Fun Stuff

omelet making time

and now you have breakfast

Bleaching time.

It's getting hot in herrrrre!

bleached and ready for Blue!

almost ready to take the foil off!

Getting my Blue on!

blue hair

Prepped veggies for making vegetable broth!  All organic:  walla walla onions, celery, white carrots, and carrot tops

Reindeer dog (not laced with pork)

I hung out with this Awesome girl twice last summer, she came back and looked my number up.  We've hung out 4 times already this summer!  Lucky me, she's a cool girl and probably in her last summer working in Alaska.  Hopefully, we'll keep in touch.

Saturday Market - Five Finger Puppet Glove thingy

making a lovely salad after church

Post Church salad

"New" racquet.  Thanks, Mattius!

Found a copy of this book that I owned back in '85 that I must have read 20 times.  I was a vivacious reader as a kid and loved the Hardy Boys (not Nancy Drew), but this was a choose your adventure and a lot of fun to read!  Had to get it!

Feeling Creative - Kilt Making Project

So you think you can make a Kilt?

I think Kilts can be sexy.  My friend Holli-day didn't agree.  I did my best to convince her using my words.  She told me how grateful she was that her boyfriend left his in Europe (he is from Spain).  I tried finding out what his clan colours were, but she clearly had no clue.  They invited me to the Highland games being held in Eagle River this past Saturday, but I had to work and had plans to unpack more of the boxes in my apartment.  I wanted to help her see how sexy Kilts can be when a manly man wears one, so I decided to make one myself.

Here is what you will need:

Not Shown is one medium sized binder clip, 12 thick rubber bands, a Starbucks bag with handles, large brown mailing envelope, and a full sheet label

The CD is simply a tool I use to listen to some awesome tunes!  Everything else goes to the actual physical making of the quilt.

The Completed Project - normally the pouch is made of Seal skin, from what I've been told

The surprised recipient.  He had no idea what was gonna be in store when he arrived home.  We decided it was going to be a surprise.

At least Spain destroyed Italy the next day in the Euro Cup

Saturday's "Beer and Sushi" extravaganza where we busted it out and had others "model" the home made kilt.  Some were more enthusiastic than others.

Quick Kilt Making Notes:  You can purchase brown paper grocery bags from your local Carrs/Vons (20 bags for $1).  Also, pleating paper bag material is not as easy as one would think.


Just for fun, here is a pic of the lovely organic produce I get each week delivered to my door.

Out of town...sorta

Went on a double date this past weekend out in the Valley.  It was a good time and it was good to almost get out of Town.  It's as out of town as I could afford during the summer months.  Most importantly, I got my motorcycle license by passing my class and final eval!!!  Go me!  Last week or so in pictures:

Only two blues in a fun sized M&M packet - not so fun

organizing my gear in my room

found the perfect spot for my skater sticks

Battle Wound - hard to see, but it's there!

Paying attention in Motorcycle School - classroom portion

, I scored 98% on my test

The gear for riding portion of Motorcycle School

My ride for the weekend of motorcycle school

New Cowgirl boots for my date - Clearance!  Cute and Cheap!

Steve Madden Boots - CLEARANCE!!!

Driving out to the Valley

Going to the Valley for dinner and a movie - Christina and Joaquin

Dinner done, movie over, getting ready to head back, but wait....

Roughhousing over, time to take a pic and head home - yawn, we're all sleepy

Date night success!  Photo opp!

Heading home - it's about 10pm or so

My cell phone camera just doesn't do it justice!

Now time to pay the DMV and get a pic!  I am legal to hit the road...after I take a pic!

Wicked

"Life is what you make it."  Sound familiar?  Every since I was a small child, I learned that we all have to make choices.  We can choose to be happy.  We can choose to seek and find the good in all we do and with the people we come into contact with.  We can choose our partner in life.

It was a long time ago, but I think...correct me if I am wrong and you know the answer, but my Uncle Roger gave me a VHS of Mary Poppins.  It just so happens, that it my most favorite movie of all time.  Mary Poppins taught me a lot, and solidified things I innately believed.  First, is that you can find good in every situation.  Even in the most traumatic situations, at some point, you find some positive spin on it.  She demonstrates this ideology when she is encouraging the children to clean the nursery.

 "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.  You find the job and SNAP!  The job's a game.  And every task you undertake, becomes a piece of cake." - Marry Poppins

A friend of mine has spent years being angry at her father about choices he has made, despite his efforts to make amends.  As is usually the case, she is exactly like her father.  When she asked for my honest feedback and opinion on the matter and I had to ask if she truly wanted it.  She reaffirmed her desire for an honest response to her question.  Even now, a few years after that conversation, I don't think she has accepted that she is her father's daughter.  It makes me feel sad for her, because she is missing out on so much.  No one is perfect, and holding a grudge against your parents helps no one.  I thought about her when I was thinking about "life is what you make it."  Because, we can choose to hold onto anger and hurt, or we can choose to forgive and live life to its fullest.  We can choose to be the victim, or we can choose to be a survivor that was once victimized but not dwell on the things that were and are out of our control.

We've all had moments when we felt life was out of our control.  It's natural.  It's human.  How we choose to come out of that whirlwind moment of mortality is up to us. In the grand eternal perspective of our time spent here on earth it is but a moment.  Like those moments when you can relive an entire decade in your mind, or situation can play out so quickly in a moment in your mind, so is life on earth.

Today, I choose to love.  I choose to care about who I am as a person, how God sees me as a person, and how I serve Him.  Today, there is a belief in my heart and mind that as I choose to increase my capacity for love, tender words when appropriate, making better decisions with whom and how I spend my time, and my daily effort to be honest and fair in my dealings with my fellow man, that through that effort, my life and the life of those I come into contact with will be enriched.  Not only theirs and mine, but my future family will be blessed from my efforts because I will be better for engaging in such an effort.

Choose to live, by choosing to love.  Choose to love, by choosing to serve.  Charity, never, ever faileth.

Allow me to rewrite Mary Poppins' advice by saying "You find the challenge and SNAP!  The challenge is a game.  Choose to play, it's the only way to win."

A beautiful letdown - Song by Switchfoot

No, this post isn't about that song, though I like the song.  However, the song title is exactly the way I feel about the dog, Koda.  For years, I have wanted to get a Siberian Husky and finally had the space and financial means to have one.  I even planned on naming my dog Koda, so finding a Siberian Mix (also what I wanted) named Koda seemed like fate.

About Koda - he is a 3 1/2 year old Siberian Mix, with multicolored eyes, and red and white coat.  Exactly what I wanted.  He's energetic, and understands commands and pulls!  Boy, was I looking forward to winter!  However, I was to be his third owner, and he was already a rescue puppy to begin with.  There were rules for him:  no rolled up newspaper, fear of vacuum cleaners, etc. due to prior abuse.  He could not adjust to our apartment for whatever reason and hurting my roommate and beginning to attack me as well.  After a conversation with my roommate about the concerns, and then discussing it with his previous owners, we all agreed that his behaviors were abnormal for him and they agreed to take him back.  I want what's best for him, but it was disappointing.

After a good cry on Thursday night and a chat with my friend in California until midnight my time (Thanks, I really needed that), I was resolved to do what needed to be done the next day.  I took him back after work on Friday evening and returned him to his previous owner.  I was sad.  I am still sad.  He was a beautiful letdown.  My friends have been great and telling me that I shouldn't take it personally, and I don't.  But there was a lot of build up leading to it and the apartment search was based on having him around.  So I move along.  Koda is happier in his home in Eagle River.

Jewel Lake Fun

As the Alaskan summer commences, so do they late night activities.  What do you do at eight o'clock on a Thursday night?  Why, I go to the park and make bubbles.  When nine o'clock rolls around you decide "hey, let's start a game of volleyball."  Who needs sleep anyway, right?

Beast making bubbles

Me, I made a big bubble!

Volleyball.  I was too tired to play, so I went home ha!

Labatts was AWESOME!!!

Alright, here we go!

We played "Champion's Chicks" aka "Champion's Choice" during regular season play, on Thursday and won 3-1.  Beast was in the crease and I took on the role as one of three centers.  It was the first time some of us had played together, so it was a great game to feel each other out and figure out what style of team we were gonna be for the tournament.  Playing Champ's was a lot of fun and felt more like a bunch of peeps out at the park playing pond hockey, except we had officials, a scorekeeper, scoreboard, and benches.  We all knew each other so well from playing in the same league this past season, that we went out and had a great time playing and laughing.

I skated out as a Center, which was rather interesting.  From the crease to center was quite a transition, but it was a lot of fun.  Looks like I will be skating center during summer hockey for a team over at Subway Centre, so I will get more opportunities there to skate out.  At any rate, I learned a lot being out on the ice in that position and my stopping ability improved every shift!  It's just a whole new world of skating outside my goalie gear, and it was baptism by fire out there!

Our second game of the tournament was Saturday morning and boy, oh boy, was it fun!  We played a team that was stronger and higher level players than we were, but it was amazing to see how we stepped up our game!  We skated faster, harder, and handled the puck better with every shift we skated.  It was amazing to see us improve by the minute.  Despite the loss, we got back into the locker room beaming and on fire with excitement.  Everyone had such a good time skating hard and playing a team of that caliber.  We held our own and Beast played well in the crease for us.

Our third and final game was Saturday evening against the Homer team...I wish I could remember the actual name of their team, but it escapes me....well, at any rate, they were unbeaten at this point and no one had scored on them yet.  I am proud to share that our team scored on them, and in doing so, we drew first blood!  We were ecstatic, but just mostly stoked to be playing an even better team and to be able to keep up with them.  Players that I had played with all season were skating faster than I had ever seen them skate before and even handling the puck and getting shots off, when all season, they played timidly, or gave up the puck before pushing it up.  Here they were, skating and handling the puck with some authority.  It was incredible.  We skated short-handed for the beginning portion of the game because of some late arrivals and a no-show, but it all worked out!  On the bench, we looked over at each other and asked, for example "Who's wearing Karen's uniform?"  Ha ha!  We lost the game, but we felt like winners going into the locker room.

The group of ladies on the team were fantastic and all had such positive attitudes!  We were there for the main purpose of having fun, and we had fun!  We had a lot of gals, but I think everyone got enough ice time.  Good times!

Team Rush'n Attack!!!  Rush the Puck.  Attack the Net.

 Tomorrow is opening day for Labatts and I am getting excited.  I was pretty nervous about having to skate out for the tourney, especially after Saturday's practice.  I was on the ice more than I was on my feet and I am supposed to be playing center or winger.  Last night in class a kid wanted to try goalie, but out teacher didn't show up to open up the locker with the extra helmet and other goalie gear so I let him use my gear.  He did a really well for his first time in the crease! It gave me an extra opportunity to play out and skate.  It was a lot better experience this time out.  We had short benches so our shifts were long and arduous and since the benches were short we played whatever position we had to when the time arrived for someone needing a break - pick up hockey.

I started doing things naturally as opposed to trying to remember how to shift my weight over the rocker to make my swivel turn, or making my C-cuts when skating around the puck and defenders.  I can't deke very well, but trying not to be too hard on myself since I have never really done it much.  I still have a long way to go, but the hockey is the easy part.  It's skating and the hockey at the same time that is difficult.  I might try and skate one more time on the ice before Thursday, or maybe on our off day Friday.  We are playing two on Saturday, so I don't want to lose my confidence going into a big day like that.

We are in a small division, so if we win at least two games, we have a fair shot of making the championship game.  Though I agreed to captain the team on the grounds that it was for the simple point of having fun, my competitive edge doesn't prevent me from having a burning desire to win games and see my team do well at the same time.  I am a playmaker by nature, so we'll see if I can keep my skates beneath me long enough to make it happen a little bit, I'll be okay with that!  =D

Rush'n Attack - Rush the Puck. Attack the Net.

Just under a week before Labatts!  I'm excited and so is my team!  We had jerseys made and they look pretty good!  We are a bit of a team of misfits, but we are all about having fun!!!

Rush'n Attack - homage to a great international team style of play, as well as an 80s Nintendo Game

 

Who doesn't want to have their name on the back of their Jersey???

Hunger Games

Finally got to see Hunger Games with Joaquin.  I was waiting and bugging about it for days!  Of course, I made him promise to take me.  Joaquin is a buddy of mine that I met while here in Alaska.  Though, most of our friendship was forged while he was serving in Afghanistan.  Since we became instant buds here in AK, we continued to keep contact in between his missions.  Now he's preparing for a civilian life elsewhere in the United States, but we made plans to do things before he left.  Hunger Games being one of them.  We clearly disagreed on the awesomeness that is Peeta, but that's okay.  He hasn't read the books, so he doesn't know how awesome Peeta is.  =D  He was probably annoyed that several times during the course of the movie I leaned over and said, "I love PEETA!" 

Obviously, the movie was a Reader's Digest version of the book which is fine.  It was fast paced and worth watching.  I could have watched it for hours if they had put more stuff from the book in it.  There was no Madge, not a lot of bonding with Cinna's workers, and they didn't show a few other things, but oh well.  It is what it is and it wasn't terrible.  Glad they kept it PG-13 as well.  They could have easily made it R if they wanted to get gory.  Though, they could have shown more fighting and kept it within the ratings I think. 

At any rate, the movie was good and company was as well.

If I had more time, I would re-read the books!  I plan to eventually, but not this week!  There's that part about just starting a new school term and such.  Now that my computer is fully functional again, I can actually do homework and study!  Woo hoo!  Thank you, Dell!

JoFred