Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, a little early. We have "big" plans for Halloween. We are going out to Birchwood Methodist Church Camp for the weekend for a youth trip. (http://www.birchwoodcamp.org/) I love going out to Birchwood, it is beautiful out there. I hope that it does not rain, it is not "supposed to. It will be chilly but I can handle cold.

Mike has one more week of the Academy!! YIPPIE! His co-workers got tased earlier this week, but her had proof that he had already been tased so did not have to suffer that again. Today he will be maced ... again for the third time in his life. But he only has to get it in one eye. It still does not sound fun to me.

Hope you get more Treats than tricks!

Whats in the Box?

Just got an email for Glacier Valley CSA. For the box I ordered here is what we will be getting
11 and 12 November 2009
From Alaska’s Glacier Valley Farm, VanderWeele Farm:
Alaskan beets ***
Alaskan Brussels sprouts ***
Alaskan onions
Alaskan parsnips ***
Alaskan carrots

From Outside:
certified organic Red Canal pears
certified organic cremini mushrooms
certified organic red kale
certified organic Honeyboat delicata squash
certified organic parsley

If anyone has some good recipes for the ones with *** next to them please let me know. Some I have never cooked before.

I already plan on making cream of mushroom soup with the Mushrooms, since that is the only way Mike and I will eat them!

Community-Supported Agriculture!

Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a "green" or some could say a "Granola" concept.

According to Glacier Valley Farm (GVF) CSA (http://glaciervalleycsa.com/) a CSA is
"a community of people who pledge support to a farm operation so that the community feels a sense of ownership of and responsibility for the farm. The growers and consumers support each other and share the risks and benefits of food production. Subscribers to the CSA program pledge some amount in advance to cover some of the anticipated costs of the farm’s operation. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from connecting with the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By selling directly to community members rather than selling their produce wholesale, the growers receive better prices for their crops and gain financial security, because they have a guaranteed market for their vegetables."

I have been researching this for a while. Most CSA you have to buy a "share" for $500 for the summer and you get a bag/box of veggies every week. However I love the GVF concept where you can decide when you want to buy a box and that the program is mostly year round. It only Costs $35. Another cool thing about GVF is that they deliver to a ton of places around Anchorage. So you choose the drop off location and then each week or whenever you order you just go pick it up at a convenient location. Here is the list of food that will be in the boxes delivered on this week:

From Alaska’s Glacier Valley Farm, VanderWeele Farm: Alaskan potatoes (these will be a colorful combination of purple, red, and yellow!) Alaskan Brussels sprouts Alaskan onions Alaskan garlic

From Outside: certified organic Red Delicious apples certified organic Bartlett pears certified organic pomegranate certified organic Romaine lettuce certified organic radishes certified organic Fuyu persimmons

As you can see everything is also organic, which is a huge plus, especially here in Alaska. The grocery stores do not have a good selection of organic fruits and veggies if you ask me. GVF also supplies recipes on how to bake some of the more "foreign" vegetables

The next pick up date is on November 11th. I think we are going to try it. I will report back on how we like it.

To find one in your area look at this web page http://www.localharvest.org/

Edit: After writing the post I emailed GVF asking how much you get. Nancy with Customer Service has already emailed me back ( less than a 1/2 day) saying that the box averages between 18 to 20 pounds. So it costs 35 dollars for 20 pounds of organic fruits and veggies, that is less than $1.75 a pound!! CRAZINESS!!! I cannot wait until November 11th now!!!

Craft Fair

Yesterday Mike and I went to the craft fair/ Fall Festival at our church. We had never gone before but I am glad that we did. We bought a Northern Lights Coupon book from the youth. Which is the same concept as the Happenings book in the lower 48. It has a lot of coupons for restaurants and also a ton for tourist type activities in Alaska. And a large portion of the money goes to the youth fund at church.

We also bought this super, super cute wine bottle snow man for a local artist. I fell in love with is and HAD to buy it!

A Sunday Walk

Mike and I slept in on Sunday and went to the 6:30 PM church service. We had a relaxing morning. Mike watched football. I read and then made 3 loafs and 26 muffins of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread.

After lunch we went on a walk down along Westchester Lagoon and the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. It was a little cool in the shaded areas but not to bad for October in Alaska. It was a crystal clear, sunny day and we could see Denali, and the other mountains in the area. We tried to get some pictures but since the mountains have snow on them they kinda blend into the sky.

It raining Men... Hallelujah its Raining Men.. Amen

It's Raining Men... Hallelujah its Raining Men.. Amen This is the song that keeps running through my mind.

At work today the Presidents right hand lady, or the "Queen" as I call her, talked to me and a co-worker and we are getting offices!!! WITH DOORS!!! Hallelujah! Currently I am in a Cubical, which is fine, I have my own space. But some days I cannot handle the noise. I go crazy. Even with my Ipod plugged in to my ears, I cannot concentrate. A few weeks ago I found out that a coworker I love, who had switched locations was coming back to our office. And now I get an office of my own... with a door!

And I am moving into the office on Friday!!!

Life. Is. Good.

Busy Busy

I feel like I am always running some where these days.

This has its good points and bad points. Good is that if I am busy I am not sitting at home in front of the TV. Bad because it seems like a tornado has gone through our house. Last night after youth group. (At youth group we went and played mini golf. I was naively excited...I love mini golf... however I was highly disappointed. Never EVER waste your time or money going to Castle On O'malley mini golf. I think my high school senior graduation party had a better mini golf course. But the what can you expect in Alaska) Any who; Last night, I had had enough of the kitchen. It was NASTY. Yes, I know it is partly my fault but whatever. I washed all the dishes, scrubbed the counters and floors. I am happy to announce I feel safe eating in it again!

Tonight we do not have much planned. I have pork chops pulled out for dinner. We plan on going and working out tonight. My C25k quest continues, currently I am stuck on week 4 which has 4 running sets 3min, 5 min, 3 min, and 5 min. The first three I have no problem with the last 5 minute run though I can not get through. I am not sure if it is mental or physical. But I will keep trying.

It will be another busy weekend. We have dinner with the other youth group leaders Friday night, I have FLL on Saturday followed by a party for work in Eagle River, and Sunday we have church and I have bible study in the afternoon. And I hope to sew some this weekend too. So much to do so little time! If only there was an extra couple hours in the day.

Aces Win! Aces Win!

Picture taken from : http://www.alaskaaces.com/news/aces/200910/aces-drop-preseason-opener-to-kalamazoo

We went to the Aces games Wednesday and Thursday night with Samantha, Hans and Jacob! Wednesday they lost in an extra periods 3-4 but last night they won 2-1!! It is nice to have hockey back. The games this week were preseason games and they were against the Kalamazoo Wings (Michigan). It was also the annual Paint the Rink Pink event for cancer awareness. So the ice was pink, the Aces had on pink jersey, and really ugly pink socks on. Surprisingly to all of us Jacob did really well at the games. Samantha bought he really cute earmuff type earplugs to protect his hearing.

Blog Give Away: Eco- Friendly Family

Like I said in posts before Mike and I are trying to be greener. I follow a number of Blogs that talk about green living including The Eco-Friendly Family. They talk a lot about baby's and cloth diapering, along with other green topics. When we have kids, I plan on Cloth Diapering. The initial costs are pricey but once you have the diapers you never have to buy more, no matter how many kids you have. It is much more eco friendly and nicer to the pocket book. Plus now days they are as easy to use as disposable (no scary pins), you just have to wash them...Any who. The Eco-Friendly Family is having a give away on there blog for "3 BumGenius One-Size pocket diapers and a quart of Allens Naturally detergent, all in a, too cute, reusable shopping bag." (http://theecofriendlyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/cloth-diaper-giveaway.html) And to have an extra entry I could blog about it.

If you want more information about cloth diapers I suggest you look here https://www.jilliansdrawers.com/newtocloth for more information, I promise they are not extremely gross.

Attn: No we are not pregant! Or even close! But I have been trying to convince Mike on this issue :)

Tut Tut Looks like Rain,

Rain, rain, and more rain. That is what we had this weekend and the forecast is for the week. Fall in Alaska, at least there is not any snow yet!

This week is the start of hockey season! The Aces first preseason game in on Tonight! Hopefully they have as good of a goalie as they did last year. Jacob will be going to his first hockey game! Well unless you count all the games he went to last year in Samantha tummy! They got him little earmuffs for him to wear so the noise does not injure his ears.

Sunday after church Mike and I cleaned and winterised the condo. We put up plastic on all the windows except the big solarium one. We might try to put plastic on at least one section of the solarium, because there is only one pain of glass in a section.

I also made a door draft guard for the door the goes out to the porch. And it only cost 4 dollars to do it! (what you need- one leg of an old pair of jeans, some quilt batting/ stuffing ( I had some laying around at home, thread, and 1.5 bags of pinto beans.) I took and old pair of jeans that had a hole in one leg and cut them in half. sewed the bottom of a leg closed. Sewed the edge of the leg so that the tube was one width. Then I took 3-1 quart ziplock bags and filled them about 1/2 full of pinto beans (about a 1/2 a bag each). Dropped one of the bags into the pant leg/tube. Filled the leg to the knee with left over quilt stuffing. Dropped another bag of beans in, filled to almost the top with stuffing, dropped the last bag in and sewed the top of the pant leg closed. Your done! If you wanted to you could fill the entire leg with beans but that seemed a little excessive to me. You can also fill it with sand or kitty litter, but I really did not want Java using it as a little box. The door draft guard will help to keep the cold air out of the Condo and to keep the warm air in. I will post a picture of it all done!

Wetbag

Mike and I, well more me, have been trying to be more "green" lately. We have bought extra cloth napkins vs. paper towels but I hate when our dirty wash cloths, towels, and napkins laying around before laundry day. I read up on some solutions and I found a pattern online and alerted it a bit. Here is the web page http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/wet-bag.html This is what the website says a wetbag is

"A wet bag has a thousand uses! Okay, I'm not going to list all of them but I do use my DIY waterproof bags for dirty diapers, dirty clothes with spills on them and wet beach clothes. I keep one tucked in my diaper bag when I go out and it comes in handy. Often.

Even if you don't use cloth diapers you will still use one! You can keep a clean change of clothes inside of one, ready to be swapped out if your baby spills, spits up or has a poop explosion down to her toes. Take out the clean clothes and put the dirty ones inside...all zipped up nicely, protecting all the other stuff in your bag. Wet bags are also fantastic when it comes to beach and pool trips! Toss in the wet swimsuit and all the other stuff in your bag stays dry. These are much prettier than a plastic bag, re-usable and washable too."

So I added a couple of buttons and some straps so that I can attach it to my oven door. During the week we can throw the dirty dish rags, napkins and towels in the bag. Then on laundry day all I need to do is grab the bag and throw it along with my rags in the washer along with the bath towels and we are good to go.

I pretty proud that it looks ok. I have never a) sewed a zipper on, b) I have never sewed with PUL (http://www.celticclothswholesale.com/pages/PULFabric.htm), the water proof fabric on the inside, and c) I taught myself how to make button holes with my sewing machine.