Our Last Week in Alaska

Today begins our last full week in Alaska.  I can't believe we are leaving in 9 days!!  (sniffle! sniffle!)

We are starting to say our good-byes to some people. 

First of all, on Thursday morning, I decided to do something about FlatFace.

Apparently he really thought he belonged to us, and we think he was actually living under our shed.  I always felt so bad for him when he turned up at our door all wet and dirty.  If it were up to me, I would've let him stay in the house, especially during the rain storms, but Peeka would not have it!!  I'm pretty sure he is the reason Peeka has been peeing in my laundry.  So, to get her to quit doing that, we've been booting him outside whenever Peeka was in the house.  Poor FlatFace!!!

Our time for moving was coming up fast, and we couldn't get rid of him, so I took him to the pound to see if he had a chip in him.  If not, I was just gonna leave him there.  I was hoping he had one so I could take him home and meet his owners and explain the situation to them.  But when I got to the pound, I found out they were closed until 1:00.  Why in the world they open so late, I have no idea, but I was NOT gonna just drop him off in the Night Box and leave him there.

So I took him to the vet instead.  They scanned him for a chip, and nothing came up.  So then I knew I had to take him back to the pound later that day.

But I was meeting a friend at 12:30 that day, so I had to take him back home and let him go in my driveway.  I knew he would still be there when I got back, but I was really frustrated with the inconvenience of taking him back there AGAIN.  All that running around for a cat!!

So I met my friend Margaret for lunch in Anchorage.  She is an older lady that I used to bowl with and after our bowling league ended, we still remained good friends.  She was one of my quilting mentors so I would occasionally take my sewing projects over to her house and we would spend a whole afternoon sewing together.  Anyway, it was nice having lunch with her, but sad to say good-bye.  At least I can still chat with her when we play "Words With Friends".

After lunch I went to one more quilt shop in Anchorage and found a couple more Alaskan quilt projects to buy.  Interestingly, one of the ladies that works there said she grew up in Indiana, so that gave us an interesting conversation.

After I got home, FlatFace was still hanging around in the driveway (as I knew he would be), so I scooped him up and took him directly back the pound.  I explained the situation to the lady behind the counter and she immediately fell in love with that handsome face and assured me that they would find a good home for him. It was hard to leave him, but I knew that it would be even harder to just leave him here under our shed.  And since he's been gone, Peeka actually seems happier.  So far she hadn't peed in my laundry since he left, but we'll see how long that lasts....

Then on Friday night, our church family gathered together and put together an ice cream social for us.  A lot of people showed up for it.

The guy who coordinated it felt bad after he found out I couldn't eat dairy ice cream, but his wife found some non-dairy ice cream somewhere and she brought 4 different flavors.  Plus, another lady made some home-made non-dairy ice cream for me, which was real nice of her.  It was really good too, it was toasted coconut flavor.  It was a really fun time, and I was able to control my emotions for the most part - until the very end when we all joined hands and they sang us a song (sniffle! sniffle!)

Then there's Weeners.

I thought I was gonna have to say good-bye to her because I let her go outside on Wednesday and there was nothing unusual about it.  She and Peeka both had an appt on Friday morning with the vet to get their health certificates to go across the border.  But Friday morning came and she still wasn't home.  So I only took Peeka in, and had to reschedule Weeners' appt.  We scheduled her for Thursday, hoping she'd be back by then.  When Saturday came we were starting to think we'd have to accept the possibility that we'd have to leave her behind, but Saturday evening she FINALLY showed up at our back door!!  So of course, now she is SOOOOOOO grounded!!!!  I instructed everyone to NOT let her outside again no matter how much she cries and begs!!

"I'm grounded because I was naughty."

Then on Wednesday of this week, I was invited to attend Chuck's good-bye luncheon shindig at his work.  I felt honored because I've never been invited to his work before, but at the same time I feel awkard.................because I've never been invited to his work before.   When Chuck's secretary asked me to come, at first I told her, "I don't know cuz if I go, I'll just cry".  She said, "that's okay, we wanna make Chuck cry too."  

Since the movers are coming on Thursday, Wednesday will be his last day of work.  It will probably be hard for him, but I doubt he will actually cry. 

At church, I've been getting a lot of people asking me who's gonna make the drinks after we're gone???  Well, that still remains to be seen.  I started training someone this morning who said she was interested, but it was a bit chaotic cuz she had 5 kids with her. There is another lady who expressed interest, so next week I might be trying to train both of these ladies, which will be kinda difficult.  I wish I could just stay here and keep doing it myself.

In the meantime, Chuck has been busy training someone to take over the church finances.  It hasn't been difficult for him to do that, but it's been a bit time consuming and a big hassle to satisfy all the requirements for the banks.

Even though we still have  one more Sunday yet at church, we already had to say good-bye to some people who said they wouldn't be there next week.  Some friends from Anchorage even came to worship with us this morning so they could see us one last time.  It's really humbling to find out how many friends you have at times like this.  Next Sunday I'm going to be an emotional basket case.

But I will survive through it, and after I get that over with, I am really hoping we can go to the Alaska State Fair one last time. I started my Alaskan adventure at the Fair 34 years ago, so I think it's only fitting to end it the same way.  But we'll see how things go with all the packing.  There is going to be so much to do that weekend between cleaning and packing!!

We are hoping to close on the house on Monday and if all goes well, we want to leave on Tuesday.

I'll try to write one more post before we skedaddle.