Air show

It has been awhile since Ya'll have heard from me on here. We went to an air show today so I thought I would put a couple pics

Enjoying My New Start in Life

Here are some pictures from my trip to Alaska. The Cabin is owned by the boys and the only way to get there is by sled. The weekend I got there they took me to the cabin. We had a great time spending the weekend there.

The next weekend we headed to the mountains for some real sledding. When they told me we where going to the top, I thought they where nuts. What a great time. The pictures are hard to tell how high you are... but its up there.

The guy in the picture are left to right...

Ryan,his brother, Jari and Shane

Guys on the sleds left to right ....

Ryan, Shane, Jari and can't remember brothers name.....

Jari and Shane

Jari riding a Summit 800 H.O

What a great time. I hav'nt found a house yet but will be heading back there to look again in two weeks or so.

See Ya

Jari

gandma and grandpa

Grandma sent me these pictures and a letter too type to add to this blog :)

the figurines are from a garage sale. found the ship in plates Hattiesburg, Miss. they are for valentines day, mothers day and her birthday! the rooster is for christmas '07! (DK)

it may be kind of hard to see the ship in the bottom left because of the flash. have a good day all -debbie

hi

Here are a few pictures of the girls and Merja swimming! Kierstyn and Merja are the only ones who actually swam! Toni went waist deep, and Alanys got her footsies wet:) After Kierstyn jumped in the first time, she stood on the step and just shook she was so cold!

I had only visited with Merja once before, so when Frans told me that they were gonna stay the night with us, I thought, 'oh dear, who else should I invite to come visiting?' I was a little nervous about what we would talk about! It ended up being just fine, and I had no reason to worry...she is so easy to visit with, and it was fun to get to know her a little more. Frans had today off, so he made breakfast, and then they left at noon to go to Sedona.

Allergies

Here is a valuable lesson that I learned. When you have an allergy, don't tempt fate, God, your body, or anyone/anything else for that matter by testing your limits.

I have had a cat allergy for some time. However, this week it became evident that I can't mess around with it anymore. I was informed by my doctor that I am to be on medication the rest of my days and never be around another cat. If I choose to not follow through with this: 1. I would need to find new employment or 2. I would be on disability the rest of my days or 3. Anita states - death. Seems a bit extreme and I informed him that I'm not going to settle for that. Obstinate or determined? I'm not sure. I talked to my bosses. Changes have been made at work and I'm no longer doing home visits to anyone that has a cat/had a cat/getting a cat/or has a cat come to visit. The goal is for this to be treated and my life being back to normal at some point. I'm counting on the treatment working. However, I think I'm a planner. Therefore, if the allergy doesn't get alleviated, I will be seeking new employment as a large part of my job and my belief in the importance of home visits is vital in my line of work. My supervisors aren't impressed with the thought of me leaving but one of them understands my thoughts on it.

The whole point to this story: I apologize in advance for not visiting any family members that have indoor cats. The other sad part is that I'm allergic to horses and don't dare be around them either. It isn't even just the cat or the horse. I had clothes in my room that were worn at someone's house who had a cat. Hauling them from my bedroom to the washer in the porch, led to increased difficulty breathing. That night, I didn't dare go to sleep due to breathing problems, turned out someone must have sat or laid on the bed with clothing on that was worn in a house where there was a cat. We stripped the bed and I got my breathing back to normal.

I didn't know that continued exposure to allergens can greatly increase the reaction to the allergy. I learned my lesson and am taking it serious. The inability to breath and the firm belief that you are going to die (it sounds so dramatic and I'm not a drama queen) aren't pleasureable and I don't want a repeat performance. I have my epi pen if needed.

Have a wonderful allergy free day!!

Heather

Spring Thaw

I think I mentioned before that I love spring and the change of seasons. Today reminded me of that great joy.

Ok... So it was a bit funny too. The kids got quite a few big waves from cars passing by! Note the confusion of the change in season.... short sleeve shirts and winter jackets side by side. With the early change to daylight savings time, we had extra day light to extend the fun of the day.
Now it is time to go wash clothes :-)

Happy spring everyone!
-b

Tristan

Hello Everyone.

Not sure how to format for aesthetically pleasurable viewing. Sorry. Hare some newer pics of T.

He has since graduated to the big tub now, no more sink. He loved to try to drink the water and then complete the task with a big

thirst-quenching "ahhhh."

He helps mommy water the horses by dragging the five gallon bucket around. I frequently tell him what a good job he's doing.

He says he's ready, Anita, to come visit when you're are settle in AK, see....he's already tried Mom's boots on. They fit fine if he doesn't walk.

His newest "playtime" is jumping on the bed. It's amazing to see his natural body posture in that picture matches Daddy's posture when Daddy is snowboarding. Yes, I did tell him about all the monkeys that jumped on the bed and what happened to them! But, apparantly, he figures they weren't as good at jumping on the bed as he is!

Take care.

LK.

WHAT A DAY

hello everyone! :) Today is my mother's birthday!!:) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! But anywho! Today we went to church in Prescott and then went to Nathan Graduation Party at Juha and Annette's....There is beautiful nature everywhere! :) I just love this picture though there isn't much water in the creek. Luke took all of us younger/older ones down the trial and to the creek! We had our laughs and giggles... :)















While we were at the creek/wagon trail... we were climbing rocks, throwing rocks into the water to get people wet and just laughing at each other. But Tia just happen to stike a pose for me! This pisture isn't the best picture but I love it,.....:))










Then there was Aubrey! lol ... for those of you that don't know... this little girl is Keilah and Dean's child.... She was outside for a little while and got scared because mom wasn't there. She came inside with sticks to eat for supper! :) LOL She is so adorable!!










Well... You just can't miss the cake! :) I did not get any pictures of Nathan OR my mom holding the cake... (My mom seriously didn't need two cakes.) But yea... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :) Big OLD 42! :)

But yea I am gonna jump back like 5 hours... LOL no jk... But my mom stopped at the gas station so she could fill that gas tank and wash her car.... WELL..... us 4 little kids desided to run into the store and get candy but didn't make it back into the car to go threw the car wash.. Anna and I got bored and took a picture... I kind of got a smile... maybe I was just a LITTLE asleep this morning:)



Well that is about it for now so ima go and get my homework finished... Hope you all enjoyed your wonderful day today! :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA! :)
-acm

Can't Believe I'm Here

Here comes a post that is all over the place ... you've been warned!

Last Sunday Miss. Toni rode with us from church to Frans & Jenny's for lunch. I am not a photographer lady ... that I will gladly leave to others in the family. But, once in a while I manage to get a photo that I love. And this little face begs to be painted. Wish I had time to play with a brush.

Our passports arrived the other week. I always thought that you surrender your old passport when you get the new one. They send it back to you but it is marked as "no good" or whatever. Took a picture of my 23 year old one next to my new one. Decided I'd delete that picture. Time does fly. Quite the pile we've accumulated here. We should be good to travel for a while! We had already paid for passport photos when I found out that we don't need them yet this year to drive through Canada. The photos were done, the paperwork was filled out ... so we went for it. Now we don't have to worry about it.

Summer is coming to the Valley of the Sun much too quickly. I don't know what the temp hit today, but must have been in the mid 80's. So off to the lovely Target store we went. New flip flops for kiddos. I actually wore tennies this winter more than I ever have before. Believe it or not ... it helps with that nasty heel crackin' that we were comparing the other summer. Now we're ready for bare feet.

Brock & Tia were working on moving wood piles for me. The green cart has been a life saver. I don't know what kind of wheelie contraption we've ever used more than this one. It moves everything ... including kiddos. Back yard got cleaned. Today, with Anna & Tia's help, I finished slapping paint on the patio wall where it was concrete mud splattered. Alyx and the rest of the munchkins busily cleaned off the patio and it once again looks big. Awesome!!

The For Sale By Owner sign is up in the yard. We may end up using a realtor, but will try this for the next week or so and see what happens. I kept saying that this will be the easy part ... keeping the house clean. Then ... guess what I did? I decided to organize all my saving of kids school papers/birthday cards etc. I have it everywhere!!! So much for clean. We even played with those lovely bags that you fill with stuff, suck the air out with the vacuum and are space saving devices. The kids' favorite teddy bear from baby hood may never look the same again, but I fit them in small spaces now!

Yesterday I spent HOURS once again organizing photos on my computer. Still not done, but will be fun to move them all to disks in an organized manner someday.

Jari left for the cold north on Wednesday evening. Satellite showed nasty storm cells over Anchorage & Wasilla before he left. Hasn't driven in snow for quite a while and was renting a puddle jumper little car. Flight got in after midnight & he was driving to Wasilla. I was working on Thursday & a bit of a nervous nelly. No call, no answer to my text messages ... visions of snow banks and buried by snow plows ran around in my head. He got there safe, sound and exhausted. This weekend they are snow mobiling up at the cabin some folks' own. The weather isn't bad. He bought boots before he left. Even got me a pair on clearance. Hard to believe that I will actually need those when I was eyeing flip flops today. Shopping for a jacket & some more long johns was on the list on Friday. Hope he's staying warm. Will see what kind of pics he sends me when they get back to town. This one came on Friday.

I'll be back sometime soon!

New Hobbies

First of all ... it was a joy to have Becky here the other weekend. That should definately happen more often. It has been a very busy several weeks around here!

It has been super having Grandma & Grandpa around as well. Last week the laundry room got done, with the exception of a piece of trim around the room @ the ceiling. I even have evidence to prove that he was workin' hard!

This evening we went to play miniature golf. Grandma had gone once before while here visiting, for Grandpa it was a new experience. I must admit we kept score, but won't post those here. Alyx wanted us to go play a game at the place she works at, Fiddlesticks Family Fun Park.

The water hole. Jari was the first to just take a penalty stroke and pick his ball out of the water. Grandma wasn't so easy going. The spray on the left side of the picture, on the green, is from her repeated efforts to get that ball out of the water. I was wondering when she was going to go for the all out bath! Grandpa took the penalty. Good laughs!