Cool, Cool Summer

I haven't accomplished much of what I had intended to do this summer, but it has been busy anyway. 

I thought I'd sew more, but I haven't sewn at all, except to help my sister in law, Sandy -- she is making a quilt for her soon to be born great-grand-daughter.  She got a new sewing machine and started right away and the quilt is going to be sooooooo adorable!

I thought I'd teach my mother in law some about the computer.  Well, that's okay, I taught my father in law about it some.  Oh and my brother too.  Just a little, he was already real smart about it.

I did get a whole bunch of family tree information covered, so that was exciting and fun.  (Hey, I like to dig up the dirt on dead people, so what?)  I like to think about them "way back when" and imagine how they handled the crises and struggles we deal with these days.

I blew wayyy too much money on plane tickets.  That hurts, because you don't get anything for your expense without a penalty, should the passenger change their mind...  Elayne (great-neice) decided not to go back to Alaska with us, and Emily decided to stay longer... so all I can say is OUCH. I would have liked to pay some bills or at least had some cash in the bank, but Elayne's ticket is a loss, unless she decides to come and visit within a year. However, it's really worth it for Emily to stay on until the end of the month. The girls will be going their different ways before long, and so a fun couple of weeks together is a good idea, since who knows what tomorrow may bring?

I did more stuff than that, of course.  I'll add to this and round it out, but for now? I'm a little bit tired...

I've had a great summer, and saw lots of my folks (met some new ones) and while I'm SORT of sad for it to end, I'm looking forward to getting back to school...

I enjoyed this summer with.......

my neice and her husband: Chris 'n' Shannon	and their kids: (Annie and I took care of 'em while the parents cruised!)
And my in-laws:	And my brother-in-law, his wife and their daughters: Me 'n' Connie
And I met Mom's sister Ruthie and cousin Laurel: Mom, Laurel, and Aunt Ruth
And visited with my great-neice and great-nephew and their dad: She decided not to come to Alaska yet...	And my brother and his wife and their dawg, Precious: Tom
And my sister and her husband: Me 'n' Nota	And my husband: Snoozy
And my daughters:

And more friends...
So it's been good.  Now, I need a vacation!!!!
(laughing out loud)

30 Aug 2006 5:00 PM Central Time
Okay ...
          Alrighty, then, we're in flight back to Alaska, via Salt Lake City, UT. It's been no stress at all so far, we got to the airport almost four hours early... seriously. I kept reassuring Rose that we didn't really have to be there until 1:50, the flight wasn't until 3:50, but we did agree that it's always "Better safe, than sorry."
          Sure enough -- my bag had to go through twice... first I forgot to take out my laptop (doh) and 2nd ... BOB ... the egg-shaped alarm clock had to be looked at. (He's cute. Everybody thinks he's cute.) Anyway -- that took less than 5 minutes, and we sat at the gate and read magazines (which yes, I admit, are a waste of money, but I REALLY didn't want to play "Phase 10" on the floor of the airport with the girls. [insert picture of girls playing cards]           What I REALLY wanted to do was sleep, but who can really sleep in an airport with all the announcements and interesting people and such? Not me. I decided not to fork over the $10 for T-Mobile's hot spot connection for WiFi since I'm not CERTAIN it will work in Salt Lake and besides, it'll be good for me to stay off the internet for 12 to 18 hours, won't it? I mean -- won't some of my electronically damaged brain cell's regenerate in that amount of time if I don't log on? WHAT? You mean I'd haveto forego using the computer TOTALLY? Well, forget that. I'm fried.

It was really hard to leave with Katie and William crying... They are so cute, and William kept saying he didn't want us to go. Still, they'll be real happy next week when they start school. (Imagine, Katie will start school at age TWO?!) I'm totally looking forward to reports on their adventures and progress.           As for our own academic progress... Classes start for UAF tomorrow and we're going to hit the ground running. I don't have a class until 2:00PM (English) but the girls have a para-legal class, and we do need to make sure we're all squared away with the finance office, parking permits and whatnot. I may or may not go with the Math Class I scheduled. It all depends on transportation. I'm anxious for the weekend when we can get fully unpacked and settled. Friday I'll have History (at 10:30) and that's it. I have to finish the Psychology on the web, and start Anthropology... but that should be fun. (Loose definition of fun, here, folks.)           Anyway. Before long we'll be in Salt Lake, and laying over, and then the longer flight to Fairbanks. As far as we know, Daddy (Bill) will be there to pick us up. The doggies are in the kennel, so I guess we won't see them until later tomorrow. Hopefully, Bill will be off (didn't I hear rumors he actually had off until MONDAY???) and we can tackle the garage before snow flies. Gosh. I hope snow hasn't flown yet! Yikes.

          Til later...

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10:00 Central or... 9:00 Mountain or... 7:00 Alaska Time
          We just an announcement that the President's plane is due to land in Salt Lake City tonight, so we are boarding to try and take off by 8:30 instead of nearly 9PM.
          Unfortunately, we didn't make it off the ground before Air Force One landed, so our take off was about an hour late. Oh well, security is very important. I don't want anything bad to happen to our President, ever. He's so cute.
          Now it's 11:40 Central Time, 10:40 Mountain time or 8:40 Alaska time... and the movie (Mission Impossible 3) has begun. I'm not interested in watching it, so ... after I have a snack/drink I think I'll try and catch a few Zzzzz's. We were supposed to land in Fairbanks at 11:47PM Local... but now I think it's going to be more like 1:00am... Aug.31st... (yawn) The moon is brightly shining and the stars are twinkling. I'll sure be glad to get home...
          Midnight in Texas, 9PM in Alaska... I'll have my snack now and snooze. Til tomorrow, Adios!

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31 Aug 2006
3:22AM Central or... 2:22 Mountain or... 12:22AM Alaska Time
          So it's tomorrow and we're still flying... Looks like it is going to be a 24 hour day (no joke)... but we've spent longer in our travels, so it's no big deal. Would have been great to sleep til about 10 yesterday morning, but we were excited about getting home and I couldn't have slept if I'd tried.
          It hasn't been a bad flight, just long. I really don't recall exactly when we took off, since we sat at the gate for a long time. I'll probably see it on the screen before too much longer... there was in-flight information earlier in the evening. Suffice it to say I'm eager to be off the plane and home in bed.
          We're getting a little bit bumpy now, and I think I overheard we're about a half an hour out... which would be nice. That would put us in at around 1AM or so. We'll see! My fingers are crossed!

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