Winter is edging ever closer!

There's no denying it now! We had snow twice last week, none of it stayed on the ground but it's definately here. Lee of course is beside himself with joy....just another snowfall closer to getting to go snowboarding. When his PFD comes in we're going to get him his own snowboard and boots; hopefully this week. We found a sports store that specializes in second hand QUALITY sporting goods. It mainly targets families with ever growing kids, so that we can keep recycling equipment that has only been used for one season, before the child has grown out of it. Mailed PFD's are supposed to start arriving this week, so it should be a Happy week for Mr. Lee.

Bret's just starting his second week home. He goes back up to the slope next Friday. This week's plan is to buy or replace his winter gear, boots, coat, hat etc.... At least the company pays for his boots which tend to be the most expensive, next to their jackets. His exciting news is that he "crushed" one of his fingers, last hitch. Luckily nothing is broken....it's just really swollen and purple, but he says it's not bothering him any which is good.

As far as me, I'm just trucking along. Everyone is back at work so I'm looking forward to this week and just being responsable for my job and no one else's. Sadly my feet have started bugging me again, I'm trying not to panic, but I haven't been very successful. Hopefully it's just a bump in the road. keep your fingers crossed for me.

hope everyone is well! take care and drop us a line....

jan

Lee the Cross Country Runner

So here he is folks....our budding cross-country runner. Lots of excitement at the beginning of the race...but working pretty hard in the last few yards....but hey it was a mile long race!!!!

Life has been running along pretty well as of late. Lee is well into his school year and all is well. Everytime he see's even a hint of snow he's ready to jump into his snowboarding gear and rush to the ski hill. To give you some perspective, the east side of town got a skiff, and I mean a sparse amount of snow a week ago ( we didn't get any at our place) and Lee's sure the ski hill is operational. We live less than 5 mins down the road from where he snowboards! It's rather humorous. Lee's about the only one in Anchorage that is actively praying for snow at this point. Most of the leaves have turned to yellow, but some are still quite green and the grass is still as green as can be. Just in this last week it's started freezing at night...so he's getting closer.

By the way HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all the Canadian readers...sorry I missed it. We still have well over a month until the holiday in the states...which never has seemed right to me...it's too close to Christmas....but oh well, when in Rome.....or something like that.

Bret's halfway through his 2 weeks on the slope, he'll be home next Friday. By all reports things are going well. His shifts are Midnight to noon the first week and noon to midnight the next. It makes it kind of hard to touch base with him because I'm either working or sleeping when he gets off...so we don't talk much during the week, but we try to touch base on the weekends.

It's PFD time up here in our great state of Alaska. PFD stands for Permanent Dividend Fund. Way back when the pipeline was put in, Alaska received a huge lump sum of money. So now each year it collects the interest off of the principle. Half the yearly interest goes to the government and the other half is handed out equally to each Alaskan resident....so this year it's just over 1600 dollars each. It's a pretty nice perk for living up here: the bonus is that we're one of the few states that doesn't have a state tax either....I guess it kind of makes up for the added expense of living so far away. Bret's PFD will be here shortly but for whatever reason Lee and I had to appeal ours, so they'll be along sometime in the future...not to sure when. You wouldn't believe all the sales and deals that happen this time of year. It's way bigger than the Christmas rush....everything it just so happens is being sold at right around 1500 dollars....wonder why that is????

My works going along pretty good...we'll be back at full staff by Wed the 24th, which will be much appreciated. Things have gone really well, but I'm looking forward to getting back to my regular schedule and duties.

Not much else to report...hope this finds you all well! take good care!

bret, jan, and lee xxoo