Brave YaYa ventures forth to the Frontier once again!

Yes, even with the harrowing scrape with the volcano last year, my mom came up to visit us again this spring!

Finally we had some nice weather,

 ...and the inevitable illness that strikes at least one member of the family during her visit waited until the last couple days, so it was almost the best visit yet. Mom even got to visit Esther at school:

 And eat lunch with her in the commons:

The only real issue of the visit was that we discovered, on the day before her arrival,  that we were hosting some other, albiet extremely unwelcome, guests:

LICE!

Ah, the joy of learning what it means to have a child in school! 

And since Esther and I are so close, well....

Yes, I had them too. I came about a centimeter away from shaving my head.

And, I guess, since she was seeing us all do this to each other, little miss mimic had to get in the act:  

My mom escaped the plague.  As did Iris. Thank goodness. 

Some folks may wonder, why on earth are you putting this on your blog? It's gross and embarassing!  Well, if some very helpful folks hadn't put a bunch of free information about lice on their blogs and websites, I think I would have lost my mind. I probably would have pulled out my hair in tufts!  SO I'm going to share some tips and the sites I got them from with you....

First of all, I used to laugh when my students told me they treated lice with mayonnaise. It sounded like a big, fat wive's tale. Hower, I found out that any oily substance really does work in that it suffocates the lice and makes it harder for them to elude the comb when you are trying to get them out. I learned this method from a funny and informative site called the 5-Step Battle Plan.  It's got a really goofy video that is still really helpful and memorable. I am really grateful to the makers of the site (AND you can get a really great metal comb on the site -- the ones that come with the chemical kits are for crap, especially for those of us who have really thick hair).  

So, anyway, you have to leave the oil on for a substantial length of time, though, or it won't work, so most of the time it's reccommended that it's put on at night and covered with a shower cap -- hence Esther's cute washerwoman look:

Yes, it's messy, but man is it a relief to know that you're doing something that at the very least does not allow them to roam around your pillow at night. And it's non-toxic!  You know, even though I am more on the earthy side of things, I was totally willing to use the pesticide for lice removal once in our hair.  But then I realized when reading the instructions that the chemical does not kill the nits. The nits live on, happily, until you comb all of them out (nearly impossible, as they are SO tiny and blend in so well) or they hatch.  Therefore you would just have to keep using the chemical several times before it's totally killed -- and that's just gross to me, using a chemical over and over.  If you use the oil every 4 days, you'll catch and suffocate any lice who have hatched.

And here is a product that I'm excited to try (darn slow Postal service, it hasn't gotten here yet, but what it says on the website has me intrigued):  Happy Heads   They make a shampoo and other products that are made out of essential oils that supposedly dissolve lice exoskeletons.  And since they are natural, it's possible to use them preventively, once a week.  I like that idea since I doubt this will be our only run-in with lice during my girls' elementary school career. 

I also liked this site's take on the whole thing; it's some of the same info but a couple different suggestions: Ask Moxie  (You have to scroll down a ways to see the beginning of the article.)

Well, here's a sincere hope that you and yours never have to deal with such infestation!

Mt Redoubt, Hear ME Roar...

So Mount Redoubt has been on high alert for eruption for a few months now. It is located on the top of the Alaskan Penninsula (not the panhandle where Juneau is, the one that goes down into the Pacific and turns into the Alaskan chain -- that bunch of islands that stretch nearly into tommorrow), across a strait from Anchorage, Kenai, Homer, etc. Actually I have been worried about my friend Jill who lives just north of Kenai, because her town is at high risk for ash fall, and what would she do about all the dogs she's got in her sled dog lot? But it seemed like another "hurry up and wait" kind of situation, with the eruption imminent for months.

However, it did erupt -- a few hours after my mom arrived in Hooper Bay to visit during her spring break. We all breathed a sigh of relief because she had gotten here -- all flights to and from Anchorage were cancelled after the eruption because of the danger ash poses to airplane engines (yes, no "Lost" situations while my mom is on the plane, please). The bush flights were unaffected -- the ash was blowing east from the volcano, towards Anchorage, and not northwest, towards us. Even if it did blow northeast towards us, I'm not sure if we would have been affected -- it's pretty far away.

So we relaxed and enjoyed our week -- though I caught one of the only stomach flus I've gotten in the past few years, and while I worshipped the porcelain deity, my mom got major quality time with both girls.... :) Here are some cute pictures of our visit:

So on the day she was to leave Hooper Bay, it was gorgeous weather -- cold, clear, calm. The volcano also erupted again that morning. With such crazy storminess we've had this spring, it's impossible to say "wait and see" if you're flying out. You have to jump on the first plane that comes because you never know how it's going to be in 15 minutes. So we did all the research we could do, checking on the Alaska Airlines website and calling them by phone -- by the time my mom's plane came to bring her to Bethel, they had not cancelled any flights from Bethel to Anchorage, so in good conscience, even though I wanted to keep her here indefinitely, I sent her off to the plane.

And then got her call a couple hours later that her flight was cancelled -- the volcano erupted several times that afternoon. It just kept spurting up ash, like brimstone belches or something. And here is the source of my ire: Redoubt, just get it overwith already! I mean, a volcano should just erupt, right? Erupt and get it over and done. Not all these puny eruptions here and there. They are messing up our lives! (And everyone else's lives: check out all the cancellations on this flight arrival/departure board at the Anchorage airport:)

Mom did make it to Anchorage the next day, on the ONLY flight to make it out of Bethel that whole week (after a nice layover in Bethel during which she at least got to experience the Camai festival, Bethel's big dance event), but was then totally and completely stuck in Anchorage. At first they wouldn't even rebook her flights, because everything was so up in the air, and the volcano kept shooting up ash every couple hours. So she found a cheap hotel and settled in for the duration. (And at home, I was freaking out that she was neither here nor there, not with us, not at home, all that wasted time she could have been with us; I should've just kept her, I should have let her go a day early, to the point I was annoying myself with could'ves and should'ves).

She was down about it at first, because she knew she'd be missing work on Monday at least, but then she started to look around herself at the wierd situation she was in, and she started to enjoy the adventure of it all. The airport was an eerie place, she said, with the kiosks covered with garbage bags to protect them from the ash:

And the piles of baggage that were lost from their people due to flights being all messed up and all over the place:

The wierdest part of the story is what happened when she called to book a night at a hotel. She asked for the airport shuttle from the hotel to pick her up. They replied that they weren't allowed to drive due to the ash -- and she looked out to see that there were no cabs lined up, either! She finally found a hotel that would send a shuttle for her, and the driver was wearing a mask. She was entirely creeped out, telling me on the phone, "Cate, it's crazy here!" She took this picture of the notice in her hotel room:

So after several tries and false starts of going to the airport and booking flights, only to have them cancelled and rearranged due to the most recent eruptions, she got on a flight out of Anchorage Tuesday morning (after leaving me on Friday afternoon!) to Chicago. Redoubt erupted a few minutes before they took off, and I guess the pilot said that they just had to get out of there before they were grounded again -- so she made it in the nick of time.

My mom is so awesome, to go through all this to come see us. She is an amazing mom and so wonderfully supportive-- I'm so lucky to have her. But, that volcano on the other hand -- look out, Mt Redoubt, Grrrr.

Oh, yes -- In other news, Iris pulled herself up to stand the night my mom arrived here -- a full week before she was 7 months old. Eeek! I'm scared out of my wits that she may be walking soon, and that she'll be accident-prone (aka hell on wheels). But on the other hand, she is so cute; amazed and proud of herself, it's hard not to just enjoy. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment as well, of the girl standing up:

Iris's First couple weeks

It's been awhile since I've blogged one -handed (one hand being full of baby) So here goes!

Just wanted to share pics anyhow.

Esther is the best big sister!

She's found her thumb! :)

Tuluk's visit to IN the week of labor day was awesome -- great family time, and he didn't quite roast in the Midwestern heat --yay.Our wonderful family! :)

Ya Ya's visit up North

Tuluk and Esther watching the weather outside on the morning of Ya-Ya's arrival. Tuluk went by snowmobile far out onto the tundra that day to check his brother's blackfish trap out under the ice of a meandering slough. Blackfish must be amazing to be living under the ice!

Arriving by the skin of her teeth Easter Eve, my mom came and spent a week with us up here in Hooper Bay. She was on the last plane in that evening, after a harrowing day of delays due to our buddies Alaska Airlines, and by the time she got to Bethel, weather was rising on the tundra out here, rising winds and blowing snow. One bush airline cancelled flights, and I was holding my breath till I heard (via VHF radio -- how did I ever live without one? It's the information hotline) that her flight was 25 minutes out. It's still not a guarantee, since sometimes pilots will make the effort to get out to a village, only to see that the weather/visibility has closed down so fast that they can't land on the airstrip and have to turn back to Bethel. But, luckily, it all just came together and my mom got on the ground 30 hours after she left Indiana the day before. I have an awesome, adventurous mom! She's so great to even want to come out here, and then to endure the wild travel... she's a superstar. :)
Esther and Mom outside the new Hooper Bay Restaurant/Church building.
So she also got here in the nick of time to experience our new Hooper Bay highlight: The restaurant! The restaurant was built by volunteers from the missionary organization "Samaritan's Purse" last summer. The building is one-half restaurant and one-half church, but we have lovingly dubbed even the restaurant the "Jesus restaurant." It's basically a hamburger joint, sans fries, where you can get a double-cheeseburger with lettuce & tomato for around $6. But they also have soft-serve ice cream AND the option of milkshakes-- Hoorah, we all scream with JOY for it. SO it is definitely an exciting addition to our town, even if it is only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. It is also an awesome hang out for kids, as they have games and a football table and stuff like that. It's always packed to the brim with kids, and it's wonderful to see they have a healthy place to hang out.
Esther and YaYa play Chutes & Ladders at the Restaurant
Kids hangin' and playing games at the restaurant

It's also a little over the top with the Jesus stuff. Ya know, I don't care what people do or believe if it gives them happiness and hope, and I'm not downplaying all the great things that Samaritan's purse has done for the people of this town (built houses in the wake of the fire, built this restaurant, brought guest speakers/singers etc. to entertain), but it just seems like if you're gonna do nice things for folks, just do the nice stuff, don't make it with religious strings attached. I guess I don't totally know the reasoning behind their approach, but, like I said, it is a little over the top.

When you walk in to the restaurant (after taking off your winter clothes in a wonderfully large clothes-room), the first noticeable thing is the Jesus music. It's broadcasted through a sound system and also can be viewed, Kareoke-style on two big flat-screen TVs posted on either ends of the restaurant. It's the kind of Jesus music that's meant to be "hip!" and appeal to the younger (maybe as yet unconverted?) generation. It's the kind of music that gets into your head and you find yourself waking up to it at 2:am.

Then there is the wall of Jesus books, with titles such as, "The Bride of Christ," and "The Spirit Subdues." AND there was a special mini-golf event inside the restaurant, and if you stood back and looked at all the mini-golf stations, they spelled out "JESUS." And then there's this: here is a shirt that's on sale near the counter --
Although I have not neglected religious education with Esther -- we have had many discussions on her level about what I believe and what others believe -- I think she has gotten more exposure to Christianity at the restaurant than anywhere else. Which is why it totally made sense when she spouted this incredibly hilarious statement: "Right, God lives at Church and Jesus lives at the Restaurant?" Yes, there's Jesus in the back, flipping burgers.

But it was great to show off the hot spot of our village to my mom, and as she said, "It's not a bad burger at all!" It's just one more thing that we're not missing from the outside world: fast food. And since we get it so rarely, YES I do let my child eat it -- though she doesn't like it too much! (ha -- success of the whole-foods mom!) Except for the ice cream... yeah, I've passed on my sugar tooth. *sigh*
Esther getting into her Easter basket
Then the next day was exciting: Easter! And this year, Esther was not afraid of the Easter Bunny (last year she was terrified for some reason) and totally got into the egg & basket search. But we managed to traumatize her again, because it was my bright idea to try to teach her "hot" and "cold" to help guide her searching. I thought it would make the search more fun until, when I was excitedly telling her "You're hot, hot!", she turned to me in tears. Great job, mom! First I try to teach her to stay away from hot stuff, then I encourage her to go to something by saying it's hot -- well, what can I say, it was early and I hadn't woken up yet! Well, she ended up having a good time and getting lots of goodies from the Easter bunny. And yes, I let her eat Easter candy.
Coloring Eggs
We had an Easter dinner at our teacher buddy Tina's house, and then visited Tuluk's family's house, so that my mom could meet his family and his mom. It was a really nice, relaxing day.

I had to go to work all week, but Esther and my mom had great grandma-baby time, and even though Esther spiked a fever a couple days that week, it was OK because they got to snuggle and read lots of books. The week went too fast, and although I was happy that my mom got to make her flights (though not without more drama from Alaska Airlines) and get home on time, I couldn't help but wish a snowstorm had come up to keep her with us. Ah, well -- we'll see her in July. :)

Our Annual Seattle meet-up!

Our Annual Seattle trip was full of great visits with truly awesome friends, who stay close friends regardless of the time and distance between us in the rest of life. And of course Esther and Ya-Ya had the best time together!

Here are Esther and Ya-Ya under the amazing aquarium at the Rainforest Cafe.

Esther with Adriana and Sandra -- Esther and Adriana are destined to be best buddies:

We got to meet Lucas Hunter Marshall, the newest addition to the Marshall family, and he is so super cute and STRONG!:

And it was great to stay with our heart-friends Joyce &Erik (and we even caught a glimpse of Sylvia!):
We also had a great dinner and evening with Melissa & Dan and Carrie & Kara. It was a great trip, and for the first time in years, (knock on some major wood!) I didn't get stuck in the airport either direction.... :)