I'm getting there!

Missing these guys!  But what a great shot from this summer of the first time in 2 years that we have all been together. Right now we are the only ones missing for New Years on the farm.

 Can you spot the 2 sets of identical twins in the picture above?

I know I am behind in posting the Christmas pictures, but dang it we are too busy having fun.

We have been to the Imaginarium.  AWESOME! We had a blast!

We went to H2Oasis, because nothing screams "Winter in Alaska," like a trip to the water park!!  Loved it, and glad we went.  The wave pool was awesome and I wish I had my camera to show you Olivia in her life jacket swimming out in the man made swells that just about drowned me. Thanks for the gift cards to go Grandpa and Grammy!

We are going skiing today at Alyeska!

We are going try out our new snow machines (that's snowmobiles for you Lower 48ers) that we got for Christmas over New Years.  We are headed up to our friend's cabin to snow machine on the same lake that I fell in while we were jet skiing there in September.  Don't worry.  It hasn't been above 0 for like a month up at the cabin. That lake is solid and it is the only place to go without trees in the way.

In the mean time Happy Holidays to all of you and I will get pictures up soon!

my season

It is cold, snowy and I should really put a sweater and slippers on so I don't freeze at this computer. I always get cold at the computer.  I haven't figured out why that is, but I do.  The ice in my diet Pepsi isn't helping either.  But oh well.

Last week I was in McDonald's play land with Olivia (usually anther freezing cold place) but the sun was out and it was coming through the glass and making me down right toasty so we stayed for like an hour.  I had not brought a book or my phone or my iPod and so I had a lot of time to think (I did have my knitting).  And what I thought about was how I am loving this time of life.

Ever since I started having kids 13 and a 1/2 years ago, and they placed Carter in my arms, I started looking forward to the day when they would all be big.  Big but not totally grown. The time when all my kids were home, and we were busy making the stories that would someday start with "Remember when we were kids and we did__________?"

Well, we are at that stage.  And it is great.

I love this stage so much because I realized something about myself a long time ago... I don't do well with change.  Part of the reason I feel like such a basket case with my small children is all the change that goes on from birth to age 5.

Now don't get me wrong.  I love the new born stage. The tiny babies that cuddle close and mold with you.  It's short and fleeting and is followed quickly by the tumultuous world of MILESTONES.  All of which create their own brief chaos in life.

Here's a few quotes from some of those chaos creating milestones:

-"They're getting the first tooth and they aren't sleeping well.  And/or having diarrhea and runny noses with it."
-"So and so is eating solids now, so we are adjusting the nursing schedule."
-"We just moved them up to size 12 mo and now nothing fits!"
- "Oh that bump on his head was from trying to crawl up the rocking chair!"
- "He doesn't like to be laid down! All he wants to do is stand up and see everything."
- "She just runs away from us at church and she is too young for nursery."
- "He climbs on everything these days."
- "sick..."
-"rough night..."
- "potty training..."
- "switched to whole milk..."
- "No more binkies..."
- "No more bottles..."
- "No more sippies..."
- "Out of the crib..."
- "table food..."
- "Allergic to..."
- SHOTS!!

The only thing that is constant IS change!  Which I know is par for life, but really every other week for the last 13 years I could use any one of those quotes for the title of how my week was going.

I am aware that there are still many changes to come too.  Driving, puberty, voice changing, taller than mom, taller than dad, high school, seminary, kindergarten, first dates, but I think I am going to have more fun with this than potty training!

So for the next 5 years, before Carter goes off on his mission, we are going to be busy making Remember When stories!

So I am a flake

After all this talk about going private I am taking it back. I will leave this blog open to the masses.

But let me tell you what prompted this whole thing.

I had a friend from High School who was very attentive, I guess you could say, on Facebook.  He would ALWAYS comment on EVERYTHING I posted there.  All my pictures got comments of how beautiful I was.  Well he made a video of his friends (set to the them movie of "Friends" [I'll be there for you] and everything).  I was tagged in it.  It was a slide show of his friends but my picture was lifted off my facebook account.  Also, the only friends featured in the video were women.

It kind of creeped me out.  JaDee said that was enough and I unfriended him and blocked him.  Well, then a few weeks later I get a message from someone i don't know (which has happened once or twice trying to track down relatives and whatnot).  This unknown person was the guy I blocked trying to reach me through a second profile!  He wanted to know why I blocked him on FB, so I told him, and then changed my privacy settings to no longer get messages from everyone.

Then I heard about a cousin of JaDee's who has a real live stalker on her hands.  Like someone from her missionary days spent years harassing her and even traveling 2500 miles to see her in her workplace.  Creepy huh.  Although it has finally been several years with no contact from this person, she still keeps her blog private.

I started worrying about how well do I really know anyone I graduated from High School with?  Or do I have someone in my class a little like the guy from Happy Gilmore with a note on yellow lined paper tacked to a wall with the title "People to Kill," hanging in his/her room.  In a moment of panic, I decided to be safe and shore up my defenses.

But after reading some comments, talking to JaDee, and a couple of friends, I think I am probably fine.  Public blogs are so easy to follow.  I know I would lose a lot of my friends that I know check in with me. Some of you even like what I write and I love to write so this is good practice for me. I have deleted most of my crazy followers from Indonesia and Southeast Asia.  The person in question has never left a comment on here and although a simple google search of me would find me here,  I feel OK about staying up here.

And I could be totally weirding out about a nice person was nice to me on facebook too.

So I will stay up and running.

Thanks you guys!

Dear Christmas tree

After I painstakingly wrapped every one of your branches in the garage with you lying on your side for 4 hours only to bring you in and stand you up to spend 4 more hours doing the bottom half of you; you would think you would have the courtesy to stay standing up after you were fully decorated. I thought those 8 hours with my freezing hands wrapped in thin gloves were a bonding moment for us.  I guess I misread the signals.

I don't know if you knew this when we chose you from the woods, but when we chopped you down it was to welcome you into our home.  To bring joy and beauty to us this holiday season.  You are my favorite part of the decorations.  Your lights, the strings of red wooden beads that lend you a country chic charm.  Your decade of hand painted ornaments collected year after year.  Your responsibility to showcase every trip we have ever taken since our honeymoon 14 1/2 years ago is nothing to shirk.

So when you and your 15 feet of branches came crashing down and broke 2 large glass hand painted ornaments, Olivia's first Christmas, and a John Deere bulb, I was mad at you.  It took over an hour and a half to get all of those family memories to hang just so from your boughs.  Olivia only put up the sparkly ones and the boys hid all the precious kindergarten paper chains in the back, but it was still a family affair.

Now with JaDee gone and my fear of you doing this again, I can't drag you over to the safety of our 2nd story balcony to re-decorate you.  I may end up climbing our ladder to re hang your beaded garland.  But I am afraid you have lost my trust in being responsible for holding the most treasured ornaments.  Those will not be your job this year.  Those will be passed on to the Mantel and his solid frame.

I am sorry if you were not pleased by being chosen to be part of our family this year.  I am sorry if our ornaments weren't enough for you.  But next time send a note, make a phone call, some warning before you resort to this sort of violence again.

Sincerely,
Nicole

new family motto

When we had our third child and all he** broke lose, we prepared ourselves for our first 8 hour drive to the Wyoming farm from our house in Utah.  We knew with 3 kids, one of them a newborn, it might take longer than the allotted 8 hour time.  So JaDee and I adopted a new family motto for all family trips:

Low Expectations.

This little phrase has saved us from countless episodes of useless frustration.  For instance, Low Expectations allows you to not get mad when you drive 500 miles and your kid pukes every 50.  Low expectations lets you be happy when you have pulled out of the parking lot of the gas station only to hear "I have to go potty," 10 minutes down the road.  Low expectations insures you aren't disappointed when you spend money on a dinosaur museum and your kid cries when the sound effects blast through the room. 

Lately, however we have felt the need to change the motto to

Just below Par

This is in reference to Carter's grades.  Oh that boy.  Much like with Ethan getting his tongue stuck, Carter has not learned to turn assignments in on time, or at all.  We dig through his backpack and find all the "0s" just sitting there!!!  After riding him hard all this second quarter he has an A in English, his worst subject.  Only to get the email today that he did not turn in a "Bookmark" assignment. 

Oh and this bookmark has been talked about all week.  It has been in the back pack since last Monday when we missed school for the ice storms.  It was a hand drawn , well, bookmark. 

So that A now has been defeated by the 0.  And it wasn't like he failed vocabulary or didn't get an essay done, he forgot. to. turn. in. a. bookmark.


ARRGHHHH!!!!

Car pool

I did not have to drive today, but I got a funny story for you from the Carpool Files.  At 3:30 ish I get a phone call from one of the other mom's.  She tells me Ethan isn't in the car yet because he

STUCK HIS TONGUE TO A POLE!!!!!

Don't we all remember what happened last year?  Trust me if you don't remember it is worth a read.  I was so mad.

When Ethan got home I found out he was trying to show his friend how if you just breathe on your tongue you can get it off.  OK it is 1 degree out today. Uno degree-os (for those of you Spanish readers).  Puker had to run inside and get a cup of hot water from the nurse to pour on Ethan tongue to get it off.

The breath trick does not work

And Ethan will never be doing this again.

Hopefully.

Thankful for sushi

So this year we went out for Thanksgiving dinner.  I just was not in the mood to cook a meal for 2 days that we only enjoyed for 20 minutes and then spend as much time cleaning up after it as I did to prepare it.  We went to Tokyo Gardens, which is a buffet that has Japanese and Chinese cuisine.  Usually they have a hot section of the buffet with hot Chinese dishes like Low Mien, which I love, and I was planning on getting full on that and Tuna rolls.  Well we got there and the hot section was full of this attempt at an American Thanksgiving feast complete with dry turkey and a watery ham.

But the tuna was fresh from the sushi bar!  But not exactly filling.

While the kids said it was the best Thanksgiving ever, [and Ethan even said that why we were in the spirit of trying new things, do we have to have a pine tree for a Christmas Tree? (yes, Ethan. We do have to have a pine tree for a Christmas tree.  No willows or birch or alders. Just pine, but glad you are adventurous)]
I had a bummer of a day and have since had string of bummer days.

I just missed being home.  You know playing 5 Crowns with my siblings and mom.  Or dishing a 22 nieces and nephews some leftover turkey and mashed taters at the farm.  Laughing with my sister over her near holiday disaster of a still frozen turkey.  Even giving my grandmother and Step mother a bad time for not including rolls on the menu (which they now have every year since I made a stink about it 8 years ago...bear in mind we had driven 20 hours to see them, but Carol, bless her heart, even ran to Wal-mart 15 miles away to get me rolls Thanksgiving morning).

Anyway, I don't know if I just wasn't busy enough and got a reality check that as "full" as my life is here and as much "fun" as we have, is this all really a poor substitute for what really matters most to me?  But my kids are always going to remember the Thanksgiving we were the only people who spoke English at the Chinese restaurant. Is this really enough.  I used to laugh at girls in college who pined after their family (in American Fork for crying out loud while mine were in New York).  But it seems these last few days I have been one of them.

I have even been thinking how there are only 370 days (didn't really forget that countdown even though I haven't mentioned it lately) until we could move home. And with Obama putting a freeze on federal paychecks over the next few years (oh and I have a blog post about that one especially since our insurance is going up like a lot this year. ) maybe we should just go home...

it doesn't get much more random than this

I made this table runner for Christmas.   The pattern was printed on the fabric and I just quilted with my awesome sewing machine around the circles and squares and bound the edges.

There are 25 of these little envelopes.  They will be strung up on a long ribbon with clothespins. Every day a child will get to choose something from one of the envelopes.

Earlier this week I backed into a friend's husband's car.  And not just any car, he is THE CHIEF of the federal marshals here in Alaska.  As in the person two levels up from his the The President. Good one Nicole.  Now all my pertinent information has to get filed with Washington and I am sure I am going to get audited, phone tapped and possibly body scanned and patted down at my next attempt to board a plane.

We lost all our snow.  Well most of it.  We have had 2 days of freezing rain.  The first day, Monday, I sent Carter to the bus stop after watching the news for 45 minutes waiting to hear that it would at least be delayed.  All was going according to schedule, supposedly, until Carter showed back up at the house after almost an hour waiting for a bus that never came. Apparently there was an hour and a half delay that the school district forgot to tell the public about.  We all just stayed home. And last night at 10 PM they cancelled school for today.  It has been awesome not to do anything.

But we have one more day until Thanksgiving and we still have school tomorrow.  Really? can't we just bag it and call it good?  I won't tell if you won't that we might be a day short of our 180 days of school!!! I will even do something educational with my kids like measure the amount of TV we can watch before our brains do in fact turn to mush.

2 children have had the stomach bug in our house.  Olivia and Ethan both got up in the middle of the night asking for a glass of water while simultaneously telling me there stomachs hurt.  Why do kids always think they are thirsty right before they puke?

The Black Friday adds are out and I am ready for them. Some things on my list are a new electric griddle for $10 and ANOTHER hand mixer!  Remember the one that bit the dust last year? Well its successor didn't last 6 months!  It died on me during a batch of frosting one day. But the deal on Friday is $3 so I may buy a couple since we seem to be wearing these things out pretty fast. Nothing really exciting on the Christmas front is out there for me, but I will be picking up some deals for around the house.

Oh I am forgetting the best thing!  Sunday I went to the Young Single Adults ward in our Stake on Sunday.  While not as geographically removed from us like Nome and Bethel are, I would have to say the 18-30 year old single crowd is just as interesting.  I was happy to report to JaDee that not less than two guys came up to me to see if I was new in the ward (fresh meat) and I was asked by the Sunday School teacher if I was new to the ward too.  I had to tell them that I was visiting from the Stake Relief Society Presidency and that I was the mother of a teenager, but thanks for making me feel like I was one of them!

The best was the young man I sat next to in Sacrament meeting. He apologized after for falling asleep, but explained that he had a long flight the day before and was having trouble adjusting his sinuses.  I asked where he went and he said, "Oh I flew to Kansas and back."

"Really?" I asked. "What did you do that for?"

"Oh I am in the air force and we had to bring some missiles to Kansas. My sinuses popped at about 50,000 feet and haven't adjusted yet."

I couldn't help but wonder if there was a conflict I was missing between Kansas and Oklahoma, and at the same time I was pretty sure he shouldn't be telling me about missile transports.

Much like I shouldn't be relaying them to you on my blog :)

Oh well. Hopefully Kansas and Oklahoma will work out their differences. In the mean time Happy Thanksgiving. We are breaking tradition and going out for sushi and coming home to eat pie.  After a brief family meeting where I suggested we go out for Chinese instead of having turkey, the only point of contention was which restaurant we should go to. The one with all you can eat crab legs, or the one with the yummy octopus and tuna.  It was then decided that we should at least have pumpkin pie and that was that.  No hours in the kitchen for me!

Now that is something to be thankful for!

ps- I tried to upload pictures of the holiday table runner and advent calendar I sewed, but my SD card is not cooperating.  Come back later and I will see if I can get this to work.

Nome and a birthday

I am way behind from my trip to Nome.  I posted all the pictures on Facebook, so if we are friends there, you probably saw them.  If not, then here are a few.

I got to go to Nome as part of my Stake Relief Society calling.  We did a Visiting Teaching Conference and combined it with a day of projects with the sisters up there.  Sunday we went to church and we were able to visit with individual sisters in their homes in the afternoon.  I taught a lesson on Saturday as part of our conference and encouraged the women to know that they are indeed, a part of Heavenly Father's plan, and being in Nome, or wherever else we live, is the place He has in mind for us to learn, grow and lift one another up.  It went really well.

With many of the sisters we hung out with in Nome.  This is the Chapel.

Nome was different from Bethel.  Nome has roads that lead out of town 70-90 miles in three different directions.  Bethel had the roads in town and nothing but the river to get you out of town.

Nome has its utilities (sewer and water) underground.  This is due in large part to the artisan wells under Nome that the city can pump for water.  Bethel had to get water from the treatment plant which got its water from the river and everyone had tanks at their house that were filled once a week.  Nome had "city water."

Nome was right on the Bering sea, about 120 miles from Russia.  Nome was a strategic point for the U.S. during the Cold War.  Judging from the size of the "communications satellites," (read: spy equipment) that was left, I'd say it still is.

Giant gold pan anyone?

Bering Sea!

The giant Stonehenge looking communication satellites on a hill above Nome

Both had houses that looked nothing like what the Lower 48 has.  Many looked like sheds.

A fairly typical house, except this one is built on top of a Con Ex container (they are the freight boxes that come in on the barges full of supplies).

Nome was a "wet" town, meaning they sold alcohol and had bars everywhere.  Bethel was "damp," meaning they could drink it but not sell it in town.  One citizen of Nome commented that with all the bars at least it kept the drunks off the street.  She's got a point.  However, we did have a man approach us offering to sell us his food stamps.  Our guide, Marcy, informed him that she was a State Trooper's wife and he better know that selling food stamps is illegal.  He was trying to get cash to head back into the bar.

Nome has tourism that started when it was a gold rush town in 1898.  There were reports (and they were true) of gold nuggets scattered on the beaches here.  Since the fishing isn't that great in the immediate Nome area, the Native Alaskans never settled there.  However, when 3 Swedish boys went to check out the stories of gold nuggets scattered on the tundra and the beaches, and they found the nuggets they were talking about, Nome took off as a boom town.  Mining is still an important part of Nome's economy.

Along with gold, Nome is the hub of many of the Native villages and the Native Corporations who provide these services.  There is a hospital, the troopers, and the school offices all in Nome that service the 15-20 villages.  Bethel was also like this, but Bethel served 60-100 villages and these Native Corporations were the  main source of Bethel's economy.

Nome is also the home to the finish of the Iditarod.  Every year about 2000 people flock to this town of 4000 for the finish of the "Last Great Race."  The Iditarod commemorates the first journey in the early 20th century when dogsleds were used to ship vaccines to the town to save them from what I believe was influenza.  In fact one of the dogs from that original race is stuffed in the museum!

Me and a mummified Fritz, hero of the Iditarod!

When the Bering Sea freezes every winter, you can take you snow mobile out on the ice, drill a 4 by 4 foot square out of the ice, and drop you crab pots in for King Crab.

When the Sea melts in the spring, Harbor seals come up on the ice flow.  Walruses and Polar Bears are not often seen during this time as well, but its possible to see them every now and then.  The subsistence living that Alaska residents are allowed lets you hunt seals for both the meat, blubber and fur.  There were beautiful furs in all the shops in Nome.  Beaver, seal, fox mink, and wolf furs were there to buy as well as ones made into mittens, slippers, boots and hats.  Let me just tell you how warm a pair of beaver fur mittens are.  Oh and the spotted seal skin boots are beautiful.

The people in Nome are just as amazing as the people in Bethel.  We loved loved loved everyone we met. Some of the nicest, strongest people on the planet live in Nome.  Our hosts gave us warm beds, good food, great conversation and a chance to grow and share our testimonies of the gospel with each other.

When I got back I had about 5 days to get ready for Olivia's birthday.  She is finally 5!  She has waited for this day for a long time, insisting that "5 year olds can do anything."  This included things such as go to college (not Kindergarten but, college) get rid of sippy cups, get dressed alone, go outside without a coat, and shoot a bear or a bird.

OK maybe Mom wanted this for her birthday too, but now Olivia was so excited to get a doll that looks just like her twin cousins!

Sarah made the cutest owl for Olivia.  You can get these from Sarah directly on her blog http://pilloosandsuch.blogspot.com/

We had 8 friends over for a Cinderella party.  The girls came in thier grubby work clothes and I gave them a rag and had them work for me, the "wicked step-mother."  One little girl looked at me like, "This is the lamest party I have ever been too," the whole 10 minutes I had them cleaning.  Two other little girls were climbing on my baby grand piano and when I shooed them off they said, "But it's dusty up there!"

Dusting in their grubby clothes!

While they were dusting I turned into the Fairy Godmother and helped them get changed into the dress up clothes they brought with them.  Then we decorated paper crowns with jewels and stickers.  Had a game of freeze dance, opened presents, decorated our own cupcakes, and made beaded necklaces.  After all of that they went to change back while we left each girl a goody bag in her shoe.

Ethan was the hugest help! He even stayed home from gymnastics to hang out at his sisters party.  While Carter ran to his room and JaDee escaped to college football, Ethan was seriously my extra hands that I needed to make the party go well. He even wanted to dress up in his church clothes to be the usher and take the presents as guests arrived.  He was a true Prince Charming!

Here are the girls after the Fairy Godmother came.

Oh there were some greatly decorated cupcakes to me had!

It really was grand fun.  Olivia told me she had the best birthday ever.

This is Olivia with Grandma's present that came a day late.  Inside was the Breyer horses from the Nature documentary "Cloud" and the wild mustangs in the Rockies.  Those exact horses live about 20 miles from Grandma's house and our cousins there have seen them in person!  Olivia loves that she has the horses just like her cousins that live near Grandma!  She is thrilled!

After everyone left she asked her dad to dance with her like it was a real ball. So sweet!

I think she told me that last year too!

This little guy of mine

Ethan: self portrait 10/2010

I tell Ethan every day that he is my reward for the other 2.

And I mean it.

And now I have put it in writing.

He is easy going. Low maintenance and fun to be around.  His teacher told me that whenever someone is having a bad day, she puts Ethan next to them and in no time he has them laughing and feeling great again.  Ethan is a great friend to everyone and is a great bridge between the demanding siblings.  He keeps us all laughing.  Tonight he said, "Mom, you're like the Chuck Norris of knitting."

Ethan with cousins at Old Faithful

He is also turning into quite the ladies man.  And who can blame them. The girls ,I mean, don't stand a chance with those freckles and big blue eyes in their class everyday.

I am quite partial to him myself.

He recently told me there are four types of girls. First,  OOH LA LA! Second, OK Cute.   Third,  Meh, If There is No One Else Better.  Fourth, Not Even If We Were the ONLY Two People Left on the Planet.

Ethan at Lake Yellowstone this summer

Thankfully, he says he has never met anyone in the last category.

And the one's in the OOH LA LA! category are a secret between me and him!

Totally unrelated picture:

Here is our snowman from today's snow!  I want an army in our yard before the season is out!

Its HERE!!!

And it will be here until May.

After 25 years, finally an A-HA moment

I used to watch Oprah all the time. In fact for years and years I tuned in at 4 o'clock and watched every show. But as the kids got older and the shows got a little more, I guess you could say, "open" with their content, I couldn't leave it on during the day with them around.  And I thought Oprah got a little too "I know everything," in her attitude.

But I still tune in every now and then.  And the other day (like a few weeks ago maybe) I tuned in to the show where Terri Hatcher was on and she let cameras follow her around to get behind the glamor of her TV show and the effort it takes to make her look beautiful every day.

That was not my aha moment, although it was interesting.

Later in the show Oprah had an African American model I had never heard of before.  She had been popular long before I knew what a fashion model was but she told of her own coming to terms with "beautiful" as she grew older.  She told of how once on a golf course, not too long ago when she was working out 2-3 hours a day and was at her thinnest, she was approached from behind by a young man who was like, "Hey baby, you lookin' fine!" The retired model turned to the young man and when he saw her, he back peddled quickly, "I am so sorry, Ma'am! I didn't mean it!" She was not some young thing but a woman in her 50s.

The model said she had her own moment and wondered why in the world she was working so hard to look like a teenager!  All the time in the gym and denying calories to look like she did at 18? Why? It certainly wasn't to get hit on by the college boys at the golf course when she was old enough to be there mother.

That was my AHA moment.  Why was I lamenting the fact that I didn't look like a teenager any more? Why would I WANT to look like a teenager again? Why was I so hard on myself for getting back down to the weight I was in at least my 20s (since as a teenager I only weighed 100 lbs and that, I had realized a while ago, was ridiculous). 

Let me tell you it has been liberating!  I still workout, but I enjoy it more.  I eat, and don't feel guilty.  I look at myself and I don't see the 35 or so pounds in the almost 15 years of marriage anymore.  The bigger hips, the slightly softer stomach, the rounder face. I finally believe JaDee when he tells me I am not fat and that I look great.  I finally told myself, I do look great.  I am almost 35 and I can bike, ski, run, backpack, and lift suitcases! I feel great.  I finally work out because I want to not because I feel like I have too.

I finally stopped chasing after who I was 15 years ago. I finally started looking at myself  NOW!

some say tom-AY-to, some say tom-AH-to

My friend Jodi (cohort in Relief Society) makes fun of me when I talk about Olivia and I doing Homeschool Preschool.  She pats me on the arm and says, "Its called mothering, dear."

"But," I insist.  "We do our letters, and reading, and sing songs, and do calendar..."

"I know sweetie," Jodi pats me on the arm.  "Its still called mothering."

She's right.  It is mothering. But I am trying to teach her school stuff in a structured-ish manner.  I say structured-ish because about a week ago we learned our beginning sounds and did an alphabet scavenger hunt on the way to the Gap to hit a 45% off sale.

See, I am also teaching her priorities.

Here is our Pre-School.  Today we are learning the letter F and on the board we glued Cotton to bunnies to learn the O sound.

No matter what you call it, Livs and I are having fun. She loves the little worksheets I found for her. She loves the crafts we try to come up with.  She loves the primary songs we sing for song time.  All in all it is pretty fun and we get to do it in our PJs.

Bethel

aDid you know that Bethel means House of God?  Did you know that Bethel has more taxis per ca pita than New York City?  Did  you know that Bethel is a really fun place to visit?

I had the most amazing opportunity to go to Bethel, Alaska this weekend.  I went because I am the second counselor in our Stake Relief Society Presidency and we have 3 "bush" (meaning remote Alaska) branches in our Stake. In fact, we have 3 bush Branches and our Stake is over 1000 miles long.  There is not much of a road system in Alaska that connects many of the communities to each other so we connect with the members of our Stake through Polycom, (think speaker phone with a giant speaker) meetings and the occasional flight up to their communities.

This is new for our Stake, since until April 2010 the entire Alaska Bush was under its own District (a term meaning a geographically isolated Stake with minimal LDS church members) with its own set of leadership.  In April, the Bush District was dissolved and the bush Branches were assimilated into the various Alaskan Stakes (I believe there are 7 Stakes in Alaska).

So the plan was for me, Vicky (the Stake RS Pres), and Jodi (the 1st counselor), to go to Bethel early Saturday and host a Super Saturday (a day of crafts and fun), have a Visiting Teaching conference (aka spiritual lesson) and attend church on Sunday and fly home. We were going to Polycom some of the crafts and the Visiting Teaching message to our other bush Branches in Nome and Kotzebue.

I was in charge of the Saturday Visiting Teaching address.   I chose the talk by President Uchtdorf, "Lift Where you Stand," and the book by Sheri Dew, No One Can Take Your Place, as inspiration for what I spoke on.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

So we were up and out of the house by 5 AM to get to the airport, check our 150 pounds of extra baggage for crafts and food we were bringing up there (within the state of Alaska you are allowed 3 checked bags of 50 pounds each for free).  We landed in Bethel at 8:20 something and immediately had a meeting with the director of the Tundra Women's Coalition at 9 AM.  This is the center that serves the Yukon Delta region as an escape for abused women and children.  Unfortunately, this is rampant in the villages and this center is the hub for help up there.  An amazing director and an amazing work they are doing up there for women and children.

After that we went to the church to set up and get ready for our 11 AM start time of festivities.  We were unable to get Nome and Kotzebue on the Polycom.  We tried everything.  Funny thing is we used this technology when I first worked at USU Brigham City.  USU switched to Internet Video Conferencing a few years ago.  The Internet is sketchy at best, to  do anything like that up there and Landlines are really the only reliable source of communication for Bethel and the bush communities.  In fact, it was Spring 2009 when cell phone service was introduced to Bethel.  Crazy huh!

This is inside the church.  This room is the cultural hall, chapel and multi-purpose room.  The missionaries live in an apartment here in the church.  they used to live in a loft/attic area above and to the right of where I am standing, though it is not pictured.

The LDS Church building in Bethel, AK. About 60 people attend sacrament meeting each week here.

Here we are crafting!  Oh these ladies are so much fun! And brave and strong and good!  I loved every one of them so much!

We did our crafts.  I gave my lesson/talk/discussion.  We at a delicious lunch, and best of all we hung out with the Relief Society Sisters in Bethel!!

After our day's activities at the Church we got the grand tour of Bethel.   Bethel started as a small village along the Kuskokwim River.  When State and Federal agencies started providing services for the native villages in the area, Bethel got to be the hub of all these services. The hospital, and other services such as the Tundra Women's Coalition, and other agencies serve about 100 villages in the area.  All of which are accessible by plane or occasionally river in the summer or ice roads in the winter when the rivers freeze.  Most if not all of Bethel's economy is because of the state and Federal agencies based out of here for the villages.

There is a college, an airport, a huge community building, a high school, intermediate school, elementary school, library, post office, hospital, dentists, doctors and a clinic.  There is a quilt guild, an acting guild, an artists guild, dance lessons, and tons of activities.  There was a quilt shop owner from Greece in town doing a lecture, the Just Desserts Auction and Variety Show to benefit the local arts was going on this weekend and Bethel High School was hosting all of the officers from all the student bodies in the state this weekend too.

Another meeting we had was with the director of the Pre-Maternity Home in Bethel. Village women who are expecting a baby were required to fly in to Bethel 30 days prior to their due date to deliver in the hospital.  Well in the 1970s when these policies were implemented no one took into consideration that these women would have no where to stay.  After one woman was found outside the hospital living under an abandoned boat the PreMedivac or black hawk helicopter emergency services.

To live in Bethel, you get everything shipped by barge.  Usually from Seattle or Seattle via Anchorage.  If you need a fridge, there is a store in town who carries a few, but you usually just order from him and get it a few weeks later on a barge.  Internet shopping has been huge for Bethel, especially sites like Amazon and Drugstore.com because their free shipping deals work up here too.

There is no running water like we know it and no sewer like we know it either.  See 14 inches below ground you run into PERMAFROST. So all the pipes freeze.  The answer to this is heavily insulated 1000 gallon tanks under your home, which is built on stilts since the permafrost also means you have to deal with the expanding and contracting of the frozen earth all year long.    Anyway, you have one tank for water and one tank for sewer.  A water truck from the water treatment plant fills the water tanks in Bethel every Monday and empties the sewer tanks every Thursday.  Your fuel is oil.  I would have though wood stoves, but being in the tundra, there is no wood.  So you have a 500 gallon fuel tank that lasts 1 MONTH!! and it is about $5 a gallon for fuel oil.  So $2500 later you have heat for the month.

This is me looking out from where the Church is.  We are at one end of town.

This is looking down the road from where the church is.

One of about 20 restaurants in town! And they all deliver and many are open 24 hours.  Taxi cabs and take out...this IS just like New York!

These are the mountains that you don't see too often.  This is looking South East of town on the opposite side of where the church is and behind the intermediate school.

A typical house in Bethel and they usually house 2 or more families because it is so expensive to heat, have your water, and pay rent. A 1 bedroom furnished with all your utilities is $1600 a month.

I am in the produce department in the towns grocery store.  Check out what is above the onion and to the left of the lady. 

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I took some pictures of prices.  Amazing!  When I asked if people used cloth, they reminded me of how expensive water  and fuel is to wash them

this is taxi #55 outside of the airport. See I told you there were taxis here!

This is me, Kathy, Jodi and Vicki.  Kathy is the owner of ID Variety (think of a really small scale Wal-Mart, toy store and pet store).  We stayed at Kathy's house this weekend.   She lives "in town," breeds her own finches for her store, has shot a musk ox and can cook like no one I have ever known!

This is the waterfront.  On the other side of the black top and the big cylinder, you see the top layers of a barge that has not been unloaded. Up front and to the left you see a smaller barge.

Vicky, Dianne, Jodi, Suzanne, and me.  Dianne has lived in Bethel 40 years and was our tour guide on Saturday. Suzanne is the intermediate school library, and we are in her brand new library!

This is the busiest intersection in town from the window of Kathy's house. The building in front is the grocery store with where you can buy a snow mobile along with your red onions.  There are no stop lights in Bethel.

The view of the tundra from Suzanne's school.  The sunrises here are gorgeous!

This is not a 2-liter, but the size you would normally buy in the gas station.  A 12-pack of Pepsi was almost $13.  We pay  $5-$8  for a 12-pack in Anchorage.

Yes, that is the right price for milk.  We pay $3 a gallon in Anchorage.