YES! M-AEST

Transfer Courses									Institution Equivalent
	Term	Subject	Crs No	Course Title	Credits	Grp	Grd	D	A	Subj	Crse	Course Title	Credits	Grd
	201002	BIOL	F694	Environmental Microbiology	3.00		A		O	BIOL	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F644	Environmental Mgmt & Law	3.00		A		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F646	Unit Processes - Biological	3.00		A-		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F649	Hazardous & Toxic Waste Mgmt	3.00		A+		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F652	Intro Toxicology for Engr & Sc	3.00		A		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ESM	F605	Engineering Economic Analysis	3.00		A		O	ES	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	STAT	F402	Scientific Sampling	3.00		A		O	STAT	A402	Scientific Sampling	3.00	A T
	Total Credits Accepted:				21.00
What is all that junk? Well, it is the final word that one of my largest hobbies for the past 3 years is going to amount to a master's degree in Applied Environmental Science & Technology. Yes, all of the courses that I took in Fairbanks are now transferred to Anchorage and my Graduate Study Plan is signed and posted. It took about a year and a half to get this done, because no one has tried to do what I'm doing before. Regardless, all I have to do is finish the last 9 credits. The problem is . . . I already know what I want to do my second master's degree in . . . but still have no clue what to do for a job. Oh well, life is short and I love to learn. Maybe if I go for a master's in Natural Resource Management I'll discover what I want to be when I grow up (besides a mother, wife, student, outdoorswoman, and wanna-be photographer).

Capture Life. NOW!

After hearing about two of my relatives pass away in the past two months, I have to say that life is unpredictable. R.I.P. aunt Dory; 49 is much too young for an unexpected heart attack. And R.I.P, uncle Ron; who knew a case of pneumonia could bring you literally from one world to another? It just goes to show that you don't know what is going to happen from one week to the next.

When we fly our little family of four down to MN to celebrate my dad's 60th Birthday next month, we're having our 3 present generations photographed at my parents' 575 acre 5 generation farm by Katie Jeanne Photography. She has kindly offered to travel 90 miles (one-way) out into the boondocks to capture some memories for us. I figure if we're going to capture some memories at the farm, what better time to do it than right now. No one in my immediate or extended family has to my knowledge ever been custom photographed. Don't get me wrong; my mom's side of the family takes a lot of photos. In fact, my grandmother left us an entire walk in closet full of them. But, the problem with this is that the people who take the photos never get to be in them.

Until then, I've been working on some projects of my own. Let's be honest, we don't always have the money or want to allocate the money to hire a professional custom photographer. And, after 6 years in Alaska and 3 years in my new home, I've come to terms with the fact that we're staying, so I might as well decorate those pretty walls . . . or at least send out some Fall Equinox or Winter Solstice greeting cards:

Something is better than nothing. Even if you don't have a camera at all, you can always go to Sear's Portrait Studio. They continually have Free Offers with little fine print. Online there are coupons for a free session and a free print (or more) at absolutely no cost. You can go back as many times as you want for free as long as you bring a coupon each time. You may not be able to get your whole family in the scene for free, but you can do individual shots if nothing else. All you have to do is print the coupon, make the appointment, show up, and order your free print. It's true, the resolution is not great, and the paper quality is very poor, but you have to keep in mind that it's free. Even if the product is not nice enough for your wall, start an album or even just a 3-ringed binder and save them. It's nice to have large prints to look back on. Here're two, our baby learning to lie on his belly and toddler eating a cookie so that he'll stay in the photography room long enough to be photographed, I liked enough to hang in the kids' play room: $30 ($15/10x13 frame)

Capture memories yourself and print. We get together with my parents who live a day away by airplane several times a year, and I always love the photos that they take of our family because they are completely candid. Events like my son unscrewing his play table, climbing out of the dog kennel, or peeing off of the front step are memories that should be taken and printed if nowhere else at a place like Shutterfly, where a 4x6 print is only 9-10c. There's nothing worse than not taking any photos than taking them and letting them sit on a hard-drive unseen. Stick them in a photo album. If you have the memory space, keep your camera at the highest pixel setting because you never know when you will fall in love with one of the photos that you take and want to blow it up really large. After filling 6 albums (almost 1500 photos--really), I had these images blown up and mounted on metal, so that they will be durable enough to live by our woodstove for years to come: $100 ($50/16x16 metal print)

Buy a nice frame. It doesn't matter if I'm buying a carseat or a picture frame; I ask myself the same two questions. Is it easy to install? And is it easy to clean? You will notice that you have to pay just a few dollars more for frames that are easy to dust (1 piece of glass and few ledges, nooks and crannies) and that have mounting hardware. Yes, it's hard to believe but if you're not getting a custom frame you should always look on the back because it doesn't always have the basics! And trust me, it's worth the extra because frames are reusable and will last pretty much forever. Most photos I take would not look any good blown up. Either the baby's drooling or the toddler has a snotty nose. There's a blade of grass in front of someone's face or the light isn't quite right. But, you know, in a nice collage frame, they look okay together, and as the boys grow older, more collages will be made. In fact, this is already the second one I've done in the past 6 months. It costs essentially nothing to update your frame so your guests have something new to look at from time to time, in our case, when they first walk into our home: $30.80 ($30 frame, $0.80/8 prints)

Leave room to grow. An absolutely amazing natural light family photographer, MachC Photography, recently gave me some great advice. 1) Before you order prints, canvas, standouts, buy frames, or whatever, cut out a piece of paper the size that you think you want and tape it to the wall where you want it. You may be surprised that you have been thinking too big or too small. You want to make a statement and you want the faces to be big enough that they can be seen. That said though . . . 2) Leave room to grow. And this can mean 2 things if not more. Don't necessarily print as big as your pixels allow or as big as your wall can handle right off the bat. You may want to add more images later or you may in the future want to print a different image even larger. For example, we have a giant wall in our master bedroom and I plan to fill it with prints on black standouts (a cheap alternative to canvas--neither require frames) for years to come . . . below, to the right, to the left, and beyond . . . memories of every age, every season, everyone: $40/16x20 standout

You get what you pay for. Just like most things in life you truly get what you pay for. A professional photo lab like Black River Imaging or a semi-pro lab like Mpix (easier uploading software than BRI) is going to give you a much better result if you're printing your own images than any of the well-known consumer labs. They have the right paper, the right printers, and the right mounting products to make your image look great and last longer than you. But, they're not miracle workers. You need a properly developed high resolution image to start with. If you don't have the time or don't want the stress, leave it to the professional custom photographers. You pay them to capture timeless high resolution images in perfect lighting and make them into products that you will treasure, well, forever.

Photos are for people who want to be reminded of specific moments in time, who are not afraid to see or share who they really are, or appreciate creativity and art. Nothing's stopping you. Capture this moment before it's gone.

Update: Summer Part 2

1) Travel. In August, baby N traveled with me to MN for his first time. The trip was quite busy, but some of the main events included a mother/daughter kayak trip; visiting with my uncle and aunt who were up visiting from VA; celebrating my cousin's wedding, bachelorette party, and her son's baptism; attending my 10yr high school reunion; and having a memorial service for my dad's younger sister who sadly passed away from a heart attack at age 49. N and I met the other 4 baby cousins, who are essentially the same age.

To digress, since I moved to AK permanently after having spent 2 summers up here, I've flown back to MN 10 times: Jan 05, Jul 05, Sept 05, Dec 05, Aug 06, Dec 06, (in 07, we built a house), Jul 08, Jun 09, Dec 09, and Aug 10. My parents from MN have come up here to AK to visit 10 times also: Jun 05, Jun 06, Nov 06, Apr 07, Oct 07, Dec 07, Mar - Apr 08 (separately for the birth of baby A), Dec 08, Mar - Apr 10 (separately for birth of baby N), June 10. We didn't try to make it even; it just turned out that way! Anyway, as a result my husband, our children, and I are very close to my parents, which is extremely important to us. Along the way, we've also helped each other out a lot. My dad helped us out tremendously when we built our house, and both my mom and dad provided a lot of help with both the kids and other projects when they've come to visit. On the flip side, my husband (he's only been down to MN 3 times though) is able to help out on their farm, haying and splitting wood, when he goes. We're going in November for my dad's 60th birthday, and the whole family is able to go, so my husband will get to help out on the farm once again.

2) Chores. It never ends around here. I keep journals for each of my kids so that they may read about the ups and downs, their talents and achievements of childhood when they're older. I realized yesterday 5 months have passed since I last wrote to them in their journals and my oh my have they grown up since that last journal entry. I blame this lapse in time on the chores that make the days fly by so quickly. My husband has finished preparing for winter. This includes gathering all of the summer outdoor tools and toys together and storing them, bringing the boats in for safe storage, and preparing many cord of wood for us for the winter, which is by far the heftiest task of all. (It is nice to burn renewable energy though not to mention that it saves us a lot of money in fuel oil). I do the majority of the cooking and cleaning and laundry, but my husband still plays a major role. He likes to help with the cleaning and he is quite a fantastic cook. I earned my keep as a gatherer this summer and picked tons of rasperries and blueberries, some of which I preserved as jam and syrup and some of which we will eat in yogurt over the winter. But, most of the time is consumed in daily tasks such as preparing meals, cleaning up after, keeping us clean and dressed. It is amazing how much more time this takes when you have two children rather than one. The 3rd "child," the dog barely ever gets his nails clipped anymore or gets a bath or a brush; to compensate, he does get extra food, so I don't think he minds much that he is at the bottom of the chain of chores. Sometimes people ask, "Would you like some fish or a houseplant?" The answer is "No, it will probably get lost in the mix and die so why bother trying."

3) Work and school and daycare. My husband has been working 10-12 hours a day and for the first time ever last weekend brought his work home with him (something he has always tried not to do). This is mainly because in a few weeks he will take a new job as a Reliability Supervisor. So, now, he is finishing up his old job which is neither reliability nor production. He is a Technical Trainer and is giving a 3 week long training session to a few of the reliability operators among other things. I will graduate with a Master's in Environmental Science this spring. So, I am taking a course on Energy this fall and will have a Risk Assessment and an Environmental Chemistry course next semester. So that I can find the time and energy to study somewhat uninterrupted, we budget for our oldest child to go to daycare two mornings a week. He looks forward to it because he has several great friends there, one of which he potty trained, and of course there are a ton of toys there. I like it because he learns good manners there and also does preschool activities.

I have been working on several other projects, which have consumed a lot of time. They have been frustrating for me, so I will bring them up when I see results at a later date.

Adios, summer! It may have been the best and the fastest so far. They always say that time flies when you're having fun.

Transition to Winter

The transition to winter is slow this year. The orange leaves hung on the birch and aspen for quite a long time this fall, 3-4 weeks I would say. During this time, we did an awful lot of hiking. Our baby at 7 - 8 months was just big enough to ride on my back in the Ergo, and our 2.5 year old was just small enough that my husband could carry him in the Kelty pack. It'll be interesting how we will travel next year. I anticipate that I will carry our food, the eldest boy will walk and the new toddler will graduate to my husband's back. On the left is the very last hike we did as a family this year. It was also the last day that the trees held onto their leaves.

The next day, it became cold. And a few days later, I got my wish albeit the leaves rustling in the wind. At 31 degrees, my husband and I and two friends took our kayaks out on the upper chena for a few hours. I wore 4 pair of wool socks under my rubber boots, goretex lined pants over long underwear, 2 warm polyester shirts plus a hooded fleece, hooded gortex jacket, life jacket, and wool hat. I was warm until the end, when it became quite breezy and started snowing on us. During the 8 mile jaunt, my husband and I definitely improved our tandem kayak skills, roughed up the bottom of the kayak quite a bit, and saw some pretty sights, while ice formed on the sides of the river.

The next week, it warmed back up to the 50s and 60s Now, 2 weeks later and heading into mid-october, it is still warm enough that we can hit the playgrounds and be comfortable without winter gear. I have no complaints about this slow transition to fall. Winter is long enough as it is up here in Fairbanks, Alaska.

River Boat vs Kayak

My husband loves river boats, and I love to kayak. This summer, the river boats have won by a landslide.

My soon to retire in-laws recently bought a chunk of land only accessible by boat. In effect, they bought a new boat and gave this 35 year old one to us. It is a used and an abused gas-guzzler, an airboat converted to an inboard, the boat my husband grew up riding in.

It is nice that we have had a motorized boat all summer in addition to our tandem kayak; we do live on a river after all and it only makes sense to keep a boat parked out front. Potentially, our whole family could ride in it. And for as little as anyone that I know uses their boats, it is most definitely smart to have one that is free or almost free, reliable or not.

Still, I'm not always thrilled about this boat or any other boat. It's a time and a money sink from which I reap few benefits. Between this boat and 2 others, my husband has been on 3 long Tanana River Trips, bear-baiting, 2 Salcha River trips, and almost 10 Chena River trips. He's also been fishing in Chitna. I have been on 0 motorized boat trips. I did make it on the river 4 hours this summer in Alaska, 2 with friends on a raft and 2 on our kayak on a date with my husband. My parents spent 2 hours in our kayak when they came up to visit also. And when I visited my parents in Minnesota, I took a kayak trip with my mom down a river that was quite beautiful but we were challenged by 3 log jams along the way.

I'd really, really like to spend a half day or a day on the upper Chena River, the North Fork specifically, in our kayak, but my husband tells me it's not going to happen because no one will want to watch the kids. Today would have been a perfect morning to do it, but he is on the boat now, taking a short trip up to the landing to take it out of the water for the year. I asked him to keep the kayak out . . . just in case. The snow isn't here yet! And the river is calling my name.

There to me is not anything better than listening to the water trickle, the leaves rustle, and the paddles hit the water as the sun shines on my face.

"Pee Floor"

Every parent has a story about something their toddler did that was absolutely embarrassing. My kid peed on the floor of a store.

It's fun to watch these kids grow up. I swear, my kid is an absolute genius and a moron. He amazes me by the things he knows and he annoys me by the things with which he struggles or pretends to be ignorant about. You never can predict their accomplishments and their downfalls. And they, all toddlers, are different.

My son has friends that are very close in age. To generalize a few of these children, one kid is kind of a bully. He'll stand on furniture and hold up toys another kid wants like he is going to hit them with the toy. He'll hide toys that other kids want under pillows or just plain steal them away. But, this kid is also an amazing athlete. He could jump off of the couch at the age of 1 and at 2 I saw him jump off a ladder that was taller than I am. He is also very smart. I can see that he notices details in his environment that many children are not yet able to absorb. Another friend of my son's is a cry baby. He can't share and when he has to or when his toy is stolen, he bursts into tears. He didn't walk until he was almost 18 months old. But, this kid has a great aptitude for language, can speak in complete sentences at the age of 2, is very kind, and also incredibly patient.

My kid is the one who pees and poops--anywhere. Since pretty much the age of 2 he's been potty trained. These days he is nearly two and a half and we give him a lot of leeway. He poops when he wants and sometimes has to be reminded to go pee, but usually he is in control of this too. He can even hold it through naps and through the night now. The problem is that we have been possibly a little too flamboyant about his peeing habits.

His 5 grandparents cheer when he "pees rocks," "pees grass," "pees trees." The babysitter was thrilled when I said it is okay that he pees outside on these things because I guess most parents do not allow their children to do this. "They must use a toilet," they say. Our child gets fun stickers for peeing outside at the babysitters house. He is rewarded with a cookie every time he poops in his potty; he hasn't had an accident for months. My cousin who is a daycare provider warned me that he may try to pee in strange places, like house plants and drains, if we allow him to pee anywhere but the toilet. Yet, daddy taught him to spell his name, to pee on car tires. We and the grandparents have videos and photos of him peeing off of the front steps, of pinching his nose closed and grunting as he poops. Honestly, it is adorable and humorous to us. But, we have confused him somewhere.

Before we walked into the store, I asked my son, "Do you have to go potty?" "No, no, no potty," he replied several times. Once we were in the used toy/clothing store, he found what (I think) was a giant plastic twin bed. It looked like a playground. It had a door that opened and closed, was taller than he is, and there were two chairs inside. I'm not sure if he thought he was in a plastic portable potty or if he thought he was at the playground or if he just thought it was okay to pee on the carpet. But, I turned away for about 20 seconds and he had peed on the floor inside of this thing and was pulling his pants back up.

As we drove home, I told him that he was a very bad boy for peeing in the store on the carpet. He knew this and made the cutest thoughtful face all of the way home in the quiet car. Anyway, I just thought I would tell this story because typically he only amazes me by what he knows and by what he can do. He is growing up in leaps and bounds. And he is the sweetest and most beautiful little boy and big brother for which we could ask.

0.5 and ALMOST 2.5 Photos

From time to time, I aspire to start a photography business, to spend the big bucks and have my family photographed by a professional outdoor photographer, to snap that one perfect image that would unedited look amazing blown up and pressed onto canvas.

I dream sometimes.

I think the reason that I don't do many photo shoots is because I'm afraid of disappointing myself, of realizing I really don't have much talent, discovering my camera isn't good enough, or of spending a lot of money and being disappointed by the work of another photographer. I know taking a digital photography course would give me a ton of confidence but so far it just hasn't fit into the schedule.

This is what I came up with 5 minutes one day and 5 minutes the next day. My kids are easy subjects because they're adorable even when they're grumpy. I forced myself to take some photos now because my son is almost grown out this antique yellow sweater. My German step-grandmother knitted it for me (I think) when I was born. Or perhaps it was handed down to me too in which case it's probably over 30 years old.

It's hard for me to choose sometimes. Is it better to have the subject looking at the camera, or just catch them mid-play?

I love how my sons can already play together. People who have kids further apart just don't know the sweet childhood interaction they're missing out on.

Changes

I feel fall coming. And by fall I mean a brief, frosty season and then 6 months of bone-chattering cold. We recently had a long week of 85-90, humid (for us), and it was brutal. If you're like me and you've lived in Fairbanks for over 5 years your body is conditioned for the cold; anything over 80 feels like fire. We did playgrounds, lakes, pools. And yesterday the Tanana Valley State Fair started and it has been raining and cool ever since. Any Fairbanksian will tell you when the fair comes, it rains. This is how I know summer is almost over.

There is a 3-day long country and bluegrass festival in Anderson, AK (near Denali National Park). My husband had driven to Chitna, 7 hours south to dipnet salmon from the Copper River. So, our friend Sadie helped me take the boys down to listen to music for the day. We met our Good friends down there. And all of the kids were on their best behavior.

After a lot of brining and mess in the kitchen, I smoked 2 loads of salmon like this. Mostly red salmon, some silvers. It takes about 8 hours to smoke a load of salmon. I smoked about 35 fish tails after my husband vacuum froze the main portions of the fish.

And what we didn't smoke or freeze fresh, we canned. We preserved 45 fish total. The weekend my husband went, Alaska residents were allowed to take home 40 fish each. Somehow we ended up with a few of his dad's fish. I'm not even going to relay the 3 day long fishing adventure. It was utter chaos but a ton of fun. I'm so glad I wasn't part of this dirty work.

Today, we met all of my closest friends at the middle school swimming pool in North Pole. My husband had gone to high school where the pool is and he was VERY pleased to see that since then they have installed water-injected slides. It was our baby's first time swimming, and he did fabulous.

I am cloth diapering my son. I find it to be actually more convenient than disposables. They have such great technology now. I never have to run to the store for diapers again . . . or take out the trash. Here my son sits with all of the diapers and covers that I will need to diaper him until he's potty trained. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And trust me. If I like this, anyone can do it, because really I'm kind of a lazy person.

They sell a washable diaper pail liner and bag for your diaper bag, so once you're ready to do the wash you just throw the bag and the diapers and covers in the washer with the Charlie's soap. No mess. No stench. No gag. No puke. You could put them in the dryer, but I actually use my stairway railing. It's so dry in our climate that they dry very quickly like this and I feel better about saving some of our planet's fossil fuel.

And look at this cutie. He is eating baby food now. So far only rice, oatmeal, and bananas. I've decided not to make his baby food. I've never been very excited about food preparation. I have a two good friends who LOVE to cook and my husband does too. I envy them. But, when I found organic food stored in glass jars at Walmart for a reasonable price, I knew this was the way to go for us. I hadn't found a food processor or baby food maker or freezer storage trays that met my approval and I'd been looking for a while.

Update: Summer Part 1

Nag nag nag. Okay, I'll blog. I'm not a brag blogger or a blogger with really any good ideas to share. I'm not bored, procrastinating, lonely, or cold, which are my biggest reasons to blog, but there has been a lot going on so I better keep up with it anyway.

The smoke just rolled in as I wrote that last sentence. I have a feeling that this is the first day of many yucky smokey days, because we've so far had in my opinion the best summer since 2006 and 2007. Not too many wasps, not too hot, not cold, not too rainy, and most importantly no smoke from Alaskan fires gone wild.

We've had a decent mix of work and play this summer.

My husband is a workhorse when it comes to firewood. He's taken advantage of the state, borough, and federal firewood cutting areas and has found a lot of good wood at a minimal cost. He's gotten 2 loads from a state area past Salcha, 1 load from an area nearby that is open because it was burned in a fire last year, 3 loads from the Army Corps at the Chena Flood Control Project, and 1 load from a friend who wanted some trees down. He's had a little help from both my dad and his dad, which was wonderful. This photo shows the first 3 of those loads. 5/7 loads are cut, split, and stacked already. We hope they will be dry by winter.

The trees we purchased from the Alaska Conservation district were pretty much a success. We helped all of the 25 white spruce through the dry spell of early June by persistent watering. They budded and doubled in size. The 15 jack pine on the other hand have pretty much died. 2 might live, but I doubt it. I suspect these bareroots came from a different farm from the spruce and were not cared for properly.

Our two year old son is really into summer. I think he is going to be a lover of the outdoors just like his mom and dad. He wears his red rubber boots and a hat everywhere he goes. To him, they are the best tools for outdoor play. He uses a real hammer and pretends to split wood like his dad. He spends hours watering . . . the garden, sandbox, slides, stairs of his playset . . . anything. He LOVES to go to any playground and over the last couple of months has gotten very brave on slides and ladders and climbing onto toys all by himself. I would say most of all he likes to watch tractors load piles of dirt, ride 4-wheelers and lawn mowers, and go to his great-grandma Carol's house down the street to play. He also loves to wear his helmet and ride on his dad's bike. I have so many pictures that I don't know how to choose.

He's doing great with potty training. He pees outside without any prompting because it is fun to pee standing and write your name with your pee and he loves to poop inside because he gets a chocolate/vanilla stuffed cookie once he's done. We learned that if you have a boy, you must have a Baby Bjorn potty.

My parents came to visit for over half of a month. They and we had a fantastic time. We went to the Botanical Gardens, the Large Animal Research Station, Chena Lakes Recreation area, and some play dates and field trips at various parks and even at an organic CSA farm. We went to a concert, a band at a coffee house, and had a big BBQ here. They went to the Golden Heart Revue, a comedy show about our gold mining town, caught 75lb of Halibut and other fillets outside of Prince William's Sound (and it was sunny in Valdez!), and got gold at the El Dorado Gold Mine. We took in all of the solstice activities--dressed up for the sun run in gold with a bunch of friends, went to the fair downtown, and the midnight sun baseball game (which went to 3am!) And that's just half of it. We were BUSY and the weather was fantastic.

While my parents were here my husband and I went on THREE dates. This is notable, because I think we probably generally only go on 3 dates in an entire year. We went kayaking down the Chena, to dinner/drinks/movie at the Blue Loon, and to drink beer and play horseshoes with another couple who had a parent in town to watch their kids at our local bar. It was great! It's just not that easy to get out at night when you have kids. People offer to babysit, but they're not really that serious about it when it comes down to it.

We took our almost 0.5 and almost 2.5 year old tent camping. Our older son fell into the bonfire for a split second while he was throwing a tantrum because he wanted to take a marshmallow off of the stick by himself instead of having his dad feed it to him. My husband has super speed in emergency situations, so he was pulled out unharmed. The baby loved the tent. And so did our older son. He begged and begged to go night-night in the tent until he got in there. Then he repeated, "NO MORE CAMPING." My husband after stories and songs offered him visualization of great-grandma's house, 4-wheelers, and piles of dirt and the boy became so happy that he went right to sleep. Our baby is quite agreeable and our toddler has slept many times in a tent that he's had in his room so we knew going into it that it would probably be a pretty easy trip considering the age group we were dealing with.

Well, our baby is grown out of our abundance of under 15lb disposable diapers and doesn't poop constantly anymore. I am off to Blueberry Baby to make our purchase of organic cotton prefolds. For about $100, the cost of a month's worth of disposables, I should be able to diaper him until he's potty trained.

Also, he's almost 6 months old, which means I am about to feed him single grain brown rice. After rice, other solids, which I will make myself. This way I can feed him organic food affordably and also avoid the plastic packaging that contaminates commercial baby food.

So, I will be busy diapering and feeding, cooking and cleaning, but mostly playing and napping.

I love being a stay-at-home mom.

Thumb Could be Greener

The misconception: I always thought that gardening is really easy. It seemed like in Minnesota while I was growing up we would just plant things and they would grow. It didn't seem like we watered much if at all unless there was a drought. And in the fall we were bombarded by produce. My parents grew hundreds of experimental blueberry plants (from the University of Minnesota) that started out so small they could fit into a paper towel. They also grew hundreds of beautiful evergreens from bareroot. It felt like the bigger challenge was keeping things from growing. We were always weeding the gardens and our blueberry farm and mowing the lawn . . . always. Now, I realize my mom's degree in horticulture, her training and network as a master gardener, and her extensive experience from seedlings to soil types and from pruning to pickling played a hand in gardening ease . . . this, coupled with my dad's hard work and intuition. I'm sure too they were experimenting and doing a lot of the work while I was sleeping in until 9 or 10 in the morning.

The background: Last year was my first summer gardening on my own, gardening in Alaska, and gardening in raised bed style. I was pretty successful. So, this spring I tried something new and started seeds in the house. My neighbor is a seasoned gardener. In her small lot, she has 5 giant raised beds and 2 greenhouses and she's only lived here 2 summers. Her tomato and pepper plants are jaw droppers. She told me that to start seeds in the house, I would need a light. She starts her seeds in January so she can start harvesting in June, so I didn't trust this completely. We have a lot of sunlight starting in late February and our living room has extremely large windows. I read on the internet that the low e coating on our windows would not take out any visible light needed for photosynthesis, just ultra-violet and heat. A friend in Minnesota told me she was highly successful in starting tomoto, peppers, melons, etc in her house without a light and my mom too told me to go for it.

The problem: So, I started watering 3 flats of tomato, green pepper, and chili pepper seeds in my house without a light. It was a failure. I had probably a hundred seedlings come up, but they were tiny. Six were sizable. I transplanted those six to my garden and cared for them until one day my neighbor told me "Those are NOT tomatoes or peppers!," right after she identified some wild daisy in an area of my tundra lawn and told me to dig it up and move it somewhere safe. Well, it turns out that my successful seedlings were probably from the worm vericompost dirt that I used to fertilize my soil, not from the seeds I bought and planted. I'm still not sure if they are cucumber or squash or what, but they are from some type of leftover vegetable we had and fed to our worms. Because they were stretching toward the windows, they are leggy and I don't think they'll survive. Next year, I will try a light and use packaged soil.

The other problem: I allowed a friend to help with the planting process and, in her excitement or because she was distracted by my two year old, she planted crooked and too high. I replanted today and now it is much easier to water. She brought to us and planted 2 cucumber plants, 1 tomato (my son had a pair of scissors and cut the tops off of the other 3 tomatoes right in front of her eyes while I ran into the house to get something), and 4 gorgeous pepper plants that my neighbor gave to us.

The good news: All of the pepper plants and the giant grape tomato plant from my neighbor have fruit and will ready in a few weeks. They smell so good. Also, currently, my husband and I are watering 40 White Spruce and Jack Pine trees that we planted bareroot (half are out of hose's reach so we're using these barrels and the orange truck). For sure a few of the Jack Pine are dead, but it looks like most if not all of the White Spruce are doing well so far. The White Spruce are native, and the Jack Pine are not, so this is not a huge surprise. The 3 European Bird Cherry trees and 2 large Birches that we planted last year for our wedding anniversary survived beautifully, even though the cherry branches were pretty badly damaged from moose grazing. Cooperative extension says to prune them this week. Next winter, I'll bag the cherry branches to deter the moose.

It's a learning process. But, with little kids around, it is a great hobby. They like to play with water. And watering is a nice thing to do outside the house for an hour, or two, or three after they go to sleep.

Brothers

My husband and I are so blessed to have 2 beautiful boys. And they too are blessed to have each other. They already show so much love for each other. A two-year-old who helps take care of his baby brother, who gives him kisses, and is patient when the baby is mad. A baby who follows his big brother closely and smiles and coos to his voice, his laugh, or whenever he comes near.

Before I know it, they'll be playing together. Catching bugs, tickling, kicking, chasing, screaming, imagining.

I hope that they remain friends throughout their lives.

Babies Galore

Babies grow up too quickly. At first they're tiny and fragile and you can't wait until their circumcision and belly button heal up and they pass that 2-month milestone when they supposedly will have a much better chance of surviving a cold or flu. Then all of a sudden, they start smiling and then laughing. They roll over and once that happens the rest is history. They crawl, walk, talk . . . and then they graduate from high school and are gone from home forever (well . . . usually).

This is one of the last nights my baby was a real cry baby (a month or so ago). I spent many, many hours in this chair Side Swaddle Swinging (rocking) Sucking Shushing my baby to sleep. The 5 S's. Most times, the chair wouldn't even do it and I'd shush at the top of my lungs while walking quickly in circles around the house. Repetitive vibration (bouncing while walking) I think always beats rocking in colicky times. Anyway, thank you Harvey Karp for writing The Happiest Baby on the Block and giving all of us parents of distraught infants some tips and some peace of mind in 5 simple steps. Those nights are exhausting. I always told myself that those unhappy baby days are not going to last forever. I enjoyed them. And sure enough now they are a distant memory. I miss them already.

This spring of 2010 was an exciting time to have a baby. There were a lot of babies born this spring. Owen, Julia, Niko, Jayden, Brynn, Zoe, Wess & Arthur, Kloe, Oliver, Freya, Abigail, Tyree, Elias, Brianna, and above Riley (2 weeks) with Nikolai (3 months). Yes, 16 babies that I know within 3.5 months of each other. 3 are cousins, 5 are college friends' babies, 3 are co-workers' babies, 2 are kids of old high school friends, and 2 are just friends' babies. Only 3 of the babies were born in Alaska, so I still have a lot of babies to meet. It is and will always be exciting to watch all of these kids grow up since they are so close in age.

Sick as a Dog

I didn't know when I'd take the time to write again, but it turns out I don't have anything better to do at the moment. I'm sick. I'm trying to keep my distance from the baby and trying to rest as much as I can. About a week ago, our toddler had 4 days of fever followed by now his 7th day of a cold and cough. It's a doozy. I thought we were seasoned in the cold and flu department, myself having caught 6 of my son's 7 colds last fall while I was pregnant. But, this one sure has evolved (over the long winter) to be a nasty one.

Anyway, there are several bonuses to having a cold. With kids, you can't tell when they've pooped their pants unless you check, and then the diaper changes are harmless. The leftovers in the refrigerator can stay in there longer. You don't have to hold your breath when you take out the trash. You can't tell if you smell, so why shower? And if you make meals that are way too salty or too bland, they taste just fine. I just did a little science experiment on myself and found out that I'm unable to smell the lavender lotion I used to put myself to sleep during my pregnancy, the same stuff my husband could not stand to be near. No wonder the baby suddenly stopped smelling of rotten milk.

I've been trying to make enough antibodies to keep the baby well, but it's really a lost cause with this cold. He's been sneezing a lot. I had to suck his nose a few times, and he's been doing this strange cough, which is actually pretty cute. He's almost 3 months old, so it's a fine time to be sick. I think one of the biggest downfall to having a bigger family is that the illnesses seem to last forever as they pass from person to person. Actually, this is the only downfall I've noticed so far.

Papa Meets Baby

Alright, so for the last two weeks, it was my dad's (papa's) turn to visit us. He spent the majority of his time rocking the baby or playing with tools (real and toy) with the toddler. He folded some laundry and cooked a couple of meals. During his free time, he read 3 books (Slow Death by Rubber Duck, In Defense of Food, and a Michael Crichton novel), took long walks on the river or through the neighborhood (one walk we clocked at 6.7 miles and the others were pretty long also), did small projects around the house, and he also managed to watch a couple of movies. He was a big help to us, and I think that he had a good, relaxing time also. It was sad to see him go, but we are hopeful that he and my mom will be back sometime this summer.

I'm overwhelmed by the quantity of photos that are produced every time we visit my parents or they visit us or we travel together. Thankfully, I haven't taken a class at the university since December, so I've had time to do some projects. In effect, my photo albums, digital and printed, are up to date. Well, at least they are current up until my dad's visit. Here's what happened or at least a few bits and piecces of what happend:

My husband overhauled the garage once again. This time it was in preparation for my new car. We're waiting on a used Toyota 4-runner. We hope one will come into Fairbanks or Anchorage within the next year, but we're not holding our breath because it's quite a popular vehicle that people like to hold onto. Until then, I'm happy to keep driving my Toyota Corolla. I love it, but it's just not going to haul 4 people's camping gear or bikes or kayaks as comfortably as we'd like it to so something bigger would be nice.

It warmed up, and we went outside to play a lot. This was one of the last days we could walk on the river before the slough overflowed its water onto it. We saw one snowmachine playing in the water a few days later, but that was the last of the river activity until it breaks and the boats can come through. Yes, my son's coat is relatively new. It's a 3T, and he's only 2.

Several packages came in the mail and brought with them big smiles: some Easter Baskets from Grandma Phillis, some clothing that Great-Grandma Carol picked up in Maui, 3 awesome outfits from Great-Auntie Janet including one of the MN Golden Gophers, and a noisy auto-start toy from Great-Aunt Laurie.

After driving out to get a glimpse of the Alaska Range and exploring some backroads in Ester, I took my dad and the baby to one of my favorite places to eat--C&J's--it's a sad excuse for a 50s diner, but the service is great and the food is simple and filling. While we were eating, the baby had an explosion in his pants that I had to care for in the front car seat because they don't have a baby changing station. It was memorable. We followed it up with a trip to home depot, where we found a piece of wood for 52 cents.

The boys spent a lot of time in the garage. One day they built this birdhouse out of the piece of wood, which I later detailed "Papa & Alek 2010." Papa taught our toddler the difference between screws and nails, bought him a drill and set him up with a board of screws. He's now able to take both real and toy screws out of the board with both his drill and screwdrivers. And, yes, we allow this in the house.

Every morning, papa took the little guy downstairs to have breakfast. After breakfast, they would do stretches on the floor. Why are their mouths open? Well, because you must grunt while you're stretching. Dah.

My dad spoiled me. I had asked him a couple of weeks ago to make me another picture frame so that I could add some of my favorite haying photos to create a sort of Minnesota farm collage. He made me two more out of weathered wood, brought them in his suitcase, and even hung them up for me. Did I ever mention he brought an entire wooden toybox on the plane last Christmas? Of course, he did the final assembly here.

He also hung up a few things that my mom had made and given to us during her visit: a growth chart to match the toddler's room, a "No Monster's Allowed Wall Hanging," and this quilt to match the baby's room.

Once he hit two years old he finally had his first hair cut. Daddy did a fantastic job, and our son didn't mind it a bit. Earlier that day, our son found Easter eggs in the house and garage and named off each of their colors to us as he found them. The baby gave us a lot of smiles probably because we were smiling and laughing a lot that Easter morning.

Once again, we utilized our local indoor children's resources on a couple of colder mornings: Gymnasics Inc and Bonkers. Afterward, we picked up some groceries. Fred Meyer's has plenty of puddle boots to choose from this year.

We had our friend Sadie over one night, before she took off to travel for work for a month. We had other friends, who just returned from Mexico for the summer, over another night. And we had a bonfire with our good friends and neighbors another night. It was perfect weather for the bonfire. After our guests had gone home and the boys had gone inside to make dinner, I stayed out and enjoyed the sun in peace with the baby sleeping on my lap.

We even ate free tacos at a refinery hockey game. Then, as quickly as papa arrived, he was gone. My son has learned that people come and go in his life, but that they always come back.