Up Planting

I DID go outside. I've been trying to get to this for a WEEK. 

I have heard one should wash pots before reusing them and not to reuse the potting soil....

I did 3 loads.

I've got all these ready to up plant seedlings. I need more...but this will keep me busy for now. 

I up planted 46 plants...and have 288 to go. If I run out of pots, I'll have Michael drill a hole in solo cups and use them again.  I over planted as I was using old seeds and wasn't sure of the germination, I hope to have grands helping and this way there are plenty if some are handled roughly, and I always lose some before they get into the ground in June. I planted a whole packet of marigold seeds and have only 2 teeny plants.  I have about 150 tomato plants - they ALL germinated. 

It was fantastic to be out in the greenhouse. It was 70* - lovely. I need to finish emptying the greenhouse, but I don't need a lot of the garden ware until I plant the garden. I guess I COULD move it out there now.  I was happy to see the spinach I started in the greenhouse dirt is coming up. The lettuce isn't.  I am happy to see a something growing while I wait for big enough tomatoes to plant in here or warm enough soil to plant in the garden beds. LOL Our last frost date is May 30th...but I wonder if they changed that due to the warm spring? 

The shelves are filling up.  I transplanted Mammoth Sunflowers, celery, Beefsteak tomatoes, Brussel Sprouts and 2 Marigolds. The 4 trays on the bottom shelf still need to be potted and that will fill the shelves up. 

I think it's about time to pull all the basil and start over. It's getting spindly and appears to be planning to take over the grow room - er family room. 

I find my shoulders and back are sore this evening. I used to tell myself last year that sitting in the hot tub after a day of yard work/gardening would make it all better...and so I'm off to test that theory.

Our Day

We love Alaska. There is no place we'd rather live; and we've lived in many places. We wouldn't trade the blessing of being able to reside in Alaska. 

HOWEVER, we have a bone to pick with the Matsu Burrough. We bought our house and THE BURROUGH had it assessed just at $300K. Seven years later they began by telling us it is assessed at $620K. Now they say the comps (homes of comparative size and such in OUR AREA) is $800K.  Shoot - if we just make it another year, we'll hit $1mil in assets. ::snort:: Even taking the rising cost of homes into account this does not pass the giggle, nor smell, test. We happen to have a top-producing son who is a realtor in the area. A house bigger, newer and with more land than ours sold in our area for $575K.  Another one just down the road which is still bigger but similar in age is assessed at $484K.  The reason this matters is our property tax is based on their assessment of the value of our home. Michael is a 100% disabled vet and does receive a tax waiver for the first $279K of our home (which was very close to assessment when we bought). We actually tried to buy a home which property taxes would be covered or mostly covered by the exemption.  In the past we communicated our disagreement when it had risen to 500K.    This year it went even HIGHER. $620k is just silly. Michael communicated again and decided to file a formal dispute with the Burrough. In the process we discovered our home went from being graded at 4.7 to 5.1, with no explanation at all. They offered to move it back to 4.8 which would take the value down by 40K.  They told us he gets a Senior discount starting next year. That doesn't matter in our case as he will get the VA Disability discount OR the Senior discount; they're the same.  Michael checked the home they said was comparable to ours. It is 57 miles away on the FAR side of Wasilla....we live on the far side of Palmer. All that to say Michael attended a hearing and had 5 minutes to make his case. In the end they said they'll agree to lower the grade which lowers our assessment by $40K and next year we can have the new tax assessor into our home. We did not have the previous one as he was hostile when we met him at the office and we didn't want to invite him into our home. They said Michael needs to submit more photos of the inside of our home. OK - until next year then. We'll know what to expect, have the new assessor inside and submit a lot of photos should we need to appeal again. Maybe the market will crash, or the new tax assessor will give a realistic assessment of the value of our home.  If need be, we'll be back. 

It was noted Michael made some good points about the sleight of hand going on with Burrough politicians lowering the mill rate, while at the same time the Burrough raises the assessments. We end up paying more ACTUAL tax while they pat themselves on the back for lowering the mill rate. They suggested he make the same points to the Matsu Burrough Assembly. 

Dad's Care Coordinator needed me to re-sign paperwork that was done in July 2024, because they have expired. I completed and mailed those. We are both expecting good news from the state, so we have gotten the screenings and such current - all had expired as we waited on the state. 

I have discovered walking to the mailbox gives me a prayer break, gets me outside, and gets a 1.5 mile walk in. Three goals at once. I dug my New Balance out of the closet. Look at the blue sky! 

It is much too nice of a day to stay inside. I'm going to take my seedlings out to the greenhouse and play with potting soil and dirt. 

18 Months...

We are profoundly lonely. 

It's been 18 months since Josiah's death. 

We are carrying on with life. 

We are sad, but hopeful.

We have all we need, but what we desperately want we cannot have. 

And so, we carry on.

I made Chicken Divan for dinner and I remember. 

Anchorage's New Assembly Members

Tonight was another bittersweet family milestone. Jared was elected to the Anchorage Assembly.  The election results were certified, and the newly elected members took an oath of office and were sworn into their roles.  The five of us drove up and met Jamin at the Library. The meeting started earlier but the guess was the swearing in would take place around 8:30 p.m. 

It turns out Stanley and Theo, friends, had saved seats up front for us. Most the family stopped short of the very front row which they had for us. I went right on up and Michael joined me before the ceremony. There seemed to be quite a bit of last-minute amendments to be discussed and voted on before the new members were seated. 

This gave me time to think. Josiah would have been right up on the very front row with me. He would have been in the middle of the picture taking and hugs. I ached to hear his laugh and teasing comments. As is, we can only imagine what he would have had to say to Jared on such an auspicious occasion. 

Finally, at 9:24 p.m. the elections results had been certified, outgoing members had shared thoughts, and they were ready to swear in the newly elected members. 

4 in the middle are 1st time assembly members; 2 on end re-elected

Taking the oath

Signing the Oath

First time assembly members

Jared, ?, ?, Yarrow Silvers 📷by Theo

How did I get such front on shots...went right up with the real photographers! LOL Jamin caught me. 

Jamin, Allie, Stacia, Jared, Michael, De'Etta

Good friends who stuck with Jared after the first campaign. It was fun to celebrate with them. 

?, Jared, Stanley, Theo, Jamin 

Theo grabbed a shot of the whole family with two extras. LOL 

There it is - it's getting real. 

📷by Theo

One more family photo. 

Stacia, Allie, Mike, Jared, Me, Jamin 📷by Theo

📷by Theo

It was surreal to watch Jared swear an oath to a political office...to see his name up there...and him on the dais. All those years of civics and history lessons ran through my mind. He determined early he would serve somehow in politics and here he is being sworn in to his first post college elected role. 

The view looking back as we left the room to come home. The meeting still had several hours to go...but we were outta there! Jared is the 3rd from the left on the dais. 

A Very Busy Tuesday

 Some days are surprisingly busy. I have the margin in life to do spur of the moment grand visits as needed. I watched Benny, Danny and Ellie this morning while Arielle and Charles had a meeting with his teacher to plan the upcoming year for him. We have two free-range chickens, Stella (with the missing toe) and Myrna (just old) both were being picked on in the chicken yard. Stella has claimed the hay bale on the porch as her roost. Michael moved a box for her to the front...and now we have a porch chicken to greet one and all. Ready eggs.

Stella and Benny

I started teaching the boys the basics of Frisbee golf. The very basics. 

Little Miss was determined to be in the middle of the fun, though she couldn't quite get the hang of throwing. LOL 

The boys went on a treasure hunt to find things left over from Sunday (I am working on narrowing down photos and will blog Sunday later).  Their search netted them a ball, car, a moose, an empty plastic egg, and a couple of fun pieces of trash.  Then Danny wanted to play Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. 

Danny was persistent to encourage me to find the car battery and put it in...so he got the first turn. 

Ellie was pretty sure she was missing out in the wagon. 

I was RIGHT nearby. 

The battery ran down at the bottom of the yard. It cracked me up to see Danny pushing it up the incline. 

Once he got it going he jumped in....and worked hard to get the lagging battery to go just a bit further. 

Do you see Millie through the baby gate? 

The pace picked up after Arielle grabbed the boys. I needed Dad to get two papers notarized. 

We went to the lawyer and waited while he prepared the 5th amendment to the trust we are trying to submit with a state application for Dad. 

They notarized this trust and Dad's annual disability check from the state of Washington. 

We were feeling proud of our progress and went to lunch. Dad loves the family that runs a local diner. We used to stop in fairly often on Sundays but haven't hit them since we are attending church in Eagle River. The son was going off duty but stayed to chat with Dad for a bit. The daughter has been in Chicago but is home for a week so it was a good time to stop in. 

We went to the court to register the trust. I didn't have the Trust Registration form. 

We went back to the lawyer for the trust registration form. 

We went back to the courthouse and discovered we had the wrong form. We needed an AMMENDMENT to Trust Registration form. She printed me a copy, I'm not sure why she didn't do that before I was sent back to the lawyer. 

I filled it out she notarized it. 

We went to the post office and mailed the form to WA. 

We went to the pharmacy. 

We went to the library. 

We came home. 

It was 4:30. I scanned the new trust and the form showing it was registered so I could email it to the state today. I looked it over one last time and noted the court clerk notarized the form, but she did not STAMP it saying the court received it on this date....and I'm 98% sure if I submit this to the state, they will reject it because the stamp isn't on it. The courthouse closes at 4:30 p.m. I'll have to take it back tomorrow.  The lawyer said he is either never doing another one of these or he is going to bill himself as an expert and start advertising once they accept this one. I know how he feels. I told him I called the list of lawyers ADRC gave me and all of them told me they no longer do these trusts. I understand now. 

Dad is taking a nap. We will be leaving in about an hour for Anchorage. This may be the Tuesday that refuses to end. LOL 

Monday with Josiah's Girls

 I do love my Mondays with Josiah's girls. Josi was much cheerier this week when she saw it was me instead of Mama. LOL 

We spent some time hanging out in her room and playing with her plastic food and books before we moved onto breakfast. This seemed to make for a smoother start. Josi LOVES this basket of plastic market food. 

In addition to Josi and Liv, there is also Willow.

What is that between her paws? 

Yes, there is a new member in the household...and Willow is obsessed with cat toys. 

Meet Stormey, the only male in the household. He's a snuggler.

Liv got off to school and Josi and I settled into our rhythm of play, eat, nap repeat . I took advantage of her nap segments to blog and to complete an assessment interview for dad with the ADRC. 

Wheels of any type seem to be Josi's vibe. 

I ducked into the bathroom and came back to fine THIS. In case you can't tell, that's a baby gate at the top of the stairs she is trying to figure out. WHAT????

Why are you so excited Bachan? 

The highlight of the day is when Olivia comes home from school. 

I stopped by the cemetery to process... another flannel Monday down. 

Easter 2025 or April Family Gathering

Note: I cannot keep track of who took which picture. If I took them the Hashtag will be on them. You can assume the staged ones were taken by the respective families....other than that....I just am not sure. 

This month our Family Gathering fell the day before Easter. We planned to do both until the logistics began to give me anxiety and I called uncle on Thursday. I suggested we combine both family gathering and Easter as it appeared the same people were coming both days. This allowed us a down day after Stacia got home from Japan, gave us a relaxed household birthday celebration for Allie...and we hit strong on Easter. 

This was Cory's first Easter as a lead pastor and so the Valley contingent chose to attend Wasilla Community Church. It was good to be able to hug and cuddle with grands - freeing a bit of Arielle's mental energy to deal with logistics of a big Sunday. It was a full house and a great service. 

This was not Kaelyn and Rylan's weekend with Luke and Krista, but everyone else was able to make it.  It was great. We continue to try to get four or five tables in the room...next month we'll try them all down the center aisle....because this makes it hard to move once everyone is at the tables.  

 We weren't 100% sure if it would be a nice day and so we waited on pulling out all the yard toys and such. It turned out to be a beautiful day. The guys (mostly) were gracious to help Michael unload yard toys, the house, chairs etc.  We enjoyed some time just playing outside before everyone arrived and we were ready to eat. 

Ellie and Cory 

Bella and Jamin 

Noah, Larissa and Mike and some big bubbles

Charles and Danny

You KNOW it's really spring when the house, the car and all the other fun toys begin to reappear. The trampoline is still down. 

Josi and Carrie

Carrie and Livie

Noah tries to move the house from inside...

Noah and Jared

Izaak, Ellie and Cory 

We do not always have an egg hunt. This year we did.  While everyone came in to start through the food line, the big guys ducked out and hid eggs. Lots of eggs. The best and worst of our personalities come out during an egg hunt. We gave the littles 5 min alone to pick-up eggs and then all the kids joined in. Some eggs were simply lying on the ground; others were harder to find. The guys did a good job. 

Benny, Liv, Jojo

Bella hunts, Bre supervises

Josi isn't 100% sure what to do with the egg

Arielle & Krista

Ellie - hmm - not sure why there's so much excitement

Jojo

This interaction warmed my heart. Jojo saw an egg up in the tree. He couldn't reach it. Benny came over to help get it. I watched to see if he would take it when he got it. He couldn't get it to shake loose. Livie came over and helped them and they gave the egg to Jojo. It was so kind and just the sort of thing Josiah would have done at Liv's age. I had a "moment" - Josiah's absence and presence are both so close when we gather. I later told Livie she reminded me of Josiah at her age and how proud he would be of her and how proud Papa and I are her. 

Liv, Benny, Jojo

In November Michael and I came up with the idea of a family game every month. Random prizes, something everyone could participate in...Our idea was to pull everyone together as it had become a bit disjointed.  Krista and Luke took over the game this month. Luke manned the gift table, and Krista oversaw the balloon popping. They filled ballons with numbers. They bought prizes and labeled them with numbers. These were laid on a picnic table. Each person pulled a balloon, popped it and got a number. They took the number to Luke at the prize table and were awarded the prize which corresponded to the number. We went alphabetically this month. I think pure randomness or alphabetical is a good way to line up.   

OH! This would be a good time to clear up a question some have asked - because I'm at the keyboard and thinking of it. LOL In the military one learns not to count assignments as "for sure" until boots are on the ground in the new location and in-processing is complete. There is nothing horribly alarming or unusual about their assignment switching. Krista does not have an illness we haven't disclosed, the military is not disciplining her... during our military career we have known many who had orders changed last minute or even enroute....this is one reason the term "short orders" came about. LOL Bottom line is the assignment officers' main goal is the needs of the military and so for a variety of reasons assignments do change...even after orders are cut. It's a giant Tetris game and until everyone is settled at the end of a pcs season things are subject to change. Once one assignment moves, another often moves until it all settles down. Your concern is sweet. Wherever they end up moving this summer; they will be missed in Alaska. 

Luke & Krista 

Stacia discovers her "number"

It takes a village to burst some balloons

Carrie one a decal and a Twix bar.

I think Charles got a yoyo?

Love Danny's technique

Luke with prizes. 

Crumble gift card and a candy bar for Stacia.

Larissa helps Noah unwrap his prize. 

Arielle & Ellie explore Ellie's prize. 

Benny is happy. 

Cory won the "big" prize this month - gift certificates to the Escape Room in town. 

Josi's tired

Noah, Jared & Josi

Jared, Noah and Michael 

Krista bought a pinata for Jared after his lost run for state senator. The idea was to take out some frustration in a fun way.  The weather was never nice enough to pull it out until today. 

The kids wholeheartedly approved of extra candy. It was a sugar rich Easter. 

We moved inside to celebrate our April Birthdays. We missed Rylan and was glad we were able to send his gift through other avenues. Bella and Allie were here - so we sang and ate. Bella is 9. Unbelievable. 

Bella took one for the team and wore the pig hat. 

We didn't get an ice cream cake made. I sent Allie and Stacia to go buy some dessert. They found an ice cream cake....and a cheese cake. 

Bella (9) and Allie (21)

The last thing we had to celebrate this month is Jared's win to the Anchorage Assembly. Michael and I worked together, scoured the internet and crated a Political Survival kit to give Jared.  

And then we mingled outside until the evening arrived, and we needed to go home and think about the upcoming week. 

Larissa and a BIG bubble. 

Bre & Trudy 

I was happy to catch this moment. Bella was tickling Josi and then jumping to the other side when Josi turned to find her. It was cute. 

Josi & Bella 

Cory, Ellie and Jamin 

Noah

Jojo

Alex

Jojo

Gideon

I have so many more photos I could include but this is plenty. I will conclude with the cute family photos each family posted to their Facebook accounts. 

Josi and Noah at ACF nursery 

Josi and Noah

Noah

Noah 

Danny, Charles, Arielle, Ellie & Danny

Jojo, Annie, Bre, Bella, Gideon, Trudy in front

Josi, Carrie and Livie

Olivia and Josi

Carrie and Josi

It was a great day. At the end of the day (this was about 9:45 p.m.) the girls and I talked Japan, jetlag, grief, family, Easter in the hot tub.