Ski for Women - Feb 14

Happy Valentines Day you all. I hope you enjoyed all your sweets today. Make time to go see the movie, Valentines Day. It is cute and I really like Ashton Krutcher. My group of friends, we ski together several nights after school and weekends, all went to see it. We laughed a lot. My friends are an interesting group. There is Beth 1, Beth 2, Stacy 1, Stacey 2, Cheryl 1, Sheryl 2 (me), Kim, and Jessica and some other on occasion. Isn't that amazing so many duplicate names with our teacher group. So during dinner last night I mentioned we need to go try Curling. I saw it as an Olympic sport and a TV special about it. There is a huge Anchorage Curling Association. So Wednesday night we are on our way to learn how to Curl. The season is long. It goes from Oct - April. We shall see how we do after our lesson. I will keep you posted. Most of them ice skate one evening a week. Everything here is lighted at night so everyone who wants to be out and exercising can. I have selected not to ice skate. It hurts when you fall on the ice. I can't find a pair of old fashion skates - you know the ones that strap on your boots and the blades are about 8 inches apart? I would probably fall on those too.

Ski for Women (2500 ladies participated) is where most of my pictures come from. My children, Tyler and Jenna, both said I need more pics and less talk. So here are more pics. The proceeds benefit the Battered Women Shelter in Anchorage. It was a bit cold as you can see from the sign. It was only cold watching the 6 sprint races and the parade of costumes. Once we started skiing it was hot. I was dressed way too warmly. I will know better next year. Beth and I might even wear a costume. David's cousin, Laura, was a killer bee book club member. I didn't get a picture because after the race the ladies headed inside for their hot toddies. Did I mention Laura is from the Warmbold side of the family - they like their beverages!!! Aren't those monarch butterflies amazing? They won first place as a team. They used their backpack frames and attached the wings (airplane fabric) to them. then some kind of bungee cords to make the wings move. It was a sight to behold when all 12 came down the final slope towards the finish line. Then the slot machines, and the Spring Chicks. The moSKItoes were my favorite. They won 2nd place - team. The straws from the glasses, wings, leopard tights, and fur covered poles were very creative. Then the 70's ladies, all tie dyed, then pink flamingos, the Western Women and more flamingos. The Frigid Ladies were in formal gowns, kind of difficult to ski fast in them. Next were the Fruit of Loom Ladies, thong, whitey tidies, hi cuts, granny panties, boxers, etc. They were made out of paper mache and very cute. It was funny watching them try to get up when they fell. The paper mache does not give so it took a production to get them back on their feet. Then the Spud ladies, they were nice and warm in the furry costumes. Their face pieces were on by Velcro so they could change moods when they had a moment. The Smurfs were cute but they fell into the snow drifts and wiped their faces off. They left blue marks in the snow. The Ipod were the youngest ladies of the ski, and of course my favorite SNOWMEN. I had to have their pictures. The last group won the theme category: taking care of Alaska's environment. They were the Solar Bears. The white paper coveralls are what the pipeline people wear when they work. Someone must have a connection. There were a lot of them. Then the cutie girl in the sled. Her mother pulled her behind during the 5K. There are metal bars with a hip pack that attaches to mom. Cleaver but way too much work for me. I finished the 5K in 40 mins and 32 secs. I could have finished sooner but the butterflies took up 10 feet of the 12 foot trail. So most of us had to ski single file. Next year I will get in front of the costumes. I couldn't get all the costumes because there were so many but I did take the ones that skied near us during the parade. Some good Halloween costume ideas for you.


The first pictures are from my school's winter festival last week. The two brothers, Da'rell and Shawn (5th/4th grade) are two of my favorites. Aren't they gorgeous? Next is the typical chariot all around Anchorage. A lot of ladies get their groceries while pushing the little one in the sled. They can be seen on ski trails, sidewalks taking walks and of course a lot of them parked at the grocery stores. They take the skies off in the spring and summer and it become a stroller. Those Scandinavians are so cleaver. Next is Janelle and her father. Janelle has never skated before. She couldn't hardly eat her pizza and salad b/c she was so excited about skating. I love they way they teach skating. Pushing a folding chair around the ice. The kids pushed me on the chair - did I mention it was the older and much stronger students! Janelle did well with the chair but had her fair share of falls when she went solo. Next is L'Jun and his sister, Lolo. I loved her snowsuit so they got their picture on the blog.

The sunsets are from this past week on my porch. Aren't they gorgeous. I have never lived anywhere this beautiful before. I can't wait for the spring when the apartment folks sit outside and enjoy the sunsets while the kids ride their bikes and play tag. Then there are the "Girlie Girls". My neighbors, Elise, 3, and Addell, 1 1/2. I have fun playing with them, making valentines, babysit them for their parents and this picture is from last week when we went to visit the ice sculptures downtown.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I hope you all are warming up. We are having summer like weather here - 37 - 40, sunny and blue skies during the day. The snow melts during the day but freezes again at night. It makes nighttime driving still a bit dangerous. I am counting down my three weeks until David, Poli and Bruce arrive for the Iditarod. I hope we get a bit more snow for the race. I can't wait to share those pictures.

Until then, enjoy your day. Smile a lot and hugs to you all.

Sheryl the Nanuq