Living the Dream!

Week Four of Living the Dream is upon us, and we were asked to do something kind for a neighbor ... anything! Well that opportunity arises quite often in our neighborhood, and I just happened to complete the challenge this morning. I hoped over the hill (not so much now because of the snow) to my friend and neighbor's house to keep her two boys for about an hour today. Last spring/summer I would literally walk over the hill from my backyard to hers to hang out or watch the boys while she ran out.

I will truly miss that about Alaska and this neighborhood, but I have a feeling the close-knit neighborhood will be at every post we live.

What can you do for your neighbor this week?!

Wordless Wednesday

Conversations

Caroline has become much more vocal in the last few days. She is a generally quiet baby, but there are times when she has things to "say" and she thinks she communicates them effectively. I love having conversations with her and seeing the excitement on her face as she tells me whatever it is she is thinking.

Here is a small glimpse of our conversations. She loves to talk and smile, but as soon as she sees a camera she just stops ... she is much more of a face-to-face person!

Nine Weeks.

In less than nine weeks, we will look like this: 

We will leave here: 

and go here:

And my heart is heavy. This move will be bittersweet to say the least. The great state of Alaska has been good to Tyler and me. We have strengthened our marriage, made many new friends, fallen in love with a community-driven church, welcomed our first child into the world, experienced Army life, experienced temperatures we never dreamed we would, shoveled snow on a regular basis, and SO. MUCH. MORE. 

Don't get me wrong, I have looked forward to the day we would be closer to North Carolina, the day we would move to a place with a warm Spring and a HOT summer; the day we would drive out of Alaska on our next great adventure. Yet, somehow in the excitement of it all, I failed to think of the people who we will say "good-bye" to. People who have, in many ways, become our family over the last three years. I have learned to rely on friends in ways I never have before. For help, comfort, holiday get-togethers, birthday celebrations, homecomings, and deployments just to name a few.

I am beginning to get organized and make plans for our move. We are beginning to check things off our list, PURGE our closets and mentally stack things into "going with us" or "the movers with take" piles. But although my brain is getting ready, my heart is being slow to follow. In some ways I wish we could say good-bye and leave tomorrow, in others I wish we could stay forever. 

Bear with me as I struggle through this move ... the excitement, the sadness, the details, the organizations, the good and the bad. This is the first time we'll leave a duty-station, and no one tells you how upsetting it can be.

We are fortunate that some of our friends will come with us and some of the friends we were in Missouri with last time will come back, too. This is a blessing that every military family tells you about over and over. For this reason -- the hope of seeing old friends and making new friends again -- the move is exciting and the good-byes aren't as sad.  

Alaska, we're sad to leave, but Missouri we're excited to see you soon!!

Livin' the Dream!

My friend Martha, a friend from home who is now an Army wife, too, has created a weekly "Livin' the Dream" challenge for blog friends to link-up to. I have to admit, this is my first go with linking up, but I'm pretty excited to take the challenge. Each week the challenge has something to do with bettering yourself or the lives of those around you, I'm excited to see where this leads!

Week One asked us to list five things you like about yourself and do not want to change during the New Year. This was posted the first week in January (I'm a little late to the party), the week of New Year's resolutions and changes galore. Below, in no particular order, are five things I don't want to change about myself:

I love well. 

I like my legs. 

(A bit vain, maybe, but I do.)

I am organized.  

  

I see the good or positive aspects in most situations.

I am a patient.

The Livin' the Dream week 2 challenge is posted, and I will have that blurb here later in the week!!