Barb's Blog

O.K. I’m starting to feel guilty about not posting on my blog.  Bill 3 has been laying it on pretty thick the past few days so I figured I’d better get back at it.  Testing going on at school this week so it’s been a mixture of popping into classrooms to spell teachers for a bathroom break and a fresh cup of coffee and diving into purchase orders that need to get sent out in the next couple of weeks.  The high point of the day was touching base with both Bill and Erin and finding out they will be coming to Valdez for Easter!  That will be fun!

Our church as just started up a new women’s bible study tonight.  It looks like a good course and there are about 10 people participating.  Now if I can just keep up on the daily study…..  I came home afterwards and tied into the round robin quilt that I need to wrap up and get to the next person.  One more round robin quilt to go.  It’s been a fun process and a real learning curve.  I’ve tried a few new techniques that I probably wouldn’t have bothered experimenting with. It’s always a little stressful because you want to do a good job for the person’s quilt you are working on at the time.  The last one I will be working on is beautiful.  All for now. Time to head to bed.

We’re into packing mode and wrapping up school business. Getting ready for our mini trip to Maui Friday morning. We will fly out of Valdez Friday morning, weather permitting. I have a doctor’s appointment set up for the morning. We fly out at 3:00pm and arrive early evening in Maui. We’ll have Saturday and Sunday to play together before Bill has to tie into telephone meetings. I on the other hand will be able to hit the beach and relax. Am looking forward to it!

We are wrapping up district battles this week. This year 9 teams are participating. We’ve selected our 5th/6th team and tomorrow the 5 – 3rd/4th teams will battle it out.

I’ve started a new bible study. It’s nice getting back into the study again. It’s another “Beth Moore” called The Patriarchs. There are about 12 women from our church joining in this time.

I took a fun Saturday quilt class called “The Kitchen Sink”. We were to bring all our left over blocks and partially done projects we never will finish and throw it all togethr to create a new quilt. It was very out-of-the-box for me! I’m too used to having steps to follow and just follow directions. This one invoved lots of creativity, imagination, a whole different approach to color and fabric design. Defintely a new learning curve.

Bill spent almost 2 hours Monday night helping me with the math to refigur the size on a border I want to put on the latest round robin project I have. This one is all batiks and all rainbow colors. When I get it done I’ll stick it up on the web.

My very good friend Kim just finished up her last round of chemotherapy last week. Our staff had a celebration on Monday. We all wore pink, brought in cake, punch and goodies and a quilt many of us had helped make was presented to her. We’re keeping the prayers going though!

All for now. Time to get back and do a little more packing.

Bill and I got up around 9:00 and took Rudy for a snowshoe walk out by the Valdez Glacier. Lazy snowflakes falling with high overcast initially, but by the time we got back to the truck it was coming down pretty steady. I love the snow. Much better than all the rain in November!

We stopped by South Central and picked up a sheet of plywood. We had them cut it down the middle. When we got home Bill cut them at 45 degree angles. We stained them and vacumed,dusted weeded old paperwork and reconfigured the computer room. Now we have the comuter, printer, fax machine along the wall that buts up against the bathroom and an area to do bills and write letters under the window on the south side. It’s going to be nice to have more room to spread out, plus there’s a little more storage under the desk areas.

Well I’m getting hooked into Sudakus. It’s getting so I treat myself to one after I’ve done something like washing dishes or some other job around the house. Very addicting. I was telling my mom about them on the phone. She sounded intrigued so I think I will send a book of them down to her.

It’s getting late. Time to head to bed with a book for a while.

Wow! Where did the time go?!? The holiday break went way too fast. We headed into Anchorage Friday, Dec 3oth. I was grousing because we didn’t get out of town until close to 10:00. Bill talked me into a quick stop at the post office for one last check for Katie’s Christmas present. We were in luck. Her backpacker guitar had arrived so she was able to take it on into town with her. We met our friends Chris Standley and her kids Robin and Aron at Hatcher Pass for an overnight of skiiing, snow shoeing, boarding, sledding and sauna. The cabins were rustic. No running water and porta potties but the view was spectacular and the evening sauna wonderful. Chris and I did a morning ski and after a very late breakfast we all split out and did a variety of outdoor fun. Katie and Robin sledded, Aron hiked way up a nearby mountain and did a snowboard run, and Bill, Chris and I put in a couple hours of snow shoeing. Felt good to get a little exercise after all the holiday goodies.

New Year’s Eve was a low key evening at Chris’s house. We all watched a movie and ate pizza. Nice to relax and connect with old friends.

Sunday we met up with Mark Standley for breakfast and headed Katie to the airport. It was wonderful having her home for the holidays. She kept busy meeting up with high school buddies and working a little at the pool. She and I tackeled a sewing project for her college buddies.

I finished my border for the Round Robin Quilt. Whew! Glad to have that done, though I must admit it was fun learning paper piecing. Look for a picture of it in the Gallery one of these days. The center block was done by another person in our group. I put on the first border. The group meets next Monday to exchange blocks. I will have a month to create a new border for another quilt.

Well we’re back in school. Very hard to go back on Tuesday. The good news was it was an inservice day and basically a work day so fairly easy to ease into. We were told by our administration that our district must cut close to a million dollars next year. We’re looking at some major cuts. Hopefully not too many people.

All for now. Happy New Year!

The past few days have been a nice mix of connecting with friends and stretches of down time. Last night we went to Richardsons for dinner and a little “Catch Phrase”. Katie had a group of girls spend the night. Nice connecting with her high school friends and finding out what they are all up to.

Katie and I went to the Wellness Center yesterday and I went again today. I’ll probably be pretty sore tomorrow. The pounds are starting to creep on… Got to do something!

Bill took Rudy ptarmigan hunting today. Saw the birds, just didn’t succeed in catching any.

A friend of mine came over and we played our dulcimers for a while this afternoon. Neither of us are very good but it’s nice playing a little music with someone.

Yesterday I bit the bullet and began working on my Round Robin quilt. I’m beginning to get some ideas how to do my border. I’m going to play around with some proto-types tonight. Then I really need to dive in. I don’t want to leave it to the last minute.

Bill is fixing prime rib for supper tonight. Yum

Hope you are having a great holiday with friends and family.

Katie, Bill and I all slept in late today. Nice not having an agenda that needed to get done. Bill checked the post office one more time for the last few Christmas packages coming in, but to no avail. I guess we’ll celebrate the holiday over a period of days.

Once back home Bill plugged into the football games while I finished sewing up one of Bill and Erin’s Christmas presents. Nice to have that done!

Bill gave us a call. Good to hear he arrived in Cook safely and is enjoying an Aune Christmas.

Katie snoozed, watched a little TV, and connected with some of her PLU friends.

We went to the Bayside Church Christmas Eve Service. I thought the service started at 5:30 so we walked in about 20 minutes late. Drat! The place was full. I’m still glad we went. I enjoy our yearly Christmas Eve celebration. People from the congregation step forward and share their musical talent, then we sing a few traditional songs of the season, followed by Pastor Dan reading Luke 2, the birth of Christ. We end the service by all circling the church. We’re each given a candle. Pastor starts by lighting his candle from the alter then he in turn lights the candle to his right and left. Each person continues lighting their own candle on around the circle until the lit candles meet. We sing John 3:16 to the tune of Silent Night as the candles are being lit.

A brief tour around town to look at all the lights made it very apparent that people are feeling the higher electric fees this winter and have cut back on the festive lighting.

Bill had put together our annual chowder with shrimp and halibut. Yum!

We just had some of the neighbors swing by singing Christmas carols and the neighbors out behind are shooting off occational fireworks. Nice.

All for now. Katie and I are going to harang Bill into some kind of board game to wrap up the evening. Take time to think about the real meaning of this holiday. Merry Christmas!

Katie, Bill and I all slept in late today. Nice not having an agenda that needed to get done. Bill checked the post office one more time for the last few Christmas packages coming in, but to no avail. I guess we’ll celebrate the holiday over a period of days.

Once back home Bill plugged into the football games while I finished sewing up one of Bill and Erin’s Christmas presents. Nice to have that done!

Bill gave us a call. Good to hear he arrived in Cook safely and is enjoying an Aune Christmas.

Katie snoozed, watched a little TV, and connected with some of her PLU friends.

We went to the Bayside Church Christmas Eve Service. I thought the service started at 5:30 so we walked in about 20 minutes late. Drat! The place was full. I’m still glad we went. I enjoy our yearly Christmas Eve celebration. People from the congregation step forward and share their musical talent, then we sing a few traditional songs of the season, followed by Pastor Dan reading Luke 2, the birth of Christ. We end the service by all circling the church. We’re each given a candle. Pastor starts by lighting his candle from the alter then he in turn lights the candle to his right and left. Each person continues lighting their own candle on around the circle until the lit candles meet. We sing John 3:16 to the tune of Silent Night as the candles are being lit.

A brief tour around town to look at all the lights made it very apparent that people are feeling the higher electric fees this winter and have cut back on the festive lighting.

Bill had put together our annual chowder with shrimp and halibut. Yum!

We just had some of the neighbors swing by singing Christmas carols and the neighbors out behind are shooting off occational fireworks. Nice.

All for now. Katie and I are going to harang Bill into some kind of board game to wrap up the evening. Take time to think about the real meaning of this holiday. Merry Christmas!

Bill and I put Bill 3 on the early morning plane to fly out to Mn for a northern Mn Christmas with Erin’s family. It was so good having him home, even though it was only for a few days and Erin was wrapping up business and heading on home. It’s getting more and more dangerous when Bill 3 and Katie get together. Those two have way too much fun together.

We let Katie sleep in before we left the hotel to do the typical Costco/Walmart/REI run. It’s always such a chore getting all the things picked up while in town.

We did not get out of Anchorage until close to 5:00 pm but the roads home were uneventful. A sky full of stars forced us to stop near Eureka so Katie could try to get a couple pictures on her camera.

We arrived home close to midnight and were greeted with the Christmas tree down on the livingroom floor with an array of ornaments and candy canes scattered on the floor. Hmmmm. We left it and tackled the job of setting it up and redecorating today.

A few birds visiting the feeder. We were cheered up to see two grosbeaks along with a lone chickadee picking away at the seeds in the feeder, and luckily no crows. ravens or magpies!

Bill did the errand running today while I tackled putting away the Anchorage purchases. Now he’s busy popping corn for me in the theater popper so I can make carmel corn for the neighbors.

Yesterday:

*Decorated the scrappy Christmas Tree we found on Sunday. No lights but we made up for it with lots of homemade decorations.

*Pinochle last night. The guys creamed Katie and I. They were pretty hot.

*Bill game me an early Chrismtas gift from Erin and him. A very fun print by our friend Steve Richardson of a smoky day in the mountains. Shades of greens and blacks. A lonley craggy tree on a mountain-side with an errie sun poking through the haze. The colors are perfect for our bathroom. We know a guy in town just getting into the framing business. I think we will give him a try.

So here’s the near disaster: After I unwrapped the picture I wanted to hold it up to really get a good look and swung it right through the lit candles on the table. Luckily Bill 3 saw it coming and grabbed it and pulled it out of the way before any damage prevailed. Whew!

Left Valdez by 7:30 after dropping Rudy off at Barb Lyons house for a doggie break with 3 other Golden Retrievers. He will be in doggie heaven.

An uneventful drive to Anchorage so Katie could get her wisdom teeth pulled. A mere hour and a half and $19oo later and we whisked her to Comfort in where she elevated with pillows and we tied bags of ice against her jaws with my scarf. She looked pretty cute.

Bill 3, Bill, and I walked over to a new resturant called “The Bridge”. Yummy food with interesting flavors a little on the expensive size. The guys were not too impressed. They would have been happy with one of the steak houses in town I think. I enjoyed it though.

Tomorrow, shopping and a movie….

Tonight a friend came over and we did some Christmas crafts together. Last fall when Bill and I went out cutting fire wood we came across some nice birch logs. I had him cut them down into 12″ size and slice them in half length wise. Tonight he drilled three holes in each. That’s where my friend Judy and I stepped in. She brought over cloth ribbon, fresh christmas boughs and I had purchased some cheap taper candles. We had fun chatting while we worked. I had taken some brie cheese and wrapped it in cressant rolls then baked it. Yummy!

The school board presentation went fine. Got some good feedback from the board members and new superintendant. Glad that’s done…

3 more days until break. Can’t wait!