Moving Day

Today was the big day. I moved allllll of our stuff into the cabin today. I really should have stretched or something before I started loading everything. Perhaps I should've been hittin' up the gym, working out. My arms are feeling pretty weak and achy now. I'm good for nothin'! At the beginning of the day, I was feeling strong. So strong that I took a photo of my interpretation of this classic--

Are you ready for this?

 

Eight hours and a gazillion steps later, I'm finished! Just as I sat down with nothing else to do, Jordan pulls in the driveway. Gah, he's a lucky man.

Our furniture won't be here until late next week. We are going to be able to save a significant amount of money if we wait until Wednesday to buy it so we really couldn't pass that up. Hopefully most of the furniture will arrive at our new place by Thursday. Anyway, check out our new kitchen--

It comes complete with stainless steel appliances (as you can see), a garbage disposal, dishwasher, and automatic drawer closers. It's fantastic! I'm excited, can you tell?

God has really blessed us.

I'll post more as we make our new house our home!

Love,

Kacy

Adios Hotel, Hello Home

One would think that the moving process would be bittersweet. Shouldn't I reflect back on first walking through the door of our Home Sweet Hotel? Ehh, perhaps that will come later. In this moment, I feel like dancin' a jig!

I've been packing up today and lemme tell ya...I've noticed a few items of J's that I wouldn't lose sleep over if they broke during the big move :) For example:

Good grief. I don't even know what that thing is! Haha. I think J's brother Jesse got it for him on one of his many traveling adventures. (No offense Jess) I guess I just don't see the beauty of it! :)

We are headed over to the new place tonight to get the keys. I'm so happy to be leaving this apartment. It's a nice feeling to have our own furniture now. Purchasing pieces of furniture that we will have for many years to come is exciting. Who knows what bends and curves our lives will take with this new furniture? Who knows the places it will go? With the army involved, my bet is that it really gets around!

I rest well at night knowing I will only have to look at this a few more times ( if I could be so lucky) in my entire life:

Ahh, the "rug on a stick." This was the very first decorative item I attempted to take down when I first moved us into the hotel suite. Cheap decorating tips at their finest. It's truly hideous. Adios, rug on a stick!

Hello, home.

Yummy Those Gummies

There went two hours of my life that I'll never get back. I had to get enrolled in the insurance program with the army today so I went over to the hospital on post to take care of that. Jordan dropped me off and it took all of 15 minutes to accomplish. We estimated that it would take much longer. He had a meeting so I sat in the entry way and ate a whole bag of gummy worms out of boredom. I did listen to a sweet podcast on my iphone about our heavenly home so at least my mind was partly occupied for awhile.

I took a photo of the scarf I'm attempting for the MissImagination forum I'm a part of. Here it is (still incomplete)-

I guess I'm proud of it. It's nice to attempt new activities. Hopefully I'll get better at it as I spend more time knitting. Well, there's not much new with me. Tomorrow is the big day when we can finally go over to our new place and start measuring and moving in. Friday will probably be when we (ahem.."I") actually start moving most of our belongings over. Jordan will be working that day. I don't mind, of course, it gives me something to do. Before I left the apartment today I started playing with my webcam- taking photos- because I was so bored...

Still in my robe :) Hehe This is what happens when he leaves for work. I need to get involved in some volunteer work around Fairbanks. Anyone know of anything worthwhile? I googled some organizations that I might try out a few hours a week. I know I really need to get a real job, as well. I took a break from looking today, though. I keep getting texts asking if I'm still interested in the job that I applied for and if so to call 1-800... It's driving me bonkers. Not much new to report on my end.

Fakers

I became frustrated today with internet scams. I spent so much time searching for a job, critiquing and editing cover letters, and filling out applications only to find out half way through the process that many of them were fake job postings on craigslist. Grr :( I was clued in when they told me what to set my password as. I quit filling out information after that, but not before I had already given them my phone number. Unfortunately, I received two solicitation phone calls- one at 3:14am and another at 4am. Then the text messages started....really?!

Oh well.

I made more cards today.



Then I felt better.

Tonight Jordan and I are having pizza and settling in for the Biggest Loser. Something isn't right here? hehe Anyway, we are moving on Thursday! I cannot tell you how excited I am. And when we get settled into our new place, I'm getting back into my routine of working out. Hold me to it!

Looky What I Made...

I couldn't help but to create some Valentine's fun today. I don't have much else to do and making cards is something I enjoy. I just don't do it enough. Here's an example of one of them:

I'm still pluggin' away on the scarf I'm making. Pics to come with that!

Also, wish me luck--the job search continues!

Mrs. Frowny Face

<----Yep, that's me today. Mrs. Frowny face. You see, it's 7:40 A.M. and I'm awake with nothing to do. One of my favorite parts of the day is waking up early so that I can make J breakfast and spend that hour in between PT and going to work with him. Unfortunately, after I had already made a breakfast casserole for us, he calls saying he won't be able to make it in today. Poor Jordan. He works so hard. (I ate without him and I must say, it was pretty tasty!)

The pull pork I made the other day turned out pretty well, too. It was very easy. I just got a packet of dry pull pork mix, then poured apple cider, and catsup together in a bowl and mixed it all up. Then I poured it over the pork in a crock pot and 6-7 hours later...VOILA! Gotta love crock pots.

Despite my frowny face, I'm actually in good spirits today. J and I had a wonderful weekend, although we really didn't do much. Friday night, we went out to eat at Gallo's, an excellent Mexican restaurant here in town. It's nice to have date night with my hubby and still be able to talk nonstop and find out more about each other. I'm so lucky :) As we were walking out the door, a friend stopped me to say hello. That was cool because I feel like I know no one here so it's nice to be reminded that I have and am making more friends!

On Saturday, we were incredibly lazy for most of the day. I woke up early and prepared sausage, eggs, and buiscuts for us and then after we ate we fell asleep on the couch again. I'm embarrassed to say for how long. When we woke up, we did some furniture shopping and then bought some groceries for game night at a friend's place. An intense game of Taboo broke out: girls versus guys. The guys always seem to win by a couple points, but this time it was the females who prevailed! Hooray! We then went into town for some bowling action. 2nd place...not too shabby! When we pulled back into the apartment parking lot, we could see the aurora borealis. It appeared as a huge green streak across the sky. It was the best display of the Northern Lights that I've seen to date. Hopefully when we move I'll see it more often as we'll be further away from the city.

Sunday we woke up and went to church. The original pastor was back from vacation in Hawaii. He was so tan and was freely rubbing it in where he had been all throughout the service. I was trying my darndest to not be jealous during church! Instead I tried to focus on the message he was bringing. I really enjoyed the service; it seemed to be a catalyst, inviting me to read more on the subject. So, I did (See Devotional blog http://kacysbibleblog.wordpress.com ) Anyway, we left church and grabbed two comfy chairs by the fire at Barnes and Noble. This is one of our favorite, cheap activities. We also bought some coffee and a light snack before we snuggled in the big chairs and started reading. My day can pass so quickly doing this.

There was a lot of discussion yesterday when we returned home about our purposes. We've been thinking a lot about an organization/missionary type project we want to start in a couple of years. It's in the very early stages of planning. We are actually still brainstorming, but of course, we want to make sure it's God's plan for our lives...not our own. I just would like to ask for your prayers regarding this project. Thanks!

I have a smile on my face now just thinking about yesterday. It was a great day. Later on, Jordan decided to start up his jeep and get it running for the first time this winter so that we could go riding around in it. It's pretty warm in Fairbanks right now (about 4 degrees!). He had to let it run for a few minutes so I signed on to skype to see if anyone was online. I got to have a skype conversation for about 20 minutes with my dad and family. It was so good to see everyone. Skype= one of the greatest inventions ever.

Partially consumed breakfast treat!

Army Wife

Yesterday, we finally got me all signed up. It's official- I'm an army wife. How strange to be able to say that! I never expected that to be the path my life would take. Of course, after I met Jordan I hoped it would. What does it mean, though?

Some people avoid calling themselves an Army Wife. This is probably because others don't classify themselves as a doctor's wife or a carpenter's wife, etc. I don't mind, though because I know that's not ALL I am. I am many other things as well as being Jordan's wife. I'm proud of him, though so I don't shy away from the term.

I'm in the system now. It's already proved so much more convienient. I can get on post now without a hassel which is amazing. My photo on the ID is revolting, though! I've never seen a good military ID picture so I really wasn't surprised, but my goodness...I looked like I put on about 50 pounds over night!

I changed my name, too on all the most important legal documents. NO ONE has pronounced my name correctly yet (with the exception of people close to me). It's Weigle (Why-Gull), people. Got it? hehe :)

I've been cooking more lately. Honestly, I think it's because I like wearing the new apron my sister got me for my birthday! I just look so darn cute in it. (Thanks, Paige!) Tonight I'm attempting to make pull pork. The problem is- I am missing two ingredients so I improvised. It might be terrible, but we'll see. Updates to come. (Just ignore the lack of makeup in this pic!)

Letters from Home

For the rest of the weekend, I spent my time scrapbooking some of the letters I sent Jordan while he was in Iraq. I wrote him every day...some days more than once a day. Most of the notes are compiled in a journal, but the ones left over were just laying around so I wanted to have them organized in some way. My project isn't finished yet...and it's definitely not my best work, but I'm glad they're in order now. Working on this pacified my urge to scrapbook all the pictures I'm behind on. I really need to work on getting those developed! We just have too much going on right now with moving, the job search, the dog search, and furniture shopping. Starting a new scrapbook is probably not in the cards for awhile. Here are some photos of my Letters from Home book.

Long weekend!

Last Wednesday was our (hopefully) monthly girl's night. A little over a year ago, I met four other women who were stationed at Ft. WW.  They were there for me through J's deployment to offer virtual hugs, advice, and conversation. I didn't actually meet them until much later. I'm so glad I met these women because they are a lot of fun and it makes being away from my friends more bearable.

This past weekend was a four day weekend. That's one thing I love about the army-extra days off frequently. Jordan and I planned on going to Valdez or even just Anchorage for the weekend, but our plans fell through when we hit a snow storm and had to turn around. We had already driven well over three hours so it was disappointing to have to turn around and head back to Fairbanks. It's pretty depressing to have to watch the temp drop from five degrees above zero back down to twenty five below. If nothing else, though, we had a beautiful drive and some quality time together.

 Because we couldn't leave town, we decided to drive out to Chena again just to get out of the house for awhile. Boy, was it cold! The wind was blowing there (There's not much wind in Fairbanks) and it made negative 30 feel even colder. Jordan's friend Josh accompanied us into the hot springs for the first time. We all looked pretty silly with our hair and eyelashes frozen. It didn't take long at all- five minutes outside and we all looked like ice sculptures! It's a neat experience to have the bottom half of my body really toasty yet my head is freezing. The texture of my hair was cool and I couldn't stop playing with it. When we got inside to thaw out, it still felt mushy for awhile until I found a hair dryer to melt away the remaining ice.

Knitting and Cabin Update

It's another lazy day for me. I could get used to this! I have some household chores that I definitely should get to, but I will after I write this. I've been knitting today. It's a fun new hobby for me. I just pick it up when I turn on the t.v. I don't watch much television, though so who knows if I'll ever finish the scarf. The first part of the scarf is loosely done, but it get's progressively better as I go along. Here's a picture of my progress thus far:

In other news, we've been aproved for the cabin! We are going to the realator's office tomorrow to sign the lease and we are thrilled about it. It's difficult to keep this small space (that we live in now) tidy because we really have outgrown it. It's mostly all his army stuff that is difficult to organize. They issue so much stuff to him because of the cold climate here and he rarely uses any of it so it gets stuffed in closets and pelican cases all over the apartment and it all adds up. I'm looking forward to having a little more space. The cabin has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a hottub, washer and dryer, fireplace, dishwasher, and a neat layout. Here's a picture of the outside:

I look forward to sitting by the fire and reading a good book. I can't wait to have a glass of wine while I sit in the hottub and look out into the Alaskan wilderness. It truly is goregeous here. I know a lot of my readers are from the military forum I'm a part of so I just want to say being stationed in Alaska isn't the worst duty station you could get! It can be difficult with the extreme cold, but the beauty makes up for it tenfold!

Missing him

I miss my husband. It's forty below zero outside and he's at Ft. Wainwright sleeping in a tent. He's always training, always working on something new.  I feel pretty bad about complaining about camping in twenty degree weather now!

I really miss him and I know how ridiculous that sounds at this point because I was without him for a whole year. What would one night matter? It does, though. His absence in our room is palpable. He should be beside me...keeping me warm. Tonight is just a reminder for me that he won't always get to be here with me. I dread another deployment. It will rear it's ugly head eventually, but I know we'll be ready and we already know we can handle it.

I am attempting a new hobby. Nicole ( my side-kick up here) and I decided we needed to do something productive so we are taking up knitting. I've already started working on a scarf because I figured that would be the easiest to do and it would come in handy here! Wish me luck. I'll post my progress as my first scarf comes along.

I didn't do much today, but I had such a good day. It feels amazing to wake up and remember all over again that Jordan will be in my life now and forever. As we try to get back into the swing of things, I've been trying to wake up with him in the mornings, whereas I normally would sleep as much as I could until the sun came up around 11. Terrible, I know. Anyway, it has really helped with my insomnia. Surprise, surprise. I enjoy getting an early start to the day. It's nice to wake up, fix breakfast, and eat with him before he goes off to work. It's my favorite part of the day...until he gets home in the evenings, that is! I'm having the time of my life playing house and stay at home wife :)

 

A quaint cabin

With any luck, the days of hand washing dishes and having to walk outside in below zero temps to do laundry are over! Jordan and I have been shopping around for a cabin to rent. We are ready to be out of this apartment although, it has been good to us. We've saved money by staying here, but now that we're married we can afford something that is a little more what we had in mind. We found a three bedroom cabin with a hot tub and fireplace in Fairbanks. Hopefully all goes as planned and we'll get to move in by February.

Unfortunately, we found out today that his chain of command would like him to stay in Alaska for his full three years. A couple weeks ago, he received an email saying that he may be able to get into the Captain's Career Course at Ft. Benning in March. We flirted with the idea of being back in the South really soon and decided he would try to get in the class. However, it didn't work out which means we will be staying in Fairbanks until the end of this year. His next plan of action is to attempt to get into the September course. I'm praying that this option is available to us!

Yesterday, the hubs and I (and our neighbor and friend, JTD) went to church at Friends Community. We enjoy that church and are in a pretty good habit of going so long as we're in town. There was a guest speaker on Sunday and his message spoke to me. He talked about the dynamic between God's law and having an actual relationship with God. He gave the example of the adultress that the men were going to stone. Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." The law destined the woman to be judged and punished accordingly, but God's love and mercy allowed her to be set free.  This is one thing I have a hard time grasping. I feel blessed way beyond what I deserve. God knows my every thought and action yet he still loves me unconditionally. What a great feeling! I'm going to start reading my bible more often. I want to make it an every day thing again. My life is so much sweeter when I'm not in control of it :)

Today marks the beginning of the job search. Wish me luck. Jordan says my days of mooching are over. Ha! I hope I am able to find something I like, but if not any extra income will be helpful. It will be nice to feel productive again, too. I would like to feel like I am contributing! On the other hand, the lovely cabin we are hoping to get looks really cozy and I bet I could get used to being a stay at home wife! I could stay busy cleaning that place, but I definitely would have to start cooking more to pull off that role! Hi ho, Hi ho it's off to work I go. :(

More later.

Back in Alaska

As we flew back into The Last Frontier, I began wondering how it was possible for someone to have the view that we had and not believe in some higher power. The mountain range was majestic. I've flown into Anchorage before, but never in the winter when it was still light outside. The water was a sheet of ice with frozen craters all over it. Jordan said it reminded him of the surface of the moon. It was pretty incredible!

 

 

Anyway, here we are back in the great state of Alaska. At least the weather held up for us and seems to be slowly easing us back into arctic temps. I'm glad the traveling part is over and I'm thrilled to not be living out of a suitcase anymore, however, leaving family was just as hard this time as it was the last. Does it ever get easier? I hope not. It's a reminder how much they mean to me. I really really miss them.

You can call me....

...Mrs.K!  Captain J and I got married yesterday!  Sometimes when you're dealing with the military, it's difficult to accomplish goals on your own time schedule. We wanted to have a short engagement and we really wanted to get married so we went ahead and tied the knot. The ceremony was just for the two of us, but we will be having another ceremony in about a year when we move back closer to home. We are incredibly happy that we did it this way, although we missed having our families there. We knew this was best for us. I wouldn't change a thing! My sister and my mother were so helpful in throwing this together for me and helping me get ready. They made it so much more special for us and I am forever grateful. Mom bought me a lovely dress and Paige put together a beautiful bouquet that I loved! My aunt and mother-in-law also let me borrow some items for the big day, too so it was nice to have family close by in spirit.

After we got married, we spent the night in a spacious A-frame log cabin up in the Smoky Mountains. It was romantic sitting out on the porch in the hot tub watching the snow fall. It was sort of like when he proposed (only 30 or 40 degrees warmer). We are really going to miss Tennessee. I can't describe how it feels to be married to Jordan. I've never been happier. It makes traveling back to Alaska much easier knowing that  I have my husband, my family with me.

Girls Day

Mom, Paige, and I ventured to Knoxville the day before the wedding for some girl time. We went to Dillards and registered Jordan and me for china, crystal, and other fun things. I could really get used to that scan gun; it's addictive. I was having too much fun choosing items, but I forced myself to back away because Jordan actually wants to be a part of the whole process. I will wait on him before I pick anything else out. We missed out on doing all the fun couple things prior to a wedding, but we'll just do it after the fact. No biggie!

Afterwards, we went shopping for shoes. I found the most pefect, sexy, red high heels to wear. (Pics later) Shoe shopping didn't take long so we headed to Chili's for margaritas. Yum! I love hanging out with them. We always have a good time. I'll miss them so much when I leave.