Wait what I have a blog?

Alright the secret is out, this clearly is not the most important thing on my to do list though the week, or month for that matter. However I still should probably start to do a better job for you all on this whole blog thing.

Things are going extremely well here in Alaska, and extremely busy as well!  The weeks literally seem to fly by and are full of new adventures every week.  I am finally to a point where I can say that I am quite a bit ahead of schedule for things that I need to do on office work, so I am able to work on other things through the day here, and get things done.  Ill try my best to run through a few things below and catch you all up on different things that have been keeping me away from this blog.

The most fun thing is my group that we recently started here called Sunday Night Life.  Its a group of birth through fifth graders, and their family all coming together for a night.  We eat dinner together, worship and then the parents lead their kids in a devotion.  The night is only about an hour and a half long but it is great to see parents leading their kids in a devotion and being the solid faith rock that they need to be for their kids.  I also send home devotions with them for the next month ahead so that they can continue faith growth outside of the church as well.

I have been hanging out quite a bit with my friends Trent and Shawna up here.  Trent was one of the first guys that I met up here, he works at the golf course that I play at alot.  He recently just moved his fiance Shawna up here about a month or so ago, and I usually see them a couple times a week, and some of their other friends as well.  Its nice to have some people around my age to hang out with, and friends outside of the church as well.

Our Children's church is just starting to work on our Christmas service that we will be putting on the week before Christmas which is really exciting. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the different things that I am in charge of here, I really have been insanely busy planning for these holidays.  So busy to the point that I think that it will be pretty slow for me in the next couple of weeks as far as things that I will have to work on during the day.  I normally have a couple meetings a week at night which allows me to leave the office early and go do what I need to get done for the day and be back at church at night.  I also got recruited to be on the hand bell crew here as well which is odd not having to blow a trumpet to make music.

I have been working out quite a bit, and now that I am actually back in shape I have targeted a half marathon in June which Im going to start training for soon up here.  It should be a pleasant fifty or sixty degrees about that time of the year so I wont have to worry about an 80 or 90 degree day which should be nice.  

In a couple of days mom and Kari are coming up here, which will be awesome to see them and show them everything that I have been talking about for the last five months or so.  The highs for the week are supposed to be about 15-20 so they should get a good taste of what the temp is starting to get like, its only getting colder.  The nice thing about the cold is that I think im starting to get used to it.  Last week I grilled out some chedderwurst and polish in jeans and a sweatshirt in about twenty degrees with no issue.  Dont worry I had a beer in hand as well, s it was super Wisconsin.

Hearing the news of Great grandmothers passing was difficult this past week, but I know that God's will was certainly done in her life, and that she was a beacon of light for those in darkness around her. I will never forget all the kit kats that she gave to me, and helped me become the pudgy gradeschooler that I was.  Seriously though a great woman, and a huge part of my life for years, and now she is off to a far better place than we  can even imagine right now.

Overall I'm still having a blast up here, and I know that right now, more than ever this is where God wants me to be.  Ill be back home in January for those who have not heard yet for a multitude of school things, and also to see family and friends.  I will be back from January 26th to February 4th.  Were planning a family get together in Chicago from February 2nd-3rd. My mom is working on details for that so if you have any questions I suppose call her or me and we can let you know what we know.  I think we are just going to rent some rooms at a hotel all together so that its easier for me to try to see everyone rather than trying to travel all over the country in like a four day time span.

Thank you for all your continued support and prayers it is greatly appreciated! The pictures below are from a plane ride that one of our church members took me on, one of the most ridiculous things I have ever done, these are just a few of the pictures, Ill have more when I come back for sure.

Gods blessings 

Alaskan snow princess update: None

Snow: About 5 inches 

This is an old missle site from the cold war, thought Kyle/Uncle Kev would get a kick out of this

McKinley in the distance