Alaska

In a world that’s becoming more and more secular, I’m so grateful there are still things like kids’ Christmas concerts. Most of the songs and performances were light and super fun, but there were a few CHRISTmas-y moments that were really special to me. 

First of all, I got lazy and almost didn’t go to the concert, because I wanted to stay home and decorate the tree and put some more lights up. Like I didn’t have all day to do that.  

   
Cutting down our tree was funny. We found it on Sunday night and it’s a beauty. We don’t have a saw or an axe, but luckily Chris has a nice serrated blade on his leatherman. Once we discovered that blade, ten minutes in to sawing the tree with a dull blade, cutting down the tree went pretty quickly. Edel was happy to join us and Piper, the spaz kitty, was happy to be there as well.   

This year we have a tree stand! That makes the Christmas tree thing much better. :) you may notice a little pile of lights that I still need to wrap around. Earlier when I was putting light on the tree, the tree started to fall over, and Chris and to fix the tree stand. He said something about how Christmas can be kind of annoying or frustrating. He had just untangled a chunk of lights too. Now there’s some random Christmas decor strewn about the living room they I don’t feel like cleaning up. Maybe tomorrow. :)

Back to the Christmassy moments of the day… In the concert there was a 5th or 6th grade Down’s syndrome boy being guided by a fellow classmate around the stage. The helper boy seemed so so kind. It was pretty sweet and reminded me of the goodness of the savior. Alyssa, you would’ve loved that moment and the performance too, and especially at the end of the song when a couple of the special needs kids were so happy with everyone clapping. Big smiles all around.

  
Another great moment from the concert was accompanied by the song “Where are you Christmas?”, which Faith Hill rocks at.  There’s a deaf girl at the school, and she and a bunch of her classmates signed that song! It was awesome. The interpreter lead the students in the song and most of the performers were really into it, and I bet it made the deaf girl feel so included in a world where she’s so different. I thought it was great and it helped me focus on the words of the song too. We can find Christmas with lots of love!

  
The other highlight of the concert was watching little Natalie dance around in her paper leprechaun hat, banging exercise balls with sticks, and listening to the foot stomping, Celtic version of her Christmas song. 

spoiler alert :) if you don’t know what happens at the end of the Hunger Games series, you might not want to read this yet. Just know that I had a good time at the movies and I’m happy.

11:30 pm. Christopher and I just got home from the movies! Our little Homer Family Theater is so cozy and since tonight was monday, it was only $6 each! What a deal. We didn’t go to the movies too often when I was little, but I do remember watching Aladdin in that theater! Except then, it had big murals on the inside walls, and lots of spit wads on the ceiling. But now it has like some sort of sound board panels or something. I miss the murals. I think there’s less spit wads now though, so that’s always good.

I haven’t read the Hunger Games series, but I did watch all the movies with Chris. I think I watched the first one with him when we were dating, and we probably fell asleep on the futon in his living room, and after the movie was over I probably tried to get up and go home, without wanting to, but wanting to at the same time. :) I love that I can have sleepovers with Chris every night now! I don’t ever have to get in the cold car and drive home because I already am home. How happy.

The third hunger games movie I watched here on our couch, cuddling with Chris. I remember when it was over I just wanted the next movie to be out so I could know the rest of the story! Actually I would’ve just preferred if they made the third book into only one movie instead of two. Harry Potter is the only story that can split into multiple movies. I wish there were five movies per Harry Potter book. :) Actually, I don’t know if I wish that. But I am happy they have Harry Potter on audible now so I can listen to the books again! I love listening to them. Jim Dale does a perfect job with the audiobook.

Back to Mocking Jay part II (here’s the spoiler), I really liked the ending. It was happy and sunshiney. The whole war and battle was not my favorite part, but it was pretty crazy when Katniss shot President Coin. I suspected it, but I didn’t know if that’s what she was going to do or not. So that was a good surprise and I liked how it turned out and Panem was better off without Coin (and Snow) as leader. And then Katniss went home, and there was her sister’s cat. :( That was sad but good, and cats are great. So sad her sister died though, and I liked how true her emotion seemed.

Then I loved when she and Peeta met back up at home, and he had primrose flowers. How perfect and sweet. And I like the name Primrose. And then they were just bffs again! And lovers too. After the whole story and all the battles and war and lack of peace, Peeta and Katniss had perfect moments of peace. And I thought that that’s what it was all for. For people to love each other, especially Husband and Wife, and then for them to have babies and teach them how to find peace and joy. The ending was great.

I loved what Katniss told her baby, that she sort of plays a game in her head about thinking of every good thing people have done. These days it’s easier to lose hope in humanity, but it’s important to remember that there’s still hope and there is still so much goodness in the world.

The image from the movie was most piercing to me was when Katniss got in bed with Peeta and they cuddled and fell asleep together. So that’s what Imma go do right now with my honey husband. I’m so grateful to have Christopher boy as my companion and that he loves me so much. Life is great with him. <3

I left my Alaskan home in Monday, and got on a few airplanes until I made it to Salt Lake City. How amazing they we can get on an airplane and be almost anywhere we need within a number of hours.

Our friend is taking good care of our animals and home and we are ever so grateful. It’s not an easy job and it’s so so helpful to us. Thank you Emily! When I left, I was a bit sad to leave the animals, and my family members too, but we’ll be home in a few weeks, just in time for the local nutcracker!

My plane ride was great. I slept, listened to good música, and read a super great general conference talk for 1996.

I miss Brazil. Well what I miss are the Brazilians, the people who gave me so much unconditional love, people who don’t have much but who are willing to give it all, people who make the best rice and beans seasoned with garlic and onion and some meaty thing probably, people who are humble, beautiful, and who have taught me to be more Christlike. I hope they all know how much I love and appreciate each of them and all they have given me. 

There’s one Brazilian lady, Isabela, who would tell us the English she knew. She had a tape and workbook or something that went like this: “I’m eleven….” and then “I’m eleven too!” And I love hearing her say that. I miss her. For some reason that plays on repeat in my mind “I’m eleven too!” And sometimes I even say it out loud. 

Speaking of more elevens, today is eleven eleven, Veterans Day! At school (3rd-6th) they did good things to commemorate and remember Veterans Day and I learned when Veterans Day first began! I forgot now, maybe 1919 with Roosevelt? Not sure though haha, I need to study up on my history!

Chris told me how he has national pride on this day, proud for the values that were fought for, and for those who served and gave their lives, proud of that old America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

11-11 is also especially special because you get to make wishes all day long! I used to be big into wish making, but I’ve forgotten about it the past few years. I guess my wishes all came true! :) At one point I’d wish eveytime I through a banana peel, since I ate so many bananas. I shall start wishing more and throwing good thoughts out there, because there’s still plenty of good wishes I can make. 

  Natalie and I made pie and yum!
There are many suffering in the world, so much suffering that I don’t even know about. I know we can make it through our pains though, and with God, we are capable of so much. I’m grateful for the freedoms we have here in America, and especially in Alaska, and I hope we don’t lose them! Either way, we’ve always got the freedom to choose. Oh! Also, when we obey, we’re free! I think I was listening to a talk from general conference that said that, how obedience to God is freedom! So let freedom ring, my friends.  :)

Yesterday’s Christmas light magic:

    
And today’s… Nice. They got knocked down. :( 

November. I love November. It’s a time to gather, a time to give thanks, and a time to prepare for Christmas! I wore a Christmas/winter sweater to church today and listened to some Christmas music tonight. It was delightful. I wore some nice blue tights too to keep my legs warm in the cooler weather.

Right now I’m in bed alone, wishing Chris was here to keep me warm. But I at least have our dog and a couple cats. They sure are nice to cuddle with. ❤️ I dropped Chris off at the airport tonight to go to an aviation conference in Texas. We’ll be apart for two weeks, until I meet him in Utah. We’ll spend Thanksgiving time in Utah, Vegas, and California, then we’ll be HOME for a good while.

It’s always hard to find someone to take care of our animals while we’re gone, but with good effort and the Lord’s help, it always works out. Still working on finding someone to stay here for the few weeks we’ll be out. I’m sleepy. Edel girl just jumped up on the bed to perfectly spoon with me! That’s nice. If only the cats will cuddle with me too. We shall see haha.

The animals, especially our German shepherd, Edelweiss, are plenty of work and make our house lots dirtier and so there’s always something to clean, but I love them anyway.

I miss Chris. He’s such a good cuddler and I love it and his love.  Here’s a sad airport picture. Funny that we’re not both looking at the lens at the same time, because Chris always gets on me about looking at the camera lens and not at my reflection in the screen hehe.

Here’s some catch up of the Last two weeks since being home from Brazil.

Not pictured: changing the cat litter (ugh), washing the walls and carpet from a dirty puppy that’s gets hair and dirt all over. Also not pictured: the unhealthy eating of unhealthy foods I’ve been doing lately (oops, time for changes), me not going visiting teaching, staying in bed late like a bum sloth, my skin growing more pale day by day, my cat getting fatter, our fluffy cat missing, and other minor and less minor struggles that we go through, but life is also full of these wonderful moments that are pictured.

At Katy’s 7th birthday party with loads of temporary tattoos and with my sister who is a great mom.

  Natalie and I adventure walking from the beach to home. Cats included! And check out those delicious fall leaves!

Walks with Chris are lovely. He always walks our dog Edel and half the time I don’t join, but if Piper is outside, she always goes haha. She’s such a spaz sometimes. Like right now as she’s attacking my rabbit fur! Turd.

  My mom, sister, and nieces and I hang out a lot and I love it so much. Here we are with a pile of Brazil stuff I needed to go through. 
Kiana’s Homer missionary farewell. She is such a gem and she and her brother create great music together! She’s off to the missionary training center and then to Italy for 18 months!

Watching a sunrise at 9:20 am, from my favorite perch of dead trees and stumps in the swamp.

Kindergarten teacher by day, sloth by night! ;) Sometimes I teach kindergarten, or anything else needed. I love subbing.

  I went to pick Natalie up from school with Edel. I took her a cookie too. It was so great to walk home together and she loved it. 
I had a special afternoon with Katy too. She was wearing all black because she and Natalie got in a fight and Katy said Natalie didn’t like black, so she wore it, hahaha. Here she is making an egg!

  Natalie and I played at her school playground and it was awesome. Super fun. I don’t want to forget how to play! On this day Natalie was wearing all black. Katy picked it out for her and it turns out Natalie doesn’t really mind black. 
Lots of good things in this picture. I remember reading that the number one need of a dog is exercise. We do what we can to exercise edelweiss and keep her happy. She’s a lot of work, but she’s a really good dog and I love having her here with me when Chris is gone. And when he’s home too.

  Fresh salmon from din din!
Seminary one morning. News flash, they changed some of the scripture masteries! Who did that?! It totally threw me off.

  We made homemade corn tortillas! They were delish and we had a yumm Mexican feast and rented movies or watched BBC stuff on Netflix. I love making food together and need to make it happen more often. 
I got a yummy salad when we went to our friend Richard’s birthday dinner put a bajikkion craisens in my salad. So I made a smile with it. I only like about five craisins per salad. How do you spell craisens or craisins?

  Super awesome clouds one morning. 

Beach walk to help Chris take a little break from being at work all day. He’s been working so much, too much, but it’s temporary.       Natalie reading! She had a hard time reading in school her first couple years, but loves it now!!
These moccasins…. Fixing them for Natalie’s Halloween costume.

  Katy dodging a picture because she got upset since she couldn’t do what she wanted on my phone. 
A drive by picture of beluga slough. Wow! Going to meet our good friends for dinner. Such beauty! We saw a bunch of whales in the bay too on our drive out to the end of the spit. It was awesome. And then I ate a yummy salad and tasty mac n cheese for dinner. :)

  I voted! For our bishop to be a city councilman. 

The best and pinkest morning sky I’ve ever seen. This is one of the only reasons I’m thankful for daylight savings. Otheriwse, daylight savings is silly silly. But today I was able to get out of bed and have loads of time before church. It was great! Our life is good and we are grateful. :)

   

My dear brother, Jake, is currently living in Bethel, Alaska working as a dentist at the native hospital. We don’t get to see each other too too much, probably a couple times a year, and we all wish he lived closer. 

We texted the other day and he said he just got out of Denali, and I wondered if he might be in Anchorage when Chris and I flew out. But I forgot and never asked. 

To get to Anchorage from Homer, it’s a four hour drive. It is an option to fly from Homer to Anchorage, but it’s not inexpensive so Chris and I drive when it makes sense. Christopher and I left home when we planned and were doing pretty good on time. There was some construction on the drive up and lots of fireweed fluff fluff!  The yellow leaves were so beautiful too. Fall… It’s lovely. 

   
 
  
Anyway, when we finally made it to the airport we were cutting it so close on time. Nobody likes that. Chris insisted everything would be okay, and that’s always nice to hear. Security took much longer than normal to get through, and normally it’s a pretty quick process. But I was standing there staring off and I hear, “Chelsea” and then I looked up and there was my brother! We got to hang out for about a half hour and it was so good. Rejuvenating. I love family and I’m really proud of Jake. 

 Chris and I leave tomorrow and next week we’ll be in Brazil! I can’t wait to go back. Glory glory glory. We’ll be in Georgia/Florida for some work and play stuff for the next week, and then… BRASIL. I loved my time there and can’t wait to reconnect with the people and gain more and more appreciation for the land and culture, and to share that all with Chris.    
    
   

Being an aunty is the greatest. Playing mom for a few days is harder. :) I guess there are bigger ups and downs, greater struggles, greater rewards. 

This morning was more difficult. There was some crying, fighting, frustration, I yelled, I apologized, and in the end the girls both told me they loved me when they got out of the car. <3 Natalie actually didn’t say “I love you” but she sent kissy lips my direction. I love my nieces so much and I’ll be so happy to give them cousins someday. 

So last night when I went into the bedroom, I found Edelweiss already warming up the bed for me. :)

The girls are going to stay with us for a couple days methinks. Tonight we got their room set up (aka I cleaned out all the junk that’s been collecting in there, stashed some of it in the crawl space and garage and put a bunch in a pile to get rid of) and they put glow in the dark stars all over. It’s wonderful. Christopher and I need to put some more in our room too.

The girls were kind of disappointed that they didn’t get good, fun, Chelsea hangout time tonight. I’m not sure what they were expecting, but there just wasn’t a lot of time tonight. It’s a school night so we can’t exactly stay up till 3 am like last time. :)

I’m excited to have the girls with us though and I love them so much. They help me be a better person and aunty and future mother. In this picture they’re fake sleeping, but right now they’re real sleeping, which is important. Glad they’re here!  
Chris and I are having a sleepover tonight too. :) He’s texting his brother right now and I’m blog journaling as you can see. We just had a big talk about our pets growing up and it was funny and good. He told me about raising rabbits, and having a pen full of baby bunnies. They stopped raising rabbits when they found out people were getting them for snake food. He said they always had plenty of cats too. I told Chris about all the dogs we’ve had through the years. I remembered Bosco, Buffy, Jazzi, Pickard, Peanut, Maggie, Peanut, Schnapps, Sammy, Buddy, Emma, Isabella, Daisy, and a few cats here and there. And also there were the chinchillas, iguana, african gray parrot, ducks, chickens, birds, bunnies… Yay animals. They’re so nice to have.

What a delightful saturday. My dear mother picked me up this morning, just after 8, so I could go to my sister’s house for a little bit and watch her girls. I look young in this picture, like 12, maybe because I just woke up. At least I’m wearing my favorite blog reader‘s Brooklyn sweater!  

I had a great morning with the girls. I love being with them. Sometimes I get frustrated, but usually it’s just fun and I learn lots from them. Today, Natalie (8) and I were staring at each other and she told me I have hair on the end of my nose. Funny girl. Then she said we have hair all over our faces so pretty much everyone has a mustache.

I cleaned a house on the bluff this afternoon and the view was spectacular. It’s sometimes such a joy to clean up on the hill, because it’s so beautiful from there.

This afternoon I cleaned out my ol’ trusty (and rusty) Penelope Q. Subaru. The dust was caking on her (and all the little plastic toys glued to the dash) and it was overdue for a cleaning! It feels much lovelier and less embarrassing in there now.

Man, I ate a load of chocolate tonight. I feel kinda sick. And dinner was so delicious and nutritious, so I don’t know why I felt the need to wash it down with chocolate haha.

Today I got the GREATEST MAIL ever! It brought me so much joy to hear from Ezio and Jeane, and to see a picture of their sealing two years ago at the temple. Those two… Oh how I love them!!! They’re some of my very very most favorite peeps from my mission and people I think about most days.  

When Chris and I are home together in the evenings, we watch movies usually. He continues working and I do random stuff. Today I colored.

Beautiful beautiful harbor views!! 
I’m sleepy. Time to cuddle with my bestest boy Christopher! Hope you enjoyed these photos and random words and thoughts that might not string together very well. :) Peace out girl  scout.

My dad went back to work yesterday. For a month instead of two weeks. He just sent this picture, said it’s snowing, and that he just saw a polar bear. I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, and it turns out he wasn’t. He said, “it wasn’t a very big one though.” And  he also texted two emojis of a panda bear. :)

Also my kitties joined Edelweiss and I on a walk this morning and it was funny. Cats. Hahaha
 I just went to saveumore (Homer’s mini Costco like store) to get some cardboard boxes from their recycle bins. There was a nice and funny older man there getting newspaper. He told me that newspaper is like fine linen or something haha. And that he’s using it for cleaning up from canning. When I left I said, “have a good day!” And he said, “Week… A day isn’t long enough.” :)
Been praying and fasting a lot lately and that is good and true and powerful.

My oldest sister, her husband, and my darling nieces have pretty much always loved here in Homer. It is soooo nice having them here. That family had filled my life with fun, adventure, and good food.

They’ve been in Minnesota (where my brother in law is from) for the past week and a half, and today my sister and her girls get home. I’ll be so very glad to have them home.

Here’s  some pictures of what’s gone on this September month so far. As per usual, boat cleaning. It’s getting darker so much earlier now. I really shouldn’t be cleaning past 9 pm, but sometimes I do. Thanks to the harbor lights, it makes it sort of okay, and I can still clean fine. Chris has helped me clean more boats lately which is always so awesome because it goes 2-3x faster. 

Here’s our lawn. :) It’s about 7 feet tall or so. Hahaha. We never mowed it. Chris bought the house 3.5 years ago and it wasn’t landscaped. It still isn’t. Obviously. It bothers me what our neighbors might think, but I know we’re good people, even though we haven’t made a lawn. :) And it mostly just bothers me what one of our neighbors thinks about us, because we’ve already got some conflicts with our dog and her dogs. I hate tension in relationships and I don’t really know what to do about that. Honor my senses I suppose.

The past few days have been sad and emotional with a family crisis, but this flower made me happier. I usually pick them a lot throughout the summer and use them as natural air fresheners in my car. They’re SO fragrant. They’re like Alaskan roses or something. I don’t know. But I love them. I pick them from the high school or by the bowling alley/flashing stop light.

My mom bought this dollhouse kit ten years ago, and I’ve been working on it the last six months. I won’t tell you how many hours I’ve put into it haha. It’s been a lot of work and some fun too. Mostly I look forward to putting in all the cute little furniture and having my nieces play with it at grandma’s house.

  
Edelweiss gets her walk every morning. Chris usually takes care of this and I clean up the house from the night before, and often I make a fruit and veggie smoothie for us. As soon as Chris gets back from the walk or run with Edelweiss he heads to the office. And he’s been spending most of his time there lately being pretty busy with a big project he and his team are working on. Some days I stay home (which is my favorite), some days I clean guest houses, and some days I substitute teach. The past few days I’ve been watching a friend’s baby too. I want a babies. Soonish.

I love to be home. Cleaning never seems to end, and I know it’ll only get more as we have kids. It’s just me and Chris and our animals now! But there’s an unending list of house stuff, and I love having and making a home.

I love going to church. I love the feeling when I follow the spirit.  I love personal progress. I love the young women here. I love that I had no boats to clean tonight. I love my home. I loved when my nieces and I built a fort in it last week and we stayed up till 3 am and I made brazilian rice and beans and rice krispies and we watched Egyptian cartoons and documentaries. I love my nieces. And I love their parents. My sister and her husband are a blessing to my family. I love them and they love each other.

I love my dad. It’s his birthday today. he is one of the coolest beans I know. My family, each of them help me a lot, and I love being with them. I love God and that he has given me such good, good people. 

I accidentally ate a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s today. Oops. That is bad. I really prefer the talenti double chocolate chip gelato, but safeway (formerly Eagle) isn’t selling it anymore! So what does one do?

On the plus side, I’ve been doing great at reading my scriptures everyday for almost a month!

School has been back in session for a full week. I’ve been at Paul Banks elementary everyday a subbing in special needs, and it’s been pretty great. It’s been pretty tiring going from a full day at school to a night in the harbor, but it’s only temporary. I’ve definitely complained though! And I feel like I haven’t been able to spend hardly any time with Chris or my family. I’ve just been kind of drained and I’m ready for a true day of rest! Fortunately I had a day of rest, without any boats even, on the day before school started! Ah… Such a great day it was. I love to be home and free. School is a great place to be too. 

My first day of school I was kind of nervous and I didn’t know what to wear. :) But once I got to school, the teacher I was working with had an R2D2 shirt on, and I felt mo betta. 

Well I just fell asleep typing so I better slumber! Chris flew a float plane the other day and he loves to fly!  

I saw a little kid otter in the harbor the other day and hung out with it for 45 minutes! It was so cute. And I saw it poop twice, so that was cool.