Contented Chaos

Marriage

2011-09-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

We got word this week that Bethany is betrothed. Hard to believe our youngest daughter is the first to catch the eye of a handsome young man and receive an offer of marriage.

The boy in question is one of their little buddies at Little Bears. We've heard about "K" before, usually in adoring tones and usually about his mad dancing skills. I've met K and agree that he's a cutie. Little did I know that underneath the golden curls and sweet smile dwelt the heart of a Romeo.

Apparently Abigail was a close second choice, with K announcing that he wanted to marry both Doepken girls. Bethany put her foot down, however, and told him he could only choose one of them. And somehow, she managed to be the one.

I'll keep you all posted on when the big day will be. Sometime closer to 2036, I hope!

I Spy?

2011-08-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

I'm usually the one who seeks the easiest route to dinner when it's my turn to make it, whether it's leftovers, pasta and sauce or quesadillas. Tonight, Jim pulled a "julie" and suggested an easy dinner: a trip to Silvertip Grill. We had a groupon that ~~was burning a hole in our pocket~~ needed to be printed out, so off we went (minus Samuel, who is having his belated birthday/movie/sleepover party at Jim's parents' rental cabin tonight).

As we waited for our meals*, the little girls, Jim and I played I Spy.

You surely know the game. "I spy with my little eye something that is..." and name a color. Now, to play the game fairly (and truthfully), you really should 'find' something and keep that thing in mind when you state the color and answer the 'is it...' questions.

Bethany seemed to do that. Abigail, not so much. Her replies to the 'is it...' questions seemed a little fishy at times. Like she decided to change her answer to favor one 'player' over another. That one player was usually me.

Finally, during one of her turns I called her on her tendency to shift her answers. I asked her to pick one thing and one thing only, to which she replied "I don't think in my head!"

Ah, well, that explains it!

*which was, if you're curious: french toast for the older girls, grilled cheese for Bethany, chicken tenders for Abigail, burger/salad for me, taco salad thing for Jim

First Camping Trip with Short Louds

2011-08-03T01:12:00.006-08:00

This was going to be it! The summer we finally took the little girls on their first camping trip. (Jim calls them The Short Louds occasionally...the name fits.)

Only we weren't making it happen. We had 'post school year de-stressing' and lots of baseball games (as you know, if you read this blog) and my Tuesday night classes thrown in there and then Forest Fair and my parents' final days of visiting and then ... oh wait! We didn't really have anything else for a couple of weeks besides getting together with some dear friends who were up visiting parents.

When our friends suggested going camping together, I thought it would be a great combination of camping and hanging out. Schedules were cleared, plans were made and the countdown began. The little girls were pretty excited about the whole thing and kept asking how many sleeps till we went camping.

I put the tent up the day before we went, to check for any gaping holes or nasty odors. It had been at least six years since we've been camping, after all, and I had to make sure it hadn't deteriorated to the point that we'd be eaten alive by mosquitoes or dripped on if it rained.

Thankfully, the tent was intact. Packed away with several dead bugs, but intact. And that was a very good thing. Because it started to rain when we were about 20 minutes away from our campsite. And it rained while we debated about setting up the tent now or when the rain might slack off. And it rained while we caught up with our friends.

Thankfully, it stopped raining after a little while and we were able to set up the tent, explore the Trail River Campground a bit and enjoy some conversation around the campfire. The rain abated just about the time that Susannah broke down and donned a stylish black trash bag over ~~her~~ (my) ineffective rain coat. And yes, this little coincidence meant that we requested that she keep said trash bag on, even though it was not raining. :)


Oh yes, she rocked the trash bag raincoat!

The men were all about finding more wood to keep the fire going, and Jim and our friend David came back with a huge log to contribute to the firewood stash. Problem was they had to cut it down a little. With a hand saw. And maybe a hatchet (not sure if it was used or not). Dave mostly worked on sawing while Jim mostly worked on balancing. Or something like that:

What Jim was really doing was keeping one end of the log 'secured' while Dave tried breaking off the other end, after sawing through it most of the way. It didn't really work, other than entertaining those of us watching. (I still think those two could be in the lumberjack show at the AK State Fair.) Eventually, Jim just started throwing the log down onto the other log and it did break off. More firewood for us!

We enjoyed a traditional campfire meal of hot dogs and s'mores and talked some more.

Staying close to the fire for food and for warmth.


Sometime after dinner: thrilled faces!

I had to add this one. Dave's face is rather...interesting.

She really was enjoying the s'more!

How bizarre...the rest of the post has disappeared. I had more photos, more about little boats the kids made, etc. Guess I'll have to rewrite this one when I get a chance. Sorry!

Forest Fair

2011-07-16T20:09:00.003-08:00

I've written plenty about Forest Fair in the past, so I'm sure all my readers (yes you, Dave!) are waiting for this year's rundown of FF fun.

Friday, July 1, was the first day of the Fair this year and it was a rainy, cloudy, chilly day. Friday is always a good day to hit the booths because it usually isn't crowded and everyone has full inventories. And the weather meant even fewer Friday fair-goers. I scored a new utensil crock in my favorite color scheme from Irwin Pottery (Alaskan Summer 2, if you must know) and I also worked the t-shirt shack that evening. Always a highlight of my fair experience.

Moriah and Susannah decided to make and sell duct tape wallets and recycled juice pouch totes again. This year, though, because they were 13, they had to buy a 'real' booth space. It was at a greatly reduced rate, thankfully, and was at the very end of one of the newer loops at the fair. Their spot made them nervous about whether or not people would actually come all the way down the loop, but it ended up being just fine and they saw plenty of traffic. They made almost $500, too. Not a bad haul for a couple of teenagers.

At some point on Friday, a friend of theirs took a card, wrote her name on it and taped it to the canopy. Then another friend wrote + and her name and taped it up. Then another friend and another...and so on and so on (isn't that from a shampoo commercial?). Anyway. Turns out that even perfect strangers were intrigued by this and wanted to add their names to the growing collection. By the end of the fair, 50 people had taped up their names. Ah, the randomness of Forest Fair. Not nearly as random as the weird couple walking around dressed as rabbits and carrying a rabbit 'baby' (hand puppet) or the guy wearing only a Speedo and a cowboy hat (ewww), but random enough.

Saturday morning was the Forest Fair parade and as usual, over half of our family was involved in some way. Jim wore a lovely fish and marched proudly with the Lions Club.

The little girls dressed as princesses (Ariel and Cinderella) and marched with their Summer Playground buddies. Oh, what a thrill to throw candy to the masses!

And, as usual, Samuel donned the ever-so-tasteful (or tasty?) ice cream suit to ride on the Ice Cream Shop's float.

We enjoyed great food (DJ's cookies, cheesy spinach bread and corn fritters for me!), great music (Melissa Mitchell, Rogues and Wenches and Hobo Jim) and plenty of chances for little girls to improve their hula hooping skills.

Bethany shaking her tail feathers


Abigail whirling while twirling

We even captured a good picture of this nice couple that was walking around the fair together:

All in all, a wonderful weekend.

The rest of the (baseball) story

2011-07-16T19:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, baseball is finally over. It's actually ended more than two weeks ago but somehow it feels like it was just yesterday. That could be from the overload of a lot of games in a short amount of time, but whatever the case, we were glad to end our late-afternoon drives into Anchorage. Don't get me wrong, the games were fabulous and it was a joy to watch each and every one. But daily trips into Anchorage and sitting on bleachers and being tense over plays and batting and fielding...well, it kinda wears one down. Or more than one.

Absolutely ZONKED out.

On the plus side of multiple-trip-mania, having little girls who are absolutely exhausted can provide a smidge of entertainment:

Didn't expect Cousin Itt's cousin to come to the game!

As the last couple of tournament games wound down for Moriah's team, they continued to play hard and really gave it their all. The Cubs made it to the championship game(s), winning the first to force the second in a double header thriller. If those kids had had a little more rest and their best pitchers (as the team from the 'winners' bracket had), I do believe they may have pulled off a victory. But really, what they achieved was amazing and we were all incredibly proud of how they played and how they conducted themselves throughout the tournament.

Moriah was able to pitch once more. Literally. Once. She threw a pitch that was hittable, the batter popped it up and it was caught for the final out in the bottom of the sixth inning of the final game.

It was clear that her team was running out of steam (yeah, that rhymes), but they still set up an incredible opportunity in the top of the seventh. They started the inning four runs behind and one run had come in. With two outs making everyone nervous, two more players got on base and the 'home run hitter' came up to bat. It was quite exciting, and cautious optimism had crept in just a bit. The batter hit a deep fly ball...waaayyyyyy back...that was caught. Just a few feet from the fence. It was a 'awwwww' moment for our team but boy was that kid who caught it justifiably thrilled with his running catch.

If the Cubs had to lose, they at least did it in a way that showed they came to play to the very end. They took second place in the tournament and have every reason to be absolutely proud of the way they played through that tournament.

Thanks for memories, guys!

Baseball, the extended version

2011-06-28T18:12:00.000-08:00

Moriah took on quite the challenge this summer. She decided to play Little League again this year. That in and of itself wasn't the challenge, as she's played Little League for several years, and had great fun and success while doing it. But this year, because Moriah is 13, she had to play at the Junior level...on a bigger field...with bigger pressures...and no other girls in the entire Juniors league.

Compared to most of the players on her team, Moriah is not as skilled and usually only plays about 3 innings per game. She has been in right field most of the games with a few departures to third base (once) and second base (twice, I think). Moriah's gotten some hits, she's fielded pretty well and has been an asset to her team as well as fun to watch. This year's "Girdwood" team has almost half their players from Anchorage and the team has been pretty good, with more wins than losses.

Per this blog post title...her baseball season has been extended. Her team is currently playing in a double-elimination tournament, working their way through the loser's bracket (darn that Dimond West team who beat them that first night!). They played three games in a row last week and played again last night. They play tonight and possibly tomorrow and two games on Thursday, if they keep winning.

Because of their survival in the tournament, Moriah just added a new position to her repertoire last night...pitcher! She pitched in the minors and majors but has not had an opportunity to do so this year. There are good pitchers on her team and she hasn't been tapped to work on her pitching.

With the advancement through the tournament and restrictions on how much and often youth can pitch, the team is in danger of burning through their good pitchers and jeopardizing their chances of continuing to win. Jim got a call over the weekend to work with Moriah on her pitching, which caused no little excitement around here. She practiced a bit at a junior field in Anchorage and then worked with another lefty pitcher who gave her some helpful tips. Then, during last night's game, she was 'called up' (is that the right baseball terminology?) to pitch.

Now, don't get too excited, because her pitching stint came at the bottom of the fifth, with one out, with her team ahead 20-6 and no danger at all of losing the game. But, she did pitch pretty well, made one of the last two outs with a quick scoop and throw to home and in general did her mom and dad quite proud!

Here are a few photos from last night:

Got to first on a walk, ready to steal to second.

The wind up during her warm up...

the throw...


the follow through!

Moriah's 'save' last night not only 'saved' the win, but it 'saved' other more seasoned pitchers from being unavailable in more critical games. I love that she was able to contribute to her team during the tournament in this way.

On another, non-baseball note, after the game the little girls (who came by the field after watching Cars 2 with Papa and Granna) ran to the slide that is among the AOR ball fields. It's a fast slide and they love to visit it, whenever they go to a game.

Whee! Abigail slides.

Bethany's turn!

We'll be heading back into town soon (I'm 'in class' while writing up this blog post...don't tell my teacher) to watch tonight's game. And Moriah just may pitch again tonight.

Play ball!

Catch up post: Bethany's feet

2011-06-18T00:54:00.001-08:00

Okay, this bit of news is old but still good news.

But first a small retrospective, if you'll bear with me.

As I mentioned in this post a couple of years ago, we felt a little blindsided about the clubfoot diagnosis during my pregnancy with Abigail and Bethany. After some research, we came to understand that clubfoot wasn't that big of deal and it appeared that the treatment for most clubfoot kids would be 'short' and successful when using the Ponseti method (and if you follow that link, the current photo looks a lot like Bethany's feet did at birth, only hers were even 'flatter'). We anticipated the best and weathered some stressful weeks while she was casted and corrected and had minor surgery down in Seattle and embarked on her brace wearing protocol.

Bethany looking stinkin' cute in her brace

Once we settled into the 'sleepy shoes' era, things were pretty smooth and we followed the protocol as nearly as possible. Once she turned four, we had high hopes and basically expected her to be released from her Ponseti brace. She had been wearing it for approximately 12 hours a night for the last three or so years and we were all ready for her to be done with it.

So...way back in February, Bethany had her yearly check up with Dr. Mosca, the 'foot guy' who comes up from Seattle once or twice a year to see club feet kiddos. Dr. Mosca watched her walk, watched her run up and down the hallway (Abigail had to do it first because Bethany had an attack of the 'I won't do anything for you because I've become incapacitated by my shyness'), manipulated her feet this way and that and proclaimed her fully corrected, giving us the happy news that she indeed could stop wearing her brace.

I'll admit that there was some trepidation on my part when he said "see you in a year" for her next checkup, because relapse does happen occasionally. But as far as I can tell, her feet still look great and she's doing just fine.

On our way home, I wanted to stop at a store. This was to try to purchase something I had promised Bethany now and then over the years once she stopped wearing her brace. Jim and the babes stayed in the car and I went into a Fred Meyer, hoping against hope that all of the winter clothing hadn't been completely put aside for springtime fashions.

Pause for a mini-rant:

Why oh why don't chain stores understand that we Alaskans need our winter clothes available for sale a little longer than most other places in the US? Seriously...bathing suits in January? With several feet of snow still on the ground? Geesh.

Okay, I've said my piece. Thank you.

Anyhoo...thankfully, I found what I was looking for and a very excited Bethany donned these that very night:

Just look at that pleased, cheesy grin!

What was so special? Well, these were Bethany's very first pair of footed pajamas. Ever. (Okay, maybe that's not totally true since she did wear those footed sleeper things as a tiny baby, but definitely her first footed pjs that she made the conscious decision that she really wanted to wear!) I have to admit that it made me choke up a little, seeing her excitement over footed pjs. But really, after watching Abigail wear them over the years and mentioning wanting a pair, it was cool to finally give her that small thing.

Hokey, yes. But something I'll (and possible she'll) always remember as we said goodbye to her brace? Absolutely!

Catch up post: Wonderland

2011-06-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

This year's school play was called Wonderland, performed on April 13 and 14. It was sort of Alice in Wonderland but with additional characters and centered around a chess game theme. Susannah landed one of the lead roles as Alice, and she was on stage for virtually the entire play. She sort of stayed put and the 'scenes' evolved/revolved around her with minimal props and scenery. It almost felt stream of consciousness and didn't always seem to make full sense.

The other characters were entertaining and it was fun to see them interact with Susannah's Alice. A few times, Susannah guided her fellow actors to their correct lines and kept the play going smoothly. It was a pleasure to see her leadership and her two solos were beautiful.

Of course (by this mom's measure), the most entertaining 'side' character was Hatta, played by Moriah. She thought it would be a bigger role, like the Mad Hatter, and she had some momentary angst when comparing Alice's stage time with her character's stage time. Even though the role was smaller than she would have liked, Moriah totally played up her scenes and was a definite highlight of the play.

I will try to update this and put some photos on, but all I have right now is the video I took of the play. I'm not sure I'll post the songs they sang, but I might. The girls may have some photos from the play on their cameras, too....

Yeah, right...

2011-04-25T23:10:00.000-08:00

Huh...who would have thought? I didn't get caught up on blogging. I did go 'dark' on Facebook for Lent, which was a good thing. But I didn't get much blogging done. At all. Oops.

Since my last post (a month ago!), we have seen the girls perform in the school play, have watched my certificate/student teaching drama unfold, have gotten confirmation on some summer visitors and sent our two older daughters off to Washington, D.C. I'm sure other things have happened as well, but those jump to mind as the biggies.

Now that my semester is coming to an end and the school year is coming to an end, maybe I will get caught up. I have this awful feeling that approximately three people read this blog (one of them being my darling husband) and I'm guessing my inconsistency in posting is the main culprit. Let's see if I can fix that. Stay tuned....

Long, long ago...

2011-03-26T00:34:00.004-08:00

in a galaxy far, far away....

the younger generation of Doepkens also fell in love with Star Wars. Especially Susannah, who developed a huge crush on Han Solo. Yeah, we know. She knows. He's 'old' now. She doesn't care. He's cute in the movie and that's good enough for her. In fact, she's so enamored of the first (last?) three movies, Susannah has orchestrated two different movie marathons with her friends to introduce them to the joy that is gazing at Mr. Solo.

Susannah is currently at a friend's house, possibly watching part two (or five?) right now. Or maybe she's asleep, dreaming Han Solo dreams.

Anyway!

Samuel, Moriah, Jim and I all watched The Count of Monte Cristo tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. After the movie, we had a discussion about whether or not the movie followed the book (it doesn't completely, according to one of Samuel's friends who's read it....it's still on my mental reading list). Then, we had a discussion about the name of the friend who betrayed the 'count'. None of us could remember what it was, but we all knew that it wasn't whatever Samuel was saying it was.

That led us to imdb.com to look at the cast. Aha! Guy Pearce played Count Mondego. Jim (now James) Caviezel played the 'Count' of Monte Cristo (I swear I thought it was the Count of Monty Crisco, once upon a time). I followed various links to see what actors had been in what movies, thankfully satisfying Moriah's nagging suspicion that she had seen Guy Pearce in something else. Yes! an ad for The King's Speech.

What in the world does this have to do with Star Wars you ask? Good question! Somehow, and I truly don't recall the particular rabbit trail at this point, we looked up Mark Hamill's imdb listing. Did you know that he's been a hugely successful and prolific voice-over actor for tons (and tons!) of animated series and video games? Yep. Stickybeard and The Joker and some part on a Spongebob episode. Well, he has.

Anyway!

I scrolled way down to see what movies or shows he had been in right before he hit it big with Star Wars. And there it was, sandwiched between Corvette Summer and The Empire Strikes Back. Do you know what I am talking about? Do any of you have flashbacks from a childhood viewing of what I'm about to reveal? Okay. Here goes.

There was a Star Wars Holiday Special. In 1978. A TV movie, apparently starring Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones' voice. Seriously. Oh, and it also starred Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Diahann Carroll and (wait for it...) Harvey Korman!

Amidst all of the laughter and snorting, I went directly to Netflix to look for it. Sigh. Not there. Off to YouTube, where we found it, uploaded in segments. The 'channel' I found looked to have the 97 minute movie in five-minute pieces and we began to watch. And giggle. And chuckle. And wonder why in the WORLD anyone thought this was a good idea.

We ended up watching the next two (or three?) segments, cringing at the 'plot' and noting that the number of views for each segment kept decreasing. Smart people stop watching really bad movies when their eyeballs start to itch. Not us. What finally got us to stop watching was that it was after midnight and we had to get to bed.

But we always have tomorrow....

Competition

2011-03-20T00:29:00.000-08:00

The kids and I now have competition for Jim's attention. Possibly for his affection. Actually, I'm thinking that even Hurley-dog might have to worry.

It came in such an unsuspecting little box, looking so innocent, so generic. With very little fanfare, it arrived while we were all away from home. Maybe that was the plan all along? Sneak in, under the radar, and make its move.

Of course Jim was far away when it arrived. This new addition that he had sought after and dreamed about and squirreled money away for. I was cheeky enough to tease Jim by asking to play with this newcomer, never intending on usurping Jim's place as the first to establish a relationship with it. But I confess I did enjoy his somewhat anxious "I'd rather you didn't" response.

And now, Jim is fully engaged in acquainting himself with his new friend. In full-on grin-and-discovery mode. He's been home a little over an hour and I feel like chopped liver. Or something.

I know, soon, I'll come to accept this new addition to our family. Maybe even get to know it a little. If Jim will introduce me. We'll see about that one.

Welcome home, iPad.

Haircuts!

2011-03-15T23:57:00.002-08:00

I 'cut' Abigail's hair once. A while ago. And only because her hair was growing straight down into her face and you couldn't see what a cutie she was. So I did what any nervous-to-be-wielding-scissors-close-to-a-toddler's-face mom would do. I grabbed her hair, lifted it straight up away from head and face, and cut. Hey, it worked well enough. I could see her eyes afterwards.

But since then, Abigail's hair has grown with the exception of the small snip of 'bangs' she gave herself about a year ago. Bethany has never had a hair cut that I recall, although my brain seems to be recalling at least a desire to rid her of her baby mullet. I'm not sure I did anything about it, though.

Fast forward to about two months ago, when Abigail began asking for a 'haircut like Maile's'. The style in question was a bob, and a very cute one at that. Considering what a nightmare it could be to brush her long hair, the prospect of a short hair style was definitely appealing. But there was a small part of me that resisted, mostly because (if I am to be perfectly honest here) I coveted Abigail's hair. A little. Okay, a lot. Her silky, shiny, straight blond hair was right out of my curly-haired daydreams. Not only was I reluctant to cut that beautiful hair, but I also was reluctant to tote the little girls to Anchorage to get a haircut. Not my idea of fun on a Saturday.

Then a friend told me about a gal who comes to your house and cuts hair. For a very reasonable price. Okay...this may just work! Especially since Bethany and Moriah both started making requests for haircuts as well.

She came to my house with only a few days advance notice (waaaaay better than the gal who ~~cuts~~ used to cut my hair in Anchorage, who has a waiting list at least a month long) and quickly got to business. In no time at all, Abigail, Bethany and Moriah were shiny and shorn and her bill was only $30. For a haircut house call!

The results were totally worth it and totally adorable. I must say that I learned a new lesson that day: put newspaper or another something on the ground to catch hair. Otherwise it's a bear to clean up. (the price of doing business with someone who doesn't have an official place of business...cleaning up your own hair)

Abigail's first snip

Bethany's first snip

Abigail

Bethany

Their new 'dos make them look like real little girls now, not just preschoolers.
Eek! Where does the time go?

Fourth Birthday post with pics

2011-03-13T23:28:00.001-08:00

Now seems like a good time to post the few photos we have of the little girls' fourth birthday.

It was on a Monday, which is a Little Bears day and which meant they could bring some cupcakes to share with friends during snack time. Somehow, I was actually ahead of the game and made the cupcakes with enough time for the littles to help decorate them the night before.

The random blobs you see on the cupcakes? Well, those are princess-themed sprinkles that I had seen at the store and had squirreled away for a time such as this. The cupcakes were liberally covered with Cinderella's 'slippers', Snow White's 'apples', Sleeping Beauty's 'crowns' and little 'pearls' that, according to Abigail, are from Tiana (of The Princess and the Frog fame, if you're not as familiar with one of the newer princesses).

The beaming four-year-olds were treated to some wonderful off-key singing from their friends and then they were all off and munching the delicious cupcakes. Abigail and Bethany opted to stay a bit longer and play, so we left them there and I came home to work on the family birthday cake.

Abigail and Bethany were fairly convinced that they'd be having a party this year, since a couple of their little buddies had had parties. I quickly disabused them of that notion because I refuse to start that whole crazy-ness before any of my kids turn five. By then, they may be old enough to really get the Kris-Malecha-Party-or-Present option*, something introduced to me years ago and that I totally and completely LOVE. I did, however, tell them that they could invite over special family friends and they chose to invite NeNe (aka Lynné) and her two daughters.

The cake I made for them was definitely not my finest, but it was fun. They wanted a princess cake, with a castle, so I finagled one out of cake rounds and sugar cones. In the planning stages in my mind, the cake was going to be rectangular, but it just didn't end up that way. It did have a 'moat' with 'fish', a grassy area and a walkway leading up to the front castle entrance, though. Not too shabby.

No matter, Abigail and Bethany were thrilled and enthusiastically blew out the candles and ate their cake. And they also donated some of their plastic princesses to the cause, even though a couple of the princesses looked about half as tall as the towers on the castle.

And, FYI, the cone 'towers' were dipped in sparkly sugar...you just can't tell in the photos. Just sayin'.

Abigail


Bethany

They also opened some gifts that night and loved every single one. They played with the ice cream parlor toys that reminded them of what their big brother does at his job. They cuddled their new baby dolls. They built new structures with their Magna Tiles. And we had a hard time getting them to bed, away from all those cool toys!

All in all, a happy fourth birthday. Hard to believe that much time has passed since the day they were born.

*Our kids all have the option of a party OR a present from us. If they have a party, then it can be a 'big' one such as a roller skating party or bowling party. That, then, is our 'present' to them. If they choose a present, then it can be a 'big' one such as a wooden doll house or pierced ears/earrings. It's a great option and one that we will incorporate with the littlest Doepkens as soon as they are old enough to host a party.

Lenten motivation

2011-03-12T22:44:00.000-09:00

I just went 'dark' on Facebook for the remainder of Lent. A little late in getting started on that because I allowed my brain to go into complete vacation mode while we were in Hawaii. Now that we're home and settled back in somewhat, I figured it was a good time to follow through on my decision to give up one of the things that is wasting my time and keeping me from doing other things, like blogging here.

To echo something I wrote in a post a while back, I plan on trying to get at least a little caught up with what's gone on with our family in the last several months. I have no idea how quickly the posts will appear but I do know that without my Facebook distraction I should have a little more time on my hands.

For now, though, I'm heading to bed. The last two nights have been very light on sleep (see future posts for an explanation) and I am exhausted (even after a four-hour nap this afternoon!).

Nighty night.

The little girls are four!

2011-01-31T23:21:00.000-09:00

Happy Birthday Abigail!
Happy Birthday Bethany!

We love you both very much and hope you had a great birthday.

(Yeah, a real post with photos is forthcoming...I'm literally falling asleep at the keyboard and must obey my body's need for sleep!)

Bedtime Hell

2011-01-24T22:48:00.001-09:00

Abigail continues to be a child who really needs sleep. I can tell when she hasn't had a 'nap day' when I pick her up from Little Bears. And today she didn't get a nap.

By the time 7:45 rolled around, I was in the first steps of getting the little girls to bed. A much-welcomed phone call from Daddy slowed us a bit, but I was still hopeful that a smooth bedtime could be had.

My first clue that things might be rough came when Abigail refused to go upstairs and get pjs on and brush teeth before reading books. I steamrolled that decision anyway and went ahead on up, forcing her to follow me or miss books.

The next delightful interchange occurred over the choice of pjs. The two options held no appeal, but again I held fast and she chose the princess gown. She made it very *very* clear how unhappy she was, but the choice was made.

Bethany wasn't totally innocent at this point and was dithering and dallying herself. That's when I set the timer for 5 minutes and challenged them to get dressed and teeth brushed before it went off. The timer gambit may have been my fatal flaw in getting Abigail too wound up, but it did result in two little girls totally ready for books (even a potty stop, which I hadn't required quite yet).

Book reading was rough. Abigail didn't want to share my lap and hit and kicked out at me and her sister. After a warning, I turned away from her and read anyway. She realized I was serious and settled in for the story, looking sort of 'around' my side and staying put.

Songs were a little easier (but not completely peaceful), and I could tell her energy was waning. She snuggled during her song and got into bed when asked. Her breathing almost immediately deepened and she finally relaxed. By the time all the songs were done, she was murmuring her 'good nights' and she went off to la la land.

I love my daughters. But I have to admit I have a hard time 'feeling the love' at times. Like tonight, at the height of Abigail's tizzy.

Day with Susannah

2011-01-16T20:54:00.002-09:00

Susannah and I wore ourselves out yesterday with her 'big' Christmas present: a 'shopping spree' with Mom. We went out to Kohl's, where Susannah surprised herself by trying on and liking a sweater she would have normally passed by and pairing it with a cute ruffly tank top. Susannah found some cute jewelry to accessorize the new tops, too.

After a late lunch at Subway, where Susannah had one of *the* best sandwiches she's ever had, we hit Target. Susannah found another shirt, a cheap pair of velour lounge pants and a pair of flats, adding to her fashion stash.

The next stop was the Dimond Mall. We hit Aerie, Forever 21, Old Navy, DQ/Orange Julius, Auntie Anne's and the Calendar Store. Scored two great things at Forever 21 that has TONS of stuff to look at (and even Mom tried on something). The calendar store had all calendars 75% off and everything else was 50% off. I got some Buckyballs for myself for only $15.

She spent her final few bucks at our last stop, Borders, on last year's Newbery winner.

All in all, we had an awesome day of hanging out, fashion suggestions and general togetherness. Susannah shops sorta like I do, content to wander a bit, meander some, and take her time to look through stacks and racks to find treasures. We were both pretty tired by the end of the day, though, and spent about 10 hours out and about (including the two hours of driving).

I think I can get used to offering that kind of 'big' present to her every Christmas. A gift that gives joy to more than just the receiver isn't so bad!

Song lyrics

2011-01-09T18:37:00.000-09:00

Just a couple of samples of slight changes the little girls make to the songs they love. They don't make nearly as many changes as they did and get most of the lyrics correct at this point, but there are a few cute mistakes hanging on yet.

Brown girl in the rain, la la la la la...
Brown girl in the rain, la, la la la la la...
Brown girl in the rain, la la la la la...
Looks like a pudding in a plum plum plum!

Rudolph with the reddy shiny nose...

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!
So much fun it is to rhyme, Wun-ta (?) in his sleigh!

Old Macdonald had a farm,
EIEIO
On his farmer had a cow
EIEIO
With a moo moo there and moo moo there
everywhere everywhere a moo moo...

More dinner time fun

2011-01-06T21:00:00.000-09:00

And you didn't think that was possible, after my last post, did you? We-ell, let me tell you that dinner is seldom boring at our house. And almost never quiet.

Tonight's loudest entertainment came from the esteemed father of the household, who made interesting noises and faces with his dinner glass. He somehow inserted his lower jaw into the glass, creating suction with this mouth and a rather undignified-sounding noise along with it. The process was something like this: insert chin and mouth, pull down glass to create noise while making a weird face, pop the glass off his face and begin the whole thing again. It sure made the little girls giggle (and me, too).

Before and in between all of this glorious noise, Abigail was busy consigning 'titles' upon her big sisters. Moriah was a princess and Susannah was a...rabbit. ?? Then, Abigail further shared what she thought about her sisters. Moriah was awesome and Susannah was...stinky. Yep. Stinky. I have to say that I beg to differ because I don't find Susannah stinky. Moriah is indeed awesome and Abigail declared Daddy, Mommy and Bethany awesome as well, smart girl. Poor defenseless Bubby was at work, but Abigail eventually pulled him into the conversation and pronounced him as part of the Stinky club (and yeah, he's a teen-aged boy...she wasn't too far off the mark some days, to be honest).

Anyone send in the Dinner with the Doepkens pilot idea to TLC yet?

Reality show?

2011-01-03T22:38:00.001-09:00

Samuel posed an interesting idea tonight: a reality show called Dinner with the Doepkens. This was caused by the chaotic cacophony that came about after the core consumption of our comestibles was complete. (*snort* like my use of alliteration?)

Anyway! Jim made us a scrumptious meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and veggies tonight and the five older Doepkens had thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially the mashed potatoes, which were made with garlic salt (or just garlic?), cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese. Hearty and thick, with chunks of potato.... sigh. *licks chops*

Yes, yes, back to the story. We were trying to coax the little girls to eat more dinner and it began to get progressively noisier after that.

Perhaps Samuel's impression of a pterodactyl began the noise-fest. Squawking in Abigail's face, raising his arms in a 'wing-like' manner. Then snatching Bethany from her chair and airlifting her to the couch, pterodactyl-ing the entire way.

Perhaps describing the loud noises a student of mine makes just encouraged Jim to attempt and successfully emulate said noises. Very successfully. Gleefully so.

Perhaps the little girls thought adding their voices to the din would create some sort of harmony. They are certainly noisy enough on their own most days.

Perhaps Susannah was feeling left out and just had to read me a passage of a book she was engrossed in, having to speak louder and louder over her little sisters' squeals and squeaks.

In any case, the noise level made it near impossible to make (or hear) rational, calm conversation and that is when Samuel made the reality show comment.

Dinner with the Doepkens. Has a catchy ring to it. But would anyone dare?

Christmas Day

2010-12-31T12:56:00.004-09:00

I've written about Christmas Eve and I've blogged more in this last week than I have in the last two months (or three?). So, how about I keep the love coming and write another blog post? Wowsa!

Christmas morning came way too early, esp. since we had been up insanely late (yeah, still not admitting just how late). We were able to eke out a bit more sleep by snuggling in bed with Abigail, but couldn't put it off any longer once Bethany joined us. The little girls were all to ready for stockings and presents and it didn't matter that Mommy and Daddy were freakishly tired. The tree looked pretty with all of the gifts around it, though.

I made the kids sit on the stairs, even though there wasn't really anything to get ready. I was sorely tempted to lay down on the couch and doze a bit....
Here they are, waiting to come down. Note that Samuel looks like a zombie. Or something.

Stockings were first, as usual, before wading into the gifts. I always like to think we can open gifts up in an orderly fashion, enjoying each other's exclamations and looks of surprise or joy, waiting patiently, but it doesn't seem to work like that. At least it's not total chaos and the kids do tend to take note when someone is opening something.

The little girls were the biggest focus this year at the start of handing out the presents, with Samuel eagerly handing them his gifts and the big sisters ready to give theirs as well. Bethany especially seemed excited about her new Cinderella crown (and her new hair do dads from her stocking). She actually has two soft stretchy headbands criss-crossed on her head in addition to the crown.

The little girls got games, Magna-Tiles, books, stuffed animals and a few princess things, including a 'Sleeping Beauty' (non-Disney variety) dress for Abigail that caused a momentary pout from Bethany, who wanted a dress, too. Bethany actually gave me a pretty good stink eye when she opened a game instead of a dress-up dress, but got over it fairly quickly (besides, she has a pretty decent Cinderella dress already...no need for another one!).

A highlight of the morning for me was watching the littles open their princess dolls. Abigail got a Sleeping Beauty and Bethany got an Ariel. Just kidding. Bethany got a Cinderella. As if I could even think about purchasing another princess for her.

Abigail, if you notice in the photo, has her hands on the sides of her face. She was ecstatic and very enthusiastically ripped the paper from the box once she caught sight of what she was opening. These were purchased back in October or November, while on a Saturday-in-town shopping trip with the little girls in tow. Costco had the dolls and I knew that this might be my only chance to purchase them before they disappeared. So while Abigail was wailing about wanting the doll, I snuck back to buy them. And believe me, Abigail wailed for about the last half of our trip through Costco, begging me to buy the doll for her. She remembered that when she opened it and said something to the effect "you tricked me". Yep, honey, I did...because I love you and wanted to see this exact reaction.

The olders got some good gifts, too. Samuel and Moriah each got cameras for their upcoming trips, along with books and t-shirts. Susannah got a Wii game she asked for and some nice markers and a sketch pad for all of the neat designs she draws. I got my trekking poles I requested (for hikes up the mountain) and Jim got the promise of a bonsai tree shopping trip. I accidentally killed his last one and wanted to get him another. But if there is one thing Jim is, it's unpredictable about his choices. I wanted him to be able to choose the one he wanted, not necessarily replace it with the same kind.

Captain Obvious, to the rescue!

Sock Monkey slippers!


Wii game...for me? Just Dance 2!


Jim also got some cool stamps with the church's picture on them. They are 'legal' for use on USPS mail!

We had two yummy meals, too. Brunch with a dear friend that included pumpkin pancakes (YUM) and cinnamon chip bread french toast and dinner with just us that included some of our favorites. The biggie for me was the twice-baked potatoes, which went with the ham and pineapple pudding quite nicely.

Potato-y goodness

We also sang Happy Birthday to Jesus (even though December 25 is highly unlikely to be His actual birth date). Still, Christmas is a celebration of his birth, regardless of the actual date, so a birthday cake is always part of our meal on Christmas.

See those green things at the top? I tried to make a holly leaf shape. *giggle*

Jim is working on separating the ham into baggies...

and really hamming it up during the song! (ha? ha?)

There ya have it. Our Christmas in words and photos. We had a wonderful day together full of surprises, laughter and song.

This will be my last December post...Have a happy and safe New Year!

19 Years

2010-12-28T14:42:00.001-09:00

Our family of two was formed 19 years ago today, right around this time (accounting for the four-hour time difference and the fact that our ceremony started at 7:00 pm in Indiana). Over the years, our family has obviously grown, to this jumble of love and energy and laughter and noise.

My heart swells with joy and bliss and I truly thank God for the gift he gave me all those years ago.

Christmas Eve, continued

2010-12-27T22:32:00.003-09:00

I'm sitting here, watching Moriah and Susannah play a new Wii game and offering pointless advice. Because while I sort of get what to do, the girls really don't need my suggestions.

Anyway! Between the pageant and the first service at the church, we grabbed a pizza from the "A Bar" (Aurora Lounge) at the hotel and were able to choke down some dinner. You'd think that there would be plenty of time between a 5:00 service and a 7:30 service to have some dinner, huh? Well, after the actual pageant is over, by the time we have to get all of the costumes collected and folded and stored in the bags and bins and the candles put back into a box and the table and advent wreath stowed away and the electric keyboard carried downstairs and finish looking around for any random items that might have been left behind, it's fairly close to 7:00. And it just doesn't seem to occur to me to have anything going in the crock pot, until around 2:30 and by then it's too late to do anything because we have to be getting ready to go by around 2:55. (it is my hope that you get a sense of the crazy-ness with how jumbled this last paragraph was)

Between the 7:30 and 11:00 services there is a bit more breathing room, but not much. We're usually home by around 9:30, after chatting with folks and cleaning up in preparation for the 11:00 service. We also took a few moments to get a family photo taken:

Once we got home from the 7:30 service, it was time to open jammies and ornaments. We take a lot of care in choosing the ornaments for the kids every year, trying to find something that reflects an important event or something they currently are interested in. The girls were fairly easy, while Samuel presented a challenge (because there just aren't that many Debate-themed ornaments out there, if you must know). In the end, all five kids got an ornament that reflected something special for them and it was a lot of fun to see them open the pjs and find the ornament nestled inside. In fact, the pjs are the 'wrapping paper' on Christmas Eve, which makes it nice and easy to get each kids' things ready for opening.

Samuel's 'handmade' ornament*, which he loved!


Moriah got a guitar, which was as close to a ukulele** as I could get.

Susannah is making a funny face, but she loves her piggy*** ornament.

Abigail has a Sleeping Beauty**** ornament

Bethany has a Cinderella***** ornament

We got the little girls settled in their new fleecy, warm jammies and put them to bed. Then off to the 11:00 service went four of us, with Moriah and Susannah sporting their new pjs as well. That's a plus for this service...the kids are welcome to wear their pjs, esp. since the service ends near or after midnight.

I think that is about it for our Christmas Eve report. Except maybe to share how pathetically late we were up finishing the wrapping. Then again, maybe I'll keep that sad information to myself. Every year I vow that the wrapping will be done well before the 24th and every year, I'm doing it late into the night.

Someday I'll get my act together. Probably just in time for the little girls' last Christmas before they head off to college.

* Samuel's is a 'tub' with 'folders' and 'paper' inside, meant to represent the Rubbermaid tub full of information that he and his debate partner use for their debates to formulate their cases.

** Moriah won the first annual "Girdwood's Got Talent" back in October. She sang Hey Soul Sister while accompanying herself on her ukulele. It was good.

*** Susannah loves pigs and will not eat pork of any kind. So it was time to get an ornament reflecting this preference of hers.

**** Abigail's affection for Sleeping Beauty is undiminished and still as enthusiastic as ever.

***** Bethany's affection for Cinderella is equally undiminished and she often refers to herself as Cinderella.

Our Christmas

2010-12-26T11:38:00.001-09:00

As my Christmas gift to you, I'm actually writing a third December blog post. And possibly a fourth, if this one gets too long. Don't let it go to your head, though. This burst of generosity won't likely last once classes resume.

Christmas Eve was especially wonderful this year because we were officially in our new church. But before those two services, we had the annual Christmas Pageant up at the resort. The little girls were over the moon excited to be in the pageant this year.


Bethany and Abigail, lined up and ready to go!

I had high hopes that they'd do well as angels this year, based on their enthusiasm for their roles. They asked me daily when the pageant was, raring to wear their costumes and be part of the play. I wrote about our pageant experience last year and I am very happy to report that Abigail was a perfect angel. Really. She was an angel. And a perfect one. Stood up on stage, on her mark, with her hands folded 'in prayer' and stayed that way the entire time. What a difference from last year's reluctant donkey, huh? Bethany did quite well too, but did make a dash down to my seat so she could take off her shoes.

Walking to the stage.

The two services at the church were magical. The decorations managed to hide the fact that the sheet rock isn't truly finished and painted. (Jim has some great photos of the sanctuary on his blog, in more light, that you can check out here.) There were about 113 chairs set out and they were all nearly full for the 7:30 service. The service itself was familiar and traditional, but there was something about singing Silent Night at the end, all of us holding candles, with the lights turned low, that made me lose it. I made it through the first verse and then became rather verklempt and cried for the other three.

Here is Jim singing during Silent Night. Grainy photo, but it captures the warm, glowy atmosphere.

After the service, Samuel noticed my tears and asked me what was wrong. I replied that nothing was wrong but that everything was right. And it was. Around 100 voices raised in singing about the birth of our Savior (although 'silent' was probably not how that first night was!). Pretty awesome. And, to know that all of the things (Bibles, hymnals, chairs, altar, lectern, Christmas tree, etc) that were moved over for this service get to stay. That's even better. What a gift God gave to Jim this Christmas season!

I also went to the 11:00 service, thanks to Samuel's generosity. He stayed home with the little girls, who were sound asleep, and I got to go to the late service for the first time in a few years. Samuel said he'd use the time wisely and finish wrapping gifts. Instead he zonked out on the couch. The late service was not as widely attended but was still magical. We saw a couple of cool videos, sang a lot of carols, heard the Christmas story through scripture and sang Silent Night in candlelight, welcoming Christmas Day in style.

Between the two later services, the kids opened their pj/ornament packages. That'll have to be for another blog post because I think this one is long enough. So, hey, you may get five December blog posts before I'm all done! No fainting please. Just come back and visit and read!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T10:48:00.001-09:00

We've had about a week off from school, filled with lazy mornings, trips to Anchorage, c-c-c-cold temperatures, housecleaning, cookie baking and anticipation for Christmas. The little girls seem especially aware of this year's festivities and have gotten very excited at the thought of presents, both received and given.

This year's Christmas will be extra special because we'll be able to worship in the new church. The state fire marshal gave the okay for us to be in the space (read: 'legal' but not 'finished') and the Doepkens and many church members have been working diligently to get the sanctuary decorated and as free of sheet rock dust and other areas as cleared out and cleaned as possible. The little girls have fancy dresses that are partially black...wonder what they'll look like after tonight's lessons and carols service!

Our family is keeping things fairly low key tomorrow, as usual, but it feels almost too low key for me this year. I think having us all so busy these past few months made it feel like Christmas came up too quickly. But funny thing about Christmas...it's always in December, on the 25th. No excuses really work, do they?

Even as I wonder if we've gotten 'enough' for our kids (that horrible battle between materialism and what I want my kids to focus on), I keep reminding myself that this isn't about gifts or cookies or decorations. It's not any of our birthdays, after all (although the chocolate birthday cake will be tasty).

Christmas is about celebrating the birth of our Savior, Emmanuel with us. Thanks be to God.

My apologies

2010-12-06T23:46:00.002-09:00

I will try to get back into the blogging habit. I will. I am sorry that any family and friends who try to follow what's going on with us have been left out of the loop with my lack of posts. Maybe they've given up on me completely...and I don't blame them!

But, once my classes are over, I will attempt to catch up. I promise.

In the meantime, Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Peace,
Julie

Halloween

2010-11-07T15:26:00.003-09:00

A little Halloween 'eye' candy for you all.

I took the easy way out this year and bought costumes. What helped that decision was having the little girls with me at Costco. And by 'helped' I really mean that 1. the little girls caught sight of the costumes and became *completely* and instantly excited and 2. I realized how easy it would be to just pluck them off the rack and buy them.

Here is Abigail as Tinkerbell. No Sleeping Beauty or Belle dresses to be had, but this costume felt a little similar to the original idea of being a butterfly. 'Cause of the wings....

Bethany was Cinderella. Her costume did take a little altering because it was 3 sizes too big, which means I can claim that I did a little more that 'just' buy them. Right?

I also took one photo of both of them, before Jim took them out Trick or Treating. Note the Alaskan version of princess/fairy footwear.

The previous Friday was the community Halloween Carnival and I was asked to be a "Spooky Story Lady"...I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be a lady who read Spooky Stories, not *be* a Spooky story lady, so I dressed appropriately:

I thought I had photos of the two older girls and Jim from the carnival, too, but I don't.

Moriah dressed as a pop singer named Justin Bieber. She had a very complex costume to pull it off, too. A zipper hoody, wide-brim plaid baseball cap and a microphone.

Susannah dressed as a book character (be still, my librarian heart). She was Katniss Everdeen from a very popular YA series of books called The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Fabulous books, cute and easy idea for a costume (forest colors, bow and arrows).

Jim, my dear, punny hubby, went as a Doc in a Box. Scrub shirt, cardboard box around his middle. Simple and funny. Like him. :o)

Saving graces in twindom

2010-10-10T21:25:00.002-08:00

I am always (always) grateful when tantrums happen in ones. There do exist occasional stereo tantrums that are completely and utterly hellish to endure. But for some unknown (and blessed) reason, most of the time the little girls throw tantrums one at a time.

Take tonight, for instance. The regular pjs/brush teeth/go potty routine was going just fine. Bethany was finished first and got to pick the first book. The second book reading went great, as did the third. Getting lotion and 'nosey stuff' (saline spray) was smooth as silk.

It was when Abigail settled onto my lap for songs that Bethany became upset.

And it was when I explained, rather gently and calmly, that Abigail got there first, that Bethany became rather unhinged. The following tantrum was fairly epic and dear sweet Jim had the pleasure of escorting Bethany from the room while I sang to Abigail.

The entire time her sister was freaking out, Abigail was wonderfully cuddly and calm on my lap.

And I was reminded yet again to be grateful when tantrums come in ones.

More teenagers

2010-09-29T23:14:00.006-08:00

Yes, it's true. There are two more teens in this house. Moriah and Susannah celebrated their 13th birthdays today...and officially entered teen-dom.

They awoke to crepe paper streamers at the bottom of the stairs, the number 13 made out of crepe paper on the windows and chairs festooned with crepe paper. Unfortunately, the crepe paper didn't cancel school for the day.

It wasn't an easy day, schedule-wise, to turn 13 because of all that this family had going on. Jim had to go to Anchorage, Samuel had DDF Club after school, I had to work and then had class, the girls had X-C running and the end-of-season pizza party and then piano right afterwards, Jim and I had play rehearsal and then Bible study at the church.

I had found time to make a delicious (and I mean DELICIOUS) apple pie cake for the X-C party (I stayed up insanely late last night/this morning after finishing homework to get it ready for baking), using up the last of my energy reserves and the flour and sugar. But my lack of time, energy and basic baking staples meant I couldn't make their 'official' birthday cake in time to have it for dessert, which was to be Texas Sheet Cake.

After Bible study, though, I had a little brainstorm and suggested that Jim get ice cream for a little celebration. That worked well and the girlios enjoyed (I think) being sung to over Goo Goo Cluster ice cream. They each got their own song and each got the chance to blow out their candles. Samuel insisted on helping light the candles and thankfully didn't catch anything on fire.

Here is a photo of the two 13-year-olds with their birthday ice cream:

Happy Birthday, Moriah.
Happy Birthday, Susannah.

I love you more than you could ever imagine.

Boat trip with the fam (warning...pic heavy!)

2010-09-22T22:08:00.001-08:00

Here is part two of the boat trip from the end of June, the part of the trip that includes picking up the kids and Jim's folks and heading back out into Prince William Sound.

Anyhoo, here's a refresher on the setting: after spending an evening away, puttering around in a little bay and getting shrimp, Jim and I and our hosts boated back to Whittier to pick up the rest of the family. Betsy and Tony had gotten all five kids loaded and unloaded and they were waiting and waving up at the top of the 'marina' area.

After getting the babes safely down the pier and life-jacketed, we headed right back out. The little girls got to 'drive' the boat for a bit and enjoyed playing Captain. Abigail took it very seriously and moved the wheel back and forth. Bethany seemed happy to simply hold the wheel in place.

The boat had an upper deck that was wonderful to sit on, especially since the sun had come out. It was a little breezy but I got some nice photos.

There were even some photos taken with me!

As we traveled, we were treated to the sight of a raft of otters. The little girls were thrilled and insisted on waving goodbye to them.

The kids moved around on the boat, taking in the sights and trying to steer from down in the cabin. It wasn't until we were all the way home that I realized I hadn't gotten many photos of the other three adults in our family. I guess I was focused on the kids or something. Weird, huh?

We reached our final destination, Blackstone Bay. WOW! Beautiful and chilly, all at the same time.

We listened to the ice shifting and saw a few small ice chunks calve off. Our host also brought some glacier ice on board but I didn't get any photos of it. I'm still enchanted by the hue of glacier ice...that soft, misty blue.

Eventually, the boat had to return us to reality. After a lovely dinner and some more breathtaking scenery, we headed home. I think it's safe to say that all five of our kids would be happy to go back out into the Sound someday. Sooner rather than later, of course.

Boat Overnight 2010 (way overdue)

2010-09-04T22:20:00.001-08:00

Jim and I were blessed to go on another overnight on a friend's boat back at the end of June. We arranged to go over night on a Tuesday to somewhere cool and then to meet up with the rest of our family on Wednesday to do a shorter 'tour' out to Blackstone Bay.

Tuesday's weather was less than stellar (read: rainy and chilly) so we ended up not going out as far. Our lovely hosts apologized about that, but I assured them it didn't matter how far out we went, we were just thrilled to be out on their boat.

When the power went out after an ill-fated attempt to hook up a new shrimp-pot-puller, our lovely hosts apologized again, this time from the depths of the engine room. And again I assured them that Jim and I were more than content--we didn't have to be anywhere until the next day, we had no email or cell phones demanding attention and most of all we had no children running around, needing us! (Plus I was certain they'd figure out and fix the problem, although being stranded on a nice boat with food and good company is definitely not the worst thing I can imagine!)

So, Jim snoozed and chatted, I made a couple of duct tape wallets and read, our hosts worked on the boat and visited with us, we all contributed in some way to a delicious steak dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed our night on the boat.

The weather was better in the morning, which encouraged Jim and I to take the dinghy and explore. There was a beach near the little cove we anchored in that is known as Kayaker's Beach. It has walkways and platforms for tents and an outhouse and looked like a neat place to stay.

Here is the view of the boat from the little dinghy:

'Captain' Jim:

One of the many wonderful views as we puttered around the little cove (note the teeny bit of blue sky peeking through!):

And the Kayaker's beach from a little ways out:

Once we got to the beach, we got to see the smooth stones, wooden steps, beautiful foliage and an outhouse perfect for clowning around in.

Here is a partial view of a platform and the view to the left from the platform:

We left the beach and kayaked back to the boat, so we could leave in time to stop by and haul up the shrimp pots before the rest of the family met us back in Whittier.

I perched on the bow, helping to run the motor that pulled in the rope and getting the rope coiled into a large tub. I believe there was at least 600 feet of rope to pull up. Might have been a couple hundred more. I was just grateful the winch was working this year. Anyone who read my post from last year might remember that we (read: mostly the two men) pulled the pots up by hand. Not an easy feat.

As the pots came into view, they were hooked and pulled over to the side and brought on board. Then the shrimp were dumped into a waiting bucket.

The kids and Jim's parents were waiting for us when we got back to Whittier and we pulled in just long enough to load 'em up and we headed back out.

More on that part of the trip in another post. Lots of cute photos of little girls 'driving' the boat and photos of Blackstone Bay. Stay tuned....

Lots to catch up on

2010-08-29T22:31:00.003-08:00

I had so many good intentions for blogging over the summer. Didn't quite happen, as my faithful few readers know. Now that school is back in swing, it might be even harder to catch up, but I am going to try.

Stay tuned for a retrospective of our summer: a lake visit, a boat trip, VBS, and a gigantic trip to Indiana. I already wrote a little about baseball and Forest Fair, but they may make another appearance as well.

School has started

2010-08-18T20:31:00.005-08:00

Today was the first day of school for the kids. I started back last Thursday (in case you're wondering). Officially a full-time teacher this year! Whoo hoo!

Samuel is a sophomore this year and was looking forward to some good teachers. There was a little blip with his schedule changing that we discovered last night, but it appears that the new schedule includes an engaging Honors US History teacher. Much to his and our relief.

This morning, Moriah said "I don't know why people get nervous about the first day of school" while exhibiting a small amount of nerves herself (it seemed). Today was her first day of 7th grade and she'll have three teachers instead of one. That's not a huge increase like in normal middle schools, but it's still enough to give her a little case of nerves. Especially since the science/language arts teacher is known to be a hard teacher.

Susannah seemed rather calm this morning, and ready to jump into 7th grade. She's now allowed to wear a little mascara (something those beautiful lashes of hers don't really need) and I suspect mornings will involve a bit more primping. She and Moriah have the same exact classes, including electives, and will probably have the same exact classes next year too.

I had an easy first day. One class. Tomorrow will jump to four classes and into my regular schedule, which now encompasses library classes, research class and Spanish classes. I wear many hats around school and hope I can keep my sanity this year. I have a couple more weeks before my UAS classes start and I plan to enjoy 'just' working full-time until then.

We did 'celebrate' the start of school with our traditional trip down to the Ice Cream Shop. Expensive, yes, but somehow necessary to mark the beginning of this new school year.

At my mom's

2010-07-24T07:32:00.002-08:00

We've been in Indiana for a week now and have been at my mom's for most of it. We had to take turns on her computer, which meant that I wasn't really able to do much with this blog. But, my brilliant niece, who arrived last night with my sister and three other siblings, installed a router and now we have WiFi available. Which is a good thing. Very good.

Because Jim has a laptop.
And I have a laptop.
And Samuel has a laptop.
And Jane has a laptop.
And Katie has a laptop.

The pain of WiFi withdrawal is now over.

Homebodies

2010-07-13T05:55:00.002-08:00

I just hugged my three older kids goodbye. They're going to be flying to Indiana with Jim's folks for a few days with Granny and Granddaddy before the rest of us fly out on Friday and join up with them.

The girls were recently at Music and Drama Camp (MAD Camp) for almost a full week and were home for one full day before turning around and flying out. They're both a little weepy at the thought of leaving again, homebodies that they are. MAD Camp was the longest they'd ever been away from home and definitely the longest they'd ever gone without being in some kind of contact with me or Jim. To leave again so soon after camp was/is very hard on them, even though logically they knew it was going to happen. And my mama heart is feeling the same emotional pull, hoping and praying they'll find the joy in their trip rather than dwelling on missing us back in Girdwood.

Their time at MAD Camp was fun and the entire camp put on two performances of a play about Daniel. We caught the second night's performance at a church in south Anchorage and they did a really good job (they=my girls and the whole cast, in case you're wondering). Moriah was one of the advisors to Darius who gets Daniel in trouble and Susannah was one of the heralds who announced Darius' entrances and exits. Both girls had a solo and sang well.

Apparently camp was rather grueling because of how long they practiced each day. But they seemed to enjoy the chance to perform (as always) and I think they had fun. The girls certainly exchanged email information with many of their fellow campers and shared a few of those camp inside jokes that will make them giggle for a few months yet. Moriah has a bum thumb in a splint right now and couldn't fully enjoy the water sports, but made it work somehow. Susannah came home with a certificate for being a Polar Bear swimmer. Which means she woke up early to plunge into the cold lake. brrrrrrrrr

After all of the emotion and last minute suitcase packing last night, today was good practice for when Jim and I get up early to fly out on Friday morning with the little girls. Well, except that we didn't pack our own suitcases. And I didn't wake the little girls up. And I'm heading back to bed to catch a bit more sleep instead of driving into the airport at this hour. So, really, today wasn't good for much beyond giving some hugs to children I'll miss a ton and an early morning blog post.

Forest Fair Wares

2010-07-02T23:36:00.004-08:00

In an attempt to earn a little money to put towards a springtime D.C. trip, Moriah and Susannah (and I) have been making things to sell at Forest Fair.

The girls have created a plethora of duct tape wallets, in all sorts of colors and a couple of different styles. I've contributed a few more 'complex' ones that have more pockets.

The three of us have also fashioned totes and wallets out of empty juice pouches (mostly Capri Sun) and they've turned out pretty well. I fancy the larger one we did that has lime green as the main accent color.

Here's a photo of the variety of bags we've made. Short ones, taller ones, wine bags...you name it, we can probably stitch it together.

I think we'll try this again for the Christmas Bazaar, so if you drink liquids that come in pouches, send 'em our way. I'm thinking of saving some bigger pouches to sew on, too, like the Teddy Graham mini snak sak pouches or the Animal Cracker pouches (again, feel free to send us any empties you may have of those...).

Lull

2010-06-28T20:47:00.003-08:00

Jim's parents arrived on Tuesday night and life slowed way down once they got here.

That's probably because baseball is over and the family isn't going to a ballpark three nights a week.
And probably because the cleaning frenzy that preceded their visit makes most any other activity level pale in comparison.

Samuel's staying busy with work and whatever it is hermit-like teenage boys do in their rooms.
Moriah's been babysitting and playing soccer and missing baseball.
Susannah's been babysitting and playing soccer and softball.
The little girls have been going to Summer Playground two mornings a week and playing in the 'ard' as Abigail calls our tiny little yard. Swinging and bubbles are the top playtime choices.
Jim's running around like a relative madman, getting supplies for the work teams and fielding phone calls and putting his dad on the task of getting our electric hook-up issues solved. He's also trying to squeeze in bike rides with Hurley when possible.
I'm running kids hither and yon, taking walks when I can, biking a little and helping with fundraising for a D.C. trip this spring that the 7/8 grades are taking. I'm also trying to read a bit...but that's still hit and miss.

The girls and I have also been working on what they'll be selling at their Forest Fair booth: recycled juice pouch totes and wallets and duct tape wallets. They're time consuming but fun to make. The totes take a lot of pouches so we're not sure how many we'll have by the time FF rolls around. They're turning out really cute, though, and we think they'll sell.

Yesterday afternoon Moriah decided to make a duct tape hat as well. It was wonky and quirky and kinda cute. Her granny promptly ordered one. Then Samuel wanted one. Susannah made one and brought it to softball, where another friend ordered a 'custom' one that was made and delivered for the amazing price of only $10. Duct tape hats may make an appearance at the booth, too, but we'll have to see.

I'll write more about Forest Fair later. For now, I've got to finish folding clothes for a little adventure Jim and I will be having tomorrow!

Over

2010-06-22T12:23:00.003-08:00

The baseball season is now over. The Giants lost last night, 8-0, succumbing to good pitching that they just couldn't hit and which shut them out. Sigh. Some fielding errors (ever present in their games, unfortunately) contributed to the other team's score as well.

Moriah was pretty bummed that the game turned out as it did, but she made a spectacular out at home plate and did well as catcher. She'd play baseball year round, if she could.

I was surprised at my level of competitiveness that came out last night. I sort of became one of 'those' moms who grumbled about strikes called and wanted to take the smug kids down a notch. (I don't like when *that* mom makes an appearance.) Honestly, I think 'that' mom came out partly because of the vibe I got (or perceived, anyway) from the other team. The other team's coach was a nitpicker and questioned calls and was kinda obnoxious.

Now, by obnoxious I mean he was really competitive. And taking games that seriously is just not a typical thing for Girdwood teams. Don't get me wrong, our kids always play to win and give it their all. But we are fairly cognizant of the fact that our teams (minor, major and junior) are not always as 'good' as the other teams (teams that draw from a larger pool of Anchorage kids with coaches that can hand-pick good pitchers, catchers, etc) and so that colors how we approach games.

We tend to be more relaxed and roll with the punches and celebrate the things we did well and try to work on the things that can be improved. But I think after Sunday's win, the majors kids wanted more. They wanted another game. So did I.

Welcome to the real world of Little League?

Wrong....

2010-06-20T22:02:00.004-08:00

My kids may want to mark this day down on a calendar or something: I happily admit that I was wrong. Yes, me. Wrong. About today's game.

The Giants won. Handily. 18-1. And now the kids have a taste of what it's like to be the team that controls a game. That owns a game. Something they've been on the receiving end a little too often this season.

Tomorrow's game will determine whether or not we advance once more. The team is one we've never seen before, so they're a total unknown. And we have a pretty good pitcher or two who may be able to keep the opposing team to a minimum of runs. We'll see...no predictions this time because I don't want to be wrong a second time.

Although eating my words has never tasted so sweet.

Baseball bragging

2010-06-19T22:54:00.004-08:00

Can I just say, non-competitive person that I normally am, that watching Moriah have a really good baseball game* turns this mild-mannered librarian into a screamer. Not the I'm-absolutely-terrified-save-me! type of freak-out scream. It's the fist-pumping, up-and-down jumping kind of excited scream.

And last night, she played really well. Enough to make me scream. And jump. Repeatedly.

The highlights were her two hits.** Her team hadn't done too well in the hitting department and they were already down several runs for her first at-bat. She hit a solid single and then made it to second on her teammate's single. Unfortunately, she was left on base without scoring.

Heading into the bottom of the fourth, her team was scoreless and the other team had 10, which meant the game would be over (10-run rule) if they remained at zero. So, up to bat goes Moriah. Who then hits a great stand-up double. Beeee-yooo-tiful! The next kid also hit a double, which brought Moriah home and kept the game going for another inning and a few more runs by the Girdwood Giants.

Oh, the screaming! We didn't win, but we came alive and got a little rally going and showed that we do know how to play! (Dontcha love how I'm part of the 'we'? Royalty, that's me!)

Moriah also did well as pitcher and catcher. Her pitching was better the first inning she pitched, but she still held the other team to only a few runs. As a catcher, she has always been solid and she can get the ball out to second pretty quickly and accurately. She made a great throw to third at one point that got the kid who was trying to steal. I also think she made an out at home, but the ump didn't agree and called the kid safe ("Get some glasses, ump!" muttered this ramped-up librarian).

As I've shared before, her team has *not* had a winning season. At all. Only two games won, albeit one very satisfying win over the best team in the league. And this last game was the start of the tournament, with a double-elimination structure. They lost this first tourney game last night and will play their second (and, if I'm totally honest {even while resisting my inner pessimist}, likely their last one) tomorrow afternoon.

Play ball!

*I should clarify that I think Moriah has a good game each time she plays. Love love love watching her play. But there are times that she shines a little brighter and last night's game was one of those times.

**Moriah had been in a hitting slump for many games and it was getting her down. Not to mention that she kept being up with 2 outs and totally felt that pressure (and she railed about the injustice of that recurring situation, believe me!). There were a few games that she made the last out each time she got up to bat, which made her one surly, grumpy gal post-game. This game certainly lifted her out of her slump!

Oh, the Nerve!

2010-06-18T22:04:00.000-08:00

Here is Moriah's first number as the Cowardly Lion. She actually had two solos. This one, If I Only Had the Nerve, and King of the Forest. She did great on both.

You can see all four of the leads in this clip: two sets of twins = two pairs of amazing sisters.

Enjoy!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2010-06-18T08:35:00.001-08:00

Here is the video of Susannah singing as Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was way back in April and yes, I'm just now getting it loaded!

I forgot to edit this bit before I uploaded it, so there is a little more after the song of Auntie Em calling Dorothy in from the 'storm'. (It took so long to upload that there is no way I'm doing it again! Especially because this was already the second time I uploaded a version of this song...the first one I uploaded was from the first night when the mike wasn't on and you couldn't really hear Susannah sing.)

Enjoy!

Yeah, I'm playing again

2010-06-17T10:14:00.003-08:00

I decided that last template was just too busy. I still love the idea of the background, it was just too much and a little too...blocky. Or cold. Or stark. Not sure. Just not as inviting as it could be.

So, while searching through Blogger's new template options, this one popped out at me. It's kinda cool. And warm. (ha!) The template designer shows that it gradually includes green in the 'bubbles', but I don't see it on my screen. Maybe those of you with larger screens will see that color progression.

I'm still hoping to find a good 'family' template that will hit our various interests and age levels. In the absence of that option, a mosaic template could work. Not only because I love to do mosaics, but because that feels like it could represent all of the pieces that come together to make us a complete picture, a complete family. So, anyone with knowledge of a mosaic template, let me know!

A second win

2010-06-14T23:29:00.003-08:00

A week ago Friday, Moriah's baseball team got their first win. Against the best team in the league. And I wasn't there to see it (*sniffle*), opting to stay home on what I thought would be an unpleasant night in Anchorage (*sniffle*). Not sure I would have noticed the temperature in the excitement of watching them win.

Well, tonight the family (minus a working Samuel) went out on an unpleasant night in Girdwood and got to see their second win of the season. Yahoo! We all dressed in layers for the occasional sprinkles and the babes even wore their new rainhats Jim found at a garage sale. That I think are called sou'wester rain hats. And that are so big their heads and shoulders disappear underneath them.

Moriah did some pitching and fielding and was also catcher for four innings. The game was close, 5-4, and boasted some great plays and saw some bobbled balls. The gal who was keeping score thought it was 5-5 in the middle of the sixth inning, but apparently one of the runs we counted for the other team wasn't really a run. ?? Whatever the case, we got the win and our kids were pretty excited to have won another game. Especially after Friday night's shut out that was over in about 75 minutes.

The kids have one more 'regular' game on Wednesday night and then the tournament begins on Friday. It's a double elimination. If they win Friday, they play again on Saturday. If they lose on Friday, they play again on Sunday. I'll keep ya posted!

New look

2010-06-11T00:53:00.003-08:00

I've been wanting to find a blog template that better reflects our family's 'chaos'. Which means I was looking for something that included a variety of either 1. people or 2. activities. I found this new template through Blogger's new design options. The template has a lot going on and covers a lot of interests. If you look carefully you'll see music, art, math, science, theater, and book symbols (among other things) so it seemed perfect.

But it's probably a little too busy. And probably a little too monochromatic. I tweaked and played and nudged for about an hour tonight while the girls and two of their friends watched a movie.

The blog will stand as-is for now, to see how it settles. Feel free to leave a comment, positive or negative, to register your opinion. Or better yet, if you know of a template that might work instead, let me know. The search can always continue!

Absolutely bizarre

2010-06-09T16:47:00.003-08:00

Standardized testing is an interesting animal, to say the least. And when you have twins, it becomes very interesting when the test results arrive in your mailbox and your twins compare their scores. Loudly.

Most years, Susannah has scored slightly higher on almost every area. Just slightly. But enough for her to think it gives her bragging rights over her sister. Something we nip in the bud as we point out that these tests are only one way of measuring 'what you know'.

This year, I actually thought for a moment that they sent me the scores for the same girl. I had opened Susannah's first since she was the one who gave me the envelopes to open. She had done well, as usual. Then I opened Moriah's results and did a double take. Reading score, the same. Writing score, the same. Math score...yep, the same. Did they mix up the girls and send me the same results twice? A quick glance over the breakdown of scores showed the same scores as well. Wait...no, a score here and there were slightly different. By like one point. Or two.

Over the entire listing of individual scores, the girls differed in less than half the categories. Everything else was the same. Lots of chuckling and grinning, and Moriah happily denied Susannah the temptation to brag about her scores this year.

Bizarre. To me, at least. :o)

Summer*, so far,

2010-06-08T00:52:00.006-08:00

has included

baseball games
lazy mornings
sunshine
Samuel's 15th birthday
friends
making plans to travel to Indiana
a trip to a lake cabin
hot dogs
late-night movies
work for Samuel
babysitting for Moriah and Susannah
softball
sunburns
trips to town
bike rides
raking
staying up too late since it's light until late (like now--note the post time!)
playgrounds
cleaning
and soccer,

not in that exact order, of course.

And I'm sure there's more but that's what comes to mind as I try to think about all the things I could update the blog with.

Summer* is always welcome (duh) but this year it seems even more welcome.

I know it is to Samuel, who is ever so grateful to have a break from his early bus rides.
I know it is to Jim, whose schedule just opened up during the week.
I know it is to me, who worked my behind off this past school year.

Bring on those lazy, hazy, crazy dayz of summer...the Doepken family is ready!

*even though it's not officially summer yet...maybe my blog post should be called Late spring, so far,?

Play Ball!

2010-05-20T23:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, Little League games are in full swing! (ha, ha)

Well, not in Girdwood yet. Even though the field, in the last month, has gone from this:

to this:

Moriah started baseball practices a couple of weeks ago, first inside (snow) and then at a field about 15 minutes away (that snow finally melted). Finally, today, in Girdwood, in gorgeous sunshine. The first game in Girdwood will be this coming Monday, I believe.

Her first game was on the 10th, and her team lost. By a lot. Which is kinda typical. Girdwood kids play in the Anchorage Little League but the team for Girdwood is put together in a very different way. As in pretty much any kid who wants to play, does. We usually have just enough kids come out for the teams and Girdwood now has a minor, major and junior team.

Moriah is one of the pitchers and the only lefty pitcher on her team. She does pretty well and on that first game day threw some good, solid strikes. She also threw hard enough at one point that her catcher shook his hand back and forth and said "ow". Moriah also was the first kid on her team in about four innings to hit a ball in fair territory. She was out at first, but she hit it.

Moriah's team (the Giants) hasn't won a game yet. But that hasn't stopped great hitting and great fielding from the team. (but I'm only going to share about Moriah, dontcha know) In one play, Moriah struck out a batter and her catcher lost the ball, encouraging the opposing team's kid on third base to try to steal home. Moriah ran home and tagged the runner out. A sort of double play all on her own. In another game, she caught a ball at the pitcher's mound and then threw the runner out at first.

Saturday was opening day and the Girdwood kids played really well. The game was fairly close and we went into the fourth inning a few runs behind. Moriah was first at bat and got a good hit (double). Then other kids followed up with excellent steals, hits and runs and they were up by one. Because the end of the 4th inning was also the two-hour mark, I thought they'd call the game and we'd have a win. Nope. They decided to play one more inning. And we ended up losing. (*wah*) Moriah was also the first up in that inning and got another double. Before she went up to bat, I said should try for another double. Of course, she thought I was nuts and said it wouldn't happen again. But, it did! What's the saying? "Told ya so!" :o) It was a beautiful, solid hit. She ended up having a three-hit game and pitched pretty well too.

This kid *loves* baseball (and her Red Sox). Gets completely charged up on game days and feels losses fairly acutely. She aspires to be the first woman in the major leagues and is quite indignant over the fact that she likely will not be allowed to try out for baseball in high school, since there is a softball team.

We have a few more weeks of games and I so look forward to watching my kid play.

Preschool logic

2010-05-03T22:55:00.003-08:00

Recent conversation on the way to day care....

Abigail: Mommy! Bethany said she wasn't my friend!
Me: Oh, of course you're friends. You're special friends...you're sisters.
Bethany: We're sister friends!
Me: That's right, sister friends.
Bethany: And we're twins!
Me: Yep, that's right.
Bethany: Mommy, you're not a twin.
Me: No, I'm not. But you and Abigail are twins. And Sissy (Susannah) and Iah (Moriah) are twins.
Bethany: Girls are twins.
Me: Not all girls are twins, sweetie. I'm not a twin.
Bethany: You're not a girl, you're a mommy!

Hard to argue with that logic!

What doesn't kill us...

2010-04-24T20:28:00.004-08:00

only makes us stronger. That's the saying more or less, I believe. Is that a lesson we're supposed to teach our kids? Or will life teach it to them at some point?

Tonight Jim and the three older kids are participating in a camp-out for Malaria Awareness. Yes, outside. With temperatures that probably will stay in the low 30s. In a parking lot, no less, to make themselves more visible than if they had camped in the Lions Park area that is set off the main road a bit. Jim had several church members interested, so there will be a small but hardy crew out there.

Samuel, it must be said, was NOT enthused about the idea.
He asked me to let him get out of it. I deferred to his father, who said Samuel *was* camping.
He offered to watch babies tonight so I could go, if that would get him out of it. Um, no thanks.
He asked what happened if he threw up, if that would get him out of it (and then asked if we had syrup of Ipecac). Ha, ha, darling.
So he grumpily went along and will likely continue to grump as he shivers all night.

This is where the post title comes in. Should I have been more sympathetic and asked Jim to consider giving Samuel a break? Should I have given him some sage hard-earned advice regarding what life has to teach us through adversity? Should I have kept quiet (as I mostly did) and let the scenario play out as it would?

After all, whatever doesn't ~~freeze you to death~~ kill you will only make you stronger. Right?

Just have to say

2010-04-22T23:47:00.002-08:00

Moriah and Susannah were amazingly wonderful in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Girdwood School play. They had performances last night and tonight and the girls did so well. In fact, the entire cast was awesome. Truly.

Moriah was the Cowardly Lion and was completely in character the entire time she was on stage. She sang two solos and nailed both of them both nights. Moriah was quite the scaredy cat and had a lot of fun cowering and flinching.

Susannah was Dorothy and was just the right sweetness. She sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow right at the beginning and did a lovely, lovely job. She stayed in character, too, and made us so proud of her acting.

Pictures will follow, once I find my camera cord. We also recorded the entire thing, so I may put their songs on here. Depends on if it would take FOREVER to upload them or not.

My heart overflows with love and pride. Way to go, girls!

First day of Spring!

2010-03-20T18:07:00.020-08:00

That means you can finally see Christmas photos! *snort*

While I'm totally enjoying the sunshine and totally avoiding finishing up an assignment for one of my classes, I figured it was time to post the photos I wanted to share from Christmas.

We had a lovely day, once we got up and going. The kids assembled on the stairs, reminiscent of what my sister and I had to do when we were young and had to wait for our dad to set up his camera (or put finishing touches on something?).

We dove into our stockings and then opened our presents. Samuel got Schlock Mercenary books as his biggie gift, Moriah got something she's been hoping for (see photo below) and Susannah got Fake Uggs (FUGGS) and juggling sticks. The babes got some imaginative play-type stuff, including food and a baby doll high chair. The babes also got some dress up clothes from grandparents and *loved* looking like their favorite princesses (Abigail as Sleeping Beauty and Bethany as Cinderella).

Jim and I scored some gifts, too. Jim always finds fun stocking stuffers and this year's funniest (to me anyway) were my huge paper clips and my biodegradable corn pens. Jim got some pogies from me. What are pogies, you ask? Well, they are these large mitten-like things you can attach to your handlebars to keep your hands warm while winter biking. Now that we're almost three months past Christmas, I can tell you that they have not quite been the gift I had hoped they'd be (he did like them, though!). Mostly because this year hasn't been super cold. Maybe he'll get more use out of them next year?

I got yet another alien collectible from my sweetie. It's a little alien ship that you can wind up and send zipping off into...space? I wonder how many aliens I've gotten over the years...close to 15 I imagine. This is a hold-over from our days when we were X-Files fans. The truth is out there....

Here is a video of Susannah playing with her juggling sticks, Moriah displaying her jersey, Samuel absorbed in a book and the babes playing with some toys. The video had to be cut a bit to fit Blogger's less-than-100MB requirement so it's a little choppy--my apologies for that. (the clutter behind Susannah is our pitiful recyclables/reusable bags storage area...nice and messy!)

By the end of the afternoon, we had amassed a fair amount of happy clutter (as seen in the video as well) and were heading into dinner time. We invited a couple new to Girdwood to Christmas dinner and were so glad we did. We had a blast with Scott and Jenn and swapped memorable gift and nightmare stories. Sounds strange, but it's true, and there was a fair amount of "we laughed so hard we cried". We ate, we talked, we laughed and then we ate some of Jesus' birthday cake (after we sang to Him, of course). The dinner was a wonderful ending to a blessed day and the start of a wonderful friendship with Scott and Jenn.

Even this far out from the actual day, I can remember well the relaxed, joyful day we had. It was especially fun to see the babes come into full awareness of presents and ask for more. And more. Thankfully, that didn't last long and they settled into playing with the toys they received. Wonder if they'll want to make an actual list next year?

Know what else?

2010-02-08T23:33:00.003-09:00

How in the WORLD did I forget to add the other biggie deal from a little over a week ago?

The little girls turned three! On January 31 to be exact. We had our regular church stuff Sunday morning (although the singing of the birthday song isn't regular) and had a relaxed afternoon. Even though the new three-year-olds didn't sleep a wink at naptime for all the excitement of anticipating their party. After Jim and the girls got back from confirmation class, we had some friends over to help celebrate with cake and ice cream. I'll work on a longer post soon (I really will!) because I still need to download some photos from a friend's camera.

Suffice it to say that the little girls are definitely not babies anymore. They're "tottlers" as Bethany says. I guess they're really more like preschoolers. Wowie, where did the time go?

Blushing at my lack of reporting--lots going on

2010-02-08T18:41:00.005-09:00

It's been almost a month, sans a Christmas post, sans any major news sharing. Sorry!

I have exciting news to share, though, and wanted to get it out there.

Our kids have a history of enthusiastic participation in our school's plays. This year's musical is The Wizard of Oz. Moriah and Susannah auditioned for the school play last week. They have been waiting with bated breath for the cast list to be posted, asking me and the office staff repeatedly when it'll be posted. The cast list was posted this morning and Susannah was *hugely* happy to find out that she had been cast as Dorothy. I'm not sure I'll ever forget her wide-eyed, amazed look. Moriah was equally thrilled to be cast as the Cowardly Lion. (I've known about their roles since last Thursday...master at keeping secrets am I.)

Also, in related news (the 'related' being school events), Susannah defended her Queen Bee title by winning the Girdwood Elementary Spelling Bee. Her competition is on Feb. 26, the day after their Honor Band concert.

Finally, tomorrow is the 5/6 Battle of the Books competition for Moriah and Susannah. They're on a fairly strong team and should do pretty well. I'll hopefully share the results within the month! :o)

Okay, I just read this in 'preview' and it sounds like one of those braggy Christmas Cards. Oh, my son Soandso did this! My daughter Missalaineous is so amazing, she has had her own special award named after her! (barf)

Sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging, because I'm not trying to. I'm genuinely thrilled for my girlios and hope you are too.

To distract you from the lack of a Christmas post,

2010-01-10T18:31:00.005-09:00

I thought I'd share a couple more toddler-speakisms.

I mentioned before that Bethany began using 'four minutes' as a means of marking immediate time. Now she's using 'four weeks ago' as a measure of past. And she'll say "earlier I was a baby, when I wore a diaper". Or "earlier, four weeks ago" such and such happened.

Bethany also had a special word for the new toothpaste I purchased a few weeks back (four weeks ago, perhaps?). She calls it 'simpy'. As in, "that toothpaste is simpy, I don't like it". Susannah thinks she might mean 'minty'...what do you think?

And finally, one from Abigail. She has a special place in her heart for a special someone. No, none of her immediate family members. It's 'Seeping Booty'. (do you know who that is?) Not sure if I should be amused or a little grossed out.

Here goes...Christmas Eve

2010-01-04T22:18:00.006-09:00

(now my photos are watermarked in a fraction of the time it used to take! yay!)

I wrote a bit about the first service the family attended on Christmas Eve, The Pageant. Okay, I wrote more about Abigail being naughty, but you know what I mean. Most of us were there...except (ahem) Samuel, who just isn't into the Pageant service at the Resort any more.

We did all go to the 7:30 service, after getting home, choking down some dinner (pork chops in the crock pot) and then racing back to church. I love the 7:30 service, which is a Lessons and Carols service. Abigail remained mostly under control and preferred her brother and sisters to her mother for most of the service (without any complaint from me!).

After the service, we headed home to partake in the Christmas Eve traditions of new pjs and new ornaments. The pjs are a relatively new addition to our Christmas Eve traditions. Maybe the last 6 years? I had seen other families' Christmas jammies in their photos and thought it was a good idea. Why not give the kids new jammies so that they look somewhat presentable for Christmas morning photos.

Bethany's jammies say I *heart* Hot Cocoa. Unfortunately, the stitching is itchy, so she hasn't worn them since Christmas Eve night. Have to get some fusable webbing or something!

Abigail's got monkeys on her jammies. She loves those pjs!

Susannah and her spots

Moriah and her spots and "rock star" t-shirt that she loves

For the record, Samuel did get new pjs too. His were kinda boring this year...blue and black flannel plaid with a black t-shirt. I couldn't find men's medium 'fun' pjs bottoms that weren't beer, Simpsons or AC/DC-related. He wasn't begging for his photo to be taken, so no photo.

The ornaments are a family tradition from both our families from way back. (I should say here that most of the parental childhood ornaments don't make it to the tree any longer, considering how many ornaments our many children now possess.)

Jim and I try to find ornaments that reflect something of the past year, something important or significant. For Samuel, the idea was an ice cream cone in honor of his first job at The Ice Cream Shop (sorry the watermark is across his face!!).

For Moriah (who had requested a left-handed pitcher), I actually found a left-handed pitcher at Hallmark!

Susannah, who is really into "peace", received a very pretty ornament with angels and scripture referring to Peace on Earth (Luke 2:14 if you're curious).

Abigail and Bethany both received Boyd's Bears ornaments, to commemorate their being "Little Bears" at their daycare.

Everyone seemed pleased with their ornaments and jammies. The little girls got ready for bed and the big kids got ready to go to the 11:00 service, which was a "Christmas Unplugged" this year...a stand-up bass and guitar for the music. I was home with the sleepers and was sorry to miss the good music. The three older kids all enjoyed it (and the girls went in their new jammies, too!).

I did take advantage of some quiet time and finished wrapping presents. And I finally watched A Christmas Story all the way through, courtesy of TBS running it non-stop for a full day. I do a minimalist approach with wrapping our kids' gifts. They each get one kind of paper and every gift from us gets wrapped in that paper. No ribbons or tags and very seldom bows. I thought I had enough left over from last year for the older kids' gifts (which would have made it a third year!) but I was wrong. Then it turns out I would have had enough for the little girls' gifts (I got them princess paper, not realizing I had Winnie the Pooh left over). So Samuel got Winnie the Pooh instead.

Jim and I stayed up way too late finishing up last minute stuff and stuffing stockings. Our kids know there's no Santa Claus, so there's no need to put out cookies and milk and do any of that kind of thing. I think we got to bed close to 3:30 am. Why do we do that every year? What's up with that? Part of the Parental Christmas Code? It's nuts, whatever it is. And we should stop it. Especially since I'll be 40 by the time next Christmas comes around. Too old to be staying up till all hours. Geesh.

Here is what our tree and stockings looked like as we slowly climbed the stairs to bed:
(Well, not quite. The lights are actually on in this photo. So it looked almost like this as we climbed up to bed. Only without the lights on. Which you can't tell anyway.)

I will work on a Christmas Day post tomorrow. Or Wednesday. Depending on how tired I am from the second day back to school after a lovely long break.

New Year

2010-01-03T20:07:00.003-09:00

I've been wanting to do a Christmas post, but have been working on getting a watermark program that will make 'owning' my photos so much easier. I submitted the order, but it's not through yet for some reason (holiday weekend?), which means I can't use it quite yet. So...once I can watermark easily, I'll be posting Christmas pictures.

In the meantime, Happy New Year!

We're all going back to school tomorrow. Except Jim. And the littles are going to Little Bears. I guess it's really 4/7 of us are going back to school tomorrow. It's going to be a rough Monday for all of us, I can tell you now. Samuel's got his 5:30 wake up time and I have bus duty this week. Blech. I'd love it if our school district let us go back on a Tuesday our first week back. Can someone write to them and suggest it? Please?

The Pageant

2009-12-27T23:53:00.004-09:00

Christmas Eve is always a relatively crazy day for our family, as most pastor's families can attest. The day usually starts out fairly calm and normal, but by mid-afternoon we're getting ready to head out to the first of three services here in Girdwood.

The first service is the Pageant, which is a 'kid' service. Kids dress up as people in the nativity story and assemble on a little stage in a sort of 'tableau', creating a visual depiction as scripture passages are read and carols are sung. Moriah and Susannah signed up to be readers and we thought Abigail and Bethany might be able to handle being animals for the shepherds to shepherd.

At the initial meeting to pass out costumes, they decided that they'd be donkeys. Abigail was a gray donkey and Bethany was a spotted donkey. I was hopeful at this point that they might go through with it.

The little girls missed the first real rehearsal because they were at Little Bears and it was nap time. I wasn't too worried because I didn't think a rehearsal would make much sense to them anyway.

The only time they were able to practice was 1.5 hours before the actual pageant (and this after a nap that wasn't quite the usual length). Bethany dressed up, walked in and sat on the stage like a champ. Abigail was an entirely different, um, animal. She didn't want her costume on at first, until Moriah got it on her. She did walk in with the shepherds but didn't want to sit at first. Then when she did sit, she made weird blowing sounds with her fingers in her mouth. Yes, at that point I was rethinking her role in the pageant.

Snacks and a video awaited the pageant participants to fill the time until the pageant started, which made me hopeful that Abigail would have time to settle and maybe find a change of heart. *snort* Nope. When it was time to line up, she refused to get her costume on, so I told her she could stay with Mommy. Bethany lined right up with all the other kids, and was fine when I left the room to go find a seat.

My attempts to sit with Abigail were initially successful. Until she saw her big sisters sitting along the window, waiting for their turns to read. Up to Moriah she ran. Followed by me, taking her back to our seat. When Bethany came in with the shepherds, she sat on her spot and was everything Abigail was not (and yes, in my head I was saying "why can't you be more like your sister?" to Abigail). As Abigail tried to leave my lap again, I reminded her the deal was either with Mommy or up on stage.

Of course, she wanted her costume on and she went up on the stage for a moment. Or half a moment. Only after Moriah agreed to sit on the steps on the side of the stage. That didn't last long and even caused Bethany to give up her 'perfect child' status momentarily when she ran off stage toward Susannah. Bethany got back in place, Abigail departed for good.

That's when I tried to get Abigail to sit back with me. ha. Further attempts to get Abigail to stay seated were met with disdain and then outright defiance. And some small screams. And some louder screams. And with Mommy grabbing her up and walking out (and muttering under her breath and giving strained smiles to those folks I knew who were giving me sympathetic smiles). And with some more screams in the hallway.

It was lovely. Knowing my kid was the disruptive one. The Pastor's Kid making such a ruckus. And know what else? Through all the herculean efforts to control my willful child, I was wearing a new sweater. A nice warm sweater in fact. Not the wisest wardrobe choice for the evening. Especially because I knew in my heart of hearts that this probably wouldn't go smoothly. Should have trusted my instincts and waited until next year.

Here are a couple of photos of our donkeys.

This is during rehearsal, when it looked like Abigail would participate.

Sorry it's so fuzzy, but you can still tell how cute
Bethany was, sitting on the edge of the stage.

I had several people tell me that next year it'll be better. Hmph. Feeling a little Grinchy about that.

A Girdwood kind of day

2009-12-23T20:08:00.002-09:00

And what that means is rain. Lots of rain. On top of the snow. In huge slushy piles. With icy roads and ankle-deep puddles.

I love living in Girdwood. Love winter. Love the snow.

Don't love the rain that we get during winter from time to time.

Rain, rain, go away. Come again sometime next spring. Or fall.

Sigh.

Little Artist

2009-12-19T11:58:00.002-09:00

Abigail likes to draw. And color. And 'pay paydoh'. And paint. She's our only kid who will color with anything she finds on anything she finds. We have to watch Abigail carefully whenever her older sisters get out craft supplies.

She draws on her little Magna Doodle a lot. Animals, mostly. Animals that are actually recognizable. (once she tells you what they are *grin*)

Her first little picture was a couple of months ago, of belugas. Ovals with eyes.
Recently, she's drawn a dinosaur, complete with a ridged back and legs and a head.

Today she drew a deer. You could tell where she had drawn a head, legs and possibly antlers.
Then she drew a mommy duck with a baby duck. It was a duck shape and had 'tail feathers' and the little baby was nestled against its side.

A little artist in the making?

Christmas Concert tonight, random toddlerisms

2009-12-16T22:11:00.003-09:00

Well, it's really called the Holiday Concert. But in my head I still tend to call it the Christmas Concert.

We were treated to some very good instrumental music at tonight's concert. The beginning band played first and did a great job with their three pieces. Moriah had a 'solo' for The Little Drummer Boy-like song that she did very well with. Then the beginning orchestra played very well. Very. There are only four students (1 violin, 2 violas, 1 cello) and they were outstanding. Played harmony in one song and everything. The intermediate band played pretty well, too. It's a mix of band and orchestra and has a wider range of instruments.

The individual songs by class were 'recycled' songs: familiar Christmas songs with school-related lyrics. There were a couple of CD-skipping errors; one was with the Kindy class and resulted in a do-over and then a huge round of applause for their sheer cuteness. Typical school concert stuff.

We brought the little girls along and they were great audience members. They watched, spellbound, for most of it. Abigail, especially, kept a watch out for her sisters. Susannah was in the 'extra' choir number and Abigail was searching in vain for Moriah, looking a little perplexed when told 'Iyah' wasn't up there.

Now for a couple of recently heard expressions and 'behaviors' at the Doepken house....

Bethany has taken a liking to 'four minutes' as a time frame for almost everything. If Abigail wants to share a toy, Bethany needs it "for 4 more minutes". Or if she is supposed to go upstairs for bed, it's "in 4 minutes". Kinda cute, and we have no idea where it came from.

A couple of weeks ago, Abigail bumped her elbow on the glider rocker. She tried to kiss it and said "Sorry elbow".

Bethany is waiting a little impatiently for her 'stonking' to come in the mail. Abigail has gotten her 'sock' already. (needlepoint stockings from Lands' End)

Both little girls will happily join in (or begin on their own) if you sing "Livin' on a Prayer", complete with hand motions and appropriate emotional inflection. In fact, tonight Bethany broke into song, sounding a little like a smoker with a fairly deep, gruff delivery. They will also sing a little "Party Like a Rockstar" if you ask.

Abigail seems to be more inclined to sing in general and can be heard singing various songs throughout the day.

Some popular songs asked for at bedtime: On Top of Spaghetti, C Is for Cookie, Oleanna, Oh Susannah, Jesus Loves Me.

Hmmm...I feel like I need a catchy way to end this post.

I got nothing.

Peace.

Rocking around the Christmas Tree

2009-12-13T15:57:00.016-09:00

We have a fake tree. Yes, I admitted it. We bought it back in Kenai after our first two Christmases in Alaska.

Two years of attempting to keep a live tree watered enough. (ha!)

Two years of failing and watching it shed needles. (sigh)

LOTS of needles. (ow)

Everywhere. (darn ineffective vacuum)

So, artificial tree it was. A pretty decent one that has held up pretty well these last 10 years or so. Color coded and easy to assemble.

Here is Jim doling out the branches, the kids 'fluffing' them and putting them in place.

More kids assembling. Note Samuel's choice of glamorous headwear.

Samuel in his beret, Moriah showing the infamous Eeyore snow globe ornament from 2000 and 2007 (just ask her about it sometime).

Susannah smilingly setting special somethings.

Abigail and Bethany helping put some ornaments on, too.

Here is where Abigail began putting ornaments and then Bethany followed suit.

The Christmas Doorknob?

Jim exhibited a very strange behavior while putting ornaments on.
I had no idea he felt that way toward butterflies.

Once the ornaments were on, attention turned toward putting the angel on top. Our angel has been around for about 20 years or so. Maybe a little less. Jim made her at a church Advent 'crafty' night back when he was at Wabash College. I made an identical one that I think we have somewhere. She's been our angel for our entire married life, as far as I remember (almost 18 years!) She is starting to show her age, so who knows how much longer we'll have her atop our tree.

Each year the older kids have the requisite "Who does the angel this year?" conversation. Over the years, we established a complex equation for satisfying the kids' desires to light the yule log, put a piece nightly into the Advent calendar and put the angel on the tree. They would cycle through each thing, keeping things as even as possible. This year, Samuel was quite sure it was his year. Quite sure.

He even had an 'argument' all ready: he'd do this year, then the four sisters could go in order. He'd be leaving home in a few years and he really wanted to do the angel this year. ?? Jim and I countered by suggesting letting the little girls do it this year together and that he could do it next year. So we tried that. *snort*

Here we are, little girls on my and Jim's shoulders, trying to get Abigail to place the angel on the top bough. Abigail, bless her heart, had no idea what to do (we should have known that!).

Then I tried handing the angel to Bethany and lifting her high enough to get it on the top. *double snort* Notice her death grip on my forehead and me holding the angel. At least Bethany looks happy.

Then it was Bubby to the rescue!
To his credit, he didn't say "told you so."

And, at last, our tree was assembled, decorated and ready to enjoy.

Lovely sight. *contented sigh*

Successful auditions

2009-12-11T23:02:00.003-09:00

Two more instruments invaded our house this year, the year that the girls could choose an instrument for 6th grade band (or orchestra). Susannah chose flute and Moriah chose percussion. FYI, if you're wondering, beginning percussion is a small set of 'bells' (looks like a xylophone) and a drum pad (not a 'real' drum...yet). They have both done well with their respective instruments and are part of a small band at school.

An opportunity to audition for an all-district 6th grade honor band was presented a couple of weeks ago and Moriah decided she'd like to audition. Susannah was less than enthusiastic, but I encouraged her to think about it since we'd be going in for Moriah anyway. Susannah eventually decided to audition as well and we three ladies went into Anchorage yesterday right after school to audition.

When we arrived, we saw that there were many kids waiting in the hallway to audition. Susannah noticed right away that there were a lot of flutes. The girls headed into the practice room, where we were met with a relative cacophony of instruments practicing. Quite a difference to the music room in Girdwood. The girls warmed up, running through their scales and songs, and then we joined the throngs in the hallway, trying to figure out where to go.

A kind parent pointed out that the audition rooms were labeled, so we found the flute line (with about 10 kids in it) and we found the percussion line (very short). Moriah got into her audition room first and the adjudicator took his time, showing her something on the snare drum, talking, listening, etc. Susannah had a longer wait (but she was happily chatting with the other kids in line) and I had assumed she'd still be waiting when Moriah got done. Not so. I turned around and she wasn't there anymore. They had opened up another audition room to make things go faster.

Moriah got out of her audition just before Susannah was done. Moriah was bubbling over with excitement and was really happy with how her audition went. I watched Susannah come out of the little practice room and could tell her audition wasn't as positive. She looked like she was about to cry. I listened to both girls describe their auditions and it became clear that they had completely different experiences. I was sorry it hadn't gone smoothly for Susannah but I was so proud of both girls for making the effort to audition in the first place.

I ended up writing a note to the music department this morning to comment on the very different experiences of the girls. Not sure what I thought it would accomplish, but my momma heart wanted to acknowledge and try to 'fix' the negative audition Susannah went through.

By the time I got home tonight, there was a nice reply from the music department. I appreciated that they heard my concerns and gave me a little more information to help me understand the audition process.

Along with that email came another...the girls had been chosen to be in the honor band! When I told them, Susannah's mouth dropped open and she just stared at me. Moriah (if I remember correctly) did a fist pump. We'll have to do some schedule shifting once practices start in January, but that will all work out eventually.

I'm so proud of those girlios!

Another lapse

2009-12-07T22:18:00.003-09:00

Yes, it's been a little bit again between posts. Sorry! I've been sick and busy and sick of being busy.

But, until I have some time to upload some photos of us decorating our Christmas tree, here is a little photo love for those of you wondering what our 'little' family is looking like these days. We had those family photos taken and I've gotten the pictures back. Our wonderful photog friend emailed me a digital version of one our better poses so I could put it on the blog. That was really sweet!

Here it is (please forgive Samuel's wild hair...it's slightly alarming, but I figure we'll all have a good chuckle one day over what it looked like at this point in his life!):

(clockwise, from center: me, Samuel, Moriah, Bethany, Abigail, Susannah, Jim)

Aren't we GORGEOUS???

Sea Life Center Photos

2009-11-28T23:29:00.020-09:00

I'm going out on a limb and posting photos without 'watermarking' them. It's a time-intensive process and it'd take forever to get the photos into Photobucket, saved with my "Property of the Doepkens" tagline, then downloaded again just in time to upload again into Blogger. If anyone knows of a better way to get this done, I'm all ears/eyes. One caveat: my laptop is school-issued and managed and I likely cannot download any nifty software to make this all easier.
(And please excuse the relatively messy look of the photos and text together. I'm still not very good at manipulating things onto the page in a pretty way.)

Without further ado, here are some photos from our Sea Life Center outing (click on them to see them a little larger).

As soon as you enter the center, there is this cute little boat that allows you to play captain with some buttons and a wheel. Abigail is holding a plastic crab that freaked her out a little at first.

Next came some 'buttons' that let you hear
all kinds of animal sounds. Bethany was absolutely tickled by each noise heard, clapping her hands to her mouth and giggling. As you can see, she was barely tall enough to reach about half of them and needed a smidge of help for the other half.

There is a definite conservation/'green' aspect to the Center, and the first little room we came to has all sorts of information on declining numbers of fish and increasing numbers of jellyfish, among other things. The little girls listened intently to a radio interview via phone and then Abigail enjoyed petting the fur of a harbor seal and a sea otter.

The big girls finally convinced the little girls that it was okay to touch the glass of the fish exhibits and they got a kick out of looking at all the creatures swimming and floating and undulating and crawling around.

We ventured into the 'Touch and Feel' part, and I don't think any of us expected the two smallest Doepkens to touch any of the creatures. But Bethany surprised us all, including herself, by boldly sticking her finger into the water.

Just look at her excitement and glee!

Abigail hovered around, watching Bethany get more brave and eventually touch something. Not to be outdone, she walked right up and stuck her finger in the water as well.

Oh yeah? I can touch an anemone too!

The anemones looked prickly but were kinda soft (and they 'hugged' your finger too!). The sea star that both babes touched felt like a rock and Bethany even touched another type of anemone that was sticky--the very end of each long 'arm' stuck to your finger. (no, Mommy didn't touch anything)

We watched 'Woody', a huge Stellar sea lion for a little bit. He would swim by, his eyes sort of bulging and following us. He'd come way up out of the water, then swim around, then pass by or little group as if to say "what are you doing?"

The birds were next and Abigail wasn't sure she liked them too well. Lots of noise and motion and shaking of feathers to rid them of water. I especially liked the male King Eider, although the photo doesn't do it justice. I'll post it anyway.

We headed downstairs, visited the Giant octopus that was moving all over the place in the tank, watched Woody and the harbor seals swimming in their respective tanks, had the kids get on the big scale and see how close they could come to Woody's weight (barely a fourth, I believe) and found the jellies tank. By this time all five kids were rather hungry so we raided the vending machines and my snack stash before hitting the gift shop.

Going into a gift shop with toddlers/almost pre-schoolers is an adventure, as any parent can probably tell you. I was okay with the kids getting a small memento of our Thanksgiving 'vacation'.

The big girls each found a cool necklace within their price range.
Check.
Samuel wasn't that interested, as was expected.
Check.
Jim had fun playing with the stuff he saw (and getting Moriah to, too).
Check.

The little girls wandered around. They looked at the stuffed animals. They looked at the hard plastic animals (almost had them convinced to get a "Nemo" clown fish). They found 'baby cups' and wanted those. ?? Abigail narrowed it down somewhat to a stuffed animal. But! kept choosing big ones (I think she was teasing me because she'd hold up a sort of large one and say "a little one?"). Bethany got bored and left the store (in the company of Samuel). Part of me totally rejoiced in that, but then I redoubled my efforts to find her something she'd like. I know, I know. Not a shining Mommy moment, encouraging my child to spend money when she wasn't really interested. But I was doing some pre-self-preservation, thinking of that potential meltdown that could come when she realized Abigail had something and she didn't.

In the end, Abigail settled on a little black bear (BB for short) and Bethany chose a stuffed jelly fish (whose name is...Jelly). They seemed very happy with their purchases and have been playing with them. I find some solace in that.

We got home, ate a quick lunch and the little girls headed to their naps. It was a lovely late morning/early afternoon spent together (although you should ask Jim about taking advice from his wife about appropriate footwear).

Thankfulness

2009-11-26T10:31:00.004-09:00

Our family is down in Seward, a smallish town about 1.5 hours from Girdwood. We had a fairly lazy (and lovely) Thanksgiving morning, an uneventful trip down, had dinner on the table by 6, enjoyed our meal, watched a movie (Up) and finished up with pie. Our only little hiccup was Bethany's reluctance to go to bed (on their 'picnic' beds*), which is sort of par for the course for her right now anyway. Jim and I had to wait just a little while for her to settle before we could watch a couple more episodes of Glee.

Now, we're almost ready to head out to the Sea Life Center. The big girls have gotten the little girls excited about the animals we'll see. They've been talking about it for days. If you ask Bethany what animals she'll see, she'll tell you "seals, crabs, fishies, sarfish."

I'll see about posting pictures later. Bye!

*The little girls have enjoyed a couple of 'picnic' lunches on the floor lately, so I told them that their pallets on the floor were 'picnic' beds. Yes a little strange, but it helped distract them from wanting to sleep on the very tall queen bed in the room they're in.

November is flying by

2009-11-22T22:52:00.002-09:00

How in the world is it already almost time for Thanksgiving? Days seem to run into each other, starting early with Samuel (when it's my turn), going going going all day at work, after-school things, evening meetings, bedtime, homework, etc.

Later this week we'll be heading down to Seward for a couple of days of 'vacay'. We wound up being able to stay at the UM pastor's house because he'll be out of town: score one for free lodging! I'm not sure how elaborate our Thanksgiving meal will be, especially cooking in someone else's home. I know we'll have turkey (turkey breast from Costco, leftover from dinner a few nights ago, to be honest), pineapple pudding, stuffing, cranberry stuff, mashed potatoes (fake to make it really easy...ask Jim why we have to have mashed potatoes!) and gravy, yams, rolls and some veggies of some kind. Oh, and eggnog. And pumpkin pie from Costco (yummy!). Not too shabby. No twice-baked potatoes, though. Too much work for a vacation meal. Actually, now that I've typed it all out, we're not giving up too much. But we're definitely making it as easy as we can. (although I wonder if we'll have enough room in the car for clothing, little girl extras and food!)

The big girls are already talking up our plan to go to the Sea Life Center while there. They have gotten the little girls excited and the little girls have been talking about the fish and seals and starfish and other animals they'll see while there. Hard to explain to them that we won't be leaving for a few more days. I don't think I've ever been to Seward in early winter...wonder what the shops will be like and what'll be open.

We got our family photo proofs back and they turned out really well. Except for Samuel's hair. It was a bit, um, wild. We couldn't get a hair appointment before the photos were taken, so I tried my best to tame his curly hair into some semblance of normalcy. Didn't work, but at least his smiles are genuine and sweet. Right? I don't know if I'm allowed to post one of the proofs or not; I'll check with the photographer soon.

I should really head to bed. I'm on the early shift with Samuel tomorrow. Stayed up watching Eureka with Jim. Cute show (on Syfy) about a town full of geniuses. We Doepkens would fit right in! *snort*

Taking photos, take two

2009-11-12T21:42:00.003-09:00

Way back in September I signed up our family for a portrait session. I was hopeful that the little girls would be willing to put up with flashing lights for the twenty-minute sitting. Our little adventure with photos on school picture day gave me a great heads-up to how to make the sitting successful. Yes: chocolate!

After the flurry of figuring out what we'd all wear and the changing of clothes and the drying of hair and the finding of shoes, we actually made it out of the house and to the school with time to spare (a true rarity with us!).

I told the little girls that if they sat and smiled they could have some m 'n ms, something that perked them right up. They willingly sat and posed and smiled (and it helped immensely that Daryl the photographer had a great Donald Duck voice that made them absolutely giggle).

As soon as the first family pose snapshots were taken, Bethany asked for the chocolate. (uh oh, I thought.) I told her that she had to smile a little bit more then she'd get it. On to the second pose, lots of smiles, and again, the request for chocolate. (would she pose once more with just her siblings?) Yes! A quick few shots of just the kids and she and her sister were in possession of small packets of chocolately goodness.

Jim and I had a few taken of the two of us, too. We haven't had couple photos taken in a while and they looked fairly good in quick review.

The proofs will be ready in about a week...I wonder how difficult it will be to choose shots. It won't be cheap, but I think the photos came out well and I'd really like to have at least one of each pose. Stay tuned!

A moment of mild panic

2009-11-09T22:39:00.003-09:00

Last night the older girls were watching the movie Hoot. (The little girls were in the room and were watching as well, basically by default.) It's a movie about kids working to protest development in an area in Florida that has a special kind of owl living in the ground. One of the kids does some vandalism-type stuff that includes putting an alligator in a porta-potty, which then jumps up and tries to snap at a policeman.

I noticed that Abigail was wearing a rather alarmed look and Bethany said something like "the dinosaur try to bite him", so they certainly noticed what was going on with the movie. Abigail then said something about alligators in our toilet and I had a brief moment of "oh shoot, please not again."

What does that mean, you think? Not again? Huh?

Wellll, several years ago, I had a little girl develop a fear of toilets. Well, public toilets. And it was an understandable fear, given the circumstances. Moriah was in the bathroom at Red Robin, minding her own (bathroom) business, when one of the adjacent toilets began to overflow. It freaked her out. Freaked. Her. Out. She had locked the door and I couldn't get in right away to get her off the wet floor. I did finally get in and 'rescue' her, but the damage was done. She didn't use a public toilet for quite a while after that.

That's what flashed through my mind last night as Abigail looked on, wide-eyed, at the alligator in the toilet on tv. "Please, not again"...I immediately went into the bathroom, calling for the little girls to follow me, so that they could see that there was only water in our toilet. No 'dinosaurs', no snapping 'agilators'. Bethany followed me in but Abigail hung back. That gave me another small burst of panic, making me wonder if she'd be unwilling to come into the room. I had momentary visions of using the little trainer potties, in any room but the room with the big toilets.

Thankfully, after a short bit of coaxing, Abigail came in and peered into the toilet. No snapping anything appeared. And that was all it took. Fear all gone.

Phew!

Pure imagination...

2009-11-06T21:57:00.003-09:00

After school today the big girls and I went down to The o> Shop to see Samuel, who had called me but wasn't returning my return calls. While there, we three ladies indulged in cinnabon pretzels, which are quite lovely and happened to fit the after-school-snack budget ($10 cash was all I had on me).

We then went to pick up babes from Little Bears. That took a bit because they were playing outside on the playground (still NO snow!) and they never want to leave at that point. The big girls devised some playful motivation to get them to the car: Moriah protected the babes from the Susannah monster, running this way and that until they reached the safety of the car.

As we were driving home, I told the big girls that I'd like to squeeze in a walk (the one that didn't happen earlier because I stayed at work too long) and could they please occupy the babes for that stretch of time.

This request resulted in the next bit of imaginative play. Moriah suggested that they play 'Knight, Dragon and Damsel' and Bethany enthusiastically said she'd be a knight! Abigail didn't voice a preference that I can recall.

All four girls went straight upstairs once we arrived home and were heard shuffling and moving around the big girls' room. I was hurriedly putting on some walking clothes and came out to see Moriah and Bethany dressed identically in shiny 'armor' fabric and a cape. By the time I came downstairs, Bethany was also wielding a blue spatula. Princess Abigail made her grand appearance shortly thereafter and the tableau was set.

I grabbed the dog and went on my walk. Time? 4:50 or so. Sadly, I had to cut my walk short because I am not yet in DLS mode...by 5:10 or so I was fully aware that I'd soon be hard to see and I hadn't brought a head lamp. oops.

What happened while I was gone you ask? No idea. Well, I did notice that Abigail and Bethany changed roles at some point. Otherwise? Good question. I do know that upon my return I could tell that those four girls had a blast and played and played and played while I was gone.

Right now

2009-11-05T20:08:00.005-09:00

there is an epic battle between two kitty cats and an orange monster. One of the kitty cats often turns into a 'runaway monter' (monster) herself, but then returns to her kitty shape.

The kitties are currently under their protective shield (blanket) and are telling the orange monster to 'freeze' and 'go away'. They are giggling and wiggling and having a blast avoiding the bubby orange monster.

I must add an update:

Lord Smelly Blanket made a quick appearance to the kitties' delight and now they are sitting in the window, waiting for their bubby monster to come and eat them up!

Halloween...

2009-10-31T20:52:00.005-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. I am a fan of the dressing-up aspect, but that's about it. I don't like my kids having tons of candy, I don't like the crowds at the local Halloween 'carnival' and I don't like the stress that comes from last-minute costume making (that, of course, is usually my own fault--which makes me even less happy about the situation!).

In the past, we've tried to find original costume ideas that are fairly easy to make. Some of the greatest hits include:

Jim: a Chipmonk (potato chips attached to one of his robes) and a Coat of Arms (literally). He was also a devil in a blue dress two years ago--that was impressive.
Me: I was a chocolate moose one year. This year I had an Identity Crisis (name tags with different names all over me).
Samuel: Matthias and Basil Stag Hare (from the Redwall series), Einstein (his wild frizzy hair was perfect) and Ford Prefect (from Hitchhiker's Guide). Intellectual costumes for that boy.
Moriah: Rainbow kitty (back when she was 4, I think), Harry Potter, Robin Hood and this year, a Lame Excuse (crutches, excuses on her shirt).
Susannah: Rock Star (complete with gold pants!), Luna Lovegood, a spa girl and this year, Dr. Pepper (lab coat, red peppers, stethoscope).
Abigail: monkey, ballerina this year
Bethany: snowboarder, Blue this year

Last year Jim, Abigail, Bethany and I went as the Flintstones, too. Won the family contest. :)

So, see, I don't think it's all bad. I love thinking of funny costumes and making people laugh. Once I'm in costume and out and about, I can mostly forget the stress that lies beneath the surface of the fun. But I also usually have Jim to share the load....

This year, Jim was part of a "Murder Mystery Tour" that the Resort put on. There were about 10 folks who acted out a 'whodunnit' murder mystery--partly on a train ride out to Spencer Glacier and then partly up at the Resort. His character was Count Dabodies and he had a great time spiking his hair, painting his fingernails black and talking somewhat like the Count on Sesame Street. He came to the part rather late (on Wed.) to take the place of a cast member who was called for jury duty. I was pretty excited for him, but it meant I was soloing Halloween stuff since he'd be gone from 9:30 am-10 pm.

The girls and I did hit the Halloween Carnival at the Daylodge. Eh. Some games that the little girls didn't understand or couldn't really do, candy for prizes, overpriced food and lots of people. I kept the little girls in one small area of the Daylodge and they did finally get good at a game where they walked around a small circle of colored disks; when the music stopped if your color disk was chosen you got some candy. Whoo hoo. The stop at the carnival was enough for the little girls. The big kids was a different story.

Trick-or-treating around Girdwood is a little different than most places. The streets are completely dark beyond whatever house lights there may be. There aren't really many neighborhoods so you end up driving your kid around a bit to be able to find enough houses to get candy from in the first place. And it's usually pretty snowy and cold.

I had previously informed our three older kids that if they wanted to trick-or-treat they'd have to figure it out somehow because there was no way I was loading up little girls to drive older kids around to beg for candy. (That's Daddy's job!) Moriah and Susannah hooked up with some friends and went around for close to three hours in 24 degree temperatures. brrrrr. No snow yet, though, so at least they didn't have to wear boots!

Samuel tried to hook up with a couple of friends, but they called him too late for me to be able to drop him off to where they were. He was to be the escaping human to his friends' zombies, but alas, his "Zombie B-Gone" spray went unused. I guess a 14 year old doesn't need to go out begging for candy. Especially when his dad buys a huge bag of candy for us to give out and we don't have many visitors (although we had the most we've ever had this year). There's lots of candy left over.

Not many Almond Joys though. Or Snickers. Funny, that.

Recently heard

2009-10-27T22:37:00.004-08:00

"I'm broken"--said by Bethany as she was watching her reflection 'break' a little as she moved her head back and forth between two sections of our medicine cabinet/mirror.

"What's that noise?"--asked by Abigail, specifically when she pointed at the words and wanted to know what the next part of the song was in Hush Little Alien (a cute book with words to the tune Hush Little Baby).

(I'm aware I haven't posted photos yet of our recent family walk. No time. Plain and simple. Sorry!)

Flattery will get you nowhere, but bribery...

2009-10-21T22:28:00.002-08:00

will likely get results.

Yesterday was picture day at Girdwood K-8. That meant the older girls competed for shower and bathroom time with me before school, making for a very rushed morning.

It also meant that siblings were welcome to come during lunch and get their photos taken too. (you see where this is going, don't you?) We I thought it was a good time to get the little girls' picture taken, especially seeing as we haven't done any portrait studio trips with them. At all. (yes, those last children really do get the shaft, don't they?)

Because I was working, Jim had the task of getting babes ready for pictures and getting to the school on time. I left him with 'if I were here this morning, this is what I'd do...' kind of ~~suggestions~~ directions (such as: keep them in jammies, give them a mid-morning bath, dress them in the pre-selected cute outfits once worn by Moriah and Susannah for photos taken about the same age...you know, suggestions).

If we wanted to pay by credit card, it meant that we'd have to pre-pay online, something I was hesitant to do in case the girls bailed or balked. But Jim forgot the check book (totally forgivable considering his morning!), so I went ahead and paid online. We did get the okay to have them pose together, hoping to keep stress to a minimum and be frugal all at the same time.

Unfortunately, the schedule got changed around and the sibling time got pushed back. And we were behind four or five other siblings. And the babes hadn't eaten lunch yet. And they wouldn't cooperate. At all. No, I take that back. Bethany sort of cooperated. A little. I knew there had been a good reason not to pay ahead of time. Sigh.

The gal taking the photos tried to get the little girls to sit back to back on a overturned step. Here's somewhat of a running commentary of what we probably sounded like:

Look, girls. You can sit up on this! Can you put your backs together like you're leaning on a chair? Please? Oh, come on Abigail, just climb up. Good job Bethany! Abigail don't you want to be in the picture too? Please? Bethany, can you smile? Abigail, are you sure you don't want to sit up here with sis? Sigh. Let's get down so your friend can get his photo.

(insert small break here while one of their little preschool friends sat and smiled for several photos.)

See girls? It's painless! Can't you smile just like your little friend?? Please? Oh, look! Bethany climbed right up! Abigail, don't you want to play choo choo and sit like you're on a train? No? Okay. Bethany, please get your hand out of your mouth. Can you put your hand in your pocket? No, not in your mouth sweetie. Can't you smile? Abigail? That's right! Climb up...oh, or not. Bethany, you don't want Abigail to be with you? Bethany, let's get down so someone else can go.

(insert another small break while a couple of staff members were photographed.)

{Finally, one of the moms helping suggested bribing them (do you have any chocolate nearby?)}. Why, yes! In my office as a matter of fact! Jim, would you run and grab two mints? Hey girlios...if you climb up on the step and smile, you can have some chocolate when you're done.

What followed that sentence was immediate compliance. Immediate. Two little girls, sitting back to back, smiling only as toddlers/almost preschoolers can: with slightly scrunched up faces. The gal was so very patient through the whole ordeal and actually got a pretty good shot of them together. I think she was willing to try again, but I was so relieved to have at least one good shot that I called it good and the babes got their just rewards. If I had been smart, I would have found a camera to record the after-photo-session choco-mouths, but I'm sure you can all imagine the happy smears of chocolate around their lips.

That same brilliant mom said, as we were happily blocking out the last 20 minutes of our lives, "whoever said you shouldn't bribe kids never had kids." I'm sure a truer word was not spoken that day.

(And yes, Mom helped herself to some chocolate once Dad and babes had gone home...don't know if Dad treated himself to anything, but he sure deserved to! It was a little too early to have a beer!)

Family walk and ice cream

2009-10-18T23:03:00.000-08:00

We all have been thoroughly enjoying a prolonged fall this year...it has been fairly mild and sunny and there are still leaves on several trees! Usually by this time we've had at least one snow and some is often sticking around. But not yet. So, we used our grace period wisely and ventured out with everyone once the babes were up from their naps.

We drove out to the start of the Gird to Bird trail (or is it Bird to Gird?) and walked out about a mile. Poor Hurley was almost left in the car in all the hub bub of getting the seven humans out of the car and pointed in the right direction. Only when we were passed by a lady walking four dogs did we realize the poor pup was likely whining and wondering why in the world we brought him along only to leave him behind. Oops.

The sun was shining, the scenery was, as always, amazing and I'd like to think the family had a great time together. I know I did. We had two toddlers running, a teenager sharing random trivia (Samuel, of course), one skateboarder (Moriah), one roller-blader (Susannah), a dad leading the charge and a mom bringing up the rear (when the running toddlers started getting tired).

Ice cream was our eventual destination, a semi-bribe for the littlest girls to keep them going. They both wanted pink ice cream...we all hoped the strawberry flavor was acceptable, as there weren't really any other pink choices. I found it a little funny that we all were pretty chilly by the end of our walk and yet there we all were, eating ice cream. Even Samuel relented and got some after drinking his sweetened chai tea.

There aren't many (any?) days like this left before the snow flies. Sure glad we could share a bit of today's glorious weather with each other.

(pictures will have to wait until tomorrow...it's time for bed!!)

Toddler Speak

2009-10-10T21:56:00.002-08:00

There are days that the little girls' vocabulary and comments surprise me, like tonight when Bethany, talking about a small milk spill, said "is not my fault". Or when Abigail asks "what you talkin bout?" as she is concentrating hard on a conversation two or more people are having.

Bethany, especially, seems to grasp more 'complex' sentence structure and makes me laugh regularly with her observations. Abigail seems to search for the right words more often and she might have two or three 'false' starts to a sentence before the right words click into place.

A few of the more charming words in use right now include
munch box (Abigail)
lobbypops (Bethany)
paydough (both)
sad-dle (cereal...both)
do-oy (door...both)
cah-ee (car...both)

Abigail recently tried to express to Jim that there was a goose named Abigail in a movie she was watching (Aristocats, if you're really curious). It came out "My name Abigail....goose". She tried and almost got it. :)

Bethany occasionally will add an extra 'l' if a previous word has an 'l' in it. Or, she'll pronounce a b as a p or vice versa. Such as: a blue blate (plate) or 'blease'. Sometimes her lobbypops become lobblyplops.

Both girls also like singing a great deal. Abigail is the girlio who will sing familiar songs and will do pretty well at getting most of the words. She'll even surprise us by randomly singing a song that she hasn't heard that much. Like when she was singing parts of the third verse of Jesus Loves Me.

Bethany's singing varies between words she knows and complete jumbles of nonsense words to a tune she knows. She also gets this great 'vibrato' at times (which I think I've mentioned before). I've gotten some video of the singing, but I'm not sure about putting a fairly long video on the blog. I'll look into it.

All in all, cute girls, cute words. What more can you ask for with toddler speak?

Powerful moment

2009-10-07T23:24:00.002-08:00

What I'm about to blog about won't be understood by everyone and might even cause scoffing or eye rolling. (How's that for a starting sentence??) But, as a friend challenged our Bible study group tonight, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" and the answer is: I'd eagerly post about a powerful moment I had about/with Moriah and Susannah tonight.

A little back story: Susannah seems to be entering a 'sixth grade' phase of "You're not my friend" and "You're not in my group" kind of behavior with another girl. I don't think either girl is attempting to be 'mean', but they are both leaders of sorts in their classroom and I think they are subconsciously attempting to establish who is more influential in the classroom. That all being said, Susannah has been somewhat divisive within her class and has surely had her share of uncharitable thoughts toward this other girl.

I shared at Bible study tonight that I was concerned about the situation, especially because Moriah had been drawn into it and had 'sided' against her own sister with this other girl. I use the term 'sided' loosely, because it wasn't much more than a few sibling-rivalry-fed words. But it still hurt Susannah and gave the appearance that Susannah's closest person to her on earth thought poorly of her.

One of my fellow Bible study gals shared a scripture from Ephesians that was appropriate and prayed it before I left to go home. Prayed it using Moriah and Susannah's names instead of 'you'. Prayed it as if Paul were writing directly to them. WOW. (yes, it made me cry)

Once I got home (and got babes to bed and finally ate my supper), I called the girls over and I did the same thing. I prayed scripture for and about my girls. Girls that are in the midst of some 'frenemy' type 'games'. Girls that don't always think about the consequences of their words and actions. Girls who are more often than not generous and caring friends to others. Girls that fill my heart with joy. Girls that I am incredibly honored and blessed to call my daughters (Yeah, yeah, Jim gets a little credit for them, too, but this is my story for tonight!).

It was powerful for me to be the one doing the praying and believe me, I will be doing more of this type of praying. What an amazing way to make scripture come alive and seem truly relevant and what an amazing way for me to show my girls how much my God means to me and to how I parent them.

This might sound icky pukey preachy and if it does, I'm sorry (I was going for slightly pious). But I had an amazing moment with my God and my girls tonight and I just had to share.

Peace.

Once upon a time...

2009-10-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

a wise and generous ~~queen~~ mom started writing a ~~fairy tale~~ family blog. She wrote about her amazing children fairly often, letting far-flung family and friends read about ~~fancy balls, exciting duels and happily-ever-afters~~ daily life, big events and funny toddlerisms. She posted charming and often witty stories that shared a small slice of their chaotic yet content family life.

Then, one ~~dark and stormy night~~ busy school year it all changed. Well, some of it changed. The mom took on ~~a fierce dragon~~ a new subject to teach and life got decidedly interesting. The mom found her time a little more scarce even as her children's amazing-ness remained the same. Actually, it's possible that her kids had become even more amazing, but her faithful followers would not necessarily know that.

Dear readers, take heart! The brave mom will once again emerge victorious and will get back to writing more often. In the meantime, she encourages you to imagine the Doepken family as fortunate fairy-tale folks...singing with woodland creatures, wearing glass slippers and keeping their little cabin in the woods tidy for their height-challenged friends.

12 years ago...

2009-09-29T00:08:00.002-08:00

I was in labor with Moriah and Susannah, almost 5 weeks early. My water had broken around 9:30 and by about midnight things had gotten very interesting.

Moriah was born at 2:49 am at a respectable 5 lbs. 2 oz.
Susannah was born at 2:53 am at a slightly more respectable 5 lbs. 11 oz.

Since that early morning, they have brought us so much joy, laughter and blessing.

Happy Birthday my sweet girls. I love you so very much.

Lion King

2009-09-28T22:16:00.002-08:00

Jim and I had a lovely date night last night with our three 'olders' and went to see The Lion King. Jim's parents gave us a wonderful early Christmas present and got us tickets and babysitting so we could go.

Can I just say that it was AWESOME??!! The kids all LOVED it , Jim and I LOVED it and we are so very grateful that we had the chance to go (thanks again Betsy, for making it happen!).

We had mezzanine seats right off the left aisle, which were very decent seats. Susannah was directly on the aisle and she had quite the close view of a huge elephant that came lumbering by, followed by its baby. We saw birds flying, antelopes loping, hyenas skulking, zebras galloping and giraffes...giraffing. (???) We saw Mufasa teaching, Zazu advising, Scar scheming, Simba pouncing, Rafiki foreseeing, Timon and Pumbaa gallivanting, and Good triumphing.

We saw beautiful costumes that mimicked animal forms in surprising and innovative ways. We heard strong voices singing mostly familiar songs. We peered through binoculars, trying to make out intricate details. We gaped at the engineering, whispered about how we thought something worked and we pointed to our favorite sights.

For me, it was pure joy to watch our kids watch the show. The girls were spellbound and Samuel was mightily impressed. We were all amazed by the talent, the story, the costumes and the effects. We enjoyed a magical evening together that none of us will soon forget.

Moriah's X-C

2009-09-23T22:26:00.003-08:00

Our kids are not front-runners for X-C. Never have been, probably never will be. But they all run to be healthy and to have a fun team experience. Because they aren't 'placers', they run against themselves, trying to better their times throughout the season.

Moriah was ecstatic to see that she had shaved off nearly a minute from her x-c run yesterday, as compared to two weeks ago at the same course. Exactly the kind of self-improvement that makes her think "ah, practice makes a difference!"

Way to go, Moriah!

Abigail the storyteller

2009-09-22T22:46:00.003-08:00

Tonight during dinner, we were treated to Abigail's recounting of the trip she and her sister took with their daddy out to Big Game Alaska. (It's really the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, but it was Big Game when we first moved to Girdwood and that's what it will always be to us.) She seems to like to tell us all about things like this, which is incredibly endearing.

Abigail told us about the owls, "one up in tree, one in house".

She told us about the moose, and showed us how they moved their heads up and down. (two male moose were hitting their racks together and she was trying to explain that through motion)

She told us that the porcupine was stinky (I can't 'spell' how she pronounced porcupine, but I promise it was cute) and that it put its arm up 'like dis' (with her left arm straight up).

She told us that the elk made noises in his throat and then she proceeded to try to 'gulp' like the 'big ek' had done.

She's done this after some other experiences and it's a joy to watch her search for words and put them together so that we can 'see' what she saw. It's fun to watch her facial expressions, too, as she tries to get us to understand everything.

I'm looking forward to hearing more from her in the future. Our little storyteller.

Lovely weekend

2009-09-20T23:42:00.003-08:00

We had two days of sunshine (including Friday), making this weekend awesome for the weather. We also had one day of Son-shine (*wink*), making this weekend awesome for the love.

Jim and I took a walk Friday afternoon, the 'big' girls ran/hiked part of the mountain with their x-c team, Samuel enjoyed an evening around a bonfire for his x-c spaghetti feed and the little girls had fun playing at Little Bears.

Yesterday was another beautiful day, although we didn't take advantage of the weather quite like we could have. I slept in late, Jim ran to town with Moriah and Susannah and Samuel went to hang out with a friend. The little girls did get to ride their 'bikes' and I wish I had gotten a photo when the two of them fit onto one tricycle together. Next time, if they are game to try it again.

Today, the weather was kinda rotten. But the day was still beautiful because the church did another 'day of service' in the community.

Samuel helped out by babysitting (he has a stress fracture in his left foot and can't do a whole lot)
the girls (and several others) helped 'fling cookies' (passed out cookies to random folks as a sign of God's love) and babysat after Samuel had to go to work
I scraped old stain off a deck at a non-profit's building
several folks painted at the same non-profit's building
others chopped and delivered wood for a man who seriously broke his leg and heats his house with a wood stove
two ladies played Scrabble with a shut-in
another group painted cubbies at Little Bears
and Jim ran from place to place making sure everyone had what they needed and fielding calls and directing folks to the right places

We even had a new family show up, expecting regular worship, who jumped right in and helped!

It was awesome, rain or no rain.

God is good.

Mondays...yuck

2009-09-14T22:54:00.003-08:00

I will be dreading each and every Monday from now to the end of the school year. Except the ones we have off for various holidays and breaks of course.

My day is jam packed full of classes and I don't have a lot of 'down' time. That alone makes for a harried mom. Add to that two little girls who are very tired after a long (but fun and active) day at day care and we're likely to get Monday late afternoons and evenings full of grouch and crying.

Like this afternoon, when the little girls were so tired that they were completely upset and unhinged over getting and eating goldfish crackers. Weeping and gnashing of teeth over where the goldfish were placed (on the couch, really?) and really letting go (Miss Abigail) when Hurley dared to snag some of the easy-to-reach tasty snack.

Like tonight at dinner, when Abigail was very insistent on getting yogurt for dinner. (Um, no, that's not for dinner sweetheart.) So insistent she sent her fork sailing over the table, where it hit Susannah's fork and made quite the impact.

Like tonight before bed, when the babes were sitting on their last potty stop and Bethany put the soft toilet insert on her head. Jim said 'oh yuck, don't do that' and Bethany dissolved into hysterics over some imagined stern reprimand. (Although this isn't just tonight...she's done this lately a few times with Jim for some reason. It's truly unwarranted. He's a very sweet and gentle daddy.)

Like tonight after finally getting the little girls settled and my finding out that the three older kids have eaten the rest of the ice cream that I was counting on enjoying once the crabby babies were not underfoot any longer. grouch grouch (Truth time worthy of a "Not Me Monday" seen on other blogs: I was very hard on Susannah over this. I was SO frustrated and let that dictate how much my lecture turned into a rant.)

Tomorrow is Tuesday. I'll be getting up early as Samuel gets ready for school and then going in early for a staff meeting. I think my day will be a little less stressful tomorrow. I think. If I can stay awake.

Not-togetherness, togetherness

2009-09-10T06:21:00.004-08:00

Yesterday was a twinteresting day for our twin sister sets. (trying to be clever, here...bear with me)

Not-together:

Bethany had been sick with an on again, off again fever that came back Monday night. She was semi-okay Tuesday but was still slightly feverish at 4:30 in the morning Wednesday morning. Which meant I wasn't going to send her to day care, even if she had shed her fever by the time she woke up. The decision then became: do we send Abigail alone? Without her buddy? Without her sister?

Jim decided that, yes, having at least one busy little toddler gone would be beneficial for him. We thought we could sneak Abigail out because Bethany was still sleeping fairly hard, but Abigail chose to wail loudly for her baby doll and woke her up. Jim quickly spirited Abigail away to get her dressed and ready while I distracted Bethany. We fully expected Bethany to be upset at not going to Little Bears, and once she caught wind that Abigail was leaving and she wasn't, we got the full-on tears and "I wan go Little Bears!" I shook her out of her crying by getting her dressed. This made her think she was heading to Little Bears too and I did not try to disabuse her of the notion. I just never said "yes, you're going." (*guilty grin*) Jim got back from taking Abigail as Bethany was looking for her shoes, and we had another round of tears when Jim gently told her she wasn't going.

I did not think this boded well for Jim's intention of having a productive morning, but happily I was wrong. After the initial sadness and tears, Bethany settled into a morning alone. Apparently Abigail was perfectly happy as well. So much for my fear that they'd miss each other too much and be sad all morning. Yay! Gotta love when those unfounded fears are proven wrong!

Together:

Moriah and Susannah had their first X-C running meet yesterday. As sixth graders at a K-8 school, they are allowed to run with middle school kids (in the 7th grade races). Both were apprehensive and both were hopeful they wouldn't finish last. Moriah was also a little nervous about trying out her new shoes, which she has mixed feelings about because of how 'ugly' they look. She hadn't had a chance to really run in them yet and try to break them in. They seemed to do okay for overall, but her feet still hurt after the race.

Here is why I call this part of the post togetherness:

They stayed pretty close to each other the entire race. This photo is taken toward the very end of the 1.8 mile race, on a long hill that you could just tell sapped the runners as they made their way past. The girls were absolutely exhausted by the end, but they were very pleased to have finished in front of several other girls.

Oh, and Samuel chose to ride the bus all the way back to Girdwood only to turn back around and drive into town with me to cheer his sisters on. What a sweetie. (but don't ask the girls if they concur...his version of cheering was a little too enthusiastic for those tired runners!)

I am not afraid

2009-09-07T23:16:00.003-08:00

Can I just say that? I am not afraid for my kids to listen to a president address the nation's students. I'm excited that our president is taking time to speak to the importance of an education and perhaps light the fire of motivation in some children who don't have a 'cheerleader' at home to do that for them.

And even if this was a president whose policies I disagreed with, I'd still remain unafraid for my kids to hear what he/she had to say. I'd urge them to listen just as intently. I'd remind them to respect the office and the person. I'd want them to know that it's okay to hear 'other' points of view.

I'd teach them what I disagreed with concerning this or that policy/statement and why. I'd also teach them that respectful discourse requires two sides listening to each other and sharing differing viewpoints. I'd teach them that that's how we learn (and sometimes realize we don't know everything).

Listening to a presidential speech is a teachable moment, regardless of what 'side' you're on.

Scary mall moments

2009-09-06T00:29:00.003-08:00

After watching Samuel run this morning at a X-C meet, the girls and I made somewhat of a day of it in Anchorage. We stopped by Skinny Raven first and spent way lots on specially made sneakers for Moriah (supposedly made for the way her feet pronate and supposedly helpful as she runs). They're kinda funky looking and have high wedge-like heels, but Moriah says they feel great so we have high hopes that running won't be as painful from now on.

Then we headed to the mall to do a tiny bit of shopping (read: Mom wanted to hit Eddie Bauer in case the capris I loved were on sale/in my size, which they were/weren't). We ate lunch first before heading to the clothing stores. The little girls fell in love with 'magic stairs' and we rode them a lot. A lot. After a few bargains were purchased, I was very ready to leave the mall with two very tired toddlers but I thought I'd like to pop into Gymboree to check out their sales.

That's when I lost Abigail for a few moments/minutes. (honestly I have no idea how long it was; it felt like an eternity) All four girls and I had just come out of JC Penney's, Moriah and Susannah sharing the responsibility of keeping track of the babes while there so we could all look at things. We had told the babes that we were going to find more 'magic stairs' (after riding them in Penney's), but those Gymboree sale signs were too tempting. I was assuming we had broken back into the 'big girls watch the little girls' formation so I could look at the sale racks when I heard Susannah ask "where's Abigail?"

I had Bethany next to me and thought Abigail was close by too. Nope. A quick check: no Abigail. I ran to the door of the store and did a quick scan of the three ways she could have walked away from the store, frantically recalling what she was wearing and looking for a bright pink shirt. (the mall has four floors, each of them wide and open with cut aways to look up and down between floors) Nothing. Turned back to the store, where Susannah was still doing a sweep of the clothing racks and the tv area. Nothing. I turned back (after a helpful associate asked if I was looking for anything in particular...uh, yes, my little daughter!) to the door and scanned again. Abigail was out in the hallway, almost to the escalators, a fair distance from the store. She had gone down one part of the hallway and had even turned a corner and had made it almost to the end of that next part of walkway. She was heading back in the direction of the store. I ran all out to go grab her, completely and utterly relieved and shocked she had gotten so far so quickly.

There was a security guard following her, about five feet behind. I shot him an extremely grateful look (and resisted the urge to defend myself) and hugged Abigail with all my might. Then we got the heck out of the mall (after riding the 'magic stairs' a couple more times)! :) We all think that Abigail was looking for the escalator when she walked off, since that was what I had told the little girls we were doing before my last minute jaunt into Gymboree.

Still feeling a little shocked and shaky about the whole thing. I have never had that happen before and I do NOT want it to ever happen again. Susannah was pretty freaked out too. She did so well, though, alerting me and helping me look. Moriah was great at keeping Bethany with her as I searched. I am so very thankful that our little 'girly' excursion ended just fine.

Overheard at the table

2009-09-01T13:39:00.002-08:00

Last night:

Abigail asked for more pepper and more 'leaf' out of the salad.

This afternoon:

Bethany, when encouraged to take a bite out of the little romanita tomato rather than put the whole thing in her mouth, said "No, I want to drink it."

Over hill, over dale

2009-08-30T21:22:00.003-08:00

Samuel had a X-C meet yesterday down in Soldotna. Early pick-up time and long day and lots and lots of schools from all over the state. There were over 300 runners in the boys' open race alone. Samuel felt really good about his run, which was a 5K. He didn't walk at all and finished ahead of many other runners. Another parent who went down for the meet took a photo of Samuel running.

Samuel thinks he looks half dead. I think it looks like he's giving his all.

Saturday relaxation

2009-08-29T11:44:00.003-08:00

Moriah and Susannah are off baby-sitting all day. Samuel is down in Soldotna at a x-c meet all day. Jim has gone to Anchorage for some much-needed church and grocery shopping.

And I'm just sitting here, watching the little girls finger paint and listening to Laurie Berkner. After our very full week, this is just what I need. Low key art. Oh, and no need to shower by 7:30 am. Or at all?

As God and Bruce say in Bruce Almighty, it's "goooooood".

School's in!

2009-08-25T21:35:00.003-08:00

Counting the three days last week and the two days so far this week, we've all got a week's worth of school under our belts. Thought it was high time I gave an update.

Samuel is figuring out just how to manage getting up at an ungodly hour (5:15 am) to catch his bus at an equally ungodly hour (6:04 am), homework, x-c running, one shift a week at The Ice Cream Shop and keeping old and making new friends. So far, so good. He likes his classes for the most part, although his soccer elective is taught by the soccer coach and has much harder workouts than expected and his English class is a little 'eh' so far. He is thoroughly enjoying Spanish and Biology.

Moriah and Susannah started sixth grade and are back with all their classmates for the first time since second grade. Girdwood School is sorta kinda doing a middle school model this year, so the girls will have some fledgling experience with the middle school teachers and with choosing electives.

Moriah is 'stuck' in keyboarding because the other elective she wanted was full. But thankfully her teacher has found a fun way to get them practicing and Moriah's attitude has changed somewhat. She's also going to be in beginning band, choosing to play percussion. Percussion is really a set of 'bells' (looks like a xylophone to me) and a drum pad (rather than a real snare drum, much to my relief). She's pretty excited about playing and we have been blessed with borrowing a percussion set from a friend.

Susannah is in the coveted Outdoor Adventure elective and is spending most afternoons outside running around or going on the trails near the school. She is also going to be in beginning band, with the flute as her instrument of choice. At least it will be once we actually get one for her. In our free time. Once we figure out a time to get to Anchorage. At some point. Susannah's instrument choice is the smallest yet of all our kids' instruments and will be easily portable, in contrast to Samuel's cello that was not even allowed on the bus (!). Anyone out there have an old flute lying around, please send it our way!

I have quite the full plate so far this year. I have my usual six classes for the regular library classes. I also have a jr. high research class every day before lunch, which takes up about a quarter of my limited part-time time. I will have every kid in 7th and 8th grade as they rotate through my class, a technology class and a student government class. And boy howdy is this first group of students a challenge (all boys). They are allll over the place, and all of them have fairly high energy.

In addition to my regular part-time job, I'm also helping to substitute teach Spanish for the part-time World Languages position that is brand new to our school. Someone did take the job, but then bailed, leaving us high and dry shortly before school started. Rather than watch the position become jeopardized, I stepped in to help keep it alive. I cannot be an 'official' teacher because I don't have a teacher certification. But I did find out that I am eligible to be considered certified if I enroll in a certification program and take a basic competency test called the Praxis I. As I figure out daily lesson plans I also have to figure out if it's worth going for this certification. It is something I have thought about doing and it feels like this might be a great opportunity. Problem is, this might come with a high price for our family if Mom is busy with classes and working more. So I'll keep you all posted on what I decide.

The little girls are going to Little Bears three mornings a week and are happy to be going back to see all their friends. It'd be great to get them a couple of all-day slots, but things are currently full. That's great for our little day care but not so great for us. Child care continues to be an issue for my new 'full-time' job(s).

In many ways this feels like the 'same old same old' routine of years past. Get up, get ready, get to school, work. But in so many ways it's all brand new. Namely not seeing Samuel during the day and also working longer days. Well, and that whole getting up at that awful hour.

Family walk

2009-08-21T23:04:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful day today. Sunny and warm and too wonderful to stay inside for dinner. So Jim and I made a picnic of pb&j, apple slices, blueberries, carrot sticks, honey wheat pretzels and water and the family headed out to walk down to some picnic tables near the playground.

We walked, we talked, we ate, we swatted bugs, we played, we bought cookies for the way home, we refereed between the babes in the stroller (again) and we had an enchanted evening together.

Our family and house may get chaotic and some may not ever 'get' how contented we truly can be, but I was simply and utterly grateful for the blessings of my family tonight.

(I will post about the first week of school soon...that'll take a while!)

Random toddler-isms

2009-08-18T19:05:00.002-08:00

For the most part, the little girls have a pretty good handle on their sounds and don't mispronounce too many words. But every now and then they come up with something cute.

Ringa rosey hocka posey

My see my friends at Biddle Bears or My go potty (My instead of I)

Potty wock star (older sisters trying to get them to say 'Party like a rock star')

Ginkle ginkle little star

ouse = oreos

doggies are still often goggies

abcdefghijkl-em-em-pqrst-an-me-dub-yew-xyz no my now my abcees, neck time won you sing with me (Abigail's version)

abcdefghijkl lllll p qrstu-me-wxyandz no more now my abcs, neck time won you han mid me (Bethany's version)

And you all should know that right now, I'm sitting in my family room, surrounded by all five of my kids who are singing and/or dancing to "Living on a Prayer". Bethany is pounding on a box with a drum stick. Abigail is making a circle with her arms above her head and twirling every time the chorus with 'Ooooh-oh' said. Moriah is air guitaring, Samuel is singing and Susannah is singing into a Rock Band microphone.

Life is good.

School daze days

2009-08-17T21:54:00.003-08:00

Backpacks? Check.
A few new clothes? Check.
Binders? Check.
Pens? Paper? Check. Check.

Yep, it's that time again. School begins on Wednesday.

For Samuel it begins much earlier than ever before...by over two hours (!). He'll be boarding the school bus at 6:04 am, almost 1.5 hours before his first class even starts. Yuck. I just hope he'll be able to doze on the bus.

For the girls, they'll be experiencing a little bit of a middle school feel by being able to take electives. They will also be with only sixth graders, the first time their class has been all together since second grade (rather than split between two classrooms).

For me, I'll be (at this point as far as I know) subbing for the world languages position that Girdwood has added for this year in addition to my regular half-time library job. There was a person hired who then bailed. So in order to keep the position at our school I've offered to sub and keep it going. We'll see what happens with that....

For the little girls, they start going to Little Bears three mornings a week. A place they love to go, a place where they see their friends.

For Jim, this means we'll all be scattering to our own places for part of the day and he'll try to get some work done during normal business hours. Maybe.

And for our house, school brings a whole new mix of schedules, happenings and juggling.

Wheee!

X-C meet

2009-08-15T23:42:00.002-08:00

Samuel had his first High School X-C running meet this morning. He only had nine practices under his belt before today and couldn't officially represent his school, but he still ran in the 'community' run and was happy with his time. (No photos...I was stuck in Girdwood because of having a spare tire on the Suburban and Jim was at a meeting in Anchorage this morning.)

I suspect more than a small part of him was glad that he wasn't 'official' today. That meant he couldn't wear the South Anchorage High School X-C uniform. Which meant he didn't have the wear the shirt that is too small for him (they ran out of his size, or so he thought). Which meant he wasn't teased about looking a little like a sausage, squeezed into his too-small shirt (yes, Mom and Dad both had a chuckle when he tried it on for us yesterday).

He found out there's a chance there are actually more shirts in his size, so he will be asking about that on Monday. Let's all hope he's right. Trust me.

Humpy Fest

2009-08-15T23:01:00.002-08:00

Today was Humpy Fest, a small 'celebration' of the humpy salmon. The pink salmon that, as it gets bigger, becomes 'humped' and pretty ugly. Jim and I had our first salmon fishing experience fishing for pinks. We were SO proud of our fishing prowess and success way back in '97 or '98. Had NO idea they weren't that great to eat. *shudder* They're good for smoking or dog food. Maybe canning.

Are they worthy of a 'fest'? Perhaps. The Turnagain Lions Club hosts this annual event and it's usually pretty small. You can buy chances to have rubber ducks win you cash and prizes in the 'ducky race' (they release a bunch of rubber ducks upsteam and the first three to float across the finish line win). You can also buy a chance to win money in the 'fish fling' that was Jim's brain child a few years ago. The Lions have a trebuchet that launches a heavy metal fish into the air...wherever the fish's nose lands on a tarp covered in grid lines wins.

There is also a humpy derby, with prizes given to the biggest fish, the smallest fish and the ugliest fish. These humpies do get ugly. Especially after they've spawned. *double shudder* I have seen some truly gross humpies brought to the derby. This year, Susannah's fish was deemed ugliest so she won a small cash prize from the Lions.

We usually hang around much of the day at this event, because Jim is an active Lion. This year he and the older girls were there the longest. I brought the babes after their nap and we enjoyed watching the fish judging. The little girls have a new phrase in their vocabulary now: 'uggie fish' (ugly fish). Plenty of of those.

Sunday bike ride

2009-08-12T00:34:00.010-08:00

(small caveat with this post...I've been working on this for two days...really. It took forever to finish for some reason.)

Sundays are often very tiring days for Jim. Understandably so because, well, he's a pastor. And everyone knows that pastors only work one day a week. So of course he works really hard that one day. *snort*

Anyway. Even though he was tired (as evidenced by his two-hour nap), he suggested we take a family bike ride. Minus our oldest, who was at a friend's house. Plus another kidlet, a friend of our older girls. So we still had seven (eight with the dog). Close enough.

For those of you who are curious, Jim bears the brunt of these family bike rides. He is the one who pulls the little girls in their bike trailer and he is the one who has the dog attached to the side of his bike. Me? I get to ride along, by myself, and enjoy the scenery. There is definitely a part of me that wishes I was strong enough to pull the babes. But I'm not. Or at least not for long. The dog would probably be okay, but that's a contraption that is attached to Jim's bike and not easy to switch (I think).

And for those of you who are even more curious (about what? you think), bike rides from our house are great when starting out. It's all downhill for the first bit. We then hit a part of the ride that is mostly flat and then it's more downhill and more flat, like this:

Here's one of our views along the way.

If we ride out about five miles from our house, then we do have a little bit of an up hill ride to a nice little pull-out with picnic tables and porta-potties. We often stop there and have a little snack break, like we did on Sunday.

We stopped for a while and let the babes run around. We all ate some granola bars, the little girls picked daisies and clovers and I believe rose hip 'buds', and the big girls ran around and then biked around. The sun was out, the wind was down and it was absolutely wonderful conditions.

Clover-loving girl

En garde!

Sharing a daisy

As we were heading back toward home, Susannah requested a stop at The Ice Cream Shop for a goodie. That idea was quite inviting, but meant that we'd get home really late for dinner. So we changed our plans and ended up eating dinner out instead. (note to self: Remember Coast's meatball sandwiches are messy...really messy.)

We touched base with Samuel (read: we had a relative oops moment...what would he do for dinner?) and ended up being invited to our neighbor's house for dessert. That was where Samuel had been honing some culinary skills while hanging out with his friend.

By the time we started heading home, we knew two things would make the ride home a little more challenging. Well, really three, but we already knew that our ride home is mostly up hill, as did you (if you were paying attention). 1. The sun had gone behind the mountains and it had gotten a little chilly. 2. The little girls were tired and would likely get cranky in the trailer.

The first thing was true but didn't get too bad. When you're riding a bike up hill (even a gentle incline), you're putting out some decent effort and staying warm.

View of Glacier creek, with the sun going down

The second thing was the biggie. Abigail was taking joy in hassling her sister. A little too much joy. For those of you who are wondering, yes, we are basically stuck when this happens. We can't really separate them. And we definitely can't kick one out of the trailer to walk home (no matter how tempting).

See, very close in the trailer!

So the last part of our ride consisted of stops and starts as Jim and I tried to mediate between the babes. Poor Jim had to keep re-starting on a hill. At least we had the thoughts of an awaiting dessert to help spur us all on.

Yes, eventually, we made it back to our street. Up the hill. And the other hill. And the very last steep hill. And on to the neighbor's house where the 'purple pie' (maple blueberry) was waiting. The boys had also made a cookie/fruit pizza dessert and we all had our fill of sugar to recharge our batteries.

Some day bike rides won't take as much planning and energy. Right?

Moriah's new toy

2009-08-10T11:34:00.005-08:00

Moriah has asked for a skateboard for a long time now. A long time. It's not a thing that makes much sense to own when 1. you live on a bumpy gravel road and 2. your parents won't let you go down and 'hang out' at the local skate park. So practical, wet-blanket Mom has said "um, no" each time the request has been made. (Well, the first time was much more gentle, as I explained the above two compelling reasons why a skateboard wouldn't be a wise purchase... then each subsequent request received a firmer denial.)

With all that said, Moriah did end up with a skateboard the other night. An old one from a friend that she got cheap. (she did ask first!) I figured it was okay for her to spend a little of her own money and better understand why we keep saying no (and it was a minor financial hit to learn this 'lesson').

Below are a couple of photos of Moriah and Susannah attempting to make the skateboard roll smoothly on our gravel road. They were pulling each other at first, taking turns being the puller and pullee.

Then they each had a go or two alone, doing pretty well and holding their own. Moriah is the one in the photo below.

But then the whole 'lesson' thing became a little more apparent as Moriah went flying after hitting a fairly small 'pothole' in the road (the dark grey spot in front of the skateboard). She landed a fair distance from the board and had a banged up knee and elbow. I'm just praying no one breaks a wrist (like someone we know...).

Since that little spill, she's been hesitant to skate in the road. Smoother surfaces are calling.

(and please don't tease her about this post...I'll never hear the end of it! ;o) )

Zoo for two (and two)

2009-08-08T01:26:00.005-08:00

I totally forgot to blog about the little girls' first visit to the Alaska Zoo. Their granddaddy and daddy took them in, along with their big sisters. (Mom had to stay in Girdwood and deliver lunches for Art Camp.) The zoo isn't huge, but there are many Alaskan animals to see including musk ox, moose, caribou (which smelled bad, according to Jim), snow leopards, sea otters, lynx, bears (polar, black and grizzly; the glacier bear was no longer there *sniffle*) and a few other animals.

One notable absence was the Maggie the elephant, who was moved to California a couple of years ago. Turns out elephants aren't indigenous to Alaska and don't do that well in our snowy climate. (*snort*) There is actually a story behind why the Alaska Zoo had an elephant in the first place (Annabelle, who was also an artist), so it wasn't that weird.

Here are all four girls, posing with what looks like their

bear counterparts (two big, two small).

The little girls enjoyed much of the zoo, especially the foxes. They watched the wolves and porcupines and Abigail liked the snowy owl. What Abigail didn't like was the petting zoo. Just look at her semi-worried, semi-scared face in the photo below:

The weather was a little rainy, but nothing to truly dampen anyone's spirits. Although apparently the little girls were scared of the squirrels that chattered at them as they ate their picnic lunch. Other highlights include several potty breaks (this was their first long trip to Anchorage and they did great with NO accidents!) and a long visit to the gift shop, where all four girls found treasures to purchase to remember their zoo trip.

There weren't a ton of photos taken, so I don't have a lot to share. Well, there were a ton of photos taken, but they were of animals. Lots of animals. But not my animals.

You'll have to make do with these two. In the zoo. Whew.

Entering the High School Zone

2009-08-06T23:03:00.000-08:00

Samuel becomes a freshman at South Anchorage High School in just 13 days. A freshman. In thirteen days. Yikes. Soon the early (early) mornings begin. He'll have to be up by 5:30 at the latest to catch the bus at 6:15. Yuck. Our night owl son will be hurtin' for a little while, until his body figures out that going to bed earlier rather than later is what's necessary. His parents will be hurtin' for a bit, too, I imagine, as we navigate a whole new set of rules and processes.

Samuel and I tried to go in to register today. We had planned to hit the freshman picnic for a bit and then do all the registration-type stuff needed to make him 'official'. About 20 minutes into our drive, we hit a line of traffic. I was just thinking of calling Jim to ask if he knew what was up when he called me. The traffic was backed up because of a bad accident that resulted in two fatalities (sadly, the 5th and 6th deaths on the Seward highway this summer). The Seward Hwy. is the only way to get from Girdwood to Anchorage and emergencies like this completely shut down the road. There was no way the highway would open in time to register and make it to x-country running practice, so turning around was the only thing that made sense.

I called the school as soon as I got home and put a 'hold' on his class schedule. I also talked to a staff person who wasn't all that helpful but who did tell me that full registration wouldn't be possible tomorrow. She kind of blew off my concerns about how that might impact Samuel starting school and didn't seem to understand that we have no idea what to expect with high school stuff. I did ask some specific questions and got some answers, but I'm still pretty much in the dark.

So, I'll be off to SAHS in the morning to register Samuel. I hope. And I may just know more after I get there. Maybe.