5 weeks and counting... breakup in Kotzebue

Five weeks left to go with the pregnancy and I'm not sure if I'm more anxious to have this baby or to move. It seems like we go back and forth on a daily basis. As of now, we are eligible to bid out of Kotzebue but we aren't sure we're ready to leave. In a lot of ways Kotzebue has been good for us and we will certainly miss the people we have become friends with here. Although I was initially skeptical of living in housing in such close proximity to all the people Aaron works with, it has been a blessing in disguise and made for a lot of good memories. Not to say there we haven't had our share of challenges, but overall when you chose to be happy where you are, you will be.

Breakup is finally on the finishing end here and as you can see from the pictures, we are mostly on dry ground. Eva loves to "go outside" and help daddy break up ice, clean up after Zoe, go to the playground and ride in the RZR. Zoe got a haircut and is on a weight loss plan after the vet said we put a few too many pounds on her this winter. Aaron is still training to run the Mayor's half marathon when we go to town. Eva and I leave in three weeks and won't be back until the baby is born. Next time I update this blog, we will be a family of four! I can't wait.

Mt. Redoubt

"No sooner had Redoubt volcano quieted down from a morning of unrest and commercial airline activity start to resemble normal when the volcano erupted again late this afternoon, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported." -Anchorage Daily News

In Kotzebue we're waiting for regular mail and bypass mail which includes groceries like meat and produce. The airport delays have slowed deliveries, but some stuff is still trickling in. We did receive our shipment of organic produce from Washington yesterday. Eva ate two clementines and the whole container of strawberries within five minutes of opening the box. She said, "I love oranges...I love strawberries!" Austin dropped a gallon of Eva's milk this morning, spilling it on the floor, and we immediately rushed to the store to make sure we had some in the fridge. She typically goes through a gallon every other day (that is $10/gallon...you do the math). Fortunately she tolerates canned and boxed milk but sometimes the store runs low even on those items. It’s not much different than having the bad weather which we've had for the past several weeks. Sometimes we didn’t have planes for two days so we are kind of used to it.

I am also getting better at preparing the foods we keep in the freezer for just such an occasion. We have about 15 red salmon from this summer's Kenai trip, some whitefish from Kotzebue sound, and Aaron got half the meat from three caribou he and another guy shot last year. I made a pretty good pot of caribou chili and some caribou and mushroom risotto. The fish tacos were also a hit!

I'm just glad my doctor's appointment in Anchorage isn't until next week....I hope things have calmed by then.

Baby Registry

Greetings to all! We've been asked by a few people what we need for the new baby. Fortunately we were blessed to receive so many wonderful gifts for Eva and having another girl helps too. But there are a few things we will need so we have made a registry at ToysRUs/BabiesRUs in Anchorage. You can look us up online. I believe they have the option to allow us to pick up items at the store when we go to town so you don't have to pay shipping. We appreciate all of you who have been so supportive of us while we are in Kotzebue.

Love,
The Meyers

Sledding and Whiteout

Kotzebue weather is strange indeed! Earlier this week we had a heatwave. Okay, so it was like 25 degrees, but coming from -60 it seemed like a heatwave to us. So we took Eva and Jeffrey sledding on the pile of snow across the street that was plowed out of our driveway. It was the perfect height for the little ones. They had so much fun! Just look at those faces

Today we had whiteout conditions: 60mph winds and -30 temps. Aaron wasn't even able to drive home from work (which is about 1 mile from our house). I tried to go pick him up on the RZR but I only got to the end of the driveway and then I saw nothing. Nothing but white. I couldn't even see our house anymore. Then some guys appeared out of nowhere and told me not to even try going any farther. So I turned around and went back. I even had to wear goggles to bring Zoe in from her house which is about 10 feet from our front door. I felt like I was in that movie The Mist except there were no alien bugs attacking me. You could hear the voices of people walking around you but you couldn't see where they were coming from. Austin captured a small video on his camera phone.

Baby Girl and other stuff

Aaron's leg after defensive tactics training in Sitka

Our front porch after the last blizzard

Eva finally takes a ride on her Christmas present

Baby Girl 2

Smiling for the camera

Christmas

Baby 2

I realize that there are some of you reading my blog who may not know about our big news.... sorry if we couldn't tell you in person. Everything looked good on our first ultrasound and baby #2 is due June 24. More to come....