HAPPY 40th Carolee

On the 18th of this month I turned the big "40", I can't believe I'm that OLD already!
It all started out with an early phone call from my mom who was down in Idaho helping out my sister after just having her 5th baby. Mom n my nephews, Mitchell & Logan and niece Mykala all sang Happy Birthday to me. Then Rob called and managed to rope all the 'guys' on the slope he was working with to sing to me as well. Next I headed out for a extended walk from my house to the end of the spit (*about 7 miles) with my walking buddy Pat Evarts. Then I went to the Homer Inn Day Spa for an hour body massage by Adam, YUM! (*was nice to have the knots and tight spots worked out after that long walk and stressful work week). Then I went to my tanning appointment and soaked up some quick vitamin D and heat! In between all that I received a few more Happy Birthday wishes via the phone from other friends while lounging in the sunshine on a public bench in front of the family theater in town.
Then I walked down town and met Brittany Bug my youngest daughter for lunch. After which we walked over to Sunny Service where JJ, our neighbor and mechanic had just finished working on the fuel pump on the Suburban so I could drive home and pick up Wendy and be back in town for an afternoon matinée at the movies ( we saw GET SMART). After that we went to Jessica's work place and waited till she got off so she could come home and join the party where Krystal had just got off her work as well (she biked home from the spit and was resting). Then we had a little family celebration with white roses from my girls, ice cream & chocolate & caramel syrup, cheese cake and strawberries for gifts and some nice cards. Then we all got dressed up and headed back out to Land's End (a nice restaurant, but also the place where Krystal works...we had to drag her back out there for some reason), and had dinner together! YUM We took some pictures and videos and then headed home to snuggle up in pj's on my bed and watch some TV/movies together.
All in all it was a GREAT DAY with beautiful sunshine (*of which I was in desperate need of) my lovely girls and a day full of recreation and relaxation! The only thing it was missing was Rob, who just got home early this morning and missed the celebrations by a few days. (*He promised to make it up to me and I wonder how he'll do that...*wink*)
SO now that's over...I wonder what the next 40 years will bring.

FINALY...some organization to my work space!

FINALLY,... I have some order & organization to all my 'stuff'. This has been an on going process but as I've accumulated I haven't really designated a home for all my tools and a space to actually WORK or PLAY as I call it. So with the help of my husband to build some shelves and some much needed plastic containers and drawers I put almost everything in a permanent space. I still have a few remaining piles of supplies to go through and put away in the living room where it was temporarily stashed till I could get to it, but WOW what a good start hu! Now I have a drawing/painting work area and a crafting/scrap booking/stamping work area and if i have a project I shouldn't have to move it or put it away so the space can be used for something else, which was the problem before and my projects just kept getting moved from place to place never having a real home. NOW MY STUFF HAS HOMES! ha ha ha..don't we all need a place to call our own! So with out further a dew.. here are some pictures to show off what I did so far. I still need to add some lighting over each area but again.. I'm excited to just have gotten this far! Now for the rest of the office...ugh thats going to be my next big project and hopefully it won't take me so long.

Some get made, some get even, some clean, some go Bike riding!

Well it's been a while since I posted whats been going on in our family so I thought i'd post and share some recent pictures of it all. To start off our family celebrated the 4th of July with the Carol Family up in Soldotna as Coltin's mom ( the boy that Jessica is seeing) invited us, and even though both Krystal and Jessica had to work till almost 4pm we still took the drive and joined them. I managed to bake two large pan full of homemade crescent rolls, one wheat one white, a large pot of calico beans, and a raspberry Jell-O dessert with us. The weather was nasty so none of the girls dressed for water sports, unfortunately when we arrived the Carol's were sporting rides on the tubes and boats. We just visited and ate! Then we stayed late to make smores by the fire near the edge of the lake at their house. It was peaceful but we sure wished we had better weather. Anyways Coltin thought we were leaving (since Jess had to work early in the morning) and took off to hang out with some other friends and left Jessica wondering, so needless to say she was a bit steamed. So the next day afterwork she conned Wendy into a long 20 mile bike ride to blow off some steam ( hence the title of this post!)
Here are some before and after pics of the two girls.

Employeed by CH2MHILL

We should announce that Rob is now officially employed again, and is actually on his second shift up on the slope with the new company.
CH2MHILL
You can check out their website to learn more about them at:
http://www.ch2m.com/corporate/default.asp
It's a fairly large company and he has an official title of: GMT= General Maintenance Technician, which means he fixes everything. Prior to this job, he was working for CCI, Inc. a native corperation that leased him out to ch2mhill. He had several assignments with that company that encompassed a wide range of oil support, hazzwop ( hazardous chemicals) clean up and even carpentry and various maintenance jobs to fix and build things. He was so good at what he did that he was known to do anything, and work with anyone, even the difficult persons. So when CCI, Inc. informed him there was going to be a 8 week layoff, I panicked of course, but Rob did some inquiries and found out ch2mhill was serious about hiring him full time to keep him at Camp Milne Point, North Slope, Alaska. So he put in his resume and was hired! YEAH!!!(it took a few weeks, but the wait is over)
He has a permanent room of his own ( well he shares it with 4 rotating co-workers) but at least he's not a gypsy having to cart his gear back and forth each shift never knowing for sure where he's going to bunk or for how long. Job security is a BIG DEAL to me and our family and this job was an answer to many prayers!
So now Rob's back on the slope again and we are crossing our fingers nothing breaks down or quits while he's away (as is per usual when he's not here).
SO CONGRATS to Rob on his new employment!