We're Home!!

Hello Everyone -

We returned home last night from our trip to Seattle, and what a trip it was!! We had SOOO much fun!! Here is a little recap of the trip.

We flew into Seattle late Wednesday night and went to the hotel and got settled.

Thursday we did a bunch of shopping during the day and that night we went to SkyCity for dinner, which is the rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. The food was awesome and the views were amazing!! After dinner we went to see the Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount Theatre downtown. Sherri had never seen the play and we both loved it. After the play we went to a famous Seattle "drive-in" style hamburger place named "Dick's" that is SO good and is a Seattle legend.

Friday we drove an hour to Olympia and had lunch with my cousin Lisa and her husband Paul. We had a great time with them and it was great for Sherri to meet them and have a chance to get to know them a little! After lunch we went and got their daughter Gillian from school, I hadn't seen her since she was a baby and now she is 11!! My how time flies!! After we left Olympia we drove to the SuperMall which is a large outlet style mall. After doing more shopping we decided to leave for the Journey/Heart/CheapTrick concert. We were mainly going for Journey, the concert started at 7 and so we left about 7, knowing we would miss some of CheapTrick but we were ok with that. We plugged the concert venue address into our cars GPS and off we went. It told us we had about 10 miles to go, so we figured that we could be there in 15 or 20 minutes. WELL..Let the adventure begin..about 1/2 mile from the mall we hit traffic. I thought, surely the traffic getting to the concert isn't backed up 9 1/2 miles!!! Well...it was. We stayed in the traffic line for about an hour or so and finally decided, IF we get to the venue we will probably miss all of CheapTrick, all of Heart and most of Journey, so we can wait for another hour in traffic or figure out something else. About that time we passed the Muckleshoot Casino, which is the largest casino in the Pacific Northwest, Sherri had never been to a casino and she had expressed an interest, and I have been to a few and have always enjoyed myself, So off to the casino we went. We were, at first, disappointed in not making the concert and sort of viewed the casino as an "OK" back up plan. We ended up having some of the most fun of our entire trip at the casino!! We took a hundred dollars and once that was gone we were done. We played slots, walked around, listened to some terrible casino band and just had a great time! We ended up spending a couple of hours there, AND we left with more money than we started with!! On my last slot spin of the night we won 3000 credits ($30.00) which put us $12.27 above what we started with! It was SUCH a fun experience and a night that could have been disappointing ended up being a highlight of the whole trip!!

Saturday we slept in a little and we started the day by going to IKEA, Sherri had never been to one and we ended up buying some very cool stuff for the house. After IKEA we hit up Olive Garden for lunch and then we went to the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery for a tour / tasting, www.ste-michelle.com. This winery makes some of our favorite Riesling so we were VERY excited!! We were able to taste 8 different wines and we went on a great tour of their facilities. After the winery we headed North to the Seattle Premium Outlets. It is a higher end outlet mall with stores like Coach, Calvin Klein, Burberry and a ton of others. We bought a few things (Sherri got 2 new Coach purses) and we headed back to the hotel. We grabbed dinner and called it a fairly early night.

Sunday!! This was certainly my favorite day!! We got up and headed to Qwest Field for the Seahawks / Rams football game! We got there a couple of hours early and walked through "Touchdown City" which is a large area they set up before each game with lots of booths and games and entertainment. After we were done there we went into Qwest Field for the game. We had AMAZING seats, 6 rows from the field at the 25 yard line! The game was great, the Seahawks won and it was a VERY fun time. After the game we went back to the hotel to change and we headed back downtown to go to the evening church service at Mars Hill, www.marshillchurch.org. This is an amazing church! I listen to their podcasts weekly and have read a couple of Mark Driscoll's books (he is their pastor). This is a very "modern" church that really connects well and relates well to a very contemporary city like Seattle. This church has grown rapidly, as fast as a thousand people a month at times. They were starting a new series called "The Peasant Princess" based on the Song of Solomon. It was one of the best teachings on marriage / love / relationships that I have heard. Pastor Mark tells it like it is and it was a great message!! You can see more and even watch the message at http://www.peasantprincess.com/, Sherri and I have decided that we are going to watch every weeks message in this series. If you want to watch the message scroll to the bottom of the page linked above and you will see the 9/21 message. Click on that and the video will load.

Monday was our last day in Seattle so we headed down to Pikes Place Market, walked around, got a coffee at the very first Starbucks store and just enjoyed the sunshine and our last few hours in Seattle.

It was an awesome trip and we had a ton of fun, but I think that we were both ready to be home!!

Here are some photos from our trip!!

(Sherri at SkyCity)

(entrance to Chateau Ste Michelle Winery)

(View from our seats at the Seahawks game)

(us at the game)

(Sherri before the game with Seattle skyline in the background)

(Sherri at the casino)

And we're off!!

Sherri and I are leaving tonight for our vacation! We will have 5 days in Seattle and we will take lots of pictures and blog all about it when we get back!!

It is hard to believe that we are going there to celebrate our 3rd Anniversary, it is amazing how fast the time has gone!

Seattle Trip Update..

Hello -

So next week (17th) we are off to Seattle for several days! We got our tickets to the Seahawks game on Sunday (6 rows from the field)!!! We just bought tickets to see Phantom of the Opera while we are there, and that same night we are going to SkyCity for dinner, it is the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle!! We had planned on seeing Shrek The Musical, but the reviews have been less than stellar so we decided to see Phantom instead. We are also still going to the Journey/Heart/Cheap Trick concert and doing the winery tour and all of the shopping that we had originally planned.

We will be back on the night of the 22nd so I will blog about our trip when we get back!

Still amazed...

Hello Everyone!!

Well, to say that the last week has been crazy would be a HUGE understatement. I don't ever remember a time when Alaska, or a fellow Alaskan has received so much national attention. Every time we turn on the national news we see our Governors face and see reporters giving stories from our town! I think one of the reasons that it is so strange for us is that this is a woman that we have met, sat in church services with and wrapped a Christmas present for. Even after a week, it still seems unreal.

We thought that her speech at the RNC was AMAZING! We are happy that the rest of the country is getting to see what we have known for some time, that this woman is awesome!!

We would be happy to answer any questions that any friends and/or family may have about her or how she has governed Alaska. FYI, a new poll came out today and she has an 82% approval rating here in Alaska, that is even with the "scandals" that the national news seems to focus on, so she much be doing something right!!

Also, leave us a comment, let us know what you think about her, her speech, or anything else.

Great Day To Be An Alaskan!!!!

Hello Everyone -

As most of you probably know, John McCain announced today that he has picked our very own Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin as his choice for Vice President!! Both Sherri and I are BIG Sarah Palin fans but we know that she is unknown to most people so we wanted to post a bio so you can get to know her. We know that once you get to know her, what she has done and what she stands for that you will love her as much as we do!

This is a VERY exciting day for all Alaskans! We know that Sarah will be a GREAT Vice President.

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Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard:

The wipeout in the 2006 election left Republicans in such a state of dejection that they've overlooked the one shining victory in which a Republican star was born. The triumph came in Alaska where Sarah Palin, a politician of eye-popping integrity, was elected governor. She is now the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating in the 90s, and probably the most popular public official in any state.

Her rise is a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle--especially to transparency and accountability in government--can produce political success. And by the way, Palin is a conservative who only last month vetoed 13 percent of the state's proposed budget for capital projects. The cuts, the Anchorage Daily News said, "may be the biggest single-year line-item veto total in state history."

As recently as last year, Palin (pronounced pale-in) was a political outcast. She resigned in January 2004 as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after complaining to the office of Governor Frank Murkowski and to state Attorney General Gregg Renkes about ethical violations by another commissioner, Randy Ruedrich, who was also Republican state chairman.

State law barred Palin from speaking out publicly about ethical violations and corruption. But she was vindicated later in 2004 when Ruedrich, who'd been reconfirmed as state chairman, agreed to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking state ethics laws. She became a hero in the eyes of the public and the press, and the bane of Republican leaders.

In 2005, she continued to take on the Republican establishment by joining Eric Croft, a Democrat, in lodging an ethics complaint against Renkes, who was not only attorney general but also a long-time adviser and campaign manager for Murkowski. The governor reprimanded Renkes and said the case was closed. It wasn't. Renkes resigned a few weeks later, and Palin was again hailed as a hero.

Palin, 43, the mother of five, passed up a chance to challenge Republican senator Lisa Murkowski, the then-governor's daughter, in 2004. She endorsed another candidate in the primary, but Murkowski won and was reelected. Palin said then that her 14-year-old son talked her out of running, though it's doubtful that was the sole reason.

In 2006, she didn't hesitate. She ran against Gov. Murkowski, who was seeking a second term despite sagging poll ratings, in the Republican primary. In a three-way race, Palin captured 51 percent and won in a landslide. She defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election, 49 percent to 41 percent. She was one of the few Republicans anywhere in the country to perform above expectations in 2006, an overwhelmingly Democratic year. Palin is unabashedly pro life.

With her emphasis on ethics and openness in government, "it turned out Palin caught the temper of the times perfectly," wrote Tom Kizzia of the Anchorage Daily News. She was also lucky. News broke of an FBI investigation of corruption by legislators between the primary and general elections. So far, three legislators have been indicted.

In the roughly three years since she quit as the state's chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the "body count" of Palin's rivals. "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah," says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called "Voice of the Times," which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct.

One of her first acts as governor was to fire the Alaska Board of Agriculture. Her ultimate target was the state Creamery Board, which has been marketing the products of Alaska dairy farmers for 71 years and wanted to close down after receiving $600,000 from the state. "You don't just close your doors and walk away," Palin told me. She discovered she lacked the power to fire the Creamery Board. Only the board of agriculture had that authority. So Palin replaced the agriculture board, which appointed a new creamery board, which has rescinded the plan to shut down.

In preserving support for dairy farmers, Palin exhibited a kind of Alaskan chauvinism. She came to the state as an infant, making her practically a native. And she is eager to keep Alaska free from domination by oil companies or from reliance on cruise lines whose ships bring thousands of tourists to the state.

"She's as Alaskan as you can get," says Dan Fagan, an Anchorage radio talk show host. "She's a hockey mom, she lives on a lake, she ice fishes, she snowmobiles, she hunts, she's an NRA member, she has a float plane, and her husband works for BP on the North Slope," Fagan says. Todd Palin, her high school sweetheart, is a three-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks. It's the world's longest snowmobile race.
Gov. Palin grew up in Wasilla, where as star of her high school basketball team she got the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her fierce competitiveness. She led her underdog team to the state basketball championship. Palin also won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest, in which she was named Miss Congeniality, and went on to compete in the Miss Alaska pageant.

At 32, she was elected mayor of Wasilla, a burgeoning bedroom community outside Anchorage. Though Alaskans tend to be ferociously anti-tax, she persuaded Wasilla voters to increase the local sales tax to pay for an indoor arena and convention center. The tax referendum won by 20 votes.

In 2002, Palin entered statewide politics, running for lieutenant governor. She finished a strong second in the Republican primary. That fall, she dutifully campaigned for Murkowski, who'd given up his Senate seat to run for governor. Afterwards, she turned down several job offers from Murkowski, finally accepting the oil and gas post. When she quit 11 months later, "that was her defining moment" in politics, says Fagan.

Her campaign for governor was bumpy. She missed enough campaign appearances to be tagged "No Show Sarah" by her opponents. She was criticized for being vague on issues. But she sold voters on the one product that mattered: herself.

Her Christian faith--Palin grew up attending nondenominational Bible churches--was a minor issue in the race. She told me her faith affects her politics this way: "I believe everything happens for a purpose. In my own personal life, if I dedicated back to my Creator what I'm trying to create for the good . . . everything will turn out fine." That same concept applies to her political career, she suggested.

The biggest issue in the campaign was the proposed natural gas pipeline from the North Slope that's crucial to the state's economy. Murkowski had made a deal with the three big oil companies--Exxon, BP, ConocoPhillips--which own the gas reserves to build the pipeline. But the legislature turned it down and Palin promised to create competition for the pipeline contract.
She made three other promises: to end corruption in state government, cut spending, and provide accountability. She's now redeeming those promises.

Palin describes herself as "pro-business and pro-development." She doesn't want the oil companies to sit on their energy reserves or environmental groups to block development of the state's resources. "I get frustrated with folks from outside Alaska who come up and say you shouldn't develop your resources," she says. Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on "federal dollars," as the state does today.

Her first major achievement as governor was lopsided passage by the legislature of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, which is designed to attract pipeline proposals this summer. The state is offering $500 million in incentives, but the developer must meet strict requirements. The oil companies have said they won't join the competition.

Palin's tough spending cuts drew criticism from Republican legislators whose pet projects were vetoed. But her popularity doesn't appear threatened. "It's not just that she's pretty and young," says Dittman. "She's really smart. And there's no guile. She says her favorite meal is moose stew or mooseburgers. It wouldn't shock people if that were true."

Anniversary Trip...

It is hard to believe but next month we will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary! We decided to celebrate this year by going back to Seattle, where we went for our honeymoon. We both love Seattle and look forward to having a few great days there again!

Some of the things that we have planned:

• Concert with Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick!! Sherri and I both LOVE Journey and we cant wait to see them!
• Seattle Seahawks v.s. St. Louis Rams football game! Sherri has never been to a NFL game, so this will be her first!
• Going to see "Shrek: The Musical"! The world premier is happening while we are there, and after this it opens on Broadway!!
• Tour of the Chateau St. Michelle Winery (one of our favorite wineries)

We also plan on doing A LOT of shopping! It will be nice to get away for a few days and have a chance to relax and do some fun stuff! We will be gone from 9/17 - 9/22

I am sure that we will take a lot of pics while we are there, so we will make sure and post some when we get back!

Cha Ching!!!!

A couple of months ago our Governor announced a plan to give an "energy rebate" to all Alaskans to help off set the high energy costs. She said that as a state we can not sit around and wait for the Federal Government to act when we have plenty of resources our self. Alaska, being an oil state, has a state surplus that runs into the billions of dollars because of the current high cost of oil, and this plan basically wanted to take a portion of that windfall and pass it on to to the residents of Alaska.

There has been a lot of discussion in our state legislature on how this could work and last night they voted to give $1,200 to each Alaskan!! This money is going to be added to our annual Permanent Fund Dividend check that we already get each October. The dividend this year is expected to top $2,000 for each Alaskan, so when you add in the energy rebate, Sherri and I will get $6,400 just for living in Alaska in a couple of months!! Along with the $1,200 payout they are suspending the state gasoline tax for a year which will drop gas prices and they are putting millions of dollars into energy assistance programs for people in rural areas of Alaska who need more help then people like us in urban areas.

You all are sure you don't want to live here? ;o)

Here is the article in todays paper regarding the rebate:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/487182.html

A NEW BABY!!!

Well..not really.

Here is the story. We had 2 cars, Sherri's is a 2001 Kia and mine is a 2000 Saturn. We have had almost no problems with Sherri's car, but mine has seemed to be one thing after another. Normally not anything HUGE, but still a pain. A week and a half ago we were in my car (saturn) driving down the road and it felt like the engine lost power, you put your foot on the gas and it crept forward but had little acceleration and it died at stoplights. We knew that something was seriously wrong so we took it to our mechanic. They looked at it and told us that it was something with the engine and that it was big enough that we would probably be better off taking it to the saturn dealer, so we did. They had it for about a week trying to figure out what exactly was wrong.

Meanwhile Sherri and I decided to start looking around at cars, our idea was that we would get mine fixed, sell it and use that money to get something new since my car kept having issues. We found a car that we REALLY liked and was in the price range that we wanted and so we test drove it and got the ball rolling, but we were still waiting to hear a final word on the cost to fix my car. Well, this morning we got the call...the car needs about $7,000 in repairs!!! Let me remind you that this is a 2000 Saturn and it is only worth about $4000, at best. Apparently something happened in the engine and that triggered a few things, basically, it needs a new engine and a few other things. Blah.

SO, obviously our plan changed, since the car needs so much work we have to scrap it, we may get 500 for it if we are lucky. BUT..in a lot of ways this is a very good thing. The money that we were going to use to fix my car we just used as a down payment for our new car, and we don't have to worry about selling my old car.

What is this car you ask? It is a Mercedes ML320. It is the Mercedes Sport SUV. The car has only had 1 owner and he was a professor at UAA (local university) and it was maintained amazingly! The car practically looks brand new! It has low miles on it and it has only been serviced at the Mercedes dealership. We got it for about 4,000 below what it is worth and with what we put down we have very easy payments.

Needless to say..WE LOVE IT! It will be SO much better to have in the winter, it will be much nicer for me to take work clients around in and when we do decide to sell it the resale on these in Alaska is pretty good. The gas mileage is just a little below what my Saturn got, so that is nice as well.

Here are some pictures!!

Long Time Coming..

Howdy -

I have been meaning to post this for a little over a week now. SO here is an update on us. Sherri's parents were here for 2 weeks from June 24th - July 7th. We did a TON of stuff while they were here and we had a great time and really enjoyed having them be our first "house guests".

We had an Open House a couple weeks ago and we had about 20 people come, it was good to see everyone and they all got to see our house completed!! It was a beautiful evening, we played "ladder-jacks" and had some great food!

Sherri is still loving her job and she is now working 4 days a week!

Work for me is also going very well, we are currently in the middle of the peak summer tourist season here in Alaska so all of my hotels are staying full!

We finally made it camping for the first time this summer! We went to a campground about an hour and a half from here. We had a great campsite just a few feet from a river and right at the base of a mountain! It was a great quick getaway and we enjoyed hot dogs and marshmallows around the fire!!

We are starting to research and plan for a fall / winter vacation for us. We have a few options and we hope to decide something in the next month or so.

Missy (our kitten) is doing GREAT! She is growing like crazy and we have really enjoyed having her! She is up to 2.5 pounds and the vet says that she is very healthy!

That is about it for now, I will post some pics from Jerry and Denise's Vacation below. Enjoy!!

____________________

Here is Sherri and I in-front of our new house! (just kidding)

Here is a picture of Matanuska Glacier, we saw this on the drive back from Fairbanks!

Here is a picture of the USAF Thunderbirds from the Arctic Thunder Air Show that we went to!

Here are a bunch of Steller Sea Lions from the wildlife cruise that we went on. We saw sea lions, a sea otter, a whale, a ton of sea birds, amazing scenery and we had quite the ride on some very rough seas!!

Here are Jerry and Denise with Santa and Mrs. Clause at the "Santa Clause House" in North Pole, Alaska!

Our New Addition...

Hello Everyone -

It has been FAR too long since we have updated this! The biggest news is that we have a new kitten!! Her name is "Missy" and we got her from the local animal shelter. She is 3 months old and we are really enjoying having her as part of our "family".

Some other changes are that Sherri is now working 4 days a week at Tecpro. She had been working Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but she has now added Tuesday which is great!!

Jerry and Denise get here next week and we are really looking forward to having them here for a couple of weeks! We have some great "Alaskan adventures" planned and I am sure we will take LOTS of pictures and I will make sure to blog about everything.

That is all for now!!

Quick Update...

Hello -

So here is a fast update on what's new with us. This past weekend Sherri and I went and hiked in the Portage Valley near Portage Glacier, it was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed being outside in the sun!

Tonight we are going to see Elton John in concert!! We are both very excited, he is a musical legend and it should be an amazing show!!

Sherri finished the guest room!! It looks SO great! We bought a bed for the room and it is all ready for guests (hint hint hint for everyone who has not been to Alaska). Here is a picture of the room (before the bed and furniture got moved in)....


We are also tearing apart the downstairs bathroom because it is getting finished this weekend! We are installing new lighting, a new vanity top, new sink and new toilet and we are painting!! Today I removed the old lighting and medicine cabinet, and removed the caulking from around the sink.

This bathroom is the last BIG project that we have!! So we are hoping that as of early next week we will have everything crossed off of our list that we wanted to do!!

The whole process has been SO much fun, we have enjoyed MANY trips to Home Depot, we have not enjoyed the thousands of dollars that we have spent there, but it is an investment, right? We have also enjoyed the many late nights trying to get projects finished. However, I think that we are most enjoying just being together in our own home.

We will post bathroom pictures once it gets finished!

Hello Summer...Nice To See You Again...

Here I am getting ready to work in the garden at about 10pm. It's still light!!


Here is the outside now. The bed on the right has the flowers and on the left has the veggies. You can see our new bench up against the house and the bird feeder in the tree. We also put in a decorative metal fence on the back side of the flower bed, to separate it from the walking path, but it is hard to see in this photo. (click on the image to enlarge it)

_________________________________


Hello Everyone!!





Well, summer is here. We have had a couple beautiful weekends with sunshine and temps in the 60's. So we are officially in the early part of summer! Our house is looking great and we only have a couple more projects till we are finished!! The nice weather has allowed us to focus some of our attention to the outside of our property. We have a nice front area with a couple of very nice flower beds and some great outside space. We decided that we would use 1 bed for flowers and 1 primarily for vegetables / herbs. In the veggie bed we have planted strawberries, blueberries, chives, basil, mint and lettuce. I will be planting a tomato plant this coming weekend hopefully. In the flower bed we got a great mixture of flowers and i think it looks very good! We also bought a bird feeder (seen in the tree in the photo) and a new outside bench (also seen in the photo) that gives us a nice lace to sit outside on nice evenings.

It is staying light till after 11pm so that has allowed us A LOT of time outside. We have been working outside in the evenings, and we have been going for evening walks around the lake and the neighborhood.

That is all for now, I am sure that we will post more soon!!

A little "before and after"..

Hello -

Well, the move is over, we are totally out of the condo, we went over last night and did all of the final cleaning. We are making a lot of progress on the new house. We have already unpacked dozens of boxes and it is really starting to feel like "home"!! I thought I would give everyone a little glimpse of the before and after pictures of a few areas of our house so you can see the progress that we have made.

____________________

First, here is the kitchen. This was BY FAR our biggest project. As you can see the cabinets were all dark wood. We painted the cabinets white, changed the oven hood to a more modern one, and we added a new dishwasher and fridge. The only thing in the kitchen that has not yet been done is the new sink faucet. We have it purchased, it just hasn't been put in yet.

(kitchen before)

(kitchen after)

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Next we have our Dining / Laundry area. The laundry room initially had these hideous gold / glass bi-fold doors covering the laundry room. We changed the doors to a nicer bi-fold and we even used the same brushed nickle knobs that we used on all of our kitchen cabinets. We also put our pan rack on the back wall.


(dining / laundry before)

(dining / laundry after)

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Finally here is the old and new entry way lights. The person who lived here before had an obsession with gold. And honestly, it isn't really our style. So we changed the entry way light to a more modern brushed nickle light. One of the guys from Tecpro, where Sherri works, was kind enough to come out and install the light for us!

(entry light before)

(entry light after)

These are just three of the areas that we have shown we also are finished with the master bedroom, office and living room. We will try and post a "walk through video" sometime very soon to show the whole place!!

Sunset from the deck...

Last night we had an amazing sunset. We have something in Alaska called "Alpenglow", which is where the sunset casts a pink glow on the surrounding mountains. Last night there was GREAT Alpenglow and we went outside on the 2nd floor deck and watched it for a few minutes. Our camera doesn't do a very good job of picking up the pink, so the picture doesn't do it justice, but at least you will get the idea.

Spring Snowstorm - Anchorage, Alaska

Yesterday we had a HUGE snow storm! It had been in the mid 50's and sunny all week and it looked like Spring was here to stay. Guess not!! Enjoy this video I took this morning!

This weekend was also supposed to be the "Heart Run" it is the largest marathon in Anchorage with over 8,000 participants. As you can imagine, it was cancelled.

The world is smaller then we think...

Howdy -

So this is a break from the regular house updates to blog about something that amazes me.

We have been having AMAZING weather the past week or so, however, the past few days there has been a haze in the air. Apparently so many people called the local weather service station that our local newspaper ran an article on where the haze is coming from.

The fact that we have a haze isn't amazing, it is what is causing the haze that blows my mind. It is actually coming from 2 sources. First, a forest fire in Russia...Second, a sandstorm in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia!

The Russian fire isn't that surprising, Alaska is very close to Russia, so I guess that I can see that. But a sandstorm in a Mongolian desert affecting the weather here in Anchorage, Alaska?? That is pretty crazy.

I'm not sure why, but this news story just amazes me. Here is the link...http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/384424.html

House Progress...

Hello Everyone -

Here is a quick update on the house. We now have the living room, master bedroom and office done!! The kitchen is coming along nicely and we still have the guest bathroom and the guest bedroom to finish.

Enjoy the pictures!



(The kitchen is all primed and ready for paint, notice the new oven hood)



(the office has been turned into a room to prime and paint the kitchen cabinet doors)



These are the colors in the master bedroom. There are 3 walls of the blue and 1 accent wall of the brown)




(living room with the new color and blinds back up)




(another of the living room)

(the office finished, notice the new light fixture)

It's Official...

Hello!!

Well, we are officially homeowners! We got the keys yesterday and have already started working! The living room is about 1/2 painted, the office is about 1/2 painted, all of the kitchen cabinets are off and ready for painting, the new fridge and dishwasher get delivered today and we have already had our first homeowners headache, a clogged sink that we can't get unclogged. Oh well. I don't know if it seems real to us or not yet, all day yesterday we had to keep reminding ourselves that it was officially ours. We took a lot of before pics, so when the work gets completed we will post the before and after so you can see the difference!! We plan on spending the next week finishing the painting and the other work we want to do and then moving next weekend (the 26th & 27th).

SO, now that we have much more space you are all officially invited to come stay with us!!

Tomorrow is the day...

We got the call this morning that we are closing at 3pm tomorrow!!!

We are VERY excited!!!

(we had to change this post because we were originally told we could close today at 3pm, but we just found out it got pushed back till tomorrow)

Still waiting..

Hello Everyone -

We still have not closed on our new house. The new closing date is next Tuesday, April 15th. We were supposed to close today but we got a call from our mortgage person and he told us that our new interest rate is lower then we had initially received, which is a GREAT thing! So they are changing all documents to reflect the new rate and we should be ready on Tuesday. The interest dropped 1/4 of a point, which doesn't sound like a lot, but its a pretty big deal when you're looking at a long term investment. The 1/4 point decrease adds up to almost $10,000 less in interest paid over the course of our loan. So we certainly don't mind waiting for this.

Even if closing happened next Tuesday it will still only have taken us 26 days from the date our offer was received until closing, which is GREAT, considering most closings take 30-60 days.

We still feel VERY good about this move, there have been a couple of other units in the same development that have come on the market in the past month that are smaller than our unit and are listed at MORE then what we paid for ours!! The Alaska economy is still very strong and we are not feeling the real estate and/or economic strain that is happening in most places, so we feel confident that this is a very good move!!

We will update more when we close!

Tis The Season...

For Home Buying and Baseball!!!

Here are a couple of quick updates:

Yesterday I flew to Seattle for Opening Day of the Seattle Mariners 2008 season!! I had a free airline ticket that was set to expire so I decided to use it to watch some baseball!! It was a great experience, lots of exciting pre-game ceremonies and entertainment and the Mariners won 5 - 2!! Which made the experience that much sweeter!!

Also, we got word yesterday that we could potentially close on our new home THIS Friday!! Or next Monday or Tuesday at the latest!! We are going to walk through the place again tonight to look over everything again. We are VERY excited and can not wait to close so that we can begin with the painting and the changes that we have planned!!

Happy Easter -

Hello -

We hope that you all had a GREAT Easter holiday! We went to church on Saturday night and on Sunday had dinner at home. The cake above is one that Sherri made and decorated!!

Quick house update: The inspection went just about perfect! Only a few very little details that need to be fixed. We also learned that the seller wants to close ASAP, which is perfect for us because we want closing to happen quickly!

We will let you know more as it happens!

MORE Updates...

Well..

Things happen for a reason. Yesterday the place we liked fell through and we were frustrated because of how far along in the process we were.

However, we believe that everything happens for a reason. Yesterday evening, after our deal fell through, we learned of a place that had previously been out of our price range that had just lowered their asking price by $20,000, and it was now in our range.

We looked at it last night, talked about what we would need to change (an old lady lived there before so it is kind of "old lady-ish") and decided that it would be a great fit for us.

This is SOOO much of a better deal. It had been on the market for the past 3 months listed at $179,000, yesterday she dropped it to $159,000, AND she said she would pay 2 years of dues to the condo association (about $8,000). SO..today we made an offer of $165,900 with her paying all closing and our down payment so that we can use that money to change and update what we want to. The offer was kinda low since she had already dropped the price 20K, and now we were asking her to basically come down another 4K with additional costs she would cover. WELL...she accepted our first offer, she didn't even counter offer!! SO basically we got the place for $157,900!!!

One of the VERY exciting things is that the last place in this development that sold had just been updated and was exactly the same as ours and it sold last November for $185,000!! So with the updates that we want to do and a little bit of sweat equity we should start off with about 25K of equity!! Which is ALWAYS nice!!

Here are the details of the place:

• 3 bedrooms
• 1 3/4 bath
• fireplace & carport (the last place had neither)
• HUGE living room
• Unobstructed views of the mountains and a lake. (wait till you see the pictures of these views!!)
• MUCH better location, it is actually only a mile and a half from where we are now in South Anchorage.
• GREAT potential!!

We will post pictures soon. We have seen how these deals can fall through so we are trying to stay grounded, but still hopeful that this will work out!!

We will schedule the home inspection for the next couple of days (didn't we just do this?)

We will keep you updated!!

Also, we have heard from several of you who have been following these updates and I just wanted to say THANK YOU for reading this!!!

Well...

Sometimes things happen that just kinda stink. Today we found out that there is an issue with the seller and the house deal fell through. Because of some things that the seller put in the description that wern't actually true it would end up costing us an additional $6,600 at closing. SO, we decided to withdraw our offer.

We really liked this place and were excited at the possability of making it our first "home", however, we know that there must be someplace better for us out there.

We actually already have a great potential lead on a place that is in a MUCH better area of town.

We will let you know how this moves forward.

One nice thing about saving up and being prepared for these BIG decisions is that we can be somewhat fluid and move as fast, or as slow as we need to.

ANOTHER House Update...

WELL -

We got the call this evening that our offer was ACCEPTED!!! SOOO, now we have the home inspection, hopefully everything goes well with that, and then we move forward with all of the paperwork, and we could close as early as mid-April!!!

Pretty amazing, as you can imagine, Sherri and I are VERY excited!!

House Update...

Well, we heard back on our offer. We actually submitted an offer that was kind of low, and we expected that they would counter offer, their counter offer is GREAT, better then we had even been hoping for, so we are sending back in the new offer with their counter offer details, and things look pretty good so far!!! H

opefully we will have official word by tomorrow night that they have accepted our offer!!!

If they accept, we will have a home inspection within 3 days and move forward on financing!!

House..

Hello Everyone -

Within the folder pictured above is the very first offer that we have put in on a house here in Anchorage!!!

We have wanted to purchase "a place of our own" for some time now. We decided to wait, get debt free, put money away in savings and now, finally, we are ready to buy!!!

We have looked at a lot of places and this place is within our price range and its also the place that we like the best!!!

It is a 3 bedroom 1/5 bath townhouse. The first floor has the living room, kitchen, dining room and 1/2 bath and the second floor has all 3 bedroom, the main bath and laundry area.

It has recently been remodled and has all new carpet, paint, lights and bathrooms.

The layout is GREAT, a good sized living room, nice kitchen and huge dining area. The master bedroom is nice and big with a lot of closet space and the other 2 bedrooms are kind of small, but will be perfect for my home office and a guest room.

We are will let you know when we hear back on our offer!!

Brief Update (from Sherri)

Hola. We haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I'd say hey and update a little on our life the past few weeks.
We've been house-hunting, hoping to be in a place of our own sometime this summer. We're really excited about that!! Adam is AMAZING at researching properties and keeping up-to-date on what the housing market is doing, and we've been saving money for a down-payment, etc., so we're praying for the right house to show up!
We're looking forward to a nice visit from my parents in June/July. They booked their tickets a couple days ago, so it's a go! They've never been to Alaska in the summer, so we're planning on doing some "tourist-y" things: whale-watching cruises, Denali National Park, etc. I'm personally looking forward to them seeing why I fell in love with Alaska! The summers here make the winters worth it! Although... our winter has been incredibly mild, compared to what's been tearing across the Lower 48! We don't dare to hope that break-up is officially here, but it appears that way! It's been in the mid-40's for a couple weeks now. We can even see grass on most of the hill behind our condo, which doesn't usually happen until mid- to late-April.
Also, Adam is VERY excited to go to opening day for the Seattle Mariners at the end of this month. He had a free plane ticket he had to use by March 31, and opening day is March 31, so that worked out perfectly! He's a huge Mariner's fan, so opening day will be a ton of fun for him! AND, they're playing the Texas Rangers, which is the team they were playing the day we went to a game on our honeymoon, so he's all sentimental about that! (How cute is he??)
Work for me is still going GREAT. I'm so thankful that God gave me this job! After years of jobs where I felt like I was never good enough, He's given me a job where I truly feel appreciated and loved, and I feel like I bring something to the table. My boss is such a great godly woman, and we start every day in prayer together. Who could ask for a better environment to work in than one that's covered in prayer daily? I love it!!
So, that's what's up with the Legg's right now. Keep checking in! We'll keep you updated on the house situation, and I'm sure Adam will let you know how the game went! :o) Ciao!

Winter Camping..

Hello Everyone -

Last weekend Sherri and I went camping with The Grenns and The Hawkins. We rented one of the "Public Use Cabins" that the State of Alaska runs. Nancy Lake, where the cabin is, was about a 90 minute drive from Anchorage and once we got to the location it was about a 1/2 mile trek back to the cabin. The cabin is pretty bare bones, there are some sleeping platforms (think plywood) and a woodstove in the center of the room. We brought wood with us so we started a fire when we got there, but the cabin never really got "warm". Despite being SOOO cold, we had a BLAST! We played Yahtzee by candlelight, had hot chocolate and just spent a lot of time hanging out and enjoying each other. Below are several pictures from our adventure!!!

** You can click on any picture to see a larger size

(Playing Yahtzee)

(Jana, Sherri & Jana Staying Warm)

(waking up)

(Me, Jana & Sherri heading out)

(Tim hitching a ride)

Two Updates...

Hello Everyone -

I have been meaning to update this for a few days so this will actually include 2 updates.

_____________________________________

The first will be about something that just happened to me.

I was at Fred Meyer doing some grocery shopping and I was in the check out line. I handed the cashier my reusable shopping bags that I always use and the guy behind me in line laughed and said "You must be a Democrat", in a very condecending way. Not sure how to respond I asked him why he thought that, and he said that it was because of my reusable bags, how I must buy into the whole Al Gore, global warming issue. I was pretty ticked off and I just told him "Actually I am a conservative christian that believes that we should be good stewards of the environment". By the look on his face I could tell that he was not expecting me to say that and he had no response.

This brings me to a blog that I have been meaning to write for sometime now. I believe that Christians should be the frontrunners of the whole "environmental" issue. I believe that if anyone should want to be a good steward of the environment it should be the people who believe that it was created by the same God who created us.

I think that too many christians have been scared to stand up on this issue because it has been viewed as a Democrat / Republican issue, and God forbid a Christian would side with the Democrats.

I think that churches should be recycling centers..I think that christians should be the best at reducing and reusing.

I think that we need to be honest and say..maybe we as christians..and republicans..have really dropped the ball on this. Maybe we need to stop being so damn political and admit that perhaps Al Gore is closer to the heart of God on this issue then George Bush is.

SO...I will continue to use my reusable shopping bags...I will continue to recycle...I will continue to try and encourage people to live less consuming lives...and if some ramdom person at the store thinks im a Democrat because of it, I guess that is ok.

_________________________________________________

Ok,

Now for my second update. As many of you know, Sherri and I have been involved in the Mike Huckabee campaign. This past weekend Mike's wife Janet Huckabee came here to Anchorage. We were in charge of setting up an evening reception for her supporters here in Anchorage. It was an awesome night, she is such a great woman and it was awesome to meet her.

Here are some pictures from the event!!

(a picture of Janet Huckabee, we had about 65 key supporters at the event)

_______________________________

(a picture of some of the main local campaign organizers)

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UPDATE: Mike Huckabee finished second in the Alaska Super Tuesday voting!! That is a HUGE victory for us as we were predicted to finish 3rd. We had no paid staff in Alaska and it was an entirely volunteer run campaign here.

Punished for being successful...

So,

I just finished our 2007 taxes and this is going to be a bit of a rant.

I'm kinda frustrated. Sherri and I are very fortunate to do well financially, I got lucky and got a job that provides great for us. As a young couple we are very blessed!!

However, I feel like we are penalized because we are young, successful and have no kids. We had to pay this year, granted it wasn't a crazy amount, but never the less, we had to pay. We paid more in taxes this year then some people make in an entire year. Yet somehow, we still owe. We have it set up to take the max out of each check, and we still owe. Blah.

If we had kids we would have gotten a hefty refund, I'm not saying that people with kids shouldn't get a refund, but why penalize people who don't have children and do well??

This is why I think the FairTax IS a great idea!!!

Just my thought.

View from my room in Puerto Rico - El Conquistador Resort

Hello Everyone -

Puerto Rico was amazing!! I liked it much better then the beach destinations of Hawaii, California or Florida! Much cheaper (once you are away from the resorts) and much less "touristy"

I encourage everyone to make it to Puerto Rico!! I am sure you will LOVE it!!

Off To Puerto Rico..

So, Tonight I (adam) leave for Puerto Rico for a week!! Every year my company has their "Annual Conference", last year it was in Orlando, this year it is in Puerto Rico. I am VERY excited about this trip and plan on taking LOTS of photos and I will certainly blog all about the trip when I return. As you can see from the photo above, I bought my snorkel gear..and tried it out in the tub. As long as it works as well in the Caribbean as it does in the tub I should be fine!!

Have a great week and I will see you all when I return!!!

Pina Coladas for EVERYONE!!!

Life is Good...

What a PERFECT January Day!!!

It is about 16 degrees outside...we have already received about 5 inches of snow, with another 4 to 5 inches predicted for tonight. The snow is falling softly in BIG flakes and it is so peaceful!!

Life is VERY Good!!

Happy New Year!!

Hello!!


We hope that you all had a GREAT Christmas and New Years!!

Our Christmas was really nice, we did church on Christmas Eve and then had family over for dinner. We spent Christmas morning together at home and then went to my moms house for Christmas dinner. We each got a ton of presents and had a really great day!!

For New Years Eve we went to Ristorante Orso for dinner with Jason and Jana and Tim and Jana. We then went to Blues Central to see Soulman Sam!! He is this amazing singer who makes you feel like you are in some blues club in the deep south. He covers a lot of famous songs and is always very entertaining.

Here are some pictures from our New Years Eve!!

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(Sherri and I at Ristorante Orso)
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(Everyone at dinner)
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(Picture of the crowd and people dancing at Blues Central)

Don't Blink - message series at ChangePoint

This is the new series that we are starting at ChangePoint! The first message was this past weekend and it was AMAZING!

One of our favorite things...

SO..

One of the things that we have here in Alaska during the winter is "Ice Fog". It is basically a fog of small ice crystals. There are a few awesome benefits of ice fog. First, the morning after a good ice fog everything is sparkly white and beautiful. The second benefit is pictured below. It is much more amazing in person, the picture doesn't do it justice, but it will help picture what we are saying. The ice fog is so thick that any bright light is "captured" as a beam, straight into the sky. So you can look around and see dozens and dozens of beams of light shooting straight up!! It is SO awesome! This is a picture off of our deck of some of the highway lights about 1/2 mile away.

This is one of the things that we enjoy about winters here, so we thought we would share it!!

(you can click on the picture to see a bigger version)