How I almost died

My Pastor, Gene, told me once, that you get more reads on your blog if you can come up with a catchy title. I completely agree with this, and so after our conversation I took a look at my blog only to find out that my most read blog was, "We're moving to Alaska". Not surprising.

 Ok. I admit it. I didn't almost die. I mean I DEFINITELY felt like I might at the time. But mostly I know that a large percentage of you are reading to see how I almost died..not sure how I feel about that.

... I digress. Here is what really happened.

For those of you who know me well you know that we LIVE by my bucket list. I keep an album on FB which I regularly add pictures to once we knock something off my list. I am always adding to the bucket list-much to Daniels delight..hehe.

I have many "Alaska only"adventures that I am currently focusing on. One of those happened to be snowmobiling.

Now neither I nor Daniel had ever been snowmobiling, but I mean, hey, it cant be THAT hard. So when one of the guys who Daniel works with invited us to go with him and some friends, we were on board.

We probably should have considered that Cantwell, AK is one of the most extreme places to snowmobile in the world-for experienced riders..which was certainly not us. This became apparent when literally we went to start the day and went up the first little mountain and flipped the snowmobile. Basically from that point on I was terrified..especially after we soon after flipped again and then 5 minutes later i completely flew off a good 5 feet from the snowmachine.

At this point I decided 2 things. 1. This was the worst idea ever. 2. If I made it out alive it would be a miracle.

Granted, the snow was so deep when you flipped you literally landed in 3 feet of fresh snow covering many more feet of settled snow-so it never hurt-except your pride. But it DID sufficiently scare me half to death each time. I kept thinking, "this is it Lord...You're taking me home today".

Ok, so looking back I was probably being a little dramatic. But what made this so different from all the other crazy things we've done-I never felt secure. Usually you skydive, or whitewater raft and at first the adrenaline is pumping and your terrified, but then you realize this is awesome, and the excitement clouds your judgement enough your enjoying it. This-this..there was nothing but crystal clear understanding I was going to die. This was, "I'm about to fly over the mountain and I cant see if there is ground or a 20 ft drop awaiting me." You would come up on these mountains so vertical that you felt like you were going to slide off the machine, only to just barely make it on the top and hope you didn't drop because you weren't sure if there was ground over the mountain.

It was probably good that the machine was so loud no one could hear what I was saying..
I kept thinking the entire day of a saying my college roommate Jen used to say. It had to do with being tense and a penny-if she reads this she will know haha.

 Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

For those of you enjoying the warm weather at home-it's been snowing here. And it's cold, so very cold!! Thank the Lord for warm clothes and heat. Truly, I think God had me in mind when heated car seats were created. It's the small things in life...

-Leslie





 

We made it

I read a quote this week:

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.”-John G. Shedd-

Apparently Mr. Shedd has never been to Alaska.
This is precisely what I was thinking when after getting up at 4am for our 6:30 flight, we were told that our plane was having maintenance issues. After about an hour it was clear that we were going to miss all our flights for the day, and this plane was not taking off. We had to be rerouted on the only available plane which was going to get us in Alaska at 2am-6am our time. 24 hours being awake. Here is what was running through my mind...

In fact, I'm fairly certain that was my exact face. Daniel encouraged me to sit down while he dealt with everything (mostly because he was afraid I was going to embarrass him in my grumpy state..which okay, was probably true). After getting over the fact that there was nothing we could do and we just needed to put our "happy faces" on and do what we needed, we began are really long day.

 I always enjoying flying so much more when I am with Daniel. Unfortunately for him, being his size means flying is mostly miserable, although he never ever complains. Our last 2 flights (and longest ones) the person in front of him leaned their chair back all the way. People-consider this when you crank that chair back-don't do it! Daniel gave me his grumpy face which always makes me laugh so hard mostly because he is the least grumpy person ever and even in a terrible situation he cant help smile when I start losing it.

We were near delirium and by the grace of God still were able to love each other when we landed in Alaska. It was 2am and we were tired and praying our luggage had been rerouted correctly. We got nervous when one of Daniels suitcases mysteriously was sitting by itself in the airport...okay..
We got our luggage which had thoroughly been beat to death and surely dropped and drug though the dirt..but hey, we have our luggage I said (proud that I was being the positive one). Daniel went to pull his handle..and nothing. After a few minutes of rage yanking the handle it was decided it was broken beyond repair.
So here we were: It's 2am and we are dragging our luggage through the snow in 10 degree weather freezing. I look ahead of me at my husband trucking angrily through the snow as he somehow lugs his "nemo" suitcase in one hand and his second in the other hand, and reach the rental car which is thoroughly buried in snow and were given the tinest snow scraper imaginable..and I bust out laughing. Ï mean REALLY!?!?!? it was such a cryable situation that all I could do was laugh. So there we were losing it like 2 sleep deprived maniacs who just want to be done with this day.

We made and have been getting situated since. We are so happy to be getting into somewhat of a normal schedule. And when I think about that quote, I realize that as good and safe as it is to be in the "harbor", God has designed us for so much more. So, here's to sailing our ship.


 The last frontier.

-Leslie

We're moving to Alaska

We are only a few days away from picking up and moving our life for 6 months at a time-for 2 years..to Alaska.

Let me back track here for a minute.

I met my husband in highschool. I saw him, did a double take, and the rest as they say, is history. And that was the beginning of literally the biggest adventure of my life.

When we graduated college, me with a degree in I.O. psychology ready to change the world, and Daniel with a degree in electrical engineering ready to..engineer?
We got married that summer, and thankfully both had really good jobs. We were happy and so blessed-but Daniel was traveling a lot.
The nature of what he does involves him doing engineer work all around the world. Most of the time for weeks at a time. Despite that misery I feel when I am home alone, this has always afforded us the treasure of traveling the world for basically free. Our first year of marriage Daniel spend weeks in California (where I got to visit San Francisco and Yosemite to see the redwoods), Cap Cod MA (where we ate the best cupcakes, and saw the plymouth rock, and soaked up the sun on the beach with my sister in law), along with many other trips.
Last summer Daniel started running a job in Alaska-for 6 months. I was able to visit him, which was awesome and we trucked along working separately. We were genuinely happy, but we both hated being apart. The job is a three year 6 months at a time (then come home and work then back).
Fast forward a few months to the decision to hire me and allow us to travel together. My husbands dream-boss at home and at work! lol.

So I quit my job, started working with Daniel, and here we are.

We are so happy to be able to travel and work together but I keep asking why we couldn't have the Hawaii job?!? Can I get an Amen??

Being married is an adventure-the best kind.
A year ago if someone has asked me if this beach loving girl would be moving to the Arctic I would have died. Snow-negative degree weather-carhartt and steel toe boots-no malls or fancy coffee joints? um.... no.
But being with my guy, seeing the northern lights, snowmobiling in one of the top locations in the world, whitewater rafting in the national park, and dogsledding..did I mention being with my guy???Totally worth it.

It will be lots of working, a little fun, more working, and cold-so very cold, BUT we'll do it together. And that, well that's always an adventure.

-Leslie