Day 5 in AK

This Day, oh this day was something. I think I have found the solution
to NOT having a hang over........LACK OF SLEEP IS THE KEY! Next time
you know you're going to get your drink on, just stay up for days before
hand, and you'll be golden! Seriously, I was so tired by the 5th day,
that I didn't even realize how hung over I was. I was more "drunk
tired" than "sick tired." Do you know what I mean? You know, when
you've been up for a while and you're so incredibly tired that you feel
wasted; that was how I felt. I couldn't tell that I had really spent
the entire night drinking until wee hours in the morning. So.....


I spent the day visiting people/places. I went to the CDC and spent some
time with old co-workers, kiddos that I used to have in my class,
kiddos that were in my wedding, and one of my best friends, Tanya. I
straight up walked into my friend Jacquie Kohntopp's house without
calling, or for that matter, even knocking on her door. I walked into
to her home like I owned the place...you should have seen the look on
her face! She was on the phone with a friend and was like "Oh my God,
Noel Quinn just walked into my house"; you would have had to have heard
her confused tone of voice! I went shopping at some of my favorite
places in Fairbanks: Fred Meyer,Gottchalks, Old Navy, etc. I just love the simplicity of the town. I like having only a few places to choose from instead of the overwhelming feeling I have here. I raided all (when I say all, that only means like 2!) of the clothing stores because all the summer stuff was already
on sale; for they were busy preparing for the harsh winter ahead.

I also DRUG myself to my FAVORITE...the Eielson
Gym! I worked out, ran into a bunch of people I knew there, and ran my
favorite course there outside. I felt so free, and alive; despite the
fact that I didn't sweat even a single drop because I was so dehydrated
from the night before!

I then went and crashed my girlfriend Aubrie's dinner party by unexpectedly
dropping by..in my gym clothes and all! She is the most beautiful,
pregnant, little thing, I have ever seen! I hate her for it...psyche!

The evening ended with something I have found a new, deep love for. A passion that I didn't even know I had burning deep within my soul.....HEELY's!!!!!!! My girlfriend Emma busted hers out for me to try, and then, I immediately
busted my ASS within milliseconds of having them on. I knew, from that
moment on, that I was in love forever more and needed my own pair!

I did get a few hours of sleep this night; which would bring the total up to 14 hours over the course of DAYS!

Day 4 & Wookie's ASS CRACK......

ON MY BED along with his yucky fishing boots that smelled of fish guts! I decided to laugh about it instead of getting all fired up!

After a morning refuel at my favorite, Snow City Cafe, we were all off in seperate directions for a few days......oooohhh, how sad! HARB,Wookie, and I drove to Denali where they dropped me off with my girlfriend, Emma; then they pressed to McClaren Lodge. Chum, Shredder, and Andrew stayed in Anchorage to do "stuff."

Emma and I spent the evening (we didn't even get ON the water until after 7
PM), rafting in Denali and befriending all the river guides and their
girlfriends, boyfriends, pot-smoking hippie friends, etc. We had a
blast hanging out with them at the local Denali Salmon Bake. Our guide
on the trip is 6'7" and I jokingly asked him if he was an Ambercrombie
model during his "off season." His response to me was.."No, just J
Crew!" And he wasn't kidding. In the below picture, he is sitting, and
I'm STANDING next to him..and he's still taller than me. What I would
give to have legs up to my neck! We ended up making it into Fairbanks
after 4:30 in the AM and Emma had to be at school at 8 AM. We came
home, passed out for an hour, got up, she drove me to the rental car
place, and off to school she went.

Hours of sleep for the past 6 nights during "LIVIN' IT UP IN ALASKA TOUR 2007"= 8 hours and 45 minutes...go me!

Blondie= Josh= River Guide= J Crew model! I'm pretty sure that the other guy next to me, who is also a guide, is HIGHER THAN A KITE...doesn't he appear to be in the photo?

AK TOUR 2007 CONTINUED.......

DAY 2 + 3

We successfully managed to pick up Chum and HARB--shocking. We then pressed immediately following to Ninilchik where we had a fishing charter scheduled the following morning. We rolled in LATE, and then for some dumb reason, Wookie and I stayed up until 1 AM just in AAAAHHHHHH
of the scenery. I felt like I had to soak up every single beautiful
minute, because I KNEW it wasn't going to last. Sad, but true. We had
to be AT the boat DAY 3 at 4 AM.....that one hurt a little; however,
the second we got out there, the game was on! Halibut fishing is one of
my most favorite things to do in AK. I will admit that all the guys
caught the trophies, but I brought in the most fish. EVERY SINGLE time
I would cast out, I reeled one of those suckers in. I'm not complaining
because I had an absolute blast doing it. There is even some comical
video of that floating around. You know how it is, by the end of the
day, you are tired and it takes all that you have to bring them in--so
I did what I had to do; even if that meant straddling the fishing pole to
stabilize it between my legs. Oh, how gracious I can be!

So,we fished until the fish quit, not us. I didn't want to give up. I
could have stayed out there on the fishing boat, in the middle of the
ocean, for DAYS. We FedEx'd it overnight to Andrew's mom who was staying
here in San Antonio with sweet, baby Salem. Then, we pressed back to
Anchorage in the middle of the night to get ready for all of our
different adventures on DAY 4.

Total amount of sleep thus far: 7 hours and 45 minutes over 5 nights. I don't know how I even managed to stay up on my feet.

Dang, blogger is being WEIRD, and I can't type under my photos. The "Random Guy" in the red fishing gear, is our Captain, Tanner. Can any of you ladies say "HELLOOOOOO CAPTAIN Tanner!!!?" I sure did! I kept putting my arm around him in our group photo, and Andrew kept throwing it off his shoulder! It was all in good fun--just joking around. But, he SURE was easy on the eyes!

LIVIN' IT UP IN AK TOUR 2007

DAY 1

I am surprised that I am still alive, seriously. I took
FULL advantage of all the daylight, and stayed up for days upon days.
Now, I know what a crack-head feels like; except my addictions were Redbulls or lattes. So, I'll make it easy on all of your eyes and give you the details on a day by day basis; therefore,:

Andrew
and I arrived into Anchorage last Saturday afternoon and what a
BEAUTIFUL sight it was. In the 4+ years I spent there, I have NEVER
seen such an amazing day there in my life. Wookie picked us up at the
airport, headed to his friends house to change, and then we were off
for drinks at bar that is located on top of one of the buildings
downtown.....LOVED IT! We sat up there and drank until our dinner reservations at ORSO'S; which was also very tasty. I think I would have preferred staying and
drinking on the deck the entire night to soak up the beauty, sun, and
watching 100's of float planes taking off and landing over our heads at
the near by lake. I am in LOVE, and want to spend the rest of my days
there--eventually.

After that fun filled evening, we met up with Shredder and went to catch some zzzzz's in our "Minnie Winnie"; however, NONE of us slept due to the never ending daylight that none of us are acclimated to anymore. We got up the next morning, and waited for the rest of our friends to arrive: Chum & HARB.

TO BE CONTINUED...................................

100th POST

I think it's funny how blogger keeps up with how many posts you've created. So, therefore, a toast to me for my 100th edition! What do I get? Anyways....

I spend my days trying to keep up with "Ms. Thang."
She is ALL over the place during all hours of the day. She even moves
around like crazy in the middle of the night in her crib. She is here,
there, getting into this, that, and other things she shouldn't be
getting into. Right now, she is attempting to chew on avacuum device, crawl, and wrap herself up in the computer/printer wires. Great, just what I need today.

We went out last night and purchased her a tunnel to crawl around in. She
thinks she is something going in and out of it. For today, it is
entertaining; tomorrow, it will need to be something new. Wait until
she gets a hold of the new pool Mommy got for her....more to come on
that tomorrow!

ME, ME, ME!!

This post is going to be ALL about me. I feel that if I talk about it, maybe, just maybe, it will make me feel a little better; or at least wake me the hell up! I'm TIRED. Really, really tired. I've been back to doing " 2-a-days" at the gym again since Andrew's been home, and it's starting to catch up with me. I get up at 4:30 AM, out the door by 4:45, workout until Andrew needs to leave for work (1-2 hours), come home, eat breakfast, get Salem fed, changed, and out the door, just to get back to the gym and get another 2 hrs in. So, by the time some of my friends are rolling their happy asses out of bed at 10:00, I've already put in 3-4 hours of pure hell. Don't get me wrong, I know it is my decision to do such a crazy thing; I just can't stop the maddness! It is PURE madness on my behalf, and I need to figure something else out. I also don't go to bed until 11 or later, so you can only imagine what I look like on a day-to-day basis. ASS-is a good word to describe it.

There is a reason for it all. I recently turned in an application to San Antonio Fire Department, they accepted it, and now I take the written test the end of August! I'm not getting my hopes up what-so-ever; just giving it "my all" at this point. So, in a matter of 2 months, I've put on 15 pounds; which is a TON of weight to put on so quickly. I'm trying to "Beef Up" (if you will), and put on some extra muscle weight. I'm not sure if it is all muscle (hee-hee), but we'll pretend that it is.

It all blows--big time. There are so many changes going on to my body, that it is in SUPER SHOCK FREAK MODE right now. I've had my period 3 times within the past month, and I'm still on the pill...that shouldn't be happening. I can feel my hormones rollercoaster throughout the day. Up, down, up, down, UP, Up, UP, DOWN. CRAZY. I had my body fat/BMI done a few weeks back, and I still don't understand it all. They said it is low, but healthy. What does that mean? The lady told me..."Yeah, it's low, but you're an athlete, so it's okay." I'm not sure if I believe her with the way I feel lately. It's 7:22 AM and I'm already looking forward to bed tonight.

Salem Baby is waking up for the day right now, so I better get her up so we can head back to hell together..the gym! It is an addiction and I Do enjoy it in a weird sort -of -way. I just don't have anything else to bitch about at this point, so why not this!?

My Hispanic Twin!!

Mikie and Salem In LOVE!

Both of our kiddos are grabbing our boobies!

OMG PEOPLE!!!!!! My beautiful friend Lysandra and her son Michael came to visit us over the weekend and it was SOOOOOOO Good To See THEM!!!! We ate,shopped, shopped, ate some more, had breakfast, went BACK to the San Marcos Outlets, ate lunch, and then departed separate ways wearing the same dress. You don't have to say anything, she looks better in hers than I do! She makes me miss Alaska and all my girlfriends more than ever. Can't wait to see you again Ms. Lysandra and Mikie for Salem Baby's "White Out Birthday Bash!"

Terrible Mother/Daughter

So, my dad and step mom drove down from Colorado last week to pay us a visit. We had such an amazing time with them and hope they come back soon to see us. I feel like such an idiot because we didn't take A SINGLE PHOTO---can you believe that crap? Not only that, but we also didn't take any when Andrew's folks were here and only snapped the one shot with my mom at the airport a few weeks ago only minutes before she boarded her plane. I NEED TO GET BETTER AT THIS PEOPLE!!! The whole time we have guests, I'm constantly thinking about taking pictures, and then its like I have a brain fart, or something. I wish I was more like my friend Katie, and take pictures of everyone and everything. She is so good about stuff like that. I'm envious. One day, maybe one day, I'll be more like her! I did manage to take more pictures of Salem playing in her baby pool. I'm worried that over these next couple of summer months, that I'll end up with pages upon pages of Salem splashing around in her pool if I don't get MY SHIT TOGETHER...FAST!!!! Not that there is anything wrong with pictures of my beautiful baby looking Oh so fine in her many bikini's, but I would like to post and talk about other things here. Like....... Andrew, Salem and I went over to our neighbors house for dinner last night. There are a TON of FUN and have a little boy named Peyton who is exactly 1 month younger than Salem. We drank, and partied, put the kiddos to bed, and drank, ate some yummy food, drank, sat around the fire in their backyard, oh..and drank some more. And guess you didn't feel so hot all damn day today? ANDREW. The man cannot hang anymore. It's like he had a kid, hit 30, and went downhill quickly there after. What the heck? I thought it was supposed to happen to the females after giving birth? If anything, I'm more willing to drink now, more than ever! I, I mean, WE( to include the rest of the people there), drank Drew under the table, and then some. Oh, and we all felt better than ever today! I heard they were up well before 8 doing yard work, and Salem and I did stuff around the house; while daddy slept on the couch until 2...poor ANDY! Oh, and next time one of you run into Andrew, could you remind him that my dresser isn't the toilet in the middle of the night!? Enough said about that...use your imagination...or not.