Being Crafty

Well, I have done quite a few crafts over the past couple of weeks and thought I would show you all some pictures. And I saved the best for last, so make sure you read all the way down.

The first ones are from my stamping group. We use all Stampin' Up supplies.Here is a little something I did for the people at work as an Easter treat. These were pretty fun to make. I even was asked to make some for a graduation present.And finally I've been working on an afghan for a work associate of Eric's. Him and his wife had a little boy 2 weeks ago. He's a wildlife biologist for the state office. I think it turned out adorable.

Where does the money go?

Well, I found that out the other day. I left my pursue open by mistake and this is what I found.

Guess I know who the culprit is now!

On another money draining note, the Bethel Ducks Unlimited Banquet is tonight. Eric and I bought tickets a few weeks ago with the plan of all of the moose captures being done. Well, moose captures JUST started yesterday. The biologist came in Sunday, the helicopter couldn't get in until Wednesday. Thursday was a snowy, windy day. Today is perfect. Clear blue skies with little wind. This means they will be out all day. Luckily I have a friend in town who doesn't have plans for the night. With Eric not going though, we may not spend very much money! With that being said, I should probably get a few more things done this afternoon before I have to get ready for the Banquet. I'll write more later.

NKOTB

Oh my gosh! Do you realize what those 5 letters mean? Let me refresh your memory.

I'll Be Loving You - No, still don't know.

What about - The Right Stuff

Nothing yet - this one should jog that memory
Hangin' Tough

If you guess New Kids on the Block you would be right. NKOTB is back! Oh boy, I can't wait. They are going to be doing some new music, along with the old. Rumor has it they are even going to be touring. I wonder if they would come to Bethel?

Okay, enough joking. I just couldn't resist when I read that they were reuniting. I used to be a pretty big fan. Good thing they didn't announce this a few days ago. People would have thought that they were trying to pull an April Fools Joke.

Finally some crochet!

Here's a blanket I finished last month, but I didn't want to post any pictures until the recipient received it. Little Ian Maples received it last week and so here it is. The is probably one of my most favorite afghans. I am currently working on a cartoon moose for one of the guys in the State Fish & Game Office who's wife had a little boy last week. In the works for future projects are an airplane blanket of some sort for one of the pilots that works with Eric. Isaac and his wife are expecting a boy in June. I have ladybug ghan to make for little Iris Maples. Sarah and Jon recently got back from Guatalamala with Iris. Then a blanket for Alethea and Corey's little one - oh wait, she reads this so I can't go into detail on that one. Sorry Leath, you are going to have to wait just like everyone else :)

I'm not only making blankets though, this semester I am also teaching an introductory crochet class. I have 7 adults and 1 kid in the class. Most of them had no experience with crochet. Some of them are moving along fast, others are still working on the main chain and turning. I have classes on Tuesday evenings. We were suppose to start last week, but unfortunately I had got a cold and almost lost my voice. This made it impossible to teach class, so we start this week and will go for the next 3 weeks. 4 classes total. I can't believe how fast the time flew by in class.

I was planning on finishing the moose blanket last night, but the kitties had other ideas. Chubbs kept trying to sit in my lap, but I would slowly nudge him off. Skeeter on the other hand is not a lap kitty, so when she climbed in my lap and curled up I had to let her stay. Chubbs is currently in my lap trying to help me type. He loves to be in the middle of things. Well, this is getting hard to type with one hand so I'll gone for now and type more later.

New glasses, haircut and other stuff

Well, I finally got my new glasses today. I ordered them way back on February 5!!!!!!! Apparantly my frames weren't in stock so they had to wait on them. What do you think???? I also got my hair cut again on Monday. The lady only comes for a few days every month, so I go every other time.On a side note, I made my little nephew Caden a scratch n sniff birthday card. It was a trial and error process, but I think it turned out okay. The verdict is still out on the card.

The Mighty Hunter

Well, I picked up the mighty hunter tonight from the airport. He came back with more then he left so that's a good thing. I think. No it is. He was successful in the hunt. Muskox hunt that is. He was out on Nunivak Island since Saturday morning. They were finally able to get out yesterday morning and happened upon a small herd of about 16 muskox. So, without further ado, here is the results of that hunt.

And what, you ask is he going to do with the big prehistoric looking animal? Mount it, of course. You really didn't even need to ask. Actually he is going to make a full size rug out of it including the head. Here is how it will look.

Of course, he brought all of the meat back. Good thing it's only 5 degrees outside. We can keep the meat outside until this weekend when we have the time to cut it up and package it. Muskox is supposed to be really good meat. People have said that it is comparable to beef. If that is the case, it should be similar to elk and caribou, which we have a freezer full of. Well, I will be signing off now. Catch you all later.

When Peeps Attack

Or should I say when peeps get attacked. Little Skeeter just loves marshmallows and plastic bags. When we combined the peep and the bag she just had to have it. And it was in the middle of the night right beside the bed where I sleep. Here's a picture of the tragedy.

And another one of the peeps in the bag.

Muddy roads and potholes

Sounds like the makings of a good country song, don't it? We have had a slight warming in Bethel for the past 3 or 4 days. We've gotten up to about 34 degrees and that's just warm enough to crack some asphalt and melt the frozen mud. Although I am enjoying the warmer temperatures, I'm not looking forward to the mud melting it brings.

America's Pregnant Governor

Last month she was America's Hottest Governor, now she's pregnant. Yes ladies and gentlemen, our governor is pregnant. Seven months to be exact. Due in May. How you may ask did we not know she was knocked up? Well, it is winter in Alaska and people tend to wear layers. Plus Governor Palin likes to wear traditional Qaspeqs (kuspuks), which are bagging shirts that can hide quite a bit. Whenever they showed her on TV, they would always show her behind a podium, so we could never tell.

2 second Win

Well, the Junior Iditarod finished up yesterday morning at 8:49 am and in the closest winner ever, the winner won by only 2 seconds. Why you may ask am I reporting on a race that few have probably heard of? Because the winner is 17 year old Jessica Klejka of Bethel. She is a senior at Bethel Regional High School. She beat out Lance Mackey's (2007 Iditarod winner and Yukon Quest winner for 2007, 2008) stepson Cain. Well I would type more but I have a Skeeter in my lap and a Chubbs trying to join us.

My Weekend Fun

Once again, we had our group Stampin get together. We were working with a few different colors of green and purple. Here's a sampling of the cards I made.

So what do you all think? One's a Father's Day card, one is a Mother's Day card, one is a Thinking of You for my Grandma and the other 2 have no specific purpose yet.

On a side note, I think I screwed up our printer. Actually it isn't even our printer. It's an old HP Laserjet 5 that I borrowed from a lady I work with. I was printing things the other day and it was working fine, then it just stopped. I don't know if something got stuck in it or what. I've looked and looked and can't seem to find anything in it.

Well, that's it for now. I get to help judge the School District Science Fair tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm looking forward to that. I have so much fun when I get to interact with the kids. I definitely don't get to do enough of that during the school year. I've been going crazy just sitting in my office the past couple of weeks. Good thing there are things like this to get me out.

This Weekends Adventures

Well, I have big plans for this weekend. First of all, I found out that there is a Digi Scrap Treasure Hunt going on. 42 different designers will have free stuff throughtout their blogs and stores. They only problem is that you have to search for them, download them and then unzip them to find the next clue. That's going to eat up alot of my download MB, but the 25th is the end of the month so I need to use it up.

Tomorrow will be sent hopefully search the world wide web for these goodies. I also have a friend here who is wanting to get rid of some of her stamps that she doesn't use for cheap and is giving me first dibs. I will probably do that tomorrow also.

Sunday I will have the opportunity to stamp again. We have our next group get together and I'm excited to see what's in store. I've become addicted to stamping and have ordered a few things off ebay and am planning on putting in a little order through Stampin Up.

Eric is supposed to be leaving for the Yukon River tomorrow to do Moose counts. They were suppose to go out earlier this week but weather has kept him grounded. Tomorrow is suppose to clear up and they shoud be able to fly.

Well, I will sign off for now and I'll write more later.

My Fun Weekend

Okay, I know the new weekend is almost here, but I just finally got some time to post a few pictures about the fun I had last weekend. I've joined a stamping/crafty group that meets once a month to do various activities. Each time we will do some type of activities and we will also do some cards. This past weekend we worked on treat bags, wrapped candy bars and cards. I think the cards are suppose to have a general theme, but I just plain janed mine so I could use them for anything. I think I might be addicted to crafting in general. I love scrapbooking, really am starting to get into stamping and of course I can never forget my crochet. So here are some of the goodies. We are getting together again on the 24 to do some more. I can't wait. In the meantime (this weekend) I'm getting together with Letty to do some scrapbooking at my house. I think I might be addicted to crafts. Is that possible? Well, without further ado, here are the pictures. Enjoy~

Yesterday's Science Lesson

My friend Letty is in the process of trying to get her brother a cat for his new apartment. She mentioned he wanted a Russian Blue, so naturally I had to go to the Cat Fanciers web site and look up what they looked like. While search the site I decided to take a look at all of the other breeds to see if I could find anything as cute as Maine Coons. Of course, I couldn't find any, but I came across an interesting breed. The Somali breed has the looks of a fox, but is definitely a cat.

Well, there is your science lesson for yesterday.

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