We are renting a place about 1.5 miles from my work. This means that we can, for yet another year probably, get by with just one vehicle! Andy takes me to work and picks me up at the end of each day. Some people think we are nuts and others wonder just how we do it. We have pretty much had only one vehicle (with the exception of the plow truck which didn't count and the ghetto auction car that we owned for less than a week) since moving to Alaska and have encountered a scheduling conflict maaaayyybe ten times? We really have had no trouble at all.

Fast forward to about 4 weeks into my new job as a physician assistant. Two of the girls I work with came to my office and essentially cornered me. They said, "We have a really serious question for you...Do you even have a driver's license?" Hahahahahahhahahahahaha. I died laughing. It was so funny. The question was so legit, I had just never thought about it! I exclaimed, "Yes!" They continued to explain to me the logic for the question, which I totally understood. They thought for sure I had a DUI or had lost my license some other way. Too funny.

Speaking of driver's licenses. I had to renew my license before my 26th birthday, so Andy and I went to the DMV on one of my days off. There was no line! Unheard of!! It was a great experience (doesn't that sound like such and oxymoron to say "great experience" in the same paragraph as "DMV"??)

Anyway, whenever I think about driver's license pictures I think of my friend, Steph Randall from Nebraska, who makes sure she is lookin' smokin' hot when she gets her picture taken for her license. Me? Eh, I don't really care much. However, I am way annoyed this year! One of the gold lines that appears to be something that would differentiate a real license from a counterfeit one runs straight across my eyes! It looks like my eyes are closed! I may not have been all gussied up, but I definitely had my eyes open! Grr...that dumb gold line ruined my license photo.

So shallow, I know. But funny all the way around.

I have about half a million things on my mind, many of which I should blog about, but I don't even know where to begin. One of these things includes wondering how a lot of stupid people (sorrynotsorry) make it to the top of the food chain? It really bothers me! I am not going to go into details at the moment, instead I will do my best to just laugh!

On a random note, I experienced deja vu twice this week. Now that I am writing about it, I can't remember one of the moments, but the other was on Friday morning. My office manager brought pastries from a local bakery for breakfast. They were in our break room, sitting on the corner of the table closest to the door, in a white bakery box, with a stack of napkins to the right and a blue pen nearby. I went in to find myself something yummy, and, after washing my hands, I turned to walk toward the box. Instantly I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I had done this before! The pen next to the napkins next to the box was what triggered it. A pen! Deja vu is so weird. The most crazy aspect of these experiences for me (which occur few and far between), is the fact that my cousin Rachel is always always a part of it, like whatever I am deja vuing about was previously done with her. She is a couple years younger than me, lives in Utah, and we're close cousins, but it isn't like we are the best of friends or anything (I hope you don't take any offense to that, Rach...and, I hope you are not wigged out haha!) What do you think deja vu is all about? I have my thoughts, but should do more research.

On another random note, Andy and I were called as ward youth volleyball coaches several weeks back. At first I was a little hesitant (not out loud, only in my mind) because we didn't really know any youth or their parents in this ward. Of course we told Bishop that we would do it and I would dare say that it is the best calling yet! On top of this, I am 13-14 year old Sunday School teacher and Andy is an Elder's Quorum instructor. Basically we are responsible for preparing a lesson and teaching it each Sunday to youth (me) and adult men (Andy). Now that I have been teaching and coaching, I feel like I know most of the ward! It is amazing that with just a little involvement, you can feel like you fit right in. I seriously love my team and today sealed the deal! We have, on average, 10 kids at practice and then 7 or 8 at the games. I imagine this is what being a parent is like (or being a coach, a teacher...) We have taken a group of kids whose names we didn't even know, who, with the exception of one or two who have played on a volleyball team, have never played volleyball except maybe in PE class! In just a few short weeks (we practice each Wednesday for an hour), they have improved leaps and bounds! They are awesome. You know how I know? Not only are they smiling during and after every game...we are undefeated. I guess that is a reason to smile, right? They play so well together and I love to see them excited. One girl said today, "It feels so good when I spike the ball! I can't really explain it!" I know exactly what she is talking about, because I've felt that same feeling. Sometimes (okay, lots of times) the ball drops on the ground and occasionally we miss a serve, but they are giving a great effort and it shows. We have a reputation now! Unfortunately, Andy couldn't be at our games today (we played three teams). The kids asked where Brother Nye was, a little bit bummed he was not there (me too, I was nervous they would lose with just me coaching). I love the energy that we bring to the team when we are together.

Speaking of teaching, I have to finish up my lesson in the morning so I better head to bed. More updates in the forecast. :)

You know you picked the wrong hair color when you walk into church, sit down, and realize that
not only is the lady sitting down the bench from you wearing it, but so is the mom two rows up! I'm not even kidding, we had to all have picked the same box at the store. Hopefully this one fades soon and I can do something to become unique again.

We try to have the missionaries over at least once a month for dinner. We recently had Elders Dold and Jones, both from Sparks, NV. They were followed by these two clowns: Elder Satini and Elder Shurtz (and now Elders Springer and Patrias). This is Elder Satini's last area and he goes home to Tonga on Wednesday! He has been training Elder Shurtz who is fresh out of the MTC. They are both excellent! We have loved having them in our home. They came over for one last dinner on Friday night. We hope Elder Shurtz gets to stay in the area, but I am guessing he will be transferred. We are excited to keep in touch with Elder Satini and hope to go visit him in Tonga someday!

Time is absolutely flying! I cannot believe the Iditarod has already come and gone! I am usually a fanatic, but this year I have been sick with some sort of cold/laryngitis that I can't kick and mostly have not cared about the Fur Rondy or Iditarod. In past years, we went to the ceremonial start of the Iditarod in downtown Anchorage, but never to the official restart in Willow. Now that we live outside of Anchorage and closer to Willow we figured we'd go see what the real deal entailed!

Unfortunately, the actual Iditarod start occurs on a Sunday. It isn't really a "Sunday activity", per se, but it happens only once a year and we are thinking that in the future we will offer Iditarod tours, so we decided we would go out for research purposes. We got out of Church and headed out to Willow (about a 30 minute drive). We had heard that parking could be difficult and that maybe we should take a shuttle so as not to worry about parking. Well, we were late enough (it started at 2 and we arrived at probably 3:15) that we snagged a front row parking spot in the main lot, right on the lake where it is held! Holla!

This picture is classic Alaskan to me. This was the entrance of the main parking lot right off the highway. There were snowmachines intermixed with people waiting to cross the road.

The other night the TV was on and Kevin James was on David Letterman promoting his new movie.

During the interview he said:

My wife is not a food person. I came home the other day, it was like 3 in the afternoon, and I was starving. I said, "Hey, do we have anything to eat?" 

I'm in the refrigerator when she literally says, "Oh, wow, thanks, I...thanks for reminding me, I forgot to eat lunch today." 

And I was like, I was like, "What? What did you just say?" 

She said, "I got busy, I forgot to eat..." 

I have...I have NEVER in my entire life (!) forgotten to eat lunch. I may have forgotten which meal WAS lunch, but ...... (everyone laughed) I never miss a meal, it's insane to me!

• Gum stuck to the door trim. Ah crap, I got in bed to take a nap with gum in my mouth, what ever shall I do? No, I won't get out of bed to put it in the trash...oh, I know! I'll stick it right here! I won't tell you who is guilty, just know it wasn't me!

 

•   I actually do love the quote below:

• I love getting my hair done. I've become much more "plain jane" since living in Alaska, but in the last year or so, I've started to cut and color it more regularly. My next task is to find a new hairdresser/salon out here in the boonies. Wish me luck!

• Cats who feel the need to roll alllllll over my blanket and pillow. This, my friends, is such a funny story. I will blog about it soon!

• When the redpurplepink monster throws up on the couch.

•  I love working in the operating room. I opted not to pursue a job in surgery, but it will always have a place in my heart (and maybe my future). 

• Really interesting (and chewy) Thai dessert.

We planned a trip to Maui (it is our "go-to" spot, it seems) to celebrate my graduation as well as the end of the tour season. We decided it would be wise to take a vacation before I started working a grown-up job and had to use PTO. I agreed to start work on October 1st, so my ocean-loving-fish-out-of-water husband booked our tickets for September 15th through September 30th.

We had been brainstorming people who might be able to join us in Hawaii...the more the merrier, right? We have lucked out on cheap(er than anywhere around, yet still nice) apartments and have been fortunate enough to have very flexible jobs which have allowed us the time and money to travel. Most of our friends lead what I like to call real lives. You know, solid jobs, a house, kids, etc. I'm certainly not saying the grass is greener on one side or the other, I'm just comparing. That being said, it has proved difficult to find friends who can travel with us on short notice.

Enter our good friends, Chris and Tiffany Hebb. They experienced a horrible tragedy this year (you may read about it on their blog) and we both had the feeling we should invite them. We met them while driving/touring up here and visited them when they lived on the Big Island. They have since moved back to the mainland and live in Oregon. We feel so blessed that we were able to meet their little Ollie just two weeks before he left this Earth to return to live with our Heavenly Father. Things came together just perfectly and they flew to Maui with their baby, Poppy, the day after us and were able to stay for a week and a half.

Most of my recent posts have not included pictures, so I'm making up for it now. They are in no particular order, but they are there!