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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.