Eat, Sleep Over Party, Run

"In order to tell if a human being is young or old offer it food of different kinds at short intervals. If young it will eat anything at any hour of the day or night." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

"That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going." ~Forrest Gump

Running on the Tundra

Today Ani and I ran 8 miles! All the way to the Arolik River and back! It was a b-e-a-Utiful day on the tundra, that translates as sunshiny and NO WIND folks:) It was the kind of day that makes you wanna run as fast and far as you can. For us that was 4 miles out and back;) We passed the 'gas station', the beach road, and the weird pole things that I'm told keep the tundra cold (apparently they are stuck in the ground to keep it frozen around the lagoon or maybe it's to keep it thawed I can't recall right now?) humm, anyway we kept on trucking past the cell phone tower, and the dump, all the way to the 'dead end' or rather the Arolik end. Interesting that in Quin we have no 'dead end' signs...he he that would be a moot point. Somedays it's really unsettling to think that even if I wanted to, I can't just cruise out of town further than 4 miles anyway. So, we ran today.

Happy Birthday to Michael
Michael turned 13 last week and Niki, his mom, made a unique cake, at the request of her now teenage son. This cake takes creativity to a whole new level. It's Niki's creation and can only truly be appreciated by one who has lived without a flushing toilet. The ingredients: 1 chocolate cake crumbled, chocolate syrup, miscellaneous candy bars, tooties rolls, one clean bucket, 1 plastic bag for liner and a few strategically placed and cut to size of...oh...say, toilet paper, strips of white fabric. Drum Roll please......May I present to you all for the first time: The Honey Bucket Cake.

Slumber Party
Friday night the girls came over and we had the long awaited slumber party that I had promised we'd have back in December. They started arriving at 5pm before I even got home and left this morning at 10:30 am. I'm still trying to recover. The party consisted of: dress up, eating MUSH (this is a camping favorite made of instant potatoes, stuffing and gravy, you just mix it all in a pot, add water and voila! Now that's my kind of cooking! Since we also put up the tent in the living room again I figured I could get away with it. We had a genuine fashion show complete with runway (hallway), spot lights (flash lights) and an announcer (that would be me, my voice isn't the same). Then there was the mini 'throw party' with the fun stuff Mike has been sending. At 10:00 pm whoa! we loaded up in the suburban and headed to the school for a game of kickball and an entertaining tour led by our excellent speech therapist Kevin who happened to be in the village this weekend and was willing to help me out for an hour or so at the school. It was actually his idea and a great one (Quyana Kevin) the girls loved it. Who knew that a tour of the upstairs of the school could be so exciting, they even ooooed and aaaaahhhhed at the heat exchanger machine because Kevin made it sound so amazing. Did I mention that we went through the "drive thru" at "McDonald's" (playground equipment) on our way to the school. I was having a Big Mac Attack and Venessa offered to pay. We yelled out our orders at the monkey bars and proceeded to the next window at the slide then passed all the pops, ice cream and burgers out until we were all content with our happy meal experience;) It is so good to be around the kids, they make me have fun. We finally got back to my house and everyone settled in for a good nights sleep...at least that was my hope. It was musical sleeping quarters for about 2 hours then everyone finally fell asleep: 4 on the living room floor, 2 in the tent in the kitchen, 1 in the spare bed and 2 on floor in the spare room. Then I went to sleep. That was around 2 and they were up again at 7 am!!!!! As we loaded ourselves into the suburban to take them home they said, "Can we have another slumber party tonight???"

Must be Cabin Fever
So I registered for the Tour of Anchorage Ski Race in March during the time that we will be in Anchorage at the Iditarod. Principal Eric is skiing it too, THE RACE IS ON!!!! Kidding, Eric, only Kidding. Since I'm missing out on Ye Ole Birkie this year I'm gonna take the old faithful 'rock' skis for a spin through Anchorage! This made me think of interviewing for this job back in April of last year, I was asking Administrator Carlton and Principal Eric if I would be able to fly back to ski the Birkie on a long weekend. There was long pause (surely stifling chuckles from the rookie question) on the other end of the line before they both started trying to make it sound like it... "might be possible... by a long stretch... if all the planets were aligned... and the weather was favorable"...etc. I now understand their hesitation to entertain my idea of flying to Wisconsin for a "long weekend". Anyway the Tour, emphasis on 'TOUR' (a very different word than R-A-C-E) should be fun:) Training on running shoes, lol.

Mickey Mouse??
Wendell was pounding away on my door this afternoon, I answered to his ear to ear grin. "Wanna see what I have!" he nodded toward his cupped hands. For a moment I thought he might be showing me a frog, then my brain grabbed a hold of the thought before it got too far away, 10 below-no frogs possible. Wendell laughed, opened his hands and shoved it toward me...a poor freaked out hostaged field mouse. "A mouse!!!" he cheered, hoping for a shock. "Gross Wendell, you know they bite?" I informed. "Got gloves," he stated and turned to walk down the steps heading for the next house and it's unsuspecting victim. "Thanks for sharing Wendell." "You're welcome" he called back.

Gram
Gram had her gall bladder out yesterday and is doing well. This means she will start rehab for her stroke sooner than later! We are all so thrilled with how she's doing. Thank the Lord:) Again thank you all for your prayers.

Shout Out To: Larissa! Happy Birthday! It was her birthday this weekend too:)

"And don't let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity." 1 Timothy 4:12