Rock Solid!

I have sheetrock and the beginnings of stucco! I was out in Eagle Mountain yesterday and they had just put a fresh coat of mud/tape on the walls. How exciting!! Then I got back to Las Vegas today and had some new pictures from the community manager....they painted today!! Yah! It seems like my house might really be done some day!

I am really happy with how the fireplace mantel and "art niche" turned out!

The view from the front door.

Start of the stucco!

I am already back in Las Vegas. Working tomorrow and heading to SL for yet another quick trip on Sunday. Hopefully this will be the last one! The Poison/Def Leppard/Cheap Trick concert was awesome!! I just love USANA! Traffic was ridiculous so we ended up being late enough to miss Cheap Trick. Poison's bass player was sick so their set was pretty short. But Def Leppard played almost all of the good songs in a really long set. They sound awesome live! We met up with some IHC friends Heidi and Allyson and also Levi and Amanda were there. It was so fun!

Allyson, Heidi and me.

Me, Amanda, Erin and Levi

Def Leppard!!

Party on Amanda!!

I am on call at 5 am tomorrow so I am off to bed. More pictures to follow after my next rush trip out to Eagle Mountain.

Put on a Happy Fascia!

I know it has been a while since my last update. I guess I have been putting it off because the internet here is HORRIBLE! But, here I am. I decided not to put it off any longer. And I know everyone has been dying for an update! Right?? In the house department, I now have a roof and fascia. My fireplace and bathtubs are installed! The HVAC, plumbing and electrical are all done. Sheetrock was supposed to be done at the end of last week, so we shall see. I am heading to Salt Lake to see Poison/Def Leppard/Cheap Trick on Tuesday so I will of course take a trip out to Eagle Mountain to see how things are progressing. I suspect they have started the process for the stucco on the outside as well. Here are a few pictures from the last time I was up. Shingles and fascia are done! Looks like they are getting ready to start on the outside. The community manager sent me this picture on Thursday. The fireplace!! I can't wait for winter and sitting in front of the fireplace!The tub/shower in my bathroom. One thing I do not like about this house is that the bathrooms aren't nearly big enough. However, my closet is the same size as the bathroom! I guess you can't have it all, right?

This is looking from the front door down the hall into the living room. I LOVE that big window.

Like I said, I am headed to Salt Lake on Tuesday for the concert and I am coming back to Las Vegas on Wednesday. Unfortunately, there is an orientation class for University Hospital on the 31st. I would just say screw it but I have to have this class to work at the U and they haven't had one since January! SO....I get to fly to Salt Lake again on Sunday the 30th and back to Las Vegas the next day. UGH! Too much airport time! Oh well, hopefully I will be assured all the shifts I want with so much variety of where to work.

I also had a family reunion the weekend of the 15th. I was able to take Amaria with me and she had a blast! The reunion was in the mountains up near Lehman Caves. It was actually a really nice place with plenty of room for the entire family. We did a tour of Lehman Caves on Saturday. I had been there once before but I think I was maybe 5 so I don't remember it. It was really cool! Here are a few pictures...

This is a picture of some aunts, cousins and Amaria swimming. I think this was probably her favorite activity of the weekend! These two were joined at the hip pretty much the whole weekend. Amaria and Josie at the entrance to Lehman Caves. Me and Amaria in Lehman Caves. Amaria, grandpa and great grandpa inside Lehman Caves. Inside Lehman Caves. Pretty freakin cool!

This is the teepee that we slept in. I think Amaria thought it was about the coolest thing ever to sleep in a teepee! It was a good weekend and fun to catch up with the family, some of whom I hardly ever see.

Well, now that it has taken me the entire morning to upload all those pictures to this blog, I am off to pack and get ready for the week of work and travel. I'm sure I will have some more house photos to share when I get back from my latest trip to Salt Lake.

A Roof Over My Head!

Wow, I went from nothing ever being done on my house (or at least that's what it seemed like!!) to the whole thing being framed in like two days! Woo Hoo!!

I'm thinking the guy standing in the garage needs to get off the phone and get back to work! Right? Anyway. My pre drywall walk through is on the 10th of August. Yes, that's a week from Monday! I'm so excited! Of course, that meant that I had to book a last minute flight to Salt Lake on Sunday. Not cheap! Oh well. I am going to the Lion King at Mandalay Bay with my mom and Amaria on Saturday. I can't wait! I think it will be a lot of fun! I guess that's it for now. More updates to come soon!!

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!!

Happy Birthdays!!!

Three of my favorite people in the whole world are having birthdays this week!

Today is my mom's birthday! I have the greatest mom in the entire world!! I know a lot of people say that about their moms, but with mine it's really true! My mom is one of the most giving, caring, loving (insert adjective here) people I know. My parents got divorced when I was 10 and my mom was a single mother to me and my brother. I'd say she did a pretty good job of raising us, too! I think we turned out pretty darn good! If my brother, my niece or I ever needed anything, she would do whatever it took to make sure we got it. I know it's hard for my mom having all her kids live so far away, but I love her more than she will ever know and I hope she has the best birthday ever!!

Tomorrow is my cousin Carrie's birthday. Where to begin about Carrie......I most certainly would not have made it through nursing school without her! She has always been behind me when I needed support and has given me numerous gems of infinite wisdom! Carrie is one of the most fantastic cooks ever!! I miss living just down the street and going over for dinner or dessert or just to bs. Carrie's always there when I need someone to talk to or laugh with. She is the one who I can tell anything to! It has been entirely too long since I have seen her and I am grateful that we have still managed to stay close despite being seven hours apart.

And last but most certainly not least, my niece Amaria. She is going to be 7 on Friday and I just can't believe it! Amaria is one of the smartest, sweetest, most well adjusted kids I have ever met. She never wants to hurt anyone's feelings and is always making cute pictures and fun crafts for the people she loves. I love talking to Amaria on the phone and giving her a hard time until she laughs. She loves science and reading and pink and purple and the littlest pet shop, among other things. I am so lucky to have such an amazing thoughtful beautiful little girl to call my niece! The only thing wrong with her is that she is growing up too fast! I can't wait to see her again, hopefully soon. I hope she will always think that all the fireworks on the 4th of July are for her, because she deserves them!