Let's Back Up

 I completely jumped the gun with the post about the hogs, Blake and Miranda. They were driven down Monday the 16th... but there was fun times before that you missed. :)

Valentine's Day was a busy one .... with kids! We started off with Emily's soccer team photos. The coach was out-of-town (I was the fill-in, but didn't want to be in the photo). Emily and Peter were the only one's to show so I had them take a fun photo. Can't wait to get them back in the mail. 

Afterwards I took the "team" to breakfast. Tried a bagel shop I'd never been to. Fantastic! and the prices were more than reasonable. I had a jalapeno cream cheese, ham and pepper wrap.

After breakfast was Emily's game. She's not afraid to go up against the guys.

Then we were off to Lucas' team photo followed by his game.

After lunch I grabbed the boys and we all went over to load spent grains from a distillery that we feed the hogs and chickens. The road was ridiculously steep and I couldn't help, but Emily did. Both boys were hung over so they did a lot of grumbling, but it got done. 

Next up Emily and I went down to a friend's house and did her make-up. They had Valentine's plans... dinner, comedian and 80's Prom. Sounded like a good time, but instead Homer and took 3 kids to the UAF Nannok hockey game.

My iPhone is 3 years old and is now taking foggy, blurry photos. :(

This goalie was on the opposing team from Minnesota and is currently the number one goalie in the Nation. He is a locally raised and our boys once played on teams with him. Just an outstanding young man.

Was Sunday a day of rest? Almost. The Girl Scout Council was having a session of Glo Yoga so I picked up some of the girls and worked the sign-in table.

 Olivia is in purple.

Now you already know Monday was the big drive with hogs. Rest on Tuesday? Nope. It was the Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet. I was supposed to do the awards, but then ended up doing pretty much everything. The girls and I made all the decorations at home.

There were the 12 core values put on all the tables.

Little jars with the Promise and on the other side a place marker assigning tables to Dens.

Big vases with branches with each of the boys' names hanging down.

This is the Bear ceremony for my Den.

 I was missing one boy who had pink eye. I have 7 this year.

 The ice cream trough!!

 A tradition from way back.

Now... you're caught back up to the hog haulin' :)

Road Trip

I need to make a blogging date so I take time to post in my hectic days. The 16th Emily and I took the hogs to Delta (100 miles away) to be butchered. No one, young or old, really listens to my suggestions around here. All they hear is 'I told you so' after it's all said and done. This was one of those cases. After an hour and 20 minutes of wrestling screaming hogs (it got downright scary a couple of times) we did it my way and had them loaded in ten minutes. Glad to see these two go. They were skittish and just not a lot of fun. That photo is very deceiving as they really aren't letting her pet them. They were just checking for food. 

 They unloaded very easily.

This is the Tanana River on the way home.

This is the same river on the other side of the road. That's the pipeline spanning across.

It was a beautiful, but long drive as the roads were fairly ice and the wind was gusting 45 mph. Glad to have that done for another year.

Winter Ball

Saturday was an insanely busy day that started after a late night of hemming a dress. We started with Emily's 9:00 AM soccer game followed by shopping for a birthday gift for Olivia to take to a sleepover party. Next up was Lucas' soccer game at 1:00. Back at home I did an amateur photo shoot of Emily in her gown for the Senior Ball. (Her ex-boyfriend is a Senior and since they already had tickets they went together). At one point Emily and I were racing in the truck chasing the setting sun. We went a few miles out of town up over the hills to get to a look out over the Tanana Flats and the beautiful mountains. 

The first shots were in our yard. It was -20* and she was freezing. 

The next group is at the pull out.

 (It almost looks like a fake background).

And these are on the way home.

This is the lovely young man, Ryan, who took Emily to the Ball. What an exceptionally kind and gifted kid who will definitely do well in life. I'm really going to miss him. I imagine the next boy will have saggy pants, a crooked hat and I won't let him in the door. The night finally ended at 3:00 AM after post-dance breakfast at Denny's with a busy Super Bowl Sunday the next  morning. 

Running.....

I stay up late. Too late. I am a night owl like my mother. My father was early to bed, early to rise like my husband is. Emily had an 11 o'clock soccer game that we almost slept through. Crazy! I don't have  photos. You know teenage girls... "don't photograph me" "you're so embarrassing" "why don't you have photos" "you love Lucas more than me". Teenagers are exhausting and my mouthy daughter is double!! 

But she had a game and they won. Or tied. There were a lot of goals. 

We grabbed something to eat and then went to Lucas' 1:00 game. At 12:50 it was discovered that his shoes were at home and he was wearing boots. Our house was 25 minutes from the gym. Impossible. Quick thinking I ran a few blocks away to Walmart to the clearance rack for a pair of tennis shoes. SO happens the price was mismarked. The clearance price was supposed to be $5. The original price was $11.57. They were ringing up $12.87. I tried so hard to just pay the highest price and leave, but noooooo.... we had to go find the rack and see what they were listed as. (Listed for the $11... still should have been $5.....). Wasting 8 precious minutes she saved me $1.30 walking down the aisles. Have you ever seen a really fat woman running from Walmart to her truck? It's not pretty. And if you see me circling the Internet, please, let me  know.

We made it back and Lucas played in bright new non-soccer cheap-ass tennis shoes. 

The second half he played goalie which is his true love. I think that this summer I will try to put him in some goalie clinics and see if this is a position he wants to pursue.

After soccer it was a mad rush home to drop off Olivia (Lucas went with Dad after the game to check the heaters at work) so that Emily and I could make it to a Cheer Meeting. We got to see video of the competition and the trophies they won. It's really amazing when you consider this gym is in it's 3rd year with a limited base of kids to chose from competing against well-established gyms with so many more athletes who get on stages like this almost weekly. To think our little gym brought back two 2nd place trophies and one 1st out of the seven teams that traveled.

Emily's Senior II team was invited to an end-of-the-year competition based on their excellent performance. Only the best are asked to compete. It's only a $100 per athlete fee. The catch? It's a $1000 plane ticket to Rhode Island from Alaska. What the hell?? I live in undoubtedly one of the most beautiful states in the country, but we are so isolated that it is ultra expensive to leave. How will I raise that kind of money between now and May 2?? (And YES I have to go. I have dreamed of the East Coast forever!!). Anyone out there want to sponsor some travel, airfare mileage (maybe it could be a several flight sponsorship hopping us from here to there), a meal... feel free to contact me. This is going to be tough.

Anyhow... after the meeting I ran Em home to grab Olivia to go to the fabric store. When we got here I found my husband sick. He had a slight fever, chills, pounding head, congestion. There have been some nasty flu's, etc.going on around here (in your part of the world, too? I don't watch the news... sorry). He's safely tucked into bed, but I worry when he gets sick with his other health issues (I'm not allowed to talk about).

 Pray that he doesn't get worse. Thank you.