spearing

joe has been taking me spear fishing this winter and i love it! i haven't actually thrown the spear. i only decided i was ready a couple of times ago, and actually haven't seen a fish since then. we went out saturday and sat for 3 hours, but didn't see anything. it's actually fairly peaceful. you sit in silence in a dark house looking down into the hole. the water is so clear. joe has said it is like watching tv without the sound. he just moved the house a couple of weeks ago into more shallow water and now you can see the bottom (9 feet down) and the weeds that come up from the bottom. i haven't actually seen a fish in the new location, but i'm hoping i will because the view is so much clearer than the other location. joe speared this one when he was with ricky, his kinship partner. it was a 10 lb. northern.
this is the view. it is hard to tell from the picture, but like i said, it is pretty clear. the decoy (live) is on the right side of the hole. i hope to eventually post a picture of a fish that i spear!

jewel's 7th birthday

jewel was lucky enough to celebrate her birthday over and over last week. she started with a "frend party", had a party with grandma and grandpa ward, went out to eat on her birthday and ended last weekend with a party at grandma karin and grandpa terry's.


here is the owl cake that grandma sally made

this was quite the challenge for me. 8 children in a restaurant, and myself!

jewel's girlfriends from st. francis
jewel's girlfriends from lincoln

she had a fun time, so it was very worth it. i just can't believe that she is 7 years old!

diamond

i forgot to add that i received a new diamond from someone. i realize this isn't the best picture ever, but i thought i would add it. anyone have any guesses as to who gave it to me? maren, do you have a guess?

so cold

jewel celebrated her 7th birthday this week. she had a "friend" party at rafferty's last saturday. it was me and 8 children, which was quite and experience. sunday mom and dad had us over along with ryan for dinner. tuesday was her actual birthday and we went to coco moon for a treat, then out to dinner. jewel chose to go to china buffet. apparently she is her daddy's daughter. i will add some photos from her birthday later.

this week it has been so very very cold. we have had 2 late starts and one cancellation due to the weather. my thermostat is not working so it has been around 58 - 60 degrees in the house. joe's brother, brandon is coming out today to take a look at it. if he can't figure it out eric said he would walk me through replacing the thermostat (he told me i could do it). for all of us that think ak is so cold, here are the current temps: tempe 50, anchorage 38, brainerd -31. thats fun.

next week joe and i are going to the capitol to spend a day with dad. i'm excited for that. i'm hoping to talk joe into going down the night before so we can get sushi. yum. i don't have the girls this weekend, so i'm wanting to get out in the spear house tomorrow, then tomorrow night i'm going to dinner with some high school friends.

have a nice weekend!

gettting started

jewel's christmas program

anika and amy fooling around with the camera

sometimes they are the best of friends

shannon and gabe have inspired me to start a blog. i love looking at theirs and keeping updated on their life, so i am going to do the same to keep my family and friends updated. Jewel has just finished up with basketball. she loved it this year, and it was fun to watch her. jewel dislocated her thumb so she is currently in a cast for 3 weeks. she has her birthday party tomorrow with friends at rafferty's.

anika has been playing the 'sweet' role lately. if jewel is getting scolded, anika will do everything correctly to look like the model child. it's kind of funny. she was really happy to get back to daycare, and the "high" of her day on monday was actually going back to daycare.

ok. i have to get back to work, but hopefully i'll keep at this.