Our Week

Monday

We started the week with after school skiing and a play date with our friend Madison.

After skiing, we came back to the house and enjoyed a tea party with the Cinderella Cake that the kids won at the Talent Show and Pie Auction. It was fun to have a neighborhood friend come by for some wild "Greear Family" style fun. This is Madison's little brother Lucas. As you can see from this shot he fits right in around here.

Tuesday

Madison's mom is the swim coach for the little kids swim team and she suggested Marina join the team. Thinking it would be nice for her to have something to do that is solely her own, Vince and I encouraged her to begin practicing with the team. She is very Marina-ish about her wanting to keep doing it, "I think that was fine for today, but I don't want to go back."

Yea, whatever.

I took this picture because I have other pictures of her in this locker at other sizes. She'll be unable to fit by the end of the summer, I'm quite sure.

WEDNESDAY

I took a picture of this dragon head when I was at the school picking up Falcom and Marina from after school skating. It is a work of art by Lynn Naden that is hanging in the entrance of McNeil Canyon School. It is fabulous made of paper. I love it!

It also captures my current mood. Yes, I've been dreaming of sailing.

THURSDAY

After a whirlwind of activities through out the day, including every errand I could possibly run in town: veggie box delivering, lobbying, dental appointment verifying, taking Willie for a haircut as Marina was swimming (imagine, she went back!), and shopping, we had a dinner with M.J. and her beautiful sidekick Iris. Suzanne was also able to make it.

We had local style dinner, Fina dent chicken, fried rice, shrimp chips, fried chicken with curry gravy, white rice, and Mayghen brought a moose and broccoli quiche. Suzanne brought an overly delicious cake. Yum!

It is quite a compliment to hear that Iris loves our house. She loves all the kids and all the action. She climbed right up into Falcom's lap to share his dinner and then climbed right up into Marina's lap and shared her dinner. So cute. She played a lot with Willie and it was a great time.

My inner dragon only flared up once when Suzanne informed me of what the Russian words that the kids are teaching Falcom at school truly mean. She was horrified and said that the kids in the village are not allowed to say those things. No, it's not as simple as shut up. I went to bed imagining I was rubbing my magic lamp and asking my Jeannie to get me a sailboat.

FRIDAY

Vince is home! We took the kid. to town so that Falcom could take a vocal lesson from the group "Ball in the House" but the lesson got cancelled when the group got stuck in Seldovia because of bad weather (high wind). The sun was shining and it was beautiful out, but that high wind made the windchill like -55 degrees and so we passed the time doing errands and enjoying being together.

Marina and Falcom also enjoyed our local library with their dad who read books to them. I read an article in the National Review called, "The Best Conservative Movies of All Time". As I read the review of Ground Hog Day I couldn't help but think, "So Conservatives are the only people who want to have high moral standards and strive for the values that endure? Isn't all that selflessness that Bill Murry finds great reward in something that the 'liberals' are also working for?"

The kids had Yurt time with Jeanne from three to five and while they were there Vince and I went to the beach to have coffee together. Being a fan of trucks with bench seats, I fell asleep in the sun while Vince was holding me. Where is the paparazzi to take a picture of that wonderful scene so that I could have it to remember always? Gosh I love that guy!

That evening he and I went to see 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Wow! It deserved every Oscar it won. Heavy, deep, wonderful, amazing. Hard to watch, but since we have traveled and have friends that travel, all these hard heavy scenes that the movie reveals were things that I already knew existed in the world and so I closed my eyes from time to time, but I did not have to endure the heartache that comes with the new discovery of suffering in the world.

From the second scene in the movie Vince and I knew that those boys in the movie could have been played by DeeJay and Willie. From the hair to the temperament, those boys could have been our boys.

I wonder if the National Review considers Slumdog Millionaire another vehicle for the liberals of Hollywood to propel their government regulation loving and intuitionist policies agenda into our consciousness or if they would see it as a moralistic tale of two brothers ...a Cane and Able of sorts... whose fate compels us to examine our own values as conservatives? Hum...