Mt. Redoubt is still erupting, but we are not in any danger of ash...at least right now. Unless the wind changes, Anchorage is not getting ash fall. Evan finally made it back from cool school. His plane was delayed several hours because of the ash fall but he did finally make it back. Yay!! Anyway, lazy weekend for us. Hope everyone has a good one!
~Jess

I guess it has been a while...Sorry...I am a slacker! Sorry Lindsey!! Lots of things have happened lately. On the first Sunday of my spring break, we went to Willow to watch the start of the Iditarod. That was lots of fun. We watched 30 something mushers (about half of the ones that were in the actual race.) start the race. They all started one at a time with one minute in between each one. We were standing on the side of the trail. The mushers came right in front of us. It was really very cool. We saw lots of dogs and dog sled teams. Definiely a unique Alaskan experience. It was fun and we really enjoyed it and were glad we went.
On Tuesday night, we left for Colorado to visit Evan's family. We arrived Wednesday afternoon and went to visit Evan's grandmother. When we walked into the facility where she lives and asked for her, we were told that she had been asking about us all day. We visited with her for about 2 1/2 hours. That was fun. I really enjoyed getting to meet her and learn stories from her past and learn more about Evan's family. We had a nice visit with her. When we left her (it was time for her to go have dinner!), we drove to Evan's Aunt Jacqueline's house. We ate dinner with Jacqueline, David, and Joey. We ate and drank wine and just visited. It was very nice. We spent the night at their house and really enjoyed the time with them. The next day(Thursday), we got up and drove to Colorado Springs to the Air Force Academy (That is where Evan went to school.) We walked around and Evan told me about his life at the Academy...what day to day life was like, what he liked to do, where he liked to go, and various other stories from his time there. We saw the campus, the chapel (at least from the outside, the inside was being rennovated and we couldnt go in.), the visitor's center, and the pool. Evan said that was where he spent most of his time...the pool! I really enjoyed our time there. It was very neat to see that part of Evan's life. When we left there, we drove to Winter Park to meet Evan's parents, his sister, and her boyfriend. Thursday night, we went to dinner with his family and some of his parents friends. It was quite the dinner! Full of good food, lots of wine, and plenty of laughter. We thoroghly enjoyed dinner. When we went back to the condo, we continued to drink with his family. By the end of the night, we had all drank alot, laughed alot, and worn a moustache of sorts....thanks Ryan!! Those were great! The pictures are fun too! On Friday, we got up early and went skiing. Let me clarify...Evan, his dad, Lindsey, and Ryan skiied. Evan's mom snowboarded. And I fell/tumbled/rolled/slid/skidded down the mountain in a most ungraceful manner. After about 2-3 hours, I had had enough and went to the coffee shop that Evan's parents' friends own. There I found Evan's mom. Apparently she had had enough too. She and I spent several hours just hanging out and sipping hot chocolate/coffee and enjoying each other's company. I had fun skiing but I was glad for a place to hang out (and someone to hang out with!) when I got tired. That night, Lindsey and Ryan wanted to go out for sushi. I really have a problem with raw fish. That was a new experience for me. Lindsey helped me to find sushi that was cooked and so that was a fun new experience. I even found some of the sushi (the cooked kind!) that I liked! I couldn't bring myself to try the raw kind. But I was full when we left so that was a good thing. Thanks Lindsey for making me try the sushi! On Saturday, we went to eat lunch at one of Evan's favorite places to eat in Colorado. It was a restaurant called Beau Jo's. They serve pizza...go figure. No big surprise that Evan loves it then. But it was good. The pizza was quite yummy. When lunch was over, we drove back to Denver and hung out for a few hours with one of Evan's old friends, Kelly. We had a good time just hanging out, eating ice cream, and talking. That was really fun and I really enjoyed meeting Kelly. I know Evan was glad to see her too. On Saturday night, we went over to Jacqueline and David's other house and the extended family came over and we had dinner. I had soooo much fun that night. I had only met most of those people at our wedding and I really didnt have time to sit down and chat with anyone that weekend. I loved the opportunity to just relax and get to know them all a little better. I talked and talked and talked to many many people that night. It was a great time. I know Evan enjoyed the evening too. Sunday morning we got up early and went to the airport to come back to Alaska. It was a truly great trip and we really really enjoyed ourselves. I am so glad we went and got to spend the time with Evan's family and I got to see that part of Evan's life. The best part of the trip however, would have to be the fact that it was 60+ degrees for most of the time (except when we were skiing but that was ok!!) I really really really enjoyed having some warm weather!!
When we got back to Alaska, (it was COLD!!!), life resumed as normal. We both went back to work and there was nothing too exciting going on. Last weekend, we went to Alyeska for the squadron ski weekend. Friday night we hung out in town at a restaurant with everyone that was already at Alyeska. Saturday morning, we got up early and went skiing. Somehow, Evan convinced me to go to the top of the mountain with him. I had a pretty miserable experience. This skiing was alot harder than in Colorado. It was much much steeper and I was less sure of myself here. As Evan and I were coming down the mountain, I fell quite a few times. I think I spent more time on my butt than I did on my skis. Also, my skis kept popping off. I was sliding down the mountain on my butt and my ski came off and stopped sliding. So, my ski is halfway up the mountain. I am sliding down on my butt. I am in tears. Evan is halfway down the mountain and I am hopeless and helpless. Needless to say, I was miserable and done skiing. I was quite ready for a rest and some hot chocolate. I went back to the ski lodge and Evan went to ski. Later that day, I did at least go ski on the green slopes with some of the other wives. I have decided that Evan and I do better when we arent skiing together. He has more fun and so do I. That evening, our honorary squadron commander threw a party for all of us. It was fun. Lots of free food and drinks. When the party was over, we all went upstairs to the bar where we hung out for the next few hours. Sunday morning we got up and had a nice breakfast with several other couples/families. Shortly after breakfast, we needed to leave Alyeska. Evan had to dig our car out of the snow before we could leave. It had snowed a foot and a half over night! That was exciting. We finally left Alyeska and we went straight to the airport. Evan had to catch a flight out of here headed for cool school. He has been gone all week and will be back tomorrow night...hopefully.
The other exciting news from Alaska is that Mt. Redoubt, a volcano about 100-150 miles from Anchorage has been erupting all week. They are worried about the ash fall but so far, no ash has landed in Anchorage. It has landed in the surrounding areas but not in Anchorage. Hopefully, it will stay that way. Everyone here has been all a twitter about the volcano and everyone is taking precautions in case the wind changes and starts blowing ash here. Hopefully, that wont happen. I am just hopeful that Evan's flight will take off tomorrow night. They can't fly planes through the ash because it will kill the engines causing a potential plane crash. At any rate, I am hoping that Evan will be able to come home tomorrow. I know he is hoping the same thing. I am sorry that this post was so long. I havent been keeping up with writing so I had a lot to say. I will try to do better in the future. I hope you all have a good rest of the week and lets all hope that Evan comes home tomorrow!
~Jess

Well, Evan didnt have to go to cool school this week. For some reason, he wasnt signed up to go. So now, he is going to be gone the last week of March. Last weekend, we had a lot of fun. We were outside pretty much all weekend. We went to the base and went skiing on Saturday. It was reallly cold and it was snowing. But we had a good time. I was definitely out of practice. I guess it was a good thing that we went so that I could practice before we go to Colorado next week. After we went skiing, we went to the fair that is in town for Fur Rondy. That was fun. We stayed there and watched the fireworks that night. What fun! On Sunday, we went and got a sled dog ride and then went to lunch. It was fun to ride in a dog sled. We had a good time with that. Definitely an experience we could probably only get in Alaska! After lunch, I was in the Running of the Reindeer. I ran with some of the other wives from our squadron. We dressed up in flight suits and pink boas. We also had a big target on our behinds. It was fun. It was also really really really cold!! We did actually run with reindeer. They were chasing us. At least for a little bit. Then they passed us. Those were some fast little suckers! Turns out that we were doing more chasing of the reindeer. Once again, this was a truly Alaskan experience. It was a fun weekend.
This week, Evan and I have both been sick and fighting off a cold. It has been pretty bad at our house this week. But we finally made it through the week and now I am on spring break! Woo Hoo!! We are going to Colorado on Tuesday night to visit Evan's family. We will be gone from Tuesday until Sunday. That should be fun. We are excited. It will be nice to see his family and spend time with them. One day we are supposed to go skiing. That should be fun too! Anyway, hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!

Nothing too exciting going on in Alaska. Today, the temperature is 28. It is expected to snow 2-3 inches tonight. Evan is sitting alert and I am hanging out at home. Yesterday, our china cabinet and buffet table from Evan's grandmother arrived. I am excited! I love them! I cant wait to put all of our china in there. It will look sooo pretty! I'm excited! When Evan came home last night, he brought me some really pretty flowers....just because I was having a grumpy day. :) He is so sweet to me!
Evan leaves on Sunday for Cool School which is basically survival training in the cold. He will be gone from Sunday until Friday. So, that means another week for me to be by myself. Oh well....
Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!
~Jess

Evan's home!!

The title about sums it up! Evan is home!! I am happy!! He got back this afternoon and I took the afternoon off of work and went and got him from the airport. Now I am cooking dinner for the two of us. I think he might be tired of spicy food. He requested macaroni and cheese and corn for dinner. He brought me some chinese candy in chocolate and what he thought was blueberry flavored but it actually turned out to be grape. :) He also brought me a black star sapphire necklace which is beautiful!! (That came from Thailand.) Anyway, I am thrilled to have my husband back and I think he is glad to be home. Hope everyone has a good weekend!
~jess

Evan has enjoyed his time in Thailand. He said that it is a nice country. He has enjoyed going to malls and getting massages. I think he even got to ride on an elephant! I am ready for him to come home. I am tired of being home alone. I miss my husband. He says that he is supposedly coming home Saturday. We will see. I will believe that when he walks in the door. But as I said, I am ready for my husband to come home.
My car was towed to the jeep dealership when it had its little problems last week. The people at the dealership were giving me the runaround for 2 days, but what they finally decided was wrong with the car was that it ran out of gas because the little thing in the gas tank that sits on top of the gas and tells the guage on the dashboard when it gets low was broken. Unfortunately, this piece is attached to the fuel pump and they could not replace the broken piece by itself. So, my car has a new fuel pump in it so the other place could be fixed. It was $450 dollars for the fuel pump and $450 for labor. That is flipping ridiculous!! But at least my car is fixed and I can drive back and forth to work now. I have decided that I do the wrong thing for a living. I should be a mechanic....
Valentines Day was kind of fun but lonely at the same time. My husband was gone and so that was a little of a bummer. However, if he had been here, we probably wouldnt have done anything out of the ordinary anyway because we dont really celebrate Valentines Day. I went shopping with a friend and then we went over to another friend's house. We ate pizza and played wii. It was nice to hang out with the other girls whose husbands were gone too. We had a good time. All of those girls were discussing the flowers they got from their husbands. I didnt get flowers from my husband, but he did tell me that he is going to buy some seeds/bulbs for me to put on our deck and on our porch. He said he has checked into it and stargazer lilies(my favorite flowers!!) will grow here so he was thinking we would get those kind. So that was thoughtful of him...I am excited! Hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!
Today is President's Day and I am out of school. It is surely nice to have a break! I am going to paint the guest bedroom. That way it will be ready for anyone who wants to come visit! Im on a mission now! Hope everyone has a great day!

Evan finally made it to Thailand. He was sort of late but he made it. I have talked to him several times on the phone. He said he is having a great time. Thailand is awesome, according to Evan. He has been to Bangkok and has been touring around the city. The food is very spicy according to Evan. The only thing he has described in detail to me is the mall. I wonder why... :) He said he is having fun. A lot of the guys of his squadron that are there have been sick this past week. I dont know if it is the food or a virus, but so far, Evan is not sick...knock on wood. Today was a holiday for Thailand's government, so they were not working today. Today was a holiday for the guys as well. Lucky them. Evan said that he went to Thailand to fly a jet and so far all he has done is sight see and be a tourist. He said he hasnt bought much but everything he has bought so far is for me! WOO HOO! He said this is a great trip and he is having a great time. He also thinks anyone would love this trip. Sorry Lindsey that you arent there with him!!
Last night was girls night out. I am really glad for the other wives of the squadron. I am glad that they are wishing to hang out often while the guys are gone. I would be really bored if they didnt want to hang out all the time. So anyway, last night we went to dinner and a movie. We went to see "He's Just Not That Into You" I wasnt that impressed. It was ok. The movie was definitely a lot better since Im married and dont have to date any more. More than anything, I realized while watching that movie how glad I am that I dont have to date any more. Dating is just troublesome sometimes.
So tonight I went to dinner with a friend. That was alot of fun. We chatted and giggled and shared a delicious dessert that neither of us could have ordered with our husbands there. It was great. Everything was going well. We had fun and finally left the restaurant. I started to drive home and got about half way here on the highway and all of a sudden, my car started acting weird. I was unable to steer very well. The steering wheel got tight like the power steering had gone out. I pushed the gas and nothing happened. I was losing speed real quick and decided I had better get off the highway so as to not block traffic. I pulled to the side of the road and put my car in park. As soon as I put my car in park, the heat started blowing extremely cold air and the oil light came on. I had to call a tow truck to come and tow my car. I also called the squadron commander's wife because she lived close to where I was. Jamee came and sat with me until the tow truck got there and then let me borrow her car. I really was unsure of borrowing her car but she pretty much insisted. So I have Jamee's car now and my car has been towed to the Jeep dealership. I have to call them in the morning and hope they can fix it. I suppose whatever is wrong with it is probably not going to be cheap. Oh well....
So that is the update for the weekend. I hope everyone's having a good weekend. Mine is rather expensive and slightly stressful but I suppose it will be ok. Tomorrow it is back to work. Hope everyone has a good week. I will post more when I know what is going on with my car.

Evan's Journey

Evan finally took off from Alaska on Sunday morning. He had a tremendously long journey but finally made it to Japan, where he has been ever since. He was supposed to only be there one night. As it turns out, he has been there for 3 or 4. They are hopefully going to take off tomorrow morning and will arrive in Thailand sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening. I have talked to Evan twice since he left. He is able to call me from the base phones and talk to me for a few minutes. He said that Japan is beautiful and he has gotten to see some of his friends from Tyndall AFB in Florida. He was hoping to go snorkeling this afternoon. He said that he thinks that I would really enjoy Japan. It is warm, beautiful and there is a beach. It is really really far away from family and friends though, so Im not so sure. But that is neither here nor there... (Maybe we could take a trip and just visit there sometime!)
Evan is safely in Japan and has enjoyed a few days there. However, he is ready to go on to Thailand and experience that country. He said that apparently there is a group of his buddies going to Bangkok at some point in the next few days. He is going to be very upset if he misses that so lets all hope that he makes it to Thailand in time to go. Anyway, hope everyone is having a good week. I will write more when I know more!
~Jess

The best Christmas present ever!

So I gave Evan this sweater for Christmas. He asked for sweaters and I found this one in a thrift store and couldnt pass up the opportunity to give him something that he asked for! I knew he would love it. He seemed less than thrilled when I gave it to him. I cant imagine why!!! At any rate, I made him put it on and let me take a picture. Boy, I hope we have an ugly sweater party to go to. I feel like Evan would have a good chance of winning in this killer sweater! Hope you enjoy these pictures! ~Jess

Well, it has been a while. Im lazy and have been really tired lately. After New Years, Evan and I went to the squadron Christmas party. It was alot of fun to get all dressed up and go somewhere. We had a good time at the party. It was at the Air Navigation Museum in Anchorage. Here is a picture of us all dressed up and looking nice!

After the party, we went out with some of our friends. We stayed out until the wee hours of the morning, but it was lots of fun!! However, that was during the time when the temperature was in the negative numbers all the time. We were walking around to several different places and I had on open toed shoes. Needless to say, I was freezing! But we had a good time. The next morning, we got up and went to the VFW in Eagle River. Every Sunday morning at 11:00, there is a lady who pulls her car up in front of the VFW and feeds the bald eagles. The eagles come from all around Anchorage to eat that day. We got there about 10:50 and we couldnt see any eagles anywhere. We were beginning to wonder if they were actually going to come. At 10:59, they all just appeared out of nowhere. It was really amazing to watch the eagles swoop down out of the trees to get the fish parts she was throwing out. There were probably between 25 and 40 eagles. They were everywhere in all the trees and flying all around. It was a very cool experience and it was definitely something we would like to do again.

After that weekend, I returned to work and life resumed as normal. School was still school. Evan didnt get to fly as often as he would have liked but the went to work and flew some. Life was just rocking along and was going just great until the temperature warmed up alot and made the roads all icy. School was cancelled for 3 days because the roads got icy and they couldnt put the school buses on the road. Evan got to stay home from work one day. I had 3 glorious days at home. Sure was nice to have a vacation! It was made even greater by the fact that the next week we had monday off from school for Martin Luther King day. So I worked two days and then had 6 off from school. It was great!! The only part that wasnt great was the fact that Evan and I had been planning to go skiing over the long weekend. There were several couples from the squadron that were going to be up there and it was going to be alot of fun. As it turned out, we were afraid the roads would be too icy and the ski slopes wouldnt have any snow. We decided to move our reservations to a weekend in March when most of the squadron will be there. So, we missed out on our ski trip but it was still nice to have the time off. The next week was a short week and we definitely enjoyed that.

Then we began to prepare for Evan to leave. His whole squadron is deploying to Thailand for the whole month of February. He will be gone until February 20th (ish). He was originally supposed to leave Thursday morning. 4 out of the 8 jets that were supposed to take off actually did. As far as I know, they made it to Japan (where they were going to spend the night before going on to Thailand) as they were scheduled to. However, Evan was in the group of 4 that did not take off. They were going to be flying with a tanker for refueling. The tanker that was supposed to be with Evan's group broke before they took off and so therefore, his departure got pushed back until Friday. On Friday, the tanker still was not fixed, so they got pushed back until this morning. So, this morning, I got up really early and took Evan to the base so he could get in his jet and go to Thailand. Unfortunately for Evan, (But not so unfortunate for me!) they were unable to take off yet again this morning. So, Evan is home for another night and I am glad! (He is not as glad, as he was ready to go.) Hopefully, they will be leaving tomorrow morning. Evan will be glad if they do, even though that means missing the super bowl. I do not have any plans for the super bowl and frankly, dont care one way or another about it. I will probably watch it for the halftime show and the commercials but that is all I really care about. Anyway, for tonight, I am going to go and enjoy the evening with Evan. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

~Jess

Pictures of our house!

Here are some pictures of our house! And by the way, in case anyone wanted it....here is our new address: 19700 Highland Ridge Dr.

Eagle River, AK

99577

Upstairs

The office:

The moose room! (otherwise known as the guest bedroom!)

Our Bedroom:

Living room:

Dining area:

Our kitchen...check out the awesome tile work on the backsplash!

The living room, dining room, and kitchen are all one big room.

This is the view off of our back deck. There is considerably more snow on the mountain and the rest of the world now but this is a better picture.

Hope you all enjoyed these pictures of our house. If you want to see the house in more detail, you will have to come visit us!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!! We hope you all had a night of fun, friends, family, and good times. We spent the evening with the Yerringtons. We had a delicious dinner and then enjoyed the company and played card games all evening. It was a great evening and a wonderful way to spend the holiday. Today, I am cooking a large meal for lunch. We are having pork tenderloin, for good health in the new year, collard greens, for money in the new year, black eyed peas, for good luck in the new year, macaroni and cheese, because it is yummy, and apples and cinnamon, also because it is yummy. :)

I finally made it back to Anchorage on Monday afternoon. My plane left very early Monday morning from Atlanta. I had to change planes in Charlotte, and Las Vegas. I got back to Anchorage finally after a long day of travel. Evan picked me up from the airport and I was definitely tired, hungry, and glad to be back. When I got on the plane in Atlanta, the temperature was 65 degrees. When I got off the plane in Anchorage, the temperature was -22. WOW! What a shock! I was FREEZING!! It has been in the negative numbers everyday this week. The high has never been above 0. Man, oh man, talk about a shock. I have been freezing all week. I sure did enjoy that warmer weather. It has been nice to be at home and be able to get some things done this week.

Today is a day of good food and football. Hopefully, GA can beat Michigan State. :) We hope everyone has a great day and enjoys the time if you are off of work. We wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009!