I got in!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I did get in to the dental hygiene program. So we are excited of course. It will be a lot of work but really great. This one is going to be short but sweet. We don't know what Hans is doing yet but at least we have my plan figured out for now.

Another year gone by

I had a good birthday thanks to many of you and of course my husband. We had a quiet weekend but it was very nice. He made me some really great food and waited on me which was great too. We went for a nice long bike ride on the trails by our house on Saturday. It was alot of fun to just spend time together and he made it a special day for me. Thank you to all of you who remembered and called and messaged me.

We have been working on Hans' online math course which has taken many hours over the last several weeks. I am happy to announce that yesterday we were able to close that chapter. He took the final and did great. This will enable him to sign up for an interview for the electrician interviews in July and re-take the placement test for UAA and test into a higher math level. I am very grateful that I could be here to help him and who knew that I could still do math after all these years? It was really good practice for me too and helped polish up my skills for my test that I took for the dental hygiene program. We are still waiting to here the results of that but I was able to get everything in... just in the nick of time. I think the interview went well too so we are of course anxiously awaiting that decision. I interviewed and got a job offer and they are waiting on the finalization/background check etc to come thru. It will be for ACS and I will have benefits right away which will be nice and hopefully I will only have to work a few months until school starts. Hans has an opportunity to ride with a friend of the family and get some experience so he can get his CDL. We feel very lucky for this opportunity and he is starting the ride alongs today. He has wanted to get one for some time now and this should prove to be a good time to do just that.
The weather is still great here. I keep hearing how it is not normally this sunny and nice but I wake up every morning and it is blue skies. We are definitely not complaining. It actually rained the other day and it was a nice change but we promptly went back to sun. There are some things we miss about Ketchikan.. people, the ocean, fish, the ward etc. We are enjoying it here though and I think the consensus is that our time here will be good. I must say that so far life has been different from how it has ever been since we have been married. We have made a lot of changes in the past 2 years and I am sure there are many more to come. I for one, intend to do my part and then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Here we are

Yes. Life is busy yet not busy at the same time. I didn't really know it was possible. It is a blessing to be home right now because I have had time to research and do many things for school. Since I last posted I have decided to try and go back to school. Well, I AM going back to school one way or another but not sure if it will be full time or part time to finish up my degree. I have applied for the Dental Hygiene program at UAA which has selection only once a year and it is actually going on as we speak. I had to rush and get everything in to them and didn't have all the right instructions the first time and it feels alot like a circus and jumping through hoops. I promised myself I wouldn't give up and Hans has helped me make sure I didn't until we got to a definite wall. So we keep getting blocked and told no and then a window opens up... I just keep plugging along (actually no time to plug just running as fast as I can). I got everything in except the 3 confidential recommendation letters that had to be done twice since I didn't know about the special form the first time around. Today I had the interview with the selection committee that I wasn't even supposed to have until it was all in. The program director thinks I have a good chance in spite of everything so pending they get there before Wednesday at 5pm... it might happen. So go mail system!! Push those letters through for me. I have been praying that the mail will go smoothly and they only lost one of the Express mail envelopes that I sent so I guess that is better than all of them.
I have done all I can do and had so many people helping me out along the way. Thank you to those of you (you know who you are) who have repeatedly helped me with this. I really appreciate it and couldn't have gone this far without you. And now we wait...

Hans is still enrolled in Diesel Mechanic program for the Fall. We are working on math daily so that he can get credit for an alegbra class (since he sneaked his way out of Highschool. without it) and then he could possibly score higher on the college entrance placement test. AND could get on the list for the Electrician Lineman apprenticeship interviews in July. We are going to ride both until one or the other drops away. The apprenticeship is looking better and better financially because he would make money while he does it (the majority of it) as opposed to us both going to school full time and not working. One way or the other it will all work out. We just don't know how yet and will keep you posted as we go along.
Life has been interesting lately, but good.

Home Sweet Home

As I wrote to Maya, we now have a pink house. Well it's some sort of salmon shade but I am sure it is close enough to call it such. We are busting at the seams inside but it is a fine little cozy place. Some of my pros about this new place in no particular order:

We are close to the temple and can go whenever we want
It is warm all the time in the house, I have to open windows and turn off the heat
We can use as much water as we need without worrying about running out
There is better shopping including Costco which we can frequent
The sun shines more days than not here
Faster internet that makes it easier to get things done
Living in town, closer to almost everything--there are things to be close to
More places to eat and new experiences to have
No crazy smell to our clothes/belongings
Even though it is cramped, I can find all the things I have here in our new home
Hans is here and so far we have been able to spend lots of time together

Our neighborhood where there are several A frame houses. They are interesting to me. I guess all the better for the snow to fall off.

This is Hans' handywork outside in the carport. It is his toolshed/workshop/storage area.

Here are the shelves that he made for us. I really like them, they work great for our folded things. Hurray for tools and husbands who make things.

Roadtrip here we come!

This is what our view of the road was until we got close to Anchorage. Miles and miles of white, cold roads. The truck did great all the way.

This sign was in the parking lot at the ferry terminal in Haines. Just in case we weren't in Alaska before...

Our first road sign of the trip. One of many and just the beginning of our driving journey.

The navigator with our newly acquired Milepost and lots of interesting facts along the road.

And of course the driver of this rig... Sir Captain Hjort himself.

Hundreds of miles of cold, wild road just waiting in front of us.

Below are some excerpts from our pilgrimage to the north.

We saw caribou on the road.. a whole herd of them.

And a lone straggler. It was lost from the rest and we watched it run down the highway...very funny running with feet kicked out to the sides.

This was a funny sight in Tok-- a town along the way. It was a burnt out gas station seemingly converted to a junk yard. Quite an interesting choice.

More of the broken down scenery of this place.

I would imagine that the roads would be very pretty in the summer when everything is thawed out. As far as we saw it--all white and frozen had some nice sights too.

We ventured out one time to take a photo. We had wanted to take lots of shots but it was sooo cold and many of them were all plowed over with huge mounds of snow and ice.

This was called pyramid mountain can you guess why? This was the last photo I took, not sure why but we were getting closer to civilization-- I think. We had a good trip but it was very nice to finally arrive in Anchorage.

Our last day in Ketchikan

On the way to church on our last day in Ketchikan we stopped by to say goodbye to the McCarrons. We tried to get some pictures with the girls. It was a little tough but we did get a couple. We sure do miss you!

Late but here...Our trip pictures

Here are some shots from our California trip with my family. We did do most of the pictures on the same day-- hence the same attire. I got a new hat, well we both did and I really like mine. The lines were fairly long and lots of walking but we had a good time. The weather was nice for us. We also went to Universal Studios which was totally fun and different than Disney. I of course forgot my camera that day. We actually didn't do very good taking pictures but we have some good memories. Thanks for the fun trip!

Hans and I tried to get a shot with us both in and the mouse logo but this the closest one--too bad his face is cut off.

The whole crew on the swings together. My brother is looking amused don't you think?

One of our favorite rides at the park. It was the roller coaster at CA Adventures. Fun times.

This is the candy bouquet that Yolaunda made for me with the kids' help. The Cub Scout boys all wrote a little message and they came into Relief Society our last full Sunday there and sang Nephi's Courage. It was really sweet. They were all wearing suits and looking sharp. I sure miss those kids. I have all this time now-- ok maybe it is still busy unpacking, looking for a job etc etc but no scouts. It feels weird still. We also had a going away dessert potluck thingy. It was a lot of fun and great to see people and say good bye. Thanks to all of you who came out and spent some time with us. We are grateful for all the friends we have made in Ketchikan. I brought my camera that night but do you think I remembered to take any? Of course not!

We also had another fun night with several couples. We went restaurant hopping and ordered appetizers and then dessert at the last place. We shared our orders around the table and enjoyed conversation and good company. It was a great idea and a good time was had by all. These were just some of our fun last memories in Ketchikan.

Life goes on...

So we can finally see the light of day in our new place here in Anchorage. We are grateful to have finally found a place that was willing to rent to us -- just moved here and unemployed makes for some shady tenants. We found this nice guy who was willing to trust us and let us rent from him. It actually is the very first place we looked at when we got here and then we spent a week running everywhere trying to find something better with more room and a garage. We found some but nothing panned out. It seems we are meant to be here and we are making the best of it. We talked about it and made an executive decision that we weren't going to get a storage unit this time. Being students again requires saving money not spending more right? So whatever we can't fit--has got to go. Don't get me wrong we have plenty in this little place. Snug as a bug in a rug, I mentioned to Hans today at lunch. We have every piece of usable and sometimes not so convenient space in use. On the bright side I have things here that I was longing for since we went to Ketchikan. It's nice to have my own furniture and dishes and such around too.
I worked on the "spare room" aka office, storage place, general catch all. I think it's finally in OK shape. I spent a long time getting our internet/wireless up and working today. I wish it would have went faster but such is life. Now having done it all on my own..hurray! I can do it faster if we have to restore the router to factory settings again.
Hans has been great help and really handy. Since we have moved in he has built a toolshed/work station for himself in the carport and today made me shelving units since we are short on folding storage space. I will take some pics of them and post them this week so you can all see his work. I am very happy with it. The toolshed allows us to keep his tools, motors, chainsaws etc outside and have them locked up and secure. It works great! What a blessing it is to have a man who can make things happen.

As some of you know, our washer froze and broke while being stored for 2 years. Just in case you didn't know... water DOES stay in there after it drains out from the cycle. Anyway, we had a dryer and no washer and had been searching for one on craigslist or something but nothing was really coming up. So we decided to bite the bullet and went to Sears and priced out the new ones. We ended up getting a pretty nice one that was marked down since it was "last years model" and it was only $50 more than the cheapest they had. I'm pretty sure our clothes won't mind there is a new model out and I know Hans and I don't so it's perfect. I have used it lots already washing, washing, washing and I love it! It runs so smooth and quiet which is really nice since they are located right next to the kitchen.

The snow mounds have finally melted down on our street and we can see some of our brown grass coming through. Guess what else? This might be gross to you but I find it hilarious... moose poop! That means that moose have been in our yard. For some reason this really amuses me, despite the fact that I saw one charge a lady in November. No matter. If they come to eat my flowers I will be ready....
I had my first job related interview yesterday.. It was actually just a preview of sorts to show us the place/yard and see if it was even something we are interested in. It was down at the port working for Northland. It was very muddy (which I knew from unloading our dreadful container) and Hans dared me to wear my Xtratufs to the preview and you know I did. I am glad for that too otherwise I would have been a muddy mess. Thank you boots.

I guess this is long enough for now. We finally have our phone lines working so we can hopefully update more regularly. I have many pics from our roadtrip up to post and plan to really soon. On a side note... Hans and I are both able to be on our respective computers at the same time. It's so nice to have the wireless working and hurray for faster internet than Ketchikan!

Hope all is well and that you all had a wonderful Easter.
Oh, and for those of you that I haven't personally talked to about the volcano. Yes it is up here and had been erupting when we first arrived. It is not really close to us and we only got some ash fall one weekend that was noticeable. There was a layer of it on the truck and things were closed down since you aren't supposed to breathe it and I guess it is bad for motors. Go figure. I only saw one lady with an actual mask on that I presume was to help with the ash. They did have them for sale at almost every store. Lyle said he had a hard time breathing at his place but I didn't notice anything at the extended stay. That pretty much sums up our volcano experience.