Bob: a list

 This is the face of a guilty dog.

 He just got caught eating Sonny Boys toothbrush that he had stolen off the counter in the kids' bathroom. After this picture he put his head in my lap and begged for forgiveness.

Oh Bob, what am I going to do with you?

I've decided to start a running list of things that Bob has eaten because, well, it's a little weird and it makes me laugh once I see it all together. One lesson I've learned: nothing on the counter is safe. Pretty much nothing anywhere is safe.
Here is the list so far.

1. tube of toothpaste
2. steak off the counter
3. a pan of peanut butter bars left on the counter (loud crash that woke me up at two in the morning = Bob sending the pan flying to the floor)
4. my breakfast off the counter (do you see a trend here?)
5. a banana
6. apple slices
7. tomato
8. countless tubes of chapstick
9. Legos (where do I even start)
10. 3, no wait, 4 toothbrushes
11. a bouncy ball
12. nerf darts--any time he can find one
13. lip gloss
14. enchilada seasoning packet (I actually had to learn to make enchilada sauce from scratch)
15. anything my 2 year old nephew has in his hand
16. something very, very red that he puked up on my new white rug, perhaps number 13.
17. barbie shoe
18. stuffed otter
19. anything he can haul out of the kids garbage cans
20. part of a loaf of bread
21. pineapple 
22. Tinker Toys
23. any wrapper that once contained food
24. crayons
25. anything in my compost pile 

 At least he has nearly stopped puking at this point. He must finally be used to the dog food we have. All that crazy stuff he eats doesn't make him puke but switching his brand of dog food does. That just doesn't seem right.

Next up, things my 10 month old nephew has eaten (or at least attempted to eat) including, but not limited to: sandpaper, dust bunnies, napkins, diapers, paper, a screw, Bob's tail, and dog food. 

Babysitting him was so much easier when he was immobile.

Something for everyone

Ice sculptures aren't just for wedding receptions and fancy balls anymore. It isn't just swans they can carve out of ice. There really is something for everyone. We went on our 2nd annual trip to Fairbanks a few weeks ago to Ice Alaska, the world ice sculpting championship, and I thought I'd share a few of the more random sculptures that I saw.

 This is one of the first ones that we saw and I thought it was neat. Then I thought, huh, it kind of looks like intestines. 

Then we came back at night to see the sculptures all lit up. They had a red light illuminating it. It is now sealed forever in my mind as the intestine sculpture.

 This one is a tiny ballerina on top of a giant hand. It's not exactly funny ha ha so much as I just don't get it. Why exactly is there a tiny dancer on a giant digit?  I feel like I'm missing something deeper about this one. Or maybe I'm not.

 Then there is Pinocchio and two winged creatures. It was beautiful, but I only remember there being one fairy in the story of Pinocchio, and I don't remember either of them attacking Pinocchio while he begs for his life. Then again, I don't think I've watched Pinocchio it about 20 years or so.

Here is some alien creature with spider like arms and an inordinate of number of breasts.

And here it is at night. Now I see it also seems to have some sort of fetus in a capsule. Slightly creepy.

 I liked this one.

 It's hard to tell in the light, but it is a person sitting by a campfire roasting a marshmallow with his sled dog sitting along side him.

 Then we moved on to true Americana: rodeo. It was a complete rodeo with a bullfighter (not to be confused with a rodeo clown. BIG difference.),

 Barrel racing, 

 Bull riding, 

 And bulldogging (or it may be calf roping. I can't really tell from this picture if there is a rope around the calf's neck or not). A full rodeo. They even made a fence around the arena. Amazing...

Now we move on to something from a Salvadore Dali painting. I would know, I went through a Dali phase in college, although I can't recall what the name of this particular one is. 

 You're guess is as good as mine with this one. I really like it though. They even carefully raked the snow around the sculpture like sand in a zen garden.

 A giant arachnid about to eat a grasshopper. Very detailed and lifelike. Except for the fact that it was about 8 feet long.

 A snow machine pulling a guy on skis. This one was really impressive. I think it won in the big block division. 

Now do you see what I mean about there being something for everyone? So far we have intestines, a tiny dancer on a giant finger, Pinocchio begging for his life, a multi-breasted alien,  a complete rodeo, a Salvadore Dali impersonator, and a snow machine nearly 20 feet in the air. If you can't find something you like here, you're just not looking.

And now the pièce de résistance. What ice sculpture competition would be complete with out an homage to AC/DC? Not this one.

Paint: it covers a multitude of faux finish sins.

Spring break is over and it was wonderful. It has me wishing for summer break already. I love not having to go anywhere for a whole day. I don't think I have many days in my normal week where I don't have something I have to do or somewhere that I have to be. Maybe every other Thursday when I don't teach preschool, babysit my nephews, or volunteer at the kids' school. But that's about it. And usually those days get filled pretty quickly with dentist appointments, grocery shopping, and coffee dates with my sister. 

I had one day during our spring break in which the kids and I actually stayed home and didn't go anywhere all day long. It was wonderful.  As I write this I am remembering when they were little and I was so tired of being stuck in the house all day long. Back then I couldn't wait to get out of my house. Grocery shopping was my refuge. I would wait for DH to get home from work and I would leave the kids with him and go grocery shopping. It was my alone time. Funny how things change so quickly. I guess there is a happy balance. Someday I'd like to find it.

Since I had one uninterrupted day and I made the most of it. I finally painted the desk that I bought on craigslist before we even had this house. I bought it for Princess Blondie's room, but it ended up in my living room. It is my sewing desk now and I don't think it's ever going to make it's way up to her room.

 I never did like the color of it. The previous owners went a little too far on the faux distressing. If I had put it in Princess Blondie's room I would have painted it a nice crisp white and done some fun pattern or stencil on the drawer fronts.

I went for blue. I'm still trying to decided it I want to do something fun on the drawer fronts.

 I wanted it to mesh with my new curtains (that are really table cloths from Target that I got on sale for 4 dollars!) and that corner needed a little color. My living room is kind of vanilla. So I got busy and mixed some paint together. I mixed the "turquiose" from the toothpaste explosion bathroom, the gray blue from Sonny Boy's room, and some white from our trim. Honestly, now I wonder if it matches the curtains a little too well. I don't like things matchy matchy. DH said he was surprised when I actually wanted him to make matching side tables for our living room.

I would like to add that I have nothing against distressed furniture. Like the chair in the picture above that came with the house. The one that is actually distressed because it has had a long, eventful life and was well used. There is nothing faux about it.

I would also like to point out my 6 dollar Salvation Army lamps.

 Before

After. 

Is there nothing a little paint can't fix?

What's wrong with this picture?

We just got back from a weekend in Fairbanks. It's spring break for the kids and I so DH took Monday off and we headed up there for a long weekend spent checking out ice sculptures and Chena hot springs. That may not sound like an ideal spring break, it surely wasn't a typical spring break beach trip, but it's Alaska. You've got to work with what you've got. 

Before our tour of the world ice sculpting championship at Ice Alaska, we stopped at the Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska. We missed Santa last year. They are only open on weekends after the Christmas season.

 

I guess Santa needs a vacation too.

We followed instructions and took pictures in Santas chair.

 Princess Blondie was a little disappointed that Santa wasn't there but honestly, I think it is a good thing. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep the magic alive if we keep seeing different Santas. She can tell the difference. She already noticed that the Santa at the reindeer farm was shorter than the Santa at Girl Scouts. Heaven forbid this Santa actually have a real beard (and I have a feeling he does at the Santa House. I'm betting they go for authenticity) and I have to try to come up with a reason for that. It was much easier on me this way. She did immediately start to write a letter to Santa when we got back to the hotel though. She asked him for 3 Barbies and 5 cookies. I had to mail it yesterday as soon as we got back. It's never too early to start planning for Christmas.

They had a really neat nativity scene there as well. I found Princess Blondie there poking at baby Jesus. She was pretty enamored with them all. 

My favorite was the angel. I love the way that he looks so curious and has a hesitant hand raised to touch the Savior. This was all new for the angels too.

This was the sign that was above this nativity scene. I like it.

Along with Santa's chair to take pictures in, they also had this giant stuffed moose.

They also have a giant polar bear.

And funny elf hats.

Outside there were reindeer in a pen. The kids weren't all that interested. After feeding them by hand at the reindeer farm, looking at them in a pen just isn't that interesting. There were also ice sculptures of Santa and his sleigh. Princess Blondie had to give the ice Santa a hug. I guess that will have to do in place of the real deal.

Right before we left, I noticed this nativity set for sale, but then something struck me as being a little out of place. Why Tinkerbell was part of this scene, I don't know, but she doesn't look too happy about it. Wings do not an angel make.

Cold is a relative thing

My sister recently sent me this forward and I thought I just had to share it. The funny thing is that it is surprisingly accurate. When I first got here I froze at my sisters house. She had all the windows open and was wearing shorts and tank tops. I was bundled up in jeans, a sweatshirt, slippers, and had a blanket wrapped around me. I've acclimated a bit now.

COLD IS A RELATIVE THING. .. .  

At 65 degrees above zero:
 People in Florida turn on the heat. 

People in Alaska plant gardens.

 At 60 degrees above zero:
 People in California shiver uncontrollably.
 People in Alaska sunbathe.

 At 50 degrees above zero:
 Italian and English cars won't start.
 People in Alaska drive with the windows down.

 At 40 degrees above zero:
 People in Georgia don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, and wool hats.
 People in Alaska throw on a flannel shirt.

 At 35 degrees above zero:
 New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
 People in Alaska have the last cookout before it gets cold.

 At 20 degrees above zero:
 People in Miami all die.
 People in Alaska close the windows.

 At zero degrees:
 People in Arizona fly away to Mexico.
 People in Alaska get out their winter coats.

 At 10 degrees below zero:
 Hollywood disintegrates.
 Girl Scouts in Alaska are selling cookies door to door.

 At 20 degrees below zero:
 Washington, DC, runs out of hot air.
 People in Alaska let the dogs sleep indoors.

 At 30 degrees below zero:
 Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
 Alaskans get upset because they can't start the snowmobile.

 At 40 degrees below zero:
 ALL atomic motion stops.
 People in Alaska start saying, "Cold enough for ya?"

 At 50 degrees below zero:
 Hell freezes over.

 Alaska public schools will open 2 hours late

True things about our life in Alaska...

It was in the 30s yesterday and it felt positively balmy. 

Our thermostat is set at 66 degrees. We turn it down even more at night. 
We grill outside all winter long. Just brush the snow off the grill and fire her up!

We really do plant gardens at 65 degrees. If you want to grow tomatoes you have to have a greenhouse. It just doesn't get warm enough for them to produce fruit outside. The nights get too cool. 

People really do sunbathe at 60 degrees. If there is sunshine, people are outdoors.
We had several snow days this year and it wasn't for the 12 inches of snow we got in one night. It was for freezing rain when it got too warm to snow.

The kids have to go outside for recess unless the windchill is greater than 10 below.

I'm not sure that the kids would get a delay at school if it was 50 below. I know they don't have a delay if it's 30 below. The bus came right on time!

For 50 below you'd have to ask the kids in Fairbanks.

Pictures from my phone

My husband recently bought this really nifty device to store all of our picture files and pretty much every other thing that is on our computer. I can supposedly access my photos from anywhere, including my phone. Problem is, he has yet to show me how to access this nifty device that we now have. I don't know the password. So while all my photos from my real camera are being held hostage, I thought I would share some photos that I took on my phone. 

In no particular order....

DH and I at the Iditarod Restart in Willow.

Sunset at the dentist office.

Bob and Stinky Beagle cuddling on my bed. Stinky Beagle has called a truce, and I think she may even like Bob now. 

Moose taking a nap in my yard.

Princess Blondie and I.

Crazy Hair Day!

DH working on a window seat for me :)

My future's so bright I gotta wear shades.

First school dance. They did the hustle, the chicken dance, the bunny hop, and this was some version of London bridges.

I bought a delicious treat for my nephew. I sticky, he said. His face was also still stained red and blue the next day. Oops.