You May Not Believe This But...

The KITCHEN is FINALLY FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The project that officially started the beginning of September, and would probably last "5 or 6 weeks" actually took 5 MONTHS, but who is counting, right.

We have not been without a kitchen for that long. We've been using it for a long time now.

Last week, the final trim and replacement wood panels and cupboard doors came in. They HAD arrived earlier, of course, but they were DAMAGED, so they had to be re-ordered...you've heard the sob story before. Any home improvement project is a long and dreary soap opera just begging to be dramatized. Usually by very poor actors. (You'd most likely turn it off to go do something more interesting.)

So, since I love "Before/After" pictures, here is the "Before/After" Kitchen Blog Post.

The kitchen, as I mentioned months ago, was in pretty good shape "before." It was just TINY. I'll group pictures of the same area, "before" and then "after."

Here is the wall with the window and door, before we filled those in:

"AFTER" it became a wall, stove moved to the middle, cabinets and countertops added:


Please note: "BEFORE," there was a mini-window you could peek through into the dining area.

"AFTER" a peninsula was created, opening up that wall.


Here is what you USED to see, looking from the kitchen into the dining room:

Here is today's view:
I have to say, I do love the kitchen. I go in, look around and appreciate the counterspace and the openness.

Icing on the cake for me is the granite of the countertops. It is fascinating to me that this stuff comes right out of the mountain. Unbelievable.



So, there is your "Good News for the Day!" Of course, the list is endless on what COULD be done to/for an older house. There is always something more to do!

It is also healthy for my mental state to just look at what has been done...and be happy about it.

Kari

P.S. For these pictures, I took a BOATLOAD of stuff off the countertops: dish drainer by the sink, fruit bowls, bread, small appliances. I can only dream that it always looked this way--! But I still like it, even full of our "stuff!"

David Whitesell, Eagle Scout

Here is my chance to brag about David. This post is about him.

David has been doing scout activities for the past few years. He started with Cub Scouts in about the 3rd grade, and Frank and I participated in different ways with his troops: weekly activities, Pack Meetings, and summer camps.

Then he got into Boy Scouts, and Frank was lucky enough to be the leader of his troop or participate as an adult leader volunteer for many activites, for a couple of years. Campouts, scout camps, merit badges. David had a buddy in his Mexico City troop who had a goal of getting his Eagle (highest rank in Boy Scouts) by the time he was 13. David picked up on that, and set his own goal as the same.

Last spring it became apparent that it really might be possible to do just that...could he get his project organized and finished, paperwork turned in and the Board of Review happen, before his November 1st 13th birthday?

Hmmm...add to this the poor timing...Frank had already started his job in Boston while the rest of us stayed in California, so it would mainly fall upon Mom to push through with the project... we were split across the country as a family, preparing to move to Massachusetts and trying to sell our CA house in a really cruddy market! Mom's sanity level was questionable, at best...

BUT. He talked to the proper school officials over the course of a month, and they figured out what he could do to help his middle school, for the project. He would paint parts of the school auditorium: closet doors under the stage area, and all the closets across the back wall.

We worked for 4 days (during the 2 weeks after school was out, when the building was still open during the days), 3-5 hours each day. David organized volunteers and supplies, and asked for donations to help the project along. Church members stepped up and volunteered their supplies and time...it was really inspiring to see!

Here are project photos: Before...


during...




and AFTER...




Now, fast-forward the summer. We moved, sold our CA house, found a house in MA. David completed and turned in paperwork (the paperwork should have its own merit badge, BTW), and COULD have had a Board of Review before his 13th Birthday Nov. 1st. Other scouts were ahead of him, however, so his was pushed out a month. he had his Board of Review November 19, and passed! YIPPEE!

His Court of Honor was last Tuesday. It was neat to see it culminate, his efforts acknowledged. We are really proud of him. Here are some photos from that night:












pinning on my "Eagle Scout Mom" pin...
















his cake...








and a flag Frank ordered for him. This flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol building, on David's birthday, last November.



(We may be a little biased, but we think David is pretty neat. We're glad he's in our family.)

Kari

Moving Boxes and Mom visitor!

Hola!

(You can click on the photos to enlarge.) I wish the movers had been a little more careful, but...here is a photo of the boxes they delivered.












Didn't anybody read that yellow SIGN on one of them?Well, you would THINK we could have some closure on "moving..." but I'm afraid the reality is, we never, ever will... :)

For the past 12 weeks, besides babysitting contractors, I have been ever so S-L-O-W-L-Y emptying boxes. I put them out on the deck when they are empty. The problem with that is, while it gets them out of my sight for the moment, it is now winter here. These boxes have been rained on, snowed on, sleeted on, blown this way and that, and yes, gone through some pretty low temperatures!

So when we called the moving company last week, and requested that they come get these boxes and take them away, their instructions were: "Have them as DRY as possible." I just shook my head. DRY?


These boxes were basically covered with snow, or frozen SOLID to the deck. (They want them "DRY?!?") All 5 of us worked on them: we dug them out of snow, melted ice and pried them off the deck, and put them in the driveway all in a group, so they could just back up the truck and load them in. Easy, right?


Well, no. I was gone all day, very excited to know that when I returned, there would FINALLY be NO more boxes in the driveway. But what do I see? THEY LEFT THEM ALL. Oh, dear. 5 of us worked a total of 4 hours to get these in the easiest possible state to be hauled away. What happened?


The message they left was, they couldn't take them away (are you ready for this?) "BECAUSE OF HEALTH REASONS." Oh, that's right, I forgot about the disease-carrying rodents that live in there...my mistake...(?!?! (Sarcasm, of course! We really do NOT have rats!!)

So...NOW what? Frank calls our trash/recycle guy and asks him if he'll take them. "Sure, no problem." Whew! He came the next day.

Now we have full use of the driveway again. Yippee!


VISITOR :)
Now, to the fun part of the weekend. Grandma Kay (my mom) came to visit! Why Boston in January? So she could go to David's Eagle Court of Honor. It was awesome--that will be a blog for NEXT week.

Meanwhile, we crammed in as much activity as possible. We even had a 6-inch snowstorm while she was here, and we went sledding. Here are some photos, including the science museum,

sledding

and some sugar cookies she and Kara made. (Life is so much better with sugar cookies...) Have a great week! Kari

Flames and Resolutions

Hello and Happy New Year!

Well, it is the 4th, so maybe the year is old already...? Our neighbors had a New Year's Eve dinner for 5 or 6 families close-by. This was the first time in years that I actually stayed up to watch the ball drop on t.v.!

(FLAMES.) Then of course the next-generation "Evel Knieval" (his son or something) did a motorcycle jump.



Through fire.

He kept on practicing, making us THINK he would do the jump, then... it would just be a practice round.

Then they had a video-game-like simulation, of the catastrophes that MIGHT happen..."If he doesn't make the jump," the announcer says dramatically, "he will crash into this wall!" And then you watch this video game guy crash into the wall. They were really stretching it to fill time.

Of course he jumped, and made it, and it lasted all of 5 seconds. No wonder they dragged it out. :)

(RESOLUTIONS)
January is often a time of resolutions for the coming year.

I have made the very same New Year's Resolution for the past 5 years or so. Just one word...it's easier to remember that way..."simplify."

It was reinforced by Henry David Thoreau, who spent 2 years living on Walden Pond. He recognized that when you get right down to it, your list of needs is very short.

Another reinforcement of this New Year's Resolution came from L. Tom Perry, whose wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness. They spent many quiet, conversational hours away from all the distractions of daily life.

A few months ago in an inspirational talk, he said, "In our search to obtain relief from the stresses of life, may we earnestly seek ways to simplify our lives."


So that is my resolution, the same New Year's Resolution I have made for the past few years. Maybe this year I can recognize and nurture the valuable people and relationships in my life a little more. Maybe I can pay a little LESS of my attention to the many daily details...ultimately, they just add up to a lot of noise.

Have a great week! Kari

Funny Story for your New Year

Hi, and Happy New Year!

Hope your Christmas was a happy day! We're trying to do as many big things in as short a time as possible, i.e. moving, remodel the kitchen, remodel the bathroom, celebrate the holidays, the microwave dies, the dryer dies...continually try to fit more stuff into a smaller house with less space than before...the list goes on!

So let's add to that: our 1997 Chevy Malibu shows symptoms that it is ALSO on its way out.
OK, we've had it 11 years, for Pete's sake -- it has had a good life! Car symptoms and Internet research tells us that a "big fix" is coming soon, added to a few smaller ones, so...do we put $2500 into fixing an 11 year old car? Or put that money into a used newer vehicle...we could look for one that also has 4-Wheel-Drive for the snow around here...you can see where this is going.

So for the past few days/weeks, we have ALSO been heavily researching Used 4WD Vehicles. It is a good time to buy, since it is the last week of the year, etc., etc. (And maybe you know how ridiculous we are when we research things. The time and energy we usually spend researching may even EXCEED the time we own the item...? It's a little embarrassing.) Anyway, it was a miracle that this happened as fast as it did. Yesterday Frank ends up driving this home:


It's a 2004 Toyota Highlander, with 39,000 miles on it. V6 engine, 4WD, 7 seats possible (an adult's knees are up a little high when they sit in the very back, but, well, you know...) Frank loves that haggling game, so I let him play to his heart's content...after 4 rounds of back-and-forth, he gets it down to a pretty good price, we think.

(If you noticed the "Title" of this post, you might have expected a "Funny Story." There may be one person in this world who thinks that the Whitesells Buying a Used Car constitutes a Funny Story. For the rest of you, don't worry: there's MORE!)

The process of buying a used car from a dealership is more of a painfully long ordeal than any of us could have imagined. Frank is there for HOURS. While he is there, yesterday, waiting on bank approvals and registration and DMV notifications to switch plates and paperwork, a car pulls into the dealership lot.

There are a handful of men in the car, who pile out. Their sobriety level is a little questionable, but they make it clear they are there to buy two cars.

They open the trunk and there is quite a bit of paper cash in the car. They will pay cash for these cars, thank you very much.

THEY go through a similar process that Frank is going through, switching license plates over, and the DMV is notified. Because they pay with paper cash from the car, it is a LITTLE faster than Frank's process, so they finish and leave.

A few minutes later the dealership gets a phone call. When the DMV was notified that these license plates were changing cars, they are the license plates of some men who very recently robbed a bank! The police already know the plates and descriptions of the men they are looking for. The DMV notification also automatically goes to the police, so those license plate numbers alert all kinds of people. After the men leave the car dealership, they stop to fill up with gas, and the police pick them up at the gas station.

Sometimes...the system works. :)

Happy 2009! Love, Kari

First Real New England Snow

Hello!

Well, well--welcome to New England! This weekend was our first "real" storm. David measured 9 inches outside, and we should get another 2 maybe.... Then sunshine, Monday and Tuesday.

The kids are in HEAVEN! I could not have predicted, Saturday, the number of: not just minutes, but HOURS they spent outside, playing in the snow. Teresa builds snow tunnels,




Kara makes snow angels with her buddy Isabel next door, and David has discovered that the neighbors pay pretty well for him to shovel their driveway and porches.

I, on the other hand, am in heaven when I watch it snow from the INSIDE, and I know that I do not have to drive anywhere. I already went to the grocery store this week, and we have enough gas in the cars. I love a storm on a Saturday!

(Frank looks like he's in heaven, too, in this shot, don't you think...)Side Note: I was relieved to see that the city plows these streets VERY well. They came through multiple times during the night, and again 2 or 3 times today.

There's absolutely nothing in the world as good as hot cocoa, after you've been outside playing in the snow.

Oh, and here's a treat for anybody who may be a little weary of the traditional "12 Days of Christmas." This is a creative version; these guys sing a capella--fun!

Have a wonderful Christmas week! Kari

Baking (of sorts) & Basketball Fun

Hello!

A couple of fun things. We went to a neighborhood party last Saturday, with so much food you had to shake your head... :) The fun thing (besides socializing and getting to know neighbors better) was discovering these incredibly easy, tasty treats! Here, I made some yesterday and took a picture for you.

They take 3-5 minutes to make, and I'm not kidding! Recipe:

Pretzel Delights
mini twist pretzels
Hershey Kisses
M&M's

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Lay out mini pretzels on a cookie sheet on wax paper.
3. Place Hershey Kiss on pretzel (I actually cut the kisses in half--kind of a pain but we think that's a better amount of chocolate per pretzel...)
4. Put in oven for 2 and 1/2 minutes, give or take a few seconds.
5. Kisses should be soft. so now push an M&M into the kiss.

Viola! Very fun, easy salty/sweet treat. I think I'll get some peanut butter M&M's and try those on top.

The OTHER fun thing was that Frank and I got to go to a Boston Celtics game last night! Yep, champion basketball team from this past spring.
The Celtics beat the Utah Jazz, 100-91. Here's their logo: I guess he represents a "Celtic?"


The funny part is, do you remember Danny Ainge? BYU basketball player, went on to play for the Celtics and actually 3 other pro basketball teams... Now he's the "President of Basketball Operations" for the Celtics--he recruits for them, and handles the sponsor deals, etc. That's about all I know but WHY do I know this? Because he's our Bishop, in our church congregation here.

Last Sunday night, Frank took David to the Bishop's Youth Night: kind of an inspirational/spiritual thought fireside for the youth, at the Ainge's house. On the front door they posted a note: "we have 2 more tickets to tomorrow night's game, if anyone can go..." At the end of the evening Frank asked if they still had the tickets so THAT's how we went! They were really good seats, and we were happy to take them off their hands.

Interesting thing, living here. I lived in California 5 years, and I never saw a celebrity! I come here and I do....OH, another person we saw: Michael Phelps, you remember 14 gold medals in swimming? He was at the game last night.

OK--back to THE LIST! Have a great week-before-Christmas! Love, Kari