Construction Zone Ahead!

Party Under Construction!

Isaiah is turning 3! 

Drive on over and join the crew to celebrate his birthday!

At Ramos Construction Site

Caution! Men at Work! Work Zone! Danger! 

*Hard Hard required

 Isaiah turned 3 on November 21st and we threw him a fun construction party. Isaiah really wanted to have a party with dump trucks. He is fascinated with cars and construction vehicles.  With the amount of building going on in our town, it seemed to be a perfect kind of party to have. Finding cones and construction hats and vest was not a problem. He invited his friends and was excited they were coming. He was so excited to see his cake with all the construction vehicles on top! I was very please with how the party all came out! Who doesn't like to wear bright florescent vests and hard hats? It was a great party for a 3 year old boy and everyone else!

Since the party was in the evening after everyone got off work, I made tortillas and we had a Build Your Own Taco dinner.  With the food served in some trucks and tool boxes, I really liked how it turned out. The kids got a kick out of all the new names for their food.

 

 Foundation= tortilla's, dirt= taco meat, mud= re-fried beans, insulation= cheese, concrete= salsa, sod= lettuce, slime= guacamole, The kids were excited to eat "mud" and "dirt". It was great!

 Isaiah liked it!

 

 His cake turned out great! I really figured that it would not be TO hard to make a construction cake, because if it failed, I could just break it all up and stick the trucks on top and it would still look like a construction site! But I really loved how it all worked out! The kids were again, excited to get to eat "dirt" which were crushed Oreos!

 Caution!

 My boy LOVED IT!!!

 Opening cool presents from friends!

 From our friend Ida, she made him a hand made dump truck!

 So creative and cute!

 From Daddy(and Mommy) and Abuela and Abuelo Isaiah got some awesome realistic looking construction vehicles!

 

I am not sure who has had more fun playing with those big trucks.

 The little boys or the BIG boys?

   Our family! What a fun evening! Happy Birthday Isaiah! We love you!

Thanksgiving

I have had a hard time writing on this blog after our flood here in Galena. I guess I have had a bit of a writer block. Or maybe I am still trying to emotionally recover from it. There was just so much going on during and after the flood that I just don't know where to start.  Thankfully God just asks us to be joyful in all circumstances and not worry about our happiness level.  So today I am writing about the things I am truly thankful for.

I am Thankful For:
~ A dike that surrounds the airport, that provided us a "safe" zone to be evacuated out of Galena during the flood.
~ Missionary Pilots that flew and evacuated us out. All night long flying people to safety, 5 people at a time sometimes. They did not care about cost but flew because we needed help!
~ Fair Hill Community Church for opening their doors to some evacuees with no place to go. They sent out an email to their members for donations and we were fully clothed and fed by wonderful people!
~ Friends who heard we had to evacuate and asked what they could do to help. Little did I know that that one request would go out and bring in many volunteers to come help rebuild our town!
~ Volunteers who took time off in the summer to come to a disaster zone where the conditions and bugs were horrible!
~ Our Church and Pastor Chris, who have reached out to our community to the point where the love of Christ is being seen by many who have never cared about God.
~ My wonderful Father and Mother In Law that took my boys and I in during the summer while my husband helped with flood relief and worked in Galena.
~ Phones and Internet that keep me connected to friends and Family.
~ A community that comes together in hard times and helps each other out.
~ My two boys that keep me laughing.
~ My warm cozy home that keeps out the negative temperatures. Thanks to the many volunteers, we got back most of our wood that floated away during the flood!
~ A pantry full of food
~ A freezer and front porch full of moose meat and salmon.
~ Neighbors that are awesome to hang out with and join right in to your crazy life.
~ My Wonderful, Sweet husband that doesn't mind my craziness or the fact that I put the Christmas tree up in October! I am so proud of him!
~ My Amazing parents who have spent 25 years on the mission field. They are retiring this next year but I am so excited that my family gets to spend Christmas with them this year!
~ Skype that makes talking to all my family while they gather together make me feel like I am NOT that far away! I just got done talking to my parents, grandparents, uncle, and brothers family. Isaiah got to "play" and talk to Josiah. It will be fun to see them together at Christmas.
~ My brother Jesse and his wife Renee, plus my Eliana and Josiah! I love you all!
~ My brother in law Ken and his wife Yanelys, plus Kennealys and Keniel. Love you too!
~ Friends who are there for you and pray for you.
~ A kitchen that I can enjoy cooking in.
 

Not the Normal November

Past Novembers might find us with lots of snow on the ground, chilly temperatures, snow machine trips out in the woods, ice skating on ponds, skiing, enjoying the wintery outdoors or maybe snugly warm inside enjoying the warmth of our house while temperatures hit the -20 mark. But since this year just can't seem to be "normal" why should we think that November would get the memo and return to the normal life?

A few weeks ago we found ourselves preparing for winter. "Finally"  is what we said. Temperatures had dropped to below 0 and we had a little snow on the ground. we were busy picking up toys and tools and anything we didn't want to be buried under the snow that was sure to follow. We were ready for winter. Keith had shoveled the ice skating pond and it was smooth and slick. I had shoveled the stairs and driveway and we had loaded up our wood supply inside. Then it warmed up to 36 degrees and began to rain! All the snow melted then it started to snow again. Our skating pond was in terrible shape. It froze that night and we figured that the pond would NOT be a skating pond this year because when it froze the ice and snow mixed creating a crusty, bumpy kind of ice that would not be good to skate. The roads became a hazard and School was actually canceled due to the icy roads. We did our home school and remained indoors since walking out our front doors we faced a giant hill of ice in our driveway. That day it snowed on top of the ice creating a beautiful picture of white TILL you stepped on it and your feet wiped out underneath you! Then on Saturday, the weather man threw us for another loop and it warmed up to the 40's and rained for a day! Talk about a slushy mess! The pond filled up with a nice inch or so of water on top of the bad ice which made it completely new again! Then that nice it was clear and cold. Everything froze again. Getting to church was a challenge. They grated the roads but our drive way was slick. I should have grabbed the sled and slide all the way across the street. Our pond was looking great! We just needed it to completely freeze and we would be ready to skate.

Our Sunday evening we spent with our neighbors celebrating Martinstag or St. Martin's Day. A German holiday celebrating the kindness of Martin a roman soldier who among many good deeds he did, he gave his cloak to a man who was cold. We made small lanterns and tried to walk the slippery roads singing Martin songs and holding out little light, lighting the world. During our celebration, Keith looked out the window to realize it was SNOWING! AGAIN! Our thought was well that is good because we can at least shovel snow.

Veteran's Day showed us a nice clear day but a winter storm was brewing. Wind began to blow and blew in a front that hit on Wednesday(yesterday) evening. Wednesday was a warm 38 degrees. With such warm weather we got more rain but we were able to make a  quick snowman and enjoy the warm day.

The wind picked up due to the storm and man was it blowing. It caused trees to blow down, Power lines to get tangled with those trees causing a fire on the wires causing power outages. At those moments I am glad for my mom training me to ALWAYS know where the candles and flash lights are, even though the boys were not so sure the darkness was as fun as I was making it out to be. But the lights came back on a while later and we were all OK. The wind blew all night long and was strong enough to blow the roof of one of our friends house. I went to sleep hoping that when I woke up my house would not be landed in OZ. Most flights have been canceled for the last 3 days due to the wind. I definitely would not want to be flying in this weather!  

This morning we got dumped on with snow and now we are back into a wintery wonderland. The weatherman can't seem to make up his mind of what is going on. This is not the NORMAL November that we usually have! I am enjoying the nice warm weather that I can leave the parka in the closet and just go out in a fleece sweater. Kaden is learning weather pretty good. We can practice predicting what the weather is going to be like and he is learning the difference between the different clouds. Our friend Jason said all this change in weather reminds him of living in Michigan. With the pond freezing and melting so much, I don't know if we should go ice skating or go swimming!

Whatever the weather is today or tomorrow, I am trying to enjoy all the twists and turns that we are getting. Now if the water truck would work so we could fill up our tank. It has been broken for a week and due to the bad weather the planes have not been able to deliver the part that is coming. Life in Alaska is never dull, I tell you!  I have a feeling the normal might not be any more. But we will take it as it comes.

Darkness is here but so is the light

Well you know winter is approaching when darkness returns to the Arctic. Many times during the summer you forget what night looks like. You remember why you never tell your kids "come home when it gets dark" or why never shoot off fireworks on the Fourth of July!  Because it doesn't get dark! But when the Fall comes and Winter approaches you remember what darkness it. It makes waking up in the morning hard because it is so snuggly warm in your bed. You remember why you have boxes and boxes of Christmas lights, to light up the rooms. You remember why God made darkness to show off his handy works in the sky! God gets creative and likes to show off his painting skills and his canvas is our sky! Last week we had the first showing (for us due to all the other nights being cloudy) It was fabulous! Keith headed out to take some pictures. We are hoping this winter that the Aurora with be amazing for pictures. This is just a little sample of what God can do! Even the samples are amazing! Sadly pictures can't do them justice but they are Beautiful!

 

Day 4: My Kitchen

I know that may sound weird but I am so glad that I have a kitchen! I love to cook and I think cooking is one way I get to get away from the stress in my life and let it burn off! I love cooking dishes for may family. I love getting new recipes and trying them out. I love having people over for dinner. Many people don't like to cook, think it takes to much time(which sometimes it does). I just enjoy it.... most of the time. Yes there are days that I really wish I had a person that was just there to wash dishes or sometimes I really wish there was a restaurant in our village, but there isn't.  What I would do for and Olive Garden or La Casona Mexican food restaurant! But It just makes visits to town that much more enjoyable! We make lists of where we are going to eat or try. We all go to Texas in December and we already have a list of places to try. But honestly, I am also collecting recipes to try while we are at my parents house. I am picking recipes that have items that we can't get here. It will be super special! But until then I will continue to cook in my wonderful kitchen.  I am thankful for the ability to cook in my home and make delicious dishes!

Day 3: Ice skating ponds

Today I am thankful for ice skating ponds! The boys and I got to spend the afternoon skating on our neighbors and our ice pond. Keith spent 4 hours yesterday clearing of the small layer of snow so we could skate today. Then of course after  all the work shoveling ans sweeping it snowed about an inch last night! But he got out there this afternoon and swept it, then we got to get out there and skate. It is so relaxing just skating around our little pond. That is when I feel life feel like I live in a Hallmark Card, of course in my mind I am wearing a beautiful flowing skirt, with a fur ruff coat and a Christmas lights twinkling to cast a glow on the ice. I mean isn't that the image on every Hallmark card? Growing up I always wanted to Ice skate. That was my favorite part of Olympics to watch. But living in Zambia where ice was not a normal occurrence I didn't get much chance to skate. But I love the fact that now I have my own skating pond right outside my front door! And it's free except for the work we have to put into shoveling after any snowfall. I am so thankful for being able to skate and enjoy time outside on the ice skating pond! I am also thankful for my husband who spends hours shoveling and clearing the snow just for his families fun! 

Day 2: Skype

Yesterday I was busy most of the day so I didn't get a chance to post in my thankfulness Challenge, but yesterday I was thankful for SKYPE! Yes Skype. I got to talk to my mom and dad for a while and it was so good! I really needed to hear their voices. When I lived in Zambia we always said "We don't live in the middle of no where but we could see it from there." Well I DO live in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE now! If you Google directions from your house in the Lower 48 to our house here it will tell you "You can not get there from here" Yes it will! Try it! But if you take my parents who still live in Zambia(for another 2 weeks till they retire) and I live in Galena Alaska, we live almost exactly on the opposite side of the world! We are 11 time zones away and in opposite hemispheres. Most of the time the distance doesn't bother me so much but yesterday it did and being able to "see" them on the computer made my day! I don't know who invented SKYPE but whoever did gets my gratitude! I can't wait in 2 weeks my parents will be on this side of the world and only 3 time zones different then me and then I can actually call them on a real phone. But I do enjoy Skype because with the video they can see my crazy kids running around acting like monkeys or whatever. So thankfull for Skype that can provide a link from Alaska to Africa that can join families!

Day 1: Warmer days to play outside

Well it is November 1st. In my mind November brings warm fires, hot soups, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin rolls, Apple cider, cold days, dark nights and warm hearts. It is my favorite time of the year! It brings out to mind all the blessings I have in this world. I did the Thanksgiving Challenge last year and had a great time doing it so this year I am going to do the same! Each day I will post something that I am thankful for that day leading up to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is coming in 28 days. So I accept this challenge and look forward to what everyday thanksgiving brings to mind.

Day 1:
Today I am thankful for clear, "warmer" brighter days. It is 24 degrees outside and sunny with blue clear skies. The weather has been really weird this fall... OK maybe try this whole year has had weird weather thus the "eventful" summer that we had. But this Fall has been very warm but sadly with the warmer days it has been raining and miserable out. I know many in our village that appreciate the winter weather holding off as the are still building and fixing houses. I kind of like the mild Fall we are having.  Honestly today I am just thankful that my kids can gear up and go outside and run off ALL of that Halloween Candy that they accumulated last night. Anyways, I am glad they can go play for a while because I know our harsh  DARK winter of -50 degrees will be here before we know it and at that temperature the kids are stuck indoors for a long time. The dark winters will be here soon so the boys and I are soaking up as much sun as we can before it doesn't come through our windows or come up above the trees to shine in our yard. Did I mention winter is coming!  Thankful for sunny "warm" days to play outside.


So with this 28 day challenge..... What are you thankful for?