Barb's Blog

It has been a crazy week of terrible weather. We were keeping fingers crossed whether Bill 3 and Katie would make it flying in on Saturday or not. The morning flight came in without a hitch. Thursday and Friday were a different story though. Rain, rain, rain from Wednesday on which caused incredible ice on all the roads. I really think if I strapped on a pair of ice skates I could step out and skate down our street. There was a small avalanche at 39 mile and reports of people taking 4 hours to drive from Glenallen into Valdez on Thursday/Friday.

Saturday was another busy day. Quilt block class, afternoon wedding, getting the kids settled in….. Great having them home. Just wish Erin were here too!

Sunday we went hunting for our Christmas tree out near the canyon. Bill and I were in the lead car heading out of town when Bill 3 and Katie turned down a side street out of site. We pulled over at the Mud Flats and waited and waited. Just when we were ready to turn around and head back home they pulled up beside us. Bill 3 had noticed his wedding ring was missing. He and I had had a brief snowball fight at the house waiting for Katie to come out. The good news: they drove back to the house and found the ring in the driveway. Whew!

Found a nice little “Charlie Brown” tree with only a few bald spots out near the canyon. Never mind that you can see right through it to the otherside. We have it up in the living room. We’ll decorate it tomorrow.

Tonight Katie and I did the community “Walk To Bethlehem”. We walk from church to church reading each part of the birth of Jesus story from Luke. Each church is in charge of one part of the story as it unfolds. First Mary is introduced at Assembly of God Church and the audience sings a Christmas carol. Then everyone walks to the Baptist Church and Joseph is included as part of the scene. The Catholic church always has a host of children angels. The Luthern church is where the shepherds join into the story. the wisemen come into play at the Bayside Church. At each church a traditional Chirstmas song is song by everyone. The festivities wrap up at Faith Harbor where there is juice and lots of cookies and goodies and more Christmas Carols. It’s a nice way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Katie is off visiting friends tonight and dog sitting for some friends.

It’s hard to believe that 2005 is wrapping up. It’s true, the years go faster and faster the older you get…. I’m dabbling in a few projects that I need to finish up this week. A sewing project for Bill and Erin’s Christmas present, a block-of-the-month square that is due on Saturday, and I need to get working on my round robin boarder. I’m a little apprehensive to tackle it because I don’t want to make major mistakes. The other fun project we’ve been working on are the photo mugs. I’m making photo mugs for the “LLL” and Dad is making photo mugs for grandma and grandpa and his siblings.

We worked on decorating a Christmas Tree in church by our Sunday School Class. Last week we brought popped corn, fruitloops, wrapped candy to string. What a disaster…. Much more ended up on the floor and in stomachs than on the tree. So this week Sue Reiss made a bucket full of gingerbread boys and girls and I brought the frosting, red hots, raisons….. what a disaster. I’m sure those kids went home with a sugar high that will last the rest of the week. But we’re done…. We are working on some fun Christmas songs to sing at church in choir. The problem is that a few of the core members will be gone. We’re hoping to relegate Kate and Julie when they come home for Christmas.

Jane Haltness and I went snow shoeing this afternoon. Beautiful blue sky day without a drop of wind. The moon was coming up as we headed back down the trail to the car. I will put up a picture or two in the gallery for you to see.

Bill made an awesome batch of sourdough cinnimon buns today. We ate way too much for our own good.

I’ve been working on a powerpoint presentation to give to the school board tomorrow night. I’ll be glad when that is behind me…. But if feels good to know I haven’t forgotten how to do it.

The School District Christmas Party was last night. I had asked Bill out on “a date” earlier in the week, so he knew we were going out. I was suprised though when he brought me home a corsage to wear. A beautiful red rose. The “LLL” performed at the party. Judy and Kim had come up with some great words to “Mr. Sandman” that we sang as a spoof on our new superintendant. Seems he keeps getting locked out and in houses and elevators. Judy had also rewritten “Twas The Night Before Christmas” which revolved around school issues. Great turnout. Close to 80 people came.

Today Janie Haltness and I picked up lattes and headed for the annual Christmas Craft Fair in town. It was not as good as usual, but I still managed to spend more than I should have. After lunch I returned home and got serious packing gifts that need to be mailed out on Monday. I also wrote a quick Christmas letter and got Bill to stuff envelopes with letter/photo.

Bill made a great chili tonight. Very tastey. He went out and did a little flying today. It was fairly windy so I’m glad he just did a short flight.

Tomorrow my Sunday School class is making Christmas Tree garlands from popcorn, fruitloops, craysons, and wrapped candies. There are 4 trees around our Sanctuary. Each Sunday School class is in charge of decorating one of the trees.

This week I am sharing a web link called “QuizList” to my classes that allows teachers/kids/parents to access the school library catalog and find out which books in our library have AR quizzes. I’m bribing the kids with prizes. Students that do a little tutorial at home with their parents and bring back a signed form are eligible for a prize drawing. So far I’ve received about 8 and I have talked to probably 250 kids so far…. Oh well it was worth a try….

Tomorrow night is our district Christmas party. The Ladies Latte League (LLL) got together tonight to work up a poem and song to present. (The song is to “Mr. Sandman” but our rendition is “Mr. Snowman” and it’s a spoof on our new superintendent.) We also have a Valdez City Schools version of “Twas The Night Before Christmas”. But the best part is a little skit that the “Bad Kim” and “Judith” are doing. They have decided that Santa needs a new look. Needs to take off a few pounds, get his hair cut and died, stop smoking etc…. Judy is supposed to be sketching out “the new look” Santa will have. When she flips the chart over there will be a poster size picture of our music teacher, Bob Lee, in a scimpy bathing suit with lots of muscles and a great tan. The poster size photo got printed today up at the high school and will be ready for tomorrow night.

I was excited because the 7 additional Starbuck photo mugs I ordered came in today. I’m ready to tackle some for the LLL and a couple for Bill’s mom and dad.

All for now.

Today was a busy day of classes, ordering library books, wrapping up a book donation drive and all the other odds and ends that make up the day. The bad part was I was tired. I discovered last night I had put my quilt block together wrong and it was bugging me. Sooo at 3:00 am I got up and ripped seams and resewed to get it right. I felt better about the block, but I paid for it at school today.

I went to my first Round Robin Quilt class. We each shared our center blocks then passed our work to someone else who will design and sew the next border. I’m a little nervous because 4 of the 6 are very serious quilters and have already done 2 – 4 Round Robin’s already. It will be a challenging learning curve.

Bill and I went to Totem for dinner and had a juicy burger. We’re tired of looking at turkey sandwiches, soup and casserole.

All for now. I’m off to bed.

I was up at 5:50 taking Rudy for a morning walk before work. The wind was brisk and temps down to 15 degrees. Cold by our standards. The roads slick. School was fast, furious and productive. We started putting up the Library Christmas decorations and pulling the books for the December holiday themes.

I slipped out of school as soon as possible and did a few errands before heading home. The “Angel Tree” is up at the post office. This is a neat fund raiser for kids that may not receive many gifts during the Christmas holiday. I picked up an ornament which told me to buy a gift for a 2 year old girl who loves pink. I found a cute outfit and pink teddy bear at Sugar and Spice. It’s wrapped and ready to take back to the post office to go under the tree until the gifts are delivered.

Made a pot of wild rice soup for dinner, thanks to some of Jim Aune’s harvested rice that he brought up to us during his last visit. Yum!

Rudy had a very close call tonight. After I got the soup cooking in the crock pot, I had about 30 minutes before Bill would get home from work, so I took Rudy for another walk. Remember, I said the roads were icy? We were heading back home on Oumalik and I had taken Rudy off the leash. He was running back and forth across the road checking things out. The next thing I knew, Tom Gilson was sliding to a slippery stop and Rudy was scooting out from the front tires. I’m not sure if he fell on the ice, or fell because he got bumped by Tom’s car. I know it scared him good because he had a very strong smell and was shaking by the time we walked up our front sidewalk. He’s not limping and he seems just fine now. He was lucky!

After Bill took off for CAP I put on a little classical music and snuck away to my quilt room to finish up my Round Robin Wreath. It’s a good thing I wrapped it up because our first meeting will be tomorrow evening. The other 5 participants and I will show what we have created for our center blocks and then give any stipulations we want to for our own quilts. Such as what will the finished size be, whether we are supplying additional fabrics or they can use what they want, whether we want it scrappy or coordinated…. Three of the women in my group have already made 2 previous Round Robin Quilts. Should be a real learning curve for me, but fun. I will not see my quilt for the next 5 months. Each person will take a turn sewing a new border onto my original pattern.

All for now. Time for bed.

Barb’s Weblog › Create New Post — WordPress

Very hard getting up and motivated this morning after our relaxing Thanksgiving break. Spent the day teaching classes how to access “QuizList”. This is a link that lets adults and kids know which books in our library have AR, (Accelerated Reader) quizzes. Kim Park was in Anchorage so the substitute and I also began putting the Christmas books out on display. Tomorrow we’ll start putting out decorations.

Tomorrow I have a parent volunteer coming in to work with students every Tuesday getting ready for district level Battle of the Books. Today I was getting a bin of activites ready that she can use during the 2 lunch recess times. I also have to give a brief presentation to staff about QuizList tomorrow so I was getting things organized for that.

After a quick dinner of left over turkey soup I dove into the “Round Robin” quilt piece I’m doing. I have to have it finished by Wednesday night so I can trade it off. There are 6 women in this group. Each month we have a different quilt to add a border to. I will not see mine after Wednesday until the quilt top is finished 6 months from now. I have three rows in my block left to do. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yahoo! All for now. Time for bed.

It was great seeing everyone! The holiday went way too fast. After the kids flew out Bill went flying and I tied into the house. We watched “Hopscotch” and I uploaded a few more pictures for the website. This website and blogging is very fun!

This has been a super Thanksgiving. One of the best! Very special having Erin officially part of our family. It’s been great incorporating some of her traditions such as “flat bread”, which was excellent with our 2nd day turkey noodle soup. Though she tried to slip in “Elf” the movie, to watch after Thanksgiving dinner, we ran out of time. Maybe next year….

Very special too has been celebrating the vacation time with Mark, Robin, and Aron Standley who drove down for a little “Northway family” time and some snowboarding. Bill and Brenda Holden were “Kidless” this season. Jessica is doing a semester in Norway and Adrienna enjoying the Thanksgiving season with aunts, uncles, and cousins in Mn so we were lucky to have them for a brief overnight.

Brenda and I snowshoed out behind Robe River subdivision late yesterday afternoon with Rudy. We came upon a beautiful bubbling spring that was clear enough to see the salmon eggs nestled along the bottom of the stream bed. We watched a bald eagle in the cottonwood tree near by, then noticed 2 more hidden among the branches and snow covered bows. Soon another flew over. Very quiet, very peaceful. Beautiful.

The evening evolved into a night of “Catch Phrase”, Chinese Numbers, and lots of good food. Many laughs.

If I were to wrap up the themes of this holiday it would have to be computers and knitting. Erin and Katie knitted 3 caps between them and Erin moved on into a Christmas sock.

I had purchased Starbuck photo mugs for everyone. So Erin and Katie were busy pulling pictures from our computers, resizing them, and putting them on the template that Bill 3 created.