Life in Alaska

A few months ago I decided to stop blogging, but I changed my mind and am starting again! :) I think it will help us stay in contact with family/friends since now we live 3,000 miles from either of our families. (That means either a difficult, week-long road trip ((impossible during some times of the year)), or a very expensive plane ticket to see friends/family.) Hopefully restarting this blog can help bridge the gap. :)

We've been in Fairbanks since August (September for Matt after his cross-continent road trip with Grandpa Hill and Barkley) and have already experienced more change than either of us have ever gone through in such a short time. Besides obviously moving to a new state (twice, counting our summer on the east coast for his training), he transitioned from college to working full time, and I transitioned from doing work/school to teaching at UAF. And now we're expecting a baby! 2015 was all about change.

And change can be hard. 

But it's all been good change. 

Onward and upward :) 

I've been 'micro-blogging' on Facebook / Instagram so I don't feel like I need to recap everything that's been happening since we got here. But since Christmas, things have leveled out and I finally feel settled into a routine and adjusted to life in Alaska. 

View from our balcony

...As much as a California girl can adjust to 4 hours of "daylight" (more like an extended sunrise/sunset that never reaches full daylight) and temps in the teens to -30s. 

Fortunately I LOVE my job teaching undergrad Communications clases at UAF! It has made me SO glad I got my master's degree. While I was taking classes and working through the really hard parts of grad school I would sometimes question my decision to go back to school… but it's turned out to be one of the best choices I've ever made!

This semester I'm teaching Com 131 on campus and Com 121 online. I've had the amazing opportunity to help start a new program for online undergraduate Com classes at UAF - it's been a major understaking but also really exciting! I worked a LOT over Christmas break to get it started.

On my first day back to teaching in January the director of the Com department pulled me aside and asked if I would teach THREE sections of the online class in the fall - that's the entire range of online classes they'll be offering and I will be instructing them ALL. I said yes enthusiastically!! 

This also means I'll be working from home again starting in September.

I've started to realize how much time this will take, epscially since I'll have a 3-month-old baby by then. I'll most likely need to stop teaching yoga. :/ It's an ambitious role to take on teaching 3 undergraduate sections of a NEW class with a newborn, but I'm up for it. Gotta keep life exciting. :) 

Class prepping with a green smoothie on the side!

Matt's getting settled into work and his many, many, MANY business trips. He's away for at least a week every month, and sometimes more. In December and January combined, he has been/will be gone for a month total. That means a lot of alone time for me, so I'm grateful for a job I love, friends and neighbors I'm getting to know, and Barkley to keep me company. 

Walking on the frozen Tanana River earlier this month

Headed out to a New Year's Eve dinner with friends!

We're looking forward to 2016 and the continued change it will bring! We have a few trips and visits planned and I'm looking forward to sharing it all here on the blog! :) 

The Aurora over our condo complex. Our neighbor took / sent me this pic!
We see the lights about once/week.