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Merry Christmas


Our morning started really late for us. David and I didn't turn on the lights until around 9:30am. Of course we can't rely on the sunrise to wake us. We've wondered just how long we would sleep without an alarm. I set mine for 8 every morning, so I don't sleep too late. I guess we found out this morning that we can't get past 9am...
Last night we wrapped the couple presents that we got for Gwyneth to open this morning. She had been asking the past couple days if we had gotten any presents for her. We teased her and said we already had Christmas in San Antonio before we moved. She was happy when we invited her into our room this morning and had her presents for her. We just got her two CD's (Dora's World Adventure, and Veggie Tales Worship songs.) a DVD (Nanny McPhee) a set of girly rings, and another set of Littlest Pets to go with her little house we bought her when we arrived here. We cuddled in bed the rest of the morning watching "A Christmas Story." TBS has been playing it all day. Such a classic! Hilarious! We did catch part of our traditional Christmas movie "Christmas Vacation" the other night.
The rest of the day was spent just hanging around our room. Gwyneth has had a slight fever all day. Of course being Christmas, nothing is open. So no thermometer, or Children's Tylenol. We had to resort to cutting a 325mg tablet and having her swallow that. She did surprisingly well. I made Mexican Chicken Soup for dinner. Now I think we will just settle in for the night and watch a movie. We get the keys to our house tomorrow! Yay! We're going to start taking things from our room over there, and I am going to clean. Can't wait to move in!

Catching up...

Rather than rack my brain trying to remember what we did this past week, I will just give you highlights with a couple pictures.
I think that my photography addiction serves a good purpose. I have the most horrible memory of anyone I know, and when I look at my digital photos of the last week I can remember what we did...and since I take pictures of EVERYTHING I can even remember what we ATE! HA!

So here is our week...with pictures:

Last Sunday we drove around town and looked at a few houses for rent. Most looked like dumps on the outside. I was not impressed by ANY of them! The most outrageous one we looked at was a "cabin." Sounds great right? Well we drive out there...off the beaten path. Steep inclines with snow, and no snow tires...not a good mix. Well we arrive at what we believe is the address, and we see before us this TINY shack with walls of plywood! Not kidding! And if this was the correct location of the listing we were looking at, they wanted over $1,000/mo. rent! Ridiculous! Had to laugh at that!
Monday night was kind of a rough night for me. I was anxious about where we would live. After seeing the houses the day before I was very discouraged. See, the Army only allows you 20 days in temporary lodging. That's how many days they will pay for. After that you are on your own. So we had this deadline of January 2nd to find a place to live. The places we looked at didn't meet our standards, and the rent for some places were outrageous! People around here don't really advertise that their house is for sale in the form of signs in the yard etc. I guess with all the snow they don't bother. The listings in the paper weren't too promising. I was very down that night. On the brink of despair...shame on me... I tend to worry so much, and not really trust God to take care of us, like he has SO many times before! David was a little worried...he gave me a bi hug that night and told me to stay strong...and that he needed me...sane...We did build a gingerbread house that night. We found this all-in-one kit at the local grocery store. Very cool. Everything including the icing was in the box. Gwyneth just ate it up! Literally. They finished the last of it last night...

Tuesday evening we finally bundled Gwyneth up and took her out to the playground to play in the snow. The slides were really slick and fast! She loved it. When we first got out there David threw a snowball right in my face! The ONLY part of my skin exposed, and BOY did it burn! It was SO cold! I got pretty mad at him...I mean hit me anywhere else and I would have been fine. I didn't even have soft mittens or a cloth to wipe it off...so I had to go back inside and wipe it off. We've established some snow play rules since then. No throwing snow on exposed skin, especially the face! Here are a couple pictures before we went out. It was too dark to take pictures outside.
That night we finished up our Christmas cards. I'm sure they all arrived late, but we actually sent them out this year! And if you have received yours did you notice the postmark? It should have said "North Pole, Alaska 99705" and had a picture of Santa. Cool huh?

On Tuesday night I was browsing some rental listings online and came across this listing for housing on the post that you can rent. (It is like this secret section of housing...I'm not kidding. The housing office didn't even tell us about it! I called the number listed and the lady I spoke with told me that housing still manages that property, but in May it is being privatized. I told her that the housing office never told us about it...she said "They won't." Oh... sounds weird. It basically came down to walking into the housing office, saying we were there to talk to someone about that area of housing. Talked to the guy, he printed a list of available units, (tons on the list) he told us to go out and scope them out and pick two we were interested in, and come back and tell him. All the while we were in the waiting area, I heard counselors telling other people about housing out in town and about the preferred tenant program, and giving them the bad news that they will have to wait for family housing. They never mentioned the section of housing available for rent...it's just sounds so weird! They definitely do not broadcast that this section is available!
Anyways...we drove by all the listed units, and picked two. One we were really hoping was still available. It is connected to three other houses. In the middle kind of. Good thing in the winter as we won't lose heat from the sides of the house. The back yard is small but has trees that separate us from the other houses. The house is located really close to the ski lodge where we can ski and tube. It is also across the street from a pretty good sized playground.
We went back and told the guy at housing which two we were interested in and he said to come back the next day and he would issue us keys to see the inside of the units.
Wednesday we looked at the inside of the two houses we picked and really liked the one with the trees in the backyard. David went in after lunch and told the guy which one we wanted and started the paperwork for the lease and such.
Thursday both of us signed the lease and got a move in date of December 26th. Our household goods will be delivered the following day. YAY! We found a place to live in less that a week! I am so thankful! Now the stress of unpacking and setting up home will set in on Wednesday! yippee...
Thursday evening we went and checked out a gym for Gwyneth to continue her gymnastics with. She was evaluated (kind of like try-outs) by the owner of the gym and was invited to become a part of their "Hot Shots" team. It's sort of a pre-team...team. She will move from that team to level 3 gymnastics later on.
As long as she enjoys it and wants to continue. It's a little more of a financial and time (3 hours a week, 1.5 hours two days a week) commitment than we are used to, but it is worth it as long as she still finds it enjoyable. She was so excited to become a part of the team, and was disappointed that they don't start working out again until January 10th. :o) It's going to be great for her!

Friday we took our car over to the Honda dealer to get our radio fixed. When David took it to get it winterized the previous weekend they had to disconnect the battery, and doing so made our radio display an error message and it wouldn't let us listen to the radio or play CDs. It has an anti theft device and we didn't have the code to reset it. It's in our shipment of household goods. Ugh! They fixed it though! Yay! We got pizza (it was after all "Pizza Night.") from a local pizzeria. Really good pizza. Far better than Boston's from last week!

Saturday we had to pick up some more bottled water from Sam's club and picked up paper towels and toilet paper for the new house. Then it was off to Walmart to round out our shopping trip with new cleaning supplies to give our new house a good cleaning prior to us moving in, and picking up new bedding for Gwyneth's new room, and all the needed items for the full bathroom we have gained with this rental. It will be Gwyneth's bathroom, so we went with a flower theme. David isn't crazy about it...he would have rather outfitted it in the fishing theme! Complete with a soap dish that resembled a tackle box! HA!

Today we went and attended a church in town. It was nice. The service was a little different as it was Christmas Eve. Gwyneth stayed in the service with us. She was a little antsy, but all in all, she did pretty well. I think we'll go back and see how their normal worship services go. They offer AWANA there. Gwyneth can resume SPARKS! It's on Tuesday evenings which is really convenient since she will have gymnastics on Wednesday evenings (the night AWANA typically happens.)
In a few minutes we are going over to David's new boss' house for Christmas dinner. They have two children. A boy in middle school and a girl in elementary, I am hoping Gwyneth and her are close enough in age to enjoy one another's company.

That catches you all up! If you read that in one sitting you get a big pat on the back from me! Hopefully I can keep up now, and not fall behind on the goings ons here!
Have a great Christmas Eve!

Not A Good Sign

You know you're in for it when the Army issues you a "bug hood."

DAY TWO


This first picture was taken around 3:30 pm. You never really "see" the sun right now. It just kinda peeks over the horizon for a couple hours and becomes dark again.


The last photo is through our room window. Gwyneth pines away at this playground every day. I told her she couldn't go play on it until it was 0 degrees or "warmer." (ha! "warmer") She wants to play in the snow SO bad! On our way into the hotel I let her grab a little snow and throw it and David and I. But only on the way in, so if she gets wet and cold we can get her dry and warm. She knows she isn't allowed to do that on the way out, because once you get cold outside, you can't get warm again!

DAY TWO
We all got up really early. David and I at 5:30. Which was really 8:30 in San Antonio, so it didn't feel so bad. We needed to allow time for mine and Gwyneth's hair to dry before venturing out in the - degree weather. I've heard that if you go out with wet hair in those temperatures, it will break off...
We went down and ate the complimentary continental breakfast that is offered here at the hotel every morning. Of course Gwyneth only ate an apple...so picky.
David's new boss sent someone over from where he will work to drive us to pick up our CR-V. We arrived there a little after 8:00. It was really quick signing out our car. We asked if the generous individual who gave us a ride there would lead us to the local Walmart, and then give us directions back to the base from there. She obliged us and we wandered around Walmart for a good while. I needed some more Long Johns, and a few other essentials that were hard to find in the warm climate of San Antonio.
Walking around this Walmart I noticed that there were more employees in blue shirts than customers! It was the quietest Walmart I've ever been in! I felt like they were all staring at me though, as if I didn't quite fit in there...probably all in my head. ha! We've since been back at varying times of day and I have noted I only want to shop there on weekday mornings! Being the only Walmart around it's really busy later in the day, and on the weekends.
When we walked out the doors we discovered with the illumination of the recently risen sun that there were mountains surrounding us! COOL! Maybe not classified as mountains per-say...but high ground nonetheless.
We successfully made it back to the base, and took a ride around in the daylight to get a peek at our surroundings. I took all these pictures through the windows of the car. Too nervous about the cold and how my camera will react to it!
Since it was pizza night (Friday) we decided to try a restaurant called Boston's. The pizza wasn't what we expected, and Gwyneth was disappointed that they were all out of the kid's "Worms & Dirt" I did try a beer called Moose Drool (When in Alaska...) very interesting name!
We all arrived back to our room satisfied and kind of tired. The time change, and early sunset was catching up to us.

ALASKA

A couple pictures of Gwyneth goofing off in Seattle, and taking pictures with her camera Aunt Laura had given her, and my "last" Starbucks Mocha...


We arrived Thursday evening. December 14th. I want to post details so I will start with day one...

DAY ONE
We arrived in Fairbanks after a LONG journey! From the time we stepped foot on the plane in San Antonio, to the time we stepped off in Fairbanks we had been traveling over 15 hours. We had a close connection in Dallas (we were practically running to our gate, and were the last passengers to board) and an arrival gate change in Seattle that had us walking a good distance to our connecting gate. David was splashed with orange juice, and Dr Pepper during our flights. We had a really turbulent ride over the Rocky Mountains, but they were so beautiful to gaze at through our window! We ate dinner in Seattle and I enjoyed one last Mocha from Starbucks as there are none in Fairbanks.
Once we arrived in Fairbanks we walk to "the" baggage claim area (there is only one) all the while keeping an eye out for David's boss who is picking us and our large amount of luggage up. Thank goodness he was wearing a name tag! We meet him and David and him get acquainted while waiting for the luggage.
Gwyneth and I put on our long underwear in the restroom. We dug out all our coats, hats, and gloves.
Our first step out of the airport was a little shocking. I breathed in through my mouth and found myself coughing from the chill...(note to self: breath with mouth closed.)
The ride to the base was not long. The roads were icy and there was snow all along the sides of the roads. David's boss informs me that there is in fact a Starbucks in town. Inside the larger grocery store chains here. (Yipee!)
We arrive at the Northern Lights Inn on post. It is a very nice Inn. Our room is spacious. It has a bedroom separate from the kitchenette, and living area. The couch has a pull out bed for Gwyneth to sleep on. The commissary (grocery store) and PX (dept. store) are directly across the street. The bowling alley is across the street as well, and Burger King is behind us.
We were all kind of hungry when we arrived, but had no transportation, so we raided the vending machines. Gwyneth and David got Doritos, and I got microwave popcorn. Oh, and WATER...we were all really thirsty too. We tried not to drink too much on our flights, because it's so inconvenient to use their lavatories! ugh!
So here ends day one...

Cold weather...


We've had a few days of cooler weather here in South Texas. It's about to warm up again though. Then Thursday we travel to even COLDER temperatures! Alaska here we come!
So with the cooler weather I had the urge to bake. Chocolate Chip Cookies... I've finally used a recipe that works! (Rachel, I can forward it to you! :o) I've always struggled with chocolate chip cookies. A few months ago I was flipping through a scrapbook magazine and saw a page that referenced this lady perfecting her chocolate chip cookie recipe...well every one has a blog these days so I "googled" her name and emailed her through her blog asking if she would share her secrets. To my surprise she replied and generously shared her tips!
Viola! YUMMY melt in your mouth cookies! They are irresistible!
Gwyneth got the biggest one! It was almost 6 inches in diameter! (I didn't let her eat it all in one sitting!)

Gingerbread Men





Tonight was supposed to be pizza night but it was moved to tomorrow since Gwyneth's cousins were a little sick today. We had planned to decorate Gingerbread men/women together. Gwyneth couldn't wait till tomorrow, so we went ahead and decorated ours. Our local gorcery store had the gingerbread bodies already baked and packaged in four packs ready to decorate! Easy peasy! Wilton also has icing in a can like squeeze cheese!!! Makes is SUPER easy! We had a good time!

Photo Post

Only one week until we board a plane to Alaska! We are so excited, and kind of nervous! Mostly nervous about the cold!

We've been busy doing our Christmas shopping. We're having a small
celebration with David's family here on Sunday. Gwyneth is super exicted!

Lot of viruses going around here as well. David and I got a stomach bug,
and others here are sick with flu symptoms. Gwyneth and I got our flu shots on Tuesday, so hopefully it stays away from us. She has not been sick so far...hope it stays that way!

I'm just going to share some random photos from the last few days. The last one is from tonight when Gwyneth and I wrapped some of the first presents to go under "Pop Pop's" tree.

I'll post some more in the next few days before we head out of the lower 48!
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