Red-Nosed Caribou

What do you get when you have an Alaskan child who is deprived of secular Christmas stories?  You get to overhear the following  conversation.

My four year old was looking at a piano book earlier this morning and was on the page with the song Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  She noticed a drawing of Rudolf.  She pointed to his red nose and then with a bit of urgency and concern she asks,

“What happened to the caribou?!?!?!”

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After a short pause she answered her own question.

“Oh, he is blowing a bubble out his nose.”

Image via Wikipedia

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Do you think it is time for me to tell her the story??  LOL  Nah, overhearing these conversations is priceless!

Showered With Prayer

This past weekend the ladies from the church we attend threw a baby shower for the baby and me.  I have had many a baby shower thrown for me and my newborns but this was by far the biggest blessing of them all.  I love these ladies so much!

Everything was perfect!  There was a cute little safari theme with little monkeys,  a dessert made especially for me with my favorite ingredients, and an amazing group of loving ladies to share conversation with!  These ladies are there to share joys and struggles and to offer encouragement.  There were even the adorable little baby gifts!

BUT…….

What I loved most…..

about the day was that this baby shower was not filled with the typical baby shower games.  Those can be fun but that is really all they are.  My friend who organized the shower suggested something completely different.  Instead of playing the usual baby shower games we had a time of group prayer.  I had several prayer requests that I sent to my friend and she shared them with the ladies who attended.  It was so amazing to have such a godly group of ladies praying over me, my newborn son, and the rest of my family!

They prayed for our little Nathan, that he would grow into a strong, godly, young man.  That he would come to know the Lord at an early age and live a life honoring the Lord.  That he would be healthy.  That God would be preparing a godly wife for him even now.  They prayed for me and for my husband as we teach and train him.  That I would be patient even amidst sleepless nights.  That I would have compassion.  That I would not grow weary and that I would rely upon the Lord in the great task of being a parent.  They prayed the same things for my husband as he leads our household.  They prayed for our family with our upcoming move. They prayed for our other children, for our schooling, and for there to be a good relationship cultivated between our newest son and our oldest who has already moved out.

It was such an unbelievably sweet time of prayer!  I do not ever recall people praying for our family in such a way!  It is an amazing blessing that I will always cherish!

I think of all the gifts that we received that day the time of prayer was by far the most special, most desired, and most needed of them all!

As I thank the Lord for my new son and my entire family, I will be thanking him for the church family he has blessed us with.

Thank you Lord for each of those ladies!  Thank you Lord, that we can come before your throne in prayer!

Thank you ladies of Faith PCA Anchorage!  Thank you for showering us with prayer!!!

I DO Have a Blog, Don’t I???

I bet some of you thought that I forgot.  I do remember that I have a blog though.  It has actually been a nice little break to not get up and fret about what to write.  My hubby is still off of work and so this blog has been neglected.  I thought that I would share a short update with you, just so you know I haven’t forgotten my blog and my readers entirely.

We are enjoying spending time together as a family.  We have taken a trip to the museum.  Hubby and I have had several dates.  We have taken many trips to Lowe’s and hubby has been working on all the housing/remodeling projects that are yet to be finished.

Hubby ended up catching this nasty bug that we have been fighting for over a month.  He has actually been in bed sick the last two days.  Everyone is a little under the weather right now but we are trying to mend.

Our oldest child moved out last week too.  In some ways it is strange and in other ways not so much.  I just pray that the Lord will direct his life, motivate him, provide for him, and protect him.

We had our first snow.  Though Anchorage has yet to see accumulation I have had about an inch of snow in the yard for the last couple of days.  This of course means that the sleds were pulled out and used!  We finally went through all of the winter gear to see who needed what this year.  YIKES!  Just about all of the children outgrew stuff!!  Thankfully, no new coats were needed but the list of boots, hats, gloves, and snowpants that needed to be replaced almost gave me a heart attack. I did really well though.  I went when all of my coupons were good.  We actually left the house at 8 am with the children to go shopping!!  I thought it was maybe a sign of insanity but it turned out well.  I ended up saving $60 in coupons!  Which brought my bill to ONLY $675!!   At least I will get good reward points for cash off and money off at the gas pump too!

Now for the baby update.  It is finally November!!!  The baby is due in three weeks.  I am so ready!!  You know it is time to deliver your baby when…. 1) you have outgrown almost every maternity item you own and 2) people begin to stare at your belly instead of actually looking at you!

Yesterday was an afternoon and evening of contractions.  Hopefully, they are actually making some progress.  Three weeks of contractions like I had yesterday will NOT be fun!  I have been there and done that!    We are anxious and excited for the arrival of our newest little one.

Soooo, there is the update!  What is going on in your life????

Sickness and More

Well, my two with pneumonia are on the mend.  It is amazing what a little pink antibiotic can do!  The rest of us, well, we could maybe do with a little of that pink stuff.  I spent almost the entire day at the hospital going to appointments.  I had my OB appointment.  That actually went well.  I am down to only one finger stick a day now instead of four.  The baby seems to be doing well and growing well!  Baby measured three weeks bigger than two weeks ago but still on track and I only gained one pound to boot!

I did actually manage to get an appointment for another child in the peds clinic, almost unheard of these days.  BUT I was not impressed.  I think I had the one doc who really should not be wearing that title.  She is older and seems absent minded.  She even left her tools laying around the room and never put them away.  She tells me that this child I brought in probably just has a cold.  She can hear nothing to even indicate the need for an x-ray.  I am sitting there wondering if this lady even has good hearing.  I brought up the fact that my daughter complains and moans that her ribs hurt every time she breathes.  That lady actually shrugged her shoulders and said she didn’t know and that she guesses a cold could cause that.  We came home and daughter spiked a temp of 102.5.  That doesn’t sound like just a cold to me.  We will see if her body can fight it off or maybe we will end up back in the ER some time this weekend.

I am fighting this bug as well and feel pretty much like, well, you know.  My temp is gone for now so I will just suffer through it.  Being sick however has made my blood sugar begin to spike so I am praying I get over this soon for more than one reason now.

I am hoping we will all be well by time hubby makes it home next week.  If he makes it home next week like anticipated.  He began his travel a day or so ago and upon reaching his first stop along the way they informed him he was supposed to have been there days ago.  He was given the wrong dates.  Do they know how bored he has been just sitting around while his replacement was already there???  So, I am waiting to hear if they have figured out his new travel arrangements yet.  They do this moving troops thing enough, you would think that the system would have all the kinks worked out.  His travel has been messed up almost every time!  I am just ready for him to be home and so are the children.   They know time is getting short and are beginning to start in with the, “I miss daddy” talk again.  I was hoping the last couple of weeks of this deployment would snowball and go by quickly but they seem longer and longer with each passing day.   Soon though; very soon!

So the plan for today:  Clean and try to kill these pesky germs, piano lessons, pay the bills, grocery shopping, clean out the vehicles, and try not to be sick anymore!

On an up note, I splurged and finally bought myself a pair of Dansko clogs and I LOVE them!!!  )

And yesterday, one child took the PSAT and thinks she did well.  That is one standardized test for the year out of the way!

I guess I should go shower and get the children moving while we wait for the sun to rise.  May the Lord bless your day today!

Mountains Close to Home

View of the mountains in Chugiak…one of these is Bear Mountain…taken close to the post office.

Mountains at Mirror Lake…notice the reflection of the mountains in the water.

Pioneer Peak in Palmer…taken from the parking lot at the Alaska State Fair.

Giant Veggies

Last week the children and I went with some friends to the Alaska State Fair. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! I am thankful we went. We had so much fun. One of the first stops we made at the fair was the veggie stand. Alaska is known for its giant vegetables and I was expecting some big veggies but WOW!

So I thought that I would share a few photos with you.

This pumpkin set a new record. It weighed in at 1,1o1 pounds!

This cabbage is actually in the photo above too, this is just a close up.  I do not know which cabbage weighed the most this year at the fair but this one weighed in at 93.9 pounds.  That is a lot of coleslaw!!

Here is a kohlrabi weighing in at 20 pounds and a 19.6 pound turnip!

Then there was the fun selection of veggie people.  This one was my favorite.

So, how does your garden compare?  Ha, I don’t even have a garden!  We are a large family but I think that veggies this size would even be too much for us!