Day/Post 3...

Picture of friends...

I cant find any right now so Im just gonna name a few and say one thing I like about them:)

1.  Paul-  He puts up with me, and thats a lot to ask of someone.

2.  Jasmine-  Once in a lifetime kind of friend.  She loves the Lord and His word and has always encouraged me.

3.  Janelle-  Always has sweet and encouraging words to say. 

4.  Jenny-  She loves to share Gods word and is very encouraging.  She will aslo tell you how it is:)

5.  Sandra-  She would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it:)

Day/Post 2...

The meaning behind my blog name...

Hmmmmm, this is deep, very deep. 

Barlow family Blog

1.  Barlow is our last name

2.  There are 4 of us that makes up a family.  At any given moment I can post something about one or all of us.

3.  Its a blog

Day/Post 1

This 30 post/day thing is taking to long because this first one requires a pic of myself and I hate pics of myself.  But here you go, take that...

Sorry about that, but its the best I could do.

Ok now 15 interesting things about me... (I may have a hard time keepn things short as i like to explain myself or stick my foot in my mouth)

1.  Im a hypochondriac, but one of these days something will actually be wrong!

2. I have an overactive imagination.  Example:  Once in my head Paul crashed on the way to Anchorage and was helicoptered to Anchorage hospital where he was in a coma and the doctors weren't sure if he was gonna make it.  I received the phone call and immediately drove the girls and I up the 2 and half hour drive  to Anchorage, where I then noticed the crash site.  Anyways after arriving at the hospital Pauls boss and another co worker showed up to visit...with flowers.  His boss was tearing up as Paul is such a wonderful employee.  Then in one scenario he died and the other he lived.  All this time that Im thinking about this Paul was safely on his way to a meeting in Anchorage and I was lying in bed sobbing:)  Seriously, everybody I know has died in my mind as I lay in bed sobbing!!  Weird I know!

3.  I tend to be a negative person.  I actually enjoy talking to Paul about everything I hate or dislike and sometimes I will go on for days.  On the 18th a girl at a potluck took 3 of my pigs in a blanket and set them atop a huge plateful of food, all the while there was still another 100 people to go through the line.  I bet a hundred bucks she only ate one of them and threw the others away.  Grrrrrrr. 

4.  Based on # 3 I feel i must say that I do have sweet nice moments when I think kind and loving thoughts:)

5.  I love movies that make me cry!!!! 

6.  I dislike ones that make me laugh.

7.  I sometimes can sob quite heavily while watching animated movies.

8.  I love cookbooks but never really use them.  Isn't that what the Internet is for??

9.  I have dyed my hair for 17 years!!  Quite impressive I think.  I have not actually at any point in those years had my natural hair color.  I do blond in the summer and brown in the winter:)

10.  I wouldn't care if Obama jumped out of an airplane without a parachute.  Whoa where did that come from? 

11.  I love coffee toooooooo much and have tried many times to quit drinking it.

12.  If I could go back and have a redo after high school I would go to medical school to be some sort of  a doctor.  While on the subject I still cannont understand why men go into gynecology, its not right. 

13.  I once thought at the age of  23 that Canada and Mexico were states.  I blame the school system, totally.

14.  My favorite foods... Lobster, crab, scallops, fillet mignon, shrimp scampi, fresh bread and anything with sugar especially bread pudding.

15.  I married a Gypsy named Paul:)  The guy always wants to move!!!!

30 Day Challenge...

I got this idea form my sister-n-law and thought it would give me somthn fun to post.  Im going to take just a brief moment to remind her that shes been on Day 3 way to long and Im waiting for more:) 
Now I cannot guarentee that these "30 days" will be one after another, hmmmm so maybe it should be "30 Post Challenge", however I will do my best because I know everybody will just be hangn there biting their nails waiting for my next post:)  lol. 

So here is what u can expect in the coming weeks...

Day 1 - A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Day 2 - The meaning behind your Blog name

Day 3 - A picture of you and your friends
Day 4 - A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 5- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 6 - Favorite super hero and why
Day 7 - A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 8 - Short term goals for this month and why
Day 9 - Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11 - Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogs and why you made one
Day 13 - A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15 - Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16 - Another picture of yourself
Day 17 - Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20 - Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21 - A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22 - What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23 - Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- Favorite quote
Day 25 - What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27 - Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29 - In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Who are you?

Mercy, AKA "Toothless"

Just a few pics...

Unbelievable...

Can anybody guess what I paid for this bathroom faucet???
I bought it at Home Depot and the original price was $99.
If someone guesses right Ill be shocked into sending u somthn in the mail:)
Jasmine u are not allowed to guess:)

A night away...

Im sooooo excited to have a night away with my hubby that Im posting this like 2 weeks before we even go!!!  Paul and I have been here in Alaska for 3 and a half years and Im racking my brain to figure out when was the last time we had a night and day without the kids.  I think weve had one but I dont remeber so maybe not(?).  We have gone out several times to dinner and when I say several I mean probably 10 times in 3 years!  I love my children but a little romance and time away would be wonderful once in awhile:)  As much as I would LOVE to go to whistler financial circumstances has led us to Girdwood which is 2 hours away.  We will be enjoying all day and night Friday Oct 1st an Octoberfest festival being held there at Alyeska Hotel and Spa/ski resort.  Good food and live music:)  The place is beautiful!!!  Saturday we plan on enjoying a buffet breakfast and a little shopping in Anchorage after we sleep in of course and then back to Girdwood to dine at a place that the Food Network labels one of the top 10 places to eat in America, the Double Muskey.  We have always wanted to go but they do not accept reservations and weve pulled up the parking lot has alway been full.  So this time we are going to be there at 4:30 when the doors open!  o technically Paul and I have 2 days and a night as we will not be home till late Sat evening. 

A day at the river...

Justinas first day of school...

Justina started school Aug 23rd. She loves the social aspect of it so far!! A little more work than were used to but she will pick it up.

A day at the fair...

Have u ever seen a rabbit like that???

This is Paul on a GOOD day!!!

July 2010 pictures

A little more freedom...

    Well the time has come to send Justina to school.  She has never been to school, I have alway homeschooled.  This is a bitter sweet time for me, the bitter being that I have screwed up and should of sent her earlier and the sweet that I will have a little more freedom with a little less stress, which may be beneficial for my blood pressure:)  Now Im not saying she will never be homeschooled again, as somewhere down the road circumstances may force me to.  But Im not going to think about that now and just enjoy only homeschooling one child.  I would send Mercy as well and enjoy total days of freedom but I would need to come up with another 350 a month (long sigh).  Our Alaska PFD money is flippn the bill for Justina:)  She will be attending a private christian school near our house where there is only 10 students for 4-8 grade combined!!!  Thats hopefuly a lot of one on one attention which Justina could benefit from. 
    My biggest fears in sending Justina to school... 1)  That she will tell the teacher that I always yelled at her and 2)  That it will be to hard for her as she is not used to a lot of what they will be doing.
    My hope is that being around other children will push her to do well and start caring for her schoolwork.  You see that is our biggest problem, she hates school and doesnt even try to do well.  This year we are hoping for a change:) 
    Mercy is doing most of her school online and she is very excited.  The only thing I need to do is math and she does that very well.  Should be easy, shes only in 1st grade:)

Alaska Summer...

This is Mercy and Justina getting ready to run through our sprinkler!! Notice anything strange??

A little late...

I took this pic at midnight somewhere around the longest day of the year.

Photos and videos of our trip...

Click to view all photos of San Diego...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=851840481212%3A1406945817&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee


Mercy had to pee... (because I cant figure out how to actually play the video on here you have to click on everything to be re directed)

From

From 6-7-2010

From 6-7-2010

Wow its been awhile...

I cant believe I have posted nothing since May 12th!!! Well its not like I have a whole lot of great things to write about u know. The biggest thing of course was our almost 2 week trip that took us to San Diego. Im just gonna come out and say it, "I dont like San Diego!", ok there I said it and I said it as nice as I could. Im not a California girl, but I tried I really did. Actually let me re phrase that, Im not a desert girl. Is that how you spell desert as in dry and brown? I always get that word mixed up with dessert, u know the kind of thing we all like to over indulge in. Nancy, I really wanted to like it because you love it and I thought hmmm maybe we could be like kindred spirits who like the same things and so on and so on... But unlike you Im Uncreative (if thats a word), Unmotivated, and I hate San Diego. So basically after hanging out with me for more than a few days you would probably hate me! Hopefully not:)  Well Im not totally un motivated just when it comes to birthday parties, decorating for holidays, making anything that requires time and stuff like that:) Im just kidding about all the kindred spirit stuff, I forget that not everybody understands my humor and may just think Im weird. Im starting to ramble so I better get on with our trip...

So the plane comes in to San Diego and my immediate thoughts were " wow this place is brown and ugly", and then, "Oh my gosh a terrorist has high jacked the plane and we are going straight towards the downtown buildings". The plane I swear was inches away from those tall skyscraper things! So now I have officially landed and am off to figure out how Im going to get to my rental car, the signs were horrible once I got outside and I had no clue what I was doing. I finally saw a Dollar rent a car shuttle bus that I could take. For the record I hate 99% of all shuttle drivers!! I also hate how those shuttle buses dont have seat belts. The guy was CRAZY, the worst one I have ever EVER EVER had to deal with. It was only the girls and I on the bus and he pulls up to a Thrifty bus and starts asking the guy if hes got any good tips and tells him he hopes the tips start picking up. Talk about awkward and annoying! I hate tipping nice people let alone complete jerks. I cant even express to you enough how horrible this guy was driving. I was in tears, I told him he was scaring me, I thought this is it we are going to die. He told me he could do nothing different, this is the same guy who was hoping tips would start picking up. I have never had to say anything to a shuttle driver, I always grin and bear it. So this was bad. I complained to the guygirl who was checking me in. I say guygirl because I am not certain what it was. Of course nothing came of it as I found out later when I returned the car and the really nice shuttle manager who was driving me heard nothing of it. He was the 1% of shuttle drivers I like:) He actually took all my info and assured me that the guy who drove me previously would not get away with what he did as he has had past reported problems. Anyways Im jumping ahead, after I had got into my car and the girls were settled in the back I began to cry for 30 min. I did not even want to drive as i was not sure if all San Diego drivers were this way. I actually wanted to go ahead and fly back home at that point, but Paul calmed me down enough to attempt to find my hotel. After getting on the road and going to my hotel I was relieved to find that nobody else drove that way.

The nice part about San Diego was seeing my old pastor and his wife who use to be like parents to me. They were waiting to see me at the hotel. We visited quite a bit including the next day where the girls spent the day swimming in their pool. I put sunscreen on Mercy right before she entered the pool and didn't realize until that night that it was NOT waterproof. As for Justina she came later to the pool and I completely spaced off sunscreen, after all I was sitting in the shade. Man did I feel really bad for both of them later!! We haven't had sunburns since we moved to Alaska. Justina had a couple of blisters on her arm it was so bad and Mercys back looked extremely painful as did her face and Justinas shoulders. Bad mom moment!!! I spent 2 hours putting ice cold towels on them trying to pull some of the heat out. Lets just say the next day was horrible. But we moved on and they peeled and blistered it out for the rest of the trip.

Lets see the next thing we did was Disneyland. Let me just say now that I will try not to say another negative thing AFTER Im done talking about DL. I Loathe DL, is that worse than hate?? If so then I have correctly described my feeling towards this place. It may have been different if I had went at a less busy time. I went before school was out for that county in the middle of the week but the fantasmic show was showing that night and the park was open later so I guess everybody in the state of California along with the rest of the world decided to go that day as well. Im not a crowd person, so why did I go to California you ask, I dont know, I plead insanity. On a positive note the girls did AWESOME, never once did they complain about lines. I was very impressed! We waited about an hour and 15min to go on splash mountain, but it was well worth the picture of Mercy. I need to scan that picture for you guys, it was like pure terror on her face. I did feel bad when she was screaming and crying her heart out after the first little plunge in the dark and we started to climb to the top of the drop. Her little heartbeat actually made me nervous, I thought she was gonna pass out. After that I told her we needed to go on Space Mountain, after all we had our fast pass tickets for it and I remembered it being a fun ride. In almost complete honesty I knew it was a little scary but i thought it was not as bad as a 50 foot drop going 37mph. The almost part meant I just really didnt remember. But I told her she would be fine. Lets just say that was the last roller coaster we went on that day!!! Wow even I was scared and I thought at the end of the ride that Mercy was dead. She screamed and cried the whole ride of course but at the end she was slouched over completely still and quite, so much so that I actually panicked and started to shake her. She was alive but barely, I did not carry her out as I did not want to chance walking around in clothes that had been vomited on. Thankfully she never did throw up but i did permanently damage the poor thing. Justina on the other hand who I thought would never go on any of those rides wanted to go on it again. She proved to be quite the daredevil. She rode everything and looked as happy as could be. I was very proud of her. We specifically went that day to see fantasmic but we left an hour before it was scheduled to begin due to complete exhaustion, we had bee there 12 hours already and I had an hour and a half drive ahead of me.

Wow this is getting to be a long post, maybe the longest ever.  Ok so after this we went to Sea World.  We really enjoyed Sea World, so much so that we went 4 or 5 times.  Our favorites were Shamu and the Sea Lions.  Its amazing what these animals are trained to do.  I liked that there were no lines for anything and it was way more laid back.  The highlight was our last day, Justina was picked to participate at the end of the Shamu Believe show.  I will attach a video at the end of this post of it.  We went to almost all the shamu shows during our visits to SW and we kept sitting where they seemed to be picking the lucky young girl or boy (mostly all girls) to be a part of the show.  The last day we figured out that one of the trainers stands out at one of the entrances and randomly picks one person about 30 min before the show starts. Ah hah now I understood why there was reserved seating right where we were trying to sit to get picked!  Soooo being the cool mom that I am, we went about 35 min early and couldn't quite figure out where the trainer would be standing so I stoped and asked a security guard there at the Shamu area how to get picked and where the trainer would exactly be.  Good thing I talked to her, she revealed not only where the trainer would be but let us know that they will NOT choose anyone who asks to be picked.  My original plan was to go up to the trainer and ask to be picked, hmmm that was now not going to work.  Plan B, casually walk by the the trainer (not giving direct eye contact of course) smiling, looking interested and stoked to be seeing Shamu and VOILA!!  It worked!!!  She came up to us and asked Justina her name and it was in the bag.  I was soooo giddy inside knowing that I took some control of our fate that fine day at the Shamu stadium.  They took her picture and then escorted us tooooo yes thats right the RESERVED seating:)  I think I was more excited than Justina and I can defiantly say I was more excited than Mercy who poor thing was sad and jealous that they didnt pick her.  Oh well, its good for the big sister to get the attention once in awhile:) 

Im not gonna talk much about Lego land and the San Diego Zoo.  We defiantly liked Lego Land better than DL.  Glad we went there.  As for the Zoo, we liked it but I would never go back.  We got there when it opened and stayed until closing, very long day.  We missed our shuttle at 3:30 by 5 minutes!!!  So we had to stay there the last 2 hours until it closed.  There were many cabs with drivers ready to take you anywhere your heart desired but they looked like they would drive me into the twin towers if you know what I mean!  As for the hotel shuttle, that was the first and last time we took that anywhere.  The guy was going 60 in a 35, come on thats a heart attack waiting to happen.  I asked him to slow down and told him I have really high blood pressure and that he was going to kill me.  Yeah, it worked.  He slowed down and drove quite well from that point on. 

I was actually relived to fly into Portland and see green again!  I was a nice retreat from a busy brown city and I enjoyed my 3 days there.  I think the girls actually preferred being there as well:) 

Then it was back to the great state of Alaska!  I missed Paul after all it had been 2 weeks since I had seen him.  I was worried about coming home and seeing all the work he had done.  In fact I practiced my happy face and rehearsed all my great lines telling him how wonderful everything was.  When I got home I was glad to see i worried for nothing as did a great job and I was very proud of him.  But we still have A LOT to do in order to ever be finsihed!  Maybe I need to take a couple weeks in Hawaii to let him finish??



CLICK TO WATCH JUSTINA AND SHAMU

From 6-7-2010

And were off again...

Sunny San Diego here we come!  After my nightmare flight on the way home from Seattle back in Feburary I thought I would never fly again, but Im given it another try.  We are visiting my old pastor and his wife whom I have not seen for quite awhile.  When I say we, I mean the girls and I.  Paul is staying home with Heifer and hopefully (fingers crossed) getting some much needed chores done.  Our plan is to make this a 2 sided trip.  A visit and some MUCH needed fun!  Sea World, Zoo, Disneyland, Beach and maybe Legoland are on my itenerary.  I will be there 9 days, so plenty of time to take everything in I hope and spend some quality time with friends:)     I will probably avoid shopping as much as possible as that always makes me stressed with the girls, so not worth it.  However the mall is soooooo close to where were staying, hmmmmm.  I currently have no shorts, no capris and no bathing suit so I have a lot to do to prepare:)  The girls are beyond excited and I have let them know that they will be forced to ride on everything!!!  Mercy meets a lot of height requirements now, yeah!  Im prepared to bribe them or possibly drag them on splash mountain, space mountain, thunder mountain, mattahorn and that river ride over at sea world.  Paul says I can pay them if necessary:)  Mercy acts scared but usually she overcomes it and Justina well she may need to be dragged.

Ughhhhhhhhh!!!!!!......

Ok so at the moment, and I mean right now, Justina is throwing a kicking screaming fit!!  Why you ask...Im not really sure but I think its because I told her she had to go to bed at 9.  She then responded "why do I have to go to bed the same time as Mercy, thats not fair blah blah blah"  Being the wonderful pateint mother that I am I calmly responded " Im not going to have to deal with 2 different bed times".  Justina being the 11 year with a huge attitude says "why (in a snoty voice mind you) because Mercy might cry and have to get her way".   She proceeded whaling down the hall yelling that she hates her life. 
After several minutes of screaming about how horrible evrything is she then went on to say screaming and crying, "ahhh I hate myself, one minute Im happy and the next minute Im sad and then I get mad ahhhh (cry cry cry)". 

Hmmm I wonder what that means??? 

Whats the moral of the story... If you have the money, girls around 11 should be sent away to boarding school!