Hello this is Lee's quick Christmas News Special!
I had alot of fun with my new presents. Bailey got a kick out of the remote control Jeep. As Jan said we tried to take the Jeep out but it was too cold so we let it charge up and when I took it out this morning it was running very well. Until I hit a little ice patch, then it skidded into a big pile of snow. After that I decided to bring it in so it didn't kill the battery.
Grandma Karen, thank you for the sweat shirts, hoodies, and blanket they are all so warm, and when I'm really cold I cuddle up and warm up very fast. thank You!
Mom, thank you for the 2 gift cards to Itunes and to Best Buy. Also I like the new the new coloring pads that I got they are very fun. When I am finished I can tear them out and give them to people.
Uncle Elton and aunt Patricia, thank you for the 40 dollars to itunes. Congratulations on the new baby, he sounds very happy can't wait to see how Eric reacts to having a new brother. I think it will be pretty funny.
Grandma Anne, thank you for the Toys R Us card I am hoping to use it for some new stuff for my christmas presents.
Grandma Nelson, thank you for the snowshoes can't wait to use them. So I can go in the 4 feet of snow that we have, and not fall through.
Thank you Frank and Jill for the magazine can't wait to read it over christmas break.
Thank you all for the great presents I love them all!
Have a great New Year and hope your Christmas presents from us were the best.
Love Lee
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY AND WISHING YOU A MOST HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
So Santa found us and was very good to us (Lee) this year ;) Many pics follow that show Lee opening all of his gifts. I apologize for the poor quality of some of them but I was a little shakey yesterday....oops.
Lee loved all of his gifts that arrived from afar. I'll have him write a quick note shortly. I woke up at 7:30 yesterday, once I realized that it was Christmas morning I got a little worried, since Lee wasn't up yet. Bret and I expected to be woken up at 0'dark thirty to open presents (i guess Santa treated us well after all ha ha ha). We sent the dogs off to wake Lee with their ritual of licking his face until he gets out of bed (much more reliable than an alarm clock). Then the present opening fest began! After trying out all his new toys and clothes we had fresh baked cinnamon roles a la Bret...very tastey even out of the can. We tried to take Lee's new remote control Jeep outside for a spin but the temp was a frosty 5 degrees, and in combo with a dying battery that didn't work so well. So we decided to go check out all the sledding hills in town to scope out our sledding trip this week. We also went to the ski hill in town to show Lee where he'll be taking his christmas snowboarding lessons.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing for Bret and I and Lee hanging out with friends. The best part of the whole day, was that Santa brought laser sited nerf dart guns. Both in the morning and in the evening we turned all the lights off in the house and had a huge war of laser dart tag. Since our hous is three levels and all open it makes for the perfect laser tag game. Lee was sneaky by drawing fire and then hoarding all the bullets in his new hoody sweatshirt so then his counter attack on Bret and I was vicious. At one point he took off upstairs and it took Bret and I a good 10 minutes to find him under our bed. I have now confirmed that I wouldn't cut it on a swat team....i was scared to clear a room when nerf darts were the deadly weapon....i wasn't much of a back up for Bret.
I hope that Santa treated everyone well, and that the new Year is full of bright opportunities and love
take good care,
Bret, Jan, Lee and some tired out dogs
So Santa found us and was very good to us (Lee) this year ;) Many pics follow that show Lee opening all of his gifts. I apologize for the poor quality of some of them but I was a little shakey yesterday....oops.
Lee loved all of his gifts that arrived from afar. I'll have him write a quick note shortly. I woke up at 7:30 yesterday, once I realized that it was Christmas morning I got a little worried, since Lee wasn't up yet. Bret and I expected to be woken up at 0'dark thirty to open presents (i guess Santa treated us well after all ha ha ha). We sent the dogs off to wake Lee with their ritual of licking his face until he gets out of bed (much more reliable than an alarm clock). Then the present opening fest began! After trying out all his new toys and clothes we had fresh baked cinnamon roles a la Bret...very tastey even out of the can. We tried to take Lee's new remote control Jeep outside for a spin but the temp was a frosty 5 degrees, and in combo with a dying battery that didn't work so well. So we decided to go check out all the sledding hills in town to scope out our sledding trip this week. We also went to the ski hill in town to show Lee where he'll be taking his christmas snowboarding lessons.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing for Bret and I and Lee hanging out with friends. The best part of the whole day, was that Santa brought laser sited nerf dart guns. Both in the morning and in the evening we turned all the lights off in the house and had a huge war of laser dart tag. Since our hous is three levels and all open it makes for the perfect laser tag game. Lee was sneaky by drawing fire and then hoarding all the bullets in his new hoody sweatshirt so then his counter attack on Bret and I was vicious. At one point he took off upstairs and it took Bret and I a good 10 minutes to find him under our bed. I have now confirmed that I wouldn't cut it on a swat team....i was scared to clear a room when nerf darts were the deadly weapon....i wasn't much of a back up for Bret.
I hope that Santa treated everyone well, and that the new Year is full of bright opportunities and love
take good care,
Bret, Jan, Lee and some tired out dogs
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Hello one and All!
Lee has been doing suck a great job keeping you all up to date on the Ace's hockey season I haven't got a chance to check in with you all. I hope everyone is prepared for the big day with santa....and that this holiday season finds you well.
Bret is up on the slope right now and gets back on Thursday...just in time for us to do some last minute shopping for Lee. As is our family tradition, we have picked out a lovely rock and stick for him this year! Every year this is what we promise him and we wrap up both for under the tree. Lee will be off from the 22nd until the 8th of January, and Bret will be home until the 3rd so it works out great! I of course will be working, but I do have the 25th off so no complaints.
We have probably about 6-10 inches of snow right now and the day time highs have dropped back into the high 20's so it's pretty nice hear. We are down to about 6 hours of light each day with an hour of dusk on each end. Dec. 21st, Winter Solstice is a huge celebration up here, because it officially marks the shortest day of the year and then we just keep gaining daylight right through June.
Work is going well, we have been crazy busy this month, on Tuesday we had 40 babies and our capacity is only 36 so they set up 3 babies in a patient room on the mother/baby unit. It's been quite busy! I start my Green Belt training in Febuary which I'm really excited about. It's training through our Operational Excellence department at the hospital. It was originally used by the Toyota company and General Electric as a way of gathering information and graphing/analysing and coming up with proposals to make business practices more efficient and to affect positive change within an organization. It is called the Six Sigma program. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's something I'm quite passionate about and I have been allotting 10 percent of my work time at Providence to facilitating meetings within the company. After my Green Belt training, in which I will work on a 3-6 month project I will be eligable to apply to do this work fulltime within the hospital. I have worked quite a bit with the director of Operational Excellence and she has invited me to apply for a fulltime position in April, when my green belt course work is complete. This would be a HUGE career move for me and I'm really looking forward to it....so keep your fingers crossed for me.
We'll try to get our christmas gifts in the mail on Monday for our family members, so be on the look out for those. We are also eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new neice or nephew this month as my sister-in-law and brother are expecting at the end of December.....so lots of warm and safe wishes to Elton, Patricia and Eric......and new baby :)
We don't have any new pics but will try to post some before xmas!
Have a great holiday and be safe!
all our love
Bret, Jan, and Lee
Lee has been doing suck a great job keeping you all up to date on the Ace's hockey season I haven't got a chance to check in with you all. I hope everyone is prepared for the big day with santa....and that this holiday season finds you well.
Bret is up on the slope right now and gets back on Thursday...just in time for us to do some last minute shopping for Lee. As is our family tradition, we have picked out a lovely rock and stick for him this year! Every year this is what we promise him and we wrap up both for under the tree. Lee will be off from the 22nd until the 8th of January, and Bret will be home until the 3rd so it works out great! I of course will be working, but I do have the 25th off so no complaints.
We have probably about 6-10 inches of snow right now and the day time highs have dropped back into the high 20's so it's pretty nice hear. We are down to about 6 hours of light each day with an hour of dusk on each end. Dec. 21st, Winter Solstice is a huge celebration up here, because it officially marks the shortest day of the year and then we just keep gaining daylight right through June.
Work is going well, we have been crazy busy this month, on Tuesday we had 40 babies and our capacity is only 36 so they set up 3 babies in a patient room on the mother/baby unit. It's been quite busy! I start my Green Belt training in Febuary which I'm really excited about. It's training through our Operational Excellence department at the hospital. It was originally used by the Toyota company and General Electric as a way of gathering information and graphing/analysing and coming up with proposals to make business practices more efficient and to affect positive change within an organization. It is called the Six Sigma program. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's something I'm quite passionate about and I have been allotting 10 percent of my work time at Providence to facilitating meetings within the company. After my Green Belt training, in which I will work on a 3-6 month project I will be eligable to apply to do this work fulltime within the hospital. I have worked quite a bit with the director of Operational Excellence and she has invited me to apply for a fulltime position in April, when my green belt course work is complete. This would be a HUGE career move for me and I'm really looking forward to it....so keep your fingers crossed for me.
We'll try to get our christmas gifts in the mail on Monday for our family members, so be on the look out for those. We are also eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new neice or nephew this month as my sister-in-law and brother are expecting at the end of December.....so lots of warm and safe wishes to Elton, Patricia and Eric......and new baby :)
We don't have any new pics but will try to post some before xmas!
Have a great holiday and be safe!
all our love
Bret, Jan, and Lee
Sunday, December 10, 2006
We went to the millitary appreciation week, hockey game on Friday night. The Aces were playing Fresno again. It was kind of funny how they lit the ice (they light a flaming "A" at the beginning of every game), this time they brought out an armored personnelle carrier and started shooting with a machine gun. The flaming "A" lit up and then the machine gun guy shot at 3 fireworks and they were about 10-15 feet high.
Then the referee couldn't find his hockey puck, and the announcer said "who has the hockey puck?" over and over, which was kind of funny. Finally 4 millitary men came repelling down from the top of the arena, and one of the guys got stuck and they had to tug him off his rope. The Aces started off the same way as they did the last game, except way more violent. There was alot of checking and elbowing each other. One of the Aces hockey players, hit another player and Jan thinks that he broke his nose, but we don't know as of right now. The Aces beat Fresno by 2 points, and we think that it was a big victory. Me and Jan got stuck in a traffic jam trying to get out of the parking lot, which I thought was not very fun.
Today I was building a tunnel under one of mine and Damien's snow forts. Damien is my friend next door. We are now waiting to watch "Extreme Home Make Over", but the station is having technical difficulties. I will talk to you when another news update comes up.
thank you for listening in to Lee's news and weather update.
love to all
talk to you soon,
Lee
Then the referee couldn't find his hockey puck, and the announcer said "who has the hockey puck?" over and over, which was kind of funny. Finally 4 millitary men came repelling down from the top of the arena, and one of the guys got stuck and they had to tug him off his rope. The Aces started off the same way as they did the last game, except way more violent. There was alot of checking and elbowing each other. One of the Aces hockey players, hit another player and Jan thinks that he broke his nose, but we don't know as of right now. The Aces beat Fresno by 2 points, and we think that it was a big victory. Me and Jan got stuck in a traffic jam trying to get out of the parking lot, which I thought was not very fun.
Today I was building a tunnel under one of mine and Damien's snow forts. Damien is my friend next door. We are now waiting to watch "Extreme Home Make Over", but the station is having technical difficulties. I will talk to you when another news update comes up.
thank you for listening in to Lee's news and weather update.
love to all
talk to you soon,
Lee
Friday, December 08, 2006
Hi everybody,
Wednesday night me, Jan, Dad, and his friend Paul went to the Aces' hockey game. They were playing Fresno, they got 1 penalty in the first quarter. We got 1 goal in the first 2 minutes, then Fresno also got 1 goal. In the 2nd period Fresno got 2 more goals, because the Ace's didn't have their heads in the game. But at least they tried. Fresno also had a great goalie. In the 2nd period also Fresno made a lot of shots on our goalie. Before the 3rd period the announcers gave away a thirty-five hundred dollar blue fox coat, that Jan thought was ugly. Really ugly. In the third period the Ace's got aggressive and had alot of people go into the penalty box. Then at the end of the game the Ace's pulled their goalie out and Fresno scored. Alot of people were being rude to the referees.
Thank you for listening to my update report. Two more will be coming up tomorrow and Sunday.
thank you!
love to all!
Lee
Wednesday night me, Jan, Dad, and his friend Paul went to the Aces' hockey game. They were playing Fresno, they got 1 penalty in the first quarter. We got 1 goal in the first 2 minutes, then Fresno also got 1 goal. In the 2nd period Fresno got 2 more goals, because the Ace's didn't have their heads in the game. But at least they tried. Fresno also had a great goalie. In the 2nd period also Fresno made a lot of shots on our goalie. Before the 3rd period the announcers gave away a thirty-five hundred dollar blue fox coat, that Jan thought was ugly. Really ugly. In the third period the Ace's got aggressive and had alot of people go into the penalty box. Then at the end of the game the Ace's pulled their goalie out and Fresno scored. Alot of people were being rude to the referees.
Thank you for listening to my update report. Two more will be coming up tomorrow and Sunday.
thank you!
love to all!
Lee
Sunday, December 03, 2006
wow it's December already, can you believe it???? Time passes faster and faster every year. Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. I worked until 3:30 came home and Lee and I threw everything into the oven and Bret arrived from the slope at about 7pm. Couldn't have planned it better if we tried. lol
It was actually the first year I cooked for holidays, because we have always been with family. Glad to say it was deeeelicious. We've had more snow since last I wrote, we have at least a foot on the ground right now. It's even been in the 20's most days, and this week they are talking about temps in the 30's which is around 0'C. It's funny cuz the weather here is warmer in the winter than it was in Kansas, because 1. we don't have any wind and 2.it's nowhere near as humid here as in Manhattan. Anchorage is it's own unique ecosystem we stay moderate all year long instead of 110' summer and -60' winter in somewhere like Fairbanks.
The moose are starting to appear, almost daily now which I think is a little later than last year. We still haven't seen the Northern Lights, we tried last weekend but it didn't work out. We'll keep you posted though, and hopefully have pics!
Bret's home until Thursday and then back up on the slope until Dec.22, back right in time for Xmas. We picked up a little norfollk pine tonight and some lights and decorations. Of course we had to get K-state purple beads to decorate the tree. You can take the kansan out of KS but not the KS out of the kansas....ha ha ha....if that makes any sense. So tonight is "Funniest home Videos", "Extreme home Make over" and tree decorating night. Quite a family night if I do say so myself.
Bret just got over a cold, he scheduled right on target for getting sick the day after he got home, Lee has managed so far to avoid it....yea lee! I didn't catch the cold but had a toothache, so I went into the dentist to get a simple filling and came out 2.5hours later with a root canal, stitches in my gums, and two temperary crowns. If anyone knows my dislike of dentists you'll understand that I was in abject terror the entire time....ick.
I'll try to get some pics this week and have Lee write a quick note to all.
Please, keep those comments coming it's nice to know who's checking out our site.
love you all, and miss you terribly
Jan, Bret, and Lee
It was actually the first year I cooked for holidays, because we have always been with family. Glad to say it was deeeelicious. We've had more snow since last I wrote, we have at least a foot on the ground right now. It's even been in the 20's most days, and this week they are talking about temps in the 30's which is around 0'C. It's funny cuz the weather here is warmer in the winter than it was in Kansas, because 1. we don't have any wind and 2.it's nowhere near as humid here as in Manhattan. Anchorage is it's own unique ecosystem we stay moderate all year long instead of 110' summer and -60' winter in somewhere like Fairbanks.
The moose are starting to appear, almost daily now which I think is a little later than last year. We still haven't seen the Northern Lights, we tried last weekend but it didn't work out. We'll keep you posted though, and hopefully have pics!
Bret's home until Thursday and then back up on the slope until Dec.22, back right in time for Xmas. We picked up a little norfollk pine tonight and some lights and decorations. Of course we had to get K-state purple beads to decorate the tree. You can take the kansan out of KS but not the KS out of the kansas....ha ha ha....if that makes any sense. So tonight is "Funniest home Videos", "Extreme home Make over" and tree decorating night. Quite a family night if I do say so myself.
Bret just got over a cold, he scheduled right on target for getting sick the day after he got home, Lee has managed so far to avoid it....yea lee! I didn't catch the cold but had a toothache, so I went into the dentist to get a simple filling and came out 2.5hours later with a root canal, stitches in my gums, and two temperary crowns. If anyone knows my dislike of dentists you'll understand that I was in abject terror the entire time....ick.
I'll try to get some pics this week and have Lee write a quick note to all.
Please, keep those comments coming it's nice to know who's checking out our site.
love you all, and miss you terribly
Jan, Bret, and Lee
Saturday, November 18, 2006
So Lee and I went out tonight to see a meteor shower that is supposedly taking place....hmmmmm nope we didn't have much luck. We hurriedly drove to 3 different spots in hopes of seeing all the shooting stars across the sky. It wasn't a total bust however, we did see one lonely little shooting star, oddly enough we both saw the same one. lol what were the odds. Finally we got too cold standing with our necks cranked back, so we came home. sigh....maybe next time. I think the big problem was lack of planning. I'd heard about from a friend and then completely forgot about it until Lee started telling Bret about it on the phone at 6:45. Well the best viewing time was from 7 to 8....so we just hopped in the car and went. We didn't even know which direction to look in, and we really didn't have enough time to get far enough away from the light of Anchorage. It gives Lee and I something cool to research on the web later this week though.
This week has definately been chilly we are having highs in the teens now. Everyone says that this is extremely uncharacteristic of Anchorage weather, it definately wasn't like this last winter. It comes with the territory, so I guess we can't complain. Actually all you have to do is look to the east and see the mountains or the west and see the ocean, to be reminded of how lucky we are to be living up here.
Needless to say Bret is on the slope and it's cold up there highs in the -20 to -30 range....I know it's mean but it still makes me laugh, just a wee bit....ok alot! It's in my nature ha ha ha.
Lee is doing ok, not too excited about reading yet but the battle continues. He has aced all of his spelling tests so far this year, his average is like 98%...I told him I'd give him 2 dollars for every 100% he got....I better start saving cuz at this rate he's going to break the bank.
Thanksgiving is this Thursday, but being Canadian, it just doesn't feel right. I completely forgot about Thanksgiving in October this here, so now i'm stuck in some middle world between Canada and the USA and I'm not too sure where I fit in???? Never thought you'd hear me say that now did you???? ha ha ha
I found a really cool site on Fibromyalgia a couple of weeks ago, and it's proving to be more helpful than any other resource I've found up to now. It has message boards on just about every topic you could think of, several chat rooms, and lots of links to reputable sites, so I'm pretty geeked about the whole thing. I've struggled somewhat this last week with pain...but it seems to be subsiding a little bit now, so all's good.
hope all is well....not too many comments out there folks....don't be shy....just chime in whenever you feel like.
love and miss you all happy Turkey day!!!!
gobble, gobble gobble
b-j-l
This week has definately been chilly we are having highs in the teens now. Everyone says that this is extremely uncharacteristic of Anchorage weather, it definately wasn't like this last winter. It comes with the territory, so I guess we can't complain. Actually all you have to do is look to the east and see the mountains or the west and see the ocean, to be reminded of how lucky we are to be living up here.
Needless to say Bret is on the slope and it's cold up there highs in the -20 to -30 range....I know it's mean but it still makes me laugh, just a wee bit....ok alot! It's in my nature ha ha ha.
Lee is doing ok, not too excited about reading yet but the battle continues. He has aced all of his spelling tests so far this year, his average is like 98%...I told him I'd give him 2 dollars for every 100% he got....I better start saving cuz at this rate he's going to break the bank.
Thanksgiving is this Thursday, but being Canadian, it just doesn't feel right. I completely forgot about Thanksgiving in October this here, so now i'm stuck in some middle world between Canada and the USA and I'm not too sure where I fit in???? Never thought you'd hear me say that now did you???? ha ha ha
I found a really cool site on Fibromyalgia a couple of weeks ago, and it's proving to be more helpful than any other resource I've found up to now. It has message boards on just about every topic you could think of, several chat rooms, and lots of links to reputable sites, so I'm pretty geeked about the whole thing. I've struggled somewhat this last week with pain...but it seems to be subsiding a little bit now, so all's good.
hope all is well....not too many comments out there folks....don't be shy....just chime in whenever you feel like.
love and miss you all happy Turkey day!!!!
gobble, gobble gobble
b-j-l
Friday, November 17, 2006
from Lee
My week has been going good. On MONDAY we did a spelling pretest#10. I think I got 100%. We had music we are practicing with some instruments for a song we are learning.After that we did reading.The story that we are reading is called THE ISLAND of the BLUE DOLPHINS.After lunch we did math wich we are very behide,because people won't be quite.We did math box 4.3.We also did study link 4.4. for homework. All in all it was a good day.
BY EVERYBODY .
My week has been going good. On MONDAY we did a spelling pretest#10. I think I got 100%. We had music we are practicing with some instruments for a song we are learning.After that we did reading.The story that we are reading is called THE ISLAND of the BLUE DOLPHINS.After lunch we did math wich we are very behide,because people won't be quite.We did math box 4.3.We also did study link 4.4. for homework. All in all it was a good day.
BY EVERYBODY .
Friday, November 10, 2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAY TO MEEEE
HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAY TO MEEEE
HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAY TOOOOO JAN
HAPPYYYYYYY BIRTDAAAAAY TOOOOO MEEEEE!
Wow, 37 years old, how quick it goes by! My best present this year was that Bret's flight was cancelled last night due to engine trouble so he gets to spend an extra day at home!!!! Now he leaves at 5pm tonight.
Other than that not much to pass on Lee had half days of school on Wednesday and Thursday, and also (a nice bday gift) he is off today. Parent - teacher conferences are in full swing. We actually did ours last week, so nothing but play time this week! Lee is doing very well by all reports and we're very proud of him. He's currently working on a note to post on the blog so hopefully we will get it up on the site this weekend.
Weather is still chilly, but it's been super sunny so the mountains have an awesome glow to them these days. It's even been clear enough to see mount McKinnley a few days.....very impressive.
hope all is well. Hope to see you all soon!
Jan
HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAY TO MEEEE
HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAY TOOOOO JAN
HAPPYYYYYYY BIRTDAAAAAY TOOOOO MEEEEE!
Wow, 37 years old, how quick it goes by! My best present this year was that Bret's flight was cancelled last night due to engine trouble so he gets to spend an extra day at home!!!! Now he leaves at 5pm tonight.
Other than that not much to pass on Lee had half days of school on Wednesday and Thursday, and also (a nice bday gift) he is off today. Parent - teacher conferences are in full swing. We actually did ours last week, so nothing but play time this week! Lee is doing very well by all reports and we're very proud of him. He's currently working on a note to post on the blog so hopefully we will get it up on the site this weekend.
Weather is still chilly, but it's been super sunny so the mountains have an awesome glow to them these days. It's even been clear enough to see mount McKinnley a few days.....very impressive.
hope all is well. Hope to see you all soon!
Jan
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Hi all,
Just returned from Kellyville, Ok. where I graduated 3rd in my class of 57 (yea! Me)
I can now officially and LEGALLY drive 18 wheel trucks anywhere in the U.S. OR Canada (so inlaws need also be afraid...) Spent 4 days on the slope this time and it wasn't too bad. A balmy 15 degrees. The slope is VERY desolate in the winter time flat, white and it just goes on forever. My rig is being remodeled so I've been doing pretty much everything else while I'm at work. Life in Anchorage is pretty much the same as always, spending time with my family and going to meetings. Jan and Lee are occupying their time snapping photo's as evidenced on the preceding blogs. I am off to the slope next thursday where it shoould be -20 degree's and 50 mile an hour winds so wish me luck and warmth. write more later....... Love ta all.
Just returned from Kellyville, Ok. where I graduated 3rd in my class of 57 (yea! Me)
I can now officially and LEGALLY drive 18 wheel trucks anywhere in the U.S. OR Canada (so inlaws need also be afraid...) Spent 4 days on the slope this time and it wasn't too bad. A balmy 15 degrees. The slope is VERY desolate in the winter time flat, white and it just goes on forever. My rig is being remodeled so I've been doing pretty much everything else while I'm at work. Life in Anchorage is pretty much the same as always, spending time with my family and going to meetings. Jan and Lee are occupying their time snapping photo's as evidenced on the preceding blogs. I am off to the slope next thursday where it shoould be -20 degree's and 50 mile an hour winds so wish me luck and warmth. write more later....... Love ta all.
HAP HAP HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!
Ahhhhh the lovely vision of young Eric in his cool Halloween costume........ BUT the differences between a two year old and an eleven year old are many lol,
but I think if you compare the two costumes Erics and Lee's you will see how great a gap exists between a toddler and a pre-teen
tooo funny.....
Well there you have it!
All in all Halloween went very well . Lee and his friends were out for a good 2 hours collecting lots of sugar filled bliss to keep them hyper and happy!
Bret and I hung out at home and manned the door.
Winter has definately settled in here, tomorrow's high is supposed to be in the 20's....ick....by far the coldest day we've had so far. Needless to say our snow has not melted away.
Bret is still home for another week, and will leave next Thursday. The hospital has been laying people off, left, right and center for the past week. So while I'm happy to be employed, I'm keeping my eye out for other opportunities in the paper. I'll keep you all posted.
That's all for now folks, hope everyone is well!
We love you all!
Jan, Bret, and Lee
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Hello everyone this is Lee. I had a frozen sandwich on Wednesday October teh 25th. We also saw some silver salmon sponing before we got to the Sea Life Center in Seward. When we got to the sea Life Center there was a lot to do. We saw Woody he is a male Steller Sea Lion or a pinniped wich means carnivorous marine mammal plus two harbor seals. On the way back we saw a glacier, over 30 moose and over 100 bald eagles where we also saw some silver salmon on the train. We had Subway sandwiches for dinner. Over all that was the most fun trip I have ever and will ever go on. Lee
Sounds like Lee really enjoyed his trip! I know that when he got off the bus at 8:30 pm he was one tired little camper. Today was a beautiful day for Alaska. We got about 6 inches of snow and the temp stayed right in the 30's (-3'C). Lee spent most of the afternoon outside in the snow building a fort with his friend. Bret and I just hung out inside. One of our tires was punctured so Bret got to spend some time in the snow changing over to the spare. Other than that not much going on this weekend, just spending some quality family time while Bret's home. He will write something later this week.
Hope everyone is doing well! we miss and love your all
Sounds like Lee really enjoyed his trip! I know that when he got off the bus at 8:30 pm he was one tired little camper. Today was a beautiful day for Alaska. We got about 6 inches of snow and the temp stayed right in the 30's (-3'C). Lee spent most of the afternoon outside in the snow building a fort with his friend. Bret and I just hung out inside. One of our tires was punctured so Bret got to spend some time in the snow changing over to the spare. Other than that not much going on this weekend, just spending some quality family time while Bret's home. He will write something later this week.
Hope everyone is doing well! we miss and love your all
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Hello one and all, so it's Sunday, and obviously Lee and I didn't get any pictures posted from last weekend. Lee did have Friday off though and we went out to Earthquake park to watch the planes zoom overhead that are landing at the airport so we got a couple of pics for you to see
The first one is of the mountain "Sleeping Lady" Just where the sun starts shinning on the mountain is the lady's head, then you see a slender neck, her chest and torso and then finally her two feet sticking up. I don't know if that is an adequate enough description for you to figure out over the net....but hey I tried! Obviously the 2nd is a shot of downtown Anchorage from across the water. Pretty self explanatory.
Bret was back briefly last night, but he left for the slope this morning at 11:00, the nice thing is that he'll be back for 2 weeks on Thursday. Even though it was brief it was nice to see him.
Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees now, and we have frost most nights. The days have been sunny and cool (high 30's to low 40's) so it's been great fall weather. On Friday Lee and I also got his Halloween costume, but I'll wait until the day to put a pic up on the blog. Now that he's eleven this will most likely be his last year. When I told him that he said, "ya we'll be too old to dress up next year, so I'll just go trick or treating in my regular clothes". Yikes, too funny huh.
Otherwise all is well on the homefront. Just hanging out and relaxing.....if only life was that easy lol. Lee's big trip to the Sea Life Center is on Wednesday so I'll have him write something for everybody on the blog. He's really excited! He very much appreciated everyones positive reaction to his last blerb, so we'll keep the news updates coming.
Hope this finds everyone well!
Peace, love and eternal grooviness!
Jan
The first one is of the mountain "Sleeping Lady" Just where the sun starts shinning on the mountain is the lady's head, then you see a slender neck, her chest and torso and then finally her two feet sticking up. I don't know if that is an adequate enough description for you to figure out over the net....but hey I tried! Obviously the 2nd is a shot of downtown Anchorage from across the water. Pretty self explanatory.
Bret was back briefly last night, but he left for the slope this morning at 11:00, the nice thing is that he'll be back for 2 weeks on Thursday. Even though it was brief it was nice to see him.
Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees now, and we have frost most nights. The days have been sunny and cool (high 30's to low 40's) so it's been great fall weather. On Friday Lee and I also got his Halloween costume, but I'll wait until the day to put a pic up on the blog. Now that he's eleven this will most likely be his last year. When I told him that he said, "ya we'll be too old to dress up next year, so I'll just go trick or treating in my regular clothes". Yikes, too funny huh.
Otherwise all is well on the homefront. Just hanging out and relaxing.....if only life was that easy lol. Lee's big trip to the Sea Life Center is on Wednesday so I'll have him write something for everybody on the blog. He's really excited! He very much appreciated everyones positive reaction to his last blerb, so we'll keep the news updates coming.
Hope this finds everyone well!
Peace, love and eternal grooviness!
Jan
Saturday, October 14, 2006
HAPPY SATURDAY TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!
No pics today sorry ;( Just thought I'd write a quick note to keep people up to date. Bret is still in Oklahoma (sorry for the spelling error last time) What can I say??? I'm Canadian.
We interrupt this broadcast for an important news bulletin by J. Lee Williamson:
dear Everybody we are going to the Sea Life Center in Seward !We are leaving Anchorage at 9:15 am our time. We should be back by 8:30 at night.We are going to take a bus one way and a Sea Train the other way. It will take two to three hours by bus and we should be at the Sea Life Center for about two to three hours plus we take a Sea Train back which will be three to three and a half hours. which should add up to 8:30 pm we won't take any of our school stuff we won't even need our own backpacks, all we really need is a journal, two pencils, an eraser, and a sharpener. I will also be looking for some wild animals. My grades are doing very good,and my reading and writing plus my math is doing pretty well. Goodbye friends until next time! LOVE LEE
Thank you Lee for that news break!
Yes Bret is still in Sooner territory, and reports that his class is going well. On all of his tests up until today he got 100% but today.....sadly.....he got 88%......one big sigh for Bret everybody......
sigh
As for me it's been work work work. Lee and I went to see the movie "Open Season" today and it was hilarious! we highly recommend it to kids and adults alike. Many laughs were had. Other than that we've been doing the boring stuff like grocery shopping and working on spelling lists. Hopefully we'll get out tomorrow and take a few action shots to post on the blog.
Until then......goodnight to one and all!
We love you very much! p.s. I've adjusted the settings so anyone can leave a comment on the blog. We'd love to know who is watching and reading our news...include emails if ya want or just email me at hobbz4@yahoo.com so that I get everybody's address.
later skaters!
No pics today sorry ;( Just thought I'd write a quick note to keep people up to date. Bret is still in Oklahoma (sorry for the spelling error last time) What can I say??? I'm Canadian.
We interrupt this broadcast for an important news bulletin by J. Lee Williamson:
dear Everybody we are going to the Sea Life Center in Seward !We are leaving Anchorage at 9:15 am our time. We should be back by 8:30 at night.We are going to take a bus one way and a Sea Train the other way. It will take two to three hours by bus and we should be at the Sea Life Center for about two to three hours plus we take a Sea Train back which will be three to three and a half hours. which should add up to 8:30 pm we won't take any of our school stuff we won't even need our own backpacks, all we really need is a journal, two pencils, an eraser, and a sharpener. I will also be looking for some wild animals. My grades are doing very good,and my reading and writing plus my math is doing pretty well. Goodbye friends until next time! LOVE LEE
Thank you Lee for that news break!
Yes Bret is still in Sooner territory, and reports that his class is going well. On all of his tests up until today he got 100% but today.....sadly.....he got 88%......one big sigh for Bret everybody......
sigh
As for me it's been work work work. Lee and I went to see the movie "Open Season" today and it was hilarious! we highly recommend it to kids and adults alike. Many laughs were had. Other than that we've been doing the boring stuff like grocery shopping and working on spelling lists. Hopefully we'll get out tomorrow and take a few action shots to post on the blog.
Until then......goodnight to one and all!
We love you very much! p.s. I've adjusted the settings so anyone can leave a comment on the blog. We'd love to know who is watching and reading our news...include emails if ya want or just email me at hobbz4@yahoo.com so that I get everybody's address.
later skaters!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
So the three of us went to the park for a walk this weekend. It is Campbell Creek and this is one of the spots that salmon come to spawn. Here's a photo of one salmon that was hanging around in the river
You can see how red he is....obviously he'd been here for quite awhile. The best thing about the walk is that when we were walking up the path by the water we almost ran into a moose head on. I was so surprised that I didn't get a good photo of him but he was less than 4 feet away from us.......
Hopefully I won't be shaking so much next time and I'll get a better photo.
Bret's been home since Thursday and is off to Kelleyville which is right outside of Tulsa on Saturday. He is taking his commercial drivers license....maybe he'll get an action shot of him driving a big rig.....yikes! lol
Just to sign off I thought I'd send a couple of action shots for you to see ....Lee studying....Bret and Lee at the park.....and Lee and I at the park. I hope everyone is doing well. The weather here has certainly cooled down. It's in the low 30's at night and mid 50's during the day. Lee has been playing with his friends all night outside. We're still losing light of course but it still stays light until at least 8pm. I'm taking one of my change facilitation classes tomorrow and then I work the weekend...ick. Bret will be in Oaklahoma for 10 days back in Anchorage overnight and then he'll finish off his hitch on the slope for 4 days....so at least we'll get to see him once during this hitch. We got Lee's school pics and they are great we'll work on sending some out to family.
You can see how red he is....obviously he'd been here for quite awhile. The best thing about the walk is that when we were walking up the path by the water we almost ran into a moose head on. I was so surprised that I didn't get a good photo of him but he was less than 4 feet away from us.......
Hopefully I won't be shaking so much next time and I'll get a better photo.
Bret's been home since Thursday and is off to Kelleyville which is right outside of Tulsa on Saturday. He is taking his commercial drivers license....maybe he'll get an action shot of him driving a big rig.....yikes! lol
Just to sign off I thought I'd send a couple of action shots for you to see ....Lee studying....Bret and Lee at the park.....and Lee and I at the park. I hope everyone is doing well. The weather here has certainly cooled down. It's in the low 30's at night and mid 50's during the day. Lee has been playing with his friends all night outside. We're still losing light of course but it still stays light until at least 8pm. I'm taking one of my change facilitation classes tomorrow and then I work the weekend...ick. Bret will be in Oaklahoma for 10 days back in Anchorage overnight and then he'll finish off his hitch on the slope for 4 days....so at least we'll get to see him once during this hitch. We got Lee's school pics and they are great we'll work on sending some out to family.
Monday, September 25, 2006
A most wonderful autumn day in Alaska!
Since this was the last of my 5 day stretch off, I spent time outdoors taking pics and enjoying the bright sunshine. As you can see from the photos it was breathtaking. I went out on the boardwalk of Potter's Marsh, which is a bird and fish sanctuary just a stones throw from the inlet. This made for some great pictures to send your way.
all in all a beautiful setting don't you think.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
ok so what's the moral learned by Jan today????? hmmm what could it be? Oh ya I know.... DON'T EVER, and I mean NEVER pick out a hair color that you've never tried before and DO IT ALL BY YOURSELF! Tooo funny... sadly this picture is taken AFTER 3 attempts to fix the original orange (bozo the clownish) hue that I got. At least I can still laugh at myself.....lol lol lol lol
what a lovely color I have going here....Lee is being sooo nice too, He's trying to convince me that it really does look good.
So as you can see these are some pics of the slope that Bret took on his last hitch. I thought I'd add them, but sadly I can't explain what they are cuz I have absolutely know idea. Obviously you can see the huge roll of coil tubing that he works with, but I will have to let him update you when he gets back. He's due back this Thursday.
Lastly for pics I added a shot where you can kind of see how thick the salmon are here when the run.....see all those fish, crazy!
the only problem with this picture is that it makes the salmon look so small, they are actually quite big.
Fall has definitely descended upon Anchorage....All the leaves are turning to yellow and red, it is really very beautiful. Maybe Lee and I will get out and about to bring home some more pictures tomorrow. We ran lots of errands today but it poured down rain all day long. So far we've had more than 12 inches more rain than average here in Anchorage. But the hillside looks really cool with all the trees turning. You can really notice the light changing recently too, I think we're losing about 3-4 minutes of light a day now, which really adds up over a week. All summer long while I was going to work at 6:30 in the morning it was bright sunshine and never really got any darker than dusk in most places of the world. Way up where Bret works the sun did not set, but now we're moving into the opposite stage. There is even some snow dusting the tops of the mountains in Anchorage. Everyone here calls it "termination dust" cuz it signifies the termination of summer. I'd like to get out at least a couple more times to see beluga in the bay before they head south. When we were coming home from fishing about 3 weeks ago, there was a huge pod of beluga that we stopped to see. There were literally hundreds of them. They stretched from one side of the bay to the other, and as far as we could see in either direction. Long time residents say that that doesn't happen very often, but high tide was coming in and they were following the silver salmon that were headed towards the streams....We caught our limit of silvers in about 45 minutes....It was tons of fun.
Have a great week and don't hesitate to send your news our way! We miss and love you all!
what a lovely color I have going here....Lee is being sooo nice too, He's trying to convince me that it really does look good.
So as you can see these are some pics of the slope that Bret took on his last hitch. I thought I'd add them, but sadly I can't explain what they are cuz I have absolutely know idea. Obviously you can see the huge roll of coil tubing that he works with, but I will have to let him update you when he gets back. He's due back this Thursday.
Lastly for pics I added a shot where you can kind of see how thick the salmon are here when the run.....see all those fish, crazy!
the only problem with this picture is that it makes the salmon look so small, they are actually quite big.
Fall has definitely descended upon Anchorage....All the leaves are turning to yellow and red, it is really very beautiful. Maybe Lee and I will get out and about to bring home some more pictures tomorrow. We ran lots of errands today but it poured down rain all day long. So far we've had more than 12 inches more rain than average here in Anchorage. But the hillside looks really cool with all the trees turning. You can really notice the light changing recently too, I think we're losing about 3-4 minutes of light a day now, which really adds up over a week. All summer long while I was going to work at 6:30 in the morning it was bright sunshine and never really got any darker than dusk in most places of the world. Way up where Bret works the sun did not set, but now we're moving into the opposite stage. There is even some snow dusting the tops of the mountains in Anchorage. Everyone here calls it "termination dust" cuz it signifies the termination of summer. I'd like to get out at least a couple more times to see beluga in the bay before they head south. When we were coming home from fishing about 3 weeks ago, there was a huge pod of beluga that we stopped to see. There were literally hundreds of them. They stretched from one side of the bay to the other, and as far as we could see in either direction. Long time residents say that that doesn't happen very often, but high tide was coming in and they were following the silver salmon that were headed towards the streams....We caught our limit of silvers in about 45 minutes....It was tons of fun.
Have a great week and don't hesitate to send your news our way! We miss and love you all!
bret, jan and lee
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Ok so here are some photos.....one of our humble abode.
one of 3 eagles that we say while cruising in Resurrection bay.
one of our silver salmon fishing expedition.....
yada yada yada,
anyways hopefully this color of text will show up better and make things easier to read....ha ha ha.....sheepish grin
lots o love
bret
jan
lee
HELLO EVERYONE!!!!
This is our/my first attempt at starting and maintaining a blog. We are hoping that this will become a good way to keep friends and family updated with our lives in Alaska....so bear with me while I ride the learning curve....weeeeee
So to catch people up, Lee just started the 5th grade. I find this very scary since it seems like just yesterday that he was the 3 year old toddler that I first met. We've definitely jumped right into pre-teen mode with his 11th birthday in August. Lee was at his mom's in Pennsylvania, for his actual birthday on the 5th of August, so when he got home Bret took him and three friends to Anchorage's big indoor waterpark which is aptly named H20asis. Then it was back to the house for ice cream cake and hotdogs....All in all it was a fun time.
In May, Bret was hired to work with Schlumberger on Alaska's North Slope. This is where the Alaskan oilfields and pipeline are. Currently his schedule is 2 weeks on the slope and then 2 weeks at home. Luckily he started this job over the summer so the weather was not too bad....But believe you me it's getting cold up there now! It's a two hour plane ride north and east of Anchorage...If you're looking at a map of Alaska, he's in Prudhoe Bay.
As for myself, I am still working in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) at the hospital. My position is a unit clerk type job...not really exciting but hey, it pays the bills. I had to have surgery on both of my feet in March so working in Respiratory Therapy, is no longer an option for me. My feet are tons better, but with my fibromyalgia....It's just going to be impossible for me to walk that much. So for now I'm in the NICU, trying to figure out where to go from here.
We've got lots of pictures of Alaska, but I haven't got them on my puter yet....I'm off for the next 5 days, so that will be my goal!
that's all for now....take good care and we miss you all dearly!
This is our/my first attempt at starting and maintaining a blog. We are hoping that this will become a good way to keep friends and family updated with our lives in Alaska....so bear with me while I ride the learning curve....weeeeee
So to catch people up, Lee just started the 5th grade. I find this very scary since it seems like just yesterday that he was the 3 year old toddler that I first met. We've definitely jumped right into pre-teen mode with his 11th birthday in August. Lee was at his mom's in Pennsylvania, for his actual birthday on the 5th of August, so when he got home Bret took him and three friends to Anchorage's big indoor waterpark which is aptly named H20asis. Then it was back to the house for ice cream cake and hotdogs....All in all it was a fun time.
In May, Bret was hired to work with Schlumberger on Alaska's North Slope. This is where the Alaskan oilfields and pipeline are. Currently his schedule is 2 weeks on the slope and then 2 weeks at home. Luckily he started this job over the summer so the weather was not too bad....But believe you me it's getting cold up there now! It's a two hour plane ride north and east of Anchorage...If you're looking at a map of Alaska, he's in Prudhoe Bay.
As for myself, I am still working in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) at the hospital. My position is a unit clerk type job...not really exciting but hey, it pays the bills. I had to have surgery on both of my feet in March so working in Respiratory Therapy, is no longer an option for me. My feet are tons better, but with my fibromyalgia....It's just going to be impossible for me to walk that much. So for now I'm in the NICU, trying to figure out where to go from here.
We've got lots of pictures of Alaska, but I haven't got them on my puter yet....I'm off for the next 5 days, so that will be my goal!
that's all for now....take good care and we miss you all dearly!
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