alive and kickin'

Has it really been two months since I last posted?  I really don't have an excuse.  It's just easier to keep up with life on Facebook than here.

So much has happened recently.  One month ago, we became the brand new owners of a 7.5 acreage.  We have a decent house, a great shop for the hubby, a few little sheds/outbuildings so we can raise some animals and a greenhouse.  You know sometimes when you move into a new places it takes a while to get use to how things are set up, etc.  Not this place!  Since we moved in, the house has felt like home.  Even on the first couple of days before our belongings got delivered.  This house wasn't the "oh wow, I have to have it!", house when we first looked at it, but apparently it was "the one".  We love the feeling of being able to get outside and not having to worry about if the neighbors are watching you.  We are surrounded by lots of trees......too many actually :(  Well only too many to get Direct TV or Dish Network.  Guess we will just have to work with the pre-attached antenna that is on the house.  Luckily with the digital flat screens we are able to get the local stations.  Nothing like 4 PBS stations to get your daily fix of public broadcasting!!!!

 

That "box" you see just off the left side of the house is actually a hottub, which is currently full and running.   I've been too chicken to give it a try though because our daytime temperatures haven't gotten over 10 since we've moved in and have been more like -5 to -10.  Maybe once March hits and temps start to warm up I'll brave the conditions and give it a try.  Anybody is more than welcome to come visit and give it a try if they like though!!!!!  We have a spare bedroom that we are willing to put you up in!  Once we get a little more settled (or at least a few more boxes out of the way and picked up off the floor) I'll go around and take a few more pictures to show you all what the inside of the house looks like and some of the renovations that we are planning on trying to do!

Along with the property, we have been honored with the presences of a few moose.  The first moose that graced our humble abode woke us up at 5:30 AM as they trampled by the house.  This was a mom and last years' calf.  Scared the living daylights out of our cat Chubbs!  Our big, bad, not afraid of anything cat is afraid of moose.  The cat that stares down dogs and traps them in a corner.  A few days later, Chubbs started acting all weird.  He didn't know what to do and then took off to hide.  I had a feeling that there was something close by and I was right!  This gal was within feet of the house.  The table and tiki torches are only about 4-6 feet from the house.

Where Have I Been?!?!?!?

I've been working from home in Fairbanks, that's were I have been.  Let me catch you all up a little since I last posted back in August.  The months of August and September were spent house hunting.  We did not have any luck finding something that we thought we could work with.  There was plenty out there, but nothing screamed "buy me I'm your new home"!  We had the opportunity to hear Amy Roloff speak about the Americans with Disabilities Act.  For those of you who don't know who Amy is, she and her family are the stars of TLC's Little People, Big World.  Eric went out on a solo moose hunt towards the end of September and was rewarded with an awesome moose.  The antlers measure 76", that's 6 ft, 4 in.

In October, I was able to get back to SD and MN for a few days since I missed out on my annual trip in August because of the move/house hunting.  My aunts put together a 90th birthday party for my grandma.  She doesn't turn 90 until the end of December, but they wanted to get as many of the grandkids home as the could before the weather got wintery.  I've seen more cousins that I have not seen in years, a few probably in a decade or more!  The rest of October seems to have passed without much excitement.

Here is a picture of all of the grandkids and great-grandkids that showed up for my grandma's party.  The sweet, adorable little vikings boy is my youngest nephew.  He's such a sweetie!

November started to get a little more exciting.  Early in the month the local PBS station brought Red Green to town.  Of course we had to take the opportunity to see the hilarious Red Green.  Since it was an early gift for Eric's birthday, we did the whole VIP thing and got to meet Red Green and get our picture taken with him.  Towards the middle of the month, we took a huge step and put an offer in on a 7.5 acreage (with house, shop and greenhouse) about 10 miles from town.  After a counter back from the sellers, we are in the process of inspections of all sorts.  I'll keep you all posted.  We had a simple, quiet Thanksgiving with the upstairs neighbors.

Here's a picture of Eric and I with Red Green.  If you don't know who he is, look him up!

Hello From the Interior

Well we are finally (as well as one can be living in a hotel) settle in Fairbanks.  The good thing is that the hotel has a little fitness center and a small pool.  I've been able to work out almost every day since we got here.  Tomorrow it will be 2 weeks.  First off, the weather for the most part has been gorgeous!  We have had temperatures in the high 60s for most of that 2 weeks.  Today is a little chilly because it's partly cloudy, but it is still 65.  I haven't taken any pictures, but I will have plenty of time for that.

We went on our first official house hunting trip on Friday and took a look at 5 different houses.  Didn't really see anything that looked promising.  One of them had a gorgeous kitchen that I would love, but there were really close neighbors and the garage was way to small for the truck to fit.  The first one we saw was really dated, I don't think the current owners spent any money to update anything in it from when it was built in the 70s!  Plus, it smelled like dog really bad!  Another one had potential, but a bachelor lived there and it was completely a bachelor house.  I just couldn't picture myself in that house at all.  We have another trip planned on Tuesday afternoon with 4-5 more viewings.  We are looking for something with a little land, so I think that might limit us.

I've been enjoying having some downtime, but I am definitely missing not being back in SD/ND/MN like usually am during August.  Come September, I will be working again for the university, but it will be from home, er hotel.  There is only a year left on the grant that I was working on while in Bethel, so I was able to convince the director to let me stay on.  I will have to make a few trips back to Bethel throughout the year and I will be back in Bethel next summer for the final season of summer camps.  It is going to be so sad next summer.  I started to let the kids know this year that next summer would be the last year and I had so many students ask me why and said they didn't want the camps to be over with! I even had a few of the high school kids tell me that they would write letters of support for us.  So sweet!  I'm hoping we will be able to go out with a big bang!

Well, I will try to post some more after the house hunting tomorrow.  Later!

Final Post from Bethel

Well, summer camps have wound down, but the summer is long from being over.  Quite a few of you have heard, but for those that haven't we will be moving from small town life (Bethel) to big town life (Fairbanks, abbreviated FBX from now on).  Eric got a job with one of the refuges there so we will be moving the beginning of August.  The movers are here and packing us up.  Boy, you don't realize how much stuff you can accumulate in 4 years!  Good thing we are being moved!  We have the reservations made for housing and I just completed the car rental reservations until the truck gets there.  The hardest part so far is having to decide what to keep back and what to have the packers pack and move. There is a possibility that we may have up to 60 days without our stuff!

House hunting is going okay.  We found a few online that we want to go check out, but we need to actually be in FBX to do that.  We know a few people who have recently moved to FBX and they have given us a few recommendations as far as who to go with (realtor wise) and where to live.  We are hoping to find a few acres not too far outside of the main part of town.  FBX is spread out and there are 4 or 5 smaller towns surrounding it plus Ft. Wainwright and Eielson Air Force base.

Well, this is the final post from Bethel.  Next post will either be from the Anchorage airport or the hotel in Fairbanks.

Mighty Hunter

No, not Eric, but Chubbs the cat.  He's more into the catch and release in the house type of hunting.  During the summer we will let the cats wonder around outside, but we usually keep an eye of them so the don't go too far.  Well, the other day Chubbs was wondering around just outside the garage and saw something moving that he wanted to keep an eye on.  Of course, I was in the house doing a little crafting and all of a sudden Eric yells up at me that Chubbs is coming up with something.  I go into the hall to see what he has and he's got a little vole and it was still alive!  He wouldn't let Skeeter come anywhere near it.  It was his!  We let him play around with it for a little bit, but finally scooped it up and took it back outside.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dad and father-in-law!  Here are the cards I made especially for each one of them!  Since Jimmy Joe is a cowboy at heart, I had to make him a cowboy boot card.  I found a template online and printed it the size I wanted.  I had a lot of fun with this one!!!!!

Next up is the one that I made for my dad is a tribute to his life on a far and a familiar saying we heard growing up!  Opening up the barn doors you read the saying "I'd Walk 10 Miles in the Snow Uphill Both Ways".  The inside of the card says "to Wish You a Happy Father's Day"

The should have received the cards in the mail Friday or Saturday.

Latest Crochet Project

When I look at this picture I think, "Wow!  That looks like it came right out of a catalog."

Guess what!  I made that blanket.  That room that it's in is the babies room for one of my coworkers.  I cannot believe how awesome this picture is!!!!

We had a baby shower at work a few weeks ago for our Student Services coordinator.  Him and his partner are having a little baby here in a few weeks.  I was able to get him to talk about the decor in the babies room one day at work when the power went out for 15 minutes.  It was too easy!  Here is the picture I took for keepsake purposes.

After I finished the main portion of the blanket, I was contemplating how I wanted to finish the edging.  I was wondering what it would look like to use both the white and tan yarn and I alternated the stitches.  One tan, one white, one tan, one white...................  It took awhile, but it was well worth it.  To me, it brought the right finishing touches to the blanket!

David Green Master Furrier

While in the big city, we also stopped at David Green, Master Furrier, again.  Eric's been talking about having a beaver fur coat made for me, so we wanted to stop and see how many beaver Eric would need and the cost.  Talk about a fur lovers dream!  That store is so awesome and you only see a little portion of it on the showroom floor.  The lady answering our questions showed us the vault!  Yes, the vault o' furs.  Oh my WOW!  I fell in love with a little v-neck jacket made of goat and chinchilla.  Gorgeous gray body and beautiful gray/white/black collar and cuffs. This is the general design of the jacket.   The next picture shows the correct coloring and length.  Just imagine that color with a v-neck collar.  Ya gettin' the picture?

It looked so exquisite hanging there just asking me to try it on.  Good thing I decided to look at the price before trying it on.  Anyone want to try to guess the price?!?!?!?!?  Only a measly $15,000.  Yep, that's right.  I DID NOT add too many zeros or forgot a decimal point.

So, needless to say I won't be getting that item of fur.

The Alaska Zoo

Earlier this month, Eric and I ended up going into Anchorage for a few days.  We had the chance to go to the Anchorage Zoo.  They have some pretty cool animals there that they don't normally have in zoos.  We also don't have some of the normal zoo animals (monkeys)!

The first picture here is the sleepy brown bear.  It just happened to roll over and "pose" for this picture.

 

Next we have a Dall Sheep.  I just had to take this picture.  It cracks me up every time I see it.  Look at that goofy looking "smile" on his face.

 

This next picture are the famous Musk Ox.  These guys are not very tall.  Maybe 4'.  They are cool though! 

Here is a polar bear.  Not sure if it's male or female.  It was restless in the enclosure.  Kept walking up to the white fence and tossing its' head back then walking around going back to the fence and repeating this habit. 

This next animal is only found in Alaska.  It is a Sitka Deer.  It sure was a pretty little guy.  

This pretty little kitty is a snow leopard.  I'm not sure how they keep it cool during the summer.  The like alot of snow, hence the name.  It was also restless like the polar bear.

 

This guy would not stand still for a picture.  I think the only time it stopped moving is when it had to pee!  It was fun to see him run around the cage.  This is a wolverine.  Pretty cool, but not as pretty as Eric's though! 

Finally, I think this is probably the mandatory photo that a lot of people have to take when they are at the zoo!  That was our trip to the Alaska Zoo.  I hope you have enjoyed your/our journey.

Eric's 2010 Bear Hunt

Well, I suppose I should put pictures up since it has been almost a month since he went out on the hunt!  He had a successful hunt that last about 10 days.  This bear was bigger than last years.  Huge claws on him.  He also had a really large head!

 

Since the weather wasn't being too cooperative when Eric was trying to get back to Bethel, he had a few days (3) to sit and wait.  So, what do you do when you get bored waiting for the airplane to come pick you up?  You build a snowman!  I had to laugh when I saw these pictures.  I figured you must be pretty bored to build a snowman while you wait.  Then I started thinking about that Tom Hanks movie were he takes the volleyball and makes it into "Wilson".

I was thinking that this snowman must have taken awhile to build, then I saw the next picture and just about died laughing.  Apparently it was only about a foot tall.

 

Well, that was Eric's hunt in a nutshell.  I'll have another post soon about our early May trip to Anchorage.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of those mom's out their, especially mine and the mother-in-law! The first is the card I made for my mom.  The second was made for Eric's mom.  The one I made for my mom is suppose to be a shadow box type look to it with the green frame popped out from the base.  Didn't turn out quite like the sample I followed but it's still cool because it's different.

  

The following pictures are from when our stamping group got together last weekend.  These are some bookmarks that one of the ladies made and then there is the picture of our table. 

Administrative Professional's Week

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by the Asst. Director of the Campus if I had any ideas / would make something for the Admin Professionals.  After a lot of searching and thinking, I decided to do an "Administrative Professional Survival Kit".  I had plenty of the plastic Crystal Light tubes and they actually make good holders.  I also made corresponding Thank You cards to match the kits.  They were a big hit and I had a blast making them.  Glad I was able to use up all of my Crystal Light tubes!  They were taking up way too much space!

Stampin' Up Color Renovation

Well if you have heard already, Stampin' Up has come up with a new Color Renovation that will take place with the new catalog in July.  They are getting rid of the old color families and making some new ones.  This also means that they are getting rid of some of the main colors that they have had for awhile and then bringing back some of the past In Colors that were more popular.

If you are interested in any of the retiring colors, I suggest you put an order in as soon as possible.  It's hard to tell how much stock Stampin' Up has on hand and how fast they will sell it!  Note that alot of the purples are retiring.  Also, they have rename the color Kraft to Crumb Cake.

Has It Really Been 1.5 Months?

As the title states: Has it really be 1.5 months since I last posted?  I guess it has.  It's so easy to forget about this little blog site with Facebook around, but I do have some big news....
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just kidding!  But I got your attention, didn't I?

Okay, all kidding aside, I have been busy doing a little crafting.  My latest crochet project turned out great (at least I think so).  Check it out!

I have also done a little card making.  The first one was a thank you for Eric's dad and the second one was a birthday card for Eric's mom.

 

Girl Scouts Women of Science

I had so much fun helping out  at the Bethel Girl Scouts Women of Science program.  I spent most of my day yesterday helping out the Girl Scouts leading a group of 1st graders and taking pictures.  I also had the opportunity to meet Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, who is an Olympic snowboarder from Alaska.  She flew in for the day to support the Women of Science program for the Girl Scouts.  I had the opportunity to get her autograph and picture taken with her.  She is a wonderful inspiration for the native girls and such a nice person.  She wanted to stay longer in Bethel, but needed to catch a flight today to Europe for the World Cup.  Busy girl and she is only 21.

I think this has to be one of my favorite events that I volunteer with.  I get to see so many of the younger kids in town that I normally wouldn't see otherwise.  The kids got to learn about wildlife, methane bubbles, blood pressure, making casts, wind turbines, mining (with cupcakes and cookies!), rockets, tv production and ethnobotany.  Can't wait until next year!

Stampin' Up Sale-a-Bration and new Mini Catalog

Here's the new Sale-a-Bration (SAB) catalog from Stampin' Up.  SAB is an annual event that Stampin' Up does.  For every $50 you spend, you receive something from the SAB for FREE!!!!

http://xmission.com/~stampinup/catalogs/NovCatalogs/SAB_10_US.pdf

Here is the new Mini Catalog.  Since Stampin' Up has gone to 1 catalog a year they have come out with a couple of mini catalogs.  This is the newest one.  This catalog introduces the new clear mount stamps (still the great red rubber, but you use them with acrylic blocks!).  They are also debuting a new punch design.  This design will help with storage.

http://204.228.150.61/catalogs/20091231/OccasionsMini10_US.pdf

Let me know if you are interested in placing an order for anything!!!!!

New afghan

Well - for those of you that are on Facebook, you probably have already seen this picture but I still wanted to post it here since I seem to be lacking in the posts lately. I finally finished another afghan. This is for a lady I work with. She just had a little granddaughter a few months ago and ask if I would make her one. I wanted something easy and something I could make with year I had already had on hand. Here is what I came up with.

Why Santa Didn't Leave me Anything

'Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree
I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me
Could it be cardstock or inkpads or lace?
Or some stamps, I said, with a smile on my face.
And that's when I heard him...
"Hi Santa," I said
He replied, "You know...good girls should be in their beds".
"I know I should Santa, and now I've been caught.
But I was just so excited to see what you brought."
"Well, let's take a look in this room where you work".
He shook his head quickly and left with a jerk.
I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear.
"You've got enough crap,
I'll see you next year!"



This was just too cute not to post.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Quiz

I usually don't do these types of things, but i thought it would be fun. Also I realized that I have only posted 1 time in the month of December and thought I should try to bump that up a little!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?:
I love wrapping paper and especially home wrapped gifts!

2. Real tree or Artificial?:
I love real trees, but unfortunately we can't get them up here unless you want to pay a hefty price. The past three years we have been putting up a white artificial tree (2 years with gold and red, this year I did green and silver).

3. When do you put up the tree?:
Family tradition has always been the Friday after Thanksgiving. I remember putting up the tree as kids all the time on Thanksgiving break.

5. Do you like eggnog?:
yuk!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?:
Would have to be my Mini-Bake Oven! I love to cook and bake to this day.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My Dad - unless I win the lottery and can afford the farm equipment he seems to put on his list EVERY year!


8. Easiest person to buy for?
My mom or my older sister.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Nope. Never have been into them.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Via mail... although this year they are going to be a little late again! I should be getting them from the printers sometime early next week.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I think all of those years that we received socks and underwear as kids! Although they were needed they just didn't seem like they should be under the tree.

12.Favorite Christmas Movie?
Never really had a favorite Christmas movie, but watched all of the Christmas cartoons growing up.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I start in August with my nephews while I'm home so I don't have to worry about shipping stuff!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Of course not - okay I am guilty ;-)

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
I am a sucker for pretty much any type of Christmas treats.

16. Lights on the tree?
Definitely! Currently have white but I think next year I might want to do a different color.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Elmo Wants a Hippopotamus for Christmas - Just Kidding, for some strange reason I really like Santa Baby and Baby It's Cold Outside

18. Hmm...where did 18 go??

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?:
dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, donner and blitzen…and Rudolph,

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star, never really was into the angel topper.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Tradition was always Christmas Eve with Santa's gifts on Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
not having enough snow to make it feel like Christmas :-(

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
as mentioned earlier, green and silver - this year

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
It was ham growing up, now Eric and I usually do a roast of some sort. This year I believe it will probably be a Musk Ox roast.

25. What do you want to do for Christmas this year?
Relax, open a few gifts and just spend the day vegging!