Too Busy to Blog?

There have been a culmination of factors leading to my inability to blog. The first is that Vince is home from Soldotna and our great friend Kim is here for a jaunt during break from medical school.

I have also been reminded of something that happened when Gloria and Mana came to stay with us for a while, and then when DeeJay came... I don't know why I forgot... There is a serious learning curve for these kids when they come from from the islands. I was wondering why I was so exhausted and then I remembered... I remembered teaching Gloria about the can opener. I remembered teaching DeeJay about the stove in the kitchen. Everything that we take for granted here, that our kids know by being in this culture, has to be taught to Willie. For instance; While up to my elbows in some culinary delight, "Willie, grab the phone." Willie: "No. I mean How?" This has taken up a great deal of my time this week. It is fun and sweet and consuming.

I've been busy. Hopefully I can catch up tonight, or tomorrow.

Introducing Willie

Nine years ago, on the island of Saipan, in Micronesia, I, Alana Greear had a job. (Thinking about the fact that it has been nine years since I have been gainfully employed outside my home is a bit frightening and is making me laugh, working was so NOT hard...but that is an entirely different story.) I had a job as a teacher. I also had an American friend who had just adopted a darling girl of Yapese heritage named Velarie. This friend asked if while I was at work (because I had a job...hee hee hee) if I would keep an eye on her new daughters brother... Willie. Since I was teaching his grade this was no problem. I'll never forget conversation she and I had, "Alana, he is just so small...he's only 5 and he doesn't speak English very well and times are tough at home."

And then Willie was in my life. Willie and I spent the afternoons together after school. After about a week he asked if his brother could come with us. I said that I would have to ask his mother and so we went to his house. The apartment door was away from the road, down a dirt driveway. She had a rice cooker on a makeshift table in what would be an Arctic entry here. The walls were sparse and unpainted. There was no furniture and the heat in the room was stifling hot. Even with the louvers open there was no breeze. The other two kids were really little. They all had bug bites up their legs. I asked if DeeJay could come with me and Willie and Lucy was so kind. She was so afraid that he would be a bother. "No bother!" I said. "Two boys are a bother!" She assured me. I assured her that it would be no bother. Luckily, Islanders are not good at saying no (too confrontational) and so she relented. That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

We had terrific adventures driving around the island, swimming in Mel and Marc's pool, going to the beach and then Falcom came along and then we had to move and they needed to stay...

Last year DeeJay moved in with us. We told Lucy and Manuel that since there is no economy in Saipan and no hope for young men like him we would love to have him come here. We thought maybe Willie would come then too, but Willie is very sensitive and shy and was not ready yet to come. We've had a wonderful time with DeeJay, watching him grow into the successful man he is destined to be.

This weekend Willie came. The remaining Paag family has finally given up on Saipan and is now on Guam. The Greears are a family of 6.
Sleeping in the Mel Mobile

We went to Anchorage Friday night when DeeJay got off work. We took the Mel Mobile and the mattress and tents. We stayed at the most disgusting camping area in Alaska, Centennial Park. It's not the park itself that is so bad. It's centrally located and cheap (since hotels this time of year are through the roof). I will say that they have done a lot to improve the park from the days when there were condoms in the shower stalls. I think the problem with the park lies in the people who move in to the park as a permanent housing solution. For instance, this time we had some neighbors with huge dogs (4 of them) the people drank beer until after midnight and the dogs were crying at 4 am. Last year, when we were there, a kid on the playground told Falcom that the hardest part of living in the park was keeping the families 12 cats inside their tent.

We shopped like crazy and just happened to be in Gottschalks right when Miss Alaska USA contestants were putting on a fashion show ("It's all about the scholarships. Scholarships, scholarships, scholarships." They kept saying.) I swear, Falcom has the best Karma ever. His world is like a magic wonderland. Who else could manifest a fashion show into the middle of his day?

We ate lots and lots of junk food in Anchorage. I tried hard not to, but I was swimming up river on that one. There was only one man/woman conversation that went like this, "You said you didn't care where we ate!" "I never thought you'd then pull into McDonalds!" The best diet move I made this weekend was telling the family that we could go to Chucky Cheese but that we would not be eating. There was some dissent among the small children, but we ate lots of fruits and chicken in the car, went in with a coupon for mucho tokens and spent hours playing without having to have one sodium slice. Yea for Mom! (Thankfully I still managed to loose .4 this week.) Can you find Falcom in this picture?

We left C.C. and went to pick up Willie. I was able to convince Vince that going to the airport early was a good idea. Luckily we did as his flight was a half hour early. We all got boarding passes to go through security. Watching Vince unload his pockets to go through security was like a Steve Martin skit. Hence, this weeks poll. We got to the gate at the perfect moment to watch his plane land. DeeJay was so excited. Seeing Willie come through the gate was like magic for my soul. I am so thankful.

The drive home from Anchorage was filled with statements that only someone who had never been off the island could ask. "How many mountains are there?" "Who owns the moose?" "You mean it's not morning? (it was 9:30 at night)." "We have been driving so long and it is still not dark." "Oh my God, (the house) is a palace!".

Some of you may remember how we froze DeeJay the first week he was here by assuming he knew that the shower faucet had hot water. Well, we weren't going to make a mistake like that again! After the first night Willie came upstairs shaking cold. I asked him what happened. He told me it was so cold at night. The next night I went down there and found the bed made exactly as I had made it the first night. "Willie, did you get under the blankets last night?" There I was teaching Willie about blankets.

May the circle, be unbroken...

Marina's Bluegrass Success

Please check out Marina on YouTube. Her debut in our family of Artists. Another future preformer and rock star! Great Job Little Bean! Love you!

What Has Been Keeping Me From This Blog?

Please welcome to the family Mr. Willie Paag.

I have a lot to say about this topic but no time to do it this morning. I will try to update later this afternoon after the coffee clatch with Irene and Sharon.

Bluegrass Clips

Here are some little movies of the kids doing the bluegrass rehearsals. With Vince gone, and the kids busy and Mema helping me get the house ready for Willie, I've been too busy to blog! Can you imagine? I'll resume the blogging once we get back to Homer with our new-to-us Son, Willie Paag.

Regular Tuesday with Irene does Bluegrass Camp

Today started our week of Bluegrass Camp. Some loyal followers of this blog might be thinking, "Falcom...bluegrass camp? He never seemed the type." You see, it started in March, after Marina watched her cousin Evan play the violin and she decided she wanted to start playing the violin. I decided I did not want to commit to buying her an instrument and paying $25 a half hour for Suzuki lessons when she can be so wishy washy. And still so little! Instead of denying her something that might be part of her life legacy ("but my mother would never let me do it!"), I decided to sign her up for a week of camp where she could learn the fiddle from the most talented bluegrass musicians I've seen in Alaska.

This troop is talented and they are young and cute. In fact, they are so talented we listened to their album all last summer. They are so talented I needed Falcom to also spend some time getting music lessons from them. I like bluegrass. I don't know if I love bluegrass like a fanatic, but I like bluegrass. For me, I think that this bluegrass camp is similar to making your kids take Hula while you live in Hawaii. If IZ was here teaching the Uke guess who would be taking Uke lessons? That is right, we would.

So, off we went this morning to Bluegrass Camp and guess what? Everyone loved it and they even checked out the instruments to bring home and they did a little jam for Mema. Very Cool.

While the kids were getting schooled in Alaskana I went over for a little 'Regular Tuesday with Irene' action where I began schooling Maya in the art of coffee clatch.

Doesn't she look like a natural?

Sharon was there without her kids (can you imagine how we are turning a page in our mothering years) and between her and Irene it was a lively conversation.
It was so great to hang with my gals again. They were hilarious.Next week we might try doing it at MY HOUSE. Yikee! Pressure is on.
That evening Marina ran in from the Chicken Coop screaming. "Porcupine!" She was quite sure that it would attack her. I assured her otherwise and forced her to come back out so that we could check it out. Sure enough the poor creature was way more afraid of us than we should be of it. The poor clumsy thing was trying to get away from us and then it gracefully ran up a tree. We never knew that porcupines could run up a tree. It ran up the tree more gracefully than it could walk across the ground. I have a feeling that this little guy is now a hundred miles from this house after the ambush he received.

A Busy Day

We started our busy day working with Valda at the Strut Your Mutt benefit for the Homer Animal Friends. Valda enlisted us several months ago to participate in various activities at the Strut, including having Vince cook hot dogs and Mema to be a crossing guard. Good thing Valda came over for dinner the night before the Strut and reminded us about it. I had the job of helping my kids parade Scratch through town. Yes, we paraded in the rain. Thanks to Mel for these fabulous matching rain slickers which were the hit of the parade! And thank you Scratch for not making us clean up any poo on the parade route.

I also had the job of helping them participate in contests. They chose 'Owner Dog Look Alike' and 'Best Tail Wagger'. They performed the following song for their part in the owner dog look alike competition.

Sadly, they did not win for this competition, but they did get a ribbon for having the second best tail wager in town.

After the competition, but before the Strut ended, I snuck off to Irene's where the Methodist Women were throwing a baby shower for Maya.

What a delightful gathering. What a nice group of women. Irene was blessed with lots of wonderful gifts. Maya was ever the princess, enjoying the ripping of paper. The buffet line was fabulous and this cake! Wow! It was a poppy seed with lemon filling and whipped cream frosting. Delicious!

The most touching gift Maya received was a handmade book by the Sonnen's about Maya's adoption journey. They reproduced pictures of her and the Wise family in colored pencil and wrote the story of her never being alone. It made Irene cry. Then it made me cry. Then I warned Priscilla not to read it, but she did and it made her cry. It is a beautiful book. I told Irene to keep it filed next to Love You Forever for those times when you really want to get sentimental and cry yourself to sleep. She agreed.

I left the baby shower in time to pick up my kids, husband and mother to head for Mariner ParkBeach, where Kate Finn was having her 63rd birthday party. More delicious food, more fun conversations with long time friends. It was windy at the beach and cold, but warm by the fire. Kate's cake was a Tarimisu. We drank sparkling cider out of paper bowls. Happy Birthday Kate!

We blasted off the beach, dropped my mother and the kids off at the Shack and went up Dimond Ridge Road where we joined up with the 40th birthday celebration of Emily W.

This cake was the feature of a blog poll several weeks ago about ordering your own birthday cake, and is it OK? Yes, Jenni M. took care of Emily (and all of us for that matter and got this cake for her). It was a fun adult hang out party. I was glad to meet Suzanne and Jean's boss Randy and his wife after all I've heard about them. I was also relieved to meet people (not Randy and Bobbie) who were unfortunate enough to witness the end of our civilization as we know it; the summer television program 'Swingtown'. Yes, it's a show set in 1973 about couples who swing. Yes, the movie 'Idiocracy' is becoming a non-fiction film.

Happy Birthday Emily! Thanks for including me in a fun night!

Vince took this picture on Skyline as we were driving home at 12:30 at night. Summer, Homer, Alaska.

The Visitor

Look who spent the morning hanging out at our house. We didn't even have to give him a muffin. Sadly, he did not put on a puppet show. (this reference is for the mothers and fathers out there who have read the children's book, If You Give A Moose A Muffin). We did provide him with a rusty salt lick for his micro nutrient needs. Vince is joking that we will have to keep a pile of salt around until hunting season. Wait a minute, I thought he was joking, but now that I think about it....

Marina and Mommy Go Shopping

Marina and I did a little, Mommy/Daughter motorized vehicle shopping today.

We both decided that we would love to have these, but we don't really have the ability to drive one right now. Like, where do I put my kids on this? And where would she take this little four-wheeler? To Valda's and back? Pocket books safe for now we went back to Wagon Wheel where Vince and Falcom were doing some chicken shopping. No, they also talked themselves out of any additional poultry.

Marina Climbing at McNeil

The following instructional video will help all young McNeil students refine their climbing skills.

Marina (not even in kindergarten yet) Climbing

DeeJay's Success! - A Warning to Motorists

If you are a motorist in the Homer area, beware! Our beloved Paag-inator, DeeJay is the proud holder of an Alaska Driver's Permit. We are celebrating his success in passing his drivers test (with no mistakes, I might add). If you are so inclined, please send a prayer his way for traveling mercies. No, not just for his safe passage, but for ours as passengers/trainers, and fellow motorists on the roadway.

We love you DeeJay! Good Job!

Jackie and Flint's Wedding

Some loyal readers may remember the woman standing second from the left in the above picture from the following post, http://greears.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-party.html. My dear friend Margarita's daughter got married yesterday to another friend of ours son, Flint. It was a fantastic day, just right for the bride and groom, not to fancy, not to bland...just right. Jackie was a beautiful bride. I remember her as a small girl. It is funny to think that I am old enough to know a little girl who now has a son of her own and a husband!

They did a wonderful job decorating Alice's Champagne Palace to make it look beautiful. They had Japanese lanterns hanging around and flowers all around.

Check out this beautiful cupcake wedding cake. And such delicious cupcakes! A lemon cake with cream cheese frosting and roses all around.

Check out this buffet line. There was everything from Brushetta to Sushi on display.

The kids did some dancing. Check out their 'robot' and 'Cleopatra' moves that they learned from Jazz Dance Camp.

And the sweetest part of weddings for little kids; being able to dance as much as you want with your dad.

The other sweet part of going to weddings is remembering your own wedding...

Book Group has an Evening with Anne Lamott

The East End book club had a fantastic night last night...Anne Lamott. In town for the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference, Anne gave an informal talk for the community at the Mariner Theater. Our group had to continue the tradition: the annual theme dinner and brush with greatness. Last years brush with greatness was Amy Tan. Would Anne be able to hold up the legacy?We started the evening at Mema's Shack, where we enjoyed food that revolved around our theme 'Light Northern California fare'. Jean brought smoked salmon, delicious. Suzanne made a lentil curry from the WW cookbook.

Marina and I made fiddleheads again and totally knocked it out of the park! Mema made hard salami roll-ups with cream cheese and dill pickles. This was really the downfall of Suzanne and I as we reminisced about our days eating salami in the Sonoma Valley. The group voted for me to be the one to ask Anne a question, as I was the one who asked Amy Tan the question last year. I said that I would be glad to ask her if I could think of one.
Here is a bunch of us book groupers in the theater. On the far left side of this picture is Jenny, who is Suzanne's friend from Anchorage who is here for the summer. She is the one this year who was able to stand up and ask Anne a question. She's read all of her books for heaven's sake! It was a great question about finding forgivness.

Here is Anne Lamott at the door greeting us! Can you imagine? Irene says that being with Anne Lamott was like having coffee with your best girlfriend, being at a political rally and a church service all wrapped up into one. I think that is true.

But for me hearing Anne speak was also like going to hear a lecture by a Buddhist monk. She could vocalize a part of our Christian tradition that is so often over looked or brushed off or poo-pooed. That part is the suffering. So often I feel like we are told that we will suffer less if we pray more. Like if we want to be good church ladies we have to be Paulianna's. Anne Lamott pretty much said, "Life is Suffering. We all suffer equally. We are loved equally by God and we suffer equally. Why be ashamed of that? Why try to hide that? That is what is real. Be real."

She was so laid back and casual. Amy Tan was much more formal and serious. Anne was hilarious, honest, self-depreciating, and spiritual. So spiritual! With great tips on how to keep spirit in your heart that did not even offend the atheists in the crowd and yet were so real.

She said at the beginning that she would not be personalizing the books that she signs, that she would sign anything that we wrote. Here is what she wrote in mine...

Irene and I decided that we will lead a summer Sunday School around her book, Grace (Eventually). We think it will be super fun.

Thank you Mom for having another super party at your place. Thank you Anne for coming to our town and invigorating us! This evening totally lived up to the Book Group Living Legend Legacy!