Quotable Aaron: "Getting old is the safe way to die"

Yesterday the boys, my dad and myself were having a conversation that started off with the question "why do the police come when people get into accidents?" It started by covering the assistance role of law enforcement and segued into whether or not that was a "safe" job - Allen is convinced it's dangerous.

He tends to be overly cautious or concerned sometimes so we ended up having a "life is dangerous" discussion in which we all discussed how things can happen to you even if you're just sitting in an easychair, so it's best to go enjoy life, etc.

At that point, Aaron piped up that "getting old is the safe way to die"... yeah. I had a good laugh over that one!

5AM in Ketchikan

I've been here less than 12 hours. As I type this post I am sitting in an awesome chaise lounge watching cruise ships come up the Tongass Narrows. 2 bald eagles are circling while fog comes up Fawn Mountain... that's what I'm going to call it since my folks live next to Fawn Mtn. Elementary. I will have to ask my dad when he gets up.

The kids had a great night, so far... it's far from over I hope. Andrew slept from 10-4 and I ended up not being able to sleep. As I posted previously Rosalie was up last and I ended up feeding her microwave popcorn in my bed until she crashed just before midnight. She has slept soundly the night through which is a nice thing as Rosalie is one of my more energetic/demanding children.

Today is promising. There is a lot I want to do but I need to balance that with the kids' needs, which I think includes a low key, one outing day. I definitely need to get to the grocery store to round out the larder (they need cheese! seriously!) and will probably take the kids to wal-mart. I "need" to order from my favorite Thai restaurant in Ketchikan, meant to yesterday but things were just too busy. I may end up taking some of the kids to Wal-Mart for a few cheap treats - this will be a major big deal. On the other hand, perhaps not. My parents have a well stocked offering of entertainment & toys for the kids. I should just kick them out and take over their house! I jest... ;-) Though their house IS perfect and in a great location in a wonderful, fabulous town. I cannot say it enough - if you haven't been to Ketchikan, and get the opportunity, GO!

For now I'm sitting here waiting for my parents to get up. They are notoriously early risers. I hear the dog (they own a giant Airedale) stirring so maybe they'll make an appearance soon. I can't use the excuse of using the internet so as not to wake the kids as I can in my compact but cozy house in Bethel... but I do think if I started dragging in my bags it would PROBABLY wake up my parents, so I'm not doing that yet. I'm sure the children will be eager to assist in unpacking.

More later!

in Ketchikan!

I'm typing this from the 3rd floor of my parents' house. Less than 2 feet away Rosalie, our 2 year old, is tucked in (my) bed eating microwaved popcorn (my dinner) off of a plate. I don't know if she's just less than familiar with this new town/house/etc but she wanted to be with me tonight, and she is.

What-A-Day! Yesterday ended/began around 12:30 AM when Andrew decided to go to bed. I woke up around 6 and just got up, ate some breakfast (I'd smartly prepared it the night before so all we had to do was 'heat and eat'). At 7, Allen got the kids up and I went to dump our 8 bags (including 2 carseats & a pack-n-play baby crib) at the airport. I think that 8 bags, 3 of them being "furniture" type items, is not bad on packing light for a family of 7 for a month!

The flight to Bethel was relatively calm. The highlights were when some woman was trying to entertain her young seatmate by playing alarm/siren sounds on her ipod touch. Of course she chose to do this when the plane is banking on descent and it scared the daylights out of Aaron. I was concerned too, as it sounded like a genuine aircraft alarm. Some people do NOT think.

We got into Anchorage around 10. Hiked up to the mezzanine level, and I powered up my road-system-only cell phone and dialed what I hoped was my brother's number to see where he and my mom were. He stated they were 2 minutes from the airport, "but then she has to go through security, so you might see her in 5 years or so"... har-de-har. In any event, eventually my mom (who lives in Ketchikan) showed up and I promptly forked over the 2 year old and the baby so I could go take the older ones on bathroom runs. Diapers changed on the youngers, I procured "lunch" from Chili's (yuck!). The kids liked it, I did not like mine at all. Hence the 11pm bag of popcorn.

Grandma doled out gifts to the kiddos and they amused themselves until it was time to board the plane to Ketchikan-by-way-of-Juneau-Petersberg-Wrangell. The plane left Anchorage an hour late. I experienced some of my roughest turbulence and landings ever. I'm not sure if it's worse than the one when I was flying out of Anchorage right before they shut the airport down, but it was at LEAST that bad. Twice over, in Petersberg and Ketchikan. I was very close to being physically ill. Not fun when you have 4 kids and a lap baby you are holding in "crash position" (yeah...) just in case, because I think we were pretty close to an aborted landing at a couple of points. The plane was bouncing and swaying all over, creaking (it was a 747-Combi), etc. It was stomach churning. The engines would rev up, the plane would jerk, we'd hit turbulence, repeat and throw in a few wild sways with engine revs before or after, mountains appearing out of the fog, low clouds and lots of wind... and as far as whether I'm overstating this, people were gasping and kids were squealing as the plane was doing all this. My mom said the pilot must have been very skilled, I agree, not everyone would've been able to successfully land in that kind of stuff.

Let's say I'm REALLY glad that I'm not getting on a plane again anytime soon, and when I do it will be the shorter by one town northward flight. I think next time we go to Ketchikan it may be worth it to book through Seattle.

I was thankful to be on the ground in one piece in Ketchikan, the kids mobbed my dad and he got to meet Andrew for the first time. My luggage arrived very promptly and we piled 3 of the kids, myself and my dad into his station wagon and my mom took the older 2 and stood on the ferry. Ketchikan's airport is built on Gravina Island, and the town of Ketchikan is located on Revillagigedo Island across the Tongass Narrows. You know, all that "Bridge to Nowhere" stuff. I'd love to see anyone decry its usefulness after waiting 30 minutes for a ferry ride that costs money to maintain and operate. That's another subject for another time.

We pulled into my folks' place (mom & 2 kids took a taxi) and everyone had baths & showers and the kids played until they were all - but Rosalie - in bed by around 10:30.

Right now as I type this it's 11:34 and the popcorn is mostly gone, and I think Rosalie's winding down. I'm really tired but looking forward to tomorrow, I think!

On the Bethel front, Allen's doing well. He was helping a friend with his boat motor earlier and was having friends over tonight for computer gaming. All around good!

dumpster art in Bethel, AK

Our 2nd son, Aaron, is artistically inclined. The past week there has been a weeklong art camp held at the Cultural Center during the days. One of their art projects was redecorating the dumpster that sits outside - I think they did a great job!

There's a lot of dumpster art in Bethel - people "adopt" and decorate them periodically.

Aaron painted the starfish clinging to the rock

proud artist

tempted...

You see, Ketchikan has a Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart may be the corporate scourge of Anytown USA but those of us in bush Alaska think long and hard about what we're going to get when we encounter one. I know I look forward to going! At least once I'll just drift through the store and take in the low, low prices of so many things.

In any event, I'm VERY tempted to buy a generous but not overly larged attractively colored container for each child, and then tell them that they can keep as many toys as can fit in that container. Easy organization, easy responsiblity and it would control the toy equivalent of urban sprawl.

What do you think?

aircraft carrier stops in Napaimute!

Got this exciting message this morning in my inbox... isn't it amazing how versatile boats are in western Alaska? Click on the picture for a bigger view.

Photo taken by Mark Leary, Napaimute, AK.

9 years!

Yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversary. I had planned to post but the day was busy and full so it didn't end up happening.

I am so fortunate and happy to have a wonderful man to share life with. He is a dream come true, hardworking, honest, and fun.

During the past 9 years, we have:

• lived in 3 different cities, in 5 different houses & apartments
  
• had 5 pregnancies and 5 babies
• bought and sold our first home
• traveled all over the state (as far south as Ketchikan, as far north as Fairbanks... someday I want to drive the Haul Road, but I think we're years off from that one)
• bought and learned how to operate 2 different boats
• enjoyed numerous evenings by the fire with children, marshmallows, chocolate & graham crackers
• agonized when one of our children didn't talk for 3 years
• watched one of our infants be treated in Intensive Care for 2 weeks as she healed from an unexpected illness
• reworked many of our ideas about parenting and children - because you know it all before you have them. And then they arrive.
• graduated from college, and then decide to pursue additional education

Those are just a few of the major points I can rattle off right now, because I actually have things to do here at the house (imagine that... well, I always do, but I'm under a time crunch right now and the baby is sleeping... that time is rare!).

I'm not sure I'll be able to post anything in the next few days, but my next post is likely to be titled something along the lines of "10 hours in the air with 5 children"... we're leaving for Revillagigedo Island on Saturday morning and Alaska Airlines gives us an ETA of 7:17 PM in the fine town of Ketchikan. I'm really looking forward to it.

(a PSA I feel required to include - there are still people here at the house, our neighbors are home all day, and my husband is here!) I just don't see how I can clam up for a month about being in such an awesome location... so I'm not going to. Coolest town in the state, here we come!

an interesting read...

While wasting time online tonight I came across the following linked on another blog:

The Letter

I post it here with the following caveats. I don't really know who Glenn Beck is - I think he's on the radio. It's radio or TV. I don't have time or the desire to follow either faithfully. I don't claim to know, or endorse, any of his views/platforms/etc.

The letter, supposedly from an anonymous US constituent, makes several salient points.

I also want to put it out there that I don't subscribe to any political party's notions (read: they all lie). When I vote, I frequently vote 3rd party. Our particular state's political saga the past 2 years or so has been nothing short of unpleasantly distracting. More on that another time, I suppose... (can you say train wreck? Can't look away, drama of the minute...)

I loathe political mailings that are thoughtlessly forwarded to a "select" group of 20 of your closest friends to 'make a point' (or 5). They get old. I don't like 2 year election cycles... you know, presidential election 2008, and the campaigning starts in 2010, and even now the media froths at "hopefuls" for the next go-round in 2.5 years. Can you see me shuddering?

And yet I'm choosing to post this. Note - not forwarding it to 20 of my closest friends. As a recipient of way too much unsolicited political forwarding from all sides we've found it necessary to employ e-mail filters to keep our inbox clutter-free by screening out certain key terms. It's working like a gem so far.

So regardless of your politics and who you voted for last November, check out the link.

when (my) reason meets (her) free will

Rosalie is in that difficult stage that our older children reached somewhere between 15 and 22 months of age, when they quit napping altogether.

It was (and is) clear for a time that the child physically continued to need that rest period but their eagerness to experience the world, and tag along with older siblings, would overrule what their body was telling them and more often than not, I'd end up with a 5:00 "witching hour" and a touchy or grumpy toddler.

Rosalie is following the family pattern though she held her afternoon nap the longest of any of our children - she staunchly refused last week at 27 months old. I do apply my "will" to children when it's clearly best for them, but on this particular issue if the child can demonstrate they can handle no nap and behave well enough without one, I am willing to let it go.

Today though, Rosalie was tap dancing all over that fine line between crabby and way-too-tired crabby. I talked her into laying down in her crib and right now, she's asleep. I think she'll be the better for it too. I read and hear others talk of their 3, 4 or 5 year olds napping. Doesn't happen 'round here unless there's an illness circulating, and even then, it's usually on the couch with siblings present.

I should frame this in the context of how awesome it is that they want to be around each other/me so much - and it is. It's just a little hard in this in-between stage when the mind says "YES!" and the body says "I'm tired!!"

I anticipate a good evening with the child. Hopefully she will wake up happy. Off to fix dinner!

weird wood #2

fun on the beach

This past week we were fortunate to have 2 very nice days, one of which we hit a record-breaking high of 76 degrees. It was amazing, blue skies, just enough wind to keep the (at this point, not too many) bugs away. On that particular day, neither Allen nor I felt like going out on the boat but decided to take the plunge anyway, because we rarely regret it. It turned out to be one of the most relaxing moments in our week! We are suckers for beach time, fires, and fun with the kids.
Andrew getting ready to get on the boat
kids on the beach

Aaron

Perpetua
Rosalie

Because we'd done the S'mores thing the previous day, we thought we'd only be going out for an hour or so... but turns out Rosalie was in a good mood, and everyone was having a great time. Too bad I'd left the other bag of marshmallows in the car! Lesson learned. However, we did have a great time with some fire-grilled salmon eating it "bedouin style" after roasting in the open.

USCG tour pics...

This past week - I think it was on the day I was up for 21 hours straight - there was a USCG cutter docked in Bethel for a short time on their way out downriver after mapping the channels and placing buoys for the barges/other large vessels to use. They offered a 4 hour window during which the crew would take the public on tours of their ship, and we took the opportunity to do so!

This picture is of us at the end of the tour. Allen couldn't come along because he had Chamber of Commerce to attend, so I was flying solo. The tour was over an hour, and there were a lot of stairs. I was wearing 40 lbs of children and equipment, plus my camera, for the tour!
Here's Aaron and one of his friends. We were fortunate to take the tour in the same group as them! Made it fun for the kids.
Friends next to the giant printer that the USCG uses to print off the charts of the river that they've made.

Just a fun view of the Kuskokwim out the window of the ship. They wrote distances between various landmarks & towns on the window. After Bethel, they were headed out to Dutch Harbor before making their way back to their home station of Homer, Alaska.
Perpetua on deck
On deck... a little intimidated!

It was a lot of fun!

doomsday wood

This was washed up on a beach that we had an evening picnic on this past week. The kids were very impressed with it. It's the weathered underside of an uprooted tree, but I thought it looked kind of apocalyptic.

dragon face paint

Done at the Rec Center a week or so ago. I am way behind on processing photos (much less getting them off the computer... I have done that exactly once since Andrew was born!)

can a day that starts at 2:30 AM...

go well? I really hope so. It's supposed to be gorgeous weather today.

My day "started" when Andrew got up at 2:30ish for some "snacks" and cuddling. I had him back down by 3:15 but have since been unable to sleep. At 4:30 I decided to bag it all and just come downstairs and quietly clean.

It's currently just after 5. I am a little stressed in anticipation of what should/could be a great day. The weather is supposed to be in the lower-mid 70s today (gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous for Bethel) and we may be boating tonight. We usually take advantage of every good weather opportunity to be out on the river.

We were out last night for a little over 4 hours on the river to a close-by island with all the kids, a fire, S'mores, sausages, sandwiches and a bunch of friends (adults and kids). The only bad thing was that little Allen encountered some deep water on an incoming tide and took a dunking... he was pulled out quickly though. It was heartstopping but thankfully brief, and he is completely fine.

Yesterday we were fortunate to be able to tour a USCG ship based out of Homer that stopped in Bethel and offered tours. They were dropping buoys and mapping the Kuskokwim. What a fun opportunity! My children really enjoyed it (we took all 5). I am sore from having worn Andrew in front and Rosalie on back (that's some 40 pounds of child + equipment) for the hour and twenty minutes we traipsed around the boat.

Pictures to follow when I get time to offload them and post. The confines of the ship were quite close, not to mention having to make sure all the kids were safe/happy/taking in the sights so the photographic merit may not be there, but the heart is.

"right out of Pottery Barn!" not necessarily a good thing...

I was checking the Anchorage Daily News website as I often do when I'm nursing the baby and an advertisement for a real estate property caught my eye. It was a 3 bedroom house "right out of Pottery Barn!"

I clicked on it despite the fact that we are 1. not looking for a house and 2. I have other experience/opinions on houses "right out of Pottery Barn!" and 3. it was a ridiculously small 3 bedroom house.

The house itself rated a "meh"... some upgrades in a too-small-to-make-it-worth-it space. Though honestly for Anchorage it was a decent price... it was probably in Muldoon. Location conveniently not disclosed. The owners were fans of the "paint one wall a dramatic color" thing (not a bad thing, our LR/DR/kitchen walls are yellow, orange and blue... it looks good, I'll post a picture sometime.

My issue was with the advertisement. At a social function a couple months ago I was at an acquaintances house and it looked like a Pottery Barn catalog had thrown up in their house. EVERYTHING - every accessory, pillow, wall hanging, bulletin board, curtain finial... all of it was Pottery Barn. While I get and enjoy their catalog, this was just too much and I think overshot the "we want it to look nice"... it looked impersonal. I like it when houses have a little customization of what you put in it... not TOO much to ask.

So... that's my random thought for the morning. Looks like a nice day. I'm hoping we boat tonight.

life update in bullet points

They're kinda like paragraphs... (I know... not really)

• Sleep: We're getting some. It's great. I've missed it. I need some more. And I should be in bed right now... that's where I'm going after I hit "post"
• Weather: it's been nasty. Mid 40s, low 50s, blowing wind, spitting rain and low, grey clouds. It can be nice for a while but the landscape (though finally greening) with blowing wind, driving rain and such can appear a little bleak. Weather forecast for Thursday says "mostly sunny" and 60-65. I'll take that!
• Boating: Not yet. Boat is almost ready to go in the water and should be tied up at the harbor sometime tomorrow. Yay for boating! Perpetua cried today when she thought her dad was going boating without her (he was just taking it into town to get ready to put in)
• Vacation: is coming up fast. I'm really looking forward to it. (And yes, one CAN look forward to a 1400 mile, 5 leg, 10 hour flight... it will be fun, and I WILL take pictures!) My mom is flying into Anchorage specifically to help me manage the crew on the multi-leg jaunt to southern-southeast.
• Children: are doing well. Miraculously, we have found a couple of great activities for the older 2 boys to participate in. Aaron will be attending an art camp the last week of the month right up til when we leave.
• House: is slowly getting less cluttery and more organized. Trying to make the "small space" work for our large family (actual stats, 1628 square feet, 7 people) is satisfying even if it's only because things look nicer without all the "stuff". We got our barge order of groceries and it's almost all put away now (and man that garage looks sweet - thanks to my fabulous husband who did it all!)

I'll also quit the bullet points at this point (haha, get it?) and talk briefly about the Indian food party I had on Friday. We had 25 people there (including our family) and it was a lot of fun! The house was packed and very loud, but it was a great time. I got positive reviews from people that they had a good time. The food was fabulous - I loved trying everyone else's dishes. Some of the people there and I decided to try out doing a "dinner club" where we go on different themes, rotating hosts... week after this is German food. I've never 'done' German, so I'm both open to suggestions and looking forward to expanding my horizons! We won't be doing it every other week normally - both this person and I (separately) will be leaving town at the end of the month so we had to accelerate the schedule so that we didn't have my party and then nothing til August.

That's about it for now!

back from an outage

Our stellar GCI internet service was out of commission the past 3+ days, thus the lack of posts. Not for lack of ideas. There's lots going on, but the posts may come slowly in the next few days as we have a busy week ahead!

That's the best they could do?!

In my inbox this morning I received a forward with the anticipated fuel price changes pending the arrival of the fuel barge... effective today:

HF#1/DF#1 - decrease $0.980/gal
HF#2/DF#1 - decrease $0.363/gal
UNL - decrease $0.333/gal
JET - decrease $0.891/gal

Obviously, I do not fly a jet and I'm not concerned with diesel. But since oil is not over $120/barrel (and is in fact MUCH less than that), Crowley can only see fit to decrease the price a measly $0.33/gallon?! Come on!

Last year they were more than happy to jack it up right away - I forget what it went from but I think it was near a dollar increase per gallon if not more. For those unfamiliar with our fuel pricing structure, we get a price adjustment (usually higher) when the new fuel barge arrives in May/June, and another after the river freezes/last barge has come and gone. And it stays that way, for months. We've been paying $5.75+/gallon since October 2008 without a single adjustment.

So that'll put us at $5.42/gallon assuming we drive out to Crowley's at the tank farm (everywhere else is more expensive, perhaps I'll drive by and do a price survey). I have no sympathy for "having expensive gas stored in the tanks" as they had "cheap gas" stored in the tanks a couple years back when we received giant increases in the cost of gas. When I first visited Bethel prior to moving out (to see if we could "do it") gas was $2.83/gallon.

Crowley, I'm disappointed in you. I'm not one for subsidizing costs, but this is pretty outrageous and in an economically depressed area on top of that. Crowley's right up there with the AC Company on profit structure and the rural Alaskan.

he's sleeping... but I'm not

Yesterday was a difficult afternoon/evening for various reasons. Nothing to do with the kids, but I had hit my wall and was feeling drained and without an ounce of reserve energy. Thankfully I don't feel that way often but when I do, it's not pretty to be me.

Right now it's 6AM and I've been up for about an hour and 15 minutes. Due to the construction of our house if you're up and don't want to wake anybody else you have to either 1. read or 2. read at the computer. So I have been.

Andrew went down around 11 last night and is still sleeping now - a new record. We've had to start supplementing his nursing with bottles as for whatever reasons (a first for me) I am not producing enough milk to keep him happy. However, being sensible, a happy, healthy, full baby is the biggest goal, not how they are fed. He still primarily nurses, we just give him a bottle to top him off.

I guess he really liked last night's marathon pre-bedtime feeding. Allen and I were joking it would be smart to keep him tipped upright for a while after he finished (we did so, in the baby swing) so he wouldn't "refund" the feedings. Haha! Maybe this is the start of a new trend. If only my body would go along with it... I certainly could've used the sleep. I'm going to attempt to go back to bed now. Busy day ahead.

Andrew Sebastian - 4 months old!

real life with the younger set...

Andrew was the victim of this series... poor guy.

sisters

I like the one of Perpetua that is on the front. I don't think I'll be hanging the one with Rosalie & Perpetua. There's only so far a 2 year old will be pushed for the sake of photography.

brothers

These were just for fun... Aaron (6), Allen (8) and Andrew is 4 months.

soliciting opinions... gift input

I am getting something made with photos of our children for my husband and each of our fathers for Father's Day. So Dads... if by some chance you're viewing this, click away now. Everyone else, I would like input on which photo you think is the best one of the kids. Ignore things like the centering of the photo as I can modify that very quickly :) I'll put my preferences at the end.

ONE

TWO

THREE
FOUR
I like picture #1 if I can photoshop in Perpetua's face from photo #2 and get rid of the CRAZY smile she has in that picture. In second place I like photo #4, but I can't "fix" Andrew's face to look towards the camera from another picture... on the other hand, sometimes the 'kid looking away' shots when there are several children in a picture can be kinda cute.

Thoughts?

(I have to mention - these are low resolution photos, since I didn't want to take forever and blogger doesn't display them large anyway... so the actual photos are better quality than what you see here)

"a plant is growing inside a pie. Am I right?"

I'm hosting an Indian food collaborative dinner later this week (more on that later - I'm really hoping it will be a lot of fun!) and was looking up a good recipe for a drink.

One of them is essentially a mango-yogurt smoothie; and I was double-checking the recipe for it online at a recipe site where people also submit pictures of what they've made.

One person had uploaded a picture of one of these drinks garnished with some mint leaves. My 6 year old came up behind me and said... "a plant is growing inside a pie. Am I right?"

I explained the concept of garnishes to him - pretty looking plants people sometimes place inside or alongside a meal to make it look more appetizing. I think he liked his idea better.