Forgot to follow up

Life goes on so fast that we never seem to be able to get everything done that we want to. I never followed up to my last blog, so I thought I'd share a little. My test results are back and I have Crohns Disease. It is localized to one main area, which I think is good. I got a small lecture about not ignoring my body because it is evident that this has been going on for some time....but in my defense I was told years ago that I had IBS...so I just figured that that was the issues. When you are told something by a doctor..that makes sense..you sort of just take it with out question. So anyway, I have been put on medication and I have a follow up on Monday. He was concerned about my liver results...I guess enzyme levels for a woman my age should be around 19...mine were 217!! Yikes! But for the most part I am feeling better... I am trying to deal the best I can and go on with life.
Some of you may know about Adams skateboarding accident. We took the kids to the skate park here on base...Ayden was wanting to learn from his Dad...and with the Koehler luck, Adam lost his board coming down one of the ramps. He snapped the inside part of the bone by his wrist. The way it broke it was pulling down on the bones in his hand...so long story short he ended up with a plate and seven screws holding him together! He is counting down to getting his cast off on the 3rd of Sept,..and so am I! I now he will be out there again...he wants to make sure Ayden isn't afraid to get back out there.
All the kids are back in school, they started on the 19th of August here..which is way early compared to most people we know. I was glad when they went back...this was the first summer in many years where I was working. It was an adjustment for all of us..but they were really bored!! Things are just so different here... you have wildlife and other things to always be on the lookout for, that I wasn't comfortable with them being out and running around while I was at work...so they were REALLY bored! ;oD But they survived and I think it helped them appreciate each other (or I could just be doing some wishful thinking!)

The latest news

Well we all had great times that we will cherish while my mom was here. Unfortunately I ended up in the hospital the last days she was here. You all know about my gastrointestinal issues, and I thought that that was all it was...but there may be more. They are diagnosing me with colitis, but I have to go back in on Monday for a colonoscopy to rule out Crohns Disease or Ulcerative Colitis...neither would be a good thing to have. The CT scan they did showed a thickeneing of my colon walls, which is why they want to do the colonoscopy. Any takers for taking my place??!! I will let you know how things go! Love to all!

Grandma is here!!!

I haven't blogged in such a long time...but this is worth blogging about. My mom finally made it here for a visit, and the timing for Aydens birthday made it perfect. We have spent the week showing her just about everything that Alaska has to offer. We took her down to Seward and had a fresh seafood lunch and some breath-taking scenery. Stopped at Aleska/Girdwood along the way. We took her to the zoo and did a little antiquing one day. Than we spent the last two days headed up to North Pole to see Santa in his village and stayed with long time friends the Sommers. You know that they are truly great friends when years can pass between visits and you can pick up like no time has ever passed! Misty has always been like a sister to me, and I love her family dearly. We brought her daughter back to Anchorage with us, Autumn and Alli act like they have spent their whole lives together...but they have really only known each other months. Kids are great that way though...instant BFF's!
Mom and I have lunch plans with Beth tomorrow, and then sadly she is supposed to leave early Saturday. It has been the longest year... I am not sure how I am going to cope saying good-bye again!

Getting Frustrated

I am sitting here a work on my lunch break and I am tying to fight back the tears of frustration. I just go off the phone with Wayland (my school) and found out that they changed the days for CLEP testing. They are now on Tue,Wed, And Thurs..not Fridays, which is my off. They are offering classes a shortned session starting the first part of July...which would be two nights a week, but I already dont see much of the kids. Ayden and Autumn both want to sign up for soccer...if I haven't missed the deadline. Why can't life just be easy for a while??!! I am hating where we are... and desperately wanting my life I left behind in Idaho!@!

Austins First Car

Well..it's official!! Austin bought his first car yesterday! It is a '87 Subaru Gl, black with two doors. It is in amazing condition for being 22 years old and an Alaskan vehicle. It has some rust around the wheel wells...but it a perfect first car! The inside is amazingly clean, and he is on cloud 9! We were telling him that this would be a great car to have for the next two years...then when/if he joins the military, he could sell it for a few hundred bucks and be set. He can get a newer one once he is in a dorm or something. That is the plan for now....now he just has to get a licence...but I think it will be better to learn in his own car than us using our cars! ;oD

Pictures from our trip to Seward

We went down to Seward last weekend and ended up at the aquarium. It was very nice, and offered a lot of education besides just looking at the animals. Of course...my family was being my family. I swear I have one of the goofiest families, but I would't trade them for anything!!

Baby girl is sick

We had been fighting what we thought was a chest cold for about a week and a half, but Autumn was getting croupier and croupier. I got and appointment for her and found my suspicions were correct...she has pneumonia. I knew as soon as I saw her xrays. She has consolidated pneumonia in both lungs, but more so in her right side. She is on an antibiotic, but not the doctors first choice...but she is allergic to so many antibiotics. We seems to be responding well to the meds, and finally able to get some of the gunk out...and keeping the fever down. We will go back for a follow-up xray in 30 days unless she needs to go back on before then. We will keep you posted. Love to all!!

Wow...did I let the ball slip on this. Life has been so busy and I apologize for not keeping up with this. Baseball is back in season and Ayden has been doing some pitching during practice. He is so excited!!So our Monday and Wednesday evenings are full. The kids only have three weeks of school left...then come a season of "I'm Bored!!" he he!jk!
About a week ago a friend and I took the kids to North Pole,AK and went to see Santa's Workshop. The drive was about six hours, but we left early in the morning and it was a peaceful drive. We spent the night with my old friends the Sommers..so great to see them again. Ayden wanted to look up his friend Wyatt, but there really wasn't any time. We will definitely go up there again soon, and we will look them up
then.
I took a permanent position with Liberty Tax... I am the manager for the summer and in charge of three stores!! Whew! Talk about keeping you busy! I am also still in school, but finals are next week. I am not enrolled over he summer, but I do plan on CLEPing some classes. That should help keep me busy and out of trouble!!
The weather has been gorgeous this last week. It has actually gotten above 70!! Blue skies and a slight breeze...perfect!!

The Koehler kids have always been create when it comes to driving me crazy...but here they decided to make a "Music Video" to Avril Lavigne's "when you're gone".....this is an insight to the insanity I live with everyday ;oD They did this with my camera and added the music, so the words don't always match the lips...but too funny not to share! Let me know what you think!! I think I need to get these kids into a theatre group!!!

Mt. Redoubt

Mount Redoubt is a volcano located about 100 mile from Anchorage. Starting back in January it began to rumble and groan. We were put on alert and waited...and waited. Last week everything we had been waiting for happened. History shows that this is a very unpredictable volcano and that lst time it erupted it was active for five months!!! So far this week it has erupted roughly 20 times and has sent ash 65,000 ft. We are currently all tucked inside due to ash fall here in Anchorage, but it is the first ash we have seen. We have been fortunate so far and it has all blown elsewhere due to wind patterns. It is a small trace so far, and sort of exciting. I have attached some pic's from our news site...these are pretty cool! Enjoy!!! The top one is from the eruption at 1:40am this morning...lightening stuck in the ash plume!!! AWESOME!!

Behind the times...

I have to apologize for falling behind on the blog. Things have been so crazy here. I started my class last week, and am waiting to see my grade on my first assignment. The whole juggling school,work, and mom thing is a little more stressful than I was thinking. People are going to have to learn to adjust and be flexible around here.
The other night I was dreaming tax prep and looking where to put a certain bible verse into the file....yeah..I need to watch what eat/drink before bed. I actually haven't sleep good all week. Monday was one of those days where everything that could go wrong, did. Before I headed off to work, Adam made a comment about us getting robbed...great, lets plant that worry in my head. Tuesday was class, and that night I dreamt about getting robbed at work and got woke up because I was screaming in my sleep. Ghee, wonder why that happened!! Thanks honey! Wednesday night, our boiler that heats the house broke. Waking up to a freezing house is horrible. They managed to get that fixed by late morning but it took all day yesterday to get the housed warmed back up.
The kiddos are all doing fine. They start their spring break today after school. Since I am not working tonight, I thought that we could go do something fun. The younger two want to go swimming, but the thought of getting in a swimsuit is not that appealing to me. Speaking of swimming...Autumn went to a birthday party about a week ago. My first time at the pool here...very nice...but I was surprised at my daughter. We knew she has grown (we had to get new pants since she was literally popping to buttons on her old ones), but my twiggy girl is no more. She is getting the fluffies that kids usually get before they spout up again, but it looked so much worse because her swimsuit was too small. She has gone from a 6 slim to an 8 in a few months!!! I found an adorable "Speedo" suit at Costco, got seven, and had to exchange for the eight. Poor Ayden is the only one not getting bigger right now!! Austin is just shy of 6'2", Autumn is getting bigger in every way (taller/wider), but poor Bubby is stuck! I know his time will come...and then watch out! We are already gearing up for Baseball with him. Not sure how it goes up here...we still have snow up to my thigh...do we play in the snow?!! I'll let you know how that goes!

When I got home last night from work, Adam had taken the kids sledding. I thought I'd share some pictures.

Valentines Day

Adam and I went out on Friday night to celebrate Valentines Day so that we wouldn't be fighting crowds, and I think many others had the same plans. We pulled into Applebees and the parking lot was so full that there wasn't even one spot left. We decided to do good old Mc D's because I wasn't that hungry and we had a movie to get to. I was just as happy with my fries and McFlurry! ;o)
I woke up Valentines Day to breakfast in bed (French toast and bacon..just like I had jokingly asked for) and a new diamond ring!!! Adam did very well this year!!It is white gold with five small diamonds, one for each of us. It is 1/3 cwt. Nice!!Papa sent Autumn a special Valentine this year. She received a sterling silver necklace with an "A" on it, along with some earrings that are Mother of Pearl. I think Autumn and I scored again this year!!
Adam took Ayden snowboarding during the day. He finally had all of his work turned in at school, so they tried a new ski resort. This one is off base and across town. Ayden loved it because there is more stuff to do tricks on. He is now doing the half pipe and grinding on tabletops and such. As Mommy I just can't watch!!I am very proud of him though ;o)!!

Getting caught up

Don't worry, I haven't fell off the Earth and the volcano still hasn't erupted yet! We have just been so busy that I haven't had time to blog...so I will try to get you all caught up. Work is going well...very busy! I still enjoy it, but there are days when I get home that I feel like I have been hit by a truck! Who knew putting numbers into a computer would leave you so drained?!! ;o)
I also got Austin a job where I work. We have people in a Liberty costume out waving to people driving by. I thought it would be a great job for him!! And although it gets cold, he seems to be doing alright. I would of killed for a job that pays $9/hr when I was sixteen!!! I remember that I was his age when minimum wage got raised to $5/hr!!! I was waiting tables for $1.80 hour plus tips....I made good money because of the tips, but to think about the hourly wage is crazy!!!
Autumn and Ayden are both doing well. Ayden is turning into quite the snowboarder. Last weekend, he was brave enough to try the half-pipe and grinded on a table top!! I can't watch..the mommy in me wants to have a heart attack!! He is so much like his daddy this way!!
Adam just tested for Master Sgt, so I guess in a few months we will see how that went. He is also joining me at Wayland Baptist to finish his degree! Yeah!! The younger two think it is so great that mommy and daddy are going to school also.
I went on an interview yesterday for a city job for the summer. It is for a Recreation Leader through Parks and Rec. I would be supervising a day-camp that revolves around an environmental curriculum. They call it Wetlands, Wildlands, and Woodlands. It sounds fun and could open some doors for a more permanent city job. I should know for sure in a month..they told me that if I haven't heard anything by that time to call them and got the wink-wink. So I am sure things went really well. They were impressed with my experience working with kids (last four years of work/coaching soccer/coaching cheer leading/girl scouts).
Well, I think you all are caught up on the Koehler household lately.

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!

16 years ago today, I gave birth to a big footed baby boy that has now grown into a 6'1" big footed young man!!! I had him convinced that I had a singing telegram bringing him Elmo balloons to school today. He even threatened skipping school today...but I let him stay home yesterday after his doctors appointment. We also took him to good old Wells Fargo and set him up with a checking/savings. He is always wanting money and this way he will learn something also. Adam and I want him to be able to balance a checkbook and all that before he gets out into the "real world". I also got him a job where I work as a waver. He will be one of the people who stand out on the corner in costume and wave a sign around. I think that is a pretty good job for a sixteen year old. He gets to listen to his music and act goofy! I will post pictures when I can of this!!!
On other news, we are waiting for a volcano to erupt! We have had a few earthquakes (5.7) and seem to be sitting and waiting. They are advising us to get respirator masks. The volcano is 100 miles from Anchorage, butt when it comes to volcano's....100 miles isn't that far. We will let you know when things happen!!!

Friday News

Yesterday was a happening day at the Koehler household. It was Autumns turn to be awarded a "Soaring Eagle Award". She brought the announcement home on Wednesday and became very bummed when I told her I couldn't make it. Friday was my first day at work at Liberty tax. Adam had the "day" off on Friday so he was able to make the ceremony and see her get her award. I went from sad about not being able to see it, to really bummed by her reaction to having Daddy be there. Somehow it didn't matter at all if I wasn't there or not. She did demand that Dad bring his camera and take pictures so I can see.
Adam had the "day" off like I said because he had the 10pm-4am shift in the dorms. He had what I call babysitting duty. This always throws his schedule off, so he is planning to sleep until noon today...
Yesterday was my first day working as a licensed tax preparer. I took my test this week, which covers the basics we did in class. The questions throw on additional information, or tricks you if you don't read carefully. You have 4 hours to take the test and you can use your books. I was finished in twenty minutes and passed with a 87%. I was so mad at the questions I did miss because it was the reading errors and missing trick words like "only". You have four attemts to pass so I tried again, but sadly did worse because I started to second guess myself..... so I stuck with the 87!
When I got to work yesterday,which was 15 minutes early, there were people outside waiting already! Lee ,my boss and the store owner, told me to go ahead and turn the "open" sign on and start making coffee. Before I could get the coffee done our waiting room was full. I was so nervous I just wanted to throw up!!! I did kind of stumbled through the first one and Jamie our assist manager came in to help, and she did it finessly to make it look like I knew what I was doing...and after that things went well. I did ten returns in eight hours, which was the most out of everyone there. One was mine so Lee was teasing that it doesn't count....but it was one of the hardest because of all the state returns. Mine was Idaho and Adam is still California....for now! Then because we bought the Ford, I chose to itemize and get the sales tax on it and write off the mortgage interest we paid on the house.

The Low Down

So the weather around here has been absolutely crazy. We have had a change in degrees by about 60!! We were at -26 and above 40 today...and the change is only in a few days. So, because of this, we have had some if the worst weather I have been in. It started out as freezing rain and create a havoc on the driving conditions Wednesday. It was a total shut down everywhere. The Glenn highway was so bad they had people landing on top of each other when they slid into the ditch! They closed all the schools in the valley, had to stop city bus transportation because the buses were sliding of the roads.Some of the roads here remind me of San Fran becaus eof the hills and twist. They closed both Elmendorf and Ft. Rich...completely shut down! By the time I got hime from class...yes, I still trecked out to class...I guess they were starting to give tickets to those who were out driving around on base. Absolutely CRAZY! And just when you think it can't get any worse, the winds kick up. The wind gust were up to 105 mph!!!! They closed the schools again today because now all the water on top of the ice is horrible and the winds knocked out power all over the place...there were 90 accidents and 178 slide offs on Wednesday. I need to watch the news tonight and see what the damage was today!! They are saying that the temps are dropping and will be below freezing again by Saturday, so all the wet will be frozen and no amound of sand/gravel is going to help. I need to buy some of the things that you out on the bottom of your shoes that are for walking on ice.....they seem to be a staple right now. Those and some of the rubber boots yousee kids were with their raincoat....everyone else int he family already has theirs, I just want some cute one!;o)
And for those of you who don't know what class I am talking about. I signed up through Liberty Tax to take a "tax class" to become a tax preparer. It is quite an eye opener..I dream tax laws now! he he! I am the only one in my class that was offered a job after only two days! I seem to be his favorite..or as he calls me.."his star". So I fininsh this class tomorrow and start work Saturday...I have a few weeks to get into the groove before I start my college class in Feb. Hopefully I am smart enough to do them both!!
The kids and Adam are all doing well...they are enjoying the time at home, and wanting tomorrow off to. I just laugh..they have Monday off also for MLK. Nothing like a six day weekend if it happens!! ;o)

Here's to the start of 2009

I have been so busy that I haven't had much time to blog lately. I wanted to get you all up-to-date on the goings on at the Koehler House. The New Year has been a very cold one so far, in fact it hasn't even reached 0 degrees yet. Today has been the coldest by starting out at -26...how do you say "BRRRR"? Adam has had a bit of trouble with the Suzuki and it not wanting to start, we ended up having to get a new battery and now he plays musical cars in the morning. He parks the Suzi in the garage and mine gets plugged in and sits in the driveway. Before we go through this again next year, we will invest in a really nice autostart!!!
We also had a bit of sad news, Austins friend Katy lost her mom suddenly over the weekend. She is saying she is fine...but I know she isn't. I can't imagine losing my mom at 14...Her mom has been sick for a while but we thought it was a flu or something along those lines. She apparently passed out and they called the paramedics, she just never came through. They are waiting for autopsy results to know what happened....it just makes me so sad!! And it makes me appreciate life....
Here is some good news....I know you needs some after that!! I am feeling a lot better lately and got some "good news" from my neurologist. After all the testing and poking he is ruling that I do NOT have Multiple Sclerosis! I am migrainal...which means I have migraines and they are probably progressing and changing, but I am glad that I don't have to continue treatment for a disease I don't have!! He still has another test for me to take...something about water being squirted into my ears...doesn't that just sound like so much fun?!! Not!
We hope this finds you all in good health and happiness, and hope to hear how you are doing!!