Are you KIDDING ME???!!!

This week in review:

Kindergarten craziness, surprise mullet.... a friend tells us her daughter who was over here all day on Wednesday and went with us to the salon for Gwen's 'do tweak (which is growing on us and looks super-cute) now has lice. Amelia had a 102-degree fever and the rest of us had scratchy throats and flu-like body aches yesterday so we all missed Church, and today Amelia got stung by a bee, which is more than a little alarming since Grandpa is allergic, so I'm constantly checking her for anaphylactic shock and other symptoms. We start school on Thursday and Greg "won" two used commercial (like Deadliest Catch?) crab pots in an auction.

Where is the Candid Camera crew and the laugh track? Surely someone is joking.

Usurper of The Day

Something unexpected happened this week, Tuesday to be exact. It overrode, or usurped if you will, everything else that day.

We've had a whirlwind school season so far and it hasn't even started. We had planned to send Gwen to a Christian school here in town, but after an orientation Monday night, we sadly and suddenly pulled the plug. Gwen would have started kindergarten on Wednesday. But alas, she is still home, while I am frantic to enroll her in another school.

All day on Tuesday I was on the phone or the computer getting tips from the other moms, some of the admin staff at various schools, and even the inside scoop from some of the teachers I know. I spent hours talking to principals, librarians, and to poor Greg who was at work while I literally freaked out at home. As of this post, it seems we have found a school and we are pretty pleased with our decision.

Back to Tuesday....Mid afternoon, during Amelia's naptime, I came up for a much-needed breather, some water, and to answer nature's call and found this:

Kind of alarming to see scissors lying about on the bathroom counter when I've got a toddler, but Amelia was sleeping so I was able to remain calm.

And then I saw this:

Why, it's the bathroom rug. Hmm. What could be strewn all across it? Bend and peer at it closely.... scanning, scanning..... my, my, what's this in the waste basket?

My voice quavered like that of a starlet in a scary flick... "Gwen? Where are you, Bug? Gwen?" Of course with my mother's intuition, I vaguely understood what had happened. But until I saw Gwen, I didn't really grasp the abject horror that had now become my eldest daughter's hair....

BEHOLD!

THE MULLET TO END ALL MULLETS:

(Goodness, I didn't realize how much these looked like mug shots until just now.)

Well, I'll have you know that I am very proud of my reaction. Those of you who know me well will hopefully be rightfully impressed that I said,"Oh, wow. What happened here, Punkin?" while my inter-monologue skipped along with, "Are you KIDDING ME??!!! School pictures are in like TWO WEEKS! OH GREAT! Is that a MULLET?!! Wipe that smirk OFF YOUR FACE right this MINUTE!!! I can't believe I'm on the phone trying to find the BEST EDUCATION for you and-now-you-look-like-you've-just-been-through-chemo-no-wait-oh-man-you-look-just-like-my-brother-where's-the-Flowbee?" (Yes, we do really have one of those. Greg uses it religiously.)

So, we raced off to the salon. There was some hacking and some whacking and then we ended up with this:

I ask you, does this look like a child who is ashamed of her actions? Embarrassed? Chagrined in the least? Nope. We even asked her while we were out visiting last night how she thought Mommy felt about the new haircut. She didn't have any ready response, so I led the witness a bit. I asked if I was mad about it and she quickly, confidently answered "No", as if it was preposterous to think I'd be upset at all. Thus I must have successfully hid my true feelings of sorrow, resignation, and self-recrimination. But be assured, she is not getting unsupervised scissor time until she graduates from high school.

I keep trying to remember that it really could've been worse. I have an ongoing list of positives running through my head...

She didn't poke out her eye. She didn't maim herself or her sister. We can see her pretty eyes and face. No more tangles and fights about brushing. No more losing barrettes and hairbands. No more syrup and yogurt and milk getting into those long locks.

She is beautiful, but I really think this is just a precursor to the teen years. And I'm more than a little scared.

Granny's in town!

We have been on an exciting whirlwind since last Wednesday when my mom flew in from Toledo. Boy are her arms tired! :) Actually, she is pretty wore out....We've been hiking several times, fishing hard for halibut, on the ferry back and forth to Skagway, on the White Pass Yukon Railroad, and now Granny's recovering while we get packed up for derby fishing this weekend. Hard to believe she's only been here a week! The girls are loving it, but they are a little pooped too. Photos to come soon. Thanks for checking in!

PS: During all of our travel, we've been having a robust discussion on whether the girls look anything alike or not. These are bath pictures when they were each just under six months old. You be the judge.

Can you even tell which one is which? I'll be excited to read your comments!

July 4 Round Up

At long last here are pictures from the weekend of the fourth. We headed out to Elfin Cove and Pelican for the festivities and fishing, and also to the outer coast (aka "Big Wide Open Ocean") for some beach combing. It was a gorgeous, perfect day for cruising as Gwen demonstrates here... sunny, warm, hardly any chop.... And then there were whales.

I've had some queries about the sheer number of these huge creatures that we saw that day. I'd guess we were looking at 80 to 90 of them. Some were miles away and some were right next to the boat. It was beautiful and kinda scary at the same time.

This guy was pretty close to us for a while. He was a big solo humpback and we just called him a him because he seemed so huge. I think the males are larger than the females, but I could be wrong. (Yes, really, it does happen sometimes.)The coveted "fluke" photo. It took me forever to get one; my camera was not at its best that day.Greg's mom Linda took some great shots and sent them to us on CD. I haven't included any of them here, but I'll check and see if I can post the best ones. She got some fantastic close-ups of flukes with water dripping and glistening off them.

I think this is one of the mom and baby we saw. We could hear them "talking" each time the surfaced together. That was truly amazing. Whale songs are so eerie and unusual.After about 45 minutes, we had to say farewell to the whales, their songs, and antics. We were hoping to find some of the beautiful glass balls that the Japanese fishing boats use as floats for their nets, so we needed to get out to the coast and see what the weather was up to.

Unfortunately, the water was too rough to put in to the beach on the outside so we found a different, inland beach at the northern end of Lizianski Inlet and tromped around there with Greg's mom and the girls. We got there pretty close to low tide and were able to explore quite a bit. Not a lot to find there due to the lack of people to discard stuff to find, y'know? The girls found a rock formation they called "Sink Rock" because it had two little divots (not the correct geological term, I'm sure... maybe someone knows?) that they could rinse their sandy paws off in before snacking us out of house and boat. Man, give those gals some fresh sea air and they will not stop eating .... I'm already setting some extra cash aside for the teen years' food bill. No, I'm not really, but I probably should be.Greg looked over the area with his big iron as per the usual.The girls and I found a great spot for rock-throwing. This little creek didn't have any fish at the time we were there, but it looked like it was big enough to be anadromous. (That's the five dollar "Alaska" word of the day!) Boo Boo is a southpaw and she could just fling rocks all day. She tries so hard to get each one to land smack in the water and make the telltale splash. If she throws one too short, she says "No!" and shakes her head. She can't end on a "bad" throw either. Once we say, "OK, one more throw, then we have to get back to the boat," she interprets that as one more "good" throw. So we all have to pay attention then to notice a good throw and make the call that we really have to go...Greg taxied us all back and forth on the raft. Gwen and Grandma went first. In fact here they are just getting to the boat on the way out. Then Greg paddled back to get Boo and I last, while I emptied the ammo from the rifle and kept scanning for bears.

Whew- all that and we haven't even got to Pelican yet... come back soon. It'll be worth it!