Happy Birthday, Kimmy!

I feel I must send out this blog-tastic birthday wish to our dear old friend Kim R. We know that your life dreams are being attained by completing medical school, but there was a time in your life when your goals were simpler and recreation oriented. We are now going to take a moment to remind you of that.

This is one of Vince's favorite pictures. It is of an ill fated cross country ski trip that started with Kim falling into a pit underneath a spruce tree. Helplessly stuck Kim shouted,"Vince Help Me!" Vince left you there saying, "Just a minute!" He then dug through his pack, found his camera, took this picture and then helped her. Kim was pissed about this picture for a long time. It still makes Vince laugh.

Here is the picture of Vince being humiliated fishing. This is of the time Vince and Kim were salmon fishing outside of Anchorage on Sheep Creek. There were hundreds of people fishing on both sides of the creek. After hours of standing there one fish was caught, by Kim. (see above picture). It was a ten pounder, puny by Alaskan standards but a small fish is better than no fish. After another hour, with no fish being caught by anyone, Kim catches ANOTHER fish. This time a 35 pounder with hooks from other fisherman broken in it's mouth. Because she had already kept one fish she had to let it go. Before they knew it a man from the other side of the river in chest waders was halfway through the creek shouting, "They are (catching so many they are) letting them go on the other side!" Vince really laughs at the memory of this...

Me, I laugh at other memories that I did not photograph when they were happening. Like the time the tires nearly came off the car when we were driving to Homer after you had them rotated in Anchorage. Or the time we got the red truck stuck in Dales driveway, AGAIN. Or the time we watched the turtles in the mystic waters of Tinian. Ah! The list goes on...

Kim, when you finish medical school, please remember that I have needs. I will need you be living in a tropical climate with a sweet little cottage that I can mooch off of you in! No, this place is not Bethel.

We love you Kim. Hang in there, we know you will make it!

Alana and Vince

Today Ash Came Our Way...

No time for rest and reflection in this family I fear! The volcano blew. The wind changed directions. I had three hours to prepare my home for a light volcanic ash dusting. You may be wondering, "What is the big deal about volcanic ash?" Volcanic ash consists of tiny jagged pieces of rock and glass. Ash is hard, abrasive, mildly corrosive, conducts electricity when wet, and does not dissolve in water. It infiltrates every nook and cranny!

I'll tell you, for the homemaking-challenged indivudual, this can be a monumental problem.

Mema and I scurried to get the vegetable boxes delivered. She was a huge help! (It was funny, in fact, that when the local radio station, KBBI would announce volcano updates they mentioned that the veggie boxes were there, delivered, ready for pick up. Mema wanted to call them and tell them, "Thank Mary and Alana while you are at it!")

Thank you Valda for the picture of your moonscape. Notice for amature photographers out there... the impact of volcanic ash on snow is difficult to capture on film.

The schools decided to stay in session, even though the main ash fall was supposed to fall right at the time most schools in town are dismissed. I called the high school and they tried to assure me that there was going to be no problem. I hung up with them and drove another block, thinking of all the things that had to be done. I thought of a worse case scenario involving school buses not running and the boys being stuck in town.

I called the high school back and told them to send my boys out, I'd be taking them home early.

What a great idea! The three of us tarped everything and brought in the wood and relaxed all afternoon. And then, when the heaviest ash fall arrived at 3.30, they did not have to be breathing that ash filled air on the school bus. Honestly, it was wonderful having them home. They were gleeful that they were the first ones called to go home early. And they really were a big help. You may be wondering why I did not pick up Falcom and Marina? Their school is very close by and they get out an hour earlier than the kids in town.

Suzanne and Irene told me what a mess it was getting the kids from school in the ash fall and again I patted myself on the back

No, it was not a heavy ash fall. But it has made our snow look filthy! Now lets see if tonight brings more.

Loosing a Friend

There are things that are really cool about the Internet.

And then there are things that that the Internet can not serve justice to...

Today Vince received an email that a friend of ours has died. The short email from his wife informed us of an ear ache that turned to meningitis and then he was gone...just like that.

It was not a blanket email. It was an email sent to Vince speaking of her love for her husband and requesting stories from our time with him for their 4 year old daughter. It was a very real letter.

But, there is nothing real about it. There was no penmanship to decipher. There were no teardrops on the page. There was no timeline, and because the Internet is so fast we assume on one level that this must have just happened! But...it could have been weeks ago and this her first chance to sit at a computer to figure things out.

Oh Scott!

And so Vince spent his spare minutes at work reading and re-reading that email. He was trying to decide if it was a joke or if he was missing an important clue or a memorial date or something. He emailed her right back, but there was nothing... of course... because where do these typed out thoughts go to when there is no one there to open them? They just sit as binary code in the vapors...

Yes Sharon. It will be an honor for me to try to capture for you a picture of what our lives were like here in Homer Alaska 15 years ago when your vivacious, energetic and beguiling husband was a part of my life.

You see few people know that Scott is the reason that Vince and I met.

It will be the very least I can do for the man who, unwittingly, presented me with my soul mate.

Where are the Greears?

Wednesday

Extreme Tubing with the Wise Family (Thank you Matt for taking all these kids on such a fun trip)

Thursday

Nikiski Pool with the Wise Family. What a blast it was to get a text from Matt saying they were on their way! Maya loved sliding and so did Riley and Chris after the life guard promised them a pizza if they could get down the slide in 6 seconds. Guess who was doing the counting? Guess who didn't get a free pizza?

Friday

Anchorage! After a long car ride we arrived at the whole towel (hotel as Marina likes to call it) for a swim. Falcom, Marina and I went to see a 3-D movie.

Saturday

Skating! Vince and I took our kids on a time warp to our own childhoods by going skating. Marina won the race for the 10 and under girls. She got a coupon for a free soda! Very exciting. Falcom came in 4th for the 10 and under boys. We had a great time hanging out together. We even made our way to Chuck E. Cheese before heading home.

Sunday? Mt. Redoubt Volcano Finally Erupts!

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK1148 AM AKDT MON MAR 23 2009AKZ145-240000-/X.EXT.PAFC.AF.Y.0001.000000T0000Z-090324T0000Z/SUSITNA VALLEY-INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...TALKEETNA...WILLOW...CANTWELL 1148 AM AKDT MON MAR 23 2009...

ASHFALL ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM AKDT THISAFTERNOON...THE ASHFALL ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM AKDT THISAFTERNOON.

REDOUBT VOLCANO...ON THE WEST SIDE OF COOK INLET...ERUPTEDSEVERAL TIMES LAST NIGHT. AREAS OF LIGHT ASHFALL CONTINUE OVERTHE SUSITNA VALLEY AND WILL PERSIST INTO THE AFTERNOON. ASHFALLHAS BEEN REPORTED AT SKWENTNA RANGING FROM ONE EIGHTH TO ONEQUARTER OF AN INCH. THE TALKEETNA AIRPORT HAS ALSO REPORTED LIGHTASH COVERING ALL SURFACES OF THE FACILITY. LIGHT ASHFALL HAS BEENREPORTED ALONG THE PARKS HIGHWAY IN WILLOW, CHULITNA, AND CANTWELLAS WELL.

It is so funny to me because we have been waiting for this baby to erupt since I was in Saipan. Fortunately, we made it home from Anchorage before the eruption. The wind is pushing the ash up past Anchorage, so it looks like for now we won't have to worry...I'll keep you posted.

Spring Break at the Dentist

Some people venture to distant shores for holiday weeks. The Greear Family goes to the dentist on their holiday. As I laid on my back with my mouth opened, I listened intensely to the lack of sounds coming from my children in the lobby. I reflected on years back, Marina asking a million questions, Falcom crying and screaming and taking swings at the doctor. They've grown so much these past few years. Their comfort levels in the dental office and with themselves has grown so dramatically. Both Paag brothers were blessed with fantastic dental DNA and have great teeth even though they did not have any childhood dental work (only sealants at school) and non-fluoridated water. I was feeling peaceful, but also a little anxious: quiet from my family is not usually a good thing...

Suddenly, in the middle of this dream, I hear Falcom's voice. "Mom, I pulled my molar while I was waiting for you!" And there was a bloody tooth in my face and he had a big gob of cotton in the now empty space in his mouth. I guess pulling your tooth in the dentists office is as good a place as any.

Three hours later there are only a few minor problems with our teeth to cope with. Falcom has 7 new adult teeth pushing up and both kids have orthodontics in their futures.

This week also provided us with the opportunity to witness 18-16 year old boys return from a guy weekend at the snow machine cabin. It was a great time. The sunshine made for great riding.

At one point they came across a couple of men from Anchorage who had tried to cross a creek that they thought was frozen and had then lost their machine into deep water. Imagine being out in the middle of nowhere with your snow machine completely submerged in open water. What would you do?

Fortunately, God sent them a miracle or it was their luckiest day ever! For along came 5 big teenage boys and two mechanically inclined men to hoist the machine out of the water and get the machine running again so the men could get home.

This weekend we also had the opportunity to take a science lesson from Marina. She has a lot of information about insects to quiz us on. How many times can a queen bee sting you anyway?

Here is the moon set from my perch on Mansfield Road. Equinox is on it's way!

DeeJay Turns 18!

It is with great pride that I announce the birthday of our beloved DEEJAY PAAG! Willie and I tried without success to surprise him at school. We had wrapped our candy lei's and I was going to bring a pizza and soda for him and his friends. He caught onto us though and thought that we were going to make him wear traditional Yapese lei's and he wanted no part of that. Instead of being available to anyone during lunch he hid in the library. He really put Willie on a goose chase. Fortunately, I did not have the ability to buy all that food and drink or it would have been wasted on the kid who hid. Willie was able to give him his lei's after school while they waited for the bus and he loved them and wished he hadn't hid out quite so much.

It is funny when I think back onto the first time I met DeeJay. Willie had been staying after school with me each day to 'practice his English' and in the middle of the second week he whispered to me with his head lowered, "Can my brother join us?". Outside the door to my classroom stood DeeJay. Unlike Willie he was tall and his shoulders were square. DeeJay loved riding in the car and jamming out to music and going on adventures. I cherish those memories.

This is a picture of us at Vince and my wedding. The kids swam through the ceremony. DeeJay was 9 at this time. The same age Falcom is now. DeeJay has never enjoyed having his picture taken as is obvious from his embarrassment in this picture. Wait...is he embarrassed that he is getting his picture taken or that he is holding my hand...hum...

Last night was the actual birthday and we celebrated with ice cream cake and pizza. Because it was a school night and Vince was at work it ended up being a small gathering, with Mema and Mayghen, Iris and Iris's friend Brian. Things got a little out of hand with the super blue food dye chocolate cake frosting. We laughed and joked and got a thrill looking at our house on Brian's I-Touch Cell phone using Google Earth.

This weekend Vince and Glenn are taking the big kids to the snow machine cabin for a GPS scavenger hunt. Should be a blast!

We love you DeeJay. Happy Birthday!

My First Mammogram!

I know that there will be the reader out there who is going to find this seriously offensive, so take warning.

I photographed my first mammogram! Because of the insurance we receive through Vince's work, I needed to drive to Soldotna for the procedure. It was a lovely drive in the snow and slush.

The Radiology Department got me right in and took care of business quickly. I'm not sure yet why this hospital seems so efficient. Could it be the lack of a union? Or are people from Soldotna just free of the burden of having the artist temperament which can be so intrusive and unproductive?This is the machine that presses the breast down and x-rays the tissue. Contrary to popular belief, it does not hurt and even if it were a bit uncomfortable it is not a long procedure. I know, everyone has different sensitivities. But after this experience, I am thinking that what people are most uncomfortable about is having some strange woman flinging their boobs around.

Yes, there were foreign hands manipulating my boobs. It's strange, but so important! Gosh, now that I am looking at this picture I wish I would have worn a bikini in Saipan...the halibut belly white flesh is blinding!Here is a picture of my boob. I've always had smallish, dense breasts. I think my boob looks good in the x-ray. Much better than it does in real time. I also think that squishing the boob makes it look bigger. Right there are two exceptional reasons to get in and have your annual exam!

They say that 30% of the people who go in for their first scan have to come back for a more thorough examination. I have a strong feeling I will be one of these people. I kind of hope I am because I like seeing my husband at his job. He looks so cute in his button down shirt. No, I am not manifesting a second exam just to check him out. My breasts are dense, like I said, and the images have each breast displaying a different amount of mass inside. This x-ray did a nice job of imaging the muscle behind the breast (edge of picture), but they are going to want to look more closely at that white area inside the breast. 30% chance. We will see.

Marina made Vince this candy lei because she "misses him so much and never gets to see him". He reluctantly made her this cute video. Following is a message from Vince to Marina while standing in the pharmacy at Central Peninsula Hospital.

Regular Tuesday with Irene

From the days when DeeJay used to let me take his picture

I don't know what has changed in my creative outlet, but I have not been able to remember to take a picture of ANYTHING lately. This is a bummer because there is a lot of coffee dates I could document.

Today,

7:35 am Suzanne's

Suzanne has hurt her back and we had a nice chat while she laid on the floor. Don't worry. She was able to get up.

10:30 am Paul G's

Great news about DeeJay. He is really doing well. Well for DeeJay. He is doing so well in fact that he has gotten his phone back and is not obsessed with it. Nice!

11:15am Irene's

So many things were discussed, it's hard to pinpoint. The most important thing though is that we made DeeJay candy Lei's for his birthday for Willie to drape over him at school on Thursday. Can you believe it? 18. Wow

2.00pm School

Pick up kids and drive them to

3:10pm Swimming

Had a great chat with S. about her sons IEP and how they told her that he has not gotten any service this year. She's going to be calling me tomorrow to tell me what she's going to do next. We seriously need to get IEP club up and running.

4:45 Johnny and Brandon are over riding snow machines. This activity without a snow machine capable adult around stresses me out, but since there was no amputations of anything today, I guess it's all alright.

Oh, it just goes on and on, but it is a good busy.

Tomorrow I'm off to Soldotna for my first Mammogram!

Saturday - Ball in the House

Some days I get to have exactly what I want. Today was one of those days.

Today, I got to have my entire family together for the entire day and evening.

DeeJay and Willie each got haircuts and it is very unusual and lucky that for each haircut we were able to walk right in and sit right down.

Yes, Vince had to work, but Marina and the boys went to the hospital to visit him and walked in the sun down to Mema's Shack while Falcom finished his "Friendship Walk." (This is the walk he gets to take when he has been misbehaving in the car and I kick him out and make him walk a way so that he can think about what happened. Instead of a punishment this usually turns into a happy time for him because people he knows talk to him, he plays around a bit, gets to explore and be his usual distracted self. I like to pretend that I am driving away, but I hide my car and watch him while he meanders along. This is a picture of Falcom on his march. Notice how shiny the snow has become. It looks like the entire world has become an ice rink, but when you put any weight on the snow it crunches beneath our feet. Spring is officially six weeks away!)

Mema asked us all to come to dinner after going to see the Pink Panther movie. Beware. The Pink Panther is not nearly as good as Slumdog.

Dinner was great. Fun to be sitting with my entire family. After we finished eating we seven raced over to the high school to watch a wonderful Acapella group, Ball in the House. They are fabulous and are not like the groups of a long time ago where they play ancient songs. These guys are fresh, original, and have a member who does the beat box in the background! The little kids loved it, we adults loved it, Willie and DeeJay loved it!

After the show, the had a mini-workshop for people who wanted to sing. This did not start until 10pm and they answered questions first. Falcom was sitting behind me and was passing out, "Mom, I'm really falling asleep..." but finally they invited people onstage to sing My Girl with them and here is a snippet of Falcom learning harmony with Ball in the House.

What is amazing to me is that for being so late at night, after such an active day, Falcom was able to actually sing something being totally exhausted at 10.30 pm and not even knowing this song before this night. The men from Ball in the House had high praise for Falcom. It was worth staying up for, for sure!

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...