Pages

Thursday, August 27, 2009

They Have Arrived!

I am a happy lady as I write that Tiffany and John are here in our very own house. It feels great to have them here, though we have not lucked out as far as weather goes. It is to be expected, but we're really hoping for some sunshine soon. Last weekend before their arrival, we were all able to make it to Seward for a full weekend of relaxing fireside, and hiking up a mountain that follows along side Exit Glacier. It was the most spectacular environment, I love Seward, and this hike was gorgeous. There was not enough time in the day to enjoy everything around us on the hike, especially while listening to the sound of my own panting as I huffed and puffed up the massive mountain. We were right next to the blue glacier the entire time, and we could feel the cool air blowing on us, we were able to pick salmon berries on the way up and it was all around wonderful. Sadly on the hike down, Dave and Eric got attacked by a swarm of bees while I followed right behind and somehow went untouched. I felt lucky for having no stings but it was sad to see Eric's huge ankle for the following days. We are going to take Tiffany and John to Seward for what will hopefully be a similar weekend next week before they head home. We are going to do the wildlife tour that I mentioned earlier, and maybe we'll repeat the hike but we will see what we have time for! We're going to do the wildlife conservation center on the way or the way back and I'm really looking forward to that as I have not been there yet. Stories and pictures will follow. Since Tiff and John have been here we have been hanging around Anchorage, biked Eklutna which resulted in a few stressful hours of trying to keep the dogs under control as they pulled our bikes. Towards the beginning I faceplanted over the handlebars of my bike which luckily turned out to be highly entertaining. For me at least and I'm pretty sure Tiffany found it pretty funny as she approached me lying in the dirt face down. The weather has been cloudy for the most part and raining off and on, but the sun peeked out on us for a bit today which felt wonderful. We enjoyed the sunshine downtown going shop to shop as there are many interesting places here. We are going to go to Palmer this weekend, hopefully to the State Fair as well as the Musk Ox farm that we visited on our visit last summer, and we're going to perhaps hike Hatcher Pass where Eric spent some time with work learning the different grasses. We're going to have a picnic there, and tomorrow we'll be starting the weekend by hiking powerline with our friend Brian. This is one of the best spots to find the moose rutting, and I think everyone is really looking forward to seeing that! Tomorrow night we might go to Humpy's a favorite casual restaurant, and if the weather cooperates we might grill out at Brian's this weekend up in the hills. His house is one of my favorite places to go because it is so wonderfully beautiful, so I hope that works out. I believe those are the most recent updates, we are all happy and well right now... Eric went on his first work trip and returned this evening, he went to a little village called Pilot Point with his boss... They walked and did work to find if the land was a wetland where the engineers plan to build. He said it was a great experience and seemed to have enjoyed it so I'm glad for that, and glad he is back :) I forgot one update, and that is that I officially started my last semester of classes this week. It felt so odd to be going back to school, and I felt just confused and detached because I have not been in the school state of mind for a bit now. I have been so focused on work that I almost just forgot. I felt like I was just starting all over again since I didn't know where I was going or who I would see, and overall it has not been all that enjoyable but it's fine. I will say that my sign language class is wonderful and exciting and will most certainly be a great and meaningful experience for me. I hope I can continue to learn more after the course ends. I am anxious to see how my schedule turns out with class and both jobs, but for now I have some work to do in solidifying my schedule, I need to change some classes around. I realize I have written for ages now, and you're probably hoping this will end but if you're still reading-- thank you for hanging in there with me! I can't seem to find a balance, I either don't write or I write too much! Until next time!
As John would say,
cheers!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Back to AK


It was hard for me last time I wrote to not talk about my surprise trip home, but it was exactly that- a surprise. Well for Kate at least. Everyone else knew I was coming, and it was a wonderful trip indeed. It was fun to get to Kate's bridal shower, Macy's first birthday party, and spend some time with family and friends. My friends are rarely in the same state these days, so the fact that everyone was around and I got to see them multiple times was so wonderful. I'm still missing everyone, but it felt good to get back to Anchorage at the same time. I had a few hours off for sleep after a wonderful homecoming, and then off to work at the new job the next morning! I have been LOVING it. Finally a place that is as fast paced as I tend to be, it's crazy there and there are always 32948 things going on at once and while it could be overwhelming (and seems to be) it's still nice to not be bored at work. I really love it.

I'm getting a tad nervous about the fact that I'm still training with this job, working at Hope, starting school on Monday, and all I want to do is have a good trip with my friends Tiff and John who also come Monday! I know everything will work out, I just don't want too much going on because we have some very fun things planned. But such is life, and I know it will work out just fine. It feels odd to be heading back to school. I don't feel like I'm in school anymore, though I'm not expecting a very hard semester although I need to do some additional online classes, and that will probably be a challenge. Finding the motivation at least. That is all that I'm up to at this time, this weekend we are going to Seward with friends and I'm thrilled because I love Seward and haven't been since last summer. We are going to camp and hike exit glacier. (I think that's what it's called?) Have not hiked for a while so I'm sure we'll be huffing and puffing but that's ok. Hopefully next weekend we'll get to Seward again with Tiff and John, and maybe take some kayaks out as well as take the wildlife tour (Kenai Fjords tours) which we did last summer and had a great time. Basics of life right now are that it's extremely busy, but what else is new. I'm always busy, but always on my toes, just the way I like it...