Only in Alaska...

Have a garage sale in the snow...and they will come! Who? Die hard Alaskan yard salers! I tried to have a garage sale all summer but due to rain and lack of time it didn't happen. Sooo yesterday I decided to do it, it was snowing and a whopping 27 degrees. I thought it was crazy but I started at 10am and by noon I made over $200. I had well over 50 people come! Who would have guessed that the middle of October would be a great time to have a garage sale.

Its a Love Hate relationship...

10 things we LOVE about living in ALASKA

#1 Fishing, Fishing and more Fishing
#2 Eating the Fish
#3 Wearing our hip waders in public places
#4 Long summer days (why isn't Home Depot open at 11:30pm?)
#5 Beautiful Scenery
*Mountains
*Lakes
*Rivers
*Glaciers
*Wildflowers
#6 WINTER
*Bonfires
*Fireworks (because its to light in the summer)
*Sledding
*Frozen salmon toss contest
*SNOW
*Ice sculptures all over the place
#7 Moose in the Backyard and Bears from a distance (we hope)
#8 Alaska Homeschooling (they give each child at least 1,600 a year for school supplies and Curr.)
#9 We have 2 Starbucks and coffee shops all over the place!
#10 The idea of getting paid to live here (PFD)



10 Things we HATE about living in ALASKA

#1 No Family:(
#2 Customer service "everywhere" it stinks
#3 No "really good" restaurants (we'll take an Olive Garden and an Ihop please)
#4 Shipping Charges
#5 Dark mornings that make it very hard to get out of bed (winter)
#6 Higher gas prices
#7 Higher food prices (3.99lb for Honeycrisp apples)
#8 Theres all these stores that have tanning beds (whats up with that?)
*Movies and tanning
*Espresso and tanning
*Travel and tanning
*Liqueur and tanning
and the list goes on...
#9 To many stinkin dirt roads (nobody drives a clean car around here)
#10 we have not gotten the 2 biggest payouts (PFD) that Alaskans have ever seen
*We get one next year but to bad the Alaska dividend fund was hit hard by the Economy falling, now we will probably get the smallest one ever! (personally I think it has something to do with the Barlow curse)

Well, we lost our leaves a couple of weeks ago and now its been snowing off and on for a good week. I LOVE IT!!!!! I wish it would dump 3 feet over night! Its so pretty. It looks like a beautiful white blanket hand crafted by God. This is a view out our back deck, it looks like giant Christmas trees. The girls already want to bring out our Christams tree and start decorating ornaments. As for me, I want to start baking and packing on the winter fat to keep me extra warm:)

LOOK! Hannah Montana!

I really don't know how long this pic will last here on the Barlow Family blog, but until Paul gets on and notices: ENJOY!

A Must Read...

http://gracethrufaith.com/selah/where-your-treasure-is/#more-5210

Store Up Treasure In Heaven
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” ( Luke 12:16-21)

My girls went to a tea party today about 40 minutes north of us, located very close to a place called Captain Cook State Park. Paul and I took advantage of the time alone and went to the park to poke around and let the puppy run and play. I was off lollygaggn about when I faintly heard Paul call to me to come here. As I got closer he told me to grab the camera out of the truck. I really didn't understand why so I took my time, but upon reaching him with my camera I saw two brown bear cubs walking near us. But because I took my time I only got this one shot before they continued to their destination, the beach. Paul took the camera and tried to follow but was unsuccessful. I was very disappointed to "miss the shot"! The mama to these cubs is missing and presumed dead, so these little guys are hungry and probably won't make it through the winter but who knows.

Talkeetnah Alaska

This is our new puppy! We just got her last night. This is our 3rd try at having a puppy, we gave away our first one regrettably and almost killed our second one that after a month was still going to the bathroom everywhere but outside. This one is lab and border collie mix so I believe we are going to have our hands full! I want to state for the record that I did NOT want a puppy. Paul felt he needed one to drive around with, so it is officially his dog. Paul was up all night last night taking it out to do its thing. He gets to clean it all up to!

On our way to Fairbanks we had the pleasure of seeing Mt McKinley. During the summer months it is said that you only have a 20% chance of seeing this mountain clearly. It was a beautiful drive!

We recently took a road trip to Fairbanks, where only 11 miles away is Santas house located in North Pole Alaska. Santas house was filled with letters from children all over the world and all sorts of overpriced knick knacks. Outside were all his reindeer buddies and a few picture hotspots and well that was it. My kids were not impressed, but that may be because they have never been led to believe that Santa Clause is real. When Justina was 2 we visited my Aunts on Christmas Eve where my Uncle had asked Justina if she was good for Santa. Justinas reply "Santa's Dead!". My Uncle found it quite disturbing and thought I was whacked. You see I had told Justina about the man named Kris Kringle or Saint Nick as some say and told her he died a long time ago. Sooo some may say my children have been deprived, they have never left out cookies and milk, they have not made any wish lists, they have not sat on some strange guys lap, nor have they waited up all night in hopes of catching him in the act. So what DO we do? We celebrate the birth of Gods son of course. The best gift that any one of us could recieve! But none the less we can say that we went to "North Pole" and visited the "dead guys house".