Cold with sun expected

I think I'll have to keep with a weather theme. The snowbanks are still hanging around but we have had some sunny days and things are beginning to melt. The weather is looking up (I hope) but we still had some cold windy days and I saw only a little of the sun.

On Monday I had a holiday and the day off work, but all the kids but my youngest were in school because they missed so many days due to snow. My wife and I ventured out and went downtown to the American Indian Museum because it was getting closer to lunch, we wanted to get out, and we heard that museum had some of the best food compared to other Smithsonian Museums. I loved it. The best thing about the food was the variety: I had venison with some kind of berry jelly and an amazing raspberry tart and some things that looked like potatoes but tasted totally different and my youngest had a buffalo burger, which I tasted. I liked the exhibits, too. I like native american things and, being from the West, have grown up with some of it. I always like arrows and different stories and cultures. I even did a native american dance! We also had a really fun time taking some pictures of "Flat Stanley" visiting the places where we were, thanks to my wife's sister and her daughter. I am considering taking "Flat Stanley" with me wherever I go in the world! It was a fun day.
My days and nights otherwise are all occupied with trying to keep up on language. I think they think I know more than I do. At the same time, I am surprised at how much I do know.
This week I spent the time I wasn't trying to study doing one of the following: watching the Olympics, trying to help Amy and do my part preparing the Sunday School lesson, helping my oldest finish his Pinewood Derby Car, or going to extra evening events.
I have been trying to watch as much of the Olympics as I can. I really like the Winter Olympics and especially like watching the snowboard cross, the short-track speed skating and the short-track speed skating relays. It really puts me on the edge of my seat and draws me in. I get nervous for them with all of the speed and the positions and the jostling.
It is difficult to get all of the lesson material read, processed, organized, and condensed for our Sunday School lessons with the Young Single Adults. If it wasn't for my wife and had to depend on me every week this would be a complete bomb. Thank you, Amy.
My oldest has had extra play practices this whole week and hasn't been done with school each day until 6 pm, (11 hour days). Consequently, it has been difficult to finish the derby car, especially without all of the stuff and space to do it. It is really hard to spray paint when it's 35 degrees outside and windy and you live in a huge apartment complex with snow all over the place. We got it done in the nick of time. Since I didn't have a scale until we got to the building on Friday night, we spent at least half an hour drilling out a lot of the weight I had melted and poured into the body of the car. It's a good thing we arrived early and there was a scale there.  Third place overall for both packs and first in his pack helped make it a fun night.
One night this week I went to a tax seminar to learn about all of the crazy things that I need to be aware of since I am in such a strange position as a resident of a couple of states or no state at the same time and having to pay taxes in all of them.
Another night I was invited to a dinner and reception at the Indonesian Embassy as part of our language instruction. We spoke (mostly) in Indonesian with the staff there and some speeches were made in Indonesian and we had Indonesian food. It was a good time but tiring and a late night too.
We also got to spend some time together on Saturday as a family visiting the Holocaust Museum and the Air and Space Museum (again). And a very awesome thing last night is that we had our first out-of-town visitors! My very nice cousin, Lesa, three of her amazing daughters, and the family of one of those daughters, Natalie and Rich and their children, came to dinner at our place. I was so grateful and happy to have them here. It reminded me how much I love my family and how much I love seeing them. We talked for a long time and I loved every minute of it.
Hopefully my ability to help with lesson prep, my ability to speak Indonesian, and many other things are looking sunnier soon. It feels like we're right on the edge of brighter, warmer days ahead.