30 weeks, 210 days, 6.5 months down - 10 weeks, 70 days, 2.5 months to go

I can't believe that we have made it this far.  30 weeks.  PHEWW  Seems like yesterday we were announcing our little moose to the world at week 13!

I had a pre-natal maternity massage this morning.  It was AMAZING.  I highly recommend them for anyone who is pregnant.  They have a special pillow that keeps all of the weight and pressure off your belly and they focus on the prime "pregnancy" spots, like lower back, shoulders and legs (cramps).  Incredible.  I got mine on Groupon (it was listed as a regular 60 minute massage, and I called the spa before I purchased the Groupon to confirm that a regular 60 min massage could be subsituted with a maternity massage.)

Also - Wes and I have experienced "in the womb" hiccups for the first time this week.  It's been pretty funny actually.  The baby is sitting head down (sorta) and hiccups low.  It's pretty funny.  The other thing is feet on the top of my belly.  We've been able to feel munchkin's feet a couple times. 

Here is what you're here for!  30 weeks along and doing just fine! Don't mind my un-makeup-ed face.  It's been one of those days, and the weather is bad, (so that explains my hair). 

6 months (28 weeks) down and 3 months to go!!!

Munchkin is really moving and shaking in there!!!  Wes and I are getting super excited for everything that is to come!! 

Lots of exciting things are happening.  Baby is moving A LOT.  I'm pretty sure it's turned head down, so it's little butt has settled in my right rib cage.  Super fun (not!).  It really is amazing to have it moving around all the time.  Absolutely my favorite thing when I press on my belly and munchkin pushes back.  I've even had my belly button pushed sometimes.  It's really neat. 

I'm just starting to feel like I'm really getting stretched out and rounder.  Looks like I'm smuggling a basket ball in my shirt.  Hope no one at the Walmart tries to stop me for theft.  LOL  Finally looking like I'm actually pregnant, and not just like I ate 4 Chipotle burritos (mmm - burritos sound good).  Even had a couple strangers say something to me about it.  Not one has touched me yet though, and frankly, I'm OK with that.  LOL

We're 6 months in and can't wait to meet our little munchkin.  March can't get here soon enough!!!

As for those baby bump pictures you all came here for, here is a 27 week and a 28 week shot!  I promise to get better about posting pics for all of you Ohioans to keep up with my ever-growing bulge!

27 weeks along!  My Eva girl wanted to be in the picture too!

28 weeks=6 months!  All ready for the Company Christmas Party!!!

Long awaited for Ultrasound Pictures!

I am so sorry that it's taken me so long to get these to you all!  I have quite a few ultrasound pictures to share with you from our appointment on Oct. 24th. 

Here they are!

Nose/Lips - Munchkin was sucking while the ultrasound tech was looking.  It was sooo cool to see the lips moving like that.

Little tiny baby feet!!  The tech wanted the baby to move them so that she could measure each foot, but of course, this is Wes's child and it was being stubborn.  LOL

Here are a couple of side body shots.  The baby was moving it's hands up and down it's face and it looked like it was pondering some significant life question (it's my child, lol).  But it was probably just trying to suck on it's thumb.  :-) 

I hope that you enjoyed our pictures!  Maybe we'll post a new baby bump picture soon!!  Not much of a difference from my last post.  Maybe I'll wait until we hit the 6 month mark at the end of November!

Little mover and a shaker!

Well - here we are.  In the middle of week 22!!  I can't believe we are in Month 6 already!  Where did time go!?  It seems like this baby will be here before we know it.

Lots has been going on since my last post.  My best friend from home, Rebekah, came for a visit and Dan and Sara have been here since Friday!  We spent all day on Saturday in Seattle and had a wonderful day.  We were sooo lucky with perfect weather, NO RAIN, and the sunshine, which is a real treat here this time of year.  Looks like today will be sunny too, which is good because we are going to make the drive into the mountains today while Wes is at work!  Lots of shopping and food this weekend and we are all stuffed full.  Some of the best seafood we've all ever eaten.  There really is nothing like Pacific coast salmon!!  We'll be smoking some beautiful filets tonight for dinner in Wes's new smoker!  (While we pass out candy to all of the adorable trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood)

While all of our visitors were here it seemed like our little munchkin grew and grew, sometimes even growing overnight to the point where I feel bigger than ever!  Here is me and my munchkin at 21 1/2 weeks (middle of Month 6)!!!  Baby is really moving more than ever and kicking Mom in the stomach and back all day long.  It really seems to like car rids and blaring music with bumping bass.  LOL - It also seems to really like Sushi (don't worry- California rolls only!), moving all over the place after we've eaten at our favorite sushi spot. 

Halfway to baby!

Hello again!

We are so excited to update everyone on the exciting things happening with baby!!!

Baby has been moving since week 16 (well, at least, I've been able to feel it since week 16!).  But lately it's been like a gymnastics meet in my tummy!  The little munchkin is doing flips and turns, kicks and punches.  Maybe it's a karate match instead of gymnastics.  LOL

And FINALLY!  Wes felt the munchkin moving around 2 nights ago!  It was really amazing.  He wasn't sure what he felt, but when I smiled and told him that it was his baby he was so happy!  The kicks are getting stronger and harder, so hopefully it'll be much easier for Wes and everyone else to feel them.

We have some amazing guests coming to visit next week.  Rebekah Morris (my best friend from High School and a bridesmaid from my wedding) is coming into town on Wednesday for a short vacation until Sunday.  Then Wes's brother and sister Dan and Sara are coming on Friday and are staying until Tuesday!!!  HOORAY!!  I am so excited to share our home and our new location and all it has to offer.

AND!  We are finding out on Monday if our little munchkin will represent the Lollipop Guild or the Lullaby League.  (If you don't get this reference, you probably don't know me very well. LOL)  And I apologize now, but we're aren't telling anyone what we're having until it arrives!!

Okay - so here is the reason you are all here!  20 weeks along and everyone is growing!!  Mom is growing quite a bit.  I feel a lot bigger than I actually am.  But that's how it goes, I suppose!!!

17 weeks and everybody's healthy!

Well - here we are - week 17 and counting.

We had our 16-17 weeks check up last week and according to the doctor, everyone looks healthy!  Munchkin's heartbeat was 143 per minute and it sounded great.  This was the first time we had heard it.  It was amazing.

We have our next check up on the 19th of October, but I don't expect anything out of the ordinary.  The doctor said that it sounds like I'm having an very normal pregnancy without a ton of the "bad" symptoms.  I have been extremely tired in the mornings, which is a bummer because lately I've been able to get up and go around 6.30AM but lately it's turning into 8 or 8.30.  UGH - I just like to start my day early.  I suppose I shouldn't complain.  My body is creating another human life, not an easy task.  :-)

Wes is getting so excited for all of the baby stuff. He's so excited to be a Daddy.  It's really adorable.  Really, though, we are just both really excited.  I can't wait to be a Mommy.  How exciting.  March can not come soon enough.  I say that all the time.  LOL

OK - so here is what you are all here for. My 17 weeks belly picture - Sorry no head- I hadn't done my hair or makeup, and mommy did NOT look good.  LOL  - Belly certainly is growing though!  Munchkin is really moving too - hopefully Wes will be able to feel it in the next few weeks!

Baby on the way!

As you all know, Wes and I are expecting our first little munchkin to add to our family!

We couldn't be more excited!  Learning about pregnancy and experiencing it is an amazing experience. 

For all of you who want to see it - here is my 15 week baby bump!

Not too much to see yet!  But there certainly baby in there.  I'm almost 17 weeks along now and will take another picture later this week.  That one should be posted this weekend.

I even started feeling movements last Sunday morning, when I woke up.  Actually woke up to the little moose moving around in there!  It's weird.  It feels like a bubble moving around in circles.  Almost like the butterfly feeling you get when you're nervous, but lower in my abdomen and much more real.



I know this is short, but I'm going to keep updating the blog with updates and baby bump pictures and pregnancy news.  I don't want to post pictures to Facebook. 

Oh - and I almost forgot.  We have our BIG ultrasound appointment on October 24th to find out what we're having, but Nah nah nah nah!  We're not telling anyone!  I want to know so that we can call it by it's name (we already have names picked out) and bond with it before birth.  But don't worry, you'll find out what it is around March 8, 2012!

Our New Home!

Well - as most of you now know, we made it to Washington!!!  Here are a few pictures of our trip through the mountains!

The boys were eager to get to their new home!  This is the best picture I snapped on the trip.  :-)

If you're following my activity on facebook, then you probably know our struggle to get a place to live, but I'll detail it now.

We made it to Washington pretty uneventfully.  It was a long last leg of the trip.  It's always the last part of a long trip that seems to take the longest.  But we made it all in one piece with our brains in tact. 

So we got into town on Saturday night and had time to explore downtown Tacoma a little bit.  It's right on Commencement Bay so it was a bit chilly.  We ended up on Ruston Way, eating at Duke's Chowder House.  I had the most amazing chowder I've ever had.  YUM.  We will definitely be eating there again.

On Sunday we slepted in and got up to putz around base a little bit.  We wanted to go drive through some of the housing and find our way to the important things on base (Welcome Center, Post Exchange, Commissary, etc...).  We were so glad that we had that opportunity because on Monday morning we had to be on post by 8AM to get signed into Housing.

Luckily, when we got there, we were told that they had just opened up a whole other section of newer housing for Wes's pay grade.  This was fabulous news for us because we didn't want to have to wait to long for housing.  I anticipated waiting a couple weeks, so we didn't expect to get housing right away.  Which meant our stuff (which is supposed to be delivered on the 24th) was going to have to go into storage, which meant that there was even more of a chance that stuff could go missing, or break.  But NOW!  We don't have to worry about that because we get to move our stuff directly from the truck into our first real home!  We are thrilled.

For those of you that haven't seen it, here is a picture of our new house:

It is a 2 story, 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, duplex.  The exterior is green with white trim.  The interior has 12' ceilings on the first floor with a large living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room and mud room.  It's so wonderful.  We couldn't be luckier that this is our new home!

We won't have internet for a few days, so I'll either have to go to the PX to post a new blog with an interior tour of our new place, or I'll just post them to facebook.  I'd like to do an interior tour via blog, so keep an eye out for that.

Wes and I are so excited to conclude our "homelessness" and to make a home cooked meal in our new kitchen!!!!

Idaho? NO! Udaho! Okay, Idaho.

May 20, 2011

Idaho?  No Udaho!  Okay, fine.  Idaho.

We made it to Boise, Idaho.  Trips through the mountains were long, but beautiful.  Here are some pictures to help you get a visual!

 

 

It was a short trip.  Only 5.5 hours or so, so not too many exciting things happened.  However, I will say that gas prices here are much lower than Ohio.  We’ve been averaging around 3.70 per gallon.  Not too bad.  We even saw one place for 3.59!  Hot dog!  Although, this one time we pulled off the freeway to stretch our legs and get some gas, the one gas station at the exit (and really the only thing at the exit) had gas for $4.45!?  WHAT THE HECK!!!!  So we immediately pulled back into the freeway to avoid the inevitable wallet robbery that was going to happen at that gas station.  OH!  But not before we noticed that there were 2 Llamas at the entrance to the store at the station.  Picture at right.  I’m not kidding.  It was like they were guarding the doors or something.

Stopped at a rest stop and took a few pictures.  It was really nice and very pretty distance. 

So we got to Boise around 3.30 in the afternoon, Mountain Standard Time.  Not too shabby.  So we had the entire afternoon to putz around town and see what Boise had to offer us.  We dropped the cats off at the hotel (see pictures).  They got comfortable pretty quickly.  I think they are becoming expert travellers.  The lady at the front desk about had a heart attack when we brought them through the door.  She apparently is a “Cat Lady” and wanted to take our cats home, since they’re so well behaved.  Yeah right lady.  HAHA

So Wes and I made our way downtown and saw this great outdoor gear store.  Just a specialty shop, but they had backpacking gear and climbing equipment.  So we had a good time shopping around and talking to the locals that owned/runned the store.  You know me, I make friends everywhere.  HAHA  Of course we didn’t buy anything, just dream shopping for when we CAN buy stuff.

We went to this great Italian restaurant for dinner.  Asiago’s.  It was delicious.  Homemade spinach fettuccini, Wes had roasted lamb, and I had a great artichoke/tomato dish.  YUM!  We drove around downtown in Boise for a little while longer, enjoying all of the funny college kids skateboarding downtown.  It really is a very pretty city.  Very clean.  And VERY cool buildings.  I’d love to go back and visit sometime.

May 21, 2011

Now we’re on the road to Tacoma.  The last leg of our trip!!  Hooray!  We are almost there!  It’s gone fast, that’s for sure.  Thank goodness.  And it’s a good thing that Wes and I like each other, or else this would’ve been miserable.  But we’re just like peas in a pod here.  The cats weren’t too happy this morning.  I think that 1) the altitude hurts their little ears, and 2) they are just as sick of being in the car as we are.  I don’t think I can blame them at all.  Poor things.  Cheddar pitched a fit this morning and cried himself to sleep.  Too cute.  Now he’s sleeping with his back legs propped up on the litter box in their kennel.  Too funny.  I’ve got some pictures of them in the car too.

I thought we were rid of cow manure when we left Ohio.

Goodbye Colorado!  We caught a glimpse of the mountains on our way out of town, but it was so cloudy and we didn't get to see a ton of those Colorado Mountains.  Here is a picture of our glimpse.  Not too thrilling.  It got more exciting once we approached them.

Once we headed out of the state we started to see cars with SNOW on them!  It's the middle of May.  What the heck!  So as we drove into Wyoming, we were blinded by the white clouds and white ground.  YUCK!  It was freezing and snowing.  Not our top choice of states.  Beautiful, but COLD!

Weird to see snow in the middle of May.  (Fortunately the forcast in Tacoma was 70 degrees today.  Pheww!)

We drove through flat Wyoming for a little while, when all of a sudden, a huge cattle truck was on our right and this horrible stuff was smacking our car.  If you guessed COW manure, you were right.  The front of our car was covered in the crap and we couldn't do anything to get it off!!  YUCK!  It was horrible and disgusting.  The worst part was that when we got out of the car, the car stunk and reeked of the stuff.  Fortunatley it started raining once we hit Salt Lake City, so it got cleaned up a little bit.  We'll have to run through a car wash tomorrow to get it all off.

Once we got through the Cow manure storm, it was smooth sailing (or driving) all the way to Utah.  We finally hit the mountains and we were stunned by their beauty.  We got the itch to climb every rock face we saw.  Fortunately, our gear went with the movers, so we had no excuse to stop. :-)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Oopps - I snuck one of the babies in there.  Aren't they so cute???  Love them to pieces.

I'm going to cut this short.  I'm exhausted and the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.  Tomorrow is the shortest trip we have.  Only 5 or 6 hours to Boise, Idaho.  Hopefully it'll be a nice drive through the mountains!



Colorado Tentacles

May 19. 2011

Hello Denver.  Goodbye Denver.  We didn’t get to see too much of you, since we got into town late last night.  BUMMER.  It’s OK – It’s really cloudy here, so we haven’t even seen the mountains yet.  UGH  We are anxious to get on the road to see those mountains.  So far Denver looks pretty flat.

Let me recap what happened last night, before I get ahead of myself.  So we are on the road, driving through Kansas and East Colorado.  While I am taking a nap in the car, Wes has come up with a conspiracy theory about these huge grain silos that happen to be placed every few exits.  The weird thing is that there are huge arms that SHUT DOWN THE FREEWAY sometimes.  The sign says “When lights are flashing, freeway is closed.” Then you have to exit at some random Podunk place and either wait the undetermined amount of time for the gates to open, or find an alternative route all the way through both states.  So WES thinks that there are nuclear missles in these silos.  ??????  I said, “Maybe it’s aliens!”  He said “Don’t be sarcastic.  It could be.”  LOL – The real theory is that there is something very important in these areas of the states that have to get moved as quickly as possible on the freeway.  Therefore they shut it down to move whatever it is as quickly as possible, without battling with regular traffic.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  We’re both very curious.

So after that whole thing, we make our way towards Denver.  And Colorado is FLAT!  Can you believe it?  Us Mid-Westerners think that all of these western states are full of mountains, but really the Eastern part of Colorado is entirely flat.  I mean OHIO flat!  :-)  And because of this flatness, the speed limit is 75MPH!  Needless to say, we made excellent time through Colorado.  HAHA  We did get hammered by this storm through Colorado.  It was scary looking as we drove under it.  We even saw swirling clouds right above us.  Wes punched the gas so we wouldn't see the outcome of those small forces of nature.  Here are a couple pictures so you can live the horror with us.  LOL

So we called ahead to book this Hotel that I had picked out, Loews Denver Hotel.  It was by far, the nicest hotel either of us had ever stayed in.  AND we could have the cats with us.  AWESOME.   Beautiful hotel and a beautiful room.  They had stuff waiting there for the cats.  Water, food bowls, treats, etc…  We let the cats roam around the room while we made our way to the restaurant downstairs.  We were only 1 of 3 tables in the entire place.  We got calamari as an appetizer, I had jumbo shrimp cocktail for dinner, and Wes ordered a Seafood Linguini entrée.  Now – for those of you who have not had friend calamari before, it’s delicious, but also slightly creepy because they give you a few WHOLE baby squid with no heads.  Naturally I do not eat these (I have tried them in the past. Gross).  But Wes will eat them, so he did right off the plate.  YUM for him I guess.  BUT – when his seafood entrée arrived, it had these baby squid in them.  They weren’t breaded, so you could see everything on these little guys.  I politely declined having a bite of his dinner.  He proceeded to eat around these squid, until the time came when he couldn’t avoid them any longer.  He thought, “Well, I’ll just spin some of the pasta around it and I won’t even know it’s there.”  So he tried to execute this plan, to no avail.  When we went to pull the bite up off of the plate, the 8 legged sea creature popped out and said “HELLO” right on the end of his fork, practically spraying him with the sauce.  HILARIOUS.  We both died laughing, while Wes took the bite, (with his eyes closed).  He grinned and said “Not bad.”  (I still declined the bite)  IT GETS WORSE.  He decided to examine the other baby squid left on his plate, only to make the scientific discovery that it STILL HAD IT’S MOUTH.  OH MY GOD.  GROSS. 

That’s enough talk about gross food.  SORRY.

We did order room service this morning for breakfast (because I didn’t want McDonalds AGAIN).  Oatmeal and a Belgian waffle.  YUM!  Excellent way to start the day.

We packed up all of our stuff and I held both cats while Wes drug our luggage cart behind us.  The cats were awesome.  I mean, AWESOME.  They struggled a little bit, but they were calm and quiet in the lobby.  People were all around and they just clung to me while Wes checked us out and went to get the car.  It was amazing.  Everyone around us kept telling us how impressed they were.  Our kitties are turning into expert travellers.  LOL

So we’re on the road again out of Denver and out of Colorado.  Stopping at Starbucks to get our fix for the morning.  (Thanks Aunt Pat & Uncle Bob for the gift card!)  Still have yet to see any mountains.  Big time bummer.  We’re probably surrounded by them, we just can’t see them because of the clouds that are covering the sky.  It’s OK though.  I think we’re going to get to drive through them in an hour or so, so that’ll be fun.  Lots of pictures to come.  I’ll write again once we get to Salt Lake City.  9 hours to go.  And  we haven’t given the cats their meds yet.  Going to be an interesting day. 

(Just as I was getting ready to post this we caught a glimpse of the mountains through the fog.  COOL)

Our trip down the Yellow Brick Road

May 18, 2011

Up early again to hit the road, just not as early as yesterday.  6AM never looked so good, after being up at 2AM yesterday.  HAHA After rearranging the car and forcing the cats back into their harnesses and kennel, we were on the road to Denver.  The cats were none too happy to be stuck back in that kennel, but they’ll adjust soon enough.  We made it through Topeka Rush Hour traffic (which turns out isn’t too bad).  We were making great progress cruising along I-70 when THERE IT WAS!  The Holy Grail of my life.  A Wizard of OZ museum sign.  I had forgotten that we were passing through OZ territory today.  Naturally I screamed like a little girl “Can we go? Can we go? Can we go?”  I looked over to my wonderful husband with, what I’m sure were, huge dreamy eyes.  He smiled and said “Sure!  We can go if you want to!”  I nearly cried.  It just meant so much that he would delay our trip for a couple hours so that I could live out a dream at the museum. 

The museum was in Wamego, Kansas.  This tiny little town that reminded us of Urbana or Bellfountaine, Ohio.   The museum had this fantastic shop, complete with a HUGE bust of the Tin Man, signed by Roger Baum (who I assume is a Great (or Great-Great) Grandson of L. Frank Baum).  Those of you who don’t know who L. Frank Baum is, pick up The Wonderful Wizard of OZ (the book) and have a good read.  Picture to come later.

Inside the museum was an enormous collection of memorabilia, toys, books, etc…  They even had a First edition copy of the book.  Blew my mind away.  I’ve included some pictures to help you get a visual.  They also had life sized sculptures of the main characters. I was impressed by their accuracy (although not perfect) they were pretty good.  

 They even had the movie playing in a small theater.  Biggest screen I’ve ever seen the move on.  Is it sad when you can say all of the dialogue along with the movie?  No. I don’t think so.  LOL  After all was said and done, my STILL super wonderful husband let me get a new T-Shirt, Collage style movie poster and Xmas ornament.  He’s da best.

After the museum, we made our way down the block to the OZ Winery!!  They sold wines that were named some of the most clever things (see picture).  Some of the names included “Squished Witch”, “Oil Can”, “Click” and “Wine of a Different Color”.  They even had “SURRENDER” wine.  We had a short wine tasting of the wines I mentioned, (minus Click and Wine of a Different Color, we still have lots of driving  to do).  Bought a couple bottles to add to my ever growing Wizard of OZ stuff and made our way back to the car.

Boy, were the cats glad to see us.  Although, I think that they liked roaming around the car while we were gone.  Poor things.  I hate keeping them cooped up there all day long, but at least they get to stretch their little legs when we stop to stretch our big legs. 

As we were driving through the “Flat State” and making a lot of comments about how Kansas is NOT flat at all, we saw zero homes, tons of land, and hundreds of cattle.  We were wondering who owns all of this land and livestock.  Apparently wild cows are running rampant all over the state.  HAHA  It was really beautiful though.  Wes said “Surreal” at one point because one piece of land was bright green and yellow with almost perfect lines across the hills contrasting the two colors.  It’s not a very exciting drive, in terms of big cities and such, but it’s really beautiful this time of the year.  Everything is bright green, (I’m sure the result of lots of rain).

The cats finally fell asleep.  They've been so good on the trip so far.  We are so lucky to have two smart cats that like each other.  They are really cute sleeping together in their kennel.  If I wasn't connected to the internet through my phone, then I'd upload a picture.  Maybe later. 

We will be on I-70 until we hit Denver tonight.  Got lots of driving left to do today.  I'm sure we'll see lots more interesting things on the way that I can write about later. (I saw signs for "Dorothy's House".  Maybe another stop?  HAHA  Just kidding Wes!)

Until later-I'll keep signing the songs from the movie.  Poor Wes!

Monday and Tuesday - Movers & Driving

March 16, 2011

Today the movers came to take all of our stuff, pack it onto the big semi (with 4 other families lives) and take it away to Washington.  What a fiasco!  The guys that packed us on Thursday didn’t do it right (Military moves are much stricter than standard moves).  Therefore, the guys that came to load the truck today had to spend a few extra hours RE-packing our stuff.  UGH.  Not to mention the lady that almost rearended our truck, and slide out of control up into the grass of the storage unit place.  Don’t worry, no one was hurt.  We weren’t even near them at the time.  But still scary.  The police had to come out and take a report.  Worst of all, the lady took off on blown tires (and I mean, SHREDDED!!).  What a nightmare.  The movers today were nice though.  So that made for a good experience, even in the rain.  Blech!

The rest of the day was really busy, tying up loose ends and getting stuff together for the trip.  We were even able to sell our little red car (the one I’ve driven for the last 3.5 years).  Sad to see Big Red go, but it was time!  It went to a fabulous family that I’ve known for 12 years, so I know it’ll be taken care of really well.  Don’t want to get to nostalgic.  It is JUST a car, right?  :-)

After we had made our run to Meijer for trip supplies (Tylenol PM, Cliff Bars, Trail Mix and Diet Coke), we made our way to Amato’s Pizza, downtown Delaware with my parents and Benz.  It was AWESOME.  We are kicking ourselves that we didn’t eat there sooner.  Not to put out a promotion, but if you are ever downtown Delaware, get to this place. (*end shameless plug*)

We got the car all packed up.  A very uneventful activity.  Made sure everything was going to fit in the overhead carrier, and we moved right into bed around 10PM, giving us plenty of time for a 4 hour nap.  Up at 1.50 to get ready to leave at 3.  Gotta look our best for the road.  Never know who you’ll bump into.  Maybe even someone famous??  We can dream (I mean, I can dream.  Wes couldn’t care less. HAHA)

May 17, 2011

Early morning.  Hard to say goodbye.  We’re really sad to go, but so excited to start our lives.   My parents are the most wonderful people.  I am going to miss them so much.  I know that Wes will too.  Cheddar and Mooshu will as well, I’m sure.  The only person/living thing not doing any missing will by my mom’s cat Jinx, who hates all things to do with our little family. 

On the road at 3.10.  Not bad considering how early it is, and we still had to pack the overhead carrier this morning.   Everyone got up to say goodbye (even Jinx, but I think she was saying “Good Riddance”).  Benz (our exchange student) even climbed out of bed!  We all said our tearful goodbyes and see you laters, knowing that it was only a few short months until we could visit with them again (and thank goodness for Skype).  On the way out of the door I was able to say “I’ll call you later today”, which 30 years ago would never have been heard of.  Pretty cool what our society can offer us in terms of technology and communication (Jetsons we right, we CAN video chat with our neighbors and friends at the touch of a button).

Wes started our trek in the drivers seat.  The cats in the back, in their kennel (pictures to come), whining about their new harnesses (gotta have a way to grab them if they get away).  I think Mooshu was more mad about his being neon blue, than actually having to wear it.  HAHA

We’re just making our way out of Columbus.  Seeing the bright ambient light coming off of the city makes me miss it already.  Going to be tough getting used to high mountains on the horizon and not miles of farmland and trees.  (Will post pictures once we’re across the country). 

Loving the thought of a new life ahead of me, and so proud of the life I’m leaving at home.

Missing my entire family like crazy already.  Wes and I are the luckiest people to have all of the wonderful people in our lives that we do.  If you’ve ever crossed our path in the past, know that you are very much so loved by both of us and we miss you terribly.

More to come later (I NEED A NAP ALREADY).  Haha

11AM May 17, 2011

We’re just making our way through Illinois.  About 70 miles from St. Louis.  Been a long morning already.  It seemed like almost every time we stopped the cats decided it was a good opportunity to use the litter box in their kennel.  Go figure.  I guess we shouldn’t complain, seeing as we were able to clean it out right then and there.  It’s quite the funny process to see a grown woman climbing into a cat kennel in the back of an SUV to clean out her cats litter box.  YUCK!

We did give them some “Prozac” like drugs to help calm them down.  It’s really helped, I think.  We hardly hear a peep out of them.  And of course, as I’m typing this Cheddar chimes in with his meek little “Mew”.  Almost as if to say “Hey!  You aren’t acknowledging us back here and we’re lonely!”  They have each other, so I don’t feel so bad.  I’ve got a couple really funny pictures, and hopefully once I get some internet working I can share them with everyone. 

Wes and I have been trading on and off with the driving.  Seems to be that every 2 hours one of us is really tired.  That’s what we get for only sleeping 4 hours last night.  It was like Christmas, only I wasn’t getting a stocking in the morning.  I was getting a car full of stuff and two screaming cats.  Great.  Just what I always wanted.  HAHA Wes and I are just excited to have this adventure underway.  We’re not going forever, and with today’s technology we can keep in touch with everyone at the touch of a button.  It’ll be really great to explore the other side of our country.

Evening May 17th, 2011

We got to Kansas City around 4pm. WAY earlier than I tought we would.  So we had time to explore the ENORMOUS Cabela's store near our hotel.  Good thing too because I wanted to look at backpacks for hiking, and hiking boots.  And of course, we scoured the camping equipment.  Can't wait to get to Washington to explore all of the hills we are going to hike!

Now here we sit in our hotel room.  The cats have had a chance to explore more than we have.  We were able to meet up with Tony George and his little girl Riley (20 mo).  We had a blast at this great Hibatchi restaurant at the Legends of the Village West.  This great outlet mall in Kansas City.  It was a lot of fun.  They had a great restaurant for kids called the TREX.   It was really cool.  Reminded us of the Rainforest Cafe in Disney, from our honeymoon.  It was a really cool place.  Exterior shot at right!  Interior Shot Below!

After dinner we got to see Riley play in the water at the mall.  Technically it was a fountain, but she was so excited about the water.  See picture.  What a stinker.  An adorable stinker!

We "rented" Yes Man from the hotel, (they have a free library of movies), and now we're curled up watching and laughing.  The cats have calmed down and we're all ready for a good nights sleep.  Going to need it tomorrow on our way to Denver! 

Posting tomorrow night as well!

May 14, 2011

Here we go. Time to say our goodbyes.  It never felt like this time in our lives would ever come.  When Wes and I found out he’d be stationed in Ft Lewis over a year ago, we thought, “That’s forever away!”  And boy, has time flown by.  In the last year and a half we’ve gotten engaged AND married, moved 3 times, and spent 4 months apart from each other.  If we can handle that, then we can handle anything together! 

All of a sudden we’re packing all of our things, watching our lives put into boxes and into a storage unit.  If you’ve never done that, it’s rough.  But we made it through it because we’re together! (As corny as that sounds!)

After Wes got done with his training we came home to Delaware to visit with my parents for a few days and get our things together for the big 40 hour drive across our country.  It was a crazy couple of days, filled with car washes, unloading luggage, Reloading suitcases, laundry and long “to do” lists.  We were so glad to have two days to leave all of that behind and visit Wes’s wonderful parents in Toledo.  We spent two full days with them, reminiscing, laughing, and most importantly, EATING!  Friday night, the 13^th, Joanie had a wonderful “Goodbye Open House” that was more than we ever expected.   We had tons of people there, reliving moments from our wedding (which was 8 months ago already!).  It was such a wonderful evening with a wonderful family.  We had our wedding video playing in the living room, tons of food in the kitchen, and lots of memories passed around. 

After all of the festivities died down, Wes and I took to a bonfire in the backyard, made by my lovely brother in law.  Matt and Kari Purdy joined us, and so did Sara.  We played a game of Charades, (we made our own categories).  Some of the items that were acted out were “Space Ship”, “Koolaid”, and “Mrs. Doubtfire”.  We were out until 3AM, playing and laughing, enjoying our last night in Perrysburg with our best friends and our fantastic siblings.

Today, the 14^th, was a really rainy day.  We were cooped up in the house most of the day, but there was never a dull moment.  John smoked amazing venison burgers on his NEW grill and we had a wonderful outdoor lunch, including Zack.  We sat around the house, playing Scrabble, looking at pictures from Wes’s training, and talking about all of the cool stuff we’re going to do in Washington (especially when the Moosmans come visit)!  We even had time to visit the “Neighborhood Garage Sale” going on across the street from the house.  Wes and I scored a really great vanity table for our new place, Sara got a new mountain bike, and Dan got a new bike rack!  We all won with one good deal or another.

It was so incredibly hard to say goodbye.  After the car was loaded and the stuff was all packed, we spent the next few minutes saying our goodbyes.  Lots of tears and smiles, even some laughter, made for a memorable farewell (including a kiss for me from Peanut)!!!

Looks like rain on the way back to Delaware too.  It’s around 10pm and we’re on the road.   Wish we could’ve stayed forever in Perrysburg, but we can’t afford to go AWOL now.  J 

I’m going to keep this journal going throughout our trip.  It’s easy to type while Wes drives.  J