Home again for a night

We had a wonderful time! I think the folks are a bit tired out ... but we saw and we did!

Camping in something other than the tent with bad knees, hips and sore ribs.
A moose just down the road as the 2nd carload hit the camp spot.
A bathroom right across the way.
The first truckload did an afternoon of combat fishing on the Russian River and has a whole new respect for slippery river bottoms and strong currents.
No fish.
Middle of the night fishing when you can't see your weight coming out of the water and learn to count turns of the reel to guestimate when it's coming up.
A drive to explore the City of Kenai and it's old part.
A trip through the Wildlife Conservation Center with the opportunity to view a grizzly as close as anyone ever wants to see one!
A jaunt to Whittier with glacier views, ice berg viewing, catching a photo of a Ptarmigan, seeing the small town itself.
A drive home along the beautiful Turnagain Arm.
Home to welcome showers and chili for dinner.

Next packing tomorrows gear for another jaunt to another fishing place.
Jari and Grandpa are heading out bright and early ... at least the sky will be light!
Grandma and I are heading to Anchorage to visit the Market ... never been there. Will be fun to see what we can find!

We're having fun and packing it in. Monday I go back to work and Jari heads to Whittier to work. Will give them some time to rest and do some local exploring and history investigating.

I put more pictures on livingthealaskadream.blogspot.com if you want to check them out.

Grandma and Grandpa made it here!

They arrived at our house Tuesday dinner time. When I called to see where they were at I caught them finishing laundry and a laundromat in Wasilla. WHAT???!!!? My washing machine still spins pretty good ... but they arrived safely, laundry and all. Grandpa was wanting projects to do while he was here. Felt like they were here about 30 minutes and he and Tia were outside helping Jari move the pile of tree stumps to burnable piles. :)

A little help with the truck ... and they got that bugger!!

Wednesday brought a bit of rainy weather, but we headed up to Hatchers for a look see anyway. Figured maybe it wasn't raining up there .. we got dribbles. No hiking for us .. just driving and jumping out to see. Grandma has a sore arm and ribs. She fell out of the tent several days ago. I'll let her share the story. Nothing broken, just bruised. Then there is that knee that just isn't cooperating like it should. At least all us aching joint folks are in good company! (Frans - Grandpa had his LEFT hip replaced. Not a good sign for you and I.)

I had to add this picture in here. I remember reading the Littles books. They were actually some of my favorites. When I looked at this picture ... I was back in a page of one of those books. Tia came along with G/G and I to Hatchers.

Any guesses as to what else has been happening around here? The Scrabble board is out and getting its wear.

It's even packed in the camper. This crew left Wednesday evening. That was last night .. in case anyone is confused. We went to Song Services last night and then packed the camper. These folks headed out about midnight and went south to start the fishing. Grandpa has his waders and license ... and is good to go! My girls are fisherwomen. :) Their mother needs to figure out how it's done. Maybe today! Grandma and I are leaving as soon as Brock gets out of school at 11 this morning. We'll head down south. Pick up Grandpa, drop off Brock, and head for a quick tour of Seward and Exit Glacier. Back to the Russian River for some more fishing and spend the night. Fishing on Friday and then head home with a stop at the Wildlife Conservation Center for some bear photos, maybe a drive into Whittier ... and home for some sleep. Jari will be behind us somewhere as he's going to meet a flight at the airport at midnight, come home to sleep for a little bit and then head for the Copper Center for more fishing on Saturday. Maybe we can have a wonderful salmon bbq on Fathers Day!

More updates after we get home!

Trapping Season

A few weeks ago our neighbor came over and told Jenny that we have roof rats. She told me when I got home and I figured no big deal. Then last saturday we were out on the patio and Jenny spotted a rat ran along the back fence. The next day I was cleaning the pool pump and the darn rat just walked right by me. I thought they are getting to brave so I better do some thing. Home depot rat trps are $1.50 but they only had one left. Ace Hardware they were $4.00 but had a lot of them. I went home with a total of four traps. last night I set them up this morning I had one and today when I got home from work I had another. Two down and hate to know how many more to go.

Frans

Look who is 3 months old....

I wanted to try get some photos of our baby girl who turned 3 months old......

She continues to be a happy, alert little girl

And a real "thinker"..... Actually, she is sneakily putting her finger in her mouth. She has decided that the thumb, blanket, - well, everything - tastes better than her pacifier.


She did very well for her photo shoot!!!!

She enjoys her toys now and it is so fun to "play" with her now. I'd pulled her toys out a while ago and told Shawn I was trying to play with her and she just wasn't intersted. She is very interested in EVERYTHING now.

Life on the farm....

Our yard is becoming that of a zoo!!!

The goose, tom turkey, and male duck have bonded as the females are on eggs or carrying for their young. I'm not sure the gender of the goose - I think she is female.

2 ducks layed on eggs - this one is running around with 14 baby ducks. The other one had 11 - I think as it is so hard to count them running everywhere - not sure how many of the other ducks babies are still around. This one keeps close tabs on hers, so will be interesting to see how many survive.

This turkey was laying on nothing as we had picked her eggs and put them in the incubator. Shawn put chicken eggs under her and she hatched them. She ran around with her chicks, but was losing them so we took them away and have them in a tank in the garage. Another turkey came out with baby turkeys, but we lost them - I think the Tom Turkey killed some of them and hawks, etc. may have gotten the rest.

Currently, in the garage we have baby chickens, turkeys, quayle, and pheasant. Outside we have baby geese and ducks in a pen. Roaming around we have 2 ducks with their babies. Our last pregnant cow had a calf this weekend and 2 pigs had little piglets this weekend and one pregant pig left to go. I don't know how pigs make it - the sows have already killed a few of them - they step on them, lay on them, ..... We have 15 baby pigs alive currently.

Back Yard 2

Sorry this took so long, I kept forgetting the jump drive at the house. I hope this turns out ok, I have never posted pictures on here before.








This is the first tree that we cut down. There were four or five more branches when we started! We found that most of those branches were hallow and filled with these white slug-type things.

Here is the second tree. Professionals cut this one down!

This is just one of my three Bleeding Hearts. They are still kind of small and leaning a bit. That is thanks to some strong wind we had, and Ivan running them over with the hose!

Here is the Arbor Bed. It is kind of hard to see, but there are Peonies on the sides, Morning Glories next to the arbor and...

...Spreading Double Petunias inside the arbor.

This is the Corner Bed with Moss Roses, Impatients and a Verbena. The Verbena is now in a hanging basket because the bush started hanging over it and hiding it.

This is the patio. Those stumps/logs are part of the first tree we cut down and are waiting to be burnt in the fire pit outside.

And finally, the whole back yard. Doesn't it look nice?

Hopefully this all worked,

~MISSI~

Back Yard

Wow, it has been a while since anyone has put anything on the blog. And a real long time since I have. We cut down two trees about a month ago, one ourselves and one professionals. The one professionals cut down was split all the way through for most of the trunk. It could easily have fallen on the house or the road (and anyone in it.) Ivan alread dug out one stump so the yard would be ready for sod.

A couple weeks ago we laid sod in our back yard, it had been dirt for about a month prior. Ivan didn't like the uneveness of the yard, so he insisted on grading it flat! That is Ivan for ya! It was great to have Dave there to help with the smaller details of how to put it down.

We also have a garden of Bleeding Hearts (my favorite flower). I got a pink, white and another pink one of a slightly different variety. I hope to get a couple more, then the whole east side of the house will be lined with Bleeding Hearts! Next to the garage we have a bed with the arbor that Ivan built for the wedding. There are blue Morning Glories climbing up it, with purple Double Petunias under it and a red Peony on each end! Ivan wanted the Peonies, they remind him of his childhood! Then we have a smaller corner garden with Moss Roses, red and white Impatiens and a purple Verbena. And finally across the back we have a half finished bed with a Candycorn Vine and a Potato Vine.

After we laid the sod, we were going to wait a while to put in a patio, we waited one day! The sod looked so nice we just wanted to finish it off! So now the patio table is actally on the patio and it all looks great.

I left my jump drive of pictures at home, so I will try to bring it tomorrow and if I have time, post some pictures of the yard.

We are basically done with the yard, at least for this year, so now we are heading back inside to try and finish that. Insulation and sheetrock are next!

Someone is 40!

Happy Birthday to you;
Happy Birthday to you;
Happy Birthday, dear David!
Happy Birthday to you!

Sorry our wishes are tardy! We thought about you over 40 times yesterday, just never got a phone call made :( .

-b

Update from the southwest....

wow, it's been a while since I posted on here!  Blogger is really being a bugger right now tho.  it won't let me move around my pictures, and I just pushed something wrong and two were deleted....so we'll see if I can finish this without any more problems!   We are all doing good down here!!  School is out on Wednesday,  and the girls are pretty excited about that!  we'll see how much fun we can cram in before baby comes!  We could have her as early as july 1st, so that doesn't give us much time!  But we are all getting anxious to welcome #6!!!  Frans is busy at work, and has actually had quite a bit of sidework the last month, so that is good!!  

here are a few pictures to show a little of what we've been up to....

This picture was actually taken in April, but swimming season is in full swing now, and the girls  love it!!  I have even been in the pool twice now, and that is unusual for me to go in before the end of June!  

Toni is done with Preschool and is now looking forward to being a big Kindergartner!!!  She really really loved preschool, and learned quite a bit there!  Am glad that we sent her:)

Big Trina with her piggy-tails....can't you just hear her saying "cheese"?  her latest thing is saying cheese when you are taking her picture....she says "sssssss".  it's pretty funny!

Alany getting birthday Hugs from dad, after the birthday spankings!  Our big 4 year old!
 Quick, go for a picture!

we got two little bunnies for the girls a few weeks ago, and they just love them!  we got rid of our dog, and promised the girls that we would try bunnies.  Our dog was  a wonderful dog, and we actually couldn't have asked for a better dog to have with kids, but she just did not get enough attention over here.  So I said when we have boys, and they are old enough to take care of a dog, we will get another one!  (we might be waiting a while!)  The white one that Toni has is princess and the brown one is sparkes....

Hopefully everyone had a great memorial day weekend!!  

A deer in the Manor

I was sitting here quilting and heard a crash. Thought Pirjo had dropped one of the large planters they are putting on our side patio. Then I heard excited voices so went to see what was
the matter. First it sounded like Laura said, "There's a bear in the bldg.!" but she repeated it and said "There's a deer in the bldg.!" It had been in the courtyard and something frightened it
so it came through the window across from the laundry room!! Had run toward Lee Square and
going too fast to head toward another window so went behind the chairs and out the door window that faces the laundry lines. Pirjo was out side and amazed to see half a deer hanging out the window until, then came the back half. No blood left behind. It had run around the property but the fence was too high to jump so too fast to get a picture it went out in front of the
garages and down the drive. Called the paper. He must have recognized the name as asked if
my husband was a minister there. But in the next days front page news about the deer he was
listed as manager so has been receiving some kidding.

Then yesterday a lady from the local public television came by. I happened to be in the hall so
got interviewed! We have dial up but Lahti's have dsl so we saw it at their place. Didn't look as
stupid as I feared!

Hi

Ok so i'm not really sure how to use this whole site, but i'm gonna do it this way for now so i hope it works :-)

I just have a couple of words to say to everyone about the whole accident, hospital stay and everything else that went along with charlie getting hurt. Words can never express how much i appreciate everything that everyone did for Charlie and I. Between the calling me to tell me, driving me up to the hospital, bringing snacks for the kids and I, the hugs, the talks, the bringing dinner, coming to visit and see how he was doing, worrying about the shop, bringing the truck and bike home, the use of cell phones when mine had died.
Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough, but I do Thank each and everyone one of you for everything.
I am greatful for marrying into such a loving and caring family and I am honored to be a part of it.

Machelle

Howdy Folks!

Wow, is it my head issues? Or is it my lack of familiarity with making new posts... I put in the title of the post, hit enter to move the cursor down to enter the main body of the post, and it PUBLISHED!! So now I'm editing my post!

People have been asking how my 'healing' is coming along... and I keep saying that I'm doing great! Of course I've been saying that I'm doing fine since before I was ready to leave the hospital, and I don't remember any of it! Will I remember making this post, the day after tomorrow? errr ahh haha Yeah, I will...

But there are a lot of things earlier on that I apparently knew for sure that I was fine with, just don't ask me now what those things were!

I have made Machelle go over with me several times the events as she remembered at the hospital, people that were there, each time, she'd start with... "Sure!! I'll tell ya all about it again!" And my response was... "umm we've done this already?" The most irritating thing about not remembering, is not remembering that there was something to remember. But now I'm remembering the story...

What do I remember from the Hospital? I have a couple of images stuck in my head. They are kind of like a photograph that the ink smeared on, pretty hard to make out. The first week out? Don't remember the majority of it from early on, to a blur toward the end. I'm finding that I'm slowly changing back to my normal self... changing from trying my hardest to remember... To my normal, trying to forget last week, and focusing on the week ahead!

Physically, I'm getting better... The ribs and surrounding muscle are slowly changing from pain that keeps me from moving, to a 'slight' irritation. I'm not lifting anything heavy yet, but its coming up pretty fast.

So to wrap this up, my whole point here was to say a big thanks for all of the support. I think I'll leave it at that for now...

Charlie

Keep on posting Heather

And keep on snapping those pictures. I should have looked for the cd that may have some younger pictures of this young lady. This was Alyx's first day of school. Heading off to kindergarten ... all smiles and anticipation. Ready to meet life head on. Her earlier school life was not an easy one. It was a struggle. And she never stopped. Mrs. Tardie, our ever so special and favorite teacher at Hohokam, was our best friend for many years as she worked with a few of our kiddos. Without the inate persistance of this young girl ... she might have given up a long time ago.

She didn't tho'. School still isn't easy for her. It hasn't been easy for most in this household. But many other things are. It is amazing to look at someone who is nearly to adulthood and see the traits that make her who she is today. In some ways, I think she was predestined to be a giving person. She works in an Assisted Living Facility and loves her work. Her junior year of high school ends next week and she aims to head for a career in the health field. Not surprising that she has chosen to making helping others her life's work. Take a look at the people who surround her ... whose genes she carries in her very being. From both sides of her family, not just her mothers side.

I've been wanting to do a photo shoot of my girls. I have all these places that I'd like to take them and shoot a few photos. It just never seems to get done. The other nite I saw a quick opportunity to grab a few photos. It was so much fun to do. Too many blurry ones ... but we got some good ones too!

The time from when I mailed out the impending birth announcements that had her ultrasound picture on them .... has flown. In the next several months we will be looking at senior photos. Where on earth has time gone? This summer she'll be around the country visiting all of you for several months.

I'm already anxious for her to come home ... and she hasn't left yet!

I'll just keep posting until someone says stop :)

Our smiley little girl in the hat from Becky and Wayne

Happy Mothers Day

We got home from Wanamingo after Midnight so it really is Mother's Day already.
The only one who might not see this is Jody as their home internet is down. They
stopped here Friday enroute to a fishing opener up north. They brought a
beautiful blooming plant. So, mothers, enjoy your day and your family as all too
soon they will be scattered, perhaps far from home as ours are.

45 years! Congratulations Mom & Isa

The Path to Home

by Edgar A. Guest

There’s the mother at the doorway
and the children at the gate.
And the little parlor windows
with curtains white and straight.
There are shagging asters blooming
in the bed that lines the fence,
And the simplest of the blossoms
seems of mighty consequence.
Oh, there isn’t any mansion
underneath God’s starry dome
That can rest a weary pilgrim
like the little place called home.

Men have sought for gold and silver;
men have dreamed at night of fame;
In the heat of youth, they’ve struggled
for achievements honored name;
But the selfish crowns are tinsel,
and their shining jewels, paste,
And the wine of pomp and glory
Soon grows bitter to the taste
For there’s never any laughter
howsoever far you roam
Like the laughter of the loved ones
in the happiness of home.

There is nothing so important
as the mother’s lullabies,
Filled with peace and sweet contentment,
when the moon begins to rise –
Nothing real except the beauty
and the calm upon her face
And the shouting of the children
as they scamper round the place.
For the greatest of man’s duties
is to keep his loved ones glad
And to have his children glory
in the father they have had.

So where’er a man may wander
and whatever be his care;
You’ll find his soul still stretching
to the home he left somewhere.
You’ll find his dreams all tangled
Up with hollyhocks in bloom
And the feet of little children
that go racing through a room
With the happy mother smiling
as she watches them at play
These are all in life that matter,
when you’ve stripped the sham away.

#5 (on behalf of us all)

Our crazy household...

Last night, Shawn comes in complaining of a stomach ache. (He commented that it was the noodles I made for dinner) The problem is that it wouldn't go away and went up into his back. He may complain about every ailment, but was absolutely miserable. I told him to get ready he was going to the hospital. The diagnosis: he is passing a kindey stone! Was sent home with pain meds and the hope that he passes it on his own!

He is waiting for road restrictions to be off before starting some bigger jobs. As the doctor said, if you are going to pass a stone, this is the best time to do it. She doesn't want him working until it passes. I don't want him doing anything until it passes. Shawn is his own boss and we'll see what he does today :)

Elizabeth, Congratulations

If you haven't heard, Elizabeth was recently presented the Ann Bancroft Award at the Hilton Minneapolis. There were 4 recipients and hers was the Dream Maker Award in the individual category for leadership and achievement. There was also a monetary gift. :) I saw the award last evening which was made in Two Harbors and looks like the ice Ann Bancroft crossed in Antarctica.

More of Heidi

Some more recent pictures of our little munchkin:

the shirt is from Jen and says "I still live with my parents"

Saturday we went for the evening presentation at the Iron Range Go Run. Here's a very bad picture of Heidi with Marie WilsonHeidi did so well, many people held her and she fussed very little. Marie Wilson talked baby talk to her and Heidi responded, carrying on a conversation - most likely about politics and running for an office of some sort :)

She was wearing her "oink" outfit from Liz. Our little activist was combatting the theory that we can't eat pork for fear of the "swine flu" in order to help out farmers everywhere :)

More pictures

"Tummy Time"

Grandma and Heidi

Tristan was willing to hold her and I warned him that she may cry. His response "Heidi not cry". He was right, she didn't!!!


Grandma and Grandpa with Heidi

Uncle Randy got her a coin bank

Aunti Liz brought money to fill it up!!! Tristan would put the money in so the lights flashed and a tractor sound is made. Later he was in the bathroom saying, "Tristan put the money in, Heidi gets the pennies". He had so much fun when the jar was emptied, he would throw pennies around!