Happy Easter today

Hello and Happy Easter!

I need to put some Easter eggs on the title photo of the blog or something.  We have had some sunshine today and yesterday, so when you look out the window, you think it's spring!  The wind can still be cold.  But it LOOKS like spring.

WEDDING. Last week I went to Rachelle's wedding in Arizona, it was very beautiful.  She and Shad got married in the Snowflake LDS Temple, in northern Arizona.  He's from California. He and his family are really nice.

Posed by Jessica.

Jessica took pictures, and the rest of us got to enjoy :)  Well Kim (Rachelle's mom) was a little more busy, with 10,000 details to keep track of.  But things went very well, and according to plan.  They got married in the morning, and then had a reception at the church that evening.

Jessica shoots a LOT of pictures!

Kay and Kids! We don't get together TOO often...

HORSES. Then some of us went back to the Tucson area, and went on a horseback ride Monday.  It was a beautiful day for us. Not too hot. Of course, at this point in the year, I'm ready for hot.

It was a quick trip, it felt like, but it's good to see people.  And I couldn't get away without a photo with Grandma. :)

Grandma and Kari

DAVID. David is taking finals at BYU this week.  Ugh!  He will come home on Thursday, and we are happy about that.  He flies in to Providence, Rhode Island.

Feels a little rushed, since I need to get to bed.  We're thinking of going to Lexington bright and early in the morning.  Tomorrow is Patriot's Day, and they'll re-enact the Revolutionary Battle of the Shot Heard Round the World.  Also tomorrow is the Boston Marathon.

Have a great week!
Kari

March Marches On

Salve! (practicing: Italian Lesson #1.)

Just checking in...we had a couple of warm days this week, and now we're back to "winter."  Brrrr!  The sun fools us into thinking that spring is close.  Then you walk outside and the wind hits you.  Ugh!

Here are some highlights of the week:

GUN CLUB.  Frank was given some rifles that his dad and grandfather owned.  He is officially "licensed," now, to have them in Massachusetts!  He found a gun club in a neighboring town that had reasonable hours and fees.  We went to check it out yesterday.  It's still snowy and slushy and muddy out!  But Teresa, Frank and I shot at some targets at their range yesterday.  I think it will be a good place to practice in the future.

D.C. TRIP.  The 8th graders around here take a trip to Washington D.C. in the spring.  It's a fabulous trip, with monuments, U.S. government buildings, and museums.  The 8th grade curriculum is filled to the brim with history, U.S. law and constitution, and studies of the Revolutionary War.  This D.C. trip in April will be the culminating event of the year, tying all these studies together for the students.  They take a train down, pack in a ridiculous number of historic attractions and activities into 3 days, stay in hotels and eat food court food.

EARNING MONEY. While it's a great trip, it is also expensive.  We have basically required each of our kids to make half of the money to go to D.C.  So David went during our first year here in Massachusetts.  We had house projects up to our eyeballs that year, and every door inside the house needed to be painted.  Twice.  That was his "D.C. project."  Teresa was also earning money for Peru that year, so she earned for both trips, and she made loaves of zucchini bread and sold them (many. many. loaves) to neighbors, friends, people at church...lots of zucchini bread.  So...we don't have house projects going on right now (Thank You, Thank You--so tired of those).  What could Kara do?

PERSONAL CHEF.  Kara actually likes to cook, including baking of course.  Her friends at school know that on their birthday, they can request what kind of treat they want at school, and Kara will make it and bring it in to the lunch room! (Public schools now don't allow food in the classroom, and there are allergies galore, but as far as we know, the students can still bring food into the lunchroom.)

So I have hired Kara to cook meals for our family! I find recipes online, get the ingredients, and she makes the food for us.  I stay within earshot for questions, but I read, work on the computer, etc. while she makes dinner!  She has prepared:

Salmon & Zucchini Skewers & Couscous
Pork Fajitas w/Pepper & Onion
Chicken Picatta
Crispy Panko Cod with Kale & Mango Salad
Rosemary Chicken Lasagna
Gnocci w/Spinach Salad
Crispy Shrimp w/Canellini & Kale

and lots more!  It's perfect for me.  I'm afraid I'll be sad when she's earned all of her money for the trip.

Time to move to the next thing, getting ready for the week!  Hope it's springtime where you are.  Thursday is the BIG DAY: 1st day of spring, officially!  I'll keep telling myself that, anyway.  Even tho our temps are far from spring-like.

Happy Monday tomorrow!  Kari

Exciting News for David

Hola!

Except now I will be using a different greeting, to help me with my Italian: I have discovered there are 3 possible greetings I can use with you.

“Ciao” is absolutely informal.
-“Salve!” is quite informal, but more friendly and polite than “Ciao”.
-“Buongiorno” is a formal polite manner to salute in a friendly and respectful way.

There is your Italian lesson for the day.  I love the Internet.  Really :)

In our church, the college-aged kids are encouraged to serve a "mission."  Boys and girls are encouraged to serve and help in different areas of the world.  It's a 2-year time commitment (18 months for girls).  It's a time of service and gospel study, a chance to focus on others, to be a part of something bigger and outside of yourself, and to solidify your own knowledge of scriptures and the teachings of Jesus Christ.


There are 400 missions worldwide.  The missionaries work closely helping the local church leadership, and church members in that area.  They also participate in community service X number of hours a week.

They teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to those searching for more meaning or purpose in their lives.

Frank went to southern Spain in the 80's.  I didn't serve a mission then, but now I really see the benefit of going.  We hoped that David would want to go. And he did decide to go!  In the last couple of months, he went through all the steps of applying and interviewing, getting physical and dental forms in, and even having his wisdom teeth removed last month.  (Well that would have happened anyway.  But they do want the missionaries to be able to "focus" for 2 years on the mission, not worry about their teeth or other problems.)

So timing for the missionaries can vary.  The oldest you can go on a mission as a single person is 25.  The youngest is 18 for boys, 19 for girls.  They also have missions for adult couples, but that happens usually after all of their kids are grown, and they can somehow leave their job and house for an extended period of time.

David has decided that he will serve a mission for our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after he completes his freshman year of college the end of this April.  People cannot choose their location; instead, they are assigned.  He completed the application and received his "mission call" -- assignment -- this week.  He's going to the Italy Milan Mission, and leaves June 25!

So, that's the reason I am now interested in Italian: David will be learning the Italian language and culture, and also much about himself and others when he goes to northern Italy this summer, and for the next 2 years.

There are 2 missions in Italy: Milan (northern), and Rome (the southern 2/3 of the country).  The Milan Mission includes Venice, Milan, and a tiny bit of Switzerland. It is the "top" part of the country:  if you put flowers in the tall boot of Italy, he'd be where the flowers are sticking up out of the top.  Not Rome!  That's another mission.  But they are building a temple, visitor's center, meeting house, and patron housing (dorms or hotel rooms) in Rome right now, to be completed in 2015.

My friend did send along a news article about Pope Francis.  He was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year!  It's a neat article, actually.  I learned some things; it's a quick and easy read if you have 5 minutes: here is the link.

We are excited for his new adventure!  He received the mission assignment packet in the mail on Wednesday.  Thursday he skyped, and we watched while he opened it.  David doesn't show much emotion usually, but when he got to the "location" part of the letter, he paused and got this big smile on his face. "Italy Milan Mission," he read.  We were all surprised.  It was a fun Skype call!

We'll be learning along with him.  A new adventure!

Have a great week, Kari

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