Relatives in Route: Andy's Brief Wilmington Visit

Early morning departure from Donaldson Center Airport.

This morning Andy stopped off in Wilmington with his Eagle Med crew to pick up a 2 month old baby to fly him to Boston for surgery.  Because this was a prescheduled flight, Andy arranged to meet up with his Aunt Noel and Uncle Ronnie for a short visit.  They got a private tour of the King Air 90, and witnessed the crew in action on the ramp. 

Andy has been working at EagleMed for a little over two years. The company is based out of Wichita, but they have satellite bases all over the country.  Andy's crew includes a flight nurse and an EMT.  The base has four pilots. They work in teams of two, one for the day shift, the other for the night shift. The teams switch every 7 days. Andy is currently on his day shift. 

Strawberry Season Coming to an End

It's getting hot in the South, muggy too.  If I were a strawberry out in the field, I think I'd call it quits!  I'm actually surprised the strawberries made it this long.  But some of the farms are already on to the next crop, Peaches!

This morning Pyper and I headed out to one of our local strawberry farms for a 20 gallon strawberry pickup for the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery.  Somehow our order got misplaced. So while the workers picked our order, Pyper and I managed to pick a quart, and eat a quart.  She learned the fine art of picking and eating ripe berries. It doesn't take long to figure out which color tastes better. By the end she just started grabbing them out of the basket.  Guess she's a smart one.

And what does one do with all those strawberries? I think pictures will help!  

Yes, those are real, honest to goodness, photos from the Swamp Rabbit Cafe.  Wish you were here to taste the goodness!

Running Again

All right, so I don't have the best track record for sticking with things, like blogging, but that's because I'm goal oriented. I didn't set myself up for success the first couple times around.

Running also took a back seat as soon as I finished that 50K I blogged about back in October of 2010.  I set a goal and a race, and I accomplished the feat. I checked the box and moved on with my life.  

I liked running when I had a goal set, but running for pleasure just wasn't doing it for me. In December I started looking up trail races in the local area and came across a 6 race trail series called the Greenville Dirt Series.  The shortest distance was 5K (3.2mi), the longest will be 16K (9.4mi). Currently we are at the half way point in the series. I've run an 8K, 5K, and 12K at this point, with a 7K, 10K, and 16K on the horizon. Since the races are of moderate distance, I've made it a goal to increase my speed a little.  So now instead of coming in at the back of the pack, I come in somewhere in the middle.  

Running with my friend Mary at the Foothills Drifter 6K in February.  The only race of the season I didn't get a side cramp because I was talking the whole time ;) Extra bonus race that isn't part of the series. 

Last weekend I ran the 12K race, number three in the Dirt Series.  Although I hadn't run in over 10 days prior to the race because of illness, possibly adult croup of all things, I had prepped well enough that the sickness didn't discourage me from starting the race.  With that said, I somehow found my way to the start and asked an official looking gentleman what time the race started as there weren't many runners milling around. I was thinking maybe I was early. He causally looked at his watch and said "15 minutes ago."  At that point we quickly tried to find my bib number and I hit the trail trying not to pin myself and run at the same time.  Well, at least I didn't feel any pressure whatsoever. 

I was quite surprised when I caught up to the last of the racers around mile 3, then caught up with another late start racer. I ran alone most of the way trying to fight a side cramp, the side cramp was definitely on the winning side most of the race. A mile out, I caught up to a small pack of ladies and hung on as my side cramp increased intensity.  I decided to pass them a half mile out, in case they were in my age group, which I later found out they weren't.  As I approached the finish I could hear the awards being announced, which is a good indicator that the race has been over awhile. But as always, my biggest fans were at the finish cheering me on and clapping little hands. 

Pyper chose our matching shirts today. Usually on a Saturday we work the Farmers Market, she must have known it was a Market day!  

The Art of the "Selfie": As discovered by a 2 year-old

Pyper has gotten pretty good at taking pictures of "her world." By that, I mean the knee-high world. The photos she shoots are mostly in focus and framed now.

Exploring Daddy's Garage

Hanging out at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery with Eli, the son of one of the owners. 

Us, Pyper and I, working the Saturday Farmer's Market in Downtown Greenville. 

Sometimes I'll scroll through my camera roll to discover Pyper's face, usually cut off, looking down at the camera. I might keep one or two, but thanks to the digital age, I can trash the 50 other like-photos with a swipe of the finger. 

Which photo would you keep? Would you trash them all? 

On Thursday we took a family walk down the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which is like Greenville's version of the Burke-Gilman Trail.  Pyper asked if she could take some photos with my iPhone, so I said sure. Upon inspection of her work, I wasn't surprised at the stroller canopy framed pavement pictures, the occasional photo of a cyclist or walker coming toward or away from us, many pictures of her pants and shoes, and two dozen of her usual selfies. But then something caught my eye, a change in her expression 25 "selfies" down the roll. 

You can visually see something is "clicking" in her little growing brain! (Pun intended)

As you can see, there were little changes in expression over a handful of pictures, but then something fascinating happened about 50 frames in, every expression changed, frame by frame. I couldn't suppress laughter when I came across these:

I think we just witnessed Pyper taking a concious selfie! 

Okay, I didn't have the heart to delete any of Pyper's photos.  

As reported by The Guardian back in November of 2013, a "selfie – a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website– has been named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries editors, after the frequency of its usage increased by 17,000% over the past 12 months

Keeping up is hard to do

Keeping up is hard to do, especially since I just finished writing a post and the application crashed! Yup, over two years later, I've rediscovered this blog, and I definitly think it will work this time ;) That old saying of "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." I'm not afraid to fail, so here's to another shot at blogging.  A lot has happened since the last post, we've added another gypsy to this world! But most of you know that, so no surprise there. But here's a quick summary in two photos: Day one and Yesterday!

February 25, 2012

June 5, 2014

Another Year....

Holden Beach, NC in October

Okay, so it's been almost exactly a year since we last posted, which means that most of you are probably in or out of the loop at this point.  A lot has happened in a year, to say the least.  We'll just bullet point the highlights and call it good.

• Pauline Spent 3 weeks on a research boat in Kodiak
• We got pregnant ( we're due at the end of February )
• Moved from Kodiak to...the lower 48 ( I guess this will be the next blog entry )
• Took the Alaska Ferry for an entire week from Kodiak to Bellingham for the big move
• Andy got a new job with Emergency Air Lift based out of Klamath Falls, OR
• Super Sized the last mobile set-up of Subaru Outback pulling 16' Scamp Trailer to a Dodge Ram 1500 and 22' Travel Trailer
• We Vacationed with Andy's Parents at Holden Beach, NC
• Andy got a new dirt bike

I think that sums it up till I get motivated to really keep folks in the loop.

Andy looking good for interviews

The Definition of a Gypsy

Gyp·sy also Gip·sy -  (jps)

n. pl. Gyp·sies also Gip·sies. 

1. gypsy One inclined to a nomadic, unconventional way of life.  2. A person who moves from place to place as required for employment

Us on top of Piller Mtn, with downtown Kodiak below.  Late summer photo, it's a little browner and snowier right now:)

Kodiak, Alaska
We moved to Kodiak because Andy got offered a job, I guess that takes care of the second part of the definition.  

A typical day in Kodiak for me is easily described as nomadic, unconventional way of life.  So, that takes care of the first part.  Everyday is filled with one, or many, of 10 part time jobs, there's probably more, but it's hard to keep track of them all. 

On this particular lovely day in Kodiak... I'm not being sarcastic!  There's light, if any wind at all, the snow-laden peaks are aglow with the brilliance of a late morning sunrise and I have just sat down at the Kodiak Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center information desk.  I've been volunteering here since the first hours of our arrival back in May.  Sometimes I'm at the desk, other times I'm running the FUN (Families Understanding Nature) program, and when I'm lucky I take to the field by boat or plane.  I've learned so much about this Island through this experience, I recommend everyone volunteering for their local natural resource agency.  No, they didn't make me say that, I've genuinely enjoy working here, and wouldn't be writing about if I didn't.

This morning Andy and I woke up in a little cabin in the woods overlooking the water on all sides.  We let the dogs out for their morning business - No we didn't get dogs!  We are actually house sitting.  When the need arises we house sit and dog sit. It's nice because different parts of town have different vibes.  This place makes us feel like we're on vacation, we're partial to having a cosy fire when it's cold outside.

So it's before noon, and I've already taken care of two jobs.  I did bicycle to the bead shop first though to get some ironing in.  It's not technically work, but that does bring up the bead shop, Stringbeadz.  I help Dana out, the owner, when she travels or gets real busy, it's a trade for material, which is better than getting paid if you ask me.  And of course next door is a quilt shop called Just Jane's, thus the ironing.  I'm working on a quilt.  This will be my fourth quilt since I met Dana and Jane back in September.  Currently I'm also working for material at Just Jane's as she is inventorying everything.  I'll bike there next to do just that.  Between the inventorying, I'll also work on my quilt and some custom jewelry orders I took earlier this week.  So this last paragraph described three more facets of my gypsiness.

Of course when all that is done, 7pm will roll around and it's time to bowl.  I'm also in the Women's Bowling League.  I'm not just bowling three games tonight, but I'm also the League's Sargent of Arms.  That's right, I take care of security as needed.  I'm hearing the laughter now...

And that my friends takes care of Friday!

Tomorrow I'm helping out with a running clinic at the Coast Guard Base.  Zoya, a local physical therapist, is doing gait analysis and has asked me to help.  This is actually part of a health fair so I look forward to the venue and working with Zoya.  I normally teach yoga on Saturday mornings at A Balanced Approach, Zoya's studio, but due to a nasty fall on ice last week, I"m taking a couple weeks off.  I think I'm talking about jobs six and seven, but I've already lost track.

I'm also gearing up for my College Beginning Yoga Class, which starts up next week.  I'm an Adjunct Instructor at Kodiak College.  I'm pretty excited because I've accumulated 3 credits from teaching last semester, so I'm taking a wooden bow building class this semester!  My other extracurricular endeavors are learning the violin, and hopefully glass art.

I might get a breather on Sunday, but then Monday will roll around and there are the boys upstairs to watch, otherwise known as babysitting, then back to the refuge for work on Envirothon.  It's a high school competition that focuses on natural resources.  Check it out here:  http://www.envirothon.org/  The Kodiak Wildlife Refuge is hosting the Alaska State Competition this year, so I've volunteered my time gearing up for it. 

And of course, my number one job on the Island is taking care of Andy!  He does get fresh baked bread every week for his sandwiches, and no, we do not have a bread maker :)

And while I'm going about business on the ground, Andy is in the air making sure folks around the island get their mail, fuel, and groceries by air.  Or else he's doing a medivac, getting folks into town to catch a flight off island, or any number of other transport needs.  He's an everyday hero in my mind, because his services are so crucial to this island's well-being.

We may not be on the "move" as most of you know us to be, but we are gypsies by heart and are constantly on the go about Kodiak.

Kodiak Gypsies