To put us in our place...

"A minor earthquake occurred at 10:54 P.M., July 26, 2005. (4 miles from us) The magnitude 3.6 event has been located in SOUTHERN ALASKA. (This is a computer-generated message -- this event has not yet been reviewed by a seismologist.)"

Ohkay then! Just chillin' writing my new children's series "Adventures of Wilma Willow" (pending title please:), and shakey shake. Thought it was just Bo and Casey coming down the "homemade style" staircase in our rental...but no!

What's been the Alaska life lately you may ponder? Sleep, eat, watch Clean Sweep, download music from Itunes, go through pictures to discard doubles, blurries, and dummies, wrap up some loose ends on old scrapbooks that have like one minute of work to be finished! And WAIT FOR NORDICTRACK TO FIX OUR TREADMILL!

I shan't discuss that anymore, but I highly recommend not EVER purchasing Nordictrack, unless you for sure live like 20 mins. or less within a servicing type place/dude.

So, YES! And your lives, do tell. Seems like I haven't talked to J, Mike (well gabbed a bit the other night), Matt or Tracey in forever. If we still lived in Chow, you know it'd be a crash in S.D. deal for us mouching. Ahh...the good old days.

Dreaming of beach days: who wants to go in on some property in Hawaii in 5-10 years. No joke. We only need about 1 acre for a nice little fruit and veggie garden and a simple house would only be 10-15 grand - according to Casey's pals who live on the big island (no insulation needed yo - just a good roof and screened in porch).

We could all meet there and/or spend our own private vacations there at different times of the year. You know, we could secretly rent it out to "trusted" friends for more than we pay on the mortgage. Oh, that's just me pretending it's easy to own, work, and pay for property 3,000 miles away from any of us.

So, I talked to the padres today, good, great stories of Africa! Must hear more. Must see a movie on your lives.

Airtrek.com everybody! Around the world in 30 days: $2500. Still gotta check that out dad!

Check ya!

"Hello...to the world...you decide what you are..." - Fire Theft just shuffled its way into my blog time.

28, NO!

28, okay, great!

God is good! Life is joyful in Him!

Yesterday we went to Anchorage to see Willy Wonka and then dine at the Sourdough Mining Company! It was superb and enjoyable. I got coldplay and all-american rejects just to out on a limb it - get the music hobby legit. Your basic coldplay, good for moods. All-American = catchy, fun, not as light as first, more into it than coldplay though.

Willy: Grade A
Silly, weird, good, delighful songs - cool, weird, hilarious songs (I love the one in the nut factory for Veruca's demise).
There's always that darkside to Tim Burton's, but it wasn't too overwhelming here, and I liked it overall. Johnny sounded like Dr. Evil a little, other than that he was and always is too weirdly good.

Anyway today, the actual day, we took a bike ride, got some cake, and enjoyed some tele in true summer birthday chill style.

Other than that, I'm not sure what I've been doing since last blog....was it really that long ago. I guess I've been emailing/sending photos and having fun with the computer like so, but you all know how blogging gets annoying sometimes. I know, I know you're thinking, WHAT!? Mary just said that, Mary the one true blogging nerd?!? HA!

I have been hardcore about the scrapbook, letter, picture reorganization! I have placed all important/sentimentalized letters in plastic sheet covers, and all fitting into 3 new black binders. No, I haven't put them in chronological order..yet. HA!< Hilarious!

So, I have thought about a couple more book series to pursue. THAT'S THE PROBLEM! UGH and YAHOO! I have many, many spontaneous "oh yeahs" about book ideas. Yet, I have only had 1-2 major sessions of belting them out more in depth. I suppose the start is better than nothing.

As almost anything creative, the wide open avenues of creativity is both a freedom and a curse! TOO MANY OPTIONS JUST GO FOR IT ALREADY!

Well, that was my subconcious spilling out!!!!!!!!!! Have a good existence until next time!

p.s. Jackpot: Almost Heroes is finally on DVD!

"Hi I'm earth, have we met?"
"I don't think (high pitched voice) so..."

Attention: We now only have about 18 hours of straight sunlight! (as opposed to 22 or something in June!)

Casey's back and he brought back TONS of SALMON! Red salmon - most common in the lower 48 and supposedly the best eating. I'm talking at least 40-50 steaks for each of us, that's almost 2 months of dinners for two! Will we get sick of it? I think, and hope not.

Apparently August brings the "silver salmon" and we'll have more in the freezer! Silver is like what we had in Chow whoever was there that one time a couple springs ago - mom, dad, matt, tracey (?).

Other than that, our treadmill is in the building! Now just 10 - 40 painstaking hours of putting it together and we'll be on our way to health. If I can just get the fitness bike, bench w/ bar, set of hand weights, 10 x 10 huge exercise mat, and crossbow, my homegym will be complete! HA hee!

OH NO! A weird, absolutely out of control feeling just came over me....do we have to work tomorrow?

NOPE! HAHHAHHAHAHHAA! It was just a freak scare b/c we were talking about how our principal and vice have to go back in 3 weeks - but that's not even tomorrow! WHACK!

In other news: Bo has now officially run 100 miles an hour off our property twice to date in pursuit of who knows what! We yell, and whistle, and yell, and get in the truck to find him, and yell and nowhere. Then, waiting 20 mins. until the ESPY's are over, and open the door to find a Bocifus waiting to gallup in like nothing was wrong.

No way mister!

Yesterday’s Alaska Weather: No electricity
Today’s (literal online) Alaska Weather: Smoke

I woke up today with a headache. Unusual for me, I looked outside wanting to deduct humidity or rain to officially blame the headache on sinuses.

But no, it was foggy and smelling like smoke. I feared the worst with an all too common forest fire that might have unraveled over night. There are forest fires going in the Kenai Peninsula just 3-4 hours south of here (where Casey is fishing), and maybe the dryness sparked one up here?

Yet, I went to bed at 3:00 A.M. and I didn’t see a large glow or smell smoke last night?

With no local channels on our sat. tv (which is dumb of our landlord), I took a drive up town to Willow. Uptown Willow consists of a hardware store, a Texaco gas station/grocery, and the Willow Post Office. Nothing on the newspaper headlines, no people frantic; it seemed all is normal with them. Normal besides the dark grey hovering fog that surrounds the whole Mat-Su Valley. So I got online to the Alaska Air Quality webpage!

SMOKE!

Although the picture was not as bleak as that “ash falling” San Diego morning we experienced with Matt and Tracey on one of our escapades to SoCal, it was and is still surreal feeling.

I guess I should NOT do pilates or ride the bike today. And we thought we left the poor air quality in California – forest fires are crap!

So, I’m jammin’ to the Sundays today. The house is in order everyone. Now it’s just go through and make my belongings even smaller. For those of you who might know, or might not want to know, I started my Clean Sweep (watched it today! YES!) my first year of teaching by getting rid of all my McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. Just give them to 8th graders as prizes; they’ll love ‘em! HA!

Liberating! Sell all your stuff and give it to the poor – that one Bible verse ;) Alright! Sorry I’m obsessed!

Oh, so how can electricity be considered weather?! Last night the electric went out! And I drove up town to see if the gas station was without…they were all fine, and by the time I got back it was back on at the house. That was the only other time I’ve left the countryside abode. It went out when we were house sitting “in town” too – hmm – Africanesque?! I can only assume it will get worse in the winter with freezing wires, ground, and large, HUGE plops of snow everywhere always.

OKAY!

Have a good weekend! And don't let me catch you at Vampiric First Baptist Tabernacle out on Heath Road!

"So what I'd like to do is have everybody line up in a circle" - Kencil Box

Lots of book ideas flowing to me this week!

They're getting typed too! Come on let's go!

Casey left for fishing this morning, and I am here with the good dog Bo.

Apart from my college-like sleeping schedule - good and bad - I'm up and about just staying around the house :)

Cleaning, organizing, and playing nerf hoop. $4.44 at Wal-mart!

So what?!

I'm a 28 year old lady playing nerf hoop in my living room with Bo chasing the ball around and me slam dunking all around him. I school him!

Want to get for our house in the next 5 years: ping pong table (to overtake that awesome Nerf set from 1984), double shot electronic bball, darts (yeah you know you all secretly like darts), Santa Fe lego train set for around the Christmas tree annually, archery set, snow shoes, snowboard...

Have a great July something day today everyone! Oh and Matt, that's a true SoCal trip! Vegas! Nice! Would have met you there, but you know.

We're full go on the house everyone!

Sealed deal.

Broke and bleak outlook fiancially too.

The only reason we're really bleak on the finances, not that you need this boredom, is b/c we're on a 2-3 year plan to get completely out of debt, debt, debt, in addition to a house payment! Ahhhh!

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about "out of Defiance College debt" in 2-3 years! WOOOOOHOOOO! Out of truck and Jeep purchasing debt (yes mom it's true :) Out of bla bla debt, just out of debt!

"Oh sure, keep the college bills forever, they're low interest...". NO to that anymore!

Next topic: Will see Willy Wonka for the old lady birthday o'mine! I love that kid from Finding Neverland. I love Finding Neverland!

So, I like this description:

"(Africa slo-mo, one thing at a time...)There is music in that, but also frustration. One thing at a time is not the way the West works—it is systemic, dynamic, multitaskING."

I shall milk Alaska for such music and frustration aboveness. Welcoming annoying change out of Western go, go, go.

Can I keep DSL high speed internet though?!

So, we still have American multitasking available if we so choose. I'm talking slo-mo winter people, I shan't dismiss that reality. Get all your food in August b/c the snow comes down Sept - May where we live! or something drastic like that (just 30 mins. south is not as bad snow - and Anchorage is even less snow b/c of water/inlet/ocean nearby WEIRD!).

Ha! Freddie Mercury! "I want to break free" is on frequent rotation this summer! From a Coke (Dr. Pepper?)commerical!

Fitting for our ventures here! You know Chowchilla took the break up pretty hard, we just had to break free 3,000 milesly. hahahahahahaha!

Justin, you should do that tv job there! WOW!

Another week flew by.

I've been going through slop and getting rid of it! Well, as last blog mentioned - trying to ebay it.

It's a process, thus repeated mentioning, but I'll try to cut back on that boring updating.

We bought a treadmill.

Wait, I can't remember the last time I blogged or what I said, maybe I'll repeat myself but it'll have to do b/c getting

Two screens up on dial up makes things slow. - Confucious say

Talked to Africans on the phone! NICE!

We decided to get the exact details on our house plans! Everything in it, but add a couple other things too. I say this b/c we were going to get rid of the garage and side rooms in there.

WOO! And I say this before we get the base price of things we originated Friday with the builder. Tomorrow will most likely be an annoying price set back, but we're sick of it and will get it going on either way!

Thank God we're both blessed with a job! That's all I got for today. Have a good Sunday and week :)

O-Pee-Chee Canadian Baseball Cards: Blog Title for Today

What a blast from the past just happened 5 mins. ago!

I am plugging along through our "stuff" and I am getting rid of LOTS! Well, by getting rid of I mean pursuing ebay. Yeah, I think I'll try it - any advice from others?

Point being, we have tons of baseball cards. Me the tomboy, and Casey the regular boy: TONS!

I have started to look up the worth of some online, although no hopes are up b/c it is a dying hobby. Remember the days of Kit Eridon's basement searching? Wow!

So I found a picture of a George Brett rookie card (1975 - same year as Robin Yount's rookie year - same year as Matt Edwards' rookie year) that I think you have dad and it says it's worth $160! That isn't worth the amount of sentimentality, but still cool that I saw it. Well, that is if you have it in the O-Pee-Chee Canadian card, and I think you do...

Should we really sell them...no Robin Yount's for sale though?

Anyways, we are all moved in. I have set up the loft awesomely. Well, as awesome as this type of place gets - "older home". (p.s. sorry I am abusing the hyphen lately. I feel bad about it somehow) It has a whole area with a mini-fridge, mini TV with DVD, and large towell/yoga mat makeshift area. Very motivating.

Now, if I could just use it....

Along with this barely used loft area, to cut down on cleaning when we move out, we have the computer set up all cool looking over the loft. Just fun. I'll bore you sometime with silly pictures of it one day. P.s. if you're some friend reading this and are wanting any such emails just email me...at an email address that you should have and I shall not put on here publically. And then we'll be emailing about email type things and that would be you receiving a silly loft picture in an email!

So dad, that was an amazing blog. I liked it a lot! That's still repulsive about having no glasses, but cool you can ignore people you want to as far as "well I can't see you or hear so..." HA!

I'd like to know more details about the pirate sultan and it being "a warning against pride and immortality"! Sounds like an interesting history!

The "Exotic Joan" little story was fun. I can just picture that panning out. Mom, you're one cool mom!

Good to hear Gramps is on the up and up, I think I will call him after the weekend. We do have phone and internet now, in case you don't get that email Africans.

Have a great weekend everyone! Matt hope you're having fun! I presume Trace is off on a little vaca by now :)

Side bar: see email on new house plans we're finally going with! Should break ground in August and be in no later than Dec. 7! We want in by Thanksgiving!

More pictures of Africans that I know from Africa now! Bye bye now!

We are 1/4 of the way moved into our new rental.

It is a place out in the country but still in a "subdivision" - which means 1 house every 2-3 acres or something. It's located about 7 miles from our 5 acres to be built on.

Anyways, our rental (and our house to be for that matter) is located in the absolute heart of the fishing explosion. It's not the huge halibut ocean explosion but it's the interior SALMON explosion. They call it combat fishing from July 1 - Aug. First there are king salmons - HUGE salmons! Then, from what we've learned there are silver, pink, and dog. Yeah, dog salmon! HA! I guess dog salmon, from anyone's guess I'd say, is not that good to eat and they just make salmon jerky out of it.

These fish all run in and down the streams, creeks, and rivers into the mouth of other huge rivers or even all the way to the ocean. The people catch them as the salmon go crazy down the mountain. And the bears are going crazy with the salmon - following them all the way too! It's no big thing to have 150 people shoulder to shoulder ("combat") fishing on one side of the bank and then a dozen bears of all sizes and brown and black fishing on the other side.

Since the bears are preoccupied with eating - and eating lots! - they don't even bother the humans - unless taunted.

Of course. Right. Unless taunted.

So, anytime you hear of people coming to Alaska to fish (besides the ocean fishing), they are coming to the Mat-Su Valley for the largest salmon running in the U.S. And now you know and you just went through an introductory class to salmon fishing in Alask. Do you mind if I call you Alask, Alaska? Now that's super summer lazy...one more letter? come on.

Music into from some qual radio this week: hot hot heat, sure coldplay, all this indie cool mix stuff from station run by UAA - university of alaska.

Hey might do a 10k in Anchorage next month. We'll see, mayb not. Gotta get treadmill next week.

Good Africa update. Sounds intense. Sounds African. Hope you talk to gramps this week :)

Happy 4th of July all!