Interesting Return

Waqaa,

Well, we are back in Mountain Village. We left on Friday and I must say, I smiled all the way to Bethel and smiled even more on the way to Mountain. On our flight from Bethel to Mountain Village I did a bit of reflection. I didn't know how I would feel coming back. However, as I was on the plane, I felt like things were right and that we were going home. There was just a sense of calmness and belonging that came over me. Of course it was hard to leave our families. It kind of felt like our Freshman year of college. Being home for a month during Christmas and then having to go back.

Ben and I were shopping in Wal-Mart in Anchorage before we left for Mountain and we had talked to a guy from here saying that someone had broken into our house. He said that it looked like nothing was stolen. This kind of put an unsettling feeling in Ben and I as we didn't like the idea of someone going through our house. We had figured it was kids though, and we were right. There were some kids who broke into 5 houses over Christmas break. They didn't steal anything important. Just odds and ends of things. It seems as though they came in and just hung out, ate our pineapple and peanuts, and played our Wii. The only really negative thing they did was turn our heat way down so our pipes would freeze. They also turned our water off under our sink. So, as I'm writing this we are still out of water because our pipes froze and burst. There are two maintenance guys working on them now. They were here last night until midnight and have been here for a couple hours today. I'm hoping by the time they leave today that we will have water to wash dishes, do laundry, and of course shower. Someone asked me if I was still happy to be back and I said yes. :)

We flew into Mountain on New Years Eve. After Ben and I finished sorting through all the mischief that had gone on in our house while we were gone we had given each other our stockings. We then went over to our friend Carol's house to wash our sheets and watch the New Year go down in New York City...which was 8:00 our time. At midnight everyone in Mountain started shooting off fireworks. It was a better/bigger firework show than the 4th of July and some of you who know me know that I love the 4th of July. So, I might argue that New Year's is better in Mountain than the 4th of July. The other funny part was that everyone and I mean EVERYONE was out riding their snow machines and honda's. They were cruising the Mountain Village strip. It was pretty awesome.

School starts tomorrow and I can't wait to see my kiddos. I have missed them and their little personalities. I will try to continue to update our blog as often as I can. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Until next time,
Ben and Anne