Moving Experience!

Dearest Family,

Well, we finally got moved! Our apartment is ALMOST done, so we began moving our stuff in Friday morning, finished it up Saturday morning. We have a TON of stuff, I don't know where it all came from, or where it's going to go when we ever get transferred to somewhere else. Mom has been sorting and putting stuff away. I have been working on the kitchen cabinets, the guy never did show up to finish them up for us, so I built shelves for the ones that were just open, stained the trim, etc. so there was some place to put our food and dishes and stuff. I need to go to Home Hardware and pick up a lazy-susan for the corner cabinet that didn't ever get done, and put that in tomorrow so mom can put her baking stuff away. We were hoping the landlord would get it for us yesterday so we didn't have to buy it, as it costs $60, but he didn't, so we'll get it. That should be the last major thing we have to get for awhile. Some of the cabinets don't have doors on them, but we can live with that. There is a guy that's supposed to be having the doors made, but don't think it will happen any time soon.

The apartment is quite a bit smaller than the one we were in, but at least we're not having to live around all of his mother's stuff. We just have our stuff. We did get hooked up to the Internet yesterday finally, we were a few days without it. This one is lots slower, but hey--it works! The one over at Ngs was blazing fast, really spoiled us. I guess we'll get used to it. We are sharing wireless with the family upstairs, and their kids are on it a lot, so that slows it down. But at least we don't have to buy Internet on a long-term contract since we can't be here for more than four more months, as our visa will expire.

I am going to try to borrow the magic jack phone from Tim tonight so we can call you up sometimes. We called Warren on it last week, and it worked pretty good. Nice thing is that it doesn't cost hardly anything to call, but downside is that if there is a bad Internet connection, the call quality isn't the greatest. I still haven't gotten a new mike for Skype yet, don't know how well it will work with a slow connection anyway. Our stuff is downloading at about 24 kb/sec so it takes forever to download a large file. And our signal isn't very good because we're down in the basement quite a ways from the server.

The weather here is finally moderating, today it is up to 44, the snow is beginning to melt, and the roads are wet and muddy. Our car was so dirty you could hardly tell what color it was supposed to be, so we found a car wash and squirted it off. They don't have any automatic washes here, so we went to a do-it-yourself one that you put in a dollar and it runs for about 2 minutes, then you put in another dollar. It took three dollars to get even the first major layer of dirt off. I decided it was good enough for now, since the roads are so wet it looks about the same in about 5 miles. Gas has stabilized at about $5.50/gal, which is nice, but they expect it to go up some more. We just have to bite the bullet and put in $75-80 each time, and try to not let it get clear empty. Other than that, the car has been running great. I'm glad we didn't bring the pickup, we wouldn't have been able to afford to drive!

Brent, it is so exciting to hear that you have been in your new office for two weeks! I'm sure things will pick up as word gets around, but will probably be kind of hard for awhile. It's hard to believe that Colby is walking already, how time flies! I'll bet Kaydin is enjoying gymnastics, it will do so much for her throughout her life. I'll bet Kiley is enjoying getting settled, getting everything moved into your new home and hopefully getting all of the boxes unpacked. I'll bet it was really hectic with building the clinic and everything.

Russ, I hope your job is doing OK now. It can really frustrating to have to work with a jerk for a boss. Just remember Murphy's Law: Most people are promoted to their highest level of incompetence, then remain there. Classic example. Unfortunately, the rest of us just have to learn how to roll with it and survive in spite of them. At least you have a good, stable job in an area of high demand, and you are making good money. You will have a lot more freedom when you get your finances under control in another year or two. It's hard now, but will be better then. Hope Zach's pickup is still running well, but imagine the price of gas has made it hard for him. Stay strong in the church, it's where the true blessings come from, you know.

Ed, I'm glad you're getting your Camry going. I did e-mail you back when you wrote me, hope you get this one OK. Maybe you're kids thought you had read it and deleted it. I'm glad you got the struts changed up at the college, I'd take it in and have the toe checked, by the time you notice any wear on the tires you have already lost thousands of miles. I suggested you have it checked at Call's Sinclair, or up at the college when they put in the back struts. They should align it for the back anyway, as changing the struts will probably change the rear camber and toe settings, which will wear out the back tires pretty fast. Hopefully you won't have to change any back bearings. What color is this Camry? I'm glad you were able to borrow a scanner from Checker, I've used mine several times here. Funny how fast you make friends when people find out you can diagnose their cars. I did a Saab yesterday that has a bad 02 sensor. It also had a crankcase breather code, and when I took the oil filler cap off it crumbled in my hand. Now he has to get a new one, but has to order it online and will take about three weeks to get it. I told him I hoped he really likes his Saab. He said it didn't matter, it takes a long time to get parts for any car in the Yukon. Hope our car doesn't break! I brought that green plastic tool box with what tools I could stuff in it, and have used every one of them, plus wished I had a few more. Fortunately, several of the members here are in construction, so we've borrowed compressors, nailers, chop-saws and everything else we've needed. The people are great about lending stuff, and we've made some great friends working together.

Teresa, your new cabinets sound awesome! That's a great deal on them! I know you've wanted them for a long time, figured we would just come down and help you put them in when we got home, but you'll probably have them all done by then.

Shaun, I loved your letter about your three jobs. I'm sure it's a struggle to do them all, just don't let them get in the way of your family. I'm sure the activities center thing is fun, but if it takes you away from the family it probably isn't worth what you're making. Of course, it sounds like you've already come to that conclusion. I'm glad Mike got his other business. Is he keeping both busy? I hope the weather there is getting better, as we see the weather reports it looks like you're getting a lot of wind and rain. I'd imagine it's kind of hard to fly in those conditions. We haven't gotten any weather here to speak of, except cold. Most of the snow and rain that was supposed to hit us went around, or we'd get a tiny skiff of powder that would blow off when you drove because the cars were so cold it couldn't stick. It was fun to hear about Summer's blessing and the family fun you all had. It made us homesick and we wished we could have been there too.

Warren, it was fun to get to visit with you the other night. It sounds like you guys are really doing well. I hope you hear from your universities soon, and that you get to do what you want. Thanks for taking care of the place so well. It is a comfort to us to know you are there to keep things working. The story about Sarah was hilarious. Hope you are getting her car fixed. She must have fixed it really good if you ended up having to get a different block for it. Must have thrown a rod through the block?

Amber, mom loved her talk with you last week. It sounds like you guys are doing well. I hope your deal with the house goes though. It would be nice to get one while the rates are low. This tiny apartment here, two rooms, costs us $900/mo. Rent is high here because the housing crunch hasn't hit here, they're still building like crazy. With the price of gold so high mines are expanding operations here. If things keep going like they are, they expect Whitehorse to expand to 200,000 people in the next ten years. Of course, that's what they said during the gold rush of 1900, but it didn't happen then either. I'll bet Sam is getting darling! Be sure to send us pictures! (But compress them, because of our slow connection!)

Troy, it's fun to get Olivia and Levi's blogs, hope you guys are doing well. It sounds like you've really done some fun things together. How is work going? Are you staying busy? Are you still working for the software developing company on the side? How is Emma's photography business going? It looks like Zoe is getting cuter every day! Give them all a hug from us. When we get our Skype, we'll try to talk to them all again. It will be fun.

Well, I guess I'd better be going. Our new address is 98 Alsek Rd, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, Y18-3K6. Our cell number is 867-335-6142. We don't have a land-line, but hope to get one pretty soon. We'll also try to get our Skype hooked up pretty soon. It would be fun to hear from you. When our Magic Jack is working you can call us on an Idaho number at 208-258-9913. I'll try to get it working in the next day or so.
It's hard to believe that we have been here in Whitehorse for two months tomorrow. How fast time flies! I hope you are all feeling fine, I had another bout with bronchitis last weekend, but am feeling OK again now. Maybe I'll do better now that I'm not out in the bitter cold as much.
We love you all,
Dad and Mom.