The Merkleys: our time in Midway megapost

I have definitely been absent on the blog. I feel like I have been absent from life! As I mentioned before, we have been out in Midway. It's about an hour from Nathan's work, and 45 minutes from where we used to live. It's also a good 20 minutes from normal civilization. My only company out there was Sadie, my cat, and the deer that lived in the yard. Not kidding.

We came up here because we had to move out of our apartment on the Oct 31st, and our new one wasn't available until November 12. Originally, we had no idea where we were going to stay. But Nathan has really nice, really rich bosses. One of them happens to have a vacation home in Midway that is almost always empty and he said we could stay there for free. It has been a lifesaver, and we are so thankful for him. But being up here alone with a newborn all day every day for a week and a half has been rough. It's hard feeling unsettled and living out of a suitcase in general. But when you have a newborn that you are still adjusting to, and you don't have a car, and you're in the middle of no where, it SUCKS. Not that there weren't fun times too :) I just like to whine. It's my right as a new mother. I am also very hormonal and don't do well with long periods of not talking to adults or being able to leave the house.

ANYWAY. Here's the documentation of what we've been doing these past couple weeks in Midway.

We had our first Halloween! I put Sadie in her cute Halloween outfit. We got Jimmy Johns (one of the 2 food places within 20 miles) and rented a movie. Not trick-or-treaters came, so we also ate a lot of candy. It was a fun and relaxed night. It was our first full day out there, and I will admit it felt super nice to not be packing or moving or squeezing into our tiny apartment.

The morning after. Candy hangover.

The house and surrounding area is gorgeous. It really is a great place for a vacation home. There were horses all around us. Nathan loved to go feed them. When it wasn't too cold, I'd venture out for a walk.

We made the 45 minute trek back to our ward for church both Sundays we were there. We both had lessons to teach each Sunday. Plus, we like showing off our homegirl in her pretty dresses.

Most nights were spent up in the master bedroom. The house was huge. So big, we didn't like it. Too big for a tiny family of 3. We would use the kitchen, but we did everything else upstairs. The master was big and we just lived in there. Nathan set up a station to work on home work. My nights usually looked like this:

The room became a safe haven. I hated my long days stuck in that house, but I loved our nights together in that room.

I had my 6 week postpartum appointment while we were up there so we decided to head down to work with daddy that day since my doctor is down town. We finally introduced her to everyone at Nathan's work and they were so excited! Nathan has been with this company since before his mission, so we are close with a lot of the people who work there. Sadie got passed around like a beach ball at a Nickleback concert (can anyone name that movie??) and she loved being held so much. I took her to the doctor with me and my sweet doctor was so excited to see her again. She took her out into the halls and showed her off to all her coworkers haha. I love her. We went back to Nathan's work after that and I worked for a few hours. Sadie seriously say in her seat or played on the floor and never made a peep except when she would fuss a little bit when she was hungry. Nathan's boss kept checking to see if she was still here because he couldn't believe how quite she was. She's a pretty awesome baby.

My amazing doctor, Ally. Love her!

Nathan took us to dinner that night and I nursed in public for the first time. I was covered, but it's a big deal for me haha.

Ben and Melea came out to visit and meet Sadie for the first time! It was great to see them. I got really bad pictures though. Haha.

The best thing that happened in that 2 weeks was that Jessica came to visit!!!! She stayed Friday through Tuesday and it was awesome!! We had a lot of fun and she made the last few days SO much easier! Sadie misses her aunt Jessi a lot. I got to take some pictures of her little belly carrying my nephew!

Taking pictures with her cousin

She loved it

Trying to get her to touch Jessi's belly. It didn't go well.

So I did it instead.

Even though the days were long and the house was creepy and I complained a lot, I did enjoy the time with my little one. I feel like I have started to get the hang of things with her and she has slowly started to become more and more aware of me and her surroundings, so we did a lot of bonding in that big house. I kinda like her.