Holy Week

There is nothing holy about this week's blog. But I couldn't help thinking about all the Biblical events happening around here. First, all this ash falling on us reminds me of Ash Wednesday. Then when the cloud of ash covered the sun and day turned into night last Saturday, I was reminded of the events following Christ's death. Wednesday as Matt and I attempted to remove some of the ash from our deck, I felt like there was a plague upon us. Oh wait, that's Passover. I'm mixing up my religions. I'm not trying to be funny.

Last Sunday I did a very un-kosher version of a Seder meal at Sunday School with my class. This was the first year I could not find Matzah in Homer, so I had to use wheat crackers. The real Jews get their Matzah sent up from relatives in the lower 48. When I do it for Sunday school, I explain that Passover is what Jesus and his disciples were celebrating at the Last Supper, and relate it to Christianity. I love tradition and the kids love doing the Seder meal. They look forward to it every year.

Wednesday morning we had a new friend over. Blaze needed a place to go for a few hours so his mom could work. At first he was a little nervous because he only remembered coming over for a playdate once before. Sharon dropped him off clutching a new toy, looking sad and nervous. When I asked it he wanted to watch my Thomas the Tank Engine video, he perked right up. But then I couldn't get the TV to switch to video. As I was calling Matt for help, Blaze asked me "How come you don't know how to turn on your own TV?". Maya kept saying "Watch movie?" After I got it working, Blaze said "I knew you could do it!". Then he sat quietly, clutching his new toy and watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Meanwhile, Maya was taking videos off the shelf, out of their cases, and dumping half a can of food in the fish tank. After the third time I had to repremand Maya, Blaze said "I never do anything my mom and dad tell me not to do." He even has the dimples to go along with that statement. He is a month younger than Maya and light years ahead of her in the language department. But what else would we expect from a 3 year old who's mom speaks English, Hebrew and Arabic?


Ash on snow looks like a moonscape.

Last Saturday we went out to dinner with Vince and Alana for Vince's birthday.

Maya had swimming lessons with her preschool class this week.

Wednesday Blaze came over for a playdate.

Matt thinks I look like a dork in my swimming goggles cleaning up ash.

He looks so much cooler in these glacier glasses!

Maya has been really clingy lately. When I asked her if she was going through another "bonding phase" she said "Yes."

Thursday Riley rescued this bird who hit the window and was stunned. We put it in a warm hat lined with wool socks until it recovered and flew away! This is the third bird we have "saved" in this manner.

Maya got to pet the bird, too. Raising another generation of bird rescuers.

April in Alaska. We wake up to snow. It's mostly gone by afternoon.

Maya learns how to color Easter Eggs.

Riley and Chris are old pros.

Chris recently announced that there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny. I told him he won't be getting an Easter basket this year if he doesn't believe. If Riley doesn't believe, he's keeping it to himself.

Blaze singing Twinkle Twinkl Little Star

Living in the shadow of a volcano

There was an article in the Homer News the other day entitled: Living in the shadow of a volcano is a nuisance, but kind of cool...At this point I think it's just a nuisance. This morning I got up at 6:30 because Marina spent the night and she was still on Greear time. So I was giving her a bath between 6:30 and 7:00 when I heard thunder. The first time I thought it was Matt sliding the bathroom door open. The second time I was standing there talking to Matt. I said "do you hear the thunder?". He said, "the volcano must be going off".

I looked out the window and saw dark clouds to the east. Nothing in the west. Within 15 minutes a black cloud blew from the west and turned the sky over our house from dawn to dusk. It was black for about 30 minutes, like an eclipse of the sun. This time, there is no snow falling so the ash is still dry. It blows off the spruce trees like pollen in spring. My dog has an 18 hour bladder but I had to let him out around 10am. When he came in I wiped his paws off with a damp rag. Then I dipped them in a bucket of water and there was about a 1/4" of ash at the bottom of the bucket. When I opened the door to throw the water on the stairs, he slipped out and lay down in the driveway with wet paws. I just got him to come inside and repeated the footwash. Dude is staying inside now until bedtime. I threatened the kids with a spanking for anyone who lets the dog out again. He is like an 86 pound ash magnet. We desperately need it to rain or snow, but I can see the sun trying to shine through the ash fog.

On a more cheerful note...Marina spent the night last night. She and Maya had a sleepover. I am enjoying having a little helper around the house so much, I may never let her go home. She took another bath when Maya woke up. She told me she found a way to get Maya to swallow: by putting a little piece of candy inside each bite of food. I tested her theory by pushing a little nerd inside Maya's mini muffin. It's like giving dogs pills, when you hide the pill inside a piece of meat or cheese. Well, it didn't work on Maya. She still didn't eat her homemade apple cinnamon mini muffin.

The only thing more fun than watching the birds at our feeder is watching the cat.

The boys trying to catch a bird.

Colton gives lessons on how to catch a bird. No luck today.

Maya loves wearing her brothers' hats and gloves.

April Fool!

Maya's little horse on a stick. Matt replaced his batteries the other day. His muzzle wiggles when he whinnies. He would be so cute if he didn't play the Lone Ranger theme. Where's the volume control?

Loose ash all over the deck.

Coloring with Marina. Notice the uneaten mini muffin in the right hand corner.

Marina picked out this cute little ballet dress for Maya. She gave it to Maya for her third birthday.

Scratch what I said earlier. I just lost my little helper to Chris. Chris suddenly remembered that he and Marina used to be great buddies when they were younger.

First Pho, Godspell and Redoubt spews

Thursday morning the volcano blew again. This time the ashes blew towards us. We had a 4 hour warning before the ashfall was due to hit Homer. It was the closest thing to a natural disaster I've ever experienced since the earthquake of 1989 in California. I filled up every container we had with clean water in case something happened to our water supply. Then I shut down and covered every electronic device.

It's more annoying than anything else. Besides wearing masks, I should have worn goggles. The ash gets in your eyes and it's very irritating. Matt told me later that the ash is like tiny shards of glass. They get under your contacts and scratch your eyes. If you use you windshield wipers, they can scratch your windshield. I should have picked the kids up before the ash started to fall, then go home and put my car in the garage where it would have been safe.

But I was having my own natural disaster. The annual tax preparation crisis. I opened my tax organizer for the first time. The cover letter from our fairly new accountant said due back March 20. Oops. I had a panic attack, then got to work while beating myself up for being the queen of disorganization and procrastination. Then I had to drive to the post office during the thickest part of the ash fall to express mail my package so our accountant wouldn't fire me. I'm sure that was really good for my car.

Today I waited in the carwash line for 30 minutes to wash my car. It was the fourth time I had driven by the carwash. The first three times there were cars lined up around the building. Luckily, it's been snowing a lot so most of the ash is wet now and bound to the ground instead of blowing around where it does the most damage. The volcano has been spewing off and on for 5 days. Most of it has not blown high enough to be a danger to us. Matt said last night during dinner: "I wonder what Redoubt's problem is? Why can't it just blow once and get it over with?" Yeah, why can't natural disasters happen when it's convenient for us anyway?

Speaking of Matt, he made his first pot of pho yesterday! I gave him a choice of going with us to see our high school's production of "Godspell", or staying home and learning how to make pho. He chose the latter. He made an excellent batch of pho bo.

I took the kids to see Godspell. Our high school choir puts on a great musical every year. The first time I saw Godspell I was in high school I think. I caught the end on of it on TV during Easter week. I cried my eyes out when they tied Jesus to the chain link fence. My mom said, "What's wrong with you? You never cry when we watch the religious movies and now you're crying because they tied this clown to a chain link fence?"

I've always been deeply affected by symbolism. The high school choir did a great job. They improvised and made it their own. Most of them were dressed in very creative combinations of 7o's and 80's style garb. One kid was dressed as Mario, as in the Mario Brothers video game. Riley and Chris enjoyed the boys wearing hockey jerseys, of course. Instead of a mime, Jesus was a surfer dude. Mary Magdalene was a cheerleader. I had to work hard not to start sobbing when they tied Jesus to the big piece of driftwood hanging from the top of the stage.



Ash on snow

We've been enjoying all the birds coming to our bird feeder. They are going through the bird seed so fast, Matt said we'll have to start buying 40 pound bags.

Maya approved of Daddy's pho.

Leonards in Vietnam/Redoubt blows!

Mt. Redoubt finally blew. The wind is blowing the ashes the other way so we have not had to deal with that problem but our unfortunate neighbors to the north are not so lucky.

I was thrilled today to see pictures of the Leonard Family in Vietnam, picking up their son, Nathan. What a wonderful first day they had together! Check them out on the Leonard Family Blog.

Happy Spring!

In the rest of the world it's the first day of spring. In Alaska we still have snow on the ground and the temperature is in the teens when we make wake up in the morning. But the days are getting longer and we have had some beautiful sunny days.

On our last day in Anchorage we went to the Dimond Mall for pho and bowling.

Maya rode a horse at the mall.

Slurping on some pho ga.

Check out these bowling balls. They look like sherbet.

A moment of sweetness between Chris and Maya.

Riley and Matt waiting for their turn.

When we picked Trevor up from Lyn and Darwyn, the boys tried to smuggle their dog Cassie in the car.

Chris is happy to have his dog back.

Wednesday Matt took the boys and Alana's gang to Ohlson Mountain for Extreme Tubing.

Back row: Falcom, Chris and Riley. Front: Willie, Marina.

On Thursday Matt took the kids to Nikiski pool. Alana and her kids were there, too.

Alana took Maya down the waterslide, of course, Maya loved it! I got to stay home and clean house, which is something I didn't do much during the hockey season.

On Friday Grandma came over for coffee then took all the kids for haircuts. Then they played at her house all day. She took them to Islands and Ocean to see a visiting great horned owl. Matt and I spent the day spring cleaning and getting caught up on stuff around the house. It was so nice to be home together and have conversations without constant interruptions from little people.

On Saturday morning the boys went to the Bay Club to play raquettball with Ly. Maya and I swam. After we had been in the pool for an hour, two of her friends from the play group at Boys and Girls Club showed up. I got to meet her friends Freida and Elaine.

Late Saturday afternoon we went down to the Spit to watch the fisherman haul in their catch for the Winter King Salmon Derby. Maya has a close encounter with a winter king. Winter kings are my favorite kind of salmon. Winter kings are not spawning like the ones we catch in the summer time. They are so delicious, it's like eating butter that is good for you.

The Homer boat harbor.

Fishing boats heading back to the harbor.

Trevor is in heaven.

The boys made this shelter from driftwood and found objects.

Today is the last day of our spring break. Tomorrow Matt and I go back to work and the kids are back in school. We had a wonderful time. Chris is already counting down the days until we go to Arizona for Sarah's graduation.

Fun at H2Oasis

This morning the boys went to watch the semifinal game between Jr. Avalance and Fairbanks Phantoms. The Jr. Avalanche won. They went on to beat the Comets in the Championship game 3-2. We lost to the two teams that made it to the final round, just like President's Day tournament.

We had lunch in Eagle River at a restaurant called Shines' Sushi. Here's Maya sipping miso soup.

Maya pratices eating salad with chopsticks.

Matt's sushi lunch special.

I ordered chicken teriyaki and shrimp tempura for the boys.

They ended up eating Matt's sushi platter.
We had an interesting discussion about the similarities and differences between Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine and culture.

Then we went to H2Oasis, an indoor water park in Anchorage. Maya was so happy she was juming up and down as soon as we got into the place. Here's Matt and Maya on her first slide.

She just loves that water!

She doesn't mind water in her face or in her eyes.

She stayed in the water for almost 5 hours. She took a short dinner break and headed straight back to the water.

Chris went down the big water slide over and over.

Bradley, Robby and Douglas from the hockey team showed up later and a good time was had by all.