Fishing

Me and My 1st King Salmon - 26 lbs. Our guide, Greg, smiling in the background.

Abby and her 1st King - a 24-25 lber (yes SMALLER than mine!)

We had another fisherman from California on our boat who caught the smaller one. You can clearly see from this picture that MY fish is BIGGER.

We had a blast. We left the house at 4AM to get out to the Little Susitna river by 5:30. We arrived at 5AM, in time to eat a sandwich, collect our rain gear (did not need it, YAY!) and go to the bathroom one last time. We couldn't legally start fishing until 6AM, but we were out in the first spot by 5:50AM and ready. We got a bite about every 30 minutes. Abby caught the first fish, what they call a Jack. Its a King Salmon, but its a baby one. He was less than 20 inches in length, so she got to keep him as a freebie. Over the next 2-4 hours Rodney and I both got bites and I got 1 WHOPPER on the line who was a bit smarter than your average King. He wrapped himself around a log on the bottom of the river and got away from me. He had to be HUGE cause I really had a hard time fighting him. (At least that is what I will believe since I never got him to the surface for a look.) After Rodney and I both had 3 or so bites, Abby finally got another bite and hooked it. I think she was pretty happy that she got the first 2 fish in the boat on only 2 bites.
Then it was my turn. About a half hour later, I got the bite. This fish did not fight as hard as the first one I had on the line. I didn't feel like my arms were about to fall off. It was really fun fighting with it to get it up to the boat close enough to net it. Once it was in the boat and we got our pictures taken, I really wished I could do it all over again. Limit is 1 King per day and 5 total per year though. Can't even put a line in the water again for the rest of that day.
I was feeling bad for Rodney....both these 2 girls caught fish before him. He finally got his bite and when he brought in the smaller fish, the guide gave him the option of throwing it back and trying for a bigger one. We only had about an hour and a half left of the trip though and Rodney didn't want to take a chance at no fish.
When we got back to shore we took some more pictures and Greg proceeded to filet our fish. Another boat pulled up with a 47 lb King that looked like a monster. I bet that is the one I lost!!!

Teens

Once you become the parent to a teen or teens, you very quickly realize the amazing brilliance of those mammals that eat their young and save their sanity!! Those are some smart creatures. There are days when I feel like slapping some teen meat on the barbie, but I am sure I would not enjoy my feast as the meat is probably pretty tough and so full of a massive array of hormones, it would make me sick. So instead I look forward to the day when those same teens have teens of their own to "love"! Muahahahahahaha!

BankStckGuy

I was stumped for about 2 seconds when I saw this name. I was thinking, "what sicko stranger is reading my blog and suggesting that I poop in the woods??! Weirdo!" I should have known though, silly me.

So yeah, this BankStckGuy is my brother Caleb. Hi Caleb! BTW....I deleted that poop comment cause I was sure you were some sicko and I wasn't about to publish a comment from a sicko. Guess I am still not sure why I publish your other ones, LMAO! J/k! I love ya! How are my nieces and nephew??? Give them all a big wet slobbery kiss from Auntie Joanna! Give Robin one too. I know she wants one! Don't want her feeling left out. Heeee hee! See ya all soon.

$70 FREAKIN' DOLLARS!!!

I do NOT know how we are not all in riot gear right now, raising total HELL with the oil companies!!! It just cost me $70 dollars to fill my tank and it wasn't even totally empty. The gas light had just come on for cryin' out LOUD! As it was creeping up and up, I was saying in my head, "please stop before 70, please stop before 70!" and wouldn't ya know it stopped at $69.82. Gee thanks for the little break. I squeezed in about 10 more cents just so I could make it home! I think it is time to break out the horse and buggy! Do carseat laws cover buggies? Or can my kids ride without them? Just asking so I can figure out what size of buggy to purchase.

I am so annoyed with gas prices right now, I have these dreams of shoving a gas pump up some oil executives ass just to see if I can fit $70 bucks in! I bet I couldn't, they are probably pretty tight.

Father's Day

I was really struggling with what to get Dave's for Father's Day. I didn't want to get him any camera stuff....he has too much already and I wouldn't even know what he needed. We had been talking about a grill for a while, but I wasn't sure how he would feel about getting a grill. I KNOW how I would feel about getting a microwave or stove or any other cooking appliance for that matter on Mother's Day. I would NOT be happy. But I decided to run it by him and he was agreeable with the idea. I think I may have been more excited than him. We went Saturday night to pick one out and after complaining about the one at Sear's that has a tiny scratch and dent in it and NONE left in the box, we went to Fred's instead and got one in the box. (BTW...next time we purchase a grill, we will get the one already put together!! Lesson learned.) Dave and I put the grill together Sunday morning and there were only a few tussles with it, but we won. It now sits, looking fabulous, on our front porch.

We spent the day up at Jim and Jo's house helping them to get ready for Carmen's wedding. We ended up grilling out on their grill for lunch though. Dave was sorta sad leaving his at home to go use somebody elses. Turns out Jim's was identical to our new one. Did a trial run on his before we broke in ours. The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it up there. They have a huge yard and swings and all sorts of things to do. Even Austin spent his day just running around the yard, investigating various plants and other objects. I did some time popping dandelions out of the ground. I can't understand not wanting to use some sort of chemical to get rid of them, but Jim is very opposed, so there Heather and I sat (Autumn did some time too) with a little tool, popping them out of the ground.....hoping the root came with. Every now and then Heather found a worm and would call the kids over to look at it and hold it. I was soooo glad I didn't find any worms, yuck! Then she would have the kids put them back in the ground so they wouldn't die. Brandon got to cut grass on the big riding lawn mower. He was pretty excited about that. We noticed after a while though that he was taking the same path over and over again and not cutting new grass. That had to be boring, the best part about cutting grass is actually seeing your progression. So Dave went out and gave him further direction on how to actually turn in a bit and cut the tall stuff. He only left a few strips here and there that Jim had to go over again. Autumn and Kristen helped Jo dye some fabric for the wedding. Not sure how that turned out but we will see on wedding day I suppose. Kristen also made some tiny ice cream cookies with vanilla wafers and strawberry ice cream for the rehearsal dinner. They looked very yummy and now I have a new idea for the kids. Overall it was very nice day. We helped get a lot accomplished and it was nice to just hang out and let the kids run.

Grandma's Birthday Invite

I designed the birthday invite for my Grandma Ione's birthday. I didn't take into consideration all the older generations that will be getting it though and made some of the words to small. The pictures are a bit smallish too. Oh well, my mom says once she puts her reading glasses on it is all good.

My grandma really did have a rough year. At one point, she wasn't expected to live and everyone was planning for that. All her kids went to the hospital (1 from Texas flew up). She spent a few months in the hospital with several surgeries and then another month in a nursing home. Then she went to my mom's house for several weeks while she continued to get therapy. She is back in her own home now, doing well. She really has been a HUGE presence in my life all the way from the beginning and I was even living with her, while attending college, before I got married. I hope she has a great birthday and a better year and continues to improve healthwise. I have always known her to be a tough cookie!! That toughness is probably what got her through it all.

Toddler Speak

"Mitchshell"
"What?"
"Mitchshell"
"My show?"
"Mitchshell"
"My ball?"
"MITCHSHELL!"
I just don't know what the heck he was trying to say. After a few rounds of 'guess the toddler words', I give up and just nod and smile. Or say "oh" or "that's nice" and hope one of them covers it and he is satisfied. This one is certainly NOT as clear as the "BUCKLE ME!" one a while ago. Usually the parents of young little tikes are the ones that are able to translate for others when their toddler speaks, I am afraid that I am NOT a good translator. Although I do understand some things and the cutest of them all lately is when I am changing his diaper and he proudly taps his privates and says, "my pee-pee, my bawls".

Just call me Ump!

I did it again. I think I get better and better each time (2 times so far) and more and more confident. Tonight the main dude was a 14 yr old kid who was quite spacey. He was losing count, getting the counts backwards, not paying to close attention to 3rd base, but overall he did an A-OK job. What the heck do you expect from a 14 year old anyway? I felt like I was the queen bee of that diamond. I even yelled at some kids annoying me along the fence. Its almost like I have this invisible badge on my jacket and I am in charge of the rules, handing out citations, and collecting damages from players, coaches and spectators...no one is out of reach of my long arm of the ball law!

And speaking of annoying kids, do parents notice how annoying their children can be or are we all just immune when they are our own precious little angels? I work hard at making sure my kids are respectful and act decent with other people out in public (I try at home in private too, but when you got 4 siblings you don't always play nice) and I can't believe how rude and snotty some kids are. I see it all the time when kids are left to do what they want (no parents in sight) and to be quite honest a lot of them are little shitheads! There really should be a universal parent law....when you see some other kid acting rude, give 'em a whack! (Yeah, my MIL works for Child Protection in foster parent licensing!) Or at the very least your worstest meanest look possible (you know the one - where they will be scared to go to sleep that night for fear you will be in their closet to pluck off their dirty little toenails one by one). I really do have a problem with parents that don't actually parent and kids that are allowed to be sassy, disrespectful little creeps. No wonder society is like it is?!!

BTW (there is always a BTW) Mom - please let me go on believing that I was pretty much a decent kid, who got decent grades and was respectful 'most' of the time. Now that I am a parent, I need to be able to call the pot black without being the kettle.

Why, why, why, why...but why?!

I actually didn't totally realize how much I said, "Because I said so" until after starting this blog. And I find myself trying to give other answers, but when you keep hearing, "why?" after each answer you give, it breaks you down a bit and you have to reply with something more powerful! And then you still get a "why?". I really dislike that word. I know all the experts would say its great when kids ask why, they are being inquisitive and learning so much and nerve pathways in the brain are growing and connecting and if they don't use them, they lose them. Well from my perspective, my kids can stand to lose a few! If I could just have 33 less "why's?" a day....we would be doing good and I wouldn't even be writing about it.

Do you really know where your kids get their "brains"? They steal them from you with every little question and why that follows...it slowly (or not so slowly in my case) eats at your brain, so while their brain is growing, yours is shrinking! I know you have heard of "mommy brain"....it starts with simple little things like losing your keys or forgeting the diaper bag at home and grows into forgetting your kids at the grocery store (or the shoe store in Logan's case). I have resorted to counting heads (like a daycare) in order to make sure I have all of them with me when we are out. And I know you might be saying, "well, you do have 5 kids!" and that is exactly correct....I have 5 - FIVE - kids eating at my brain all day everyday!! It's amazing I am not sitting in a rubber room at the psych hospital right now. And I am sure as daddy would be explaining to Logan that mommy is at the hospital right now cause she went nuts, Logan would say, "why?"! And he would look totally innocent saying it too!

By the way, if you don't believe me, think about your own parents and their current capabilities. For example, my mom cannot operate a DVD player and has difficulties setting up her answering machine. Things that I often say "a monkey could do". I am sure as children my brothers and I stole that part of her brain with the constant nagging.

Movin' on up!

The coaches and Little League president have talked to me about moving Brandon up a level cause he is just that good! So last night they asked me about it again (just do it already, geez!) and thought it was too late but the new coach just called me and he will be joining their team tonight. He now plays for Wilder Construction. Its not all that much different - he is going from Minors 1 to Minors 2 - the only difference in how they play is the kids actually pitch for 1 inning instead of the machine pitch. I just hope the other kids on the team are better players as well and can actually get the ball to Brandon and actually catch it when he throws it to them.

Its kind of nice when you have all these people noticing how good your kid plays and talking about it. Brandon is good at baseball and I am glad he enjoys playing it.

Adding a few more pictures!

Ok, I decided to add a few more.

Logan being cool. Wish I had a little more space on the right side of this one so he's not looking out of the picture, but take what I can when kids move as fast as they do.... notice the motion blur in the hands?

Trying some different angles now that I have a little wider angle capabilities. Not sure the girls really like these ones, but I think they are kinda cool. Will try this again under less harsh lighting conditions someday.

Austin borrowing Logan's bike at Brandon's ball game.

Autumn and Brandon on the swings... errrr... getting off. I tried doing similar shots the next time at the park, but the lighting was even harsher and I wasn't happy with them at all. Maybe late in the evening I'll take the kids down to try these again.

These are a couple of the family portraits I did for my cousin Carmen earlier this week. We went up to Hatchers Pass to take these. This is my first official family portrait session, and my first wedding to shoot is theirs as well at the end of this month.