My Baby Experience

Living in the arctic has presented many challenges that we have never been faced with in the past. One of the biggest is shopping. In the past if I needed something I would take a five minute drive to the store, but here I don’t always have that option. Sure, there is a “big box” store here but it is about one quarter the size of Wal-Mart. The only things you can find here are the most basic and generic items needed for day-to-day life, and the prices are absurd. This inability to buy the things we want and need locally has forced use to be primarily online shoppers.

I have always been very diligent when it comes to looking for online deals, and one of my many practices is to look for “promo codes” before I make a purchase. I would add the products I wanted to my shopping cart, then at the checkout I would head on over to Google and do a search for “(store name) promo code”. This task could be very time consuming and often take longer than the actual shopping. So, imagine my delight when I find an e-mail from Kate over at CouponsAtCheckout.com in my inbox.

Continue reading “Save Time And Money With CouponsAtCheckout.Com” »

Toddlers seem to have only two modes; either you can’t keep up with them or you can’t keep they awake. There is something about seeing a sleeping child that makes everyone smile- toddlers and babies look so precious when they are sleeping. I love to watch Anneliese sleep but watching her try to stay awake can be fun too. I think this video of my toddler trying to stay awake while eating is hilarious.
Continue reading “Sleepy Toddler Video” »

Living in the arctic during the winter is a very unique experience. Besides the extreme cold, snow drifts, and blizzards, you also have to deal with continuous darkness. Where I live the sun does not fully rise for about a month beginning with the winter solstice. After continuous darkness for the past month, I am so glad to see the sun rise all the way over the horizon.

Is that sunlight?!

Back in December the sun began to rise later and set earlier at a rapid pace until we reached the winter solstice. Then, for the next 28 days we only saw the glow on the horizon around 2 in the afternoon. Now the sun is slowly coming back and staying for a few hours during the day.
Continue reading “30 Days of Dark (I’m Glad to See the Sun Rise)” »

I have never had any big New Year’s Eve Bashes or parties. I usually just celebrate the New Year with family and close friends after watching the Crystal Ball drop in Times Square. In the past we have shot a few fireworks at my parents’ house since they live outside city limits. This year, we celebrated the New Year in the Alaskan Northwest Arctic and, thankfully it was a very mild one. The temperature was around 20 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was calm.

Continue reading “An Arctic New Year” »

Family members all gathered at my parents’ house to have a Christmas celebration with us before we left Alabama to come back to Kotzebue.

This was the first year I have ever been away from my family during Christmas. We went down south for Thanksgiving and spent two weeks visiting everybody, because that was the only time we could arrange to be with some of our extended family. So, we decided our Christmas would be here in the arctic.
Continue reading “Celebrating Christmas in the Arctic” »