To sleep or not to sleep?

Nothing much to report today. More tantrums from Naomi but then I didn't do much with her for her to expend any energy. We went to the rental furniture place and realised that when he told us we should buy a mattress because their's was uncomfortable what he meant was we should buy an entire bed. A mattress here can mean the base as well. So what they are currently delivering is literally just a headboard. So we're trying to work out our best option for sleeping. It may mean that even though we can move into the house, we may have to stay in the hotel because we have nothing to sleep on.

Hopefully that won't be the situation. Currently we have the other furniture being delivered on Friday and, yippee, our air freight has finally arrived in Anchorage. So that is being delivered to the house as well. That will mean more toys for Naomi to play with. May make a game out of unpacking everything. See if we can use some time up just doing that.

In the afternoon we just went to a furniture shop to look at beds (or should I say mattresses). I also stopped in to La Z Boy as it was in the same little shopping centre. So Naomi and I had some fun sitting on the most comfortable recliners ever. Some even had massage functions (those ones scared Naomi though!). So now I just need to work on Pete that it's essential that we get ourselves two rocking recliners!!

I thoroughly enjoyed my evening as I didn't cook, prepare any baby food or spend hours online researching things for settling in. I simply sat with a glass of wine (and a chocolate chip cookie or 2) in front of the television – indulgent.

Jumping pillows

For a tired and grumpy start to the day, surprisingly it turned out ok. Usually when I'm like this in the morning it sets the tone of the day early on and things just stay bad (or my attitude to the day stays bad, not sure which!) I was very homesick this morning after receiving emails from various friends in Aus and seeing photos of little Annabelle on Aaron's Facebook page. I miss so many people. I started crying and Naomi, bless her, said "Are you sad Mummy?" Tried explaining why but not sure how much she understood. She just thought it was great that Annabelle was on Mummy's computer.

I took her to a play centre today. It was all bouncy castles, many of which were huge slides that I couldn't help her up the ladders because of holding Lydia. But despite the fact that she couldn't go on lots of things, she still had a great time. Used up some energy which is awesome. I didn't get a fight from her when I told her it was time for bed so she must have been exhausted. The photos aren't great as, obviously, she wouldn't sit still long for a photo to be taken so most that I took were blurry action shots.

Not much else today. Lovely Skype session with Georgina, albeit too short due to Naomi having been promised she could watch Mary Poppins on the computer. And a quick chat to my parents. Oh and I booked tickets to go and see Mamma Mia at the theatre on my birthday. Yippee!

Pete's finding work really interesting and really challenging. Challenging is a good thing for Pete. It energises him when he's challenged.

Off to bed now. Just waiting for Pete to put Lydia down after her dream feed. We would have stopped this feed under normal circumstances but as we have to move her cot out of our room when we go to bed anyway, we've kept doing the feed. Hopefully we'll be able to stop within a week when we move into the house at the weekend. And then – no more expressing – yippee!!! Not going to miss being hooked up to my cow milking machine!

And the weather changes!

So we've had some beautiful sunny days. We've had the air con on the hotel room. We've had sunnies on in the car. And now it turns cold. Brrrrrr! The wind came in on Friday and by Sunday we had snow! Pete and I were very excited – our first Alaskan snowfall. I'm sure the excitement will be short-lived as winter draws closer. It was beautiful driving back to the hotel this afternoon and looking at the mountains. When we first arrived I had expected there to be some snow on them year round as I'd only seen pictures of them with snow on. But there was no snow at all. And now this afternoon the tops are gleaming white and beautiful.

Has been a busy weekend filled with organising furniture to rent, looking at cars and attending church things. The furniture rental took ages to look through everything online, ask the right questions regarding the financing side (these things are proving very difficult with no social security number or US credit card), and then see if our chosen furniture was even available. Not entirely sure what we've ended up with but hopefully it will be suitable. Main thing is our bed may be too small and none of the beds actually have a mattress on them! We need to buy those apparently.

Looking at cars was a bit more exciting but we haven't made a final decision on that yet. And no idea if the financing on that will work either. We're looking at 7 seaters and top choice at the moment is the Saturn Outlook. We've also looked at Ford Explorer, Chevy Traverse and GMC Acadia. For the price and age we want the Outlook seems the best. Our only worry is that GM have taken over Saturn and are no longer making these cars so we're not sure we'll have much luck re-selling it at the end of our time here.

Church this morning was good although I think it will take awhile for Naomi to be happy for us to leave her in the kids ministry. She screamed the place down when we left her. And then we had to leave her again this afternoon as we went back to church for a newcomers meeting. She only cried for about 30seconds though this time. It was good to hear all about Changepoint and their doctrine and nothing drastically jumped out at us as clashing with what we believe.

Tonight we've had a pizza from the Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria and it was probably one of the best pizza's I've had. Thank you Aaron for finding that online for us before we got here (self-portrait taken especially for you). We hope to share one with any of you who come to visit us here.

Day 7 – Friday 24th September 2010

Not much to report during the day. Pete's work generously allowed him to get a hire car for himself to save him having to walk to work, particularly as the weather is due to be getting worse over the coming days.

In the evening, as Pete prepared himself for the AFL Grand Final 2010 (Collingwood v St Kilda), I went to a women's event at church. It's a quarterly evening and one of the people we had met last week at church had given me her ticket as she was no longer going to able to attend. I had to get there late as it started before I had done Lydia's last feed of the day. I don't think I'd missed much but it did mean that I hadn't met anyone who I could sit with. I found a free seat and soon after that the main message began. It was interesting rather than spiritually inspiring. It was on why more women than men attend church. Most significant part was probably about how mothers interact with their sons on Christianity and how Sunday School nowadays isn't really ideal for boys particularly tweens and teens. It was mentioned that at the end of the service someone would be available to find out how to connect with other women in the church but I went to that place and no one was there. Eventually I found someone to ask and she passed me on to another girl who answered some of my questions and kindly gave me her number if I needed to ask for anything else. So it was a good night but I did go away really missing Bayside and the girls there. It will take time to get to know people and feel at home in a new church.

I got back to the hotel and Pete was all fired up as he had found a channel that was showing the Grand Final live (we thought we would only be able to listen to the radio streaming on the internet). We then sat and watched that (with some passionate moments from Pete!) and spoke to Pete's family on Skype during the breaks. Unfortunately Collingwood didn't win but neither did they lose. Draw! So we're now hoping that the same channel will be able to show next week's rematch. Fingers crossed for a good show by the pies!

Day 6 – Thursday 23rd September 2010

Summary of the day – terrible morning, good afternoon. Ok terrible is probably a bit overboard. Cold still bothering me and Lydia – another bad night. Then we made our way to the Alaska Zoo after breakfast. Both girls seemed grumpy to be in the car and I started to regret choosing to do this trip today. Once there the first part of the visit was fun and Naomi was particularly excited about the polar bears. But once it got time to feed Lydia I spent ages trying to figure out where I could feed her, finally found somewhere and tried to keep Naomi entertained with some food which didn't work, and then Lydia refused to eat (I think she'd got overtired as it was so late by the time I started the feed). Lydia ended up gagging on one mouthful and throwing up everything I'd given her. Green mush the second time round wasn't great! By the time we got back to the hotel Naomi was exhausted from walking round the zoo and went into meltdown mode. So although there was screaming from both her and me we did end up having a nice cuddle before she went down for her nap.

Amongst all of this Pete had heard about the house. They didn't accept our low offer but did come back with a counter offer in-between. Sparked another whole decision process and eventually we decided we would take it. Took me some time to get excited as I had doubts but as the day wore on I started remembering how amazing the house is and started planning where all our stuff would go and now I can't wait to get in there.

Spent the afternoon in the hotel with Naomi watching Mary Poppins (her new favourite although when she plays doctors now she does say she has rum punch as this is a line before the 'spoonful of sugar' song! Strangers are going to think we're the worst parents who give our daughter cocktails!) We also got to speak to Mum & Dad & Debi & Zac & Jed on Skype which was great. Was a hectic call but so nice to visually see them all. Thank goodness for modern technology.

Pete took Naomi swimming this evening in the hotel pool. Lydia and I watched. She has loads of confidence in the water now. She puts her head in to blow bubbles and kicks her legs. But most impressive (to me anyway) is how she jumps in from the side. She no longer needs to hold on to Pete's hands before she leaves the side. She just throws herself in, completely trusting that Pete will catch her. They then sit in the spa together at the end of their swim and relax. Very cute watching her become quieter and more still in the spa. She knows it's a calmer part of the pool.

Pete and I spent the evening watching TV and figuring out which cable package we're going to get. We're going to have so many channels. Hopefully we'll remember to have a social life as well!

Day 5 – Wednesday 22nd September 2010

Unfortunately Lydia had a bad night last night and that tainted the mood of the day. I think she's got a cold which is why she wasn't sleeping. She wasn't upset just wide awake. I had been feeling like I was coming down with a cold too and then the lack of sleep meant it came into full swing this morning. Lydia cried for a lot of the morning which made shopping tough. I went to Target which is basically the same as in Australia but with a grocery section too and larger.

Giving Lydia solids is proving difficult. I think she's got used to all the sweet things like apple and pear so when it comes to giving her vegetables she's not so keen. Plus I'm trying to feed her whilst out and about and entertain Naomi at the same time. My stress levels go up and then she gets worked up and doesn't eat. Frustrating and another reason I'm looking forward to getting more settled.

Once Lydia was down for her lunchtime sleep, Naomi and I had a lovely lunch together. It's nice to spend some time just her and me. Unfortunately it all ended in tears and screaming when I announced it was time for her sleep too. Once I'd got her settled I crashed on the sofa to regain some energy.

The girls and I visited Pete's work today and met more of his colleagues. Again everyone was very friendly and the view from one side of his building is fabulous of the mountains. Apparently you can see the snowline creeping down the mountain as winter approaches. I'll have to get Pete to take some photos of it. His office is on the other side of the building but big and bright none-the-less.

Our hotel is good in that we get a buffet breakfast in the mornings and Monday-Thursday they provide a dinner as well. It's meant we haven't had to try and cook for ourselves too much, which is good as we seem to set off the smoke alarms in our room whenever we do try and cook!

Nothing much else to report. Only that Naomi and I are clashing quite a bit. Probably because I get less tolerant of her when I'm stressed and tired and that seems to be the times she wants to play up more and test the boundaries. Two is a difficult age and the poor thing has had her whole life turned upside down so I think she's trying to get some control of something whenever she can. Hopefully once we settle into a house and I can get into some activities to use up some of her energy, then things will improve. That's what we're praying for anyway.

Day 4 – Tuesday 21st September 2010

So I finished off yesterday with details of our first dangerous encounter – earthquake. So today we continued assimilating into our Alaskan way of life and came across our first two moose! It was when we went back to look over the two houses we liked. After seeing the second one (great house, not great location), Pete walked up the street with Naomi and wandering through the back garden of a house up the street were two moose. Lydia and I joined them and we all got quite excited at our first moose experience (I think the neighbours probably thought we were nuts!).

So after much deliberating we decided to put in a low offer to rent the great house in the poorer location (I'll call it Headlands from now as that is the name of the street). We decided if it was meant to be for us we'd get it. Of course as soon as we'd done that I got all nervous about it – would it be too big? Would we ever be able to live in something smaller again? Is it too far away from everything? But I guess if we get it I'll just focus on all the positive bits.

I went round to Pete's colleague's house with the girls in the afternoon. His name is Brent and his wife is Debbie. She was so lovely. She had even offered for us to bring some laundry round. Naomi sat playing on my phone and with her sticker book, Lydia was happily taking in her surroundings and chewing on her toys and so Debbie and I had a lovely chat. They have just moved to Anchorage from Canada so are familiar with the settling in to Alaska process that we are going through. Pete and Brent got home and we all had a lovely dinner. Brent and Debbie held Lydia lots over dinner as she was getting fussy. Was so nice to sit and enjoy a meal and they seemed happy having a play with Lydia. A lovely couple.

Back at the hotel I did some cooking for Lydia (she's on solids and it's so hard to buy baby food without lots of chemicals or that isn't completely watered down). It's a difficult process using what's available in the hotel room kitchen but I'm managing.

Day 3 - Monday 20th September 2010

One of the things I had been looking forward to the most about coming to Alaska was house hunting. I love looking around houses and the fact that we would most likely be getting something bigger than our place in Elwood made it even more exciting. I was nervous that the kids may not tolerate being ferried from one house to the next and would get bored. So I had loaded up lots of toys, snacks and of course I had Tozzle at the ready on my iPhone.

But the kids weren't the disappointing part (it's always something different from what you thought could go wrong!). I was actually a bit disappointed that we only got to look at 3 houses. This was down to a number of factors but it didn't give us much options. And having said we didn't want to live in the very Southern part of Anchorage after our drive around yesterday, one of the houses was in this area.

But boy, did it deliver! It was massive. 6 bedrooms, a gorgeous view of the inlet, bright and the best part was a whole basement area that I could turn into a playzone for the kids to let off steam on those cold snowy days I'm sure are just around the corner. But it was a bit far away from the shops and other amenities. The next house was a bit older, a bit smaller, a bit darker but still fairly lovely. And it was in a great location. Lots of people have mentioned to us that it is a good neighbourhood. By the time we got to the third house, the kids were getting grumpier and so I think it was a bit tainted by our moods and we ruled it out reasonably quickly.

So we were down to the two houses. Good location, so so house versus great house, bad location. And of course, Pete liked one and I liked the other. Typical. Not sure how to make this decision. We decided to sleep on it.

Also had a lovely invite from one of Pete's colleagues who lives really near the hotel to go for dinner at their house tomorrow night. The warm Alaskan welcome continues (not that this couple is from Alaska but still, we are feeling very welcomed here).

Before we arrived we were warned about the things that are dangerous in Alaska: bears, moose, earthquakes, avalanches, volcanos. So today we thought we would tick one off the list. Earthquake. We had a 4.8 magnitude earthquake today. We were in our hotel room (3rd floor) and the whole room shook. Lydia woke up from her lunchtime nap (only briefly thankfully) and Naomi looked thoroughly confused. I felt a bit helpless as I thought I should be trying to get my family to safety but didn't really know where safe was - should I be jumping into the bath tub or finding a stairwell. Since then I've discovered that elevator shafts and doorframes are good places. So that was an experience!

Day 2 – Sunday 19th September 2010

The day begun with disaster. My hair straighteners wouldn't work!! Guys – stop laughing, its very serious. Thought my voltage converter would work but apparently not.

So after getting over the horror, we went to Changepoint church. Its massive! We were very welcomed - so welcomed that we only just made it into the service in time for the sermon we were so busy getting information on everything! The kids ministry is amazing. Lydia gets looked after (so Pete and I can actually enjoy a service together on our own) and there is a really nice feeding room with proper rocking chairs. Naomi's room has a play time and then some colouring, singing, listening to a bible story and snacks. There is a big tunnel like slide which she went down a few times with Pete at the end. When she reaches 3 it looks like the rooms get better. There are 3 rooms each with a different theme to it and they look like loads of fun. The kids all rotate around the rooms. Everywhere (in this section of the church) has murals on the wall of bears and forests and moose etc. Apparantly it was done by someone who used to work for Disney. Its really professional looking. One lady showing us round was also telling us about lots of other bits to the church and even gave me her ticket to a women's event on this Friday (she can't make it so wanted me to have her ticket). She made sure I met someone else who would be going so I'd have a familiar face and also gave me her phone number so I can tell her how the night went. Apparantly there will be around 800 women there though so it may be a bit overwhelming but I'll still go along. Eventually we made our way into the service and it was very good although I think it takes a few visits to really know if the teaching style will suit us. We also met another couple at the end of the service who gave us their numbers if we need anything. So everyone seems very friendly.

Then in the afternoon we went for a drive around Anchorage. I had looked up a few houses that we may look when we do our proper house hunt with our relocation agent and we drove to those areas to look around. It was good as we ruled out the very south areas as it felt really far away and not a drive I would want to do in the snow. We may end up going to look at some of those houses tomorrow but I don't think they will be nice enough to make me want to live in that location.

Pete was feeling a bit stressed tonight as his first day at work is tomorrow. Its not a full day as we have the house hunting in the morning but still its nerve racking starting somewhere new. He's coping much better than I would be – I'd be snapping at everyone but he's not.

Anyway, fingers crossed for finding a house tomorrow and for moving out of hotels. I'm over them!

Day 1 - Saturday 18th September 2010

Our first full day in Anchorage and it was a very foggy start to the day. Was a bit eerie driving through the streets. Thankfully it all cleared up into a gloriously sunny day. I really believe that the weather can have an impact on your mood so it was good that our first day had a positive feel to it when we were outside.

We wanted to spend the day driving around and getting a feel for the place but administration got in our way. The morning was taken up getting our hire car (Pete had to fit the car seats for the kids himself and it was only once he'd done this that he realised the front seat couldn't go far enough back for him to drive comfortably. So we had to upgrade and start the car seat fitting process again). I got a bunch of washing done and we went to the supermarket.

Put like that it was quite a boring day but we actually really enjoyed the supermarket shopping. It's so much fun looking at all the different products you can get in a different country. I'm looking forward to having access to a proper kitchen so I can start trying out different things. It did take us 2 hours though! Thank goodness for Tozzle (iphone app for toddlers – highly recommended). I think a large chunk of that time was spent deciding which ice-cream flavours to get. We've decided that maybe one part of this Alaskan experience will have to be getting fat cos it would be very easy to do this. But not to worry - the research for a local gym has begun.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin...

Where to start! Julie Andrews would say "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start". But that might make this whole thing a bit long and boring for you all so I'll try to summarize.

About 5/6 months ago, Pete came home announcing he'd seen a job advertised in Shell's internal system for a posting in Alaska. And to cut that part of the story out - here we are. I'll pick up about a week ago when we moved out of our house in Melbourne.

We had 5 days in a serviced apartment which was lovely but it's not home. Poor Naomi was confused as we were close to home and driving on roads she was familiar with but we didn't go home. Thankfully she hasn't got too upset yet, just a couple of times asking to go home but seemed ok with our explanation of why we weren't going home.

We then flew to LA on Monday 13th in the morning. After a sad goodbye to family and friends (sad is a ridiculous understatement) we tried to look forward to the adventure that awaited us. Business class flight was luxurious. We had 4 seats between us and so Lydia's seat just became extra space to spread out our stuff. We had a bassinet so when she slept we could put her in that. A couple of times I curled up on the flat bed with her.

Naomi was mostly happy. A few tantrums in the airport and a couple of complaints on the flight but basically she sat in front of her personal TV and didn't really move for the rest of the flight. She didn't go to sleep until about 9 or 10 hours in but then slept nearly until we landed. Pete looked after Naomi and I looked after Lydia basically. We got a few little blocks of sleep between us.

We arrived in LA in the early hours of their Monday. We had two rooms in the hotel. We managed to keep ourselves awake until lunchtime and then crashed - Pete in one room with Naomi and Lydia and me in the other. We slept a couple of hours and then forced ourselves to get up for the afternoon - not a pleasant feeling as we were so tired. We went for a walk but the only thing nearby was a service station! We played hide and seek on the hotel roof top with Naomi and managed to last until 7pm when we all went to bed. Lydia woke a few times in the night but it could have been a lot worse.

The next day (Tuesday) we flew to Calgary. Lugging our 6 cases, a portacot, a pram, about 5 pieces of hand luggage and 2 kids around the airport was interesting. Naomi of course had her own mind about where she was going to go and when. Sometimes she was happy on her Trunkie (a kid size wheelie suitcase that she can sit on while we pull her along) but then she'd want to be carried (impossible given the amount of luggage). Enter tantrum!! I think Naomi just feeds of our mood and we tend to get a bit stressed in airports as we try to get ourselves checked in.

Unfortunately, we arrived in Calgary to find our hotel room was not a 2 bed as we had thought. Nor was it a 1 bed. It was actually just one big room with no separated sleeping area. So we all had to bundle in together. Once the kids were in their cots, Pete and I crept around in the dark, whispering with only the bathroom light to go on. Not the best arrangement for a family.

Pete had his conference for the next 2 days so it was just me and the girls. I didn't enjoy the 1^st day much as it was one of those days where everything goes wrong. Couldn't find anywhere to feed or change Lydia so she was crying and Naomi was shouting "I'm still hungry. I'm still hungry" which seems to be her mantra recently. Stayed in the room for the afternoon and resorted to more DVD watching.

Next day I tried to drive the enormous truck of a car we had rented. Wanted to scream the whole way as it was so massive and I was on the wrong side of the road as well! Went to a science museum only to find it was closed! So back to the hotel and more DVDs. In the afternoon Pete finished his conference and we all went up the Calgary Tower to see the views.

That night Pete and I decided to risk the kids waking up and watched a movie in the room. Mistake! They ended up being awake for about 2 hours in the evening. Lydia screaming and Naomi whispering to her to be quiet (gorgeous big sister, trying to stop her little sister getting in trouble).

Friday finally arrived and we had our flights to Anchorage via Seattle. However, our fairly relaxed schedule for the morning turned chaotic when Naomi started throwing up. No idea why, probably jet lag and over tiredness. So we spent the 1st couple of hours of the day running her into the bathroom and trying to avoid our and her clothes (no time to wash anything!). We just made it to our flight on time and thankfully Naomi had got it all out of her system before we left the hotel. Lots of queues in the airport and more stress Pete and Helen. God definitely intervened on this day. He kept Helen calm to deal with the kids which left Pete free to get us where we needed to go when we needed to get there. He made Naomi better and got us safely (and on time) to Anchorage.

Finally we arrive in our little hotel in Anchorage and we can semi-unpack our suitcases. Yippee! Feels strange that this is now home but we're still in a hotel. Trying not to feel too homesick but its tough. I opened a present from my sister which sent me into floods of tears (was a very well thought out toy that Naomi has adopted as her own now). I called home to let them know I'd arrived safely and then it was off to bed for everyone.

The adventure begins...