Fall in Fairbanks!

Yes, I know, it's been a VERY long time.  SOrry.  Life has really picked up since last time I wrote, so that explains the gap in writings.  Here is what our fall has looked like.  And YES, it is fall in Fairbanks.  Fall is actually almost over.  I hear it will continue for about 2 more weeks.  Then the snow may come.  AHHHHHH!  Right now, it's beautiful!  70 degrees again today and blue skies!  Love it!
These first pictures are from a trip to Birch Hill! Gorgeous cross country ski area with lots of cranberries.  We took Finley, he loved it! 

 Taking a break jumping through the woods.

 I love when he's snuggly!

A wiped out Finley.  Too much twig eating, leaf eating,and tree jumping!

The next pictures are from the other night when we headed up Murphy Dome Road.  A beautiful, colorful drive.  We left a little late, so we missed the best views.  The sun had already gone down. Still some pretty views.

These are more fall pictures taken tonight of different areas around town and by our home.

 View from UAF campus.

 Tons of fall colors - Alaskan Range in the background (a bit cloudy).

 Front of our church.

 Driveway out towards the street.

Heading down to our house on our driveway!

Some extra of Finley!

Jason blinding him with the flash while riding in the car.

 Love this picture!

Finley LOVES the new toy, Kathy!  Thanks so much!  IT is so cool!  He has been chewing on it like crazy!  And YES, he is a HUGE packer fan!  You should have seen him as Jason was yelling during the game on Thursday.

SO life has continued on. . .

We are very busy with church events.  Sunday school and Bible class have both started up.  Jason's Bible class is entitled, "Church: It's About GOd's Family"  He seems to really be enjoying it.  I am teaching Sunday School to the 3-6 year olds.  First one down and it went quite well!  I have also started playing organ every other Sunday.  This also has me quite busy due to the practicing, but I still enjoy it.

 We are continuing with member visits, and really enjoying those as well.  We have had some geat conversations with our members. 

Work for me is going ok.  Haven't worked with kids yet, so until then, I am just putting in my time. 

Finley is keeping us very busy!  He continues to grow like crazy, and is able to jump up on everything.  His biting of the furniture has decreased, but his biting and stealing of everything left on the floor has increased! We love him SOOO much, and are so glad that we have him in our family.  Every night we explore a new area of Fairbanks with him, getting him out to run, walk, and play.  This has been great for Jason and myself as well! Exercise and good time spent together.

I pray that everyone is doing well!  Keep in touch, call, e-mail, skype, facebook! Anything!  We would love to hear from all of you!

Love ya all!~

(Some videos to enjoy)





One more video.

One more video!

This is of Finley playing with the new toy from Angela and Ben!  He loves it! 

August is done, on to September

 

It’s been another wonderful week!  The Lord continues to shower his blessings upon us.  We continue to keep very busy with church work, my work, dog watching, feeding, playing and walking, and so much more. 

On Sunday, Finley will be 11 weeks old.  He is growing like a weed!  Every morning he looks different to me.  In addition to his weight and height, he is also getting darker and darker.  You see he is becoming more like his mother’s color, the deeper red.  We are anxious to see what he will look like in a year or so.  You can especially see the color in his ears, face, and the middle of his back.  He continues to do lots of puppy things.   His biting is probably what bothers us the most.  Not necessarily the biting of furniture, he isn’t too bad now that we have sprayed a homemade mixture on everything.  It is more the biting of us.  He still thinks we are his siblings, so that will continue to take more work.  He has put a few holes in my clothes, but nothing major. 

He is making some HUGE steps though!  House training – going pretty well.  He has begun to go right up to the top of the stairs, or even the door when he has to go.  He still occasionally has accidents, but most of those are our own fault.  He can SIT and STAY!  He can come when called, even from very far away.   He has begun training for DOWN and STAY, and did it for the first time today.  We have also started training him to shake, and he actually did it twice today on his own!  (we just started this today).  It goes to show how fast of learners these golden’s really are. 

He is truly an amazing and wonderful puppy!  We just can’t wait to see what kind of a dog he becomes.  He is loving and affectionate, and a joy to have.  I already know how much of a help he will be to us in the winter.  We are so glad we did this!

Work is going well.  I have yet to really work with kids, so I am awaiting the end of September when we will have our set students.  It has been very interesting seeing how public schools work.

Home visits have been great!  Next week we have quite a packed schedule, but we are really enjoying them.  What a great opportunity to get to know these memebers, their Alaska story(everyone here has an incredible story of how they got here), and what they know and feel about Syndoulos.  Just awesome!

Jason was given a new desk by a member who is moving away.  He is now trying to sell our craigslist find back on craigslist!  He’s had a couple of people interested, so should work out great.  The most exciting news of the week has been that our BRAND NEW dishwasher has arrived!!  Tomorrow it will be installed.  A few weeks ago, we had a congregational meeting.  At that meeting the church president listed off things that needed to be fixed in the house.  Well, when we moved here, the dishwasher decided to explode all over the kitchen.  We have actually not minded washing our dishes one bit.  It is our quality time together as husband and wife.  Anyways, one of the members gave us a call on that same Sunday, and said that they will not let us live here without a dishwasher.  “Come to Sears right now, and pick one out.  We will buy it for the parsonage!”  This is what they said!  Crazy, I know!  We were just shocked about the love and kindness shown by these members.  Definitely not something we expected, though very much appreciated.  We can’t wait to have it installed tomorrow by my husband and a member.  It will be loaded and running by supper! God-willing!  We are definitely thankful for the people God has placed in our lives. 

Even though we miss our families and friends terribly, God is truly providing us with much love and support.  It is especially hard missing out on our Schmill family Labor Day camping trip, but we look forward to new traditions that can be made.  We hope and pray that everyone has a wonderful and safe Labor day weekend!

Say a special prayer for those affected by the hurricane in the East.  Be thankful for the safety that the Lord grants you each and every day!

God bless!

 Do you think we have enough puppy food?

 He love's his food.

 

After his 2nd bath.  His dark hair was showing even more. He's so handsome.

 Chilling with Jason!

 A squeaky lobster from Angela and Ben!  Just for Finley, our spoiled child!

                   Finley LOVING the toy Angela and Ben got for him. 

The past week and a half with a puppy and other exciting things!

So it's been about a week and half since my last post.  It just goes to show that this puppy thing is a lot of work! He has kind of taken over our life!  We love him, but boy does he keep us occupied.  I will try my hardest to be better!

 For the past week and a half we have been adjusting to the idea of continually watching our little Finley.  IF not, he immediately gets involved in chewing, biting, or peeing.  He is slowing improving on all those things.  He has had a few days with NO inside accidents. And when he does have accidents, it is usually our fault for not getting him out in time.  He has begun running to the stairs and sometimes even down to the door when he has to go! SO excited he is almost there, and it's only been a week and a half.  He has also learned how to come when called (unless some grass, twig, or leaves are more exciting), and also to sit and stay.  We are very proud of him!  He is also in some puppy classes at Petco, which are also going well.  We will have to see what this week holds for him.  He is definitely our spoiled little brat. 

I have about a week and a half in of my job as well.  Things are going pretty well.  It will be better when we get done with all the testing, and then I will be able to work with the children.  I will be given three groups of three to work with each day for one quarter, then we will do the testing all over again.  The other RTI"s that I am working with are great!  It has been great to get to know them, and look forward to working with them this year.  The job is half time, but for right now, I have been working quite a few full days.  Once September is over, I should be back to my half days. 

Yesterday, I went cranberry picking with Kari, a girl about my age that I work with.  We had a great time.  I brought Finley with me, and she had her black lab.  We went up to a beautiful ski area right outside of Fairbanks.  Boy did Finley love running free with the other dog, and eating all kinds of fun grasses, leaves, and twigs.  He eventually got worn out, and plopped down to sleep right in the berries.  He was very well behaved! Can't wait till he's bigger and can help warn us of moose and bear.  We didn't see a single thing while up there, but did pick tons of berries.  I will definitely be going back there before winter. 

Every night, we try to get out with Finley and discover a new place in Fairbanks.  We have done pretty well so far.  We've done walks in parks, along trails, in front of our house, and up at the UAF campus.  We look forward to continue getting out during our short Fall.  Supposedly Fall is about 2 weeks long, but it is just beautiful.  We will try to take pictures.  It is also time to start looking for the Northern Lights!  Now we just have to stay up long enough to get outside to look.  There will definitely be pictures up of those when we get them. 

After church, we were blessed to have the members over for "after church treats".  We had been wanting to get them over to see the house, since most have never been over here.  We wanted to show them how thankful we are for such a beautiful place to live.  Finley behaved really well, even when 6-8 kids were surrounding him on the floor.  After about an hour of washing dishes and cleaning up, I took a nice long nap with Finley.  We ended our night with another trip to a new park.  Finley had a very hard time coming when called tonight; he was more interested in the dirt.  We did see 3-4 beavers swimming in the river, coming up pretty close to the edge.  After another drive around UAF to try to see Mt. McKinley (no luck), we headed home.  Finley is asleep, and has been since I started writing.  Hopefully he sleep all night (which he's been doing awesome at! He has had zero accidents in his kennel!).

Church work continues to go very well.  The congregation seems to be very excited and full of ideas.  This makes us so happy!  God is truly blessing us through these individuals and families.  We have been blessed to sit down with members on the visits, and really get to know them. I am glad that I am able to go along with Jason.  Choir and Sunday school and both starting up in about a week, very excited to join these.  I will be teaching the younger group of kids for the year.  We are also going to be starting something BRAND NEW for Syndoulos.  There was much interest for a women's group (brought up by a member), so we have been meeting about that as well.  Very exciting!

I pray that everyone's August has gone smoothly.  May God bless your new year of school, teaching, working, and anything else you may be doing! Love and miss you all!

 Sleeping own underneath Jason's desk

 I love when he sleeps in my arms!

He really doesn't sleep all the time, it's just that those are the moments he is calm, and I can actually get a picture without him jumping up to try and get the camera!

 

ISn't he getting so much bigger!  Compare it to the previous post.  Also, he is getting darker, like his mom!

My delicious cranberries!

Our new puppy! And other new things. - YES! The puppy pics are on here now! SORRY!

I know it has been a very, very long time.  I apologize.  We have been on the go quite a bit, making it difficult to create the blog.  So, here is what we've been up to:

My parents arrived safely in Manitowoc! They are now back to their busy busy lives.

Life continued here.  We had a few days to clean up the house, prepare for a church picnic on Sunday, and pack for a 3 day trip to Eagle River/Anchorage.  After church on Sunday, we packed our car and headed to Eagle River.  There was a called worker gathering at the Pastor's house there in Eagle River, about a 5.5 hour drive.  Before we arrived, we stopped off in Houston, AK to look at some Golden Retirever puppies.  Not a great situation, so we moved on.  For the next few days we enjoyed getting to know the teachers and pastors of the WELS in Alaska.  They are such great people, and we look forward to getting to know them better (just wish they all weren't 5-8 hours away). 
We went to Eklutna Lake and did a mini hike.  BEAUTIFUL - pics below.  We also did some shopping with the ladies one morning.  It was great to visit a Kohl's and a Target.  I truly do miss those stores! 
We were around the campfire our last night there, and we all thought we heard something kind of like a growl.  All of a sudden all the women get out of their seats.  It ended up being nothing, but we really thought there was a bear!
In between all that, we did go visit another golden retriever.  THis was not a good situation either.  On to more phone calls.

After a wonderful get-together, we began our drive back up to Fairbanks.  We stopped in Wasilla at the last place we had time for during this trip.  The house was way back in the mountains.  It was a gorgeous brand new home. SO far so good.  We spent about 4 hours here!  Yes, 4 hours!  Jason and the dad of the house talked for about 2 of those about relgious issues.  HE was really putting Jason to the test.  He did very well.  It was a great discussion.  We also played with the puppy.  He was actually the last one they had, but they said he was the best of the litter.  They were actually getting quite attached and probably would have kept it if we wouldn't have taken him.  We then were invited in to talk and enjoy some cider and cinnamon bread.  They were very nice people.  They only have been up in AK for a year, recently moving there from Tennessee.  We were definitely sold on this little puppy.  We were going to take him home!!!!  They had started to call him Barnabas, but we decided to change it.  With the help of my aunt Kathy, he is now Finley!  (short i) 
It was a long drive home, but he actually did pretty well.  Once he settled down, he slept quite a bit.  And each time we stopped for him to go the bathroom, he went!!!

Since having him home, we have had a great 1st experience with a puppy.   He is pretty well behaved, but of course has had his puppy moments.  He has had at least one accident every day, but goes to the bathroom when we take him out.  Our house makes it very complicated for a tiny puppy to get outside.  We have so many stairs!  We have borrowed a kennel, and he is doing quite well with that.  He only whines for a few minutes, then quiets down and sleeps very well.  We do get up at 3 a.m to take him out (I should say Jason takes him out).  He then is up and ready to go at 6:00.  Life is just a bit different, but we love him so much already.  We'll see what adventures lie ahead with him.  He's 9 weeks old today, and is growing each day.  Looking at his mom, and seeing how big he is now, we are thinking he is going to be one big golden. 

Jason is loving his life as well.  He is keeping very busy with sermon writing, service planning, and has begun making every member visits.  I have been blessed to go along with him, and look forward to attending many more.  It has been a great way for most of us to get to know our members.  God has truly blessed us with an amazing church home. 

I have started my new job!  I will be working half-time at an area elementary school as an RTI assistant (response to intervention).  We will be working with students who need that extra help in reading.  I will eventually have 3 groups of 3 students and continue to work with them all year.  We are preparing for all the testing now, and going through some training.  It seems like it is going to be a great job and a great place to be for the year.  So far so good!

Anyways, this is too long.  Enjoy the pics!  I will try to be better at blogging.

God bless!

Lake Eklutna in Eagle River

Love this sign.

Lake Eklutna

Mt. McKinely from Eagle River

Alaskan Range

 Finley with his mother, Daisy. We think his color will be right in the middle of his color and his mothers'.

 Car ride home - a six hour drive

 This was an experience!

 He was shivering so much:(

 He devours his food.  Temporary bowl.

 Always wants to be the center of attention.  We love that he loves being close and snuggling up to us!

It's always been a dream to have a dog like that.

Doing what he does so well.