Moose, moose everywhere

Our time here is going by too fast and I know it won't be long before we're back to life in Germany. That's not a bad thing, but I love being here and am not looking forward to leaving. We're trying to get everything done that's on our list, but I already know there will be things left undone.

We've had a really nice and busy week even though Sam and I have been battling being sick. I started getting sick last Tuesday and by Saturday Sam was coming down with the same thing. He got in on Thursday. Mom had the day off of work, so we all went up to get him. Mom and I enjoyed doing some shopping before going to the airport. I have so enjoyed shopping at American stores again. I see so many things that I'd love to buy and ship over, but I'm trying to restrain myself.

Sam's had a hard time adjusting to the time difference here just like I did. I've never had a harder time with jet lag, but then I've never experienced a 10 hour time difference before either.

Sam didn't feel like doing much on Friday, so Mom and I finished up the second batch of relish. Dad got off work a little early and we had an early dinner in town and ran to the commissary. On the way home from Ft. Greely, we saw some moose so we stopped for some pictures. We always see moose here in Alaska, but I've seen more than usual this trip. There is a moose behind and to the left of Sam in these pictures. We stopped to look at a cow and twin calves behind a fence, but then saw this one. We don't usually get out if there is a moose this close, but we were already out of the car when we saw it and decided to snap a few pictures. Moose blend in so well though that it's a little hard to see it. Sam made sure he kept an eye on it :)

These were the moose we originally stopped for

The weather cooperated with us, so we planned for the bonfire on Saturday evening. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Sam and Dad did a lot of work outside. They finished laying some pavers to make a path to the back of the house. Mom's been working on the lawn this year and it looks really good. She'll plant grass around the pavers and next summer it should look great. While the guys worked outside, Mom and I stayed busy inside getting everything ready for that evening.

Dad and Sam moving a table out back

I love bonfires. The chilly weather, the food, getting warm and visiting by the fire, roasting marshmallows - all of it. We stayed out by the fire visiting for a long time then played some games inside. Sam loves an audience and had everyone laughing throughout the evening.

Art, Dad and Bill by the fire

Sam out by the fire

I've really been enjoying being back in my home church here. Since getting married and leaving Alaska I haven't found a church that feels like home. We liked the church we attended in Hawaii, but it just never felt like family. Now in Germany we're having the same experience. We've gone to several and are still trying to find one to stay with. Anyhow, it's just feel great to be back in some good services.

After church yesterday Dad, Sam and I went for a drive to see what animals we could spot. Mom stayed home to start working on a cake she's making for a baby shower. We saw quite a few animals - a wild buffalo, lots of moose and a herd of caribou. Here are a few pictures from that drive.

Sam with the Alaska Range behind him

One of the calf moose that we saw

Dad has seen lots of moose in this lake, but none were there yesterday.

We stopped by this visible portion of the Alyeska Pipeline south of Ft. Greely.

Sam straining under the weight of the pipeline :o)

More moose in a pond by the road

A herd of caribou off in the distance

Keeping busy in Alaska

I am up early, so I'll see about updating this blog. I'm going to Fairbanks later this morning, but didn't sleep very well because of taking one of my Dad's decongestants. Last night I started feeling like I was getting a cold, so I took one of his pills. It was non-drowsy and kept me up all night. I should have known better I guess.

Tomorrow we will be picking Sam up at the airport. I really don't enjoy flying and don't like my family flying either, but we don't have much of a choice. It's a means to an end with no other way to get where we need to be. Of course I'll be happy to see my husband again. He'll probably think it's cold up here, but I love the Alaska weather. It rained for a few days, but the last couple have been really nice. We're hoping the rain stays away so we can have a bon fire this weekend.

This last week has gone by so fast. We play board or card games in the evenings. I grew up playing games, but Sam's not into them much, so I really enjoy it when I come home. On Monday, Mom and I made some of my Grandma's Green Tomato Relish. It is the best and so much easier than I thought it would be. I always watched Mom do canning, but never did it myself, so this was my first time. We're going to make another batch on Friday probably and may can some jelly while we're here too.

Mom's been going to aquacise for awhile now, so I went with her on Monday evening. We'll probably go again tonight. I used to do aquacise years ago, but it was nice to do it again. Because of my shoulder I haven't been able to really work out for awhile, so I think doing exercises in the water was easier because it didn't stress it too bad. I have to be careful on a few of the moves though.

Well, I haven't really taken too many pictures, but here are a few from this last week.

Tomatoes from the greenhouse

Washed and ready to chop up

Boiling the relish before canning it

The finished product

Mom and Dad's Rottweiler, Lucky, is always ready to play

This cat was a stray that came to Mom and Dad as a kitten about a year ago. Dad's allergic though, so it can't have free roam of the house and Mom would love for us to take it. I just don't know how Gabby would be with another cat. He is a sweetie though. And he's HUGE! You just can't tell from the picture.

Back 'home' in Alaska

I just arrived in Alaska yesterday afternoon. Aside from missing Sam and Gabby, it's always so nice to come 'home'. My last week in Germany ended up being so busy that I didn't have time to post before leaving. We got tickets through Condor because they come pretty directly to Fairbanks (with a stop in Whitehorse) instead of flying to the east coast then coming all the way on up. No matter how you look at it though, it's a long, LONG trip. I ended up being awake for 30+ hours before dropping in bed early this morning at 1:30. Of course I could have gotten myself to bed earlier, but there's always so much to catch up on and talk about with Mom.

It's wonderful to be back in America, although I was pretty frustrated with the customs process at the Fairbanks Airport. Instead of clearing us and letting us go to get our baggage, we had to stay with the group after getting cleared to be escorted to another area to be cleared again. Finally about 45 minutes after arrival I was able to get my luggage. Dad and Art picked me up. Michele made a surprise appearance too which was really nice. Her family and us have been friends for a long time. I used to babysit her years ago and she's now in her second year of college at UAF. Can't believe how time has flown. That's when I start to feel old - when kids whose diapers I used to change are now adults themselves and in college. I don't feel old enough, but the years don't lie.

Art, Dad and I met up with Chad for lunch. It was amazing to me the things that caught my attention after being out of the states for 6 months. I noticed that the road signs are green. I never noticed them before, but in Europe they're yellow, so that stuck out to me. I forgot how many trucks there are in Alaska. In Germany I may have seen 10 in my time there. Here almost every other vehicle is a truck or big SUV. I love it. Someday I'll have another truck, but mine wouldn't have been very convenient in Germany. At the restaurant I noticed the different toilets in the bathroom, we got ice in our soda (and a straw), it was wonderful to read an English menu. I haven't ordered anything off an English menu since we've been in Germany. Also, being able to understand what people were saying around me was interesting. I've learned to kind of tune it out because I can't understand what's being said anyhow.

I had so much to say and talk about, but needed my Mom there to share my thoughts with. I finally just shut up about what I was noticing, because the guys didn't seem to care. All they were interested in talking about was moose hunting (Dad and Art have seen 25 moose in the last two days) and Chad was talking about gold mining. All of which is interesting, but I just had no one to share my excitement with.

We did some shopping in Fairbanks before heading to Delta. I never realized how friendly people are here. I used to hear tourists comment on the friendliness of Alaskans, but it was what I was used to. After being gone for so long (especially in Europe) I really appreciated how nice everyone is here. People in Germany really aren't very friendly. Even the Americans on base or in the PX keep to themselves. All through Walmart and Freddy's I noticed people smiling and being friendly, but NOT STARING at me. That's a nice change.

We didn't get home until around 7:30 last night. Art and Dad hunted some on the way home. We did see a cow and calf, but no bulls. It was so nice to get home and see my Mom. I had ambitions of going in with her this morning at 10:00, working out then coming back home, but since we got to bed so late I didn't. My days and nights are totally switched around and it'll take a couple of days to get caught up. I think we're going to go out to eat for dinner. We'll probably go to Pizza Bella. Can't wait to have some of their Greek pizza. Well, that's about it for now. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but will be sure to get some while I'm here.

Labor Day weekend

Since Sam took Tuesday off for our anniversary, we had a long Labor Day weekend together which we really enjoyed. On Saturday, instead of doing what I needed to do (stay home and clean my house) we went to a flea market and antique shopping. I love doing that and we found a really great little antique shop in one of the the towns we drive through all the time. There was so much packed into that space that I'm sure we didn't get to see everything.

We did get one really great piece that I'm excited about. In one of the back rooms there were quite a few old sewing machines and we saw a Singer treadle sewing machine back in a corner. Sam asked the owner how much it would cost and she said €100 (about $130). I couldn't believe it was that cheap! So, we said we wanted it. When she looked at it closer in getting it out she told Sam that we got a really great price. I think she spoke before really looking at the machine. It's in beautiful condition and still works. We were so excited about our antique find!

The owner had another shop down the street and gave us the key to have a look at what she has stored there. Sam fell in love with a 200 year old wooden trunk. She wanted €400 for that though and since we got such a great deal on the treadle she wasn't about to give us a break on the trunk. It's still sitting in the shop down the street.

Sunday we had Michelle over for dinner so she could meet Gabby. She's staying at our house while we're in Alaska. I was happy that Gabby wasn't nasty to her. Gabby just doesn't like other people and will often hiss or swat if they try to pet her. At one time she was acting all sweet to Michelle, but I told her not to trust the sweetness. I think they'll be alright though. It's a little easier to leave knowing that Gabby will have someone in the house with her. I know people must think we're crazy, but we love our girl and don't like to leave her for that long.

Monday we decided to take a drive to Bad Kreuznach, which is where Sam lived when he was young. He was excited about seeing his old house and school. It has been about 30 years since he lived there. Of course the town was different than what he remembered it to be. It took quite awhile to find the house, but after asking numerous people we finally found the school and the house was just behind it on another street. The school had changed some, but the playground looked the same to him. Here is a picture of Sam in front of the playground.

This is the house they lived in. The people who live there now were probably wondering why some strangers were parked out on the street taking pictures of their house. It was much smaller than Sam remembered and the driveway on the right side of the house was much shorter than he thought. He remembered it being really long, but as a 6 or 7 year old it would have seemed much longer. I really enjoyed seeing this part of his history too. I liked the town of Bad Kreuznach. It seemed like an older town and the old Army post was still visible in places although it's closed down now. Sam has quite a few family members in Bad Kreuznach, but we couldn't reach any of them so we'll have to get in touch at another time.

On the way back we decided to go through Idar-Oberstein to see the church in the rocks. It was raining though so we didn't want to walk the steps up to the church. We'll go back for that someday. The town is known for this church that was built into the rock of the mountain. It's really impressive and I want to see it up close at some point.

We were pretty close to some other military bases so we made a detour to fill up on gas at Baumholder. There are really quite a few US military facilities throughout Germany, which makes it nice for us when we travel. Baumholder was much larger than the other bases we've seen over here. We found out that we would be passing right by Ramstein Air Force Base, so we decided to check it out as well and walked through the PX.

We didn't get home until 8:00 that evening, then the next day (our anniversary) we decided to take another trip to see about a buffet and shrunk we saw advertised. The place for the buffet was close to Mannheim and we printed out Map quest directions, but true to form they weren't very good and we spent quite a bit of time lost. The lady was really nice and she had some other pieces that she was selling so we decided to buy an antique couch - it's in really good shape - and the buffet that we originally came for. The buffet is not in as good of condition, but Sam's going to do some work on it. I don't know how, but Sam got both items strapped on the truck and we headed off to Heidelberg to see the shrunk. After spending time lost again, we met the man at Patrick Henry Village and followed him home. It's a beautiful shrunk, but we haven't decided if we're getting it yet or not. We got home late that night as well and I don't think either of us feel like traveling anywhere soon. We were going to buy two small shrunks from the lady who had the buffet and couch, but when we got home she called and said her husband doesn't want to sell one of them until they leave Germany. We may go back up for the other one next Saturday. We'll see. Well, that about catches you up on our weekend.

I leave for Alaska in a week. I'm so excited to get home to both Alaska and the US. I like Germany, but I'm ready to be in the states again. Sam will come later and we'll fly back together. Well, I have a couch to clean up a little before we move it upstairs to our room, so I better get busy.

Happy Anniversary to us!

I'm late on posting this because we have had a very full 4 day weekend. Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary. On the one hand it feels like just the other day we were saying our vows and on the other it feels like a lifetime ago. We have sure been through some changes in the last 3 years. We dated long distance for over two years then when we got married I uprooted my whole life to move to Hawaii and now we're in Germany.

I would truly do it all over again though because marrying Sam was the best decision I've ever made. He's a wonderful husband. He is one of the sweetest, most patient men I know. I don't always handle stressful situations with grace, but usually Sam's like a rock. Nothing seems to get to him. I really appreciate how loving he is. I love his personality- he finds humor in any situation. Before we got married I had so many people tell me that men change after getting married, but Sam hasn't. He's just as sweet and loving as when we were dating. He doesn't leave dishes and dirty clothes all over the house. He doesn't mind cleaning or doing dishes sometimes. He treats me with utmost respect and puts 1 Corinthians 13 into action.

We don't always agree, but then as my grandma used to say "If two people agree on everything, then one of them is an idiot".

We didn't have much of a celebration yesterday because we ended up driving to Mannheim to pick up a buffet and antique couch. We spent a lot of time lost and finally made it home around 8:00. We planned to go out to dinner, but neither one of us felt like it by the time we got home, so we put a pizza in the oven and watched a movie. Here are a few pictures from our wedding.

Lighting our unity candle

Us with our parents

The wedding party

Our announcement and rings with my bouquet.