bad things happen to good people

(photo via Britni's blog)

A friend of mine and Mark's today messaged Mark that he had some 'bad news'.. so Mark stepped into the other room and called him quickly back.

The news was of a murder.

Is your heart beating faster? Mine too.

Our friend had us look on adn.com (Anchorage Daily News) at an article entitled: Woman Found Stabbed to Death.

She was at an activity-hike for the singles' ward with our friend, and later in the night, when people were expecting her, they went out looking.

Being the nosy person I am, I looked her up on facebook. Her pictures are that of someone who loved and lived life to the fullest- every moment.

The news article referenced her blog, so undoubtedly I had to check that out as well. All her posts have to do with thanksgiving, love of life, helping others, the beauty she sees around her, her religion, and her outlooks. She was a beautiful person, and will have great work to do now that she is on the other side.

I did not have the honor of knowing her, but a few of my friends did. Please pray for them and her family. I do not like thinking of this sweet girl's last moments on earth, alone, and more than likely, afraid. I hope she had some peace of mind thinking of her loving Father in Heaven before she slipped into the life after this.

I pray that she had comfort.

I pray that her family will now have comfort.

fleeting moments

Two days ago, the clouds came rolling back into the valley where our treehouse resides, and here they have stayed. Our once warm air has returned to the chilly air I will be sad to leave one day. While Mark is gone, Mont and I do whatever we can to fill our hours and days.

I sew, he practices his scooting slash crawling.

We play with Buckwheat.

We knock heads together and he laughs while I fight back watering eyes as he comes crashing in for another killer nose crusher.

He is one hundred and one percent boy, and I love it. Though, I would survive a little better without the nose crushing. Is it possible to slowly break a nose?

When he starts to get sleepy, I wipe off the graham cracker crumbs from his small hands using a warm washcloth I call, "the blue monster!", and then we begin our ungraceful dancing.

There is music playing most every hour in our house. But when he gets sleepy, I turn on more swirly-dirly music and lower the volume a few notches. Then I begin our twirling and side stepping.

He begins in the upright position in my arms, and ends in the supine, cradling position I won't be able to do for much longer. This is the part I especially love. The last few days he has been more of a cuddler. Not much... but ever so slightly. I can hold his hands a little more easily, and he'll nuzzle me right back.

My days are full of these sweet moments. In so many of my prayers, I can only utter statements of gratitude with a sprinkle of, "please watch over my loved ones, wherever they are."

shhh

... the pacifier is no longer an available "mute button" at church; he just keeps talking!

"bababa" 

"....ah! ...ah! ...ah!"

"wa wa wa"

"mama ma"

"oowa!"

"AARRRRGH!"

"*click *click"

"rra rra"

tarzan boy

I think in each of us, there's a little bit of Sweet:

a little bit of Happy: 

a little bit of Wild:

and a little bit of Thinker: 

TARZAN BOY! ... 

*currently his favorite song/youtube video to dance to.

looking to dad

At the zoo, last Thursday, Mont saw polar bears for the first time and didn't know what to think. I think he was excited, but he looked back to his dad just to be sure he had the right reaction to something so big and different. Just as he looked to his dad, I luckily had my phone out to click the capture button. I love this look he is giving Mark.

Prince William Sound

With my parents in town, Mont and I set out with them by train to meet a boat in Whittier for a glacier tour of Prince William Sound. My parents sure plan perfect trips, because not only was the train ride nice and easy, but the weather was unbeatable. I have never, ever seen Whittier in the sunshine. It was glorious: 

Right? Look at those trees! This was right where we waited to hop aboard. 


Once on board, we saw quite a few rafts of sea otters. They are so hairy - let me explain. They had a pelt on board (I didn't touch... you didn't see who else was on board this boat - another story that I can tell you in person if you'd like) and 'Ranger Cassie' said that they have 800 million to 1 billion (ONE BILLION!) hairs per square inch. That would take one serious bottle of Nair to get rid of THAT. 

Going a short ways past the sea otter raft, we pulled into a shallow alcove so the passengers could get a photograph with this waterfall. We were mere FEET from the rocks on the side and below the boat. I was a bit nervous.. but the captain must have some hours logged or something, because he was great. See the man in the picture? If you were to ask me, I'd say he looks a bit nervous, too. 

On trips with my family, I am usually "the spotter" of animals.. bears in the Yosemite forest, dolphins at Laguna Beach, and now whales in Prince William Sound. Here was the location of my spotting. I had just come out to stand on the bow of the boat with my dad, and I happened to be looking around at the surroundings behind the boat, when I see this black fishing boat that has mist coming off it. In a second, these are all the thoughts I had: 
- "Why does a fishing boat have misters on it?" 
- "That's a big fishing boat."
- "Wait.. boats don't have misters.."
- "WHALES spouting look like mist!"


That was when I shouted, "LOOK! a whale!!" At that moment, the back of the huge, black whale, curved, dove, and up came its huge HUGE tail, then down it went.. 


Then I thought to take a picture:

I was so glad my dad had been there with me to see it too... otherwise I'm not so sure anyone would have believed me! In fact, it happened so fast, that no one knew what happened, other than the fact that someone (... me) shouted "Look a whale!" The captain stopped the boat for a few moments and when no one fessed up what they saw (... me again), the captain decided to keep on going [because he spent a few moments too long at the waterfall for people to get scary close pictures!]. ha!! My dad said Humpbacks can hold their breath for around 10 minutes, so I didn't want to have all these people waiting and then looking at me when it resurfaces somewhere no one can see (around the mountain). I'm so glad I have it imprinted on my memory!


On to the glacier... these were even more breathtaking than they were on the first one. Because we were on a slower, more leisurely boat this time around, we were able to wait to see parts of the glacier calve. We saw one big piece fall off near the bottom. It did a "belly flop" maneuver into the water, and I was sure we were going to feel the wave.. but we were farther away than it appeared. My mom was quite nervous, asking me, "What would happen if a HUGE (meaning half of the entire glacier) piece fell off?" I said, "We'd capsize." When she didn't laugh, I had to. We were further away from it than it would seem, even in person. By the way... this picture is completely unedited. The ice still was that blue even when in full sunshine. And just to prove we were pretty far from the glacier, look at the picture beneath this one: 

When we were waiting for calving pieces of the ice, we saw about 10 harbor seals. These chubby seals can weigh from 330 lbs. to 375 lbs. They are huge! AND, this is how small they were compared to the small rocks next to the HUGE glacier: 

Oh, sorry... you can't see them? 


Here they are: (major zoom and crop) .. Mark just told me they look like rocks in the water. There's one on top of a rock (you can see its tail, and two heads in the water next to it (they were looking for room to hop on and get some sun as well).

So.. to put it all in perspective, this is what we were looking at, nearing the glacier. The ice "spot" in the seal picture is visible in this picture: 

The face of the glacier we were told was at least 1200 feet tall.... that is CRAZY!!!!! ... update: I just had to convince Mark of this. I said, "I doubted it too at first, then I put it all in perspective. I thought to myself, 'Okay.. how big is that seal, away from that rock, which is how big... next to the bigger rock... how big would I be... then I tilt my head back and gawked at the glacier.' It's easily that tall." He nodded his head - meaning two things. 1: He did believe me or 2. he just wanted to get back to his Pawn Stars show 


I love family outings. Thanks, mom and dad!

homemade rolls

Don't these make your mouth water? 

We're supposed to be saving these for Mark's homecoming dinner tonight... 

oops.

fluffy patriot

Thought you might want to see something different! So here's the scruffy and scrawny pooch.

artsy pants

A while ago on my house blog, I did a tour of our house. Lots of things have changed since then... paint in baths, couch in the basement, Iranian pots above kitchen cupboards, etc. and now THIS.

I finally have something above our bed! My mom and I painted this the last few days. Really my mom did most of it... like 80% of it. I kept wanting to do my 'sketch' strokes and we would both go crazy. So I stepped aside for the last bit of it and watched in awe as she gracefully brushed the rest of the bamboo leaves to the canvas.

We used my mom's oriental screen from home as inspiration and now when I see it, I think of all the times I would be practicing the piano as a little girl, stop, pout, and look up above the arch into the foyer where her screen was and think, "whyyyy can't I be outside with my friends??" Then I'd keep playing.

But now, as I look at this, I am filled with excitement; this is something my mom and I did together! AND I am proficient (enough) at playing the piano and don't begrudge my practice.

So now back to the screen. The champagne-colored gold-metallic paint overpowers the matt-and-muted green of the bamboo, so at different times of day you can see it differently:

with flash:

without flash:

happy painting to you all!

Hike X: walk to Eagle River from house

*iphone pic 

Two mornings ago we took a small hike down to the river just to look for bear tracks. Found none... bitter sweet. But we did get to try out my new "baby backback" - I guess it was comfy enough for him to fall asleep on our way back up.

knock knock

My mother and I keep truckin' through my 'to-do' list, and here is what we completed today. A nice, fresh coat of paint to make this white door a little more welcoming.

Small changes are sometimes the sweetest.

baa-a-a

A week ago tomorrow, I had a friend of mine come over so we could have some fun and some dinner. She's adopting a baby boy [any day now] and I wanted to make a mobile. Sooo... my little noggin' thought she might as well come over and make one with me! I'd just supply the hot glue and enchiladas. It was a fun night but we only got so far, so I finished it up the next day, found the sticks while at the river with my mom (she's since come to town!), and lashed it together yesterday, and hung it today.

Mont already loves watching his new found friends.

It was Sarah's genius idea to have the one black sheep in the fold. I wonder how she thought of that? ha!

Here's the lashing. I love how tousled it looks!

Oh yea.. we saved $98 by doing it ourselves. Love that!

Reeder's Digest - Mirror Lake

This afternoon was a BBQ with a bunch of friends (all but one family there were military) at Mirror Lake, North past Chugiak. It was a beautiful, sunny, and perfect day. Summer is in full swing, finally. Though we missed Mark, we certainly aren't lonely with all these friends up here. What an awesome group.

Mirror Lake is pretty big, and I'm sure it's pretty cold; even still, kids were trying to get their parents to let them swim! Lots were fishing, some were swimming, and some were canoeing. When the sea planes would come in for their landing, I could hear the parents say, "I hope their watching for the swimmers!" Ha!

Through the trees on the left (next to the tan tent) was where our spot was. I looooove Alaskan aspen (or are they birch?) trees. ooorrrrrr.... both?

Even with the bit of crying he has done since last night and today (cutting the top two (or maybe even three) top teeth), he was happy and loud at the BBQ. We almost got hit once with the kickball, but our friend Nicole literally shouldered that burden for us, narrowly missing her baby, James. Thanks, Nicole! Then Taryn Gray (no one in the world, like her) went over to the group of men/boys playing and said, "it's a lot cheaper to fix a broken car than a broken baby's head." yikes! They shifted the bases to be facing the parking lot after that while Taryn victoriously told us about her tale of spine.

Mont is my best buddy. I love having a little person with me all the time, especially when he squawks and squeals when he sees King Louis or when someone surprises him with a growl and a tickle-shake (I can't think of a better name for what it is).

I think Mont was watching kids run around in the dirt when I held the camera in front of his face. I think he wanted to get dirty too... This picture makes me laugh because of his cute little neck - lately he strokes his neck or cheek with King Louis' tale when he's trying to fall asleep - it is the funniest thing I've ever seen.

While nearing the end of the BBQ, all the parents started to round up their kids like little lost sheep. They were all covered in dirt from head to toe! Every last one of them. These two were the first to be noticed - not only are they funny every time I see them, but even more so when covered in dirt, mud, soda, BBQ sauce, and whatever else they found. I loved it so much I had to take a picture and tell them to watch The War - these kids looked like the Lipnickis! I'm taking them the movie for them to watch this week. This picture doesn't even do them justice. They just look like they have great tans compared to the reality of the situation. Jessy said to me before they left... "my kids are so FILTHY! Mont is going to do the same thing someday!" I just laughed and then thought I'll probably be taking pictures of him then, too!

Later on facebook, Jessy (their mom) said, "... an awesome BBQ with amazing friends. I really feel blessed. Might not have blood relatives in AK but I sure do have family."

So, so true. I feel the exact same. 

PS - Happy Memorial Day, everyone! 

freezing parenthood

TV shows are fun for a number of different reasons. One of the reasons they are fun for ME is that when I watch them online, I take screenshots of paused scenes. Then I get tons of ideas for decorating! Things to look for when I browse online, and things to think about when I climb into my own bed. Fun fun fun! 


For your viewing pleasure: 


Here is the master bedroom in this set's house. I love everything about it except the motel-looking art above the bed. Everything including: the seashell sitting on the dresser closer to us, the rug, the storage bench at the end of the bed, the headboard, the lamps, and I have her slippers! the paint color, the window treatments, and the molding. AH I want that bedroom!! And so cute that their little boy is snuggled right in the middle of them. What a cute picture (if this were a real family!)

Oops - ignore the "play" button in the middle! She is walking towards the bathroom in the left of the above picture. I love the lighting in the room, and the shelving, and the chair, and the glass lamp, the framed painting... the list continues..

And continues... hello floor mirror! I found two awesome leaning mirrors at Lowe's today for $111! I didn't buy them, but I took a picture. :) 

And one last shot of this couple's house, their living room. Here the ungle is clearing the floor so that he can teach his nephew how to DANCE! The shelves on the left wall are pottery barn, and I really like how they filled them. The paintings around the room are beautiful, and I love the house's charming windows and moldings. I love the built in shelves around the fireplace: 

meet Mike, Mark's brother

I was/am tempted to put this video up on my blog when I found it via a wife of a friend's of Mike's blog (does that make sense?) to show everyone how awesome Mark's family is. Michael is the one who is "instructing and leading" the synchronized act, and also the one that looks just like Mark. These Reeder boys are the best!

After the Air Force Academy's finals of last year (I was pregnant in all the pictures of the graduation from last June - maybe that'll ring a bell?), Mike and his four friends waited until they all were done with finals and then took the plunge together, and as Ashley pointed out, jumped in the order of completion. 

Now if we could just set Mike up with his dream girl!

Icy

A week ago the three of us were able to go on a Glacier Cruise of Prince William Sound. Though it was sunny, bright, and beautiful in Anchorage when we left, it was rainy, cloudy, and dark in Whittier. We thought it was funny since when we drove to Whittier last October, we kept saying to one another it looks like a ghost town with a haunted/druggy house on the hill - totally CREEPY. Once we left the busy but still ghost-like town and headed out into the sound and fjords, it was breathtakingly beautiful!

The cruise we took advertises that it is the cruise of 26 glaciers. I didn't count them, but I don't think it was that many.. though it was still a LOT of glaciers! It was astounding to see these historic blue beasts. Here is a picture, totally untouched just to show you how much blue the camera picked up. And in person, they are even bluer. The captain said they are blue because of REFRACTED light - refracted being the key word. It is not magnified or reflected, it is bent. And of all the colors in the spectrum, blue is the easiest to pick up, so blue is the prevalent and most easily noticed of the bent colors. I'm no scientist, but it made sense at the time.

The larger pieces that were further away from the glaciers were very ... big. Our catamaran kept shuddering as we pushed through these ICEBERGS. The captain could tell some of the people were nervous, so he explained how our boat was specially made to hit these ice-giants and keep going. Our boat was built for hitting the ice and for speed. It was more adventurous than I thought it was going to be; I wasn't really expecting to be shoving full speed through the Titanic-sinkers!

Out on the dark, teal water, these icebergs glow so brightly. They almost look like sparkling gems:

Of the possible wildlife, we saw about 30 Pacific White-sided Dolphins, which the captain claimed to be the fasted animals in the ocean. They were swimming circles around us when we were going 30 knots! There were lots of sea otters with babies (how come I'd get hypothermic but those little babies don't??), fishing bald eagle, dall sheep, and these birds... I can't remember their name, but they're smaller than seagulls and they are predators rather than scavengers like the gull. 

Mark and I were hoping for a good family portrait on this water-vessel, but the guy who offered to take our picture didn't snap a very flattering picture of us... so here's one I grabbed of my boys when we were trying to get Mont to look at me. I think Mont likes his home-land. hah!

ohhhh my funny little boy. Not only is he quite a looker, but he is so FUNNY. I am seriously laughing all day with this boy; except on the face-butting occasions when my eyes are watering.. that's not too funny, but sometimes he thinks so.

This isn't a very depicting picture of him - not a normal expression of his - but I love how soft and well mannerly his hair is being in this picture.

He's still working on those gums, and at this moment he found Mark's jacket. Mark probably is going to laugh when he sees this picture of himself - probably, because it makes ME laugh! Mark is as funny a dad as Mont is a funny boy. I love these two:

Happy glass-ee-ayes to you too! (the couple sitting across from us were from Kent, England and I loved hearing them say "glaciers" the entire time)

let me water your plants?

Aren't babies the cutest in sun hats? *iphone

This morning was another warm, sunny day, so I put back my shoulders and braved the mosquitoes and spiders, bears and moose to give this little boy some grass exposure (he only rolled onto it once, but hey, that's a start!). There was only one run in with a spider (quite a muscular one, if I might add) that ran onto my towel. But I swatted it off with my paint-swatch-book-mark. Mont enjoyed watching the kids on the street who are now FREE since school's last day was yesterday.

King Louis even got a little sun too, and I think we all avoided bites.

age

we can do it!

Tonight I am proclaiming my woman-power as I BBQ by myself!! I had Mark teach me how before he left, and as I type this... my timer is tick, tick, tickin' away.

bbzzzzzz... Better go turn the kabobs!

meet me in St. Louis

Mark's iphone picture email to me this afternoon.
Subject line: Love you.
What a kindred spirit.

PS - the last post, a happy weekend, was also my 500th!