Wherever Life Leads...

A Big Sister with Heart

2012-02-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

It is precious to see how much Karamea is already looking out for her little brother, even though he isn't here yet. As we were making a paper chain to count down the days until his due date*, she got a very pensive look on her face and asked, in a very concerned voice, "Um, Mom, how will my brother** eat his birthday cake on his birthday?"

I couldn't help but smile and I told her that even though the day he is born will be his birthday, that he doesn't get cake until he is one year old because babies can't eat regular food. That was enough to satisfy her and we moved on to talking about other things. I can't help but hold on to the precious memory of seeing how much she already cares about her brother and how concerned she is about the important things in life. Like birthday cake. :) But really, I had no idea that three and a half year olds were capable of moments of such concern and empathy.

We've been talking about babies a lot around here lately, with the hope that it will help her mentally prepare for having a new sibling around. She was only 20 months old when Kaylee was born, so it is doubtful that she remembers it. One thing we have been doing is looking at pictures from when she and Kaylee were newborns. We happened to watch a brief video clip of her crying shortly after she was born, and she winced a little, until I explained that it is healthy and normal for babies to cry when they are born. Later that evening, she told me that she would rub her brother's belly when he is crying to make him feel better. So sweet.

*The official due date is February 25th, but we now have a scheduled induction for February 20th if he isn't here yet. Everything is going wonderfully, but our doctor wants to be cautious and induce a little early since I had preeclampsia after Kaylee was born on her due date.

**Baby #3 does have a name, and we have been sharing it and using it regularly at home, but I am waiting until he is here to share it on the internet.

The Countdown is ON

2012-01-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

As I sit here this Sunday evening, there is an extensive to-do list that is growing in the background. I will only be teaching two and a half more weeks (at the most!) until our baby boy arrives, and there is much to do in order to be prepared for my six weeks of maternity leave. It feels like for every one thing I cross off the list, two things get added. That said, I am making good progress.

But I need this right now. Time to write, to reflect. Time to jot down the flood of thoughts and feelings coursing through my mind and heart. In some ways, this time as we wait for our son's arrival feels like the calm before the storm. Life is so peaceful, settled, and fun right now with the girls and Mark. We are loving life as a family of four. Sure, there are little frustrations, but we have our routine and things are clicking along smoothly. For one thing, we all sleep through the night most nights! Don't get me wrong. I couldn't be happier about adding a son to our family, and I know the joy a baby will bring; I have already experienced this phenomenon twice:

Just when you think that life can't get any better, you can't conceivably be any happier than you are right now, and oh-my-gosh this is going to change everything, is it going to be a change for the better!?!?...and then the moment of truth arrives. YES! It IS even better; more joy and happiness than could have been fathomed and MORE.

Mark and I were talking recently about the paradox of parenting and how it turns so many things about life upside down...In particular, we were talking about the saying that it takes X number of positive words to offset negative ones, but that with parenting, it seems like one fleeting, endearing, joyful moment can offset any number of frustrating ones. We've had a lot of those special moments lately. It has been precious.

It will be a lot of work. And it will be a lot of joy. But for these next couple of weeks, there is still a part of me that wants to hold on to these moments with just the four of us and cherish them in all their glory. Every goofy, contented, comfortable, silly, sweet, calm, chaotic, and exasperating moment. I am eternally grateful for every memory we create as a family and I am equally excited about the next step on our journey through life together. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

A Joyful January Jaunt

2012-01-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

I am continually amazed by the natural beauty of the region we call home. The forecast is calling for temperatures in the mid-50s today and Sunday, and we didn't want to miss out on the chance to let the girls run off some energy, so we ventured out on a small hike. As we started off, I was struck by the fact that we did the same hike as a family nearly a year ago on a January day very similar to today. Kaylee was only 10 months old!

Within the first 10 minutes of our hike, we saw a bald eagle, a golden eagle, a coyote, prairie dogs, and cottontail rabbits. I didn't get any wildlife photographs, unless you count our little squirrels! :)

There are a few hills, but it is not a long hike, only a little over a mile to the cabin to where we enjoyed a break and a quick snack before turning around and heading back, but it was so peaceful tucked back behind the ridge.

I sat on the benches that line the deck of the cabin, soaked in the sun and took a little break while Mark walked with the girls on a little trail near the cabin. Every little thing about our outing filled me with joy; the fact that it is January and we were out enjoying the sun, the girls running around and smiling from ear to ear, walking side by side with Mark, taking in the beautiful scenery and wildlife, and the friendly people we encountered on the trail.

It made me even more convinced about some of the dreams and goals we have for making sure we visit and enjoy the family property we refer to as "the North Forty" after my mom sells her home. It is currently just vacant land, but we've tossed around some ideas starting with building a simple platform so that we have a place to put a picnic table and hang out when we're there.

Things I don't want to forget

2012-01-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason I created this blog was to write down special moments worth remembering; over two weeks of Christmas break, many warm memories have been made. Most of them are of the everyday variety, just sweet little things the girls do or say that melt my heart or little accomplishments that make me proud. I realized that I need to write some of them down since I can't freeze these moments in time and the busyness of life will soon wash the memories away (or at least bury them in piles of other thoughts).

In no particular order:

-Kaylee adores the apron she received for Christmas from some family friends. Multiple times a day, she will run to the kitchen drawer where it is stored, pull it out, and say, "Ap-er....Help you?" And then bring it to whomever is closest to put on. She knows just what to do; she turns around and waits patiently while the strings are tied, then runs over to the kitchen table where she quickly pushes the cushions off the chairs and pulls the chairs over to the counter so she can climb up and help.

-Karamea has become such a big girl. Lately, she has been waking up on her own in the morning, going to the bathroom, selecting her clothes and getting dressed on her own (we see some very interesting combinations!), then coming down and surprising me as I sit in at the dining room table working on stuff for school.
-If Kaylee wakes during the night, she will call out for Mama or Daddy, and then say "Help you." When I enter her room, I ask her what she needs, and she is usually very clear about why she called us in: Blanket. Pa. Diaper. Doll. Wrap you. Wake up. Hold you? Light. Karamea...are you? (It is so endearing to hear her version of phrases...Are you? = Where are you?, Hold you = Hold me, Help you = Help me (or 'Can I help you?')) Kaylee also has gotten really good at "Uh-huh" and "Uh-uh" for yes and no. She will even nod emphatically as she says, "Uh-huh"if she really wants something.
-The other day at nap time, I decided that I should take a nap too. Karamea was quite sweet and took it upon herself to tuck me in before laying down for her own nap. She gave me a doll and her soft blanket to sleep with, and even said a little prayer with me before bouncing off to her room and heading off to dreamland herself.
-Kaylee woke up early this morning, and after a quick diaper change, I wrapped her in her blanket and snuggled her, giving her kisses and tickling her cheek by gently rubbing my nose on it...she relaxed like a little babe in my arms, we enjoyed some sweet moments of eye contact, and my heart burst with joy as I listened to her contented giggles.
-Karamea is starting to show more patience with Kaylee and they have some sweet moments of play together. Whether playing with their little people, helping me in the kitchen, or rolling, jumping, dancing, and frolicking in the living room, they make each other laugh and smile. Some of the time, anyway. Sibling rivalry is definitely there, but they are spending more and more time happy with each other each day.

-Kaylee has reached the age where she loves to dote on babies. She lays dolls in a basket or on the coffee table, covers them with her blanket and says, "Sleep." It is precious to see the love she lavishes on them-and good to know that we'll need to keep a watchful eye for over-affectionate sisters when a certain little brother enters the scene in a little over a month.

Looking back, Looking ahead

2011-12-31T23:37:00.000-07:00

Last year, I reflected on a biblical passage as I looked forward to the new year. In 2011, I hoped to give thanks in everything. For the most part, I believe I was able to maintain a grateful heart through the ups and downs. This year, I decided to focus my reflection on major themes that stand out as I look back over 2011 and look ahead to what 2012 may bring.

Looking back over 2011:
GROWTH...I experienced growth in so many ways in 2011. Spiritually, I grew through my regular participation in the women's bible study I joined in Fall 2010. We stayed involved in our couples' group. I read several books that really helped me see life as a spiritual adventure. Personally, I grew as a wife and mom through the daily joys and trials of life. Professionally, I presented for the first time at a conference in February (and then again in November), I mentored a student teacher for the first time in my five year teaching career, and grew through my interactions with students every day in the classroom.

TRUST...Because of some of complications with high blood pressure after Kaylee's birth, I was somewhat, no, very fearful as Mark and I considered trying for a third baby. It took a lot of prayer and time for me to trust that we weren't taking a huge risk, and that no matter what, everything would work out for the good. Letting go of the fear I had been holding onto was absolutely freeing. So far, everything is going smoothly with the pregnancy (I am exactly 32 weeks along today!)

PROGRESS...I love the fact that my blog continues to be a great tool for chronicling our life and my thoughts as we travel this journey together. I have never journaled consistently (despite many failed attempts!), so I consider it a success that I have found a way to keep up with it. Not that quantity is more important than quality, but I was surprised that I posted almost twice as many times in 2011 than I did in 2010. On the home front, Mark has made great strides in some of the home improvement projects (some planned, others forced to the top of the to-do list by necessity.)

Looking ahead to 2012:
NEW BEGINNINGS...as we add a son to our family in February. We are all so excited to meet him and are looking forward to life as a family of five!

PERSEVERANCE...for continual self improvement in the quest of becoming better parents and knowing how to best parent our two (soon to be three) little miracles to bring out the best in them and to give them skills to become who they are meant to be. They bring us such joy, but challenge us at times too.

HOPE AND FAITH...how the rest of the year will unfold is fairly uncertain as we look ahead. My job is always reliant upon good numbers of students signing up at registration, and with uncertain times ahead in the school district where I teach, many are concerned with how they will be impacted. Also, our income from the fishing season is out of our hands and we have to trust in God's provision. I learned from my dad's experience to never take health for granted and I am always aware of what a gift good health is. Hopefully we will all maintain our good health in the coming year. We hope and have faith that 2012 will bring new blessings and journeys we can't even imagine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Wishing you all the best for 2012,

The Presence of Christmas

2011-12-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

For kids, much of Christmas is about gifts. Who doesn't love receiving a beautifully wrapped package and tearing into it to find something even better inside? We had fun unwrapping presents on Christmas morning and the girls received a bunch of fun new gifts: kazoos, coloring books, camoflague pajamas, twirling skirts, dolls, a magna doodle, and Little People, among others...

But that's not really the point of this post. And it's not what I want my children to focus on as they reflect back on Christmas memories when they are older. I have spent some time thinking about how opening presents on Christmas morning has become a new tradition in our family, dictated mostly by the desire to keep things sane for kids' (and parents'!) biological schedules. This shift, though not radical, has resulted in changing the focus of our time as a family. Sure, we still give and receive gifts, but doing so on Christmas morning has helped me focus less on the presents, and more on the presence of family and relishing time together. This newfound insight probably comes mostly from losing my dad a year and a half ago and all of the changes we have undergone through that, but changing the time of day we choose to exchange gifts and the relaxed pace have helped provide perspective as well.

This Christmas, rather than quickly open gifts and head to bed as we had done before kids, we savored our delicious egg casserole and waffle breakfast before shifting to opening gifts at a leisurely pace. After everything was unwrapped, we headed outside to let the girls burn off some of their abundant energy and to soak in the sun on our balmy, white Christmas. It was glorious. Nothing else on the agenda except to enjoy each other and relax. And to drop our otherwise busy schedules and turn our attention to a little baby, lying in a manger, just as some did on that first Christmas so many years ago.

Sisters Share

2011-12-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Not every moment is bliss between our girls, but they were getting along beautifully as they helped me prepare dinner last night. I quickly grabbed the camera to attempt capturing the moment and ended up catching a few special and unexpected moments of sharing that followed. They shared sippy cups, secrets, smiles, hugs, and the joy of helping mama...

I got the biggest kick out of Karamea bending over and whispering in Kaylee's ear telling her excitedly that we would be going to the doctor's office the next day. Especially when Kaylee turned to her and whispered back, "Psh-shp-shhh..."

P.S. Christmas post coming soon!

The Little Drummer Boy

2011-12-22T05:54:00.000-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me how familiar songs and hymns can suddenly carry new meaning and warm, new memories. It's like discovering Christmas all over again! Two years ago, I was struck with a new understanding of "O Come, All ye Faithful" after my grandpa passed away. Last year, "Silent Night" resonated with me. This year, "The Little Drummer Boy" has become the impromptu theme song of our family's Christmas celebrations.

It started shortly after Thanksgiving when we started listening to Christmas music. The girls were enthralled with the "pa rum pum pum pum" in the refrain and squealed with delight whenever "The Little Drummer Boy" came on the radio. It didn't take long before they were gleefully singing along. Then we remembered that one of our summer garage sale finds was a video of the 1968 TV special, "The Little Drummer Boy" and we watched it one night. I had never seen it myself, and it was quite the endearing story. Even though it isn't biblical, I love the message that it sends as it shows the boy going from angry and spiteful to a humbled, changed person as he looks upon the baby Jesus. The girls enjoyed it too, and afterward, Kaylee kept saying, "Drum!"

Fast forward a few days (a week?) later, when Mark borrowed the Veggie Tales version from our church's youth library. We've watched it a couple of times with the girls, and it warms my heart at how Karamea lights up with joy when the song plays in the film. It is clearly an adaptation of the 1968 film, and it, too, teaches forgiveness and the peace that comes when we find rest in Jesus. We don't need to bring fancy, expensive gifts or have the perfect holiday display; all we need is to come before the newborn King with a humble heart. What a good lesson to learn, particularly since that is precisely what Christmas is all about. Merry Christmas to you and yours,

December Days Daze

2011-12-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

How is it almost Christmas?! The few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas always end up being a flurry of activity, and this year has been no exception. Sure, there is the hustle and bustle of the holidays, which has included Karamea's first Christmas program, family gatherings, shopping for and wrapping gifts, baking Christmas cookies, making peppermint bark, and getting Christmas cards ready to send (they are coming, I promise!)


Karamea adored decorating Christmas cookies with Aunt Carrie

Beyond that, daily life has been super busy as well. Honestly, the last few weeks have been a blur. My break from school doesn't start until the 23rd and Christmas is definitely sneaking up on me this year. Even with listening to Christmas music any chance I get. That's not the only thing sneaking up on me....I find it hard to believe that I am now 30 weeks along in my pregnancy with our baby boy. I am so incredibly grateful that we have all stayed healthy for nearly two whole months and I hope that this healthy streak continues. (We definitely don't need a repeat of last year, when we all got the stomach bug on Christmas Eve!) I wanted to squeeze in a quick post just so I don't forget some of the fun little moments we've had over the last few weeks.

These first two pictures are of us playing with my pet bird Dandy (short for Dandelion). He was a Christmas present to me in 1991. I was 11. Fellow parents, if you don't read anything else I write here, READ THIS: No matter how much your child loves birds, DO NOT buy them a pet bird larger than a parakeet. I certainly did not bargain with the notion that my own children would know this childhood pet! (That said, however, the girls adore him and I'm glad that he is still around. I just don't think my parents appreciated it much when I was off at college. Not to mention that Mark signed on for having a bird when he married me.)

An impromptu yoga session with the little yogis...

And then some fun in the snow that fell two weeks ago...and hasn't left yet. Even though the forecast for Christmas is dry, it will likely be a (mostly) white Christmas around here. Here's hoping for some fresh stuff to cover up this crusty old stuff (or a heat wave so we can get outside a little more!)

Ornamental Tradition

2011-12-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

(click on picture for a larger version)

I recently took part in a Christmas ornament exchange that connected people across the blogosphere. Thinking about Christmas ornaments a little more than usual made me realize that I should write a post about our eclectic collection. We have so many sentimental, meaningful ornaments, and, as we add more every year, I am realizing that I want to remember the stories behind some of our more special ornaments, and so I wanted to write about them here. Some are handmade, some aren't even intended to be ornaments, and I think only one or two are alike. Not all are sentimental, tough. We even use the paper tags that came with the tree marking sections A, B, and C as ornaments because they are kid-friendly and it doesn't matter if they take them off and relocate them. (Right now, the lower half of our tree looks somewhat sparsely decorated, thanks to a certain 1.5 year old (ahem, Kaylee) doing just that. I have found them in the most random places recently! It's nice to be able to relax and just let kids be kids sometimes.)

The fact that we have quite the random collection is due mostly to the way in which we acquire them. Each year, we buy or make an ornament or two based on something big that we did that year, whether it was a trip, a family milestone, or just the general milieu of the year. I actually started this tradition before we started dating...the first ornament I have is from my first trip to Kodiak in 2000 when I met Mark. (Awwww....)

First Row:

1. Kodiak (2000) - I bought this one with no idea that it would be my first trip of many there.

2. Washington DC Capitol Building (2001) - I got this one to remember my internship that summer running exchange student orientations and living on the Georgetown University campus.

3. Wooden ornaments (2001) - Memories from a short (and cold!) post-Christmas trip to Prague with my sister and a dear friend from Germany.

4. Lace bell (2001) - Commemorates the Christmas Carrie and I spent in Hoyerswerda, Germany with my sister and the family of the exchange student who lived with my family when I was in Germany in 1997.

5. Huichol beaded egg (2002) - Mark and I bought this at a market on our New Year's trip to Mexico to visit friends shortly after we got engaged.

6. Wooden ornament (2003) - We got married! This one adorned a present we received at our wedding.

Second Row:

1. Sheep (2004) - Mark won this little guy for being a volunteer in a sheep farm tour we did on our honeymoon trip to New Zealand. Unfortunately, the sheep got chewed on a little bit by one of my parents' dogs after our return. At least he wasn't damaged too much to keep. :)

2. Hand-painted ornaments that I made and gave as gifts to our couples' group (2005) - I'm glad I did this so I have something to remember the group by at Christmastime. We grew a lot spiritually and in our marriage through the group and it holds a special place in my heart.

3. Red moose (2006) from our trip to Glenwood Springs and Aspen that January. We were on a shoestring budget and actually slept in bunk beds at the youth hostel in Glenwood Springs (at least we had our own room!).

4. Wooden butterfly (2006?) - Made by Mark's uncle Ewen who passed away in 2007.
5. Infant socks (2007) - We wrapped these and gave them as a gift to our parents that Christmas to announce our pregnancy with Karamea!

6. Turquoise star (2008) - from our Easter trip to Santa Fe, NM. A souvenir from our last trip as a couple before kids.

Third Row:
1. Karamea's first Christmas (2008) - (with recorded laugh!)
2. Russian painted egg (2009) - from our day trip on the Ski Train to Winter Park with Karamea

3. Kaylee's first Christmas (2010) - the little bear depicts what Kaylee was doing last Christmas-crawling and reaching for everything!
4. Kodiak Crab Festival keychain (2010) - This was the first crab festival for Karamea, Kaylee, and me! We had a blast!

5. Photo ornament (2010) of my dad's huge rope light Christmas tree. He was so proud of this tree that stood over 20 feet high! It seemed fitting to remember his joy for Christmas by having this ornament made and we also gave it to my mom and siblings.

6. Mt. McKinley (2011) - I bought this to remember the trip I took to Denali last summer with my mom and siblings to spread some of my dad's ashes.

And here are the ornaments I sent to my partner for the ornament exchange. I bought the candy cane and then happened upon an old craft project and painted the snowflake one. It was a fun way to get into the Christmas spirit!

Thanks for joining me as I recount my memories here and record them for safekeeping! I've since remembered and discovered a few more ornaments I should include, but I think this is a good start. I hope you are getting into the Christmas spirit as well and finding time amidst the hustle and bustle to reflect on the reason for the season.

Finally Friday

2011-12-02T06:39:00.001-07:00

This has been one of those weeks that seems like an eternity, but also passes in the blink of an eye. I meant to post this picture on Wednesday for Wordless Wednesday, but didn't get around to it.

The girls have been playing together really well lately. Karamea especially enjoys pushing Kaylee in the swing we have in our basement. We received it as a gift when Karamea was a baby and it just keeps giving and giving! Deciding to put it inside has been great, especially on cold winter days that turn into cold winter weeks.

On the other hand, this week as s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out. Last night, I turned to Mark and asked him, half-serious and half-joking, "Is this just the first week back after Thanksgiving?!?" There are only three weeks left in the semester and I still have much (MUCH) to do on the school and home fronts, but have also made great strides in planning and preparation. I'm going to be spending more time planning soon, since I am now 28 weeks along with our baby boy and need to start working on my 6 weeks of sub plans for maternity leave. That means less time for the blog, but I haven't been able to post much lately anyway. I'm sure I will still make it a priority to post every week or two; I find that it is a really good exercise in reflection and also a great way for me to preserve memories of our life as a family. We had the girls pictures taken at a portrait studio recently, and I was struck (again) at how quickly time flies and babies turn into children. I treasure looking back through the archives and remembering the time with them as little babes. OK, time to head off to school, TGIF! Have a great Friday and a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-23T20:47:00.001-07:00

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

2011-11-22T20:51:00.001-07:00

As everyone around me rushes to prepare for Thanksgiving Day, it feels nice to have already celebrated Thanksgiving with our family. We enjoyed our family Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house on November 12th because that was the only time that worked for everyone's schedule to meet all together.

It was a nice time together, and while we didn't take very many pictures, some nice memories were made. The wind was very gusty that day, which made things a bit dicey for the turkey, since we continued the tradition of grilling the turkey on the Weber barbeque with charcoal and mesquite. At one point, Mom had to wheel the hot grill through the garage to a secluded area in front of the house so it wouldn't get blown over! The turkey was moist and tasted amazing; my dad would have been proud at how well Mom took over what was heretofore his job.

We did the meal potluck-style and everyone brought different dishes, which was wonderful for making the day less stressful. Mark and I brought the mashed potatoes and the sweet potato casserole. I actually made the mashed potatoes the night before and put them in the crock pot to reheat the next day--and it worked like a charm!

We're still not sure how we'll celebrate this Thursday, but it will be nice to relax a bit. In some ways, it is a relief to have our official observation of Thanksgiving over with, and I'm glad that it wasn't as emotionally taxing as I had anticipated. I'm finding that I am missing my dad more as the holidays approach, and Thanksgiving will always be a little bittersweet for us, since we were eating Thanksgiving dinner when we got the call that my Grandpa had unexpectedly passed away in 2009.

I am in awe every day when I consider all of our blessings, and I love that the focus of this holiday is to slow down, and gather together with loved ones to reflect on the many good things in our lives. I hope that your Thanksgiving is filled to the brim with joy and blessings, and of course, delicious food!

A Heartwarming Thought

2011-11-22T20:06:00.001-07:00

"All of our memories we have in our heart." - Karamea

I love it when my kids blow me away. Especially when I least expect it.

As I was putting Karamea to bed tonight, she remembered something obscure from February, and I was astonished and told her that she had a very good memory. The quote above is her response...

Then, when I went to leave her room, I thanked her for being such a sweet girl. She replied, "Yep. And Kaylee is a sweet girl, and you're a sweet girl too, Mama."

I will treasure those memories in my heart for a long time.

Christmas Ornament Exchange

2011-11-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it might seem a little early to be jumping on the Christmas bandwagon, but a friend (who also happened to design this blog design and Kaylee's birth announcement) is hosting a Christmas Ornament Exchange that I thought sounded like a fun and inexpensive way to get into the season. Plus, all you need to do is sign up by November 14 and mail the ornament by November 30. Click on the button above to sign up or this link for more information.

And it gave me an idea for an upcoming holiday post as well...Bonus!

Kaylee at 19 Months

2011-11-05T06:56:00.001-06:00

It's early Saturday morning, and as I wait for the coffee to finish brewing before I get cracking on grading for school, I thought I would take a moment to post a few pictures and stories about Kaylee from the past month.

-Kaylee has taken to running...around the loop that connects our kitchen, dining, and living room. She'll say, "Run, run" and take off, wanting to be chased. When buying our house, one of Mark's must-haves was a layout that had the living room, dining room, and kitchen all connected (kind of like a circle) so that we would be able to play around it. At the time, I was like, "Um, sure...that sounds good." But now I am reaping the full fun factor of being able to run laps in the house...and Kaylee has definitely gotten me to run a few laps this past month. That counts as exercise, right?

-We were playing upstairs, and all of the sudden, from behind a closed door, I hear, "Are-you?" a few times...It took me a second to figure out she was trying to get a game of hide-and-seek going...and asking me, "Where are you?" in her sweet little baby voice.

-Kaylee loves to poke her food with a fork and if she's slowing down at mealtime, all we need to do is pull out the fork and she'll keep on going. Dipping is another fun strategy to keep her eating...

-She's getting really good at saying thank you after receiving something and had quite the opportunity to practice on Halloween when we went trick-or-treating. (Not that she really understood what we were doing or why, but it sure made our neighbors smile to hear her saying, "Thank-oo")

-Kaylee has a shoe fetish, and we've known about this since she was about a year old, but the other day, as Grandma was getting ready to leave, she walked over to my mom's shoes and said, "Grandma. Shoe." She proceeded to pick it up and try it on, but I was blown away that she knew whose shoe it was!

-We see Grandma R several times a week and Kaylee just lights up with joy at the mention of her name or when she arrives at our house. I recently realized that we don't get very many pictures of the girls with Grandma, so I'm trying to be better about having the camera at the ready when she's over.

With her little brother due to arrive in a little over three months, and how hectic the school year has been, I'm not sure how many more of these updates I will be doing for Kaylee. Of course, I will still post updates on the blog, but a year and a half (plus a little) seems like a natural point for the monthly updates to stop, especially since we only refer to her age in months every once and a while. It is still hard to believe that she's been in our lives a year and a half, and we sure can't imagine our family without her!

OK, time to get to work. This was supposed to be a quick update, but I guess I had a lot of stories to share! I've had a couple cups of coffee at this point and I will be stressed later if I don't get something done before the girls and Mark wake up!

A Halloween Tradition

2011-11-02T05:24:00.000-06:00

Since I can remember, Chicken and Dumplings has been one of my favorites. We had it only a few times a year growing up, but now that I have my own family, we make it about once a month. Especially in winter. At some point, when I was between five and seven years old, we were having it on Halloween before going trick-or-treating, and I observed, "It's a tradition!" Apparently, it was on the menu on Halloween the previous year, and so that made it a tradition...

Well, all those years later, and now it is a bona fide tradition for our family on Halloween. It is filling, warm, and hearty, which can come in handy when Halloween turns out to be a chilly (or snowy!) one. We had warm weather this year, but that didn't make any difference. We still enjoyed our Chicken and Dumplings and then made our way out to go trick-or-treating.

Here's the recipe:

2-3 chicken breasts, bone in

1 onion, cut into strips or coarsely diced

6-7 stalks of celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

5-6 carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 T Spike seasoning

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Dumpling mixture (do not mix until chicken and veggies arealmost cooked!)

2 c. bisquick

2/3 c. milk

Fill dutch oven pan about 1/2 full of water, add the chicken breasts,spike seasoning, salt, pepper, and sliced onions and cover with lid. Cookon the stove top over medium heat for 20 minutes. Remove the chickenbreasts from the pan, then add carrots and celery and continue to cook overmedium heat.

Remove as much chicken as possible from the bones and cutinto bite-size pieces. Once you have all of the chicken off the bones,put chicken back in the pot. Make sure the water level is a little bitabove the veggies and chicken and has returned to boiling before mixing thedumpling mixture . Quickly make the dumpling mixture and drop spoonfuls onto the surface of the stew and reduce heat to low. Cookuncovered 10 minutes. Cover and cook 10 minutes longer. Don't peekonce you cover the pot!

Total cooking time is around 40 minutes. Prep timearound 20-30 minutes. Serves 4-5

P.S. Dish up as soon as it's done--and then wait a littlebit. It is H-O-T when it first comes out. I am always over-eager toeat and then end up burning my tongue and not being able to enjoy it as much!:)

Fall Frenzy

2011-10-29T21:00:00.003-06:00

We've been busy the last two weeks. Very busy. Here's a little bit of what we've been up (in no particular order):

Meeting an alpaca

Starting gymnastics classes for both girls (each on on different week nights)

Visiting the Butterfly Pavilion for the first time

Daddy went hunting

First Snow Day of the year

Playing around

Baking together

Family Fun Festival downtown today

Whew! And those are just the things we took pictures of. Things aren't really going to slow down over the next few weeks, so forgive me if I don't get around to posting often.

Pregnancy Progress

2011-10-15T22:17:00.000-06:00

I didn't really track details of my pregnancies with Karamea or Kaylee, and I thought it would be fun to record some observations of how this third pregnancy has been progressing, since we are planning on this being our last pregnancy.

How far along: 21 weeks

Size of Baby: about 7 inches long and weighs 10-11 ounces, or about the size of a banana.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: about 17 pounds...I'm not a big fan of tracking this part, and honestly haven't paid too much attention except I had a prenatal check-up on Wednesday.

Maternity Clothes: Pretty much exclusively for about the past few weeks, though I have a few stretchy non-maternity tops that are still working, but not for long...Thankfully, a good friend lent me some of hers and I have some more choices.

Gender: It's a boy! We've been getting some used boy clothes at garage sales and also as hand-me-downs from friends and it is really thrilling to envision a little BOY after nearly three and a half years of girl everything. I can't explain why holding the clothes and imagining our son wearing them helps it sink in, but it does. Having a boy will definitely be a paradigm shift, but in a good and exciting way!

Movement: I've just started feeling regular definite movement this week. This seemed a little late to me and was explained during the ultrasound by the fact that the placenta is located anterior (up front), acting as padding, which makes it harder to sense movement.

Sleep: Would be no problem, if I didn't have so much grading and planning for school. (or if I would just turn off the computer and just get to bed earlier!)

Symptoms: I have been had a bit more hip pain this week, but walking seems to help. I'm also noticing that I am starting to feel winded when chasing the girls around or going up the stairs...but that could also just mean that I need to walk more! :)

Best Moment This Week: Starting to feel more movement and getting to see him again (and proof that he is a HE) when I had to go in for a follow up ultrasound. Nothing was wrong, but there were just a few things they didn't see the first time around because of his size or position.

What I'm Most Looking Forward To: Sharing his name! We're super close to nailing down his name, and just want to have a little time to let it sink in for ourselves before sharing it with the world. Mark and I are super blessed that we have agreed easily on names and this time, it was between 2 that we both really liked. We're set on the first name, and just have to make a decision on a middle name at this point. So much fun!

*Thanks to two of my other blogging friends for the idea for the update format and categories...I can't claim it as my idea at all!

more Karamea-isms

2011-10-14T21:32:00.000-06:00

The time is definitely upon us that Karamea says more witty things than I can remember to write down. A month and a half ago, I posted the following status on the ubiquitous book of face:

Things that make me smile #1798: Karamea's name for her toy dog on a leash? Alicia. Say it aloud: a-leash-a! This kid cracks me up! Seriously!

Well, the story continued, and I forgot it until the other evening when Karamea was tucking her dog in for the night. A few days after calling her Alicia, she started calling her 'Alice'. We asked her why she changed the name, and she explained very matter-of-factly that she didn't change the dog's name; her name is Alice when she doesn't have a leash on and Alicia when she does. Sometimes there is no disputing the logic of a three year old. One can only smile and nod...
---
Oh yeah, and her little sheep's name? Bobby. Say it. Baaa-bby. Oh my. (She might have had a little help from daddy on that one...)
---
For how well she speaks, there is one endearing mispronunciation that has stuck: Popsticle instead of popsicle.
---
Last night at dinner, she told us that she doesn't know what she is going to look like when she grows up. Mark asked her what he would look like when he grew up and, without much hesitation, she replied, "You'll have big glasses."
---
Mark found a baby snake while mowing the yard last month. Karamea was so brave and even held the snake for a few minutes.

Oh yeah, just remembered one more...We've talked about watching "Mary Poppins" soon, and when Karamea reminded me about it, but she called it "Poppy Marigolds", which I found totally adorable since she recently collected Marigold seeds with me for planting next year. She must have associated the name with the flowers and gotten it mixed up. Sweetest mistake ever! :)

Fall has Fallen

2011-10-08T20:58:00.001-06:00

Not a bad shot, considering this was taken from a moving car!

Up until today, the weather around here has been absolutely glorious! Last week, we even had a few days in the high 80s, which, while almost too warm for my taste, was incredible! Today was blustery, rainy, and cool with temperatures in the mid 40s...perfect weather for hunkering down and reading, baking, relaxing, you name it, just nothing outside. Too bad we had hoped for a successful Saturday of garage sailing for baby boy clothes! That's OK, we'll take what we can get, and it was nice to have some weather that was more in line with the scents and flavors of the season. I baked pumpkin bars this evening, we had chili for dinner, and we're planning venison stew for tomorrow night. It now officially feels like Fall to me.

With ~~all of~~ this day of cooler weather, it made me even more appreciative of the beautiful drive we took last weekend to enjoy the fall colors in the mountains. It was a fabulous day, the colors were vibrant (probably right at their peak), and we all had a fun time. Well, mostly...

Boy, oh, BOY!

2011-10-04T06:51:00.000-06:00

We are thrilled to announce that Baby #3 is a boy! It was so much fun waiting this past week to find out and be with some of our family as we all found out the news together. We sure wish more of our family would have been able to join us, but it was nice to have some of them there. I don't know if I will ever be able to duplicate the anticipation of wondering as we cut into the cake...it was so exciting, and such a blessing to be able to share this happy moment with loved ones. What a fun experience! Wow. Wow. Wow! We are going to have a son! It's just now starting to sink in...


Mark and I weren't the only ones who were eager to cut into the cake.

In fact, we cheated a little, and cut the cake before dinner, just because we thought it would be make for better conversation during dinner (and because we just couldn't stand waiting any longer!) This followed well with one of my dad's most cherished mottos: Life is uncertain, eat dessert first!

Pop even had a T-Shirt emblazoned with that sentiment, so when we told Carrie and Mom the plan to cut the cake before dinner, that was immediately the first thing out of their mouths (after squealing in joy, that is.)

Oh, and did I mention that the cake was absolutely delicious!?! There's a very special back story to go with that too...Rather than just take the sealed card with the news to the bakery and order a cake, I had one of my students, M, make it. I realize that seems a little odd (and it was awkward for a couple days...), but there is more to it than that.

We know her family from a long way back because her mother was my elementary music and piano teacher. Not only that, but M's grandma made our wedding cake exactly eight years ago (it's our anniversary today!). I knew that M enjoyed making and decorating cakes (her chocolate cake took first prize at the county fair!), so I thought it would be a very sentimental thing for her to share in this story with us. I think she did a stunning job and I'm so pleased with her work!

And in case you care to watch, here's a two minute video of us cutting the cake. It really is precious seeing the girls' reactions. Fyi, Karamea's covering her ears is probably more from the noise of everyone cheering than anything else...she has reacted that way to loud noises and surprises ever since she was a baby.

Kaylee at 18 Months

2011-10-04T00:25:00.000-06:00

Kaylee's humor continues to grow and shine and she loves goofing around with all of us. In the last month, she has become a bit of a ham and flashes her biggest grin after she realizes that someone is taking her picture. She loves sliding in the park and has recently started sliding down the stairs at home too (Much to our chagrin...) We've been taking walks in the park near our home after dinner lately, and she picked up on the routine quickly. After just a few days of the new routine, she started asking, "Park?" after she has finished eating. She likes 'singing' Baby Beluga at the dinner table (She just sings "Baby, Baby Bal..." to the tune and we know where she's going with it...and usually start up singing it ourselves.)

Kaylee has gone through a lot of physical changes this past month: All four molars are now in, her hair is getting much blonder, and she is slimming down some since she is always on the go. Her 18 month checkup is coming up in about a week, so I will add info then about how she has grown since her last appointment.

She has been communicating even more verbally, adding a lot of words to her already large vocabulary:
hand, "I love you" (melts my heart!), drip, avocado (mostly 'cado), broccoli (brocco), meat, diaper, Lana (my mom's dog), people, phone, chip, hug, fast, truck, pop (for popsicle), peach, brush, teeth, bug, park, walk, swing, Kaylee, meat, banana (nana), color, cracker, foot, toe, happy, hat, kitty, goose, bonk, drop, ride...(sorry if there are any repeats there...)

The other night at dinner, Karamea was encouraging Kaylee to mimic words and we were blown away at how well she did. She said yellow, blue, pink, brown, black, and red. Then I tried to get her to say 'green' and she replied, "Bean." So cute. Then she started listing body parts, starting with belly, and then leg, arm, and hand.

I can hardly believe that this endearing, darling child has been with our family for a year and a half. I cherish the fun memories we are making now and am so happy to see the little girl she is becoming. We are truly blessed beyond measure. Happy 18 months, Kaylee! You mean so much to us!

Karamea these Days

2011-09-29T23:50:00.000-06:00

Tonight at dinner I asked Karamea what kind of dressing she would like on her salad. Her response: "Honey mustard because I'm your honey." I love this child and her sense of humor!

First Glimpses

2011-09-26T22:12:00.000-06:00

We got to see some sweet images of baby #3 today at our ultrasound...and my heart melted for the third time around. I am so looking forward to meeting our darling little baby! We will be waiting until next week to find out if it is a boy or a girl (if we can stand it!) Rather than finding out during the ultrasound, we had the technician seal the answer in a card and plan on having a cake made that is either pink or blue inside.

One of my friends did this with her last baby, another picked out boy and girl outfits and had the appropriate one gift wrapped and opened it at Christmas. Both just struck me as such fun and personal ways of finding out rather than with my neck craned looking at the screen in the ultrasound room. Something special about the timing of doing it this way is that we'll be finding out the day before our eighth anniversary.

Baby played along in making it suspenseful--he or she was positioned with legs crossed and wouldn't move for a long time, making it difficult for the technician to see anything telling. After some prodding and repositioning, our technician finally got the answer she needed, and seemed very confident in her assessment. We are so excited for the big reveal next week!

Friday Finds - A New Tablecloth

2011-09-23T21:18:00.000-06:00

I love beautiful things for my home, but life with small kids doesn't always allow for that. We need things that are functional, tough and kid-proof. We have been a vinyl-tablecloth family for a long time, and it is usually difficult to find patterns that look nice. Not to mention that vinyl doesn't exactly hang like a nicer tablecloth.

A long time ago, I read about oilcloth, which led me to stumbling across a fabric called laminated cotton. Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought some for our kitchen table and we love it! It was a little more expensive than the cheapo vinyl ones I have bought in the past, but it seems so much nicer and I'm hoping it will last longer. One of the best things about the fabric is that it requires no sewing. None! It was less than a five minute project to trim off the edges from the bolt of fabric and we were good to go. We'll see how it stands the test of time and kids, bur for now it appears to be durable and cleans off really well.

I know it is silly to be excited about something as simple as a tablecloth, but I just love it when something functional looks good too! (Excuse the fact that the photo isn't great and that Kaylee just had to be part of the action. This certainly isn't a home design blog--and I don't have the time or energy to get magazine-quality photos!)

Across the Street

2011-09-16T23:03:00.000-06:00

We're friendly with our neighbors; not really close, but we chat on the sidewalk from time to time and catch up on life. I have a confession to make: While I am fairly extroverted with friends and family, I am actually quite shy when it comes to interacting with neighbors. I don't know why. It is something about myself that I don't understand, and I'm not really proud of it. Maybe it is because I grew up out in the country where our closest neighbor was about half a mile away and didn't interact much. Thankfully, Mark is the opposite of me in this case and can chat with neighbors quite easily.

Mark and I were talking recently and had an interesting epiphany. Even though we know some of the neighbors across the street better than any of our other neighbors, and visit pretty regularly with them, it has always been on their side of the street. Only once have they come over to visit when we were in our front yard. Not that we mind, but it struck us as kind of odd. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, but it was interesting to think about. It reminds me of a message on a banner that hung in a church somewhere in my youth: "Across the street, Across the sea" and reminds me of the need to share God's love with everyone we encounter. This could be why I feel so convicted for being so sheepish in reaching out to my neighbors. Not that our life mirrors any of the struggles that missionaries face worldwide, but sometimes the distance across the street can be awkward and I need to pray for the courage to take those steps across the street and connect. Maybe it is good that they don't come to us: it makes me leave my comfort zone from time to time.

School Days

2011-09-15T22:40:00.002-06:00

Karamea waited for her first day of preschool with eager anticipation and we were all excited to see her embrace the new chapter in her life. She had to miss the first official day because we had all been sick with a horrible cold the weekend before school started and we certainly didn't want to take the risk of infecting everyone. Turns out she didn't get nearly as sick as the rest of us, but better safe than sorry...

So she started two days later and never missed a beat. She likes it and just beams with joy when asked about how school was, but we still haven't gotten too many details from her about what happens in the two and a half hours she is there. If we ask questions, she might answer them, but doesn't elaborate much. I sure didn't think I would have to be resigned to not getting information from my child about school this early in life, but part of me thinks that it is all still very new (she's only been there three times) and that she is still processing a lot of what is going on. Once it becomes more routine, we might hear some more stories.

Here are a few fun facts that she has shared with us:

The class fish's name is Bubbles.
She played with table toys today.
She had juice and cheese for snack one day. (For how excited she was, it must have been the best juice and cheese EVER!)

For now, we are happy that she is enjoying herself and enjoying socializing with other kids her age.

The Journey Home

2011-09-13T23:01:00.002-06:00

I was looking through some of the last pictures from the summer and was reminded of some memories I wanted to post here so I don't forget them. As the summer drew to a close, Karamea and I traveled back together, leaving Mark and Kaylee in Alaska for another three weeks. This was my first time being away from Kaylee for so long, and even though I didn't cry when I left, I felt like I left a piece of myself behind as our plane took off from the choppy waves. I can't imagine how military families feel when they say goodbye to their loved ones for who knows how long...My heart goes out to them and I have a deep respect and gratitude beyond words for the sacrifices they and their families make for the sake of freedom and safety.

Relishing a hug before we would be apart for three weeks

It was a bit too breezy for a decent family portrait...

A funny thing happened on the flight into town. Notice that the mic on the headset is up on the picture of Karamea below. Well, about halfway through the hour-long flight, she overheard the conversation between the pilot and me through the headphones, and after watching us talk (and probably seeing me adjust my mic), she pulled her mic into place and started babbling into the mic like a baby who just found her voice. I think the most often uttered phrases were, "I love you, Mama.", "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.", "Uh-huh", and "Neeeeeooowwwmmm." (Imagine the sound you make when you're imitating a plane.) I'm sure it wasn't the first time this had happened for the pilot during a flight, but I found it simultaneously thrilling and slightly embarrassing. At least we were the only two passengers. Mostly, I was impressed at Karamea's ability to figure it out on her own and overjoyed at her innate curiosity about things around us and how they work.

Little girl in a big seat--the poor girl couldn't even see out the window!

The view as we left the bay.

After we landed in town, we had a great time exploring, picking salmonberries, visiting friends, and running errands, and going to church on Sunday morning. We even went to a restaurant my parents enjoyed when they visited in 2005 and 2007 and enjoyed dinner on their sunny, cheerful patio. We both loved the small town feel of it-from the dogs that brought sticks for us to throw, to the overflowing flower pots and hanging baskets, and miscellaneous old fishing paraphernalia hung as decorations.

Exploring in the forest near Grandma and Grandpa's house in town

The view from the park across the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house-talk about a million dollar view!

Look at all the salmonberries we found! (and promptly devoured, sitting right there on the grass in the glorious sun!)

Awaiting a New Life

2011-09-13T06:37:00.000-06:00

I realized that I have shared the word everywhere but here, and that most people who read this blog knew this a long time ago, but this is an announcement that is worth writing more about: We are happy to announce that we are expecting our third baby in late February 2012! If you don't care to read the details below, that is fine with me; I wanted to write down the memories mostly for myself and for baby number three.

I've really been wanting to sit down and reflect on some of my thoughts and feelings surrounding this pregnancy, since we have known about it since mid-June and we announced it to our immediate families this summer. I shared the news with my side of the family at the beginning of our Denali trip when we were still in Anchorage. We had gone out to dinner at an excellent restaurant near our hotel and were enjoying dessert when I told them our news of expecting another baby. I wasn't very far along at this point, but I figured I needed to tell them so they wouldn't be too concerned about my utter exhaustion, weird eating habits, and possible nausea over the coming week we would be together.

In fact, my experience with morning sickness has been different with each pregnancy. With Karamea, I needed to snack in the afternoon to avoid feeling nauseous, but I never threw up. With Kaylee it was true morning sickness and the thought of my toothbrush would make me gag. And I did throw up. But this time, my "morning" sickness would hit me late in the evening as I was going to bed if I didn't eat some sort of snack. And again, I didn't throw up.

Needless to say, my family was thrilled and it was nice to have a little ray of sunshine and the hope of new life as we remembered my dad and scattered some of his ashes. We shared the news with Mark's side of the family after I returned from my Denali trip and actually gave his mom and dad a baby card. I don't remember everything that I wrote, but I think there was something about we hoped they would be visiting us in February so they could join us as we welcome this new little life into our family (and oh, if you don't mind, can you please stay with the girls when we're at the hospital....) :) They opened it when we were all sitting around in the cabin visiting, and it was fun to see the look of delight on their faces as they read and realized what the baby card was all about.

It was absolutely wonderful being in Alaska during my first trimester; I was able to nap when the girls napped (until Karamea lost her nap right around her birthday in late July), I didn't have to worry about dealing with morning sickness when I was teaching, and the stress level was low. It was a great time reflect on the changes our family will be experiencing in the coming year.

I was a little apprehensive about this pregnancy when we started contemplating having a third baby, mostly because of some complications I had with my blood pressure after Kaylee was born. But after considering everything and the risks of future complications, we decided to go ahead and try for this baby. Even though there are still minimal risks, I came to the point where I realized that there are risks in life no matter what, and that the risk in this case really is minimal. It took a while, but I got to the point where I was able to say that I had totally released those worries and just trusted in God and what He has in store for our family. And we are excited about life as a family of five!

Kaylee at 17 Months

2011-09-04T21:18:00.004-06:00

I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Kaylee over the last month because we spent three weeks apart when Karamea and I returned home from Alaska so I could get back into my responsibilities as a teacher. Mark stayed to help out at the fishing site and kept Kaylee with him in part so my transition here would be easier (but also because having a kid around camp keeps things so joyful.) When I got to see her and Mark again a little over a week ago, it was exciting to see how much change happens in three little weeks.

Since their return, we've had a lot of fun as a family, even though I've been super busy with the beginning of the school year. We went to the Corn Roast Festival, played at the splash park, and went to a bike parade. We've also spent a lot of time hanging out in our backyard and playing in the sprinkler and kiddie pool (It's been super hot here--in the 90s and just cooled down this weekend; three cheers for fall weather!)

She's added some new words to her vocabulary*: gentle, flower (sometimes flowie), purple, strawberry, blueberry, cat, bird, sister, Dandy (our bird), Bear (our dog), have, hungry, food, eat, bite, please, sorry, thank you, slide, fall, taste, play, draw, throw, fly, bird...

*Note: Most of these words are only clear to us, but they have some semblance of the real word, so I'm counting them since she uses them in context, and mostly unprompted (Sorry being the big exception there.)

Here's a cute video of her saying 'gentle' and 'flower'

We no longer have to have a barricade set up in our living room to keep her from the stairs; she is doing really well navigating them and so we're pretty much letting her go. She likes to explore and is also quite determined, so she would likely foil any attempts we made at keeping her penned in. Our stairs (seen here with a picture of Karamea from December 2009-which happens to be the exact same age Kaylee is now!) don't really work with any kind of baby gate.

Well, that's about it for now. Oh, wait, how could I forget!?! She's sleeping through the night most nights now and that is a huge improvement since she was waking at least once a night all summer long.

Corn Roast Fun

2011-09-03T22:12:00.007-06:00

We all savored some fresh roasted corn at the annual Corn Roast last weekend and then the girls had fun romping in the splash park afterward. I was so impressed that Mark and Kaylee were able to head out for some fun after having a red-eye flight back the night before. I guess those two are always ready for adventure! :) It's so nice having them home!

Back to Blogging

2011-09-02T21:29:00.002-06:00

Just for fun: I happened to catch this picture at Laura's a few weeks ago

It has only been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything, but it feels like it has been a lot longer than that for many reasons:

I started the school year; one week of meetings and preparation and two weeks of classes are already behind me! Due to budget cuts and also to increased enrollment, I have about 50 more students than previous years, about 120 of which are German 1 and I have so many names to learn! It doesn't help that I have them choose German names and therefore have three names to learn for each student; first, last, and German.
Karamea and I stayed at my mom's house much of the time over the course of the three weeks before Mark and Kaylee returned home. It was fantastic to spend so much time with Mom AND it shaved off an hour of drive time shuttling Karamea around in the morning. Being able to let her wake up on her own schedule as I hit the road at 6:30 every morning was amazing. I loved staying in the home where I grew up, but that also meant I was still sort of living in travel mode and not quite settled in for a couple extra weeks.
Mark, Kaylee and Bear arrived home last Saturday morning! (It's hard to believe that it hasn't quite been a full week!) It has been comforting getting back into a routine as a family and exciting seeing how much Kaylee changed in the three weeks we were apart.

Phew! I have so much more to write about, but this will be a good starter post for now...There will be more to come with updates on Kaylee, Karamea and what we've been up to these days. I've missed blogging! It will be good to be back. While it is a nice way to keep friends and family up to date on our lives, it's also a much needed outlet for me to journal, record memories, and capture life as it happens.

Friday Finds: A Baker's Dozen

2011-08-13T23:08:00.000-06:00

My stay lapsed into the lunch hour while visiting my dear friend Laura this Friday, and I was so delighted with the lunch that she served, that I couldn't help but take her idea, make it myself, and then post about it here. (She doesn't blog, so I don't think she would mind me ~~blabbing~~ blogging about it...)

On the menu: Homemade black bean burritos with rice...fresh out of the freezer! She figured that she and her hubby were losing a lot of cash when they snacked on the store-bought organic frozen burritos, so she decided to just make some herself and freeze them! Genius! Delicious, easy, and CHEAP! I just made my batch today and ended up with 13 burritos which will be great for lunches at work. The whole process took a while, but the time it will save me in packing and preparing lunch will be worth the time it took today.

It didn't occur to me to blog about this until I had them in the baggies ready to freeze so that's the only picture I have to share, but here's what I did...

1 c. dried black beans (I made from scratch with garlic powder, cumin, salt, and chicken bouillon, but you could cut corners and used canned beans too...I added a small can of green chiles near the end)
1 c. uncooked rice (I added cilantro and lemon juice after it was cooked; no lime on hand, boo.)
1/2 red pepper and 1 small onion, diced and sauteed
grated cheddar and pepper-jack cheese
salsa
tortillas

I cooked the beans and rice earlier in the day and didn't get to making the burritos until right after Karamea went to bed, which worked out great! I think it simplified the process having the ingredients cooled for assembly.

I'm so glad that Laura shared her cost-effective, time-saving meal idea with me and it makes me curious; how do you cut corners on food costs and prep time?

The other side of the silver lining

2011-08-10T01:35:00.000-06:00

Photo: Ansel Adams

I spend the majority of my time looking for the silver lining in life's tough situations, but there are also moments when I don't. I've been struggling to put words to my thoughts as I chew my way through some of life's gristle this summer, which explains part of the reason I haven't posted very often. We were also really busy doing a lot of fun things, but part of me just didn't know what to say about the other side of the silver lining in my life, didn't know how to acknowledge my feelings, or relate where I'm at right now. Tonight as I was trying to fall asleep, I couldn't stop the thoughts from coming, so I sat back up and just started typing...

I'm sort of dreading the reunions that the new school year brings. No offense to anyone, and I'm sure I will be guilty of asking it myself, but I'm not especially looking forward to the barrage of "How was your summer? What did you do? Where did you go?"

Even though I have had a delightful summer in many respects, the answer that echoes in the back of my mind is, "I went into the Alaskan wilderness to spread my dad's ashes." I guess that's a tad better than last summer's "My dad just passed away." But not by much. The trip was meaningful, beautiful, memorable, breathtaking, and more; it felt very satisfying to fulfill my dad's wish that we would venture together as a family to enjoy the natural beauty he so appreciated, but still, when it all boils down, we were brought there by a very sad reality.

Yesterday was the year anniversary of my dad's death. My mom, sister, brother, and I got together to share dinner, and most of all, share time together. A certain three-year-old's antics kept the conversation light and amused us, but I know we were all constantly aware of the anniversary and thinking of our lives a year ago today. But really, not a day goes by that I don't think about my dad and the indelible mark he left on all of our lives. And then I can't help but whistle the tune to one of his favorite songs... "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"

Kaylee at 16 months

2011-08-05T00:32:00.000-06:00

Kaylee is such a bundle of energy and motion, a single image can't really encapsulate her outgoing, bubbly persona. So along with the typical monthly update, this post will be full of a bunch of pictures.

Kaylee has been communicating more and more over the last month. Not all of the words are super clear, but Mark and I, along with Karamea, Grandma and Grandpa, can usually figure out what she's saying, so I'm going to go ahead and count them as official words (brace yourself, this list is mainly just for my own keeping track, so scroll down if you want...)

potty, hat, nose, pacificer (pa), please, all done, boot, shoe, milk, water, jacket, juice, ball, dog, doggie, Kaylee, Daddy, Mommy, Papa, cheese, plane, boat, hot, bite, fish, shhhh, try, num num, bonk, duck, eye, owie, uh-oh, up, down, outside, no, ... There might be more, but that's all I can think of for now.

Her first molar broke through a few days ago, and we were relieved to see that. Her gums have been swollen for weeks, so it's about time...Other physical changes to track include her hair getting lighter, and she's getting longer, leaner and stronger. She now weighs about 27 pounds.

Kaylee is turning out to be quite the indoor adventurer--she explores everywhere she can in the house, and can climb just about anything! According to Grandma, she is taking after her Daddy in this case. We've had to become pretty inventive with our barricades in the cabin to keep her out of areas where we don't want her to go.

Kaylee loved sitting in the big pot we use to cook crab!

Three Years of Karamea

2011-07-29T23:38:00.001-06:00

I can scarcely believe that it has been three years since my sweet little Karamea was born, and yet she is such a part of our lives that I can't imagine life without her either. Every day she changes, grows, and makes us smile and laugh. She is such a blessing!

We had a fun, low-key party and basically enjoyed the excuse to have cake and home-made ice cream. It was fun that Aunt Carrie and Uncle Greg were here to celebrate with us for the first time.

Last fall she requested a ladybug theme for her next birthday cake and, of course, I thought about it and looked at a lot of pictures online, but didn't have any concrete plans for how I would pull this off (Not the brightest idea when you are 100 miles away from the nearest supermarket...) But it worked out really well using a marshmallow fondant recipe (Thanks, Heather for the idea!), some black licorice, half of an oreo cookie, and some toothpicks colored with permanent marker. I had fun experimenting...I sure wouldn't be decorating cakes like this if it weren't for the little sweeties we've added to our family over the last three years!

Kaylee at 15 months

2011-07-10T12:23:00.000-06:00

Happy 15 months, Kaylee! I blinked again and another month went by…and I'm even a tad late on this update!

-Her “bye” went from sounding like a Southern Belle ('bah' is the closest I can come to spelling how it sounded) to bye with the 'e' sound on the end. Except when she says 'bye' it is two syllables: “By-eee”. The same goes for hi.
-Mark was singing the refrain of “Wild World” to Kaylee (Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world...), and she repeated the word baby in the cutest sing-songy voice: "Bay-bee"
-She loves playing with cars and does a pretty good job making a motor sound for them as she does.
-Always observant, she is sometimes the first to pick up on the sound of a boat or plane going by. She'll then stop whatever she is doing and race to the window to see the action.
-She absolutely relishes spending time being doted on and snuggling with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Friday Finds: Wild Goose Chase

2011-07-01T10:36:00.007-06:00

Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something…
Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.

—Introduction to Wild Goose Chase (from http://chasethegoose.com)
-----

I first heard about this book a good six months ago. I knew that I would learn a lot from it, but only recently did I finally get around to buying it. Over the last week and a half, I read the book and have used the reflection questions at the end of each chapter to guide my writing as I led a spiritual journal for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long. Somewhere along the line, I fell out of the habit of journaling regularly, and it felt really nice to get back into it again. I was very convicted to seek the Holy Spirit even in the little things I do, to live boldly and passionately, with the ~~anticipation~~ expectation that God can and will do great things through me, because I really am on a grand adventure in life!

The points the book brings forth are insightful and invigorating. I'll probably read it again on my own, just as a refresher. I would even read it again if our couples group decided to do this as a study at some point. I think it would be great opportunity to hear about the adventures that some of my friends are on. I can already think of a handful of people in my life that would find this to be a very timely read, and I plan on passing my copy on to someone else very soon!

So happy together...

2011-06-30T22:53:00.001-06:00

Karamea and Kaylee have been thoroughly enjoying each other the last few weeks. It is so heart-warming to see them have fun and be affectionate with each other. One morning, Kaylee ran over to Karamea's bed and gave her a huge hug. Another day, the girls were racing back and forth from one end of the cabin to another, pausing to stand next to each other at the door for a moment before sprinting to the opposite side. They leaned into each other and this mama's heart nearly exploded with love and happiness.

Our summers might be a little different...

2011-06-24T18:46:00.000-06:00

...but they still have the essence of summer.

We all love the simple, laid-back lifestyle and slower tempo of life here. There are busy times and hard work too, but fishing has been a little slow so far this year as we wait for the salmon to return to the rivers to spawn. Once enough salmon return, we are allowed to fish. We don't complain too much when we're not fishing; we want a future spending our summers up here and that is the beauty of fishing a renewable resource like salmon. We'll be fishing starting again tomorrow for two days, which will be a welcome change of pace. Fishing is the main reason we're here, after all! (But the family time and natural beauty can't be beat, either.)

I've been enjoying time time with the girls, baking, walking, playing on the beach, exploring on low tide, writing letters, sleeping in (sometimes till 8:30!), occasional naps, and reading (I read the first two books of the Twilight series in the last five days; kind of embarrassing, I know...P.S. Does anyone have the last two books of the series I can borrow?) Don't get me wrong; there are plenty of projects around here and laundry and dishes and all that to take care of, but it just seems there is more time to relax too.

Here are some picture highlights from June; I don't have the camera with me all the time to capture moments as they happen, but here are a few glimpses of our life here:

Kaylee and Mark with the halibut they just caught


Kaylee showing off Daddy's glasses and hat

Abandoned cannery and bald eagles in the background as Mark and Kaylee walk in the kelp.


Exploring on low tide

Karamea loves finding starfish

Karamea's favorite hair style these days

Playing in the rocks is another huge pastime for the girls; Kaylee is doing much better and doesn't put them in her mouth very often

We saw his huge rainbow the evening before our first day of fishing.

Friday Finds: Swap Parties

2011-06-17T08:37:00.006-06:00

I have things I don't use (or need). There are things I need and therefore must buy. This adds up to clutter that makes life less livable, whether in 2000 square feet or 300. I often purge and donate my old, unused (but still good) items to charities, and I also try buying many things from garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment sales (both to save money and save things from going to the landfill!)

While catching up with some of the blogs I follow, I read a post that shares about the writer's spin-off of a clothing swap. I thought it was a great idea and plan on seeing if I can get enough interest among my friends to try a kitchen swap, and if that works well, maybe I'll be brave enough to try a clothing swap or extending the idea to toys or other home decor items!

I love the idea of getting rid of my old items and getting new ones that I will actually use without spending any money! I still have a lot to read up on general guidelines and suggestions for a swap party, but my interest is piqued and I think the need is there. Plus, it will be a fun time to get together with friends. I can't wait to make this happen! Anyone interested?

Friday Finds: Blogger Backup

2011-06-12T17:56:00.002-06:00

This Friday Find comes a couple of days late, but it's still a valuable find nevertheless: How to Back up a Blog

I've heard of several friends having problems with blogger lately, and it occurred to me what a horror it would be if I were to lose all of the content I have posted in the last three years of blogging. So after a little googling and an e-mail off to a dear friend Jenn (who also happens to be a blogger design guru), I thought I would share this with my blogger friends. Sorry to those of you who haven't discovered the joy of blogging yet, this post will seem lame and irrelevant.

The happy news is that backing up is super simple to do: Go to "Settings" on the blogger dashboard, then choose "Export Blog" and follow the directions. It will download a file to the computer with all of the posts. Voila!

If you're interested in further information about backing up templates or images, or just want to know more about exporting, I found this link after some searching on google. It was also very helpful. And of course, blogger also has some information on their help pages too.

Maybe I'm the last to know on this one, and hopefully it will never be necessary, but I thought I would share just in case. And because no post ever seems quite complete to me without a picture, here's one of the girls, grandma, and me as we prepared to take off in the float plane a couple of weeks ago:

Karamea-isms

2011-06-10T00:28:00.002-06:00

With the change of scenery, Karamea has had ample opportunities to get creative with language over the last few weeks. Here are just a few of the words she has used that made me giggle:

She really enjoys eating a cherry popsticle.
One morning, she asked for the donut with sparkles.
She sometimes calls her bed a coupon (She sleeps on a futon.)
Fish don't flop in the bottom of the boat...they squiggle.

Kaylee at 14 Months

2011-06-04T08:00:00.004-06:00

Spirited is somewhat of an understatement of Kaylee's personality. Everything she does, she does with gusto, panache, zest. Call it what you will, Kaylee is quite the enthusiastic little gal. You name it and she gets excited about it: food, music, dogs, books, family, outside, the list goes on...She is a bundle of energy and she rarely stops moving. And if she's not thrilled with something, she'll be the first to let you know. I don't remember Karamea throwing herself on the floor in protest, but Kaylee sure does. This happens most often when we stop her from doing something that she is passionate about. Not that it is any huge problem; just a different personality to learn and deal with.

She's started talking more, with new words including jump, duck, deer, cheese, uh-oh, and book. The other night, she was in our bed after I nursed her in the middle of the night and she turned over and clearly said "Daddy" in an excited voice. It was too cute. There are probably more words, but I can't think of them now. She really comprehends well when we're talking to her; the other day grandma was saying giddyup and Kaylee turned around, walked over and picked up a horse toy! She and Karamea have begun to engage in play together, which has been fun to see. Sure, there's a little sibling rivalry there, but they're learning to manage with each other, share, and have fun. It's part of life.

Kaylee is a climber and gets up on anything she can, which will sure keep us on our toes as she becomes more agile every day. She loves accessories and often walks around as she plays with a little bag slung around her neck. (Don't worry, we keep a close eye on her when she does this!!!)

She had a grand time learning to jump on the little trampoline at Grandma and Grandpa's house this past week. The girl is definitely not timid!

Friday Finds: At the Beach

2011-06-03T08:00:00.012-06:00

I needed something to do last Sunday evening to get the girls out of the house and burn off some energy, so I packed them up and we set off to spend some time at the beach--Alaska style: fleece suit, rubber boots, and all. Karamea was an old pro and picked up right where she left off last summer-digging in the sand, splashing in the waves in her boots and throwing rocks. Kaylee loved discovering the beach and digging in the sand. I think we're going to have our hands full this summer because all she wanted to do was to get into the water and eat rocks and sand!

A Walk in the Woods

2011-05-31T23:23:00.001-06:00

In order to take full advantage of the three straight days of sun we've been enjoying in Kodiak this Memorial Day weekend, I took the girls on a walk in the woods behind M's parents' house Monday evening. It was also a very convenient way to tire them out before bed. We had a glorious time! The sun was streaming through the branches, and the birds and my girls were just chirping away. I snapped some pictures and then handed the camera over to Karamea to take some pictures herself.

An attempt at catching a picture of all three of us.

The view over my shoulder.


Karamea trekking

Karamea's shot of Kaylee and me.

After this, Karamea got a little camera happy and started taking pictures of everything she liked: the moss, the sticks, the path, the bushes, the trees; you get the idea.

I was impressed with how this tree picture turned out:

As we returned home, she asked me to take another picture of her in front of the house.

And now, as I finish this post and prepare to publish (it is now 2:30 pm on Tuesday), our flight has been on weather hold since 10 am due to fog and high winds down on the South end of the island. Looks like we'll be here for a while, and I don't expect that we'll be doing any hiking-that is, unless we plan on wearing our galoshes and rain gear!

Update 5/31/11 8:45 pm: We got a call around 3:00 that they would be at our house to pick us up in 15 minutes. We scrambled and gathered the rest of our stuff together, I woke the girls up from their naps, we loaded everything into the van shuttle and rode down to the float plane docks. We waited while they checked on the weather and watched as the fog got lower...and lower...We even loaded into the plane and waited some more while they checked again. Finally, about 4:45, they canceled the flight because the weather wasn't looking good around the island. Which was fine by us, because we didn't really want to fly with the weather as marginal as it was. So they brought us back to the house, we unloaded everything, and went out to dinner. Then I got the girls to bed and I will follow shortly, saying prayers for good weather tomorrow. After checking the forecast, it seems that we could be in for more waiting. Here's a picture (taken with my phone) of the scene at the float plane docks this afternoon before we left:

It's pretty much the story of our lives all summer: Hurry up and wait. But that's part of the adventure of it all and adds excitement. That said, however, I am still chomping at the bit to make it down to our fishing site and see Mark again. I miss him-even though we've only been apart since Sunday morning.

Friday Finds: Summer Fun

2011-05-28T00:43:00.003-06:00

This Friday Find is brought to you by the letter F: Flights. Family. Fish and Chips. Fine weather. Fun. Friends.

Flights: Rather than flying on the red-eye this year, we had a morning flight. It looks like we packed light, but don't let the picture fool you: There are two full coolers inside the dog crate and one more on the rack behind the duffel bag! We were a little rushed, but I didn't want to break the tradition of taking a picture before we depart (See 2010 and 2009 pictures)

Family: This was the best picture of the Mark and the girls; I don't know what's up with my goofy smile here. It sure is hard to get a family picture these days with toddlers!

Fish and Chips: Our favorite food at the Crab Festival (from last year too!)

Fine Weather: The high was up in the 50s today! For some reason, 50 degrees feels HOT here!

Fun: Without any prompting, Karamea boldly exclaimed today, "I want to go on a ride!" It took me a little by surprise, since she is usually fairly timid about new, loud things. She loved the ride and was so proud to be driving her truck.

After leaving the Crab Festival, we played for a few minutes in the park before returning to our car.

While we were there, Karamea and Kaylee made friends with two boys who were about the same ages as they are and Mark and I had a nice time visiting with their parents, who are finishing their last year in the Russian Orthodox Seminary here.

It was a FANTASTIC Friday!!!

Karamea-isms

2011-05-24T22:24:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I posted some of the cute things that Karamea says, so I thought I'd take a minute and jot a few things down.

Karamea drew this picture this morning. I have utterly no clue what it is, but it is adorable. When asked, she says something unintelligible that sounds sort of like iguana or gorilla, but I don't know. Maybe it is a Dr. Seuss-type creation that has some made up name. I love the smiley face!
Whenever we knock at her door, she responds, "Knock-knock."
The three of us spent a little time snuggling in our bed before putting her to bed the other night. When she woke up the next morning, she gave me a big hug and said, "Awww, you and daddy are so cute." I asked her why and she said, "Last night when you snuggled. It was cute."

I'm sure there are more things that I'm not remembering at the moment, but that's good enough for now-I've got lots of other things to take care of yet this evening...and it's almost 10:30! Ack!

Good Dog

2011-05-20T23:19:00.000-06:00

He loves me. He communicates with me. He is often by my side. He is part of our family. He has a sense of humor. I could be talking about Mark here, but I'm actually referring to our dog Bear. This occurred to me early one morning as I was sipping my coffee and lamenting that I was up that early on a weekend.

Here's my train of thought: "Ugh. I can't believe I am up at 5 on a Saturday. But I'm glad that Bear was so insistent in waking me up. It's so great that he doesn't just go in the house when he needs to. It's really sweet how he nuzzles my hand and whines to let me know he needs something. I still can't believe how waited until we let him out to get sick that one time when he was a puppy. He's pretty amazing, actually. I never thought I would have a dog that brings me the newspaper. I thought that was just on TV. I should write a post about him so that I can remember this all someday..."

I started this post over a month ago, but just haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. In some ways, Bear is like our first kid; he came into our family 2 years before Karamea, and he taught us a lot about what it means to care for another life. We were there when he was born, since we were staying with my parents for three months before we bought our house. He is the last dog in the bloodline my parents started when they were showing Samoyeds, so it feels like he is family. He weighed 1 pound at birth, which is fairly large for a Samoyed pup...More on that later, though. I just realized how lengthy this post will be if I tell the whole story of Bear's life up to this point...

For now I just want to reflect on some of the things I love about Bear and also share a special video that my dad shared with me a few years ago that warmed my heart. I watched it again when I was looking it up to include in this post and it brought tears to my eyes. (Just a little disclaimer for those of you reading this at work or in public, *wink, wink*)

The lyrics and more about the song can be found at http://www.godanddog.org/ (If you don't read anything else in this post, just be sure to watch the video. I promise, it is worth the two minutes!)

Here are some of the memorable and sweet things that I love about Bear:

He picks up the paper every morning, brings it inside, we hold it and he pulls the plastic off and he even goes and throws the plastic away!
He plays games. When he was a pup, we trained him to gently hold things in his mouth and bring it to the other person in another room using the command, "Bring it to Mark!" (or Kendra, depending on who is giving the command) We used to play this game a lot and now when Bear wants some attention, he will bring one of us some random object (toy, sippy cup, remote).
He has never run away. (Even though he has had the opportunity several times due to inadvertently leaving gates open.) The first time this happened, I went to the front door first thing in the morning to look for the paper and it was gone. I was surprised and then when I went to let Bear in the back door, there he was, with the paper, laying on the back deck! He had gone around the side of the house through the open gate, gotten the paper, and then come back! We were amazed and totally grateful because we lived near a fairly busy street at the time.
He is tolerant and gentle with the girls. We knew the Samoyed breed is known for this, but seeing him with the girls and how patient he is just melts my heart. When Karamea was a baby, I posted a You Tube video of Bear and Karamea playing together. Every once and a while, I receive an e-mail that someone has commented on the video, and everyone is in consensus that Samoyeds are great with kids. He enjoys bird watching, going on walks, wading, playing in the snow, and eating with them.
At night, he is persistent in waking me if he needs something, whether it be water or a quick trip outside. Even though it is a bummer to have my sleep interrupted by yet another creature, I am so glad that he doesn't just take care of his business inside.
He paws his water bowl when it's empty to let us know to fill it.
Before you start thinking that he's perfect, I'll let you know something about Bear that drives me nuts too...almost every time I let him out, Bear barks and chases his tail in circles. It sounds like it's not that big of a deal, but he's loud and it gets annoying. But I still wouldn't trade him for anything! Whenever I get home, he is always overjoyed to see me, no matter how weary and run down I am from my day. I can't think of too many others who jump up and down when they see me (besides Karamea and Kaylee...and Mark sometimes)

Friday Finds: Weeds

2011-05-20T22:22:00.001-06:00

OK, I found these over a month ago, but I was just thinking this week about what a great find they were: Weeds. I was in a bind when the branches I had brought in for my Osterbaum (Easter tree) shriveled up and died rather than budding as planned, and I still needed a place to hang my decorated Easter eggs, so I picked some dried weeds when I was out fishing with Mark and the girls. Easter is long gone, and I never took a picture of my own Osterbaum when the eggs were still on it, but the weeds are staying for now. I love how they spruce up the entryway. Talk about reasonably priced decor!

For those of you wondering, here is what an Osterbaum looks like:

Friday Finds: German Music

2011-05-13T16:36:00.002-06:00

I'm too tired this frazzled Friday to think of anything notable other than a German music group that a former student told me about today. It's really good music and something that I actually enjoy listening to (unlike some music that my students listen to!).

The video is a little weird, but I love the sound! The group's name is Bosse, and the song is Tanz mit mir (Dance with me)

Thankful Thursday

2011-05-12T05:03:00.000-06:00

No, I'm not starting a new series on my blog every Thursday. But I am thankful today, and it's Thursday, so there you have it. Today is my sister Carrie's birthday. As I wrote her a note on facebook, I became overwhelmed thinking about my girls and my hopes that they will have a strong relationship as they grow. I am so thankful that I have a sister-and such a wonderful one at that! Happy birthday, Carrie!

Two generations of sisters
(Random candid photo from Christmas-sorry for cropping your head off, J!)

P.S. Carrie - We really need to take more pictures together when we see each other! I barely have any!

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-08T22:32:00.000-06:00

We opted to keep things low-key this Mother's Day and just enjoyed a relaxing Sunday. Rather than a day of being put on a pedestal, it was more a chance to just spend time enjoying moments with Mark and the girls. (We had a really nice dinner with my mom Saturday night to commemorate Mother's Day.) Sunday started with a breakfast of pumpkin pancakes and then we decided to take a walk to the park. Since it was in the low 80s, we let Bear take a dip in the lake first and then found a shaded grassy area and kicked a ball around.

When we got back, I made homemade Macaroni and cheese and we pulled out the sprinkler and kiddie pool. Mark had popped out to run a couple of errands, but the girls and I had fun splashing around. I don't have a lot of time when it is just me and the girls, and it was really special to be enjoying the two little people that I am blessed to call my daughters. When I got them down for their naps, I tucked myself in as well--all that activity had wiped me out! A two hour nap was the perfect gift for me this Mother's Day.

While my day was very sweet indeed, I had many others on my mind today as I relished these moments as a mom. My heart and prayers go out to those who feel pain today, to those who are missing their mothers, those who are longing for the day when they become a mother, and those who have lost or had to give up children.

Friday Finds: Parenting Wisdom

2011-05-06T06:23:00.002-06:00

Mark and I were watching the 10 o'clock news a couple months ago and a feature came on that brought tears to my eyes. The stories featured on this channel often hit a nerve with me, but this one was really close to my heart. It was a story about a woman who lost her mom at a young age and is now blogging about how she is able to connect with her mom through the articles her mother wrote for a local paper. The two connections of having lost a parent at a young age and blogging piqued my interest and I have followed her blog since.

She recently wrote the following post that I found so beautiful and couldn't resist sharing. It is timely as my Friday Find for the week as we approach Mother's Day weekend. I find it bittersweet, and her words serve as a good reminder for me to cherish the time I have with the girls when they are little, even if it can be demanding at times:

Today...Someday Soon
Today I woke up more tired than I was the night before when I went to bed, because I was up with a fussy baby half the night. Someday soon I will know what it is like to sleep through the night again.

Today I put on sweat pants, a sweat shirt, and didn't bother to do my make-up or my hair, because why bother looking nice when you are a giant kleenex and jungle gym. Someday soon I'll be able to dress nice, style my hair, and do my make-up.

Today I have eaten all of my meals cold, because every time I sat down to eat somebody needed something. Someday soon I will get to eat hot uninterrupted meals.

Today I have changed a lot of dirty diapers. Someday soon diapers will be a distant memory.

Today I had to sing every song from every video or cartoon my son has ever watched. Someday soon I will no longer be my children's favorite form of entertainment.

Today I have cleaned up so many little messes I start to wonder why I even bother. Someday soon my house will be spotless.

Today I will try to squeeze in everything that needs to get done during their 2 hour afternoon nap. Someday soon I'll have all the time in the world to get the stuff I want done, done.

Today I have tried to take a few moments for myself, and have been interrupted countless times. Someday soon I'll be able to workout when I want, sit and read a book, or complete a blog post in one sitting.

Today I will cook dinner, and then I'll cut it in to small bite sized pieces for my kids. Someday soon I won't need to spend forever cutting my kids food in to tiny pieces.

Today I will bathe my kiddos before bed, tuck them in, kiss their little cheeks, and be grateful it's bed time. Someday soon they will put themselves to bed and no longer require that kiss goodnight.

Today I will go to bed exhausted, and dream of someday soon. Someday soon I will go to bed and dream of Today.

Kaylee at 13 Months

2011-05-05T21:25:00.002-06:00

Happy 13 months, Kaylee! It really feels like she has left babyhood behind and is emerging as a full-fledged toddler. She isn't completely weaned from nursing yet, but since she turned one, she gets cow's milk during the day and nurses when I get home and when she goes to bed, which is about how things went when weaning Karamea.

Here are some of the highlights of Kaylee's development over the last month:

Walking around almost everywhere and learning to navigate the stairs safely
Sleeping through the night most nights (Hallelujah!)
Words: up, bear, ball, down, bye, da, ma, num, dog, hop
She's very affectionate: blowing kisses, leaning in and giving kisses and big bear hugs
Playing around holding a spoon and practicing scooping things off her highchair tray

Where's Kaylee?

There she is!

One her favorite spots is a little reading nook in the bookshelf. She loves to crawl in, sit up and look at books. She has a great sense of humor and we can always count on a great big grin on her face when we say "Kaylee, Kaylee, Kaylee" in a singsongy voice. We are enjoying every minute with this precious little girl!

I am...

2011-05-02T21:35:00.001-06:00

...pensive.
...relieved.
...concerned.
...hopeful.
...shocked.
...thankful.
...mixed-up.

The announcement of Osama bin Laden's death just about 24 hours ago has me thinking about things and I can't quite summon the words to describe my thoughts right now. I am unsettled by the jubilation shown by many in our nation because of the possible after-shocks and because, no matter when, or how, death is a serious, somber thing. Even if it is justified, or in self-defense. Even if the deceased was a monster. So I will stick with my gut feeling on this one: quiet relief, not revelry. Several friends have eloquently expressed some of the things I have been mulling over throughout the day today. Both posts by Jenn @ Crossing the Prairie and Jenn @ Knee Deep in Munchkinland are worth a read.

Friday Finds: Pinterest, a Quote, and a Ham

2011-04-29T22:50:00.001-06:00

I couldn't choose just one find this week, but I narrowed it down to three interconnected finds...

#1 Pinterest: Several blogs that I follow made mention of this great site and I was more than delighted when a friend sent me an invite (Normally, you have to request membership and wait for the invite). The basic principle of the site is that you can 'pin' ideas from websites in different categories. So much less hassle than copying and pasting images or tearing pictures from a magazine! I love it! Life has been busy and I haven't much time to spend on it, but I did have enough time to see the quote below. (P.S. Contact me if you would like to send you an invite for Pinterest, I'd be happy to send one!)

#2 Quote:

Source: ashleyannphotography.com via Kendra on Pinterest

I wrote it out myself and put it in an extra frame we had laying around and it now adorns the bookshelf in the living room. I was too lazy to go take a good photo of it, so I just found it in a picture that I had taken recently and took a screenshot.

#3 Comic Relief: I truly love who I share my home with. Not just our immediate family, but all who gather here and share fun times together. I love the security to feel safe in solemn moments and the laughs we share as we enjoy the antics of the kids. Oh. My. Goodness. Karamea was such a kick this evening. She loves to make us laugh and we all had our share of laughs tonight as she was running around trying on some shirts my mom had brought for my sister Carrie and me to try on. We joked that we were concerned about her tripping on the shirts and crashing into the hearth, so out came Karamea's new bike helmet. Then Grandma told/showed Karamea how to strike a pose, and we all got some pretty great belly laughs.

Kaylee's Quips*

2011-04-28T22:22:00.001-06:00

Kaylee's ability to interact with the world and the people around her has been increasing by leaps and bounds since her birthday a few weeks ago. Here are some little moments that show me just how big my littlest girl is getting...These things are all actions, but I am sure that it will only be a matter of time until I am chronicling Kaylee's verbal quips here too!

She showed me the other day that she knows what "gentle" means and that she can be gentle. We were playing and she started hitting my leg excitedly, and after I said "gentle" she immediately switched to rubbing her hands on my leg.
She recently crawled over to one of Karamea's socks on the floor, sat up, and held it up to her foot, showing me that she knew what to do with it.
We were reading a board book about a garden and she bent over to sniff the flower pictures in the book.
This one seems a bit silly, but when she had a runny nose last week, she was getting pretty good at blowing her nose into a tissue. (Parents of small children will understand the simple significance of that one...)

*This word just came to me as I was writing and when I looked it up to be sure I was using it correctly, and it just seemed to fit!
quip noun \ˈkwip\ 1b : a witty or funny observation or response usually made on the spur of the moment

Sweet Dreams, Karamea

2011-04-27T22:06:00.000-06:00

Note: Opa is what my dad wanted Karamea to call him instead of Grandpa. It is German for Grandpa. His other choice would have been for the kids to call him "Your Excellency", which would have been a mouthful, to say the least. I miss my dad's sense of humor...

---

Last night while I was putting Karamea to bed, we spent some time talking about Alaska. As I prepared to leave, I mentioned that maybe she could dream about Alaska while she sleeps. Without hesitation, and out of the blue, she replied, "No, I'm going to dream about Opa tonight."
"What are you going to dream about Opa?"
"I don't know, I'm just going to dream about Opa. He misses me."
"Do you miss him too?"
"Yeah."
"Me too, sweetie. He loves you very much. Sweet dreams."

Talk about melting my heart and turning me into a puddle.

Easter 2011 in Pictures

2011-04-26T21:29:00.000-06:00

Easter 2011 Thoughts

2011-04-24T22:55:00.001-06:00

Happy Easter! I hope yours was as blessed and joyous as ours was. It sure was different for us than last Easter, when we welcomed Kaylee into our family. Here's a peek at some of the pictures from this weekend, I will try to follow up with a picture post right after this (That is if I don't crash and fall asleep...)

Talk about a full weekend! Saturday included Easter egg hunting in the snow, attending swimming lessons, naptime (and a chance for me to work on some teaching stuff), then heading out to my mom's to decorate Easter eggs and have dinner with J and his girlfriend Christi. Sunday started bright and early and we made it to church early for the 8:30 am service. (Miracles do happen!) After church, we headed home and the girls got to see their Easter baskets (lovingly and skillfully made by Great-Aunt Keiko) and search the living room for a few more eggs while we prepped for brunch. Mom joined us after the second service and we had a delicious meal and enjoyed visiting until late into the afternoon. Mom, Christi, and I even enjoyed a quick walk while the girls napped. After the extended family left, Karamea helped me whip up some blueberry pancakes and bacon for dinner and then it was bedtime for the girls. I just spent the evening planning for school and actually finished my plans for German 1 through the end of the year. Whew! What a wonderful whirlwind it was! (Note: all of that alliteration was unintentional, I'm just going to leave it for amusement's sake...)

I don't normally do a summary of the church service, but our pastor made some really strong points that I want to remember...He pointed out how Good Friday and Easter Sunday are two sides of the same coin and that one without the other is pretty meaningless. This reflected my own sentiment this morning as I thought of the joy of the resurrection contrasted with deep sadness over our depravity and the need for Christ to come into the world to redeem us. This was my facebook status:

I ponder the wonder of the resurrection and I am overjoyed; I consider why it was necessary and I am eternally humbled.

The sermon outlined three skeptics and how Christ became so convincingly real to them after the resurrection that they were forever changed. Thomas, James, and Saul all doubted Jesus on different levels; Thomas on a logical level, James as a somewhat jealous and critical family member, and Saul as an outright persecutor of those who believed in Jesus Christ. God won all three of them over in powerful ways. As the pastor observed, "Jesus changed a little band of fearful men into flaming evangelists" who were willing to risk and even give their lives as they proclaimed the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection. Wow.

The closing challenge of the sermon was to consider what it would take to convince you to drop any doubts you cling to regarding Jesus or the resurrection. The pastor challenged us all to actually ask God to do whatever necessary to convince us of the reality of the resurrection, and along with that, to be willing to be convinced. This struck me as very powerful and reminded me of the need to ask God to reveal things in other areas of my life.

I love how the digital age helps us learn and read things and connect with others. A friend from high school posted the following as her status message on facebook, and it spoke such truth to me and resonated so much with how I have been feeling this weekend that I just have to post it here as well:

"I do not deserve the love and grace that God has blessed me with, but he keeps pouring it out on me, again and again, no matter what I do and no matter the cost to him. Even dedicating my life to him falls short of the gratitude I feel for the sacrifice Jesus made for us. This Easter, my heart is humbled and amazed by the true meaning of the holiday. Remember." (Thanks, Aimee, for letting me post this...)

Friday Finds: Kitchen Organization

2011-04-22T06:21:00.001-06:00

This week's Friday Find isn't anything that I've recently discovered; I am going to share with you how I find whatever spice or baking supply I need, when I need it, every time.

I was doing some spring cleaning in our baking cabinet the other evening after I put the banana bread in the oven and it occurred to me that my system for organizing my spices and baking supplies is somewhat unconventional (at least I think so...I haven't really looked in any of my friends' cupboards, so I don't really know!)

When I was in college, my spices were stored in a lower corner cabinet, and I labeled the lids of the bottles with a Sharpie. When Mark and I got married, there was space in our new apartment to move them up, but I still liked to see the labels. So I just kept them in a plastic storage tote that I could lift down and set on the countertop. Doing this also eliminated bottles hiding behind others and tipping over as I shuffled things around on the shelf. (It also helped make life easier when we were moving frequently.) Here's a picture of my spice totes:

Bottom and middle shelves: Spices

Top shelf: Baking ingredients

The container of less commonly used baking ingredients isn't as tidy as the spices, but it works because I just pull it down and dig for what I need. Another perk of the totes is that they seal in some of the aroma of the spices and that cabinet doesn't smell strongly of anything. There's still room alongside the totes for more frequently used ingredients and larger items. I taped a blank sheet of paper on the door and when I am running low on a spice, I write it on the list. Then I can quickly glance as I write my shopping list or complete my order for the spices I buy in bulk from Penzey's. (Note: I won't even have to order them online anymore; last time we were in Boulder, we saw that they now have a store on Pearl!) This system has worked for us for over 6 years, something which I consider an ~~enormous success~~ organizational victory!

Writing through the Generations

2011-04-16T22:54:00.002-06:00

Playing around with the built-in camera on my laptop in 2008.

The following is an excerpt from my grandpa's autobiography, Through the Years, in which my grandpa chronicles his life through 1990. (He continued living until 2009, only the book concluded in 1990.) The book is rich with stories of his personal experiences, amusing anecdotes from his family life, and nuggets of wisdom he gleaned throughout his life. His conversational narrative reminds me a bit of a blog. After reading this selection, I am convinced that if the technology had existed during his time, Grandpop would have been a blogger. It also inspires me to keep the posts coming so that my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will have a glimpse into our family life in years to come.

Talents
We all have different talents, gifts, and interests. We are usually successful when we do the things we enjoy. If you like art, draw or paint some pictures. If you are gifted at making things, build some bird houses. If your talent is writing, compose a poem or write some stories about your life. It's never too late to do the things you enjoy unless you don't start now! If you write about your lifetime experiences though, do it while your memory is still good. I checked out a book on memory training at my local library, but it didn't help. I had to pay overdue charges because I forgot to return it.
I wish I could read the life stories of my grandparents and their early lives in Sweden and Norway and their later years in Minnesota. Their experiences after arriving in America in a strange country with a new language and different customs would be fascinating reading.
I wish my father had written about his early life. What was his childhood like? What were his experiences when he was eighteen years old and in the army during the Spanish-American war? What would he have written about my childhood before I was old enough to recall my earliest years? He liked to sing and play his harmonica. I was told that as a young man he may have done some entertaining. Where and when did this take place? There are so many things I wonder about.
I like to write and felt that this was a gift I should not waste, so I began writing my autobiography so my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would not some day wish they knew more about what life was like for me.

Grandpop with some of the generations he wrote for (in 2008 one week after Karamea was born)

Friday Finds: Photography App

2011-04-15T06:00:00.025-06:00

Today's find is more of a re-discovery of sorts. My friend Britta posted a long time ago on her own blog about an app called Percolator and I was intrigued by the images it produced. I wanted to get it, but I was too cheap for the whopping $1.99 price tag (I'm normally a free app kind of girl). But around my birthday, I thought I'd treat myself. It has been fun playing around with it and easily adding a whole pop-art feel to my otherwise ho-hum photos. There are several effects and color settings; I used some of the different ones in my examples below. I'll never look at the bubbles in my cup of coffee the same way again! (If you click each image individually, you can view it a bit larger) Happy Friday everyone!

Karamea-isms 4

2011-04-11T06:50:00.000-06:00

Oh, how the list of funny, odd, witty, and sweet sayings from Karamea grows.

Whenever she asks how to say a particular word in German, she says, "What is the word of ... in German?" She's more interested than ever in learning German and I am impressed at her ability to pick up the language so easily. Now I have anecdotal evidence to support the theory that kids pick up a second language so easily!
This was a weird one: Karamea was walking past me as I reclined after a day of work and she stopped and said, "Mama, something is different..." I asked her what, and she replied, "Your feet...smell like...sweet potatoes." I laughed, then asked her what her feet smell like and she sat down, pulled her foot to her nose, looked up at me, smiled, and answered, "Sweet potatoes!"
As I put Karamea to bed one evening, I told her I was happy and then asked if she knew why. Her reply: "Because I love you." She then followed up by giving me one of the biggest hugs ever along with some eskimo and butterfly kisses. Yes, Karamea, that is why I am happy. I love you too. More than words can even tell.
One more bedtime story...I was totally exhausted a couple nights ago when I put Karamea to bed, and after I prayed with her, I was almost ready to doze off when I heard her whisper next to me. I couldn't quite make out what she said, but when I asked her to repeat herself, she said, "You're supposed to go away. I'm sleeping."

Kaylee's One Year Appointment

2011-04-08T23:48:00.001-06:00

Kaylee's doctor appointment went well this afternoon. She is growing and developing just like she should. Here are the stats, mostly for my own reference so I can look back later and marvel at how Kaylee has changed.
Weight: 25 pounds, 15 ounces (99th percentile)
Length: 30 inches (80th percentile)
Head circumference: 18 inches (70th percentile)

Friday Finds: Font Fun

2011-04-08T15:49:00.005-06:00

I have a confession to make. I am a total font geek. A fontaholic. It all started when I was the yearbook editor in high school and has continued ever since. I download free fonts from time to time, I honestly don't even know how many I have on my computer. Too many, probably. Yesterday, I happened across Alana; too bad it isn't free. I will just have to drool over sample images of it and wish I could use it in a project I am currently envisioning for our eat-in kitchen wall.

All images from: http://myfonts.us/6ssS7h

Here are some links to some of my favorite fabulous free font websites (say that three times fast!) in case you are interested in finding some yourself: Font Squirrel, DaFont, and Myfonts. This tool is really fun for helping find the name for a font: WhatTheFont

The project I have in mind is to design a series of layouts that have our traditional mealtime prayer on them to print and hang in our eat in kitchen. It's been in the idea stage for a few months; at this point, I don't know if I will ever see it through because I have very little working knowledge of Photoshop or other similar programs. Maybe this font will be free by then!

I cobbled the following image together using the font preview feature and taking screenshots:

And for those of you who are familiar with the prayer, yes, we changed it a tad. Years ago, Mark had the idea of adding the word family in the second line. It's just another wonderful example of the blending of traditions and ideas that happened when we started our own family.

Kaylee at 12 Months

2011-04-04T00:23:00.023-06:00

Exactly one year ago*, we welcomed Kaylee into our family. Wow. Where did the time go, my sweet Kaylee? It has been an amazing year and we are so blessed to have you in our lives. You truly bring so much joy to everyone around you. Happy first birthday!

*(No, I was not blogging at midnight (this time!) I pre-scheduled this post for Kaylee's exact time of birth.)

Here are some notes on what Kaylee is like these days:

Her sense of humor is growing...from playing peekaboo, to giving high fives, to shaking her head and just being silly and giggling. If we spread out a blanket on the floor, she crawls over to it lickety-split and flops herself down on her belly and laughs, just waiting for us to come over and rub her back. She sometimes does some "baby yoga" and thinks she's hiding from us, and will proceed to lift her head and laugh or roll on the floor.

Kaylee in downward dog/

thinking she's hiding

Seconds later: Here I am!

Come and tickle me!

Every day she is able to navigate her world a little better and has been walking even more lately. (She took her first steps around 10 months) We are pleased at how well she is picking up on the fact that she has to turn around backwards when sliding off of things or down the stairs.

She uses a couple of words that are definitely intelligible to us: up, ball, bear, bye-bye, hop, and she barks whenever she sees a dog. And her level of comprehension shocks me. Just the other day I asked her to bring her pacifier over to me (I was about 10 feet away) and put it in my hand...and she did just that! I think my jaw hit the floor!

I thank God every day for the fact that He blessed us with this happy, content, affectionate, determined, silly, independent, gregarious girl and I hope with all my heart that Kaylee continues to be the joyful little person she is now throughout her life.

Testing out her car seat turned forward for the first time before going to bed this evening. She didn't stop swinging her feet once!

Friday Finds: Hidden Treasure

2011-04-02T08:03:00.002-06:00

Oops! I forgot it was Friday yesterday! This week's Friday Find: A fruit snack lodged in my child's nose

Quite honestly, I'm surprised this rite of passage in motherhood didn't come earlier. I have officially removed a foreign object from the nostril of one of my offspring. I. am. Mommy. (Don't get me wrong, Daddy helped plenty in this situation too. We are quite the dynamic duo.)

Yesterday on our drive back from the zoo, Karamea suddenly sounded quite alarmed, "I have a candy in my nose!" She kept trying to get at it and we kept her calm by telling her to sit on her hands and that we would help her as soon as we stopped. (These tactics worked surprisingly well with our very freaked out two and a half year old!) Thankfully, we were already off of the Interstate and after pulling into the first parking lot we could, I hopped out looked up her nose.

Oh boy, this was it. A veritable test of motherhood. I coached her to blow, to no avail. Mark handed me his Leatherman, pliers out and at the ready. (Oh my goodness! Could it be that I was actually going to have to use a Leatherman tool on my eldest daughter!? Don't be alarmed, no children were harmed in the making of this post.) That didn't work really well either, so we returned to blowing while holding the other nostril shut and after a few tries, the offending fruit snack was free. Whew!

Karamea was a champ and stayed really calm, even when the Huge Hunk of Metal (aka Leatherman) was delicately reaching up into her nose. Afterward, we were having "The Talk" about where food does and doesn't go and she looked over at Kaylee and with a voice of great wisdom said, "Kaylee, fruit snacks are only for your mouth. Not for your nose."

So there you have it, my Friday Find. Oh, and we had a blast at the zoo. It was a great day: the weather was amazing, the girls were enthralled (this was the first visit for both girls), and we were all relaxed and enjoying ourselves.

OK, so we didn't take very many pictures and this was near the end of our time at the zoo. We were all pretty tired by this point. Kaylee was giving me a huge hug, which she does when she's ready to sleep.

Karamea-isms 3

2011-03-30T14:58:00.000-06:00

It is just amazing to me how Karamea's language has blossomed since she was 18 months old. (Image above: Wordle of Karamea's vocabulary at 18 months) Her understanding of the world around her and her ability to express that understanding has grown to a relatively rational, completely endearing lexicon of our sensitive two and three-quarter year old. Here are some snippets of the conversations around here that warm my heart and make us smile and laugh:

March 20: Karamea continually tries to stretch the amount of time I spend with her at bedime by asking me to pray for more people. She'll ask, "Pray for yourself?" and then continue on, "...pray for Daddyself, pray for Kayleeself, pray for Bearself?"

March 23: I had just arrived home from work and I went to wake Karamea from her nap. As I entered her room, she smiled up at me, stretched her arms as wide as she could and said, "I love you thiiiiis much, Mama." Talk about a sweet welcome home!

Party Time!

2011-03-29T22:30:00.004-06:00

Even though Kaylee won't officially be one until Monday, we celebrated last weekend with our family and some very close family friends (whom our children will undoubtedly thank one day, since Mark and I may never have met if it weren't for them...but that's another story...) It was a pretty low-key party and everyone had a fun time, especially the birthday girl! I even enjoyed decorating the cake and was pleased with how it turned out. This was only the third cake I have ever really decorated, and I would have to say that it is the best one to date!

This picture doesn't show it, but
Karamea was shaking with excitement!

I don't even know how her
shirt managed to stay clean!

I'll be doing another monthly update post with more information after Kaylee's birthday and doctor appointment. I just couldn't wait to share these pictures-they were some really special moments!

Friday Finds: Garage Sale Goodies

2011-03-25T15:33:00.002-06:00

A shout-out to my friend Selena, who gave me the idea on her blog to do a weekly post entitled "Friday Finds". We'll see what kinds of things I find to post about. I'm going to keep it fairly open here for the sake of not having too hard of a time coming up with ideas, but I foresee anything and everything from yard sale finds, recipes, websites, books, quotes, Bible verses, or maybe even things I've lost and then found...Pretty much anything will be fair game. Should be fun! I can't wait to see what else I find that is share-worthy!
I took the day off today and we went garage sailing this morning. Even though we didn't find any thing we were really looking for (outdoor kid equipment, plastic patio chairs, booster seat, gas grill), I still found three cute items to bring home. I paid a little more than I would normally prefer for yard sale stuff, but I couldn't resist. I justified the extra price since my birthday is in a week and a half. But at any rate, these were still a bargain and I paid $14 for the lot. The rectangular dish ($5) is from the 1940s and the woman said that her mother had it on her dresser forever. (just where I envision it!) The plate with stand ($4) appealed to me because it kind of goes with the green wall in our living room. And the little bird ($5) just fits on the windowsill next to a brass pear bell that I inherited from my grandpa.

I was thinking about featuring some of our previous yard sale finds here as well, and then I got thinking about how much stuff that is...and there's no need to post pictures of most of our belongings here. We seriously have heaps of stuff that we acquired at yard sales over the years or for free when I was getting my teaching license and we lived in on-campus family housing. Seriously. If you're curious, just ask me sometime. I love a good bargain.

Which leads me to one of my favorite yard sale finds. ever. When we still lived in the duplex, we used to be able to walk to some pretty good sales. I was walking Bear one morning and happened upon a yard sale where I got the mirror above the fireplace for $1! At the time we didn't have anywhere appropriate to put it, but I knew we would someday. And I think it is darn near perfect above our mantle!
Happy Friday,

Poll will be closing soon!

2011-03-24T06:13:00.004-06:00

Just a little reminder to check out this post and vote on which pictures you like by tomorrow! Ahh, Spring Break is almost here and I'm starting a day early by taking this Friday off! It's nice to have a great student teacher who has things under control...I'm going to miss her when she's finished in about a month!

Purple Post-its

2011-03-21T22:12:00.000-06:00

I've had some purple post-it notes tucked away in my purse since December 3, 2009. I took some notes on them that are very dear to me and it's time I transfer what I wrote on them to a place where I can be sure not to lose them. I also promised to share them with my sister, so posting them here serves both purposes.

They are notes of some of the things that were said at my grandpa's funeral. Several people shared thoughts on how he impacted their lives. My uncle Larry read a great top 10 (note to self: I need to ask him for that, it really was priceless) I was asked to read the text I had written and posted on my blog shortly after Grandpop passed away.

These notes are fragmented now and I don't necessarily remember the exact points that were made, but they are still precious to me:

-His life was a careful piece of work, just like his book. (Note: With the help of my uncle Lew, Grandpop had written memories from each decade of his life up through the 1989 and had it published into book form for family and friends in 1999. It is an impressive 400 pages long.)
- Come to me, and I will give you rest. There is no other place or person that can give us peace and comfort like the Lord. I can trust his presence, promise, peace.
- We are all called to stewardship of life - we are caretakers of others. He was faithful to this and lived life the way it is supposed to be lived. Not for self, but for the Lord and others.
- Thanks to God for the gift of faith he gave to Grandpop.

Hymns I noted: Come Home - Jesus is calling - The Old Rugged Cross - Beneath the Cross of Jesus - Take my Life that I may be - O Jesus I have Promised

Bible verses: Psalm 121 - Psalm 23 - Ecclesiastes 3 - 2 Corinthians 5 - Matthew 11

I still reflect often on how special Grandpop was and the positive influence he had on everyone around him. He was loved by so many and I miss him so much. I wish we had more time to enjoy with him here in our town (he moved here from Denver about 5 months before he passed away), but I am comforted by the fact that he was ready to go home to heaven. His truly was a life well lived and a good example of what it means to love God and others.

After flipping through his book again this evening as I prepared this post, I found a lot of tidbits I would like to share here at some point, but for now, I will leave you with the closing words of his book:

"We should all take the time to live
before each day goes rushing by--
Time to search for deeper meanings
and to give our dreams a try;
Time for laughter, time for music,
time for flowers, trees and birds--
Time to look for new ideas and to
put our thoughts into words.

The author is unknown to me, but I couldn't have said it better myself. It captures succinctly the essence of my philosophy of life. Cherish yesterday, dream tomorrow, and live today. Connect yourself with the world you live in and enjoy. Happy trails to all of you!" - Grandpa Lee

Karamea-isms 2

2011-03-20T13:30:00.000-06:00

Before church this morning-it is absolutely gorgeous today! Happy Spring!

March 12: Karamea's words for the birthday song:"Happy birthday dear you"

March 17: A long time ago she figured out that B-A-T-H spells bath. So now, she spells a lot of words...Quote from our car ride today: "B-A-T-H, dog, B-A-T-H, car, B-A-T-H, cat."

March 20: Karamea has been saying a particular word for quite a while now, but I just made the connection about what it means and how she pieced it together...her logic just astounds me. Her word: tomorning
After all, today means 'this day', tonight means 'this night' and thus, tomorning must mean 'this morning', right?

I feel like there is another cute Karamea-ism that I am forgetting for now...Hopefully I will remember it later and write it in the next installment of this series.

Our Living Room Wall

2011-03-15T23:00:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine who blogs recently posted a poll with some pictures she is considering having enlarged to help her decide which one to hang on the wall in her new home. I thought it sounded like a really fun idea, so I am copying her and giving you all a glimpse at some of our favorite snapshots of Alaska while I'm at it.

One entire wall in our living room is dedicated to photos we have taken in Alaska. It started with one really good picture Mark took of a bear and has grown to include another picture of his, this collage,
and this print, which we had enlarged to 16 x 20, matted and placed in a beautiful frame we bought at a yard sale. This picture has a lot of meaning for us because it was taken on a hike with my parents when they visited us in Alaska in 2007. We hiked across the head of one bay to the ocean on the other side; it had always been a dream of my dad's to hike that route...it was a wonderful day and a beautiful hike, but that is another story...back to the photos...
We love the matting (green over a dark brown). Here's what it looks like on our wall:
If you look past the goofy two year old in the foreground of this picture, you can see the current arrangement on the wall. As we bring in more pictures, it will probably shift some, but I think we'll stick with the oak frames.
Here are the candidates. We'll be adding about 3 more pictures for now, so please vote for more your top 3! I'll leave the poll open until I go on spring break - March 25th! (Look below the map in the sidebar)
1
2
34
5
6
78
9
10
11
Thanks for looking! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the pictures!

Grilled Garlic Shrimp

2011-03-15T20:51:00.005-06:00

It's that time of year again. With the warmer days and longer daylight hours, our appetite seems to diminish and we can never figure out what we're in the mood for when dinnertime rolls around. We settled on grilled shrimp tonight and it absolutely hit the spot. This is the second time I've made this recipe and it definitely won't be the last! I tweaked our version from a recipe I found on a google search.

Grilled Garlic Shrimp

Pre-cooked frozen shrimp (however many you would like; we did about 24)
3 Tbsp. Olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp Bangkok blend (from Penzeys Spices)

Defrost shrimp. Mix spices, garlic, and olive oil in a large bowl, toss in shrimp and coat. Marinate around 10 minutes, then place on skewers and grill 2 minutes on each side. (Just enough to warm 'em up since the shrimp is already cooked!) Enjoy!

Why I Blog

2011-03-13T22:32:00.001-06:00

When I started my blog in May 2008, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought it would be a useful tool for sharing updates with family and friends about Karamea as we awaited her arrival. I was excited to provide a glimpse into our life for friends and family who are far away; or even to give ones who are close the chance to catch up.

I was inspired by a few friends who blog and now more than just a few of my friends have blogs too. Thanks to blogging, I have developed friendships with people who might have otherwise stayed acquaintances. I love being able to see pictures of their lives, read their perspectives and learn what is going on in their lives. Life with kids is busy and even when we get together, there's not much time for uninterrupted conversation. So when I do see friends, I don't have to do too much catching up since they usually follow what we're doing here or on facebook.

What I didn't expect was how much I would personally get out of blogging. For me, it has become 1) a way to process life as it happens and reflect on things and 2) an archive I can easily refer back to. As much as I love scrapbooking, it is time-consuming and expensive. I have only finished Karamea's baby book through 8 months at this point (um, yes, she will be turing 3 (!) in July...), and haven't even started Kaylee's. Except I have. Sort of. I plan on having the blog posts of updates about Kaylee made into a book using Blurb. There are several other options out there as well for having a blog made into book form, but I think Blurb will be the best bet for layout options and appearance.

Here are the other options I have considered:
http://www.blogbooker.com/ (FREE! Makes a pdf file of the blog including pictures, but the examples I saw didn't have much special in terms of layout or design.)

http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html

It feels a little silly to say that blogging has changed my life, but there are some ways in which it really has. I am truly thankful for the way in which it helps me connect with others and for the way it has encouraged me to journal more consistently than I ever have. I know that wherever life may lead, I look forward to chronicling our journeys and experiences here.

Speaking of Speaking: German and First Words

2011-03-12T21:19:00.002-07:00

It's a bit of a touchy subject for me. As a German teacher, I know the benefits of kids knowing another language, and I want the girls to learn German, but I really struggle with raising them bilingually since it is not my native language. I love the German language, but it is simply not the language of my heart. I tried speaking to Karamea a little auf Deutsch when she was a baby and it felt very contrived to me. But speaking to a baby at that point was new, period. And I had enough on my plate just learning the whole baby lexicon in English, let alone learning all of those words in German...exersaucer? onesie? blowout? binky? boppy? Three years ago, these words sounded like another language to me.

Many parents who raise their kids bilingually strictly adhere to what is called the "One Parent, One Language" approach, in which each parent speaks a separate language with their children and I most certainly did not have it in me to do that. Mark doesn't know German, and I didn't want to be speaking in a language he doesn't know all the time; that just seems weird to me. So I wimped out and didn't do anything at all (with the exception of occasionally speaking in German and reading German children's books to the girls.)

Until recently, when Karamea asked me to say goodnight to her in German one evening as I was putting her to bed. It was quite out of the blue, or so it seemed. She knows I am a teacher and that I speak and teach German, but something piqued her interest lately and it is astounding to me how quickly she picks it up. We're mostly doing some greetings right now, and if I use too much German, she shakes her head, holds up her hand and says, "Mama, I don't know German. Talk normal." So far, she can say:

Gute Nacht (good night)
Schlaf schön (sleep well)
Guten Morgen (good morning)
Ja (yes)/Nein (no)
Ich liebe dich (I love you)
Danke (thank you)

It's really sweet and every day she asks for more! What started as a simple request has turned into her wanting to hear me read stories and pray in German. I think part of her motivation might be trying to buy more time before I leave the room when I'm putting her to bed, but you won't hear me complaining! She's also starting to use it at other times during the day.

I just remembered something else that explains her increased motivation to learn German recently. When we were in the locker room after swimming lessons last Saturday, there was group of little girls who were speaking Spanish with each other. Karamea was absolutely enthralled and I explained to the girls that Karamea is learning German (I felt like I had to explain why she was just staring at them.) One of the older girls taught Karamea the words nadar (to swim) and adios. (Karamea seriously said "Adios" to everyone as we were leaving the rec center that day. Ha!) I think that seeing another language as a legitimate means of communication with others really helped her see the benefit of learning another language, regardless of whether it is Spanish or German (OK, clearly not her words-she just really wanted to be able to talk with those other little girls!)

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In other news, Kaylee is now saying what I would consider her first official word: "Up"
(Until now, the only other utterance she has really used in context has been "Num") :)
Exciting stuff! (Well, for me anyway...but that's the language teacher in me...)

That annoying message

2011-03-11T06:27:00.007-07:00

Sorry guys, I gotta do it. You know that little window that pops up every once and a while on your computer? You know the one...

This computer has not been

backed up in # days.

Don't ignore it! The emotional aftermath of having a hard drive crash can be devastating (as I blogged about in September.) This school year, not only have I had a hard drive crash and lost some irreplaceable pictures and videos of my dad taken during his last few weeks of his life, I have had two colleagues experience hard drive crashes in which they had not backed up their information. One was able to have her data recovered (after paying through the nose...I'm talking over $1000) and the other is not so fortunate. Projects she worked on, music, all her pictures (except some on facebook) gone. G-O-N-E. She is literally grieving right now, feeling like she is in a fog and everything.
I know I might be preaching to the choir on this subject, but even if this helps one person realize that they need to back up their data, it's worth it. There's a really good article on Lifehacker that helps give some practical tips if you find yourself asking what the heck I am talking about here. For the rest of you, join me in lugging out those little bricks we affectionately call external hard drives and give 'em some love.

Thanks for letting me be your little annoying pop-up this morning. Have a fantastic Friday!
Love,

P.S. I just backed up my computer while writing this post. (It had been over a month, so this blog post is also a little reminder for me...)

Faith Like a Child

2011-03-05T22:30:00.005-07:00

"And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ⁶ And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. ⁷ Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up."

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 (New Living Translation)

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We talk about God a lot around here, about love, Jesus, prayer, and heaven. I don't really know the day or the moment that Karamea first expressed her faith in God, but it is there, and has been for quite some time. Some things are still a little fuzzy (like the fact that Jesus isn't a baby anymore), but isn't that is what faith is all about? Even if all of the details aren't clear, faith is trusting and feeling secure in the fact that we are loved by God and loving Him in return.

There are very few things that bring me such joy as when Karamea shares some of her child-like faith and wisdom with me. Last week, we were hanging out at home with my sister and Karamea, after being quiet for a few moments, said, "I'm thinking about God."

This evening as I was putting her to bed, I told her that she makes me very happy, and that when she listens to Mark and me, or is kind to Kaylee, it makes me happy. I turned the tables and asked what makes her happy. Her response: "That God loves me." I then asked her what else makes her happy. She answered, "Jesus."

It was an amazing feeling, being so proud, and yet so humbled at the same time.
Thank you so much for that, my darling, sweet Karamea. I pray that your faith continues to grow as you do and that knowing God loves you will always bring you joy.

Kaylee at 11 Months

2011-03-03T21:00:00.001-07:00

February was a whirlwind and I can't believe that Kaylee is turning 11 months tomorrow! We enjoyed time with Mark's parents at the beginning and end of the month (they visited relatives in Minnesota in between). It was fantastic having them here and the girls just loved all the time with Grandma and Grandpa.
It has been a month of exponential change for Kaylee and there are so many little (and big!) things I want to remember. Starting with taking her first steps days after she turned 10 months old, she kept making new discoveries in all areas, learning to clap, play the recorder, climbing on, over and through pretty much anything she could, eating finger foods really well on her own, walking behind the toy car, and finally letting go of furniture and walking! At this point, she's taking about 7-8 deliberate, fairly well-controlled steps before falling. She even slept through the night a few times (until she started teething again-she's now up to seven teeth!)
Kaylee also started a new bedtime routine recently and is now getting sleepy around 6:30 pm. I nurse her one last time before bed and then lay her in her crib, where she is content to snuggle down and fall asleep on her own. She wiggles with glee when we rub her back and doesn't say a peep when we leave the room. This is such a change from a few months ago when we started letting her cry it out for a little while when we put her down. Not that she was bad then, but it is such a joy to have a baby who is so happy to go to sleep! It's hard for me to grasp that she's almost not a baby anymore. She is becoming more and more of a toddler every day and I can't believe that she'll be turning one in a month.

Simultaneously showing off two of her new talents: climbing on things and playing the recorder.

All Geeked Out

2011-03-01T06:36:00.001-07:00

It has often occurred to me to do a technology post about some of the things that I get excited about and things that really help me in my everyday life...but I have never gotten around to it.

But yesterday I got so geeked out about a new tool that I might get for my classroom that I can't resist sharing! I have longed for a document camera for a while; it would make it so much easier to share German children's books and other things with students. Well, until recently, a decent document camera ran around $2000...So, totally out of the question. But today, I set my eyes on IPEVO. Talk about love at first sight. about a third smaller than document cameras and only $70! I can't wait!

And while I'm at it, I might as well tell you about another of my tech loves, Wunderlist. As a busy mom, wife, and teacher, it can be hard to remember everything that I need to get done. I can update my to-do list using my phone, computer, e-mail, and it syncs automatically!
I love that I can sort it by category, assign due dates, write notes, change the background...pretty much everything about it. Oh yeah, I forgot one tiny detail...it's FREE!
The last tech thing I want to mention is that I have added a widget on the sidebar of the blog so that people can receive e-mail updates whenever I post. Blogger settings only allow me to have posts automatically emailed to 10 addresses, but using FeedBurner, anyone can now get an e-mail whenever I post (which is likely to be helpful since I can be pretty sporadic about posting at times...)

Happy March, everyone! I hope you're feeling as energized by the longer daylight hours as I am!

Karamea-isms

2011-02-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

If I don't start writing some of these down, I will forget them entirely. And they are just too darn cute to let that happen...

At parent teacher conferences, Mark brought the girls to visit during my dinner break. Karamea asked, "May I please see more teachers?"
Karamea and I were talking about a song we sang in church that had the phrase "holy, holy" in it. Karamea's interpretation: "Holy Poly"
After "styling" my hair and putting it in my face, Karamea proclaimed, "Mama's a messy teacher!"

No Small Task

2011-02-20T06:28:00.004-07:00

They love each other

(most of the time.)

They are happy to see each other

(most of the time.)

Hugs, kisses, squeals, giggles at each other from across the dinner table (accompanied by impish looks) delight me. At times I awestruck by the precious relationship that is developing between Karamea and Kaylee. Having siblings myself, I am fully aware of the fact that they will have a relationship with each other outside of the relationship they have with Mark and me, but I have never been a witness to the beginning of this kind of relationship. What a special bond. Of course, Karamea has loved Kaylee since before she was born and has always been a loving big sister. But now that Kaylee is able to get around and express herself more, she is now more able to reciprocate in the loving relationship that she and Karamea have. One my favorite times for observing Kaylee's ~~love and admiration for~~ delight in Karamea is when Kaylee helps wake Karamea up from her afternoon nap. I open the door and let Kaylee crawl in, which is followed by her delighted squeal and a crawling sprint to the side of Karamea's bed.

I so desire to nurture their love for each other and pray that Mark and I will be able to help facilitate and mediate in their relationship in such a way as to provide a good foundation for success in all future relationships the girls will have. I pray that we are good models of loving, kind relationships with all we encounter and that they will have strong, healthy relationships throughout life.

Wordless Wistful Wednesday

2011-02-09T17:06:00.003-07:00

This post started out as "Wordless Wednesday" in following with many bloggers who post a picture every Wednesday to convey something from their life. I haven't done this in the past, nor do I expect that it will become a weekly occurrence, but I just couldn't resist today. And then I had to change the title so that I could shed a little more light on my post. I guess I'm just not a wordless kind of gal. :)

I happened to be looking through some old photos today and they were all from the time when Bear was a puppy (December 2006). I scrolled through and thought about how much life has changed since then. I surprised myself with how wistful and sentimental I was about Bear's puppyhood, and then it occurred to me how much stronger this feeling will be as I look back at pictures of the girls as they grow. As excited as I am to see the young women they will become and experience all sorts of adventures with them, there will always be a place in my heart that just wants to snuggle my little babes and rock them in my arms. But it's OK. This is life, and this is exactly what we signed up for. Memories from this time in our life will be my treasure forever; every giggle, every hug, every "I love you, Mama." *Sigh*

Three Steps Forward...

2011-02-06T21:05:00.002-07:00

Well, today was the day! Kaylee took her first steps between Mark and me right before we put her to bed tonight. It was fun to see how excited she was (which was probably mostly influenced by our super-enthusiastic reaction). I'm not going to make any claim that she will be fully walking any time soon--after all, the most she walked at one go was three steps...but we are thrilled nonetheless and I just had to share. We didn't have time to get a picture; I guess we'll have to teach Karamea how to use the camera soon, ha!

A Shared Vision

2011-02-05T22:15:00.002-07:00

I have never showered in our master shower. We have lived in this house since September 2009. I am OK with this; it is simply a reality of life with kids. Many other projects have been started and finished, but this one looms over our heads (mostly Mark's really, since he is the point person on the project.)

We knew when we bought the house that the master shower had water damage and that it would need to be redone, so we never used it. We've been dreaming about the possibilities for a long time and we made a big step forward last week-we bought the tile! We both had a pretty good vision of what we wanted and found some nice slate mosaic tile to accent the main porcelain tiles. I feel really fortunate that Mark and I have very similar taste and have always come to an agreement pretty easily and quickly on decor choices.

After we got home, I googled the name of the tile and was shocked when I saw picture of the shower above. Most of the images were thumbnails of what the tile looks like, but this one showed it in a shower-and was almost exactly what Mark and I envisioned! We plan on having the accent strip just a bit lower than pictured. (Note that our shower is a simple 3' x 4' shower...nothing fancy like a seat or two shower heads like the one in the picture!)

I know this is a departure from my usual post content, but I am so excited, I just had to share!

Kaylee at 10 Months

2011-02-04T22:51:00.001-07:00

Well, I blinked again, and another month went by! Happy 10 months, Kaylee! Maybe time seems to be passing so quickly because you are so sweet, happy and fun; each day just rolls so naturally into the next.

Eating - More finger food! Frozen blueberries, bits of bagel, pasta, cheese, chicken, strawberries, pear, cheerios, cauliflower and broccoli, canned green beans, even small pieces of salmon! It works out so well to let her explore her foods on her own; Mark and I get to eat our meals and Kaylee is entertained while practicing motor skills. Win-win! This is definitely one area where I feel like we are much more laid-back than we were with Karamea. Some other new foods that Kaylee tried and liked this month include lentils and salmon (steamed, then pureed in the blender and frozen in to cubes).

Moving - She's not quite walking yet, but Kaylee can definitely move. She crawls in long strides, creeps along the furniture with determination and purpose, and can stand unsupported (when she's not paying attention), but isn't quite ready to make the move to walking on her own yet. She's able to get over and under obstacles that kept her confined until just a few days ago-we constructed a baby-wall of sorts in our living room by lining up the coffee table, a small chair, and an ottoman, but she can crawl through the coffee table and over the ottoman now. So much for that! It was good while it lasted...

Playing - One of the biggest changes I have noticed is Kaylee's ever increasing sense of humor. She loves playing peek-a-boo and laughing, actively seeks attention from Karamea, and loves her reflection, other babies, and pictures of babies. Kaylee loves music and will bop along to the tune of most any song.

Highlights over the last month include going to the Stock Show and having Grandma and Grandpa O visit. They were here from Monday night through Friday morning, and we look forward to their return and spending more time together after they visit relatives in Minnesota. We are also quite fortunate that Grandma R lives nearby and we enjoy sharing dinner with her about two nights a week. Mark and the girls usually spend one morning a week at her house too. We are so blessed to be able to enjoy so much family time!

Note: The picture with Kaylee on Mark's shoulders was taken on January 29th and it was 61 degrees outside. On February 1st and 2nd, school was canceled for two days on account of extremely low temperatures: windchill from -25 to -35 degrees Fahrenheit! Gotta love Colorado!

Snapshots

2011-01-30T22:30:00.003-07:00

I have a hard time capturing Kaylee's spirit on camera, but these few pictures do an OK job when considered as a collection. She is joyful, bubbly, happy, funny, yet contemplative, determined, independent, observant and curious. And at times, opinionated. The fact that these pictures were all taken while she is in her high chair is telling; she loves engaging us when we're at the table and I can't resist reaching for the camera and trying to catch the moment.

I can't even begin to put words the love I feel for this sweet girl! (Especially since she slept through the night last night for the first time in MONTHS...) All kidding aside, Kaylee simply enchants me and I am really excited to see who she will become as she grows. I feel like I see glimpses every day of different facets of her personality and they are just precious.

Little Moments that make my Heart BIG

2011-01-20T22:00:00.002-07:00

I love my family. LOVE them.

I am so grateful for the fun times we share together. Like yesterday playing peek-a-boo with Kaylee till her hair was standing up straight from the static electricity from the blanket and she was laughing harder than I have ever heard her laugh before. I don't know that I have ever heard anything cuter than a full-on belly laugh from my precious 9 month old. Seeing the girls and Mark playing together the other night brought me closer to bliss than I have been in a long time. Sure, we have fun on the "bigger" outings like going to the Stock Show, but most of my favorite memories happen in the unplanned moments around the house.I was going to say something grand and deep about the simple joys of life with kids, but a quick google search for a quote about "little things" revealed many other great thoughts on the subject...So in lieu of trying to add my own spin on it, I thought I would just post the quotes that touched my heart here:

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

- Robert Brault

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.
-Laura Ingalls Wilder

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.
-Benjamin Franklin

It isn't the big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones.
-Jean Webster