From the warm and sunny

sidewalks of Kierland at 2pm yesterday afternoon ...

we were home at 2 a.m. to winds gusting at 45 mph.
We had a wonderful time basking in friendship and sunshine.
Now it might be time to hit the laundry and mail piles .. in about that order.
(I really like to put off the latter as long as I can.)

I do have to tell you that Anna walked into the Holiday gas station store last night in Anchorage dressed just as lightly as she was having a cold drink with her godmother Fran yesterday afternoon.

Made me nearly giggle.

We're still traveling ...

and soaking up sunshine. It is mixed in with a few clouds today, but I'm still wearing flip flops. :)

Be home in a few days and I'll have something on here by the weekend.

The morning of traveling after a night of ...

 "I don't feel good. I'm freezing cold."
You have got to be kidding me.
And I don't mean the chicken. She could lay a few more eggs for me ... I mean the girl.
I really do have to work today. The Urgent Care closes before I'm home.
Will see how she feels today at school. No option to stay home.
Homework must be collected and a test to take.

The other teen traveler is off today.
"I really didn't know what time we were leaving ...." Hmph. She has a mound and a half of work to get busy on. I'm guessing we'll be spending some quiet days at the public library with our noses in school work.

Last night was a hailstorm of teen and mom for a while.
"No, you are not taking that!"
"What is wrong with it? I wore it last time and you didn't care."
"Do you have jeans packed without holes in the knees?"
"Do you have a purse I can borrow?" (Thank goodness for Alyx's closet!)
"I need a new toothbrush."
"I should probably weigh my bag." (Wonder how many shoes are in that one!)
It really wasn't a pretty thing to witness.
Some of the males around here hid in the man cave ... the others just plain escaped!

Gotta go start the car. 11 degrees out there.
Went and looked.
-11 out there. Those little - signs just sort of creep up on you!

In case you were wondering ... and even if you weren't.

6:25 a.m. Driving east along PW Highway: still too dark to see the outline of the mountains and the car thermometer reads -11.

6:47 a.m. After waiting for a bus and then driving west to fill my gas tank I turned back east along the same road. I can now see the outline of the mountain (at least part of it) and the car reads 8 above! It really is only 2 miles from the bus stop to the gas station.

Pull onto our road, which really isn't that long, and the temp starts dropping. By the time I've parked in my spot it is now down to -2. Come in the house and the temp reads -10 on the thermometer out on the porch.

Go figure!

0.2 degrees

at 8:56 pm on Tuesday.

I'm packing.
I'm ironing and packing.
I'm starching, ironing and packing.
Somedays I so wish I liked to shop.
I wish it was a hobby.
This wouldn't be such a serious problem.
This packing.

The laundry room is nearly presentable. Whew!
Denim is nearly all cut. Yes, that's what I do when I'm heading out of town.
I get downright frantic about projects.
Doesn't make any sense to me either.

The bright side.
We now have butter, eggs and toilet paper in the house.
Toilet paper has been an issue for the past few days.
Do you ever get to that point?
The point of using dinner napkins?
We didn't make it to the starched linen ones, so it really wasn't that bad.
So if you come over to visit and I don't have a napkin to serve your pulla on ...
you know why.
We used them all.

Back to packing.
Back to dishes.
Back to laundry.

I just had to hop on and make sure that flights I purchased nearly a year ago still existed.
Whew!
I would have had some mighty disappointed girls.

All I can say is Wow!

Friday evening I came home from work to find the wood master at my kitchen table drinking coffee ... with the frame propped up in the dining room.

The photos for this canvas were shot in March of 2009 and it has been waiting to hang on the wall for quite a while. Frans will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but it is actually a compilation of over ten photos taken at Hatcher Pass. I didn't know how to make stretcher bars ... and really don't think I have the tools to make a frame that this piece was worthy of.

On to Friday. These guys learned how to stretch canvas and did a mighty fine job of it.

(Note the frame is signed by the maker.)

After finding some studs and doing the measuring ... up it went.

These wall photos I took on Saturday. The sun was most definately not shining at

9:00 pm Friday evening. Soon. Not yet.

I wish I had a wall that would hold just the piece itself but I don't.

Will do some juggling on this wall, but I do like eclectic jumbles.

The completed piece measures 17" x 56" and has caused me many moments of pause.

Just to gaze at it in wonder.

It is such a combination of love and talent.

My brother Frans did the photography when he was up here on vacation.

My husband took the original wood and crafted it into an entertainment center that has been with us for a very long time. The wood he got from a dear man we have known even longer than that.

The frame made by our friend Russell, whose work we admire and appreciate.

He is so talented.

By the way, it is now Sunday morning.

Saturday included:

 * a successful trip to the outpatient clinic (if you go early enough the waiting room

    isn't full beyond cacpacity)

 * the pantry got a thorough cleaning

 * 65 cds burned rather quickly in the burn barrel, but made quite a stink

 * accidentally started following the recipe for bread instead of pulla and ended up

    making both

 * a back end of Tahoe full of charitable donations got dropped off and we only came

    out of the thrift store with 2 things ... one of which is a puzzle that Tia and I started

    putting together last evening

 * cupcakes made for this evenings coffee at church which I am on committee for (will

    see how this works, but it is President's Day tomorrow!)

 * President's Day and my kids still have school tomorrow .. they were off for MLK

    and Valentine's Day ... go figure

 * the laundry room is an absolute disaster and I will not board a plane on Wednesday

    night unless it is clean (To Do List)

 * I found Tide laundry detergent on clearance at Target

 * I also bought eggs for the first time in what seems like forever ... they certainly

    taste different than ours

 * The sky is light enough before 8 am to not need headlights

 * The temp was up to about 20 yesterday afternoon and a whopping -1 this morning

    with clean looking snow and no wind.

The ticker stopper.

This one is capable of being a mommy ticker stopper.

They all are. It just happens to be this one lately.

He just seems to find things to do that make my heart go thump. Or is thud?

After a stop for Ramen Noodles ....

  

he's off on the snowboard. I haven't been to Hatcher Pass once this winter. He's been there enough for all of us. In reality, he's working on PE credit by spending time on his snowboard and should have no problem earning it quickly. Maybe not quickly, but he's got to be almost there. 

Yesterday's text message answer to the inquiring mom went like this:

"Resting from boarding in 3 ft of pow[der] and I survived a avalanche mom ..

It was awesome!! It covered the road with 6 feet of snow!"

Voi etta!

Pitching and painting.

Lots of stuff.

Why on earth do we accumulate so much stuff and why is it so difficult

to part with so much of it?

This blow dryer went to the dear dipsy dumpster a while ago, but was one of those things. It has helped peel up flooring several times, dried paint numerous times, traveled thousands of miles around the country ... and it finally gave up the ghost.

Made me kinda sad.

Yes, we are in pitch mode over here. Big time.

I just went through my closet. That really doesn't take long if you do it often enough.

Haven't worn it in a year? It's gone to the poor soul who buys it from the nearest thrift store. Let's hope they appreciate it more than I do now. Better yet, let's hope it fits them better than me! I won't be envious.

This week it has been the pitching of big stuff. Selling it if we can, pitching it if we must.

Our used car lot.

If you don't have teens yet, just wait a little bit.

Toyota Camry is a very nice car. Sort of ran "itself" out of oil a while back. Can't find a used motor anywhere (here or abroad apparently) and it has sat here long enough.

Red VW made a serious attempt at ditch diving recently and is no longer operable.

Let's just say that even the roof of the car has a bit of a buckle in it.

Definately not going to be staying with us.

Then there is this nifty pickup. Good running thing. Just needs a clutch replaced ...

and the driver/owner won't be needing it anymore.

They are all scheduled for pickup this afternoon.

Cross your fingers. 

By the time the weather is predicted to warm up in the next few days from this -6 we're experiencing today ... we'll be ready for dump runs.

I was serious about the pitching if you didn't believe me.

We hauled a rather large entertainment center up here with us.

Jari had fashioned it from wood removed from a 1930 circa barn.

It now stands in a pile and is scheduled for pickup.

For this one I'm making a bit of a trade.

I do want a picture frame made out of some of it.

It is really beautiful stuff and will complement the canvas photo very well.

Not only are we pitching ... we're fixing.

Master bathroom is done!

New flooring, trim and paint.

Main bathroom got paint where it needed it as well.

Next on the paint list is Tia's room.

Right now my hubby has water line and heating tape stuff stretched all over the house. He's working on getting water running to someone's cabin up the road.

Me? I'm blogging for a minute. Then off to a visit at the doctor, a conference for a kiddo and you can only imagine the other things.

While you're imagining, come up with something good for me.

Pretty please.