Productive Weekend

My weekend started during the day on Friday when my HVAC guy came over to clean-out our furnaces and turn the furnace on. The whole week I refused to turn it on because to me it was too early in October to do it. I was defiant until Friday morning when our Finnish friends woke up and told me that it was like sleeping at the cabin, I decided that maybe it would be more comfortable for our guests to sleep little warmer than 60 F (15 C).

Friday night we left to go to the BYU-USU (Utah State University in Logan) football game with Alex. Rod was in sunny California and he gave me some advice on what to wear to the game. He told me that I should pretend like it was 30 degrees F (-1 C) and to wear long johns, hat and mittens. I didn't take his advice except that I wore a heavy ski jacket. Before the game started, I was freezing already. I didn't have to pretend it was 30 degrees because it felt like it was. After a hot dog and a blanket from Gail, BYU beat USU 37-17. A good start of the weekend. After the game, which we left early, we drove to Will's Pit Stop for a gourmet hot chocolate. I wanted to dip my feet in. It was tempting. I didn't.

Saturday morning I woke up to skype with my mother, as always. Then decided to make a yummy, totally American breakfast for our guests. Alex had told me about a recipe that he wanted me to try for pancakes. Ricotta Cheese-Blueberry pancakes were so delicious, and with bacon, anything tastes good.

Then I moved my work outside. I pulled out all of the petunias and other annuals to get ready for winter. I emptied the flower boxes and cleaned them out. I raked the grass and the flower beds from all the fallen leaves. I felt like I was ready for winter now.

Saturday night Matti, Timothy, Michael and Sini Helske came over for a brief visit. It was so great to see the newlywed couple and meet Sini for the first time. Unfortunately our visit was so short that I didn't get to ask all the questions I wanted. Hope to see Michael and Sini again before they head back to Finland. After the visit, I started baking. We have a great tradition with the Williams family that we go over to their house on Conference Sunday to eat brunch and then watch the second session of the General Conference with them. That is why I started baking.

I got brownies and lemon-blueberry streusel bars made.

Sunday morning at 7, I continued baking and cooking. I made my bread pudding and Creme Anglaise, I made homemade macaroni and cheese, I made donuts, I made rosemary-garlic roasted potatoes. The last thing I pulled out of the oven was the salmon. And off we went.

There was so much food and we all hardly made a dent to all of the food. Katie had made all of our favorite dishes, and we ate and ate and ate. Ali had come from NYC for a short weekend visit and it was so great to see her. She looks so happy. Thanks Katie for hosting, again.

After we left the Williams, we drove over to Jana and Quinn's house because today would have been Cooper's 5th birthday. There was a lot of sadness in the house and we hugged a lot. Jana and Quinn seemed to be doing ok.

I had to prepare dinner because the Finns were returning to our house for their last day before heading back to Finland via Las Vegas. They arrived right at 6pm and dinner was ready. After dinner and cleaning up, I went and fell into bed to watch my favorite shows.

It was a great weekend and great conference. It was fun to see and visit with all of our old friends. I think I will sleep now for the rest of the week. If somebody asks me "what's for dinner", I will just point to the leftover donuts and brownies. This momma is done cooking for a while. And yes, I know I always go overboard with my cooking and baking.

Boys and their Toys

Our friends Hannu, Eeki and Heikki Leppänen came to visit us from Finland last night and we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. After a lovely dinner, we hopped into my car and drove around the parking lot, only to spot this beauty. Just sitting there, minding its own business. The boys, or should I say, Alex jumped out of the car, followed up by all the men folk, and went to see the black Lamborghini...Alex's dream car. Heikki said that if he made $50/hour he could afford to buy the car. Mmmm. Don't think so.

Heikki, Alex, Hannu and Eeki oogling the black beauty.

After the Storm...

A beautiful fall day and snow on the Timpanogos Mountain.

Saturday's High, Low, and High Again

Saturday afternoon took us to the LaVell Edwards Stadium. BYU was playing against Colorado State University. After last week's horrible loss from FSU, we were wondering if BYU could bounce back. They did. Final score was BYU 42-CSU 23.


Alex and I at the BYU game


It was a gorgeous fall day.

On Saturday night, Alex went to his friend's house for a party and when I went to pick him up around 11pm, he walked to the car holding his elbow with an ice pack. What happened?
It turns out that while playing football on the tennis court at his friend's house, he didn't notice the net which flipped him over and he smashed his elbow to the cement. Wasn't sure if it was broken so off to the ER we went. Last time I visited the ER at the hospital was when my mother had to be taken in for a possible heart attack. It turned out to be indigestion from dry Costco chicken. Lucky mom.

Back to the ER with Alex...


After an hour or so of waiting, Alex was finally able to get some x-rays done. Here he is, miserable and in lots of pain.


Appropriate sign at the hospital.


Then after about two hours of waiting, Alex was taken to the ER room (Äiti, näyttääkö tutulta?). The doctor came in and told Alex the good news: It is only a "soft tissue injury, no broken bones."

Alex is happy again...and we can finally go to bed at 2am.

Getting Educated from a Finnish Magazine (warning to men: Don't bother to read this)

My sweet mother sent me a Finnish magazine called Kauneus ja Terveys (Beauty and Health) just this week. While I was browsing through the magazine I came upon an article that talked about "The Moon Cup" or "The Keeper". I thought: "What the heck is a moon cup??" Just last week I was complaining to Rod that I have to invent something that would reduce my periods to only one day. I'm looking forward to menopause because at least then I wouldn't have to deal with my periods BUT also I would be frequently warm. I'm sick of being cold all the time. I look forward to a day when I can fan myself.

Back to the article.

It introduced me to a plunger looking thing that you insert into your uterus where you usually stick your tampons in.

NO WAY!

I kept reading.

It catches the blood into the cup without ANY LEAKAGE...EVER!!! You simply remove the cup, wash it and insert it again.

WHAT THE...!!!!

And here it is, if you are interested. I have no idea why I have been living in the dark all these 45 years, 11 months and 9 days.





Next time when you see me, I might be smuggling a plunger between my legs. I dare you to ask me if I think it is the greatest invention of all times. I still have to invent something that can reduce the periods to measly one day.

The Unthinkable is Doable

Before we left on our 10 day trip to France and India, we contemplated on making the trip with only carry-on bags. Would we have enough clothes/shoes to travel so far? Could it be done? Would it be possible or sheer madness? We decided to try to see if we liked traveling "light". We knew that we could get our laundry done in India very quickly once we got there. So we packed only 5 outfits and 2 pairs of shoes for each person. I didn't pack any hair stuff for me because I knew that every hotel would have a hair dryer (just a warning, the hotels had hair dryers but you had to hold your finger on the on/off button for it to stay on...huge pain!!), and most likely India would be so humid that doing my hair would be a huge waste of time anyway, so I packed a rubberband to put my, now somewhat long, hair in a pony tail. I only packed my few make-up items that I could put in my purse.

And off we went.

We traveled quickly because we didn't have to wait for bags...anywhere. We had our laundry washed in New Delhi when we got there. We were then set for the rest of the trip.

We packed an extra bag in our suitcase just in case we bought so much stuff that we had to check one of the carry-on bags. Which we did. On the way home. And it didn't get lost in Paris, as so many people told us that your bags get lost in Paris. Not ours. It was the last bag off the plane in Salt Lake.

So, for you, who travel with bags and bags of stuff, like we used to do, we realized that it is so unnecessary. You CAN travel light and it makes packing so much easier and faster.

Freshman Picture

Here is our handsome Alex. We just love this boy so much!

It's Monday and Time for Headline News!

It is always funny to see some of the signs around the cities in India. I knew to expect something funny because of Rod's previous visits. And the country didn't disappoint.

Here are a few choice bits.


STD & FAX. How convenient. You can get a Sexually Transmitted Disease at the same time you are faxing something. What service! One of the similar signs we saw was 1-2-3-STD. Super. I asked our host what STD stands for and he told that it was the local phone company. How disappointing. We had hope for something more exciting.


Blue Dart! Now we are talking. If you don't know what Blue Dart is (as we had to explain it to our host, who laughed his head off), let me explain. On a day when you are very "gassy", you take a match, drop your pants and while bending over, you light the match and you fart into the flame. And that's how blue dart is born. Disclaimer: Don't try this at home, boys!
Blue Dart in India is a shipping company, like DHL or FedEx. How boring!


These ads were everywhere in Erode, which happens to be the city where "Porna" is made. Porna is a brand for Rice Bran Oil. A new up and coming "healthy" oil from Erode, Tamilnadu. The ads we saw had happy looking people holding a pouch of "Porna". I think the marketing research went horribly wrong when they came up with this name.

When we were driving to Taj Mahal, I saw a sign by the side of the road that made me laugh. It simply stated "Jolly-Fat-Go". I have no idea what the meaning was for it, but it struck my funny bone. Rod and Alex were sleeping at the time so I had to explain it to them later, and it didn't seem so funny anymore. But at the time...quite funny.

Day 10: Coimbatore to Salt Lake City

This morning we packed our bags and Ramesh, Sudahar and Baskar came to pick us up from the hotel. We drove 1 1/2 hours to Coimbatore because we wanted to do some last minute shopping before our plane took off.

A very successful shopping day indeed.

Our plane from Coimbatore left on time to Mumbai, where we had a stopover. When we were landing in Mumbai, I looked out the window and saw a sea of blue squares. I was thinking that they were all swimming pools. The closer we got, they turned out to be blue tarps that were covering the roofs of the shanty towns. They were EVERYWHERE.

We arrived in New Delhi on time and then switched planes to fly to Paris and then home to Salt Lake City.

We had such a wonderful trip to both countries. It was a busy 10 days but we saw and experienced so much. We came back home with more appreciation for our lives and everything we have. We made new friendships and hopefully will be able to return soon. Many people say that India is not one of those places where they would like to visit because of the extreme poverty. Now that I have visited, I must say that it is one of the most wonderful "vacations" I have taken. The people are amazing, and the history is unbelievable. There is nothing I can do to change the poverty because the Indian government is so corrupt and the infrastructure has broken down years ago. The people are trying to survive the best they can and every day life for a common man and woman is a struggle....a life and death. But I, personally, fell in love with the beauty of it all.

Day 9: Erode Farm Visits

Today we visited more farms in the middle of nowhere. First, though, we went to meet the rest of Mr. Manny's family at his home.


Mr. Manny, his pregnant daughter Raji and Mr. Manny's wife Ghomati. According to Indian tradition, when a daughter becomes pregnant, she and her husband move in with her parents months before the baby is born and 6 months after baby's birth.


Rod, me and Raji at the balcony overlooking Erode.

Then we drove a few hours to the Moringa farms.


This little girl, who is a 6th grader, walked with us to look at the Moringa trees at the farm. I took her picture and then showed the picture to her. She started giggling a giggle that was so joyful, and then ran to get her little brother. Again, I took their pictures and showed them to them. They both giggled and were so happy to see their own pictures. I'm not sure they have seen a camera before. Beautiful, beautiful children.


Rod, Alex and I at the Kadavur valley. The mountains surrounded the entire valley and there was only one road in and out.

This old man was biking past us and stopped to look at what we were doing. I loved his old bike with a striking green saddle.

One of the villagers who was curious to know what we were doing in their village. I loved this old man because you can see his original skin color on his forehead where he has applied the "bindi" all of his life. His thick, gray hair is amazing.

The drive was long and Rod and Mr. Manny fell into a restful slumber.

That night we had dinner at the Chimney restaurant in Erode. Here Mr. Manny is smiling for the first time in the pictures. Indians don't smile in pictures.

From left: Baskar, Mr. Manny, Rod, me, Alex, Ramesh, Vinod (Ramesh's cousin) and Anand (Ramesh's brother in-law and Raji's husband)

It is still a mystery to me what you are supposed to do in the bathroom. Almost none of them had toilet paper. I was totally baffled, but carried my own toilet paper with me.

Tomorrow: Back to Coimbatore and catching a flight to New Delhi through Mumbai, then to Paris and Salt Lake City.