Hey Good Lookin, Whatcha Got Cookin?!

Hey everybody!
this is kimberly. its sunday and we are just lounging around the house. andy and i went to church and then a walk today. the walk was real fun because there are these large huge mountains of little rocks piled up right next to the river because of something the construction teams were doing this summer. and now they just have snow covering them (except some parts get all the wind and just show exposed snow). so, andy got adventurous and starting climbing one of them. i looked on, wearily, as he sunk deep into the snow - like up to his knees. then i jumped it too and we had fun climbing up them, sitting for a break and sliding down them (too bad we dont have any inner tubes.) the view was awesome. you could see the river for miles in both directions. it was really nice. then, coming back, we followed the irondog trail on the edge of the river and our faces got real cold. it was 12 below. i was sort of dumb and was wearing regular sneakers so my ankles got cold from the socks being exposed. my feet were warm though.
yesterday we went out to andy's new favorite sno-going trails. they are now my favorite too. i have never been there before. it was out by the dump. the trails all looped around so you cant get lost. they are inbetween trees and over 2 or 3 lakes. that was cool. the only tracks were ours on the lake...it was great.people had been on those trails earlier in the week probably but their werent any fresh tracks. the best part was that there were these huge hills we could climb up on the sno-go and then glide down em. andy was making me laugh a lot yesterday because of a couple things. first, every time we'd go down a hill he would put him arms up high in the air and look like he was riding a roller coaster. it was a great view from behind. then, we when we were coming back he was trying to be so sweet by slowing down lots and then holding his hand out so that i could grab it and we could ride in sync with our two machines side by side and us holding hands. however, he failed to remember that the throttle is on the right hand bar and so while he could keep his machine going and hold my hand, when i tried to grab his, i quickly came to a stop! we laughed about that for a while. so, all in all it has been a good couple of days.
ok, so the real reason i wanted to post a blog is because ive found some good recipes lately that i wanted to share.
first, this one comes from a taste of home magazine. my dear mother in law gave me a magazine subscription for christmas and i just got the first mag. heres the awesome, delicious, most wonderful recipe andy and i love:
Pistachio Ice Cream Dessert:
1 cup crushed butter flavored crackers (i used ritz) 1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup cold milk 1 package instant pistachio pudding mix (3.4 oz.)
1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened 1 carton frozen whipped topping, thawed (8 oz.)
2 heath candy bars, crushed

so, you combine the crackers and butter in a bowl to make a crust on the bottom of an ungreased9 inch square baking pan. bake it at 325 for 7-10 minutes (until golden brown). let it cool on a wire rack.
in a bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix together for 2 minutes. let stand for 2 minutes. stir in ice cream; pour over crust. cover and freeze for two hours or until firm.
spread with whipped topping and sprinkle top wioth crushed heath bars. cover and freeze 1 more hour until firm. wow!!! its sooooooooo good.


ok, now the second recipe i made today and andy and i love it! i made 4 small loaves of it but you could make one big loaf too.

Banana Carrot Nut Bread:
2 c. flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 c. mashed bananas 1 c. sugar 3/4 c. oil 2 eggs
1 c. grated carrots 1/2 c. chopped pecans

in a bowl combine the flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. combine bananas, sugar, oil and eggs in a mixer bowl and beat. stir in dry ingredients. mix in pecans and carrots. bake in greased loaf pan at 350 until you poke it with a knife and it comes out clean.

so, hopefully some of you will try the recipes and enjoy them. andy and i do. its so hard up here because our food options are pretty limited and so like meals are really tough. every week we eat meatloaf, tacos, enchiladas, chili and parmesan chicken. thats it! sometimes a soup too. so, if anybody has really simple delicious meals that dont take any sort of special meats i would be all over getting those recipes from ya!
one more thing....it is always sooo good to hear from people back home so if any of you want to talk or anything just give andy and i an email and we can give you our phone numbers. this week we got a call from tavis/bethany and it totally made my/andy's week! thanks guys! we miss you all!

hey everybody!!
this is kimberly. i apologize andy and i have not been on here much lately. we have been jam-packed crazy. last weekend there were 3 basketball teams in town playing a tournament, and then the IronDog racers came through. we opened up the restaurant (riverside grill) and i learned 2 things: first, how to use a deep fryer and second, how to destroy everything i touch. in one day i managed to pour boiling hot grease all over the grill floor (try to clean that up!), then i wrote on a dry erase board with a PERMANENT marker (which by the way, use hairspray if that ever happens to you....my genius husband gave me that tip.) then, i smashed my finger into a door leaving a gaping wound and blister on my middle finger. plus, i had to keep back my tears from everyone around. and, i managed to get sick - which i gave to andy. so, all in all it was a hectic weekend. there were over 25 guys staying the night here on friday and andy was just oogling them because of their sno-gos. he got lots of pictures (they should be up in a few days). we went to one basketball game (our boys played against ruby) and tanana won! now, we are finally adjusting back to normality but, i still am sick and dont feel well.
the temperature is going down again... s'pose to be in the 40 below area by wednesday night.
lately, ive really been missing home. i miss portland weather (the rain!), portland things to do... i love the spring in portland because there are always places to go, trails to hike, i want to get back into rock climbing real bad and you just can never be bored. but up here right now andy and i feel so tied down. our job isnt a 10-6 job every day like it seems. we have to be home in case a shipment comes in, people constantly call for gas or items after hours. out of towners dont know that the store is closed on sunday (it has been open on sundays for over 19 years) so we are obligated to get them stuff when they are travelling downriver. and so, its like, there are cool things to do but our schedule makes it sooo hard to leave. a friend called to invite me to galena to go to the tournament there a couple weeks ago. and i wanted to go so bad but i couldnt because of the store and the job. i guess some of you might call that growing up, but sometimes i wish i just had a simple job that i could leave at the end of the day. and, we are trying to get better on track with God. i know i need to work on it and im trying. i got a journal from my aunt for christmas and ive been using it to tell my feeling and emotions more. its nice.
so, things are still good. andy and i are getting along real well and enjoying married life (just 17 more days to our 6 month mark!! woo hoo). we are working on some areas of our life and could use your guy's prayer. i think we need just a few days to relax and come back down to earth from our crazy weekend. thanks everyone for your comments and love and support. we appreciate you guys so much!
OH!!! andy would have killed me had i forgot to tell y'all this part: valentines day!! see, we had promised not to exchange gifts because the family was here and life was hectic and we just said we'd do it later, but, like most emotional girls - valentines day is still valentines day and as much as we say we dont want any recognition, we totally do...go figure. so, i was a little emotional all day when andy didnt really say or do anything. i made him a dorky ugly card the day before and he liked that though! but then, when cynthia came in at 6 that night she brought a dozen roses, a singing card (it sang "stand by me") a teddy bear, chocolate and bath stuff. it was so cool because her and andy had discussed it a few days earlier and cynthia helped andy out by picking the stuff up for me in town. so! how cool is that.....roses on our first valentines day, in a village!! hes so great and wonderful!! just in case yall didnt know that!
talk to you guys later

still afraid to walk on ice?

we have new pictures up on our photobucket account. you will understand the title afterward!

http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r28/aklongblogspot/

and incase your wondering, YES it is on the ice, its about 100-150 feet from the shore line.

maybe, maybe...

Well today I sat down and looked for a Fairbanks school website so i could see the calendar to find when their spring break was. I found it at the end of march (last week). I was starting to think it wasnt going to happen just because so much time is going to go by it will be like christmas where at the last minute we really decided to look but it was outrageously expensive. And that what starting to eat at me for unhealthy, non christian reasons, I was not having compassion on Cynthia and Dale for their busy schedual in Fairbanks and i was afraid they would "wait" till it was too late to tell us not really allowing myself to think that "wait" was maybe not the right phrase was they were too busy to remember... a much kinder approach to the situation.

Anyway my next step is to call brice and see if they have narrowed down their start time to a date or a rough time to see if the end of march will work or not. If thats a go, tickets are looking like they will be about 811 dollars a piece round trip, not only that but we have frequent flyer mile tickets that can be reschedualed to cover about half that cost. Then ill call Cynthia and dale and lay it on them.

Im a little stressed right now because the fuel pump quit working, after being told "take the cover off using the T handle allen wrenches on the bench in the warm warehouse. Then PULL OUT (he didnt say it exactly like that i was just emphasizing it) the bottom chip and compair it to another pump we have in the shed to see if we can swap the chips out"... We said our good byes then i got a call back right away saying "dont be poking your fingers around inside there though the power is still on"... well i did that and now the pump is all haywire, the symptoms have totally changed, and the finger is being pointed at me, i was told "thats why i told you to just look at them, i home ya didnt hurt it more" and it was mentioned "did you shut the power off"... I was never told to shut it off, infact i was 1 not told where the breaker was and 2 he told me to be careful becasue the power would still be on... Its hard knowing how expensive the pump parts are, because now im made to feel guilty when im just doing what im told and 1 of the pumps has been down like 2 solid months and should NEVER have been touched by me, it should have been looked at by dale or a technitian, but because it was put on hold for so long and now we are going to have a snow machine race comming through i have to do it all... even take the blame for a pump that quit working before i touched it...

Other than that though, kimberly and i are doing good. working hard in the store, putting shipment away. I have a headache today, not sure why, Ive had it since i got up this morning. although im happy to say we did make it out for another walk today... unfourtunatly it wasnt our full 1hr 20min walk it was just about 1hr and 5 min because we had to be back by 915 so we walked just over 30 minutes away then turned around and came home... it didnt make my headache go away but it really feels good to keep it up!

We love you ALL and miss you SO much! We cannot wait to see ya!

Work it!

alright Kimberly and I are doing pretty good. We are getting some orders in Cynthia just placed (pop, chips, hostess). Then on top of that as I have mentioned before, I am beyond frustrated with my eating and excersice habits. So yesterday i went for a 4 mile walk at about 11 in the morning. Its nice because front street (east to west) is about 1.25 miles then then the road from the rock pit (south to north) is about .75 miles then the road back into town is another 1.25 is miles... then to finish off the 4 mile loop I went out towards the airport then came back south to front street and headed west back to the store... i enjoyed my walk so much i wanted to get into the groove of doing it so today kimbelry and i got up at 7am and went for a walk... it feels SO good.... well once i get beyond the pain... We have now decided we will do it every other day so we can have a day to recover, untill our bodys get comefortable with it (im sore all over, my legs, i have a blister on my heel, and my lower back is really bothering me... im just falling apart). so tomorrow we will skip the walk then sunday we will get up and go for a walk before church. I am also getting to the point where im hungry, and i think part of that is im actually moving enough to where i need more food, unlike before when i hardly moved every day and 1 meal would probably been all the calories my body needed. I love feeling hungry and not eating... or not feeling like i HAVE to eat. I have been telling kimberly when i go through my growing stages (horizontal growing) its because i have NO self control... i get bored and so i eat uncontrollably, so when my tummy says feed me and i dont feel like i have to feed it, it makes me feel SO incontrol. fortunatly i have my beautiful wife to help me when it gets really hard.

beyond that not much is going on. I have been spending abunch of time working on their newest snow machine... it feels so good to FIX things again. especially knowing that their newest machine would just be parked not used at all or even begun to work on until probably next winter, and it has taken about 3 solid months of waiting on parts to get it to where it is... not only that im still waiting on 2 parts to come in (one of which has yet to be ordered).... it just feels SO good to call Dale and tell him I found and fixed another problem it had.

Kimberly are also VERY excited for this summer to work out up here. Every time we get a home depot ad we get excited to come home and get into real estate... We have not figured out if we want to flip a house or if we want to just get a rental property... either way we are just excited to come home and get to work! so HOPEFULLY this summer will work out so we will have the money to do it.

thats pretty much it sorry we didnt have any cool storys life is pretty boring up here!

EDIT: Alright well for as well as this morning started the middle of it has sure sucked. I talked with Cynthia today about a ladys fuel tab... the Tanana Chiefs program is going to be paying for her fuel but the check wont be cut till late febuary, we were told we cannot give any fuel out till its paid for, so anyway i called her up. She told me what to do, then i asked her a couple more things 1st off i asked her if i called sams club and they had some contacts in that were what i needed if she could pick them up and put them on a plane, i have yet to recieve mine from stupid sams club that were "mailed off" on thursday last week. It has me SO frusterated, I have about 300 dollars into contacts now (from the inital appointment to the 1year supply (they are 1 month contacts)) and i have nothing to show for it and have been using glasses the past week. Then the second thing i asked her is to remember to think about a time we could get out of here to visit home. All the sudden out comes the "well the kids have missed so much school" talk... It was not a no by any means, but it was a LONG ways from a yes. she said she would check their school calandar. And That is why my day has sucked they will be out here a couple times before school is out to do a snow machine race and a carnival, but each time it seems they want us to be here too... i was SO excited to see my family and now its not looking as good. I have never felt so STUCK before and its frusterating... Kimberly and i have walked into such an amazing thing, this trip that was going to be a winter stay, and a chance to put a bit of money away has opened up opportunitys to make SERIOUS money over the summer. I while im so excited for this summer to work out, suffering through this summer will open up other opportunities back at home and id hate to throw everything to the curb so i can run back to the city with bills and rent to pay...

we love you all and miss you all SO much!