snow in alaska....imagine that!!

i did make it to the monday walk today though i felt like i was speaking in gibberish for a bit. took awhile to wake up, the truth is i'm still not awake and have no idea why i'm not sleeping instead of blogging. my brain likes to ruminate at times and i feel it's best to clear it out...my quote of the week, by me of course, is, "ruminating only makes cows happy". it's best in life to not overthink things or cross bridges before you actually get to them. most of the stuff people worry about never happens and the stuff that does happen you generally are powerless to prevent.
karen joined us on our walk so it was karen, tanya, maddie and i with the pups. karen was quite elated to be able to make snow angels, something that wasn't possible last winter this time. having returning health is a wonderful thing! it's a reminder for us all of what a blessing our health is.

just watched my net flix movie, "seven pounds". have no idea what i had thought that movie would be about. i think i was thinking it was some thriller/action movie and the seven pounds were drugs or something. just seemed like i heard people liked it so i put it on the list. wasn't at all what i imagined. i did like it. sad that he felt such guilt that he did what he did in the end. hard to blame a person for wanting to give back of themselves in some attempt to retrieve what was lost. was cool how it all worked together. a bit confusing in the early stages, but it all came full circle. do not text and drive. i can barely watch tv and text so i believe i will avoid that. was thinking in the movie that he was giving "stuff" but needed to give of himself. if he'd done that perhaps he wouldn't have felt so depressed. of course, he gets it in the end. i suppose we all do. get it...whatever it is. really, i suspect more people than not never do get it ever though. life can be filled with such joy if you only allow yourself to be a part of it.

blossom continues to get herself caught in compromising positions. drives me nuts. we were laughing as everytime i got the camera out and threatened to take a photo for the doggie wall of shame she leapt off rio before i could get the shot. caught this one though. poor rio. she is quite tolerant. i remember when i got this big, kinda scarey looking dog, i worried she'd snap and attack my puppy blossom. guess it's apparent who is the alpha here. blossom is so not alpha though...she is taken down by every other dog. i do like having non-alpha, non-aggressive dogs though.

maddie was out of school today for the holiday so she joined us. maddie managed the walk, but she likes to sing and tell stories as she walks so karen and i were trying to remember the lyrics to camp songs of the past. some things don't change much.

other than the walk, i can't say i accomplished one thing. my body still aches from my work load this week. we have these bariatric beds and the patients just seem to get larger. didn't realize how difficult it is to do proper body mechanics with those beds. my back muscles started tweaking on me saturday and i ended up with tons of huge knots all over and a headache complete with puking. had to call out sick. was bummed as i really don't like to call out sick. would like to build up those hours, but with no sleep and a bad migraine there wasn't anything else to do. the headache seems much improved, but there are still many knots. did make it to my last shift sunday night. i was sore all night, but it was bearable.

emma and luke stopped by the monday walk as they often do. as you can see it was a beautiful day. the days are lengthening so days that start out super cold actually warm up. now when i say warm up i'm talking it was 3 below zero when i left work and may have been 10-13 above zero on the walk. that can feel quite balmy....it's all relative.

tanya got in an extra walk as apparently she dropped her keys on the trail. luckily someone found them and stashed them and left a note. she didn't realize they were her keys til we got back to the car. maddie was finished so i took her on ahead to the coffee shop for her hot cocoa with all the fixings. andrea's little one was a bit snuffly i guess so they skipped the walk. she had mentioned baking us up something this week so i suggested this was more the reason for her absence.

moose have been spotted everywhere. my patients room has a fabulous view and the work wasn't too hard so i was moose spotting in the hospital parking lot off and on all night as i did my stuff. this guy was spotted out my bedroom window tonight. i was way to lazy to get the tripod and all that so the camera is hand held and the images blurry. thought it gave them a kinda artsy quality. haha.

it's that time of year, the moose move in to anchorage. always fun getting the additional moose sightings.

rather than swimming since i was lazy i answered my phone. i was happy to see it was friends and not telemarketers. haven't chatted with my friend quinton in wyoming for quite some time and had just been thinking of dropping him a call so it was great to catch up with him. my friend from ketchikan, anita, also gave me a jingle. i didn't need much of an excuse to skip my work out, especially with all the knots. i suspect swimming and the jacuzi would have helped break up the knots....it could have also made it worse.

these moose were all sighted from the icu there over a few nights of work.

the one night it snowed all night. so beautiful and relaxing to watch the flakes falling down. still could do some snow shoveling. the neighbor kid no longer seems to add that to his duties...bummer.whenever there was some report of a big disaster when i was growing up my mother would ponder whether these were the signs of the last days or whatever. so it was funny when my brother mentioned a quake, a volcano, unrest in middle east and protesters in wisconsin and pondered whether these were signs of the last days. for me, these things haven't really changed that much in several thousand years so i've always thought these references to the last days were silly.

did have to get out into that fresh snow. i skipped the bog, fearing some sort of crazy man repeat. i'm sure i'll get back to my bog soon enough. don't ever like to let other people dictate how i go about my life. i think next time i see him i will let him get out of my way though. he is the one afraid of dogs, right?

the dogs get so happy and silly when there is fresh snow out there. rio does loops and zoomies and blossom is, well, blossom is always happy so hard to tell she's happier. hmmm..

water in any form makes her happy i guess.

rio with tiny snow balls on her face.

another of lifes little miseries are canker sores. can't stand those things...so annoying. i think i have one at the base of my tongue. ouch!

if dogs get these little annoyances it's hard to tell. we can learn alot from the canines.

eat, drink, chase frisbees, and be merry for tomorrow, well, tomorrow you can eat, drink, chase frisbees and be merry all over.

also managed a few loops at the dog park the other day. always a good time. seem to run into old friends out there.

pogi shows no interest in checking out the snow. the dogs tracked in snowprints...it's inevitable. i've never been able to keep up with the dogs comings and goings. i just follow them around with a towel.

one last parking lot moose shot. it's just always cool to look out your window and see one of these large beasts roaming around. i never, ever tire of it. really am going to bed. tennis balls are my friend.