Everyday Hero

I thought Brett was a bit overzealous when on top of everything else, he decided to sign up with the local Search and Rescue. Brett working nights gets in the way of his attending meetings and trainings all that often. We had the pager squalking at us for a while- until the kids got too interested. Now it sits on top of the computer desk, silent and forlorn.
But tonight, the phone rang. Brett's been moping for a number of days now, and the washer incident yesterday didn't help much. But as soon as he hung up the phone, he transformed into the Energizer Bunny. In 20 minutes, he was off to join the team. Right now he's out in the woods and icy snow looking for the lost.
We're grateful that Dad loves to get out and help people like this. Be safe!

I Can't Believe It...

I'm all for the incessant updating of electronics and shrinking of cell phone. I didn't think ours were terribly tiny...
Somehow, while I was shoving my hand in Brett's jeans and carharts... patting them down like a cop does a con, and shoving them into the washer; the cell phone was thinking it's self into invisibility. Brett dropped it into my lap 10 minutes later. HOW THE HECK??!?!?
>sigh<
again, it's all my fault.

Disinclined to Acquiesce to Our Request

Brett went in to work the other day and put in the request to upgrade from a 2-bedroom unit to a 3-bedroom. There are half-a-dozen empty units right now, transfer season hasn't quite started yet and I was hopeful that we'd be approved.
But I forgot that the Housing officer here is a putz.
This is not an isolated opinion. He's gotten 'spoken too' before and just doesn't listen. He runs his office first come first serve... except those that are already here. The week after we moved in- me as big as a whale and Shane running full throttle, our next door neighbor arrived. Very nice guy, also from Kodiak... Single with a preteen son (his ex lives in town, the boy was only home 1/2 the time) in a 3 bedroom house.
Instead of accessing the needs of those he had to place, he just went at random.
Well, when Brett put in our request, the guy told him that he'd look at it at the end of transfer season... if there are any available.
THEN he tried to give Brett a hard time about not having a dependant waiver. (In the CG Alaska is considered overseas. Because of that there are a few things that we have to do to live here- have forms and such to ensure that we're not going to go nuts being so far from the rest of civilization. One of the other things they do is try to limit the number of dependants- to make sure their personnel aren't going deep in the hole financially by living here with a batch of kids. The dependant limit is 2- spouse + child= max... unless you fill out and get the waiver signed. They look at your financials and lifestyle and all that stuff. We hadn't done the paper work because when we got here- Austin wasn't official yet. And it's been so crazy (work-wise) that it just hasn't happened.
SO... we were hoping to be sending out a change of address to all y'all, but it's not looking good right now, thanks to the mental case in charge.
>sigh<

The Next Hallmark Genius

Ok, so this is in no way related to my kids, but I had to share. The school is doing a fund raiser thing where the kids design cards or draw pictures, and they turn them into cards for the parents and the general public to buy- through this company. Well, they have this little display in the foyer and this one kind of jumped out at me... this kid is going places!

"You are a beautiful human being. But I'm not good at drawing humanbeings so I drew a potato instead. But a very beautiful potato."

If my husband were to every buy me a card (hasn't happened in years) then it'd be one like this.

Spon-TAN-u-ous!

Brett found Austin working in the kitchen...
Then Shane stole the Mitt of Wonder...

We so did NOT set this up... we just have nutty kids.

Flavor of Romance

Valentines Day was caught up in work and a get together with some friends. They'll be moving this summer and their dad left today. So Brett and I scooted our plans to today- red letter holiday! My visiting teachers called to see if they could visit, but Brett and I had decided to have an afternoon date. They were so excited for me; they volunteered to watch Austin. It's no secret that I don't get out much and Brett and I don't "go out" at all. I'm sure they were envisioning flowers and chocolates, a picnic... we went shooting. It was lots of fun to get out and blast nothing. I hadn't fired anything for over 3 years. But, Brett isn't exactly an event planner and after the initial discussion, my VT didn't consult me on the specifics of the day, she only spoke to Brett. I dropped Shane at school, Dad woke up at 12:30, at 1 we dropped Austin off. Then we had to stop at the shop for the right ammo, then the 15 minute drive to the shooting range. Half an hour was enough to get a few rounds through each gun we'd brought. (I forgot to grab my headset and had to shoot sans ear protection. Only th .45 made my ears ring.) Back to the school by 2:15 and then to pick up Austin and get them home. Dinner will be DeGiorno pizza and some movies.
That's our version of a 'hot date'. Not your typical flavor of romance, but it works for us. Hope your days were as good.

Blankies

I've been contemplating blankets this week. What makes a good blanket? Why are some more used and loved than others? I don't know that I've ever had an iron-clad attachment. My children haven't. But we have had some blankets that seem to fit us better than others.

The gift of love: My friend Clarissa made this red/blue/yellow blanket for Austin when he was born. It wasn't the fleece that Shane prefered so it took me a while to get to using it- now its the best! We love that blanket, and the way it came into our home made it even better.
We like fleece... Last Christmas, some friends doorbell ditched us this fun plaid blanket. It's very simple and very cuddly.

Shane likes to have certain blankets for different occasions. When he's napping when he's sick, he opts for old-fashion cuddles.

That means he likes the blanket I had when I was little. It's seen alot, but it's soft flannel is the perfect cure for cold or fever.

When Shane was small- my awesome sister-in-law (and my brother too) sent us a fleecy with his name on it. He sleeps with it now. The more aware of himself he gets, the more special this blanket becomes. It's something that's 100% his

Brett has a favorite blanket too. Made by his mom, in scout colors; this blanket + couch + Dad = Moms on her own! Austin and I had to steal it for his (our) bed to keep Dad from checking out too much. He's been kind enough to let us keep it, unless it's a sleep emergency.

A perfect blanket is a treasure, don't you think?

Happy Valentines Day

Not much was scheduled for today- Brett and I are doing our thing on Monday. But Shane and Austin were invited to a party. Austin ended up sleeping when I arrived to pick them up, so it was just Shane and me. Luckily, the little girl having the party has a baby brother, so the boys stuck together.

Mason was helping Shane play with the bar. They both shared wonderfully and Shane was very gentle with the little guy (7 months).

Then for the main event- cookies! It was the usual ton of frosing on the little cookie with afew sprinkles. Then Shaner got the idea that he wanted to apply his own topping decor. He went with orange sugar on his blue frosting... nice huh!

V-Day Party

Austin wasn't too interested in the crowd at the kid's table, so he found his own.

The best part of any cupcake- well, unless you have sprinkles too...

His heart hat- like the fake-o smile?

This is the Valentine he gave. Had a sucker stuck on the back.

He helped with alot more than you'd think.

This is the card he made me.

His loot.

Circle Time

Shane's class had a Valentine's Day Party. We got to watch a little of his Circle Time.

Even encubered by his snow suit (they'd just gotten inside from the playground) he gets into the fun...

He loves the chicken dance!

His head teacher- Ms Margaret, doesn't usually lead this part of the day. She had fun too.

Doing his favorite finger songs!

Eensy Weensy Monkey (instead of Itsy Bitsy Spider)

Cheerio

Austin discovered the intense fun of a box of Cheerios.

I wish he'd let me make it a more structured play- I don't know, maybe with a tub to put the cereal in...

Shane was boy on the spot to help.

Transporting Cheerios to the trash one fistful at a time.

Shane's buddy Tristan helped too!

Hopeless

Austin has been falling off the top of Shane's bunkbed ladder everyday for over a week! I did everything I could think of to dissuade him, for nothing. Finally, he busted the plate on the electrical outlet and I had visions of him cutting himself on the sharp edges next time. The ladder was put away for good. Dad taught Shane to climb up the end of the bed instead- Austin still doesn't have the height for that. So, no more climbing = no more long distance falling, right?

The very next night, Austin fell down the stairs- and somehow hit the carpet, or I don't know what, just right to leave a war wound. Sorry the picture's not the greatest- he wanted to go back up and play.

Different Point of View

I was trying to consolidate my sewing/ craft stuff in preparation of making Shane's Valentines. When I paused for a minute to stretch, I found that my empty tub had been appropriated for scientific experimentation.
Shane getting a different view of the world.

Same old- still hum drum enough to validate nose picking. Hmm... boys.

Snow

I tried to get down where you could see the snow on the level...
There was a few days where we were getting off and on snow. As soon as Brett would finish shovelling one layer, it'd start snowing again. He had to go to work and asked me to get out and shovel the last covering- he thought it looked like the snow was stopping for a while. So I did. Went in the house played with the boys and forgot about it. By the time Brett got off for lunch- maybe 4 hours later, we'd gotten 6+ inches! He was giving me a hard time about not being able to prove that I'd shovelled and not paying attention to what the weather was doing. So, as the boys were running their bedtime revolt, I snuck out and shovelled some snow to appease Mr.OCD.

Splash Down

Just a few pics of Aussi playing in the bubbles. Shane wasn't interested this time..
Mainly, Shane doesn't like it when Aussie gets enthusiastic and makes a huge mess.

Talkin' the Talk

Speech classes started today for Shane. It's taken so long to get it all worked out with the insurance, that he's advanced ALOT since his first evaluation. But he's still not terribly understandable for anyone other than me so we're going to go ahead.
It was really fun today. It's been dumping snow on us (that post comes later) and I got up early so we'd have time to bundle up and clean off the car, and drive really really slow. Then the Speech Pathologist; Suzan called. Her appointment that followed ours had tried to cancel because of the snow, so she arranged to go to thier home, and it was in the area, did we want to make ours a home visit too? Luckily we had company on Sunday and the house was still mostly clean.
She got down and spent the hour talking with Shan and using his interests (trains & fishing poles) to play the word games and practice the sounds. We noticed how detail oriented Shane can be, and how he loves using his fingers to play games. I noticed this before, but her suggestion of teaching him more sign language to help is a little intimidating to me.
I'll try to take pictures next time, though it doesn't look as get-up-and-go as Occupational Therapy is.

Stories

My younger sister started a bit of project this month. Down at BYU Provo, she's started a Family History class. I don't know if it was a class suggestion, or just an idea that popped into her noggin', but she put out the request for all of the siblings to write down any stories we can rembember from our Dad. He passed away in July of '02 and had a very full life, jam packed with an interesting variety of experiences.
I used to love to write, so I found a moment or two in the middle of the night to jot down my favorites of the stories he used to tell. As I wrote each story- only a paragraph or two for each- I started remembering bits and peices of others. I typed them up as I finished writing them and sent them off to the whole crew, asking for correction for any mistakes. Mom has been a huge help, giving me more accurate facts and is very patient with my prodding.
It's been really fun to think about all the old stories. Maybe I'll post some soon- once I get as many facts as I can right. Thanks Shannon for starting this! I have a half-dozen more in progress for you!

Slightly Damp

On the days I work, I usually walk the half mile or so down there. Great to just be by myself for a bit. But, we live in Alaska still- you have to be prepared for inclement weather. Saturday when I woke up, the rain had eased up to more of a sprinkle. So I donned my wonderful raincoat

Slipped on my Muck boots- greatest boots ever invented! And headed out the door.
Then the rain started REALLY coming down-
I was too far (and too late) to turn back, and not far enough toward my goal.
Let's say I got a little damp.
At least from where my coat stopped and my boots started. The rest of me was dry.

The front of my pants was SOAKED! And there weren't nothin' I could do about it!

Next time, remind me to wear my plastic pants.

Jumpin'

We dragged out the boy's jumper again for a fun afternoon. That blur is Shane- diving head first off the couch. What you can't see is that the inner 2 circles are deflated, courtesy of energetic little boys.

Austin thinks it's great fun to try to stand up- then Shane will jump and roll and do anything to knock Aussie down.

I decided to get started early training this boy..

I wish!

Actually, we've been having lots of bubble fun- filling the bathroom sink with bubbles for the boys to poke and play with...

I was doing dishes and Austin saw the bubbles peeking over the edge. He pushed a chair up to the counter and quickly found an awesome new toy. It was light and had funny things on one end- and made some terrific splashes!

Activity Night

Earlier I mentioned putting together the movie night- here are my big helpers that came along to do the heavy lifting for me.

From the doorway, all people could see was Austin's blanket- confused alot of people to see me with only one visible child.

All My Fault

Brett showed me how to turn the internet back on on the laptop- little fingers were what had me shut down before, not my grouch of a husband. It was just in time to get me in trouble...

I was sitting on the couch blogging while the boys played. Austin decided he had to be held. I was trying to shift the laptop to a more stable position, Austin was trying to climb up onto my lap, then Shane is suddenly there climbing over my back trying to squeeze himself in the lack of space between me and the arm of the couch. I lost the battle, but the computer took the beating.

The disc drive is totally dead. Most of it finally fell off last night when Brett was inspecting it.

I was upset, more for Brett's reaction than myself, I don't use to disc drive much, but he didn't yell. He did take my advice and took Paco on a long walk before he said anything. When he did comment, it was to tell me how he saw it coming and his wanting to keep the laptop on the desk in the bedroom (right next to the desktop) was valid and how I should have listened and shouldn't have been surprised.

So, I guess it's official, it's all my fault.