My New, Old Friend

Way back in high school, my mom was best friends with a lady who had a daughter around my age. (I think two years younger than me) Jenny (the daughter) and I were convinced that we didn't want to be friends...but our moms kept inventing different events where we were forced together! Then to top it off, they took us to Hawaii together and after that we became unseperable!

When I married young, at the age of 20, she was just graduating high school, going to college, etc. By the time I was a pastor's wife and mom to two young babies, she was having a blast being single travelling around Europe!

We never had a falling out, never said we weren't friends or anything..we were just in different stages in our lives.

Well, I haven't seen her since her wedding, about five years ago. Our dh's have never met and they have since had two kids. Just so happened, that her family was home for Christmas the same time mine was.

We spent most the day together today, went to my DH's ballgame together tonight and then they came over and played cards together til late. We had an absolute blast, our DH's got along great, our kids got along great, etc.etc.

We still are in different stages..she's mom to a 8 month and a 3 year old..she's into nursing and potty training! Mine are 11 and 8, I'm into attitudes and girls and stuff like that! They live in Amsterdam, we live in NC!

There is a chance they'll move to Atlanta w/in a year and we'd be the closest (about a 5 hr. drive) that we've ever lived to each other.

Anyway, it's probably silly! But I'm just thrilled we can still sit and giggle and remember old times, and talk about life as it is now and just have a really great time together. Good friends are hard to come by, so it's nice to renew an old friendship!

Christmas is Over

Really? Can it be true? :)

We had a really nice Christmas day. All the nieces and nephews played really well together. And by the time everybody left around 10:30pm, they had spent over 12 hours together! So they did great!

My sister and DH and I took the boys to see Bedtime Stories. It's Adam Sandler's new movie. That movie is hilarious! We laughed through the whole movie!

It's still freezing here! Oh my, only 18 today...with the 70 mph winds, it was -3 at 10:00am! BRR!! We've got ZERO snow still! My boys have just got to have snow to play in, don't they?!! There were huge trees down everywhere today. We took my boys and my older brother's 3 girls to a paint place to paint ceramics. While we were there, the power was out for about an hour. Thankfully there were lots of windows and we could see just fine, so it didn't slow us down much! But boy the weather is nasty!

My dad told me this morning it'd be okay for me to turn up the heat. And I said, "Oh no! I'm just fine." And he said, "But you are wearing a coat and a scarf inside the house!" And sure enough I was! But at least I was warm! Right?

We're having a nice time. Always a little strange to go back home! :) My best friend from high school is here with her DH and two kids. I haven't seen her since her wedding five years ago! So we've been having fun talking on the phone like old times. We've been out to coffee once, but plan to get together soon!

No stitching getting done around here! :)

BRR!!

I bet when you think of Alaska in the winter, you think of nice white fluffy snow, right? Not in Kodiak! There is no snow, none zilch, zip! There is however ice everywhere! Just ask my DH, the ice knocked him flat on his rear in the Taco Bell parking lot. (Yes there's a Taco Bell in Kodiak!) There is this awful, cold wind that has blown constantly today. As I'm sitting here at the computer, it rattles the windows as it blows past! Too chilly for this southern girl! Of course if there was nice white, fluffy snow out there...the cold would be okay!

There is a forecast of snow for tomorrow and for Christmas. I sure hope there is! There is snow everywhere else! :)

DH is playing with my sister in a local basketball Christmas tournament. So we've been going to a few games with that. I have five nieces and they've all been down to my mom's to play with the kids a lot. They haven't seen my kids since February, and it's amazing how quickly they all hook right back up with each other!

I'm doing hardly any stitching. Just working on one little ornament and it's taking forever! :) Gotta tuck my boys in bed. Maybe I'll warm up in bed!!

ALASKA!

Finally made it! What a trip! We were supposed to land in Kodiak at 8am, and we ended up getting here at 4pm! Air traffic was horrid, with delays and overcrowed flights everywhere!

We spent the entire day, well 7am-3pm in Anchorage. We rented a car, and drove all over the city, from snowbank to snowbank! We, thanks to DH, had packed an extra set of clothes that we took on the plane. So the kids got soaked, and the they just changed when we got back to the airport. We had to do an extra trip from Seattle to Fairbanks and then on to Anchorage instead of the direct flight. We missed the flight out of Seattle and if we wanted to go direct, we wouldn't have been able to leave Seattle until Sunday! NO THANKS!

But good comes from everything, I guess! :) My best elementary school friend lives in Fairbanks and can you believe she dragged herself out of bed at 2am to come see me for a few hours at the airport! We landed in Fairbanks at 2am and we were the very last row of the plane. Can you believe the last 1/2 of the plane had to exit the rear of the plane..OUTSIDE! It was 10 degrees! Actually, that's rather warm for Fairbanks and this time of year, but it was cold for us southerners! Course there was snow everywhere and the boys LOVED it!

So now I'm home for two weeks. My dad is doing better. He looks heathly, but the paralysis in his face really makes him look aged. His mobility is very weak...hard to see my dad like that. Like my siblings all sad, you should have seen him a few weeks ago. I guess he's really improved. But he still has a very long way to go!

Not sure how much I'll be online! But Merry Christmas to all y'all!

Don't Be Shocked!

Seriously, don't be shocked! I'm all packed!! DH even loaded the bags in the car this morning before he left for a 1/2 day of work! :)

Four suitcases, four carry-ons, DH, me and two boys. Think we'll make it?

Connections are awfully close, and DH is convinced the bad weather across the states is gonna affect our travel! :) We have a lovely SEVEN HOUR layover in Anchorage. So if we do miss something on the way, it's not that big of a deal! If we make all of our connections, we're gonna use hotwire.com and get a cheap hotel for a few hours in Anchorage. There are limited flights going in to Kodiak. We miss the latest one by 15 minutes. It leaves at 10:30pm and we arrive in Anchorage at 10:45pm. The next one is their early jet flight leaving at 7am. Yuck! If the weather is bad in Kodiak (quite possible!) that morning jet is usually the one that will get in.

Here's hoping for no problems on the way up there !:) We leave at 2:30 pm eastern time which is 10:30am in Kodiak. By the time we land at 8:00am the next day, it will have been an almost 24 hour trip! Pray I have patience with the boys and DH! :)

Sara

A Christmas Gift for Me!

So on my little blog map, I can tell when and where people stop by my blog! There are people I really don't know from all over the US. But there are also people from all over the world! And really I'd like to know who you are! Below are listed some cities where people are from who have read my blog! Pretty please, a Christmas present to me? Will you just make a little comment, so I can go read your blog too?

Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Kapellen, Antwerpen, Belgium

Lancaster, Blackpool, United Kingdom

Les Maillans, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France

Elton, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Augsburg, Bayern, Germany

Collégien, Ile-de-France, France

Linda-a-Velha, Lisboa, Portugal

Loxley, Warwickshire, United Kingdom,

Connewarre, Victoria, Australia

Milan, Lombardia, Italy

New Jeans

So I decided I really needed a new pair of jeans to go home for Christmas. I have lots of jeans, but none are "just right". I see jeans on other ladies all the time, and they look so nice, and my jean.. well, they just don't look nice! Seem to me that I have a bit of junk in my trunk as somebody likes to say! I'm also right smack inbetween two sizes, why don't they make a ladies size 11?! :) I should just loose about five pounds, but this isn't the time to do it!

So I've been thinking, maybe the problem is I only buy cheap jeans! So I went off to Kohl's and proceeded to try on at least 15 different styles, cuts, quality, price of jeans. Finally found a pair that I loved the fit, but I didn't love the color of the denim! Ugh! So I decided at the price of $30, that wouldn't do. So I put it all back and went to Walmart.

So I'm at Walmart, and thought I'll just try their jeans. Guess what.. really nice fit. Cheap too, only $15! And their Levi's were only $20 and the same ones at Kohls were $39-44! I guess Walmart can buy in mass? that's why it's cheaper?

Anyway..wish I would have gone straight to Walmart..would have saved me 1 1/2 hrs today!

So I came home and started packing, and realized I have ZERO long sleeved casual shirts! Now, I can NOT wear a tshirt in Alaska in the winter..so off I went in search of at least two long sleeved shirts! I guess the south has finally won over my wardrobe! I have 3/4 summer and 1/4 winter!

So now I'm ready to start packing.. I think! :)

We leave Raleigh tomorrow at 2:30 and fly to Cincinatti. Once there we have a 45 minute layover! Way too tight for my comfort. If we make that one, we fly to Seattle and we only have an hour there. We have to change carriers, from Delta to Alaska, so that means they'll be in different terminals...so we're gonna have to boogy! If we make that flight we go straight to Anchorage and will get there at 10:30pm. Then we will be camping out in the airport until we leave at 7am! So in a way, if we could be sure to still get to Alaska, it'd be okay to miss one of our flights..it'd shorten the time we have to spend in Anchorage!

Wish us well! :)

A merry Christmas to all my new friends! It's been fun catching up with old friends and meeting new ones! Sara