White Christmas

There's no dreaming of a White Christmas up here. It's a reality! We love all the beautiful white stuff. This little plane off Lake Hood is taking a long winter's nap.

Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Polished Painter

My son is a going to be a great painter someday...will probably run with the avant garde set. Based on his skills with my nail polish, I'd say he's got a great future with the Blue Man Group too, if he so chooses.  But they'll have to adapt to him being covered in sparkly red rather than their trademark blue...

He got a hold of the polish and painted his arms, fingers, legs, hair and somehow missed his face...but he didn't miss the comforter he was sitting on.  The new comforter, to be exact.  The one on our bed that I fondly glanced at for the last couple weeks as I was passing the bedroom. I guess we'll just flip it over.  Good thing Caleb got most of the polish completely covering his legs so that there were only a few drops and drizzles on the comforter.

Yep, he's an artist!

p.s. Our batteries died in the camera so no pics were recorded.  I'm just not destined to be a great blogger.  Either my camera is on the fritz or the blog is on the fritz or I'm on the fritz. I'll leave the phenomenal blogging to all of you lovely people out there.

We have a picture to post!

Caleb putting the star on ye olde tree!

I'm so excited, I can hardly believe what I'm seeing. After more than 60 days of not being able to post pics I've finally had success.  I'm just posting one for today.  When I have more time I'll post some more.
We are still having people here everyday to work on the restoration of our crawl space.  We are working around them.  I made a nice batch of cinnamon rolls to take to neighbors and friends yesterday. Tonight we are going to see gingerbread town.  The entire town is edible!  A pastry chef in town does it every year.  We'll try and snap some good pics.

I'm so happy to be blogging!!...

We're back in Anchorage

We enjoyed a sunny Thanksgiving holiday in Phoenix and the surrounding cities, including Tucson, Williams, Flagstaff, and Maricopa. We were so happy to see family and friends.

We came home to busted pipes and a dank, humid house. A reeking-of-mold type aroma has filled the house and the crawl space is covered in mold and water. We've been on the phone, running errands to buy tools/supplies and sweating up a storm. So we don't have time to post pics and we are extending our vacation by staying in another hotel tonight. When the going gets tough, the Mix's go swimming at a hotel....

First Snow Storm

We had the first snow storm of the season! It lasted just over an hour and produced big flakes and blustery winds. Since Halloween we've been wondering when the "termination dust" would roll down into town. It's here! Again, I don't know what is happening with the new and improved Blogger but I'm not able to post any personal pics. If I could post our photos or videos, you'd see the first snow of the season, insulation batting sitting around the house--all of which Cannon installed in our crawl space today. That is how he spent his Veteran's Day. He's a good man. The best. I had a couple friends over for a moose stew lunch and the kids played.

Ever since my 2 week check up with the doc I've had my calendar marked for this past Monday (Nov 9) because it was the day I could start weaning myself off the neck collar and start exercising. The past couple days I've done about an hour each day and felt great. Today I rode my indoor bike (early Christmas present, thanks baby!) for 15 minutes and that was all I could do. I had a 2 year old to chase while Cannon did the insulation. I've been exhausted all day and my neck/ shoulders are sore. I've got to be patient. I've got to take it easy.

We found a little bedroom set for Caleb on c-list (of course) and he is now sleeping in a twin bed. He had a growth spurt and grew right out of the toddler bed. Hmmm...he's still not ready to be potty trained but he sleeps in a big bed all by himself...go figure.

Those are all the noteworthy everyday life happenings at our house. Hope your weeks are going well for you!

Halloween Weekend

I'm still having trouble uploading or downloading or whatever loading my pics...I'll figure it out. Until then, it's just text with no accompanying pics. We hope you all had a good Halloween weekend. The Anchorage Symphony does and annual Family Halloween Concert that is themed, with costumed orchestra members and 4 levels of trick or treating afterwards. It was sooo enjoyable--especially for the kids! This year's theme was "Alien Antics" and the kids just loved it. We heard the "Star Wars, E.T., Star Trek, Close Encounters" themes and many other favorites. They kept the concert short and interacted with the crowd after each song. Afterwards, there was trick or treating. There are 4 levels to the concert hall and Caleb made a haul. The best part was seeing thousands of kids, babies and adults all dressed up in costumes. Caleb was a halibut and he was darn cute.

Also, we had a Halloween guest, a big bull moose came and ate the frozen petunias off our porch. He had a Halloween feast. He had to knock the big planters off the deck before he could get to them and I think if he could have gotten to the pumpkins he would have made a big mess of them too. He wasn't out and about when the trick or treaters knocked on our door, lucky them.

Tell me how your Halloweens were!

Dynasty

Our friends had a couple extra tickets to the premiere of Warren Miller's "Dynasty". It was a good time! I'll stick to skate skiing and let Cannon dream about doing this kind of stuff...

For the past week or so I've been trying to post without any success. None of my pics will upload.

I'm in week 5 of my recovery from surgery and feeling well. The 2 biggest issues in this recovery are 1) not exercising and 2) having Cannon here 24/7. I'm a different woman, and not for the better, when I can't exercise. I don't do it to get skinny because I've never been skinny. I do it to stay sane! Speaking of sanity, having Cannon here all the time is so weird. He travels a lot as it is. So having him here, here is pretty surreal. Not at the office. At home. As I speak, he's on a 3 hour conference call. We can't seem to get away from each other. Everywhere I go, there he is. And every time he tries to start a project, I've got something I need help with. We are used to being independent and operating in our respective microcosms. So me being needy and him being needed all the time is totally uncomfortable for both of us!! But we love each other and so we are managing well. Except for the times we are nagging and yipping at each other! Ha, ha!

Caleb is just darling and sweet as always. Since his tonsil/adenoid surgery, he is talking and learning to vocalize new words and phrases each day. What a relief. It could have been a speech impediment, it could have been a hearing problem. Fortunately, it was enlarged tonsils. Besides being darling, he is a holy terror in the house. I say "holy" because he's innocent enough but I say "terror" because he knows enough to wreak havoc on anything not bolted down. The worst is when I catch him or walk up on him when he's holding something he shouldn't, like a stack of recordable CD's, a box full of nails, a tube of unsquoze (is that a word?) toothpaste, my face powder, a bag of pasta--you get the idea...I try not to scare him or sound too upset because what he'll do is (with lightening speed), throw said items up in the air, as hard as he can, successfully scattering or smearing the stuff everywhere and then he runs as fast as he can.

His favorite phrase right now is "Are you okay?" and "Are you alright?" He mostly says it to himself when he purposely throw himself off his toy car, or off the couch, or the swinging rings.

Still no snow here--amazing! Lots of gray days and plenty of rain but no ice or snow.

Hopefully I can get pictures to upload soon so that you can see his halibut costume that I've made. Yep, that's right...he's going to be a baby halibut. Talk about the cutest catch ever!

You Hear That?

Choo-choo!! That's the sound of the publishing train a comin' down the tracks and Lolly's on it! That's right! She's got a publisher interested in her book, "The Dream-Web Diaries of Gwenevere Stoker". Congratulations Lolly! Wa-hoo! We are SO PROUD of you!

Yesterday Cannon had the day off and had helped carve up a moose for the widows in our church. He was sent home with a little rib meat. Rib meat is good for hamburger or sausage. If you've never had moose breakfast sausage, you haven't lived. Lived in Alaska, that is. Moose is so lean that fat has to be added to it so the suet (pork fat) is on the left in a bag, the moose meat is getting cut into pieces...

...and then he fed it into the meat grinder. After grinding it into sausage, we seasoned it with maple breakfast sausage seasoning. We bagged it in little 1 lb bags, tied 'em and froze 'em. This morning we cooked some up and it was really good! Very mild with just a hint of maple. Went great with our pancakes! Just another day in the life of an Alaskan.

*Sidestory*: Last week we went to McDonalds and after taking a bite of my hamburger I asked Cannon if he would taste it because the meat tasted funny to me, like it was bad. He took a bite and then said "Honey, it's beef, that's what tastes funny. You're too used to moose meat!" It was funny and true. We got a good laugh out of it.

These next 2 photos are totally random but very cute. Caleb loves to put on and march around in his Xtra Tuff boots. And he loves to snoop around in the fridge for treats...

...this is his immediate response after being told "no"...Oh, the drama!! At least he chose a soft place to land.

Speaking of lying around, I spend a lot of time in this chair. I've had to really watch myself around Caleb. It is difficult not to pick him up and when he gives me a hug, I've got this neck brace in the way. The other day he was pretty fed up with it and pretty tired. He ended up crawling onto my lap and falling asleep. He hasn't fallen asleep in my lap for ages and it was the next best thing to picking him up or holding him. (By the way, I was finishing up "The Zookeeper's Wife". Great book!)

So what does one do when one can't do much? At the Grand Opening of Target last night we found the capsules that grow animals. So this morning we plopped 3 different animals pills into the water...

...and watched them grow...

...pretty cool. Except it only took like 5 minutes, so what to do the rest of the day? It's been foggy and overcast all day. Fortunately there are still colored leaves on the trees. Much too soon there will be no color and all will be white, gray and black....mostly white.

We watched 'Horton Hears A Who' and finally daddy came home and put Caleb down for a nap. And then he took a nap himself. Dishes can wait, laundry can wait, clutter in every room that needs picking upping can wait...I'm blogging and then I'm going to take a nap too!

Choo Choo Cookies

Since I'm officially an awesome mama, I decided that I would teach my 2.5 yr old son to make creme' brule'.  He has picked it up nicely except the torching at the finality is still left to a grown up.  He loves to experiment with the reactions of different flavors in a childs pallet.  the savory creme and the butter when melted over a low sooty flame and then mixed with a fine cacao' of about 71%  He loves the reaction of the baking soda an lecithin as it emulsifies and creates strategies of subtle amalgamation on your taste buds.

p.s. Cannon typed this post.

A few happy moments in the last week

At Home and Happy

Life is good. Surgery went well and Caleb is keeping Chris and Cannon busy.  It is nice to be home and to hear the sounds of a babbling, bustling 2 year old with Grandma right behind him.  Before surgery we had to take Gma to the chocolate fountain so we've got a couple pics of our outing.

Here I am in all my post-surgery splendor.  The drain was removed this evening.  Fortunately we have a friend who is a nurse because even though the doc said Cannon would be able to take it out, he wouldn't have had the stomach for it.  I wouldn't have had the stomach to take something out of his neck either, so we breathed a sigh of relief to have our nurse friend stop by and take care of that little task.

ACDF Surgery

Give me an "A", give me a "C", give me a "D", give me an "F".  What does that spell?  Nothing! But it stands for Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion.  That's what I'll be checking into the hospital for in 12 hours.  We rescheduled the surgery a couple of times.  Once because I was pregnant and twice because Cannon was out of town.  I'm no longer pregnant (I can personally attest to the non-fun experience of having a miscarriage) and Cannon is here to stay for a while!  So tomorrow is the big day.  Wish us all luck.  Caleb will need it so that he can restrain himself from pouncing on me (which he does all the time, which I will miss).  Cannon will need it so that he can be the official pouncee for Caleb.  Chris will need it as she drives around a strange city in Alaska.  I will need it so that I don't trip or run into a wall while hopped up on narcotics, wearing a neck collar.

I have the best of the best surgeon and incredible support from church, family and friends.

This picture of Caleb represents our attitudes: "Bring it!"

Grandma Chris is Here!!

We are sooo happy to see Grandma Chris!  She arrived safe and sane last night.  We've been partying ever since.  Caleb was wired and happy, running, jumping, choo-chooing, talking up a storm.  He has loved her extra special attention.  I'm so happy to have someone to talk to!  She's already done 2 loads of laundry and scrubbed my disposal out. We took a drive to see the fall leaves and the ocean.  We had a halibut dinner with my Jen's (sis-in-law) famous strawberry pretzel salad for dessert.  It has been fun from the get-go.  Alas, my camera is d.e.a.d. so I'm pulling an old pic from last summer at the cabin.  I'm shopping around for a decent camera so that we can record all the new memories we're making!  Viva la Chris!

Fall Foliage and Flowers

Gold leaves are starting to drop and are strewn all over the back yard.  Soon there will be no green, just a sea of yellow and gold...

Break out the rakes!

The last of the flowers...

Click on my picture to open the photo album!

FaultnerFamAKVisit

Lately

Lately things have been quite hectic around here.  Last week we spent more time at the hospital than we spent at home.  At the moment Caleb is recovering from tonsil and adenoid surgery--he was having trouble breathing/sleeping at night.  He breathes much easier but is still miserable from the pain.  But he's a tough little guy and still sweet as ever--just needy, needy, needy.  The housework has gone by the wayside, incidentally, so I'll be catching up on all those chores today.

Fall is here and the weather is cooler and the leaves are changing. Summer seems to have come and gone so quickly. That's Alaska for ya.

I've got a date set for neurosurgery on Sept 17th. I can't say that I'm looking forward to surgery but the knowledge that my neck (herniated disc) will be repaired is motivating.

Cannon and I are looking forward to our friends Kris and Dusty visiting us this weekend.  We'll have a wonderful time.  And we'll get to meet Dusty's mom too.  It will be a great adventure introducing them to Alaska.

 

Alaska RR Adventure

We had a great adventure taking a train ride and playing all day out in the wilds of Alaska. 

After lots of climbing, rock chucking and exploring at the Spencer Glacier, we hopped back on the train and headed home.

Caleb was in awe most of the time, as evidenced by his reaction in the video after the train blew it's horn. He was "wowing" and "choo-choo"ing most of the trip. It was a beautiful day.

Caleb decided to make me some chocolate chip cookies, or ka-coos, as he calls them. He was inspired by cousin Luke to make some.  Mmm, mmm! He helped with everything and like his mom, his favorite part was dumping the chocolate chips in.

ONE...

TWO...

THREE!!..into the bowl those tasty chocolate morsels go!

He had to take a break from all his hard work and drink right out of the faucet...he is ALL boy!

Ha, ha, haaaaaa!

I know it's 1:30a.m. Alaska Time...

...which means it's 4:30a.m. for my sister in Chicago and 2:30a.m. for my sister in Tempe...BUT I just finished a huge sewing project!!  Pillow covers and curtains for my "sun room". I made tab top curtains for the french doors but forgot to take a pic of them.  Found this gorgeous furniture for a steal on craigslist and have yet to move the chair into the living room...in fact, there is still a lot to do to clean up the room, but I'm finally done with the major sewing projects.  Hooray!

Cannon has been gone for a week and I've squeezed these painting/sewing projects in while Caleb is sleeping.  Sometimes he sleeps for 1 hour and sometimes he sleeps for 3...and night time is totally variable.  

Taught myself how to make grommet top curtains. Was tricky at first but a cinch after I figured it out.  I haven't arranged them yet, just wanted to get them on the rod...I'll make them look symmetrical later.

Found some Tommy Bahama fabric on sale and recovered a couple pillows...

Whew! It was a lot of work in a little time.  It's not perfect but it's much better than it was. 

Off to bed!