More vacation photos

the ever adorable Kajsa Stanley-Erickson

The closest I am willing to come to a picture of me on the beach. 

our little beach buddy.  He was crawling all over our snorkel gear one morning.  We watched him for a long time and took LOTS of pictures.

Birthday party….

All of my siblings and my parents live in the greater Minneapolis area.  We live in Anchorage.  There are about 4000 miles between the 2 cities. 

This makes getting together for birthdays and holidays a bit of a  challenge. 

I was feeling a bit sad that I had missed out on so many things over the past 8 months and really wanted to celebrate SOMETHING while in  Minnesota. 

So we had a birthday party:  for all the cousins.  It was a ball.

Mom and I went and got cards for all the kids.  Lucy picked up Dairy Queen gift certificates.  A cake was ordered, ice cream procured.  And we partied. 

We started out by having everyone write on everyone elses’ card.  It was very fun, each kid got a card that was signed by all of their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents on the Showalter side of the family. 

We sang “Happy Birthday” and found that it takes a lot longer when you have to run through 13 names at the “happy birthday dear…” part of the song.

That night somewhere between 5 and 5000 cousins spent the night at my folks house.  It was as it should be!

6 day weekend…

School was closed Wed-Fri this week due to the icy road conditions.  things just keep melting.  Parts of Anchorage have been registering temps around 50.  It is crazy. 

The kids have been enjoying this unexpected break, we have all stayed up too late, tonight we watched a movie together.  Ok, the kids watched, I fell asleep.  But, we were in the same room together.  Quality family time.

We have had another dog with us this week, and that has been fun.  Her name is Osa, and she is darling, as little and skinny as Entropy is big and thick.  Aside from one tussle over a biscuit, they have gotten a long really well, even taking a run around the neighborhood together to chase a moose.  Tracking them down was the best cardio workout I have had in a long long time.  It is amazing what running on ice will do for your core, all that twisting and turning and trying to stay upright.  Who needs Pilates?

Anyway, here is a picture of the little girl dog.  She is a cutie.  Right at the back of her head she has a cow-lick and her hair is always sticking up a bit.  I think that is my favorite part about her. 

Okay, here is another one, in this picture you can see the little tuft of hair sticking up right between her ears at the top of her head.  Darling.

 

I’ll take another picture of the house and lack of snow tomorrow. 

Osa goes home tomorrow, we will all be a little sad.

Lots of snow, very little plowing, lots of rain= ICE ROADS!!!!

We got our first snow on October 1, and essentially we have had snow since that day.  It is my understanding that Alaska often gets snow in the winter, so you would think the city of Anchorage would be rather efficient when it comes to plowing streets. 

That is not the case.  I have been told there is a “system” for getting the roads plowed in Anchorage, and from my observation it goes like this:

“Sometimes we will plow the roads, and other times we won’t.  If there is a lot of snow at any one time, we promise to get to your road within 3 days.  If there is a light covering of snow we will be out there in a couple of hours and we will drag the grater along the pavement showering sparks.”

I live less than 3 miles from downtown Anchorage.  This is not a remote area.  After 3 days, there have been hundreds of cars driving over the snow on the streets and you know what happens then…yep, snow gets packed down. 

Well, we have had a lot of snow this winter, and many many days where the roads were not plowed (at a major intersection near our house there was an ice blob in the turn lane that was 8 inches tall at it’s peak, lovely).  Consequently, there was about 2 inches of packed snow on any of the side streets in town. 

On Tuesday evening, after 2 weeks of below zero temps (way below, -20-30, warming all the way up to -15 during the day), a Chinook wind blew in.  These happen once in a while, and they warm things up.  This one REALLY warmed things up. 

Overnight the temps rose to 40+.  and it started raining, and blowing, and raining some more. 

Guess what happened.  Uh huh, things started to melt, and fast.  Well, except the 2 inches of really hard packed ice on our roads.  that just got covered with an inch or so of water.  During the day.  Then at night, the temp has been dropping again, to about 32+, just enough to freeze. 

So, we haven’t had school for the last 2 days, and no one is going anywhere.  The mail hasn’t even been delivered in our neighborhood. 

Tonight it is supposed to rain and then snow as the temp drops into the low to mid 30’s overnight.  Right now it is 44 and raining. 

I live in East Anchorage, a little ways in from the ocean, so we get a sheltered a bit from the winds and extremes of this Chinook, but a friend on the Hillside said that the winds in her neighborhood was blowing steady at about 60 miles per hour, with gusts over 100 mph.  Our winds are holding it down a bit here, just about 30mph.

So here is a picture of the road in front of my cute little house:

Our cute little house, part 2…

The house is still cute, that hasn’t changed, but in the last 48 hours we have gone from LOTS of snow in our yard and on our roof, to very little, as you can see in the above picture. 

Crazy, crazy weather.

Our cute little house…

It’s hard to be a dog…

Snowzilla…

a few blocks from our house is guy who really seems to love life.  He is a bit eccentric, collecting the odd car and refrig to decorate the lawn.  He would not do well in a sub-division with a lot of covenants.  In Airport Heights (our little piece of Anchorage), however, he thrives. 

For the last few years, from what we understand, he has been making a giant snowman in his front yard.  This creation has been dubbed “Snowzilla” and had made national and international news.  People drive by all day and night to see this thing, and take pictures.  Well, apparently this got a little old for some of the neighbors and a complaint was filed with the city.  The city cited the guy, told him to take Snowzilla down or face some fines.  So, he destroyed the snowman and that was that. 

Or not. 

Within a couple of days, Snowzilla was re-born, bigger than ever.  When questioned, the guy just responded that he had now idea how Snowzilla was re-built, but the “the elves must have worked all night long”.

I have long wished that I could live just this side of the law, it seems like so much fun.  But alas, I was raised Lutheran, in Minnesota, so all hope for that is lost, I remain firmly rooted in guilt and worry.  

There is just enough rebel in me, however, to cheer for this guy and his Snowzilla.  Nearly each night, the dog and I walk by and I wave my hand in salute to the guy watching from the window of the house over which Snowzilla stands guard.

Volunteer choir…

 

At each church I have been a part of over my life there has always been one thing, that for me, made that particular church special in a way all it’s own. 

At St.Pauls, where I grew up, the thing that stands out above all else, is the tradition of the candles on Christmas eve.  For many years we carried these beautiful colored glass votive holders with little tealights in them. To watch them shimmer and glow was something I looked forward to each and every year.  the little candles inside the little bits of glass, sitting on the table at the front of the church, seemed to me a hundred little jewels sparkling.   And to listen to and sing along to the beloved Christmas songs, and hear that familiar Christmas story, while watching those lights dance, I could always feel the presence of God right there.  I really loved those candles and those gemstone votive holders, and I love them still. 

At MatSu Covenant, our church home when we lived in Wasilla, there was the lively worship, led by John Koutsky and his banjo.  There was no way someone could stay down or grumpy when a banjo is played. It was lively and fun and I could imagine God dancing along with the music, having fun alongside us.  I came to depend on hearing that banjo on Sunday morning, and I have missed it since we moved.  It was such a joy to hear him again after we moved back.  And wonderful to worship again in that joyful and fun setting.

At Plymouth Covenant, where we attended some when we lived in Minnesota this last time (we were lucky enough to have 2 churches at one time).  There was always a table full of bread, donated by a local bakery, for those in need.  I loved the fact that, among all the affluence, someone remembered that there were those who had less than enough.  I watched each time we visited that church, as families would head to that table, relief and joy on their faces.  This table reminded me of 2 things, God’s provision, and my responsibility to help others. 

At Arbor Covenant, in Madison, the church of my heart, each Sunday we ended the service with a benediction song.  Not an unusual practice, but the manner in which it was done was truly special.  The congregation was divided by an aisle down the center.  At the end of each service, we would turn and face each other and sing, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious, gracious, gracious to you.  The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you, give you, give you peace.”  This simple act, of turning and looking across the aisle and calling forth God’s blessing and peace  never failed to move me.  Most Sundays I would tear up and barely make it through without weeping.  While I write this, tears run.  I love this tradition so very much, I wish every church would adopt it.  It is hard to ignore Christ in your neighbor when you are singing into their eyes. 

And now, here at First Covenant in Anchorage, I have found something that makes my heart swell with joy and love for this church.  It is the volunteer choir.  This has happened a few times now, unscheduled and unprompted.  Someone is giving the announcements, or fielding prayer requests and they will say. “After I am done here , I would like to invite anyone up to the front for Volunteer Choir, and we can all sing …(some well known hymn or song of praise, this week it was Joy to the World)”   And that is exactly what happens, people go forward and sing.  They haven’t practiced, there may or may not be the singing of parts, they aren’t lined up in neat rows, sometimes their outfits clash wildly with the person they are standing next to, and, for the sheer joy that only singing with others in worship can bring, they SING!!  I don’t go forward and sing, maybe someday I will, but for now I am content to sit back and watch and listen and worship.

This is not my house…

but isn’t it pretty? Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we were invited out to a friend’s cabin.  It is just such a lovely place, I had to post a picture.  The cabin is located on an island and is a perfect secluded hideaway.  We are excited to invite ourselves back this summer.