The Apartment

I have been the worst friend/relative to everyone ever since we moved. I hardly have my phone on me all day-in fact, I don't even know where it is half the time, and I rarely even check Facebook. I have so many people I need to catch up with, it's ridiculous. Life has been ever-going. We have an apartment! I hope for our next station we look to buy because trying to rent with three dogs is nearly impossible. I think the hardest part about looking for somewhere to live was that people would post, and when we'd call, they'd say the place was already taken. Hello! Take your post down!! Is it really that hard?

We ended up getting the apartment we wanted! It's in a gated community and it's the same company that we rented with in Columbus, GA. It has a pool, fitness room, free coffee and snacks in the main office, and a dog park. Our apartment itself is 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, granite counter tops, and we have a garage (not attached to the unit, used for storage) and a porch. Leave it up to us to find a way to complicate our lives. Obviously, we don't have a yard, so the dogs do have to go out one-by-one, down the stairs on a leash. So far, it's really not bad. They've been trained during the road trip to do that, so they have been extremely good at adjusting. 

We still have boxes everywhere. We have so much stuff. It's refreshing to go through everything, though, to purge. We have two boxes of stuff to get rid of and we've thrown things away. The hard part is the baby! Ry has sooo much stuff. And I don't want to get rid of things in case we have a second boy in the next couple years. We're still undecided. I feel like I hardly have enough time to take care of everyone at this point-I'd need a nanny or a live-in dog sitter if we have a second. I barely have time to cook, take off my chipping nail polish, shave my legs, and working out? It's an effort getting in a hour everyday. In fact, the only way I was able to blog this morning was because I've been up since 3:30.  I'm so grateful G got work off this week to help unpack. He's helped out so much with Ry that I think I'd have had a meltdown trying to put this whole house together by myself. 

As for Ryan, he's moving everywhere!! This kid rolls all over the joint and is on the edge of crawling. He already army crawls if he sees something he wants, and he can go in circles to no end, he goes backwards, and he gets into plank position, downward dog, and a few other yoga poses. He's so strong! I swear, he's going to stand up before I even know what hit me. Another problem with unpacking is trying to baby proof the house as I put things away. We have lots of nice things and lots of low shelves. Right now, it's like a giant game of tetris-perfectly fitting the pieces together. 

He's also in a process of sleep regression (which explains my 3:30 wake up). He wakes at about 4 every morning. Poor kiddo. He's skipping on afternoon naps and trying to get him down at night is impossible. It's a phase that I know he'll grow out of. Right now, he's learning so many exciting new things that sleep must seem miserable. He's also babbling up a storm. This kid just talks to his toys all day. It's so precious. We've heard a few words come out of him-but of course he has no idea what he's saying. Just sweet little conversations. 

Breast feeding is still a struggle. I feel like if I have one off day where I'm not consistently pumping, feeding, or stuffing my face with flaxseed and gatorade, my supply drops. Good thing Ryan's been eating more food. I feed him solids about 3 times a day now on top of breast feeding. I'm hoping to make it 3 1/2 more months so we don't have to switch to formula. 

This has just been a quick update because I haven't had time to talk to anyone. I don't even have time to sit and finish this post. I do have an address for anyone that needs it. And I'm ready for people to come visit :) Time to brew some coffee and continue unpacking. Ready, break. 

AKtoGA Finale

The eagle has landed. We arrived in Augusta yesterday afternoon. It's funny how the last two days (13 hrs broken up into 8 and 5) seemed longer than the whole week we drove from Ak to Chi. I think being out of the car visiting family was the biggest tease and we both detested the idea of driving any further. Despite side roads, construction, traffic and losing our sanity, we made it! And so far, we're really liking Augusta.

G really appreciates the southern hospitality. Not me. I may be midwestern, but I am the kind of her who does not want strangers talking to me about their lives. I don't want to sit and chat in the store, I want to get in and out and on my way. I've still got some of that city blood in me no matter how far away I go. Or maybe it's east coast blood. Who knows. Just don't call me ma'am and be all social when I don't even know your name nor will I probably ever see you again. I'm too rude for the south. But I do enjoy the heat, the pools, the sun, and the greenery.

We still have no house, however we're working on it. Our three dogs are our downfall. Everywhere has a 2 dog policy if they allow pets. We found apartments that allow three dogs. It's a gated community and it's actually the same one we lived in down at Ft. Benning before we moved to AK and we loved it. We looked at it today and think that we'll enjoy it out there. The only part I'm sad about is that it doesn't have a huge pond like the one in Columbus did, but other than that, it has a pool, workout center, FREE coffee and snacks up at the office whenever I want, dog park, and we'd be able to get a three bedroom apartment to give us enough space for our dogs and visitors. It's awesome. It's going to be far from work for G, but he said he didn't mind the drive. It'll probably be about 45 mins with traffic I'm guessing-25 without. But I think we're both excited about it. Oh! And the pool has grills and a fireplace that we can use whenever we want and entertain guests if people come visit. Hopefully we'll get to meet some nice people in the neighborhood. I'm just so ready to unpack a little bit and get somewhat settled in somewhere.

Home sweet Motel 6. We finally made it to our destination!

I must say, if you're traveling with dogs, motel 6 is the way to go. Yes, it's a bit rundown. If you're looking for luxury, this is not the place to be, however pets stay free and there's no limits on weight, numbers, etc. Plus, when you've been stuck in a truck for 12 hours and just need a bed, you really don't pay attention to much else. The motel 6 we're camped up at right now has a pool. We took Ry for his first swim yesterday!! The water was a little chilly so at first he was timid. After his body adjusted, he had fun letting daddy float him around the water. Today, we went to Babies R Us and bought this giant giraffe pool raft. It's awesome!!! This thing is going to be my best friend because I can put him in it and pull him while I swim laps or jog in the water. Plus, he had fun. I'm being extra cautious about putting our arctic baby in the sun. He's got hats, multiple sunscreens, his raft shade, and his swim shirt. I'm hoping I can keep him burn-free all summer.

Giraffe Raft! My little water bug

Ry is such a little wiggle worm lately! He's close to crawling and he's starting to try to pull himself up. He's going to be moving before I know it. Today, we were playing on the bed and he just kept rolling all over the place and using my body as a jungle gym. He's in such a cute little phase right now. I always think I love the phase he's in the most until he hits a new one and I somehow love it even more.

I had my first mother's day on Sunday!!! It wasn't quite as I pictured it-sleeping in, breakfast and coffee in bed, not having to deal with a cranky baby or changing diapers, and getting to actually do what I want to do for the day, but it was still pretty great. G got me an AMAZING gift-the Fitbit Surge, which is basically a watch that will track my calories, running distance, steps, and a bunch of other stuff. I've been using it for three days and I'm obsessed with it. I can track how much I eat on the ap on my phone, which is soooo perfect because I don't really get to work out when we're on the road all day, so it helps me not to overeat like I had been. I can't wait until we're settled a bit so I can go for a run and test out the GPS. We also spent the day hanging with family. I ended the day perfectly with a fire pit and wine :)

My first mothers day with my peanut!

I never get time to update and when I do, I never know what I want to say. I want to be settled. I want to cook. My stomach can't handle eating all this fast food. I get sick every time we eat somewhere. I even tried "healthy" Subway. Those sandwiches are so disgusting. I don't understand how people keep some of these places in business. This is why I cook. My goal is to be super healthy while we're here. Now that Ry is eating solids more and more, I want to set an example. People always ask me stupid questions. This morning, we went to Krispy Kreme to get donuts for breakfast and a guy asked if Ry liked donuts. Um.. why the hell would I feed a donut to my baby? And this happens any time I eat a dessert out in public. People have asked what kind of ice cream he likes and if he'll eat cookies and other stuff too. So ridiculous. I want to set the example of health and teach my child that food is fuel and not a stress reliever or an activity when you're bored. It's a way to supplement vitamins and minerals throughout your body to keep it going. You know, the opposite of what our country believes--that every meal should be considered a "treat".  I guess that's why I'm in the fitness industry.

Took G for his first Krispy Kreme experience this morning. Ry did not have the donuts, only the paper. 

The puppies have been so great! Denali sits in the windowsill at our room like he's a cat. There are two cats a few doors down that do that. He's such a peanut. They all have been listening really well and I've tried rotating taking them for walks. The heat seems to be getting to them a bit because all they've been doing is sleeping. That, or they really don't have much to do in this small room. After we got settled here yesterday, I laid on the bed and just cuddled them all. At my parent's house, they were in the basement or outside so I didn't get to spend much time with them. I missed them so much. I'm very happy to have my little loves back.

Internet is slow here, and I still have a few more glasses of water to get in before the end of the day, so I better start attempted to upload pictures before bed. No editing, so if there are typos all over this thing, then just deal with it. This whole time change thing makes me feel like I'm cool for staying away til 9. I'm lame, but I love every second of it :) xoxoxo.

The Roadtrip

We made it to Chicago. We drove 4100 miles in 6 days from Alaska, but we're still not done yet. We got in Thursday evening, but luckily we're hanging out here for another week before we attempt our final 13 hour drive. 3 dogs, 1 baby, 2 parents and 1 extremely stuffed truck. Oh, and all three of us were extremely sick during the whole trip which made it that much more fun. We managed.

The road trip went a lot better than I thought it would. We plotted out our stops for each day. On day 1, we were supposed to stop in Tok, AK (a 7.5 hour drive) but by the time we got there, it was only about 2pm so we said, "Let's just keep going," and we made it to Haines Junction, Yukon after about 14 hours of driving. We put in about 14 hours for the first three days and it completely cut out an entire day of our planned trip.

Oh look, only about half our drive

On day one, I discovered that Ryan's bottom teeth started popping through!!!! I didn't discover it until we were past Tok and had zero service before hitting the border, so I couldn't even tell anyone until days later when we were out of Canada. Sweet boy! He was having trouble sleeping the week earlier and I thought it was because there was so much going on, but it was his teeth! I knew something was up though because when I'd feed him with a spoon, he was purposely trying eat with only the top of his mouth-not allowing the spoon to touch his bottom gums. And here they are! I'm so incredibly in love with his sweet smile when his tongue isn't covering them up, but I'm super sad!!! I LOVE his gummy smile. I'm NOT ready for baby teeth and him growing up. I can't handle what a grown up he is becoming! Although I must admit, being home right now with my little nephews calms my nerves. Seeing what cuties they still are gives me hope that it's okay for Ry to not be a baby forever. But I'm still trying to absorb every moment I can.

Baby teeth popping through

He did great on the trip! For the most part. We'd wake up in the mornings, feed him, pack and while he played, and when he was ready for his first nap, that's when we'd feed him and leave so we could drive a few hours while he slept. Whenever he woke up, we'd pull over, G would let the dogs out, and I'd get in back and change him then stay back there to feed and play with him. Our truck was so incredibly packed that I couldn't get into the back seat without moving a giant tote to my vacant seat. It was not easy. The good news is I was able to pump while plugged into the car. I'd pump while he slept, then feed him a bottle while we drove. It made the drive much easier and the stopping minimal. We had our own cd's of kid's songs for Ry that we'd pop in on occasion. BEST PURCHASE EVER: There's this car mirror that is set up so we can look back and see him. But the best part of it is it has a remote that turns music on. That music was magical. As soon as it played, that kid calmed down and was content. I don't think we'd have made it without that music mirror. Amazing.

I'm starting to believe that bears are mythical creatures. I have the worst luck with animals. We drove through the remainder of Alaska and didn't see ONE animal on the whole drive (other than eagles and some road kill). I may as well have been looking for unicorns, because bears DO NOT exist in Alaska. Greg has tried taking me bear searching so many different times, yet I never got to see bears when people were claiming they were all over the place. It wasn't until we were a few hours into Canada that we saw our first animal: some caribou. There were three of them and they crossed the road right in front of our car. It was pretty cool. Another time, we found another caribou that was just standing in the road, until our dogs discovered it and barked-scaring the crap out of it. They also tried barking at bison (who didn't really care) and a motorcyclist who was behind us at a red light. This sounds crazy, but one of my favorite animals we saw was in Canada. I woke up and was taking Denali out, and there were three giant rabbits eating grass out there. But they weren't brown rabbits like I see in my parents' yard, they were white with grey spots-they looked like they could be someone's pets. Giant pets. They were beautiful and so free. I loved them! We also saw some elk, deer (or antelope?) a porcupine, and a billion cows. I'm officially over red meat-those cows were so adorably sweet. I never really ate red meat before, but now I'm definitely done with it. I just wanted to gather them all together and cuddle them. I love cows.

I know I complained about not seeing bears, but we actually did see a bear! Just one for about 10 seconds and it was gone. It was awesome because it came from a really crappy situation. Ryan did really well on the trip, however he had a few moments where he freaked out. This particular time, he was screaming and we were in the middle of nowhere, Canada. There was no where to stop so G just kind of pulled over into this grassy spot on the highway. He went to go check on the dogs while I took care of Ry, and jokingly, he said, "Let me know if a bison sneaks up behind me." Well, I looked up and suddenly across the road, this small black bear walks out of the woods. I was in disbelief! (I seriously didn't think they existed) so I kept knocking on the back window to G to warn him. He finally figured out what I was saying and ran out just in time before the bear went back into the woods. If it weren't for Ryan screaming his face off, we'd never have seen the bear.

The dogs did GREAT on the trip as well. We set the back up so that our luggage was all on one side, and the dog beds were on the other. Belle enjoyed her little beds, but the boys were king of the castle and slept on top of our luggage mounds. They were all so adorable and whenever we'd walk near the truck, they would want to get back into their little apartment. They would just look out the windows at everything until their eyelids drooped and they fell asleep. Such angels.

The little pups cuddling in back

Traveling with three dogs is such a challenge, though, because most hotels that are pet friendly only allow two, or they have a weight limit. There were only a couple times we had to lie about how many we had. The good news is 1. Cato and Denali look the same. We just didn't have them out at the same time. And 2. most pet friendly rooms are in the back, near doors, away from the entrance. That way, people never really saw  the dogs anyway. One of the hotels even gave us a welcome basket for the dogs! It was adorable. Our dogs are good and don't generally bark too much, but when we were in a room and people would walk right past our door talking, then they would bark, which would wake up the baby, which would make us miserable. It made me feel good though because sometimes we'd have a room next to one dog who would bark like crazy, and ours were quiet. It makes me feel like I did something right with these little nuts.

The doggie welcome basket!

Okay, these paragraphs don't really flow well, cause I'm going back to traveling through Canada. I LOVED Canada!! So we get to the US/Canada border (from Alaska traveling into Canada) and we see the U.S. check point on the other side of the road. However, we don't see one going into Canada. We kept driving and I couldn't figure out if we were in Canada or not. Then we starting seeing signs in kilometers and litres (yes, spelled that way) and I knew we were in Canada, but there was no check point! It was at least another 30 minutes until we hit their check point. So weird! It's like they don't even care if people are illegally in their country. Ha! But I loved calculating our distance in kilometers better than miles because they go by more quickly! And the accents when we got lunch at Tim Hortons-so adorable. I didn't get to try any donuts in Canada like I wanted to, but that's okay. We've had enough donuts in the last couple weeks to last me a while.

What else do I need to update on? Let's see. We are adjusted to time! It was not fun. Ryan adjusted first, which means waking up at 5am meant waking up at 3am AK time. That got us adjusted pretty quickly. His sleep has been so off and it SUCKS. He slept so much on the drive, which was nice for us, but by the time we found a room at 9 and just wanted to lay down and pass out, he'd be up and ready to play for the night. No bueno. And now that we're around family, it seems like no one really gives a shit that he needs to sleep. "I want to see the baby." "Wake him up." "I want to play with him." That's freaking great that they all want to see our bundle of perfection, but it seems like people failed to forget that we didn't take a 6 hour flight to get here-we took a 6 day drive and we're TIRED and we really don't want to deal with a fussy baby all day long because he won't sleep. It's actually really frustrating not being on schedule and having to plan events that are either at night when he wants to sleep or during the day when he needs to nap. I'd get a sitter, but noooo... everyone wants us to bring the baby and I'm not from here! I don't have a sitter I can call. And no one cares about being quiet either when he naps. This kid gets waken up more times than I can keep track of.

It's honestly just really hard not having a place to live, no quiet rooms for Ry, and not having a place for the dogs to be happy. They LOVE my parents yard, but they are also social creatures. They're only allowed in the basement-when they're used to being able to cuddle and hang out with us all day. Denali is high anxiety and a mama's boy, so he just sits by the gate at the top of the stairs and whines when he sees me. It's heart breaking. The first night here, he woke up a couple times in the night howling. My babe. I feel so terrible. We don't have a house down in GA yet either. We literally just have our dogs, the baby, our luggage and our truck. And now that its' rainy out today, they won't get to just run around today, so I think there's going to be a lot of whining. And Cato! He's normally our good dog, but he's been acting out lately. I don't know if it's the stress of the move or he's upset that he's being kept downstairs and not getting enough attention, but he's been disobeying and destructive! When we play, he's been getting overly excited and trying to attack any toy we play with (not dog toys, but the kids' toys). He's so naughty! And he's not listening to the commands that we give, when normally he's very good about that kind of stuff.

Before I said I loved that G's and my family were so close so when we go home, we can see everyone. Now, I hate it. It sucks because we now have to see everyone. We have to find time to see both sides. By day one that we were home, our schedule was booked Fri-Wed. And this weekend is mother's day and my dad's bday. You'd think that since we drove 4100 miles to get here, people would be more than happy to accommodate their lives to our schedules, but there are some who are just being totally inconsiderate and I want to slap them in the face! If I don't see you, then I'm not going to sit here and feel awful about not squeezing you into my schedule. I feel like the people that care most about us will find a way to see us-and guess what? So far they are. There are people who I haven't talked to in months, have seen my posts on Facebook so there's really no possible way that they couldn't have known I wasn't coming to town, then last minute, try to make ME go out of MY way to try to see them. Um... no. I'm sorry, but this trip isn't going to work like that. So frustrating!

Took a detour to see Mt. Rushmore.

Okay, I've been trying to update all week and now I feel super distracted. Ry's awake. I feel like I have a million things I have to do today. I don't have time to just sit and relax anymore when there's constantly someone jumping down my throat about something. I'm sure I've missed about a billion things I wanted to talk about, but oh well. That's life.  I can't believe we have to get back into a car in less than a week and figure out the next 6 months of our lives... then do this all over again. The good news is my man hit his promotion and is now officially CAPTAIN! I'm so proud of him. Okay, enough. Need to work out since everyone is trying to fatten me up back home. I can't wait til we have our own house again and I can cook. xoxoxo. The joys of the army life.