Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Help Wanted

Ok, I know I haven't been very 'church-y' as of late, but I still have faith in higher powers and now I am asking any who are willing to call upon those higher powers.

We are here...but are having trouble finding a place to live. There are an abundance of places available, but they are either in the wrong neighborhood, way out of out price range or not somewhere I would feel comfortable living...for fear of the bugs growing in the carpet. Seriously. We have contacted a couple realtors and are going to see more properties tomorrow. One of them NEEDS to work. Living in a hotel is not cheap and we are running out of fundage.

So if any of you out there would be willing to call upon any higher power that we will find suitable housing tomorrow and that money will work out, I would be truly grateful.

Hopefully next time I'm checking in I have good news and a place to live.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Viva Chicago! (part 2)

We started out this morning in our super loud truck and it started ok. It quickly deteriorated. Winston was freaking out at the loud sound and was crying nonstop.


The truck was losing power quickly so we pulled off the freeway into the Walmart parking lot and Nathan got under to see what was up. We learned that we would need to replace the catalytic converter before going any further. We were really lucky to find a muffler shop close by. We went in and they were GREAT. They were super friendly and they just loved Besta. I tell you, Nebraska has some of the nicest people I have ever met. They got us right in and got it fixed and it only cost us $286. The people at that shop were awesome and if any of you ever find yourselves stuck in Grand Island, Nebraska and need a muffler fix go to Green Bear Safety Service. (Yes, that is seriously their name)


We saw a TON of these windmills across Iowa. At one point there was a field of over 100 of them. You gotta hand it to the state of Iowa to harness the energy from their abundant wind.


We made pretty good time after that and we are hunkered down for the night in Iowa City. Our hotel is a castle themed hotel. Our room is awesome...and the restaurant in the hotel was like an old tavern. The bathrooms in the restaurant were labeled "Damsels in Distress""Knights in Need" and . Here are some pics of our castle room. This is the bed...it is up a few stairs from the rest of the room. There is a chandelier overhead and mirrors on the ceiling (bow-chica-wow-wow).


Here is the bathroom...nothing fancy here but I just had to show you the phone by the toilet. Don't think we'll be using that one...


Here is the gilded mirror over the sink.


Here is the painting in the room. Cute kitty, huh? (It is big...like 4'x4')


Here is a view of the lower half of the room from up where the bed is...notice the other chandelier. As I type this Besta is lounged out on the couch.


I can't wait to get to Chicago tomorrow...hopefully we'll get there, checked in to the hotel and get a chance to go out and look at some places in town...cause we need to find a place to live and QUICK.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Viva Chicago!

We are half way through our insane (I'll clue you in on that later) trip to Chi Town...this may be long...but it WILL be good for at least a few giggles.

The moving company came and packed us up on Monday and then loaded the truck on Tuesday. More than once we heard them say something to the effect of 'You have a lot of stuff'. Don't we know it. After the truck was loaded on Tuesday my mom came up and helped us clean the house, then we went to a farewell dinner at a great Thai place. (Thanks mom, I really appreciate your help and you not crying...because if you would have, I would have totally lost it instead of just partially losing it)

Winston was really freaked out by the whole thing. He has been through a move before and wasn't sure he liked what was going on. This is where he 'hid' after all the boxes were gone.

We woke up Wednesday morning to snow. Utah wanted to send us off in style!


I was fine until I knew I was walking out of our house for the last time. I had so many hopes for that house. I had planned on bringing a baby home from the hospital to that house, raising children in that house, having many Christmas mornings in that house. To leave without fulfilling those wishes was hard. I love that house. I love my scrapbook room. I love the plaster paint job in the Master Bedroom, I love my flower beds. I am sad that I won't be able to see my Daffodils and Irises come up this year. Nathan was great and allowed me a bit to cry, then gently pulled me out the door.

Unfortunately the storm Utah decided to send us away with caused quite a few problems. We already had the car packed to the gills, on a dolly, hooked to the truck (which was also packed to the gills)...we didn't need to add snow to the equation. We didn't make too bad of time until we hit Rawlins, then it got ugly. We got back on I-80 and shortly after we did, they closed the road because of the weather. We had to SLOWLY (read: So slow sometimes I forgot we were moving) make our way through the ice and snow and wind. They had closed the freeway going West so there was a while where we didn't see another car for almost an hour. It was kinda freaky. We got to Laramie and wanted to push on to Cheyenne for the night, but fate had other ideas. I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne was closed...which was probably good because the roads were getting slicker and we fishtailed more than once as we got close to Laramie. We got my mom to work for us and found us a hotel that had rooms open and would also allow us to bring our entourage (Besta, Winston and Frank). We got the circus unloaded and went to bed. (This hotel would be the source of much laughing today...the bathroom light didn't work...the shower was VERY testy and wouldn't hold a steady temperature...the front desk person didn't know how to let me connect my Mac to the wifi and I'm sure the floor hadn't been vacuumed in weeks. By the time we got there we were so tired we didn't want to go find food so we ate two left over tacos from lunch...cold tacos. yummy.).

We got up this morning fully aware that we were HUNDREDS of miles behind schedule. Speaking of waking up...this is what we woke up to:
We had wanted to make it to Grand Island, NE the first night...we were 412 miles off. So we took off. What should creep up on us? More weather:


The truck seemed to get slower and slower. It wasn't pulling the load as fast as we'd like. (We were lucky to get to 40mph). I called my dad (who has owned more than his fair share of trucks over the years and so has extensive truck-fixing knowledge) and he thought it was our Catalytic Converter. All we needed to do was punch a hole in the pipe that leads into it. Sound simple? Now factor in that we are in sub-freezing temps, in the snow, in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. We pull off the side of the road, under an overpass (seriously...) and Nathan climbs under the truck with a screwdriver and a rock and works for 30 minutes before he gets one hole. (Turns out there were TWO pipes leading into it...so we had to punch two holes).


He can't get the other one so he climbs back in and we keep moving. It helps a little, so we stop at the next truck stop, Nathan goes in and asks for a hammer and gets back under the truck. He worked for almost 40 minutes, then some random kind stranger asks if we need help. He is a mechanic or something, offers a HUGE hammer and a tool that will punch the hole better. Four swings with the hammer and there is a grand canyon size hole in the pipe and we can now go 65mph. I can't believe how nice that guy was! (Oh, did I mention the side-effect of punching the hole in the pipe? The truck is now LOUD. I mean LOUD, like a truck with no muffler...so conversations in the truck are now not held unless necessary because we don't want to yell)

So we are now in a hotel in Kearney, Nebraska. (I know, where??!?) It is clean, the bathroom light works, it has internet, and a working heater. The dog loves being inside, Frank loves having a new room to discover every night and Winston is doing better tonight than last night. (See Winston under the blanket on top of the pillow? He wormed his way up through the blankets to get himself there...we woke up to find a very interesting lump on the pillow...and that lump turned out to be him)


I am trying not to be frustrated. We are still not where we hoped we would be on the first night...we had actually hoped to be in Chicago tonight...but storms and truck trouble have held us back. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again. If you're on Facebook, you can keep tabs on us there. I can get on Facebook on my phone. I haven't had time to read any blogs, but I promse to get caught up once I get settled in Chi Town.

Monday, March 23, 2009

30 going on 13

On Saturday we had a surprise party for Nathan's Thirtieth Birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!!) By the end of the day with forty-thousand change of plans I figured he would have caught on...but he didn't and was totally surprised.

We had everyone meet at Sizzler in the banquet room and then Nathan and I came in a bit later. We were "going out to dinner with my grandparents before we move". I told everyone to wear black or Jazz stuff. I had mine, but it was in the locked car 40 miles away so I didn't get to wear it. (I got stuck in SLC with my mom and SIL's at the Scrapbook Expo and had to do some last minute finageling to even get everyone in the right place at the right time.)

Nathan's B-Day Cake


Band-O Friends


Timothy and Family.
(On a side note...my nephew Joshua...the one in the glasses...was chosen to go to DC for a student leadership thing. Only two people in his whole school were chosen...pretty cool huh?)


Nathan and his signs. My brother Bryce made them...with a Cricut. Which if you know him would surprise you...because he tries to keep a large distance between anything girl-y.


Us and my grandma. Don't ya just LOVE the look on Nathan's face? Classic Nathan.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Coming down the home stretch

Ok, so I know I have been absent, but you really wouldn't have needed an update because this is how my days have gone the last week:

Up at 6am to feed the kittens
Back to sleep until 12
Get up, eat. Maybe shower. (TMI, I know)
Watch Lost
Feed dog
Eat dinner
Watch Lost
Go to sleep about 4am

Exciting huh? Once Nathan got home we have had a more 'normal' schedule. Up at 7 for him, 10 for me (don't judge...I am N.O.T. a morning person).

Our pack-out dates are set. Monday we will get all packed up and Tuesday they'll load the truck. We leave Wednesday. Hopefully we can make it out there in two days so we can have a few days to look for somewhere to live before Nathan has to sign into the band on the 31st. It is kinda scary to be moving 1500 miles away and not have any idea where we're going to be living. I am amazed that I am so calm about the whole thing. When we moved out here I was wound up so tight, and we knew where we were going to be living, and what we were going to be doing (school) and we knew the area because we had lived here before. I feel like we are supposed to be in Chicago, so things will work out, and that must be what is keeping me calm. Hope it stays calm for the next 10 days. :)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Home


Home again...well, at least for a week.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Somebody loves me

This morning I woke up to this.  

I was a bit nervous because since it snowed I haven't left the house and no one has knocked on the door.  I am already jumpy on my own and this made me just a bit more skittish.  My heart started beating a bit quicker and once I decided that whomever made the prints wasn't still on the porch I opened the door.  I found this:


I opened it up to find these:


There was no note, and no indication of who sent them.  I thought that my cookie angel might read this and I just wanted to say thank you.  It made my day (I have been feeling a little blue and lonely and it meant a lot that someone out there was thinking of me).  Oh, and they are DELICIOUS.    

Monday, March 09, 2009

If looks could kill

This is the face I get if I don't feed Winston on time.

Auf Wiedersehen

Friday was my last day at my job. I have been counting down the days for months...not because I hated it but because I was just ready to move on and get going on the next phase of our lives. My replacement started on Monday and I spent the week training her...I hope she does well. She seems pretty bright...I hope she makes it through the summer. (summer=want to chop your head off...right Sam?). As I was saying my good-byes I got a bit teary a few times. The senior VP told me I was the best they ever had. :)

Britt did get me a pretty sweet cake. See:


Here is the little square of the world where I spent most of my waking hours the last three years. (See the pretty flowers? My mommy sent them to me)
I now have this week to sort, clean, play, sleep and bond with friends and family who we will soon be moving away from. Nathan is coming home on the 17th or 18th...I can't wait to see him.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Updates, uneventful, but updates none the less

My replacement started this week.  She seems pretty quick so I think she'll be fine...but man it is boring training someone.  I show her how to do something then sit back and watch her while she does it...and be there when she has questions.  She is catching on quick which means I don't have to watch as close, so I just sit.  That's ok...at least I'm getting PAID to sit, right?

So Nathan is doing well at TPU.  He will even be able to take the March advancement exam (YAY!!)  (unless the military changes their minds AGAIN) which is the 12th.  So it looks like I'll have a bit of alone time after I'm done working and before he swings back to pick me up, which is good...I will spend it shopping and scrapbooking and napping with my fluffy cats.  He's already been downtown to sightsee...here's a pic he took from the John Hancock Bldg:



(sorry its fuzzy...it was a cell phone pic....can I just say that I CAN'T WAIT to move there!!)  

I am quite lonely these days.  Work is fine, plenty of people there, and afterwards I go to the gym for an hour or so, and there are people there too.  It, helps...but it is in the late evening moments that I wish I had someone to talk to.  The nights that I can't sleep (which has been almost every night, because I am afraid someone will try to break into my house at night) are the worst.   This has been significantly easier than bootcamp was...we can talk on the phone and we text all day too...but I still miss him (I guess that's good though...right?).  

I've been working on trying to find us a place to live.  We are debating on living up near the base or living IN Chicago.  Both have their obvious advantages and disadvantages...we just need to figure out what will be best for us.