Clear

Hurray! Hurray! We just found out that Midge is still cancer free. A short time ago her dentist found some strange tissue on her tongue. An oral surgeon removed the mass, a biopsy was done and it was cancerous. When we found that out we were all crushed. Midge is a breast cancer survivor and the knowledge of what might lay ahead was just terrible to even think about.
They have checked her again to make sure that it hasn't gone anywhere else and it came back clear! Yay!
We are so glad that we get to have her around for another hundred years! We love you Midge!

Good Medicine?

The other day I handed out vitamins to my older children from the brand new container of Scooby Doo Vitamins. Hoping beyond hope that this kind would taste good to my kids. We had already been through several other types and they just haven't tasted very good to them.
I looked at Corinne hopefully as she chewed the vitamin and a sour look came across her face. Very seriously she said, "Mommy, maybe the people that make the vitamins for kids should taste them too."
If anyone recommends a chewable vitamin out there that works for your children please let me know.
(I am not a fan of GummiVitamins because they look just like candy and then I think we might run into the opposite problem and have an overdose on our hands.)
Any insights would be appreciated!

Snow!?

Picture taken April 25th.......

This past week has been pretty crazy weather even for Alaska. One day my children were out playing in the grass with no coats on and within 24 hours we had two feet of snow on the ground. It was insane! We just kept watching the snow fall and hoping it would stop. It is now down to just a few inches but I almost burst into tears when I saw snow falling again today..... It is supposed to rain all weekend. I can handle rain.... but no more snow!

Haakon digging us out

Here you can see traces of our green grass.

The yard toy the girls were playing on yesterday.... trapped in the snow.

I do have to admit, it was absolutely beautiful! All that snow made some amazing looking forms in our yard.

Torsten digging us out. The snow has already melted a lot! Yay!

Going Away...

Living in Alaska, we have learned that friends will come and go.

It has been especially common place for us because our ward included the military base and post here.

One summer I had so many friends leave that I resigned myself not to make any new friends. I just couldn't take the fact that I would eventually have them leave too. Of course, then new people moved into the ward and that attitude was forgotten.

Unfortunately, my children have been affected by this too. They have had several friends leave the state over the past few years. On a regular basis out of the blue Corinne will say "Mommy, I miss __ so and so__. I wish I could play with her/him."

We had some friends over this past week for a final dinner/visit before they moved out of Alaska. Corinne was close friends with their son Andy. Our children sadly but energetically hugged each other, said their goodbyes and then the family left.
Then, Haakon put on his coat and headed out the door to go to a meeting. As the girls looked at him walking down the driveway to his car Lauren said in a completely forlorn voice, "Is daddy going away forever too?"

Luckily, daddy wasn't going away forever, and neither are all our friends who have and will leave the state. We cherish those friendships and feel lucky to say that we now have friends living in places all over the U.S and even the world. It is fun to keep in touch with all of them, especially through email and blogging.

I am so grateful for all of my friends wherever they are, and look forward to continuing friendships and NEW friendships in the future!

The Granny Birthday

For my birthday I thought I was going with my girlfriends last weekend for a night on the town to feel young again and to get a break from the usual.

Since I am the oldest one in this group, they felt like they needed to kindly point that out......
When I opened the door to leave, my friends are standing in the doorway in all their glory looking like little old granny's with gray hair and old lady outfits. And of course they brought a special outfit for me to wear as well. I admit....we were stunning!


We were mighty proud of our knee highs.


Amy--the brains behind the operation... had everything down to the last detail. Her purse was jam packed with everything a granny would need.


Carissa--aka Clarissa. Please forgive me for this shot but you just had to put on the lipstick like a granny!


Jill-- our designated driver of the granny van.... the only sane one among us.


Lisa--the proud "grandma" who actually wore apparel that had been handed down three generations in her own family. Her outfit was authentic!


Allison-- the only pregnant granny I know. The librarian look will suit her well in her old age.


The birthday granny--Here I am in all my aged glory! I think I wouldn't mind going gray. The wrinkles on the other hand.... not so fun.


We discovered that Carissa's apparel matched a couch at the mini golf place we went to. Something to be proud of!


Granny golfing! We all played up the part but especially Amy. She is going to make an excellent granny!


Great granny form! (Carefully placed socks helped that.)


The other people there got a kick out of us! How can you not!


Dinner and dessert at Village Inn of course. Unfortunately we didn't get the senior citizen discount. Some old men around the corner asked if we would buy them dinner. Is that what happens when you get older??


Yes, the triple neck was on purpose!

Ironically, dressing up like little old ladies actually made me feel younger than I am. It brought back memories of some of the silly things I did back in highschool. My only sorrow was that our waitress mistook me for celebrating my 46th birthday..... really??? I choose to attribute it to great costuming.

I am so mature! (ma tooore!)


I do hope that as I continue to age that I can do so gracefully and joyfully.... and that I will always have good friends around to keep me young at heart! Thanks for making my granny birthday so great!

p.s. We had a grey hairs arm wrestling competition at the end of the night. I won the title! Strongest granny in the WORLD! (and they tease me for being the oldest!)

The triumphant moment!

Conference and Kids!

We received the little Conference packet for kids so we thought we would give it a try. In the beginning they did pretty well. Even Lauren was sitting still coloring happily on whatever page she wanted.


Here the girls are early on during Conference sitting somewhat quietly and coloring.


This is the scene nearing the end of Conference. No explanation required.


We did wonder if we liked it better when they were playing with their toys in the other room so that we could actually get something out of Conference ourselves. After listening to Sister Lant (General Primary Pres.) we were reminded that we must always be striving to have righteous traditions for our children and watching conference together is one of them.
Even with the struggles with the kids Conference was amazing! I felt so inspired and uplifted and fortified!
I love our new Prophet Pres. Monson and truly enjoyed his words. I was very motivated in my own life by his poignant closing remarks about family.
I felt like so much of conference was focused on the family. Some of the other talks that I especially loved were Pres. Uchdorfs on the faith of our fathers, Elder Hollands talk which was directed to those who would say we are not Christian, Elder Bednars talk on missionary work, and definitely Elder Ballards about mothers and parenting. I learned so much from their words! I can't wait to read them again and get to teach my lessons each month from their inspired words. (I teach Teachings for our Times) You cannot listen to Conference and not know that we have continuing revelation on the Earth today!
I would love to hear what talks you enjoyed at conference if you have a minute.