FORT and night before FORT

Last week Michael and I started talking about making a snowfort. He's from Alabama and has never done such a thing.Well, says I, no time like the present! I spent the week daydreaming about my snow chair with my initials in it and our snow fridge stocked with bevvies. This afternoon it came to fruition!
I did some xmas shopping at the craft fair, Bearing Song, and Anvil book store and then headed home. I was waiting for a text from Michael saying he was ready. Might as well bake some cookies for Aprille's cookie exchange while I wait! I used this recipe, kind of. They were AWESOME. I used 1/2 cup white and 1/2 cup brown sugar and instead of vanilla used 1/2 tsp molasses.
THEN we started on the snowfort.

This is the pile between our houses that will soon be a fort. Actually a cave. But fort is funner to say.

Uncle Todd (also Bama) me and Katie discussing logistics

Michael digging out. Beard's inside pushing snow out.


See?!

FORTifying the outside.

Steamy inside.

Michael and Katie

Uncle Todd worked his way in too and got a few snaps. His camera was flash happy. He's going to email the pics.
Most of the time Beard and Michael were taking turns digging out or were both inside digging out and Katie and I were piling snow on the top and sides. More work will be done tomorrow.

Here's some sun and moon pics from yesterday:

This in on the drive from town (where Katie and I tried to renew our chauffeurs' licenses) to NACTEC.

The colors made the mountains look not real.

Pictures never really seem how it really seemed.

Friday-after-session beers at Mark's new apt.

Brought to you by sunset.

That's frozen ocean.

And the moon wanted some attention.

Fine moon...we all see you...HELLO!

After all the snow activities, Beard and I cleaned up and went to Old St. Joe's for a comedy show based on David Sedaris's Santaland Diaries. Pretty funny. And then ditched out on drinks at Airport Pizza with the KNOMers. We were pooped, and cheap...I mean frugal.

TIME BACKWARD...continues. These are from yesterday morning--before I went to work. I like neighbor's xmas lights. Pre-sunrise.

Note planet and new hospital.

sure

see more There I Fixed It

I can see us doing this....with homebrew!

sunrise

As promised, (I never break a facebook promise) here is the sunrise blog post. These pictures were taken between 11:30am and 1:30pm-ish. I woke up about quarter after 11 and ate lunch around 1:30 and took the pictures in between.

While internetting, I glanced to my right and saw the above photo. I thought, "Hey, I should take a picture of the sunrise today."

"I'll get a vertical snap, too, for good measure."

A bit later, "Huh, now it's half the sun. Cool."

"Where are you going, pal?'

Peek-a-boo!

Poof!

And....we're back.

Pretty light.

Hey Ginger! I just watched you poo.

Beard basking in the sunlight.

And (why is this blue and underliny?) this is where the sun stayed. This high (3 fingers) until I went to work. It used to move from one window across the sky to the other. Now it to 1.5.

dentist & full circle

I called to make dental appointments for Beard and I (such a good wife, snicker snicker) and the first question the woman who answered the phone asked was, "Are you native or non-native?" "Um...non-native." "Do you work for Norton Sound Health?" "No." "You need to call across the street to Dr. Stang." "Ok...Thank you."
I was caught a bit off guard. I knew there was a dentist specifically for the native population--he's the one who gave us the moose meat--I just didn't know the questioning would be so blunt. I mean, I guess they need to know and their answering machine DID say they were short staffed...
So we have teeth cleanings coming up in January. It'll be interesting comparing him to Hovorka!
Also, I don't know how I feel about having a dentist by the name of Stang. Seems painful.

This is probably not Dr. Stang. It was the first photo that came up when I googled nome dental clinic.

BREAKING NEWS! THIS JUST IN!

Our Full Circle Farms box usually comes in on Thursday and Beard picks it up from the Nazarene church between 5 and 7. This week we had a snow storm and the box didn't come in on Thursday. Or Friday. Or Saturday or Sunday b/c they were packing planes with people who missed their flights Thursday and Friday b/c of the storm. NomeAnnounce said we could pick them up Monday from 5-7. I was at work and Beard spaced it b/c he has EMT training around that time. (He passed the test and is now and ETT, btw.)


He called FCF first and left a message about our box and if it came in. He then called the church and was told that all the boxes had been picked up by their owners or given to the food bank. Boo but at least it's going to a good cause. Then FCF called back and said that b/c the boxes were so late and had come in frozen (we didn't know that but it's probably from sitting on the tarmac for days) they were refunding our money and crediting us $5 for our trouble. That was nice of them!

Looking forward to this again on Thursday!

1st big snow

Sunrise--a couple days before Thursday and Friday's storm.

I can't remember if I've posted pictures of what goes on at the NACTEC house--the place where I spend the majority of my working hours. We have CAT simulators at the house where kids can get hours of heavy equipment training in their free time.
Students come from the 15 villages in the Bering Strait School District, Nome Beltz Jr/Sr High, and the Chugach School District. Our maximum capacity is 26 kids. We usually have 2-4 classes going each session. During the current session we have driver's ed (we have the only driver's ed program in 80,000 miles) and welding.
During my shift we make dinner, do chores, and have an evening activity. For example, tomorrow night students have the option to go to the rec center to watch city league basketball or go to a bread making class. Usually I plan the first week's menu and then the kids plan the second week.

Kids

Mike (houseparent & neighbor) with student.

We got some snow last week. Thursday I thought it was a lot and then it didn't stop. Friday there was a lot more. Here's the door Friday morning. Believe it or not, Beard's plane landed that afternoon.

Lots of snow

We won't be driving in there for a while.

Highlight of the month, so far, Fireman's Carnival! Lots of stuff given away--snowmachine, 4-wheeler, freezer, etc--on raffle. And...

Bingo Bango Bingo! We DID NOT win. Anything. No turkeys, no goggles, no shovels.

Who can I give my dollars to?

The losers are home! Notice that we did a lot of shoveling Saturday day. Look--even the mat's clear!

Back to the NACTEC house--Kids on the simulators

More simulators. These are on the 2nd floor of the NACTEC house.

Jr. High kids at the museum, learning about the Iditarod.

Nathan and Mark "working" AKA teaching Mark how to use his iPhone4. I say that b/c Mark calls it his iPhone4. If you look closely at Nathan's white board you'll notice all his to-do headings are AC/DC songs.

Look! I'm TANNING! Where's my fruity drink?

This snow's not going to shovel itself!

Hi--YAH!

Queen of the MOUNTAIN--RAR!

In front of our house. I could gain 40 lbs and STILL look this hot in my carhartt's.

Hardly any days left until christmas break! The time has flown by since the beginning of the school year. What's your December like so far?