Friday, September 24, 2010

Photography Class



A net down at the harbor
So i am taking a photography class at the local college and here are some of my images from around Kodiak, i have been liking silhouttes lately and hence there are two of them here....Kodiak is definitely turning colors here!!! It's fall and getting a little colder and there's less time now to fish so fish here i come this weekend. Shanna is going on a womens retreat so that should be fun!!
A old truck do you see the boat?


A old fisherman at the Harbor


This kid was doing something romantic to his girl and i liked it!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Labor Day trek!!






So the reason why it is all pictures on the top is because the website has changed and i don't like it so i am not going to drop them allt he way down it s time consuming and not worth it so sorry









So waqqaaa!! um it's spelled wrong and it means hi in Yupik which I am not of any descent but of inupiaq nothing against Yupiks but there is a difference. Anyways I know i been slacking but my life has been busy and so have we!!



Shanna took off up to Anchorage before labor day for a weeks worth of training and so that enabled me to eat on my own and live in our quiet house :) anyways we decided with the extra day off for labor day we decided to go on our trek across Alaska!! So on Friday I was able to leave work early and meet up with Shanna in Anchorage, and guess what we do first??? We went shopping!! My most unfavoritest thing to do!! We ran around to Costco, nordstroms, and every where else you could think even though I don't technically live in a village it still feels like it going to the big city or in our case the mainland :) Kodiak is by no means as expensive to live in compared to the villages but it still cost more then Anchorage does and they always don't have all the good stuff......Also with us being in Anchorage we went to go and eat at Moose's tooth, everyone who lives in Alaska knows that moose's is always packed all the time and fortunately we ran in to Kit, Greta and Megan Alvanna-stimple there and they had two seats open. We had a fab time sitting, chatting, reminscing and just plain ol talking as those three are a riot :) The good best thingthough was to go home and see my nephew Samuel Mecham aka. Bo Jangles !! He was happy to see us and was disappointed that the next day that we were already leaving :( he was like how come you only stayed with me one night, but we had other plans and the first on our agenda was to check out the state fair and it didn't matter what the weather was. Of course it rained!! The state fair was well the state fair!! We didn'tgo on any rides but checked out all the food booths and walked around to see all the deals that were to be had, we also met up with our friend Ashlee who used to live here in Kodiak but has since moved away and was working out at the fair at the pampered chef area.....We stayed as long as the rain would permit us to and we also signed up at the Alaska spice booth for a free spice kit and they emailed me at work and said congrats you won!! I never win anythign so it was a big and great suprise as they have a great product!!


But we had to leave in order to start our drive to Valdez which is basically driving up norththen driving south as there are glaciers and mountains that we had to go around!! The drive was beautiful as we got to see glaciers, the different colors of fall and the beauty that Alaska entails!! The drive is basically a 5 hour drive or 6 depending on how fast you go well we unfortunately stayed longer at the fair then we should have and got their when it was dark. We got there and walked the piers and to my suprise they catch their silversbetween the docks and they are allowed to snag and everyone during the day time is trolling for them right outside the city, like if it was Unalakleet it would be like in the slough weird but cool!!! but at night they were quite abit of people fishing out late...Well we decided to sleep in our awesome Dodge mini car forgot the name but it was probably the most uncomfortablest nights ever!! the seats foldeddown but they were very hard and everything!! Luckily morning came and we got to experience what was Valdez Alaska got to see the falls, the town, and everything that makes Valdez, we saw the pipeline which is Alaska's moneymaker which is pretty surreal as you don't think you would ever see it. But we couldn't lolly gag around as we were heading out on the ferry over to Whittier!!


The ferry was full!! Or to compacity and we had to be put onthe standby list which was kind of stressing because if we didn't make it on then we would have to had driven all the way around and we really wanted to see the gulf through the ferry system. Luckily we made it on and the Ferry is the definitely the way to go, for the way back to Anchorage the ferry they have cruises as it's a oversize catamarran !! Got to see the reef that joseph hazelwood hit that made the oil spill in the alaska, we saw more glaciers. It's a three hour ferry ride to whittier which isn't all that bad as it's quite comfortable ride over!!


We got to Whittier and it isn't exactly what i expected there really isn't much to Whittier as it's just a dock and some small stores and that's about it I thought i was going to be something cool but it really wasn't!! Sorry Whittier but you aren't on my list to go back and experience again, but the good thing is that we got to go through th tunnel of whittier and check out the girdwood area on the drive back!! We had one more night in Anchorage and ate with friends and played with Baby samuel again...all in all it was a great trip over and a good experience. Of all the years i have been living in Anchorage and Alaska I have never been to Valdez and know after being there i wish i had made it a point to go and fish and check it out...so if you haven't been there i would totally recommend going our route as it's a great drive!!


Last excerpt last week i was out fishing and got charged by a bear!! scary!! when i fish that area i now bring bear spray in case he wants to taste my meat!! Bad Bear

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Olah



















Genevieve my co-workers kid








To the left are some fisherman on the Olds, theres kings there but more humpies

Below: My dog running around




To the left are some pretty flowers with fisherman in the back

Below is Pasagshak which is a 45 minute truck drive but has lots of reds





Olah comi sta ok, that's not how you spell it but you get my point doncha? So Shanna finally made it back on Saturday after the weather finally got good but then the weather dropped back down on Monday and she was delayed to fly out late monday night. But while she attended the Kodiak outdoor womens thingie i tried my hand at fishing for reds and kings, the weather got really decent out and there were people out there fishing so there was just no luck for me, i tried my hardest but only caught dollies :) I did see a lot of people that i know out there, saw my co-worker Genevieve out there and it's always nice to go to Pasagshak as the drive might not be the best but just being in the outdoors is nice!! plus my dog knows how to swim now, i taught him the doggie paddle LOL at first he woudn't at all get close to the water now he tries to find a place to cross without having to get wet and then he dashes in.........so i find being out fishing is fun and here coming this weekend i am heading up to Nome to shoot my very first wedding!! My friend Erika and Tyler are getting married and i agreed to take the pictures for the wedding...yikes but it should be fun!! Then after i leave nome i am goign to go to Unalakleet for a week to fish and also pick berries!! So going home is always nice and i have been getting ready to go up there as buying some new fly tying material on which i think would work for silvers up there and need to tie a few tonight so i could be ready for those silvers. Anyways it will just be great being able to be up north again among my people and family!! So that is totally big catch!!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Today


So today is weird actually here the past couple of days it kind of reminds me of red dog because the weather is weird!!! Its been foggy and rainy which i guess resembles fall time but it's alaska i guess !! so below

So above is our friends Rachel and Matt and also we have a b-boy dancing which is cool since we hung out with them at the relay for life which happened here in Kodiak last week which raised a lot of money for Cancer and they are great people. As for the b-boy who didn't want to become a b-boy when you were a kid listening to salt and peppa and biggie!!!..and the rest is the reason why Shanna didn't make it in..the weather has been foggy but Spaulding loves being outside even if it's foggy out or rain :) But rain is the way to go when you live out in Kodiak which has been really great!! I love fishing and i love being outdoors...if you could live in the rain its a great place for someone to be, my job has been going good and have a good HR department that is cool...so that's Big catch!!

It's been forever!!

So sorry to say it's been forever since i had written on here and when i say forever it's literally forever :) but lets see the major changes in my life are I moved to Kodiak, we had a foster kid for 5 months, it rained, and rained and rained and rained LOL. But Kodiak has been a great place to live despite the rain due to the milder climate then up north. This winter i was like yes i definitely don't miss the -30 degre weather and could actually get used to this 30 degree weather in february :) but so far this summer has been pretty wet and when it does get nice here in Kodiak you definitely have to take an advantage over it because those are few and far between. When it's sunny out we drop what we are doing and run out and go on a nice hike or bike ride or go fishing!!



A red from Port lions
But the summer has been a sucessfully one for fishing!! Well lets start that over it started out unsuccessful because i found out pretty quick that red salmon don't bite and you have to get pretty good at something called flossing :) which is you get your line thorough the red salmon mouth and snag it in the mouth. Isn't that weird that reds don't bite? Kings, silvers and pinks do but reds refuse to do it. Are they really the snobs of fish, i guess they could be the smart ones due to the fact that they know what we are casting to them isn't real and only go for the real thing :) So on top of that i have caught some reds, but not as much as i was out there, give me a break it's not like i wasn't putting forth the effort to catch these fish!! So our good friends the Narogs invited me to go over to Port lions with the Johnsons and fish for reds via gill net!! So it was a beautiful drive over as we saw whales and puffins and sea otters over there!! So get this the reds are smart too as they were jumping all over the place but they would go around the net and we only managed to catch 2 reds in two hours as hundreds were jumping around...luckily we saw some locals come out and kind of looped around the fish and caught a bunch so it was like purse seining with a gill net. so we did that the first time and caught like 70 in one haul and let me tell you it was fun but definitely tiring!! All in all that day we caught 190 reds over there and had a fun time cutting them up and used the coast guards vacuum sealing to get all of them done!! Lot's of work but hey our freezer is full of reds!! Yummy!!
This is the old bridge across port lions


Amanda Johnson holding a star fish we got in the net

This is the way to do a wrap around
So all in all we got a lot of reds and had a great time!!! So all in all we got a 190 reds and am thankful that our freezer is full!!! Now thats big catch :) so anyways i am going to try and update this blog every a couple of days as i been lacking in it and all of sudden got this urge to inform what's been going on and this is one of the many stories of the life and times of Sam and Shanna.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

ahhhh...so long.

-Kodiak is greening.
-The fish are coming.
-My mighty fisherman is having bad luck.
-Andrea has left...not sure if she will come back for the school. Being a parent is stressful
-I'm working towards another marathon. Keeps changing from Anchorage in August to ??? to now maybe Fairbanks in September.
-Some family friends are coming to Kodiak in July. Can't wait. We are going bear viewing, on a fish charter and much more. The secret is a secret until next week, so I will share later. :)
-I did a 41 mile bike ride in the rain for a race on Memorial Day weekend. aghhhhh.....
-Sam has been busy building his photography portfolio...he busily takes photos for KANA (our job site), at a wedding (for a very small section maybe 1-1.5 hours max, but imagine like 500 or more pics!!)
-We are starting to develop some really good friends in Kodiak. I have a great pod of girls that I run with. Sam and I have some really great parent families that have taken us in too. It is great
-work is steady. I just resubmitted my two USPHS Commissioned Corps awards. Hopefully I get them this year! Much deserved but also much time and stress went into them.
-I'm growing a garden. The garden is half dead from slugs and then take this to the most extreme in context.."you can't plant those here in Kodiak!!!". Try having your garden die and someone tell you that! Boo!!!
-My water aerobics class that I teach is going well!
-I received my long awaited for promotion in the USPHS. I am now a LT. With comes pay increase, waahoo!!
-I'm going to Cancun this July iwth my mom and sister for a week. It is going to be so nice. Relaxation, sun, fun, and with my family.

Sam has posted some fun community pics on his snapfish acct. I have tried to attached the link here. I will get that posted.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Moose Meat and Homemade Blueberry Muffin


Grinding Moose Meat It finally snowed in Kodiak.

A steel salmon that Sam bought me b/c he knew how much I loved it at an auction. It is burned on its edges which actually makes it look blue.
Yummy Moose steaks and roast

Ahhh...Sunday morning was so wonderful. I woke up early feeling great, thinking...so early, should I shower first, or cut the moose meat or make the requested tundra bluberry muffins first? Regardless I had awoke before the rest of the house and I was going to enjoy all of it early this Sunday morning. I thought I might even have time to get some Giada's cooking show in UNTIL...I noticed the TV was telling me it was an hour later than I thought. Darn, we had forgot to change the clocks before we all went to bed Saturday night! :( Regardless the morning made me feel so domestic and like a very Alaskan gal.
Before we went to church Sunday morning, I cut a moose hind quarter, made homemade blueberry muffins and still made it in the shower. After church I made my mom's favorite recipe...Bierocks. I hear many names for these, but it is a square piece of bread dough then you take cooked hamburger, onions, and green cabbage and wrap it up in there and bake. Yum!!!
When we went to Nome a few weeks ago, it was quite sad. My best friend was supposed to get married but her groom got cold feet. It was a true nightmare that seemed like it should only happen in the movies. I was ready to leave Nome!!! Happily though while we were there our friend, Kris gave us the moose. We are so thankful and lucky. Thank you Kris. This weekend we cut it up and ground it into burger for the most part. It is so exciting to think that we finally have some really healthy meat in our freezer besides fish. We had moose steaks last night and YUM, YUM, YUM.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

A special weekend

I asked for a power tool and I got it. Sam and I had such an incredible Saturday and a great "date night" on Friday you could say. Some friends of ours from work and Nome took Andrea for a few hours on Friday night to go swimming. It was so nice. He went to run the trails with Spalding and I went to yoga. After that we got to enjoy our favorite restaurant's yummy sushi, the local brewery's Stout from the growler and some Olympics. It is so great to have Andrea around but it sure is fun to a have no kid "date-time" once in a while. Despite these "free moments" I try to stop myself from catching myself thinking of the sad day that Andrea leaves us and has to go back to Nome. It is coming way too quickly.

To back up a bit, I have to share with you about our past week. It was a great one, I have to say. Last Sunday I found out that my friend from Nome, sister was coming to Kodiak. Did that sentence make sense?? I can't seem to get it out right... :) Anyways, Erika's sister came to Kodiak. She met with us for supper on Wed. night and ended up staying the rest of the week with us. It was the best!!! We finally got to play Cranium with 4 people, and of course you can guess who Sam picked....not Andrea or I...so he won finally! As our first house guest was leaving I got a scary phone call that turned into the best news yet. My favorite 91 year old "old family friend" is having a surprise trip planned for him to come visit Sam and I in Kodiak this July. His daughter is the friend of my mom's and so they are trying to get her to come too! Possibly 3 exciting house guests. The most exciting is that Tony is the person who gave me the bed that I get to sleep in every night. It is so beautiful and as comfortable as I remember when I was a kid, even though it has different mattresses.

So back to our weekend investments. Sam and I had the best Saturday. We woke up early because I think we are getting old and we can't sleep in anymore. He is so motivated to workout. It is funny...I claim to be the runner but he is the one who says, "let's go running or I'm going running". I then am the one who just has motion...motion of getting dressed, getting ready and just moving out the door and into the car. I even can admit that all I think is, "if I only get there and start walking, then I might run to keep up with him and then I will be HAPPY!" :) After running we went to a flea market, ie: a garage sale, and then to the quilt shop. SO FUN! I'm in love with Kodiak. They have 2 quilt shops and two yarn shops, but who needs the last one...I haven't picked up that busy hobby. We ended up getting many fun projects. I will make and then post my finished projects as they come about. After that we decided that we had some handyman tasks around the house so we went to true value. I hate this store b/c the workers are not friendly or helpful, but I sure love the items in that store. It is probably one of the best in Kodiak. We ended up bettering our recycling resources for home and getting some fun power tools so we could start doing some projects like fixing the dog box that I broke in Nome. My dog's dog house was completely frozen to the ground and when the movers were there, I decided to get it unstuck from the ground. I borrowed my neighbors tow strap and jerked it with my 4-wheeler. When I went to do that, the whole right side BLEW off. :) hehe The house is finally fixed though as of this weekend with our new electric screw driver.

After our weekend in Nome this coming weekend (for my friend, Jennie's, wedding) Sam and I are going to start working on a new project with our new tools. We our going to make a picture frame out of beach drift wood.

This weekend was also special because we hung a horse saddle collar mirror that was my "adopted" grandpa John's creation. My house consists of so many special "inherited" gifts from special people in my life. What a great weekend except today....Sam and I are still trying to find a church in Kodiak. It was so hard today at a new one we tried. I just cried for the entire first half. I can't believe how a strictly raised Catholic can go from a burning desire Catholic to being lost religiously. Does that make sense? I feel so sad and so lost. We have it narrowed down to 2 churches that are baptist..can you believe it. These baptist churches are not like the ones you see on TV where they clap and yell. They are more like what I know of Alaskan Covenant. Sam is Covenant and I'm Catholic. Would life be this way if Sam was Catholic or I was with someone who was Catholic? Or if those horrible things in the Catholic church in Nome would have never happened to me. I hate to blame them but just sometimes, I feel like I want to!! Prayer, prayers, prayers are what are needed to help us find our place that feed us and help us continue to grow spiritually.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

ahhh....Kodiak and life

Wow, what a last few weeks it has been. Life is glorious, but challenging! :) Our little gift that stands about 5 foot 4 inches tall has been a tough one lately. It is so amazing how wonderful it feels to have that responsibility such as a child and to get to experience the other feeling of being a mother. Sometimes I catch myself giggling because I will have her over Mother's Day...I wonder if I will get a gift or be honored that day...hehe I can't wait to have kids. I keep reminding Sam that I would be happy to have his kids, but we need something shiny, and sooner is always better than later.

So our blog hasn't been done lately, and I want you to know that it is Sam's fault. I want to put pictures on so badly, but since i have a professional photographer I haven't been carrying around my 3X4 inch Canon since oh, 1.5 years ago. Therefore I don't have access to any pictures to entertain with. Just go to Facebook...his page unless he took your picture then you have it tagged to your page! :)

We finally got our house settled. I made the family clean house this weekend and we finally unpacked all of our boxes and organized our stuff. The big furniture that I bought over Christmas in Kansas finally made it to Kodiak. It is beautiful to have a full bedroom of pretty and such "grown up" furniture. I am loving my house. It's not as warm and wonderful as my Nome apt. but it is filled with way more wonderful things like beautiful, new and MY own furniture and two fun people.

We have been doing a lot of outdoor stuff. Sam has started running daily. He even does better than myself. He goes everyday and with Spalding. We have taken some really hairy hikes. On Presidents Day him and I went on a 4 hour hike to Termination Point. We got so lost. We finally ran into a Navy Seal Instructor who trail blazed for us to get us on the right path. Man, we were exhausted completely by the end of that hike and noted that it will be a hike we only do 1 time per year. SO HARD!!! We have been eating a lot of yummy fish...huge king crab, cod and red salmon. Life is really good! Work is going really well for us. I keep getting lots of referrals to see patients, and eventually I will get to see more diabetic patients and Sam may not look busy when I walk up to see him but I think he is. Everyone loves him at KANA. I started to do more regularly scheduled yoga. I have this horribly tight right hip and since I lost my PT friend who use to do treatments on it in Nome, I thought maybe yoga would be a good practice for me for my hip and my nerves....my nerves that are being tested daily by our 5' 4" "child" :)

Kodiak is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me a lot of Washington around northern Seattle. Rainy, lots of trees and moss, warm for Alaska and just beautiful. We hope you all can come visit some day.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Yup I'm a Stecklein/Moeder

The budget is going crazy. My house hold goods still have not made it to Kodiak. Within 3-5 days we quickly learned that people were not joking when they told us about the weather on Kodiak. "It's an island Shanna, the fog rolls in and out without warning". The fog is here all of the time. We drove 6 miles on Saturday and man it was so beautiful, but 6 miles back, we could barely see the road. Kodiak is a small green town. We recycle here!!! :) Okay, it really is green. We will take some pics soon and post them so you can see. It reminds me much of Washington with the same tall, green all year long trees! There is only snow in the mountains afar. You can see where there was a snow storm that came through a few weeks ago, but mostly the snow is melted and it is just brown/green grass or maybe brown grass and green moss on the grounds. :) So the house hold goods haven't come in yet, so we are camping in our house. Luckily Sam sent two couches, table and chairs, an air mattress and a rocking chair. Camping doesn't seem too tough with these amenities. We are eating on paper plates which may be normal for some, but I can't stand for long term. So wasteful I feel...thank goodness I live 2 blocks from the recycling hut. We also have been spoiling ourselves with coffee shop treats everyday, hence the budget comment. :) Yummy but I can feel it racking up.
This weekend I found myself thinking of my friend Tyrel and his new wife....poor them. I should have given them as a wedding gift a professional painter for their new house. I also found myself thinking "if my mom and dad's side of the family aunts were here, we would have this knocked out in a heart beat...and all the other windows would be cleaned too." :) Sam and I painted the master bedroom this weekend and it took the better half of the weekend. It was this horrible yellow base with rust or brick red sponged over it. It looked hideous!!!! Oh, thank goodness our landlord encouraged us to paint it! IT is now a pretty light sage green with white trim. We kept the closet and back of the door as an "accent" color. It is red or brick red?? It actually looks nice and interesting. Hip you could say. Boy did I miss having my family though. Thank you Moeders and Steckleins/Stoeckleins for the best childhood memories yet when it comes to much especially the painting/move-in parties! :)

We went to a dinner party at Anne Marie and Brian Narog's Saturday night too. I sure did have the best first week in Kodiak! Anne Marie is a great cook and it was so nice to be around a fun, healthy family. Anne Marie is originally from Golovin which is up by Nome. I also briefly knew them both from Nome when I went my first couple of summers. Great people!!! They might take us fishing soon (meaning sometime this year). YAY!!!

Monday was both Andrea and I's first days at school and work. She seemed bothered about this new happening but honestly, she is the most out going kid I know so I have a feeling deep in side she had to have some excitement that was burning to bust out and love this new change. My first day was great! The people at KANA are nice and everyone is busy. :) So many new changes and new excitements. It's also nice to know that my beautiful Sam is upstairs working hard too!! Kind of nice to go to work together. It's also nice to come home after working out and hear our Andrea say, "I'm all done with my homework". Man along time since I heard that!!!
Things are good, real good!! :)

New Adventures

A week ago today, Andrea and I set out from Nome on our trip down "south". It was a tearful 'see you later' when the time came to say bye to Jennie and Luke. So sad to leave my best girl friend. With the happy thoughts that we will be seeing each other in 1 month for her wedding, we were able to hang on to that, but the overall was sad because we knew no more spontaneous beautiful bike rides on nice summer nights or no more workout partners or even our Friday night, 'girl & wine nights'.
Our trip to Anchorage that day was great though. Andrea and I shopped like busy beavers to pick up last minute things that we needed to get before leaving the city and heading to our new island. On Tuesday we drove the long drive to Homer from Anchorage. It took most of the day. We spent most of it enjoying major junk foods and listening to Sarah Palin's, Going Rogue book on tape. Wow, what a great book thus far.
That evening we then hopped on the ferry for our even longer ride to Kodiak. Luckily I was beat so I feel asleep quickly, however, the rocking, whipping and rolling of the ferry woke me around 2:30am. It woke me to feel, oh so not good! :) Thankfully I begged and pleaded with my favorite PA in Nome to prescribe me some motion sickness pills. Andrea being our little warrior braved the ferry and waves, Shanna on the other hand had to wimp up and take the little yellow pill. While I was breathing and swallowing awaiting my body to go back to sleep, I realized that I figure out this ferry. It was the carnival ride that I couldn't yell loud enough to stop. I was in their hands not mine!!! With no avail though I feel asleep, and the next thing I knew we were right on time, the ferry made it's smooth way into Kodiak at 8:00am Wednesday morning. Off to our new home, to see Sam and finally to get Spalding out of his toxic epoxied dog box. Wednesday, January 27, 2010 became Sam and I's first day together for the first time. We haven't beat our most time spent together record yet, but soon!!! I can't believe how happy I feel to have a nice place to live, to finally be with Sam and to have Andrea with us.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

New Years Resolutions

6 days and ticking vs. "and counting". It is 6 days until I leave being a Nomite and my adventure to Kodiak and in Kodiak begins. My time here in Nome has been one of the best and yesterday I realized that Nome is what shaped my life currently. I came here in the summer of 2004 as an intern for the the same department that I work for now. I partied alot, made great friends and started running. At that time I could barely run 3 miles and still today I feel that way sometimes, but 6 years later I have ran many races including 2 marathons! :)
You could say that Nome also brought out the outdoors person in me. I went camping maybe 2 times in my life prior to coming to Nome. Those camping trips ended in wet tents and tired people and legs. Due to the rain on our Kansas camping trips with the cousins and aunts, we didn't sleep and instead we laid there all night with our legs and arms up in order to hold up the tent in the elements. :) Now I LOVE camping and usually can't get enough of it in the summers. I have also grown tremendously as a professional, but I still have tons to learn!! I luckily met a wonderful guy and many great friends here. There is "no place like Nome" but I'm sure Kodiak holds a lot of excitement and adventure too! I can't wait for Kodiak!

As I leave Nome on Monday, I will be joined with a friend of mine. She became a cute shadow of mine during the summer of 2005/2006. We never made our big sister relationship official, but always informally official. She is raised by her elderly grandmother and unfortunately she has run into some slight troubles. Luckily though many of my prayers have been answered. People asked me what would happen to her when I left and my answer to all was, "I'm not sure..." :( But now we know. She will be joining Sam and I in Kodiak through a family arrangement till April and hopefully May and longer if needed or through God's will. Having an instant teenager, 14 year old, in my home was stressful the first 2-3 days, but we are slowly figuring things out and I'm very comfortable and flexible! She is a joy to have with us.

This year I told Sam our New Years Resolution should be to blog more often. We probably lost some followers due to lack of posting. As of today, I am going to make a point that I do a weekly or bi-monthly post! :) Call me on it if I don't!!!!

If I can ask, please pray for our (Andrea and I's) move and for my friend Carlee who is still battling a very aggressive and tough fight of breast cancer.