Exciting News!!

Kyle and I informed family and close friends around Thanksgiving and are now making a formal announcement to everyone we know, WE ARE PREGNANT!!! Our baby is due July 4, 2009 and Kyle has it in his head that we should name the little one Yankee Doodle. I am sure that won't happen!! Name suggestions are welcome :) The holidays and transitioning from one job to another have kept me very busy. I'm posting this quick note. . . with details to come in the near future!!

Thanksgiving fun

Kyle's parents, two brothers, sister, my sister with her husband and four kids, Grandpa and his wife Ann came over for Thanksgiving. We spent the morning finishing up preparation and cooking and ate around 4 pm. It was fun to have everyone here. Brenda, my sister, and family came in from St George, where they had been visiting her in-laws for a week. Kyle's family drove in from San Jose CA that morning and stayed till Sunday morning. I love having people here!!! Why I love the chaos for a period of time, I'm not sure, but I enjoy it.
The day after Thanksgiving we headed out to do some exploring and shopping mid morning (I don't like the chaos of the shopping rush). The girls headed one way and the boys another. We met up later and ended up finding light fixtures for the house (the ones that were here were UGLY!!!) In the process we also found two chairs for the living room. We ended up spending more money than we planned, because we had just planned on buying light fixtures, but it was all things we needed.
I worked Saturday at the hospital 7am to 7pm, so Kyle took the family and showed them sights around town. They aren't gamblers, so they explored some of the shows in the Casinos and explored the cactus garden decorated for Christmas. They also helped start decorating our house for Christmas and did a great job!!
All in all it was a great Holiday. I'm just kicking myself for not breaking out the camera.

It's been too long!!!

So I posted last almost a month and a half ago. . . we had just found out we got the house that we fell in love with and had put an offer on. So every spare moment from then till now has been spent packing, moving, unpacking, shopping for furniture, getting settled, working and sleeping. Grandpa Hansen has been a tremendous help in doing little this and thats to help us get to where we are. We moved in October 18th, and I can't believe it's been a month!!!
People have been asking what the house looks like. . .well here are some pictures. . .but please remember we are still unpacking and finding places for everything. We still have a few more pieces of furniture to buy, and pictures that we haven't put up on the walls yet. Our house has lots of funky angles that make it hard to get good pictures of the rooms, so I did the best I could!!

Our house from the street.
The back yard.
(This photo was taken when the previous owners were still here.)

Another view of the back yard.

This is the stairway leading upstairs,
just after you enter the front door.

The living room, across from the stairs shown above.

The kitchen

The Family room, just off the kitchen.

The dining room as seen from a glimpse
from the kitchen photo and across from the Living room.

AND NOW FOR UPSTAIRS. . . .

The office at the end of the hall (still in progress)

The other end of the office/library
(was two bedrooms that the previous tenants had
knocked down the wall between. Thank you
for saving us some work!)


The hall bathroom. . . yes the outhouse theme survives :)

The other bedroom/guest room/someday to be a nursery/
put stuff in it for now/next to the master bedroom room.
The master bed room
(it is bigger than this picture makes it look.)
The master bath with a walk in closet, a wall closet
and separate "toilet room" that you can't seen.
Koko and Casey patiently waiting in the hall
for me to finish this post :)
They are not allowed in any of the rooms upstairs except
our bedroom at night, so they have adopted
the blanket in preference to the hard wood floor.

It has been a grand adventure that we hope not to repeat in the next couple of years. I'm glad it's done. I'm glad we are getting settled.
Kyle is LOVING!!!! his job.
I love what I do for my job, but I'm not sure I see a long future in the hospital I am at. They are letting the economy influence how they take care of their employees, so we are being very understaffed even thought there are people wanting to work. I am a nurse to take care of patients and keep them safe while they get better, so I have put some feelers out to see if the staffing ratios are Las Vegas wide, or just something this hospital is doing to save a penny.

A bath. . .no . . . a pool party in the tub!!!!

So, I just had an amusing adventure that I thought I should share :)
Casey and Koko are doing well together. It's been a lot of work training Casey, but Koko is a great help!!
Today is my day off from the hospital, filled with the typical laundry, cleaning, errands, and today's adventure. . . washing the dogs.
I started out with Koko, outside with the hose. I have been bathing her once a week since we came to Las Vegas this way, and she has handled it pretty well (she doesn't like to be wet, especially doesn't like to have her feet wet!!) So Koko, the hose, the soap, and Casey watching was the plan. The second Koko started getting wet, Casey thought he needed to be wet also, so he started jumping over Koko through the water from the hose. Well with a little tactic and body blocking (I knew my big butt would come in handy for somthing!!), Koko was bathed and clean. I thought Casey would be a "cake walk" since he loves water so much. HA! He likes water, but he doesn't like to be clean!!! I got him wet and he was fine, but the second the soap touched him he headed for the mud we had made in the grass with the hose water. So instead of being yellow he was quite brown and yellow streaked. After a couple more attempts, without much luck (Casey is as strong as I am and a spazz which adds to the challenge!), I decided to put his leash on and try the bath tub technique. Well Casey LOVES!!!! the bath tub!!! I was standing outside the tub trying to calm him down so I could get him clean. He wiggles way tooooooo much, so I stepped into the tub to try to hold him still between my knees. All I did was step in the tub and he calmed down. With both of us sopping wet and soapy, Koko (remember she doesn't like to be wet), became jealous and decided to come join us in the tub. A POOL PARTY IN THE BATH TUB!!!! I wish someone was here to have taken pictures!! At first I was getting frustrated with the whole situatioin, but then I just started playing with them. Yes I had a huge mess to clean up when we were done, but it was well worth it!! Maybe next time we just need to get a kiddie pool out in the back yard for the three of us. Then I won't have to mop up all the water and wash twice as many towels!!
Here's the clean product:

A lot going on. . . ALL GOOD!!!!

The house that I posted about last week. . . WE GOT IT!!!! We will close October 10, 2008. Can I tell you how excited I am to have free time to do something other than look for houses??!!

Yesterday we adopted a dog, Casey. He is a two year old Yellow Labrador Retriever. Lots of energy. He and Koko get along GREAT!!! He learns quickly but has no discipline. Koko is doing a great job of sharing the rules of the house and teaching him some of the ropes. She is being VERY patient. We make her sit and wait before she comes into or go out of the house. She has been waiting 3-5 minutes at times for Casey to get it right. As far as the rest of the training, it will take much patience from Kyle and I.

Check out his blog. (His name before adoption was Richie.)

Isn't he handsome??

ASL Chef

I'm out wandering the internet looking for a recipe for sour dough bread and I came across this website. Amateur chefs demonstrating how to make a variety of tasty things using ASL (American Sign Language) as a means of explaining. Most of them do a pretty good job. Check it out for yourself here.

Another house. . . another offer. . .

So yesterday we spent about 4 hours looking at houses. I think we've seen every house in the area we want to live in, that is for sale!! A week and a half ago we put an offer on a house and were out bid. Yesterday we found another house that we feel we could make our home!! We put an offer on it and should know back by tomorrow (Monday) at 5 pm. It is on a circle so it is a "corner lot" but a reverse corner. . .tiny front yard HUGE back!!! Check out the pictures below (yes there is still someone living in it! The only house we have looked at that still has someone living in it. ALL the rest were bank owned!!) We are really excited and yet at the same time dread that we will be out bid again. Kyle and I are ready to be in our own place and unpack. We really don't want to look at any more houses!! Many of the bank owned have been empty for anywhere from 2 months to 3 years and need anywhere from carpet and paint to major repairs, which the banks sell them "as is". Repairs, painting, and carpet could be fun, but we are not sure we have the time, energy and finances to put into a major job. Many homes we have liked the floor plan, but they need more work than we are willing to do. This one is ready to move in, and in our price range!!