Mi Familia, Famiglia, Famille...

When Cam and I first met I would tell him stories of my "crazy" family or AKA my mom's side. For those of you who have met me family we aren't crazy we just like to have a good time. We can be loud at times but the room is usually filled with laughter and smiles.

The first time Cam met my family was on Christmas Eve. OK I think back on it now and it probably was a lot of women for him to meet all at once. As he describes it, "I've never been given hugs or kisses by people I had just met for the first time". For me this is a normal thing, you greet everyone in the room when you get there with a hug and kiss and when you leave it is the same thing. Now Cam thinks it is wierd if one of my little cousins doesn't give hugs or kisses when they get there.

During our dating years whenever Cam came to town there was always family parties. My extended family lives very close to my parents house so it was always a quick 10 minute drive. So growing up there was always time spent with cousins, aunts, uncles and my grandparents.

We have so many memories with our family...Cabo Trips, birthday parties (especially the Twin's 1st Birthday Party) if you were there you will understand why it was so memorable, Uncle Nick's 60th Birthday Party, 21st birthday parties and weddings are just a few memories that come to mind.

So as the cousins grew up things started changing. My cousin Nickie moved to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in '96. We were all shocked and missed her during family gatherings (we still miss her). Cam and I sure enjoyed visiting the family down there during spring breaks. Then Cam and I made the big move to AK in '05. My Auntie Grace and Uncle Silver moved to England shortly after we moved. And my cousin Mary moved to Texas over a year ago. Our family is changing. When Cam and I got enganged and we called all my relatives the first question they would ask is, "Where are you going to live?"

Whenever anyone is home to Washington a gathering is arranged and we are all together, always missing someone though. The last time all the cousins were together was over 4 years ago. My cousin Theresa and I keep talking about planning a family reunion. It's going to happen one of these days.

The family keeps growing...we have 9 great grandkids in the family with 1 more due any day now. We are all married now...except for my brother but he is the baby of the family.

Who knew our family would be going in all different directions? Cam and I miss them dearly and think of them often. We know we will be back in WA some day. I know that when we start to have children we want them to at least know their family and hopefully have the relationship that I had with my cousins, aunts and uncles. Thank goodness for email, facebook, myspace...

To my family if you are reading this we love and miss you all...XOXO

PFD Craziness

So for those of you who don't live in Alaska you may not know what PFD stands for. PFD is the Permanent Dividend Fund. This is the money that Alaskans get once a year for living in the state. The money is generated from oil monies. A week ago they announced that the check was going to be the largest in history, over $2,000! Attached to that check as well was going to be a energy relief check at $1,200, courtesy of Gov. Sarah Palin. They usually roll out the checks in a two month period: early birds, direct deposit and then two rounds of paper checks. This past Friday everyone that had a direct deposit received their checks. At the end of the month paper checks will be mailed out. For a family of 4 they will receive over $12,000. A few of our friends that have children have their children's checks directly put into a college fund but for the majority of the population in our region they do not do that. One of my co workers has 10 children, they are going to receive over $35,000. For anyone that is a lot of money.

Some of the things I have seen and heard over the weekend due to all this money floating around town:
1. A women at the bank taking $8,000 in cash and putting it into her wallet.
2. BOT (a local bar) not allowing anymore people in due to capacity (this is unheard of they don't even do this at Iditarod).
3. A local 4wheeler shop selling out of all of their 4 wheelers in stock.
4. A local airline doubling their flights in one day due to all of the reservations.

It is only going to get crazier here in Nome since we are the hub for this region.
As for what we are doing with our money...it's all going into the house. We are getting closer...I primed the inside for 8 hours yesterday. Maybe next weekend we will add color!

Pictures of Fall...

Fall has come quickly...

September 11th

The evening is my time to unwind and reflect on the day, week, month, year. Today is September 11th. I can remember exactly what I was doing 7 years on this day and for the week that followed. I usually can't even remember what happened last week let alone 7 years ago. My dad had called me at home and told me to turn the tv on. It was early in the morning. I remember watching the plane going into the building and the news replaying it over and over again. I sat in front of the TV that day and for the days to follow. I was working at the grocery store at the time. People were going crazy saying the world was going to end and they were stocking up on tons and tons of groceries. I remember a week later I attended my orientation at UW and we paid tribute to the people that had passed on. I had friends join the military, saying it was the thing to do, some of those friends have deployed, once, twice and even a third time. They have come backed changed and some have not come back. As I reflect on what we have done over the past 7 years since that day I would like to say THANK YOU to our country men & women that serve our country daily.

Fall Time

Fall time has arrived in Nome but we have been enjoying the beautiful Indian Summer Days. With fall time comes hunting season. We have been looking for a moose (I never thought I would be looking for a moose). We have been out for lots of drives in the past two week. So far we have gotten lots of yummy ptarmigans (the state bird of Alaska).

Children

Many of our friends have children and we are one of the few married couples of our friends in Nome that do not have children. It is something that we think about but right now we are not ready for our own. Over the past year two of our couple friends have had twins. Jessa and Joe had twins around 24 weeks: Jackson and Jude. Jude unfortunely was not able to make it but his parents had some time to spend with him before his passing. Jackson is now over a year old and a very smiley happy baby boy. Our other friends Jay and Michelle also had twins. Their girls were born at 23 weeks: Mckinna and Danika. They just celebrated their 1st birthday last week.
I have just found out today that a friend, Lacey from high school is pregnant with identical twins. She is at 10 weeks and her doctors are not optimistic. Jay and Michelle were also told by their doctors that their girls wouldn't make it either. I have hope that Lacey's doctors are wrong just as Jay and Michelle's were wrong.

Please keep Lacey and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

I am also asking you to keep the Sotutu family in your thoughts and prayers as well.

My friend Jennifer from high school just had her 1 year old nephew pass away last week. Even though I am not a parent yet I know how precious children are in our lives.