Is it June?? It's Freaking 52 degrees out there!

It's so warm here today it felt like it feels in the summer when we camp! 52 and muggy is CRAZY weather for February!!

I've been snoozing after work, making dinner, running kids to and from events and straightening up the house so I've done nothing for the past 2 days! The boat is back, we're going for a big hike tonight, one we usually only do in the summer, I am excited!

I just love this picture it cracks me up...my son had gotten into a bunch of Pushkie (that's how we always said it growing up in Kodiak...everyone out here adds a "t" after the s) his friend's mother sent them out to cut the pushkie in the bright sun...omg the friend was worse, but my son was a mess too... that's why he's all scarred up. Alena's sweet mother brought over some Angelica lotion she made and that helped, he healed and doesn't have any scars!!!

I'll find a picture or two. But the seaweed eye was funnneeeee.

Calm after the Storm?!

The other lovely picture of me (omg those chins must go!!) is to remind myself to sell those 60 eBay lots sitting in my living room....ughhh when can I squeeze that in?? I can't throw the packing peanuts away...I might need them someday, spaz!!!

What a gorgeous day for the end of Feburary! I want to be on a walk! I had to peek at the webcams from over on Amaknak Island. All I can see is a big hill and blue sky from my office and it's driving me crazy! I want to be home with windows open and cleaning everything. Maybe that's just 'cause OPLG is using my house for a Pampered Chef party on Saturday evening...
My oldest is home with a stomach "thing" yuk I hope nobody else gets it...throwing up sucks!!
I'm still eschewing refined sugar and loving it, everything tastes better already :)

YUMMY Lunch Alena!

We're kind of obsessed with food this week... (or always I guess) But Alena! and I are in a race to lose 30 pounds. I saw her eating this lunch this week and it made me HAPPY! I'm day 3 of no REFINED sugar...I still find carbs in healthy forms..I'd be a total complete grouch with a headache if I didn't!. I'm still eating a lot, the kids and I ate cesear salad after I worked out for 90 minutes and my daughter swam. (The new engineer on the boat's family is wonderful and we've been meeting up with them at the aquatic center) Sonia wants to do the aerobic class at the PCR tonight, I HOPE it's canceled and I can do my cardio machines :)

Polar Bear Run...or walk if you're not a runner-girl

Gigi put this pic up too..I can't believe the kids here, they're so tough (or just crazy!)
These 2 look more comfortable Lifeguarding at the pool or in my son's room playing X-Box
3 bundled up bloggers!

Last Sunday I participated in the annual Polar Bear run, I think there were over 90 people running and walking! That's big for our little town!
I've been working out at the pool or the gym every day for 60-90 min and eating whole foods, it's been hard. No refined sugar for almost 2 days (that is a record!)
My organic produce arrived today (just in time as a bad storm is predicted) so I have sooooo much to get eaten up, I've got cauliflower, carrots, 2 or 3 heads of lettuce, snap peas, collard greens (what the heck do I do with those?) onions and shallots, avocado, pineapple, tons of oranges and apples of several varieties, lemons, 2 zucchinis, grape tomatoes, red potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes and sweet potatoes too, cucumbers, pears, red peppers and bananas.

I need to make a few dishes quickly before they all go bad!!

Giant salad tonight!!!! Maybe black bean and sweet potato enchiladas??? hmmm....

Science Fair

Our school is so busy! this weekend was the science fair. There were over 80 competitors. We didn't have any winners, but we're still proud of 'em!

Halo Friday....or Melly Madness???

This room was about 90 degrees! These guys are soooo relaxed they don't get worked up playing the 'old guys' they win without even getting worked up!
2 nice kids in the living room with the "old guys" It isn't as hot or as smelly out in this room, they're pretty smart I think!
13 year olds don't travel without laptops anymore.
We had some delicious beverages to sip while we sat for hours :) The 11 yr olds and the cute new 10 year old were staying out of the way after they ate some pizza and brownies.
Not sure which name I like better, but I am certainly leaning towards the second one for obvious reasons! The boat is gone and I'm going to do the Polar Bear Run (walking) with several other Unalaska bloggers and fellow Unalaska Biggest Winner participants, the weather is looking good (so far) the rocks in my back yard are even dry? I can see the ground AND it's dry...what a WEIRD Feburary!!!?? The pavement on the other side of the house is dry too....amazing...that never happens.

Preparations for Melly Madness

My bad habit are contagious (my name IS cookie dough!!)

Brownie makers!

Every bit of food is either in a Tupperware container or a freezer in my house, plus no pets...so far that's protected me from any vermin...'cause I like organic cleaners that smell good, not toxic chemicals that make it hard to breathe...CB is going for the chemicals.

This salad is actually delicious...looks kinda boring, but it's not!

I skipped lunch on Friday, actually had Alena grab a giant Cabo Salad! YUM! I ducked out a bit early to buy some food for our X-Box party which an adorable 4th grader dubbed, "Melly Madness" (there were 3 Mellys present) Look who I found at the store-which-shall-not-be-named when I was dashing through the store in search of enough junk food to keep a whole bunch of kids from rummaging through my cupboards in the middle of the night. He was buying supplies to scrub his apt just in case rats try to move in.

I found some brownie mixes on sale (2 for $4) and some cheap pizzas. We bought 2 good pizzas from Dutch Harbor Fast Food, which has GREAT pizza ...I think we ONLY spent $65 LOL... One of the guests brought a cake too. All was eaten except about 1/3 of a pizza and a few brownies.

Boys

My younger son doing a PPP for Science that was so good he got an A+, the teacher asked him to go first to show everyone how it's done AND she invited the Superintendent to watch! Good Job!!

My WAY over-scheduled oldest son being sworn in as our student representative at a school board meeting. He's cute, he cooks AND he's civic-minded too

I haven't talked about my kids in days! I'm usually a much more involved mom than I have been this week. Their dad is going out to sea again soon, good for him to be hands-on this week, right? That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it! He's been running them back and forth from the school and PCR and helping with a Eagle Scout project and cooked a couple times too. I'll be on duty for the next couple of weeks or so...who knows for how long, I didn't even bother to ask, they'll be home when they're home. Plus now I have another wife/mom to whine to when I get burned out and she can say, "Yup, that's how it goes." it's nice to hear that. Actually calms me down.

Everyone is addicted to playing X-Box. We should have about 15 in our house tonight. 3rd week in a month LOL. I get to eat pizza, and 2 women and and 2 girls are joining us too.. are coming to share in our misery while the 10 noisy boys play.

Story Corps

I don't believe that this sweet grandma ate Cheetos and Tab while Alena was gestating!
Our gracious facilitator Kristine
What can I say??
Even after a long day I still don't look as awful as I did Sunday when Alena caught me at the PCR about to do Cardio!

After a long day at work....2 classes yesterday and 2 today and taking a friend that just moved to town to lunch --YUM Cabo Salad from the Grand! I did Story Corps with Alena! She's a nut.....I'm sure everyone knows that.
We had fun though and it was must less unnerving as last time. We talked about healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, less cookie dough, pizza and kung poa beef pretty much... Now I want to quiz Char and Irene and get them talking, they have GREAT stories. I'm a much better interviewer than interviewee...

Catching Up

The birthday cake her beloved brother got up at 5:30am to bake, 3 layers of cake 1 of mint chocolate chip ice cream and one of cookie dough ice cream (all 5 of us LOVE cookie dough!) the frosting is real whipped cream, he ditched her for his chick, but he made a cake and gave her a itunes gift card, so the birthday girl "dealed 'wif it"
She looks so grown up with the new 'do
Love it when there is a pianist handy!
These one did leave his room long enough to score a bunch of goals in soccer....
It was icey outside there was way too much gaming this past weekend!
They knew as soon as I saw the lime and purple I'd be snapping pictures!!

I am finally caught up with my homework, after 2 weeks of really not having a chance to do anything, what a chore to catch up! I just need to stay caught up...is it mid-May yet???

Saturday was such a full day! I got my hair done, and so did the birthday girl, wow did we need that!!!! (she looks so grown-up now!)I skipped both soccer games (I hate to do that) My daughter and I did the Story Corp thing with the kind facilitators, we cracked them up! We're quite succinct and had a hard time filling 40 minutes! I don't like getting flowers, they're so expensive here and usually die within a day, Jennifer from the PO told my husband who was looking lost at Eagle to buy me chocolate-covered strawberries, I love Jennifer :) We all feasted on those. My eldest son was up hours early to bake a 5 layer cake for his sister and make a card for his g/f. I was too tired to document that! Darn-it, it was a nice card too!
The b-day girl wanted to play Halo and Boxing on xbox with her dad and the mate off the boat (??? funny girl) so that is what she did Saturday evening.
We had a nasty dinner of chicken nuggets and fries made of real potatoes YUK! We don't eat like that and she is a junk-food junkie. We had a piano-playing best friend over that night so we had music while we sang :)
She got lots of clothes, a 3rd ipod from a grandma (who NEEDS 3 we're still wondering, she has lots of excuses though) a digital camera, an itunes gift card from her biggest brother and $70. She was quite pleased even without a big party!
The teenagers went to the Grand for dinner on SAT night, we got stuck eating nuggets with the b-day girl. But we did make it to the buffet on Sunday. No pictures, she didn't want to look like tourists! (I need to grab that cute little camera for blogging if she's not going to use it!)

I signed up for the Biggest Winner contest on Sunday, I won't win, but if I can lose my chubby cheeks and wear size 2s again I will be thrilled.
I worked out and scrapbooked on Sunday too....
I'm so glad I had Monday off!!! I needed it.

Valentine's Weekend

He's serious unlike those older kids 'course the older kids won anyway, they're really good!
They're a bit slower at getting everything set up in this room....
They weren't nearly as quiet as they appear! (I really do mena to get that pile of junk on ebay very soon!!!)

Quick little 3x3 cards for her class, no stress!

I'm so glad that I have a 3 day weekend, the weekend flew by and I even skipped a few events! I had tickets to go to the Chocolate Extravaganza, but passed them to the teenagers, they shared a bit (no sea salt carmels though!) and it was delicious! I still need to get to the museum to see the sculptures!

We had an X-box party again on FRI night. 10 "boys" all "versing" each other, lots of pizza and lots of Halo 3. It was cute, I sat at the table and did paperwork.

My daughter made her own cards for her party at school Friday, all I did was cut the cardstock for the cards. She used the same hearts as the boys did earlier this week...That's so easy, I used to have 3-5 kids all making cards and treats for 3 classes!! She said her friends were bringing treats for her birthday and I didn't have to make anything, I'm getting a complex! That's the second time this week I've been let off the hook!
Here are pics from FRI --

Colonial Job Fair

There is always food, I did have a bite of some sort of apple dumpling or fritter....YUM!!

This "tobacco farmer" was very clever!
Read the sign Dude! (like that green apron?? It's mine of course!)

I'm sitting at the kitdchen table, there are 10 "boys" playing Halo 3...ages 13-50...it's very loud here tonight!
Last night the 5th& 6th graders had another event...This is a new one, they all were assigned careers that may have been available to people in colonial times. Our daughter was a barber, she and her partner cut some wigs they attached to big bears, I thought that was pretty creative. Some of the booths were pretty elaborate! There were 3 kinds of smiths who knew? tinkers, bakers, ship builders, a miller, a seamstress, a storekeeper a candlemaker and others that I can't remember. There was food too... glad to not have lived in those times. Glad my going-to-start-to-eat-better-on-Sunday friend Alena! got us Canadian bacon, pineapple and jalapeño pizza for lunch and I didn't have to eat colonial foods!!

FEB 13th Storm

That's snow by the vehicles, not waves, but that IS water flowing down the street.

We lived in an apartment building in 2006.

A few years ago we had the craziest storm ever on FEB 13. We should've just stayed home, but the school didn't close! My daughter got out of my car at school and went sailing across the sidewalk hydroplaning on the water-covered ice. The car door got away from her, it bent too far and became dented...Her brother rescued her, but her mittens blew away!

Around noon they closed the schools, I left work to pick the kids up from both schools --that was fun in the wind and rain with all the parents' vehicles everywhere...we were trapped at home after that, the road was like a river.

I think a bunkhouse was wrecked?

What does everyone else remember about that day??

Didn't a mudslide occur over by Magone's shop??

It was a wild day, my daughter's birthday is on the 14th, she always reminds us that it's the anniversary of the big storm around this time!

Cuteness

I just had to post this because it's too cute...saw it on my screensaver and thought, "ohhhhhhh, they were so little and sooooo cute!"

Busy 5th graders

Telling some friends about Chester Arthur's life...
"Chester Arthur" by a mural depicting his many pairs of pants.

I'm STILL trying to catch up with my classes....I am so hating this semester, but I haven't really talked about my kids too much, bad mom!
Our school district is great! For a small town the kids receive an excellent, well-rounded education many of our teachers have been here for years! That shows that it's a GREAT place to be! The class sizes are fairly small and the students are not allowed to fall through the cracks, I appreciate that, I've got a couple that need to be kept on track!
Here is my daughter in the "Hall of Presidents" Each of the 5th and 6th graders that participated portrayed a different president. You donated a quarter and the "statue" would come to life and recite a several minute long history of the president. Their memorization of the speeches was impressive! better than I could do. They raised over $400 to donate to a food bank in Anchorage. My daughter was Chester Arthur, she's a bit of a fashion-ista and talked mostly about his 80 pairs of pants and that during his time as president he had the White House re-modeled and he took some vacations to Florida too. I looked, there really wasn't too much to say about his politics, I guess she didn't think any of that political stuff was important...

Honor Students in the House

They made about 30, here are a few.




How cute are these guys??? They asked to make some cards for the National Honor Society to sell in school tomorrow....they helped themselves to some snacks, conned me into making juice and even got my daughter to help!
I just happen to have more card-making stuff than anyone could ever use in 2 lifetimes, so I don't mind sharing.
(notice my kid, just watching...his grades are there, buthe hasn't made it into honor society YET, something about sleeping in class???)