Stage Mom Season Begins!

We survived the first round in our three month theater season: the McNeil Canyon School talent show and pie auction!

For those of you who may not realize this, there is a member of my family who is very theatrical and who really needs opportunities to perform. Can you guess which of my children this might be? Irene has a very long and intense hockey season, and we have often discussed which is a more challenging occupation. Irene thinks stage mom-ing is more intense. I have dismissed her often thinking that stage mom-ing is intense, but it is quick...boom/boom...in and out. Whereas hockey is like...Anchorage this weekend, -15 on an outdoor rink next weekend, um, the parents...

I have decided that both are intense but in different ways. The parents are challenging in both arenas, but the challenging parents at hockey are 'in your face' aggressive challenges, whereas the theater parents are passive aggressive behind your back challenges. What I think is funny is how spirit has seen fit to give Irene and I both the opportunity to grow through these experiences. I am much better suited to the aggressive challenges and so this passive-aggressive stuff is very difficult for me. For Irene it is visa versa. Very interesting.

And of course, our kids are good at what they do and so not participating is not an option.

I have been involved preparing for this show by helping coach the kids and help them with their staging. This was not a group of children with stage fright. They all really seemed to be confident and to know exactly what they wanted to do. Their enthusiasm was terrific and their support of each other was surprising. There was no back biting or up staging or anything. It was wonderful to work with them.

If you were one of the fortunate (or not) people who got to read my flaming blog yesterday about my personal frustrations as an educator....um...sorry? Sorry-ish? After the show I decided that the rant of my frustrations, although real and authentic, was inappropriate to post for the world.

If you read that post, I hope that what you take from it is that for gay, lesbian, trans people in the world, most of their experience in their early life is tainted by peoples misguided judgements and assumptions. And how I can only imagine how people who have to deal with it day after day after day must get so beat down, having to fight for their self esteem day after day. Please remember, if God did not want us to see a colorful world, the Alpha and the Omega would not have put cones in our retinas. The world is colorful...embrace it!

It was a full house. The kids were excited and wonderful. They knew their numbers and no one had any major missteps, well, everyone but Mema, who, bless her heart, should not have been put in charge of the camera. I will say that choosing her as the cinematographer was a better choice for me than the choice I made in choosing DeeJay last year as the cinematographer at Jubilee.

Falcom took the stage and was a little stiff at first, but I think that even with a small cold his vocals were true and I was so proud of him! He did not wear a dress. He did try to put on some sparkle fake eyelashes and clip on ear rings, but they were way to distracting for him to try to wear at the last minute. The only "Wild Child" thing he had on was his high boots, and believe me, as his mother, I have to say that those are NOTHING! Everyone had very genuine compliments for him after his performance. I think the coolest part is the kids who are his classmates who have never seen him in action who then came and told him that they loved his singing. It is so cool to build bridges.

While I was behind the screen staging the kids and organizing them, Marina was in desperate need of attention. I could not give her any of the attention she needed and she was acting out like she was this deprived orphan on the streets of Mexico City looking for a peso. I don't know where her aunties or Mema's were, but they were not enough attention for her! It did not take long for me to loose my temper and tell her that she needed to get lost.

At intermission I found that after she slinked off from the show she had gone out into the pie auction hallway and bid on plenty of pies and cakes! Behold also that she is not cheap! Her starting bids were all $10.00! Falcom also took liberty to bid on cakes that he found interesting. Having a math learning disability does not help a mothers sense of calm as I was having to go about putting decimal points into all of his bids or we would have been paying $1000 for each cake that he had written his name on! I spent the entire intermission checking each bid on each cake and pie to make sure that we were not bidding thousands of dollars for pies.

In the end we only won 3 cakes and we were great fodder for Mr. Swanson's Pie Auction jokes.

Below is the video of Falcom's performance. Andrea will be giving me a better copy of the video in the next week or so which I will upload onto YouTube. Until then, enjoy...

Cabin Weekend

We escaped together this weekend to the cabin. No phone, no electronics, no interruptions. Not only was I looking forward to a restful weekend with my family, I was poised for a perfect nights sleep.

The big boys fell asleep at 7.30. Little kids passed out at 8. As I was tucking them in Falcom said, "I'm not feeling well." So I put him downstairs on the couch next to me. Sure enough he was up all night vomiting. I was up all night with him while he was vomiting.

What is it with that cabin and me being sleepless?

The next day was all fun in the sun. Vince let the kids surf behind the snow machine. Willie and DeeJay took off on their own and managed somehow to find their way back home. I played a lot of Sudoku. It was a very nice time.

Mema and Suzanne then came over for a lamb roast and we went to Valda's where we watched the Oscars after witnessing this amazing sunset. What made this one more fantastic than most is the way Cape Douglas is jutting out of the ocean. We usually do not get such a perfect view of it's peaks and valleys. Of course, the camera does not do it justice, but I tried.

Thank you Valda for letting us crash your house while you are in Africa!

Pictures from a Special Day

Falcom waiting for Marina after his haircut

First, I played Wii Golf and imagined I was in Saipan, but there is little to photograph with that.

Second, I went to Valda's house where I found her preparing for her trip to Africa (she left last night). She had done the unusual and painted her own toenails, and the horror! Fortunately I had lugged my polish to her house and I did her nails just right. A person should not go to Africa with a bad manicure! HA! Have a great trip Valda, we are all jealous!

Third, I went to Priscilla's for a visit with her and Maya and a cup of coffee. It had been such a long time since we've sat together and it was wonderful. I am going to have to be more serious about fitting that into my week!

Fourth, I took my mother to Two Sisters for a cup of coffee and to share a Roulaud. This beauty had carmelized onions, walnuts, and feta cheese. WOW! Check out my super snazzy fingernails... The McNeil kids LOVE them. It is unusual for us rural gals to have such fantastic nails, so for the kids it is really a walk on the wild side.

Fifth, I picked up Falcom and he got his first haircut in well over a year. His new look is not too short. It is VERY Jonas Brothers Chic. Vince doesn't get the reference, but pick up a Teen Beat Mag and you will see what I mean.

Marina also decided she needed a haircut and Jerami gave her the cute girl trim without upsetting her Daddy. Very sweet!

Sixth, I went to movie night at McNeil School where we watched the penguins in Madagascar 2 and then sat in the hallway with my girlfriends and painted more fingernails. By this time I had inhaled so much polish fumes from the day that I really gave myself a head rush and I am seriously reconsidering my next job as a manicurist.

It was a great special day.

My Special Day

A reflective photo for a reflective post

Today is my special day. All this means is that 16 years ago today was the day I stopped drinking alcohol.

In the early years of having a special day I made them into an event. I am sure you can all imagine what I am capable of in terms of self adoration! It has now been a couple of years since I've even noticed the day or even remembered that I have a special day. So why am I remembering today?

It may have to do with the year we've been having and how this year has been incredibly stressful on me. Of all these past 16 years this has been the one year that I actually considered drinking. Let's recap;

Friends dying of cancer, IEPs, Vince changing jobs and being gone a lot, 40th birthday, everyone going to school, cold grey summer (not to be confused with a 'long hot summer'), divorces, politics, mental health scares, economic downturns hitting close to home, murderous rampages at the work place, the passing of loved ones, moose wrecks, dead pets...

Whow...let's take a break from that and talk about something happy...Marina and I had lunch yesterday while I was helping prepare the kids for next weeks "McNeil Canyon Talent Show"! This is Marina eating blood-orange. Marina took pictures of the acts. Sorry, most pictures were too dark to post. I have really enjoyed my time working with the kids.

The other night at the movie a friend asked me if I was so positive all the time or just in the blog? I asked her if she had ever read the secret code words in the blog to get the true feeling for how things were going around here. "Secret Code Words?" She said.

I have decided that I had better make a list of the secret code words so that people do not confuse me as having a Pollyanna existence.

1. Jail time averted. This means that my kids were driving me so nuts that I almost was turned over to the office of children's services. Always a joke (Thank God, but shows that I can loose my cool at these delightful young people.
2. Where is my oxygen mask? This sentence has come to replace me pretending to take a pull from a cigarette of drink from a bottle when the kids are totally driving me nuts. I usually say this when helping with homework.
3. Vince is happy at his new job. Usually, this means that I am not thrilled that Vince is away from home. Yesterday I did the math and in the last two months we have only had 30% of our evenings together. Part of this is because of my trip. I take part of the blame. But, even if I factor out my trip, we would only be ranging in the high 50% range.
4. Beautiful Sunrise Today. This means, "Look at this beautiful sunrise as an attempt to forget that it is at 10 am and it is DARK. We are all seasonally affected, even those who say they are not, and it is cold and it sucks to have to live in Alaska year round."
5. Dreamed of Sailing. In my sailing fantasy I am on a boat with my family and we are all at sea. We are alone and self contained. It is quiet. There are no interruptions from the outside world. We are all together and no one can wander too far away. Education, work, social pressures: Nothing matters as long as we have a wind and the ability to tie a knot! I always have this fantasy until I remember the book "Maiden Voyage" and how she documents so clearly the mood of transpacific voyages and how her tweezers became her best friend (yes, she plucked her leg hairs...that's how much time she had on her hands!)

OK, yea, I am mostly positive in life. I admit it.

Sixteen years. Ah... I am sure that tomorrows posting will be filled with beautiful pictures of things, as it is morning still, and today is MY special day and I will be filling it with beauty and fun and friends and magic...

Thanks to each one of you who has supported and loved me. It has been a really great life so far.

Valentine's Day - Greear Style

Valentine's day came and went without too much fanfare. Everyone in the family had their own events to attend. We all have so much going on that we decided to spend Friday evening celebrating Valentine's day watching movies, eating pizza, and drinking soda with Valda. It is nice being all together in a laid back atmosphere.

And so when Valentine's day came we all scattered to the wind;

Vince is in Anchorage with our friend Alex (who is here from GA to apply for a job at Prov Med Center).

I went out with Suzanne to a single lady Diva party at Jenny's house. We picked up a pizza on the way and standing outside the Save-U-More was this YAG (synonym for "Young Alaskan Guy") with a sign reading 'Free Hugs'. I guess it was a Facebook dare, or something...I thought maybe a Facebook intervention...like, get off the computer and go have actual interactions with humans... Whichever it was, we obliged him.

Jenny's was a super fun party, with fun and funny gals in attendance. We tried on my stripper shoes and laughed all night.

A little known fact about stripper shoes, after wearing them for a few hours you realize why those gals are fit! I've got a muscles today I didn't know I had! And just from walking around... Who would have known?

Falcom and Marina spent the night with Mema and got spoiled. Then went to church. They had killer snowball fights.

DeeJay spent the night with the Radeke's and watched movies and played video games.

Willie went to the Valentine's Dance with his friend Johnny and then spent the night at Johnny's. Willie had a very good time at the dance. There was some teenage drama, but nothing over the top. Lots of dancing.

Overall, another Valentine's weekend well spent!

Willie Learns to Skate

I am proud to say that this week we added another name to the list of skating Micronesians; Willie Paag.

It should go without saying that few Micronesians ice skate. This little skating rink is behind Falcom and Marina's school. They create it on top of the basket ball courts in the winter and the school has enough skates for everyone. When Falcom and Marina took Vince and me to see their new moves Falcom's teacher was there and said, "Willie, you need to skate too!" and let him borrow some skates for the rest of the winter from the school. Now we are trying to get over there to skate as often as we can. He is quickly getting the hang of it.

In honor of our Carolinian Roots, Vince proudly displays his badge of honor:

Rafaluwash 670

Valentine's Day is On the Way!

Last night we prepared for the Valentine's Day card exchange at school. I decided we'd better get a head start on it so that we were not trying to jam through it at the last minute, but why?

The kids did not want to be creative this year and how long does it take to write your and your classmates name on a "Transformer" or a "High School Musical" card? I mean really.

I did love it though when Willie pointed out that both kids were wearing red and doing Valentines. It was darling and very blog worthy!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone, from our home to yours!

Regular Tuesday with Irene

Went to a funny dinner last night with Terri R. and Suzanne last night after the WW. The three of us have been going to WW meetings for the past year and we spent some time discussing our fates in the program. I was disappointed to find that WW is going to make me stick with that firm goal number the AMA set out how many years ago. A weight I havn't weighed since college! I said to the girls that after 40 years old it is not good for a woman to be that thin and that unless I am going to be traveling to Thailand for some plastic surgery, I do not want to be that thin!

This morning I found this lead article on Yahoo:

"It's a question surely as old as vanity itself: how can you look young forever? A forthcoming study in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery offers one surprising idea: as you age, don't be afraid to put on a few pounds. Fat, it turns out, can significantly smooth out wrinkles and give you a younger-looking face. (Read "Beth Teitell: On Not Looking Old".)"

Uh hu!

Valda came over this afternoon with concerns that I had pooped out on blogging. Fear not Valda! I just havn't had a lot of free time on my hands since I've been home.

Today found me at Irene's for a cup of coffee. Imagine that!

Topics Discussed:

How, while I was in Saipan, friends of ours would ask what Vince does for fun. Vince would call me and Karen would ask what he and the kids were up too. I would always answer, "gathering and chopping wood." It's an Alaskan thing to do I guess.

Winter Carnival Parade and subsequent jaunt into the hell that is the Paul Banks Fundraising Carnival. Matt got to go work the hockey booth. Where was I? We were in Ninilchik so that Vince and the boys could split and stack wood for Paul and Cindi. Am I sad that we missed the parade and carnival? Hum...

Falcom and Marina are skiing after school on Monday's, skating after school on Wednesday's, and going to movement at Jeanne's Yurt on Fridays.

Maya is light as a feather! We are thinking that even though my kids also weighed 20 pounds at different times they still felt heavier than she feels now.

Irene is being incredibly organized! Whatever she is taking I wish I had some.

How our well is like a dragon that sleeps under the earth. She is a peaceful dragon, happy in her sheltered life. That is until, for whatever reason, Vince decides to aggravate her by messing around with her! This is a picture of our fancy new well filters.

Chris's new attitude star chart. Stars = Fun. Seems to be working.

Fal has Fifths Disease. For the first time in his life he has been very itchy and not because of allergies.

Irene always has the best Mayo! Thanks Irene!

Adios Saipan...I will miss you...

There are some projects that get started but need a lot of solitude and time to finish. This blog posting about Saipan is one of them. Since I am short on time and solitude, I am going to upload pictures that are relevant to me and then add the descriptions....Regular Thursday with Claudine

If I were in Saipan, living there, enjoying the quiet life, I would be having a regular coffee date with Claud. In this shot you will notice the thing that has the most local people held in it's clutch... betelnut. In case you are ever in Micronesia and you want to look like a local here is what you do: Crack the nut between your teeth. Put the white lime powder (no this has no relation to the fruit) into the empty hole inside the nut. Put in some tobacco or part of a cigarette (not the filter). Wrap it in a leaf.

Chew and enjoy the feeling of your head spinning around and your drool going everywhere while your mouth turns numb and red. Yum! Usually the girls make me chew it once while I am here. Watching me chew really makes them laugh! But this year I managed to avoid that delightful treat. I managed to make them laugh at me in so many other ways! I left Claud and picked up Sue from work with a bag full of Himaware sushi! OK, no more pictures of that...trust me that it was KILLER! and no Dee, you are right...it was not cooked Midwest style...just raw and delicious!

While I was at Himaware I was checking out these pieces of wood that were for sale and I could not figure out what they were. I turned to the man standing next to me in line and asked him what they were and when I looked up I realized I was standing next to JACKIE CHAN! Dumbstruck I left my camera in my purse as he was taking the sticks and showing me how they worked and even making that HA HA noise and how getting them for Riley and Chris would be a bad idea. I told Sue, "If it was not Jackie Chan let the Lord take my eyes!" I told Karen and she said, "Alana, I can show you 5 Jackie Chan look alikes by the end of the day!" Humf. I guess there are some mysteries that will forever go unexplained.

In the mean while, the Lord has not taken my vision and so I think I am right!

Then I returned Sue to her employer and Claud picked me up. We went to Dolphin Wholesale where I taught her about my love for bad English translation of common Chinese and Korean phrases.

It did not matter where we spent the rest of our day shopping, I was constantly distracted by really bad English. My favorite line of the day was, "Coffee is mostly used for drinking."

I am sure Claud will never be able to shop for Chinese plastic items the same way again.

Then we went to the high school where we picked up her daughter Leodine and her cousin Naqueenie.

Oh, yea, they are really beautiful girls.

We also picked up our new friend and Marc and Mel's old friend, Maya. After dropping Queenie we went to Lau Lau beach for shell picking. We also did some crab racing which Maya had never seen and which really made her laugh.

After dropping Maya home we went to dinner at Korean Barbecue. Wow! Delicious.

I'm not going to pretend that I was counting points!

Then we went to the Garapan Street Market. There is a lovely pedestrian mall in the heart of Garapan which the government is trying to make a family friendly place. This means that a bunch of cops sit around chewing betelnut while the strippers stay out of their windows for the night. When the market closes they come back out.

On our way home we went through the heart of residential Garapan by accident, kind of, and I learned about the other secret life of people in Saipan. The windows of Claud's car are heavily tinted (as most peoples are) and as we slowed down to go over speed bumps prostitutes would come over to the car... Of course in my imagination, it was like seeing a zombie movie and I found it to be so humorous that I needed to capture it on film. God wasn't happy with this decision and quickly made my camera battery dead. I was having some repentant-ish thoughts about it, like, "I'm sorry, I know these are souls suffering...it's just...well...so...funny... the zombie thing in my mind..." It was not enough to get the camera working again.

But I will say that the next day I was stopped by this crew on the street corner in that exact same neighborhood and the preacher asked about my relationship with God and I couldn't control myself, "You know," I said, "You really aren't here at the right time of day...if you come out here at like maybe 9 tonight, they will be FLOCKING to you!" He knew what I was getting at, but, such is Saipan culture...why deal with something if you know that if you ignore it long enough the jungle will reclaim it eventually. I mean, they ignored the enslavement of the garment factory workers and now look! Poof! They've all vanished! Look at LaFiesta Mall...it's nearly gone...

The next day Gary took me to LauLau Bay to do some golfing. It was good. I love golfing with Gary because he really doesn't take score keeping too seriously. He also likes the garden stroll aspect of it and didn't make a peep about my needing to stop in for a cold drink at the new Tea House. (They've gotten rid of the cute Filipino girls driving drinks around in carts and have a nice new tea room. No, I don't think they will let you go there if you are not golfing. And that is a shame.) And in pure Alana style; what did I photograph with zeal because I couldn't believe it? This toilet flushing mechanism. It even comes with a massaging feature. I love Asia! It's still so surreal!


That evening we hung out at the house. Karen and I snuck out to do some shopping and I got her hooked on finding badly written English. She too will never be able to by Chinese plastic objects the same way again.
See, if we were in Saipan my kids would be getting good at climbing trees just like Colin.

These are two great dogs; PauPau and Buddy. Buddy has only three legs, but will still chase the car at full speed down the road.

I went to the post office to try to mail a coconut to Marina (yes, it is still illegal). While I was at it I made friends with the guy who worked behind the counter. "Girl!" He said as if I had just hiked the mountain to ask him to grant my wish, "You MUST go to Moonlight Fashion on Beach Road in CK! You MUST! That is THE place to find yourself a new purse on island. Well, I mean, unless you want to spend $800 at the Duty Free. She's got everything!"

I picked up Karen for lunch (yes, at Himaware) and I explained to her that we had a mission...knock off designer handbag shopping! She was in awe of my finding my knock off guru right at her very own post office!

We walked in the door at the Moonlight and there to my left was an entire wall loaded with slippers and stripper shoes! Had we been in an accident on the way and were we now in Chinese tacky shopping heaven? No, it was real! So I put on the black pair while Karen stood by laughing. Amazingly comfortable for being 9 inches high.

Then the sales girl turned and pointed to these totally amazing boots! Sadly, these amazing boots would not zip over my thick German farm girl calf. Karen was willing to model them for me. Does she not have the totally smoking hot legs for these boots! So, I am laughing and ogling her and the sales girl says to me in broken Chinese, "Yes, you buy the boots."

I said, "Are you joking? When would I wear those boots? (grocery) shopping?"

She said, "No, you go out at night!"

I said, "You ARE joking."

She said, "Yes, you go out at night, not her so much (pointing at Karen) but you, you go out and little bit drinky drinky." She is making a cup motion with her hands and wagging her eyebrows at me and I started LAUGHING!

I said, "OK, no boots, but I will get the shoes."

Laughing at all the shoes really took away from the hilarity of the purse shopping, but as you will notice from the above picture, I did get a fabulous new LV backpack. Karen got herself some Coach (handbag and wallet). It was fabulous. I showed Gary the pictures of Karen in the boots and he did not recognize her! Then once he did he just said, "Wow!" How could he not? She is smoking hot!

That night I was invited to watch my last sunset with the Folta's. Ah! Fabulous. It is my plan to visit them all in Alaska this summer.

Then I went to Claud's where we sat in the aircon and tried to smash every last thought into our final minutes together. This is the first chance I've ever had to hang out, let alone photograph her husband/partner Paul. It was another touching and fun visit.

That next morning at 3 am Gary drove me to the airport. I was fully loaded and there was no way that my bags weighed less than 50 pounds....but this is Saipan and somehow the scales were light.

Claudine and Leodine came to the airport to say good-bye. It is so interesting to me. The entire time I was on island I kept saying to myself, "When I come back..." as if I was going to go back soon. Saying good-bye to my Carolinian sister made me realize I was not coming back soon, and my soul is gripped. My mom always says, "I have to go back to Illinois. I have to touch my land, my place." I never really got what she meant. On this trip to Saipan I got what she means.

During my flight to Hawaii, I took the time to really reflect on what old friendships are about. The kind of friendships that aren't so much about the day to day contact and are more about the spiritual connection.

I can not express how much it meant to take so much of Karen's time from her family so that I could have her to myself, pick her brain, hear about her experiences that are helping her grow and evolve. Her children are amazing and beautiful. Her husband has a playful soul. The week with them was a blessing.

Claud, Sue...That you keep taking me under your wings and sharing your lives with me is a tremendous honor. Thank you!

And then I was in Hawaii...

I was able to spend an entire morning with Resihna, on the beach in Waikiki. I still envy her car free walking big city on a beach life. Jedrick, her boyfriend, took us out to dinner, and the minute the meal was through we were blasting back to the apartment to get me on my flight.
I'm home now, catching up with everything and everybody. They survived...but not well...

And really, for a Mom, isn't that the perfect way to leave it?

Onward!