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.

Welcome Home

Last night I received this rush call from Rene telling me Skip (the guy we bought our dog from) had called and said our puppy was ready to go and we could pick him up tonight. Rene wanted me to call and see if I could get the little guy right away and Skip told me to come on over. It was so exciting and about 1.5 weeks ahead of schedule. For a recap, here's a little info on him: he's a Shihtzoodle (3/4 Shih Tzu and 1/4 Toy Poodle) and as of today, he's 6 weeks old. :)

When we got the little guy home we still hadn't picked out a name for him so that was the number one thing to do, aside from getting food and a color. We narrowed down our selection to two, Ollie (for the Olympics since that's when we got him) or Indy (as in we got him in Indiana). We decided upon Indy because we thought it was cute, had reference to Indiana Jones and cause we're hoping to make it back to Alaska and so we can say we got him from Indiana. Anyways, he's super cute and a bundle of joy. Here he is hanging out in his new bed with his toy turtle. :)

And now for the playful side of him.... being as he is a puppy, he has a ton of energy and loves to play.
This is from today, he wouldn't let me do any work. He just wanted to run around and play (and since he isn't potty trained yet I didn't want to let him run off too much and leave me a surprise). Isn't his little tongue cute??!! :)

We are Certifiably CRaZy!!!!!

With everything going on right now and the stresses we are under, Rene and I really miss Ash. He was a great comfort to us and helped 'distract' us. When Rene got home on Saturday from work he told me how he'd been thinking he wanted to go pick up Ash and bring him home, it was just a thought - he's still believes we made the right choice. Anyways, when we had dropped Ash off at the Rescue Farm they told us they'd be out our way again on Saturday (today) with some more pets doing adoptions and invited us out. We really hadn't planned to get another pet for awhile but I suggested we just go and look. When we arrived the adoptions were over however, they were going to have adoptions going over the next few weekends. Since we were already out Rene and I decided to drive down the main road and stop at places we'd never been. There was no agenda, just something to do as we are boring. :) So we stopped at a few pet stores and held some puppies but didn't take any home as they wanted so much money - there was this one puppy who was really cute but they wanted like $550 for him. AHHHH!!! That was a little steep for us so we got back in the car. At our last stop, a pet supply store, they had a bulletin board where people advertised pups for sale or lost dogs. There was one flyer that caught my eye for Shihtzoodles (Shih Tzu/Toy Poodle mix). The pups were born around the beginning of January and the owners were selling them for super cheap. Rene and I decided to go ahead and give them a call to see if we could just look at 'em. Well, we went right over that night, fell in love with one of the puppies and put down a deposit on him!!! We get to bring him home in about 2 1/2 weeks after he's been weened and had his shots. We are super excited to bring him home and raise him to be loving and a non-biter. :) Neither of us are very excited about potty training since we haven't had to do it before and will all the craziness around us this probably wasn't the most wisest of choices but..... it's going to be good for our souls. Financially not a good choice, emotionally the best choice!

Hard to Say Good-bye

This past Wednesday Rene and I dropped off our little Ash at the rescue shelter we adopted him from. Ultimately, we decided that it would be better for us not to keep him because we are hoping to go home where we'll be around our families and friends and we just cannot chance Ash biting anyone other than us. Hopefully, the people working with the shelter will be able to find out why Ash was biting and help get him to a place where he will be adoptable again. Ash would make a wonderful fit in any home.

It has been so hard not to have Ash home with us. We feel like we made the right choice, but how can you know for sure? We miss the joy he brought to our home, the empty place in our lives he filled... I know there are some who just wont get it, who don't understand the connection you can make with your pet. But, Rene and I did love Ash.... we still love Ash. This picture of Rene and Ash was taken just 2 days before he left our home. Aren't my boys cute? :)

So Stressed! :(

This past month has been really hard on Rene and I. As the saying goes, "When it rains, it pours." That is so true! Our most recent troubles have a lot to do with emotional things and money. Per our last post Rene and I were debating whether or not to keep our little pup. We love the little guy so much and so this really was the hardest thing we've had to do. After much deliberation, heart ache, crying and talking with family, we have decided to give our little boy back to the rescue organization. At first we were going to 'surrender' him to animal control as they were coming by the house for us to sign some paperwork for Ash's quarantine and when we spoke with them on the phone they said they could 'take' him. However, when the dude showed up he advised us that if they took Ash they would NOT be able to adopt him out again as he's a bitter and would therefore euthanize him. What??!!! No one had told us this and the dude was pretty shocked the person we spoke to on the phone didn't tell us either. So, we opted to go ahead and quarantine Ash for the 10 days and then give him back to the rescue home we got him from. We found out that they'll try working with him to try and find out why he's biting and after some time they'll make the decision of what's best for Ash. It's so hard to have him with us still.... I want to cuddle up with him, play and just love on him but at the same time I'm a little scared of the guy. Although he's bit Rene before, it was because of food. With me, there was no reason. Am I the reason??? Anyways, we have till Feb. 3rd or 4th so we just plan on loving Ash and making the best of our last week together.

Now, another headache we're dealing with: our condo in Alaska. Since we moved out in September of 2007 we've had a renter in our condo. It was blessing at the time as we were unable to sell the thing but man has it been a constant headache since. The individual we got to rent our place had a good job and their employer was going to foot the bill so we thought it was going to be easy. Nope! We've had constant battles with them paying on time, or at all. And as of Monday night we still had not received our rent, which had been due the 1st, and so our condo is now vacant. :( Although I'm super happy about not having to deal with this person anymore and not having to wonder if the money will arrive, it's going to be rough for us trying to make both mortgage payments plus a very possible HUGE investment in just a few months. (more to come on that bit of vagueness later when we know more - are you enticed??)

Third, we are getting our ceiling fixed in the office. About a month after moving into our home we had the pleasure of ripping out the ceiling in our office due to a leak. We haven't had it fixed (the ceiling mind you, the leak was fixed right away) yet as it wasn't a priority but due to this 'possible HUGE investment' we are getting it fixed. It's going to cost a ton more than we thought... I don't like to talk numbers like Rene does, but it'll take the guys about 3 days to fix so that may help with giving you an idea about the price. The work will begin tomorrow so we hope to have it done by this upcoming Monday.

These were just some of the items on our plate currently. We hope things turn around soon, I don't know how much more 'rain' we can take. lol

Dilemma

So Rene and I have this dilemma..... our wonderful dog, Ash, has some issues. Now, he is a rescue dog and we have no idea what his past was like but we do know he was covered in fleas when rescued and had no fur on his hind side/tail. Since then there have been some other things which have occurred. About a month after we had him he bit me, he broke the skin and it wasn't too major. However, this happened totally unprovoked. I was lifting him up just as I had done for the past month, but this time something just snapped. Since then he's bit the vet (which was done upon fear and the vet said not to worry) but he's also bit Rene when Rene didn't give Ash his treat quick enough. And then tonight I was playing with him as I've done forever... Rene had just finished playing with him and then Ash came over to me. We were just playing and then SNAP, he bit me. This time he got me on the arm and there are 4-5 puncture points. I lifted my arm while Ash was "attached" and so the puncture wounds dragged down my arm. Now, the dilemma --- what do we do with Ash now?? We don't/can't trust him. We can't have him around anyone else. We love him.... But what should we do? Is the best thing to put him down? We've tried to love him, we've taken him to training and nothing has worked so far. It just hurts me, I wonder what Ash must have gone through with his previous owners that made him this way. It's not his fault, but now he has to be punished.... It breaks my heart.

Our New Love

The other week Rene and I had some friends over to our home and I had the pleasure of cooking up some yummy food. I wish I would've taken some pictures, but oh well. Anyways, for dessert I had planned on making Truffles and chocolate covered strawberries however, my ganache just wasn't working for me and so the truffles never happened. But, I was able to use that ganache for the strawberries. And lucky for me, the strawberries were DeLIce!! I know they aren't in season but man these were the sweetest strawberries I've ever ate. Needless to say they were a huge hit and since then I've bought 4 more pints and we've been eating them like crazy!! (but I have been taking them to others as surprise packages ^_^)