Flowers and Mushrooms

Sorry I have been MIA lately! I guess I just haven't been up to anything really fun to report. I have been helping paint the Sunday school rooms at church but that really isn't a photo op! :)

Here is a pic though of the flowers my fantastic husband bought me! He had them sent for my kidney transplant anniversary. It has been three years and I am still really healthy! Praise the Lord!! Some days it feels like my transplant was lifetime ago and other days if feels like it was last month. I know that sounds weird...

Are they not beautiful?! They all can as buds so I got to watch them bloom. This picture was taken when a lot of them hadn't bloomed yet. They were gorgeous!

How is this for random: The other day I went out back and found the smurf village! But don't worry there was no sign of Gargamel.

I hope you all are having a great Labor Day weekend!

Holy Cabbage Batman!

Thursday, I spent the day with my fantastic neighbors (Chris, Kirsten and Addison) at the Alaska State Fair held in Palmer. It was a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun! There was so much to see, we were there for over 4 hours.

The farm exhibits were fun to check out. There were a lot of giant vegetables! Can you believe the size of this cabbage?!

If they wouldn't have labeled this I never would have guessed it. It is a puffball! Can you imagine stepping on this one? You would be covered in the 'puff stuff' that comes out. It was cool!

Addison sitting in front of the cabbage for scale. Of course her baby had to sit up there too! She is the sweetest!

Addison and her balloon.

Chris and Addison feeding the animals at the petting zoo.

Kirsten, Chris and Addy at the petting zoo.

This guy was having a bad hair day! Check out his fro.

Cute little baby pigs!

A funny man and his juggling act. He was juggling fire but by the time I got over there he had switched tricks. I must say, the fire was way cooler!

We went to the Fred Scheer's Lumberjack Show. I had never been to one so it was pretty interesting. I had no idea how strong these guys had to be when preforming these tasks. Here is Cassidy gaffing up the pole. Very cool! He gave his opponent a head start of more than half the pole and he still beat him back to the bottom.

We were cheering for the guy on the left. We were sitting on his 'side' of the arena. He won by default. Winning is winning right!?

When we stopped at a booth to play Rat Race, I didn't think it would involve a real rat! We lost. The rat picked the green hole to scurry into!

Kirsten and I waiting in line to enter the fair.

Mountains surrounding the fairgrounds.

I had a really good time at the fair but it made me miss the good ol' Potter County fair back home!

Pete's Dragon

Did you guys watch this movie when you were young? I loved it! I remember watching it with my grandfather. I was so excited to see it was released on DVD. I bought it yesterday and I can't wait to watch it again. Anyone for a sing-a-long?

Darkness Falls

In case you are curious, it now gets dark around here at 10:30 pm. It starts getting dark around 9:30 pm. It almost seems like back home! I didn't take a pictures because well...not one wants to see a pic of pitch black. ha ha!

Another Beautiful Summer Day

I am becoming obsessed with the mountains around here. I love them! I hope I don't ever take the beautiful scenery around here for granted. I don't want it to snow yet, but I am excited to see all the mountains with snow on them!

Wordless Wednesday

The Pop Top Can

My friend, Adrienne, over at Some of A Kind, posted the blogs she enjoys reading. And because I was finding it hard to sleep, I went through her list for fun late last night. I came across the website CraftsOnAWhim.com and found lots of fun crafts to try.

I came across the Pop Top Can (click here to see tutorial). Basically, you open the bottom of a can, clean out food held inside, add candy (or whatever you choose to put in it), glue the bottom back on and decorate the can. Make sure you use a pop top can so it is easy and fun to open.

It was an easy and fast craft to make because I had almost all of the supplies needed to create it. I got started this afternoon because I had a fun BBQ to attend tonight and thought it would be a fun gift to bring to the hostess!

Here is the final result of my Pop Top Can:

I filled the can with peanut butter filled Dove candies. I encourage anyone to try this tutorial. I had a lot of fun making it and have even thought of more occasions that would call for such a treat!

The tutorial used a much smaller can. It used a snack size can filled with fruit. Wouldn't something like that make a great wedding/baby shower favor or birthday party favor? The possibilities are endless.

Have I ever mentioned I love crafts!?!

My Handsome Hubby

Aaron sent some pics today. Here is one during some PT. Even all sweaty, I still think he is the most handsome man alive! :o)

Random Things About Alaska

Things I am learning:

1. In reference to the rest of the United States, they say "the lower 48".
2. There is no sales tax. Love it!
3. No exit numbers; just name of streets and places. (This makes me a little nuts.)
4. I haven't seen one cow since I have been here. (This must be why milk is so expensive.)
5. I learned tonight they don't grow pumpkins or corn here. (I am sure there is a lot to add to that list if I researched it.)
6. When talking about 'The Valley', they are referring to Wasilla.
7. 'Going to town' means Anchorage.
8. The are very quick to point out they are 2.3 times bigger than Texas.
9. The residents here love it! I have heard maybe one or two bad things about this place and they referenced food prices and air plane ticket prices.
10. At it's closest point, AK is 55 miles from Russia.
________________________________________________________

Things about AK I looked up:

*State Flower: Forget-me-Not

*State Animal: Moose (shocker!)

*State Sport: Dog Mushing (very appropriate!)

*There is 33,000 miles of coastline.

*Anchorage population: 279,000 (+) (isn't this crazy! I had no idea this place was so big!)

*Eagle River would be the second largest city in AK if it wasn't an Anchorage municipality (I live in Eagle River in case you didn't know).

*"Thanks to long daylight hours, the nearby Matanuska Valley raises giant vegetables, such as cabbages the size of basketballs."

* AK estimated population 686,000(+).

*Rhode Island could fit into AK 425 times.

The Alaska state flag.

Just some random stuff I thought I would share. I haven't been up to much. I mowed the lawn but trust me, there is no excitement there!

Elkutna Lake and Thunderbird Falls

It was such a beautiful day today Boone and I decided to get out of the house. We ventured down the road to Elkutna Lake and Thunderbird Falls. They both had fun trails to hikes and were fun places to visit. I took some pictures that I am not happy with but I thought you might to see the two places anyway.

Elkutna Lake through the trees.

There were a lot of people walking trails, kayaking and canoeing. I think everyone wanted to take advantage of the warm weather since you never know when the snow will start around here.

I think Mother Nature is rocking the vertical stripes!

This is Thunderbird Falls. I must say I was disappointed. You couldn't see very much of it.

An interesting sign I found on my travels. Oh, and I totally stopped!

Here is the mountain I see when I look out my living room window. I took this coming home from Wally World. It is the turn into our housing area.

I think tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day as well. Maybe I will research a few places to go and get you some better photos!