Juneau Update

Well, we're sick, so I thought I'd let you all know since that seems to be the blogging trend as of late. I got what I thought was food poisoning late Saturday night and spent the night in the bathroom. Turns out it wasn't food poisoning... Jackson and I spent the night together last night on his floor with a bowl and his potty chair. He's never had a stomach bug before so this was my first taste of watching him throw up. It's the most heart breaking thing ever!! Why did no one warn me of this??? Anyways, the good thing is that he's not missing school because it's parent teacher conferences today and tomorrow. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that Mike doesn't get the bug. We thought about it last night and realized that he has only twice called in sick... once after his round of chemo and again after he had his wisdom teeth pulled. The guy never gets sick.

Anyways, that's about all that is new here. We got a couple inches of snow to remind Mike that it's still February and he still has a while before the boat can be taken out. The way he was talking you would have thought it was May. He's very excited to get back out on the water. The countdown to Grammy and Grandpa arriving in Juneau is slightly depressing... 120 days. Seems like a long ways away but I'm sure it will come quickly. Jackson and I are planning on flying to Montana around the 20th of August and being there for about three weeks. Mike will be joining us around Labor Day weekend. We plan on going to the home Griz game that weekend. One of Mike's friends is getting married in Big Sky on September 7th so we will be attending that as well.

Hope all is well with everyone!
~Addie

This picture is from a day at the beach last week...

BUTTE AMERICA!! 8:00 P.M. I am having a three day weekend. I had training in Helena on Thursday and Friday. Not to much planned this weekend. Sam, his brother Bob, and another family member, Mike Ryan, went ice fishing at Canyon Ferry today. They caught some rainbows so felt they had a good day. I apparently had the same cold, etc. that is happening in Texas and Juneau and elsewhere. Had to miss a day of school and it is still hanging on. Mary Lynne's trip to the Hudson Bay with dog sleds is on. They leave about March 25th for 2 and 1/2 weeks. This is separate from her job with VOBS. This is her vacation. There will be about nine of them, three dog sleds and the dogs to go with them. They will take pickups and drive from Ely,MN to Gillam, Manitoba. There they get on a train to get to Churchill, Manitoba. Can only get there by plane or train. Once in Churchill they will trek west to where the Seal River comes into Hudson Bay. The leader of the trip has led this trip before. They are taking two shotguns. Mary was excited get to go. She is the least experienced of anyone going. She said that Ely, MN, with a population of 3500 people has the highest per capita Arctic explorers in the United States. So I hope they see a polar bear (uh, not). Sam and Kelly seem to be doing well. Both working hard. Mom(Grandma) found her Metamucil bottle full of coins. She has been playing BINGO. Everyone have a good week.

Colorado

Wow - I feel bad that I haven't blogged for a while. Been sick for a few days - finally gave up and went to the doctor for antibiotics today so I should be good tomorrow - in time to babysit Lyndee for Wednesday night volleyball, Tim and Nellie! Haven't seen her for almost 2 weeks - hard to believe, but things just get busy.

Guess everyone heard about Owen's big win in the mutton bustin. They're supposed to come this week-end so I'm hoping to get the straight story right from the source.

Still having a phenomenal winter - hardly any snow and up to 30+ every day pretty much. Mud here and there. The good part of it is that in Buffalo Park which is up on the mountain where our irrigation water comes from, the snow cover is 95% of normal. Find that hard to believe. The lake is frozen with about 2 feet of ice and very little snow cover, so it makes for a good place to walk.

Stewart has been keeping his horses exercised in preparation for roping this week-end in the
Denver area, and, hopefully, the annual Texas trip sometime in late March.

Very excited about the week-end trip to San Antonio. Leaving the 23rd and coming back on the 26th. Staying in a nice hotel and just hanging out. Mary and Milt will be there as well.

Work is still very busy. Working on buying a building in town to move the office, but its a short sale/foreclosure property and we really low-balled the offer, so we'll see what happens. It'll take a lot of time before we know anything.

Writing this post from in front of the fireplace where I'm trying to warm up. Hope the drugs work soon!

Juneau Update

Happy Valentine's Day! We've already celebrated the holiday twice (apparently Jackson can't keep a secret very well. He's also pretty good at snooping in possible Valentine present hiding areas). Tomorrow I am the snack parent at preschool. I sure picked a bad day to do that. I asked what kind of goodies I could bring and I was told vegetables because they will be having enough goodies from their party. I'm going to look like the mean Mom who makes the kids eat their yucky veggies. Oh well.

Nothing very exciting to report on. I've been sick for about a week now but I think I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. All of our snow is melting so it feels a bit like spring around here. We pushed our honeymoon back until June. Long story short, the hospital offered my Mom a good chunk of money to change the dates of her vacation, so we changed them. It's a bummer that we have to wait until June but the upside is that Mike will now get to attend the Fred Meyer managers meeting in Portland (it was scheduled during our original trip in April). Also, my parents should have a lot more fun while they're here. The weather should be better and the cruise ships will be here by then so they can experience all of the touristy things.

We've been keeping our eye out for a Steller's Sea-Eagle that has been spotted in the Juneau area. Apparently this type of eagle is almost exclusively found in Russia (which we can almost see from our backyard.... just in case you had forgotten about Sarah Palin), but has been spotted in the Juneau area once before in 1989. It's larger than a bald eagle and has a larger beak as well as white feathers on the leading edge of its wings. I'm hoping to spot it and get a picture but it's been a while since the last sighting so I'm not very confident.

Hope all is well with everyone! The picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. It's sunset in Auke Bay, which is where we launch our boat in the summer. It's one of my favorite sunset vantage points.

Super Bowl: Kim & Linda's family

We're about to head out to Al and Laurie Ginn's in Piltzville to watch the game. Laurie and Linda teach at DeSmet, Al is the head mechanic at Canyon River golf across the river. Kaci and Marli will watch the game with Milt and Mary. Kara and Josh are in Ovando watching. Niki had a somewhat unexpected invitation from a friend without a TV to watch the game at her (Niki's) house in Raleigh. Molly and her roommate Katie went to afternoon mass at Carroll -- sure, dad -- and will watch the game at their apartment in Helena with one other friend.

Bubba and Sophie don't really care. Tom was in Missoula this morning, he brought Mom out to River City Grill for brunch, then sped back to Kalispell, where he and tomi were going to a friend of Tomi's for the game ... but I'm overstepping my bounds.