The Shirt Right off His Back

Showing Sonia who has only been here a couple of weeks that for a price you can have just about ANY fruit or vegetable your heart desires, just have to be brave and march into the cooler at Alaska Ship Supply!


We visited our super-happy Story Corps ladies so MM could tell HER story before leaving us and going back to "the real world"EVERYONE needs to go see Kristine and Sharon, I mean where else in town are the folks THIS HAPPY???!!!!!!!
He-whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned (see Alena!'s blog from awhile back..ugly t-shirt guy) is a friend of MM's. He saw her in my car, pinned us in with a grater while she was taking pictures of birds or boats or something on the spit. She loved his hoodie, he literally gave her the shirt off his back. If you read this...find me I have gifts for you from her R.
My kids hate it, but I love sale food! I have to have more parties and make more dip I guess, that's a lot of cream cheese.
Had to get souvenirs! Alaska Ship had the best, except there was a print at the Grand Gift shop that she'd had her eye on since she lived here (for real!) and got a SMOKIN' deal on it...

She also got crab from Unisea and a fancy box from Aleutian Fresh Seafoods, shipped it at Ace Cargo...all that took just 30 min. all the folks that helped with her kids will have a delicous party and see her pics of the her trip. A home movie from my husband's boat too which makes me totally seasick.

She's made it to Chicago now, almost home. I was so tired last night I went to bed at 9pm. I'm totally fighting a cold, but more on that later!

Relaxing Sunday

Why did Diana pick on poor little me...."Ohhh CD has 2 friends now?! What does my beloved husband say to her?!!?!"
Yummy king crab, we only eat it in June when it's hot and fresh from the cooker. Well, except for some that I put away for dip...I miss Glitter Queen eating dip with me boohoooo...
Linda loves the creme brule my kid makes...I got a picture to make her husband the 1st mate on the boat jealous!
Diana the clerk in the office was overheard saying, "They let YOU handle a knife?!!!"
He's so cute, I love it when he makes omelets now we just want him to re-create them at home! We get a scrambled pile of goo at home..what's up with that??

I really had to do homework on Sunday, Martha took my car and went visiting. I watched "Over There" that I borrowed from one of my son's friends. And did a couple huge assignements that were due on Monday. We went to brunch with my husband's co-workers (the ones who aren't on the boat trip) and their families to welcome the new sargent. It was delicious as always. I just ate an omelet, smoked salmon & halibut on mini bagels with cream cheese. Ceviche (yum!) and a couple desserts that my kiddo made. Ohh and a teeny cute smoothy. My kids just laid around with me most of the day, except the middle guy tried to beat up on Martha a bit --she hangs out with 4 teens over 6 feet tall and mothers a whole wrestling team too. She is TOUGH! No 13 year old with a cold was going to take her down LOL...


Ohh I made moose French dips for dinner (on whole wheat French bread) and cesear salad. Martha has be able to tell everyone that she ate moose in Alaska...

Our Incredibly Exausting Saturday

I forgot to add the pic of the game! The most exciting thing we did on SAT. Life can be intense :)
Martha traveled over 3000 miles to sort pictures???
My SAT night, I was wiped out after 4 events during the day!
The WWII Museum is very informative and quite nicely put together.
Gigi in her first big event at UCB!

PCR awards ceremony....

Our Saturday with Martha Macguyver was crazy...we needed our couches after all the activities!
The day started with two soccer games, the final ones of the season. The players got cool trophies and we're done spending 4 hours a week at the PCR until next fall! We went to an membership meeting for the local TV/Radio station Unalaska Community Broadcasting, I'm a board member and worked the door signing members in and giving them their ballots. We had a special private viewing of the WWII Museum. The regular museum dude is on vacation with his mother the PC hostess who left just to avoid packing the loot :) So Alena!'s fabulous sis opened the museum just for us! We enjoyed the exhibits and watched the entire movie about the Aleut Evacuation during WWII. It's a heartbreaking show.
We played an intense game of Life with the teenagers -- I totally tied with my son! We had over 2.35 million each and the exact same random amount...I was impressed LOL. After that we just sat on the couches with our laptops...Martha sorted some of the 10k pics she took for her son's wresting team back home, I did homework. THAT'S MY STORY, I'M STICKING TO IT :)

Part 2 of the Busiest Day EVER

A local welder-artist has a very cool collection displayed right now...we have so many talented artists in this town!
The Muesum of the Aleutians is very nice, I love this gut coat!
Martha used to live a baseball throw away from Peking (danger!) nothing has changed, the decor, the workers, the food....that's good --I think??

It's snowing really hard out right now, I'm sort of excited, big fluffy flakes, not like a "bad storm" but cool and wintery...Martha McGuyver is also a photographer with a very cool camera, I bet she gets some great shots today!
We met friends for lunch, Martha's fortune said she'd expand her circle of friends (she did) and the poor teenager who keeps being stuck with all of us silly grown-ups and boys who play shooting games and NOT Rock Band got a fortune that said something about attending a party with people who had strange customs--that's not us is it????

We went to 3 stores, the Museum of the Aleutians and Peking restaurant...half of us LOVED Peking, the others not so much. Martha scored a print she's wanted since she lived here --it was STILL at the Grand Gift shop! She got a GREAT deal, she's very smart, polite and persistent!

Busy 24 hours ( Finally the pics will upload)

Tony the PCR guy is hamming it up for his 11 year old fan club!
Swim club..."cool down" was 12 laps...she needed a couple hours' rest after that!
One of the Chileans! (what is the fascination LOL? He's not blond, he's slim...I'm just not getting it!)

I missed the shot where he did the splits...I think he's still sore...maybe that why he's wearing the SKINNY jeans, very skinny jeans today, they're like an ace wrap..ughhhhh!!!
Even made more points that we could even keep track of!
Martha arrived almost on time yesterday --unheard of! We saw an old friend of hers before we even left the airport parking lot! I did some homework and we rested for most of the afternoon,she packed the Pampered Chef -- the real hostess is on a convenient vacation (I know she left just to avoid 8 heavy boxes and 10 errands lol) I was pooped...all the excitement this week, but I did do some homework.

We spent 3 hours at the PCR walking for an hour then watching adult league soccer after that. We ran into another old friend and it felt like a time warp....back 6 years, except the kids are huge now.

Martha and E.E. noticed there are Chileans in town now. They were completely fascintaed...I,m thinking it was a motherly thing, the beautiful "kids" are more than 20 years younger than them!! LOL LOL.....

We've already been to the pool for swim practice and to the Grand Gift Shop for the big sale (we found a couple things, but I totally see why they have a new manager and are trying to get rid of the current stock!)

LESS THAN ONE HOUR! I'm SOOOO EXCITED!!

My friend Martha McGuyver will be landing in 45 minutes! Even my kids are excited and they NEVER show excitment, they're usually too cool for everything. The middle guy now has the crud, darn-it I wondered if it was too early for his best buddy to come over last Friday for Halo, poor guy ended up being sick in the middle of the night. My son has a 101.9 fever and misc. other "fun" symptoms :(

We'll be lunching, brunching, feeding horses, visting museums volunteering for events (a way for her to see more friends that maybe I didn't think of) having a get-together Friday night so she can see how huge all the kids in town have grown and to meet a few of my friends. SAT we're hitting the town with Alena and CB (Unalaska will never be the same! Will you be out Lauri??) We're eating all Alaska meats and somehow I will do my 20 hours of homework ---yeah right!!!!

Ohh Alena wants a craft night LOL with pomegrante martinis this is going to be a crazy 5 days!

Here's a shot of the WW II Museum -- there was some celebration where a flag was going from Pearl Harbor to DC (or something) My daughter's class sang a couple songs, local leaders spoke and the HOT USCG GUYS were there (that is totally for ALENA!!!!!!!!!) bahahahahahaha...........look very closely A...ok gotta go now before she beats me

Swimming

My friend "Martha McGuyver" She can make or fix ANYTHING!!! left Louisville about 2 hours ago but won't be here until 12:30 TOMORROW ...4 flights, not the greatest connections! Poor Martha....but she's got projects to do and a hotel stay in Seattle to rest up a bit. She won't sleep here..I have tooo much planned. I have more halibut, salmon and crab and moose meals planned than we can possibly eat, Alena has some "events" for us, we'll do brunch on Sunday,(she won't be here for the Wednesday buffet) and we have to play games too....ohhh my poor college grades!! This semester is not my favorite!

I did homework and got beat by my eldest son in cribbage last night. He likes experimenting and whipped up some vanilla bean-root beer ice cream last night hmmmm??? It's mixed up but not actually ice cream yet. We have a new cool bowl for the Kitcheaid that makes ice cream, I LOVE my lime green Kitchenaid!

Every morning this week is swim club. My 2 youngest did it last year, the first time ever, all the kids were learning everything, I don't think any of them had ever swam competitively before. Our kids all get swim lessons from Kindergarten - 4th grade for two weeks a year from our AMAZING Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Adams who is the best! Everyone learns to swim, there IS NO messing around with Mrs. Adams --she's not allowed to retire LOL... but the butterfly and all the nuisances of swimming competition were new to everyone. My son went on and did Jr. High swim team, my daughter is young enough that she can be in the club again this year (12 is the cut-off) There are 3 teams and every SAT for a month or 2 we'll have meets. It's very cool! A lot teens participate in coaching, I love our teens!
These pictures are from last year, I had a worn-out camera, the kids have grown so much!!

5 More Days

I'm so excited! I won a free airline ticket from UAF last fall and keep changing my mind about where to go and when. I was going to see my friend in Kentucky, but then I'm not sure why I didn't go...the getting from Chicago (it's an Alaska Airlines ticket) to her house in Louisville is always a problem. Then I was going to go to Portland to see my sister and her family, that didn't work. I was traveling too much around the time I booked that trip for. I found out it's expiring soon. We have nowhere to go and several trips planned in the next couple of months.
I decided to offer to bring my friend "Martha McGuyver" (she can make or fix anything so that was her nickname)to visit. She and her family moved to Unalaska right about the same time we did. She has 4 boys, I have 2 boys who where about the same age as hers. (our daughter was just 6 months old) we became friends immediately. We started a Tiger Cub group the next month and did scouts for the entire time she was here.

I took my kids to Louisville once a few years ago, I just haven't made it back. We loved it! We went on a road trip and saw a lot! This picture was taken at the Biltmore Estate (OMG, LOVE that place!) I'm so excited for her to come back to Unalaska and see everything again! To have a break (she's now raising her boys by herself) She deserves a break!!
Poor thing has a very long journey ...over 2 days each way. 4 flights!! I like hanging out in airports, I get emails written, books read, naps, I enjoy quiet along time...I hope she does too!!
We'll do all the tourist things and try to have at least one get-together too!
I just booked this 3 days ago..I can't believe she leaves in 4 days and will be here in 5 days!!!!!

Today was busy! 2 soccer games, a bunch of groceries purchased when it's raining sideways. blowing about 50 knots --that was fun! I have bunko tonight and there is yet another Halo party here at home...when am I supposed to write papers and get my assignments done?!!!