I Think I'm Losing It

When I decided to go back to school, I wasn't really worried. I figured I would have all day to do what I needed to and life would be good. Yeah, right! Now, in addition to playing dad when Eric is out of town (which he has been quite a bit lately), helping the kids with homework and special projects, doing laundry and housework, and playing taxi, I get to do my own homework and study for my own tests. Needless to say, I've been a bit stressed out and overwhelmed lately. I know it's life and that this phase will pass, but right now, I sometimes wonder what I was thinking.

As luck would have it, I ended up getting stuck with a survey type math class, (which encompasses algebra, geometry, and other yucky stuff) as my first class! Math is bad enough for me when I'm learning it in a classroom setting, but it's a whole 'nother ballgame when I am having to essentially teach myself. Fortunately, I am almost done with one math class and have only one more to go. Thanks to my brother-in-law, who lives all the way in California, I may just be able to pull it off. I love my brother-in-law!

Don't get me wrong, even though I think I'm losing it sometimes, there is a silver lining. One of the upsides to my current situation is that, now that we have lived in Alaska for close to two years, I actually have some very good friends I can rely on to pick up some of the pieces for me. I finally feel like it's not just Eric and I against the world. I have friends to go to the gym with, friends to drink and have dinner with, friends to shop with, friends who rely on me to help them out in a pinch, and friends I can rely on to help us out in a pinch. In that aspect, life is good!

Wind, Wind, Go Away...

"Santa Ana winds, that's one thing I won't miss". When we left CA they were predicting Santa Ana winds, I turned to Eric and made that comment. Boy, was I naive! Here in Alaska we have warms winds that are equivalent to the Santa Anas, that are called Chinooks. Who would have thought? We experienced our first Chinooks a few weeks ago and with them came extemely high winds and a major thaw! We were in the 40s for several days and much of the snow pack melted. It was a mess! Of course, the winds were short lived and after about a week and a half of below 0 temperatures the snow came again and we were back in the 20s. I know you might find this shocking, but I'll take the 20s and snow to those blasted winds any day.

This past Saturday it snowed like mad around here! I even had to blow snow yesterday morning. The extended forecast was calling for temps in the 20s through the 10 day forecast and a chance of snow everyday. Randomly, yesterday afternoon out of nowhere, the winds kicked up and the temperature almost instantly went from 20-45 degrees. All night long those darn winds blew! I slept terribly and woke to a big slippery, melted mess outside! The upshot to all of this was that I didn't have to snowblow today and we had this beutiful view from our deck this deck. Gotta' love it!