Cliche, but Important

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the house,
Every creature was stirring- especially the mouse
The belts have been loosened in anticipation
We are praying for turkeys with no complications

The diets are ending, the holiday's begun
But soon after Christmas it will cease to be fun.
Now we think of God's blessings and the good things, perhaps-
But after the meal all we'll think of is NAPS!

Hahaha, that was written by Yours Truly, in case you were wondering what famous author I was plagiarizing, as I will pretend you were. But in all seriousness, it is very, very close to being Thanksgiving (it is probably already Thanksgiving for most of you on the East Coast), and I have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, old and new, I am thankful for my home, which is nice and toasty warm, I am thankful for my husband and best friend who puts up with and loves me through all my craziness, and I'm just thankful for my life in general. I'm thankful for those who took the time and effort to invest in my life, and make me into a better person, or at least turn me towards the One who can make us better....which brings me to what I'm most thankful for. I'm thankful to the One who gave me the wonderful life I have. I'm thankful to my Creator and my Savior. My Father and Redeemer. What do I have now that is not from Him? All good and perfect things are what He's given me, and all the bad things that I encounter are in His hands, so there's nothing for me to worry about. I owe Him everything, and yet He's the one who gave everything for me. I love Him, and I hope to love Him more and more everyday.

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights above.
Praise Him, all his angels, praise Him all his heavenly hosts.
Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all you shining stars.
Praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created.
He set them in place for ever and ever; He gave a decree that will never pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightening and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds.
Kings of the earth and all rulers on earth-
You princes and all nations-
Young men and women-
Old men and children-
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted.
-Psalm 148

It's WARM!!!

Okay okay...so it's not what it sounds like. It's still really cold and snowy here, but we got a woodstove today!!! Let me just take this opportunity to say how amazing my husband is. He got our water heater all insulated today and made it so the pipes won't freeze over anymore. AND he put a woodstove in our wannagan today, so it's super warm in the house now! Yay. For those of you that don't know, a "wannagan" is just a rought kind of add-on to your house, and a woodstove is just like a fireplace without a chimney. For the first time this winter, I'm not wearing three layers of clothes and two pairs of socks, plus slippers. It makes it much easier to enjoy the wintery weather through the window when I can't FEEL the wintery weather through the window. So the next step to fixing up our little humble abode will be to finish insulating and sheetrocking the wannagan, then painting (my job!), then flooring it. It's a process, but we figure it's just practice for when we start building our dream house this spring. I can't wait for that to begin!! I draw floorplans for that house almost everyday, and I daydream about the floorplans even when I don't have an opportunity to draw them out. I love our little piece of property- a little because of the view, a little because of the garden, a little because of the location, but mostly because it's ours. I would love to keep writing to all of you right now, but there's a lot of work to do! So I'll leave you with a pretty picture, and you'll probably forgive me.

Finally...some pictures!!!

Okay, everybody, I know I am horrible about getting pictures on here, but I have no camera, so you'll have to be patient with me. Randy has quite a few on his computer, but I'm pacing myself with those so I don't run out. However, Chris and Maureen, new friends of mine from Ketchican, sent me a few that they have taken in various parts of the state, so I'll share those with you today. Prepare to be amazed!!!

This is a picture of the sound in Juneau



This is Nome, AK

This is the lake in front of Mendenhall Glacier

And finally, the only place of these I've actually been to...

Ward Lake, in Ketchikan, AK



Pros and Cons of Involvement

Today I spent a lot of my time getting ready for my first trip without Randy since we've been together. I make that sound like a really big deal, but it's just two days in Ketchikan. For those of you who don't know, Ketchikan is like the metropolis of my area of Alaska. It's a three hour ferry ride (can we say "spendy???") but in return for cashing out and enduring the trek, you get McDonald's and Walmart!!! Yay!!! I heard there's a movie theater there too, and I'm about ready to sell a kidney to go to one of those. I miss those kinds of things, but not enough to regret where I am now. It's funny to think about, and I think it would be difficult to explain, but I'll try because I love you guys. :) When people ask me why I love it here, the first thing I think about is how beautiful it is, but I think what I love even more than that is the culture. The mindset of the people here is comepletely different than any I have ever experienced, and the way of life is refreshing in it's simplicity. It really does feel like I've gone back in time. But I digress.
I'm heading to Ketchikan for a Sunday School Teacher's seminar. Ha! You didn't know I taught Sunday School, did you?? Well, guess what? I didn't know I did either. The other day Randy and I started talking about how our lives just seemed to be focused on us and how unfulfilling that kind of lifestyle is. We are both incredible happy with the way our lives are going, and we just think it seems selfish not to spread that happiness around a little bit. Teaching Sunday School was not our idea of fixing this, don't get me wrong. I think I can safely say I would never have volunteered myself for a position like that- I don't know the first thing about teaching, and I don't know very much more about kids. However, it's turned out to be one of the best decisions we've made. We make a pretty good team, and the kids here are awesome. We're still getting the hang of things, and candy/bribery is used pretty frequently, but we love it. So tomorrow I set sail for some kind of seminar that I honestly don't know anything about, but I'm going to show up anyways, and you know why? Because life is just more fun when it's not about me all the time. I'm not saying all this to try to guilt you into cleaning trash off the highway or something (but go for it if you feel like it), but maybe consider the way your life looks through God's eyes: is He in control of it, or are you? The Bible says you can identify the people who follow the Lord by their actions, and your actions are something you can control. So give it up! You'll be a lot happier if you do.