this week, was that Wayland High School started a chapter of the Spanish Honor Society, and Kara was inducted into it! She's in her 4th year of Spanish. It has been a lot of work, and now the students who are working so hard with the language can be acknowledged for it. Way to go, Kara :)

Kara (far left) with friends in the SHH

more candles (Kara's not in
this one)

walking with candles

THE FULL BRAIN. Frank is still adjusting to being overwhelmed with All Things New in his job...LOTS to learn in the first 6 months. We're still feeling like it's a good fit, and he has some really good people to work with. That's a big deal.

SPRING, KIND OF. According to the calendar, Spring came on Monday. I'm still telling myself that, even though it will probably be cold for 6 more weeks?!?! But spring is here in theory :)

Well I think that covers our week, for the most part.

Time for bed! Have a restful and rejuvenating Sunday :)

Love, Kari

Snow Showers and Baby Showers

Hola, Familia!

SNOW DAY. A kind of weird week...we got about 8 inches of snow on Tuesday, but at the end it rained instead of snowed, so then it froze just on top. The timing of the storm was such that they cancelled school the evening before, even though it wasn't supposed to start until about 10 a.m. the next morning. Middle-of-the-week snowdays throw me off completely. Every day for the rest of the week I'm saying "WHAT day is it, again??"

unfrosted

COOKIE FEST. Kara's class (of 2018) started selling cookies for a fundraiser for Prom. They told them about it in the class meeting on Thursday...so Kara made 240 sugar cookies on Wednesday, frosted, with "2018" on them. Yes, every single surface in the kitchen had a sugar cookie on it! And then transporting them...THAT was an exercise in creativity :) It was a team effort and all 3 of us (Frank, myself and Kara) put in some time there.

After using the frosting bag for that many cookies,
she started her homework: "I can't even write!"

RETRO 50's BABY SHOWER. This morning I went to a baby shower with a 'retro' theme.

Very cute, with people dressing up as 1950's housewives. We also gave the mom (it's her 3rd baby) bad/funny advice that might have come from that era: "Don't forget to wear high heels when you vacuum or dust!" "If you don't breast feed, your child won't go to college!"

goofy/kissy faces

It was a fun morning and those particular women go all out for these gatherings, so it was a scrumptious spread. If I can get these photos off my phone, I'll include them.

TERESA's MISSION CALL. Still waiting, ha! The status online has moved to the next level of "to be assigned." That is all I know.

I think that covers the week! Can't wait to see when the magic day is, for Rachelle's (our niece, Kim's daughter) baby to come. Frank's bday was the 3rd, so too late to have the baby then. Kara's bday is this Tuesday, the 21st. Mine the 29th. So I vote either for the 21st or 29th, so we can share our bdays with Rachelle & Shad's new baby :) :) :)

Have a good rest of the weekend, love, Kari

P.S. Teresa went to some Utah national parks and has some awesome pics. I'll put them in next week.

SAT round 2 and a Little Snow

Hola, Familia--

QUICK VISIT. It's the weekend again! We got to see Angela this weekend, as she begins her Spring Break. She's going to Puerto Rico with her roommate and some other friends.(Oh, I didn't take any photos in the 18 hours she was here...Bummer!) Here's the picture we took at Christmastime, just before we headed off to church.

Internet photo,
but I should try one like this

STANDARDIZED TESTS. Kara took the SAT this morning, for the 2nd time. She says she felt better about the writing part, so that's good. It's a long test. Results take a long time to get here, too. You kind of have to forget about it, then one day out of the blue you get an email that says "your test scores will be availble online tomorrow."

PUT IT ON YOUR LIST. Frank and I just finished watching "The Finest Hours" on Netflix and I am exhausted. This movie is based on the book about the true events of 1952, the most harrowing rescue in Coast Guard history. Right off the coast of Cape Cod, here! It showed the freezing rain and snow storms of New England coast, and the horrible conditions that occurred the night 2 huge boats cracked in two and needed to be rescued. I know winter storms can be rough here, so while I watched, I shivered and froze the whole movie... and I was inside my house (?!??!). It was a great movie and an even better story of heroism under impossible conditions.

BIG ANNIVERSARY. Frank and I have an anniversary coming up in 3 months...it's 25, and for that many years now, he has said "Someday we'll go back to where I served my mission (Spain)...you'll like it :) So with this year being a big anniversary year, we decided this is a good excuse to finally go.

we got a little bit of fluffy snow on Friday

The public schools get an April Break (3rd week in April, I think...), and that's when we will go to Spain. We told David and Teresa no offense, but they will be taking finals at that time, and Kara just happens to be the lucky one who still lives at home! The 3 of us will go over--we can all practice our Spanish.

TERESA ASSIGNMENT TIMING. You probably have given up on any Teresa mission news, but she is still excited to go! Her most recent news on the mission front, is that she will be assigned this coming Wed/Thurs (March 15/16), then a few days for paperwork so maybe it will be sent out the next Tuesday after that (21st), so she should receive it at the latest, 2 weeks from now (25th).

Time for bed! Have a wonderful Sunday :) :) :)

Kari

Birthdays, Bugs and Stalking

Hola, Familia--
We've had another week! Yep, it happens whether I'm prepared for it or not.

BIRTHDAY FUN. Frank's bday was Friday! We had his chocolate pie on Thursday, because of the many things already on the calendar for Friday and Saturday.

Kara lights the candle :)

Tonight (Monday) Frank and I have tickets to an orchestra concert, "Game of Thrones," in Boston. It's a live orchestra performance, with big screens on stage to add scenes and visual effects from the ...series? Now I can't remember if it's a tv series, or a book series, or a video game. Anyway it's intense music, and sounded like a fun evening of live music.

**Now it's Wednesday. We took the train (or "T")  in to Boston for this show on Wednesday. Great music! I didn't really know what "Game of Thrones" was. It's an HBO series, 7th season will show this summer.

in the show

You may not have seen Braveheart (Mel Gibson), but we have an edited version. Castles, medieval times, Kings and royalty vying for power. Wars and conflicts, drama, etc. etc.! Braveheart is pretty violent. Game of Thrones? It's Braveheart on steroids. They had screens up, and as the orchestra played, they showed the scenes where the music was actually played in the shows. High drama! Intense! War scenes! Blow up your enemies or cut their throats! (Loved the music -- I don't think I'll be watching any of the episodes.)

my stalker photo when she turned around :)

**Oh, funny story though! Some of the series actors/actresses went to this orchestra performance. One of the stars sat in the row in front of us! Ha. Frank heard them talking, plus she was all dressed up. In the show she rides dragons...horses too. Here's an Internet photo of her in the show, and my stalker-phone picture of her. When she turned around I had stealthily turned my phone towards her without REALLY looking at her. Yep, true stalking.


INSECTS AMONG US. We had a few days of really warm temps, the last week or so (not counting this weekend). It was quite the "spring teaser," because I was wearing light jackets and even looking forward to being outside a little!

We took care of a friend's dog for 2 days. I walked Louie a few times, and 1 time into the woods. That's the only time I can think of, that I would have picked up...

Now I'm seeing ticks everywhere,
even black dots on the floor
grow legs. (I watch too many
movies. They do freak me out tho)

a tick. Yes, disgusting--it creeps me out completely, to have a creature attached to me, sucking my blood. The problem was, it was kind of on my side, under my arm where I wasn't looking too closely. I didn't catch it right away so it had been in a while. Frank was on his campout, so I got Kara to take it off with tweezers, but of course the pincers stayed in. She drove me to urgent care and the doctor there said things like, "Boy, that's in deep!" and "I have to give you a shot and cut out a chunk of skin to get all of it." Then she had to add, "I'll give you a prescription because I haven't met a tick who isn't carrying Lyme Disease." (yes she HAD to say that, right! double-UGH.)

Lyme disease is actually pretty common out here, so I believe her. Kara had it in 3rd grade, and we never even saw a the tick, or the "bullseye" circle marking that sometimes shows up when people are infected. She just had a swollen knee, and had not fallen or anything. It settles in the joints so that can be a telltale sign for the Dr. to test for Lyme. Anyways, now I'm taking amoxicillin for 21 days.

ice on a railing at Niagara
a few years back...brrrr

FRIGID CAMPING. Frank had a campout Friday night (yes, on his birthday! ha). The boys were thankfully in cabins this time, since it got down to about 8 or some awful temperature like that. And wind. It was so cold. This was following our spring-like days the previous week, so it was extra-painful! But lots of the boys still played capture-the-flag out in those cold, cold temps. Teresa might have gone out in it, if she'd been there. I guess when you're moving, you can be a little warmer??!!

Well I'll load the pics and send this out...it's a beautiful afternoon today, same tomorrow, then this weekend will be frigid again. Every day is One Day Closer To Spring! :)

Kari