33 and Colors

Andy's birthday was this past Tuesday and we had some fun with it, even with some massive rainfall. From big burritos at lunch to an impromptu, small hot pot for dinner, and other treats throughout the day.

I asked him what he thought?

He says he got lots of good stuff and was spoiled, and got to spend time with his wife. (which we've been doing this weekend as we ferried to Juneau for power shopping)

Well, after dessert and some clean up that day I discovered with delight that Andy was spending time with one of our little dinner guests.

He's testing out a new Colors book Auntie Stephanie gave us for Guppy Gorn. I think it's a hit already!

A pretty sweet way to end one's 33rd birthday, I'd say.

*Amy

Get-Together

Some other things to mention from MN last month...I timed the trip to coincide with the Minnesota State Fair! The second biggest fair in the country (after Texas) in terms of offerings and attendance. I was soooo excited to go, get my food on, wander familiar areas and discover new booths. Even better was my company that day---cousins!

The Fair isn't called the "Great MN Get Together" for nothing! This is a Fargo, Twin Cities and Alaska reunion. (thanks to photographer, Robert)

I graced the Facebook world with a photo of me diving into a disgusting amount of fried cheese curds. I won't go there again, but the overdose cured my craving (at the time). There wasn't even a wait at the booth.

We didn't see the baby animals but I couldn't resist. Our familia did sit by the Grandstand and enjoy the awesome sounds of Heart's opening music act for that night's concert. The Wilson sisters rock. It was a HOT day and we navigated our appetites and crowds like champs. I haven't lost my Fair connection.

Then I enjoyed another non-Sitka activity: mini golfing! My bro, sister-in-law and I went to a course with real grass, real sand bunkers, water hazards and flags in the hole. It was a hole-in-one time! And those two better golfers putted to a tie for first place.

And no visit back is complete without some spent in Roseville. Love you Grandma and Grandpa!

Got my summer bake on, time with fam, lots o eating, relaxing and visiting. Perfect and needed.
*Amy

Bebe says Thank you!

Sitka showers are happening as we get to the windy, rainy, dramatic fall weather season. Last month in MN, I was part of showers of another sort. Baby showers for Guppy Gorn, as my sis-in-law wittily coined!

I planned a trip to MN on the spur of the moment and following my announced plans I was generously offered a couple of baby showers. I am so touched and had so much fun with amazing women, and some very sweet girls.  I know the Gorneration felt the love, and she'll certainly see the love when she arrives and has many wonderful clothes, helpful items, books and treasures to make her life awfully sweet (and helpful for her parents). We are so fortunate!

My friend Sara hosted a gathering of some college gals and family. I miss these girls! It was fun for all ages!

How can one not feel supported for big changes ahead when surrounded by strong, smart and beautiful friends? A heartfelt thank you to Sara and her mom, and a big Congrats to her too for expecting her second baby! Her due date is just 3 months after our bebe. We are a growing crew.

And then my dear mother and sis-in-law put on a family shower that put me into such laughter I began to over-heat! Thank you for all the special touches and hard work. Even my loving mother-in-law came all the way from mid-Wisconsin to join celebrating her future grand-daughter. I returned to Alaska feeling all sorts of good energy, love and happiness. It's good to be with family.

Our "guppy" is showered with love.

*Amy

6 Months (26 week photo)

Today is 3 months away from our due date! Hooo-weee! How did we mark 6 months into pregnancy? By going fishing! Andy's mom has been with us all week, and Mother Nature gave us a break from the regular rain for a lovely, sunny weekend perfect for going on the boat.

This photo was taken last week at 26-weeks along. Excuse the fact I'm wiped from working two jobs for 11-hours, and then gorging on a fondue dinner.

Bebe girl Gorn has been moving regularly of course and I'm so excited that Andy has started feeling her too. Just the other day it seemed a long shot that he could connect with her little movements, but I put his hand to the right place on my belly and that's when he said she gave him "ten"--two quick high-fives. Needless to say I was touched and thrilled by the moment.

Back aches are starting in some usual places. I'm looking forward, naturally, to my upcoming prenatal massage. Maternity clothes purchased just a month and a half ago are already considerably smaller. The

"how can I get any bigger"-pondering has entered my mind often. 

So back to the day of fishing. Andy's mom reeled in two halibut--her first! And I managed one myself; a bitty one of 17 pounds. It could have 50 lbs. based on how it felt to pull the fish up from the ocean floor. I think it was a good arm exercise for a 6-month pregnant woman!

Great day with Grandma Judy!

*Amy

What to CHOOSE?

How about some R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

While en route to Alaska from MN today I'll share what took place in Sitka earlier this month. Well, I should back up a bit. Last fall I joined the local Choose Respect Mural committee. It fit in line with some projects through work and I thought it would be great to meet and get involved with Sitkans this way. The mural project addresses domestic violence and sexual assault through positive action and creative, artistic expression. Alaska has horribly high rates for these areas, and "Choose Respect" comes from the Governor's initiative to address these serious issues. After nearly a year of work by the committee, the hired lead artists came to town to paint the design derived and created through community engagement projects we organized during the year, along with heavy school involvement and more.

The most awesome thing about the actual painting, as proposed by our lead artist, Eliseo Art Silva of CA, was its paint by number system---to get the community painting and contributing, and get a lot of work done in a week's time! I was thrilled to learn the paints were non-toxic, water-based acrylic so I wouldn't miss out on the fun, connection and contribution. From our sign-in sheets I tallied over 178 volunteers gave 600 hours to bring the design In Living Color!

Here it is with all 18 panels combined, as shown on www.artchangeinc.org:

Let's break it down:

Like a topographical, camouflaged map with paint by numbers for grown ups!

I'm awfully proud of the painting effort, and myself, tried to be there every day to pitch in. It will be installed on the outside of the middle school, a visible spot within town. Our dedication and unveiling will be on Oct. 1 to commemorate Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Awareness month.
MORE on this, with good interviews by the local public radio station, and talented reported, Ed Ronco!
http://kcaw.org/modules/local_news/index.php?op=centerBlock&ID=1309
*Amy

Ahoy!

In a waterway town I've learned to expect the unexpected for vessels, crafts, floating things--anything that could sail in, and then sail out. Last month saw two interesting contrasts pull in port.
The first was the 365-foot Russian vessel "Pallada," which came from Vladivostok. Its tour was to commemorate the 270th anniversary of the Russians in AK. It hosted a crew and cadre of fisheries, science cadets. The only other Alaskan port of call she made was Kodiak.

The public was welcome to climb aboard, walk around, and read the interpretative panels displayed to detail Russian history in Alaska and their space program--in Cyrillic and English languages. The Russian perspective was "interesting" and didn't exactly line up all the time with the history I've learned. I'll just say that. Mostly, I was fascinated by lines and lines and shapes and ropes. Lines going on and on like time in history, with many points and knots along the way.

The silent, smoking and polished cadets walking around added to the atmosphere too.

And this floater showed up, docked by our central and highly-visible O'Connell bridge:

She's the 156-foot yacht called the "Rochade." It was completed just this year and the newspaper reported it was on its maiden southeast AK voyage. Andy was impressed to hear that it's powered by a combined 7,200 Hp! And then word spread quickly of another fancy-shamancy boat worth a jaw-dropping 48.5 million and it had a HELICOPTER on its back deck! A rumor from the docks around SE credited it to the owner of Bayliner...as in the type of boat.

These waters have a fascinating past, active present and guaranteed future. So do the vessels, boats, paddle boards and more that pass on through or come to stay.

*Amy

Soggy Indeed

As you've noticed from this blog, I tend to process and understand some things in life through writing. Today's post is no exception. Andy is in Georgia for two weeks. One week has gone by and I sneaked in a village work trip during that, and I leave for a visit to MN before he returns. I planned other distractions like happy blog-posting (which I'll still do), reorganizing my recipes (okay, more necessary than fun), and some pampering. So Saturday started with a pedicure. As I drove home from that pampering, up our hillside neighborhood, it hit me how much rain had poured the night before and that morning. The ditches and culverts were bursting with new, gushing streams going down hill.



My friend and neighbor Naomi texted asking how I was doing, and our house with the rain. I went around inside and out and all looked tight. Except for the puddle "lake" growing behind my neighbor's, on our zero-lot line. 



Andy's room at the military base does not have cell service so we began to Skype and I described all the rain we received. That's when it occurred to me I needed to check the crawl space too. Before I even got that far, I believe God sent Naomi over to me for the day as she was at my door insisting we check that crawl space. Thanks to her, I never had to face anything alone yesterday. She was decisive, quick to action and available to give hours of hands on help for what we were about to discover.



It was hard to determine how much water had flooded until we went down there (and I ended up only doing one cursory and heart-stricken trip to the crawl space. I was forbidden to climb in and out after that, and do any major heavy lifting. That killed me). There was water on top of the plastic covering the ground, but the plastic was floating up with most of the water beneath. Every step we took had to be careful to avoid unnecessary water movement and rushing from one area to another.

Part of the Christmas area where, thankfully, most ornaments are in plastic containers

Here's me in my Bogs--Naomi used my Xtra Tuffs-and when we moved by one another one time I had water spill in. Bye bye pedicure!

Andy stayed on Skype standby for hours to receive my updates. Once he got the bad news he tried getting out texts to the Troopers. I never had to stop and call anyone. People came quickly and I had 8 people (and a baby!) helping at some point. Naomi stayed down below with two others as they removed the light and dry stuff stacked on top of others. For the water-logged, tearing boxes beneath, we hoisted empty rubbermaids down there and they just emptied wet contents into the containers to bring up to the garage. The garage is an interesting disaster of drying out stuff...from decorative 4th of July flags hanging to art supplies, and *hopefully* salvaged baseball cards, Andy's high school diploma, etc. etc.

Water caused stacks to become tippy, or boxes just to float

I got to damp photos early on and we covered the kitchen and living room surface areas with photos galore. Most are saved.

I feel more prepared to tackle emergency situations in the future, hopefully not needed. And got some hard-knocks lessons too (like packing everything in plastic containers...and don't procrastinate on doing something with scrapbooks and photo albums--even if you don't have actual house space for that stuff!)


Andy's LT brought over a pump and hose from the Academy and within 4-5 hours the space was free of water. Our buddy Lance climbed around last night making sure it reached the far and dark corners. Fans are blowing down there now.


The main thing is that it's all out...I can dry out, clean where possible and then will repack eventually. Don't want mold and mildew now. Our house structure is dry and strong...the other main thing. I'm so glad we discovered early Sat. so I have all weekend. The City is aware that a better drainage route is needed up and behind us. They already jerry-rigged something to divert the rain scheduled for at least a week. We weren't the only ones. I heard one trailer court below us had river gushing streets.


I can't express (and Andy too) enough our appreciation for the all the help! Even to the plate of dinner I was brought, the hauling away of destroyed items and trash, and checking-in phone calls. This home alone preggers lady is so grateful. Alaskans are first-rate helpers to one another, especially when families are often far away. 


*Amy