Griffin's Party of 5

Week 4- Project 52

2012-01-29T13:40:00.000-09:00

I cannot believe my baby boy turns 12 today. I kind of feel like we did when we brought him home from the hospital, completely clueless on what to do with a brand new baby. It's a brand new journey!

Project 52- Week 3

2012-01-22T17:36:00.000-09:00

Somehow it always comes back to Star Wars

Celebrating a brand new baby in our church.

A Blast from the past! Our dearest friends celebrated their GOTCHA day this week. How well we remember when they brought their sweet little baby home to be in his Forever Family. We love you G.!

Beautiful Kodiak.

Project 52-Week 2

2012-01-15T21:47:00.000-09:00

Yes, my son would figure out how to do a science fair experiment involving video games.

Would you like to buy a Girl Scout cookie?

I'll quote my friend Kelly-I live in Soviet Union 1984. That or it's just tanner crab season in my fishing town AND Safeway is sending one less container.

I loved Highlights as a kid and now Peach is getting them. I hope they hold the same appeal for her as they did for me.

Project 52 -Week 1

2012-01-08T22:51:00.000-09:00

Hello and Welcome back to my blog. I'm not really very good about this blogging thing but I do think about blogging. I'm doing something a little different this year for photography and blogging. Instead of posting a picture each day I plan on taking pictures through out the week. Taking a picture everyday, while doing everything else was...well difficult. I love taking pictures of my family, I'm still trying to find "My Style" and I really need the support! So post comments please. My goal for this year is post a few pictures each week. Some weeks it might be only one picture!

The last of the New Years bubbly, mixed in with some POM juice. Best way to start the New Year.

It is not Christmas in this house without Star Wars Legos.

And maybe some Halo lego-wannabe. We try to not to be prejudice.

I really wanted to use my new 85 mm lens and take some portrait shots but it was so cold. Negative 8 degrees does not agree with me. I accidentally got this shot when I was shivering.

Warmed up a little bit this weekend and we now have beautiful snow!

Peachies Family Party

2011-08-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

Isn't this candy bar card fun? I got the idea somewhere along the web, but made up our own card.

Tissue paper Poms!

A new outfit for Addy

Did you know that not all Barbies can wear the same clothes? We haven't had much luck finding the right clothes to fit the new Barbies Peach got for her birthday.

It's Kit Kittridge!

Peach has her American Girl and I have mine!

She is SEVEN!

First Beautiful Day of Summer

2011-05-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

Today was the very first day of sun in almost two weeks, and boy was it beautiful! We worked in the yard, ate dinner at crabfest and had a great time at Sometimes Island enjoying a beach fire.

Crab Fest 2011

2011-05-26T22:13:00.000-08:00

The very first day of Crab Fest-After days and days of rain, fog and wind we had a small break in the weather so we took the kids down to ride the rides.

Overflow Post

2011-05-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

After starting my other blog I haven't posted much at all here, but I have I do have a ton of leftover pictures each day. Here are just a few of the overflow from this last week.

2011-01-03T20:00:00.002-09:00

Project 365 is off to a great start. A three day great start anyway! Well, after last nights run to the airport was a no go we came home with mom and had a yummy french toast dinner. Mom and I packed the lunches and made the coffee, bathed the kids and sent them to bed for the first day of school 2011. It was nice to wake up to all the busy morning work being done. Although there was this... Mom was home all day and did so much laundry for me the house is totally clean. The sky's parted and she was able to make it out this afternoon but we will miss her for sure. On a roll the lunches are packed and coffee made, as well the cloths set out for tomorrow. This week is looking great.
What Santa Brought!

From Christmas 2010

Walk in the snow on a frozen lake by the sea!

From Christmas 2010

Devon and Andy Their first Christmas married, and they spent it with us!

From Christmas 2010

Mario Caleb

From Christmas 2010

2/365 and Kodiak Weather

2011-01-02T20:01:00.000-09:00

Guess what? It's raining! Imagine that adventures on a rainy rock equals rain blowing against the windows in sheets, then turning to snow the size of dinner plates. Actually, having no where to be or go over the holiday weekend kept us cozy indoors and it was really nice to relax. We read, built legos, played a few games and watched movies. A perfect way to end our Christmas Break.
Took the Grandma to the airport tonight to catch her flight home, with no flights leaving the island on the first we weren't very optimistic, and by the time we made it to the airport it had rained, hailed and snowed(huge flakes!) When we arrived the flight desk assured us that every flight had made it in that day so we should be good to go. Alas, no luck was had and Grandma got to come home and spend one last night with us.
That reminds me that tomorrow is back to school and work for everyone. I am actually looking forward to seeing my kiddo's again and the kids need to get back to a regular routine. So tonight the clothes are laid out, lunches are made, everyone is freshly bathed and the coffee is on auto brew.

Pic 2/365 1/02/11 Peach and Caleb at the airport in SNOW!

New Year and a New Project

2011-01-01T21:55:00.002-09:00

Project 365 is a photography project where you take one photo a day for 365 days. Mostly they are random pics of whatever to document the year and give a snapshot of your year in just one picture. I hope I can keep up on it, I know I start a lot of projects but I really want to get to know my camera (maybe get a new one!) and try to hold on to these years that are slipping by so quickly. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. So here it is the first pic of 2011 on 1/1/11

Wow,a blog entry about me!

2010-01-13T15:03:00.003-09:00

I can do that right? This is a post I had to write for my upcoming Education Psychology class.

Hello Class! My name is Melissa Griffin I live on the beautiful island of Kodiak with my husband and three children. I love to sew, knit, read and take walks on the beach with my family. My journey through college education began over 10 years ago; I always knew I wanted to be a teacher even as young girl. At the time the prime motivating factor for my desire was to be given the freedom to draw on the chalkboard anytime I wanted. Through my formative education years I had many excellent teachers and few not so skilled but I still wanted to teach, even if the chalkboard had been replaced by the white board; dry erase offered so many more colors! And so I began at UAA with an interest in special education, especially in the field of autism. Shortly after graduating high school I met my soon to be husband, we married young and started a family, I had finished two years of college classes. I always intended to go back, but life as a military wife was demanding, with deployments overseas and long hours alone, I simply fell into the rhythm of motherhood and was very content. In 2007 I had a three year old a five year old and a six year old, my oldest was in school full time. I realized I was entering a new stage in my life as mother; I wanted to do something satisfying with my coming freedom and felt personally motivated to finish what I had started. By now we were living in Kodiak, which for me was perfect; distance education fit our lifestyle to a T. I have been plugging along only taking 6 credits at a time, this semester will be my most intensive yet. I have a wonderful support system from my husband, family and friends. Now that all of my children are in school full time, I have many opportunities to volunteer at my kids school where I am surrounded by a talented and wonderful group of motivating teachers. I haven’t decided which age group I would like to teach as of yet but I am focusing on the lower levels of elementary for the time being. I can’t wait to finish my journey.

"I'm a LOT of Chinese"

2010-01-12T15:50:00.003-09:00

Tiny Talk Tuesday's is new blog carnival event I am trying out. It focuses on the funny things our kids say and their unique view on the world around them. I hope you enjoy it.
This conversation was relayed to me by Miss Maria one of the aides in Naomi's class. Sometime during the last week the kids in her K-5 class had a discussion about what nationality a few of the kids were i.e. Filipino, Japanese, Russian, Caucasian.
The next day Miss Maria was sitting at a table with Peach and her friend Grace. The girls were talking about where they were from, Maria told them she was little bit Chinese. Peach responded with "I'm a LOT of Chinese.....My Mom makes a LOT of Chinese food and I eat it all up."

The Sun Came Out and One Eyed Piano Playing

2010-01-11T17:44:00.003-09:00

Today was a beautiful day cold,clear and the sun was shinning, I opened all the curtains and let the sun shine in! The blogger gods must have heard we complaining about the weather and played a fast one on me. I should complain about the weather more often or maybe it was a gift for revisiting my poor neglected blog.
Peach is now taking ballet lessons she had a great time tonight but cried all the way home because she was hoping to have the same teacher she had last year. There are two Naomi's in her class of 5 girls. Good thing she still goes by Peach. Eli and Caleb are both in piano and doing a great job, Eli can even play with one eye. Eli's eye is getting better as far as we can tell but he will need to see the specialist in Anchorage this month. Hopefully we can catch a flight out next week via the CG, I would love to get off the rock even for just a few hours.
Okay, YouTube is taking forever to upload that video of Eli.
We are now entering the time of night after 6pm when I simply run out of steam as it were with the kids. Tonight Peach is especially tired. Like Oh my goodness give me a spanking and put me to bed tired. Which I shall gladly grant her, well maybe not the spanking but I'm going to step away here for a sec read her a couple of books and put that little princess down for her beauty rest.
I'm back! Here's the video of Eli playing. Hope you enjoyed day 2 of blogging for a week.

Blogging for a Week!

2010-01-10T10:10:00.005-09:00

Thats right I am going to try my best and jump start my blog again by blogging every day for a week. To start off the week I'll post a picture of a very talented little artist.

Caleb's picture "Kid's Don't Float" was chosen as the May photo for the Alaska Joint Insurance Group. He won a cool art kit and a special recoginition award certificate. We are very proud of him. Grandma's and Grandpa Dennis we will send you a copy if would like one. Dad I need your current address. Other then that we had a long first week back to school and are trying to get back into the swing of a schedule. I start classes again on Wednesday and will be very busy this sememester taking 8 credits.
We have had so much rain, wind and fog for so long I honeslty can't remember when the sun shone last. I have us all taking vitamins and we have been visiting the new pool, and the tanning salon (just me and Aaron) to try and stay somewhat emotionally stable. I told my mom when she was here that it's gotten to the point where I don't even look out the window in the morning. I just assume it will be raining. But, thats Kodiak in January and we just make the best of it.

We are home from Disney and the Beach

2009-10-12T15:27:00.005-08:00

We had an AWESOME time! Enjoyed family, and family drama and crowds and plans that didn't go exactly as planned. But we had fun! Apparently we took over 700 pictures. I won't bore you with all of them but as soon as Aaron comes home with the laptop I can post a timeline of pictures.
Now that we are back to to "normal" we are busy. For the last few years we have participted in the local community theatre. This year the production is The Christmas Carol. We are really excited for a Christmas show. Eli tried out for the part of Tiny Tim and was chosen, Caleb is experiencing his first year, he plays in the Childrens Ensemble. We are proud of both of them, its a busy time of year with lots of practices but the next few months are dark and gloomy and this keeps us busy.
This is at Great Grandmas pool in south Florida we spent a week down here after Disney.
We had Muffins for Moms. Kindergarden is so much fun.

The First Day

2009-08-31T10:03:00.002-08:00

Standing on the porch waiting to get in the car. As soon as we arrived at the school she said “Okay Mom I got this see you later!”

A sweet little note Mrs. Patrick gives all the mom’s and dad’s”

Naomi and her best friend Grace were all smiles.

I know she is going to do awesome in school. She was so excited to be there and see her friends.

Summer is over!

2009-08-22T10:57:00.003-08:00

In an effort to condense two months worth of blogging into one gigantic blog I decided to create a slide show. With a few highlights.

I'm a little bummed because I really wanted to go camping this summer. Unfortunately it just didn't work out for us. I'm not ready to admit that we are "not camping people" just yet though. I just would prefer to camp in a cabin or a camper, with hot water, and a toilet. We did spend allot of time out of doors, we just came home and slept in our nice comfy beds. I'm not really a morning person I don't enjoy waking up hours before the kids to work out or clean house Preparing a hot breakfast is not my forte. We eat cereal and pop tarts A LOT! Does oatmeal count as hot? Summer time breakfast rolls around about 9:30 meanwhile I'm drinking my coffee and facebooking.

Peach turned 5! We had a kitty cat party and it was so much fun. Probably one of the best parties we have had yet for the kids. The boys start school on Tuesday. The summer has been awesome. Kodiak has had the BEST weather with little rain and lots of sunshine! For some reason I can't find Eli's camera with pictures of him going off to Camp Woody but he did that this year too.

This is what I call a two part blog because I started this post a week a go and came back to finish tonight. We just got back from a fun family weekend with our church at Camp Woody. Sadly someone ran into our car while it was parked in the 72 hour parking lot. The boys have been in school a week now and Peach starts her first day tomorrow. She is super excited to spend "All Day" at the big school.

Hike up the Old Woman

2009-07-14T15:23:00.006-08:00

Last week we decided to take a hike up one of the local trails to the top of a mountain they call Old Woman. I'm not sure why they call it that but my kids were calling Old Lady mountain. Its a pretty steep trek up but not terrible we reached the top in about 30 minutes. Since it has been so warm probably 75 that day we were going to attempt to make it to a snow melt pool at the top. Well, we thought it was at the top. In our minds we would get to the top and be greeted by a beautiful snow melt lake to swim and cool off in. WRONG. We made it to the top with a lot of encouragement given to Peach and ended up meeting another group that was hiking back to the lake as well. Oh no worries they said just go that way and you can't miss it. Well we ended up walking another mile and a half to get to the lake. It was worth it to splash around, throw snow and swim in a warm pond all at the same time.

A view of Kodiak from the top.

The BEST view in Kodiak!

The kids acted out a story I read to them about Abe Lincoln. Caleb was Abe!

Summer Day's

2009-07-12T18:17:00.007-08:00

Okay, time for a blog update. I know it's been forever but here we are for all the world to see. Life in Kodiak (at least for the last 10 days) has been glorious. With temperatures in the low 70's and a perfect ocean breeze to cool you down just when you need it.
In June we went to Anchorage and visited Grandma. The weather was warm and we spent some time at Goose Lake and visited about 10 parks.

Naomi at Goose Lake

The back deck gets really warm we had an inflatable pool to fill with water. Caleb and Naomi loved it but Eli was a little to old this year and didn't play to much in it.

A little product placement here!

We added a new member to our family. Our new little kitten is named Kiki and after a bit of a rough start with or other kitty Zuko she is fitting in quite well. Naomi loves her or rather tortures her all day.
With July we have summer soccer. Being a soccer mom requires you to spend 3 hours a day 3 days a week on the field. This last week was so worth being outside. The kids are having a blast and I get to enjoy visiting with the other moms or walking around the track.

May Mayhem!

2009-05-29T19:52:00.005-08:00

Mostly just a picture update. Things have been a little nuts around here. I finished my fall semester. I received all A's! I had one week off and then started my summer classes. This summer I am taking a Children's Literature class which so far is really interesting and I will also be taking a 5 week Art for Children class in June.
Naomi was in a performance of Alice and Wonderland. She was a teacup and was so pretty. The boys just finished school this week on Wednesday and are already enjoying there summer break. Aaron had a visit to the Emergency room for some heart problems. He has atrial fibrillation he's had it for about 8 years. Every 4-5 years he has an episode and in May he had another one. This time medication was able to get it back on track but the doctor here wants him to go see the specialist in Anchorage. We may be looking at surgery. The surgery involves sending a wire through the femoral artery to basically electrocute the nerve that causes the problem. Apparently it is pretty common solution but we will see. Please pray for us as we determine what the best solution is and that the doctors will have wisdom as to what to do.
So next week he heads over for a ANG one week drill and to see the doctor. Me and the kids are hoping to catch the C130 and fly over to spend about 2 weeks with my mom and then I can go with Aaron to the doctor.
Peach graduated pre-school so now all of my kids are "in school." I think it will really hit me come August when I drop them all off. The boys are in baseball this spring and really having a good time. Caleb took a really good fall off the top of the monkey bars and Eli accidentally hit a kid with a bat at the first practice but hey life is exciting around here. We had almost two weeks of super nice weather in May but unforutnatley the wind and rain blew in and Crab Fest was kind of bust this year. Sunday cleared up a little bit so the kids and I headed downtown. The rain blew in pretty good just after we finished up the rides. There is a curse about Crab Fest. If it is sunny for CF then it will be a rainy summer. We shall see we had alot of rain for CF so we should have a great summer. The Koehlers have been hanging out with us quite a bit and we have enjoyed backyard fires and yummy dinners. The kids Gabriel and Donavyn have a name for me now! They call me Mimi!
Well that was May in a nutshell. It was a crazy month at our house. I am hoping the June calms down a bit and that we can make it off the island for a few weeks.
If you can't see the slide show follow the link to here

Tag: I'm IT!

2009-05-23T08:51:00.003-08:00

I know I am so lame. I haven't blogged in a whole month but it has been crazy and well raising kids and keeping a house clean and a husband happy is a lot of work. A. Lot. Of. Work. Wow I always want'ed to write one of those super punctuated sentences and I finally got the chance. Anyway I got tagged my friend Cheri to find the sixth picture flolder and publish my sixth picture so here it goes.

Ah our first Halloween in the new house in Kodiak. Eli was a pirtate and Caleb was a cowboy and Peach was just a twinkle in our eyes. That day I remember because it was a day like today. The wind was just whipping like crazy, but like all good parents we took them downtown to get candy. It was Halloween after all. Eli's hat blew away but we had fun...at least for a little while.

Today is CrabFest. It's really a small carnival with a few rides and really good food an fun stuff to look at. Its more about the running into people and chatting. Sadly today the weather is crummy. Normally we go the parade today then go have lunch and put the kids on the rides. And after alomost two weeks of super amazing weather today it rains. Not just your plain old rain. Were talking straight up Kodiak Island style where it blows 30 mph with gusts to 50 and a nice balmy 42 degrees with a 31 degree windchill. Yah were staying home this time. Maybe it will clear up and we can get down and enjoy the fun before they pack it up on Monday!

Carmens The Champion

2009-04-23T09:31:00.002-08:00

Anyone out there remember that guy! I am sure you do. My old church used to put on these dramatic mini operas with his music. He was really cool especially back in the day. Anyway Aaron found one of his songs and we played it for the kids last night. We told the they had to close there eyes and picture it in their mind. Then we talked about it and used it as a time to share a devotion and talk about the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us.
Eli got very emotional he is very sensitive and so open to the Spirit. We prayed and had a really neat night just sharing our faith with the kids. In case you wanted to hear it again here is a youtube video. Try closing your eyes while you listen.

Easter Sunday And Guess whose Birthday!

2009-04-14T17:24:00.005-08:00

Well tomorrow is my Birthday but we had dinner out and I got one of my gifts from Aaron. I have been trying to take a picture of it but I can't seem to get the flash to turn off.

Oh I here I got it to work! Its a past, present and future ring. I have always wanted one and for my 30 years birthday I got it! Honestly, I was so surprised. Which is unusual for me becasue I am one of those people who is really hard to surprise. I think I would have made a good spy!
You know what I did speaking of spys. I totally took 10 pictures of the kids on Easter and had no CF card in the camera! Silly Me!

Peachies Easter Dress

2009-04-06T13:25:00.001-08:00

I made Peachies dress this year. I worked really hard on it because I wanted it to be just right. I am really proud of how it turned out. We curled her hair and took a few pictures to show of her cute little self.

More You Know Your From Alaska.....

2009-04-04T20:38:00.002-08:00

only because I don't have a lot to say and I find these funny.

11. You know the four seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Construction season
12.Shoveling the driveway constitutes a great upper body workout.
13. You design your Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.
14.You know that the term "Break Up" has more to do with the weather than personal relationships.
15.There is a bottle of Avon's Skin-So-Soft in your tackle box.
16.You power wash your car by parking driver's side into the rain in the morning, and passenger side into the rain in the afternoon. (I think that could work in Kodiak.)
17. Your idea of good date night is dinner at one of two places, a walk on the dock where you get snorted and charged by an angry male sea lion and three strolls around Wal-Mart.
18.You install security lights on your house and garage, and leave both unlocked. Or just leave the keys on the dashboard.
19. You carry jumper cables in your car, and your wife knows how to use them.
20. You’ve seen the northern lights, and you know why they are such a "big deal"
21. You know the term "studs" isn’t referring to hot guys.
22. You literally can't leave the house without seeing someone you know.

You Know You're From Alaska When

2009-04-01T16:35:00.002-08:00

1. Your idea of a vacation means going to Anchorage for the weekend.
2. You see people wearing hunting clothes or extra tuffs! at social events.
3. Buses leaving school are delayed because a bear is in the parking lot
4. You tell people you live in an igloo for kicks
5. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
6. You think bald eagles aren't that great
7. You didn't know what the word "county" meant, and we were never taught about "area codes"... 907 is all you had to know
8. Salmon isn’t a delicacy, it's a staple
9. Halibut is beer battered rather than cooked some fancy way
10. 70 degrees is equivalent to 90 degrees in the lower 48

Jus Chillen

2009-03-31T14:32:00.002-08:00

You can take that literally. Spring has not come to Kodiak. You know the saying March comes in like a lion out like a lamb? Not so much this year. The snow should last for quite some time. The kids and I weathered the storm okay. Aaron has been working really hard because another captain is out with an injury. He was home last night again after another 80 hours at work or so. We celebrated by taking the kids out of school early and making a yummy dinner of crab, taters and cheesy broccoli. He is back to work today but then will be off for his full four day break this month. Yipee!

Correction and Update

2009-03-24T16:17:00.006-08:00

Remember when I said it was a 20 year storm. Apparently it is a 50 year storm.

When your man is at work for 80 hours you have to take matters into your own hands or muscles.

Kodiak Tries to Dig Out
Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Jay Barrett/KMXT This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Much of Kodiak is essentially shut down today after one of the biggest winter storms on record hit the island. A foot of snow has fallen since midnight, according to the National Weather Service in Kodiak, with 20 inches total since early Monday. The all-time total for this date is 17-point-8 inches in 1956.
The State Department of Transportation reported an avalanche blocking the Chiniak Highway just past the Coast Guard Base. One lane was opened by 7:30, and it was cleared a couple hours later.
Deputy Harbormaster Lon White said one small boat sank at Saint Paul Harbor because of the snow load, and several others are in peril of going under as well. He urged boat owners to check their vessels as soon as they can. The snow was so bad during the height of the storm overnight that White said it was impossible for the four-by-four harbor trucks to make it to Saint Herman Harbor on Near Island. He said the harbor crew is “digging out, like everyone else,” today.
Airport operations have been suspended, and crews were still plowing the runway at noon. A spokesperson at Era Aviation said they expect that to be done by 2 p.m.
School in Kodiak was canceled. Parents got the word from an automated phone message sent to them at 11 o’clock last night.
Kodiak Police Chief T.C. Kamai said his department has not seen many accidents, but has mostly been dealing with vehicles stuck on or beside the roadways. He said even a couple of his department’s Ford Expedition SUVs got stuck, something he said he never thought he’d see happen.
As for road conditions, the chief says they are marginal. He said they are drivable, but slippery. Roads in the city’s residential areas are narrow to begin with, and with snow removal crews plowing, they’re even harder to navigate. He recommends people stay home if they absolutely don’t need to go out.
Debra Marlar, the city clerk, e-mailed saying the city offices were closed and that tonight’s council work session has been rescheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. The city is operating on a skeleton crew. The Kodiak Island Borough offices are closed, as well.
Also closed: the city’s A. Holmes Johnson Public Library, the Saint Paul Preschool Daycare, Kodiak Christian School, the Kodiak Baptist Mission school programs, the KANA offices, as well as the WIC and Infant Learning programs, State Job Service Center, Kodiak Island Housing Authority, Kodiak College and the Kodiak Senior Citizens’ Center. The senior center will not be making home delivery of meals, and its Island Cove is closed as well. The Community Health Center at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center is closed, and specialty clinics have been cancelled. The emergency room is open.
But it’s not just offices and schools that have been shut down due to the storm. Many residents find themselves trapped at home by the snow, which was whipped into five- six- or even seven-foot drifts in some places, making driveways impassible. Commercial snowplow drivers are being stretched thin, and some are reportedly assisting the city and borough.
White’s advice to those who absolutely don’t need to leave their homes: Hunker down and enjoy the weather. The forecast is calling for five more inches of snow today and tonight, with mixed rain and snow Wednesday.

Just to let you know Kodiak schools have only closed for weather twice in 12 years. The last time was in 2006.

And then we have this little gem on the way.

FLOOD ADVISORY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK
343 PM AKDT TUE MAR 24 2009

AKZ171-251800-
/O.NEW.PAFC.FA.Y.0005.090324T2343Z-090325T0930Z/
/00000.N.RS.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.OO/
343 PM AKDT TUE MAR 24 2009

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ANCHORAGE HAS ISSUED A

* FLOOD ADVISORY FOR RAIN AND MELTING SNOW ALONG THE KODIAK ROAD
SYSTEM...

* IN EFFECT FROM 1000 AM WEDNESDAY TO 500 AM AKDT THURSDAY

* A POWERFUL STORM CURRENTLY OVER THE NORTH PACIFIC IS TRACKING
DIRECTLY TOWARD KODIAK ISLAND AND WILL BRING ANOTHER ROUND OF
STRONG WINDS AND HEAVY PRECIPITATION. SNOW WILL BEGIN TO FALL
OVERNIGHT IN THE FORM OF SNOW...BUT WILL QUICKLY CHANGE TO RAIN
BY TUESDAY MORNING AS WARM AIR SURGES NORTHWARD AHEAD OF THE STORM.
STEADY RAIN WILL CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THEN DIMINISH
TO SHOWERS ON THURSDAY AS THE STORM MOVES PAST KODIAK ISLAND INTO
THE NORTHERN GULF.

RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1.00 TO 1.50 INCHES ARE EXPECTED FROM THIS STORM
ALONG WITH TEMPERATURES WARMING TO NEAR 40 DEGREES WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON. ALL OF THIS RAIN WILL BE FALLING ON TO A VERY DEEP SNOW
PACK...WITH UP TO 20 INCHES OF SNOW REPORTED FROM THE LAST STORM IN
KODIAK CITY. STORM DRAINS BLOCKED UP BY SNOW AND ICE WILL PROVIDE
NO PLACE FOR THE WATER TO DRAIN. THEREFORE...THE COMBINATION OF RAIN
AND MELTING SNOW WILL CAUSE CONSIDERABLE PONDING OF
WATER...ESPECIALLY IN LOW LYING AREAS AND NEAR CULVERTS AND DRAINAGE
AREAS.

RAIN WILL CAUSE CONSIDERABLE PONDING OF WATER IN LOW LYING AREAS,
NEAR CULVERTS, AND ALONG SMALL CREEKS AND DRAINAGES.

DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE
ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS
SAFELY. MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.

A FLOOD ADVISORY MEANS PONDING OF WATER IN URBAN OR OTHER AREAS IS
OCCURRING OR IS IMMINENT.

Snow Crazy

2009-03-24T12:05:00.013-08:00

I don't know how much snow has fallen yet. There isn't an official count as far as I can tell. I know at some spots there are 4 foot drifts. I know that our house is not protected from the way the wind was blowing. This caused the drifts to get really big. At least four feet and right outside the door and over the window sills. Aaron is still at work and will be until Thursday. Officially I can not get out of the house let alone drive the Durango out. Good thing I stocked up yesterday. You see not only did Kodiak get a storm we the likes of which haven't been seen in 20 years the Volcano..Mt Redoubt erupted 6 times yesterday. Thankfully the eruptions are being pushed high and blowing north so we don't have to worry about ash fall out where we are.

Last night durring the worst part of the storm. Its only about 5 pm but see how dark it was already.

What daylight revealed.

My best effort to get us out was not even close to enough.

Kids on the porch before I shoveled the snow.

Comments Are Accepted

2009-03-21T12:12:00.004-08:00

Hey Family! Yes Grandma G and others on the east coast. Grandpa Dennis in Texas. Any other family that reads about our island lives.
I know you come over here and check up on us so for goodness sake LEAVE. A. COMMENT.
'Nuf Said.

I leave you with a video

Wow the house is a little messy in this one!

We Are Just So Boring!

2009-03-17T17:07:00.004-08:00

Yep not a whole lot going on around here. Here is what everyone is up to.

Me: ( I have to go first since I am the star of this here blog!) Well I was on Spring Break last week so I spent a couple of extra hours at the school. I helped out with picture day and at the book fair. I enjoyed spending time with the teachers and kids. I also figured out my embroidery machine. The machine is so intimidating but I decided to figure it out this week and I had the best results.

Aaron: A. has been off for the last 8 days. We have had an awesome time eating meals together every night and then after putting the kids to be watching movies and hanging out at home. He is heading back to work on Thursday and will restart a 3 day on 1 day off schedule again so this break at home was well needed.

Eli: We had parent teacher conferences before SB and Eli is doing great. Third grade is kind of year where you really build on what you already know. Eli's teacher said he was doing everything he needed to be for a third grader. He is highly motivated and his GT teacher had equal good things. We do need to work on the amount of time Eli spends talking in class. He has brought home many a blue card this year for visiting withe his friends in class.

Caleb: Another good report for Caleb. His reading fluency has gone up so much this year. We are very proud of the work he has been doing and he is constantly getting better and better. His favorite subject right now is Math! Which being a non math person I just can't believe.

Peach: Peach is now in an afternoon pre-school class. Its at the same school just in the afternoon. Her teacher is taking a job in the school district so we decided to move her to a class that wouldn't have a substitute for the rest of the year.

As a family we have tried hiking the Near Island trail but it was so icy and dangerous. Especially since a couple came through with 5 dogs all little yappers not on a leash. The dogs proceeded to try and intimidate us by barking and rushing at us. I was this close to sending one off the trail with my foot. Especially since the part we are on was treacherous with ice. That was not cool.
Another challenge that we have been attempting is NOT shopping Wal-Mart. We don't have anything against WM. We just are trying to be a little more careful about shopping to meet emotional needs. Its so easy to find a reason to just go up to Wal-Mart for a nothing in particular. Once there we start putting things in the cart to make us happy. So far we are 10 days Wal-Mart free! And you know what we haven't "needed" anything.
It snowed a lot today and we got no mail. If the weather is bad then the mail plane doesn't make it in. We tried to go sledding but there just wasn't enough snow what with the big melt we had a few days ago. The snow is beautiful and typical for this time of year. We almost always get a huge snowfall over spring break. It happens just about every year.
This has turned into a multi-day blog post. We got our snow! In fact it is snowing now. Yesterday Wednesday was a the most beautiful day. After snowing and blowing all day Tuesday it was gloriously sunny and warm at 33degrees. We headed out to Fort Abercrombie and walked around on Lake Gertrude and enjoyed the "warm" weather. It was awesome! Then we went to Wal-Mart!

This is the icy trail. There is about 4 inches of solid ice under that snow powder.
Coming up soon....A retell of a Kodiak date night that involves, eagles, sushi and an angry male sea lion! Scary!

Addicted to Starfall!

2009-03-05T17:01:00.004-09:00

I love you mommy...

I just love your hair mommy....

you have the prettiest hair....

do you know you smell good

just write 5 more words and then let me play the letter thing okay?

Ack! Mid-Terms!

2009-03-05T08:58:00.003-09:00

That my friends says it all! One more exam today and then I go on spring break. Please don't tell anyone I planned an exotic vacation for just me! I'm going to Mexico with all the other college girls. Oh wait I don't know any other college girls. Hmmm, well I think I will have to resort to the tanning salon and hiding out in my garage/sewing room. Aaron is off a few days next week as well but for some reason Kodiak schools wait an extra week and take their spring break the week after everyone else. At least the Anchorage schools and universities. I am planning lots of stuff for just me, like sewing and reading. I going to pretend like my profs didn't give big assignments and say things like. "Don't worry this isn't due until after spring break." Yah right like the day after......

Super Zoom Week

2009-03-01T20:19:00.005-09:00

This week was so fast! I didn't even think about blogging really. I went on a mini bloggy vacation! But I did get a new blog design. Isn't it neat? I love it. The kids were pretty great this week actually. There were a few shinny moments. Like today Caleb told me that at church they had talked about mercy. And that he had given his chocolate to Peach because he wanted to show her mercy like God showed him. Then when we got home Peach was having a hard time getting her boots off and Caleb said in the sweetest voice. "You want me to help you?" My sweet boy!
Aaron was home all week this week! It was awesome to reconnect as a family after all that overtime. We went ice-skating two times and a long walk and had a movie night at home with popcorn and ice cream. Currently the kids are in a little competition. Monday nights we go to the ice rink and skate then we got to McDonald's for hot chocolate or french fries. The kids are trying to see which is the shortest route home from McD's. They tell Aaron where to turn and stuff. The first time Eli was the navigator(alligator) he led us home in 3.5 miles. Last Monday was Caleb's turn and he whipped the pants off Eli with an outstanding 3.0 miles!

Aaron and Zach had planned to get together and play WOW but one look at the shiny silver tea service and they couldn't help but brew up a pot of fine Earl Grey.

The Daybook Society

2009-02-23T12:12:00.004-09:00

FOR TODAY February 23, 2009
Outside my window...I wish my computer was by the window but my husband and I enjoyed some outside time today. We dropped the kiddos off at their various schools and drove to one of Kodiak's trails. We walked on the trail and then followed a deer path through the woods. Then we went out for a yummy savory breakfast at the coffee house.
I am thinking...about starting a blog where I can share some more personal spiritual stuff. Especially as I approach the big '30'
I am thankful for...the date Aaron and I had this morning and the tax return we are fixing to send away.
From the kitchen...I wished I had remembered to put away the soup I made for dinner last night. I hope its okay for lunch today. I also need to load the dishwasher.
I am wearing...jeans, a fleece from ON and my favorite purple smartwool socks.
I am creating...still working on Naomi's quilt and I have a pair of PJ pants cut out for each of the boys. Caleb loves it when I make stuff like that for him.
I am going...to Wal-Mart to pick up some photo's I had made.
I am reading...my math book.
I am hoping...to finish my math homework before the due date. I am so not a math person.
I am hearing...Jars of Clay on the ipod excuse me the ipod wanna be I got for Christmas.
Around the house...the house is pretty clean thanks to the 6 hour deep cleaning job I did on Friday. If anyone messes this place up I am going to get them
One of my favorite things...is sunshine and the days are getting longer.
A few plans for the rest of the week:Tonight we will go ice skating as we have been doing on Monday nights if Aaron is off. The cat has an appointment to have his claws removed tomorrow. I hope he doesn't hate me.
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

My future home if Aaron has anything to do with it. He loves "hot magma" sometimes you have to follow someone elseses dream for a little while.

The Simple Womans Daybook

My Excuse for NOT blogging this week.

2009-02-22T17:09:00.009-09:00

1. I can't wait to post an entry with my NEW blog design which should be ready in just a few days. I can't wait to see the finished design. So far from my previews I am in total love with it. I tried hard to tell the designer sweet Shauna what I wanted. I can't even begin to try and imagine how difficult it is to create something for another person using their artistic eye.

2.While Aaron was only home a total of 24 hours this week I made it through with out any permanent mental damage.

3. The last few days have been gloriously sunny and we have been trying to soak up the Vit D. Through the glass but hey that counts!

4.Aaron was off on Saturday, Today, Monday and Tuesday! Then its back to the "normal" schedule of 48 on with 48 off. Much more manageable for me.

Saturday was the perfect day. When Aaron got home from work we went out for breakfast and kinda drove around K-town. While it was super sunny the wind was really cold at 25 mph and steady. So I decided I needed to go for a tan in the tanning bed. It felt great and I hope I didn't expose myself to anything cancerous but sometimes a girl just has to feel warm. I bought myself some new make up. Its the Bare Minerals stuff and then....I got to go to a Body Shop party with my BFF Beth.
After a great dinner we took the kids out to the CG pool to swim and for ice cream afterward. The Koehler family came wiht us. You think we like hanging out with these people? It was a totally awesome day and a great way to reconnect as a family ad try and make up for lost time together.
I including some pictures of us doing Winter stuff. This year we purchased ice skates and have been enjoying learning how to skate. Aaron and I had not been in skates for 10 years. Eli is quite the natural, Caleb is learning a little more each time and Naomi is pretty much fearless. We go on Monday nights and for the most part have the whole rink to ourselves.

While I was at my Body Shop party Aaron took the kids to Fort Abercrombie to walk out on the lake.
I love how mono-chromatic their jackets look in this picture.

Bye for now!

2009-02-16T16:33:00.004-09:00

FOR TODAY February 16, 2009
Outside my window... The sun is shining and everything is melting. I spotted my sons yellow airplane he lost a while ago in the yard.

I am thinking...about whether I should drive out to the base tonight. I might take out Subway to eat with Aaron which means I don't have to worry about dinner tonight.

I am thankful for...the time to spend praying with my friend this morning for our children's school. My other friends wonderful husband who really saved me yesterday. He offered to come over with his kids and keep all 5 kids so that Beth and I could have the afternoon evening out. We went to coffee, Wal-Mart and out to eat. Even Beth was surprised by the offer.

From the kitchen...the kitchen is clean and the dishwasher is loaded.

I am wearing...yoga pants and a Crab Fest sweatshirt from like 3 years ago

I am creating...working on a quilt for my daughters room. Almost done!

I am going...nowhere or somewhere I haven't decided yet.

I am reading...too many books at once this time, Marley and Me and Grace Based Parenting. Not including school text books.

I am hoping...that I can take full advantage of my husbands day off tomorrow and just relax and not feel like I need to clean and be busy around the house.

I am hearing...my math teacher lecture over the phone and my children getting louder and louder. I'm not sure going back to school was such a great idea anymore.

Around the house...I needed to fold some laundry today.

One of my favorite things...is the anticipation of seeing my husband after he has been at work for a long time. Oh and I anticipate his authority when it comes to dealing with the kids. Moms just weren't meant to do all the parenting.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Get my math homework done but I also plan to take time out for me. I find giving myself time to create makes me a happier person. Its my therapy.

Here is picture thought I am sharing.

Because I just had to spank her but I want to remember how much I love her too and not bring any anger or frustration to her.
The Simple Women's Daybook

Rainy Sunday!

2009-02-15T13:50:00.006-09:00

Well its a rainy Sunday today and the island is melting like a giant ice cube floating in the gray gulf of Alaskan waters. The wind isn't blowing right now so that is nice. Aaron is at work again this Sunday. Its so hard to go to church without your whole family. I know its important for me to take the kids no matter what Aarons schedule is. All though I really had to push myself to get out of the house this morning.
Currently, Aarons schedule has him spending 72 hours at work and 24 hours at home. It doesn't make a lot of room for family time but we are trying. Despite the hours at the station I know one thing. God is so good to have given my husband a wonderful job. With his job we are able to live very comfortably. I don't have to work and have the pleasure of staying home to care for my children. Even when the hours of me being the only parent seem to mount up I always try to remind myself that there are so many people right now in our country who are going through tough times financially. I just have to give myself a good swift kick in pants every now and then.

Not a picture from today but it was another rainy day. Just the boys playing soccer.
Oh and I did buy a new blog design. Its going to be customized just for me. Yep, honey I did! But don't you worry I have a surprise coming for you too!

Blog is Under Construction

2009-02-13T08:43:00.004-09:00

I am trying to plow through HTML but I really might treat myself to one of these Check back soon you might see something new!
I will leave you with some pictures of cute kids

That's all for now. I am heading out to take care of my favorite little guys. The best Guatemalan American baby in the world and the sweetest little pixie girl.

The Man of My Dreams

2009-02-11T13:28:00.007-09:00

In an effort to improve my writing skills and add more pizazz to the blog I decided to try out a few blog carnivals this year. This first one is from Kristen at We Are That Family
I wanted to spend some time sharing about my wonderful husband. The picture is one of us on our "honeymoon" of sorts to Maine. Since Aaron I met in Alaska and married just one year later his family didn't get a chance to meet me before we got married. I know crazy! But probably not totally out of the ordinary especially in AK. I have shared before how Aaron and I met at church and started hanging out shortly there after within the College and Career class at church. Now apparently my husband was going to be quite the catch back home. He was a popular guy and had dated plenty of girls and broke a few hearts as well. I myself had never dated anyone. Sure I had a few secret crushes and all but I was never really the type to throw myself at a guy. I was pretty shy and definitely didn't flirt. I had a best friend who was pretty good at that! Sarah certainly helped me come out of my shell and I have to say had a HUGE part in Aaron and I actually getting together. So short story we dated for a year and then got married almost one year to the day later.
We were young and full of inexperience. Aaron was in the AF and I was in college. Guess what? I didn't finish college and so now I am back in college. We learned a lot of things about ourselves and each other and how to make a marriage work or not work. Now its 10 years later and it seems like we have come so far but I know that God has so many more places to take us.
And now here is a picture of us on our 10 year anniversary in Hawaii

The Best Part About January

2009-02-06T21:40:00.008-09:00

My first child turned 9!

Nothing in the world grows you up quicker then having a child. And there is nothing like that first night in the hospital with your newborn. Aaron and I were pretty scared but thankfully we learned pretty quick. At least by baby number two. First borns have it pretty rough I think the first to sleep through the night, potty train and they definitely have to break mom and dad in. I can remember driving around Anchorage with Eli in the backseat just hoping he would fall asleep. Then as soon as we walked in the door he would wake up screaming! He experienced our first taste of government housing with us and kept me company during Aaron's four month deployment to Kuwait. He is our little tester baby and I am sorry to say there will be plenty more for us to test out on you Buddie. Like driving and girlfriends and JUNIOR HIGH!

Here are a few pictures of our little guy. I had to scan a lot of them as he was a BDC baby. That is Before Digital Camera.

It really seems to get a lot harder to find a picture of just Eli without his siblings in it. Move over I guess.

The Toilet Wars

2009-01-23T15:08:00.007-09:00

Some of you may not know this but Aaron and I have been fighting a long and exhausting battle with the porcelain swallower. For the most part is hasn't been swallowing. It tends to vomit its contents all over the place. This has led to a plunger wielding firefighter and Grandma with a pipe snake up at 5:30 am the day after Christmas trying to "solve the problem". It didn't help that it was the kids bathroom I think every time they flushed the toilet they feared for their lives.
We thought we had the problem under control but this morning the poor turd burglar lost its battle with whatever was wrong and promptly spilled its guts(2 inches of water) on the bathroom floor. It was clear the kind of action that needed to take place. That throne was coming off the floor and getting a royal flushing! So Aaron sucked up the water with a shop vac, brought out the necessary equipment and gave the toilet a big hug!
He determined that the problem lay somewhere in the S curve so started to run a lot of water through the toilet which was in the bathtub at this point. The water began to push out toilet paper and a mysterious object
Another object came out as well......must have been stuck behind the glow stick! Let me just say seeing that was about the grossest thing I have seen in a really long time! Oooh it give me the shivers. I will spare you the details. Not that I haven't been detailed enought already right? At least I didn't take a picture of that.

Were Going to Disney!

2009-01-13T11:12:00.003-09:00

We are so excited to take the kids to Disney World. We were waiting for Peach to be old enought to not NEED a nap everyday and no diapers or strollers or sippy cups and this is the year to go! I think we are going to do the Cruise and maybe spend a few extra day in the park. There is so much to do that we know we wont be able to everything this time around. The millitary rate this year is so good Aaron will go for free and me and the kids would be 150 each and that is for the waterparks and the park hopper and that is for 5 days. Planning stuff like this for your kids is so fun. I am so grateful that we can do this for them. Not to mention I am a roller coaster junkie so I am so stoked. Oh and Grandma and Uncle Steven are comming as well as Aaron's sister Beth her hubby Keith their little boy Brady and possibly Aaron's mom.

Curly Hair Girl

2009-01-06T16:33:00.008-09:00

Last night I decided to roll Peachies hair in foam rollers. I was wondering how long the curl would last as her hair is board straight like mine. I moused and hair sprayed each section before rolling it. Then she had to wear a pair of clean panties on her head to hold the curlers in while she slept. I didn't have anything else. She had a little trouble falling asleep but when she woke up in the morning she looked so cute with her curls.

I could not get her to keep her eyes open for any of these pictures.

Silly Girl!

I think she thought if she kept her mouth open she would be able to keep her eyes open too!
Peachies big gift this year was a doll house with furniture. We have really had fun time playing with it.

Rambo Caleb

Back in the Blog Box

2009-01-04T16:04:00.002-09:00

Well, trying to anyway. Right now I have a killer toothache and the meds are starting to kick in. Christmas was awesome the kids loved all their gifts. They played together the whole two weeks pretty well. One of the rules we set up for Christmas break was that they would not be allowed to play their Nintendo DS games. They are a hand held type game and they literally suck the life out of them! They get very absorbed. So in an effort to encourage constructive play we simply nixed them. They did awesome and didn't even ask once to play. They played with all of their new toys, colored, baked and we watched old family movies too! We had a family Wii night but we all played together.
WE had the Koehlers for Christmas Dinner and had a great time visiting and enjoying the Perfect Turkey. Our new oven which is affectionately named the Star Treck Oven has a setting called perfect turkey. You insert a probe into the turkey plug it into the oven wall and touch the perfect turkey button. The probe monitors the temp of the bird and uses convection to work magic. The turkey was awesome and I have to say even better then a fried one!
School starts tomorrow for the kids and boy do they need a break from me! They are ready to have a schedule again and see their classmates.
I start my first class on the 12th and the rest the following wing. I have signed up for 10 credits this semester so I will be a busy bee. The more classes I take the sooner I can finish. I hope to start my internship year in 2012. I work full time at the school for a whole year while submitting portfolio work. I am still not sure I will be a working mom even after I finish my degree but we shall see. I would love to teach Kindergarten but Aaron would have to be on a different schedule I would prefer him to be home every night if I was working and not working 48 hours at a time or more.
Soon as I get to the other computer I will post some pictures. I really wish it would snow. We don't much of any right now and I want to try snow shoeing!

Christmas Parties

2008-12-20T21:29:00.004-09:00

The last week of school before Christmas was very busy. Everyone had parties! Peachies class had a little potluck and small gift exchange. One of the students in her class is Philippino and her mom brought in a huge dish of yummy food. It was rice noodles and chicken with veggies and just plain yummy. Another mom had made salmon dip with crackers. There was fresh fruit. Grapes were on sale at the commissary (yeah) and a cupcake for everyone. I laughed about the typical Kodiak mix of ethnic food and salmon.
Friday was the East Elementary School sing-a-long. Basically the whole school meets in the gym to have a top ten Christmas song count down. There were even quite a few religious songs with Joy to the World and Silent Night was number three. One of the island drummers performed and they sang using a Russian Orthodox Starring whatever it is. It was neat. The school really does a great job of encouraging each child and the teachers are very supportive, warm and friendly. I really do like their school. Afterwards both classes had parties with lots of good treats to eat.
Friday night was Peachies pre-school performance. Its a very short but sweet yearly show with about three Christmas carols and a visit from Father Christmas.
Peachie was a super start and struck an awesome pose after each song. The Koehlers came to watch which was so sweet of them. Aaron had to work so it was nice to have our family there. I don't know what I will do if they don't get to stay here a little longer.
Sing It!

Peachie with Father Christmas.

Christmas Cheer

2008-12-15T21:39:00.006-09:00

Since I left you guys with such a poor me post last time I thought I would perk things up around here. You may be glad to hear that no one has vomited in ...3 days which is awesome! We visited Santa on Saturday and the kids had a good time. Peach really loved seeing him and gave him a big hug.
Sunday when Aaron got home from work we started decorating. I must confess we did play hookey from church. We had an awesome family day! We started by going to breakfast at the Shelikoff. It was nice except for the four gentleman ( I use that term loosely) sitting next to us that cursed numerous times and talked about visiting a bar in Anchorage with, well it was a bar only gentleman would enjoy. After they finally left Aaron and I were like "Thank you for leaving." Aaron said "Those men did not use good language." Our kids were like "What do you mean?" So I don't think it registered with them. But give me a break there is a woman and three kids sitting right next to your table have a little courtesy. I guess that's what we get for not going to church!
So after we got back from breakfast I started emptying out the boxes of indoor decorations and Aaron started lighting the outside of the house. He had a near disaster on the roof so we decided to just light the porch and the trees out front!
We worked hard while the kids played outside. Finally we went and picked out our tree. This is the every other year so we got a real one this year. It smells so good. At the end of the day 7 hours later the house was decorated. All the boxes were put back in the crawl space and the house looked beautiful.

Peachie ran to see Santa come in off the fire truck.
At the Santa day they were giving away a toy to each child. Some were big, some were small. I am not sure how many years ago they started setting this toy out but something tells me that no one was looking to get in shape.

Here's our tree this year. I tried to take pictures of some of the other decorations around the house but I am not a very good photographer so they came out really fuzzy or the flash went off. Thanks for reading my post.

Orphan Flu Round 3?

2008-12-13T10:05:00.002-09:00

I don't know what is going on here but last night around 11pm just as I layed down in a nice hot bubbly bath with a new book I heard the all to familiar sound of a child vomiting. Yes, once again I found myself mopping up the dinner contents of my baby girls belly. This one was a hard one as there was quite a bit of it. To make matters worse Aaron won't be home today as he is now working 72 hours on 24 off through Christmas Eve. That means he will be home 2 days between now and then. We don't have our tree up yet. Its hard to feel merry.
So I got the girl all cleaned up. She got to sit in my bath. This time she was really weak afterwards. Even today she is just starting to perk up. We had planned to go see Santa. This is the "real" Santa. He arrives either by helicopter or fire truck. Its looking like a helicopter day as the weather is clear. I am waiting to the last minute to decide if I am going to drag her out or not. I kinda "need" a few things at Wally world too, as my fall decorations aren't put away yet. I need to get a bigger tote and I wanted to print our photo cards so I could get those out on Monday.
So if you could send us get well and stay well vibes I would really appreciate it!

A Funny Song About Kodiak

2008-12-12T18:42:00.003-09:00

This song is so true! My mom bought the DVD at a craft fair and happened to meet Mr Whitekeys the song talks about how it always rains in Kodiak which is true, but when they came to film it was one of the sunniest days in Kodiak. Unfortunatley, the song is cut short by a plea to buy the DVD so you don't get the whole thing.

The Orphan Flu Returns

2008-12-11T20:28:00.002-09:00

We almost made it but alas Eli scummed to the force that was the orphan flu! Actually, Peachie had a little touch of it too. I don't know what it is but I am pretty sure it happens for every mom. Peachie woke up at 4 am on Wednesday crying and I just new that she had thrown up. Something about the way she was crying so anyway Aaron was the first one to get to her because I pushed him out of bed! We got her all cleaned up and then she seemed better after that. She felt a little yucky and tired all day but we were leaving that night so I wastrying to get her better. You know with mom power! Please Lord don't let my child be sick on the flight. Then Eli started complaining that he wasn't feeling good either. The poor kid had to go to the airport and lay down on the bench waiting for our flight. That was when I looked over and saw that look on his face. You know the one. So we ran to the restroom. Let me tell you if your kids ever puke grape juice. Well, its exactly the same color and smells terrible. After he emptied his belly he said. "Wow, I feel a lot better can I have a chicken sandwich?" Sheesh! Thank goodness our flights only an hour. Although you are flying in basically a pop can powered by a slingshot.

Our Trip So Far

2008-12-07T14:23:00.003-09:00

Well, we have big in Anchorage for about 5 days now and we are having a great time. Wednesday we met the Koehlers at IHOP for breakfast and then hit Toys R Us and Target! Target was fun we didn't look at everything. Its funny that whenever we get to these huge shopping centers we get a little overwhelmed. It doesn't help that its Christmas and everyone is shopping. The kids were just dying to get to my moms house and see Grandma and Kierra (her foster dog).
We went to dinner at Benni Hannas with the Koehlers that night and had a really great time.
We have been to the mall and enjoyed just spending time relaxing at Grandma's. We did find that we had to go and get internet here at grandmas house for a few days. I have a few class assignments still due in and needed to get on the internet to research and turn stuff in. Aarorn and I took the boys to an Aces game and that was a lot of fun. We didn't know it was Millitariy Appreciation night. There were over 600 service memberes there in uniform and many more not in uniform . They did a lot of special millitary appreciation ceremonies. We have been sledding a couple of times too which is great since there is not any snow left in Kodiak. We don't head home until Wednesay so I am srue tat we are ging to have alot more fun stuff to do.

Target is my favorite Store

2008-11-30T13:50:00.002-09:00

Well it has been a very sick week here at the Griffin house. With Peachie being the first to get the the flu we have all taken our turn. Wednesday we are getting off the island and I hope that a change in scenery will help kill some of the germs for us. Kodiak can be a very contagious little town. Once the germs start spreading around they see to multiply. Hopefully, this trip will clear things up for all of us.

Thanksgiving is on Wendesday

2008-11-24T21:24:00.003-09:00

Thanksgiving is an interesting time of year at the Griffin house. We get it twice! I think God wants to remind us how much he has truly blessed us and give us ample opportunity to count our blessings. Out of ten Thanksgivings,eleven counting while we were dating, Aaron and I have spent two together at home. Lots of couples and families work around crazy schedules and sadly, lengthy deployments. I thank God that my husband is safe and warm at his fire station just down the road and not thousands of miles and months from home. We make the best of it. This year we are cooking a ham and all the fixings to celebrate on Wednesday. We will put out the fancy plates and cloth napkins. Watch a new movie and play board games and pretend like its Thanksgiving anyway. Thanksgiving day we would usually join Aaron for a big dinner at the fire station but this year plans are a little different. The station is being remodeled and the kitchen isn't finished yet. So the kids and I were invited to a friends house. Aaron will go to the chow hall.......hmmmm. Maybe, I will bring him a plate of food from Bronwyn's house.
I added this neat program that lets you add your voice to pictures. To get the full effect click the little play button in the middle of the picture. There is about a four second delay between slides or you can click the big arrow button. This is one of the last projects for my class about using technology in the classroom. Only about a week and a half left!

The Orphan Flu

2008-11-22T13:29:00.004-09:00

I was really hoping we would have been able to get through this week without it. Early this morning it claimed it first victim in the Griffin house. Poor Peachie woke up really sick. The reason for the name is because many of the cast members in Annie! have taken their turn getting it. I guess when you spend that much time in close quarters with 79 people you are bound to get sick. I have been bleaching and hand washing all morning to try and keep the germs at bay. Tonight is the last night of performances and I plan to 1)Spend as much time as I can away from the other adults and children in the green room. 2)Bring my own snacks to avoid the community snack table where who knows what kinds of bugs are growing.
Aaron and the boys went sledding today because we got a lot of snow this week. I am sure they are having an awesome time. We think we have finally reached the point where are kids are old enough to enjoy winter activities like sledding and ice skating without melting after a only half an hour. It is going to be a fun winter this year I hope.

Calebs Birthday Pictures

2008-11-19T20:59:00.005-09:00

Last week was Caleb's Birthday. He turned 7! I can't believe he is that old already. We had a great week helping him celebrate. We went to lunch at a new restaurant here in town called Angelo's. They serve Greek and Italian food. The food was good the service needs work but hey its a new place to eat so that okay by me. We had a party for him at the bowling alley and it was a lot of fun. It was an evening party and the weather was crummy so we had almost the whole bowling alley to ourselves.
As you can see he had a Mario themed birthday!
Caleb was also Mario for Halloween. Oh yeah, I didn't post the Halloween pics...I'll have to do that too.

Being silly showing off the gifts he got from his friends. From us he got a gift card for Old Navy. He love to buy clothes and pick out what he thinks is "fashion" so now he can go and get what ever he wants with his card.

Kodiak A Great Place to Live

2008-11-18T09:37:00.003-09:00

You would never have guessed that 6 years ago we arrived in Kodiak not knowing whether we would be happy here or not. God has blessed us so much in the years that we have been here. Its crazy to think that I can picture my children graduating high school here. It may not happen, God may be preparing a new place for us but for now we are content with our lives on this little island.
This is an online book I put together for one of my classes. It shows just a small abount of the beautiful sights around Kodiak.

Keep Alaska Red!

2008-11-04T12:50:00.002-09:00

Well, today is the day! Finally we here the end of it! Whatever way it turns out. I voted for McCain today. As Elisabeth Hasselbeck calls it I am an Americain! In fact both Aaron and I voted straight down our party line. We both voted for Don Young and Ted Stevens. Here's the thing...I really didn't want to. The problem with voting for Begich and Berkowitz is that it gives the Democrats a super majority especially if they win the Presidency and no matter how many times Mark says he will vote against his party on issues such as gun control and ANWR I don't trust him anymore then I trust the fact that Steven's should still be running. I do wish that Parnell was on the ticket.
So here is our strategy. Say Stevens makes it into office and is sentenced to prison or is otherwise unable to perform his duties. Sarah will be able to appoint whomever (Parnell) she wants to as his replacement. If Sarah is VP (fingers crossed) then Parnell as her replacement for Governor will be able to appoint whomever he wants. We shall see how it all turns out. Were going over to the neighbors tonight to watch the results come in. Were bringing a cake to either celebrate or lick our wounds. Either way we get chocolate cake!

A Busy Week

2008-11-02T21:21:00.002-09:00

I know I haven't been hanging out around here a lot. I have been working on several really cool projects for my education blog. One of my classes this year is based on using technology in the classroom and so I have been working on projects for that. So far we have made digital video slide shows and then working with a program called comic life. The funny thing is that Eli is in a technology centered class for third and fourth grade. It is called one to one and is mainly used in the more remote classrooms in other parts of Alaska but his teacher received a grant to try it here in Kodiak. Anyway, he is basically learning everything I am learning! So when I say I have to do a project with Comic Life he is like "Oh, comic life I have done that....." So if you want to see what I have been working on over there just click on the linky over on the right!
I did finish up the kids' Halloween costumes. I took a Math test this week and assignment, finished a tech project, and wrote my 8 page paper I thought was due next week but was due this week. Phew! I was so crazy! Thankfully, Aaron is my secretary and he typed my whole paper and played Mr. Mom at home cooking dinner and taking kids to school, piano and play practice. I love that man! I really couldn't do anything without his love and support. Baby, You Rock!
I hope to post some pictures tomorrow of the things we did for Halloween. We had a great time!

Quick Check In

2008-10-19T16:30:00.001-08:00

We all had a pretty good week here. It is beginning to get colder. Actually, it is down right freezing now coupled with the darkness it is getting harder to get up in the morning. This week the kids have school only three days to account for the parent teacher conferences. So we plan on sleeping in!
Eli is scheduled to have practice for Annie 6 days this week! Which means we will be spending a lot of time at the High School. Thankfully, he is up for the challenge.
I did really well on my math test this week I got a B which is great for someone like me who has to really work on math. I was happy with my grade.
I also spent some time working on the kids Halloween costumes. I will post pictures when they are done I am really excited for them to trunk or treat this year as their costumes are super fun!
I found some time to finish this dress I had started forever ago for Peachie.

I made this the other day. These are the baby hats the kids wore home from the hospital.

Isn't it neat! I really like how it came out. Eventually, I might embroider their names underneath but for now I wanted to get them up on the wall.
That's all for now, talk to you guys later!

I need to take a bloggy break!

2008-10-12T21:34:00.003-08:00

I will be taking a bit of a break here. Because school is really picking up I will be doing a bit of blogging *here*. I have a math test and a Psych test this week and a 6 page paper. Oh, don't you worry about me I can handle it! I will just be a busy mama and the house....well it can be a little messy right?

Last Thoughts of Japan

2008-10-02T00:21:00.001-08:00

I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to come here and experience some of the culture. I really wish I would have been able to get away from the Tokyo metroplex and see some of the more traditional countryside. From what I’ve heard though, “Traditional” countryside is about the same as it is in America. Meaning, people in rural Japan live in the same size homes and apartments as people in urban areas, they just have bigger yards!

There are places, just like in the US, where you can see 200 year old homes and water mills and such. I desperately wanted to see these…and find Ninja’s. But only having a 2 day weekend didn’t really leave a lot of time to do that. I was able to see some of the stereotypical behaviors that are rather humorous, and indicative of what I understand of the Japanese culture at large. The need to please, to not offend, to be polite is a reflection of honor on themselves, not necessarily a reflection of what they think of you.

I’ve always heard how much more hard working the people of Japan are than Americans. I agree and disagree with this general statement. I think just like the U.S., there are hard working driven individuals and then there are the slackers. I’ve seen both in the Japanese work force here. Honestly, there are a lot of things that feel very similar to me between our two countries. I’m not sure if this is because of the tremendous American influence since the end of World War II or if this is more of a world phenomenon. I haven’t traveled extensively world wide, so I can’t speak intelligently on that, but I know Japan feels like it’s struggling to be like the U.S. and struggling to be itself at the same time.

I think a quote from the “Last Samurai” said something about Japan struggling between the old and the new. Clearly Japan has embraced the new, at least as far as technology goes. The struggle now is very clearly between the East and the West, America being the West. I once heard and old man in the US talking about American pride and how you see guys in the US getting tattoos with Japanese symbols and how you don’t see Japanese people getting American lettering tattoos. He was partly right, because that is how it is in America. But here in Japan, 9 out of 10 T-shirts were English. It was hard to find Japanese lettering on clothing at all. Heck, even the T-shirts I bought from the Tokyo Fire Dept. were in English. So to say that there aren’t Japanese people infatuated with America is a little obtuse.

One thing that I consider undeniable in regards to international travel is how much it makes me appreciate my home. As much as I couldn’t imagine being anything but an American when I was a child, that feeling gets more ingrained the more I see of the rest of the world. Of course I’m just comfortable with what’s familiar to me, but that doesn’t take away from the great things I know and expect from my country. Evidences in racial equality, equality of the sexes, true freedom of speech, a classless social system are just the tip of what I see America standing for. A place where a black man, son of an immigrant, can run for president, or a blue collar dock worker can change his stars and own a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. America is unique, and I see why so many people in the world both hate and love us…I think they want to be us. Jealousy always walks the fine line with hate.
So I’m happy I’m home and I love you all!

Campfire Picture

2008-09-25T16:08:00.002-08:00

We had a beautiful weekend and were able to spend some time with our friends. One of our favorite things to do in Kodiak is roast hotdogs and marshmallows on the fire pit. We had a lot of fun with baby Malia and Sherry.

Weird Dream

2008-09-23T18:34:00.004-08:00

From Aaron:

For some odd reason, whenever I travel, I have the weirdest dreams. I think it has something to do with lightly sleeping in unfamiliar places. This dream probably has more to do with the inordinate amounts of news I’ve been watching over here….since there isn’t much else on. Either way, it’s weird, and here it is…

So I have gone to school to have lunch with the boys...sitting at their tables in the cafeteria. It just so happens that on this day, President Bush is visiting the school and decides to sit at the table with us. He’s very personable and is having a good time joking with the boys. On this same day, not to be outdone by the Republican machine, Obama happens to be at the school and decides to sit with us at the table also...note, there are no secret service or other attendants or anything.

So Obama sits down....and we all kind of look at each other. A minute goes by and no one says anything...and Pres. Bush and I making rolling eye contact...then Obama stands up and says to me, “Well I guess I'll head out...Tell Peach I’m sorry I missed her today.” Because everyone knows Peachie, including Obama, then turns to walk away. President Bush looks at me, shrugs his shoulders, and under his breath says, “What’s up with that guy?” in his typical joking President way. Obama had stopped and was standing behind the President as though waiting to hear what else he had to say, and I gave the President the “keep quiet cough cough, he’s right behind you sign”. At this the President covers his mouth and laughs with me and the boys…which was when I woke up.

I know weird...I'm not an Obama hater, I don't love him either, but I thought it was a funny dream. I guess my perception of Bush was someone I'd have agood time hangin around, where as Obama was...going through the motions. Sorry if I offend any Obama lovers out there!

TOKYO!

2008-09-23T02:09:00.008-08:00

Well I got out to Tokyo this past weekend. I wanted to get on yesterday and make a post but I was just way too beat after Monday's class to go over to the Internet place and do.....so here it is a day late. Just a few pics....

The first is Akihabra....basically "Electric City". You can find anything and everything electronic down there....from patch cable, to computer components, to software.....to uh, weird Japanese sim dating things...you name it electrical and they had it.

The next is the moat around the Imperial Palace where the Japanese Emperor still lives. You can't get inside except for 2 days a year....this wasn't one of them. Either way, the place is awe inspiring.

We then went up Tokyo Tower, which is basically the Eiffel tower...only taller, and not as rickety. This is a photo taken in the direction of the base...somewhere out there.....in the never ending city. No really...Tokyo is huge! I think Godzilla has a summer home here!

The last place we stopped was the famous Shibuya Crossing. This is the intersection you see on all the shows about Tokyo and how populated it is. It's amazing how many people there are. I looked it up, it's 14000 per square kilometer there! Anyhow, I went up to the 2nd floor of one of the corners into Starbucks and pushed some people out of the way so I could get next to the window and take a picture!

Well that's all for Tokyo, I took a lot more pictures, but I just don't want to post them all here. It really is an experience being here, and I truly feel fortunate to be able to see this culture and the people. There's a lot of things I see just from watching them on the trains and how they interact with each other. For instance, it's rude to talk on your cell phone on the train, you are expected to text only, and there's a section at the end reserved to elderly or expecting women to be able to sit down. People either don't talk or chat in very hushed voices on the trains so as not to bother anyone else.

There's a lot of unspoken rules like that. Another one is when you're on an escalator, you are expected to stand to the left, in order to let people who want to walk to go by on the right. But the dumb American I am, I stood there, and this totally goth young Japanese guy came up behind me and just waited....didn't say a thing until I turned around and saw him and moved saying sorry. He just smiled and went on his way...I'm not sure what he was thinking...but outwardly he was polite, despite his appearance. That is Typical Japanese, not the exception! I wish America would take some manner lessons from this place.

I'll post tomorrow about a dream I had last night that Melissa thought was funny. Love you all and talk to you soon!

What We Did Last Week but no picutres!

2008-09-22T10:56:00.008-08:00

I added pictures at the end!

I think I will give myself (and Aaron) the bloggy consistency star for the week! We are rockin this blog this week!

Okay so I promised Aaron I would post pictures of the kids and what we had been busy doing this week but I haven't yet! Sorry Honey! The kids were of course in school all week which was great they had a busy week. Wednesday is Awana day and we have 17 Cobbie's which is crazy because we have a tiny room to keep them all in. Thursday was Open House at school. Again, I didn't take any pictures but we had fun with the teachers and the kids got to eat an ice cream sundae at school. Saturday we spent time at home and I got to get a little sewing done and then we went to the pool Saturday night. Caleb spent the day with his friend Logan. Logan's dad is a commercial fisherman who also repairs Crab pots on his off season. Caleb and Logan spent the day with John (Logan's dad) at his shop climbing all over the crab pots! I wish I had a picture of that! We also went to open swim at the pool Saturday night. Sunday after church we went to a bonfire at my friend Sherrie's house. Sherrie and her husband Steve just adopted a baby named Melia she is so cute and a very good baby. The kids are really starting to miss Aaron and I am too. Two weeks is just long enough to really start to miss him.

OK so I came back and finished this post later and actually did take a picture. This is Peachies new bed. I tried to get a good shot but her room is small and the kiddos were in a post bath pre-bedtime crazy mood.

Sarah Palin is My Hero!

2008-09-22T08:41:00.003-08:00

Check this totally true and really awesome story my friend Sarah shared on her blog. It will bring tears to you eyes!
click here Sarah Palin

JAPAN!

2008-09-17T19:14:00.004-08:00

Well I've been in Japan for about 5 days now. Wow, to say it wasn't what I expected is a little bit of and understatment.

1. Tokyo is HUGE. I expected a large city, but Tokyo is amazingly massive. For instance, cities usually have one downtown, or an area of extreme high rises that you would consider downtown. Tokyo has like 15 of these mini downtowns. With each area of the city kind of having it's own business center. In between these major districts are the standard urban sprawl.

2. Smog is crazy here. I was expecting something a little cleaner, but it's thick and really sucks, cause most day's you can't see further than a few miles, so there's no real city scape to enjoy.

3. The neighborhoods are so cool. When you leave the main gate, it's one of the main highways through Tokyo, though we're on the West side and nearing the end of the city, the traffic is non-stop. But since the buildings and so close to each other and connecting roads so narrow, the incredible noise from that is almost non-exhistant a block or 2 into the communities. We went walking last night and got lost, and at 7 o'clock the streets were almost deserted, and it was so quiet you'd think it was 4 am or something. So even though it seemed the city at large was dirty, these small communitees were very quiet and reserved and clean. Refreshing.

Here's a few photos I took around...

I thought I got away from this joker over here.... :(

Here's our sweet ride to run about the base in! 0-60 in 10.4....minutes!

Tokyo...or Mexico City? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference!

Well that's all for now, we went and ate at some noodle shop last night. They're everywhere, but I forgot my camera with the pictures back at my room....no in room internet in GOV'T billeting....are we the most advanced country in the world or what? So I'll post some more, or try to post some more tomorrow. I had to do a little jiggying with stuff to get to post here at all. Anynhow, take care, love you all and talk to you soon.

Aaron

"Jesus is Way Cooler then Spiderman"

2008-09-16T21:08:00.003-08:00

Tonight we were studying our verses for Awana. Calebs verse was 1 John 4:14 The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. I wanted to see if Caleb could at least understand the words that he was memorizing so I started to dissect the verse word by word. We got through all the words with no problems until the word Savior. I asked Caleb if he knew what a savior did and why we needed one. He didn't hesitate with his response. "A savior is like a super hero, like Spiderman. Except Jesus is way cooler then Spiderman, he can spray His webs much farther." Hmm..I was trying to remain straight faced here as to find out exactly where his little mind was going. Silly me I said to him "Caleb I don't know if Jesus can spray webs." Calebs response "Yes, He can the Bible says Jesus can do anything, so that means He can spray webs farther then Spiderman."

My Sweetheart is on the Road

2008-09-14T18:31:00.002-08:00

Is he turning Japanese! Aaron left me alone for two weeks to go to Japan for training. Have fun honey and I will keep posting pictures of the kids for you. Maybe he will check in photo's for us?

This is no ordianary week

2008-09-14T14:00:00.008-08:00

I wanted to get to this story last week but I had a lot of homework and didn't get to it. So here we go! It all started about a week and a half ago. I got a call form Mr. Cobaugh the principal of the christian school I graduated from telling me he and his son Daniel were going to be in Kodiak hunting. They wanted to go to dinner or something if the opportunity came up but they would only be on island for the weekend. Daniel and Tom had been hunting in Kodiak before and we were able to get together both Daniel and Michale come over for track or cross country meets every year as well. I think the boys must like the fact that they know someone here because they always call us and ask us to come to their meets. Daniel really likes Aaron a lot. Daniel and Michael have a form of autism and actually they were the inspiration for me to want to learn how to work with kids with autism and other developmental disorders. I have known the boys since they were two and three.
Okay, so we didn't hear from them and I assumed with the crummy weather on Sunday the would simply just be to busy. That was until 10:30 Monday night when Tom (it feels weird to call him that!) but hey were all adults, called us form the ER. Yep, apparently he and Daniel had ridden out the storm Sunday and then Monday they got a goat. The rain had really soaked the middle of the island and Tom slipped while going down to get the goat and dislocated his shoulder. As a result they were unable to field the goat and had to wait for the float plane to pick them up and take them to the ER leaving the goat and all their gear. The call was to ask Aaron if he knew how to field a goat and could go with Daniel to get everything. Now, Aaron is not really the hunter gatherer type and has never had any experience. Thankfully we know enough people in Kodiak who do so at 10:30 at night we started calling people in the church directory. We scored when our church pastor said he could go with Aaron and Daniel out to get everything. Well Tuesday proved to be a no fly day. We ended up bringing Tom and Daniel back to our house. We had a great time. Daniel played Wii and Peach talked Mr. Cobaugh into a few rounds of Go Fish, Princess memory and War. It was also a great excuse for a King Crab dinner. Yum! Wednesday we needed to find a new person to go out with the guys to get the goat thankfully we were able to find someone to help. They guys were able to fly out and recover the goat it was still intact and gather up all the gear. It made for quite a busy week as the Cobaugh's didn't leave until Thursday but it was so neat to be able to spend time together. On a side note while Aaron and I were discussing who we should call Tom overheard us say we should call a guy named Bruce Beehler. Apparently, they had been in collage together. So Aaron and Tom went up to the Beehlers house to "drop" in for visit. they hadn't seen each other in like 20 years. Totally random huh! They weren't able to go out with them but they did lend the use of their freezer.

Zuko really liked Mr. Cobaugh
These scanned pictures came out weird but I hope you get the idea. It ended up being really cool for Aaron to fly to a part of the island he or I hadn't seen. This is smack dab in the middle of the island. There was a lot of snow and so many lakes they dont even have names.

I love this picuture of him holding that dead goat! I asked him why he had such a mad or whatever was going on face he said that he was standing on an incline and that goat was heavy! When I asked him is hunting might be a new hobby for him he said that maybe if he had the whole experience instead of just the messy part he might like to try it.

A Quick Note

2008-09-10T13:53:00.002-08:00

I know I haven't shared in a while. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to blog about. Then when I do get a cool experience to blog about I find I have no time! I do have a really cool story to share of our amazingly busy week. I spent the better part of the week with the principal of my Christian school Tom Cobaugh and his son. I have pictures of my husband with a dead animal. (something I never expected to see!) I spent a weekend on Woody Island at the ladies retreat. It was so awesome and the speaking was powerful. I enjoyed the fellowship with my girlfriends as well. I think I got like 7 hours of sleep for the whole weekend. Right now I have tons of math homework to catch up on and a blog entry for my tech class but I wanted to share this awesome video. You may have already seen it. I don't usually catch these things until they have been all over the Internet but just the same here it is. Make sure you watch it all the way to the end.

Last Days of Summer and First Day of School

2008-08-31T15:54:00.009-08:00

Well, the week leading up to the first day of school proved to be a great one. We finally took the opportunity to revisit Fossil Beach. We hadn't been to this side of the Island in two years so it was a long time coming.
The kids had a great time playing in the water. I don't know what it is about kids that can allow them to withstand that kind of cold but they had a blast.

Caleb was actually knocked down by one big wave. He got up laughing like crazy!

Naomi played kitchen with these logs. She insisted on wearing her bathing suit even though it was really windy outside.

Beach Bums!

The boys are showing you which grades they are in this year. Caleb is in First Grade with Mrs. Baker as his teacher. She is an awesome teacher, Eli had her for First Grade as well. There are a lot of kids in his class from kindy and several from our church so that was way cool. Plus, Mrs. Baker is a Christian and very sweet. I had to do submit hours for course work last semester and Mrs. Baker was my host teacher. I will be a classroom mom for Caleb this year and I am really looking forward to spending more time with her. She is a great role model for my teaching years ahead.

I wanted to snap a picture of Eli in his class on the first day of school but by the time I got to his room his teacher was in full swing. Third grade is going to bring allot more responsibility. Eli is totally up to the challenge and can't wait. He is in a two year program with the same teacher, with an emphasis on computers. Each child will be loaned a Mac book (I am so jelous) and learn word processing and technology skills. His teacher was careful to remind the students that they still had to learn how to look things up in a book and write cursive and all the standard school stuff right along with the technology.
There are allot of really cool kids in his class as well, from church and the community that he was happy to see again. He will also be spending time in the GT class so he is a busy boy.

Peach enjoyed a solid week of mom and dad to herself all day. We went for walks, did pre-school work and even went to Taco Bell without the boys. She will start pre-school at the church up the street from us on Tuesday and is really excited. Do you like her hair? I am trying to get better at doing hair and really want to learn how to french braid.

School starts for me on Wednesday. I have 9 credits this semester. A math class designed for teachers. I have already read the first chapter and I think I may enjoy it. It's about teaching the concept of math and not really about solving problems. I am taking a Child Development class by DVD it won't be a hard class and I have my little subjects for observation living in own laboratory! My last class is a Technology class for teachers. I will create a blog to turn in all my assignments on. Things like you tube videos and flicker slide shows. Yeah for me I can do most of that already!
Aaron spent a lot of time this past month at work and in Dallas for training but right now he is home on an 8 day break which has been great. He is gearing up for two more weeks of training in Tokyo, Japan. How cool is that!

I can blog again its raining today!

2008-08-31T09:16:00.002-08:00

I promise I will update the blog today when we get home from church! We have had perfect weather for nearly two weeks..everyone knows you can't blog when it's sunny out! There are lots of pictures to show with the first day of school and last days of summer.
The weather actually made a really crazy turn. It feels like the Kodiak version of Guttov out there its nuts!

I Have Resorted to Bribery!

2008-08-18T12:22:00.003-08:00

I know I'm not the first mom to do it! I knew it was going to start getting a little crazy when I began counting the days(hour....minutes)left until I can put my kids on the wagon train to parental freedom that is the big yellow school bus and send them to 6 hours of stimulation that does not require my supervision.
It may not have been in as much as a hurry if Aaron had been home fore more then 4 days in the last 3 weeks. (I am serious people only 96 hours) and he is only home for 24 hours all of this week.
So, the bribery I am referring too includes a bowl of glass beads and three canisters. I told the kids they could earn a bead, pebble thingies for helping me out around the house. You know mow the lawn, make a 5 course meal scrub the toilets..oh, wait I already do that. Well I don't mow the lawn. No, I mean things like keep their rooms picked up, vacuum the kitchen floor, put their laundry away. As they earn their pebbles they can use them to "pay" for privileges. Twenty minutes of game boy, wii,or webkinz will cost you a pebble. A candy bar at the store, a pebble. You get the idea. We started this morning and I had three wonderful little helpers running around at my bidding. It was great! The house was picked up and I had time to sit down and do something for myself.
Oh, and because I am the giver of the pebbles I have the threat I mean opportunity to take the pebbles away! (muhaha) Fighting with siblings(minus), not following directives the first time(minus), back talking or bad attitude, good guess(minus). The kind of power that gives a parent is exhilarating!

A Week in Review

2008-08-10T16:27:00.003-08:00

We had a big week around here. Naomi is in ballet at the Little School of Dance for a two week dance camp.

The boys were in Bible School all week which meant we had to set the alarm "gasp" and actually be ready and out the door by 8:45. I suppose this week was a good dry one for when school starts again. Only two more weeks to go!
Here is a great picture of the kids at the Eagle River Nature Center where Aaron and I were married.

And here is our family 10 years later.

Happy Birthday Princess Peach!

2008-08-01T17:07:00.009-08:00

I can't believe 4 years have come and gone. Today Peach told me that now she is 4 and I need to teach her how to read all of her books in her room. She is such a great little helper for me around the house. We love her so much and thank God for giving her to us.

The Griffin's Are Back in Town!

2008-07-29T17:58:00.006-08:00

Yep, we made it home from our super long but lots of fun vacation. We had a great time in Hawaii, the kids had a great time with grandma. Everyone was happy almost all the time. Back in Kodiak now and the weather is smoking nice. Retuning from Hawaii's hot weather to the cold summer weather of Anchorage this year was criminal. Thankfully, we returned to Kodiak and the sun came with us! The last two days have been awesome with 65 degree's yesterday and 69 degree's today. We hit the beaches quick.
Unfortunately all that play has left me with a bit of a head cold and no intention of unpacking the bags and bags of junk.
Here are few pictures of some of the stuff we did in Hawaii and in Anchorage. I plan to make a Flikr account so if anyone want to see more they can.

Lava flowing into the ocean was really cool!

You shouldn't play with lava steam!

You might get burned!

Big Blog Update With Lots of Pictures!

2008-07-05T08:04:00.008-08:00

Well, this week has been super busy. We made the ferry trip to Homer and it was a lot of fun. The water was so calm we made it in to port 2 hours ahead of schedule. We then drove straight to Eagle River to see Grandma. So far we have been shopping and playing. I guess I will just get on to the pictures so you can see what we have been up to.

The Saga was leaving port when we were leaving.

Notice this No Smoking sign? When Peach saw this sign she pointed to it and said "If any ghosts try to get in here we tell them "No ghosts allowed". It was so funny!

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind!

I think I got our Christmas card for this year.

It has been warm in Anchorage so the kids have been playing in Grandma's backyard a lot.

Our 10 year anniversary dinner at Orso's our favorite place to go on a fancy date.

The boys got to play with some really big toys at the 3rd of July fireworks at the park near grandma's house. We walked up and sat in the grass to watch. They do them at midnight on the 3rd of July here in ER.

And here is the picture of Eli in costume for his play. Isn't he a nerdy boy?
Now, Aaron and I are off to Hawaii so we will check back in later from the Islands! Woot!

Swim Lessons!

2008-06-26T19:27:00.005-08:00

Caleb did and awesome job in swimming lessons this week. Here he was finally able to reach the bottom of the pool and get the disk!

Peachie did a great job waiting for swimming lessons to be over!
Eli was upstairs in the HS auditorium practicing for the play he is in tomorrow. I plan to get pictures tomorrow of the performance. It's a play called Twinderella...a spoof on the story of Cinderella. I will share more later with his pictures.

Talk about sticker shock! This is what it cost us to fill the Durango today!

Go Alaska!

2008-06-24T10:06:00.002-08:00

Imagine our surprise when we caught this on Fox News yesterday! I really like and respect Sarahs political views.

The Countdown Has Begun!

2008-06-21T12:35:00.003-08:00

That's right we leave one week from today!
The endless list have started. I love to make list of every possible thing we may need to pack. I also made the lists of stuff to buy!
We will be in Anchorage 5 days before heading to Hawaii so we can buy a few things to compliment our shorts and t-shirts. We will have access to a laundry room at our Bungalow on Kona so we don't need a whole lot of summer clothes. Good thing as we won't really need to wear them pretty much ever again. Sunday was Fathers Day and we had a great time. We went to Mayflower Beach with some of our really good friends. At 64 degrees it was our hottest day yet enjoy the pictures!

Fluffer-nutter sandwiches are yummy!

Caleb's buddy Logan is impervious to the cold water and was actually sitting in this tide pool!

Summer Pictures

2008-06-12T18:35:00.006-08:00

Here are a few of the things we have been doing so far this summer.

We dug a fire pit in the backyard. Because my hubby the fire fighter is so fire aware we had to keep a hose near by to put out the burning grass. Oh that's a neighbor kid with Caleb not Eli.

We have been to the beach quite a bit already this summer. Just about any sunny day we are outside. I myself have been battling the Lawn Wars. I don't even want to talk about that!

We took a walk on National Trails Day. This is one of our favorite places to walk and enjoy nature. Fort Abercrombie(and Fitch!)
So yep, we are just over two weeks into summer break and we are already busy, busy. Next week we have swimming lessons and Musical Theatre Camp.

Which Princess Are You!

2008-06-11T23:54:00.002-08:00

You Are Snow White!

Pure and trusting. You are a gentle soul who can get along with just about anyone. Everyone you meet instantly falls in love with you. How can they resist? You have a pure, lovable nature that's irresistable. Just don't trust everyone who comes across your path.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I can't wait to take my kids to Disney World. Especially, my own little princess.

Swimsuit for Hawaii!

2008-06-07T15:37:00.003-08:00

I just ordered my new swimsuit for Hawaii. I have never spent that much on a swimsuit. I really hope it was worth the money.

I chose this suit! I like the option of lengthening or shortening the skirt. Plus my friend Beth reminded me this suit would be great for sittitng down at a beach side restaurant without feeling under dressed as in a bikini bottom.

Little Things

2008-06-06T19:17:00.002-08:00

My children are needy.

They make many requests through out the day.

Can we have a snack?

Can you we watch TV?

Can I have a drink?

Case in point we went to the park this evening the sun finally came out this evening. So we jumped in the car to go to the park.
Apparently the kids really worked up a thirst because on the way home Caleb asked me three times to please make him "a nice cool glass of water" when we get home.

Well, I didn't get to it right away. I don't know how I forgot! So when he asked me again at home I had to admit I was a little bit testy. Thank goodness I checked and realized an important lesson. By taking only two minutes to fulfill his simple request I was honoring him. If I can stop being busy with house and personal stuff long enough to just help him with a happy attitude and we are both blessed. Not to mention I needed some water too!

Oh, and that is a stock photo....I don't put fresh cut lemons in my kid's water!

What a pain in the........

2008-06-05T22:58:00.002-08:00

back! I have some serious back pain going on and so I haven't been in a blogging mood lately. Thankfully I saw a new chiropractor on Wednesday. I was a little worried as I have not had good chiro experiences but this women did the trick. She used some deep pressure point massage that allowed my super tight back muscles to relax. I go to see her again tomorrow for another treatment. I am so relieved to be out of pain. I had been in constant pain for nearly two weeks!

Music Video's on Youtube

2008-05-30T21:07:00.002-08:00

I love these video's. I have found quite a few of my favorite songs on here. This is one of my new favorites. I hope you enjoy it too!

Crab Fest Crazy!

2008-05-29T10:06:00.006-08:00

Crab Fest is annual event here in Kodiak. It goes back to the days when as they say Crab was King in Kodiak. Crab isn't as big here now, all though here in the next few weeks the guys from the show Deadliest Catch will be in town preparing for there salmon tendering. We only watch the show every now and then but I will see if I can get a picture.
The weather this year was amazing! I don't think the temperature got much over 46 degrees and there was a fierce wind blowing off the still snow covered mountains in the harbor but it didn't rain, not one day!
There is allot to do at Crab Fest and a lot to eat. You may as well not even go if you don't plan on gaining at least 5 pounds.

Peachie asked for "meat on a handle" which is basically beef or pork with BBQ sauce. They are super yummy! We had to try all four vendors to pick the best ones.

The Crab Fest also has rides. They bring them over on the ferry. We have yet to get to Disney or any big amusement parks. (Just waiting till everyone can enjoy the big rides) anyway my guys were big enough to ride some of the bigger rides this year. There is only like 5 rides but they don't mind they rode this hanglide one over and over.

Here we are just having fun!

After looking at all these photo's I noticed my mom was missing. She came to spend the weekend with us and enjoy CF. Hmmm...I need to find the missing Gramma.

Bloggy Goodness!

2008-05-23T16:39:00.002-08:00

I have now entered the world of blog makeover artist! I found a lot of really good advice out there but this spot here was super helpful, straight forward and easy! I did almost all of this on my own, with only a tiny bit of help from the computer guru that is my husband. It was so much fun I plan to try even more applications. Who knew that playing around with HTML would be so addictive? Oh, and I got all of my great backgrounds for free from here.
I hope you enjoy the new blog! We are off to pick up Grandma and go to the Crab Fest!

Obama Claims He's Visited 57 States

2008-05-16T09:02:00.001-08:00

Can you believe this guy! Just passing this little gem along the blog highway.

Nosy Blogging

2008-05-15T19:12:00.003-08:00

This is something I love about blogging! Don't you think it's fun to click around on the blog links? I am a pretty nosy person in general-Aaron is not! Anyway I find it fun to see how other people live. I came across a blog with a link to this great idea for taking more pictures. I would love to be able to do that. Photography has always been a mystery to me. I am totally jealous of my friend Becca who takes awesome pictures! I have quite a lot of blog envy if I do say so myself. It helps to have someone to keep you motivated so if anyone wants to try out the picture a day thing I could use a partner. Maybe I can learn a few things about taking better pictures.

I am playing around with the blog

2008-05-13T21:48:00.006-08:00

As you can tell I was up late making changes to the blog. I added the music! Isn't it great? You should check out the website playlist.com. You can search and add all kinds of music and it's Free! Have fun with it!

April Sunshine Brings May Snow and Rain!

2008-05-09T10:38:00.003-08:00

Yes, you heard me right May snow! Not once but twice this month! For some reason I can't find the snow pictures but believe that is certainly not something I would make up. Since the snow ti has been raining for at least 10 days. It's just yucky hear right now but hopefully we can get all the rain/snow out of the way for Crab Fest which for all Kodiakans marks the beginning of summer!

We were fortunate to get off the island this past weekend and go shopping in Anchortown. We rode with Aaron on the AK NG bird.

Its not a stylish ride but its free!
The kids stayed mostly with my mom in Eagle River and Aaron stayed in his room at the hotel! Woot! He had to work Saturday and we left Sunday night but even the short amount of time we had together without the kids was fun.
Here are the kids messing around in the room. They came in to go swimming in the hotel pool.

The rest of the week went well. Eli's school class went tide pooling at Gibson Cove. Aaron and I went along but it was so cold Aaron ended up taking Peach back to the house.

If you can hear me screaming!

2008-04-28T14:08:00.003-08:00

I would not be a bit surprised. Actually the noise may have died to a low groan right now. I went to my ED class last Wednesday and found out that the class was going to be ending a week earlier then I thought. To top it off another assignment was added to the workload. I know had 5 assignments of different lengths to get done in about 6 days. I freaked out !!!! It is Monday night right now and I still have 2 of the assignments to polish up a little before turning them in by midnight tomorrow. Needless to say it was a really hard week for me and at this point I am not a nice mama! Everything is getting on my nerves! Thanks goodness once this class is over I will be done for the summer.

Updates for Us!

2008-04-23T08:44:00.003-08:00

Well the weather has been so nice we haven't been spending a lot of time in the house. The kids play outside and we go for walks almost every night. We did get a visit from the State Troopers this week which was interesting! Eli found one of our old cell phones in a drawer and had asked if he could play with it. The kids had a great time taking pictures all weekend with the camera feature. Even Peachie got in on the action and was constantly asking Aaron and I to pose. She even took a picture of the cat using his litter box!
Monday night the kids were messing around with the phone again while Aaron and I were working on dinner. Aaron's current cell phone started ringing and it was the Police Dispatch! Apparently the kids had dialed 911! So we of course were surprised because we didn't think you could do that. This phone has no service! I guess because we didn't change the cell number when we got the new number or something. So we took the phone away-then later a state trooper showed up to make check everything out. EMBARRASSING! He was cool thought I suppose they have to make sure that it really was an accidental call or something.
I don't have any pictures right now because I need to work on a better way for filing them on the -puter and Aaron is as work today.
TA! TA! for now.

Here's Whats Happening In Our Neck Of The Woods

2008-04-13T16:14:00.007-08:00

I know it has been a while since I put some new pictures up on the blog so I decided to do one big post and get everything caught up. So much is going on right now that it is hard to know where to start. This time of year is really hard for me. Everything (as in the kids school, my school, AWANA and Children's church) is winding down and I justit all to be over so we can slow down a little bit. Yet I still need to put it the same amount of time and effort to fulfill my responsibilities. I can't wait for "summer" to come.

Caleb has a killer sense of fashion. He picks out his own clothes every morning for school and loves to dress up Peach in her play clothes. Caleb and Peach are actually pretty good budies.
We have caught pictures of all of the kids in crazy sleeping positions at one time or another. Here is Peaches contribution to the family timeline.

Peach and I went to the Wildlife Refuge for their FUN day. We had a lot of fun and even got cozy with a big Kodiak Bear!

We started out Saturday with a trip to the ER. Aaron and Caleb were wrestiling or something and Caleb hurt his arm. We thought for sure he had broke his arm by the amount of pain he was in.

It turned out he had something called "nursemaids elbow." They did take an x-ray an were able to pop in back in place. He was fine by the time he got home. Aaron had treated him to a new Webkinz for being so brave.
We did alot of other fun stuff this weekend and had a great dinner with the Kodiak Koehlers. Beth has all the pictures on her camera so hopefully she will update her blog soon!

Perks of taking online classes!

2008-04-01T19:45:00.003-08:00

It is Tuesday and that means its time for my ethics class. I need this class as one of my last General Education Requirements for my degree. I am always nervous when Aaron is not home on class night and try to have a new movie for the kids to watch. I went to the library today and got the kids the Pixar video with the shorts on it. I think they must have liked it because they didn't come interupt me until it was over. I am grateful that they have reached an age where I can lock myself in the bedroom and keep one ear open for them and one ear in class. I get the coke and chips to munch on during class. I usually play a little Majong to get me through the lecture as well!

Things we say to our kids.

2008-03-28T16:12:00.002-08:00

Naomi has been my shadow lately. When I say shadow I mean she is attached to me at the hip. I have gotten into the habit of locking the bedroom and the bathroom door because she will walk right in like she should be there. She emptys the dishwasher with me and folds the laundry and she even will get down on the bathroom floor with a babywipe if I am in there tidying up or something. Anyway you can get the picture I am sure. Today after she "fixed" my hair for the third time I found myself saying
"Child, would you just walk away from me for a few minutes." So she walked away, and I felt my heart go with her. What I should have realized was that in just a short time she will be walking away and I will be the one that wants her to come back. Baby Blues this week has had the same theme. The days are long but the years are short. The years around here are really going by fast and I know I will look back on these time and remember the special moments.

There is one thing I know for sure I will not miss-----I can not wait untill the fanny I have to wipe is my own!

MickyDee's or Mac and Cheese?

2008-03-25T15:16:00.003-08:00

Well its about 3:15 here. I just finished a 5 page paper for my ethics class which took all day and is the reason the house is trashed. I have class tonight at around 7 and I need to return a movie to Blockbuster. As it happens tonight is also free happymeal night with the purchase of a value meal at the golden archs. Ronald, its you, me and the three tonight!