Outdoors with Jason Mraz

My Parents on the News: KSL News Story on Mongolia!

A few days ago my 83 year old Grandma Verda called my sister, Lynette, telling her that after she had read a recent USA Today article on the National Disaster facing Mongolia (where my parents are serving as the humanitarian aid directors) she thought it was time Utah heard what was going on. She took matters into her own hands and sat down and wrote an e-mail to our local news stations but she wasn't sure how long it would take for it to reach the people it needed to so she decided it would be more efficient to just call them. She gave them my parents as a contact and within 24 hours KSL News called my parents in the middle of the night (since there is a 15 hour time difference) and interviewed my dad. Above is the news clip that aired last night.

As stated in the video clip this situation in Mongolia is a huge problem. My parents have been able to grant 3 states in Mongolia with financial aid from the LDS Church Humanitarian funds. This will help the herdsmen providing them with food, clothing, and grain for the animals. There are actually groups in Mongolian who are making covers to help prevent the animals from freezing. The following is the article written by Jennifer Stagg.

Also, for those interested in seeing more of what my parents are up to, here is a link to their blog. They always love a little note or comment from family and friends!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Utah missionary: Mongolians hit hard by harsh winter
February 26th, 2010 @ 10:45pm
By Jennifer Stagg

SALT LAKE CITY -- Like many parts of the world, people in Mongolia are experiencing a heavy winter. But in a country where much of the population lives in remote areas as livestock herders, this is more than some extra snow -- it's become life or death.

Though the country is used to extreme winters, this one has been devastating.

"They say it's the worst they've had in 30 years," Richard Lasson says.

Lasson and his wife are serving a humanitarian mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mongolia.

The country is having a weather phenomenon known by locals as a "dzud" -- a summer drought followed by a terrible winter with heavy snow.

"They went into the winter unprepared because they weren't able to have enough hay stocked up for their animals, and then the animals weren't that fat because they didn't have that much food in the summer time; and so now they've got a real severe winter; and so a lot of the country is covered with heavy snow, and they've had temperatures as low as 58 degrees below zero," Lasson says.

Nearly 40 percent of Mongolia's population is livestock herders, and close to 2.7 million livestock animals have died so far. Analysts predict another 3 million to 4 million animals could die before the end of the year.

The snow has also made getting medical attention to those in need nearly impossible.

"These people are losing their livelihood, and they've had several pregnant mothers pass away. They've had children, babies -- they cannot get to hospital help when they need it," Lasson says.

West Jordan resident Garrett Wilson served an LDS Mission in Mongolia, and his wife is Mongolian.

"Mongolia is just such a poor place that when they have an event like this happen, it's something that they can't really help themselves out of," Wilson says.

Wilson's wife has family still living there. He says the people rely heavily on foreign aid in disasters, and the worst of this one may be yet to come.

"They have all of these dead carcasses lying around, that are frozen right now, but when the weather starts to warm up, those carcasses will start to rot; so that's going to be a big problem," Lasson says.

There are still several more months of winter left in Mongolia. When it does start to get warmer, there could be outbreaks of disease from the dead animals, and also flooding.

Friday, the LDS Church released a statement to KSL News about the situation in Mongolia. It reads: "In response to severe winter weather in Mongolia the Church is partnering with Mongolian officials to distribute food, clothing, medicine, candles, fuel, and hygiene items to herder families and is providing funding to repair broken heating systems in school dormitories."

If you would like to help the people in Mongolia, Lasson suggests donating to the LDS Church's Humanitarian Fund, UNICEF or The American Red Cross and specify you want the funds to go to Mongolia.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!

Happy Anniversary, Mikey.

I have loved starting eternity with you.

Here's to 5 years . . . and counting.

I love you.
Yours 'til butter-flies,
Karie

Happy Suprise!

This morning I woke up to this beautiful surprise!
About three inches of fresh, white snow coupled with blue skies . . .
. . . but this was the BEST surprise of the morning! Our driveway and walkways were all cleared. Our bishop received a snowplow attachment for his four-wheeler for Christmas. Now, every time it snows he's out there like a little kid with a new toy. He's all smiles as he goes around helping people. Thank you, Bishop. That was so sweet!

Christmas Lights

One of my favorite Christmas activities is going downtown to see the Christmas lights. I just love the atmosphere of downtown at Christmas time. It's so happy and festive. This year my Grandma Verda booked a week in a condo that was right across the street from the Conference Center. She didn't stay down there the whole week, so she let Mikey and me stay down there for a night, which happened to be the night they turned the lights on at Temple Square. So a lot of my family met up to walk around and see the lights and then go back to the condo for donuts and hot chocolate. After everyone went home, Mikey and I even went out for another walk--just the two of us. I can't image a better night to bring in the Christmas Season.
This was the view from the outside of the condo.

Back-tracking!

Before the BYU v. Utah game!
During the BYU v. Utah game!
And after the BYU v. Utah game! :)

Halloween 2009

So it took me a while to get these up! But hopefully the pictures of our Halloween costumes live up to the anticipation! :) I'm sure I don't need to state the obvious, but Mikey went as Rocky. I joined him as Rocky's wife, Adrian. We had a really fun time acting in character. I really loved Mikey's costume. I liked mine too, but the sad thing is every piece of it came straight from my closet, except the glasses. I really am homely Adrian!
The night before Halloween we even dressed up for the costume contest at the Utah Jazz game. We didn't win, but we did get on TV!

Halloweens Past

This may look familiar to some of you! Last year I posted a review of all the Halloween costumes Mikey & I have done together. This year I just copied the post over from last year. Mikey & I have so much fun coming up with an idea and putting it together. It's a fun tradition!

For our 2008 costume last year we were Wesly & Buttercup from "The Princess Bride." Putting our costume together was a lot easier than I anticipated. The dress was a bridesmaid's dress Mikey's mom had in her closet. I just pulled it out and wore it!
For our first Halloween in 2004 we had been engaged for just over a month. We thought the third picture below was a great candidate for our engagement photo. Some how it got vetoed. Weird. I think it might be time for these wigs to be resurrected.Our next Halloween in 2005 we went as GHOSTBUSTERS! Who ya gonna call? The packs on our backs are our neighbor's 72-hour kits wrapped up in aluminum foil. I wonder if they noticed the missing granola bars when we returned the packs.
Halloween 2006 had a couple different costumes. One costume for a pre-Halloween party and another costume for Halloween night.
Any guesses on what we were for the party?
We were "LEAF BLOWERS!" We thought we were clever, but having a leaf hanging in our faces the whole night did get a tad annoying.

For a costume contest at work, Mikey was John Stockton, so that night for Halloween he was Stockton and I was Malone. I think Mikey looked pretty darn good! And I was just a spitting image of Karl Malone!
We tried to recreate the statues of Stockton & Malone that are outside the Energy Solutions Arena. What do you think?And now we come to Halloween 2007--when I showed the ULTIMATE love I have for my husband by dressing up as a WWF Wrestler--the Ultimate Warrior. Oh the love. Mikey grew up a huge fan of Hulk Hogan and so dressed up as him. Mikey was such a fan of Hulk Hogan growing up that in kindergarten he made a poster for school and on it listed his three heroes as #1 Jesus, #2 His dad, and #3 Hulk Hogan!
This is a picture of the real Ultimate Warrior. See, I just have a talent for looking like big, athletic men. What can I say?
Do you think Mikey had fun? :) I love it!

And now you have to wait in suspense to find out what we are dressing as this year!!