Thursday

I was going to try and upload some pictures to my blog. It seems to be faster to upload them to facebook  but I like putting them on my blog. Personally I prefer my blog over facebook. I enjoy facebook but it just seems a bit informal and more like snippets of a life rather than the meat and potatoes of someone's life.

College started this week. I am taking three classes this semester. Taking one with Adrienne out here at the college and two online. Adrienne is taking fulltime classes this summer. Renae is taking the summer off from school and working fulltime. Rainey ended 3 yr old preschool this week and has the summer off. She will be taking soccer, dance, library summer reading program(once a week) gymnastics, learn to skate and swimming lessons this summer. Then when school starts again she will be in 4 year old preschool. We have a great school pretty much next door to us. They built it three years ago and keep adding on each summer. If we left our yard and cut across the woods we would be there in 3 min (that is how close.) if we drove it would take less (depending on traffic and the cars dropping off and picking up) she calls it the red school.

Adrienne, Jeff and some friends went camping in Seward this past weekend. They left on Friday afternoon and Rainey and I decided to drive down on Saturday and take them out to lunch at Ray's Boathouse. It was 3 hours from our driveway to pulling into Seward (and I was  not speeding) just going by the GPS but at any rate long day for me but beautiful scenery and Rainey loved it down there. We played on the beach for a while and had some icecream and lunch, looked at boats etc.

Tom, Rainey and I are going to go to Lands End in Homer for my birthday. We had thought about just flying down but decided by the time we drove the hour to the airport, parked, checked in , it would be another hour and then almost an hour down there, bags and getting to Lands End we would be almost the same time by driving and being able to see the scenery and have a car while we were there. So driving it is :)

We have been  home from Arizona 15 days now and are already homesick. :) so we are going back down next week for a long weekend. It is going to be  hot but fun. They are doing some canopy course that Tom is interested in plus he is 12 jumps shy of 200 at Skydive since starting there in Sept of last year. I am going to watch him and work on summer school work. Should be fun.

It has been a really cold May so far. Not warm at all. In fact a bit on the chilly side.  I am hoping that June picks up a bit. I was thinking of taking Rainey for an adventure up to Talkeetna next week for a drive or maybe this weekend. but this weekend I have to get ready for the picnic and clean the house a bit. Never a dull moment around here !!

New Ring

My new ring. I love it. I got it on clearance from QVC. Very pretty colors.

Rainey

Rainey and I had a small challenge yesterday over what I wanted  her to wear and what she wanted to wear. After giving it some thought I decided to take her shopping in Anchorage and let her pick out clothes that she liked and would wear and ones that I could live with as well including shoes. Off we headed to the 5th ave mall. I used to be under the impression that she needed "nice" translated to expensive shoes but now I see that she just grows out of them and usually chooses to wear the cheap ones instead of the expensive ones and that is where the challenges come into play. So we went to Famous Footwear and she got two pair of Dora sandals and one pair of Toy  Story cowboy boots. All three including socks were cheaper than one pair of Danskos. ( I may be getting the hang of this :) then off to Gymboree where she picked out three cute dresses. OK everything going good and on our way to Costco we passed the Kid to Kid store (used) they had a jeep outside that I was contemplating getting for her but had my car instead of the Yukon so that was a no go but she was having a blast inside.. they have the best  bows and since it is spring/summer in Alaska she is need of spring jacket choices so we picked up six jackets and in fact this morning when it came time to get dressed she was on top of it and it went very smoothly. We are not just waiting for preschool to start so that I can drop her off and head over to my massage. :)

AGT

I love this show and enjoy it over the summer. The only other shows I watch (on tv at a scheduled time) are Suvivor and that is over until September and The Apprentice and that will be over on Sunday and so Americas Got Talent takes up the slack over the summer for something to watch on tv on Monday and Tuesdays.

Monday

I usually do way too much for Mother's Day and it ends up being overwhelming with everyone crabby by the end of my "Mothers Day Plans" so this year I decided that we would take it easy and break into two parts. On Saturday we went to Benihana's for dinner and on Sunday we went to see a movie and had a small turkey dinner at home. It worked out great and I enjoyed myself. I think the girls enjoyed themselves and we did not get stressed out and overloaded. I am learning that simplifying things is actually a pretty good thing instead of overdoing everything.

We are  having the family Memorial Day picnic here on .. well Memorial day :) The trees are greening up and so is the yard. The lake is melted and beautiful so it should be a nice  picnic.

Home Sweet Home

We had a great trip. We left Wed night/Thursday morning and flew to Portland and then on down to Phoenix. A balmy 85 when we arrived at 9 am and a balmy 95 at  the dropzone by the afternoon. Tom got in a few jumps the first day. I went to Target where I got the deal of a deal. For some reason we need an extra suitcase every time we travel so I decided to get it at the beginning rather than the end since I was at Target anyway. We have a certain suitcase that Target sells and it usually runs about 100 but I found one on clearance (kind of a mustard color ) for 70 which I thought was great so off I go to the check out and low and behold she tells me it rang up at 29.99 .. what a steal of a deal :) pretty proud of myself. I stocked it with all the items that I bought. Blister care, bandages, three cute summer short skirts, a dress for rainey, hairspray, wrinkle spray, wine, snacks for Tom, those little tuna containers with crackers for me, oh and a cute new nightgown for me and a cute swimsuit cover up for .. you guessed it... ME.. Lots for ME !! anyway back to the dropzone where I took a cat nap in the car with the air conditioning blowing on me. Then I worked on some stuff for Renae. I told her I would help her with some school research and she had to have it turned in by 7 pm that night. A few cranberry and vodkas in the Bent Prop and there delicious veggie wrap (crammed with fresh veggies) and we were off to Dove Mountain.

I cannot say enough about Dove Mountain because we love it. We just do not love the food. Very expensive and pretty yucky. On Monday when Tom came back from Skydiving it was about 3pm and he said you want to go down and get some lunch and I said no but what I do want is to go to Red Lobster so we got in the car and drove about 15 miles to Red Lobster. I think we were so excited we ordered way more than we needed :) we had cups of chowder, one biscuit each , she forgot the salads and we ate about .25 of our dinner. I weighed this morning and I lost 1 pound on vacation. We order off the kids menu for room service at Dove Mountain( seriously.) at any rate we went out to the pool  then to the outdoor bar for dinner where they do the sunset celebration and we were asleep by 8 pm (we get wiped out on all night travel)

Friday - up at 6 am, Tom leaving at 7 am I went to the gym and put in 15 miles. He was back by 2:30 because this time of year the dust devils kick up and it is not safe for skydiving or rather landing :) we went out to the pool for 2.5 hours had some pina coladas.. had three each but ummmm they were good and it was hot and the pool was nice and it was great. Dinner off kids menu :) in bed by 9 pm

Saturday - up at 6 am Tom leaving at 7 am and I got in 16 miles today and back out to pool  with dinner at the CORE which is there signature restaraunt. Tom had buffalo filet which was not on the menu and I had the Atlantic Rockfish. We ate outside with the soft, warm breeze and it was very pleasant and nice. We rented One for the Money but were again asleep by 9 pm. (Vacation wears us out)

Sunday - Tom slept in till 7 am because Brianne (his coach) had a Flocking class that day but we decided to go up and he could get in some jumps so off we went to the dropzone. I wore my tennis shoes and shorts because I was going to get in 10 miles walking on the road while Tom jumped. That was a joke I made it 2 miles and 2 miles back in the 100 degree heat with my glasses sliding off my face, dying, and could not force myself to go back out there and do it again. Exercising outside in that type of heat is a killer. My face was red, I had to drink a ton of water ect.  ..at any rate my body needed a rest  that day. I think we stayed until 2 pm and then the dust situation but Tom had a massage at 4:30 and I had a reflexology at 4 pm with a pedicure after so we headed back to Dove Mountain and got in our suits ( the spa has its own pool ) nobody was out there so it was great and we had a pina colada and then off to my spa treatments. I was relaxed and worn out by 6 pm. We had room service - kids menu :) and then watched the Apprentice, actually I watched it till 10 .. Tom was asleep by 9 .. skydiving in that heat takes a toll on you.

Monday - Tom leaves at 7 am .. I am back in gym - 14 miles then I decided to go out to the pool so I spent 3 hours out there and got a great tan but I was so tired and wanted a nap so I headed up to the room to take a quick nap before Tom got back but he called and said he was only 5 min away and so we went to Red Lobster - watched the sunset celebration, I did some packing

Tuesday - up at 5:30 am in the car by 6:45 packed and ready to go. Tom had tunnel at 8:30 and then got in 5 jumps. I went shopping ( the extra suitcase came in handy) . Our plane left at 4 pm. It takes an hour to get to the airport. We left SDAZ at 1:45 had to get gas and got to the airport at 3:00 pm . We have it down were Tom drops me off outside and shows his ID and leaves to return the car and ride the bus back. I check us in and wait for him. He got back at 3:25 (remember plane leaves at 4 pm and we are still not through security) we were the last ones on. I think we got on the plane at 3:50 pm. Whew.. what a trip.

Home at 10:30 pm where it was 55 degrees and daylight. I am happy to be home.

good morning

1. Lots to do today.
2. Exercise this morning
3. Shower
4. Laundry in between everything
5. Take RB to chuckee cheese
6. Shopping at 5th ave with RB for an outfit to take with on trip
7. Buy suntan lotion and static spray
8. Pack ( after Tom gets the suitcases down from the attic)
9. Exercise
10. Bank
11. Pay bills before leaving
12.Help Renae with homework this afternoon
13. Survivor at 7pm
14. Last minute packing (checking in paperwork)
15. VACATION