Niagara Winter Wonderland

Hola!

We had our "February Break" last week, so the kids were out of school.  Lots of people go skiing that week, and many of their/our friends went someplace WARM for the break.  I was hearing "Puerto Rico," "Mexico," "Florida..." Peshaw!  We stayed in the frigid north :)

We left town and stayed cold.  We went for the Winter Wonderland Niagara Falls Tour: February 2014! (remember, you can double-click on the photos to see them bigger.)

CROWDS...NOT. The most surprising part was how empty it was!  We had a lot of the touristy things to ourselves.  We have been there in July, and we know how you stand in line for even a good "photo op" along the railing by the falls.  People everywhere.  (And some of them are a little oblivious to...everything.)  So we walked up to the windows for tickets to the many touristy attractions, it was already our turn!  It was awesome.

SkyWheel, temperature controlled

SKYWHEEL.  They have a huge ferris wheel, where you can see the falls from a helicopter-like view, since you are so high.  There are 40 cars to fill.  The 2 times we rode it, maybe two other cars even had people in them, besides ours.

GUINNESS MUSEUM.  Sometimes these museum displays can be very unpleasant.  People do pretty ridiculous things to get their name up in lights, or whatever.  But curiosity won, and we went in.

GLOW GOLF.  This whole mini-golf place was painted in florescent paint, so when they turn on the black lights, everything glows. Plus some of our clothing, plus our teeth when we smiled.  Very entertaining, and a little creepy at the same time.

BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY.  It's always fun to visit the butterflies, especially for me when they keep it 84 degrees inside, even though it's 25 degrees outside.  Here are some of our fluttery friends. And a tropical frog.

NIAGARA FALLS. The falls themselves are magical!  It's like looking at a Real-Life Wintery Wonderland.  Of course the water is flowing underneath the ice, but one person who works there said 2 weeks ago, the whole thing was frozen over!  Wow.  I'm giving you lots of pictures because A) I love pictures, and B) my guess is, most of you won't be visiting Niagara Falls in February anytime soon. Only the lucky ones :)

thick ice on all of the railings!

from Canada, viewing the American Falls

from the American side, Goat Island, viewing Rainbow Bridge

will this bus never come??

on top of the world

colored lights on the American Falls

Now, you have been on vacation to Ontario in February!  And you did it from the comfort of your own home, and it cost you nothing.  Can't beat that :)

Back to reality...we did miss another major snowstorm while we were gone (happy-happy-happy about that!), and in 2 more days it will be...drumroll please...the LAST DAY of FEBRUARY!

Have a good rest of your week,
Kari

Skype, Cyst, Snowday

Hola!  Just watching the evening disappear.  This weekend has gone by pretty fast!  Here are some highlights of last week or weekend.

SKYPE.  What a great invention :)  It's better to "see" your college student every week, instead of only "hearing" him.  David's wisdom teeth holes in his mouth are all better now -- none of them are bothering him.  So nice to have that ordeal behind him!  When he's on skype, he gets to interact with his sisters, and us, and we can show him things around the house.

Or Teresa can wave frozen mice in front of the laptop camera as she prepares to feed Komodo (corn snake, now 5 1/2 feet long).

TINY CYST GONE.  Teresa got to be the "hospital patient" this week, getting a little cyst removed from the back of her mouth.  It has come and gone about every week for the past 2 months, not awful but annoying.  So it was really tiny, but the location of it made it so they had to give her anesthesia, and make a whole big deal out of it!  Sigh.  The hospital is a type of Twilight Zone, with time...you walk in, and suddenly the whole day is gone.

(Home Depot is the same way.)

So here she is, in full hospital uniform!  And she is a trooper but really does NOT do well with needles and the IV they put in.  So she got a special "Fall Risk" band for her wrist, to alert nurses that she gets light-headed with that stuff.

The rest of the week at school, she left the waterproof wristband on...she supposes it gives her license to randomly walk around bumping into walls? Better keep that wristband.

SNOW DAY.  We also had a storm dump maybe 10 inches of snow on us?  Maybe close to a foot, depending on where you measured.  Timing was such that it steadily snowed hard, pretty much all day.  So they used another snow day.  Another big sigh.  One more day we go to school, further into the summer :(

BEST NEIGHBORS.  I've said it before, but we really do have the BEST neighbors!  And the grateful perk occasionally is that when there's a snowstorm, they pull out their snowblower, and they clear our driveway too, up to where the cars are parked.  It is SUCH a relief to not have to shovel that part.  (We still shovel the sidewalk, deck, porch, and Frank also rakes the roof, but the driveway is a big deal.)

Hope your week has started off well!  Go Olympians :)

Kari

Groundhog Day

Hola!

Well Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday--supposedly that makes it official, hmmm?  There will be 6 more weeks of winter.

SIX WEEKS.  Of course, in New England, six more weeks of winter would be a real treat. Yes, I'm wishing there would only be six more weeks of cold!  Ha.  But I'm dreaming now.  I always reminisce of the good old days of year-round good weather in California! Never mind the traffic, pollution, inner-city school problems, or politics that drive you crazy.  None of that matters at all.  My mind has created a harmonious, peaceful, ideal zen there, where the sun always shines and people live happily ever after.  In other words, utopia. :)

END of JANUARY.  This week we finished January!  HUGE accomplishment.  Really.  That means... drumroll... we made it through January!  Congratulations, Everybody.

JR. DISTRICTS. Kara tried out for "Junior Districts" on Saturday.  It's a regional music weekend where students gather from many different schools, with voice or with an instrument, and practice one whole day together (a Friday in March) and then they perform the next day, for families and friends.  Auditions were yesterday, and they tallied all scores and sent out "the list" last night.  She made one of the choruses!  Very cool.  Congratulations, Kara :)


MIDTERMS. Teresa's semester finished 2 weeks ago, so now she's into Quarter 3 of her Junior year.  She started her test prep for the SAT, to be taken in Early March.  She has quite a few senior friends and a cousin in "wait mode," who have applied to colleges for this fall and are waiting to hear back.  Hard to believe that in a few months, she herself will be filling out college applications.  Whoa!  Not there yet.

NEW PRINCIPAL.  Our high school is undergoing a principal search right now.  We are all crushed that our Principal was snatched away by another school district.  He was stellar.  The committee of parents, teachers and community members went through 43 resumes, narrowed down to 8 they called in to interview, and that came down to 3.  They had Tour Days this past week where they toured the school, had a meeting with parents, had a meeting with students, and then interviewed with the Superintendent last.  We should know in a week or so who our new principal will be.

INTRIGUING BOOK. Frank and I read "Proof of Heaven" by Eben Alexander.  It was incredibly thought-provoking, about a neurosurgeon who went into a coma for 7 days.  His intense and life-changing NDE, or Near Death Experience, completely changed his outlook and belief system.  I found myself nodding over and over again, because his insights made so much sense.  This, coming from a very educated, scientific former non-believer in any kind of afterlife.  It was an amazing book.  I've also just read a handful of reviews on the book: people either love it or call it ridiculous!  For me, it confirmed many things I already felt to be true of the afterlife. I highly recommend it. :)

MORE SNOW. We'll get some more snow this week, I hear.  Today was a little 'dusting,' that amounted to about 2 inches.  It's okay though...it's February! (We made it through January, remember?)

Have a good week :)  Kari

One Week at a Time

Happy Monday, once again! (ok that was yesterday...)

One more week of January.  I'm counting down.  That is all.

WATER.  I'm trying to drink more water these days!  (Frank is too, even though he hates it.) The health benefits of water are astounding. Here are 6 quick reasons (from webmd.com) to drink more water.

1) Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids.
2) Water Can Help Control Calories.
3) Water Helps Energize Muscles.
4) Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good.
5) Water Helps Your Kidneys.
6) Water Helps Maintain Normal Bowel Function.

Ta-Daaa!

FRISBEE in PHOENIX.  David went with his Ultimate (frisbee) BYU team to the "New Year Fest" tournament in Phoenix last weekend!  It was at a huge soccer stadium -- he thought there were 20 fields, with about 60 teams/colleges represented.  My mom drove over and watched the BYU team play.  She's one step ahead of us: because of distance, we'll probably never see any of his games. :(

STOMACH FLU.  Kara (8th grade) was home from school today with stomach flu.  So much for getting a flu shot, right??  (I know, there are dozens of strains of "flu..." blah-blah-blah.)  I can't think of many things I hate more than throwing up.  So she had 9 hours of it.  A perfectly miserable day for her.  Sorry, Kara!
(OK, it's Tuesday now...she's 110% back to her old self, and will be back to school tomorrow.)

SAT PREP.  Teresa is getting ready to take the next SAT test, in early March.  There are prep courses to help them with strategies, in answering certain types of questions, etc....her course will start this week.  (And BOY is she excited for THAT!  Let me tell YOU!) No, actually, she is not being coerced into it.  Rational discussion and reasoning made her decide this was the course she'd take.  We didn't even have to take a loan out for the bribe.

BABYSITTING on the EAST COAST.  Just so you know, babysitters get paid more here than they do "Out West." After watching the girls come home from their babysitting evenings and finding out their earnings, I will say it's tempting.  I may just take up some moonlighting jobs in this area. (Ok, joking, but it does raise eyebrows occasionally!)

And finally...

COUNTDOWN to THIS FRIDAY.  I can't wait until this Friday, because it is January 31st!  (Not only is it Frank's sister Dana's birthday, which is fabulous of course.)  But the last day of January means...drumroll please... we made it through January!  YESSS!!!!  This has been my goal for weeks.  Single digits will be the death of me, I think, and we have had wayyyy too many of them this month.  But Friday, we are officially through January.  There may, indeed, be hope ahead.

Have a lovely week!  Kari

Winter Wonderland and Wisdom Teeth

Hola!

SPRING-LIKE? Well let's not get carried away.  We had a whole week of "non-winter" weather, the temps staying high enough to melt the snow, and when the sun came out it melted even more.  We saw the grass in everybody's yard, and it was easy to get places.

spring friend

(Tangent: We didn't really see this toad today.  But it's cool, right?  Teresa's good eyes spotted him on a hike over the summer.)

WINTER WHITE.  Today, winter is back!  Looking outside it is a true Winter wonderland.  Huge, wet snowflakes are softly coming down, covering every branch and twig with white and fluffy snow.   (Well it's not really "fluffy" at all!  It's right about 30, where it could almost be rain, but it's snow.  So it's REALLY wet, very heavy and sloppy.)  It is, however, beautiful.  White, clean, and pristine.  Awesome!

Another couple of hours and the snowplows will come through -- actually I just saw the guy drive by who sands the road.  Add a coating of brown.  Then traffic slushes through, and it's dirty with exhaust.  Short-lived, but if you catch it with good timing, you get a few minutes of beautiful, white, Winter Wonderland!  :)

WISDOM TEETH.  David has survived his day with the oral surgeon.  With 4 impacted wisdom teeth, all sideways and below the gumline, they really weren't doing anybody any good!  I wonder why they call them "wisdom teeth," anyway?

His 3rd molars looked exactly like this (NOT his xray, though)

WIKI: Ok, I just googled it and here's the etymology from wikipedia: They are generally thought to be called wisdom teeth because they appear so late – much later than the other teeth, at an age where people are presumably "wiser" than as a child, when the other teeth erupt. The term probably came as a translation of the Latin dens sapientiae.  Now we all know.

(WARNING: Of course, as they tell the kids in school, you can't use Wikipedia as an official source of valid and factual information. Any Average Joe surfing the Internet can go in and make stuff up on Wikipedia.  BUT, you can use it for an overview of a new topic, to get some general information.)

DAVID's AFTERNOON: his teeth extractions went as smoothly as could be hoped for, I believe!  My cousin's son, Jeff, is a Jr. or Senior at BYU.  He was the designated driver and otherwise Responsible Adult.  We are forever grateful for his generosity with his whole Friday afternoon and evening!

David told me he stayed awake until the IV went in, then the next thing he knew he woke up in Shopko (the store with the pharmacy where they got the prescriptions).  I said, "You woke up IN Shopko?  You mean you don't remember talking to the dentist at the end, leaving the clinic and riding over TO Shopko?"  "Nope," he says.  "But Jeff said I didn't do anything TOO weird.  Just walk a little funny."

Normal stuff.  Get the prescriptions, start the pain medication and antibiotics.  Pick up applesauce, pudding, protein drinks, etc.  He got back and I guess the cafeteria stays open pretty late.  He had some applesauce, and "the dessert last night was coconut cream pie, and that's KIND of like pudding...  So he even got dessert that night?!? ha.

He slept about 11 hours last night, and there is a little swelling today.  Chubby cheeks.

Baby David had chubby cheeks!

Whew!  He'll have to just eat soft things for the whole coming week, but it is a huge relief to get that part behind him.


Such an unpleasant thing to have to go through.  Oh, except for my nephew Dallas, and our friend Zoe down the street: they do not HAVE any wisdom teeth!  What luck! :)

TMI. Probably more details than you wanted with the wisdom teeth.  No photos, sorry, but maybe the Internet has some good close-ups of the mini-operation -- EEEEwwwww! No, just joking, I won't be looking for those photos.

MEALS.  Kara has made dinner for us for the past 9 days.  Her goal is 2 weeks.  She's getting closer!

DRIVING.  Teresa is inching closer to the required hours of driving with an instructor.  One. Hour. At. A. Time.

Signing off now.  Have a great long weekend! (if you happen to get Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off.  We do.)  Kari

New Year Antics

Hello and Happy New Year!

I think it's okay, actually, to say "Happy New Year" for the entire month of January.  It is the FIRST month of the year, right, and you still get excused for your habitual writing-of-the-date-wrong. (Not 2013, that's SO LAST YEAR!  It's "2014.")  I know this will take a weight off of your shoulders.  It's official.  You can say "Happy New Year" all month long.

We are back into the swing of things, and we are even getting a reprieve from our obscenely cold temperatures!  YESSS!  A week ago it was getting down to (gasp) below zero at night.  Yep, your nose hairs freeze when you breathe in, and inhaling through your mouth makes you cough.  Hate that.  Yesterday, drumroll please... I think it got up to 50.

NEW MANTRA.  My very friendly, very positive neighbor said it best: during the frigid temps...I ran into him at the grocery store.  With a contagious grin, he said, "It's one day closer to spring!"  So that's what I keep telling myself.  One day closer to spring.

flowers: my symbol of spring coming! :)

DAVID. A LITTLE LATE.  David has started 2nd semester classes.  He was supposed to return last Sunday, but his flight got cancelled because of the horrid weather in Detroit (his connection city).  In a series of unfortunate events, he tried to fly standby on Monday but no luck.  He took a plane Tuesday and arrived that evening back at school.  Bummer to miss the first 2 days of school, but he's back now.  We skyped him this afternoon and he's back into his routine.

TERESA's CLEAN ROOM.  Teresa, our 16-year-old daughter, gave me this coupon for Christmas: "Will keep room clean for a week!" So yesterday I cashed it in...we attacked her desk, recycled, threw out papers from classes she took 2 years ago. We eliminated piles in the corners, and created a bin in the garage of things she really wanted to keep. At the end she looked around and sighed dejectedly, "Mom, what I really meant by the coupon was that you'd be able to see my carpet."  (She may just never give me another Christmas coupon??!?)  It makes me so happy to see her room, sometimes I just walk in there and look around.  NICE! :)
 
Guess I should have had before/after photos, but it looks good, right?

KARA 14 MEALS.  Kara (8th grade) has now made our dinners for 4 days.  One of her goals is to plan and make nutritious meals for 2 weeks!  That's 14 meals.  I agree with Jamie Oliver, in his TED talk: Teach Every Child About Food.  He says that every American child, before they leave school, should know how to cook 10 healthy meals.  (He says a lot of other stuff, too.  Disturbing, the direction we as a country and world are headed in terms of food consumption.)

Anyway, Kara is on her way to her 14-meal goal.  This is an Internet photo, but one of her salads really did look like this.

TEETH.  So you can send good thoughts & prayers David's way this Friday...he gets his wisdom teeth out then.  Yep, it has to be done, for everyone except those lucky people who somehow don't HAVE any?!? But he does.  All 4.  We'll keep you posted. :)

Have a great week!  Kari