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After a few months of wondering what life had in store for us after Alaska, we received an answer this week. Bill and I will be moving to the Brainerd area where I have accepted a job as a 6th grade teacher at Forestview Middle School.
We’re looking forward to enjoying a new part of the state while being about 3 hours from where I grew up. This news comes brings with it a sense of relief. We can now focus on enjoying our summer at the lake! 🙂
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Up to this point, Bill and I haven’t really made any big purchases together. Sure, we’ve split rent and done our best to keep Apple Computers in business, but otherwise the “things” we have been either his or hers prior to getting married. We decided to change that last month when we purchased our first car… a Ford Escape.
Our only real problem is that we might have to fight April for it. 😉
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One of my favorite things to do when I’m out of the village is to try new recipes I find but am too cheap to buy the ingredients at village prices. So, I jumped right on this easy berry cobbler. It was quite tasty… blog worthy, I’d say! 🙂
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With an unexpected trip home came some fantastic time with friends!
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Mike and Amanda graciously hosted me for a night in their beautiful home. Bill and I are always so impressed by these two young folks (yep, we’re the same age), who seem to have life in order. This trip I was greeted with the sights of many baby items around the house… and the possibility of joining the Svirs on a trip to the delivery room. (Amanda was due 2 days ago!) I kept my fingers crossed I wouldn’t be in the way when baby decided it was time to be born.
So, while I was selfishly hoping that baby Svir would’ve been born a couple of days ago – giving me a chance to meet him, I felt pretty special to have a whole evening to myself with Amanda and Mike. We got caught up on the latest in our lives and enjoyed dinner at a cute little 50’s style diner. The only thing that could’ve been nicer is if Bill could’ve been here too. I guess the 5 (!) of us will look forward to a mini-adventure this summer.
I hated to say good-bye to Stacie this week. I know that the rest of my time in Unalakleet won’t be the same, as she helped me fill my days with happy thoughts and productivity. Seriously, it’s been a challenge to stay motivated at times, but it’s hard to justify laziness when I look to see my friend who on a daily basis raises two wonderful children, supports her great husband, and is coming upon the completion of her Masters in Education. On top of this, she was my “therapy replacement” during the long, dark winter hours… along with her coffee maker. 🙂
As I get ready to say good bye to my Alaska residency, I look back to all that’s changed in my life over 3 short years. I’m very happy and proud of the way I’ve stretched out of my comfort zone and achieved some things I’d never even considered. Mostly, though, I am thankful for the friendships I was blessed with these past couple of years. I have met some of the most amazing people… intelligent, strong, and kind. I have grown more into myself with their help.
And now I get ready to face the “outside” world… a place where I’ve been treated as an esteemed guest since I left. Soon, my stories will be the same as everyone else’s; it will no longer be a novelty to talk to me. It’s scary to give up the known – but it’s time.
And so I look forward to sharing my time with my family back home… the times I’ve dreamed of plenty over the past 3 years. I can look for the guaranteed support and love from them, and I can’t wait to give them the same. But I will certainly miss the folks who stepped in and became my “family” up North. Here’s to our next adventures!
We had a wonderful Easter weekend thanks to the opportunity to spend Sunday afternoon lazying around and eating way too much with friends. It helped that we were able to get into the right state of mind with some egg coloring Saturday night with the Johnsons… and, the Easter Bunny left a “Twister” towel for Bill and some Cadbury eggs that we shared. 🙂 (Apparently the old bunny flopped again back home this year… there was no one around to hunt for baskets!) 🙁
I hope not to jinx myself at the mention of the beautiful weather we’ve been having, but it’s really starting to feel like spring. Bill and I ran outside together this weekend, and the goal is to do the same before he heads to work in the mornings. In the past 7 years, I have always been the early riser urging Bill to join me on a morning jaunt… and somehow I’ve been the one fighting it the past two mornings. Well, tomorrow is another day.
I just got back from a walk outside. (Mind you, it’s 10 at night.) It was beautiful, though… the sun is slowly setting, and the outdoors are filled with sounds of school kids on the playground, beach, and strolling “main street”. So often things out here don’t seem simple, but tonight I enjoyed feeling removed from the rest of the world. What a crazy place.
Bill and I have enjoyed a quiet evening, but he’s been making me laugh with his ridiculous (silly) comments. I think we’ve been taking life too seriously lately. The job hunting, applications, and interview preparing are easy to get wrapped up in. We’re trying to share the focus with some of the trip planning, but Bill is pushing for an unplanned adventure. Oooh, that’s a little more stress. 😉
Oh yeah, I recently got the “random image” added into my blog. (Thanks, of course, to my tech savy hubby.)Â Your face coming soon!
Today I thought perhaps I couldn’t escape that little rain cloud hovering over me. (Apparently April had a touch of bad luck as well… she called today to inform me she had 2 flat tires!) Anyway, my final straw was the loss of some fairly important documents I’ve put a lot of work into the past couple of weeks. They seemed to disappear into thin air… or perhaps my computer ate them. I’m not sure. But after a couple hours of running a scanning program, I’ve decided to accept that they’re gone.
Ordinarily, I probably would’ve cried, yelled a litte, maybe thrown something, 🙂 … but today, it just doesn’t seem to matter. Instead, I’m smiling because I awoke to unexpected e-mails from an old college friend and a cousin who had just discoverd smiley face icons. 🙂 Because I spent the morning with one of my dearest friends. Because my dad called today and he always makes me laugh. Because it was around 40 degrees outside here on this sunny day. Because Bill and I had a nice phone conversation with another college friend and his wonderful wife. And because I know that tomorrow is going to come, despite my missing files.
We’ve got a weekend of gatherings ahead of us. Tomorrow we’ll spend the evening at a wine tasting, and Sunday we’ll celebrate Easter at the Johnsons. We’re blessed.
So, how will YOU celebrate this weekend?
Well, Monday arrived – quickly! It was a nice weekend, but fast.
So, today was a lot like the rest of the days here in Unalakleet. However, this evening we enjoyed the company of 3/4 of the Johnson family with dinner. With Josh off on the job hunt, it was the perfect opportunity to reciprocate the many dinners Stacie made for Bill or I while the other was off traveling. (Not to mention – it’s always nice to share dinner with friends.)
Here’s a picture of Bill corrupting little James… They’re busy video chatting with James and Abbie’s dad.
And here are Stacie and Abbie… hard to see the mother/daughter resemblence, huh? (RIGHT!)
This evening the sun set around 10:00, so we decided to take a picture of it… and ourselves.
 
We’re loving the month of April!
Dad called Tuesday night with the sweet sound of water racing through the pipes and into the shower, kitchen sink, toilet, etc. He’s quite a handy guy to have around, and I’m happy they’ve got things up and running again back home. I’m sure they’re even more relieved!
I guess the weather has been beautiful in Minnesota… I’ve been envious. Lucky for us, though, we’ve had a few nice days of our own! It’s been in the 20’s the past couple of days, and yesterday even gave us a break from the wind. So, perhaps spring will arrive shortly after all! I’m still enjoying the light. Last night I noticed that the sky had not gone completely dark at 10:22. And the sun was a big glowing ball of pink this morning before 8:00. I absolutely love it.
Stacie’s been busy packing and selling to move South. I’m quite excited to hear about their next adventures (in less than 20 days!). At any rate, we’ve been trying to mix things up a bit the past few days. This morning we declared a school work / job application free zone and instead kicked of the weekend with a morning movie! What a fun way to start the day… and of course, the tasty extra creamy lattes, scrambled eggs, and warm caramel rolls didn’t hurt! It was great to indulge in the simplicity of The Holiday and yummy treats… kind of like a day at the spa – rural Alaskan style. 😉
I need to clean this afternoon… desperately. The problem is, I can make this place “surface clean” pretty quickly. So, it’s the floor mopping, toilet scrubbing, dusting, etc. that awaits. What type of cleaning do you dread the most? Me – I can’t stand cleaning the bathroom.
Happy Friday, All!
It’s been a couple of days of straight relaxation… hard to beat that!
Bill was a tired guy when he flew in Friday afternoon. So, he got a quick nap in while I made up a couple of snacks and Terrence arrived from Golovin. The three of us headed down to the Johnson’s for a night of socializing and then back to the house for a good night’s sleep. (Well, Bill and I got to sleep in.) Bill’s been busy trying to catch up on the hours of shut eye he missed this past month, so it’s been a quiet couple of days.
This morning I decided to make breakfast and bring it to Bill in bed. (This was as much to make sure he got up before noon as it was to be a good wife. 🙂 ) So, our day got off to a good start… and then it got better.
The arrival of my passport on Friday renewed my desire to plan an excursion. We had originally planned to head to Germany, but ticket prices DOUBLED between our initial search and now. So, we checked out some other destinations and agreed on Ireland for this year. And since we won’t have the expense of traveling back and forth to “the Bush” each year, I’m certain we’ll get to Germany soon. At any rate, I’m very excited to have the task of finding some good places to stay and attractions to visit.
In other news… it sounds like running water will again be a reality at Dad’s place. He was digging around in the well today, and there is indeed water in it. I was kind of hoping the camp shower set up was going to be a long-term thing – as long as I’m 3000 miles away! 😉 Actually, I think thing’s are going to start looking up back on the homefront!
Well, it’s 8:30 at night, and we’ll have another good hour + of sunlight. It’s a nice time of year… Several people have asked if having lots of light in the spring and summer is difficult. For me, it’s feels like the reward for making it through another dark winter. So, what do you think – which would be more of a challenge for you? Around 4 hours of daylight in the winter, or nearly 24 hours of daylight in the summer?
