Wedding Day

Today was Greg's wedding.  I was so sad to miss it and jealous that Doug and Nolan are there.  I am also jealous that Doug gets to hold our new niece.  We don't see many girl babies in this family!

Well, Greg and Kirsten, you better not be checking my blog on your honeymoon, but if you do, CONGRATULATIONS from Erin, Brenden, and Ethan.  We love you and hope you had a great day!  Have an even better honeymoon (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)!

Industry Appreciation Day

Today was Industry Appreciation Day in Kenai.  They basically have a big community fair with free food and a bounce house and all sorts of free stuff.  They have contests (like who can pull in a fishing net the fastest - nothing normal) and give away prizes.  They have a special bicycle giveaway and give rides on a utility truck.  They have all sorts of construction trucks and a fire engine and police car for the kids to check out.  There was a band and all sorts of companies advertising.  Brenden, Ethan and I went to check it out.  Oh, they also gave away a $500 gas card.  Who couldn't use one of those?  We arrived pretty late, so we missed out on most of it, but still had fun.

Freecycle is my new best friend.  Over the last 2 days I have rid myself of LOTS of stuff.  It is a website where you can post want ads or give away items (for free).  Yes, garage sales would be more lucrative, but I just wanted to be rid of a few things and no one comes this far out for a garage sale.  It is so refreshing to get rid of stuff.  Check out if you have freecycle near you.  You might find a little gem (for free)!

Hilarious

Yesterday one of the links on AOL's homepage took me to "10 dumbest laws in America."  I laughed out loud at this one:

Texas: A recently passed anticrime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed.

The others:

-Georgia: Donkeys may not be kept in bathtubs.  Well, where else am I supposed to keep him?

-Nebraska: If a child burps during church, his parent may be arrested.  Uh...my fault?

-Illinois: You may be arrested for vagrancy if you do not have at least one dollar bill on your person.  I can't tell you how many times I would have been arrested by now!
-Wisconsin: Margarine may not be substituted for butter in restaurants unless it is requested by the customer.
-California: Animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship.  No, Fido, No!  A tavern?  Come on - PEOPLE do that.
-Florida: A special law prohibits unmarried women from parachuting on Sunday or she shall risk arrest, fine, and/or jailing.  If I weren't married I would be there breaking that law right now, okay, 2 days from now.

-Virginia: Children are not to go trick-or-treating on Halloween.  Why not just say, "Halloween shall not be celebrated?"

-Colorado: It is illegal to ride a horse while under the influence.  Partially understandable, I guess.

-Nevada: It is illegal to drive a camel on the highway.  Dang, and that was my sole form of transportation.  Guess we'll take the side roads.

Neighbors

You know, I moved to Alaska to not have neighbors so close.  We were mostly successful except those three little boys I keep mentioning.  Currently, they are out on my lawn with every outdoor toy we own on the lawn (yes, including the winter ones).  One little boy is trying to sled.

Two days ago I came home to find they had let the dogs out of the make-shift fence Grant made while he was here to keep the dogs home.  Yesterday, the boys abducted Nolan (and Cosmo and Newman) and took him home with them.  I immediately called for fence estimates.  Doug says he will build one, but that project falls somewhere in a large line of projects.  That is not to say that Doug doesn't DO them, just that he is never home TO DO them.  Now I am waiting for a painful glimpse at the estimate.  Luckily, most of the way around our yard is pretty thickly wooded, so we should not have to fence (although I am quite sure those little boys would trudge their way through).  Right now they are concerned because they can't find their dog.  I kinda wish I could take credit for that.  Sigh...

Fishing on the Kenai

Aug. 12 may have been the coldest day of my life thus far (AUGUST, yes, August 12).  We went Salmon fishing on the Kenai river at 6:00 a.m.  

Doesn't it look cold?

Grant finally defrosted around 2:00 in the afternoon.

Those skinny guys need to chub up and get some insulation.

Poor Greg kept catching fish we weren't allowed to keep like trout and Dolly Varden.  Finally, we decided we better take a picture whether he was allowed to keep it or not, just so people would believe he caught something... 

My trophy trout.

The man is Dave, owner of Hooky Charters.  Talk about a great guy!

Warming up, slightly.

I counted at least 5 layers here.  Doug asked me to hold his coat toward the beginning of the trip.  I was happy to "hold" it for him the whole day.  (I also have a hoodie on, with the hood up.)  Sometimes I just had to put my head down and enjoy the warmth of my own breath, which I usually find disgusting.

Greg pretending Grant's salmon was his own catch.

Grant was the only one who caught a fish we were allowed to keep.  

It was a slow fishing day, but one of the best days I've had in a long time.

Time?

Doug and Nolan just left for Idaho, so I am hoping I will have a little time for updates and cleaning.  As soon as they left, Brenden and I were both bawling about how much we missed them.  Brenden and Nolan really have a good time together.  In fact, here is a picture of them today...

That is what we call a "Jeremy" smile.  Love ya, Jer!

The following picture is for Trudy's sake...

I was afraid that even with all of these notes I was going to forget to renew our temple recommends and Doug needed it for his brother Greg's wedding.

As long as I am talking about church stuff, I will tell you about our callings.  The second week we were here, the bishop showed up at our cabin and told us they were considering calling Doug to seminary (for any non-Mormons, that is that crazy church thing I did at 6:00 a.m. during high school).   We told him all of the reasons why they shouldn't and they didn't.  Doug is now the second counselor in the young men's.  I was called to nursery (which in Doug's mind is the BEST calling in the church).  Basically, I babysat all the kids between 18 mo. and 3 years old during the last 2 hours of church.  I cried everyday for the 2 weeks I had the calling.  How can they call a stay at home mom to a calling that she took 2 of her kids to?  It was my ONE day to see adults and be away from my kids.  I was utterly depressed.  So, knowing they needed a seminary teacher, I volunteered (I doubt that is standard church procedure).  So, now I get to be in seminary at 6:00 a.m. everyday and I hate to get up early.  It is funny to me that in Utah and Idaho being a seminary teacher is a competitive job market and here they can't get anyone to do it.

A few people have asked for pictures of my house.  These pictures are just from the previous owners.  I have not taken any and I am still painting the inside, so when I feel like my house is ready, I will take some interior pictures to share.  "Ready" is a very relative term.

So much for that copyright...

Our boat dock with a couple of our boats.

These pictures are from Doug's dreaded day of rowing...

Aug 6 - The day Grandma, Grandpa, and Greg arrived:

Fishing with Grandpa and Uncle Greg

I LOVE this face Brenden makes when he rides his bike - if you can't tell, his tongue is sticking out like he is concentrating.  I did not realize I did this too until we were moving and I couldn't figure out why my tongue hurt so bad.

While we had family here visiting, we tried out our fire pit and made s'mores.

I don't think Brenden ate any, but he sure liked to cook them.

Nolan on the other hand ate lots.

But I think Ethan ate the very most.

Sugar makes for happy little boys.

Greg - King of the rock at Capt. Cook State Park (aka. the beach)

Doug thought the picture of me was better than the picture his mom was trying to take of him and the kids.

I think I only have one more post until we are totally up to date!  Woo hoo!

First Day of Kindergarten!

He HAD to wear the new shirt his uncle Greg picked out for him.

Brenden totally posed himself for these pictures.  I totally cheated and they were taken AFTER school (I am so not on the ball with pictures - sometimes I forget cameras exist and that I might want some visual record of big events).

Brenden has been counting down the days until school starts for a while now.  He has been so excited.  We went yesterday to meet with his teacher and talk about the FM system, cochlear implants and hearing aids.  Today when we arrived, he was greeted by his teacher, his deaf educator, and his speech therapist.  I was so happy they were all there to make his transition a good one.  The K/1st class has 7 kindergartners and 12 first graders.  He says he found a new best friend, but did not know his name.  His teacher is SO quiet and there were times while I was in the room that I could barely hear her.  The speech therapist, Mr. Hufford said that he could tell that Brenden could not hear some things that were said.  The FM is still on order, but it will help a ton.

At the school they have a "boo hoo breakfast" for parents of new kindergartners.  It is meant so that the parents can all sit and cry together that their baby is all grown up.  No crying here!  There were kleenexes everywhere.  I enjoyed getting to talk to a few other parents though.  I think Brenden will really enjoy school - I love that he loves school so much - what better dream could any teacher have for her own children?