My gift to us

I decided that I have made some pretty cool blankets this fall and I want one. So I took a small handmade craft from a friend and dissected it so I could make it larger and cuddly for me when I sit and read and drink cocoa. This is as far as I have gotten, 12 squares in total. I hope I can finish before the end of the month. I'm not planning on it though, I have a lot playing to do. I will try to update you on the color schemes I will be adding on my blanket. I have some fun ideas. It is going to be wild!

Jeans- a fixer upper

below are my favorite ones

My sister in laws are serious jean wearers and so they were in need of a few patches. We were inspired by a clever patch by my mother in law (the smiley face one) and so we went wild getting fabric. I spent the afternoon patching these up and then I waited for them to get home from school. I struggled as I waited- I was so excited.

 It was 5:30 pm until I got to play my joke of saying the cat peed all over their room and they had to go down there and see it. They walked in totally bummed and then smiled really big when they saw fixed jeans on their bed instead of cat pee! I used regular jean iron on patches and then just put a smaller piece of fabric (smaller than the iron on, but bigger than the rip) down before hand. It was easy except for the stitching along the edges to reinforce my work. So cool. I wish I had some jeans to fix up!

Taco Raman

This is it. You put all the ingredients you would on regular tacos or taco rice and you put it on cooked raman noodles. Taco Raman. It was one of my father in law's creative ventures that turned out pretty good. We all eat it and like it. Yet another silly quirk as to why I love my in laws. Enjoy.

The Bush

My view

Me warming up my tush

Over the weekend we went on a snow machine/ mobile/ monster adventure with my father in law, Ben and the company Dad works (plays) with part time. Alaska Back Country Tours is an amazing company owned by a good family friend of ours. You should look them up. The entire time I was riding on the back end of the snow monster I thought about the hover pods on Star Wars. I was Anikin Skywalker, only my view was of beautiful Alaskan trees in the wild (AKA the Bush or the outback) covered in snow that looked like marshmallow cream! I wanted to write out a nice short story to express my thoughts and memories, but I haven't gotten to it yet. It will come soon, but right now I am too busy having fun with my family. Look at this beautiful Alaskan adventure! These are my best photos- I would have taken more, but it was 9 degrees F and I was cold.

On the Slope!

On the lift

The top of the slope touched the clouds at times and it was so weird to board in that haze.

Oh Alaskan views!

We went snowboarding today and I loved it! I haven't been in two years and so I was worried I would be really rusty, but I wasn't as bad as last time - I was much much better (that time I hadn't been in 4 years!). We had an amazing time chatting on the chair lift and talking about our spills and successes.

When we got home we went to a madrigal performance by Ben's younger sister and her school choir. It was fantastic, but my photos did not turn out well so I'm not even bothering to post them- The lighting was bad! Believe me though, it was a really cool performance and the dinner was fun. It was all for a fundraiser for scholarships and so I felt good about giving them my money.

When we got home Ben's brother and I started to joke around and he put on an old snow suit of one of the little sister's. He is tall, but very lean. In some outfits, anything you do is funny... Just ask my old college roommate Kristina ;)- that is another story that I love to tell in person. Needless to say, everything is funny in that snowsuit.

Good things

Thoughts of Thanksgiving and the never ending supply of leftovers

The newest layer of fresh snow. I NEED to go sledding, but it just hasn't happened yet. I love how the branches look like lace when the snow falls on them.

Wool socks that Ben and his dad went on a surprise search to find for me! They went to all the thrift shops in the area to find these big bad boys for me. If you just yank them up to the knee they look great ;)

Girl's Night out!

I called a girl's night with my two youngest sister in laws and Mama Bohman. We went to see the newest Twilight movie and we had a great time. I will never say that they are the best books in the world or seriously take you in a debate about who Bella should be with, but I will say it is pretty great entertainment. We enjoyed it. Well after our movie, we grabbed a quick dinner at Taco Bell and were laughing our heads off about the intercom guy. He just had a way of saying things that belonged in an SNL skit. Well after we got our food and I went through to see whose taco was whose I found this!

You are not mistaken, that is a blue heart that was wrapped up in my taco that has "ILU" on it. That intercom guy really was a piece of work. We now refer to him as my "Jacob," or my number two. It really topped off the night. Thank you Taco Bell intercom fella (aka Jacob).

Real Winter

On a walk around Grandma Jane's house in Alaska. It is absolutely gorgeous up here and I don't even mind the cold all that much. I totally prefer it to a Gulf summer any day. I have chronic cold toes and Papa Bohman introduced me to wool socks to ease my suffering. I have never had toasty toes before and I compare it to the experience of someone with bad eye sight all of the sudden putting on a pair of rightly prescribed glasses, only these socks bring toasty toes not great eye sight. Expect more beautiful Alaska photos in the next few days, I do. I'll be wearing my wool socks while taking those shots.

Travel days

We left Qatar on the morning of the 20th. After steaming about the individual searches of every passengers carry on baggage, even after no less than 3 x-rays of the poor stuff (who does that!? Oh yeah and apparently yarn is now considered a lethal weapon- who knew?!), I finally came to my senses and decided what I would do to the 100% rude and disrespectful security bum from Qatar Airways if I had mutant powers. One of my friends in Qatar once told me what she would do to the crazy drivers in Qatar if she had magneto powers. Needless to say I laughed my head off. So I started to imagine what I would do if I had eyes that fried people and I felt much better!

We flew to Atlanta in a transfer to get to Salt Lake City later on in our travels and it was there in the largest hub for Delta Airlines that my carry on bag, that had to be checked because their overhead baggage carriers were too small, was misplaced and sent to none other than San Salvador, El Salvador!! What?!! It was a carry on so it had all my makeup, my running shoes and oh yeah, my purse. We waited for them to deliver my "misplaced bag" (which we all know means- sorry, we lost the heck out of your luggage) for the few days we visited my family and it never came. This morning we checked on the status of the bag and discovered where our 7th (yes, 7th) suitcase was and were enlightened to this news. It should now be sent to Ben's parent's house in Alaska, where we are now headed.

It truly was a delightful travel across the world considering the circumstances, I mean I got to watch about 4 movies that I missed while in Qatar (I thought Julie and Julia was adorable), but no one travels all the way around the world and has all peaches and cream (Yes a 12 hours difference, my jet lag is killing me!). So these are my funnies/ mishap stories. The cool part is I am telling these quick stories in the Seattle Airport. It seems most airports have free internet as of late and we are loving it! We are minutes from boarding our plane to be with our family in Alaska, our new temporary home. I am so excited!

The Surprise blanket!!!

This baby, who I finally met this week, finally got her blessing blanket the day before we met. I think it put us on good terms. So here is the surprise blanket I have been working on for the past few months for my newest niece!

Taco night!

He loves spicy things, I say it is the 1/4 Mexican blood in him

Sunday Taco night at the Soqui house was amazing. Soqui tacos are fantastic. Everyone in my family was there, but my older brother, who is off seeing his in-laws :(. We had homemade salsa- that my mom said only I could do just right (she loves to make me feel special), homemade guacamole, the homemade taocs and all the works. I loved it. I loved playing with all the grandkids and taking over 100 photos of them so I could enjoy them all while we are away in Alaska. Ben's sister's family came over too, and we all got to sit around chatting like we love to do. It was so nice to be in Utah with the fam, even if it was for only a few days.

Baby Brother is Engaged!

I went online tonight and found out that my little brother proposed to his girlfriend early! We chatted on skype and I got all the cute details from him as soon as possible. I am so excited! We have a wedding to go to in April!

moving again!

Clearly, we've started packing. I am a pile maker. We are now mostly done and just need to put our toiletries and last outfits in suitcases. It is so exciting!  Only 4 days until the morning we leave!

This is our neighborhood cat that the people living across the street left when they left. I have taken to petting his coat and listening to him purr because I wish he were mine. I call him kitty- cat- cat. I want to put him in one of my suitcases too. Yes, the picture is all fuzzy because he is my dream cat. He looks like my cat that I had growing up! Ben says a cat will only ever be mine in my dreams. I don't believe him. You shouldn't either.

So bummed

There are banners everywhere in Qatar right now. Banners that are advertising the fact that Qatar is bidding for the 2022 Fifa World Cup. They have a lot of development that could go on in that amount of time and so they have a decent chance at it. Well they are hosting a friendly match tomorrow to show what "Expect Amazing" (their slogan) means. By a miracle we got tickets to the match! Then by some bad luck Ben and I now have flu like symptoms and we can't go. I am so bummed. We have talked about going to a football match the whole time we have been here in Qatar and now when a decent team at a decent price, with promised spectacular, is playing we are at home in bed, drinking herbal tea and popping vitamin C. We are giving our tickets to some friends and I will just have to ask for photos. So bummed.  So bummed.

Mail

I love getting mail. When I was little, my cousin and I used to draw pictures and write out "I miss you" or "I love you" with our limited writing skills. As we got older there were actual letters and it was so great to get mail. I think that is where my love of mail began. In high school my friend Katherine and I used to make things up to send to each other just so we could get mail (she only lived 10 miles away from me, but hey good mail is good mail!) Now, I still love getting mail and not so secretly try to find ways to convince people to mail me things just so I can have something in the mail. Such as...

1. The Paper Mail project I am apart of, that is a great way for me to get mail- and cool mail at that! 
2. I have a notebook I pass back and forth through the mail with a good friend of mine. The notebook is packed full of stories, photos, found objects and things to make each other laugh. 
3. I draw pictures and write little notes for my nephews and nieces so I can get back drawings from them. Those are seriously the best!

I don't particularly like junk mail because, honestly, who really likes grocery store flyers? One thing I do like is the prints in security envelopes. I don't get much mail that requires a security envelope, but I wish I did! Check out all the creative stuff you can do with those prints!!

This notebook idea rocks my socks. It comes from HERE