i know i am not the boss ok and thatis ok with this great grandma
a few weeks ago my great grandson comes to visit his dad who is my 22 year old grandson who is living with me. at that time i also had the other grands with me for the week end. ages 8, 11 and 13
its late and i am thinking its time for me to head to bed so i speek up and say so.
everyone says sure and yea and in a few time for me too. when my great grandson soon to be 2 years old stands there looking around in his cutier then cute footsie blanket pjs and says in a very stern voice grandma and he looks at me just as sternly " you go to bed right now with out money !" you go grandma and he walks over takes me by the hand and leads me off to my room.
kids are just to cute to pass up i tell you they just make my day totally LOL

brrrrrr baby its cold out there! And it aint to warm in here either. yep that is how it goes these days.
We ran out of heating oil toward the end of December and well we just could'nt afford any more because it just costs way way to much. Soooooooo its been throw another dog on the bed at night and wish you had bought that wood burning stove......... but nooooooo we have to be civilized and get the latest . dont you just wish you were packing wood this winter instead of wishing you could buy more oil to heat the place ?
you know that old saying hey things could be worse? well hey things could be worse dont ask me how but i keep thinking they could be worse.
for now i just keep dreaming of summer and hoping for a change in weather. like gobal warming get your warm thang over here i seriously need some heat.

walk walk walk that is what i am into lately.
i had developed this nasty habit awhile back of pacing the floors while talking to my daughter on the phone so i asked for a cell phone for mothers day and was totally surprised not only to get it but to get all i asked for in a cell phone package.
i had said you know if i got a cell phone instad of pacing the floors i could take this kid and a cell phone and head out the doors and take long walks since we talk for two hours when we do talk. and that was it cell phone unlimited mins 411 long distance mins and two phone cards and i hit the road. discoverd there are alot of nice people out there and no one bites as of yet but then i live in an area where i still dont have to worry about that sort of thing yet.
so i get up early and dial up and out i go. and i tell you what i feel ten times better for it all of course my legs screamed at me for the first week or so but i kept telling them to shut up and i kept on going anyway LOL and now its just not happening that often .
i love watching the people arrive early in the am doing there thing sweeping the sidewalks in front of their stores and getting ready to open up. and i love listening to the birds cherping away greeting the day . its just awesome to be able to get out and do this even thought our temps here are only at 45 to 47 in the am still . i go anyway no matter what the weather is like rain or not. coffee in one had and gone. its good to be alive and i act it for sure.

yep yep yep I know I haven't been in here in along time again.
Anyway, I guess all there is to talk about now is changes.
yep alot has happened in the past few months
1. my son is in Iraq fighting for his country
2. my daughter bought a house and moved
3. after years of taking care of her kids and helping out that is done and gone over with now too.
4. my oldest daughter and her son came for a long visit

where to begin.
well i was a mess big time once I knew for sure my son was in Iraq. I knew that would happen though. So the only way out is to go through it. Dont help one bit with all the emotional stuff one goes through but hey life is life and you got to go on. no matter what.
I cried like a baby for along time off and on and got that out of the way.Between him going to Iraq and the grands moving on in life i had empty nest syndorme big major time for sure.
But things settle after awhile and my life began to do just that.
sigh yep settle meaning become quiet and peaceful and exceptable
sometimes i think the secret is to not let things get to comfy that seems to be when something else happens to make life just bounce around like and out of control train LOL
my oldest daughter is here for along long visit all because some nice person who bought her tickets home forgot to get her the trip home. LOL wasnt me i wouldnt do that to me sorry.
so after all the dust flying around in the air settled then it was time to try and make a go of it and have some fun something good to remember .
ok enough out of me for now i better go clean something again you all have a wonderful day and i will catch up with you again sometime soon.
crissy in alaska

What a summer this is turning into.
 
Lets see, like I said its easy to give in to emotional tears and fears and sit for hours and dwell on what if and could be's.  Its tough to put it all down and get on with it all and enjoy yourself. Not saying I am tough. More like would rather not sit and be a mess all the time.
 
with the news of my son going to Iraq for 6 months to a year  and doing the crying bit it was high time to get on with it all. After all there is very little i can do about this whole thing but be positive for him and he sure as heck wouldnt want me spending my time wasting away feeling sorry for myself or sitting day after day in tears. that is no sort of life for anyone.
I figure it this way, to support him in a positive manner while he is there i have to be able to talk about good things and not my feeling sorry for myself all the time.Or any anger I may feel about anything going on.  I figure if i just get on with life and do alot of things then i will have something to share with him when i send him those letters each week. weather or not i am enjoying myself is not the point. But If I am not doing something positive that i can talk about then i have nothing to say to him. right?
So having said that. I got up and stopped crying and got busy. Yes at first it was tough it was more of going through the motions.There was no joy in any of it  at first. But i got busy anyway.
I figured out that my 11 yr old grand daughter not only is a natural at baking but loves to bake. Her 6 yr old sister loves to help out too. So i spent 4 days not only helping her get a good start on it all baking bread and cookies locating cook books and supplies but cleaning the kitchen as she went and relocating all things baking into one area for her so she wouldnt be underfoot when her grandpa is trying to cook.
I was totally amazed at what she was doing and the whole thing has brought me alot of smiles.
Her grandpa's birthday was just this past week and we ran out of alot of things for her baking but she pulled off a home made cake from scratch including the frosting. of course i helped her out but not alot. she did most of this on her own. the cake fell in the middle though but that was no huge loss her grandpa was totally thrilled that she even tried. so was I.
of course there is the scanning old family documents too . and the 6 yr old loves to run the scanner. so were about done with that. and then its on to scanning old family pictures.
Do you see what I am saying? If i had sat and given into the tears totally and let those control my every waking moment I would have nothing to share with my son when I write to him each week. Not that I dont have my moments. and not to say the tears dont come they do i just refuse to let them dominate my days and nights and stay for to long.
And so it is this summer is turning into something else. :) a summer i will not forget for along time.
between the hiking, the beach combing, picnics out, family celebrations , fishing and alot of projects going on the heat of this summer which has been record breaking and the forrest fires bringing all their smoke its been very interesting.

The word's Military Mom never wants to hear, how I am coping and spending my time

It's been along time since have been in here. I won't even try to catch you up on all that has happened.
But I will begin with what has gone on lately.
First off I took up a new hobby in Jan. Called scrapbooks. I began to do this because when my daughter and I found my mother's pictures she took over her life time, in storage, there were three huge and I mean huge boxes of pictures loosely stashed along with about three photo albums and not one word anywhere of who was who or when or where or nothing. And of course no one left to tell us one shred of information about any of it. That is all it took for me to begin to scrapbook my own pictures I have taken over the years. What surprised me about it was that just in the short time that I have been on this earth and taken my own pictures of my own family I have found it hard to remember what Christmas was that taken what year and sometimes even where. So I have taken time to work backwards with them all from the ones recently taken to other years for pictures that I do have. Organizing when I have time writing notes and the like so when I finally do get to those it wont be a problem to scrapbook them.
Of course now its summer time here again too.
My son came home on leave again and it was very emotional for all of us seems he comes home about once a year now with this war going on. The times in between for all of us are long and tough emotionally to get through. But we make it.
This time when he left I cried the day we were going to the airport with him I couldn't seem to keep me in control and the tears just came off and on that day. It was hard on him to see me like that because I remember his sis saying he asked if I was going to be ok. I cried off and on for a week after he left.
He as being reassigned to another base in the USA. So contact with him was going to be far and few before we heard from him again even though we would know where he was going to we knew we had a long wait before we got another call saying I am there and ok.
The sun was shining here and it was nice and hot outside, but I was indoors crying my heart out. And I couldn't figure out how come. But you can only cry for so long before you have to say enough is enough. So I did .
I began to get out more hiking beaches and roads and going places and seeing what its like again here with out snow and harsh weather. I was doing ok and pulling out of it. Taking pictures like mad as I went. And enjoying it.
Taking pictures is something I do a lot of with him in the navy and have done that now for the last 4 years. Taking pictures like I do is something I haven't done in all my life. And I do mean taking pictures sometimes 64 pictures of one event and sometimes even over 100 of other events.
Now that I am scrapbooking them it's worth the effort to have taken them. This way when he does come home for good eventually in two years he will not have missed out on a thing. And eventually when he is ready he can sit and go over what his family here did when he was gone. Of course I print off the best of them each time I get the change and send those along to him and write about what was going on. :) recently my grand daughter said grandma do you have to take a pictures of everything we all do? And I said yes I do. We have to have something to send your uncle when we write to him and besides someday your going to be glad I took all these pictures. :) so she stopped telling me that and now she just goes about doing what ever and is back to not paying attention to me with my digital camera. :)
June 6th and it was my sons second call home this time he asked if I was sitting down. Of course I was. And then he said he has something to tell me but wasn't sure how to do so. He stammered and so I told him in a rough tone. Spit it out I am sure I already know what it is. And then it came that one thing they have to tell you no mother wants to hear and wishes she never did. " I got my orders to go to Iraq."
This mothers heart knew this was coming before he left home for some reason. And there it was. Stunned and shocked rocking from this news I knew was coming. I handed the phone to his dad. Managing to show him no tears on the phone I had contained myself until I was away out of ear shot. And then I broke down big time. Its not the first time nor will it be the last time for sure until he is out of the navy. I have cried so much in the past 4 years off and on its not even funny. Worried over him when 9-11 hit, was scared when he said he was going over seas to Japan. I lived with the Yeats, the ..it could come anytime for 3 years. And even though the worst of this war is over its still a war and now I too am among the mothers and family members hearing" I got my orders to go." and now I am dealing with another facet of this tour of duty. When he is finally out of the Navy I will have been through alot of it , hopefully I wont have to go through some of the things I know others have gone through. The flag instead of a son or daughter or husband or wife. Or someone injured physically or emotionally so badly that life will never be the same. Or the hostage that you never know if you will see them again or not. So far as a military mom I have lived with the possibilities and the Yeats. And its not easy at all by a long shoot but live I do. Determined not to let this get me down to a point I can't get back up . Facing fears on a daily basis that no one can understand but another military family member. Or a vet from another war. The only people that I know of that keep me from thinking for one moment that I am walking through this totally alone are not just my family members who I watch fall apart now and then and help pull back together as well as them me But other Military Moms, wives, Husbands or Brothers and Sisters as well as the rest of their families. Those are truly the ones that keep me sane through this. Along with my endless need for phone cards to call my daughter that lives in another state because she doesn't work and is there for me to talk to at great lengths when I need too.
I try hard not to dwell on what is going on and not to talk about the fears I have or have to face daily sometimes or weekly . I try hard to keep seeing the good in all around me. But sometimes I find it near impossible to do so. And I Loose it big time when that happens. Do I sand bag it all? yes I do and then once in awhile it catches up with me when I don't want it too and I cry until its all cried out and then I go on. My smile sometimes is so dang wrinkled from it being in my back pocket that I am not sure if a good airing out is going to make it right again. But I ware it anyway when I can. I thr'ow myself into projects and things around me as much as I can to keep as busy as I can. So this mothers mind wont have time to think about anything bad. And I avoid the news as much as possible . It's not that I don't care. Its because I care way to much. And I personally can't stand to see to much more.
anger over this war and how long its taking? Your dang rights. But anger never got me to far in life. So I do my best to avoid this one as much as possible because I found this one leads to other places emotionally that I don't want to even get involved in. I cant solve this war. Nor can I stop it. I support my troops totally. Doesn't mean I as a mother have to agree with this war or like it one bit. My job as a Military Mom is to support my son and then his family members and then myself and others in the same boat. I do this best by just flat enjoying this day given to me one min at a time sometimes or one hour at a time but enjoy it as best I can to the fullest I can. This is my only true gift I can give him. And then in doing so I have more positive things to write to him about when I do write. Or more wonderful pictures to send him because I took the time this day to enjoy this day for what it is and took time to take pictures that were wonderful and happy and ones I truly want to share with him and others.
so I go hiking and out to picnics and off to see places and off to fish. pot lucks and parties with family for events that are going on such as birthdays and graduations and the like. Keeping in mind these moments are things I can share with my son when I can.
so with that I will get back to what I do best sharing each day as it comes and trying to find the humor in it all.
catch you again when I can until then stay safe and hey my hugs and love to you all no matter where you are.
from Crissy in Alaska

Christmas Time In Alaska

Sigh, Thanksgiving ended and then the race is on :)
day one beg for help to get out the Christmas decorations.
day two no help all promises so go it alone after all time wont stand still and there are wee people waiting to see Christmas unfold.
day three sit for hours and unbox the tree and spread out each branch ( yep you got it its fake )
that same evening still waiting on help it finally arrives and mikes gf and i decorate it totally.
we put it on one of those huge laxy susans and we spin it around while one stands still hanging the lights and later the garlands. Once done we carefully lift it off the lazy susan and place it where we choose it to be centered on a rug so the wee people can lay there and admire it later on. and dream of christmas and all its magic.
Snow has fallen here which makes everything look like were living in a snow globe. its just so magical.
Christmas cards have been created this year on the pc and sent out as jpgs so those far away can print them out and have them faster.
plans have been put in place for the Christmas package for our son in the Navy and all seems to be alot better for us then the past few years gone by.
This year for the first time since 9-11 i am not going through the motions of Christmas staged and masked in fake smiles for anyone or putting on any shows for the wee people so as not to spoil there Christmas wonder. instead for the first time i actually feel like emotionally getting involved in it all. Like Christmas is going to not only arrive but things will be ok.
Even though this is going to be another year with out our son home sharing all the wonder with us.
So far presents have been bought and hidden waiting to either be wrapped or mailed off. when the wee people arent around to catch what is going on.
preperations have been made for all the family things we do each year too. the christmas eve menopoly game will need a new game soon to be boughten and then of course the Santa treats are being added to each shopping trip.
canned oysters
smoked cheeses
canned kippered fish
crackers of various types
salomy
fruits and cookies and drinks of all kinds
each year at Christmas Eve the adults sit and play games with the wee ones until they fall asleep and then sit and play menoply all night lone and munch on the santa treats until there about gone. each person waits until that time and goes off to wrap what they have to and comes back to continue playing until someone wins and then all go to sleep.

there are of course the other things that go one day after day during dec. such as the big ginger bread house challenge that began a few years ago. when we put out the ginger bread kits and challenge the kids to build one ginger bread house out of all kits and see what they come up with . this one was born out of buying only one kit and having them all complain they all wanted one of there own.
the christmas cd must be started with thanksgiving and then continued until jan 1st its when iget out the digital camera and take huge ammounts of pictures and then later put them all on a cd taking some to word and putting in what is going on and sending out that to all far away that wanted to be here but couldnt.
i gathered all the christmas books into one book shelf and added a few new ones this year too so all the family can sit and go through christmas project books when the wee people are out of school for the holidays and have some ideas on what to do to keep them all busy.
also put all the christmas dvds and vidieos in one spot so they can be found fast and played when they want. and of course piled the christmas music in one place so they can be put on when wanted.
its the same thing we do every year with a litttle added here and there. we havent faultered in it even in the past few years when Christmas was just going through the motions and our hearts werent in it. but this year is diffrent its more like it should be for all here.
There are evening sspent by the table with has been displaced by the tree but decked out in a christmas table cloth and sitting near it are brass candle sticks polished to a tee with candles in them and more on a side table . all light up and adding to a cozy atmosphere.
tiny houses grace my window sill andone ornmate hangs from the window top and a white proclen tree graces the rest of the sill.
The font window sports a huge yellow ribbon with three forget me nots on it for each soldier in our family not home this year and not home for along time since 9-11 along with an american flag my grandsons in another state sent me awhile back in the middle hangs one christmas tree wreath ( cant hang it on the door because of the high winds we get here)
lights hang off of it and when we plug it in everyone can see when they walk by the house.
like i said and so it begins. this Christmas season in all its awe and wonder.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE.
IF YOUR SERVING OUR COUNTRY MY PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU
I DO PRAY THIS YEAR CHRISMAS FINDS YOU ALL MAY THE MIRCAL BEGIN :)))))))))))))

LUNCH WITH THE BOSS

Yesterday hubby picked up the 6 yr old grand daughter from school we call her the boss. Into the truck we went and off to a day of shopping and lunch which i didnt mention as we drove off towards the bank to cash my pay ck.
The drive out to the bank is 12 miles from our house and her school which is very near by. On the way she sat quietly in the back seat and fell asleep.
A quick stop at the bank and then back to Mc Donalds for her favorite big kids happy meal. all the while she slept.
Once they handed over the happy meal i reached in the back and tapped her gently on the knee and said mandy here is your happy meal. One eye opened a tiny bit to look at me and the bag i had in hand. with that... a tiny hand reached towards the bag and took it. She quickly folded the top of the bag down and hugged it tightly to her chest and went back to sleep. All i could do was smile and think were is my digital camera LOL before i could finish thinking that thought she took that bag and mushed it up like a pillow and and moved it to under her head still sleeping and stayed that way all the way back home another 12 miles.
sigh mandy dont grow up to fast i enjoy the times i have with you. LOL
she was her uncle iras pin up girl when he went through boot camp. and for a few years after that .

awe sigh where did time run off too. seems only yesterday she was a tiny little thing just lerning how to walk and now she is busy riding school busses :)

Veterns day
yes this is late but then when am i not :)
i wrote this one in reply to an email i got . thought i would share this one here with you all. And then get back to comdey alaska soon . humor is after all the best medicine in times like these
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i stand in awe of the veteran that goes out to protect us ,comes back knowing things none of us can comprehend, lives with it till the day he dies, pays a price for protecting us no pay ck can even begin to touch.

the honor goes to those to those that stood up not mouthed up and did nothing.

the honor goes to those who gave and not those who gave little if nothing and yet whined about the cost.

the honor goes to those families waiting for a loved one to return but only get a knock on the door

the honor goes to the child left behind who knows full well a parent may never return who grows up and never knows how come the country won't honor the sacrifices made on their behalf.

the honor goes to those still willing to stand and protect even when an entire country is yelling adversities in their faces.

the honor goes to the vet and the solder who is still standing for us and our freedom no matter where and whom. with out them our world would be torn apart with out them our country would know more terrorism.

i for one will always honor not only the vet but those in active duty no matter where they serve. weather it be in a war zone or on our own soil. i for one will always honor the flag and honor the words that go with it even the words UNDER GOD weather those beside me refuse to. I WIll CONTINUE to support our troops as well as our President in any effort they make on my behalf and as a family memeber of the USA i will morn each loss as if it where my very own.

GOD BLESS THE USA AND OUR SOLDERS AND OUR VETS, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE.OR WHOM THEY ARE.

hugs and love from me crissy in alaska

Happy Bithday Ira ( a cake made of love just for you)

Sometimes I sit here and just wonder where time went off too. How did it speed up so fast? Sigh………..
This year my son turned 24. This year my grandson turns 20 years old.
Breath. Crissy and remember you were young once too :)
I could sit here and write about all those feelings that go through my mind having a son in the navy these days isn’t easy. But then I am not alone.
Instead I want to speak of the good things that have happened and how much I appreciate them.
Ira turned 24 this year. It was his 4th Birthday away from home. With out his family near him or around him or there to share the moment with him.
I took the plunge and asked for a card to be created for him on line and I was totally amazed not only was it made for him but it was up and running in a matter of mins. What ever it took for the creator of the card to do the job. At first I thought ok this is nice I may see a few signatures and well wishes out of this for him. But then the next day I went in and looked around to ck it all out see how it was going ...make ready to print it out and place it in the mail.
I sat looking at the puter in total tears as I viewed the sigs in there ...all the not only happy birthdays but the thanks for serving our country… our nation. That was going on in there. I was floored by the total outpouring of love over my son in there. And I still am.
His card will be late this year but it’s going to be well worth the wait. You see when I finally printed it out there were 15 pages to it all. 84 sigs some of which were from people pouring out there hearts for our troops. It took them the better part of a week to finish signing his card on line :) family, friends of his and others that know only me lined up and stuffed my email box full of another signature has been added to your card. :)
When I put this one together there well be a total of 24 pages to send to him :) yes there is the one on the mm’s site too to add( 5 pages ) to it along with two other separate pages of personal wishes too.
Most of the sigs were from people who know me, know of him, don’t know him but wish him well.
This year I saw a special cake being baked on line just for him. And I am one very grateful mother for all of it and that much more richer in knowing someone out there not only thinks of him on his one special day but also thought about all of our troops no matter where they are through him.
This year I saw a cake made out of pure love made just for my son :)
This year I saw a cake made out of the love from our own for our troops :) just for him. :) Along with wishes from countries far away tooJ:)
WHEREVER YOU ARE MY SON I WISH YOU THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. :)
As i know also that so many think of you and wish you well too:)

Crissy in Alaska J

Living in Alaska may sound to some like living in the stone age any more or well some of the things I have written in here sounds like that to some people. But most of what I have written about are things that happened to me and my children over a 20 year time span some of it is clearly years old and others are more recent. I think I am saying this because though we have shopping malls here and a freeway and jets and the like. Our lives weren't dictated totally by all the modern things children and adults live with then or today.
anyway....... onward and up ward I go.
Back when we were busy living in tiny trailers we counted ourselves as lucky because there were other families living along the road side in cars or tents. I always felt like that is something I wouldn't want to do at all.
our days consisted of daily things like meals cleaning and then getting out. that is something we did allot back then. get out and go because no one wanted to stay in a tiny trailer all day long. We would venture to the malls and window shop knowing full well if you saw something you wanted you had to question yourself. Is this a want or a need? If it was something you had to have a necessity like a piece of clothing, TV, radio, dishes or the like then you had to stand there and think ok what am I willing to give up to make this fit in our tiny trailer. For me back then to spot the winter coat of my dreams was a big deal of am I willing to get rid of one I have ? Does this one keep all elements out or is this just a good looking fashion statement? needless to say I had one coat that did the job for all of it and though it was salmon pink and wasn't a fashion statement, that is the coat I kept for about 6 years.
of course with the children back then it was a huge change over about once every two months while they grew out of or wore out anything you bought them. Even then their cloths had to fit our life style. frilly things had to be kept carefully under control and could only be an outfit that could be mixed and matched with anything else. or it was just tee shirts and blue jeans and a pair of tennis shoes for all of us.
personally I am glad I went though the experience of living life like this it made me stop and realize that there is such a thing as wants and flat out needs. and I was able to sort them out and see them for what they were.
do I still live like this you ask? nope not on your life LOL though there are times I stand in stores and ck things out and use that rule still. but once out of the having to live like that in tiny spaces it didn't take long to fill up the house and bog it down with every want I could get my hands on for sure LOL I tell you what though given time doing that and living that way leaves you with a ton of things later on that have to be cleared out and either stored or given away. LOL
The children would go outside during the day and play with the other children in the trailer park. rain shine or snow didnt bother them much at all. laundry was carefully assigned to plastic trash cans lined up with each persons name on it outside. wash days were visits to the local laundry mat. water had to be boiled on the stove before you could do any dishes. showers were done in a pay stall up behind the offices to the trailer park. and all groceries were stored in the seats around the table.
like i said it was snoopies dog house. yep we had a tv and a phone and a vcr. evenings were games of dominos and scrabble. outtings were to the beaches and parks out fishing if we could, picnics and hikes in the woods. visiting friends that lived in apartments and enjoyed our company. it wasnt unsually to plan an outing and have dinner someplace else along the road and watch fish in a stream or eagles dancing in the sky. or watch whales in the bay. sometimes today when life gets in our way we sit and remember what it was like for us back then how much it was so peaceful and how much fun we had. though i am sure at the time we didnt think it was that often LOL
memories are like that we tend to forget the bad and remember only the good. sigh.
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count the car seats
one of the things we liked to do was take our children and our grandsons and head to the beach to go fishing. we would all pile up in the car kids car seats and all. the two grandsons were still in those back then. once to the location we choose to be at . we would get out all our stuff and haul it to the high tide area and then put the two grandsons carin their car seats with all or things and head down to the water and just spend hours fishing. walking along in the directions of the beach and see what we could catch. it was always fun when one of us got a fish too. reel it in, fight with it, land it... and then whom ever caught it would have to make sure it was cleaned before we took it home. papa would always make a good fish dinner out of it for all of us too. We would make a day out of doing this and stay until we couldnt stay any longer or it was clear we had to go fix dinner and get the kids to bed. And the two grandsons got to know what it was like to live like this. of course there both grown up now and hitting there 20s here soon too. But they have some of the fondest memories of living here in alaska with grandma and grandpa too. and that is what counts isnt it ?
(The two grandsons lived with our oldest daughter in a tiny trailer right next to us for a few years before she located an apart ment and we moved into a huge two bedroom trailer.)

lets make tea again :)
like I said entertaining children in small places takes some creative thinking. But papa always found a way to do that. We had made our minds up that living in tiny trailers didn't have to be a bad experience. So we set out to make it look like snoopies dog house on the inside. One of the things we decided was we didn't have a clue how long it would be before we were able to find a place with more space for all of us. Something with bedrooms in it and hopefully a bathroom and the like. We had most of our things in storage back then up on top of the tiny trailer. Paper plates were becoming boring and making do was getting out of the question for morals sake. So we dug through all of possessions and got out all his lovely crystal dishes and began using those with every meal. I sat and crocheted table cloths as well as curtins for the tiny trailer too.
Family time was an everyday thing with us. Especially at meals. One of the things papa did was make tea. All of us were totally fascinated by this. Papa had a glass tea pot back then and he would put that tea pot on the stove full of water with the tea bags in it and then turn on the propane burner while we sat at the table and waited and ate our meals. Once the tea began to boil he would put sugar in it and we would sit there and watch as the hot water made the sugar move around it was like watching a lava lamp to us and was always a high point to our meals and so fascinating to the children too.
Our tables were set with the nicest table cloths hand made of course along with all that beautiful crystal and matching silverware and the best drinking glasses we could find and an occasional candle. After dinner we all stayed for the board games too and then tucked into bed for the evening.

pancakes papa ?
When we first moved to Alaska some 20 years ago we lived in little trailers. None of the space inside was very big. Only one person could stand at the stove and do any cooking. And of course that was papa. The rest of us sat around the table while he did this. There was certianly no getting up while he was cooking too. With wiggly kids that is sure tough so he and i came up with a way around all this to keep the family happy.
The trailer park was surrouned by trees and bushes and a ton of those were blueberry bushes. So every week end morning papa would hand out cups to each of the children and send them off to pick blueberries of course this was only during the summer months here. But it worked out really well for all of us concerend. This gave him space to do the cooking and all of us adults the time to have am coffee with out always turning to a child and telling them to sit still.
I am sure too the kids had races to see who could fill their cup up first and get those berries to papa for the pancakes. I know each of them had fun and now that all of them are grown up i know they remember things like that too.

ducks in the tub
papa had gone out duck hunting and got some ducks. but this time when he came home his back went out on him so instead of saying he got ducks it was time for us to take him to the hospital. they kept him there in traction for a few days until he was well enough to send home.
during his stay he called home and said go out to the truck and get those ducks out for me ok pluck them and skin them and put them in the fridge or freezer for me please. ok not a problem I will send Pauline out right now for those ok. papa continues to talk and Pauline goes out to the truck to get the ducks. only she comes back in and says no way I am doing this sorry. but says nothing about what is going on. so papa getting upset says ok send ira out to fetch them for me. so I tell ira to go out there and get those ducks Pauline goes off to her room. pretty soon I hear ira yelling for me to come here. I yell back ira just bring them in there ok and put them in the sink. he said I cant ma you got to come see this. so I go to the door and take a look see. papa has hung up the phone and is gone doing his what ever. I stand on the porch and look down at ira who is holding a live duck. that is flapping its wings in his face and he is hanging on for dear life and only about 8 yrs old. he said ma there alive. I looked at ira and said no cant be papa shot them all. he said nope ma all three of them are alive !!! I grab the phone call papa back and tell him well good news is your ducks are ok now bad news is none of them are dead there all alive and well !!!!!! papa said they cant be I shot them. nope papa there all alive. what do I do now? he tells me to finish his job and kill all of them ring there necks. LOL meeeeeeeeee???????? nope not me!!!!!!! I tell him no I cant do that. I don't have that kind of heart. he said where are they I tell him ira took them all out and put them in the bathtub and he wants to keep them as pets. LOL well papa called a fiend of his and he came over to see what was going on and take care of it I was thinking he would take them away alive and maybe turn them loose. he shut the door came back out said ok all is well. and left. ira and I went in and found the bodies laying on the bathroom floor. it was so sad. but over and done nothing we could do. sigh.

some dogs just wont stay where you put them
papa decided he had had enough of going duck hunting and shooting ducks that fell into the water and he couldn't get them. so he went to the pound here and found this Chesapeake golden lab retriever mix. dash was about 6 months old when he brought him home. now mind you this is a gal never grew up with any animals at home. never a pet one. so when he brought dash home Pauline and I freaked out big time this is one huge dog and he is all teeth as far as were concerned. ira got along with dash right off though. isn't that like a man though? Pauline and I spent a few days avoiding dash as much as we could though and eating our meals at the table with our arms lodged around out plates and our faces as close to them as we could LOL things calm down and we all got friendly. and time moves on. dash becomes a major part of all our lives and papa has him well trained. dash becomes our friend and is one loving member of our family and a well trained duck dog. he goes every where with papa and papa likes it that way. only thing is papa is driving this old beater truck and the shell on the back is something made out of plywood and has actual doors on the back that you can open up . that is where dash does his traveling at.
papa and him went some where and well dash seemed to know once that truck stopped it was time to jump out and maybe go home. there were no windows in the back so he couldn't see exactly where they were at. papa is on the free way and he had to stop suddenly and get out of the way of something going on in the middle of the road. like a box or something. all papa knows is it only took a few seconds and he drives on. only what he didn't know was dash thought it was time to jump out and he did only when he finally does papa is back to moving and well the lady behind him said all she saw was two doors open up and this big yellow dog jump out into mid air at her and then she put her breaks on as fast as she could to avoid hitting him as he flew towards her and went ass over head tumbling onto the road LOL papa brought poor dash home after a quick stop at the vets and dash had road burn so bad on his bottom end the fur was warn away LOl needless to say dash never traveled in the back of the truck again nor have dusty and evy.
we had to give dash up a few years later we couldn't keep him because the owner of the trailer park said dog goes or you do. papa was never so broken hearted over doing this but he found him a good home and made sure the new owner was good to him as he was. I guess dash has puppies all over town still and we are reminded of it once in awhile when we run into someone that knew him and says this is one of dashes kids.
he was one heck of a dog and sure made us all dog lovers too. :)

honey i am stuck again
i tell you this man can find some creative ways to spend his time getting out of work sometimes.
this time he and his buddies head out to the duck flats there taking a boat to a small island off shore and setting up a duck blind and digging in for the day. not a problem and they will be back later on before dinner. its his day off and tomorrow he has to work . i go about my busniness and dont give it another thought. dinner time comes and my cook isnt home and i am wondering what is keeping him and what to do about dinner. i think i finally broke down and got a pizza ordered in. time marches on and no men though and i am getting worried. i get a call from someone telling me this story.
seems they did what the set out to do i think there were 4 of them papa and his buddies. dug in made there duck blind and got to telling stories and passing time. well none of them figured on a big tide that day and i dont think any of them actually cked the books or if they did it wasnt telling them the truth which sometimes happens around here LOL they didnt take a boat out there as planned instead it turned out they hiked in. wouldnt have been a problem if they cked there times and the tides. but the tide did come in and fast. now this is a tiny piece of land out there not to big i think you could fit it into your front room LOL so here are 4 men stuck out there till the tide goes out in the wee hours of the am or the next day it had to be low enough for them to walk back in. one of them had a hand held and was able to call a friend and tell them what was up. but there was no way to retrieve them and they seemed to be ok but they were stuck for the duration and had to build a fire. LOL huddle down and keep warm. ran out of coffee and the whole bit. you could see their plight from the high way it goes right by the island LOL hey honey i see you honk honk sorry you missed out on dinner honk honk. LOL they came home later the next day with there story and now each time we drive past that island papa always looks out and foundly tells that story to me . sigh. i guess he had fun LOL there friend they got ahold of called all the bosses and said sorry this is where they are at and there stuck none of them is coming in until tide change later on today.

its only and eagle honey
papa comes running into the house tells me grab a blanket and lets go. i do as i am told not a clue what is going on. as we drive he tells me he was on his way home when he spotted this baby eagle in the middle of the road and it seems like its injured. so he wants to pick it up but needs the blanket and some help and then we will take it to the bird sanctuary. i think ok not a problem we can do this. so off we go. park the car and out he jumps and looks through the bushes for the eagle. i am out too but i dont have a clue where to look. suddenly papa comes back with this blanket in his arms and clearly you can tell he has the baby in it. he tells me to get into the car and shut my door. so he can put it in the back seat. i do as i am told and sit still waiting patiently for him to do what he is doing and think ok we wil be gone in a few. i wasnt taking a big look at the blanket or what was under it. i figured he knew what he was doing. i sure didnt. he gets done and jumps into the car. which is not a big one its one of those go cart size things a honda civic LOL i decide to take a look see . now i know eagles are not tiny things and i know this is a baby. but what in the world was my mind thinking. i turn around only to see this bird sitting in the back of the car and i am suddenly fightened of it and shocked to see how big this baby is. he was sitting there on the seat and his head was up to the back of the head rest on my seat. he was about 3 ft tall and took up 1/2 half of the back seat. i turned around fast and my heart is pounding i know what one of these can do if they get upset and this one isnt secured in the back either he is just sitting there and i know his wing span if he flapped those things could cause major problems too let alone that beak of his. but all he did fortunitly is sit there like he was enjoying the ride and saying hey this is cool i dont have to flap my wings to get anywhere LOL we got him to the shelter and they took him out of the back. fortunitly he was just about as wet as he could be and all he needed was some down time to dry off before he was set free again in a day. it was raining earlier before we ran into him and he couldnt dry off is all.
i tell you papa will pick up any hitch hiker LOL

duck hunting with papa
papa would always duck hunt with out me and this one year I decided I would tag along.
not a bad idea always show interest in your man right? let him know you care LOL
well he had this dog back them called dash he had really done a wonderful job training and him and that dog went every where together.
papa got me all bundled up and we head out with the dog to the flats . yep this is going to be the day we get closer for sure and have some good fun doing it too. I could about count the ducks he would shoot as we walked and was totally enjoying the view when papa suddenly got to one knee and aimed with his shot gun. I was behind both him and the dog about maybe 20 ft. well dash being a good dog looked at papa and then looked back at me. that dog knew I was a green horn when it came to duck hunting after all it was my first trip out with themLOL
dash suddenly runs towards me knocks me over and sits on me until papa is done taking his shot at the ducks flying over.
I spent the rest of that trip being dragged around by that dog being sat on and the like. LOL papa was taking another shot and told me to hold onto him don't let him move. being the good wife I was I did but the dog thought he should be next to papa so he dragged me over a huge log and across the sand before I could let go of him and right to papa's feet all I could do was look up spitting sand out of my mouth and say hi ya. :) papa never took me out again with him he knew that it was going to be a struggle he had one well trained dog and one woman that didn't know a thing and that dog knew it too LOL

deer hunting with papa
well here we go again me and my big I am going to take interest in my man theory LOl this time I talked him into taking me deer hunting. we couldn't go far so we headed out to Douglas island which is connected to Juneau via a bridge. we go up to the hills and are walking a nice trail with a nice board walk on it and I am chattering up a storm to him he is silent and watching things as we walk. we got to a clearing and he says look there is a deer stand up in that tree and I am going to put you up there and go up the hill a little ways see if I can spot anything. so he shoves me up in the tree stand and I do mean shove cause it was up high and I wasn't tall enough to reach the bottom branch before I could finish the climb to the stand. I got up there and it began to snow like nothing I had ever seen before. I huddle down and try to keep warm which is near impossible when your in a snow storm all the while thinking I am one nut case LOL I want to go home and drink hot coco and stay warm LOL it seemed ages before papa came back and got me out of that tree. we began to walk back down that trail and I couldn't see the board walk anymore that is how much it snowed while we were up there. I stepped wrongly and found myself feet on the ground but snow up to my arm pits. he found me a stick I still have to this day and handed it to me so I could use it to walk with . and lead me back down to the parked car put me in and away we went to back home. I caught a bad cold from that and I knew this gal wasn't going hunting ever again LOL

hiking with papa
one time papa thought lets take a good hike in the woods. not problem . hint hint you would think by this time I would have learned to say no honey I love you but I am not a woodsy woman right? nope not this woman. I said sure sounds good to me so he gabs the food up and Ira and me and we head on out dinner by a river he said and then a hike in the woods. well dinner was absolutely wonderful eagles dancing in the sky fish in the river and wonderful company. and then of course the hike. we head up the trail and I got the camera in hand I am going to take as many pictures of this event as I can so I can have them as good memories of this day for sure.
hours later we finally make it up to wind falls its breath taking and all that wonderful lake up there and the hike about did my feet and legs in. of course papa didn't tell me to wear good jeans you would think growing up here I would have known that right? nope not me short memory here LOL so we head back down. I am taking pictures like crazy and then I tell him this is one heck of a camera I haven't run out of film yet. he said nothing to me gins walks over takes the camera out of my hand and opens it to my horror. I am thinking there goes all those nice cool pictures I took LOl hands me back the camera and keeps on grinning. I take it look at it look up at him and think omg how in the world did he know it was empty not one roll of film in it LOL I take a look at that trail and say to me no way this gal is doing this hike again so I can take more pics either cause I am one worn out woman and these legs aren't going to hold me one more time around for that .