Home Sweet Home

 Hi Folks

We finally moved into our new home on January 23rd. We are getting settled and enjoying our little log home in the woods. With the help of Saun's Uncle Joe, we unloaded our trailer in less than three hours. It is a great feeling having a place to call our own. It was like Christmas morning unpacking all our belongings. Hannah was over the moon excited. She is also happy to be back to herself. No more "Hannah you need to be quiet because the people next to our hotel room can hear you". She now has her space to run and play.

Remember the story about hitting a rough patch of road on the way to Alaska and we were afraid of what may have been broken in the trailer. There was one box that took a beating. In the box was our unity candle vase from our wedding. It was clear glass and had marriage vows engraved on it. It shattered. I was bummed and Saun had to humor me. He said "it is a sign, we are DOOMED!" We hugged, said I love you, and threw it away.  We will be together 18years and married for 13years... our "unity" will forever be strong.

The new house 1000sqft., 2 bdrm, and 1bath. Do not have a garage. That will be a fall project. We are going back to a "Battle Ground" style of living. Our first house together was in BG and it was 900sqft. We looked at soooo many houses that could accommodate more stuff and guests, but this little fella was perfect. It is on the out skirts of town, no immediate remodeling, and move in ready. One of the benefits of moving to Alaska was that Saun would not be overwhelmed with a day job and side jobs.
When we lived in BG there was a train track that ran through town. To our surprise, the first night we were here we heard the whistle of a train across the highway. We looked at one another and just smiled. We were home!

Saun is enjoying his job. They are staying busy this winter. The majority of his work is about 45 min from home. He actually enjoys the drive because he gets to see a different sunrise every morning over the snow covered mountains. He grew up in Tucson and has commented many times that he is happy to be living near the mountains again.

Hannah is doing very well in school.She enjoys music and computer classes. She is official boy crazy. Every week is a new boy that she is going to marry when she is eighteen. Oh Lord, help us!
So happy that she is making friends. We are very pleased with the staff at her school.

I am doing well. I am still on the prowl for a job. I am enjoying be able to take Hannah to & from school and having dinner on the table before 6:00pm. Adapting to the sticker shock at the grocery store, I have started to coupon. No No I am not extreme, but I really want to make a difference in the money going out.  We had done out research on the cost of living before moving here, but it is a real tough adjustment. The basics we are used to, but the heating costs are outrageous. Our house is forced air but with heating oil. Natural gas is not available near our house. I am not complaining, but it is hard not to compare to what the costs were back in Indiana. A local birdy told me back in May "Michelle, you move to Alaska and your quality of life will change". I believe my quality have life has changed in some small ways. The hustle and bustle is no longer there. Saun and I have minimal stress right now. We are in the company of one another every day. Back home Saun was working many long hours. Some nights he would not be there to tuck Hannah into bed. Saun has lost 27lbs. It is amazing how lightening you work load can be healthy. As for me I have gained 12lbs. Damn you coffee, cookies, and cable!!!! Hibernation is in full effect for me...lol.

Oh I finally got my Alaskan Driver's license last week. I passed by the skin of my teeth. You have to get at least 16 questions out of 20 to pass. That is exactly what I got....16 correct and 4 incorrect. I studied, but they get you with verbiage such as "may" "must" "might". The question I passed with was a DUI question...hahaha. I have never had a DUI, but they are not taken lightly in this state. 

I am not going to lie I miss Indiana family and friends something fierce. I think one of biggest things is that they are starting to release music concerts dates. So many memories made at concerts. I do not have that much assortment here, so far. They did just announce that 3 Doors Down will be coming to the State Fair this year. One of our favorite bands. With all these Alaska reality shows you would think more bands would want to come here for the experience.  Maybe not, since there is State Trooper Post not far from the fairgrounds...lol. "We have a 10/96 in the beer tent!"
We shall see who else will be on the concert bill this summer.

We attended "Big Lake Winter fest" last Saturday. It was our first festival on the ice. When we heard that people drive their vehicles on the ice for this festival, we were like that is BS & you will not see our truck on the ice. Well we manned up and drove on the ice to attend the fest and fireworks. The firework show was awesome. There was a band called Big Fungus. They played some good ole' tunes. This fest is also the start line for the Iron Dog Race. The race began on Sunday. It was televised. You would have thought is was the Indy 500.

Below are photos of our digs and outdoor fun.

So long for now!

Metal Roof - Took about 9 days for snow blanket to slide down

 

Broken Unity Cylinder

Grandma Kris was sneaky and hide a doll house in the trailer for Hannah.

 

 

 

 



Our neighborhood patrol. We named her Molly

Small Town Post Office

Hannah at school

Snow Tubbin at home. Unable to upload videos :(



DIY - Cased in flat screen

 

 

Valentine Sundae at school

Hannah Family Heart

Miss Diva

Festival on the Ice

 

Hot Chocolate and Snow Machines

 

 

 

Goodbye 2012 - Bring on 2013

Happy Holidaze!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The day before Thanksgiving I went shopping in Anchorage. While departing Anchorage the truck got stuck in gear between 2nd and 3rd. In panic mode I called Saun and he guided me through what I needed to do. It could barely get up to 45mph. I traveled about 10 miles before I pulled off the highway. I was still 20 miles away before I would reach Wasilla Ford dealership I immediately called AAA for a tow truck. I was told the tow truck wait would be approx. 90 mins. Saun was working close by and met me. It was around 2:30 when this happened and Hannah was going to be out of school in about an hour. I called our cousin Marissa get her and bring her to us. Marissa would be passing by us as she was heading to the airport to get Travis. Travis was returning from his 4 week trip of being part of Hurricane Sandy relief.
Four hours later the tow truck finally arrived. We were told our original dispatched tow truck was diverted by highway patrol to a car accident. The replacement tow truck finally arrived. He was very apologetic, but we understood it was out of his control.
We had made plans earlier in the week to go spend the weekend with the Davis family in Fairbanks. We were thankful the truck broke down close to town instead of on the desolate 6 hour drive to Fairbanks. Diagnose was a transmission shift solenoid. Ouch!
It was just another day in the life of Mrs. Schultz...lol

Thanksgiving we spent with Saun's Aunt Mona side of the family. They cooked the turkey in a Bam B-Q. A product made by Emeril. It was delish! We watched football and Hannah made a new friend. Her name is Rori. She is Hannah's age. They colored and ate plenty of desserts.
I made broccoli casserole. A traditional side at the Hadley holiday dinners.
We did not go Black Friday shopping. First time for me in a long time.

We had a cookie bake with all the hens in the family. It was a blast. Our daughter was for sure hyped on the sugar as the ladies were hyped on Mimosa's. I believe there were at least 15 different kinds of goodies exchanged. Hannah helped with putting icing on sugar cookies and sprinkles on chocolate dipped pretzels. I made no-bake cookies and buckeyes.

In between Thanksgiving and Christmas was weeks of pushing paperwork for home loan approval. To any military persons that have been honorably discharged, do not loose your DD214 form. You must have this if you are applying for a VA Loan. We had delays with proceeding on approval until we got a copy of this form. Saun was dischanrge in 2001 and we had moved twice since then, so we had no clue where this was at. So off to call Indiana National Guard we go! 
We put an offer on house only to counter offer twice and then a cash offer was put in. So we lost that house. Yes another set back, but we continued to pursue finding a home.

We found a home!!! It is a cute little 1000sq ft log home. When we lived in Battleground our house was less than 1000sq ft. So no fear here. It is on the out skirts of town on a wooded lot. I will post pictures when we move in. We had hoped closing would have taken place prior to Christmas, but that did not happen. We moved into short term housing on December 21st.

Christmas weekend was fun.
On the 23rd
We skyped with the Kennedy Family. The girls opened their presents from one another.
It was good to see all their smiling faces. They sent us our first round of Indiana goodies. Cracker Barrel breakfast, Steak n Shake chili, and Orville Reddenbocker popcorn.
That night we had Swedish dinner at Joe and Mona's. We tried fish called Lutefisk. This was a favorite by Sauns Grandma Schultz. We are open minded to try new foods, but this one was for sure not a favorite. The fish is baked. It had very little flavor so you put a white gravy over it. We also had Swedish meatballs and lefse. Lefse is a flatbread that you top with butter and sugar. I brought 5 cup salad (sour cream-coconut-mandarin oranges-pineapple-marshmallows) This is my grandmother's receipe.

Christmas Eve we had dinner at Travis and Marissa.
Deep fried turkey and all the fixins. We had a gift exchange plus a white elephant exchange.
We came back home opened Christmas Eve gifts from Uncle Christopher and Aunt Lauren. More Cracker Barrel breakfast goodies. It is the little things that can make you feel at home :)

Christmas Day we spent just the three of us. Stayed in our jammies all day. We made Cracker Barrel pancakes and fried apples.
We skyped with my parents and siblings, so they could see Hannah open her gifts.
Santa brought here some cash to go shopping for new comforter & sheets and a Hello Kitty Lamp. She got an Easy Bake Oven from daddy. She was so excited.  I was in smiles as this was a gift from my childhood, however as an adult this is an overated gift. Great for little girls to feel like a baker, but the turn out is a cupcake the size of nickel. Perfect size cake if you were Barbie. I got her the Crayola Air Brush system. She diggin this as it is like daddy's air brush gun used in taxidermy.

This week Hannah and I have watched the movies sent to her by Uncle Brandon and Aunt Paige.
Harry and the Henderson's - she kept saying are sure this isn't a mommy/daddy movie. She was a little scared. She did cry when John Lithgow was being mean to make Harry go back into the woods.
Jumanji  - she was happy that she could watch the movie without commercials
The Neverending Stories - a little too 80's and too slow for her.
Her 15 minute attention span was being challenged. She eventually got intrigued by the whole adventure of Atreyu and happy to see such a beautiful empress.

So here we are December 30th.....
We woke to the Colts game being televised. Sa-weet!!!
Generally they just televise the west coast teams.
Since we are 4 hours behind the East Coast, we wake up and they games have already started. No problem for us to stay up and watch all of the Sunday and Monday night football games.

On a sad note we received news from my folks that our cat Woody passed away. He got to a point of illness that he was not drinking or eating on his own. My parents were having to give him fluid through IV. We had hoped that he would recover. He passed peacefully in his laundry basket with his arm around his favorite stuffed animal. My heart is seriously wrenched by this loss. We lost Marley in April and now Woody. So tuff to loose a family pet.

As far as this week we PRAY we will close on our new house on Jan 3rd. We have been living out of a suitcase since Labor Day weekend. Beyond excited to get back to a "normal" life.
Hannah goes back to school on Jan 7th, would be awesome to get all settled before then.

The weather has been ..well... Alaskan. Some night temps drop into the negatives and days barely reach the teens. We did get around 14" of snow in a 24 hour time span. Most beautiful and peaceful scene. Indeed a winter wonderland. Saun has gotten icicles on his facial hair while working out in the cold temps. Hannah's school sends the children out for recess unless the temp go below 9 degrees. She is a trooper. We pack her snow boots and bibs everyday.

So long for now. I am on the prowl today for corned beef and cabbage for New Year's Eve dinner.

Wishing you a Happy an Healthy New Year!

Its November...

Hi Folks

It has been a while since I have had a moment to write.
Grabbing life by the horns...if ya know what I mean!

Hannah is doing very well at school. The first three days were ROUGH for me and her. The first day she had the confidence that "I got this mom". Marissa and baby Lexi were also with us on this day. So plenty of smiles and excitement to go around.
The second day not so good. Marissa took us to school and stayed in the truck with the baby.
I walked Hannah inside the classroom and I could see the fear in her eyes. Lots of comotion from the other children hanging up thier coats and backpacks. Hannah asked if I could walk her to her seat. She clinged on to me like never before. She was crying and saying "I wanna go back home to Indiana - back home to Kiddie Kollege." I said Hannah I will stay for the pledge of alligiance and then I have to go. The other children at her table we so nice to her. They said "Hannah we were new students too. It is ok, you will get used to it" I was leaving and heading towards the door and she came a running after me. Then grabbed a hold of my leg with all her might. Her teacher came over and picked her up. I could hear her down the hallway and sobbing "Mommy don't go" It was a brutal day.
Kiddie Kollege was a school that was 99% female teachers and staff. Her new teacher is MR. Raines.
It has taking a while for her to warm up to him. I think this will a good change.
Here we are 2 1/2 weeks later and she is all good with school.
We depart from each other and give loves in the hallway instead of the classroom.
The school had a Halloween Costume Ball. She had a great time. Saun and I had big smiles to see her run and play with the girlfriends. She is growing up so quickly. She made her way to the DJ speakers and danced all night.

Saun is busy at work. He accepted a postion as Warranty Specialist/Punch Out. He is working for a family owned business like he did in Indiana. He first week he was framing homes. He had not framed in years. It was definatly a "Icy Hot" week for his legs and lower back...lol. The past two weeks he has been doing punch out work. This is final touchup/install work before the owners tour thier new home. The company has provided him with a work van, so that means that mama has wheels again....yes!!! Love driving the truck.

As for me, I am doing ok. My day consist of getting Hannah to and from school. Finding coffee shops with free wi-fi. Touring mom and pop stores around the area. Appts with mortage loan officers. My daily attire is jeans, hoodies, and tennis shoes. I am diggin not wearing dress clothes and heels. I do plan to look for a job maybe after the new year if not sooner. With Hannah's Thanksgiving breaks and Christmas breaks coming up is does not make sense for us to expense child care at this point.
Marissa is a stay at home mother as well and could help with Nah, but she will be traveling back home to MN for the holidays. So jealous! When I see holiday items at the store or on tv ads it already gets me teary. I am not going to lie I miss home already.
Indiana is all I have ever known for 33 years. It is a weird feeling to know the only immediate way out of this state is by plane. Going from a land locked state to seclusion is going to take some time for adjustment.
I will take one day at a time and embrace all that has been given to us and our future here.
Thank you to my great friend Shannon for lending her ear and daily scriptures. We all know she and her husband inspired me to make such a huge leap of faith.

Fun times...
So we plan an adventure to Knik Glacier. A group of us on 6x6, 4x4, and Razors.
All of our winter gear is still packed in the trailer. Poor packing skills on our behalf, cause we have no clue where or what box they are in. We venture to Anchorage to the Army/Navy store. It is expensive to gear up, but it is a must to have the right clothing to keep you warm here.
Aunt Mona came over to the house to watch the girls for the day and Uncle Joe came with the crew for a ride.
We get started on our 2hr ride to the glacier. The sceanery is amazing. We travel through woods and then we hit the open flats. Holy Burrr!!! I was all good except I did not have a face mask. It felt like needle pokes all across my face. The sun was beating in on our faces as well. So we had some warmth. I toughed it out and eventually my face went numb for a little bit. I am totally diggin the Razor and off roading in it. One of Marissa's girlfriends was driving. I would ride with her any day. Saun was on a 4x4. He was in heaven. Really, I have not seen him this happy in a while. Just him and his thoughts on the open road to no where. He did get stuck a few times in the iced over areas, but muscled it out.
So tra-lah-lah we are following eachother through the woods and Travis goes across an ice patch and slides into a frozen fallen tree stump. This broke the axle arm on the front of his 6x6. Bummer Dude! We all shut down our rigs, got out snacks and made a campfire. We all knew this was going to be a while to fix. Travis was Johnny on the Spot! Funny to see him in action so quickly, but up here it is all about who you know. He called the ATV shop and they did not have the parts needed plus it was Sunday. He then called a buddy who has the same 6x6 and had him wrench off the parts needed. Next he coordinated the meeting between buddy with the parts and his buddy that is a pilot. About 1hr 30min we have the parts! Awesome!!! We continued our journey to the glacier. What a breath taking view!
The sun went down behind the mountian and you could instantly feel the change in temp. I froze my butt off on the trip back to the vehicles. My hand warmers inside my gloves were already dead. Again I got throught the numb feeling in the hands and feet. I better cowgirl up...it is going to be a long winter.

Travis departed for the east coast last week to help in the recovery from Sandy. He is an electrical lineman here in AK. Very proud of his courage and wishing him safe travels back home. Poor Saun he is the only man in the hen house, even the dog is female...lol.

My cat Woody is doing a little better. He was at the vet for about 2wks with kidney failure. My last day at Calumet Saun sent a bouquet of Roses and Easter Lillies to me. There is a posibility that Woody had nibbled on the Lillies which is very toxic for felines.
He is now back home with my parents. They are trying to fatten him up and keep him hydrated. I miss him too!!! I miss his purr and snugling while watching Parenthood.

This week we hope to get some final answers on a home we have our eye on. We have driven by close to 30 homes and we have one that has met our fancy. The market up here is totally different. It is really hard to find homes with land for a child to run and play. On top of that you will find a great looking house and then drive to it...the location may be too far and the neighbors have so much junk in thier yards that you will need a tetanus shot. Then you will find a beautiful home and location, but out of our price range.
Again patience is the key. This is is all we have done for the past six months...being patient and grateful for what we have received.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we are very eager to get this party started!!!

 

 

First Week in AK

Well we arrived last Wednesday to Wasilla. We are staying with Saun's cousin Travis, his wife Marissa and thier 6mth baby girl Lexi. They have a beautiful and cozy home. We are enjoying being here and thankful for having a homebase until we get settled. Also, baby girl is starting to crawl. So excited. Plus she is full of baby jabber and smiles.

It has been a week of adjustments to a new place and climate. Some of the mornings we wake up to snow and it melts by the afternoon. We did get to experience of first Northen Lights sighting. Very cool!

Last Saturday was Uncle Joes birthday celebration. We met alot of new people that have nothiung but encouragement for us on our new life. It was nice hanging around a campfire with a cold beverage in hand and moseing from one conversation to the next,.
My longtime pal Robin came to the social with us. Robin and I worked at Applebee's back in the day together as "hostess with the mostess". She came from AK to Purdue for school. It was great to go down memory lane together and the talk about the many Table 11 conversations.

We left our cat Woody with my folks.  We found out Monday that his kidneys are failing. He is currenlty is getting fluids via IV and has a catheter. I am so very sad. We have not been able to pinpoint this cause of this issue. Doc says he could have shown symptons prior to our departure but we would have not reconized them. He is 8yrs old so I am praying he will get through this. I skyped with Woody last week and he did not tell mommy that he was in any pain.

Our house closed today. We are so very excited. The proceeds of the sale will only get us closer to getting settled here. It also is justification to all the hard work we put into the upgrades we made over the summer. Wanna know who bought our home? You will never believe it, as we did not when we first got the offer. They are empty nesters and the husband works at a gold mine in Juneau AK. He was an engineer at CAT in Lafayette and he was transferred to the mine as a diesel mechanic. His wife stays back in Indiana as she did not favor the lifestyle of Juneau
The Lord does work in mysterious ways.

Today we will start the Alaska "to do list" head on.
Get jobs secured, find a home, and get Hannah into school.

Hannah is ready to go to school and meet new friends. She is doing good with the current adjustments. Loves being around her baby cousin.

We have arrived!

October 9th

We left Tok Ak and drove through Delta Junction. This the end of the Alaskan Hwy and it junctions to the Richardson Hwy.
We had driven 1422 miles north from the "0" milepost back in Dawson Creek BC
In Delta Junction we got our first view of the Trans - Alaskan Pipeline.
If you are watching Yukon Men on Discovery we followed the Tanana River all the way to Fairbanks.
We passed through an area called Tenderfoot. Between 1905 and 1995 this gold mining district produced 120,770 ounces/3.77 tons of GOLD! Yes my husband has "gold fever"

Next stop, North Pole AK to see Santa Claus House. Well, to our surprise Santa is on vacation until November 3rd. So we will for sure road trip back up there before the holidays. Lots of  neat trinkets and treasures. We were able to see four of Santa's reindeer. They were nappiung in the sun. Check out http://www.santaclaushouse.com/.

That evening we met up with Mike Davis and his family for dinner. Mike is a childhood friend of mine that moved to Fairbanks with the Air Force. Hannah was happy to see girls her age to play with.
Funny thing, Mike's parents live right next door to my parents. Kind of wild that both parents have a child and grandchildren that now live in Alaska. I think it will be great support for the mamas.

October 10th

LAST leg of the trip. We are finally going southbound on the highways instead of northbound.
We drove through Denali Park. We had a perfect view of Mt. Mckinley. No pics though :(. Saun had the hammer down no stopping until Wasilla. Do not blame him. We were done with being in the truck and staying in hotel rooms.

We arrived in Wasilla around 3:30pm. YEAH!!

While intransit to Wasilla we received information from our realtor that closing on our house is progressing quicker than expected. The buyers lender moved the date from 10/31 to 10/15. So stoked! These proceeds will only helps us move closer to settling here.

Today was very busy for us. Had to print closing docs, get notorized, and overnight to Indiana.
Open bank accounts.
Went to license branch to get new driver's license. Well we have to take a written test before we can do. So Saun and I will be studying the driver laws of AK tonight.

The journey is complete.....

4300 miles
Too many to count.. diesel fill ups and top offs.
8 hotel rooms
7 states
3 providences
2 border crossing
1 Hannah melt down
3 mommy grouchy mornings
1 daddy on the edge
Keeping the faith that we could survive 9 days together non-stop without choking eachother ....priceless!