The Quickening

Sounds like a horror movie....but no, its just the current status of my life. Enough time has past since I moved here and started my job that I have now started to add other things to my schedule and have become busier because of it. Hence the quickening.

I started a second job a few weeks ago. I'm an approved childcare provider for the State of Alaska, and am providing childcare for two school aged boys (9 & 7) five nights a week. It works out pretty great actually, cuz I basically get paid for sleeping. The boys are already asleep when I get there around 11pm and so I just crash and then get the boys up and ready for school in the morning. Their mom gets home around 8:30am, then I head straight to work from there. I'm gonna put the moolah from this job straight towards my loans, to help chisel them down as much as I can. It's been good so far- the boys are good boys, and I enjoy playing mom on occasion and getting my "kid fix." :) Plus the waterbed at the casa has felt good on my sore muscles. Here's the view I had as I was leaving their house yesterday and headed to church...BEAUTIFUL.



Speaking of sore muscles, I've taken up kickboxing and LOVE it. Plus I met with my new personal trainer today and am all pumped to get a new program underway. She laughed when I brought her in a copy of my ridiculous schedule, and I explained to her hey, I have to organize my life in order to survive it! :) I'm anticipating my body to go through some major changes over the next few months with the combined nutrition (Weight Watchers) and exercise (aerobic/strength training) piece. Plus having the Biggest Loser competition at work has proved to be an additional support. Secretly, my boss is showing me up tho...and I need to get my butt in gear!

This past weekend was the Peninsula Winter Games. Athletes from all over the Peninsula come together to compete in different events, carve awesome ice sculptures, enjoy food and kid-friendly activities, fireworks, etc. The Native Youth Olympics (NYO) took place this weekend as part of the Peninsula Winter Games. Saturday after work I headed over to KMS in time to partake in the Cultural Celebration/Feast. Our drum group drummed during the potlatch along with several other drum groups. Afterwards I stuck around to watch the last event of the day. These kids are amazing athletes. It's so cool to watch them in their different events- for them its not so much about competing against each other, but competing against themselves. Some start as young as they can walk and improve by leaps and bounds over the years. Here's a short video I took of the Two Foot High Kick. This was after the actual competition. They were doing a sudden death round and seeing how far they could go. Check out how how the ball is! They raise it every round by a couple inches... these kids are amazing!










Here's a link with descriptions of the different NYO events...
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/NativeGames/games.html

For those of you that watch the news, you may have heard that our very own Mount Redoubt is set to erupt at any time. Here's some pics from when it blew back in 1990. I remember being evacuated from school, wearing little face masks to protect us from the ash.



We've been getting prepared by purchasing masks and getting our house ready... If it blows, I'll be sure to post pics! :)


I continue to be heckled by a certain coworker due to my living at Papa Pilgrim's old place. Last week I noticed an addition to my nameplate on my door.... Oh Tim... :)