The End of Our Alaska Adventure

 Life has been a whirlwind! At this point I can't remember what Thursday and Friday entailed, but I know it definitely included housework!

 

Once the movers were done (and our grill mysteriously disappeared) we got crackin' on home repairs. Wednesday night we opted for sleeping bags on the living room floor. After a night of tossing and turning (which was a great reminder of why I hate camping) John remembered that we had foam pads we could have used >.< That's ok though...at least I didn't have to deal with pets trying to steal my sleeping bag :D

We have worked non stop on the house. We normally include Lowes' and/or Home Depot as part of our date nights. Sadly, we've had to visit those stores during the morning this week. It wasn't nearly as fun as going during date night- we were exhausted, sleep deprived, and borderline grumpy.

Our TLF (temporary living facility) has been an experience! Despite the fact that the temps have been in the teens, John and I have been sleeping with our window open. Why would we do something that crazy? Well, the master bedroom is a lovely 80 degrees (at least). We can't really tell because the thermostat is broken and the heater in our room is stuck on full blast. The cold temps outside definitely help because the fan in the room certainly doesn't.

We found a moose outside our TLF. He's huge! The hood of my car would probably fit under his belly. I will miss the moose sighting when we leave!

As far as the fur babies go... They are having a blast! Hannah has been busy breaking rules (jumping on all the furniture, etc). She has found one spot in the house that is of some concern. Hannah likes to hang out in a spot in the living room.  When she does, she ends up with a stoner look on her face. We have no idea what causes it, but it's hilarious to watch her.

Here she is cuddling with the heater

Oh Begley, the poor thing isn't used to sleeping on a tile floor. I think last night he decided we weren't worth the discomfort and went to sleep on the guest room bed. Before that...

Yep, while John and I were slaving away on the house-

 Begley stole the comforter from our bed. 

At this point- both pets qualify for Santa's naughty list.

This weekend we got over a foot of snow in Eagle River! It was perfect timing! We were having to do some stuff outside and since my snow boots got packed... I had to wear my normal boots.  Those things fill nicely with snow.

 Since we no longer have a dryer I had to be resourceful!

We have made some time for fun. There was the squadron holiday party which involved carefully placed bids so John wouldn't end up being Santa, an elf, or the Grinch. Saturday night we attended a lumberjack party. John won the flapjack eating contest (he ate 10 in 2 minutes) but it was close with our friend Dan eating 9. We wrapped up our weekend with dinner with friends and a stressful game of Settlers of Catan!

We have less than 48 hours until we leave Alaska and there is a lot of stuff left to do and people to see! A small part of me is ready to get on the plane- just so I can get some decent sleep!

Be sure to check back! I'll be blogging our cross country adventure! 

We are traveling with two pets... how bad can it be?? ;)

  

One month and counting!

Today John and I celebrate being married for a whole month! Woo hoo!  To celebrate, we did the adult thing- went to work, had leftovers for dinner, John brought home flowers, and I was FINALLY added on as John's dependant.  We have spent the first month of our marriage battling with an office on base as to what defines being an Alaska resident. According to them... its receiving a PFD.  For us, it's my DL, voter registration, fishing license, etc. Thankfully we won the battle :)

The past month has been a whirlwind of activity.  We got home from Florida and we jumped right into work stuff. I've been having computer issues at work, so I've been working through lunch to get caught up/stay caught up.  The IT department has been hearing a lot from me lately :(    I have missed going to the gym on my lunch break. I never thought I would say that, but I do.  Maybe once work events get on a roll I'll be able to start going to the gym again.

Life has been full of house projects.  Over the course of two weekends John and I got the outside of the house ready so we could get some photos.   The basement is close to being done!

I'll admit.. we did take some time to sneak out to the state fair :)  I have never been to the Alaska Fair and was pretty excited about the trip!  Of course I had to stop by and see all the super awesome 4-H stuff. :) (Yes, I'm a little biased)

Who doesn't like a good lumber jack show? ;)

(It's supposed to be a carved rabbit)

Thanks to all the wonderful Alaskan sunshine- the veggies can get pretty big! 

Yes, those are pumpkins in the back.  Unfortunately the largest one had to be disqualified since it had an imperfection on the outside. However, it comes in at a whopping 1,400 pounds.  The owner fed the pumpkin 300 gallons of water a day.  You can check out more of the story here. 

As fun as the fair was, I definitely paid for it.  Within a week I had a sore throat and really bad congestion.  I was kind enough to share it with John. (I did try to blame it on his co-workers, but unfortunately, no one else in the office had been sick).  I'll admit... I can be a big baby when I get sick. So a big thanks to my husband for putting up with me and making sure I was taken care of. :)

In addition to me having to go to the doctor, our fur babies had to go to the vet as well :(  Begley has a mass on his gum the vet wanted to recheck (thankfully it hasn't changed any).  The cat on the other hand... Oh boy- where to start!  The vet diagnosed her with kitty acne. Which is probably a result of the automatic cat feeder we bought, which is made of plastic (apparently cats are sensitive to plastic). This is the same "automatic" cat feeder, that I'm pretty sure close to starved my cat while we were in Florida.  The feeder was working when we left, but the cat seemed like she was starving when we got back.  After a little investigating I found that the feeder either 1) was feeding her late 2) wasn't feeding her at all  3) would feed her 6 or so pieces instead of 1/4 cup  or 4) would feed her a random 3rd time during the day.  Needless to say, I am not happy with Petmate right now and will more than likely be shipping that POS back to them very soon along with a nasty gram. I will NEVER recommend the Petmate's Infinity feeder to any pet owner. EVER.

 So we are all on the mend, all while working, busting our butts on the house, and John has started his Master's program back up. Yes... we often find ourselves asking each other "what's for dinner". I hate to admit it, but some nights I have resorted to cereal in a desperate attempt to save time and still feed myself. 

Oh the joys of adulthood :)

Oh Sweet Summertime

Two of the best things about summers in Alaska is lots of sunlight and fresh salmon!  I was not able to go fishing last year, but this year I was totally ready! It's my duty as an Alaska resident to go fishing.  ;)

We left for our trip at three thirty a.m. (which was way too early).  After everyone arrived at the house, we piled our gear in the Jeep and were off! It was a two and a half hour drive to Kenai.  The best part of the drive was getting to watch the sunrise over the mountains.  Watching the sun rise or set during the summer is a rare occurrence for me. I think the last time I watched it set was last year after I had dropped John off at the airport for a trip.  The pictures don't do it justice

After arriving in Kenai and unloading all the gear we headed off to find our fishing spot.  We checked out a couple of spots before deciding on one and gearing up.  I've never worn waders before... but I think it makes Brittany and me look like true Alaskan Chicks :)

We all piled in the river and set out to find our own fishing spots.  While waiting for John to put the hook on my fishing rod I discovered a  blue fish right in front of me!  I bent down to catch it with my hands and before I could reach it the current carried it away.  I was little bummed about it. :(   After a unsuccessful hour in one spot, we headed down to the spot were the Russian River and the Kenai River meet.

There was quite the crowd.  I was a little jealous of the guys who had their setup on one of the islands. They had a nice little fillet table set up and seemed to have a sweet spot considering all the salmon they were catching.  Alas, we ventured into other parts of the rivers.  Brittany and I headed toward the Kenai River (which is wonderful shade of blue), but holy moly was it cold!  Mind you, I was sockless in my waders, and once my feet get cold... they stay cold.  My line got caught on a log, and I had to venture out into the Kenai River to untangle it.  For a few minutes I thought I was going to be swept away.  That's exactly why you use the buddy system while fishing.  I knew Brittany would catch me if I started floating away :)

Near the end of our time fishing I had given up on catching anything.  I opted for a nap on the dock. :)   After an exhausting six hours, we finally packed up our bags and started the trek back.  Although I'm a little heart broken over not catching any fish, there was one perk.  When I got home... I didn't have to clean any smelly fish.  :)

In other news

John and worked on the basement again Friday night.  It was my first time sanding. Poor John. lol.  I started out in sunglasses because I couldn't find the safety glasses I wore last week while mudding.  I couldn't see a thing so John tracked down a pair of safety glasses, but they were tinted yellow.  The color threw me off and I couldn't tell if I was actually doing a good job or not. Then I was getting dust in my eyes so I had to take my contacts out and try to wear glasses under the safety glasses.  We found the missing safety glasses... on Saturday

By the time we were done sanding  it looked like we had a mini snowstorm in the basement and we looked like the abominable snowman!  The basement is coming along and hopefully by September we will have John's man cave the entertainment room finished.

Alaska's weather has been amazing! It's definitely making up for last summer. Anchorage set a new record for the most number of days above 70 degrees in the month of June. We have had 17 days compared to the 14 they had back in the 1936. John and I are definitely trying to enjoy summertime while it last!

The monster of a basement

I've been meaning to start a blog since I moved to Alaska back in January 2012, but I never got around to it. Sometimes there is so much to be said... I might as well blog it.  Better to start now than never!

Back in January when John told me he wanted to finish the basement before we move- I didn't really think it would be that hard of a project.  At the time, I was more excited about painting a giant room than I was about all the other work that went into it.  John prioritized and bought a projector for the basement.  After all, if you are going to be spending a lot of time in a room working on it, why not have some form of entertainment? ;)  Honestly, the projector has come in handy when it comes to playing Dead Space 2.  It helps being able to see all the aliens in giant form. I still have to ask John to slay aliens for me on occasion.  :)

Putting the drywall up seemed to be no problem, but then came the taping and the mudding. In late May John worked on taping and mudding for six days straight. Six days = lots of tape and a coat and a half of mud.  I think the whole process was taking longer than we both anticipated.  He ended up taking a break for a while from the basement.  We checked out carpet, debated on what to do for the bathroom downstairs, but no mudding.  I finally  begged for John to get me supplies was recruited to help. John bought me my own set of supplies and I was really excited about learning how to mud.

For the record... I tried, I really did.  During the four evenings that I helped John with mudding- I'm not sure if I got more on myself, the floor, or on the wall.

Yeah...I was pretty much coated in mud.

I got mud everywhere.  "Oopsie", "Oh crap",and "Whew!" were frequently said as I attempted to mud the walls and ceiling.

Thursday evening I was all gung ho about finishing the basement. We were so close! Half the basement needed the final coat of mud.  I got home from work and began working on the basement. It was a very bad night for me to do any scraping.  No matter how hard I tried, something always went wrong when I went to scrape the mud. I got lines in it, random pieces of grass got in it, I botched corners,it just looked weird, etc.   I ended up coating the wall with mud (which I could handle) and John scraped for me. It was perfect :)

John finished mudding Friday night (HOORAY!). It seems there is a light at the end of the tunnel now.  Today, he spent the afternoon sanding walls.  I "helped" by scraping globs spots of dried mud off the floor.  There were a lot of spots :(

Hopefully this monster of a basement project will be done soon. This experience has taught me a lot... like don't quit my day job because I stink at mudding :)