Noah's New Discovery

 This little doll has discovered his tongue. LOL 

Thanks, Larissa for keeping me supplied with fun photos to share! Noah is 4 months old now! He loves the swing at Bachan's but I live about 35 minutes from their home. They needed a swing in their own backyard. LOL 

A Sweet Day

Nathan, Jennifer, Me, Arielle, Benny, Chaplain G
📷by Jennifer

We're off the beaten path up here and we don't often get friends from our military life "dropping in." Imagine our excitement when we found out Nathan and Jennifer are going to Eielsen AFB to "mc" a retirement ceremony. I'm hoping their camera produced a clearer shot than this one- and I'll sub it if it does. Ah, the memories. We thoroughly enjoyed catching up, talking about retirement, hashing out the best way to reach our culture and the younger generations. Jennifer and I shared together on the PWOC leadership team (women's ministry) at Beale AFB. When we moved, she took over as the President/leader of the group. It was so great to see them, remember what God did in those 25 years and look ahead to what he is doing now and in the future in all of our lives.   In an odd twist we discovered they know the Sgt who is working with Krista...he came into our last assignment just as we left.  AND she was telling me about the woman who leads their church's women's ministry. She said she thought she and I had much in common...even to serving in PWOC when we were USAF spouses. Imagine the surprise when Harmony was sharing her testimony and Jennifer realized our son had married their previous daughter in law, and our lovely Livie is Harmony's Livie too. God is so very good...and every once in a while, we get to see a bit of the intricate tapestry he weaves from what we see as tangled times. 

As we drove up our road, we noted a white truck in front of us. It turned into our driveway. It was Krista and Luke. Another surprise afternoon visit. Krista is just home from her time in Hawaii, Guam and Typhoon Mawar. We enjoyed hearing her stories, watching video clips, catching up with them...it feels like it's been a long time since we were able to sit and visit with Luke and Krista. They brought some brauts. We ran to the store and bought a few other things and had a Braut Burn at home. 

Millie loves to play with Reno. He's the only dog we aren't worried she will kill or be killed by. She is a covid puppy and not very social. We keep trying. Reno obviously will not be hurt by her, and he is a gentle giant. 

They were having a great time romping in the yard; we let them both off leash. We nearly had a disaster when a moose came into the yard. We didn't notice the moose until someone driving by honked. Ah....those dogs were determined to get the moose and the moose was riled. Reno came right back when called, and Millie looked like she was going to and then she simply couldn't help herself and charged back up to tell the moose a thing or two. Reno then ran and got between her and the moose. We finally got them both to listen, and the situation diffused. 

We didn't get a single bit of work done today, but it was a refreshing day. It was just sweet to sit and remember...and then to sit and cheer a new generation of military ministers on. 

Surprise Afternoon Visitors

Millie began to go WILD, alerting us to the fact that we had surprise afternoon visitors. I opened the door and Little Buddy ran in chattering away about "the car." He was very excited.  The batter was charging. Papa was the hero. He heard them arrive and went for the battery. LOL 

Who knew we should warn them about not going off road? They needed Papa to help tow them out...they were stuck good and proper. 

Little Buddy did great with t-ball. He and Papa have developed a sweet relationship. 

The trampoline is up and getting lots of use! 

The moral of THIS story is NEVER listen to the expert at the paint counter over your husband. We SHOULD have primed these tables regardless of the quality of paint we used. A goal this summer is to strip, prime and paint again.  Meanwhile, we had a lovely time peeling paint off the tables. 

It's lovely to be outside! Everything is so green. The boys collected a new bouquet of flowers for the girls and I. 

It really is spring... Oh! Stacia let Millie outside with the kids. She usually keeps Millie locked up when kids are here. She gets very excited. Millie did great. Maybe we can let her play outside when visitors are over this summer. We shall see. 

Gideon's Birthday

📷by Larissa

 If you thought we'd celebrated Gideon's birthday a week ago, you'd be right. LOL However, THAT was the family party at the family monthly gathering, THIS was his birthday party at home. His theme was SPIDERMAN! This was a great cookie. 

The games were fantastic too! Bre had taped a big spider web on the far wall. The kids were masked up with spiderman masks and then had to pin "something" on the web...maybe it was a spider or plastic bugs? 

This is a package wrapped in MANY layers of wrapping paper. The one who is holding the package when the last layer is unwrapped gets the gift. 

Of course, the people were spectacular too! 

Trudy - Look at those eyes! 

Cousins got to hold Noah! 

📷by Larissa

📷by Larissa

 Sweet Cousins📷by Larissa

Bre (6 months) and Trudy (4 months)📷by Larissa

Bachan and Noah 📷by Larissa

Lucy, Jenni's niece, was having much fun blowing the party thingie at Noah. 

📷by Larissa

Alex walked over for a bit. GG was surprised when I told him we were going out. 

📷by Larissa

GG and Noah📷by Larissa

Cousin hugs📷by Larissa

Aunt Arielle and Benny drove over. 

📷by Larissa

Potatoes Planted

Michael brought certified WEED FREE straw! What?  Yes, he did. Last year I just used old straw I had around here. He planted the left side of this potato patch in mounds.  I used the Ruth Stott method and planted the rest of this spot. 

The orange fence is the area we are letting the chickens till for us. We shall see if they can keep it under control.  We have more potatoes to plant so I'll stick them in the other little section Michael tilled. I guess we aren't doing EVERYTHING in beds this year after all. 

Busy Friday

It turned into quite a day at the end of a busy week. LOL  We certainly didn't accomplish everything we had hoped to achieve, but that's O.K. 

My day began with me missing a weekly 0530 zoom meeting. 

My next appoint was with Stacia discussing the last session from Whisper on RightNow media. We made it home in time for her to prep for her Japanese tutoring session and to do a bit of studying for an upcoming college mid-term exam. 

I threw a bunch of vegetables, chicken stock and rice into the instant pot. 

I haven't blogged about Krista's "plight" but I spent some time helping her rearrange her flight to AK from Guam and discussing her current living conditions and activities. She's been busy helping with clean up from the Cat 5 Typhoon she experienced this week.  

Millie had a grooming appointment. She has been "poodleized." LOL She is primping and preening. 

The girls and I had plans to meet up with a gal from church. Allie's work schedule changed between last Sunday and today. Pat was discussing arrangements with Stacia and I at lifegroup Thursday night and Jenni decided to join us. It was a fun outing. 

Jenni and Stacia ran to the recycling center and then home while I helped Pat figure out some internet issues. 

Stacia scored a 94% on her mid-term. She's been discouraged with previous test scores. She knows the material and yet her test grades have been disheartening. She's managed to pull B's and A's in her classes on the merit of her assignments. She changed her note-taking style to index cards from computer notes and asked the lifegroup to pray.  I could tell when she and Jenni came into the room after the test it had gone much better this time. 

We enjoyed visiting with Jenni. At some point we had bowls of soup. Michael ate late with Alex at their lunch study. He went out to watch Benny's t-ball game.  Benny is the one second from the right in the team picture below. 

📷by Arielle

Danny and Little Buddy were happy to have time with Papa on the sidelines. It did my heart well to hear they saw him and began chirping, "Where's Bachan?"  LOL When I meet up with them without Michael I always hear, "Where's Papa?" 

That sweet face! 📷by Arielle

Krista called with an update. Her commander in Alaska let it be known he wanted her back in Alaska. While the airport is closed and she couldn't get flights out until at least June 1st, the military flew a plane of folks who were not stationed in Guam but had been there during the typhoon to Hawaii this evening. She was out of Guam in 4 hours. This made us happy. As a person who was TRAVELING for a week to Guam who got stuck, she did not have the food stores saved up etc. which someone living there would possess. She was not prepared for natural emergencies, as you are at home, (or at least as you are if you are part of a military family who lived through hurricanes, earthquakes and tidal waves.) We have no idea when she'll be back in Alaska, but it will be a piece of cake to change her tickets from the Guam, Japan, Canada, AK route to the HI to AK route. LOL 

Stacia and I watched a few episodes of the first season of Leverage. I watched 1 1/2 episodes - she watched 3. Allie came home from work. The girls moved off to "vibe night" and I headed for bed. LOL It's been a full week. 

A Library Home

It was February 15, 2023, when the roof of our local library collapsed.  A library is the heart of a small town. It's a meeting place, somewhere to go when you have a few minutes to kill in town or want to meet up with friends....A library was one of the first places we located with every move in our rather transient family history. We even visited the local Misawa, Japan library - though 90% of the books were in Japanese.  Libraries have been essential to our homeschool journey as well as our sense of community and continuity in our nomadic family history.  We have missed our library.  We have been eagerly following news about a re-opening.  We were excited to visit the new location today. 

Yes, we have gone to Wasilla and picked up books...but we are a family who routinely visits the library 3 or 4x a week.  Since February we have gone once every few weeks and picked up huge armloads of books. It just wasn't as satisfying. 

 Librarians have been working for months to open an interim location. They had to salvage, box and move all the books which survived the roof collapse. Most of the library's collection is now at a storage location. They set up space in a vacant building for a store front. There are some shelves, seating, computers, reading nooks and books in this building.  The collection consists of a small selection from most genres, and new books. For the majority of our selections, we will go online and order, librarians will go to the storage unit to collect books which we can pick up the next day. 

I had an unfortunate experience with a book on the hood of my van in April. Books simply don't ride well on hoods of vans. I've retraced the drive many times and can't find the book. I have waited to see if someone would turn it in - they haven't. I've ordered the book, but it's STILL not shipped to me.  It was nice to talk to librarians I KNOW who KNOW I am not an irresponsible sort and can be trusted with books. We worked it out. The girls had gone off to explore. 

I found them in their happy place. LOL 

The computers now have their own room. The natural light is great. 

This will be a great place to study with the Alaska collection. 

We really like the new library home. The town is in the process of raising money and submitting grants for a new library - but this is a huge step forward.  We are so thankful to all the librarians who have worked so hard to get us to this spot.  This library felt like a house...a home...If only there were a big, old Victorian home in town to turn into a library. LOL 

It has been an overcast day. It seemed right to stop and grab drinks on the way home. Our own celebration.