Deployment!

It is official. I am deploying again. This time, though, I'm not going to Iraq but to Qatar. I don't really want to leave Michael, but I feel that God wants me to deploy, so I'm at peace about it. I'll be leaving in just a few weeks and I'll be gone for six months. This will be my last deployment, though, because when I come back, I won't have enough time left in the Air Force to deploy again. If you're not sure where Qatar is located, here's a map.

It's going to be a major climate change for me. Right now, the weather in Alaska is around -15 with no humidity. In Qatar, it's in the seventies with over 80% humidity. Come summer, it's going to be up in the 100s. I'm not really looking forward to the heat. Oh well, I'll survive.

I'll try to keep everyone posted and the blog updated. I know when Brandon was over there, he couldn't check their blog...I may have to email Michael what I want posted and have him post it.

Crazy Weather

The cold streak finally broke Sunday night. Some of the old-timers around here say it set a record for being the longest cold streak. We went three weeks where the warmest it got was -36. If you want cold, that's cold. In like three days though, we went from -45 to positive 45. It's a BIG jump. Everyone here is walking around in their shirtsleeves, no jackets or anything. I've heard that everyone down south is getting some really cold weather, though, so while we're up here enjoying the +50 temperatures, everyone in the lower forty-eight is freezing. Hahaha. Seriously though, having such a drastic temperature jump up here is very dangerous. The snow melts and the water covers the road and since the ground is still cold, the water glazes over so the roads and highways are just a solid sheet of black ice. Every hundred yards or so, there's another spot where a vehicle went off the road. Even we aren't exempt. Sunday (before the temperature warmed up) we had a little fenderbender in our new Toyota. When it's really cold out, anything plastic doesn't bend, it shatters. So, our right front bumper is shattered. At least Michael says it's only cosmetics, it didn't damage the frame. Our warm weather isn't going to last, though. The weather site is predicting it will be back down to zero by Monday night. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.....

Physics @ -40 Degrees (& Colder)

This entire post has one purpose; to show you how cold it has been here lately. We have collected these images over the last week . We heard that one marquee sign in Fairbanks showed -63 degrees. bbbrrrrr...! The coldest that we have actually seen ourselves this week is -52. More of these same temperatures are forecasted through the end of the week (as far out as they dare try to predict). And oh, BTW, the high temps have only made it to -38. This picture was supposed to be toward the end, but accidentally got deleted and had to be downloaded again. this is where it ended up. This is what happened to the bubbles after being exposed to the air for just a couple of seconds. When the temperatures get this cold, we get a dense build-up of ice fog. This picture shows North Pole as viewed from the highway overpass above the town. This is the accumulation of ice around our three-pane windows in the bathroom. Michael is enjoying the snow... in his bare feet of all things. This "Hanging Glacier" on our front room window is growing bigger each day. It collects its ice from the warm air that leaks out through the window and wall SEE THAT?! We are not just making this up. There is proof the temperatures get colder than negative forty degrees!! What do have to say for yourself now? This is the bubble film left over after the bubbles burst in the cold. Michael is blowing bubbles outside while Sarah is safely indoors with the comfortable 68 degrees.


This video demonstrates what happens to cold water thrown into the air at -40.


This second video demonstrates what happens to hot water under the same conditions. Be sure to turn up the volume and listen closely

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Especially since we can't do anything about it. Alaska does have snow for seven to eight months of the year, you know. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." because I know that's what we'll have.

This is my attempt to capture one snowflake. I think I caught more than one, but oh well. They were very tiny today.

There is snow piled everywhere, looking really pretty. And it's still falling.

This is how much snow we have just off of our porch, though actually, it's snowed another four inches since I took this picture.

Up here in Alaska, we also don't have very much daylight. This is the sunrise on the 20th of December. This picture was taken at 11:30 in the morning.

This is the sunrise on the 22nd of December. Again, it's at 11:30. The sun sets for us around 2:30 so we only have about 3 hours of daylight We did get our Christmas tree set up around the first of the month.

Rista Cat thinks she's a Christmas present.
Here she's claimed her brush. "My brush, no one is allowed to touch it." Actually I just thought she looked cute the way she was sleeping on it. If we leave it on the floor, she will try to brush herself with it.

This past week

This past week has been very busy for us with our two year anniversary and thanksgiving. To start with, the Saturday before our anniversary, the 22nd, we went into Fairbanks and bought a new vehicle. It's a Toyota Highlander, 2008. We're planning for a few years down the road when we have a couple carseats in the back. (No news on THAT yet, though.) Even though it looks gray in the picture, it's actually a greenish color. It's really cool with a moonroof, heated seats, a backup camera so you can see what's behind you, and it drives really well on the snow and ice. We figured the Highlander can be our anniversary gift for the next several years. :)

We had a wonderful anniversary. Michael surprised me by having roses sent to my work. They are gorgeous and smell beautiful. Michael is so sweet.

After work, we went to eat out at a local Fairbanks restraunt. I had almond breaded chicken and Michael had a seafood pasta. The restraunt treated us to a dessert of Baked Alaska since it was our anniversary. Baked Alaska is a piece of dense chocolate cake, covered in vanilla ice cream and whipcream and then baked for a few seconds and drizzled with raspberry syrup. It was very delicious.For thanksgiving, we went over to the house of one of the families in the church. Two other families were there as well, so we had eight adults and eight kids. Here's one of the little girls. She's slightly autistic, but she is so fun and cheerful.

After the turkey was eaten, the kids wandered upstairs to watch movies and the adults sat around the table and played a card game; Dutch Blitz. We played that game for at least three hours, probably more like four. I think the adults were louder than the kids. Since it was Michael and my game, we were boasting that we were going to win. It ended up that we didn't, but we came in second place. Everyone had fun. We didn't leave there until after midnight.
This is just a picture of a sunrise on the way to church last Sunday. It's ten o'clock and the sun isn't even above the horizon. It sets at three. That gives us a total of five hours of daylight. We're less than a month away from the shortest day of the year.