Gettysburg

coeur d'Alene and valentines hug

Under Construction

I have made a new blogger slacker record. Over a month without a single entry. Sorry, life has just been crazy lately. Jed just finished 5 weeks in the ICU which is mentally demanding on top of really crumby hours. We are meeting with realtors to sell our house. Selling a house in this economy is depressing at best.

Lately I have been scraping, painting, sanding, texturing, priming, scrubbing, soaking, and buffing various areas of the house in order to get it to sell. I have replaced light fixtures, toilet seats, faucets (big mistake-I will never tackle another plumbing job) all by my lonesome self. Yes, my husband is great at finding out what is wrong and fixing old people, just not old houses.

So that leaves me and my DIY youtube videos to teach me how to do things. I know my way around most of the Spokane hardware stores and have figured out who to ask to help me with my projects. Special shout out to the old man at home depot that knows EVERYTHING about plumbing and helped me solve the problem of the accidental water feature in my bathroom. I am learning a lot but my next house will have to be built after the great war.

We did have a visit by my mom and Aunt Jessie in January, which was AWESOME. My girls and I loved having them around and we had a very short, but very fun time.

Oh, and it is old news by now but we are going to be moving back up to AK. Fairbanks, AK to be exact. Yes, we are moving even closer to the Arctic circle to test out just how tough we Alaskans really are and to help fill a gap in a healthcare shortage area.
Jed will go from working 80 hr weeks to working 4 days a week and NO CALL :) I will be working for the same company in their Pediatrics dept 2 days a week. We are both excited about our new jobs and being closer to home and family.

fresh snow

As much as I hate to shovel snow, I love the crisp clean look of a fresh blanket of snow.

Indy riders

Here is a few pics of the girls riding on Indys back. This is a family activity that everyone gets a giggle out of except for maybe Indy, who does not seem to love it that much.

Christmas Day

4 years old is a great age for Christmas. The magic of Christmas is in full force. Some of our favorite times this Christmas are: 1. Charging up as much static electricity and then shocking each other. Even my kids caught on and before you knew it everyone's hair was sticking up on end and you could hear a bunch of zapping sounds. 2. eating way too much great food at grandma's house. 3. letting off balloons at uncle Shane's house 4. watching my girls dance about in their new ballerina suits and crowns (with tags still on) 5. Snuggly pajamas. 6. cute kuspuks We all had a great time and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate with family that we love and miss.

Extreme Temperatures

Fairbanks is definately extreme. The coldest we saw the thermometer drop was 40 degrees BELOW zero. That was the night we visited Chena Hot Springs. I was really cool...literally...we had to run from the changing room to the outdoor lake in the subzero temperatures. However, once you reached the water it was like a giant hot tub. This is a true Alaskan experience.

We also went to see the Ice Hotel, complete with frozen throne (not currently in service), chandelier, christmas tree, ice globes with cool things carved in them like roses, ice bar and other various ice sculptures. The whole room stays frozen year round and it was neat to see the talents of the world championship ice carvers.