Update: As of my writing, my family still has a few hours of driving before arriving at tonight's stop. They had a bit of a late start, some long stops, and had to have the truck searched for about an hour by a friendly Canadian customs agent. The boys have been difficult. While understandable, it's made for a long drive today.

I have little to report on my end. I've been working on school work and laundry; Trevor's been working on homework and Minecraft. I've also been practicing patience in leaving my worries in God's care.

My mother has been diligently working on getting the house cleaned up. Carpet cleaners came in today. There are a few rooms that could use new coats of paint, over twenty bags of trash and some left-over furniture that needs disposal, and a large number of odds and ends that still need fixing. Is there anyone down there who is willing to hang a towel rack?

Four more days.

Updates:  Trevor and I visited Kenai today.  Specifically, we were looking to attend the Industry Appreciation Day event being held there (more free salmon).  However, we didn't fully know where it was being held and first ended up getting lost and visiting an overlook of Cook Inlet; it was worth getting lost.  We finally found the event and enjoyed a fantastic lunch, wonderful kettle corn, and freshly spun cotton candy.  There were a number of activities there for children that made me really miss my younger sons, but I got to meet up with some familiar faces and even surprise a few students.  Our day also included hunting for a new mattress for Trevor, watching our 8th grade football team soundly defeat their rival, and come within a few yards of a very calm moose.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family has finished packing the truck and is mostly ready to begin their trek tomorrow.  It has been a heroic effort and an adventuresome journey still awaits.  A large number of people came to help them today, and I am deeply grateful to all of them.  I know that we are leaving the house with work still left to be done, and I am also quite grateful to those who have agreed to help get it ready for sale.  My mother (Cheryl Swanson Marks​) and father are heading up that effort and would certainly appreciate any help offered.  

I'm now on the countdown until I get to hold my wife and sons (and briefly one of my daughters) again.  Six days.

Update: Trevor and I spent an hour on the shortest trail of the Tsalteshi Trails (tsalteshi.org for a map) that loops from my school and back (Moose Trail). We were on a hunt for at least ten different types of leaves (not grasses) for his biology class. We picked over twenty, which are now pressed in the few books we have with us under the exercise weights that I have only once attempted to use while up here. Those twenty were found while ignoring a prevalent plant with thorns on both its stems and the undersides of the leaves themselves [read: ouch].

On the home front, the truck is nearly packed and there isn't enough space. Tough decisions are being made about what to pack, what to ship, and what can stay with my parents for the time being. This is after so very much has already been sold, donated, and trashed. On the brighter note, today's walk through with the realtor raised her price expectation for the house by $15,000 (with another $5,000 or more possible after it's fully cleaned). Should the house sell at that amount, it would be more than we bought it for (and that was before the housing market collapsed). Granted, there have been a lot of improvements put into the house since then.

There's only one day left before Janelle, Katrina, John, the boys and our cats make the long journey up to Alaska. There's still a great deal to do. All help and prayers are appreciated.

Update: Trevor and I went to Eat the Salmon, Save the Salmon at Soldotna's city park this evening for a free meal with live entertainment. The salmon was excellent, the music entertaining, and the people were friendly. I've driven past the area many times now, not realizing that such a nice park (and river walkway) was so close by. We will definitely be making more trips in the future.

Also, as of yesterday, I am now certified to teach in the state of Alaska. My certification will be sent to me once my federal background check is completed (in another couple of months). Getting this done took a lot of effort and express shipping, as well as a good deal of help from very talented members of the district staff. I'm extremely relieved that hurdle is cleared.

At the homefront, the truck arrived and hauled a number of items to a wide assortment of places today. It is currently filled with trash for a run to the dump tomorrow morning, after which they are hoping to load our belongs in it as quickly as possible so the house is cleared for the realtor's walk-through just before noon. I know that many of you would prefer to do other things with your Friday (morning especially), but Friday and Saturday are the two big push days so they can leave early Sunday. Please help if you are able.

Updates: Trevor and I had our first choir practice today.  Trevor's still a little concerned about standing up in front of everyone; he had been eager about joining choir when it was in the back of the church.

This move has been hard on a lot of people, but I feel the worst for Rowen.  I've been told that when they were putting toys into the garage sale, he would try to smuggle some of them back into his room (even though he hadn't touched them for years previous).  Today, he did the same with a pile of books that was going to be donated to the library.  With so much of his life getting turned upside down, it's no surprise that he's trying to hold onto everything he can.  That said, when I relayed this story to one of my new friends up here, her response was that it might be difficult for him at the moment, but that will pass after he gets up here and realizes how wonderful it is.  (There's a analogy here about heaven that I'm going to leave largely unsaid).

Today, the massive trash bin was taken away.  Tomorrow, the moving truck arrives.  Friday, the realtor gives final suggestions (and hopefully thinks the house is ready to put on the market).  So much has been done already.  If you can help, please do.

Updates: We had an Open House at my school today, and while it means not getting home until late, I really enjoyed getting to meet with my students' parents.  While the turn out was a little lower than I hoped, everyone I met was quite friendly and very welcoming.  A number of parents stayed after my "classes" to tell me how much I was going to love being here and what a great place it was to raise a family.  I also had yet another great experience with a salesfloor person, this time at JoAnn Fabrics, who was both creatively helpful and entertaining witty.

Meanwhile the house is getting emptied.  Special thanks go out to Jenni​ and Richard for packing up the kitchen.  The dumpster gets taken away tomorrow and the moving truck arrives on Thursday.  Negotiations are underway over what will make the final cut for the trip to Soldotna, but final decisions won't be made until they actually see what can fit.  My plea for help with the homefront continues.  If you are willing and able, please lend a hand during these next few days.

To start with, the second reading is the classic reading about wives being submissive to their husbands and husbands loving their wives.  I wrote on that aspect last year and am going to let it go this time.

Instead, my focus is that of the first reading and the Gospel, both which deal with choices, specifically choosing God, no matter how difficult the path.  Today's homily was about all of the choices that we make in life and how they affect us.  A conversation I had later in the day is how God helps guide our choices, providing for us in ways that we cannot plan.

While a series of events may have inspired my move to Soldotna, it was a conscious choice.  This is where I want to work and live.  This is where I believe my family can best grow.  I realize that, by making this choice, I have made people I love feel as though I have chosen a place over people.  That can't be farther from the truth.  I didn't want to leave anyone behind, but rather wrap them all up in the joy that I have found and bring them up with me.

I am not a victim of circumstance.  I have chosen the path that I feel God has laid out for me.

My grandmother passed away earlier this year.  That event started me thinking about a large number of things in my life, from regrets to how and where I want to die.  These thoughts were probably further fueled by the fact that I am now 41.  It's about time for a mid-life crisis.

Of the things which are in my control, at least to some degree, is where I live.  My parents and I passed a cemetery on our way to lunch one day, and they were remarking about it being the place where they are most likely to be buried.  The thought penetrated the depths of my soul.  I don't want to be buried in Jackson.  As I considered that idea, I had to wonder why I would continue to live there if I didn't want to be found dead there.

It's not that Jackson is a terrible place.  I love Michigan and all of its seasons and sights, but I love Alaska more.  I realized that I was coming to a point where moving back to Alaska was becoming an impossibility.  When I left with my young family in 1996, I had always planned on returning.  After nearly twenty years, I hadn't even visited it again.  It was something always put off.

I love teaching.  The past few years have been my best as a teacher (although test scores might not agree with that statement).  They have also been terrible for the teaching profession.  Teachers have been under attack throughout the U.S., but Michigan has really taken off the gloves.  I'm not going to go into detail here, but every time that I thought it couldn't get worse, it did just that.  

I needed to move.  If I was going to move, I was going to move out of Michigan.  If I was going to move, I was going to return to Alaska.

We were in Wyoming when I got word that it got even worse at my place of work.  I started looking at jobs in Alaska with the idea of getting my name out there.  My thought was that I would swallow another year of bitterness (again, not between me and my students--these problems are largely the work of an inept state government that is determined to destroy public education), work on getting certified in Alaska, and make a serious push at the end of the coming school year.

Instead, I got a call the week we returned.  It was from the place that Janelle had liked the best of the different job openings: Soldotna.  They were eager for me to join their team and helpful in getting me a place to stay once I arrived.  We had a lot of difficult conversations as a family and ultimately decided that this was what was best for us.

This means I had to leave behind some of the greatest people in the world and not have the proper time to say my goodbyes.  I've honestly not had much time to do anything other than work through each day's challenges since I said "yes" to the official offering.  Everything since then has been a series of waves that I have had to ride to just stay afloat.  But the experience has been exhilarating, and nearly everything that has happened since I said yes has reaffirmed that I made the best decision.

Today was my first mass at my newly adopted parish.  While I certainly miss St. Mary's (both the church and the people), Our Lady of Perpetual Help is both pleasant and welcoming.  It would be too much to say that I already felt at home, but that wasn't for the lack of trying on the parts of the parishioners and pastor.  

I knew I was in the right place when the  opening hymn was "I Am the Bread of Life."  It has been one of my favorite songs that I even tend to sing a little counter-melody to when I can get away with it.  It's a little morbid to say, but it's one of the songs that I want sung at my funeral mass.  While there was a prelude piece that preceded it, having it be the first song of the mass was a comforting gesture on His part.

Today's readings, of course, focused on Jesus being the bread and wine of life.  The homily focused on how Jesus gave us everything, maybe even more than we know how to handle.  He has not only changed water into wine and wine into His blood, but he has changed our lives from the mundane into the extraordinary.  

Trevor and I arrived in Soldotna Sunday night.  In this short space of time, we are already beginning to think of this place as home.  Even though the trip to our current rental requires a number of turns off the main road, I was able to know the route without the use of my GPS after only a couple of trips to it.  The same is true for each of the schools that I've had to go to as well as several of the stores.

Granted, the places that I know make up only a small percentage of what is a relatively small town.  Still, I have already come to think of Soldotna as home.  While I still have to find an actual house, it's become home nonetheless.  

The people have really made us feel this way.  Everyone has been friendly and welcoming.  We've already made connections with a number of people whom I believe will be good friends.

Trevor and I plan on doing more exploring this weekend, and I don't doubt that we'll make even more discoveries and friends the longer we stay here.

I received word that one of my fellow graduates of the Northwest class of 1992, as well as one of my friends throughout most of my school years, passed away last night.  I know that I am getting to an age where the death of my peers is going to become more common, but this has affected me deeply nonetheless.

I was friends with Eric back in middle school.  While that was an awkward time where no one seemed to fit in, somehow we managed to fit in even less.  We became a group of geeks.  Eric was even one of my main characters in a script that I wrote in the seventh grade.  As the years went on, we saw less of each other as our classes were rarely the same.  The last I saw of him was when I took my son to a pizza party at Little Caesars.  It was the awkward meeting of people who know each other but have been separated by enough years to become strangers.  I felt sad about it then, but even more so on reflection now.

Eric was a good man.  He is missed.

I safely arrived in Soldotna on Sunday night.  I'm still swamped with everything involved around starting a new job on the other side of a continent.  I kept a daily log of my travels to get  here, and I thought that I would share them here in my first post from Alaska:

Alaska Bound - Day One. Have arrived in North Dakota after an arduous 16 hours on the trail. Natives have been friendly (especially Don, the rest area custodian). Will attempt the dangerous Canadian crossing tomorrow. Must rest now.

Alaska Bound - Day Two. Have arrived in Alberta after another grueling sixteen hour day on the trail. The weather went from heavy fog to heavy rain for most of the journey. We only saw the sun for an hour or so at the end of the day. Still, rain has not dampened our spirits (which have been helped immensely thanks to the provisions supplied by my friends from my church choir). Limited contact with the natives has thus not supported the general stereotype of their friendliness; perhaps the rain was dampening their spirits. Saw a group of bison as we passed through one of Canada's national parks. Enjoyed the local cuisine at the Canadian restaurants named Burger King and Arby's.

Alaska Bound - Day Three - Have arrived in Fort Nelson and have here finally found the friendly natives that had long been told of in song and story. Seriously, very friendly people here. Today, we started our three-day journey on the road that will lead us straight to our new home. Mera, our faithful steed, complained only a little during some of the more arduous climbs. I think that she will be fine for the more mountainous trek tomorrow.


Alaska Bound - Day Four - Have arrived in the Yukon after one of the most beautiful trips of my life. Trail conditions were much better than expected. Mera, our trusted steed, not only fared better than expected, but seemed to enjoy the mountains more than the flat stretches from the days before. Saw a lot of wildlife, including a real close encounter with a bison. Met a fellow traveler who is a former senator from Wisconsin with a false leg. He was on a drive to Prudoe Bay as part of an adventure to be the first person to ride a three-wheeled vehicle to the four corners of the United States (he already has that distinction for a vehicle named Harley). Tonight's innkeeper is quite helpful and friendly. She has assured us that our border crossing should be quick and easy. Tomorrow, we will meet with some old friends and then arrive in our new home town.

Alaska Bound - Final Day: We have arrived! I thought that yesterday's journey was the most beautiful I had ever seen, but I quickly changed my opinion after today's voyage. Shy of the road to Hana in Maui, I have not ever seen such sights, and these have even surpassed Maui's cliffs in my estimation. Mountains, forests, rivers, and glaciers kept my spirits up throughout the trip. Meeting friends in Anchorage for a wonderful dinner only made things better. The homestead where we have arrived is quite sparse, but we plan to gather supplies tomorrow after my first day on the job is over.

I miss my family and friends, but I wish they were here, not the other way around.