7 Degrees and getting colder

Super brrrr today. If any precip comes it will be snow...the ground is frozen and crunchy. We know because we walked around the neighborhood trick or treating Saturday night. It was very surreal, like a lot of this Alaskan experience has been so far. I find myself saying, am I really here???
I only realized today that our outdoor thermometer goes down to
-60, maybe they all do--is that necessary...I guess I will know in the next few months.



The little bear and precious ladybug before they got any candy. They really did start smiling once they started racing eachother to ring doorbells.We have enough candy for a year!!




Things are starting to shape up in Judy, although now Julia has renamed Judy. It's now "Bobby" to her...This view is from the diningroom into the kitchen. We are going to put tile floors and new countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms at some point, but next on the list is removing wallpaper in the bamboo room for our early thanksgiving guests.



My love got me tulips last week and I have enjoyed every minute of their beauty!!!!



Getting a bit cozier in the livingroom. It also doubles as a train station for now.

Taking a break for white mocha ...playing in the tree roots... what we did last weekend.
Cleaned up massive tree roots. We love being outside any chance we get.



The children's new favorite hiding spot... with the pots and pans



Sneak peek at our costumes this year

Home ... made

Above, John reaching for the peanut butter pie batter...I made pies for the men that helped us take down those spruce trees and one for our realtor...and one for Dr Arnett of course!

Then, I made laundry detergent... I thought I had a shredder disc with the food processor I scored for $3 at a yard sale this summer, but I couldn't figure it out. So I hand shredded the bar of soap...ah, I need to work on my shredding muscles.
Anyway, it smells good. We had all the ingredients at our Fred Meyer (like Kroger)...except for the Pure Oxygen Whitener so I used oxyclean.


Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe


1 bar Fels-Naptha laundry soap
1 cup Arm and Hammer washing soda
1 cup 20 mule team Borax
1/2 cup Oxyclean or 1/3 cup Pure Oxygen Whitener



1. In a large bowl mix together the washing soda, Borax, and the Oxyclean/Pure Oxygen Whitener.

2. Place your shredder disk in your food processor. Shred the bar of Fels-Naptha in the food processor. Remove the shredding disk. Place the metal blade in the fp bowl.

3. Add about 1/2 cup of the dry mixture into the fp bowl with the shredded soap. Process until it is the texture of sand.

4. Dump the soap mixture into the remaining dry mixture and combine thoroughly.

5. Use about 1 heaping 2-tablespoon scoop per full laundry load. ( I use a scoop that comes in the small Oxyclean container.

Timberrrrr

Can you find William up the tree???




We obviously spent the weekend taking out a few spruce trees. It has opened up a lot of light into the front of Judy.




We are still awaiting the first snowfall of the season and getting as much done in the yard as we can before the ground is covered.
It is getting pretty chilly and the days are much shorter now.

ta dah

We took a jaunt to Seward last Saturday, foggy and rainy. It was nice to get out for a drive though.




John got to eat in a train car. He was thrilled.






The beginning of the end...tire swing fun!







Happy little man...

Winnie Gypsies at home

Oh, how nice it is to be at home. Judy is about 15% renovated and we moved in over the weekend. Tip toe tip toe OVER the tack strips we go. Tonight we are so exhausted from the past 2 weeks of getting our bedrooms ready enough to move in and carting over loads from the apartment that William caved before 10pm. Just not another ounce left in him.

Well, I know some of my friends are probably seeing some of the same changes in their little ones right now...but this weekend I realized that your daughter is no longer a baby when she is playing with her daddies rechargeable drill saying "Mom, this is 'totally AWESOME'".
That's right she says 'totally awesome.'
Next thing I know she will be saying 'like' for every second word. Slow down little one, don't grow up so fast!!!
And on the same note the little man is in the midst of night #2 without his paci.
Sweet sweet little ones!

We are really excited to know we have family coming to visit soon...to be revealed in pictures in November and December.

Today was gorgeous here. So, instead of painting walls, we went to the park. I anticipate it to be one of the last nice sunnies before snow comes. Oh, we had such a good time playing until Julia swung around on the tire swing just one too many times and lost her lunch in the sand. She asked me all the way home "did everyone see that momma?" She is also starting to be embarrassed and more self conscious in situations like that.

Okay, I know a boring post with no pics, but that's because I was too tired to go out to the car and get the sd card with all the great pre-hurl park pics. Maybe i'll get them loaded tomorrow. Night night.

Our living room turned entertainment center on crack! Yes super messy and all we can do to keep the children entertained while we paint and floor.



Here's their bedroom coming along slowly...




So, I was desperately craving meat nachos for lunch and don't have a can opener to open the rotel at the new place. Oh yeah, I am woman!





A little peek at the front of Julia's school. She is learning soooo much and we are really happy with the schools curriculum. They have this little song for learning their short vowel sounds and I will try to record her singing it soon because it is super sweet.

It is getting really cold here and I just can't warm up today. It is also suddenly dark when we awake and dark before 5pm. Oh, midnight sun where have disappeared to!

Sweet messy

Guess what we had for supper?

That's right when we have spaghetti we just put John on the floor and let him enjoy!

Small joys getting BIG

I saw this maybe on etsy today and thought I need to make one like it for a fall table runner...we'll see.





Sweet little babes getting so big on me! All decked out in their razorback attire. They are so loud when they call the Hogs I was wondering if they could be heard all the way in Fayettville??



WOOOOOO PIG SOOOIE!

One of those days

Well, it good ole Murphy's law...
Today was just one of those days. Long story short, when the water dept. turned the water on today at the new house the taps were apparently pushed up full blast downstairs and water went everywhere until we got there tonight to work on the house. Okay a bit of an exaggeration, but the downstairs got a mite wet! Argghhh! Thank goodness there was a drain in the laundry room floor for such things and that the flooring was all torn up. SO...tonight I had to do mommy things after everyone else was sound asleep, like run to the gas station to get 1/2 a gallon of milk before dawn breaks, make a bunch of homemade football themed cookies for Awanas, and sew up some razorback pants for John to wear tomorrow to sports night at Awanas. BUT, all I wanted to do was drink a Margarita and eat the pistachios and Doritos I found at the gas station when I went to get the milk. So, I did both...Cheers and here's to a better day tomorrow.

Yeah -Mail...our small joys...

We really enjoy our mail up here. It is an exciting event to go to the post office.
Thanks to Jen for my mail today and to my dad and gran for always sending a letter a week.



Steven and Jodi made our weekend as well. Julia and John got a 24 pack of plah doh and a plah doh toy. I got the softest ever Gap sweats and a Hello Kitty key fob. And might I add, if you have never experienced the joys of a key fob, there are many reasons to find joy in one--like it's harder to loose your keys and you can put them around your wrist when you're struggling to get both kids in and out of the car instead of setting off the car alarm with your teeth. And William got his own key fob and a gun sling? We felt really special--thanks!

The children haven't gone a day with out playing with their new coco nutty monkey plah doh maker. We even made up a song to sing while we play with it!



Coco nutty monkey in action




Judy is officially in our possession. So, tonight we ripped up every morsel of yucky old carpet in the house and now are left with a ton of tack strips and staples to remove. And the joy of figuring out what flooring to put where. We still have our apartment for another month. So , luckily feel no pressure to move in until we atleast kilz and repaint the walls.

Hidden Broccoli Soup

Broccoli Soup

6-8 cups broccoli, chopped
4 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks
1-2 leeks, sliced
1 onion (red), peeled and cut into chunks
1/3 cup heavy cream
water or stock
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper


Place broccoli, potatoes, leeks, salt and onion in a soup pot. Fill with water (or stock) until everything is just barely covered. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until broccoli is very tender.


Puree until smooth. Add desired amount of cream. Add pepper. Adjust salt, if necessary.

PS...I chopped up my broccoli, leeks and onion first in my magic bullet and then just used a hand mixer close to the end to smooth out the potato as you like. It was pretty good and I learned what a leek is today.
It is definitely soup weather here and chicken and dumplings weather and pumpkin pie weather and hot steamy rolls weather...yum

Snow in the forecast

Just checked the weather and it looks like we may get our first Alaska snowfall on Sunday and Monday...BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

Lanscaping for Jodi

We sure are enjoying having William around more now that moose season has ended.



Julia helping mow




Our sweet boy on my shoulders so he could reach our little neglected rasberry patch




Juju munching on the rasberries.




A special little garden spot in our soon to be backyard...overtaken by weeds, but with great potential.






Big helper with our bucket of rasberries






Sunny day sledding

No moosey

(Above is a stock picture of the northern lights over Soldotna--something to look forward to seeing this winter)


Well, the countdown is offically over. No moose in the freezer but not for lack of trying. We are glad to have him back as a husband and father though! And the nights we got to tag along were fun as well. We enjoyed passing around the binoculars when we would spot a moose and just singing songs together in the car as the sun would set on a beautiful evening here in Alaska.

Sometimes, I have to nearly pinch myself that we are actually here and not on Alexander Street dreaming on a hot summer night on the screen porch that one day we would be here. It is a bit surreal at times.

We are starting to settle a bit more and meet more people. There's just "no place like home". And this may one day feel like home, but not quite yet. We miss the amazing church we had in Memphis and the loves that we had all around.

I think that the "Judy" project will help to keep us consumed through a good portion of the winter. William said tonight that apparently last year the first snow fell in the second week of October and didn't go away until the end of April. That seems so strange to comprehend for this Rhodesian girl!! I still remember my first snowflakes like a perfect picture in my mind. It was in the 4th grade. Ms Hipple's class at Eastside Elementary. There was that intial rush of excitement by the whole class when someone spotted the snowfall through the window. And Ms Hipple made all the children except for me sit down in their seats. She allowed me to stand there in awe of the beauty and just take it all in because she knew I had never seen anything like it before. It was stunning.

So, in about February of next year I will stand at the window reminding myself of the beauty of creation and how lucky I am to have an oppourtunity like this even if I am more than ready for the thaw...