Midnight Sun Cafe

We sat in a  sunny front window of the cafe.

Andrew had a pepper-jack turkey sandwich

Many lunch options! And they prepare it right under the sign!

I had a delicious one called 'Zeus' that had artichokes, onions, roasted peppers, lettuce, mozzarella and salami.

101 in 1001

So I have been following a blog of someone I went to college with and she is doing a project called 101 in 1001 - as in 101 goals in 1001 days (or 2.7 years). You can read more about it at www.dayzeroproject.org or just Google it.  And being me, liking to make lists and things, I think this is a pretty neat idea. I've been thinking about it. What types of goals would I have? What projects would I find doable and most enjoyable?

The blog post I read this in has plenty of homestead goals - after all, they do own a house and have started a family. For us, as much as I would love to put on there 'paint the kitchen' or something along those lines, we are soon to be in a moving state and putting something like that would be silly since we don't know what our next living space will be like.

Think, think, think. I have a few categories picked out: Personal, Creative, Professional/Education, Travel & Food (those too I stole from her). Can I really come up with 101 goals with just those five categories?

We shall see! I'll post when I've got the list!

Who else would like to try this with me?

Yoga anyone?

I've decided to get into the practice of yoga. I went about a month ago to a class at the gym and really enjoyed it. Since I work until 6 every night, I'm not able to go during the week, but one of my girlfriends has been doing Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown Level 1 and I decided to try it out. I've been doing it for about a half week now (and on my awesome new blue flower yoga mat Andrew bought for me!) and I am definitely feeling a difference! I've been doing it in the mornings before work which is working out pretty good so far. We will see what happens next week as we drop down to one car again :(.

I never thought this would happen, but I am already feeling the effects from a couple of days. Yes, most parts of my body are sore, but I can already see I've gained flexibility and I feel looser - not so tight and wound up!

I haven't done a lot of running at all, even though I should be. For right now, I would like to continue in this yoga mindset and get a little bit stronger, and then in February or March I plan on starting some training for the Twilight 12k/Skini Mini 6k. We shall see where that takes me.

2013 Last Year in Alaska Bucket List

1. Run in the Big Wild Life Runs - 5k or 1/2  August 2013, 5k
2. Run in the Twilight 6 or 12k June 2013
3.Run in Mayor's 1/2 Marathon
4. Eat dessert at Sweet Basil Cafe September 2013
5. Get coffee & dessert at SugarSpoon August 2013
6. Get a smoothie @ Organic Oasis
7. Eat brunch at Taproot  12/29/12
8. Graduate from school!
9. Volunteer 1 time at Bean's Cafe
10. Participate in National Clean up Day
11. Camp in Denali National Park July 2013
12. Hike Ice Harding Trail in Seward
13. Ride the train to Fairbanks. February2013
14. Hike Flattop
15. Kayak @ Ekutna Lake
16. Take a sled dog ride February 2013
17. Visit & take a picture at the Arctic Circle
18. Visit Ice Museum & get drink at the (ice!) bar. February 2013
19. Go to Chena Hot Springs February 2013
20. Go on the 26 Glacier Cruise
21. Get a pair of Sealskin Mukluks
22. Hike Crow Pass.
23. Volunteer @ Campbell Creek Science Center

End of the Year Review: 2012 Goals

1. Spend more time with the people I love.
Yes .I've been doing better with this. Sarah and I get together at least once a month - or at least whenever we are in each other's area. Andrew and I spend quite a bit of time together too.

2. Be more connected/involved in the Women's ministry at Hospitality House.
I have dropped off the face of the planet in terms of Hospitality House. But I have been faithful in doing the Life On Life Discipleship program this fall and even though it has ended, I am hoping to be in discipleship with the leader of my small group going into the spring.

3. Take advantage of low-cost to free activities offered on base, plus in and around Anchorage.
We've done better in this area. We went to the tree lighting and concert celebration in the town square around Thanksgiving. And we went for a walk on the coastal trail recently.

4. Be more spontaneous, creative, intuitive, interactive.
Still working on this one.

5. Invest in a couple of high-quality items.
We haven't bought anything since my last post.

6. Be financially sound.
Again, HAHAHAHA. But we did finally pay off the Nissan sitting broken in our garage!

7. Giving to God what is God's.
See last post on this one.

Thankful

As everyone else is doing thankful posts via Facebook or twitter, or even in letters and cards, I thought about what I am thankful for. As much as I would like to say the usual... "I'm thankful for family and friends..." I've been thinking a lot harder. What am I thankful for?

In our life this year, we have been incredibly blessed. We have been able to use cars from various friends as they have gone on deployments or on vacations for extended periods of time. And each one seems to come at the most appropriate time. For example, our friend Julian is coming back from a six month deployment this week - and my friend Sarah is leaving for 3 weeks of vacation on December 11th.  So while we will be with one car for two weeks again, we will then have a second car throughout the holidays. This helps out immensely since I have physical therapy twice a week and my schedule is off from Andrew's.

I am grateful that my health - although rather spotty at times - is in relatively good shape, including the stuff going on with my foot. It could have been worse, after all.

We have been able to have family visit us and travel back to visit others. We were able to go to Washington State and Seattle, Erin & Grammy have been able to visit, and both of us have been able to visit New England, albeit on separate occasions. Living in Alaska is harder when it comes to visiting family, mostly because it is expensive to buy plane tickets from here and it is more cost efficient to go for more than one week. but we've been lucky.

Andrew has made some significant breakthroughs in his career in terms of awards he has been in competition for or has won. This looks really good on his resume and shows that he is proactive on being a better wingman. That's why he is being nominated for Airmen of the Year award!

I am grateful that I still work 40 hrs a week and that I got Outstanding on my year-end review. Which means I will be getting a bonus at the end of the year. Sweet!

I am grateful for our crazy kitties, Zoey and Chip. They certainly keep things interesting.

Zoey

It's been a long time since I last posted and although I am not going to go into everything right at this moment, I do want to write about how annoyingly frustrating this whole adopt-a-new-kitten thing has been. We adopted a"6-month" old kitten from Animal control and after having her for just one week, she got a really bad upper respiratory infection so we went for treatment and found out she is pregnant. So we got her meds etc and went on our merry way...except she stopped eating on her own and dropped most of her weight. So back to the animal hospital we went. She was pretty much on death's door when we brought her in and I was pretty convinced we would have to euthanize her that very night (this was two weekends ago). But Andrew never gave up hope and we brought her home with some syringes, a high calorie diet and some sub-q fluids we were to give her everyday.

She is doing much better now. She has gained all of her weight back and then some, weighing in at 5.2 lbs as of yesterday. She has begun to waddle a little and has two "saddlebags". She is super cute.

So here is the annoyingly frustrating part - we were supposed to drop her off for a spay today but when I called Animal control to cancel, they said that by not spaying her, I am breaking contract and can be fined, held up in court (of which I must pay attorney fees) and they can still take her back. So I went back to the contract and yes, it says all these things. Let me pause for a minute and point out that we adopted her four weeks ago and upon the news her per pregnancy (~1 week after we got her), it was determined she was give-or-take 2-3 weeks along. So they adopted out a pregnant cat - something they are not supposed to do. Then she got really sick (which is normal coming from a shelter - it happens all the time) so we postponed having the surgery.

Although she is better, eating by herself etc, she still has some upper respiratory infection signs like sneezing. We are in the opinion that if we were to spay her (and I've done a ton of research on this) that we would a. knock her back on her butt and b. cause her separation anxiety for the rest of her life.  I am estimating (in my limited knowledge but thorough research) that she is in her 5th week of pregnancy or has just started her 6th week. Surgery on pregnant cats about to enter or well into their third trimester is NOT recommended. (Cat gestation is normally 65-68 days for those of you who were wondering).

So the only way out of this is to provide a letter from a veterinarian stating the medical reasons for a delay in the spay procedure. So I called up Diamond Animal Hospital to see if they would write one. They said no based off of the information they have up until when we brought her there for being super sick and on death's door. What they don't know is that she is pretty much better. They still think she's sickly. I suppose I should have called and updated them, but for right now, as far as I'm concerned, I don't think they deserve to know anything.

So then a vet tech from animal control talked to me and my only option as far as her end is to uphold my contract. But first I need to see if she is healthy enough to even undergo surgery, let alone give birth.

Anyways, to end this long frustration, the woman we have been talking with from an area rescue is meeting us over at a different animal hospital tomorrow evening for a second opinion and a hope that they will write the letter to delay her spay until after the kittens are born. And if not, we will be 'surrendering' her to the rescue with the tale of her backsliding and getting really sick again so that this woman can 'nurse her back to health and deliver her kittens safely'.