The Meltdown

In the early morning hours of April 26, 2008, the sound of what appeared to be several gunshots shattered the silence of a sleepy Anchorage, AK neighborhood. In reaction to the disturbing sounds, the Anchorage Police Department received several calls. After receiving the calls, Police Officers were dispatched to investigate the shots fired reports.

When the Officers first arrived in the reported area, they did not see anything unusual, nor did they see anything out of place. The area was still white from the freshly fallen deep snow cover. The whole City had received a record snowfall during the previous 24-hour period.

Just about the time the Officers were ready to call off the search, they spotted what appeared to be the shape of a portly body partially snow covered in the yard of one of the homes. As they cautiously walked up the driveway of the residence to investigate further, a ghastly and horrifying scene of a crime played out in front of their eyes. Not only were they surprised and shocked by the sights, but they also had to take swift action to restrain and apprehend the possible shooter.

After gaining control of the scene, it was apparent that the damage had already been done. The Officers immediately called out the Homicide Detective to take over the scene and investigate the crime. As you could imagine, time was of the essence due to the unstable nature of the scene, suspect, and victim.

The Detective made quick work of the case and with the assistance of a key witness, was able to get a confession out of the suspect prior to his melt down.

Case Closed!

This has been another ghost post from Eric, who obviously enjoyed this recent snowfall a little too much!

Snowman Homicide in Anchorage

SHOOTING.....POSSIBLE SNOWMAN DOWN.......INVESTIGATORS ARE IN ROUTE......WITNESSES HAVE REPORTED GORY SCENE........DETAILS AND PHOTOS TO FOLLOW! CHECK BACK SOON!!!!!

At The End of The Day

It continued snowing well into the night. I don't know what time it stopped exactly, but I know it was well after 9:30 p.m. Remember those pictures I posted yesterday at 2:15? The pictures currently posted are the one I took this morning, from the same vantage point!!!! To think I thought there was a lot of snow by yesterday afternoon! Eric measured 14 inches of accumultion last night, so much for the 3-5 inches they predicted. I would be remise if I didn't remind you all that there are only 4 more days of April and this is what it looks like in Alaska today. HOLY COW!!!!!!

M.N.'s Cruel Joke

Who or what is M.N. you may ask? Well, as you could have guessed from looking at the pictures, M.N. is none other than... Mother Nature. Did I not just blog about how it was 60 degrees a few days ago? Yea, well, apparantly that was just Mother Nature's cruel joke!

The forecast today called for rain mixed with snow. There was not suppossed to be any accumulation (snow that would actually stick on the ground) until tonight, and they were predicting 3-5 inches. Well, the snow started about 8:30 this morning and it hasn't stopped yet. If you look at the picture of the deck railings you can see exactly how deep the snow is. It's already several inches deep and it's only 2:15!

Don't get me wrong, considering that we haven't been here during the summer yet, it has been the most beautiful when it snows. I love seeing the snow, but I'm ready for spring. Logan even said today, "this has been one long winter". Ahmen, brother!!!!!! As you can see, by the patio furniture and the barbeque, we mean business around here. Let's get spring rollin'!

Yesterday, I officially decided that my family will be spending Christmas in California. You can all hold me to it, I've committed. By the end of December I'm gonna' need to get the heck out of here, right along with the rest of the state. Winter was fun and we enjoyed it, but we're all ready for some warmer temperatures, for the ground to be dry and for the sun to shine. Better luck next week I suppose.

It's a Scorcher

Just thought you'd all like to know that it is currently 55 degrees and we are expecting a high of 60 degrees tomorrow! I made the boys leave their winter coats at home today. I even bought a pair of flip-flops today. SHOCKING, I know!!!!!

There is a Thief Among Us

I'm not kidding, there is a thief in our neighborhood and I'm on the lookout! I'll admit it, I may be over-reacting, but I'm sure some of you will be able to empathize. The rest of you, well.......you'll just get a good laugh out of my "loss".

You see, back in February I signed up and paid to get weekend newspaper delivery to our house. The very first day our paper was delivered it kind of landed between our driveway and our neighbors. I have never noticed the neighbor having paper delivery, so knowing our first paper should have been delivered that day, I brought it in. It was really no big deal, the neighbor never said anything to me and I never said anything to them. The paper has continued to arrive like clockwork ever since.

My boys' rooms overlook the driveway and every morning when I wake them up, I open their blinds and the bright orange bag the paper comes in almost always catches my eye. The boys leave for school out the back door and there are days I don't make it out front until late in the afternoon, if at all (some days during the winter). Although the newspaper has been deposited on our driveway on the days it should be, I have noticed that it's not always down on the drive when I get around to bringing it in. My paper has a way of mysteriously disappearing! At first I thought the paper wasn't getting delivered or maybe it was just getting covered by snow, so I started paying close attention. There have been plenty of days when I have noticed it laying in the driveway and when I have gone out to retrieve it later, it has vanished! I look everywhere and it is nowhere to be found.

All week I look forward to the Sunday newspaper. I acknowledge that we have a cruddy coupon section, but I still look forward to the few coupons we do get and I definitely look forward to the ads. Let's fast-forward to yesterday, Sunday morning. Eric, Kaiden and I (Logan spent the night at a friend's) went for a walk first thing in the morning, around 8:15. On our way out, Eric picked up the newspaper and heaved it at least halfway up the driveway. He did this intentionally, because he wanted to be sure the paper didn't disappear from the end of the drive while we were out walking. We got back about 45 minutes later and as Eric had feared, the paper was GONE! I still can't believe it was just GONE!

Kaiden took a little shortcut back to the house, so he arrived back home just before we did. As Eric and I walked up the driveway, Eric realized the paper was missing and he questioned Kaiden to see if he had maybe taken it up to the porch. He hadn't. After careful consideration, we've narrowed our thief down to two options. The thief is either our next door neighbor (we only have neighbors on one side), or the dog who lives two doors down. Kaiden insists the dog fetches the newspaper for its owner, but I'm not so sure. Even if the dog does fetch, I find it highly unlikely that the dog would wander over to our house, would trapse half-way up our driveway and would carry our Sunday paper back home. I know stanger things have happened, but I'm not convinced.

I'm now on the lookout! I figured I'll wait until the paper disappears again before I politely ask the neighbor if they're taking it. Until then, my eyes are peeled!!!!!!

An Eight Year Old Perspective

So, a classmate informs my third grader that a girl in their class wears a bra. My son holds nothing back and goes up to the girl and says, "so, I hear you wear a bra, is that true?" He said she just giggled and ran away.

I'm sure some of you will be offended when you read this, but personally, I laughed hysterically. I love Kaiden sooooo much because he is so not like me. I laugh that I gave birth to a child so different from myself and for that matter, a child who is so different from my husband too.

Finally Settling In

Dare I say it? I think I'm finally starting to settle in here in Anchorage. I do have to say that when I pull into my garage, particulary when Eric is at work, it still feels a little "outer-body". I walk through the garage on my way into the house and think, "I can't believe I'm living in Alaska". It's not a bad thing, it's still just "different".


I don't know when I made the mental decision, but at some point in the last couple of weeks without really knowing it, I did a little soul searching. I really had to re-evaluate what it was I was looking for here that would make me feel like I "fit in". I wanted to meet new friends, but I also didn't want to betray my friends back home, particulary my best friends. Finally, one day it came to me, I don't need to have a "best" friend here to feel complete, nor do I have to give up that status or my relationship with my close girlfriends back in California. What I need here are simply a few gals who I can have lunch with occassionally, someone to share a local point of view with, and someone who I can call to help me if I'm in a pinch. I'm confident I have finally met enough women around here that at least one or two of them can fill that role.


This week, I went on a field trip with the fifth grade. We went to the Challenger Space Center in Kenai, it was about a three hour drive. We had to be at school by 6:00 a.m. and we didn't return until 7:30 p.m. Talk about a long day! There wasn't enough room on the bus for chaperones, so we were all going to have to drive ourselves. Considering the distance, it made the most sense for some of us to carpool. If nothing else, the one thing I have going for me socially is that I'm not a hermit. At the school, I started chatting with a mom I didn't know, soon someone she knew offered to carpool with her. I wasn't just going to stand back and let them carpool without me, so I politely invited myself to ride with them if there was room. They kindly agreed to take me along, and then, we even grabbed another gal none of us knew and invited her to come along as well. It was so nice to have people to chat with and share stories with. I don't know that I will ever become "close" with any of the women, but I know there was at least one in the bunch who could potentially be a lunch buddy. Eric and I went on a walk last night and ran into one of the other women from the carpool, walking her dog in the subdivision. It was nice to go for a walk and to see someone I "know" and could actually stop to talk with if even for a brief moment.

Now that spring is in the air, the school bus stop has become a nice place to meet people. I went up there to wait for the kids yesterday afternoon and I was introced to a handful of gals who live very nearby. Today, I again went up to the bus stop to wait for the boys and was introduced to even more women. I've decided that the bus stop will become my new hang out for a while.

Sunday I am going to a clothig party at the home of a mom I met while working at the bookfair several weeks ago. Even if I don't buy anything, I figure it will be a good opportunity to meet even more women and maybe I'll even see some of the ones I've already been introduced to. The best part is, my husband wants me to meet people, so he's not about to tell me I can't go.

So, I guess we were all right. It does take time to settle in and to meet people, especially when you move to Alaska in the winter. The beauty of it is that the days are getting longer, we're supposed to hit 50 degrees this weekend, and the patio furniture is hitting the deck tomorrow. Things are looking up!

Digging for Buried Treasure

Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like without moms. Oh, I'm sure my husband and kids could get along without me, but I firmly believe their quality of life would not be nearly what it is with me. Without me, their quality of life would be on par with...mine.

You see, for the past few months we've had an adorable, energetic kitten bouncing and pouncing around our house. The arrangement had been that Logan was supposed to be responsible for cleaning out the litter box. He did so for the first few weeks, but he's excrutiatingly slow at it and let's just say he's not very "detail oriented". You could argue that he's this way by design (to get out of his chore), but I can say that he comes by it honestly. Details have never been his forte. So, needless to say, yours truly has had to step in to clean out the litter box more often than I'd like.

As a result of becoming so intimately involved with the litter box, I just happened to notice a lack of feces in it over the past several days and became a bit concerned. My children ADORE their cat and the last thing I need is the guilt from something happening to her on my watch. I wasn't quite ready to take her into the vet though. I wasn't going to go broke at the vet's because I had a hunch our kitten had a pooping problem. Instead, I talked to a few people and did some research online and decided she was probably just stopped up by hair in her tummy. I decided to try giving Princess Guinness an over-the-counter hairball remedy.

After several days of treatment, it became a waiting game. Not a waiting game for my children or my husband, but a waiting game for me. All last week, several times a day, everyday, I had the priviledge of sifting through the litter box in search of buried treasure. The boys were on "poop watch", reporting to me any time they thought Guinness might have "gone".

I am happy to report (and I'm sure you will all be happy to know), that things seem to be back to normal for our little kit and I'm only out around $4.00. If I had left things to my husband and kids they most likely would have never noticed their precious kitten even had a problem. If by chance Eric had noticed a problem, he would have hoped that he could ignore it and that it would go away. Not dear ol' mom, she not only noticed the problem, but had the luxury of being actively involved throughout the whole darn process. Now that's committment!

What would my family do without me????

The Days Are Gettin' Longer

It is 10:15 p.m. and this is what it looks like outside right now. Let me tell you, coming from a California girl, this lack of darkness thing is CRAZY ! Two nights ago I went for a walk/jog at 9:45 p.m. and it was still light enough that I wasn't the least bit freaked out to be out and about unaccompanied.

Kaiden really has a hard time with the fact that it isn't dark when he has to go to bed. In his mind, if it isn't dark, it isn't bedtime. Trying to explain to an eight year old know-it-all (literally) that he still has to go to bed at 9:30 even though the sun is still out has made for some tough evenings. Don't mention the fact that he has blackout shades in his room and he's still sleeping with a nightlight on, those are just minor details to my dear Kaiden.

Logan, on the other hand, has embraced going to bed when it is still light out. As a matter of fact, he has decided it is still light enough when he goes to bed now that he doesn't even need a dim nightlight anymore. I'm sure me energy conscious husband loves that!

I'll keep you posted on the lack of darkness around here as the spring and summer progress. I can only imagine how light out it will be at 10:00 p.m. in mid-June. YIKES! I may never sleep again.

The Things We Do For Love

It is snowing like a son of a gun again today! At about 2:00 p.m. it was starting to lighten up outside and the snow had let up considerably. It was barely snowing and there was already several inches of accumulation on the driveway, so I thought I'd me a good wife. Rather than let the snow sit until Eric gets home from work, I thought I would be a loving wife and would go out and snow blow. I figured that if I spent the hour blowing snow this afternoon then he wouldn't have to spend the time doing it tonight. How wrong I was!!!!!



About halfway through blowing, snow started heaving from the sky! The neighbor who waved to me on his way out of his house must have thought I was an idiot! He already witnessed the snow blower run out of gas in the middle of the driveway and now I had spent about a half-hour diligently clearing snow from a driveway that was being covered with new snow faster than I could blow it away. I'm sure I was a sight! I don't have too much egg on my face though, because I've NEVER seen that man blow off his own driveway, his wife does it.



I was too proud to let Mother Nature or the neighbor get the best of me, so I stayed out there until my job was done and the original snow I had set out to blow was gone from the drive. I put the snowblower away, went in the house and stripped off my icy/wet snowgear, looked out the window and this is what my driveway looked like.........


Maybe next time we move to a snowy destination we'll reconsider the length of our driveway!

Does It Ever End?

DOES THE LAUNDRY EVER END????

Crazy Days of Spring

The last noteable snowfall we had in these parts was back in February. I blogged about taking the boys cross country skiing while Eric was out of town, remember? As of Friday almost all of the snow had melted and it was drying out so quickly that we didn't even have much sludge left at all. Well, all of that changed on Saturday!

Many days during the last month the forecast has called for snow showers. They've barely materialized and definitely not with any accumulation. Friday night I told Eric there was no way we were going to have the 1"-3" of snow they were predicting. Sure enough, Saturday morning Eric pulled up the blinds and it was snowing like crazy. It snowed non-stop from 7:30 a.m. until around 9:30 p.m. We not only got the 1"-3" of snow they had predicted, but we ended up with 12"-18" when all was said and done. Needless to say, we had to dust off the snow blower, shovels and snow boots.

It snowed a bit yesterday and it's absolutely beautiful today. The snow is slowly melting, but there's so much of it that it'll be around for a few days. They say we could get more snow tomorrow...who am I to question their predictions?

Should I Become Edjumacated?

There have been many times in my life when I have thought about going back to school, again, to finish my Bachelor's Degree. I emphasize the word again, because I've already been back to school once as as an adult (while nurturing two kids a husband and a part-time job) to get my Associates Degree. It wasn't fun and it took forever, but I'm glad I did it.


By the time I had finished my degree, Eric was motivated to go back to school to get his Bachelor's. We decided that our family could only manage with one parent in school at a time, so I held down the fort while Eric went to school one night a week for 18 months. He attended Azusa Pacific's accelerated degree completion program for working adults. It was a fantastic way for a working adult with a family to obtain a degree. Eric had to put in many hours doing school work at home, but was only required to actually attend class one evening a week. Looking back, those 18 months really flew by.


The plan had always been for me to finish my degree once Eric had completed his and once I was motivated to attend school again. Now that we're here in Alaska and I have some time on my hands I've been thinking that now would be the perfect time for me to finish school. I've looked into several programs and think I've decided that APU's new online degree completion program would make the most sense for me. The other option would be to attend Alaska Pacific University's program, but I like the APU option because I'm familiar with it.


Here's my quandry, and the reason you all need to put your "two cents" in on my online poll...the cost is about $20,000.00! No matter how you look at it, $20,000.00 is a lot of money, but I could justify the expense more if I was going to get my degree and run off to work to recoup the money. Where I stand (or actually sit) right now, I don't know if/when I'm going to go back to work. I may end up with a degree I don't ever actually need.


I would love to teach some day, but right now, I don't know what the future holds. On the other hand, because I don't know what the future holds, is the precise reason I feel the urge to get my degree. I've always figured that if nothing else, it would be nice to substitute teach at some point in time. If I have my degree I will always have a way to make around $100/day whether it be for a gift, a trip, extra money, an emergency, you name it.


Most of all, in my heart I know that having a degree is just a smart decision in this day and age. I just need to find a way to justify the expense to myself. I know we can get loans, but I also know we have to pay them back. Give me some advice...will it be worth it in the long run? Should I go back to school now or just forget about it forget about it for the moment and re-visit the idea down the road after we've actually saved up the money to pay for it?


I'm counting on all of you for some enlightenment!

Mmm...It Tastes Like Chicken

O.K., "it" doesn't really taste like chicken, but it made for a good title. "It" actually tastes a lot like ground beef, but maybe even better. The "it" I'm referring to ladies and gentlemen is in fact caribou. Yes, caribou, as in the North American Reindeer.


When Eric went to Adak he didn't have the luxury of hunting his own caribou, but he was lucky enough to bring some home. One of his co-workers took it to have it processed and we ended up with a sampling of ground caribou, caribou hot dogs, caribou meat sticks, and caribou chorizo. Surprisingly, it is all quite good, so good in fact that even the kids have looked forward to eating it.


We have made chorizo and egg burritos, spaghetti, and tonight we're having burritos with ground caribou. I don't know what it is exactly, because the meat doesn't have a distinct flavor, but something about it has added a little bit to each of the meals. If you were having dinner at our house and I didn't tell you I used caribou meat you would have no idea. I know you probably don't believe me, but you'll just have to trust me on this one!

My Latest Obsession

I said it out loud to my brother last night, so it must be official...I told him I was obsessed with the program The Biggest Loser. I am not kidding, I do not watch much network television, but I do put my life and family on hold for two hours every Tuesday night so I can me amazed by the last five minutes of the show. Brian tried to convince me last night that I could have taken his phone call and just paused the program or recorded it, but the thought never occurred to me! It was far more important that I catch the last half hour in "real time" and call him back later. I was sure Brian could wait, but The Biggest Loser...come on???


For those of you not fortunate enough to be familiar with the show, it is a reality based program that follows 20 morbidly obese individuals on their weight loss journies. The beauty of the program is that it is not as "cush" as I just made it sound. The people are split into teams, get their asses pounded daily by personal trainers, are taught how to make healthy food choices, are weighed in each week to see who has the greatest percentage of weight loss, and each week vote off one of the people who lost the lowest percentage of weight during that week. This is all in the name of getting healthy, losing weight, and winning $250,000!

The aspect of the show I enjoy most, and that motivates me most, is to see the dramatic change in the contestants at the end of each week. I particularly like to see the before and after pictures of the contestant who is voted off. These people look PHENOMONAL! Several of the men have lost over 100 lbs. each and two women are approaching that same milestone. One of the gals in particular, Ali, looks AMAZING!!!!! I believe her starting weight was 238 lbs. and as of last night's episode, she is down to 146 lbs! Eric doesn't really follow the show and when he was sitting with me last week as the episode was wrapping up and they were weighing in, he was shocked to find out she was one of the contestants and not one of the trainers.

Another part of the show I enjoy is seeing how competitive these people are. Every week there is a physical challenge of some type and it is crazy to see how competitive some of the contestants are. I am flabbergasted to see these once grossly overweight people compete and complete tasks that most "normal sized" people couldn't even pretend to. To think they they all walked onto the show with such poor physical health that some got winded just tying their shoes. Now, they can run for miles at a time, have crazy workout routines, and 5 of them just completed a triathalon of sorts on last night's episode!

Considering the fact that I was just watching a stupid t.v. show, I do have to say that watching Ali reach the 146 lb. mark last night actually kind of had a wierd affect on me. At 146 lbs., in my mind, she isn't too far off from weighing what I do (I'll keep you guessing as to just how close she is, after all, a girl has to have some secrets), granted, she's not as tall as I am, but you get the picture. As I mentioned before, I'm still working on losing a few pounds, which obviously means I'm not quite happy with the way I see myself in the mirror. It was very interesting to me to know what Ali weighed in at because all night long I kept telling Eric how great she looked. Then to put it in perspective, I started thinking about me. I am taller than her, weigh less, and yet I have a totally different perspective of how I see myself in the mirror. INTERESTING!!! I think part of it is seeing the before and after pictures of the contestants, seeing how far they have come, and having the comparison right in your face. Unlike those contestants, I don't have a significant amount of weight to lose, nor have I really ever, so for me it's a buldge here and a pooch there. As it should be, I'm sure my buldges and pooches getting smaller are a lot less noticeable to me and everyone else than the 87 lbs. Ali has lost on the show!

I guess the real moral to all of this is that if we all had a little motivation, a personal trainer, nutritionist, and 24/7 to dedicate ourselves to losing weight and getting healthy we could all probably do it too. When you're not competing for $250,000 something called life seems to find a way of getting in the way. Regardless, thanks to The Biggest Loser, every Wednesday morning I'm a little more motivated to head off to the gym for my "last chance workout".

Our Whirlwind Weekend

In my blog late last week I mentioned that I was excited that my good friend Barbara was coming to visit from California. Thanks to my humble little blog, apparantly word is out on the streets of So. Cal that Barbara was here for the weekend, so I thought I'd finally do a post about her visit. Let me start by saying that our visit was far too short, but that we had a really nice time and crammed in what we could.

Barb's flight arrived at 11:20 p.m. on Thursday. It was funny because for as much as I was looking forward to her visit, whether they admit it or not, the rest of the family was excited to see her too. The boys didn't have school on Friday, so all four of us piled in the car for the short drive to the airport. The flight arrived without incident and we were quickly on our way home with Barbara in tow. The boys went to bed and the adults stayed up to visit for a bit, before turning in for the night.

Because the boys had an in-servie day on Friday, Eric was kind enough to take the day off and spend it skiing with the boys at a local resort. Barbara and I, on the other hand, were off to the spa for facials. I didn't know what to expect from a spa in Alaska and I had never had a facial before, so this was going to be a new experience. We were both pleasantly surprised by the ambiance and treatments we received. After the spa, we were off to Nordstrom for a little retail therapy.

Friday night we had made arrangements to leave the boys with Troy and Cathy for the evening, so Eric, Barbara and I headed off to dinner at The Double Musky, a Cajun restaurant in a little local town called Girdwood. The restaurant opens at 4:30, doesn't take reservations and fills up fast. We arrived around 5:30 and only had to wait long enough to have a drink and an appetizer in the bar before being seated. Both Eric and Barbara had the house specialty, Pepper Steak, and I had the Lobster Kababs. The portions were tasty and quite large. Despite the doggy bags, we still opted for dessert. We unanimously chose to share a piece of Peanut Butter Pie. Let me tell you, I'm not always much for dessert and I don't even like pie, but this was one of the most AMAZING desserts I have ever tasted! It had a light crust, a creamy peanut butter base, and a hard chocolate layer just on the very top. It was to die for!

Saturday was a little more leisurely than Friday. We got up rather early, but we just hung out until about 11:00 a.m. We all decided it was probably time to give Troy and Cathy a reprieve, so we were off to pick up the boys. Barbara and I left the boys with Eric and we headed out to the local mall where we spent the remainder of the afternoon and the remainder of our monthly budgets. It's funny, Barbara says that she has a hard time finding clothes to buy, but when you add me to the equation she seems to do just fine. I guess it's just the moral support!

At around 5:00 p.m., we came home and met back up with Eric and the boys for dinner at our favorite restaurant, Moose's Tooth. It reminds me a little of BJs inside, but they mainly serve specialty pizzas, salads, and plenty of beer. The pizza there is probably one of the best Eric or I have ever had. It's a little unconventional, but it's delicious. The boys split a small pepperoni/cheese pizza while Eric, Barbara and I split two smalls. We put different toppings on each pizza half, so we ended up sampling Gyro, Chipotle Steak, Solstice (chicken, garlic, tomato, etc), and another less outlandish selection. We've been to The Moose's Tooth several times and for the record, so far, the Gyro pizza is my favorite, followed closely by the Chipotle Steak.

After dinner, Barbara and I headed off to the performing arts center to see Menopause The Musical. Although I don't imagine either of us is extemely close to menopause yet, we both found it quite hysterical. I have to tell you that even at the spry age of 34 there was so much I could relate to. It was a hoot!

Sunday morning came too fast! We were up and out of the house by 5:30 a.m., so Barb could catch a flight home at 7:00 a.m.! The things we do for our friends I tell ya'! I was sad to see Barbara go and I'm still missing her, but I really needed the visit. It was nice to be able to share a little sliver of our lives with someone we care about from "home" and more than anything, I needed the female companionship. I needed to spend time with someone who relates to me. I love my husband, but he doesn't always "get" me, nor does he pretend to. Barbara on the other hand, she "gets" me.

Thank God for good friends!