Pictures from the Weekend

Scenes from the Spit

Saturday Falcom and I took Mema to the movies. We saw Hotel for Dogs. It was an emotional roller coaster for the audience at the matinee. I knew something was up when Falcom had stopped eating popcorn. I looked over and tears were streaming down his face. In an unscientific study after the show I found that 5 out of 6 kids aged 11 and under cried during the movie. Oh, yea, and also one 60 something grandma named Priscilla was in tears... whew!!

Afterwords, I decided it was a perfect evening to drive out to the spit and have dinner with two of my favorite people, Mema and Falcom.

Falcom was wondering if there were people actually buried under the Seafarers Memorial. The answer is no, it's just a place we like to visit to place our love, saddness and worries from the sea.

Marina trying on Falcom's false eyelashes with DeeJay in the background. He is at that camera shy age and so I have to be very sneaky!

Marina looked so Alaskan Glamorous, with her snow machine gear and sparkle false eyelashes. What an Alaskan Girl!

Vince and Marina had a Daddy/Daughter overnight to the cabin Saturday night. Marina is an excellent rider. Her coordination really shows on the trail. They had a great time together.

I took my first foray into making a curry 'local style'.

I know what you are thinking...and yes, this is a colorful hot dog curry with rainbow chard, red peppers, carrots, and broccoli. Remember this when you want to eat hot dogs but the idea of a bun and a plate of chips just won't cut it. It was good...for not being shrimp

Wonder how long until Costco will steal my idea and start making this at it's deli...

Falcom spent the night at Mema's where they watched movies, built a new fairy house (spring is on the way you know), knocked down icicles, laughed and talked. This relationship is like magic! Can you believe that Falcom self staged this shot? He is really funny.

Valda, if you are reading this from Africa, you will be pleased to hear that the frogs have a new home. They do about the same things that they did before; float around, eat, float around, but the added space does seem to make them look like they are growing.

For those readers who aren't familiar with the story of the frogs, about 10 months ago we ordered frog eggs as a science experiment because finding frogs around here is really tricky. The instructions in the kit read, "If one egg reaches adulthood you will be lucky." Can you guess how many of these little suckers made it? That's right...At least they don't smell like turtle.

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