Volcano and Great Burgers!

From the title I am sure you can guess it hasn't been all that exciting of a week. My big news is that we have a volcano that might erupt, Jon and I found the best burger and shake joint in town, we got an ultrasound and know that Molly is doing good and I had some friends over today. There is my last week in a nut shell - but here it is in pictures (always more exciting)


Mount Redoubt - supposed to erupt in the near future. We were told to get at least 3 days worth of water and food supplies ready just in case so Jon and I have a 5lb tub of peanut butter and some water ready!
A picture out of the preparedness pamphlet they sent us. Ash is going to be worse than fiber glass to breath - if it comes our way. We will have to put our computers in trash bags and change our oil and oil filter when the air is clean again. Oh yeah - we are supposed to walk around in masks and people were told not to let their pets out. What dog can hold it for 3 days??? If you do let them out you are supposed to vacuum them - CRAZY.

Arctic Roadrunner

The best burger and shake in town. Jon and I went tonight and know this will be a place we bring friends and family when they come to visit us. The food is great and the atmosphere is pretty fun. For those in Waco the shake is comparable to Health Camp's and the burgers rival Health Camp and Double R!!! Jon and I won't be able to go too often b/c with gestational diabetes a peanut butter chocolate milkshake is not really in my diet but we shared and I will find out in 30 minutes how that effected my blood levels.

Molly update - her heart rate is good and she is still kicking - we are 35 weeks along only a few more to go.

A Birth in the Family!

Teddy the bear was born tonight at 7:22pm. She was birthed at 5th Ave Mall weighing 8.6 oz and 15 inches long. She is very advanced for her age - she is already talking (and potty trained).Jon and Teddy

My brother made a monkey for his daughter at build a bear with a voice message when he had to go across the world for Exxon for a few months without the family so Jon and I stole the idea and made Teddy for Molly. The special thing about Teddy is that she has a recorder in her that has Jon talking to Molly. Because of this I won't be able to wash Teddy until the sound dies but I know that Molly (and I) will enjoy getting to hear Jon talk to her and tell her that he loves her and is praying for her.
Hopefully this time next month Molly will be ready to make her appearance so she can see her grandparents and Jon before it is too late!

Yesterday

While out geocaching in a park.

Don't let this picture fool you - yes it is beautiful but all that snow to walk through is not that much fun. There were parts where we sunk 6 inches into mud/snow. Even though we were unsuccessful in finding caches we at least got out and experienced Alaska.

We walked 500 feet into the woods to "find" our treasure since it was buried under leaves in October after 10 minutes we realized that finding it would be learning impossible so we moved on.
Not only did Jon get BCG glasses in the regular form but in the mail Saturday he received the sunglasses version of army issued glasses. Hard to resist someone who has glasses that stylish - right?? At least Molly will have some great dress up gear or if we were in Waco we would be able to supply the skit closet with new glasses:)

Molly's laundry

How do you sort clothes for a little girl?? PINK, white, misc. Five loads of laundry later Molly now has clean, organized clothes in her cloest. Here's to hoping she won't cause that much laundry when she comes.

The land of EXTREMES

Earlier this week we were in the negative 20's and were freezing. We still went outside because who really wants to be cooped up in a house for months at a time. They say the weather is never bad it is your gear that is bad. Luckily for us Jon has a lot of military issued gear.

Here is Jon after a run outside.

At least on the weekends he will go to the base gym with me since I refuse to exercise outside in crazy cold weather - I just go outside to get from point A to point B (usually Target).

Well for the past few days we have had a heat wave - temps in the 40's. The problem is that means all the snow started to melt and the roads were still cold so we lived on the world's biggest ice rink. They shut the entire base down on Tuesday because of unsafe driving conditions. With the warm air came crazy winds and last night when it was 40 degrees out and raining the 45 mile an hour winds took their toll. We lost electricity for 4 hours - starting at 6pm. So we had a game night. We played scrabble, Yahtzee and rummikub all under candlelight - how romantic:)



Today the 40 degree remains the rain has stopped and so have the winds so we are going geocaching and exploring around town!

What to do when it is negative 18 out in Alaska

Go see the ice sculptures in town - don't worry they won't melt.

Jon and I being Eskimos

Jon leading the dog sled - hope the dogs are as fast as him.

Sim 'em Bears!

Do a little geocaching - Jon found this one called SubZero Value City

I found this one called SubZero Not Made in America (at a Mexican Restaurant)

Yep when it is cold out you still go on about your day or else you will be miserable! We took full advantage of the 6 hours of daylight we had yesterday with Jon only working until my Dr's appointment at 10am (when the sun was rising) and then went out on the town to see the sites. Jon found the ice sculpture thing so we decided it would be a fun date idea - it was pretty fun and crazy to think that people made those from a block of ice. It might be even crazier that they won't melt becuase we were on the 10th straight day where the temp had not gotten above negative 1. Don't worry though - today was a HEAT WAVE it got to 3 degrees (yep postive) so we were out with sweatshirts and no jackets!

Dr. update - in Alaska they say they won't induce until after 40 weeks even with gestational diabetes (in Maryland they won't let you get past 39 weeks with gd) - So here's to hoping Molly will decide to come on her own at least one week early. If not Jon may leave for war without ever seeing his little girl.

Back in Alaska

What we pulled up to at 3am

The deck

Who is this?
Steve -our neighborhood shoveler
OR
Jon - in his new Army issued glasses

After 2 weeks for Jon and 2 months for Ashley we are both back in Alaska in our own house. Today Jon didn't have to work too much so after dropping him off at 9am I picked him up at 11:30am and we started out on a day of spending gift cards on Molly. We ran to Target and got some items - found out the car seat is an online item only yet it is displayed in the the store with no tag that says that so saved some Target money for last minute buys. Then onto BabiesRUs where we got the mattress pad, changing table pad, car seat (since they had it in the store), and a few other things. All in all we spent only a few of our own dollars and were able to put most on gift cards!! When we got home Jon rearranged the room where Molly's bed is not under the window- assemble all her new items and do general baby things! Tomorrow I start the fun process of doing Molly's laundry since she can't just wear items off the shelf. Then onto organizing her closet.

Funny story from our last day in Maryland - we went to Dave and Busters after watching some movies at the mall (guys went to Valkyrie and girls to Marley and Me) and I hit the JACKPOT!!! That's right - on one of those put a coin in and see how many coins it will knock off I knocked off a lot (over 11,105 tickets worth). Why might you ask did I say over 11,105 - because at that point after asking 3 staff if this was right and them having to replenish the tickets we just walked off - with the game guy loading more tickets. It took over 30 minutes for the machine to dispense all those tickets and if I thought it would have given me 80,000 I might have stayed since I could have got an X-box 360 but we didn't have any more room in our luggage for anything so I gave my tickets to my parents to spend on some other people (and since it was the token my mom gave me that started it all)

Week in Review - through pictures

Jon with his nephew Gavin - good practice for when Molly comes. Uncle Jon does not enjoy crying babies (they make him a little nervous).

Homemade chicken noodle soup. I am sick so for dinner last night I used ingredients my mom had around to house to make chicken noodle soup (she did not have a can of Campbell's or I would have used that). Who would have thought she would have everything I would need just lying around the house?? But at least for a few hours I could breath last night.

Duck Pin bowling- the pins are half size and the ball is about the size of a softball. It is great for little kids (and adults). My parents, Jon and I and my brother's family all went. Jon won the first game but my 4 year old nephew was close behind.

Head family Christmas - my mom did a scavenger hunt around the house for us to find our gifts. My gift was a pinata filled with goodies for everyone- I loved it!! Who doesn't enjoy whacking a pinata and everyone looking silly with a blind fold?? My nephew tried to whack Molly out of me on accident - I was no longer the spinner after that!

The natural science museum in North Carolina - we went to visit Jon's little sister Kaitlin and her husband Thomas who just moved to Wake Forest so Thomas could go to Southeastern Seminary. We looked through some things online and this is a recommended attraction - you should go if you are ever in town (its free even).

Geocaching - could not miss the opportunity to get another state!!

Geocaching in the rain the night we got there - not as fun as the next day (could have been the cold weather and rain).
The craziest cache we have found yet - after my yelling at Jon to try and get a rusty screw off an electrical box just knowing it had to be in there we found the cache in a stake in the ground! Good thing for teamwork!

Geocaching in West Virginia.

Jon and I are trying to get a cache in each of the 50 states by the time we are 50. We figure it gives us something to aim for and gets us to learn something interesting about either a state or town when we visit it. Right now we are at 11 states and 1 other country (Germany) - just 39 to go and hey we might even aim for each continent.