Back to Alaska!

So, here I am again.  It's been awhile since I've posted, but as you know, I've been quite busy and unavailable.  This was our THIRD time leaving Alaska, and coming back again.  Some people jokingly call Alaska "the boomerang state" because it is VERY VERY common for people to come back after they leave, and we are certainly no exception.

I must say it is SO SO SO very good to be back!!!!

It almost feels like we never left, or like we were just gone on a really long vacation.  Chuck says it feels like he was gone on a long work detail.  Everything is pretty much the same as we left it, the people, the places, and the scenery.  I even drove by our house on Sweetie Pie just to see how much it has changed (and also for my own closure because I still miss that house), and that hasn't changed very much either.  My garden beds are even still in the back yard.

Anyhoo, in my last post, I expressed a lot of uncertainty as far as how things were going to pan out for us, and everything went very very smoothly.  No problems getting across the  Canadian border, no problems getting across the Alaska border, no problems quarantining, no problems getting into our house.  We didn't have to spend any of our savings on hotels when we got here.  All went well.

God took care of us.

It seems like a long time ago now, but when we were getting ready to leave Granger, one of our church elders was trying to come over and see us before we left, and on that Friday we were cleaning the house and packing and he asked us if it was a good time for them to come.  Of course we said yes, so when they came we discovered they weren't alone.  Our whole street was lined with cars!  Because of the social distancing, this was the only way we could see everyone and say good-bye.  They all made big signs and drove by our house waving and yelling parting words and we stood on the porch and waved at everyone and yelled back.  There was one lady that came out of her car and ran across my yard toward me.  I didn't care about the social distancing - I had to run to her and give her a big bear hug anyway.  It was so cool that they did that!  They are such wonderful people there at Willowdale and it was hard to leave them.

That same night, we decided to leave because we had the cleaning all done and Chuck decided he wanted to get a 3-hour head start on the next day's driving.  Our first stop was going to be Fargo, ND, and that was a 12-hour drive from Granger.  So we drove for 3 hours on Friday night and stopped in Kenosha, WI.  It was hard to drive through WI without stopping to see anyone, but we didn't want to create any delays, especially since we were hauling two cats, and plus we didn't want to take any chances in spreading the carona virus, especially to Ma.  Anyhoo, the 3-hour head start made the drive to Fargo a little bit shorter the next day, although 9 hours is still a long day of driving. 

The next day we made it to the Canadian border - this was the part that we were most worried about, but it was easy as pie.  Chuck was in the truck ahead of me and they asked him most of the questions, so when I got to the window after him, she only asked me a few questions and let me through.  As for the virus, she asked that we wear a mask when we go into any building, keep social distancing, and she also asked us if we had somewhere to quarantine after we got to Alaska.  But we didn't bother wearing a mask because everywhere we went, most people weren't wearing one.  I hate wearing a mask and won't wear one unless I absolutely have to.  We do try to keep the social distancing protocol though.  And if I use a public restroom, I wash my hands twice.

The first couple days of driving through Canada was long and boring.  Nothing but a sea of open prairies and no trees or animals.  It was nice when we got closer to the Rockies.  The scenery was much better and we got to see animals. We saw Dahl sheep, elk, buffalo, and a black bear.  

Somewhere in the middle of Canada, Chuck stopped unexpectedly in this little side town because he noticed my tire didn't look right.  Sure enough, my tire had a HUGE blister on it and it looked like it was ready to pop.  Good thing he notices things like that!  So we had to find a business that was open that could fix it for us.  We found a garage that was open, but the guy said he didn't have our size tires on stock, so I stayed there while Chuck drove 15 minutes back to the town that we just passed and found someone there that had our tire size, brought it back and had it put on my car, and then we were on our way again.  It took up a chunk of time to get that taken care of, but at the same time, it was a nice break from driving.

When we got to the Yukon territory, things got a little weird.  Traffic was routed to a place off the road where there were some Canadian police (or whatever they were), and they stopped everyone and asked a ton of questions.  Name, driver's license, car license, where are you going? where have you been?  They wanted to know every town we stopped at, where we got a hotel, where we stopped to get gas (as if we can remember all those stops, but we did the best we could).  They also wanted to know where we were going to quarantine after we crossed the Alaska border and they even wanted Steph's address, and I found this to be creepy and irritating because why was it any of their business what we do after we leave their country? - and they were entering all this information on their hand-held devices.  And then they said we had 24 hours to get out of Yukon, punishable by law - "do you understand this?"

Uhhhh............okay.........

And they also instructed us not to stop and do any sightseeing.

Bummer.

It was a long day of driving and we had planned on stopping in Watson Lake, which is just across the border of Yukon.  The police guy (or whatever he was) suggested we keep going to Whitehorse to ensure that we're out of Yukon in 24 hours, but we were tired and wanted to stop.  I'm glad we did because Watson Lake is where they have the "sign forest" and I wanted to see that.

It was just up the road from the hotel we stayed at, so the next morning as we were driving by it (you can't miss it), Chuck let me stop there and take some pictures.  I wanted to go in there really bad!  There was no one else about, so I was really tempted, but we weren't supposed to stop and do any sightseeing and they took down my license plate, and if they see our car sitting there, they might come and investigate, and then what?  This is what was going on through my head, so I decided I didn't wanna take the chance, even though I also "knew" that probably nothing would've happened.

So I snapped a few pictures and left before anyone could approach us.

So another long day of driving brought us to the Alaska border, finally!

There weren't any Canadian law officers there so I don't know how they are enforcing their 24-hour rule.  My guess is that they mostly just threaten you just to scare you out.  Anyway, this gate was a welcome sight, and we wondered if we were gonna get the same kind of treatment, so I was kinda nervous, even though I had no reason to be.

To our surprise, the lady in the window didn't care doodly-squat about the virus.  She never even mentioned it.  Chuck went first so I don't know what questions she asked him, but he said that he offered Steph's address and she said "no, I don't want that".  Very interesting after what we just went through in Canada.

So we made it back to Alaska!  We thought about driving straight to Steph's house, but we would've gotten there in the late evening, so we decided to stop in Tok.  It would've been only 3 hours more of driving, so CLOSE!  But we decided we didn't want to get there that late because then it would be close to bedtime and we'd be too tired to visit, etc., so we decided it was better to stop in Tok, and sleep in the next morning (what a treat!), and then get to Steph's in the early afternoon when we're feeling more refreshed and have the rest of the day to unwind and get the cats settled in.

Quarantining at Steph's house was fun!  I didn't mind the two-week quarantine because it didn't feel like a quarantine.  It felt like a normal regular vacation at Steph's house.

For Mother's Day, Steph enrolled us in an on-line class from her local greenhouse and we planted some flowers in a pot.  My first plant for my house!

 During the second week there, Chuck started teleworking and spent a lot of time on  his computer and participating in teleconferences.  On nice days, he would do this outside on Steph's back deck.  The squirrels kept him company.

It didn't take long for Peeka to find a cozy spot on the back of Steph's couch.

Weeners pretty much spent the whole two weeks hiding upstairs under the bed.

Steph's cat, Shadow, was NOT happy to have her house invaded by two cats!  There was a lot of growling and hissing going on, and several times she would attack and we had to break them up.  I took this picture because I was surprised that they were in the same room together, and Shadow even had her back turned to Peeka, one of those rare amazing moments.

Poor Peeka.  Poor Shadow.

I'm sure Shadow was really glad when we left so she can have her house back.

When Chuck had some time, Steph had a big long project for him:  Steph needed the power steering pump and the radiator changed on her jeep.  This took several days to accomplish.

And in the evenings when it was really nice out, we went for a walk, and somehow we often made our way to Mochalicious, the drive-thru coffee hut.  Even Justin went with us a couple times to get some hot chocolate, which was not like him.

The second weekend that we were there, the weather turned HOT.  

81 degrees on Saturday, and 79 degrees on Sunday!!!

So we took advantage of it.

On Saturday we took a little hike around Chena Lakes.

Despite being 81 degrees, there was still ice on the lake, but the leaves on the trees were budding.  It felt so hot out that day, but I was glad it wasn't sticky hot - the kind of hot that makes me crabby.  So nice to be back in the non-humid climate of Alaska!

I even saw my first moose since we left Granger!

We didn't see any wolves, but that would've been kinda cool, don't ya think?

Anyhoo, when it was time to close on our house, it was time to leave Steph, which was kinda sad, but exciting at the same time cuz I was ready to have my own house again.

We got the keys to our house on Friday, and our stuff was coming on Monday, so that only gave us the weekend to clean and get ready.  The people before us wiped stuff down, but they didn't really clean, so we spent the whole weekend scrubbing.  There were lots of places that have been neglected for a very long time, some things were just gross.  For instance, the hood range above the stove was so covered in grease, we decided to just replace it with a new one.  And of course the cabinets by the stove were covered in baked on grease.  Chuck did a LOT of scrubbing; it's next to impossible to get that off.  Those people must've done a LOT of deep frying.

And don't even get me started on the bathrooms....we are going to get all 3 of them remodeled.

On Monday, there was a welcome sight in our driveway.

It's been two weeks now, and we still don't have all the boxes unpacked, and we still don't have everything organized.  I lost a lot of storage space in this house, compared to my last house, so some things can't be dealt with until Chuck puts up some shelves, or we buy some book cases and/or cabinets.

But anyway, we are settled enough for me to somewhat start getting back into my normal routine.  We still have a lot of work to do though.

Last Saturday we drove to Anchorage to visit PW.  It was good to see her again and to meet her cat, Peanut.

On Sunday, our congregation was still not meeting at the church building, so once again, we worshiped at home and followed along on live stream.  We set up our "podium" on a step ladder in front of the steps that go down into the living room cuz we had nowhere else to sit yet (before our furniture came).

But the following Sunday, the Alaska governor eased up on the restrictions, so we were able to gather at the church building, which was good timing for us, because this way we weren't the only ones who were coming back for the first time.  It was the first time for everyone in over two months, so it was a joyous occasion for everyone, and I was glad about that because I always feel weird getting a lot of attention, and this way we sorta "blended in", although we did see a lot of people who were excited to see us.  Some people are still staying home, so there are still some friends that we are waiting to see, but it sure is nice to see the ones we have seen so far!

On Memorial Day, we joined one of the groups for a fellowship bbq, and that was a lot of fun, even though it was cold out.  We visited some more with some friends we already knew, and also got a chance to meet some new people.

My friend Bonnie gave me 13 tomato plants and 1 cucumber plant, which I was grateful for because I have no garden this year otherwise.  And then later, my other friend Bonnie gave me two more!

I find it very odd that this house came with a nice attached greenhouse, but there's no gardening area set up outside.  (what did they use the greenhouse for?) So these tomatoes will stay in the buckets all summer because I don't have any garden beds yet, but that's okay with me.  Maybe it's better this way because if they are portable, I can move them inside or outside, depending on the weather.  Tomatoes like warm weather, at least 70 degrees, which does not happen a whole lot here in Alaska, but it's nice that I can move them outside when it does get that warm.

The greenhouse can get way up to 100 degrees, which is probably too warm, so we do what we can to not let my plants gets scorched.  The greenhouse has a vent that automatically turns on when the temps get in the 80s in there, but aside from that, we turn on the fans to blow out the warm air, and open the little screen window.  I wish the greenhouse had more windows that open, but it doesn't, so we just do what we can.  So far, I haven't seen it get over 100 in there.

So anyhoo, that's pretty much the latest news for us.  Mostly we're just busy trying to get settled in, and Chuck's been working from home, which is kinda nice.  We still have a lot to do, but we're getting there.

Two Words.

Uncertainty.

Interesting.

In my last post, I announced that we were moving back to Alaska, and I am still excited about that.  However, with all this corona madness going on, it seems like everything in our plans changes by the day.  And this is creating a lot of uncertainty, which can get also get interesting.

The way things are developing, we have no idea what's going to happen to us.

First of all, that house that we were gonna buy, we bailed out of it because the inspection report came back with some unfavorable findings that we didn't want to deal with.  So that whole house-hunting trip was a waste of time and a waste of money, because now we're back at Square One, looking at houses on line again.  When we get up there again, we will try and look at some different ones.

But this also means, that we will have to rent an apt after we get there because we no longer have a closing date right after our arrival.

I've been searching for apts that offer short-term leases, but unfortunately most of them want a 6-month or a 1-year lease. We are hoping it won't take us that long to get into a house. I found one renter who accepts 3-6 month leases, but I still need to contact them and find out if they will have any apts available for us when we get there.

We also need to find out from the moving company how long they will store our stuff for us in their warehouse once it gets up there.  That is another factor that may determine how much pressure we're under to find a house fast.

On a side note, there is a latest development regarding that house we were gonna buy.  The sellers weren't happy with the results, so they had it retested.  If it comes back okay, they want to know if we would still be interested in buying it.

To be continued until we know more.........

Okay, now this is where things get kinda hairy for us (uncertainty emphasized).

We have been paying attention to Alaska news, and the governor there has mandated that everyone coming into Alaska must be quarantined for 2 weeks upon arrival, whether you're flying or driving or coming in on the ferry, whatever.

I wondered how they were going to enforce this, and I don't know all the details, but I think what they do is they make you fill out of a form telling them where you are planning to quarantine yourself, and then they check on you to make sure you're not contaminated.  I think you're also supposed to record your temperature several times a day as well.  I'm not really sure.  Anyway, it's easy enough for people who live there or have somewhere to go.  But for us, as of yet, we still don't know where we're going, so I need to have an apt waiting for us to go to, so I can provide an address for them.  But, what if we need to spend the first night in a hotel?  Then what?

Uncertainty.

And what if they shut down all the hotels in order to deter travelers?

Uncertainty.

Will we even be able to get across the Canadian border?

Uncertainty.

What will we do if we can't get across the border?

We are getting kicked out of our house on the 30th and may not have anywhere to go!

And how long would we have to wait to get across the border?

And if we can't get up there, will Chuck's boss extend his pick-up date and tell us to stay here until further notice?

If we have to spend weeks in a hotel, this would deplete a huge chunk of our savings.

Uncertainty AND homelessness.

But at the same time, you could say that things could get quite interesting.

It'll be an adventure, that's for sure.

So many questions like these keep running rampant through my head, and none of them can be answered because things change every day. All I can do is pray, pray, and pray some more, and hope that things ease up by then.

We sure did pick a bad time to move back up there.

In all fairness though, we didn't pick this time to move, it just happened this way.

  

I am reminded of what the prophet Habakkuk said to the Israelites, to encourage them when they were being threatened by a Chaldean invasion:

"Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines;

Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food;

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls;

(though the stores run out of toilet paper) - my addition

Yet I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation".

I struggle with the uncertainty of all of this craziness, but Habakkuk helps to remind me to keep things in perspective.  We aren't being invaded by the Chaldeans, but being invaded by a virus can wreak a lot of havoc and turn everything upside down.

This too shall pass.

So anyway, now you know what's happening on our "buying" side of the coin; on the "selling" side, we sold our house on the 3rd day of having it on the market, which was really fast!  It came on the market on a Thursday and sold on Sunday! I'm glad though because it was a big pain getting informed when "someone wants to look at your house", so we had to keep the house clean at all times which is hard to do when you're living in it, but also when we got the call, we had to go through the whole house, scrub out all the sinks, wipe everything down in the bathrooms and kitchen, have all the dishes washed and put away, all the carpets vacuumed, then we had to put stuff in the garage that we thought might be unsightly, like the laundry baskets, and all evidence of our cats (all 3 litter boxes, kitty dishes, and the cats themselves).  Luckily we only had to do all of this twice before we got an offer.  The first time, we took the cats with us in the car.  But because of this corona craziness, nothing was open.  We couldn't sit in a coffee shop or go to a bookstore or anything, so we just sat in the parking lot of the nearest grocery store.  What made it more frustrating was they came 45 minutes late, so that made our car sitting time a lot longer than it would've been and the poor kitties were stressed out and shedding like crazy.  But I figured it would be good practice for them before we hit the road with them next month.

The second time was on Sunday, which happened to be the first Sunday that we didn't assemble at church because of the virus, so it worked out good for us.  They came and looked at 11:00, but this time we left the kitties in the truck in the garage so they wouldn't stress out from being in the car and SHEDDING EVERYWHERE!!  After we got home, we put the litterboxes and the laundry baskets back in the house, and then we got another call saying that the people wanted to come back and look at it again.   ...............sigh! So we had to take everything back out again and stuff the kitties back in the truck.  It was a good sign though, that at least they were interested in the house, and sure enough, they made an offer.  So the closing date is set for April 30, which works great for us because we plan to be gone by then - if we can get across the border.  If not, I don't know what we're gonna do, but we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.  Chuck doesn't seem too worried about it, so I don't know why I'm fretting about it more than he is.  With God's providence, I know we will get through this.

Unfortunately, we may not be able to see our church family again before we leave, and it will seem really weird (and sad) to just leave and not say goodbye to anybody.  I will probably have to make a lot of phone calls.  I've already had some people calling me.

Well, so that is what's going on here. 

I will leave you with a picture of Peeka sitting on her butt warmer.

I have never seen her sit here before, so I have no idea what was going through her head.  I just thought it was funny that she was sitting right on top of the burner like she waiting for it to do its job.

We're Moving!

I know it's been 2-1/2 months since I've posted anything but that's because I didn't have anything exciting to write about, unless you're the type that gets excited about everyday news that consists of washing dishes, baking bread, scrubbing the floor, and trips to the grocery store.  If you get excited about those things, I don't know how to help you.

I did have my mom here for a couple weeks though.  I sort of had to twist her arm a little bit to get her to agree to come visit me cuz she doesn't travel too well anymore.  But I'm really glad she did because I knew it was gonna be my last chance to ever have her over at my house.  She spent a lot of time helping me sew Stephanie's quilt.  I happen to be hand sewing that one, which is what Ma likes to do, so I'm glad we found something for her to do that she enjoys.

Also we took her to Shipshewana, and she got excited about seeing those Amish buggies parked along the side of the building.  She wanted me to take some pictures of her with one of the horses.

Most of you who read this blog,  -- what is the stagnant number? about 4? --  most everyone knows now that we are moving back to Alaska.  I kinda "knew" we would go back eventually, but I didn't think it would happen this fast.  I thought we would be here in Indiana for at least 3 years.  But a job position opened up in Anchorage; we talked about it; prayed about it; and Chuck applied for it.

And he got it.

Wow.  

Really?!

We're actually going back to Alaska?!

Of course I am thrilled about it, but there is a small part of me that is/was having mixed feelings about it.  We've been here for a year and a half now, and that's long enough to establish new friendships, and settle new habits, and learn where you can buy your favorite novelty grocery items, like fresh Amish produce for example, which is something you can't get in Alaska (I will miss that!)

But Alaska is where our girls are. We are sacrificing some of our favorite amenities here, but we feel that we want to be closer to them.

Oh, the things we do for our kids.....!

Lucky for them, I happen to LOVE Alaska!

So we took a trip up there to look for our next house and we found one on the 2nd day of looking.  We made an offer and they accepted, so if all goes well with the inspection, this will be our next abode:

It looks like a really big spread out ranch home, but in reality, only half of that is the house.  Chuck is getting spoiled with lots of garage!  This house has two 2-car garages, and they're both heated, and very clean, and set up for tinkering because the previous owner's hobby (apparently) was working on classic cars.  Anyway, it is a VERY NICE garage.  Plus, there's another heated shed in the back.

I just love the outside of this house.  It's almost like a little "compound" because there's walkways from one place to the next.  Here is a walkway to the gazebo.

I am excited for summer to come because this is going to be a really neat place during the summertime.

Another thing that I'm excited about is the sunroom.  You can kinda see it on the far left of the house. It's a little room with glass walls and it has solar panels on the roof.  This is where I'm going to start my garden seeds!  It is so perfect for that.  It's also heated and has fans in it, so it's actually a greenhouse.  It is SO cool!  I will love using that!  

Plus the yard is really big - plenty of room for garden beds.

There's also a firepit in the back yard.

And the house sits in a cul-de-sac, so there's a lot of quiet privacy here.

AND, you really don't know what you're getting under all that snow, but Chuck found some summer pictures of this place, and the yard is really well taken care of, and there's two rhubarb plants already matured!  Woo-HOO!

The inside of the house has some pros and cons.

It has a nice big kitchen with an island, so I have plenty of counter space.

BUT - I might be lacking in upper cabinet space.  We'll have to see.

I love the openness of this area when you walk in there.

That couch you see in the background, is not the living room.  That is actually supposed to be a computer nook.  These people just chose to put a couch there, and it looks very cute and cozy, but we are going to put a computer desk there.

If you take a left at that couch, you'll go down this hallway that leads to the laundry room.

I will have a pretty nice laundry room.

That door leads to the glass sunroom (if I remember right).

If you go up those stairs, you will find yourself in a HUGE master bedroom.

It's somewhere around 30' long, maybe it's 27'  - ridiculous big.  I don't have any pictures of it, but trust me, it's big.  The people who built this house must've been very eccentric because they had a stand-alone bathtub in the bedroom.  The people who own it now, have a huge fancy treadmill where the bathtub used to be.  There is a patch in the floor where the bathtub used to be - where the treadmill is now.  The whole floor up there is wood.  Eventually we will get carpet up there and that will take care of that "patch" in the floor where the bathtub was.

Also there are sliding glass doors in the master bedroom that lead outside to a HUGE deck, raised high off the ground of course, because the master bedroom is on the upper floor.

Unfortunately, this is the only "back door" we got.

So, if you go back to the kitchen, there will be stairs going down to the lower level, and that is where the living room is.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but it is also ridiculous huge.

27 feet long! (this is what makes me think the master bedroom is probably 27' also)

And notice there's no windows, except for one window on the wall behind me that you can't see.

No windows in the living room is a big con for me.  I don't like that, but it's too late to dwell on that now.

The people who originally built this house used this room as some kind of - I don't know what they did exactly - but they had a projector in there and a wet bar, they purposely designed this room to be dark so they could show movies or something, I don't know.  The whole entire house has panels with jacks all over them so they could play their music through the whole entire house.  They had a TV set sitting on top of the fridge which explains why there aren't any cabinets above the fridge.  Anyway, the house does have some oddities.

My biggest problem is the bedrooms, and this is almost getting me feeling a little depressed.  It's too bad we didn't put more thought into this before we made the offer, but then again, we love the rest of the house enough, I don't know if that would've deterred us from buying it.

Besides the master bedroom which takes the whole entire upper floor, there are three other bedrooms.  Unfortunately, one of them is only 8'3" x 8'3" (too small to be a bedroom), so in my mind, there are really only two extra bedrooms.  I need one of them to be a guest room, and one of them has to be for Justin.  I don't know which one to put Justin in because the medium size one is smaller than the one he has now, and he needs his space for all his computer stuff and whatnot.  The biggest bedroom is too big and also has a 1/2 bath in it, which would be perfect for guests, but it would be such a waste to reserve all that precious space just for guests, who might use that room only a few times a year.  It would be nice for Justin to have that room, but if I give him that room, the medium size room would have to be guest room, and that leaves that teeny room for my craft room (and where am I supposed to set up my Bible study area?).  The small room is a good size for a den/study, but then where am I gonna have my sewing area and my scrap booking area?  I have no bonus room in this house to work with.  I can use part of the master bedroom for one of my hobbies, but it's not big enough for both sewing and scrap booking (not with those sliding glass doors in there which we don't want blocked). I also thought of using the big bedroom as the guest room and then I could use part of that room for one of my hobbies, but I don't know - I keep thinking in circles and getting nowhere. It just really stinks that those bedrooms aren't normal sizes. I'm thinking I'll have to utilize part of the master bedroom and maybe part of the living room too, which is too big anyway, but how to do that without it looking bad and tacky? I was even suggesting using some space in one of Chuck's many garages since they are so cozy heated and he has TONS of room out there, but he is against that.  I think he wants his garage space to stay "manly".  Anyway, I get depressed when I think about this too much because I don't see how I'm gonna make it work without giving up one of my hobbies.

But I will figure something out.  Because I have to.

But if any of you wants to come visit, we will gladly give you a room and a bed - you just might have to share a room with my hobby stuff.

So anyhoo, we got all the necessary papers signed and now we're just waiting for the inspection.  In the meantime, we are getting our house ready to put on the market.  The photographer is coming to take pictures on Wednesday, so between now and then, we have to get this house looking fit to publish in a magazine (as best we can).  Our realtor wants to put it on the market on Thursday, and he wants to do an Open House on Sunday (already!)  But if he wants to do an Open House, I'm glad he's doing it right away because the house will already be clean from doing the photos.  The hardest part of all this is keeping the house immaculate at all times.  I hope it sells fast.  The sooner it sells, the sooner we can relax.

On a better note, here are some pics I took when we were in Alaska these past few days.

I took some from the airplane when we were descending.

Oh, how I miss those mountains!

Oh, how I miss driving on these pretty roads!

We even stopped to buy a sandwich from one of my favorite stores!

We didn't have time to look around and browse, but it was nice to see that store again!

Who needs Whole Foods when you got the Natural Pantry?

I was hoping to see some moose while we were there, and we finally saw some on our last day, on our way back to the airport!  I didn't get any pictures cuz we were driving and I couldn't dig my camera out of my pocket fast enough (stupid seatbelts!)  We saw about a dozen of them grazing in "the Flats".

And then I saw this one in the airport:

We were supposed to leave at 1:00 am Sunday morning, so our plans were to spend Saturday evening  in Anchorage with PW after she got off work, but on Friday she informed us that she had the flu.  On Saturday she said she was going to the doctor.  We had nothing else to do and didn't see the logic in hanging around there all day for nothing, so we decided to change our flight to leave at noon.  I'm glad we did cuz that got us home around 3:00 am, which is 11:00 pm Alaska Time.  So we got home two hours before we WOULD HAVE been leaving Anchorage, and that was already a really long day, so I'm glad we didn't wait around for our original flight.

In case you're wondering, NO she did not have the coronavirus.

So there you have it.

Yes, we are moving back to Alaska!

And that means, hopefully I will have more blogs to post.

Weeners was hiding the whole time Ma was here.

It's nice to see her come back out again.

Even if she's sitting on top of my quilting project.

Christmas 2019

First of all, Happy New Year!

and 

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

We had a very very very good Christmas this year!  We decided to go back "home" to Alaska to spend Christmas with Steph and PeeWee.  I flew up a week early (on Dec 13th) and Chuck flew up a week after me on the 20th, and then we both flew back home on the 27th.

On my first Saturday there, Steph and I spent the whole day shopping and running around.  It was really cold out, but I didn't care because I was on 'Cloud 9'.  I was so elated to be back in Alaska again.  When I got off the plane I welcomed the cold and the snow.  Everything was so familiar to me, it was weird!  Granted, it was Fairbanks and North Pole, and not Wasilla, but still, it was Alaska, and I was looking at all those familiar scrubby-looking pine trees weighed down with snow, and I was taking it all in.

When I got there, the temps were in the single digits, and each day the temps crept further and further down.  By the end of the week it was -28, but it got even colder during the 2nd week, down to -36.

That was cold.

On Sunday I went to church and got to see someone there from my previous congregation in Wasilla who just happened to be there. It was a totally unexpected surprise to see a familiar face, so that was really super cool!

On Monday Steph had to go back to work (through Friday), so I spent the week days keeping myself busy.  I had a morning routine of cleaning something, and then when it got light outside (around 10:30), I took Lula for a walk.  And then after lunch, I spent the first two and half afternoons patching up Steph's quilt.  After that was done, I had to find something else to do in the afternoons, so I did some baking, and got on the piano - MY piano that I gave to her - so it was nice to get back on my own piano again.

On Thursday, they were predicting temps in the -20s for Friday, so I told Lula that I was NOT gonna take her for walk on Friday, but when Friday morning came, I got some cleaning done, it was getting light out, and I knew I had nothing else to do, so I bundled up extra well, and took Lula for a walk anyway, in that -28 degree weather.  It really wasn't that bad.  The trick is to bundle up really well.  On this day, I decided to bring my camera and get some pictures of things that I'm not gonna see here in Granger, Indiana.

Lula was really really good for me when we went for walk.  I was nervous about taking her out with no leash, but since she pulls, Steph explained it's not a good idea to have her pulling on the leash when you're walking on the ice. That made a lot of sense to me.  Luckily Lula's really good about not running away.

And she also knew exactly which way to go.  Steph showed me the route before I took her myself, but I knew that if I got lost, all I had to do was follow Lula.  

She likes to run ahead, but she doesn't let you get out of her sight.  If she gets too far ahead, she looks back and waits for you to catch up.

Such a good puppy!

And she's also very good at coming back to you if you call her!  And that was very important when we had to cross the road.

She was so cute!  She would get so excited and romp around in the snow and on the hills.

Anyhoo, as I said, on Friday it was -28 degrees out, but after Lula led me back to her house, I still felt warm enough to walk to the Santa Claus house, which was only an extra 10-15 minutes of walking.  Chuck was due to get there that afternoon, and he doesn't like going to the Santa Claus house, so I left Lula at home and took the extra walk to the Santa Claus house, just because I knew it was probably my only chance of going there.

I was really surprised that there were hardly any people there, especially being just a few days before Christmas. 

I was hoping to take a picture of a bunch of kids hovering around Santa, but strangely, I felt like I was almost the only customer in there.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Claus were there, but I felt too weird taking a picture of them with no one else around, so I didn't.

So anyhoo, Chuck got there Friday late afternoon, so it was good to have him there.  Shadow warmed up to him pretty quick.

 On Saturday, Steph took us to see her work station at UAF.

Assistant to the Dean, you know!

Then we went to Creamer's Field and made our own ornaments.

Made from a real Alaskan birch tree!

While we were there, they were offering free "solstice tours", because it was the solstice that day.

I kinda wanted to take the tour, but I didn't know how long it lasted, and it was really cold that day, so I didn't pursue it. Now I kinda wish I had done it though.

So we went outside and I just took a few photos of the shortest day of the year.

On the shortest day of the year, according to a website I found, the official sunrise was at 10:58 am, and the official sunset was at 2:39 pm.

Steph told me that people up there will say "Happy Solstice" more than they say "Merry Christmas".

The winter solstice is a BIG deal to Alaskans because it means they will start gaining daylight the day after solstice.  On the 22nd, they gained 4 seconds of daylight!  Woo-HOO!

On the 23rd, they gained 25 seconds.  Yee-HAW!

On the 24th, they gained 45 seconds.  On the 25th, they gained 1 minute and 5 seconds!

Each day now, they will gain more and more until June 21st.

Most Alaskans dread the summer solstice.

So on Sunday Chuck and I went to church again. We were hoping to visit with our friend Matthew there, but he had gone to Homer for the holidays.

On Monday Steph went to work, so Chuck and I did our last-minute Christmas shopping, and then PeeWee drove up from Anchorage, so we took her and her boyfriend out for pizza.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve, and by that time we were just waiting for Christmas, so we spent the whole afternoon in a coffee shop playing a card game with PeeWee and her boyfriend.

On Wednesday, Steph's boyfriend came over in the morning.  After we opened all our presents, me and Steph started cooking the ham dinner.

After eating, we all sat down and played Dungeons & Dragons.

I have never played that game before, but I was looking forward to it cuz it sounded like a lot of fun.

And it WAS a lot of fun!

I was a monk.  Chuck was a forest gnome.  Steph was a tiefling.  PW was an elf.  Steph's boyfriend was a dragonborn.

The whole thing was just really fun, but the best part was watching Steph and PW.

Steph's character had good reason to hold a grudge against PW's character and she wanted revenge against her!  It was so funny!

My character was picked on for being a "goody two-shoes". (I only wanted to capture the gold so I could give it to the poor, everyone else had their own selfish motives.)

These pictures were not taken during the game, but it pretty much captures the mood of it.

We played that game for 5 hours!  It was so much fun, I could've kept going.

Anyhoo, the day after Christmas was when we had to pack up and get ready to go back home.

Those two weeks went really fast.

I had a wonderful wonderful wonderful time!