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

New Wheels, New Job...We're On Our Way!

Wesley and I have been so busy these past few days, I have been too tired to blog! (sorry) Anyway, I'll make up for it today with a GREAT post for yall!

There is a thrift store in town, so Wesley and I thought we would check it out. We walked down to the United Methodist Church and went in to the trailer-like thrift store. It was packed! People were grabbing stuff off the shelves like crazy, but nothing had price tags! It turns out, they had different prices for different bags and it was pretty much everything you could shove in the bag for a certain price. We bought the $6 bag and filled it with 2 pairs of winter boots, 2 sweaters, a crockpot, a knife set, and a board game. (you know me and my games!) We will definately be back!

Ever heard of craigslist? Well, Nome has a thing called "Nome Announce", which is kinda like craigslist, that is specific just for the people of Nome. We search it every day since we were actively looking for an apt and a mode of transportation. Everything is SO pricey here, so finding something at a good price is hard. We found a 4 wheeler for sale for a great price, so we jumped on it! We walked to the seller's house and drove home! :) Wesley test drove the 4 wheeler, and we are still learning how to shift gears appropriately. It is a 1994 Suzuki Quadrunner in faded red with a ducktaped bumper...perfect! Yes, we argue over who drives and I win most of the time! :) The guy we bought it from is a mechanic, so he said if anything ever went wrong with it just to let him know! We are starting to make some connections here and it feels great!

 Since we finally got some wheels, we were finally able to go to one of the better fishing spots! Wesley swore this was going to be the spot for him to catch the motherload. I made a bet with him that if he caught a fish, he got to drive home. About an hour later, I was driving us back to the apartment to eat our chicken dinner.



Here, you can drive 4 wheelers everywhere except 3 streets (the main ones). You can even drive on the beach, so Wesley and I did just that! We took an awesome joyride on the beach, but we soon stopped for our daily sea glass collection. I don't think this hobby will ever get old! Speaking of sea glass, we had another great day at the beach! Our thermometer spazzed out again and lied to us... 110 degrees is a little unbelievable! This was yesterday (Sunday), so we decided to try out the United Methodist Church in town. It was...different. haha Simple and sweet, I guess. After church, we went back to the apartment, changed into t-shirts, and hopped on our 4 wheeler. We went down to the beach and went searching for sea glass...we sure are getting alot! We want to save it all up and make a backsplash for our kitchen we will one day build! :) After searching for quite some time, we trekked up the beach to the rocks and found a great spot to just relax and watch the incredible Bering Sea! It was such a beautiful day that there were gold dredges out in the water and even commercial fishermen!

Today was our first day at work, and it went great! (Aside from the fact that my new name badge looks like I have a right sided stroke and Wesley's looks like he is wearing bright pink lipstick) All we did today was orientation stuff like filling out forms and getting tours, but we had a great time! We will be working night shift, but we are on days for this week and then next week we switch to nights. They do things a lot differently at this hospital and it is so small, but I think we are really going to like it here! Our boss has an apartment at her house... I think it is like a basement apartment, and it is available! We are coming over next week to look at it, and it is going to be a really good opportunity if we are able to rent it.

Till Next Time,

Wesley and Maddie

Beach Day

Today, Wesley and I went to the beach! The ocean here is so beautiful. You can see if from just about every part of town, but you can't ever see the sand. There is a huge barrier of boulder-like rocks and that is pretty much all you see when you look out...that and the water.

We woke up this morning and looked at our thermometer...it read 90 degrees. I think something is wrong with it! haha It was right in the sunlight so maybe that had something to do with it. Later, it read 70 and I think that was about right. Wesley wore a tshirt and jeans and I opted for a light long-sleeved tshirt and jeans because the breeze off the ocean is pretty chilly. We ate lunch at Airport Pizza, which is probably my favorite lunch spot so far, and then headed to the pharmacy to get some prescriptions filled. Then, we timed ourselves to see how far it would take to walk from the hospital to our apartment..8 minutes.

I wanted to go gold panning, but after some research, it turns out you have to have special permission to do that in certain places. There are public access areas, but I was unsure of what those were, so needless to say, we didn't go. However, during my research, I came across an article about Nome's beaches and sea glass. Mom and I found a piece of sea glass one time and we thought it was the greatest thing in the world, so I thought me and Wesley should give it a try. We went down to Middle Beach, found the break in the rocks, and went straight for the water!

Turns out, there is sea glass everywhere! We had so much fun picking it up. Wesley finds all the greens and I find all the blues. I have green eyes and he has blue eyes, and Wesley's theory is that we are each attracted to the other color and that's why we got married! haha

We took a break from the beach and went to a yard sale. There wasn't much there, so we walked around for a little bit before dinner. We just had leftovers which is pretty boring. After dinner, I was bored, and since the sun doesn't go down.... we went sea glass searching again!!! Mom said she wanted a postal box full, so we better get searching! haha

Anyway, we had a lot of fun today, and I'm so glad we had such pretty weather today!

Till Next Time,

Wesley and Maddie

Prices in Nome

Well, this is our 4th day in Nome, and life here is great so far! This blog is going to be about prices in Nome. WOW... I like going to the grocery store just to be amazed by the prices. Living here makes me really appreciate prices at home! I know I have some coupon loving friends out there and I know my mom has more, so if yall have ANY extra manufacturers' coupons...our grocery store takes them! :) We would appreciate all the help we can get. Here are some pictures of the things that really stood out to me at the store...







$4.19 for a carton of eggs!

We bought the medium grade from $2.49 I think.

 

$6.69 for orange juice.

They had a deal 2 for $8.00 on the off brand so we did that!

$5.79 for Cheez-Its....

Needless to say, we didn't buy any.

 

$4.49 for off-brand peanuts!

Wesley wanted these really bad, but we didn't get them.

$5.79 for a bag of Ruffles...and this was the

small one!

$5.09 for a pack of Oscar Meyer hotdogs!

$5.19 for a 2 liter Pepsi!! YIKES!

$11.29 for a 12 pk of pepsi products!

I felt really weird taking all these pictures in the store, but I really wanted yall to see the prices of stuff because I would want to see it! So, if yall have any coupons you wouldn't mind parting with, we would love to utilize them! Tell your friends! :) Thanks in advance! And stay tuned with our blog!

Our address is: Wesley and Madison Crow

PO Box 1996

Nome, AK 99762

Till Next Time,

Wesley an Maddie