Good Mail!!

Thanks so much to Donna from Washington for the "Good Mail"!

I love the chocolates (oh! and couldn't take the picture fast enough so that I could rip them open!) and the lip gloss. It smells soo good, what an indulgent gift!

Donna is such a sweetheart-- reading her blog makes it apparent she is a great example of a mother, wife and friend.

Thanks Donna!!

Only in Alaska..

Yesterday I had quite the little..incident happen on the way to work. There I was, driving down the hill only a mile from my house, minding my own business when I see a Black nose coming out of the bushes into the street.

Uh, I think my heart just stopped.

I screetch on the breaks in time to see the Black Bear take few more steps, look at me, decide that I wasn't worth breaking the windshield to devour, turn around and walk lazily back into the woods.

OK, I can breathe now.

I've heard there has been quite a few bears in town this summer but it seems I never actually see them- which I guess is a good thing considering I also don't want the bear to ever have to decide whether or not to devour my helpless child as he plays in the yard. Because, I think we all know where that would lead.

Last month, we had a mother moose and her twins laying in our neighbors yard across the street (above). Moose are much more common "sightings" than bears, which is good because while they may stomp on you and break your ribs, they will not eat you. And that's ALWAYS a plus. Except, if your friends are up from Utah who specifically want to see wildlife, be forewarned that there will be neither Moose nor Bear sightings whatsoever. Ask me how I know.

Anyways, Jeremy went fishing with a couple friends today on the Kenai. They saw 4 Grizzlys and a beaver.. and even caught some salmon while they were at it! He got sunburned but had so much fun.

Jack and I went out to the Valley to hang out at my moms because I didnt feel like being home all day. Boooorrr-ing. Then I came home and finished HP2. Guess I need to go buy the 3rd!

Oh! I hit the Nordstrom sale on Thursday for a little retail therapy and ended up with a little buyer's remorse. Gosh, you can't win!!

Tuesday..

I think I need a vacation. This summer is more than half way over, and yet "summer" and "vacation"- two words that should be somewhat synonymous in my opinion- have yet to meet. Things have been so crazy! Holly called her engagement off (I Know!! So sad over this as we loved her fiance, but what can we do?), no calls on the house (still), my house is a mess and it's been rainy. My posts are so lame, sorry! Does anyone else just have "off" weeks??
Jack was so cute this morning, he kept pointing to his nose saying "nose" and pointing to his eyes saying "eyes" although he needed my help with the "eyes" part and still looks stumped when I even bring up the word "mouth". He is learning "please" and "thank you" although both require a little imagination to make out.
Jeremy and I had a baby-sitter on Friday (which we NEVER do on weekends!) so we went to 2 movies and dinner. We saw Harry Potter and Transformers. I totally felt like a 12 year old boy after typing those movies. Anyways. It was a fun night, almost forgot what a date was;)
Jeremy went and bought me the first Harry Potter on Saturday because I've never read the books. So of course that's a short read and was done quickly and am now on the second. I didn't think I would like them as they are "Fantasy" type books and I DESPISE that kind of stuff usually. (The worst is Sci-Fi movies, EWWWW, don't get me started) But the books are cute and entertaining . I think the difference is that the main characters are KIDS. Somehow that makes a difference. Anyways, still not a FREAK about the books.. I have no idea what drives people to their obsession??

Been Blah..

This week at work has been so busy and stressful. I feel like once I get to work I have a hundred different people pulling me in so many directions. What's that about!? We have lots of closet orders in right now as well and our manufacturer is bugging me as well. When we first started working with them, it took about 2 weeks to get it out of their factory, now it takes 4 weeks..THEN goes to Seattle and gets on a barge up to Anchorage making our whole lead time 5-6 weeks. What's that ABOUT! We will probably have to find a new supplier because we can't compete with anyone in town if that's our lead time. People don't want to wait that long for their closet to be installed, I know I wouldn't want to!
Our house still hasn't sold, the market is DEAD here all of a sudden.
Anyways hope everyone else is having a better week than me!
Andrea: I bought some of those fake french pedi thingys, love them!!

In His Shoes...

Jack has a mild obsession with shoes.... Scratch that, it's not mild.

It doesn't matter where we go, who's shoes they are, brown heavy work boots or pink high heels.. if he can slip his foot into them, he will.

Jack was wearing his dad's shoes around the house this morning when 2 things occured to me:

1. I don't have any pictures of Jack in Big People shoes. I CAN'T belive this, as he's in Big People shoes all the time.

2. If he continues to follow in his dad's footsteps, In His Shoes, I will be a very happy mother.

I never did a tribute to Jeremy for Father's Day because the whole month of June just got away from us.

Jeremy is one of the most amazing men. He is such a great Dad and Husband. He's patient (not so much with everyone in society but he is with me, haha!) He has a very calm demeanor and he is the one person on Earth who can keep me grounded. He has a strong testimony, he's honest and he is the perfect man to head our household.

I feel so blessed to have such wonderful Boys in my life!!

It beats MySpace

This pic is the wallpaper on my computer screen. I smile everytime I see it.
So my little sister has decided to start a blog. It's amazing how it starts with one person and grows and grows. (Heidi, Becky, Mica...are you catching the fever yet?...Come On..Not even a little?)
Here's the link:
http://www.hollyharman.blogspot.com/
Harman will be her new last name when she gets married in 1 1/2 months, sounds just like Polly Pocket's cousin doesn't it? "Introducing the new Holly Harman doll!"
Anyways, welcome to blogging Holly!!
We have ANOTHER person coming to look at the house tonight and that military couple coming on Saturday. I am so tired of keeping my house so clean, sadly that is not me... I just dont care enough about fingerprints on the stainless or a couple of dishes in the sink, life is too short in my opinion.
This summer is flying by! I would post more recent pics but I seriously have no idea where my camera is, I dont think I've seen it for a couple of weeks now!? I guess I need to find it! Hope everyone has a great Thursday. If you get a chance, read Lauralee's blog.. she took Kristi's challenge. So proud of you!

It's Contagious

My post today is just to reference another post and a great read from an amazing woman.
http://everythingispink.blogspot.com/2007/07/power-of-blog-comment-are-you-blog.html
I especially love her challenge at the bottom.

Thanks Kristi for being inspiring like always!

Our Non-eventful Week

So, I had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off and still couldn't manage to get a post in, what a loser! On Monday and Tuesday I honestly cannot remember what I did. I know that I went into Anchorage with Jack and met up with Jeremy at the Post Office to get their passports. We are going to Mexico with Jeremy's parents in November. So, after waiting in line for 30 minutes (meanwhile getting yelled at for letting Jack play around the "screen" they use for a photo backdrop) we get up to the lady and she tells us that she cannot take pictures of kids because that would require taking two seconds and adjusting the camera down 6". (Only, she didn't word it like that.) She said there was a photography studio upstairs that will take passport photos and we could go up there and take his photo, then bring it back downstairs and get in line again. Wonderful.
Every year for the 4th of July, our family goes to the Harmans (The family of my sister's fiance) Lucky for us, Jeremy's family ALSO goes every year so we never have to "choose" which family we spend the 4th with! So nice! It was a fun day except right before we sat down to eat, it clouded up and began to drizzle. So, we moved everything indoors. Later, we went 4-wheeling and played games. I was too lazy to take pictures..I don't know why I didn't, I always kick myself afterwards!
This weekend we helped Heidi and Scott (sister and BIL) move out of her house and into my parents basement. She is doing the whole live with parents thing as well, so that by next winter we can both have beautiful houses right by eachother, right Heidi?! So excited for that.
Jack's getting so big. His newest phrase is "whoa, cool!" although he will never say it on command, so don't even ask.

Weekend Update

We have someone coming to look at the house in an hour. Aagh! Its been a mad dash. Our nephew, JJ, was blessed this morning so it was out to the Valley (35 minutes) then home again to clean, once the guy leaves we are heading out again for family dinner at Jeremy's parents. Yesterday was a quiet day, went into Costco to return a cooler, needed some applejuice so of course it cost us $100+ to go into the store to get it. Then Holly and Josh came over in the afternoon, they asked me to take their engagement photos. We got some cute ones! We went to the Eagle River Nature Center, it's only 20 minutes from my house but I've never walked it in the summer. Last time I was there, it was for OUR (Jeremy and I) engagement photos and it was literally 10 below zero. (farenheit , my friends) So, we took a couple photos and decided we'd work with what we got! Last night I took over 200! I decided it's fun, you can seriously be SO bossy! "OK, a little more smile..NO TOO MUCH! Just a little less, OK, head tilted just a bit..OK lose the hand! Lose the HAND!!" I had no idea what I was talking about but it was great. These are some of the cute ones we took.

So, tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday I'm OFF with PAY! Soo excited!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Fourth!