Playing with The Boys

Little Buddy* spent the weekend with CoRielle. I cracked up when Danny promptly displayed the tricks Little Buddy had taught him. He pulled the toy stool over to the counter and got into the toaster. Previously, Danny had not discovered he could reach light switches, dead bolts and kitchen appliances by simply dragging the stool to the appropriate place and climbing. It didn't take long for him to catch on. 

I believe Little Buddy is 3 weeks older than Danny. It's going to be fun to watch them grow up.  Danny was happy to cuddle and read books today...until Benny was attacked by a giant dinosaur. 

This game involved a giant dino eating his face, while he beat it off...and then he and I running while yelling all manner of attack things from one end of the house to the other. What else can you do when it's yucky outside? 

After the first couple of rounds of this rousing game, Danny opted to play a more sedate game. 

Arielle and I brainstormed how we will ease Little Buddy into the Tuesday morning routine. The church will give her leeway during the transition to miss staff meetings. The first few weeks I (and possibly Stacia) will go over and play with them while Arielle stays home. Then we'll try a few quick exits where she is gone 15 - 20 minutes and comes home. 

Thank you for your continued prayers for Little Buddy, CoRielle and the boys as they step into this season. 

Little Buddy is the online name we will use for C until his adoption is final. 

Stacia is 17!

 Stacia turns 17 years old today. 

Take just a minute and contemplate that fact. Our BABY turns 17 years old today. This blog was started to document her growing up because the older two left home 2 weeks after she was born. She's all grown up now and maybe it's time to quit the blog. LOL 

(Stacia has just informed me when she goes to Japan the blog will be an easy way for her to keep up with the siblings and watch the grands grow up. I may be doing this when I am 83.)

17 years. 

We had a friend's party on Saturday. This upcoming Saturday will be our August Family Celebration - Stacia's Birthday, CyRi's Anniversary and Little Buddy's* introduction to our extended family circle.

Michael mentioned we needed a household party - and the only day when we can hope to have everyone home at the same time is Thursday afternoon...so gifts and a lunch/dinner out will be Thursday. This is how a simple birthday stretches into a weeklong celebration in Gherkinville. ::snort:: 

We discussed what Stacia would like to do today. She wanted to play games with the family. Early this morning I sat out the traditional birthday chair covers and pig hat. I also stacked games on the corner of the table. I knew I would be gone when she woke up, but she'd know I was thinking of her on her birthday. 

The girls got up and played This That and Everything. I made it back from town with a few fun things. 

Birthday balloon, US treats & flowers

Little did I know Stacia had never had a big, swirly lollipop. She was thrilled. We were amused - sort of like when she tried bacon for the first time when she was 10. 

Everyone left to take Allie to work and to vote. When Nolan, Stacia and Michael got home, we played Forbidden Island. We managed to get off the island in both rounds. 

Michael went out to take care of chickens....and Stacia, Nolan and I pulled together rice, stir fry and sesame chicken. 

Continuing the "Give Stacia whatever she wants" theme we watched, "The Road to El Dorado." Wow - that brings back memories of their childhood. LOL 

*Little Buddy is the name I'm going to use for C online until his adoption is final. 

Amazing Birthday Gifts

Arielle and the boys stopped by today. Tomorrow, Stacia turns 17. They came bearing gifts. They had ordered a ton of JAPANESE TREATS for her birthday. Stacia was 3 years old when we arrived in Japan and 8 years old when we left. These are the things of her young dreams. LOL 

Benny could NOT contain himself. "STACIA - I spent $5 for your gift. I got you a puzzle."  Ok - that was cute. 

However, I began to wonder...."Benny, did you buy Stacia a birthday gift with your OWN money?"

"Yes. I washed the bathtub, and it was boring!" 

Now, that IS love! 

Look at this haul...and SHE can read the packages! 

How I miss melon soft drinks, melon gum, melon chewy candy. LOL Vending machines on the trails....eggs from a vending machine....

These are great. It's a drink you push to break the seal, a marble drops into the bottle, it carbonates...and you have a marble in the neck of the bottle. 

 How do Japanese people stay slim with so many wonderful bakeries in the country? It's all about portion size. Compare the Japanese cookie to the one below. 

via google photos

Or consider Michael's pastrami baconater sandwich from the Trout house today. It's all about portion size!

An Alaskan Tour Gone Awry and more

Stacia always goes to great lengths to make birthdays special for youth group members, family members...and this year Allie wanted to plan a special day for Stacia. Stacia is turning 17 on the 16th. We'll have a family celebration on the 20th. BUT....Allie planned a scavenger hunt, she then created a murder mystery plot line, she and Mike spent a bit of time working on characters and how it could all work....character sketches were sent out, pizza was ordered, brownies made...and we had a party. 

Our characters: 

Deanna Bright - a young aspiring photographer who's on the hunt for the perfect picture of a moose. She stumbled across the tour by accident but is happy to be there. Keeps a positive attitude even after the murder. 

Left to Right: Charles Lewis - a proper English gentleman on his honeymoon. He's rather suspicious of the group as a whole.

 Penni Rosewood - a young woman on her honeymoon. Happy and optimistic and thoroughly enjoying the scenery. After the murder, her sole focus is getting her honeymoon back on track. 

Deanna - and on the right - Lila Fairview - a young architect just out of college traveling the world exploring old buildings. She suspects Billy Murphy from the beginning. 

Left to right: Wiley Jacobs - a Alaskan tour guide of 20+ years. the murder victim of Billy Murphy.

Ruby West - A hit woman in the guise of a wealthy businesswoman. She has come to Alaska to fake her death to get out of the business. She spends her time complaining about the weather and the distinct lack of any decent iced coffee. 

Bohdi Late - A struggling street performer on his last tour of the states. 

Billy Murphy - A desperate gambler who plans to kidnap Ruby West and hold her for ransom. 

Esperanza Lockwood- An eccentric (aging hippie) innkeeper who's been in business with Wily for 20: years. She has an affinity for the Beatles and special brownies...and lavender essential oil... 

Lacy Jane - Wiley Jacob's assistant/junior Alaska Tour Guide. A southern bell and sweetheart. She fights to keep her team together after the murder. 

All but Esperanza met at the train depot. They went on a scavenger hunt while in character, a murder took place, and then they came back to Wibbly Wobbly Inn to wait for the police and to solve the crime.  Here are a few glimpses of the fun. 

In this photo they have bounced from CoRielle's to BreZaak's where they each received a carrot and I'm not sure what else they did. 

Penni Rosewood (AKA Krisa) found a painted rock - which was on their list. 

Team A singing outside Klondike Mike's

Team B singing outside Klondike Mike's 

Charles and Penni - looking for free books? 

Team B interviewing Balto

Both teams stopped at CoRielles...where they each got a high five from Benny, and a wave from Danny and C, before they bounced next door to BreZaak's. 

What could have happened? Ruby and Wiley are both dead outside the visitor center. 

About this time, I got a call to pick these two up and book back to the Inn. They both hid. The others showed up and went about solving the crime.  Eventually, it's revealed that RUBY is ALIVE. 

Ruby reveals she was faking her death, Billy walked in and thought Wiley had shot her - so he shot Wiley, leaving them both outside the visitor center. He was shocked to find Ruby had not been shot...Wiley was quite shot. 

With the murder solved we were free to resurrect Wiley, drop our characters and go on to pizza, brownies (yes, with a special ingredient) and ice cream. 

This was a fun afternoon. Now that we know a bit of the problems which arose, we could do this again and have it go even smoother. 

BEFORE the scavenger hunt and dinner there was a church breakfast and workday.  We tried to figure out the best way to get the most of us working. In the end I stayed home with Dad (he wouldn't have any fun at a workday) and Mike and the girls went to the workday. There they joined our life group, Pastor and Larry to paint, go through a shed and a few other things. 

There is more to do - but much was done! Maybe next time we'll have one of the boys take off work to stay with GG. 

A Wonderful Bowl of Soup

I sat down to blog "today" and realized I had no photo from the day. I had a spare hour while I waited to pick up Allie from work and so I began to upload, download and select photos to blog the "rest of July."  It is now TWO hours later...and I've got all the July photos in their place...realized I have June to go...Allie is home and we've gone back out to do some night driving practice...and somewhere along the line I FOUND THESE PHOTOS in the "to be blogged" folder...from August 2021!  

About a week ago I received a text. Nicole was going to be in Alaska and would love to meet me for the best in the world Hungarian Mushroom soup which can only be found in OUR town, at one little cafe. Locals you KNOW where we went, right? For security reasons (which is sort of a joke after all these years of blogging) I try not to mention our town's name... well...

📷 by Nicole 2022

I JUMPED on the opportunity to share another bowl of Hungarian Mushroom soup with Nicole.  Nicole and I have been friends for nearly 50 years. In 2002 - 2005 we were stationed up here and wonder of wonders Nicole and her husband were LIVING up here.  Now we live up here and they don't. Last summer when Nicole visited we went for soup....I was happy to enjoy a replay. 

Michael, me and Nicole

In fact, our fathers were in the same youth group - lo these many years past. They grew up and went to Bible college at the same time...and three+ years ago when we moved dad up to Alaska, Walt drove the Alcan with us to help Dad settle in up here. Walt somehow ended up in the labor room with Mom when I was about to make my appearance. They came up last summer to visit - and it was GREAT. 

Benny loved Uncle Walt

The thing is - life can be hard. It can beat us up. Today, we provided a soft-landing for each other.  It is good to renew connection. It is good to take time to cultivate your community, we need each other. Be ye introvert or extrovert its good and right to contend for relationship. Today, the back corner in our little Cafe was holy ground. This table corner will remind me of unity, grace, freedom, truth, validation, communion and love in and through Christ. 

I'm going to continue to actively seek for my tribe, my people up here in the North...and to count myself blessed to have so many wonderful friends scattered around the states and the world. 

As Nicole says, "Love your tribe HARD, pray for your tribe HARD."

All photos in this post are from a year ago and were taken by Nicole! Thanks. 

A Great Day

 

Our routines are getting back to normal. We are still all meeting together once a week instead of the typical twice a week thing...we are working through some "Table questions" as I use the girls for a focus group to see how the format may work for a monthly opportunity for women this fall.  The girls are enjoying it. 

We ran by the pharmacy to get more meds for Dad. I was so thankful Stacia and I had run in last night and we didn't have to go in today. 

Michael met a friend across town for coffee and then went on to his weekly appointment. He was gracious enough to run Allie's old laptop by our charter school. 

At home Allie worked on a play/script she is writing for Stacia's birthday. Stacia rested and wrote. I puttered around the garden a bit.  I will never plant another garden without flowers...it is so fun to see a valiant bloom in the midst of the chickweed and such. LOL 

It has another 5 - 6 weeks right? Maybe I'll get some pumpkins...not the pumpkin patch I envisioned. 

More dragon egg cucumbers...so far they're our most prolific. 

Kombocha...maybe it will mature in 5 - 6 weeks. 

Michael has been working at integrating our flocks. The new chicks are still skittish. They stay to themselves but there have been no big fights. I can barely wait until these girls begin laying eggs. We are so TIRED of feeding chickens without eggs. We are debating meat birds next year. 

I pulled about half of the broccoli plants. The chickens were happy to eat them. I fed the rabbit some greens I had let go for him. It had gotten gooshy during all the rain. I found one little cauliflower head and folded the leaves over it. The Brussel sprouts are sprouting and the tomatoes and cucumbers are set. I don't think the watermelon is going to mature. Even in the greenhouse I don't think it's been warm enough. I have LOVED having fresh basil and am contemplating the best way to keep the trend going over the winter. I may grow some herbs under grow lights. 

I placed this stick in the corner for the chickens to play on TWO years ago. Those chickens never once tried it. These gals love it. They've been roosting on top of the bunny hutch; I think it feels like home to them. 

Nolan ran Allie to work, and Stacia and I went to work making pizzas.  This was to be our offering for Life Group potluck tonight. That and chips and quacamole....not because they go together but because I have an over-abundance of avocados to use. 

Pepperoni, ham & pineapple, pesto chicken, BBQ chicken

Bre called when we were in the midst of pizza making to say her childcare arrangements for swim lessons had fallen through. I knew taking two littles to Life Group was a bad idea...but I was fairly sure Annie would enjoy herself. She did. It turns out she knows three of the ladies and one youth from the nursery. She enjoyed dinner and sat well during our devo....I had to get up with her near the end. 

When we got home Annie told her Dad she, "weally had fun."  She also told me how much she loved me several times during Life Group. We're currently studying what it means to Love God and Love our neighbors as ourselves...I think she took the clue to let me know how she felt. Kids listen more than we give them credit.

A great day - bookended with community - gardening and chickens in the middle. LOL