This is what the "Fantastic 5" do in their spare time.
I think it's amusing. A little video with us in it.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1345564239

Anna had her 17th birthday. It was kind of a quick celebration. She received 2 new shirts, the video and some headbands. Later that night, a lot (20+) of her friends came over after the Holiday Concert (Band, Orch & Chorus) to have brownies and icecream. It was fun. She lamented that she is getting so old and that she is not prepared to be a grownup yet.

Just a few pictures of some of the fun we had on thanksgiving. We don't have too many. A great time in the park.

This is where the white house was. It is amazing how it looks with it gone. It is just all cleaned off and flat ground. The BBQ grill is there in the left of the picture. It is nice to have that mice trap gone. I hope all of the little critters ran into the forest and not over to the other cabin!

This year, I spent the most of November 15th at the hospital. Don't worry, nothing wrong, just a fun psychology study. I had to drink a mix containing amino acids and then play a series of computer matching games which was supposed to measure my depression levels. It was a long day, but at least I got paid 25 pounds! When I came home, James was gone, but posted this sign on the fridge.

James bought me much needed items: black socks for work and new shoe laces for my old, beat up shoes (new shoe laces does wonders to an old pair of shoes, I've learned!) He also got me a box of macaroni 'n' cheese, and a British food cookbook. He then made a wonderful dinner using recipes found in the cookbook. James also made a good, American classic, funfetti cake with white frosting and sprinkles.


On Saturday, I bought a really good quality winter sport jacket. It is made of strong, durable, waterproof material with a removable fleece lining. This will come in very handy for fighting the oncoming rainy and windy weather here. I can't wait to use it!

This is Anna and her date for Homecoming, Perry Sessions. He is a senior. Sorry it is blurry. She had fun and he is a nice boy. He is in her Seminary class. They looked so cute together. The theme was New York New York and the colors were black and red. They dressed just right.

This is Aaron with his real uniform and pads on. He looks so big and tall when he is outfitted. It was a great football season. Poston took 2nd in the city against Shepherd. He learned a lot and it was hard work. He is ready to try something else now.

Carol had a birthday a few weeks ago. It was a busy day and all a blur now. My mind must be going since I am so old!!! I'm still waiting for my tractor that dad promised.

I was at the Hostess Store and saw orange snowballs. I got a brilliant idea!! You can buy the snowballs or "Glo-balls" in the grocery store Hostess section 6 to a box. Use BC Gel writing stuff in black and green. The stem is a Sour Patch Bite in the packaged candy section. You can make different kinds of mouths. Have fun. Amazing enough, I have only succumbed to eathing just one!! They have been very tempting since I bought 6 boxes of them for V.T. and H.T. families and others.

Amren showed this to me. It's so funny. Mom & Dad got it on email, but I don't think the rest of you did. Enjoy!

So, long story short, I created this post on my laptop when we were in Ireland, but we didn't take my laptop with us to Eastern Europe, so I couldn't post this until now. Sorry for the lateness, but I thought you still might enjoy it. We will, hopefully sooner than later, update the rest of our own blog about the rest of our journey. We are in Cambridge now and moved into our place. I'll do another post about our new apartment later on.

We went to Homecoming this past weekend. We attended the dance at the Provo City Library, and it was beautiful. They had a live orchestra too. We had a lot of fun together, and it was fun to wear one of my formals again. Burke, however, was pretty bummed that all he got to wear was plain old Sunday clothes. He searched all over for a bowtie and couldn't find one. But, we still had a great time.

So my roommates set dating goals for the semester. (One date per month) They now call me their hero because I surpassed their entire semester quota in one weekend. I really don't think it's that heroic.

I think that often life moves along faster than we are prepared for, but we just have to trudge along the best we can. For a small update on Burke and me... Burke is no longer working at the MTC, he quit just before fall semester began. We decided it was the right time, and his grades are more important than work so that we can get into optometry school. His schedule is loaded with math and science classes for the next year. He was selected to intern with an optometrist for the semester; we are really excited about that. He is also president of the Daxton Wilde Foundation (nonprofit cancer organization that subsidizes funds for families whose children have cancer) this semester. As for me, I am working at the School of Technology part time. I recently added an editing minor to my humanities major, and I love it. This year, I am the editor-in-chief of a small student journal called Borrowed Earth. I don't really know what I am getting myself into yet, but it will be a good experience. I have put my French minor on hold, probably for good. Life and school keep us busy busy busy, but we are having fun.

The cabin was in need of a face lift after 70 plus years. Last weekend there was a new green metal roof put on. We haven't scene it yet, but the roofer said he was amazed at how it made the cabin look. I can't wait to go up to see it. The wood underneath was in surprisingly good condition. The roofer and us were a little worried about what we would find. Now we will have no more leaky roof in the kitchen or in the storeroom/water heater room. Dad also disposed of all of the mattress/box springs in the famiy room where little critters would hide.

This is Aaron in his practice uniform for football. Saturday, 9/15 was a "B" game. He was able to play for the first time for 4 posessions until they made a touch down and he said it was really fun. He did a good job blocking a really big guy. Last night during the regulation game, he played during one of the kickoffs after a touch down. We won 36-0. I will get a real picture of him in his uniform sometime. He is tall and handsome.

I went to the bathroom in the Vilnius, Lithuania, train station and saw this in the stall. I thought it would bring back good memories of China for Sarah and Kathryn (and maybe Julia and Mom if you ever saw these). Needless to say, I decided to wait because I just couldn't do it.

Later on our bus, about 5 minutes before we got to the Polish border, I woke up and had to go really bad. Luckily, we were blessed with a pit stop after the border. Unfortunately, though it wasn't a squatty, it smelled like a porta-potty and the floor was wet.

That doesn't even get to the toilet paper situation. In Lithuania, we couldn't flush toilet paper down the toilet. Some toilet paper was rough and thick like newspaper. In Poland, the toilet paper is like crete paper. At least you can flush it.

Thats all about bathroom procedures. For now... We're having a great time. Check our blog for more news and photos (but no bathroom talk): adventurouscouple.blogspot.com

I am sitting in New York's JFK airport waiting for our flight to Shannon. We've been at the airport for almost 8 hours now (our flight from Boston arrived in the morning). We'll be in Ireland Sunday morning and off to Lithuania next Thursday. We'll try to keep you posted about how we're doing. We went to Nova Scotia last week, I'll try to post something about that soon.

Here's a recent video of Natalie and her animal sounds. It's funny to watch how she interprets different sounds that we try to teach her.

On the Toro Band internet site, they have a Band History page. I was scrolling through it and I found Kathryn's year, eventually finding Kathryn's Jr. year Marching Band picture. Kathryn is in the middle, 5th row back, on the left side of Darth Vader.

We just did a measure on the wall to see how tall the kids are. Aaron in a whopping 5'10 & 1/2", Anna is 5'8 & 1/2" and Karen is 5'7 & 7/8" tall. I'm afraid some of you are being left in the dust! You need to eat more germade! :) (This picture was taken at Karen's birthday the end of March. It is not a true reflection of their current height.)

Happy Birthday Burke! We decided to celebrate your birthday and made a cake in your honor. It tastes really good.