The Greear Family

After the Second Storm

2012-01-13T10:59:00.000-09:00

and before the third.

The Perfect Storm

2012-01-11T08:24:00.000-09:00

Who suffers most on a snow day? The kids who get to stay home from school? The mother who does not have a plan for the kids who are now staying home from school? The chickens and ducks who spend the night tucked into their coop wondering if they will be left alone to die after their coop is completely engulfed by snow? Or is it the 'outside job' members of the family who spend the day digging and plowing...

The kids were not as excited about the snow day as one might assume. Tuesday is art day and Marina wasn't going to get to do that. Once the anxiety was off to get to school, Falcom fell back to sleep and did not emerge until 9am. I have enough activities in my back pocket to entertain the children with that I had no problem. Art, robotics, typing, book reports...I am an endless supply of ideas. Usually, this just makes them avoid me.

The chickens were relieved to see me shoveling them out. Their crowing and clucking grew louder and louder the closer I got to their coop! All ducks ran right outside when they had the chance.

That means that the burden of the blizzard fell solidly on the men and their heavy machines. Vince spent the day plowing with Jason. The truck got stuck only once, way down the road since there was no way to back up and no way to turn around. Valda had to snowshoe out of her house to come see us. She had to have Jeff Middleton come over with his bulldozer to clear her drive because there was no way Vince could do it. The children spent over an hour trying to shovel the trampoline. DT and Willie were in town shoveling snow for Joe O'Malley. They could not get home because our road did not get plowed until after 6pm and by that time they were so tired from the hours and hours of shoveling they did, they just wanted to pass out.

While everyone was outside, busy with their combustible engines and shovels, I baked bread and cookies. I relished in having everyone home, busy and safe, while I prepared carbohydrates for them. Yes, I believe that, for me, it may have been the perfect storm.

Blizzard!

2012-01-10T10:15:00.000-09:00

This morning Vince got up from the princess couch to wake the children for school. I said, "What time is it?" He said, "620." I said, "Couldn't you give them another 10 or 15 minutes? Geeze!" This is my favorite part of the day, the part where they are safe in their beds, the house is quiet, I have Vince to myself. He said, "Your way never works out! It's always too hectic!" He woke them and when he got back to the kitchen the phone rang. "This is Dr. Gee from Homer High School. All schools on the lower Kenai Peninsula have been cancelled for today." Vince looked at me and said, "I guess your way would have been right for today."

There has been fun for all this holiday.

Our friend Craig came and what a blast I had! We discussed so many important topics... resolved so many critical issues!

14 people came to the cabin for New Years Even. Whew! That was a lot. Vince and Glen got fireworks for our gang. After food, playing cards, and coffee drinking, we had a spectacular fireworks show.

Craig and I played sequence with every person we could sucker into joining us. We made witty banter throughout the game, distracting our opponents.

Craig probably hasn't used many outhouses in his California days. Luckily he had this high class outhouse to use during his visit.

We did some snowshoeing. When I say 'some' I mean only a very small amount.

These fireworks were amazing and awesome! Thank you Glen and Vince for a super fun time!

There was some conversation about the spring water at the cabin having a diuretic in it and that is why all of us have to pee so much while we are out there. Craig even went a couple of times during the night. I would love to know if that is true.

After a night of sleeplessness Vince and the kids delivered Craig and I to the parking lot and we came home to celebrate New Years Day in a more refined manner. Thai Food, Sauna and Cool Tub at Land's End, and a good nights sleep. Super fun!

Now my school is back on and I've loaded my schedule. We are still doing Karaoke on Wednesday nights and still watching Alaska: The Last Frontier.

I have more to type but the kids need parenting!

Alaska: The Last Frontier

2011-12-31T09:24:00.001-09:00

This week we have had the joy of welcoming my 'separated in the womb twin' Craig to Homer! Craig has been my friend since middle school. This can be verified by my mother, who, after eighth grade graduation, drove up and down the road from the middle school looking for me panicked while Craig and I sat huddled on the lawn of my friends house crying over the separation we were going to have to endure over the summer. I did not notice my mother looking for me, shouting my name, through my tears. Oops! Can you imagine that she was unimpressed at our feeling as though we would die if separated? I was grounded for a long time after that. Craig was going to move up here with me in '94 and then changed his mind at the last minute. (There is a book written on this topic but that is a different subject.)

Activity number one on the list of activities to do with Craig during his stay was the premier of "Alaska: The Last Frontier" which features my good friends Charlotte and Otto Kilcher. Friends and family congregated at Alice's Champagne Palace to watch the event on one of the bars nine TV screens. We don't have television at our house and neither do most of our family or friends. Neither, of course, do the stars of the show, the Kilchers.

About 50 of us congregated at the long thin log tables, drinks in hands, as the reality show announcer did a voice over of a panoramic shot of our neighborhood. Immediately, the assembled crowd shouted at the bar tender: "TURN IT UP!"

Atz, Atz Lee, Otto and Eivan were all right up there on the big screen! The photography was beautiful. Of course, there were plot points that needed to be heckled by the crowd. For instance, when the editors panned across a map of the Kenai Peninsula, the point of interest that the map was identifying did not say Homer, Fritz Creek, or Kachemak Selo but instead said 'Head of the Bay'. We all howled! I wonder if 'Head of the Bay' shows up on Google Earth? Could I tag myself on Facebook as having my current location 'Head of the Bay'?

I may be biased, but my favorite character on the show is Otto. Of all the characters, Otto was the most genuine. He is full of hilarious stories and this was lightly touched on during the show. Hopefully we will get to see more of that in the next episodes. On this first episode the producers spent a great deal of time focusing on Otto and his milk cow. I will say that this was indeed a sad moment for Otto. I was sad about it too as this is the cow that my Brownie troop milked last year. That moment in Otto's life, however, was just a blip on the radar of one of our neighborhoods most colorful people.

For instance, the last time I was at the Kilcher Homestead for a visit with Charlotte, Otto rushed up and told us that he had just gotten a call from a friend in town that the troopers were on the way out with a subpoena for him. Seems the last people who hired out his landing craft were inadvertently being accused of stealing an aircraft and so his landing craft was being held by the troopers and if he wanted to be available for the cattle drive this weekend he needed to lay low, "Love you hon, I've gotta go..."

Toward the end of the show, as Atz Lee didn't 'get his bear', one of the friends in the crowd suggested that there would need to be a benefit auction for poor Atz Lee. "Hopefully we will be able to raise enough money to get him a Safeway Gift Card!" The crowd howled!

At the end of the night, Craig met Otto. He told Otto that he was his greatest fan and Otto kissed Craig. What a great night!

If you tweet, follow Charlotte and Otto at @kilcherfrontier

December 25 - Christmas Day

2011-12-27T15:13:00.000-09:00

At midnight on Christmas morning, I found myself lying in bed with Marina. She knew Dad was not downstairs because she could hear him snore. She was excited and anxious and thinking about how she can still hear the sleigh-bells because she believes so firmly and that she will listen to her classmates tell her that there is no Santa but she will never believe them and she doesn't care if they make fun of her she knows that there is a Santa who is on his way to her house and.....

I kept knocking off and waking up with her rattling me to tell me more about things. Finally Vince came in and got me. He then told her to GO TO SLEEP! Falcom slept and then woke up in the middle of the night and laid there thinking about things too. We had a rule. No waking up Mom and Dad until 6.

At 6am sharp the kids came in to wake us. They tried to make coffee. Vince and I felt hung over! We were so tired. We laid in bed holding hands, drinking very weak coffee, and considered our options. Finally at 630 we made it down stairs.

Jason was here with us. Don Tippy. Mema and Uncle Mike called from California. We unwrapped our presents and everyone was happy with them. I think Vince was most happy with the trigger I bought him for his pistol. I've been reading up on shotguns and their faulty mechanisms....whatever...Vince bought his own presents and was very satisfied with them! He pretended to be amazed at my ability to know what he needed!

Meanwhile, the gigantic flat screen sat under the tree. There had been no word from Valda and so we all thought that maybe she hadn't noticed yet that she had been 'borrowed from'.

When the present unwrapping was over I went to the kitchen to start making our traditional Scotch eggs. I was so tired I thought I was going to fall into the hot grease. I was sucking down strong french roast with sweetened condensed milk and was having a little sugar buzz, then a headache, then I said to DT, can you get me an ibuprofen? I slugged it down with Emergen-C while it was still bubbling and I knew I had made a huge mistake. I had not felt so sick since I was being a nurse aide for an elderly woman and had mixed corned beef hash, Koolaid and coffee. ooh.....

Somehow, my stomach rebounded and I was able to finish preparing the breakfast just as Valda was walking into the house. She didn't even say hello. "Vince Greear! Where is my TV or do I need to be calling the police!" We all started laughing. She was only partially amused. Vince pulled out the box, saying, "I don't know what your talking about Valda, but here, we got you something for Christmas." Valda was not nearly as amused as Vince and Jason. She stayed up until midnight looking all around her house for it.

After a few hours of being in a coma, we went to dinner with Beezer and Maygen. It was a fun and lovely night for us all!

Prime Rib, rolls, salad, all very delicious!

We got home close to nine. Everyone passed out gleefully.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

December 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24

2011-12-26T14:18:00.000-09:00

December 15, 16, 17, and 18 found our family finishing school obligations and packing for our trip to Anchorage. We went to Anchorage in order to fully celebrate the birth of Marina. H2Oasis and Japanese food was her desire. We were lucky to get to stay at our friends Kari and Ryan's apartment. Valda came with us and took these pictures while we were playing around on the watersides.

This is me and Vince dreaming that we were actually at the PIC water park in Saipan.

After fun was had by all we went shopping for Christmas items. Read that to mean, "We took the kids to Toys-R-Us to spend their Christmas money Grandpa Larry and Grandma Kathy sent them." Falcom has no problem finding delightful items to spend his money on in Toys-R-Us. Marina on the other hand...well...she reminds me too much of me. Nothing really interests her. She really just wants some candy (or in my case coffee). It all looks perfectly fine, but its just not right. Anyway, Falcom left the store with enough money for a pack of gum and Marina spent just the cost of a pack of gum.

December 19

She is 9! Marina celebrated her formal birthday with a dinner at the house with good friends. There was much eating and playing around as well as cupcake devouring. You can not see in this picture the plus that is between the one and the eight.

All Marina wanted for her birthday was a Lego Robotics kit. Vince also got her a baseball glove and balls. When time came for wrapping we decided to play a little joke on her and wrapped the ball glove in the Lego box. She was so excited to open it and when she found the ball and glove she was crest fallen, but amazingly gracious! I couldn't believe how kind she was about it! Then she unwrapped the next gift and started laughing! It was the Lego kit she had been dreaming of! She fell asleep that night with robot dreams.

December 20

I think I was in a state of shock on this day because I have no recall of what I did...OH! This was the day that Vince told me that all he really wanted for Christmas was a clean house.

December 21

Uncle Jason is here living with us for a bit. He helped clean the house for a while and then told us that AJ's Steakhouse (formerly Waterfront Bar, formerly Duggan's Bar) is having a kids karaoke night and would I mind him taking the kids to sing a bit. Heck No! Take me too! So we all went, had some soda and listened to kids sing.

What a blast! The old guy told Jason, usually the kids have to have their parents onstage with them. Jason said, "I don't think these two will have that problem." Sure enough, after some kids sang wheels on the bus, and bingo, Falcom got up and sang 9 to 5 and blew minds. He is unreal... Marina was timid and then I got up and did N'sync with her. Kids from the whole bar got up and danced. Very funny.

It was also fun seeing our friends Mac and Aunia there. They all rocked the house!

December 22 and 23 were also not documented...what was going on? Cleaning, cooking, and scolding children I guess. Vince did ask for a housewife for Christmas....

December 24

Marina got this new dress from Grandpa and Grandma for her birthday, just in time for the Christmas Eve activities. On Christmas Eve we ran errands, made food, and went to Valda's for a party. We left Valda's for church. Falcom sang a solo of Angels We Have Heard on High at the service. He was amazing! We then left church and went back to Valda's.

We had been there for about an hour when Vince discovered that Valda had bought herself a new flat screen TV and it was sitting in a box upstairs at her house. He waited for her to be distracted and then hid the TV in her shower. Once she was distracted again he passed the TV off to Jason and Jason took it to our house. He then wrapped it and put it under our tree with a To: Valda sticker on it.

Stay tuned...