Our "New" Home

Picts of our new apartment (which is not finished yet) that is actually in a very old building (the old Covenant High School Dormitory and classrooms)... but has been remodeled by Calvin and Pamela Haugan (our friends, landlords, and upstairs neighbors) to become our new living space... which is immeasurably superior, in my opinion, to our old (teacher/district housing) apartment. Sorry about the ones that are sideways.


The Living Room





























The Kitchen





































Our Master Bedroom Walk-In Closet (Woo-hoo! I know you always wanted to see our clothes... but we like it anyway.)






Our Master Bathroom





Our bedroom, including the bed we made from beach logs.













Our Guest Bathroom (Which has no mirror yet, but hopefully it will have a vanity by the time you come and visit us. (Please?!) Sorry it is sideways.






















Our LAUNDRY ROOM!!! This is the best room in the house, in my opinion... because it makes it seem like we finally have our own house. (For those of you who don't know, the district housing we've lived in since moving to AK had communal dryers... which really SUCKED! Having your own laundry facility is wonderful, and the novelty has not worn off after 4 months. Again, sorry about the view. :-)















Daniel's Bedroom





















The Guest Room, The Craft/Sewing Room, The Music Room, The "MPR"



















Janelle

Berry Picking and New Peeps

Last time we went berry picking, Jake wore a very stylish hat... (made by my Grandma Angela Baker, if I recall correctly). I had to wait until he was busy driving to snap the picture... but secretly, I hope he'll keep wearing it until it's time to pull our his sealskin hat (which is not too long from now, by the way the temps have been feeling).

And we took a trail we hadn't taken before, and Dan and Adrianna got to test out their recently-purchased 4-wheeler on the tundra. Dan (who isn't as sad as he looks), Adrianna, and Karis... our new buds.










Dan and Daniel seem to have some strange connection. As DJ has gotten older, he usually takes longer to warm up to new people... but not Dan... they were friends from day 1. In fact, Deej is so comfortable with Dan, he's even peed on him several times. :-)




















...And a pict of all of us (minus me) together (on our new kitchen floor) enjoying some Chinese food "take-out" that Jake brought back from Nome that night. DJ is sharing with "O Jo" (sp?), Dan and Adrianna's new (super-cute!) puppy.

Janelle

DJ

Weekend? What weekend? It feels like the week, but with more family time.

So... our Friday nights through Sundays are busy, but they make the rest of the week all worth it! The best part is that we all get to be together (without being in exausted mode). We have been spending a lot of this year hanging out with some "newbies" to UNK: Adrianna, Dan, and Karis. Our August and September weekends have been filled with work days, a fundraiser (for which I made Jenna's awesome Cranberry-Pumpkin bread), a book club meeting, church (and preparing the music for it) every week, trio rehearsal (2 violins w/ bassoon), and tons of other stuff like baking, canning, berry picking, jelly/jam making, failing miserably at sushi-making, 4 wheeler riding, Nintendo Wii playing, and generally hanging out for nothing (which is really satisfying in and of itself). And this next weekend is just before Jake's 28th birthday, so we'll definately be riding high on the fun-mobile then... and the weekend after that? well, i guess we're starting up Pampered Chef then. Nobody else in UNK does it that we know of, and we want some, so we're going to try being distributors. Should be lots of fun. I'm just hoping I'll be able to keep from drowning in all of our activities; i don't know how intelligent it is for me to be starting something new. But then, I guess you make time for the things you want.

Finally! I can POST my woo-hoo!

Today (dark and early), we're starting our family blog. Although I have no idea how good I'll be at keeping this up to date, I am going to try... and I think Jake is going to be posting too. To all of you out there who we only see 1x/year (or a little more or less)... this is for you. Because we love you. And miss you EVERY day. So I (or we) will do our utmost to keep you posted on the comings and goings in our simple but busy lives. Hope you enjoy! Woo-hoo!!!

So... right now, progress reports are due at my school, so I am up (even though I'm sick) in the middle of the night, because I just finished my student comments, and now I'm wired from thinking about work... perfect time to start a blog, right? And to those of you that are fretting inside because this generic blog is less personal than one of my nice, long letters... just remember that 1. I am thinking about YOU as I write my posts to inspire all my ramblings, 2. I haven't exactly been full of those nice long letters in a while, and you're on a very short list of people if you've received any in the last 6 years, 3. this might just be as good as is gets until the next time we meet face-to-face.

All is well with us. We finally (about 2 weeks ago) finished the flooring in our new (as of June 1st) apartment, which is over 2,300 sq ft, so it finally feels as if we have a home rather than a dorm room. We did oak laminate flooring, and I highly recommend it if you want to save money and/or have children, and can operate a hammer. It was easy, and it looks and feels great.

Jake and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on Aug 18th. It is hard to believe... it's gone by so quickly... and it seems to get easier and better every year. Don't get me wrong. We have our moments, and occasionally hours, when things are a bit rough... but overall, we are so blessed... and we know it... and we still miss each other every day (literally, while we're at work)... and, well... before I digust you all... know that we're generally happy.

And DJ (Daniel Jacob Sven Snyder, AKA Agupin)? He's doing durn spiffy. Again, we are blessed. He is the most awesome little dude that two parents could ask for. He'll turn 2 on Dec. 4, and he's keeping up busy. Talk about time going fast... he'll be in school and then out before we know it; I can feel the time slipping away as he's sleeping now... and I cherish every moment with him. He's happy and healthy as far as we can tell, and life is good. Deej makes it especially better when we turn on the Sirius Radio Kid Stuff, and watch him dance. He also still seems to have an affinity for BB King and Old-Skool Rap. Who'da thunk? Dancing aside, he spends most of his time playing the piano, singing constantly, and stealing any and all electronics he can get his hands on. (Sorry in advance if he hangs up on you!)

Janelle