Today's Science Lesson

When we got home from work tonight, Eric told me we needed to get a Raccoon Dog. I said "WHAT"? A raccoon dog. These are dogs, but they look like raccoons. So naturally I had to look it up on the internet. Here is what they look like.

So, what do you all think? Should we get one? Actually they are wild animals and don't make very good pets. If you want to read more about them, check of Wikipedia. Don't they look like something out of a Disney movie? They look so fake, but so cute.

Well, there is everyone's science lesson of the day.

Hometown Boys

We happened to be flipping through channels on Saturday afternoon when we stopped on Channel 38. We stopped on the channel because we saw a familiar face and heard a familiar name. What was that name you might ask? The name was Brock - Brock Lesnar. Former WWE wrestler. You see, channel 38 is SPIKE TV, home of the (UFC) Ultimate Fighting Championship. Brock had a pay per view match on Saturday night. It cost $44.95 for the fight. Eric and I thought about getting it, but decided against it when we found out the cost. Good thing. Brock was done in 90 seconds. He lost by submission to his opponent.

Now, why you may be asking, why did I entitle this post Hometown Boys. Well, Brock Lesnar grew up around my home town. He went to school in Webster and was a pretty good wrestler throughout high school. I knew him by association through a friend (thanks Kristi ;) It's always cool to see someone you know/knew achieve this kind of success. (raise your glass) Here's to the little people.

A

What's brown, has sharp claws & a member of the mustelid family?

Come on, give it a guess.

What? You still don't know.

I'll give you a hint. It's the mascot of one of the Michigan Universities.

Still don't know? It's a wolverine! Yes, a wolverine. We didn't think Eric would be able to trap any around his trapping area because they usually don't come down this far. He got him in a 220 conibear bucket trap. Eric was just talking with one of his buddies on Saturday morning about how he wouldn't trap any wolverines this year because he needed to go further upriver and he didn't want to do that with our snowmachine. Guess he needs to just talk about it a little more. Look what happened.

In other Eric news, he is currently sitting in line waiting for the Musk Ox tags to go on sale tomorrow morning. They only give out 5 permits for cows in Bethel and with a town of 6000 people 5 permits don't go too far. No bull permits are given out in Bethel. To get one of those you have to go out usually to 1 of 2 villages and spend the night or 2 or 3.

I been working on scrapbooking photos of the afghans I've done. I'm having fun and didn't realize that I've made so many blankets. I'll try to get some pictures of the pages I've done so far and post a few of them. They aren't completely done yet. I need to do a little journaling about each of the blankets.

Well, I'll talk with you all later~

America's Hottest Governor

Yep. That's what is being said about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Governor Palin is on the cover of the Alaska magazine (picture courtesy of the Anchorage Daily News).

But, it's not just the Alaska Magazine. In this month's issue of Vogue Magazine, there is also an article featuring Governor Palin. Of course, we don't have the current issue of Vogue on stock right now in our stores, so I haven't even seen the article yet. Someone will have to let me know what it says. I tried finding it online on Vogues site, but these fashion magazines don't let you get too far into them.

Go Alaska! It's about time we are know for something other than oil.

It's official!

At 8:09 pm last night, Mitch Seavey crossed the finish line and became the 2008 Kuskokwim 300 Winner. If you been reading my posts, you'll know that Mitch is the musher that we helped out. We had those dogs in the back of our truck! Picture courtesy of the K300 website (www.k300.org).

I guess the last leg of the trip (15 miles) was horrendous. Mitch did a short interview after he came in and said that sometimes his dogs were in water deep enough for them to swim. The race officials had to go out and remark the trail. Apparently it didn't work. Mitch said he saw a marker or 2 floating by him.

Well, I need to get a few more things done yet tonight, so I will talk to you all later~

And the Winner Is:

Well, the winner hasn't crossed the finish line yet, but the last update showed Mitch Seavey (the guy we helped) in the lead by about an hour. He shoud be crossing the finish line anytime within the next 1/2-1 hour. I'll post again when the official word comes in!

If the House is Rockin'

You must live in Bethel. We get one good day of warm temperatures (39 was today's high) and the wind picks up like a son of a gun. Currently we have south winds 25 to 40 mph, closer to the 40 mph, with gusts to 60 mph. Since our house is up of the ground, we get rockin' when the wind blows. Earlier tonight, I was sitting in the bedroom folding laundry and I looked into the closet and saw the clothes swaying. Too bad we can't capture the wind/rockin/swaying with pictures. Although its dark and I probably wouldn't be able to get a good one anyways.

Well, Eric and I are going to watch Rush Hour 3, so I'll chat with you all later.

K300 update - Mitch Seavey (the musher we helped) is currently up to 5th place, while the 18/19 year old Rohn Buser is in first. Plus he still has all 14 of his dogs! Not too many mushers at this point in the race have all of their dogs still. Dogs are always left at checkpoints to fly back to Bethel.

The Race is On and here comes.....

pride in the backstretch

Okay - the K300 Dog Mushing race officially started last night at 6:30 pm. We had the opportunity (actually we were roped into) helping out with one of the mushers and his dogs. We had at least $60,000 of dogs in the back of the truck. Crazy isn't it? We were helping out Mitch Seavey who is a past Iditarod winner. One of Eric's coworkers wives volunteered them to "host" a musher. Basically what you do is put up the musher, their dog handler and dogs for a day or two before the race and then help them out getting all of their things to the river for the race. It was pretty cool helping out because we got to see the behind the scenes of the race. We have some big names here again this year. Jeff King - last years race winner and the winningest musher, Martin Buser (former K300 and Iditarod winner) and his son Rohn Buser. We have 2 - 17 year old year old girls running the race. One of them is from Bethel, the other is from Nome.

I wish I had some pictures to post, but alas since we helped out right after work, we didn't have an opportunity to get the camera. I'll have to get some pictures from Andrea (coworkers wife) and post some later. She got a few pictures of the $60,000 truck load!

Well, I'm off to try to do something productive today. I should be able to considering our cable is on the fritz and they haven't been able to come and fix it yet. It's been on the fritz since Tuesday evening when we got some pretty good winds.

On a side note before I sign off, we are officially up to 39 degrees outside. Nothing like going from -35 below a few days ago to 39 above. That's a 74 degree change!

Heat Wave

Whoa! We're having a heat wave. It's currently 31 above! We went from at least 15 below yesterday morning to 31 degrees today. That's a change of over 45 degrees in a 24-36 hour period. We actually had a blizzard warning until about noon today. The way the wind is blowing now I think they should have kept it.

It's a good thing we have the warm-up. The K300 starts Friday night and it probably would have been too cold for the dogs if it didn't. Hopefully it doesn't go above freezing though because that would make much for the dogs and sleds. Not fun!

We will get to see a nice fireworks display on the night of the race. We only get to see fireworks twice a year - during the K300 and New Years Eve. Otherwise it's too light during the summer.

Yes We Can!

At 11:21 am, we reached zero degrees. It's a heat wave I tell yah! Before you know it, we will be breaking out the shorts. Okay, maybe not quite yet, but you never know!

Can We Do It?

- Reach zero that is -

We are currently at -2 with blowing snow. We are actually suppose to be under a blizzard warning for tonight and tomorrow. I'm so excited at the possibility of getting out of the negatives.

Classes start today at the college, so we are "bustling" with student activity. I quoted bustling because bustling for us is about a half dozen students wondering the building for classes! It's definitely a change of pace from the Universities I'm used to working at, but I like it. I'm in the process of trying to figure out my summer camps. I don't want to be struggling like I did last year. That was not fun! Well, back to work~

Burrrrrrrrr!

Woke up this morning to temperatures reading -26, factor in the windchill and you are looking at -47. We are suppose to be warming up sometime, but it won't be soon enough.

Eric has been trying to fly to do moose counts, but this weather is hard on the planes. They flew yesterday and it was tough going. They are trying to get out today but it is too cold. They're hoping the weather will warm up alittle.

We've been invited over to one of Eric's bosses tonight to play pinochle. That should be interesting. Eric and I have seen many a game played, but have never played outselves. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Well, I am going to scrapbook or crochet, or something!~

Going, going, gone

The temperature that is. Can it possibly get any colder? We seem to have dug ourself in a hole and can't get out. We have not been above zero in I don't know how long. Todays high was -19, factor in the windchill and you are looking at -40!!!! And to make matters worse, our block heater isn't working in the truck. Since it's been so cold the cord/plug got pretty stiff and ended up breaking a wire in it. We think we may have shorted it out, but won't find out until Monday. Auto shops are ridiculuosly (sorry for the spelling error) hard to get in to in the winter. We have an appointment for Jan. 23! All of this means I am running outside to start the truck up every couple of hours to make sure it still starts since I have the truck during the day.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of my faithful readers. It has been an uneventful day. We have been spending time though on processing a couple of Caribou. Yes, Eric got 2 Caribou the other day. Here's a few pictures.

Well, I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have no idea where the time went. It doesn't seem like I have 2 weeks off. I don't know what I did. I have been working on a blanket and some scrapbooking. I'll probably do more of both this afternoon. I'll catch you all on the flip side~

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my blog readers. Eric and I spent an uneventful day at home with the cats and our guest, Sadie the dog. We opened up a few presents that my mom sent us and right now I am waiting for our Christmas supper to get done. Eric and I will be getting an Elliptical machine as our Christmas presents to each other. We've both put a little weight on since we've moved up here:)

Well, I need to go check on the ham, so I'll blog for you all later~

Still Burrrr

Well, we reached our coldest temperatures yet this winter. It is currently -20. I'm hoping it warms up a little before Sadie comes to visit. Sadie, for those of you that don't remember is the dog of one of Eric's coworkers. Sadie will be joining our crew on Friday evening and will be here for 2 weeks. It's always a tense few days in the beginning, but by the end of the time everyone tolerates each other. It will be cold taking her for walks if the temp doesn't warm up! Of course, I don't think it can get any worse then last year when we had -30 temps the whole time she was here. That was tough! This is the reason that we don't have and probably will never have an inside dog. Cats are just so much easier to take care of. They practically take care of themselves. If only we could get them to clean the litter box! Well, I'm going to try to get something done today now that it is light enough out. Later ~

Burrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Well, if you call -10 warm, then we are having a heat blast! At last check, it was -12. Itt's suppose to warm up tomorrow to -5. Before you know it, we will be running around in our swimming suits. Actually, we need this cold weather. We don't have any decent ice on the river and it's too much of a hazard for people, but they are still trying to get their machines on the river. Well, I have a big kitty that has decided to climb into my lap and take a nap & I'm typing with one hand. I'm off of work now, so I'll try to write more later~

Flying By

Where has the month of December gone? It seems like just the other day Eric and I got married. Today is our 3 month anniversary. I've been busy with work the past couple of weeks. I have to get my year end report done for the Department of Education. I also had an opportunity to go to Portland, OR for work this past week. We had the Regional meeting for the TRiO programs. TRiO is the main program that my program falls under. I had the chance to meet some of the other Alaska TRiO program people and some from Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The conference was at the Marriott on the Waterfront. The view from my window was pretty cool. I forgot to take my camera, otherwise I would have posted some pictures.

Speaking of work, I am actually on break starting on Tuesday, and I don't have to start up again until January 2. I am so looking forward to it! I love my job, but sometimes you just need a break! I'll talk to you all later~

Record temps set

Contrary to what you may believe from the title, we are actually setting record highs! Today is the 3rd day in a row that we have set records. All of our snow is pretty much gone and the river is having a hard time freezing up.

You'll never guess what we came home to after work tonight. We had a bag of marshmallows sitting out on the counter that was open. Skeeter is my plastic bag kitty and low and behold the bag was on the floor in the spare bedroom. See pictures below. She actually ate a few of them!!!!!!

What an adorable little stinker!

Other than that nothing much is going on here. I'll post more later~

Changes

Well, I changed my blog layout again. The other one was just too boring. Maybe over Christmas break I'll try to develop my very own template/design. Who knows.

Christmas is in the Air

Today definitely has the feel to Christmas. The trees were covered with that beautiful thick frost all day long. I got our tree put up yesterday and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself, but I'll let you all be the judge of that.

I really love how the red/gold bows pop on the tree. I have gold beaded garland and white lights.

If you look close under the tree, you can see that we have a few presents, but it seems that Chubbs has chosen this spot as his new favorite resting place.

Well, it's almost time to get ready for bed. Chat with you all later~

Thanksgiving #1

Eric and I had our first together as a married couple yesterday. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a couple of friends. We had the whole sha-bang of food.

I just got off of Messanger with my sisters. That was awesome. We have decided that we will try to get together once a week and "chat". It was alot of fun.

I'm pulling out the christmas decorations today and am trimming the tree. Actually I took a break from that to update this. Once everything is decorated I'll post a picture.

Later~

Look into my eyes, you are getting sleepy

I'm not actually going to try to hypnotize you, but I did get this email the other day that I just had to share with all of my 2 blog readers. Okay, all 3 of you (just kidding, I better have more than that!). All you have to do is stare at thing pictures for a little while and you should eventually see a giraffe appear.

I had to laugh when I got this. I was drinking water and almost spit it out. If it doesn't work for you and you don't eventually see the giraffe, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Well, it's Friday and it's almost time to be done with work for the week. I can't wait. I'm ready for the weekend. I had to spend some time getting Travel approval for a conference next month in Portland, OR. I'll be there from Dec 9-12.

That's the exciting news happening here. I'll hopefully writing more exciting news later~

Blog Changes

Okay, so I was bored tonight, so I decided to change the look to the blog. What do you think?????? Who know, I may change it back. Not a lot is going on here.

I had to deal with one of the schools today. That was 10 minutes of trying to convince them that they need to turn the data in so I can send it in to the Department of Education so we can continue to keep our funding. I hope I convinced them. I guess I'll see in a few weeks if I get any paperwork back from them. I can see where they are coming from because in the past the program hasn't been able to help all of the students that apply to come to the camps. I'm trying to figure out some way that we can include more students without breaking our budget. I did that last summer and was told that I have to make sure it does not happen again. Ah, the dilemma's (is that spelled right?) of trying to accomodate the vast lands of the YK Delta without a road system.

Well, it's almost time for blogger to have a scheduled outage, so I will get this posted before then. Talk with you all later~

Happy Halloween.....a couple days late

Happy Halloween!!!

This is one of the cards I made at the Stampin' Up party. I've never really thought about making Halloween cards, but I didn't feel like making Christmas cards yet and those were the only stamps available for us this time.

Well, Eric finally comes home tomorrow night. He's been in West Virginia at training for work for the last 3 weeks.

I know this is a short post but I've got a lot of things to do before Eric's flight gets in. Later~

New hair cut and new computer

Okay, I know I mentioned my new hair cut a few weeks ago, but I just finally took some pictures. I like it alot, but this isn't the greatest picture.

Well, we finally got our new computer. It has the Vista operating system and that will take some getting used to, but it's not too bad. Here's a picture of the computer.

Notice the separate keypad on the right hand side. That's nice. It's a 17" screen. Well, I'm off to a Stampin' Up party. I'll write more later.

Rain?

Okay. Why is it raining outside? We've had nothing but chilly temperatures and light snow for the past 1 1/2 weeks and now all of a sudden it's raining. It started last night and kept on right through the night. It's still raining and 38 degrees. Is this a warming trend you ask? I highly doubt it. It's Bethel and warming trends really don't happen here. I'm sure it will be chilly and snowing by the weekend again. Although it will be really nice if it didn't.

On another note, my computer was in Anchorage yesterday, so hopefully it makes the cargo plane today and I'll have it tomorrow! It's wishful thinking but it could happen. Alrighty then. I'm going to get to work and I'll keep you all updated as things happen!

Computer and Pictures

Well, I added a few pictures to my Epson Photo Album. Follow the link on the right hand side. I also received an email from Dell this morning. Our computer was shipped yesterday (2nd Day air), so hopefully we will receive it by the end of the week. Yes, even though it was shipped 2nd day (and we paid 2nd day air prices!), we won't receive it till the end of the week. There's even the possibility of it not arriving until early next week, but I don't want to jinx it.

What does all of this mean? It mean that I won't have to take my slow work computer home to try to do anything anymore! Yeah.

Okay, I need to get back to work. Later~

PS. If any of you have pictures you want to email me send them to amy.gronke@gmail.com

The Promised wedding Pictures

Okay here's a few of the wedding pictures that I promised I would post. These are some of the ones that Eric's mom and sister took. I have the "professional" ones back from my sister, but until we get our new laptop I don't think I will be able to post any of those. The laptop I'm currently using is an older one that I use at work and it can be pretty slow. Enough blabber, here's a few for you to look at.

This has actually has to be one of my favorite pictures.

Okay, hopefully that satisfies some of you and I'll post more later.

So, what do you want to know?

Today was a busy day. I went to the local Saturday market to check out the crafts of the native. They have some beautiful crafts, but I still have a hard time paying the prices for some of the things. They have some beautiful grass weaved baskets and mukluks (skin/fur boots). After a little time there, I got together with another girl here who does some scrapbooking and we spent the afternoon making a few pages. Tonight I spent the evening at a going away party for the Refuge manager where Eric works. We had a wonderful potluck (Bethel is good for those!) and then there was a roast of the manager. That was well worth the trip to the party. Now I'm home watching some TV and updating my blog.

As far as the weather goes I don't think we've gotten above 30 in the past week. We've had snow on the ground since then also. This is what we woke up to last Saturday. This is the view from our dining room window looking down on our driveway.
I just realized that I had the following picture on the camera from Jimmie Joe's (Eric's dad) b-day party. This is the beaver hat (I would put down the Yup'ik name but I'm not sure how to spell it) that we er, I made for him.
Well, I'm going to sign off for the night, but I promise I'll post some wedding pictures tomorrow.

Waking Up to Snow

Well, this morning Eric and I woke up to snow. Not just a sprinkling of snow, snow that covers the ground and doesn't go away. Our high today is only 28. Hopefully we will get a little warm-up. I would add a picture but I don't want to be adding any more software to my work laptop if I don't need to. I took a few and hopefully I can post them later. I'm hoping our new laptop will be here in the next couple of weeks. Well, I better go. Later ~ Amy

Snow Anyone?

Well, we had our first official snow fall on Friday. Nothing stuck around but it's official, winter is just around the corner. As far as work goes, I am still waiting for the Department of Education to get their butt in gear and get our grant award to us. We can't do anything with the budget until we get the award to know how much they are giving us. So I'm pretty much working for free right now. Our business office says they will be able to back pay me, but I hope I don't have to wait too long for it.

Eric is doing good at work also. He flies out next Saturday for 3 weeks of training in West Virginia. The Fish and Wildlife Service has a huge training center out their and requires new employees to attend training out there. I think he's going out today with one of the guys from work to look for something. Maybe bear and caribou?

On a side note, I cut my hair. Not super short, but they did take about 3-4 inches which is alot for me. I'll try to get a picture posted soon. Well, I'll write more later. ~Amy

Updates

Well, I've been Mrs. Eric Wald for officially 2 1/2 weeks. It doesn't seem that different yet, but maybe that's because I'm still signing alot of things with Gronke still. I'm waiting for the Official copies of the marriage license arrive before I can change alot of the paperwork. Here's a collage that my photographer/sister put together.
Well, I better get going. I'm using my work computer to do this because my laptop crashed on me. Eric and I are looking at getting a new one but for the time being posting may be limited.

~ Amy

2 weeks and counting

Well, we are officially down to 2 weeks. I can't believe how fast the past year has gone. I'm almost done with everything. I still have the programs left to print and the guestbook but other then that everything is in place. It's been great being back home and seeing everyone again. Hopefully after the wedding I'll be able to post more often. It's tough when your on dial-up and don't know if people are going to try calling. Well, I'm cutting this short but promise to add more soon. ~Amy

The Sun will come out Tomorrow

Well, we can always hope can't we. This past weekend has been nothing but rain!!! From light sprinkles to down right pouring we had it all! Actually it's been kinda dreary for the past week.

As of this past Friday I am officially off work. We accidentally overran our budget by a few thousand so I am required to take some extra time off. That's okay though because I was running out of things to do. I've spent the last couple of days doing some wedding things and of course some fun things. We finally figured out Eric's wedding ring. Yeah I know we waited til the last minute but those of you that know Eric knows that he has a tendency to procrastinate on things. Here's a general picture of what the ring will look like. Replace the turquoise with onyx and the gold with white gold and you got yourself the ring.
We are slowly getting RSVPs back. Those of you that haven't sent them yet (you know who you are) please do so.

Well, I'll write a little more later ~ Amy

At first I was afraid...................But I survived!

Well, I sent the final group of kids packing yesterday and it feels great!!!!! It's so tough to deal with high school kids. That is definitely one of my least favorite age groups. The younger kids don't get as bored as fast as the older kids and the older kids need a lot more supervision then the younger kids. We had 24 kids and ended up having 3 couples that I know of forming over the 10 days. Now that we are done with camps I will spend a couple of weeks wrapping things up and getting ready for the new grant period come September.

RSVPs are coming in the mail daily. We have been getting about 5 a day. Thank you to all that have sent them back. Those that haven't - where are they!!!!! Just kidding. You still have time. I'll be heading back south on August 15. I'll be in Minnesota for a few days and then back home. I have to go to Brookings to finalize a few details for the wedding.

Well, I'm going to go. I took today off to recuperate and try to get my cough under control. Last week I almost lost my voice for a few days. That sucked especially when I had to raise my voice to the kids.

Catch you all later ~ Amy

Dirty Jobs

Well, this blog doesn't have anything to do with doing actual dirty jobs, but it does have to do with the TV show Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe and the Dirty Jobs crew came in to Bethel this morning to start getting things ready for swabbing duck butts! Yes you read that right, swabbing duck butts. There was a get together tonight at the Deputy Managers house (Doug) and Mike Rowe himself was there. Of course I had to do the star struck take a picture thing so here are a few from the night.
This is Mike wearing a Lynx hat that belongs to Doug's son Dalton. Dalton was the one who had the idea of sending Dirty Jobs the email about the duck swabbing. One email was all it took to get them interested.
And here of course is the obligatory photo of the "star" with the little people. Excuse the expression on my face. I believe someone said something and I laughed a little too hard! I told Mike that I had to do the "touristy thing" and he said that it was his pleasure and that he was the tourist.

For those of you that haven't seen the show basically what they do is go around the country doing jobs that people contact them about that they think are "dirty" jobs. This guy is just as funny in person as he is on TV. Doug (the Deputy Manager of the Refuge) brought up the idea of putting VITs (vaginal transmitters) in the moose that Eric works with and Mike seem interested in the idea. How knows, come April they may be back here following Eric around with his moose work!!!!!

Well, that's about it for my night. I'll post more later ~ Amy

We Finally Hit 70!

Well, I think summer is officially here. Yesterday we hit 70 degrees and today we were 77. It was almost too hot. Actually it was too hot. We road our bikes into town to check out the small festivities at Pinky's Park. They were selling some food, jewelery and had some music but that was it. We managed to stay maybe 1/2 hour before we decided to leave. We had one of the guys Eric works with come over for supper. We won't have any fireworks because the sun doesn't set until 12:28 am.

We have some exciting news for the YK Delta. Mike Rowe from Discovery Channels Dirty Jobs will be here doing some work on the Tundra. Every one from Eric's work is invited to go over to one of the managers houses to hang out with the crew from the show on Monday night. I'll keep you posted.

I will be finishing up wedding invites tomorrow and should be able to get them into the mail on Friday. I'll be glad to get those done but kinda sad because I've enjoyed working on them. Well it's 9:20 pm so I think I will get going so I can surf the web a little more before I go to bed. Later ~ Amy

Update

Well, I have no kids this week and I am enjoying my time away from the. We have another group coming in on Sunday but until then I will enjoy the freedom. I have to work tomorrow but because of the July 4th holiday I have Wednesday and Thursday off and I have built up enough comp time to take Friday off so I get a 5 day weekend.

Eric and I ordered a few shirts and pants to try to decide on groomsmen and groom outfit and I think we have made a decision. Here's what the Groomsmen will be wearing.
And here is what the groom will be wearing (except he will be wearing black pants, not BROWN!). The shirt has a pinstripe towards the from of the collar and match ones of the cuffs.
Here's a picture of all the the wedding attire together.
Well, I better get going. I'm almost done with all of the invites. They should go out in the mail this week. I'm excited to get them off the table and in the mail. One less thing to worry about. I'll write more later ~ Amy

2 Down 3 To Go

Well, I finished my second camp yesterday and I'm happy to say I survived! This past week we had just over half of the kids return from last year and let me tell you they were a handful. The camps themselves went much more smooth then last week. I'm hoping they each get a little better. The first week we had all the students stay even though we had a few homesick kids. This week, we had 2 that didn't show up and 3 that went home sick (not homesick).

As far as wedding things go, I'm almost done with the invites. I have to do a few more things with the envelopes but they should be ready for the mail in a few days. I think we have found the groomsmen outfits. Here's what we are thinking.
We are still debating on what Eric is going to be wearing. He'd like to try to find a black shirt with white collars and cuffs. I'll keep you posted on that. Well, I better get back to the laundry. I have to get most of my weekend stuff done today because I'll have to work late tomorrow afternoon and evening. Later ~ Amy

I'm Alive and Kicking

Well, I know it's been awhile since I've updated. I've been busy getting things ready for my camps for work. I just finished my first camp (29, 11 & 12 year olds!) and we had a successful week. It started last Sunday 2 hours earlier then expected with me NOT ready. Village planes sometimes don't follow the schedule very well. That early arrival threw me off for the first few days. After being extremely overwhelmed on Monday evening, I recovered and pulled off a good week. I am happy to say we didn't have any kids go home homesick. In the past at least 1 kids has gone home homesick on the second day. We had kids crying, but they stayed! Hopefully that says something about the way I'm running the camps. I guess I'll have another try come Sunday afternoon when the second group of 11 & 12 year olds come in. We will have 32 of them this time. We keep them busy in the mornings by having them do classroom type activities (such as Robotics, Science, Reading, Writing, etc). Afternoons are busy exploring different careers and doing some field trips. Evenings consist of Kayaking, playing at the local park, games and shopping. Kayaking and shopping are the 2 biggest things for the Village kids. I guess last year they had a couple of girls who got their ears pierced and didn't have permission to do so. Glad that hasn't happened yet!!!!!!!

Well, I better get going. It's 10:45 pm and I should probably get some sleep because I've been working 12-14 hour days since Sunday and I can tell I'm getting sleep deprived. I'll try to write more this weekend. ~ Amy

It's a bird, it's a plane, well, it's a crocheted plane!

Well, I finally had an opportunity to make another graph afghan. I had alot of fun doing this one and it didn't take very long to do it either. Here it is:
This was made for a co-worker of Eric who is a pilot with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Him and his wife had a little girl about a month ago. I think it turned out pretty good and I love how the colors turned out. I was a little skeptical when I got the yarn in the mail but it worked out.

I spent some time this past weekend working on the invitations, with the help of the Itty Bitty Kitty. I got all of the inserts printed and cut and a majority of them assembled. You should have seen Skeeter (also known as Itty, Bitty Kitty) watching the printer. She was so amazed at the paper going in one end and coming out the other. Here's a picture of her watching.
Well, it's 9:50 pm and lighter then light outside. I do believe the official sunset tonigh is 11:58 pm. We are almost to our daylight high point. We will gain roughly another 1/2 hour in the evening and another 1/2 hour in the morning and I think that's it.


I guess I should start getting ready for bed. We try to force ourselves to be in bed by 10:30/11:00 so we still get enough sleep. I usually wake up about 5:30/6:00 because of the light but force myself to stay in bed until the alarm goes off at 6:30. Skeeter usually comes to cuddle me in the morning. She loves to lay on my chest and put her head up by my chin and just look at me. It's really quite cute. I'll have to try to get a picture sometime. ~Amy

11:00 pm and it's bright as day

Well, it's going to take some getting used to it being light until midnight! The sun rises about 5:45 am and doesn't set until midnight. I think I may have to resort to using an eye mask pretty soon. Actually it hasn't been too bad yet. My body tells me that it's time for bed around 10:30 or 11:00 pm so as long as I don't give myself an excuse to stay up it's okay.

I spent the day today working on the wedding invitations. I printed inserts, cut them all apart and did some glueing. I also got most of the envelopes addressed. Here's a mock up of the invites. The front is going to have some sort of monogram on it, I think. A lady from work is working on one this weekend for us!
Well, with the sunlight has come the birds. We have a few bird houses around our house and the cats love to sit in the windows and call to the birds. Little do they know that the windows aren't open so they can't hear them. Here's a picture of the kitties in the window.
Well, I suppose I should try to get some sleep. It's nice that we have a 3 day weekend. I love my job, but at the same time, I love my weekends and time off. I better enjoy it now because once June 10 hits, I'm a slave to work (except for Saturdays).

Wedding Dress

I know I haven't written in awhile, but it's worth it I promise. Today you will get a preview of "the dress". It's really hard to capture all of the details on the dress, but I tried. I won't make you wait any longer. Here they are:

Full dress

bodice

Side view of dress

Close up detail of beading

So, what do you all think????? I absolutely love it!!!!

I have all of the invites folded I just need to print up the inserts, cut and assemble. And then of course stuff all envelopes and address everything. I have roughly 2 full weeks to get all of this accomplished. I'll get pictures of the invites as I assemble them. More later~Amy

Cats, Cats and more cats!

Okay, there is actually only 2 cats, but the title Cats and Cats just isn't that catchy! We've gotten some good pictures recently of Skeeter and Chubbs. Here's a few of Skeeter:



Can you find the real animal in the picture below? I just couldn't resist taking this picture of Chubbs. He looked like he fit in with the rabbit, ducks and grouse.

Well, I better get going. I'll do more either later today or tomorrow. ~Amy

Skeeter

I just picked Skeeter up from the vet. She had to get spayed and she was also declawed. I took the afternoon off to spend with her. Actually it was to make sure Chubbs didn't groom her to death! She's been a sweetheart curled up in my lap almost all afternoon. She's sleeping over the computer trying to help me out. I'll try to get some pictures of her soon to show you all how big she's gotten. We've had her for 2 months and she's more than doubled in size! Well, I need to get going so I can pick Eric up at work. I'll try to update soon! ~ Amy

April Showers bring May Potholes??????

Well, I know it isn't May just yet, but the other day when Eric and I were driving around we noticed so may new potholes in the road. The thawing with the rain is starting to cause major potholes in the only paved road in the city. It's like a regular rollercoaster between swerving to miss potholes and the heaves that the thawing is causing. I was going to take some pictures yesterday to show all of you what I mean, but apparently the city must have known because they have filled in all of the potholes!

On another note, last week Eric finished collaring his moose. They darted 38 cows and calves. They gave them beautiful neon orange necklaces to wear. It took them all week to get these collared. As far as his taxidermy goes, he ordered a Fleshing Machine to help with the hides. He sent in the hides of his lynx, rabbits and foxes to get tanned. Once he gets them back he should be able to start on mounting some of them.

I ordered some paper samples to try to get the invitations worked out. I have to get these done within the next month because once June rolls around I won't have any time to do them, let alone think :-) I have Raquel on a mission to find me some yarn. I won't say what it's for, that's a surprise ;-) I'm hoping the dress I ordered will be in the mail soon. I'm excited to see how it looks.

Signing off for now ~ Amy

Wedding Details Coming Together

For those of you that want a quick "light" update, we are up to around 14 1/2 hours of sunlight. The sun has started to come up around 7:30 am and sets around 10:30 pm. It's funny how easily your body can adjust to the longer days than the shorter days.

Okay, we have finally got most of the plans together for the wedding. The wedding party is all on board. Eric has chosen 4 of his buddies. These are listed in no particular order yet: Jeremy Duckwitz, Josh Miller, Brett Amdor and Kevin Monteith. The lucky ladies paired up with these guys are Wendy Finnegan (my sister), Alethea Caraway (my best friend), Shawnda Hildebrande (Eric's cousin) and junior bridesmaid Brinley Mathern (Eric's niece). Bridesmaids dresses have been ordered and almost everyone has gotten theirs. Still trying to decide on what the groomsmen will be wearing. I found another dress and have put in an order. If all goes well, I should have it in 2-3 weeks. Here's a picture of the dress.
For flowers I think we are going with something simple. Calla lily bouquets is what I'm thinking. Along those lines, I am thinking that the details for the cupcakes will be Calla Lilies also.

I am in the process of ordering paper for the invitations. They are going to be simple pocketfolds. We've got a pretty hefty guestlist going as of right now.

Well it's time for me to start making super so I will talk to you all later ~ Amy

Flashback to the Past

Okay, I'm not sure how many of you readers out there will remember this, but the other day when Eric and I were at the grocery store we saw some bottles of Clearly Canadian! I didn't realize that they made this stuff anymore. It makes you wonder if it is still a popular drink or if it is just that slow to work it's way up to this area!

Happy Easter to everyone out there. Not much happens here on Easter. Yesterday there was an easter egg hunt for the kids but that's about it. We didn't even get Good Friday off.

The kitten (who we have officially named Skeeter) had her first vet visit yesterday. She got a booster, wormer and the rabies vaccine. Next month she will be spayed and declawed. Poor girl. She's my little sweetie though. She sleeps above my head on my pillow. There's been a few times when she would stretch out and end up with her head on my shoulder.

On other note, we have a new pet for a few weeks. Once again we are dog-sitting for Sadie. It's been an interesting few days for Sadie and the kitten. They are starting to finally warm up to each other. Chubbs on the other hand is not warming up to Sadie yet. He will sit in the middle of the hallway and won't let Sadie into the living room. She's too scared to do anything about it.
Well, it's about time to feed Sadie so I'll sign off for now. I promise I'll do a wedding/crochet update soon!~Amy

Fiascos oh my!

Hello All,
Well, I survived the weekend, but let me tell you it was touch and go for awhile starting late last week. The first fiasco was the bridesmaids dresses! I finally found the perfect one after searching online for 2-3 months. I decided to order them and the were completely gone from the website. I was lucky that they were available from another company and the girls have finally got them ordered. Here's what they look like.
The second fiasco, that I'm still trying to work out, is my dress. I thought I had found the perfect dress. It's Ivory instead of White, but I didn't imagine it to be as "yellow" as it was when I opened the box. I was so disappointed. Here's the picture from Nordstroms and then the picture of the dress beside the bridesmaids dresses.
These pictures portrait the dress much "whiter" than it is. So the search is on once again for a dress for myself. I'm leary of getting anything that says "ivory" now, so it will only be white for me!

Okay, I'm off to look on the web for another dress. ~ Amy

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.