whewfffshaaaaahhh……………

I am not certain that is a word, but it should be.  I think it is a verb, the action it describes is that thing that happens to a big fluffy pillow when you lay your head down on it.  There is an immediate output of air from the pillow and then the outflows slows down and your head sinks to just the right level and…. ahhhh.

That is exactly how I felt this afternoon when Dave got home after 3 weeks away:  whewfffshaaaahhh…..  I gave him a kiss and promptly laid down on the couch and took a 3 hour nap while he played with the kids.  whewfffshaaaahhhh. 

I haven’t posted in quite a while, kept meaning to, there has been so much to talk about, so much that has been going on around here.  Perhaps that is why, SO MUCH has been going on around here.  I have always been a fairly busy person, there have been times in my life where I have been too busy, taken on too many things, said yes too many times.  But, in the last few years, I have been able to break that cycle, I have gotten alot more intentional about what I commit myself to, and have stopped trying to do it all.  I found that I am a much better mother, wife, daughter, friend, co-worker when I set those limits. 

So how did the last 6 weeks get so crazy that the only thing I could say “no” to was my blog? 

I am not sure.  But boy howdy, has it been crazy.  It has been really fun too, terribly fun, the best kind of fun, late nights and busy days spent with people I love, days spent out in the sun, etc etc.  But now, the reset button has been hit and things are going back to regular speed instead of hyper-speed. 

the kids and I came back from our trip, a grand 3 weeks it was, and they only had 5 weeks of school left.  Those last weeks are filled with field trips and projects and parties and meetings.  Kjell was gone more than he was home, having a 6th grade camping trip that took the majority of one week, then a youth group retreat the next week, followed by yet another overnight trip later that week with school.  Broder had numerous field trips to concerts and plays and nature walks, even little Sunny got in on the act.  Then it was city wide clean up day, then Sunny’s Daisy troop had their night at the zoo.  And that took us to May 21.

In and amongst the fun both boys and the mama(that would be me) ended up with strep throat, lucky me, I got it 2x.  I lost a couple days in there somewhere.  I messed up my left knee as well, went to the Dr and he said ‘you’re getting old, kind of fat, and there is the beginning of arthritis.  Lose some weight, and buy large bottles of ibuprophen” 

I had joined weight watchers a couple weeks before the Dr appointment but I did stock up on the drugs at his suggestion, and the WW is working, slowly.  I have lost about 15 lbs, and have a long long way to go, but eventually…

On Memorial Day, Cathy, Jim and Kajsa Stanley-Erickson flew into town and we spent the next 10 days eating and laughing and staying up way too late wishing we all lived closer to each other.  It was so wonderful to have that time with them and to get to know Kajsa.  What a delightful little kid, and boys does she ever have great parents!   We got a camping trip in and everything. 

Starting with Memorial Day and for the next 17 days, we had company non-stop.  On 2 different occasions the bed and floor space at the Lawrence Hostel was completely full and an annex was erected in the back yard (other people call it a tent, but I think annex sounds so much better).  Over that time period we  had 15 people from all over staying/visiting at our place.  We made endless batches of eggs for breakfast, thanks in large part to some of our guests who brought us several dozen farm fresh eggs, yum yum.! We put the backyard fire pit to good use introducing many of our friends and visitors to the joys of camp pies and smores with reese’s peanut butter cup centers. 

 the Stanley-Ericksons, the Bruces(who didn’t stay at our house but counted as visitors anyway since we hadn’t seen them in ages and they did spend the day with us), good friends from Kenai who based out of our place for a week while they helped to rebuild a deck for a woman who couldn’t do that on her own, Roy and Dorothy, my aunt and uncle who had a few days with us before departing on a cruise to celebrate their 50 years of wedded bliss, and Emma and Barret, the darling couple we met while camping in Seward who spent  a night in our backyard and gifted us with several pounds of chocolate on their departure(these are good people!).  It was great fun, and truly exhausting. 

Dave was with us for most of the Stanley-Erickson visit, then it was back to work for him.  He came home for 26 hours a couple of weeks ago, just enough time to go to dinner with Roy and Dorothy, have lunch with the Bruces the next day and hop on a plane to Texas where he spent the next 2 weeks in a series of training classes. 

Last Monday I got a surprise call from Carol Lawrence, my beloved mother in law, and the kids and I spent the next 2 afternoons getting in a little Grandma time.  That was an unexpected bonus to our week! 

the weather has been great, we have been biking to church a bit, and spending as much time outside as possible.  The house is a disaster, but that is ok, it will rain soon enough and the floors can get done then. 

Over the next few weeks, we don’t have visitors scheduled, but we have stuff going on.  Just before Dave left for Texas we bought a boat and this weekend we will be putting it in the water for the first time.  Pretty exciting stuff.  I am hoping to get comfortable trailering the thing so we can use it even when Dave is gone.  We are going to head out of town to a couple of lakes north of here and camp and practice practice practice, driving the boat, putting it in the water, getting it out of the water, back in the water, etc etc.  We hope to find a good camp spot on the far side of some lake and settle in for a day or 2. 

Over the 4th of July, the kids and I will be joining friends for a trip to Chicken, Alaska.  Never been to Chicken, but I hear it is a great place to visit, and supposedly there is a large German tourist component there, so perhaps the kids will get to practice their language skills a bit. 

July 15th we head to Haines, Alaska, Dave will be with us on this trip.  We are going to visit Dave’s folks and spend some time playing on the beach, and relaxing with the Alaska side of the family. Haines is a lovely town and it will be very fun to be there. 

Then it is back home, for the last month of summer.  the kids start school again in late August, too soon if things keep going at this pace!  there is lots of fishing to do in that month.  And then starts hunting season.  Dave is hoping to take the boys on a float trip and “catch a moose” as Sunny would say.  I am thinking that I will make a trip to one of Alaska’s hot springs while the guys are gone, anyone want to join me?

What a change from last summer, the packing and moving and medical that defined our lives for those months last year. 

I am so thankful for the flexibility that my little job offers, being able to take off and do all these things.  I am thankful too, for Dave’s schedule, even though he is away much of the time, when he is home, he is not bound to the office. 

 And I am so thankful for God’s provision, the bounty He has provided us, so far beyond what we could have ever hoped for, in the form of good jobs that allow us to give and play, and better yet, our fabulous loving friends and family!

Whewfffshaaaahhh….. yep, that’s it, life is good.

UPS fun….

This afternoon the UPS guy came by with a little box of joy for the Lawrence household.  Well, ok, it was a box of joy for me and Dave, as it was a shipment of wine.  The UPS guy is pretty friendly, and we get a lot of UPS shipments (not all wine, don’t panic, Mom), and he often chats for a moment.  I find out neat stuff about the neighbors, several others get wine shipments too, apparently our neighborhood has about the highest per capita wine deliveries.  I think that is because we are all so sophisticated and urbane.  That must be it.  Lots of other book lovers in the are as well, judging by the number of Amazon.com boxes. 

So, today, I meet Mr UPS at the door, and he hands me my wine box(not to be confused with box wine, although some of that is not too bad).  We say nice things about the weather and the upcoming weekend. 

Then he says:   ”so, do you work?” (is it unusual to find someone at home EVERYTIME a package is delivered?). 

And I respond:   ”no, not really” (too hard to explain the working 12 hours a week thing, it doesn’t really count as work). 

And he says:  “oh, because you’re rich?”

And I am thinking:  well that would explain the tiny house, 12 year old minivan and 17 year old pickup

But instead I say:  “No, because I am lazy.”

Dropped jaw, stunned silence.

And finally:  “Well, ummm, you’re honest.”

Birthday party….

All of my siblings and my parents live in the greater Minneapolis area.  We live in Anchorage.  There are about 4000 miles between the 2 cities. 

This makes getting together for birthdays and holidays a bit of a  challenge. 

I was feeling a bit sad that I had missed out on so many things over the past 8 months and really wanted to celebrate SOMETHING while in  Minnesota. 

So we had a birthday party:  for all the cousins.  It was a ball.

Mom and I went and got cards for all the kids.  Lucy picked up Dairy Queen gift certificates.  A cake was ordered, ice cream procured.  And we partied. 

We started out by having everyone write on everyone elses’ card.  It was very fun, each kid got a card that was signed by all of their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents on the Showalter side of the family. 

We sang “Happy Birthday” and found that it takes a lot longer when you have to run through 13 names at the “happy birthday dear…” part of the song.

That night somewhere between 5 and 5000 cousins spent the night at my folks house.  It was as it should be!

One week later, waiting to go to the airport…

Michelle and baby Alex leave today.  It has been a busy and fun fun fun week.   We managed to have a party on her first night here.  Stayed up way too late laughing and talking with friends.  On Wednesday afternoon we trekked out to the Valley to descend on friends I insisted she meet.  We left all the kids with my friends’ teenage daughter and went to a coffee shop where we laughed and laughed until our sides hurt.  Thursday found us shopping, Michelle is a power shopper, her ability to find the unusual at a bargain is truly admirable. 

Friday we drove to Soldotna so Michelle and a dear friend of mine could meet face to face.  My friend and Michelle have been reading each other’s blogs for sometime now, and recently started chatting via Facebook.  It was very fun to watch them interact.   I really love it when the people I treasure get to meet each other. 

We stayed up WAY WAY too late on Friday night, eating truffles, drinking coffee, playing cards and solving the world’s problems.  The 7 kids played well together and overall, it was a success!

Saturday was a lovely day, we took off from Soldotna and drove back to Anchorage with the sun shining the whole way.  Saw 7 bald eagles, 3 Dall sheep, and when we got back to Airport Heights, 1 moose.  The mountains were glorious, the conversation was fabulous….

Sunday we went to church, and then to Sunny’s ski lesson.  After visiting with a couple of people from school in the chalet, we buzzed over to a sledding hill and took little Alex sledding for the first time.  he was not entirely sure what to think of the experience.  He did enjoy watching my boys rocket down the hill, but I got the impression he would have been ok if he was watching that scene from somewhere a bit warmer.

Today has been a quiet day, doing laundry and packing bags, the baby is a bit worn out and Michelle is ready to get back to her other kids, and Lonnie.  My kids went back to school today, last week was Spring Break, everyone is falling back into the rythym of life. 

I don’t think there was a night this last week where I got to bed before midnight, and a few where it was much much later.  But it was worth every bit of sleep deprivation! 

Michelle and I grew up together, but as adults we have only seen each other a few times.  I have been here in Alaska most of the time and she has been in Mexico.  Occasionally our paths have crossed on visits to Minnesota.  But this kind of time, we have never spent together.  We have talked for years about doing something like this, and now, we have, and it has been great. 

Next stop, Egypt, to visit our cousin Kim.  It is the Showalter cousin worldwide tour.

6 day weekend…

School was closed Wed-Fri this week due to the icy road conditions.  things just keep melting.  Parts of Anchorage have been registering temps around 50.  It is crazy. 

The kids have been enjoying this unexpected break, we have all stayed up too late, tonight we watched a movie together.  Ok, the kids watched, I fell asleep.  But, we were in the same room together.  Quality family time.

We have had another dog with us this week, and that has been fun.  Her name is Osa, and she is darling, as little and skinny as Entropy is big and thick.  Aside from one tussle over a biscuit, they have gotten a long really well, even taking a run around the neighborhood together to chase a moose.  Tracking them down was the best cardio workout I have had in a long long time.  It is amazing what running on ice will do for your core, all that twisting and turning and trying to stay upright.  Who needs Pilates?

Anyway, here is a picture of the little girl dog.  She is a cutie.  Right at the back of her head she has a cow-lick and her hair is always sticking up a bit.  I think that is my favorite part about her. 

Okay, here is another one, in this picture you can see the little tuft of hair sticking up right between her ears at the top of her head.  Darling.

 

I’ll take another picture of the house and lack of snow tomorrow. 

Osa goes home tomorrow, we will all be a little sad.

Lots of snow, very little plowing, lots of rain= ICE ROADS!!!!

We got our first snow on October 1, and essentially we have had snow since that day.  It is my understanding that Alaska often gets snow in the winter, so you would think the city of Anchorage would be rather efficient when it comes to plowing streets. 

That is not the case.  I have been told there is a “system” for getting the roads plowed in Anchorage, and from my observation it goes like this:

“Sometimes we will plow the roads, and other times we won’t.  If there is a lot of snow at any one time, we promise to get to your road within 3 days.  If there is a light covering of snow we will be out there in a couple of hours and we will drag the grater along the pavement showering sparks.”

I live less than 3 miles from downtown Anchorage.  This is not a remote area.  After 3 days, there have been hundreds of cars driving over the snow on the streets and you know what happens then…yep, snow gets packed down. 

Well, we have had a lot of snow this winter, and many many days where the roads were not plowed (at a major intersection near our house there was an ice blob in the turn lane that was 8 inches tall at it’s peak, lovely).  Consequently, there was about 2 inches of packed snow on any of the side streets in town. 

On Tuesday evening, after 2 weeks of below zero temps (way below, -20-30, warming all the way up to -15 during the day), a Chinook wind blew in.  These happen once in a while, and they warm things up.  This one REALLY warmed things up. 

Overnight the temps rose to 40+.  and it started raining, and blowing, and raining some more. 

Guess what happened.  Uh huh, things started to melt, and fast.  Well, except the 2 inches of really hard packed ice on our roads.  that just got covered with an inch or so of water.  During the day.  Then at night, the temp has been dropping again, to about 32+, just enough to freeze. 

So, we haven’t had school for the last 2 days, and no one is going anywhere.  The mail hasn’t even been delivered in our neighborhood. 

Tonight it is supposed to rain and then snow as the temp drops into the low to mid 30’s overnight.  Right now it is 44 and raining. 

I live in East Anchorage, a little ways in from the ocean, so we get a sheltered a bit from the winds and extremes of this Chinook, but a friend on the Hillside said that the winds in her neighborhood was blowing steady at about 60 miles per hour, with gusts over 100 mph.  Our winds are holding it down a bit here, just about 30mph.

So here is a picture of the road in front of my cute little house:

Our cute little house, part 2…

The house is still cute, that hasn’t changed, but in the last 48 hours we have gone from LOTS of snow in our yard and on our roof, to very little, as you can see in the above picture. 

Crazy, crazy weather.

Our cute little house…

Baby it’s cold outside…

and yet, the dog still must be walked. 

If you look carefully you can see the ice on my eyelashes. 

Like the bags under my eyes?  Sunny was up at 4:30am, because she was SO excited to get back to school after break. 

Snowzilla…

a few blocks from our house is guy who really seems to love life.  He is a bit eccentric, collecting the odd car and refrig to decorate the lawn.  He would not do well in a sub-division with a lot of covenants.  In Airport Heights (our little piece of Anchorage), however, he thrives. 

For the last few years, from what we understand, he has been making a giant snowman in his front yard.  This creation has been dubbed “Snowzilla” and had made national and international news.  People drive by all day and night to see this thing, and take pictures.  Well, apparently this got a little old for some of the neighbors and a complaint was filed with the city.  The city cited the guy, told him to take Snowzilla down or face some fines.  So, he destroyed the snowman and that was that. 

Or not. 

Within a couple of days, Snowzilla was re-born, bigger than ever.  When questioned, the guy just responded that he had now idea how Snowzilla was re-built, but the “the elves must have worked all night long”.

I have long wished that I could live just this side of the law, it seems like so much fun.  But alas, I was raised Lutheran, in Minnesota, so all hope for that is lost, I remain firmly rooted in guilt and worry.  

There is just enough rebel in me, however, to cheer for this guy and his Snowzilla.  Nearly each night, the dog and I walk by and I wave my hand in salute to the guy watching from the window of the house over which Snowzilla stands guard.