A Beary Happy Halloween

Halloween anticipation is building over here. . . . we've had many practice runs at wearing the costumes and are only two days away from the big day!   Wahoo!  I love parenting for many reasons but one of my top five (or one) is the fact that I can totally love up the kids traditions again.  It's Halloween man!  Heck yeah!

We had a very Alaskan experience last week.  We spent a good long time researching the perfect pumpkin design and settled on Iron Man.  By "We" I think we all know who drove this decision. 

I searched Pinterest for a design and saw this guy:

Clearly that didn't happen.  Ours resembled more of a traditional jack-o-lantern face with a small mouth.  However if you say "Wow, IRON MAN" emphatically enough, even a four year old can see your artistic interpretation.

Despite the vision, James was not willing to do any heavy lifting.  Note his excellent delegation.

After all that work, we proudly put our pumpkin out.  The next morning when James caught the bus, I noticed it was gone and the little chair it was sitting on was tipped over.  I conferred with Matt- but no, he didn't take our pumpkin to work to show his co-workers.   

Pretty sure a bear visited us and swiped our pumpkin.  I am feeling pretty good about the fact that there was a bear on our front porch. Once again, our kids will never be allowed outside without an adult.  Yikes.

Hey There. .. .You Come Here Often?

Well, wouldn't you know.  I have a blog.  

I keep picturing this day-- a day that is dreary and rainy* where I am sitting in a quaint coffee shop staring out the window while sipping on my chai latte all well contemplating my place in this world.   I will then take my journal  with all these lovely handwritten notes on above contemplation and convert them into witty fodder for the blog .**


So that hasn't happened yet.  But I SWEAR TO GOD one of these days it will.  Until then, posting remains light. 

You know what has happened?  Y'all I have four kids.  FOUR!  I am in disbelief myself.   My lovely little world remains lovely but is busy, busy.***  I am almost always behind and although I am no longer a working gal, I have once again started scheduling my life by the 30 minute block.****

So despite the four kids just happening, I am really happy.  Today James helped Deirdre get dressed with the comment "this sure is tricky"- Deirdre helped Simon build a train track and Deirdre realized that her jammies were too small and happily passed them down to Moira.  My babes are growing up and life is sweet. It doesn't take a coffee shop and a chai for me to realize that this little life I have built is pretty fucking awesome.*****

Moira sporting Daisy's jammies

So what's new.  In no particular order:

1. It rains a lot.  Ketchikan is known for the liquid sunshine.  The rep is well deserved.  Most of the time it's a-ok though and it's rainy season.. . . so perspective.  At least it isn't 50 below.   Vitamin-D gummies all around. 
2. Computers are scarce.  See above commentary about trying to find work life balance.  I am still consulting and have a few clients but am trying to keep all things in moderation.  Well, most things. . .   I am sorry if I owe you an email. 
3. I am getting my groove back post baby. I have committed to working out 60 minutes each day.  I am doing really well with it and am starting to feel a connection to my body that I have sorely missed.  I love feeling strong and it's a value of mine.  I am a lousy athlete so we will have to do with a value instead of a skill.  A friend is going to teach me to swim tomorrow night.  I am stoked!
4. We had a special friend visit us last weekend from CSB/SJU (my alma mater).  Lately I have been thinking about Ketchikan and how often I use the word 'community' to describe it.   As I have grown further away from CSB I have realized that few people drop the C-word as frequently as the Bennies. Lately though, I can't keep that word from my thoughts as CSB-esque community is everywhere.  I am feeling pretty darn fortunate to live in this little place and was thrilled when an admissions peep from CSB/SJU came to visit.  He came for naked lady night******, joined us at Harvest Festival and even helped parent our kids when we were short a hand.  We loved having Tom here and were so thankful to bring two great communities together.

   

   Tom and Daisy dancing

   
   
5. Moira is one of my greatest joys. I know I am a little cranky about the colic and a little cranky about the lack of sleep but crankihood aside-- have so enjoyed this little one. Love having a baby in my life again.  So sweet.

Nummy duty.

So that's the five minute update.  I would promise to post more but that might be disingenuous.  Instead I'll promise to do my best.

*We are talking Ketchikan after all.
**Nevermind the fact that even I can't read my own handwriting.  Odd, I know. .. however, I often leave out the last few letters of words and I have several letters that look exactly alike.  It's not uncommon for me to write something, walk away, come back and have no fucking clue what I was thinking two minutes earlier.  Actually the NFC happens a lot.   That could be it's own blog post, really.
*** The double busy to stress just how little computer time there is in my life.
****This is humorous because I have a colicky baby.  Look up colic-- yes, it reads MORE than 4 hours of crying a day.  Yes, that is my life.  Sweet baby girl needs a good toot.  There is nothing more devastating to a baby that GI distress.  So sad poor girl.
*****Pardon my french.
******Clothing exchange for the ladies in K-town.

Wet

Life is marching on steadily.  One of the things I like best about living in Ketchikan is the way the sun's pattern has an exaggerated affect on our life. The solstice seems a while ago and quickly the days are getting shorter and shorter.  The famous Ketchikan rain is also setting in nicely for the fall.

We first visited Ketchikan a year ago and it rained cats and dogs and this weekend I was brought back to that memory. It just poured and poured.

It reminds me a little of living in MN in the dead of winter--when you realize that you can't get your kids and their five-point harnassses off quickly enough to get from the car to the store or whatever and you just stay home where it's warm and the risk of frost-bite is negligible.

Literally it rained so hard while we were getting ready for church that I realized that we would never make it from the car to the church without being soaked to the bone.  I'm sure God understands.

Our new house is built into the mountain a bit so the view is broader-- it's been fun to see the cloud formations roll in-- I never thought I would enjoy watching it so much but I really do. The other perk to living up a bit is the perspective of the fog-there have been a couple times where we have woken up to living "in" the cloud and have slowly seen it burn off in different areas starting with the house.  It's pretty cool.

And a little claustrophobic.  On Saturday the fog was so dense you couldn't see the edge of the deck.

There were a few breaks in the clouds today and I was shocked at how the funk from the last few days was instantly gone!