Alaska

Edelweiss and I were outside playing outside, and out by the neighbor’s pops Mr. Moosey. He seemed pretty curious about us and the cat and my car, Penelope, and he walked right over. Once Edel saw him, I put her inside. She was barking at him and I figured it best they not encounter each other. :)

He was just cruising around the lawn, eating leaves off the alders. I took a couple mediocre phone pictures, and a few snapchats for my homies, and then I watched the snapchat video. It was magical! All the birds were chirping and little moose was just scratching his back with his face, and tried getting a leg itch too. He has tiny little antlers budding and he’s just a yearling, so he’s pretty small. When I realized the magical moment I was having, I decided to get out the nicer camera.

Chris had a nice camera that we took on many adventures and got some exceptional photos with. Buuuut we dropped it in the ocean last year and it stopped working. We have my dad’s camera, which is nice, but not the same as our old one. But the best camera is just the one that’s with you! We haven’t used my dad’s camera much at all and have mostly just been doing iPhone pics the past year, which are pretty decent and extremely convenient. But I’d really like us to have super great quality photos again. It’s a lot of extra work to haul camera gear around, and take time for pictures and such, and then to process and go through them later, but a good photo capturing a lovely memory is worth it.

Tonight I went to the harbor to clean my one boat for the evening, and I decided to sit in the car for a half hour on my cellular, and then I got a call from the captain! He said he was out fishing with friends and didn’t need the boat cleaned. I was happy. :) I would’ve been totally fine cleaning it too, and then would’ve made some dolla dolla bills, but I’m always delighted when I have less boats.

So duh, I went and got some of my favorite pizza. And I magically ran into our good friends there and we ate together and caught up. It was great and perfecto.

Now I’m watching Snow White and growing a baby in my belly. Chris gets home tomorrow evening, or Saturday morning, and I’ll be happy to hug and kiss him and for him to hold me tight. I love him lots.

Christopher Robin has had some Boy Scout activities lately, which means less husband time for me, and more time with the animals :), and my family. I’ve been hanging out at my mom’s house more lately which is always delightful.

Chris had the boys over for a video game party, as a reward for some of them achieving their Duty to God goals, so I decided to go have a sleepover at my mama’s house, and it was so nice! When Chris finally went to bed at 3 am, he sent me this picture of Edel and Piper cuddling. Those two animals… adorable.

I think there were seven boys there, and they pretty much ate junk food and played video games, mostly Star Wars, until they were too sleepy. And then they crashed on the floor. Funny. But a really good time for them, good bonding time and hang out time. Glad I was having a party at my mom’s house instead. :) Because I got to take a bath in her lovely bath tub and then sleep in her bed, just like the old days.

The next morning, Mom had to go to her last day of school, and I didn’t wake up until she left, so I just hung out by myself. I made some flapjacks, watched the Magic School Bus, and worked on final touches of the dollhouse that I’ve been building for the past 1+ year. Good times and I felt like I was 12 again. :)

When I lived at Woodside apartments with Mom (and the older siblings probably), she worked at the assisted living place. She’d go to work at 7 (or maybe it was 8), so I’d go in with her and I’d watch Magic School Bus in the lounge until our friends picked me up for school at 8:15 or 8:30 or whatever.

And when I was leaving Mom’s house and going home, I saw Lacey girl laying in the extra bed. FUNNY. She just crawled right under the blanket and got all cozy.

Animals are funny little creatures that are nice to have around.

Oh! And Mom’s ol’ BFF came back to town after 14 years! It was so wonderful to spend and evening and afternoon visiting with the Darlings, especially for Mom and Frances I’m sure. So wonderful to reconnect.

My giant balloon cube says “Happy Mother’s Day,” but I always wonder why it’s not “Mothers’ Day” since it’s a day for all mothers, and not just my mother. Maybe someday I’ll decide or learn where I want to put the apostrophe.

My sister, brother in law, and nieces got me the giant balloon, my mom got me some happy, yellow tulips, and Chris left me a nice, little Mother’s day note. Chris was in Valdez for the weekend for the short take off and landing (STOL) fly-in. He took lots of great pictures and video and had a jolly time.

At the garage sale, I did find this treasure of a dress. Genuine vintage. :) I saw it laying on the table and knew it would be for me, so I washed it, and when I put it on sunday morning, perfect fit. And I wore my cute boots that I hardly wear. I liked my outfit, so I got a nice timer selfie with my balloon. :) Sometimes I feel weird taking selfies, but whatever

When Chris is gone, I struggle getting Edel walked and played with before I have to be at school/church. Normally I have just enough time to take care of myself, and I’m still running around the last five minutes. But sunday I woke up nice and early and had good time to take Edelweiss (and the kitties) for a little walk. Delightful. Except I walked in my dress and I got a bunch of bug bites on my legs, but that’s okay. I like my dress. And I liked the gray sunday weather.

After Saturday’s garage sale, I stayed outside to enjoy the sunshine and clean Miss Penelope Subie out. She was nice and clean for Sunday! But I got a ride to church with Mom, which was lovely. I ate my toast and drank my smoothie as we rode to church. I love living near family.

After church, my little nieces and I hung out at my mom’s house. We had a delightful flapjack feast! And I drank some chocolate cashew milk, which I’m loving these days. It’s full of sugar, but reeeeal tasty. I love Kodiak Cakes flapjacks.

Right after our flapjack feast, I was craving my father in law’s mashed potatoes and gravy. When we were staying at Chris’s brother’s house in Vegas last Thanksgiving, I had mashed potatoes and gravy leftovers over and over! And I was wanting some reeeeally bad on sunday. So I made myself a little Thanksgiving feast on sunday night after a rainy walk with pup pup. Funny. Buuuut my gravy was nasto and it didn’t quite satisfy what I was going for. The rest was still good though.

My first pregnant Mothers’ Day was a really great day. The rain was nice and I enjoyed outside time with the animals. And I felt really loved from all my family. I’m blessed with some great people and some exceptional mothers around as examples.

I spent a sunny saturday working at the youth garage sale. The best part was hanging out with these three! Fun times with our YW presidency and I’m really glad to serve with them.

Other than that, the garage sale was a load of work and I definitely complained a lot about it, and I still do haha. All of the funds go to the youth to pay for their girls and scout camps and so for many years now, our ward has been having a garage sale as the youth’s annual fundraiser. A lot of people help out, but it’s a lot of work, and I’m glad it’s over!

My belly is growing a bit! Some days it’s bigger than others, based on how bloated I am or something haha, but it’s definitely growing and I love that. I’m 14 weeks now.

The night before the garage sale, I went to Holly and Jordin’s for a family picnic and bonfire outside! It was fantastic. Even my brother was there and it’s so nice that he lives less than 100 miles away now. Aaaaand I got to play with the girls and their new baby chicks! Adorable. They got 6 little precious chicks. I want chickens someday.

5:30 am was my wake up call today… atypical. But those cats brought in a biggg mouse and were chasing it around the bedroom, then the dog was chasing the cats. It wasn’t my favorite to wake up to all their noises, and to see that poor big mouse running along the side of the wall. 

But now I’m awake and I feel rested, and that’s always a nice feeling. Especially when you can see the daylight and hear all the many birdies outside. I’m still in bed, but hopefully I get up and do yoga and maybe even go on a run! I don’t run too often, maybe like once a week. Actually, I’m probably delusional and it’s more like once a month. I did run on Saturday and it made me feel jolly good. 

There’s the 10k Spit Run every summer, and I do it every chance I get. I first started when I was 5 and I did it 16 ish years on a row. Since then, I’ve missed the Spit Run a few times, but it was always something I “liked” doing. One year I prepared for it. I was in a regular running habit and maybe that was the year I got 61 minutes at 38 seconds, which is like a 9:56 mile pace! That’s fine by me! The spit run is 6.2 miles and goes from the high school to lands end on the end of the spit. I realized I’ll be running with a belly this year, so I should probably get used to running and not shock my pregnant body with an hour long jaunt along the Homer Spit. :)

I’m really trying to focus on being healthy and strong. Growing a human, it’s kind of a big deal! I feel like my belly actually grew yesterday, or else I was just bloated from too many of my “healthy-ish” cookies that I made on Sunday. But I’m really happy about it. Can’t believe I have a pregnant belly. Still doesn’t feel supa real.  

The cats are still making a bunch of noise with the poor big mousie. And Edel is closed outside the bedroom door whining to come back in. Man, when I first saw the mouse run all the way across the edge of the wall, I jumped and panicked and tried to hide under the covers. Haha me doing that scared Chris and woke him from his slumber. 

The kitties (and mice too I guess) get in and out of the house through our bedroom window that we leave open. It’s just above our bed. So I’m worried the cats will drop their live mice toys in our bed! And if we keep the windows closed, I’m worried the cats will poop and pee inside, which is a bummer to clean up, but Chris would have to since I’m prego. Yay babies.  

I better throw some pictures in this post so it’s not just all words about my cats. They are making so much noise right now! I’m surprised Chris is still sleeping. I’m scared to get up haha, in case I see the mouse again. For some reason they’re scary inside the house. Oh, so basically something needs to change, because I don’t want mice in my bed, and I don’t want cat poop in the house. Not sure what our solution will be…

With allergy season here and increasing, I also need to keep the window closed and probably try and keep the animals off the bed, since they get covered with pollens and stuffs outside. Really, I’m just hoping to overcome my allergies and get my body to a natural, allergy free state. I just have seasonal allergies, hay fever, and I get sneezy, runny nose, itchy eyes, cough sometimes, short of breath and a little asmatic… so it’s really annoying and frustrating. 

Bel just jumped on the bed by my head and freaked me out. Thank goodness she had no mouse hanging from her mouth. That poor mouse. Bah! Piper just jumped up too, scared me haha. I’m all jumpy right now. And I’m scared to look on the floor to see a big dead mouse. I’m glad they haven’t been eating them inside and that they’re not leaving mouse guts around. That’s really good.  

Okay, picture time. 

Yesterday my funny dad brought my Subaru into town for me to start driving it again! In the winter Chris and I get by fine with one car, but in the summer we need the dreamy subie too. 

Yesterday evening we got together with the empty nesters from our ward for FHE. It was a beautiful evening at the beach and I had a couple bites of a caribou dog and way too many cheesy Doritos haha. We told them that we’ll be adding to our nest in November!

My sister and her girls came over after school to get some cookies, and the girls stayed to play. I was really glad because they’re so fun and loving. They do tend to make a lot of noise when they come over with my recorders, tambourine, harmonica, ukulele, and keyboard, but I like for them to make music. That recorder gets to me though!

We played with the little neighbor boys and that was great. Then we went to the field to play frisbee and soccer, and for Edel to get more exercise. Unfortunately she got so much exercise that she had to lay down in a mud pit to cool off! I was not happy. It was not easy to get her cleaned up. But I still like her. 

And here’s a picture on my walk to school in the morning. It takes me about five minutes to go from the house to the school and it’s a delightful walk. I keep pretty busy at the middle school, subbing there the majority of school days lately. I like it. It doesn’t pay well but that’s fine for us right now, because I enjoy it and the flexibility is priceless. Boat cleaning starts soon and it pays great. I need to work on my boat cleaning attitude so I enjoy it more. Summer is basically here!

I got a hankering to make and eat lasagna yesterday, so I made it happen.

I spent probably an hour yesterday looking at different recipes, trying to figure out the healthiest and most delicious combo. And then I spent like three hours making everything and went to bed very sleepy!

The red sauce was really tasty, and the cheese/kale mixture too. I used brown rice lasagna noodles so my gluten free niece could have some. But she’s dairy free too, so I made her some cashew cheese for hers. It was pretty tasty!

But it took a ton of work. And it was all worth it. I put it in the oven as soon as I got home from church and a half hour later, the lasagna was making the house smell tasty tasty!

This is no fancy blog food photography, but our family meal after church was delightful. My mom and sister brought veggies and a salad and we had a pretty peachy time together.

So glad we have family close by. And it’s so nice to share food together.

Ahoy (Alyssa)! :)

Home from our lovely Florida honeymoon like trip (actually it was a BABYmoon), and my body is sort of on a different time zone, so I’ve been getting up lots earlier everyday! It’s been really nice, especially since it’s light when I wake up.

Summer is well on its way to Homer and things are turning green again. I hope my allergies will be mild or nonexistent this year, but that’ll take some healing. Allergies are poopsmear.

Christopher Robin is still snoozing and I’m preparing my YW lesson for church today – Why do we need the Book of Mormon? That’s my lesson. To finish Personal Progress, the girls have to read the BoM as their virtue value project. I’ve been reading the Livro de Mórmon (portuguese) everyday for a while now and I’m proud of myself yay! I have had some non diligent scripture study habits, but I’ve been doing better lately and my appreciation is growing for the Book of Mormon since I’m reading it.

Anyway, we have some new cute neighbor boys. They like to come over when I’m playing outside with Edel. AND in our little grove of trees in this picture, I have put a bunch of little treasures – a Chris + Chelsea sign, a ceramic doll for Brazil, popsicle stick bird feeder I made, Christmas ornament, and my big pig! Well, the other day Chris and I noticed that the pig (and everything else) was in the doghouse! Turns out we found the culprits… hahahahaha. Really funny. I had taken the pig and sign and ornament out, and then they put them back in the dog house the same day! Little tricksters. They said they were trying to trick us, and they did!

Other news… growing a baby! We haven’t told a ton of non family people, but I’m maybe 12 weeks today! I have my first appointment in a week and a half, and then we’ll tell people after the appointment I think. I might tell the young women today. There’s no reason to keep it a secret, and it’s not a secret, it’s the best news ever!

We got pregnant on the first real try, which is super duper. With so many fertility issues these days, there’s always concern with that, but all is well here for now! I have felt pretty well, just hungrier, maybe sleepier, and definitely more bloated and gassy. Those symptoms are all maybe normal haha, but I think they’re pregnancy related. I threw up two times, and I’m glad it hasn’t been 200. So nice to feel good. And I’m excited for my belly to grow! I don’t think it’s growing much yet, but my baby should be 2 inches long, or maybe there’s babies…

Other news… I listened to audiobooks all day yesterday and it was great. And I cleaned house and that was great too. There’s always stuff to clean and organize, especially after being gone. I like doing it usually though, and I’m glad I have time for it. Buuuut Edel was unfortunately sick and she threw up on the carpet, right where I like to lay in front of the heater.

So in order to post some real life pictures on instagram/facebook, and not just pictures of my favorite happiest moments, I posted this picture. And I wrote “Edel threw up in the shape of Tahiti. Cool.” I did not think this was cool at all. If I did, I probably would’ve included an exclamation point, like “cool!”. Let me tell you, this was not cool. Apparently my sarcasm wasn’t apparent in my caption though, because people thought I was being optimistic about it, and I merely just know what Tahiti is shaped like. This was a pain to clean up, and will still need more cleaning up. But I like having Edel, even though there’s lots of hair and dirt and mess to clean up – she’s a good pup.

I think that’s it for my update for now, because I better get back to me lesson planning. Adios!

It’s time for a trip again! I’m headed to Flo-Rida to play with my honey husband and go to Harry Potter world before babies come!

I’ve been a poor blogger lately with my wordpress app not working, and with having some sloth like tendencies tee hee.

It’s my last day without Chris and I get to see him soon! While he’s been gone the past week, I’ve been very grateful for these creatures to cuddle with me and keep me company. They so funny.

It’s time for a trip! I’ll be in Seattle for a few days with Carlita, Portland for one day to go to a wedding of a Brazilian girl from my mission, and then Ojai, CA for a week to play with my sister and nephew and fam. 

It is splendid to be home, but it’s nice to leave every now and again too. I traveled without Christopher in a long time, and I’ll miss him lots and lots, but I’ll still have a peachy time. It is so lovely to have him around though. 

Carla just flew in from travels to Australia and New Zealand, and my $103 flight got there just 15 minutes before hers. Perfecto. 

I drove up to Anchorage all by myself, listening to a couple good CD mixes on the way. When I got there I gave the truck brother Jake and I got to meet his lovely girlfriend! They seem happy and in love and that makes me happy. Great to spend a little time with them.    
  

Driving away from our home sweet home! I love our home and life. 

My flight had so many empty seats. There was a guy in my row though, and we chatted for most of the flight. It was nice to talk with a human and not stare at a screen. At one point I was talking about the movie Alive, where the rugby team crashes in the Andes mountains and they have to eat their dead to survive for two months or something. Then when I looked out the window and saw endless snowy mountains below us, I figured it might be best to change the subject. 

We talked about family and religion. And we shared some of our faith with each other. It was great. 

Chris sent me this picture before he went to sleep, along with a bunch of funny, poorly taken selfies, and it cracked me up. I love our funny pets.   
    
 

  
I’m sitting in what I call the creation room, formerly known as Chris’s home office, and then the guest bedroom. We have a two bedroom home and since this extra bedroom is no longer husband’s work place, it’s open to become my craft room! And the place where I can make and do and learn other stuff. I’ve been excited about this room for a long time but I haven’t yet got it very organized, unfortunately. And junk and extra stuff keeps collecting in it. Need to actually get rid of stuff, instead of just putting it into a huge get rid of pile. 

I’m sitting in here burning some Christmas incense and listening to Sunday music. I’m also listening to the animals play roughly, which gets annoying lately, when the cats keep meowing because they’re bother by Edel. But the cats seem to like Edel’s affection and attention, sometimes. 

I was just doing some planning for young women’s activities and lessons for our lovely girls at church, and I was reminded of a very delightful moment in young women’s today! So we have nine girls that come regularly or once in a while and they’re all so pleasant and lovely. They get along well, they’re friendly and intelligent, and they have good families who love them. As their leaders, we try to help strengthen their faith in Christ, and to have a great time while doing that.

Personal progress is something that would help them now and in the future. Only 2 of our 9 girls really work on personal progress, but one more girl has been doing some lately and it makes me very happy!!!

On Wednesday we worked on a good works/missionary activity, and this young women finished the value experience on her own, and I’m so glad she’s doing that! At our activity we had three girls come, and we wrote letters to the sister missionaries from our ward. It was delightful, even though I was all stressed about it before. It turned out great. 

Sometimes I think the girls don’t like coming to mutual, because they want to have a better time, or they just feel like they have more important things to do, or something else. I feel the same way with plenty of commitments I suppose. Often I’d rather enjoy some home time with Chris, but I’m usually always pleased when I go, whether it’s an activity, meeting, volleyball, family home evening… I almost always am very glad I went. I want the girls to learn and grow and have a great time, but it’s been hard preparing and planning for that every week. We do what we can though. And we love our young women, which is most important. 

7 am. Chris’s alarm went off and he pressed the first snooze, or rather he swiped his phone so it would snooze and we could lay in bed longer. I texted my mother and telling her that I didn’t have a sub job today and I hadn’t gotten any school calls yet. Fun! She told me to have a fun day playing house! And oh, I will, Mama. I love to be home. 

I love playing house. My first thoughts took me to a memory of my four year old self, playing house at the playroom at our home in Anchor Point, AK. This playroom eventually became my bedroom when I got older. Lucky me! My dad built a loft in it, and there was a little window/ledge area in the loft, that I recall pretending to serve food from. Or maybe that’s where my parents would bring me food while I was playing. I’m picturing a plate of sliced apples. 

My siblings are 4, 5, and 7 years older than me, so I played by myself quite a bit, but I played by myself quite well too, even when I was a wee little babe. That’s what Mom tells me. 

I picture myself dressed up, maybe carrying some dolls around, most likely Suzy and Lulu, playing house in the playroom. I loved playing house. “Do you want to play house?” 
   

I love to be home, going through stuff, cleaning up, making things better and more cozy, while listening to music, books, or talks, or with a movie on, and possibly while making some food. I love being home and helping to create a home of love, peace, and harmony. 

When I was a preteen and teenager, I’d spend hours “cleaning my room.” I’d go through all my drawers and all my stuff, find homes for things, dream of things to create… Dad never understood why I’d “clean” or organize for so long without many visible results. But I guess it was my way of playing house. It was my space and that’s where I’d color on the walls before they were painted, I’d rearrange my sponge bob and Disney princess posters, slather glow in the dark stars/animals/feet all over my walls and ceiling, I’d plug in my colorful little disco ball, and I’d display my fun mini things. 

Things haven’t changed too much. Instead of wearing dress up clothes to play house like I used to, I now wear a pair of favorite leggings and a favorite t shirt that belonged to husband. Instead of carrying around dolls, I carry around cats haha, since we don’t have babies yet. And instead of rearranging my posters, I’m rearranging fotos on the wall, snapshots of great moments of our lives. I still like my glow in the dark stars, but I no longer have glow in the dark feet and animals on the wall.  

Sometimes I get frustrated with house work, like when the cats aren’t doing well with toilet training and they go to the bathroom on the floor, which happened twice yesterday and twice the day before. Or when we have to vacuum all the time because our dog and cats leave hair around. Or when the dishes have crunchy food on them. Or when the food storage sits on the counter for two weeks. Or when our “guest room” (that I’ve renamed the “creation room” so they it be a place of creating), becomes the “junk room” and fills with all our (mostly my) random stuff. 

So yes, sometimes house work can be a drag, but playing house is something I love. Always have, always will. 

Yesterday was Wednesday. My question of the day from my perfect Q&A a Day journal was “If your day way an animal, what animal would it be?”

I decided it’d be a camel, not just because it was Wednesday, but because the day had some humps, some good highs and definite lows, but it was steady, kept moving forward. Parts of the day were slow, parts were fast, some parts looked kind of funny, but overall I liked it.

The past few days of work have been enjoyable. I’ve been in the intensive needs classroom at the middle school, where my mom works. She works with great people. 

After school I needed to prepare for our combined activity at church. The young men and young women were having a cake/cupcake wars activity, with a Plan of Salvation theme. They split themselves into groups of 3-4 youth and began creating!

Plan of Salvation graphic
Here’s the creative creations. :) I’m so pleased with how the activity turned out. Sometimes things take a lot of work, time, and preparing, and I get worried that it doesn’t matter, that my thoughts and efforts aren’t good enough. I actually started crying a bit on the way to the church last night, because I was overwhelmed and frustrated with Wednesday activities. Once the kids were all in the groups and working together to make Plan of Salvation creations, it made me really happy and glad. I serve with great people, who are helpful and dedicated, and I’m so glad Christopher serves with the youth too.

Sacrament meeting enlightened me yesterday. Friends and acquaintances bore testimonies that helped mine and strengthened my gratitude for God. I don’t doubt the love or omniscience of Heavenly Father. At times my faith and hope waiver because of my limited vision. And other times I get complacent and comfortable, and I neglect to recognize God’s grace in my life. But the testimonies on Sunday reminded me of how much we need the Lord and each other.

There was one young woman who bore her testimony about personal progress. That is a YW president’s dream! :) Most of the young women in our ward don’t do much with their personal progress, but a couple do, and it makes a big difference in their lives. At the end of the girl’s testimony she said, “I’m grateful for Sister Palmer and her helping guide the young women,” and that made me feel good. I don’t need public shout outs, but they are helpful sometimes. In helping the YW at church, I think too much about what I could be doing and I don’t recognize the good that I do do. (haha, doo doo). There’s always plenty to do in the various callings and positions that we serve in, but the most important thing we do/way to be is to love those we serve.

I’ve been wondering about the organization of the church lately, and wondering why it is the way it is. I’ve heard things like: the organization of the church is perfect, but the people aren’t. On Sunday I got some answers to those wonderings/doubts of mine. The church is like a family, a group, a community, and we strengthen and uplift each other. We all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. And we can help each other grow closer to the savior.

My faith is what is is today for many reasons. One of the big reasons is my family, and how I’ve learned to live the gospel with them. Other reasons are sunday school teachers, seminary teachers, local auxiliary leaders, local and worldwide church leaders. Many many people have helped me learn more about the Godhead and help me have desire to follow God’s plan.

My dear amiga, Sister Taylor Moyes, currently serving a mission in the Philippines, said this in her latest email: “I particularly like the talk given by Elder Dale G. Renlund “Through God’s Eyes”. He states, “to effectively serve others, we must see them through a parent’s eyes, through Heavenly Father’s eyes. Only then can we sense the love Heavenly Father has for all His children. Only then can we sense the Savior’s caring concern for them”.”

Church was great. I love going. And I love when we’re early. And yesterday… I was totally ready for church early! I got plenty done in the morning, got ready quickly, and felt like a beauty, and everyone likes that. :) I wore a vintage polka dot dress, perfect length, great sleeves, with pockets, that I got a thrift store the day before. It has buttons going up the back, and I wore it with my favorite caramel brown belt and shoes. Feeling good in my clothes and skin (even though it grows whiter everyday) usually always make a difference of how I feel during the day. Chris looked equally nifty today so we took a little self timer picture after church. Not the best quality or angle, but it brings good thoughts to mind. 

After church we came home and finished preparations for our annual Super Bowl festa. We had a bunch of friends over. Most were from church since that’s our main social circle, but he had a neighbor family come over too which was really great. I want us to be great neighbors and I want to know all our neighbors, which we currently don’t. We are in dog conflicts with one of our neighbors, which is hard for me, and for her to, I’m sure. Anyway, Super Bowl party, we had lots of food and lots of people and some football too.

We just mmmmmmmm 

Decided to go to temple. Was daughter a lot. So special dealing whole.fr ref for

Getting ready to get  the I T woke in morning. I I skeeptbejertyktu

I wrote that post last night as I was falling asleep. Not sure what most of it means. Typing while sleeping is so hard!

It’s 3 am on Sunday morning. I’ve been house cleaning and organizing the past few hours. I like doing that. Although sleeping would’ve been better so that I’m not a sleepy sloth face tomorrow. Buuuuut that’s okay.

Chris and I spent the past few days in Anchorage. We hadn’t been to the temple or Costco in a while, so we made the trip. We actually hadn’t even been more than 10 miles out of town for two months! Chris did some work related things up there, and we stayed with our good friend Richard. We ate yummy Indian and Mexican food, and experienced some cooler temperatures!

Homer has been so not cold this winter.  We haven’t had much snow and right now, the earth is soggy and brown here. We still see beauty surrounding us, but when I walk through the forest, I can’t help but think of the lone and dreary world haha.

These pictures are from my walk with the animals before we got on the road on Thursday. My mom and also good friend kindly took care of our pets while we were out.

  
As soon as we made it to anchorage, we went to our friend’s apartment and used the bathroom before we went to dinner. Well… Bad news.

I somehow caused the toilet to overflow… That wasn’t very fun but it was a little funny, and embarrassing of course. Fortunately most of the poo flushed down the toilet instead of overflowing onto the floor, with the exception of a piece of corn. Hahahaha sorry if that’s too much information for you, whoever is reading this. Needless to say, I didn’t poo in the toilet again and held it till I could get to Fred Meyer. Thanks Fred!

While Chris worked, I was going to wander around the thrift stores and find treasures, but I decided to use my time better and I went to the temple. How lovely. And I went to a thrift store later, so perfecto. The temple is always a good place to go.  Our Anchorage temple has very limited hours and work, and instead of doing initiatories I did sealings. I hadn’t participated in those in quite a while, and I’d never seen a sealing where more than one child was sealed to their parents, so that was new. I got to be sealed as a proxy daughter many many times and it was so special. There were a good bunch of souls in the room. I love temple work.

We also went a visited some family friends and their precious, premie baby at the hospital. I’m very glad we got to go and I hope we were a joyful visit to them. We’re blessed we got to go and meet the little baby.

Well, I’m sleepy. Chris and I made it home from anchorage. First we went to the temple together and I got to listen to the session in Portuguese! Very special. I love Portuguese. After the temple, I went to my favorite value village and found some treasures. Our drive home had plenty of really beautiful snow!

 It’s always nice to get home! We and the animals were happy to reunite. :) There’s still a lot from our Costco load to put away, which I’m grateful for. Sleepy. Oh! I went on a run tonight! It was nice and starry and only a few cars drove by where I was running. I don’t like when cars drive by as I run so that was good. :) I haven’t gone on a run in months. Anywho, we’re having a super bowl gathering tomorrow after church. Okay, time for bed!

Self love has been on my mind a lot lately, especially now that it’s February: love month! Recently, a friend did a selfie and affirmation challenge on Facebook, and it was very refreshing to see her honest, open, real, and beautiful posts. She encouraged self love and self acceptance. I’ve also sort of been doing a 30 days of yoga camp (but only once or twice a week instead of every day) that has been using simple affirmations which encourage mental and emotional well being. The emails I get for that each day are pretty uplifting, but then I get discouraged and annoyed because I’m just reading the emails and not doing the yoga haha.

I think the people of the world could use more self love, myself included. I think I’m a pretty neato human being, with some great strengths, plenty of weaknesses, and with a very blessed soul, and I want to have more love for myself. Negative thoughts are toxic and dumb and positive thoughts are super super duper!

I was feeling a bit discouraged tonight, maybe because it’s monday blues, or winter blues, or PMS, and so I read some love notes I received from people from my mission in Brazil. Those people gave me so much love! Reading their notes reminded me of the treasured memories and feelings, and of how blessed I really am. I am so grateful to the open, nonjudgemental friendships I have with people from my mission  – companions, friends/family, and people we taught. I can’t express the joy that their love brings me and my gratitude for their Christlike examples.

So for some self love… here’s a few things I love about myself.

I love that I’m happy and cheerful; I believe it’s a God given gift. I love that I usually choose to be happy and I generally make pretty good choices to keep me that way.

I love that I’m a peacemaker. Oh, I love that a lot. I think it is something that first came naturally to me, but is also something I have sought to develop so that I can help bring a little peace to others. I love that I’m not contentious or argumentative, but that I try to keep an open mind and understand what the other people are going through.

I love my body, usually. I want to take better care of my body, for after all, we only get one! But my body is great and takes such good care of my soul. And I take pretty good care of myself, just want to be better, I guess, like eating better and exercising more regularly. But I can do so many wonderful things with my body and I hope to always appreciate its beauty and function.

I love that I make super great cookies, and other tasty food too. But I love being a good cookie maker.

I love that my parrot earnings are Chelsea iconic and that I wear them all the time.

I love that I have bluish-greenish eyes. I love that I tan well. I love that the end of my nose is really squishy and folds in half.

I love that I’m kind.

What do you love about yourself?? Write it down. <3

Just finished watching Downton Abbey. It was soooo good. We love that show and I love watching it cuddled on the couch with Christopher. We’ve had a lot of good memories with Downton Abbey marathons and I’ll miss all my Downton “friends” :). BBC shows are the best. 

This has been such a lovely Sunday. Chris gave a great talk at church, about the happiness we can experience on earth and the eternal happiness we can have through Jesus Christ. He’s a great speaker. After church we helped an older lady move some furniture, then we came home and ate butternut squash soup from last night, and of course some cookies. 

  
Husband and I hung out at home all day together and it was so delightful. We watched movies. He slept. I did a puzzle. We ate. We took Edel on a walk. We laughed at our animals. I ate way too many dried nectarines (which have been nicknamed “bum peaches”). And now we’re going to bed. Lovely day and back to school and work mañana!

Saturday morning! Exclamation point!

I’ve had a long few weeks at middle school and with middle schoolers, and I’ve missed waking up when I want, and doing what I want when I wake up. Today is a day where I can do that and I’m happy happy about it! Naturally, I woke up at 6:55 am hahaha. During the school week I get out of bed about 7:15 am, so it’s funny I woke up earlier. But I feel well rested and it’s so nice to not have to get out of bed and get ready for school though.

Getting up has been especially hard for me lately. Maybe because it’s always dark when I get up, and the bedroom is usually chilly willy. I want to enjoy getting up, so I’m working on that. Any tips? Dancing around like a kook when I wake up is helpful, gets me moving and awake. I don’t do that very often, but I shall.

In 8th grade language arts yesterday, where I subbed for two days, the kids were asking me for some “pearls of wisdom” that they had to write down. One wanted to write what a fellow classmate came up with: “Hope is like pizza, great!” Funny. But they requested some from me because they had to write down some “pearls of wisdom” from an “adult.” :) I had a hard time thinking of any on the spot, but my mind turned to some great peacebuilders: Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and David O. McKay.

Dr. MLK: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

David O. McKay: “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”

Gandhi: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Mother Teresa: “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”

And thinking of peace building always takes me back to President McKay’s prophetic vision for those of BYU-Hawaii (12 Feb. 1955): “Those noble men and women, the world needs them. One man said the world needs men who cannot be bought or sold, men who will scorn to violate truth, genuine gold. That is what this school is going to produce… You mark that word, and from this school, I’ll tell you, will go men and women whose influence will be felt for good towards the establishment of peace internationally.”

Hahaha the cat just jumped on the keyboard, stood on the power button, and turned on some demo beat song.

This morning after laying in bed on my phone, with Chris sleepily cuddling me, I came out in front of the heater and explored pinterest. I don’t use pinterest that much, but it has a lot of beautiful ideas and gets my creative juices flowing. I found I bunch of great quotes that I had previously pinned on there as well, so to continue along with the Pearls of Wisdom, I shall share them.

Now it’s time for a walk outside. It’s light out. And it snowed almost an inch last night… we’ll take what we get! Snow brings beauty and magic!

I’ve been substitute teaching lots lately, which is good, but it made me especially excited about a three day weekend! Thank you Martin Luther King Jr. :) I know his contributions to society are incredibly greater than a simple day off school, and I’m glad we have a day focused on remembering his influence.

I like my Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be one of adventure. It’s tradition. :) Two years ago, Chris and I very spontaneously went to Kauai for a four day weekend (also sort of a honeymoon), and last year we went on a frosty camping trip to Hidden Lake. I don’t remember many Martin Luther King Jr. days before those two, but I decided I want to have a tradition of an MLK day adventure.

Chris and I talked about taking Edel and camping on Captain Cook beach a couple hours away in Nikiski, or walking from Bishop’s Beach to Diamond Creek beach in Homer, which would be roughly 6 miles maybe. Not sure really. Buuuuuut MLK monday morning came around. We slept in. That was sooooo nice. I didn’t wake up in the cold and dark to an annoying alarm sound disturbing my dreams. Gah, waking up is hard to do, for me. Actually it’s just the getting up that is hard for me. But this MLK day wake up and get up delightful.

Chris had some work to do, so I took him in about 11. He later went to lunch with his friend and I went to lunch with my friends, aka my mom and sister. My lunch with them was perfect, just what we all needed.  The food was tasty and the conversation was truthful and deep.

Chris kept working and I hung out at my sister and brother in law’s. I played with my nieces, zoned out watching a bit of Big Bang Theory (so glad I don’t watch much tv, though I definitely get excess screen time with phone and computer), and then the girls and I decided to make a little adventure happen.

  
We went to the beach. It’s not a humongous adventure, but the girls and I can turn simple things into adventures.  Katy, age 7, almost didn’t join us because she got weird at the last minute and decided she didn’t want to come, but I’m so glad she chose to join Natalie and me! The girls’ dog, Cody, was also along for the adventure. We hadn’t taken him to the beach in a while and we were all happy to do it.

Once we got to the beach, we ran into, like 15 other dogs, and some human friends too! And then the girls and I just wandered around. It was perfecto.  

Chris met us down at the beach and we explored together. Natalie brought a jar to catch some sea creatures since it was low tide, and she caught a couple see through tiny fish things. Katy danced around by herself, went to the ocean, threw sand around, and took her gloves and coat off for a bit. Cody, the dog, took the gloves and ran around with them in his mouth playing with them. He’s so funny when he does that. He loves gloves, shoes, and socks, or anything that will get a person to chase after him.  

  
Our beach adventure was simple and rejuvenating.

 The girls and I even stopped at Two Sisters bakery on our way home and got some tasty treats. I had some mini cards in the car so we played war and go fish too. Perfect. Before getting in the car we slid around on the ice in the parking lot. I want to go ice skating. And roller skating. I wish we still had a roller rink here… 
And some MLK quotes to end the day:

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

“I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”

“We must all learn to live together as brothers — or we will all perish together as fools.”

“What is wrong in the world today is that the nations of the world are engaged in a bitter, colossal contest for supremacy.”

“Mankind must put and end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

And my current favorite:

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”