Christmas 2008

Just a few pictures from our very Merry Christmas. It was quiet compared to last year and next year, we will have a houseful. It was good to have Finn and Elli and of course, Phil and Gretchen. We had fun opening gifts and watching Finn try to fix everything that was "Boke" or "stuck". Elli slept through the presents. Bernie got a Wii and will be challening little Bern when he and Angie come home. The motorcycle was the hot ticket item and Finn is already anticipating a ride.

Baby, It's Cold Outside....December 2008

We've had pretty frigid temperatures lately. Yesterday our thermometer read -15 and the day before we were up at Eklutna Lake, and it was -19. It's actually quite beautiful. It makes me want to have have a fire in the woodstove and make some homemade hot chocolate and bundle up.

Happy Birthday Bernie---25 Years Old

Bernie celebrated his 25th birthday this past Sunday. Here are some pictures of the happy couple in beautiful wintery Alaska. This picture is taken in Eagle River. We had a fun dinner with chicken haystacks and a delicious chocolate peanut-butter Coldstone cake.

Thanksgiving 2008

Abundance, gratitude, and thankfulness is what my heart expresses during this time of year of reflection. God has been so good to us and I am reminded of His faithfulness to me. "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and sing praises unto His Name."

Happy Birthday Gretchen...last year in your twenties...

Looks like Finn was making a wish before Gretchen blew out her candles at her birthday party. We all had a good time and enjoyed the food and company. Bernie bought this beautiful cake at the Fall auction for Birchwood Christian School. It was chocolate raspberry truffle and it was outstanding.

Maxwell Smart

Here are some fall pictures with Bernie picking up leaves with Finn riding the mower with him. Finn loved it. See how fast we went from autumn to WINTER!!

The first picture of Bernie with the Smart car is in Oregon. The following picture is of him in AK driving up the Alcan. It gets great gas mileage...about 44 mpg and you sure do get alot of people doing a double take while driving. It has a five star rating for safety (which surprised me) due to the steel construction framework. It is barely bigger than a 4x8 sheet of plywood! They are all over in Europe and just started selling here in the US. He says he stayed warm the whole trip home from Portland. He took the ferry from Bellingham, WA and then took a day and a half to drive home from Haines, AK.

Been Thinking About...

Well Natalie and Adam's porch is finished and it's only Wednesday; they started it on Monday. Greta and I got up early this morning and played. After breakfast we all went to Target, Old Navy, and to a place called Five Guys for lunch where we met Adam. It was a hamburger joint using fresh beef, homemade rolls, fixings, and Idaho potatoes fried in peanut oil. Excellent food. This feast was followed by a short nap and a long 1 hr. walk through areas which I am not so familiar with. I am equipped with my I-Pod and cell phone for the noise and also if I get lost I can call home. The weather is still pretty and sunny although a bit windy...maybe a high of 50 compared to 15 degrees at home. I believe the cold and snow come earlier every year to Alaska and every year I cringe and bundle up. Bernie made it home yesterday with the Smart car and never did have to chain up. I think he returned the chains to Walmart which he bought in Ketchican. He said the coldest it got was minus 17. The roads were clear and he is blessed to be home.

The room which I have been sleeping in has tons of great books of Adam's he's collected. I love it. In this book, Purpose in Prayer by E.M. Bounds, William Wilberforce says "I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercise as private devotion, religious meditation, Scripture reading,etc. Hence I am lean and cold and hard. God would perhaps prosper me more in spiritual things if I were to be more diligent in using the means of grace. I had better allot more time say two hours or an hour and a half to religious exercises daily and try whether by so doing I cannot preserve a frame of spirit more habitually devotional, a more lively sense of unseen things, a warmer love to God, and a greater degree of hunger and thirst after righteousness, a heart less prone to be soiled with worldly cares, designs, passions, and apprehension and a real undissembled longing for heaven, it's pleasures and it's purity." William WIlberforce was an evanngelical Christian who was a courageous leader in anti-slave trade in England in the 1700's who helped end the slave trade.

Awesome Autumn in North Carolina

Today Will is one week old. He is a very good baby and, Greta is beginning to acknowledge him with kisses and attention. He stays pretty much to the schedule of every three hrs except for today, he has not been able to hold out.

We left for Charlotte (2.5 hrs south) on Tuesday morning. Greta does fairly well in the car for a little tyke. When she gets tired we all get tired. She wants OUT!! We had a wonderful time with Scott and Susan who put us up or put up with us. We went to the Pumpkin Patch to take pictures, took a tour at Ward Tank, visited and ate. And ate again. Wow, no wonder they talk about southern hospitality...!! Bernie leaves in the AM for Portland to pickup the Smart car. Pray for him as he travels home on the ferry and on the roads. We hear there has been quite a snowfall since we left. He calls the Smart car his new baby named "Maxwell".