Happy Summer and Movies

Hello--

SCHOOL's OUT! Welcome to the last week of June! Ugh-- how did THAT happen? Funny but it seems like school just barely ended...okay, it DID just end! Wednesday was Kara's last day. She was very happy to be finished studying for those last tests...physics and math. Now she has a breather from classes for 2 months! It might even be 10 weeks. YESSS!

Frank was in NYC all week, so it's nice to have him back. It's so fun to vacation there! But when he goes, and tries to just get "quick meals" here and there, he is reminded of how much it costs to LIVE there. Craziness.

One of their team-building exercises during the week was to have a chef come in and show them how to prep and cook a 4-course meal. This time they made Thai food. Yum!

GOVERNMENT WORK. We talked to David this morning, one more week under his belt at the U.S. Consolate. (Frank and I also watched the most recent "Jason Bourne" movie on Friday...those government programs seem pretty dangerous...maybe fingerprinting is the way to go after all, David...)

David will be staying in 3 different apartments (via airbnb) during his Milan summer. He's now into the 2nd place. Less square footage than the first apartment; it's pretty tiny. This one is only about a 4 minute walk from the church building, though, so that's cool. They have normal Sunday meetings, and Institute (scripture class) on Thursdays.


I had my last day of school, too, last week. They never tell me until the end of August if I'm officially working for that school year.  But our number of students won't change dramatically, and we're usually providing fewer tutor hours than the kids SHOULD be getting in ELL. I expect to be doing the same thing next school year, as I did this school year.

MISSIONARY MOVIE. Did you ever see 'The Other Side Of Heaven?" It's a Disney movie, the story of a man who served a 3-year mission for the LDS church in the Philippines (I think that was the location). I think it came out in 2006. Anne Hathaway played the girlfriend, who eventually became the wife of the missionary.

The man that story is about, is the grandfather of somebody in our congregation. So, he arranged for him to come out and do a fireside for our youth! It was a cool thing. The kids had watched the movie a week or so beforehand.

Highlights Kara said, were that the movie did not make things up--the events in the show all really happened. And that Anne Hathaway called his wife 3 or 4 times throughout filming, to hear her tell the stories, etc. He got to meet the two main characters of the movie (Anne included), when it opened in 2006. He also got to watch the last few scenes being filmed. It was a neat experience for him, and fun for our kids to hear his inspirational stories.

Blog time is up! That was just a quick "Welcome to Summer" post. Here is a pic of Frank and I at the outdoor sculpture museum a few weeks ago. There was this super-cool tree where you could climb underneath and sit in the shade.

Have a great week! :)

Kari

Father's Day and Other Important Stuff

Hello, and Happy Father's Day!

It was a beautiful day for Father's Day; we thought it might rain late in the day, but the clouds rolled past us.

FATHER'S DAY. Here is the tribute I put on facebook for Dad: top left corner in 1954, pictured with his mom. Then clockwise, with each of our kids, in different life stages: 1996, 2005, 2006. A wonderful, loving dad and grandpa. Miss you, Dad! (one friend commented that she could see me and my children in Dad's 17-year-old face. Cool huh! :))

And, Frank definitely deserves one too, since he keeps our family grounded and centered, while also tossing humor into the mix. Thanks, Frank, for your true dedication to our cause of growth, as individuals and as a family...helping us all maintain sanity along our journey :) :) :)

Greece vacation, April 2007. Kids are 11, 9, 7!

David's facebook post:
"Where's Waldo, Milano style"

CONSOLATE WORK. David made it to Milan by way of Manchester, last weekend. We skyped with him this morning, and he now has a week under his belt at the U.S. Consolate there. He knew they would not save the exciting work for the interns. They did not disappoint, ha! He has been taking people's fingerprints all week...helping people with the passport process. The cool thing is, he can actually talk to them in Italian, not just follow the 4-sentence script that the other non-Italian-speaking interns get.

He thinks they will rotate him to another job in a couple of weeks, when another intern gets there. The NEW guy can take over fingerprinting.

Also, he is taking advantage of talking to other people who work there, to find out their stories and work history at the consolate. Learning what THEY do all day every day, too.

SCHOOL YEAR DWINDLING. Kara is now finished with tennis, and she just has 3 days of school left: one day of presentations, and then one final per day on Tuesday and Wednesday. At last! School will be out this week!

I will have my last day of tutoring on Tuesday.

6 years ago

BIG APPLE. Frank will be in NYC all this week. This job has him traveling just about every month, sometimes 2 trips a month. Here is a photo from our family trip a few years ago. New York City is a pretty cool place. (Of course, he'll spend the whole time in an office building, in meetings. It's different than vacationing there.)

My blog time is now officially "up!" Hope your week starts out well. Stay cool and may you accomplish baby steps toward your goals this week!

Love, Kari

Drums, Bikes and Hidden Doors

Hola, Familia!

Here are some more photos from our Spain trip. I will focus on the beginning of the trip! Frank's hobby is looking for deals on airlines. He's good at it.

CANADA. Usually, because of the deals, it means that we do not fly direct. The flight over took us to Montreal, Canada. We love Canada. Our lengthy layover allowed us to get out of the airport and walk around a bit.

Montreal Skyline

look closely...ALSO the Montreal skyline!

We hiked around town, where the university was spread out. We hiked to the top of "Mont Royal," which is actually where the city got its NAME! Isn't that cool. There was a great view of the city.

Kara wanted to photograph a reflection in her glasses, so we experimented :)

looking for lunch

these make a loud crying sound! He hung
out by the exit of the armory, So all
the tourists could take pictures :)

We also saw a raccoon...kind of odd since they are nocturnal, but he was rummaging around looking for some lunch. I crept up as close as I dared, and took a few pictures. He completely ignored me.

Cathedral grandeur

armory museum pieces, photo-bomber: Kara

Palace 

EASTER SUNDAY When we got to Madrid, we had just enough time to put our bags in our room, then we headed downtown to the city center.

 It was Easter, and their final procession would take place in the Plaza. They held parades and processions every day of Holy Week, and we got there for the last one.

just one of the cars parked on the street...?!

studying the (gasp) PAPER map!

banner at the procession

drummers...everybody is a drummer...

Bubble Man entertains after the show

It was all drums, representing the earthquakes and tumult that occurred on the day of Jesus' crucifixion. Here are some images of the square.

Some very cute small-version drummers ( the youngest was 3! ha-ha!) come out at the end, and they were filming it for a television channel. By the end it was feeling pretty warm, and I felt bad for them, in their heavy robes and multiple layers.

the Little Drummer Boys

PALACE TOUR. The next day, we were able to visit the Palace Royal, and the armory next to it. I like the audio tours because they give stories to go along with the ornate, extravagant rooms and intricate details of the decor.

I liked the small-ish door in the back corner of one room--sorry, no pictures could actually be taken in the palace...lame in my opinion, but there were SO many tourists, they probably didn't want people taking even LONGER to go through.

Anyway this little door in the back was painted and wallpapered EXACTLY like the wall, so you had to look for it! That was for servants to come in quietly, and not have to walk through all the guests to bring the royalty their _(whatever they wanted)__.

Another room had all the beautiful tableware and cutlery used to entertain. One set had an un. bel. ieve. a. ble number of dishes in the set: 21,000 or something like that.

We walked a lot, like we usually do in a city, and we took subways and buses. I had called ahead to see if we could join any groups at the temple, on Wednesday morning, and was told that yes, there was a group coming in at 11.

We went to the Madrid Temple, and it was neat to interact with those doing work for their families there.

Well my allotted blog time is up, ha! By a long shot, but I do like going through these and editing along the way.

Hope your weekend has been good!
Love, Kari

for rent! Bike around Madrid