Aftermath

I wanted to share some photos of the aftermath of the storm that lasted for nearly a week. As you will see a lot of snow drifted around our house.

Here's the kitchen window from the inside and outside. I love all the daylight at this time of year, so I shoveled it out almost right away.

Before the storm, the snow was drifted about level with the entry into the house. After, C.O. had to shovel steps down to our door.

All of the towering snow makes us feel like we live in a winter wonderland theme park. --AnnMarie

Mac and Mary's Visit

Last week we had the opportunity to host C.O.'s Mom and Dad. We had a great time and were very excited to show them where and how we live. They arrived on Monday in what was was to be four full days of a raging storm. Their original flight to Brevig was canceled so C.O. switched them over to another airline and they amazingly made it in.

After that, we were all pretty much stuck inside the house due to the snow and wind. But I think Mac and Mary made the most of it and enjoyed spending time with their grandson.

"Ahhh, Grandpa did my hair."

The weather finally cleared up on Friday so, we took a walk around town then went to the school for some elementary basketball games.

C.O. and I took advantage of free baby sitters and took a little snow machine ride to the top of a hill and enjoyed the winter scenery. C.O. then took his Mom for a ride to the base of the mountain so he could point out some of the landscape. C.O. put his Dad to work helping dig out our snow machine and fuel hauler after the storm.

The following Monday, the weather was clear and cold so our visitors had no problem getting back to Nome. We hope they made many good memories of their trip to the far north and that they'll come again. Maybe they'd like to see a little warmer weather next time. --AnnMarie

Harold n Friends

When Harold's foster mom gave him to us she said, that he is a very special boy. Everyone who meets him loves him. We have found it to be true and wanted to show you some of Harold's friends.

Harold met Isaiah over Christmas and David gives Harold a bottle.

Christine is Harold's primary babysitter. He loves spending the
day with her and her new baby Ernest.

Ashley teaches Harold how to play many fun things like
jumping in your crib and using a calculator as a pretend cell phone.



Harold and Jesse hanging out, watching the Super Bowl.

Giggles

Side by Side

Ahhh, it's Valentine's Day. A made up holiday so we all go out and buy more stuff. It's junk we don't need but feel obligated to buy to really prove that we love the one we're with. As it turns out, I love C.O. the same amount on every day of the year and don't need to prove my love today with a card or chocolates or whatever. (Hmmm, I didn't really mean for this post to have a cynical tone. On to the sweet stuff I meant to share.)

So, it's Valentine's Day, and one of the things I enjoy doing with the one I love is traveling . When we're in Minnesota, we enjoy spending time with C.O.'s Grandma Ginnie and share with her our plans for travel and adventures. She usually doesn't see the draw towards the trips that we want to take but does see that we enjoy being side by side. One pretty cool thing about Grandma Ginnie is that she knows a ton of songs by heart. And any little phrase will trigger something in her mind and soon she'll starting singing a song with a phrase that was used in conversation. Well, one that she has sung a few times while we have visited her is "Side by Side". We found the song on iTunes and I just made a little video to go with it. Happy Valentines Day. --AnnMarie

Kuspuks

Here's a photo of my latest sewing project. This is the fourth kuspuk I've made for myself. Kuspuks are a traditional style shirt worn here by the ladies in Brevig and by Native people throughout the state of Alaska. I've grown to really love the look and the styling of kuspuks. They are comfortable, beautiful and practical. They are perfect for almost any type of weather. Worn alone, they are loose and amazingly cool. And since they are so roomy, you can easily layer clothes underneath for cold weather. I have a lot of fun finding beautiful fabrics to use and coordinating trims to add around the pockets, cuffs and ruffle. I'm not excited about quilting but I do love all the materials for quilting so this is a perfect way to use the fabrics I like. Now some of you may be saying, "Oh my gosh, she doesn't seriously think that looks good." But keep in mind that styles, tastes and fashion are all influenced by the media and the culture around us. Well, that's what happened to me. I see kuspuks everywhere I go and before long, I want to have a pretty kuspuk too. Here's my collection so far. --AnnMarie

Go, Go, Go

Oogruk . . . It's What's For Dinner

Oogruk is the Inupiaq word for a type of seal. Our friend Kenny gave us a few cuts of meat a while ago. The meat is very tender and actually pretty tasty. We ate our oogruk with a side of pesto pasta for a little blend of cultures.

Google Reader

I recently learned about Google Reader from my coworker, Ginger. I wanted to pass along the information to anyone else who might be able to benefit from this service. As the Google guy explained on the website, Google Reader is basically "an inbox for the internet". You can subscribe to various web sites or blogs and each time they are updated, it shows up in your "inbox". It's great because I can go to one spot and check to see if any of my favorite blogs have been updated. I can read the posts and look at the pictures right there instead of going from site to site to site. It's free but you do need a google account, which, those of you who use blogger, already have.

Our friend Bill was here for a quick visit and told us about a similar program that he uses called, NetNewsWire. I thought I'd throw that out there for another option.

This may be old news for those of you who are tech savvy (savvy has a strange spelling doesn't it?), but for those of us who are just a little behind the times I hope you can benefit from this little tid bit.

Around the World Rosie

In 2005 / 2006, we had an interesting winter in Brevig as far as visitors went. We had two parties, yes two, that were walking around the world. The first person to arrive was Rosie. She started her walk in Wales, U.K. in 2003 and arrived in Brevig in October 2005 via her own two feet. She walked across the U.K., Russia and then took a flight across the Bering Strait in order to arrive in Wales, Alaska and continue her journey. Here's a little excerpt from her web site.

"On 2nd October 2003 my 57th birthday, I'm going to set off to run around the world. Making my dream come true and practical necessity, go together. I shall be solo, self supporting and on a very low budget. . . . . The death of my husband Clive from prostate cancer last year, taught me more than anything about how precious life is; How short it can be, that you HAVE to grab life, do what you can while you can, and try to give something back. I'll be trying to raise awareness of the following very special small charities - to represent the world:- The Prostate Cancer Charity, The Siberian Railway Cancer Hospital at Omsk. The Kitezh Community for Orphan Children Orphanage, the hope of the future of European Russia through its children. The Nepal Trust that achieves so much with almost no money, in the Hidden Himalayas.

I am extremely grateful for the generosity of my family and friends, without their help and faith I could not succeed. Regards Rosie."

When she arrived in Brevig I was fortunate enough to meet her and walk with her for a bit on her journey.


I'm sure Rosie has met an unbelievable amount of people. I really came to realized the number of people she's met during a family reunion this past summer. I had seen that she had been through Park Rapids, Minnesota and had spend quite a bit of time there getting some dental work done. Anyway, I have a lot of relatives from near Park Rapids and I started talking with one of my Dad's cousins who works at a little flower shop. I asked if she had heard about Rosie. Turns out she actually got to meet her, how cool is that? We both got to chat with this lady who is walking around the world. We met her just 2 years and 3,000 miles apart. Rosie continues on her journey and is currently in Greenland. Check out her website, it's a pretty neat but totally crazy endeavor. --AnnMarie

Harold vs. The Vacuum

! ! ! !

Kids can say the cutest things. I've heard many humorous things over the past 6 years of teaching. Unfortunately I forget them, so I better write about what I hear right away. In kindergarten we learn about punctuation, commas, periods, question marks and exclamation points. One of my students got pretty excited about an "Eskimo Point" (!) in her book today.

Earlier this year, I was looking at a book of types of transportation with a young man. I was quizzing him about the names of various vehicles. Motorcycle, taxi cab, helicopters etc. When we got to the picture of a limo, the thought a moment and said, "It's a pimp car". I think "Pimp My Ride" has a little influence on the world.

Check out the Brevig Mission School blog for more about the news in kindergarten.

Like Father, Like Son

New Jewelry

I just purchased a new set of jewelry for myself. They were made by a local carver. Since I really liked the pieces and hadn't seen anything like it for sale before, I bought them. They're the 3rd coolest pieces of jewelry I own (1st and 2nd are the rings C.O. made me). The beads are made out of a combination of walrus ivory and mastodon ivory. That's right, the dark ivory used to be protruding from a woolly mammoth's mouth and now I wear it as jewelry. I didn't have to chase the hairy elephant off of a deadly cliff to obtain the ivory or anything. I just wrote a good old modern day check. Mammoth tusks happen to just stick out of the tundra here and there. So, folks take them, sell them or carve with the old ivory. It's these sort of things that really blow my mind and remind me how cool life is here in Brevig. --AnnMarie

Taking Care of Business

Ayo

We just bought Ayo's Album, Joyful and we're lovin' it. "Down On My Knees" has been her big hit, but the other songs on the album are great with musical sounds from around the world. --AnnMarie

Anchorage

Anchorage is a city of about 250,000 people (about 1/3 of all the people in Alaska) located at the base of the Chugach mountains. It is a typical American city with a little downtown surrounded by miles and miles of busy streets, strip malls, big box outlet stores, and subdivisions with houses that all look the same. In this photo you can see a Wells Fargo bank and in the background the City Dinner restaurant. There are a lot of moose that live in the Chugach mountains. In the summer the moose stay in the mountains enjoying the great views and fresh air. In the winter the moose get hungry and head down to lower ground to try to find something to eat. In years past this probably worked well for the moose, but today all the low ground is covered by all those strip malls and and subdivisions. This second photo shows a closer view of all the nice neon lights on the City Dinner.
Driving around Anchorage in the winter can be strange.



C.O.

Eat Up

So, the holidays have come and gone. We have all survived another year of cookie baking, gift giving and travel to and from the relatives homes. One of the things I look forward to during these times is all the delicious food and those wonderful dishes only made on special occasions. At the Rudstrom household, a year or two ago, we started doing something wild and crazy, we decided to cook our favorite holiday dishes . . . all year long. *gasp* C.O.'s Mom makes these awesome sausages wrapped in bacon and smothered in brown sugar things that are always a hit. We now make them on a regular basis. One of my all time favorite desserts is pumpkin pie. Each Halloween, we buy a pumpkin, cook up the pumpkin meat and freeze it in packages just right for making a pie. We have them rationed out to about one pie per month. My Mom makes homemade chocolate covered cherries that the relations are always waiting for come Christmas Eve. They are on my list of goodies to make someday soon. Why is it that we only make these yummy things one time a year? It's crazy I tell you! Life is too short for such nonsense. It's time to start making your favorite dishes and desserts all year long. And if you're are tired of them come the following holiday season, get adventurous and, what the heck, find a new favorite recipe. --AnnMarie

Movie Wisdom

C.O. and I are in the middle of watching the 1956 version of the King and I. It's a great film for anyone who hasn't seen it. Anyway, there was a short dialog that caught my attention. The King of Siam is trying to come to terms with modern times, western culture, scientific discoveries etc. He has already read about the theories of evolution, and now is reading the creation story in the Bible. He says something to Anna like, "How can some of your writers say one thing (that the creation of the world took millions and millions of years) and then this Moses says the world was created in just 6 days." Anna explains that one is written by men of science and one by men of faith but then says, "Either way, it is the same miracle." That really struck me. I happen to believe in Intelligent Design, that God had a plan and created this world. But even if you see things differently, we can all agree that the world around us certainly is a miracle. There's a little movie bit that I thought was worth sharing. --AnnMarie

He's 1