The Cushing Family

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

New Pictures From Mark!

Mark has sent me some awesome pictures of things that are going on. These eagle pictures he was very close to the eagle. I was amazed how beautiful and close he was. Enjoy!!!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Well Mark is underway again. The start of a three month patrol. Hey at least the office is clean again. I know, always looking for that silver lining. So just days after the MUNRO deployed they were there to help save 4 people on the "Icy Mist". Here is some great footage of the helicopter hoist and then the other reel has the MUNRO in it. https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/780/257463/

Along with the rescue the ship has a new blog!
http://uscgalaska.blogspot.com

So you all can keep up with the happenings on the ship. It does make it a little better being able to keep in touch this way. I remember when Mark was on the MIDGETT (20 years ago) and all we had was snail mail. Now we can communicate via e-mail and when he pulls into ports we SKYPE it. How times and technology has changed things.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Communication.....that's a thought!

It has been a really tough month. To be honest I cannot wait until February is over. It all started with Matthew getting pneumonia and Patrick getting a nasty virus. Of course, I then got it. Felt horrible. The boys missed a week of school because of it. On top of that Mark didn't get to go to his school that he wanted to go to because of issues on the ship. He was disappointed to say the least,but once the galley gets all squared away, he will definitely be making it to that school. on the plus side, he was able to be home for his birthday which was very low key due to all of us being so sick. He has been working his behind side off with 12-14 hour days and no days off. I think he referred to it as "babysitting", which is ridiculous considering these people are adults. I guess what I have learned this month is that communication is a wonderful thing. You can strive for it. You personally can do it, but if others are unwilling to communicate back and give you a heads up, that is where the problem lies. Instead of communicating, you throw that person under the bus. It is quite an eye opener when that happens. So, I am hoping that with a new month, that people learn to communicate more. Become more of a team players with people, especially those you work with, and things will get better. So the boys and I are feeling much better, but Mark now has our cold. Poor guy! He is due to leave soon for another patrol. Our family will be apart again. But we are survivors and no matter how bad it gets with things that happen in school, at work, or in public the love we have for each other will help us through the rough times. No one can take that away. So in closing, please please communicate...if you have a problem with someone TALK to THEM. You might just be surprise at how quickly the issues will be fixed and you won't even have to throw that person under the bus.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Some Favorites from Yesterday!!!

This guy let me really close and then took off. What a shot!

Sunrise on Baramoter

Young eagle staring me down. He took off flying not long after this.

Going in for a landing.

Taking off!

Near Fossil Beach

Fossil Beach

Monday, January 19, 2009

Indy

Today since the boys had school and Mark didn't have work, we decided to drive out to Fossil Beach. It is quite a drive around 35-40 miles away. We stopped many many times and took some AMAZING pictures of eagles (our other mission is to get the perfect shot of an eagle in flight). Anyway, many of you will recall how much Indy LOVES the beach. Living in Astoria Oregon we went to the beach all the time. Indy just goes nuts out there. So we got to Fossil Beach and made our way down. It was another glorious day in Kodiak! I took off running so Indy would chase me, I stopped and Mark caught these adorable shots of him running back to him. You can see how happy he is in his face. As you can see from the photos his feet are not on the ground. LOL

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Snow, Snow everywhere

Patrick enjoying the snow!

Murphy looking over the birm across the street

Indy playing the snow!

Yes folks, there are igloo's in Alaska

Mark, Frosty and Patrick

We had a nice snow fall on the 10th of January. Every time it snows, I ask Matt and Patrick to go outside and build me a big old snowman. Well, past years they haven't been all that big. So Mark and Patrick got the snow shovel and started piling up the snow. I got the best snowman!! So on the 11th they went back out there, the snow had stopped falling and they started building the igloo. It turned out really cool. I even went in it. Unfortunately, the rain started to fall later that night and by the time we woke up the next morning, Frosty was bowing to the east and the igloo was a icy mess. It was great while it lasted.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!!!

We went to our favorite sledding spot here in Kodiak. Well, I guess it is the only sledding spot that I know of so far. The Ski Chalet. Fun! It was on Tuesday December 30th. Another cold day, 20* or so, but clear and sunny as you can see from the pictures. Some of them are us sledding down the hill and the others are us at the top of the 1/2 mile hike that took us 656 ft straight up. It was a tough hike for me, but I made it. By the time we made it back down to the bottom, my bangs were frozen and Mark's mustache had some ice on it as well. I sure hope that these photo's caught the beautiful landscape that Kodiak has to offer. I LOVE it here!!!