The melting pot that we call our yard

has several modes of transportation with different license plates this morning.

A van with Minnesota plates came and parked on Tuesday evening. Joyce and Brian made their way here from Minnesota, without benefit of flight, and are here with two darling kiddos. Trina was certainly the center of attention at Bible Class last night with all the young girls.

Tanner has certainly grown since I saw him last!

Tanner was busy watching this young man teaching him some interesting new tricks. Watch out Joyce! You may not have a tow strap left when he's done figuring out how it all works. :) I wish I dared try it. I can just see myself landing with a stick through my noggin or something like that.

Isaac Skoog flew in Sunday evening. I know that his mom is sort of missing having his toothbrush in the bathroom. "What?" you say? Really, she did. Right here. Just scroll to the bottom of the page. We have been enjoying his talent on the guitar as well. :)

  

I think he's been keeping himself occupied while he's here ... and anxiously waiting for his friend to arrive. Johannes got here last evening ... on a motorcycle (Virginia plates this time around) .. after driving 8,000 miles. I really am thrilled that people just get out and do things like this instead of being stuck in a rut somewhere. He left from Maine 20 days ago and has traveled via Juneau where he visited his aunt for several days. I don' t know how long he plans on being here .. sounds like they intend to do some touring of Alaska. There is plenty of it to do!

I am feeling a little elated giddy. I have 16 hours of work left before I get a few days off. The list of things to do in that few days is sort of long ... accomplishment will feel wonderful!

What a weekend!

A little of this and a little of that.

• overtime
• crafting
• sharing in the joy of a wedding (to which I didn't even bring a camera .. and had to be the most beautiful setting for a rainy outdoor wedding ever!)
• visiting
• salmon and halibut packing
• major decision making about which way life's stream is suppose to be heading at this time in our lives
• sharing in Mom's 75th birthday party a bit by text, phone and photos all via phone (and really wishing I was there)
• weed pulling
• laundry
• canned baked beans (haven't tasted the finished product yet tho')
• getting ready for visitors

Off we go to a Tuesday in the sometimes quite interesting life of the Marjanens. I thought our company wasn't going to be here until at least Wednesday ... and I had the opportunity to pick up someone's call this evening. I may be working. So, my dear and willing hubby is cooking. Halibut will be off the grill and ready for dinner at about 6 this evening. :)

I did promise you ...

Our dear Anna on Wednesday getting ready to load up onto the bus in Rockford and head to Stoney. She is off to camp for the next 11 days and I know that she will make many new friends.

I was at work and my phone kept getting these picture text messages from Becky.

Thanks so much, Becky!

It is a bit difficult to not be there and not be able to head there this summer ...

this was one way to share the day with my daughter ... and even catch a glimspe of a face from her younger days in Phoenix. I think I spy Cassidy pulling the red bag. (Her mom will be as glad as I am!)

I was nearly dripping and needing a tissue by the time I got this one.

I could see enough to send Anna a text that said, "I just saw your bus leaving ....".

My poor camera is probably going through withdrawls this summer. I know that we have been out and done a few things, but I've not had an opportunity to get out a really snap some photos. Maybe in the next week.

It has been a very rainy summer .. sort of reminscent of our first one here. (We got a teaser of a beautiful one last summer.) Yesterday the sun was shining here and there ... and it was raining when I came home from work at 9pm again. I will really try and get out a bit this weekend.

Yesterday I did the unimaginable. I know my alarm rang ... at least three times ... more if I hit the snooze. I know I shut my eyes after each rining. I really know that because I woke up and looked at my clock at 8:06 a.m. I guess if you're going to sleep in ... you do it up right!?! Nothing quite like having that slimey unshowered feeling all day long!

Off to start a Friday.

Maybe work late again this evening.

Send Jari off dip netting again in the morning.

Hoping to make it to a wedding tomorrow evening.

Maybe spin some laundry over the weekend, cut some rhubarb, spray some bean plants that are being eaten ...

and start the purge process. :)

Is it Wednesday already?

It sure is. :)
Quite the day.
Finished off with baking potatoes for tomorrow nites dinner after serving up some yummy Carrot Bars at Bible Class this evening.

I have some pictures to share that I got via text message today.
Will try to get them up here in the morning.
Right now, MY computer is a bit tied up with someone looking at strollers for her cat.
Uh. Oh.

She obviously didn't get the memo.

I am cleaning house ... soon.
Very soon.
My goal is to be cleaned out by August 10th when go back to work after a weeks vacation.

E-Bay and Craigs List are going to become my bestie friends.

Tomorrow... a few pictures.

Today I am so thankful that my dear SIL Riitta made it through surgery just fine.
Can't wait to hear her voice.
Hopefully, tomorrow.
Today .... she needs to sleep it off.

Saturday evening Corn Toss

Either it is my computer (which is about a hundred years old) or Blogger itself, but something is giving me fits this morning. Can't resize pictures easily. Have added and deleted several times. That does it! I'm done!

The rain is back again this morning.

I'm certain there is a good reason for it.

Forest fires are being prevented.

My yard is getting smaller as the trees just keep on growing and crowding in.

I need to use a brush hog or something!

Saturday evening Tia had an itch to get outside and play something ... and am grateful for her pushing.

The day was absolutely Divine! The weather sunny and beautiful. The job list nearly done. A visit from Charisse with the boys. Pulla baked. Enough bleach hit the bathrooms that I'm likely to smell it for the next week!

Time to head outdoors for a bit and enjoy it!

I think she played one game?! The rest was done by Fred, Jari, Brock and I ....

while she took the camera ....

and spent some time snapping ... in between tramp jumping.

The mosquitos have been blessedly light at our house this year,

giving us plenty of time to be outside without the ravages of mosquito bites. (Mind you ... that doesn't stop us .. we have the perfect cure for the prevention of and the treatment of those critters.)

Oreo enjoyed watching the game ... after nearly getting beaned (or should I say "corned") in the head while investigating.

Thinking of Oreo ... competition never stops around here.

Either it is me working very hard at thoroughly trouncing a good hand of Monopoly Deal.

The kids. Need I say more in that department?

Or the pets.

Oreo gets great satisfaction out of mousing ... and this year has been kind enough to keep her catch outdoors.

Saturday, Duke decided that she shouldn't have her mouse ... and took it from her!

Disgusting!!!

You know you're gettin' older when ...

you're excited to be canning salmon on a Friday nite.

It was good luck in the dipnetting department.

Then on to the preservation of the delicious stuff ... all 40 pints, 12 quarts and 16 nice frozen fillets.

Pure scrumptious!

Our pressure cooker is not the oversized variety.

We can manage 7 jars at a time and it doesn't matter if they are quarts or pints.

No stacking pints in our cooker.

So it took a little longer than anticipated ...

and we ended up finishing it this morning rather than my last nite's cooked up dream.

We even canned a few fillets that were in the freezer from last year.

I might want to warn you.

We filled many of our jars with extra stuff.

I did label them ... and you can see the extra stuff in the jars if you're really worried.

Thank goodness.

Because the silver got some serious help from Jari.

Plenty of hot chili peppers tossed in these jars.

Enough that the salmon started cooking before it hit the pressure cooker.

It starts to give me a belly ache just looking at it.

Can't hardly believe that he's a Finn.

We're working at becoming self sustaining. (Is that the word?)

Not this winter yet.

Maybe next winter.

Can you imagine a life where you bought only a very small amount of things at the grocer? The rest was grown, fished, hunted, canned, frozen or dried at home? All while working full time seems a bit daunting.

I make routine trips to the greenhouse.

Some of the trips are to water and fertilize.

Some are to lament at the state of my cucumbers which are having issues this year.

Other times ... I just go count tomatoes.

Serious.

I don't dare count blooms ... I might get really confident if I did that.

Tonite there were about 59 of these little green things growing.

Anything round and green counts when I'm counting.

They certainly don't need to be a certain size to be proud of them.

They just have to exist.

Fish, fish, and hoping for more fish!

Jari is gone dipnetting. We've never done this before. We aren't doing it now either, but he sure is! This is not a small trash can ... and those aren't minnows. (No photoshopping involved here!)

These are red salmon. A mite bigger than the ones we were getting on the Klutina a month ago.

Total catch for yesterday: 39 reds, 1 king, 6 (hmmm ... can' t remember?!)

I remembered before hitting the POST button ... 6 flounder!

Today they're hoping to finish up and bring home 30 fish each.

I am going shopping for freezer bags or something!

This young man would be our new 17 year old Brock. He has been doing some outside work on Fridays & Saturdays ... and earned enough the first weekend to net him some wheels.

It has been weeks of saving pennies ... adding more pieces ... doing more work ...

and voila!

He was legally driving it on his birthday!

I do have to tell you something about this young man.

He is going to give his dad a run for his money in the "getting it cheap" department.

He chewed down the price of his car ... from $100 to $80 and even got jumper cables thrown into the deal.

It is amazing how none of our children are carbon copies of us. Each has pieces of us rolled into them. Some more than others.

This one ... likes to wrench on cars.

This one ... he wants to wrench on cars without help from his dad .. who, by the way, would just take over and do it all. 'Cuz that's what he does.

This one ... he wants a straight pipe on his car. (His mom isn't sure what that really is but knows that it will wake up the neighbors.)

This one ... will just start doing it himself so dad doesn't. He has learned well.

Just like his dad ... this one is capable of a serious and sober face for a camera lens.

And ... he can be coaxed into sharing that wonderful smile of his.

Right now ... I refuse to think about the fact that next year he'll be leaving us and joining the adult world.

.... around here ....

• Finished going through all (oops! found two more) of our videotape over the weekend, labeling and sorting it all. What a trip down memory lane. I really wish I could attach a few clips on here. Would be so fun!
• I even managed to find the floor of my bedroom this weekend. Maybe I don't use my clothing as carpet, but the stuff! Where on earth does it multiply from?!
• Anna is still toodling around Minnesota and waiting for confirmation camp to begin on the 21st. We are missing her around her. :(
• Brock celebrated a birthday yesterday and has managed something in the last 2 weeks that I will share with you in another post. I'm aiming to get photos tonite after work.
• Jari left last night to go dip netting. He can bring home 65 salmon ... let's see how many he comes home with!
• The sun peeks out every once in a while. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. The house was over 80 degrees inside ... today it is raining again.
• I've had a headache for almost 4 days now. This is getting ridiculous. Better this morning, but I think I'm in need of a visit to the chiropractor.
• I've been on track 6 of cd 3 of the book I'm listening to for 3 days now. Does that tell you anything?
• Off to the shower (and hope that the sparking blow dryer continues to work) and then to the donut bag at work.

Happy Birthday Brock!!

Happy 17th Birthday Brock!

Did thinking about singing help?

I really shouldn't crow.

I really shouldn't shout from the roof top.

I'm going to anyway.

I found 3 tomatoes growing this evening!!

And ... it is only the beginning of July!

Maybe, maybe, maybe!

Also felt an earthquake earlier this evening that had my clock shaking on the wall.
It isn't often I feel them. Usually, I'm busy moving from one place to another ... no time to stop and feel the quakes. (That was really lame.) Tonight ... we all felt this one.

I missed the party.

I missed the 25th Anniversary Party this evening for Becky & Wayne.

The party was a tad bit early as their anniversary isn't actually until August 24th, but family was in town ... and it worked.

Well ... not all of the family was in town.

I was home pouting a little bit.

I got over it.

I was on call and had to head back into work. As I was entering the hospital, I met Sharwyn leaving. She just got back from a cruise that took her to ports in Russia, Finland, Sweden, etc. Before she left, I had told her to think of me when she stood in front of the Tuomio Kirkko ... and if she had a chance ... to sample some Geisha chocolate.

My favorite.

Guess what she pulled out of her backpack and handed me.

So I had my wee little pity party with Geisha chocolate. Mmmmm. It was delicious. Then I had to hide it.

Jari really likes Finnish chocolate.

He ingests it faster than I do! (one really wouldn't think that was possible .. but it is.)

What else does one do at a Pity Party?

They head for the greenhouse ... where outside the potato plants are growing quite nicely. Next years garden is going to be quite sizeable ... I'm hoping ... in a different location.

Into the greenhouse where flowers can grow in any container available. Isa, do you remember this oil can? I confiscated it for the summer.

Tomatoes are blooming ... and I'm seriously thinking about piping music in for them. Remember that I have a bee hive growing in the greenhouse. I hand pollinate ... I fertilize ... I might start singing. I really (in case you can't tell) would like some tomatoes this year.

The plants sure like to grow. Will see if they manage to do anything else for me.

I gave up on the zucchini outside ... and started some inside. The look much better inside. Grow ... grow ... grow. I'm just tasting grilled zucchini. Might be handy if they bloomed first, tho'.

I know if you shake the tomato plants ... the entire greenhouse smells like tomatoes. But raspberries? I'm sure I can smell them somedays. I'll have to figure out how to trim these plants after the growing season. Any hints and tips are welcome. I've never had raspberries before and really don't know what I'm doing with them other than watching them grow ... and hoping to eat plenty of berries.

The strawberries are doing what they're suppose to. It is always fun to find a spot that works for something. They love their home. We love that they love it. They're giving us absolutely delicious tasting berries ... two at at time. We share that way. :)

I did some more walking about the yard ... will share another day. In the meantime, should you call, you'll probably find me out here. My favorite ever place around here. The sun (should it shine) likes to beat through the roof and heat the porch up quite nicely. It actually hit a whopping 90 degrees the other day. The mosquitos haven't been issued an invitation inside which really makes it quite nice. We haven't moved the grill ... and decided not to. Makes hauling food to the kitchen very convenient. The chairs are comfy out there ... and you only have to watch where you sit when it rains for a while. Then the roof leaks. But who cares? Not me. I still love it out there ....

watching the peas grow.

Off to a bonfire.

Okay.

So it was rather late when we started out.

I took a quickie nap after dinner.

Jari started downloading updates to his i-phone and wiped out the entire phone.

THAT became a big problem involving all kinds of monkey business that I don't understand, so it got to be after 9:00 pm when we started out to the bonfire.

Over the top of Hatchers ... I've never gone over the top before!

My camera and I don't get along very well when it gets dusky outside so I just left it at home.

Shouldn't have.

Remember that next time, Anita!

Made do with the camera on my phone.

We were looking for a paper plate attached to a tree on a dirt ride to the right ... or maybe the left ... which way were we coming from anyway?

We rode high up in the clouds. Knowing that we were surrounded by mountains and steep drop offs on one side of the road at all times. Catching glimpses of a mountain top here and there.

Back down out of the clouds ... absolutely beautiful! Mind you ... it was about 10:30 at night. Summer is still with us. The clouds were out in force and rain drops started falling as we descended.

We did find the paper plate.

And we met Ross & Denise coming out on the one track path as we were heading in.

So, backwards we went.

They were all soaked and leaving.

We got a good Friday evening drive out of the deal.

Saw so many beaver dams we were just amazed.

We marveled at the people who live in this world's inner cities who will never get to experience this kind of wonder.

And then we stopped for ice cream, chocolate and icees at Turner's Corner. Always a Post Hatcher treat for us. Kind of a habit to be perfectly honest.

Home to lose one game of Monopoly Deal and win another ... and hit the mail pile ... done with that ... cross that off the list!!

It is now tomorrow ... 2:00 a.m. to be honest .. what am I doing?!?!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

Almost made it through the week ... couple more hours to go.

Anna left for Minnesota yesterday.

Our Anna is such an easy going person. Gets along with everyone and her personality is so sunny. We are going to miss her around here. She's off to Summer Services in Minnesota this weekend, then some visiting with family and friends ... and finally on the 21st to confirmation camp at Stoney Lake.

Now I need to get busy and find her updated immunization records and fax them in.

Problem: the school has them and the school is closed.

First on the list of things to do this weekend is find something and get it faxed in.

No camping for us this weekend. I had wanted to go to McCarthy, but we'll save it for another time. I volunteered for Call on Sunday as we were planning on staying home for the weekend. On the list instead:

• clean out the dreaded mail basket
• start working on mucking out the basement
• find a miracle cure for my wilting cucumber plants
• try to make some refrigerator pickles
• dust the baseboards
• spend as much time outside as possible
• do some baking while inside and listen to services online from Minnesota
• maybe barbeque a bit and visit a bit
• take in the parade in Wasilla
• win a few rounds of Monopoly Deal

Have a great weekend!