Holsinger Family

I’m over here now!

I know…I know…It’s been a REALLY long time since I’ve updated my blog. I did post new pictures in November of Megan at her science fair. I’m hoping to get more pictures up soon, but I haven’t been able to find my camera cord since the move.

We have been busy, busy! We’re definitely feeling settled and we love it here in Idaho. Eagle has the same small town feel that Norman and Eagle River have, but we like taking advantage of the great shopping and restaurants that Boise has to offer.

We are really enjoying being back in full-time ministry. Our church is experiencing exciting growth, both spiritually and in numbers. I love working part-time with the children’s department. Even though we are at the church for a good portion of the week, we feel like our kids benefit from the time they spend there, are well-loved, and are learning at a young age about ministry and serving the Lord. Our family is healthier than it’s been in a long time.

Megan is thriving at school. She excels in reading, language arts, and recess! And our budding ballerina performed in her first full-length ballet last month. She was a baby spider and a lamb in “Charlotte’s Web: The Ballet”, performed by Eagle Performing Arts Center, her ballet school. It was a great experience for her and has increased her love of dancing and performing. She is on winter break right now and goes back to school the 4th week of January. She has also been invited to sing on the children’s worship team once a month. She definitely loves being in the spotlight!

Steven is both frustrating and delightful at almost every moment! He has so much personality, talks in complete sentences, and FINALLY needs a haircut. He continues to have alignment problems in his eyes, due to the esotropia (crossed-eyes) he was born with. We are patching his stronger eye every day to strengthen the weaker eye. We are anticipating more surgery this summer.

Our other big news is that my dad and his wife Susan have moved to Boise from Seattle. Boise (Meridian) has one of the only linemen’s colleges in the U.S. and they had been pursuing my dad for an administrative position for several months prior to our decision to move here. Everything finally fell into place and they moved into their new house in Meridian (less than 15 minutes away) last week. It’s been fun having family around again and the kids are very excited about “Goom-pop (Steven’s name for Grandpa) and Susan” and their dog Harley!

After Thanksgiving in Arizona, a hectic December, and then Christmas and New Year’s in Alaska, we are hoping life is going to settle down for a while. At least for a few days anyway!

One of the perks of working on a church staff is access to lots of babysitters! We’ve had several girls come and help me with the kids, while I am unpacking. One, of our favorites, is a girl named Katrina. The first time she came, we had told Megan the day before that a girl named Miss. Katrina was coming to babysit. That morning, she leaned over to me and said “Mom, is Miss. Hurricane going to take me to school?” I still chuckle when I think about it!

Yes, for those of you who have asked, we have arrived in Idaho and are busy, busy getting settled.

Our ferry adventure was just that…an adventure. We had a rough start. Bad weather, hours of waiting in our car for a late boat and then 12 foot waves in the open water of the Gulf of Alaska made us wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. But after rest and plenty of Dramamine (Ken had a seasickness patch), we were feeling better. The first boat we were on, the Kennicott, was luxurious compared to the rest of the ferry fleet. It was built in the late 90’s and was made to handle the rough trip across the gulf. Our cabin was tight, but comfortable. We each had a twin bunk bed and there was even room to set up Steven’s portable crib. The cafeteria served family-friendly meals, not gourmet by any means, but there were lots of choices and we didn’t have any trouble finding something for everyone. There were also play areas for the kids, an arcade, gift shop, and several lounges where we could sit and watch the horizon go up and down. All in all, we managed pretty well. There were some people who vomited for the first 24 hours of the trip. We didn’t get sick at all.

On the second day, we entered the inside passage and headed for Juneau. After suffering through the rough seas in the gulf, the inside passage felt like Lake Powell! This was when we truly began to enjoy ourselves. We switched boats in Juneau and settled in on the Malaspina, for 2 1/2 more days at sea. While not as luxurious as the Kennicott, the calm waters we encountered on the Malaspina made up for it, and our cabin was roomier and was an exterior cabin with a window. There were lots of other families riding the ferry, that were moving away from Alaska, and both the locals and tourists alike were very friendly. It was fun to swap stories while watching our kids play. We enjoyed eating every meal together as a family, exploring the boat, and reading in the evenings. It was refreshing to be free of cell phones, TV and computers. But by the last evening, we had rubbed elbows a few too many times, and we couldn’t wait to get off the boat and back to civilization.

After a 2 day drive, we arrived in Idaho and settled in with friends. Megan immediately started school and we went to work. That’s right…after staying home for the last 8 years, I’m going back to work! I’ve been working with the children’s department at our church since last spring, and when they found out we were moving here, they offered me the job of Director of Children’s Ministry. I work 3 mornings a week, plus one afternoon, and Steven comes with me and is cared for with a few other staff children right down the hall at the church. It was a tough choice to give up being at home full-time, but I feel confident that God has brought me to this place and has called me to this ministry. We feel good about the care that Steven will be receiving and will be constantly evaluating if this is what’s best for our family. In the mean time, I love being back in an office environment, conversing with adults on a regular basis. I’m excited about the challenges ahead and being used by God to lead this ministry.

Our moving truck only took about 2 weeks to arrive and now we are busily unpacking, organizing, and decorating our house. It’s been so fun to buy new furniture, pick paint colors and dream about the things we want to do to this house. Megan is thrilled to have her own room again and lots of little girls on our street to play with, Steven loves being able to run, and I adore my new master bathroom! We feel so blessed and are looking forward to a wonderful new life in Idaho!

Tomorrow we leave Alaska. The movers left yesterday after three days of packing and loading. Today, we cleaned our rental house and turned in the keys. We’ve been in a hotel since Sunday evening. Megan is spending the night with her cousins at Grandma and Poppy’s house for one last time. I’m feeling sad about the people we are leaving behind, but am very ready to go and begin our life in Idaho. After a year and a half of transition, I’m ready to settle!

Our boat leaves tomorrow evening at 10:00 pm. We will leave Anchorage at around 5 and drive to Portage. Then we have to drive through a 3-mile tunnel in a mountain to get to Whittier. The tunnel is only one lane, so we can only go through every hour on the half hour. After dinner in Whittier, we will check in and have our car loaded onto the boat. Although many people, who travel on the ferry, camp on the decks, we have reserved a 4-person cabin. (We aren’t quite that adventurous!) We arrive in Juneau on Saturday afternoon and switch boats. We are scheduled to reach Bellingham, WA on Tuesday morning at 8:00 am. From there, we will drive to Boise, staying overnight in the Tri-Cities area. We would like to spend some time in Seattle, but Megan’s school will have already started and we don’t want her to miss too many days. The next time I update this blog, we will be Idahoans…

For the last several months, I have been using Ken’s old laptop as my main computer. It’s been giving me a lot of problems and is heavy and bulky, so Ken decided to get me a new laptop. He ordered me a sleek, all-white Macbook and had it delivered to the church in Boise. We picked it up while we were there house-hunting, and brought it home with our carry-on in it’s original box. We arrived in Anchorage at around midnight, hauled the kids and luggage to the car, loaded everything up and managed to leave my new laptop on the sidewalk next to the car! Ken thought I had picked it up, and I thought Ken had picked it up. Not only did we leave the laptop, but the paperwork from our new house was inside with oodles of personal information on them, including our social security numbers!

The next day when we realized what had happened, I called the airport Lost and Found and they told me that someone had turned it in and that it was there waiting for us. Ken went into town that afternoon, but didn’t make it over to the airport until after Lost and Found had closed. A security guard took pity on him and took him to look in the Lost and Found office. Nothing! They couldn’t find any sign of it.

The next day, I called Lost and Found, and the lady told me that someone had picked up my laptop the day before. He had described it perfectly and left his name, address, and driver’s license number. She said she was very sorry, but there was not much we could do about it since it wasn’t a crime to claim lost items.

We immediately called the police, who said it was most certainly a crime, and in fact, because of the high value of the laptop, it was a felony. Well, it turns out that the thief was an airport employee. They called him to bring the laptop back and arrested him. Now we are waiting for a judge to release it back to us, since it is considered evidence. We are thankful that the laptop was turned into Lost and Found, because if this man had swiped it from the sidewalk where we left it, we never would have been able to trace it.

So I’m back to using Ken’s old laptop for a while longer. I can only use it for short periods of time, since it only charges while it’s off and runs off of the battery while it’s on. But I did manage to upload pictures of our new house into our gallery. We are supposed to close on the 15th and we will be leaving Anchorage on the ferry on July 20th. Happy 4th of July!

Our offer on the house in Eagle was accepted, no counters or contingencies! We low-balled them a little on the offer and our realtor didn’t think we had a prayer of having it accepted without a counter-offer. But God provides! The house had been on the market for 4 months, had a previous offer that fell through and the owners had already moved out of state. According to our realtor, the owners wanted to counter-offer, but their realtor advised them to accept our offer and move on. Hooray! We are very excited and eager to get moved and settled. I’ll try to post some pictures when I get home.

Check out Steven’s new pictures in our gallery.

And so it’s begun…We made an offer on a house in Boise yesterday! Ken arrived in Boise a week ago and began making preparations for our house hunt. He met with a realtor, drove around town, and began to narrow down our choices. The kids and I joined him on Monday. We spent some time driving around and looking at model homes. This proved really valuable, as we were able to eliminate several areas that we did not want to live and focus on the neighborhoods we really liked. We love the architectural style here and there are many, many options. It is definitely a buyer’s market with an over-saturation of new homes in the area.

With the kids in childcare at the church, and our realtor in tow, we began to look at houses that we were interested in yesterday. By 11:30 we had found the one! It is a 5-bedroom house with a gourmet kitchen, a bonus room, and an office. The backyard is beautiful with a built-in sandbox, a sunken trampoline and a vegetable garden plot complete with a water spout. There’s even a garden shed with a roll-down door for a lawn-mower (which we don’t have, but I’m sure our lawn guy will really appreciate it!) The house was built last year and is in a very well-established neighborhood with a variety of houses and price-ranges.

The school in our neighborhood is called Seven Oaks. It is fairly new and highly rated. And…it is a year-round school. There are 5 tracks (or schedules) to choose from. School starts in late July and ends in late June. The different tracks take breaks at different times, going to school for about 12 weeks and then taking 3 weeks off. The track we are looking at would give Megan 3 weeks off in August (which would ease her into school), 5 weeks at Christmas, and 4 weeks at Spring Break, plus all of the major school holidays. The kids go to school the same number of days as traditional schools, but eliminating the long summer break means less review at the start of the school year and more time for learning. I also like the idea of being able to take vacations during different times of the year.

The city we will be living in is called Eagle, northwest of Boise. The church is in Meridian which is directly west of Boise. We are about 15 minutes away from the church. We love Eagle, it is very small town-feeling, but with all of the amenities of a big city, including great shopping and lots of restaurants.

Now all we do is wait…we’ll keep you posted!

Many of you have already heard that we have made a big decision. We’ve decided to move our family to Boise, Idaho. We have loved our time here in Alaska, but Ken’s travel schedule has gotten overwhelming and it is having a negative impact on our family. We came to conclusion that he either needed to find a job that he could do here in Anchorage, or move back to the lower 48. Since Ken loves what he does, the decision was clear.

Ken has accepted a position at Capital Christian Center in Meridian, a suburb of Boise. This is a church he has been working with for over a year, visiting them every month and spending Christmas eve and Easter with them. The kids and I have tagged along on many trips and I have spent the last few months working with their children’s ministry leadership team. We love this church, the pastors and their ministry and it seems like a good fit for us. They have wanted him to come on staff for many months and are creating a new position for him, Worship, Media & Arts Pastor. He is excited to build a team that oversees worship services for adults, children and youth. I am looking forward to taking a hands-on role with their children’s ministry.

Living in Boise makes sense for us. Ken has a couple of investment business opportunities that have cropped up in the last year in Boise. He also may continue consulting on a limited basis and it will be much easier to travel from Boise than it has been from Anchorage. We all like Boise, even Megan! God has prepared her heart, and she is excited about our move.

We are planning a house-hunting trip in early June after Megan gets out of school and then will make our move around July 20. We made reservations on the Alaska Marine Highway and are looking forward to an adventure on the ferry! We already have a buyer for our property (which has more than doubled in value!)

Everything is quickly falling in place, and we can’t help but see God’s hand in this. It has been a fun and exciting year living at the top of the world, and it has been such a blessing to see our children build close relationships with their grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. We are sad to leave this beautiful place, but eager to start this new chapter in our lives.

I’m being pestered again to post so let me quickly update everyone. May is the 2nd busiest month of the year for us. (December is the first!) We had a big birthday party for Megan last week. Next week is Megan’s ballet recital and we will be downtown everyday this week except Wednesday. I have spent many hours in the last weeks sitting in front of my sewing machine embellishing 13 ballet costumes. Mom is coming next week (yeah!)and Ken is traveling the U.S. (Las Vegas, Boise, and Washington D.C.)

The end of the school year also means parties, assemblies, luncheons and field trips. So as you can see, we are busy, busy, busy! I’ll try to add pictures of Megan’s party and recital when I can.

(On a side note, Ken’s going to Washington D.C. to participate in the grand opening of a new church that is affiliated with the church he works with in Boise and the National Prayer Center. Megan’s been telling her friends that her daddy is going to Washington D.C. to meet with the president! I guess to her visiting the president seems like the most logical reason for going to D.C., since he lives there and all.)