A long awaited update

Ahh, the joys of being in Alaska. We just had an earthquake at 11pm on Friday Sept. 30th. While everyone is in bed and I am working on balancing our budget, the earthquake somehow reminded me that, hey, I need to update the blog because people need to know that earthquakes are just part of life here.
So we've had a couple mid-major quakes in only 3 months since our return. No damage so far, thank God.

Last night, Anastasia and I were on our deck around 9pm. We were seeing how much water our well would pump into a bucket (more on that later), when I said, "Oh, there's that cow moose that has been around." A mama moose was just eating some dead trees that we cut down earlier in the summer. Just hanging out. No big deal. She has been seen in the neighborhood several times with her twins and her bull mate. Very exciting and dangerous times (danger level is a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10).

So here's a brief update on our lives since whenever we last posted, starting from the youngest to the oldest:
Emma is 9 months and will be 10 months tomorrow (Oct. 1). Yesterday she started walking for the first time on her own. I told her I would be very disappointed if she didn't walk at 9 months like her siblings. So she stood up, clapped her hands, and staggered forward a few steps. I got it on video, which I hope to post sometime in the future. She is also adept at climbing stairs, playing peek-a-boo, and reorganizing our videos and dvds. She also screams like Luke used to when we put her in her crib, fulfilling the curse that Fr. Gabriel from St. Tikhon's proclaimed shortly before (or after?) her birth: "Maybe since Hannah was the anti-Luke, Emma will be the uber-Luke." Remind me to thank him for that.

Hannah: 2.5 years old and cute as a button, smart as the dickens, and fiercely independent. Her vocabulary is great, though her diction is poor. No problem. I love it when she says, "Get tuss Ukey" ("Get tough Lukey"). She misses her Godparents dearly (they are now in Wichita), but loves her Yaya's house so much she wants to go there even when it's not time for Yaya to babysit. She also looks, acts, talks, and plays just like our God-daughter Sloan (now 7 yrs. old). It's a bit frightening that the resemblance is closer than most sisters.

Luke: Has been in preschool for a month and apparently is ready to drop out because he "hates all the projects!" I blame the teacher. He just wants to go to kindergarten "next week" (we tell him, "Next year you'll go to Aunt Betsy's kindergarten class; next week you'll go to preschool"). He also will start tumbling classes soon and maybe swim lessons. He loves Christian ed on Wednesday nights, and is enjoying his time with his buddies Noah, Oscar, and Solomon, but misses Nonna and his friend Losha from seminary.

Anastasia: Teaching Luke's preschool class. Hehehe. Apparently not willing to budge on doing projects. Enjoying her 3 mornings a week at preschool, and is staying very busy with various things at the church, while normally dragging two or three kids behind her. She looooooooved mowing the church lawn in August and September. She also misses Nonna, Nonna's mama, and Hannah's Godparents.

Dn. Matthew: Working with the youth group - don't ask how that's going, cuz I don't know. I seriously have no way to judge it. Ask one of the kids. I'm also running the bookstore, which is going well enough. The State Fair is over, so I'm not staying up til midnight every night anymore waiting for the nightly deposit. I'm working at AlaskaUSA Mortgage Company as a Loan Originator Assistant (now's a great time to refinance people! I get a referral fee and a bonus if your loan closes! Seriously, rates are at historic lows. Call me!). Working two part time jobs amounts to working two full-time jobs but in half the time. However, I enjoy both my work at the church and the mortgage company, and am thankful that I am not worried (much) about my thesis anymore, though I hope to get it self-published sometime in the future. I'm also getting whooped at fantasy football (a sure lesson in humility), and am learning how to be a deacon. Serving liturgy is the easy part (more or less); it's serving people that is more difficult. Fortunately, I have several great deacons around me to help teach me. I miss Hannah's Godparents, Nonna's parents, and Seraphima's parents very much.

Fr. Sergius was up for the ERI Aug 1-5 (www.stjohnalaska.org/eagleriverinstitute) and gave amazing lectures. Then came Summer Camp Aug. 7-12, then the State Fair Aug. 25-Sept. 5. So things are just starting to settle down, and not a moment too soon!

Email me for our new address and phone number if you need it.