November . . . Brrrrrrrrr!

Hi All!

It’s been a bit since the last time I blogged.  You will see by the post that life has gotten just a bit busier, not allowing me to have as much time to post.

Anyways, here is what has been going on in the month of November:

We’ll start with Finley.  Our not so little puppy will be 5 months old on Saturday!!!  Can’t believe we’ve had him for 3 months already.  Actually, scratch that.  It seems like we’ve had him for much much longer.  He is definitely still a handful, but improving in some areas.  He is an expert at letting us know when he needs to go outside.  He is about 36 pounds and growing.  His fur is getting a bit darker, too.  He graduates from Puppy 2 next week Tuesday.  Even though he has some things down perfectly, he still has some things to work on.  One being not getting so excited and jumping up on people.  It’s a work in progress.  We love him to pieces, and are so glad to have him.  As winter continues on, and the sun begins to not shine as much, I am so glad I have him to keep me busy and distracted.  Oh, and he just got some booties!  He has not enjoyed going outside lately because his paws get frozen so quickly.  A coworker made some booties for him ($30 at Petco).  So it was great to get some from her, and the pattern so that I can make some more.  We will test them out in the snow tomorrow, but he did ok with them in the house.  Of course he ran funny, and chewed on them, but he will hopefully realize how great they are tomorrow. 

The weather!?  Well, all I gotta say is BRRRRRRRR!  In just the past few days, the temperatures have completely dropped.  Last Friday it was 18 degrees ABOVE.  Tonight, 30 BELOW!  Yes, - 30!!!  Never thought I would ever experience this!  In all honesty though, - 30 is cold, yes!  But, it isn’t  as bad as it sounds  Even though I didn’t believe them when they said it would be a dry cold, it makes a big difference.  I would say that – 20 feels like 0 back in WI.  We are blessed with almost NO wind at all, which makes a huge difference.  The snow is very light and fluffy, so the roads are not bad at all.  We hear they just keep getting better as it gets colder.  So I guess that is a positive to the cold temps.  So I think we should survive the cold, as long as it doesn’t last too long.  Definitely could use a nice trip to Hawaii, Arizona, or Florida!  Oh by the way, this mornings’ temp, -38!

6 hours and 18 minutes of daylight

Work for me is going pretty well.  Nothing too much new or different.  A good friend of mine left work due to having her first baby.  I miss her very much, but hope to keep in touch.  In the pictures you’ll see a cake I made for her goodbye party.  First try at decorating. I’m no expert, but I’ll keep experimenting. 

Church work has taken off!  Jason has been kept very busy with many new activities starting at Syndoulos.  With Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas, he is busy writing sermons and also meeting with members.  We continue to get to know the members better and better.  We were invited to three homes for Thanksgiving, so we look forward to that special day with “new” family members.  Jason and the members are working towards Ministry Teams; groups that both men and women can join, participate, and share their gifts.  We look forward to getting theses four teams up and running.  Our womens’ group, Northern GLOW (God’s Lights of the World) is up and running strong.  We recently began a prayer chain, a plan for birthday cards for members, a donation to the local food bank, Christmas decorating, Advent supper planning, baby showers, and much more.  It is great to get together and grow together with the fellow women of the congregation.  I am learning so much from them all!  Our choir is busy with many new songs as well.  God continues to bless us and the work here at Syndoulos.  Each Sunday we have at least one visitor, attendance is around 50 each Sunday, Pastor is teaching his first BIC classes, and members are excited to do the Lord’s work.  What could be better!  Thank you Lord for all you have done!

In our free time, (what free time?), we continue to winterize the house and enjoy some relaxing time.  We are in the process of putting plastic on all the windows (our house has 20 windows!), preparing our emergency kit for our car, and anything else we think we need to do.   We hope these things will help decrease the cost of our heating prices. We have to buy oil up here in Alaska, which is very expensive.  We thought we would have natural gas, being that the pipe line is 10 minutes down the road.  I stay busy by getting together with a group of true Alaskan women every Wednesday night.  My friend Kari from work invited me to join her group of friends, and it has been a great way to meet people.  Most of them live in “dry” cabins.  No electricity or water!  Crazy lifestyles, but oh so simple.  I also try to go to as many Alaskan “bazaars as possible (just like WI craft fairs, but better).  Jason, Finley, and myself do try to get out hiking and walking as well.  But with the negative temps, that may not happen as often.  We’ve been going to a golf course north of town which has beautiful views.  We can let Finley run off leash; which he LOVES! Some pics below will show him having a great time here.  Other than that, we don’t do anything too crazy.  It would be great to drive out of town or visit Anchorage, but the 6 hour drive just doesn’t sound too appealing in winter.

People have been telling us to plan a trip somewhere warm in January – March.  We would LOVE to go to Hawaii, since that is supposedly where Alaskans vacation. (very reasonable ticket prices).  But we may have to wait another year or so.  We’ll see how cold it gets in the next few months.

Well, I hve written a book.  So now I am done. 

We pray that your Thanksgiving goes well.  Cherish those moments you have with your family.  You never know when you might move to Alaska!  Love you all!  Miss you family!

God bless,

Becky and Jason, Finley too!

 Temperature taken at 9:00 a.m. November 16, 2011  Really, it was -38 in Fairbanks.

 Beautiful snow!

Cake that I made for Kari, friend from work.  Double decker homemade marble cake with homemade buttercream frosting.

 Our puppy after a bath!  So cute.

 All calmed down after his bath and curled into a VERY SOFT ball!

My two Packer players after a Packer win!!!

 How our puppy waits for us to get all our gear on.  He's so funny.  He'll sit like this for minutes.

He started jumping in the bathtub.  He'll just walk into the restroom and jump in. 

Out at the golf course running through the bushes.

Can hardly see him.

He loves to chew on old boxes.  Only when we hand them to him.

His new booties.  Not a huge fan at first, but just took him outside and he was happy to be able to run through the woods without freezing.

This is our old broom.  It doesn't sweep very well.  Finley loves it though.  Not sure we will let him keep chewing on this.  But he loves dragging it through the house.  Good exercise when we can't get him outside as much.  You have to be creative up here.

Still enjoys snuggle time.  Hopefully he will never outgrow this!

Tried to get a video uploaded, but didn't work.  I will try to get it on the next blog.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.