My Earthly Treasures

I've had a really bad cause of the "I needs" lately. I need a camera,  I need a new car, I need some new home decor, I need a new coat, I need new clothes, it's rather embarrassing to admit actually. For as much as I tell my children to be thankful for what they have, I haven't remembered to "practice what I preach" much the past few months. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you can't ever want anything or you're bad if you do, just that sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the material things we think we "need". We forget that none of it really lasts; cars run down, cameras break, clothes tear, our tastes change, etc... I started thinking about the material things I really treasure here on earth, are any of them in the category of items I've listed above? No. Why are the things I treasure actually treasures? It's certainly not because they make me look good, make grocery shopping more convenient, or my house look like it belongs in a magazine. These things are treasured because they remind me of people I love, memories with family & friends; they remind me that I am loved, and teach me the truth about God, who I truly am and the world I live in. So I thought I would share a few of those items I truly treasure...

A flannel that belonged to my grandpa, the clothes my boys wore home from the hospital, the crazy shorts my grandmother wore to my wedding & lots of cards from my boys

The first picture Isaiah ever drew of me when he was 3 yrs old

TONS of photo albums full of my favorite photos. These are just the printed ones, I literally have thousands of digital ones saved on flash drives & cds.

Isaiah's "dinosaur with eggs, volcano & palm tree" picture he drew at 3.5

A ford truck that once held the flowers my dad brought me at the hospital when my oldest was born, a vase signed by many family & friends at my surprise 30th birthday party.

A picture Isaiah drew last summer that shows how his "A"s used to look like little spaceships

The bible my parents bought me right after I got married, to replace the one my puppy had torn up & the journal I use to keep track of all the things the Lord has shown me, spoken to me or words given me through others. 

There are other items; a blanket my grandmother made for me when I graduated college, a tea set my mom gave me, a picture my niece won first prize with, a scarf my dear friend made, the shoes I wore at my wedding, a lacy table cloth made for us when David & I got married with a hole in it from our old cat...most items I couldn't sell at a yard for much if anything, but to me they are priceless. I know that things of this earth will pass away, it's really not the item I am so attached to as the sentiment behind it. I love pulling them out and remembering lost family, old times, dear friends, they remind me of the things that really matter to me. I am so blessed. 

These handsome guys (one of my favorite pictures taken 2 yrs ago) are not material or mine to keep, they belong to the Father.  I have been blessed to have them for a time though & they truly are treasures.

2010

I can't believe another year, another decade has already come & gone! How insanely quickly the time flies. 2010 was a year of ups & downs for us, but the laughter shared & lessons learned cannot be regretted. I learned SO much about myself & my Jesus this year, even through some hard times, scratch that, especially through some hard times. I am thankful for every moment. Here, in pictures and a few words (:-), is a recap of some of those moments....

January

Not a lot went on in January, but I thought I would share this great pic I managed to catch of the moon in full over our mountains.

February

This time of year in Alaska is always pretty low-key but I still had a great night on the town with some girlfriends. We had dinner, caught a musical and stayed overnight in a hotel. It was a great, relaxing time away from our "mommy lives"

March

Isaiah celebrated his fourth birthday, apparently in great need of a haircut. It's crazy how quickly they grow!

April

Easter! At least I think Easter was in April this year. How sad that I can't remember exactly. Oh well! Josh got to dye his first Easter eggs this year, you can see from his facial expression he thought it was fun!

May

We FINALLY moved into our new house!! After nearly two years of living in a shop this kitchen was (is) SO wonderful.

The weekend after moving in I completed my first triathlon, along with my friends Kenya & Paige.

Our little Josh celebrated his 2nd birthday! We had to postpone the celebration until the day after the triathlon because we were moving on his birthday, I don't think he noticed ;-)

To close out our busy month we made a family trip to Seward for Memorial Day, it was a good trip!

June

June hosted our annual girls camping trip where we returned to Homer, Alaska. After some bad weather we moved a bit further north to Anchor Point, it was a cold trip this year but we still had fun!

July

I had surgery to remove an obnoxious gallbladder. My bestie Karey already had tickets to come visit & it turned out she would arrive the day of my surgery. It was SO wonderful to have her to hang out with & help me while I recovered, even if my side hurt from laughing too much.

David & I took the boys fishing for the first time. They both got too hot & wanted to strip down to their birthday suits, it was the first time I'd ever seen nude fishing! They both caught their first fish & were hooked (no pun intended:)

We also made another trip to Homer, David joined us this time. A very close childhood friend & her kids were up visiting, it was a great time despite the bad weather. The neatest part was watching our kids play together!

August

David & I celebrated 10 years since this picture was taken. We look like a couple of kids!

September

We got a visit from David's mom & made a trip to the Fair, it was fun!

October

Our really great friends the Pattees came to visit! We got to have them for 10 whole days! It was wonderful...& not enough time together :)

November

Thanksgiving day! All my parent's grandchildren were together for the first time in awhile. 8 total with another one on the way (not mine:)!

December

CHRISTMAS!! Of course the boys loved Christmas & this year we were lucky to have Grandma Becky, Papa John & Uncle JJ visiting!

New Years Eve...eve, we spent the afternoon sledding, it was a blast! We rang in the New Year a few days later playing cards & laughing together.

Goodbye 2010, you were a pretty good year. Looking forward to what 2011 holds!! Happy New Year!

"May the Lord bless you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace"
~Numbers 6:24-26

An Ak snow day in pictures...

Ok, so not totally wordless. Let's face it, I'm not real big on silence anyway lol....

SO, yesterday was the first time I had been sledding in a long time. Sad, I know, but it had been nearly two years to the day. The last time I sped down a hill on a piece of plastic I was an expecting mother of one, man how the time flies! At any rate the weather finally warmed up and gave us enough snow to use our sledding hill. This day was a wonderfully warm 25 degrees (yes, that's warm for us, especially after a week of sub-zero weather) so we left the confinement of our home and played in the snow. Here are a few snapshot highlights of the day...

Ready to roll, rocking the old borrowed snow gear. Seriously, it was all borrowed but my boots, the snowsuit was my mom's when I was a kid lol

My father in law John played photographer

Oh what fun it is to ride... even my wiener dog Dobbie got in on the fun

Josh got a lot of snow in his face...

So he played in the snow instead...& ate a bit too

I hadn't ridden a snow machine (yes we call them snow machines up here, we call those things that make snow snow makers) in a long time & I had a BLAST!

Loving on my main man, 11.5 years together now :)

I was SO proud of Isaiah, he went down the hill all by himself over & over. He even hauled his own sled back up a few times...

And sometimes he let Uncle JJ haul him up...

My mother in law Becky going down the hill, I am not sure if she was sledding or plowing the way for the rest of us. She didn't want to go too fast so she kept the brakes out :)

Isaiah was in heaven

First the fun...

Now the hard work...

David used the snow machine to haul the kids up many times, I tried to hoof it

My family, furry kids included

Climbing the hill is hard work

A whole heap of Petty's tired out after a FUN afternoon

It was a wonderful day, one we hoped to repeat today but alas the weather warmed up too much and we had rain (yup rain, in December, in Alaska). No one had more fun than Isaiah, I think it gave him a boost of confidence to do so much on his own. At one point he announced to us all that "he was really good at sledding!". Later he pointed out that everyone else kept crashing because they weren't very good at steering but he was really really good at it lol. I look forward to another snow day, maybe even a sledding party!!

Fishing firsts

I know that normally my blogs are heavy on the emotion or full of deep thoughts (well as deep as mine get anyway lol) but today I thought I would share some light hearted moments from my day.

Yesterday we took the boys fishing for the first time. Some of you may be appalled by this, knowing my husband is an avid fisherman, but building a house took up most of his spare time and I am not "intellectually equipped" to take them on my own (not to mention there is no way their first fishing experience could be sans David). It was an impromptu decision, the weather was nice and while in Sportsman's Warehouse the boys spotted fishing poles...well the rest is history. We left SW equipped with two Toy Story poles, a little bait and two very excited little boys. It was all they could do to maintain normal volumes as we drove to the lake we had decided upon, actually it is a series of lakes, and we picked the one no one was at. It was just us, and it was perfect.When we arrived my oldest informed me that "Daddy wants you to take fishing lessons, so that you can learn to fish" before we even exited the car. Apparently my reputation preceded me :).

We got down to the lake, happy to see a long gravel bar of shallows that the boys could play in while attempting to hook their first big catch. The only problem was impromptu fishing trips with one kid in diapers meant only one diaper (recently changed) in our arsenal so when Joshua decided to get his feet wet all clothing came off, including the diaper. Shortly after Isaiah decided he too needed to get his feet wet and didn't want to run the risk of his clothes getting wet also. So, what did we have? Two nude little boys with poles in the water, waiting for fish. What lesson did we learn? Always have swim trunks in the truck on nice weekend days in case of impromptu fishing trips :). As I said we were alone so I didn't mind the fact that they were running around with their tooshies out but taking pictures without "po-pos" (as my friend calls them) in them was much more of a challenge.

Within 15 mins of getting their lines wet Isaiah had his first fish. He very excitedly reeled it in but refused to hold it for the picture. My sweet oldest loves animals but is not fond of touching the slimy ones lol. Daddy and son proudly posed for their picture, I am not sure which had the bigger smile. Isaiah's proclamation after his first catch was "wow, fishing is easy", to which his dad chuckled. Only moments later, while trying to be patient waiting for his next bite he changed his mind saying "fishing is so hard". Apparently patience is the virtue he is still working on (join the club, at least he's in good company:). Josh too hooked his first fish, maybe ten minutes after his brother. Watching him reel it in was hysterical to say the least, he sounded as if he was running the last leg of a marathon and kept saying "I gotcha!". When he did land his fish (about a 5 inch rainbow) he was very excited! Unfortunately the fish flopped out of David's hands before we were able to get a picture- sigh, such is life. We stayed on the lake for almost two hours, surprised at how well the boys stayed focused on their fishing. Isaiah caught one more (more excited jumping around followed:), Josh had one on the line but inexperienced momma didn't get the hook set fast enough (cut me some slack, the fish were tiny:) and it got off. Isaiah announced after his second fish that he was now a "fisherman" and had caught the "fishing bug". I joked with David after this last statement that we needed to have a little girl so I had someone to keep me company when they were out fishing all the time. To this Isaiah said "mommy, you can just be a girl who comes with us", and melted my heart. Don't get me wrong, I have every intention of fishing often with my boys but I will be honest, 10-12 hours days spent on the water are not my cup of tea. I just don't have the patience for it, unless I am catching lots of fish or we are somewhere with plenty to see :). If my boys want me to come, however, I will and wear a smile on my face whether I am bored or not, that's part of what family is about.When it was time to go, both boys were not really ready but we had some things that needed done around our yard before this summer's elusive sunshine disappeared again.

All in all it was a wonderful day spent with my favorite guys. In the two years we were building the shop I daydreamed often about such days with my family and it was even better then I imagined it. I eagerly look forward to our next adventure.

Proud daddy, proud son

David helping Josh reel his fish in

Nude fishing

Faith like a child...

"I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it." Luke 18:17

A dear friend of mine very recently lost a grandparent. Listening to her talk about it brought to mind my own grandmother, who past away in 2004. Losing a grandparent is hard, especially if you have had the privilege of growing up knowing them. I was lucky to have a few grandparents around as a kid. My Grandma Bebe, my mom's mother, was probably the closest. She was always there, as a child, as a teen and as a young adult. When she passed away, the big gaping hole she left was felt by our family, church and many in the special needs community.

Let me tell you a little about my Grandma. She was born in Juneau long before Alaska reached statehood. Her childhood was not easy, to say the least, and ended at 15 when she married the only man she would ever love, my Grandpa Tom. She had 8 children, six of whom she raised on a homestead in Willow. Life was rough, home steading in Alaska was not easy on anyone; hauling water, chopping wood, etc... as well as freezing winters and muddy springs to cope with. They never had a lot of money and worked hard for what they did have. Her two youngest children came a long as a surprise in her late 30s, first Michael, then Crystle. By this point many of her older children had families of their own, in fact, my aunt was born one year after my oldest sister, almost to the day. When Crystle was only 6 years old, my Grandfather suffered a heart attack and passed away, leaving my Grandma to care for their two remaining children alone. She did her best to provide, eventually starting work at a bus barn as a bus aide for special needs children, a job she would keep for the next 20+ years.

Those are the facts about my Grandma, the framework of her life here on earth that helped to shape who she was. Who she was is more complicated then the sum of her life's events. Grandma was loud, a byproduct of having a half deaf father, but it was almost like her zeal for life could not be contained by "normal volumes". She loved to sing, loud and unabashed. She loved to watch strange shows/movies, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" being one of her favorites. Grandma ate weird foods, liked to chew on chicken bones and, despite being a diabetic, loved sweets. She could have a temper and be stubborn, but mostly was a sweet, fun, loving woman. She loved her family, loved her friends, her church, her job and the sweet kids she saw every morning on her bus routes.

The single most defining factor about my Grandma was her love of Jesus. Never in my life have I seen a more pure, innocent, adoring love then the love my Grandma had for the Saviour of her soul. This isn't to say that she didn't struggle at times, life dealt her many blows and Grandma was human after all. She just didn't complicate it like so many of us do, didn't question every aspect but simply accepted it like a child knows that her father loves her. One of my favorite stories about my Grandma is from my wedding in 2000. We held the wedding and reception in separate locations and somehow Grandma got lost in the transit. She went home to get her cordless (home) phone and then drove around with it in case we called her. I don't tell you this so you can laugh at her, though it is funny, but it is to demonstrate the childlike view my Grandma had of life. An innocence that never disappeared, despite years of hardship and sometimes heartache. It was this innocence, this childlike heart, that allowed her to have that sweet, pure love of God. Her "kids" (as she called them) from her bus routes likely shared this sweet innocence, allowing her to understand them in a way many people likely did not. It permeated her being, seeping out onto those of us privileged to be near her. I believe the light of Jesus could shine brightly through her because she didn't muddle it down with too much humanity. These are things that I remember the most about my Grandma, the things that still bring tears to my eyes even as I write them. She was one of a kind, even her unique name, Bebe, means baby, as if God whispered in the ear of her mother and named her Himself.

Bebe & Thomas Graham

My crew

So here we are...or here we were, back in September. Both my boys have likely grown an inch or two since this picture was taken, my husband has grown about 3 inches of hair & I have traveled further toward a healthier me (long story, another blog perhaps:). Just a little about this crew of mine... My husband & I met while I was in college, were married in just over a year & will celebrate 10 years since that day in August. My boys are 4 & almost 2, they are smart, funny, WILDLY rambunctious & a whole lot of fun. We are currently building our dream home here in Alaska & are looking forward to celebrating it's completion soon! There is so much more to share but my little one has decided I am done for now:). Stay tuned...