and cut!

That's a wrap people. We're in the house!! It is so comfortable and wonderful and everything we hoped for. Things are unpacked and ready for use. Our smiles are sticking and so are the brownies in the pan (we have no olive oil). This past weekend, Mark's family flew into Anchorage. They arrived Sunday night and left Tuesday night. It was motivation to get things unpacked just when we moved in, but it was even more of a motivation to have guests coming. I think they were expecting a lot more work than we gave them. It was great having company, and I'm looking forward to my parents coming in a few weeks. 

The place I looked forward to the most:  our own bed! 

We took Mark's family to the Alaskan Wildberry shop and they finally had 

the chocolate fountain on. It looked and smelled delicious:On Tuesday we went 60 miles SE of Anchorage to a Preservation park that houses injured or sick animals. It was nice to see these rehabilitated animals! They were beautiful, strong, and healthy looking. The muskox even had babies, so I think these Alaskans are doing pretty well. 

Here is one of the three grizzlies we saw digging for roots. There was one bear (would be to the left of this one in the picture) that would pose for the cameras by resting his chin on his clawed fist (reminded me of a certain movie with "portraits by Deb"... it's unmentionable here!). 

These two bald eagles are some that are actually on base. They have been in this cage once they were found injured, each over 12 years ago. I had no idea that eagles could live so long. When these birds are on the ground, they are about half the height of a man. 

This is a muskox baby (calf?). In Best Buy, for all the televisions on display, they play a nature video of these native animals. A part of the clip is of a baby muskox hopping around on the ice and then falling flat on its side like a baby pup or colt. They are adorable, and have such 

big personalities! There were two of these tiny oxen that were annoying the adults. It was quite a show. The babies would run up to the adults who were eating fresh hay and get chased away by huffing, hoof-pounding adults over and over again. They were so cute: 

A reason that this update has taken so long was because of my eyes. Remember in a previous post when I mentioned my new oculars and my itchy, red, allergy-ridden eyes? Well, I finally got in to the optometrist and it's not allergies after all. My eyes have been 

attacked by a toxic chemical. That's right! I was shocked too. Apparently, my corneas reacted horribly to something new (we suspect a certain face wash) and never got a chance to heal because I wear contacts every day. So now I can't see, clearly that is, and with vision 20/80, I have been given thick eye drops and a command to wear glasses all the time while avoiding driving. They're on their way to being healed. Thank goodness! 

I will post more pictures of the house on my other blog soon. Tomorrow we receive the shipment of things we took with us to Oklahoma, and then I have my first of weekly visits with the optometrist to monitor my progress. Thanks for checking in on 

the update!