After three long days of driving we finally made it into Albuquerque yesterday evening. So much has happend in the last couple weeks, and although I've wanted to blog about all of it, time was not something I had much of! After my mom came to visit, made me tons of wonderful Indian food, and left, things really started to pick up.

(Notice my face getting rounder along with my belly? Yikes! Oh, and this was the last time I managed to fit into those pants!) I had my last week of work...very exciting, but odd feeling at the same time. I then finally started reading through the massive packet of information Daniel left me to figure out. I had flipped through it a few times before, but nothing really clicked until the weekend before the move. (I blame it on the prego brain.) Right up until the morning of the move, I was busy running last minute errands, cleaning the apartment, disposing of anything they wouldn't move or we didn't want moved and prepping for packing. I think it was just all the little stuff that added up to make it all so crazy. Examples of little things? Well...returning library books and the cable box, prepping a portable litter box, disconnecting, labeling and wrapping all electric cords, and putting all liquids and loose items into plastic bags. (If any of you know how many lotions and bath items I have, you know how ginormous this task is! But before you start judging me, I found out at the last minute that candles also need to be put into plastic bags...I know some people who may have an issue with this!) I also had to plan for meals and all essentials while our things are packed away and just in case we ended up waiting two weeks for our stuff to arrive. Whew! But I can't claim all the credit. My mom and some wonderful friends really helped me with organizing as well as feeding me during this week!

So "packing day" was Thursday and was finished up shortly after lunch. Our life managed to fit into 85 boxes which crowded out every part of our apartment. The packers were nice enough to leave me the bed to sleep in that night!





That Friday morning the movers showed up and loaded the truck. I have to admit that I was very impressed by how well they wrapped all the furniture and even packed the boxes. I'm feeling pretty good about stuff arriving in good condition.

So while all this was going on, Daniel was wrapping things up at COT. He excelled in all the physical training tests and ended up being part of the flight that was honored. He got to be VP (sort of a Master of Ceremonies) for the "eating out" on Thursday night. This was a fancy dinner with all the COT graduates, their families [minus me =( ], and some high brass. From everything I've heard, it sounds like it went very well! Daniel cracked a lot of jokes and it all went over very well with the crowd. I so wish I could watch it on video or something! He had a graduation ceremony and parade on Friday morning and I picked him up from the airport on Friday night. (With several flight delays, God worked another miracle getting him home that night!) He was wearing civilian clothes when I picked him up, but he now has military written all over him! It was soooo good to see him again after a whole month of being apart!

We spent that night at our dear friends', the Studt's place, and the whole family sent us off in the morning. (Friends like this made leaving Syracuse very difficult. It also makes me so grateful for things like email and Facebook!) Our first day of driving started off a little crazy. We tried to give the cats Benedryl to calm them down, only to discover that it made them gag and foam at the mouth, not to mention very upset with us. They fought the medication all morning and cried the whole time. We finally got a few hours of quiet in the afternoon when we covered them with our jackets and they slept. They refused the medicine on Sunday and we didn't even bother to try on Monday. Ricky was the biggest baby and cried the last two days for about 3-4 hours each morning before giving up. Lucy actually turned out be to a pretty good traveler! We ocassionally let them out during the day and Lucy immediately wanted to see what was going on. Ricky would take one step outside of his carrier and then turn around and go back in. =) The same thing happened every evening when we got to our hotel room. Lucy would immediately start exploring and would be so happy to be out. Ricky would slink under the bed for a couple hours until he was sure it was safe to venture out! But by our third night, they were both pretty relaxed.

Here was our first view of the Sandia Mountains when coming into town. Isn't it gorgeous! We'll be living just over that small mountain range. The city reminds us a lot of back home. Parts of it remind us of the Bay Area although it definitely has a flavor of it's own. The weather is beautiful right now (70 degrees), although I heard recently that it is known for some of the worst hair days due to all the wind! (I'm thinking about investing in hair spray.)

Right now Daniel is taking care of in-processing at the base, meeting his sponsor and his new co-workers. Ricky is looking out the window and Lucy is seeing what she can climb. It's nice to be back in the world of high-speed internet and feel more connected with the world!