1/1/2008 |
Took off from Philly international on our way
to Seattle. Mixed feelings. Sad about leaving our
families, church family, and friends, but excited about our new
adventure in Alaska.
We checked 9 bags and carried on 6. It
sounds completely out of control, but, surprisingly, it went
pretty well.
Landed, claimed our baggage, and checked in
at the hotel in Seattle. Everything was pretty uneventful
... thankfully! |
1/2/2008 |
Slept for a few short hours in Seattle and
then dragged all of the baggage to the airport for the flight to
Anchorage.
Landed, claimed all of our baggage and picked
up two rental cars. One was a Hummer H3 (white ... of
course for Rhonda) and a Chevy TrailBlazer.
Drove up to the house and let the family go
gift hunting. I was up in Alaska in December and before I
left, I hid gifts around the house for Rhonda, Danny, and
Andrew. They had fun looking all around for their gifts.
Then we began unpacking our 15 bags.
Did a boat load of shopping. It is a
strange feeling to not have any of your belongings with you ....
OK ... we did have some of our belongings in our 15 bags of
luggage ....
The well for the house pumps out water that
is gray ... actually dark gray. They say that it is
"glacial silt". Yeah ... cool. Looks like mud.
We bought a bunch of bottled water for cooking, brushing teeth,
etc ... The builder told me to run a hose over the side of
the mountain and let the water run for a week. That should
clear it up, he says. I am a little worried about the
bears that will have to chop their way through the ice from my
hose when they wake up in the spring. I will report on
that in a couple of months.
Got the house set up for sleeping and crashed
pretty early. |
1/3/2008 |
Woke up in the middle of the night with a
massive, pounding headache and vomiting.
Got somewhat inundated with work stuff that
piled up while I was trying to coordinate the move from PA.
Enough said for 1/3/2008 |
1/4/2008 |
Woo-Hoo .... nothing like that euphoric
feeling that always follows the headache/vomiting episode!
Feel like a million bucks!
Met Danny's teacher ... Mr. Mondeel, and
Andrew's teacher ... Miss Williams. Miss Williams gave
Andrew a book that the class made in anticipation of Andrew's
arrival. Each page had a picture of a student and an
individual letter from that child welcoming Andrew. Each
page was laminated and they were all tied together to create a
"book". Great idea if there are any teachers reading this.
The TrailBlazer smells like it has a dead
body in it.
Had a really nice family dinner at a
restaurant in downtown Anchorage ... Simon and Seafort's
Whipped around the corner on the way up the
road to our house and came about 2 feet from hitting this
massive moose that was in the middle of the road. Huge does
not adequately describe this creature. The headlights of
my Hummer rental car were only high enough to show the bottom
half of his belly and his legs. He did not seem disturbed
at all by our presence. He did not even look up at us.
He just kept walking toward the bushes on the side of the road
and I slowly went around him. |
1/5/2008 |
Off to the laundromat to wash clothes ...
still lots of gray water. Took the
TrailBlazer back to the airport because of the smell. They
replaced it with a Red Hummer. Cool ... now we have
matching hummers .. almost ... one Red and one White. |
1/6/2008 |
Attended church at Anchorage Grace Church.
This is the church that is connected to the kids school (Grace
Christian School). Danny went into
Sunday school class with no problem. Andrew would not go
in by himself and even put up a pretty good fight with Rhonda
going in there with him. Rhonda ended up staying in there
with him for the entire class while I attended the service.
We saw our second moose ... in our back
yard!!! See the pictures (http://www.anchorageupdate.com/firstweek.htm).
He took his time walking through the yard as he stripped the
bushes of all buds.
Went out to shovel the driveway. By
the way, I did not mention that it snows every day in Anchorage.
Not always an accumulation, but it does snow every day.
The neighbor up the hill from us came to introduce himself.
Very nice guy. He is a fishing guide in the summer.
His kids were out on their snowmobiles, and of course, since
Danny is so shy, he asked if could ride one. Danny got on
and nailed the throttle. I think it scared him a little
and he ended his ride almost immediately. Andrew got on
next and he seemed to have a pretty good feel for the throttle,
but not the turning radius. He went a little wide and
ended up going over a 6 foot high pile of snow. Going up
was great, coming down not so great. He almost went over
the front of the machine. He was done. |
1/7/2008 |
The kids first day of school!!!!
Danny went in to class with no problem.
Surprisingly, Andrew went into his class with no problem as
well! I think the book that Miss Williams put together was
perfect!!!
They both seemed to really enjoy their
first day. |
1/8/2008 |
Saw our third moose on the side of the road
on the way to school. |
1/9/2008 |
Saw a mama moose and baby moose walking
through our yard Water is still
gray. |
1/10/2008 |
Saw a herd of moose out on the frozen marsh
at the bottom of our hill. OK ... Moose are everywhere!
No more reports on moose sightings.
Met with the Anchorage School District to discuss Andrew's
hearing needs. The meeting did not go as well as I hoped
it would, but thankfully, the staff at Grace Christian are
really stepping up to the plate to provide the services that
Andrew needs.
As I was walking out of the meeting, one
of the guys from the school district told me that he has a
daughter who lives in Hellertown. Small world!
The builder is installing a very
sophisticated filtration system to remove the precious glacial
silt. The installers had a problem with the installation.
They will not be able to get it running until next week. |
1/11/2008 |
Took the kids to their first karate class at
the gym. We stayed to watch, but when it came time for the
kids to start yelling as they punched, Andrew asked us to leave
because he said he could not do that with us watching. So,
we left. They both loved the class.
Water is still gray. |
1/12/2008 |
Went to church at Anchorage Grace Church
again. This time, Andrew went in with no problem.
Rhonda and I were able to go into the service together.
Before we went in, I stopped in the lobby to get a cup of
coffee. The lead pastor's wife happened to be there.
She introduced herself and asked where I was from. I told
her Perkasie, and she couldn't believe it. She grew up in
York, PA and then moved to Harleysville when she started high
school. Her parents have since moved to Sellersville!
Amazing! I am in Alaska meeting a person who is from where
I just left! Great service! I think we found a
church. Met the realtor for lunch
that helped us find the house we are in. She is an
extremely nice person who obviously cares about people and not
commission checks. The kids couldn't wait to see her.
Took the kids to Awana on Sunday evening
at Grace. Need to find a bible study, or some class on
Sunday night instead of sitting in the lobby of the church for
90 minutes. They do not have a Sunday evening service.
Turns out that another guy up here that
works for Bentley is a Christian and he and his wife are the
teachers for Andrew's Awana class.
After Awana, we met another couple who is
from Riegelsville! They told us about how they remember
going to the Country Place Restaurant at the intersection of
Ridge road and 313. Dave was telling us about how he likes
their weber sandwiches! Unbelievable! I am here in
Alaska talking to someone about the weber sandwiches at the
Country Place. |
1/13/2008 |
Work is getting a little crazy. There
are two main projects up here and both have gotten a little out
of control. Too much to type. I will vent to anyone
who is willing to listen on the phone. Water is
still gray! |
1/16/2008 |
Clear water!!!! The filter guys came
back today and got the system up and running.
Got a call from Pastor Mike today. He
and his wife are going to visit us tomorrow night to talk to us
about the church. |
1/17/2008 |
A couple from church (Gary and Brenda
Kingsley) came to visit us tonight to tell us about Anchorage
Grace church and its ministries. We had a very nice
conversation about the church and we are both looking forward to
becoming a part of the church. |
1/18/2008 |
Had a great conversation today with a guy
that I work with. He is a fellow Christian and it is such
a blessing to be able to communicate at a level other than just
a professional level when you are at work. |
1/19/2008 |
I was getting a drink from the refrigerator.
Just as I was moving my arm from the refrigerator, Danny walked
behind me. My elbow smashed him right in the nose.
Blood immediately gushed from his nose and Danny was in serious
pain.
I herd a noise that sounded like a cracking
bone when I hit him, so I thought that we should take him to the
hospital. We went to the hospital at the University of
Alaska. Seemed like a really good hospital.
As we waited in the emergency room it seemed
like Danny was recovering really well and we sort of assumed
that his nose was not broken. The doctor came in and said
that even if it is broken they would not do anything.
There is nothing that you can do with a broken nose. She
said that she did not believe that it was broken, but that we
should wait for the swelling to go down and then follow up with
an ENT. |
1/20/2008 |
Had some friends over from work. Had a
nice time getting to know them a little better. They all
were traveling here from different parts of the world (England,
Texas, Kansas) to work on existing projects up here. |
1/22/2008 |
We have had bad weather over the past few
days. It has been above freezing and raining. Around
dinner time last night, the temp dropped to well below freezing
and all of the water from melting snow and rain turned to ice.
And I don't mean a light coating of ice like in PA. I am
talking thick, hard as a rock ice. As I was pulling into
the driveway from work, my car began to slide on the ice.
It slid sideways about 30 feet and stopped in the snow bank on
the side of the road (about 5 feet from a 20 foot drop-off). We
got a fresh coat of snow overnight ... about 10 inches.
So, this morning we had 10 inches of snow with ice underneath.
Exciting! When I pulled out of the driveway to take the
kids to school, I slid sideways off of the driveway. After
dropping the kids off, I went to Lowes and bought a bunch of
salt and came home and scraped ice and polluted the environment
with salt. The driveway is "driveable" again.
You might think that is enough excitement for
one day ... Not in Alaska! When I came home from work, I
went out to shovel the snow that had drifted over the driveway.
After that, the kids and I went into the Cul D'Sac to dig a snow
fort in the piles of snow. While we were there, the
neighbor opened her door and yelled for her kids to come in.
When she did that, two HUGE moose came running out of the woods
about 20 feet from me and the boys. Our realtor really
drilled into our heads how dangerous the moose are. So the boys
and I were pretty scared. I did not want to run towards
the house because our realtor said that they will run after you
and trample you to death. I did not know what to do.
I told the kids to get into the fort that I had dug out.
So they were in the fort and I was standing there in a staring
contest with two moose. The neighbor kids did not quite
make it back into the house when the moose came running and I
noticed that they laid on the ground and did not make a sound or
any movements. OK ... so I thought that I should do the same
thing. I kneeled down behind the snow pile and told Danny
and Andrew to be quiet. They were both pretty upset.
I kneeled there for what felt like ten minutes waiting for the
moose to leave. I am sure it was less than ten minutes,
probably five, but it felt like a long time. Anyway, the
moose did not leave. They would stare at me and then walk
away, and then come back and stare again. Each time time
they did this, they got closer. I was really getting
nervous. Then one of the neighbors came down the street in
his truck and I thought that the truck would scare the moose
away. No luck. Then I thought that the neighbor
would see that we were basically trapped and would stop and tell
me how to get out of this mess. He either did not realize
that we were "trapped" or he thought that we knew how to handle
it because he just kept right on driving. However, I made
the decision for us to run for it hoping that the moose would at least
be distracted by the truck. I told the kids to RUN!!!!!
We all ran to the garage (about 100 feet away) and made it into
the house with no problem. The kids completely broke down
when we got into the house. I was incredibly shaken
myself. The first thing Danny said once he could actually
speak was, "God was with us!" You know what ... He was
with us! |
1/24/2008 |
Saw my first eagle today (outside captivity).
I was sitting at my desk thinking through something and as I was
thinking, I was staring out the window. I usually see
quite a few birds outside the window because our lot is higher
than the lot for the house behind us, so I am basically looking
at the tops of their trees. I saw a bird fly into my view
pretty close to the window and I noticed it was a big bird.
Then I focused in on him, and I could see that he was an eagle.
Cool!!! |
1/25/2008 |
Every long time Alaskan that I spoken to has
told me that our "frightening" encounter with the moose the
other day was nothing to be worried about. As a matter of
fact, most people that I have described the incident have
chuckled, or outright laughed. Oh well, I can laugh about
it now too. You live and you learn.
Found out that my truck should be here on
February 4th. Our household goods should be here before
February 11th, and Rhonda's new car that we ordered should be
here next week. It is all coming together. It's
going to be a crazy couple of weeks coming up.
We were on a video call with the Elitz' and
there happened to be a moose in our backyard. We moved the
camera to the window and Cheryl and Joey were able to see the
moose eating and walking through our yard. |
1/26/2008 |
A woman that works at Grace Christian School
who we have gotten to know through hallway conversations after
dropping the kids off invited us over for dinner today.
Had a really nice time with them. |
1/28/2008 |
All of our household goods arrived today.
They will be delivered on Wednesday the 30th. Also
need to coordinate removal of the rental furniture on Wednesday.
The builder is also here on Wednesday to install blinds.
Oh yeah ... Rhonda's car is supposed to arrive this week too.
Yeah ... the old stress meter is pegged. |
1/29/2008 |
Got Rhonda's new Suburban today. Love
it! |
1/30/2008 |
All of our household goods were delivered
today. It was mayhem. A lot of little stuff was
damaged ... nicks here, scratches there, but our new dining room
table was pretty badly damaged during shipment. The movers
will be coming back tomorrow to unpack. Hopefully no more
surprises in the boxes! |
1/31/2008 |
The movers were back today unpacking.
We will have to do most of the unpacking later since we don't
where most of the stuff will go yet. |