How You Know Your Living in the U.P.

You know your a yooper when . . . the day before deer season opens (saturday), standing outside on a ladder painting trim on the house, and you feel like your in a war zone because of all the gun fire. Now this isn't just people "sighting" their guns, or there would be more than just a single shot from the same location. There were single shots every 10 -15 minutes from different places all around me. We live on a hill and have well over a mile view to the south, and the shots were singular and from various distances from different directions. It was obvious that deer were dropping . . . a day early. Standing outside painting on saturday morning, and I felt like I was in the middle of a combat zone, I have to say was an interesting experience. No buck has a chance from here to Milwaukee. I was just hoping that everyone was a good shot and that no stray bullets would make their way to the house. You also know your a yooper in deer season when you go to a school to see some kids for O.T. (Baraga School) and it's closed for the "holiday" (opening of deer season). Oh boy. So with the free 1/2 hour I had before my next appointment . . . I fished. I was going to take the tackle box and pole out of the trunk of my car, but with these decent days, they are still there. In the U.P. I don't think your considered a real man unless you hunt and fish. Hey, at least I have 1 of 2, right?

Late Halloween Post

Here is a picture of Bella at Grandma's house before we went out trick-or-treating. Ruby shoes and all. We went Friday night, the 3oth, to downtown Houghton to walk around with the community trick-or-treating to the businesses and had a riot. The local paper had a photographer taking pictures of all the costumes, and when we walked by he snapped a picture and said that Breanna's costume was "the best I've seen all night". She is so funny. The week I was in Chicago, the family watched the Wizard of Oz and I guess Breanna was glued to her chair for the entire movie. She has since watched the Wizard of Oz certainly 20 times, maybe more. The first time someone asked her what she was going to be for Halloween, her response was exactly this "I'm going to be Dorothy Gale, from Kansas". Now how does a 2 year old know Dorothy's last name and where she's from? I guess it comes from multiple viewings of her favorite movie, especially when Glenda, the good witch is asking if Dorothy is a good witch, or a bad witch. I have had Wizard of Oz songs stuck in my head for over a month. All day long I'm humming or singing a different show tune from the movie. I have to listen to other music in order for it to go away. Sometime soon, I even might need medicine to "make the songs stop". I suppose there is worse things to have stuck in my head, that is for sure.

We have been relatively healthy. They have at one point closed most of the local schools for a few days related to the virus. Everyone in the family has now had the vaccine so hopefully we will be spared from the dreaded H1N1. Kameron caught pneumonia after a soccer game in which he stood in the snow/rain mix for an hour. He plays defense, and his team seems to always be on offense, so he stood in the freezing precip for an hour. Every once in a while the ball will come to him, just past mid-field, he'll kick the ball almost up and into the other goal and again, he stands waiting for the ball to come back to him. It isn't too often the ball will get by Kam. Sure enough though, he had pneumonia several days later, and he is just now clearing the rest of the crud out of his lungs and sinuses. Breanna had an ear infection at the same time, but nothing too major. Kellen has been the healthiest one among us and has been spared anything at all. Not even a sniffle (better knock on wood for that one).

The weather has been really weird. While the rest of the country is getting pounded by snow and freezing temps, we have been having the greatest Indian Summer I can ever remember in the 7 years of being in the U.P. Last Saturday, we were in the mid 60's and without a breeze it sure felt like 70. We got a lot of work done saturday in preparing for the pending winter. My feet were killing me Sunday and Monday. Just now getting over the 15 hours of chores on my feet Saturday. I know . . . poor, poor jonny! There still is a lot left to do before winter finally takes hold. I hope that we can get it all done. I would love to get the canoe out one more time before it is too cold and do some northern pike/muskie fishing, but taking the time away from all that needs to be done makes it difficult to justify the play. All work and no play makes for a very dull day. . . . indeed.

Autism

"I wish I could share the joy of being alone with someone else"

More sparkler art from the campfire out in the yard. When you try to write your name with a sparkler and a delayed shutter on the camera, you have to write your name backwards and from right to left. Quite the task for anyone with praxis issues.

Speaking of Dyspraxia, I'm currently in Chicago at the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation's International Symposium. It has been unbelievable. All the "giants" of Sensory Integration theory/Sensory Processing are here. In fact I was able to speak with one of the lecturers at the end of today's lectures who studied with Jean Ayers, the pioneer of Sensory Integration/Sensory Processing Disorders in the '60s. I was standing in line purchasing "The Out-of-Sync Child" (because I gave my copy away to a parent to read a long time ago and never had it returned), and some lady walks up to me and asks if I was buying that book and if I wanted her to sign it. It was Carol Stock Kranowitz the author. We had a great conversation while I was in line and I felt like I was talking to a rock star or something. After the conference this aftenoon, I was on the elevator back to my room when Carol and Dr. Sarah Schoen walked on with me. Carol introduced me to Dr. Schoen. I was impressed she remembered my name. I said something stupid, like "I feel like I'm riding an elevator with rock-stars or something" . . . they laughed. Dr. Barry Stein, Dr. Julia Wilbarger, Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, etc., etc., etc. are all here and I wish it was for more that 3 days. I am really excited to listen to Beth Osten who has worked with Stanley Greenspan, MD and is on the Advisory Board of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders. Dr. Greenspan is the founder of the "Floortime" technique for working with children with autism. I have a certificate of mastery in Floortime and is one of the primary techniques I use in treating all the children I have with autism. Can't WAIT for the lecture from Beth. I think what I'm most excited about is a lecture from Elliott Hedman, an MIT graduate student who has developed an ability to monitor electrodermal activity as it relates to the sympathetic nervous system (psychophysiological measure of fight or flight response). way, way cool stuff.

. . . yes, I know. Maybe even worse. Certainly, even worse. Funny how our priorities change as you grow-up.

We had our first hard-frost of the year last week. The colors are starting to peak now and it is a beautiful time of year. We have been having more camp fires out in the "pit" in our "side-yard" as a family. We love to look for satellites as they fly by and were fortunate enough to see the Space Shuttle fly directly overhead as it re-entered into our night sky as it was flying northeast on its way to California. It was a spectacular sight. The boys love fireworks of all kinds. They love to light them and especially hold bottle rockets in their hand as they fly away.

Life appears to pick-up the pace now that school has started again. I have 3 stops in the morning dropping kids off. I try to start early enough so that I'm not late for work, but it never seems to work out. With Boy Scouts and soccer and everything else going on we just seem to collapse at the end of the day, wishing the house would clean it self, the laundry would magically get done, and family home evening of games could be planned with baths, showers, and pajama time done with just a wiggle of the nose. I suppose it is no different for any other family.

I was really looking forward to the post-season of baseball this year. Detroit was in first place all year, since May 1oth, and then totally fell apart the last week of the season. Since they lost the one game playoff to Minnesota, I have to rely on the Twins to beat the Yankees now. How depressing. Well, at least we have the Red Wings, right? Then again, they blew it in the Stanley Cup against Pittsburg this year too, didn't they. We are looking forward to some Division I NCAA hockey this year at Michigan Tech. We have the top ranked teams at home this year and we will pack up the kids and get to the rink for some great hockey. Bella will have to cover her ears whenever Tech scores because of the intense noise from the crowd as well as the train horn that blows at ear busting levels. She has always been sensitive to sudden, loud noises and we have been saving her from the Tech Hockey because we don't want her to not like it because of the intensity of the game/noise. The Michigan Tech pep-band is a riot to listen to. They have some pretty funny chants to taunt the visiting team. Sometimes we feel like we need to cover the boys ears as the student section can become pretty rowdy, e.g., when the visiting team has their player come out of the penalty box, the P.A. announcer says "the Badgers return to full strength" and the entire student section (major portion of the arena) yell as loud as they can "and they still suck!" It is fun, regardless of the PG rating the Tech students will sometimes put on the game. We love D1 NCAA hockey.

It wont be too long before our fires out in the yard will come to an end as the pit will have many feet of snow on it. I love this time of year. Post-season baseball, college football, college hockey, NHL starting soon. The weather is cool and crisp. The colors are beautiful. The salmon are running to spawn. But the painting of the trim on the house needs to get finished, the garden needs to be turned over, etc., etc., etc. Too many things to enjoy and do and not enough time to do it all in. What's a guy to do?

We have had the best 2 weeks of weather we have had all year. The first entire week of September there was not even 1 cloud in the sky. 75 degrees, no humidity. Just clear, wonderful, deep blue Lake Superior days. This last week was the same, however the humidity creaped-up and took the "perfect" days away. Still in the mid 70's that felt even warmer with the moisture. The boys have started school this week, and Kellen LOVES 6th grade (first year of middle school). He has said that it's "great", "fun" and was disappointed when he had to stay home due to some complications related to his diabetes. Kellen disappointed he had to stay home from school. I NEVER thought those words would come from my finger tips! Kameron is now in elementary school by himself and has been such a great kid and member of our family. He tries so hard to please and make sure everyone is happy. He is such a delightful young man. What a great boy he is. Breanna . . . is Breanna. She is headlong into the 2's. It is always fun to see if you can re-direct her into thinking it is her idea to cooperate when she would rather be a 2 year old! What a challenge. Her personality is so strong. She is going to be some kind of leader of something. We are praying that she will be a leader of something good!

Today was the first day of driving all 3 kids to 3 different schools. Kameron was first to elementary school, Kellen was next at Middle School, then Anna at the pre-school where she goes for daycare. Today I get to pick them all up, pick-up some pizza's, then go home where we are having friends over for pizza and a fire out in the pit. Maybe some fireworks. I can't believe that Autumn is on the 22nd and summer will officially be over. Summer was much too quick. The kids are already picking out their holloween costumes which means the first snow isn't too far behind. Unbelievable. I'll need to get the canoe out atleast one more time to fish for some trophy Brook Trout. We have a lake very close from our home that has the Michigan state record for largest Brook Trout. Kameron still has a brook trout he caught from that lake still in our freezer waiting to be mounted for his wall in his bedroom. It is a beautiful fish. Not the state record, but certainly bigger than what you normally catch. We need to get out camping too. There is so much that needs to be done before the first snow, .e.g., paint the trim on the house, etc., etc.

Anyway, all is well here in the U.P. We are looking forward to maybe having some winter-time guests come for some winter-carnival fun. Hopefully some visitors will make their way east to see us! Just call . . .

This is all too funny. I joined Facebook around a month ago as a way to reach this boy that I'm seeing as a patient. He loves Farm Town, so I joined FB so that I can play Farm Town with him and become a good farming neighbor. Now all the sudden I'm able to communicate with friends that I haven't heard from in years as well as communicate and share things with family in a much too modern way. After grad school, I was so sick of the computer. I wanted to go back to pen and paper and never see an Excel Spreadsheet, Word Perfect document, or Power Point presentation the rest of my life! I thought email was way too impersonal, too easy. It lacked the effort that it requires to really show someone you care enough to actually sit down, write a letter, buy a stamp and find a mail-box to mail it in. Look at me now. A blog. A Facebook page. Communicating in seconds with colleagues that are at home. What's next? Treating children with Autism while sitting in the comforts of home? Technology is scary sometimes. FB is able to tell everyone everything anyone wants to know! I'm surprised that FB wasn't able to broadcast to everyone that I was bad and ate two rolled up pancakes with blackberry jam in the middle down in the hosptial cafeteria for breakfast this morning! Come-on. If you really want to impress me FB, I want to know when I'm going to bed tonight, if the Detroit Tigers are going to choke in the 9th inning against Seattle tonight, if Lance Armstrong is going to pull a hamstring in his next race, is Michael Phelps going to take any more bong-hits? Come-on, impress me. Because if you know everyone I know and everything I'm interested in, you should be able to answer just a few simple questions, right?

Hot Summer Days

HEAT WAVE!! Man, I tell you, these 85 to 90 degree days make me wish for winter. It has cooled down today to around 68 and that is just fine with me. Give me a dry, 75 degree day and I'll call it a perfect day. Throw in 85 degrees with high humidity and I'm ready for a trip to Alaska. We have gone to the beach the last few days for some family swimming in order to cool everyone off. The boys and I went out about 75 to 100 feet off shore to swim around and you didn't have to dive too deep to remember your swimming in Lake Superior. The top foot or so is relatively warm to swim in, but you try to dive to the bottom to pick up a rock, and it feels like your going to freeze. Great way to cool off on a hot summer day. The shallows are much warmer where Belle likes to sit and play with her shovel and bucket. She will hold on to my back while I swim out into the cooler water, and she wants to go back in to the warmer, shallow area.

It has been an odd summer up here. It has been cool all summer, without any hot streaks like the last week or so. It feels like summer just got here to tell you the truth, and summer is almost over. It is a strange feeling. The boys start school the day after Labor Day, and like I said, it feels like summer just got here. Even the trees are confused. In order for us to drive home from town, we have to drive through some woods. Some of these poor confused trees are already starting to change into the beautiful fall reds and yellows. It's way too early for that. We just started going to the beach this year! Next thing you know the poor salmon will start to run into the rivers early, dogs and cats will start living together, and we'll have chaos all over the north. What's a poor yooper to do?

I'm not complaining. I would much rather be cool than hot any day. With the southern, moist breezes it's been hard to cool the house at night. Everyone tends to gather down in the coolness of the basement at the end of the day. As I walk up the stairs with Breanna sleeping in my arms, with every step I feel the heat and the humidity rise; I want to turn right around and put her on the couch and let her sleep downstairs with the boys. But like I said, today was a nice cool down, with temps to rise again tomorrow to the mid-high 70's . . . perfect. It's funny to listen to yoopers complain about the heat. If they only knew how hot it can really get, like in say . . . Phoenix! I don't miss burning my hands on the steering wheel and I especially don't miss burning my thighs on the leather seats. I don't miss praying my air conditioner would blow cooler sooner than it did. What I do miss . . . friends.

Anna-Belle at the Beach

Great Northern Pike

Small Mouth Bass

Little Small Mouth with lighthouse in back-ground

Busy Summer Already

Here is a picture of Breanna at the Strawberry Fest Parade in Chassell, Michigan. All the kids surrounding her would pounce on the candy as it was thrown to the curb, but once she got the hang of it, she was able to hold her own against them. What a little dandy she is. She is developing such a personality and sometimes it is a challenge just to simply get her hair brushed in the morning, let alone, do another one of those non-preferred activities that can create quite the emotional outburst! All-in-all she is a wonderful little girl. Please. Thank-you, "sorry daddy" which gets me every time. Her mother is teaching her that all she has to do is say, "please favorite daddy" and then she is coached to bat her eyes, and she gets what-ever she wants. She loves her older brothers and uses them as her little play mates. Help up on the trampoline, ring-around-the-rosie mates, hide-n-seek mates, you name it, she can get them to do it. She will laugh and laugh with enjoyment while playing with them.

We were looking forward to having Uncle Richard and Uncle Trent come from out west for an fishingpallooza event like no other. But bad luck with health (flu) and unforeseen circumstances has canceled the event like a drummers bad elbow can cancel a show. We were really looking forward to the company way up here where visitors are very few and far between. Maybe a winter carnival can be planned that will include 80 mile snow-mobile trips, ice fishing, snow shoeing, or skiing. We'll have to wait and see.

With the time off this week that would have been spent with brothers and nephews and nieces, I'll have to get the family out on the lakes and do some fishing and camping without extended family. I'm looking forward to a little break from work and just relaxing with a fishing pole in my hands. Nothing could be better than watching bald-eagles skim the surface of a woods bound lake, no sound at all but the splash of a bird catching more fish than you. Man is it beautiful up here. I love it so much and I'm so happy to be up here, away from it all. When I want to engage with the big city events, I can just go to the big city and then come home to the "quiet-of-the-earth"

All is well with all of us. The boys are not looking forward to the end of summer vacation and wish the next 5 weeks would go slow as cold tar. Breanna has been going to day-care at the school districts pre-school since the end of June. There are some positives and some negatives about taking her out of the old day care but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. Hopefully she will get used to it and not be so tearful at drop-offs like she did at her old day care. Time has a way of changing us all.

Springtime Sun

On Friday (5/22) I had about 45 minutes to kill for lunch while I was in L'Anse, so I went down to the marina and fished for a while. On about the 5th or 6th cast, I caught my lunch! The pic doesn't seen to give the poor fish justice as he gave up quite the fight. As soon as I would pull him close to the rocks, he would take off again attempting to get back out in the deep water. After wearing the poor guy out I was able to pull him up on the rocks to take a quick picture. I had meetings the rest of the afternoon, so I very well couldn't keep him in the trunk of my car for the afternoon, so after a little fish CPR, he was able to swim back out into Keweenaw Bay to live another day. It is a small fish for Lake Superior, but it sure did fight bigger than what he is. I've been asking people, what fights harder, a Large Mouth Bass or Trout/Salmon? I think the yoopers are a little biased in their opinion and always say trout (walleye are pretty tough fighters too). I think if I were to ask someone from the south, they would say the bass. I love catching both. Uncle Richard & Uncle Trent are planning to come this Summer with their families and we hope to do a lot of camping and fishing this time around as we didn't have time to camp and fish last time they were here. Going out to Isle Royale with canoes for some huge lake trout would be great; as well as camp and canoe in some of the chain-of-lakes around here which have massive bass, pike, muskie, & walleye would be great to do too. We'll have to decide when they get here! Tough choices. Anyway, all is well. The boys will finish school June 8th and we will have them for 3 weeks before they go to their father's for 3 weeks. They will be back in time for the fishapalooza which they are very happy about. Nothing like having 2 boys always begging to go fishing everyday I come home from work!
The sun is out, the flowers are blooming, and spring has finally hit the UP! We need to take advantage of the sun and warmth as November will be here before we know it. Living in the UP, we have to have an appreciation for the Sun because of our relatively short spring and summer season! So go out and appreciate the sunshine where ever you are!

Gone Fishin'

4/20/09 Snow

We just about lost all of the snow with our beautiful spring, but it hasn't stopped snowing for 3 days and we have a new thick blanket of snow (suppose to receive 15" by the end of this) on the ground. The lakes have almost melted and was preparing for the steelhead run, but this puts a little damper on the trout fishing. It is suppose to be back up in the 60's by Thursday, so the snow will go quickly.

All is well up here in the great-white north. Anna is growing so quickly. She talks up a storm and acts much older than 26 months. It must be due to her older brothers and attempting to keep up with them. The boys are ready for spring. As much as they love the snow and playing outside, they want to ride their bikes and go play with their guns in the woods. Kellen bought a new air-soft hand gun. Kameron has his gun too, and they put their head-gear on and go out into the trees in the back yard and try to save the world from evil. They both are getting all A's and some B's on their report cards and are great boys. It is hard sometimes to remember that they are only 11 & 9 and that they can and should act that way. I certainly wasn't a saint when I was 11 & 9. We are excited for the summer months to come. Anna will be old enough to go camping, canoeing, and all the out-door activities that we love so much. We are looking forward to doing much more this year now that she is old enough to do more with us.

Hopefully it will warm up soon so that we can get the camping gear out and start the warm weather acitivities! Get outside and blow up your TV!

We had Anna-Belle's birthday on Monday and here is a picture with her new, indestructible DVD player that we gave her. We have bought 2 other portable DVD players for the car, but they always seem to get stepped on or juice poured over them, so we went with the industrial strength portable this time. We had a great time watching her blow out her candles, open her presents, and play with her brothers. We can't believe that she is 2. It doesn't seem possible that it has been two years since we were down in Marshfield, WI to have her. Days, weeks, months, and years just seem to slip away.

We have over 230 inches of snow this year, but last weeks warm up in the 40's melted much of what was on the ground into just a couple feet of snow. I was going to take the boys ice fishing next Friday, but without a couple weeks of teens or 20's I'm not sure about taking them out on the ice. Hopefully it will stay cold this week and next to build the ice back up. I would love to post some nice trout or salmon on the blog next friday. We'll see.

Kids out in the Snow

Well, they say that we have had 176.7 inches of snow so far this year!! I did some snow shoeing this last weekend and had a lot of fun watching the kids out in the snow. This week the Arctic blast has taken hold, but the insulating effect of Lake Superior only has our temperatures down to just below zero for highs and 10 to 15 below at night. Not too bad comparatively so . . . those farther inland from Lake Superior are 30 to 40 below zero at night (not including wind-chill). The lake provides us cooler temps in the summer and warmer temps in the winter. We have never had to have air conditioning in summer, just the cool breeze off the lake with the windows open have been all that we need.

We went sledding this last Saturday, Breanna's first sledding trip and I'm certain she had a blast as she didn't want to stop even though she was freezing. It seemed as though the faster we went, the better it was. So we graduated from the "kiddie" hill to the adult hill and flew down with the best of them. She loved it, as did I. The boys had a great time and Kameron had to go at it alone as we all went into the lodge for hot chocolate (Kellen's blood sugar went low, Margie Jo's fingers were cold, and Breanna's toes were freezing). He said that he made a friend with a sled that was just like his. I think Kameron would be able to stay outside all day no matter how cold as long as he was having fun. I have next Friday off and will be taking the boys ice fishing and I can't wait! It has been too long and I hope to bring home some fresh, ice-cold trout for dinner.

The nights have been clear without any clouds and the stars have been spectacular. The stars at night have always been amazing up here in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Without the cloud cover, the temps just seem to drop like a rock. It almost feels like being in outer-space. It is just so quiet and dark with nothing but the sound of your own breath. I love those moments at night, outside in the dark with nothing but the stars and the freezing air. It feels so good.

I'm looking forward to the time off next week for the long weekend. It will be great to spend some time alone with the boys, doing boys stuff. They love to ice-fish, and hopefully we will catch something to make the time out on the ice that much better.

New Year

I heard this morning on the radio that we have had 120 inches of snow this year all ready, and we are expected to have another 6 to 8 tonight into tomorrow. It has been fun to see the kids enjoy the snow so much. I'm taking the boys ice fishing up in Copper Harbor on the 23rd and I can't wait! With Breanna being so young last winter, it was hard to take some time and get out on the ice last year. This year, hopefully the boys and I will make up for it and do a lot of fishing this winter. Wouldn't you know, my next patient is here and I need to log off and go. If I take him early, I'll finish early! More later on the coming year.