Walls

There's walls everywhere, a stoppage, a no-go point, a dead end.
Sometimes they're a good thing, sometimes they're not.
My walls are different from yours, but probably not by very much.
I try not to invade yours, because I don't want mine trumpled on either.
My walls protect me, but then keep out other things too.
Things that might be joyous, things I've never experienced, and didn't know I liked.
Walls put up a front that keep others from reaching you, or you reaching them.
They have their walls, you have yours.
Walls keep in everything that we'd like to express, but don't.
Because of walls.

Visiting Etiquette by Ella

Summer is the time when thousands flock to towns, villages, cities, so many different places to visit families, friends, or just to go. We're going on an adventure ourselves down to visit the breathtaking town of Homer this weekend. We've never been and I hope I'll remember these few etiquette tips while we're down there. Let it be known, we're not visiting anybody, we're gonna camp out (weather permitting).
1. Let whoever you're visiting know way ahead of time that you're coming (a week at least would be nice) There have been times when I'd get a knock on my door and opened the door to people I hadn't seen for years saying, we're here! with a weeks worth of luggage and 5 other people I don't know with them. Its nice to see people, but not when they're expecting you to house and feed them for longer than a couple of days.
2. Don't call from the airport that you're here and need a place to stay.
3. Help out -- whether it be picking up groceries, taking the trash out, or just picking up after yourself.
4. Don't expect to be driven around wherever your whim is to go that day.
5. Pay for gas, we're going out of our way to accomodate you, and its not "nice" to ask you to help pay for some expenses, but please ask if you can help pay, your answer will most likely be "Thank you very much!"
6. Help out in the kitchen ~~ you're an extra mouth to feed, help do the dishes pleeeeaaasseee!
7. I have children, if you buy treats (chips, candy, etc) buy enough for everybody, it'll make my life so much easier.
8. Please don't rearrange my kitchen arrangement, its that way for a reason.
9. Please don't wake up very early and wake everybody else up (esp on a weekend) and please don't shush my kids, I'll shush you back.
10. Reciprocate the favor to people who have welcomed you to their home.

Umbrellas

**image by adverbox.com

**image by sz-wholesale.com

Tuntutuliak

Tuntutuliak is situated on the Kuskokwim river, I think. Its a small Yupik Eskimo village with very friendly folks. Religion there is Moravian (Protestant) and Russian Orthodox. The name itself means "place of plentiful caribou" (I think) Years past, the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta had these creatures roaming the country. These days, there's none to be found. Older people reminisce about times when wildlife was abundant. They were probably over hunted or migrated to less populated areas. Anyway, back to Caribou Land. I think I've visited Tuntutuliak 4 or 5 times in my life time. A few times for basketball and every single time (Don, I know you hate that saying, hehehhe) we'd get weathered in. One trip, we got to roller skate in their gym waiting for weather to clear out -- our gym floor at home had carpet (who ever heard of that??? ouch! rug burns!) It was the first time I got wheels on my feet and it was pure enjoyment. I went there for a church thing one winter (and got weathered in till Tuesday!) was supposed to leave Sunday. I had a friend who was a Russian Orthodox who had lived there her whole life and had never attended a service at the Moravian Church. She really loved the songs I grew up hearing and how people would go up and sing requested songs, or whatever they chose to sing. It was an eye opener for my naive young self, for where I grew up, there was only one church. I myself have never attended a Russian Orthodox service. One summer I got to go there with fellow young people to attend Youth Camp (another church thing) for a week. I don't remember too much about it but Christine and Ringo and I stayed at the Enochs, who had two young boys. We'd have to get up early to attend services and do church-type things during the day. And thats all I remember about it. I was probably 14 yrs old. One winter we went snow machine riding through their curvy river, through willows and it was pure bliss, it was beautiful, with the snow so crisp, a white paradise. In Kipnuk, we'd just ride in open country, never in the rivers, because it was bumpy and the scenery was the same. Now, the only time I get to see Caribou-liak (as Sophie says) is when we stop for a mail drop or picking up passengers on the way to for from Bethel on the way to my hometown. Its probably changed just as much Kipnuk has, growing in population, crime rising, kids wilder ... but that is what I have to say about the land called "Tunt".

S - Seven S's

S - Sophie I.C.U. - My friend whom I adore and share many sillinesses with. I've known her for many a year. (hehehe) I recall when she had a birthday party and people calling her "Crazy" in an endearing way--she might have been 4-5 yrs old. She probably said the word and people were saying that to her because it was so cute when she said it. And Crazy is what she is and so much fun. She lived with me and Kayla for a time and she is the best housemate anybody can have. I miss being with her, she lives 376 miles away from my house right now, raising two very cute boys, and visiting our hometown at the moment. She hopes to attend several "seal parties" while she's on her adventure to home, so you ladies in Kipnuk, hope you have some planned!

S - Sincerity, Its so wonderful when you meet people that are sincere from the very beginning. I hope I come off to people in that sense. When people say Thank you, or Have a great day, and you can see that they really mean it and see it in their eyes, really makes my day. I stopped at Fred Meyers in uniform one day, and a lady stopped me and said "Thank you for serving our country" and squeezed my arm. That small gesture made me feel spectacular, like a #1 person, it was really touching.

S - Sleep, precious sleep. Resting your body from the stresses of life. A resting period for your mind, your body, your soul ... I love my comfy bed that lulls me to sleep because its so comfy and soft. Cool sheets that seem to drop my body temp as soon as I lay on them and then warm to my body temp to get the flow of sleepiness going, but so hard to get out of when its a dreary day.

S - Serpents, yuck, I'm terrified of those, and those would be snakes. We're not accustomed to those reptiles (are they?) in the Northern Hemisphere where we live. I've seen them in the lakes of Oklahoma. Some would plop down to the water from the trees they were slithering from, and give me the biggest startle. I've seen a garter snake in the gardens of my mother-in-law and screamed away, and all she said was, oh its just a garter snake. I don't like slithering snakes.

S - Sisters, I only have one and thank God for that! hehehe. But sisters are wonderful (and I'm relieved that I am the older one). She's my friend, my confidante, I can count on her, I can be mad and ugly, but she forgives me because I'm her sister (I think).

S - Summers, our very short summers, but very long days. I love them. Days of mosquitoes, barbeques, swimming and rainbows. (I don't think I've ever seen a rainbow in the winter, snowbows?) I love the green of the grass and the trees, fishing, marshmallows, and having my skin turn darker. Colors outside are vibrant and full of life, I love summer.

S - Singing, and singing from the bottom of your heart and tummy. I enjoy exercising my vocal chords, esp with friends at karaoke. I've enjoyed singing at choir practice on Thursdays in Kipnuk requesting any song in the song book and 35 people would sing along and it would be so heart warming! Its most fun when its "Song Fest" time and so many people from other villages show up to the practice and have hundreds of people singing in harmony. Once during teen age service, I think it was on Tuesdays, Tim Samson volunteered people to go up and sing because nobody willingly would. I think it was me and Sofe that he "volun-told" to sing a song and we picked "This is my Father's world" and we sang it so beautifully. What a great memory!

**image from maggiefinchdesigns.com

Raven Tanner Doak (Nagyuk)

Huggie, as Jeff calls her, is our precious, percocious, 8 year old.

She was born April 13, 2000 at 10:38 in the morning and was in such a hurry that she was delivered by a nurse.

She'd dance to music in my tummy and give my ribs such torture. When she was in my tummy, I'd only eat honey bbq chicken wings from KFC, a whatchamacallit candy bar with beef jerky (take a bite of the candy and then take a bite of the jerky and chew together) I know-- what weirdness.

She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice and can pick up a tune just from hearing it once. Shes a great soccer player, its her 3rd year playing this year and runs really fast. An avid lover of the outdoors, she reminds me of myself, in the summer time, she's out the door as soon as her head is off her pillow. She is trying really hard to stop sucking her thumb (she only does it at night now.) Mint chocolate chip is her favorite ice cream. She isn't a big fan of breakfast, but her fave food is my hamburger pie dish, and can drink Coke one can after another. She loves anything on Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, the shows Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters. She has outgrown "Beckblora the Explora". She's an independent growing girl and despises anything her brother does and believes that her sister hates her. Her best friend right now is a 9 yr old boy who lives next door to us. She learned to ride her bike recently and rides it like a pro now. She likes to read books, which I 'm so proud of. She's my besto best, the very best, a goot goot goot, a flying bat.

Qumliyuk

Qumliyuk: YUPIK (adv) ... a feeling of immense ridicule, contemptous derision, aggravation .....naam -- I can't explain it in English. These are thirteen things that have made me very qumliyuk.

1. Obvious rudeness, say like, standing in line, and the person you're waiting for, knowing you were standing in line, says to the person next to/behind you, can I help you? Purposely ignoring that you were there already (Not mentioning places, ahemm..... some NP folks are like that --- rudies)
2. Being a "new" person anywhere, and people double guessing everything you do just because you're "new" there.
3. When you realize that people you think are mutually close friends with, aren't that close anyway.
4. An adult being rude/mean/qumli to your kids for no reason other than just being rude/mean/qumli.
5. People who think they're a higher priority in everything just because of who they think they are over others.
6. Conversations that go on as if you weren't there to talk for yourself (i.e. my kids "Dad, how come mom says I can't sleep over at so and so's house?" while I am sitting there.)
7. Our dog, Duke, just for being.
8. Counting on someone and then they back off at the last minute.
9. Driving down a long empty straight road and another driver tail gates when they could pass at any time.
10. Trying to sleep and people seem to obviously make loud noises--talking loudly, laughing as loud as they could, clacking on a keyboard as hard as they could, slamming doors as hard as they could (or so it seems)
11. Braggy people of every little thing.
12. People who think they know everything.
13. Ahhh, last one, save the best for last: I am qumliyuk of when you innocently ask a question because you don't know and somebody answers "Its common sense!" when its not, stupid b*tch, thanks for letting me feel like a total ignorant @ssh0le in front of everybody, and then smirking after that. I hope somebody makes you feel the way you made me feel someday to the most utterest degree.

Paranormal

Its been a long time since I had dreams where I felt like I could feel my "soul" being outside of my body. And this picture reminded me of that.

Paranormal to me means having experiences with other beings that are not visible to this world--or everyday things that we're used to.

I've never really had any encounters as to what we'd call ghosts but have had very weird things happen, but no real contact with another parallel side of life.

One weird thing that I have experienced was waking up in the middle of the night and hearing noises in the hallway and looking out my bedroom door and seeing my brother Oscar coming down the hallway. I thought nothing of it and started toward my bed. Turning around, I saw that Oscar was already sleeping in the other bed that was in my room (we used to have bunkbeds and had separated them because sleeping on top was too warm so close to the ceiling.) I woke him up and laid down next to him (with me by the wall) and hugged him to me trying to fall back asleep even if he complained that it was too hot.

I do have very confusing dreams too, especially if I take a nap during the day. I'll be aware of myself and then something weird will happen like people I know that aren't in my house are there, say like, anybody who I know is not normally in my house, and then I'll know I'm not totally awake. I could see what is around me, but can't wake myself up and I'll try so hard to try to even slightly move a finger because even the smallest movement will wake my body up. And I wake up very scared thinking I wouldn't be able to awake from the dream.

Octopus

**image rightwingnation.com

No no no!

A big fat "No" ... the worst word my kids hate to hear, and probably most everybody. What a disappointing word when you think about it. I say it and dislike it when its said to me.

So, when can a big fat NO, be turned into a positive? Examples follow:

1. From a trooper: Would you like a ticket? (A big fat) NO!

2. From the sky: Rain today with stormy, gloomy weather? Another big fat NO!

3. From a mosquito: Should I insert my proboscis and make your skin itch like there's no tomorrow? NO

4. Our darn dachsund Duke: Poop inside because I'm too dachsundy to poop outside? Disgustingly NO

5. Computer: Act quirky and refuse to do what you want me to do? NO NO NO!

Lastly, do you think my writing is boring? Hopefully a BIG FAT NO.

Marshmallows

**image from paskesz.com

Its summer time and time to roast these delicious,sugary fluffs of white. The other day I was wondering how this treat was invented. Well, I did a little internet research and learned it was originally used for medicinal purposes. It was used as a syrup and ointment made from a plant called the marsh mallow, native to eastern Europe and the northern part of Africa. The root sap was mixed with sugar and egg whites. The concoction was made to soothe a sore throat. The leaves from the plant were used to remedy chapped skin and minor wounds. The stuff itself dates back to the ancient Egyptians - but thats going a bit too far for my blog.
Alex Doumak patented the extrusion process of this treat in 1948, meaning he found a way to manufacture this product to where its run through tubes and cut into its cylindrical spongy shape, coated, and packaged.
To end my blog, I'm including a recipe for brownies that I made a few weeks ago that includes this yummy sponge:

I got this recipe from Goodhousekeeping.com and it was delicious! For yummier-ness, I added nuts into the batter. Next time, I'll fold in marshmallows into the batter too and bake. Enjoy.

1 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon(s) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
3/4 cup(s) (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
6 ounce(s) unsweetened chocolate
2 cup(s) sugar
2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cup(s) miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cup(s) assorted nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan.
On waxed paper, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In 3-quart saucepan, heat butter and chocolate over medium-low heat until melted, stirring frequently. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs; stir until well mixed. Stir flour mixture just until blended. Spread batter in pan.
Bake brownie 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from edge comes out clean. Sprinkle top of brownie evenly with marshmallows; top with nuts. Bake 5 minutes longer or until marshmallows melt slightly. Cool in pan on wire rack. When cool, cut brownie lengthwise into 4 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 6 pieces.

LOVE

Today is my husband's birthday. Happy Birthday Stevo! And today's letter is L which fits perfectly. I'm not going to be all mushy, but these are the top ten things I like about my LOVE, (since its his day, I'll dedicate this blog to him :))
1. I love my husband because he is considerate and an overall gentleman. He'll open the door for others and is hardly rude to anybody.
2. I love Stevo because he makes me laugh and just a glance to eachother can set us off with hysterical laughter.
3. I really like that he enjoys the same stuff as I do, fishing, reading, camping, and just being outdoors.
4. I like that he'll switch restaurant food orders with me if I think his food looks better than mine.
5. I love that he'll go take care of our outdoor dog when she's barking and keeping me awake at night.
6. He wakes up in the middle of a deep sleep when I wake up with a scary dream and holds me until I get too hot and moves away when I tell him to move away.
7. I love to hear his laugh that comes from deep in his belly and it makes me laugh just hearing it and most others around him.
8. He's a very good role model for our children and he has fun and cherishes each and every one of them.
9. I love that he's silly and kind of a goofy guy and very handsome at the same time.
10. I love Stephen because he's intelligent, witty, caring, and all of 43 years old today. I love you Stevo!

**image from strawbale.com