Memorial Day and Prom

Hello, Family--

Just thinking about Memorial Day, as we have a relaxing day of catch-up and no stringent time schedules today. Yesterday in church, the Bishop had Veterans, and those currently serving in the armed forces to stand and be acknowledged. I am so grateful for them and their families, and their willingness to serve our country!

Teresa on the flute!

At different times, Teresa and Kara have participated in the Memorial Day parade they have here on Memorial Day. They have the Middle School band march and play. Teresa played the flute for a little while, and Kara played clarinet, then saxophone in the parade.

Kara on the saxophone --
btw it's MY saxophone, that I played
in Middle School!

Here are some old pics, from Middle School for both of them.

Now, we're getting ready for Kara's graduation from High School! Her last day of school was Friday. I have many mixed emotions right now! (Admittedly, part of me was happy and relieved, Friday: I said to myself, "We have just completed 9 years at Wayland High School! Yessssssss!!!!") I also look back at pictures, and find myself teary-eyed.

The graduation ceremony will be this coming Sunday, 3 June. Kara's grandparents can come, we are so happy about that! David will come from Provo for the weekend, too. Then a celebratory dinner at the neighbor's house. Isabel and Kara have been buddies since we moved in, when they were in 3rd grade. Recently (the last few years) they've been involved in different sports, classes, and activities, but they still wanted to do a graduation dinner together.

Oh, and we also had Prom a couple of weeks ago. It's a Junior Prom, so one member of the couple has to be a junior. Jeremy, Kara's date, was a junior in Kara's math class.

It rained that afternoon, so Frank and I wore our raincoats :) We got a break in the storm for about 20 minutes, and we got in some cute pictures.

Well that's the time I have for the blog :) -- Just wanted to share some pics.

Love, Kari

February Break

Hello, Family—

I haven’t updated the family blog in forever, it seems ☹

So many of my projects/church jobs/household responsibilities have me focused on the computer, I actually try to cut down my screen time! But here are a few sentences for you.

Internet photo but here's the
front of the restaurant where
Kara works now

We just finished our February Break, which is a week. We stayed in town and Kara got in a few shifts being a hostess at The Local. It’s a restaurant less than a mile from here. She is at the front, and she seats people, answers the phone and fills carryout orders. When she turns 18 next month, she can train to be a waitress. She still plans on playing tennis starting late March, though, so we’ll see how many shifts she can do then.

She also took care of “Paige” here at the house, our friend’s dog, while they went on vacation. Paige is about 8, a little bigger than Macho (our dog, growing up, little black Peekapoo) but Paige is white. Nicer for Paige to be at a house instead of the kennel, and Kara got the same money they would have paid the kennel. Since Paige is pretty mellow, it worked out well.

Dog-sitting during the break
(Internet photo but this is a Paige-clone)

Frank is on the train to NYC at this moment, just for a couple of days. This Saturday is his birthday, and that night we’ll have a few couples over for a Games Night. Kara’s working but she can say happy birthday during the day! Ha.

David is about 1/2 way through his semester at BYU. He's still learning Chinese and working at the stadium on Saturdays, whenever there is a home game.

I’m teaching Primary now, on Sundays at church. I have the 8 and 9 year olds, who are in 2^nd and 3^rd grade. There are 7 of them on the roll, and our room feels like this tiny closet space. I don’t even have a table in there, because my chair plus 7 other normal-sized chairs barely fit! Ha, but I’m not exaggerating. I’m getting the routine down in spite of the claustrophobic room. We're studying the Old Testament this year. This week we talked about Noah's Ark.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner Sunday, and we took pictures and I texted them to one’s mom in Utah. The other sister missionary is from Portugal so I put the pics into a facebook message for her mom. Technology can be so much fun! (When it works…other times you want to bang your head against the wall?!?)

I have to share this youtube link, you’ll laugh! This morning after exercising, I caught 3 minutes of the Today Show. They showed this video, and it made me chuckle. It’s a quick clip, but they replay it about 4 times, so you can watch this little toddler closely, haha 😊

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drYR58wlMFI

Have a good week!

Kari

Soccer Continues!

Plastic cups stuck in the fence,
announcing "Senior Night '18!"

Hola!

Just had to give a "Soccer Update" for Kara. Her Wayland Varsity girls' soccer team season finished about a week ago.

Individual posters with soccer pics...

LAST HOME GAME. We had a lovely "Senior Night" 2 weekends ago, where they honor the seniors at the last home game. At halftime, the families go out on the field, and the girls are presented with roses and a certificate, and the presenter says nice things about the seniors. This year the presenter was Alan, one of the Dad's, who has actually coached many of these girls (including Kara) since Elementary School in town soccer. He's awesome, and it was very cool.

Okay I forgot to take a cake picture until it was
almost DARK, for Pete's sake...
the photo in the middle is of all the seniors
gathered around "The Rock" in front of the school,
with "2018 Seniors" painted on it. Very cute.

The rest of the team makes posters for each senior, and they decorate the bleachers, and there's cake. It's a nice evening. (And the girls ALSO won the game! Ha. That always makes it a great Senior Night!)

Of course, that was 2 days after Frank had left for India so he couldn't go. But knowing he'd be gone, I had previously had a parent take a picture of the 3 of us:

After Kara sees the photo she says,
"But I had already taken off my shin guards..."

TOURNAMENT. So here's the process: They take the 16 teams to "Tournament." These teams either have the best records, or if they simply have a certain number of wins, or something. Anyway there are 2 ways to go to "Tournament," and 16 teams go.

 Wayland eeeeeeked in, at #16. So they got to go to "tournament." Yaaaay!

The lame part was, at #16, they were bracketed to play the NUMBER ONE TEAM, right off the bat. Blah! The "worst" record team against the "best" record team! That's just how they set up the brackets. "Sorry girls, but have fun anyway...you'll probably lose..."

Well guess what: Last Friday, #16 Wayland BEAT the #1 team, 4-1! Yaaaaaayy! That was an amazing shocker, and they were so excited to continue.

The next game was last night, Tuesday 7 November. And guess what again: Wayland WON, 3-0! Woo-hoo! It was freezing and raining. Awful. And they passed the ball great, had a lot of shots on goal, and played great as a team, and they won.

So, here's the Shout Out to Kara, and the team is so happy and excited to continue. Next game tomorrow, Thursday 9 Nov.

I really just wanted you to know that it is a big deal to go to "tournament" at ALL, and this is a great way to end the season as a senior. Whether they win, and continue to the finals, or if they lose tomorrow afternoon and they're finished for this year, they have worked really hard and improved a lot. GOOOOO KARA!!!! :) :) :)

Kari

Halloween and India

Hola--
Well surprise, it's a new month! Our October has been so beautiful. We had lots of days in the 70's, and even the 80's some of the time. If people came to visit in October THIS year, they'd say "Wow, it's so nice in the fall here!"

Usually I'm shivering, but even for Kara's soccer games, we've had really great weather.

yep, mornings are cold: maybe 45 degrees here?!

HALLOWEEN. We had a rather quiet Halloween here at the house, not many Trick-or-Treaters. But traditionally at the high school, the seniors get to dress up for the day. The kids are usually pretty funny or creative.

They do costumes in groups... one group was the "Magic School Bus," all with yellow cardboard buses around them.

I liked the hats--down to the details
of the ribbons coming out the top!

There were "The Incredibles," in red tights and capes and masks. Another group dressed in gold, including spraying their faces and hair gold, and were "Trophy Statues:" a golden baseball player, a golden ballerina, etc. Clever. Kara and friends were "Hershey Kisses," wearing everything silver and a ribbon out the top of the hats they made. They handed out Chocolate kisses, too :) :) It was a fun day for them!

Frank has been in India this week. Yep, the other side of the world, just about! They are 9 AND A HALF hours ahead of us, isn't that funny! He went out a few days before the conference started, so he could be a tourist. He sent some photos via Snapchat, and I screen-shotted them. If I can transfer them to the computer, I can post them.

**If you click on the photo, it is bigger...

He started out being able to see the Taj Mahal, so that is in the background on a few of these pics.

It's a very crowded country, and also polluted. I think those photos you see of the Taj Mahal with a clear blue sky behind it, were taken by people who live there. They wait for the ONE or TWO clear days of the year, and take postcard-worthy pics of it!

He also got to see a game of cricket--India played New Zealand. I've never seen cricket!

Fort he visited on Saturday

Inside the fort

Cricket Game

Cricket w/co-workers--I'm laughing at the
photo-bombers, top right, sticking his tongue out

Overall things have gone smoothly so far. Sleep is pretty mixed up, of course, and there are a LOT of people, and a lot of poverty everywhere you look. You have to avoid the water, but the hotels have a never-ending supply of bottled water.

workers hanging on the outer wall of the hotel--!!

Well this is just a smattering. Time to get on with the OTHER parts of the day! Frank gets back to Boston Sunday evening.

Have a great rest of the week!
Kari

Candy, Colors and Card

Teresa and Kara SEVEN years ago,
can you believe that! Ha.
The best part is coming in after trick-or-treating
and counting out the good stuff...

Hola, Familia--

October 12 already! I went to the grocery store this morning and there is a LOT of candy on the shelves. Wowie.

SUNNY WEATHER. We've had some lovely summer-like weather the past 2 weeks, and for that I am extremely grateful! This week is more like "fall." The leaves are starting to change and the drive around town gets prettier as the month progresses.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES. Teresa's mission home sent out a blanket email, saying it was easier to send one to everyone than answer parent questions individually. There are 4 wildfires going on right now in the Roseville Mission. Ugh! So sad...something like But the missionaries are fine. They said last night they had 4 missionaries and a senior couple stay the night in a different place, but those were the only ones that have been affected. Teresa just left the Chico/Paradise area, and the map shows one near there. Now she's further south, though. Nofires near Auburn.

Got a flu shot yesterday. Shots still hurt, and I'm not a little kid! Blah.

Tuesday's game (blue shoes
make it easy to tell people
where she is on the field!

DRIBBLE AND PASS. Kara is still enjoying the soccer season. I'm happy for the delayed fall, mostly because we've been able to watch soccer games in sunshine and light jackets or shirt sleeves! (Watch, now that I said that, it will snow at the next one...)

They sold frozen cookie dough as a fundraiser, and we got it yesterday. Now I'll have to make some...white chocolate/macadamia nut cookies. (Sigh...such a sacrifice, supporting the soccer team) :) :)

Our goalie was kept a little too busy this game...

SCUBA CLASS. David's fun class this term has been scuba diving! We told him how Kris got certified at BYU, and he looked into it. His Wednesday class finished the classroom and swimming pool training, and yesterday they drove to some hot springs, roughly 90 minutes away, for the "open water dive." He got a temporary card until his real one comes in the mail. Yay, David!

Watching the BYU women's volleyball team play right now...college vball is so awesome! They're winning against Portland.

My blog time is up! Hope you are having a great week.

Love, Kari

Soccer, School and Skylines

internet photo...I should
try one of these, though... :)

Hello, Family!!

Somehow September not only started, but is half over...?!? Not quite sure how that happened. I stay on top of Teresa's blog, then I forget about our family one.

School has started, as of last week. Usually we start right after Labor Day, and that's what we did this year. Kara is a SENIOR, can you believe that!! I did get a photo before she jumped in the car that first morning. They write on their windows so the school had lots of "2018" on lots of windows that first day.

Kara's "First Day" as a SENIOR!

I am tutoring 2 days at 2 different elementary schools, like I have in the past. Basically 1 day at each Elementary School. We need to do a little more testing, with new kids, but the schedule is under way.

Kara has started soccer, and they won their game last night! She plays defense on the varsity team, and will play about 2 games a week, now, for the next 2 months. I got a couple of pictures of her playing yesterday...

David "stopped in" for a few days, then he was off again to BYU! He had a wonderful collection of experiences this summer, in and around Milan, and then Eastern Europe. He finished in London, one of my very favorite places. Classes have started for him in Provo. Hi and Bye--Can't wait to see you at Christmas, David!

Frank is in NYC for part of this week.

forming a 'wall' for a corner kick

Frank was not doing anything
glamorous--just meetings. This is
from a couple of years ago...But
I really do need to get back there,
to take some more pics :)

Hurricane Irma went through David and Diane's backyard...well maybe not exactly, but MUCH TOO CLOSE at any rate! They spent the week securing their house, then drove a LOT of hours to get to Dot's, (family member in Valdosta, GA)...yes, where they helped her prepared HER house for the same storm, and then it passed by HER house! Ugh. Unpredictable storm path, of course.

Internet Photo but I don't know how ANY trees
survive wind like that :(

But, she reports that they are home now, and did not get flooded. They lost a few tiles on the roof, and they also lost their banana tree in the backyard. Bummer, but we are relieved that's "all" it was.

(also Internet photo. Awesome Monument!)

I'm listening to a book on cd, on my way to school and all around town, about Abraham Lincoln's speeches and his path to President. Much of my knowledge of him centers around him as President, the Civil War and the Gettysburg Address. He actually had a career before that, too! Ha. Very interesting.

I've been trying to average 10K steps a day, to stay healthy and be part of an exercise plan with Frank's work.

We've had some beautiful days this week! Sunny and high 70s, for temps. THAT's why I'm trying to get in my 10,000 steps a day :) :)

Hope your week is going well! I'll sign off with a couple of pics I took this month, simply For Your Enjoyment:

One of the yards that backs up to the trail
I walk...next to the RR tracks,
which take us to the library

Wayland Library -- this is the "short end,"
by the parking lot. Love the ivy on the walls!