Reeder's Digest

Last Thursday at midnight we picked up Mike and Molly from the airport. They flew in for one very spontaneous trip! We all decided that day that they should fly in that night! The above picture is how light it is still. Below was Friday night at the ward's Fish Fry! It was perfect weather, so we all ate picnic style. 
Saturday, along with the zoo, we went to the Anchorage Museum and saw all sorts of things involved with the history of the 49th State. Even the really weird, awkward art displays, we were bent over laughing. I've found that anything can be fun with these guys: 
Saturday night we did some Frisbee Golfing. In the beginning, we were teaching Molly how to throw a frisbee and by the end she was creaming all of us. Notice Michael's expression? ha ha
After more fun of canceled flights Sunday night because of a huge ash cloud from a Volcano in the Aleutians, they caught a flight home Tuesday at noon. We will miss them! Thanks for bringing the sunshine Mike and Molly!!

zoo trip

Like all good zoo trips, some animals, like this polar bear, were asleep with their bums to the camera. Mark and I still thought it was pretty impressive with those huge paws. On with the bears, we saw black bears (one of which loved to dance for us), and these two grizzlies: 
There were three tigers, Molly and Michael mastered some animal calls and actually got some responses from the above grizzly bears (a look of utter annoyance), and some curious perk-ups from los tigres. 
Some action shots of the wolves during which I was holding my umbrella and camera so tight I had white knuckles and near-piercings from the little knobs and buttons. I know, I'm a wimp.
Three injured bald eagles who have been in the zoo for about 30+ years, each. They are beautiful. 
Having guests really lets you see and do things out of the norm! 

Other animals we saw: 

camel (2 humped camel!)

alpacas (with noogie-hair)

mountain goats (one was pregnant)

a snow leopard (like the polar bear, had it's bum to the camera)

lots of owls and other birds

a lone coyote

moose (2 babies, 1 female, and 1 huge male)

big cow-things

reindeer (much smaller than I thought)

.... and I'm probably missing a few more. It was a great little zoo!

the book of love has music in it

A few days ago, Mark and I were in the car and were tired of our usual playlists, so I grabbed my small collection of favorite CDs that for some reason aren't all on my ipod. I went straight for the Shall We Dance? soundtrack. I was in the mood for something fast paced and spicy. We enjoyed the whole disc, then it came to track 10. This particular song, was one I played through the night when I was younger; so simple, so peaceful, so heartening, and so disarming. 

It's one of those songs that makes you well up with tears of overwhelming happiness. I know you each have your own songs that you love so much, but this silly little song does wonders for me. I hope you enjoy this small addition to my neglected blog. 

As for the movie, I love Jennifer Lopez movies (don't roll your eyes!) and Richard Gere is just so suave, how can you NOT like him?! This movie has intense dancing, an engaging story line, and is simply sweet. I don't know if you've seen it, or are even interested, but this song tells the whole feel of the movie. I love it. 

paint

This is the top of our entry way. Our house is a 'split-level' (one of the few you laugh at in the game of life! ha) and has a really open front room with the entry way walking up into the family room which is shared with the dining room and kitchen. I've posted pictures before, so I don't think this is any surprise. To define the rooms, we decided to run the 'half-walls' banister topping' (molding?) up the wall. I have never seen this done before, so I'm hoping it turns out when we're done. But my thinking is it would help define the entry way's high walls as just the entry way. When we finished painting it this dark navy blue called "Silver Hill", we loved it!! In the picture, it looks more slate than it really is. In the fluorescent light it looks almost green like our Del Rio house, but in the natural sun light it looks like it's true color. Either way, it really defines the entry way. 

After painting one coat of a green on two walls (we're leaving the lighter blue in the kitchen/dining wall), I decided I didn't like it. At all! It's too much of a moody color, especially when paired with the dark blue. Hopefully we'll have made up our minds by tomorrow evening and get started on finishing. More pictures to come when we finish painting!

whoa bear

Sorry about all my ranting about bear in the area, but there is an article/video of a grizzly bear killing a baby moose. I think it might be the one with the injured mom (in the video the mom is a different color, but it's not straightening its leg like the injured one we've had around here). 

The bear is a brown with two cubs, apparently, and it killed the moose within 500 ft. of our house! When Mark showed me the video, I couldn't believe it! The video opens up looking up the street, and to the left (exactly to the left of where the scene is) is our house! Holy smokes. 

Go here if you want to see the National Geographic-worthy video. You might have to do a search for Jennifer McLendon or bear in Eagle River; there wasn't a directly link to the video. It's sad, but hey, it happened.... I just feel really bad for the mom-moose. A lot of mother moose have to just watch while their calves .. well.. you know.

On a lighter note, work is going swell! They think I'm doing fabulous, so with each vote of confidence comes even more responsibilities! Monday night it sure seemed daunting, but I'm training in back before I start out front so I can understand why we do what we do. It's really interesting and I think I'll really like working here with all the nice people and interesting patients. 

heigh-ho, heigh-ho

It's off to work I go.... *whistle*

Wish me luck! Only 6 more classes and I'll be graduated with a degree in Healthcare Administration and more of an asset to this clinic. *more whistles*

Even still, on the way home I'll be singing this version:

seriously?

Thought I should put an additional closing onto this moose-tracked-dog-damaged yard. After threats from the landscaper to Mark over the phone (saying he'd punch Mark in the mouth), we still forked over $350 to have the yard fixed, even though they are over there right now fixing only what the warranty covers.  Seriously?

The story, if you dare:

Since the moose walked in through the yard, essentially covering the dog prints, we have been at ease, and the landscaper never contacted, or showed up on the day she could fix it (Tuesday, she was a no show). Yesterday we got a call asking us to pay for it. 

Seriously?

We go over to talk to the only nice neighbor, and we started talking situations. Mark said, "If this were our yard and moose tracks walked through it, I don't think I'd ask anyone but the landscapers to fix it." She replied with a "yeah, me neither." 

Seriously? 

This morning we went to the temple to do baptisms with the youth, got home at 9:30, and got ready to paint the front room. Yes! We decided on some colors! hurray! We were very tired, so we took a nap on the couch and was awaken by the phone call from the "nasty landscaper-lady's" husband. It started somewhat civil. If anyone has met Mark, they know he doesn't raise his voice, and he certainly never swears. This man started accusing Mark of swearing at his wife, Inga... yea, she's white, when it all first happened. Then he said to Mark, "You know what happens when someone yells at a man's wife? He gets punched in the mouth!" 

Seriously? Maybe in a bar.

Mark then said we can pay 1/2 of the total cost today(because there's another party at fault here who shares the responsibility - oh wait, besides the moose who obviously don't know where the property lines are). They said they'd come out next week, but then said, "We are coming in one hour. Have the money." We were courteous (at least, I thought), and said we'd have our half ready and the other guy's phone number when they got here. 

The man showed up, pony tail (with blonde highlights in his dark brown hair), smoking a cigarette and all, on our driveway with the nice neighbor's husband (who really is a nice guy). When he kept telling Mark off, not letting my polite, gentleman of a husband get a word in, I start piping up. Uh-oh. A lot of people outside my family rarely see the fire spark in me. Then when Mark gets the chance to speak he brings up the threat, telling him that's not the best way to do business. The guy says, "Leave that outta this conversation." I pipe in, "Hey, you brought it into this whole ordeal when you threatened him on the phone!" So anyway, me and Mr. Ponytail have a little one on one stare-down. He throws in the towel and says, "I'm done!" I totally won. Not that this is a contest or anything. Just a thing of honor and defending the spouse without threats. Hm. I just realized maybe he doesn't know how that's done. Then while he's storming off, waving his cigarette around, he said the nice neighbor should sue us for not paying twice our contracted amount (meaning the other guy's share). 

Seriously?

So after we discuss it with the nice neighbor, Mark and I decide that the best solution is for us to play "Banker," write the check for $350 dollars and be done with it. Mr. Nice Neighbor takes it over while Mr. Ponytail is fixing the warranty-spots, and brings it back (while we're prepping for more painting) saying his business only takes cash... shady. 

Seriously? 

I just heard the garage door go up. Mark is back from the ATM with the cash in hand. I don't think this Mr. Ponytail is going to treat this as honest money. But that's just between myself, Mark, and all you internet surfing bloggers. 

Seriously, I don't like to use this word, but it kept being repeated in my head over and over and over and over again. So "all together now";SERIOUSLY!? We just paid $350 just to be Christlike, and fix a little neighborhood brawl. Wow. I really am glad I went to the temple this morning, otherwise I think I would be 50 times angrier. 

Seriously. 

jog

Funny word, right? Say "jog" 5 times and you'll agree with me. Want to know what else is hysterically funny? Snow in July. That's right, I found this stuff on my jog this morning up in the hills at the back of the valley. See the 'termination dust?' That is the appropriate name dubbed for this cold, white stuff by my friends' kids. Even the flowers were all torn up over it.  
Looked like they were tearing up, too.
You are all probably thinking why wasn't I expecting this? Well, I sort of was, but this is one weird summer, even for up here. I think I jinxed the whole state of Alaska when I said "I'm so excited for Autumn!" earlier this week. whoops!

Now I'm off to the store for cookie-supplies! I'm craving chocolate chip and Mark loves Snickerdoodles. What better way to be happy than with both of them!? Go on, you want some too... go make some! Or buy a plane ticket and come visit. You choose.

putter one

Puttering around Pier 1 can take me quite a while. Considering it's hard to find stores here that has that pizzaz that can be found most anywhere else. I have to admit something: I can never decided on one style for my home. It's a good thing I have to consider my husband when choosing home decor items. I have so many realms to my design niche that it's difficult to narrow down what I want in my home. I have the world-eclectic that shows my traveling interests, and then I have my girly, froofy side that shows Mark I am still very much a femme person. Then I have my vintage styles that I throw in here and there, showing that I have roots through my mom and dad's parents into the 40s and 50s style. 

This is a typical post on this blog, but here it is for my own interest:

A beautifully warm and caramel encompassed mirror with the flair of the middle east and urban vibe from the US through it's clean corners and square shape. Mark thinks our reed lights should be history in the near future (makes sense, right?). So I'm trying to branch out for a new style I think would fit nicely in our home:
More bright colors!! I love the paint detail around this mirror. I found stencils that I want to do down stairs around the wall moldings. Sort of reminded me of those when I saw this mirror:
I love the blended paints between the blues and grays (around the painted-wood border) with the warm yellow and reds.
Pillows. Oh gosh, don't get me started! Too many choices...
Here's the girly side coming out! I love the burlap-look with the embroidered flowers:
But then reverting back to my traveler-eclectic look, more bright colors!
This is confusing. I'm thinking upstairs it will be my world-eclectic traveler side and then down stairs I will stick to my froofy-vintage girl style. With the help from frequent Mo and Tory tips. You up for that, you two?? 

Hike VIII: Eagle River Walk

Yesterday while the clouds lifted and some weak sunshine shone, Mark and I took Buckwheat down to the Eagle River with us:  There were a LOT of bear tracks. After looking at how to tell black and brown bear tracks apart, I've decided these are brown bear (Grizzly) tracks. There were big bear tracks and little bear tracks - a cub!!!
Since I've had Buckwheat, he's always hated water, either from the hose, or from the bath, he won't get in it if he has the choice. When we walked close enough to the river, he got in on his own! This was after he just walked around in it. But once I took the leash, and gave Mark the camera, he actually did a little swim (I never let the leash go b/c the river was not standing still) on his own! 
He's a lot skinnier than he looks when all his fur is poofy, huh!
Tessa, this picture is for you since you love pictures of this little guy. Here he is after his bath (RIGHT after we got home). He was still sopping, so I picked him up at the door, then put him down in the bath water. He seemed a lot more at ease through this bath. Maybe he should go swimming more often.

Here's proof that the pup likes water now! 

happy things

After weeks of drizzly, comfortable rain, the sunshine is out and Mark is home. I'm going on a hike! 

*this picture was taken on the way to the movie at 9:45 pm. It was not a sign of things to come. ha! Notice the double rainbow?

bear stalker?

No pictures, just a story. Bear with me; no pun intended! HA! My first non-pun pun!! I am never good at those..

Two nights ago, I went to see the new Batman movie (not a happy-feel good movie, but it was very well done, I liked it a lot). I had taken the pup out at 9:30 before I left for it, and when I got home it was around 1:00 am. Buckwheat didn't NEED to go out, but I felt for the little guy, so I was ready to just take him out to the rock in front of our house. His usual quick-go-to spot for me. 

Every now and then I have the feeling to grab the bear spray before I go out later in the evenings, but this was a strong prompting to take it outside with me. So I took it, now really worried. I stepped out the front door onto our little stair landing and stood their listening to the wind blow the flag around on its pole. Other than that, it was dead silent. Eerily silent. Even with how light it is still, the nights have been getting steadily darker and with the cloud cover, it was very much like a normal night at this late hour. It was then that I heard two distinct guttural grunts. LOUD guttural grunts, but they sounded far away for such a quiet night. I popped off the safety on the bear-spray, and continued down the stairs to the second perch, now shaking. Here I noticed little Buckwheat's nose perking up to a new smell. He sticks his head through the rails (like he does on the balconies), growls and starts to bark like mad!! He saw the BEAR!! I am getting chills just writing this. I lunge backward (with poor Buckwheat's head being pulled through the rails at a rate that probably stunned him) and darted up the stairs, through the front door and after slamming it, I stood their shaking and trying to get a grip on myself.  Buckwheat and I were both on edge now, he was still running to the windows, barking and growling and I headed for my room to read scriptures and TRY to go to sleep. Why does Mark have to be away when all the scary stuff happens??

Sunday morning I wake up to get ready for church and think nothing much of the night's happenings, and try go on my weary way. 10 minutes before I leave for church, Buckwheat's at the window barking at something. It wasn't a defensive bark, just sort of a bark for me to know that there's something weird out there. I look out the window and there is a white and red (oh! I have a picture of this one!... see below), and it looked disgustingly like a dead animal with no skin (sorry.. this is where my mind goes when I'm home alone and had a close call with a bear the previous night!). I had no time, so I decided to tell some guys about it at church and see if someone could come over and check it out. I would have felt so stupid if it were a fertilizer bag someone dumped back there or if kids left their pile of toys or something. I warned them of this, so as not to be too disappointed it might not be a dead carcass. 

The Elder's Quorum Pres. and another fellow came over in their truck (no gun, but they said they'd go get one if it was in fact a dead animal and check around for the bear), and I lead them to where I saw it. Me being in heels, just had to point up to the hill where I had seen it and they walked up. Then I heard, "Yeah, it was definitely a bear up here. But no dead animal, just someone's garbage." I was so thrilled that it wasn't that poor baby moose (it was about that size). I decided I'd go out myself to pick it up when Mark got home (Monday night) if no one beat me to it. Before the Elder's Q. Pres. left he reminded me who he was and that he likes to kill things (oh my!), so I should call him if I have any more problems. Ok, I will!

Last night, I was watching Nanny Diaries while Buckwheat took up his usual perch on the couch, looking out the window. While I was comfortable and enjoying my movie, I hear his little growl start to rumble followed by fast-paced defensive barks. I jump up and try to see what it is he saw. Nothing!! This happened two more times, for a total of three. I don't know WHAT was out there, but it was getting to dark to see what Buckwheat's eyes could. Lucky guy. I tried not to think too much of it, and went on watching my movie.

This morning I woke up to see the trash bag again, still there and creepy. I went in to start laundry and make my bed, then I came back out and the bag is GONE. I call my next door neighbor and the little boy, Alex answers and he said he didn't know of any bear around the neighborhood, and that his mom was already at work (so it wasn't her that picked it up). I told him to be careful and to know there's a bear around. 

I went down stairs with my unlocked bear-spray in hand, and left the screen door open in case I had to run through it really quick. I stepped onto the grass and saw bear scat almost instantly. Boy, did it look fresh. I held my hand over it and it still had some warmth. GROSS. and scary. But more GROSS. I continued on to the top of the hill and noticed there was NOTHING there. I don't think the bear would have put all the trash back in the back and taken it elsewhere. So I know someone must have moved it, but then when did that warm-bear-scat get there?

If you have any theories on this long, thrilling story, let me know!! Mark is flying right now, so I can't call him up and get his thoughts. But I am on edge, and will tell him all the details tonight. So is this bear hanging around for a piece of Buckwheat-Jayci pie? or is he just passing through, leaving his presents at MY house?! Why not the mean people's?? 

Oh by the way the night after the moose had walked through, there were bear tracks the next day. AH! But that was last WEEK, so he HAS to be hanging around the area...

Hike VII: Exit Glacier & Harding Ice Fields

It had been raining for weeks now, and so far we've been lucky with getting fairly sunny days for our planned hikes, but since it had been moved to Thursday, it had been raining all week and it was WET. But we wanted to try it anyway. Seward is about 2.5 hours away from Anchorage, so we set out at 7 am hoping for better weather that far away. When we showed up, it had been raining, and everything was wet and muddy, but it wasn't raining at the moment. So we set on up the mountain! Oh dear...
We found the trail head and the stats: 
Right next to the trail head, there was a big sign warning about bears in the park. I had my bear spray on my belt, but I didn't think I'd need it: 
The elevation gain, 3100 feet (approx.) almost all happens at the beginning. We were joking that a lot of it was like rock climbing. See this? This was just ONE of the many times where the trail just stopped and you start to climb: 
But then the stepping-rocks made up for the rock-climbing strain. I really liked gaining altitude this way (using my arms helped take the strain off my legs!). 
Some dancing trees: 
Even with everything already wet and slippery, we crossed an even more slippery wood-plank over a river. This picture doesn't really show how wide the river was. I sound wimpy, but the river was actually pretty big!
A ways up, we were rounding the trails around rocks, going up a hill and we heard people clapping, saying "hey bear! hey bear!" When we got to the top, we saw the small black bear, and it was right on the trail between us and another group across the little gap between the two hills. See the people in blue at the top of the hill?
My bear spray they were laughing at me for. I had it out within seconds!
The Exit Glacier. Still quite a bit of snow up there: 
I love how blue the old ice is: 
When I turned this bend, I was thinking, "we're going there?!" I was in my "ballet slipper-Sketchers" and jeans!:
The trail up in the snow. Part of it were really steep, but other parts were really fun to run, jump and slide through: 
A bit of a steeper view, there is really weird red stuff that rests on the snow, sort of strange!
Very close to the top, there is a shelter with a book inside to sign your name in. Everyone also writes their name in the wood inside and outside of the cabin. But we had no sharp objects or sharpies.. bummer! Underneath the shelter there were gas cans, I'm supposing for fires to keep warm?:
When we got to the very top and looked down on the ice fields, there was a HUGE sink hole. This is zoomed in all the way (12x), and it was so strange looking. It looked like there was a person next to the snow pile, but using binoculars, we still didn't know what it was. And that would have been a gigantic size person... maybe Sasquatch? 
Where we had just hiked from: 
Our group + another couple resting and enjoying the snow-shrouded view:
I was happy to have made it in my little slippers! 
The way down was incredible; the most fun part! I felt like Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild how he just shoots down hills. We would all jump and slide down the snow; we each fell about 8 times each, but it was hysterical! Here is a tiny view on the way back down through the snow. If I can get the video from Bonnie, I'll try to post it soon.