December 8th

It was so darn cold in Alaska this weekend. There is a huge difference between 0 and 65 especially if you reside in the 65 more than the 0. On Saturday we got ready to leave- our flight left at 2:30 pm but we had to drop off Pepper first and so made it out of the house by 11:45- then of course the Pet Smart was in a mall and it was a Saturday so the parking was pretty difficult but finally we got Pepper all taken care of and headed to the airport. It went pretty smooth we all were precheck so were able to get through security quickly then up to the board room so Rainey could enjoy a soda, pretzels, cheese cubes and a sugar cookie. We did have a short layover in Seattle and landed in Anchorage about 10:30 pm. I went out to start the car and by the time I got back up to baggage our bags were already there and ready to go. Brrrrr....it was cold I got the blanket out of my bag and wrapped it around Rainey- turned on the heated seats up front and turned the heat to High and off we went. Such a difference driving up there than down here- but it was extremely festive and wintery in Alaska - We had to stop by the office and check the mail and by the time we got out to the house it was almost midnight. Jordan was waiting - he had been burning for a few  hours and cleaning out the garage area and of course waiting for Rainey- the house is generally cold this time of year. I had Jordan plug in a heater upstairs in the bedroom to take a bit of the cold  away but it stayed about 62 most of the time. That room has a ton of windows and a sliding glass door and the cold gets through. On Sunday morning I went to get food from Mcdonalds with a stop at Fred Meyers for water, coffee, milk, things like that and then dropped off the food and headed to Three Bears for stuff I needed to take to book club. Then back to the house to pick up Jordan and take him to work and then back to the house to drop off Rainey and head to Target because I still needed items for book club and then back to the house to wrap my items for book club and to gather everything including Rainey and leave for book club. We were about 20 minutes late and I had to make real mashed potatoes and gravy and do the rolls and bread but the dinner turned out amazing and I mean truly amazing. We stayed until 6:30 - we were in Peter's Creek and headed back to the valley to pick up Jordan at 7 pm - then back to the house to drop off Rainey and Jordan and to pick up Tom - we went to see Jeremy (our old guitar instructor) at his blues jam ) back to the house by 9:30 pm and tired- Monday  morning- off to get food this time Rainey asked for just pancakes with two syrups and a hash brown and chocolate milk. I buzzed by Starbucks for a coffee because I was in need. I had been planning on getting Starbucks and taking it over to the school with Rainey at 8:30 in the morning and giving a treat to Ms.Furlong (her kindergarten teacher) and to Bonnie her 1st grade teacher- Bonnie had not seen her since May and Ms. Furlong had not seen her since August of 2015- but it was dark and cold and I could not get myself motivated that early in the morning so I decided to go at 3:45 ish when school got out. I then had to go to Walmart to pick up boxes and tape and bankers boxes for Tom to start packing his office and I was standing in a very long line looking at my Facebook when I saw a message from Finger Lake PTA saying that Ms/ Furlong would be greatly missed. ( I had seen a post earlier that morning from a friend that works at Finger Lake saying that a friend and colleague had passed away the day before but did not give any names)  .... Ms. Furlong????? I was in shock .. I made it through the line with my sunglasses on holding back the tears but as soon as I got out the doors I was sobbing and hyperventilating and dry heaving.. I volunteered in her class even when Rainey was in 1st grade and no longer in Ms. Furlong's class... she was on the PTA with me .. Tom loved Ms. Furlong...we all did.. it was such a shock.. and I was heading there in just a few hours to say hi. She had had surgery on her knee on Friday and went to stay with a fellow teacher on Saturday and was doing great .. on Sunday she was going to go to the school and get stuff ready for the sub and so the other teacher went to get her up and she was unresponsive and she did CPR and nothing so called 911 and they could not revive her - not sure of the cause but it does not matter because she is gone. AT this point in the morning Rainey also had a Skype appointment with an agency in NYC to Skype for 30 minutes - audition for a new game show that ABC is doing similar to Smarter than a 5th grader and so I had to get my emotions under control and get that ready and then after that we had to leave for her meeting with her counselor and for her testing. BTW - exciting news- she is reading 199 words a minute- they expect 105  at this age and grade level- and in math she got 56 and they expect 40- on the math in May they want 56 at the end of the year and she is already at that so when testing in May she should have no problem hitting the 68 full points. Back to the house - I had to have a 30 minute nap-- I had a terrible headache by this point. Then I had to spend an hour running errands and back to the house and we all piled in the car to head to Anchorage to have dinner with Adrienne at Baby Bear. We met them at Gallos on Artic about 6:15 pm and stayed until about 8 - I already posted pictures on here and then back out to the valley where I had to get suitcases organized - find more Christmas decorations in the garage and try to get a few hours of rest. Our flight left at 5am and we boarded at 4:20 and we arrived at the airport at 4:05 am and by the time we got out of the car, checked in and through security it was 4:25 am and we headed straight to the plane.... and that was our weekend in Anchorage. We made it home at 1:30 pm ...went to get Pepper... he was not ready-- by the time all that was done we were back up here by 4 pm and Rainey was asleep at 7:30 pm and I was out at 8:30 .. we did manage to order Chinese for dinner before falling asleep... early morning on Wed- she had to be at the orthodontist at 9 am and then back to the apartment for her acting coach- I went to Walmart during that time for groceries and then a shower and hair for Rainey to get ready for Audition technique class and finally home where she discovered she likes my spaghetti - go figure...