Tongue Twisters

"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

Remember those?

My kids are into playing games at the dinner table. We have evolved from the "Number Guessing" game to more elaborate thinking games.

Our current one we call the "Place Game." The first person names a place (county, state, city, etc.) Then the second person has to name a place that begins with the last letter of the first persons place. The third person names a place that starts with the last letter of the second persons place and so on.

Example:

1st Person: New York
2nd Person: Kansas
3rd Person: South America
4th Person: Afria...

There are a lot of places that start and end with the letter A! It is fun finding or thinking of A-places that end in another letter.

My kids love it! Slim will get out his globe and try to look for new places and the Montessori education is really showing on Peaches when we play.

Last night, for reasons still unknown, last night they decided to play a rhyming game. Well, that eventually morphed into doing tongue twisters, which eventually lead to creating our own twisters.

Here are the best ones:

How much alligators could Allen avenge if Allen could avenge alligators?

How much garbage could Gavin grab if Gavin could grab garbage?

How much lunch could Levi launder if Levi could launder lunch?

How much candy could Claire carry if Claire could carry candy?

How much nickles could Nicole nibble if Nicole could nibble nickles?

How much junk could Josh jump over if Josh could jump over junk?

How much could a goat float if a goat could float on a boat?

How much orchids could an octopus open if an octopus could open orchids?

Memory Eternal

Christ, All-merciful Judge, vouchsafe Thy servant Russell the sweetness of Paradise.

My Journey to Orthodoxy

I wrote this article for my church's monthly newsletter:

My journey to Orthodoxy began before I was born. It began before my parents were married; before they had even met. My journey to Orthodoxy began with a man in Anchorage, Alaska named Harold Dunaway.

In 1971, Mr. Dunaway was able to buy a large piece of property, a former Catholic Monastery in the growing town of Eagle River, Alaska. Mr. Dunaway was only able to purchase the property because of a very generous and unexpected donation. He fondly remembers that this was “how we found our home.” That home became the gathering place for a group of Christian seekers.

Soon that home established by Mr. Dunaway, now Fr. Harold, and his wife was where my parents dated and later married. A little over a year later, I was born into this evolving Christian community. Gradually we established a school, newly married couples built homes, and eventually a graveyard was needed. In 1984 every member of this large community donated their Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend check towards the building fund. We needed a cathedral.

Three years later, on April 1, 1987 this growing group of Evangelical Christians made the ultimate leap. En masse we were received into the Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Philip. That spring, I was one of about 2000 Evangelical Orthodox Christians in North America chrismated into Orthodoxy by the Metropolitan. Metropolitan Philip’s words to all the faithful on that day were, “Welcome Home.”

Although the decision to become Orthodox was made by my parents, by the time we were officially accepted into the church, one of my parents was not there physically. Six months before we were chrismated, my father, Russell, was flown from Anchorage to Seattle for emergency surgery. He never recovered and died a few days later.

One of the last things my mother remembers my father telling her was that he was going home. She looked at him, holding his hand and agreed. “Yes!” she cried, “we will go home. You will see the children soon.”

“No, Annie. Not that home. My real home,” was his reply. My father knew he was leaving this life. He knew he was going to see his Creator soon. And he fully accepted that. It took me much longer to accept.

Home can mean many different things to different people depending on personal circumstances. To Fr. Harold, a home meant a place to educate young people, to teach people about God, and to begin a life-long journey. To my father, home was his final destination. To Metropolitan Philip, home was the church that he was introducing to hundreds of families. In my life, I have come to associate church, specially the Orthodox Church, with home. Throughout my short life, I have seen that the church has given me what I needed, whether I realized it or not, which is the exact meaning of home.

Many converts to Orthodoxy—and I do consider myself a convert—mark their chrismation or baptism as a focal point in their life. Many people see their life changing on the day they married, or on the day their first child was born. Not me. My life is separated into two parts by one day: September 30, 1986. This was the day my father died.

Losing a father at an early age was not easy. I was the oldest of four children. I was old enough to remember my father and to rebel against my new one, but young enough to still need a father. Two years after my father’s death, my mother met a man at work who had recently read about the Orthodox Church on his own. When he discovered that my mother was Orthodox, he immediately was drawn to her. Not long after their first date, they were engaged.

When my mother and step-father were dating, my priest, who also happened to have been my father’s best man, took me on a drive. We went to McDonald’s and just talked. He was very frank about death and about how strong a man my father was. We were all new to Orthodoxy, so looking back, I imagine that many of the things he was telling me were just as new to him.

When my mother married my stepfather I protested as good as I knew how: I refused to stand during the entire wedding. I was a mean and harsh daughter to my new father. I set a horrible example for my younger brothers and sisters, as well as to my two new brothers. I struggled during the rest of my childhood.

Gradually the layers began to melt away. I slowly learned that life resumes, good things continue to happen. I learned how to pray for my father. I learned how to timidly ask him to welcome newly departed friends and family into the Kingdom of God. Asking him to pray for my family and me was a powerful lesson. When I graduated from high school I was given an Orthodox Study Bible by all the faithful from St. John’s in Eagle River. My priest had taken the time to highlight one passage in my Bible. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelations 21:4. This verse still gives me comfort.

My husband, Joshua, and I were married at my home church in Eagle River. The next day we packed all of our belongings into an ocean freighter and moved to Everson, Washington. Over the years we have attended four parishes.

Joshua’s job soon took us to Everett, Washington where our son, Levi, was born and Joshua attended Western Washington University. When Joshua was accepted to the University of Washington Medical School, we decided to move to Seattle, where our daughter, Claire, was born. About three months before graduation, Joshua’s residency schedule was revealed.

The process for applying for residency is a bit crazy. Basically each medical program ranks the applicants in the order that they want them, while the medical students rank the programs they want to attend. On one day, every medical student in the country finds out where they are going. Joshua and I fought a lot during this ranking stage. We both wanted different things out of residency. He wanted a reputable hospital while I wanted to buy a house. He wanted the Pacific Northwest, I did not. Thus, we did what most couples do, we compromised; we spent long hours battling over the ratings of each program, over each city’s merits and potential lifestyles until we both felt that at least some of our desires were represented in our final ranked list.

In March 2009, we found out we would be spending one year in Spokane, Washington and four years in Portland. Let’s just say this was NOT what I wanted! But upon hearing our assignment, a deacon at our church in Seattle came up to us beaming. He said his two favorite parishes were in those cities! How blessed we were to be going to these two magnificent places! He was the catalyst behind our family finding St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church.

Time and a positive attitude, but most importantly faith in God, has shown me just how right our deacon was. After a year in Spokane, we moved to Portland in order for Joshua to continue his residency at Oregon Health & Sciences University. We chose a home relatively near the church and enrolled our children at Agia Sophia Academy. The community of St. John the Baptist shares so many of the positive characteristics that I idealized and romanticized about my home parish in Alaska. Qualities that I thought could never be duplicated or re-created.

In short, I have found a new home.

All He Wants for Christmas...

This Totally Works

Tree Fort & Backyard

I promised pictures soon, didn't I! Pretty impressive with my timeliness, if I do say so myself...

Anyway. Tree fort first, since the pictures uploaded that way.

Here is the view from the porch (newly finished, I might add! Pictures to follow)


The windows: (again, from the ground)



Inside the fort portion:
And, finally, the crow's nest. Here are the stairs going up, and then the kids at the top:


Impressive right??

On to the patio/backyard. It was actually really hard to find pictures of what the back patio looked like before our version of extreme makeover! These pictures are from when we first started to do the project. You can clearly see that we used to have a plain concrete slab. Take special care to notice the pole.



And here is the totally finished project!:

YES! That is the pole! We basically enclosed it with 2x8's stained the wood and then built a concrete block structure as high as we wanted the base to be. We covered the concrete blocks with real rock panels and viola! A totally kick-booty drink holder!

Here are more pictures of the area: (note how impressive the grass seed has come in)



A cute purple bench that I built:


And, my favorite views: (this is coming in from the side gate)

I did manage to find this picture from when I came down for the house inspection in February 2010.

We basically eat outside for every meal. These past two weeks of to-die-for-summer-weather has been heaven. We are definitely getting our use out of the patio!

I am eagerly awaiting your comments announcing your arrival for summer bbq's, fires, and margaritas!

An Overdue Update

Good morning faithful readers!

As you may note on the date/time stamp of this post, I am writing this at 9:30 on Sunday morning. Any other Sunday the computer would be off, the children would be dressed nicely, coffee would have not been made, and we would be heading to church. Alas, Hurricane had to work today and Slim was throwing up in the middle of the night. I had brief visions of sending Peaches to church with friends, but all our friends have young children. I thought it would be particularly cruel of me to add one more child to any of our friends brood for them to keep an eye on during church. Especially my hard child. So, we three are home. The house is particularly messy (more on that later) and the kids are playing nicely today. In fact, they have been playing nicely for the past four days... I wonder why? Oh, right, that is the exact amount of time that Slim has been sick!

He got this virus from me actually, so I can totally empathize with how miserable he is. Basically it is a very severe sore throat. The reason the kids have been getting along so well? Slim cannot talk. That is right! It hurts so bad, you just shut up. That was me last weekend. I survived on Starbucks frappuccinos. Slim has been requesting Costco berry smoothies. Something about the coldness of those drinks makes the pain bearable when you swallow.

Last night, at about 11pm, Slim woke up, stumbled out of bed all groggy-like and came into the living room. He coughed and then threw up. It was pretty sad too, he is just miserable. We eventually made it to the bathroom for the rest of the discharge. (Part of why the house is a mess)

But, since I had this exact thing last weekend, I know that he is on the mend, and should start feeling a lot better tomorrow.

So, let's detail the other things that are going on in our lives.

In Alaska, Slim went with his cousin to a Taekwondo class. Love was instantly formed. The first thing that he wanted to do back in B-town, was find a Taekwondo place. There is one a mile from our place and we are now proud parents of a Taekwondo enthusiast. Slim begs to go each night, concentrates super hard and puts forth tons of energy and effort and comes home super sweaty but happy.

I have to say, I really like the style of Taekwondo too. Each child addresses the teacher and other students as "sir" or "ma'am". They are expected to be polite, quiet, focused and obedient. During one class, they were practicing flying jump kicks (yes! Slim totally did it!) and one child was having some difficulty breaking the board. The other students started laughing and the instructor immediately told them all do to push-ups. Six-year old push-ups are pretty cute and funny and not technically good, but the point was instantly made that laughing and making fun of others in simply not tolerated.

We are also back into swimming lessons for the summer. We go Tuesday's and Thursday's and FINALLY Slim graduated enough to be with his sister in the 'C' class. Peaches is still a total fish and loves, loves, loves being in the water. Slim tolerates it. At least we have left the fear stage of water for him, though.

I started my half-marathon training this week too. Only two weeks behind schedule! My girlfriend from Utah is flying up and we get to do the race together! So I have some wicked good incentive to actually train and not slack off.

After living high off the hog for June and July, we are back into super strict budget mode. I swear, it is SO easy to spend money. A little too easy! I am seriously considering a cash-only budget, and Hurricane is totally willing, but the thought is very daunting.

Summer, thus far, has been a bit disappointing.

Don't get me wrong, we had a fabulous time in Alaska, we have been having fun hiking and playing. I guess I just have this nostalgia about summer being care-free, easy, and relaxed. I dream about sunny days, my kids running through the sprinkler, eating Popsicles, laughing. Ahh, summer. But summer is actually a lot of work! Who woulda thought? Somebody actually has to wash those towels, clean up the grass clippings that eventually make it inside the house, open up those Popsicle packages, make snacks, and pack lunches. Who? MOM!

But I have also been sick twice, just in July. Slim is now sick, our backyard has totally consumed our lives, we drastically overspent on our vacation, Hurricane's new work schedule is very demanding and my summer activites plans are harder to implement than previously thought. I have been pretty dedicated to manners though. Especially dinner manners. We have made tons of progress in that area!

I find it hard to get 'normal' activities done. By that I mean anything I want to do: sewing, knitting, reading. You know fun things. When does school start??

Finally, a back yard update. And a moment to brag about my husband.

We finished the patio. We built an incredible fire pit. We added a post to the patio that looks structural and elegant. We laid down grass seed. Hurricane completed the best tree fort imaginable. It even has a crow's nest that you access with a winding staircase and rope rails. It is pretty freaking cool.

My hubs has been working on this project since January. This past week he was on total complete mode. Yesterday, his ONLY DAY OFF for eleven days, he spent working and completing the fort. Like most of the projects my husband wants to start, I was less than enthusiastic about this one. I liked the "elevated porch" idea of a fort, but not so much the enclosed structure or the crows nest. Especially not the spiral staircase! But, like most of the projects he completes, he did a fabulous job and I stand corrected. The kids love it. Peaches wanted to sleep on the crow's nest last night and went so far as to bring her pillow and blanket up. Yikes, now there is a scary thought!

We will let them sleep in the house part, but Slim is still too sick to even entertain the idea. I guess the throw-up mess could have been avoided right? Better to hose off a fort then clean up toilets, carpet and towels.

I will add pictures soon. And not two weeks soon, hopefully later today.

Okay, I think that is enough of an update! Off to tackle the kitchen and laundry!