Life Changing Moments

That moment when you realize you've been doing it wrong your whole life.  This is that moment.

For Joe and I, it was on Super Bowl Sunday, 2015.

Let me start from the beginning.......

Those of you who know me, know that I am a bit adventurous. There is not much I won't try at least once, especially if it gets the adrenaline pumping.  I live for the thrill baby! The higher, the faster, the scarier.....the better!  And I love trying new things and seeing new places.

I'm adventurous in the kitchen too.  I love to cook and am constantly trying new recipes.  I'll be sharing some of my culinary adventures here on the blog as well, and here's the first.

Grilled cheese sandwiches.....who can imagine life without them? So yummy and so simple to make, most of us can do it in our sleep by the time we're in our teens.  How can you go wrong with butter, cheese and bread?  But you have been.  So very, very wrong.

May I present the Inside Out Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

I was first introduced to the Inside Out Grilled Cheese on Facebook, where we are constantly bombarded with all kinds of crazy, unimportant stuff.  Someone had shared a video of this guy making it and I blew past it, not giving it the time of day as I usually do.  But for some reason it stuck in my craw and several days later I went in search of the video, 'cause you know....I'm a little crazy that way.  After watching the video, I decided I'd give it a try sometime.

Sometime came on Super Bowl Sunday, while putting together our game time snacks.  I realized that all of the snacks I had were of the chip and dip variety, so I searched my cupboards for something to go along with all the different chips and dips.  I had butter, I had cheese, and I had bread.  Voila!  I'd make the Inside Out Grilled Cheese sandwiches and cut them into little squares for snacking.

Let me just tell you.........the seas parted and the angels sang.  The guy was right.  I would never make them the old way again.  Joe and I were like, yep.....that right there is dang good.  Crispy caramelized cheese on the outside and melty cheese on the inside.  Even Jason liked them, the hater of all things involving melted cheese other than pizza.  Can I get an amen?

Here's a link to the video and my challenge to you.  Watch the video and make the sandwich exactly like Chef John says to.  Use the dang white bread, all the butter, and for the love of God, do not use sliced American cheese!  I used Cheddar and a little Jack on the inside and Cheddar on the outside.  Then report back by leaving a comment on this post with your thoughts.  Will you ever make it the old way again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlTCkNkfmRY

Let's Talk About the Weather

You know how when something random reminds you of a song and then it's stuck in your head for like, ever?  That's what happened when I typed the title of this post.  I've got a little Salt N Pepa bouncin' around in my head now.....

Let's talk about sex, baby.
Let's talk about you and me.
Let's talk about all the good things
and the bad things that may be.

Here's a link if you want to get your Salt N Pepa on......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrtF45-y-g

Dates me a little, I know.  What can I say, I'm an 80's girl at heart.

But I digress.  Let's face it, the number one thing on everyone's mind when they think about living in Alaska is the weather, or more specifically the cold winter weather. And there's good reason too, because it definitely gets cold here and pretty much everything you do requires that you are mindful of the temperature outside.  But it's not just the cold weather that sets Alaska weather apart during the winter.  You've also got freezing rain, ice fog, blows and limited sunlight to contend with.  For a family moving from sunny central California to Alaska in the dead of winter, you might expect us to be heading to the shrink to have our heads examined by now. At the very least, you're probably thinking......

It's about variety, people.  The spice of life.  Keeping things interesting.  Staying on your toes. Being in awe of Mother Nature and experiencing her wonder.  There's something about experiencing extreme weather that reminds us of how amazing this planet is and how insignificant we are compared to it.  It makes me feel alive.

Not to mention, I had come to feel like the only weather we got to experience in California in the last few years was extreme heat (at least where we lived).  We rarely got snow or rain anymore, spring and fall lasted about two days, and the summers were long and blistering hot.  And we lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, not in the valley!  The drought there worries me. Even here in Alaska the last couple winters, including this one, have been mild compared to the norm.  Our climates are changing.....call it what you want.

Anyway, back to the weather here.  First things first.  When Alaskans talk about the temperature, anything above zero is referred to as "above" and anything below zero is referred to as "below".  For instance if you wanted to fit in, you would not say negative five degrees, you would say five below. Ten degrees above zero would be either ten above or just ten.  This completes your How to Talk Like An Alaskan lesson for the day.

Since the end of December (which is when we arrived here), the temperature has fluctuated between 30 above and this...

Our coldest day to date.

Yep, that's cold.  And isn't it crazy that in the last two months our temperatures have varied by about 80 degrees and never been over 30 above?  Wrap your head around that!

So what's life like at 30 and 40 below?  Other than the obvious, here's some things you might not expect:

• You become very aware of your nose hairs.  Most of the time we forget that we even have nose hairs, and are only reminded when we see some old guy who hasn't invested in a trimmer.  But let me tell you, the first thing you notice in extreme cold is your nose hairs freezing.  The only way I can describe it is you get this tight, dry, crinkling feeling in your nose.  It doesn't hurt, just feels weird and a little uncomfortable.
• The second thing you notice is your lungs.  The cold air hits them and you start to cough immediately.
• If you're a man and have facial hair, a runny nose can be a big problem. I suppose that applies to women too.  Keep tissue on hand.
• You can't make sharp turns in your vehicle, without risking blowing a power steering line.  So no U turns or sharp turns into parking spots.  This can be difficult when you don't know where you are going in a new town.  The day I was having my power steering hose replaced, so were three others.
• You need to leave your car running or plug it in if you're going to be in a store or business more than an hour or so, less if you have an older vehicle.  Many vehicles here are equipped with block heaters and have cords that hang out the front grill.  Most of the bigger businesses like stores, movie theaters, schools, etc. have outlets in the parking lots that you can plug your car into to keep it from freezing up.  It reminds me of a drive in movie.  One day I left my car running for about 4 hours while I shopped and then took the boys for dinner and a movie!  Yes, I lock the doors when I leave it so no one will steal it, but lots of people don't.  Crazy!
• You can go grocery shopping before a movie, and your cold and frozen stuff will stay cold and frozen while you are at the movie.  Pretty handy.  Back in California during the summer I couldn't even get cold stuff at two different stores because the stuff from the first store would be melted by the time I got out of the second store.
• You realize a hot drink addiction is in order if you don't already have one.  And that cold drink addiction needs to go away.  Those of you who know me well know that I have a little diet soda thing going on and have for years.  But let me tell you, walking across a parking lot with a cold soda frozen to your hand is not pleasant and it does nothing to warm you up during said walk.  I have never liked the taste of coffee or tea or anything even remotely flavored like them, but decided it was time to grow up.  So I visited one of the local coffee stands here in North Pole called Mochalicious and told the girls there my problem, and they hooked me up.  White coffee is where it's at people.  Milder flavor than regular coffee and twice the caffeine.  Add a little white chocolate and cinnamon and YAHOO!!!!!  Diet Pepsi stock is going down.
• Snowfall in sub zero weather freezes on your windshield wipers and renders them not just useless, but a hazard.  The snow falls, hits your wipers, melts and then instantly refreezes into a layer of ice that scrapes across your windshield making this horrible noise and smearing water all over so you literally can't see anything. Freak out ensues on roadway.  Thank God I was following Joe at the time I first experienced this and he was able to instruct me in the ways of wiper de-ice-ification. Basically, you get out and bang your wipers against the windshield to get the ice off.
• You can't go outside with wet hair.  It will freeze on your head.  For people like me who have very thick hair that takes a long time to blow dry completely and frizzes when I do, this is very annoying.
• You really don't need an extra freezer.
• Your cats get very fat very quickly.  Like, borderline obese.  Oreo has always been a lazy house dweller, but Tucker spent most of his time outdoors in California, climbing trees and chasing birds.  He has gotten so fat, so quickly that we've had to put him on a diet already.
• Your cats also start to watch TV, from boredom I imagine.  Here's Oreo watching Supercross with the boys.

• You don't see the actual ground from the time the first snow falls until spring.  I'm not sure, but I think our driveway might be gravel.
• If you throw boiling water into the cold air it will instantly vaporize into snow crystals.  This is super cool.  I was hoping to get it on video for you and post it to the blog but I waited too long. I don't think we'll see that low of temperatures again this winter, but if we do I'll video it.    
• The cats' water bowl in the garage develops a thin layer of ice and the garage is heated!
• Homes here are heated with boilers that use heating oil and hot water to run.  You know in the cartoons when the boilers in the basements come alive like monsters and terrify kids.  Yeah, it's like that. Here's ours....it makes all kinds of weird noises and I might be convinced it's a living being.

Even though this all sounds very extreme, I can honestly say that the cold does not feel as cold as you would expect.  In fact, I think that 30 above in California feels much colder than slightly below zero feels here.  The drier air here is what makes the difference.  I generally run around town in a thin fleece jacket with a long sleeve shirt on underneath. Now granted, I don't spend a lot of time outside.  It's mostly going between the car and buildings.  I have literally only worn my heavy coat once and that is when I went for a walk when it was 12 above.  The boys wear fleece jackets or hoodies to school. They'll add a beanie and some gloves when they head outside to ride the quad and pull each other around on a sled behind the quad.

While the extreme cold temperatures have their issues, the freezing rain is much more problematic. Last weekend we had an unseasonable rainfall with temperatures in the mid 20's which left the roads so treacherous that everything closed down including the airport, schools, and some businesses. Never heard of freezing rain?  Me neither.  I actually looked it up because I wondered how it was rain and not snow if the temperatures were below freezing.  Basically what happens is snow fall hits a layer of warm air that melts it into rain.  Then the rain hits a layer of cold air and cools it to a temperature below freezing.   However, the drops themselves do not freeze, a phenomena called supercooling. When the supercooled drops hit the frozen ground and other surfaces such as power lines and tree branches, they instantly freeze, forming a thin film of ice.  This results in all kinds of hazardous conditions and happy kids (no school).

This weekend we are supposed to be getting another type of weather system that will result in blizzard like conditions people here call a blow.  Basically you combine wind and snowfall, and you have a blow.  Visibility is a major factor.  Looking forward to my first blow!

So given all this craziness due to the weather here in Alaska, is there anything to like about winter? Oh yes.......first and foremost, the northern lights.  They are truly magical and totally worth braving the cold to see at least once in your lifetime.  We get to watch them dance across the sky right out our living room window and Justin will open his curtains and watch them as he lays in bed. But standing outside as they streak across the sky over your head is truly an awe inspiring experience. If it's not already there, add it to your bucket list people.  Here's some pics I took from our front yard.

There's lots of other things to enjoy during the winter here too, but this is getting long so I think I'll leave them for another post.  I'll leave you for now with a beautiful pic of the snow covered trees in our backyard.

Have any questions about the weather or anything else here in Alaska?  Leave a comment!

#alaskaweather
#alaska

His Name is Freddie

It seems fitting that I should publish this post on Valentine's Day.

His name is Freddie and he is everything I have ever dreamed of.  It was like he could see inside my soul and give me everything I needed, right then and there.

That first day, as we got to know each other I was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of him. Thank God Justin had wanted to hang out in the car so I could take my time and really get to know Freddie. I mean, who wants to be rushed at times like these, especially by their kid?  And here I was all depressed that I had to leave Big Red behind when we left California!  When one door closes, another opens.  Literally.

Meet my new love.

Ladies and gentlemen.....the grand-daddy of stores .... Fred Meyers, aka Freddie's.  This one store is like ten different stores under one roof in one giant store.  It is truly the epitome of one stop shopping. Imagine a full service grocery, Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohls, furniture, sporting goods, toys, automotive, electronics, full service floral, crafts, office supplies, pet supplies, I could go on and on.  Gone are the days of multiple stops running errands.  Need a pair of jeans, gallon of milk, bed sheets, copy paper, soccer cleats, asparagus, motor oil, craft glue, a sofa and the latest Xbox game?  One stop people, one stop.  And I was depressed to be leaving Target behind.  Oh silly girl.

Why oh why is there no Fred Meyer in California?

Here's another shot.  Gorgeous, right?

All kidding aside...this store is pretty great for busy people who don't want to make a lot of stops and get out of their car 10 times in 40 below weather.  Even Joe was impressed and he hates to shop!  We ended up getting a sofa and recliner there that evening.  Finally, somewhere comfortable to sit!  Now all we really needed was beds, the rest could wait.

And today, on Valentine's Day, I am reminded that this store might make my life easier, but it's these men that fill my heart and are all I really need......except for maybe a bed.

Standing on the frozen Chena River in downtown Fairbanks.

Settling In

After traveling over 3,000 miles by land and sea we finally arrived at our new home in North Pole, Alaska.  Where in the world is North Pole, Alaska, you ask?  Here's a little map to show you.

North Pole is a small suburb town about 13 miles southeast of Fairbanks in what is known as the Interior of Alaska.  Santa Claus lives here (you can visit his house and his reindeer year round) and the town has dedicated itself to expressing it's Christmas spirit all year long. The main streets include Santa Claus Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, Snowman Lane and Kris Kringle Drive.  And everywhere you go there are candy cane striped poles, light posts, and signs, lighted Christmas trees, and various other Christmas decorations.  Many of the businesses have Christmasy names too, like The Elf's Den and Polar Expresso (my favorite).  There is even the world's largest fiberglass Santa statue at the Santa Claus House.  How's that for notoriety?  I absolutely love the Christmas ooze.

I love that my exit off the highway coming from Fairbanks is Santa Claus Lane.

Even the McDonalds sign is perched on top of a candy cane striped pole.
And the street lights are candy cane striped too!

We live on the outskirts of town in a quiet neighborhood.  Most of the houses sit on 1 acre lots and are dotted with beautiful Birch trees and what I think are Spruce trees.  I just love the Birch trees.  I can't explain why, but I find a grove of Birch trees absolutely stunning.  I can't wait to see them with leaves in the spring and summer.  And the Spruce trees covered in snow are gorgeous too.  Both are so different from the Pines, Oaks, Cedar, and Sequoias I am used to in the Sierra Nevadas.  I can't say I prefer the trees here to those back in California or vice versa.  They are all beautiful in their own unique way.  I don't know.....those dang Birch trees really do it for me, so maybe they edge out all the others just a bit. :)

Here's a pic of our new home.

Yes, of course it was me who didn't back out of the garage straight. We all know it wasn't Joe.

So we arrived here around 6 pm on December 30th, one day before New Years Eve.  It seemed kind of fitting that we would ring in the New Year in our new home. We unloaded the car and about 3/4ths of the trailer within the first hour or so, ate some pizza for dinner leftover from our stop earlier in Tok, and then decided to hit the hay as we were all beat from traveling and our lack of sleep the night before thanks to Tucker.  "The hay" was actually air mattresses Joe had purchased and set up prior to flying back to California for the move.  Remember that 5x10 foot trailer I mentioned before?  Well, not much fit in that thing, least of all beds.  In fact, the only piece of furniture we brought with us was Joe's dresser.  Other than that we had four air mattresses, one camp chair Joe had brought with him in October and one camp chair the previous residents had left in the garage.  That's it people.

Are you wondering what the heck we did have in that trailer?  I mean, when one moves over 3000 miles away and is limited on space, what does one bring?  Just the basics, that's what.  Clothes, TVs, computer/printer, kitchen stuff, fishing gear (we were moving to Alaska after all), backpacking gear (again, Alaska) important documents, linens, tools, dirt bike riding gear (we are the Howards after all), guns (we are talking Joe here) and a few personal things.  It was important to both Joe and I that the boys bring as much of their stuff as possible but we all made sacrifices.  Jason brought most of his stuff other than his bike.  As long as his guitar, amp, dirt bike, helmet, TV and Xbox were coming, he was happy. Justin left behind his bike, Legos and book collection.  He was only really bummed about the Legos and his Diary of a Wimpy Kid book collection.  Joe left behind his compressor and toolbox, which bummed him out.  All I really brought was clothes, unless you count cooking stuff.  Somehow, because I like to cook, cooking stuff qualifies as "my stuff", even though I cook for the whole family. Quite frankly, I think I made the biggest sacrifice of all......I brought none of my scrapbooking stuff. It's a travesty!  Luckily I had planned for such a disaster and taken most of it to my mom's on Thanksgiving with the intent of her shipping it to me later.  I had packed up one essential box to bring with me that would get me by for a while, but alas it would not fit in the dang trailer.  So I left it with a good friend and she will be shipping it to me soon. Where there is a will........

So clearly when we awoke the next morning, a shopping trip was in order.  We needed stuff.  Lots of stuff.  We needed a table to eat at and something to sit on at the very least.  So we headed for Fairbanks.

And we shopped til we dropped.  But by the end of day one, no furniture.  We did have a toaster and popcorn maker though....which is almost as important.

On our way home from Fairbanks we noticed there were firework stands everywhere and tons of people buying fireworks.  It looked like Fourth of July in Fresno!  Perplexing.....

When we got home late that evening we were in for our first lesson of living in this new land.  The newer houses here are built air tight and equipped with air ventilation systems that control moisture, among other things. When using a wood stove in such a house, you kind of need to be in the know about a few critical things.  We were clearly not in the know.  Let's just say someone......I'm not naming names.....pushed a button that she shouldn't have pushed which turned on the ventilation system and created a backdraft in the the wood stove, resulting in lots of smoke in the house and the carbon monoxide alarm blaring.  To make things worse, said wood stove is not a normal wood stove like we're used to in California.  This one is a Blaze King catalyst stove, coveted here in Alaska for it's exceptional heating ability, but a little more complicated to use.  Let's just say after years and years of using wood stoves for heat, we had to read the manual on the thing.  Not knowing any of this as the carbon monoxide alarm blared, we had a to have a maintenance guy come out.  By the time he got here we had figured out what had happened on our own thanks to good ol' Google.  But he did fill us in on something we hadn't figured out......the firework stand thing.  Evidently New Years Eve is Alaska's 4th of July.  Why?  Well.....it doesn't get dark on the 4th of July here so therefore, fireworks do not have the same affect.  So New Years Eve is when Alaskans go crazy with fireworks.  And go crazy they did, at least in our neighborhood.  And these are definitely not the wimpy fireworks they allow in California.  These are serious shoot em up in the sky kind like you see at firework shows. Having lived in the mountains of California for so long and not being able to set off fireworks at all, we're looking forward to next New Years Eve!

The next day consisted of a lot more shopping for furniture and by the end of the day, we had a dining room table and chairs, and a TV stand.  This place was starting to look like a home!

On the afternoon of day three, Joe and Jason went to load Joe's trailer as he needed to get back to work the next day.  Justin, Tucker, and I headed to town for more shopping (Justin's favorite thing in the whole wide world to do).  Yes, you read that right.....I said Tucker.....or should I call him the hitchhiker? About half a mile from our house I decide to turn around and go back to the house to check on something and as I slowed down to make the turn I noticed a black and white animal bounding through a field of snow towards a grove of trees.  It was Tucker, who had hitched a ride in the engine compartment of the Jeep and decided he didn't want to go shopping after all.  The snow was at least a foot deep.  We pulled over and Justin tore across the field after him but didn't catch up to him before he entered the grove of trees.  At this point I'm thinking we're never going to see him again and he's going to die a slow, frozen death, but luckily he started to meow and Justin found him.  Holy crap.  That was close.  Anyone who does not believe in fate, well let this be your proof!  What made me decide to turn around and check on something at the house?  What made me look towards that field which was in the opposite direction of which I was turning? If I hadn't, Tucker could have fallen out on the highway or made it all the way to Fairbanks and taken off without us noticing.  What a sight we must have been with our California plates, pulled over on the side of the road, a cat bounding through a field covered in a foot of snow with a kid racing after him in sneakers, and a mom stuck in the middle of the field because her sneaker had come off her foot and stuck in the snow while pursuing said cat and kid.  Oh.....did I forget to mention that part?  Yes, well....lucky for me the snow here is very dry and my sock didn't even get wet.  Just very cold!  :)

Here is a picture of the hitchhiker, I mean Tucker.  He is starting to get a little irritating.

Once the hitchhiker was secured safely at home, Justin and I headed out once again for town and it was that very afternoon that a new love entered my life.