The simple pleasures of life...

This morning, I was reading my friend's blog. She happens to be great, as is her kiddos and my long time friend, her husband! She has 4 kids who are AMAZING like she is. I read about her son's fourth birthday party. He wanted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a green cake. How cool is that? So for his birthday party, the kids had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich bar, and for dessert a green cake. Simple pleasures in life. Sometimes it takes a four year old to remind you. Look around you today and look for your simple pleasures!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY DONNIE!!!!!!!

Austin, Texas

The Alamo
In May, I was fortunate enough to go to Austin, Texas for a work training on smokeless and spit tobacco. Though, it may not sound interesting, it was. my colleague and I were able to bring information back, and get to know people from all over the nation. Texas showed us a grand time! The highlights of the trip are as followed and not in any particular order...

* BATS, Austin has bats that burrow in a bridge. Bob (my colleague), and his wife and I went on a boat tour and watch and heard that bats under the bridge. It was AN AMAZING evening. It was so beautiful with the sun setting on buildings downtown. As we were motoring out to see the bats, it started to RAIN! It was a good southern rain that hit like a wall and then left shortly after. The boat went and docked and a few people left the tour. Us Alaskans are used to rain. We know we wouldn't melt! HA! Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures as my camera was back in the hotel, and we went strait to the tour from our opening reception.
*The opening reception, where we had a chance to mingle with everyone from the conference as well as see the hisroy of Texas, eat yummy hors d'oerves, and seeing a 4D movie on the history of Texas.. Let's just say in 4D rattle snakes sure have a way with a person! The reception was held at the University of Texas, Austin, at the Museum of TExas History. If you have a chance to go, I'd recommend this museum. It was great!
*EMILY VOISIN!!!!!! Need I say more? Emily, is a fellow member of my church and I know her from Louisiana! She and her family were in my last area of Houma where my "tragic end" happened. I LOVE Emily! She picked me up from New Orleans, so many years ago. I remember liking her INSTANTLY and thinking she would be a friend. It was GREAT to see her and her son Michael, meet her parents and see other parts of Austin. she was a saint and drove me around so that I could buy a pair of tennis shoes. You always know when you have a dear friend when you can see them after YEARS and pick up where you left off. With Emily it felt like we were old friends and picked up from where we left off! LOVE HER!
* KAREN AND DAVID ASHTON!!!!! While in Texas I was able to see some "Alaska Family." Karen and David were missionaries in Juneau. They are AMAZING and I love them SO much! I spent many a day while they were in Juneau. David and I are able to have grand conversations where we challenge each others thinking. They are POWERHOUSES!!! They drove ALL THE WAY from Ft. Worth to come see me!! They took me to the Alamo and the Riverwalk in San Antonio, and showed me a good time. They ARE THE BEST! They are part of my Alaskan family!
*The Alamo, San Antonio temple, and the Riverwalk...

I was able to pack in LOTS of things while at the conference. The 14 hour flights were worth it.



Downtown Austin From my hotel room
The Ashtons


San Antonio Temple


Emily Voisin and me
At the mall, the keys got locked in the car.... This is Emily in "distress!"

name of blog,...

yes, as you see, then name of my blog has changed from Alaskan Adventure's to Heather's Happenings! I changed it for a few reasons, the main one being that my adventures don't just happen in my home of Alaska, but elsewhere. Enjoy the new name!

Buy Seafood....

Seafood from the Gulf Coast that is. (Also, Alaska seafood, too.) I served a mission for my church in the Louisiana Baton Rouge mission. I served or was "stationed" in a few of the cities in Louisiana as well as a county in Mississippi. Baton Rouge, Covington, and Houma, all in Louisiana, were my homes for roughly 6 weeks to 6 months each. How I LOVE the people of the south. While in Houma, I was able to meet a family who are eight generation oyster men. The Voisin's are an AMAZING family and were there, through the toughest time in my mission that sent me home early. The Voisin's were always there and helpful to me and to my family. We are still in touch, and every now and then I get to see them. With Hurricane Katrina, and then a few years later, the oil spill that hit the gulf, my heart went out to the family as well as others in the state who's livelihood depend on the fishing industry. In the past few weeks, there were a group of bloggers that were given the opportunity to visit Louisiana and learn about the seafood industry, and how the industry is surviving after the oil spill. Below is a link to a blog that I read, and found the article informational and well written. A bonus is a picture of Mike Voisin, the fearless leader of Motivatit Seafood, and my friend. Enjoy the article and BUY LOUISIANA Seafood!!!! (P.S. some of The. BEST. shrimp. I have EVER. HAD!!!

http://www.foodwoolf.com/2011/06/safety-louisiana-seafood.html

Girls Night

Every woman needs to have a group of gal pals and a girls night no matter if you are married, single, have kids, no kids, are a mother to young kids or old kids, are a grandmother, you name it, we all deserve a girls night.

I have a GREAT group of women that I get to hang out with. We have SO much fun when we are all together, or even when there is just a few of us. We are each others sounding boards, and are there for each other when needed. These ladies are part of the "crew" that I hang with often.

I just happened to be the "cruise director" of this particular girls night. All of us had been mentioning to each other that it was time, so we did it. We went to dinner, where they have a challenge called "The Oinker."(No, none of us tried it, but many of their husbands tried it when they had a "Man Club" night.) Dinner started off great, we laughed and had a blast and caught up with the happenings of everything. Good thing the restaurant stuck us in the corner, so we wouldn't bother the other diners. After dinner, we went over to Angela's house and played THE BEST GAME!!! "Just Dance 2!" Oh. My. Goodness. It was s much fun. We changed into our comfy clothes and danced for hours. I laugh still just thinking about that night. We learned that night that Angela was on drill team in high school. Try and pick her out... Enjoy the pictures below of our night. Notice the window open? I think this was in February...


notice Carrie in the way far back, she ALWAYS one...
See the moves Angela and I have,.. oh yea! I didn't dance
for all those years and not get skillz...:o)

Go and get the game for the Wii, grab some girl friends and have it!

Vitamin D

Have you heard of this AMAZING product called Vitamin D? Yes, it's the pills you get in a bottle in the vitamin aisle. Being from California, and my people coming from "where the trade winds blow (Hawaii), and another island in the Mediterranean (Sicily), My body is USED to sun and LOVES the sun. Some of my favorite days are sitting by the ocean feeling the warmth from the sun on my face, arms, and hair... Ahh, it's like my soul sighs with delight. Living in Southeast Alaska, I don't get the opportunity sometimes, to see the sun for months at a time. . I have learned to deal with it. I have a SAD ( seasonal affective disorder) light in the winter and when the sun comes out, no matter how cold, I sit in it, or go for a walk or sit in my car and feel the rays through the window (sad I know!). The past few years, I have been experiencing low energy and insomnia, etc. A few months ago at one of our "malls" they have a bi-yearly health fair and they take blood tests, etc and one thing that they test for is vit. D. I trudged in there and after chatting with quite a few people I knew, hearing that yes, I still have scar tissue in my arm and trying a few times to get blood out of my hand, my blood was finally taken, sent in and analyzed for vit. D deficiency. I got the tests back and yep, i have a vit D deficiency, like all the rest of us here in Alaska. It wasn't too low thank goodness, but it was deficient. I have been taking 400-600 IU's of D a day and WOO! I can tell a HUGE difference! I can also tell a difference if I don't take my D or if I miss a few days. I get that " I need to take a nap" feeling at 10am instead of 2pm! What's your Vitamin D? Check it and see what it is!

laughing, by design

My friend Stubbs, (no that is not her real name..it's just mine for her!!) is a graphic designer. I first met her on our missions. She and I had the opportunity to serve in Mississippi together. We were both coming from tough times in both of our missions and we each had sent our mission companions home for health reasons. I was in a companionship with two other girls at this time. The three of us came home one night and as we were sitting in our "office" we received a phone call. It happened to be our mission president informing ME that I was to move on and go to a new area of this mission. My new mission companion was to be Sister Walton (a.k.a Stubbs). She was going to pick me up the next day. After many tears, and some goodbyes to some of my favorite people in Covington, Mandeville and Madisonville Louisiana, Stubbs and a member from the area I was going to, came and picked me up. Who knew that this particular companionship would bring

1. a GREAT friendship that has lasted throughout years and will continue to do so (until she gets tired of me!)
2. Some of the MOST fun I had on my mission! (Picture with a LARGE cement gorilla, anda drink at the Mississippi welcome center, Emu oil, to name a few..)
3. A LOT of healing laughter for both of us
4. Me moving to UT and happening to be one of the roomates (after our missions of course)
5. Some rousing conversation about politics and other things
6. LOTS of conversations while sitting in the stairwell, at all times of the day
7. Did I mention a friendship that will last a lifetime?

Stubbs has a blog, where I can check up on the happenings of her glorious life as she jets across the world for work. I love reading her blog. I can read her sense of humor on her blog, and it just makes me happy.... as I was saying earlier, Stubbs is a graphic designer who works for this fantastic company. The girl has skillz. I first saw them on the wall of our missionary apartment. She LOVES fonts and is able to produce said fonts in various medias. To say the least, this dear friend of mine ROCKS!!!!! Which leads me to this post. The other day, I was reading her said blog and the latest post gave me the BEST laugh I have read in a long. time. I thought, I would share the post with you. This is not her post mind you. Who knows where she got it from, but I googled it and of course found it! The post is originated from a dude, who I assume is a designer...click on the title of the story... Enjoy...

Missing Missy

More than cuddle time

Sunday night dinners at my Alaska family's house, is probably one of the. best. days. of the week for me. I get a yummy homemade meal, and lots of laughter. Tonight was a great night, and I felt total contentment. After dinner, I was drawing with pens with little sister. SO. MUCH. FUN! We (I), drew a princess, a lion, snakes, a tree, a few flowers, and a cow. Rubes, was of course coloring as well. she made LOTS of pretty pictures with her pen. Tonight, the sunset was GORGEOUS. Which was nice after the inch or so of snow we got last night. While looking at it, Rubes told me, "Hey-yay( that's how she pronounces my name), she lets go draw with pens." SO cute! WE finished our pen drawings, then while watching Caillou, and Kipper I had Rubes on one side and X on the other and they were both leaning into me and cuddly. It was like heaven on earth. Families pretty much rock. Real and adopted families! :o)

Just a snip it of the songs we listen to EVER week.. Have fun getting it out of your head! :o)

http://www.televisiontunes.com/Caillou.html

AND

http://www.televisiontunes.com/Kipper_The_Dog.html

Husband

A few weeks ago, my nephew (from my Alaska family), asked me one night where my husband was. Then I was instructed to find one!

Today while I was at his house for a bit, I was asked by this same nephew, if I had found a husband yet. I told him that no I hadn't because he had not found me one yet! He responded with an "oh, well I think you should find one who doesn't have a house so he can move into yours." What wise thinking from a newly turned 5 year old! How I LOVE that kid. I love to hug him and squish him, and play with him and draw with him. (The rest of his family are pretty awesome too!) I love that Alaska family of mine. They make being here EVEN better!

I better get to finding a husband quick! Oh, and one who doesn't have a house!.. Anyone know of where I can find one? :o)

seasons

This winter has been a good one. Well, at least in my book. I have HARDLY complained, and I haven't had to remind myself that the snow will EVENTUALLY melt and I can wash my hair. I know that sounds weird, that I could wash my hair, but I grew up in California during the 8 year drought. I remember turning on the water to wet the body/hair, turn the water off and lather, turn the water back on to rinse. There was NO relaxing in the shower! I did that for MANY years and at times still do. With that being said, when I see the snow falling from the sky, inch by inch, I think of it melting and me being able to take a shower and wash my hair WITHOUT turning the water off. Yes, basically every morning is like Heaven for me! Every winter though, even AFTER reminding myself that that the snow melts and the weather warms, I still hit my wall. This normally happens at the end of January/beginning of February. THIS year the wall came later. Yay. It came a few weeks back. I made it to March this year. I walked outside to go to work, and knew I was done with winter and being cold, and seeing snow and ice on the ground and that it needed to start warming up. I can FEEL memorial weekend approaching. Yes, I understand that it is 2 months away, but still. It's COMING!!!! :O) Soon, I will be able to sing this at the top of my lungs, and yes, yes I will! Even may dance a little too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXCBt6wb5Pk

It would be from one of the ALL TIME BEST musicals! Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! So, as you see the little bits of green poking their heads up through the cold ground, and you start to see a little bit of color on the hills, and it starts to warm a bit, think of me twirling in the sun and warmth!

My tree

During Thanksgiving, I went to Petersburg. (check out the last few blog posts entitled, Petersburg Thanksgiving...) While I was there, we decorated for Christmas. I asked Meggan abot the smaller tree that they had. I told Meggan that I have been looking for a tree that size and where she had bought the tree from. This particular tree is the girls' tree that they decorate. While talking, at the end of the conversation, somehow the tree ended up coming home with me. How BLESSED and GRATEFUL I am to these girls for giving up their tree to me so that I could have one. (side note, never have had a tree of my own, since leaving home about 8 years ago) My heart goes out to two of my FAVORITE girls in the WHOLE WORLD!!! What generosity and hearts they have. Those two girls come from good stock

The poor little tree went through a lot. The tree flew back to Juneau with me. I checked it, and of course TSA checked it... I can just IMAGINE what they thought..."it's not just a box, it really IS a tree!" hahaha. It is a beautfiul tree, and I can't wait until next year to pull it out again. Of course, I will think of my girls Mandy and Kenzie. Girls, I love you and THANK YOU for my beautiful little tree!

The gracious girls. Aren't they cute?

The tree and the TSA inspection notice

The beautiful tree!