Anchorage Update
 

 

Dan
January 08

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.