Just Another Day

Because I am weaving a blaze orange scarf on drinking straws!

Because I am not packing my big inflateable mattress to sleep in the school tonight!

Because my camera caught the sunrise on my flight to Nome last week!

Because there is very little snow or ice on the beach and the weather is warm and spring-like!

Because when I got home from St. Michael last night, our 16 boxes of Shredded Wheat had arrived!

Because I got to spend the evening with Bill and send him off to work this morning!

Because I got to watch the sunrise this morning!

Because Stacie & James came over and shared the making’s for delicious Cinnamon Dolche lattes and her tasty banana bread!

Because my blog got tagged by Tiff! – Go check her’s out for some pictures! www.mushingdogs.com

And certainly because I’ve gotten e-mails or phone calls from all of my family over the past couple of days!

I just received this picture taken Christmas Eve. Amazingly, it’s missing four people that were there that night… Rusty took the picture while Chris, and Trevor opted out of the photo, and Mike left just a little too early. It is always a full house when we Aune’s gather… so much fun! Four generations are represented in this picture! Some day I hope Bill and I will be as sweet as my grandparents are… in the midst of it all still holding hands and still very much in love.So, besides having my day brightened with this picture, I got another afternoon with Stacie and the kids. Josh has been putting lots of hours in at work, and Bill’s been traveling, so I decided to camp out at their place during the days. And since last night Stacie made a delicious meal of spaghetti, I decided to try a new recipe for dinner… salmon chowder.

I thought it was delicious!

On my flight out of Savoonga to Nome late Wednesday morning, the sun radiated it’s way through the small plane’s window. It was a gorgeous, flaming pink ball of beauty. This isn’t the first time my breath has been taken away in such a situation. The contrast of the sun, the blue sky, and the endless white always makes me feel like God is rewarding me for something… in this case, surviving my last site visit and various other stressors in my life. At any rate, I took the moment to realize that flying in small planes was no longer a challenge for me. I was so proud of myself to be able to feel completely safe and comfortable.

Enter my flight from Nome to Unalakleet…

There is this older than average bush piolot flying for the agency I was booked with to get home to Unalakleet. Wouldn’t you know, it was just the two of us for the hourish flight. I wasn’t nervous at all – until he started going into GREAT DETAIL about the emergency equippment, transmission locator, life jackets (which he claims he used to think were just a way to spot the bodies after a crash, but now he’s convinced they could help… so I should be sure to wear one!), and other safety devices. Normally they just play the briefer, but this man gave me the full rundown. And I began to wonder if he was having a good enough day to be flying.

We made it safely, and it was actually a fine flight. I was happy to make it back on the ground, and I took my pat on the back away from my earlier thought… Flying will probably never seem like second nature to me.

Bill’s getting ready to leave Hawaii tonight. He has some nice updates on his blog, so do go check it out!

Things back home are going alright. I believe I will be heading that direction in a few weeks – it is always nice to be able to look forward to being with my family.

Folks in town are fighting off the flu, and I’m afraid I could be run down enough to get it. So, tonight’s agenda includes a lot of lying around and an early bedtime.

Enjoy your weekend – stay healthy!

Grandpa Aune turned 86 this past Friday! One of the millions of things I love about Grandpa is that he’s willing to act a little silly to make his grandkids smile. Here are a couple of pictures… the first is from a visit we had over Christmas break. Gramp brought me the mail, I provided some chocolate, and in return – he agreed to wear a pink hat for a picture. 🙂 The second dates back to when Gram and Gramp first got married. He’s kept that twinkle in his eye for 86 years!!!

Twice, now, we have come back from breaks to a house covered in soot. After Thanksgiving, we noticed a black film on EVERYTHING we touched. After discussing this with our neighbor, Bill, we decided the problem was that the vent outside was probably blocked with snow, causing the heater to expell all the extra soot into our livingroom and beyond. We fixed that problem, and as a precaution I made sure to shut all the doors in our house before we left for Christmas. To make a long story short, it wasn’t the problem, it happened again, and now we now the true problem and it’s been fixed.

Unfortunately, the soot took over our home again! Worse than that… I start feeling like I’m covered in soot (which isn’t too far from the truth). And so even when I’m not at the house, I feel like I’m smudging things – truly I’ve felt like poor Pigpen from the Charlie Brown cartoons.

Today I fixed the problem though, as I finally had some time in Unalakleet. Plus, since Bill began his adventure to Hawaii yesterday, I really didn’t have a lot of better things to do with my Saturday morning and afternoon. I was a scrubbing fool – floors, walls, windows, counter tops… any surface I could get to got it’s fair share of windex, pinsol, or pledge today. And I can finally say – I don’t feel like the dirty kid any more!

Aside from that terribly interesting morning of cleaning, I’ve had a very lovely weekend so far. We had our first official “girl’s night” of crafting, yummy foods and drinks, and a movie. I’m looking forward to a regular schedule to help encourage productivity in the card making arena. 🙂

Tomorrow will be used to catch up on work reports and preparation for Monday’s travels. Soon, I will trade in my consulting shoes for my role as a student… I am taking 6 credits this semester in order to be able to renew my MN teaching license – which is already up this spring! Where has the time gone?

Anyway, the weather here is cool, but the days are getting noticably longer. I believe we’re gaining around 5 minutes of light each day! And now that my windows are crystal clear and free of film, the sun can invade my home again.

Happy January!

– Learn from the past. Live in the present. Plan for the future. –

One of the many great things about observing a lot of classrooms is seeing how teachers decorate their rooms. This is a wonderful sign that hangs out in one of the “portable” classrooms.

Along with other inspirational notes around the school, the kids are showed how important they are and how much they are valued through a daily celebration. This is a time when the whole elementary gathers to sing a song centered around the theme of hard work and collaboration. This semester’s song is “Lean on Me” and my goodness… it brought tears to my eyes. (Maybe I’m just a big baby these days!)

Anyway, my time in Stebbins has been good. I’m traveling with a gal from the district office, and we have both been well taken care of during our stay. Tomorrow we’ll hop on the BSSD plane to take us back to Unalakleet. There I’ll promptly unpack, do some laundry, and get packed for my adventure to Shaktoolik on Thursday.

I’ve been thinking about how much I miss you all lately… both near and far. I think being on the road gives me more time than I need to think. I find myself replaying recent fun times and longing for the next! Thank heavens I am going to get to squeeze in a coffee morning this week!

District contracts were offered yesterday, and Bill has turned his back in… unsigned. We will officially be looking for jobs closer to our Minnesota family next year. It’s very scary to leave the known and take the leap into the pool of resumes, applications, and probably some rejection letters. As we prepare our application documents, though, I can’t believe the things we’ve accomplished in these short years. My goal is to continue that growth wherever I end up. So, I guess this is probably why the sign in the classroom hit me today… We’re working at it!

Alright… 24 is calling my name, and once Open Gym quiets down it’s time for some sleepy! Happy Wednesday, all! Tons of love coming your way. 🙂

Bill’s got steak on the “Fake George Forman”, and my laundry is drying away… so, now is probably as good of time as any to update the old blog. 🙂 We fully intended to have this nice dinner last night, but swapped it for popcorn and other junk while we watched a couple episodes of 24. (We’re playing major catch up, as we just began season 1, and apparently season 5 starts tomorrow.)

It’s been a quick week… almost hard to believe we ever left Unalakleet. In some ways that’s a downer of a thought, while on the other hand it’s nice to feel “at home” here. I know the remainder of our Spring is going to fly by, so it’ll be worth taking every opportunity to enjoy our house by the beach, wonderful friends, and ironically far from simple life.

There were a few items we needed from the store after I got up here, so I ventured out one afternoon… It sounds like a simple task, however, take a look at what going shopping looks like for me on a Unalakleet winter day.

The wind eventually let up, and I was able to walk down to the airport to catch my flight to Elim on Thursday morning. I was told to check in at 8:30 for departure at 9:00. So, at 8:45 the agent arrived and told me we wouldn’t know when we’d be able to leave until they were called with Elim’s runway conditions. When would this be… as soon as the light came up. So, after I put in a call to God and got an estimate… I eventually made my way to Elim.

I am appreciating every moment that Bill and I get together these days… as we’re both in and out of Unalakleet this month.

So, keep us posted on your lives… we’ll do our best to keep you posted on ours!

Love to you all!

I wish I’d had the energy to take my picture in Seattle last night. I looked absolutely ridiculous… I got in around midnight, found my gate, and set up for a chance at some shut eye. I parked myself in an area that was piping out CNN Airport news, so I stuck my headphones in my ears, my down red blanket over the 3/4 of me that it covered, and the hood from my jacket (detached) over my head. I fell asleep eventually but kept dreaming that I slept through the boarding call and they slammed the door in my face. So… not a real restfull sleep.

I flew out of Hibbing yesterday afternoon around 5:00. I ended up chatting with the lady across the way from me, and even offered to help her find her next gate in Minneapolis. In the process, a foreign lady decided I looked helpful, and I got her pointed in the right direction as well. I laughed to myself, because as I’ve mentioned several times before – I wasn’t the most approachable person in the airport when I was spending every other week traveling last year. So, it made me happy to feel “nice”. 🙂

I believe my efforts were rewarded, too. I was on the first class upgrade list, but never seem to luck out when I fly Northwest. So, I was happy with my exit row seat, but even happier when the gentleman who wanted to sit next to his wife offered to swap his 1st Class seat with me. It was very much appreciated!

I’m now waiting in the Boardroom (our pass is quickly running out) for my final flight to Unalakleet.

Cute, huh? Or more likely in need of a nap! 🙂

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make the holiday break so much fun!

Now it’s off to grab a bite to eat and find the plane that’s going to take me to my hubby. I’m looking forward to an evening of relaxing together and planning out our Spring. hee hee!

I’m trying my best to prepare for my trip back north. It’s never easy to leave this place. Luckily I get to look forward to a little time with Bill before we both head our separate ways…

I wrote a whole entry earlier. It was based on a book I was reading called Feed. At any rate, I couldn’t publish it because it just didn’t fit my blog. It was too serious, too well written. 😉 I went and read through some of my old entries and decided that this morning’s post just wasn’t “me”.

At any rate, I spent today soaking in my home. I ran barefoot to Grandma and Grandpa’s, I sat in the livingroom and read, I talked on the phone… not a very eventful day, but it was perfect.

Bill has updated his blog again, for those of you who had given up on him. 😉 Along with the updates, he was busy working with his dad on constructing a chair. I am anxious for them to finish, as it will be the first piece of furniture for wherever we end up.

I’m going to meet up with Mom for lunch tomorrow. It will be nice to have a little more time together, as it always seems so short. I think Lo will be heading out tomorrow night, and Dad and Ape should be around. We’ll probably do nothing exciting, but it’ll be wonderful.

If you know me at all, you understand that I’m all about tradition. That is, in fact, part of why I love the holiday season so much. It’s usually just a replay of 12 months ago. 😉

This season has been nothing short of delightful. Bill and I kept busy during our time together in Minnesota. We spent one day over in Bemidji and headed to Brainerd the next morningto catch up with Mike and Amanda. It is always so nice to connect with friends back home.

I bought tickets to the Wild vs. Vancouver game for Bill’s Christmas present. We headed down to the cities on the 19th and caught the game. It was so much fun! We stayed at a hotel right across the street, so no need to worry about parking or driving out of that mad house after the game. Instead we ordered room service and bought a movie off our hotel room TV. Those are 2 things I’d never done, so it was a treat!

We also got to catch up with Josh and Melissa before Christmas arrived. We exchanged lots of stories of the past few months, and even some from further back. My favorite line of the evening? “I’ve got to go; we’re singing Ring of Fire.”

Then came Christmas…! My dad has three older brothers – all of whom are married and have children. Pair up each of those grandchildren with a significant other, add 11 more great grandchildren, and you’ve got that side of my family in a rather large nut shell. Well, most of these nuts were in attendance for our Christmas Eve celebration at my Great Aunt Lal’s. It was nice to catch up with everyone and watch how big all the little ones have gotten. Pretty hard to believe that the oldest great grandchild, Ashley, is already 13!

Christmas morning brought the tradition of Dad getting a new gun. You’d think the little elves who brought it would know better, as they are also the biggest complainers of the ever expanding gun collection. This one, however, was fun for all of us, as it’s a simple air rifle… great for knocking over pop bottles on the ice. Check out what an avid sportsman I am!

Christmas Day was spent up at Mom’s. We gorged on more delicious food and played several different games. The favorite… Laura’s pictionary drawing for “White Men Can’t Jump”. Bill, Jordan, and I left the other teams in the dust.

Probably the best time investment we made this break was the energy given to our skating rink. Ape, Dad, and I got it started, and Bill put a lot of work into flooding it. We’ve spent many hours skating already, and I have plans to use it until I head back north. We also have had a couple of bon fires and story time.

Finally, I’m flying solo for the rest of my time in Minnesota. Bill headed back to Valdez this past Wednesday. He is already having a great time with the Bryson crew… sounds like their is plenty of snow to go around… which means plenty of shoveling as well.

I realize that when I don’t blog consistently, these entries get awfully long. I need to update more often.

Happy Holidays, Everyone! Be safe!