Happy Saturday night...

I hate to admit this but Ryan and I are currently watching a replay of wrestlemania 28 with The Rock vs John Cena. Not even the live version, but a replay from april. I've never actually watched WWE or WWF before and there is a reason. This is ridiculous! I cannot believe people legitimately watch this crap. Yet Ryan is sitting here getting very excited and giggling like a school girl. No joke, "I should start watching this again."

NO WAY.

I'm a cheater...

I'm cheating on this blog.

Shocking, I know!

I started another blog, but none of you can read it.  It's my journal, and I'm loving journaling now that I can let it all spill out through the keyboard.  (Sorry, I'm not ready to let it out for all of you to read).  I've always been a fan of journaling. I have quite a few finished journals from when I was younger.  But then life got busy and I didn't write about a lot of important events.  I wrote maybe three times in the first two years of Ryan and I's marriage.  Sad, huh? I tried writing in a Word document once, but it just didn't feel right to me.  One of my new years resolutions this year was to journal once a week and it ended up being about once a month, which isn't too bad either considering how long it takes to hand write something.  I was failing (I always do. I'm not much of a goal maker for that reason).

But then there it was.  Like a light bulb in a dark closet. BLOG. Duh. A few women at church mentioned that they use a private blog and I was in love with the idea.  Not totally in love, because I will miss the personal aspect of my handwriting, but excited to know that I will now actually keep track of my life events.  I don't know why, but it is a much better alternative to me than a word document.  And it is.  With a word document you either have to create one big long document, or save each day to a separate file and that gets messy.  But on a blog, it's all there right in front of you! I can scroll through and read old posts on my homepage or select a certain post from the list.  

GENIUS I tell you, GENIUS.

If you want to write in a journal but struggle to find the time, I highly recommend it.  Think about how much time we spend on the computer anyway.  Just open up another tab and jot down your thoughts.  You'll be happy you did.  I sure am.

However, I find that I am now neglecting this blog because I write it all there.  Still working on a solution to that one, my friends. 

May I have your opinion, please?

I spent all day yesterday browsing the internet for inspiration on how to do Ryan and I's photo albums.  One of my goals in my time off is to create digital Blurb books (they're my favorite, you should use them too!) to document our life.  Then, hopefully I can just keep up with it as we take new pictures.  But, I wanted them to be PERFECT, ya know?  So I needed a plan from the beginning to make them all uniform.  I like simple, but not TOO simple.  

So I came up with the images below.  I want it to look sketchbookish (that is a technical term).  However, I don't want it to get too cheesy and out of hand. 

So I need your opinion on all my little "sketches."  Are they too much? I like the ones that aren't on the pictures, but it is it just distracting to add it to the pictures (flower, butterfly, shooting star?).  Ryan and I are both unsure.

Your thoughts? GO!
(If you click on the pictures you can see them bigger)

 

Hello from Arizona...Finally.

How the heck has it already been two weeks since we moved here and a month since we left North Carolina?  As far as I can tell, life has finally settled for the next 10 weeks until we pack it all up again and head back to Omaha (with of course an extended road trip on our way back).

When we first got here, Ryan started work immediately and I had three crazy days of organizing and battling with our apartment.  Not the apartment itself, it is thankfully gorgeous.  But the property apparently cares nothing about its residents.  I take that back, they made it fairly clear that they care nothing about their temporary residents and it has been infuriating.  It was nothing but trouble from the day we pulled up, but I can't get into it.  I won't stop. SO ANGRY FOR DAYS. Bah.

I took care of what I could, repacked my suitcase and headed to the beautiful land of Alaska! I will do a post (or two or three or four) on pictures from my trip so I won't say much about that now.  I left Ryan in the hottest August that Arizona has seen with no friends, and I did feel a little bad. How is it that as soon as a man gets married he no longer knows how to take care of himself? Lucky him, I wasn't there to judge his poor eating habits or bachelor ways.  However, I was welcomed home to a spotless apartment.  Ryan definitely deserves credit for being clean.  He is a cleaning fool and I can't stop him when he's on a roll!

Puppy was ecstatic to see me when I got home and has been nothing but a ball of fun since I've been back.  We've both been spoiled with the amount of time we get to spend together.  Because we don't have any neighbors with dogs (oh how we miss our neighbors) I've been taking him to the dog park almost every day.  I think he has a love/hate relationship there.  He loves to run but it is so dang hot.  I trimmed him the very first day we got here after I thought he might pass out after his first trip to the park!

Speaking of passing out, I tried running two mornings before I left for Alaska and it was not very successful.  Even at 6:30 and 8:00 a.m. it was too stinking hot.  So much for dry heat! We went running last night once the sun set and it was much better even though the car said it was still 109 degrees.  Gross gross gross.  We've had a record six days that haven't dropped below 90, even at night.  The end of this week will be a "milder" 103-105 with humidity and a chance of rain.  AWESOME.  I think it's already time for a weekend road trip to cooler temperatures!

What do I ask during the day, you may ask? Well, I keep very busy and so far I'm loving this stay-at-home-wife thing.  I've been cooking healthy meals and mostly just playing on our new iMac.  It's beautiful. :) I was VERY hesitant to switch to a Mac but the learning curve has been much better than expected! I have Mac versions of all the software I need (Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Lightroom) so I have no complaints yet! And best of all, it's SO FAST.  LOVE.

So if any of you care, there's another update.  Adios.

Here's what you missed (via my iPhone)

 You know how TV shows (or at least I'm thinking of Glee) start the show off by saying, "Here's what you missed on...[gLee!]?"  Well, here's what's been going on with us in the past 2.5 weeks.

We packed up the apartment on July14 and poor Ryno didn't know what to think of his precious couch being taken from him.

 

 The three of us rode in the surprisingly spacious Penske truck for 3 days and seven states (North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska).

 

Not pictured: Ryan's clasmate, Melina's, wedding in Charlotte, hanging out with Rob & Melissa and many other friends in Omaha.

We then stayed in Pawnee City for 5 days to watch Marisa and Travis' kids and also got to go to Lincoln to see almost all the cousins (which can all be corralled into one room by turning on the TV!)

We hit the road again this time in the Jeep and to be near us, Ryno would sleep with his head on our console. We drove to Colorado to have dinner with my friend Melissa, then dessert with Ryan's aunt Dee.  After a good night's rest it was off to Utah.

 

We were able to go to Ben and Joy's wedding as well as see my Aunt, Grandma and Grandpa,  Ryan's mission friends, Logan, Shelby, and Ashley.

 

 After a day in the mountains near Cedar City with Ryan's family, St. George gave us a gorgeous sunset.

 

 It was now 2 weeks since we moved out of our apartment in Durham and on July 29 we had our final day of driving (wooo hoooo!).  We passed through the giant mountains in southern Utah, stopped at the Hoover Dam and finally made it to our temporary home in Surprise, AZ.

 

Our first day greeted us with a sandstorm - definitely not something we're used to.

 

Our apartments are gorgeous, but the staff is... not so friendly.  

That's all I'll say about that.  I've been fuming since we moved in.  

 

As I sat on the couch, these were my views - out the window, into the master bedroom, and the puppy with his new home on the couch.  It didn't take him long to find his spot. 

This would be our guest bedroom, open to whoever would like to come visit!

Finally, Ryan had his first day at work in his pretty chocolate scrubs.  He was taken back last week when he found out that he would be working in the ICU and with Neuro patients.  He was hoping this three months would be an easy transition into Physical Therapy with patients recovering from hip/knee replacements who just need to be moved a little bit.  Nope, he gets to deal with people who just had strokes, have Parkinson's, maybe both and a combination of other neurological issues.  And to top it all off, he's really disappointed because his instructor is requiring him to work Sunday through Thursday.  He has never worked on a Sunday in his life and even turned down jobs because of it.  It was a hard pill to swallow, but sadly we just have to suck it up and do it for this short time.  He actually really enjoys his instructor and has had an overwhelming, but great first week at work!

 

Lastly, you know we live in a retirement area when there is golf cart parking at the hospital and they drive on the road with everybody else.  

 

So there you have it.  I'm actually blogging from Alaska while Bri has her last day of her rotations (Go Bri, she graduates as a PA in two weeks!!).  We haven't had internet at our apartment so hopefully all will be up and running and there will be more consistent blogs in the upcoming weeks/months.

Have a good day, y'all!

Where in the US will we be next?

Tomorrow starts the next leg of our journey...

Wednesday 7/25: Denver, CO
Thursday 7/26-Friday 7/27: Salt Lake City, UT
Saturday 7/28: St. George, UT
Sunday 7/29: drive to Phoenix
Monday 7/30: Ryan starts work!

Thursday 8/2: Caitlin flies to ALASKA!

It was a really spontaneous decision to still go up to Alaska to see my best friend, Brianna, while she has a week off before graduation. I knew our schedules wouldn't work out so smoothly for probably many more years so I jumped on the opportunity. I can't wait! I will have a hard working, extremely jealous husband at home the whole time, but it'll totally be worth it.

Home Sweet Home

This move is insane, I don't know how people do it with children. Sometimes I think it may be easier with children.  At least everywhere allows kids, unlike puppies.  But in all reality, the first leg of this trip couldn't have gone any smoother.  Maybe the packing, but at least the drive was wonderful.

Things started off a little rough when the Penske truck we rented broke down 2 blocks from where Ryan picked it up.  After calling around to discover there were no 26' trucks in the area to use, we were running out of time and settled for a 22' and hoped that everything would fit.  We don't have that much stuff, but we do have an 8' motorcycle.  At least we had a truck, and we prayed everything would fit.  Our moving crew (wonderful friends to whom we are so very grateful) packed the majority of our stuff into the truck in an hour - including the motorcycle.  They were champs.  Seriously, SO GRATEFUL.  Ryan and I then had the random things in the house left that are just annoying.  We thought it wouldn't be so bad and then before we knew it, it was dinner time and we hadn't really packed anything else.  Time to panic, but not really.  We were starving.  And you can't pack anything on an empty stomach.  So off we went to have our last chance at NC BBQ for the next 6 months with Mitch and Maile.  Then it was crunch time.  They sat in our living room in our camping chairs, helping with what they could, while we started just throwing everything into boxes which we labeled "Mystery."  Won't those be just so much fun to open when it comes time? NOT.

Once everything was in boxes, they helped us to finally pack the last awkward items into the truck and called it a night at about 1:00 a.m.  But we still weren't done.  We had separated the clothes we were bringing but still hadn't packed them.  So onward we went until 3:30 a.m. when we became delirious and we had to call it quits.  A sheet was thrown down in the middle of the living room and there we slept until 6:00 when our cruel alarms went off for us to finish up the last little bit and hit the road.  I miraculously powered through the day and we arrived first in Charlotte for a classmate's wedding (only after we took Ryno to a kennel and all with our 22' Penske moving truck towing our big ol' Jeep).  We sadly had to leave early to pick Ryno up before they closed and we kept on driving and made it to Knoxville, TN which was our goal for the night.

The next day was Knoxville to Columbia, Mo, and then we made it to Omaha on day 3.  The drive really was great.  Our happy little family all got to be in the truck together, unlike the move to NC where Ryan and I drove separately.  There was minimal construction and nothing but beautiful blue skies along the whole way.  And the best part? No puking puppy.  Ryno normally gets carsick but he held it together all three days.  What a champ!

Speaking of champions, Ryan and our friends Tommy and Kyle unpacked the truck into our storage unit in TWO HOURS. I organized it as they hauled it in and it is good to go for the next year-ish.  Two hours, what a blessing! We expected to be unpacking it for a whole day.

And now we're in Omaha, with a Jeep full of the next 3 months of our lives and we feel good. As we were driving to meet Ryan's sister for lunch today he said, "I'm finally happy again.  This just feels like home."  We were then both taken totally by surprise when we each got tears in our eyes.  What a calming affirmation that this is where we are supposed to end up.

We're off to Buffalo Wild Wings tonight with friends and then the next stop? Pawnee City, NE for 5 days with 5 kids and temperatures above 100.  Life is good. :)

P.S. It says that Ryan wrote this post, but I'm just on his computer, which has 29 minutes of battery left.  Peace out.