More on Miss Angie

It's now been about 3 1/2 weeks since Miss Angie passed on to be with God. Just last week, a memorial service was held for her at our church in Juneau. Between Angie's passing and today, but especially up until the service on last Saturday, I've been thinking of her a lot.

In my last post about Angie, I mentioned how happy she was to see Carly after receiving a letter from her. Also, we decided to wait to explain it to Carly until the day before the memorial service. We figured it would make more sense to her that way. But after Angie had already passed away, Carly told me several times that she wanted to write her a letter. I never gave her a full answer--probably because I wasn't ready to explain it to her. But then about a week and a half after Angie had passed away, we were at church on a Sunday night singing "When All of God's Singers Get Home". This immediately made me (and probably many others) think of Angie because she liked to sing so much. All of a sudden--right there in the middle of the song--everything made sense and I realized how Angie had really taught our family--especially Carly--a great lesson. It occurred to me that since Angie's excited thanks to Carly for her letter, Carly had a become a little "Barnabas". She was very excited to write letters to lots of people. I don't know if Angie realized how much of an impact she made on Carly, but I'm confident that she is the main reason that Carly enjoys encouraging others with letters.

Angie was an amazing woman that God blessed with many talents. I've really enjoyed hearing more about all the ways she passed on the Lord's blessings to others while she was here on earth. Please keep Angie's family in your prayers as they continue to grieve her passing.

Shock and Awe

Well, I must say the morning news never wakes me up like it did today. This morning, I groggily got up with Isaac, sat down to nurse him, and turned on the TV. In a matter of seconds, I was wide awake! I personally think Sarah Palin is a good choice for McCain. She is very smart and capable. She really rounds him out as a candidate and works to "rally the base of the party" so to speak. (Now, don't get all scared. I'm not some wacko, die hard republican.) I was very impressed at how quickly Sarah Palin got to work after being voted into office as governor in 2006. And I was even more impressed that she was doing official duties the day after she gave birth to her son in April. What a woman! Not to mention that no one even knew she was pregnant until she mentioned it to a reporter off camera when she was already 7 months along! Who doesn't show a belly at 7 months with their 5th pregnancy? Unbelievable.

Anyway, all day I've been very excited to hear what others think about her new position, VP candidate. If you don't already know, I'm a bit of a talk radio junkie. I enjoy listening to Sean Hannity the most. I hope that doesn't offend any of you. If it does, well sorry. I suppose you can blame my Granddad who introduced me and all my cousins to Rush Limbaugh at a young age and actually paid us to listen to his taped shows. Anyway, I thought the comments I heard today were pretty fair. Not to turn this blog into a political one, but I was a bit surprised that the dems, especially Obama, are citing her lack of foreign policy experience, when Obama's foreign policy experience is arguably very thin. Plus their remarks basically compare the Republican's #2 with their own #1--hmmm. I'll just leave it at that. I could say more--after all it's my blog, right?

Anyway, I'm delighted for her and the chance for Alaska to shine on the national stage. I'm praying for her as she campaigns for this office and deals with all the media attention.

I hope that if you're not already informed about this presidential race that you'll look into soon. After all, we only have 67 days until election day!

And in case you're wondering, I got the picture from The Drudge Report. Want to make sure to cite my sources.

Ride Like the Wind

Yesterday, it wasn't raining, so in the afternoon the three of us took a walk. Well actually I was the only one who walked. Isaac rode in the stroller and Carly rode her bike. We got this almost a year ago from a little girl down the street who had grown out of it. It's nothing too special, but Carly thinks it's great. She had a good time riding it. And really it was her first real bike ride. She's ridden it a little in the back yard, but it's hard for her on the grass. Shawn has helped her ride it up and down our street in front of our house, but not too far. Yesterday though we walked all the way to the end of the street and about 1 block toward the glacier. I don't know why, but originally I thought she'd be able to ride all the way to the glacier. She wanted to though, but if we'd done that we would have gotten home in time to climb into bed. Maybe next summer she'll be able to ride her bike all the way to the glacier, or at least farther than we made it yesterday. I still think she did pretty good though.

Despite, his look in this picture Isaac wasn't crabby at all on our walk/ride. He eventually snuggled in and took a nap.

And this is why I dislike summers in Juneau. This is a tree in the front yard of some neighbors down the street. That's right, August 27th and the leaves are already changing and dropping. All summer we just barely get a taste of the weather I would prefer, so I just keep holding out and telling myself that there's still time--summer's not over. Well, according to this tree summer is over. And being that we had to wear jackets and long pants yesterday even though it was only slightly overcast, I guess it is pretty much over. So for those of you who are in warmer climates, just enjoy it--no complaining. And please, even though I'm sure you mean well, don't tell me that you wish you could send some of your heat my way. It just about makes me cry because I so badly wish that you could. Oh, well. Don't get me wrong though, I really like Juneau. The summer thing is really my only complaint. I even like the snow. In fact, I bet we'll get our first snow before any of the rest of you lower 48-ers! There, now I feel better.

Hope you all are having a good end of summer or start of fall where ever you are.

Double Blue Eyes

I don't know where the time went but somewhere between returning from our trip to Oregon, hosting company in our home (Lee), organizing VBS, and trying to squeeze in every possible summertime activity when the weather permits (there's often not much notice in Juneau), I forgot to post these portraits that we had taken of the kids when we were in Oregon. Grandma's, your paper copies will be coming soon--I pretty much completely forgot about these.

So I figured I'd take this opportunity to give you a little recap on what the kids are doing lately--a sort of "latest and greatest" segment.
At almost 3 1/2, Carly is doing very well. She is such a good helper and big sister. Sometimes she's a little too good of a big sister, but I can understand the pressure. She's convinced that if she has to obey, it's equally important for Isaac to obey too. And if she must, she'll make sure of it.

Two times recently she has said, "my favorites are corn dogs and fruit." At least she included fruit. (But seriously she's had probably one corn dog in the last 3 months.)

She's learning so much lately. The other day she was making a picture for Shawn's birthday and she started drawing stick people--which I'm told is quite advanced for her age. Today we started working on writing her name and she was very excited about that. She also likes to "skip" as often as possible.

Baking cakes and pies in her little kitchen are still popular things to do. As well as play dough, helping momma in the kitchen, and taking care of her baby dolls.

She's also becoming more and more independent. Tonight after she got into her jammies--by herself no less--she told me that she was going to get into bed and go to sleep all by herself. So I asked her if I could help her brush her teeth. She said ok, and off we went to the bathroom. After the teeth were done, she headed for her room and her bed (she had already "turned down her bed"), but I thought she wasn't serious about doing it by herself. So I told her she could read books or look at puzzles while I put Isaac to bed, which is a fairly common routine in our house when Shawn is working. She said, "I don't want to read books, I just want to go to bed by myself." I was a bit surprised and felt a little unnecessary. So I asked if we could say a prayer together like we usually do and thankfully she agreed. Then she snuggled into the covers and gave me a kiss goodnight, and that was the last I heard out of her. Talk about "Miss Independence".

Isaac is 10 1/2 months old and so adventurous and sweet. He's still crawling with one foot and one knee (kind of like in the picture below), but he is super fast. Occasionally he does a kind of crab crawl with two hands, two feet and his bottom straight in the air--especially if he's outside. He can get around the house very easily. We have to keep the bathroom door closed because whenever he sees it open it's as if he sees a land flowing with milk and honey. He speeds down the hallway, and I have to literally run to beat him to the door. I don't know why, but he thinks the bathroom is so cool--but really it's not! Yuk, I don't need a baby crawling around in any bathroom even my own.

He's pulling up to stuff, but not really cruising. He's taken a few steps along the couch--hanging on all the while--but not much more. He hasn't stood himself up without support...yet.

Last week, he signed "more" for the first time. Carly and I were sharing a frozen yogurt berry sundae from costco and Isaac was upset that we weren't sharing with him. So I gave him a few bites and then made him work for it. He finally signed more two times. And in related news, I've recently discovered that he maybe lactose intolerant. Which I understand is fairly common for babies and they usually grow out of it. More research still needs to be done, but I'm going to start experimenting with lactose free cheese and yogurt to see if there are different results. (He hasn't had cow's milk yet.)

And last week--maybe the best baby first to date--he learned to give kisses. They are very wet, but so sweet. He just makes my hear melt everytime. Today before Shawn left for work, he gave Carly and me a kiss and Isaac was sitting on the floor with his mouth open ready for his kiss too.

And finally, yesterday I noticed tooth #8 has broken through. Now we get to move on to the incisors and molars! (I'm not really as excited as the exclamation point might make you think.)

Hope you enjoyed "catching up" on where our kids are at. They are both LOTS of fun. Very different, but very similar. And I don't think I mentioned yet that they love to play together. I hope that doesn't change too soon. But I'm sure that if it does, it will be too soon no matter when.

Summer Photos

We've been in Juneau for three summers now and each summer I've sort of made it a tradition to take a picture of Carly, and now Isaac too, at the Brotherhood Bridge View point. (That's the Mendenhall Glacier in the background.) I try to get it done when the fireweed (the pink flowers in the pictures) are in full bloom. During our first summer I also took a picture of Carly walking along the trail that starts from this view point. My Dad especially liked that picture and asked me to take a picture of Carly each year in the same spot to show how she changes from year to year. So being "the good child", I've done my best to document my daughters changes each summer with this trail as a backdrop. The other day, when it at least wasn't raining, I took the kids out for a photo shoot and walk. Since we've had soooo much rain lately, it's been hard to get out much. So we pretty much missed the peak of the fireweed blooms, but they still look good.

So now for your viewing pleasure, here are the pictures we've taken each year in reverse order.

Summer 2008
Carly--3 years old /Isaac--10 months old

Summer 2007
2 years old

Summer 2006
15 months old

Sun Kissed

We've been blessed with some great weather over the last three days and I believe tomorrow is going to be nice too. Yipee! So of course, we've been running around like crazy trying to fit in all the fun outdoor activities that we like to do on nice days.

Today, we rode bikes to the duck pond park (Rotary Park) and met Lela and boys for lunch and play. Beth came with her kids a little later. When I say "rode bikes", I mean I pedaled and Carly and Isaac reclined in their chariot. Anyway, we had a good time at the park even though there were no ducks to feed. Apparently some high school boys decided to put some canoes in the pond and paddle them around. So all the ducks flew the coop--literally. Oh, well. We'll just save the bread for next time.
Then this afternoon, I couldn't resist the temptation to go out to the glacier before Bible class. I mean it really has to be a hot day here to make playing in a glacier pool fun. And according to my calculations it was 74 today! So we got things ready, had a snack and then went out to the glacier with beach towels and sand toys. We didn't have long--just about 20 minutes by the time we made it to the pools. But that's ok, because that was about as long as I could handle keeping sand, etc out of Isaac's mouth. Carly enjoyed it though and didn't want to leave.
We rode bikes to church too--no need to use gas on a day like this--and this is how the kids looked when we got back home. They were tuckered out from a busy day enjoying the sun.

And of course, we had to clean up tonight too.

I'd love to give more details, but I've got a few things to take care of before tomorrow--Shawn's 29th birthday.

Spaulding Meadows Hike

Yesterday, we were able to take a family hike up Spaulding Meadows. I must say that there was a bit more elevation gain than I was expecting. We attempted to go on to the John Muir cabin (owned by the forest service), but we ran out of time. But we got pretty close--we think.

Anyway, the elevation gain wasn't really that bad because it was gradual or involved a lot of steps. I didn't realize how far up we had gone until we came back down.

Carly did a great job and hiked almost all the way up. Then on the way down, Shawn and I switched packs and I carried Carly down in the ergo carrier. Shawn took Isaac with all the things I'd been carrying up in our Kelty kid carrier. We all had a great time. Isaac got a nap in and we all enjoyed some great views of the Auke Bay area.

We also found a lot of blueberry bushes along the way. That explains the ring of blue around Carly's mouth.

VBS Day 4

Whoever decided that VBS was just as effective at four nights rather than five nights was a genius. Last night was our last and biggest night of VBS. We had 50 kids! I haven’t sat down with the lists yet, but I’m confident that over half of those kids were visitors. I think we can partially credit our great attendance to the weather. It was rainy or at least cloudy all week (until today). In fact our summer has been so lame that families were probably more than ready for a fun and free activity for their kids. Either way, we’re glad they came. It already sounds like at least one of the families will be joining us for our worship services.

Anyway, here are the pictures from night four. Our lesson was about the great commission.picking our their memory verse prize

sending messages about Christ around the world

the secret crew

VBS Day 3

VBS continues to go well. We had 46 tonight! I forgot to mention last night our theme is "The Mystery of Christ". It's from Little Acorn Kids. It just so happens that Shawn and I went to OC with one of the founders and writers. Anyway the nightly themes have been Jesus' birth, feeding the 5000, Jesus death and resurrection, and tomorrow will be about the great commission. Each night we explore why Jesus would do the things he did, like humble himself, have compassion on others, and put others first. Tomorrow night we'll solve the mystery and discover that it's so we'll tell our friends about Jesus and the great things he's done.
Here are some pictures from our third evening.

For tonight's snack the kids put 1/2 a marshmallow between two biscuits and baked it. When they were done the biscuit was empty just like the tomb where Jesus was laid.

Sealing their marshmallows inside the biscuits

Slader is a complete teenager. He has to "stay connected" even during VBS! What a silly kid.

Rollin' their gospel chariots all the way to heaven. AMEN!

Rolling away the stone that covered the tomb. They had a blast with this game.

Then they used this crawling tube and smaller "stones". Most of the kids liked this. Justus wasn't too sure about it though.

building a strong house for God

making a paper plate tomb

Isaac has his own class to attend during VBS. It's a small group because it's just for the babies of our church members. He's been having a great time, and his teachers say he's just so happy in class. But if he sees me he starts crying, so I took this picture through the classroom window from outside. He was having a great time knocking around the animals that were getting on Noah's ark.

Our sweet Miss Bea returned home to Juneau yesterday. It's been just over a week since she'd had her hands on Isaac and it was too long for this church grandma.