Talent

Ryan, myself, and our friend Brittany were given the tough task of judging the talent show.  We had to choose 3 winners in the following categories: K-5, 6-12, and Adult.  Most of the talents were entertaining and some were surprisingly amazing!  We chose a cute girl who sang for the K-5 group.  We had a tie between a 6th grader who played the piano and sang Someone like You and a Junior who did the Evolution of Dance.  Both were outstanding!  The winner of the Adult group was a woman who played classical piano.  We had a lot of fun, but it was also stressful.  There was a lot of pressure to make the right choice and not crush anyones dreams.  I think we made good choices...it has been a few days and no one has egged our house yet.  

A friend told me she had some aloe plants to give away so I jumped on the opportunity.  When I got there, tupperware container in hand, she handed me a huge plant!  It was a momma plant with ten pups. So I split up the plants and repotted them.  Don’t they look wonderful?  They are a great addition to the other plants in our house.  I can slowly see my green thumb coming back!   

Week one of p90x is complete.  It is really hard and I am so proud of us.  Here are a few photo recaps of our week. 

Let me preface by saying, our church can no longer afford a half-time Pastor.  So a couple of weeks ago our church had a visiting Pastor come and do a full service.  It was the first time Ryan and I have been to church in a while.  At then end of the service we always have announcements.  While they were talking about upcoming events they mentioned the Southeast Cluster Assembly on March 9th.  They suggested us girls (Brittany, Dulcey, and I) go to represent our church.  Dulcey’s boyfriend, Chris, will be in Wrangell visiting so she cannot go.  But Brittany and I decided it sounds like a great time.  We will be going to Sitka from the 8th-11th to represent Wrangell in the Lutheran gathering!  I am pretty excited.  That is the setting they portray in the movie The Proposal (even though the movie is shot on the East coast).  But since viewing that movie I’ve wanted to go visit and now I get to.

  

A marks Wrangell.  B marks Sitka.
We have to fly to Ketchikan and Juneau before finally getting to Sitka.  

Working It!

Dear Family and Friends... I am sorry I have been so neglectful of our blog.  Please forgive me.  Now, where to start?

Well our most recent news involves getting healthy.  Ryan and I have started the p90x workout.  It is currently day 3 and we are pretty sore.  When I asked Ryan if he wanted to add something he looked at me and said one word, "Punishing."  We are following the diet plan and working out each morning at 5:45am!  I am really proud of us.  I also love working out together; it is a really wonderful way to enjoy some quality time.  We took several before pictures, most of which I do not want to share, but I thought you could see our head shots.  We are pretty cute.

Milo wanted a picture too.

At the beginning of this month our local Girl Scouts hosted a dog show.  Naturally I put Milo in it.  He was one of the youngest dogs at the show.  Also one of the cutest dogs there!  Milo was entered into the cutest, loudest, owner look-a-like, tricks, and agility categories.  Unfortunately he did not win anything, but he should have.  The contest was judged by the loudest applause (who brought the most/loudest family).  So because it was just Ryan, Dulcey, and Brittany in the audience Milo did not win.  But I was a proud Mommy.  He did a great job listening and doing tricks.  It was great for him to be around so many other dogs and scary for him.  At first he just wanted to sit next to Ryan with his tail between his legs, eventually he was playing, barking, and unfortunately nipping at other dogs.  Milo had picked about 3 dogs out of 15 that he just did not like.  I had never seen him act like that; I bet those other dogs were picking on him so he had to fight back.  Overall, we had a fun time.  Milo was pooped and spent the rest of the evening sleeping.

Milo doing tricks. 

We should have won look-a-like.
We even had matching scarfs.  

Smiling for the crowd.

I have been exploring Alaska through an online course I started at the beginning of February.  I have to keep a blog for that class too (which is part of the reason I haven't written on this one in a while).  If your interested in hearing what I have learned and what I have say about it check out my class blog here.  There is a ton of great information out there and I am learning a lot of information about Wrangell.

Ryan has been perfecting the art of making homemade bread.  He now has a sourdough starter.  He has made wheat, white, sourdough, potato, and mixes.  My favorite is the wheat bread.  He is going to attempt to make whole wheat soon.  That is supposed to be very difficult but I am sure he will do great.  He makes so much bread we could never eat it all so he has been giving much of it away.  People love it!

Oh! Also we have a friendly weight loss competition going on with our friends, Dulcey and Brittany.  Whichever household loses the most poundage by the end of the school year (May 24) has to prepare dinner for the other two people.  If we keep doing so wonderfully we will be the victors for sure!  I love having friends here, I know they will have to leave eventually but I do not ever want it to happen!  Also anyone else who wants to come join the fun in Alaska let us know! We'd love to have more friends and family close to us!