Reawakening

Well, it's another gorgeous day in Alaska. The skies are blue and the wind is blowing the trees back and forth, side to side. This is exciting because I know spring is on its way. Typically during the winter Fairbanks gets very little wind. In the spring and summer, all bets are off. Needless to say, the wind is a welcomed change. When I go outside now it feels like a reawakening of my soul. Corny? Maybe, but it's true. I can go for a run. I can wear something besides sweaters and long johns. Good grief, I can even shovel dog and moose poo and be content because it feels so wonderful outside. Our highs have been anywhere from upper twenties to lower forties! Since I've moved up here, I often get asked about the light/dark situation here. People are intrigued by it, as am I. Our days are getting much longer. It's usually light outside around 7:45am and it doesn't get dark again until about 8 o'clock in the evening. I love having these longer days. I'm truly looking forward to summer when it feels like the days never end. I've never experienced complete light in the middle of the night. I can't imagine what it will be like yet. I wonder if I'll be able to get any shut eye. Anyway, as I said, stepping outside feels as if the world is new again. In a way, it is. Around town, I'll catch glimpses of people with an extra spring in their step that I contribute to the rise in temps. Just last week, I was driving down the road and I saw a soldier coming towards me in his truck, windows down, ACUs on, music blasting, and breaking out some intense car moves. He looked pretty excited to be off work and to be able to feel the fresh air on his face. Yes, it's those little things that make us happy, isn't it?

As you can read in my previous post, my weekend was interesting. I got a chance to finally get out of the house and do something I've been wanting to do for awhile and that is participate in Operation Beautiful. It's such an easy way to brighten someone's day. Be sure to click on the link for more info. If you do not know about it, the idea is to tell someone they're beautiful. Of course there are several ways of doing so, but usually this is done via anonymous notes left for others to find. I didn't get to take a picture of what I left on a bathroom mirror at a local Italian restaurant, but it felt good to do this one thing for someone else. I wrote, "You are beautiful. Pass it on" with ridiculous hearts all over the pink sticky note. The neat thing about leaving it at a restaurant was the rare opportunity for me to watch who I knew had read the note. Our table was beside the bathroom (eew? lol), but it was the perfect place for me to see the affect it had on people. I felt like most were smiling at they left the room. Maybe it was simply because they were returning to the table with their loved ones waiting, but I like to think that the small note I left made a big impact on their day. Hopefully, someone took the note home with them and then made a few of their own to leave in bathrooms all over Fairbanks! It's just so easy to show some compassion. The kindness of strangers can go a long way, in my opinion. Go check out the website and see what you can do.

Speaking of feeling beautiful. I do, I do! Captain J is pretty good about reminding me :) But that's not why I'm feeling better and better about myself. It's because I've been getting busy working on my beach bod. A couple weeks ago, I wrote a blog topic entitled Think Yourself Thin in which I proposed to start up P90x again. Well, that didn't really happen. haha Until now. I finally got the ball rolling and I'm going to stick to it. I won't go on and on about it here because I've written about it here. Yes, I've started yet another blog. I know what you're thinking ("this girl has too much time on her hands"), but I've got plenty of time to maintain my blogs. I decided to start another one for a couple of reasons. The first one being that my fitness blog is for me. It's to keep me on track with my progress and daily goals. I debated on whether I would promote it, but I decided I would mainly because I've monetized it. I switched to Blogger so that I could use google adsense to get paid when visitors clicked on the links on my new page, My World, My Playground. Hint, hint. So, show me some love over there.

Are you confused yet? No, I'm not deleting Confessions of a Snow Bunny or Learning to Live and Living to Learn. I love wordpress for it's professional feel and tons of editing options. Plus, I've really aquired a large following here and I don't want you guys to quit reading. I enjoy connecting with all of you and updating those back home of my happenings here. I have simply added another blog to my list of things to do, which is fine by me. It can be good reading material for the chronically bored, as well.

I'm done with my shameless plugging and linking now. I'm headed outside to "Live in the Sunshine!" Time for a run. Perhaps I'll run a few errands today so I can get to work on some recipes that my mother and mother-in-law have sent me recently. I'll be sure to keep you all updated on my cooking adventures if I choose to tackle that path this week. J is the cook around here ;)

(P.S. Like the new layout? I polled some bloggers who said they preferred a light background with dark writing as opposed to what I had. I hope you like the changes.)

Much love,
Mrs. K