Some of you may have been asking yourselves what the heck I do with all of my extra time. Surprisingly, I don't have as much free time as one would think. I still wish there were more hours in the day! In between working at WW, volunteering at the animal shelter, searching and applying for jobs, getting me and the dog's exercise in for the day, and getting all of the other crap around the house done, I really am not that bored! Maybe I've just learned how to spread my projects out...Who knows! I have worked on some projects with my new found time:
This beauty here was a royal pain in my butt to assemble. After what seemed to take me ages to put together, I was then able to burn, stain, and varnish it. We now have this bench in our Arctic Entry so our "getting ready to go outside into the snow and cold process" is a little easier.
This is the next project I tackled. Luckily, this treasure was already assembled, so I just had to burn, stain, and varnish this one! Thank God!
I also wanted to take this time to thank Uncle Sam for finally giving us back some of the money he has taken from us all year long! Usually, Michael and I are pretty smart with any extra money we may come into and put it towards any debt we may have. However, this time we decided that we were going to buy new living room furniture! Our old furniture stunk of Frisky's cat urine, so it was time to get some new.
Our new bookshelf. Notice that on the bottom shelf are magazines and pamphlets of all the touristy things to do in Alaska! We are collecting this propaganda for all of you to use when you come visit us! ;)
And the crown jewels...the new couches!! We did get two COUCHES, not a couch and a love seat. Michael and I have a problem sharing the couch and neither of us ever wanted the love seat, so we decided to just get two long couches! When we each are stretched out on a couch, we can still hold hands so we get the best of both worlds! For the times we want to be all lovey dovey, we can both fit on one couch, as well. We actually tested couches in the stores for this requirement of us both being able to lay comfortably on the couch together. It was funny. We also got a new coffee table and end table because our old ones were way too short for this furniture. But don't fret that we got rid of all of our old stuff...we just moved that living room into the basement! So now, when you all come visit, there's extra space to vegetate! Perfect! So why have you guys not all booked your flights up here yet? We're going to feed you, be your tour guides, house you, AND give you your own separate "chillin' out" space? What more could someone ask for? :) I wouldn't wait too long to book your trip...with accommodations like these, we're going to fill up fast!
Things are going well up here. Michael flew to Juneau this morning. He may be getting Juneau as one of his areas that he has to cover. This means he will be flying down there once a month for a week at a time to try to recruit people. They don't have a permanent recruiter stationed there, so one of the Anchorage recuiters has to go there to find people. Michael hopes to get this area because he thinks there are a lot of potential recruits in that area. I don't really want him to get this area because that means he will be gone at least one week a month...but that's just me being selfish. He really wants that area, so I actually will be happy for him because maybe he'll meet his quota faster and get a little extra time off! Sa-weet!
I still haven't found my "9-5" job yet, but, somehow, I have managed to fill up my days with various things. I have started to volunteer at the animal shelter. We were all worried about me doing this because you all know my obsession with pets and if they were going to be put on the chopping block, I may not be able to help myself and bring them all home! However, this is pretty much a no-kill shelter. They will euthanize if the animal won't be able to be adopted out due to various reasons, such as aggression. They may also have to euthanize if the shelter is full. Luckily, it hasn't been full at all since I've been volunteering so the animals aren't in a huge rush! I figured a lot of people would like to volunteer, but just don't have the time. Well, I've got the time, so why don't I put it to good use! :) 
The dog park we go to has been populated by a few moose lately! They are not even scared by the dogs or people. It's amazing! Unfortunately, everytime I've seen the moose, I don't have my camera. But don't worry, I'm working on it and I will get you more moose pictures! I'm not exactly sure if the dogs have seen the moose yet. Whenever I spot them or some other dog park goer alerts me of the moose, I turn around before the dogs...mainly, Freedom...see them. Freedom does not like horses, so I'm assuming she will not like moose! And I definitely don't want her to go piss that moose off and then bring that pissed off moose back to me! So I just turn them around and try diverting their attention. The dogs probably have seen the moose and just don't care. They like to make me think I'm protecting them, when, really, they're just protecting me. :)
Woof, woof, woof! (aka-come visit us!)
We took the dogs to a local dog park in Anchorage. Once you're in the park limits, you can unleash your dogs and let them run! This has been an awesome place to take the dogs since we
It was 13 degrees F today! However, icsicles still formed on Freedom's muzzle! Brrrr!
Michael all bundled up to stay warm! 
The new Alaskans!
Me and the dogs
Getting ready to go out and bring in the 2009 right! 
She really does not like them. At first, she tried to bite them off of her feet. Then when she started walking around in them, she lifted her legs up like she was stepping in muck! She's lucky we haven't bought her a full body snow suit yet...which I have seen in one of the pet stores! 
Part of the view at Woroznof Park in Anchorage. This is the city with the Chugach Mountains in the background. The to the left of this view (not shown) are the Talkeetna Mountains and Mt. McKinley! Mt. McKinley is pretty tall from here and it's at least a 5 hour drive from Anchorage!
