Christmas travels pt.3 (final thoughts)

Part 1, Part 2

Truthfully, Christmas break wasn't entirely relaxing. 

Wells came down with a cold two days in, and then I had it a few days later. 

There were no fevers to be had so we persevered onward. (The day we returned home, Wells did wake up feverish but I don't know if it was an actual fever. I've done research lately about how fevers actually start at 102, so I try not to give him meds unless he seems truly uncomfortable and miserable. Anyway...)

Scott spent all of break working: Physical labor, remodeling work, packing up his dad's house. Our plan is to rent it out in a few months. He's a perfectionist and insisted on painting (i helped, i swear), replacing multiple appliances, replacing the hot water heater, replacing the kitchen floor, and part of the porch needed to be replaced/fixed. I think I saw him for about 12 hours total over 2 weeks and Wells saw him mostly over Facetime, unfortunately. Scott also kept the dogs with him because "where you go, I will follow" is their motto and they're not referring to me. 

Wells did get an enormous amount of time with both sets of grandparents, which is why I do all this in the first place. He got to play with his cousin and see his aunts and uncles. Since we will likely never permanently reside in PA again, this is what we do to make sure he spends time with family. It's, honestly, this unmentioned sacrifice that military kids have to make and I've really seen that with my own class this year (the constant traveling they need to do and the time away from extended family).

I did get a few odd questions while home, so I'll answer them here in case you're curious as well:

Why didn't you just fly here? (Why don't YOU fly somewhere?)

Why would I attempt to pack up everything and get on a plane only to deal with delays and not having a car and everything.that.goes.along.with.air.travel with a 3 year old by myself? Scott would still have to drive with the dogs! We needed our truck and our trailer for the above-mentioned projects. PLUS, either of our parents live 1-3 hours from an airport. And we live 2 hours from an airport. That's 5 hours of driving time alone. 

How do you like living in Misery? (ha ha "Mis"souri, get it?)

Um, Missouri isn't the ends of the Earth. I would trade in the occasional tornado warning for living under the constant daily threat of wind and fire as we did in Colorado. Plus, I don't want to live in Pennsylvania for a multitude of reasons that I don't need to list out here. 

When all was said and done, it was lots of Tetris-like packing, lots of trying to remember where everything was packed in case I needed it, lots of trying to remember to drink water, and lots of trying to remember all the things I had to do when I returned home. I think I said this a few weeks ago: I do not want to live in Pittsburgh again, but a 2.5 hour drive home seemed like an absolute dream in comparison to what we were dealing with this year. However, looking at the good: it was not a 27 hour drive back to Colorado. That was a rough year. 

Scott and the dogs returned to Missouri at about 3am on January 1st. Him being two days behind me and Wells did give me a chance to clean up the house, sort and put things away, and do some meal planning/prep. 

I also had a chance to clean out the dead mouse from the trap under the stove before it decomposed too much. 

Jett started off New Year's Day by eating a dead rabbit he found outside. 

I found Scott and Wells watching The Waterboy the other night. 

I have my glucose test today. 

Happy New Year to all!

Christmas Travels pt. 2

 

Wells' handiwork. 

I told him he could have a cookie and he picked the biggest one off of the plate. 

Apple Strudel 

Trying to open every possible present he sees. 

(This is a 10-15 year old random Star Wars(?) toy that he procured from my aunt's house. It somehow came home with us.)

This is what I called my Christmas present. It's basically this tote, or this one, but I found it for $100(!) on sale on the MZ Wallace site last month. It's actually the one I wanted last year with the black and blue two-tone. Since it was last year's color/style, it was discounted almost $200. Insane. 

My mom made a chocolate cake for a get-together the other night. I frosted it.

And then we were gifted more baby girl clothes than we could ever know what to do with, so I will be buried and sorting baby clothes/gear for the entire month of January (see: next week's monthly goals).

Christmas travels pt. 1

...if you happened to be in literal downtown Louisville on Saturday night and saw an F-350 with Alaska plates towing an enclosed trailer...that was Scott. He took the *quickest* route through Kentucky (with two dogs and a toddler) and I told him he probably ended up on someone's Instagram reel. 

...he made a plan and decided that he would take Wells with him to Pennsylvania and I would drive separately by myself. He had thought out the logistics and so I went along with it. Being almost in the third trimester, my doctor told me I could travel wherever I wanted, but that I needed to stop every two hours to walk around. Scott figured this would slow him down (it would've). Wells 100% prefers traveling with Scott* so it'll be interesting if I can get him to go back with me minus wailing and gnashing of teeth next week. 

*I think it's something about free rein on the candy and snacks at the truck stops? It's probably that. 

...I was reminded of our trip to rural Maine in 2011 as I drove through the backroads of Kentucky looking for something to eat that wasn't fast food or something that also wasn't something I had to wait 45 minutes to pick up. Dark, raining, wondering what in the heck I was doing, etc. 

...since I didn't have Wells with me, I caught up on all my apologetics podcasts (i. am. a. blast) and then I moved into the backlog of Crime Junkie. I had deleted it over the summer so I might end up subscribing to Patreon so I have something to listen to on the way back. It's like, idon'tlikethem, but Ashley Flowers is a really good storyteller. 

...I also spent a lot of time while driving trying not to panic: guess how much we have ready for this baby? Correct. Nothing. I have 3 months max to get things together. That sounds like a lot of time, and it kind of is, but I feel like I live day-to-day when it comes to everything right now. (Two more months of work...) Knowing that Scott will be traveling a lot post-baby is not doing much to ease my anxiety. I'm focusing on what I *can* control: the nursery, prepping the house, diet/exercise, getting Wells ready...the things I can't control: timing, labor, delivery, recovery, Scott's schedule...So totally not big things at all, right?

June Travels

In mid-June, we headed back to the east coast for a few days. 

This was coupled in with our PCS move from Kansas to Missouri, so there was as strategy involved.

I was planning on leaving with Wells in my car on a Tuesday, stopping at my parents' house for a day or two, and then continuing onto West Virginia for Scott's sister's wedding. Then, heading back to Missouri.

Scott's timeline was to leave Kansas on a Friday (with dogs), get to West Virginia on Saturday (for the wedding), stop and pick up a bunch of stuff he left in Pennsylvania last summer (including a giant enclosed trailer that we needed in order to finish our full-DITY move to Missouri), and then be back in Missouri on Tuesday. 

This is what that all looks like, if you're tracking the movements: 

I am telling you the specifics because sometimes I think people make life seem real stress-free-like on the blogs and the Instagrams. Everyone has a Dislike Follow or two. It can be quite frustrating to know the blood, sweat, and tears that go into it, while some people make it look like everything just slid into place with white-glove service. Reality is what you will get a heavy dose of here. We're just really good at the messy stuff at this point, I think. Four years ago, I would've passed out at the prospect of all of this but, after 4 moves in 4 years, I'm kind of getting pickier with what I will fret about and what I will not. Worry and stress, yes. Hand wringing, no. 

So I was supposed to leave with Wells for this cross-country road trip and, coming up on that day, Wells had been running a very low fever for days. Not even like 99 degrees, but 98.9 and he was congested and coughing and miserable. Then...I got it, but had totally different symptoms: sinus pain, sore throat, absolute exhaustion. I was really hoping I'd just be better by wedding day and, if not, I would just stay in the hotel room by myself or stay at my parents' house and Scott could grab Wells. There wasn't much I could do about it, truthfully. We couldn't not go. By Friday, it was definitely a sinus infection...just pressure and pain, not necessarily a gross cold or cough and no fever. By the time we hit Pennsylvania, Wells was as good as new. 

We went to show Wells amusement park rides. He had an absolute blast and I'm surprised I was able to tear him away. These are the exact same rides I went on as a toddler, so that's why I wanted to go (well, that's kind of terrifying right?)

He did NOT like having that wristband on. He treated his arm like it didn't work and did everything with his left hand. It was very awkward. 

We headed to West Virginia next, where Wells got to play ring bearer for the first time. 

(the wedding was, perfectly, at a farm)

I did not expect him to make it through the ceremony and he did not. We watched from afar. 

We spent a lot of time in hotels, just me and Wells. He's getting really good at it. My parents gave him this garbage truck as an early birthday present and it joined us in every room. 

He wanted the truck to be covered up, on the floor, and to have juice* before bed. 

*Sometimes I feel like the Juice Czar. He gets juice so, so rarely. When we're driving somewhere that's more than 30 minutes away, he does not get milk in the morning. Wells still gets so carsick, so this does seem to help. He gets like 25% juice, 75% water in a cup instead. So we always travel with a few juice boxes. 

The garbage truck got full-strength juice. 

Summer Weekend #6

...a day late. Because a container of Pedialyte, two showers, and lots of broken sleep later (#Wells), I'm up to it. I was so exhausted on Sunday that I basically walked laps around the Chicago airport just to keep from falling asleep and/or throwing up. I'm not the toughest traveler out there. I want to call it exhaustion and the general feeling of nausea I get when I fly, because the 2-3 drinks I had on Saturday does not a hangover make (right?).

Photos at the Nelson Art Museum

On Friday we went to Kansas City for our friends' wedding. Scott was in the wedding so it was two days full of festivities. I didn't take a ton of pictures..Scott took some..but here's an overview.

I rarely talk about friends/family on this blog because I figure it's within everyone's natural rights not to be talked about on the internet without their input (that's in the Constitution, I'm sure). But I'll make an exception.

Scott met Jeff in Missouri in 2013. He was at Ft. Carson when we were as well and he and Scott were roommates when they deployed to Germany in 2015. We would have dinner with him every month or two while we were in Colorado. Eventually, he transitioned out of the army and moved to Denver.

In January of 2017, Jeff invited us out to dinner to meet his new girlfriend and she was. a. delight. We continued to hang out with them while I was pregnant last year and even after Wells was born. In fact, Scott was fishing with Jeff the week before Wells was born and I just remember saying I better know where you are and you better answer your phone because I'd been having contractions for weeks.

Jeff and Kasey were our first friends who met Wells last summer.  We were thrilled when they got engaged.

Whenever we move back out west (because we will, no doubt), we'll hopefully get to see them more often.

Spouses of the wedding party rode the wedding bus as well. It was super convenient, actually, because I didn't have to figure out where to go or where to park. 

There were kids at the wedding and we could've taken Wells along but there would've been no one to help with him; everyone else with a baby had relatives or friends nearby who could lend a hand or a crib or whatever. Since Scott was in the wedding and we had certain places to be at certain times, we left him in Pittsburgh and my parents came to watch him and the dogs for the weekend. 

To be honest, one of the best parts of the weekend was coming home to clean dogs because my dad had given them a bath. 

But we're thrilled for Jeff and Kasey and hope we get to see them again soon!

Chicago (plus thoughts on PGH drivers)

Last week, I went to Chicago with Scott. He was going there for work. The Corps of Engineers has an office in Chicago and the districts in the midwest all met up there for a few days of professional development. Spouses were invited to go along and they had a separate program planned for us. There are only between three and six active duty soldiers at each district, so this wasn't a huge group to begin with. There were no other spouses there from Pittsburgh, so I met the ones from the other districts.

This was a very positive experience for me when it came to dipping back into the military world. We've been away from a base for two years now and this helped to reaffirm why we're doing what we're doing right now; the career path, the moving three times in three years, etc. All of these other spouses are also living in regular towns, with no military population, and they feel the same way I do. It's comforting to know there are others in the same boat. That's the nice thing about military life: someone has already been in your shoes. Plus, these other couples are where we hope to be in 5 or 10 years. It's reassuring and helped me focus on the big picture.

Chicago River at night. 

Northerly Island. A Corps restoration project.

Shedd Aquarium. We listened to a presentation in the boardroom about invasive species. Then they let us look around for two hours. I didn't need two hours but it's a $40 admission otherwise, so I'll take it. 

I always think piranhas are so pretty. They look to be covered in glitter.

View from our hotel in The Loop

River during the day.

Navy Pier

Real Chicago deep-dish. I was THOROUGHLY impressed. I count it as possibly the best pizza ever. Scott prefers thin crust.

I expected the bean to be bigger? And like in the middle of a big open area downtown? 

We ate at the Park Grill, underneath it. It wasn't the best food I've ever had. The pizza and salad at Gino's the night before were better. 

(Most pictures that were taken are group pictures and I don't post random pictures of random people on here...especially people I just met. So this is just the random scenery.)

One of the funniest things I noticed about Chicago was how quiet it was. One night, as we were walking back to the hotel (about a mile), we were the loudest noise around: no traffic, no honking, no screeching tires or tailpipes loudly shooting out exhaust. Which led to a discussion on how terrible Pittsburgh drivers are. (This is another moment when I thought PTL, it's not just me.) For example, if you come up to an intersection, no one takes the right away. It can be so clear who has the right away, but a Pittsburgh driver will wave you on, even if it's their turn. When you decline (because it's their turn), they'll honk, throw up their hands, flip you off, and screech away.
It's very true that highways and roads out west are designed to MOVE people from place to place. Even when the traffic in Denver instigated the worst road rage I've ever felt, the road was 4 lanes wide on each side and meant to shuffle cars quickly from one end of the city to the other. On the east coast, roads were not built that way. Everything is slow and sluggish and inconvenient. (I mean, I still disagree with just about all things Colorado. Turns out lots of states are dumb.)

Scott's coworkers and I discussed what trouble they've had with the schools around here; it's not that they're bad schools, it's that they aren't used to people moving in and out and are not military-friendly. It's so disappointing to hear, because I get it: I see that the cliques have already formed in the playgroup we go to. The system here is designed for kindergarten registration and high school graduation and nothing in between. On our end, we've never had so much trouble when it comes to licenses, permits, and registering vehicles, and doing taxes, and paperwork, and etc, etc as we have had in Pennsylvania. It's because there's no military population.

Anyway, the whole other layer of me going to Chicago was that I would be leaving Wells in Pittsburgh. Luckily, we live in a place that is less than 3 hours from our families and had options for this. Scott's mom and sister graciously stayed at our house for the week and took care of this baby-dog combo. (I probably should've brought them a souvenir now that I think of it, but I didn't get any to begin with...I'm enjoying the age Wells is because he's not expecting things like that.)

Before this trip, I'd never left Wells for more than three hours, so it was a big step. Though, the idea of leaving him was much harder than actually leaving. Getting everything ready and explaining his routine was the hard part. Plus, he was teething again so that couldn't have been easy on them.

My overall impression of Chicago was that is was so much nicer than I expected. I already said it was quieter, but it was also cleaner. Granted, we stayed in The Loop, but we walked miles and miles all over the city every day. We weren't hanging out in the crime-ridden parts of town, but even the touristy parts of NYC are gross and overcrowded and all concrete. Chicago wasn't like that. The parks department actually takes really good care of the place. I still don't know that I'd want to be stationed there (though everyone who was just loves it) because you'd have to live in the suburbs and commute in an hour+ by train (for Scott) and that just seems really inconvenient and it'd be just as cold all winter as it was in Pittsburgh. I'm not a big city person, clearly. I like drivable cities and I don't think they have a lot of those in the east.

I told him to pretend that he liked me in this picture. He was sick and I was sunburned.

All in all, a very worthwhile trip. I got over my air travel phobia, as I still haven't quite recovered from the Delta Nightmare of 2017 and I have discovered that, since having a baby, I actually get MORE motion sick than I used to. The plane, the subway, the tour bus. All a nightmare. I skipped the boat trip for this reason and just sat in the Navy Pier shopping area for an hour.

Anyway, I also jumped on this opportunity to go because all we had to pay for was my plane ticket and I didn't have to do any of the planning. I hate planning for travel. Since our anniversary was over the weekend, I figured it was a good time AND I'd never been to Chicago AND we hadn't been on a trip since July 2017. I would still 100% go back to San Diego than hang out in Chicago (I still think about the food we ate in San Diego), but I would definitely recommend a late spring/early summer trip to Chicago. It's definitely windy, though. Check the weather. I almost stopped to buy a coat but then decided to tough it out because I didn't want to tote it home.