5 things...sorta

1. to read: my sister recommended this gem to me. loved that the author had 3 characters share the narrative. you just assume you know which one is the heroine and by the end your mind is changed. page turner.




2. for the kiddos: grandma got all of our kids one plasma car to share. my kids buzz all around the house on it. it's big enough for two of them and easy for even jace to drive around.

found this dress for little miss. perfect for easter if it didn't cost 69$. so i'm gonna try and sew one. i know, i might be screaming in frustration come saturday night. anyone out there with sewing expertise wanna give me some tips?




3. to watch: netflix is the greatest invention. i will never have to set foot in creepy blockbuster again! 500 days of summer was a really good movie. I loved the artsy feel of the direction, the unique storytelling perspective, and the unorthodox ending. a few little uneccessaries in there, like the naughty word shouting match (he he) but by far the best "chick flick" i've seen in literally years.
sidenote: (i really can't say that i like chick flicks, and don't watch many (excepting pride and predjudice, kiera knightly version, which i watch as much as possible.)

took the kids to this awesome dinner theatre here in anchorage to see Fantastic Mr. Fox and it was wonderful. love the weirdo son, the sarcastic and understated wit, and the patient and soothing voice of meryl streep. i thought it was a little over my kids heads, but they claimed to have really liked it!




4. to eat. ever since i hit 30, the old calorie burner has slowed down. so out with the sugar, in with the veggies. and veggies are good. especially when you eat 'em up with the help of these little snackies.
laughing cow cheese, 35 cal. and very grubbin'.
and organic blue corn chips. seriously very delicious, makes my homemade salsa taste even better (it's possible)



5. to wear: these jeans. i love them, and they were on sale.


lands end canvas is a new little shop a "spin-off" of lands-end. sorta j. crewish i think. i really need this dress and cardi, but it's like 5 inches too short, and i'm at a loss as to how i would remedy that.


so there you have it. 5 things.....sorta that are on my radar.

ggggoooooooaaaaaallllllll!!!!!

grandma is a genius...and other stories.

let's get a little hypethtical. say your a little boy. about 9 years old. and your grandma and grandpa came to visit and they took you to the store and told you to pick out a toy. and say you loved that toy and you took it outside and threw it in the sky (because miniature halo guys like to fly) and you had a big smile of joy on your face until you realized that the miniature halo guy hadn't come back down. your prized treasure is now stuck on the roof. what would you do? your mom might say something like: i don't have a ladder, you'll have to wait until i can call the maintenance guy.
and then if you're really lucky, you might have a fearless grandma, who sees a little problem like a lost miniature halo guy as no big woop. she might gather up things like: a big plastic spoon, a toy badminton racket, a broom, a rake and some red duct tape and fashion a little rescue mission.
and then when she sticks it out the window, she might just see a little hole in the snow, about the size of a miniature halo guy, and she might just be able to reach it with her genius contraption. wouldn't that make you the luckiest kid around? to with a grandma who also doubles as a hero resucer of lost toys? i submit that it would.


in other news, me and my pops went for a nice cross country skiing day! we were so busy talking and skiing, we almost ran into this momma moose and her two offspring.
a momma moose with two babies is rare, not because they don't have twins but because typically the 2nd baby gets eaten by a bear! so i'm guessing this lady is one great mom.

see those skate tracks? i made them.
dad on ski's by the ducks!

grandma and grandpa are here!

sadly quinton lost his head today. we're going to carve a pumpkin for him after church tommorrow.
love this picture of my mom
mt. redoubt (the volcano) at sunset above and below

mt. mckinley as seen from across the ice chunky cooke inlet.
this is right before we missplaced quinton's noggin.
this picture is now a treasure
austin on turnagain arm

it's that time of year again......

one of the coolest things about alaska is iditarod. while the rest of the world has croqus' and daffodils beginning to sprout, and warm weather, shorts, and flip flops just around the corner, we in the frozen north are just that, froze. so we tie 10 or 12 dogs to a sled and go for a 1012 mile race! it's fun. it helps us to not feel so bad about the fact that we are still sportin' snow suits instead of spring dresses.
so i hauled all the kids down to 9th and Cordova, to see the ceremonial start to the 2010 Iditarod. the real things starts tommorrow 40 miles away around the Knik arm of the Cooke inlet, in Willow Alaska.

we got there a little early and to kill time they put a pop can in a tree and tried to hit it with snow(ice)balls. can you see it?

quinton scored some fantastic seats.
jace thought he was real funny hugging the parking meter.
kids on the berm. they didn't last long this year. We only saw the first six teams. (there are around 72 teams in the race including a guy from jamaica whose legit and whom i didn't get to see cause the little ones were freezing) See the little booties on the dog's feet? one of the mushers threw a used one to the kids and said, "here's a dog bootie for ya!" it is the single most awesome alaskan souvenir i have.

Emotional Rambo

Remember my annoying rug? i'm still working on it. Last night i decided to put my nose to the grindstone and crank it out. i had just checked on all the kids, they were sleeping and austin and fallen asleep in Quinton's bedroom. went back down stairs to finish BBC Persuasion and get this stinkin' rug on the floor and outta my hair. So Persuasion ends and i'm flippin' channels and i hear some noises. with mike gone, and uncle gunther on a date, i am missing that he-man bulk. you know, that decidedly masculine quality that makes scary noises mere explainable trifles, and the lack there-of turns the trifles into insurmountable hurdles. so i'm trying not to freak out, and i decide maybe a wayward moose is just trying to mate with my outside wall. austin's room has a good view of the source of the noise, so i go upstairs and peak between the blinds warily. nothing. no moose, or big hairy bad guys. i'm beginning to shrug it off when i hear the unmistakable sound of a door closing. i try to be cool and calm, but someone is coming up the stairs, slowly and then more rapidly and then that darn feminine hysteria takes over and i shout, "whose in my house!" ...........
......just as poor little austin rounds the corner of the stairs, hear's my crazed shouting, bursts into tears and runs to me certain that hairy bad guys are chasing him up the stairs. I feel two things. his heart beating so fast it could burst, and total relief that the insurmoutable hurdle, is merely an explainable trifle. austin had to pee, and i hadn't noticed because of that increasingly pain in the bum rug. and i scared my 7 year old nearly to death. high-five maggie.

All of this has got me thinking. my best friend and i had a mantra in high school. it is as follows: men are good for 2 things: manual labor, and kissing.
I've learned since then to add more to the list. (although the kissing, and manual labor thing were dead on) I've mentioned before how i never cry. it's one reason i love the olympics, because when i'm frustrated after months of not being able to expell all the stress and frustration of life into palpable watery manifestations, i can count on sports battles and national pride to get the water works going. seriously no matter what, i'm teary during the anthems.
but since my man has been in Iraq, crying is a daily thing. or maybe i should say tears are a daily thing. And i've figured out after 10 years that not only do i need and relish mikes big protective muscles, but he's also my personal, Emotional Rambo. His easy going manner carries me through all the puke, and the 9 year old with attitude, and the 7 year old who is as slow as cold tar, and the little girl who can make a mess like a professional hoarder, and a sweet little toddler with a concussion. He takes all of that weight and says something like, "well, we can either laugh or cry!" who can argue with that. he flattens emotional rollercoasters' with his proverbial giant clown foot.
I can't wait until my big, muscley, hairy, and clown footed friend gets back.

choices

mike sent the kids books from iraq. the cool thing is they come with a dvd of him reading the books. so they get some special one on one time with dad, even though he is miles away. he reads them the stories and interjects with comments about the parts he thinks they like the best, or how crazy the picture of the author looks, or a promise he will read the story to them for real once he gets home.
when we are done watching the dvd's austin turns to me and says, "you made a good wedding choice."
yes, i did.