BIRTHDAYS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHUA!!

DEEP Breath...

OKay... so took my finals today, and I am so thankful that I have so many people that support me. Thank you for all my prayers, I am so happy to have those classes done with, but following today I start working tomorrow, and then Wednesday I start my second summer session classes. So I was able to take one deep breath and that was about it.

Tomorrow morning I start working on base at one of the childcare centers. I am really excited because I love working with kids...I mean I get paid to play ALL day long! I will be taking night classes as well as online. So I will still be extremely busy for the next five weeks, but for tonight I am going to be a bum with Kingston on the couch!

SAVE THE DATE...I will be flying into Tampa airport on Oct 27 at 8am!

elephants can run after all

So as of Saturday afternoon I am a runner...

Never in my life have I run in a race, or more than a mile at a time, it is a sad thing to admit but it is true. I just never was blessed with being a natural runner.

Well all that changed come Saturday when an opportunity came about to be a part of my new community. The women's 5 mile run took place downtown anchorage with over 7,000 women running to raise money for breast cancer.

There were brief moments when I was able to enjoy myself while we were running along the coastline and look up and take in the beautiful mountains that ran along with us. Those moments were only possible because my good friend Carrie was dragging me along through the race. And it is only because of her that I was able to run the 5 miles in an hour. She was the perfect cheerleader, and several other women ran behind me to get the motivate from Carrie as well.

After we reached the end I felt so good...was sore for the rest of the weekend, and I am sure Josh is tried of me walking around like a frail old grandmother, but I am so happy that I did it, and am so thankful for Carrie!

Blog...what's that?

So I am super busy in school with a sickness on top. I haven't been able to blog or put photos up, and I am sorry. I will get around to it this week because I want to share how pretty it is now. I remember before we moved up here I would try to google stuff about anchorage's summers and what they are really like but always came up short, I couldn't understand.

Well now I know why, the summers are amazing and after being inside for more than 7 months, everybody is outside enjoying themselves. Summer in Alaska is true paradise, and it is America's hidden secret. With weather in the mid 50's-60's (except for last weekend it was 70's) and the sun shinning all day ( and by all day I mean it never sets), there are endless things to do.

Alaskans really make up for lost time from the winter during the summer. Your neighbor is mowing the lawn at 9pm at night with the sun high in the sky, seasonal depression is out the window and everybody has taken the stick out of there you know what, and is using them for bonfires.

I would say the perfect time to come visit Alaska is in June. All the snow is dried up and the trees and plants take their place.

Check back and hopefully I will have some photos uploaded! :)

Flip of a switch

So summer is here and it doesn't even seem like anchorage to me anymore. We have gone from shoveling snow and scraping ice, to mowing the lawn and picking weeds. Well really when I say our lawn I mean weeds.

At first I was so excited, all these little yellow flowers were popping up all over Alaska, and we personally had a ton growing in our yard...the most in the neighborhood. We had finally succeeded at something, having the most and prettiest yard full of flowers. Well soon to find out nobody else had these in their yard besides us.

The flowers knew that I had a soft spot in my heart for color and they took advantage of me, and told all their other little flower friends to come to our yard because I wasn't killing them. Well I am on to the little flowers now, who's true colors came out to me...that the little yellow flowers were a victim of identity theft...they weren't really flowers but WEEDS!

So we no longer have weeds...and come to think of it we don't really have grass either.

home is where the heart is...

So I can't tell you an exact day or even week, but over time the roads become a fluid motion to me. Saturday mornings you wake up and drive down to your favorite breakfast spot and you know the sever. You meet up with friends for cookouts and hiking trips in the mountains... And then one day your driving down the street, you pull up to your house and it feels like home when you walk inside. You pour yourself a glass of ice tea and sit outside in the sun. You think to yourself everything just feels right.

...Alaska has become home.

It wasn't an easy journey. We arrived here with no house, car, or any of our stuff. I feel asleep my first night no knowing how to make this new place home. I had never lived/driven in snow. I didn't even know one person besides Josh in the whole entire state. It was dark and cold. Alaska seemed so unknown and scary, nothing was the same.

We couldn't have done any of this without the help of our friends and family, and their prayers. Last night Josh and I sat in our backyard by the fire pit and just thought how lucky we are.

It is like when you cook Thanksgiving dinner, it takes so much work, time, help from others, and you aren't sure how it is all going to come together. But then before you know it, your sitting at the dinner table with everyone with a fantastic meal. Moving here in the middle of an Alaska winter is like cooking that meal. But we worked hard, and adapted. And FINALLY here we are... sitting in the sun taking it all in...

...home is where the heart is. That doesn't mean that it is going to be easy, but you'll get there soon.

Color by Numbers

Alaska is kind of like a bad color by numbers coloring book. As a kid you have a whole book full of blank pages with unseen pictures and little numbers on the inside. Each number is assigned to a color that will lead you to a beautiful picture.

But this book (Alaska) was on sale, and doesn't use any bright-fun colors. You keep following the numbers but all you get is white... white... brown... brown... white... white. But you don't want to make up your own colors because that's not what society has taught you. Well I stuck it out and followed the number code of coloring with just white and brown for 6 and half months...

And finally...a color 3 pops up. I have only ever colored in 1 and 2 (white and brown). I look over to the side of the page to find out what 3 stands for...YELLOW. Oh man this is gonna be awesome! ...okay so its only about a one inch circle, but I see lots of other colors in my future.

Bad Ali

So officially I am a bad blogger, because I haven't really updated you guys on ANYTHING that is going on, and we have a lot happening. Ill try to put some photos and stories up for you guys but for right now I will just give you the NEWS!

So the second we landed in Anchorage and were picking up our luggage from baggage claim we were being told that the job that Josh was trained to do (working on F-15...yayy I am getting really good at 'air force talk') was being removed from this base... and we were told that all the F-15 planes would be gone by October 2010.

We really had no idea what would happen, and figured that Japan would capture us after all. BUT as of last Friday Josh found out that he was transferring over to the 22 raptors (spell?) and we would remain in Anchorage for the rest of his 'duty' (which as of now is 30 months). SO that really worked out perfect because I finally got everything in order for school, and I will be able to finish at University of Alaska Anchorage....WHICH I started this week!

So lots going on and I am at school from 7am-6pm! But I will try to continue to update you guys as much as possible becuase so much is going on with not only us but Alaska as well, NO MORE SNOW!

Hot Rod

So the Honda Fleet is expanding, and another classic is welcomed into our family.

Introducing our new Honda Accord 93', with only 268,000 miles we are excited for the journey ahead. We are now a two car family, and it really happened at the perfect time because next week I start my summer classes and we weren't sure how Josh was going to be getting home from work each day. We are so excited and thankful, special shout out to my dad for helping us out!!

Alaska is our playground!

Yesterday we went to Eagle River State Park, which is about a 45 min drive from our house. There are all kinds of trails out there but we decided to do a 3 mile where you walk at the base of the mountains, and pass through lakes and rivers.

It was 50 degrees, sunny, and warm. About half of the trail still had snow and ice on it, and the rest was muddy. So most of it is brown and looks dead but that just means that we are getting closer to summer. WE even found out that Kingston loves water, and by the end of the day was a dirty, wet, muddy dog.

We were so lucky right away we saw a moose drinking water and eating. When there is no one around you besides mountains and wildlife it is amazing and I can't explain the feeling. Come visit us here in Alaska and you might start to understand how small we really are. We found out this week that only 1% of Alaska actually has people.