Phase 6: Home, New Home

So, the last phase of our trip was obviously coming here to Dayton.

We were so tired from our week-long excursion, that we were definitely ready to get there and start getting settled in.

When we arrived, we checked in at our luxurious $38/night hotel. Since we had Watley with us, we had to book a smoking room. Since this was a very classy establishment, the sheets, comfortors, and towels came equipped with several cigarrette burns. The door to the bathroom had a hole in it, apparently where someone put their fist through it. Very classy, I tell you.

Well, we checked in, and immediately when on a search to find our new abode. We wanted to make sure we knew where we were going, because we didn't have a whole lot of time to waste in the morning, since the housing office opened at 8, and the movers were arriving at 8:30. We were having trouble finding our street (the neighborhood is pretty big), and we just happened to find the house of one of Grant's co-workers from Albuquerque who also came for AFIT, but arrived a few months earlier. They had already scouted out our street for us, so we stopped to visit for a while, and they pointed us in the right direction.

We found the house, and started peeking through the windows, trying to get some sense of what we would be living in. At that time, our neighbor was playing frisbee in his backyard, and figured out that we were the newbies, so we talked to him for a while.

The next day we got our keys, met the movers, and we started moving in. Overall, it was a pretty good move. Only our dresser got a little damaged. I'm not happy about it, but I'm not surprised about it, either.

Now, we're pretty much all settled in. Watley's finally getting adjusted, and even making new dog friends! It seems like we're in a good community here, and we've already made some friends. Mrs. J was right, we definitely fit in knowing how to play Euchre - these people up here love it! I'm so glad she taught us how to play.

Thanks, Mrs. J!

Now I might have a new addiction, just like Mrs. J. I haven't started a blog for Watley yet, but I did enter him in the cutest pet photo contest with the following picture, taken when he was a puppy.


Now tell me, how can he not win?!

By the way, the winner gets $1,000!! Watley might actually be good for something after all.

Phase 5: Des Moines, Iowa

The last leg of our trip involved us going to Des Moines to visit friends that we met in Albuquerque, Jenn and Andy. Jenn and I worked at Coca Cola together, and quickly became friends. Several months later, they moved to Des Moines, where Andy was originally from. I was so glad to be able to see them and spend time with them, even if it was just a short visit.

We went to a trendy Italian restaurant in downtown Des Moines, called Centro. The food was excellent!
After our nice dinner, we decided to visit the Iowa State Fair, where mullets and missing teeth were a dime a dozen. Andy and Jenn told us about how every year, the fair awards prizes to the biggest pig, biggest cow, etc. So, we were on a search to find them.
And here it is...Iowa's biggest boar, Waldo. I will give a prize to anyone who can get within 50 pounds of his weight (excluding the few of you who have access to my Ringo account!!).
This is Tom, the second biggest boar. I know, it's a terrible angle to take a picture from, but Tom wasn't exactly cooperating with me.
And this is Blacky, the biggest bull. Again, a prize if you can get within 50 pounds of his enormous weight!

We saw some amazing things, that I'm sure will forever be burned into our memory. We had a great time visiting great friends.

Phase 4: Omaha

The next stop on our trip was Omaha, Nebraska. Grant's dad has been temporarily living in Omaha for about 2 1/2 years now because of a contracting job. We were so happy to be able to spend some time with him. One of the things we did while we were there, was go to the Durham Western Heritage Museum. There was an "Engineer It" exhibit at the museum, where you could build bridges, make boats, make paper airplanes, etc., all to encourage children to become engineers.

This is a picture of Grant making a very intricate paper airplane (there were 35 steps in the instructions!), and getting a little help from his dad.
One of the things I like about Omaha, is the Old Market section, which would be like Old Town in Albuquerque. It's very quaint, and definitely has the old town feel. Unfortunately, I didn't bring the camera with me when we went to Old Market, so I'm stealing this picture I found off the web.
This is the entrance of the Western Heritage Museum. It's an old train station, and it's beautiful inside! Very Art Deco. When we were leaving the museum, we realized that a wedding and reception had been going on. What a beautiful location for a wedding!
Grant's dad's birthday was about a week before we arrived in Omaha. Although, does there really need to be an excuse for ice cream cake? I think not!
His dad lives about 5 minutes away from Standing Bear Lake. So, we took the remote-control sailboat out for a test run. Grant now wants to be a sailor.

Phase 3: South Dakota (Custer State Park/Badlands Nat'l Park)

Well, when I upload my pictures onto my blog, it rearranges them in a different order, so I'll just talk about each one as they appear.

We camped out at Custer State Park for the 2 nights while we were in South Dakota. The park was very beautiful, with dozens of lakes, and a beautiful, scenic road (Needles Highway) that cut straight through the park.

Here is Grant with Watley at one of the lakes. It was Watley's first time swimming! He didn't like it very much at all.
We were also able to visit Badlands National Park. If we had never lived in the Southwest, and seen the Painted Desert, we probably would've been more in awe of it. But, it was very similar to the Painted Desert, which we've been to a couple of times.
When you're driving along I-90, approaching Mitchell, South Dakota, you see about a million signs advertising the Corn Palace. So, we felt obligated to see it. Funny thing was, when you take the exit, there's no signs telling you which way to go. I didn't know what to expect. I was imagining a great palace in the middle of a corn field made out of nothing but corn. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed to find that it was in the middle of town, and not at all made out of corn, but only decorated with corn. We found out that the domes on top are made out of styrofoam.
Okay, back to Custer State Park. Our campsite was near Sylvan Lake, so we walked to the lake close to sunset and got some incredible pictures!
And this picture is especially for Mrs. J, who refers to Watley as "Deery Lou," and compares him to a deer. As soon as I saw him drinking the lake water, I grabbed the camera with Mrs. J in mind. "As the deer panteth for the water...."

We immensely enjoyed our time in South Dakota. There's so much beauty and variety, it reminded me of our long lost state of New Mexico!

Phase 2: South Dakota (Crazy Horse/Sturgis/Mt. Rushmore)

After leaving Colorado, we headed up through Wyoming and into southwestern South Dakota.

When we got into the Black Hills region of South Dakota, we went straight to the Crazyhorse monument. They charged an entrance fee to get in, but thanks to Grant's Air Force sticker on the windshield, they waived the fee, since he is active duty! We didn't get any closer than the picture shows to the monument, but we went in the museum. They allowed Watley in, which we appreciated, since we found out ahead of time that pets are not allowed at Mt. Rushmore.
We were in this region of South Dakota during Sturgis Bike Week (the 2nd biggest motorcycle gathering in the country) - which doesn't take place exclusively in Sturgis, South Dakota, but the entire southwestern section of the state. This is just a sampling of the thousands of motorcycles we saw during our 2 night stay in the area. I got a kick out of all the big, burly, biker dudes sipping on their Starbucks Frappucino's and Latte's.
I'm glad that our stay in the area overlapped with Sturgis, because it only made our stay more memorable. Although, we were pretty sick of motorcycles by the time we left!

Here is the ever-popular Mt. Rushmore. Grant was attempting to make it look like I was one of the people on the monument.
Backing up a little bit, while we were driving through Wyoming, I saw a sign for a town that said "Population: 1." I asked Grant over the walkie-talkie if he saw the sign. He said not only did he not see it, but he didn't believe me. I convinced him to turn around, and when he saw that I was right, we decided to take a picture of the sign, for fear that no one else would believe us.

Phase 1: Rocky Mountain National Park

Well, it's time for Phase 1 of our semi-cross country trip.

Our first day, we headed off for Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. When we got there, we went straight to our campsite to set our tent up for the night. When we checked in at the campsite, the ranger told us that there had been some recent bear sightings in the area, and I immediately feared for Watley's life! Lucky for him, we didn't see any bears that night.

The next morning, we ate breakfast, packed up our camping gear, and took off for a drive around the park. We heard about Bear Lake, so we decided to go there first. It was smaller than we thought it would be, but very beautiful!Then, we drove along Trail Ridge Road. We saw some incredible scenery, and at some points, were actually above the timber line (over 11,500 feet)!

We also stopped to take some pictures of Long's Peak, which, I believe, is the highest point in Colorado.

It's really a beautiful park, and if you haven't visited it yet, we highly recommend it!

Greetings From Omaha

We are here in Omaha, visiting Grant's dad (who is here for some contract work). We've had a great trip so far - driven about 1,500 miles, seen 3 national parks, a few memorials, and a few thousand motorcycles (we happened to be in southwestern South Dakota during the Sturgis Bike Week).

Details will be coming soon, once we get settled in our new home. I'll break our trip up into phases, so it won't be so overwhelming (or boring) to read.

We already miss our Albuquerque home very, very much. Although I have to say, the move STILL has not settled in. I think right now, we're thinking that we're just on a vacation seeing the country, and we'll be back "home" in a few days. Well, we will be "home" in a few days, it's just that it will be a different home.

Boxes!

Jorge and Castro did an okay job of packing us up. The reason I say "okay" is because after they thought they were done, I realized that they had missed a whole closet, and some other things that they "thought" were staying here. So, they had to pack up a couple more boxes. I think they were just ready to go home.

Anyways, look at what they've done to our house!

And so it begins...

Right now as I'm typing this, Jorge and Castro are in the process of getting all our stuff packed up (nice and neatly, I hope!). This is the beginning of the end of our stay in the great ABQ.

These last couple days have been pretty busy, to say the least, what with getting things organized for our trip, making camping reservations, hanging out with our friends one last time, cleaning, praying that our house sells soon, etc.

This whole moving thing still has not really set in with me yet. I'm sure once the house is empty tomorrow afternoon, I'll finally catch on that this is actually happening. But for the time being, I'm living in sweet denial.

Reality Check

Things are starting to sink in with me about our move, but I'm still very much in denial...

*We only have 2 Sundays left at church
*Our going-away party is this Sunday after church
*The movers will be here on Thursday of next week (less than a week!) to pack us up, then move everything out on Friday
*Our house still has not sold, and we're leaving town on the 9th.

I need to go ahead and start letting some tears out now, because if I don't, I'll be a blubbering idiot when we say our good-byes.

The Things We Remember

This kind of ties in with the post I just made about the little things making us happy...

I remembered watching this show on Nickelodeon (back in the day when Nickelodeon was the best channel on TV) when I was very little...all I could remember was a mannequin that would come to life, and a lady in a pink and red jumpsuit that, in my head, looked like Claire Huxtable. Well, folks, the internet is your friend, because after a quick google search I found it. This excerpt is from IMDB.com:

"Each night in a major city, Sam the Security Guard locks the closed department store and joins Jodie in the Children's department as she brings a special mannequin with her even as she prepares to work on a display for the next day. With some magic words, the magic hat it wears brings it to life and becomes Jeff. Together with Muffy the Mouse, this gang learn about various things to teach younger viewer, both by the themselves and with visitors to the store."

After a little more research, I actually found a picture of the show! I cannot tell you how happy this has made me! I had been wracking my brain trying to figure out what this show was...I was starting to think I had imagined it. Now, after 5 seconds of online research, I have the answer, and a huge smile on my face.

It's the little things that count

It's so easy to get caught up with what's going on in our lives, that sometimes we forget to just sit back and enjoy the little things. Here are some of the things that make me happy:

Watching Anne of Green Gables at Mrs. J's house, and not being afraid to cry when Matthew dies because everyone else is crying, too...

Eating at the Cheesecake Factory...

Looking at old pictures...

Getting in touch with old friends...

Spending time with family...

Playing a pick-up game of basketball with my husband...

Snuggling with Watley...

Having good conversations with good friends.

It's a Small World After All

There have been several times in my life when I swore I was psychic. I will think about something, and later on, what I was thinking about will actually happen. What happened this past week is an example of this.

Some college friends that came to the wedding I was in in Michigan planned a trip to Cedar Point the Monday after the wedding. If you don't know what Cedar Point is, it's this amazing amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. As many of you know, we're moving to Ohio next month, and I have already talked to a college friend who lives in Cleveland about getting together once we're there - going to baseball games, basketball games, etc. Well, when we pulled into the parking lot at Cedar Point, I thought to myself that I should've contacted my friend in Cleveland so she could meet us at Cedar Point.

Later in the day, I told one of my friends that I was with, Matt, that it would be so funny if we ran into PCC people at Cedar Point, since so many PCC students come from Ohio and Michigan.

A few hours later, we were getting ready to go on some of the water rides, since it was an incredibly hot day, and we were soaked with sweat. As we were getting a locker to put our stuff in, my friend Sharon said, "Kelly, don't you know that girl over there?" I looked, and sure enough, it was the person in Cleveland that I've been keeping in touch with!

There's a few things about this situation that are weird to me:

1. It's a Monday...usually people are working, not going to amusement parks that are over an hour away from their house. If it was a weekend, it would be a little different.
2. It's a huge park...the fact that we were at the same place, at the same time? That's just weird.
3. This person was not just some random person that I knew at PCC...this was a girl who was in the same major as me, took all the same classes as me, and sat next to me in almost every class.
4. Why did I randomly think about her the day that we went to the park? I hadn't thought about asking her to meet us there before, and we'd been planning this for months! This is just proof that I am, in fact, psychic.

New Blogger Alert!

I would like to welcome Mike to the world of blogging. Most of my readers know who Mike is, since he went to our church. For those who don't know him, he's a fellow Air Forcer, and just got transferred to England. A lot of us bloggers at the church encouraged Mike to start a blog since he's overseas, and he knows people all over the world. You can check out his blog here.

The Results Are In...

I know you all have been anticipating the results of my little contest. The winner is SixBit!

It threw me off a little bit that the winner was a man, but I'm having fun coming up with ideas for a gift, personalized especially for SixBit. So, I'm working on it, and will hopefully be done with it in time for church on Sunday.

Congrats!

I'm so un-original

I'm copying Tink's post from a while back, because I'm bored, and when it's come to blogging lately, I've been drawing a blank.

I realize I have all of probably 2 readers. Actually, there's more, because I've talked to Cheryl and Megan from church and found out they're pretty regular readers, but they never post comments. So really, they're lurkers. Which is scary. So really, Cheryl and Megan, I think you're scary. So here's the deal, to motivate people to post a comment every now and then, tell me a little bit about yourself, why you read my dumb little blog, and then pick a number between 1 and 5,000 (I'm not totally copying tink!). Whoever is closest to the number I have written down will win some stuff that I haven't thought up yet.

So there you go, people. Post a comment already! And just know, if I ever find out you read my blog without posting a comment at least on this one, then I will forever think you're scary.

*Edited to say: I'm going out of town tomorrow (the 7th), so I will announce the winner after I get back on the 19th.

New Friends

Mrs. J brought her new "baby," Una, over the other night. After getting a little scared of Watley at first, she warmed up to him, and even started pushing him around a little bit. Watley is not by any means an Alpha male dog, so Una took full advantage of that. We got back from a walk, and both dogs were very thirsty. Una beat Watley to the water bowl, and wouldn't let him get in to drink. After she got enough water, she laid down in front of the bowl, so Watley couldn't get to it. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Other than that, they appeared to be having fun with each other. In about another month or so, Una will probably be too big to play with Watley, so we had to get a play date in right away, since they're the perfect size for each other right now.

Watley, the Incredible Flying Dog

I took this picture of Watley earlier this morning. After watching the birds in our backyard from a window for about 15 minutes, Watley was getting really anxious - pacing back and forth, scratching at the door, barking, pacing, scratching, barking, etc. - I finally let him loose to chase the birds. Please notice, none of his feet are touching the ground.

I Am Officially Cool...Finally!

As I said before, Grant's birthday present for me hadn't arrived by my birthday. Well, it finally came, and it was exactly what I asked for...an iPod Nano! He even had it engraved for me (awww!). So I've been busy getting all my CDs downloaded onto my cool little iPod. I am SO cool!