Hello, again! It's been too long...

Well, Guys, I promised way back in February that I'd write another post.  It's been on my mind that I'm way overdue on an update for you.  The fact is, we've been extremely busy!

I'll put it all down in bullet form for you:

• The most important thing is that we are together as a family again, and will be for the next 3 years!
• I counted up the months, and since the beginning of 2010, Phillip has been away from us for a total of 20 months, and home for a total of 9 months.
• He returned to Fort Wainwright, Alaska from Afghanistan in late February.
• I spent a week in Alaska visiting him while the kids stayed with his parents, and then we came home to Louisiana to be together as a family for about 2 weeks.
• Then Phil went on to Pennsylvania to LUH (Light Utility Helicopter; the UH-72) training, so that...
• We could accept a new non-deployable assignment at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
• We bought a house just north of Deridder, LA.
• I had a full-scope done by a gastroenterologist, sometime in March, to try to figure out why I have IBS-C (ummm...look it up); nothing was found but a small polyp.
• I learned in early April that I had Carcinoma Insitu of the Cervix (cancer).
• A HIDA scan of my gallbladder was also done in April, and it determined that the gallbladder is useless; it only "dumps" at 7%, which is way below the norm of about 35%.
• Phil and I decided that it was best to go forth with a partial (cervix and uterus, the ovaries stayed) hysterectomy on April 10. 
• My Dad had a scan done to see if the hemorrhage/stroke that he suffered in December had been absorbed; his doctor told him that there was no sign that it even happened!  Great news!!!
• Gabe earned his orange belt in karate.
• Sarah is growing more and more into a beautiful little girl.  She no longer has the body of a toddler.  She is lean, muscular (she LOVES ballet), and petite; and is a graceful little ballerina.
• Phillip finished LUH school in late May.
• The four of us took a 5 night cruise to Mexico, and got back yesterday.
• The movers will be here on Monday to pack up the apartment, and move us to the new house in Deridder.
• I will have my gallbladder removed on Wednesday of next week, to hopefully alleviate those major gastro-intestinal problems.
• I will try to upload some new pictures for you to view in the "Our Story in Pictures" album in the next few days.

I'm sure there is something that I'm forgetting to tell you.  As I go through the pictures, something might come up that I think should have been added to this list.

As for the cancer, it was caught early.  There will be no further treatments, and there is only a 10% chance of it coming back (my doctor said that it has only happened to one other patient of his).

Things are looking up!  I feel blessed.

I hope that you are doing well too.

J~

It was all his idea.

His sense of humor is contagious.  

It's refreshing.

I LOVE that kid!

(The above photos were taken at the Museum of American History in Washington DC.  If you go to my photo collection, Our story in pictures, you'll find our NYC and DC photos; the DC photos do not have titles yet, and might not for a few days.)

J~

Well, we've been so busy that...

...we've not had the chance to think much about the fact that Phillip has been deployed.

We've said our "Good-bye" and "See you later" to both Phillip and Alaska.  And tonight, the kids and I are so tired, that I'm typing from our hotel room in Arlington, VA while Gabe peeks out of the room window periodically for the start of the July 4th fireworks. 

Last week, we were in the Jersey City/NYC area, and had a really good time visiting with Jessica, an old friend and co-worker.  On the first day that we were there, Sarah woke up extremely sick (couldn't even keep water down for more than 5 minutes), so that put a huge damper on plans to spend the entire day in NYC, but by the afternoon, she was thankfully well enough to eat soup, etc, and swim for a while in Jessica's pool.  While we were visiting Jessica, we got the chance to spend time on the Jersey Shore, and go into NYC to see some of the sights there.

It was so good to see Jessica; to finally see for myself, and put images to names and places that she's talked about over the years.  And, I had no idea how crazy Times Square could be on a Friday night!

We left Jessica's house via Amtrak and arrived at Union Station here in Washington DC on Saturday.  Yesterday, we spent over 5 hours in the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, and about 2 hours in the Air & Space Museum.  Today, we spent time with a dear friend (Kristen) at her house below Arlington, and tomorrow, we plan to finish what we started last night, plus more.

This area is crazy, busy with people right now.  The metro was filled with people going into the city for the fireworks.  And I didn't much envy them.  Better you fight the crowd, than me.  Did I mention that I'm tired?

As soon as I can, I will put pictures up in the photo collection.

Goodnight, Ya'll!

J~

I'm a Sucker for a good Cupcake

Well, I've posted my Classic Movie list, and Daisy from 400 Wake-ups suggested in a comment that we read Wuthering Heights. I replied to her saying that she's definitely on to something!  After I complete my movie list (or maybe during), I'll start a Classic Novel list and tackle that too. 

She also said, "I think if we didn't have goals and lists, we would just sit in the dark and cry.".  I'm totally with her on that.

As I've mentioned before, the kids and I will be swinging on over to the East Coast en route to Louisiana soon.  I can't wait.  I've always wanted to see NYC, and I'm looking forward to visiting with a close, longtime friend there.  We'll also be in the Washington DC area to visit with more friends, and we'll get a chance to tour some of the Smithsonian, etc.

Traveling will be a nice time waster.  Traveling always recharges me. 

So, with that being said, while I'm back in Louisiana this summer, I plan to learn how to make some really good deserts.  I look at it as a part of my household contribution while staying with the in-laws.  When I was telling my husband about this, he chuckled and said that his dad would be more than happy to eat my mistakes or successes.  I need to make these deserts while I have someone else (more than just the kids) to help me eat them; because GAINING weight is not an option.

First up, from one of my favorite recipe sites:

Mini OREO Surprise Cupcakes recipe

I wish I had a picture to post with the recipe, but I don't.  So, you'll just have to imagine the chocolaty goodness, or just make them yourself.  Let me know if you do, okay?  Send me a picture, maybe?

Otherwise...Get ready, Pa-Paw!

J~

Seward... Part Two

"So, the yellow marker is the route we took Pa-Paw.  Things got really rough around Cheval Island. "

"You got really sick, didn't you?"..."Yep, but, I sang my Dora the Explorer song to keep my mind off of things."

I just realized that I can scratch #52 off of "Janet's List"; I didn't get the prize winning whale tail photo that you'd see in say, National Geographic, but it'll do for me for now.

I've also shared the photo of Sarah and Pa-Paw with the amazing ladies at Communal Global.  When you get a chance, swing on over to view some beautiful images from around the world.  I've also shared this picture with Supermom, because...well, I think it's a pretty cool picture.  But, I'm biased!

J~

Seward and Sea Sickness!

The above collage are some of the pictures that I took on the Major Marine wildlife cruise through Kenai Fjords National park this past Monday near Seward, Alaska.  You can see more pictures in the Drive to Alaska photo album included in our Photo Collection.

It was a full day (6 hour) cruise with a Prime Rib and Salmon lunch included, but unfortunately, not many of us wanted to eat that day.  We were warned that the seas would be especially rough, and were even asked if we wanted to reschedule for the next day, but time didn't allow, so we took our chances. 

I had gotten sea sick off of the coast of Puerto Rico while visiting my older brother when I was sixteen years old, so I was prepared to deal with it this time (ride the waves, deep breathe, focus your eyes on one thing, get fresh air, etc.); I ended the day without getting sick, Thank Goodness.  But my poor mother-in-law and Sarah were both starting to feel it in the first hour...

To make a long story short, I counted at least six people losing their breakfast at one time.  I do have to give lots of credit to the Captain and Crew; the Crew was right at your side to help, and the Captain even cut the engine a few times to try to cushion the blow on huge waves.

All in all, it was an incredible experience.  To see wildlife (and hear it) as it is, in it's pure form, was simply amazing.  The pictures don't do the trip justice. I don't think it's necessary to book a luxury, week-long cruise anymore to get to see what I did that day.

I think we can go on ahead and spend the money and miles on another trip instead (because we'd entertained the thought of taking an Alaskan cruise); most probably our traditional we-survived-another-deployment-Disney-celebration trip to the new Disney Aulani resort in Hawaii.  (ask someone who lives here in Alaska about the AK/Hawaii connection...maybe one day, I'll blog about it.)

But, then again...Phillip and Gabe didn't see what I saw that day, though it was similar, so....hmmmphhh...What to do?  What to do?

There were many times that day when I cursed myself for telling my husband to hold off on buying a new SLR camera for Mother's Day.  I had to deal with digital delay.  As I've said before, I'm not a photographer; I just love taking pictures.

On a side note, I don't have pictures of the guys fishing trip (I wish I did).  From what I understand, the sickness was much worse for them because they were on a smaller boat.  Gabe managed to catch three sharks, but was sick for pretty much the whole day.  Phillip got sick at the end of the day; my father-in-law came out without a scratch.  As for the fish that was caught, there was lots of it (halibut, rock fish, etc.), and a bit of it was sacrificed to the grill last night.

Yum!

J~

"Hello! How are you doing today?"

"...I hope I find you feeling healthy.  I'm so glad our paths crossed this time today...".

(Those two lines are from Granny, one of my favorite Dave Matthews songs, by the way.)

We've been busy!  Phillip's parents flew in last Monday evening, and we've been visiting and having fun ever since.

We went down to Seward, Alaska this past Sunday.  The boys went deep sea fishing, while the girls went on a wildlife viewing cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park.  We also spent some time in Anchorage, visiting family and shopping, etc. 

So, today we're unpacking and getting settled back into life here in the Interior.

Give me a day or two, and I will have details and pictures to show you from our mini vacation.

Until then...

take good care of yourself, and go hug someone.

J~

Home for the Holidays...

"But, wait!", you say.  "It's April!".

This picture of Gabe and Sarah was taken when we went home to Louisiana this past Christmas.  Phillip took it with his iPhone.

I just love imagining what could be going through their little heads as they look out of that airplane window.

J~

On the Wish List...

A weekend here:
Click on these words

When I think of "going off the grid", this is what I mean.  Just me, my camera, no watch, and a good book!

Okay...that's it. Just thought I'd let someone know.

Extended Vacations...

Well...

It's official.

Phillip will be soon leaving on another extended overseas "vacation".

This life is one Heck of a roller coaster ride. I cried my eyes out all weekend. I knew that there was a high chance of getting the news; the rumors had been floating around for a while. But, it still stings when you get the call saying that there is a meeting planned for a "possible" family separation.

"Possible"? Oh, PLEASE!!! Let's just tell the truth. Oh wait! You don't have all of the answers yet?! You mean...?

There are so many things that go through your mind when you're facing such things. For me, I worry most about my children.

So, as I work myself through the daze and confusion, I will look into an extended vacation of our own to help make the time go faster. Travel is always a battery re-charger for me. The kids and I need to have something positive to look forward to. And spending time back home in Louisiana is definitely in the plans for a good part of the summer.

I think that to make things even more fun, I'll look into flying out to the East coast to see a few friends there before we make our way out to Lafayette (and then on to Gulf Shores for the annual end of summer beach trip for the grand-kids). There's so much that we can see and do! I may be able to mark off seeing the Smithsonian (or part of it) from the Bucket List.

Or maybe, I'll fly us out to Central Texas to see friends and family (and our old house) there, and then drive us the rest of the way into South Louisiana.

Anyone out there have any other ideas for a fun side trip?

Chena Hot Springs

Just a short post...

Phillip left last week to go to Pakistan to help with relief efforts out there. We dropped him off on Sunday, and 8 hours later, he texted me to ask if I'd go pick him up (Did I mention this before? I think I did...). His flight finally left at 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

The kids and I are getting along much better than we thought we would. We miss him, it's true. But, we have a routine and that helps.

This past Sunday, I took the kids on a small road trip to visit Chena Hot Springs Resort. The pictures are included in the Alaska album for your viewing pleasure.

It really is a nice place to visit. The ride to and from is really beautiful (especially with the fall colors coming out). And the resort itself, is really peaceful. I hope to go back once it snows to go dog sledding!

Choo! Choo!

Phillip will be leaving soon to go on his humanitarian mission, so he's spending a lot of time at home with us (just waiting on the word "Go"). This past Friday, he, Sarah, and I were running errands when we came up with the idea of going down to Denali National Park on a train for a fun Saturday trip.

We'd planned to surprise Gabe (since he loves trains), and were gonna tell him that we were going to drag him out shopping for truck tires, but ended up telling him anyway about the trip when he came home wanting to make plans for a sleepover with a new school friend.

He kept telling us on Saturday that he was glad that he didn't press the sleepover issue.

Enjoy the video above of little sister helping herself to big brother's ice cream. Don't forget to watch for the little dance of attitude at the end. And, I've posted pics in the Alaska album too.

By the way, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are not sure how long Phillip will be gone for, but we do know that when he's not here, time can really drag on. Loneliness can really get to you, if ya let it...and it's a constant fight, I tell you. Most importantly, we want Phil and his friends to be safe until the mission is complete.

Hurry up and wait!

I'm writing to tell you that I have not much to tell you.

Right now, we're waiting on housing. We've just closed on the house in Texas, and are both hesitant to buy over here for many different reasons. We are really low down on the waiting list for Post housing, and the benefits to living on-Post FAR outnumber the cons of living off-Post. Finding a house to rent out here is like looking for a needle in a haystack! And by the time a decision is made on what we'll do about buying or renting, if the "perfect" alternative to living on Post comes up, then you can bet that they'll be calling to tell us that something has come open on Fort Wainwright.

I'm about to go crazy after living in hotels for at least a month now...

The kids and I are doing a bit of exploring and getting to know the area while Phillip is at work.

And that's about all I have to say about that.

(But...however glum this post may sound to you, things will get better after the dust settles...they always do. And I really like Alaska!)

How to Pan for Gold!

We went to the El Dorado Gold Mine just north of Fairbanks this past weekend.

If you look to the right of this post, you can find pictures from our trip to the Mine in the collection of "trip to Alaska" pictures.

I'm really glad that we took the tour, because it was quite informative and just plain fun. We spent some money (it wasn't cheap) to tour the Mine, but got it all back when we panned for our own gold. Phillip and I had so much fun during the panning process, that we used our pans to scrape the bottom of the panning troughs to get more residue to look through, and sure enough, we found more gold!

Enjoy the video below!

A work in progress...

I've just put all of the pictures in the "Alaska Bound" photo album to your right, in order of which they took place...

I still have to work more on captions.

For now...Enjoy!

Old Faithful

Here she is...

(5/17/2010 at about 12:30'ish pm)

Now, how cool is that?

Alaska Bound: We are DONE!

Well, here we are...in Fairbanks, Alaska!!!

We got here a little after lunchtime (we stopped in North Pole, AK to eat), went straight on Post to see if we could get lodging there, but we couldn't, soooooo we're staying at the Holiday Inn for...I don't know how long.

Tomorrow, we go back to Post to sign into Fort Wainwright, and then sign into Housing to get onto the waiting list for housing. Phillip doesn't have to sign into his company until after he "in-processes".

So far, we like what we see. (There's a Barnes and Noble here, so I'm happy.)

As far as the drive....We're TOTALLY glad we did it, because we saw so many beautiful things and got a whole new perspective on the lay of the land, and life in general, but next time...I'm flyin' out! Two weeks in the car to ANYWHERE is just a little too long for me!

Thanks to all who've wished us well, and a safe journey.

We are safely...home.

Alaska Bound: Day Fifteen

3,579 miles (with just a bit more for side trips) so far...

And remember, that's only 11 days of driving, but I say it's 15 (AK Bound) because we've been out of our house since May 9th.

The above map reads...Harker Heights, TX to Dallas...to Raton, New Mexico...to Englewood, CO...to Dubois, Wyoming...to Butte, Montana...to Calgary, Alberta...to Edmonton, Alberta...to Dawson Creek, British Columbia...to Fort Nelson, British Columbia...to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory...to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory this evening.

Tomorrow, we will hopefully be in Fairbanks, if not, then we may stop in Tok, Alaska or somewhere near there. We have until May 28th to officially report to Fort Wainwright, and we are way ahead of schedule, so we have been taking some short days/drives to give ourselves some rest from the road.

I know that I said that I'd post everyday if I could. The truth is, by the time we get into our hotel in the evening, we are a bit tired and I don't have the desire to tell you all that we've seen and done; and trust me, there's a lot to tell you! This has truly been the trip of a lifetime! I never thought that Gabe would be as excited as he is to see what there is to see; Sarah is so young, that she won't remember this, but I'll have lots of pictures to show her in the future. Both of them have been real troopers and we've only had a couple of very minor meltdowns from Sarah toward the end of a day.

When we get to Fairbanks, and I have more time, I will tell you more about the trip and post more pictures...

Until then,

Janet

Alaska Bound: Day Eleven

We are in Edmonton, Alberta tonight.

We left Calgary this morning and drove about 3 hours to the largest shopping mall in North America!

We're staying at the Fantasyland Hotel in the West Edmonton Mall; I sprung $50 more on our room reservation to surprise Gabe (and the rest of the family), and upgraded to a "Canadian Rail" room. We have a gigantic jacuzzi tub smack-dab in the middle of the room, and bunk beds for the kids; even the shower looks like it belongs in a sleeper car. The guys walked the lower half of the mall with Sarah and I, and then we separated so that they could enjoy the water park (in the mall).

Tomorrow, we stay in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and then wake up Friday morning to get our start on the ALCAN Highway...

We are a little more than halfway finished with the trip.

I'll do my best to post something tomorrow night.

Alaska Bound: Day Ten

Well, we are in Butte, Montana at the moment.

Yesterday was a FULL day. We woke up in Dubois, Wyoming (a charming little town in the middle of nowhere, it seems) and headed straight for Old Faithful.

I am keeping a small written journal in the car, so that I won't forget what is what...it's kinda all running together for me now. I will try to get back to you tonight with a more detailed description of what the past two days were like. Hopefully, we will be in at least Calgary, Alberta by this evening.

Oh, and the pictures from the road are amazing, if I do say so myself. This side of the United States is just BEAUTIFUL, I tell ya! I'll also try to post some more pictures so that you can see.

Wish us well!