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Spring is almost here, and yes, Lisa's out of the house. Since everyone is asking for pics of our town, we went around and took some. This trip just includes pics of the real Seward, and the next trip will be of the tourist Seward.
We took a pic of the view from our living window, then headed down Third St. where we took a pic of the bus station Lisa had to use when coming back from Anchorage when she broke her leg. Then we headed down to the SeaLife Center, and this is where Jackie's going to get a job when she comes here. The work is right up her alley, as Jackie loves all animals, and here is where she gets the opportunity to work with them.
Then we headed over to the ocean where I took a pic of Lisa on her first day outside with her cane. She looks kinda lopsided! But she is walking. And pretty soon she won't be a "newbie" anymore. She will have survived her first Alaskan winter!
We took pics of the ocean and mountains, and then headed down main street. Got a pic of the library and post office, but the batteries ran out when we tried to take a pic of City Hall. City Hall houses everything...the police dept, the motor vehicles dept., the utilities dept.
The days are getting longer now...sun comes up at 8:00 am and goes down 8:00 pm. The local Safeway store (which carries a little bit of everything) stays open from 5:00 am till midnight.
We're getting our jewelry ready for the 4th of July festival here, and so we are busy. 50 thousand or more people come to this festival, so we're making lots of stuff. We even got a sold mold of a hockey player with his stick (they are really big on hockey here)....we plan on using the teams colors on his uniform...should be cute. We'll post it on our store's website when we get it finished.
We're doing pretty well for a woman with a broken leg, and a woman unable to stay out of bed!
You can comment on this post by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of the post. You can visit the store by clicking on the store link in blue.
I'll post the rest of the photos on the facebook page....
We love you, we miss you
Everyone thinks that Lisa and I are crazy for coming to Alaska, but we do seem to fit right in here!! Next weekend Seward is hosting the Bear Festival, where people come from all over Alaska to jump into the ocean! Now, I think that's a little unhinged, as it as gotten down to below zero here in the last two weeks! Seward puts on all kinds of activities for that weekend, but, from what I understand, only a few people can get close enough to see those poor souls who jump into the ocean. I will not be doing that, although it might be good for the circulation!!
I have found a way other than really hot baths to get rid of that pain in my hips which was caused when I walked several miles in the heat before we left Florida. I started using a heating pad on the imflamed areas, and no more pain. Now, whenever I have to do any carrying and those areas get inflamed, a few hours with the heating pad takes the pain away. Good news for me, as Lisa still cannot walk without a walker, and therefore, can't help with any of the carrying of groceries.
We are going to Anchorage this week to finish cleaning out the storage unit. Well, I am going to clean out the storage unit, and Lisa is going to watch. She is so tired of sitting in the apartment. I told her that I will only take her if I do not have to listen to her bitch about not being able to help. She can't do anything about it, so there is no sense in making both of us miserable over it. We'll stay the night, as I broke my regular glasses, and it gets dark here too fast for us to make it there and back with me wearing my prescription sun glasses. She cannot drive either, and doing everything at my pace is another thing driving her crazy. I cannot go any faster than my energy allows, and she can't help, so she's really suffering.
She's also learning which friends are really friends, and which ones never were. A hard lesson to learn sometimes, but necessary for spiritual development.
I have been thinking of my dad a lot these last couple of months, and cannot seem to get out of my head his last few months. It is hard to look at someone whom you have always seen as strong, whittled down to a person who died without dignity. I couldn't get him out of bed to dress him and take him down to the river he loved so much. I just wasn't strong enough. While I could manage to keep him clean and dry, and without bed-sores, and I could feed him, and give him his insulin (although my stomach hurt all day dreading the time when I had to give him his shot,) I couldn't take him to the places he loved, or to see people that he cared about. It still really upsets me that, after all my dad did for the people of his church, he got very few visitors in the year he was bed-ridden. He did have one member of his church, who came over and sat with occasionally, and she even got him dressed and took him to church, just before he died. It was more than I could do, I couldn't even get him out of bed, and even if I had gotten him out of bed, I didn't have a vehicle to take him anywhere. So he had to lay there, day in and day out. I try to tell Lisa, when she gets so upset that she can't do what she wants to do, that this situation is only temporary, and that she should be grateful for that. I don't know that she is understanding that however.
One of the ladies here said maybe we came here to heal emotionally, and maybe that is true. Lisa is learning to slow down and listen to her body more, and cannot use activity to ignore or hide from pain. I will surely be thankful for the day she will be back on her feet, as I am getting tired.
Well, we have made it to another year! I remember, 10 years ago, a doctor telling me I wouldn't last out the year....I was a walking time bomb. And yet, here I am 10 years later. I believe that we get whatever it is we believe we are going to get, and since I never had a doctor I believed, their predictions for me never came true.
When Lisa and I tell people we came to Alaska to heal, they always ask us how we are going to do that. We're going to heal because we believe we are going to heal. Already Lisa is learning the lesson I have already learned, and that is how to slow down and listen to what her body is telling her. The fresh air, while cold, is extremely healing, as is staying away from toxic situations and people.
We're both using the crystals, and cleansing our indoor environment. We take our vitamins.
The new year is always good for setting those resolutions to change, and this year we are setting our course on keeping out of toxic situations, and away from toxic people. Letting go of expectations of the way others should or should not act is a goal we will be striving toward. We can only control what we can do , and stay away from those who would be harmful to our health. While it means letting go of some friends, and sometimes family, this new year is one in which we are going to concentrate on ourselves and our health.
We'll drink herbal tea, breathe in the fresh air and beautiful scenery, and speaking frankly, just love ourselves. Happy New to Year to you all
I for one, am looking forward to the new year. This last year has been full of exciting changes, but people here in Alaska ask us the same things that people all across the country have asked us. Why did we move to Alaska? When we tell them that we moved here to Alaska to heal, every single person has looked at us like we are crazy. And maybe we are, but if we are, we fit right in with these people.
After our mad dash across the United States, which still took us 26 days, we spent a couple of weeks in Anchorage resting up from the trip. I had wanted to make it a leisurely trip across the US and Canada, getting to know people who lived in different places, and because we my CFIDS condition, it would have been easier to me to do. However, Lisa was hell-bent on getting here, no matter what the cost, so when we finally arrived, we were both exhausted. Most people don't realize that a for a person with my condition, sitting in the passenger seat is MORE exhausting than doing the actual driving, but Lisa, like most people, thought that if she did all the driving, it would be easier on me.
And because she did all the driving, she was as exhausted as I was when we arrived. Because she was so exhausted, and less than 24 hours after we arrived, she made a mistake that is still costing us to this day.
She is still learning that mistakes made here in Alaska will have long-reaching consequences here. She will never again make the mistake of wearing tennis shoes while walking on sheer ice, as that mistake cost her a broken leg. She now understands how very tired I get just doing ordinary things, as she gets that tired just going to the bathroom. While she never understood (as most people don't)not to push me to do more than I can, or to do it for me when I don't do something as fast as she would like, she now knows how it feels to be unable to move any quicker, or how guilty one feels when unable to do something on someone else's timetable.
Our landlord came over the other day, and when I explained the reason for taking so long to answer the door was because I was sleeping, she said to me "you're always sleeping".
Yes, I am. So is Lisa. We sleep when we're tired, and get up when we are not. Sometimes we sleep all day, and stay up all night. We eat the right foods, and since Lisa cannot go anywhere, we stay mostly to ourselves. I have taken a couple of trips to Anchorage to bring down some of our stuff in storage. I still have a couple of trips left before I have emptied out that storage unit. It's taking a while because I have limited energy, and cannot pull our scottie through the mountains in the snow, and the truck is not big enough to haul all of our stuff! (I don't know how we managed to get all that stuff here!!) Would Lisa do it alone if I was unable to get out of bed and help her? Yes she would, in a heartbeat. We make a good team, my cousin and I. What one can't do, the other can. So will we reach the goals we have set for ourselves? YES WE WILL. We plan on healing, and then finding that bed and breakfast where we can offer to others a place to heal. This is our goal. So while we will miss our friends and loved ones, we hope that you understand that we have a plan. We love you, we miss you.
Happy New Year to you all
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Christmas in Alaska is certainly going to be a different experience for us. It is beautiful here, with the mountains on three sides and the ocean on the other. Every time we go down to the post office we get a chance to look at the ocean, and everyday we look out at the snow covered mountains. While Seward is a quiet little town in the winter, it is certainly conducive to healing, which is the main reason we headed for Alaska in the first place.
We do miss our friends and family however, especially during this holiday season. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and know that while our bodies may be here, our spirits are with all of you this holiday season.
We saw a huge moose in the street, Lisa thought it was a horse at first, but since it was on the street, we got close enough to see that it WAS NOT a horse!
We will most likely be closing the ebay store in January, and only do auctions on Ebay. However, our own website store will still be available. If you want to go to either place just click on the blue links.
Thanks again Jackie, you are the best friend! It is a rare person indeed who spends so much time and effort on other people, rather than themselves. We are lucky that you and David are our friends.
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Again, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
The wind is howling tonight! It is raging so hard that it knocked my stain glass right out of the window it was sitting against. We had cracked open that window to let in some air, and to clear out the apt of smoke, as our upstairs neighbors complained that the smoke was going up the vent in the kitchen. Usually, with the windows open, we can hear the snow crackling like little twinkling lights, but tonight all we hear is that howling. Sounds kinda cool.
Lisa has her doctor's appointment with the orthopedic doctor tomorrow, early, and yet here it is 4:00 a.m. and we are both still awake.
Thanks to Jackie for our care package...the little xmas tree and decorations really made our day, as we gave all our xmas decorations to the Battered Women's shelter before we left. While it doesn't bother Lisa to not decorate for xmas, it bothers me. Christmas time is the best time of year, and I miss my tree and decorations. So, thanks very much Jackie.
UPS delivered right to our door. The mailman does not deliver mail to anywhere in Seward, so everyone has to pick up their mail at the post office. It was a real treat to have it delivered straight to our door.
I am posting a pic of our chakra ring, which comes with the seven stones for the seven chakras. It can be made in either gold or silver, and we do have the stones to make this same ring into a mother's ring, with the children's birthstones. You can see it in more detail at our ebay store .
You can also see it our own website.
We love you all and miss you terribly. Lisa is especially having a hard time because she has stay off her leg, and feels guilty because she is not supposed to do anything. So, everyone, send her lots of love by emailing her and letting her know you care.
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Merry Christmas to all of our friends and loved ones!
We have just made one pair of Herkimer Diamond earrings, set with a Sterling Silver cap and mounted on Sterling Silver French ear wires. The herkimers dangle from a 1 inch heart chain and are so cute! These are good size herkimers, although the pic we have isn't very good. The sun does not stay out for long here in Alaska, and so it is very hard to get a good pic, but this one will give you an idea of what they look like.
They are on auction in our ebay store.
We also have on auction a glass heart filled with herkimer diamonds. We have never done this auction before so take advantage of it! It does not come with the chain, although we do have one in the store with a chain
We also have our own website.
If you want to comment on this post, click on the comment link. Xmas is coming, I am so excited! Merry Christmas to you all
