Happy New Year!

Ajax and Kali hope you have a very happy 2012! It's cold and snowy outside so they are snuggling on a throw on the couch. I don't blame them a bit!

While my hubby's been working, I've had a quiet and peaceful three day weekend. Till we went to the grocery store for our Monday Senior Discount shopping tonight, I hadn't left the house since Friday. I didn't have anything major to do, the snow was piled up, covering the outside steps coming up the hill, and the house was nice and warm. Why go out? I took this opportunity to try to get myself organized for the new year. I still have a few things to do but I think I am off to a good start. Of course, it's only January 2.

I'm not really making resolutions but I've come across a couple of things I want to do this year. I've long been an admirer of Colman McCarthy and his Center for Teaching Peace in DC. Years ago, he offered a correspondence course which required an application essay, after which you'd read a series of articles on the history of nonviolence, peacemakers, social justice, etc. and send in papers summarizing your thoughts about the readings. I worked on an application but never got around to submitting it. For some reason, I was thinking about the course the other night and decided to look online to see if it still existed. Yes, it does, and it's actually available on the web as a self study--no more application and no more essays, but the readings are all there, along with some questions for processing the info. There's an 8 week course and a 16 week university course. So one of the things I am going to do this year is take the 16 week course for my own benefit.

The other site I visited, thanks to a mention on the 49 Writers blog, is called 750words. It's a pretty cool writing site, especially for those of us who don't have much discipline. Basically, you sign up and write 750 words (or more) each day. You can get a reminder email each day at a time you specify, and you receive little reward badges for your accomplishments (750 words, writing several days in a row, writing every day for a month, and so on). It also tracks things like how fast you type, how many times you get distracted, what words you use most often, what your mood appears to be, and so on. Some of it you can take with a grain of salt but it's kinda fun. (I've done my two days' worth in January--woohoo!) Instead of a blog, it's private--more like a journal. It's designed to help "get the cobwebs out" by writing about anything you want, supposedly freeing your brain to then work on what you really want to write. I don't fancy myself a real writer but I thought it might be enjoyable to write about "whatever" without editing, thinking about who's going to read it, or trying to make it fit into certain parameters. And, who knows, maybe I will come up with some ideas that will make it onto the blog, which I feel could use a little zip (since we're talking about getting organized and beginning a new year...)

What do you want to do in 2012?

Our Year in Review

If I had to choose a word for 2011, I think it would be "family," which makes me happy. We spent most of our time off island with various family members and that's just how I like it! January started out with a trip to New Jersey to help my mom after she had surgery. She had a couple of rough weeks but was soon back to her active and busy self and we found plenty to laugh about, despite the circumstances. We all have a warped sense of humor so were able to find the fun in an extended hospital stay, barf buckets, tubes down the nose and a tummy full of staples. It was also the first time I'd been with all of my siblings in quite awhile. My youngest brother Bill and I are shown above with Mom.

My brother Joe came in from Wyoming

My sister Kathi was there from San Antonio and we managed to go sledding with our nieces without breaking a hip. I think we are too old for this

but we gave it our best shot!

My sister in law Patty was a huge help and is always there for Mom. We appreciate her very much. Not to mention the fact that she has four of the sweetest kids around--Becca, Billy, Alex, and Abby. It was lots of fun hanging out with them.

February brought the annual Polar Bear Walk/Run, which I completed (as a walker, not a runner!) with my friends Tammy, Sonia and Melanie. We thought we needed it after a fondue party the night before.

Emperor geese
Part of March and April took us off island for vacation in California. We spent some time in San Francisco, one of our favorite cities, and explored Napa and Sonoma.

We stopped in on Rich's sister Vesta. She and Rich went through a bunch of stuff in the garage and we enjoyed looking at old photos and keepsakes.

Then to Mariposa to visit Rich's stepkids William, Hannah and Sara (and kids)

and met up with Vesta again while seeing Rich's cousins Mary Ethel and Roger.

We also saw my niece Ellie at Santa Clara U., our friend Keils in the Napa Valley, Poindexter-McHan cousins Susan and Kris in Los Altos, and Rich's stepdaughter Heather and her family in Nevada, plus stopovers in Lake Tahoe and Vegas. Whew! Oh, yeah, I was also super happy to chance upon a Graham Nash/David Crosby concert in San Francisco! They were fabulous!

In May, we found the wild horses and watched the hills start turning green. Rich won prizes for these two photos (and one more!) in his company's annual photo contest later in the year.

June brought a little bit of excitement with a city wide tsunami evacuation. Since we live on a hill in UniSea housing, most of UniSea evacuated to our yard and higher. Luckily, nothing happened and everyone soon went home.


In late June and July, we traveled to New Jersey for a week in Ocean City. My mom's 80th birthday was in January but we celebrated with a big bash "down the shore" with lots of family and friends.
The grandkids had a blast on the beach!

Ally and Elle

Aidan
Beck
Emery
Here's Mom with all of her kids, all of our spouses except my sister's husband, all of my mom's grandkids and great-grandkids. Wow! With the additional aunts, uncles, cousins and friends, we filled 6 houses at the shore and had close to 100 people in and out during the week. It was a blast!

After a week at the shore, Rich and I rented a car and took a little road trip to Arlington National Cemetery and through Pennsylvania. We spent a couple of nights at a B&B and took a hike at Bushkill Falls.

After driving back to my mom's, I was thrilled to see one of my all time favorite bands, U2, in Philly before heading home. Another awesome vacation!

In August we enjoyed nice weather, couple of hikes, and making jams and preserves.


September brought me to Anchorage for a work conference, which gave me an excuse to go to Texas and pop in on the kids and grandkids for a couple of weeks.

I got to babysit Emery while her parents were at work and had fun with all of them in Amarillo,

then to Abilene to spend time with Ally and Aidan, their parents and some good friends, Karen, Sherri and Jim

and to Dallas to keep Elle and Beck while their parents went on a 10th anniversary trip to Mexico.

You know I love my Gigi time with all the sweeties!

In October, we organized our own little "Occupy" event to show solidarity with the rest of the world. I miss my activist days!


November was vacation time again--yes, we do travel a lot, don't we? First to Maui for a week of sunshine and relaxation--so nice!

Then to southern California for Jane's first RV adventure--I started out skeptical but ended up having a good time. :) One of the highlights was a stay in Joshua Tree National Park, where we enjoyed hiking, exploring and watching some rock climbers. This was the only trip this year when we did not see any family but we did reconnect with some of Rich's old friends, Dain and Crystal, and had great fun with them.


We got back home in December, just in time for Rich to get super busy with all the holiday parties and banquets at the hotel. Meanwhile, I hanging out with friends for a holiday dinner where Andrea gave all of us "Occupy the Bering Sea" hoodies. Her stepmom had given her one for her bday in June and we were all envious. :)

We've been busy at work and had a quiet Christmas at home. It's a cliche but I do feel that the time just races by and I can hardly believe another year is done. It's amazing to me that I have been in Unalaska for 7 and a half years!

Love this little snow family created by someone in UniSea housing!

Thankfully, 2011 has been much more calm and peaceful than 2010. Emery has had clear scans all year and is doing great. Nothing could be better than that! Baby Beck turned one year old, Emery turned 2, Elle is almost 4, Ally is almost 5 and Aidan is almost 9. They are the sweetest kids in the world and I miss them every day. I think I would have liked living in the time when everyone stayed in the same town with their extended family instead of being scattered to the four winds. :) But we are fortunate to get to visit fairly often and that will have to do till we can retire!

All in all, we've had a very good year and are grateful for our circumstances when we know that many are struggling. I hope that 2012 will bring positive changes to our country and relief to those who are having difficulties. My wish, as always, is for more peace and love in the world.

Happy 2010--the Year of Elevation

Let the New Year and the new decade begin! Oh, yeah, they already did...a couple of days ago!

We had a nice Christmas dinner with the Hospitality crew and a quiet weekend after. I was still unpacking and doing laundry and mostly stayed inside. Had a busy week at work, playing catch-up and preparing for our big auction fundraiser coming in February. We both worked New Year's Eve day and are not big party people, content to spend the evening at home, though we did have a fab dessert of apple cinnamon bread pudding with caramel sauce and whipped cream. Decadent! The City of Unalaska provides us with a fireworks extravaganza at 11:59 PM, something that we usually attend, but this year we were old fogeys and watched the show from our bed. Pretty cool to live in a place where the fireworks display is in full view from our bedroom window, huh? It was just as spectacular from a distance and lasted a good long while. I think we both fell asleep within minutes of the finale.

Rich worked part of New Year's Day. I was invited to a "girls'" get-together and had a great time hanging out, chatting, eating and watching part of "Julie and Julia" with friends. I'd already made plans to meet another friend at 3 so skedaddled out of one gathering and onto the next, having another lovely time discussing and laughing. Thanks, gals! I was afraid I was going to have to spend New Year's Day alone but it ended up being a full and fun day.

So I have been thinking about resolutions and how I really don't like them all that much. I am inconsistent with them and don't have the best follow through. I don't think I made any last year. Well, I was going after the 100 Book Challenge and you see how miserably I did with that! I've been browsing around the internet and came across the idea of setting a "theme" for the year. Someone might have the theme of harmony, for example, and she will try to keep the idea foremost in her mind as she goes about her daily life, making decisions and taking on tasks. Or you might choose communication, or trust, or love, or whatever it is that you would like to concentrate on. After my initial response, "What a cool idea--I think I am going to have a theme for the year," I simply could not decide on my theme. Who would have thought it would be so hard?! Although several came to mind, none seemed exactly right for me. I was kinda obsessing over it a little bit but couldn't make up my mind. Then, lying in bed the other night, the U2 song "Elevation" started playing in my head. Suddenly I knew I had my theme for 2010! "To elevate" has different levels of meaning: to move to a higher state, to lift up, to raise to a higher intellectual or spiritual level, to raise the spirits, to raise the voice. As with resolutions, a theme is very personal and has its own meaning to the individual choosing it. I like the layers and nuances of meaning and can relate them to various areas of my life. And I just like the sound of it...an inspiring, uplifting word. So I'm off on the Year of Elevation...stay tuned for reports from the heights.

What's your theme for 2010?