the bug and me

here's a pic of calla and me. life is good from up high.

especially when pulling aunt kate's hair.

better picture

He's all the way up to 7 pounds!

time in Bend

not the best picture ever, but Josh is still pretty cute. It makes me smile that Owen LOVES his little brother and refers to him as Joshie. I had some good times with Owen, playing with Legos and drawing and poking play dough. He is so different from the last time that I saw him. It was great to be able to hang out with Scott and Alissa and their growing family a little bit.

fleece pants update

I know that you're all dying to know how my life has been since my fleece pants got eaten by a rabid animal. Well, I purchased a new pair of black fleece pants online, but they just weren't the same. I mean, I like them, but nothing was like my pants. But then, just when I had lost all hope, my mom picked me up at the airport with some purple husky pants. They're not quite the same, but they're good. Sometimes change is a good thing.

same old, same old

Things are standard. Life is good. I'm getting close to being done with the last of my undergrad beefing up, which will be glorious. Other than that, I'm excited to head down to the lower 48 on Monday to see my fam.

bears and eagles and whales?

I'm housesitting out Lutak Road (toward Skagway) and there's tons and tons of fish, which means tons of other wildlife... so here are few short stories...
Last sunday the dog, Tahvi, was pretty sure she could take on a brown bear. She scared it away.
Virtually every time I have left the house and gone across the river over the bridge an eagle has dive-bombed the car.
A couple days ago I was pretty sure I saw a whale out the window because it looked like it took a big breath out. It was just some sea otters, but it was still pretty cool.

New Maxwell?? HECK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

So, my 24th birthday was this past Sunday, and I got the best birthday present EVER! Joshua Todd Maxwell was born at 1:48 AM Sunday morning. I also celebrated by sitting in the back of a 15 passenger van with 12 8th graders from Tok to Haines. We went to an awesome youth conference in Anchorage over the weekend and got back on my birthday. I'll probably write more about the trip later, but for now I just felt the need to share with anyone and everyone that there is a new maxwell in the world!

for the sake of posting

Life has been standard still. I went to Whitehorse this weekend, and the most exciting part of that was going to Tim Hortons, A&W, and Boston Pizza. School is going well. I finish Econ and am now working on Behavioral Science. Not the most thrilling thing, but it's all good. I'm going to Anchorage on Wednesday with a bunch of kids, so I'm super stoked about that!

weekend story

So this weekend I went to the grocery store to look for pumpkin goo in a can. I went to the store that was closer to me at that point and asked about the magic orange stuff, but they were all out. But rather than be dismayed, I took heart and decided that the other store might have some. So I confidently walked out the door of the grocery store to my bike determined to ride to te other store and get some pumpkin goo in a can. But after 10 feet of riding my bike, a dog decided I looked rather threatening in my purple husky pants, and decided to attack them. Now, these were my favorite pants in the world, and this little weimaraner/pit bull mix thing ate them. I mean, she took a full on chunk out of the cloth. Better the cloth than my leg. Anyway, I went to the other grocery store determined to find pumpkin goo so as to make mini muffins and now perhaps find a new pair of fleece pants since the dog owner said she would buy me a new pair. But alas, there was no pumpkin goo to be found. So, rejected, I headed home, but only had 3 minutes before I headed off to a friend's house for game night. So, wanting to show off my pants, I didn't change. She lives relatively close, so I wouldn't take my car, but I felt a little shaky seeing as how a dog tried to eat my leg but had to settle for my pants, so I walked. And I called my mommy to tell her that a dog tried to eat me. As I was walkling to Natalie's house, talking to my mom, I saw my friends Lindsey and Ashley drive by. So I did what any self-respecting almost 24 year old would do, and promply ran after them shouting, "I want a ride!! I want a ride!" But, no dice. So I put the phone back up to my ear to talk to my mom again, only to hear a friendly voice call from across the street, "everything ok?" I guess it's not every day you see someone running down the street with pants in slight tatters shouting, "I want a ride!" I said, "yeah" and pressed on. I tried to tell my mom that I was ok and the dog did not in fact break my skin, only to see another friend, Jody, driving by. So what do I do? Again, I run down the middle of the road shouting, "I want a ride! I want a ride!" Then I saw the most magical sight I have seen in a while... break lights. So I got a ride the rest of the way up the hill and played games and all was well with the world. But I still want a new pair of pants.
Anyway, if you got this far, you must be bored, and I am sorry. I felt the need to post something, and this is the most exciting thing that happened in a while, so there ya go. I'll let you all know how the fleece pant shopping goes.

Legen... wait for it... almost there... dary.

How I Met Your Mother Season 4 came in yesterday. Awesome. My friends came over last night to watch the whole first disc. We should have it done by the end of this weekend. YES!

life and times of kate

Life is standard. I'm still working at the coffee shop, cleaning the bank, and pounding through school stuff. Life is good. I'm working on having some down time. I'm usually really good at that, but lately it's been a little harder for me. I'm taking Economics right now, which is lame, but it's all for a tangible purpose, which makes it easier. It's a gorgeous day in Haines, which is great, but I can see the snow creeping down the mountains heading for town, which makes me think that it's going to be winter all too soon, which really is inevitable in Haines, but alas, it's just the way it is. I miss my niece and nephew. The rest of the family I can talk to regularly, but it's a little harder with kids under 3... oh well.

This is Kamikaze...

He is my friend Lindesy's dog. She is a USC Troajan fan for some lame reason like her dad went there or something. As you can see in the picture, he has a redish and yellowish collar that said trojans all over it... or had, really. He now looks very handsome in a beautiful purple and gold collar that fits him much better and doesn't have the name of a condom on it. Someday he might get his other collar back, but it will probably be a while :)
GO DAWGS!!!

back to the grind

Things have been pretty much back to normal for the past week or so...
I finished my first class for school, which fells amazing. It still weirds me out a little that I am back in school.
I started a Bible Study for kids in their 20s in Haines. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't have taken a relative outsider to get this started, but maybe either that means that I really am part of the community now or at the very least that it's good that I'm here.
I gave the children's message at church yesterday. I went up there with a remote, cell phone, cd and bible, and proceeded to hit them all with a hammer, trying to show that only God's word is indestructible.
I picked up a few hours at Mountain Market, which means that I legitimately worked 40 hours this week in addition to school stuff.
And last, but by no means least, I didn't put my life in danger. Yay!

Ahh, Sunday

I got up in time for church this morning, biked over there, did the worship/fellowship thing for a couple hours, then headed to the library to work on a couple papers. I was there for maybe an hour when I got a phone call along the lines of, "hey, you wanna come on a boat ride and go rock climbing with us?" Uh, only always.
So I ended up not finishing that paper this afternoon, which is why I'm on my computer now. And clearly, still not working on that paper...

Sorry moms...

Sorry Ethel, Bonnie, Frankie, and anyone else that has that motherly worry about me from time to time... but here's the story of my weekend.
I decided that I needed some Kate time, so I decided that I was going to kayak out to an island not too far from shore and go camping for a night. It's close, I've done it a bunch before, it's in cell phone range, and worst case scenario, I would never be more than a quarter mile from shore, which I can swim even without a life jacket, so it's all good. It was a little rainy when I got there, so I set up camp right away... it was a little rocky, but I sleep in odd positions anyway, so I wasn't too worried. I forgot to check the tides before I headed out (mistake #1), so I called Jenty when I got to the island to see what was going on. So I got the times for the tides, but forgot to ask how high and low they were (mistake #2). I had a great evening and night, reading my bible and journaling and just sitting out staring at God's glory all around me. Then I went to bed. I happened to wake up at 1:30 (high tide was at 1:54) and heard waves pretty loud close to my tent. I knew that I was above the tide line, but I wasn't so sure about my kayak (mistake #3), so I went to go check it out. It was half in the water. If I hadn't happened to wake up in the middle of the night, I could have easily been without a kayak in the morning. But I still had a kayak, so I went back to sleep. Then, when I got up in the morning, I could tell that there was a lot of wind without even looking. It was pretty obvious by the random bending of my tent. So, I wasn't really gonna be able to make it back across the channel. Shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I didn't have any extra food with me (mistake #4). I had planned on doing a little fasting/prayer retreat, so I didn't have any food with me at all. Luckily, I did have a scavenging book about the natural plants, but the only thing I could find was seaweed... and the tide was high, so I was gonna have to wait. I happened to text Lindsey, who was at a coffee shop, and she heard that there was a small craft advisory out, so that pretty much meant that I shouldn't really go anywhere. So I sat on a rock and tried to start a fire with my flint, Bear Grylls style. I don't know how that dude does it. I was getting pretty hungry too, so I was about ready to pull a full on Woman vs. Wild and take my kayak paddle apart and rope my pocket knife to the end of it and stab a seal. Probably not totally legal, but hey, I was hungry. Anyway, I waited until it was high tide so it was heading back out which meant the wind and the water were going the same direction and then I couldn't handle it anymore, so I packed up and headed for shore. I texted Lindsey to say that if she didn't hear from me in an hour and a half something had gone wrong and headed out. The wind was strong and the waves were about 3-5 feet. Not exactly optimum in my 17' long 34" wide boat. I got tossed around and ended up not exactly where I wanted to be, but I couldn't get the skeg down and I was exhausted from no food and sleeping on random rocks, so I went with it. It took me almost an hour to do something that would have normally taken about 20-25 minutes, but I made it. I pretty much just sat in my boat the whole time saying, "me and you, God. Me and you." and "i'm so tired. God, give me some strength." and "holy shit, that was a big wave." On the bright side, Lindsey and some friends came out in a skiff so if things had gone wrong I had some support. Anyway, it was a good trip overall, but not a situation I will get myself into again.
Long story, but entertaining. Kinda... Or something...