Happy 3rd Birthday Caleb!

I'm exhausted. There might be some misspelled words but oh well...We had a great little party today and I can't believe how fast a day goes by when a birthday party has been the main event. I had planned on keeping things low key but woke up this morning so excited for Caleb's birthday that I felt helium balloons, streamers and party favors were a must! Cannon was able to get a later flight so that he could enjoy Caleb's big day with us! We were sooo happy about that. He's packing as I type this. They tidied up the rooms and I ran to the party store. I decorated a cake, they blew up balloons. Then the kids and moms arrived and we all had a great time! Caleb is asleep and I'm wishing I could be asleep right now.

We had such a fun time opening presents yesterday with G & G Stoddard on Skype. Caleb played all day long with his toys and woke up wanting to play, rather than eat breakfast. He's usually pretty good about breakfast, but not today.

Sunny and super cold!

What a great day to play at the park! It's freeze-your-face-off cold but the sunshine is blinding and brilliant!

Cannon is in Louisiana. To check out what he's up to down there, click here.

In other news, before he left he taught Caleb how to play a game on the computer. Caleb has enjoyed matching Thomas the Train cars and flying a space ship on the Super Why sites.

The biggest highlight of my week has been a very cute care package that arrived today from my sissy Heidi. You're the BEST sissy, Heidi-Ho! Thank you! We've been enjoying all the goodies and treats. If any of you have a head cold (like I've got), her amazing ginger candy will clear it up faster than Michael Pelps can swim a lap. And it tastes good too!!

p.s. If any of you drive a Mac and use the Picasa Web Album/Blogger stuff, can you tell me how to view things in the "Library view" and where the "photo tray" is hiding? I'm tired of posting slide shows.

The Iditarod Begins...

...tomorrow. But today was the Classic Iditarod Start in Anchorage. It actually starts in Willow tomorrow and 1,000 miles later ends in Nome. Anybody who races in the Iditarod is half crazy and half super-hero. I couldn't stand the baren, blistering cold, lonely, no-running-water, gotta-feed-my-dogs-before-i-eat-each-day, standing on the back of a sled business--for 1,000 miles. I don't think I'd even camp overnight on a friendly summer night by myself in Alaska, let alone the dead of winter. Crazy. Heroic.

Speaking of roughing it, we enjoyed watching the mushers ride by and enjoyed the beautiful dogs as we sipped hot chocolate and ate donuts, comfortably warm in our camping chairs.

Next year if any of you are visiting us on Mar 8th you can plan on joining us at 10:00a.m. to comfortably watch the competitors of what truly has to be the most rough and rugged race ever known to man. It's good times!

No TV Day

Once or twice a week the TV stays off. We don't get any channels but we do have lots of movies and I have one playing in the background as a distraction for Caleb while we play or do chores or whatever. Yesterday the TV* was off and so I had a little shadow by my side all day. There were lot of projects and messes. While I was working in the kitchen he was in the flour. He took the magnets off the fridge and put them in the flour and called it "alphabet flour". I let him play until he was covered from head to toe and then we vacuumed the whole mess up. We went to a friend's house to play and Caleb continued in his mess making, slathering baby cream all over my friends pleather couch. But the best part was that her 4 boys were in the room with him while he was slathering...they were playing video games...so he went unnoticed. Ha, ha, ha!!! We were fortunate to get it all cleaned up but what way to end the day. I didn't get much done yesterday BUT I think there is value in keeping the TV off now and then. If nothing more, it helps me hold in high regard those mothers who raised their children without a TV in the home, back in the dark ages.

Standby for photos of the Iditarod mushers...the Classic start of the Iditarod is Saturday morning.

*We have an old TV, not a flat screen. This year we qualify to apply for the PFD and will be anxiously waiting for the check in October so that we can squander what should probably be the beginning of Caleb's educational fund for a brand new LED screen. Admit it, you'd do the same.

Cannon's Liberty Counsel Rant (see prior entry)

...I've been wanting to unsubscribe to the Liberty Counsel fluff for quite a while but never got around to it. I foolishly accepted their email updates, not knowing what I was really subscribing to. Cannon said it better than I ever could have. It doesn't mean we aren't conservative, because we are, but we are going to vote for the best candidate no matter what side of the aisle he/she sits on.
Good night and good riddance Liberty Counsel!

The Liberty Counsel

This is Cannon, A few months/years ago Kate subscribed to this email deal called "The Liberty Counsel" Because I am in a Hypocratic mood today, I decided to send them a note to see if I could get them to change their minds just like they want to get me to change liberal minds. Every time I get one of these emails I find it offensive on both sides of the aisle, but mostly the punctuation aisle and they must have had a sale on exclamation marks in the sentence store that they never seem to run out of. So I sent them a note:

I am down with preserving the sanctity of the family but will not continue the Liberty Counsel because Every time I look in my junk mail to read your view on how my government is operating I feel like I am reading a message from Al Qaeda that was intended to inspire suicide bombers to strap on their suicide vests and "get to the work of changing political minds." Battle cry's are a great marketing tool, but come on, every time? Do your editors think that if we can yell Allah Achbar loud enough to enough people that we can convince the other side to join our cause. "They don't understand us...we must yell louder!!"

If you are going to fill my junk email box with half truths and hear say and not back it up with anything but fear and terror that my country is going to hell if I do not respond to your junk mail then I say to you...Unsubscribe me. I hope that your mother taught you better than to simply convince other people that you are right in your position by taking the other half of the truth and spinning it back to the uneducated populous.

As I re-read through your constant battle cry vernacular, I notice that the only part of which I would like you to "battle for my family values is the example of how not to persuade with gentle kindness and scientific reason. It is a very thin pancake that only has one side.

As I re-read the junk mail that I get from me it is littered with requests to call or fax my congressman and have them return my country and family values to me!!! I would like the Liberty Counsel to return my Junk mail box to me. I hope that I do not raise my son to be so short sighted or narrow minded as to think that the position which can be inflamed with the most ineffable punctuation wins. The family values I want for me and my neighbors is to never talk like they write to anyone.

The Weekend

Wow, it's March 1st. We had a fun weekend. The Fur Rondy Festival started and we were able to enjoy some of the conviviality. If anyone told me that someday I'd be "enjoying" a carnival and corn dogs in 12 degree weather, I'd have slapped them. But since we live in AK it's not too crazy for people up here to enjoy the Fair in the dead of winter. If you are curious about what Fur Rondy is, check out this link: www.furrondy.net. It's a crazy winter fest heralding the bygone days of the Fur Rendezvous auctions and the Classic start of the Iditarod. Basically it's an excuse to throw a huge party in Anchorage.

I've got a couple pics up of Cannon's finished dresser and night stand. We are still shopping around for hardware. Didn't he do a beautiful job on that furniture?

We got to Skype with the grandparents and that was the highlight of our weekend. It really does bridge a huge distance between our family. Viva la modern technology!

I have loads of laundry to fold while Caleb is napping so gotta run! Happy Monday to you all.

We got fresh snow today. It's just beautiful and white and bright. I think we'll try making a snow man today. It has been a good week.

That green stuff is called grass...

...and it will get green again in a matter of months. I keep reminding myself of this fact.

It's sloppy and dreary outside but life is good up here in the arctic north. Just because it's not possible to play outside doesn't mean we can't have fun inside. We've continued to take Caleb swimming and he continues to be fearless. We also play ball with him in the house and he is a spot on kicker with both right and left feet. If we throw the ball at him, he either kicks it right back at us with great aim or he hits it with either his right or left hand. He's not afraid of it and if it bonks him on the head he just says "Uups, bonk on da noggin" and we go again. He's also enjoying the "Library Lapsit" program. He sings the songs, does all the actions and listens (somewhat restlessly) to the stories. Then he claps the loudest and jumps up and down the loudest at the conclusion of each song or story. He's getting quite big--literally, just big. But there isn't an ounce of fat on him. I'm working on teaching him to share and be gentle because he was trying to give his tiny friend Eden a hug today and made her squawk because he was squeezing her. He's not very prompt about saying "I so sorry" but he'll give a kiss to the "injured" party when he understands that he was the cause of their discomfort. I should have named him Brutus. He's flying through flash cards and getting better about his pronunciation, sadly. I don't ever want him to grow up. His sweet voice and his stumbling sentences and lisps are heart melters everyday. The best is when he wakes from a nap and looks at you with sleepy eyes and while patting the pillow next to him says "Snuggabug?!"

I've learned the hard way that I really need to take it easy with my neck. I was trying to carry on with life as usual. I couldn't figure out why my neck, shoulder and back were so achy, sore and stiff 24/7. It turns out that laundry, dishes, picking up clutter, keeping up with a busy toddler, grocery shopping, exercising and making meals are tasks that I have to scale back on. Way back. I need to ask Cannon for help more often -- it's just a matter of pride and what I feel is shirking my duty. Weird, I know. And how I sleep at night is a huge factor too. Apparently wearing my neck collar at night is okay but during the day I'm supposed to allow the spine to heal and grow stronger by keeping the collar off. So I need to get out of this very un-ergonomic chair and get to bed. I really depend on other people's blogs to keep me from feeling so distant. I shouldn't expect others to keep me updated without giving an update myself.

Cannon is working on refinishing a beautiful dresser and night stand that our neighbor was getting rid of. He's making it look like a deep cherry wood set of furniture. I'll take some pics and post them. It is a labor of love and he's spending a lot of time sanding, treating, staining, sanding...should be finished by the end of this week. Our house really stinks. I'm glad none of you live close enough to visit. With the pipes breaking in November and subsequent mold, there's a bit of a cabin smell. Couple that with wood stain smells and you've got a whopper of a stench. I can't wait until we can open the windows and doors and bring fresh arctic breezes through the house.

My friends and I are planning our 2nd year of participating in the "Pink Cheeks Triathlon" the first weekend in May. I can't do the whole thing because of my neck but I've got a team. Ruthie will swim, I'll bike and Jess will run. It will be great fun! There are some new girls in the ward who want to join this year so we should have a good gaggle of girls. We just have to come up with a team name. Any ideas?

One of the best things to look forward to is that Cannon is going to Hawaii again on business at the end of March. Actually he's going on Caleb's birthday. I remember spending Caleb's birthday without Cannon last year. We've got an option to go with Cannon this year and I think we're going to take it. Cannon will be at work during the day but we'll be able to celebrate Caleb's birthday together as a family, take in some sand and sun...just relax...so I think we're going to do it. I'm going to look up local museums or kid friendly places that I can take Caleb during the day. We are for sure going to ride the trolley and hunt down as many aquariums as we can find. Mostly we'll go swimming, but not in the ocean. It scares me. We'll stick with the pool.

That is the update: fun almost-3-year-old, stinky house, cool project, cluttery house, triathlon training and Hawaii on the Horizon.

p.s. For any of you Phoenix dwellers I checked out Hawaiian Airlines and you can get a roundtrip ticket from Phoenix to Honolulu Dep 3/31, Ret 4/5 for $400. That is so cheap!