Bad Kitty

So, what are the odds that a cat who has been indoors for 7 years will run away when Clayton is out of town? If you answered 100%, you're correct! I think everyone knows we have 2 cats: Snackie and Abby. We put Harry down before we moved to AK. He was sick. Clayton always says that I'm a hairbreadth away from being the "crazy catlady". I don't know about that... We do love our kitties and we assumed (incorrectly, pridefully, arrogantly) that they loved us back. Well, yesterday morning, I realized I had not seen Snackie, our gray cat, the nice one everyone loves, for a while.. like since the night before. Where could he be? I looked for him periodically throughout the day but I figured he had gone under deep cover because Clay can be a little much to handle. By late afternoon/early evening, I realized he was gone. I suspect he made his mad dash for freedom on Tuesday night when Clayton was in and out of the house about a million times. By the time it got dark last night, Wednesday, I was in crisis mode. The kids and I drove around looking for him. We put up signs "Lost Cat: 9/24/08. Gray and white. Fat and declawed. Please help!!". It's cold at night right now but it's not quite freezing. Nevertheless, I worried about "The Little Prince" being outside in the wilderness with the bears, lynx and eagles. Seriously. I did put a beach towel out front and some cat food. When I got up this morning, something had tapped the cat food and left little muddy footprints all over the towel but Snackie was nowhere to be found. I called local vets, I called the pound. Nothing. No calls on our answering machine saying they had our darling boy (cough, cough). I was feeling grim... then Clayton called from Atlanta wondering the status and lo and behold, that dumb a@# cat was eating the cat food IN FRONT OF OUR FRONT DOOR! I opened the door and he looked at me like I was the crazy one as he sauntered in and upstairs. He's now bathing himself on my brand new bedding and he STINKS! UGH!!! My sweet nephew Davis told me he thought Snackie might need a few swats... I think he's right! Anyway, I can't wait to tell Kara when we pick her up from school.... Although, she did say to me this morning: "Hey Mom. If Snackie's gone can we get a dog"? HA!

How Buzz and Billie spent their Alaskan Vacation!

Other projects that occurred at our new digs while my mom and dad were around included, but were certainly not limited to: hanging of ceiling fans (raise your hand if you've ever had my dad wire and/or hang something in your home), wiring new outlets, installing dimmer switches, converting garage crawl space in our basement to storage rooms with floors, sewing curtains and hanging them, recovering couches. I actually do feel a little guilty about not getting out and about more when my mom and dad were here. I'd blame it on the weather but that's ridiculous when you think of what's in store for us in a few weeks!!! We did get out, however.. we went to Girdwood and rode the tram to the top of Alyeska (ski resort), went glacier sightseeing and salmon watching. We also saw a pod of Beluga whales in the inlet on our way home from Girdwood! My dad has some fantastic pictures if you're interested (he should start a blog). My cousin Monty, who is stationed at Elmendorf and is the air field manager, gave them a tour of the flight line as well. So, it was not all work...there was some play. We enjoyed having them (obviously) and it's a lot quieter now that it's just me and the kids for a few days.

This really is a bad picture of my dad.. but it was the end of a very long day for him and Clayton. They left the house at 6:15am to buy lumber and other stuff to make that storage room.

An action shot of the couch recovering that occurred at midnight 2 nights in a row.

Lovely family room curtains.

Riding the tram. It was FREEZING! But beautiful.

Four Generations

The last 10 days we've had my mom, dad and grandmother visiting us in Texas. My grandmother Helen has always wanted to visit Alaska and now she had the perfect excuse: us! Gram Boyd (say this fast, like one word, and that is how my children call her name) is 79 years young so this big trip was no small feat :) Considering her age and her ailments, I wanted to make this visit easy on her... So naturally, I put her to work sewing curtains, mending backpacks and ill stuffed animals, and cooking chocolate chip pancakes every morning for my children. She was a great sport and worked enough to earn her gruel and water every night :)

At Ship Creek (say that 3 times fast).

Four generations! What a blessing!!!

Making apple crisp. Yum! Also on the menu besides this and chocolate chip pancakes: sour cream enchiladas, float "fruit beer" (root beer floats but you try getting Clay to say it right), baked apples and more.

Mending teddy bears and recovering couch cushions at midnight.

A Day in the Life

Clay has adjusted to Kara being gone all day to school. He does in fact drive me crazy at times because he misses his sister. However, he has also become a total bum in her absence. Getting him to change out of his pj's is a major feat. My grandmother remarked that he stayed in his pajamas for 3 days straight (he managed to do this by convincing someone to stay at home with him whenever there was a planned outing). It's kind of funny but now I'm just a little worried about his home-bodyness. Here are some pictures of Clay, aka "the lounger" hard at work.

Watching TV (big surprise) and eating his ramen noodles. Ha! You though it was breakfast b/c of the pajamas :)

Thank you, Clay, for taking time out of your busy day to smile for this picture.

Not a proud shot for me, but funny enough so that I posted.. this is Clay LICKING syrup from his plate while attempting to carry on a conversation w/my parents.

A rare shot of Clay away from the TV :)

Clay in his "scary pig mask" that Grandpa S. bought him.

What a funny kid. We do have some sweet times at home, just the two of us. Occasionally, Clay will scream "Momma!". I'll say "What, Clay?". He'll say "I love you, Mommy". It ALMOST makes up for when he's driving me nuts.

Off the Radar!

Greetings from Eagle River, AK, where we are presently losing about 5 minutes of daylight every day.  All this, of course, is working up to the famous Alaskan winter days where the sun is only out for about 5-6 hours.  Right now, we still have about 12 hours of daylight per day so it's not so bad.  Fall is in full swing and it is really cool to see leaves in all the colors I saw on TV and in magazines all my years living in Arizona and Texas.  It's also really chilly which is a novelty for now.

Sorry if we've been a little out of touch for the last week or so.  My mom, dad and Grandmother are in town for a visit and we've chained them down to work.  No, really.  My dad (Buzz) and Clayton built a storage room in the crawl space in our dungeon/basement.  I turned my dining room into a sweat shop where I've indentured my mom (Billie) and grandmother (Helen) to making drapes.  The good news is the house is looking fabulous.  The bad news is that they've seen none of AK.  We're leaving the house in our prison van today as a reward for their good behavior and productivity.

Thanks, too, for all the birthday well-wishes.  I wasn't counting on having a good b-day this year, our first in AK.  However, it ended up being a really good day thanks in no small part to many emails and phone messages as well as a fun lunch w/new squadron wives and kids.  Oh, and I got a really fun bag from my hubby which always improves these situations :)  

Photos to follow from our time away from the compound this morning.   

Pictures for my Nephews

Apparently, my nephews look at this blog pretty often and are way too often disappointed that there aren't new pictures.... well, Eli, Davis, TJ, Parker, Logan and Grayson, these are for you. Your Alaska Uncle, Aunt and Cousins love you all and miss you so much!  Tell your mommies and daddies to bring you up here to visit!

Walking Home

Sometimes we walk to school to get Kara.  Today was a beautiful (meaning some sun and no rain) afternoon so Clay and I walked about 1 mile to Kara's school.  We see lots of fun things along the way.  Imagine stopping every 100 ft to let a 3 yr old in and out of a wagon.. it takes a while :)

Here are some of our favorite sights along the way...

This is my favorite view coming up the hill toward our house..  you can see the reddish on the mountain which is really the changing leaves.

Clay-Clay as Bono.

Kara smiling.. but she was really feeling grouchy.  The smile disappeared once the picture was taken.

Wild raspberries (or something else, but they look and taste like raspberries and we haven't been sick yet!)

No Kidding...

So you'll have to forgive me for the less than perfect quality of the pictures.. but these two were in our front yard on Tuesday evening.  A lot of people on our street have recently put in their yards and the moose were thoroughly enjoying the new trees and shrubs.  It's funny because our neighbor (whose trees were noshed) told us how he bought trees that moose didn't like to eat!!  I think Clayton is already planning his "moose cage" to go around our trees when we put some in next summer.  It's crazy to see these guys up close and in our yard!!  We were told that it is pretty rare to see a male and female together as well..  Ah, Alaska.  Moose in the yard, bears in the yard (we've been told but have not seen her for ourselves), and a governor cum VP candidate.  I bet you think it doesn't get any better than this?  Well you're wrong!!!  The best news is that Target is opening in about a month.  Sweet contentment :)