Tender Mercies

Happy 2014 everyone!!  Thanksgiving Day 2013 I love New Years because it is a time of reflection and hope. It is a perfect time to start over and begin anew! 2013 was a roller coaster ride for me.  I had some of my happiest moments in 2013 and also some of the most challenging.  I'm not about to detail the trials of 2013 because we all have them and there is no use in pointing them out.  But I will remember everything I learned and experienced this year. It truly has been so great and FULL of blessings!! Winter Solstice 2013. I love all of the ice sculptures around Fairbanks. You know that saying, "When it rains, it pours?" well I really feel like that right now in my life, but this gives me no reason to give up hope. In fact, I stumbled upon this speech this morning which was perfect  for the new year.  Below are some of my favorite quotes from it, along with the YouTube link for your viewing pleasure ( Source for quotes ). Oh and some cute ...

I can't help but count the many blessings in my life today.   Lots of beautiful, fresh snow blanketed our warm (9 degrees F) Fairbanks morning as I drove to church this morning. I was looking forward to spending my morning in the Christmas spirit as I celebrated the birth of Christ with everyone else at church.  The service was wonderful, and afterwards I quietly slipped out before classes were over to head to the rink. The snow was still falling as I was driving to the rink for our first "In-house" competition in years and annual Fairbanks Skating Club holiday recital.*  I was looking forward to seeing all of my lovely skaters and watch them perform. They had all worked so hard over the past couple of months, and this was going to be the culmination of all of our efforts.  It was a simple miscalculation on my part though. I was driving in the right had lane and remembered the lane was ending and  that I would need to merge back into traffic. Seeing as ...

Christmas trees are important.  I have good memories of going to the California mountains with my family every year to cut down our Christmas tree. I loved decorating it with ornaments while listening to Christmas music on our player piano.  This year is our first year actually spending Christmas in our own home, so it was imperative to have a tree! Well, at least it was for me.  But I didn't want to spend $60-$100 for a real one.  We don't have any space to store a fake one after the decorations come down.  We live in Alaska where the really nice, "classic" trees don't grow (at least I didn't see any). We borrowed a snowmachine from Marshall's buddy and we rode off into the hills until we found a tree that would do. It was relatively even and wasn't brown and dead. At least not all the way yet. I was pretty happy with it. I think the best part was just spending time with the man I love. My fingers were pretty numb by the ...

I don't know if my husband is going to feel satisfied if we move away from Alaska before he shoots a moose. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he will get one this winter.  How cool would it be to check that off our bucket list? Since we can't do that yet, at least we can check off eating moose from our list.  I've got to thank my Uncle Paul for making this possible.  As we were leaving his home after our Thanksgiving visit, he filled up our little cooler with moose meat--stew meat, ground meat, a chuck roast, and steaks. We felt so blessed! It is really good meat because he happened to get a young calf, which makes for really tender and non-gamey tasting meat.  Mmmm...Alaskan moose stew Last week I tried my hand at making stew in the crock pot for the first time (gasp!).  It turned out really good, and as we were eating it that evening, I realized that all of the ingredients were from Alaska. The potatoes from Delta Junction, onions from a local f...

Celebrations are just so much fun! I have been looking forward for our anniversary for a couple of months because I really wanted to do something fun and special for my husband. We were traveling on our anniversary last year so I didn't really get a chance to do anything the day of our anniversary last year.   I started the day by making waffles! They were made with coconut flour, banana, homemade applesauce, and eggs. Yum!! (I used a new recipe, which can be found by clicking this link ).  I left for the rink before Marshall returned home from PT, so I left them in the oven staying warm for him.  The first surprise I received was when I walked out to start my car at 6:45am and saw that all of my windows had been cleared of the freshly-fallen snow! I loved that. The smallest things are really the best. Upon returning home from my morning's activities four hours later, I saw a beautiful vase of red and yellow tulips and a note that read,  "This has been th...

I LOVE traditions. I don't know why, but my guess is that it gives me something to look forward to about holidays. Traditions are just fun! My favorite thing about this tradition is that it doesn't have to cost any money, yet there is meaning behind it. It's simple. Each year we pick a song that represented the previous year. It's also a lot of fun when we hear these songs later because it reminds us of each other. Then, on the evening of our anniversary, we play all of the songs in order and dance to all of them. It is wonderful.  This was our song while we were dating: Smile by Uncle Kracker Our wedding song: Keeper of the Stars by Tracy Byrd Our 1st Anniversary song: Lovin' You is Fun by Easton Corbin  And for our 2nd anniversary, we picked a song that reminds us of our love for Alaska and the many fun memories we have created this past year in this wonderful State.  Alaska, My Home by Midtown Revival (You need to fast forward to...

I really don't have a lot to say.   Fairbanks got dumped with tons of snow and ice this past week.   School was cancelled for 3 days.  My husband was off of work for 2.  We were out of power for 10 hours (we were the lucky ones. I have many friends who were out for 3 days).   But I tried to find the fun in all of it, and I enjoyed the snow while the sun was up! This was Monday at UAF.  Best $15 ever spent. But I am buying a foam sled next time! Monday 3:30PM University of Alaska, Fairbanks More sledding! During the Thursday snow storm! It felt SO good to be outside! My inner child came out. Our pumpkins (which really should be in the dumpster by now)... My husband gets a kick out of watching the squirrels eat our pumpkins!

I am sure lots of parents have had this question run through their minds: "What do I do with little Johnny's millions of trophies?" Trophies are all fun and cool when you are five, but what about when you are 23? Ever since I moved to Fairbanks, we have acquired many trophies from running in 5Ks.  I was getting kind of tired of dusting them, and while I loved what they represented, I didn't think it was necessary to have a shelf of trophies for us married folk.  Then I got a great idea, all on my own!! I took off the plaques from the trophies and then mounted them onto a board that I had sanded and stained. It is now our " ADAMS HALL OF FAME" board!   You probably notice the couple of gaps on the board.  There have been a few races that we have run in where we have won, but received a ribbon or something. I want to record these wins and get them onto a plaque. I just haven't yet. I also want to remember our 4th place finish in the mixed relay...

Happy Holiday Season!! It is finally here. I looked out the window yesterday on Halloween and saw that it was snowing, but I was okay with it! Mother Nature was kind enough to hold off on the snow until Halloween, but now it is here to stay for about 6 months. Why am I okay with that ? Because it means it is holiday season! You know, pretty lights, gift giving, my birthday (hehe), pumpkin pies, Christmas music, warm apple cider, and my anniversary! Fun times ahead for sure. To kick the festivities off, we went on a date on Halloween night.  I felt like I was back in the days when I was engaged, I was so excited for our date. Gosh, sometimes I am silly. But I am okay with that too. We had 2 free tickets to the Fairbanks Symphony, which we won back in April when we ran the Beat Beethoven 5K.   It started at 8pm, and since I got off from coaching at 6:30, I decided to be nice to myself and go out to dinner instead of trying to rush home and eat and then make it on time for ...

For some unknown reason, Fall has decided to stay for a long time here in Interior Alaska, and I am not complaining about it. Instead, I am falling in love with some fall activities like pumpkin carving and applesauce making!   Pumpkin Carving I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, but carving pumpkins brings the little kid out in me, and I enjoy reaching my hand into the squishy, slimy pumpkin and pulling out all of its guts. I like carving funny faces and enjoying the company of good friends while doing so.  Usually I take forever  to decide what to carve, but this year, I settled on a simple Frankenstein design in about 5 minutes! Go me!! Usually I use the pumpkins for puree later, but this year it has been so warm, that the squirrels got to them before I could. Oh well! I guess I am just going to have to go get some pie pumpkins instead.   Cute, right?!  The best "instant" candle for jack-o-lanterns is a cell phone! Genius. This one won fo...

I haven't ever taken a week-long trip alone, but I recently took an 8-day trip to the Seattle/Tacoma area to attend the Northwest Pacific Regional Championships with one of my skaters.  I really wanted to be able to travel with my husband, but I really had to go alone and be a big girl. It ended up being a huge blessing, because aside from coaching my skater, I had a lot of free time where I could focus on taking time for myself. The competition was a success, and I learned a lot. I also enjoyed staying with my friend who I met in Fairbanks and exploring the cities around me. Enjoy the pictures! Day 1: The Seattle Washington Temple So grateful to have friends who go to the temple with me! Maybe I am not so good at taking self pictures! Day 2: Renton, WA I took advantage of the sunny & warm weather and got out every day for a long walk. How beautiful it was! More awesome glass art! Day 3: Tacoma, WA I loved the blown glass near the Museum of G...