Life in Marshall

Moonlight captured by Josh

 There are lots of random things I always mean to get on the blog, so I thought today I would combine those into one big post about life in Marshall.  This picture is one Josh took of the rising moon. His friends Mary & Susan stopped by to ask him to try & capture it as his camera is so nice.  He needs a bigger lens, but they are still kind of cool.  As we stood on the railing chatting with the girls, you could literally watch it rising.  It was amazing.  Susan mentioned that she, too, wished she could capture a picture of the stars with her camera for her mom. I wish I could capture it for all of you. It's breath taking.

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Next door to us, in the other three bedroom, is Flora (a teacher and Marshall native) & her husband John & their son Kayle. Kayle is in first grade and adorable.  Flora is very funny.  And John is very  nice.  He showed the boys and I the seal skin he had drying on a rack.  And when I fell (a story I will get to next) he came to make sure I was alright. 

The other day he & Kayle were outside & the boys enjoyed watching Kayle play with what he called a "snow racer". It looks like a tiny snow machine, but with no motor.  Kayle would climb to the top of a snow mound and crash down to the bottom on it. The boys loved every minute. 

Yesterday John was out on his new snow machine in front of the house & the boys climbed up in the window to watch as he did "wheelies" (can you call it that if there are no wheels?) on his snow machine. Jack said in amazement, "Wow. I wonder how he does that. We'll have to ask Daddy."  Logan said to him in a whisper, "I think it's magic!"

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Photos from around the airport

So after our blizzard the weather warmed up to 35 degrees.  The following day it was below freezing again.  With the melt & re-freeze, the whole village turned into one huge sheet of ice.

Josh has been wearing his ice cleats everyday. And he hates wearing his ice cleats.  But it's so dangerous. Even with them on, he fell the other day on the way home from lunch. He joked that the ice had exfoliated his hand. Ouch.

I don't have any ice cleats.  We have yet to order them.  So on Wednesday after I got all three boys ready by myself (which is no small feat) and we were following Josh to the schools' truck to ride to the post office, I fell. I fell hard.  I was going along just fine, wearing Wyatt in the Ergo, Josh holding a twins' hand in each of his, taking my sweet time, when suddenly my feet were no longer on the ground.  I was in the air long enough to think, "Oh my god, I'm falling. This is going to hurt!" And then BAM! I was on the ground. A second later Wyatt landed on my pelvis & began screaming.  Josh spun around and ran back to me to make sure I was okay. I yelled. A lot. It hurt. A lot.

Then I slowly but surely made my way to my feet and precariously hung on to Josh as we made it the rest of the way to the truck.

A fellow teacher Joe (who himself has a 4yo, a 2 yo & 7 mo. old twins) came with us on our errands, as well as his two year old, Michael.  Joe said he, too, has fallen. Everyone has.  Made me feel better!

We hit up the post office first, and the store second.  I stayed in the car at the post office.  And lucky for me at the store we ran into Terry (the principal) and his wife Tina, who lent me their ice cleats to walk from the truck to the store so I wouldn't fall again!

 The store here is like a glorified mini-mart.  Small, but with a little bit of everything outrageously priced.  We bought Cocoa Roos, Cocoa Pebbles, Honeycombs, Raisin Bran, two pizzas, cheese, a bag of Doritos, carrots, eggs, a can of Pam, BBQ sauce, and three candy bars for $102.00. Wowza!

I hated to spend that much money, but our Fred Meyer Bush Order was just filled on Tuesday, so I know it won't be here for a long time. (Probably two to four weeks.)  Plus the boys had cash from Grandma Pansy & her friend Shirley, so they paid for their own cereal (two each) and candy bars (one each). So Josh & I only paid $70.  I am curious to see how long it takes our Bush Order to arrive. 

The airports' wind sock

 I placed the order by typing up my list on a Microsoft Word document, then attached it to an e-mail and sent it to the Anchorage Fred Meyer.  About two days later they called to let me know they were filling the order and to ask if certain substitutions were okay, and to tell me what they don't carry that was on my list.  Then the day after that they called to let me know my grand total with shipping.  $535 total. Ouch again! Just feeding the kids up here is going to take half our income!!!

It won't be that expensive every month as I bought a lot of staples so we would have a good stockpile.  I am hoping next year when we come back in August that I will have a better idea of what we require and do more shopping up front in Anchorage & only order groceries maybe every other month, along with picking up eggs & cheese from the store here.  (Which I will have to budget for! The cheese alone is $14 for one pound!)

 I will say that while spending money at the store is cost prohibitive, it is also exciting. I bought carrots. Carrots, people! I can't tell you how excited I was to crunch into that bright orange veggie!

 Once I got the total of our Fred Meyer order, I was able to place our Target order as well.  While I was still in Vancouver my brilliant mother discovered that her Target debit card meant FREE SHIPPING (!!!) in addition to 5% off every purchase!

That's how she got my high chair up here, as well as the baby's crib & mattress.

So yesterday I ordered a few things from our current list.  For one, I ordered curtains for the whole house.  I got a cream colored set for the living & dining rooms. I got turquoise for the playroom.  I got chocolate brown suede for the boys and chocolate brown also for our bedroom.  I ordered thermabacked drapes for both insulation & for light reduction. 

Already it's getting so bright out! We put the boys down at 7pm, as usual, on Monday night, and you could see the bright sunshine sneaking in past their mini-blinds.  Everyday is getting 5-10 minutes brighter.  And it's remarkable how much brighter it is than when we arrived just one month ago!

 I also ordered a space heater for the boys' playroom.  The house is set up for heat really weird.  There is one thermostat downstairs, and one upstairs.  The one downstairs is in the kitchen, near the pantry. So the boys' playroom, as well as the living room, tend to run cold because they have the door & two windows to contend with.  I can't wait to order rugs (probably next month) for those two rooms, as I think that will really help.

I did order one rug for the kitchen.  It's a squishy one that is supposed to be nice for standing at the sink while washing dishes.  That is where we spend a lot of time each day.  I really don't mind washing the dishes, it's more the height of the sink that's a problem. It hurts my back to bend over it.

 I also ordered a bath toy container since our most recent care packages were full of bath toys.  I think it will help keep the toys contained to one spot in the tub & make transitioning from using the baby bath seat to bathing the twins a little easier.

 The last thing I ordered was printer ink. I have so desperately been wanting to print pictures! To send to family and friends as well as put into frames that have older pictures.  I can't wait for it to come!

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For the first time in my life I spent some time reading my cook books, circling meals whose ingredients I could easily access here.  I find that I am enjoying the challenge of keeping our meals interesting and changing it up to keep lunch & dinner time from getting monotonous.

Josh is truly the good cook, though.  The other day he browned some moose meat, shredded some cheese & deep fried these tiny tortillas he had~ oh my goodness, it was like I was back home, eating something I had ordered from Muchas Gracias. It was amazing.

I sometimes forget that I am here. So far away from home.  The other day I was reading my friend Tess's Facebook status, and she was in need of some dinners being delivered since she was under the weather. And I thought to myself, "I wonder what her little boy will eat?" Then I realized I'm not in Vancouver and most definitely cannot run over to deliver a meal!

 I also find myself thinking constantly of roads in Vancouver. I'm not sure why.  They will pop into my mind at the most random of times.  Ellsworth, where my sister lives, heading towards the river.  18th Street by the AM/PM where we used to get gas.  The other night I dreamed that Josh and I went for a drive here in Marshall and suddenly there was a ton of traffic. I complained about it to him, and he said, in a few minutes we'll be in Vancouver. That's why there are all these cars.  Sure enough, the road we were on turned into 136th Avenue, approaching Mill Plain by the Craft Warehouse.  It was so odd.

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My days here are usually a blur of diaper washing, laundry, dish washing & water refilling.  The water here is from a well, and therefore has a lot of extra minerals in it.  When you boil a pot of water, after you're done, there is a thin sheet of the collected minerals in the pan. It's very strange. So we use a Brita filter to filter any water we drink.  So every two days or so we have to fill the big fridge container, our water bottles & the Brita filter pitcher.  It's time consuming, but worth it, as the Brita water is a lot better.

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 This was a strange sight to see this week when I took the boys out to play on the railing.  These trucks are almost completely buried in snow!

 You can hardly see the white one (mid lower left corner) as it is so buried!

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 The boys love getting outside.  Josh tried to take them out on Sunday, as it was 35 degrees, but the wind makes it much colder than the temperature indicates, and they only lasted ten minutes.  So when I took them out, I knew they may not last very long, but the wind was more mild that day, and we were probably out for a half hour.

 We are getting way faster at getting ready.  The last time we got geared up the twins put on their own snow pants, sweaters, coats & boots. All I had to do was zip coats and put on hats & mittens. This is exciting progress!

Wyatt screams the entire time we are getting ready.  He hates to be bundled up, hates having his mittens on, hates wearing his hat.  So a time that is already stressful & exhausting is made even worse as I start sweating, racing around trying to get the boys & myself ready already so I can put on the Ergo & get Wyatt in there so he will stop screaming!

Once he's in there, he's happy as a clam. He peeks out at his brothers & coos at me.  If we're out any length of time at all, he generally falls asleep on me, which I love.  I guess I should be grateful he does all his screaming while we're at the house, and not while he's strapped to my body out in public!

He may hate getting all bundled up, but he sure does look cute once he is!!! His sweet chubby Gerber face pudging out of his cozy hat- love it!

The boys love driving around in the truck & checking out the village.  When the sun is shining, there are always people out and about, no matter the temperature. The other day Josh was able to take them to the airport where they got to watch an airplane both land & take off.  They're like little puppy dogs with their noses pressed up against the window, taking it all in.

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I've got the boys trained now.  This morning when Jack looked out his playroom window & saw this he came running, "Mommy, come look! It's so beautiful out!" because every morning when I see the colors on display I say, "Oh, isn't it just so beautiful?" So of course I obliged him with a photo op.  "Can I see? Can I see?" he asked, pulling my arm down so he could see the display screen.

 A beautiful way to start everyday. That's for sure!

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I am looking so forward to tonight- we get to head over to the school after dinner for some Eskimo dancing.  I will be sure to take lots of pictures & blog all about it!

Happy Weekend!!!