ICC in the winter

IMG_4373, a photo by AK Ashley Karen on Flickr.

This is one of the places we are thinking about having our wedding.
I am so thankful I have such a great thing to keep my mind busy while Dan is out of town. Planning our wedding is the worlds best I-miss-him-so-much-I-could-loose-my-mind distraction ever. :)

I am a sucker.

Little girl and her sister: Do you want some lemonade?????????? *insert big sad eyes*
Me: I don't have any money on me (truth)
Little girl and her sister: ohhhhhhhhhhhh......... *insert even bigger, sadder eyes*
Me: Well maybe if I go back to my car I can swing by later (hoping they would just have to go to bed)

no. they found me.

Little girl and her sister: Are you ready for some lemonade?????
Me: Ummmm....how much is your lemonade?
Little girl and her sister: Either a dollar or a penny.
Me: Will a quarter do?
Little girl and her sister: Yes.

So I go, get the quarter, remembering the days of trying to sell lemonade on my road, and how disappointed I would be at the end of the day.

Me: okay, here is your quarter...I only want a LITTLE BIT.
Little girl and her sister: Okay! We will make you a special glass! *run back to their house*

they came back...
Little girl and her sister: We made a new recipe. *insert concerned look on my face* It has MINT (at which point I tried to mentally turn the lemonade into a mojito) and BASIL and ROSEMARY and THYME (okay, starting to sound more like a Simon and Garfunkel song than a lemonade...) and a RASPBERRY with some WATER.

That's right. No. lemons.

Little girl and her sister: Can you taste it and let us know if you liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike it?? *insert those stupid big sad eyes again*
Me: okay.

It was horrible, chunks of leaves in a cup of water which came together to taste like a pond. In case you missed it, there were no lemons in the lemonade. Some people would think this could be an okay tea, but I am going to tell you from first hand experience, and an avid tea lover, this is not a good option.

If I get sick, I am totally going to go get my quarter back.

Hidey-ho!

Hello, I am happy to be back.

Life has been nuts-o. Absolutely nuts-o. Busy...so busy. But everyone is busy. Here are some recent updates.

Dan left. He is up North on the Haul Road. The camp he is staying in has an amazing view. Hopefully it all goes well for him. It will be his last big construction season. Thanks to my super smart fiance getting his PE (insert ridiculously excited face) he will get a new job in November, and I will not be a construction widow ever again!

Frankly, I have spent a lot of time up north. Tundra swans, caribou, muskox and snow geese, oh and lets not forget the baby foxes have filled my summer evenings. When I am not up North, we have continued to work around the house. 

Which brings me to the next bullet...we got new couches! Thats right folks. A new era has come into our living room. The era is blue and has a slight corduroy texture.

As for wedding planning...I bought my dress!! No details will be shared, I can't risk any publicity leaks. ;) I didn't mean to buy one when I did. My sister and I were like dress pirates. It was awesome and involved a broom closet with a mirror, taking another brides vial while she was changing into a different dress and a rather involved discussion on what "tubbing it" means.

Kepler is doing well. I think he has a hard time adjusting to Dan and I leaving so often for work. Luckily, his puppy grandparents welcome him with open arms. He is also having a hard time adjusting not being allowed on the new couches. The old ones were his favorite place to be...all in all he is such a happy and sweet dog and still doesn't like to get up in the mornings. Right now, his sad little puppy face is telling me to put the computer down and to pick the squeaky toys up.

 

Hello...again

...sooo, um... Hey.
I realize I have once again been a blog slacker. I haven't really been on blogger, twitter...frankly facebook. The sun started shining and ran out into the spring-time gloriousness as fast as I possible could.
However, that run quickly turned into a smack in the face of yard work and a realization that I sat on my posterior waaaaaaay too much this winter.

Birch tree slaughter in the front yard. Good thing I raked there...three times.

The house is coming along. I am fairly certain that the old lady that lived in the house before did not know what a rake was and certainly didn't care to figure it out. I don't even want to get into the monster sized sticker bushes I am currently battling. All in all we have done a lot of work. A lot more needs to get done...sooner rather than later. In the end it will be 100% worth it..until then I will be filling my evenings with twigs, rakes and bug bites. Our biggest projects involve some tree clearing due to the fact that they are too close to the house for comfort, the impending removal of all of the respective stumps and moving a huge pile of dirt that hasn't been touched by anything besides sticker bushes and mosquitoes in the last thirty years.

Kepler and his "Of course you want to play with me...ALL the time!" face

Katie, Dan's sister came to town for a couple of weeks and brought her lovely boyfriend and her adorable puppy Sable. Sable is just about the same age as Kepler. Kepler and Sable are quite possible the best puppy cousins ever. Same size...same energy level...same ridiculous need to run in circles for no apparent reason. It was super easy to keep him tired when they were in town...but since they left eh has been putting up a hard fight. I don't think he gets the whole "land of the midnight sun" issue...and can't seem to understand why I don't want to play hippo at 3:24 AM.

Kepler and his super cool "I'm too cool to stay inside the fence" face. He thinks he is like some sort of puppy rock star.

So to try my best to deal with the problem we have done our best to take him for all sorts of mini adventures. We are fortunate enough to live right on an awesome trail system, so an after work hike with the pup is an easy option. We found that he really loves going for bike rides and running along as long as he isn't on the leash and he is not really a huge fan of going for kayak rides.

This picture was taken by Dan shortly before Kepler decided to bail, and swim to shore.It was nice for the few mins it lasted.

Well back to work. Its the first cloudy evening of the summer and that means I have an excuse to sit down, watch a movie and eat Thai food.

In case you were wondering...

This is what a caribou looks like when it take a pee...now lets zoom in...

Ahh yes...got you.

slacker..

1. Being engaged is awesome!
2. Wedding planning is fun....but ohhhh soo time consuming (but I am loving every moment of it)
3. Kepler continues to be adorable. We have gone for a walk ever day since I got back from the slope. Both he and I are welcoming the warm weather and sunshine.
4. I am an official "ice road trucker" I spent 8 days in March driving the ice roads to different oil fields in Northern Alaska...but no TV appearances, just me, a co worker and a ridiculous quantity of donuts and Pepsi.
5. I cooked dinner tonight, and it didn't taste like feet.

All in all..things are going pretty dang well over here :)

We are getting MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Banana Bread in the Oven

So, its snowing outside...it finally got warm and a three day weekend is staring me down the nose...and what happens, we get sick. Luckily my immune system seems to be winning the battle, despite another few days up in Prudhoe and a migraine that has lasted over a week...but poor Dan on the other hand, is not fairing so well. I was really hoping to go to Alyeska this weekend to go skiing, but its not looking so good. In some ways, if our ski trip doesn't work out...it might be for for the best. I feel like I spend no time at home, and I am so far behind on laundry its ridiculous.

So tonight, I have my smutty tv, my favorite banana bread recipe baking in the oven, and an adorable puppy curled up next to me on the couch. If I don't go skiing but I get to have another night like tonight, it will still be a good weekend.

This photo was from our questionable ski trip up in the White Mountains...questionable due to the large boulders that tried to break my arm and my face.

Alright, puppy farted. Ew. Time to go.

not gettin' any younger

*yawn*

I dont know why...but, I haven't been sleeping particularly well. While I am not the person that requires a great deal of beauty rest...I still would like to get at least some nice, peaceful rest some time during the night hours...and apparenlty I have really sucked at doing so the last few nights. Maybe its just me getting older. Thats right folks, on Super Bowl Sunday 2011 I offically become an old lady. 26 years old. I know...break out the walker, fanny pack and orthopedic shoes.

I am going to go ahead and state the fact that its finally light outside after I come home from work. That is the BEST part of this time of year...realizing that the sun isn't a figment of your imagination and not have to worry about a headlamp every time you want to step out the front door (Okay, this might be a bit of an exaggeration...but tempting some days). I loooove Alaska, dont get me wrong...but the darkness all the time kinda sucks. And by kinda, I mean a whole lot. Anyways, tonight, I am going to go home...do some work in the yard and put Kepler in a real x-back harness for the first time. Its above zero, the sun is shinin' and I ain't gettin' no younger.

Oh and the picture at the top of this post is to remind me that summer is coming...one day.

p.s. just got back from taking the dog for a run...and lets say after half a mile in the boots, snow pants, two coats and a sweater with a tee shirt were all insulating the large excess of heat that my poor outta shape body was exerting...I was a sweaty mess. (but Kepler did a great job!)

p.p.s. Dan is putting dishes away...*sigh* simple thing bring the most happiness.

Internet!!!!!!

Oh internet, I have missed you so. It maybe a bit rocky as we get used to each other again...but oh internet, I am just not myself with out you.

While I stream my ridiculously backlogged Hulu list, we are going through a major cleaning effort this weekend. So far I have gotten rid of 55 out of my goal of 100 items...and dear Dan literally brought over a truck load of stuff from his parents house to our hosue. (I am very well aware of the fact that I am fighting a loosing battle.)

The weather has been great this weekend so Kepler has been getting his fair share of exercise...he even got to ride a snowmachine for the first time. All he really wants to do today is sleep on my bed....which frankly, is all I want to do as well.

saving the world...one phone call at a time.

So this time I was off and running around, saving the world. Okay, so I wasn't stopping the pipeline leak with my own two hands but I was working my tail off to help out any way that I could (even screened some phone calls from the White House), after a week in the office, I spent a couple of days back in Prudhoe Bay. Its been a long couple of weeks...long hours, lack of sleep and very little puppy time.
I am back..things are settling. I worked normal working hours (for the most part) today. Alaska's oil is flowing and I no longer have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning.
Tonight, I even had time for baking some banana muffins.
However...its quickly approaching my bedtime...and there is no time for wit, wisdom or babbling, me and my sweatpants have a hot date.

My random photo of the day comes from my trip to Rome in January of 2010. The world is such a magical place...I can't wait to have some time to explore it again!

Resolutions

Its that time of year where society gives us a big reset button. I think I actually heard January 1, 2011 challange me, "Okay Ashley....2010 was pretty stinkin awesome, but now you have to make 2011 even better"
1. Read more books. Now that graduate school has finished sucking my soul dry I want to learn what I want to learn...if that makes any sense. Spending tiem outdoors the last few weeks has rekindled my love for astronomy. There is nothing more beautiful than the night sky on a clear night. I passed up on an opportunity to study spectroscopy and its application in determining the atomic make up of the stars and now I can read what I want about them and when I want to.
2. Of course there is the sterotypical "get in better shape" resolution..which I hate...but I need to. ugh.
3. Work with Kepler to turn him into the worlds most well behaved dog. Okay, this one might be a little high but shoot for the stars right? I figure if I spend a really solid year focused on training and building our relationship the next however many should be much easier. This week we are doing leash training and the "lay down" command...He has already learned "sit" and shows great promise for learning things quickly.
4. Work on building our house into a home. The new house is so great, and I love it a lot...we just need to contiue to make it ours and fine tune things, both on a big and a small scale. We dont plan on this being our forever home, but there is no reason not to me it ours for now.
5. Develop my more artistic side. I have a few paintings I have promised people. I would love to get into a couple of local shows...more as a pride issue than anythign else. I also really want grow in the world of photography. Photography is a little bit more of an instant satisfaction vs. painting and I wnat to be able to document as many beautiful things this world has as I can.
6. Keep faithful to my blog :)
7. Travel to places I have never been before.
8. Become a better cook...this is for the sake of both me and Dan.
9. Be better at using resuable shopping bags
10. Waste less of everything
11. Be a better friend/sister/daughter/girlfriend..think of myself a little less and others a little bit more.

He sure is a cute puppy :)

Update 2011

Whew! It has been some busy weeks since last I updated. I have flown from Fairbanks to Anchorage to Kotzebue to Nome (got stuck in Nome due to a snow storm) to Unalakleet to Anchorage then back to Fairbanks...had Christmas with Dan, my family...dear Kepler and Mocha then hopped on another plane to go to Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse to tour the oil fields at -80 degrees (not kidding) came home after a couple hours in Barrow and packed up and then went for a snowmachine trip down the Denali Highway (photo above) the next day to bring in the New Years with some friends.

Well now I am back. Back to a normal routine. Honestly I couldn't be happier that A. I got to experience all of that and B. to be home...on my couch about to watch a movie with Dan with my puppy at my feet.