Mom of the Year.. It's Mine!

Today was a fun day (at the beginning anyway)!  We went to see Kitt Kittridge: An American Girl with Kara, a friend, and Clay-Clay.  Kara has been wanting to see this movie for a while now. She's a fan of the entire American Girl's collection and spends a fair amount of time shopping the catalog.  It's pretty fun to watch her shopping gene develop, though I can't figure out where she got that!  Clay-Clay wasn't too sure about seeing a "girl movie", he kept asking if we could see "The Larry Boy Movie" (it's on DVD at our house).  At any rate, the girls had a great time at the movie and Clay made the most of it by eating lots of swedish fish and popcorn.

Kara and Ariel took their dolls to the movie, even!

So, you're probably asking yourself  "Does April really think that she's getting MOTY just for taking Kara to see a movie?"..well, of course not!  THIS is what is sealing up that deal.  After the movie, we went to the BX mall at Elmendorf to meet Ariel's mom.  The kids got to play on the indoor playground and eat Starbuck's coffee cake for lunch :)  When I was getting the kids ready to go, we waited on Kara to find her shoes and Clay started to race off from me.  He'd go about 20 feet and turn around and come back.. then he started to make mini-laps around the dining area (think food court) and return to me.  Well, then he didn't come back and I lost sight of him anywhere.  I knew he wouldn't go too far only because he's a full-on momma's-boy right now. .. so where was he??  Kara and I wogged (jog/walk) all around the last place I had seen him but no Clay-Clay.   Now I wasn't just irritated, I was getting scared.  I could see myself boo-hooing on Oprah about how you can lose your kid if you just take your eyes off for one second (you moms know that talk-show cry I'm talking about).  I don't see Clay anywhere nor do I hear him screaming for me.  I only had a few options before I needed to get other people looking for him as well... (remember, we're on an Air Force base so it is maybe a tiny bit safer than losing your kid in a regular mall or WalMart).  Just as I'm about to go find someone, I see Clay's head racing INTO the building from the parking lot, followed by a hefty gentleman who isn't looking amused.  I grab him and try not to rip his arm out of its socket as bigger-guy-not-in-uniform (whew!) tells me Clay was in the PARKING LOT!  I don't even remember what I said because we left the BX at warp speed.   Here's a picture of Clay dreading his meeting w/me at home in the car:

Poor Clay.. he got a pretty good "talking-to" when Daddy got home (if you catch my drift).  This isn't the first time he's done something like that and we're trying to get him to feel at least a tiny bit of "danger"...  

Anyway, I thought I'd share the latest with you all.  We're supposedly about 12 days out from closing on our house.  I'll be honest.. I don't know if I can take TLF for 12 more days.  Our current neighbors are AWFUL!!  They make SO MUCH NOISE!!  Especially after 9:00 at night.  I know we're not the quietest but at least I try!!  UGH!!!!!!!

 

Random Blog-A-Thon

This has nothing to do w/life in TLF or life in Alaska but it sounds like fun!  My friend Sheri just started up a cooking blog (it's really cool) and she is having a blog-a-thon for readers to submit their favorite brownie recipe.  I already submitted one and thought some of you might be interested in turning in your fav. recipe as well as checking out her blog www.sweet-miss-sheri-ann.blogspot.com.  

Have fun!

Herrod, Gram Boyd, VBS and Alaska

We have sun!!!  It's been sunny and about 65F most of the day.  The weather folks say that this will be short-lived but everyone is just out and enjoying the break in the dreary days.  I wanted to pass on some funny things my kids have said... they aren't related in any way but if I don't write this stuff down, I forget and it's gone.

First, obviously, we're all excited (by all, I mean ALL OF ANCHORAGE) about this sunny weather.  The sun came out last night about 8:30pm when the kids were on their way to bed.  Clay-Clay, ever observant child that he is, says  "Kara, look!  I see Alaska!  It's back!!".

This is what he was looking at... these mountains are just out our windows and it has been DAYS since we've seen them.  The clouds have been so thick and so low that the entire view was gone.  It was really funny because even our kids associate Alaska already with mountains.

Onwards..  Today was the last day of VBS for our kids.  They went with some friends to a week-long gig at a church in Eagle River.  They had a blast (as did I, having a 3 hour break 5 days in a row!).  Today was a little program where they overviewed the things they learned for the parents and sang some songs.  It was very sweet.  Here is a picture of Kara singing and then, a group shot.  Those of you who know Clay-Clay will not be surprised to hear that he didn't participate in the group singing once he saw me in the audience :)

Last, I wanted to share something hilarious that Kara popped out with after Monday's VBS. Apparently, they were learning about the baby Jesus and how he was pursued by King Herod. We discussed how evil and wicked King Herod was, why he wanted to kill baby Jesus and all that stuff.  After we established that, no, King Herod was not in Iraq (!!... you must remember our Daddy has been over there to work against "bad guys" a few times), no he was not around during WWII, it was over 2000 years ago.  So Kara is quiet for a minute and she says this:  "So, was Herod the King when Gram Boyd was a little girl?".  I thought that was so funny.  My Gram doesn't look 2000 years old!  She looks great for her age (which shall remain ageless) but she is the oldest person Kara could call to mind.  Funny things those kids say :)  Sorry, Gram.

I leave you with the view from behind the VBS church... if you could see details, you'd see the inlet, Sleeping Lady mountain and some of Anchorage.   

Anchorage in July

I wanted to share with you a  little bit of our Alaskan summer.  If you were here with us this week and you happened to catch the news, you would hear a little bit of grumbling about the weather.

Let me back up.  When we were house hunting, people often tried to sell their yards as part of the total house "package".  For instance, if someone had a great deck, they invariably said something to the effect of: "Fabulous deck!!  Beautiful views!  PERFECT for midnight summer BBQs".  I'm not kidding.  You can look for yourself www.alaskarealestate.com if you don't believe me.  Even the guide books talk about all the outdoor living one does in Alaska in the summer.  You can find little charts that tell you how the average high in July is like 70 degrees.  Sounds nice, huh?  

Well, on the news the other night, they were saying that so far this summer, there have been 2 days at or above 70F (none of which have occurred since we arrived 7/3).   In fact, the poor weather lady on channel 2 up here has been accosted nightly about the recent weather.  It's raining pretty much every day.  And it hasn't been above 60 in a while.  Today, it was 47F (and rain) when I took my kids to VBS.   You guys know that that is not any summer weather we are accustomed to being AZ natives....  Well, it gets better.  Today as I was driving to Eagle River from Elmendorf, I looked up at the mountains and I saw this:

See those mountains in the way back?  Yesterday, no snow.. today, snow.  Apparently, it has been snowing in the mountains.  HUH??   If this was to occur in the Fall, they'd call it the "terminal dusting", that first snow that signals the onset of wintery weather.  However, the poor, desperate weather lady assures us this is NOT terminal dusting but I don't know..

Here are 2 more views out our car window of Eagle River this morning.. note the snowy mountains and the fog.

Enjoy your sunny days, kids.  And if you think this actually sounds like a better deal than the summer you're having, come visit! 

Bear in the road!

Here's a little random piece of advice should you find yourself driving any given highway or road, really, in Alaska (or on your way to Alaska):  if you come upon a bend in the road where cars are stopped, blocking traffic or both, get out your camera..there are probably animals near by.

Today we found that (again) to be the case.  We were taking a drive up Arctic Trail and we saw some cars stopped DEAD in the middle of the road.  Fortunately, I had the camera and I immediately whipped it out.  Once we got a little closer, this is what we saw:

A baby black bear eating flowers! He was pretty little and we were surprised that his momma didn't come out to regulate all the cars stopping to look at her baby.   It was pretty cool and our kids didn't want to leave him.   They really look so sweet and you really want to pet them.. but you know better.

We continued on our upward journey, looking for a trail head.  However, once we found said trail head, we read the "CAUTION:  THIS IS BEAR COUNTRY" sign and decided that we probably weren't prepared to be hiking unmaintained trails at 6:30 pm with our two kids...

Nevertheless, we saw some other cool sights:

Today was a beautiful day.. the sun was out and everything!  We enjoy sunny weekends when Daddy's around to hang out with us.

Also, in case some of you read my other post and said to yourselves:  "Gee, I think April might be acting just a little dramatic about TLF.  You can't buy homes from a Sears catalog", I offer you this:

 This is where we're living.  Do you believe me now?  Or do you still think I was being dramatic?  Oh, and yes:  it's 2 stories.  So imagine with me, if you will, the noise associated with 2 children bounding up and down the stairs all day long.  It's as bad as you think :)

Some Pictures of Encountered Wildlife (during our drive/move)

Above is the moose we encountered on our hike.  This picture is misleading because he was a lot bigger and a lot closer than he appears.

A momma grizzly bear and her cubs eating berries on the roadside.

One of several black bears we saw on the highway.

Two of the herd of buffalo we passed.  Amazing!

And, below, some stone sheep.

I Give Up!!

Good Morning.  It's now 7:39AM, Alaska Standard Time.  I have been fighting starting a blog for some time.  I don't know why.  Probably just lazy.  However, I have to admit that this is probably a really excellent way to keep up with many of our family and friends (apart from Facebook!) as well as a way to document so many of life's moments since I seem to have given up scrapbooking despite a hefty financial investment in the craft.

I said this blog would give you a glimpse into our daily lives.  Let me add this disclaimer: we are currently living in TLF (that's temporary lodging facilities for you non-military folk out there). My personal TLF experience is limited to here and Tyndall.  I think Alaska facilities are a little more primitive than Florida.  My realtor, in fact, said many of the early buildings in Alaska were catalog ordered from Sears!!  I'm thinking that this house/condo/4-plex might actually have come from a Sears catalog back in the day.  It is suspiciously reminiscent of a modular home (i.e., trailer).  It is a 2 bedroom (yes, the kids are sharing a double bed which makes for interesting bedtimes), 1 bath little get-up.  We have a kitchen and a family room.  3 TVs, 2 of which work and sporadic WiFi.  The kitchen is "handsomely appointed" which means I can cook pretty much any recipe from Paula Deen or Rachael Ray but not much out of Cooking Light.   All this to say that our days in TLF are not ordinary.  We have only 1/100th of our normal toy volume, the cats are at the Kittie Kache (more on that in another post) and we are living in about 800 sq feet.  In all, my responsibility level is pretty low.  I'm trying to focus on that fact, that life is probably easier now than it will be once we move into our new house.

At any rate, thanks for joining us on this adventure.  We are saving a bed for you once you save up your money to come visit in Alaska.