Garblarflarargh.

As this baby's due date gets closer and closer, 

we are looking around our little lovely cabin and processing how everything will fit together..

You know how some people have tips on "combining spaces"?

As in- "oh an office in the kitchen"

or "how to fit a guest room in your den"

or "tips on combining your baby's room and home office"

or  "how to combine your living room and dining room"

you get the picture..

I read tips on combining spaces and it feels like-

'oh help. combining TWO spaces is a cake walk'

how about some tips on combining-

a living room and a master bedroom and a guest bedroom

and a nursery and a mudroom and some space for a home office 

-(will be working from home once baby arrives)-

 all in one 9 foot by 11 foot square room??

We are up to our elbows in shelving material,

actual fabric material, storage material,

and plywood.

(having a hubby that works 6 days/week and my belly being larger than life 

doesn't help our rate of makeover speed haha)

We will post before and after pictures once we get our good computer fixed.

And once our space is finally livable again :) 

 Just something to keep you on your toes for the final room result!

2012 Adventures.. : )

This is a blast from the past. Be warned.
It hardly even feels like it was in 2012 anymore.
But it was so fun I am posting now.
Better late than never, right??
Can you guess what it is, too?

If you said the Aridity you would be wrong.
You would also be the auto-correct function on my computer.

But if you said the Iditarod,
Congratulations!

This year, the weather was beautiful for it. 

It was a very sunny day, with views of McKinley in the distance,

overly excited dogs, and deep snow drifts : )

(yes, Luke is standing in there)

The noise from the dog teams is actually quite exhilarating..

Their excitement is contagious!
.....
and, no, contrary to popular belief, sled dogs are not just huskies.

This is where people's drawings of Alaskans wearing fur hooded coats comes from.

: ) Lots of furred-up people.

The guy on the right looked like he skinned an ox and put it on,

Exuberant dog teams, anxiously awaiting their turn to race down the starting line had to be held onto by handlers.. they were literally jumping sideways over each other sometimes.

.....

We were pumped.

The dogs were pumped.

Pumped up kids found awesome places to watch from.

What a wonderful day! 

-------

Fast forward.

Hang onto your hat.

to July dipnetting.

Luke was excited over his new waders, 

his new dipnet,

and couldn't wait to dive into the midst of the dipnetting frenzy : )

That's how it's done- just stand in the water, hold your net and catch the salmon heading upstream

 into the river.. Our limit was 35 salmon this year, and Luke was determined to limit us out

....

In the top right photo, I took it while heading back from town- you can get a good view

of how you just crowd onto the beach at the mouth of the river

wherever you can fit your vehicle, and camp as long as it takes to catch your limit

...

To say Luke enjoyed himself is a huge understatement.

I think they need to come up with a whole new word for "enjoyment" to describe his glee over it all.

Me, I enjoyed my relaxation with magazines. And soda waters. And running to town.

.....

Luke's first catch!

The seagulls are EVERYwhere 

Since everyone rinses and guts their catch then tosses the guts aside..

lots of easy pickins for the gulls.

I love how the above picture shows the tidal change.. The river comes up to the dark sand line 

(a bit higher up than where the wet sand ends.. can you find it?) 

(hint- the person walking out of the picture is almost exactly on the line)

The river narrows so much at low tide!

You can also see the beauty of when the sky gets confused over whether it's nighttime or not. : )

...........

Some hub-bub of dipnetting.

Coolers scattered, 

Commercial fishing boats heading in and out,

people dipnetting wherever there is room,

swimmers (nutsy. that water is COLD) 

And waay at the bottom of this collage, you can see the tent where a group from a local

church comes to hand out free coffee, hot chocolate and hot dogs : )

so nice of them!

...........

Step 1-hang onto your net, even if you get tired.

2-Yay! Grin and fire up when you get one to haul into shore. 

Bonus if you get more than one per haul.

3- Knock them out.

4- Gut, clean and add to your stash!

Since I am not a resident yet this year, I wasn't allowed to join in at all, but was exciting to watch!

When we got home, the results of the weekend was so worth it!

Coolers full of fresh, delicious, wild caught salmon, Luke cleaned, I vacuum packed them..

So nice to have a bunch of fish ready for meals in the freezer!

And to think people all over the world pay big bucks for what we have fresh in our 'backyard'..

We felt pretty lucky! : )

-------

August, we had Luke's mom and dad in town, and while they were here, 

we enjoyed a ferry ride from Whittier to Valdez..

We enjoyed completely different rides at times though.

Being newly pregnant, I napped and he got as close to the bow as possible. : )

.......

While awake, the ride is so beautiful!!

Mountains, glaciers, sea life, (we saw whales, but they were too fast to capture..),

We even saw one of the crab boats that stars in "Deadliest Catch".. 

(the Cornelia Marie for those who watch that..)

Upper left, leaving Whittier, lower right, entering Valdez..

The end of the pipeline is in the other lower picture..

And the icebergs that were all over were so cool! 

Someone wise once described them as 'like listening to ice cubes crackling in a glass of water'

That's a perfect description. Sounds unreal.

Sea lions hanging out. 

Hi sea lions!

-------

Cute husband post. Sorry, this day was too wonderful not to add.

My first day of work, Luke got me flowers, and wrote a letter to 

myself and our unborn baby- to say thank you for going to work even though

mom feels yucky right now.. :) so diggin sweet.

He also made supper.

2 t-bones apiece. 

I was smack dab in the middle of my red-meat craving week,

and he figured vegetables would just bog down the beauty of steak to me.

He was right :)

And for my mother, most likely, here is part of our cabin :)

I had lots of fun adding a closet.. Just a piece of plywood, stained in a fun chevron pattern,

then nailed into place, add a curtain, and wa-la!

Our closetless cabin is closetful now.

That is also where our baby will sleep. It's about 4x5 in there.. 

Will fit our mini pack and play just perfect! 

And our living room.

Each piece of furniture was a craigslist steal.

Things can be inexpensive if you look : )

The middle is my exciting finds at target, nothing like decorating for a season in under 8 dollars

And on the right, I added shelves out of free, unused chunks of board,

spray painted them and their .80 cent brackets, and yay, helped our lack of cupboard space : )

My favorite thing so far is to figure out how to live in this cabin cheap.

It's a fun challenge to try to make the most out of what space we have :)

Even though our space isn't gigantic, we hope to see everyone here at some point!

We would love to have you!!

Smorgasboard : )

Wowza, totally random thoughts to *try* to sum up the past little while : )

Soo, 2012.

Here goes..

Back in February life really started changing for the better- getting engaged to my best friend : )

Thus, from there, I made some "career" changes, moved around quite a bit, and enjoyed the company of many wonderful friends and family..

First, my sister and some of my aforementioned wonderful friends came to visit in April..

My bridal shower was also in April.. Andrea was a fabulous hostess!

It was Alaskan themed, and was so nice of everyone to get together to celebrate our

upcoming wedding with me.. Felt so fun to have some of friends from 'home' there!

And to have a sister there.. could not have been better!

How lucky to have my personal attendant AND a sister there!!

All the way in Alaska.. : )

Then, I moved to MN for the month of May, where I got to spend some quality time 

with my sisters (including a whole week with Kate in MQT! : )..)

And got to see my friends a bit more, fit in a couple weddings, and had so much fun

seeing everybody for a little while before the eventual move, marriage, and life changes..

Dress shopping In MN.. 

Shannon- you were in my/our hearts the whole weekend!!

(insert yourself for pretend ;)...)

Living in MI for the month of June was awesome.. 

To spend so much time at home, and to be able to have lots of time for visiting..

Aaaahhh.. bliss...

Before either Luke or I knew it, our wedding day had arrived..

Crazy how fast the time actually flew!

Thank you Janel for taking some beautiful pictures..!

Fun to get some at home : )

Also-- THANK you Janel for saving my hair day!! : )

(didn't she do a beautiful job?? talent!)

Sisters..

I love, love the necklace from my Dad..

He picked out such a beautiful one!

He decided to get a necklace for each of his girls on their wedding day..

Such a wonderful heirloom..

Thank you Dad.. : )

-----------

Then we were on our way back to Alaska.. was so fun to have some time just to ourselves

before needing to settle into daily life again.

(I do keep hoping for an 'official' honeymoon someday,

somewhere warm, and tropical, and hopefully on a cruise ship..)

But for now, the memories of our drive back are fun to look back on..

 Things got a bit squirrelly on the drive up.. didn't take long at all before- "How much longer, Luke??"
Turns out life in a vehicle day after day is not my calling : )

We did stop at some beautiful places, however..

Like Muncho Lake, known worldwide as being

the "most beautiful lake in the world"

The colors were outstanding!

We also stopped at Liard Hot springs..

 And even had a candlelight fish dinner in the vehicle.. goodness gracious. are we cool.

----------

When we arrived back in Alaska, and back to our lovely cabin : ),

we settled into life as an Alaskan couple..

Dipnetting, watching an airshow at the Air Force base,

having company, camping, etc..

So much fun, but will have to do a separate post for life at home..

Things could get lengthy otherwise! : )

Home Again, Home Again..

Hello!
We are FINALLY back into a swing of normalcy, settling into our lovely home-sweet-cabin, and it feels amazing..
To unpack into a closet after living out of bags and boxes and moving between three states, not to mention crossing the country to do so, in the last two months while planning a wedding?? whew. feels good.
Will post pictures soon of all the activity, just wanted to update at least a bit of a post to remind everyone I am still here! :) haha
(I am especially excited to post all of the funny misinterpretations people asked me about life in Palmer... Haha, for example- 'where do you get your groceries from?' and 'isn't it dark all year?') lol.. funny stuff.. Thank you everyone who was able to make it to our wedding, we loved loved loved seeing everyone, and remember- you are always welcome to stop by if you are ever driving through Palmer. :)

AKk! I'm getting married!

The day started out simple enough..

A hike up the butte,

with beautiful views the whole way up :)

Here is my handsome man!!

(he was happy as can be the whole time up.. no wonder!)

After myself huffing and puffing and truely believing the top was getting farther and farther away..

.....

We got there and saw this..

so worth the hike!!

so I began taking a bunch of pictures and enjoying the view..

.....

Here he is just before asking.. ;)

(unbeknownst to me.. the whole thing was a complete suprise!)

Here we are!! JUST engaged :D

He scooted right next to me, pulled out the box,

and asked if I would marry him..

I said YES of course!

.....

And here is my ring..

It has a round diamond, two little diamonds and two sapphires on either side..

and unique to ak, it has little gold nuggets on it :)

(that way we will always have a piece of ak, Luke said..xo)

I love how unique and different it is!

(now I wish it didn't need to get re-sized.. don't want to part with it!)

Here we are, getting to the bottom of the butte as fast as possible..

to share the news :)

slid down most of the way.. haha

we went to share the news with Luke's cousins,

so fun and exciting to share this day with them..

and just wish we could see our friends and family at this time!!

(sorry we are sideways.. :S)

Our big day is June 30th.. we are so excited to start planning this new chapter of our lives!!

:D!

Lemme tellya. I just adore craigslist.

It is like garage sailing without the use of gasoline.

And seeing as I really don't own a car that is very beneficial.

.....

Anyway, scored two of the purply/maroon chairs for six bucks!

I have been looking for mid-century modern barrel-like chairs to re-upholster

and then put them in Luke's cabin..

These are not exactly what I had in mind, but I do like the simple shape,

the smallish size, and the fact that they 'float' off the ground will help in keeping the

living space from looking too crowded..

.....

I decided that since the cabin has a very yellowy undertone to the wood,

Will upholster them in gray with a plaid material for the seat cushion :)

Like this:

Love the dimension of heathered gray :)

will throw on some nailhead trim somewhere because I am a sucker for that trend.

And how cozy would an ikea sheep rug be thrown over one?

Excited for this project.. :) will have to post the 'after' once they get finished.

sometime this year. 

field trip!

Once upon a time Luke brought me on a field trip to his work.

Much to the excitement of everyone.

Well, at least to me.

.....

You see, typically listening to how his days go

and how this machine does this and that,

and when you factor in the x and the z to the y 

in order to drill the proper radius according to the proportions

 on the glarbarfafblagar and comparing it to the flangafluungit

because obviously that metal chunk is better than the other metal chunk

and the superturbo3000 machine does... *beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!*

.....

that was my brain shutting down.

...

So, he brought me to see it all.

Now I can visualize what he talks about, and the *plan* was that I would be able to understand him.

But my brain is small. Ah well.

...

It was still fun to see him in front of the actual superhurboturbo3000.

and he turned that chunk into that neat thing!

And metal blocks into those!

All in this room full of intimidatingly large machinery.

I was fascinated. And proud of him. And awed.

And now I believe I may be dating the world's smartest man.

(Maybe that was his plan all along...?)

hahaha, but it was very fun to see it all! an interesting date :)