Movin' Out

It's official...Jack and I now live in the DEEP SOUTH!

Here's our little duplex.

I'll spare you the nitty gritty details of our move, but let's just say it was about the most awful thing we could have ever possibly done! We had one week after the boxes arrived to pack up our house. We made good progress, but there was just SO much to do and I was limited in what I could do, being so pregnant. The night before we had to turn our keys over, we were up until 1am trying to finish loading the truck. And by truck, we are talking about a 26 foot U-haul with a car trailer.

Our truck before we put the car trailer on.

The day of our move, Jack actually had his promotion ceremony. My husband is now CAPTAIN Holt! I'm very proud. :) Here's a pic from the ceremony. We were laughing at this point because I had to take off his old rank and throw it over my shoulder. I accidentally threw it right over the head of the Major who was conducting the ceremony.

Then we got into the truck and drove for four days across the country. It should have taken 25 hours, but seeing as the truck and trailer could barely hit 60mph (and about 35mph on hills!), it took a LONG, LONG time. But we made it. We hired movers to unload the truck, we unpacked, and then we turned around and drove back to Kansas City for a series of weddings. So even though we moved over a month ago, we came back just two weeks ago and I definitely feel like I'm very new to this town.

It was quite a squeeze. One man, two dogs, a cat, and a pregnant lady. 

We love the base itself (not so much the surrounding city). It's a huge post with beautiful old buildings. And the trees. I love the trees. They are grand, towering trees that spill over the roads and provide shade from the sweltering heat. We have everything we could need on the base, from a grocery store to movie theater to library. It's like a mini town. We sold Jack's car, so he actually rides his bike to work most days. It takes him just 6 minutes! Jack's class is going well too. He passed the first big test and has a bunch of homework each night. The class is involved but is not really comparable to all the work Jack had to do as a double major in college, so we have a good amount of time together.

The movers kind of disregarded any labels that the boxes had! We had quite a mess to sort through. 

My favorite part of the house is our big backyard. The pups love it too! See the trees?

I've been doing my best to be social and make friends. If there's one thing I've learned about being an military spouse, it's that you have got to put yourself out there. It's better to be in four awkward social situations and have one successful one than to be too afraid to try and not make any friends at all. So I've been putting myself out there and making some acquaintances that I hope will eventually turn into friendships. One downside to making friends easily is that the neighborhood we live in on post is pretty undesirable because of the housing itself, so our street is fairly vacant, including the houses across from us and behind us. Our duplex neighbors keep to themselves. It's so different from our neighborhood in Colorado, with kids playing everywhere, friendly neighbors, and dogs in all the backyards. I made instant friends once we moved on post in Colorado because of all the newly married couples. But there's a positive to everything... at least when Jack and I hang out in our backyard, it feels like we have the whole area to ourselves. :)

The beginnings of Mark's nursery. We are waiting on the crib to arrive!

But I have to say that as I'm getting closer and closer to having this baby, my biggest fear is that I will be lonely after he is born. I don't want to deal with the postpartum period, which I've been told is difficult enough, without having any friends here to help me through it. At this point, my mom will be here for one week, and Jack doesn't get any days off work, so I will be very literally on my own after seven days. Hence why I need to make some friends! I'm just praying that I have an uncomplicated birth so that I'll be able to take care of myself and Baby Mark fairly easily.

A DIY project I did for Mark's nursery. :)

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There have been several exciting things that have happened in the last few weeks! First, our friends Jessie and Kerry got married! Jessie and I went to middle and high school together (and college actually...), and you have probably seen her pictures gracing this blog like here and here. Kerry was the Best Man at our wedding and went to West Point with Jack... and yes, we did set them up many years ago! Jack and I were both in their wedding and it was truly an awesome day. Their ceremony was beautiful and their rustic barn reception was a blast.

The one pic I took from Jessie and Kery's wedding

The next weekend, Jack's sister, Katie, got married to her now-husband Chad!  Jack and I are so excited to have Chad as a brother-in-law! Chad is a family physician and Katie is a nurse, just like Jack and Katie's grandparents. I think that's really sweet. Their ceremony was at the same church as our wedding, so it brought back many memories of our own wedding day almost two (!) years ago, and their reception was just beautiful.

Bridesmaids!

Finally, the last exciting thing that happened was that my best friend, Ariel, gave birth to a little boy, Rosser Gene! He's just six days old today! We FaceTimed last night and I got to see my little nephew. :) He is just THE cutest little baby. Ariel and her husband were waiting to find out the gender, and it's so exciting that Mark and Ross are going to be able to grow up together. They will be weeks apart!

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Seeing little Rosser encourages me that my own baby boy will soon come out too! Sometimes it's hard to believe. I am beyond ready to hold my baby in my arms. And it's getting close! I am now 35 weeks pregnant. Just two weeks away from being full term!

33 weeks

34 weeks

I feel humongous and incredibly lazy. I know that after all the craziness of the last month (and even teaching before that), I definitely deserve to rest A LOT, but it's on a level I never have experienced before as a Type A personality! I basically will wake up after sleeping (or trying to sleep)  for 8-9+ hours and relax in bed for a couple hours, and then I will work on my list of things to do and will most likely take a nap later at some point in the day. There's also fun parts of pregnancy I didn't expect like the return of nausea, not being able to stand up very long, horrendous back pain no matter what I do, and Braxton Hicks contractions. To complain just a tad. ;) I'm a BH pro now though. I get them throughout the day every 15-20 minutes. I'm constantly monitoring to see if it turns into pre-term labor, and there were some signs at my last appointment that concerned my midwife a little, but each day that we get closer to 37 weeks makes me feel much more at ease. I have an ultrasound and appointment today, so I should hopefully know a little more tonight, but I'm sure baby boy is just fine. He is VERY active! He loves to kick and wiggle around. It's crazy to think he's likely around 5 pounds now!

Mark at 30 weeks, right before the move. We'll get to see this little stinker again today at the ultrasound!

Well, that's about it! I think our biggest accomplishment in the past month is not that we made it through our crazy move, but that we did it without leaving one another on the side of the road at any point! I would say that's definitely a win for our marriage. If we can do that, we can do anything!