Work With Me

Let me take you through my shift with me last night at work, it was very slow which was nice for a change. We have been totally swamped lately which is good but it is nice to be able to relax a bit too! Us three are the last three original bartenders that opened Chili's. Courtney (left) used to bartend but came back and is serving now until she moves. She won the title of Miss Alaska and was recently on Miss USA in April, she won miss photogenic. So excited for her! Heather, heather, heather(middle)...where do I begin? Some of you may recognize her because she came home to Minnesota for Christmas with me a couple years ago. We have had many random, gut busting moments! We have been through quite a bit together and I will miss her dearly. And well, y'all know me!
Kiel and Heather, um......yeah, this is one of the many random moments we have with the chili's family! Oh, hilarious... I dressed Kiel up with me and one other girl for Christmas, I made elf costumes. I will have to look for the pics and post them sometime it was too funny, and I must say Kiel made an Awesome elf!
Lukey poo came to visit me, I love when he does! Well he looks pretty pissed that I am taking his picture. We have this option on our new camera called BS or Best Shot, you choose the setting and this was a perfect chance to try out the "back light" option since the windows were shining brightly through behind them. Turned out pretty good! Oh, the guy to the left is Jocquis, we went through our alcohol training together, he is also one of the original chili's crew and has come in every Sunday shift with a hangover or still drunk. Another person I will miss like CRAZY!!
A few hours a head, Jocquis and I finished our shift and I must say my bar was so nice and shiny! I was surprised how well I did in tips last night since it was so slow!
Okay this looks like a weird stalker picture, especially since you can tell that I took this while standing outside of my car (the shiny spot in the bottom left). I just wanted to show y'all that summer is coming! The sky is still light and it is 11:30 pm!!! One more thing I will miss, the Alaska summers, they are definitely something to experience =)

What the...?

Wednesday was a beautiful spring day here in Fairbanks, people were in shorts and sandals, families were going for walks, and just about all of the snow was gone!!!



Then Saturday morning came.........
I know all you Minnesotans have been dealing with some of the same ----. Does it make you as grumpy as it has made me? I just can not deal with the games anymore, winter or spring make up your MIND! The roads here in the winter are usually caked with snow and that's just how the winter driving is but this hot and cold weather reminds me of driving back home on the unpredictable slushy/icy roads, last night was one of those nights and we drove up on an accident on a bridge, roads looked fine but they were way slick. The car was mangled but I think everyone was ok.

Sorry the blog has been lame lately and I apologize. We finally got a new camera that is small enough to take anywhere so I am guessing that we will have more photo-ops of us and not just of scenery. So stay tuned!

Circus

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy came to Fairbanks on Sunday. Luke and I went back and forth about going because tickets were $40 and our pre-inspection for moving was on Monday. I went to work Sunday morning and we had decided not to go when one of the guys from the circus came in and ordered food for the whole crew. He came back to pick up his order and gave me and one other girl tickets!!!!! So excited that we were able to save 80 bucks and have a great time! It was the same quality of talent in the Vegas Cirque shows if any of you have seen those. I snagged these pics from the Internet since we were not allowed to take pictures. We had so much fun and it was a much needed outing from all the stress of getting the basement painted and ready for the inspection. Oh, and the pre-inspection went great! Our final should be the end of May.


And may I add that it was so great to see ripped men flying around in tights!! I totally forgot about the crappy weekend I had at work =)

.....Cotd

HOLY BAMBOO We were walking through the jungle and saw a huge patch of bamboo. I had no idea that it grew in big clumps and that it is so huge.
I was just getting done tanning and was on my way into the ocean to cool off when I almost stepped on this little guy. So we decided to traumatize him further and put him in a bucket for a little while and named him Hermy, how original!
Karin, Kali, and I went horseback riding in the jungle and it was awesome! Minus the horrible hangover we had a great time. We made our way through the jungle to end at a river, eat lunch, and swim in the cool freshwater, man that felt GOOD. I really think it helped with the hangover too. The weirdest thing I have seen in a while was on this adventure. We were riding along and looked down and there was a line of little green leaves moving...ANTS!! It was so cool, these ants were carrying leaves to who knows where, it was just like the movie ants!
Wow! I'm gonna save this Kodak moment for Justin's future wife. Luke was putting cool aloe on Justin's ouchie burnt back, oooooh so cute!
Once again I was on my way to the ocean after catching a tan and saw this slimy thing hangin on the beach. It was like a huge slug or something so we asked around and they said it was some kind of sea snail or conch so we found a conch shell and he slipped in there. Kali, Sam and I swam out and dropped it off.

Male Holler Monkey

Kali and the resort managers too cute daughter Genesis.

Um....yeah, this is the "plane" we took from Belize city to Placencia (the peninsula we stayed at). This goes down in history for the smallest plane I have ever been on. Luke barely fit in it, when he was sitting his head was no kidding 1 inch from the ceiling. I can not imagine what my face looked like, I was so scared I was praying the entire flight. So we take off, the pilot did not say anything or give an introduction like they do on the big commercial flights, I can see out the front windshield thing and I look in the ragged pocket on the chair in front of me to see a yellow plastic thing...guessing it was the life vest, then I asked Luke where the exits were and he said "Hun, if it gets to that point just hang on and enjoy the ride because it will be over." I ask you now, what the heck is the point of the yellow "life vests"? Oh, I am so grateful to know I have a husband that will console me when I am so scared I am on the verge of shaking, he always makes everything so much better!

There were sand dollars everywhere on the ocean bottom. Except they were not the pretty white kind. They were brown and had millions of little moving hairs all over them...YUCK! It took me a few days but I finally warmed up to the harry little suckers and held them with my bare hands!!! Mom and Dad you would be so proud!

One of the highlights of my trip was catching Justin sitting in front of the little powder room mirror getting ready, I am so lucky to have such a neato brother in law =)

Holler Monkey Hollering

This is a video of the Holler Monkeys that we came across in Belize. The loud voice you hear in the beginning is one of the tour guides calling the monkey and banging his machete on the tree trunks. The real loud sound after is the male monkey (there was a male, female, and their baby) defending his territory as you will hear Jeremy say in the video. I can not believe the loud sound that came out of such a little monkey. Oh and he started to pee everywhere to mark his territory and got one of the girls in our group! The monkeys are hard to see because they were very far up in the tree. I really hope I did this right and it works for y'all because I sure enjoyed it!

School drama

Most of you know that I have decided to continue my education after I graduate in May with a B.A. in Sociology with a Minor in Psychology. I was talking with Luke and decided that I want to teach elementary school and I am SO excited! I have always thought of teaching but was always worried about the pay. This will perfect though for when we have kids, I will be on their schedule and we will save huge in childcare, so teaching it is! Now.....where do I go? We will be living in Cheyenne, WY so I first looked at University of Wyoming but it is over 40 miles away, then I looked at Colorado State which is 30 miles away but they were totally rude and did not have an Elementary Edu program, then I called Northern Colorado State University which is recognized for their teaching program but they did not have any room for the upcoming semester. So then I went back to University of Wyoming and was satisfied with them and their program however I would need 1 year of prerequisites =( Bummer! Then we had the idea to look into Arizona State University and well, it sounds pretty darn good! Keep in mind all of the programs that I had looked at before ASU start in May or June and go for summer, fall, and spring semester and offer only one program a year and their deadlines were back in November. ASU on the other hand offers two programs, one night and one day, one that starts in June and one that starts in January and both have a deadline of about a month before the start date and are just 12 months long. Way cool, and the best part is that I would have no prerequisites to fulfill there, they would be done during the program! We were thinking that I would just go live with Luke's parents in Arizona since it is only a 12hr drive from Cheyenne and then Luke would come after his year is done in Cheyenne. But we just finally heard back from ASU and it would be a go to start in June but I think it is just pushing it too much. Having such limited time to get a resume and letters of recommendation and everything else that they would need by May 1st would be difficult. Also that would leave Luke to all the packing and driving our stuff alone on a 6 or so day trip out of Alaska. I know he is a big boy but that would just be ALOT of work and unfair to throw it all on him. Also I would miss out on the crazy amount of weddings we have this summer in MN area, not to mention I have not seen my side of the fam for about a year. Also this will give us a chance to experience Wyoming together and see if we even like it, give it a fair chance ya know. We have decided to stop trying to predict the future and just go with the flow, take things as they come and have faith that everything will work out right. Even if we do end up staying in Wyoming longer than a year I am 99% sure I am going to get my teaching certificate and a masters in education at ASU because they have a pretty rad program and it would be fun to live in good ol AZ with the Dahlman gang. So for all of you that have heard my school drama day after day, here is my final conclusion.....for now!

Monkey River

Mama Crocodile

These leaves were so cool, they had Velcro on the back and Sam and Kali were sticking them to their clothes!

Baby crocodile

The one tour we took together as a family was the Monkey River tour. We left around 8am and walked to a random dock and some guy in boat came and picked us up, the guys name...Jeremy. It had been cloudy the day before and the morning started out cloudy so Luke and I did not think of putting on any sunscreen. However, we had Karin and she was a lifesaver with her bag of goodies that contained what do you know...sunscreen, oh so happy =) But, Luke and I being desperate for any kind of sun (since we just got done with 5 months with all dark) did not put some on till, oh say, about the end of the ride. Idiots!! We got totally fried and were regretting
every moment of our love for the sun when we crawled into bed that night in a cabana with no AC!

Ok, back to the tour. They took us to the town of Monkey River first to place our lunch order that we would come back for later, chicken or fish. The only way to get to this town was by boat. We set off for our adventure whizzing through thin trails of water, crocodiles, many various types of birds, jumping schools of fish, and beautiful scenery! Half way through we got off the boat and went on a walk through the jungle to look for holler monkeys. That was one of the coolest things I have done in a while. I felt like we were on Honey I Shrunk the Kids because everything in the jungle is HUGE! Here are some pictures



Termite nest. Jeremy cut a hole in it with his machete and they came pouring out looking for the attacker, YUCK!




















I forgot what kind of tree this is but it is a pretty pic so that's why I put it on here. Compliments to Justin, I think he took this one!










This is the boat and the dock (obviously) where we stopped in the town. Notice where I decided to sit...in the sun. and also notice where I should have been sitting....under the canopy in the shade. I am getting fried as we speak in this pic. Never again, I need to maintain my youth full skin not burn the crap out of it!

Okay more pics to come, I have to start a new post because these pictures are coming up in the wrong order.

Belize can we go back!?!

Our trip to Belize was amazing! Originally they were going to take us on a cruise but they came across the Green Parrot resort in Belize which they visited in November and fell in love with it. Since this is the first year that Luke has not been deployed we finally went on the trip. I have not been on many tropical trips but this is my FAVORITE so far. We were the only ones at the resort for a few of the days, otherwise a couple would come and go here and there. The staff were there to fulfill our every need or want we had and it was so laid back, talk about relaxing! There were just about 7 cabanas which were all only about 20 yards from the ocean. We fell asleep to the waves and woke up to sunshine and crazy sounding tropical birds, I found myself laughing laying in bed listening to them. Rough, I know. Here is the dock and hammock where we usually spent our mornings drinking coffee, chatting and reading. I did not get too much reading done since the only reading materials I brought was homework. My professor asked if I was able to get ahead with all the time off, I had to tell her that the sun was too bright on the white paper so I couldn't read. Yeah, nice excuse I know.
This is one of the cabanas, Luke, Justin and myself were in one and Brad, Karin, Sam, and Kali in one right next to us. It was so nice to be able to spend time with them and get to know them better. I would not have rather had the trip any other way =)



First time I tried coconut milk. I love coconut but I did not love the milk, it was fun to taste though
Luke wishing he had coconuts!!! Very manly I must say
The gang at Tipsy Tunas Restaurant in town.

There were many great memories made on the trip and I will share more with you later, lets just hope that I did these pictures right and they show up!

Welcome =)

Just trying out this blog thing to see how it works. My good friend Noel introduced me to this about 2 years ago and it is such a good way to keep up with her and her family and their busy lives since they now live in Texas. I figure that since we have already been living in BFE (aka Alaska) for 4 or so years and now we are moving to Wyoming, and who knows after that, it is about time that we get going on such a thing! So please forgive me if it takes me error upon error to figure out this dang thing. Whoever said a college degree would make me intellectual was just looking to make a buck or two!