From Inlet to On-plate

Posted on May 20, 2012 by coleio
Yum….

grilled halibut

double yum…..

fried halibut

I had the opportunity to go halibut fishing for the first time on Friday.  It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, but little wind and clear skies.  I was up at 3:25am, left Kenai at 4:20, drove an hour south with my co-workers (this was a “team-building event”) and hit the water around 6am.  Guess what…it’s not dark at 3:30am… 

We attempted to do some king salmon fishing in the Cook Inlet until 8:30 with no luck and then moved on our first halibut hole.  I do have to say the one thing I did like about halibut fishing was you don’t have to reel your line in every time someone gets a fish on to get out of their way.  This is a good thing since your line is close to 200 feet to the bottom.  But true to my fishing luck, I had the most action out of the four of us fishing.  I’m blaming the orange lurey thing that was put on my line just for me.  At the end of the day I got the first fish, the biggest fish (out of those who were in the betting pool) and the most fish…basically I won all three categories.  I was exhausted.  I eventually had to give in before we were done because it got to the point where I couldn’t physically straightened by fingers or grip the pole my wrist had given out. 

reeling in my fish, don't be fooled by the smile on my face, I'm struggling

 

My first fish

 

reeling in another

 

This is my "biggest" fish of the day

So….our trusty captain (our supervisor we were on his boat) took over my pole and within 5 minutes he had hooked an 80 pounder.  I’m not sure how big my “biggest” one was but it was maybe 30 pounds?  Judging from how exhausted I was from pulling in my 5 fish of the day I was EXTREMELY happy I was not the one holding the rod when that 80 pounder decided to take a bite.  I don’t fish for the sport…which is why it’s crazy funny I am the one catching all the fish, I just want to eat them, it doesn’t matter to me who reels them in, in fact I could stand in the boat all day with an empty rod and be fine.  We all had already agreed we would split the catch equally anyway. 

Check out that beast

 

They had to harpoon the big one to kill it

 

bleeding the fish....mmmm

 

The big one for size comparison

 

fileting the big one

 

The crew

 

all our fish in a row (minus two, there were only 8 pegs)

 

This fish is called a Red Irish Lord, orange, just for me and not edible so he got fileted and used for bait

There’s nothing like fresh fish at the end of the day.  I mustered all my strength just to make until the kids went to bed and I didn’t even have the energy to shower before going to bed.  I was in bed at 8pm and at 6am when the kids woke up I STILL could not get myself out of bed.

And thanks to the mystery person who gave me that fry daddy at Christmas time.  Even though no one will claim it….  I FINALLY used it for the first time, it’s been sitting on my counter starting at me, but I put it to good use on it’s inaugural frying event in Alaska to fry none other but halibut.  Holy cow was it phenomenal….It’s MUCH better then any restaurant.  It was so good, I am still dreaming about it right now…

Check out how thick this filet is, this is from the 80 pounder

 

Prepped, halibut chunks, batter, fry daddy

 

fry baby, fry

 

the end, delicious, product

 

Posted in Alaska | Leave a comment

It’s official

Posted on May 15, 2012 by coleio

Do you recognize these places?

That picture taken May 8th…It used to look like this:

And here:

Used to look like this:

May 15th, our backyard…

All the snow is now gone from our yard…  and I miss it already :(

Posted in Alaska | Leave a comment

Gretchen is four!

Posted on May 12, 2012 by coleio

We celebrated Gretchen’s 4th birthday on Friday.  It was really cute, all Thursday night we kept telling her this is the last bath as a three year old, this is the last time we kiss you as a three year old…hehe.  And then the whole next day all we heard is I can do <input activity here> because I am so big now.  I can put my dishes on the sink “because I’m so big now”, I can carry my boots into daycare “because I’m so big now” and I can’t remember everything she said, but that’s pretty much all we heard on the way to daycare and they were all normal tasks that she could have very well been capable of carrying out the day before, or when she was three, but for some reason she just felt more mature as a four year old. 

What Gretchen saw when she came down the stairs in the morning

I have been working on her birthday for two weeks.  It seems crazy but I guess between her actual birthday and her party I took on a lot.  The first thing I made was her birthday dress.  I made her a special dress last year and wanted to carry on the tradition.  I wonder at what point she won’t want to wear anything I make but I try really hard to make her something that just makes her feel special for the day.  This year I made a pastel purple dress, ruffle leggings and a baby doll dress to match for Cinder.  (which apparently Cinder’s birthday was today and she turned two). 

She loved the dress.  She wore it all day yesterday, got it a little bit dirty at daycare but I washed it and she wore it again today at her party. 

Unfortunately/fortunately Gretchen is doomed to share her birthday with Mother’s day for the rest of her life. Friday the daycare was hosting a Mother’s day tea party which I attended and every though I was worried it was taking away from her day, everyone sung her Happy Birthday and we had the cupcakes she helped make the night before (which she was ecstatic to help make, of course because she got to lick the bowl).  But what was hysterical was the whole time we were there she kept shouting over and over, “I’m 4 now” hehe.  I know the other Mom’s totally understood. 

After daycare we opened presents.  She was way excited. 

Silly with her presents

I took a ba-gillion pictures of her opening presents.  Wesley wanted to get involved at the beginning but he soon lost interest, maybe because it was all girl stuff.  We gave her an umbrella (which she opened first because she totally guessed what it was and was excited), a cash register, a cute little “sing a long” box, and the book A Parable about the King (which is a book we got out of the library a while back and we read it over and over and over).  She got a lot of really cute gifts.  Gramma and Gramps gave her a sleeping bag and both the kids had a blast taking turns climbing in.  She also got a really cute moose figurine camping set which she asked if she could take when we go camping.  It’s really cute the moose are roasting smores.  She got her first Arthur book, Arthur’s Family Vacation and a Pinkilicious sticker book she was having fun with today. 

She loved the umbrella

 

Wes having a good time in the sleeping bag

 

Gretchen singing with her sing a long box

Here’s a video of her singing.  It was really cute.  She’s so into singing along right now I knew this toy (the brand is paper jams) would be fun especially because she’s pre-embarassment phase when singing.  This little machine is pretty neat you can load three songs on at a time but they can be anything you want so the song she’s singing in the video is actually a song from her night time CD that she already knows the words to.  …and Wes when he was finally able to sneak in and try it out for himself.

We had dinner of Gretchen’s favorite, Mac and cheese and on to cupcakes.  Chocolate on chocolate, Gretchen’s favorite. 

Gretchen gets neater and neater each year, but Wes still is a mess.  Steve thinks his mustard makes he look like a Spaniard.

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya...."

And because Gretchen didn’t have a nap and had a ton of excitement, she passed out.  I think she had fallen asleep before Dada even had a chance to kiss her goodnight.

Saturday was party day and was mainly the reason I have been working on her birthday for two weeks.  We decided on a Tangled theme, partly because she likes Rapunzel and partly because that meant purple decorations.  I made her invitations using “borrowed” ideas from pinterest and photoshop.  I printed them from Walmart really cheap. 

The party was at a local gynasitics center, the same one where we went for one of Gretchen’s friend’s birthday’s in February.  Gretchen really wanted her birthday at the same place. The kids get an hour and 15 minutes to run around the gym, jump in the foam pit, play duck duck goose and bounce through obstacles and then 45 minutes in the room to eat, pinata and cake. 

My big project was to make tangled hair for all the girls at the party.  These took a ton of time and Steve ended up helping me wind the hair, I don’t think he was real excited about it.  I used the tutorial here except I used a half of the Caron one pound skein of yard per wig and I only weaved the purple ribbon into Gretchen’s as a special birthday girl wig. 

There were two boys at the party so I made them a belt and pouch like what Flynn Ryder has in the movie Tangled.  I didn’t expect them to get it being boys they have probably never seen the movie. 

Two action packed hours of play, balloons, food, candy and cake.  Both the kids were worn out.  Gretchen was way more than willing to take a nap though Wes was past his prime nap moments and fought it for a bit. 

I did put on the invite, no gifts please, mainly because I was worried about being tight for time at the party but also I didn’t want any little people breakdowns because they weren’t getting any presents.  But I was actually surprised a few people still approached me about bringing her a gift.  I honestly thought it would be a relief for people to just come and have a good time.  I was worried it would prevent kids from coming.  If you recall, last year, I attempted to have a small little party with a few of Gretchen’s better friends from daycare and no one RSVPed and no one showed up.  This year I was a bit worried it would be the same this year.  But it wasn’t we had 12 kids, it was great.  So Gretchen got a few more presents today, we didn’t open them during the party which was good because we maxed out our two hours with just the other party activities. 

Birthday parties are a ton of work.  I’m kind of hoping future parties get easier because in theory as Gretchen gets older she should help with the planning more.  She did ask to help a lot and really was a big help when asked…because she is SO big now.  hehe.

Posted in Gretchen | Leave a comment

The Biter Among Us

Posted on May 8, 2012 by coleio

Steve went off again for a week last week and as always it seems so short since his longer jaunts to Iraq.  A week doesn’t seem like much, but I still get worn out.  I still get tired of getting the kids off to daycare by myself and being the only one when they come home from daycare trying to balance getting dinner on the table and kids that are just dying for attention and one who never naps anymore.  I also get annoyed at the total lack of nutrition as a result.  Fish sticks, hot dogs, mac and cheese, more mac and cheese and leftovers.  It did make for a week where they ate most of their food.  I have the choice to either be really annoyed at making a wonderful delicious and nutritious meal and listen to Gretchen say “that’s disgusting” or “I don’t like <insert name of anything that tastes really good here>” before she’s even seen it on the plate and Wes throwing my efforts all over the floor and table OR feed them wholly innutritious meals which they eat.  I go back and forth but definitely when Dada is gone I take the path of least resistance.

I also experienced an unpleasant surprise while Steve was gone, I got a call at work mid-week from the daycare and ended up having a 25 minute conversation about Wes and his biting where I was basically read the policy and am now going to be subject to picking him up at any time if he bites three times in one day.  Needless to say I was pretty upset.  It seems he’s taking a liking to biting one child in particular and since it’s random they can’t anticipate it and are unable to prevent it.  At home he does bite some and it’s always the same situation, when he takes a toy Gretchen is not willing to share, she comes and tries to rip it out of his hands and he bites her because he’s smaller and she backs off.  I honestly haven’t been super concerned, he’s young, he can’t talk and she’s bigger than he is and she’s usually trying to take back something she lost interest in and he thought he could play with.  But him being viewed as a bully is completely different.  And then even though the daycare does a great attempt at keeping names out of it, I still am worried that the victim’s parents just assumes his behavior issues are a result of his parents.  I was venting to a co-worker because with Steve being gone, I had no one else to talk to and he just laughed at me and said “oh…just one of the many conversations you’ll have in his lifetime where you’ll plead, but I’m not a bad parent, really.”  He had three boys so it made me feel a bit better and validated a little bit of the, this must be a boy thing feeling.  So the daycare has moved him into a different room with bigger kids and he’s been fine so far.  They said it’s harder for him to bite bigger kids.

The daycare also got me thinking about discipline and the appropriate age.  We never really had to establish much discipline with Gretchen.  When she cries too much, she gets sent to her room to finish being upset.  I am more into encouraging her to recognize her feelings and remove herself to regroup.  She really is a good child.  She whines a lot but she does try.  She asks a lot “am I being a good girl Mama?” which always breaks my heart because it makes me feel like I am not giving her enough positive reinforcement which is what she needs and why the sticker chart works so well for her.  But with Wes as the lady who runs the daycare was talking to me, I am thinking to myself really?  IS he old enough, does he really get the whole time out thing?  Does he really understand he’s hurting the other child?  (because the real problem is after he bites he laughs and runs away because he thinks it’s funny, big problem and something I’ve noticed with him.  He always laughs when we get mad. ) I just feel like he doesn’t know how to respond yet, he’s still learning what is appropriate and what really can be a game.  But a few nights ago I was not getting his cooperation in the bath standing up to be washed and with Gretchen we would threaten to put cold water on her if she didn’t stand up and it only took two times before she would cooperate.  So I decided to try it.  I asked once…”nnnnnnnnnnnn-o” I said a second time more forcefully…”nnnnnnnnnnnn-o” I said if you don’t stand up I’m going to pour cold water on you….”cold water, cold water” and I’m telling you he was asking for it.  I know he had to understand from my tone that it wasn’t something he wanted.  I know they understand tones before real speech.  And part of me was like, crap he’s a boy, he’s going to like this and it’s going to backfire.  So I dumped some cold water on him and the shocked look on his face and the 5 second break before he started crying.  I gave him a second and I said stand up and up he shot.  And I thought…okay I guess you do get this.  I guess it is time to figure out what it is that makes him think twice about doing something he knows he shouldn’t.

And hopefully, no one reads that all the wrong way.  I am completely for positive reinforcement over negative.  I love that Gretchen thrives on compliments and stickers and earning things.  But when it comes to real issues like the safety of themselves or others I want to know what it is that makes my kids listen and know what I can do to make them understand and help them become a good person.  Without physical force because I just don’t believe that teaches them the inner integrity I want them to have.  I don’t want to force my child to do things, I want them to understand why and believe in what is right.

And speaking of the benefits of the sticker chart and believing in oneself, one of Gretchen’s tasks is to get herself dressed in the morning all by herself.  When we started the sticker chart, weeks ago, she wasn’t doing this but I knew she had the ability.  Some mornings I had to tackle her and dress her while she was screaming.  It was pretty frustrating.  Since the birth of the sticker chart, every now and then I have to cajole her to get dressed and sometimes threaten a little, but now she will actually dress herself on the weekends without even being asked it’s awesome (well, this little task in addition to the no more pull-ups and staying dry all night, getting up to pee without being told, awesome, if we quit the sticker thing tomorrow these two things alone made it worth it).  But what happens is you have NO idea what she is going to come down wearing.  And quite frankly, unless she’s trying to go out into -10 degree weather in thin tights and a t-shirt or something that is showing her underwear, I don’t criticize.  I figure if I am making her do it on her own and encouraging it, she can wear whatever.  Sometimes I do wonder what the other parents think about us, sometimes she does look like a mismatched herself in a salvation army store dressing room…but she’s dressing herself and making decisions, good for her.  There are just the days…when she wants to wear a Christmas outfit (the one I made, yea!) and hot pink tie dyed tights with princess socks to daycare in May…

Steve didn’t make it back to Kenai until Saturday afternoon.  So Saturday morning I took the kids to get their hair cut.  Wes really needed it.  His hair grows so fast and Gretchen gets a cut just because she enjoys it.  I’m always impressed with how well they behave.  Gretchen got a bit antsy and you can always tell Wes’s limit.  The woman that cuts their hair doesn’t cut kids hair all the time and doesn’t have kids of her own so she’s not the quickest but she’s really nice and Gretchen is comfortable with her.

Before

 

After

 

Gretchen's long hair

Then after the haircuts we went to the library where Gretchen read, Wes brought her books and climbed all over everything.  Once I showed him the container of board books he got into the books for a bit.  When he started throwing them I knew it was time to leave.

 

And since it was Cinco De Mayo and I had a craving for tacos, not to mention not wanting to cook, we decided to go out to eat.  We went fairly early (as we always do, we don’t want to subject too many people to our little cherubs) and you wouldn’t have even known what day it was it was so not crowded.  It was nice.  Something we would never be able to do in Houston.  I can’t even imagine going to a restaurant and having to wait for a table.  It’s really a luxury.

And because Dada didn’t come home until Saturday afternoon I didn’t get the grocery shopping done so I got up earlier that I would on a Sunday to try and slip out before church to get it done.  I wanted to go by myself so I could be fast.  But Gretchen gave me this pitiful look when I told her I was grocery shopping without her and if course I just love having my partner with me so I gave in and told her she had to get ready quickly and we would have to be quick as a fox in the store and she simply stepped one step to the right, slid on her rain boots and was like I’m ready.  So off we went.  When I got home, both kids helped me unload the groceries from the car….it was so cute.

The snow is still melting.  Things are a bit of a mucky mess.  The kids have been really enjoying playing out in the yard.  I’m also trying to do a good job of getting the dog poo cleaned up as the snow recedes but Wes still finds the patches.  We have lost two sets of shoes so far to dog poo.  Pretty soon he’ll have to go barefoot, maybe that would teach him…hehe.  The dog poo situation this year has been rather annoying because of all the snow we got, the dogs pooped in a few areas and the paths leading to those areas.  While I thought that would be better it is literally just a thick pile of sludge by the time the snow melts from the layers and layers of it.  Gross, huh?  Hehe.

 

 

 

Gretchen’s birthday is coming up at the end of the week.  We’re having a fun Tangled themed birthday for her.  I haven’t been in the RV at all this past week since I have been working on getting things ready for her birthday.  I am also trying to continue the tradition of making her a special dress for her b-day.  I always get nervous when I make her something and put a lot of effort into it that she’ll hate it and not want to wear it.

Oh, and boxes still rock for kids toys…

And here’s a funny picture, we found a spider walking across our floor on our way out the door in the morning a day or two ago so here is both the kids watching a spider crawling across the floor.  Wes of course found it hilarious and kept announcing who’s chair it was crawling under.  hehe.  (keep in mind this spider, as all spiders are in Alaska, was very small and very non-threatening looking, another thing I enjoy about this location)

Posted in Alaska, Gretchen, Wesley | Leave a comment

Rocky RV Reno pt. 2

Posted on May 5, 2012 by coleio

Man, I hate painting.  Hehe.  Did I really say that I loved to paint?  This is the way it usually goes for me, I get all involved and get through the prep and I then hate tape and primer and I am all excited to start painting.  Then by the end I feel like someone at the end of the buffet who hates food or after eating one more bite of the most delicious, rich cheesecake you just hate all food.  But the next time you’re hungry you’ve recovered from your hate.  That’s how it is with painting for me.  I’m sick of painting but give me a month or two and I’ll be excited again.

So the interior of the rv is painted.  I misjudged the amount of paint needed I swore I would only need a quart of each color but ended up needing two quarts.  One quart was enough to get all the cabinets in the rv but didn’t leave enough for the doors.  The walls was the biggest I thought there was way less to paint then there really was.  I used almost a whole quart just in the first coat.  Rollers seem to just suck up the paint so once I got the roller involved it was all over from there.  And for some bizarre reason when I started typing this in my mind I thought I had only been doing this for a week but then I looked at my notebook where I’ve been making all my notes and it’s really been two weeks and two days.  I approximate that I have spent 30 hours so far.  That was about 6 hours on the weekends and 2 hours each weeknight.  Let me tell you by Saturday I was exhausted.  Nothing makes you feel old then doing a bunch of physical labor even if you don’t think it’s hard labor.

4/25/12 - after first coat of white on cabinets

 

4/27/12 - First coat of blue in the bathroom

 

4/27/12 - blue wall to the right, primed white to the left, the color difference seems very subtle on the camera

 

The cabover vs. the blue walls

 

4/28/12 - After first coat of blue on the walls

 

4/28/12

While this all is a nice milestone, I am not even close to being done.  I still have all the cabinet doors to prime and paint, the hinges to spray paint, dinette cushions to recover, fabric panels to recover, curtains to figure out how to install and valence fabric to pick out and make.  

But the good thing is the inside is done so we can take it to someone to look at to determine if it is Alcan worthy if we have to go that direction.  Everything else can be done inside the house or garage. 

Posted in RV There Yet | Comments Off

Polly want a cracker?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by coleio

I cannot believe how much Wes is talking now.  I swear he can say anything.  He is such a little parrot besides the fact that he weighs a ton.  Man he’s a barge.  But anything I say he is repeating all of a sort statement or the last word like a parrot.  And he gets pretty close.   He is using two word statements all the time now.  And the cutest thing is when he refers to himself “ez-lee”.   Hehe.  last night he was talking to dada on the phone and I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation but it really sounded like he was carrying on a legitimate conversation.   ” uh-huh”, silence, “uh-huh”, silence, “no”, silence, giggling,silence, “uh-huh”.  It was cute.  Steve said he was even answering the conversations correctly.

It was fun when we first got the RV because every time we pulled into the driveway he would shout “what’s that”.   Auntie d found it humorous because sometimes he would shout it right away and sometimes it would be delayed where we were all just waiting for it.  And every time I would say that’s the RV.  It only took a week and then all of a sudden we pull into the driveway and from the back I hear “RV”.  Where before the RV he would always announce Dada’s truck which is parked right next to the RV and now it’s chopped liver.

He’s also starting to sing and it is pretty cute.  It’s not words or melodies.  But he’s attempting a sing song sort of flow.  Probably because he listens to Gretchen so much who is always making up songs.

Wes’s humor is really starting to crack me up lately.  He really has a slapstick type of humor to the point where I can’t help but be reminded of the little boy in the movie Big Daddy.  He could be wailing over something and doesn’t show signs of letting up and Gretchen trips over a box and he immediately starts laughing like it was the most funny thing that has happened at day.  Dada stubs his toe, hilarious, I bump my head, hysterical, Gretchen runs into a wall, he’ll lose it.  It’s really funny.  

And also another cute thing with Wes is he’s starting to do the same “chicka chicka” thing Gretchen did around this time.  It cracked me up the first time I heard him to do it because it was like a instant flashback.  It’s on the swing when we push the kids we always start out by grabbing the swing and slowly pulling it up before we release it and as we do it we make a noise the same as a roller coaster going up a hill.  And both kids loved it do much they make the same noise to ask for it.  Gretchen,of course, once she was able to describe the action stopped saying chicka chicka.   But I don’t really remember doing it with him and one day he just started saying it.

Note the book on the snow, he's already flung them off

 
 
Gretchen on the other hand cracks me up with her constant banter about mature topics. (well for the most part, she just talks and talks and talks sometimes, half the time she is trying to talk to me while Wes is screaming in my ear and I can’t hear her. Or she wants some ridiculous request like to help her find her notebook while I am at a critical point in cooking dinner) But anyway, besides the fact that she talks endlessly all the time to anyone who will listen and please tell me this is only a girl thing, I seriously hope Wes keeps to himself a bit more. The other day we’re heading up to the bath, she’s carrying her doll Cinder and out of the blue we have this conversation:
 
Gretchen: “Cinder doesn’t have a brain”
Me: “oh yeah?” (I am thinking where the heck does she get this from, I have never talked to her about brains or what their function is or what or what doesn’t have one.)
Gretchen: “Yeah, she just has spikeys” and points to where her hair is attached to her plastic doll head. And then “I have a brain”
Me: “you’re right.”
and that was the end of that.
 
And the other thing that’s unreal to me is it seems like overnight she’s learned how to write. I feel like even a month or two ago she couldn’t even read letters and all of a sudden a switch has been flipped. She can read most letters and numbers. The other night I was rocking her to sleep and she was like Look Mama there’s a 6 and I’m like huh, well the curtain was wrinkled in a way that formed a 6. It took me about two minutes to get it becuase it was so little on the top and I was confused because there were six pleats in the curtains and I thought that was what she was talking about but when she said, not a G and climbed to point I realized there was a perfect “6″ in the folds of the curtain. And now one of her favorite thing is to take the sidewalk chalk and write letters. Over the weekend she started to write the ABCs on the sidewalk, she got to F on her own and then needed help for the G and could do the H and then couldn’t do much more. But here’s some of her artwork, an E, F and O. I’m amazed at how evenly sized she can keep them without lines. But at the same time maybe not as surprised since she’s been writing gibberish on lined notebook pages for months, all in perfect unison like letters, but not. That’s what all those symbols are after the letters, her language.
 
 
Well, we’ve had a couple of nice days the past week. It’s been sunny and the snow is melting like crazy. It actually got up to 59 degrees one of the days last week. And if you look at any of the pictures I take of the kids running around outside I am having a heck of a time with them keeping their clothes and shoes on. It’s crazy it’s like 48 degrees out and they think it’s summer. It’s almost easier when it’s 10 degrees because they learn real fast to keep everything on, there’s no fighting with them then.
 

No shoes

 
 

Here's what's left in the front yard as of Friday 4/27

Oh and the kids had thier first taste of a milkshake yesterday.  Gretchen finally did a good job on her dinner for the first time in weeks it seems which was very surprising because she had a crappy night sleep, for some reason she didn’t fall asleep until 9:45 and then was up early (knocking down her blind as she tried to open it at 5:45 am) and she didn’t take a nap at daycare, something that has become a real issue.  She has started refusing to nap at daycare and it drives me crazy because she is a miserable whiney, bawling mess for the 3 hours before bedtime.  anyway…they loved the shakes.  Here’s Wes saying “ahhhhwwwww” after taking a big sip.

Posted in Alaska, Gretchen, Wesley | Comments Off

Wesley vs the potty

Posted on April 23, 2012 by coleio

Wes went tinkle in the potty tonight!  I can’t believe it. Now I in no way think this means it’s time to start potty training but I do think he did it intentionally which is great. Just getting him to understand what to do when he sits on the potty is a feat.   How it really happened is every night at bath he watches Gretchen go potty and he’s always been interested in her going potty.  So a few days ago I brought up the Elmo potty thiNking maybe I could catch him when he starts to tinkle as soon as he gets in the bath because he always pees as soon as he touches the water.  Well he didn’t want anything to do with the little potty because that’s not what Gretchen does.  But tonight he asked to sit to on the potty and didn’t ask to get off as soon as he sat down.  All of a sudden he started to tinkle and then just started giggling.  I made a big deal and gave him a jelly bean.  I really think he understood it all.  I can hope can’t I?

Funny story a few weeks ago Wes asked to sit on the potty so I took off his diaper and plunked him up there and then realized I have no clue how to put a boy on the potty.  The way I had positioned him he was going to pee right into my eye.  Steve was gone but when he came home I had to have him explain to me how to teach a little boy to pee.  That’s when he reminded me of the pee guard to our Elmo potty. But again he doesn’t want to sit on it because Gretchen doesn’t do that.

And tonight when Wes got the jelly bean gretchen wanted one too for peeing in the potty.  I tried to explain to her that she was a big girl but I  can see us having this conversation a lot.

And something I have been forgetting to blog about, Gretchen is starting get freckles this spring.  It started about a month ago with just a few but they are starting to come out.  I googled it a few months ago to see when it is normal for kids to get them because true to being a mini me I expected her to get them.  This must be about the time.  I thought maybe because we were in Alaska that she wouldn’t get enough sun but I guess with the hot spring sun and going out more at daycare she’s been getting enough sun.

Posted in Gretchen, Wesley | 1 Comment

Rocky RV Reno pt. 1

Posted on April 22, 2012 by coleio

Since our surprise news the timeline on getting the RV renovated took a fast track.  In fact at first I became completely overwhelmed because deep down I expected to modify things a little at a time over the summer.  But now we only have one summer to enjoy and since we moved up here we’ve always taken a lets do it so we can enjoy it approach.  After living in Findlay and fixing up the house TO sell it we didn’t really hold much back here because quite honestly, we really knew we wouldn’t be here forever.  SO…

I am a week into the process and here is what I have accomplished so far.  Friday, the 13th…hehe…I got all the junk out.  Anything the previous owner had left in there.  Saturday I removed all cabinet doors, fabric panels, curtains, valences, basically anything that was on the wall that could come off.  Sunday was spent moving all that into the garage. 

4/15/12

 

Cleaning out under the bed in back

Monday I took a break.  This stuff is hard work.  Tuesday I Tsped everything and man was that water dirty.  I was also pretty amazed how much cleaner it all looked after that process.  Wednesday and Thursday I spent taping everything that I didn’t want to paint and after that was done I felt if I never saw another piece of tape I would be the happiest person in the world.  Friday I finished up the taping in the cab over bed and then sanded down all the cabinets just to give them a little scuff followed by tack cloth.

4/20/12

Then Satruday I spent 4+ hours priming everything.  Because it was an oil based primer I just wanted to power through it because I wasn’t planning on cleaning anything, I was just going to prime and pitch.  Let me tell you I am sore today!  I was exhausted last night, my back hurt, my wrists hurt.  I was also beginning to doubt I wanted to even pick up another paint brush.  The bathroom and the cab over bed are the worst.  The bathroom is so freaking tight you have to plan how you paint in there because it’s impossible not to bump something.  And I had to torque my body in weird positions to get all the nooks and crannies.  And the cab over bed isn’t all enough to sit up so I spent the whole time in there crouched down or attempting to prop myself up with my elbow on the hard surface since the bed was removed. 

4/21/12

I was still exhausted today and my wrists are still sore.  But I got in there and started painting the cabover bed which is going to be a different color then the rest of the RV.  I also started painting the cabinets and am doing the “Cathy and Lee” method of painting.  I am painting the least visible places first so that I stay motivated to paint the spots that I want to see painted the most and are the most visible.  I am the most excited about seeing what color I picked for the walls and because of that I am leaving it for last so I keep it up.

 

4/22/12

It’s been a while since I have actually painted anything.  I have forgotten how easy it is.  The prep works sucks.  It took 2 complete rolls of tape and 2/3 of a gallon of primer.  That primer is so thick and it didn’t go on real easy, which is part of what made my wrists so sore.  (not to mention it made me feel so old, I can’t believe a little bit of activity like that can cause me to be so exhausted) But the act of painting is very therapeutic for me.  It’s very relaxing and seeing something transform is pretty cool.  I just hope it ends up looking as good as it does in my head.

Posted in RV There Yet | 1 Comment

Fun in the Sun and Snow Sunday

Posted on April 22, 2012 by coleio

Wes has discovered his pockets.  He has a blast sticking his hands in his pockets and walking around.  He reminds me of a 1920′s newsboy…hehe he just needs a newsboy hat, a piece of straw sticking out of his mouth and a some newspapers tucked under his arm.  It’s pretty funny when he does put his hands in his pockets he even walks with a little swag too. 

It was a nice sunny afternoon so we got out of the house for some backyard fun.  The kids played on the swings,

Here’s a view or our backyard I had on my tall boots and decided to go trekking through it.  It really doesn’t seem like a lot of snow at this point, compared to what we had I guess, but I got out there and totally sank and the snow was still past my knees. 

And then with the sun being so warm Gretchen apparently got too hot.  Here she is running around the backyard in snow pants and a tank top.  The ultimate irony.

Then Dada got out the deck furniture and Gretchen declared we needed to eat dinner out on the deck.  So we did.  It was a pretty nice evening.

The unbrella almost fools you into thinking it's tropical.

Posted in Alaska, Gretchen, Wesley | Comments Off

That’s Easy

Posted on April 21, 2012 by coleio

Wes’s vocab is just expanding daily.  He’s at the point I remember with Gretchen I tried to sit down and count all the words she knew after the Pediatrician asked me if she could say 20-50 words and gave up at 100.  He says a ton of words, just not necessarily all in one day.  His most common words and phrases right now are “trysome” when he wants to eat something we have, “hold” when he wants me to pick him up (I find this interesting because Gretchen would say “up”), “move” when he wants someone to get out of his way or he’s trying to push me to a spot where he can position himself in front of me and say “hold.” (Gretchen was way more polite and say “scuse me”)  The other day I coughed, but it sounded like a sneeze and he said “bless you” so he does have some manners.  Lately I noticed he says “a-me-me” when he wants to go with you to do something.  He gets pretty close to most words, we know what he means usually. I think my favorite is “skittle” he says “kit-til” and now a “lello” proceeds it so it (meaning yellow skittle) comes out “lello kit-til” hehe.  He also picked up “pop” pretty fast and if he even hears the word lolly pop his ears perk up and he’ll just start saying “pop, pop.”  And as all children of the Staples easy button era….now he says “that’s easy”  Check out this video, it’s pretty cute, he also went on to do a bunch of cute things.

Gretchen has a significant milestone this week.  On Tuesday night she stopped wearing a pull-up at night.  She is completely in underwear now.  Ever since the sticker chart and making her go potty in the morning she was staying dry, for the most part so I finally said when we are out of pull-ups that’s it, you can wear underwear.  She was actually pretty excited.  She kept saying, if I have to go potty in the middle of the night, I just get up and go.  And even though she has been staying dry for about a month, the first two nights she got up and went the bathroom in the middle of the night, I think just because she could.  And of course this meant she came in and woke us up which then caused us to have a discussion about how she doesn’t get a sticker if she wakes us up since it changed the whole “staying in bed all night” task for a sticker.  So far, she’s been dry at night.  I fully anticipate a night every now and then where she has an accident but I honestly didn’t expect to be at this so early.

 The snow here has been melting amazingly fast.  It recedes by inches each day, so significant that we notice the difference between when we go to work and come home.  It’s not soft enough that Gretchen can no longer walk on top and she found this out the other day when she tried to get to the swing set.  She sunk in and fell down and the evening was nice enough that I was hanging out on the deck in my socks.  I had to go back inside and find shoes to come out and rescue her but they weren’t real tall and I was sinking even more than her.  Finally I just said, “honey I’m sinking like a rock you are going to have to get your own self out.”  Then a few minutes later she yells “Mama, help, I’m sinking like a rock.”  hehe.  Giant sponge. 

Tonight we had an odd conversation at dinner.  Gretchen was pretend talking on her cell phone at dinner and we were trying to get her to end her fictitious conversation which was making us dread the teenage years.  Really, we can’t even get our 3 year old having a conversation with herself to put her phone down at the table.  Anyway, she made a comment about how she wanted me to put new batteries in the phone so it would light up and Dada says well when you get big we’ll get you your own phone and he clarifies that by saying 18 years old.  And this somehow morphed into how when she is 18 she’s going to leave home and go to college and at first she was like yeah, I’m going to leave when I’m 18 and then all of a sudden she gets this really sad look on her face, starts to cry and says I don’t want to go there.  I was like, when the time comes you’re going to want to go to college and she said “You’re making me cry”  hehe.  So we ended that conversation real fast. My consolation for her was we have a long time before that happens. 

I uploaded a few really cute videos, one of Wes dancing (adorable!), one of Gretchen dancing (hilarious) and one of some of the sandhill cranes which is one of many breeds of birds which have migrated here for a brief stay.

I spent 4+ hours in the RV today inhaling oil primer fumes trying to get the RV fixed up for the summer.  Because of our recent news our time frame to get the RV renovated got a little bit shorter.

Cute pictures:

Giddy up

 

Gretchen with Cinder

 

Yearling moose with our RV

Posted in Gretchen, Wesley | Comments Off