Pipes are working now...

Okay so Monday was a bad day. We figured out it was the pipes. They had frozen in places because the heat wrap that is on them apparently stopped working. Uhm yeah we need to get that replaced for now we run water frequently during the day and just pray at night that they don't freeze. Kelly was under the house from about 6pm to 10 on Monday night when it was 6 degrees F with no heat taking the pipes apart then handing them to one of us to bring in and try to heat up enough to melt the ice obviously it took a few hours but we have water now. His truck didn't start in the morning because the batteries were completely dead and needed replaced. Yeah I said batteries 2 of them to the tune of $200 a piece! Ouch..... he worked on that right after work when he got home at 5 had some trouble with them so took him an hour to get done. The fact the hood of the truck is higher then him made it a little extra challenging. So that brings his total out in the freezing temps to 5 hours after work which uhm is outside....yeah his day was a little worse then mine.....I suppose.

I told you about my not being able to get my durango up the street to our house right? Here is a look at part of the hill. Walking a little down it then at then end where you see the snow stop or turn you take a left and it's almost straight down hill.


Izzak thinks the girls, well mostly Madison, are to slow so he has taken to pulling them or her down on a sled. When he gets to the hill he turns her around and holds it so it doesn't slide quicker then he can walk. Isn't he a sweet brother? Of course on this outing he got to the end and she leaned funny and got dumped out of the sled. Of course in Madisons opinion it was all his fault and she yelled at him for it...


We finaly got Kenzies blood tests back and the only thing unusual was showing that she was having some kind of allergic reaction or something at the time. She is still having the same symptoms though so she must be still having it. The nurse told me so I didn't talk to the doctor but apparently he wasn't concerned? I don't know. If she is having an allergy to something like that and it's seems to be ongoing you'd think he would suggest doing some other checking since it is affecting her sleep and energy level. I'm not thrilled with him though so I am going to make an appointment when I call in tomorrow to see the other doctor in the office who I totally adore and I'm sure he'll be more proactive about it. She has missed days of school from this because she is not sleeping good at all and just acting really tired all the time even going to bed early.

I have more pictures to shar with you but it takes a long time to load them onto the website I'm using to be able to post but it's the only one that my computer seems to be allowing to load all the others just end up giving me an error message. Hopefully I'll get more loaded tomorrow and share some others.

Sorry about Fun Monday

I was going to do Fun Monday but am having challenges this weekend. Camera cable has been chewed up by the puppies so I can't upload any pics until the new one comes in so now pics sorry. Also my bedside table is down in the garage because we had it in storage and when we took it out it was covered on top with mold.....We are trying to clean it up but until then I don't have one of those either. It's usually not that interesting anyway though so your not really missing anything. Usually just a lamp maybe a book if I'm reading one and a picture usually of the kids.

This morning is going not so well either. The temp went way down last night for us around 4 F and even with heat wrap either the water tank is frozen or our pipes are frozen so we don't have water at the moment, great fun right? The cars didn't want to start this morning either and we have 3 Kelly's truck which was on a block heater didn't want to start the little car we couldn't get the doors open because they are frozen solid but my Durango started! I guess it's a good thing Kelly decided to fix it a week ago.

So yeah at the moment I'm in a fantastic mood......

Whale watching, etc.

So blogger is still giving me fits so I can't upload pictures directly. I am finding other ways of getting pics on though. Look at this picture I took on Tuesday. I thought it looked cool looking from our deck. You can see the mountain from Galina Island poking out from above the clouds. I really like living at the top of a mountain. The views are amazing. Judging by the comments I got on my Fun Monday post I assume others agree with me.


Also Tuesday we were at a restaurant having appetizers and coffeee with a friend while the kids were in gymnastics. The restaurant is right off the water, like most around here actually. Anyway we were just talking when I noticed several killer whales surfacing just outside! It was awesome! I can't see myself ever getting tired of seeing the whales coming through around here! It was a whole pod and we counted at least 20 of them surfacing on their way up farther north. I tried to get a picture but my zoom lense is acting weird so I couldn't really get up to close but the pictures I have to show a little of them above the water.


I wish I could have gotten some more of them breaking the water because it was awesome but I didn't have my camera with me when I was at the restaurant. They were coming up in large groups at a time. This picture was when we decided after the restaurant to follow them on their way with our cars and stopped when we had a good view to see them.

Silly picture of my puppy Kodiak. No she doesn't really use a pacifier the girls have a few of these for their dolls and thought it would be funny to give it to her one day when she was sleeping. Funny thing is she left it there for awhile.

Fun Monday --- View out my front door

This weeks Fun Monday is being hosted by Vicki over at Catching the Light the very first host for Fun Monday! Today will be the first anniversary for Fun Monday which I think is fantastic. I love Fun Mondays partially because it gives me a topic to post about at least once a week....

Here's the assignment. For those of you who did NOT post a picture of your view from your front door, then your assignment is to post a view from your front door. To do this you stand in your doorway looking outside and take a picture. That simple. We (I) want to see what you see when you look out your front door.
For those of you who DID post your view, link back to that post you posted a year ago, and then re-list your very first post ever. We want to see how far you've come baby! Also, if you can, post the comments you received on that post.

I didn't participate back then I started shortly after the first Fun Monday so I will be posting my front door view today. I actually posted some of these pics just a few days ago so for some of you it will be a bit of repeat. But since we have made a huge move this year I am going to show you a picture of what our view was last year at this time as well. Some of you have seen pics of the view we had when we first moved to Alaska but we recently moved to a more permanent house so our view has changed there as well.

Here was our view last year about this time on a rare snow day we had and I took a pictures to show. Here we were still living in the city in Portland Oregon. Neighbors on all sides and close by no real scenery to speak of except when it snowed really wasn't that pretty. Here is the link to that post Here

Fast forward a year and this is our view out the front door in Ketchikan Alaska! Our neighbors aren't that close and we have a beautiful view all the time.

We can look out our windows, door or deck and look out over the Tongass Narrows in beautiful Shoutheast Alaska. No more big city we live outside of the smallish town we live near and I'm enjoying it everyday.

The other thing we were supposed to do was link to our very first post ever. That is
here when I started my blog originally it was just my own journal for keeping track of things and wanting to just write things out. My first one was trying to get out all of Izzaks difficulties since we were dealing with a lot with him at the time.

not much

Still having problems loading pics on blogger....very aggravating and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Not much exciting going on this week though.

I did have a conference with the program we are using for Izzaks home schooling. It is a little different how we are set up. In alaska they have a thing called IDEA which is designed so you can home school but get the state to pay for his books. I have a contact teacher who I can talk to with concerns and and a special ed teacher to discuss concerns more related to his disabilities. They also help set up any other special therapy he may get. Some people don't like this idea because it is like still letting the state have control over his education but really I don't feel that way at all, for me it's more like having someone to throw ideas off of who may know a little more then I do and with Izzak I feel that is very important I feel more like I'm not totally on my own here.

I do have to turn in samples of his work but mostly just to show he is using the material what I send isn't really important and twice a year I submit my report card for him. He still takes the state tests but that is what we were talking about in the conference today. The old school wouldn't do what was needed to help him with the tests the things suggested by his neurodevelopmental doc or even the school themselves. The spec ed teacher saw what they had which was different then what I signed and was shocked. So we went over it today and they added all the extra help I wanted and then some! They have to hire someone to come in for the testing just for him and they didn't have a problem with that at all. It's just feels so much better then before.

Other then that we have been busy just trying to move things into the house which is such a long process with all our stuff in so many places. Still sleeping on an air mattress as we haven't had the chance to get our own fabulous bed out of storage yet. I am anxious for it though since the air mattress causes me to fall over to basically sleeping on Kelly whenever he moves. Also I still don't have all of my dishes and that drives me nuts! I have everything we have at the moment put away though except clothes because the dressers are in storage also.

Kelly will be going to Juneau next week for some classes for work so hopefully Josh (his brother) and I can get some things out of storage with his truck during the day since he won't be using it.

View from our new house!

I've been promising pics of our new house for a couple of days now but Blogger is being a pain in the butt and not letting me post any pictures, very agravating! So I had to go in through Picasa and do it that way instead.

Anyway here are some pics for you.

Here is the view to the front but kind of to the left a bit. The island out there is Gravina Island the same Island you could see from our old house. We are actually kind of just up the hill from the old house but in a round about way.

Here is a little more to the left. I took these yesterday during a few moments of no rain or snow just very cold, but the sky was nearly clear so it made for some pretty good picture taking anyway.

Kind of straight to the front off the porch.

This is to the right of the house. You can see a house in the trees that looks a lot closer in this picture then it really is.

Of course today was much different so this was the view from our porch! Today was no sunshine just a lot of snow all day!

Here is a pic showing what you see from the driveway if you are looking at the backside of the house. Kelly loves the large garage by the way, something he has always wanted to be big enough for his things and honestly this one is bigger then it looks. The trees in the back are all part of the forest land no one behind us for the rest of the island which is pretty large. I like that. Kelly and the boys can actually go hunting next year and just go out the backyard into the woods a ways.

Of course you know right now with the new pups home I can't help but share some pics with you all though right?

Kodiak crashed on Kellys chair....she is so spoiled.

Like I said we got a lot of snow today and she loved playing in it.

Hopefully blogger will cooperate with me a little more tomorrow and I will try to upload more pics but doing it this way takes even more time then when blogger works right. I have some of the kids I'd like to show you but we will save that for another time.

Fun Monday "favorite internet sites"

This weeks Fun Monday is hosted by Ann over at For the Long Run

I want to hear about a web site and not just about any old web site. I want to hear about a web site that's changed your life. A web site that you can't live without. A web site whose inventor you'd like to see win a McArthur Genius Grant.

Maybe you want to sing the praises of a dating web site for helping you meet your spouse. Maybe the only thing getting you through the dark days of winter is an Internet comic. No story is too big, no story is too small - I want to hear it all on Monday.

I have several favorite web sites but the problem is several of them are subscription sites with a password. Such as enchanted learning which since I'm homeschooling comes in handy for extra's to add to some of my lessons it is designed for K-3rd grade mostly but there is a lot of stuff I can print off to use with Madison.

I also like one true media which I use for making montages with pictures set to music for special occasions.

I am frequently on vimeo to download my videos and play them on my blog.

Another one I like for my homeschool is e field trips. Basically it has online field trips for several different subjects from historical to science and the kids actually like it. The 2 that aren't homeschooling always want me to save the field trip activity until they get home from school when they know we are doing one since they like to see the videos. You have to create a log in but it's free if you interested. You register for each field trip but that is so they can give you the passwords to get into each field trip. Along with the field trips when it is a new one they will have a 2 day period set aside to speak to the experts so you check in often. It has an efieldtrip journal for each trip and a virtual visit. It's actually pretty cool

The school web sites that I post are both actually used in schools as well including the school my other 2 go to.

There are several others I go to including more school related sites and shopping sites, of course you know my favorite site to go to is my own blog! hehe

Hey I've got my own computer up

Look at our sweet puppies sleeping tonight! Aren't they cute. I had to take a picture of Kodiak sleeeping like this with her stuffed hippo over her head. She fell asleep playing with it.

Can you tell how much they like to sleep together?
First time in the snow. They loved it. Our house has a huge deck off of the front porch so we have been taking the puppies out lately to play for a few minutes. Kodiak loves it but has a shorter coat and gets colder a little quicker then Kiska.
Kiska has the nice Husky coat so acts like she barely notices the cold. She turns into a completly different pup when you take her outside. She just goes nuts! The both love to eat the snow and she will pick it up and throw it.Kenzie playing with the pups at our new house.
So my birthday went pretty well. The pups had their shots, got wormed and had their nails clipped which was very necessary! They were scratching us to pieces! They are great though.

My friend took me to lunch afterward when we dropped the kids and pups all off. We went to a nice restaraunt and just had lunch with no kiddos and had a good time. She gave me a gift with a new purse and new pants from a line she sells that I really like. I really need new clothes! Then we went to dinner at church because they do a church family dinner on Wednesday nights and everyone sang happy Birthday to me. Oh oh and guess what! They fixed my phone and Joshua got the water pump working right that day as well.....honestly that was probably my best gift! The laundry and shower situation was getting bad!

I still can't get up my driveway though with the snow. I really need Kelly to fix my Durango but it also needs new tires so that I can drive it up. The taurus just doesn't have the traction and now 4 wheel drive. The Durango on the other hand could do it.

I'm loving the new house though it's tons more room then the last one and actually I think is bigger then any other house we've lived in. With everyone growing around here that is very exciting! Also the last house had only 1 bathroom and with 7 people living there it was getting to be a difficult situation even though the boys and men were often sent to the woods to go potty, although there are only certain things that you can do outside comfortably! This one has 2 and one is in our room as the master bath which means I have my own bathroom!

I will try to get some more pics of around the house and outside for you tomorrow. I've been having so much fun with the puppies and moving things lately I just haven't thought to take pictures outside or of the house. Maybe tomorrow if we get time. We need to move stuff out of storage and Joshua has a pine wood derby race with the boyscouts as well tomorrow so I will see what I can do. Maybe you'll get pics of Joshuas race.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes by the way I loved looking at the computer all day to see new messages!

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me.....

Today is my birthday January 9th. Don't really have any plans at this point other then doing school with the kids and taking the pups in to get their shots. Sound like an exciting day?
When I was younger I looked forward to my birthday and counted down but now that I have kids it seems to just be another day. Why is that? The hubby isn't much of a planner for things and since I do all the party planning and gifts the rest of the year. I did get a card from my mom though with some spending money maybe I will buy myself some new clothes with it. I have lost weight since we moved so I really need them.

On the moving front we are out of the other house completely. The things that were in that house are all here but not really put away at all. The only boxes I've really unpacked are the kids school stuff. We are having a few issues though. The phones aren't on yet and they were supposed to be on Monday so i haven't gotten a call from the doctor because he can't call. I will call tomorrow about the blood tests on Kenzie. Who knows if they are all back yet since they send most of the blood work to Seattle since Ketchikan doesn't have a full lab, I know it's weird. Hopefully they will be on today Wednesday, they are scheduled to do it but same with Monday and they just didn't show up. Now we will just have to see if they can get their truck up the hill to our house. I can't get my car up so we are doing some walking unless Kelly is home with his big truck. Also we have a water tank at this house as well of course but the pump is having problems and keeps shutting off, often when Kelly is trying to take a shower. His brother Josh has to sit under the house to turn it back on during showers and him or Izzak go under whenever we notice it is not running again. We are working on trying to figure out what is wrong hopefully tomorrow or we will be putting in a new pump, less hasle. The house otherwise is nice and much bigger then the last actually probably the biggest we have lived in so far which is great. The kids love it here and Izzak is off in the woods every chance he gets! We have tons of snow and places for the kids to sled so they are doing a lot of that as well. Also the other two are back in school which helps as well. Honestly Joshua was driving me insane over the last two weeks. I'm not sure what is going on but his attitude is horrendous! I've been embarressed on more then one occasion lately and that is not normal he can be a handful but normally he is pretty respectful of others and that is just not so lately. Kenzie seems to be a little better still not up to normal energy and I can hear her in her sleep she is talking way more then ussual and for her that is usually a sign she is not feeling great or sleeping well. Madison has the cold Kelly and I were dealing with during the move and told me today "I don't like this cold Mommy, how do I get rid of it?" I told her "you just have to wait for it to go away and rest until then" so now she is telling everyone that she has a cold but there is nothing to do for it so she just has to wait, but she doesn't like to rest. She is a silly kid red nose and all. She is walking around the house with a roll of toilet paper to wipe her nose! Kelly and I seem to be over the worst parts of our colds though so that is great. Now we just need to get the rest of our stuff out of the various storage locations we have things at!

Fun Monday---Our pets!

This weeks Fun Monday is brought to us by Lisa at Lisa's chaos! Here is what she asks of us this week

Let’s meet your pets. I think most of us have at least one pet and I would like to see your fluffy or scaly pal. If you don’t have a camera you can tell us about him/her/them. If you don’t have a pet tell us about a pet you had or a pet you want. If for some weird reason you hate all animals we want to know why gosh-dang-it.

Well technically I have 2 pets of our own here is our little 7 week old puppy Kodiak!

She is a mixed puppy but people are always wanting to know what she is. Her momma was a blue heeler with about a 10th border collie and the father was a huskey with a little red heeler. She takes after her momma and mostly looks and acts like a heeler. She is very spunky and very smart already. We just brought her home this weekend but have been around her all the time since she was born we were actually there just minutes after she was born so she knows us very well and has no problems with coming home away from her momma.

Of course the coming home was a little easier because Kelly's brother Josh who lives with us has one of her littermates Kiska! So she has her sister to play with all the time. As you can see Kiska got more from her father side in coloring and even personality! These puppies are doing great and paper trained most of the time.

When I said we had two pets technically I was meaning that Kiska technically isn't ours so our second pet would be this weird cat here. His name is Merlin and he is just plain weird as you can see. If he is laying on a bed or something he sprawls out like this but he is always on a search for a box or basket to sleep in instead.s

Okay so I popped in today to do Fun Monday but we are very busy at the moment moving so I will have to end this one short or I would tell you so much more. I hope to get around to see everyone elses pets this week but may be in a day or two!

Have a great week!

Moving day....again

So this weekend we are moving to the new house hoping to be done by tomorrow. Then the long process begins of unpacking since a lot of our stuff was still packed from the first move here. I am really anxious to get it done though since we have things all over the place stored since they wouldn't be needed here in this house.

I took Kenzie to the dr on Thursday. I wasn't impressed with the dr we saw though. I have seen the 3 pediatritions in town now and only really like the one I was seeing with Joshua. I guess that makes it a pretty easy decision on who to take the kids to regularly though, right? He just left me feeling frustrated and I had to basically ask him to run a blood test on Kenzie. She just has not been feeling well and has a lot less energy lately and not eating much so I wanted to do a basic at least check to make sure things were okay. He was to obsessed with her normal stomach issues and not wanting to listen to what she had to say about it being different. The kid really has had the other stomach issues as long as she can remember, I honestly think she is a pretty good gage as to wether it is in a different area and a different feeling from her normal. Don't you think?

Oh well. Hopefully either she starts perking up here soon or we can figure out if something is going on.

The rest of the house is doing okay other then Kelly and I both having colds. Ah I guess this time he's gonna do the sick thing while moving right along with me. Maybe he'll figure what it's like to be moving and feeling like crud at the same time.

Anyway they are hooking up the cable and internet at the new house today so I will probably be shut off here at this house anytime now. It will take a couple of days for us to get things set up at the new house so I will see you in a couple of days unless we get busy!

I changed it again!

I figured it wasn't Christmas any more and I needed to go to something other then Santa....:(

Why is it Christmas comes and goes so quickly?

We are moving in a couple of days here again......

Really I am looking forward to moving into the new house just not the moving thing. I really hate moving and of course I am getting sick again. What is it with me getting sick everytime we move? I don't get that.......

The only other thing going on is Kenzie....

She got sick at the begging of the month with all of us but she just can't seem to kick it. She is still having trouble with tummy aches and and being super tired. She doesn't want to eat much and what she does eat she is being pretty picky about. She is drinking a lot of gatorade though. It's all she really wants so she gets it, at least it helps her in some ways. I'm going to call her doctor tomorrow to get her in for an appointment.