Officially Moving Home!!

Thursday evening we received Rene's official offer letter from the Anchorage Air Traffic Control Center. He's to report to work on Monday, April 26th. That gives us exactly 2 weeks from yesterday to get out of our home and begin our road trip! We are wanting to take about 10-12 days to drive from Indianapolis to Eagle River, AK. We've mapped out a few stops we want to take and then stop whenever the need hits us. :) It's going to be a great trip!
Luckily, we did sell the house. We sold it to those same people who wanted my table. They actually accepted our second counter offer which was great and so we wont be losing any $$. We're super stoked about that considering we haven't even lived here for a year.

The BIG Secret

Per Rene, it is now okay to reveal our secret, the subject I've been dancing around now for a while. Are you ready???? We're MOVING!!! Where you may ask...... the only place we've ever truly loved...... ALASKA! Originally, we planned on being here in Indiana (and our lovely new home) until 2012 or 2013. Rene would have completed all of his training here in the next few months and then we'd try to transfer back to Alaska. However, Rene found out that once you CPC (become a certified controller) it's harder to transfer then when you are a trainee. He was told we could potentially be stuck here for 10 years. :-O Ahhh! That was not going to happen, so Rene began the transfer process. Now, we were trying to keep all of this on the DL because if his co-workers found out Rene was trying to transfer it could cause him trouble. We didn't think it'd be too hard not saying anything, but when you're so excited to go home and then there are all these issues arising it gets difficult. Of course, our families have known about everything but that's it.

So now for the drama..... we started the transfer right after we got home from our vaca in Alaska (so January). That same month our renter neglected to pay his rent and moved out in result. Because we were hoping to be home in March/April we did not set out to get a new renter immediately. I cannot remember when this happened, but a while back we received news there were 2 possible dates for when Rene had to report to work in AK. They were April 12 or 26. We were pretty excited about this but really felt the pressure to sell our home. Now these dates weren't official, really nothing is official till we have the offer letter but it was looking good.

About 6-7 weeks ago we put our home on the market and right after, Indianapolis was hit with snow that actually stuck! Normally it'll snow here and then melt away, but this time we had like 6-8 inches in our yard. Now I don't know if anyone knows this, but people don't like to go see homes in the snow :( But the weather's turned around and we've had quite a few showings! But, we have had a lot of house drama as well. Such as, last Monday we had an offer made on the house but it was not a good one. It was actually really insulting. They completely low-balled us and was requesting tons of stupid stuff. We were going back and forth with counter offers but then things took a turn Wednesday morning (the 10th).

The previous evening while at work, Rene heard the supervisors were talking about him and his training. He never found out what it was about so he decided to call AK. The people there told him there was a problem with his transfer (aka ERR).... The entire NW region was on a hiring freeze, it could last 30 days to 1 year, they just don't know. Rene and I were in quite the predicament as to what we were going to do know. With the house here and the condo in AK, our budget is to the max. After much talk we decided to rent the condo for 6 months and see where we were after that and then decline the current offer on the home and wait for an amazing offer. It was set, we had a new plan or so we thought. Thursday evening Rene got a call from his facility manager, Randy, to tell him how he was upset with what was happening, he didn't think it was right for AK to do this when everyone had already spoke about the dates and were waiting for the official letter. So Randy called the NW Regional Director and others in the office to have them push Rene's ERR through. Randy was confident he spoke to the right people and we'd hear something by Wednesday of the following week. So we were again in limbo, no plan but to wait. Wait to rent the condo, wait to receive word, wait, wait, wait.

This morning we received the call.... another tentative date, April 26!! A little over 5 weeks away. We're hoping to have an official letter next week but right now, we're glad we didn't rent the condo and hoping we get a great offer on the home. Which we did get one just a little over 2 hrs ago... it's not super great but a whole lot better than the first one! :) But can you imagine they wanted my table???!!!! I mean, I can't fault them cause the table is amazing but really, there's no way I'd ever give up my table. We countered and told them that instead of the table they could have our piano. (I'd like to keep the piano, but it would just cost too much to transport.) So, there's our news and all the drama. It's pretty condensed so you may not be able to feel the stress in all of it, but believe you me, it was there!! Lets just cross our fingers the stress is gone, or will be soon!

Cinnamon Rolls and Baths

Here are the cinnamon rolls from tonight. Rene woke up from his nap ready to help me. They turned out pretty good, but the dough still just wasn't amazing. I think it's because the dough didn't rise really well. We normally keep our home pretty cool to save on our heating bill but I turned the temp up A LOT, but I guess it wasn't enough. :( After 1 hour they hadn't risen at all so I turned on the oven to see if that would help. Anyways, the dough will continue to be a work in progress but so far, not bad. We sure did enjoy eating them! :)

After enjoying our treats we decided to give Indy his first bath. I don't know why I thought he was going to like it but he didn't. Once we were done I blow dried his fur a bit he went crazy!! He was running around like a mad man and rubbing his body all over the floor. It was really funny. He also wouldn't come to me when I called him... I think he was a little worried I might give him another bath.

Doesn't he look annoyed here?? :) He's probably thinking what nerve I have to give him a bath and then think he's going to pose all cute for me. lol

Sunday Naps

On this lazy Sunday afternoon, Rene and Indy (our dog) are taking a long deserved nap after they've hardly been working all day! lol :) I, on the other hand, am hanging out in the kitchen making our dinner and some cinnamon rolls. Originally it was supposed to be Rene and I baking, as he had this strange urge to bake with me, but as you can plainly see that isn't what happened. :)

Speaking of cinnamon rolls though I have yet to find an amazing recipe. I have tried quite a few recipes out and although they come out tasty, it just isn't amazing. Hopefully this will be the batch to beat all. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

As for our daily life, things have been all out of whack. I really cannot elaborate as we're still keeping everything on the DL till things are confirmed, but man it's been a headache. Nothing ever seems to go easy, even when it seems like every thing's lining up perfectly and looking good there's always something that has to come up. We just have a lot of Big decisions to make and cannot do that until we get more information.