A couple weeks ago, President Obama visited Elmendorf AFB. He spoke to some of the servicemen and women, and Anthony was chosen as one of 200 to sit behind the podium. Anthony said that as they were getting going, the announcer started with, "Ladies and gentlemen," and everyone's cameras went into the air to try and get a picture of President Obama entering. He continued, "Introducing Chaplain...," and the audience groaned. The Chaplain joked, "Sorry to disappoint you with just a prayer." When he finished, the announcer again said, "Ladies and gentlemen," and again, all the cameras went up. "Introducing General...". Groans again.
Here is the video of the President's speech when he finally appeared. He spoke about the sacrifices military members make, the lives that have been lost recently, and plans for the Defense budget. It's about 15 minutes long, and if you want to see Anthony, at 2 minutes 30 seconds President Obama asks everyone to applaud the terrific looking Airmen and Soldiers, and Anthony is in the top right corner. You can also see him at 6:47 when they pan across the military members again. Enjoy!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
"Facts" About Alaska
Now that we've been here 7 months, I've been compiling a few things that I've learned about Alaska. I looked back at the post I wrote last December when we first found out this would be our base, and I had to laugh at some of the things I had "learned" then. What I've learned since then is that you truly have to live here to understand.
1. IT IS COLD. It's so cold...How cold is it? It's so cold that my pinky finger froze to the shopping cart that I grabbed outside the Commissary. I got about 30 feet into the building before I started wondering why my finger felt like it was on fire. It's a very dry cold (we've had a humidifier running constantly all week), and thank goodness it hasn't been windy. When the high temperature is 9, and the low is -6, you don't need to add wind. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to more snow because it gets slightly warmer? I don't want to hear anyone who is enjoying 50 degree weather back home complain that it is getting colder.
2. You get used to the darkness. We're losing about 4 minutes of light every day, but that's only going to go on for another month. By this time in January, we'll be back to the amount of sunlight we have now, which is almost 7 hours, so it's not too big of a deal.
3. You also get used to the wildlife. One day we were driving out of the gate, and I looked over and saw two eagles take off out of the trees. At first I simply thought, "Oh, there are some eagles," as if this was just a ho-hum daily occurrence. Then I snapped out of it and pointed them out to Anthony. How cool is it to see something like that when you're driving to Target?
3. Driving in the snow is interesting. I guess that would be the word. In Indiana, as soon as there is snow and ice in the forecast, the salt trucks are out covering the roads. In Alaska, salt can't be used because for several reasons. Once again, it's just too blasted cold to do anything, since salt lowers the melting point, but not enough to do anything up here. Also, it would probably attract a lot of wildlife since the roads would be one giant salt lick for them. Instead the trucks drop gravel, which helps a little. This does not help in finding lanes that are now covered in snow and ice. And there are no reflectors, so mostly it's up to you to decide if it's one, two, or three lanes.
4. For some reason, the radio stations seem to be stuck in the early 90's. I know it's hard to ship things up here, but I didn't think new music was included in that. In one hour I heard "Fly" by Sugar Ray, "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, "Get the Party Started" by Pink, and "Push" by Matchbox Twenty. Most parents and children have a generation gap in music, but it's nice to know that the boys and I will be able to share a love of the music from my high school years.
5. Commercials can, and are, often made in home basements. Our favorite is the one below from The Mattress Ranch. This is also the most professional one. Many of the other commercials are for restaurants we don't have here. If I have to see Sonic advertising Cherry Limeades (yum!) one more time, I'm going to have a meltdown. Enjoy this jingle. It always gets stuck in my head!
1. IT IS COLD. It's so cold...How cold is it? It's so cold that my pinky finger froze to the shopping cart that I grabbed outside the Commissary. I got about 30 feet into the building before I started wondering why my finger felt like it was on fire. It's a very dry cold (we've had a humidifier running constantly all week), and thank goodness it hasn't been windy. When the high temperature is 9, and the low is -6, you don't need to add wind. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to more snow because it gets slightly warmer? I don't want to hear anyone who is enjoying 50 degree weather back home complain that it is getting colder.
2. You get used to the darkness. We're losing about 4 minutes of light every day, but that's only going to go on for another month. By this time in January, we'll be back to the amount of sunlight we have now, which is almost 7 hours, so it's not too big of a deal.
3. You also get used to the wildlife. One day we were driving out of the gate, and I looked over and saw two eagles take off out of the trees. At first I simply thought, "Oh, there are some eagles," as if this was just a ho-hum daily occurrence. Then I snapped out of it and pointed them out to Anthony. How cool is it to see something like that when you're driving to Target?
3. Driving in the snow is interesting. I guess that would be the word. In Indiana, as soon as there is snow and ice in the forecast, the salt trucks are out covering the roads. In Alaska, salt can't be used because for several reasons. Once again, it's just too blasted cold to do anything, since salt lowers the melting point, but not enough to do anything up here. Also, it would probably attract a lot of wildlife since the roads would be one giant salt lick for them. Instead the trucks drop gravel, which helps a little. This does not help in finding lanes that are now covered in snow and ice. And there are no reflectors, so mostly it's up to you to decide if it's one, two, or three lanes.
4. For some reason, the radio stations seem to be stuck in the early 90's. I know it's hard to ship things up here, but I didn't think new music was included in that. In one hour I heard "Fly" by Sugar Ray, "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, "Get the Party Started" by Pink, and "Push" by Matchbox Twenty. Most parents and children have a generation gap in music, but it's nice to know that the boys and I will be able to share a love of the music from my high school years.
5. Commercials can, and are, often made in home basements. Our favorite is the one below from The Mattress Ranch. This is also the most professional one. Many of the other commercials are for restaurants we don't have here. If I have to see Sonic advertising Cherry Limeades (yum!) one more time, I'm going to have a meltdown. Enjoy this jingle. It always gets stuck in my head!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Candy Overload!
Once again, a busy month. A few weeks ago, we had our very first Chuck E Cheese experience. Well, I've been there, but Anthony swears they were never allowed to go as kids, so they thought it was some kind of wicked place that respectable people don't visit. That may still be true. It sure has changed since my last visit. Does anyone else remember when it used to be called Showbiz, or does that just show my age? Now it's all lights and noise and craziness, but we had a fun time. The birthday party was for an Air Force family in our ward, the Jacksons, who have three boys. We're sad that they're moving to the Azores (Portugal) in a few weeks, and totally jealous that they're leaving winter in Alaska for a tropical island. It was nice to get the chance to celebrate with them before they go.
Will's favorite was probably the Whack A Mole game.
The week before Halloween, we carved our pumpkin for Family Home Evening. Unfortunately, the pumpkin had to come from the grocery store since there aren't any pumpkin patches or apple orchards here. Or none that I can find. I miss fall in Indiana! But we had a great time working on the pumpkin. Will was a little more helpful this year, but we still spent a lot of time keeping Ethan from eating the gunk.
This is the only time we were able to light the pumpkin. I put it on our porch the next afternoon, and two hours later, an animal ate the face. Usually we have to worry about punk kids, not wild animals.
We were able to go trick or treating twice on Halloween. The community center has an indoor event in the afternoon, which was nice because it was freezing that evening. Ethan was a dalmatian, and Will wore his zebra costume from last year. To say that Will was not excited about putting on his costume would be an understatement. He was sobbing and telling me, "No zebra!" I finally was able to get him into the pants, but we thought that would be as far as we would get until I convinced him that the top was just a jacket. For some reason he was okay with that.
And once he caught on that zebra=candy, he was all for it. He ate quite a bit of that candy before we left the community center.
When we went out that night, our first stop was at our neighbor, Dan's, door. Dan gets really into Halloween, so his house was all decorated, and he was dressed up as the Grim Reaper. He tried not to scare Will, but Dan's a pretty big guy, and it was just too much. Will started crying, and for the rest of the block, at every house he said, "No Dan! No Dan!"
I had to include this video of Ethan attacking Will for his candy. This is how he growls whenever he wants food.
This is Will's version of "Trick or Treat."
It is definitely getting colder, but we're still waiting for the snow. They predict it every couple of days, but so far, we've only had about 10 minutes of it, and it melted right away. The main thing we're having to adjust to is a lot less daylight. Right now, the sun rises at about 8:30 and sets at 4:30, so we never are quite sure what time it is without looking at a clock. The one good thing is that it makes me start dinner a lot earlier than I normally do because I just assume that it's 6 o'clock. Which means in December, we'll probably be eating dinner at 3 in the afternoon and in bed by 5. Perhaps we'll move into a Senior Community. It's always an adventure in Alaska!
Will, of course, was terrified of Chuck E, but Ethan was more than willing to pose.
They both had lots of fun with the games and rides.
Will put his arm around Ethan all by himself to help keep Ethan in the car.
He's such a good big brother.
He's such a good big brother.
Will's favorite was probably the Whack A Mole game.
The week before Halloween, we carved our pumpkin for Family Home Evening. Unfortunately, the pumpkin had to come from the grocery store since there aren't any pumpkin patches or apple orchards here. Or none that I can find. I miss fall in Indiana! But we had a great time working on the pumpkin. Will was a little more helpful this year, but we still spent a lot of time keeping Ethan from eating the gunk.
Our pumpkin, Homestar Runner
This is the only time we were able to light the pumpkin. I put it on our porch the next afternoon, and two hours later, an animal ate the face. Usually we have to worry about punk kids, not wild animals.
We were able to go trick or treating twice on Halloween. The community center has an indoor event in the afternoon, which was nice because it was freezing that evening. Ethan was a dalmatian, and Will wore his zebra costume from last year. To say that Will was not excited about putting on his costume would be an understatement. He was sobbing and telling me, "No zebra!" I finally was able to get him into the pants, but we thought that would be as far as we would get until I convinced him that the top was just a jacket. For some reason he was okay with that.
And once he caught on that zebra=candy, he was all for it. He ate quite a bit of that candy before we left the community center.
When we went out that night, our first stop was at our neighbor, Dan's, door. Dan gets really into Halloween, so his house was all decorated, and he was dressed up as the Grim Reaper. He tried not to scare Will, but Dan's a pretty big guy, and it was just too much. Will started crying, and for the rest of the block, at every house he said, "No Dan! No Dan!"
I had to include this video of Ethan attacking Will for his candy. This is how he growls whenever he wants food.
This is Will's version of "Trick or Treat."
It is definitely getting colder, but we're still waiting for the snow. They predict it every couple of days, but so far, we've only had about 10 minutes of it, and it melted right away. The main thing we're having to adjust to is a lot less daylight. Right now, the sun rises at about 8:30 and sets at 4:30, so we never are quite sure what time it is without looking at a clock. The one good thing is that it makes me start dinner a lot earlier than I normally do because I just assume that it's 6 o'clock. Which means in December, we'll probably be eating dinner at 3 in the afternoon and in bed by 5. Perhaps we'll move into a Senior Community. It's always an adventure in Alaska!
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