The Emerald Isle

So, is it just me, or is my 30 day blog challenge taking FOREVER. Sorry. I've been a tiny bit busy, you know, graduating from residency and moving to Alaska. No big deal. I will continue the blog challenge soon, especially now that the Little Momma has started it as well.

The last couple weeks of my life in the Beehive State were incredibly busy, and I want to say that there were a lot of people that I was not able to see and bid farewell before I left. I'm sad about that. I do appreciate having such wonderful friends and family, and I appreciate everyone's love, support and understanding--especially when my life is CRAZY.

I want to post some pictures from my graduation, but I don't have any yet, as I didn't have a camera there, so as I get some pictures, I'll be sure to post them here. I have a lot of wonderful friends and colleagues at the residency, who I will miss a great deal. It really has been such a crazy time in my life, because I feel so excited about coming to Alaska and starting my new job at the community clinic, but I feel so sad to be leaving my friends and family behind in Utah. I have had so much stress and anxiety and conflicting emotions.

Anyway, I'm here in Kodiak now, and so far things have been really great. Copper and Moose flew to Anchorage the day before Steve and I left, and then were able to be put on the same plane as us from Anchorage to Kodiak. It was a bit traumatic for them, to be sure, but I think they bonded a little while they were fearing for their lives, and I have caught them being very sweet to each other since we arrived. I wasn't able to capture the moment on camera when they were laying with their heads together, and Moose started licking Copper's ear, but I did catch this shot of Moose resting his paw on Copper's back while we three shared some snuggle time.



Since our arrival, they are both settling in well, and Copper seems especially happy. We are really close to Mill Bay Beach, and he has loved walking to the beach and then plunging into the ocean to fetch his squeaker. There are a lot of other dogs around as well, many off-leash, and he has done pretty well with them so far. Here are 3 of the neighbor dogs, with which he has had the occasion to frolic.



We are renting a home (which I will call July House) for this month until we can close on our house (August house). It is a big beautiful house on a cliff overlooking the ocean. I am really happy that we found a place to stay that will allow us to have our pets, and especially such a beautiful place. The downside is, of course, that it does mean I'm living out of a suitcase for another month. The movers came to get all my furniture etc back at the end of May, so we have already spent the entire month of June in our Provo house (June house) with only the necessities that we could carry onto an airplane with us, and now we will be spending all this month of July with the same stuff. I'm getting super sick of these same 6 outfits! Here are some pics of July house that were emailed to me when I was looking for a place, plus one I took from the living room window (which was taken at almost midnight, though the sky is bright enough to still feel like it's around 8pm).

See all the plants? They were in sore need of watering when I got here, and so I have been able to take on some surrogate plants to help me cope with leaving all of mine behind!


We've been able to spend a good amount of time with Wes and Geoffrey since we arrived, and that has been fun. We went to dinner at Henry's the evening that we arrived, and Geoffrey offered to treat, which has been heretofore completely unheard of. Our little boy is all grown up! I got a Sarah Pale Ale, (cute name, right?) and this really amazing honey walnut chicken. It was completely delightful.



The original plan was for me to start working the day after we arrived, and that didn't end up happening, which was nice. As it is a holiday weekend, I had the weekend off, and will start work tomorrow. It's given me some time to get a little settled, buy groceries, and start cooking for myself a little as well. Brenda, my office manager brought me a huge silver salmon fillet (which she caught just earlier this week, so it was super fresh and tasty) and a bottle of Chianti, so I prepared lemon caper salmon and we had it with the wine last night. It was wonderful! Also, for our 4th of July breakfast this morning, I made eggs in a basket, but found a bear-shaped cookie-cutter, and so it turned out super cute!


Anyway. Here we are. Thank you all for your love and support. I'll keep you posted on the happenings here, and promise to also continue with the ever exciting 30-day blog challenge in between.

Cheers!