Moose and College and Snow... Oh My!

I know. I know. I promised quite a few people that I would keep up on our blog once we moved to Alaska and here I am five months later just now updating ya'll on the craziness that is our life. But have no fear, I am here, and I will tell you all that we have been up to.

 

First up we are in our house. Yes, I said house! No more stairwell apartment, YAY. But it is a duplex so we share a wall with the neighbors. However, it's just one neighbor so not too bad. I'll share pictures of our new home in my next blog post. In the end we ended up spending 2 days in the hotel in Germany, 6 days in the hotel in Kansas, and 28 days in the hotel here in Alaska. That is a grand total of 36 days in which we had no home. It was interesting to say the least. We got lucky though. the hotel we stayed in here in Alaska was actually a suite. So we had a bigger fridge, a stove, couch, and there was a bedroom.

 

We moved into our house mid August but our stuff and our car wasn't delivered until September. We ended up buying a new car due to some severe paperwork issues with our Pontiac that I just don't want to get into right now. We fell in love with the rental we used while visiting our family so our new car is a 2015 Chrysler 200C. Everything made it here in one piece and nothing is missing. Well, except for one Christmas ornament that we bought in Germany. It was shattered into a million itty bitty pieces so there is no chance of gluing it back together. The movers were very nice and chatty. Asking us how we liked Alaska so far and where we came from. We provided drinks since it was warm out and we had a lot of stuff for them to carry in but they weren't there long. All our boxes were numbered so I marked off each number on the list as they walked in. They unwrapped our furniture and told us to call when we wanted the boxes picked up.

 

 

I am back in school after taking a break to move. It took just a little bit longer than I had planned to get started back up. A couple weeks into staying in the hotel here my laptop decided that it was time to move on which means I had to get a new one before I could start school and let me tell you, right after moving a new laptop was not in the budget! Also, it took two weeks to get the internet company to come out and hook up our internet. So I ended up missing the first part of the fall semester, but when October came around I was enrolled and ready to go so I was at least a half time student this semester. Right now I'm on winter break so I have just under a month to relax and get ready to be full time again.

 

The snow started showing up about mid October. It would snow and then melt some but by Thanksgiving it was here to stay! We were somewhat prepared for the snow though. Both cars were winterized, shovels were bought, and we were confident that this would be easy. What we weren't prepared for is the fact that when it first starts snowing the driveway has to be shoveled a couple times a day or else you end up driving over the snow and it packs. YIKES.

 

End of October beginning of November I saw my first moose. We were coming back from the store and a mama and her baby just darted across the road. Kind of like how deer do in Kansas! Then last month right around Thanksgiving we had our second sighting of moose. Ben was on his way home from the store, grabbing some last minute items for Thanksgiving when I called him to let him know there was a moose in our driveway. You see, we have a tree on each side of our driveway and they have berries on them. Apparently moose find them quite delicious. Every since then about once a week or so the moose has been back for more berries.

 

 



Stressful Flying

Flying is just not my thing. I hate it. It's stressful and I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get to the right gate in the right terminal. The other day was no exception. After a wonderful week catching up with our family (we hadn't seen them in almost 4 years) we had a very difficult time making it to Alaska.

The first flight for us was from Kansas to Chicago. We got to the airport in Kansas 4 hours early! We had to turn our rental car in and get our furbaby and luggage checked into the airline. Once we paid for Ditto's flight we double checked with the lady and asked where we would be picking up our cat at in Chicago since we were switching airlines. She reassured us that he would be at baggage claim and that once we got him we would just have to take him to the new airline to check him back in and pay for him.

Once arriving in Chicago we quickly made our way over to baggage claim where we spent a good 20 minutes looking for all of our bags and Ditto. We didn't find any of our items so we looked for someone to help us. This person informed us that the bags, along with our cat, had been transferred over to the next airline. So the next step was to go jump on the tram and go two terminals over. At that terminal we went to the airlines desk to make sure that our baby Ditto had been transferred and to pay for the rest of his journey. But alas, the second airline did not have our cat! In this situation I was very grateful for my husband. He was the one to stay calm. I on the other hand just completely lost it the moment they said they didn't know where he was. With 30 minutes before our next flight we went back to the terminal that we flew in to and started the search for our furbaby. It turns out the lady who checked us in, in Kansas put him down as cargo instead of checked luggage. A bunch of calls were made and Ditto was found in the warehouse. After he was brought to my husband we went back to the tram to try and make our next flight. Since the flight was already boarding we didn't make it in time, but the airline that we were flying with next was very kind and understanding about the situation. They found new flights for us to get us to our final destination and they listed Ditto as a priority pet so we were given a sticker once we boarded saying that he had been loaded onto the plane.

 

 

The next two flights went pretty smoothly. We landed in Seattle with 25 minutes to get to our connecting flight and we made it with 5 minutes to spare before they started boarding. There was no luggage for us to deal with because it had been sent on the flights that we missed while searching for Ditto. We arrived to our final destination just after 2am and made our way to the hotel, where we will stay until we are offered a house.

Moving: Part Two

We dream of the day when we will have a house again...and all of our stuff...and our car. Moving from one country to another is stressful but what adds more stress to that is all the errands we have to run...without a car.

Four weeks ago we had the pre inspection for our house. It went pretty smoothly. The guy basically just said to sweep, mop, make sure that all the light bulbs work, and that the house is completely empty. Easy peasy, right?

Then a few weeks after the pre inspections the movers came by to get our second shipment. Our second shipment consisted of clothes, towels, pots and pans, and everything else left in the house. That means that for two and a half weeks we were in the house with nothing to cook with except one cookie sheet, a can opener, and a microwave. It was pretty insane! The movers were the second shipment were nice and very fast. They came in, introduced themselves, and packed everything up VERY quickly. They were in and out in thirty minutes.

After we got everything we owned that we weren't packing in our luggage out of the house it was a mad rush to get the car shipped, clean the house out, and move into the hotel. In order to ship the car it had to be running in tip top shape and be insanely clean. Once we signed the house back over and got comfy in the hotel we had a few days to wrap everything up, get our bags packed, and ship a couple boxes to my mom full of stuff that the movers wouldn't take.

 Thankfully, we made it to the airport on time and we had a fantastic week in Kansas spending time with our family.

Moving: Part One

Since receiving our moving papers our life has been totally hectic and all over the place. Every day there is something new that must be done and opportunities to relax are few and far between.

Once the papers were in hand we had to make a bunch of copies (because apparently everywhere we go multiple copies are needed). I think so far we've went through about 15 and we're still needing more. We got our flights booked with the travel office and came home to reserve Ditto's spot on our flights (we have to pay for that on our own so the travel people couldn't make the reservation for us).

Once our itinerary was delivered we had to go talk to the movers about setting up shipments so all of our stuff can be sent to our new home. We have three decent sized shipments that we are doing. The first shipment consisted of all of our furniture, books, decorations, electronics, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Within the next few weeks our second shipment will be done. We basically made that one clothes we aren't taking in our luggage, pots and pans, bedding, curtains, and other necessities we felt like we just can't live without. Our last shipment will be all the stuff we left with our families and were unable to bring with us to Germany.

Having movers come into our home, pack up all our stuff for us, and take it away is both a relief that we aren't the ones that have to do it and nerve wracking because we aren't doing it so we have to trust that they will pack our stuff properly, get it all to our next home, and in one piece.

Preparing for our movers took a lot of work. We took pictures of everything that we own and moved it into the living room so they wouldn't have to walk through our house searching for it. We sat the breakables and high valued items to the side so that they would know those things needed extra care.

Our movers arrived at our house at around 9am and were there until almost 2pm getting everything packed, inventoried, and loaded onto the truck. We provided them drinks (mountain dew, dr pepper, and water) because we live on the third floor and that's a lot of stairs to be going up and down for 5 hours. It didn't take them as long to pack up our stuff as it does for others because we didn't shipping a bed or dining set.

 

 

 

 

After the movers drove away another truck pulled up to deliver the furniture that we are borrowing until we leave. It's not the most fabulous furniture but it'll get the job done until we move out.

 

 

 

We're still struggling to grasp the concept that we have less than a month left here. It's been our home for the past three years. and even though we've complained quite a bit about it we're still going to miss it here. The days that we have left here are busy and filled with even more things to do. Some of the many things that are coming up for us are the inspection on our house, the shipping of our car, and our second housing shipment. Stay tuned to hear more about our big move!

Salzburg, Austria

Last month we took a trip to Salzburg, Austria. It was a chilly trip, our sightseeing was interrupted by a large demonstration, but overall we had a pleasant time. The first thing we saw when we got to Salzburg was mountains in the background every direction that we looked as well as the large fortress.

 

 

We spent the morning and a small part of the afternoon on a hop on hop off bus tour. We discovered in recent trips that hop on hop off buses are pretty fun to do because they stop at all the major attractions in the city and most buses hand out maps as well as headphones that you can plug in on the bus and listen to information about the city. This bus had two channels available to us in English. The first channel had the basic information about the city and the second channel gave information about the many locations that The Sound of Music was filmed in throughout the city as well as sounds from the movie.

 

There were so many highlights of this trip for us. I’m a huge Sound of Music fan so I enjoyed seeing where certain parts were filmed. We got to see the back of the Von Trapp house and the front of the Von Trapp house (3 different houses were used in the movie), the outside of the abbey, and the place where Maria and the children first sang Do, re, me. We also got a small glimpse of the famous gazebo (but it was closed to the public and we went by too fast to get a picture).

 

 

 

Oh! I almost forgot. We also got to see Mozart’s birthplace. If you ever go to Salzburg you’ll notice that they are very proud of Mozart. You will see a lot of tourist items, chocolates, and other things that have Mozart’s name or picture all over them. He is everywhere.

After we finished our hop on hop off tour we stopped at a bakery. We both got a very yummy pastry. When we took a bite we discovered that there was a solid piece of chocolate in the middle.

 

Our favorite place that we went to in Salzburg was hands down the Mirabell Gardens. There were beautiful flowers everywhere, statues, and a fountain in the middle with ducks swimming. We spent a couple hours there enjoying the area (there was even a small wedding going on). Standing on the steps to the entrance of the gardens was a man who was painted silver like a statue (we’ve actually seen these people all over Europe). However, this guy was particularly interesting because every so often he would reach out and lightly touch people on the shoulder. We got a kick out of watching those people jump, scream, and a couple even took off running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we left the Gardens it was time to get on the bus and head back home. As hectic as it was I’m so glad we went to Salzburg, Austria. It’s a beautiful city with history around every corner.  

2015!

We brought the New Year in, in style! All last night we played board games and hung out with some friends. Then after we finished counting down till midnight we ran over to the window and watched all the fireworks that the Germans put in the sky. While we don't really make resolutions each year we do like to take some time and think about all the memories we made in 2014 and send out a prayer that 2015 will be a good year for us.

 

This whole year is going to be bittersweet. There are many things that will be happening in 2015. We will be leaving Germany this year and while we do love Germany and all the traveling we've been doing I think we're both ready for our move. Luckily we still have quite a bit of traveling left to do and we are going to continue up until we leave.

I start school again in a couple weeks and if all goes well then I will finish my associates degree this year and start on my bachelors.

 

Other than school, traveling, and moving we don't know what the year holds for us but I have a really good feeling that this is going to be a good year.