It's been quiet in Kodiak.

It's been a while, huh? Well, not much has been going on around here. Everything's good, just a little boring... work, church, class, hockey for Jason, some duty, dinner with friends... not much to really talk about. It's actually kind of nice.

The other nice thing going on these days is that we're getting more and more light every day! We're at the time of the year when we gain about 5 mins of daylight every day, which is a welcome treat, especially when it's actually sunny! We're now seeing sunrise around 8:30am (thanks to daylight savings time... we were seeing it at about 7:45 right before that!), and tonight, at 8pm it was finally dark enough to have to turn some lights on in the house. Unfortunately, the weather is not paying attention to the calendar, and we've had temps in the 20s (you saw that right... 20s) the last couple of mornings, with some pretty brisk winds. "Brisk" is relative, by the way.... we were gusting to 55mph today. That's brisk! I've heard a rumor that some crocuses are popping up around town, but the lingering snow (and the snow in the forecast this week) says it might be a while til we see actual spring. *sigh*

Luckily, we have EXACTLY the thing we need to stay warm through the rest of the winter. It arrived in the mail this week after spending some time up in Anchorage at a furrier. That lovely piece of fur is the remnants of this year's caribou (the rest of which is in the freezer!!). Jason sent it off to be tanned up in Anchorage, and now we have a tanned caribou hide....... though I have no idea what we're supposed to do with it! As I told Mom, my decorating sense goes more toward Pottery Barn than "hunting lodge" so it could be a while until the hide finds a home, but we have it, and Jason seems to be happy about it! Maybe the next house will have a man room and he'll hang it on the wall or something! For now, it's mostly freaking Fred out (he MUST go check it out everytime he walks by one of the spare rooms, where the hide is currently laid out on the bed).

That's about it around here this week (or so). My camera has been staying at the house during hikes and walks because it's enough to haul around the 15 lbs of baby I'm carrying so I've left the extra 10 or so pounds of camera equipment behind. I might have to start bringing it in the car with me again every day, though, since we've heard rumors of Orca sightings in the channel and the eagles continue to amaze me!

And, finally, the camera's one main use these days - documenting my growing belly. Here's the next installment of

BUMP WATCH 2009!

You get another headless shot this week because I have to say I looked TERRIBLE by midweek when we took this picture. I'm not sleeping very well and I just looked tired! But, this is me at 22w1d. I'm now WELL over the halfway mark, and actually approaching 6 months! It's amazing to me how fast the time is going... which also helps cause the sleepless nights with the shear terror of the fact that there's a baby at the end of this part of the ride! Everyone says everything will come to us once she's here, but I'm not fully convinced of that yet!!!

That's all from here for now! I'll try to bring out the camera a little more often and share some of Kodiak's beauty again soon!