Life is Good

The last 24 hours have been a roller-coaster of emotions, ranging from tears and "what ifs" to game-playing and laughter. And in spite of the what-ifs, Brandon and I were still able to look around us and feel extremely blessed by the beautiful landscape and people surrounding us. The last post gleamed with optimism, far before we were handed some harsh blows of reality that there were circumstances that might prevent him from completing the tasks for his day-to-day job. Upon hitting "submit" Brandon received a phonecall saying that nothing short of a miracle would change the satellite speeds, and a change to the VPN number would be the most viable option to make things work. Now neither Brandon nor I have any idea what a VPN is, but we do know that our Hughesnet man said he'd be shocked, unless Brandon were the president at Principal, if they'd change a VPN for us. That would be changing security features that would impact many, many people that were working remotely. We spent the day crying, wondering if we could swing it in Alaska on one salary, or if I could manage exploring this unknown world without my husband. After weighing the options and looking back on the lonely summer, I told Brandon I'd rather starve with him than eat without him out here. Our hearts sank, but we began making phonecalls to my bosses to start figuring our finances, checking retirement balances and seeing if there was anything Brandon could do for some spare change. My superintendent invited Brandon to sub if he were interested, and my principal said he'd be able to find work for Brandon around the school. He couldn't promise 40 hours a week, and he wasn't sure what he'd have him doing, but he said he'd do whatever he could to help if things didn't work with Principal. This "do-whatever-we-can" attitude in rural Alaska was just reinforcement for us to make a tough decision, come hell or high water, to stick it out together in Alaska.

Just as everything else works itself out in this wonderful world, so too did the technical difficulties regarding Brandon's work. This morning, after a few more hours on the phone with IT, and a few jokes exchanged between Brandon and me to lighten the mood in our two bedroom apartment, one genius of a man managed to find a detour for Brandon that led him right to all the files he couldn't seem to upload before. I don't think there was a neighbor around us that didn't hear me scream in excitement as Brandon's arms flew in the air and he told me he'd be staying with me WITH a job! We'll have to be creative and find a way to celebrate our good news tonight.

Although out of chronological order, I thought I'd share that we had a great time last night with Dani and Ron, playing Sequence after a wonderful chicken dinner that Dani made. I made homemade brownies for the first time, and attempted to make chocolate frosting without confectioners sugar. While the brownies turned out alright, the frosting was more like a hot fudge for ice cream. So we took the only thing we could think of, a picnic mustard squeeze bottle, and filled it to the brim with hot chocolate syrup. And as we ate the brownies, one by one, we drizzled the chocolate like you would honey on a biscuit. We weren't surprised at all to come home with only one brownie left in the pan after a stressful day. It sure was nice to distract ourselves from the waiting game we knew we'd be waking up to. We found that Dani and Ron are almost as competitive as Brandon and I are, and therefore decided that partners would be comprised of one from each couple. Ron and I were partners, and although we played well together, we got spanked four out of six of the games we played. Maybe we'll get some Mariokart or Marioworld going tonight. It's bittersweet, though; it makes us miss Mike and Amy, a lot.

Anyway, good news all around. We're loving it here. Kids from the village want to "visit" all the time, and although we enjoy their company, we've found ourselves becoming more and more stand-offish. They ring the doorbell or knock at least once a day, hoping to come in and sit for a while, but we've learned that having a little privacy in a village this size won't be a bad thing, and we can do all the visiting they want on a trip to the P-store. I'm excited to learn more about their culture and get to know their families.

For now, I'm off to school and Brandon's working away up in the spare bedroom. I leave for Dillingham tomorrow afternoon, where they've told us chartered flights we can have as much luggage as we want, without being charged for it. So we're going to pack a suitcase and a cooler to stock up on fresh produce and bagged bread. Slowly but surely, we're learning that you take any and every opportunity you can to grocery shop. We're also realizing what it is we're going through the most of to gage what it is we'll need in a couple of weeks. We don't have it down to a science quite yet, but hopefully as we become more acclimated, we'll have a better idea of how much to order and when to order it, once we've done it a few times. Take care and love all around!

Brie