I feel as though I've always got something to say and not enough time to say it. I was totally thrilled about spring break and the chance to catch up on here.
Then I got sick and now I don't want to do anything. Nothing. I don't want to move! I haven't been sick with a head cold in - like - forever! I am totally not enjoying it. I feel like my left cheek is going to explode right off of my face!
That said . . . wow have we had quite a few weeks.
Arctic Winter Games 2012 have came and went. We sent Jason off on his way Friday afternoon with 4 buses of kids and chaperons from the Fairbanks area. Pass Port in hand, he headed off to Canada!
We packed and headed out at 4 a.m. Sunday morning. I, of course, slept all of the time! Its just what I do. I don't mean to. I just have issues staying awake in a car. Poor J having to put up with me and my sleep noises.
We made it to Whitehorse Canada in 9 hours . . . in plenty of time to enjoy opening ceremonies! They were fantastic and just perfect for a Nickelodeon watching crowd. Kid speakers, singers, bands and dancers. Like I said, totally Nickelodeon!
Having total and complete sneezing fits so going to run now! Will write more later on the games! So much to say!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Arctic Winter Games 2012 Pictures
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| Sea of young athletes during the opening ceremonies. The darkness by the stage is Team Alaska! An incredible showing! So many talented young athletes and our son got to be a part of it! |
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| Jason and Dalton, the two Captains, welcoming their team mates onto the ice! |
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| During one game Team Alaska had to wear Team Yukon's jerseys because the team they were playing, Alberta, had the same color jersey. The team with the best record got to wear their own jersey. |
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| Jason shaking Team Yukon hands after the Bronze Medal Game. |
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| Father and son in Whitehorse after the games ended. Jason with his bronze ulu. He says its still a loss . . . I say, What a Great Experience! |
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| On the road to Canada. Through the window of course . . . I don't love the cold! |
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Snow globe
We are off on our Canadian adventure. We have been on this road before- 15 1/2 years ago when we left Alaska for the first time and headed out East. It was summer then and we weren't driving through freshly falling powder. It is dark out at 5am and the snow in the headlights looks like we are a tiny car in a child's snow globe.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Its Not Spring!
Its far too cold out to be seeing and reading about all of the signs of spring around the US! Its bitterly cold and windy out. It is NOT fun. I don't want to be out there or even drive in it.
On the plus side, it is sunny out and even sunny before the kiddos head out to school. Doesn't erase the fact that its COLD!
Must do's for the week . . . get enough groceries to last two kids and a 19 yr old for 7 days, make sure there is fuel in the fuel tank to last at least a week if they choose to turn it on while we are gone, and find some wood incase they want to start a fire . . . though, to be honest, I'd rather they didn't.
Oh, and make lists and schedules. Lots and Lots of lists and schedules - everywhere!
First though, get through the day of music class subbing.
On the plus side, it is sunny out and even sunny before the kiddos head out to school. Doesn't erase the fact that its COLD!
Must do's for the week . . . get enough groceries to last two kids and a 19 yr old for 7 days, make sure there is fuel in the fuel tank to last at least a week if they choose to turn it on while we are gone, and find some wood incase they want to start a fire . . . though, to be honest, I'd rather they didn't.
Oh, and make lists and schedules. Lots and Lots of lists and schedules - everywhere!
First though, get through the day of music class subbing.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
A Million and One
I have a million and one things I want to blog about.
I probably have a thousand and one pictures I'd like to post.
I need to talk about:
Carly's science fair project - it is pretty and fiery and well done by my 11 year old!
Caden has figured out how to use the Wii to email and MANY other Internet based things.
Caden is researching Theodore Roosevelt for the Wax Museum. Please, send me costume ideas!
Jason scored another hat trick in a state tournament! Woo Hoo! Yep, I'm bragging here because I can't do it on Face Book. . . it really pisses people off.
We are headed out to Canada in a few days to watch Jason and his hockey pals play for Team Alaska! When the mention of not going came up - he teared up. We will go farther in debt for his love of hockey and our love of him. A far better investment than dinner out or a new TV. We don't go to bars or have nights out- we don't travel alone or go to movies - we watch and pay for our kids' adventures. Its just the way we do it . . .
I have been working a bunch while my friend Patty spends some time with her hockey player son out of town. I get to be "Mrs. Linnell" and pop into a few other classes to do fill in work. Its like slipping on an old shoe when I walk into a classroom. Can't wait to be doing it full time someday . . .
Just turned in all(almost) of my required packet materials for the 2ndary ed licensure program at the U. Wish me luck.
G'nite all! Sweet Dreams! A million more things to say - eventually.
I probably have a thousand and one pictures I'd like to post.
I need to talk about:
Carly's science fair project - it is pretty and fiery and well done by my 11 year old!
Caden has figured out how to use the Wii to email and MANY other Internet based things.
Caden is researching Theodore Roosevelt for the Wax Museum. Please, send me costume ideas!
Jason scored another hat trick in a state tournament! Woo Hoo! Yep, I'm bragging here because I can't do it on Face Book. . . it really pisses people off.
We are headed out to Canada in a few days to watch Jason and his hockey pals play for Team Alaska! When the mention of not going came up - he teared up. We will go farther in debt for his love of hockey and our love of him. A far better investment than dinner out or a new TV. We don't go to bars or have nights out- we don't travel alone or go to movies - we watch and pay for our kids' adventures. Its just the way we do it . . .
I have been working a bunch while my friend Patty spends some time with her hockey player son out of town. I get to be "Mrs. Linnell" and pop into a few other classes to do fill in work. Its like slipping on an old shoe when I walk into a classroom. Can't wait to be doing it full time someday . . .
Just turned in all(almost) of my required packet materials for the 2ndary ed licensure program at the U. Wish me luck.
G'nite all! Sweet Dreams! A million more things to say - eventually.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
{*15*}
Woo Hoo!
My "7" baby has made it to 15!
We call him our "7" because he was born on 2-5-1997, 7lbs 7oz, at 14:14 military time.
We went out for a birthday dinner tonight at KFC and will have a BBQ with his favorite food tomorrow - RIBS!
My son's birth story?
I got pregnant in May of 1994. We had been trying for a while, then J went to Thailand for a month. When he got back, we got pregnant.
Then we PCSed to Ft. Drum, New York. We drove from Alaska down through Canada down the Cassiar Highway. It was fantastic. We went into the US in Washington and down to Seattle. Then we headed across America to Pennsylvania. We stayed North and viewed the sites along the way and making a pit stop in Minnesota.
We stayed in PA for a few weeks before we headed up to NY to see what would be our home for the next 2-3 years. We got an apt. on post - so lucky! We were very close to Canada, a great little farm, rivers, and Watertown, NY . . . Jason's birthplace.
There was not an OBGYN clinic on post so all appointments and deliveries had to be done in outlying cities. We chose a great little clinic that was 1/2 doctors and 1/2 midwives. I was going all natural baby!
I was sick the entire pregnancy and away from all family. J was in the field much of the time too. I couldn't hold down water most of the time but I gained a ton of weight anyway. I think I gained 60 lbs about. Probably more around 50, but I was still HUGE!
I went into early labor that had to be stopped with one of those great shots. Then I was sent home to let the baby cook a bit more. I had braxton/hicks all of the time and was still uncomfortable. I also had what they called a rejection rash. They said it is common when the child has a different blood type than the mother. As my due date neared everything intensified. 7 days before I was due, my water broke when I went to the fridge one morning for some skim milk. That was at 7 a.m.
The nursery had been ready for over a month and we were ready to go. We headed to Watertown, about 20 min South of where we were living. We were met by our mid-wife and looked forward to one of those great births you see in a movie. I can remember parts of it like it were yesterday. I was up and down and in and out of the shower. The pain was more than I could imagine and I eventually called out for pain meds. I got what I asked for, but it was just too late. All the meds did was give me a fuzzy head and make it impossible to yell out. The pain never let up and eventually the mid-wife stepped aside and allowed a doctor to do an episiotomy. I remember yelling, "cut him out!". I was in active/pushing labor for just over 2.5 hours at this point. I did push him out on my own finally and my first impression:
He's got his daddy's hands!
Boy did he ever! His palms were huge! We didn't know he'd be a boy, but we were pretty sure. Had he been a girl, we had picked out the name Lydia. He was a Jason though. Jason for his dad, Patrick for his grandmothers, Harvey for his grandpa and me, and last name Donald. Little trick about his name, if he amounted to nothing when he grew up, he's still be a doctor. Jason PhD!
That was about when they wheeled him out of there and under some lights. He failed his APGAR and was about as yellow as you could get. We didn't know what any of that meant of course. Our hospital stay was less than a disaster. The doctors couldn't help us out with Jason because we were military. They were available for emergencies only. Anything else would have to wait for a military doc or student to do their rounds. A student came in to perform his circumcision. We should have been scared when they said she was a student, but we didn't know any better. It was done wrong, which we didn't know either. He actively bled for over 24 hours, which we thought was normal. Finally a nurse noticed he was bleeding through a diaper and she called in a doc to fix things.
I was able to nurse on my own and I assumed they were bathing him and all of the other things that needed done because they had him much of the time we were there. WRONG. On the day we were to be released, a nurse came in and taught me how to bathe him. After he was done, I noticed he was not breathing.
No, really. He was not breathing. The nurse yelled at me that he was choking. How the hell can a baby choke was basically my response. J had stepped out a moment but came back in as the nurse was in panic mode because I couldn't clear his airway.
That was when I learned that is what those blue sucky things were for. She pushed his cart out into the hall and started running to the NICU. RUNNING! Like in a movie. J running with her. Me standing in the middle of the hall crying.
I don't know what they did in the Nursery. I couldn't bring myself to move. Eventually a nurse brought me down to look in a window to show me he was ok. Then they sent us home.
I don't know how old he was when I finally laid him down. Really. I rode in the back seat with him every where we went. He sat upright in everything we owned. We even propped his cradle up. He had a bouncy seat that propped him up. His car seat was mostly upright. None of that really mattered though because he slept in my arms, one hand always on the blue sucky thing. He choked one time walking from the car to a store. We had to run in and clear his airways.
I will never forget the stressful, sleepless moments, one hand on him and one on the blue sucky thing.
We were always clearing his airways. When he was two months old, I came back to Alaska with him and my mom was horrified and his coloring. Yep, no one addressed the jaundice. It took couple weeks, but my mom cleared it up by having him sleep in front of the living room window day and night.
Jason is a treasure. He still suffers from reflux and I suppose he always will. After he is 16, he will need to be scoped and probably have to have it fixed. For now it is controlled with meds and trying to keep stress out of his life. So he plays hockey . . . to relieve stress . . . hahaha
Jason has been stressing us out since birth with his ER visits where ever he goes and whatever he does.
He has also been making us proud every step of the way.
Happy Birthday Jase!
I went into early labor with Jason that brought us to the hospital in Watertown a month early.
My "7" baby has made it to 15!
We call him our "7" because he was born on 2-5-1997, 7lbs 7oz, at 14:14 military time.
We went out for a birthday dinner tonight at KFC and will have a BBQ with his favorite food tomorrow - RIBS!
My son's birth story?
I got pregnant in May of 1994. We had been trying for a while, then J went to Thailand for a month. When he got back, we got pregnant.
Then we PCSed to Ft. Drum, New York. We drove from Alaska down through Canada down the Cassiar Highway. It was fantastic. We went into the US in Washington and down to Seattle. Then we headed across America to Pennsylvania. We stayed North and viewed the sites along the way and making a pit stop in Minnesota.
We stayed in PA for a few weeks before we headed up to NY to see what would be our home for the next 2-3 years. We got an apt. on post - so lucky! We were very close to Canada, a great little farm, rivers, and Watertown, NY . . . Jason's birthplace.
There was not an OBGYN clinic on post so all appointments and deliveries had to be done in outlying cities. We chose a great little clinic that was 1/2 doctors and 1/2 midwives. I was going all natural baby!
I was sick the entire pregnancy and away from all family. J was in the field much of the time too. I couldn't hold down water most of the time but I gained a ton of weight anyway. I think I gained 60 lbs about. Probably more around 50, but I was still HUGE!
I went into early labor that had to be stopped with one of those great shots. Then I was sent home to let the baby cook a bit more. I had braxton/hicks all of the time and was still uncomfortable. I also had what they called a rejection rash. They said it is common when the child has a different blood type than the mother. As my due date neared everything intensified. 7 days before I was due, my water broke when I went to the fridge one morning for some skim milk. That was at 7 a.m.
The nursery had been ready for over a month and we were ready to go. We headed to Watertown, about 20 min South of where we were living. We were met by our mid-wife and looked forward to one of those great births you see in a movie. I can remember parts of it like it were yesterday. I was up and down and in and out of the shower. The pain was more than I could imagine and I eventually called out for pain meds. I got what I asked for, but it was just too late. All the meds did was give me a fuzzy head and make it impossible to yell out. The pain never let up and eventually the mid-wife stepped aside and allowed a doctor to do an episiotomy. I remember yelling, "cut him out!". I was in active/pushing labor for just over 2.5 hours at this point. I did push him out on my own finally and my first impression:
He's got his daddy's hands!
Boy did he ever! His palms were huge! We didn't know he'd be a boy, but we were pretty sure. Had he been a girl, we had picked out the name Lydia. He was a Jason though. Jason for his dad, Patrick for his grandmothers, Harvey for his grandpa and me, and last name Donald. Little trick about his name, if he amounted to nothing when he grew up, he's still be a doctor. Jason PhD!
That was about when they wheeled him out of there and under some lights. He failed his APGAR and was about as yellow as you could get. We didn't know what any of that meant of course. Our hospital stay was less than a disaster. The doctors couldn't help us out with Jason because we were military. They were available for emergencies only. Anything else would have to wait for a military doc or student to do their rounds. A student came in to perform his circumcision. We should have been scared when they said she was a student, but we didn't know any better. It was done wrong, which we didn't know either. He actively bled for over 24 hours, which we thought was normal. Finally a nurse noticed he was bleeding through a diaper and she called in a doc to fix things.
I was able to nurse on my own and I assumed they were bathing him and all of the other things that needed done because they had him much of the time we were there. WRONG. On the day we were to be released, a nurse came in and taught me how to bathe him. After he was done, I noticed he was not breathing.
No, really. He was not breathing. The nurse yelled at me that he was choking. How the hell can a baby choke was basically my response. J had stepped out a moment but came back in as the nurse was in panic mode because I couldn't clear his airway.
That was when I learned that is what those blue sucky things were for. She pushed his cart out into the hall and started running to the NICU. RUNNING! Like in a movie. J running with her. Me standing in the middle of the hall crying.
I don't know what they did in the Nursery. I couldn't bring myself to move. Eventually a nurse brought me down to look in a window to show me he was ok. Then they sent us home.
I don't know how old he was when I finally laid him down. Really. I rode in the back seat with him every where we went. He sat upright in everything we owned. We even propped his cradle up. He had a bouncy seat that propped him up. His car seat was mostly upright. None of that really mattered though because he slept in my arms, one hand always on the blue sucky thing. He choked one time walking from the car to a store. We had to run in and clear his airways.
I will never forget the stressful, sleepless moments, one hand on him and one on the blue sucky thing.
We were always clearing his airways. When he was two months old, I came back to Alaska with him and my mom was horrified and his coloring. Yep, no one addressed the jaundice. It took couple weeks, but my mom cleared it up by having him sleep in front of the living room window day and night.
Jason is a treasure. He still suffers from reflux and I suppose he always will. After he is 16, he will need to be scoped and probably have to have it fixed. For now it is controlled with meds and trying to keep stress out of his life. So he plays hockey . . . to relieve stress . . . hahaha
Jason has been stressing us out since birth with his ER visits where ever he goes and whatever he does.
He has also been making us proud every step of the way.
Happy Birthday Jase!
I went into early labor with Jason that brought us to the hospital in Watertown a month early.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
**!FEBRUARY!**
HaPpY BiRtHdAy
Month!
My niece turns *13*
My son turns *15*
My nephew turns *17*
My "sister" turns *shhhhhh*
Presidents Day
Valentines Day
Two trips to Anchorage
Carly's honor roll
b-day pedicures
Hugs
Love
book reports
Prep for college (yay!)
Good Health (we all maintain HOPE for those in need)
good books
reading to my kiddies (they're never too old)
Positive:
temperatures
behavior
thoughts
LOVE AND HUGS AND HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Ohhh could I sleep . . .
High School Hockey is officially over for my freshman player. Let's talk about our little misfits from North Pole.
Here is his season at a glance. He played 19 game. He was out for a few because of 1) a concussion 2) a broken foot.
Jason actually played two games on a broken foot. It was stable in his skate and chose to finish out a weekend of games. He went for x-rays right after the last game.
He had 5 goals and 5 assists for a total of 10 points. One was a short handed goal and one was a power play goal. The fantastic thing about this is, even though we lost every league game, is that of all of the 1997 birth years playing high school hockey in the interior, of all of the kids he plays comp hockey with, NO ONE comes close to his points or playing time! The closest was a defenseman friend who has 5 regular season points. There are some freshman, who by birth year have one more year of hockey than Jase, that have more points, but only 2.
I am incredibly proud of my son. INCREDIBLY!
Now, what is that 58 mean? HaHaHaHa!
Those are his penalty minutes! He has all of them beat on those too. He is such a goon . . . NO not really. He plays hard and fast and plays each game to make a statement. Sometimes that is the statement that needs to be made. When you play for a team that is continuously on the defense, its tough not to scramble around a bit and play physical.
Like I said before though, his season is over while his friends on opposing teams continue. North Pole did not win any league games and does not get to play in the regional tournament. As a parent though, hockey is not over until regionals are. We will be driving into Fairbanks in frigid temperatures and hosting the regional tournament. We will run the door, penalty boxes, clock, etc. It makes me cranky, but I'm a Patriot mom! Its what we do.
Next Jason has state comp tournament which we could get second, maybe first if we hustle the puck to the net. After that, its off to The Arctic Winter Games in Canada! He and about 6 of his friends are off to represent Alaska in Whitehorse, Canada.
I'm not sure what we are doing. Of course we don't want to miss these great events in his life, but we do have 2 other kids that need our love and support. We will see.
For now, it is farewell to North Pole hockey until October 2012 and Hello Patriot Baseball! Woo Hoo!
| 7 | Donald, Jason | 19 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 58 | .56 | |
 | ||||||||||
Here is his season at a glance. He played 19 game. He was out for a few because of 1) a concussion 2) a broken foot.
Jason actually played two games on a broken foot. It was stable in his skate and chose to finish out a weekend of games. He went for x-rays right after the last game.
He had 5 goals and 5 assists for a total of 10 points. One was a short handed goal and one was a power play goal. The fantastic thing about this is, even though we lost every league game, is that of all of the 1997 birth years playing high school hockey in the interior, of all of the kids he plays comp hockey with, NO ONE comes close to his points or playing time! The closest was a defenseman friend who has 5 regular season points. There are some freshman, who by birth year have one more year of hockey than Jase, that have more points, but only 2.
I am incredibly proud of my son. INCREDIBLY!
Now, what is that 58 mean? HaHaHaHa!
Those are his penalty minutes! He has all of them beat on those too. He is such a goon . . . NO not really. He plays hard and fast and plays each game to make a statement. Sometimes that is the statement that needs to be made. When you play for a team that is continuously on the defense, its tough not to scramble around a bit and play physical.
Like I said before though, his season is over while his friends on opposing teams continue. North Pole did not win any league games and does not get to play in the regional tournament. As a parent though, hockey is not over until regionals are. We will be driving into Fairbanks in frigid temperatures and hosting the regional tournament. We will run the door, penalty boxes, clock, etc. It makes me cranky, but I'm a Patriot mom! Its what we do.
Next Jason has state comp tournament which we could get second, maybe first if we hustle the puck to the net. After that, its off to The Arctic Winter Games in Canada! He and about 6 of his friends are off to represent Alaska in Whitehorse, Canada.
I'm not sure what we are doing. Of course we don't want to miss these great events in his life, but we do have 2 other kids that need our love and support. We will see.
For now, it is farewell to North Pole hockey until October 2012 and Hello Patriot Baseball! Woo Hoo!
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