General Women's Conference

I love attending women's conference with this girl! We were bummed that Valerie was still outta town and couldn't be with us. 

The meeting was so uplifting and powerful. Our church leaders are truly inspired and called of God. They raised their voices about service and the Savior. It made me reflect on my life and attitude and my willingness to serve. 

We had a wonderful potluck dinner afterwards. 

I truly enjoy these ladies! 

Can't wait till the next conference 

March 26, 2016 

Snow, snow, and more snow

So the past few days we've had some snow but last night it got crazy! 

The front of the house 

The front porch! We have a ton of shoveling to do that's for sure. 

The back porch

And it's still snowing like crazy. Now this is what I've heard Valdez snow was always like. 

March 19, 2016

Corn Pudding

Boo is learning all about the colonization and the revolution of the United States, as well as reading the literature book The Witch of Blackbird Pond. In the book WBP there was a story about making corn pudding and the characters epic fail. Her curriculum gave us a colonial recipe for bread pudding. 

So off to make this corn pudding she goes.....

The finished product..... It looked kinda funky but on with it. We need to try it! 

And it went down! Valerie and I tried it first because boo was not havin it! Then boo finally tried it and it was not pleasant. She finally swallowed the one and only bite she took. I can't say I blame her since Val and I also only ate one bite. It was terrible. The texture was not good and then the taste just wasn't good! What an experience for her and us actually. To see what others ate all those years ago and how lucky we are today to have such a variety of food to choose from. But I'm tellin ya it was nasty! And Dada won't even try it.... Coward!!!! 

January 6, 2016 

Valdez, Alaska 

Homeschool play date

A homeschool play date! These two girls love playing and hanging out together and they also love doin school work together. What a fun day, a field trip, some school work, lunch at subway and playing with stuffed animals.... What a wonderful day! 

January 27, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

Beauty

I am in constant awe of where I live. Gods creation of this wonderful state of probation amazes me!

This was just breath taking today the way the sun hit the mountain peaks. This picture doesn't do the beauty justice. This beauty allows for a peacefulness in my soul just when I need it. It is a constant reminder of the God almighty who is in charge of all things in this world. He is aware of all things! He knows every peak and valley and every soul upon this world. This bring peace to my soul. 

January 6, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

 

Kings Day

It's Mardi Gras season folks and to celebrate we made a king cake with a baby and all!!! Yum yum! 

It was Val's first experience with King cake and boy did it take forever to make! It was worth it! 

January 6, 2016 

Valdez, Alaska 

Presents

The Boo girl lovin her birthday gift from Aunt Brandi!!! 

It's the best! Annabella said, "she always knows just what I'll love!" 

January 7, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

The words of the Lord

This girl is growing up so fast! I couldn't ask for a better kid! Sure we have our ups and downs but this girl is amazing! 

I love that she loves the scriptures! She reads them and shares them and she truly understands them and what she doesn't understand yet she will! I love that she loves the Savior! Hope that she will let him be her best friend that that she will never lose this drive and love for his words. 

January 10, 2016

Valdez, Alaska  

Braids

Val loves braiding hair. So mine gets a lot of it. 

I of course love anyone doing my hair so really it's no skin off my back..... 

She likes trying new things.... I love this one 

And just regular ones... It's a fun time! I love spending time with her even if she just does 10 different braids in one day! 

January 8, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

Sooo pretty

This cat is just adorable! We all love her so much! Bagheera you are a light in our lives..... So sorry the girls just wanna hug you and squeeze you and love you and hug you and squeeze you and love you.... Ya I feel your pain... 

January 12, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

Bread pudding craving now satisfied....

It's a bread pudding kinda day!!!! I was craving some bread pudding so I made some! It was delish and worth the effort! 

January 12, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

Goliath

For seminary it was the David and Goliath  story in the Old Testament.... 

I handmade some slings so that we could strike down Goliath and my friend Amanda came over and helped me draw a 9 foot 9 inch Goliath. 

He was huge and awesome .... But no one wanted to slay him! I had to force the kids to get up and slay him! We used ping pong balls in the slings for safety purposes, you know just in case cuz teenagers can be a little cray- cray! I thought it was fun and we had a great lesson on the hard challenges in our lives and what we have to do to combat and slay them. I love teaching seminary! I am so blessed that the Lord saw fit to choose me to teach these precious spirits here in Valdez. I hope that the things I share with them through the spirit will touch their souls and become embedded upon their hearts.... 

January 13, 2016 

Valdez, Alaska 

A liberty bell

Boo made her very own Liberty Bell!!!! 

Gotta love homeschooling! It's the best and sometimes extremely fun and just a little crazy! 

January 14, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

Lord of the Rings

With Dada outta town the boo girl wanted to watch Lord of the Rings the extended version on blue ray of course, in bed with me, so we made a day of it. 

She got totally into it..... 

There were some intense parts and she's not a huge fan of the orcs so these pictures are worth a thousand words. 

We can't wait for our next marathon! 

Val was busy enjoying the tv downstairs to herself she wasn't feeling the whole lords of the rings day today, so we let her off the hook! 

January 16, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

A recipe

For school Boo had to create her own colonial colony and while she was doing so she had to make her own colonial colony recipe (kinda like a signature dish). So she got to work. 

She made this up as she went and added brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, eggs, regular sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips, flour, a little water and who knows what else! 

After about 30 minutes we pulled these puppies out and waited for them to cool! And Boo from boosville (her colony) was the first to eat her signature dish. 

So she ate some and kinda liked it. She lived the flavor but not the texture. I tried them as well and agreed that the taste was yummy but the texture was a little weird. 

January 21, 2016 

Valdez Alaska 

Her own style....

I just love this girls unique style! I hope she always stays true to herself and wears what she love and what she is comfortable in! 

January 25, 2016 

Valdez, Alaska 

Earthquake.....

So this morning at about 1:30 we had a huge earthquake. It woke the whole house up. 

It lasted forever. I kept thinkin is it ever gonna stop? 

This was by far the most intense earthquake that I had ever experienced. Earthquakes here in Alaska seem to travel farther and the intensity of them is far reaching. 

I couldn't get back to sleep at first.... I was too worried about listing for the tsunami warning sirens. Finally I looked online to see if there was a tsunami warning and there wasn't so I felt like I could go back to sleep. 

January 24, 2016 

Valdez Alaska 

School time

School in our house is sometimes a silly wacky day! 

Between Val dramatically singing and her getting carrot vampire fangs.... 

And Annabella's foot spa time and snacking.... It amazing we get anything done at all! 

We have so much fun together what a joy it is to have them home with me all day. Did I mention it's all day..... 

January 26, 2016

Valdez, Alaska 

Solomon Gulch Hydroelectric Power Plant

Today we went on a "field trip" with other homeschooled families to the Solomon Gulch Hydro Power Plant (I organized this trip). 

They gave us some great information about how the energy was made and gave us a tour of the plant and we even got to see and hear the working turbines.

Previously owned by the Four Dam Pool Power Agency, CVEA acquired ownership of the Solomon Gulch hydroelectric facility in February 2009. The 12-megawatt Solomon Gulch hydroelectric facility is located on Dayville Road in Valdez.  Power is generated by two Fuji Francis water turbines.  The facility began providing power to CVEA customers in 1982. CVEA operates its dispatch center from this facility.  The plant is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Plant operators are responsible for the operation of up to four generation plants at one time via remote control operations.  From the hydro plant, operators can start and stop units in any or all of CVEA's three generation facilities:  Glennallen diesel, Valdez diesel, or the cogeneration plant, as well as the hydro project. -- from the copper valley electric webpage 

 

The water comes from this amazing lake that replenishes it's self yearly! There are two turbines that work in this plant. It can generate enough energy to power all of Valdez and the whole Copper Valley Basin and into Glenallen.... That is a huge area. 

When this plant has a hiccup or its down for some reason they have a back up generator as well as another fossil fuel power plant to pick up the slack. 

This is the generator that the kids are standing on and they have two of them. One for each turbine. 

They have this awesome snow machine plow thing that they use to a couple times a week to get to Solomon Gulch lake, the dam, and the pipes. 

It plows the snow if needed and has huge tracks of metal that allow them to get around on ice and snow. 

They have to check the pipes and the dam at least once a week sometimes more depending upon the weather and if any earthquakes have occurred. 

These are pictures from their website. 

More pics from their website. 

This was such a fun way to learn more about the energy we use daily! The kids had a great time. 

January 27, 2016

Valdez, Alaska