Ready to Move On...

Sarah's Thoughts: For me, that warm weather last week was the groundhog's shadow.  I expect to see spring each morning when I open my curtains- sunshine, snow melt, longer daylight hours, even skunk cabbage.  I'm finished with the hibernating and ready to move on.  Maybe that's why I was debating on whether or not Owen needed a hat today when we went for a walk. After about 30 seconds outside however, I realized that 20 degrees means it is actually still winter.  Its not just me, my coworkers are feeling it too.  They are into calorie counting and doing these insane workouts.  Even though I'm coming out of hibernation, I'm not feeling motivated in that direction.  I think I need to book a vacation to Hawaii or Mexico and then the prospect of wearing a swimsuit in public might push me over the edge.  Meanwhile, I'm feeling ready to be finished with my projects and the nesting clutter.  Beware, oh you piles of paper and unfinished projects!  Mildew and clothes that don't fit, your days are numbered! ..and, I guess, flab and that extra 5 pounds of winter insulation... Stinking peer-pressure! 

High- The weekend- girl's night at the Jubilee Cabin, chilling with my boys, finding old friends on Facebook.

Low- Owen still not being over his gastro-intestinal issues.  Poor baby!

Luke Update: I feel like I owe Luke an apology for dogging his legislative job in my previous blog.  This last week, he really was quite busy at work.  One day he didn't even get a lunch break.  All that to say, Luke has been working hard for the woMan, bringing home the bacon, taking care of the family.  After several evening hours in the garage with the power tools humming, he finished making a deer call, all the while contemplating how to launch into mass-production-  we're always trying to figure out the perfect way to fill in the gaps around Luke's seasonal employment.  Luke breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when he finally got his hands on his long-lost Christmas presents.  They were removed from his bag by Georgia TSA when we were traveling home, spent nearly 2 weeks on someone's desk, and then another 2 weeks enroute to us.  Luke is now happily testing the hardness of molten lead to his heart's content.  Phew! 

Owen Update:  Sometimes I feel like I don't know what sort of things to be teaching Owen. Do I focus on numbers or letters or words or skills... I guess its all important. Owen has this hoakey book that talks about body parts.  I always avoid it, but this week when Owen insisted on reading it several times, I decided to embrace opportunity to point out "Owen's ears" and "Mommy's teeth".  Yesterday, Owen was sitting on my lap and I said, "Where's Owen's nose?"  He pointed right to it!  He also knows where his hair, eyes, mouth, ears, knees, teeth, tummy, feet and hands are, although he sometimes gets ears and hair mixed up.  I know this is all stuff that kids his age should know, but I'm still amazed.  All these little things add up to a pretty big miracle.  One more thing- I was putting away laundry Friday night and Owen saw his freshly laundered Spiderman suit.  He brought it over to me, wanting to put it on.  After I  stuffed him into his red suit of freedom, he wondered all over the house, banging into things (he can't see very well when he has the hood on).  Eventually, he decided that he wanted to drive the car in the garage.  There's an extra special little video after the pictures of his super-hero adventure...

Freshly showered, doing one of his favorite activities:

turning the light switch off and on... naked.

A little pre-walk bike riding.

Loving it!

Walking on the trail like a big boy!

Sweet dance moves in his new Sunday School clothes

The Great Adventures of Spiderman!

Global Warming

Sarah's Thoughts-  While the rest of the country is experiencing frigid arctic temperatures on this 18th day of January, it was 60 degrees here in Juneau, Alaska.  60 degrees!  That's the makings for a pretty decent summer day around these parts.  Even the wind was warm.  Its really incredible the effect nice weather has me- mentally, physically, emotionally, the whole 9 yards. Today, I felt like I might go for a jog and loose 10 pounds, whistle a cheerful little song while deep cleaning my house, maybe volunteer at the old folks home, potty train Owen, and round out my day by inviting all my enemies over for dinner so we could work through our issues and end up best friends.  Whew!  Good thing the weather isn't like this all the time! Luke said its suppose to snow Wednesday... meanwhile, I'm loving it.  

High: Hmmm....  dinner with my dear Dean friends? or dinner the next night with my sweet brother and his sweet Kristen? or maybe girl time at the baby shower today? or extended Christmas that keeps showing up on our doorstep?  ...not to mention the beautiful weather... so hard to choose...

Low: Definitely the post-daycare fits that Owen has been throwing every evening around 5:20pm, just in time for mama.  Big tears, crimson face, dolphin kicking, non-stop horse scream-crying,  it's quite a show!  We were going to try to video tape it for all to enjoy... maybe this week...

Luke Update- Luke has been reporting to the Sarah Palin every day this week between the hours of 8 am and 4:30 pm.  In layman terms, I think this means that he rushes to get to his desk on time and then hangs out, chats with his co-workers, surfs the world-wide web, takes a walk down the street to the Heritage Coffee cafe for a tall mocha, maybe does 20 minutes of actual work and then takes off to pick up Owen from daycare.  All in a day's work.  (By the way, if you haven't chatted with Luke in awhile, you should send him an email- alaskan_waters@yahoo.com.  He should have plenty of time to write back!)  This weekend, Luke has been working with his table saw and drill press to fabricate some of his famous Woodruff Deer Calls- taking orders for next fall... One could be yours for only $35!

Owen Update- Bipolar would be a good word to describe Owen's week.  On the days he went to daycare, the mornings and evenings were filled with lots of unconsolable crying.  Such a lovely way to start and end the day!  However, once Luke dropped him off, he was just fine.  Insight anyone?  I was worried the fits would carry over into the weekend, but Owen's mood has been great.  I think its mainly adjusting to a new routine, coupled with recovering from the stomach flu and maybe a wee bit of teething thrown in.  Something new that Owen has been doing recently is sound effects. He makes this low, raspy growl for motorized things like the vacuum cleaner or the hair dryer.  He also makes this quick whispering "whit" "whit" blowing sound when he sees spray bottles or when Luke is shooting his bow.  Another new thing he's been doing is taking stairs standing up like a big boy (with my help, of course).  He's just such a big kid and I'm such a proud mama, in-love with my boy!

Uncle Jason brought this sweet spider man outfit

back for Owen from Thailand.  Its still a little 

on the big side, but pretty darn cute!  

Guess what Owen is going to be for Halloween?

This is what 60 degrees on January 18 in Juneau looks like.  

See the lake behind us?  

We were skiing on that last weekend!

Uncle Christian and Kristen with Owen

when they came and cooked us dinner on Saturday.

(Notice the Peruvian tans.  I'm so jealous!)

Real men take off their shirts to do the dishes!

Owen in his alpaca hat, from Peru

(I forgot to tell Christian about Owen's exceptional

head circumference...  Luckily the hat stretches!)

In Sickness and In Health...

Sarah's Thoughts:  I remember hearing the story about Typhoid Mary, how she was a cook in New England in the early 1900's.  Every house she worked at, the inhabitants would contract typhoid because, come to find out, she was carrying the disease.  She'd try to take care of her household while they were sick, but she'd just further spread the disease.  When I heard the story, I thought, "Oh no!  I'm Typhoid Mary" because I have this strong immune system and it seemed like sometimes other people would get sick when I wouldn't.  Now I know its true. This week, Owen and Luke both came down with a nasty case of the stomach flu and I really didn't.  I think I carried it home from work.  Earlier this week, Luke and I were racking our brains, trying to figure out what wonderful, romantic and special thing we were going to do for our 4th anniversary.  Turned out, neither of us felt like doing much of anything.  He puked all day, and I took care of sick boys... and I'll do it again too... 'til death do us part.

High - Finding out that I still fit into my wedding dress!  Oh baby!

Low- Discovering Owen on Wednesday morning, sobbing in his bed, amid a mess of dried puke, while brown, watery goo squirted out the other end... my poor, poor baby!  (I apologize for the descriptive nature of the previous sentence.  I tend to get a little graphic when it comes to poop)

Luke Update: I think two words that begin with "s" sum up Luke's week....  "sick" and "shoveling" ("sick of shoveling" would most likely also apply).  I've already talked about Luke getting sick... but what you don't know is that we've have about 3 feet of snow in the past week.  I'm not exaggerating.  The burm on either side of our driveway is up to my shoulders and sadly for Luke, we have quite a long driveway.  One very exciting thing for Luke is that TSA in Atlanta found his missing Christmas presents!  Someone had pulled this box of presents out of Luke's bag, thinking it was something dangerous?  Then, some other person came back to work after being gone for a few days to find this random box on his desk.  Lucky for Luke, he packed his presents in a box that had his dad's name and address and phone number(?) on it.  All that to say, the presents are on their way to us.  Yipee!  

Owen Update: Poor baby Owen has had a rough week.  Started out on Monday with is 18 month check up.  4 shots later they told us that he was in the 50th percentile for height, 70th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for head circumference.  Tuesday was his first day at day care, which I think went very well.  He ate and slept and only cried for 1 minute after Luke dropped him off.  Things went downhill rather quickly on Wednesday with the whole puke-covered beginning.  I had to miss work for the first time due to a sick child and Owen hasn't eaten much since.  He goes through cycles of seeming perfectly normal and happy and then will completely break down in big fat tears and whaling (this happened at Costco tonight when we walked past the ginormous container of animal crackers.  We ended up getting a container and letting him dive into it right there, in the store.  Great parenting, eh?)  

One pretty precious thing that he has started doing recently is spontaneous prayer.  We'll be driving in the car, or making dinner or playing in his room and all of a sudden, he folds his hands and starts spouting this stream of babble.  So I'll fold my hands too and we'll pray a quick prayer, "Dear Lord, Thank you for this day, for our family and for all of our loved-ones (that's you).  Please bless them and protect them.  Thank you for always being with us and thank you most of all for Jesus.  In your name we pray, Amen."  

Whew.  What a week!  Amen.

Upside Down

Out for a cross country ski...

You would never know that 20 minutes before this picture,

Owen had a complete melt-down in the middle of the frozen

lake whilest riding on mama's back on skis.  Lovely.

Story time this evening

Ride 'Em, Owen!  Yee-haw!

Post-nap , watching Veggie Tales with dog blanket 

(Christmas present made by Great Grandma).  

He loves to look at each little dog face on the blanket 

and say a quiet "arf, arf".

Post Holiday Clean-Up

Sarah's Thoughts:  Since returning from vacation and heading straight back to work, life has been on fast forward.  I haven't been able to keep up with the mounting clutter, let alone take care of the pre-Christmas projects that I left hanging.  I was quite anxious, however today I managed to unpack from our trip and put the christmas decorations away so I feel much better.  Hopefully sometime this week I can get to the post office for stamps and finish sending out Christmas cards... so so late, but what are you going to do?  Looking at 2009 from the beginning inspires planning... makes me want to be organized and balanced.  I need paper for making lists and a calendar to mark up.  I need to spend some time plotting my step-by-step plan to greatness.  Look out, 2009!

High- Riding in a limo to a our always fabulous Dr. Schultz staff party.

Low- Coming home to find that Chachi (my brother's dog, staying with us while Christian is in Peru) freaked out while we were gone and gouged deep claw marks in our door.  Bummer.

Luke Update:  Luke has also been in clean up mode, fixing up the garage so that we can more comfortably fit our 2 cars in it.  We've had quite a bit of snow in the last few days, so he's been on shovel duty.  Thankfully the snow is quite whispy and dry. Luke cleaned-up on the bullet casting gadgets for Christmas presents and was so excited to dive in upon returning home. Unfortunately, one of our bags didn't make it.  It arrived the next day, but someone with sticky fingers got to it first and stole all of Luke's christmas presents.  How rotten!  We're filing a claim with Alaska Airlines, but its all moving quite slowly.  In the meantime he's firing up the table saw and heading to the lumber yard to start on some shelves and other wooden projects for our house (I did get a jewelry box for christmas by the way).  Luke has finished his Mr. Mom duties and is headed to work at the legislature this week.  He's excited about the change of pace and all the time he'll have for on-line research (Hawaii anyone?).    

Owen Update:  Owen had been doing a lot of catch up sleeping this week.  He's still not entirely recovered from our long, late night flight home from Georgia.  He's been rediscovering his toys and all of his favorite drawers in the kitchen.  In the past week, he's been very into the telephone.  He holds it between his shoulder and neck and  says "ello?" and then passes it to me.  He got a hold of Luke's cell phone tonight and was sending out text messages.  He's also started yelling "Weeee!" and running around with his arms up in the air.  Since Luke is headed back to work this week, Owen is going to start a new day care.  I'm a little bit anxious about the whole thing, but I'm sure Owen will be just fine.  His first day is Tuesday so say a little prayer for both of us!

Very excited about the ear muffs!

Resting.

Coloring.  What a big boy! 

(except he started eating the crayons 

right after I snapped this picture)

Fully bundled for our -7 degree walk. 

Burrrrrr!

So so so cold (but beautiful)!

Leaving 2008

Disclaimer: I am breaking from my usual format to bring you a special, end of the year installment of this blog.  I realize that I missed posting last week and I'm eternally sorry.  I'll try my best not to let that happen again!

Highlights of 2008: 

Owen's firsts (steps, words, foods, camp-outs, kisses), visiting family in Texas, Washington and most recently in Georgia, Luke's pig with a long-bow and best fishing season so far, Sarah's raise at work and completed apron and website projects.  

Goals for 2009:  

Sarah:  Consistency (schedule, working out, bible-reading, parenting, communicating), tropical vacation, creating something satisfying, that ever elusive balance between God, self, family, friends, work...

Luke: Black bear with long bow, black bear with pistol, blaze moose trail, dead moose (with long bow or gun or hand grenades... whatever it takes), busy fishing season despite the economy, to be a great husband and dad

Owen: Fill-out new 2T clothes, potty training, more words, less fuss, 4 more teeth, drop the morning nap,  continue to grow strong and happy and healthy. 

I had thought about trying to pick out the top 10 pictures of 2008, but finding that so difficult, I decided instead to post one of my favorite pictures from each month of 2008.  Most of these you may have already seen in past blog posts or via mass email, but here they are again for you to enjoy!  Happy New Year!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Georgia on my mind

Sarah's Thoughts: We made it! We made it though another year, we made all the way across the United States, and we're still going strong! I do have to say that my boy did so so so much better on the flight then I ever thought he was capable of, Thank you God (and thank you for your prayers)! So here we are, in Georgia, staying at Luke's parent's brand-spanking new castle on the lake. Its so big and beautiful and I'm feeling a little too comfortable, like I could get use to this high life... I've been trying figure out what makes Georgia tick... California is wine and fake boobs, and Alaska is hunters vs. greenies and Washington is punk rock meets pine trees, but what about Georgia? I haven't seen any peach farms or boiled peanut stands... I went to Walmart today hoping that I'd get a better feel for Georgia, but all I found was the same old Walmart. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, you better keep on your best behavior girls and boys because ready or not, Santa Clause is coming to town!

High- Hearing that because of a tailwind, our 5 hour flight from Seattle to Atlanta would be a 4 hour flight. Hallelujah!

Low- The last 45 minutes of our 4 hour flight... How the heck are we going to make it coming the other way???

Luke Update: Luke has also been enjoying Georgia. Lots of lounging, snacking, tinkering in the "man cave" with his dad... The ease with which he's settled into this life of luxury makes me think there might be a whole other side to my husband that I don't know about. One that has an appreciation for fine caviar, cashmere sweater-vests, and 1942 Pinot Gricio. Its really fun to see Luke with his family- especially with his brother. I think most siblings have a special language, finding the same quirky little things hilarious, and these two are no exception. The boys (dad included) are planning a deer hunting trip in the morning, after which time, we'll leave Owen with Grammy and head out to finish up the Christmas shopping. Might even stop by Bed,Bath and Beyond, but I don't know. I don't know if we'll have enough time...

Owen Update: 3 words. Center Of Attention... I think he feels a little nervous at first when all eyes are on him, but then he quickly gets over it. He has especially been loving Dusty and Jordan's dog, "Georgia" (but he keeps calling her "Dolly"). You can hear him yelling at the top of his lungs, echoing through the house "Ah-yee! Ah-yee! Yett!" (translation: "Dolly! Dolly! Get it!") Thankfully, Georgia is a great sport. She runs after every single stick or ball he throws, even if it only lands 1 foot away. I caught Owen crawling all over her tonight and she didn't seem to mind. He's also been loving vacation because it means that mom and dad can give him undivided attention. When he's not running around after Georgia, he's grabbing mama by the finger and leading me all over the house. Its a little exhausting, but all that exercise means more sugar cookies for me, so I'm not complaining! For the first time this morning, without missing a beat, Owen stepped from the grass up to the sidewalk. My little baby is just getting bigger and stronger and smarter every day.

Merry Christmas!

(I neglected to bring the camera cord to download photos,
so our current pictures are on hold until we get home.)

The Countdown

Sarah's Thoughts:  Christmas is looming and I know there's lots to do in order to be ready, but the trick is knowing how much I have to get done each day so that at the end, I'm not pulling an all-nighter...  This year, we're taking off to Georgia to spend Christmas with Luke's family.  One good thing about going out of town for Christmas is that I'm forced to get all the stressful scrambling out of the way before we leave, so maybe on Christmas, we actually will be more relaxed.  It'll be great to get out of town and see family, but if you think of us on Dec 18 and 19, please say a prayer for a peaceful flight.  Every time I think about traveling at Christmas with a very busy 18 month old, who can't sit still for more then 10 seconds, I just honestly don't know how we're going to survive the 5 hour flight from Seattle to Atlanta.  We tried giving him some benadryl tonight to see how he'd react.  It didn't seem to have much effect until bath time.  Suddenly, he was very insistent that his cuddle sleeve (his blanket) join him in the tub.  Of course I didn't let him, and had to wrench the blanket out of his death grip before putting him in the water.  On normal evenings, all traces of sadness melt away as soon as he gets in the tub but tonight, he sat in the water, bawling big, fat tears. Very sad!  Bad benadryl!

High- Knowing that I only have 3 days of work this week!

Low- Knowing we have 8 hours of flying ahead of us...

Luke Update:  Its been so windy and cold lately that Luke hasn't been able to get out hunting so he's been spending more time on projects.  Luke has temporarily traded in his cast led bullets for his table saw.  He's been working on a super secret project most of the week in the garage.  (I think I'm getting something homemade for Christmas! I'll let you know!)   We also have been catching up on last year's season of "Lost," thanks to Netflix.  We don't really have T.V. so we do our best to avoid all mention of what's currently happening on our favorite T.V. shows and then when the previous year's season comes out on DVD, we watch the whole thing in a week.  What is with those people on the freighter and why doesn't everyone get off the island????  (Don't tell!)  I think Luke and his dad are going to be doing some hunting and bow-building while we're in Georgia so there may be more of that to report in the next few weeks.

Owen Update:  Owen has really been quite sweet this week.  As pictured below, he's been giving kisses, which just melts your heart. We also found out last night that Owen loves cats. We went to our neighbor's house for supper.  Owen was happily exploring their house, checking out the dog toys and trying to open all the doors.  All of a sudden, he let out this startled cry, like he was hurt.  I raced over to find him pointing at their cat, Rhett.  At first I thought the cat had scratched him or something, but after close inspection Owen seemed to be fine.  Our neighbor, Bob, held Rhett so that Owen could pet him.  Owen was trembling, he so badly wanted to touch the animal but at the same time was so cautious that he couldn't bring himself to move.  He just stood there, shaking and crying.  It was pretty crazy, I've never seen him like that.  Now that I think about it, I don't think Owen has ever been in close proximity of a cat.  I finally forced Owen to pet Rhett a little bit, and then for the rest of the night, he was chasing the poor animal all over the house.  

kisses

just waking up

"Let me in that bathtub already!!!"

heading to church

christmas caroling...  

(or maybe just yelling really loud in front of 

the christmas tree at the mall...)