Uplifting

The past week has been filled with more friends and family than I can count. New friends, old family. And everything inbetween. It's been incredibly good for my soul. I've tried not to focus on why we were together, but instead just cherish every hug and kindness and laugh that we shared. And to look forward to more of those things under happy circumstances.

If you're on Facebook, send a friend request to michellescraps@yahoo.com. I've shared pictures from the memorial service there. There are just too many to post here. It was beautiful and touching and sad and funny. And really good for me. My brother was so loved by so many friends who I didn't know. I feel much more at peace knowing that.

A family update...Maggie gets her cast off this Thursday, as long as the x-rays show that it's healed properly. I am praying for a full recovery there...she's so ready to walk on two feet again!

Our birds are about to become parents again! In about a week, eggs will begin to hatch. They have seven this time (last time it was 5, and 2 of them survived) and we're so excited to have baby birds again!

Sage is wrapping up volleyball season this week with a tourney Thursday and Friday. She's really come a long way since the beginning of the season and we're very proud of her!

Sam is "addicted" to wrestling practice (his words!). He goes two nights a week to the girls' school and is learning freestyle wrestling. His tourneys start next month. I can't wait! I'm going to be the loudest mat mom there!

I've starting running! OK, pick yourself up off the floor. Yes, I said running. I can't believe it myself. I run on the track while Sam's in practice. I can do almost a mile before I have to walk a lap to catch my breath. It's been a fantastic stress reliever.

I don't have any pics to share since I'm posting from hubby's laptop. Next time! Have a great week.

Richard Brett Ryan

September 15, 1972-February 13, 2009

On Friday, my little brother took his life.
He leaves behind his son Tavis and daughter Kieran.

Words cannot describe my sorrow.

Rest peacefully, little brother.

Memorial service will be at Rabbit Creek Community Church
Rabbit Creek Road, Anchorage
Thursday, February 19th, 5pm

Broken

The day after I posted my last blog entry, all heck broke loose here. The short of it is, Maggie was thrown from the horse at her riding lesson and broke her right ankle. She had surgery the following Saturday and they inserted two screws to hold the ankle together. She'll be in a cast for about 6 weeks, then they'll remove the screws.

Can I just say, I've had enough emergencies for a lifetime now? Back-to-back injuries is just about more than I can stomach. My poor babies!!

She's doing OK with it, and is off the strong pain meds and just takes advil when she needs it. She's going to try half days at school starting Monday.

I have pictures to share, but I'm posting from Paul's computer, so I'll have to post them next time.

Nothing crafty or fun to share...sorry. I've been pretty much consumed with taking care of Magster. Needless to say, I haven't stepped foot in the craft room to start gutting it. Maybe next week when kiddos are all in school.

Take care!

In the past couple weeks....

Sam's mastered the guitar....




I've become a rock and roll diva....



Sage had her first volleyball game (that's her in the middle)...



Sam's policed all hugs between Sage and Caleb....(good job, Sam!)....



Maggie turned 12....




And I *think* I'm closer to getting a job! Fingers crossed. I got two good leads in one day (go figure!) and I have an interview today.

Needless to say, after our freakish weather and school closure for most of last week, I didn't even step foot in the craft room to start clearing it out. Thank goodness there's school today!

OK, gotta go get dressed for my interview. Have a great day!

Christmas Eve

I think today might be my favorite day of the holidays. The anticipation, the friends and family over, the cooking and flurry of wrapping last-minute gifts. I love it all! I'm sitting here in the living room and it's 5:45 am. The house is completely silent except for the hum of the furnace. Sam got up earlier, but climbed back in his bed and fell asleep thinking about Santa. I knew he was lying there thinking about tomorrow morning. I went in to check on him and he said "I can't wait for Santa to come." Next thing I knew, he was sound asleep.

So I'm enjoying the calm before the storm. We're having friends over for a poker game today, and lots of food, I'm sure. Then later we'll light some fireworks, and hopefully the kids will play outside and wear themselves out so they'll sleep tonight. Paul and I will stay up late wrapping gifts, as usual, then we'll all get up at the crack of dawn (or before) Christmas morning, because I just can't sleep any longer.

I just love the energy in the air today. I wish I could bottle it!

A few pictures to share....

Maggie got her hair cut this week...she has the most gorgeous color. I think she looks a lot like her daddy in this picture.






I'm not even sure who took this picture of Sage. I never know what I'm going to find on my camera.




Sam treated us to cinnamon Christmas Tree biscuits yesterday, hot from the oven. I hope he never outgrows his love of cooking. It'll make some lucky woman very happy one day.




Check him out. Real men wear aprons!




Time for another cup of coffee. My God bless you this Christmas and all through the year!

God is good.

I know I don't say that enough. Unfortunately it usually takes a crisis to make me realize how heavily I rely on the Lord for strength and comfort, and that it's always there for me, not just in the tough times. Talk about good.

Yesterday at 3:30 the school nurse called to say she had Sam in her office, that a pencil had poked the roof of his mouth. She said he was fine, but that since it was bleeding, they couldn't put him on the bus. I was totally unprepared for what I saw when I got to the school.

He was leaning over a sink, terrified, with blood coming out of the mouth and nose. I knew right away he needed to go to the ER, even though they downplayed the seriousness of it. I peeked at it and almost fainted. The gash ran from just behind the teeth all the way to the soft palette at the back of the throat, where it ended in a Y shaped tear, with a large flap of skin hanging down.

Still thinking it might just look worse than it actually was, I was completely blindsided when the ER nurse warned me we were probably looking at surgery. Surgery. The word made my stomach seize up. Then the ER doctor confirmed the repair was beyond his ability, and said we were lucky that an ear, nose and throat doctor was performing a surgery and would be available in just a few minutes. We'd wait for his opinion on the repair.

The ENT doc agreed that it needed repair, and was fairly certain the hole went all the way into the sinus cavity. He called for an operating room.

Up to this point, Sam had a wad of gauze in his mouth to stop the bleeding, so we couldn't get many details on what exactly happened, and we weren't sure if the pencil had broken off in his mouth. When he was able to talk, I was stunned to find out it was the eraser end of the pencil that pierced his palette, which meant a larger hole that we first thought. But thankfully that meant it hadn't broken off inside his mouth. They were on the bus at the school, getting ready to go home for the day when a boy told Sam to get out of his way and shoved him into a seat, causing the pencil Sam was holding to puncture his palette.

The surgery went well, but took much longer than anticipated. Sam has seven stitches in the soft palette, and would have had more, but some of the skin couldn't be sewn back together, and will just have to heal as-is. Through the whole evening, I prayed, alone and with Sam, and felt very calm and protected, and never doubted for a second that the Lord held us in his loving arms.


He's resting this morning, and says it just feels like a bad sore throat. He couldn't have handled it any better. I'm so proud of him.

Sleep is Overrated.

If this post seems a little random, it's because I composed it at 3am, figuring I'd bore myself back to sleep with my rambling. It didn't work. Winnie was crying to go outside, and I made the mistake of thinking "I'll just check my email while I'm waiting for her to come back in." One email led to another and here I am posting about nothing.

So if you're interested in the mundane details of my life the past week....

Here's Maggie putting the angel on top of the tree. It was her turn this year. And trust me, they remember whose turn it is year to year.



And if you don't believe me, here's Maggie throwing down a gang sign when I tried to argue with her about whose turn it was this year. "Yo, Mom. You best step OFF the tree topper, yo." How'd you like my attempt at speaking gang-ese? OK, I promise never to do that again.



Sending this pic out to my honey. Hurry up and get home. Your chair's getting cold. And Winnie misses you.





On a completely different topic, I'm on the hunt for employment. And can I just say, it ain't as easy as it used to be to land a job. There is a TON of competition for very the few decent paying jobs out there. That, and I'd rather have ten root canals than to go on an interview. Ugh. I should be good at selling myself by now, but it still is as painfully awkward as a first date. I mean, how do you answer "what's your biggest weakness" without giving them something to misconstrue? I am always tempted to answer with "chocolate", but you never can tell if someone actually has a sense of humor or not.

So wish me luck! And if anyone has any interview tips, I'd be ever so grateful.

OK, I think I've dragged you through my discombobulated thoughts for long enough. Thanks for keeping me company this morning.

Are you tired of flooring yet??

This was the scene in my living room Tuesday morning. Nevermind the fact that I am hosting Thanksgiving in just two short days. But...he did it! Paul got the entire floor down in just two days. And it's a big room with funky angles.





Here's a peek at the end result (and Sage's cutie boyfriend!). We still need to do the trim all the way around, but we're just going to wait and do all three rooms at once.




I LOVE IT!! I walk around grinning just thinking about how wonderful it is to be rid of the carpet, to warm the room up and give it a little shine. LOVE it!

Paul is now an expert laminate installer! I'm so lucky to have him. :) Lots to be thankful for this year.

Thrifted Sparklies

When's the last time you built a snowman? For me, it's been too many years! Sam and I built a snowbear (see his cute little ears?) yesterday and talk about bringing back memories. Rolling out the snowballs on your knees around the yard, pushing in the carrot nose. If you want to feel like a kid again, I guarantee this works!

Normally I'm home washing Thanksgiving dishes Black Friday morning, but I got brave this year and decided to try a little shopping. I picked up the pine garland, gold wood garland, silver goblet, white and gold glass balls at Treasure Loft in Wasilla....all for under $5. Score! I'm still adding goodies to the garland to spruce it up (no pun intended!) as I unpack my 5,600, 232 Rubbermaid totes from the attic. Good grief. I think they multiply up there over the summer. I stayed away from the big stores after I saw how packed the parking lots were.

The living room floor is finished and it looks amazing!! I'll share some pictures once the Christmas decorating is finished. Right now the room is littered with totes, bows and partially finished garlands. Yikes.

I'm coming up on my 300th post...I'm thinking a giveaway is in order!

Compassion and Passion

So I figured something out about myself yesterday. I LOVE to take pictures of animals. Maybe because they don't fuss at me when I want "just one more" shot. They don't give me that cheesey grin (most of the time). And they're always camera ready...no outfit changes necessary.



Yesterday while Maggie had her riding lesson, I used the time to take some pictures of her instructor's menagerie of animals. She has five cats, four dogs and two horses. I think there are some rabbits around, too. Of course, who am I to talk?


Anyway, I have a passion for animals, that's apparent.

As for Compassion? With the holidays coming up, I've been thinking a lot about giving, especially to those who aren't as blessed as we are. So the kids and I started tossing around ideas of ways to help out, to share our blessings. We talked about checking with the local churches to see if they had ways to volunteer, or maybe to sponsor a soldier oversees through the holidays. Then one day I was reading Pioneer Woman's blog and she posted about how her kids each sponsor a child through Compassion, and they were actually going to the Dominican Republic to visit two of them. We checked out the website and decided that they'd each choose a child to sponsor.

I let them do their own searches, decide what part of the world they wanted to help, and choose whomever spoke to their heart. Sam selected a boy named Steven from Honduras, who's eight. It turns out, Stevan's birthday is also in September, like Sam's.

Maggie knew she wanted to look for a girl in Peru (llamas, of course) and found Caroline, who's 11, and has a birthday in January, just two weeks after Maggie's.

Sage wanted to sponsor a girl in Asia, so she chose Kedsarin, who is 12 and lives in a center because her parents can't afford to send her to school. Hopefully our sponsorship will help the process of getting her back home. And would you believe Kesdarin's birthday is just a week before Sage's?

I can't help but think that must be God's hand at work. Out of thousands of children that they could have sponsored, they all ended up sharing birth months.

They've already written their first letters to their sponsored kids online. I know it will be a great experience for them to give from their hearts. To help offset the monthly sponsorship cost, I've decided to give up my coffee cart habit.

Confession time...I have a BAD addiction to coffee stands. It's almost a compulsion. Whenever I leave the house, no matter where I'm going, I drive through a coffee stand for a mocha or go to the gas station for a big coffee. Then sometimes on the way home, I'll grab another cup to sip while I read emails. When I add up what I'm spending on this habit, I can easily sponsor three kids a month. Yikes. So it's been a week, and you know what? I don't even miss it! I just bring a cup of coffee from home when I hit the road so I don't need to stop anywhere. And it may sound corny, but if I get a mocha craving, I just think about the faces of Steven, Caroline and Kedsarin and it's easy to say NO to the mocha!

Lizzy in the Hizzy, Yo!

First off, Happy 45th Birthday to Paul! I love you, honey!

(I was laughing so hard taking this picture, that it's a little out of focus...)

Betcha didn't know my dawg could break dance. Check it. heehee OK, I'll stop. Seriously, whenever Lizzy sees a shadow move, she goes into hip-hop mode and does this crazy dance routine.

First she eyes up the shadow to get a feel for the rhythm.

Then she plants her head firmly on the floor.

Then she scratches furiously while spinning in a circle. Really, you'd need video to get the full effect, but she's afraid of the camera. Maybe I'll try to catch her with my phone.

It's entertaining, for sure, but it's gonna come to a screeching halt very soon. And this is why:

We're replacing all the carpet with laminate!!

I'm BEYOND excited to get this done. I hate, no, that's not a strong enough word, DETEST carpet. It never feels clean. It hold smells. I just can't stand it! So we got aged hickory for the living room and craft room and a gorgeous tile laminate that looks like limestone for the dining room and kitchen. My installer (Paul) isn't available for a couple of weeks. He's in pretty high demand at his "day job". ;) So next time he's home we're going to rip out this stinky old carpet in put in the nice shiny new laminate!

The llamas are doing great. Yentna has found her place in the herd as the #2 girl. Kiska is happy to be at the bottom of the list. She's such a sweetheart. There was some back and forth between Tyea and Yetti for awhile, but they've got it figured out now. Age and wisdom won out over sass and youth. ;)

I'll wrap up this recap with some very sad news. We had to put Ginger down this week. She was 11 (or so) and had a wonderful life with us for the past 9 years. She was by far the best dog I've ever had. Always a great friend. We miss you, Ginger.
So that's been my life over the past month or so. Kids are doing great in school. Sage was a cheerleader, and captain of her squad, for about 5 minutes before she decided it really wasn't for her.

Maggie's taking English riding lessons once a week. She looks like she was born to sit on a horse.

Sam switched schools, so he's no longer in the charter school. His reading and spelling are coming along. He's much more willing to pick up a book and read for fun. Now if we can just get him to pick up a pencil for fun. :)

Me, I'm doing the mom thing. Lots of picking up and dropping off and keeping schedules straight. It makes me happy. :)

This is where they get the Swiss Mushrooms for the Swiss Mushroom burgers.

I know, I know, enough with the mushrooms already. But I couldn't resist this cool specimen I found in the flowerbed while I was waiting for the girls to get off the bus this week.






The girls are both going to *gasp* middle school this year. Sage is in 8th and Maggie's in 6th. It's been a pretty smooth transition so far. I'm excited to meet all their teachers and see just how this whole middle school thing works.

Sam's still at the Charter School, in 3rd grade this year. If I learned anything about dyslexia and learning disabilities thus far, it'd be PUT YOUR KID IN SUMMER SCHOOL. I was floored by just how much he lost over the summer, when we compared his test results this week with the ones from the end of last year. Live and learn, I guess. I'm sure he'll be back up to speed soon.


Anyway, I snapped this pic of the girls coming home one day this week. Look how excited Ginger is to see them. :)

Resourceful

Yesterday Sam went to the Alaska State Fair with his class, and he came home with a Hobo Jim autograph. Most kids his age would probably have stuffed it in the bottom of their backpack, where it would be forgotten and eventually thrown out with all the other wadded up papers.







But Sam, being of the entrepreneurial spirit, carefully brought it home, framed it, photographed it, and promptly listed it for sale on eBay. Not bad for an 8 year old, huh?



It was a learning experience for both of us, since I've never sold anything on eBay before. He made the entire listing, start to finish, on his own, with me sitting next to him, coaching him on spelling. You'll have to forgive the lack of capitalization, since it took all he had just to get through that much typing. lol



He's hoping for $100, and I didn't have the heart to discourage him. Hey, it could happen, right? :) It was worth a million bucks just to see him follow through with his idea! Good luck, Sam!

Yummy Summer Treat

So Maggie and I had a craving for a sweet treat yesterday, and this is what came of it. We whipped up a lemon meringue pie. It was delish! Notice I said was. That sucker didn't last to the end of the day. I cheated a little and used canned pie filling...but the meringue is from scratch, I promise! Maggie did that part...not bad, huh?

I had some leftover pie filling from the second can, so I improvised and made a second dessert with a graham cracker/Ritz crust and toasted coconut topping. To make the crust:

2-3 crushed graham crackers

4-6 crushed Ritz crackers

1 Tbs. sugar

2 Tbs. melted butter

Combine in the bottom of a glass pie or tart pan, press firmly with bottom of glass.

Smear on the lemon pie filling, and top with toasted coconut. Voila! A totally made-up dessert! lol

PS: That one's totally gone, too. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone!

Cowgirl Up!

This summer, the kids each had the chance to go to horse camp for a week in Sterling, at Solid Rock Bible Camp. I wish I had camp like this when I was a kid! They stayed in covered wagons, went on trail rides, got some great horsemanship instruction, and competed in a big rodeo at the end of the week.




The week that Maggie went, I decided to drive down to pick her up instead of having her ride the bus back to Anchorage, since it was one of the rare sunny days this summer. I'm so glad I did, or I'd never have understood just how cool the camp is.

Each camper chooses two events to participate in for the rodeo. Maggie's were Poles and Barrels. For poles, you have to turn a tight figure-8, then cross the finish line, all on a stopwatch. I was so impressed with her riding skills, considering she's done very little riding at all.

The barrels was a little more challenging for her, since she was put on a horse that did NOT want to be there. She tried as hard as she could, but Maggie just couldn't get that old nag to trot...until she turned the last barrel, that is. Then she kicked it into gear when she saw the finish line ahead. Judging by the look on Maggie's face, she was none too pleased with this horse's performance. ;)

What an awesome experience for the kids to have. Now more than ever, though, Maggie desperately wants a horse of her own. What is it about 11 year old girls and horses?

Little Su

Yesterday was so gorgeous out that we jumped into the van and headed up the highway. Our first stop was Millers Market for ice cream cones, then we headed to the Little Su to play by the river. This is the best I could do for a family shot...I'm the one with the big hair. haha!



This shot was Maggie's idea. I almost didn't get her in the frame, she jumped so high. I love the light under the bridge.

There was a lot of rock skipping going on.

Don't drop your ice cream, Sage!

And naturally, Sam stripped down to his skivvies so he could splash in the river. He found a cool salmon lure to bring home.

Bananas Baker

We took a little stay-cation in our backyard last night, and Paul treated us to his very own recipe of Bananas Baker. Oh, Grilled Banana, where have you been all my life? Ooey, gooey deliciousness on a stick.

Cut a banana into about 2" pieces, dunk them in brandy (we used Peach), roll them in brown sugar and stab with a skewer.



Roast slowly over hot coals (stay away from the flames!) until sugar caramelizes.

Come to Mama!

So yummy!!

The fire was so relaxing. What a fun way to spend an evening with kiddos. :)

Friday Fling

Maggie and I spent Friday afternoon in Palmer checking out Friday Fling, walking around the Museum Garden and driving the countryside looking for horses to photograph (Maggie's idea, not mine). It was such a nice day that I didn't mind a bit. I handed over the camera to Mag for the day, and once again she proved to me that she's a far better photographer than me. These are straight out of the camera, no cropping or other edits. And they're by no means technically perfect, but check out her composition.

She knows how to frame a shot...
and capture the focal point.

If her mom knew how to do photo editing and adjust colors and such, they would be stunning.

She leaves for horse camp today...I can't wait to see the pictures she comes home with!