Weather

We have had some interesting weather here lately, the other day we had the greatest clouds. Eli thought they were just spectacular.

And last night we had quite a little storm rip through here. I should have know that the really loud boom in the night that woke Bella up was lightning hitting the tree outside the front door. A little too close for comfort. It stripped out a very interesting path along the whole trunk and blew off some branches. We are counting ourselves very lucky. We have had a few electrical things out of wack today- hopefully we can get that sorted out as well.

Please just let the weather be fantastic next week- for our journey back to the Mother Land, also known as Utah!

Homemade Ice Cream

Well for Family Home Evening on Monday night Joe thought it would be a fantastic time to make homemade ice cream.  We had the first good snow storm of the season on Saturday and still had snow left over.  You just can't pass up that kind of opportunity, especially when it makes really great ice cream! (Certainly it is not an ingredient, but the chiller there of!) The kids were pretty happy with that prospect, and will be even happier that in the next couple of days the temperature will be in the 60's and 70's, which to me is a much more pleasant time to be eating ice cream, and doing most everything else as well!

The Mind

On Sunday we had the opportunity to become reacquainted with a young lady that we have been fairly closely associated with over the last 7 years.  I say reacquainted because while we were in New York she had an accident and now suffers from amnesia.

This is one of those things that everyone knows about, and is added into movies to add extra drama, but not many people actually know someone who has it, or who perhaps had it.  At least that seems that way to me.  I have spoken with her mother on several occasions inquiring after her, learning that it has effected her sense of taste among all the other things, like not knowing people and not being able to remember places or events. 

I wondered what it would be like to see her for the first time; it turns out I was so pleased.  She was glowing and had a crystal clear disposition, with eyes twinkling and bright with enthusiasm.  She bore an amazing testimony in our Sacrament Meeting, and you could just see how she is being blessed through this challenging time.

Talking with her after church was wonderful for us, though I am certain it was weird and possibly frustrating for her.  She said that she tries not to be in such overwhelming situations very often with so many people who know her; I just can't imagine what that must be like. Everyone who knows you and has memories of all the times spent together and you just have to sort of smile and say sorry I don't really remember that.  We suggested that perhaps she would like us even better the second time around;)

It really makes you sit back and think, wonder and realize what a blessing it is to have memories, but can it also be a blessing to not have them for a time? What do you think?

Who Knew.....

So did you realize that all of the rules of volleyball have changed in recent years. Who knew! I didn't have a clue but came to this stark realization when I went to go play volleyball on Monday. We took a trip down to Nixa/Ozark to visit family and somehow I was talked into playing by my sisters Anne and Barb, my niece Jasmine, and my sister-in-law Amy. Now you realize that this is a great feat since I have declined nearly every offer to play volleyball since my freshman year in high school, let's say at least 20 years (is that possible??).

Very sad story: I am, let us say, challenged when it comes to sports. I follow 3 superstar sporty sisters who played volleyball in high school and college- add also basketball, gymnastics, track etc. to that mix and you get the idea that they have some sportiness going on for them. So I thought that I would try and follow in their footsteps and try out for the volleyball team.....sad story begins..... for obvious reasons I did not make the team and I was questioned if I was truly a Carter, since all Carter women were so capable at the game. Needless to say this is when I focused my energy into Japanese and Choir, my talents are of much better use there!

So in spite of my very sad history I reluctantly joined in on what would be 3 hours of amusing torture.

So this is where I discover that all the rules have changed, everyone just continuously prattled on about how you can't do that anymore, but you could do this, and everyone gets a point even if it isn't their serve. You know things like that- just to make me love the game even more. Just kidding, it really was a blast. I came away having worked out my stomach muscles, from laughing so hard, and many other muscles were sore from trying to dodge (or be killed by) Micky's death serves. The bottoms of my feet had muscle soreness as well, very weird. All in all, it was a great experience- Side Out- My point!! Don't ask me to keep score though!

Umm.......we just bought a house!

This is a very strange situation, as has been confirmed by many other sources!


So here is the thing, we have been renting a house from our friends these two months that we have been back and were resigned to stay here throughout most of the year. Well, when we came back from our trip to Chicago for New Year's, we went to see a house here in Warrensburg that caught our eye. We spent 2 1/2 hours there that day and completely fell in love with it. No kidding, it has all of the things we were looking for-

• Style: Bungalow, check
• wood burning fireplace, check
• bigger kitchen and master bedroom, double check
• land with fruit trees-fun place for kids to work and play etc, check- (including grape vines, cherry trees, apple trees, black walnut, bla bla bla)
• Closer to church, work and school, check
• Ready to move in, check
• Music room, check
  

You get the idea, we figured it would be tough to achieve. So at that point there were some things that we just couldn't do. It was priced a little more than what we were comfortable with, we would have to have the PMI on our mortgage- yuck, after draining all of our savings. We just felt like we really couldn't do that even though it felt just like home.

This is where it gets weird, that day we actually met 2 of the daughters (who are selling it for their parents after 45 happy years there raising 6 children) and actually the mom was on the other side of the property watching us, talking to another lady that wanted to make an offer. We had pretty much written it off as our dream come true. So we were a little suprised when we got a call from our agent on Saturday stating that he had gotten a call from the sellers. They wanted to let us know that they were going to drop the price for us if we would be interested in buying it. We talked about it for a bit then told our agent that we just weren't feeling comfortable with it- I mean who knows if the economy will tank tomorrow. Our agent let them know and they said something to the effect of- this is not about the money, it is purely a sentimental sale and they wanted to see a family in their home- that family would be us! We said "wow, how nice, but not likely", and they said "what do we have to do to get that family in this house". (We found out today that they have a cash offer to close in two weeks- and they are persuing us to buy it for a chunck of change less than asking price.)

We feel like there is another hand very much involved in our life right now. We have spent some steady time on our knees this weekend and have been able to resolve all of our original concerns- so, we just bought a house. Good thing we still have lots of boxes to pack things back up in!

Opa!

We have had lots of fun things going on in our lives this last week- Zachary is playing recognizable songs on the trumpet- way to go Zach!! Eli can spend hours upon hours playing Lego's with friends or by himself. Kaija aced a test in science, though we were in NY during the actual unit study. Isabella has found that moving to a new school is not such a bad thing, and she has found long lost friends and delights in her wonderful teacher! We also have our dear Jeannette staying with us a couple of days a week, she is a delight to have in our home! This goes as a reminder that everyone is welcome- especially if you want to be awakened by Joseph practicing the piano at 6am, sorry Jeannette!

Yesterday we had a wonderful visit with some of our friends who previously lived here in the Burg- always wishing for more time to visit. But, that is the beauty of friendship; it is ever present, even though time has passed and distance makes gathering infrequent. You can just pick up right where you left off and rejoice in the goodness of life experiences.

On Friday night we went with some other friends to Tasso's Greek Restaurant in Waldo Missouri. Where is Waldo, you might ask- well it is located in the south part of Kansas City-who knew! Admittedly it was a lengthy supper and we got to experience the full gamut of excitement that they have to offer.

There was a greasy old guy there with belt cinched around his ribs and a waxed mustache, taking every one's photo and printing them up for you on a Tasso's card- (this is where they make the big bucks!) The man would hand you this photo of you and your loved one which we looked at and sort of put to the side and went on talking, but he would not leave. He remained resolute, examining the photo over our shoulder, then followed with his well rehearsed line " ...you like... that will be $5" then he just stood there waiting! So Joseph being the non- confrontational guy that he is, gave him the money to get him away from us! It really became quite funny to watch as he did this to the remainder of the patrons. So now we have a super photo memory of the night! What ever! You know it makes me wonder what they do with their copy of all those photo's, do they delete them at the end of the day? or are you black listed if you didn't pay the 5 bucks?? I wonder........

There was a guy there playing very loud music, just loud enough that you could barely speak and hardly hear any piece of conversation from the person sitting next to you, let alone from across the table. He played some peppy Greek tunes and quite a lot of Neil Diamond- he really sounded just like him. It was definitely lively- I read one review that stated that if you were looking for a nice quiet romantic evening, you probably don't want to go to Tasso's!

The food was tasty enough- very good dressing for the salad; though it did take nearly an eternity to make it through the meal. There was an interesting version of the plate toss tradition- sort of anti-climatic if you ask me, and we couldn't escape before the belly dancer participated on the program. Gratefully we didn't have to endure the full act; only a minor chair bumping incident, that was majorly funny. Baklava for everyone and a run for the door summed up the exciting evening. So to all of you Greek buffs, "Opa!" and all other happy salutations to each of you!

2008's Closing Events

So there have been a few things taking over my extra curricular time lately, certainly moving back to Warrensburg and all of the unpacking and sorting and pitching of seemingly endless quantities of stuff, has been a major activity. But the added benefit of Christmas and a couple of fantastic trips away from the Burg, has delayed my progress on some of the other things I like to do, like blogging for instance. I have decided that I like to blog, because it helps me to remember what is going on in my life, this is due to the fact that I am a completely random journal writer, which in fact leads me to be a random blogger-so that doesn't help me out too much.
To help me realize my delinquency in this area of my life, Zach has had a project in school this last week, to do a timeline of his life. It has been very challenging, much to my chagrin . First of all to actually locate appropriate pictures of periods throughout his life span- one problem encountered is there is a period of time completely missing due to our cameras being stolen back in the summer of 07, which had quite a bit of data stored therein- (it just feels like a personal mental block), secondly is to remember when things actually took place. I have a pathetic memory when it comes to that. I am a little alarmed really to find that my brain got packed away somewhere with everything else, and I can't find it either! I think I have come across all of the boxes of photo albums and copious amounts of prints-including many doubles, still in their original envelopes. I will save that adventure for another day! However, one of these days in the future you may come across an envelope of photos in your mailbox from yours truly; not today however!

So for now, I finally did find all of the cords and pieces to the camera so I could download photos from our last bit in NYC up to this very time. Just sorting through those seems to take up much more time than I would like it to! Having said that, you can either continue and check out some of those picture "perfect" moments, or just take a pass on the Nielsen memorabilia!

This first set is of our last days in NYC- they were packed!

Next is Christmas and our awesome trip to Chicago!

We had such an amazing holiday-our first year staying home! We started a new tradition- celebrating Lillejulaften on the 23rd- all things Norway- great food, great friends. A quiet Christmas morning where the kids were delighted for everyone and for everything, a lovely trip to visit cousins in Ozark and Nixa Missouri, and finally a fantastic trip to Chicago for some big city moments with our good friends John and Carrie and their beautiful family! We even joined in on our Stake Temple day in St. Louis on the way home- it was perfect! Thanks to all for making it so wonderful!