Game Night at Jamin's

 Jamin hosted a family game night at his apartment in Eagle River tonight. It was my first time to see his apartment since he'd had it totally remodeled and updated. It's cute. Now, we just need to visit his new studio. LOL 

Allie opted to stay home and work on her upcoming project and weekly assignments. Stacia has time management down to a science and was able to plan the breakaway time earlier in the week/month/year. LOL  Alex texted he would stay with GG, which was a great offer as I've not been able to participate in past game nights.  However, Allie really needed to stay home and that allowed us to go, and her to have much more quiet space of time to be productive. AND frees her up to enjoy Sunday rather than having to cram homework into the schedule. 

Jamin provided pizza and we all brought snacks. Us, Jenni, Nolan, Carrie and the girls, and Jared and Noah were able to make tonight's fun. I didn't take many photos but here are a few. 

We talked through a deck of ice-breaker type questions Jamin had and then we played "Pick Your Poison."  It was a fun night.  I didn't consider photos I should have taken...but here are a few that I did click. 

Jamin, Jenni, Josi, Livie, Stacia

Note Jamin has an impressive array of Alaska wildlife represented in his space. He has a stuffed animal of the cat variety beside the fireplace as you walk into the door. Noah had spent the afternoon/ day with Jared. They went shopping, knocked on some doors, did some campaign stuff and climbed 3 floors of stairs to the tip top of the building Jamin owns. LOL I suspect he had some assist with the stairs, but he burst through the door as big as life. I wish I'd been in place to get a photo of Noah when he noticed the cat standing beside him ...bigger than him, stretching up and out. It was classic. He seemed perplexed as to whether he should pet him or back away... the animal looked a bit like Bleeker, but didn't move or act like Bleeker.  I also missed photos of Michael and Carrie. 

I "sort of" got a picture of Nolan (and Stacai)

Noah was intrigued with Josi. 

Cousins! Noah and Josi. 

Jared and Noah 

The moose looks a bit intimidating so close to Liv...but the bear would have been more alarming! LOL 

This was a fun night.  Now that we know Alex likes to occasionally skip and stay in town, we'll be checking in with him on future game nights. It was a lot of fun for Michael and I both to be able to be out with the kids. GG isn't going to make it up 3 flights of stairs. 

It's been a full day! 

GRACE NOTE:

1. Connections - with family and friends. 

Bella is Turning 8

Bella Turns 8 on April 12th! That feels unreal! In some ways it's gone so quickly and in other ways life has totally transitioned since her birth. LOL Bella is a social butterfly, is mastering phonics, is a wonderful big sister to her four siblings, and a big help to Bre. Bella sparkles. She has a way of drawing people to her and that is never more evident than on her birthday. 

Today was Bella's friend party, though several family members crashed the party at her invitation. LOL Her theme was ice cream - or that's the theme I picked up on. Bre made darling cupcakes in ice cream cones, there were little dishes of ice cream and ice cream toppings, and even a photo booth featuring an ice cream truck. 

Annie's feet, Nolan, Stacia, Jamin, Andrew, Lorelai

Izaak and Trudy

Allie, Stacia and I went over. A highlight was seeing several friends from MAG. 

Bre, Rebekah, Melany

Bella was dressed in an ice cream dress, be watching for more shots of it...but here you can see the sprinkles on top.

Annie, Bella, Gideon

Melany, Andrea and me

Kids and Hope

Nolan and Stacia

Jenni and Joelle (Jenni's sister)

Ketziah, Leah, Morgan and Jojo

The girls are pushing on a big school project this weekend - in between all the social activities. We had agreed we would stay an hour and so we popped out. Bre sent photos from the photo booth. We totally missed it. 

4 of BreZaak's children 

Jojo, Bre, Bella, Annie, Gideon

Nolan and Annie

Bekah, Bre, Joelle, Jenni

BreZaak's kids! 

Bella, Jojo, Annie, Gideon

Annie

Uncle Nolan with kids

Jojo and Nolan

Hope, Lucas, Lucy (Joelle's children)

Bre, Annie and Gideon 

Bre is the party queen and a master memory creator! Another great day in the books. 

A Fabulous Friday

 Allie, Stacia and I needed to re-establish our Bible study routines. The girls, however, are immersed in Bible College. We wanted a bit of structure, but neither of them wanted a full-fledge study. We settled on going through the ACF daily devo's and using the SOAP method on the verses. I meet with each girl one on one, and we discuss the passages, and we do life together. The passages have the added benefit of preparing our hearts for the current Sunday sermon series. The upcoming series is titled, "The Deeper Life: Through Forgiveness."   This week we discussed grace, our view of God, really understanding and walking out the forgiveness He has lavished on us, redemption, and more GRACE, salvation and sanctification.  It's interesting in both discussions we focused on who GOD says we are...the messages on identity continue to bear fruit in our lives. I've been challenged by and enjoyed the discussions with both girls. Allie and I went to the cafe for Breakfast/Study this morning.

It's the little things that make me happy. I've been looking for the perfect highlighter and pens to use in my journaling Bible. Sharpie highlighters bleed through, my Pilot 2 pens bleed through. I found an acceptable pen. The perfect highlighters keep escaping me. I bought a couple of kinds of wax highlighters... they are gloppy and smudge and the darker colors black out the text.  Stacia is working on making a prophecy book for college and had crayons out. I used one and it WORKED! No smudges, easy to control the colors, consistent, no bleed through....so Allie and I stopped at Freddies to buy my own set. Certainly cheaper... 

Perfect highlighters for my Bible

Next up the girls and I visited Arianna and had our eyebrows waxed. We dropped Stacia off at the college so she could do some focused study. Allie worked at home. I started stretching a couple of bowls of dough. Michael told me he'd stretch the dough so I could grab a nap. 

Why did I need a nap? Because I was going to the THEATER tonight and didn't want to fall asleep. We started with a trip to a new eatery in town. The food was really good, and it was affordable for our area. 

Allie's panini was yummy

We are THOSE customers. We bought one dessert and shared it. It was fantastic! The peanut butter cheesecake was superb...and we each had "just enough". 

We met Jenni and Jamin at the theater and loved, "The Play that Goes Wrong." This one was pure fun. I think I liked the Hunchback of Notre Dame a bit better...but I think everyone else preferred this comedy. It's been second nature for us to go to the theater with Jenni and its great fun that Jamin joins us now. Michael prefers movies and is happy to stay home with GG so we can enjoy this. We LOVE the energy of a live play. 

We had a good laugh over the fact Jamin knows one of the lead characters. We can't take him anywhere these days. LOL 

It's been a good day. Tears, sadness, frustration...but lots of fun, connections and joy as well. 

We have another 3 - 4 inches of snow at our place! It looks like we may just beat the snowiest winter in Anchorage on record. We got way more snow in the last two storms out here, but I've not heard the records out here. LOL 

Photos of the newest Grandblessings from their families. 

Josi at nearly 2 months

These girls are sporting the bows!

Ellie at 1 1/2 weeks

Arielle overdid it a bit ago and is taking it easy these days. Cory had fun dressing Ellie today. 

GRACE NOTES: 

1. Each and every grand! 

2. A nap - and a husband that stretched the sourdough! 

3. A fun night out with the girls, Jamin and Jenni. 

4. Grace - so much grace; especially felt when life hurts! 

Fun Visits

I am happy to report I got a workout in today. The girls left at 0730 for college so I didn't have to worry about waking them up.  GG doesn't get up quite that early. Maybe this is the key to getting a workout in. I switched my Jesus time with the treadmill and got it all in. 

Stacia and I headed to the cafe for our "lunch/brunch study" after her morning class. 

I invited Carrie and the girls to come spend the afternoon with us...and stay for dinner. Jenni came over after work. It was a good time for Jenni and Carrie to get to know each other in a more intimate setting than a Family Gathering. Evelyn, a friend from our time in Hardin, MT sent this darling sweater for Josi. Josiah was 2 when we moved to Hardin and 8 when we entered the Air Force. 

Josi Faith - 3 days before her 2-months-old

Livie and Stacia made pirouette cookies.

Yep - splat, bake and roll...

We all played with Josi and commiserated with her over her 2-month vaccinations. 

Josi and Allie

Papa has the touch! 

After dinner the girls played a game of Taco, Goat, Pizza, Cheese (or some combination of said words). Carrie fed Josi and they headed up the highway. It was a great visit in the middle of the week. 

Liv, Allie, Jenni, Stacia

We settled down to knitting and watching an episode of "All Creatures Great and Small" with Jenni. I'm glad we are doing this series once a week....this is an aspect of our childhood the girls wouldn't fully experience in the time of binge watching. 

It was snowing this morning and has continued off and on all day. Yep. April 4th. This is our garden plot...we are a long way off from planting...I should start some seeds, but I have such a hard time getting motivated when winter seems to refuse to let up. The phone has a hard time capturing the snow....big, fluffy, lazily drifting flakes. They are beautiful. 

It is UNREAL that it was still light outside at 8:30 p.m. The snow began to fall at a much quicker pace...Michael says 2 inches are predicted overnight. I hope it's just 2 inches and not another 10 or 12 inches.  Jenni checked the lows next week are like 11 and 16. WHATEVER. 

Our living room transforms into a snow globe

GRACE NOTES: 

1. An afternoon/dinner with Carrie and the girls, as well as dinner and an episode with Jenni. 

2. A heart-to-heart conversation with both of our college gals! 

3. Laughter.

4. The Bible - oh, what a lifeline the Word of God has been. 

5. Magical snow - once again I'm not ready for the season to change. 

Wednesday

 Well...now...let's see... what have I done today...who have I talked to...where did I go? What can I share? 

Bread. I got bread.  I baked the boule - not pretty but tastes great. I baked another 9 dinner rolls...and got everything fed and started to bake another boule tomorrow morning. I'm playing around with how to do 2 loaves or rounds a day...but I only have one Dutch oven...so I am doing the rolls. LOL 

The girls' college schedules worked out so both are home on Wednesdays. It's been great to have a day with them around - even though they are usually sleeping in and hitting the books heavily all day.  I had a nice conversation with Allie this morning and another good conversation with Stacia this evening. 

I did get 3 miles in on the treadmill. 

Stacia requested stroganoff for dinner...I ran out to get sour cream. 

Michael was "off" and spent most the day in bed.  

GG took a long nap too. 

This was supposed to be our small group night. Our group has been paused as our leader is moving out of state. 

I spent an hour or so this evening helping Stacia get a new phone set up. 

Me: My daughter dropped her phone in a snowbank and then the plow man came and plowed the driveway. The phone is lost until the snow melts. She bought a new one and would like to keep her old number. It's a Straight Talk phone. 

Tracfone: I am going to send a verification code to your phone to authenticate your account before we can switch the phone number to her new phone.

Me: The phone is in the snow berm. 

Tracfone: Did you receive the code, maam? 

Me: The phone is in the snow. 

Tracfone: Ah - yes, it says it received it. 

Me: The phone is buried deep in snow. I don't have the phone.

Honestly, this gal was the BEST customer service agent we've dealt with from Tracfone AND she got it done much quicker than any of the other agents we've dealt with over the years.  It just took a bit for her to understand the significance of a phone being buried in a snow pile. LOL  She was surprised we have snow in April. 

GRACE NOTES:

1. I am so thankful for the Bible. I'm seeing lots of things in new ways this year as I read through it. 

2. A customer service agent that was very helpful! 

3. Everyone home for dinner. 

4. A lunch date to look forward to next week.