Where Have I Been?

This year, one of the students I am teaching is a boy with autism. He is a happy-go-lucky kid who loves school and all of the teachers. Yesterday, he bounded into my classroom unexpectedly, shrugged his arms up in the air and exuberantly shouted, "Where have I been?"

Well, as a matter of fact, he had been at the occupational therapist's room, and was supposed to be in his English class, so I sent him across the hall. Later at lunch as I relayed the story to my colleagues we all had a warm-hearted laugh.

"Where have I been?" Truthfully, I can't get those words out of my mind. I don't know him well enough to understand the nuances of his language. What did he mean? Was he simply confusing words, or was he truly lost? Was it a game and I was supposed to guess where he had been? Was it his way of looking for direction? I don't know.

What I do know is that those words (or ones very similar) could have come from me at one time or another.

They've been said in remorse, as in "Where have I been" as a friend, relative or child needed me and I was oblivious to the situation.

They've been said in frustration as in "Where have I been" while I see habits of my children that I should have put a stop to a long time ago.

They've been said with melancholy as in "Where have I been" as I've watched those same children mature into the near-grown people they are now. (Once again, thanks to little Lauren for being considerably younger).

How many times have I wanted to yell, "Where have I been!" Haven't you missed me? Haven't you noticed me? Please, tell me I am important to you! (Yeah, I'm really not the grown-up, "together" girl you may have assumed me to be...)

They've been said with regret as in "Where have I been" when I've lost my way in life. When my priorities have been clouded, or my anxiety has blocked out the light.


BUT, they have also been said with pride, as in "LOOK Where I have been!" Every bump, every scrape, every fall and every triumph has guided me to the place where I am now.

And hopefully I can add to the phrase....

"Where have I been...

...and look where I'm going!"

First Day Pictures

I just love first day of school pictures. Part anticipation, part anxiety and part excitement. It's all seen from the choice of clothes, hairstyle and half-smiles.

Sydney is a freshman this year. Her comments, as always were fairly brief, and involved statements like "Mawwwm, it's just school," and "It was OK I guess." (After a while, she did warm up and claim that it was good--high praise from her....)

Cade, a senior, didn't have much to complain about because he only goes to school until lunch, and then works for Ryan in the afternoons. His highlight was that his new cleats came in.

When I woke Lauren up, I got the roll around in her bed maneuver, while she exclaimed,"Mom! Just five more minutes!" (The true teenager in the house.) Things went better from there and she claims that she likes being a 3rd grader. (They are the "seniors" of the elementary school.)

I wore high heels to school (not a good idea on the first day), but otherwise, it seems that my allergy to work is slowly lifting.

More Alaska

Oops!

I almost forgot one of the more important "chapters" of our trip. Fishing. While we were there, Ryan and Mark went salmon fishing, and then halibut fishing.

Salmon fishing is a lot more fickle than most people would believe. The fish come into the streams in runs. While you can make a pretty good guess about when those runs will be, it is still that, a guess...an estimate. And even when you guess right, there are a bunch of other people with the same idea. It even has a name, "Combat fishing". The fishermen line up along the shore, virtually shoulder to shoulder and have to coordinate their casts. The woman next to Ryan wasn't very "seasoned" and she spent most of the time yanking her lure back out of the water and into Ryan's chest. Oh well, as they say, "A bad day fishing is better than a good day working."


Later in the week, they headed down to Ninilchik for halibut fishing. Isn't this little town so quaint. Although you can't see it clearly from this small picture, there is a Russian Orthodox Church sitting on the hill.

Out in the ocean...before everyone decided that they weren't feeling so good.... This is why I don't go halibut fishing (once was enough, thank you).

Mount Redoubt.

Dry land! And lots of fish!

Seriously

I think I am allergic to work.

Seriously.

Mom, I Just Want to Sit by You.

Lauren is barely recovering from my vacation, and now I'm leaving her to start work tomorrow.

The vacation was just about more than she could stand. Everyday she would call saying, "Mom, why can't you just come home," in her best little moo cow voice. (You know the one that says ,"Maaaaammmaaaaa!")

The first thing she did when we got home was to hand me a handful of "projects" she had been working on, along with this note-

"Dear Mom and Dad,
I never want you to leave home again.
It's just TOO much.

Love,
Lauren"

Oh my. Lets all pray she survives the school year. (Include me in those prayers, as I am her main source of comfort).

A little bit of Heaven

Lauren and I have been creating Nutella recipes. While Syd just eats it with a spoon, Lou and I like to be a bit more daring.

It is good on crepes and waffles, but no, we are even more daring. We took it to the next level...

Crescents.

Mmmmm Mmmmm good.

Summer Vacation VI

Epilogue: Ryan


I love this man! I didn't need a vacation to tell me that. But it sure was refreshing to enjoy being a couple (without interruptions) for ten whole days. While it's not something we could do every year, we certainly aren't going to wait another 17 years to do it again.

Summer Vacation V

Chapter Five: Lake Hood

I LOVE this place.

It is the world's busiest "airport" for seaplanes. On a busy summer day, it can average 800 takeoffs and landings. (Yeah, I looked that up on the Internet for you).

The amount of air traffic over Anchorage is amazing. Large jets are taking off throughout the day, but it is the small planes that I love to watch as they zip around. When Cade and Syd were young, we would see a plane in the air and ask them "Floats or wheels?" They could identify them correctly every time.

One evening, Ryan and I spent a few hours sitting on a picnic table watching the planes take off and land. With airport security these days, I bet this is the most "up close" view available. It's quite amazing to watch the organization of planes coming from all direction to land on this lake and quickly taxi to their slip. Even more amazing is the short distance that they need to take-off.

Summer Vacation IV

Chapter Four: Animals

Moose are incredibly dangerous animals. People are incredibly stupid animals. (OK... massive over generalization). While we were driving down to the coast, we saw people out of their cars, taking pictures of a female moose and her baby. Aaaahhh ! A few yards down the road, more people were following this moose around, trying to get a shot with both them and the moose. Aaaahhh! I, on the other hand, do not have a death wish. So we took pictures out of the window. When the moose started to cross the road towards us (I could see the whites of his eyes) we quickly drove away, saving ourselves, the camera and the rental car.

I'm not too fond of bears either. While fishing for salmon, Ryan got (?!!?) to see a few of them up close. But this one was far enough away for my own comfort. Ryan spotted it about 1/2 mile out onto the mud flats. At this part of the ocean, the tide moves in and out a long way, and the bear was able to get out onto land in search of salmon. Ryan and I parked the car, crossed the railroad tracks and sat down to watch the bear. As it came closer, we saw that it was a Grizzly and it did have a fish. A group of seagulls were bothering it, trying to get to the fish. The bear would set his catch down and chase the birds, only to have others sneak in on the fish. We watched him for a least thirty minutes. At that point, other people noticed us taking pictures, and stopped to see what was going on. Before you knew it, the road was full of cars, truck, RV's and tour buses, clamoring to get their own view of the bear. We figured that we should charge the tour buses five dollars a head for pointing out this sight to their customers. Of course, the Department of Transportation probably would take it all from us for clogging up the road!

Summer Vacation III

Chapter Three: The Scenery

One of the conversations Ryan and I had was "how in the world do you explain this place to other people". Even a picture can't do it justice. Your camera is facing one way, but there is a panorama of other shots you could have taken. However, this is a little taste of the beauty of the state. (Sorry, I had a hard time limiting myself). If you want to see details, you may need to click on the picture.

Bird Point, south of Anchorage down the Turnagain arm. We were sitting there watching a bear, while I took pictures.
Girdwood-it's like the Park City or Vail of Alaska. We took this tram up to the top and had lunch. Where else can you watch baseball with such a beautiful background. And at nine-thirty at night? These are a couple teams from the Alaska Baseball League. College players come up and stay with families while they play for about eight weeks. This is one of my favorite things to do while up there.
A boat out on the ocean near downtown Anchorage. A few days earlier, it had been stuck when the tide went out, but at this point, it was free.
Looking toward downtown Anchorage from Flat Top.

Summer Vacation II

Chapter Two: Ari

Isn't this the cutest kid. Ryan and I just loved playing with him-and then handing him back to Cort when he was stinky/hungry/fussy. It was the best of both worlds. He loved Ryan's hat and the ONE sip of Pepsi I gave him. (Sorry Cort-you were in the shower. But he did love it). The way he sucked it down, I kind of think it wasn't his first....

What I did over Summer Vacation

An essay in numerous sessions.

Chapter One: Family

Later "chapters" will expound on the beauty of Alaska. I have to say it is amazing and all encompassing. But my favorite part about visiting Alaska, is seeing family. My parents lived there when Cade and Syd were young, so for three summers, we spent at least a month (often more) in Anchorage. The past few visits, have been to see my youngest sister Cortney and her husband, Mark. This time, we had it even better with two new family members; Cortney's six month old son, Ari, and my nephew's wife, Mary.

Mark, Cortney and Ari

Cortney and I enjoyed walking down to the corner gas station for Cokes, eating Nutella, planning things that would go good with Nutella, staying up until 2:00am visiting, playing with the baby, making dinner, laying on the couch, going to the zoo, wandering around Saturday's market (and eating kettle korn). You know, those "I haven't seen my sister in a year" sort of things.

Me, Ari and Mary

Mary is married (yeah, I liked writing that) to my nephew Brock. This sweet girl is holding down the fort/igloo/apartment while Brock is serving in Afghanistan. Cortney and I met up with her to do our Saturday Market (kettle korn) shopping. We then went out to eat, and looked around downtown. (OK, really, they were just patient while this tourist wandered around).

So the theme/moral/message of this essay is: No matter how beautiful (or not-so-beautiful)your surroundings, nothing is better than the people you love.

Back to Reality

Real life came rushing back as soon as we pulled up to the house today...

The grass needed mowing
The new mower died
Laundry started piling up
The kids started starving
Milk had to be bought
Dishes had to be washed
Kids had places to go
Curfew had to be reinforced
Sharing time still had to be planned

As Ryan and I sat on the couch, still struggling with jet lag, I leaned over and reminded him that 24 hours ago, it was "Ryan and Marcie: Friends and Lovers", now we are back to "Ryan and Marcie: Mom, Dad, mechanic, teacher, coach, landlord, Primary President, City Council Member". So we hooked pinkies and swore to remember our first titles more often.

Successful vacation accomplished!

(Vacation pictures upcoming...)