Let it Snow!

Waqaa (hello),

First of all let me start out by saying Happy Birthday to my sister Raquel and my brother Nick. They both ended up being born on the same day. Now on to the good stuff.........

Woke up this morning and it was blowing snow. The schools were cancelled by 7:00 am. Eric and I kept listening in the hopes that there would be more cancellation, but there wasn't. We had a 3-4 foot snow drift in our driveway. Good thing it was the light fluffy stuff.

This past weekend I took a sewing class on making the traditional "qaspeq". It's pronounced kus-puk. They are shirts that both men and woment wear. I haven't gotten a picture yet, but I will soon. I'm trying to make another one, but I'm going to modify it a little. They are pretty boxy shirts and I like mine more fitted. We'll see what happens.

This coming weekend is the big Camai festival. It's a big dance festival where natives from around the region and elsewhere come and dance. They also have native arts and crafts and food. I'm going to see if I can find a video camera and take some footage to send home. If I do get a camera I'll try to take video of the town also.

Well, I need to go so I can watch Deal or No Deal. There is a lady from Alaska on tonight. She is wearing some of the traditional clothing and so are some of her relatives. I guess they are also doing some native drumming. She's from Dillingham, which is way south of here, but still Alaska is Alaska, just like South Dakota is South Dakota!

Tangerciqamken atata (See you later).

Life In Alaska (Bethel to be exact!)

Not much has been happening in the big city of Bethel. A couple of weeks ago we did receive a 100 gal oil voucher for free. The oil company Citgo from Venezuela for some reason or another gave Alaska a bunch of free oil. When oil is almost $4.50/gal and you run through it like water you don't ask why you are getting it. You just take it and be glad that you are getting the support from somewhere. We are probably already through most of that 100 gals. Temperatures in the morning when going to work have been below zero (usually 5-10 below). They warm up to about 5-10 above by the time we get home from work.

We are up to 12 hours of sunlight. Sun comes up around 8:30 am and sets about 8:30 pm, but we can still see outside until 9:00 pm. I was actually enjoying going to work in the light then congress had to do the early time change, so we will be going to work in the dark for at least another week, maybe two.

I'm staying busy with work. I've been going to talk at the High School and Middle schools about our summer camps. That has been fun. I enjoy getting out and talking with these kids, especially the 5th to 8th graders. The college is wrapping up it's Spring Break week. Staff actually got yesterday off. That was a nice change. Eric has been keeping buys with work. The past couple of days he was in Hooper Bay, a small village along the coast of Alaska. Tomorrow he is leaving to do some Fox trapping with a couple of the guys from work for work, so he's relaxing today and taking it easy.

For those that are curious about wedding details, we have finally booked a reception/dance location for the wedding. It will be at the Staurolite Inn. It ended up being cheaper for both rental and food. I am in the process of getting a block of rooms reserved. Once that is done, I'll let the wedding party and family know so they can get reservations made. I've been searching high and low online to try to find a bridesmaid dress I could tolerate that wasn't ungodly expensive to no avail until yesterday. I thought I found the perfect Bridesmaid dresses but I wanted to ask Eric his opinion before I did anything. Last night when he got home I showed the 2 dresses to him and he actually liked them, so I thought today I would go online and order one of each to see which one I liked better in person. Yeah, great plan but unfortunately for some reason the website is not coming up! I hope it's just a temporary glitch! It better be. I hate to think I have to start the search all over again. Poor computer probably feels the same! As for my dress, I have decided to order one. I've tried to find a pattern that I liked, but the ones I found that I likes, I didn't like once I started making them. I should probably order that here soon, but I'm trying to decide on the size to order. I've put on a little weight since we moved up here and I have been trying to lose it. The smaller size will be a little snug, but I think the larger size is just going to be too big and since it's a halter dress, I don't think it can be altered right. Who knows! Well, I'm going to get this published before I forget. If your lucky maybe I'll write more today or tomorrow! ~ Amy

Addition to the Family

Well, I guess I know better now for letting Eric go to Anchorage unsupervised. He brought us home a little kitty. She is a feisty little thing. Eric likes to call her a squirrel. Apparently she's an escape artist. She somehow got out of the kennel on the airplane and was wondering around. She loves to pounce around like any little kitten. It's okay, but she turned on the alarm last night and it went off at midnight!!!! Here's a couple of pictures of her. Chubbs and her are still getting to know each other. Since she still has claws, he doesn't get too close. He did hold her down the other day and clean her a little.I think it's good for Chubbs to have another around. It gives him something to chase and keeps him company during the day while we're gone. Well, it's getting closer for bedtime. I'll keep you all posted on the new kitty. This weekend I'll do a post all about wedding plans! I know, some of you are thinking it's about time.