Sunday, May 31

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Wow I can't believe that it's already the end of the month! Where is this year going?
Woke up to fog and rain again, temps in the mid 40's. Probably no planes again today....

Around 11 I headed down to the office so I can get my freighter crew back to work on the dry goods that they didn't get to yesterday. I had to also get the paperwork done up from yesterday and get it ready for today (for the store). At noon the store opened then I went back home, stopping to walk Boss really quick and put him out on his line so he can enjoy the weather, it's drying up but there is still a thick layer of fog in the harbor...

Didn't seem to do much today but sit around the house and watch TV and play with the dogs. We went down and walked Boss a couple times and fed him at noon then again around 6:30PM, we missed a call from my cousin (Boss' owner) while we were walking him around so he can "potty".

We ate a lot of junk food, then for dinner we had cream of mushroom soup over toast. I wanted to work out but didn't work up enough motivation to get up and actually do it .... All bark no bite today :P.....

Around 9:30 we took Boss for his last walk of the night and gave him a "cookie" (milkbone) and put him in for the night... my Uncle Jake should be coming to let him out early in the AM (usually around 7:30-8). So we'll just have to find him in the morning and make sure he's ok. He's a pretty old yellow lab, but a really good dog!

Well tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I have to get all the Store charge accounts added up and get everyone billed and have those out by noon hopefully..... then I have the Bank recs. that I was working on... I'm getting almost caught up now! Then I have to start our other accounts! I don't mind QuickBooks, it's a pretty fun application if you know how to use it right! I read the whole manual and had some training on it... so I know my way around it pretty well! I like to play around and use Excel for a lot of things though!

Well our relationship is still going strong, trying to just put things behind us and move on.... we've been together for a long time now, unofficially started to "date" when we were 13, didn't get serious and move in with each other until we were 18 turning 19... then last year when we were 25 we got married in court... hopefully maybe next year or the year after we'll have a big church wedding (debating in Anchorage, or here at home!).... We have a lot of great times that we shared... a lot of firsts we did together (like going to Hawaii and going skydiving!! 14000ft baby!!!) And we have plans to do more together!! So wish us the best! Much luv to you all who help and support me!

Until tomorrow TTFN!!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Well the ferry came in early this morning, heard it was a little late... not sure who all went over. The weather is still foggy/rainy, my yard is looking great! I was excited to see someone who means a lot to both my hubby and I (my hubby's aunt Diane), she happened to come down to bring her youngest daughter down to her ex-hubby and take her oldest daughter back with her! I haven't seen her in almost 2 years!!! I was so happy to see her! We ran down to the steam bath and started it up - hoping that there would be enough time for her to take a "steam" before the ferry comes back from Dutch Harbor then heading North.

I got the paperwork out for the store for the day, then we got bath started. My hubby cut wood as I started the fire, scrubbed the hot water containers down and rearranged some of the rocks. Then he got me boiling water and I bleached and scrubbed the whole inside of the bath out, making sure I didn't miss any spots! With in the hour, bath was ready. I kept feeding the fire a good amount of dry wood to get it about 160+F degrees in the bath house without even splashing water on the stove/rocks!! NICE and HOT!! By 4PM bath was ready (we had to wait for the rugs to get done drying), we called Aunty Diane and told her hot bath just for her!!! We went after she did. When we got out, the ferry was just coming in the bay. So we headed down to the dock to see everyone who is leaving off!

My hubby has agreed to watch my cousin's dog and house while he's gone fishing. There were a good amount of people who left on the ferry heading up to either Sand Point or Chignik for fishing. Too bad it had to be heavily raining that mist, everybody got soaked if they even just stepped out into the mist! The ferry wasn't here that long, after the ferry took off we drove home. The temps are in the low 50's and high 40's, even in the rain. The island is slowly turning green, and the salmonberry bushes are pushing buds out and flowers on some branches!

Still no planes yet due to the fog.

Ok well until tomorrow, TTFN

Friday, May 29

Friday, May 29, 2009

Sorry I didn't write my blog for the day. I've been super busy in the corp office on my own, not to mention Monday is the 1st and I have a lot to get done. I've been working on getting the freighter priced up, it should be here sometime tomorrow night. The ferry is supposed to come in tonight, I don't know how many people are taking it over....

There was an Elders Lunch held at the school since it's raining out, it was supposed to be by the ballfield. They had hot dogs and hamburgers and a couple different macaroni salads and chips. I brought my own drinks, but they had some kind of juice there. They had a pretty good amount of peole who showed up!

Its been raining (the really misty kind of fog) all day today. Hard to stay dry when you have to go outside! I'm happy Polly is down in the Post Office taking care of things! She calls me if there is anything but she hasn't called all day, so that's a good thing!

I'm having a little bit of a problem in my relationship with my hubby. I don't know how to deal with it... but I'm just taking everything day by day for now.... and we'll see how things work out... I don't like feeling like I'm not good enough for someone... with all that I do....... but yeah....

so until tomorrow, TTFN

Thursday, May 28

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Well woke up and took the dogs out, the weather looks good enough for a plane. The dogs did their thing then we took them inside. I got a call from my cousin Kay, she said that the plane is supposedly loading up and getting ready to come over here early… but who knows what early means to PenAir. I went down and got the Post Office opened, got the mail ready to go, then called my mom to see if she was leaving on the plane too. She said she was… so I’m watching both offices for now until my other PMLR makes it in (I heard a bunch of town people got on a boat and should be here around 3PM or so). The plane finally made it in at quarter to 12PM, I let my cousin Kay use Roscoe’s Sherpa bag (soft carrier) and my mom will be taking him with her under her seat instead of letting him ride in the cargo area of the plane. I didn’t get to go home to lunch until 12:15… I missed the store so I’ll have to see what we have at home….

I melted some slices of cheese on a couple pieces of bread and my hubby micro waved up some Orida Easy Fries. I got a little pissed off to find out that Pen-Air released my suitcase to my uncle Darryl without my permission, and he brought it over on the boat with him. When Pen-Air should have either called me for permission, or just held onto it until they could get it over on the next flight. I was down at the plane waiting for my suitcase to come off, and when I realized it wasn’t on there I immediately called Pen-Air in Dutch Harbor to see where it was, and that was when they told me they let my uncle take it!!! I was pissed that they didn’t ask me first! Where do they come off giving my property which is in their care to someone without discussing it with me first??? At least I know I’ll eventually get my damn clothes!

I was really busy at the post office today with all the planes and mail that came in. They brought a small amount of mail on almost every plane but the first one. So I was busy making people happy by sorting the mail (something I find fun to do!!). There are a couple new things that I have to get used to that have changed since the last time I worked at the Post Office… I just have to get into the routine of things. It was a super busy day, mostly sorting mail and a handful of customers. After I closed up the Post Office I went over to the Corp Office and did up the paperwork for the store and office. I finally made it home at quarter to 6. The temps were in the low 50’s, we had this kind of low fog that hugged the island, but it was clear for miles to see… we had about 6 flights today (or 5.. I lost count being busy!, at least I got all the outgoing mail off the island!)

We didn’t end up making our dinner last night, so we saved it for today. Last night we ended up eating a couple Banquet chicken tenders. On History Channel tonight was an awesome episode of Gangland, called Cold Hard Killers… an episode based on the gang problem in Anchorage, AK!! I didn’t know they made an episode about AK’s gang problem……

Well my PMLR said she’ll run the Post Office tomorrow and on Saturday (and Thursdays), so I’ll be able to get some work done in the Corp office. I am still working on Bank Recs. And I have to get the freighter priced up. I am kind of not looking forward to working the PO during the first working days of the month because I have a lot that I have to get done in the Corp office during that time. So I might see if my other co-worker can work at the PO on Monday so I can get everything I need done, done! Thankfully the weekend is coming up! There is going to be an Elders Potluck/Picnic tomorrow at lunch hour at the ball field, which is being held by Eastern Aleutian Tribes.

So until tomorrow, TTFN!

Wednesday, May 27

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Well woke up to a beautiful day in our harbor, but looking out towards our pass there is this dark heavy looking fog laying low, but here in the harbor is an open patch of blue sky. The sun pours its warm rays out across the island from that little hole in the clouds, there is barely a breeze whispering out there from the south. Might get nice enough for a plane today if that fog lifts… The dogs ran out and played in the yard like 3 little kids chasing each other! Dante really loves going outside with his brothers now! He is usually the first one to listen and come inside when I tell them it’s time to “go inside.” They are all so happy when they are together!! They are so cute to watch when they tuck their tails and try to be faster as they run around with each other, it’s not a scared tail tuck but one that they think it’s helping them move faster! LOL! Today is garbage day, so we’ll make sure to get our garbage out before I head down to the office!

The store was just opening up when I started up the stairs to the office, I got down to the office and got the charge slips entered into the book. Then I started back on the Bank reconciliation work that I started yesterday. There are a couple things that confuse me…. Like deposits that deposited that I can’t find a record of us sending them out… and they are for these super small amounts… and we never send in like a $10.00 deposit! Then making the journal entry part that evens the accounts out in QuickBooks is a little confusing at times when I can’t get both columns totals to match! Working on these is all I pretty much did all day… Hopefully finish up October before end of the day. I’m waiting for our Auditors to get back to me so I can get some help so I can move on! Maybe I should have done an easier account like our payroll account before trying to knock out our General account…. But I figured I’d get the hard stuff out of the way then the rest should just go smoothly!

For lunch today I made grilled cheese and my hubby had some beef veggie soup with his. I’m waiting for my new little BBQ that I sent home C.O. D. from Wal-Mart to come in so I can make some shish-ka-bobs…. I’ve been craving them since I saw pix of CB man-ing the grill over in Dutch Harbor! I don’t know what I’m going to get for dinner tonight. I’ve kind of been slacking on the cooking department since we got home… guess you can say I got used to not having to cook for 2 weeks!

We have a freighter coming in for our store this weekend. We have a small order coming in, and I just got a fax in from our vendor showing what shipped and the suggested retail price. All I have to do is look it over, make sure everything we ordered was ordered and the right quantities then transfer all the info on an easy to read price sheet for our store workers. So I will get that done up and printed out for them. No rush since the freighter won’t be here until Saturday… I guess people are tired of being showed what’s coming in… when they would rather be shown what’s here already! And our store manager always seems to get happy and show people what’s coming in on the freighter, and the people are getting tired of it I guess…. So I will take the price sheet down to the store workers sometime Friday. Kind of weird, you’d think people would like to know what’s coming in, so they can come down when the freighter is here and get it before it sells out! Some items are hard to keep stocked, but if we order too much then it doesn’t sell at all!! It’s like people get tired of certain things and what was once a good seller doesn’t really sell at all anymore and vice-versa! It’s so hard to keep everyone satisfied with what we keep stocked in the store. They should be grateful that we even have a store, unlike some villages here in Alaska!

I’m hoping to hear back from our Auditors before the end of the day so I can finish up with October 08’s bank rec. If not hopefully they contact me in some way (email, phone) and help me so I can get as much done before my mom leaves and before I have to start running the Post Office. I think I start officially next week Monday-Wednesday since our Post Master is still here – I think she leaves Friday, but our other PMLR (Post-Master Leave Relief) is supposed to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s – but she’s been stuck in Dutch since Saturday… the last plane we had was the one that flew me home on Friday night! I prayed/hoped really hard to make it home, and we did! Thankfully the weather held up and let us come back home! There are still a lot of Akutan locals stuck over in Dutch waiting for the Goose to make its 20 minute one-way flight to bring them home… and over here there are a good handful of people waiting to fly to Dutch to make their flights to Anchorage! That’s even if the Saab can land over there or not! I heard that the 2 flights earlier today already had to turn around and go back to like Cold Bay or King Salmon before eventually flying back to Anchorage due to not being able to land in the thick fog that’s enveloping the island!

Oh yay, the internet is finally working again up in our office! I finally spend the 30 mins on hold with GCI to let them know that our internet still isn’t working. The guy on the other end said it was their fault and that they never turned our service back on and that we had to reset our antenna and our internet should start working after they reset something up there in Anchorage. After about less than 5 mins on the phone with this guy and our internet was back up and running. So we didn’t have internet for like a month or so here in the Corp office because “someone” forgot to turn our service back on. Here’s the funny part, I know this was our THIRD time calling in!! The second time I called they apologized and said that the first person forgot to turn our service back on and that they would do it and it should all be taken care of and we hung up before checking our connection. Not wanting to spend over 30 mins on hold again that day, we kind of just put it off, then I left and my mom must have forgot what the problem was with the internet, because she waited for me to get back to ask me what was wrong with it again. So that’s why I spent the time listening to GCI’s boring elevator “on hold” music for about 33 mins exactly before spending 5 mins to fix our “problem.” This time the guy stayed on the phone with me until he can tell that we were sending/receiving a signal from them and he made sure we connected with the internet before hanging up with me! Thank you so much GCI tech guy! You were way better than the last 2 people I talked with!! Can’t believe we went without our internet that long just because they forgot to reconnect us to the system! Should almost get a month free since we paid for a month of internet that wasn’t even able to be used because they had our antenna shut off!

We just got a fax in that shows that the Aleut Corporation’s President, CEO, and Shareholder Relations Manager will be here on June 1st for the Aleut Corp’s Akutan Shareholder Informational Meeting that will be held here in Akutan at the new City Office Building around noon. They usually have door prizes for the people who attend the meeting: including a roundtrip ticket to attend the Annual Meeting in Anchorage (which is usually the month of October), along with Aleut Corp regalia (coffee mugs, clothing, flashlights, ECT). They usually have a pretty good amount of people who show up because they know that one of them is getting a free ticket to Anchorage end of the year! (LOL what an incentive to make you go huh?!?!)

Well I think I’m just going to season up some hamburger, make gravy and have that over rice for dinner. Something quick and easy!! I didn’t get to finish up my Bank rec. work because I didn’t hear back from our auditor. So hopefully they will get back to my by tomorrow so I can finish that month up and move on!

So until tomorrow, TTFN!

Tuesday, May 26

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Well woke up early today for I have to go to work at the Post Office this morning and get re-trained and updated on all the new rates and steps we use to send and receive mail. That took about an hour, and I was able to get to work at the Corp on time at 10! My mom had already entered the charge slips and put the cash out in the store for the day. I checked into the office this morning before going to the Post Office but it was still a bit before 9AM and my mom wasn’t in the office yet, actually no one was here at the building! I had to wait around for someone to show up (Kay our Postmaster, arrived first – my mom not too long after her!). I had my office keys so I didn’t have to wait outside.

The weather this morning is cloudy with a dark looking fog out in the pass; there is a slight breeze from the North, temps in the low 40’s. Our yard looks really good being fresh cut from last night! We need some rain now… my sprinkler broke from all the kids playing in it last year – so I have to order a new one or I’d be watering my lawn!

First thing I did once I got done in the Post Office and made it to the Corp office was to situate my desk since the office was painted while I was gone! Looks nice and bright! After getting my stuff cleaned and put in the appropriate places I started on the bank reconciliation work that I have waiting for me. First thing I have to do is enter all the journal entries into QuickBooks, then get a copy of our Trial Balance out to our auditors.

For lunch we had tacos, and I happily enjoyed mine with some Fire Sauce!!! Think I’m going to make grilled cheese and soup for dinner…. I don’t really feel like cooking a big dinner…. My hubby is thinking of cooking steam bath tonight, that sounds so relaxing! I can’t wait to get off work and go in there and throw lots of water on the rocks and sweat all the “city” dirt out of my skin.

This afternoon at work was nothing but working with numbers, getting stuck and having to call our auditors for help. Then realizing that I had a couple numbers on the wrong side of my debit/credit columns and that’s why they weren’t adding up…. At least I’m not stuck on anything too hard to deal with…. I just need to accept the fact that I need to pick up the phone and call for help once and a while instead of giving myself a headache trying to figure it out myself! Not to mention my training was over a week ago….. I’m happy that I took a bunch of notes while I was getting my training!!

I think this Bank Rec. work is going to take a bit longer than I thought it was going to take…. It took me all afternoon just to reconcile one account for one month!!! I did July with our auditors, and then did August on my own with them over looking, then just got done doing September on my own here at home. Starting October tomorrow! I will start working at the Post Office once my cousin leaves, which I believe is around the end of the month she leaves (this coming weekend).

I had a couple people come up to cash their checks today…. I kind of missed doing that… except the part of trying to explain what 10% of your total is to cash your check… some of the Africans don’t understand… so I have to explain percentages to them by telling them for every dollar you cash with us we charge 10 cents…. So if it’s 100.00 it’s going to be a 10.00 charge. Some people just don’t understand and get all mad and start to raise their voices to me and start to slam their fists on my desk. I just smile and tell them that’s our policy and if they don’t like it then we don’t have to cash your check for you! No one understands how much it costs to make sure we have cash in our office! Just for someone to fly over and back costs over 280.00 just for the airfare, that doesn’t include hotel if they get stuck! So we have to charge at least 10% to cover our costs of getting the cash!

The Post Office called up and let us know they only had $4.00 left on their Power Stat machine, so I ran to the City office and got the $300.00 more dollars in power! That was a good little break to take from the Bank Rec. work that I was working on…. Give my eyes a break from all the numbers, although I don’t mind dealing with numbers!

I can’t believe how slowly behind our plants are from the plants growing up in Anchorage and Valdez! Our salmonberry bushes are finally pushing buds out, and on some they even have flowers! My mom had a cup full of the white flowers that grow on our hills this time of the year, not sure what they are called we just always called them white flowers… I will try to get a pic of some of them! We didn’t get a plane in today, but there are a lot of town people over in Dutch waiting to come home… if they get stuck long enough the AK State ferry Tustemena should be here this weekend, going round trip from here to Dutch and back, then on its way back up to Homer!

People are slowly getting their gillnets out and cleaning them and getting ready for the Red Salmon to make their appearance! I can’t wait to get some fresh salmon put away: salted up, dried up or smoked up! I want to can a bunch this year too… I have to get a pressure cooker…. I heard the Troopers were giving tickets out to people who didn’t have some kind of information on their buoys for their gillnets…. Since when do we have to do that? In my 26 years of living here I have never heard of it being mandatory to put contact info on your buoy… as far as I know we all would just put our initials on the buoy…. But I guess to avoid a couple hundred dollar fine we should all start putting our full names and contact info on all buoys used in this area…. Or beware of the Troopers knocking on your door!!!!!

Ok well I’m looking forward to steam bath and getting all the Bank Rec. work done up (however long it takes!) Then walk my dogs and try to enjoy the nice weather we're having (other than the wind). Maybe go for a walk and see if I see and morels... no one around here really knows what one is... so the obviously never looked here for them... so that's an adventure I can go on.... watch me find nothing either!! LOL.....

So until tomorrow, TTFN!

Monday, May 25

Monday, May 25, 2009

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!

Slept in good today again! Loving being in my own bed! Took the dogs out for their walk, clear and sunny with some clouds, but blowing 25-30MPH from the North. Definitely no planes today… the dogs enjoyed their outing then we went inside to watch Tyra during lunch hour.

We eventually walked down to the store and got everything for tacos for dinner, we had Banquet Chicken tenders for lunch. On our walk back I grabbed my parent’s lawn mower so we can get our yard done up. Around 4 I went out and mowed our yard, now it looks really good! We went inside and watched some TV shows before returning the lawnmower back to my parents. On our way back we noticed our neighbor cutting their grass with their weed whacker, so I offered them to use the lawn mower to chop the grass down. So they used it then we walked it back down to the old chicken coop that my parents use for storage.

Other than cutting our grass we didn’t really do much today, I wanted to get a work out in, but pushing that lawn mower back and forth made me break a sweat so I think I’m good for the day… :P

Well back to work tomorrow, I start at the Post Office tomorrow… my mom is leaving for a couple weeks for a conference here soon, so I’ll be running both the PO and Corp office (we’ll see how this goes….)… I’ll be in the Corp on Thursday and Friday and at the PO Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

We didn’t eat our tacos for dinner, so we’ll save those for lunch tomorrow… with my TB Fire Sauce!! For dinner we snacked on some sausage, cheese and crackers.
Well until tomorrow, TTFN!

Sunday, May 24

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Well it felt really great again to sleep in our own bed! We woke up around 10AM, went out and walked the dogs. The weather this morning is partly cloudy with sunshine, and a cold Northerly breeze of about 20MPH, gusting to 30MPH, a cool 45F. The dogs enjoyed their walk, Dante really seems to like to go outside now, and he loves to run around with his brothers – especially if I’m throwing the ball for Tug!

We didn’t do much today but hang out in the house and watch TV! Felt good to just sit at home and do nothing! We picked up our birds last night, we were thinking of getting another one, but I want to make sure it’s for sure a male that I’m adding to my little flock of 3 cockatiels! I know for sure one is a female, and I believe the other two hatchlings from last year are a male and a female (I’m guessing from the barring marks under their tails).

We ate some halibut fish pie that my Aunty Jen made! It was super delish! I love eating mine with ketchup! My hubby went to the store and got us everything to make grilled cheese and soup for dinner. We ended up eating a bunch of junk food (beef jerky, chips and candy) for dinner. I know it’s not healthy but it sure did taste good. We are going to make sure to get a yoga session in tomorrow! I also baked up some cinnamon rolls with some awesome frosting earlier today!!

The plane didn’t come in today because of the strong northerly winds, which really sucks because I heard there is a plane load of locals waiting to get back, and I still haven’t received my suit case yet. Which makes me really happy that I mailed home some of my clothes!!

I ordered us an ice cream maker; I’ve wanted to get one for some time now. Next on my list is a yogurt maker! We’re already counting down the days until we leave for one of my BFF’s weddings, we are thinking of extending out stay in Anchorage so I can be with my Cupcake and my sister and her b/f longer! We’ll see though. I got my official wedding invitation in the mail on the same plane we flew in on! I’m sending my RSPV out once the Post Office reopens! I can’t wait to go I’m so excited, I really need to work out and try to lose another 10 lbs or so (at least that’s what I’m hoping for… but I won’t be disappointed if I don’t.. as long as I don’t gain weight I’m happy!) I still can’t believe that I lost weight on our trip! With all the fast food that we were eating, I’m surprised we didn’t put weight on (hopefully my arteries are ok from all the grease!)….. I did cook a couple times at home though, and we had a BBQ our last night there! I really miss driving; I did a lot of driving on this trip. I’ve been slowly breaking myself in to driving with a lot of traffic. I’m used to the small one lane going one way and the other the other way kind of traffic… so I’m getting good at driving with traffic in multiple lane roads!

I swear I keep calling my sis a couple times a day, we miss being with them and I’m sure they miss us! I really miss my Cupcake! She’s such a cutie pie and growing so fast for her age! She’s really advanced and I hope my sister takes advantage of that! For 8 months she’s already trying to walk and she’s fitting 12 month old clothes! I got her some 18 month old clothes to grow into! I love her and my godchild so much!! I love getting my “girls” clothes!!! Both my little nieces are fitting in the same size clothes, and my godchild is going to be 2 years old next month! But I love them both and it was really good to be able to see and spend time with both of them!

Well, we’re going to relax with our pups, watch some TV, shower up and maybe get some laundry done. I can’t wait to sleep in our bed again; I really missed it a lot while we were gone!!! Hopefully the plane comes in soon and brings the rest of my clothes!

Until Tomorrow, TTFN!!

Pix from our trip...

Pix:
My sister wanted Chocolate covered strawberries for Mother's Day.... so I went out and got a big bag of milk chocolate and white chocolate and a very large assortment of fruit to be dipped. I told her I didn't want to get her the ones already covered and not being refrigerated (and probably soggy and soft). So we went to the grocery store and I hand picked out all the fruit we were going to eat. Then we went home and covered it all in chocolate and ate it for dinner!

The drive from Anchorage up to Talkeetna (we're on the road between Eagle River and the Valley {Palmer/Wasilla}) at about 6AM.

The Talkeetna Alaska Lodge

View from our room looking at Mt McKinely

Kisses!! Me and Mt. McKinely

APICDA Community Conference - Waiting outside to take the group photo
We went out to Koots (Chilkoot Charlie's) for my hubby's 26th Birthday with my sister and her b/f. I was designated driver and was enjoying Shirly Temple's while we danced a bit and enjoyed the music and each other's company!
My Hubby sitting down smiling hard for the camera! (well for me!)

My hubby and Me at Koots...

My beautiful little sis and me giving her luvs!!

My beautiful sis and her boyfriend J
Shrimping in Valdez, AK on my older sis and her hubby's boat (I don't think they named it yet). My hubby holding a fresh shrimp from Prince William Sound!

Me sitting pretty in the "boat" (it's a skiff with a cover!)

The very beautiful Williams Family in their "boat" taking us shrimping!

Looking out the doors of the "house" of the "boat" at the stern, nice engine and our shrimp pots and buckets filled with shrimp!

My Hubby and the Valdez oil terminal in the background!!

The Alyeska Valdez Oil Terminal - "across the bay"

Our beautiful rental car parked in my older sis' drive way... doesn't it look like we're towing their camper!!! LOL!!! A red Dodge Charger with grey leather interior!


Gun Sight Mountain near Eureka, AK on the drive back to Anchorage.

Entering the Palmer Mt's, I think this shot is beautiful!

The Matanuska Glacier as seen from the HWY
My lil sis had this cute "fenced" off area in front of her house and it was all over grown with grass. So I went to some stores and picked up some gardening tools and some supplies (top soil, mulch and plants). Then went home and ripped up all the grass, dug up a good portion of the soil that was there, then mixed in the top soil I bought, planted a blueberry bush, 2 raspberry bushes, and some petunias and pansys, then covered it all in cedar mulch. I was very proud of the small gardening job I did and so was my sis and her b/f! Here is a pic of what it looked like once I was done! Hopefully they take care of them and have some berries next year!
The Trooper Vessel Stimpson sitting at our dock, and our little boat harbor full of small boats and skiffs! Took this as soon as we got off the plane!

Saturday, May 23

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Wow it felt good to sleep in our own bed! We woke up at about 12:30PM! We slept like 13 hours and I feel like I can sleep another 13! I didn’t want to get out of bed for anything, but the pups wouldn’t stop licking me to get me up to walk them! So we got up and took the dogs out, the wind is blowing about 15MPH from the north, the sun is out and they sky is blue! Feels pretty warm at 50F out and warmer in the sun! We walked down to the store to get some “shopping” done. I picked up a can of Red Salmon to make some spread with for lunch (I just removed the skin and some of the bones and flaked the meat up and mixed in a bit of mayo and have it on either pilot bread or Ritz crackers) and we grabbed a couple Stouffers individual size lasagna dinners for tonight. We also needed some pop since we didn’t have any in the fridge. We went and checked the mail and brought home all the bills and magazines that piled up over the last 2 weeks, and grabbed the boxes we mailed home.

Our dogs were super excited to smell that one of the boxes was just for them! I know they know that that box was for them, because they can smell all the treats in there! I swear we spent over 300 at the pet store on rawhide chews, toys and food for them! Tug was so happy he didn’t know what to chew on first, he was like a little kid running around the house with a different thing in his mouth just happy and excited! Roscoe and Dante were just trying to take all of Tug’s stuff and hide it from him! They need to learn to share with their “big brother”!

I was happy to turn my Guitar Hero on and jam out for a couple hours! I played until my fingers were cramping and my shoulder was hurting from the guitar strap! Felt really good to get a good jam session in! I love turning up the volume, standing in front of the TV, all dressed like a rock star and wearing my heels, jumping up and down and jamming out on the Guitar to some really great songs that I grew up listening to! I think my hubby just laughs a bit at me and he said he thinks I’m “cute” when I dress up to jam out!

Today is garbage day so I made sure to clean out anything in our fridge that went bad, and gathered all the empty boxes and got them ready for pick up. No planes today, so I didn’t get my suitcase yet…. L

We spent a lot of time watching TV catching up on shows and playing Guitar Hero and hanging out with the pups! I love the feeling of being home!!!! Well until tomorrow, TTFN!!!!

Friday, May 22

Friday, May 22, 2009

Well we leave Anchorage today. Woke up around 6:15AM and made sure we had everything packed up. We have to return the car and check in by 8AM for our 9:30 flight back to Dutch Harbor. My sister has to wake up for work at 6:30 so I made sure she was up. I’m going to miss being around my sister, her b/f and my Cupcake! It’s been a great 2 weeks with them!! We did our last minute shopping at Wal-Mart, cleaned up the car, filled it with gas then headed to the airport around 7:45 so we can make it to the airport before 8.

We checked in for our flight, went to one of the stores to get something to drink and eat then proceeded to our gate to wait for our flight. We didn’t happen to see anyone that we knew, actually! I heard there were supposed to be a couple other Akutan folk flying home with us on our flight, but they either didn’t make it or changed their tickets! I HATE flying and usually never sleep on a plane, but I was super tired from staying up late last night and waking up early. So I actually slept almost the whole flight! We stopped in King Salmon to fuel up, but I only woke up when we were taking back off! The approach and landing in to Dutch Harbor had me guessing whether or not the Goose was even flying to Akutan or not! It was super foggy and we were circling tight to the left as we were gliding down like some of the birds in the area! We eventually popped out of the clouds, a little bumpy which made me hold my seat pretty tight (as I said before I HATE flying in anything but the Goose!). We landed and saw the Goose sitting next to the runway, waiting for us to get out of the way so it can take off! I was hoping they would wait for us to come in so they can take us home, but we’ll just see what’s going on when we get off the Saab! The time is about 12:50 when we landed, we took off on time at 9:30AM, and the flight was a little longer than 3 hours due to fueling up in King Salmon.

We got off the plane and went to the “baggage claim area,” after waiting for our bags; we were told that about 1500 lbs of bags were bumped off our flight, one of the bags being my suitcase with all my clothes in it. Happy I packed light and left a bunch of my clothes at home this trip! I picked up my pups, I missed them so much! Then we went to the Pen-Air ticket counter to check in for our flight home. We were told that Trident had chartered 4 flights (at $3000 one way!) and we were going to be on the scheduled 4:30PM flight. So we had to sit in the airport and watch the Goose load up with cannery workers and take them over to Akutan. This pissed me off a bit because I’m a local and the cannery workers are covered by a company… and if the weather goes to crap and the plane cancels then we’ll have to foot the bill at the hotel if we get stuck, and the company takes care of them. So I feel it would have been a little fairer to get the locals home before the cannery workers… So until our flight takes off, we hung out with Atka’s VPSO, this super cool guy named Hank! It was good to be able to get to know each other a little better. It would be really cool if he was to come to work as the VPSO in Akutan! I feel he would fit in great with our community, he is very friendly and easy to get along with! It would be cool if he did move here, he was constantly trying to buy us something to eat, but we had just eaten before meeting him. His flight to Atka was cancelled due to weather, I guess he was just coming back from VPSO training down in San Diego.

Well at about 5:30PM we were finally told that our flight was ready to go and we can get loaded on the Goose! YAY!! I’m going home!!! I missed sleeping in my own bed! Just before 6 the Goose made its way into our harbor, flying over my house then landing out in the water in front of town! It was just my hubby, the pilot, me and a bunch of mail on the plane. It’s a cool 45F out with a slight drizzle falling from the sky, slightly cloudy with patches of blue sky and sunshine. I noticed this beautiful light blue and black boat at our city dock, I really love the way the trooper vessel Stimpson looks! They keep the paint job super clean and I love the colors the Troopers use! (I LOVE light blue) I snapped a picture of it sitting at our dock, and all the smaller boats tied in up the “skiff (boat) harbor”. On our way walking home from the plane ramp we passed about 3-4 Troopers and our VSPO, I stopped them and asked if any of them were Cookie Dough’s husband, they all looked at me funny!! Then I was like, “I’m sorry, who’s Mel’s husband?” They let me know that none of them was him, but they giggled at me when they realized I’m a blogger and that’s why I was asking! LOL! Nice looking group of guys though, there is something about a guy in a uniform that intrigues us women… not sure if it’s the same for a guy looking at a girl in a uniform though….(comments anyone?)

The island is still pretty brown compared to how green it’s getting in Anchorage! I noticed my lawn needs a mowing bad! I’m happy we cleaned our house up spic and span before we left so I can get it all messy unpacking! LOL! Most of my boxes that I mailed down the other day have made it home already, I’m happy that I mailed some of my clothes home (especially since I didn’t get my suitcase!). We picked up our lab Tug from my parents house before going home, he was super happy to have us back. I think he was just looking for what we brought home for him!!! HA HA HA!! Spoiled pups!

We ate a cheese burger over in Dutch not long after we landed, then I made some small pepperoni pizza’s on pilot bread when we got home. The store was already closed so I was happy that I had some food in the fridge/freezer still! I turned the TV on and started to try to catch up on everything that we’ve missed over the last 2 weeks (my sister didn’t have cable). It felt really good to be able to sleep in our own bed, we put a tape in and recorded The Tonight Show with Jay Leno then went to bed early! The pups were really happy to finally be able to sleep with us in our own bed in our room at home!!!

I really missed blogging and need to get back into the routine; I’m really happy to be home again and enjoyed our little trip away from “The Rock”. I have to get some training in the Post Office since I’m going to start work there Monday-Wednesday while my cousin is out on medical, then on Thursday and Friday I will go to work in the Corp Office. I also can’t wait to get back in the Corp and get all the Bank Reconciliation done up in the computer! I’m pretty excited about that ever since I finished my training on it! But I’m going to enjoy the Memorial Day 3-day weekend chilling at home with my pups!! So until tomorrow, TTFN!!

I will make a post with some of the pix I took on our trip. :)

Tuesday, May 19

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Well I finished all my training and just enjoying the rest of out time here in the "city" before we head back home. I've been really enjoying being with my sister, her b/f and their baby girl, my "cupcake"! I have some awesome pics of Mt McKinley that I want to get posted when I get home! The weather has been beautiful since we've been here, we have both been enjoying driving in our rental car (a red Dodge Charger). I've been really missing my internet and basic cable (my sis doesn't have cable)... so I'm very lost on what's going on out in the blogging world and the real world.

I have been super busy this whole trip up until now! Yay, now I get to try to enjoy myself then get my butt back home to my pups! So far we've been spoiling my Cupcake getting her anything that she might need, we picked her up a high chair today and a bunch of diapers and wipes! My sister is debating it but I might be able to take her home with me!!! I think it would not only help her with her new job schedule but help take her off her hands for a bit so she doesn't have to worry about her b/f being home babysitting the whole time and not being able to get out and look for a job because he's stuck home with the baby. So maybe with us asking for her for a couple months or so will help them get into a good routine before she comes back and they can get daycare! So we'll see what goes on with that by the time we get ready to go home! I'm excited! If I get to take her home I will share her with my parents!

I can't explain how much I've been missing blogging! Only thing is I haven't really been doing much to blog about. I lost about 10lbs on my trip already, which I don't understand with a diet of McDonalds, Arby's, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut!!! I don't mind, I only eat when I feel really hungry!

We drove down to Valdez for the weekend and got to hang out with my older sister and her family! I was happy to be able to spend time with her girls (my neices)! We got to go out in their "boat" (a big covered skiff) and went to check the shrimp pots, we got about a gallon of shrimp once we "cleaned" them. The drive down and back was great, I drove both ways! We did the trip in about 5 hours one way! It snowed on the way up but was beautiful blue skies and sunny on the trip back! I was happy to be able to see some of my friends I haven't seen in a long time. One of my BFF sister's graduating this year, I can't believe she's already graduating... where is time going????? It was great to be able to catch up with them and hang out a bit!

I got all my bank rec. training done. Our auditing company told me I learned it faster than some of the auditors they employ! They told me I have a really great head on my shoulders for numbers and that I should go for my Accounting degree.... it's something to think about. I really love working with numbers and I'm pretty good on Excel! I'm happy it went faster than everyone thought and now I'm ready to go home and get all our accounts reconciled!!! I'm actually excited to get home and get started!

We have been enjoying the sun that seems to be out everyday, nice and warm in the mid 60's!! I'm not ready to go home, but yet I'm ready to go home! Well I can't wait to get back to blogging daily!!!

Until sometime, TTFN!!!

Monday, May 11

Missing my pups

Thanks a lot CB for watching my little ones... but I'm missing them tremendousely!!! Give them luvs for me... we went to Petco today and got them a bunch of stuff!!! I'll mail them a "care" package full of new goodies!! Let them know mommy and daddy miss them!!

Thanks alot for everything!!

Weather has been nice - been super busy running around getting everything I need to get done, done!! I'm missing home a bit and hope the sea gulls are waiting for me to come home her soon to pick their eggs!!! Couple more days!! yay!

Until I get online again, TTFN!

Sunday, May 10

Trip

We're having a blast so far! The pups are enjoying the weather here Dutch! Hope they like staying with Uncle CB and get comfortable being in a new place! Happy he knows Uncle CB well! I hate having to leave them, but at least I know I have someone who can watch them for me that I can fully trust!

Well, we're going to be super busy the next couple days!

I had time to get online and figured I'd post a quick note saying hi to everyone!

Luvs to Dante and Roscoe.....

Until sometime... TTFN!!

Wednesday, May 6

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Well today is another beautiful day! Hopefully the plane will come in today! It looks nice enough! There is a light dusting of snow on the boardwalks. The dogs ran out did their thing then we put them in and made our way down to the office. Today is garbage day, so we made sure to put that out before we left the house.

Today was a pretty busy day in the office. Mostly getting everything I need to get finished up before I leave and showing my mom some stuff that needs to get done while I’m gone – like the store order they need to get out before next Wednesday!

At lunch time the plane came in! I baked up some cheese sticks and the hubby had a Stouffers Meatloaf meal.

We had a boiler inspector from the State come in. I guess he was told the plane cancelled and he checked into the hotel, then the plane came in around 6:30PM and he left on it, so that room probably has to be cleaned since he checked into it and I know he got a meal from the store to make…

Got home after work and found a Berry Survey tucked in my doorway from the school kids. Guess they want us to fill them out and return them by Friday, so I’ll look at it and fill it out later. Well we laundered all the stuff we need to bring with us, and got ready to pack up. I have to make sure I have enough room to bring everything I want and our dogs stuff!

For dinner I made salmon spread again, quick and easy!

Today seemed like a busy day at work, and I enjoyed coming home and relaxing with my family while I made a list of everything I need to pack and my list of what we need to pick up on our trip.

I hope everyone had a great Wednesday!! Until tomorrow, TTFN!!

Tuesday, May 5

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Woke up to a nice day again. Looks a little foggy out towards the pass and there is a small breeze blowing in the bay. Blue skies above town and the sun looks like it might come out once it gets above the fog! Took the dogs out and they enjoyed their morning outing. The high temps today got up to 51F on my weather station, lows last night show it got to 31.8F.

I got down to the office and got the charge slips entered in. My mom was busy dealing with our router and printer again. I guess this time our router needed to be reset because our network wasn’t registering on the computers, which makes our wireless printer pretty worthless. So after screwing around with the controls and restarting the computer and unplugging and re-plugging everything in it all finally started to work again.

For lunch I made us tacos. We got some produce from Trident to sell down at the store. So I got some lettuce, bell peppers and a cucumber. I’m going to make stuffed bell peppers for dinner, with a cucumber salad on the side! If we don’t get to the salad it will make a great midnight snack!

This afternoon went by pretty fast. I had a couple Trident employees and some locals come up and cash their checks. We are getting low on cash again, which really sucks! I guess we had a couple people charter a boat and they came over and needed 2 hotel rooms. Luckily for them we don’t have anyone in the hotel at the moment and they were able to get lodging! Lucky for them they get to “break in” all our new supplies that got put in the rooms, must feel nice with those new fluffy pillows and comforters!!

Well I got more paperwork entered into the spreadsheets. I’m hoping to get all caught up before I leave, since I have to bring a back-up copy of our QuickBooks file to our auditors for my training – I want to make sure everything I need to have entered from my side of the office is entered into the journal entries! I will probably take some home tonight to try to get fully caught up!

Well the plane ended up not coming in today… it was nice in the bay, but as soon as you look out the bay you can tell it’s blowing out around the corner, and the fog is really dark and laying low. Almost seemed like it wanted to rain. Then when I was cooking dinner around 8PM I happened to notice that it was snowing out! WTF?!?! At least it didn’t last long. It doesn’t get dark until at least around 11PM now, not sure what time it starts to get light (I haven’t woken up that early yet :P).

Well today was a pretty good day for me! I hope everyone else had a great day! Until tomorrow TTFN!

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BRO-IN-LAW DON JOHN!!

Monday, May 4

Monday, May 4, 2009

Well it’s another nice day, but with low fog, but the sun is still out. The temps today aren’t are high as they’ve been over the weekend due to some cold Northerly winds – blowing about 15 MPH. The dogs ran out and enjoyed playing in the yard before eventually having to go inside so I can make my way down to work.

I got down to the office this morning and my mom had already entered the charge slips and was now working on payroll. I guess she was having a bit of trouble, so I went on her computer and checked it out. I guess she let someone use her computer and they were trying to print something and they paused the printing on the printer. So there were like 10 things queued up to be printed, with the payroll checks being last. You don’t know how many checks she was voiding because it wasn’t printing what she wanted on them because she didn’t realize that the person before her jammed the printer up with multiple print queues! So after cancelling everything but the checks to be printed, I put new checks in the printer and payroll eventually got finished by 11AM! My mom was happy that I was able to figure out what was wrong with it at least!

After dealing with the computer and payroll, a couple of the guys told us that we have about 13 boxes that came in on 2 pallets on the freighter over the weekend. They are addressed to Akutan Bayview Housekeeping! YAY, all the new stuff for the hotel is here!! They brought all the boxes up to our office, where I went through everything to make sure that it was all there. My hubby came up and grabbed all the new sheets, pillow cases, mattress protectors and shower curtains to be washed and put in the rooms. First he’s going to grab his little crew of workers and make sure they remove all the old stuff and store it somewhere for us. The Corp will sell all the old bedding (pillows, sheets, blankets and towels) and all the proceeds are going to the School Kids Travel funds for any trips they might plan next year! So the office is pretty much filled with new bedding sets, towels sets, blankets and shower mats right now! You wouldn’t believe how many people would come up and ask if any of it is for sale. They seem disappointed that it’s all for the hotel… I’m happy we finally got all new white bedding! Another thing, people are asking me “Why white bedding?” What other color are we supposed to use that can get sanitized with bleach? I can see not wanting white bedding at home if you have pets or because you just don’t like/want it. But not in a hotel!! Everything has to be white so it can be properly cleaned between guests!!

So for lunch I whipped out a couple grilled cheese sandwiches with some beef veggie soup. I don’t think we’ll get a plane today, it’s blowing a little harder now – still from the North. The sun feels good, but the wind is cold!

This afternoon at work I got all the store billing done up. This took a while because I had to deal with the phones ringing and customers at the same time. This afternoon seemed to go by pretty fast, next thing I knew the store was closing and it was time to do paperwork and go home!!

Tonight we’re cooking up spaghetti with Pepperidge farm’s Texas Toast – garlic flavored! I love that stuff better than just bread with garlic powder on it! Tonight is the finale of I Love Money 2 on VH1 and the premier of New York goes to Work! I can’t believe I missed Daisy of Love yesterday!! Oh well that should re-run sometime!

Ok well until tomorrow, TTFN!

Sunday, May 3

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Well we got to sleep in which felt really, really good!!! The weather today is sunny, with some clouds but mostly blue skies and a cold Northerly breeze – blowing about 15-20MPH at times.

We didn’t do much. Pretty much hung out in the house and watched TV. I made the video for my little presentation on the village for the past year, I also baked up some corn bread muffins and we munched on those for brunch, and then for dinner I made us tacos -which I happily ate with Taco Bell Fire sauce!!

No planes today - But I heard that the other “rental” plane is in Dutch Harbor, so whenever the weather permits we should be able to get a plane in!

I have to get our laundry done up and figure out what I want to pack… I usually pack with a bunch of stuff that I don’t really need but think I might need so I bring it anyways. But this time I want to bring only one bag for me and one bag for the dogs!

Well I had a great weekend! I hope everyone else enjoyed their selves too!! Until tomorrow, TTFN!

PS: HAPPY B-DAY LIL RAY!!!

My Video Presentation for the conference I'm attending...


Please comment and let me know what you think...
I am planning on showing this at the conference I'm going to.
I had the hardest time trying to find the right songs that didn't have explicit lyrics in it!!!

xoxo
~April Dawn~

Saturday, May 2, 2009

What a beautiful day it is today!!! Sunny, warm, blue skies and barely a breeze fluttering through the air! The temps today stayed in the 50’s, the weather station on my porch recorded 69.1F as our high!

We enjoyed the day sitting on the porch in the sun and playing catch with the dogs until they didn’t want to play catch anymore!! They love it when it’s nice out! Dante was actually enjoying just sitting on the porch in the sun next to me as we watched Roscoe and Tug chase the ball and bring it back!

I cleaned my all my dogs ears out today with their ear cleaner. Just to make sure that they are clean, I noticed Tug itching his ears – but his ears were pretty clean when I checked them.

I played a good amount of Guitar Hero – both Metallica and Aerosmith!

We ate cereal for “brunch”. I had Lucky Charms and the hubby had Frosted Flakes. For dinner I fried up some battered shrimp and baked tater tots in the oven.

I had a pretty good Saturday! I really enjoyed the weather today! Oh and I forgot to write that last night we had a bunch of sea gulls behind out house on the hill! YAY, they are picking nesting grass!! I hope I’m home when they are laying eggs so I can go pick some – really hoping they don’t lay early this year… it’s usually end of May beginning of June when they lay eggs and we can go pick them. It’s best to pick them as fresh as you can get them – don’t want baby sea gulls growing in the eggs!! I LOVE making custard pies out of sea gull eggs. A lot of other people like them boiled or scrambled – I prefer them in pies….

Well until tomorrow, TTFN!

Friday, May 1

Friday, May 1, 2009

Well today is a wet, cold and windy day! It’s raining pretty good, blowing about 20MPH from the southeast; the fog is lying pretty low. The dogs didn’t’ like going out in the wind and rain, but they eventually ran out and did their thing and ran back in. I can't believe it's already the 1st of May!!

I made my way down to the office, I got cold – and the office is still out of fuel so it’s still cold up there too! So as soon as I got in I turned my space heater on then entered the charge slips in. The phone was pretty busy, vendors calling seeing if we needed anything and people making hotel reservations.

For lunch we had cream of mushroom soup over toast. Quick and easy.

The weather was still crappy after lunch. I got back down to the office and got a call saying a couple of our “painters” were going to come up and paint the Fisheries office. I let them know that I moved it around and cleaned it up the other day, so it would be easier for them to paint. They are finally getting rid of the ugly neon yellow/green paint and covering it with fresh white paint! The offices are finally looking a little more professional painted white instead of these other eye sore colors!

I had a couple people come up to cash their checks, but other than that the office was pretty quiet this afternoon (and cold, we finally got our fuel around 2 and our heat was pumping soon after!). I got some paperwork entered into my spreadsheets and started to make my video for the community conference.

My hubby decided that he was going to cook steam bath this afternoon, so that’s something to look forward to after work! My cousin Kay came up to the office, she was asking me about pizza sauce recipes since we didn’t have any down in the store. She made pizza sound really good, so I got everything to make pepperoni pizza tonight, I have some pizza sauce in my fridge still! That’s what I’ll make for dinner tonight after bath!

No planes today, the weather was still raining and blowing when I got off work. Steam bath felt really good and relaxing. On my way home I picked up a kulich from my mom, I LOVE her kulich!!!

Well it’s Friday, and I don’t have to be up early so I’m going to stay up and watch Jay Leno then maybe jam out on Guitar Hero Metallica!! I hope everyone has a great Friday night!! Until tomorrow, TTFN!!