Random Updates

  --We arrived in Alaska with suitcases busting out of a full-sized SUV. After a month, we have accumulated another load full.  How do we know? We had to move to a downtown hotel for our last week sans permanent house (let's not get into it...I understand the rules...it doesn't mean I have to like it) and we had to make two trips. Our suitcases in the hotel room...and all the other crap filling up the back of the Explorer in the parking lot.

--Winter is NOT the most hazardous time to drive.  No sirreeee! It is SPRING! The snow melts and re-freezes in this ugly mucky cycle that guarantees three things.  One--there is at most a two hour window of owning a clean vehicle after a run through the car wash.  Two--there is now a generous coat of slick wet ice just where you need it most...parking lots, sidewalks, and highway ramps! Three--If you don't know how to maneuver on said surface, you better learn quick.

--This temporary situation in this downtown hotel does not afford us the luxury of school buses.  Playing glorified chauffeur with only one car in the family blows.

--Set foot in our future house! Yes, the previous tenants have moved out...and double YES, they were not slobs as previously feared! And another thing---our house is an end unit butted up against a stand of spruce and pine that is known as an area the local moose population frequent...as evidenced by the fresh steaming mound of their excrement five feet from the living room window. We are actually really stoked about it!

--Fixation of the moment: how to decorate my home. I am tired of what I already have. I want something more fun and colorful...but still classy...I'm really loving on Jonathan Adler right now. Lime green? Orange? Peacock blue? The Mister looks scared.

--I was walking outside in 23 degrees F/-5 degrees C wearing a short sleeved shirt. Why am I so proud of this?

--Figured out what to do for Sophia and Olivia's birthday celebrations next month! We don't have enough friends for a party. Sad...I really wanted to throw a pinkalicious shindig complete with a pink candy buffet. But, we just booked a cruise in Resurrection Bay to witness the gray whales migrating from California (they say there are around 2,000 of them).  Also, we are staying at the Seavey (of Iditarod fame) cabin overnight with a dog sled ride the following day. Should be fun and right up the girls' alley!

--Haven't seen me much on Facebook? Gave it up for forty days. You know, the Lent thing. Not entirely, though.  Don't want to be rude and not reply to those who msg me. I also had to make sure my friends in Japan were okay. Please pray for them. But my relentless nonsensical posting is on pause until after Easter.

--Next week, we are finally unpacking and settling in for four years! I have lost my wits many a time, trying to find some normalcy in this hotel living situation. The Mister has had to pick up the pieces of my sanity more than a couple....er, several times and force them back on me. Less than a week. I'm trying to keep it together 'till then.

Much love!