Rapture!!!

Oh, joy of joys! I can see evidence of the sun again!!

For about 2-3 weeks now, we have only had a dim twilight for about four hours each day. Though I still can't actually see the sun (because our house is surrounded by trees), I can see the evidence of it by the light blue sky and the rays that hit the very tops of the trees that surround our house. It is bright daylight outside.

Joy! Rapture! Happiness!

Eeewww...

We're putting together one of those pre-made gingerbread houses.

Kiara looked up and saw Xander eating something and freaked out that he had eaten part of the snowman gingerbread cookie. Here's how the conversation ensued:

Me: Xander, what are you eating?

Xander: Ummm.... boogers.

Me: Oh. I'll get you a kleenex.

Anyone want some of our gingerbread house? Yummy.

A Pseudo-Compliment

So... I was in the grocery store when a woman from behind me said, "I like your haircut!"

I turned around to thank her and found that she had a mohawk.

Ummm.... Thanks.... I think.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Last Sunday, we had a brief time when it was 50 degrees (above zero)!!!

The Good: We got to enjoy reasonable weather for a few hours.

The Bad: It created ice on the roads when it cooled back down so now the roads are a bit more slick. (Thank heavens for four wheel drive and snow tires.)

The Ugly: Those poor, poor ice sculptures in the roundabout now look like something from a bad Santa horror film.

Stinking cute

This is my first attempt at posting a video on my site, so please comment (nicely) if it doesn't work properly. :-)

This little baby is so cute that I seriously think I'm going to explode sometimes. Check out this rousing game of peekaboo that we had the other day (oh, and ignore the awful camera shake. I obviously need help holding the iPhone still):

Light, Please!

I've been told that enquiring minds want to know how much daylight we are getting. Well, the official sunrise today was at 10:16 a.m. and the sunset was at 3:00 p.m. However, the really interesting part is that the sun does not get very high in the sky. I actually don't get direct sunlight in my house at all these days and I haven't for a few weeks. The sun doesn't get above the trees that surround the house.

In fact, it was probably 3 weeks ago that I wanted a little real sunlight, so at the pinnacle of the sun's height, I went to the furthest point of my yard and stood in the only small patch of sunlight. Then I tried to absorb as much as I could (not an easy task when the only opening in your face mask is a small patch around the eyes). Ah, well. We Alaskans must do what we can do. :-)

More than a metaphor

Have you ever heard someone describe snow as "sparkling"? I figured it was just an exaggeration to paint a picture of pure, clean snow.

Nope. Snow really can sparkle.

Of course, you have to be in the insanely cold temperatures of Alaska to see it, but it is breath-takingly beautiful. Under every street lamp, in the glow of my car's headlights, out every window, it sparkles. Every flake that drifts down is a jewel. (Ok, that's a metaphor or an exaggeration.) It's amazing.

So, I guess the moral of the story is that the cold isn't all bad. It creates some incredibly beautiful phenomenons.

Christmas Carols

Right now Ariana is upstairs singing this little ditty at the top of her lungs (to the tune of Jingle Bells):

Santa Claus, Santa Claus come on over here

I would like a lot of toys and P.S. some root beer.

I think maybe I need to remind my kids of the true meaning of Christmas...

Only in Alaska #3

Forty degrees below.

Forty degrees below.

Just roll that phrase around in your mouth for a moment. Say it out loud. Sounds a little on the crazy side, don't you think? Me, too.

Of course, when I see the temperature that low, all I want to do is stay inside (except for the 10 seconds it takes me to hang out my U.S. flag). What does my husband do? Well, of course, he gets all excited and pulls out every piece of arctic clothing the Air Force just issued to him. Then he takes literally two hours to figure out how it all works and outfits himself. After this, of course, he breezes out into 40 below and lays down in the snow. He happily reports that he is sweating. I tell him that's just fine, I'll stay inside, thank you very much.

How many days until summer...?

Halloween at Ten Degrees

Can you do Halloween when it's ten degrees outside? If you're our family, the answer is yes and no.

First, if you're lucky like us, your church has a trick-or-treat activity a few days before Halloween so the kids can show off their costumes and enjoy trick-or-treating indoors.

Then, on the night of Halloween, the mom and dad say that it's just too cold to go trick-or-treating, so the kids suggest a compromise. They did their own trick-or-treating. They each got a bowl of candy and stood behind one of the bedroom doors. Then each of them took a turn trick-or-treating to the others. They were all happy and the actual candy content in our house did not go up. It was great.

There were about four groups of die-hard trick-or-treaters that came to our door. I just pitied them all.

Here are a few pictures to enjoy from the ward activity:

Xander, Ariana, Kiara and Katarina

Enjoying the spoils from the cake walk

Above you see a great reason to never frost your cupcakes black, even if it is Halloween. :-)

Evildoers Beware!!

The Incredible Family has a new look. Check out these handmade costumes. About a week ago, Ariana came out from quiet time with those fancy duds. She designed and hand-sewed them herself with absolutely no help from me. I was pretty proud, to be honest.

Well, of course all the other kids wanted an authentic Ariana designer costume. Though it took her a week to get around to it (hmm.... maybe she's growing up to be more like me than I thought), here are the impressive results.

Justice has a few new names, and they are:

Dog-Girl Ariana

Cat-Kiara

Super Katarina

and

The Great Destroyer.

Evildoers Beware!!!

Xander's Birthday

Xander is THREE!!!

O.k., so he's been three since October 16th, but give me a break, o.k.? I'm pretty proud of myself for just getting these pictures up on the internet.

Katarina was so excited to have another pillow pet in the family (what is it about those things anyway?) that she wouldn't even let him open his own presents.

This last picture I just had to put in because that lopsided grin is a classic Xander face. He's the cutest!!

Only in Alaska #2

Only in Alaska would they have ice sculptures for decorations in the roundabouts. I'm not joking. The sad part is that they will probably last until March. I will take a picture soon and post it.

Funny Conversation

Ariana: (in great agitation as she tries to load the dishwasher) I just don't have the nick-knack for this!!!

Kelly: You mean you don't have the knack for it?

Ariana: NO!!! I mean I don't have the nick-knack for this!!!

A Real Alaskan...?

Recently I went to hang out our American flag in bare feet and no coat. It was zero degrees Fahrenheit outside. Does that make me a real Alaskan or just really, really lazy...?

Only in Alaska #1

I should probably title this "Only in Alaska #1-2" because I'm going to mention two things that happened on Saturday.

First, I was able to enjoy the most incredible sunrise. I drove straight toward the horizon where the sky was lined with a dusky pink that faded to rose, violet and then to the pale blue of the predawn sky. The evergreens were silhouetted by the soft light while the snow brightened the foreground. It was amazing. And the reason this can be entitled "Only in Alaska" is that I was enjoying all of this at 9 a.m. I have a feeling I will be enjoying more sunrises over one winter here than I have viewed in my entire lifetime.

The next thing happened a little later on the same drive. My windshield was getting dirty and clouded, so I pushed on the lever to start the automatic windshield wiper fluid. That seemed to make it worse. I tried again. It was better for a second, but then it got worse again. I tried this two more times, then realized that the fluid was freezing on my windshield, so I turned up the defrost. Tried again after a minute, no luck. Tried again after another minute and rejoiced when it worked, but then had my vision quickly obscured as I watched ice crystals blossom across the expanse of my windshield. It was like time-lapse photography of flowers blooming, except that they were made out of ice and spread across my windshield in just a few seconds. The heat of the defrost had only worked for a moment, then the cold of the morning air won out and the thin sheet of water that was still on the glass performed icy miracles. It was actually rather pretty, if I hadn't needed to see through that glass. It's a good thing that traffic is nonexistent in North Pole. But now I'll know better when it's zero degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Oh, and by the way, I realize things like this happen in other areas of the world, but "Something that happens in the coldest parts of the world such as Alaska, Canada, Greenland or Scandinavia" sounds much less catchy than "Only in Alaska," don't you think?

Why We're Here

So, a few of you have been asking why in the world I am up here. In a nutshell, there are better work opportunities for Kelly up here. For his work in the Utah Air National Guard, he took on a bunch of undesirable assignments because they meant more paydays. He ended up doing a bunch of work that he really didn't enjoy. A husband who doesn't enjoy his work is not a very happy man.

Here in the Alaska Air National Guard, there is plenty of work for pilots. Kelly started working three days after we got here and he has been going solid ever since. He has already amassed more flight hours in three weeks than he would in a typical month (maybe even two) in Utah. He enjoys the people he works with, he is fulfilling his lifelong dream of living in Alaska and he has more career paths open and available to him.

What about me? Well, I have a happy husband and that counts for a whole lot. :-) Beyond that though, I figure we are just having adventures out here. I told Kelly I would give it two years. If I'm not tough enough to make it out here, we'll move in two, three years tops. If, on the other hand, I fall in love with it, then we can settle here as long as we like. UPS and FedEx both use Anchorage as a major base of operations, so if Kelly got hired by either of those companies we could easily move down there (where the weather is similar to Salt Lake City, so it's a bit easier to handle than here in the Fairbanks area).

Basically, we're just taking it as it comes. It felt really right to make the move up here, we're excited for all the opportunities we have, and we'll see where the Lord leads us from here.

A Warm Morning

Yesterday I looked out at the thermometer and said, "Wow. It's a warm morning!"

It was 38 degrees.

But that's pretty warm when all last week it was only about 12 degrees each morning.

A Moment of Validation

This is an actual conversation I just had:

Ariana: Mom, can I play on the computer this afternoon?

Me: No. Remember that we are going to the museum?

Ariana: Oh, that's right! Then we get to learn! Learning is much more better than playing on the computer!!!

Yeah, baby. I'm doing something right. I'm not sure what, but something must be right around here. :-)

My first post from Alaska

Greetings from North Pole!!

We are all safely here in Alaska and beginning our adventures. I already have stories and comments that I need to catch up on for this blog, but I suppose that is to be expected when I've been trying so hard to get settled in our new place that I've barely taken a moment for anything else.

By the way, if this is the first news you are getting of our move, please don't be offended. This all happened lightning-quick. I only visited Alaska for the first time like 2 months ago, and it has been a whirlwind ever since.

Kelly had the first big adventure for our family. He drove up here with his nephew, Parker, and Ariana and Kiara. (I flew up here with the three youngest kids.) As he crossed the border into Canada, he declared his hunting rifles, as he had been instructed to do. You see, he called border patrol ahead of time to find out all the details for transporting guns across Canada. He didn't want any nasty surprises. He found out that handguns require a bunch of special letters, etc., so he sent his handgun with me in my checked baggage, but took the hunting rifles since he only had to declare them at the border. Or so he thought.

Upon declaring them, the agent told him he had to have the guns out and to write their serial numbers down. Kelly was speechless. The guns were packed away somewhere in the midst of all our stuff (and we have a TON of stuff. I mean, a TON... or maybe two.) He told the agent the situation, explained what he had been told when he called, tried to relate how huge of a project it would be the find the guns, tried to reason with him, all to no avail. Rules are rules, after all, and we must follow the rules. Never mind the fact that he could have just not declared his guns in the first place if he wanted to do something illegal. Who needs common sense when we have bureaucracy?

So Kelly had to turn around, drive back into the nearest town and find a place where he could unload the truck that it had taken him TWO WHOLE DAYS to load. I was able to describe to him the dimensions of the box that had the hunting rifles, but neither of us had any idea where they were on the truck. It took him hours to get through this whole ordeal, but he finally found what he needed and got over the border.

That was not a happy day of travel. They didn't travel as far as they had hoped, they got in later than they hoped, and they still had almost a full week of driving ahead of them. And it was all due to a circumstance Kelly had tried to plan for and avoid in the first place.

But I'm sure this will be something that he will laugh about someday... in the future... perhaps very, verrrry far in the future.

For now, let's just keep this between us.

Irony

I sat down to read a little pamphlet I got about weight loss this evening. Then I looked down at what I was snacking on: a chocolate bar dipped in peanut butter.

Isn't it ironic, don't ya' think?

Exhaustion

Have you ever been so tired that all you could do was sit on your bed and cry?

Super-dee-dooper

What's so great about super-sized rolls of toilet paper, anyway? They have these advertisements saying, "as much as 96 rolls!!" when you are buying, like, 12. Well, is it really so hard to switch rolls of t.p.? I mean, what if you have a brand new roll on the hook and, say... I don't know... maybe a two year old boy comes along and decides to unroll the whole thing onto the bathroom floor? Then you have to roll back enough t.p. for 8 rolls instead of just one. That's a LOT of t.p. I vote they bring back the regular rolls. All in favor, say "aye."