The girls wanted to get to Alaska so We thought we would put them there one way or the other.

Mt Redoubt is spewing ash ...

For those of you who don't know ... Jari was on a flight home from Phoenix last evening ... scheduled to land in Anchorage at 12:55 a.m. His flight was rerouted to Seattle where he spent the rest of the night. Today he made it home ... we're thrilled. Looking at the volcano observatory sight just now ... good thing he did. :)

This first photo I believe was taken last week of the mountain.

This one here is less than an hour old with the newest eruption. The plume reaching 60,000 above sea level ... and ash reported in Wasilla. Last nights ash ended up in Talkeetna and Willow. Wasilla is getting a little closer. Carol Ruonavaara Johnson was telling me today how she remembers taking ash off the car in the yard when she was young. Remembers all the hoopla about Mt St Helens ash. Should I see any on my car ... I'll save some for you. If anyone needs substitute coal for Christmas stockings. :)

I do have a running blog going on at livingthealaskadream.blogspot.com. Feel free to drop in and visit. I love to see signatures of writers too. (hint)

-a

pics of Heidi

Was able to hear stories from her while she was alert!
Finally got to meet Daniel when he and Michelle went to the Range

Velma and Theresa stopped in and was neat to visit with them. Lots of laughs were shared while sitting around the table having coffee! Nothing like two elderly ladies being young at heart!

It was so neat to be able to spend a couple days with the baby and her parents! And to visit with those that came to meet the little bundle! Becky and all kiddos, Randy, Dave Lindula, Velma and Theresa, Michelle and Daniel, Gary, Laurie and Tristan, Mom and Isa (hope I didn't forget anyone); lots of visiting took place. Now I can't wait to be able to see her again in a week when I bring Amber and Nolan up there to meet her!

And I was able to stay there to see Heidi meet her grandparents for the first time!

Always needing to get a picture of the feet before they are off and running!

I found a horse running loose. Does any one know who's it is.

Fun weekend!

On the way up ... 6 sleds ... 6 couples

Yours truly and her dear husband. Without him, there is a very good chance I'd never go up this mountain! He did rescue me once on Saturday ... picked me up from the pine tree restroom ... and dumped me once!
On the top of the ridge. Am quite positive I'll never see this in the summertime!

Mark Huhta playing ... what a backdrop!

Looking out at the Cook Inlet.
A man + a mountain + good snow + a sled = grins galore!

A new thing for me this weekend ... went out snowmachining with 5 other couples on Saturday. What a fun time. The weather was absolutely glorious! Just sharing a few pictures with you. We live about 3 miles out of Palmer. So, the 3 miles back to Palmer, about 13 miles out of Palmer to Sutton (not quite to Kuoppala Rd) and up the road a little bit. Climb on machines and head up some hills ... and on to a beautiful place to play!

Glad my dear hubby enjoyed his day. At midnight he flew to Florida to help move Martta's things back to Arizona. It is warm and humid in Florida this morning (what we considered cool several years ago), he & Juha were leaving Fort Worth this morning in a U-Haul to begin the 2600 mile putt-putt trip back to Prescott. We have 7 degrees here this morning ... and I'm already missing his fire building skills. :( (I'd rather blog and bebo at this hour than build a fire.)

Yesterday we had a wedding reception for Kevin & Renae. Was really nice and turned out well. No pictures, sorry. My camera is in Florida. I gave it up for a week. Note the "MY" camera. I think I took it over.

Have a great week all! 'Tis Monday, kids really enjoyed spring break, and next weekend promises to be another busy one!

Heidi Juliane

Sorry my cell phone doesn't take the best photos, but thought you'd like to see the little cutie. The first pic is Heather giving lessons on how to suck up the kuoppala-double-chin - baby is catching on quite nicely.

e.

Happy Birthday, Anita

Happy Birthday Anita. Just think, about 5 days from now, 44 years ago we brought home our
first baby with a bow in her hair put by the nurses. The nurses in the nursery said, "See you
next year!" If Heidi Juliana would have waited a bit you could have shared a birthday. mom

We are back

Trip to AZ went fine. Stopped at a gallary of "also rans"; those who lost presidential elections.
Snow in Flagstaff. Went straight to the church and got there 1/2 hr. before Seniors' Camp started. On Friday we went to a candy factory in Glendade. My regret was that didn't think of
taking picture with phone of a 400# choc. heart and then send it on Sat., Valentine's Day. Have
found out that I can't send photos to AK, even if it is one of the 50 states.

Enjoyed our stay at the Kuoppala residence. Ken and Betty and Paul, Kendra and children came
one evening. Pa learned where to bring the girls for school and pick them up as we would be kid
sitting while they went to AK. Debbie was there for about a week and the girls loved her to
death! Went to the Zoo on presidents' day. Got pictures to add to the books some got for
Christmas.

Kendra came and picked up the girls on Sat. and after cleaning up the house a bit, we headed out, first to an orange orchard. Then to the ostrich farm. Spent one night on the road before
arriving at the other Kuoppalas.

Started coughing somewhere along the way. They were sure it was from all the pollen in the
air. Elsie bought some steaks, etc. and Willie did the grilling at their new home in Carthage.
Somewhere in my notes I have how many square feet but don't feel like looking it up now.

We left last Sunday morning, driving as far as Cameron, MO. When we stopped, Pa couldn't
get me to stand. Eventually did as I walked into the motel on my own power. Decided to go to
the ER. They did blood work and x-ray. Pneumonia. Pa felt that if we had waited for morning to go to the ER, he would have had to call an ambulance that I would have been so much worse
and wouldn't have been able to stand at all.

This morning we had a new baby granddaughter. Cute name. I'm coughing. Really tired.
Blizzard here today. They plowed the lots and shoveled the sidewalk but it's blown in, half full
anyway. Eye exam tomorrow. Continue going through the tub of mail. Will get out Newsletter
when I feel better. Some don't read it anyway. Enjoyed reading the Kuoppala blog. Should
sent out a card to Jim and Jan Takala. Talked with Jan at Heather's baby shower. Said we'd
bring Ed some donuts. Didn't get done. dk

alaska

These are just a couple of pictures of the mountains that we took when we were up in Alaska last weekend. Anita and Jari, if you could look at these and tell me if you like any one of them, witch  would be your favorite.  When you are looking at them, think of them on canvas. some of them are more square and some are more rectangle.

project update

A while ago I promised to update you all on the progress on our remodeling project so here goes. We finally, after some dissapointments managed to pass electrical rough in inspection and then we were able to get framing inspection which was no problem at all compared to electrical(no suprise considering that I've done that part of the work for a long time). Now we are free to insulate the walls properly and put up the poly which we'll have to have inspected before we can sheetrock. Which means that we can't insulate the attic properly yet as I'll have to put sheetrock on the ceiling before blowing in insulation. I've slowed down considerably(no longer working on it for 5 hours before going to work for another 8 or 10), just going at a much more sustainable pace. We plan on going to the parade of homes this Saturday to see if we can find any more ideas that would be nice to incorporate while we're still able to easily do it. I'm hoping I can convince Missi that a small sink in the island would be nice. We'll see how it goes. Missi is thrilled that we were able to move our bedroom into the master bedroom as it is much bigger than the study where we have been since we slept in the living room. She said it's nice to have "an adult bedroom". More to follow when we have something new.

Ivan

Jades Project

Hi this is Jade, I am doing a science fair project, this is what it is and how it works
It is a Flashlight that turns on with an Electromagnet.

First there is a switch that turns on and off the project, the wire that is connected to the switch leads to 12 D batteries, at the other end of the batteries there is another wire that leads to the electromagnet and back to the switch. The more wraps you have the more batteries you would need, the less wraps you have the less batteries you would need, the wire goes around about 400 to 500 times. The electromagnet is made of half a pen and electrical wire wrapped around it. The electricity keeps going around in circles in the solenoid and creates a magnetic feild, that field pulls the secondary switch.

There is a wire that is connected to the electromagnet and it goes to two different batteries and takes electricity and goes to the flashlight wire that leads to the light bulb. The light bulb has a thin wire in it called a filament, that thin wire gets so hot it makes a glow, the glow reflects off of aluminum foil and makes it brighter.

I have 12 D batteries in the solenoid because it is just about the right amount. If you have more batteries it could burn up the wire and the electromagnet would be junk, if you had less it would not have enough electricity to pull the switch.