Halloween

The moment that Halloween officially began, for me, was helping with Parker's 3rd grade Halloween party. I cannot express my respect and admiration for every teacher in America who survives the classroom on Halloween day. The energy was all over the place. I was in charge of the "do-nut on a string" game. You know the one, where you try to eat a do-nut off a string with no help from your hands. I used glazed do-nuts and those poor kids were sticky from their spray-painted zombie hair to their scarred, bloody chins. It sure was fun though. Here are a few shots of Parker in action.

file Pictures: Parker

(No, he's not dressed up. He said his costume was too hot. Later, he told me some kids said he looked like a clown instead of a ninja.)

Soon after dinner, we sent the kids out to trick-or-trick.

Sydney, the Fairy

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Parker, the Ninja

Camille, the witch

Rachel, the Pegasus

(she's been wearing this costume all year. she loves it)

Bryce, the Skunk

Here's the group shot.

I had to throw this picture in here because I love how Parker's face is covered, and he knows it, but he just keeps smiling so that he can get down to trick-or-treating business faster.

Off they go. Sterling went with them and I stayed back to hand out candy. I put my chair on the porch, with a blanket, a book and a bowl of candy. It was great!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Happy Halloween

A word about Carolyn

While we were gone on the cruise, lots of neighbors, family and friends helped care for the children.  What blessed angels they are.  Everyone of them.  I don't know how we could have done it without them.

Our niece, Carolyn, watched the children almost every evening.  She would fix them dinner, spend the night and get them off to school in the morning. That's a big job. She even had to deal with a sick baby one of those nights and I've heard that she wasn't even feeling well one of those days. Anyway, she's a champ.

She also left some big shoes to fill.  The first night we were home, we were informed that there was a special hug after the prayer.  You hold hands with the person next to the person next to you.  Get it?  Then you raise your hands over your heads and behind your backs all at the same time, which forces you all to lean in and hug.  Its fabulous.  We are still doing that hug to this day.

Then the kids all lined up where the carpet meets the linoleum and it was a race to bed. Genius.  Why didn't I think of that. Once they were all in bed, I was instructed to tuck them in, snug as a bug.  I was directed to tuck the covers under their arms and legs so they couldn't move. And it didn't stop there. Then I had to do an earthquake check or something like that where I bounced and jiggled the mattress to make sure that they truly were snug as a bug.

Yes, Carolyn left a legacy in our house, to be sure. The most surprising thing was that in the next few days I started to hear the children chanting something about a llama. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what in the world they were saying.  Finally I asked Sydney and she ripped off this cheer so fast I couldn't understand. Then Camille did the same thing, just a tad bit slower. After teaching me and talking about what a fun cheer it is, we realized that it fit our family quite nicely. 

So Carolyn, this cheer is for you and all you do - You are AWESOME!!!!

Alaska - last few notes for next time

A few other notes about the whole Alaska cruise in general.

WEATHER & TIMING
The weather was interesting.  For the most part it was fine, but as I have mentioned before, Sunday was pretty miserable with 18-20 foot swells.  For the most part, I was face down on the bed. I could feel the swells in my stomach, like a roller coaster.  I had the weightless feeling I get at the top of the arc on a swing and then the dropping sensation.  You just feel it in your gut. It was pretty amazing. I do wish I had looked out the window at some point to actually see the swells.  It would have been neat.  And bless Sterling's heart, who scoured the ship for bomine for me.  He found one of the last boxes for sale.  We both used the medication and it sure helped.  But the lesson we learned is to bring out own medication, look out the window and go on the cruise before the storm season starts to roll in.  Maybe late August or earlier in Sept.

Cruising a couple of weeks earlier would have helped with the weather and it also would have helped with wildlife viewings.  We went right between salmon runs.  Two weeks earlier and we would have seen more bear and whales feasting on the migrating salmon.

ENTERTAINMENT
The ship had a naturalist lecturer on board. Michael Modzelewski.He was amazing.  His lectures were poetic.  Definitely a highlight of the experience. There was also a presentation by Libby Riddles, the first female Iditarod race winner. She was inspiring. The other evening shows were great.  Singing and dancing, a Las Vegas illusionist. There was always something to see. But the lectures were my favorite.  Maybe I'm just getting old.

FITNESS & FOOD
Other pasttimes on the ship I enjoyed were the fitness center, which allowed me to eat without remorse or regret.  Thank you treadmill and ellyptical. Speaking of food, I may order two servings of the lobster next time.  YUM. and cheesecake everynight was a little overboard. Fruit soups come in a glass and straw like a smoothie.  Who knew.  Now I do and if I see them on the menu, I'll be sure to order.

What else?.....

HASH
Coming home was good.  Nobody told me Hash had been sick and not sleeping and had a high fever until I was on the last leg of the flight home. Thank you for that.  I was excited to see all the kids.  I think they missed me, which is a good thing.  I was sad Hash was in bed because I just wanted to hold and love on him, especially because I knew he wasn't feeling well.  So when he woke up in the middle of the night, I jumped out of bed to comfort him.  He looked at me with confusion all over his face, then closed his eyes tightly, like he does when he's ignoring someone or pretending you're not there because he can't see you. Anyway, after a few minutes I laid him back down and he went right to sleep.

The morning was a whole other story. The minute he started crying, I ran in to greet him. He took one look at me and started crying even harder.  I picked him up to snuggle his tears away and he pushed away from me.  It went on like this for a good hour.  I was beside myself.  He wouldn't look at me.  He continually pushed away from me.  He cried and cried and cried.  I couldn't get him to drink or eat or calm down even one whit.  Finally I asked Sydney to come hold him for a minute and wouldn't you know it, he calmed right down and smiled at her. My heart broke in two.  I reached for him again and he immediately started crying, turned his head and reached for Sydney.  At that moment I felt like I had made the biggest mistake of my life and had emotionally damaged my baby for life by abandoning him for 8 days. After 10-15 minutes of Sydney and I working together, he finally warmed up to me. The twix candybar for breakfast also helped. By the end of the day, he was loving on me all over.  He was smiling and hugging and wouldn't let go of me.  He just had to be sure, initially, to let me know that it was not ok to leave him like that.

So we're back and have been back for a few weeks.  The first week, I couldn't even think about leaving the family again.  Arranging babysitters, food, etc and then the fall-out of coming home. Now that's its been a few more weeks, I'm more willing to entertain the idea of another cruise, someday.

Alaska - Buschart Gardens

OK, its getting to the point now where I just need to finish up the cruise notes. My memory is beginning to fail me now anyway and life is cruising (pun) past me and I just need to move on.  But I can't leave anything half finished so forgive me if this is merely a travel log.

Because of stormy weather, we were forced to miss our last Alaskan port, Ketchikan.  I was looking forward to the totem poles and lumberjack demonstrations.  Oh well.  I guess that will just motivate me to go back another time.

Our last port was Victoria, British Columbia.  We had most of the morning to ourselves before our excursion to Buschart Gardens.  Ster and I joined up with Leisel and James and took a walking path along the wharf into the city.  It was beautiful.  For the first time all week I felt warm, almost hot. 

It was fun to walk along the path and see all the homes and small shops right on the water.  They were all so colorful.  It would have been nice to go down and walk through them but we had time restraints.  I'll save that for next time as well.

You can see the colors a little better in this picture.

This is downtown and the government building.  It was beautiful.  Very legislative.

Here is our ship, the Golden.  From the back end.  This picture in no way does it justice.

Buschart Gardens.  How do I begin.  I wanted to take pictures of everything.  Every bloom, every fountain, every cluster of color.  It is a beautiful place and to think that it used to be a quarry.  Blows my mind. 

This man, Peter, talked to us for quite a while.  Off to the right is a dock and his boat.  He has an amazing story.  I feel bad that it is already fading from my memory.  He talked about how amazing the Buschart family has been to him. He worked for them for a while, giving boat rides and such and keeping his boat there. They have gone beyond the call of duty in caring for him as he ages, out of the goodness of their hearts. I want to say so much more here but the words are just not coming.  He is in his 90's, which is totally hard to believe when you talk to him.  His first wife died from cancer I think and his 2nd wife is/was currently in the hospital, dying.  He lives on his boat half of the week and was just returning from the hospital when we ran into him.  He was delightful.  I think most of us would agree we would have loved to sit down to a long dinner with him and just talk.

This picture is for Sterling who says we never take pictures of me.  So here you go.

Dare to Dream

I've been going through an identity crises for the last year.  Pretty much since I became a mother of 5.  Anyway, its been pretty cool to look back and see how far I've come and to look ahead and realize that, even though I'm still a work in progress, the future is bright! Its been a personal journey, so not much of it has been shared here.  Maybe some day I'll be able to pull my thoughts together to share the journey.

I guest-posted about a startling discovery I had as part of this journey.  It has to do with dreams.  Want to read about it?  You'll have to go HERE.  A new article on a new website, "Dare to Dream."

I also have a post up at the "Power of Moms" website today.  I'll let the picture entice you to click over and take a look.  You can read about how much FUN I have in my workplace.

Alaska - Glacier Bay

This was the view coming into Glacier Bay National Park.  It was dark, cloudy, rainy, foggy and absolutely surreal.  The extra rain caused the mountain to flow with new waterfalls.

Ster and I braved the rain in our walmart blue rain ponchos.

Curtis could not relinquish the comfort of his Burkenstocks and stayed undercover where his socks could stay dry.

Our major stop was Margarie Glacier. It was stunning. A beautiful blue that is hard to describe. The size of it was hard to wrap my mind around, even though I was looking directly at it.

There is just no way to put the glacier in context of perspective.  This is not piled up snow, its ice and its huge.  We did witness a little calving, which is when a big chunk of ice falls off.  The sound is loud and earth-shaking.  And then you realize the power and majesty of what you are watching. The following video is not mine.  Its just taken off of youtube, but it give you an idea. I wish you could hear the sound, you have to listen closely.  It really is breath-taking. 

Alaska - Skagway

Skagway is as far north as we traveled.  It was definitely a tourist town, through and through.  Skagway is very central to the Yukon Gold Rush in the early 1900s.  I learned a lot of history during this port and loved it.  The rangers were so full of knowledge and fun to listen to. Quite a fascinating story about the purchase of Alaska and the following gold rush and frenzy.  After getting a history lesson, Ster and I walked the main drag of Skagway with our favorite history teacher, Sterling's dad. 

Most of the other family members took the White Pass train or a bus that follows some of the trail goldrushers took to get to the Yukon gold fields. 

Instead of the trainride, we took a "fast ferry" to Haines.  This is a very very small small town on the banks of a fiord.  The fiord was beautiful to see as we sailed through on the ferry.  Lots of waterfalls and we saw a bald eagle. Haines is well known for craftsmen, particularly of totem poles.  We went to workshop that was just amazing.  They'd made totems for several celebrities in America (can't remember their names but it was impressive.  Maybe James Earl Jones, I think.)  Totems sell for $1,500.00 a foot.  That's crazy money.  But I really want one someday.

Again, we made it back to the ship for dinner and a show.  (more on those later.) Which is more than I can say for the ship that went there the next day.  The weather got really bad again and we heard that 300 people were on an excursion to Haines and were left there because the ship had to get out to sea before the storm hit and they couldn't wait for the excursion to come back.  I don't even think 300 people live in Haines.  I can't imagine what they did with 300 tourists.  Yikes