fun this week

These are still pictures of the blizzard - then we realized we could take a video so you could actually see the wind and listen to it.
I went up to the scrap room by myself one evening and made a bunch of cards - I send homemade cards to my visiting teaching ladies every month and they are adding more people for me to write to - so I thought I better prepare more cards. I am really bad at matching colors, so usually I completely rely on Alicia to mix and match for me. I did these by myself so I'm very proud of how they turned out.

Brian gave me a gift certificate for the scrapbook store for Christmas and I used it to buy some of these papers and flowers and unlike what I usually do, I went right home and used them.

Love you all, Char

Only in Alaska

We had a freaky thing happen at the high school yesterday. A mama moose and her yearling bull calf were hanging out over the weekend at the high school. They had charged the late night custodians so that they couldn't shovel the snow off the front walk of the school. Our high school has a large courtyard/ veranda and this time of year, moose seek out places without snow and they found the area to their liking.

Of course, we can't have moose charging kids and workers as they get really agitated around schools and have been known to kick people to death is school yards.

s0 anyway, yesterday morning the police and the custodians chased the mother away, but it just made the bull angrier. They ended up trying to shew him with rubber bullets and pepper spray and finally they decided they would use their tazers on him. INSTANT RAGE - he charged right at the officers and at about 3 feet away, they had to pull their weapons and shoot him. Right on the steps and deck of the school - in front of the windows of the classrooms. I'm surprised it hasn't been on the national news.

Some kids were shaken and dismayed and felt he didn't need to be killed, but he really did - you just can't have charging moose around schools. The police hauled him behind the school and had a charity come harvest the meat. I'm glad Brian wasn't at work when it happened so he wasn't in on the decision making and so the kids can't get mad at him for it.

I don't have a picture of it, but I imagine the story will be in the Homer News or the Homer Tribune next week. We always have to have a big controversy this time of year to help us all get thru the winter.

My friend sent this

Thought you might like this one so I'm sharing it with you

Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said, 'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from add s nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups...and then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.

God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.
Live simply.Love generously. Care deeply.Speak kindly.And enjoy your hot chocolate!'

Organization question

We have started our New Year's organization push. I've been hearing alot about putting music and files and such onto computer drives - jump drives or small hard drives.

I am wondering if that can be done with tax records? I keep lots more tax records than I need to and so I have boxes and boxes of them lying around. It just occured to me this week that maybe I could scan them onto flash drives and get rid of the paper. Has anyone else tried this and does anyone know how the IRS feels about it?

In reading thru their regulations, all I found was mention of keeping records on microfiche, so apparently the regulations have kept up with the computer age.

Any suggestions or ideas or anecdotes you can share about this subject? Thank you, Charlotte

Our New Year

Space man Mylan



OOps I got 2 of this picture posted - it's cute

Beana in her monkey pajamas and her Christmas jewelry.
Justin on Christmas eve - smile on face, pain pills kicking in.
metal work Brian is doing to repair blown up boat.
more blown up boat repairs
Mylan in snow mobile hat.

We finally have snow and snow and snow. Poor Justin is still laid up with his bum ankle. They still say it is just a sprain, but it has been 2 weeks and he can still not put any weight on it.

Brian has been working on the big boat project - you can tell from the pictues, it is a very complicated project. He had 17 days off from the school and has worked most of them on the boat. He still has a ways to go to finish it. In case you missed it, the boat belongs to a charter fisherman and another welding company was doing some work on it and blew it up. The insurance company totalled it and the owner bought it back from them and Brian is working to rebuild it. The money has been a great blessing to help us get thru the winter months, especially with the cut in Alicia's hours and with Justin being home in bed with the bad ankle.

For New Years Day, Autumn called to see if they could come over for dinner - she was cooking an asian dish and wanted to share it and I said we were planning a Chinese feast as we usually have on New Years, so we combined meals and had a great evening. Mylan kept wanting to wear the snow mobile helmet. It was really funny because it is so big on him. We took a few pictures, but you really can't get the spirit of the thing. We were all laughing ourselves silly. Then Beena tried it on and it was so heavy, it kept tipping her over so we didn't get any pictures of that - just of her helmet head and the look on her face when she got up from being tipped over. They are going tomorrow to buy their house in Kenai, so in a month or so they will be moved up there. We'll have to go up there to go shopping more, since they will be living there and we will want to go see them. It's not that much difference - we drive 30 miles to see them now and will drive about 50 miles to see them after they move. but we will really miss them, especially for church and for scrap booking.

I haven't taken any pictures of the snow yet this year - maybe I'll send the dog out to play and get some pictures for you this week.

Love, Charlotte

Brian and Charlotte and Mya

Brian and Mya - Mya is sure she is a lap dog.... but she REALLY isn't. Brian looks the same as always.
This is my new hair cut and new glasses. We tried frosting my hair after our friend Rachel cut it, but it didn't look too good, so one night I looked in the mirror and said, OKAY, I have to change this, so I colored it myself. Alicia usually does it for me, but she was on her honeymoon.
I really wanted to get a newer look for glasses. Since Medicaid pays for them, I don't get a lot of choice, but when he pulled these out of the box, I knew they wre just the ones I wanted. But with the new haircut, I kind of look like Harry Potter sometimes. But it is good to update one's look every so often. I used the trick of hiding my chins with the crossed hands underneath. That's a new look too, my usual trick is to look up - we have some dandy pictures of me trying to hide my chins by looking up.

Anyway - this is us for 2007. Love, Charlotte

another blog

Just wanted to post on here, for those that I didn't have email addresses for, that Justin and I have made another blog, for the two of us. Right now we're putting pictures from our trip on it, and we'll try to keep it up to date. Mom and dad will keep posting to this blog. Just one more to add to your list. Thanks! Alicia

oh, ps, there's a link to the right that leads to our new blog.

Gratitudes

As I have been following Joanna's lead in posting gratitudes this month, I have also been experimenting with changing the way I pray. I have been trying to follow my Grandma's example and learn to pray for specific things instead of just asking for "blanket" blessings. So twice this month, I prayed for very specific things that we needed and both times, our prayers were answered out of the blue. Plus after spending a day fasting, I was very blessed with such a feeling of comfort and hope, and the next morning, we received the answer we had been praying for.

So that is my gratitude posting for today - the Lord blesses us with such tender mercies and we need to be so aware of them.

I have started a gratitude journal as President Eyring talked about in conference - just so we can always remember the times when we have had our prayers so completely answered.
Gratefully, Charlotte

Tuesday Gratitudes

1. Finally a nice person to talk to at the Division of Seniors
2. Alicia and Justin home safe
3. chili peppers from New Mexico
4. A new company training to do assessments for next year - HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
5. Comfort from the Holy Ghost after a day of fasting
6. A hard working, diligent husband
7. chocolate chips
8. aspirin
9. good doctors
10. new medicare RX program - YAY

Hooray for Mondays

1.Mondays are a good day at our house - it is Brian's day off.
2. Pinesol cleaner
3. A sweet husband who cleaned up my kitchen for me
4. bamboo knitting needles
5. a competent and nice assistant at the pharmacy who goes out of her way to get it right
6. Old friends who still remember you
7. Ensign and New Era Magazines
8. Have I mentioned that I'm thankful for DVR (TIVO to some of you)
9. Alicia and Justin come home tomorrow
10. short hair

Charlotte

Gratitudes for Sunday

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

1. The gift of musical talent.
2. A loving, caring bishop
3. A smart, funny husband who looks really snazzy in his new suit
4. A husband who is loved by all the kids at church and at school
5. Chinook winds
6. Rain instead of snow
7. cordless phones
8. Loving sisters
9. Colorful yarn to knit and crochet
10. The teaching of having Attitudes of Gratitude

Bitten by Spaghetti

Mya is just learning to eat people food - we were just going to feed her dog food when we first got her, but soon realized that she wasn't getting enough fats (thank you Justin for sacrificing your freshly oiled shoes for us to figure out she needed more oil in her diet). So now, we feed her our leftovers and the grease from bacon and stuff and she hasn't been noshing on any shoes lately.

Anyway, usually the leftovers are off someone's plate or when we clean out the fridge, but with the kids gone, we had some spaghetti left over on the stove which was apparently still quite hot. Mya went over eagerly to eat it, because she loves spaghetti -- but each time she got close, the heat burned her nose. So she took it personally as an attack and she would back off about a foot away and bark bark bark at the spaghetti, trying to subdue it. Then she would go back for another try and it would hurt her nose again, and she would back off and bark bark bark --then try from the other side. got her nose again, back off and bark bark bark.

Brian and I got to laughing so hard we could hardly stand it. I have to say everyday, one of my gratitudes is funny, loveable, loving pets. I am so glad they are a part of my life.... and thank you to Alicia and Justin for putting up with the new dog. I know it wasn't your first choice, but she adds so much to our lives. I really appreciate you guys accepting her and helping out.

somewhere in the snow, she lost her pretty pink collar. We won't be able to find it until spring. Fortunately, she is so well behaved, we hardly ever need a collar anyway. Charlotte

It wouldn't be November If .......

Ducks disaster
Posted by The Oregonian November 15, 2007 21:53PM
Categories: Sports, Top Stories
The Oregon Ducks' hopes of a berth in the BCS Championship Game disappeared on Thursday night as they first lost their star quarterback to an injury and then lost the game.
Quarterback Dennis Dixon, the Heisman Trophy front-runner going into the Ducks' game at Arizona, got his left foot stuck in the turf as he planted it for a cut upfield midway through the first quarter.
Dixon re-injured his left knee on the play -- he first hurt it against Arizona State -- and sat out the rest of the game. Without their leader, nicknamed "the Magician," the Oregon offense never recovered, and Arizona went on to win 34-24.
The severity of his injury was not immediately known, but by the second quarter Dixon was icing his knee in the locker room. Coming out of the locker room after halftime, Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said "It's not good," saying there was instability in the knee.
Before his injury, Dixon looked like a Heisman contender. On Oregon's opening possession, he faked a handoff to Jonathan Stewart, then sprinted 39 yards for a score.
But Oregon looked like a different team after Dixon went down. Defensive back Antoine Cason scored on an interception return and on a punt return in the first half as the Wildcats built a 31-11 lead.
Backup quarterback Brady Leaf led Oregon on a fourth-quarter touchdown drive, but the Ducks never got closer than 31-24.
On the Wildcats' ensuing possession, they picked up a key first down on fourth and one, and then an apparent fumble that the Ducks recovered was overturned after an official review determined that quarterback Willie Tuitama was down before handing off to Nicholas Grigsby, who fumbled. That drive led to a field goal that put the game out of reach.
Even seemingly good plays turned sour for the Ducks. Early in the fourth quarter, Kwame Agyeman ran for 40 yards on a fake punt but fumbled it away as he was tackled at the Arizona 22-yard line.
Oregon became the fifth team this season to lose while ranked No. 2. With two losses, the Ducks are almost certainly out of contention to play in the Jan. 7 national championship, and Dixon's status in the Heisman Trophy race is in doubt.

newspaper story

The story about the kids losing having their money stolen from their bank account is in the Homer news... http://www.homernews.com/ The story is under "local news" and is titled
"newlywed account sucked dry in suspected fraud." We were not impressed by the bank manager's hinting that is was some how the kids fault that the account was hacked into. IT WASN"T anything they did - the scam came probably from inside Wells Fargo's system somewhere back East.

Anyway, they made the news. As most of you know, they are in Utah now for a few days and then will head to New Mexico to visit Rhiens and Justin's family.

My second pre-hearing for my medicaid personal care hours (Alicia's job) is Friday at 1:00 our time, so if you could include us in your prayers, we would appreciate it. They cut our hours in half this fall, and we would really like to have those hours back, both for my physical and mental sake and for Alicia's financial welfare. Thanks in advance for your prayers.... as a family we are unbeatable when we stick together.

Love, Charlotte

The Wind Farm

I don't have any pictures yet, but we are working on a project with the Voc Rehab people to get a grant to set ourselves up to make and sell wind power systems. We have excellent wind here in the Homer area and Justin and Brian have the equipment and the know-how to make the turbines. Alicia and Justin are going to study electricity so they will be capable of installing and maintaining the wind systems.

The design so far is to make them in pieces that will fit in a super-cub airplane so that we can fly them to remote locations in Alaska. Our biggest 2 challenges will be making systems that can handle the high winds we get here and getting the batteries and generators shipped up here economically. Brian and Justin both have CDL's so it is possible they could drive them up, but most likely, we will order a huge order and have them sent up by boat.

We are all anxious to get the plans finalized and get the grant. We are writing our business plan and searching for sources of batteries and generators at this time.

It keeps us all busy and excited - when we get our system up, we plan to put up lots and lots of Christmas lights (which is something we can't afford to do while buying power from our local utility). Keep us in your prayers. Charlotte

Money Back

Well, as of this morning it looks like our money is back. I'm not sure what happens now, if they keep looking, or what happens, but anyway our money is back. YAY!!!!!! Thanks for the prayers and support. Love you all. Alicia

Poor Kids

Alicia and Justin had the worst thing happen to them today. All summer long, Alicia had held on to her wedding gift checks - even though I kept nagging her to get them cashed so people could balance their checkbooks, but she wanted to use them for their honeymoon. So she was determined and stubborn and did not cash them until last Saturday.

they went to the bank and put her name on Justin's accounts and they put their well-loved and hoarded wedding money into their savings account for their honeymoon next Wednesday.

this morning they checked their bank account, and some crooks had somehow charged some fraudulent check card activities (there were several - totalling with the bank charges and such, close to $2,000). Completely wiped out everything in their savings account, their overdraft account and their checking account. They had the money in their for a total of 4 days before it was all stolen.

They are both completely crushed. The troopers said some other people in Anchor Point have been targeted as well. We don't know yet if they are doing it thru the bank, or thru the mail or thru the internet, so we don't know how to proceed to pay our bills or anything, and of course, they now have no spending money for their honeymoon and their first Christmas.

Please say a special prayer for them and pray that they will get the money back in time to go on their trip. (they have their tickets paid for and the car paid for, so that isn't in doubt that they will come, it just won't be as fun with this hanging over their heads. ) Thanks, Charlotte

Bumble bee baby wins

It turns out our bumble bee baby won the costume contest at the church and at the community party at the high school. Autumn made both costumes without patterns or anything.

Brian got to carry the kids around at the high school event while he was at work. They had a great time.

Trick or Treaters

My friend Autumn brought her kids over to show us their super cute costumes, and to "trick or treat". They were so cute, I just had to post the pictures of them. They were Winnie the pooh, and a hunny bee, and she made a hunny pot for them to get their candy in. SO CUTE!!

Moose Matters

Just wanted to post a few pictures of dad's moose antlers that he took today, so that everyone can see what he got up north. They had an interesting trip to say the least. . . . . :) Here's pictures of the horns anyway, I think that's probably the only pictures we'll end up with from this hunt.