Christmas letter

Happy Christmas! I can't believe 2011 is gone already and everyone is a year older (and hopefully, wiser). God has been soooo faithful this year to our family. Looking back, His care is clear and that makes me excited for 2012. We hope you've experienced His love in new ways, too!

We had two great trips this year - the first to California for a Girl Scout trip. In May, Grace and I went with her troop a week before the guys joined us. We visited friends, stayed in San Francisco and Yosemite and had a great time. Over Thanksgiving, we joined my family - my parents, Billy & Sara and their four children, and my Aunt Deb and Uncle Rick in Cancun for a week. We spent most of the time on the beach/in the pool guzzling virgin strawberry daiquiries but did manage to visit Chichen Itza. In one week, Nate went from being scared of putting his head underwater to snorkeling without assistance. (Okay, he wore a floatie but still.) Unfortunately, he refused to snorkel in the ocean where the coral and fish were, but the rest of us had a blast.

Roger: Continues to work for Southern Air, a cargo company based out of Connecticut. His company has seen some major transitions this year that are still working themselves out. He continues to travel for them (is currently flying home from Africa right now) but may move into a different position for them soon. We could use your prayers for this as we very much want to stay in Alaska while Luke is in high school.

Me: Now working as a part-time PE teacher at Academy Charter, where Grace and Nate attend. It is a FUN job; I get to see Nate almost every day and have first-hand knowledge of why his teachers complain about his behavior. :) My afternoons/nights are spent ferrying everyone to all their activities, although I've managed to squeeze in a weekly Bible study. Some friends and I started up a news blog covering Palmer - http://the-palmerpost.blogspot.com/ - and I also maintain a writer blog at http://foreverrewrighting.blogspot.com/.

Luke: a sophomore in high school. He's entered the International Baccalaureate program, which has advanced expectations of students. He also plays varsity for high school hockey and is on the Mat-Su Eagles, a comp hockey team. He'll be playing in Arizona over Christmas break with the Eagles - his first time to play Outside - and he's really enjoyed the coaching and camraderie within the team. He worked last summer for Vanderweele Farms as a farm hand and turns 16 in early Feb., which means he'll be driving soon. I always have a yay/afraid moment when I realize this.

Mary Grace: in sixth grade at Academy. She had a starring role in a theatre camp production last summer, cluing us in to one of her drama-gifts, and is finishing up a basketball season right now. At 12, she's joined official babysitter status and plans to start up swimming again in Jan. after several years trying other sports. This is her last year in Girl Scouts, as our beloved troop leader is moving away, and we're ending the year going on a sea kayaking trip to Valdez this summer.

Nate: started kindergarten at Academy. He remains the outspoken ham of the family, frequently embarrassing his older brother and sister with exquisitely timed comments that are better left unsaid. He's also a hockey player and participated in his first game a few weeks ago, which was hilarious and so reminded me of his brother at his age.

BTW, if you've yet to come see us - we'd love an excuse to show you around and play during an Alaskan summer. We'd also love to know your news. Send us an email at: rewrighter@gmail.com.

Happy 2012!

Fall/winter 2011

Wow - hard to believe it's November already. This fall has flown by. We're two weeks away from heading to Cancun (yahoo!) so I'm frantically updating photos, deleting cards, organizing before I get snowed under. Literally.

We had the nicest night for Halloween since we've lived here - light snow and around 20 degrees. It was a nice change from 85 mph winds and/or minus 20 below. Nate was Thomas the Train and went around the neighborhood with Roger. We also took him to the Alaska Museum of Transportation and Industry where they'd set up their model trains and had a haunted train for the kids to go thru. Grace and I hung out with her girl scout troop that evening for a party and group trick-or-treat walk. She was a black cat and freaked out Anubis the first time she came downstairs in her mask. He puffed up like a cardboard cat cut-out to three times his size and hissed at her. It was so funny, I forgot to get my camera until he'd mostly calmed down.

Grace had her birthday party a few days before. We brought the girls to the pool for open swim and then they had a sleep over and were MUCH better behaved this year. She cashed in (literally) on her b-day presents and now is richer than we are. We've started a cash tab with her. :) She's counting down the days to Mexico and trying to decide what she'll buy first. She's joined robotics again this year, has basketball try-outs Nov. 15 and will try-out for a play with Valley Performing Art that week, also. If she gets a part, she'll skip basketball season since the practice times are so intense. We'll see what happens.

Nate and Luke are rink rats again. Nate is skating intro-to-play again while Luke's high school season is ramping up. He's playing varsity this year and heads to Fairbanks this weekend w/ the team. He's also still skating competitive hockey (he's no. 12 in the photo) on Sundays, since HS rules prevent comp. kids from playing games during the HS season - they can only pay during vacations. He's missing the Thanksgiving tournament but heads to Arizona over Christmas with the team for a national competition. It'll be his first time playing Outside - should be an interesting experience. He's also got a full load at school and is keeping up pretty well w/ a heavier homework load than most.

Roger's company is reorganizing w/ rumors floating that they're closing the Anchorage station. We haven't heard yet what's going to happen but their flight load here is way down. Business is shifting to the east coast/Europe/Middle East. He'll either start traveling again as a tech rep or move farther up the food chain and travel again as a director. Either way, we're enjoying his time here at home. He completed another Thomas bookshelf for our school auction that looks great.

I'm loving my PE job at Academy and writing grants to improve our health/fitness program there. I'm also doing some minor freelancing and started up a news business blog with two (former) newspaper buddies called The Palmer Post. Our goal is to post weekly but that's been a challenge since we're all overbooked parents that work outside the home. I think our audience is bigger than our follower queue bc people are always stopping me to ask about it or give me tips aka, gossip - some of them I barely know. It's fun and a great way to get the inside scoop in our community.

End of summer, first day of school

Photos of: Nate, our neighbor Shayne and Grace at the Butte and Knik glacier, Pioneer Peak in the Chugach Range from our neighborhood ; my gigantic broccoli (store product to the left) Luke and Nate's battle armor, Mrs. Berg and Nate, first day of school AND Nate's new ride. See below on that. Also a pretty shot of some fireweed...couldn't resist.

School started last week already! Yikes. Luke is a sophomore (no first day pic of him. he's too surly) Grace is a sixth grader and Nate started kindergarten *wild cheering* I'm sublimely happy he's in school and was cheerfully contemplating a house free of children but alas. I'm now subbing long-term at Academy as a PE teacher. Yup - a P.E. teacher. Talk about a dream job. I get paid to play games with kids. And it's .4 FTE which is about 3 hours a day. The rest of the time I write. So far, it's been great!! No idea how long the job will last but seriously, who cares. Something will turn up.

Luke finished his summer at Vanderweele's and is now a millionaire. Compared to his parents, I mean. :) He learned all about processing/picking/weeding veggies, made enough for a $300 mountain bike, a new phone and will contribute to his comp ice hockey bill. Competitive hockey is a step above what he's been playing and it's mucho $$ expensive. Fortunately, HS hockey rules prohibit them from playing comp during the regular season but he'll be doing tourneys in Oct. and flying to Arizona to play over Christmas. So he'll be putting his earnings to good use helping us out with that. He's in all advanced classes in school, volunteering with youth court and has a lot on his plate. The countdown to 16 is on - before I know it, he'll be driving. Undecided if this is a good thing or not. At least he can drive himself to practice then.

Grace and Nate are back at Academy. The school requires uniforms this year - you can see them above. Nate's kindergarten teacher is Mrs. Berg. I see his class several times a week for PE and so far, it's been an adjustment for Nate to not burst into tears just because I'm in the room. *working on that* Grace was moved into advanced 7th grade math and advanced reading so she's going to have to work hard to keep up, I think. She's signed up for basketball, Nate's hockey starts in Oct. and I can hear my carpool engine revving up from here. Speaking of engines, one of our neighbors gave Nate a brand-new tiny 4-wheeler. It's adorable in a scary way. Roger lifted the battery from Grace's blue 4-wheeler to ride it around. We're going 4-wheeling over Labor Day with all three machines on the Matanuska River so it should be a blast.

Roger's job has shifted again, kind of gone a full circle from when he took his current position 4 years ago. A massive layoff has resulted in him unable to travel bc the man count in Anchorage would be too low - in other words, no coverage for the airplanes if he goes. This has caused major ripples in the main office bc Roger's worn so many hats and now those jobs aren't getting done. Right now he's supposed to stay home and NOT travel but I'm not holding my breath. I think it'll last a few months, maybe until Dec. before they hire back a person or two so Roger can resume his sked. In the meantime, I'm waiting for his schedule to not be nights and weekends. *irritated eyes* bc honestly, it's like he's not here anyway right now. He should go back to days in Sept.

Lastly, the fair is coming up. My rhubarb is, like, world record size. The kids have bugged me for years to enter the gigantic veggie contest so hopefully I'll remember to enter. And possibly snag the Guiness Book of World Records for Rhubarb. Which there isn't a record for yet. I checked. Roger and I have tix to see Garrison Keillor, which will make me Minnesota sick. (Have you SEEN the housing prices in Minnesota? They're rock bottom. Veerrryyy temping...)

Fish on!

Luke and I went dipnetting today at Fish Creek about 19 miles from our house. Fish Creek is hardly ever open for dipnetting - only for AK residents - and when it is, the creek is PACKED. Check out these photos for what the creek is like...keeping in mind that today's tide was the highest of the year and, by the time we left, the creek rose from a tiny trickle to 3 feet of water at the tree line 50 feet away.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/slideshow/photos-dipnet-opening-fish-creek

This slideshow was taken by my friend Stephen Nowers, who also took us dipnetting. He did not mention the extreme glacial silt mud that sucks people to their knees...and makes it dangerous for people wearing hip waders (like me.)

Check out these photos of the creek at low tide for an example.

http://www.adn.com/2011/07/29/1992279/fish-creek-salmon-dipnet-fishing.html

This slideshow illustrates the mud but not the water extending to the tree line that blinds you to where to walk. By the time we caught our four fish - 3 right away, the fourth took a half hour - I was seriously concerned about getting back to the car in with all my clothes. Because I wore hip waders, every time I fell, my waders pulled my pants off. So my blood pressure rose picturing myself walking nekkid to the car, getting stopped by a trooper and cited for indecent exposure. Fortunately, that didn't happen. After lots of swearing, tangling with our 5-foot net and hauling 30 lbs of fish - 15 lbs filleted - Luke and I made it back. We vow never to go again unless we're in a boat.

Or in Kenai, the Hawaii version of dipnetting.

http://www.adn.com/2011/07/18/1973618/kenai-river-dipnetting-2011.html

There you fish on solid sand with a huge riverbank to fall back on, as opposed to a mud choked stream. Now that we have a net...and I'll invest in another of neoprene waders, we're ready to go next year!

For now, since all our fish were females and bursting with roe, Luke and I plan to hit the river next week for silvers. Fish on!

Summer 2011

I'm on day 40+ of single motherhood and so far, things are going okay. We've had pretty good weather for Alaska, some days of awesome perfection and others of low clouds and cold. But even those days are nice bc we have no humidity. Days like these make me remember why I live here!

After much hilarity, T-ball is over. Nate may remain a bit fuzzy on the point of baseball but he was able to hit consistently (even if he knocked the T over) and he paid attention while he was catcher. The rest of the time he spent kicking up dust, drawing pictures in the dust or throwing dust at other players. But we all had a good time anyway.

Grace and I are still in the middle of soccer season. I have yet to take photos since I'm the coach but I'll remember next week. We played the boys team earlier this week for fun - combined our two U12 girls' teams which made for chaos and mixed success. Since we only have two girls' teams in the league and of those two teams, only about 12 girls total show up for games, we normally play 4-on-4. So playing 8-on-8 was a huge adjustment. My neighbor, who plays comp and high school soccer, is helping me coach which I really appreciate bc I have no idea what I'm doing. It's great to get out and run around, which is my only goal.

Grace did a drama camp in June and was literally the star of the show. She played the lead in "Shakespeare Unbound" and had to memorize 263 lines. She also was able to ad lib when others messed up. I was amazed at her talent - she did NOT get that from me, who at her age, seriously freaked out at public speaking - but it did confirm she is a certified drama queen. For reals. I was so proud of her and wished her dad could've been there to see it.

Luke is working steadily 4 hrs/day at Vanderweele's farm, weeding, processing, etc. their huge amounts of produce they sell around the state. He's also mowing the neighbor's yard and picking up pet sitting jobs for people who go out of town. He started repairing our roof and we hope to finish that (must get photos!) over the addition the next time we have clear weather. The problem with clear weather is we want to play and not work. But we'll buckle down and get it done. Eventually.

My parents came for a great visit for a few weeks. We visited Denali for a weekend where we stayed at a cool hostel (we saw the big four - Mt. McKinley, brown bears - mom nursing her gigantic cubs, sheep, moose and Dall sheep) and took the tour back to Eielsen, I took them to Matanuska glacier, we hiked Gold Mint Lake in Hatcher Pass, went fishing and watched Nate and Grace play their games, did some bird watching. It was wonderful to have them here!!

Roger left May 27 and has been to Korea, China, Malaysia and is now in Saudi Arabia. He's told me he should come home July 20 so here's hoping. We both struggle with him being gone summers and all the opportunities missed. I'm praying for good weather when he does get here so we can attempt to pack a summer's worth of hiking/fishing/4-wheeling in the last 3 weeks of summer he's home before school starts.

School - eek!!

Vacation pictures

Grace's World Fair day went off w/o a hitch. She did the state of Kansas and her group was the Midwest. The class was divided into groups of the country, and were responsible for creating sets and a movie (done in iMovie and all pretty funny). She's pictured here with her awesome teacher, Julie R.eal, whom I subbed for first semester. The barn in the background is Roger's creation.

We had a great time in California. The weather was mostly decent, although it was colder than we expected. Grace and I went a week before the guys with her girl scout troop. We did a lot of touristy things in San Francisco - the Duck, which Grace got to drive, China Town where we took a tour and tea tasting, and ate at Hard Rock Cafe, Bubba Gump Shrimp and Rain Forest Cafe. The troop walked the Golden Gate Bridge with about 5,000 other girl scouts from around the country. I wasn't able to go along - only two leaders per group, although they made an exception for us since we were the only AK group, but told us the day before. I already had plans to visit Alcatraz with Aunt Deb so skipped it. The girls wore their kuspuks - AK Native smocks - and were mobbed all the way across the bridge as if they were from outerspace instead of a few thousand miles north. I'll post pics of Grace's day when my friends forward them. Alcatraz was very cool and it was nice to have a break from all those girls!

On Monday, Grace and I headed to Hume Lake Christian Camp where our friends, the Wests, live now. We met them in Northfield and had a wonderful time catching up. They took us all around the camp - including a huge new treehouse for their campers, and to Grant's Grove of Sequoias. Roger, Luke and Nate arrived that Thursday and we headed into SF to the Exploratorium, cable cars and China Town before driving over the bridge to Muir Woods, a redwood grove. (We saw a lot of big trees this trip.) We spent a few days at Point Reyes, visiting lighthouses and beaches, then went east to Yosemite. Three days there, followed by two with Aunt Deb and Uncle Rick, including Luke's first time surfing and a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then we flew home. Summer officially starts!