september 25, 2014

I know I know I know, it has been forever. The goal for me is to not have to reintroduce myself every time I post something. I will get better at being more consistent, I promise. I could easily say I haven’t posted lately because I have been busy, which is true, but that would not be the whole truth. I have been so pathetically homesick. So when I would think about my blog, the thought of being fake happy and ignoring my homesickness didn’t seem right, however the thought of being transparent and weepy and pitiful didn’t seem fun either….so I chose the mature choice of just avoiding it all together. The longer I waited, the more I realized that I never said that everything I would write about would be happy and exciting; I said I was going to write about MY JOURNEY. The past couple of weeks have been, well, let’s just say for sake of rambling, hard. I knew when I moved that I would miss people. I would miss my family, my friends, my kiddos, my dogs, my church family, the workers at Chick-fil-A, the workers at Hobby Lobby, the UPS man, you get the picture. Trust me; I have missed all those people and more. I, however, was not aware that I would actually miss the South as much as I do. I miss Tennessee, Mississippi, Poplar Ave (crazy huh), FALL, my parents house, GBC, knowing people when I go places, just the feeling of being home. I can call and FaceTime people (my dogs are harder to do that with and the UPS man might feel awkward, but ya get what I am saying). I haven’t exactly gotten the whole transporting thing down yet, so if anyone has a lead on that, let me know!

Justin is in the field again training. He is gone 23 of the 30 days of this month. I really hate it. It has been exactly 2 weeks since my last post. My memory is embarrassingly bad, but lucky for you I journaled the past two weeks. I don’t know if that is lucky for you or not but it just means I have things to write about.

I am still getting familiar with my job, the people I work with, and how I am supposed to fill my day while I am here. Every day is getting easier and I get more comfortable. I did learn a huge lesson though. One of the first few things I was asked to do was “share my calendar”. No big deal! I don’t even really use my calendar on my phone, so I did not even think twice about it. OH BOY did I think twice about when it was brought to my attention that alllll my TV premier dates were “shared”. I think knowing when Dancing with the Stars begins is extremely important; however I apparently am the only one. So now my calendar is blank, except for the random days of bringing world peace and solving world hunger I scheduled in the next few weeks…..

There were other exciting moments at work. We had picture day. It was really hilarious to me how nothing changed from Middle School. The backdrop, the obsessive lip glossing, the hair petting that ends up making it so much worse, yep, it’s all still there. The only thing different is that I didn’t have to worry about my picture being after PE. Which lets just be honest, I didn’t worry about that in Middle School either (some pictures prove that) I lived for PE. (Shout out Jimmy Carey and Tony Shutes, my love for crossfire has not gone away). I got a free 8x10 picture of myself ordered…. What do you do with that? I mean seriously? I’m mailing mine to my mom actually, moms like that stuff I think.

In the hallways of this church near the offices, the lights just turn on when someone walks through them, kind of like the creepy freezer lights at Target. I don’t know exactly why these bother me so bad, oh wait yes I do, sometimes they are delayed in coming on or not come on at all. I don’t love the dark, especially the dark in an empty hallway (cuz obviously that means something is lurking behind me). So one day I was walking down the hallway and the light wasn’t coming on and so I prance (the ladylike version of running for your life without it looking like you are running for your life so it is more of a skipping/running for your life) down the hall. This would have been totally fine if one of the pastors hadn’t turned the corner as I am mid-prance. You don’t really explain your way out of that…so we chose to continue on in silence…..Now I just turn my light on my phone on if that happens-I am mature people.

This next sentence is going to be said quickly and I am not going to linger.  PEOPLE HERE DO NOT LIKE MONOGRAMS. Brooke? Amy? Do you hear me!? They are getting monogrammed dish towels for Christmas for sure. Bringing culture to Anchorage, one monogram at a time!

Moving on to a less traumatic subject, mice. Mice have invaded our building. However, they have not made it into the Mullins house, so yay for us. The maintenance men keep offering to put traps out just in case, but if I can be completely honest, I would rather a live mouse in the house while Justin is gone than a snapped in half dead one, call me crazy.

I am going to jump back to the homesickness and tie it into Dancing with the Stars because I can turn any conversation into one about reality TV…or Disneyworld. I was watching the show and Sadie Roberson from Duck Dynasty is on it this season. Her mom and dad were there supporting her of course. She did great and her dad (Willie) cried. Oh my goodness I miss my dad. He would totally be the dad at whatever I am doing and be so proud. That’s because I have the greatest dad. So I can’t recover from Willie’s tears, I am just inconsolable. I miss my dad and of all things this show is pouring salt in the wound. So I dramatically throw my head in the couch pillow and cry. As my face is buried in the pillow and the tears slow down, I raise up and of all things one of my dogs (Bela) hair is on the pillow. (This couch came from home so that explains why there was a dog hair). Obviously like any sane person, this pushes me over the edge and I begin crying because I miss my dogs. Yes, all because I find one of their dog hairs. I am literally typing this right now and it made my eyes water. I have issues people, issues.

This whole night of crying led me to try and be proactive. How do you be proactive about homesickness you ask? For some that might include, but not limited to: calling them, facetiming, for you millennials out there Facebook/Instagram stalking them, for the old school that might include writing a letter, or looking at pictures. For Anna, this is the proactive move I chose to take: I googled “How to open an Army base in west Tennessee?”…… There is no youtube video, or step-by-step DIY tutorial on pinterest, nothing. So instead I proactively just went to bed.

Tuesday night, I went to bed like normal after watching all my shows. I get in bed and I hear the faintest noise. I obviously lay there completely still because that is my defense mechanism when I think something is in the house, because that makes sense and all. Turns out it was the bed moving, it was a baby earthquake!! It was barely even noticeable but my first instinct was to put my hand on the wall, as if I was going to hold the wall up with my bare left hand….I can barely hold a pencil with my left hand. I was pretty braggy about experiencing an earthquake at that point...until Thursday.

Thursday was definitely a big day for me. I was sitting at my desk talking and all of a sudden the whole building started to shake. Nobody (except me) got too alarmed. They said they have small earthquakes all the time in Alaska. Well, then a second one came around seconds after that one, in which we had to dive under tables. Light fixtures fell, things off the wall fell, my heart stopped beating…yea it was traumatic. When the Alaska people are freaking out a little bit the Tennessee people (me) are freaking out A LOT. After it was all over, I obviously run to the bathroom to call my mom. I didn’t cry the whole time, which tells you how bad it was. If I am not crying – its bad. Justin is in Fairbanks, and they were told to call and check on their families. Everything is alright. I went home to check out everything, a few things were off the wall and knocked over chairs but nothing too bad. Everyone at work told me, “Welcome to Alaska.” I then proceeded to tell them that I wanted to go home, like Tennessee home, not just home for the day. Who knew tornadoes would ever be a comforting thing? (It was a 6.1 on the Richter scale for those of you who care. That means nothing to me). Earthquakes are not my favorite things.

Big Moments/Random Thoughts:

I believe the Fall Equinox occurred on the 22^nd. Alaska did not get the memo.

I have come to the conclusion that the light on the oven should light up when it’s done preheating and stay on until you turn the oven off,  not turn off when it is done preheating. Right? That makes way more sense to me because then you see the light on and think “Oh yea turn the oven off”. 

I promise I will put pictures up of the house I promise! I was going to take pictures and then honestly Fall TV began and I didn’t want to do things like straighten the rug from where it got messed up from me putting my feet on the coffee table while watching TV. That is my project for the weekend (as long as there are no more earthquakes that knock things off my walls). Speaking of earthquakes again, remember that bookcase that my mom and I put together that I complained about?? The earthquake didn’t knock it down or anything! I was so proud!!

I still haven't met Sarah Palin.

I think we officially have “ a spot”. We found this restaurant called Straight Out of Philly while my mom was here. I think I want it to be “our restaurant”. I'm claiming it.

My sister and Sam are coming in 9 days!!!!

As I am coming to a close (that sounded like my dad during a sermon, weird), I just found this song/video by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors called, “Tennessee.”  It is kind of precious and makes me smile to watch. I hope you enjoy it! (To all my Alaska co-workers, Tennessee is so much more than a “drive-thru” state)

I will leave you with possibly the most important thing I have said this entire blog thus far:

ONLY  36 days until HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIES BEGIN!!!!!!

Always,

Anna

september 11, 2014

Hello there!  I am writing to you with a full week of my new job under my belt! It was a good week to start because Justin is still in the field so it gave me something to do other than sit at home alone and talk to myself (you have to get your words out somehow and sometimes the only person available to  listen is yourself, don’t judge). I woke up to SEVERAL texts from people at home telling me they were praying for me for my first day. Can I just tell you how encouraging that was! I definitely felt those prayers because I only hit the snooze button once! That may sound crazy, but that is a huge thing. Just a side-note, people who don’t hit their snooze button at least once need professional help, just sayin.

Sunday was my first day and my job was to shadow the lady who is over the nursery (her name is Mrs. Lori). Obviously, I was pumped about this. Parents started to come to drop kids off and one caught my attention. It was not because of her adorable child or cute shoes, but because she looked like she was about half a second from bursting into tears (I am very familiar with this look) and I thought, “ahhh a woman after my own heart”. I quickly learned that she was dropping her baby off for the first time, ever. After the handoff the tears started, but not just from the mom, FROM ME! I have never met this lady or child before, but it made me so upset. After the tears slowed down (from the mom) she asked if I’ve had to drop one off in the nursery before, to which I had to respond (barely understandable), “I don’t have kids…..”  Soooo that was a great first impression. At least they know I will care about their kids, right? Not emotionally unstable at all….. Let’s just all take a moment and pray for the nursery workers that will be there the day I drop my babies off for the first time. God, please start preparing their hearts now!

Justin got to come home Sunday night and stay until Tuesday morning! YAY!! He finally got to see the house! He gave me appropriate excitement despite his exhaustedness which I really appreciated. For those that didn’t know, he had a surprise waiting on him. I had gotten him a Ping Pong table for our basement and he was SO EXCITED. His friends almost loved it as much and I am so happy about that because they need to stay as excited as they put this thing together. At least it is not a bookshelf!! Right mom!?

Monday then rolled around for my first office day, and it went well, overall uneventful (which is a good thing, just so we are clear)! Day 2 then rolled around, and apparently the prayers have stopped because I did NOT want to get out of bed. The rain, the dark, the real bed – it was all almost too much. I pushed through and made it in time, no worries. So yea, work is good.

So I have this agenda/calendar and I have it color-coded:

- Blue = Work      -Orange = Justins work     -Green = social

My entire calendar is blue and orange. If I would have thought that, I would have at least used my favorite color (green) as one of the prominating colors. My green part of life needs to pick it up (and I am not referring to recycling).

I am a big “To-Do” lister. This week, on my to-do list, I literally had written “get fall line-up schedule organized”. (For you non-TV watchers, that is the schedule of when all the shows are going to restart for the fall). Of course, this was TOP priority. Laundry, Dishes, meal planning definitely take the back seat to this. By the way, my Monday and Tuesday nights are WAY too packed. My DVR only records 2 shows at a time and these are the busiest nights. I haven’t figured out what to do about this yet, but I may petition for ABC to start spreading their shows out better. I am totally sure they will listen to me. In my calendar now, I have written all my premiere dates for my shows in green (the social color, remember?). So if you look at my calendar from afar you would think, WOW that girl is so cool and popular, but if you get closer you see the truth….

I have this game on my phone that Noah downloaded forever ago. It was probably the most popular one that he would play when he got on my phone. It has not been played since whenever the last time it was that he played. This game alerts me EVERYDAY at 9:07am that I have not played in awhile and that they miss me. WELL GUESS WHAT stupid iphone game, I miss Noah too so stop reminding me daily! So I went to delete it the other day and I couldn’t…. (Emotional attachment has become a running theme in this blog). Alright Subway Surf, you win. You keep missing me and I’ll keep missing Noah.  (Any therapists reading this feel free to contact me).

On my route to work in the mornings, I pass a building called “The Copper Whale Inn”. EVERY MORNING I think in my head “Oh, what a cute waffle place! Justin and I need to come here one day. Oh shoot, that says WHALE not waffle, dang it. I sure wish there was a Waffle House here.” EVERY SINGLE MORNING! Whale obviously looks nothing like waffle and I have no idea why I am telling you this because it is so stupid, but you chose to read it so welcome to the inside of my brain…

Things I learned this week:

-If you put your bread in under the BROILER setting instead of the BAKE setting, don’t leave the room. I have never in my life seen bread completely black. My mom has burnt a lot of bread in my life (sorry mom, but its true) and I have NEVER experienced the black bread that came out of my oven Monday night.

-It is possible for there to be noises in your house at night that do not directly correlate to a robber, murderer, or serial killer. For example, the antlers falling off the top of your cabinet at 3am this morning. (Yes, I have antlers on top of my cabinets)

Alright, here you go for those of you who just clicked this for this video. Chris Lott and Evan Logan put this video of my wedding together and seriously I couldn’t love it more. It captured the day perfectly. We had so much fun with them all day and I cannot thank them enough. Side note, without Chris Lott, I don’t think I could have gotten this blog set up.  He is seriously so good at what he does and I am so grateful to be able to call him a friend. 

I hope y’all enjoy it as much as we do!

Anna & Justin from Chris Lott on Vimeo.

Always

Anna

septmember 6, 2014

Hi! My name is Anna Mullins. I feel as though I need to reintroduce myself because you may have forgotten about me in the past 2 weeks of blog silence. (Don’t tell me if you really have forgotten about me, I am little sensitive). Before I go on and tell you all about the past 2 busy weeks, I need to correct something from my last post. I was corrected and I need to make things right….My wonderful husband cares a lot about my cute mason jar dispenser, the color-coordinating straws, and he even helped me space out the cupcakes perfectly. So, for those of you who read the last post and if you feel betrayed by my lies and cannot keep reading, I understand. Justin, thank you for caring about the effort I put into parties. I will never lump you into the “boys are dumb” statement ever again (at least not on my blog).

Before I talk to you about my moms visit, or my adorable now-furnished house, or the Halloween size bag of M&M’s I emotionally ate for dinner the night my mom left, I need to update you on my job situation. I am the new Administrative Assistant to the Family Minister at ChangePoint Alaska Church. After several more conversations, they called and offered the job to me the day our household goods got delivered. It was a very exciting day! My first day is tomorrow and I am pretty pumped! Thank you for the prayers, God has blessed me so much. Now that I have a job, I want to start saving to go to Disneyworld (the real one). Justin, I think has other plans, but marriage is all about compromise and I am sure he will learn to do that.

 My mom came in on Tuesday. I was late picking her up from the airport because along with turning the oven off (which we acknowledged last week is not a strong suit of mine), telling time is also a struggle. Finally I got to her and it strangely made me even more homesick. Being able to spend all this time with my mom made me realize how much I have missed her. I love it here (I really do), but I sure do miss Tennessee!

Our stuff was supposed to be delivered the day after my mom got here. That all changed. I am quickly learning that my controlling nature is being slowly choked to death by the army.  Now we had a week to do whatever we wanted. It was so fun showing mom “my world”. I showed her Target, the mall, restaurants….ummmm basically everything I did in Collierville. Something that was strange about her visit, however, was that people opened doors for us, talked to us, smiled…I HAVE BEEN HERE A MONTH AND ALL OF A SUDDEN MY MOTHER COMES AND PEOPLE WANT TO BE NICE! What gives???

We tried to get as much done in the house that we could before everything got delivered. We hung curtains and we put together some furniture (more on this later). One day, we got a cabinet to go in our bathroom. We get it built relatively quickly and then we took the box and trash out to the dumpster. We get locked out of the house. I have no shoes on, we have no phone, obviously no keys, and it was going to be at least 3 more hours until Justin got home from work. We tried all the doors/windows and no luck. This is the time in the story that I realize I really need to have Justins number memorized. I couldn’t even use the neighbors phone because I have no idea my husbands phone number. Darn you speed dial!!! BAD GUYS IN ALASKA , DON’T READ THIS PART! We find a screwdriver and a spackling thing in the garage and y’all I am not even kidding, my mother and I BROKE INTO MY HOUSE! It was absolutely hilarious/terrifying.  Here is our proud picture:

One night, Justin had to get his dress uniform ready for inspection. OH MY WORD, I may just be completely ignorant, but I had NO IDEA all that went into his uniforms. We spent a good 3 hours measuring 1/8ths of inches and centering pins and making sure this pin was 1/4^th of an inch right from this pin. My mother and I took less time hanging every picture in my house than we did getting Justin’s uniform ready! They ended up not even having the inspection………..

One of the things mom wanted to make sure to do, is to be out driving during the National Anthem. So, one day we were out at 5pm with the windows down waiting. NOT EVEN KIDDING, the National Anthem did not play, and proceeded to not play the rest of my moms visit. I have no clue why, Justin didn’t know why, but it was the strangest thing. I need to get a CD of it for next time she visits just in case that happens and I can just blast it in my car. People wouldn’t stare at us at all…..

Just because mom was here did not mean our gaming stopped. If anything, we only got more competitive. So after dinner, we put up our dinner table (picnic blanket), and we get out the dominoes or farkle dice.  In case you were wondering, mom can definitely still hang with the crazy 24-year olds!!

Justin had a four-day weekend for Labor Day and so we went to Girdwood animal reserve so my mom could see Alaska-y animals. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures yet so I am going to have to maybe do a whole post of just pictures in the next few days. We took our time getting there and back so we could see all the scenery. I know all y’all in West Tennessee have beautiful mountain ranges and beaches in your backyards, but we still enjoyed the view. I promise to post pictures soon!

The next Tuesday rolled around which meant our stuff was finally being delivered. Unfortunately, it also meant Justin was leaving for the field for 2 weeks. Which if you ask me, it was a little too coincidental that he left the same day our stuff got delivered, just sayin…

The moving men came around 8:30 and I don’t think my mom and I slowed down until she got on her plane on Thursday. Box after box was unloaded. However, boxes and furniture was not all that came into the house that day.

 This dog came running into the kitchen like a Tasmanian devil. I screamed because I thought it was a wolf and dadgumit, if I am going to die by a wild animal here, it better be a moose not a dumb wolf.  It was the friendliest dog. She would not leave! We kept taking her outside and she would just follow us back in. I looked in her eyes, and do you know what her eyes said to me?? They said, “ Will you be my mommy?” My heart said yes, but the voice of reason (my mother) said, “she has owners” The emotional attachment began, nonetheless. We put her in our backyard just to keep her out of the way. We let her go after the movers left and she ran off to her OTHER home. Guys, I get way to emotionally attached to things. Also, I obviously need a dog. Or a baby. But then they will start kindergarten one day and that whole emotionally attached thing will be an issue again and so maybe just a dog this month will be good.

From the moment the movers left, I promise you we did not slow down. The boxes were basically unpacked by the time we went to bed (A REAL BED NOT AN AIRMATTRESS) that night. For those of y’all who don’t know, my mother is superwoman. There are tons of things I can’t do without her, and this is one of them. As the 80-year old man in Walmart told her while she was here, “She has got it going on”!  The next day was the fun decorating/hanging pictures day. OH wait, I skipped something important. Tuesday night was the night I almost lost my religion. Has anyone ever put together a Walmart 5-shelf bookcase?? If you have, you understand. If you have not, GO TO TARGET! Pay the extra 10 dollars. Yes it was late at night, but we are fairly intelligent human beings and this stupid bookcase was not going to beat us! Finally, after doing every step about 3 times each, we had a bookcase. The backing doesn’t line up, but the light is bad where I have it sitting anyways, so who cares! And if you are going to call me out on my backing of my bookcase not lining up, I would wish a lifetime of putting those bookcases together on you. Which is basically a nice way of saying something else! Lesson learned: just go to Target, duh!

I wish wish wish I could show you my house! It is basically the cutest thing ever! Since Justin is still in the field, he hasn’t even seen it yet. The right thing to do is to let him see it first, but then I will be posting pictures on here, don’t you worry.

Thursday was not my favorite day. My mom left. My dad and sister apparently can’t live without mom (which totally made her feel awesome) but that meant she HAD to leave. When we got to the airport I could not find the parking lot. ALASKA AIRPORT, if you are reading this, you are in serious need of help with your signage. After circling the airport 3 times (it was seriously not a stalling on purpose thing either) I finally found where I was supposed to be. Of course I cried telling mom bye, and cried all the way home, and cried as I ate my whole bag of M&M’s. I am glad I am in touch with my emotions and all, but sometimes it makes me do weird things like topping off my bag of M&M’s with deviled eggs. What?? This was officially my first night alone. I am not a fan, just sayin…

Friday night, I went to a Women’s conference at church. Let’s just say, I left that night missing GBC. Beth Reed, if you are reading this, please come to Alaska. They need “The Well” here!

Even though my whole last two weeks were big moments, here are a few I haven’t mentioned:

My handsome awesome husband got promoted again and got an award. I have a REALLY cute picture of him that he will not allow me to post, so if you want to see it , email me  annafmullins@gmail.com.   That was me compromising!

 I finished Season 2 of Arrow!!!!! No, I don’t sleep while I’m alone, I just binge watch TV and plan what I will nonchalantly say to Sarah Palin when I “run into her” at the grocery store one day.

While at the animal reserve, a moose ALMOST kissed Justin. It made me so mad. Mom then told me, that whatever happens to Justin should be just as exciting as if it happens to me now that we are married. LIESSSSS. I want to be kissed by a moose! I was so jealous and when I get jealous I revert to acting like a 7 year old, so I am not sure if I will post the picture or not when I post the rest of the pictures. So nani nani boo boo (I am sticking my tongue out). 

I promise to post tons of pictures this week! 

Now the countdown begins for Sam and my sister to get here in October. The sign up sheet for visiting is open people! Just putting that out there!

Always,

Anna