Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

( Don’t worry, all is OK!)

I haven’t felt 100% since getting home from Madison. I was getting daily headaches (some were migraine intensity), and just not feeling up to par. This is totally not normal for me, as I’ve always been a healthy woman. Some of my friends suggested that I picked up a bug while flying, since that happens to quite a few people. I thought maybe I was dehydrated, so I upped my intake of water.

Just when the headaches began subsiding (around the 15th), I felt the beginnings of a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) start. This is also something I haven’t had to deal with on a regular basis. In the past, a few doses of AZO and gallons of cranberry juice have made things all better.

On Friday, I had errands to run, so I loaded Sedona into the car and made my loop through Fairbanks taking care of business. We stopped at Creamers Field for a walk, and after only a short distance, my back began aching, and the pain radiated around my entire mid-section. I couldn’t even finish my errands; I just wanted to go home and get into bed with a heating pad. (It also didn’t help that I had some young soldier with road rage shadow me onto Post, bullying me with his big truck! I’ll tell that story when I finish this one)

When I got home, I immediately lay down with my heating pad and took a few tylenol to take the edge off the pain. I literally felt like someone had kicked me in the kidneys.  I dialed the appointment line at BACH (Bassett Army Community Hospital) to see if I could get an appointment - knowing the odds were slim to none. They have this system where they ‘open the books’ for appointments on a certain day each month. If you don’t call on that day and make your appointment, they all fill up. You can try again the following month, if you’re not seriously ill or dead by then. So, of course there were no appointments available, and I was instructed to call on Monday morning (tomorrow) to see if there were any cancellations.

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This blog entry is going to be much different than those I’ve made in the past.  It’s much more personal, but yet it’s something that I want to share.

Yesterday was a day that will always be remembered, because something absolutely amazing happened.

At 6:30am our phone rang, waking both Steve and I from a sound sleep. I listened to Steve’s sleepy responses: “Yes”, “Yes”, “Yes”, and thought for sure that a telemarketer from the east coast was on the phone, not knowing that we are four hours behind eastern time.

And then I heard him say, “Wow. I have been hoping for this day for a long time!” And I just knew it was Kayla.

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I want to begin by saying “thank you” for the lovely birthday wishes sent to both Steve and me. I love that our birthdays come within a week of each other. It makes celebrating so much easier, and we usually celebrate both our birthdays on the weekend which falls between. However, I was still in recovery mode since returning home from Madison, and our original plan to go out for dinner and take in a movie on Saturday night, never happened. No matter - we had a lovely day together, without spending any money.

Steve was off from work, so we were able to sleep in. I must have really been jet-lagged because I slept until nearly 10am. I don’t know what Steve’s excuse was, but he also slept in. I suppose we both needed it.  Steve whipped us up a great breakfast, and we settled in the living room to enjoy our coffee while reading the paper.

It was snowing outside, and I couldn’t keep my eyes from wandering to the glass doors to our yard. I’ve lived in Alaska for more than five years, and in this house for more than 2, and I still find myself mesmerized by the beauty just outside my back door.  People have asked me if I get tired of seeing snow fall, and the reality is that I don’t - at least not in the winter months. During the months that I call winter (Oct.-Mar.), seeing the snow fall from the sky lifts my spirits. It’s only when snow falls in April, May, or JUNE!, that I do a bit of grumbling. *grin* By then, I’m so ready for spring that thawing mud excites me! But right now… especially at Christmastime… the snow is like a perfect holiday painting; a Christmas card come to life.

On Saturday afternoon, Steve and I drove over to Santaland RV Park, here in North Pole, to see the ice sculptures on display at Christmas in Ice. You can read about the history of this event at the website here: http://christmasinice.org/index.php . On the website you can also see additional photographs showing the progress of the ice park - from the harvesting of the ice to the carving of these works of art.

Saturday’s admission was free, compliments of BP, and the Fairbanks Food Bank was accepting donations on-site too, so we took some canned goods with us. It was cold, but not bone-chilling. Snow continued to fall.

Before I post photos from our afternoon at the Ice Park, I have something I want to share with you. I’m honored to have been asked by author June Price to include several of my photos in her new self-published book entitled “Becoming Alaskan“. To read more about her book on Amazon.com, CLICK HERE. Thank you, June! I wish you the best of luck with your new book, Becoming Alaskan!

And now, here are the photos I took at the park (I’m leaving them full size, even though there are more than a dozen of them):

Santa greets you at the entrance:

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