12/11/09

Today's sunrise: 10:03 a.m.
Today's sunset: 3:42 p.m.

Temperature: About 18 degrees

There have been a series of foggy days this week and this morning was absolutely amazing. I was driving to seminary thinking, "Is there a prettier place to be during the winter time?" I don't think so. If you feel differently, I welcome your comments. Some pictures turned out better than others, and I know I've included more than most would like to see but this is mostly for me to be able to remember this place when we leave, so I apologize for any redundant pictures. I also had another amazing moment in the car on the way to the library when I looked to my left and saw a humongous--and I mean absolutely huge--moose on the side of the road. It was the largest I've seen and I almost thought it was fake. I realize it was on the side of the road and a fake moose isn't the first thing you'd stumble across in that situation, but seriously folks, it was big. Amazing. Here's a link to an article about a white moose that was spotted in Fairbanks: http://newsminer.com/bookmark/5132604





These are icicles right outside our kitchen window:

Some pictures outside the library:

Our hand rail going up to the apartment:

Some more pretty pictures:

This one shows two snow shovel trucks going over the lake I showed pictures of a few months ago: http://michellesyearinalaska.blogspot.com/2009/08/wednesday-august-12-day-61.html

I took this one to show how everything get's white: even the fence around that tree.

This is the Anchorage City Museum which is right across the street from where Matthias works. They've been doing a bunch of construction for the past year, part of which was to make the front area beautiful with trees and landscaping.

This one didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. It's on the highway we take to get nearly everywhere we don't take the other freeway for that's East of here. There's a stretch where you're surrounded by trees on both sides, which is partly shown here. With the dark evergreens and the white branches of the deciduous trees, it really can't be beat. Oh ya, the fog helps, too.

I've made several hundred pretzels this week for a variety of people: my seminary students mostly and some of Matthias's co-workers. It's been a time-consuming project but they are so delicious!

Tonight we're going to see an independent film called "paddle to Seattle" for the Anchorage Film Festival. It's about two guys who kayak from Skagway to Seattle. It should be pretty interesting. More updates on our Christmas visit home to come! Merry Christmas to everyone!

Wednesday, November 19

Ummm.. can anyone else believe it's November 19 already? Needless to say I've neglected my blog and there are many good reasons why. I'm a bit sad I've come to the point where it's nearly hopeless to go back and catch-up because I'd have to make up things that I can't remember about at least half of the days. I'm going to have to come up with another plan.... Until then, life has been fabulous. I have been working at the district office from 8:30-5:00 most days helping in their library: organizing, moving, etc. I love libraries, and I've loved working there these past couple of weeks. It makes me think I should have been a librarian sometimes. Anyway, it's made for some long days, since I still have to plan a seminary lesson when I get home and I'm trying to go to bed by 8:30, due to the 4:30 a.m. wake-up call each morning. So the days have started blending together and time has been passing faster and faster. Here are a few highlights:

*I'm beginning to tell the difference between -5 and 5 degree weather. And trust me, it's discernible.
*I just found out today that my INSULIN PUMP is going to be sent via UPS in the next week or so......VERY EXCITED about this, as it's the big motivation I had for starting to work again. We got more coverage on it than we expected and will get it in two phases: the pump itself and later, the continuous glucose monitor which is a separate machine that gives you 5 minute updates on what your blood sugar is. So fantastic!
*I have more scripture mastery verses memorized right now then at any time during my high school seminary career. This is a miracle and a very good one because if we're practicing them in class and I don't know them then how are they supposed to?
*I'm in full-blown Christmas mode right now and can't wait to go home to visit family! I miss them so much!!

So again, I'm going to come up with a game plan for this blog and how to fix what I've messed up. Hopefully this weekend the new plan will be in place.

Saturday, October 31: Day 142

So here are the costumes:
Since we forgot to get a full body shot, I will mention that my legs were wrapped in bandages as well (to symbolize the whole "not feeling well" idea). The pictures from last night were not included because they WERE full body shots and were just a little too depressing, as I look like I'm 5 months pregnant and I am not even 1 day pregnant. Matthias somehow got roped into helping at one of the carnival activities. Squash bowling, or something like that:
This is sweet little Kaelyn Wilson in her Tigger costume bowling. With her little binky and waddley walk, I dare say she was the cutest kid in costume there.

Here's Katie Owen and Courtey McElwee. Courtney flew out of Anchorage for Wyoming about 8 hours later. We miss you already Courtney!

There was a pumpkin carving contest. These were two of my favorites, although I forgot to take a picture of the one that looked like Pres. Monson!

After the ward carnival, we stopped my Haleigh Robinson's region swim meet to cheer her on. Then we were off to a bonfire in Indian, AK, which will actually not even show up on a map of Alaska if you google map it. It's so small it's not really even a town. Mike Thomas, a newly baptized member of the church we know from sitting in on a lesson with him, invited us to his cabin along with a bunch of his friends. His cabin is the very last house before you hit Chugach State Park and is surrounded by trees. It's amazing!

Some of the guys there were throwing fire crackers into the fire and it made a really cool stream of firey flurries in the air:

The following two pictures were taken from standing in the same spot:

No joke! I turned from the fire and pointed down with the camera and zoomed in on the ground where these leaves were. Didn't that picture turn out cool? It was in the mid-20's and it was most certainly the coldest bonfire I've ever been to. But we really weren't that cold. I had on a jacket but no hat and gloves and I was toasty warm. We had such a fun day together. I hope all of you had a fantastic Halloween, too. If you will and I haven't already talked to you about it, what did you dress up as? What did you do?

Friday, October 30: Day 141

Today was a mad scramble to get costumes for a party we were going to tonight. Matthias was going as "balloon boy" and I finally decided on going as H1N1, thanks to a conversation with my mom. There was just nothing to choose from by way of women's costumes. I will include the picture of us in tomorrow's post as all of the ones from tonight with the two of us turned out horrifically.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun costume hunting with Matthias. He's a blast to hang out with. And we had a great time at the party. The Wilson's threw it and had invited several other young couples. We competed in a relay race, a couple rounds of Bunko, and the classic game of "Mophia". I was a "murderer" the last round and no one guessed it. Hee hee hee. It was lots of fun!

Our friends, the Simpers, were an Ethylene molecule. I had to ask them what that meant. I also had to ask Matthias just now what it was again and how to spell it.
Isn't Halloween fun? I love dressing up and I think this year was my favorite as far as costumes went for Matthias and I.

Thursday, October 29: Day 140

Sad news: My friend and seminary student, Courtney McElwee, is moving to Wyoming. No one up here is happy about it. We decided to get together today and say good-bye. I don't think there has ever been more junk food in our apartment than there was today. Airheads, chewy Nerds, caramel corn, cupcakes, mint Oreos, chips and dip, soda, and coffee cake. And for the healthy stuff: grapes, strawberries, carrots, and kiwi. We had a good time playing the game called "Animal Signs" which we've played as a group several times. I was proud to come up with a new animal sign: the camel, which was a big success in my opinion. And then we watched a scary movie...can't remember the name but I spent a large portion of it trying to block out the scary music and strinking up conversation during the most suspenseful parts. I'm not one for scary movies and never have been.

From Top to Bottom: Ryan Iacovelli, Austin Blanch, Courtney, Sasha Sandoval, Jacqueline Sandoval

Left to Right: Sasha and Arianne Asay, Cara Wilcox, and Katie Owen

Austin and Courtney (and all the junk food)

Katie, Brittany Suaava, and Sasha

I'll miss you, Courtney! I wish you could stay up here with us.

Wednesday, October 28: Day 139

Tonight Matthias and I got a good laugh out of this tree I tried to cut out of posterboard:
It's supposed to be the Olive Tree from Jacob 5 for a lesson tomorrow in seminary. We're doing a combined activity with the other 3 classes and I'm in charge of giving a history of the scattering and gathering of Israel and how that relates to the olive tree allegory. This was precisely the topic I was avoiding because it is not one I feel expertish about. Fortunately as I was reading I got this idea that I thought would make it more real for them but it required me to cut out a tree...and before you say that is the ugliest tree cut-out you've ever seen before let me just say it could be a lot worse. I am not including the before-I-trimmed-up-the-branches picture. Luckily Halloween is just around the corner and I can just say I meant it to look spooky for that very reason.

Tuesday, October 27: Day 138

What a super cute idea, Heidi!
My friend, Heidi, sent out Halloween cards and a letter updating on the past year a lot like people send out at Christmas. I love the idea of doing it at Halloween though! I might steal the concept of this idea and do one at St. Patrick's Day because that's a holiday that Thy and I really make a big deal out of. Christmas time is so jam-packed I've never made time to do something like that. Totally loved the "Fortunately, Unforunately" pattern, Heidi. You are so clever and fun! Anyway, it inspired me to be better about sending a yearly hello to all of the friends and family who mean so much.

You know the quote, "No man is an island"? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I think about all of the millions of moments when my life has been shaped by someone saying or doing something for me that encouraged me to be better and/or made me smile when I may not have otherwise. It also reminds me of the talk by Elder Eyring "O Remember, Remember" where he talked about how he wrote down the evidence of what God had done for him or one of his family members that day. (I can't get the video clip to embed from youtube, but here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF01BQAcj8E) So many times those acts of kindness from others for me have been answers to prayers and gives evidence to me that God is in the details of our lives. It also encourages me to be better at doing the same for others. It's usually through another person that God answers our prayers. One of my favorite quotes is from C.S. Lewis:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealing with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours…Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ…the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.”
(C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, 39-40)

I love that. "All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations." When we were reading in seminary about Nephi dying, I had them write down a few things they want to be known for when they die, or something they want on their epitaph. One of the things I want to be known for when I die is that I was someone who helped everyone I interacted with to be better, or happier than before. If I died today I really don't think that would be mentioned but hopefully I have lots of time to do work on it.

Monday, October 26: Day 137

So, announcement: I've started to substitute teach in the Anchorage School District. Not because I'm aching for something to do but because I'm hoping to save up for an insulin pump pretty soon here. Today I took a part-time job at Bowman Elementary and loved it! The subfinder system is kind of funny because it's not very specific to what grade or even what you'll be doing within a particular grade, which is hard sometimes because teaching 6th grade is a much different thing than teaching kindergarten, as you can imagine. So I was a little nervous for this one because all it said was "SPED Resource K-6" which could mean a variety of situations. I walked into a preschool room and found that I'd be working with another adult to teach 6 special ed preschoolers for 2 hours (the listed job time was 4 hours). The other adult was the TA who knew the whole routine and where everything was. So I basically followed her directions the whole time. And only 4 kids showed up, so it was a pretty easy afternoon. The kids were really cute, too. Hopefully I'll get to go back because it was all so fantastic!

Sunday, October 25: Day 136

I don't know if any of you have had the chicken pot pie from Costco, but it is one of my favorite things in the universe. We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight and I thought it was a perfect excuse to cook one up. The crust is to die for and all the insides are equally delicious.
Does anyone else ever get sucked into the samples they give? Up here, they give samples every day of the week and about half the time I go there I end up buying something I've tasted. So last time I went I tried this tasty gingersnap cracker things that are really low in sugar and fat. I figured what the heck, why not? They are so tasty with hot chocolate and a variety of other things. A few nights ago we tried them with fat free sugar free lemon pudding and it was one of the tastiest things we've had in a long time. Matthias was so bold to say that it was one of the tastiest desserts he's had (okay...he added the word "recently" at the end, but still)

Well, tonight Matthias brought this to me:

Pretty sweet, hu? It was the last helping of lemon pudding with a few of those tasty gingersnapper yummies...not sure what they're really called and too lazy to go look at the box. I'm not sure how "healthy" those things are if you go through a Costco-sized box in a week between two people.....

Saturday,October 24: Day 135

Today was a "get-er done" kind of day with not much excitement to report. Lots of cleaning, laundry, lesson planning, grocery shopping, etc. I was at Target today and made a splurge purchase that I don't regret for a second: a pumpkin spice candle. Candles are the kind of thing I hardly ever buy but I always want. And they make me so happy--I never regret buying a candle. This candle specifically has already brought more joy than a lot of things that cost $8. The smell of pumpkin invites all kinds of good feelings and gets you in all kinds of good moods. For me it can get me excited for Halloween, fall, Thanksgiving, pie, holiday memories with family, even pre-Christmas excitement and wondering what to get who. For me this year, it's even more exciting because it's reminding me that in not too long, I'm going to be on an airplane for HOME!! (We fly out of here December 16--which seems like a short time, seeing as it's been since last Christmas that I was home). I can not WAIT to go home and see everyone. Alaska is an awesome place to live and we have an amazing ward with great friends. But nothing can replace family and I'm super excited about visiting. So to come back to the candle, it was a great purchase today, because it made all of these exciting feelings come bubbling up to the surface and I only wonder what took me so long to get it?

Friday, October 23: Day 134

Tonight Matthias and I ate at a new place: Snowgoose Restaurant.
Matthias's friend from work, Nick, and Nick's girlfriend, Carry, invited us to go with them. Wish I would have thought to bring my camera, but I'm pretty forgetful that way. Thanks to google images, we have some different shots. For example, in the summer, you can sit out on the balcony and see this view:Since the temperature was in the 30's and it was dark outside, we opted to stay inside. Matthias tried a meatloaf sandwich--something neither one of us had ever heard of before but he was a huge fan of. And we all shared an appetizer called "spud nachos" which was just nachos with potato chips as opposed to corn chips. It was as greasy as you're probably imagining. Since none of us are afraid of greasy food, we dove in and loved it. I ordered a caesar salad that tasted way too fishy but thankfully the waitress switched it out for a house salad. I was glad to have something green go inside of me to help balance things out. We don't go out to eat that often, so it was fun, especially since we had good company.