Ladies Day

I just had the most fun day with my friend, Christan. We are busy shoving as much time as possible into the next few weeks since her family will be moving to the lower 48 in May or June. I will miss her terribly, and will really miss watching her sweet little girls grow up, and John will miss her husband - his favorite nerdy home school friend!

In light of them moving away from us so soon, we have been doing as much as we can together. Today we met at the salon (where Christan was getting her hair chopped, btw, it looks GREAT), and it took longer to get there than usual because of Fur Rondy...today was the parade and downtown was a complete zoo. After Christan's beautifying, we headed to the mall for some fun shopping. We got in on some great deals at Pennys (I won't say how much I spent, but I saved $93.95!!) and then headed to Glacier Brewhouse for lunch. I was very disappointed in them today, and they are usually by far my favorite restaurant. They were slow and when we finally got our lunch they brought me the wrong thing...they ended up comping our dessert, but neither of us were very interested in dessert ... bah!

Then after lunch we saw Chicago - the Musical! It was so fun. SO not what you'd want to bring your husband to (oops ending a sentence with a preposition). Seriously. Way too many girls dancing around in their not so covering outfits! But for a girls night, it was fun and the music is hilarious, we had a great time.

Now I'm home and John and I are debating dinner - whether or not I'll even eat (I'm still full) and what he will eat!

John got his first beaver out of his traps yesterday. He set 4 traps and only got his beaver, but at least he got something. he's working away at trying to tan it - and pretty darn proud of himself. I'm proud of him too - where else but Alaska can you trap and tan a beaver!?

Oops-a-Daisy

John left last night to head to Cantwell and check on some traps 'we' set last week. I went along with him to set the traps, but mostly stood around trying not to fall on the ice while he and our friend set the traps. This week I didn't go because of work and other obligations, so John headed up all by his lonesome.

Normally, it's a bit depressing being in the house all by myself, but I was sort of looking forward to the time alone to get some cleaning and crafting done. It's hard to do the noisy cleaning with our schedules - my days off are usually spent doing light cleaning and either trying to stay out of the house or trying to be quiet so John can sleep. So - having the house to myself for these projects was something that I thought I'd enjoy.

I had an industrious morning. I got up and got some laundry moving, cleaned the bedroom, did some of the noisy cleaning, and went over to my in-laws to pick up our half of the Full Circle Farms order.

When I got back to our house around 11:30 with the order, I went in and set it on the bench and then headed back outside to get the latest load of laundry out of the dryer. I came back with the load and - wait - what's this? The door was locked. L O C K E D. WhAT?

Okay, I say to myself, calm down, just call John. Oh yeah, he's out of town. Just call your MIL, okay, right I call her. Wait - where's my cell. Oh right - in my house, locked in my house. Fab.

So I walk next door and use my neighbors phone, his phone smelled gross, and call my MIL. She doesn't answer so I decide I'll walk over there. I am SO glad I had my shoes on, and that I'd thought to wear a sweatshirt, because seriously? it was freezing out. I wogged over to her house and she gave me a ride home and unlocked my little house.

It could have been so much worse, she could have not been home...and then what? I walked over there for nothing? Where would I have gone/ I guess I could have sat in the laundry room and waited for...? John to come home in the middle of the night tonight? Crazy...

Before more time goes by

I'm not that good at blogging...obviously. There are lots of things going on right now, but I'm not sure yet if I feel comfortable blurting them out on the internet for eternity. So I've been quiet.

Some things that I don't mind blurting:
- I love my job - I've been here a year now, and I really like what the organization stands for, the work that they do, and the part I have in that work.

- I am way to excited for summer to get here...WAY too excited.

- John is loving his job too, he's getting more and more confident in it each week.

- We have lots of irons in the fire....lots.

- I have theories on things, maybe some day I'll do the research to back them up

- My knee hurts, I've been trying to "take it easy" but it's not as "easy" as it sounds. I walked for 15 minutes on the treadmill yesterday and it's sore today. This is espeically hard when you're used to working out 5 or 6 times a week. But I won't whine...at least I'm still ambulatory.

- I'm hungry.

Two week sugar hiatus continues

My friend, Mel, and I have been working together to push refined sugar out of our diets. We started this two weeks ago yesterday and are still going strong. I've noticed some interesting things throughout the process.

1. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. Going sugar-free in the summer is definitely the way to do it since there are so many yummo fruits available this time of the year.

2. Once I got past the first couple of days, any cravings I was having were gone. G.O.N.E. I am an ice cream lover, and though I am sure I still love, love, love it...(it's only been 2 weeks after all) I have passed it up and haven't really been craving it like I usually do.

3. In addition to the sugar cravings, the salt cravings are also gone.

4. There are so many sugar-free options for yummy stuff. SF pudding is probably my fav. I know that people will argue that sugar is better for you than the fake stuff, but seriously? Right now (for me) I needed to detox...so it's working for me!

5. You can go to restaurants (including Golden Corral) and not hog down. That's right - you can order good for you food at restaurants...who knew? (certainly not me judging by previous eating out adventures)

So - those are some of the things I've noticed right off the top. I'm not saying I'll never eat sugar again, but it certainly has made a difference in the way I see food right now.

BONKO

Last night, John and I were invited to join 5 other couples in playing Bonko, we had a great time. It's a dice game that's totally chance (no skill involved) and it moves quickly. You move partners, so that's fun too - it keeps the game fresh which is especially important since you're just rolling dice over and over again.

Except for the couple that invited us, we were the only people under 40 - that's a great way to feel young again! The older couples were hilarious, and it was fun to watch how they interacted with each other. We were invited to join their little group that meets once a month to play - they rotate homes so that everyone gets a chance to host. I think we'll join them - it would be a great way to get to know some new people.

Anchorage is SO small. We got there not expecting to know anyone except for the people who invited us, and we ended up knowing another couple there. They had gone through the adoption seminar with us and had a lot of the same feelings/experiences we've had since going through it. It was great talking with them and feeling not quite so alone.

Jessica and Nick

Dear Jessica and Nick,

Get back together. Now's the time. You're both free, and you know that you guys belong together. Don't let the mistake you made a coule of years ago get worse by remaining apart.

Love,
Stephanie

Hazy Daze

Whew - there's a LOT of smoke in the air these days. I guess there are over 50 fires burning in Alaska right now - and we're certainly seeing our share of smoke here. It makes me not want to go outside, something about not being able to see the mountains that are so close, and smelling the smokey air makes me want to protect my lungs.

I have to admit that the 64 degree weather is much welcomed after our "hot" week. We made it up to 85 at our house and hotter in some areas of town - trust me it feels different in AK compared to 85 in other places. People don't have AC - in their homes or in their businesses. So at work, one of the offices was 87 degrees with fans on and windows open. Not that fun to work in! And with the pregnant women milling around in here too - they must be miserable!

ChaLEAN has been going well. I was pretty sore Tuesday, but not so much today or yesterday. SO far so good - it is pretty hard work and I'm tired after, but it feels good.

What else...not much! We're pretty boring though it seems like we've always got something going on!