Thursday, December 27, 2007

Merry Christmas Week

Okay, sorry for not posting anything sooner but I just haven't felt like it! I'm not sad, or depressed or anything, I'm just not ready to post anything. Um... I didn't feel like posting anything. I do now so here goes.

I know I promised to post pictures of the first big snowfall and I as yet have not done that. That is because we haven't gotten a big snowfall that stuck. It snowed three times before any of it stayed put but it was about a quarter of an inch. Around here that does not qualify as big. On Christmas we got about four inches. That's respectable and I'll try to get pictures of it on here soon.
Christmas was Christmas. It was only the three of us because Charlie couldn't make it down and Kathy said Justin, Katrina and Jaddrick(sorry if I spelled that wrong) were planning on stopping by her place so she wasn't here. We opened presents at noon cause that's when all of us were up at the same time. I got really cool scrapbook paper from one of my cousins' children, Robbie. It's very retro and it'll be perfect for Mom and Dad's scrapbook. Also, a pack of loose papers in different colors and a sticker-maker. I have one and I really like it. And really, can you have too many scrapbook tools? Mom made me a jumper, got me a rice cooker/steamer (which I really, really wanted), and my favorite candy in the whole world, Almond Roca.
Dad got a really cool flashlight with red and blue filters. He almost blinded himself when he was looking at it and turned it on. He also got little sculptures of a wolf and a bear from his niece, Amanda. The sculptures are already on the entertainment center, which, by the way, holds our new television!!!!! It's amazing! When you info a program on the satellite, the info box is bigger than our other tv! It's really nice because this tv is a stereo tv which means that the sound is much lower when it comes out. There's a lot more bass. Apparently, Dad was having a hard time hearing the other tv because it was so high-pitched. He doesn't need this one turned up nearly as much. I can actually lay in my bed, three feet from my own television and hear what I'm watching instead of what he's watching.
Sorry, back to Christmas. Mom got a Jo-Ann's gift card, a sewing stiletto and serger tweezers. She asked for the stiletto, and if I couldn't find that, then the tweezers. I found both and that's what she got.
We all got a family picture of the Selbys (Amanda, Clint, Robbie, Glen and Brytni). Grandma Love sent us a calendar of some of the pictures that Uncle Dave has taken. One of the "purtypurple flowers" is an orchid, I'm sure of it. I was a little bummed that I didn't get an orchid calendar this year but I guess I did huh? Mom also got a quilting book that she spent the day poring over. Me thinks she likes it.
Grandpa and Grandma Arndt sent us candy, scarves, brownie mix and an oven mitt that is too cute.
I'm sorry if I forgot anyone. Normally I write down who got what but I forgot this year.

Oh! I got my dog the cutest little snow suit! I know, I know, you're all thinking "Clothes for a dog? What a weirdo!" but you have to understand that he is only a foot tall, doesn't have much of a winter coat, fur-wise, and it gets downright nippy around these parts. Because he is crated most of the time he needs to get out and run sometimes. With McKinzie in the house, it's just a lot easier to let him run outside. McKinzie can't focus on fast moving objects so he gets really frustrated when he can't catch the furry little blur whizzing past him.

We haven't had much excitement this week but Kathy had a lot more fun than we did.
Last week she went to Anchorage with her son, daughter-in-law and their two children. Mom was taking care of the house and the dog while she was gone. Unfortunately, when Kathy got home she had a chimney fire! She called Dad and he grabbed the ladder and me and we went to rescue her. She was remarkably calm, considering her house was on fire. Dad climbed up on the roof and poured water down the chimney until the pipe was cool. Two days later Dad and Tony took her old stove out and put the one that Mom bought for us four years ago in. It is too little for our house but it's just perfect for hers. She had run out of heating fuel and the old stove just couldn't keep it warm in that one room. Now, you have to understand the dynamics of Kathy's house. She lives in a trailer with an add-on and a shell over the whole thing. The circulation isn't that great. She has a Toyo stove in the trailer and a wood stove in the add-on. Together, they keep both buildings quite warm and comfy. Okay, she had run out of heating fuel... She put a sheet across the doorway into the trailer to keep the heat in the add-on and because there's no heat in the trailer, her water froze. She also has Bryan and Mary Beth's camp trailer hooked up to her water and septic. Where the septic lines connect, because she wasn't running water through there, it froze. So now her water and her septic are frozen, she has no heat in the trailer and the wood stove needs to be nursed through the night to put out enough heat. Exciting, no? Well, the day that Dad and Tony switched the stoves, Bryan and Mary Beth bought 100 gallons of heating fuel. So, her heater was working, the wood stove was working and just a day later her water thawed out. The only thing that was wrong was the septic. I had forgotten, but when Jim and Kathy had their well drilled they were able to find a bowl of sandstone. Their water gets filtered by the sandstone before it gets pumped to the house so, ordinarily, they have really good water. If it's not run for a couple days however, it gets really rusty. Kathy says it'll take about ten gallons to run the rust out. But she couldn't run her water because the septic was still frozen. She came up here to get water a couple of times but I think it's thawed now because the last time she came up was on Christmas. She said the pump truck would be out the next day to thaw the system. Hopefully she's all working again.
That's all the news I can think of for the moment.
~Pam

Monday, December 10, 2007

Well, another day another post. Nothing new except for an incontinent dog and dead toads. McKinzie has become less insistent about his desire to eliminate outside and Phaedra has decided that my toads are dead. They aren't.
Mom and I had planned on doing custom cards this Christmas but the printer won't do it right so ya'll get commercial ones instead. It's weird that I can do the cards for our missionaries just fine but the program wants to print the greeting for the Christmas cards upside down. Curiouser and curiouser.
In other Christmas news, Mom and I bought Kathy's (Mom's cousin who lives down the driveway) 32" flatscreen tv from her for Dad (that means that I can finally get rid of the hulking entertainment center that's been clogging the living room. That also means that I had to clean it out and I now have five giant boxes clogging the living room). She doesn't have the oomph to move it to clean behind it. And in Kathy's house, if it can't be cleaned then it can't live there. She has become more of a germiphobe since her husband died and she has the time to actually consider what is living in her house with her. Can't say as I blame her as I seem to be coming to the same conclusions.
I have fallen in love with a new cleaning product. Clorox Anywhere!! I really like that you don't have to rinse it off because we're on a septic and bleach really wreaks havoc on the whole system. I like that it has bleach in it cause I love that bleach smell in a bathroom. It makes me feel safe. I suppose this is something I should have been doing for some time but I really hate cleaning the bathroom. I always felt that something nasty got missed and I would be attacked by supergerms the next time I went in there. This way I can just hose the place down with my nifty new friend and walk away, safe in the knowledge that a mass extinction is taking place in my absence. I think I'll try using it in the fridge and the microwave next. Our fridge is probably growing the swamp thing and it needs to be squashed!! I'll keep you posted.
I was reading my previous posts and I realized that one important bit of news had not been reported. India and her little sister are due for another sibling. The new baby is due at the end of April and their mother is DYING!!! She has rough pregnancies and I guess this one hasn't been any different. Hopefully the worst is over now and she can sit back and enjoy the attention. Poor Phaedra has no idea what's coming. She has decided that we are all here to cater to her every whim. What a shocker this is going to be! I make it sound like she is a total brat but she isn't. She isn't spoiled but is trying her hand at manipulation and making demands that she is perfectly capable of doing herself. India watches her little sister, not getting away with this, and decides to show her how it's done. Unfortunately, India isn't that good at it either. It's been really eye-opening these past few years. Hopefully it's getting me prepared for motherhood, at least a little bit.
Mom's surgery went great. There were a few more complications this time but nothing really bad. She still has double vision sometimes and her eye is a little more blood-shot this time. She is going to need reading glasses when the lens settles down and they can measure her vision for good. It'll take a month for that. At least she can thread the needle on a sewing machine now. She needed me to make sure that she did it but she did it herself. Awesome!!!!!
I think she is going in to have her shoulder looked at soon. Hopefully Dad will go as well. He made the comment that he wished his shoulders didn't hurt, so he could work for a guy in town. I could see the obvious solution but I'm not his mommy and can't make him go. Please keep him in your prayers.
Mom and I saw Charlie when we were in Anchorage for her surgery. He finally got the key to his car to the dealership that has it. I really hope that he'll get a different car but he is still really attached to that one. They are going to try to fix it at the dealership. Please pray that the thing catches on fire in the parking lot and leaves nothing but a license plate. Not really, but please do pray for Charlie as he is dealing with a lot of issues.
Okay that was a little more than the dog and the toads but you have to realize that all this stuff comes to mind as I type! You know how it is.
Oh yeah, if ya'll want to leave comments and stuff then I wouldn't take it personally. Dad keeps asking what you guys think of the blog and I have to keep shrugging. Please! My shoulders are so sore.
Later,
~Pam

About Me

We're a family that came to Alaska in shifts. We've been here since 1995 and don't plan to leave any time soon.

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" The government that is big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."

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Died on JULY 4th, 1826

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