Life- back to the boring routine!

Well, I have been taking two correspondence courses through the Univeristy of Alaska. Because I am still working on them, I decided not to persue a full time teaching job. I am back as a building sub same as last year.
My life consists of walking my dog every morning, (she looks forward to her walks and when we don't go, I hear about it) loading a dish washer, going to work, coming home, making dinner, laundry, playing with Sally (the dog) and then if I have time and am not too tired I do some homework before bed. So, as you can see, there really is not much for me to post about.
However, I threw a surprise Birthday (3 weeks late) for James. Katelyn decorated the cupcakes this time since I was at work all day and didn't see the reason in taking the day off work to decorate cupcakes when it was only the second day of school. I can not take credit for these sharks, although I have made one before. Pictures will come later

A Friend in Town

My friend Sara is up visiting from Washington. We have had tons of fun. Here are some of the very fun things we have done!

On our way to and From Chena Hot Springs we saw 5 moose. While at Chena Hot Springs, we saw many, many ducks, 2 geese and birds. We have seen 1 rabbit and domestice reindeer at Santa's house.

Sara's gold pan, FINISHED!! She got a little more gold than me, so I showed her finished pan. this was extremely fun and I recommend it to anyone who is coming up here.

My gold pan not almost finished.


Sara's gold pan, almost finished.

My famous cupcake making was one of the activities we did. We made Panda Bears. It was very fun.

It's so nice to have someone with us that takes pictures. Now we have pictures of us when we least expect it. This is me and James walking around Pioneer Park (the area tat has the -40 room.)

This is proof that I have been in negative 40! I was kind of frustrated that I had to pay for this experience because I can experience it for free in the winter more than I want. However, I did it for Sara. (Notice how her hood is on and her coat is all the way zipped up and mine is not. LOL)




This is the McKinley Mac from McDonalds in North Pole. I love this meal. It is very similar to the Big Mac except it has bigger hamburger patties.

This is me in a lovely swimming suit. I just got out of the Hot Spring at Chena Hot Springs. It was my first time in the hot springs. It was wonderful. The hot springs are open year round and people go in them when it is negative 40 and so forth.

Sara and I on my four wheeler. We went four wheeling and it was one of Sara's favorite activities.

Sara in outhouse in ice museum. This is a mess to clean up and shouldn't be used. It is just for looks. There are rooms in the ice museum that can be rented out. They are very expensive and very cool! This outhouse is in one of the rooms.



Tomatoes at Chena Hot Springs' greenhouse. These tomato plants are unique because they are never cut or trimmed and they grow year round.


Goats at Chena Hot Springs. There are two goats. We fed them and they are very cute.

Baby Cupcakes

These cupcakes were easy to make, but they took a long time. I made them for Katelyn's baby shower.

Sally's Spot

Okay I can't figure out why it isn't working on the last post but here is Sally's favorite spot. It's under our bed. She sleeps here when I am in the room folding Laundry, reading scriptures, cleaning, or we are sleeping. I think it is because it is a tight, closed in space and she feels cozy. She is not claustrophobic. It is part of her breed.

Games and Sally's Spot

I was not able to get this on video but I can try to describe it. Sally was chasing a fly around the house. If you have ever seen a dog or cat chase a laser light you get somewhat of the idea what was going on with this. However, it seemed better. It kept her entertained for a while too.


We had some people over tonight for pizza and a game night. We had fun. However, I want to share the game that we played. John bought it. It is called Dirty Minds. For example this phrase would be read out loud and the other people would have to guess what it is. If you can't get it correctly, meaning your mind wanders to the gutter, then you have a dirty mind. "What is long, hard, wet and full of sea men?" now this read out loud would make those last two words sound like the word semen, and well you get the picture. The actual answer is a submarine.How many of you got the correct answer???

Camping

We camped along the Chena river. There are no roads back to this spot so we rode our fourwheelers. It was very nice. I rained for about 5 minutes then the sun came back out and dried everything. We saw about 5 boats go by on the river.


We ate dinner, built a fire and roasted hotdogs and then made s'mores. One of Jim's hotdogs fell off his stick because the stick burned off. He later used it as fishing bait. Surprise! He didn't catch anything.



This picture was taken just before midnight. I had to show you how light it is so late in the night.




We all three took cots, but none of us used them. Jim's ripped (the cot was old and ready to retire. It was from W W II !!!) So, I figured if he is sleeping on the ground, I might as well sleep next to him. Sorry about the darkness. It was taken pretty late, around 12:30.This is as dark as it gets though, it starts getting light again right around this time.

Accidents, Naps, and Selling

John for those of you who don't know, is Jim's brother and he has been living with us. He needed to go somewhere yesterday and decided to take Sally along since she loves car rides. Well he has a truck and she was riding in the bed, which she always does in Jim's truck. We have never had any problems. However, it may have been the truck, or something else but she decided to jump out when John was going 45 MPH. He was shocked and scared that she got hurt. Well, it has been more than a day later, she is acting as happy as can be and we only found two scratches on her. They aren't even bothering her. So, there are new rules for her going on car rides: She is only allowed in my explorer because she can't jump out of it. No more truck beds for her. And she still loves car rides. I took her on one today.
Jim and Sally (and sometimes me) like to take naps on the couch. Jim works hard for us so I let him. I on the other hand feel guilty when I don't have to work all day.
I am going through all the stuff that we don't use anymore because Katelyn is having a yard sale and we are joining in. This extra bedroom is where we are storing everything till it happens.