Lovely...

Sometimes I don't handle stress well. Yesterday standing in line for a movie, I got pushed over the edge by a mundane life detail. I sat in the movie theater crying during the previews and again during a few parts of the movie which was funny not sad. I think it boils down to the fact that moving is stressful!

There are so many lovely things going on right now besides the typical moving stress. Here is the big one: we are under contract for our new beautiful house! Our negotiations went very well with us paying exactly what we wanted. Today we go meet with the builder and go over the final details of finishing up the house like the exterior paint and stairs to the porches. I can't wait to bring my kiddo home to such a fantastic place. 

Speaking of the kiddo, I'm pretty sure that I feel him kicking with regularity especially late at night. This is what I've been looking forward to most in the pregnancy. I can hardly wait to get my appointment scheduled for my new doctor up here so I can hear his heartbeat again. I've missed that sound. :)

On Tuesday, we get to move into on-post lodging which should be clean and nice. Once we get there we'll have a good 20-30 days there which should add some nice stability to our lives. Yay!

The rest of the stress of moving will work itself out in time. There may be a few more crying jags, I am pregnant after all, however it will pass. 

xoxo

So much stuff!

So much stuff has been going on and I'm not feeling very verbal so excuse my bullet points!

• Arrived in Anchorage to find our reservation for this week is at a complete dump! I use to do these places with no problem when I was younger, but now I find myself wishing I had spent the extra $400 for a decent place. When we first got here, we immediately went to the store to buy the heavy duty Febreeze to kill the "I'm hiding a body under the bed" smell. Hallelujah it worked!
• Upon arriving at the car vehicle pick-up facility, we found that some idiot driver couldn't shift the car into drive so he tore the whole shifter section including the cover off trying to fix it. In doing so, he disconnected and tore all of the wires that run to the transmission. Then they pleasantly informed us that they had no idea how it happened and that we'd have to take it up with the Army since it was a mechanical issue. What? I can't wait. $1400 to replace it.
• Took our FJ into the dealership to get serviced since it just drove 5k miles. Things are a little more expensive here as our big 60k bumper to bumper service ran almost $1000. Ouch. 
• Went house hunting with our new realtor. Husband realized that he wanted to move towards the top of our budget so we could get a spacious house. Unfortunately, the first absolutely dreamy spacious house we found went under contract the night before we looked at it. We continued to look and found very similar house which went under contract that morning. Finally the last house of the day which was slightly over our top budget made the clouds part and heavens sing as it was just lovely and had a view. Sigh. We put in an offer and are now waiting to hear back. My hubby is very impatient with the whole waiting process (aka, he drove me crazy today!)
• Had serious cravings for Mexican food. Found a delightful restaurant near the possible house with a cheery waitress and yummy food. Love that!
• Found out that three fabulous friends are flying out to my baby shower in California! We are going to have so much fun!!!
• Baby update: I think I feel him kicking in there! 
• This area of Alaska is absolutely amazing with its snow covered mountains, clear air, and gobs of trees! I'm going to love it here!!!

Take care! 

xoxo

First Day in Alaska

We have arrived! Well, we're not to our final destination yet, but we are officially in Alaska in the small town of Tok. Just wanted to share with you that today is the summer solstice which means 19 hours and 23 minutes of sunlight today!

xoxo

Alaska Ho: Canada

Hello from the land of the Canucks! This is the first stop I've had time to wait the five minutes it takes for each picture to load and haven't been completely wiped out from sight-seeing! We spent a great couple of days just south of Seattle visiting army friends. I got a nice amount of snuggle time with my friends' sweet little girl who was born in January and is still tiny at only 13 pounds. Leaving with a bag of chocolate chip cookies (yum!), we headed up into Canada. Here we sat at the border waiting to cross:

When we got up to Vancouver, we spent a frustrating two hours in the car trying to find my friends' house. Seriously, they had some great roads running east/west, but trying to go north/south was NOT easy! Eventually we made it there and had a great time meeting her two boys and laughing over dinner once her hubby got home. It was so cool to see her as we went to high school and college together before she married a fellow volleyball player and moved to Canada. There's something so comforting about hanging with someone who has known you for such a long time. 

The next day we headed north through some beautiful mountains that disappeared into the clouds to a little town called Quesnel. Then we headed off to Smithers and the following day to Stewart. Stewart is only two miles from the southern tip of Alaska where a tiny little town named Hyder stands. 

What you see above is basically the entire town! However, from here you can drive about fourteen miles up through some beautiful country to the Salmon Glacier which is part of the Tongass National Forest. 

So there we are driving through this beautiful area and the temperature keeps dropping slowly as we go up -- a full ten degrees! My hubby had on shorts and, I was sporting my flip-flops and sweatshirt when we made it up to the glacier. 

It was amazing seeing all of the striations in the ice that have been created over time. The other sweet part was that we saw probably fifty small to medium waterfalls on our drive up! I love the sound of running water even when I'm pregnant! Sweetpea also got into the action climbing over a little stream into the icy snow. The cold snow always puts her into the frisky play mode which I makes me laugh.

The one thing I haven't appreciated about these small Canadian towns is how expensive all of the food is! We easily spend as much as we do at PF Changs on a little diner meal of sandwich and fries. I think I'm in for a rude awakening with food prices when we get to Alaska! The cost didn't really bother me until yesterday when the diner completely nickeled and dimed us. So this morning when we got up we decided we would wait until the next city to eat because we were still so annoyed. Big mistake! We didn't hit anything with real food until we reached our destination around noon. Thank god for my stash of granola bars! However this just started out my annoyance when I realized this leg only took us five hours instead of the expected seven and a half. Boo Mapquest. Then we found ourself in small town hell with an anal hotel proprietor who refused to clean our room out of order despite the fact that no one else was around and the grumpy owner of the only restaurant in town who wouldn't let us order anything actually printed on her menu. The whole experience just gave me the heebeejeebees like I've entered into the Twilight Zone. I think after two weeks, I'm just ready to be in Alaska and get on with finding a house. :)

** I must add that despite this one experience all of the other Canadians we have encountered have been LOVELY. :)

Twenty week belly picks coming soon!

Stay away from the crazy folks people.

xoxo

Pee

I can now hold it throughout the night which is a bloody miracle. However, sneezing got the best of me a few minutes ago. I called my dog over to give her the daily antibiotics for her UTI when a sneeze came out of no where. Wouldn't you know, I got a lovely little stream of pee to accompany it.

Hot stuff!

xoxo

Adventure Alaska: Yellowstone

Yellowstone... We had a great time staying in our little cabin in West Yellowstone although my hubby bemoaned the fact that the hockey game wasn't available in our area. I was more bothered by the wireless internet that didn't reach my cabin despite the fact that we were two cabins down from the "wireless internet room." Alas, it was good for me to be disconnected for a little while! Despite these two things, we loved being able to cuddle up in our cabin with our fireplace after a long day out in the chilly park. With snow still on the ground in a lot of the places, we had to bundle up. Yet, I still managed to get in a couple of miles of walking and a good hike descending down 600 feet in 1/3 of a mile. Yes, climbing back up was a feat for my pregnant self. Buffalo and babies roamed the park and we got some great views of them simply by driving down the road. The Mammoth Hot Springs were beautiful and highlighted by the lovely rotten egg smell of the sulfur. Old Faithful was a big hit with us along with the four buffalo galloping across that area which had rangers going a little berserk! We rounded off our trip with a nice view of the lower falls.

We headed out of Yellowstone to Spokane, Washington with a brief stop at the exit marked with the sign "Danger: Free Range Hippies Ahead" in Idaho. From there, we headed to Seattle to spend some time with fellow army friends. Tomorrow we're off to Vancouver for a visit with a high school/college pal, and then we're off on the next leg of our journey through Canada. 

Hope all is well! 

xoxo

Adventure Alaska has begun!

After our joyous anatomy scan that I'm still marveling over, my hubby, dog, and I hit the rode on our next adventure together--Adventure Alaska!

First, I must say that the anatomy scan was anti-climatic as I didn't get to watch most of it! The ultrasound tech told me from the start that she would be doing her measurements and then reviewing some of the key pictures with me. That wasn't ideal, but I didn't complain too much because my hubby did get to watch all of the details. All of the major organs were measured and there were four chambers of the heart and two kidneys which made me very relieved. I don't take anything for granted anymore. Seeing the little upturned nose and lips were adorable when he actually let us get a peek at them. He was busy playing patty-cake right with his hands right around his mouth for most of the u/s. :) When she pointed out his equipment, I looked over at my husband who had a big old smirk on his face. You can tell he's excited too which makes me love him all the more.

That's a good thing too since we're traveling together via car for about 4500 miles as we wind our way up to our next home in Alaska!  We left on Saturday morning from Missouri to travel to Omaha, Nebraska. It was a nice easy eight hour drive, and we are being really careful to stop every two hours to stretch my legs out and water the dog. After some horrible directions which had us navigating the many one way streets there filled with construction, we managed to make our way to our hotel. My not-so-little Sweetpea decided to perch on top of our cooler for part of the trip instead of the soft comfy bed we made for her.

The next day we traveled from Omaha, NB to Rapid City, SD for a little stopover so we could see the presidents and crazy horse which I thought was much cooler in person than in pictures!

 

Tomorrow we're off again! Hope you are well!

xoxo

Itsa

I guess the seven psychics who told me I would have two girls were wrong because...

xoxo

A few points in my life...

Apparently I have misrepresented myself. Yes, I have cravings for lettuce, spinach, egg, and tomato filled salads on a daily basis. However, I'm also forced to eat bad things like hamburgers and french fries since our kitchen is now boxed up and crated. Forced people! lol. Okay, I truly love a good cheeseburger. However now when I'm choosing what to eat, I imagine those bad choices to stick directly on my pregnant body without any hope of sliding off. Being a made-with-butter girl simply doesn't give me the option of packing on a ton of weight with this pregnancy. Let's face it, I wouldn't be a beached whale. I would be a beached whale with rockin' boobs! :)

So let me rephrase:

Cravings: salad with juicy tomatoes, peanut m&ms, oranges, root beer, pringles...

Actual eating: salad wherever I can get it, subway chicken breast sandwiches on wheat, fruit, triscuits, shredded wheat, oatmeal AND cheeseburgers & french fries. :)

As far as the move goes, we hit the jackpot with this moving company as they are quick, efficient, very attentive to detail, and professional. I don't feel like someone creepy is going through all of stuff which is nice. They had our house packed up in no time and today went on to fill all of the crates they brought by two. Since we are technically moving overseas under Army regs, all of our stuff is not only packed in boxes, but then packed into large wooden crates and nailed shut. Tomorrow, they will need just a few hours to finish up. The joy of this is that my husband has felt secure enough with their work to let me go rest during the day. Usually I would be glued on a section of the house watching them work....but no! I have spent the days getting lunch for us, checking on the dog at the hotel, and napping (sigh, I love naps).

Since the last few weeks have been crazy, I have missed some of the last minute details that I usually take care of before a move like getting a haircut. So my bright idea today was to duck into a random salon and take care of it. Why do I do this to myself? Inevitably, a place like this will totally screw up my hair! Today was no different. So instead of having overgrown hair, I now have cute perky soccer mom layered hair which is exactly what I told her I DIDNT want! Egh. Serves me right for ducking into the random shop.

Another thing I have noticed over the past few days is my vision going wonky. I hear this is a common side effect of the pregnancy hormones, but the reality of having blurry trees and street signs is obnoxious. I can only hope this too will go with time.

xoxo

Wow, they are huge...

*Dad, another TMI alert for you!

Yes, as you can see from the pictures, my boobs have hit p*rn star levels. Let me start off by saying, that I have always had huge knockers. In eighth grade, I was a 32C on the verge of a D while I wore a size eight. As time has gone by, they have enlarged with the rest of me to a 38DD. Well now, it's not so much the size of my bra, but the fact that my boobs are completely full and round like fake ones! I look down at them and marvel at their shape and bounce.

My sister, who is also very well endowed, has always made fun of my boobs since they have a gravity sloped shape while hers sit high and round. Not any more sista! I've got boobs like you now!

xoxo