Jammin'

Here are my jamming pics! Took the raspberries we picked and added some blueberries then made some jam. I did the easy freezer jam since I am a rookie. Later this week I am going to put up some roasted butternut squash! 

Jam-making sweatshop complete with Gossip Girl on Netflix.

Still winding down from the fair

It is 11:17 pm and Mike and I are hanging out and watching True Blood while Brennan sleeps on the couch between us. We are eating edamame and drinking beer. We normally would be sound asleep right now. The reason we are awake is that we spent the afternoon into the night at the Alaska State Fair. We were with the kids and some friends (and their kids) and regardless of how many adults are in your group, the kids will exhaust you. We needed some time to wind down when we got home.

The fair rocked. Kettle corn, soft pretzels, iced coffee (it was sunny and hot), crab bisque, ice cream. YUM. We represented like the rat in Charlotte's Web and we all had a great time. But after a reasonable amount of time, both of my kids started screaming. It was time to go. It was such a busy day that this is the only photo we got:

I already can't wait for next years fair! 

Pickin' Raspberries

We went raspberry picking at Mr and Mrs Kaiser's house. When we arrived it was dreary and cold. It quickly turned clear and sunny...so nice! There were some spiders but I eventually got over their presence and got in there to pick some berries.

CAN do!

Brennan and I spent the other afternoon canning (well actually we jarred) some salmon with Mr. and Mrs. Kaiser. It was my first lesson and Mrs. Kaiser was very patient. I did some with garlic, dark sesame oil, light sesame oil and cilantro. Can't wait to taste them all! I am already thinking about my flavors for next year...

OMG I am going to be sore tomorrow...(post from a few weeks ago that apparently didn't publish)

...or maybe I won't be able to stand up at all. I just hiked up Mile Hi with a girls' running group. It was a lot of fun, the girls were all awesome, but it felt like 10 Mile Hi. Here are some shots from the top. Glad I had my phone to take some pics and catch my breath so I didn't collapse. That would have been embarrassing! I can't wait for next week's run/hike!

New digs

Our new house is in the set up phase. We have been working hard to get everything moved in and organized since we got in. Photos of the interior will come later, when that work is done...currently we lack a couch, dining table chairs and a lot of clothing storage, among other things. For now I can show you this:

A pre-bedtime nature walk. Stella insisted on bringing her sparkly peace sign purse.  I talked her out of the sparkly scarf though (it just didn't match her outfit...different kinds of sparkles). This trail is right behind our house and goes on for miles. 

Our street. Yep those are mountains in the distance.

Our house! 

Oh and don't be too jealous of the gorgeous blue skies. It rained. All. Day. Long. Yesterday, too. Though I am not complaining. Not even after 45 minutes at the park in the 50 degree rain. It is still Alaska and it is beautiful and awesome. I have to let the baby girl work her energy off, rain or shine! Otherwise we all suffer.

The grind

We finally moved into our house last week so we've been crazy busy getting settled in while working, keeping the kids in line (bahahaha), etc. The bonus of the new place is that school is only a half mile away. After my "commute" to work at 0 dark thirty in the morning (get coffee, go into home office, shut the door and work while everyone else sleeps) I get a good 3-4 hours of work done before the kids get up. They get up around east coast lunch time, I get them dressed and we head out for school on foot! Here are some photos of a typical walk to school.

"Well mom, maybe you should have used the double stroller!"

"Just up here to the left, mom."

It is kind of ironic how much I wanted/needed that AK license when I hate to drive so much.

The slowest DMV in the whole wide world

I discovered the slowest DMV in the world today. It is in Eagle River, Alaska if you are curious. Good thing the kids aren't with me because they would have gone insane by now. I am cramming to retake my #*^+€# DMV test again...waiting...waiting...ok it is now 2 HOURS later and I just passed my test. Woohoo! Officially an Alaska driver! Here is proof:

I left it blurry on purpose. Because I look like a very tired serial killer in the photo.

Epic FAIL

I will say, well type, it again...EPIC FAIL. Apparently the Alaska DMV takes things much more seriously than the North Carolina DMV. I say this because I just failed the 20-question test required to switch my license over. I passed the NC version of this test in minutes. Now I have to come back next week and try again. I told them I saw a bear last week while hiking so obviously I should automatically get an AK license, but they didn't agree. HA! I guess I will study this time. Mike bought me a cheer up beer. It helped a little. As did the AK salmon I had with the beer. Yum.