Song Lyrics

I sang this song at church today and it was really moving. God put this song on my heart several weeks ago and it seems he wanted the whole congregation to hear it. Now I'm being moved to put the words here, too. Even if you don't know the tune, you can reflect on the words and maybe shift your holiday focus back to the original reason for the season.

There are people who are whispering,
and the rumors are running wild.
There's a woman who's not married
but she's gonna have a child.
Her name is Mary; she's a virgin
from down in Nazareth. Now listen close:
She's gonna marry a man named Joseph,
but the baby's father is the Holy Ghost.

And who do you think
could believe such a thing?
Could believe that this story is true?
Who do you think could believe such a thing?
Well, here's hoping to heaven you do.

Now they're sayin' she had the baby
in a barn in Bethlehem.
And the star flew 'round in heaven
'til it stopped right over them.
Then some shepherds said an angel
came and told them 'bout the birth.
They always knew men went to heaven,
but now God had come to earth.

And who do you think
could believe such a thing?
Could believe that this story is true?
Who do you think could believe such a thing?
Well, here's hoping to heaven you do.

Mele Kalikimaka

OK, we're ready to go on the annual Lockwood Family Christmas tree hunt!The angle of this picture is strange. Can you tell that Greg is walking down a big hill after scouting the forest from above? I didn't think so. Well, he is. I'm taking the picture looking back up the hill after slip-sliding my way down. BooBoo is hanging on for dear life!Talk about the lap of luxury! Those girls just whined and fussed and rode around in the sled all morning. I fear Greg may have three women "helping" him with the tree cutting. And everything else he does for the rest of his life.Close up of the lounging ladies. It was pouring down rain, but they were pretty snug.Critiquing the technique, I think. We just wanted a small tree since we aren't going to keep it up for very long. You'll see why at the end of this post, if you haven't guessed already.TAH DAH! The best one in all of Alaska! Yay Daddy!OK, raise your hand if you want to get back in the truck.... I think Amelia's hands were frozen to her jacket. Hey, wait! There are three girls in the sled! Let's go in for the close up...Wow! Hope Daddy ate his Wheaties today. Actually, the girls and I sledded all the way back down the big hill - about a half a mile, while Greg dragged the tiny yet perfect tree back down to the road.Mush, you huskies! Get to work, girls!Here, little child, carry this dangerous saw and snap to it!Ooh! The money shot!Let's put it in the truck now. Show all the contestants what they could win, will you, Dearie?At last, the angel. And a topper for our little tree.Merry Christmas from these Cutie Patooties and their parents!

Some observant readers will no doubt have pondered at length the title of this post... "Mele Kalikimaka". Good show, dear readers - you have discovered the secret.... we won't have our tree up at Christmas this year, because we will be in Kona Hawaii on the Big Island with Greg's whole family!

In the flurry of packing and racing around rather aimlessly, we have completely missed sending cards this year. Instead, many of you will receive colorful postcards in the next few weeks. We hope you relish these tokens as you welcome in the new year. Look for plenty of tropical pictures to come.

Happy 2009 everyone, and...

merry CHRISTmas!

Missed one!

Oops.

In my haste to get some new pictures on the blog last week, I omitted a particularly important one. In the following photo, please note that the granddaughter, Gwen, is only four and a half years old. I won't tell you how old Granny is, but she is not quite 5'2". I think we will have at least one very "tall" daughter.

Let me elaborate on why I've placed the word tall in quotes. In this family, "tall" is a relative term, literally. My family's tallest immediate member (my brother - correct me if I'm wrong, Adam) is a whopping 5'9 (and a half)". Greg's immediate family has three people over six feet tall - Greg, his dad, and his brother.

So it is distinctly possible that while Gwen only grows to about 5'9", she'll be an amazon in my family. And a pipsqueak in Greg's.

OK, after all that, here's the picture:

It really won't hurt my feelings if...

... you would all just flat-out admit that you do not come here to listen to me blather on about anything and everything. I know you only check in regularly for the pictures.

Well, I aim to please, so enjoy...

Clowning around in their PJs:At the mall for trick or treating:

Halloween dress-up day at Gwen's preschool. Amelia thinks she is a big kid, too: The girls just couldn't get enough of Granny. Here they are at a new restaurant in town. Thanks again to Granny for treating us at "Japanese Steak Teriaki Sushi Bar" - Hey, that's exactly what the sign says. Anyway, look at these big hugs! My mom loved it!Auke Lake with Mendenhall Glacier in the background:

At Rotary Park with Daddy on one of his lunch breaks:

Sisters marching in the park. Man, doesn't Amelia's attitude come shining through in this picture? She is in charge and she knows it!

Granny and her eagles...

My mom is here from Ohio and we are having SO MUCH FUN! She and the girls are just finishing the same book for the 1100th time this morning. now there are starting a new Pooh video. Yes, a real VHS video. Anyway, the girls are so happy that "Granny" is here. They will sure miss her when she goes next week.

Last Monday, Greg took the day off work. So Granny and I (me sans kids for the first time in almost five years!) went to Haines Alaska via the Alaska Marine Highway System for the day. We were on the F/V Malaspina and went up specifically to see the world's largest concentration of American Bald Eagles. It happens every fall at about the same time; thus, this: http://www.baldeaglefestival.org/index.html. We opted to avoid the people crowds so we could focus more on the eagle crowds. We must have seen about 500 eagles, maybe more. It was hard to tell since they wouldn't stay put. They were just magnificently mingling, as they are wont to do. The weather was great, the company first-rate, and the eagles were certainly abundant. Well, see for yourself:

Fortunately, we didn't stumble upon the brown bear crowds...
We will sure miss Granny when she leaves but have had a super time with her. And we still have five more days! Yay!

Dis an Dat

A little of this, a little of that....

I got Facebooked in a bad way and I'm sorry to say I am chilling over there most days when I could be blogging. To regain your good graces, dear reader, here are some catch-up photos.

'Tis the season... for violently hacking up an innocent vegetable and placing its carcass on your front stoop:

Patiently drawing the design...

Peace, my brother!

Ewww, gourd guts!

'Tis also the season for SNOW! We got several inches last weekend and it was beautiful! The girls loved it, but then it left and that's OK too.

Macaulay Salmon Hatchery field trip

WOW! Gwen had a field trip today to what us locals call "DIPAC", or Douglas Island Pink and Chum. The kids had so much fun, but it's possible the adults had more fun. The facility is really great, and Rich, our teacher for the day was wonderful. His assistant, Jodi, also had a lovely rapport with the kids, who were pretty rapt the entire visit. The aquariums are always a huge hit and here's why:FYI, that is a Christmas anemone, assumedly due to the red and green variegations.Henry the octopus-

Did you even know seastars even came in so many colors?In light of the upcoming Depression, my go-to question at each station was "Is that edible?"

Time Suck

Woah. I got sucked into Facebook this week, and it has been a mixed bag. On one hand, I have gotten a little bit caught up with some old friends from high school. On the other hand, my dishes are going to fall over and squash someone.

Speaking of squashing someone, here is a picture of me before my new job orientation on Wednesday. Yikes. Good thing I'm down 7 lbs, huh? Whew - that picture is very good motivation to get to the gym!

Well, we are all aflutter here at our house. I just started a new part-time job, and will begin another one before the end of this month. I can do both jobs from home, luckily. My mom comes to visit for 18 days starting Oct 27, just hours after Greg leaves for a week-long training in Anchorage. On Nov 1, Gwen preschool has its Fall Festival, which I am chairing. It's a fun event for 40 three- to five-year old kids and their families, including such activities as pumpkin bowling and musical hay bales. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the fun when I have a chance.

Until then, here's a picture of Amelia's day. I snapped this from the loft. What a patootie!

Well, what can I say?

No. Really. What can I possibly say about this week? We were just carrying on and living our life. Nothing particularly poignant or clever or exciting. In fact, it was relatively boring. We can sum up our week in a few bullet points:

• Gwen has an awful cold. She feels fine, but sounds terrible. She has missed some school. Poor thing.


• Amelia is a stinker. She knows how adorable she is and works it to her advantage. Spanks and scolding do not phase her unless they are from Daddy. Wonderful.


• Greg got to take the boat out fishing, probably for the last time. He and a buddy (and the kids) got skunked but had a great day to be on the water. This is a shot from last week when Greg and Gwen went down to the hatchery to see if they could snag some silvers. Greg is getting a little concerned about the lack of meat in the freezer now that we've had our first freeze. Or two.


• I started my fall soccer season yesterday. I'm the manager and we're playing in a new facility which is pretty cool. Even though the new field house is great, I kind of miss our old gym floors and the hard walls. Regardless, it was fabulous to get some exercise.


• Greg and I are still going strong on http://www.bfl.com/ and my total loss for the week was 3.5 pounds!! Yay! Greg's progress will not be noted herein.
• We've had just a few nice, sunny days in the last couple of weeks. The girls and I are enjoying every one. Look! Amelia is finally getting some hair!And I don't really have a category for this picture. I just thought it was kind of neat. And no, that is not Tina Fey. It's getting hard to tell, huh?

Let's Talk about Weather, Baby!

It is AMAZING here in Juneau today. It is downright balmy at 58 degrees. That's almost 60! In practically October! WOW! It has not been in the 50s in months here. I bet we didn't get up to 58 more than three or four times all summer. We are heading outside for some fun in the sun (and possibly a migrane) ASAP. Seriously, doesn't this day just scream for some bike riding and swing swinging? We're on it.

Meanwhile in other weather news, this morning there was a BLIZZARD ADVISORY forecast for Thompson Pass near Valdez. (Greg and I did a celebration dance in the bathroom this morning when we heard it.... as in "yay, we don't live there anymore"). Sorry to all our friends still in Valdez, but we are so happy not to have to shovel and plow our way through another winter. Of course, this is seriously jinxing us... I'm sure Juneau will now have the most snowfall on record this winter, but at least we'll have today.

UPDATE: The blizzard warning was cancelled. They are still expecting enough snow to limit visibility to less than a mile, though. I'll take our rain any day. OK, every day.

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle...

...the first thing that I'd like to do is to go back to last week and blog all this stuff as it happens, not inundate my loyal readers all at once. Nonetheless, I will proceed now to do just that.

Where has the week gone?

We've been quite frazzled around here since Greg returned from his sheep hunt about three weeks ago. It is a long story that Greg will gladly tell anyone who wants to call up here and get the details.

Gwen had a few field trips at school, with the seasonal tree and bark rubbings, and of course the obligatory leaf drawings and other autumn-inspired crafts. As a family, we have been enjoying the fall colors as well. In fact, we went for a hike out Montana Creek on Saturday and while we have no pictures to share, I can tell you that both girls got a closeup view of the creek. Gwen fell in as she was making her way out to Greg who was so busy casting that it took him a moment to help her up. Alas, not a fish in sight. So, as we were looking for some pretty rocks (OK, I'll admit it - I was looking for gold flakes! It's hard not to!), Amelia took a header right in to the frigid, glacier stream. Luckily, Mommy had a change of clothes for each girl and we were none the worse for wear. What tough Alaskan kids!

On Sunday after church, Gwen and I attended a birthday party for a classmate, Maille (pronounced "Miley", but with the traditional Gaelic spelling). Let the adorable pictures begin!!Yes, it was a fairy and pixie party! They played Fairy Queen Says (like Simon Says, but way more fun!)Fairy wands up, Fairy wands down. Oh and even though Gwen and I were completely ignorant in the ways of the pixies, we soon realized that fairies and pixies have to hide when a human comes close.... in fact, the fairies turn in to flowers and have to be really still until the danger passes. I'm still contemplating all the ways I can continue to utilize this fact for years to come....Pin the fairy on the flower... Gwen's fairy was the closest to the center!And here she is with about half of the girls in attendance. All of them are classmates at Gwen's preschool. They made their own fairy crowns and fairy wands.

Nothing else to report except that Greg and I have started on another 12 weeks of Body for Life. I lost two lbs in one day! Yeah, it sounds good now, but I'll let you know my total for the week - that is the real gauge. The last time Greg did a stint of BFL, he lost 50 lbs, FYI. We are in crunch mode now. Exactly 12 weeks from yesterday is the day before we leave for Hawaii. It is awful to have all the staring and pointing when you're on the beach - and not from the paparazzi, either. It's because all the spectators can all tell we big, white tourists are from Alaska. Anyway, I suspect we will still be fairly white in 12 weeks, but hopefully not quite so big. And do not ask, for I will NOT be posting any "before" pictures here.