Here I am again...Part of my early New Years resoltuion is to keep up with my blog. I am pretty sure no one reads it but I am still going to write it. Halloween came and went without much hoopla. Amanda and Jesus celebrate thier anniversery on that day so I spent much of the afternoon making my lovely daughter look like Medusa. I covered her with scales and snakes. She looked awesome. Thanksgiving was more traditional...but tradition has a way of morphing in our family. Yes there was turkey and stuffing..PIE..of course. But we started a new tradition last year. Amanda and I fire dance (and eat fire..no calories) after dinner. My brother takes pictures and then uses them for his photography class. This year I can honestly say having those pictures taken kept me from over eating..Who needs to see a bloated fire dancer...We did a little spinning with fire poi, flung some fire fans, hooped a hot hoo and swallowed a burning wick..Fun!!!!

Alaska

It again has been too long between blogs.  But here I go again, making an attempt to talk about my life to anyone who has the time to read about it.  Just  a day ago I returned from the trip of a lifetime.  My family and I went on a cruise to Alaska.  I have waited ten years for this trip and although it was not the trip I was expecting it was monumental. Let me explain..  After my cancer diagnosis ("you have 6 months to live") I swore that if I lived tens years I would go somewhere fabulous.  Fiji was my first thought but as the tenth year came closer I realized how astronomically expensive a trip to Fiji would be and how much I dislike hot, humid weather. So Alaska seemed to be the perfect option....saving and scrimping for this trip was an all out effort.  Times have been challenging.  But I squirreled away bits of money here and there.  When the time came to pick our excursions for the trip, I was pursuaded not to look at price but  the adventure.  So I opted to go on a back country jeep adventure (complete with indian canoe paddle trip across an artic lake) and a helicopter ride that would land on the Mendenhall Glacier.  I was so excited that I had made the decision to do these once in a lifetime adventures....only to have them cancelled due to poor road conditions and bad weather.  Wow..traveling 2000 miles and shut down!!Bummer.  But we managed to find other fun things to do.  Hey, we managed to find $32.00 in gold while panning and saw the fabulous sled dogs, ate enough fresh crab to make anyone jealous..  Alaska is beautiful...but the most wonderful part of the trip was being with my family..My husband, daughter, son-in-law and my brother.  This is our first trip together, but I hope not our last..  Princess cruises are absolutley amazing..I did nothing but eat and play for seven days.  I cannot wait to plan my next trip..Lord please do not let this take tens years.