North and South

The world is a beautiful warm place once again. I'm sitting on my balcony watching the trees and listening to the wind and loving this place. When it's summer here you forget what winter is. There is a vague memory of dark and cold, but 30 below is unimaginable and dark is something not understood. I think that's the trick that keeps people here, every summer this land weaves a spell and you become addicted. Addicted to green forests, blue and white mountains, the sound of the wind in the aspens, and never ending day. Jane's happy to have summer back too, water is no longer in a solid form. : ) I have been reading North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Already seen the BBC miniseries (several times : ) and I love the way they stayed so close to the book. The actors and personalities in the movie seem like they walked right out of the book. And the plot is almost identical. There are a few variations so far, though. Margaret does not go to the mill in the book but she could have and it would not have been out of character. : ) Other then that I haven't found any differences yet. I do know that the end is not the same. : ) How? Well I read the end first, of course. : ) I am enjoying the book but I think I like the movie better. Bessy's character is a little different in the book, She is always talking about her death and going to heaven, she quotes alot of Revelations which is a little disturbing since it out of context, meaning she isn't quite sure if it's for her and there is no mention of scriptural salvation. Margaret's mother is also a little different, very whiny at the beginning, at Helstone. Helps you understand the father a little better. Also Margaret is outspoken enough to find fault with a complete stranger's way of thinking but not outspoken enough to ask her father why he left the church. That frustrates me. But that is in the movie also. I just like the movie, I think they did a wonderful job with casting, plot, and location. It's a beautiful movie.

Told ya!!!

Yeah, so blogging in the summer just doesn't happen. Since Alaskan summers have a lifespan of about three months I just can't bring myself to sit down and blog thinking that there's gonna be snow in a few weeks. : ) There's snow now though so here I am. Had an interesting summer to say the least. Very hard but still managed to have a few adventures. The last few years we've started our summers by going hiking on Memorial Day and every year it turns into a grand adventure. One year we hiked Donnelly Dome in a blizzard, last year I hiked Granite Tors with my brothers and slept in a cave, that was awesome!, and this year we hiked Whikersham Dome with the Degerlunds. Jock and Ross slept in a little crevasse stuffed with all their gear and actually lasted the whole night even though Sam set a tent up for them because we didn't expect them to. The boys went sledding on an old patch of snow by using their sleeping mats for sleds. I even tried it, it was fun! I think we spent most of June and July at the lake. I love living so close to Chena Lakes. (so does Jane!) Me and Kris spent the fourth of July with Jo in Anchor Point. It was the perfectly weekend vacation, we just hung out with our sister and did a bunch of nothing, it was so quiet and comforting at her house. We walked to the ocean everyday and went to the farmer's market in Homer. I love Homer!! We ate pizza at Starvin Marvin's (it was delicious) and Jason embarrassed us by singing along with song from the 80's they were playing there. Jo said she was too used to it to be embarrassed and refused to constrain her husband. : ) August was crazy with Missions Conference and family vacation. We loved having the whole McCandless family here for two weeks. If they ever want to come back there is always a place for them here. We were able to show them alot of Alaska, we went to Denali Park and took them all down to visit Mr. Ron and Mrs. Anita. It always doubles the fun to show an outsider Alaska. I'm so lucky to live here. I didn't get to go to Chitna this year. : ( I missed it alot.


Things I learned this summer:

People actually think I'm an adult. ; ) I had to give two girls at work their 90 day reviews. So I'm kinda a supervisor I guess. I know some of you think that would be easy for me : ) being a older sister and all but it wasn't.

Life is alot harder then I thought it would be, and God is really the only sure and steady thing in this world. It's my own fault if I get the rug pulled out from under me because I was relying completely on people for my emotional and spiritual support. I learn this summer that God really does mean it when he says He want us to rest on Him alone.

At Missions Conference this year I learned three things:

How to kill a rat; : )
that there is somebody out there as silly as Aaron that somehow managed to bluff his way into the elite club made up of conservative Baptist Pastors; and that bubbles can carry alot of weight. (thanks Mrs. Anita: )

I have read a few good books lately that I want to talk about we'll see if I ever do though. : )