3 WEEKS!?!?

WOW! It has been 3 weeks since I have posted! I have been home for 3 BUSY weeks now. WOW!

Well, let's see...Lukas had a birthday & he is now 15 years old. We had a pizza party for him (Heidi has the pictures on her camera, will post when I get them)! We went craigslist b-day shopping and found GREAT deals on weight bench & weights. Huge savings, I love craigslist!! So now we have work-out equipment here at the house. Luke and Lloyd work out almost every evening, pretty cool.

Then came Holly's groundbreaking for her house. There was music & prayers for the workers and the families getting the houses. Some finger food & another tour of the Rosewind common house. (AWESOME!)
The girls played & played and ran & played some more! It is going to be such a great neighborhood for them to grow up in! Yesterday was Holly's first jobsite day, 8 hours of foundation work, then her regular shift at The Upstage, ouch! It's going to be physically draining these next few months for her. But, the pay off is soooo worth it all. A home, in Rosewind, in PT, with an affordable mortgage. Lifechanging! Yay, Habitat for Humanity!!

The weather has turned to SPRING and Lloyd has rototilled the garden, nights are still a little too chilly for tender plants.



I finished painting in the dining room & we got a new chandelier!
Another in-house miracle, I rigged up a shower!!! Yes, it is true-Naomi & I can both get a decent hot shower-in our own bathroom-from 1 heated bucket of water! We transfer the hot water into a solar shower bag (really simple actually) and the pressure is not bad at all. I am really happy with it. Naomi was impressed.

We did another craigslist shopping trip on Lloyd's Monday off. (the mill is trying to save $$ by having the guys take every other Monday off..? tick-tock) We drove to puyallup & got a canopy for his truck for only $100 dollars! What a deal! And it was a beautiful day for the drive, Naomi rode with us, she was just walking home from the bus stop as we were leaving. We had a nice time.

Tomorrow is Lloyd's payday, so, grocery shopping day! AND then, on Saturday morning-my girlfriend Rachel & her daughter Caila & Naomi & I are all driving down to Bend, Oregon! We are going to Rachel's cousin (and my good friend from childhood in Alaska) Sarah's house and all of us are going to Sarah's little sister Emma Hill's concert at the Tower Theater in Bend! It is sort of a family gathering for them & we all grew up together, so I'm going, too! I am really excited about it. Emma has a new album out & Sarah has a new house and a daughter I haven't met yet. Really should be a lot of fun.

Phew-there it is...the outline of my past 3 weeks. Of course there is TONS more, TONS! But, those are the highlights. I'll be sure not to take so long between postings. AND get my camera working for more pictures!

Home on the Range!

Yahoo! I made it home just in time. I arrived last night and the volcano blew up again today!

I am so happy to be home! What a wonderful greeting from my family and my animals. Hugs and licks and purrs(and that was JUST from Lloyd!) AHHHH HA HA HA. My little dog Hazel was the happiest, even this morning she was still overjoyed, so cute. Heidi was so relieved she cried. Tiger & Vi were very sweet, too, with sweet smiles and long hugs.

Today was sunny & warm & perfect! I had coffee made by my lover and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Tomorrow we are going to grill some moose meat that I brought home (thank you, Grant!).

Lloyd was able to get our oldy OLD rototiller running and tomorrow may see a freshly tilled garden here on the Hill! Hummingbirds were here and drinking at the feeders, the daffodils are ready to burst open.

My flight was so great-the two guys that sat by me were funny & nice & interesting. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. When we got over Port Townsend the pilot circled the plane around to slow our arrival to get in line to come in to the Seattle airport. It was like I had asked them to give me a perfect extended birds eye view of MY little town!!! It was SO SUPER cool! In all the times I have flown I have never had such a fantastic view. What a gift! It made me really happy. Blue sky, all shades of GREEN land and deep blue waters with the sun a-blazing over all of it. Wonderful. The only glitch- I watched 90 percent of Slumdog Millionaire and then the flight attendant wanted my digi-player back for landing :(
now I have to buy the DVD. I would have been able to watch the whole thing, but I took a break when snacks came to eat and visit with my seat mates. It was the right choice.

I had a good time visiting with my family and friends in Alaska the last week I was there. The trip was very worthwhile over all. It had very intense, but meaningful moments & a bit of good old lighthearted good times. I feel like it was very healing for me. I have held a lot of resentments and I think that I have finally worked through most of that. I feel genuinely live-and-let-live. And that has been my goal, my ideal. It was quite a journey. I feel relaxed and relieved and ultimately-HOME.

life is sweet...