As my mom told me a few months ago, "Man Wendy, you guys just don't do things the easy way do you!" Nope, Team Bolen does not. Since November 2012 we have built and purchased our first home (with intentions of staying for a number of years), five months later was offered a job transfer to Alaska which we accepted, found out I was pregnant with twins two months after that, sold our first home after living in it for only 10 months, purchased a home in Anchorage, spent 3 weeks road-tripping while our stuff went up to AK via boat, flew up to AK and moved into our new house, picked up Atlas at the airport a few weeks later since he couldn't fit on our flight, started the girls in preschool/daycare, started Lex potty-training and finally are within that scary window where the twins could actually arrive any time. Nope, not really the calm, easy way for Team Bolen! But that's OK!

Its been a month now since we stepped off the airplane in Anchorage with the plan to call this place home. So far its working out nicely! We've been in our new house (with all our stuff finally!) for about 2 weeks and its pretty much unpacked and pictures hung. A few things here and there but its close to being a finished home! As I type this, I can't believe its only been a month or so since we got here (we landed 21 Oct).

Its been a little strange for me to get used to legitimately cold weather even though I grew up in CT. Since I moved in with J.E.B. about ten years ago, we have lived in warm climates due to the military. Texas, Florida, San Diego, Okinawa, Arizona, then Texas again for BP. Winters tended to not dip below 50-ish on any regular basis! Anchorage? Not quite the same thing! We are in some warmer weather currently (28 degrees outside right now) but it was in negatives and then single digits last week.

Snow and shoveling driveways/walkways/decks is something I've forgotten all about! Not to mention driving in that stuff. Luckily me for J.E.B. has been the one shoveling the driveway and I don't need to do much driving on a regular basis. Still its a slow re-learning process for me. Especially when they don't plow the roads really, if at all.

Moose have been sighted by us both and man are they large creatures! Atlas hasn't seen one yet and I am hoping that when he finally does it will be with J.E.B. I don't know if my 7 month pregnant self could handle him going crazy. But then who knows, he may freak out and not do anything. Will be interesting to see. Oh and when I say we've seen moose, it hasn't been out hiking. Its been in our suburban neighborhood!  When we first moved into our house there was no snow yet. Looking out our dining room window I saw a brownish pile of something on the grass next to the fence between our house and our neighbors. What was it you ask? Moose poop. Yup, moose poop not a few feet from our house. And another pile of it on the sidewalk across the street from us. I guess I should be impressed that it was using the sidewalk instead of walking in the road! And, the other morning when I took Atlas for a walk around 8am, I saw a moose trotting out from between the houses two doors down. Well I only saw its hind end, but really, they are huge creatures. I just can't get over how common it is to see moose in suburbia.

Everyone has been asking about the darkness and sunrises, etc and overall its not all that bad. It is currently 9:20am and the sun isn't up yet but its starting to get light out. The actual sunrise today is 9:34am and sunset will be 3:54. So its not a lot of light but its fine to me so far. The girls are still fascinated by the dark on the way to school. They aren't used to being out when its dark and headlights are needed or seeing front-porch lights on. When I glance back at them, Lex always has her eyes glued to the window taking everything in.

So now on to us. I'm doing well for being 28 weeks pregnant with twins. It is both easier and harder than I thought it would be. I've been quite tired lately (I fell asleep last night on the computer) but the twins are doing great, gaining weight and active. Too active for me at times, but I am not complaining! I am still in some denial about being pregnant with twins but that is slowly disappearing as nesting starts to kick in and I look at the needed gear and getting their room set up. Right now a major part of my denial is in the fact that in 10 weeks we'll have two more babies, if not earlier! Yikes!!

The other kids in the house are doing very well. They both started preschool last week, three days a week this time, and seem to enjoy it so far. It's strange for me to give them both backpacks with outdoor clothes since back in Texas no matter what time of year, they just played outside in what they wore to school. I guess snow on the ground and 10 degrees dictates more clothing than a sweatshirt! :)

Both girls seem to have adjusted well to the changes the past two months. They did great on the 3 week road trip to see family while we waited for our stuff to arrive in AK. And they were amazing on the long plane ride from Baltimore to Anchorage. We had a bit of a break in Chicago for a layover and they got to play in a kid zone area in the airport. Perfect outlet for energy right before an 8 hr flight! Now that I'm a mom of independently mobile kids, I wish ALL airports had multiple kid play zones!! Such a wonderful idea!

Neither of the girls nor Atlas have seen snow before, so we've been taking them outside to play and sled. Yesterday we spent part of the morning sledding near the school in our neighborhood. Man, they had a fun time! Atlas was so excited too! It was great to watch! The first time it snowed I had the girls and Atlas out in the yard. Atlas excitedly ate so much snow that he started shivering! What a silly dog!

J.E.B. is really liking his job at BP up here. His office is about 9 miles away, mainly highway and just one stoplight. Very different from his Houston commute! He hasn't made a trip up to the north slope yet but plans to within a week or two and then occasional trips up there for work will be the norm. All to ensure that the wells he's designing are running smoothly and no problems are happening, or to find and fix any problems that do occur. Check out Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, AK on Google Maps if you're curious where he'll be going. It is rather north of here!

Since most years it is usually too cold and too much snow is on the ground for neighborhood trick or treating, the city has various indoor "Halloween Town" events like this one. They got to trick or treat in the first part then we went to a food-game-music-crafty section for the rest of the time. Pretty fun. 

It was actually warm enough to go around our neighborhood on the 31st. A little rainy but no snow yet

Checking out Potter Marsh Boardwalk

One of the signs at Potter Marsh. I had always heard about fish (koi?) doing this but thought it was fake!!! WOW!!

Yep, I posted a picture of moose poop!

He's pulling them on the sled in the middle of our street.

I love all the mountains around here. No matter where you go, its gorgeous!

I guess he missed his girls since he didn't move at all when V then Lex laid down next to him. 

It's been a while since I updated this and this time its not just about the girls! Shocking, I know!

As a pseudo-New Years' resolution, I started exercising regularly again. I say pseudo since it started after New Years but I didn't make it an "official" resolution since who honestly sticks to those anyway!? It started because after listening to how much fun J.E.B. had during his Rugged Maniac race when I was pregnant with Alexandria, I've been curious and interested in running one as well. However it IS a race and I have never been a running enthusiast.

So I decided at the beginning of this year to run a Rugged Maniac race. Houston is scheduled to host one in December and I figured 11 or so months was PLENTY of time for my lazy, procrastinating self to get into shape. J.E.B., rightly so, suggested that I pick a goal that was a little closer time wise. So I found a Color Run 5K in Austin on 4 May (last Saturday).

I had about a month to get into shape to run the 3+ miles and actually had a good time doing it. I found, to my utter surprise, that I actually LIKE running. I am still finding my rhythm but its a great release for me to go running without the dog or the stroller and to just enjoy the area we live in. Four miles was my longest run so far, but that'll change soon enough.

So last weekend we drove to Austin, met up with my cousin Nancy and I ran my first ever race. I had only a small idea of what to expect based on a friend's experience doing a Color Run but was excited nonetheless. There were more people than either of us had expected but it was still a fun morning. The race started at 9am with waves leaving every 5 minutes. I heard that announcer mention that there were something  like 14,000 or so people there. It was busy! :)

I didn't coordinate very well with J.E.B. so the only picture he has of me was by complete chance as I ran through the first color station (pink). Hindsight, we could have organized it better so he'd try to see me at each station but....oh well. He was going to meet me at the finish line but once we both saw it, we realized there would be no way of finding each other (I wasn't wearing my phone since I didn't want it to get dirty nor did I want to carry anything). So we met up near the color release stage area (check out the video J.E.B. took while I was still running. Very cool!). Every 15 min or so, they had color release parties as people finished the race. Fun! :)

While it was a race it wasn't in the typical sense in that there was no clock nor any winners. It was a race designed to be fun. There were more people walking than running and quite a few people pulling wagons or pushing strollers. And a whole lotta people dressed up. I saw a few groups wearing tutus and colorful knee-high socks. Even Batman was there.....although aside from the mask he was shirtless and wearing pink zebra-stripped pants. Even saw a rather large fellow with bright blue dolphin water-wings. Quite the collection of people!

The race was fun but I had a tough time deciding how to run it. Do I run it to get a good time? It is a race after all. Or do I run it with the sole purpose of getting as colorful and dirty as possible? I tried do to both and while I did run faster than I thought I could, I did not get as colorful as I'd hoped I would. So, lesson learned and next time I run one, I am going with the goal of getting COLORED! Not beating my own score! ;-)

 On that note though, Austin has another color run in September if anyone wants to join me! : )

Waiting in line to pick up my Runner's Packet the evening prior to the race

Its official. I've got a number an' everything! You can see my black packet of green powder to throw at the color release stage area

Before the run

I'm in the center of the picture, behind the lady in pink spraying someone. You can see my blond ponytail as I run past her

After the run. Not as much color as I had envisioned but I'll change that next time I run one of these! 

Elated, tired, dirty, ready to crash as the adrenaline and excitement  is wearing off

Passed out little Gingers on the ride home

It sure is amazing how much can change in a year, no? When the above image was taken, it was about a week after Lexie had been born, so mid-November 2011, we were living in Arizona and J.E.B. was still a Marine CH-46 helicopter pilot. Fast forward one year and my, how different things are!

We are settling into our new house...well I am at least. J.E.B. has been in Canada since just after Thanksgiving and since we moved into the house just prior to Thanksgiving, he really hasn't spent a whole lot of time in it! He has been getting a steady stream of text messages from me as I ask him to Q/A me about the quirks of the house ("should the door make this kind of noise?" or "How do I set the sprinkler system?'") so hopefully it will just feel as though he's coming home when he gets back.

The girls, and the dog, are acclimating very well to the house. Rather impressive when you consider that they have lived in 4 different houses since the beginning of May when we left Arizona. I am not sure if the fact that they share a room is what made this transition so easy or what, but either way, they certainly enjoy sharing a room. I cannot count the evenings that I've heard Lexie erupting in giggles after I've put them to bed. But as long as the light remains off and by 8pm all is quiet, I'm OK with a short giggle session before bed!

I can say that the house is finally as unpacked as it is going to get. I worded that carefully since the only room which still has packed boxes is my so-called craft room and I just don't see myself organizing that anytime soon. It is one of the extra bedrooms upstairs and I spend so little time upstairs that all of my craft stuff that I am currently using is stashed in the utility room down here. So, it will stay a bit messy for a while. I'm OK with that.....for now!

Speaking of crafts, I picked up a new hobby over the summer while we were hashing out the home-buying process. I have learned (and am still learning) how to crochet. I know, GRANNY ALERT! But it actually helped me deal with the stress of doing the new house stuff on my own since I have to concentrate on the number of stitches I'm crocheting.

Where did I get started you ask? Where else? YouTube! Yup, I found a video tutorial of the red angry bird hat on YouTube and watched the woman's hands and copied her. The hat turned out amazing actually! I am quite impressed and hope that my nephew Nate is as impressed. Then I went on to try a different pattern (still a hat. I have made only hats so far. 5 total, but each has some different kind of technique or stitch) and after 6 start-stop tries I was able to make a Lightning McQueen hat for my nephew Ethan. Then in keeping with the gift-giving theme, I made a dinosaur hat with spikes for my other nephew Sage. That one also took 4 tries and three different patterns, with the final result being one pattern for the hat and a different pattern for the spikes. But it turned out pretty good too.

My girls have been getting bombarded with hats here too. I made an Elmo ear-flap hat for V and while I am impressed with it, you can tell it is done by a beginner! Poor Elmo's face off-center. But Bean loves it and it 'almost' fits Lexie so who cares! My next crochet attempt is going to be something for ME, a shawl/wrap thingy. We'll see how that turns out!

J.E.B. comes homes on Saturday (YAY!!!) and we can't wait to see him. Victoria has had an especially hard time with him gone this time around and we have all wracked our brains to come up with ways to help a 2-yr-old understand that Daddy is really going to come back. I tell her that he is at "Special Work" and hopefully that will be different in her head from just plain "Work". We'll see!

I also got serious with potty training V and so far (since beginning this past Saturday) she has done amazing. She's even gone to day care this week and has been a rock star! Doesn't even tell you when she has to go, just goes on her own. I guess all it took was to get her Dora undies! HA! Next up, get rid of the binky!

And to top off the good things happening lately, Alexandria took her first steps last week. And it just so happened that we were skyping with J.E.B., so he got to see her first steps at the same time even if it was through a computer! I was talking to him as Bean was bouncing around and out of nowhere, Lex comes strolling into view behind me! Since then she has only gotten better and stronger. It is adorable to see her waddle around or even to just stand on her own and watch what V is doing!

Standing at the front door, office is on the left & dining room on the right



 



 

The girls' room (that black blob on V's bed is Cincy, MY old dog puppet from when I was little!)



Atlas really enjoys this backyard!

 

 

Making Gingerbread Pancakes with Dad the day before he left

6 November 2012

 For some people today is Election Day and they are waiting in long lines to cast their vote (the guy at Starbucks this morning said he waited over two hours two weeks ago here in Katy), for others it is just an ordinary Tuesday in November.

For Team Bolen? It is the day that we purchased our first house!

Yup, I am writing this post while standing at the counter of our new home while AT&T hooks up our Internet. This place sure is echo-ey without any furniture, rugs or stuff in it. J.E.B. asked me what it felt like to walk through the place now knowing that it was in fact ours, and let me tell you, it feels great! A little daunting yes (now all repairs/fix-its are up to us not some landlord!!) but pretty freaking cool!

As many of you know, J.E.B. is still away in Canada and I have been doing to finishing touches to the home ownership process on my own. I was rather stressed for the Home Demonstration Walkthrough yesterday since J.E.B. would be thinking about things that wouldn't even occur to me. But I think I did pretty well in trying to fill both of our shoes. What was expected to be a quick 45-minute walk-through to learn where stuff is, instead became a 3-hr walkthrough/inspection as I went through the house to make sure that any mistakes/issues/discrepancies were addressed and taken care of. The guy with me had a roll of bright orange masking tape to mark such discrepancies and I am serious when I say I used about half that roll. Most of it was minor paint touch-ups but I was adamant that I would not be rushed, nor would I lower my standards to make the appointment go faster.

This morning was the closing and it went ok, in that I did indeed sign for the house and completed the process. I only say ok since apparently the mortgage company did not forward along the rather important information that this would be a Power of Attorney signing/closing. So I ended up waiting about 30 minutes or so for the mortgage company to send over revised POA paperwork. Once that happened, everything else went smoothly. I had to basically write a paragraph every time I had to sign J.E.B.'s name but my hand surprisingly did not fall off and I was able to get everything done. And, the drive into Houston was fairly easy! So a win overall!

So now I'm standing in our new home since there is no furniture here yet and thinking about our future. Is this the house we'll be in when V learns to ride a bike? Or learns to drive? Yikes, that thought already scares me! Will I eventually get around to painting each room the colors I want, for instance a nice sunny yellow for the kitchen maybe? Or a soothing light blue for our bedroom? Are we going to utilize the dog park that was just put in down the street from us or will I just walk Atlas around the miles of sidewalks through the subdivision? Will I make it habit to walk to the lake or just stay on the streets and meander along what way? What is our neighborhood like?

Ahh, the possibilities the future holds! I can't wait!

No one was there to capture the first picture of me entering our home for the first time....so I did it myself!

 

The last time I posted anything I talked about how things had changed for Team Bolen. Well, they are about to change some again here in just a matter of days.

On Tuesday, J.E.B. and I will be moving into a brand new house. One that we purchased. Yup, we'll be home-owners in a matter of days! The new house is only a few miles from where we are living currently so it won't be that hard of a move, especially since we're doing it ourselves. My dad is coming down for a week to help me pack and then once J.E.B. gets home from Canada, to help us move as well. At least that is what he's told me. I really expect he's coming down to see his girlies and using the rest as an excuse!

J.E.B. has been gone to Canada for the first of many 3-week rotations so all of the end-game house-building and -buying stuff has been left to me. Neither of us were happy about the constant delays in the construction and closing dates, but such is life.

The new house was an inventory home (meaning the builder already started construction on it when we bought it) but we caught the building process early enough that we were able to visit the design center a few times and really customize it as if we were building from scratch. I'm super duper duper excited about the double oven being installed in the kitchen! Yay! Can't wait to make ham and scalloped potatoes and have them ready AT THE SAME TIME! LOL We also added speakers and a sound system to the dining room, living room and back patio which means this Christmas, holiday music will be pumping all through the house! Yay again! (and since J.E.B.'ll be in Canada almost all of December, I won't have anyone around to complain about too much Christmas music!)

Before J.E.B. left for Canada, we took the girls to Dewberry Farms with some friends. It is a farm decked out with rides, pumpkins, food booths, games, etc for kiddos. V had a great time. She had her first pony ride and just loved it. Once she realized that J.E.B. was taking pictures of her, she smiled and waved at every person we passed as we walked in circles. Quite the ham, lemme tell ya!

Halloween was as blast. V dressed up as a flower (which Lexie wore later in the evening) for the daycare Fall Festival and then that evening when we went out trick or treating, she was a ladybug. Normally, V is very tentative around new people and new things, so I was expecting her to act the same way going from door to door. Not so much. She went right up to the door and barely let the person say hello before shoving her hand into the candy bowl! Good thing she's a cutie! We lasted for about an hour or so and Lexie was less than impressed. She voiced some complaints early on but then I guess she just resigned herself to the stroller and her life as a flower since I didn't hear a peep out of her the rest of the evening. I can't wait for next year's Halloween so J.E.B. can enjoy it with us.

Here are just a few pictures of the past few months.

"Ugly Friday Competition" at work! (those were my rainbow striped socks!) J.E.B. came in second!

V's new booster seat (she kept falling off the regular kitchen chairs!)

 

Her first pony ride. She kept patting the pony saying "neigh" and "horsey". She loved it!

V and Dad all squished into the cow train!

 

My cute little ladybug!

A less-than-impressed flower!

 

Our new place