Alaska flora from my yard (Mid May)

 This is fireweed, it gets a hot pinkish to purpleish flower.

 This is our lone birch   tree that lives inside of our yard.

 This was my rhubarb in May, now it is huge.

 Here is a tree with a nest in it, I do not know if it is being used or not, but here it is.

I will try to get out and get some pictures of things now that things are in full bloom and still growing.

May the Lord find us faithful.

 

Made it through the day

When I felt completely overwhelmed emotionally yesterday, I stopped and prayed. I asked for God's strength ( the only way I could successfully function). I set two goals: 1. To be able to clear off a table that needed to be cleared off and 2. To be able to cook dinner and make sandwiches for my husband's fishing trip. As soon as the guys were out of the driveway we popped pop corn, put on our pajamas and watched a movie. When the movie was over the blessings went to bed and I went to my bed to watch a movie that I had planned to watch. I really needed that time to do nothing.  I feel much better today and I am thankful for that.

Today, we are off to town for lunch with a friend and to do some planning for a project the two of us are working on. Then a little shopping for Father's Day, then home!!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

How old do I have to be to finally know myself?

Well, I have crashed again. I have finally realized that I am a person that needs down time.(I married a "go-er")  We spent all last week traveling with the grandparents, literally, go, go, go! I made it through the weekend but yesterday afternoon, well actually, Tuesday I had to take a short nap, but yesterday, I had to say "uncle". I stayed home from church last night and just laid on the couch. It occurred to me that I just need down time. I get a little more in the winter as we spend more time indoors. My only frustration when I need these down times is the catch up work that comes. Today, I still feel a little worn down but I must go forward, if only a little at a time. So, here I go into this day, I am curious to see how it turns out.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Alaska solstice and issues

Jenn asked a couple of Alaska questions, so I will answer to the best of my ability. First, summer solstice: I have lived here for 14 years (well, actually 14 years on June 29th) so I am used to the lessened sunlight in the winter and excessive sunlight in the summer. One thing about solstice, we stay up later in the summer with all the sunlight. I had ladies' Bible study last night and we go out to eat after, well, by the time I dropped off another lady at home and was pulling out of her driveway it was 11:20pm and as sunny as 5:00pm. The drawback, we sleep a little later, today, I woke up at 8:45am and I was the only one awake. This June has been a little rainy, but we will take it happily, usually we are very dry and have forest fires, there is nothing worse than smokey days, the sky is an orange-brown and we know the sun is behind all that smoke but the smoke is so thick that it cannot be seen.

Now,  the second question:" My other question is this: do you think people who live in Alaska feel isolated from the rest of the US? Do they feel any different than someone who lives in the lower 48 about issues?" This one is a little more difficult for me, so, yes, some times we do feel isolated, I grew up in KY and could drive and go wherever. Here, Alaska is so vast and we live in the interior which is fairly isolated. 6-7 hours to Anchorage 8 hours to Valdez,etc. On issues, we can keep up on issues now better than ever with internet and cable or sattelite, etc. When I moved here 14 years ago, we could not get cable where we lived and local tv was hilarious(back then I watched tons (too much) tv) there were not enough stations for abc, nbc and cbs, so the stations shared programming, that was weird to get used to.  And, we did not have a computer yet either.Then, Alaska has its own set of issues that make us unique to the lower 48. One thing, many people have moved up here to get away from the lower 48 so there are some unique people here as well with some unique personalities. But things here are changing fast as we here in Fairbanks are now bombarded with "big box" stores all the sudden and some of that uniqueness ( in my eyes) is starting to fade. Yes, I am glad that we now have some choices as to where to shop, etc. but there was something about this "Golden Heart City" that gave it that title and I wonder if it will stay the golden heart city? So to answer clearly: Yes, we do sometimes feel isolated, but we can know what we need to know about issues and it depends upon the issue as to how it effects Alaska.

May the Lord find us faithful.

An information request

I have some ideas floating around in my head. Kim posted about a Beatix Potter birthday party at the end of July. That got me to thinking. I do not do enough of the little special things with my blessings. I always seem to be busy cleaning or cooking or something else. I just always seem busy, yet we lead a fairly simple life so this perplexes me at times. So, my request. Could you wonderful ladies out there share the little things you do, ie. picnics, tea party decor and menus, plays,etc. I am planning on coming up with my own ideas as well, but some springboard, tried and true ideas would be helpful as well. I am really thinking more of this for my girls but my son will enjoy as well.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Family Socialization

Okay, I am stepping up to the soap box and "preaching to the choir" (so to speak). My day has brought me past a few people and I have made some observations. Why do parents allow their children such "freedoms" with their friends? When did friends become so much more important than family? First instance, a family is doing some sort of building project at their house and their are 6 people living in the home, but only 2 working(I assume Mom and Dad), Dad thinks social interactions important and does not require them to work at home, how sad. They (Dad and children) are missing great opportunities to learn something and tie heart strings. My other observation, I almost hit a boy on a bicycle at the grocery store parking lot because he was riding unattended and rode right in front of me and never took notice. Where are his parents? I could go on and on and on here, but I will not.  So, while I enjoy listening to my blessing play together after they have endured, standing in  a long Sam's cafe line for lunch, visiting two green houses, Wal-Mart to buy mulch, the post office to pick up a package and the grocery store to buy milk, but hey, they had pizza for lunch (treat) and we listened to Little House on the Prairie on CD while we were in the van, they were happy, I was joyfilled. We talked about the book while we waited in lines and now they are playing with playmobil sets and some one was going to Independence! What a wonderful day, I am truly blessed!

Prayer Request: Please pray for Joscelyn, she is an almost three year old blessing of a friend of mine. She has rhumetoid arthritis and has gotten worse in the past couple of weeks, they are traveling to the lower 48 to see a specialist and decide on a treatment and  maybe surgery. I just saw her for the first time in about a year ( they moved about 6 hours away last summer) and she is just as precious as she was  a year ago, of course. They covent your prayers at this time. They need strength and discernment.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Our travels

It was a fast six days while the grandparents were here! They arrived late one night and we were up early the next morning to hit the rails!Here are the blessings waiting for Me and Gramma to get things together and load up. My wonderful husband took us to the train depot and dropped us off.  

 Here I am on the train, a rare thing to have a picture of me, I usually take all the pictures.

We then rode the train to Denali National Park Depot. My still wonderful husband drove to Denali and met us. We looked around at the visitor center and ate lunch, then we loaded up in the van and headed south to Anchorage. As soon as we got to the hotel, we all jumped in the pool.  We spent two nights in Anchorage and then headed across the Glenn Highway  to Valdez We stopped at Worthington Glacier for pictures and to see some snow, my dad could not believe there was snow on the ground, we were at a higher altitude!  Our next stop before reaching Valdez wasKeystone Canyon and Bridal Veil and Horsetail Falls. 

While in Valdez we went on a Day Cruise, we saw Dall's porpoise  Whales,

 Here are two whales blowing.

I cannot remember which kind, I slept most of the cruise, I was exhausted from late nights and early mornings.

 And Stellar Sea lions. On the way home they got a good view of the Trans Alaska pipeline It was a fast and furious trip but we had fun and spent many hours driving and laughing. We have so many fun memories, we took over 400 pictures total so this is definitely just the highlights!

May the Lord find us faithful.

newspaper article

Here is a link to the newspaper article about the 9 year old girl. Not much more information but I will keep checking for further information.

May the Lord find us faithful.

Back

We made it home last night at 10:30 pm. The grandparents leave tonight so I will get pictures on the blog tomorrow (Friday). I have been catching up with most of you and look forward to reading what has been going on with everyone while I was away!

Prayer Request:

Last night on the way home, we came upon a few cars stopped where we were stopping to eat a sandwich. The men checked it out and it was a little 9 year old girl who had been shot in the neck by a .22. My dad, a nurse anethesist, stayed to help until the Army rescue helicopter came and got her loaded up to fly her out. My dad checked her vitals and he said she seemed fine and was hopeful that it was just a flesh wound. I do not know her name or where she was from, we literally came upon this scene in the middle of nowhere on the road. So, we were about 1 1/2 hours from the nearest town. Thank you for praying, I know you all will, you always do!!

May the Lord find us faithful.

Valdez Alaska

Wet greetings from Valdez, Alaska! This is the first chance to get on the computer. I will post pictures and other information when I can. How is the new server going for those who have been posting lately?

May the Lord find us faithful.