NO MORE HIGH HEELS OR COWBOY BOOTS!!

So, this morning we were headed out the door to go to church. We probably got about 10 inches of snow in a 24 hour period since yesterday. We didn't have a chance to shovel off the front porch or railing before we left. I found out that today may be the last day I wear heels for awhile in Alaska... As I was walking down the steps, I thought I was at the bottom. Much to my dismay, there was still one more step that was completely covered by snow. So, I bit the dust, just as Brant was opening the door. Instead of coming to my rescue and helping me dig myself out of the snow, my sweet husband runs to get the camera! I rolled over and stood up as fast as I could because my pants were getting soaked. So, this picture is post fall...thanks to Brant! The funniest part was...We finally got into the car and pulled out of the driveway and Brant decided he need to scrape off the windows of the truck a little better before we left the neighborhood. So, he parked on the side of the road and got out with the scraper. He scraped off his driver's side window and was walking in front of the trunk and THUD...he hit the ground, in his cowboy boots, and guess who was laughing?? HAHA! So, I guess there will be no more heels or cowboy boots :)


CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Lee and Whitney Moody!!! We found out today they're expecting :) :)

We finally got the house decorated.......

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope everyone had a wonderful day with friends and family. Our Thanksgiving was spent with friends this year, and no family :( We were invited by Brant's friend and fellow















dental resident, Richard, to spend the day with their family (of about 30) in Palmer, about 45 minutes away. Richard, his wife Lori, and their little girl Avery, live on a farm in Palmer that her grandparents homesteaded back in the 50s. Brant spent the

morning putting up Christmas lights outside, and I was in the kitchen making some food to take to lunch and watching the Macy's Day Parade :) We spent the rest of the day in Palmer...the guys went out and shot skeet and scouted out some Christmas trees in the woods. Lori and I went out for a little bit and had a lesson in skeet shooting...until our fingers started burning and going numb. We had a wonderful meal and really enjoyed the time we spent with their family. We were very thankful to have friends to spend the day with. And I was thankful I wasn't responsible for cooking a turkey :)

We came home and watched 'Home Alone' while we pulled out the Christmas decorations and decorated inside. It was really hard to wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate, considering most people in town put their lights up in October before it gets really cold. We were probably the last in town to get ours up! I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so no shopping this year :( Brant went out rabbit hunting with a buddy from work and they each maxed out their limit of 5 poor little bunnies. I guess we will be trying rabbit stew for the first time!



















We met our Clemson friends, Margaret and Will, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to watch the annual USC/Clemson game. Margaret was in my sorority at Clemson, and her husband will is a C-17 pilot in the Air Force. The game was on at noon EST, so we had to get up early to catch the game at 8am. There's a sports bar in town called the Peanut Farm that has pretty much any game on TV. They have individual TVs at booths, so we all sat in a booth, ordered breakfast, and watched the victory!!

Old Man Winter!!

Old Man Winter is slowly setting in around here! Our driveway and neighborhood roads have been icy for about 3 weeks straight now...and we've heard it'll stay that way until April! We haven't had to get out the snowblower for the driveway yet, but it's not far off! Brant had to get outside and learn how to use it :)

We experienced our first Alaska wind storm about 2 weeks ago...we had winds 90-100mph from about 8PM one night until the next morning. We had some shingles blow off of our roof and a tree down in the backyard. Not a lot of damage compared to some of our neighbors! The most amazing thing was Brant and I were eating breakfast and we heard a really loud thud outside, so we went out to see what it was. We noticed that the cover to the hot tub, which ways 100lbs+ had blown off the deck! We didn't get a chance to pick up all of the debris in the yard before we got snow, so we'll have lots waiting for us come April :)

We have both been busy with our jobs. Brant is currently working doing an anesthesiologist rotation in surgery and is really enjoying it. I have worked up to carrying a full load of patients at work, and it keeps me pretty busy! We both get home on Fridays and eat dinner and collapse on the couch!

We have spent our weekends preparing the house for the winter - stocking up on things at Lowe's and Home Depot and finding winter clothes! Brant finds a way to sneak in a few football games on Saturdays. It's kinda strange here because we are 4 hours behind, a lot of the football games start at 8 in the morning. Last weekend we got up at 7:30am, made breakfast and watched the Clemson game that started at 8am. It's kind of hard to enjoy tailgating food at 8am :)

We are looking forward to traveling home to SC for Christmas! We will be flying into Atlanta and going to Brant's family in Georgia for the weekend after Christmas then heading for Anderson for the rest of the week. It will be nice to have some "warm" weather and sunlight! The sun currently rises around 9am here and is setting about 6:30. We lose about 15 minutes of daylight each day, and by mid-winter it will be sunrise at 10:30am and setting around 3PM. We will both look pale and sickly at Amanda's wedding come January :)