It's Been A While

Our journey "South" has been quite an adventure. Little Lovey Sweet Sweet has adapted quite nicely, enjoying the clothing-free options that warm weather can provide. Mike is liking his new job as it offers more diversity of chores than his previous one. We have moved into our new house and are discovering all the joys and expenses of home ownership.

Leaving Sitka was very hard for me. It meant leaving Alaska, a place I truly feel at home. It also meant leaving some of the most wonderful people I have had the pleasure of sharing my life with. Hopefully, someday we will return to live again in such a wonderful place.

Mike and I faced a pretty challenging decision about our adopted cat, Trucker. He had that disgusting ear problem caused by uncontrolled growth of polyps in his ear canal. The local (Sitka)free vet was able to fix him up, but we feared a relapse and the overwhelming choice of draining Clare's college fund to fix him up or putting him to sleep if we took him with us. Thanks to the kindness of our friends Brad and Rebecca, we were able to leave him in a loving home. Bye Trucker. We miss you!


Check out this incredible Chinese mantis. Mike found it while removing greenery from the siding of our new house. It was tucked up under the siding. We weren't sure about its reaction to being handled, so we put it in this jar for safety. It actually was quite docile, and we later released it on the lawn, then relocated it to the back bushes so that it would be safe.


Mike and Clare on the front porch of our house.

Here is Clare at Uncle Noah and Aunt Carolina's wedding. Blue Bunny tagged along for company.