I've been FRAMED!!!

Okay, I know you can see where I'm going with the title of this post here. They day I thought would never come has finally arrived!! They started framing my house! (You know, the infamous they). I think lumber was just delivered on Monday, or sometime late last week and already they have made what looks to me like a lot of progress!

This picture was taken by the community manager and sent to me on Tuesday, so I'm thinking this was the view on Tuesday night.

By the way, shout out to Erin for taking the rest of the pictures!!! It's the next best thing to being there myself!!

View from the front west side. I wish they'd leave the port-a-potty there for when I have people over! haha.

View from the back west side.

The view from the basement.

Of course there are several more photos, but I'm pretty sure that nobody is quite as excited about it as I am and interested in seeing a bunch of pictures of wood. In any case, it almost feels real now! I am kind of sad that I am not actually there myself to see and witness all the things that are going on, but I am very happy to be sleeping on the tempur pedic mattress at my mom's house here in Nevada! :) I'm hoping to find out when my pre drywall inspection is really going to be tomorrow...and I'm getting close to locking in my interest rate finally!

Things here in Las Vegas are going great! The first three weeks of my contract have just flown by! I just found out yesterday that they want to extend me for four more weeks. Yeah! So I will be here through Labor day weekend. I am really really liking the floor and hospital I am working at here! It's a nice break from sick patients to work with the post partum moms. Not to mention I only ever have 5 patients and NO BABIES! What could be better?? Almost every one of my patients has been awesome and I had three tell me yesterday that I was the best nurse they had had. Sometimes I question why I ever went into nursing, but it is days like that that remind me! Everyone I work with has been really nice, too. They have been patient with me and all my stupid questions! :)

I have been able to spend quite a bit of time with my niece, too. She is the cutest little girl EVER! (and no, I'm not biased!!) We went up to southern Utah last weekend to see my mom's family and I even took Amaria over to see my dad's parents over in Milford. A busy but productive weekend! I'm hoping that Amaria will be able to go with me to my family reunion next month. I know she would have a blast! Not to mention that it's more time I get to spend with her!

On a tasty side note, my dad went fishing in Alaska last week and brought home 98 pounds (YES! 98 pounds! Freakin crazy!!) of fish. Mostly salmon and some halibut. Hopefully he will be able to bring me some the next time I see him. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I suppose that is the extent of my life for now. Hopefully it won't be quite as long before I update again. However, my mom's internet is agonizingly slow so I can't make any promises....

How Firm a Foundation!

So...........I have a foundation!!!

How excited am I!? Words really cannot describe! From what I understand, they have to do a bunch of things that won't really look like much progress (sewer, gravel, etc.) before they pour the basement and garage floors. After all this, the framing will finally begin! My pre-drywall inspection, which is when the framing, HVAC, electrical and plumbing are all done, should be around August 17th. At that point, I am about 60 days from closing so it looks like it will probably be more like October instead of September before it is actually complete. But, time is really racing!

So, the agency that I am working for here in Salt Lake submitted me for a contract in Las Vegas. It's not technically a "travel" contract so it doesn't include reimbursment for travel expenses or a living allowance each month, but it's still guaranteed hours and a very good hourly rate of pay. I never in a million years thought that I would even get a phone interview, but they called me today and offered me a contract!! It is only 4 weeks, but I think that will be a perfect amount of time to spend in Vegas and see my mom and cousin, and catch up with friends. Amaria is there for the summer visiting her mother too so hopefully I will get to spend quite a bit of time with her! I will be at Mountain View hospital on the post partum floor. It is day shifts (YAH!!!) and the need is mostly during the week so it looks like I will have most of the weekends off. It almost sounds like it is too good to be true so I hope it's not! I'm heading out on Sunday or Monday and will be starting on Wednesday. So, everyone wish me luck! I am kind of bummed to be missing the progress on my house, but the community manager goes out daily and takes pictures of things so hopefully I will not feel like I am missing too much! Fortunately mostly everything I own is already in boxes so it shouldn't be too hard to pack and move!

I am off to bed for now, but I will be sure to update with all my exciting adventures in Las Vegas!

Got Concrete?

Well, I sure do! They have finally poured the footings for my house!!

I know, I know, everyone is totally excited to see some pictures of dirt and concrete. But I can hardly believe that things are progressing! I have so much going on this summer that I'm sure my house will be done before I know it. It's so freakin exciting to see any sort of progress! They have the window frames, window wells and rebar all ready to put in place so I'm hoping they pour the foundation in the next day or two. Maybe that's a little optimistic, but I can always hope, right?

I took a fantastic trip to Yuba Lake this weekend! The weather was finally decent on the weekend! In fact, it was down right hot. I used a lot of sunscreen and still got a little burned. As much as I have decided that I don't think beach camping is for me, I always have a blast every time I go anywhere with the Bingham/Malave/Peebles clans and of course, Erin.

Levi was so excited about boating, he couldn't even wait to get it in the water! Haha. Really, he was fixing the seat. It got really windy right about dinner time on both nights! The first night was horrible. I couldn't even keep my grill lit! So I cleverly fashioned a tin foil tent and was finally able to finish cooking our meal! I cooked some bacon on the grill Saturday morning. As you can imagine, the abundant bacon grease caused a few flare ups of the grill. So, I burned a hole in our kitchen. Ooops! Sorry Levi!

Erin went wakeboarding for her first time! It took her a few tries, but she finally made it up! Go Erin!! And of course Amanda was pretty much a pro wakeboarder.

And Levi even found a friend while we were there!!

I had a fantastic time although I was very happy to get home and take a shower and wash my hair three or four times. What a fun weekend! I don't have any big plans for the 4th, probably a bbq and some fireworks somewhere, but I'm sure to have fun since I will be with my friends! I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend!!