Yay for modern OTC drugs!

Well, Saturday was a good day. I wouldn't call it great, but it went well. Koy did NOT wake up with a headache, just a stomachache, and was OK as long as there was a bathroom around and he didn't have to wait in line for it. He was feeling MUCH better.

I think he got tired of us continually asking him if he was OK and people looking at him and touching his forehead to make sure. Remember, he's the guy who at 104 degrees will tell anyone, "Fine" when asked.



The day started out really well, it was about 90 degrees out, and we had to run to wal-mart cause we didn't pack shirts for the boys. We picked up three shirts, SPF 50 sunblock, extra strength Tylenol, Immodium AD (since Pepto was not working) and some generic meclazine, for dizzyness and headed to the lodge.



This celebration was filled with laughter and reminiscing about Papa Max in his logging and flying days, before he moved to Palmer to be closer to grandkids.


Dean's favorite Plane

I met so many people, and I'm sorry if any of you are reading this, but I don't remember your names! :) It was nice to be a fly on the wall, even though some of the women there I could hear talk about me. They, of course, didn't know who I was, so didn't know I was listening. (It's hard not to listen when they're right next to you!) The best part of that though, is when they meet you and realize that I was sitting right next to them the entire time!


Missing Man formation. There were nine planes in all.

The kids had a lot of fun running around outside, taking the paths down to the road, and taking the tram up and down, up and down from the lodge to the main road. They made lots of new friends.

After the celebration, we changed into cooler clothes (the girls were wearing black, the boys had black pants on, etc) and headed out a little ways to Dean's aunt's place for a BBQ.




Ketchikan parking lot!

Koy was pretty good all day, and managed to play a little bit and swim a little bit. I think it'll be OK once we don't have a tight schedule of STUFF to do. If we could just rest and do NOTHING all day for a day or two, then he'd be able to recover.


The tree house had a line from the house so we could send over fun things, like hamburgers!



Today, we have to spread Papa's ashes, so we're heading out to their cabin in a float plane. I'm not to thrilled about that, but it will be my first time in a float plane...and my children's. I'm getting hives just THINKING about it.




We saw plenty of eagles flying around.

After today, we have nothing planned. The kids want to check out Wild Waves Water park outside Seattle, I think Dean wants to get home to rescue Elsa from our growing ducks and barking dogs. I think I want to take a flight to Anaheim and take the kids on a one day pass to Disneyland, and get back on the plane to Seattle. Just a day trip. We'll see how they all feel and how deflated our bank account is.


A long day, at eleven pm...its time for bed!

Sick kids and Native Hospitals

You know, I don't think I'll complain about our hosipital again. I know sometimes you don't get the answers you need, and sometimes you don't get what you wanted, and sometimes you're told to go home and rest and drink plenty of fluids...but NEVER, and I mean NEVER are you told that you can get an appointment three days later, when you bring a kid in with a devistating migraine and a 103 temperature. Seriously... they tried to send us home.

Now, I'm no doctor, I'm no nurse, shit, I don't even have an ETT certificate...but I'll be dammed if I don't have the common sense to give a kids some freakin tylenol or something. Nope. Nothing.


Trying to cool off in the waiting room.

So, yeah...I was a little mad. The only medication we had was Advil so advil he got. It didn't work.

About an hour later, after we left the Indian clinic, Koy woke up with a start, and yelled for me. His muscles were clenching, involuntarily and his teeth were clenching. We checked his temp and it was 105. ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE FUCKING DEGREES. (I'm sorry I'm cussing up a storm, but really...105?)


This is me...not to impressed.

So needless to say, Dean's got some paramedic friends, and their advice was better than nothing, so we called and they told us to IMMEDIATLY bring him to the ER. So we did...

After many blood tests, and lots of fever reducer, and plenty of water later, the doc came in wearing full contamination gear fielding a little tiny q-tip looking thing and said, "I need to test him for swine flu. He's showing all the symptoms."

So, then I was scared. I thought about the other kids, the people on the airplane, and all over KTN. Needless to say, we teased Koy a bit and snorted like a pig, which actually made him smile. When the doc came in about an hour later sans his contamination gear, we knew he was fine.



This little piggy did NOT go to market with Koy.

After a long and harrowing time at the Ketchikan General Hospital ER, his fever finally lowered to about 101 and they let us go home. I've been religiously pumping him full of tylenol, advil and water and gatorade, oh and bananas, and whatever else he can handle.

His poor body is very tired, his mind is tired, and his muscles are beat...and he really hasn't done anything except lie down, get in the shower, and sleep.

Last night it seemed like I needed to just call the neurologist we saw in May and ask him what I needed to do. My maternal heartstrings just are so worn thin right now. I don't think I could handle anything else. I want nothing more to than lie down with my child and tell him everything will be OK.

BUT...today is Papa Max's (http://finnskimo.blogspot.com/2009/03/passing-of-great-man.html ) memorial. And we have a lot of things to do today. I'm in charge of the media stuff. Funeral Programs, Photos, Slide Show, etc.

Here's to a vacation that started out awful...but hopefully with plenty of prayer and hope...will turn around and end up great. One can only hope right?

Huh? We're on vacation?

Oh, I wouldn't have known that, since I've spent the last couple of days nursing sick kids.


I did manage to shoot five photos since yesterday...this one shows KTN's awesome houses...

My husband called while I was in Seattle, around three thirty am and told me that Koy had another migraine, and what should he do about it?... So, I have him the schpeel:

Dark Room. Quiet Room. Cool Room. Two Advil. Plenty of water. Lots of Sleep.

When I arrived, he was not the kid I sent to have fun in Ketchikan. He was the sick kid who scares me with his dreams and hallucinations. Max wasn't feeling too well either. He's got the case of Pepto-needing illness...all five symptoms. Dean thought maybe it was because of the heat.

This morning, we woke up with a startled kid in our faces, saying, "MOM!" He jumped over and immediately started to throw up. I knew he was gone by then. Since then, he's hallucinated only once and Dean's gotten to experience it for the first time. Not fun...

Can I just say...I feel very sorry for the natives in Ketchikan. My husband thought it would be easier to go to the native hospital here, and we were there for HOURS. We had to get the charts from Kotzebue, fill out paperwork, and wait for information.

Did they triage him? No. They said, "Oh, we can see you on Monday..." Uh, NO...MONDAY will NOT be OK. So, I gave them my best bear-mom speech, which may or may not have included words like "private insurance...if we were white...are you crazy...he has a FEVER of 103 and you're sending us off till MONDAY...what's wrong with you people..."

Yeah. So far we've seen a lot of hills, and big ships, and trees. Its been ABSOLUTELY beautiful here, but here I sit, finally blogging, because we FINALLY saw an actual doctor who gave him what he HOPEFULLY needed to get over this three day migraine, and he's sleeping in a cool, quiet, dark room now.


My non-sick kids.

On another note, I've met so many people, I don't recall a single name. So, if you read this blog, and I forget your name. I'm sorry. But I really do have a lot of things that I have to remember, one being Koy's ENTIRE health history from birth until 12 years old, because when you're native, you don't see the same provider EVER, so you have to recite the entire history over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, oops, I got carried away. And over again. I've long since thought about actually recording his history onto a memory stick and then just printing it out whenever we go to the hospital! I wonder if that would work.

Anyway...tomorrow is the memorial for Papa, and Dean's been busy coordinating the missing man formation fly-by, and we've been working on the slide presentation and the funeral programs. So, I just hope Koy feels good enough to go tomorrow.

So, if you're religious, please pray for my son. He wants nothing more than to be able to go outside and enjoy this weather and new place. If you're not...pray to Venus, or Allah, or your cats for him to get better. I'd really appreciated it...and I'll take anything right now.

Our next course of action will be to fly him to Seattle. Sigh....

(P.S. We are staying out of cell reception and I found a place in the house that gets ONE bar of free wireless reception! I'm typing as fast as I can!!!)

Vacation, day two...

And its only just begun.



The weather is a balmy 91 degrees. And the trees are huge! Man...what a life. I'll be glad to get back home though, and not be so landlocked! Up to Ketchikan tomorrow. :)





The girls are having fun. Hitching up horses, brushing them, allowing them to get used to the new kids, etc. Playing in the sprinkler, enjoynig the heat! Eating at Dairy Queen, you know...the good stuff.





This Eskimo is melting. Almost like the wicked witch and water. Whhhooot whew...its H.O.T.



OK...so everyone who's reading this...please pray for my sister. She's in Kotzebue watching our ducks and apparently, they're tripleing in size...and they stink. Oh, and our bad-dog-shockie likes to poop all over when we're gone. So she's banned to the outside till we get back to wash her up. Ugh... Poor baby. I think I'll pay her more than she owes me. :)

The farmer in the dell...

The farmer in the dell... Hi ho, the ESKIMO's with the farmer's in the dell.

We're in Roy, WA at the in-laws! Dean's sister Lorraine and husband Robert live here with their two girls, three big horses, two little horses, two goats, some chickens, and an array of other things!



Saima, Kaisa, Maddie and I are here enjoying the "Busted Stuff Ranch!" So dubbed by the man himself! :) We're trying to think of names for their farmish plot of land! Maybe Redneck Ranch would be better, cause as you walk in the house, a buck named BUCK who serenades you with some awesome "On the Road Again!" He wiggles his head and everything! Awesome.



We started out in Kotzebue this morning, where the temperature was a cool 40 degrees. We went on to Anchorage where my dad picked us up in his truck. The girls giggled when they saw him because my dad decided not to cut his hair, and it was in a ponytail. They took us out to lunch before we had to leave to Seattle.



There were plenty of open seats on the jet, including many in first class, but apparently Alaska Airlines says you can't sit in first class unless you're eight years old. So, sadly, and with a large kivit (pouting) session, Kaisa and I sat in the bulkhead, and Saima and Maddie sat in First Class.



With promises of candy and a digi-player, she finally agreed to get on the plane, but only after plenty of crying and statements, like "THIS IS NOT FAIR!" So, of course, instead of sleeping on the 3 1/2 hour flight, she watched two movies and an array of cartoons! AND, of course, about ten minutes before we landed, she fell asleep!



So, remember when I said that ducklings are kid-crack? I take that back...I take it all back...whooooop. (sucking in noise!) HORSES are kid crack.

Seriously, I can't get these kids away from the poor horses!



Robert was nice enough to hitch up Casey the Tractor and give us our very first HAY RIDE! It was awesome, and we very generously contributed to the delinquency of the environment, with that old diesel engine! But, the important thing...the kids had FUN.

Happily, we BBQ'd and enjoyed a great dessert of s'mores.



The kids are all happily tucked into the camper in the yard. Momma, who is seriously paranoid (rememeber, we just have to worry about polar bears and rabid foxes where I come from!) that they are out there, and I'm mildly reassured that one of the dogs is sleeping out there with them.
I just need to relax. Sure. hehe... not gonna happen.



Kaisa says, "I LOVE THIS COUNTRY! It is SO green here, SPRING is HERE! Oh, look trees!"

And by "this country" she meant "America" and not Alaska! hehe. Which is what we call the "lower 48" states. You know what's weird? Its dark out...and only 11 p.m. Ewww... And let me add, scary too! Trees, darkness? Ick. Other than that, its nice!



Until tomorrow's Washington adventures! Maybe I'll find a cherry tree to raid!!!

I like big...

...oh YOU know the rest.

Dean has called me about fifteen and a half times today, just to give me the scoop on his Ketchikan trip. You see, Ketchikan is his HOME. Its where he was born, raised and molded into the awesome man he is today.

He is VERY excited...I repeat, VERY EXCITED to be home. And to be able to bring the twins, he's damn near giddy.

He has sent me a few camera photos, just to give me a glimpse of his previous life. You know, the one before he actually LIVED, cause before me, it was nothing!!! :) hehe...



He throws words around like they're nothing, "Oh the cruise ships are docked here..." Oh my holy mother effing gosh sakes, they're HUGE. I've never actually SEEN a cruise ship before, and I don't know if I actually WILL get near it (you know cause the ONLY case of Alaskan Pig Flu was onboard a cruise ship), but I get the picture with the photos he's sending me.

He also said that it took him and the boys almost exactly 18 hours to get from his NEW home to his OLD home. Remember, my son has to sleep for over 12 hours per night, so this 18 hour trip was HELLATIOUS on him. So, Dean did what any good father would do. He told him to sleep it off.

At five, he sent me a photo of the boys STILL SLEEPING. Five PM. So, I guess, they're in the clear as far as sleep goes.



Then I noticed something funny... They have HUGE BUTTS! And I mean HUGE! Koy's the typical skinny native...but he has a badonka donk. And Max...don't get me started. You could land a small plane on his arse. Hey...like mother, like son...and like father, like son!

Hey BOYS...we love you, and we cannot lie!

P.S. As you read this, me and the girls, and my sister and her daughter, (all five of us) will be attempting to make it to Seattle (YAY AMERICA!) in less than TWELVE hours. Wish us luck!

Shame...on me...and on you!

So, last night we took the kids to a ministry that recently opened up in Kotzebue for dinner, a sermon, and children's church. The dinner rocked! An array of wild game soups, duck, caribou, etc. Dinner rolls, doughnuts, crackers, and more.

The kids (Maddie, Victoria, Clara, Kaisa, Jessalyn, Coltrane, and eventually Uyaana and Ben) came with us to the services. They are held at the boys & girls club here in town, so they get to play pool, ping pong, etc and generally have fun!

But, that's not what this post was supposed to be about. Shame on me. The sermon preached by a cousin of mine (don't forget, I have LOTS of cousins) really got me thinking. I seriously need some help. Not in the "You need Jesus" kind of way. Just in the way that I need to stop coveting my neighbor's things!

Until recently, I would be giddy with delight in buying my kids the newest and latest and greatest toy/gadget/clothes/iPod. At one point, we had eleven iPods in this house with six people. What is that about?! We all had to have the newest and most updated.

The kids had to have the newest game console. At one point, we had an XBOX 360, a Wii, AND a play station 2 in our house. With the three flat screen televisions we have in throughout.

I wanted a fire place...I got one. Shame on me.

Anyway, the sermon really focused on being happy with what you have, and not wanting other "things" in life... Be happy in your job. Whatever it is, be happy.

You're a janitor?! Whistle while you work! You're a youth counselor? Witness to the youth about how great your life is! You're a Media/Publications manager for a regoinal native corporation? Don't complain about it being Monday and instead, get up extra early and bake muffins to share with everyone at work. (oh, thats just me...but I didn't get up early...tomorrow I will though)

I don't usually have a problem being happy with my work/life/circumstance, but instead have a big problem coveting my neighbor's "THINGS!"

"Man, he has a NICE boat... Look at that playground for the kids... oohhh, they got a new fourwheeler?... Oh yeah, you bought your kids an entire summer wardrobe?"

Its hard for me to stop buying crap. I lived in a one room house, we didn't have a TV, we didn't have a bathroom for goodness sake, so I wanted what EVERYONE had... dresses, new clothes, new shoes...the new nintendo! Now, I think I seriously live through my kids, what I didn't have, they GET.

The only problem with that is this. What is too much? Now that I am an adult, I savor the summers I spent at camp, living in a tent. I am happy that my only toys were board games and books and my sisters. I love the fact that I did NOT have a doll house, so I MADE MY OWN, with a cardboard box, and weaved my own rugs out of yarn, and sewed my own clothes for them with a sewing machine, or a needle and thread. My daughter is six and has yet to sew on the sewing machine. I had made dolls and clothes and mittens by that age. She's content sitting at home playing Nintendo DS. Ugh. What have I created?

In the midst of the internet, and the cell phones, and the electronic games, and the 200 channels, what have we created? A generation without an imagination. A generation content on sitting on their ass staring at the computer screen checking out video's on youtube. A generation that doesn't know how to sew, or hunt, or tan skins, or bake from scratch.

What have I created? Recently, my daughter said to me, "MOM! I really want that thing/toy/gadget," from the television screen. I said, "No, honey we don't that much money..."

She replied, "That's OK, just put it on your credit card, its not like you have to PAY it right now."

WHAT.THE.HECK?

I'm not going to let MY kids down, I have an obligation, nay, a DUTY to make them feel like I do right now about MY childhood. No more TV, no more DS, no more PSP, No more cell phone, no more instant dinners, no more plastic princess houses.

Next Christmas/birthday, they're getting a cardboard box, a spool of yarn, a book, and plenty of TIME from momma. Tonight, we're making cookies, and a full on lasagna dinner...from scratch. And the girls are going to make their own dresses. Seriously.