fly me away

We're supposed to be leaving tomorrow afternoon for NC to spend the holidays. Today the flights out were cancelled (yes all of them - there are usually 3 I think), and now I'm worried about tomorrow. Will there be ice? I heard the reason flights were cancelled today was due to ice & fog. And I was checking Seattle to see how their airport was doing and they have many many cancellations... we have a connection there. So I'm worried.
I hate snow, I hate the freezing cold. When we leave here we will do all we can to not get stationed somewhere that it snows & freezes, it's such a pain in the arse.

moon me

Friday morning as I was taking the kids to school at about 8:45, the sky was so clear & the moon so beautiful. So I drove "out of town" and took some pictures.

As I was driving back home, I noticed the mountains behind the post office and loved the lighting.


When I was waiting for the boat to come in on Friday morning (around 10:30), the sun wasn't over the mountains yet, so it was "dark" where I was but the sun shining on the mountains.


(can you see the boat coming?)
And I'll end with the moon on Friday night...

Giving

Is it bestter to support a cause whole-heartedly or to spread the love to many different causes? I sometimes feel a bit frustrated that there is so many very worthy causes, but I only have so much money to give.

I watched the CNN Heroes show last week (I know it was on on Thanksgiving, but I DVRed it), and it really moved me. I bookmarked several of the websites from the charities featured.

I try to remember to click on the breast cancer site & the related sites every day, freekibble.com, and when I have a few minutes I like freerice.com (I just learned that fecundate means fertilize).

I was thinking the other day about how we have so much "stuff", and I think I'm to the point where instead of gifts and more *things* I'd like donations or gifts in my name to different charities. My dad has always given a donation to Heifer International in our names - at least since my brother & I were kids.

So what do you do to help others? What causes/charities do you support? Or if you don't donate, what are some charities you've heard about?

Of course we all know that Thanksgiving just passed, but since we had bad weather here the internet was only working off & on and I didn't write my "thankful" blog.

I am thankful for my husband. He does so much for our family, and although it can be very hard having him away when his boat has to go out it makes us appreciate him that much more when he comes home.
My kids. They have their ornery moments but they are great kids.
The U.S. Coast Guard. They pay the bills, keep a roof over our heads, food on our table, and thankfully we don't have to worry about lay-offs.
Our families. Jeff & I were both blessed with awesome parents and I thank God for that every day. There's nothing that any of them wouldn't do for us.
My friends. If it weren't for the totally awesome friends I have made here, I would be completely insane. This is a small town and there's not much to do, so we hang out a lot, we support each other and that is especially importnat when the boat is gone.

proud as a peacock

Brett had a swim-a-thon this morning for the "Iceworm Swim Team". They would swim for 2 consecutive hours or 200 lengths of the pool, whichever came first (the swimmers are up to 8th grade). I didn't have any idea how many laps B would swim and he was guessing around 20 or so. So I (as well as some friends) pledged 25cents per length. Well I now owe 22.50 because he swam 90 laps! He swam 1 1/4 miles! He didn't stop (except to adjust his goggles & take a drink of water), he never once complained that he was tired, wanted to be done or anything! I can not tell you how proud of him we are. There were lots of kids (his age as well as younger) who swam a lot more laps, but it was not about the number at all. He just kept going. He's so awesome. But we were in a bit of a hurry getting out the door so I forgot my camera, so no pictures. But anyway, he raised $149 (there were a few kids who earned upwards of $600-$700), so that's a pretty good contribution to the team I'd say.
And then this afternoon Jeff helped B's Cub Scout den earn the "Readyman" badge (that's the one with first aid & such). I volunteered him for that (hehehe). They try to get all the parents to help with a badge, and when I heard them talking about asking one of the EMTs from the fire dept. I told them Jeff's the "doc" on the boat! So they were happy to have him do it, and he's happy it's now done and over with.

Knitting goodness

Here are a few pictures that I took of some of the knitting I've been working on since my camera broke...


this is Roxy modeling B's Harry Potter scarf (she really wanted to get in the pictures, so I made her model instead of just get in the way haha)

I made this scarf for myself, it's seed stitch & I just used what was left of the ivory from a hat (Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Co.) and the blue was on clearance here - I just knit until I ran out of yarn.

I am made this shawl (secret gift) and I finished it last night after this picture was taken, but I have to block it & then I'll get more pics.


and I'm also working on this helmet liner. A neighbor asked if I'd be willing to help - she volunteered to make some for someone else and since she knows I like charity knitting... lol, and the yarn was donated (it's Cascade 220).


I have other things I'm working on, but I'm not going to blog about them until after the holidays :D

new pictures

So here is a few pictures I took yesterday while we were at the store (and it rained/snowed today so I did not want to leave the house).




I'm going to load the software & read the manual some more (these pictures were taken before I read any of the manual, only the "quick start" manual, so that's why they're nothing special). And then maybe tomorrow I will also get some pictures of the knitting I've been doing, so I can update that as well.

supreme happiness

My hubby is home! So very happy to have him home. He's been gone for about 2 months, and it can be hard with 2 stubborn kids who love to test me & push their limits. And this year his boat has been gone for an unusually large amount of time - about 8 or 9 months of the year when typically it's about 6 months. So yeah it's been a long year.

Anyway, he didn't bring home everything he bought while they were gone, but just a few important things - 1 being my new camera!! Yay! I have taken a few pictures and started reading the user's manual, but we've just been hanging out mostly. He does have to go to work in the morning, so maybe I'll take the kids out and try it out more - get some pictures of otters, eagles and other nature. It's a Nikon D60 and it will definitely be a (long) process of learning how it works & all the great things it can do.

What's in a Name?

So I changed the name of my blog (haha again, if you hadn't noticed). I could never think of a good title, but I think I like it now. I'm trying to figure out how to add an image (okay, so there's an image there yes, but I want it to fit the whole header, not just be a square). I also added a "virtual model", and I'm unsure if it will stay (do I really want the world - or the few that read this - to see how much I weigh?) but I kind of like seeing the progress that I've made so far in a little cartoon chick.
I am so very low-tech, and really I do not need anymore reasons to sit at the computer, but I'm trying to read & find more interesting blogs to keep up with. I'm really just a lurker in the cyberworld.
Oh and I'm on twitter now too.

Nothing to show

I have been doing a lot of knitting, but have nothing to show you. J will be home soon with my new camera & once I figure out how to work it I'll take lots of pictures and show off all my stuff. I just realized that B did not wear his Harry Potter scarf that I made him for his halloween costume, so the pictures that my friend took that night did not include it! I don't know how I forgot it, but he did wear it for the Halloween party the weekend before.

Now I'm having a problem thinking of what gifts to make for certain family members for Christmas. For my mom I have made her a scarf, hand/wrist warmers, socks, a Calorimetry (because she does not wear hats)... And then for my stepmom I've made her a scarf, a felted bag, felted slipper boots, and I've also made them both soap sweaters & wash cloths. So now I'm having a hard time thinking of things that they'd like or use. They live in a bit warmer climate than I do (and I don't think they share my love of a different scarf & hat every day)so they don't have a big need for scarves, hats, gloves/mittens. My mom has anew house filled with new furniture & color schemes in all the rooms, so I don't even know what type/color of pillow would look nice on a bed or couch, or if she has a teapot that needs a cozy (she does love tea, but I think she microwaves a mug of water), etc.

If you have any suggestions please let me know (I knit, scrapbook & can sew, but do not know how to crochet, so keep that in mind :D). Well, I'm off to scoure the internet some more.

Random Moment of Cuteness

Roxy does not like to leave my side when she's really tired. So even when I'm doing dishes she curls up on the rug on the kitchen floor, or the bath mat while I'm showering, etc. Tonight I was making muffins and cleaning the kitchen, so since I was moving around too much for her to lay on the kitchen floor she got into the laundry basket (full of clean clothes) and curled up to sleep. She was so cute! When I took a fresh load out of the dryer and needed to put them in that basket she just layed there & let me put them on top of her. Silly puppy (she loves being under blankets too!)
it would have made a totally cute E.T. type picture (you know what scene I'm talking about), it's just too bad my camera is broken & my new(Nikon D60!)camera is in Hawaii with Jeff and won't be home for almost a month now.

in mourning

My camera is dead. The Commissioner of Education for the state of Alaska was in town, and there was a reception last night for him. The kids morning music class were to play, as well as the Native Dancers and the high school choir (chamber singers?, can't remember what they were called). So the kids met in the library at the h.s. to warm up and all that, I got out my camera to take some pictures of them. I took one of Ashley, who was across the room so I had to zoom in, and then went to take one of Brett and I had to zoom out. Well it wouldn't zoom out, it said "lens error - restart camera" and turned off. I tried and tried to get it back on to no avail. I was googling all afternoon trying to figure out what the problem was and how to resolve it, and got nowhere.

R.I.P. little camera... It's been a good 2 years.
Here's the single picture I got (Ashley warming up her fiddle)

Hopefully we can get a bigger, better one now - gotta convince Jeff of that :). But luckily I had the camcorder with me so I was able to get their performance on tape so we can remember it forever.
Now to figure out how to get it onto the computer...

Busy busy bees

Ashley is now signed up for Girl Scouts and somehow I got wrangled in to being a co-leader. Should be fun & interesting...

Brett is still doing Cub Scouts.

The kids are going to "morning music" at school (it's 30 minutes before school starts on Thursdays & Fridays). Belle, who runs the 4H Bluegrass Music Camp, does the class. Brett was learning to play the dobro (in regular music class -as well as at home - he's learning the guitar), and then Belle asked if he would be willing to play the bass in the band (acoustic, stand-up bass) so he's learning that now also. Ashley has been learning the guitar (in regular music class she learns the keyboard) and now just started the fiddle. Monday the Commissioner of Education (for the state of Alaska) will be here and there's going to be an Open House Reception, and they just told me that the morning music class will be performing. Wow! I have to remember to charge the camcorder battery & take it with me, so Jeff can see.

Yeah, the boat is gone - on their way to Hawaii. :( 6 weeks is a long time, but at the same time I'm pretty sure it'll go by fast. (jeez, I hope so)

In about a week dance classes start back up also. Since it's a small town & there's only the 1 instructor she has limited classes available, but there will be ballet for Ashley's age, and then also tumbling. So even though she was hoping for tap, she loves ballet & hopefully the tumbling will be better than creative jazz was last year (we weren't big fans of that class).

So the kids are pretty busy, and hopefully that will help us keep our minds off of daddy being gone & moping around. (ha!) I stay busy knitting & reading - who needs to clean? (oh, can't forget dog-sitting)

Oh! And the kids had their birthdays - 10 & 8! Where has the time gone?

Near Death Experience

I went to the boat as usual today to drop Maddy (the dog) off to her mommy, and then to say hi to Jeff since he was on duty. The problem? It was high tide, raining & windy. So the "brow" (gangway, bridge, whatever you want to call it - you go up the stairs & across the brow to get onto the boat) was nearly straight up because of high tide, and because it was windy the stairs (they're on wheels) were moving all over the pier which then moves the brow so it's not straight. And then to top it off they had to fix the regular brow, so they had the back-up brow on and that it very slippery! It doesn't have the "grippers" that the usual one has. And although there are hand rails they're metal & as I said it was raining so they were very very slippery. I thought for sure I was going to fall off, slide down, drop my purse into the water below, etc... My heart was racing, let me tell you. When I was was ready to leave I was talking to Jeff about how nervous I was coming onboard, but he hadn't been out or looked at the brow, so when we get outside, he was a little pissed. He went down first and was moving the stairs around to straighten it all up, and then I had to try to get back down. My legs were jelly when I finally got to the car. My pants were also pretty wet from standing out there waiting for Jeff to get it straightened and then trying to get the courage up to go down. Oh geez. Hopefully the tide is down now because we're on our way to have dinner on the boat (oh joy, what delicious meal are we having?), but I did tell Jeff that if it wasn't I was not going to risk getting the kids up & down that damn thing.
*deep breath* I'm still nervous thinking about it.

ETA: So the tide was still high at 5:00 - no dinner on the boat. Went to Baja Taco instead LOL.

Juneau the Capital of Alaska?

So I am leaving this evening for Juneau for a couple days. I'll be back on Friday. I'm hoping that it's not raining there as much as it is here - ugh. It's been raining for days and days, you tend to lose track after a while. It did stop long enough yesterday to take the dogs on a good walk - not just a potty break, so that was nice. Roxy hates the rain & even avoids puddles. But Maddy has such thick fur I don't think she even notices the rain. But I'm realy getting tired of this pouring-down, soak-your-jeans-in-a-minute rain. And the wind we had for a few days certainly did not help, well except to blow the rain sideways so that the covered porch was all wet.

Ooh exciting news - the Vet came to town! So Roxy got her shots and is now vaccinated for rabies. And she weighs 20.8 lbs! I thought she was around 15, shows what I know. She's getting so big, I don't think she'll be able to fit under the seat to fly.

New & Improved!

I am sure that you noticed all the new & exciting things I have added to this blog. What do you mean, No? Alright well I'll point it all out to you. So I have my followers as well as the blogs that I follow over there on the left. And then I added the Green Bay scoreboard on the left as well (in case you're reading my blog while they are playing, you won't miss the score). And then at the bottom is a "This Day in History". I like that, but it's so far away down at the bottom of the page, but it's too big to put on the side there. And I'm not sure if it automatically updates every day so we'll see about that.

I signed up for Ravelry the other day and got my invitation today, so I have been busy today making my profile and adding stuff & finding people I know (so if you happen to be reading this & I haven't added you I'm knittymel - big surprise, eh?).

I have finished Ashley's sweater
she loves it & wants to wear it every day.

Hole-y Pants, Batman!

What do you do when your favorite pair of jeans gets a hole in the crotch? Me, I sewed a patch over it. Now what do you do when you have 2 holes? *sigh* probably throw them away. Makes me sad because they are so comfy, but that 2nd hole is really very big - it ripped fast. I just spent $3 on that patch, should I salvage it before I throw the pants out? lol

Having a puppy is almost harder than having a toddler running around. She jumps a lot higher than my kids ever could, and sneaks into small spaces they never would have thought of. So I can't just put stuff up on top of the table or on the counter because she will get it down. Besides food stuffs, she is especially fond of pencils, knitting needles & yarn, and cardboard boxes (any size or thickness). The problem now is that she has outgrown the crate she came on the airplane with, so her new bed is our bed.

Knittings

So I have been pretty bad about taking pictures of the knitting I have done. But here's some things I've made and I promise that I'll update more often when I finish something.
Socks & legwarmers for Timothy, Alexis & Caleb

Baby pinwheel blanket, not for any baby in particular (made from leftover Plymouth Encore), but when it was done blocking it still didn't lay flat, the edges curl - block again?
these socks I made for my mom for her birthday - can't remember the pattern (I found it online) and the yarn color is called "North Carolina" can't remember by who - I bought it over a year ago because they were getting ready to move to NC
And then these slippers were a Christmas gift for my stepmother Ruth. The top didn't felt the way the rest did (I did use the wool with the fur) and the Fair-Isle (my first time!) felted tighter than the striped. it was an experiment really, trying to make boot slippers. But they're pretty!
I have some "works in progress" - a few I'm actively working on, some that are in danger of becoming "UnFinished Objects" (UFOs - doo doo doo doo, you are now entering the Twilight Zone), but they'll all get finished eventually.

Adventuring

In-laws are visiting, busy sight-seeing and fishing every day. Here's some evidence...
Day 1 Child's Glacier

Haystack Trail where we found a geocache

Day 2 Fishing

And Day 5 River Rafting



There's lots more pictures on my flickr, so check 'em out if you want. I'm hanging out right now -Jeff has left and his parents are out fishing again (they're taking home their weight in salmon, just you wait I'll get a picture tomorrow and you'll see for yourself).

Where in the world

Brett has discovered geocaching. His first experience was a couple weeks ago at day camp, they went on a hike to geocache (I don't even know if that is the correct way to say it?), and he didn't say much about it, just raved about all the hiking & swimming in the lake they did.

And then today was "Active in Our Community" (part of National Health Center Week Celebration), and they had a geocaching workshop. Jeff & I didn't go, the kids went with their friends (we were busy cleaning house for his parents visit), and our neighbors were there and they like to go geocaching. So Bruce was showing Brett (Jenn said it was Bruce's fault that we now need to get a GPS lol), and he had a ton of fun. So when he was telling us about it, I told Jeff he should call his dad and have him bring his GPS and we could do it while they're here, and he said "We can get our own." That's fine, I don't have a problem getting our own, but we're not going to buy it in this town, we'd pay double the price you'd pay anywhere else.

Anyway, his dad said he'd try to find it (I don't know, that's just what I heard Jeff saying) and bring it with them. I'll keep you updated as to whether we do any geocaching during their visit or if we get our own GPS...

p.s. my wish for a week of no rain did not come true - it's done nothing put pour rain. now we have soggy pond-filled yards that we can't mow (the grass is really high)

60, believe it or not it really is warm

It's been sunny all weekend, (yes it's 60 & we're warm enough) and I have high hopes that it will continue because Jeff's parents are coming to visit. Maybe, just maybe summer is here - for a little while anyway. I checked the weather.com forecast & it tells me that there's going to be showers all week and into next week, but really what do they know?

My dad's birthday is this week and he's going to be 60. It sounds so weird to say that because I don't see him as being that old. And then to add to that weirdness is the fact that Madonna is turning 50 just days after his. Strange...very strange. And we're not even going to talk about the fact that I will be 30 in just 5 short months. Lord, help me.

The kids start school next week! Hallelujah!

celebrity sightings?

The crafty people in this town are all abuzz with the arrival of the new Captain's wife. Apparently she is a crafting celebrity - she has written a crochet book, designs for magazines and a "famous blog" LOL. Her blog is The Hook and I, so I've been busy reading that today. Although I had not heard of her until yesterday I'm looking forward to meeting her now. She gets in this weekend, but I'm guessing I probably won't meet her until the boat comes back. From reading her blog she seems like she'll be nice and not a "Oh I'm the Captain's wife" type, should be fun getting to know her. And we are predicting that most of the wives will become avid crocheters and/or knitters by the time they transfer out - good times! :)

The sun finally makes an appearance!

This summer has pretty well sucked, very few sunny days, it rains most of the time & it's cold! Even when it's not raining it's cloudy & sprinkling or threatening rain. But we finally got some sun today, so we stayed outside all day soakin' it up. So here's a picture of Roxy today (I was a slacker with the camera, there were so many better pictures I could have taken but didn't have it with me)
and now because I feel like it I'm going to show you Roxy when we first got her at about 8 weeks old


And I would like to add that I bought some "Badger Anti-Bug Balm" and used it tonight since we were outside for hours (okay so it just came in the mail today, I wasn't saving it), and also made my friends put some on & let me know if it works. Well it did! I didn't get any bites, the bugs were swarming around so we were constantly swatting at them, but I did not get bit. And I think it worked for the other ladies too (but they were still annoyed with the bugs still hanging around) - just don't forget to put some on your feet if you're wearing sandals or flip-flops! So thanks Krstlchik for the tip on that stuff!

While "window shopping" online for baby stuff (several friends & neighbors are preggers) I did a search for baby boy apparel from amazon and there was a lot of organic onesies that although very cute were $47.99 for a pair! That's just crazy. I am all for "going green" - buying all natural and organic, but not when it costs 50bucks for something that will get worn a handful of times?! Babies grow fast and for that price it better be something that will get tons of use.

Now maybe it's just that Amazon hikes up the prices, but I can't seem to find another online retailer that carries this brand's clothes (can only find the bedding). And they carry other onesies for $3-5 each.

I will say that the clothes are very cute, but still... Would you do it? Spend that kind of money to be eco-conscious?

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might

I'm currently reading Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber (I love the Blossom Street series), and that's got me thinking. What would my 20 wishes be? If you had to make a list of wishes - not goals, it could be something totally frivolous - what would they be?
So I'm going to start a list here, and hopefully make a full list for myself, and maybe someday I'll accomplish most, if not all, of it.
1. Take a European vacation (at least 2 weeks long)
2. Learn to Belly Dance
3. Own my own home
4. Visit all 50 states (I'm halfway there)
5. Figure out what I want to "do" - a job I am good at & love

Okay, so is that last one kind of vague? I don't know, it's something that I have struggled with for the last 10 years. But hey Paula Deen didn't find her calling until she was in her 40s, so there's hope for me.

And that's all I will give you of my *wish* list. But I'll be sure and let you know if I accomplish a wish from my full list.

Love, Hate

So I listed my "likes of Cordova, so now here's my hate list.

~It's cold
~It rains a lot
~It snows
~There's no shopping.
~It's so isolated - no roads out, you have to fly or ferry and that costs lots of money
~It's a podunk town.

There's a lot that I don't like about living here, but that's all I'm going to say...

Look for the good

I was thinking of making a list of things I don't like about living in Alaska, but decided I should be positive first. So here's my list of things I like about living here.

~The scenery is beautiful

~It's a small town (where everyone knows your name?), and it's a safe town, so the kids have more freedom here than would have somewhere else

~The Coastie Ladies are awesome (and part of that can also be attributed to it being a small town, so we're always there for each other)

~You can "live off the land"

~Again it's a small town, so even though the price of gas is outrageous you don't drive very far (unless you go "out the road") so you can pretty much fill up once a month, and you can walk anywhere!

Okay, that's all I've got. It's not much but hey it's something! You gotta have a Pollyanna attitude living here