The Frozen Floridian Arrives!

I am here at last! After 10 months of being in "transition", Handsome, the 3 Es and I arrived last Saturday at midnight to our new house (due to a 3 hour plane delay--our heads hit the pillow at 2am). We definately hit the ground running, with Handsome flying to rural Alaska on Sunday to work for the week, and E1 starting school on Monday. I'll keep this post brief as I am swimming in a sea of moving boxes, but want to let my readership know how things have gone the past few days.
Evidences of God's grace/items for prayer:
1. All of our household goods arrived on Monday, so I handled the move by myself. I had a friend from Soldotna drive up for the day to help me with the kids. This friend arrived just in the nick of time, and it was a tangible sign to me of God's grace in my life. I think I would have blown apart on Monday had she not been here. Everything made it here in one piece (as much as I can tell now), even the green minivan, and we are slowly getting unpacked.
2. E1 started school on Monday at a language immersion school. This has been by far the biggest stressor for me this week, as I'm not sure that we made the right choice in schooling. I am going to investigate other options on Monday once Handsome comes home from rural Alaska. Please pray that it will be made clear to Handsome and me what school E1 should attend.
3. We live in a nice neighborhood and the kids are loving our new house. In Florida the 5 of us lived in a 1000 square foot rental. Now in Alaska we have 2700 square feet in this rental house, and we are all so happy to have so much space (we will use it, too, as we'll be inside a lot more during the winter!). I've even made peace with the groovy 80s wallpaper. A couple of neighbors have come by to say hello and introduce themselves. I've gathered that a lot of our neighbors work for Big Oil (BP, Conoco Phillips, etc), so I'll let you know if I gain any insight into why gas is $3+ gallon here.
4. God provided a great short-term job for Handsome in rural Alaska, which is what is helping us to pay our bills. Having just graduated from his medical education last Friday (yes, just 6 days ago), we are officially broke. This short-term job will allow us to pay our rent and also pay for COBRA the next 2 months.
5. I am loving all of the ethnic diversity here. For a city as small as Anchorage (350k) there are people from all over the world here. I like that my kids will get to meet people from many different backgrounds and grow in appreciation of the diversity that God created.
6. It is beautiful, but very cloudy here. We had 2 sunny days since we got here, and I am thankful for them. We are in the period of time where we will be losing 5 hr 32 secs of daylight per day, or 1/2 hour per week. RIght now the sun goes down at 9:30 pm and rises at 6:30 pm. We are on the decline, heading towards the shortest day of the year (December 21) when the sun will rise at 10:15 and set at 3:42. Most of the days this time of year are overcast so I will need to take care of myself and make sure that I am eating properly and getting out when the sun does make an appearance.
7. The cost of groceries is astounding. I saw a watermelon for $10 the other day at Fred Meyers. I'll be joining a CSA and hope that it supplies me with local produce even during the winter.
8. Church and friends. Please pray that we will find both, and will be patient as we begin to establish a new community for ourselves here.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement! I will post pictures soon!