YES! M-AEST

Transfer Courses									Institution Equivalent
	Term	Subject	Crs No	Course Title	Credits	Grp	Grd	D	A	Subj	Crse	Course Title	Credits	Grd
	201002	BIOL	F694	Environmental Microbiology	3.00		A		O	BIOL	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F644	Environmental Mgmt & Law	3.00		A		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F646	Unit Processes - Biological	3.00		A-		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F649	Hazardous & Toxic Waste Mgmt	3.00		A+		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ENVE	F652	Intro Toxicology for Engr & Sc	3.00		A		O	AEST	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	ESM	F605	Engineering Economic Analysis	3.00		A		O	ES	A6	Departmental Elective	3.00	A T
	201002	STAT	F402	Scientific Sampling	3.00		A		O	STAT	A402	Scientific Sampling	3.00	A T
	Total Credits Accepted:				21.00
What is all that junk? Well, it is the final word that one of my largest hobbies for the past 3 years is going to amount to a master's degree in Applied Environmental Science & Technology. Yes, all of the courses that I took in Fairbanks are now transferred to Anchorage and my Graduate Study Plan is signed and posted. It took about a year and a half to get this done, because no one has tried to do what I'm doing before. Regardless, all I have to do is finish the last 9 credits. The problem is . . . I already know what I want to do my second master's degree in . . . but still have no clue what to do for a job. Oh well, life is short and I love to learn. Maybe if I go for a master's in Natural Resource Management I'll discover what I want to be when I grow up (besides a mother, wife, student, outdoorswoman, and wanna-be photographer).

Capture Life. NOW!

After hearing about two of my relatives pass away in the past two months, I have to say that life is unpredictable. R.I.P. aunt Dory; 49 is much too young for an unexpected heart attack. And R.I.P, uncle Ron; who knew a case of pneumonia could bring you literally from one world to another? It just goes to show that you don't know what is going to happen from one week to the next.

When we fly our little family of four down to MN to celebrate my dad's 60th Birthday next month, we're having our 3 present generations photographed at my parents' 575 acre 5 generation farm by Katie Jeanne Photography. She has kindly offered to travel 90 miles (one-way) out into the boondocks to capture some memories for us. I figure if we're going to capture some memories at the farm, what better time to do it than right now. No one in my immediate or extended family has to my knowledge ever been custom photographed. Don't get me wrong; my mom's side of the family takes a lot of photos. In fact, my grandmother left us an entire walk in closet full of them. But, the problem with this is that the people who take the photos never get to be in them.

Until then, I've been working on some projects of my own. Let's be honest, we don't always have the money or want to allocate the money to hire a professional custom photographer. And, after 6 years in Alaska and 3 years in my new home, I've come to terms with the fact that we're staying, so I might as well decorate those pretty walls . . . or at least send out some Fall Equinox or Winter Solstice greeting cards:

Something is better than nothing. Even if you don't have a camera at all, you can always go to Sear's Portrait Studio. They continually have Free Offers with little fine print. Online there are coupons for a free session and a free print (or more) at absolutely no cost. You can go back as many times as you want for free as long as you bring a coupon each time. You may not be able to get your whole family in the scene for free, but you can do individual shots if nothing else. All you have to do is print the coupon, make the appointment, show up, and order your free print. It's true, the resolution is not great, and the paper quality is very poor, but you have to keep in mind that it's free. Even if the product is not nice enough for your wall, start an album or even just a 3-ringed binder and save them. It's nice to have large prints to look back on. Here're two, our baby learning to lie on his belly and toddler eating a cookie so that he'll stay in the photography room long enough to be photographed, I liked enough to hang in the kids' play room: $30 ($15/10x13 frame)

Capture memories yourself and print. We get together with my parents who live a day away by airplane several times a year, and I always love the photos that they take of our family because they are completely candid. Events like my son unscrewing his play table, climbing out of the dog kennel, or peeing off of the front step are memories that should be taken and printed if nowhere else at a place like Shutterfly, where a 4x6 print is only 9-10c. There's nothing worse than not taking any photos than taking them and letting them sit on a hard-drive unseen. Stick them in a photo album. If you have the memory space, keep your camera at the highest pixel setting because you never know when you will fall in love with one of the photos that you take and want to blow it up really large. After filling 6 albums (almost 1500 photos--really), I had these images blown up and mounted on metal, so that they will be durable enough to live by our woodstove for years to come: $100 ($50/16x16 metal print)

Buy a nice frame. It doesn't matter if I'm buying a carseat or a picture frame; I ask myself the same two questions. Is it easy to install? And is it easy to clean? You will notice that you have to pay just a few dollars more for frames that are easy to dust (1 piece of glass and few ledges, nooks and crannies) and that have mounting hardware. Yes, it's hard to believe but if you're not getting a custom frame you should always look on the back because it doesn't always have the basics! And trust me, it's worth the extra because frames are reusable and will last pretty much forever. Most photos I take would not look any good blown up. Either the baby's drooling or the toddler has a snotty nose. There's a blade of grass in front of someone's face or the light isn't quite right. But, you know, in a nice collage frame, they look okay together, and as the boys grow older, more collages will be made. In fact, this is already the second one I've done in the past 6 months. It costs essentially nothing to update your frame so your guests have something new to look at from time to time, in our case, when they first walk into our home: $30.80 ($30 frame, $0.80/8 prints)

Leave room to grow. An absolutely amazing natural light family photographer, MachC Photography, recently gave me some great advice. 1) Before you order prints, canvas, standouts, buy frames, or whatever, cut out a piece of paper the size that you think you want and tape it to the wall where you want it. You may be surprised that you have been thinking too big or too small. You want to make a statement and you want the faces to be big enough that they can be seen. That said though . . . 2) Leave room to grow. And this can mean 2 things if not more. Don't necessarily print as big as your pixels allow or as big as your wall can handle right off the bat. You may want to add more images later or you may in the future want to print a different image even larger. For example, we have a giant wall in our master bedroom and I plan to fill it with prints on black standouts (a cheap alternative to canvas--neither require frames) for years to come . . . below, to the right, to the left, and beyond . . . memories of every age, every season, everyone: $40/16x20 standout

You get what you pay for. Just like most things in life you truly get what you pay for. A professional photo lab like Black River Imaging or a semi-pro lab like Mpix (easier uploading software than BRI) is going to give you a much better result if you're printing your own images than any of the well-known consumer labs. They have the right paper, the right printers, and the right mounting products to make your image look great and last longer than you. But, they're not miracle workers. You need a properly developed high resolution image to start with. If you don't have the time or don't want the stress, leave it to the professional custom photographers. You pay them to capture timeless high resolution images in perfect lighting and make them into products that you will treasure, well, forever.

Photos are for people who want to be reminded of specific moments in time, who are not afraid to see or share who they really are, or appreciate creativity and art. Nothing's stopping you. Capture this moment before it's gone.

Update: Summer Part 2

1) Travel. In August, baby N traveled with me to MN for his first time. The trip was quite busy, but some of the main events included a mother/daughter kayak trip; visiting with my uncle and aunt who were up visiting from VA; celebrating my cousin's wedding, bachelorette party, and her son's baptism; attending my 10yr high school reunion; and having a memorial service for my dad's younger sister who sadly passed away from a heart attack at age 49. N and I met the other 4 baby cousins, who are essentially the same age.

To digress, since I moved to AK permanently after having spent 2 summers up here, I've flown back to MN 10 times: Jan 05, Jul 05, Sept 05, Dec 05, Aug 06, Dec 06, (in 07, we built a house), Jul 08, Jun 09, Dec 09, and Aug 10. My parents from MN have come up here to AK to visit 10 times also: Jun 05, Jun 06, Nov 06, Apr 07, Oct 07, Dec 07, Mar - Apr 08 (separately for the birth of baby A), Dec 08, Mar - Apr 10 (separately for birth of baby N), June 10. We didn't try to make it even; it just turned out that way! Anyway, as a result my husband, our children, and I are very close to my parents, which is extremely important to us. Along the way, we've also helped each other out a lot. My dad helped us out tremendously when we built our house, and both my mom and dad provided a lot of help with both the kids and other projects when they've come to visit. On the flip side, my husband (he's only been down to MN 3 times though) is able to help out on their farm, haying and splitting wood, when he goes. We're going in November for my dad's 60th birthday, and the whole family is able to go, so my husband will get to help out on the farm once again.

2) Chores. It never ends around here. I keep journals for each of my kids so that they may read about the ups and downs, their talents and achievements of childhood when they're older. I realized yesterday 5 months have passed since I last wrote to them in their journals and my oh my have they grown up since that last journal entry. I blame this lapse in time on the chores that make the days fly by so quickly. My husband has finished preparing for winter. This includes gathering all of the summer outdoor tools and toys together and storing them, bringing the boats in for safe storage, and preparing many cord of wood for us for the winter, which is by far the heftiest task of all. (It is nice to burn renewable energy though not to mention that it saves us a lot of money in fuel oil). I do the majority of the cooking and cleaning and laundry, but my husband still plays a major role. He likes to help with the cleaning and he is quite a fantastic cook. I earned my keep as a gatherer this summer and picked tons of rasperries and blueberries, some of which I preserved as jam and syrup and some of which we will eat in yogurt over the winter. But, most of the time is consumed in daily tasks such as preparing meals, cleaning up after, keeping us clean and dressed. It is amazing how much more time this takes when you have two children rather than one. The 3rd "child," the dog barely ever gets his nails clipped anymore or gets a bath or a brush; to compensate, he does get extra food, so I don't think he minds much that he is at the bottom of the chain of chores. Sometimes people ask, "Would you like some fish or a houseplant?" The answer is "No, it will probably get lost in the mix and die so why bother trying."

3) Work and school and daycare. My husband has been working 10-12 hours a day and for the first time ever last weekend brought his work home with him (something he has always tried not to do). This is mainly because in a few weeks he will take a new job as a Reliability Supervisor. So, now, he is finishing up his old job which is neither reliability nor production. He is a Technical Trainer and is giving a 3 week long training session to a few of the reliability operators among other things. I will graduate with a Master's in Environmental Science this spring. So, I am taking a course on Energy this fall and will have a Risk Assessment and an Environmental Chemistry course next semester. So that I can find the time and energy to study somewhat uninterrupted, we budget for our oldest child to go to daycare two mornings a week. He looks forward to it because he has several great friends there, one of which he potty trained, and of course there are a ton of toys there. I like it because he learns good manners there and also does preschool activities.

I have been working on several other projects, which have consumed a lot of time. They have been frustrating for me, so I will bring them up when I see results at a later date.

Adios, summer! It may have been the best and the fastest so far. They always say that time flies when you're having fun.

Transition to Winter

The transition to winter is slow this year. The orange leaves hung on the birch and aspen for quite a long time this fall, 3-4 weeks I would say. During this time, we did an awful lot of hiking. Our baby at 7 - 8 months was just big enough to ride on my back in the Ergo, and our 2.5 year old was just small enough that my husband could carry him in the Kelty pack. It'll be interesting how we will travel next year. I anticipate that I will carry our food, the eldest boy will walk and the new toddler will graduate to my husband's back. On the left is the very last hike we did as a family this year. It was also the last day that the trees held onto their leaves.

The next day, it became cold. And a few days later, I got my wish albeit the leaves rustling in the wind. At 31 degrees, my husband and I and two friends took our kayaks out on the upper chena for a few hours. I wore 4 pair of wool socks under my rubber boots, goretex lined pants over long underwear, 2 warm polyester shirts plus a hooded fleece, hooded gortex jacket, life jacket, and wool hat. I was warm until the end, when it became quite breezy and started snowing on us. During the 8 mile jaunt, my husband and I definitely improved our tandem kayak skills, roughed up the bottom of the kayak quite a bit, and saw some pretty sights, while ice formed on the sides of the river.

The next week, it warmed back up to the 50s and 60s Now, 2 weeks later and heading into mid-october, it is still warm enough that we can hit the playgrounds and be comfortable without winter gear. I have no complaints about this slow transition to fall. Winter is long enough as it is up here in Fairbanks, Alaska.