Polyester

Not only is polyester known for the famous leisure suits from the 70's and the bright colored polyester suits that our parents wore on their weddings, polyester is also made in to millions of other kinds of cloth. From athletic shorts to sheets and towels, Polyester is everywhere. Well I didn't really know how much it was everywhere till I started searching. A while back, Kaden began reacting to something different than eggs. He finally out grew that allergy and we had got him tested in Texas when we were there. Yay for no egg allergy! But this other reaction gradually got worse and worse. Kaden would start to itch. At first, it was just a little itchy and Benadryl would usually get rid of it fast. We thought it might be related his really dry skin, which he has had since he was born. Usually he would get itchy when he used different soaps or shampoo then what the Allergist or Pediatrician said to use. Though he still has to use those soaps, this reaction was different and was getting worse! He would break out at the weirdest times, in the middle of church, 4 am in the morning, while doing school at the table. He eventually began to develop some major bumps on his stomach, then his back, then his neck, then all across his body. Each time getting a little worse. I changed to a gentle laundry detergent and that didn't help. I was getting very frustrated. Then while talking to my mom, who I was kind of bouncing ideas off of, we both kind of thought of maybe it is material. So I began to take notes of what was going, where he was sitting, what he was wearing every time he had a reaction. So many things kept adding to my list. After many trials and errors I began to see a pattern, Cotton and Polyester kept popping up. These two of which are in most clothes, sheets, pillows, blankets, carpets, and stuffed animals. And most of the time they are in something together, so I was having a hard time determining which was the material that he was reacting to. I separated his clothes, cotton on one side, polyester on the other. Cotton didn't seem to be the one he was sensitive to so I started him on wearing only cotton. Being in Alaska where all his warm clothes were made with polyester, was hard. All his sweaters, his warm pants, his lined jeans, his warm socks, scarfs, hats EVERYTHING has a mixture of polyester in it! Thankfully we are coming into spring where layering up is not so important. Even all his athletic shorts which he likes to sleep with had to be removed.  I removed all the sheets, blankets and towels that had it. And we removed all the stuffed animals, which is MOST of them. We were having no reactions for a few days till this morning when he started to react when he was sitting at the table doing school. He said he was getting itchy and then I realized our dinning room chairs were made out of polyester..... Oh and our carpet! I am still trying to figure out how to keep him from touching the carpet which is in every room of our house. Like discovering his egg allergy, it was a lot of trial and error,  but I think I finally have it figured out but now I keep seeing what has polyester in it, like our couch and pillows. I am thankful to figure it out. With Kaden's allergy to eggs living in Alaska was great because eggs are expensive and we could avoid his contact with eggs easily. Keith said it will be good we are moving to North Carolina where Cotton is a good material to wear. T-shirts and flip-flops!  So I have a feeling cotton will become a normal material found in our house. And thankfully it will be years before Kaden would have to wear any polyester suit!

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

I have decided that who ever came up with that idiom, "The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread" must have lived in the bush! Usually people use that to compare something that is amazing to something else that is amazing! And if you live where we live, where sliced bread is something we dream about, You can totally understand. For 4 years, I have tried to make a bread loaf that can be sliced as thin and that stays soft just like sliced bread from the store..... So far I have not got it down yet. Maybe because they put stuff to preserve the shelf life of bread. But whatever the reason, I must say my kids and myself find slice bread to be quite the treat and something to savor! This week Keith has been in Arizona enjoying delicious Mexican food and other stuff and then calls to tell me about it, so yesterday I went to our small store and purchased a loaf of sliced Hawaiian Bread for an amount that is far more than any normal person in the Lower 48 would ever pay for bread. But the boys and I were SO EXCITED!! OK that maybe an understatement! We were doing a Happy Dance in our kitchen! We were anxiously awaiting today's lunch where we would eat a delicious sandwich. Isaiah and Kaden both woke up hoping to have sandwiches for breakfast but I told them we would wait till lunch to enjoy our sliced bread. Their choice was a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich because of my love for peanut butter, I was totally fine with that choice! I broke in to the package and softly grabbed 2 slices to make the first sandwich. It was REALLY hard NOT to gobble it down! But I restrained myself and spread the peanut butter and Jelly on. Served it up! Oh man.... Oh the Flavor.... Oh the softness....Oh the texture! Perfect amount of bread with perfect amount PB&J....... Oh Man...I do enjoy fresh bread and making my own, but every once in a while buying a loaf of sliced bread is just one way I like to spoil my boys and myself! I can now see that the Idiom of "the best thing since sliced bread"! Because that is one of the BEST things ever invented!

You Know You Live in Bush Alaska(Galena) When.....

-You wear shorts, Bunny Boots and a sweatshirt to go take pictures in a blizzard.
-You know what Bunny Boots are.
-Your shoe closet consist of Mukluks or Bunny Boots for winter and Rubber boots for summer
-When shoe shopping you consider the fact of how easy it would be to slip them on and off when entering and exiting someones house.
-You wear bunny boots to prom with your fancy dress or tux.
-Duck tape fixes anything and having coats and boots held together with duck tape.
-You are proud of the fact that your coat has duck tape holding it together because that just means you are TRUE Alaskan.( I was not to happy when my coat ripped but I must say I was VERY proud that I got to wear duck tape to hold it together!)
 -Your stroller wheels broke in the airport in Anchorage, You duck taped them on and that stroller held together all the way to Zambia and back, holding 2 kids and a suit case!
-There are duct tape balls and parties to see who has the fanciest clothes made with duct tape!
-Your Zambian basket's bottom fell out so you used duck tape to form a bottom so you can still use the basket and it still works great after 3 years!
-When temperatures reach below -50 nothing works or starts so people walk to church.
-You pull your kids in sleds behind a sled, behind the snow machine.
-You find nothing weird about hearing "Hey it warmed up today. It is -31 degrees"
-Spring arrives with MUCH JOY and there is still 4 ft of snow on the ground
-We don't have Snow days, school just becomes optional when it reaches to cold for the buses to start. (At -60 my son still went to school!)
-Expiration dates are recommendations. Opening a can 4 years old is not uncommon
-You actually wait for the milk to expire so you can get it HALF OFF! ($5 instead of $10 = AWESOME!)
-You check the softness of the bread and the appearance of mold and NOT the expiration date.
-You take the chance of buying ice cream at the store. There is a 50% chance that it has melted and frozen again, thus leaving the top portion of the box REALLY creamy and the bottom portion mostly water.
-1/2 a gallon of liquid Bleach from the local store cost more then a movie ticket in the city.
-You eat Lynx Links
-You eat Beaver Sticks
-You can graduate from high school and have your Pilots Licenses, you have flown solo across the state in a plane, but don't have a drivers license.
-Every March, every inch of your window space becomes a garden space for seedlings and you can't use your dinning room table till June first when you can plant the jungle outside.
-You find nothing weird about seeing a truck pulling another truck, pulling a boat out of the water.
-September is hunting season and finding anyone in the office is VERY HARD!!
-You understand what it means to "torch" your engine block so your truck will start.
-A night on the town is buying a snickers bar at the liquor store and going and sitting down by the river to eat it.
-You have been depressed because you want a snack, have walked into you pantry, not seen ANYTHING you want and then realize that is EVERYTHING you have to eat for the next year.
-The Riff-Raff at the local mall won't mug you but they might eat you
-You know what happens to boiling water when you throw it in the air at -50 degrees
-You have search Amazon for something that is $1.72 just so you qualify for free shipping.
-Your physical address is made up and sending something General Delivery will actually get to you
-You have met people conducting a Census who actually try to look up those physical address and then you spend an hour with them and give them directions to get to someones house. "You go to the third street, turn by the giant Snow mountain, pass three broken snowed in snow machines and then turn by the blue house with a broken tree in the front yard with a 8 sled dogs in the front yard.
-Your local radio post these kind of notices on the wireless "The City of Galena would ask all residents to conserve any room they have left in their sewer tank due to the sewer truck being broken." or "To all Galena City residents and businesses, the city is asking you to hold your trash till further notice due to the trash trucks failure to start in cold weather."
-Your family in the Lower 48 Google directions from their house to yours and Google says"you can not get there from here".
-You know what the Lower 48 means
-You have to order water and Sewer pickup
-You hair dryer gets used to thaw the shower, warm the snow machine, start the wood stove way more times then actually drying your hair.
-You decide to plug your freezer in or your car depending on the weather.
-Dressing up for church means getting out a clean pair of Carharts
-It takes longer for you to get from Galena to Houston, Texas as it does for your parents to get from Lusaka, Zambia to Houston, Texas.
-You memorize time zones in order to call family, credit cards and banks.
-You get excited when either one of those have 24 hour service.
-You frequently get phone calls from friends and family members that forget there are 4 time zones between you.
-Getting to prom in an airplane instead of a limo is not uncommon
- Your kids beg for fruit and veggies for snack instead of candy. They actually tell their VBS teachers from Texas that they could have brought Veggies for snack so they could have had healthy snacks instead of just candy.
-You stand in the kitchen and ask yourself how selfish would it be to EAT the Last strawberry or give it to your son.
-You mail cheese in the mail at the post office
-When you fly out to town, you mail all your dirty clothes back via postal service and fill your totes with fresh goods.
-You don't use suitcases when traveling but use plastic totes because you lose 15 pounds of weight when using a suitcase.
-You know how to pack those totes and can feel how much 50 pounds is by lifting your tote.
-Shopping for fresh goods takes a little time because you not only buy the stuff but you mentally calculate how many pounds the food is as well as the containers that they are packaged in.
-The airport security in Houston has stopped you and asks "Why is your luggage full of cream cheese, butter, sour cream and other fresh good and it takes you a while to explain and to convince them that you seriously live in the BUSH and getting this stuff there is hard.
-You know where the middle of nowhere is.
-You know what the "Mall" is
-You drive to the mall and get great deals on a washing machine, showers, bath robes, Carthart jackets, overalls, boots and other goodies.
- People in the Lower 48 think having a fire place is romantic and here you know it is hard work but it bets having to pay for heating fuel!
-When driving the highways in the Lower 48 you see all the wood on the side of the road and wish that there was someway to get that good wood to your house in Galena.
-You are more excited to meet Todd Palin than his wife Sarah, because he is an Iron Dog Champion.
-Your Hair Iron becomes a sewing accessory to iron material instead of hair.
-You open your door to check for moose or bears in your yard before letting your dog out.
-You find nothing weird about having a Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin as your carry on.
-You use empty diaper boxes to organize your freezer.
-You understand the statement "I hope it warms up this weekend so it will snow"
-Your front porch becomes your freezer during winter.
-Your kids learn the difference in temperatures and knows at what degrees they need to put on an extra layer of clothes to stay warm outside.
-Snow machines and boats are a necessity more then a luxury
-You don't wash your car because that dirt is what is holding it together.
-You have told people in the Lower 48 that you live in an Igloo, wrestle bears, wear fur, eat whale blubber just to see if they believe you.
-A moose blocking your driveway is an acceptable reason for being late to work or church.
-"The Lights are out" doesn't refer to the power being off
-You would pay $10 for a head of lettuce
-You measure distance in hours not miles
-Everyone assumes you are all Jewel fans..... Who is Jewel anyways?
-The Red and Green show is a documentary and you use many of those ideas in everyday life!
-Jeff Foxworthy's You might be a Redneck" could relate to your life. You have done some of those things.... and lived through it.
-You have seen Anti-freeze freeze
-Your truck is ALWAYS in 4X4
-You don't tell your kids to be home by dark because if you do they won't come home till fall!
-The song "The sun will come out tomorrow" Can't be sung for 3 months during our winter
-You have to make your Halloween costumes to fit over snowsuits.

Thanks to my friends Chris and Shell, Ross and Wendy, and Trisha who contributed some of these points.

A New Chapter

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4 years, Galena has been our home and in that time we have had many wonderful and NOT so wonderful experiences.

We got to welcome our 2^nd born into our family.

We got to see the Iditarod come through our town 3 times.

We got to experience some of our community events such as Spring Carnival, Jamboree, basketball games, Bingo, Valentines Dinners, Science Camp, Yukon 800, Iron Dog, Easter egg hunting in snow,

We found a mother load of blueberries and enjoyed making jams, cakes, and anything else that is yummy with blueberries.

We have gone moose hunting and Keith got his first. It was huge!

We got to go fishing, hunting, trapping, and even though we were not always successful we had a great time.

We added new cuisine to our list, like mucktuk(whale blubber) Seal oil, Eskimo Ice cream(not what you are thinking) Lynx Links, Beaver, Moose, Ptarmigan, Salmon.

We got to get out on our snow machine and saw some beautiful country.

We got to see unbelievable Aurora Borealis that blew across the sky where pictures could not do it justice.

We experiences record breaking -70 degrees where nothing works, but our church family still met.

We experienced the WORST mosquitoes I have ever seen! Seriously, NOBODY SHOULD EVER COMPLAIN ABOUT THEM… EVER!!!

We attempted to make Birch syrup from the sap from the trees, but an evacuation of our town resulted in that process to never finish.

We experienced the worst flood in the history of Galena, where our town was destroyed. And then we spent a summer frantically trying to get the town ready to be lived in for winter.

We got to see how much this community comes together to help each other in times of disaster.

We got to travel to many different Alaskan destinations. Homer, Seward, Fairbanks, Moose Pass, Ruby, North Pole, Soldotna and Denali.  Keith also got to visit other remote villages around the state; including Holy Cross, Aniak, Kotzebue, Hughes, Huslia, Valdez, Nulato, Cold Bay and Barrow.

We got to meet Santa. He even knows our names and even prays for us!

We got to go to interesting places such as the Knotty Shop, Ice Museums, Hot Springs, and the Farthest North Mexican Food restaurant in the world.

We got to meet interesting and sometimes famous people like Lance Mackey, Hugh Neff, Aliy Zerkle, Dallas Seavey, Todd Palin, Frankie King, Peewee Harrison, Meadow Lark Lemons, Hollywood Brown, Dennis Agajanian, Tyler Huntington, Ms. Alaska, and Santa Claus.
We got to experience 24 hours of darkness and 24 hours of light.

We got to experience a DRY cold.

We got to ice skate in the pond beside our house like in a Hallmark card.

We got to have many campfire dinners with our neighbors.

We have had many laughs and cries with special friends here.

We got to see our church grow and grow and grow.

We got to experience what a true community is!

Along with all the Experiences we have learned a lot living here in Galena.

We learned where the middle of nowhere is.

Duck tape and Super glue DOES fix everything!

I finally learned how and where cranberries grew and then got to pick as many cranberries as I could.

I learned how to cook and bake from scratch. Things like bread, doughnuts, corn tortillas and many other things and I actually started a blog of things I cook from scratch.

Keith learned expiration dates on food items does NOT mean it will go bad. He actually waits for the milk to expire so he can get it HALF OFF! But when it is $10 a gallon you do what you have to.

Keith learned how to grow a 25-pound cabbage, a 2-pound head of lettuce and giant Zucchini.

I learned how to make Salsa, Corned moose, jellies, jams, relish, jarred meats and other canned food.

We learned how to dress for -70 degrees.

We learned how to fix our own cars, snow machines, four-wheeler and any other equipment that breaks.

We learned how to conserve water, gas, electricity, and food.

We learned how to shop for a years worth of supplies. Do you know how many rolls of toilet paper you need to make it through a year? I DO!

We learned to be creative when it comes to going on a “date” with your husband and there is no restaurant in town.

We learned what really happens to boiling water when you throw it up in the air when it is  -50 degrees.

We learned to be resourceful when you don’t have certain parts to fix things.

We learned going to the “mall” can be quite fun and you can get GREAT deals there!

We learned how to shop Amazon.com and know how to get free shipping and all the good deals from online sources.

We learned the excitement of having fresh veggies and fruits

We learned how to pack.

We learned how to drive a snow machine

The boys learned how to dress to go play outside at different temperatures.

They learned what it means to say “this is a short flight” “this is a Long flight”

The boys learned how to Ski, Ice Skate, Snowshoe, and sled.

We learned “the Lights are out” doesn’t refer to the power going off.

We learned that watching The Red and Green Show, Duck Dynasty, and The God’s Must Be Crazy makes us realize that we have done most, survived most and are still living after doing most of the dumb things they did on those shows.  Some of those ideas are life Savers!  

We learned that Anti Freeze does actually freeze.

We learned not to sing, “The Sun will come out tomorrow” in the winter because it doesn’t!

We learned that going swimming when it is -50 degrees outside is not a big deal.

We learned to cut our own wood and to make our own fires.

All the things we learned and all the wonderful experiences have made our life so much more interesting and fun!  The friendships we have made are amazing and will stay with us forever. It has been a wonderful FULL chapter in our life. But that chapter is closing and we are opening to a new one. Keith has accepted a job at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.  This has been a hard decision to make but we know God is directing our path. He has opened this door for us and we are super excited to see what fun adventures we will get to have there.  We love Alaska and will miss it terribly. Pray for us as we make this transition. North Carolina Here We Come!!!(In May)