Happy 2009

Wow!! It's 2009!! How did that happen? This is the year I turn the big 4-0. I'm really looking forward to it actually. Things aren't exactly as I expected they were going to be when I turned 40 but you know what? This is going to be better than I imagined!!

I had a GREAT Christmas. I went to Arizona to visit my folks and my brother and his family. I love my family so much. Even though we are several thousand miles apart, they are the most important thing to me. I'm sooooo lucky that the are my family. Such amazing, loving, caring, supportive people. They say you can't choose your family but if I had the choice, I'd choose mine for sure. When I was younger I'm not sure I would say that but now, absolutely!!

They all live in Northern Arizona. Not the Arizona that people tend to imagine. It's cold and snowy there. Ok so not cold like AK but for AZ, it's cold. The temps were in the 20s/30s for the most part. They had over three feet of snow!! Crazy!! The thing is that snow will melt in a couple of weeks. The snow we get in AK stays all winter. It snowed almost every day I was there. We went to Laughlin the day after Christmas as is our tradition and the roads were terrible. Solid ice for about 80 miles. We weren't in a hurry and took our time. We did see several roll over accidents and jack-knifed semi's. Definitely turns your stomach when you see that but thankfully, we were fine. We had a good time. The temp was about 65, very nice! I thought it was summer!! None of us are big gamblers. I just save my change all year long and spend that. I did pretty good. The Wheel of Fortune slots were kind to me this year! ;-)

I got so see some friends from high school while there and that was fun to catch up. Their father is from Mexico and the tradition is to make tamales for Christmas. For the past several years I go to their house and make tamales with them on Christmas Eve. It is so much fun. I look forward to that every year.

Got to spend some great time with my three year old niece and four year old nephew. They are sooooooo cute!!!! OMG my niece just owns my heart. I'd do anything for her. My nephew rocks, too. They are good kids. They are loud kids, lol. When you are used to living in a cabin by yourself, being around two kids can be kinda loud. ;-) But I wouldn't have changed any of that for the world!

As it does every year the trip flew by way too fast. Before I knew it we were heading back to the airport so I could fly back. The trip down all my flights were late and I didn't get to AZ until 2 in the morning. UGH Coming back was much better and my flights were pretty much on time. I got to come back to -40 temps. YAY! LOL

Since I've been back it's just been flippin cold!! We've been down to -50. They are saying we could see -60 as well. Yikes!! Ok, I give, it's cold. But I still LOVE it here and can't imagine living anywhere else again! I had forgotten how different your car sounds in the extreme cold. It just sounds different. And it's sluggish until the things get warmed up a bit. Even running it for 25 minutes before you go anywhere doesn't really warm it up. The other joy about the extreme cold is the flat spots you get on your tires from being parked. The first several miles are bone jarring until the tires round out again. It's pretty funny as long as you don't have a full bladder. ;-) One thing I need to get in the habit of is unplugging my car before I leave the parking space...when I got in from the airport, I backed out and headed off to pick up Clara. About half-way there I realized I forgot to unplug my car Ugh I headed back looking for my extension cord along the way. I found it half in and half out of the parking space where my car was parked. Luckily I didn't damage the cord or the plug on my car. That would have been horrible if I had damaged he plug. It means I wouldn't have been able to plug it in and it absolutely would NOT start without that in this cold weather. Whew. I dodged that one. Needless to say I've been remembering to unplug my car since. ;-)

When I was in AZ before we went anywhere I kept thinking, oh, we need to warm up the car first and we don't an auto start. That sucks, Then it would dawn on me that um, well, it was 70 degrees warmer there than in AK and we don't need to warm up the car!! It's funny what you get used to. ;-)

So my big news is that I'm moving into a different cabin. I'm going to meet my new landlord today to sign the lease and put down my deposit. From November 15-December 15 I went through 85 gallons of heating oil. That's over 2.5 gallons a day. Typical usage for a small place like mine should be 1 gallon a day. I spent $200 on heating oil that month!!! Not good, especially when you consider I keep my thermostat at 60!!!!! That is ridiculous to pay that much to keep it at only 60! The cabin is very poorly insulated. I've been looking online for the past few weeks and I found a cabin that I really like. It is going to be a stretch financially to make it work but it's a place I can see myself living in for several years. I was rebuilt last summer and is all brand new inside. Are you ready for for this? It has INDOOR plumbing!!! And a washer/dryer!! OMG are you kidding me?! The walls have 4" of rigid foam insulation. It is very well built. It's kind of quirky inside and I really like that. I was worried that the cabin was going to be in a populated area and wouldn't be as private as where I live now. As much as I want a better cabin to live in I don't want to give up my privacy. The new cabin does not have anyone on either side and is on an acre of land. I really like it there. The pic is of the cabin. You can see from the front windows that it's a bit quirky.

The landlord is soooo sweet too. I was telling her of my current situation and she felt so bad for me. She kept telling me she wasn't a slum lord and would fix anything I wanted fixed. She's so sweet. She's this tiny little lady, all of five feet nothing. I think it's going to be a really good thing. I'm definitely gong to be on a budget to make it work but it's worth it. I will also be doing some driving on the weekends so that will help out.

The other pic I took from last night. Didn't really do anything too exciting for the new year. Hung out with the girls for a bit then they went to a party. Kirk and I went to dinner and then hung out and watched a couple of Kathy Griffith shows on TV. She's freaking hi-larious. Love her!! I left at 11:30 to head back to my cabin and stopped and took the pic along the way. I was in my cabin at midnight and brought the new year with Clara and it was perfect.

I hope everyone has the best year ever. I'm looking forward to '09. Been a tough couple of years but I feel like things are changing for the better. :-)