It's a big day!

As I was drifting in and out of sleep this morning listening to Scott get ready for work, the sound of a new text message pierced my consciousness, and then I fell back asleep. I finally woke up due to Scott's harassment that I needed to shower, and he informed me I got a new text. I opened it up, and it was from Chris. That was surprising in and of itself because Chris very rarely texts me. Here's what it said: "Good news! Kids flying to Alaska on Wed Dec 22 - I will be flying up with them and coming back the same day! Woo-hoo! Jody will send out an email today." The world started moving a little more slowly and got fuzzy in a surreal sort of way. I checked the e-mail to see if Jody (the social worker) sent her e-mail. She did, and while it didn't have the solid date, it was definitely optimistic. That's one week!

The funny thing about the timing, though, is that I've been contemplating the past few weeks about fasting about this, and last night I started my fast, and within 12 hours, we got these e-mails. The last time I fasted for the kids and the situation, there was immediately a huge surge of movement on the case, and it makes me wonder why the heck I don't fast more, and extremely grateful for a Heavenly Father who knows my situation and moves so quickly and so effectively to help me when I put forth more than just a cursory effort.

Anyway - winter seems to be here to stay in Alaska. It's cold and snowy, but beautiful! The lakes across the street are frozen solid, and there is constant activity on them. Some people have moved the snow away from the ice and created boundaries for two ice hockey rinks, and after school there are always people out there pushing the puck around. Lots of people don their cross country skis and go up and down the length of the lakes (about 1 1/2 miles). There are lots of figure skater wannabes, and I've seen a new activity that enchants me. They set their kites to the air and let the force of it drag them around on their ice skates. It's very cool! Many parents put their kids on sleds and drag them around the lake, or if they don't like that, they go onto shore and there's a hill that's perfect for sledding.

It's exciting to think that in a week, I could be one of those parents out there sledding with the kids! Let's cross our fingers and hope everything goes smoothly and as anticipated!

On the job front, my background check is due today, so hopefully within the next few days, I'll know if I got the job at the police department. Let's cross our fingers for that, too!

And to top it all off, I just found my eyeliner sharpener that's been lost since the move! My husband obviously didn't understand that it was NOT a pencil sharpener, and had it with our office supplies! Hooray for the small things!

We put our Christmas decorations up the day after thanksgiving, and we actually broke down and got a fake tree. We've had the tradition for the past three years to wait until they go on sale at Fred Meyer for $10/any tree, which Randy always hears on the overhead 'cause he pretty much lives at the store between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the funny thing is that Fred Meyer doesn't sell real trees here! Neither does Home Depot, or Wal-Mart! What the heck? I guess they just assume that people go out and chop their own trees down, but we don't! So we bought a tree that was on sale the day after thanksgiving, and have been enjoying it's beauty for a long time. And enjoying not having to water it and sweep up the needles!

I have tons of garland that I didn't know what to do with here, and so I just put it under the tree for some extra decorative sparkle, and Mr. Silverback has found a new favorite place to lounge! It's so cute! I finally took a piece and put it in her basket so she'd go back and sleep there rather than laying on top of the presents. Jack has enjoyed the holiday season, too, but mostly just because of the ribbon. I got fed up with her attacking me as I wrapped the presents, so I cut off a long piece of ribbon for her, and she has fallen in love with it! She drags it all round the house and you know where Jack has been because there's her ribbon. She hates it on top of her tower, though, and when we put it up there, she promptly picks it up and drags it into the living room.

So I guess you can tell it's been a long time without kids since I'm sharing cat stories now, right?