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Happy St. Patrick's Day. 

This is what a "dusting" of snow looks like in Alaska

It was supposed to snow last night, but I never really put much faith in it because the forecast always seems to change at the last minute.  They were calling for an inch last nigh and an inch this morning.  We woke up to three inches.  And it kept snowing until noon-ish! I am grateful that I didn't take the snow tires off the car like I have been thinking about for the past few weeks. 

Today I made two new recipes; Irish Soda Bread and Corned Beef and Cabbage.  We had the bread for breakfast it was delicious and so easy.  The only problem was that I think that when I formed it I left it a little too thick.  It took 3 times the amount of time to cook as the recipe said. 

For dinner we had corned beef and cabbage. I really have only had corned beef once in my life, but I wanted to talk to the kids about Irish Traditions and such and corned beef was cheap, so we made it.  The recipe called for a beer.  I was telling Mrs. Flight Chief that  I needed to go get a beer to make it and I wasn't looking forward to driving in the snow.  So what does she do?  She goes in her house and brings me a beer.  Now, I feel bad for talking shit about her on fb yesterday.  Anyway, the meal was a success.  Kayleigh even asked for seconds on her cabbage!  I about fell over!

I've never made corned beef and cabbage so I found a recipe from $5 dinners.  She has some really great recipes and they are all made for $5 or less.  Up here I would say they cost under $10 or so because produce is so much more expensive up here than in the -48.

A local furniture store was having a sale this morning so Spencer and I braved the snow and headed out.  The store was HUGE, but there was nothing that I liked there.   So we stopped at every furniture store in Anchorage.  It seems like everything is either really poofy, leather or has removable back cushions (which would be a disaster in out house).  All the salesmen were trying to push things with removable back cushions on me because you can wash them. The obviously don't have kids and dogs.  I can see it now, every pillow on the couch on the floor being used as a dog bed.  I don't care how washable it is, if it's constantly on the floor it's going to be dirty.  Then they all wanted to sell me recliners.  REALLY?  My kids would play let's launch off the recliner and they would be broken within a year.  I finally found something I liked at Ashley furniture.  The problem is the couch was $1000 and they didn't have a chair, only a love seat.   I keep going back to two different couches that I saw at the BX.  I just feel like the color is wrong.  I think I'm going to take our pillows in next time I go and see what it looks like.

This week has been hard with the kids.  They really have been acting up.  Spencer always argues with me.   He thinks that he knows it all.  He is always saying, " No mommy, listen to what I am saying." or "I'll do it when I want.  It's my business.  Not yours."  Then today Kayleigh got in trouble on the bus.  For what?  Well let me tell you.  The bus driver told the kids they needed to be quiet and she shouted to him, "No, you be quiet!"  Are you f-ing kidding me?  I did not raise my child to speak like that to anyone, let alone a grown up. 

 I know Nate is going to say, "Cut them some slack. They are going through a rough time."  But seriously how much do I need to cut them.  Neither of them have been listening, they've been disrespectful and I can't seem to get a handle on things.  It get's worse every day.  At this rate Kayleigh's going to be telling her teacher to F off by the end of the month.  I don't know what I can do.  But I really need to figure it out before 10 years goes by and I have horrible, disrespectful teenagers in Juvie. 

After all the snow today, this is what the afternoon held.  The clouds were hugging the mountains.  It was beautiful.  Too bad that stupid light pole was in the way!  I wonder if I can Photoshop that out?