We were invited on a boat ride upriver with our neighbors. I took lots of photos! I want to share them with you!

Can you see the temperature!!!! 83.1 degrees at 4:22 p.m. This was in the shade! WOW!

This was our AWANA group for 2009-2010. We had a great year and the kids did so great! In the last 10 weeks they finished 283 sections!
Aerin finished her fourth T & T book this year and got a trophy, the Timothy Award. She is the only kid in Nenana AWANA that has ever earned this award.

We love AWANA!

Bill was the commencement speaker at Alaska Bible College this year. This was the last class that would remember him as a student. Graduation was May 8, so we made a weekend of it and went to Glennallen and Tok. We saw 11 moose, 11 caribou, beaver, rabbits and porcupines on the way down and back. We stayed with good friends and had a nice relaxing time.


Our little chicks are turning into chickens! This is a rabbit hutch turned upside down and made into a chicken pen. The kids can fit inside and they go and sit with the chicks.

Ethan has become quite the artist with the Etch-A-Sketch! I know I couldn't do this!

What a great Mother's Day present from Bill! Just what I wanted. But cooking with stainless steel is certainly different than non-stick!


We are having fun with the chicks. The kids each took two to school today for show and tell. They are so fun to watch!

Marshmallows!

Both kids won trophies in the Tae Kwon Do tournament held in Nenana this last weekend. Aerin got first in Sparring and third in Patterns and Ethan got first in patterns and third in Sparring!

This week is incredibly busy. Maggie has a sore on her leg, so she went to the vet yesterday for medicine and to update her shots. While we were gone the landlord came over and replaced some of the porch boards. Today is helping with Project Overhaul, a local clean up effort, then Wellness in Nenana meeting, then a funeral for Bob Eldridge followed by a potluck, then a meeting this evening about the gas pipeline. Wednesday is the Ethan's class field trip and the Spring Concert in the evening. Thursday is Aerin's class field trip, the Crowly Community Picnic and Races, and 4H in the evening. Friday is the School Clean-Up BBQ followed by a community Clean-Up Day. Saturday nothing yet. Sunday is Graduation followed by a picnic party for the graduates. Whew!

Ethan and I both got new hairdo's for spring!


We are dog sitting this little dog named Baby for some friends. Maggie (the black and white one) is our little dog.Spring is here! I have since raked up the leaves in the yard!


The kiddos dyed some eggs for Easter.

And our new project for the summer is chickens! We have 20 chicks. We bought all these, we tried to hatch some from eggs, but they didn't make it. Out of 12 eggs, there were four that had chicks in them, but they never hatched.

We have some bad news and I am so heart broken having to post it.

The baby we were eagerly awaiting miscarried on March 1st.

Sermons Now Online

We have something new at Nenana Community Church…

I received an excellent suggestion from a member that is in the lower 48 for the next few months. He asked about having sermons recorded so that he and his family could listen in even when they are away for a time. What a great idea! Alaskans love to travel and making sermons available is an excellent ministry opportunity.

The elders chatted about the best way to accomplish this request and we now have a new mp3 recorder. Added to the mix is that the other 2 elders have extensive backgrounds in the skill set to produce a reasonably refined audio track for posting online.

Look on the left hand side of the blog for a list of sermons. Click on the link and it will take you to Bill's blog with a short summary of the topic and a link to the sermon download.

The 2nd Annual Chili-Off was held January 9th, 2010. There were four more contestants than last year, and all the chili was really good. Each chili was judged in every category and the one with the most points overall was the grand champion!


The judges were left to right, Rebekah Thompson, Carl Horn, Bill Troxel and Wayne Miller.


The winners were Sam Verhagen, Tastiest Chili (2nd year in a row);


Prettiest Chili went to Terri Thompson;


And Hottest and Grand Champion to Jeff Coghill (2nd year in a row)!!!! Photo is from 2009.

Congratulations!!!

******

We had a very busy but very happy Christmas. From the week before Thanksgiving until Christmas Day we had something to do every day. Places to go, people to see, things to do.

On Christmas, we opened presents in the morning and then visited with two different sets of friends before we left on vacation. We so needed it. But it wasn't really an all rest vacation, we were visiting supporters and friends all through Alaska.


This is near Eureka, between Glennallen and Anchorage. I am always amazed at how beautiful Alaska is, every time of year. The sky was so blue and the snow was so white. God is so creative!

The frost was really incredible. It must have stuck out about six inches from the one side of the power pole. All the trees were droopy and the power lines must have been four inches in diameter. It was really cool.


I was taking pictures through my sunglasses and this one is really neat. Darn it though, my sunglasses got broken on this trip. I really liked the purple tint.


This is my friend Esther. I like this photo because we both look so happy.

Esther took this picture of me and Bill so we could have a formal photograph for Village Missions. We don't do formal very often! In fact, we had to borrow some clothes to take the picture!

We will be going to Hawaii in February for a real incognito vacation! We are all looking forward to laying on the beach and soaking up some sun!

What a great way to start the New Year!

I'm pregnant!

Our baby will be here in September 2010.

We are so very excited!