John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

It's a given...had to get a shot of the banner...nice photo to start the ones I downloaded for the blog. Keep on scrolling down below and hey...sign the guest book!!

I wanna go to the Iditarod!!!

i spent this past weekend in duluth, minnesota checking out the john beargrease sled dog marathon and visiting amanda. i've had the weekend planned for quite a while and it was worth the wait. ever since spending an afternoon with a sled dog team and helping the musher train...i've been hooked. beargrease was the first race i've been to and i loved every minute of it.

saturday was vet checks...amanda and i went down and checked out the teams. mushers came from all over in the lower 48 states, canada and finland. the rest of the afternoon was spent at the cutest puppy contest and the bib draw. it was inspiring finding out that one musher was a mother of 3 grown children, a full-time nurse...and didn't start mushing until she was in her 40's...there's still hope for me!

sunday was the start of the race. if i could put the sounds of 569 dogs on my blog i would...it's a great sound. the dogs were excited...the spectators were excited...and the mushers were rather subdued and serious. the first groups of teams heading out were the mid-distance teams...only 150 miles. the second round were the long distance teams, 400 miles. the race doesn't end until the 2nd of february. next year, i would like to take more time off so that i can follow the teams up to the checkpoints. i can only imagine how cool it would be to hang out in the dark and see a team come in guided by the headlamp of the musher...all quiet except for the sound of paws hitting the snow and the sliding of the sled.

my life changes on a weekly basis it seems sometimes, but if i'm ever in a position to set up a kennel...and have the finances...this is one hobby i would love to get into. i can't imagine how great...peaceful...rewarding... it must feel to have your own team and head out into the wilderness. what a great sport.

Mild and mellow now, but just wait....

I liked walking around and checking out the dogs and teams during the vet checks. Seeing the noses sticking out was pretty dang cute.

One of the area schools had a program in which the kids were rewarded with hanging out with a musher for the day and got to ride the sled up to the starting line. Isn't he cute?

Who's the happy dog?

This was one of my favorite teams...I just liked how they looked. The musher was from Finland.

Sucking down some hot coffee before heading out...hopefully he won't have to pee anytime soon.

Let's goooooooooo! I wanna gooooooooo!!!

I got a kick off of the dogs jumping up and down while waiting to start the race. From a distance they looked liked popped kernels of corn.

Yeah! Check me out...who's the dog?!

Just a photo of a group of handlers bringing up the next team to the staging area. It was interesting watching how many people it took to handle the dogs.

This was the last little group of people these mushers was going to see for the next 400 miles.

yep...we're two scary looking gals with mud on our faces. we had to try a new face mask and thought we'd take a funny photo. today we're going to spoil ourselves by drinking lots of alcohol and sit in a jacuzzi...but don't get excited, i refuse to post a photo in a swimsuit!! and don't worry...we know when to get out of the pool...we're not that much of a lush.

i'm the only car in duluth with snow on it.

the photo was mike's idea. we had to do the photo "chinese style." no matter where i went while living in taiwan, whenever i saw someone having a photo taken...this was the pose...the "v." i miss them so much...hopefully i can get down to the dojo more often. the aikido club i'm in right now just isn't as fun without them.

i had to put a picture of kim on the blog. she is one of my favorite aikido people. she's got very flowing, subtle techniques. she makes me laugh...lots of fun....a great gal to know. she's so cute!!

i had to get an updated photo of me and purdy sensei. i also had to tell him to behave and take a serious photo instead of making funny faces at the camera. what a great guy! i can't wait to stay over at his place and head down together to a seminar in march.

Good time in aikido...

fridays are tough...busy at the grade school, working out down in merrill and then work itself. i had a good time though. i finally got back together with mike and kim and hitched a ride down to aikido. i don't remember laughing so hard in a long time, let alone in a dojo. i know it can be disrespectful given the teacher's temperment...but kim's laugh is contagious and she's just down-right fun to pair up with. if i would have laughed like that over in the doji in taipei...i'm not sure if i would've been taken seriously, shunned or just told to leave. however, purdy sensei is so easy going and has a goofy sense of humor himself...he just ignored us or looked at us and chuckled. i'm going to do my best to get to the dojo's on friday as much as i can. i do have aikido in houghton, but it's iffy to me so far...lots of testosterone flying around in there. don't get me wrong...i can hang out with the boys no problem, but it gets old after a while especially if you're treated differently cuz "you're a girl!!"

i got together tonight with my friend debbie, my cousin karen and another friend named christi. it was supposed to be just karen and i, but debbie and christi were already there and so we all got together. it felt good being out and social...lots of laughs all the way around. i'm hoping to get together again with the gals sometime soon. it was good seeing my friend dean again too...he works at the place where we were eating. unfortunately, he was busy working and i was busy laughing and chatting with the gals that i didn't get to talk to him very much at all. i just feel the need to get in some good conversation with people that really know me and care about how i'm doing. dean used to be one of those people. oh well, maybe next time we can hook up and just have a good chat.

this next weekend i'm going up to duluth to see the opening ceremonies and activities of the john beargrease dogsledding marathon. i don't know if it'll be exciting, boring or so-so. hopefully, it'll be very exciting and a neat experience. i'm on a mission to get great pictures for myself and for the class i'm working in this spring semester. the class is learning all about dogsledding right now. speaking of which...i'm working with 3rd grade this time. the kids were rather excited about having a new face in the classroom and kept asking me A LOT of questions. i took it in stride and enjoyed myself immensely. i really like working with this age range...i think 8 and 9 year olds are "way cool." i need to get used to being called ms. elliott though...i'm too used to my former students who addressed me as teacher susan. keep in touch!!

here are my little shetland ponies; freddie and eddie. both have settled in here quite nicely and have the run of the place. they tend to be demanding little fellows with lots of personality. i just don't understand people who don't find these little guys adorable.

i need to get a snowbrush...

it's been snowing all day...there's at least 6 inches of snow on my car. i think it's time to get a brush for days like this. classes started again a couple of days ago, so i'm spending a lot of time in front of the computer again. i went to meet the principal of the local elementary school here to see if i could get into a classroom. i'm still at arbor vitae-woodruff elementary, but it can't hurt to get extra time in somewhere else.

there's not as much snow as i thought there'd be. amy says to be patient, february is when it really starts snowing. everyone thought i was crazy to move here...too much snow, but i don't mind it at all. the upper pennisula of michigan is beautiful. i doubt i'll be here for the summer, but if i am...i'm definately exploring more and re-visiting some favorite places.

i started again in aikido. i just couldn't seem to get my act together to get to aikido down in merrill...one thing or another keep me from going. the sensei here is a stocky little grizzly adams looking kinda guy. i'm not sure what to think of him yet. i miss working out in taipei with mr. chen. we'll see how this goes. my stomach muscles are sore again...too many rolls after too much time off of the mat. all i can say is...tenkan, tenkan, tenkan.

not much else is happening. things are slowly getting into a routine. it's nice to have a place i can call my own again. i regret moving back to the states though. i wish now i had come back for only a visit...i definately could've done one more school year teaching overseas. we'll see if i can get over there for part of the summer...so far so good and maybe this way i can get my fix.

my nephew k.c. introduced me to his friends as his aunt su "the only woman that can kick my ass." now, where did he get that idea? i got a warm fuzzy and a chuckle off of that intro.

we're cute and cuddly babies who would never think of getting in trouble, but give us a few years...okay?

if we only knew that wrapping paper was all alissa wanted for christmas.....

the meds are kickin' in....

don't know why i wrote that as a title, but i thought it sounded funny and we all know i need the funnies. spent my new years eve playing cribbage and drinking a few with amy and myron before i was off to bed early. my boss lady had scheduled me early the next morning...oh well, i survived.

thinking back on the year...it was a mixed bag...living in taiwan, traveling to thailand, father diagnosed with alzhimers, losing the family property, leaving my friends in taiwan, diagnosed with hypothyroidism and tmj, adopting two guinea piggies, a new great-niece and great-nephew, seeing cherry over thanksgiving, finding my birthparents, rejected by my birthmother, finding out the alleged father is not my father.....and on and on. those were a few that stood out to me.

ya know...it's a hard place to be wanted and unwanted by a family. i think the hardest thing i've had to deal with is losing part of my background. i took out my non-identifying biological info the other night and cut out any part about my bfather. now that it's been confirmed that he's not my bfather...why keep the info on a family that isn't part of my background? if you can envision a cut out paper figure of a person and rip that vertically in half....that's what i feel like right now. all i wanted was to know my roots...what a bloody mess all of this is for me.