Random January Tidbits

 I KNOW I had great plans of blogging while Melia did school. Life got busy and I found myself sitting nearby while Melia schools but working on our bills, Dad's re-application for the Medicaid waiver, cleaning, Dad's bills...

I am working diligently to finish capturing January before March arrives.  Here are all the wonderful glimpses I might have blogged if I was blogging daily. They are just too good to go totally unnoticed. 

Random glimpses and tidbits from January....Noah is learning to ski (so is Melia). 

Noah - 3 yo (nearly)

Attitude! I love it! 

Meanwhile Luke has been finding sharks and such on his deep dives. I can't imagine! 

Krista continues to build monster "Lego" mouses. 

You will see various shots of Carrie and the girls throughout the month. They chose to abscond to warmer areas...FL and then a cruise - they were traveling from Dec - Jan 20th.  I have realized this is the first year in 3 or 4 that January include a trip to visit Sister Friends in OR. I miss breaking up the winter and will need to check into that next year. 

Josi flying like a pro

Melia has brought Korean dramas to our home. It's really pretty fun to sit with popcorn on a winter afternoon and try to read the English subtitles before they move on.  I wonder if we can find some Japanese dramas to watch...that will help us both with our Japanese and could be considered school. 

Luke on the bottom of the bay again

Allie's favorite spot when she's home. 

We miss you sweet girl! 

Liv's favorite on board hang out! 

THIS was a welcome sight! I lost my wallet...and there it was in the driveway! 

While Allie was home we made a stop at our local Emergency Room. Peace of Mind is PRICELESS, and we don't regret it one bit. It did re-surface memories of another visit. 

Meanwhile - off ship - we enjoy winter. 

Such a big personality - Josi - nearly 2 

Jared - our favorite Anchorage Assemblyman

It's sunset season - soon the sun won't be setting at decent hours. 

Josi's first dentist visit

I have gotten so many phone calls from Noah that I have entered Jared's office phone number as "Noah's work phone." Jared says he walks in, goes immediately to the phone and calls Bachan. 

Bachan's phone buddy! 

Allie & Ashton

Jamin (the realtor and not Jared the assemblyman) has arrived in Florida. He has set up a new apartment and office.  It is pure joy to see him happy in the sun! We miss him. 

This tropically raised girl misses the ocean, too! 

January held visits from adult Gherkins, Melia moving in, Jamin moving away...lots of planned events and a few unplanned. It was a great month. 

The Girls are Home

Carrie and the girls are home!!!! 

I was excited to drive in to wake up Livie and spend the day with Josi. Melia chose to bring her schoolwork with her and come along. We left our home at 6:30 so we could arrive before Josi woke up. 

Melia caught a few more minutes of sleep while I got Josi a breakfast...I think this little girl has grown a foot since I saw her. Seriously, she probably hasn't grown a whole lot, but her personality is growing by leaps and bounds! 

While Melia worked on school, Josi and I caught up on our play time. She's busy all the time these days. 

Sometime in here Josi talked us into spending a bit of time with Miss Rachel. 

Smokey was a bit alarmed with all the activity in the house, but I think he's glad to have his people home. 

We are glad the girls had a great holiday season; we are THRILLED they are HOME!!!

Comedy Dinner

 Tonight, Melia, Stacia and I went to a Comedy Dinner hosted by Alaska Bible College. We had a great time. Dinner was yummy, the teaching degree was showcased, we got to see JoAnn and Sheri, but the highlight of the night was the comedian - Jaron Myers. 

Melia, Me, Stacia

Jaron was fun! Clean humor!  It was a win for both the college and us. LOL 

Our Weather is Back!

We had a lot of snow after Christmas, then we had a week with temps in the high 30's, and everything melted. We've had an ICE RINK in our driveway since then.

Today we woke up to snow...a lot of beautiful, fresh snow.  It's lovely - and it COVERS the ice!!!!!

8 in this a.m. and another 1 throughout the day

Stacia couldn't get out of the drive this a.m. She was able to join her class online while Michael worked to shovel a path out for her. He then moved the cars up to the fenceline so Shawn could come shovel out the whole mess with his truck. 

Meanwhile I shoveled off the deck....with a bit of help from a friend. LOL 

 Yep, my main goal is to make sure we can access the hot tub. LOL 

Anchorage and Eagle River had more snow than we did. They even had part of the highway into town closed. No school for their district. We were going to go into the church for a meeting but opted for staying home and having the meeting via google meeting. LOL 

Michael and I drove into town to return some coffee stuff from Sunday night and to pick up groceries. I was happy to have a driver. LOL 

Melia made dinner.  We're watching Tokyo Drift. We have a full day tomorrow and they're predicting another 6 - 12 inches overnight. 

Jamin picked a good time to fly to Miami. I'm not sure he would have made it if he waited another day. LOL 

He's Up, Up and Away

Jared and Jamin called and wanted to stop by. We appreciated the last visit before Jared took Jamin to the airport. 

This has been a lovely season having us all in the same location. Jamin never planned on staying as long as he did and we are so very thankful he DID stay here the fall of 2015.  It was a blessed season, and we know adult children chase their own dreams....

While we are happy Jamin is chasing his dream and we would never hold him back, we are sad that this truly does bring this blessed season of us all being so close to an end. Josiah is gone this side of eternity, Krista and Jamin are both gone for a good many years - at least as far as we can tell. What a blessing it has been for our younger ones to have these years in the same location as our older children. Jamin promises to visit...so while this is not debilitating grief it surely is a type of grief. 

After the boys left we introduced Melia to Farkle. Stacia walked away with the win. 

An Exciting Sunday

Sundays are always busy; this one was especially busy. 

Stacia joined the three of us to go to church at ACF this morning as it is Jamin's last Sunday in Alaska.  We went to a favorite Asian restaurant. It was great to see Carrie and the girls this morning, back from their month long in the sun. Carrie joined us for lunch.  At some point Jamin mentioned he was meeting Bre and kids at Big Dippers for ice cream at 4. It turns out CoRielle and kids, Bre and kids, Nolan, Alex, Stacia, Melia and Michael and I were all there. 

Before we could head home to the valley, Stacia and Michael went to get a couch from Jamin's. It will live in Stacia's living room. Melia and I went to Chugiak and picked up a few items of hers from a friend.  We had 20 minutes at home before we had to leave. I washed up 4 dozen eggs, and we headed out the door. 

I realized I had a lot planned at the 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. time slot. I dropped Melia off at the ice cream parlor and I went to pick up coffee at Lekkers, Kombucha at 203 Kombucha, and tea sandwiches and cheesecake bites at Sweet Gypsy's. A friend picked up 7 dozen cookies from Sophia's. NO, we weren't suffering from the munchies. I had agreed to help set up snacks for ACF's first vision night for a new campus out here. I picked everything up and got back to visit for 10 minutes in the ice cream parlor. So many farewells and tomorrow Jamin will fly out and begin his Florida adventure. 

Some of the family 

More family 

Next in our busy day was ACF's first Vision Night as we plan for the launch of a campus here in the Valley. 

We didn't have a clear idea of how many would attend. We planned for 100.  It was exciting to see this part of the vision...and people showed up...but more importantly God showed up. We worshipped and discussed the vision to amplify grace to the churched, the unchurched and the dechurched...to be a community for sojourners...to see it be "In Alaska as it is in heaven." 

We are right side, 3rd row back on the aisle

 

We broke to write the names of our "one mores" on the walls in the building. It was meaningful to see how many people we all bring in our hearts, hoping to provide a community for each.  It was exciting to see so MANY names so quickly gathered...people each of us are praying for. 

We reassembled for more worship and a discussion of the next steps. It was a sweet time. 120 people came to worship, watch and wait for a vision of how God will use us in the valley. It does remind me of another group of 120 waiting and watching in Acts 1. 

On a side note, there was much coffee left and the line for kombucha was long. I've found my people. ::Snort::