MAY 1987

Before we got married, Mark had ordered 3 custom made suits and a sports coat with a pair of slacks. Unfortunately, by the time they were ready, Mark couldn't afford to pay the bill. The tailor agreed that Mark could pay it out and take delivery upon the last payment. We were able to pay the remaining amount. It was interesting to see how the suits came out. The pants were on the tight side in the waist (computer entrepreneur spread). The jackets fit nicely in the shoulders but were plenty roomy around the middle.

I guess Mark needed the weight I was losing. By the end of May I had gotten down to 112 lbs. I had begun chiropractic visits in April. My back was doing better; however, my adrenals still indicated stress and I still wasn't feeling very peppy. On May 19th, Dr. Lizer asked me to go on a sugar-free diet. That was one of the hardest things I ever did in my lift. "It's so frustrating because just nearly everything one wants to eat is a no-no." Actually, it wasn't that I wanted to eat sugary things. It was depressing every time I would go to the grocery store. When reading labels, I found sugar hidden in things I would never have guessed to contain sugar. Have you read the ingredients lately for certain brands of: grapefruit juice,tomato sauce, corn, soup, salad dressing, etc.

One of the things both Mark and I liked about the diet was the dry-roasted rice. One takes brown rice and puts it into a skillet without any oil or water. On meduim heat, stir the rice constantly to keep it from burning. It takes time but eventually little popping sounds will occur and one can see that the rice kernal is popping. They just get funny looking. Don't expect Rice Krispies. Anyway, the idea that the roasting changes the composition of the starch sugar so the body utilizes it in a different way. Cool and store the rice in an airtight container. Cook the rice in the usual manner. At sea level, less water will be needed and cooking time decreased. Experimentation is needed for higher altitudes.

As hard as the diet was, a nice side effect was that I lost weight. The idea of the diet was to eliminate sugars so as to give the organs time to de-toxify. However, I found that I could "eat like a horse" and still lose weight.

Mark was distressed about his big green pickup truck. It was making noises that sounded like a rod knocking. This worried Mark; he quit driving it very far away from the house. One day when we were driving in Anchorage, we saw a pickup truck parked in from of a shopping center with a "For Sale" sign on it. We inquired and made a deal. Then Mark had to have some work done on it to put it into shape. By the time Mark bought the oversized winter snow and mud tires, we invested about $1500.00 Ugh. I certainly hoped it would be worth it.

Sunday, May -----, the church had a dance honoring the high school graduates. The theme was Chinese with Cinese refreshments and decorations. The music was good. Mark and I were able to dance alot. The dance musci wasn't going the whole time so there was time to talk without feeling guilty for not dancing. We didn't try to polka since we can't agree on how to do it. Mark wore his tuxedo with the peach ruffled shirt. I wore the brown long dress we had made after I finished college. It was simple and fit pretty well despite my added weight. I wore a silk corsage Laura Worthen had made for one of my wedding showers. The cream ribbon matched my dress and the peach flowers went with Mark's shirt.

JUNE 1987

Mark and I started a big project for the summer 1987. Mark had his handwritten records and receipts dating back to the time he started the business. He wanted these put on the computer. We pulled out the file boxes and began sorting them out. It was interesting to see the many things that had been done over the years. I began to do retroactive data entry every day in addition to other tasks that needed doing.

Another project we had was to register our marriage with the Swiss consulate in San Francisco and apply for Swiss passports. Mark's had not been renewed since his original passport expired in 1965. Wives become Swiss citizens through marriage. We had had the documents for a long time but had not gotten them filled out. With the help of Mark's mother to read the German instructions, we finally procured all the needed information and mailed the forms.

June 7th was a "red letter" day for me. I was invited to be one of the kitchen staff at the camp our church would be having in July. I asked who else would be there besides Mark Linden. He said Mrs. Ellington, Julie Athans, and Mrs. Tunseth. I thougth that sounded like a lot of kitchen people but experience should have taught how many people were needed. Later I found out the kitchen people also helped with some of the other tasks as time allowed. I was scared about going but Mark encouraged me, thinking I would have fun and it would give me a chance to get acquainted with variious people in a different way than when we're together at church.

In addition to my secretarial work and planning for Camp, I started my first garden. I had started some plants in the house and finally got around to transplanting them. The radishes did come up but didn't do much. The one cabbage that did well was eaten by a rabbit. I saw the culprit squatting under the truck and had Mr. Bruss come over to shoot it.

We made a trip to Copper Center in the middle of June. Although I enjoyed these outings, it was a long trip to make in one day. I usually took my letter writing materials and a book. My back was out terribly the next day because I slump when I sleep in the car.

The topic of Mark's radio talk show for that week was on Artificial Intelligence. Wil Gerken of CCNS was the guest. Fern Chandonet was the KGNC host. It was a fascinating converstation among the 3 men but was way above the heads of the average listener as far as having questions to aks. I called and asked about computer-controlled robots. Mark said Fern appreciated the effort of someone to call since the subject was more specialized than the general public's knowledge. Mine was the only call.

JULY 1987

July started off with a bang. Actually, it began an the end of June. Early one morning, Julia Athans picked me up to drive to camp. At Palmer, we picked up Mrs. Watts and her daughter. It was a long drive out to camp. I remember taking a nap.

The best thing about camp this year was that I could take a shower in the shower building. The others laughed at the when I repeatedly exclaimed over how nice it was to have lights in the shower. Shaving "by the braille method" was commonplace at home.

The worst thing about camp was trying to stick to my diet. I was supposed to be avoiding sugar, rice, potatoes, bread, etc. All of those things I love so well. My co-workers were nice about putting up with my special needs. They gave me a spot on the shelf where I could store my unsweetened salad dressing, special ketchup, bread, etc.

Mark wanted me to go to camp so I would have a chance to thaw out. It's usually much warmer during the summer in the middle section of Alaska. As luck would have it, that was probably the coolest and rainiest two weeks of the entire summer.

I may be stretching the truth slightly, but the wash days seemed to be only the days when the sun came out. Those of us on the laundry details were cooped up in a little bitty room with washers and dryers that put out so much heat we felt we were in a sauna.

The middle weekend of champ was the 4th of July weekend. Many church members, exspecially parents of the campers would come for the fun and fellowship. Mark found a camper (the type he says would be good for fishermen) that fit on the truck. Mark's mother used it during the campout while Mark and I shared the tent. It was so nice to have Mark there. He gave me encouragement. The night after Mark and his mother left, we had a very hard rain. My tent and bedding got soaked. When the authorities heard my delimna, I was invited to use the one cabin that had just become vacant. That was an answer to my prayers. I was able to get my bedding dried, plus it was much warmer in the cabin than my tent had been.

I had a much happier second week. But I was ready to go home by the time the last day rolled around.

AUGUST 1987

SEPTEMBER 1987

Mark took a business trip in September. I had quite a time while Mark was gone. One day I got a notice from NBA that a couple of company checks had bounced. This threw me into an immediate panic. Mark had assured me that there was plenty of money in the bank; he left me with several signed checks in case I needed to make any payments.

Several months before I had begun working with the company books. At this point I had been entering the checks after they were written. That is, I would organize the bills so they could get paid on time and then bug Mark so we would get the check written. I was therefore familiar with the program we were using at the time to record our income and expenses. I printed out all the current check information. Armed with that and our marriage license, I headed for the bank. As a person not authorized on the account, they technically weren't allowed to give me information. I prayed all the way there.

I explained to the customer services agent about Mark's being out of town and that although I wasn't authorized, I had all the information and could show my marriage license. They decided that it was too good a story to be false. They nicely went through the file so we could find out what checks had cleared, what had bounced and what had not yet showed up.

That was the start of "The great check-book balancing." I went through every check and every bank statement that Mark ever received. He had a habit of not recording the monthly service charges. Those had added up to eat up the extra money that was supposedly in the account.

It was a relief, yet a feeling of fulfillment when I finally got the check-book balanced. Keeping up with bills is one thing, but there has to be the money in the bank to pay those bills. Needless to say, I kept paying the bills and balancing the check-books thereafter.

OCTOBER 1987

October was a red-letter month as well. My parents came to visit us for two weeks. It was nice of them to be able to see what they'd been reading about for over a year.