Assorted pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Micali, Elijah, and the winter landscape. Enjoy. Our favorite is Micali climbing into Eli's crib which is temporarily in the kitchen/living room. She climbed up on the couch, then crossed the end table with a lamp on it, and crawled in beside him.

Passing of a great leader

For those who may not know, and those not of our faith, President Gordon Bitner Hinckley passed away last night of old age. He was 97. In the LDS faith we believe in modern revelation through a prophet of God. President Hinckley was the prophet and president of the church. It was not wholly unexpected but since he accomplished so much good in his life, it still is a loss. The following link has more details.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/

I'll keep you updated on the changes that will happen soon.

The loooonnnng week

Aside from having a new baby, Micali running a fever of 104, neither one sleeping well for the first few days, this week was going fairly well until Tuesday. To preface this new dilemma, let me explain the mail system up here in Alaska, at least where we live. Nobody has the mail delivered to their house, it all goes to the block or street corner with the metal conglomeration of boxes-all to be opened with a key. Now, when you first order your box, they, the illustrious postal service, provides you with two keys, one of which disappeared shortly upon finishing up the major fixing up of the house. Therein lies the problem. One key left. If you lose it, you pay a substantial amount to have your box rekeyed. The question then is where to keep this key. If it is on either of our keyrings, then we must turn off the car, not something you want to do at 10 below, in order to open the box. We have left it in center console of the main car we have been driving which was working well, until I decided to take a jog down to the mailbox early last week. Commonsense would dictate that I should return the key to the car upon arriving home, but since I thought I was on the cruise with my parents I ran down in just my pajama pants and a sweatshirt, so I was ready to go inside. Then, our loveseat, which doesn't love me nor let me sleep, reached up and, unbeknownst to me, swiped the key out of my pocket. Thus we could not open the mailbox all week. Luckily, I received some inspiration as to where the key was located and wrestled the loveseat for it back. I won. And we were blessed with a multitude of gifts inside. I had carried Micali down to the box because I figured it would just be mail, but the poor girl had to walk a portion of the trip back because my arms were full. How exciting...until I realized they were all for Micali and Elijah. Sheesh. I guess I really did fall that quickly down the totem pole. Moral of the story: Don't lose your mail key or sit on the couch with it in your pocket.

Elijah's first bath video

His bath was given by our male nurse-Jan-whose attention to detail during delivery, post-delivery, and at 3 in the morning is impeccable.

Please excuse the immodesty of Eli.

How mothers do it?

Well, since I haven't posted in about a week, let me explain my new insights on life. Number 1- I have a newfound respect for my own mother's ability to take care of four young children (all under 5 was it?), fix wholesome meals, keep the house clean, and do whatever else she needed to do. I took this week off of work to help Kristen recuperate and boy have I learned what it means to try to keep cleaning. It seems like an endless flow of dirty dishes, clothes, floors, etc. If anyone can explain how mom's get this done and still maintain their sanity, please share. I'll admit that I did have time to organize the cupboards, closets, and nap still, but it simply never stops. Especially at the first part of this week. On Sunday last, Micali came down with another fever (we believe due to her teeth that are slowly making headway) and was up almost the whole night or sleeping with daddy on the coach. Note: loveseats are fine and dandy for sitting on but do not make the most comfortable sleeping arrangements. Anyway, so I was trying to tend to her all night and for the next 3 nights while Kristen dutifully attended to Elijah in ways I cannot. The exhaustion for all four of us (Eli was less than estatic that the milk hadn't come in by that point) seemed to get more and more each day until we were finally able to get some solid hours of sleep.

Needless to say, I am impressed at those wonderful moms who make it look so easy. It has been wonderful being home with the whole family home this week. Thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes.

New Pictures

Coming Home

Elijah's birth pictures as a slide show

It's a boy!!

Kristen, Micali, and I would like to welcome the newest addition to our family-Elijah Lucas Peless. Since the meaning behind the name is a big deal to me, I will share the meaning behind Eli's name. (Kristen will most likely call him Eli for the rest of his life, I am undecided). Elijah meaning "The Lord is my God" or an alternate is "God is the highest" and Lucas, my personal favorite meaning, "Bearer of Light." So, Elijah has a strong heritage to live up to since there are some incredibly important people with his name have lived on this earth.

The baby stats:

Birth time: 5:14 p.m.
Birth date: January 18, 2008
Birth Weight: 7 lbs. 11 oz.
Birth length: 20 1/2 inches
head circumference: 14 inches
Sex: Male
Parents: Lucas and Kristen Peless
Siblings: Micali Rebecca Peless (who still isn't too sure about this baby thing)
Hair color: Technically listed as auburn though it looks brown like Micali's was with a hint of red in it.
Length of delivery: Kristen called me at school at 1:00, I made it home at 1:30, we had a doctor's appointment already at 2:30 so we went to that, she was dilated to a 6 or 7 by that point so we went to the hospital. By 4:00 p.m we were in the room, I went to the cafeteria at 4:20 to get some food, the doctor was paged to come quickly at 4:40, and Kristen delivered, drug-free, at 5:14. Is this girl amazing or what? I know she's my hero.

Both mom and baby are doing well. I am home with Micali so she can nap. She stayed the night at some friends' house last night, but Kristen missed her so I went to get her early this morning.
I am posting some pictures on here now.
Later

Do we make it too hard?

Tonight Kristen and I were discussing issues that are surrounding the should-be happiness of some distant friends of ours. I say should-be because, for one reason or another, they have let themselves get misguided on the path of happiness, and, consequently, on the plan of the salvation. We then turned our thoughts to how we were raised and then how we would like to raise our children...which any day now will include two precious souls. I was reminded in our discussion of a wonderfully insightful talk given by Jeffrey R. Holland entitled, "A Prayer for the Children" (Liahona, May, 2003) Go to this link if you would like to read it in its entirety which I wholeheartedly recommend.
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=6d2fee9ba42fe010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1
Anyway, he discusses how too often well-meaning parents lead their children astray. Quoting Richard L. Evans he said, "Sometimes some parents mistakenly feel that they can relax a little as to conduct and conformity or take perhaps a so called liberal view of basic and fundamental things—thinking that a little laxness or indulgence won’t matter—or they may fail to teach or to attend Church, or may voice critical views. Some parents … seem to feel that they can ease up a little on the fundamentals without affecting their family or their family’s future. But,” he observed, “if a parent goes a little off course, the children are likely to exceed the parent’s example.”
After viewing the potentially eternally damaging effects of lack of teaching in our young friends' lives, we have resolved to wage the good fight throughout our life in helping our children, and their children, to hold to the truth that we have found that the world desperately searches for. We feel blessed to have been born into the church and to know for ourselves that we have a specific purpose in this life.

Dad's and Uncle Jim's Harley Adventure to Alaska

Dance Dance Revolution

Micali has taken to dancing whenever the music is on. This is her favorite song. There are other videos that show her moving her feet so fast, but they are sideways so just enjoy this one or look at the sideways one too. We'll post others later.

Our Christmas

State Wrestling in Sitka

Micali helping with the dishes

Thoughtful Teens

The boardwork prompt for today's classroom was, "Choose 1 gift that you could give to the most important person in your life before you left them. The gift must represent you. What would it be and why? The students, all day, were commenting on how difficult it was to choose either the one gift or which one person to whom they wanted to bequeath said gift. One student went so far as that he left my class each day with a migraine because he was thinking too hard. I smiled and said good. You would not believe the responses to this prompt that these teens gave. Very few, that shared out loud, were incidental objects. Many, especially those who came from divorced households, said they wanted to give memories of one special occasion or another to the parent that they didn't live with because they rarely saw them. One student, who is normally fairly brazen and obstinate, became choked with emotion as he described how he wanted to share his memory of his grandma with his younger sister who had never met her. When I prompted him to explain why, he simply bowed his head and said, "because she was awesome" and didn't look up again or talk for quite some time. It was one of those gem-filled days as a teacher. My boardworks are supposed to be the first 10 minutes of class with maybe five minutes of sharing or discussing. Recently, however, they have been lasting 20-25 minutes because the kids are really feeling strongly about what they write. It is great. Where I expected more of the trivial things to be handed to "best friends," I was surprised to see how many really could think deeply and reflectively about their lives.

Thankful

I wanted to share my thoughts on my class today. Each day I begin the students with what I call a boardwork prompt. This is designed to give them around 10 minutes to write on the prompt or question I have posted on the board. Sometimes we share with eachother in groups or as a whole class. Today, while they were writing their prompts, I played Josh Groban's "Thankful" http://www.completealbumlyrics.com/lyric/132063/Josh+Groban+-+Thankful.html from his "Noel" Christmas album. While there were some chuckles of amusement (mostly from teenage male students) most listened attentively to the words and/or followed along with the lyrics on the Smartboard. Then, I discussed the blog my friends are doing called 100daysoflove. I didn't know the young man who died, but his story is quite touching. In class we discussed the fraility of life, but the importance to always keep looking for the good and positive and trying to make a difference in someone's life. I then played for them a clip from youtube from "Britains Got Talent." I learned of this phenomenal experience again from my friend's blog. It is worth watching the power of a dream. I simply have to keep seeing that there is so much that is good, or that can be good in this life if I will take the time to look for it. The bulk of news media hounds us with the negative so it becomes our duty to counter it with positivity. I learned a great lesson from my dad while he was here over Christmas. I have often commented to him about the need for more savings' plans and such for his and mom's retirement to no avail. However, what he told me this break made life make a whole lot more sense. He roughly said that it didn't matter to him what his bank account said as long as he could spend time with those that mattered most in his life. His motorcyle trip to Alaska with his brother was absolutely priceless. Him flying to see all his kids every year, being willing to be wherever he is needed is priceless. While we didn't have much money growing up, we always had memories and adventures as a family as my parents took their vacation time, not for themselves, but for us kids. As we drove thousands of miles each summer to unique spots in the lower 48 memories and experiences were forged that are worth more to me than all the money or interest that saving that money for later ever could. Thanks mom and dad for spending it on what mattered most...and for still spending your time on what matters most. You're both still teaching this son life's lessons.

Once there was a Snowman.....

Micali 17 months.

Here are some older pictures of Micali. We are working at getting some new pictures on here of our Christmas and other vacation pictures. So.....stay tuned.

As a little child

With today being Sunday my mind is caught up in the family side of life. We had an enjoyable experience with Micali today which has been repeated several times over the last few weeks. As we sat down for dinner, with her in her high chair, we said, "It's time to pray, fold your arms" but not really expecting a whole lot out of her. But she did it. It was very cute. But what was even cuter was when, half-way through the meal, and she wasn't eating much of anything, she stopped and folded her arms again and bowed her head for a moment. Kristen remarked that, "she was probably praying and asking that her food taste better when she opened her eyes."
I simply am grateful that little children do have the sensivity and the inclination to follow what is being taught at such a young age. It makes life for us so much easier. If we could have the faith that she has, because she did finally take a few bites after the second prayer, we would all be better off.
Oh yeah, another first for us today. Micali went to Nursery. For those who don't know, in the church at 18 months to 3 years the little ones go to their own class for the last two hours of the three hour block. It has been somewhat trying to have Micali with us in Sunday School because she doesn't understand why she has to sit for yet another hour. But today it was priceless. We were planning on taking her to Nursery but the Nursery leader stopped by Kristen before she could get out of the pews. She asked Micali if she was going to go to Nursery with her and Micali reached out her arms to her. That was it. No tears. No fit. She went and we peeped through the eyehole later on and she was seated in the little chairs participating happily right along with the other tykes. What a blessing and answer to our prayers.
Now we are simply awaiting baby #2 and the wonderful opportunities this one will bring.

Thoughts on Gifts

Let me set a scene for you. We were cuddled on the couch eating popcorn, munching on some of Mom's fresh baked and recently unfrozen chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies (thanks Mom. They are still great). My wife and I just finished watching "The Ultimate Gift" on our 30 year old tv, given to us by dear friends who left Alaska a year ago. For those who haven't seen it, I highly recommend this movie. It caused, rather, it allowed me to do much thinking and pondering while it played. I must admit, this movie did cause my eyes to be extremely dry, then they began watering freely to counter the dryness, so beware.



Some of the thoughts I had, however, related to the interactions we have with those around us. Being a teacher I see students every day from many walks of life. To those who don't understand being tied to your job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that is what teaching becomes...at least to me. Now, the reason for this posting is to reflect on what the movie did for me, and I am getting to that. You see, I have, for quite a few years, been very bothered by the commercialization gripping America and its families. Every holiday we have becomes one money spender after another. Kristen and I overheard one disheveled lady exclaim that, "that she would be happy when this was all over" meaning her Christmas shopping and the holidays. What have we allowed ourselves, collectively, to become? Too often people comment on how glad they were to get back from vacation, or be done with a holiday, because it was so stressful. How sad! I enjoyed, very much, my parents' visit up here for Christmas break. And even though our home is quaint, and it snowed alot and in my mom's words was "cold," the experiences we had as a family were priceless. Too often gifts are stressed over for days or months, only to be forgotten, broken, or discarded days after their giving. But the real gifts can never be taken away.

Recently, I became aware of another blog which is having a tremendous effect on me. It is located at http://www.100daysoflove.blogspot.com/ The story, true of course, is that an old college friend of mine and his wife had a friend who was diagnosed with a type of cancer and died exactly 100 days later. They have, in honor of his noble manner of dealing with the end of his life, created this blog to chart and measure each days' gift of love that they have witnessed.

This all leads me to my final thoughts on The truly Ultimate Gift that we each can give of ourselves to eachother. Our time. For instance, writing this blog has taken about 15 minutes, yet if someone's life is blessed by it, and even if not (because it is rather therapeutic for me), then it is worth it. I know that you might say, "But my life is different, I am soooooo busy . . ." but really that is simply an excuse. If your life is too busy to look around and find someone to help each day, then you need to scale back a bit or a lot. I once heard that excuses are like feet, everyone has them and they both stink. Now I didn't intend to preach on here because I am by no means perfect at this, but a blog is for one to express his or her thoughts-hence what I am doing. We worry about how big and new our latest TV is, how new our cars are, how big our house is, etc. , but all that can be taken in an instant. Do those you love really know it? Sure, you just sent a Christmas card and family photo (those are nice and ours is forthcoming), but did you pick up the phone or stop by for a visit and just let someone know they have made a difference? If not, then when? After all, the Savior, who was the real purpose 2000 years ago for Christmas didn't hesitate when he did what he did. And you want to know the best part, he would have done it if it had only been you or me, instead of the entire human race. He gave us his ultimate gift so that we could "go and do likewise."

Halloween family picture

Okay, enough people have asked where our Christmas card is at to warrant a response. We are simply waiting now until baby #2 is born to add that information into it and send a full family picture. However, this picture is of our family at Halloween when Micali was dressed appropriately as a bear prior to hibernation. Our little cub still takes two naps a day so she believes in the hibernation point of her costume.

New Resolution

Although I encourage my students to not fall into the trap of setting resolutions that most of society plans on breaking anyway, Kristen and I have decided to try and stay more connected to our various family members and friends spread out over the vast lower 48 and those up here in the promised land of Alaska. Hence, after viewing many of your blogs routinely, and realizing how impressive and simple it is, we have embarked upon this blog of our own. It is starting out simple, but as we become more experienced you can expect much, much more.
Enjoy.