Moving and other things...

I know it has been at least 2 months since my last post, but lets be real my life isn't as interesting as some may think. Don't get me wrong, I love every little aspect of it just not a whole lot happens that is worthy of a blog post. I think at least 10 people told me I should really post about our move to South Dakota and everything in between, but I really don't like to think about it in general. I think if I wasn't sick the whole time I would be more willing to share all the details but just thinking about it makes me a little nauseous. 

I will sum it up, we had to leave Eielson September 30th because that was what the people in charge told us so we drove to Anchorage and spent a few days there. Our ferry left on the 7th of October so around the 4th or 5th we left anchorage and headed towards Haines AK. Canada was beautiful, from the time we left Anchorage I was beyond sick so I didn't get any pictures to share, it took about 2 days to get to Haines, we saw a ton of bald eagles right outside of Haines and we also decided we love it and want to retire there. We boarded the ferry on the 7th at around 11:30pm and the first night was great I slept like a baby, but the next 2 and a half days were not quite as good. That toilet and I became best friends (morning sickness mixed with motion sickness is not a good combination) and we can leave it at that. We made it to Bellingham WA on the 11th and headed over to my Aunt Elizabeth's house. We spent a good couple hours together and they took us to downtown Seattle to Pikes Place and we walked around and had a blast! It was so much fun to catch up and see my cousins!

We left Seattle that night and headed over to Portland to Brian's Uncle David's house and we spent some time with him and Stephen (I hope I spelled that right) they took us to this really yummy sandwich place and in the morning they made us breakfast which included french toast, bacon, pastries and orange juice and it was so good! They didn't have syrup so we used jam instead and it was really good, We then took off to go see Brian's Aunt Cathy in Rocklin CA. We got in kind of late, but they made us dinner which was also really good! Tri tip never fails, in the morning we had waffles and headed on our way to the central coast of California to see our families. We spent 5 days visiting with parents, grandparents, and friends Brian even went on a scuba diving trip in San Diego so we really enjoyed our time with everyone, but once again we headed on our way to my dads house in Maricopa AZ. We got in really late, 4am, the next day was super relaxing we just hung out and spent some time with my dad and his family and we had a really good time. We left the next day for New Mexico and made it earlier than some other places but still late, we had pictures the next day so we got to sleep fairly quickly. We made it to pictures the next day at this adorable little park our photographer was one of my babysitters when I was about 5 so it was a fun session and an added bonus to catch up with her and have her meet my hubby! We left after we had some lunch and headed to Colorado to see my grandma, great aunt, aunt, uncle, and cousins. (they live across the street from each other) We had so much fun spending time with everyone! We left the next day for our final day of travel and got into Rapid City that evening. We stayed with Kevin for a few days until we found a house.

That is the condensed version of our trip believe it or not. We really did have so much fun seeing everyone and spending a little time with each and every one of you guys! 

Now I wanted to give you all an update on our lives here in South Dakota. Brian works 24s and every two weeks he gets what is called a Kelly day, which means he gets a normal work day off making it 3 days in a row of being off work. I got a job at Victoria's Secret and I absolutely love it! I work a whole bunch and its been really nice keeping busy. We've been making friends, which is awesome. We were able to invite a few people over for dinner and we played the new game Brian bought me called the Game of Things and it is hilarious! I am officially 15 weeks pregnant and no I'm not showing yet, that seems to be a popular question people ask me so I figured I would get that out of the way before it gets asked. I am actually so grateful I'm not showing because I do not want people coming up and randomly touching my stomach, I'm already not a touchy person, like I barely hug my mom so the thought of someone I know let alone someone I don't even know coming up to touch me freaks me out. I know its going to happen, but the longer I can postpone it the better. We had our first ultra sound on the 15th of November and Brian was so excited he couldn't stop talking about the little hands and feet. We started painting the nursery or I should say Brian started painting, he doesn't want me exposed to the fumes which is really sweet of him. He put primmer on the walls so far, we decided to wait until we find out what we are having to paint colors. We will probably have our next ultra sound when I am around 20 weeks or more and that's when we should find out if its a boy or girl. 

That is everything I wanted to tell you all about, I think.... I forget a lot of things lately so I think I covered all my bases. Anyway I will try to keep everyone updated on everything so until then Happy Holidays!

Fun in the Last few weeks

We are preparing to move as you all should know, so we have been trying to get out and do as many things as possible in Alaska as we can before its time to leave. We went on two really awesome adventures that I wanted to share with you.

The first one was a couple of weeks ago; we were invited by our awesome friend Sheridan to go on a hike with the youth from church. We had wanted to do this hike for quite some time so we took advantage of this opportunity. We met up with everyone that was going, over at the church and after carpools were established we were off to Angel Rock! It was about a 40 minute drive to get there and all the way I searched for moose, but didn't see any. When we arrived the leaders lined the youth up and made sure they were all accounted for, and then started on the hike.

We had so much fun; Brian and I were at the back of the line to make sure no one fell behind which was nice because we were able to pace ourselves instead of feel pressure to keep going so we wouldn't hold up the line. It was so gorgeous, the trees were so tall, the river was flowing, and it was sprinkling, overall just gorgeous! I was a little reluctant at first because I'm not exactly the most outdoorsy person in the world so doing this hike didn't sound too exciting to me but I went anyways. It was kind of tough in the beginning the incline increased pretty quickly so I was having a tough time, but Brian and Thor loved it. Soon the incline increased a whole bunch and I felt like I was going to die! It was awful! I was sweaty and short of breath overall not my favorite situation, but we eventually caught up to the youth and leaders at what we thought was the top. We all posed for a picture then Sheridan was like "The top is only like 3 more minutes do you guys want to do it?" Of course the youth wanted to do it I, however did not but Brian used his husband charm and talked me into continuing on.

It was so steep and I had to stop like every 20 feet but I was determined to get to the top. Let me tell you that was definitely more than a 3 minute hike it was more like a 20-30 minute hike, but once we made it to the top there was nowhere else to go so I knew we had made it. Sheridan taught this wonderful lesson based on Richard G. Scott's 2006 General Conference talk entitled "The Atonement can secure your peace and Happiness"

 -Side note, for those who don't know what General Conference is it is a worldwide broadcast conference spanning the length of two days separating into 5 two hour sessions.  Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gather in Salt Lake City, Utah twice a year, in April for the annual conference and in October for the semiannual, to hear our church leaders speak on a variety on spiritual topics. They address members of the church as well as government, faith and community representatives and other conference guests. For anyone that is not able to travel to the conference it is broadcast on the television, online, and at the local meeting houses.

 -Also for those who don't know what the Atonement is it's "The ransom paid by Jesus Christ, through His suffering in Gethsemane and His death on the cross, which nullifies the effects of sin. Christ’s atonement allows everyone to be resurrected. For those who repent of their sins, it also opens the way to continued growth and progression through the eternities."

He talks about the wrong way and the proper way to find peace and happiness using a rock climbing analogy, in a nut shell he basically says that there are people out there that attempt a method of rock climbing called soloing where the climber ascends alone without equipment or companionship and they rely completely on their own skill and capacity. They do it for the thrill of living on the edge; those people are like those that face the challenges and temptations of life without following the commandments of God, guided by the Holy Spirit. He counsels "Do not “solo” in life. You will almost certainly fall into transgression." He says there are safer ways to Rock Climb. With all the correct equipment and companionship you can safely ascend a dangerous rock face and certainly make it safely to the bottom. "In life, the anchors are the laws of God that provide protection under all of the challenges that you will face. The rope and carabiners that secure the rope to the anchors represent obedience to those commandments. When you learn those commandments, continue to practice them, and have a plan to avoid danger, you will have a secure means of obtaining protection against Satan’s temptations. You will develop strength of character that will fortify you against transgression. Should you make a wrong move, there need be no enduring problem because of the belaying or help that is available through your repentance." As we go through life we have to remember to follow the commandments and live a spiritual life.

After Sheridan's spiritual message Brian and I said we would take the tail end again which may or may not have been a mistake. You see, because we were in the back we were not upfront for the decision to either follow the trail down the mountain or to take the "path" that looked like the trail straight down the mountain. The final decision was to take the sketchy path down the mountain... it seemed as if the youth didn't have a big problem sliding down the mountain on their butts, I could hear them laughing and squealing at times and then I saw what it was about.. This was not in fact just a sketchy path down the mountain it was more like the slide to my death. If I was not as much of a (as Brian would describe it) "yuppie" I might have semi enjoyed myself, but alas I am indeed a "yuppie" and could not handle the thought of getting dirt all over my yoga pants let alone get dirty at all. So we fell way behind because I was not going to slip and fall. If anyone besides Brian had seen me I would probably never show my face at church again, I was clinging to the trees and holding on until I HAD to let go only to cling to another one. If you can imagine someone that is trying to cross a river on stones and they are holding on to a tree facing the wrong way extending their leg as far as it will go trying to reach the next tree that is what I looked like but on the side of a mountain. It was awesome... it took me twice as long if not longer than anyone else to get to the bottom, but we made it to the bottom and the views were gorgeous and we laugh whenever we talk about it. On the way home I saw a moose in a lake which made everything better!

The second adventure we went on was with Sheridan and a friend of hers, we all went kayaking and canoeing down the Chena River in Fairbanks. It was so awesome; of course I was reluctant to go because as you know by now I’m not outdoorsy at all. Brian talked me into going so we got in the car and made our way to Sheridan’s house. When we got there she had three kayaks; two singles and one double which Brian called the dingy. We all concurred the dingy was unfit for travel and one of the single kayaks as well because it wasn't blown up all the way. She had a friend that offered to let us use her canoe so we went to her house and picked it up. This thing was huge, it didn't fit in the back of the truck and no matter what we did it just didn't look like it was going to make it back to Sheridan’s house. Brian insisted it was fine so we tied it to the truck with the bottom of the canoe in the bed of the truck and the rest sticking up in the air over the cab of the truck, as we are pulling out of the drive way the canoe takes a dive to the driver’s side and starts to fall off, Sheridan screams and Brian gets out to fix it. Needless to say we made it back to her house but now we couldn't transport the canoe because it was too big, meanwhile, Sheridan’s friend is and has been waiting in Fairbanks for us for about an hour now. She calls one of her other friends who has a trailer and he brings it on over and leaves the hitch in case the one on her truck is too big. Brian goes to change the ball out and there is a lock on the hitch on her truck and it just so happened that the key to said lock was with Sheridan’s husband John in the middle of who knows where. So now we have a canoe that’s too big, a trailer we can’t hook up, and a truck with a lock on it. Brian finally figures out that the hitch fits into out jeep which is perfect so we get everything loaded up and head on out.

We finally make it to Pioneer Park while almost getting rear-ended (this is not our day!) We unload the boats and move cars to where they need to be at the end of all this and prepare for what is ahead of us. (I’m pretty sure I was the only one trying to prepare myself for the ice cold water the monsters in the water and the possibility of my husband being evil and tipping the boat.) Sheridan and I stayed with the boats while the men situated the cars and it took them forever to get back and we started to wonder where they were, when they got back they had an air pump in their possession and continued to try and blow up the kayak. As men, they couldn't have this inanimate object defeat them, so after a few minutes of trial and error they got it to work and the kayak was fit for travel! (Sheridan was going to ride the kayak regardless if it had air in it or not) After all of that, I took my place at the front of the canoe and refused to walk in the water so it took all 3 people to push the canoe into the river. It never occurred to me how unstable the canoe was so I’m screaming as the canoe is making its way into the water while its tipping side to side as Brian gets in. After about a minute of screaming and freaking out the boat stabled out and we started to make our way down the river, we saw lots of ducks and four beavers! It was so cool one of them splashed its tail on the surface of the water when we got too close to its dam. It was so awesome and the sunset views weren't half bad. We made it down the river in about an hour and a half and by this time we were starving! We went to the restaurant near where we docked and they said the kitchen closed at 10 but we were right on the dot so they agreed to feed us as long as we were quick with ordering. Let me tell you about that food, it was so freaking tasty if I had died in that moment, I would have died a happy camper! If you’re ever in Fairbanks Alaska make sure to go to Pikes Landing you won’t regret it.

Sheridan and I waiting for the men (left) Brian chillin in the back (right)

The giant beaver dam

Beaver pulling a stick (the stick is white and the beaver blends with the rock)

The Forestry rescuers (I think that's what they do?)

Fireweed (the purple flowers)

Sheridan and her friend

My beautiful friend Sheridan

 

Those were my two most exciting recent adventures and I hope with the last few weeks that we have left here we get as much out of it as we can., I just love Alaska so much and am truly saddened that we have to leave, but it just gives us excuses to come and visit!

It's been awhile...

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I posted last, but I've been writing this post over the last few weeks so as you get closer to the end you get closer to now, make sense? Okay good! Now read on!

There are so many things to catch up on! First the snow finally melted a few weeks ago so now we are living in 80 degree weather and everything is blooming, which is beautiful! Second Brian had his birthday and turned 23, third Rusty went to the groomers and came back a whole new man! Fourth the sun is staying up longer so naturally it doesn't get completely dark anymore which sucks when you are trying to go to sleep, but I fixed the problem in our room! Lastly I surprised Kendael for her graduation!

It has definitely been a fun few weeks, we have been taking the dogs on walks almost everyday and they are loving the exercise! Rusty has a bit of a hard time when it comes to the long walks in the middle of the day because he's old and had a ton of fur on him so he basically felt like he was melting. Don't get me wrong I think we all feel like we're melting, going from 30 to 40 degrees to 80 in a week is a rough transition and it has made us very lethargic, but we are getting used to it slowly and trying to stay active. The worst part about it is all the mosquitoes, if you think you've seen giant mosquitoes you are wrong! These things are like dragons coming to attack you. They are giant and I hate them! The best part about the weather is that everything gets greener everyday! I figure by the time I come back in July everything will be done growing.

Brian turned 23 on the 25th of May and it was a very exciting day, more for me than him. He doesn't feel like it's important, but I did so I tried to make him feel special the best I could. I kept asking him what he wanted as a gift and he said he didn't want anything which was not helpful at all! I finally decided that I would make him a special breakfast, dinner, and a cake. For breakfast, which was at like noon, I made him birthday cake pancakes and I put a candle in them, but I promised I wouldn't sing to him. For lunch we were supposed to go on a walk around Chena lakes and have a picnic, but we got held up in Fairbanks doing who knows what. For dinner I was planning on making him homemade Mac N Cheese, but we got invited to have dinner with some friends. We had dinner and everyone sang to Brian and it was awesome! We then helped move some food storage and we saw a herd of elk that this guy has which was totally random, but really cool! Finally we had cake which took me forever to make, but it was worth it and Brian loves his cake!

We took Rusty to the groomers because he was burning up with all his fur! At first we were worried we wouldn't make it on time because I was hanging out with a bunch of ladies from church and Brian had a work thing he had to go to. Needless to say we make it eventually even with hitting every red light on the way there. We dropped him off and went and ran errands for the next 4 hours. We went to the dog park and let Thor run around while we ate our lunch and then we walked around one of the trails. We found a pretty sweet canoe place and we are very excited to try it out this summer. Towards the end we hung out in Petco and waited for Rusty, while waiting Thor discovered the Guinea Pigs and fell in love, literally. He would sit and cry at them while they ran around and when he couldn't see them he would run to the other side of the case and while he would cry he would lick the glass. Every time we would leave the case and walk somewhere else he would drag us back and repeat what he did before. He is very passionate about the things he loves. Eventually Rusty was finished and he looks so adorable! Even though they shaved his face...

I have come up with a solution to the daylight at midnight. It seems like one of those duh ideas, but it has taken us about a month to think this up and I am darn proud of it! We basically bought some black felt and Velcro, the kind with the sticky back. We then measured the window and put the Velcro up and cut our felt which we doubled up because one layer just wasn't enough. I realized right about this time that the Velcro we had gotten was the hook only kind so we didn't have the soft side, but lucky for us the felt sticks to the Velcro all by itself like a charm! I then sewed the two layers together and stuck it to the Velcro. The final result was so beautiful that Brian took the opportunity to scare the crap out of me, in other words it was pitch black!

I made a trip home to Cali for Kendaels graduation and I scared the crap out of her! I hid behind my moms car after we pulled up to my grandparents house and I waited until Kendael came down and I jumped out at her and she screamed and then screamed louder and then cried. It was so fun and then we went to Moe's and had BBQ and I was a happy camper! Then On the 6th of June she graduated!! I'm so proud of her!

I have loved being in California for the last 2 weeks. It has been so wonderful to see all my friends and have girls nights and beach days! I'm so excited for what the next few weeks brings me!

The Long Awaited Email

We have been waiting and waiting to hear where we will be going for our next base, and last night the email came telling us that the information was awaiting Brian when he goes to work. So last night we were guessing where we would go and hoping for our first choice. 

Lets go back about 4 months. 

We decided we wanted to go overseas to Europe. We don't have any children and we don't own a lot of stuff so we figured the time was perfect to go see the world. I was so excited about this, I was planning everything from how to decorate our future house to places we would visit. We put down Germany for our first choice and Belgium for our second choice, we were so excited and everyone kept telling us we had a really good chance of going overseas so we kept our hopes up and we waited and waited, and then waited some more to hear anything. 

A few weeks ago the U.S. listing came out which made our chances of going overseas very slim. As Brian told me all the bases available for us to go to I was pretty upset, he was at work so he had no idea how upset I was. I had gotten my hopes up of weekend trips to different countries and visiting historical sites, I had no intention of going to somewhere in the states. 

I decided that I would research all the places on the list and find the safest place, so I spent all night researching and acting like a crazy person and then we both decided we liked South Dakota and South Carolina, so Brian put them down as his top 3 choices. (there are two bases in South Carolina and one in South Dakota making 3 bases) He submitted his choices and we were back at the waiting game. At this point I could care less about Europe I really wanted to go to South Dakota there are lots of things to do there, Brian's brother is there, we would be about 5 hours away from my grandma and aunts, and to top it off there's a Target in town (what more could a girl ask for?) So now my hopes are up way high and Brian's are just at a normal level high, but at the same time we accepted the reality of possibly going to a horrible place like North Dakota or Idaho. Needless to say we did a whole lot of praying.

Last night was very exciting because we received that email and of course I want Brian to go straight to work and find out, but he made me wait until he went to work tonight. At 6:26 pm I received the call I have been waiting for, and Brian calmly tells me we are going to.....

SOUTH DAKOTA!!

I am so beyond happy, it is exactly where we wanted to go. So there you have it, we will be headed there in September around the 15th. We are so excited and we are looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.

Rip the size of my FACE!!

Okay it's more like the size of my pinky finger, but let me break it down for you. I was sitting here last night enjoying my dinner with Brian when I move my leg and my pants ripped! Not a down the seam rip that's fixable but a middle of the back of my leg rip!

 Normally I'd be like "oh shoot son! oh well, lets go get a new pair." These weren't just any pants either, these were my favorite pair of pants. I wore these almost everyday! After 2 years I could see why they were a little worn out. Let me top this with the cherry, I live 2,094 miles to the nearest Ralph Lauren outlet so I can't just jump in the car and be like "let's go get some pants!" Well I guess I could, but that trip would be like an entire week trip with non stop driving. Not my cup of tea. I was so upset that the first thing I did was call Kendael up and ask her to go buy me new pants. I know it's pathetic that i'm so attached to these pants that I wont go to a store here to get new ones, but the only good store that I would have bought my other favorite pants from (Pac Sun) is gone. We went to go get Brian new pants a while back and the store was gone. It was rather tragic but the good news is Kendael found the pants I want! 

In other news we got Thor groomed yesterday and now he doesn't smell gross and I saw a chameleon and little frog while at the pet store. 

   

My Easter Gift

I basically have the cutest husband in the whole world! He knows how fed up I am with house plants because Thor keeps eating them, examples 1 and 2 below.

These pictures do not even cover how much soil was on my carpet or how far it went, it was literally everywhere! To top it off the soil was wet so I couldn't vacuum it up. So overall you can say I'm completely done with house plants. 

For Easter I bought these cute little buckets ($1.50 each heck yeah!) to make Brian an Easter basket with. No, I don't have any pictures of the Easter baskets, but I do have one of just the buckets so you can see how super cute they are!

After all the Easter hype died down we emptied the buckets and Brian took me to the BX (Base Exchange) to do some shopping. The whole time we were there he wouldn't tell me what we were doing, and it never clicked which is odd for me because I'm usually really good at figuring things out. We went to the gardening section and he had me pick out 2 flower seed packets that I fancied, I thought we were just going to plant them in our backyard when the snow melted. We came home and this is when things clicked, he had me go grab the buckets while he got the soil. He then proceeded to plant these little seeds in the buckets and water them, and he made sure to label them so I wouldn't forget what they were! To top it all off they just started sprouting! Now I have cute baby flowers.

 I just love him so so much and I suppose he's off the hook for buying me flowers for awhile.

A Turtle's Tale

Tonight we went over to a friends house so Brian could help her out with a few things and so before we left we put Mila in a Styrofoam container because we just bought a picasimus for the turtle tank. I put several things around the sides of the container so she wouldn't knock it over, we put some water in with her and we thought that would be good enough so we left. 

We spent like 3 hours over there hanging out and enjoying each others company, I told her about where we put the turtle and she was like "what if it eats through the Styrofoam " The thought never crossed my mind so all the way home i was freaking out. When we got home I went into the kitchen and saw that the container was fine and then I looked in it and this is what I saw

The turtle was gone! I didn't know what to do, it was as if she had vanished. Now I'm freaking out yelling for Brian and so the search started, we looked everywhere and I finally came to the conclusion that someone broke in and stole her. There was no way else the turtle could have gotten out, I had all these crazy scenarios going through my mind. I figured if she somehow escaped she would have fallen off of the counter and falling that far would brake her shell. 

I was so worried, we couldn't find her so I looked at Brian and told him we needed to pray because we literally looked everywhere and she was no where to be found. So we got down and I said a quick little prayer and sure enough not even five minutes later Brian was looked behind the couch when he pulled one of my sweatshirts out and there was the Mila, just chilling by the heater. I guess her water had gotten cold and so she went in search of warmth. She climbed out of her container, fell down the counter, and got past Rusty without getting injured! It was a miracle and I was so relieved.