It's flooding, and this blog is stuck...

It's been a while...that's always my excuse.  Sometimes I just forget to update the blog.  But mostly, it's because nothing really exciting happens.  Seriously.  My nights are spent at work, and my days are spent sleeping.  Not a really exciting existence right now...But here are a few stories...

It's raining a lot here.  And by a lot, I mean it's actually flooding.  And by flooding, I mean you can hydroplane on the roads up here right now.  I know this...I've done it.  I love it though.  It's getting cold, folks are getting ready for winter, and I still have no clue what I'm doing in Juneau.  More on this later...

A few nights ago at work, a kid (not one of ours, and one too old to stay at CS) came in with a really messed up face.  He was mad and hurt and cussing left and right.  He said he was a friend of one of the TLP kids and that he was at a convenience store next to CS when two girls in a car started honking at him.  So he got in his car, and started to drive away.  The girls followed him, and kept tapping his bumper and going in front of him and slamming on the breaks.  So he got out of the car and asked them what their problem was.  One girl came at him from the front, the other from the back and beat him up.  Aparently the girl in the back had a rock in her hand and slammed it in his face.  When he got to me, his jaw was swollen, he had the start of a black eye, his lip was split, and his tooth was barely hanging on.  I gave the best first aid I could, but the kid really needed to see a doctor.  I encouraged him to call JPD and go to the hospital, but he insisted that he had no money and that he couldn't pay for the hospital visit.  I assured him that that wasn't what he needed to worry about.  He wouldn't take pain meds because "they thin my blood".  So he left with an ice pack on his face and a few bandaids on his hands.  Two hours later, he shows back up and says he can't sleep because of the pain.  I told him he needed to call the police.  Finally, he called, and they sent a fire truck, ambulance, and police officer (thank goodness my kids slept through the whole ordeal!!!).  He didn't go with the paramedics ("I can't pay") and made a report, and left.  That was a fun night...

I went over to a friend's house tonight for dinner, and met two more people!  Crystal (my friend) called and said she was making dinner for some people and wanted me to come.  So I went over there to see Ralph, who I actually met on Friday at the Gathering.  (Side note about Ralph...he is the brother of one of the original piranha's!)  Nice guy...And then I met Amy.  She's really fun - spunky, and enjoys having a fun time.  So we had dinner and played Apples to Apples.  So fun!  Ralph left early because he's staying at the end of the road.  Get this: he parks his car and then walks 2.1 miles to the camp he worked at all summer!  Um, PS, it's dark.  Not fun.  Anyways, Amy, Crystal and I stayed and talked for a while.  They're both coming over to my house on Tuesday and we're going to go "winter shopping" to get boots and warm winter stuff.  So good!  At least then I'll be a little more prepared, yeah?

On my way home from Crystal's, I saw a young black bear run across the road.  I was not to happy about that.  Connie (landlord) told me yesterday that there's a few bears around our house that are getting into stuff, growling, and the like because there's no fish in the stream.  So, apparently, bears turn to the garbage, houses, animals, small children for food before hibernation.  Made me real happy.

A few nights ago, Bri and I had her family over for dinner and games.  It's the first time they'd been over here since we got furniture.  How crazy is that?!  It was such a good night.  So much laughter and good food and people.  We're gonna do it again soon.  We did a lot of Grandpa Jim's puzzles - there was laughter, success, failure, frustration and elation.  Too fun!  Here are some pics from that:

So that's my life thus far.  I've gotten about four hours of sleep in the last 36 hours, so I'm going to bed now.  Hopefully I'll sleep for quite some time!  I love you all and miss you!

Blessings!