Artwork, Apples, Autism

Hello, Family!

Hoping you have had a productive week. It's a relative term, mind you :) :)

(Oh btw, if you click on any of these pictures, they'll get bigger.)

PATS DO IT AGAIN. Even if we're not huge football fans. The blog wouldn't be complete without saying that somehow, the Patriots pulled off another Superbowl win yesterday!

I have discovered the best way to watch football: YouTube highlights after the game is over! Never mind those 4-hour yawners. Watch the highlights only, on youtube after it's done! Action-packed, and you get the whole story in 10-15 minutes.

FEBRUARY NOW. The best news of the week is that we made it through January! Yes, we are now in February. January 31 is always a big milestone for me. As of today, there are 44 days until spring! 'Spring' is a relative term, too. But I still call it 'spring' on March 20, even if New England ignores that date.

Frank spent most of the week in London, going to meetings and also sightseeing a little. It was cold, and even snowed a little on him, and it never snows in London. But it was sunny other times.

A highlight was going to

UNIVERSITY of CAMBRIDGE. He toured some of the many college buildings that make up the University today. It's so amazing that Cambridge the town was started around 1086 (??!!) and the University of Cambridge was founded in 1209. They have many famous alumni:

Stephen Hawking
Charles Darwin
A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh author)
Robert Frost
Isaac Newton


Fun Fact on Isaac Newton: the apple-falling-on-his-head story did not happen at college. One semester in 1665, all the students were sent home because of bubonic plague. (They did not all HAVE the disease. There was a serious regional threat, and large numbers of people living together dramatically increased the chance of disease spread.) He went home to his parents' farm, and watched as an apple fell from one of their trees. Did it fall on his head? That part is questionable... The falling apple, though, made him ponder the force of gravity, leading to his study of the earth's pull on objects.

 BEST ARTWORK of the week: this is located in a Christian church in Jerusalem. One of our friends went there in January for his grandson's baptism (I talk about that in the next paragraph), and this beautiful mural was on the wall. This is by Daniel Cariola, a Chilean artist. It depicts the woman in the New Testament who touched the hem of Christ's robes, and was healed of her illness.

BAPTISM in the JORDAN RIVER. Funny, I hadn't thought of that possibility: actually getting baptized in the Jordan River. Yes, it's the river where Christ was baptized! But it's an actual thing people can do, and many people get baptized there, of various Christian faiths. People make the request, and you can sign up for a time and they assign you a spot on the river, with a sidewalk leading up to the river bank and railings to help you go down into the river.

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION. I read a children's book at school about Temple Grandin, a woman who grew up in the 50's and 60's with Autism. Then I found out they made a movie about her, so Friday night we pulled it up on Amazon Prime. (trailer on YouTube.)

She has a photographic memory, and a passion for cows. And it's really hard for her to be around unpredictable people (autism). She lived on her aunt's ranch when she was a teen, and just loved these docile creatures and studied them and learned TONS about them, on her own. When her high school science teacher said she had an amazing brain and she should go to college, he said "pick a topic! you can study anything in college" She said "cows? Are there colleges with cows?"

She studied animal husbandry, specifically the methods used to dip (sanitize) and slaughter cows (beef cattle), and found the flaws in the system. She designed a more humane, calming, natural method of herding them and going through the process. "We raise them for US to eat," she says. "We owe them respect."

Anyway. The movie is very well-done, plus great acting. The woman who plays Temple is pretty amazing...you can see the wheels turning in her mind as she goes through each challenge.

Today the REAL Temple is a professor at Colorado State University, and an expert advocate for autism.

Well, time's up! Hope your week ahead has some sunshine, literally and figuratively. We get a reprieve today and tomorrow, with temps in the 50's. YESSS!

KID JOBS AND SCHOOL. We skyped with David and Teresa yesterday, and their classes are rolling right along. They are also juggling 10-12 hours a week with part-time jobs. Provo seems to have milder temperatures than Massachusetts! Teresa, however, would like snow. Life can be so unfair sometimes. Really.

Kara has started taking care of dogs, as another part-time job to fill in her money-making time. This is in addition to her shifts at The Local (a restaurant closeby), and being an after-school chauffeur for a middle-school student.

Until next time,
Kari