More Birthday Pics

Ellen is 80!!??

Food, people, laughter, Gram loved her party. She definitely enjoyed her moments in the spotlight on her 80th birthday with stories she shared about her life, with an open story sharing time as the "icing on the cake." I heard terms of endearment, "Auntie Ellen, Gram, Nome Mom, Mom." Because of her light stroke earlier this year, she has limited her intake of fats and salt, but not on this particular night. She glowed with delight as she tenderly ate Marlene's fish agutak, something she has pushed aside from her restrictions, except at her party. As she opened presents, it was evident that people know what she likes...tea, hence the tea pot and books, as she remarked, "thank you, you know I love to read..." And she is a reader indeed. She even remarked, "I'll do more on my 90th birthday..." meaning, maybe she'd like to fly someplace different, why hold limits with age?

Walking to Dog

Jay and I have been taking Kemper for walks at night, walking him on the Yukon River! We live in an area with loose dogs and well, we joke about how we walk on water, ha. Since the house we're living in has huge windows facing the river, Romay will watch from the living room. She usually wants to stay inside and play computer games. The walks have been a nice way to wind down before starting another busy day.

Christmas Break '09

What a refreshing time off from what seemed to be a long haul since August. As you can see, Jason, and I say Jason because he did most of the work, hauled sill logs from a nearby slough for our foundation of our house. Each tree presented different challenges. We did find creative ways to get a chainsaw bar stuck from the tree pinching the chainsaw bar, gravity and wood have an amazing combination and a 16'' bar doesn't slice like butter all the time. Then, as if that weren't enough, it was another thing to get the heavy log onto the sled. Jason only put out his back once from all the lifting. That night, because of his discomfort, I tried every trick, about 4-5 ways, in trying to pop his hip into place. Kemper had the touch. The next day, Jason was drinking coffee, reading a book on the bed with the dog laying on his lap. He sneezed and "click" in it went. Well that was easy, I'll have a good reason to tickle his nose with a piece of hair for those hip displacements. Jeni, a great friend from Koyuk, came and spent Christmas with us this year. We heard ourselves say, "next year, we can..." as it is tradition, almost 3 years ongoing, that she makes it into Galena. We had an uplifting time as we talked about God working through us and of course, the challenges and sharpening we're going through! She is a true friend and I'll have to say that she is one good cook! Well, now we're back to work. Its a good start when we're not grumbling all too much, it'll be good to see the kids again.

Christmas Break

Like most Saturdays, the family watches a little basketball or football, Jason and Romay do their routine check of the traps, and Mom bakes something tasty, today it was a batch of Godiva chocolate chip cookies. We can hardly comprehend 2 weeks off of work. As a kid, Christmas season was filled with snow globes, rehearsing for Christmas plays, delivering presents, and the free time, clearly, had a different perspective. Now a teacher, remembering the good 'ol days, when my job was to achieve good grades; I almost feel as if I've come full circle. I watched my Middle School students, their enthusiasm for pulling sleds in the snow, their little crushes, movies late at night, and no school for what seems like an eternity, and remember having similar thoughts and activities to look forward to at that age. I have a sweet group of kids this year, not to mention how nice it is to work with students who can rise to academic challenges. Romay's class did a couple of lip synced songs for their Christmas Pageant, being the jock she is, she wasn't exactly in her element as they did Hula dancing to "Mele Kalikimaka." She was a good sport, smiled and I got the sense she was relieved when the song quit and the curtains closed. Merry Christmas. As wondeful as the giving of gifts are, we pray that God's gift through Christ's coming as a babe will be close in your hearts.

A Dry Spell

This blog isn't going to the grave, hopefully posting this will allow people to think about checking our blog, heck, I can even make it a goal to make 2 or 3 posts this month. Snow, snow, snow, our skiis will be making their way out of the shed soon. Jason and I did routine maintenance on our vehicles, theres a plenty to do with a Bronco II, 4-wheeler, snowmachine, go-kart and boat. The snowmachine got a dose of love, I changed the spark plugs, sure enough, the blackened tips gave themselves away as the sno-go was not running smoothly, but, that's changed. Roger and Carole's house is equipped with a nice wood boiler, except it was missing a part, an integral part of the iron beast. We replaced the baffle (thingy that is bolted to the back wall to keep the wood steadily burning in the box). Jason does the advanced jobs and well, I do the ones that require no or little skill. After teaching a full week, doing something progressive with your hands is a great reward. Speaking of school, life went from busy to busy as ever. I know why I did it, but I signed up as the boys assistant basketball coach, and so therefore the dynamics of the household have changed a little, now I pretty much use home as a sleeping place. I've been at school from 8 am to 7 pm this past week. There hasn't been questioning on my part as to why I'm doing this, maybe Jay will be questioning a little down this year's season. Other than that, we're still saving our dollars for the house plan. We feel much more confident about this house plan coming up, its worth the wait. We send our love to you out there, in Alaska or the 'lower 48!'

Gram Makes Another Visit

We try to keep Gram's visits a surprise anymore. Of course we keep it from Romay and mainly, its a huge test on Jay's and I's endurance to keep it hidden. BUT, we did it yet again! No spills on information on our part and the wait is worth it all, you know, the 10 seconds of surprise on the child's face. We're moved into our place on the Yukon River, the Huntington's have us spolied, huge windows that give us a priceless vista.