Firsts

FIRSTS


1. Who was your FIRST prom date?

Sadly never been to prom

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?

No, but if I saw him, I would

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?

Strawberry Diaquiri, yummy, I didn't know it was alcoholic when it was handed to me

4. What was your FIRST job?

My first paying job was probably through AVCP on the Summer Hire Program headed by Nus Carl and I worked at the clinic and the Council Office

5. What was your FIRST car?

My very own car that I bought and paid for myself was a Chevy Corsica, I loved that car!

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?

No text today, I hardly text

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?

My children, because I make their lunches

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?

Mrs. Elsie Carl along with Mrs. Elliot, I can't remember her first name

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?

Probably Bethel to Kipnuk a few days after I was born

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and do you still talk?

Lenna May White, and yes we talk, usually daily, but since I'm off and on work, maybe two or three times a week.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?

Probably at Nangyuns

12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?

People at work

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?

Wow, I hadn't thought of that, but it was Fannie and Mista's wedding, me and Marr carried Fannie's trail thing off her wedding dress (when they used to do that, now they don't, I wonder why?

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?

Opened my eyes, moved the covers off myself, shut off the alarm, took a few steps to the bathroom and started the shower.

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?

Randy (OMG I forgot his last name!) had to google Travis! When he came to Fairbanks, the day before Kayla was born.

16. What was the FIRST record/tape?

I honestly don't remember, probably a recorded tape.

17. FIRST hospitalization?

Giving birth to Kayla, 18 yrs ago, how the time has flown!

18. FIRST foreign country you’ve been to?

Panama with the 962nd AACS

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?

I think Lady and the Tramp when they used to show movies at the school when school got out for the summer

20. When was your FIRST detention?

I think in 10th grade and I can't remember for what .... oh yeah, we'd have enterprenuership (sp?) class making wooden knives and me and another girl skipped cuz we got to school late and washed our hair instead in the bathroom and a teacher aide came in and asked us what we were doing LOL.

21. Where did you FIRST meet your spouse/partner now?

In Edmond Oklahoma.

22. Who was your FIRST roommate?

Ariana White, in Tech School

23. What did you do with your FIRST paycheck?

Probably spent it on junk food, naam, wish I still had it.

Just for my friend Soph

To my friend Sofelia

.... we laughed, and we laughed hard and are still laughing

Top 10 things of laughs *of things that I've seen happen or happened to me

1. Walking so carefully in the ice, hands clenched inside gloves (and you could tell the fingers aren't in the finger parts of the gloves) and then slipping on your back super hard, like ice beneath you cracking hard, walking into church (Qussauyaq Kashatok)

2. In Sunday school when kids are gathered together, waiting for the leader to come up to the podium, two rows of kids on pews, Agnes Kugstun punches Ben Dock in the row behind us and says "We're supposed to love eachother when we're in church!"

3. Duutii "What you are you gonna eat when we have no more food?" when I didn't want to eat my Chicken Ala King from the good old Kipnuk High Cafteria lunchline, and she had eaten everything but the corn. "Ciin-mi tuakut nerenriciiki?"

4. Me and Sofe walking really fast into the dark road in Anchorage and I said "What if we run into a moose?"

5. At the famous Gaslight, Donna, Sophie and I looking around, Sofe says "Don, there's your boyfriend!" and the yucky guy came up to us three and asked Sophie to dance and we burst out laughing! Naklleng, poor guy ... Sofe, did you dance with him?

6. Leaving the Northway Mall by that bakery entrance "Did you see the big earholes on that guy?"

7. At the end of the church service, I said to Christine, "Atam Frank-aq" Frank Paul was up at the podium listening to whoever the guest speaker was with his mouth open, me and Chris were in the choir robes in the front rows and were supposed to be exiting right after Frank and couldn't stop giggling and Fannie John Amik was sitting next to us and joined in our laughter and couldn't stop laughing either!

8. In the middle of 'Bringing the Sheaves' the lights went out and everbody at church all of a sudden stopped singing. I was sitting next to Miisaq Amik and my mom and couldn't contain my laughter at the sudden stoppage.

9. My dad, exhaling away on the last of his cigarette in the woodstove as I hung up my coat on the wooden coat rack by the door. The coat rack fell from too much weight on one side, the long tip of it cut my dad's cigarette in half and he tataamallaked back while he held on to the other end of what was left of the cigarette!

10. After mopping my room with lots of soap, Donna dumped soapy water all over the stairs outside our house. The qerrun was full and Oscar had just had an appendectomy, Dad and both older brothers had left for fishing. Mom wanted to bring the qerrun down the stairs to make it easier for Donna and I to take the qerrun to the dumping site. The soap made the stairs really slick and Mom spilt the qerrun all over the stairs and was still sliding down the stairs while Aparlliq and Qak'aq were walking by doing their rounds after curfew and they asked "Qaill piceci?"

100th Day of School

Children everywhere (well, these parts of the world) are celebrating the 100th day of school on February 9th.

I think its a great idea to recognize how far the kids have come along in learning and achieving goals.

We never had such days when I was growing up. The most significant part of the school year were the first day of school and the final day of school.

Jeffrey's kindergarten class is doing a project to bring in 100 things that the kids can count and show off for the 100th day.

Raven's class did the same thing last year and I didn't get to see what all the other kids brought in. Raven beaded a 100 bead necklace of different colors with the tenth bead a certain color to signify 'tens' to make it easier to count.

I wanted to do something different for Jeffrey, but running out of ideas. I thought of doing a poster board and showing off 100 things he has learned since starting school. Like the 26 letters of the alphabet, the colors, shapes, etc. But that might be too time consuming for a 5 year old to do. So, I might resort to him pasting 100 pieces of macaroni or millions of little things we have around the house to some kind of shape. Or maybe we could do a 100 piece marshmallow pyramid .... maybe 100 strands of dog hair that our smelly dog sheds, ewwww (maybe not).

Around this time of the year, when I was growing up, we'd be busily coloring away printed out Valentines every chance we got. We'd put our carefully colored pieces of paper shaped beautifully and cut with care, into Valentine's Day boxes all the classes from Kindergarten through 8th Grade had displayed in their classrooms.

During class time or around recess, kids would march in with a handful of their handicrafts to drop off to the classroom box. We'd try to guess who the Valentines would be for depending on the person. And back then, we'd be so honest, well at least me, and put 'To So and So---From Ella" instead of leaving out the "from" part.

On the big day, our teacher would open up the box and pass out every valentine -- all of us sitting at our desks hoping we got the most valentines and the girls oooh-ing and aaah-ing on the beautifully colored valentines.

What I remember most of all those years is Ms Smith in 7th and 8th grade doing mini Valentine cakes with our names on them. I loved those! Happy 100th Day and Happy Valentines Day Ms Smith - where ever you are ....

Things I let bother me more than they should:

1. A busy signal on the phone line

2. Loud people demanding attention right now!

3. The dam% dog

4. Car fan blowing hot when I want cool air

5. Dirty tables at a restaurant

6. A cracked nail that snags on everything

7. Human/dog/whatever hair on unsuspecting peoples clothes (or do they know?)

8. Those individuals that can't make up their minds on simple things, like, if they want cheese on their burgers or not, or to have cream on their mochas ...

9. People who won't help themselves to make their lives better

10. Yucky looking hair cuts

11. Condescending attitudes by those who think they know it all

12. Those little things that the vaccuum won't pull out of the carpet

13. Burnt out light bulbs

14. When my car doesn't have all the mirrors and the drivers seat set to where I normally have them

This Day (January 27)

There are 348 days left in the year.


The US Congress approved "Indian Territory" in what is present day Oklahoma, forcing Eastern Indians on the Trail of Tears.



Andre the Giant died in 1993.



In the United Kingdom, it is Holocaust Memorial Day.

Bridget Fonda's birthday.

Thomas Edison received his patent for his electrical incandescent light (light bulb).

The Vatican reaffirmed their decision to ban female priests.

And last but not least -- In 1998, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, appearing on NBC's "Today" show, said that allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy".

A Tribute

to a friend .....

Who knew?

Did you know?

You must've ....

I didn't

Thanks for the memories, especially the laughs...

Except now, I can't think of them as memories because it was just yesterday....

I didn't know you, but you showed me yourself....

And more ...

That there's good....

A better place .....

Higher beings that watch over us, when I was starting to doubt ....

May you rest in peace ....

thank you, for saying goodbye ......

and May God Bless Us All

My Friend

On January 15, 2009 at 0130 hours, Village Public Safety Officers in Kipnuk responded to a snow machine crash which resulted in a fatality. With the assistance of the Alaska State Troopers, the investigation revealed that Lewis PAUL, 30-years-old, of Kipnuk, was driving a Polaris 900 snow machine when he lost control and rolled the machine.

For the New Year

I hope happiness and contentment......
I hope for better times than the year before .....
I hope for cheaper gas prices............
I hope to find new friendships and for ones that we have already, to get closer ....
I hope for achieving goals and reaching to the skies for more....
For the new year, I hope for prosperity for all, humbleness, humanity and most of all LOVE for those around us.

30 Dec 2008

Well, another year has come and gone ... kids grew taller, a little more wiser, and me--another year older. In our little corner of the world, 2008 brought us:

• a drivers license for Kayla and her 2005 Ford Taurus (that smells of nasturtiums, even with dousings of Febreeze)
• back surgery for the dog, who without it would have been paralyzed from the backlegs and probably would have had to be put down (he's his old self now, his back legs can't keep up with him though)
• an 86 pound halibut for Stevo! in beautiful Homer Alaska. It probably weighed more, it bled out a lot before we got it weighed. Big fishy!
• Jeffrey started Kindergarten at North Pole Elementary and he loves it
• Nagyuk D grew leaps and bounds and is in the 3rd grade and did so good in soccer
• I went and worked for our Wing Commander for half a year (tomorrows my last day :( ...)
• Our whole family spent a lot of time on our boat (and on the road) traveling to where we could take it out. Spent a few weekends in Viva Valdez and Memorial weekend in Ho ho ho Homer.
• Jeffrey tried his hand at shaving and cut up his upper lip with Stephen's razor
• Raven gave herself a little hair cut, it wasnt bad at all, maybe about 20 strands of her bangs - which is much better than her first attempt at 2 when she cut to the scalp on hairs on top of her head (more than a handful and very noticeable)
• Sarah Palin ran for vice presidency and lost out
• My truck's fuel pump gave out
• Stephen got (shhhh, dont tell anybody, BIFOCALS)
• Gas was at its highest at almost $5 in Fairbanks
• Our dividends included an extra $1200 (exact amount $3269.00)
• Christina graduated from highschool
• Reached -40 on Dec 29 in North Pole and will stay cold and temps go even lower this week
• Donna moved out of mom's and into her new place
• Lenna had her beautiful baby girl Robin Leena
• Jeffrey and I spent at week in Kipnuk and went clamming in the Bering Sea and berry picking in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta

So many good memories to cherish -- another year for more memories ... Have the best one!

Christmas in Kipnuk

In my home village, for as long as I can remember, the Moravian Church has held a community wide gift exchange. Those who want to participate, write down their name and clothing sizes and turn it into a proffer for the church, who compiles that list and then goes around to each residence participating to have individuals pick a name to gift that Christmas. The little strips of paper would be separated into two separate coffee cans. One containing male names and the other female - females would pick from the male can and the males from the female can. It was an exciting time when these people came around - it was exciting just to see whose name you picked. The proffers kept track of which name which person picked, because with a village of almost 500 people, there were times when a participating individual didn't get gifted for whatever reason. Money for gift buying would run out or spent elsewhere.
All these gifts were brought out to the Sunday School house or the Mission house, both buildings housed next to the church. There they are grouped by families, and alphabetically. After what seemed the longest Christmas Eve program, the gifts would be ready for pick up. Kids fidgeting and growing impatient minute by minute anticipating the service leaders request for a final song or the benediction of the service. I wonder if some leaders purposely prolonged the service just for that reason.
Families attended church dragging wooden sleds to haul wrapped boxes of all different sizes. Back then, when most people in the community just had CB radios to communicate with, about 10-15 minutes after the service was over, the radio would come to life with chatter thanking their gifters and wishing everybody a Merry Christmas. Most of the usual gifts received would be clothing and useful items like a bath towels, etc.
That same night after the gift exchange is community wide caroling. Those 12 years old and older participate. Individuals meet at the church and are grouped by which section of the village they will be spreading Christmas cheer. At the houses, the whole group enters, sing a Christmas song, and the hosts would have candy to pass out to the singing group. In the houses, stockings would be hung up with care and the carolers, fill up the stockings with goodies they've been given out from house to house.
On Christmas Day, kids go on stage at church and recite individual verse readings dressed in their finest. There's also the candle light service after the readings. Its beautiful singing "Morning Star" in candle light (I don't know if the song's title is Morning Star, taking a guess on it) After the service, the church hands out candy bags to all those that have attended and gives out extra bags to other family members that weren't able to attend.
I miss Christmas in Kipnuk, I hope we'll be able to spend it out there next year.

Dec 6

Yay! Happy Birthday to me today

Thursday Thirteen

The past 13 days, I have:
1. Got the kids much needed haircuts and the hairstylist did a wonderful job on both, (clap clap clap) and worth the $37.00 for the two haircuts. We're definitely going back next month to the same place for cuts again.
2. Had my truck repaired by my private car mechanic (Stevo), thank you thank you! Truck starts up like a champ!
3. Read two books, "Plain Truth" by Jodi Picoult (very good storyteller) and "Salem Falls", by the same author - I'm reading up all the books she has out
4. Watched Fred Claus, twice with my kids ... its an okay movie .... it came out on DVD last Tuesday
5. Got a silver star in two levels of Legend of Zelda shooting practice game on the Wii
6. Crocheted a scarf and then unraveled it more than half way through because I didn't like the way it was turning out and restarted and finished it, now crocheting a matching hat
7. Wrapped three Christmas presents for my kids the day after Thanksgiving dinner and they can't wait to open them up
8. Sorted through my kids dressers/closets for clothes that they've grown out of - and bought underwear and socks for them after seeing whats in stock now
9. Decorated a gingerbread man project thing with Jeffrey for school with buttons, gumballs, a swatch of his old jeans and a patch to go with it
10. Updated antivirus definitions files for the two computers in the house
11. Forgot to bring my gym bag 3 times in a row to bring to work with me .. darn!
12. Cooked up chicken and sausage gumbo - yummy! I'll be cooking that up again
13. Bought hot pork rinds, had a weird craving for that time of the month, and now almost a full pack is sitting in the pantry because nobody else likes them

North Pole Alaska's Xmas in Ice

For a second year, North Pole, is holding the "Christmas In Ice" event. A festival of ice carvings from ice artists all over the world.
You can browse through this wonderful, magic land of Christmas displaying splendid, intricate designs of these artists, all made from a block of ice.
The sculptures are beautful and imaginative, and to top it off, have the "feel" of Christmas. Even more so with the atmosphere that this season brings, especially in cold North Pole, Alaska, a place where the spirit of Christmas comes to life in December and lives all year long.

The event holds a competition for the artists and, for the first time this year, a Kids Ice Carving challenge.
On the opening day, the festivities include a fireworks display. Since we are unable to enjoy the full, extravagant displays of fireworks during the summers (because of never ending daylight), Alaskan's awe their sights of the colorful pyrotechnic entertainment in dark December.

On December 21st, Alaska starts gaining daylight time instead of losing.

Today 29 Nov, the sun rose at 10:15am and will set at 3:03pm .... 5 minutes, 28 seconds less than yesterday *** big sigh*** ... 22 more days

Nov 28

Thanksgiving has come and gone, part of the turkey gobbled up with all the yummy trimmings. (Left over turkey anyone?)
This year I made red cabbage/apple salad and a sweet potato souffle to go along with our festive feast. The crispness of the red cabbage and the surprising juicy sweet of a honey apple just adds the right combination to the taste buds. I added chopped pecans and raisans to compliment the colorful dish. The yummy sweet potato souffle (soo-flay), I had had before, but it was pre-made (store bought) and wanted to make myself. Very easy to make and tastes 100% better than the store bought one. The two extra dishes will definitely be a part of our Thanksgiving dinners again.
Along with those, we had the usual Thanksgiving fare, my special recipe potato salad, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and of course pumpkin pie.
Kayla's BFs dad brought prime rib!!! along with au jus to soak it in and I couldn't have enough of it.
Jen and her kids helped us enjoy the day of food and it made it yummier. She brought her most delicous akuut that I couldn't get enough of the last time she had a nerevkariq.
The day flew by fast, I cooked all morning and then all of a sudden we were stuffed. All of the food looked like it hadn't been touched and my stomach still full. You know the saying eyes being bigger than the stomach? Well, my stomach was overflowing while my eyes were still filling.
For the day of Thanks, I am thankful for: my family, our friends, our health, the food we were able to enjoy, reliable vehicles (my car is "sick" but have Stephen's and Kayla's to get around in), tater tots, kleenex that won't irritate a runny nose, pretty smelling soap and the fact that somebody invented such a thing as nail clippers.....

A Book Review

I'm an avid reader and usually don't do reviews, but this book I felt needed to be "reviewed."

I've read a few books from Jodi Picoult and have never been disappointed with her writings. She gets to the "core" of everyday life.

The first book I've read from her writings was "The Pact", and I was enthralled by it. Staying up way past my bed time and into the night to read what was going to happen next.

This book was no different. Its mesmerizing and when I read it, I couldn't guess what was going to happen next.

Its a story about a 13 year old girl named Anna, that has an older sister who has Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. Its a cancer of blood and bone marrow.

Anna was conceived by her parents as a "designer baby" to match the older sisters DNA so that whatever her sister needed, she'd be the exact match (blood, tissue, etc.)

There is an older brother who was sadly not a match, so the whole family lives around whatever happens with Kate, the sick child.

Anna decides to sue her parents not to be a donor anymore and hires a lawyer to represent her.

This book goes through the throes of teenage-hood and involves the lives of the characters. Anna, Kate, the dad, the mom, the older brother, the lawyer, and the guardian ad litem (a court appointed guardian who mediates between the minor and parent and gives their opinion to a judge on whats best for the minor).

My Sister's Keeper was so involving that I even went through the book club section and read through the questions and thought about what my opinion was about the whole situation.

This book comes close to my heart because my oldest brother died of leukemia 26 years ago. I don't know what kind of leukemia he had and now it makes me wonder. Would any of us (3 brothers and my sister) would've been able to help ....

Update on our dog Duke

Our wire haired dachshund, Duke, aka Maurice, (Duke, given name from his previous owners, and Maurice, given name by the current owner, Kayla) was paralyzed on his back legs when his back gave out due to interverbral disc disease that dachsunds are common to. Our friendly neighborhood vet put a catheter in to help him empty out his bladder (thats why that big thing is on his collar to keep him from picking at it in the picture) - but even through all that, he managed to push the catheter out two days before his surgery. His muscles were strong enough to push out the catheter, probably was very uncomfortable for him and who could blame the poor creature. He'd still drag his back legs to get to places (sniff out by the table for droppings from the kids at meal time, get to his food bowl, or go to his usual place by the patio doors.)
Stephen flew him down to Anchorage to get his back surgery on Monday, and at the clinic he was sniffing out markings and making his own markings from the scent of the other animals. A good sign, that he still had muscle control. The surgery was done and they cleared out one disc, which was "cottage cheese-y", all broken down and calsified, not 2 like the x-ray showed (I think, hmmmmm, makes me wonder now .....)
He was back to his old self again the next day (today). The clinic said, of all the dachshunds they performed surgeries on that day, he was the only one to eat and was back to his old dachshundy self again after the surgery.
He will have to go through physical therapy to help out his back muscles, and the doctor said he had a very good chance of recovering. We're hoping to get him back on Thursday. More updates to come....

Our poor dog

Yesterday our poor dog's back legs stopped working. He has whats called interverbral disc disease which is common in his breed.

He has two discs in his back that have calcified, meaning what should be cartilage, (like the soft stuff on our ears), turned into bone.

What was really surprising was how fast this progressed. He was fine all day, running around, jumping on furniture, pretty much going crazy like a super bouncy ball, and then all of a sudden he was having trouble walking. He was shaking really bad and feverish.

Kayla and Stephen took him to the vet this morning and they did some xrays and they showed that 2 of his lumbar region discs (where his lower legs are) were moved way up and had slipped above his spine, pretty much making his lower legs paralyzed. They gave him steriod shots and some medication to help with the pain and gave the option of doing surgery and steriod treatment (which both may or may not help him out). The vet said we'd have to "coax" him to relieve his bladder (meaning push on his bladder to empty it) and that if he needed to empty out his bowels, he'd have no feeling at all of the urge and the bowels would just empty out themselves.

He's been a part of our lives since Jeffrey was less than a year old ... so pretty much a part of our family. Since he's really Kayla's dog, we left the decision up to her. Poor girl --- she first decided to just do the steriod method. Stephen called me while the vet was talking about the options and it made me cry too, as much as I say how much I dislike the dog, but feeling what Kayla must be going through made my heart ache. The vet said he was a very good candidate for the surgery and could get him scheduled for surgery on Monday. Right when they got back from the vet, we decided to go ahead with the surgery. Stephen will fly with him to Anchorage on Monday and hopefully Duke should be well enough to come home on Thursday. If the surgery doesn't help, there's a specialist here that concentrates on dachsunds who does therapy and helps dogs adjust to those cart things, I guess dog wheelchairs. But, keeping my fingers crossed that the surgery will help.

A Wordless Wednesday

Cell phones

Remember the days when we never even thought about these things???

One of my earliest memories is going to the big, old school house building in Kipnuk to wait for a phone call by the only phone there was in Kipnuk. And you had the option of doing a collect call, where the other person you're talking to pays for the call, or the "time and charge" call where you talked for however long you wanted to talk and then a few minutes after you hung up, the operator would call back and tell you how much you had to pay for the conversation you just had. There was a phone operator sitting at the phone waiting for the phone to ring, and they would announce over the CB radio, and say something like "Ella, you're going to get a call from so and so in 10 minutes, please come to the old school building to take your call." Or if you wanted to make a call your self, telling the phone person you're doing a time and charge call (or collect).

I once got such a call from Takuskuaq, one of my bestest childhood friends, right after her and her 3 brothers and her mom and dad moved to Kwigillingok. She is about 2 -3 yrs older than me and we shared chicken pox, tea (coffee, water or milk), roaming in the tundra, and so much laughter together. I missed her if we didn't see eachother during the day and when we were sick, we'd even go see eachother and once, she walked me home half way even when she was sick with a blanket wrapped around her because we wanted to see eachother so much.

I remember that they had a sailboat that hung off the ceiling that belonged to her dad. Her mom made us matching crocheted headbands one time and it was so neat to wear the matching things together.

They lived in a house in Kipnuk that they sold to Joe Paul which now houses one of Nallaq's kids. At one time, it was a store called the "Cracker Jack Cabin". Our favorite teen hangout in nowhere Alaska. There was a jukebox in there, where for a quarter you got to pick 4 songs and our favorite was "Dream Dream Dream" by the Righteous Brothers. And us trying to show off our alto voices and showing off that we could harmonize.

I can't remember what Takuss and I talked about that time, but that we missed eachother and she told me that little Kwiggers had their faces against their windows trying to look inside their house and seeing who was in there. She wanted me to call her collect, but I never had to courage to go up to the stern phone operator to say I wanted to make such a call. We continued our friendship through letters for a long time, way into my high school years. They had moved away when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade.

So that is my perspective of those long ago days and being able to instantly be in phone contact with anybody these days.....

Thursday 13

Thirteen things to be happy about winter snow:

1. Its white and clean - crisp and so fresh looking away from the dirty looking sense that fall brings with rain and old leaves

2. You can burn a lot of calories cross country skiing on it - Stephen and I took up skiing in our neighborhood park area and its beautiful to get out in the cool air

3. Snow insulates your house, your yard, etc from the cold - to keep pipes from freezing and insulating perennials

4. To make snow angels - plop down on the snow and move your arms and legs all around and make a pretty impression on the sheet of white snow

5. Its pretty coming down in huge snowflakes - especially when its not too cold out and trying to catch a flake with your tongue

6. Instant fridge for whatever you want cooled off - throw out a few cokes and they cool off instantly

7. Snow machine riding in the big white - so much fun whizzing around and feeling the air whooshing past along with the world

8. Its a nice escape from mosquitoes - no question about that

9. To make snow cones with - yum snow cones, especially on a hot summer day

10. Makes cleaning up yucky dog poop easier - our damn dog, Duke -- what a pain

11. To make snow men with - and then destroy them (hehehhe)

12. Have a snow ball fight - the best is the wet snow.

North Pole, Alaska

This is the sign next to the Baptist Church on St. Nicholas Drive in North Pole, Alaska. There is an RV Park behind it, and then the famous Santa Claus House down the street from it.

North Pole was given its name in hopes of attracting a toy factory into town that never transpired for some reason that I'm too busy to look into. Its an attraction to many tourist, both in summer and winter seasons. The famous Santa Claus House is situated here, like I said, with its exotic, Christmasy goods for sale all year round. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, you can find Father Christmas there ready to hear your wishes and dreams for the holiday season, or whenever you happen to stop by. We've never been lucky enough to catch him there, must be the other days that we stop by --either that or he's on break, feeding the reindeer right outside or getting a yummy mocha from the coffee shop right inside.

North Pole is home to about 7,500 souls, a lot of the folks working out of Eielson AFB or Ft Wainwright. Downtown North Pole boasts a Pizza Hut, Blockbuster, McDonalds, a couple of banks, an AT&T Store, Wendy's and the famous Pagoda Restaurant. Another place to get a good meal is Dalman's right on Badger Road with friendly folks to serve up a meal. There are 3 gas stations, Sourdough, Tesoro and ... is it another Sourdough???.. hmmmm, I'm not exactly sure, but right within less than 100 yards from eachother.

There is a highschool, a middle school and an elementary school - with more than a few churches within the area, of all denominations. A senior center, dental and optometry offices, even a couple of salons that offer day spas. There is a hotel opening up right next to Safeway, an indoor play center with laser tag and electric go-carts. You can also find the Chena Lakes Recreation Area right outside the city area open all year round. There's a kids park, lakes to fish in, picnic tables and pavilions, ski trails, and hiking trails. Also near the park, is the Chena Lakes Flood Plain built by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Weather here is extreme -- in the winters, down to -60 in the coldest of days. The sun rises about 10am in the morning and goes down about 4pm in the afternoon. Snowfall is about 6-10 inches.

Summer days are long, about 16+ hours of daylight from June - Aug with mid 70s and low 80s degrees as the norm. Tons of mosquitoes but lots to do.