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In three days I will have officially lived in Alaska for one month. We have our own place now, our puppy is here, and I’m starting to get used to the cold. I haven’t really taken any pictures of the outside. Mostly because I’m cold, and also because my camera is buried in a pile of random things in our bedroom. At the moment, our apartment is a jumbled assortment of Army gear, boots, groceries, laundry, and dog toys. Oh, and a couch. We’re still waiting on my command sponsorship to be approved, so in the meantime, we’re living with as little as possible. We still need our Jeep to be shipped and our household goods. It’s going to be like Christmas when everything finally arrives. But probably just for a second. It will quickly turn into, “Oh shoot, now look at all this stuff I need to unpack.”

Here are some things I’ve learned so far…

1.) How to drive on ice/snow.

2.) Fred Meyer is NOT as good as Target.

3.) Anything over 0 degrees is considered “warm”.

4.) Milk is extremely expensive.

5.) And every single moose is hiding because I still haven’t seen one.

I absolutely LOVE it here so far. Josh and I have been itching to get out of California for some time now, and I must say, it’s fantastic.

I’m waiting a little bit longer to get my business up and running. Mostly due to the fact that I don’t have my own car yet, I haven’t done a whole lot of exploring, and it’s really cold. But I will be ready to go by this summer! Until next time…

So…I live in Fairbanks, AK now! Two flights and three checked bags later, I am finally reunited with Josh. It’s absolutely gorgeous here and I can’t wait to really start exploring. First order of business? Learning how to drive on snow and ice. Guess what. I didn’t crash! Also, once again our housing situation is temporary. Why’s that? Because right now we live in a two bedroom/one bathroom apartment with four other guys. Please read that again.

ONE BATHROOM.

I haven’t seen any moose yet. That’s still my top priority. I promise more pictures are coming, but until then…

Oh. My. Goodness. I’m about ready to lose my mind over here. If you haven’t been following what’s going on in the life of Josh and I, then here’s a recap of what’s been going on…

1.) Josh’s release from the National Guard was finally approved in July of 2012. After an entire year of waiting, this was kind of a HUGE deal. He’s officially an active duty Solider in the Army now. FINALLY.

2.) We found out in July of 2012 that he’s being stationed in Alaska. Where? We still don’t know. He’ll find out which base when he gets there. He’s been in Missouri for the past month getting ready to leave.

3.) Alaska is considered an “overseas” duty station which means more paperwork to get ME there, and more time apart for Josh and I. We have no idea when we’ll get to see each other again. So, there’s that.

4.) I’ve been in a slump lately as far as my business is concerned. I feel as though I’m legitimately failing. Awesome.

5.) I’m not a huge fan of this post because I don’t like to admit that I’m impatient and struggling. But hey, not everything in life and business is pretty, right?

Ok, so now that you’re all caught up, we can move on. I’m ready for 2013 because I’m in desperate need of a fresh start. I’ve been feeling as though I’ve been barely staying afloat for the past 6 months and I’m ready to not feel that way anymore.

The purpose of this post is not to be negative, it’s to provide a dose of reality amongst all the “perfect” blogs out there. You know the ones…Where everything is always organized, nothing ever goes wrong, money never seems to be an issue, and everything is literally ALWAYS pretty? I struggle to put makeup on everyday and take my hair out of a bun. THAT’S reality.

I’m writing this because I know I’m not the only newlywed/business owner/woman/Army wife out there that struggles. I want my readers to be able to connect with me on a personal level. Not just look at pretty pictures. I want you to know that it’s okay to not always show the “pretty”. Sometimes we want to see that someone else struggled to even WRITE  a to-do list, let alone check anything off of one.

I don’t make our bed everyday. Sometimes the laundry stays in the laundry basket instead of getting put away. Sometimes the thought of doing “Insanity” is just so insane that you have a hard time pressing “play”. And sometimes you just need to take a nap. It’s okay to struggle, and it’s okay to admit it.

I’m admitting all of this because I’m ready to be a better version of myself. It’s not going to be easy, and there will be days that I drop the ball. But I’m going to give it my very best effort. I’m going surrender control to God and let him lead me in the direction that I’m meant to go. I’m excited for this new year.

So I’m going to attempt to catch up on blogging all of the sessions that I’ve done in the last 6 months. I’m also going to keep it real about life and business here on the blog. Because sometimes things aren’t always pretty, and sometimes people need to see that side too.

Ok, so we’re about one month away from Josh leaving for Alaska! We’ve been stocking up on boots, sweaters, jackets, and lots of other cold weather things. I’m assuming we’re going to get there and realize that we weren’t NEARLY prepared enough, but we’re doing the best we can. It still doesn’t feel real that we’re moving to Alaska. We celebrated our one year anniversary the other day, and we started talking about how we never could have imagined this is where we would be a year later. WAITING TO MOVE TO ALASKA.

Now, when we first got Josh’s orders, I was a little shocked. Excited, nervous, but mostly shocked.

“Wouldn’t it be hilarious if our first duty station was Alaska!? We’d freeze!”

I believe that’s how the initial conversation went down. God must have a sense of humor because that’s where the Army is sending us. I started picturing Alaska like the maps show us….like this…

Oh, how cute! Look at little Alaska! (Sidenote: I was aware that Alaska is not actually chillin’ down there with Hawaii). I was not aware however, of just how big Alaska is. For those of you who are visual (like me) here is a “to scale” map…

THAT is how big Alaska is. It’s huge. It’s cold. There are bears there. And moose. Meese? Mooses? Probably just “moose”.