Thankful

This Christmas break has gone by way too fast.

I only have five more days here in Seward with Joshua before I head back to Newtok.

Did three weeks really go by that fast?!

Needless to say, I am so thankful that I got to spend my time here in our new home.

When I moved here, it was Josh's bachelor pad.

A bachelor pad in the sense he had nothing in here except paper plates, plastic silverware, and an old, beat-up, plastic chair. Seriously, he was really "roughing it" compared to our house in Newtok!

I had no idea how we were going to "spruce" it up - but I was excited that we could make it our own!

Luckily, my mom timed it perfectly.

The day after I arrived, we got all our wedding presents sent up to us from her and we could finally put them to good use!

I wonder if we will ever stop living out of tubs!

It was so fun to go back through our gifts. I don't think I would have appreciated all these gifts if I had used them from the very beginning. But honestly, some gifts we pulled out, we were wondering if we needed all of them after living in Newtok! Then I erased that thought, because of course we do!

One of the funniest moments of unpacking was when I finally got to unpack our new dishes. Out of all our gifts, I was really excited about them! I was excited that we could finally use good ones that matched. In Newtok, we just bought cheap ones that we knew would ship well to the bush. So, I just kept talking and talking about these dishes as we were unpacking. Then, as I unpacked them, I realized both sets were not the same. WHAT?!

Seriously though, both boxes said they were the same kind, the same color. But lo and behold, they were not.

If you know me, I love the color green. I am not a fan of blue. I specifically asked for these green dishes. And as it turns out - I got blues ones as well. I literally sat there looking at them for a good five minutes. Finally, Joshua started laughing at me because he could see that I was a little lot disappointed, and he wanted to lighten the mood. Let me tell you, at the time, I did not think it was funny. Okay, maybe a little. I think I had put too much excitement into these dishes. What a funny thing to be excited about dishes! But as it turned out, they really don't look bad together, and, I guess, I can get over the blue. 

In all seriousness, I love the dishes. It just took me by surprise!

So after all the unpacking, our house started to come together. We then decided to take a trip to Anchorage to buy furniture and some other little do-dads. 

This is what you bring back with you from a two day shopping trip from Anchorage:

Our list included shelves, a sofa cover, an ottoman, our big purchase, a kitchen table, and some other knick-knacks.

Joshua, with the help of Andy, put all of these items together in good time. This is what our porch looked like after a good 24 hours:

And that wasn't even the worse of it! You couldn't even see that snow in the back after the big boxes were put together.

So now everything is put together and it looks so great! Allow me to show you around our 

second Home Sweet Home: 

No house is a home without a cute door mat. Am I right?! This was a gift from my sister and I think she pretty much nailed it:

Thankful for such a great kitchen space. I don't even mind doing the dishes now - all thanks to running water! 

And yes, on multiple occasions, I have checked underneath the sink to see if I need to throw our bucket out. Four 1/2 months do change you!

Thankful for this beautiful bathroom and all of our accessories! 

Not meaning to give ya'll TMI, but using a regular toilet for the first time after being in Newtok was an experience!.. And it doesn't smell like our house is going to burn down every time we flush. That's a plus in my book!

And by far our most favorite spot in our house - the living room/table nook.

 This was our favorite purchase. In Newtok, there was no room for a kitchen table - so we knew we had to get one here!

 Although, this TV is a close second for Josh's favorite. Our Christmas gift from his dad and step-mom, John and Joni. We can actually watch TV in a living room now!

I know I still have at least one more semester in Newtok. But if anything, that experience, for both of us, has made us more appreciative of everything we have been given. So thankful for this new house and all the memories we will make in it- now and when I get back in May!

One last story: While we were in Anchorage, Josh and I decided to have a date night for our Christmas present to each other since we weren't going to get each other anything. We were planning on seeing a movie, because we I really love going to the movie theater and I haven't been able to since moving to Newtok. I have no idea why I brought it up, but as we were deciding what movie to see, being the cool wife, I mentioned we could maybe instead go see  a hockey game in Anchorage. So of course, our plans change considering Josh loves hockey (Go Blackhawks!). And no hockey game is complete without some fighting, right?!  It actually ended up being a really fun game and date night. We even ended up winning two free steak dinners and two free onion blooms from Outback because they scored five goals and ended up winning the game! The best part: the hockey team is the Alaska Aces. That's right - The Aces. The whole time I felt right at home because everyone was cheering "Let's go Aces" and I saw Aces apparel everywhere! Josh didn't really feel my enthusiasm on this one. It ended up being a win/win for both of us!

And as if I could make a new post without showing you the sites of Alaska, this was on our way back from Anchorage - just a normal trip on Seward Highway…