Pioneer Day - Island Style

We had a Pioneer Day Celebration on July 21 at the Smith's.

We started out with a tug-of-war (that's a plastic tablecloth with water in the little depression--oh well).



Next was the stick-pulling competition. Jake won against Arthur-- Tori and Madison--

and these four brutes!

His loss came against--




Limson--as did Roland's.

Learning the Virginia Reel...
rounded out the activities. Then it was time for the food!

but others just kept on dancing...

It's Heeeerrrre!

And because my beloved daughter has been so sick (but is now feeling much better), I gulped only once when I paid the full retail on-island price. So she gets saved from the boredom of having to stay inside watching videos and playing Speed with Mom (but it was for jelly belly jelly beans so that was fun!). And she gets to read it first, but with one condition: no telling ANYTHING! She agreed it would be hard, but was quick to agree in order to find out what happens to Harry.... It's not really any big sacrifice for the rest of us--she'll probably be through with it in about 24 hours.

Bye-bye Tikla!

I'm a little slow getting this up, but I wanted to post this picture that Shauna took after church a few weeks ago--the Sunday after the Prance. The black and white is the photoshopped version that Tikla did. She's off to the "Y" and we're [ALL] really going to miss her! (I'm having trouble with the color photo--tune in later.)

Prance Pics

I said a while ago that I would put up photos of the guys with their dates on the night of the Prance (prom/dance). This was back in May. Enjoy!

Kaitlyn has...

books and
movies and
Sprite and
doctor's appointments and

pneumonia.

The Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem

From http://www.usaflag.org/

"The pledge of allegiance should be rendered by standing at attention, facing the flag, and saluting.When the national anthem is played or sung, citizens should stand at attention and salute at the first note and hold the salute through the last note. The salute is directed to the flag, if displayed, otherwise to the music. "

Last week in church our closing hymn was "The Star-Spangled Banner." As I began to play the intro I realized the chorister was not going to signal the congregation to rise (she's only 16), and our congregation is of mixed nationality, but I thought for sure that the Americans would stand out of respect for their country. Just before reaching the chorus when I realized that for whatever reason--probably self-consciousness--that was not going to happen, I stopped playing. I told the Branch Presidency that I couldn't play it if the Americans in the congregation would not stand--it was just too disrespectful. They stood. Everyone else did also.

No wonder the Lord refers to us as "sheep"--we are such followers. It's easier to follow than to think. There wasn't one American willing to take the initiative and stand, so none of them did. Once one group of people were asked to stand, everyone stood. I'm not railing on my brothers and sisters--I definitely include myself in this also--but it seems like we are scared of so many things. Ezra Taft Benson once gave a talk on pride and said that it was the root of all sin, but I think fear may be the root of pride. Maybe that's why the Lord so often commanded, "Fear not." Maybe that's why he's so merciful to us--because he knows that many of our mistakes, sins, actions are influenced by fear.

I found out later that last Sunday was Canada Day, and I told the Canadians that told me that if I had the music for "O Canada" I would have played it. They said that if I had, they would have stood.

Seminary Class 2006-07

Thanks for the great photo President Benson!

Off to Managaha

We're going camping tonight on Managaha, a small island in the lagoon. It's only used for recreational activities--no houses, cars, etc. It's fun and the kids really love it. It's not unusual to be the only overnighters on the island and the last boat leaves at 4 P.M. so we're alone until the first boat comes out a 9 the next morning. Tonight the students and chaperones from our school will be there along with participants in a summer program with Beautify CNMI!, so it won't be quite as quiet as it normally is! With a full moon like we'll have tonight you don't even need a flashlight. The kids often like to sleep on the big beach with all the crabs scurrying around. It's nice--well, actually it's wonderful...

Be Earth Tankards

I must say that this has been an exceptionally good year for birthday cards, so I thought I would share a few.

*****

From The Browns:

Deers Is Turk Honor,

Have Bees Birds Yay!!

Goo Lock Quit Oat Estimate Thee Shear!

Dangs Foe Yo Rex Ample Ann Hot Spit Al Hit Tea.

Wheel Of View Fair Ream Hutch.

Rub Dub Rounds

*****

From Ed and Susan:

It has been my honor to:

meet you,

greet you,

treat you,

Lo these many months.

I wish you:

Cheers!!

No Fears!!

All Clears!!

To all those near and dear.

Age gracefully!

I'm tryin' Susan, I'm tryin'.

*****

From Dorothy (our Korean home-stay student):

(on the front is a cut out of a hunky guy in swim shorts (!))

(Inside, pop-up kids holding "happy birthday" and her text:)

I love your delicious American foods.

Could you remember my Korean name?

I hope you will try many more Korean foods!

And I hope you can cook many Korean foods.

I always appreciate your kindness!!

Do you think she's trying to tell me something?

*****

Here's my favorite. It's from Ez, who, as you can see, got his numbers a little mixed up. The original spelling has been retained:

Dear Mom,

I wish you hav a happy birthday!

Wow, 29 seems prity old, but still, it's your birthday!!

Love: Ezra

I love you too Ez.

Then The Little Red Hen Said...

It's mango season again and the tree at the Church is doing more than it's fair share despite the fact that it was cut way, waaaayy back. Too much. I was there yesterday and picked up a bunch of the best ones--not too bruised from falling to the ground--but the fruit flies found them this morning. Mango smoothies for breakfast! Yay!

Here are my helpers at peeling and slicing and...ah...well...grinding....and...um...eating.... If you're interested in the mango smoothie recipe, check out Cookin' Up a Storm. Yummy!

Gloating

I'm so haaaappy!!!

Ever since we've been in this house I have hated the diningroom chairs. The house was furnished when we took it and here we were, a family of 10, with glass tables and black upholstered chairs. Yuck.

They are horrible! They're loose and the supports have come undone. We've repaired them numerous times, but they are bent on being unmanageable. I've determined for some time now that I was going to get new chairs as soon as I could find some. Well, here on Saipan that's the kicker--finding something I like.

Anyway--Friday I went into a little shop here to buy placemats. They specialize in furniture imported mostly from Indonesia, so it's always fun to look around. While I was looking I came across these chairs that they've had in there for a while. They're mahogany chairs with caned seats and a pineapple carved into the back. I've always liked them, but I didn't want to spend the $160 each to buy them for my diningroom. Well, that day they were on sale for $50!!! And they had six! New diningroom chairs and a bargain to brag about to boot--which we all know makes them that much prettier! :)

LDS Prance

The LDS teens here organized a prom and it was quite a success--they had about 50 kids there (both LDS and non-LDS). I've heard from several people that they might try doing another one next year.

Hope you enjoy these "ready to go" pictures. Feel free to share your own captions.

Jake Depicts Man's Struggle to Grow Up

As he is so fond of reminding me...

"Sam's the Man--Oh Yeah."

The looks on their faces are soooo typical of their personalities! Jake has a "great idea" while Sam listens--skeptically. It makes me chuckle just to look at this.

Here on the island men rarely wear a suit coat even at church, so this was a completely new experience for them. It took some doing to sharpen these two up enough for the event (j/k), but I think they turned out pretty well. They both had dates for the evening. There were photo mementos, so I'll post them when we get them.

Million Year Echo

A new name and some new sounds. Levi's band is set to showcase this year at the Florida Music Festival (www.floridamusicfestival.com) this weekend in Orlando. They're hoping for big things this year and we're with them all the way! You can check out and even download Million Year Echo's six song cd at www.purevolume.com/millionyearecho. They also have photos on there. Be sure to listen to Head Up and So This Is Love....

After looking at the picture above for a few moments, I had to put this photo on to remind myself that there is a real person under the publicity facade--I know, I know--"Oh Mom!"

Is It Spring Yet?

I was about to change my benchmark photo to spring when I realized that I wasn't sure if it was spring yet. Coming from Maine, I know that the "official" first day of spring as it is on the calendar means nothing. Growing up, we were looking for the first robin or the yellow-green shoots of crocuses pushing up through the last of the snow. I don't know how everyone else tells, but let me know when it's spring!

The Funny Papers

I haven't been writing much here lately, but I wanted to take a minute to share this. A local ophthalmologist writes occasionally for one of the island newspapers and I always enjoy his articles. This one nails a situation that many of us find ourselves in here. Too funny. It's copyrighted, so you'll have to use the link--it's worth a few minutes. It's entitled, "The relationship between moral health and a blind wife".

I'm Baaaack!

Hokay. My daughter and fellow-blogger has been getting on me about not posting, so I'm making amends.

I was off-island from the end of January until the first Sunday of March. I went home to say good-bye to my father, who died on February 1. I feel so blessed to have been able to be there for those few days with him before he left us and also for the time I was able to spend with my mother.

On the last weekend of February, I went out west to visit Mal. That was fun, but man! Talk about opposition in all things! Going from a month with my mother in her senior citizens housing to a coed apartment in a college town! Whew!

One thing (among many) that I really enjoyed while out west was visiting with two of the missionaries that had served on Saipan. That was great! It was so fun to meet all of Mal's friends and put faces with the names I've heard so much about. It's a good group.

Before I went out, she called and asked me to bring a Scrabble game (honestly now, is "meh" really a word?), Maine maple syrup, and a jar of marshmallow fluff. (If you haven't already, check out this entry on how to make a fluffernutter that she's put on her blog--I took the photos:))

The Winner!

Well, Ez has had quite a year in cubscouts. Last year about this time he won the grand prize in their annual Father/Son cake decorating competition, and now this--the top dog of them all--the Pinewood Derby. His car (the creation of which was heavily assisted by Dad and Levi) was named "T-Bone". It wasn't all that pretty, but it was fast!




This was his reaction to the final race.




Second and Third were his two closest friends. (This shows 1st, 3rd, 2nd.)

I'm so glad everyone was home for the big event--we had a blast!

New Year's Eve 2006

As I've said, New Year's Eve is a party at our house. The photos here are actually of both our party and one that we attended at some friends' before the 9:30 start of the one here. Mal and Lisa danced at both and our friends had the pig and other island food where ours was hors d'oeuvres (or whatever people wanted to bring). Mal caught the cool pictures of firworks lighting up the night. I don't think I've ever seen such a big fireworks display from the houses we can see from here as there was this year! Ours also included the hillbilly band, complete with the washtub bass that Casey and Levi made.

More Christmas Pics

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

We're having a party of course! We often celebrate New Year's Eve here at home with our family and friends. Our house sits fairly high up on a hill with two big picture windows that look out onto the deck, so it's ideal for shooting off fireworks at midnight. Many people here like to go to the top of Mount Tapochau to see the fireworks shot from the hotels, which is fairly convenient from here also.

Because New Year's Eve is a Sunday this year we'll be a little more structured--not quite as much of a free-for-all as usual--until the clock strikes 12 that is!

I don't usually ask questions here, but I'd be interested to hear if you have favorite yearly traditions or if you just go to bed.

What do you do on New Year's Eve?

Hey! For Unto Us A Child Is BORN!

Christmas Eve 2006--

While visions of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" danced in our heads, we had our annual family Christmas re-enactment of the beautiful words of Luke 2. In an effort at increased reverence, I had suggested that we were all getting a little too old for "acting out" the Nativity story this year and maybe we should just take turns reading it. I'm so glad that idea was promptly nixed and the play proceeded as usual. In fact, better than usual--Mary (Kait) was a beautiful and dignified sight, even with a towel on her head, as she tenderly laid the baby (an old ratty-haired doll) in the manger. There weren't the number of animals in stable there used to be, but Dad still willingly bears the donkey's burden (type-casting?). Joseph (Ez) and the shepherd (Jake) do their parts admirably, and the rest of us (I usually read the story) thoroughly enjoyed it all. Best of all, the exhuberant angel reminded us of the joyous news that was published that night when Peace was born on Earth.

Blog Recycling

Since Blogger Beta is no more and we're all changing over to the new features, I decided that it was time for new paper in the bloggingroom. I hadn't really thought of using Lindsay's old template, but when I was looking through, the name caught my eye. "Harbor." I liked that idea. So since it also fit in well with our real life and nobody I knew was currently using it, I put it up. Does "Reduce, reuse, recycle" go for cyberspace?
The "Benchmark" picture I added for myself. I have found it difficult to reference my memories with no seasons, so I'm giving myself a little help. Now, if I can just remember to change the picture....

This is a test...this is only a test...

Watch Sam do a little break dancing here or here.

And Kait taking Eden for a turn on a new bike (back in August--she rides just fine all by herself now).

The "T"

Ez, Ezra T-bone, Ezra T-bone Willy. He actually argued with us once about his middle name--I guess we'd confused him a little. :) "Any way you say it, it means happy birthday to you!"

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Our life has had dramatic and unexpected changes this week. For many years we have homeschooled our children off and on...mostly on.... We're not the super-achiever homeschoolers you read about sometimes, but just the quite ordinary variety. We struggle with motivation, math, motivation, attitudes, motivation. We've been very blessed living here with families that have moved in over the past 3 years that have added to our number and we've had a small but effective, close-knit homeschool group.

Last week, the husband of one of our homeschool moms was hired as the academic director at a new-this-year private boarding school here on island. The school's target market is Korea, China, and Japan--"send your children here and they'll receive an American-style education as well as immersion in the English language and still be close to home." The problem was that they wanted a core of native-English speaking teachers and students and they didn't have any. They had a few island kids who speak English, but it's kind of a pidgin English.

At any rate, Dr. Brown (the new academic director), called last weekend and asked if I would be interested in sending my children there for school (it's K through 6 right now, but potentially through 8). He said that he could make an arrangement where I would work part-time in the office in exchange for their tuition. I would never have to be there when my children weren't there, and it would be great if we could start ASAP.

Casey and I discussed it and thought that it might be a wonderful experience for the kids, so here we are! We started Thursday--me (in the office from 11-3:15), and the three youngest in school. They're expecting 100+ Chinese and Korean students beginning in January, but right now there are only 20 students.

Eden's first-grade class began the day she did and includes her American friends from church! The only "new" person was the teacher! She's having a ball and probably feels like she gets to go to Primary every day.

Ezra's third-grade class consists of him, the director's son, and a Korean boy. Their teacher is a very sweet Japanese lady--on our first meeting she commented that his math was "weak". I agreed and said that was true of our family in general (I didn't mention that I don't worry about math too much until they get older:) She smiled and said to me, very intensely and quietly, "Oh, but I love math and I want Ezra to love math, too!" If she could give him that it would be a wonderful gift. I asked Ezra how his first day went and he said, "ok". Typical Ezra-answer. He did finally allow that, "I guess I would have to say it was good."

Kait's experience was somewhat different. Before we actually began, she had asked if we could just try it...if we didn't like it could we quit? I assured her that if it didn't work for our family we would quit, but we could not quit over a bad day or a difficult assignment. She is in 5th grade and there are (counting her) three girls and three boys in her class. She is the only American and the others are Korean boarding students. After her first day, she was practically gushing. "Oh, Mom! They're so nice! Every classmate was sooo good to me... and so helpful!" She says that her teacher (American) is "brilliant at explaining."

The first night, they had so much homework that I was wondering if this was going to work. I'm not a big homework fan and have been known to send in notes to teachers requesting they excuse my children for not completing a homework assignment because we were having a family activity. I felt better when I found that there is a general school policy for no Friday homework and there are study halls built into the day in which they can complete their assignments. I can live with that.

Okay. So. How do Mom and Dad feel? Well, the first day that Mom came home from Seminary and found her little kids gone she got a little teary-eyed. Dad, on the other hand, said, "It was great! I got so much done!" We'll see how it goes after the fun of new school supplies, etc., wears off. . . .

Happy Birthday Alexa Aoibhe

On her 22nd birthday we gave her a star...

...to remind her who she is...

How Old ARE You Anyway?

Here's a test to determine your biological age (as opposed to your chronological age) that Mal sent to me. It's a pretty good motivator...I hope!

The Beautiful Kaitie-Lynn

As delicate as a butterfly...


She was Levi's 14th birthday present! Sweet, smart, capable, creative, awesome...oh, AND 11! Happy Birthday Suzie:)

...And Levi, too!

Yes, it's that month of months in our household when birthdays come by the week instead of the year! Can it be that our firstborn is 25??!!! Why, yesterday he was running through the sprinklers in his undies pretending to be "He-Man"... and what better way to celebrate?
Levi, we knew from the moment we first saw you that our lives would never be the same--we just didn't know how far you would go to make sure of that! You're our star...we love you forever.

Thinks at 3 A.M.

Life is sooo different than what I had expected. Especially now, living here...I think I'm becoming unconnected with the familiar. Today my baby said, "What are those skinny things that go down mountains?" "Uhhhh...rivers? streams?" "Yeah, streams." And from Kait: "On mountains they use snow-skates." "Skiis." "Yeah, skiis." Weird. They don't know snow or cold or streams, ponds, or lakes. They don't know bluebirds or spring... or autumn... ouch.

But they do know sunsets and tradewinds and ice kekis and flametrees. They know turquoise lagoons and white sands and brown people and things that I didn't know. I love the variety of life and generations and experiences, but I miss what I don't have and what they don't have. Luckily, they don't.

Happy Birthday Malie-Moe!

It's the lips! And all from our newest post-teen (and friends). Happy 20th sweetie--we all love you!
A photo-op with the group Rockapella.

Dressed and ready to dance!