Our Adventure Continues

Hello friends! Wesley and I have been extremely busy lately. We are learning the ways of Alaska which includes to drop everything if it's a pretty day and go fishing, and even when it's not pretty, drop everything and go fishing. Funny, but pretty much true. We have adapted to this lifestyle easily...especially Wesley.

On our very first fishing trip we went with Todd, Amy, and Hollyn to the mouth of the Nome River. This is where the pinks were running and silvers were starting to run. It is so neat to learn about the fish because there are SO many of them that you can see their backs out of the water sometimes, and they jump like crazy! Todd brought his fish grillers so we built a fire out of driftwood, caught some fish, and grilled them up!

This spot is really cool because it connects to the sea, so we were fishing in the river, but we were on the beach! It was awesome! Todd had his truck blaring music and, of course, "Sweet Home Alabama" played, so we felt right at home!  Wesley caught the first fish of the day only after he lost Todd's fish because he wasn't quick enough with the net!

Hollyn, Amy, and I went to collect another friend, Chris, and when we were pulling back up at the river, Wesley came running with a huge fish in one hand and a big blue wrapped thumb on the other! He looked so proud with his fish! It was his 3rd one of the day! His big blue thumb?? He sliced it open while cleaning the fish! He is better now. Anyway, we fished, ate, drank, and jammed out for a long while and then it was time for Todd to take Amy to the airport. She was a traveler and this was her last time fishing. It was a great day.

I should probably mention that Hollyn, Wesley, and I worked the night before and all we had planned to do that day was move Wesley and me into our new apartment and crash, but like I said before...when someone mentions fishing in AK..drop everything, and that's what we did! Todd and Hollyn helped us move into our new apartment before we went fishing though. We love it here! It is such a great apartment. It is so clean and open and reminds me of a condo. We have really started to make it feel like home here.

Lets see, we have received lots of packages in the mail so far. Paula Andrews has sent us 3 already! I was so surprised to get her packages! She bought us a set of 5 pyrex dishes and a set of 5 baking pans! We really needed these things so we were so excited! Also, she sent us a box of food items and a book! Thanks Paula! We received boxes of things we ordered from Columbia and Cabelas which is always fun to open! Wesley's Dad and Sisters sent us a box too! It was full of food!!!! haha Our pantry is looking good now! Rachel also clipped us some coupons and we got those, too! Thanks guys!



Wesley on a late night at work!



We have been working a lot! I got to watch my first baby being born, so that was incredible! We don't use epidurals at our hospital, so don't come here to have a baby! haha We got to hold the baby all night after the delivery so that was fun! Wesley is starting to really like working in the ER. I thought that's where I would want to work, but I like the inpatient unit just as well. I'm not comfortable enough to do ER, yet. I am still on training right now. Hollyn is my preceptor and she is awesome! We are starting to become great friends! Sometimes we all go eat breakfast after work in the mornings so that is a lot of fun!



"White Alices" on the top of Anvil Mountain from the Cold War



One morning, we were all going to eat breakfast, but decided to drive around a little bit before we went to eat. Hollyn owns a 4-runner so she took us just about everywhere! She drove us to the top of Anvil Mountain and all around town. She showed us the jail and the highschool. We had so much fun. Then we went to go eat, and she had a nail in her tire, so we went to the tire shop. Poor Wesley was "dying" of hunger at this point, so we went to Airport Pizza for breakfast instead. Then, we did tons of errands all around town! We went everywhere! We just had a great time that day driving around and going to all kinds of different stores!



Todd, Hollyn, Wesley, and I went on a ride through Banter Creek and up to Pilgrim Hot Springs with some stops in between. That was SO much fun! We saw 2 moose, a red fox, birds, and 3 grizzly bears. (I fell asleep and didn't see the bears, but everyone else did!) Our ride was 12 hours long! Talk about a good time!

We stopped at Salmon Lake for a bit and the views were breathtaking! We made it to Pilgrim Hot Springs and, of course, got in! When else are you going to be able to jump in a volcanic hotsprings in the middle of the tundra in Alaska! It was so hot!! The mountains were all around us. We could have stayed there for ages! We drove around through the wilderness. It was so invigorating knowing that we were the only vehicle around for who knows how long! The cool thing about this road is that it is only accessible in the summer by vehicle. You have to drive a snow machine to these areas if you want to access them in the winter. We had so much fun being a bunch of Southerners in such a Northern state!! We all felt so free!

  

Hollyn and I hanging out @ Salmon Lake

On the way back, we stopped at a bridge and, of course, did some fishing!!!

We caught a BUCKETFUL of fish... probably about 20 or so! In this particular place there were tons of "dog fish" which, I think, are the same thing as Chum salmon. They have been running longer, so they are older. Once Salmon spawn, they start to die, so these particular fish were old and rotting! haha They were HUGE though. Whenever you caught one, you just have to throw it back because they aren't as good to eat as the Humpys (pinks) we were catching too.

There is this nurse at work, CC, and she is an amazing cook! She loves to try new things, and we are fine with that! She asked us to bring her some fish and by-golly we did!! Actually, when we got home from our trip, it was about 2am and we didn't have her number so we gave all those fish to Mollie. Well, we promised CC some fish, so we went back the next day and got her another bucketful! We brought those fish to CC, and we can't wait to see what she is going to cook up! Wesley attemped to cook 1 fish for dinner the other night. We just don't know how to do it well. haha!



Dredge Number 5



Yesterday, we went on a 4-wheeler ride with Dr. Ledford through the mountains! It was incredible! (a little scary, but awesome) I was so nervous of bears...Wesley and I need a gun! We first went out to this old dredge and went exploring in there a little, then went on Glacier Creek road up through the backside of Anvil ountain. It was an awesome ride, and he convinced us to buy a Can-Am 4-wheeler. We are going Monday to get it! We can't wait! Our 4-wheeler won't even crank now... you live and learn!

Today, well, today we are resting! haha Wesley has to work tonight, so we are hanging out here. Later, I'm going to call Hollyn to see if she wouldn't mind taking us to the grocery store. Walking there isn't so bad, but walking back with tons of groceries proves challenging.

Till Next Time,

Maddie and Wesley

Happy Birthday Jennifer!!

I was supposed to write this blog yesterday, but we just moved and didn't get the internet up in time. It's better late than never...

Friends come and go. I've had tons of friends in my past, friends that you swore would be friends forever, but life happens and people grow apart. New opportunites bring new friends, and it's a never ending cycle.

Yesterday, 22 years ago, God created one of the most special people in my life, and I'm sure many other lives in this world. It is true that friends come and go whether we want to believe it, like it, or not, but the good thing about family is that it is always there, never falters. Jennifer Lauren Kirk holds many roles in my life...friend, cousin, sister, mentor, maid of honor, and I'm sure many more. No one quiet understands me the way Jennifer does, not even Wesley. It's good to have someone in your life like that. Jennifer understands what I mean before I even say it. We run things by eachother before doing anything...even if I've already made my mind up, I still feel this need to ask Jenn. It's because she is a part of me, and I, a part of her. No two people are alike, but in our case, we are more alike than not. Jennifer has been there with me through thick and thin. Most of our times are high times though. If I ever need a laugh, I just think of Jenn, or look at some of our pictures together!

Things haven't always been this great though. When we were little I despised Jennifer. She was that younger, annoying cousin who wouldn't leave me alone! She said one time at school I pretended I didn't know her! I have no idea what was going through my mind at the time, except I must not have wanted to smudge my 'Elementary School Image'! Jenn, I'm sorry! haha

It wasn't until about the 8th grade that Jenn and I really started to talk even. Then, Jennifer went to Saint Bernard with me and things were history, I suppose. That school did a lot of things for me, but one of the most special things was bringing me closer to Jenn. Jenn moved in with me about the 11th grade I guess when her house was being renovated. See, God puts these opportunities in your life because he already knew that Jenn and I were going to be best friends. It's not the same just to be someone's cousin. Jenn is my best friend, but it is the tie of family that keeps us together and will keep us together for life. No matter how far away I move (ALASKA) or how sucessful Jenn becomes, we still have that common denominator. Leaving Jennifer to move to Alaska was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.

Wrapping this up, Jenn is the person I vent to, the person I party with, the person I strive to be, because without her I am just me... I wouldn't want to be anyone else but Jennifer Lauren Kirk's cousin and most importantly, best friend. Happy 22nd Birthday Jenn!!!

Update From Nome!

Hey Guys! It's 2AM here in Nome! It has just recently started to get darker here. This is the view out the back of our apt. It has been pretty rainy and stormy for close to a week now, and I can't wait for it to stop so we can go down to the beach. Our beach has a rock border and the water is right up to the rocks now!! I bet when the waterline goes down there will be a TON of seaglass!!

I am working nights, so I tend to stay on the night schedule. Especially because Wesley is at work right now and I'm not! We have been working a lot and getting into the groove of things. I started my very first day of being a nurse last week, so of course I took a picture! Remember on the first day of school every year how mom would take you to the front yard to take your picture in full school garb to mark the day? Well, that's what it felt like....just felt customary. I am loving my job! I love being a nurse! Wesley really likes it too. He has been working in the ER a lot, but recently he started working on the inpatient unit with me. It's so nice to work together!

We will be moving into a new apartment soon. I can't wait! It is going to be so nice! I have already started buying stuff for it online. I discovered that you can get free shipping at Amazon.com so I've been ordering from there. We also started buying some winter gear online. The majority of our stuff is coming from Columbia but we also bought a couple items from Cabelas. It is so exciting to start receiving the things! We went to the post office the other day and came home with 5 boxes! Wesley's mom sent us a box of food, and it was just in time too cause we were about to go to the grocery store. My mom has a box in the mail right now, and I'm chomping at the bit to get it!



Package Contents From Wesley's Mom



Speaking of grocery store, we are starting to get used to the prices up here. I finally broke down and bought milk!! Learning to go on the start of the sale week, which is Wednesday, helps out. Usually, if you go early enough, you can get clearance meat, which is the biggest expense. When chicken is on sale, we've learned you really need to buy it all cause it doesn't go on sale that often. I bought a pack of 4 chicken breasts, bones, skin, and all for about $15. The boneless, skinless kind runs about $21-25, but sometimes they run it 30% if the date is coming up. We have only got that once. We tend to buy a lot of items with the "orange sticker", as they call it. This means that the date is coming up for expiration. Apparently, a lot of people wait for that time..haha.

There is a company called Full Circle Farms and they deliver organic groceries through freight to a major part of the US. I had never heard of it, but we looked into it and since produce was so pricey here, this is a great way to receive them! You can get an order every week or every other week. We signed up for every other week for now. On Friday, we got our very first Full Circle box and we were SO excited! Poor Wesley's been craving a tomato for ages! You can pick the contents of your box, but there is a deadline, and we missed it this week, but next box we will pick what we want. If anyone has any good recipes for Kale or Spinach please let me know! I think Kale is similar to cabbage so I thought about trying to make some crunchy salad, but I haven't tried yet.

Blueberries are in abundance here! They haven't started blooming yet, but when they do, they say the mountains look blue cause there are so many of them. I think everyone is allowed to pick 25 gallons of bluberries for sustinence, so I have a plan to make blueberry jam!!! I am SO excited. There was a yardsale today that had canning supplies for sale, but since I worked last night I accidentally slept through it. I was really upset about that. I'm going to look up how to do it online, so if anyone knows how to do that...please tell me!

I have a great idea planned for a photo tour of Nome, so be on the lookout for that. It will probably be awhile cause it's pretty rainy here lately. Wesley and I have to work Mon-Wed then we have a couple days off, so if we aren't moving into our new apartment by then, I will try to do it!

Also, I've thought about doing a Q/A blog, so... if anyone has any questions about us, living here, or Nome in general, comment below or FB me or email howard1770@yahoo.com and when I get enough questions I will do an answer blog! It will be fun! If I don't know the answer, Nome isn't very big, so I will surely be able to find out!
Till Next Time,
Maddie and Wesley

Orientation, Moose, and Gold!

Well, Wesley just drove away for work making this our first night apart in Nome. He started work today and I start tomorrow. Well, we have already started work this is just us actually starting nursing work after hospital orientation. I thought I would take this time to get caught up with my blog!

Lets see...

Monday of last week started our hospital orientation. It was great! We had a lot of fun getting to know everyone and getting oriented to the hospital. We got to go around to every department of the hospital for specific orientation to each department. I thought this was so beneficial because we learned what everyone is going through from the housekeepers to the lab workers. Since we are going to be working nights, we have to run our own labs. We get to spin them in the centerfuge...I've always wanted to do that! We get to run our own pregnancy tests, drug screens, etc. It should be interesting!

We used to complain about the cafeteria at our old hospital being expensive and charging for every little thing, but MAN I wish we could have those prices again! haha Wesley and I ate lunch at the cafeteria every day last week and we spent about $25 each day! That was just for like a small salad, piece of meatloaf, and some corn. We bought drinks the first couple days until we realized there was free water. One day I got soup, and each pack of crackers I wanted was $0.25 each!! So, yea... I'm glad we will get to be working at night and that will not be open!

We watched a lot of movies about hospital specific protocols and policies and had a test about each one. That really wasn't that bad. The computer system they use is called Meditech, so it is something we are not familiar with, but I don't think it will be too hard. We will be doing paper charting and just using the computer to order things, which the secretary usually does anyway.

The 3rd day at work, Wednesday, I, being my clumsy self, tripped over my own shoe while standing still and crashed into a chair and desk. haha They made me fill out an incident report even after I swore I was ok! I felt so embarrassed! A couple bruises on my back and leg later, and I'm good as new! haha The only thing hurt was my pride.

Thursday, we went to a new friend's house. Her name is Libby. We met a ton of people from work and it was so much fun. We had a "make your own kabob" party out of MOOSE! Todd, a nurse from Talledega, had Dale's sauce shipped in from the lower 48 and marinated the moose in that. It tasted just like beef. We also had margaritas, which of course made me think of my mom cause they used Jose'! (Which cost $70 by the way) We still haven't got used to the prices here! It was a great party and there were tons of people there! We have started to make some great friends here already.

After we left Libby's house, we went over to Mollie's house and she showed us around a little. She lives right on the beach which is also where the Iditarod dogsleds park every year. She let us borrow a few books about Alaska and a place called King's Island. There used to be a community that lived there, but you could only reach it by barge and it just got too expensive to take care of them, so those people all had to move to Nome. It's really interesting if you want to research it. Mollie took us over to this little Russian store and we looked at some of his stuff. Carvings, furs, books, you name it, he had it! He closed at 11pm so we left after that and just talked for awhile. It's so weird that the sun doesn't go down here... you don't get tired!

Friday, we had to do a hospital-wide orientation from 8-5 and then we were headed to Cripple River Gold Camp. People from all over the states come to Cripple River to pan for gold each summer. I think they have 6 weeks of sessions. One man told us it was about $1800 a week per person to come pan for gold. You probably make that much back in the gold you get though. Wesley and I have thought about doing it...maybe next year. Anyway, each Friday night during those 6 weeks, they invite the people of Nome to a spaghetti dinner to interact with the campers and make it "real" for them I guess! haha Since we are "locals" now, we were invited! A lot of the same people from the last night came to this.



Whale Spine



We took about a 15 mile beach ride on the 4 wheelers to get there! We had to ford a river, which was scary and so much fun! We saw a baby seal on the beach jump back into the water and we saw a whale spine. Wesley cut a piece of the vertebrae off for my dad. The blubber and everything was still there... I'll admit that it was kinda gross! We rode through the surf on the way back and our poor 4 wheeler was smoking like crazy... not too sure how much longer it will last, but that's a different story!

So we made it to the camp with half of my body soaking wet and freezing from the river! This camp was awesome! It reminded me of an old Western town. The buildings were wooden and had that "saloon" shape to them. We ate the spaghetti dinner in a mess hall and talked to all kinds of folks... mainly from Washington and the middle US. After that, we checked out the medic cabin. It was so cool. Just really simple. Todd, the nurse from AL, is on the med-evac team too, and he said they put a chest tube in there last year! Wesley is going to sign up to take some flight nurse call when he gets done with training. He is very excited!

After that, they brought out the gold for us to look at and take pictures of! It was really cool seeing the gold in real life. How they divide up the gold between all the campers is by raffle. Each person gets a ticket and on Friday night, they call out the numbers and you get a nugget associated with that number...biggest to smallest. Each person also gets a tube of gold dust, so it evens out cause the person with the smallest nuggest gets the biggest tube.

On the way back home to Nome, we had an awesome ride on the beach! Wesley let me drive on the way back and it was much more fun to ride! It is so much colder in the front though so you have to bundle up with goggles, hat, gloves, etc. Wesley and I have been investigating gear online, so we will be ordering some soon!

The rest of the weekend up till now we have just been cleaning the apt, walking on the beach, and just lolligagging around. We went to the grocery store and stocked up. We used some coupons Emily Wells sent us, so SHOUT OUT to her! :) Thanks! We stayed up really late last night so we could get ready for night shift!

Till Next Time,

Maddie and Wesley