The Big Move

As promised, my second blog will be about the move here (both the trip down and the new house).

The Trip
Our things were packed up in Nebraska right after Christmas, so we spent a week or so sleeping on the floor. It definitely made me miss a mattress. We also were living out of a couple of suitcases while spending our days visiting with friends and seeing some of our favorite places around Omaha before we moved away. Unfortunately, we did not make it to the zoo. They even had baby lions that we missed out on! I love that place, I'm sure every time we go back to visit family that will be a place we try to make it to.

The day before we left we had to drug our poor kitty. She absolutely HATES riding in cars. Even for short trips. The distance between Omaha and Shreveport is definitely not short. Without stops it is a 12 hour drive. Obviously with a dog in the car we would be stopping pretty frequently (not to mention gas stops). It ended up being about a 14 hour drive.

I've never been more thankful for drugs in my life. Zero was actually quiet the entire trip here! Even though we put a litter box in her kennel, she did not pee. Normally she pees all over the place in the car, making it smell absolutely wonderful. I'm sure you can imagine. The drugs did not knock her out, but they made her groggy. She basically was 'out of it.'

The drive was not bad, in fact it was pretty scenic. We enjoyed watching the thermometer on the car go up as we went south. It was FREEZING when we left Omaha. Even though we arrived in Shreveport at night, we didn't even need our jackets. Of course, the locals probably all thought they did. We've spotted locals in heavy coats, scarves, and gloves when it is about 40 degrees out. Since I have gotten used to the Midwest  I was only wearing a sweater. Most days have been in the 60s! It's January! I sure am happy now, but I probably won't be when summer rolls around.

Amos was a bit of a putz about going to the bathroom on driving breaks, we even tried to 'run it' out of him. He decided to wait until we had our hotel room to take a dump...inside...on the floor. It was forgivable since he didn't know where he was or how to ask to get out.

We spent the weekend in TLF on base. It was really nice! We were in a 'pet friendly' room, but since we were still in the process of introducing Amos and Agent Zero we kept them separate the entire time.

The House
The Monday after arriving we got the keys to our house! We live on base at Barksdale AFB in "Heritage Heights." This housing section is one of three, the other two are:

• Historic housing - old house built around the 30s and they are conveniently located on the main base. This means they are close to everything, like the commissary. They come in quite the variety for every rank. Many different sizes. The ones for TJ's rank did not come with garages and had on street parking. 
• Liberty heights - the newest  housing on base. It was built around 2005-2008. It looks like the typical new house. Most of these are duplexes, and they also range in size depending on rank. These are located on the "East Reservation" like Heritage Heights.

Like I said, we live in Heritage Heights. It only consists of two streets of housing, built in 1998. We are on the East Reservation, which means we are about 15 minutes from the nearest gate and 20 minutes from the main base. It is about 9 miles for TJ to get to work. It is otherwise a very nice location! Our house backs to forest and is on the nature reserve. There are a ton of trails for both hiking and biking. That works for us since we are both 'outdoorsy' types. There are also a few lakes and a bayou. Our house is smaller, but all of Heritage Heights is. We have two bedrooms, one bathroom, a ton of storage, a living/dining room, garage, kitchen, and covered patio out back. Our back yard is pretty big. Here is a little video of the house before we got any of our things:

Please ignore the incredibly unflattering angle at which the camera is pointed at my face. I also apologize for any motion sickness, as it is pretty shaky. I did try to fix that using YouTube's tools.

Move In
Our stuff conveniently arrived on Tuesday, so we did not have to go without furniture for long! We did not, however, own our own bed so we were sleeping on our sleeper-sofa until SEARS delivered our newly purchases bed (along with a washing machine). Only a couple things broke in the move and they were both pretty cheap, so we did not bother with making a claim. The movers were professional, nice, and fast. We haven't gotten any decorating done and things are still as mess as we find homes for them, but this is how we have things arranged thus far:

Kitchen

First room unpacked.

Bathroom

Office 

 Bought the cat a tower to help her hide from Amos and to keep her food out of his reach. The black desk we found at goodwill and the tan one we found at the Airman's attic on base!

Living/Dining Room

The pink chairs are part of a patio set--we are still in need of dining chairs. Some game/TV rearranging will be happening once our new TV arrives.

Bedroom

A bit of a mess since we went a while without the second dresser. Still working on putting things away. We got the second dresser at goodwill. Brand new from Target (normally $160), but was damaged in shipping. There is one spot where the paint is chipped on the top. Purely cosmetic. 

As you can see we have white walls, floors, and blinds. You might notice from the kitchen that I love color. We have a lot of decorating to do! I'll keep you posted as we re-arrange, decorate, and refinish some of our "new" used furniture. It will definitely be an adventure since I've actually never refinished furniture, sewn, or really done any kind of decorating aside from hanging up picture frames in the past. We are expecting our new TV to arrive on Friday and then all we need are some nightstands, dining room chairs, and office chairs! This spring we'll also be buying a grill to use out back.

We are going to be fence shopping this week for the backyard. Amos needs some room to run off leash, and there are no dog parks around here. Luckily we have a pretty big yard we can fence for him! I've never put in a fence before, so it should be an adventure...

Well, we are off to our second week of Amos's obedience training at Petco! Hopefully he isn't as stubborn as distracted as he was the first week. Wish us luck!