Solomons Island

Friday Dave and I drove to Solomons Island, MD to celebrate our 24th anniversary. It's a narrow little town situated along Patuxent River on three sides which empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

There are lots of inlets and it seemed like there were sailboats docked everywhere.


The view on the east


We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast called Solomons Victorian Inn. Our room was here in the former carriage house.


the view from our window, (screen and all)


a 100-watt bulb with reflective glass at the top of the lighthouse can be seen 13 miles

the lighthouse from the museum


We attended a Celtic Festival on Saturday. There were authentic games. In this competition, the men threw 22-pound clubs behind them. One threw it 95 feet.






Various bagpipe groups performed for us. They played a folksong, 'Scottish Dance' that we know in our hymn book as 'Praise to the Man'.


Scottish clans had booth about their family origin. I learned that my ancestor Reynolds Cahoon's family was probably a member of the Calquhoun clan (pronounced the same).

< Dave considers owning a kilt. Each clan has their own pattern (tartan).

These men were in their Scottish 1600s attire.


Soon afterward, they were in a time warp and had a skirmish on the field with Colonial forces.


We felt like we were in a time warp, too--back 24 years ago when there was just the two of us.

Andrea's card for us

Jonas Brothers Concert

Andrea was furtunate enough to be invited by a friend to go to the White House Easter Egg roll and festivities on the Mall in Washington, DC. Tickets are free, but her friend's dad had to camp overnight to pick up the tickets.

The girls didn't care if they missed the other events. They just wanted to see the Jonas Brothers in concert. They were way in the back and couldn't see anything during the first concert, but as soon as it ended they went up to the front row and waited there for 4 hours--holding tight to their spots until the next concert.

She was amply rewarded by being almost close enough to touch them, [and to get these close up shots] and she's pretty sure Nick actually waved to her. :)

Flash Back to 4 years ago

Dave at the front doors of the famous domed cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, (Il Duomo)

Four years ago today Dave and I were celebrating our 20th anniversary (a few weeks early) in Florence, Italy. David had an emergency appendectomy just two weeks earlier. However it didn't stop us from walking all day long each day to see the great museums and cathedrals of the world housed in this one city. We rented an apartment for the week to live like the Italians. It was on Via Delle Terme near Palazzo Vecchio in the center of town. We would come home for lunch and both take a few aspirin for our aching legs, and then go out again. It reminded me a bit of all the walking I did many years earlier as a missionary in Italy.

My favorite story of our trip, though, is eating at a trattoria that had been recommended in my Frommer's book-- 'Il Pennello' on Via Dante Alighieri. The food was excellent, and our waiter was friendly. I said to him in my best Italian, "I understand that many famous painters used to come to this restaurant. Is that true?" Rather than just give me an answer, he asked us to come with him. He took us through a hall and up a few steps to another room that was empty--except for a full size painting that covered one wall. The painting was by Mariotto Albertinelli. He was a painter by hobby who opened the restaurant in the 1500s. The portrait was of the room we were in. We could match up the columns and architectural features in the painting with those of the room. In the portrait, facing us in life size was Michelangelo, and other celebrated Flortentine artists of the time like Del Sarto and Cellini who liked to hang out at Albertinelli's place.)

I was almost speechless. Of all the paintings we had seen in all the museums this one was powerful because it was in the original location. I could easily imagine these great artists in this same room 500 years ago! And they were talking and eating there just like we were. The waiter could see how deeply impressed I was by this unexpected surprise--and then told us that 200 years before Albertinelli had owned the place, it had belonged to the great writer, Dante!


He kindly gave me this postcard that tells of the history of the place. Though it may not be known with certainty that this was the actual house of Dante, it is agreed that Dante lived on the block--which was named for him. The sense of history and all the many great people who lived in this one town is absolutely astounding.

We were also able to tour Michelangelo's house and to walk by Galileo's house, the church where Amerigo Vespucci attended, the burial place (SantaCroce Cathedral) of Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo, and Niccolo Machiavelli. We saw the great works of Brunelleschi, Ghirlandaio, Boticelli, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Donnatello, and Della Robbia. We took a day trip to nearby Fiesole where we saw models of Leonardo da Vinco's inventions as well as Roman baths and an Etruscan temple.

This year's anniversary will be great in another way--I'll be with the same great guy! You can check back in a few weeks for details on this year's 24th anniversary.

Happy Easter

We celebrated a quiet Easter today. At church, Daniel, Andrea and I performed Easter music with the ward choir.

On Friday afternoon we had our family egg hunt in our yard.



















Daniel used his counter to help him keep track of all the eggs he found.




















That night we colored eggs as a family. Everyone had an egg 'dedicated' to them including James (in California), Erika (in China) Kara and Luke (in Colorado) who weren't with us.



















Sunday afternoon we relaxed together and everyone helped make part of our dinner.




















We had a roast, sauteed asparagas and baby carrots, a green salad, mashed potatoes made by Daniel, a braided bread with cinnamon icing made by Julia and strawberries and whipped cream over angel food cake made by Andrea.


This day renewed my gratitude for Jesus Christ whose atonement erases my sins that I repent of, heals every kind of sorrow, and whose resurrection promises each of us the gift of being resurrected to a glorious life hereafter.

Andrea's Room

Andrea has been wanting to change her room around. Since all the walls really needed to be painted, we started by clearing almost everything out of the room, leaving the heavy furniture in the middle. A friend gave us a bed frame which I painted white.

I shampooed the carpet and Monday Julia helped Andrea and I paint trim and doors white and put on a primer coat on all the walls as we listened to music from Hairspray and Jack Johnson. We came back to it on Thursday, painting all the walls Laura Ashley lavender in 2 shades (which you can't tell apart!).

Friday I touched up and we moved the furniture back in with new lavender gingham bedding. We had also painted her bookshelf (soft green) and a shelf and some picture frames white. This was the first time Andrea had this much say in her decorating, and I'm pretty sure it will always look this tidy :).

Spring Break

This year for Spring Break we decided to do something separately with Daniel, Julia and Andrea to have some time with each of them to do something they wanted to do.

Dave drove up to NYC with Daniel. We went as a family last spring at about this time, but there were things Daniel still hoped to do there. They drove up early on Tuesday and walked through Central Park. Daniel was interested in seeing the various statues in the park. Here's Dan with Balto.


They saw the Julliard School of Music and its bookstore. Dan also wanted to see the Nintendo store at Rockefeller Center. Here he is playing the new Super Smash Brothers Brawl game on a Wii there.


They also went to see Ground Zero and were on a tour by a fireman who was the only survivor from his unit.

Click the pic to see Dad and Dan in NYC-2008

Julia and Andrea and I enjoyed "Horton Hears a Who", had lunch and shopped for clothes at the mall.

Service Project for Women with Cancer

For the past four years I have been the President of our women's group, Relief Society, for about 175 women in our ward. [In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we all receive unpaid callings to serve as teachers, leaders or in other ways we are asked.] One of our Relief Society goals is to strengthen each other and to serve those around us.



This 2 1/2 minute 'movie' made by Christie Wall shows a service project that women from our ward completed last Saturday to benefit local women with breast cancer. Some women learned to knit or crochet to assist in this project. I knit two scarves (before the event) and made pillows. We were excited to present over 40 scarves and 100 small pillows to comfort women in our area.

Gymnastics Performance

Last week we attended Andrea's end of the year gymnastics performance. Here she is on the trampoline. After these amazing jumps the coach asked her if she wanted to be a cheerleader.


We saw her climb a rope,



on the balance beam
and other fun things.



Here she is with her participation awards.

James Flies to California

James called yesterday from the Salt Lake City airport. He and his companion, Elder Rogers, were getting ready to fly to California after nine weeks in the Mission Training Center in Provo, UT. He was in good spirits and excited about the 60 degree weather he was going to, the new bike we bought him that should be waiting for him at the Mission Home, and the "awesome" part of his mission that awaits him in California.

Here is the latest picture we have of him as he exulted in finishing the training portion of his mission, and a bit of his latest letter. For more of his letters you can go to 'Elder Meiners' blog on the sidebar.



















Vini, Vivi, Vici


I came, I saw, I conquered. The MTC is behind me. At least it will be by the time you get this letter. As I wrote before I'll be in the airport the 11th. And my plane leaves at 11:30, or 1:20 your time. I think I get to make a call to you at the airport.

At the reference center I did a call in Spanish. We could actually understand each other. I got a hold of some lady and asked if so and so Garcia was there. She said in Spanish something about how he didn't live there. And then I said thanks and bye. Obviously this means I can speak Spanish and don't have anything to worry about.

For our devotional we had an apostle. It was one of the more loud-spoken and energetic apostles. It was...Jeffery R. Holland. He was really good. He got us all pumped to go. He said that missionaries were pretty much superheroes without capes. And other things about not having regrets.

I can't wait to see how I fare in the field with my limited Spanish. It will be interesting the first while.

--Elder James Meiners

New Software

The 'Learning to Get Along Series' software is now out. Free Spirit worked with the computer company, Attainment, to produce it.

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Ride to Church

Erika in Shang Hai with 2 new friends


We have received a few emails from Erika who is safely in Woxi and getting adjusted to the many differences in China--the first being no heat in her building, and wearing several layers of clothes to bed and while teaching. The children also wear their coats and insulated sweaters in the classroom.

She has one American friend, Michelle, who has also just arrived in the city--but not close by. She wondered how they would find the church today. Here is what she wrote:

Yeah church today.. Oh boy that is a story in itself, I hope everyone is sitting down. Ok, so church began at 9 30. This means that my day began with the sound of my cell phone alarm at 5 45 am. I get up, dressed, make some bread and peanut butter, get the addresses, maps, etc. I get to the bus stop around 6 30 am. I needed to get on bus 24, ride for 13 stops, then get off at 'nan chan si.' So i count them, and listen to the announcements of each stop.. which are in Chinese.. but i can understand road names because they end in 'Liu'. Anyways, so i get off at 'nan chan si', and i am supposed to then catch bus 51 to 'chang jiang qu le bu'. Simple enough, yes? so I get off, and i am looking at the postings at the bus stop. 113, 28, 53.. pretty much every possible numeral combination except 51. So, I am getting worried. The time was then 7:10, and I was supposed to meet Michelle at 'chang jiang 'at 7 :30, and I still had 12 stops to go.
So, I cross the street and ask the guy, "Hey, does bus 51 come here?" ( I always try English first just in case- and I try teens/ young people because they sometimes have learned English in school and their English is usually better than older people, especially old people who don't know any more English than "bya bya" [bye bye]). So anyway, the guy is like 'My English is not good". So I'm like "wu shi yi?" and I'm making some insane driving gesture probably. So then he's like "ah ah", and points up the street. So I cross the street and run to the bus stop a block ahead. I read the sign. No 51. now I am starting to get desperate. So I ask another girl "wu shi yi?" She looked at the postings, and said "mei you." -means 'don't have'.

So I was about to walk away, and she is like wait, let me call 116 for you. I guess it's some kind of information hotline. So, she calls and talks to the lady, and then tells me to walk to the end of the street -back the way i came- and turn right and get on some other bus.. I forget now which one it was. An old lady was listening nearby, waiting at the bus stop, and she says (in Chinese), 'no no you walk up the other way, and turn right'. Then the girl tells me that the lady will walk me there, so I walk with the nice lady, and she is rambling on, and I understand a little. She is telling me to get on bus 35. so we get to the bus stop, and there's a thing in Chinese characters that says all the names of the stops.. it sure would be helpful if i could read it. So she points to one, and says that its 'chang jiang qu le bu'. So I counted, and it was 11 stops away from where we were, so 2 seconds later, bus 35 pulls up and the lady pushes me on and shouts something to the driver. It was very helpful of her. She had walked all that way to the other bus stop with me, and she wasn't even getting on the bus. And that other girl made that call for me. It was very nice of them. s

So I ride the bus, and about 20 minutes later, arrive at the bus stop where I was supposed to meet Michelle. I arrive at 7: 40, after an hour and ten minutes of traveling. So, I get there, expecting to see Michelle waiting- I had told her 7 30, and she is not there. I start freaking out. She doesn't have a cell phone, so I can't call. So I wait around for about 5 minutes and its freezing and the wind is blowing and my purse is so weighed down by my food and water stash that the strap of my purse is digging grooves into my shoulder. So, I'm exhausted and frustrated and about to declare a complete defeat and give up, when finally I see her coming slowly toward me (she had bought some uncomfortable shoes so she couldn't walk normally).

So, we get a taxi. It is about a 20 minute ride, and cost 42 yuan. Well, they don't think its important to give exact change, so it cost 43 yuan. Michelle pitched in 20. So you thought that we were at church? No. The taxi took us to a member family's house. Ron and Erin Mullet and their 4 kids. We got there at 8:04. We waited for about 25 min for the rest of the family to get ready. Then, we get in the car, and drive 45 minutes to Suzhou. Yes, then we were at church.

Anyways, I am worrying about running out of money, so after church, we drove back to the Mullets house. When we were going to leave, the dad offered to pay for the taxi back. I felt bad, but I was thinking it would be about 70 yuan total for both me and Michelle to get back to our apartments. I was thinking we'd probably split the bill. Well, I wasn't sure, but I did know that I only had 800 until the end of march, and all these taxis add up fast. So, I was like 'Are you sure? I promise we will pay you back as soon as we get paid'. And of course hes like 'No, don't worry about it ', but I will have plenty once I get paid, and I will definitely pay him back if he lets me.

Anyways, turns out that the taxi ride from the Mullet's house back to my kindergarten was literally about 8 minutes. So, basically, because I had no map, no resources, and extremely limited Chinese, I took 2 hours to get to the Mullet's house that was about 4 miles away. Taking the bus to meet Michelle was hugely backtracking. Anyway, although I am frustrated, I am relieved to know that the Mullet family is so close to me. They said lots of times that I could come over whenever I wanted. They said I could show up for dinner any night of the week. They even invited us to FHE. [Family Home Evening] I would like to take advantage of that. They had us over tonight for dinner and we had pot roast. I ate so much. I was really happy to eat something without rice, but I know that tomorrow it will be back to rice every meal. They said they would take us to Pizza Hut whenever we want. That family is awesome, I really do like them a whole lot. I'm really glad that we found them. When I was making all the calls last night about church, they were telling us we would have to take a taxi to a train station, ride 45 min, then another taxi to church. I was getting really discouraged and was about to give up, so I was really relieved when Sister Mullet offered us the ride. Hopefully next week will be better. Wait, let me rephrase, Next week will be better.

As a mom, I'm very happy to hear about the friendliness of the Chinese people who have helped her, and of the generosity of the Mullet family who share a bond with her as members of our church and who have made her feel so much more at home there.

Andrea and Barbie

Schools had the day off due to icy conditions today, so Andrea set up her Barbie's--something she rarely has time for, and she invited me to play.

Though I've helped her assemble or organize her Barbies for her before, this was my first time to actually play with her. She's better at it than I am. :)

It's a lot of work to get Barbie comfortable, so we thought we would capture it while it is still standing.

Barbie's apartment is complete with bedroom, office, kitchen, and media room.


Barbie and Kelly stopped here to get snacks.

Here's the school where Barbie teaches. Music and gymnastics were taught. It reminded me of Erika teaching songs to her 4-year olds in China, and Kara
teaching a combination of pre-school and kindergarten in Colorado.



Then Barbie stopped to get ice cream for Kelly at the ice cream parlor. In real life, though, the daughter gets most of the treats from her dad . :)

Happy Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day was memorable. Besides sending Erika to China that morning, I had sent packages and cards to James in the MTC, and Kara and Luke in Denver. It seemed like the first time that so many of our children were far away-- but, of course, it was great to have Daniel, Julia and Andrea home with Dave and I. I like to make a nice dinner and have surprise valentine treats for the family at dinner.

Dave never forgets the holiday, and brought me some chocolates and beautiful potted tulips. I am very blessed to have such a loving family, as well as great parents and extended family and friends. Hope you all had a great day!

BWI to Shang Hai

Dave, Julia, Andrea and I saw Erika off at the airport on her way to China



Erika was all packed for her trip this morning at 5:45--staying up all night to make sure she was tired enough to sleep on the plane.



She'll travel 6 hours to San Fransisco. There she will meet her friend and others traveling with China Horizons. From there they have a 13 hour flight to Shang Hai.




She will attend 3 days of orientation and training there given by her Chinese teacher from BYU-Idaho, and then travel about 2 hours to Woxi, the town where she will be teaching kindergarten students English.



Happy Valentines Day, Erika!

We love you!

Our Inheritance

While Erika was home for about 2 months from December -February she worked at Maggie Moos in the Mall, where they make shakes. She has a great memory and would tell us all the delicious or unusual combinations that her customers ordered. She was proud that some people in line said, "I'll wait for her" meaning that they wanted her to mix their shake, and that she remembered what repeat customers wanted to order.

One of the job perks was to bring home a shake that for some reason wasn't sold. I'm not sure where we would have continued to collect them if she she stayed much longer. They filled our freezer and frig.

Knowing that she was departing, she told us that we were inheriting her shakes. We'll be thinking of her fondly as we sip our inheritance. :)

First time Voters

Yesterday was Maryland's Voting Day for the presidential primaries. Our state's primary was held a little late for my liking because the candidate I had been following is no longer running. Still, I consider it a privilege to vote, so I drove to the polls with Erika and Daniel, who are both voting for the first time in the presidential election.

Erika worked at the polls two years ago while a student at Towson University, but missed voting in the presidential elections four years ago by two weeks. Daniel, on the other hand, is able to take advantage of a new law this year in Maryland allowing those who would be 18 for the elections to vote at 17 in the Primaries.

Our third first-time voter, James, may be able to vote absentee in November while in California on his mission. Kara, our fourth voter, has already voted in a national election by absentee vote from college. Dave also took time from work to vote, so this household has almost doubled its' voter turnout this election.

We went online beforehand to read about those running for the county School Board, and we had a good discussion about the backgrounds and ideas of the candidates. It appealed to Erika and Daniel to vote for someone they felt represented them--Di Zou, a 19-year old college student--who also ran last time, at age 17. (I'm not sure he was old enough to vote for himself that time!)