Short and sweet (see last picture)

We got quite a bit of snow last weekend, which brought the winter's total up to average for the anchorage area. I guess we got 76 or so inches total. It must have melted a lot though between storms because it really did not feel like that much. Of course this last one came just as the driveway was almost cleared and not treacherous anymore (very steep, very icy). People here do not clear their driveways like in the cites. There are layers of packed down snow on almost every driveway we see. It could be just our neighborhood though, who knows.

Found another job to apply for. We'll see how it goes. Shouldn't take too long to prepare the resume and cover letter.

I hate my phone. It often does not send or receive text messages, but it doesn't tell me that they are not going through, oh no, they go through on my end just find and arrive at their destination a couple days later. Also my apps run terribly slow and I have to force close and the internet just closes on its own. Why don't I go in and have it replaced? Well, that is a good question. While all the major networks have "coverage" up here, it is kind of crappy because there is just one company, GCI, that runs everything like that. There are no Verizon stores and I really don't want to deal with them over the phone. Not that I think they are bad, I just don't want to do it. Also, sometimes there is a dead spot on my screen. REALLY makes it tough to play sudoku.

Oskar is doing well. Blowing raspberries, getting ready to roll over, and his back legs know how to crawl, but the rest of him does not. We're trying to get him more on a schedule of eating and it is going surprisingly well. I'm now off to prepare the resume. Enjoy the many faces of Oskar:

Who needs plans? Me, I need plans.

I have decided that it is hard to make plans when you have nothing to go on. Okay, we have one thing. Dan is going to school in the fall and probably graduating in December. Things we don’t know: when, if and where I will get a job; where and if Oskar can get into a daycare; where to live because we would like to be close-ish to at least one workplace or school; and where Dan will be placed in the spring. We have the option to live at seminary, but we will be kicked out in December and places don’t really do month to month rentals for the time between then and where we know where we're going, nowhere anyone would want to live anyway. My parents’ place might be a temporary option, we were planning on being there in the summer anyway, but it is definitely a commute to most architecture firms and to the seminary and although we would save on rent, we would probably need to buy another car. Argh. 

Look at me! I can sit and chomp AT THE SAME TIME!

In other news Oskar is still great and as of today his hair is starting to lay flat all on its own. We did some cradle cap removal last night and his head is almost entirely not gross now. I had curry yesterday, and in turn the smell of his diaper almost made me throw up today, but other than that we've been good. He does this new thing too where if he’s not crying before he starts eating he gets this supper crazy excited face and crazy eyes. It is super funny.

After considerable discussion, it has been decided that I will be returning with Oskar sometime the week of June 16 and Dan will come back toward the end of July. It is not ideal, but I think it is the best we can do. Hopefully I’ll be able to do better job searching when I’m in town. It's a bit strange knowing when I'm leaving, but it's also nice to have some sort of plan in place. I haven't bought my ticket yet, probably will do that sometime in April.

I sleep in a cave of snores

Hi friends!

I don’t mind Oskar’s snoring- it reassures me that he’s breathing. Dan’s on the other hand I find quite loud and annoying.

Felt another earthquake on Sunday and one more just after midnight this morning. It’s official- I hate them. These were both small and short- in the 4 range and I think quite a ways away, so we didn't get too much of it here in Anchorage.

My goofy ginger boys.

Squishy face.

Oskar is over three months old now. It’s funny how fat he looks when he is being held and when he is sitting, but how slender he is when he is all stretched out. We’re back in another vicious eating phase. Hopefully it will be over soon. At least he is sleeping a little more today. It gives me a chance to do something besides feed him. Like talk to you fine folk.

These two are the view we had out our window on Monday. 

A family at church took Dan, Oskar and I on a mountain hike on Monday. It was beautiful and it was fun to hang out with them and get to know them better. I thought it would be a much harder hike considering how out of shape I am. I knew my foot would be sore, and figured my legs would be really sore too, but they were fine. It had snowed a lot the night before, especially up in the mountains, so there was still some path creating to do. Parts of it I fell in up to mid-thigh. Good times. We could even see Mt. McKinley (Denali) from where we were hiking. We thought we might be able to see it last week on our coastal hike, but we weren't sure. It was definitely hard to pick just a couple pictures to post here because it was so pretty. Unfortunately I just have a simple camera- it would have been a good opportunity for a fancier camera.

You can kind of see McKinley (Denali) in this picture. The tall guy on the other side of the water.

Not our best pic, particularly of me, but it proves that we were there with the little guy as well.

Sleeping Lady. I know I've posted this one a lot, but it's one of the few I can name. 

We FINALLY made it to the local aviation history museum. It had a lot of stuff in the main part that we got to see, but we didn't get to go to the hanger to see the planes out there. It was cold and we had Oskar and I didn't want to have to deal with that. They had a couple movies playing and I was able to watch one of those while giving Oskar a bottle. It was kind of cool that you sat in old airplane chairs while watching the movies, but they were not comfortable for holding a baby. One of the movies was about 45 seconds of flyover pictures of Alaska and the other was probably 20 minutes or so of WWII battles in the Aleutians. That was full of stuff I had not previously known. The museum was not very busy that day. I was thankful for that when I accidentally whacked Oskar's bottle across the theater. I've been a bit clumsy lately. I dropped my silverware three times at dinner that night too. It was a rough day for control.

An old plane at the museum, I meant to take more pictures, but it didn't happen.
Plus I don't know if pictures are really allowed.

A bit of sad news to report: the spiders are back. They are just as big and fast as before. I just don’t really understand how they are appearing all of a sudden. The weather isn't really different, but maybe a few days above freezing was all they needed. This makes me sad.

Still job hunting, still not qualified for anything- even when I branch out and look in other areas. A few things here and there I guess, but I would really like I job that I wouldn't dread going to. That might be too much to ask for though.

If Oskar could talk… he’d probably still be yelling at me.

Okay, Jenny just found this online. We took part in Harlem Shaking at Fur Rondy and apparently one of the cameras was right behind us. Jenny is the white/red/orange hat, I'm the grey/brown/white hat, and Dan is the brown/orange hat and has Oskar in a carrier on his front. Yea, so that happened: Click Here

We were able to get some wonderful church folk to watch Oskar yesterday so we went on a hike in Kincaid Park. It was wonderful. A bit scary at times because it was a little slippery and steep, but it was still a good time. I hadn't been able to hike over there yet, so I got to see new views/mountains. Dan had been there many times hiking with friends and doing the Tuesday night runs in the fall. I also got to test my winter boots, and so far they have been worth every penny. I wear them quite frequently, but walking down the street isn't much of a challenge for them. Enjoy some pictures:

I am holding a plant that I grabbed for stabilization. It broke.

We conquered a pile of sand.

So did Dan.

I’m not really sure how the whole process works, but apparently Dan received approval to speed things up, so he will hopefully be able to start looking for work in the fall and hopefully start a job soon after he graduates. This is exciting. Hopefully since he won’t be entering the field with so many people he will be able to find a job that is a good fit. The tricky part is that we don’t know where he’ll be rostered, I think that’s the right word. So we could be sent away again. Hopefully they consider the fact that they sent us to Alaska and hopefully I have a job that will help keep us in the Twin Cities, but really, we won’t know anything until it happens. Me, the planner, does not find this acceptable, but I am dealing, or trying to at least.

Jenny and I went to the mall the other day sans Dan and Oskar. They were having a native art fair and Jenny wanted a souvenir. We both found some excellent native water colors that we’re pretty excited about. The one I got Dan and I subtly makes fun of how white people get sunburned so easily. I thought it was appropriate. We also got to see the skating rink all up and running. When Dan and I visited in the fall we saw that there was a rink, but it wasn't in use. Now it is, and there were some pretty good little kids gliding around out there. It was kind of like Skateville where there is a direction of traffic and loud music. It looked like fun.

Oskar has been acting a bit weird lately. Extra crying and fussiness and not eating quite as much as he usually does, I guess that was until this morning though when we had a marathon feeding session again. One thing that I have found particularly frustrating is that when he gets up to eat at night he doesn't really wake up. This was fine before, but now he just screams his lungs out in his sleep. It is both annoying and deafening. Also, since he isn't awake, one would think you could soothe him back to sleep, and I feel that’s what I should try to do. It doesn't work though, and he just gets more upset which makes it harder for him to calm down and eat, which he eventually does with great gusto, so that indicates to me that I shouldn't try to soothe him without eating because that’s what he needs. But then everything says to start making him self-soothe at night starting about now.  I wish he could talk and that he could understand me. Then I could explain the situation to him. On the upside, he is really starting to enjoy bath-time. He was crabby yesterday when we got him in the tub he seemed to have a pretty good time. I was curious to see how much he has grown, so I found his first bath photo and compared it to a more recent one. I know that I've posted one of these before, but it is super funny to see them next to each other. Not only because of how big he has gotten, but how much his personality has developed as well- and you can see every bit of his attitude.

And... more Oskar:

Cute little folded hands.

Apparently this looks a little like I looked as a baby.

Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's dog sled time!

Family fun.

This weekend we took part in Fur Rondy! It is actually called Fur Rendezvous- apparently fur goods are a big deal here. It is a winter festival to celebrate life in Alaska. All sorts of events take place over a ten day period. I guess it has been going on for 77 years, which is 23 years longer than Alaska has been a state. We (Jenny, Dan, Oskar and I) went downtown Saturday morning to watch the ceremonial start to the Iditarod. I was under the impression that sled dogs were much larger and furrier. My impression was wrong. Many of them actually reminded me of feral dogs. They are scrappy looking things and they even have giant nasty tongues flopping out of their mouths. We didn't stay the whole time, but long enough to be surprised by the Jamaican team. You read me right. And he even knew he was awesome; as he rode by he danced and waved Jamaican flags. Some of the mushers were even handing out stuff like at a parade and one guy almost fell off his sled trying to do so. Hopefully he will do better today. There were 60-some teams and they came by every few minutes. Since we had Oskar we didn't stay the whole time but got a good sense of what it’s all about. We were originally going to go downtown, but got a tip to go to Central Lutheran where there are less people and their youth group provided hot cocoa and treats. We even saw some people we know.

Orange jackets!

Pretty white puppies.

Jamaica!

Later we went to the Running of the Reindeer. It’s like the running of the bulls, but better because it has Santa’s seal of approval. Jenny got to experience the very un-PCness of the Alaskan announcer. Some of what he said was funny, but most of it offended at least one demographic. There were four groups that ran- Un-Alaskans, women, men, and couples. We only watched the first two so we could get a spot at the restaurant. In the first group the announcer asked where people were from and someone said he was from Texas and then the announcer said, “Welcome to a big state!” That bit was actually funny. Texans are unjustifiably proud of their state. While watching the event I commented that I remembered reindeer being bigger and that they should use moose instead  so you can see them better and really make it exciting.

And back to the beginning to do it all over again!

To do these events they put a lot of work in getting snow back onto the streets. Maybe that’s why they don’t work very hard to clear them in the first place. Just a thought. The events really were a lot of fun though. People were well spirited and we only ran into a few obnoxiously drunk people. 

Jenny is here this week and it's awesome. It's nice to have people around who want to hold and play with Oskar all the time.

Oskar helping Dan with his sermon. Looks like he got bored.