Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We hope all our friends and family had a wonderful holiday season.  This was the first year we have been away from family and it was bittersweet.  We certainly missed opening presents with Nana and Papa, Auntie, Grandma and Grandpa, Papa, and Uncle Quint.  But, at the same time, it was nice to wake up in our own home with just the 4 of us.  The snow finally came, enough at least to call it a white Christmas.  It even snowed for a little while on Christmas Eve.  
The week before Christmas we took the kids to see Santa.  He was only in town for that weekend, which surprised me seeing how close we are to the North Pole I thought for sure we would get to see more of him.  Every year since both kids were born I have gotten framed Santa pictures.  This year's didn't turn out so well.  Gianna lost her mind the moment she realized she was in a stranger's lap.  Luke who normally has zero stranger danger just looked shell shocked.  He kept looking from Santa to his sister as if wondering what all the fuss was about.  And poor Santa just looked like he wanted nothing more than for this screaming baby to be taken from him.

Christmas day poor Mark woke up with a fever of 102!  He managed to make it through opening gifts before disappearing for the next three days!  The kids and I went over to a friend's house for an excellent dinner.  We had ham and turkey, potatoes, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, homemade rolls and great company.  The kids all played together and I got to relax some.
New Years Eve we spent with the same good friends.  We got so involved in our Scategories game that we missed the ball drop!  The new year has treated us well so far.  The hospital here is getting ready to make the gigantic switch from paper charts to electronic medical records.  It will be great having electronic records, but I am really not looking forward to making the switch.  
We hope the new year is a blessed one for all who are reading this.  Ours, so far, has no complaints.  Warmer temps have meant more chances to play in the snow!

Extreme Cold!

Sunset over the snowy tundra

We are defiantly starting to experience temperatures lower than I have ever experienced before.  The other morning we woke up to -23 degrees, factor in the 15-20 mile per hour winds and the temp was about -45.  With these low temps comes a plethora of new experiences for us.  Here are just a few:
* Despite the fact that we have double pane windows there is a thick layer of ice on the bottom INSIDE of all our windows!  On several of our windows we taped plastic shrink wrap to the inside in an attempt to keep the cold out and the heat in.
* The other day I went to visit a friend and she had to use a hair dryer to defrost her door before she could let me in.  Her outer door had actually frozen shut!!

Snow drift

* There is a phenomenon that we have not yet experienced since we are able to park our car inside our heated garage, but I know several people who have... square tires.  That's right, square tires.  The temperature gets so low that the pressure drops in the tire and they flatten a bit.  Then the rubber freezes in the flattened shape.  The only way to get your tires round again is to warm them up, the only way to warm them up is to drive your car.  At first the tires and car clunk along, but apparently it doesn't take too long for them to warm up, round out and ride smoothly.  I almost want to leave our car outside one night just to see if our tires are square in the morning.
* Lately whenever you walk outside, after just a couple of inhalations through your nose, the inside of your nostrils start to freeze!  Its a very strange sensation.  The first time I experienced it I kept breathing in just to feel my nose.

Frozen Kuskokwim River

* A few nights ago, I took a walk out on the tundra to view a beautiful meteor shower and try to catch the northern lights.  It was about -45 with the wind and after about 10 minutes I could feel icicles on my eyelashes.  I didn't last too long outside that night, I don't have goggles yet and it didn't take long before my cheeks and bridge of my nose were burning.
* Lastly, we got a chance to take a drive on the river.  We didn't go very far, it was a much rougher crossing than I thought it would be.  Plus the wind was blowing the snow so much that it was quickly covering the previously made tracks.  Since we weren't at all familiar with the smoothest route we turned around rather than risk a flat tire in the middle of the river.

Driving on the Kuskokwim

Ice fishing

Blowing snow over the frozen river

So maybe its just the novelty of our first Alaskan winter that makes all the above so interesting, but if that's what it takes to help us get through the coldest winter we've ever experienced then we'll take it!
  

Becoming More Alaskan

Just one of the hind quarters we got

Back in the beginning of September moose season opened.  In that first weekend friends of our friends got not one but two moose!  It was kind of a sad story actually.  The two moose seem to have been brothers.  They were both wondering the tundra together.  The first moose got shot and the second moose didn't want to leave him there, so he got shot too.  (If it makes my animal loving friends feel any better, those two moose filled more than one freezer.)  Mark was asked to help quarter and pack the moose back to Bethel.  In exchange for his labor we would get to keep some of the moose.  It took the whole weekend.  The first day both moose had to be gutted and quartered.  Each moose probably weighed 700-800 pounds and had to be moved away from the gut pile to keep bears off their sent.  Mark didn't get home that night until about 3:00 am, got a few hours of sleep then headed back out to finish packing the moose back to Bethel.  In the end we got two hind quarters.  
We brought the meat to a processor here in town.  It took a little bit of time, but we finally got our moose back.  One hundred pounds of moose sausage, moose hamburger, moose roast... Our freezer is full of meat that will save us hundreds of dollars this winter.  

Our freezer full of moose!

Moose stew.  Yumm!

Tonight I made moose stew for dinner.  We had our good friends over to enjoy it with us.  (Dinner get-togethers are a way of life here.)  It was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself.  Not too gamey as I was afraid it would be, and very lean.  I do feel just a little bit more Alaskan now that my freezer is full of moose meat and I successfully cooked an enjoyable moose dinner.

Russian Mission

My Room

Russian Mission Clinic

This past week I have been away on my second village trip.  Russian Mission is a village of just over 300 people, nestled in the mountains on the bank of the Yukon River.  It's about a 45 minute flight northeast of Bethel.  The first record of the village was in 1837 by fur traders.  Then, the village was known as "Ikogmiut" meaning "people of the point".  The whole town is less than 6 sq miles of land.

Main Street

Enough snow for sledding 

Moose quarters hanging in the cold

Russian Mission - mountain view

My trip started out a little rough.  I arrived early Monday morning only to find the health aide who was also supposed to be there was nowhere to be found!  I was on my own.  No nurse, no health aide, just me!  I didn't know where anything was located, and if there was an emergency I didn't know who I was supposed to call.  No 911 out there, just me.  The health aide who was supposed to be there that day had a full schedule of patients.  Most of those patients regretfully had to be cancelled, but I tried to squeeze some into my already booked schedule; I was frazzled to say the least.  That night I barely slept for fear that the on-call phone would start to ring.  

Trail up the mountain

The next morning however, things began to look up.  The health aide arrived on the morning flight and I was successfully getting my patients' blood on the first stick!  There were so many patients who needed to be seen.  I saw patients every day I was there from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 or 9:00 at night.  

Airport

The Yukon River - frozen of course!

I managed to get out and around town for just a bit on my lunch break the last day I was there.  I went and had lunch at the school.  The kids were too cute.  Some of them I had seen earlier in the week as patients.  Many of the elders I saw as patients were there as well.  The school is the town's biggest employer, so I shouldn't be surprised I was seeing so many familiar faces.  One of my patients gave me a tour of the two story, two year old, K-12 school.  My favorite room by far was the Yup'ik room.  In this room, the elders pass on their knowledge of the culture.  They teach the kids how to make various arts and crafts, bead work, quilting, and sewing.  They also teach the kids how to trap fish and animals for fur.  The room was full of tradition.

I truly look forward to my next trip.  With any luck I'll be able to bring a nurse along with me and double the number of patients I see!

Painting of Russian Mission in the 1950s

Preschool

I can not believe how big my little man is getting!  We have mastered potty training.  His latest excitement is peeing like daddy - standing up.  This has lead to some interesting messes, but whatever keeps him out of diapers is just fine by me!  
This past week we hit another milestone with Luke.  PRESCHOOL!!  We got word that the school district here was opening up a new preschool class for 3 year olds.  Thankfully since Mark works for the school district Luke was bumped to the top of the waiting list.  It seemed to take forever, but Monday I got a call that Luke could start school Thursday.  We were a bit nervous about how Luke would react to the news that he wouldn't be going to Tata's house (the babysitter)anymore.  We spent the days leading up to Thursday talking all about how great preschool is going to be.  It worked because Thursday morning when we stopped at Tata's house to drop off Gianna, Luke just waved to his sister and announced that he wasn't going to Tata's because he was going to preschool.  
So we made 2 big mistakes that morning.  First, we didn't drive to the preschool the day before so we knew exactly where it was. Second, we looked it up on MapQuest.  The second mistake may not sound like such a big deal to all our friends in the lower 48, but I know all our Bethel friends are shaking their heads wondering what we were thinking.  MapQuest up here is NEVER correct.  But instead of just saying it is unable to map our location, it will pinpoint a spot.  Keep in mind the road map it shows is accurate, complete with most road names.
So we started driving toward what we thought was the preschool.  Luke was in the back seat repeating "I go to preschool, I go to preschool..."  We drove out almost to the end of town before we realized MapQuest had again lead us astray.  At this point we turned around.  At that point Luke thought he was no longer going to preschool and had a complete meltdown.  He started screaming at the top of his lungs "I wanna go to preschool!"  Mark was stressing because it was ten after eight and he had an 8:30 check in time at the airport.  I'm trying to use the not so reliable internet on my phone to look up a phone number for the school so we can find out where they are.  Finally we made it to preschool.  Luke hasn't mastered walking on ice (which is everywhere here) so he made Mark carry him into the school.
When we walked into the classroom I thought sure Luke would take off and never look back.  There were all kinds of toys and books and crayons.  But Luke clung to Mark and buried his head in Mark's neck like I have never seen that boy do before.  It took us about 10 minutes before he would finally go to the teacher and we were able to sneak out.
Thankfully we live in Bethel, and only in Bethel could Mark call the airport and check in over the phone so he wouldn't miss the flight, which was canceled about 2 hours later anyway due to the weather.
  

Freeze up on the Kuskokwim River

A quick up date on our weather.  The sun rises around 10:00 AM and sets around 5:00 PM.  It's strange going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark.  The temperatures have dropped considerably.  Our highs are often in the single digits and our lows below freezing.  Factor in the wind, which usually blows about 20-30 miles per hour, and we have had several days in a row of -25 degrees!  Tomorrow is supposed to drop even lower and drive the temp to -35 degrees!  Its hard to describe how cold that is.

All bundled up, but it was only about 25 degrees out this day

I mentioned earlier that we have ice everywhere.  We were supposed to get several inches of snow last week, but somehow with a temp of 26 degrees all we got was freezing rain.  The next day we managed to get a dusting of snow, but the temp rose just enough to melt it all, which then refroze that night and has remained frozen ever since.  Its a slippery world out there right now, and I don't think its going to change much till spring!   

Grandma's Visit

This week Grandma came to Bethel for a visit.  We picked her up on the evening jet last Friday.  After a long day of flying though, what better greeting than that of a squealing 3 year old?  Although there is not too much to do in Bethel, we did go out one night for dinner and she got to experience the prices that one can only find in Bethel (or a five star restaurant in New York City, but who's comparing?) 

She was here for our first Alaskan Halloween.  Gianna was my little flower, but she wouldn't keep her petal hat on for longer than 2 seconds, so she ended up being a fuzzy green stem most of the night.  Luke was Woody from Toy Story, and he thought he was the coolest kid on the block all dressed in his cowboy suit.
The temperature that night was in the high teens, but the wind was crazy and brought down the temp considerably.  Mark took Luke out for trick or treating while Grandma, Gianna and I stayed warm inside. 
Her week with us was great.  She got to reconnect with her grandkids and even nurse her son back to health.  For the last couple of weeks a nasty GI bug has been ripping through Bethel.  Mark was unfortunate enough to be affected, but fortunate enough his mom was here to make sure he stayed hydrated.    
Luke keeps asking if Grandma is going to be at his house when we pick him up from the babysitter.  We certainly hope she comes back for another visit soon!  (And not just because of the two fabulous bottles of white wine and bottle of vodka she brought with her!)

Northern Lights

And it's only mid October!

That's right!  Last night we got to see nature's best light show for the first time, or at least Mark and I did.  One of our good friends called around 10:00pm to let us know the northern lights were visible.  Sure enough, when we walked outside we could see the faint green glow low on the northern horizon.  At first they weren't much.  It looked more like a fog rolling in.  So we went back inside to watch a movie and warm up.  (The wind was strong and the temps in the 20s).  Throughout our movie we kept getting texts from friends about how much more active the lights were becoming.  Finally I couldn't take it anymore. The thought that it might be awhile before I get another chance to photograph the lights drove me to bundle up and tromp back out with my camera and tripod - and no idea how to photograph the northern lights.  
Apparently the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis, come from the energy of a solar flare.  As the energy from the flare rushes toward Earth it charges the atmosphere.  The charged atmosphere then creates sparks.  We see these sparks as the northern lights!  According to David Epstein, a New England meteorologist, scientists have even discovered that the lights have a sound to them.  
Eskimo tradition believes that the lights are torches to guide the recently deceased from this life to the next.  Southern Europe rarely get to glimsp the lights; it was believed that when the lights did display they foretold of war and destruction to come.  In fact just weeks before the start of the French Revolution, parts of England and Scotland reported an eerie display of the lights in fiery red.  Still to this day, Asian culture believes that to conceive a child under the lights will bring the child a lifetime of good fortune. 

Since the wind was blowing so hard and I knew I needed to have my shutter open for several seconds (a very still camera) I set my tripod about as close to the ground as I could get it.  When I went to take the picture however, it was so dark that the camera (which was set in semiautomatic mode) couldn't focus on anything!  I needed to switch it into full manual mode, but it was too dark to see the buttons on my camera.  Finally, after several failed, frustrating attempts, I got the camera to focus on the tundra grass and then after it focused on the grass I angled it up to the lights.  Not the best pictures in the world, but there's no doubt about how awesome a sight it was!