Happy Frigid Holidays

Merry late Christmas! We had a good Christmas day and night, my sister and her family came out and livened things up for us. Though the girls are reaching the skeptical age, Santa's status here is still Believed. He brought some good stuff this year, and got some sugar cookies in return, along with some carrots for the deer. We gifted ourselves with a new TV, and I think we're all still in shock... we can't seem to turn it off for more than an hour. A good analogy would be upgrading from a rotary-dial phone to a satellite phone. Or going from a doghouse to a 3BR/2BA/2car.

Goodbye to 2008! I wonder what makes a person not care so much about New Year's Eve... Losing the whole Twentysomething lifestyle for sure. Getting old. Below-zero weather. Feeling worn out after 12 days of school vacation, 5 more to go. I need to shake this feeling that every day is just another $#%^@# chore.
Okay so here's my list of aspirations for 2009:
talk to my Grandparents more often
organize
wash the dog
organize
learn lots of things from Martha Stewart
knit ... no more blankets!
take walks
garden in a productive way
organize
get piano and violin lessons underway
send cards and presents out EARLY yeahright

That's enough for now I think.

I'm going to heat some water in my Christmas Kettle, make some tea and plant myself on the couch to get in a few more rows on the baby blanket I started when my baby was still a baby.

school break, hockey night

All-children, all the time. Actually, ALL of us are home, all of the time. If I explain that, I'll probably jinx it and K will have to fly all week.

I certainly jinxed the Fecal Catastrophe situation by blogging about it... ick. A Category Four happened yesterday, with a total of four clothing items contaminated. How do kids get poop on their socks? How does the stuff squish out onto just the bunched-up elastic waistband and no other part of the pants?

We went to a hockey game on Friday night, (Junior 'A' Hockey) Alaska Avalanche against the Fairbanks Ice Dogs. It was their pink-jersey night, when they auction off jerseys to benefit breast cancer awareness; one guy did a strip-tease while the auctioneer was bringing in bids for his jersey but I don't think that hockey-pants-crotch-sweat helped raise the price . Maybe Misterguy was watching, I don't know, but each time the music blasted during face-offs, he would race to the aisle and shake it UP. He grabbed the railing and moved his little hips and got some attention... then he pulled his shirt way up to show off his pecs and pranced around in front of about 40 people. It was funny at first but I think that was the Little Miss Sunshine moment.

So we've really been enjoying all of this family-time. The girls haven't had a throw-down yet, their snow-fort is getting bigger and bigger, and every night has been a popcorn-and-a-movie night. I don't think we'll be headed back to the rink anytime soon though.

Blog, Interrupted

This is what happens when I leave the house for six hours a day. No blogging time.

Tomorrow night will be the big shiny concert night for the band, the choir, and the 5th grade classes. Last Tuesday's concert went really well, the kids all sang out and the music teacher and I got mini-poinsettias. There was a car on fire in the school parking lot about a half-hour before the concert started... it belonged to one of the substitutes, and it burned up because of an electrical problem. R still likes to talk about the CAR, on FIRE, and the MOKE!

Hearing the band rehearse today reminded me of 5th grade, Mr. Hill in his powder-blue polyester tuxedo, and the impatient tap-tap-tapping of his conductor's baton on the music stand... the plodding tempo of all of us beginner musicians trying to make it to the next measure. Elementary bands always suck. Listening to them is hilarious, and torturous. I hope my kids get to be band geeks too, really.

Happy Belated Birthday to Uncle Brian! We might get your (and Missy's) birthday card in the mail along with the Christmas cards.

There are 10 days until Christmas... We have a decorated sparsely-limbed tree up. Instead of wandering around somewhere north of Palmer looking for a tree, this year K found a U-cut lot about 5-minutes' drive from here. It was pretty fun except for having to listen to a grumpy daughter moaning over and over, "Let's just go to Home DEEpo-o-o-o". She has an appreciation for full, symmetrical, beautiful trees but those don't grow in the woods around Wasilla. So, now I just have to finish up shopping for gifts and I have to make some cookies.


We've been having some dog issues lately. Just after it started getting really cold at night, while K was in Japan, I moved the dog in and went a little OCD trying to handle the dog smell and dog hair. I didn't realize (no experience here) that he was "blowing his coat" which basically means he was shedding every hair on his body to make room for more hair. The groomer I took him to was shocked at how dry his skin was (again clueless dog-owner) and said to feed him fish oil. That craziness passed, but Chena still needed some attention I guess, because he got into garbage, knocked things off the table while we were away, ate half a loaf of bread, stole pancakes... K's got him mostly under control now - I won't take him out to do his business anymore, he just runs away from me - but he's coming back around to smelling like a nasty old forgotten towel. I think that I like to think of myself as a dog-person, and tell other people that I'm a dog-person, but I am not, at all, a dog-person. I grew up in houses full of dogs and birds and fish, but none of that prepared me for having to actually be responsible for a smelly pet who steals food and runs away.

In the parenting department... we're celebrating Little Dude's slow but steady climb to the rank of Big Boy. We haven't experienced a Category Five Fecal Catastrophe in ages, or even a Category One really, since he's figured out how to poop in the potty, consistently. Peeing is not as easy to figure out I guess but he's catching on, little by little.

The girls are still enjoying school but they're pretty thrilled that they get a couple of weeks off, starting Thursday afternoon. Ballet and soccer are on hold until next month, and Girl Scouts will take time off after Saturday. I'm a little concerned about the fighting I know will resume at 4pm on Thursday. Maybe I can have K make a little penalty-box in a corner of the kitchen, and keep one girl there while the other one helps make cookies, then switch 'em out.

Happy Thanksgiving Recovery

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We did - we spent the day in Anchorage with my sister and some of her in-laws. We became part of the extended McCormack family! Thank you to Carole, Joel, Carolyn and Peggy and Pat, we really enjoyed ourselves. I think the kids had the most fun digging tunnels in the snow...

I tried making a non-shortening pie crust for the apple pie I brought, it just didn't seem right. If I can find this stuff, I'll try it for whatever pie I put together next. I used to hate making pie crusts, but I finally figured out a few years ago that all of the ingredients and utensils need to be almost frozen for the crust to turn out. Duh.

In spite of all the encouragement blaring from the radio to combat-shop at 5am on Friday, I slept in and shopped instead at 10:30am. I heard that people were parked outside WalMart at 1am, to be the first to get in there and save big bucks. Well, I'm not an expert, but doesn't it cost loads of money to run all those Wasilla-style rumble trucks' engines for hours at a time?

The girl-cousins are easy to shop for, but I don't have a clue what to buy for boys ranging in age from 6 to 11. I'm at the point in my auntie-ness of just sending money. I know just what 3-year-old loud silly self-centered car-loving boys would want for Christmas, but for the older ones, I can't even guess. When I was that age I remember getting things like shirts. And socks.

So my brilliant husband figured out that the car needed some antifreeze. Now it warms up, yay! We only had to suffer through one city-drive with the kids fighting over whose turn it was to use the scraper on the inside of the windows. My next hope is for some studded tires, since the poor mamavan could only get two-thirds of the way up the neighborhood hill tonight. Hopefully the hill will be scraped and sanded tomorrow when we drive to the city for the Nutcracker.

here comes santa claus here comes santa claus

Thank you, State PFD Division, for approving my dividend application. Socialism is alive and well.

My first act as a Person With An Income is to turn up the heat a little. I can't function in cold air.

Next, who knows... a haircut, maybe? Some Danskos, a FILE CABINET, some fancy long johns, Christmas gifts... and 529's for the kids. It would probably be wise to get the car checked out, since the heater doesn't actually produce heat until we've been driving 65 mph for about 15 minutes. My New Year's Resolution will be to stop ignoring the check-engine light.

It's been FOREVER since I wrote last, because I didn't feel like it. I was busy, too, and K was in town so I got to detach myself from Mama'sBoy for three-and-a-half days in a row. I threw myself into accompanying the kids at T's school during music class. Now I can't get all of those Christmas songs out of my head. I even dream with those songs going on and on and on.

The students are all over the map: obedient, bored, psycho-hyper, cranky, musical, coughing, screaming, jumping, tone-deaf, content, fighting, eager, whatever. I practiced my stare-down with a few of the brats who were ignoring the teacher, that was fun. There were some really good moments all week, though, when they all got into it and just sang because it was fun and not just something they had to do. "I wanna keep SINGING!!" they'd say when the bell rang. One morning I brought Mama'sBoy with me - I stuck him behind me with his new train set and his lunch bag and hoped for the best. He did really well for about three hours and then started a slow melt-down. He climbed onto my back, then my lap (while I was playing a song), turned off the (digital) piano twice, and pulled out the contents of my purse, waving some feminine products in my face, saying "What's THIS Mama? What's THISSSS???"

another busy week

Obama won the election, surprise! About the only comment I have is that maybe Sarah Palin will come back to a desk in Juneau piled high with geography textbooks, a copy of the Constitution and some Diet Dr. Pepper. Put down the Blackberry, pick up a book.

A bigger event this week for our family happened Monday afternoon when my grandma Nuz broke her hip, ice-fishing for trout at her camp near Golovin. She was flown to Anchorage for surgery, accompanied by my brother. We've been visiting her as much as possible. I think most of her time each day is spent with visitors, SO many people have stopped by! She's recovering quickly and has been using a walker to get around for the past few days. Mom will spend about a week with her at home in Golovin once she's out of the hospital.

After Halloween, with all of the visiting going on, a virus worked its way through the family... the Barfovirus. R was hit with it about a week ago; T was miserable with it Thursday night and missed a day of school. Fortunately the barfing sessions only lasted about 5 hours.

Our baby, sometimes called Stinky, Eyeball, Misterguy, Screech, Misters, Scooby, LittleDude, and MonsterBoy, will be three years old on Wednesday. He says it "ffwffweee". His speech is getting better, and it still has that warbling Julia-Child-style intonation. He loves trucks, fire trucks, Caillou, drawing, cutting paper, and bugging everybody. Right now he's combing my hair and talking about getting the buzzer out to cut it.

equilibrium

The Dad is back.


Here's what we looked like last Friday...

stir crazy

I've been taking lots of pictures lately. It's just about the only way I'll remember the happy moments, because this past week was just saturated with the kind of explosive, miserable, suffocating memories that are impossible to forget. It has not been a Glorious Parenting Week.

I can not find a creative and gentle way to get my screaming, intractable, dimple-faced son to understand that when it's winter, we wear winter jackets, mittens and hats. We fight about it every day, sometimes many times a day. It is against human nature to withstand any of the irrational, primitive, witless rantings and ravings of a two-year-old child.

A six-year-old holding a scream festival in her bedroom because her sister won some awards and got chocolate is not captivating either. She doesn't win any points for whining about her Halloween costume for a week, then whining about each successive alteration to that costume while igniting a battle over who gets to draw the design on the pumpkin.

The big sister, self-appointed Sister-In-Chief, raises everyone's blood pressure with her pompous corrections and reprimands; but she is the most helpful and intuitive of the three. She can smooth things over quickly and move things along before the MomBomb explodes.

Really, they're all just reflections of me, since I'm intractable, whining, pompous, reprimanding... especially when we get to these last few days before their dad gets home. They do as I do, not as I say, and I know losing my patience does no good... but I'm not the kind of human who should be single-parenting.

Throw in The World's Most Incredibly Shedding Dog Who Eats Snotty Tissue and Steals Loaves of Bread...

this week in pictures

These pictures are from Wednesday's meeting of Sitnasuak Native Corporation, Saturday afternoon at AFN with Mom and my Gramma Nuz, and Saturday's dinner with my Dad & family at Chili's.

blurt, chew

I was listening to Bill O'Reilly on the radio today and he claimed that people naturally become more conservative as they grow older. That's a pretty big generalization, but I'm sure it's true for some people, though not all. I think people naturally become more true to who they really are as they grow older. I'm trying to become more accepting, more thoughtful and less blurt-ful. That's just the short list.

Today we loaded up and went to school for first-quarter conferences. A is for Awesomedaughters. The teachers for both of the girls said they're putting together more challenging material since that's obviously what they need at this point.

Boss' teacher had one small concern - she noticed that our child has a gross habit of needing to chew on things like pencils, paper, sleeves, whatever. She said the school's therapist might have some safe, appropriate chewable thing... hm, what? Just looked it up, here's what a doc said in reply to another mom-of-a-chewer: More than likely this behavior is indicative of tension/anxiety, and the chewing relaxes the tension. Arrange an evaluation with a clinical psychologist or other pediatric mental health professional.

!!!!

Check-up Day

So, today I had a PFT and a 6-minute-walk, and appointments with my pulmonologist and rheumatologist. My lungs are better than usual, but I didn't walk far. Since I've been doing 6MWT's at ANMC, I've walked as far as 1760 feet, and until today my shortest walk was 1700 feet. Today I only managed 1680 feet. It's not much of a big deal when I remember the other PH patients who post on the message boards about how high their oxygen is set, how they deal with their central-line or sub-q PH meds, or that they were able to walk 400 feet in 6 minutes. Or worse.
So I'm fine.
The only things my docs really brought up today were: that my back-scratching is worrisome to them (stress, stress) and that they want to reduce and even eliminate some of my medications. Unfortunately it's taking longer than 8 days this time around for the cardiology department to make the echo results available to the internal med department. Dorks.

SNOW! We've got sticking, sticky snowman-snow. It's cold here. The kids played outside for a couple of hours after school, sledding and carefully crafting a snowgirl. R smashed it at the first opportunity.

Chenathedog hit the jackpot, he gets to be inside. I'm learning again to tolerate dog hair EVERYWHERE and that dog-smell, yeah. He's learning to tolerate baths every other day, because he gets YummyChummies for however long it takes for me to try to get him to smell like apples.

I'm only up at midnight to get to that next ChemicalGulp and to find the price ranges for insulated patio curtains. AlapAHH.

Other random bits of things: Delaney's 2!! K's in the land of cheap sushi, Target opened, the first quarter ends for the girls on Friday, natives are flying by the thousands into Anchorage this week for AFN yay! , I got to visit with Melissa, and my friend Andrea from OIT-days found me!! Election-wise, I felt zero motivation to watch the last debate between McCain and Obama tonight. I do whatever I can to avoid confrontation... Watching would not have changed my choice of candidates anyway.

Time for the chemicals and a few more pages of Jane Eyre. And time to listen to Chena have a dream about eating.

Snow, plateau, BSNC

Yesterday K went to Florida. The girls went to school, and R and I went to Anchorage for my echocardiogram. Between here and Palmer, the snow was so heavy that I put the wipers on the highest setting. R was worried that he couldn't see anything outside. He always asks for updates on our location during long drives, and he loves getting back to "illa".

The echo went quickly and Misterguy didn't run around pushing and grabbing and opening things because he was too busy eating Skittles, one by one, saying "yummy" once in awhile.

I've evidently hit a plateau pressure-wise. The tech said it looks about the same as it did almost a year ago. From what doctors have said to me up to this point, I assume everyone (but me) will settle for a pressure between 50 and 60mmHg.
The American Heart Association phrases PH like this: The blood vessels that supply the lungs constrict and their walls thicken, so they can't carry as much blood. As in a kinked garden hose, pressure builds up [in the pulmonary arteries] and backs up. The heart works harder, trying to force the blood through. If the pressure is high enough, eventually the heart can't keep up, and less blood can circulate through the lungs to pick up oxygen. Patients then become tired, dizzy and short of breath. and lethargic [lazy] and frustrated [bitchy]
Normal pressure in the pulmonary arteries is 25 mmHg. So yeah, I don't want to settle for 55 right now. Maybe I'm just obsessing over numbers and not being thankful enough for my quality-of-life status - we'll see what the doctors have to say on the 15th.
Last Saturday the kids and I went into the city for Bering Straits Native Corporation's annual shareholders' meeting. We saw Dad and Peggy of course, sat with my sister and Delaney, Donny and Willow Olson and their boys, and said hi to many many people. New directors were elected to the board, financial and land information was reviewed, lunch was served, dancers danced and shareholders had time to air their thorough misunderstanding of how the system works during the comment period. BSNC has pulled in a record income this year and has compensated its key people accordingly, but some people don't get it. I admit, I don't get most of what happens with native corporations but I'd rather research something confusing before stepping up to a microphone to get cranky about it.
By the way, I did finally finish T's kuspuk, and one for her doll too :)

maverick maverick maverick

We can all relax now and get out of the Cringe-Ready Position. The debate is over. Governor Palin doesn't have to do that again!
Just before the debate tonight, a guy called in to Dan Fagan's radio show to share his struggle - watch, or not? He didn't want to witness a train wreck, but he didn't want to miss her making a comeback either. When K tuned the bunny-ears in as the debate started, I realized I didn't want the visual... so I settled into the mamavan and listened. Hey, she survived and didn't sound too snide, clueless or terrified! At the very least, she's hushed the loud cries for her to take a hike back to the governor's mansion and stay there.
It seems true what they say about VP debates not factoring into the actual election, though.
I personally think that Senator Biden's statements were backed up with more knowledge, substance and a general feeling of competence.
I have to say that "maverick" is my new least-favorite word. It's worn out. Stop saying it.

When we're feeling a little silly, we get R to repeat us saying things like, "Mister Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL" and "READ MY LIPS, NO NEW TAXES", "MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED", "I - AM NOTACROOK", and "I can see Russia from my house!"


When I took the girls berry-picking at Hatcher Pass, two Swedish reporters ambled by and struck up a conversation about Sarah Palin, Wasilla, rural vs. city life, and different types of blueberries... They took a bunch of pictures of us picking berries (here's their Wasilla slideshow). They thought it was kind of funny running into some Fagerstroms who don't really look very Swedish. At least they didn't say "You Filipino, ay?" - I'm pretty tired of that one.

near Hatcher Pass, my blueberry-picking girl

right now

Right now, football is beaming in through the bunny ears, T finished her Jelly-Tart-Making lesson for BossLady and the tarts are cooling, all three kids are outside playing in the chilly, sunny weather, and I'm re-knitting the purple doll sweater. I'm also enjoying some tea, mostly because I bought a little teapot and I feel a little civilized using it.
Yesterday, we participated in the MatSu Family Fun Run at Colony High School. They had non-competitive races for all ages, including toddlers. All three kids ran and had a great morning. T was in the faster clump of runners in the mile-race, and BL came in around fourth or fifth in the half-mile. She told me later that she'd been running with her buddies for a while, but she wanted to go faster so she left her buddies behind. It was pretty cool watching her run all by herself to the finish line!


I got some pavement footage, not knowing the camera was in movie mode.
K was bummed that he couldn't be there since he had a flight. I just found out today that he'll be gone for most of October... The kids and I said maybe he can dress up on Halloween and scare us via webcam.


Or maybe dressing up is unnecessary.

projects

Everything I do is half-assed.
I even have about half of that body part as most people I've seen (no, I'm not bragging, it's just true, body fat doesn't stick to me).
Clothes, makeup, kid projects, my education, "homeschool" stuff, chores, gardening, filing, car maintenance, EVERYTHING is half-done.

Like this stuff:
T's purple kuspuk
T's purple knit hat
The big San Franciscan dollhouse I picked up off of Craig's for 20 bucks
A purple knit doll sweater (my current project)
Some flannel doll nightgowns
R's blue cable baby blanket (yes, pathetic, he's almost 3)
At-home Montessori activities for R
About 4 or 5 books
A Burgoyne quilt I started in 1996

ecchhh
There's no excuse, either, unless somebody finds the Work Ethic chromosome and I test negative for it.

late summer pictures

mid-August garden rows

the 4 edible radishes

fireweed at Wolverine Lake

rainbow, Pioneer Peak, State Fair

hey, duul, wanna, wide, in mine, ink, ug-bug?

pet a pig

'ig, inky, Mama'

Uncle and Auntie aka "UB, AM"

combo birthday party, September 6th

the daily visitors

company/politics

I love having relatives and friends over! I used to be so horrified at letting anyone into my house, since it was never PERFECT, that I almost never had company. Looking back, though, I think only about 2 of the homes I've been in during my lifetime were PERFECT. Time to lighten up.
If I happen to care about keeping our house magazine-shoot-ready after the kids all move out, I might make an attempt.
Uncle Brian, Auntie Missy and Grandpa Jerry all visited us this weekend, on different days. They got to experience Misterguy in all of his dimple-faced, monkey-monster-adrenaline-nut glory. I love all the conversations, the hugs and the funny stories but most of all I love that the kids got to hang with their dad's side of the family... it gets so lopsided family-wise, and it'll stay like that until we can make a trip south again.
After UB, AM, the girls and I walked a little trail near Lake Lucille and checked out the Iditarod Headquarters, we narrowly escaped being interviewed by some reporters desperate for anyone's opinion on Sarah Palin's VP nomination. Don't get me wrong, reporters are, uh, fun and necessary, I guess, but until the day when I can actually get some makeup on and not blurt out whatever backward, uninformed opinion comes to mind, I'll keep my distance. By the way, I think it's exciting to have our governor given such an opportunity (rockstah!), but I don't vote Republican.
Grandpa Jerry relaxed out here for a while on Monday, then he treated us to dinner in Anchorage. All three made huge birthday contributions, so we thank them for that! There will be two verrrry happy girls here on Saturday.
BossLady started ballet today. She told us afterwards that she wishes she could have ballet class every day. T starts cross-country running tomorrow. She's so very much like her dad! She'll probably even follow in his Republican footsteps. Boss could become a Libertarian one day but I don't know about Monsterboy. There are people in Wasilla who wear t-shirts saying "Our governor is HOT" - he'd probably fall in with that crowd.

love, logic, hormones

The birthdays are creeping up. Today I'll get an updated wish list from the girls. I found American Girl dolls for them on eBay, that's probably all they'll get from us but I know they'll be thrilled. We'll have a small party at home with cousins, then another day they'll be able to take one friend each to the H2Oasis water park.

Their schools use the Love and Logic methods for classroom management. BossLady and I talked about it over breakfast this morning, and she said she prefers the more traditional style of her old school. I've been reading up on Love and Logic and I think it's worth trying at home.... finally. Everyone's approach to parenting is different - it all seems like common sense - but I don't mind needing a book or a method because I have almost no patience and even less common sense!

K's up in Nome and Golovin for a couple of days while his dad, brother, and sister-in-law are there. When he gets back he'll start his September schedule, flying on the weekends.

Health-wise, I don't seem to have any immune system issues right now, or breathing problems, but I had something else come out of left field... There's quite a bit of TMI but it comes down to a good possibility that I'm "approaching menopause". Just what K and the kids need: me, hormonally imbalanced AGAIN.

Sometimes you just have to laugh and move on.

Abe, Wedding, School

Uh, eleven days can pass soooo quickly, I don't even realize I'm neglecting the blog.
I just caught up on our nephew Abe's progress, he had a tough week with fevers and low platelets and everything else he has to struggle with. But he's on the mend and will soon be home with his brothers! We love you guys.
Willy and Bridie got married on Sunday. They chose a beautiful place and had a really great wedding. Mom and I sang a song for them, and I got Clayton to play the guitar for us (yay!) at the very last second. It was a good day with lots of good friends. The three sons were the most handsome in tuxes, and Bridie was beautiful! During the reception, she sang a song with Wilson as her accompanist, awwww.
The next day the girls had their first day of school. It's a bit awkward doing drop-off/pick-up since their schools are separate buildings (K-2 and 3-5), though the buildings are next door to each other. We've worked out the bus arrangements, though. The teachers seem really nice, and the classes aren't too big, but it's a little jarring to go from a K-5 school with 500 students to these separated schools with about 350 students each. T's math situation will have to be changed - we looked through her new book and saw that everything in it, she learned last year. Hm.
I can't ignore the screaming in here anymore. Time to go.

August days

It gets so dark at night now, the trees in the backyard are no longer in silhouette at midnight. Soon we won't need to put up the blackout curtains in the kids' rooms at bedtime. The sugar snap pea plants in our Rookie Garden finally popped out white blossoms, but the fallen yellow birch leaves between garden rows are sad reminders that fall is upon us. At least we'll have some radishes to toss with some tiny lettuce leaves.
K's been gone since August 1st. His time is 17 hours ahead of ours. R asked me this morning when we woke up, "Where's Daddy?" I've been doing fun stuff with the girls, and they've only given me that "Can't we trade you for Dad?"-look once or twice this time around. We've been making cookies, bread, quills (yep,Harry Potter), sit-upon covers (Girl Scout thing); we've brought home about 4,000 library books, played at Olly&Wilson's, driven to Seward with cousins to see the SeaLife Center, hung out at the park, and figured out Club Penguin missions together.
I just haven't been ScaryStrictMama about bedtime and wake-up time, though, and we haven't done more than three math worksheets. There's only one more week until the First Day of SCHOOOOOOLLLL! I got BossLady to count by twos with me, and fives and tens. She started reading Captain Underpants books... We've all been into geography with map puzzles (R lost Alabama) and looking up countries we hear about while watching the Olympics. Next Monday's gonna be rough.

My brother Willy and his bride Bridie will be married next Sunday, at a lake near Palmer! We're all looking forward to it, weddings are so happy, they remind you of the goodness in life.

special wishes

Now that July is ending, it's time for me to send out my Belated Blog Wishes to everyone.
Happy 6th Birthday to Ben! Happy Birthdays to Jack, Peggy, Michelle H., Jennifer, Sonya, Oliver, Grandma Rose, JD, and Baby Hunter! Happy Early Birthday to Madeleine :)



Happy Anniversary to K, xOxO.
Love,
Ginny

school supplies!

Here I am.
It's a typical night tonight, except it's not raining. K's making fireweed jelly and the kids are working the bedtime routine. I've got chores to do, but I'd rather paint the dollhouse, sew T's kuspuk, search for American Girl dolls on eBay, and do 16x16 sudoku.
Soccer ended, now we're getting ready for fall - yesterday I signed the girls up for ballet. On Sunday we bought school supplies. I'm a bit nervous about school, not just because it's a new, bigger school, but because I think both of the girls have forgotten things they learned last year. They'll have a completely different curriculum and much bigger classes, but we've found out that several of their soccer teammates go to this school, so the whole transition won't be a complete shock to their systems. When I was a first-grader, I attended three different schools in two states. In the third grade, I moved from a Fairbanks school (city) to Nome's elementary school (very un-city). So I know how wary they'll be, but I also know how adaptable they are.
School starting also means birthdays around here. K reminded me that now that T will be nine, we've hit the halfway-point of her living with us... unless she has her way of course. She's told us that she never wants to move out and she won't get married either because she just doesn't want to leave us! I'll have to enjoy the sweetness of that now, because she'll change her mind when she's about thirteen.
We've had a major alteration in our little household - the girls started doing chores and getting allowance. I know it's unbelievable that I waited this long to start chores, but now they finally seem capable of doing a decent job of it. They sweep, dust, load/unload the dishwasher, put their clothes away, make one loaf of bread (breadmaker) and one batch of cookies per week. T really grossed out with the dirty dishes the first time - "EWWW this is so SLIIIIMEEEYYY". We pay them more than Barack Obama pays his daughters ($1.50!!). They're happy with it, and they are constantly revising their spending/saving plans.
In August, K will be out of the country for three weeks. I realize it's time to clamp down on bedtimes, awake times, math practice, meal planning, and limits on computer & TV time. It would help if Supernanny came up here to make a chart for us and to light a fire under my ass.

fomites, fomites everywhere

Last week, we went to BossLady's soccer game in the rain. K put on his rain jacket and walked her to the field while I stayed with the other two kids in the car. T had her books, of course, and I had a few sudoku puzzles to finish - but - we all know what happens when you trap a two-year-old in a car for an hour. Playing with his trucks and farm toys was distracting enough for a while, but Misterguy needed more action. Before long he was in Boss' seat in the third row, pulling out all of her books and papers and whatever random third-row stuff he could find. The temptation of the cargo area was too much, so he climbed back there to get to the bicycle helmets and recycling stuff. In three seconds he was next to me, in the driver's seat, attacking the window controls and door locks and wiper switch and horn.
I stopped him from getting to the radio and air controls, because through it all I was straining to hear a program about hypochondria on the NPR station. Wow, what I was able to hear was fascinating, familiar, revealing, and hilarious. They had guests in the studio talking about how hypochondria affected their lives, how it began for them, the books they'd written. There were experts talking about the history of the disease. Here's a summary of the program that aired. Most interesting to me was the link between hypochondria and OCD.
OCD, yep.
No, I haven't been diagnosed with either problem, but autoimmune problems turn a person into a hypochondriac. Throw the internet in the mix and you get someone compulsively, obsessively diagnosing themselves with everything from cancer of the armpit to ringworm. Going through patient-care classes and learning what a fomite is really doesn't help the situation, either. Ew.

Germophobia is not exactly compatible with motherhood but I'm finding my way. I just have to cringe and look away when my kids head for the Rent-a-Can. And keep the big squirt-bottle of hand sanitizer in the car, just out of reach of the little monsterboy bouncing around like a pinball.

summer days...

I guess I could have tried for four whole weeks without an entry, but that would have been pushing it.
What a great time we had with our visitors last month! We walked and walked and talked and took pictures and ate (Humpy's Bar is the place to go for more greasy fries than you can eat, and more cigarette smoke than you can breathe). The weather wasn't the best but we still had fun. We saw Hatcher Pass, walked on part of Matanuska Glacier, walked through Kincaid Park and played at Point Woronzof. After they left us, Kim and Danny and their girls went to Denali National Park and a few other beautiful places. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
Since then, T-ball ended, the garden sprouted, we went to the pool once, soccer's going full-blast, and the kids have spent the good-weather days mostly outside. On July 4th, the kids and I walked with other Mat-Su Girl Scouts in the parade. After that, we went to Brenna & Brandon's for some delicious food and a squirt-gun fight. Peggy & Pat and their kids came over the next day and we met at Wasilla Lake, since the sun was out for about half an hour.
That's it for now, I've got to rush dinner and pile the grumpy crowd into the mamavan to make it to the soccer field in time for the 7 o'clock game.

spring pics

Easter Egg Hunters

Dad's Jacket, circa 1968

Dad's Shoes

Jenn's Graduation

Pat's Graduation

Kindergarten Graduation 2008

The Class of 2020

Third Grade was great!

Sunshine, bikes, shades

T-ballers

Slugger

We love Grampy!

Gramma too!

Smiles before heading miles to Georgia :(