October 18 2008

Well, all of Chris's family left town. The summer season ended and so did their jobs. It has been nice and quiet around here. Chris has been busy building a woodshed on the side of the house and playing vehicle hopscotch. Joy finished the Wedding dress and other wedding gear for our friends and neighbors wedding last month and the wedding cakes for Shoshana and Arlo's wedding yesterday. There was a three tier cheesecake for the bride's cake and a two tier chocolate cake for the groom's cake. They were awesome as usual. Well, I'd type more, but I'm bored already.

Just what exactly is a "vost"?

This question is for the benefit of Mom, Dad, and Jerica. They were talking to Jefferson last night when he told them that he was drawing a vost and asked them what sound a vost makes. None of us could figure out what he was talking about and thought that it was just one of his made-up words (he makes up words quite frequently, a la Jansen). After he got off the phone he kept insisting that I draw a "vost" for him. I wasn't sure what a vost looked like. Then he explained that they were scary and make a sound like this: "oooo-oooo-oooooooo". And THEN showed me a picture that Aunt Jessica had doodled for him earlier that day. Oh, a ghost! He had just learned that word yesterday and was having a little trouble getting the word exactly right.

I hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day. We actually had a sunny weekend, it was glorious. Today is overcast but not raining at the moment. Chris has to work today but is getting paid 2.5 times his normal rate, so is not complaining too much. Plus he is taking off this coming weekend so we can have a little vacation. Earlier this summer, one of his co-workers went to a party and won a door prize for a round trip ferry pass to Prince of Wales Island and a one-night stay in a bed and breakfast in Craig (one of the towns on the island). She didn't want it so she gave it to Chris in exchange for some help involving a chain saw and her wood pile. This is exciting for us as we have never been to POW, even though it is one of our closest Alaskan neighbors (the $300-$400 ferry tickets are quite prohibitive for the average human). We are told that there are hundreds of miles of roads to drive there, as opposed to the 30 miles here. I'm not sure how much driving we'll do, given the current cost of gas, but I'm sure we'll have some fun. We are camping first for two nights in Klawock, then we'll head to Craig for the weekend and attend church at the branch there. They actually have a branch, how exciting! Many smaller communities in Alaska have only one or two members, and they attend church over the phone. That's what my friend Jenni does in Pelican.

Jefferson is getting excited for the camping trip. I told him we were going to Prince of Wales island, and now he is imagining a land littered with dozens and dozens of friendly whales. I sure hope we see a whale sometime during the trip, or he will be sorely disappointed. I don't think he has ever seen one before.

Lola is cuter than ever, she loves to babble nonsense words. Well, maybe they make sense to her. She also loves to read. She picks up books and turns the pages, then babbles and babbles as she looks at the pictures. She especially loves that little book of Mormon that Jefferson got from Grandma and Grandpa. She thinks it is hers, as anything that tiny should rightfully belong to the tiniest person in the house.

Last night as we were all going to bed, Jefferson kept climbing into his parents' bed. So Chris kept insisting he get back into his own bed. Said Jefferson: "But Dad, your bed is so beautiful!" Chris and I couldn't help ourselves, we just busted up laughing. Where does he come up with this stuff? This morning when I woke up, I thought for a moment that we had acquired a family dog. But no, it was Jefferson sleeping on my feet, completely covered with the blankets and well hidden.

I better get thinking about what to have for dinner. The missionaries are coming over for dinner today and tomorrow. We take it upon ourselves to be the official dinner fill-ins if we ever find any blank days on the ward's missionary calendar.

Have a good week!

rain rain rain

This has been one of the rainiest summers EVER! It is pouring and pouring. But as a blessing, it seems that the rain always lets up on Sunday mornings so we can walk to church without getting too wet.

Chris just got back from home teaching, he was wearing a hunting vest. I wonder what the Joneses thought about that?

Jefferson has been drawing a lot lately. His drawings are starting to look like something. And earlier today he took some of our address labels and used them to form letters on our wood chest. He made an 'F', 'M', and a 'Z', it looks like. Not too bad.

The highlight of my week was on Wednesday when I helped one of the nursery workers clean out the nursery at church. It was such a mess, packed full of broken and inappropriate toys (like loud Sesame Street Electric Guitars, no thank you). It was great, we got rid of three huge garbage bags of toys, plus the broken plastic kitchen and doll house. I helped out in nursery today and it was so nice in there, so organized and peaceful. The three hours we spent there was well worth it!

On the way home from the church on Wednesday, I put the kids in the double stroller. Lola was tired and leaned over and fell asleep with her head on Jefferson's lap. It used to really bug Jefferson when Lola invaded his space, so I didn't put them in the double stroller together very often. But now they are getting used to being together in there. Instead of complaining when Lola fell asleep on him, Jefferson began to gently stroke her hair. When we arrived home, I tried to pick up Lola to put her up in bed, but Jefferson looked up at me and said, "No, Mom, she's sleeping on me!" It was so cute and I should have gotten a picture. But alas, I didn't think of it at the moment.

Well, I better get my bare feet back into the kitchen now. I need to wash more dishes. And Chris is insisting that he NEEDS a cake. I'm trying to quit using chocolate, white flour, and refined white sugar. I guess I better look up a recipe for whole wheat honey carob cake. We'll see how it turns out, I'll try to post a picture if it turns out. And a picture of Chris eating it so you can see by the look on his face if it is good or not.

Another week, we're still here

So another week has gone by. The highlight this week is that some construction crews came by and ripped up the sidewalk on the corner, creating a big hole and some temptational dirt to play in. We've been inside mostly this week anyway because it's been pretty cold and rainy. But yesterday wasn't bad, so we took a few photos by the construction zone at the edge of our yard. Watch out Jefferson, you remember what happened to our friend Nigel! They have ripped up several corners in the area, I'm assuming to put little ramps in the curb to make them ADA compliant. That will make it much easier to get the stroller up and down the curb when they are finished. But meanwhile, it is making it a little more difficult to hike up the hill to church. We did make it to church today in a very light drizzle. It was raining harder when we walked home, but not that hard. We discussed the possibility of buying longer waterproof trench coats to keep us dry when winter hits and it REALLY starts raining. It's a good thing that we walk to church because all three of our jeeps were out of commission at Ward Cove this morning. Chris keeps driving them there and letting them break down. Needless to say, he is getting really frustrated with vehicles that always need work since he doesn't have time to work on them. Yesterday he said he would've gone to the dealership and just financed a new car if they had been open at the time. Good thing they were closed! I told him not to worry, we are getting along just fine and vehicles are not one of the three things necessary for survival (food, clothing, shelter). I never drive anyway.

Friday was a happy day, we got a package from Julie. She sent us all the violin & cello music from home. Also included were two super cool green glass bowls from the twineball antique store, how cool is that? I was very happy to get the music as I am taking on more and more violin students and need some material. I had been trying to buy some books online but hadn't yet because of computer problems (can't get on Amazon for some weird reason). It turned out to be good that I hadn't bought them because Chris found them for me at the thrift store! He actually had (well, took) a day off on friday and went to the thrift stores. I told him to look for violin music, and he came home with quite a bundle. What a blessing that the four exact books I wanted to buy were included in the stash. Coincidence? I think not. We call those "tithing blessings" when the very thing you are wishing for falls into your lap for free (or for 25 cents, almost free). That kind of thing happens a lot to me and I am very grateful.

Hello World!

And here we are with our very own new blog. We like being in Alaska, but sometimes are sad that we are so far away from our friends and family. We decided to start this blog to post news and pictures every Sunday to keep our family members involved in our life. Hopefully y'all will start blogging too so we can keep updated on your lives also!

So what's going on with us this week? Our computer bit the dust on Monday (most likely a fried motherboard) so I am currently using Milan's laptop (Milan is Chris's brother, staying with us for the summer). We had a nice Sabbath today. We walked to church (as usual) and didn't even get wet. It has been nice and dry all week. Maya & Sophie joined us during sacrament meeting and stayed through the rest of church (Sarah and Jesse had planned a scuba excursion and their babysitter was sick). Jefferson & Lola had fun with their cousins at church. After church we had an outing out to Hans & Amy's house to celebrate Hans's birthday (friends of the family). Sarah, Jesse, and family were there also, so we got to see them twice in one day. What a treat! It has been such a busy summer. Last summer we were pretty good about getting together on Tuesday nights for some family fun, usually barbecues at the beach. But this summer we have all been so busy. Well, mostly Sarah & Chris. Right now it is 10pm on Sunday and Chris is out at ATA doing some emergency brake jobs on four jeeps. This is Chris's part-time job that he does on evenings & weekends. Let's just say that we don't see him at home very often. This madness should stop by the end of September when the cruise ships stop bringing all the crazy tourists that take the jeep safari tour and decide to roll their jeeps into the ditch. Oh, and ride their brakes.

Joy has been busy just chasing around Jefferson & Lola this summer. She has also been picking up some violin students (and one cello student). Teaching music lessons is a new thing that the community begged her to start (there aren't many options here for music teachers). Occasionally she also finds some time to sew. Her online shop is pretty empty, but she has been helping some friends make some stashes of cloth diapers as they decide to make the switch from disposables (yay!). She also is working on a wedding dress for her neighbor who will be getting married in September.

Jefferson is doing great in the underwear club, yeah! He also loves to cut paper (that's what he's doing right now, if only he would also love to pick up all the little tiny scraps of paper that are left in his wake). He knows his alphabet and is progressing well down the road to reading. Today he told me to write his name, and he told me it was spelled "J-E-F-E-F-E-F-E-J". Pretty close!

Lola is as cute as ever and getting so grown up. Her hair is getting longer, but Jefferson still think she has "boy hair". She is running all over the place and constantly busy with her little projects. Her projects usually involve paper and pens, I think she will be an artist.

Well, it's late and I think I just heard Chris pull up in the car. Sorry this is a pretty lame blog post. Next week we will post pictures and make it all pretty!