Kara's Summer Camp

Hi!

(We received our drivers' licenses in the mail today. Frank's first comment upon studying mine: "Whose signature is this? I can't even read it...") Sigh...

I haven't put any scrapbook pages together for a long time. In July, Kara attended a Horse Camp with her friend Lizzie. They had such a good time! Even though they looked little up on the big horses, they quickly learned and enjoyed learning the horses' names, and then riding, feeding, and grooming them. They even got to give the horses baths! Can you think of a better way for an 8-year-old to spend a week?

Here are a couple of pages for Kara's book. She has this great "toothless grin" right now--the two top front baby teeth are out and the permanent ones are not quite in yet. You can click on the pages to enlarge.


(Paper by Lisa Carter, www.digitalscrapbookplace.com;silver embellishments by Jessica Alger, flowers by FafBr, www.godigitalscrapbooking.com;rubber bands by Amy Martin, www.the-lilypad.com)

It's Friday, whatever that means for you--have a great weekend! Kari

RMV Twilight Zone

RMV -- Registrar of Motor Vehicles. In California they call it the DMV. This blog is about our painful visit to the RMV yesterday! I just don't remember these kinds of lines in CA. Of course, we pick the one day of the week they stay open late, to 7 p.m., to accomodate those who come in after work. Another day of the week, mid-day, would probably have been a better choice.

Weeks ago, I studied the list of about 25 pieces of identification we had to present, to receive our new Massachusetts drivers licences and register the cars. I have with me every official document imaginable to declare that we exist! Also the Solid Gold Form, which my insurance company had to send me, stamped and dated, with a time limit of 21 days to get it all taken care of. "DON'T make any mistakes on THIS FORM, she had warned me. ONLY black ink, and NO cross-out lines." The pressure is killing me...

Before this evening's episode, I had already had a day that was TOO LONG. Dragging and crabby, I pick up Frank from work to go to the RMV. Mapquest gave me the address and directions, but it did not tell me this place happened to be in a MALL. We drive back and forth, searching for nonexistent numbers above doors on the street we KNOW it's on! The joys of being new to the area. Enough Prologue.

Synopsis of the evening: after finally discovering the hidden offices, for TWO HOURS we stand in line. I am incredulous. First, we stand in a line to give us forms to fill out. After the forms are completed, we stand in that SAME line again, to get a number to then stand in the dreaded ROOM LINE.

Just what, pray tell, is a "Room Line?" Well it's not exactly a line, but it's a room full of people who stare blankly at computer screens mounted from the ceiling. Do these computer screens give us up-to-the-minute news about important issues? The environment? Oil sources? Religion? Politics? even the weather?

Oh, no, no...the people in this crowded room stare at screens that display...numbers. Is it the stock market? The price of eggs in China? Not exactly. These numbers coincide with numbers these people are holding. Each person looks at his own number, then back at the screen, then back at his own number. He or she breathlessly anticipates the alignment of the stars that will signal the time when the computer screen will show the SAME number as the number in his or her hand.

The numbers creep upward at the awe-inspiring speed of a bored sloth. I look around and see people dozing off. Expressions are glazed. Occasionally, the number changes and one person in the crowd stirs. It is their turn. We should only be so lucky.

The UNlucky ones, however, go to The Mean Lady. She usually tells them, after they have waited one to two hours, that they must leave and come back another time, since they do not have the proper forms. Worse yet, they come to her window with a credit card only, and they get The Lecture. She turns from one lady and addresses the crowd:

"LISTEN, PLEASE. WE ONLY TAKE CASH AND CHECKS IN THIS LINE. IF YOU DON'T HAVE EITHER OF THOSE, PLEASE GO OVER TO TARGET TO THEIR ATM MACHINE."

She can't save this lecture until the Guilty Lady is walking to Target and out of earshot, of course. She lectures the entire crowd with the Guilty Lady right at her window. "THIS LADY," she might as well be saying, "IS PARTICULARLY DENSE. EVERYONE STARE AT HER BECAUSE SHE HAS JUST WASTED ALL OF OUR TIME."

Whew--our time finally comes, and we avoid the Mean Lady. Instead, I get Mr. Sarcasm, in a slightly friendly sort of way...it could have been worse. After our marathon standing contest, Mr. Sarcasm has me hand over all my documents, and sign the little signature piece--this will record my signature for my license.

I write on it, and immediately it makes little scribbly marks. "Do it again, and don't press so hard," Mr. Sarcasm says. I know it's broken. We can't do anything about that." I sign again. This time he tells me, "That looks like a kindergartener signature." (I didn't make that up--he REALLY said that.) AAArrgghh! Ok, one more try: I'm more than a little tired at this point so I tell him to accept that one. (Too bad I didn't really LOOK at it. Now my permanent signature really DOES looks like a kindergartener signature.)

The rest of the evening is just as insulting. I can't quite read all the letters in the vision test and so I have to use my glasses. Now my license is "restricted." Sigh...

Then, he makes me GIVE UP my California driver's license. "In California," I tell him, "they just punch a hole in your old one, and let you keep it." Then I get Lecture Number 458:

Mr. Sarcasm: "Do you want me to tell you why it costs $90?"
Me: "...OK..."
Mr. S: "$46 for the license, $20 for the Road Test, $24 for the Written Test."
Me: "So I'm PAYING for them, but I don't actually have to TAKE those tests?"
Mr. S: "Yes. Do you want me to schedule you a Road Test and a Written Test?"

(Frank interjects at this point of the story: "See, he was just telling you that if you wanted to keep your old California license so badly, you could come back and take those tests..."

Well, nobody likes a smart-aleck, okay...:)

Me: "No, Thank you."

Somehow, we survive the experience...? The cars are registered. We have MA drivers' licences. (Not that you can read my signature or anything. That part is COMPLETELY beside the point.)

Have a great weekend! Love, Kari

Brent's Photos

Hello--

This is my nephew, on his mission in Oregon!

Toads, Traffic, Trains

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Frank returned from Germany last night -- he spent the week in conferences in Berlin. Very nice to have everybody back together again.

The kids start school this coming Tuesday. Teresa had a 6th grade orientation at the Middle School last week, and Kara went to her school to find her classroom and talk to her teacher.

There is a grassy field in back of these apartments, and Kara and Teresa found a little frog. They created a habitat for him and I took photos.

Let's see, more about the area that I have noticed:

POLICE. There are so many police officers here, I think 1/2 of the population of Massachusetts must attend the police academy after high school. Construction going on? The police will be there. Big public event? Lots of police. Speed Traps? Definitely! Most roads here (obviously not the freeways) are 25, 30, and 35 miles an hour, and these officers park themselves JUST before the sign to change speeds, or JUST after, so if you aren't alert, they will nab you. So far I have stayed on top of my speed changes. (I haven't met any officers up close.)
POLITE DRIVERS. This is a major change, from all the honking and road rage in California. When you are trying to turn left through an endless line of traffic here, they (gasp) LET YOU IN. No, I'm not kidding! The first few times someone blinked their lights at me, or waved to let me in, I just sat there. "Why are they doing that??" Then I realized they were being POLITE! Is that cool, or what!! So now I try to do it for people whenever I can, too. It keeps traffic moving.

DUNKIN DONUTS. These are everywhere. Which is good for me, because I do love Dunkin' Donuts! Our running joke now in the car is that we know we're in Massachusetts because there is a Dunkin Donuts every 5 blocks. (I don't know if there is a direct correlation between that and the number of police officers...? I really don't know.)

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. My grand accomplishment for the week: we can use the "T"! Public transportation here is awesome. Mostly it's for commuters, but it also works VERY well for tourists! We can drive 5 miles to the Parking Lot for the train. $3.75 to park all day. Hop on, it takes you right downtown, to museums, historic sites, even the airport, and it's only $1.70 for adults, kids under 12 are free. Fantastic! They call your card a "Charlie Card."

So, that is another plug for you to come visit us! Lots to see, and you DON'T have to fight downtown traffic and pay exorbitant parking fees.

Have a great Labor Day, love, Kari

Miscellaneous and Churches

Hola!

My brain bounces around with many different topics, but that just comes with moving, I guess! I feel like we've been here 6 months already, with all the pieces I try to take care of each day. But it's only been a couple of weeks.

We did find a house, so that is a big deal. Various details slow the process, however, so we will be in this apartment for another 6 weeks or so. With a legally binding "purchase and sale agreement," the school district did allow me to enroll the kids in school, so they can start next week (the day after Labor Day) as if we were living in the house.

We would like to have a few things done to the house, so those are other projects we are considering, with the thousands of details that come with that! Remodeling the kitchen and two bathrooms, plus a list about 3 pages long of "little" details that will make the house updated a bit (it was built in 1950) and "ours."

Meanwhile, we can't really work on those many projects until the owners move out in 3 weeks! So I'll blog about the area.

One fun thing I don't think I will ever tire of here, is driving from town to town and driving by all the old, beautiful churches on the corners. There are a lot of churches here! They don't tear down old buildings. They fix them up and keep the "old" flavor. It's awesome. Here are three I took photos of--I purposely put the camera in the car so I could stop and take a photo on the way to one of the kids' schools or the grocery store. (My kids think I'm completely crazy: "Why are we stopping?" "I'm taking a picture of this church...")







Oh, and one last thing: I took the camera with us on the way to church, just to get a shot of this great "tree-archway-driving-through-the-woods" feeling each time we go to church! It's so pretty.



Again--my family thinks I'm losing it (why does she randomly stop the car to take pictures??!), but in actuality, this is my therapeutic way to NOT lose it, during this move. Have a great week! Love, Kari

This Week at the Whitesells

Hello!

We are still plugging along, all 5 of us in our one-bedroom+den/one bathroom apartment. In a week we'll move 2 buildings down, into a two-bedroom/two bathroom apartment!

I was all ready to apologize to the kids that we still aren't in a house. I told David (12) that next week, we'd move into the 2 Bedroom/2 Bath place. As soon as the words "2 Baths" was out of my mouth, he pulled his fist down in the air and hissed, "YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

Funny what you find yourself appreciating when you go without for a few weeks!

We are taking in some Olympic events this week...the kids are enthralled with the synchronized diving, men's gymnastics, and of course Michael Phelps with his many many swimming golds. These photos, by Jeff Gross& Adam Pretty/Getty Images, make me wish I had been there for the opening ceremonies.





Maybe they'll show a "highlights reel" sometime. Sorry, but 4 hours is too long for almost any show!

We've had a lot of rain since we've been here. Like, enough to say, "Have we moved to Seattle instead of Massachusetts?" I love rain. People say this much rain is unusual for August here.

We had one very sunny day, beautiful, last Saturday. We went to Plymouth, where I took a bunch of photos. This laptop, however, is not recognizing my camera so I can't retrieve any pics until next week! ugh. But next week, SOME of our stuff comes, including the computer -- yippee! I'll blog Plymouth later.

More later, love, Kari

Northeast Corner of the Country

Friday, August 01, 2008

Hola, from Massachusetts! We arrived late Monday night. We’ve just been on a big slumber party of a vacation -- we packed all our belongings and watched them drive away in a big semi truck a week ago Thursday. We stayed in a local CA motel for a few nights, cleaned up the empty rented house, and “passed” our walk-through to get back our security deposit.

Currently we are in Frank’s apartment in Waltham. It’s one bedroom, and it has a den, so there is space to set up air mattresses for the kids. Thankfully, it has a pool, so we have gone swimming every day.

Massachusetts is very different from southern California. Here are a few things I have noticed right away.

1 – I feel like I have moved to the mountains! Green, green, green, and more trees than I have seen in a long time. And these are HUGE trees, not little scrawny ones. Just beautiful.

2 –Roads. California has 8-lane freeways and the “Rush Hour” actually lasts for 3 hours. Here, they have curvy, narrow, two-lane roads that wind around through the woods, at 25 and 30 miles an hour. And I hear that “Rush Hour” is just that: one hour.

3 – Moisture in the air. In California, our wetsuits will dry outside overnight. Here, towels hang out 2 days and they STILL are not dry!

4 – Hair. My hair does not quite know how to act in this humidity. ( OK, it was not exactly magazine-worthy in CA, either…but here, it does some funny things.)

5 – Insects. I didn’t really notice a lot of bugs in CA. There are plenty of critters to watch and/or avoid, here. Ants everywhere. Wasps, mosquitoes, dragonflies, katydids, butterflies, ladybugs. (You name it, and Teresa will try to catch it!)

6 -- Gas prices. The lowest I have seen so far is $3.84 per gallon. Wow! Awesome--by simply taking a flight east, we dropped 60 cents a gallon!

More to come, love, Kari