Olah

Genevieve my co-workers kid








To the left are some fisherman on the Olds, theres kings there but more humpies

Below: My dog running around

To the left are some pretty flowers with fisherman in the back

Below is Pasagshak which is a 45 minute truck drive but has lots of reds

Olah comi sta ok, that's not how you spell it but you get my point doncha? So Shanna finally made it back on Saturday after the weather finally got good but then the weather dropped back down on Monday and she was delayed to fly out late monday night. But while she attended the Kodiak outdoor womens thingie i tried my hand at fishing for reds and kings, the weather got really decent out and there were people out there fishing so there was just no luck for me, i tried my hardest but only caught dollies :) I did see a lot of people that i know out there, saw my co-worker Genevieve out there and it's always nice to go to Pasagshak as the drive might not be the best but just being in the outdoors is nice!! plus my dog knows how to swim now, i taught him the doggie paddle LOL at first he woudn't at all get close to the water now he tries to find a place to cross without having to get wet and then he dashes in.........so i find being out fishing is fun and here coming this weekend i am heading up to Nome to shoot my very first wedding!! My friend Erika and Tyler are getting married and i agreed to take the pictures for the wedding...yikes but it should be fun!! Then after i leave nome i am goign to go to Unalakleet for a week to fish and also pick berries!! So going home is always nice and i have been getting ready to go up there as buying some new fly tying material on which i think would work for silvers up there and need to tie a few tonight so i could be ready for those silvers. Anyways it will just be great being able to be up north again among my people and family!! So that is totally big catch!!

Today

So today is weird actually here the past couple of days it kind of reminds me of red dog because the weather is weird!!! Its been foggy and rainy which i guess resembles fall time but it's alaska i guess !! so below

So above is our friends Rachel and Matt and also we have a b-boy dancing which is cool since we hung out with them at the relay for life which happened here in Kodiak last week which raised a lot of money for Cancer and they are great people. As for the b-boy who didn't want to become a b-boy when you were a kid listening to salt and peppa and biggie!!!..and the rest is the reason why Shanna didn't make it in..the weather has been foggy but Spaulding loves being outside even if it's foggy out or rain :) But rain is the way to go when you live out in Kodiak which has been really great!! I love fishing and i love being outdoors...if you could live in the rain its a great place for someone to be, my job has been going good and have a good HR department that is cool...so that's Big catch!!

It's been forever!!

So sorry to say it's been forever since i had written on here and when i say forever it's literally forever :) but lets see the major changes in my life are I moved to Kodiak, we had a foster kid for 5 months, it rained, and rained and rained and rained LOL. But Kodiak has been a great place to live despite the rain due to the milder climate then up north. This winter i was like yes i definitely don't miss the -30 degre weather and could actually get used to this 30 degree weather in february :) but so far this summer has been pretty wet and when it does get nice here in Kodiak you definitely have to take an advantage over it because those are few and far between. When it's sunny out we drop what we are doing and run out and go on a nice hike or bike ride or go fishing!!

A red from Port lions
But the summer has been a sucessfully one for fishing!! Well lets start that over it started out unsuccessful because i found out pretty quick that red salmon don't bite and you have to get pretty good at something called flossing :) which is you get your line thorough the red salmon mouth and snag it in the mouth. Isn't that weird that reds don't bite? Kings, silvers and pinks do but reds refuse to do it. Are they really the snobs of fish, i guess they could be the smart ones due to the fact that they know what we are casting to them isn't real and only go for the real thing :) So on top of that i have caught some reds, but not as much as i was out there, give me a break it's not like i wasn't putting forth the effort to catch these fish!! So our good friends the Narogs invited me to go over to Port lions with the Johnsons and fish for reds via gill net!! So it was a beautiful drive over as we saw whales and puffins and sea otters over there!! So get this the reds are smart too as they were jumping all over the place but they would go around the net and we only managed to catch 2 reds in two hours as hundreds were jumping around...luckily we saw some locals come out and kind of looped around the fish and caught a bunch so it was like purse seining with a gill net. so we did that the first time and caught like 70 in one haul and let me tell you it was fun but definitely tiring!! All in all that day we caught 190 reds over there and had a fun time cutting them up and used the coast guards vacuum sealing to get all of them done!! Lot's of work but hey our freezer is full of reds!! Yummy!!

This is the old bridge across port lions

Amanda Johnson holding a star fish we got in the net

This is the way to do a wrap around

So all in all we got a lot of reds and had a great time!!! So all in all we got a 190 reds and am thankful that our freezer is full!!! Now thats big catch :) so anyways i am going to try and update this blog every a couple of days as i been lacking in it and all of sudden got this urge to inform what's been going on and this is one of the many stories of the life and times of Sam and Shanna.

ahhhh...so long.

-Kodiak is greening.
-The fish are coming.
-My mighty fisherman is having bad luck.
-Andrea has left...not sure if she will come back for the school. Being a parent is stressful
-I'm working towards another marathon. Keeps changing from Anchorage in August to ??? to now maybe Fairbanks in September.
-Some family friends are coming to Kodiak in July. Can't wait. We are going bear viewing, on a fish charter and much more. The secret is a secret until next week, so I will share later. :)
-I did a 41 mile bike ride in the rain for a race on Memorial Day weekend. aghhhhh.....
-Sam has been busy building his photography portfolio...he busily takes photos for KANA (our job site), at a wedding (for a very small section maybe 1-1.5 hours max, but imagine like 500 or more pics!!)
-We are starting to develop some really good friends in Kodiak. I have a great pod of girls that I run with. Sam and I have some really great parent families that have taken us in too. It is great
-work is steady. I just resubmitted my two USPHS Commissioned Corps awards. Hopefully I get them this year! Much deserved but also much time and stress went into them.
-I'm growing a garden. The garden is half dead from slugs and then take this to the most extreme in context.."you can't plant those here in Kodiak!!!". Try having your garden die and someone tell you that! Boo!!!
-My water aerobics class that I teach is going well!
-I received my long awaited for promotion in the USPHS. I am now a LT. With comes pay increase, waahoo!!
-I'm going to Cancun this July iwth my mom and sister for a week. It is going to be so nice. Relaxation, sun, fun, and with my family.

Sam has posted some fun community pics on his snapfish acct. I have tried to attached the link here. I will get that posted.

Moose Meat and Homemade Blueberry Muffin

Grinding Moose Meat It finally snowed in Kodiak.

A steel salmon that Sam bought me b/c he knew how much I loved it at an auction. It is burned on its edges which actually makes it look blue.

Yummy Moose steaks and roast

Ahhh...Sunday morning was so wonderful. I woke up early feeling great, thinking...so early, should I shower first, or cut the moose meat or make the requested tundra bluberry muffins first? Regardless I had awoke before the rest of the house and I was going to enjoy all of it early this Sunday morning. I thought I might even have time to get some Giada's cooking show in UNTIL...I noticed the TV was telling me it was an hour later than I thought. Darn, we had forgot to change the clocks before we all went to bed Saturday night! :( Regardless the morning made me feel so domestic and like a very Alaskan gal.

Before we went to church Sunday morning, I cut a moose hind quarter, made homemade blueberry muffins and still made it in the shower. After church I made my mom's favorite recipe...Bierocks. I hear many names for these, but it is a square piece of bread dough then you take cooked hamburger, onions, and green cabbage and wrap it up in there and bake. Yum!!!

When we went to Nome a few weeks ago, it was quite sad. My best friend was supposed to get married but her groom got cold feet. It was a true nightmare that seemed like it should only happen in the movies. I was ready to leave Nome!!! Happily though while we were there our friend, Kris gave us the moose. We are so thankful and lucky. Thank you Kris. This weekend we cut it up and ground it into burger for the most part. It is so exciting to think that we finally have some really healthy meat in our freezer besides fish. We had moose steaks last night and YUM, YUM, YUM.

A special weekend

I asked for a power tool and I got it. Sam and I had such an incredible Saturday and a great "date night" on Friday you could say. Some friends of ours from work and Nome took Andrea for a few hours on Friday night to go swimming. It was so nice. He went to run the trails with Spalding and I went to yoga. After that we got to enjoy our favorite restaurant's yummy sushi, the local brewery's Stout from the growler and some Olympics. It is so great to have Andrea around but it sure is fun to a have no kid "date-time" once in a while. Despite these "free moments" I try to stop myself from catching myself thinking of the sad day that Andrea leaves us and has to go back to Nome. It is coming way too quickly.

To back up a bit, I have to share with you about our past week. It was a great one, I have to say. Last Sunday I found out that my friend from Nome, sister was coming to Kodiak. Did that sentence make sense?? I can't seem to get it out right... :) Anyways, Erika's sister came to Kodiak. She met with us for supper on Wed. night and ended up staying the rest of the week with us. It was the best!!! We finally got to play Cranium with 4 people, and of course you can guess who Sam picked....not Andrea or I...so he won finally! As our first house guest was leaving I got a scary phone call that turned into the best news yet. My favorite 91 year old "old family friend" is having a surprise trip planned for him to come visit Sam and I in Kodiak this July. His daughter is the friend of my mom's and so they are trying to get her to come too! Possibly 3 exciting house guests. The most exciting is that Tony is the person who gave me the bed that I get to sleep in every night. It is so beautiful and as comfortable as I remember when I was a kid, even though it has different mattresses.

So back to our weekend investments. Sam and I had the best Saturday. We woke up early because I think we are getting old and we can't sleep in anymore. He is so motivated to workout. It is funny...I claim to be the runner but he is the one who says, "let's go running or I'm going running". I then am the one who just has motion...motion of getting dressed, getting ready and just moving out the door and into the car. I even can admit that all I think is, "if I only get there and start walking, then I might run to keep up with him and then I will be HAPPY!" :) After running we went to a flea market, ie: a garage sale, and then to the quilt shop. SO FUN! I'm in love with Kodiak. They have 2 quilt shops and two yarn shops, but who needs the last one...I haven't picked up that busy hobby. We ended up getting many fun projects. I will make and then post my finished projects as they come about. After that we decided that we had some handyman tasks around the house so we went to true value. I hate this store b/c the workers are not friendly or helpful, but I sure love the items in that store. It is probably one of the best in Kodiak. We ended up bettering our recycling resources for home and getting some fun power tools so we could start doing some projects like fixing the dog box that I broke in Nome. My dog's dog house was completely frozen to the ground and when the movers were there, I decided to get it unstuck from the ground. I borrowed my neighbors tow strap and jerked it with my 4-wheeler. When I went to do that, the whole right side BLEW off. :) hehe The house is finally fixed though as of this weekend with our new electric screw driver.

After our weekend in Nome this coming weekend (for my friend, Jennie's, wedding) Sam and I are going to start working on a new project with our new tools. We our going to make a picture frame out of beach drift wood.

This weekend was also special because we hung a horse saddle collar mirror that was my "adopted" grandpa John's creation. My house consists of so many special "inherited" gifts from special people in my life. What a great weekend except today....Sam and I are still trying to find a church in Kodiak. It was so hard today at a new one we tried. I just cried for the entire first half. I can't believe how a strictly raised Catholic can go from a burning desire Catholic to being lost religiously. Does that make sense? I feel so sad and so lost. We have it narrowed down to 2 churches that are baptist..can you believe it. These baptist churches are not like the ones you see on TV where they clap and yell. They are more like what I know of Alaskan Covenant. Sam is Covenant and I'm Catholic. Would life be this way if Sam was Catholic or I was with someone who was Catholic? Or if those horrible things in the Catholic church in Nome would have never happened to me. I hate to blame them but just sometimes, I feel like I want to!! Prayer, prayers, prayers are what are needed to help us find our place that feed us and help us continue to grow spiritually.

ahhh....Kodiak and life

Wow, what a last few weeks it has been. Life is glorious, but challenging! :) Our little gift that stands about 5 foot 4 inches tall has been a tough one lately. It is so amazing how wonderful it feels to have that responsibility such as a child and to get to experience the other feeling of being a mother. Sometimes I catch myself giggling because I will have her over Mother's Day...I wonder if I will get a gift or be honored that day...hehe I can't wait to have kids. I keep reminding Sam that I would be happy to have his kids, but we need something shiny, and sooner is always better than later.

So our blog hasn't been done lately, and I want you to know that it is Sam's fault. I want to put pictures on so badly, but since i have a professional photographer I haven't been carrying around my 3X4 inch Canon since oh, 1.5 years ago. Therefore I don't have access to any pictures to entertain with. Just go to Facebook...his page unless he took your picture then you have it tagged to your page! :)

We finally got our house settled. I made the family clean house this weekend and we finally unpacked all of our boxes and organized our stuff. The big furniture that I bought over Christmas in Kansas finally made it to Kodiak. It is beautiful to have a full bedroom of pretty and such "grown up" furniture. I am loving my house. It's not as warm and wonderful as my Nome apt. but it is filled with way more wonderful things like beautiful, new and MY own furniture and two fun people.

We have been doing a lot of outdoor stuff. Sam has started running daily. He even does better than myself. He goes everyday and with Spalding. We have taken some really hairy hikes. On Presidents Day him and I went on a 4 hour hike to Termination Point. We got so lost. We finally ran into a Navy Seal Instructor who trail blazed for us to get us on the right path. Man, we were exhausted completely by the end of that hike and noted that it will be a hike we only do 1 time per year. SO HARD!!! We have been eating a lot of yummy fish...huge king crab, cod and red salmon. Life is really good! Work is going really well for us. I keep getting lots of referrals to see patients, and eventually I will get to see more diabetic patients and Sam may not look busy when I walk up to see him but I think he is. Everyone loves him at KANA. I started to do more regularly scheduled yoga. I have this horribly tight right hip and since I lost my PT friend who use to do treatments on it in Nome, I thought maybe yoga would be a good practice for me for my hip and my nerves....my nerves that are being tested daily by our 5' 4" "child" :)

Kodiak is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me a lot of Washington around northern Seattle. Rainy, lots of trees and moss, warm for Alaska and just beautiful. We hope you all can come visit some day.