September 11, 2016

Hey yall,

So this will not be your typical blog post by my gifted wife.  This is Justin, Anna’s husband of two years if you don’t know who I am.  As I sit here watching the Vols play VA Tech (thank goodness we are winning), Anna is removing the fingernail polish off her nails for the 7^th time this week.  She has grown to love make-up tutorials and painting her nails a different color each day.   She has asked me several times to paint her right hand for her.   Of course I have said yes, however, I actually haven’t had to yet.  ANYWAYS, I’m writing this blog post due to Anna having writer’s block…..since last NOVEMBER!  I know we all enjoy her posts, so I am writing this in an effort to jump-start her writing ability.  So this means all y'all gotta be nice with the comments on this blog!  I’m not a writer and I’m definitely not my talented wife! 

Ok so a lot has happened in the past couple weeks that I need to tell y'all about.   I’ve been dealing with SMALL nerve damage. Not that big of a deal guys…seriously!  This nerve issue is now changing our future plans of PCSing to Fort Drum, New York next month.  As for right now, we will be extending our stay a bit in Anchorage.   We will stay here until the Army decides to either medically re-class me (I will change jobs from Infantry to something else) or medically discharge me.  I don’t know much about this process…but let’s be real about the Army.  The Army’s slogan has always been and always will be “Hurry up and wait.”  So for now we will be staying in Alaska for an undetermined amount of time….we are also not sure what job possibilities the Army will offer to me.  

Wow would you look at that…now that I got the boring future news out of the way, Anna’s writers block has seemed to miraculously disappear and she is trying to steal the computer from me.  I think she just doesn’t want HER blog to turn into MY blog.  I mean with such boring future news I think I made it at least bearable to read…way more bearable than watching Mississippi State football (Had to take a jab at the in-laws)!!!!!

Hi! Ok so my writers block did not “miraculously disappear”, it just gave me so much anxiety that someone else was writing on my blog that I couldn’t handle it.  I am so glad my husband DRAMATICALLY (geez what’s the word opposite for exaggerate) DOWNPLAYED (I literally had to google what that word was. I am obviously so unfamiliar with it) the situation we have been going through for MONTHS. We are moving to New York, nope actually we are moving home, actually just put your life on pause for a few weeks and cancel your plans to go home for a month so the Army can change their minds, now we are moving to New York again, just kidding stay exactly where you are! Justin literally told his chain of command that his wife was going to have “a complete nervous/emotional breakdown”. I think they thought he was being funny…but if they only knew. God Bless my sweet patient husband. Also…”small nerve damage”…. Im not going to go into extreme detail...but sure we can call his parachute not opening all the way on one of his jumps resulting into “small” nerve damage. Just going to leave that there…

Since my last blog, I quit my job. I did this partly because of our move. So that was a great idea…About a week ago, Vanessa (one of my most favorite people in Alaska – also I worked with her) texted me and asked if I would come back to work until I left. I said yes and have been working again since last Monday. I love working again but I extra love that Vanessa is my boss now!

Enough with the boring life updates. Now lets talk about some of the fun we have had since my last blog post (November 7, 2015) I am just going to hit some big events and post some pictures.

Yay! My family came to Alaska for Thanksgiving! So obviously that means you need to take a picture on a snowy mountain wearing matching scarfs with your dog!

Justin had laser eye surgery in December. This wasn’t necessarily “fun” but Roo seriously was Justins’ shadow during his whole recovery. Look how stinking cute that picture is!! How could I not include it?? Nurse Roo to the rescue!

We obviously came home for Christmas! I’m not going to post too many pictures from that but I got to spend a whole day with Brooke! I miss her so much and just looking back on my pictures, I wanted this one in my blog!

I got to ride on the Alaska Railroad when my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law were in town!

My baby turned 3!

Justin and I went Dog Sledding (Mushing)!! I just got so happy looking at these pictures again! Even though we had a lot of explaining to do to Roo when we got home, that was definitely one of the most memorable things we have done in Alaska.  Our lead dogs name was Weasel and I loved him.

This whole looking at pictures to remember all the things you have done is all fun and games until you come across the pictures of your flooded house. A pipe burst in our bedroom wall resulting in BOILING HOT WATER THAT SCALDED THE BOTTOMS OF MY FEET in our bedroom, living room, and it all gathered nicely in our basement. Moving on…….

I am planning on posting all my “wild life/Alaska beauty” pictures at the end but here is my selfie with a moose in my work parking lot. Anytime you get a selfie with a moose, it gets a special spot in your blog. Yes, my windows are rolled down because I like to live life on the edge.

I went snow-shoeing. Imagine the disappointment when I found out that they actually don’t look like tennis rackets anymore. Also imagine my surprise when I found out that this was exercise…hard exercise. Besides these two points, I had so much fun. Debbie (a coworker and friend) brought me on this adventure and I was so proud of myself when I reached the top of the mountain. She was telling me how much she loved being there because of the peace and quiet and alone time while I was face timing my entire family so they would believe me that I actually did it. (Sorry Debbie!)

Debbie is apparently glutton for punishment because she also took me cross-country skiing.  Also I think she hates me because guess what cross country skiing is….RUNNING/CLIMBING with skis on. Y’all. I didn’t know how much you could sweat on a snow covered mountain. But again, I was SO PROUD of myself!

I met Ravi Zacharias. By met I mean, I got this selfie with him as his security was asking me to get off the stage and my embarrassed husband was halfway to the truck.

If you know my husband, then you know how much he loves his Grandma Connie's pound cake. I made my very first pound cake on his birthday this year! We enjoyed it very much…until Roo finished it off (and by finished off, she ate about half of it...). That was really fun aftermath…

We sort of went camping. We were planning on camping until we found out that our baby girl, Roo, is TERRIFIED of fire. We had a campfire going and she was NOT having it. We ended up just going home but we had so much fun hanging out with some good friends, riding four wheelers, roasting marshmallows, and finding caribou carcasses. Ya know, the normal camping experience!

I already posted about this on Facebook, but this Moose gave birth in the Lowes parking lot. I was exhausted by the end of this day giving emotional support to this mama moose by sitting for hours and hours in this parking lot. I officially have the best option for “two truths and a lie” for icebreakers at parties now. Unless the people reading this are at that party…in which case, nevermind.

Mothers Day. I cried  for 92938716 hours at this picture, but I love it so much.

Thank you dad for being an influence on my husband. *Note that the word “good” was not written in front of influence in that sentence.*

Justin has LOVED this motorcycle since he has gotten it. It makes me happy how happy he is, even if we now take two vehicles everywhere we go…Seriously people, I barely remember what it was like riding in the same car at this point. Winter is just around the corner (pause for sobbing tears) and the motorcycle will have to be parked.

Fathers Day. I cried for another 92938716 hours at this picture, but again I love it so much!

So I just came across pictures that gave me the same emotions as the flooded house did. (Does everyone know who Shia Labeouf is? He played in Even Stevens and transformers) He was hitchhiking for a month or something like. He would hitchhike and go wherever the people who picked him up would take him. He was searching for “art”, but I feel as though he was searching for becoming a skinsuit or something. So naturally, when I found out he had ended up in Alaska, I got in my car at 6am and drove over 5 hours to Homer to find him (alone). If any psychologists are reading this, just shake your head and move on, I realize all that is wrong with this entire paragraph.  Here is the play by play of the road trip:

                        -Drive 5 hours

                        -Continually checking his twitter to see where he is

                        -Arrive at Homer

                        -Check twitter

                        -He is at the Anchorage airport….15 minutes from my house

                        -Drive 5 hours back home

                        -Banned all Shia Labeouf movies from my home

 In rereading this paragraph, maybe I do need some form of help….moving on….

I don’t even know how to properly describe this next event. Words like life-changing, life-altering, life-defining, all seem to not properly grasp the gravity of it. I, Anna Fowler Mullins, went to  Santa’s House at North Pole, Alaska. 

Ill give you a moment for that to soak in.

We took off early one morning and drove to Fairbanks, AK. The drive was beautiful. We drove through Talkeetna, Denali National Park, and just some of the most breath-taking scenery. We explored Fairbanks the day we arrived. Here are some pictures from Fairbanks:

Touching the Alaskan Oil Pipeline

The end of the Alaska Highway

Now, I almost died and met Jesus in Faribanks, AK. We went to dinner at a place called "Big Daddy's BBQ: The Northern most Southern BBQ". Looking over the menu, I noticed there were St.Louis ribs, Carolina BBQ, etc. There were a lot of cities mentioned, but no Memphis. I "jokingly" said to the waitress that I was offended there was no Memphis BBQ, to which she replied "Is that a thing?"

IS THAT A THING!?!?!? She was added to my prayer list right then and there. Bless her ignorant heart.

The day had arrived to drive on to the North Pole and see Santa. Not even being planned, Justin and I wore red and green shirts that day! We pull up to Santa’s House, and in true Anna fashion, I start bawling. Nobody should be that surprised. I was almost too emotionally overwhelmed and we just had to sit in the parking  lot for a little while. Finally, we went inside :

I will never ever ever ever forget this experience for as long as I live!!

We drove home later that afternoon, and I made Justin pull over at every sign with with a camera on it indicating a perfect spot to take in the scenery. At first , I literally wanted all the pictures, but then it just got so funny seeing how annoyed Justin was getting that I had to keep it going…all 372 miles.

My birthday came around and Justin surprised me with a surprise party with some of our favorite friends.  He even wrote my birthday message on my cake all by himself!!!! He is a real keeper!

I went to my first Blue Angels airshow. (They practiced all week the week of the show…right above my house…loudly) It was so cool to see all the different kinds of planes and especially seeing the planes that my husband jumps out of. When it was time for the actually show to start, we kept to our roots and went and sat in Justins tailgate in lawn chairs.

One of my first blog posts was about when we went to the Blueberry Festival. Well, we went again this year! It was supposed to be a double date with our friends Jake and Kinzie, but the boys decided to ride their bikes (an hour to the festival from our house) and a rainstorm decided to head our way after we had been there 15 minutes and they had to leave so that they could try and beat it. (They didn’t). Our double date turned into a Kinzie and Anna date. We still had so much fun and something AMAZING happened on our way home…We got to watch the Beluga whales migrate. I screamed I was so excited. We pulled over and just watched. I’ll never forget it.

We also went the State Fair with Kinzie, Jake, and Dennis this past weekend. It was all worth it when we got to watch 2 monkeys with cowboy hats riding on 2 border collies. It got even better when he said he was all the way from Pontotoc, MS. I love when people from the South are in Alaska. It makes me want to hug them. Instead of hugging him, I hugged the monkey instead!

Now here are some random Moose and Bears and just pretty pictures of where I live:

My baby met a black bear!!!

So, here was an overwhelming amount of pictures and me rambling, but I wanted to catch yall up! I just went to save this and noticed that my husband had already saved it as “Justin's Blog”….somebody is a little power hungry looks like…

I am thankful for all y’all that pray for us and ask about us. You really have no idea how much it means to us. These past few months may look like they have been full of nonstop adventure because of the pictures, but they have been challenging. I have never been nor claimed to be a patient person. I obviously have control issues (I couldn’t even let Justin type on my blog without getting anxious). So having zero control over our future or even zero control of knowing when our future decisions would be made has been so very hard. Although we still don’t have certainty of where we will be next year, next month, or even next week, we rest in the fact that we know God is already there. Nothing in the past few months has taken God by surprise and His plan is being laid out perfectly for us in His time.

Always,

Anna 

(and I guess Justin, but don't get used to it, bud)