Remember

this?

My sweet friend Michelle (the artist) gave me a new clock last winter at her Studio Sale. I was also able to buy the super adorable matching candlesticks.

Guess what?

He broke the clock AGAIN!

It involved a ball again too.

Ugggghhhhhh.............

I want to scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Brain is Fried

Learning how to put people onto a commercial airplane is harder than you think (or at least harder than I thunk).

And I feel like I've lost my blogging mojo.......cuz ya know I had mojo.

But before my very last brain cell goes, I'll tell you about our teenager.

She is my non-blogging sister, Angie's middle daughter. Shaylene is her name.

She was looking for summer work and is not afraid of an adventure and we needed some babysitting help and live on the edge, so to speak. So here she came.

It has worked out great. She is babysitting the boys a little (actually it's been alot while I've been doing my new job training, but it'll be less starting next week) and she's working at the grocery store.

Yeah, her Uncle Dave gave her a job and he's glad he did. She's dependable, shows up when she's scheduled, and works hard (all qualities that are somewhat difficult to find here). She's loving working and her earnings are adding up quickly. Between babysitting and the "quite a bit higher than minimum wage" pay that she earns at the store, along with nothing to spend her money on, she should go home with a good chunk of change for six weeks work

She's made a few friends here and in her time off has discovered the joys of arctic wakeboarding and fourwheeling.

(yeah, that's snow in the back ground!)

In her two weeks here, we've had only one curfew violation and I gave her the "you had me very worried and I thought I was going to have to call your mom and tell her something terrible happened" lecture and sent her bed with no facebook time. The next evening I asked her to stay in and she did so willingly. So it's all good and we are loving having her here!

That's all from this fried brain for now. I hope to have my mojo back soon because I do need to fill you all in on a Independence Day celebration like no other...........

soon, very soon.

I hope.

She's right (and cute)

I got myself a teenager:

(more on that later)

She guest blogged for me below.

And she's right. It is no longer my crazy life.

She would probably call it my boring life.

Some would agree with her. Not me.



I call it my new life.

And it's starting to suit me very well.



There's not a lot to do. But I'm never bored.

There's no where to go. But I love being home.



So, I guess I need a new blog name since it's no longer "My crazy life" although I do still love it.



Any suggestions?

So this is Shay and i'm going to blog for tt....so i just have to say one thing she does not have a crazy life there is really nothing that goes on here.....the craziest thing is a dog birthday party..hmmmm don't really get that!! But that's as crazy as it gets in her life....or the softball games but those aren't really crazy they are fun.....all we have done since i got here is sit on facebook, watch tv, go on walks.......what a crazy life tt.....love ya <3 shay

Friday Fotos

A few pictures from this week:

Flowers on the tundra
Beautiful ice on the shore:

1:17 AM (that's the sun!)

and last, but not least

tundra fashion:

shorts, hoody and rubber boots!

We are LOVING life here!

File under "I'll try anything once"

SEAGULL EGGS

Yuk!
Too Fishy!!

(but I said I'd try anything once)

Winner

#1 12 pack Pepsi - $12.65

(I forgot to mention it was on sale, so we'll just go with regular price)

#2 Costco size tide - $43.75

#3 6Rolls charmin TP - $9.89




#4 - 28pk Water - $24.99


#5 - Farmans Dill Pickles - $6.98
(on sale, but notice the regular price!)

#6 - Oroweat Bread - $6.55

#7 Salad Dressing - $6.82 (on sale)

#8 One gallon milk - $9.49

Grand Total: $121.12

(if I had really bought these things there would also be a 6% sales tax on ALL of these items, so the actual total would be $128.39)

And the winner is:

Gina

her guess was $119.00.

(yeah, she's my sister, but we have honestly NEVER talked about the price of groceries)

So, what'll it be Gina, Starbucks or Target?

Thank you all for playing along!

Nostalgic

I'm feeling all sentimental about this kid tonight.

No recent major milestones or anything, it's just that he's getting big. He's not quite nine and a half, but really he's closer to 18 than he is to his birth.

Tonight we were walking home from fishing, just he and I, and he slipped his hand into mine. I silently gasped. It was a huge hand. Big and kind of rough. It wasn't a little boys hand anymore and it didn't stay in mine for long. Almost as quick as it slipped in, it was pulled out.

Now don't get me wrong, he still drives me nuts. His love of Star Wars and Bak-u-gon baffles me and his constant chatter and commotion wears me out. But for just a moment tonight my heart stopped when I realized that he's not gonna be a little boy much longer.

PS. Don't forget to enter your guesses in my Grocery Game!

Grocery Game

Alright, we are going to have a little fun here.

Below are pictures of eight common grocery items.

You get to give your best guess at the prices of these items if purchased at the grocery store here in Kotzebue (the one my husband works for).

THE RULES:

1. Leave your guesses in the comment section of my blog.
   Please list your guesses like this:
   1 $x.xx
   2 $x.xx
   3 $x.xx
   4 $x.xx
   5 $x.xx
   6 $x.xx
   7 $x.xx
   8 $x.xx
   Total for all eight items $xx.xx
2. The person closest to the actual total price for these eight items, without going over wins! You can be over on the individual item prices as long as you don't go over the total price.
3. If you live in Kotzebue you are not eligible to play! Sorry!!
4. Comments will close at 11:59pm Wednesday June 3rd.
5. Winner will be announced Thursday, June 4th.
6. If you do not have a blog please leave an e-mail address or some other way to contact you in case you win!!

The prize? Well in honor of my recent trip to Anchorage , I'll offer either a $10 Starbucks or a $10 Target gift card, your choice!

Here are the items:

#1 - 12 pack of Pepsi

#2 - Costco size Tide

#3 - Quilted Northern TP (6 double rolls)

#4 - Bottled Water

#5 - Pickles (on sale!)

#6 - Loaf of Bread

#7 - Salad Dressing (on sale!)

#8 - One gallon of Milk

HAVE FUN!

Operation Anchorage: Success (mostly)

First of all, I took NO pictures of my trip (well, I remebered to take one but you can't see it until the end). Sorry!

So my super secret appointment that got me the trip to Anchorage in the first place was a second interview with THE major passenger airline company of Alaska. Good news.......I got the job. I will be working as a Customer Service/Ticket Agent here at the Kotzebue airport. I was torn about taking this job because I LOVE my job at the school, but the travel benefits that come with this position are just too good to pass up, so here's to hoping that I love this job as much.

After my two hour interview and pee in a cup session, Cathy and I headed out for my lesson in Alaskan Bush Shopping. First stop, Walmart and only because she insisted that the right totes for shipping were there. They call them Alaskan Bush luggage, and you never leave Kotzebue without them! I bought four Sterilite tubs and off we headed to Costco.

At Costco she told me to bring the totes on with me and set them out on a flat bed cart and shop into them, that way I would know really how much space I had. My number one priority was toilet paper. Toilet paper is so expensive here! I then proceeded to fill my three of my four totes with stuff. Once we were done in Costco we headed out to Cathy's rental car and she showed me how to pack my totes. This process included opening and discarding of much of the exterior packaging in order to create more space. Toilet paper rolls became hole filler.........stuffed in wherever there was room. Cereal was taken out of the boxes and packed in only the bag. Ziploc bags were completely removed from their packaging and stuffed into one of their own and used as hole filler. Pretty soon we had three expertly packed totes and a pile of cardboard packaging that was not going to Kotzebue.

From Costco it was on to my beloved Target. Did you know there is only ONE Target in Anchorage? And it just opened about three months ago? God loves me!

Just inside the door of this beautiful Target is Starbucks, but I was able to resist the urge and walked right on by. We only spent a short time (well short to me, but I'm sure it was quite long enough for Cathy) in Target before we headed out to meet another friend and her family for dinner.

After dinner, Cathy and I went to meet up with our Pastor and his family. They were also in Anchorage and had an extra vehicle that I could borrow for my next day's shopping adventures.

From there I headed to my Priceline.com reserved hotel. That ended up being disastrous when at 10pm I was still waiting in the lobby and sixth on the list for a clean room. I ended up calling around for another hotel, found one and headed over there and am now dealing with Priceline for a refund on my first reservation...........

Thursday I was on my own.........I headed out to find somewhere to get my haircut. I found one of the chain salons in the mall but they were not able to get me in for a few hours, so I found an independent place down the road. They were able to get me in right away and the gal did a great job. I will definitely be going back there! Then it was back to Target to finish my list. I still had a few more things to get.

Two hours later I emerged from Target and headed out to the parking lot to pack my last tote. Ooops, I bought a few to many things. It all wouldn't fit so I had to return a couple of things. Not making the cut? Two boxes of cereal and a roll of parchment paper.

From Target I was off to find myself some lunch. I had decided to nix the Applebees Honey BBQ wings for my family because it just didn't seem like a smart idea to have them sit out for the next four hours. All I could envision is food poisoning.

It was then off to the airport to check in for my flight back to Kotzebue. I had four large Sterilite totes FULL, along with a very heavy carry-on packed to the brim with overflow stuff and my personal bag. On the advice of my more seasoned friends I used the curbside baggage check, tipped the Skycap and headed inside to check in and pay for my one extra "bag". Check in was fairly simple, only one of my totes was a little over the 50 lb limit (by 2.8 lbs), but they sent it through without charging me! One hour later I was through security and headed to my gate.

When what to my wandering eye should appear:

and my in flight snack consisted of a grande, non-fat vanilla chai and an oatmeal raisin cookie.

A successful trip in the bag and since I am now an airline employee I will be able to do this more often (and next time I'll remember to photograph the whole process)!