September quote of the month

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Age is nothing but a state of mind.

How old are you?

Personally, at this moment

I have no idea how hold I am.

I do remember a few milestone birthdays-

you know, 18, 21, 40...

But in my head, nothing has ever changed.

I keep wondering when

everyone is going to catch up to the fact

that for the last thirty years,

I've been masquerading as an adult.

 

Perhaps we are, like the old saying goes,

"only as old as we feel."

In that case, I'll stay

lost in my bewilderment...

'cause really, life is what we make it

and age is nothing

but a state of mind.

Our drive to Alaska part 3

Part three of our trip begins with us finally getting to the Alaska Highway. It was time to break out the good old Milepost guide for the rest of the trip. At this point, we were at our half way point of the trip. The rest of the way is all Alaska Highway that starts in British Columbia, Canada and ends in Tok, Alaska. Driving the Alcan Highway was probably the hardest of the drive. It was also the most beautiful and exciting part of the trip. We were a little nervous about this highway because there usually aren't many gas stations are places to stop. Well, we felt a lot better when we realized that the highway had been built up a lot. There were plenty of gas stations, rest stops and most importantly, pet friendly hotels for us to stay in. Some hotels were very nice and some were basically a hole in the wall, but we were just thankful to find a pet friendly place to stay! 

 

At first, driving through Canada was boring. There were flat lands and it really did not look much different from America. Although I still did get beautiful pictures all through Canada, it was a bit boring there for a while. Once we got onto the Alaska Highway, we would notice small mountains, then some bigger mountains and then HUGE mountains. Then before we knew it we were driving on those mountains and driving on the side of them going down hill. Talk about scary! The first time I drove around a winding down mountain I almost hyperventilated! Jarrett literally had to calm me down because I was so nervous and I would freak out! He was completely calm every time he drove down or up a mountain. It got to the point where he decided to do most of the driving so I didn't have to worry about driving down and up a mountain again. I eventually got to the point where I did not want him doing all the driving even though he did not mind. I wanted to conquer my fear of those mountains and I did. I ended up driving more and more during the rest of the trip and before I knew it, those mountains were no big deal.

 

Then there was the wildlife that we saw. No, we did not see any bears and we have not seen any yet since we got here, but I'm sure they will be out soon! Yay! Not! Anywho! One of our driving days we ran into a lot of moose and mountain goats. I was a little scared at first, but all we had to do was slow down and wait for them to pass when they were in the road. Other times they were just on the side of the road hanging out, so that wasn't too bad. At one point I looked and saw bison and what I saw looked exactly like a picture in The Milepost book. It was the funniest thing! I was seeing an identical scene from the book right before my very own eyes. It was so amazing! For some reason, the bison did not scare me. They were so awesome to look at. All of the animals were. Once I got through the mountains and the animals, I didn't feel so nervous anymore. I felt like we could drive anywhere and face anything after all that!

 

Our first night on the Alaska highway we stayed in a little city called Fort Nelson. The only good thing about that little town was that they had an A&W right by our hotel! So yummy! By this point on the drive, we decided to drive one long day and then a short day after that and we kept switching off doing a long day then a short day and so on! It was nice to get a ten hour day out of the way, but then it was even nicer having a short five to six hour day the next day! This tactic seemed to work better for us and we still made great time!After Fort Nelson, we stayed in a really cool town called Whitehorse! We stayed in a really neat Best Western hotel there too. They had those bowl sinks in their bathrooms and they were so awesome looking! Ha I know, it doesn't take much to amuse me! We almost wanted to stay an extra night in Whitehorse because there was so much to do and it was absolutely beautiful there, but we decided to keep going! We had planned to take our time on the drive, but we just got to the point where we really wanted to get to Alaska!

Liebster Award x2

I've already been nominated for the Liebster Award once before and now I have been nominated again by the lovely Haylee from Jets and a Brunette! You must check out this awesome newlywed's blog! She is an Air Force wife just like me learning to deal with the Air Force life. Go check her out soon! I promise you will not be disappointed!

Basically, this award is an award that gets passed around to blogs that have under 200 followers. If you receive this award, you answer the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you, you nominate 11 more blogs for the award, you post your own 11 questions for those blogs that you've nominated and then you link back your post to the person who nominated you. This award is the perfect way to get your blog out there and for you to meet more people. I met many other great bloggers through being nominated the first time, and I hope to meet more bloggers this time around. Lets begin shall we!

 

1. What is your favorite post on your blog? My favorite post is probably the post where I told everyone that we were being stationed in Alaska. You can visit that post again here! I think it's my favorite because it was the most exciting news and I could not wait to share it with the blog world! It is hard to believe that it was not that long ago that I wrote that post and now here I am living out a dream of mine. God works in mysterious ways!

 

2. What does your typical Sunday look like? I swear my Sundays are all the same. I usually never work Sundays, so Jarrett and I are both off work that day. Now our Sundays consist of sleeping in a little, Jarrett cooking breakfast, us watching football while we eat breakfast(it comes on four hours early here), me getting some house chores done(laundry, cleaning, etc.), maybe running some errands and doing a little shopping, later on cooking dinner, taking Leo for a nice long walk and then us just hanging out until bed. Hopefully we will find a church soon and be able to make church the main part of our Sunday off.

3. Who is your best friend and why? I am lucky enough to have more than one best friend. It is hard to pick from them all, but I will be cliche and pick my husband. I know a lot of wives say that their husband is their best friend, but mine really is my husband. He is my best friend, husband, father to our doxie and future children, my lover, the person who makes me laugh the most and he is a constant happiness in my life.

 

4. What is your favorite hobby? I like to do a lot of things in my spare time, but I think that reading is my favorite hobby. There is nothing like sitting in my papasan chair with the TV off in complete silence reading a really good book. Preferably Nicholas Sparks novels. Lately I have been so busy and have rarely had the time to sit down and read. I still need to finish Mocking Jay. Yep, I am very behind in finishing that series, but hope to have the time to do so soon.

 

5. What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink? Sweet Tea. I LOVE it! Lately I have been drinking half and half, half lemonade and half sweet tea. So delicious. I may live in Alaska now, but you cannot take the southern sweet tea lover out of me!

6. Are you a spender or a saver? Explain. I honestly feel like a little bit of both. I have always been pretty good with my money and usually pretty good with saving money when there is something for me to save for, but I sometimes I find myself splurging more on myself than I should. I usually pay a lot on my credit card each paycheck, but I still spend more with it then I pay back sometimes. I am trying to get to the point where I pay back exactly the amount that I spent that month. I love to shop, but I ALWAYS make sure that bills are paid for before I buy anything! If I don't have much money left over after bills, I will not buy anything for myself.

7. Tell me one thing you dislike about the city/town you currently live in. Welp, where do I begin? Haha just kidding, but seriously! I love living in Alaska so far, but the hardest part is living sooooo far away from everyone. I hate it. I mean, I like the privacy that Jarrett and I have now and we don't have everyone breathing down our necks 24/7, but I loved only being a couple of hours away from our family and I loved having Jarrett's mom and step dad living two seconds away from us. I also hate the time difference. We are four hours behind everyone and half the time when I get the time to sit down and talk on the phone or Facetime, it is time for everyone back home to go to sleep for the night. I know we won't live here forever, but I kind of hope we are only here for our four years and that we go back to Virginia.

8. Complete the sentence: When I "grow up", I want to be ... a career woman, a mother of three, a Master's degree holder and just happy! 

9. Dogs or cats? Explain. Welp, I grew up with a cat and while I do love cats, I love dogs more. I began to really love dogs when Jarrett and I first started dating. About a week or so after we started dating, Jarrett got a Chocolate Lab puppy named Jet. It was love at first sight when I saw that little guy for the first time! He was the sweetest dog ever. That is where it all began. Then I fell in love with Dachshunds when my mom got her dachshund Sophie. Jarrett and I knew we had to get one of our own. We have had Leo for a little over a year now and he is the most sweetest little doxie ever. We are in the process of looking for another puppy too! Updates to come soon!

 

10. What's one thing you're looking forward to? Next year when my best friend Christina comes to visit in March or April and when my mom and brothers come visit in June or July! I cannot wait for visitors! I am so excited for everyone to see Alaska for the very first time! It will be amazing for all of us!

11. What purse or bag are you currently carrying? Well, this morning I was carrying my English Rose Vera Bradley purse, but then I spilt my Starbucks drink all on it and had to wash it after work. I am now currently carrying one of my older Coach purses. It's good to switch up purses every now and then even if they are old ones. I usually use a purse once for a while and never use it again because it's not new anymore. Stupid thing to do. I have older Vera Bradley purses in my closet that look brand spanking new and need to be used again!

 

Now, I nominate...

1. Chelsea at Anchors Aweigh

2. Elizabeth at Army Ever After

3. Mackenzie at Bell Bliss

4. Katherine at The Newsome's Nest

5. Patty at Tales of Me and the Husband

6. Savannah, Nicole and Jamie at Fearless

7. Courtney at Air Force Wife and our Life

8. Victoria at Anchored by Faith

9. Livia at All Things Life & Air Force Wife

10. Jackie at City Girl Finding Her Place in the World

11. Lindsey at Lounging with Lindsey

 

My Questions:

1. How long have you been blogging?

2. What is your biggest fear? Explain.

3. What kind of blog do you run? (Military wife, lifestyle, mommy blog, food blog, etc.)

4. What is one thing that you would change if you could?

5. What are your pet peeves? Explain.

6. If you could travel anywhere for two weeks, where would you go?

7. If you visited or moved to Alaska and saw a moose for the first time, would you freak out?

8. What is your favorite girl name and boy name?

9. What is your all time favorite movie?

10. What are your hopes for the future?

11.What do you hope to accomplish by blogging? Explain. 

 



 

Friday's Letters

Dear husband, I cannot wait until I am off work at three tomorrow so that I can spend the rest of the weekend with you! We are both so busy during the week and I feel like I never get to see you as much as I want. I know it will only get worse when I add a full time position into the mix, but we will just have to do what we can. I cannot wait until we finally have time to explore the base and really explore Alaska. It will be the time of our lives, babe! You have been amazing since we got here, and I am so blessed by you as my husband. I love you honey! Dear Leo, Little boy, you have been the sweetest thing the past couple of mornings. You're wonderful until your daddy gets home from work and then you are a little terrorizer! You silly thing! Hopefully soon, we will get you a little sister whether she is a doxie like you, or a German shepherd puppy. We want you to have a companion for when you are alone for a long time when mommy and daddy are at work. Now, you will need to adjust to this and you will probably be a brat about it, but I told you that you would not be an "only child" for long. Then just you wait. Wait until you have a "real" brother or sister! Dear sun, Can you try to stay out more days in a row? You have barely shown yourself since Jarrett and I moved here and I would like to see you as much as possible now before you only show up for four hours at a time in the winter. Preferably, could you try to stay out on days that Jarrett and I are off so that we can actually go site see and get really good pictures? Please and thank you! Dear family and friends, Jarrett and I are doing great here so far! I cannot wait for every one's first visits. You will all LOVE it here! Please continue to pray and stay strong and we will do the same. We won't be here forever. We love and miss you all more than words can say, and we will see you all sooner than later!

September 11, 2001, Forever in our hearts

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I really cannot believe that it has been 12 years since this tragic day, September 11, 2001. Probably like everyone else, you remember that day like it was yesterday. I know I do. I remember everything about that day. Jarrett and I were both freshman in high school. It was probably like the second week of school too. I was in algebra class and Jarrett was in history. Before this day happened, I really did not know much about the World Trade Centers. All I really knew about them was that they were in the background of a picture that my dad took of me when we visited New York as a family many years before. I remember asking my dad what those two tall buildings were behind me in the picture. He told me they were the World Trade Center buildings and some of the tallest buildings in New York. After that moment with my dad, I never thought of those towers again until that day. I was sitting in my algebra class paying attention to the notes that my teacher was writing on the board when our principal broke in on the PA system telling us what had happened. Immediately my algebra teacher turned on the TV. Learning algebra was out of the question for the rest of the day.

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It was amazing to see everyone in my class so tuned in to the television.  Usually when you get to watch a movie or TV in class you get excited because that means that you don't have to take notes or really pay attention. Most of the time you would fall asleep during a class movie or TV show. This was nothing like that. Kids that were terrible students and acted up in the class were fixed on the TV like there was no tomorrow. Every single kid, good student or bad student, was scared that day. None of us knew what had happened. Was this a cruel joke? Was this an accident? How do we make sense of it? I remember just sitting there watching them try to make sense of it on TV and try to unravel what had happened when all of a sudden a plane hit the second tower. The TV reporter at that time screamed and ran for her life. Chills went up and down my spine at that moment. In fact, chills are going up and down my spine as I write this post. It is hard to write about how I felt that day, but sometimes you just need to write.

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As soon as that plane hit the second tower I knew in my heart that this was not an accident. We were at war. I couldn't believe what I had just seen! Did two planes seriously ram into the World Trade Center towers, or were my eyes playing tricks on me? Then on live TV, you saw the huge towering layer of smoke and debris make its way to the live camera and then all of a sudden, there was nothing to see anymore. The huge wall of smoke engulfed the camera. Then before you knew it, parents were calling all of the schools trying to find out if schools were going to close early and if not, could they come and pick up their child. Our school was in chaos. My mom worked and still works at the Board of Education which was right next to my school. My mom did not bother to come and get me out of school early because she knew I was just as safe there as I would have been at home. She was not worried about me and I was glad. Every one's parents just started showing up in panic trying to bring their children home. One by one over the PA system they started dismissing students that had parents at the school wanting to take them out of school for the rest of the day.

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I was glad I stayed at school the rest of the day. In part, I was afraid to leave school. I did feel safe there and I was afraid of going home and a plane hitting my house. I was literally terrified on the way home from school because I saw a plane in the air that was about to land at our local airport. I started asking myself all these questions in my head. Is that plane taken over by terrorists too? Are they going to crash into my car or my house? Are they going to crash into a family members house or even one of my friend's houses? Just so many questions rolling around in my head all at once! I didn't know what to think when I got home. Then come to find out that there were other hijackers too. What was our world coming to? Why did this happen and what would happen to our country now? Would we surrender to this or fight back? I remember watching on the news when they went into the classroom where George W. Bush was reading to a class of young students and they whispered in his ear the news of what had happened. I cannot imagine how Bush felt at that point and I strongly believe that he handled it the right way. You can say all the bad you want about him, but he did what he thought was right for this country. He fought back for us.

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Back then on this tragic day, I would have never have thought that I would become a military wife today. On that day, I started thinking about the brave men and women that fought for this country on that day and every day before and after that day. I thought to myself that that was the bravest job in the world. Little did I know that I would be apart of it some day when I met my husband. I remember the first September 11th anniversary that we had been dating. I remember talking about it with him and I remember him telling me that if it wasn't for September 11, 2001, he may not have enlisted in the Air Force. That day made my husband realize that he had a huge purpose to serve in his life. Along with the career advice from his Pop pop, my husband enlisted in the US Air Force around the time of his high school graduation. Two months after we had started dating, Jarrett left for boot camp and changed our lives for the better. I am so proud to be apart of the military today. Our country has come a long way since that day and we are now stronger than ever because of it.

 

God bless our fallen heroes and their families.

God bless our troops that have served and are still serving today.

God Bless America!

 

Moving secrets: My advice to military families on getting organized and ready for your first PCS

I really wanted to do a post on moving when you're in the military especially when this is your first move. There are a billion in one things you need to do when moving to a new base and there are more things that I wish I had done to get ready for the move. This was our first PCS and we had no idea what to expect! After moving all the way to Alaska from Virginia I literally feel like an experienced mover and traveler, but I am by no means an expert on any of this. Hopefully my advice will reach a fellow military wife moving to a new base for the first time. Now that we have gone through this, I feel much better about our next move and I now know what to do and what to expect. Maybe I will be able to handle the next move in my sleep!

Make sure you have all of your important documents organized in folders. If your husband is like my husband, months before the movers came, he was running around base like a chicken with his head cut off because of all the out processing stuff that he had to get done prior. My husband had so much paper work that he had to keep it all in a folder. We had a folder with all of his out processing paper work along with many copies of our orders, a folder designated for Leo with all of his health records and pet health certificate(you cannot travel through Canada without obtaining one within thirty days of going through the border) and a folder for me with all of my documents and important paperwork. When traveling through another country, you want to have as much proof and as much paperwork as possible given the tons of questions they will ask you. Also, make sure you have your paperwork from the movers that states all firearms being shipped. Since we own firearms, we had many questions asked about them even though they were not with us. You need to be prepared to answer whatever comes at you.

 

Pack what you are bringing ahead of time. If you are flying to your new base you won't need to pack as much as we had to pack. We took a two week road trip to our new base and we had to pack a ton. I wish I had started packing earlier though. I started packing my clothes and important belongings like literally a day before the movers came and then I had a ton of laundry to do that same day. Set aside all of your clothing a week ahead of time so you won't wear it again before the move. Try not to dirty up a lot of clothing so you're not stuck doing laundry the day before either. You don't want to feel rushed when packing up your life for the next two or so months. You want to have the time to make sure you have everything. Especially if you are going to a place like Alaska. I had to pack all weather clothing because of the colder climate. We were leaving Virginia when it was in the 90's and getting to Alaska when it was in the low 50's. From tanks, shorts and flip flops to jeans, hoodies and rain boots, we had to pack it all.

 

Set aside a designated area for everything that you are taking with you. Pick a room. Any room. This room will be off limits to the movers. Put EVERYTHING that you are taking with you in this room. You don't want them accidentally taking something with them that you really need. If they take it, you won't see it again until you get to your new destination. In our case, we would not have been able to get to something until a month later after the movers left because of our long drive. We were lucky in the fact that my in laws lived in the same apartment complex as us and we were able to stay with them until we actually left Virginia. We were able to pack most of our stuff up and bring it to their house the day before the movers came so that it would be in a different place and away from everything that was being moved. The only stuff that we left behind in a specific room was cleaning supplies so that we could clean the apartment really good after the movers left for good.

 

Organize your decorations by room and pack them in bubble wrap before the move if you can. If you are a home decor freak like me, your decorations are very precious to you. I did something that I wish I had not done. I put all my decorations in one room. Just lying there. Not wrapped in anything. I put them all in the worst room too. I put them all in the living/dining room. All of my breakables and valuables. All of them just hanging out on the floor the day before moving day. Although the movers bring plenty of shipping paper to wrap breakables in, it still was not enough for some of my breakables. When the movers come, the are on a time crunch to get you all moved out, so they have to wrap everything very fast. Although they were very fast and efficient, some things were broken when they got to our new house. My absolute favorite tart burner from Yankee Candle was shattered into a ton of pieces because it was not wrapped good enough I am assuming. I wished I had wrapped specific breakables in my own bubble wrap before hand, but then again, the movers may have unwrapped them and still used their own paper. Also, organize them by room so that you can put them back in their rooms when you get to your new house. All of my decorations were mixed together so that when I unpacked them, I had to figure out with room they went in before. Total nightmare!

 

Organize your kitchen. I seriously think the kitchen took the longest to pack up and move. We really should have taken all of our dishes, glasses and the rest of our cookware, bake ware and small appliances out of the cabinets so that it would be faster for the movers to pack. We literally left everything as is in the kitchen. Although the movers did not care, we did. You want to try to make it as easy as possible for the movers. Especially when only one shows up to do the packing. Yes, we had one guy show up to do all of the packing. The three guys that would be moving all of our boxes and big furniture into the truck would be coming later on in the day once everything was all packed. I felt so bad for that little old man packing all of our kitchen stuff. He had to get Jarrett to reach most of the stuff in the higher cabinets. If I had taken everything out of the cabinets, he would been able to had access to all the plates and glasses, etc. already.

 

Eat up all of your food the week before. Do not do any grocery shopping close to your moving date. I mean, they can't take all your food with them any way so you might as well eat it all up. Whatever food you do have left over you can donate or give to friends and family. Luckily, we had in laws that could take most of if not all of our food off our hands. If you are driving, the only food you really want to bring with you is bottled water, sodas, snacks and easy meals to make like bread, cheese and sandwich meat. We bought a huge cooler and kept it stocked with drinks, sandwich stuff and snacks so that we didn't have to stop and eat fast food every meal. We went grocery shopping a couple of times while on our drive so that we could keep our cooler stocked.

 

What are your tips for moving to a new base?

What was it like for you when you moved to a new base for the first time?

Has anyone ever had a terrible experience with a military moving company?

 

Our drive to Alaska Part 2

Our day off in North Dakota on day five was so perfect. We slept in until about 10:30, lounged around the room for a couple hours and then got ready to roam around town all day. We found the Air Force base in Minot and took a couple pictures as we drove by it. We then found this awesome store called The Boot Barn where you could buy any and all types of cowboy boots and outdoors boots. Jarrett and I have been saying for the longest time that we wanted to buy some legit cowboy boots and we finally did! After we bought our boots we did a little more grocery shopping then grabbed lunch. We then came back to the hotel and did a ton of laundry. It felt so good to get caught up on laundry especially when you are traveling. The only bad thing about doing laundry was having to jam pack our suit cases again. I'm pretty sure I brought way too many clothes with me, but hey what's a girl to do when she is traveling across the country for two weeks then probably living in a hotel for another month (or so we thought then)? Yep, I packed a ton. After doing laundry, we basically just relaxed some more in our hotel room. Out of all the hotels that we stayed in, this one was my favorite. I could have taken another day off just to sleep all day in that room, but we really needed to get going again.

 

Once day six came around, we were well rested and ready to cross the Canadian border! We were about an hour from the border where we stayed the night, so it didn't take long at all to get there. Before we went through the border, we decided to stop at a Duty Free station to exchange some our our currency for Canadian currency. I'm not gonna lie, it felt so awesome to spend Canadian money the first time. I even felt cool exchanging our money when the clerk handed me the Canadian money the first time. I know, what a nerd I can be. It is just so neat to me to have money from another country and see how different it is from your own money even if it is the same amount of money. Canadian bills are so neat. Okay, enough with the Canadian money! So, after we exchanged our money, it was time to head through the border. I was pretty nervous because sometimes Jarrett and I have really bad travel luck. Lets just say that we have had two failed honeymoons and we have still yet to have one after almost four years of marriage, but that's a story or blog post for another day! Basically, we seem to hit disaster all the time. I just knew in my mind that somehow there would be a problem getting into Canada and I was right!

 

We pull up to the gate and of course the guy asks us a ton of questions with his straight forward face and attitude. Border patrol make me so nervous and he kept staring at me all weird like. We then think we are good to go until he ask if there are any fire arms in the vehicle. Of course, we know you cannot bring fire arms into Canada and we did not. We had all our guns shipped with the rest of our belongings. I'm not sure how, but the fact that our guns were shipped with our stuff did not set well with this officer. He needed all of our proof from the moving company that our guns were shipped and then proceeded to ask us more questions regarding the guns even after we showed him everything that we needed. Finally, he got so frustrated with us that he just let us through. It was the weirdest thing. It didn't make sense to me. We did not have the guns on us, but that did not seem enough. He didn't even ask about Leo being in the car. He was so concerned with the whole gun thing. Oh well though. We made it through Canada and that was all the mattered to me at that moment. I can't even imagine all the things that we would have had to do had we not made it through Canada. That would have thrown off our whole entire plan, but we were very blessed in that moment.