Friday, April 15, 2011

Settling in to Alaska!

We were so happy to finally be getting in to the lodging on the base, and to keep Toby with us, to have a kitchen and our own space after traveling for 2 1/2 weeks...Our joy however was shattered when we saw our room.  We were expecting enough space to comfortably sleep EVERYONE.  I mean WHY wouldn't we expect that.  What we found was one bedroom with a double bed pushed so close to the wall it's amazing M was even able to get it. THEN in the living room was a pull out TWIN bed. THAT WAS IT.  So let's see we have 2 adults and 3 children and room to sleep 3 people.....
Luckily our children are still sort of small (K is already over 4-1/2feet) and don't mind sharing a bed.  We used the cushions off of the couch to make a bed on the floor under the eating counter, which the boys took turns on every other night. The other boy got to share the twin bed with P.  She was VERY upset to never get to sleep on the floor, but there was simply NOT ENOUGH ROOM for the two boys to share the bed.
I am so glad my children enjoy adventure and think sleeping in "made" beds is fun!!!
We got settled in got some food and M checked in to work.  We were given 8 days to find a house.  BUT surely this would not take that long as we'd been pretty much guaranteed a brand new 4 bedroom 2 living space house on base when we left Texas. We go in Thursday morning to get our house, only to be told "something has come up, we need to move over 100 families we won't have a house for you for up to 6 months"  WHAT??? I am having a baby in 2 mos, I have NO HOUSE and things are CRAZY expensive, like a $500/month heating bill, which does NOT include electricity.
We take the list of possible houses in our price and begin to look closer. When we add up the deposit $1,600, first months rent $1,600 and pet deposit $1,000, we're at over $4,000!!!!!!!!!!!! We had not planned for this where do we get $4,000 from?  We know we're going to have to spend at least $1,000 on our van when it shows up, we aren't a bottomless money bag. 
We drive around to see a few of the houses that afternoon and I only become more discouraged.  I was promised 4 bed rooms and 2 living AND no utilities.  I am now looking at houses that have 3 bed rooms at the MOST 1,200 sq feet, AND I will probably have to come up with an additional $200 a month OR MORE over the allowance for living off base. 
I am working on trying to over come the shock, but it's not going so well.
That night we get the kids settled in to bed and head off to our own.
SUDDENLY K is up and in the bathroom. WHAT can make a night better then being preg, uncomphy, and worried about your family having a home they can afford and be comfortable in?  WHY vomit of course!!!! At first I am not to worried K is the one who will get a stomach bug that no one else does, but still I am glad I have some clorox wipes and sanitizer.  I get him back in bed and try to sleep, he's up again!!!
P is awoken and once she figures out what's going on she does not want to sleep with her brother, well who can blame her really. So she comes to bed with us, remember that nice double bed, plenty of room for a 6ft man preg woman and 3 1/2 year old, right?  We are all asleep FINALLY. 
I am then awoken by the most terrible sound ever VOMITING IN MY BED. I grab P up and take her to the bathroom, it's too late, it's all over her and splattered on our bed as well. 
Let me point out M has slept through ALL OF THIS. He even has a hard time waking up when I tell him "you need to change there is vomit on you" I get her RED shirt off of her (sad I had to throw that away) and put her in one of her brothers undershirts and send her to bed. The next while is a blur of children getting up and being sick. It was nearly dawn when it hit M.  I am still sanitizing everything with the clorox wipes and using my sanitizer on my hands, making sure to NOT touch my face etc. I have made it to nearly 8mos preg WITH OUT THROWING UP and by golly I was not going to start now.  The housekeeping service came around just in time for J to get sick too.
So here I am in a room with a combined total of probably 600sq ft, one toilet and NO WHERE to sit or lay that's NOT got someone now sleeping with a BOWL by them. I've gotten about 3 hours of TOTAL sleep no more then 40 minutes straight.  They gave me new sheets and towels and she even cleaned the toilet for me.
BLESS her that nameless housekeeping lady!!!!
I get on the lap top for a while until the boys, who were feeling well enough to get themselves a little water while I tried to nap (on the very edge of the bed with out touching M), flooded it. Completely and totally.  It still worked....sort of.  As long as you didn't need to type MOST of the vowels or enter anything.
Happily everyone was better by Saturday morning, tired but no longer vomiting.
I had headed out on Friday to get more clorox wipes, some lysol spray and appropriate drinks for my lil sick crew. 
I was put in touch with a dear sweet woman from church who not only volunteered to let us follow them to service in the morning BUT invited us over for Sunday dinner (what wound up being EVERY week we were in that tiny room, 3 Sunday's in a row). I told her how all had been sick and so presuming NO ONE was sick for the rest of the day we'd see them in the morning.
WE DID!!!!!
We got to church to find out they were rearranging things and there would now be 3 wards instead of 2.  We meet some dear sweet people and were even given a couple of leads on houses. 
Monday M called the one man who a couple different people had told us about.  A sweet sister had given us his number Sunday night. "yeah I have an empty house right in town. SURE I'll let you rent it month to month until you can get on base. NO I don't need a giant deposit. OH it's $1,000 less than most the other places AND has a 2nd living area. COME look at it on Wednesday".
THAT LONG????  I have to wait THAT LONG. So we continue to look with a realtor we'd met with "in the city" that day to see some things both in town and in "the city".  Everything is either TINY, too FAR, or TOO much.  BUT we're going to have to make this work, RIGHT?
THEN Wednesday rolls around!!!  The house is a NICE size, smallish but okay. There is NO counter top in the kitchen NOR flooring, but we can afford it and we don't have to come up with $4,000!!!!!!!!!! 
"So how soon can you have your stuff out of here for us to move in"  "a week from Monday?"  GREAT!!!!!!!!!!
We call the movers and set up the delivery AWESOME!!!!!!
We then get the call that our VAN has arrived.
$1,300 and 5 days later we're able to drive it away from the dealership with traction and no fear of it freezing while sitting out over night. 


The movers show up Monday morning just as we're pulling up to the house.  They begin unloading. HARD working they are even in the frigid rare wind. (remember we are causing weather anomalies at every turn).
My excitement is soon dashed when we discover that we cannot set up the bunk beds as the slats and hardware for one is missing.  A book case is broken as is K's antique table.  (We have about another 5 weeks to finish unpacking so as to turn in the claim for all the broken or missing items).


The AF made sure we were welcomed in style also, as M had to leave for 2 weeks only 5 days after the truck was unloaded.


So here I sat too preg to lift and carry anything and wishing to unpack for the baby.
M got home to the house in much the same state he left.


NOW The house is still full of chaos and boxes, BUT the baby's seat is in the car(along with the new base we had to order due to the movers losing ours) complete with a stuffed lamb to be her first toy, her clothes are all washed awaiting daddy to carry in their dresser. The blankets are awaiting their turn in the wash and the bassinet to go under.  Grammy is arriving in 3 more sleeps, and my C-section is scheduled for 4 more after that.  I am still tired, the children are watching WAY to much TV (at least they like science shows)

OH but wait I forgot to tell you about the fun that was getting a doc. apt.  I guess you'll just have to wait.

1 comment:

  1. Oh wow. What an adventure. So glad you are through all of that! Good luck with baby!

    ReplyDelete