Hi my name is Carmell...

And Im a recovering coffeeholic. Its been 7 days since my last latte. This is the part where you say "Hi Carmell" and applaud me for my self discipline:)
Yes thats right, 7 days!! Some of you may not know just how bad my coffee addiction is/was, I will give an example. About 5 months ago I decided to get some hormonal issues taken care of, this is due to extreme mood changes and about a dozen other things we wont get into right now. Soooo he decided I needed a few different tests done one of them being an adrenal gland test. This test is a one day test requiring you to put cotton in your mouth until soaked 4 times through out the day. There is a glitch...you must not have caffeine for that "one" day. Long story short I still have not done this test! One day is to much for this girl to live without some form of caffeine. This last 7 days I have been drinking this nice healthy green tea thing to uhm help me transition into life without coffee, red bulls and rock stars. It has taken the edge off a little. The first day felt horrible!!! Major headaches, nausea and I was extremely tired and moody. I actually felt as if I should be in some locked padded room in a drug rehabilitation place. I was this / / close to foaming at the mouth I tell you. I have been for the most part worthless but Im staring to feel better and do a little more around the house. My mind actually is getting more clear, less cluttered feeling which is nice for a change. However Ive replaced coffee with food dang it. Im gradually gaining back that weight I worked so hard to get off. But hey one thing at a time...

Nicknames...

Today we were all sitting on the couch talking about nicknames. Mercy was letting daddy know that her favorite nickname was smoochey. She has several nicknames Mercy moo, mooch, moosey and the like. She is called smoochey because she is very kissey. All of a sudden Justina pipes in and says "uhm I want to be called...uhhh....ROSETTA!!" Where the heck did that come from?? Its not like shes learning any foreign language (rosetta-stone). We all just laughed and explained that there should be a rhyme and reason for a nickname.
That then reminded me of a time when I was little, maybe 6 or so. I had know good nickname like everyone else. My dads friend sat next to me on the swing set and asked me what I wanted to be nicknamed. I thought a little and said "Snickers". No reason just sounded good at the time... It of course never stuck, but when asked on school questionnaires and or by teachers if I had nickname, I would tell them Snickers so I wouldnt be left out of the "Nicknamed".
Anyways back to Justina. I dont really have a nickname for her and I usually call her by her name or Ill say honey, sweety or somthn like that. Pauls first nickname for her was Justina dramaqueena and now calls her Justiny. We tried to figure out somthn new but really didnt come up with much that could be talked about on here:) So I guess we'll call her Rosetta.
Paul says I can't talk about him!

My beautiful little girls...

Tonights fishn trip...

The weather here has been amazing!! We went out about 9pm and fished to about 11pm. The girls caught a few Dolly Varden but I managed to not get pics of those special moments. They really love to fish:)

Where we've been part 2...

Then a came a week in Anchorage! Where we enjoyed spending 5 nights in a small hotel room with 2 girls who constantly fight. Paul was doing training up there and we decided to hop on for the free hotel stay. I manged to do something everyday that we were there. We played tourist! We spent a lot of time this trip exploring downtown activities and one day we went swimming in a popular lake.

This place above was an extremely cheesy little tourist trap that I spent 2 much money on! I didnt post the pics where she made me dress up and take pics with my girls. I should to give you all a good laugh:) Look for it later... The lady who owns this little place (for 4 years) said her business really took off the first couple years gaining huge #'s like 50% increases. This year it is down 65%!!!!! Wow, I wonder if that is for economy reasons or if word got out that this tourist trap is hokey. Honestly the lady practicaly begged me to stay and go through all their things. I did feel really bad and paid $38 stinkin bucks to do it. The only thing that makes me feel slightly ok about it is that I supported a local (in state) business. But... I will NEVER EVER even think about doing something like that again even if they beg.

This set of pics above is 5 different hot dog stands I took standing in one spot. The one in the bottom right corner has 2 side by side competing for peoples business. Downtown smells like one big hot dog!

These are a few pics of downtown. It is well kept with flowers hanging all over and huge stuffed bears and moose in front of most establishments. This year I was shocked to see that there were very few people downtown, last year it seemed crazy. The bad economy right now is really starting to show. Those businesses have to be hurting.

This was one of our favorite things. The FREE ulu factory trolley. It takes you downtown and picks you up later. I would like to take Pauls mom to the Ulu factory to get a genuine (not made in China) Ulu Knife and bowl set.

Where we've been Part 1...

First we went camping for the July fourth weekend. We took with us a couple extras, our neighbor friends. We had a pretty good time walking the beach, painting A LOT of rocks and shells, visiting Homer for Ice cream and more paint, and dolly varden fishn. After only 2 nights I was exhausted and needed to go home to pack for a week in anchorage.

Our pet squirrel...

Our yard is full of all sorts of critters this year:) We have had a lot of moose, a ton of rabbits and quite a few squirrels. This one however is a regular, he comes to visit often to eat my cilantro and bird seed. We see him probably once a day. He does not care if we stand at the door and watch him as long as we dont open the door. They are quite pesky! Last year one squirrel tried to climb up Mercys leg, Im afraid we have to many and am nervous at the thought of them attacking the kids. A BB gun might come in handy sooner rather than later! As for the bunnies, we see them mornings and evenings and i would love to catch one and snuggle it:) They are kinda friendly and will let you get pretty close, I even had one come up close to me. They have cute little white tails.

Poor Kitty...

This is Moxy. She is a very fat cat that does nothing other than eat, poop and sleep. This is why Im allowing my kids to to torture her.

Happy Fathers Day!!

Today the girls arose early to make Daddy a special breakfast, Breakfast in a Cup. This consisted of grits, ground sausage, scrambled eggs and cheese, mmmmmm. I never let them do anything in the kitchen so they were very excited. They did a great job and Paul loved it. Of course we had to add donuts for a breakfast desert. Happy Fathers Day Honey!

Not related to the picture above I have been meaning to share something Mercy said... We were talking about Papa (Pauls dad) in the car a few days back. We were talking about how nice it was to have him read stories to Mercy. I had said that Paul is a lot like his dad and Mercy in the back said "yeah but Papa doesnt pick his nose!". Paul did give me permission to share this:) That being said... Happy Fathers Day Walt!

One of my favorites...

I have been looking at different blogs that have easy cooking and baking ideas. Im not sure if this is what Nancy referred to once as a peeping blog stalker or not but I did decide to follow one that I really liked. I dont feel like adding it over to the side so Im just going to post the link. If you like good recipes that look really nice and are somewhat easy you will enjoy this as much as I do.

http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/

Two Babies...

The two baby moose up above were actually taken today in my back yard. They live behind our house in the trees. They have made several appearances all over our yard and street. I love to watch them but I hate that they eat everything we plant.

Baby Moose Today...

First camping trip of the year...

This was taken from our firepit area, I just thought it looked kinda pretty...

It was nice to have a lakefront spot with a little nook for the kids to play in the water and catch tiny fish...

Please notice to the left that Paul is fishing with Mercys barbie pole...

I took this I believe at or around midnight...

Pauls first KING...

We have been here for a little over two years now and have not caught a king up until this point. Of course we have only went out a couple times to fish for them. We usually fish for sockeyes.
Our neighbor took Paul out this morning and he caught his first King:) Ahhhhh what a proud moment. This is a good 8 dinners for us!

Just a few pics...

Fluffy Butt...

This is a young bear that seemed to be motherless. We saw him on our way to Anchorage a couple weeks ago. I just now downloaded the pics.

The closer we got the more scared this poor little guy was... So he climbed a tree.

I pulled up underneath him and opened up the sunroof to get this shot. He was sooo cute, I named him Fluffy Butt. We watched for awhile and then finally let him be. Again this was about 2 weeks ago. We saw another bear that we think was Fluffy Butt tonight (May 28th) on our way home from Anchorage but I didnt get any pics.

Just a blurb...

Well its I been awhile since I last posted so I thought I better come up with somethn. Nothing to exciting has happened but Im happy to say that May has felt like the summer we missed last year. Lots of sunshine!!! I just hope the rest will be the same.

Justina is the only 10 year old that has NOT finished school, poor thing. This was my fault:( We still have a couple weeks left. Im being pretty flexible though. The kids have been staying up late due to the midnight sun and then sleeping in really late. Mercy got up at 11:15 today and Justina not much earlier. So school has been starting at noon lately.

We have enjoyed many walks and bike rides as we live next to a great bike trail. I was hoping to do some cool hikes this year but it will really depend on how big of a gun I can shoot and how many people are with me. Ive made the mistake of reading a book called bear tales. If you plan on coming up here do NOT read this book. You may change your mind after reading about people being eaten by black bears and having brown bears shake people around by their head with their scalps torn off. Ughhh. Ok those stories are really old, but just last year we had quite a few bear attacks (most due to people being complete morons) and one girl who was walking only a few hundred yards from the princess lodge in Cooperlanding. Her scalp was torn off but she did live. Im not gonna let this deter me from enjoying some amazing scenery, well maybe a little. Im not even sure why the heck on going on about this.

Were getting ready to go do some serious hardcare camping in the motorhome. I hope I dont forget the DVD player:) We will be fishing for king salmon in Homer and on the Anchor River. Eventually we want to do a long roadtrip up towards Denali and camp and fish along the way.

Well thats all Ive got for now...

Our little secret...

Ok Im not sure how to get this little video to play by just clicking on the pic but I will give you a link that will allow you to view this fun little video of Paul on the wii fit hula hooping. If you turn up the volume you will here him say "if you put this on the web I will kill you", sooo if anything happens to me just refer authorities to this little presentation. We really need to keep this hush hush as he does have a video of me on his phone that he threatened to send to everybody he knows if I showed this. Yeah, Paul may look funny doing this but he does not have a butt that seems to be going a different direction than the rest of his body like I do. So please, this will be our little secret! I just couldn't keep this to myself:)

P.S. Sorry about my high pitched laugh...

http://picasaweb.google.com/carmellbarlow/532009#5331760958580406274

The weather has been sooo beautiful lately. Yesterday it actually hit 72! We went rock hunting at the beach and we hope to maybe polish some of them this year. Today I went on a bike ride with a friend, we went 9 miles. She was wearing really smelly good sunblock and with that I could smell somebody barbecuing on a charcoal grill, mmmmm, it smelled like SUMMER!

Just a pic...

I took this picture early this morning.