reason to be happy today

chuckles my landlord left a message on phone tonight at 8:30 saying

"hey olivia, it's chuck.  i'm just dinking around in my workshop (which is right by my bedroom) so if you hear strange noises its just me.  don't want ya to worry and stay awake all night.  alright see ya."

the only thing that could have widened my watermelon smile is if he refered to himself as chuckles.

xoxo.

o

can't wait to see this lady, both

i don't have any pictures of my mama and papa but

i can't wait to see them too!

kim and low fly in on monday and we are off to adventure southeast alaska.

we are taking the ferry to juneau, staying in my lovley friends home adam and bon

touring juneau for a day or two, shopping, trams, hiking, kayaking mendenhall

taking off on the ferry to skagway, a quiant little town with a man playing the piano on the corner

taking a scenic train around skagway & maybe even doing the 1000 ft zipline over the glacier!

after we sightsee and tour skagway and juneau we're off on a ferry again!

orca, hump back, sea otter and lion watching galore

then we'll spend just over a week in sitka enjoying the beauty of what i call home.

after the parents leave alli shows up!!  and PARTY!!

late night talks, walks through totem park, pie at the nuggett

crab, lobster, halibut, and king

movies, candy, words with friends, and two best friends living the life.

i can't wait, i am so grateful for the time and money spent to come save me!!

and of course for all the prayers and support all the family has given spenny and i.

we love you.

see you all in t minus 27 days.

xoxo

O.

one week.

today marks one week alone, and... i'm still alive!  the first few days i couldn't sleep at all, it was like night of the living dead around here.  i was so scared and paranoid and every little sound set me off.  well after i got over that and bucked up a little i've been sleeping soundly for 12+ hours every night!  i hired a native girl to work here a couple weeks ago so it's just been her and i for the last week.  no lunch breaks, just work work work.  a few days ago a girl moved back to sitka from managing the key west store and came in to see if i would hire her, miracle!  now i can take a week off (mind, soul and body) while my parents come to visit!  boo ya!!  so while she's been taking over and i can finally relax i was able to do some online shopping and a lot of phone ordering spencer around to buy our new car, that i just love!  finally, we both got the best of what we were looking for.  me, i wanted a subaru preferably the hatchback, check, under 50k miles, check, dark interior, check, year 2008, check.  spencer wanted dark grey exterior, check, under 50k USD, check (haha), and no rail dust, check.  we are totally smitten.  i can't wait to come back and take the gray wolf out for a spin!  but really, i can't wait to come back and see spencer.  i've missed my man more than i could ever imagine.  we really are best friends, no one makes me laugh like spencer, and no one can get my goat better than spencer.  he's the peanut butter to my jelly, and you all know i can't live with out peanut butter.  4 more weeks to go, big deep breath and jumping.

xoxo.

olivia

spencer is the man

s

he picked up this beauty for our family today! i love it!!

things that made me happy today

yes!!!!

enjoy

i love that berenstain bear

all images from mine and spencer's skype date last night

xoxo

oh man

spencer jump roping with a 4 foot jump rope 

oh how i'm going to miss this guy.  going from spending every second of the day with someone to not seeing them for 6 weeks is pretty shocking to the system, and it's only the first day.  and when he's as great as that ^ it's really something else.  spencer packed up all his stuff last night while i layed in bed and sulked, i feel bad about that one.  then this morning he woke up and gathered all his luggage, i stumbled down the hallway ate some cereal in silence with him, walked him down the stairs where the cab was waiting, kissed him goodbye and locked the door behind him.  i felt like i was in a dream world, i went upstairs and layed on the couch and cried.  then i told myself to quit being a ninny, get up, get showered and change my tude.  and i've had quite a great day!  work has been slow and i've been able to prepare my talk i get to give in sacrament tomorrow, my peanut butter and jelly tasted exceptional and my cold chai tea hit the spot like nothing else.  so far so good. 

xoxo.

o

a true sitkan

look at those brown legs!  how does she get so lucky? 

it makes me miss the sun, but so excited to see my family!

xoxo

no, thank you!

london in her sitka shirt 2011

may may in her noah's ark alaskan shirt 2011

londy and may hanging out in the shade

we got a thank you email from these two cats and their mama and papa today.  it made mine and spence's day!  we were oohing and aahing at every picture, i can't believe how big may may has grown!  she's a little lady now, and we love it.  we are so happy that we have such an amazing family.  although allie and richard thought we did them a favor lending them our car they actually did us the favor by taking such good care of it, so THANK YOU!  i hope they all cruised around in the canyons in the hot sun with the sunroof down hair blowing in the wind with the oldies blasting for me a couple of times this summer!  we love them so much.  xoxo

the peace tree

spencer and i went on a little walk around sitka and we came across this little peace tree.  spencer had read about it earlier in the newspaper, a young girl in sitka folded a bunch of small oragami paper cranes and hung them in this tree to create, inspire, and give hope and peace to those suffering.  i thought it beautiful.  the cranes were either left blank perfectly white or had a quote or some encouraging words on them.  i loved how they drifted in the wind as we walked by, it really did create a peaceful feeling.  oh how we love this little town sitka.  xoxo.

13.aug.11

CONGRATULATIONS!!!  to my best friend in the whole world who married her best boy friend in the whole world today!  i love these two and miss them dearly.  how couldn't you just love those two faces?  and her dress, so classy and beautiful.  and nick i just love that guy so much.  i can't wait for pictures of the event, if you know elora you know it will be extravagantly elegant, because that is just who she is.  i love you e and nickolav.  i am so proud of you both and can't wait for our late night mcdonald's dp runs and temple drive bys.  i'll always love you to the moon and can't wait for our futures together, sippin on dp on the front porch listening to nick serenade us with that beautiful voice of his.  to the absolutely beautiful couple.  cheers!  xoxo

grocery shopping with raliegh

i decided to take off to the grocery store while spencer was in utah for a few short days.  i took spencer's bike because i've always wanted to know what it was like to ride off on the "raliegh" well, to put it simply, paradise!  his bike maybe weighs 5 pounds, while my "ground assault" huffy on the other hand weighs close to 40 pounds!  and the seat is ultra uncomfortable!  the raliegh has a nice squishy seat and brakes, those are two very important factors when biking in my humble opinion, right dad??  anywho, back to the original story, i got to the grocery store and shopped till my heart was content and nearly 100 bucks and about 10 grocery bags later i walked outside and realized that i had to bike all those groceries home by myself.  i manuvered the bike to the curb (it's a little too tall for me so i have to mount the bike from curbside) loaded about 5 grocery bags on each handle bar and right before taking off a very nice couple in their mid 50s drove up to me giggling at the sight asked if i needed a ride.  i too embarrassed to take them up on their offer declined and pushed forward yelling "thanks anyways!!" the next 2 miles home were pretty fun and lopsided, i looked like lloyd christmas swerving around town on my new ride!  the picture just doesn't do it justice.  but needless to say, i have now adopted "raliegh" and spencer has a new friend in all 40 pounds of the "ground assault"  xoxo

happy

this is me happy. why? because i love wit, class, & cleverness in creative writing, and that is some pretty witty, classy, & clever creative writing. i love finding gems like this around me, the world still has some good in it people, look for it today i promise you'll be pleasantly surprised. xoxo

11.aug.11

robert & morgan got married today!  i am so excited for

them to start their life together.  married life is the best! 

i love you two and can't wait for double dates, adventures,

having cousins that are best friends, and pictures of the

wedding of course!  aren't they just a stunning couple?

i love love.

xoxo

salmon run

see all that moss in the water, it's actually fish. i thought it was moss too, pretty cool, huh? i hear this is just the beginning and im gettin excited!! i might just try and catch one right out of the water with my bare hands xoxo

the birthday twins and the feat

bon and i with our birthday suprises.  i bought those socks for bon secretly
and spencer bought the same for me secretly so when we opened our gifts
they were the same!  it was such a fun birthday, one i'll always remember.

although i didn't help a lick on this puzzle they let me put in the last
piece for a birthday miracle.  spencer has been working on that thing for
months and adam and bon came in and helped him destroy it.  well done!

high fives for puzzling birthdays and good times.

oh how i love those two, adam and bon bon.  we have the coolest birthdays ever.  man was i ever spoiled this year.  21 was good but i have a feeling 22 will have it beat by just the slightest bit, good things are on the horizon.

chuckles and the birthday girls

chuckles, bonzai, and adam

getting ready for the ride of our lives

the moment i fell in love again with sitka, i felt like i was in a good dream

team del sol alaska

the sitka gang, and how i love those guys.

pretty cute if you ask me

it's always like this in sitka...

playing on the see saw

us being extra tough in our xtratufs

i wish i could claim this one, bon's foot against a fresh bear paw print in the sand

best birthday suprise ever.

thumbs up for a good time, and indeed we had ourselves a pretty good time.  chuck, our landlord who also owns a cool knife and bizaar shop up the street from us took us out for a scenic boat ride and some four wheeling to the north shore of kruzof island.  it was completely breath taking.  we started up this winding path covered in dark black bear scat (from the berries of course) we hit some wide open fields where bear spotting is a norm but we didn't spot any this time, we continued to machine our way through a mossy oak labrynth to find the beautiful beach break through the canopy of trees and take our breath away.  i felt like i was in narnia on the beaches of new zealand, for a second i even daydreamed i was there.  it was amazing, the boys cruised off on the quads up and down the beach found a hammock to lay in, and explored while bon, chuck and i chatted away and got some teeter tottering in.  we all zipped along the beach back into a quiet cove and had a little rest and ate some munchies.  i even drank a victory dr pepper at the top of the summit (i've been off caffiene for 4 months) and it tasted darn good.  we ended the night with some van winkles, squeaky the water boy, and of course a birthday peanut butter bombe.  22 feels just right to me.  xoxo.