Alaska

Alaska

Sprinter

18 April 2015

Spring + Winter = Sprinter

The weather has been kind of kook lately. I wonder why we always talk about the weather. Like when I talk with my grandparents, the weather always comes up in conversation. Or when I casually talk with people at the grocery store, we start talking about the elements outside. I wonder why we humanoids do that.

Anyway, after anxiously awaiting snow month after month and day after day, I finally gave up on winter coming and was preparing myself for summer. It was sunny. The ground was kinda soggy and muddy. And then it snowed. And everything was lovely and white. And then it rained. And then it snowed. And rained. And hailed. And snowed. And rained. And moisture continued to fall from the sky in all its forms. And here we are now, experiencing sprinter.

Husband and I drove down from Anchorage last nights and the elements were on fire, frozen fire. The driving conditions were very far from ideal, but we made it home and safely into our bed. I love bedtime, what a great invention.

Today is Saturday. Remember the days of excitedly waking up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons? I had that excitement this morning, just to be home and play and do whatever. And then some bad and frustrating things happened, so I cried and talked with my honey and my dad and my mom and felt a bit better…

Bel still hasn’t birthed her kittens yet. Anxiously awaiting over here. Her little children and her belly still probably have some growing to do, so maybe they’ll be here in a week or so, but I’m hoping tomorrow is the day before Chris heads out of town for two weeks. We love our animals a lot. They are so good to us and make us laugh and smile (and sometimes get annoyed) everyday. :)

Chris has been working a ton, so much. I’ve been subbing quite a bit. Good things. And all that makes saturdays at home much more delightful. I’m hungry.

Alaska

‘Ello Poppet

31 March 2015

So let me tell you…. We’ve got a pregnant kitty right now (on the right) and I’m so excited for kittens and for Bel to become a mama. The picture on the left is of Luna, the stray cat we adopted in Hawaii who got pregnant and I was so excited for her kitties. For probably a month, everytime I’d come home or wake up, I was hoping there’d be kittens. But I never got to meet her kitties, but she became a good mama and even adopted a little stray kitten that her new family found or something like that.

We sadly had to give Luna away when we left Hawaii last April. It was so sad when we took her to her new family. :( But it worked out really well and felt right. We would’ve liked to bring her home with us but it wasn’t working out, especially since she was so pregnant. She was a great backpack loving cat who could climb the screen door really well. Luna made our Hawaii days even better. And she started to get so cuddly and would follow us around, even out to the beach! That was because of her pregnancy hormones and such.

Anyway, Luna is in the picture on the left, a year ago, and the other picture is of Bel yesterday! Cracks me up that they look so similar and all this is just a year apart. Kitties yay! We’re excited for Bel to have a litter of kitties.

Also in case you were wondering, I made some grand cookies on Sunday, and ate like 200 of them yesterday. Cheers!

AND OMG yesterday I got a Facebook call, my first Facebook call, and it was Patrícia, her sister Fernanda, and her mom Miria. Those three are some of the beloved people from my mission. Oh it was so good and happy and unexpected to talk with them. <3<3<3 I can’t wait to go back to Brazil, to take Chris with me, and to reunite with my wonderful mission peeps that I love so very much.

Alaska

The Aurora

23 March 2015

Oh my goodness, the other night the leprechauns spread some very magical green lights in the sky to welcome in St. Patrick’s day! Wow, the aurora was indescribable. These pictures capture some magic, but when the lights are dancing across the sky and pulsing around, you just can’t take a picture of that. Btw, with my own eyeballs, I couldn’t see any reddish hues, but they do come up in the pictures because the camera was taking in more light than my own eyes, also making the picture more vibrant.

I was in awe.

About 11 pm, our friend Steve texted us and said their were red aurora up the inlet. This is cool. So we got un-ready for bed, put on warm clothes, and Chris packed up some camera gear and laptop and stuff. As Chris was walking out the door, I made some toast; I was hungry. And I love toast.

So we took about a ten minute drive went up to Diamond Ridge to watch the light show. :) The colors that came up were exciting and lovely.

After about an hour, we came home, got ready for bed again, and then I looked out our front window and it was fantastic. Northern lights watching from the comfort of our lovely home! Chris went to bed, but I couldn’t. So I grabbed the camera and my snowsuit and a blanket, and Edel and I went outside. It was so awesome possum. Wow. Normally the northern lights aren’t so incredible right in town. But it was amazazing. After about an hour, Chris came outside too. And then we decided we better head up to Skyline to get some pictures of the aurora dancing over Homer.

Up at on skyline, I really enjoyed laying in the snow in my snowsuit, just looking at the sky. It was superb. And when we decided to leave our house, the northern lights started flashing and going from top to bottom like the earth was in a time warp or something. So cool.

With the dancing and flashing northern lights like they were the other night, I felt like a cat chasing a laser. It was perfect.

In my 26 years I haven’t seen the northern lights very much. Chris and I have together a couple times this winter. And other than that, I have a few goo childhood memories of my dad waking me up to look at the green glow out the window. And I have a memory of super good and colorful lights when we were driving up the Al-Can (aka Alaska Canada Highway) when I was about 12. We were further north in Alaska then, and it’s usually better up there. So the other night with the grand St. Patrick’s day show, it was pretty unusual and I was so amazed. Thank you solar storm!

Chris and I put some of our pictures on fireweedphoto.com. Here’s the link to a few more of the aurora!

Alaska, Hawai'i

Under the Sea

13 March 2015

I shall always miss looking out my window and seeing the enticing blue sea, putting my suit on, walking out my door, across the grass, touching the sand and getting sand all over my feet (and body), and plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

For a few of my years at BYU-Hawaii, I lived in rundown beach front houses. It was a dream (except the cockroaches… sick). I’m so glad Chris and I could share six months of that magic together. Goodness, it was so so good and happy and healthy. I’m so grateful for that island and it’s wonderment.

Btw these pictures were taken with a canon 5d markII and an underwater bag, before we got the GoPro. The GoPro really takes superb underwater and everything pictures and video!

PS I’m really happy here in Homer right now. Though I do miss being tan, I’m trying to embrace my paleness. And I’ll always miss Hawaii, and Jerusalem, and especially my mission in Brazil, but I’m really happy to be HOME right now. I love Alaska and being Alaskan. :)

Alaska

Right meow.

12 March 2015

So apparently our kitty drinks out of the toilet now…

Chris and I are watching Big Hero 6 tonight. It’s super great so far! I’ve laughed out loud multiple times. And then Chris fell asleep. So I paused it and am working on making a couple of Chat Books now! Which I’m excited about. :) I want to make a book for each transfer on my mission, but for now I’m just gonna do like two books with a bunch of the special peeps from my mission, because I don’t ever want to forget them! <3Another thing we shouldn’t forget, is that “Jesus está voltando: prepara-te!”

Translated as: Jesus is returning: Prepare yourself!

So I served my mission in Brazil, I’m jonesing to go back, and I love that someone painted this on their house in querido Brasil. Oh how I love so so many people there.

Alaska

It snowed! PTL.

9 March 2015

I woke up this morning (it’s something I do everyday), looked out our window, and omg snow! So I strapped on my bootstraps, put my Iditarod headband on my head, and opened the front door for Edel to book it outside. The morning light + snow was especially beautiful so I grabbed our camera to do some hands on photography studying.

Chris knows a lot about photography, cameras, lightroom… and it’s so nice. I have a lot to learn about it all. I often capture some lovely photos, but Chris usually does all the editing. I took care of it today though! :) I’m thinking of doing some Kelby training so I can learn more about photography/adobe lightroom, because I love taking pictures and having good photos. It’s really important to Chris and me.

Edel and I were lucky enough to enjoy our adventure walk together this morning, and she ended up being the subject of most of my photos. She posed so well. :) I just love that puppy.

Alaska

A Sleepover with a Royal Feast

8 March 2015

I love my nieces. So so so much. They bring me lots of joy and peace and love and harmony and goodness. They came over for a sleepover on saturday and we ended up making a little royal feast for dinner, with all sorts of yummy things. Roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli, veggie eggs, sugar snap peas, apples, cheese, and apple juice in the tea pot. While I was preparing food I told the girls to set the table however they wanted and it was so cute. They helped with some food prep too, in between playing the harmonica, recorder, and tambourine.

I have a bunch of musical instruments and music makers in my house, and the girls always go for them when they come over. Sometimes I get tired of hearing a bit too much harmonica blowing, or stick banging, or ukulele strumming, and I want to ask the girls to stop, but I usually don’t. I think it’s great for them to just create music and sounds. And Natalie loves singing too. And Katy is wanting me to teach her some piano, which makes me really happy.

After a slightly frustrating clean up time of dinner and toys, we watched the Book of Life. It was great. And the girls are so funny when they watch tv, or any screen, because they are totally in the zone. They block out everything else by the screen in front of them haha.

Before bed we did a Cosmic Kids yoga video and it was pretty awesome. Super good kids yoga. I really enjoy doing yoga, usually Yoga with Adriene. And then came… snack time. :) This was my favorite moment from the whole day.

*We made them some delicious toast and I cut up a pear for us. After some munching, we got down to the last two slices and I told the girls that was great, one for each of them. Well Natalie and Katy simultaneously ate half of their pear slices, and handed me the other half, making it a whole slice for me. It was so sweet and pure and made me tear up a bit. Those girls are so sweet and kind. Oh how I love them.

Chris slept on the couch (and watched man movies all night haha) and the girls and I slept in our bed. Chris came in and we read the magical book I Like You and then we said prayers together, and drifted off to sleeps.

The girls and I woke up approximately 7:51 sunday morning, and they (especially Natalie) requested I tell them stories of when I was a kid. I remember how I loved hearing my dad tell childhood stories when I was a kid. Stories, really powerful. PS, check out my friends’ Soul Story and pledge a little something. :) Anyway, I told the girls stories of when I was a kid, first days of school, adventures, random memories… it was great. What a great way to start the day.

And then we hurriedly got ready for church, none of us looking our absolute best, but all in fairly good spirits. We didn’t make it to church on time… why is that so hard?! Buuuut we did have a really really great sleepover. And church was enlightening, as per usual. :)

Chris worked the flash like a champ and got these fotos for us. I love our home and família.

Alaska

Kindergarten Teacher

27 February 2015

I had the joyous privilege of substitute teaching in my niece’s kindergarten class for a week. It was so very very wonderful and made me really happy. Those kiddos are just so sweet and cute. There were times when I got a bit bothered with some, but I just love each of them! They gave me lots of hugs and we had a jolly time together. It was such a good good week.

And one of the best parts about being at Paul Banks Elementary, was that both of my nieces are there. So I’d get to seem them at recess and in the hall, and of course Katy was in my class the whole time. And after school they’d hang out in the classroom with me and help me clean things up (and they’d play on the smart board, which they loved). I love those darling nieces of mine, and the kindergarteners, and substitute teaching.

Here’s a picture of me and Edel Cradle sleeping on the floor after a lovely day of teaching and playing.

Alaska

Genuine Gold

12 February 2015

Happy 60th Birthday BYU-Hawaii

BYU-Hawaii was a perfect place for me to call home starting in 2007. I showed up as a happy 18 year old, and left as a happy 25 year old, with more wisdom, knowledge, and experience (not to say I am wise or experienced, though I’m working on it). I am so so grateful for my time at the blessed school in sacred Laie. So special and magical and wonderful. At it’s ground breaking services 60 years ago, President David O. McKay said:

“Those noble men and women, the world needs them. One man said the world needs men who cannot be bought or sold, men who will scorn to violate truth, genuine gold. That is what this school is going to produce…

You mark that word, and from this school, I’ll tell you, will go men and women whose influence will be felt for good towards the establishment of peace internationally.”

12 February 1955, Groundbreaking Services.

Excerpts from President David O. McKay’s Church College of Hawaii dedication

Ua mau ke ea o ka aina e ka pono.

Roughly translated as: The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

Alaska

I learned how to play the organ yesterday.

9 February 2015

And I ate almost an entire pint of gelato tonight. And tomorrow I’m substitute teaching in Nikolaevsk, the Russian village near my childhood cabin.

Alaska

fevereiro

5 February 2015

Sometimes it’s easier (and more legible) to type than handwrite, though I really do not want handwriting to become even more of a lost art. I haven’t been writing in my journal much lately, but I do take plenty of pictures to document thoughts and moments, and I’m grateful for that. I remember back in the days, before iPhones were very popular, I dreamed of having a device that was a phone, camera, and played music. And how wonderful it is to have that and more in my lovely iPhone! I do check it too often though. I need to disconnect more.

Anyway, lately I’ve been enjoying the white ground and cooler temperatures, especially when my home is nice and cozy with its new natural gas heat. (Someday we’ll have a dreamy wood stove). I’ve made some verrrry good batches of cookies lately, always with the intention to give them to the 6 or so other houses around us. Buuuut, they never last long enough to get to the neighbors. I eat lots and lots of them, and I give them to other peeps that come and go. Anyway, I love cookies. And Chris and I need to deliver to our neighbors. I’ve been substituting teaching more, which has been great. I enjoy each day that I sub and the kiddos are good. I’ve mostly been at the middle school lately and it takes me back to those good ol’ days. My mom also works in special ed at the middle school, and it is so nice being there when she is around, since she’s such a gem. Both of my parents are really great. I’m glad I can hang our with them here. I’ve been helping take care of stuff and animals for my sister while they’ve been in Hawaii. This included giving the chickens and cats and dog some L-O-V-E, collecting the chickens’ eggs, and cleaning up powder egg messes that the cats make…. it’s been good. And I’ll be so glad to see them when they get home tomorrow! Hopefully I won’t become bitterly jealous at their tans.

Oh! And I had dungeoness and king crab the other night. It was such a great gathering of good friends! But I’m not too in to crab… And oh! We had New Beginnings at church tonight with the Young Women and their parents. It was funny. I love the girls, and I’m really happy to be in YW.

Alaska

Sheep, snow, and skies

31 January 2015

Note: scroll through those images. And if you want to let me know if you like going through pictures like that, or just scrolling up and down. Anyway…..

At 7 am our alarm sounded, with some not quite delightful little music to get us out of bed, and we got ready to hit the road (Jack). Chris went for a walk with Edel, I packed some snacks, we fetched our clothes, and got on the snowy ro-ad. It was quite nice and snowy from Homer to Ninilchik, then the roads were nice and dry after that. On our drive north we didn’t listen to much musics, just a little Hobo Jim here and there. We’ve really been liking his Woodsmoke album.

When we arrived in Anchorage we headed to the doctor, and Chris got an MRI to check up on his MS. It’s been five years or so since he’s had an MRI, so it was time he get one again. Thankfully it was free with the MS society since we gots no health insurance. Other than his first episode two months ago, there’s fortunately been no issues, and we pray it stays that way.

After the doctor (where I got free hot cocoa and watched food network) and a bit of shopping, we met up with Chris’s delta pilot friend Paul, and we ate pizza at our favorite Moose’s Tooth! Yum, Moose’s Tooth is delish. Stopping there is almost as important as stopping at costco.

We spent the night in Wasilla at our dear friends Ronnie and Sharon’s. My dad and Ronnie met back in 1989, when I was born! And so it’s so fun going to their house and talking with them. They are soooo very wonderful and make us feel great and take such good care of us. It’s so happy talking with them, and we talked about aliens in New Mexico too, which was super cool. When we woke up, it was -10 degrees and there were little bunny tracks all over the snowy yard. Presh. When I walked out the door in the morning, my snot froze to my nose hairs. Cool. I haven’t been that cold in a while!

We unfortunately didn’t go to the temple this time while in Anchorage. We usually do, but didn’t this time. I made a deal with myself that I’d do some family history work instead, since the two services go hand in hand. We did go to costco though before heading home, and we spent the usual couple hundos just so we could save money on a few items… haha there’s always so many great deals at costco and we usually always come out with more than what was on our list, but we don’t do too bad. Oh! And we picked up a bunch of pictures from costco that I had printed. Photos look so good in your hand.

Our drive from Anchorage to Homer was one of the best yet. It was so very beautiful and we had a few spontaneous little stops that really made the trip.

When we passed Beluga Point, we saw a couple peeps with very nice cameras and lenses taking pictures of the mountain. This is a good indication of mountain goats/Dall sheep. So we turned around to check it out! Sure enough, two precious white furry creatures on the mountain side! Most fortunately Chris is working on getting in the habit of carrying our camera stuff around with us.

I got out the camera, put on the extender, and put on the 70-200 lens, so basically our pictures would turn out lovely and close up! I felt kind of amateur just wandering over there and clicking some pictures. The other people there seemed pretty professional, and this one guy we were talking with had on the hugest fur boots AND fur hat that I’ve ever seen. He was cool. He told us to watch the animals, learn from them, and they’d let us know what was happening. He also talked about patience and how good photos take work, and waiting for that shot. Cool dude.

And it was so fun watching the Dall sheep. I learned from my Pops, that they were sheep and not mountain goat that we saw. And from the furry photographer man I learned that those mama sheep have little horns, just not the big curly ones like the rams do.

I want to learn and practice more photography, so I shall. It’s so nice we’ve got a lot of great equipment. Chris and I were talking about Kelby Training on the way home. It’s like $20 a month for a ton of training videos and info. Chris has done it before and I think I shall try it out.

Other eventful events on our journey home, was stopping to get water that came out of the mountain. So since I was little, I remember seeing big huge icy water fall things down the cliff fronts, like frozen water that is beautiful and cool. And on this trip I realized that water just kinda comes out of the rocks. It was super cool. I remember seeing someone ice climbing up one when I was really young, and I was so confused and wondered how that person got frozen into a waterfall.

We made another stop just by some random trail to Manitoba cabin or something. The trees and forest were so snowy and magical and untouched. It totally felt like that Olaf seen from the movie Frozen. Chris and I just walked and ran through on the trail, took pictures, ate snow… it was great.

Not long later and we found some amazing little rainbow chunks in the sky. The sky looked majestic and whimsical. And I don’t know how the rainbow-y-ness was in some of the clouds (not in this pic), but it was cool. So happy we took the time to take photos.

We decided we should get a better view of the sky and sunset, so we pulled of on Skilak lake road, and what did we find… We saw a truck being pulled by a big team of dog sleds!! Crazy! The dogs must’ve been iditarod training maybe. Who knows. But it was funny and cool.

And then we saw more solitary beauty of the sky and lake and trees and glorious winter. We barely made it home in time for both of us to go to mutual at 7 that night.

Mutual was funny. We ate pummels (YUM), made paper snowflakes, played musical instruments, and wrote some postcards. Good time had by all. :)

Also, our home teachers came over the other night and it was great. It’s always nice being edified by good words. It was inspiring and motivating and helped me be more grateful. And then…. I went on a snowy drive to safeway to get some ice cream. And then I ate it.

The world is a very nice place to be.

Alaska

cold air, clean carpets, and cookies

26 January 2015

It is chilly outside! And beautiful. I love walks. Today on my walk with Edel, I had to turn it into a little run so I could stay warm! Brrr I haven’t been that cold in a while. It was oddly refreshing. :)

Edelweiss is shedding right now. We could brush this much hair out of her every couple days right now. “They don’t call them German Shedders for nothing!” And then I cleaned the carpets today too, and they look significantly better thanks to my stepmom’s rug doctor. This color and type of carpet is not ideal for us, but I LOVE CARPET. So cozy and nice.

Our friend Richard joined us for dinner tonight, which was lovely. We shared some butternut squash soup with roasted chickpeas. I LOVE making food and sharing it with people. Love it. I learned some good things today and my desire to learn all sorts of things is growing, especially after some very inspiring Humans of New York posts today. Check them out. HONY post enlighten me everyday. Today I held some home concerts with my guitar and ukulele. The animals really enjoyed it. :) It was fun playing and singing again. I haven’t been practicing much lately, though I do make sure to play piano regularly. My harmonica skills are still minimal, but shall increase soon! :) Also, incase you were wondering, yesterday’s fantastic cookies are mostly in my belly. I won’t tell you how many cookies I ate today, because I really have no idea how many. Probably like 20 haha. Not kidding. Boa noite!

OH! I saw Robby today! I LOVE HIM! He’s my downs syndrome foster brother that lived with us for about 7 years. It was soooo good seeing him and hugging him. He is full of light and love and it was contagious.

Alaska

A Sunday of Light and Love

25 January 2015

Hello there friends. So I rarely do a post without a picture or two or twenty-two. Sometimes I feel the post incomplete without a picture, and often I tend to share many pictures with just a few words, a picture can be worth a thousand words. I think that when I “read” others’ blogs, I focus mostly on the pictures. Maybe because of the lazy bone, or maybe because a picture can be interpreted differently than words. Also, I maybe feel I can better express myself through pictures rather than words, or again, it could be the lazy bone that doesn’t feel like writing. Basically this is kind of a full journal entry today.

Anyway, today I have lots of words to share. Read if you’d like, or check back later for some new pictures. :)

Today has been a very good and simple day, full of much light and love. I am really happy today.

Let’s start with 7:30 am, when I got up. I had ward council this morning so I had to be at the church at 8:30. This morning, I didn’t change my outfit even once! Normally on sundays, I change my church clothes multiple time, usually with a last minute outfit change right before we leave. Not sure why I do that. My sister sent me a funny quote that was something like, “it’s better to arrive late than ugly” and sometimes I sort of agree with that. :) This morning I was a couple minutes late, which usually flusters me. Today it did not, and that was nice. I don’t like being late, but sometimes it happens, and you move on and try to do better next time.

What I took from ward council is that it’s about people and not numbers. And the organization of the church is built to help children of God, people like you and me. I also thought about remember and relying on spiritual experiences I’ve had. Usually after ward council, I might run back home to pick up Chris, but today I had my mother pick him up and bring him to church. I had some copies to make and things to print for Young Women today.

It was nice being at church so early. I talked with people. And that is usually a very good thing. I had a really great and simple talk with my stepmom. We shared some good open words and I’m grateful for that moment. Chris and Mom got to church and upon request, Chris brought me a some strawberries and cashews since I was hungry, a hungie lil girl.

I don’t remember the hymns we sang today. But I remember the ward members who gave of their time and talents to give us musical moments at church. Lately I’ve been singing the hymns in portuguese. The gospel in portuguese rings so true to my soul.

My step niece, Lauren, was the youth speaker today and I felt really proud of her during her talk. What a great girl. And I liked her dress. :) She shared how she has a goal to read the scriptures everyday. How wonderful. Daily scripture study is something that I struggle with and always want to do better in, and so it was really helpful for me to see her strength in one of my areas of weakness. We got a new elder in our ward, from Pennsylvania, and he taught about the atonement of Jesus Christ, using Preach My Gospel and the missionary lessons. It took my back to my mission, which is always a blessing to reflect on. I am ever so grateful I had the privilege of serving as a full time missionary in Brazil.

Then Chris and I sung hymn #71 with the choir. I don’t think I had ever sung that hymn before, and I’m still not sure what it’s called. Something about singing praises to Him maybe. Anyway, it was lovely singing with the choir, and it was especially lovely having my honey boy singing right next to me. Brother Dustin gave the last talk today, and he is funny! He said some funny things about how he and his wife almost hit a moose, and missed the moose and almost ran into a big snow berm (btw where did that word come from?), but they were blessed and didn’t. And then he said how their transmission blew up instead, but it could’ve been worse if they had hit a moose too. It was funny. Brother Dustin has a big white beard and dresses up as Santa at Christmastime.

By the way, I realized I made no notes of the actual ordinance of the sacrament. I am so grateful for those few moments to ponder on my savior and what he means to me. Christ truly is our savior and the Prince of Peace.

The second hour of church was sunday school. Brother Degraffenreid has been teaching the class this month, and I can sense that he works so hard to diligently teach us. He is open to the spirit and its direction, and he has been encouraging us to study to lesson guide on our own before class. I’d really like to do that, but I forget. Maybe I should study the class member study guide right meow since I am remembering…

So in young women, we have 13 girls total, and about 7 that regularly attend. Today we had 3 present and I was the only leader. So it was funny and low key. We will be having New Beginnings in a week and a half, so we did a few preparations for that. For our opening hymn I suggested we sing one of my favorites, #124 Be Still, My Soul, and then I changed my mind and decided we should sing #60 Battle Hymn of the Republic – you can never go wrong with that.

We sung and prayed and declared our YW theme and announced a few things, and then I went into teaching the lesson. Today’s lesson was focused on Christ and his great importance in our lives. It is a blessing to prepare for and guide lessons with the girls. The manual Come Follow Me is great and full of good questions, videos, and learning activities. I am really grateful for the gospel and the church. Today I thought it might be a good idea to play with play doh, because that is fun. So we all made some interpretive little sculptures of why/how Christ is important to us.

I rolled up a bunch of little play doh balls and put them on a flat and squished play doh square. Then I made a big smiley face with my remaining play doh, and I shared how Christ is important to me because he is central to my happiness. I can be cleansed from my sins, be purified, and live in the presence of God forever, with my beloved family.

One of the girls made praying hands and taught how she and pray and gain strength through difficult times. Another made a person and talked about how Christ is our creator. We talked about how our present and future creations a little bit too. Another girl sculpted the earth and shared how Christ created the earth in 6 days, rested on the 7th, and that is so important to us.

We also went through the gospel art book and discussed the importance of Christ in various people’s lives, especially those who knew him during his earthly ministry. It was great. I love gospel art and the stories that the pictures depict.

After church, Chris, the elders, and I went to a few families to administer the sacrament. This was such a sweet experience visiting wonderful people. It was so good. And it gave me a renewed perspective on the sacrament.

We first went to the Corey’s home, and they have so much cool stuff and stories! What a sweet couple they are. I need and want to go visit them more. Then we went to Alice Lind’s, who recently turned 90 and just moved from independent living to more of an assisted living. She said how that transition has been difficult to becoming so dependent on others, but it’s what she felt she needed to do. She is a woman full of great stories and experiences, and is so beautiful inside and out.

The missionaries then went to a teaching appointed and we headed up the hill to the Degraffenreid’s home. What a great visit we had there. They have always been an important part of my life and my family. Alan is one who always checked in with me to make sure my eyes were fixed on a temple marriage. As we talked with him and Gayle, Alan shared some really interesting stories of fishing in Alaska and experiences at some native villages. It was so great. I loved listening and talking and being there with Chris. He then showed us their house, and their incredible completed fireplace, and I saw so much potential in that home. He said how it’s a big project, one that’s been 25 years in the making, and he talked about hoping to finish it before he “croaks”. Alan is great and the Degraffenreid family has so much talent. Alan and Gayle told Chris and I to have fun and enjoy our youth. I think we’re doing a pretty good job with that. :)

We had a nice drive home down the hill, talked about one of my mentors, who I admire and appreciate so much. The Lord puts people in our lives that help us become better, and I’m especially grateful Chris is the way he is. He’s not judgmental and is open minded and kind. So grateful to share life with him.

When we finally got home about 4 pm, after not eating all day, Chris was getting a little hangry. Hanger is real. :) So he took our pup Edel on a walk and I prepared some foods for us to eat. I love creating food and am so glad I have time and desire for these creations.

I made some veggie scrambled eggs/omelet things, along with roasted potatoes and a side of avocado. It was a really tasty and flavorful little feast. For most of my 25 years, I haven’t been too into eggs, but I’d like to eat more of them. I have recently discovered when I mix an egg with a bunch of veggies and seasonings and a bit of yummy cheese, it’s delicious to me!

While we ate, we watch Star Trek: the Next Generation. We’ve been watching a lot of that lately. :) It’s not as much of an addictive TV series like Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife, SHIELD, or Mr. Selfridge, but still nice to have an ongoing story to watch.

Then we took a family nap. (after some fruit snacks) and it was really nice. Since we’ve been up late partying/playing/watching star trek/eating stuff/doing picture stuff on the computer, I haven’t been sleeping a bit less. It was nice taking a little snooze on the couch together.

When I woke up and worked on the small mountain of dishes we had and [ut Beauty and the Beast. The music is fantastic and I think it’s possibly my most favorite cartoon. I remember when I first got the special edition DVD, it was one of the first dvd’s I owned myself. I bought it at safeway. My sweet mother probably got it for me actually. I was like 12 or so and I used to watch it all the time, over and over.

I started making cookies because we want to take some to our neighbors and get to know them all better. While I was making cookies, there was one of my favorite moments of the day. Chris woke up, walked on over to me, and just held me, hugging me from behind. It was such a lovely embrace, such a perfect simple moment. I love my sweet Christopher, so much. I’m so happy to share our life together.

The cookies I made are delicious. Hopefully we save some for the neighbors. And I actually ended up watching/listening to Beauty and the Beast twice today and it has been a beautiful sunny and chilly day.

It’s now midnight. We have Star Trek back on, and Chris just had some nightly nachos that he’s been into lately. He’s got his hood on too. Pretty soon he’ll probably take of his smart wools and his sweatshirt because he’ll get too warm. I’ll probably fall asleep on the couch or floor while we watch star trek and then we’ll get our animals and go to bed. Good night friends.

Alaska

It snowed!

23 January 2015

I took this great video like two months ago and it’s just so classic.

So my 1991 Subaru Loyale (Penelope is her name) has been in my family for many moons. I was maybe like 10 when we bought her, and she replaced and slightly older, slightly rustier, silver subaru loyale. So Penelope has gone through all my siblings, and I’m happy she ended up with me. As shown in this video, I’ve been able to use her as not only sweet reliable wheels, but also as an ongoing art project. How perfect. Each summer (since she’s primarily a summer car for me) I add a little more. Whether it be embroidering the seats, sticking pictures and stickers to the sealing and walls, or gluing random plastic toys to the dashboard, Penelope is a nice creative outlet for me.

Chris’s early impressions of me included my Subaru, and so I think he’s always afraid he’ll come home to a bunch of plastic toys super glued to the counters or something. :)

Anywayyyy on the day of this video, I was driving my subaru up to my dad’s house to park it in the snow for the winter. Chris and I really don’t need two cars at all right meow anyway. I figured since I was saying goodbye to Penelope for the winter, I should probably take a video of our adventure. Just to reassure you, I was driving safely and wasn’t paying too much attention to where the camera was facing. And we were fortunate to have a good song playing on K-WAVE 104.9 as I was cruising up the hill.

Oh!! And on the day of this video, it was snowing. And today (and yesterday), it was snowing!! HOORAY. We’d been hoping for snow.

Alaska, Favorites

Adventure isn’t far

21 January 2015

Chris and I wanted to go on a little outing. We packed our puppy, camera, sleeping bags, warm clothes, a couple books, PBJ supplies, an excessive amount of fruit snacks, and got on the ro-ad. We headed north and after a couple short hours we arrived at our destination, Hidden Lake. We had no reception, and Chris intentionally left his phone behind, and it got dark. So we ate and then took a nap, at like 7 pm. I tried to keep Chris from sleeping by coercing him to play alphabet car games with me. We did the ABCs of countries, US cities, maybe animals, and at some point Chris was ready to sleep. We just laid our sleeping pads (I mean sleeping pad, since we forgot one) and cuddled in the back of the car with da pooch Edelweiss.

At like 10 pm or so, we were done napping, so we got some granola bars and headed out for an icy walk under the starry skies. Edel was read for adventure and we fortunately have a great glow in the dark ball for her that we launch and chuck and throw and project, and she still has energy to fetch the ball ten hundred more times. Our walk was so nice. So lovely to disconnect and feel the world around you.

After an aokay night’s rest in the car, letting Edel out many times in the middle of the night to prance around, we got up to b-e-a-utiful surroundings. Here in Homer, the weather has been oddly warm and lacking snow. So it was so nice seeing some white around and to have a chance to wear my snowsuit! Awesome.

We went on one of the greatest hikes ever, with nature delighting us with so many wonders, and my cozy snowsuit eventually got waaaaay too warm. So I did the old snowsuit trick of unzipping and letting the top half of my suit dangle behind me. Chris and I took pictures all along the way and it was absolutely splendid.

Cooper Landing called us next, and we saw a bit more snow there, which was exciting. There were definitely some winter wonderland moments. One of our stops was Widman’s, where I got some hot cocoa and burned my tongue, and Chris got his cream soda. Edel had some water, and she was happy with that. She’s pretty much usually always happy.

This little trip made Chris and I happy too. There’s a lot of wonderful wonderment around us, sometimes it pops up right in front of you, and sometimes you have to just look for it.

Here’s a whole bunch of lovely photos.

Alaska

meese

15 January 2015

I love moose. Chris took these pictures a summer or two ago and I am so happy we’ve got so many excellent pictures. In my efforts to blog more, you may notice me just posting some great pictures of our past adventures. Or some semi mediocre iPhone photos of daily life details. I’m happy with my new blog and that all my old blogspot entries migrated over and that I have my own cool url and everything. All of that is thanks to husband.

PS Sometimes I get myself scared of moose, but I think they’re really wonderful and I love seeing them around all of the time. But in the past couple months I’ve only seen like two moose! Not sure where they are or what they’re up too. The weather sure is warm enough that I’m sure they’ve got plenty to eat, which is good. Yay moose.

Alaska

maiden season voyage

13 January 2015

Last summer, my dear ol’ dad called up Chris and I to see if we wanted to go for a journey out across the bay to test our my dad’s new old boat. We were planning on using it for a big kayaking/boating excursion so we wanted to make sure it ran properly. I remember being reluctant to go out that morning, because I had some simple things I wanted to do at home. I love being home. Anyway, I’m so glad we went. We just cruised around to a couple beaches I’d never been to before. And of course Chris and I took some photos. My dad is really great and I’m so glad he’s given me a stellar supply of adventures. And of course, I’m so glad Chris is my adventure buddy. I need to adventure more.