Happy 2011!!!

Wow! What a year it's been. 2010 brought lots of changes and fun to our family. I had to go back through and read our blog to remember all the things that have happened this year!

We welcomed 2010 with a New Years party and enjoyed the company of our friends here in Juneau. This year we welcomed 2011 with a mellow evening at home.

2010 was a year of crafting, crafting, crafting and I did my first craft fair with my friends Molly & Tracy followed by our First Friday debut at the Red Dog Saloon in December. I also taught my first after-school jewelry making class to a group of middle schoolers.

2010 was filled with lots of little house projects for Adam. We put our house on the market at the end of September and started looking for new homes. This meant that all those little projects we'd get done someday needed to get done NOW. Lucky for me the hubby LOVES working around the house and he had a great time painting, repatching and sprucing up the condo.

Adam and I took our first "real roadtrip" together. We took the ferry to Prince Rupert and drove through Canada, along the West Coast and into Colorado. Once we were in Colorado we went to Josh & Erin's wedding and spent time with the family. It was a month of living in our car and having no agenda or responsibilities.

Adam's dad and brother both moved here towards the end of 2010. His dad is living with us and we've been enjoying home cooked dinners every night.

I'm sure 2011 will bring lots of new adventures. I'm hoping that we'll...

*sell our condo!!!

*travel!

*stay healthy!

* and have many new adventures!

Happy 2011 friends!

Merry Christmas *2010*

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone out there had a great Christmas! Ours was wonderful...... different from the Christmases that I'm used to but wonderful all the same.

It's a tradition in my husband's family that you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. ("that way you can sleep in!!", says my father-in-law). I struggled with this for a few days but then remembered that it really doesn't matter WHEN you celebrate and it's all about the memories you make and the moments you share with the ones you love that count.

So, on Christmas Eve after a delicious dinner of breakfast for dinner we settled in and passed out our gifts. Gavin got a bunch of dishes for his new apartment and a few thrifted t's from Santa. Terry received coffee, licorice, sudoku puzzles and a new kindle (that he has to share with me!). I got a warm sweatshirt that has a ton of pockets which eliminates the need to carry a purse, some new tools for my jewelry making and Hall Anderson's new photo book (Hall has been the photographer at Ketchikan Daily News for the last 30 years and he just published a book that captures the history of Ketchikan perfectly-I highly recommend it!.). Adam was spoiled with a new gaming chair and headphones (thank goodness we no longer have to listen to the noisy machine gun sounds of Call of Duty!), books, coffee and some new clothes. Rosco got a few presents too but I'll let him tell you about those on his blog.

We all stayed up late playing with our new Christmas toys and were able to sleep in the next morning. After an early dinner of ham and sweet potatoe fries we settled in to watch a few Christmas movies (gotta love Elf and A Christmas Story) and relax. I took a Christmas evening walk with Rosco and the weather was perfect!

While I missed being with my family during Christmas it was nice to have the in-laws around to help us celebrate. I hope you all had the perfect Christmas this year. Love and miss you all! Cheers!

I'll be a plumber in my next life.

So, we've been having problems with our sink for the last couple of months. It seems that every once and awhile it gets backed up and won't drain properly. We figured it had something to do with the garbage disposal so off to Home Depot we went to buy a new disposal. The handy hubby installed in and we figured we'd be set. Nope...the very next night our sink plugged up again.
I started thinking about WHEN our sink would get plugged. It started when Adam's dad moved here and after he made mashed potatoes. I decided to google "potatoes & gargabe disposals". Guess what I found out! You should NEVER put potatoe peels down the disposal because the starch creates a paste that plugs up the drain. Well, who knew??!!! I also found out that if you put baking soda and vinegar down the disposal, wait 10 minutes then flush with boiling water it will clear it out and make your disposal smell wonderful!
We thought we were done with sink problems but the very next night the husband accidentally spilled some wax down the drain. I wondered if my baking soda/vinegar trick would work for this too. Sure enough, it worked! In my next life, I'll be a plumber ;-)

Marvelous Monday....

Today is the first Monday of break so it was definitely a MARVELOUS one!

As much as I love these little monsters it sure is nice to have a break from them!

Adam's class grew cat nip this year and the kids loved it!

Adam's brother, Gavin, arrived on the ferry this morning at 6 a.m. so there wasn't much sleeping in at our house. But, it was nice to wake up and have coffee with the whole gang. I'm beginning to feel like the odd one out being the only girl around here. I had to escape to my friend Erin's house last night just to have some girl time!!!


I was able to get to the gym this morning and caught up with Molly for a few minutes before she headed out to work.


Also managed to sneak in a trip to the thrift store and found the most PERFECT shirt for a friend. I can't wait to give it to her...and NO she won't mind that it's thrifted ;-)


Spend the rest of the day reading, relaxing and getting a few presents ready to ship. I've decided that some boxes will just be late this year and I'm going to be ok with it.

Terry made dinner so I didn't even have to worry about that!

For those of you who need a little more Ugly Sweater fun here's a picture for you. The guy on the left was the winner. It's hard to see his sweater but there are mountains and two parachuter's falling down the sweater. It was pretty hard to choose between his and the white cat sweater in the front row. I think this definitely needs to be a new MRCS yearly tradition.

What did you wear today???

Today was Ugly Sweater Day for the staff at school. After a crazy few weeks of trying to get MRCS shirt orders delivered, having a guest in my classroom, attending the school concert concert, organizing a spaghetti feed and Friday Fun night this was definitely a fun way to start our winter break. Great idea social committee!


I had the greatest outfit for ugly sweater day!! Our friend Stephenie found the PERFECT sweaters for herself and the hubby last year. Lucky for me she's too pregnat to wear it this year.

Got my outfit ready the night before.....

Couldn't wait to show off that there were TWO....YES, TWO of these sweaters! One lucky husband and wife must've looked good! ;-)

Unfortunately, we didn't win the Ugly Sweater Contest (in fact, we both got a lot of compliments on how cute we looked and how cute our sweaters were....um, WHEN were they cute?? 1970? maybe...but the fact that there were TWO people wearing these definitely makes them UGLY!!!) but it was pretty fun wearing them. I don't think I've put this much thought into an outfit since highschool! Thanks for playing with me, Erin!

The rest of the day was filled with fun and lots of organized (or so we tell ourselves) chaos. Adam and I both brought home a ton of yummy treats, coffee and even a beer from our wonderful students. It's been a great year so far but we're definitely looking forward to a break!

Marvelous Monday...

It's the last Monday before winter break.....

Got a mini foot massage after dinner....

Ate a pint of ice cream.....

Am heading to bed before 7:30p.m.....

Hello friend! I haven't seen you in awhile :-(

Here's a little glimps of what our week looked like. I swear it was the busiest of our lives!!! On top of the regular chaos of school as winter break nears these are a few of the "extras" that we did this week. Image -weheartit.com

*Monday - Two sets of make-up parent teacher conferences then off to pick up apartment applications for the brother-in-law (he'll be here on the 20th!)

* Tuesday - ANOTHER make-up conference after school then off to drop off apartment applications for the brother-in-law.

* Wednesday - Shopped for Friday Fun Night then off to the Music concert until 7:30

* Thursday - Rosenbruch fundraiser (WHAT A HUGE SUCCESS!!! We're up to $8500 raised and money is still trickling in!)

*Friday - 5th grade Friday Fun Night fundraiser (7:30 a.m. till 9:45 p.m. at school! Thank goodness we have a nanny for the doggy ;-) )

* Saturday - Proctored ACTs in the morning, Open House at 1:30, watched students in their lego league competition at 1:30 then headed to watch more students at their dance recital from 2-4.

It was a lot of late nights at work this week, NO time for the gym or socializing with friends and very little sleep. BUT, I have big plans for the next few weeks and I'd love to share those with you too!

Photo - weheartit.com

*Saturday - Wine night with my wonderful Carriker friend. I love the chaos and laughter that fills her home. No matter how crazy the boys are I always leave her house feeling happy and relaxed.

*Sunday - A slow moving day is what I'm looking forward to most. We'll wake up without the alarm clock, drink coffee in our p.j.'s and read the day away. In the evening we'll have friends over for turkey burgers and sweet potatoe fries (I've recently discovered how simple home made fries are to make and can't seem to get enough of them!)

*Next week - I plan on getting to the gym, catching up with our friends (Stephie-we need to hang out before the baby comes!!!), crafting and taking some time out for ME.

*Winter break - I was the high bidder on a massage at the silent auction so I plan on using that as soon as possible! I will catch up on all the books I've been dying to read and try out all the yummy new recipes Erin's been posting on her blog.

I'm thinking of doing a Christmas give away soon. What do you think? A necklace?? Earrings?? Ideas for entry questions? I love give-aways and will soon have time to do something fun in the blog world!