Saturday, February 28, 2009
FUR RONDY and the ICE INDY 500
Well it is another week gone by. David just finished his last night shift for the week and is now off for a few days, then he goes back to days for a bit, it is really nice since with this job he mostly works days and only is averaging about 1 night shift a month.
Fur Rondy is going on so tonight we are going into Anchorage to watch the fire works and maybe go to the carnival for the girls. It is a two week long winter festival that goes on up here, hopefully we will have some good pictures to post from it. This also kicks off the start of the Iditorod race starting in Anchorage to Nome. They have a "fake" start in Anchorage then truck everything out here by us and have the "official" start out here in Wasilla so we will be going to that. We are also going to the ICE INDY 500 in Anchorage next weekend. This is where they bring up INDY cars and race them on ice through the streets of Anchorage, should be fun to watch. We are also probably going to go the miner and trappers ball next Saturday so that will be fun for Dave and I. We missed the Jim Beam festival that was last night, cause Dave had to work, oh well there is always next year lol, but wait I do believe that Dave has his own festival every year on his birthday, so look for pictures of that event lol.
I survived another round of GE layoff's. GE did a restructuring due to the economy and laid off quite a few people, thankfully I was not one of them so I still have a job, and we are thankful for that. I am slowly getting the house together and boxes unpacked still, Dave still keeps finding boxes for the house in the garage and brings them inside for me to unpack, lucky me lol. I have decided that we need to build a shop so that Dave has room for all his car parts and big tools lol, he is all for that. We are thinking maybe we will see if Larry wants to come up and build it with Dave, although I don't know how much building will get done between the B.S.'ing and beer drinking lol.
The girls are doing good. Krista's room is finally painted, it only took 4 coats, good god. Krista had a sleep over last night at a friends house, Dave is picking her up on his way home so I don't know how it went yet. Ashley is doing good and doing pre-season softball. She is catching for the varsity team and enjoying it alot. She is making alot of friends and is looking forward to this summer. She is still dating Mark the boy from Kodiak so anyone who had bets on that not lasting a month, you are out of the betting pool, lol. They talk every night on the phone and so far still "love" each other. Who knows this could be our future son-in-law lol. Dave said he was hoping for some one who liked to hunt and fish and was a bit taller lol, for those of you who don't Mark is Filipino and is about 3 inches shorter than Ashley so it is comical seeing them together, as she is soooo pale and tall compared to Mark who is pretty dark and short. Dave and I tease her and sing the song about Ebony and Ivory LOL. He really is a good kid and he treats her good so that is all we can ask for, but it is fun teasing her about him.
By the way it is STILL SNOWING!!!! we got another 3 inches or so last night and it started snowing again just a little bit ago. It has snowed almost every day since we moved up here in January and apparently according to the neighbors that is normal until about end of April first part of May, then it starts to warm up and melt. I can't wait!!! I am ready for summer and so are David and the girls. The days are finally starting to get lighter and we are averaging just over 8 hours of sunlight a day now, whew I really love the light LOL. I don't like driving at night, cause it is really dark and the Moose are really dark so it makes them rather hard to see lol. That and people drive like IDIOTS up here in the snow. You would think that they would be more careful but nope they fly by you doing 80 then about 500 feet down the road you see them upside down or in the ditch or side of the freeway. It is amazing how stupid they can be. Dave counts the "ditch divers" on his way home every day he works lol.
We have had a Moose who has decided that he likes our houses trees the best. He has visited us almost every day at about 4:30am, I know this as the neighbor dogs go nuts when they see him. I can't believe they eat bark and tree branches all winter, and they stay as big as they are. I have decided to call our Moose Bullwinkle. Not sure if it is a girl or boy but we will find out this summer when it starts to grow horns.
Well got to run. Dave and Krista are home and I need to go make breakfast as everyone is starving. BTW it is still SNOWING!!! I am thinking we got about 6 or more inches and building, lucky us!!!
Fur Rondy is going on so tonight we are going into Anchorage to watch the fire works and maybe go to the carnival for the girls. It is a two week long winter festival that goes on up here, hopefully we will have some good pictures to post from it. This also kicks off the start of the Iditorod race starting in Anchorage to Nome. They have a "fake" start in Anchorage then truck everything out here by us and have the "official" start out here in Wasilla so we will be going to that. We are also going to the ICE INDY 500 in Anchorage next weekend. This is where they bring up INDY cars and race them on ice through the streets of Anchorage, should be fun to watch. We are also probably going to go the miner and trappers ball next Saturday so that will be fun for Dave and I. We missed the Jim Beam festival that was last night, cause Dave had to work, oh well there is always next year lol, but wait I do believe that Dave has his own festival every year on his birthday, so look for pictures of that event lol.
I survived another round of GE layoff's. GE did a restructuring due to the economy and laid off quite a few people, thankfully I was not one of them so I still have a job, and we are thankful for that. I am slowly getting the house together and boxes unpacked still, Dave still keeps finding boxes for the house in the garage and brings them inside for me to unpack, lucky me lol. I have decided that we need to build a shop so that Dave has room for all his car parts and big tools lol, he is all for that. We are thinking maybe we will see if Larry wants to come up and build it with Dave, although I don't know how much building will get done between the B.S.'ing and beer drinking lol.
The girls are doing good. Krista's room is finally painted, it only took 4 coats, good god. Krista had a sleep over last night at a friends house, Dave is picking her up on his way home so I don't know how it went yet. Ashley is doing good and doing pre-season softball. She is catching for the varsity team and enjoying it alot. She is making alot of friends and is looking forward to this summer. She is still dating Mark the boy from Kodiak so anyone who had bets on that not lasting a month, you are out of the betting pool, lol. They talk every night on the phone and so far still "love" each other. Who knows this could be our future son-in-law lol. Dave said he was hoping for some one who liked to hunt and fish and was a bit taller lol, for those of you who don't Mark is Filipino and is about 3 inches shorter than Ashley so it is comical seeing them together, as she is soooo pale and tall compared to Mark who is pretty dark and short. Dave and I tease her and sing the song about Ebony and Ivory LOL. He really is a good kid and he treats her good so that is all we can ask for, but it is fun teasing her about him.
By the way it is STILL SNOWING!!!! we got another 3 inches or so last night and it started snowing again just a little bit ago. It has snowed almost every day since we moved up here in January and apparently according to the neighbors that is normal until about end of April first part of May, then it starts to warm up and melt. I can't wait!!! I am ready for summer and so are David and the girls. The days are finally starting to get lighter and we are averaging just over 8 hours of sunlight a day now, whew I really love the light LOL. I don't like driving at night, cause it is really dark and the Moose are really dark so it makes them rather hard to see lol. That and people drive like IDIOTS up here in the snow. You would think that they would be more careful but nope they fly by you doing 80 then about 500 feet down the road you see them upside down or in the ditch or side of the freeway. It is amazing how stupid they can be. Dave counts the "ditch divers" on his way home every day he works lol.
We have had a Moose who has decided that he likes our houses trees the best. He has visited us almost every day at about 4:30am, I know this as the neighbor dogs go nuts when they see him. I can't believe they eat bark and tree branches all winter, and they stay as big as they are. I have decided to call our Moose Bullwinkle. Not sure if it is a girl or boy but we will find out this summer when it starts to grow horns.
Well got to run. Dave and Krista are home and I need to go make breakfast as everyone is starving. BTW it is still SNOWING!!! I am thinking we got about 6 or more inches and building, lucky us!!!
Friday, February 20, 2009
The painting project from HELL
Okay so we are still painting Krista's room!!! We are on coat number 3, we told Krista NEVER AGAIN will we paint a room red lol it has been a total pain the in BUTT!! It is like a child's fire truck red at this point and is very bright, she loves it and can't wait to be able to move back into it to night. David said it needs one more coat as there are some spots that are darker than others, Krista and I vote we just leave it alone as her bed and posters will cover most of the walls, we will see if we can convince him lol. Because of this David and I decided we can live with the one red wall we have in our room with the rest of the walls and bathroom a baby poop green, the thought of having to try and cover the red and that green makes us want to cry lol. We should've just had it painted before we moved in, OH WELL live and learn!!
I have been having soooooo much fun, NOT! my work computer got a virus so I have had to work off of a loaner laptop from work and it doesn't have all the software I needed so trying to limp along has been an adventure. I finally got my laptop back and guess what, it still had the virus!!!! I was on the phone with INDIA trying to get the issue resolved for 4 hours!! I finally just said forget it and fixed it my self!!! Hopefully it worked but I will know after a bit. If it didn't then I have to back everything up the the $100 external hard drive I had to go buy and ship my PC back into the Seattle office, so they can give me a new PC and I can start all over again, ah the joys of working with computers!!
David is having fun with the UMPA mobile (the cavalier) there is a short in the ground and the headlights dim on him while he is driving, not fun!! So when he gets his next day off (Sunday) he has to go through all the electrical in the car and try and find the short. Needless to say he is not very happy, but other than that it is a great little car. I jokingly told him hey why fix it, if you just wait in another 2 months we should have about 16 hours of day light then you won't need the lights lol, he did NOT think that was funny, don't know why ha ha!!
Ashley is starting to worry me, I am beginning to think we should've bought her a tank instead of a Jetta. I can see the driveway and the street from my office and I watched her back out of the driveway yesterday and barely get the car stopped before the bus went flying by her rear bumper, then she proceeded to back out and nailed the trash can on the side of the driveway and almost knock it over!! Hmmm I think she might've inherited Kelli's driving skills!!! I am waiting for the day she puts it in drive instead of reverse and pulls through the garage!!! Lord help her on that day as I think it will send David over the edge and he might actually kill her lol. We harp on her driving all the time and tease about buying Krista a crash suit just to ride to school with her, of course Ashley doesn't think that is very funny.
We are beginning to think that winter will never end here. We keep getting more and more snow. It has snowed almost everyday since we have been here!! I guess that is why they call Alaska the land of snow and ice, I can't wait for spring!! I would like sunshine and warm (temps above 40) weather. I have a ton of flower gardens and am really looking forward to seeing what flowers are already there and what I can plant. David of course is like "have fun, I'm going four wheeling" so that is fine with me. I have dreams of just me, the radio, the SUN and flowers to be planted, no Hey MOM!!! or Jen where did you put my...... it is a nice fantasy one I don't think I will see LOL.
Well got to run!!! We miss you guys!!!
I have been having soooooo much fun, NOT! my work computer got a virus so I have had to work off of a loaner laptop from work and it doesn't have all the software I needed so trying to limp along has been an adventure. I finally got my laptop back and guess what, it still had the virus!!!! I was on the phone with INDIA trying to get the issue resolved for 4 hours!! I finally just said forget it and fixed it my self!!! Hopefully it worked but I will know after a bit. If it didn't then I have to back everything up the the $100 external hard drive I had to go buy and ship my PC back into the Seattle office, so they can give me a new PC and I can start all over again, ah the joys of working with computers!!
David is having fun with the UMPA mobile (the cavalier) there is a short in the ground and the headlights dim on him while he is driving, not fun!! So when he gets his next day off (Sunday) he has to go through all the electrical in the car and try and find the short. Needless to say he is not very happy, but other than that it is a great little car. I jokingly told him hey why fix it, if you just wait in another 2 months we should have about 16 hours of day light then you won't need the lights lol, he did NOT think that was funny, don't know why ha ha!!
Ashley is starting to worry me, I am beginning to think we should've bought her a tank instead of a Jetta. I can see the driveway and the street from my office and I watched her back out of the driveway yesterday and barely get the car stopped before the bus went flying by her rear bumper, then she proceeded to back out and nailed the trash can on the side of the driveway and almost knock it over!! Hmmm I think she might've inherited Kelli's driving skills!!! I am waiting for the day she puts it in drive instead of reverse and pulls through the garage!!! Lord help her on that day as I think it will send David over the edge and he might actually kill her lol. We harp on her driving all the time and tease about buying Krista a crash suit just to ride to school with her, of course Ashley doesn't think that is very funny.
We are beginning to think that winter will never end here. We keep getting more and more snow. It has snowed almost everyday since we have been here!! I guess that is why they call Alaska the land of snow and ice, I can't wait for spring!! I would like sunshine and warm (temps above 40) weather. I have a ton of flower gardens and am really looking forward to seeing what flowers are already there and what I can plant. David of course is like "have fun, I'm going four wheeling" so that is fine with me. I have dreams of just me, the radio, the SUN and flowers to be planted, no Hey MOM!!! or Jen where did you put my...... it is a nice fantasy one I don't think I will see LOL.
Well got to run!!! We miss you guys!!!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Goodbye Yeepie, Hello Cavalier
Alright so we sold the jeep, weird thing is that the guy who flew down from Fairbanks to buy the jeep was the same guy who originally bought it from the dealer, small world huh! We bought a 2004 chevy cavalier, it has 50K miles on it and it is a 5 speed. It is the plain jane base model but hey it gets 37.5 miles to the gallon so we are happy. It needs a new drivers seat, cause the guy broke it about a month ago, but it still works you just sit way down in it like you are a little gangster wanna be LOL. So imagine Dave and I driving around town, all slouched down in the seat with our 80's hair band music playing lol!! Yeah so we haven't come up with a nickname for the cavalier yet but, we will. We informed Krista that this will be her car in 2 years so she needs to get very familiar with it. She is very excited, so Ashley started calling it the UMPA car, as Krista's new nickname is umpaloompa (after the charlie and chocolate factory short people) lol. We tease Krista that we are going to get her a personalized license plate that says UMPA and put it on her car before her 16th birthday lol. She however did NOT think that was funny!! I keep telling Ash that UMPA is catching up to her in height so she can't call her UMPA for long lol. Ash has officially stopped growing at a whopping 5'7" tall and Krista at 14 is officially 5'4" so I told Ash that in 3 years UMPA could be taller than her, Ash didn't think that was funny LOL. Oh well!!!
David, Krista and I have been painting Krista's room a fabulous color of red. Bright, bright red, like a lipstick hooker red or as David calls it Corvette red (same color as his nova) so it is really, really bright! David said it gives him a headache just being in there! Krista loves the color so I figure hey, I can just shut the door and at least it is not black! That is what she wanted to paint it, David and I said NO!!! We are going to get chalk board paint and let the girls paint the back of their doors so that their friends can write messages on it when they come over. The girls are very excited about that, they can't wait.
Other than that we are still looking for a dining table and are trying to find a normal plain jane Oak dining table that won't break when you look at it or put food on it, again surprising what people think is a "good solid" table LOL, solid in which fantasy world is what I would like to know! So far we are just keeping our eye on craigslist and the used furniture shops in town, so far nothing yet, but we are hopeful!
Well got to run. I will try and post pictures of Krista's room and the "new" car aka the UMPA mobile when I get a few minutes lol!!!
We miss you all!!!
David, Krista and I have been painting Krista's room a fabulous color of red. Bright, bright red, like a lipstick hooker red or as David calls it Corvette red (same color as his nova) so it is really, really bright! David said it gives him a headache just being in there! Krista loves the color so I figure hey, I can just shut the door and at least it is not black! That is what she wanted to paint it, David and I said NO!!! We are going to get chalk board paint and let the girls paint the back of their doors so that their friends can write messages on it when they come over. The girls are very excited about that, they can't wait.
Other than that we are still looking for a dining table and are trying to find a normal plain jane Oak dining table that won't break when you look at it or put food on it, again surprising what people think is a "good solid" table LOL, solid in which fantasy world is what I would like to know! So far we are just keeping our eye on craigslist and the used furniture shops in town, so far nothing yet, but we are hopeful!
Well got to run. I will try and post pictures of Krista's room and the "new" car aka the UMPA mobile when I get a few minutes lol!!!
We miss you all!!!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The adventure continues
Well some of you know this and some of you don't. Dave has sold his jeep, or at least he is selling his jeep. He has a guy who is coming down today from Fairbanks that wants to buy it. Dave wanted to get rid of it and get a better commuter car so poor "yeepie" is going to a new home. He is hoping to find a Honda or Toyota for a reasonable price. It is truly amazing what people "think" a dented, broken down car with a blown engine is worth. One guy has a Dodge intrepid with a blown engine listed for $5K!!! can you believe it and the car is a 1996! Dave and I are like get real people!! The dealers are not much better, good lord I know people are hurting for money but please be reasonable lol. So far he has test drove a few cars but they just haven't given him that "warm and fuzzy" feeling. So the search continues.
We went to the softball meeting last night for Ashley, and she starts practices today and she is excited for it. I am happy for her as she should meet a few more people. Our condition for Ash on this is she has to give it her all, and not slack off or skip those "optional" practices.
Krista should be starting guitar lessons soon. She got an electric guitar for her birthday in December and would like to take "official" lessons, so Dave and I are looking for a good teacher for her. Our only condition with this is that if she starts a set of lessons she has to finish them to the end.
As for me I am just trying to keep up with the new job, house, kids, David and everything else in between. I am looking forward to spring and being able to plant some flowers as I have great garden space here and looking forward to being able to get out and see what there is to see on the mainland, go 4-wheeling, camping and go to the big state fair.
Well that is about it. I posted some pictures so check them out! I am fixing my video that I shot so look for that hopefully soon. P.S. the -5 picture was the HIGH for the day, we still have a very LOOOOOOOONG time to go before spring gets here. Probably end of May before we start seeing "warm" weather lol.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Welcome to our page!! Let the laughter begin!!
Hello everyone and welcome to your new and exciting adventure with "The Fabulous Stricklan Four", yes I know you are wondering the who???? Well we are a blended family of four people who love each other, well at least most of the time. HA HA!! To our friends and family we are the crazy people who love to live up here in Alaska and commune with nature (I guess that is what you call hunting and fishing ha ha). We love to explore also love to spend time with our family, when we can. We recently where voted off the island, and promoted to the mainland of Alaska, yeah us!!! We have discovered many new and interesting things on the mainland, like Moose, hmmm they are everywhere and they like to walk out in front of you on the highways. Bears, they do not ALL hibernate in the winter, who would've guessed that one. Oh and we now get to see both black bear and grizzlies, not sure if we are excited for one of those to be looking in our windows come spring. Yes the mainland is full of fun and interesting things to do and people to stare at. It truly does take all kinds to make up the USA, especially if you happen to be looking for the opposite sex, but here in Alaska we have a saying, "The odds are good, but the goods are odd." Think on that for a bit ha ha!!!
We are enjoying our new surroundings and the space our new house has given us, the girls found that they actually like each other much better when they don't have to share a bedroom. Dave and I find that we like them much better now that we have our very own bathroom. For those of you who knew us we had a very small 2 1/4 bedroom house (1/4 bedroom was a small office) and 1 bathroom. Now you may say hmmm that doesn't sound that bad, think back on it this way, "oh we shouldn't have eaten at the new taco bell before the health inspector had given it a stamp of approval" now think about one bathroom and four people with not so happy tummies!!! Dave and I are happy to have bought our first house, no it is not our dream house, but it is a nice house with room for everyone, and room to have people over. We are discovering the "joys" of owning a house, like hey the dryer is broken cause the vent is plugged up, oh wait a minute there is no landlord to call or government maintenance guy, we have to fix it, so four hours later, with lots of lovely colorful comments we now have a working dryer!! Yeah US!! David is discovering that I can be quite the thrifty shopper and have kept him busy with "guess what I got off of craigslist today, and oh by the way it only weighs 500lbs and has to go up two flights of stairs, which of course the girls and I will help you get it upstairs, AND it only cost us $100.00 bucks!!" You can imagine the pride and joy beaming out of his face at me, you can feel the love from here can't you??!! It quickly followed that up with the "I Love you" card, which of course made everything all better! ha ha!!
So I think we are almost all settled in with the girls rooms almost all done, minus some painting that is yet to be done, and I think I will stop buying craigslist treasures, well at least I will once I buy us a dining room table, ha ha!! I will try and post some video of the house and of our latest adventure at the Willow Winter Carnival and vintage snow machine fest. I just have to edit it first ha ha. To all our family and friends we miss you and wish you where here!!!
We are enjoying our new surroundings and the space our new house has given us, the girls found that they actually like each other much better when they don't have to share a bedroom. Dave and I find that we like them much better now that we have our very own bathroom. For those of you who knew us we had a very small 2 1/4 bedroom house (1/4 bedroom was a small office) and 1 bathroom. Now you may say hmmm that doesn't sound that bad, think back on it this way, "oh we shouldn't have eaten at the new taco bell before the health inspector had given it a stamp of approval" now think about one bathroom and four people with not so happy tummies!!! Dave and I are happy to have bought our first house, no it is not our dream house, but it is a nice house with room for everyone, and room to have people over. We are discovering the "joys" of owning a house, like hey the dryer is broken cause the vent is plugged up, oh wait a minute there is no landlord to call or government maintenance guy, we have to fix it, so four hours later, with lots of lovely colorful comments we now have a working dryer!! Yeah US!! David is discovering that I can be quite the thrifty shopper and have kept him busy with "guess what I got off of craigslist today, and oh by the way it only weighs 500lbs and has to go up two flights of stairs, which of course the girls and I will help you get it upstairs, AND it only cost us $100.00 bucks!!" You can imagine the pride and joy beaming out of his face at me, you can feel the love from here can't you??!! It quickly followed that up with the "I Love you" card, which of course made everything all better! ha ha!!
So I think we are almost all settled in with the girls rooms almost all done, minus some painting that is yet to be done, and I think I will stop buying craigslist treasures, well at least I will once I buy us a dining room table, ha ha!! I will try and post some video of the house and of our latest adventure at the Willow Winter Carnival and vintage snow machine fest. I just have to edit it first ha ha. To all our family and friends we miss you and wish you where here!!!
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