I bet you thought I'd died! But nope, I'm still here! The past few weeks have been very busy, as you can imagine. I have been working, working, working, then working on the house, and working, working, working some more. I had to work Christmas Day, but was back in Vegas shortly after 5pm, just in time for Christmas dinenr at our new home! My parents came down from Gardnerville, and my brother was here Christmas morning -- I didn't get to see him ;-( Christmas dinner was great. My parents, Beth's parents, her brother Pat and cousin's Allen, Kathy, Adam and Ben were all here. We had quite the bunch, but a good, delicious Christmas dinner: turkey, ham, yams, mashed potatoes, stuffing, asparagus with Holandais (sp?) sauce and mom's infamous raspberry/cranberry mold. Yum! Of course it was rounded out with a delicious pumpkin pie.

Beth and I got lots of fixins' for the house, including a water softener, two ceiling fans and several decorative and electronic items. The water softener and ceiling fans don't sound like normal Christmas presents, but as Jenn can attest to, these types of things are the best gifts in the world when you're trying to settle in your new home. Brian and Rene got us the game Cranium, which Beth and I both love. They didn't know if we had ever played, but enjoyed it themselves and thought we would, too! We love it! We had played it before, so it was a great gift!

It was exciting to get to spend some time with everyone for Christmas, especially in our new home. Although I didn't see my brother Christmas Day, I did see him Friday and Saturday preceeding Christmas, so that was nice. I am off again to San Jose tonight, and won't be home again until New Year's Eve. I had the first week of the month off, so I have been making up for it ever since. We got a lot accomplished on the house though, and are real excitied with that. We got our water softener and two ceiling fans installed yesterday (Thanks Dad!). All the blinds are up, we got the guest room in order with a new queen size bed (guests welcome!) for my parents, and the living room is all settled. We've also done a lot of other stuff. We've made a lot of progress in the short month we've been here, and are real happy with it.

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and are gearing up for one hell of a new year! We need it after this one! Take care and Merry Christmas!

Well, I've finally had the chance to make a minor update to the house website. There are some pictures of the moving process on there, however, I'd like to add many more. Also, our main website has been updated, including a recipe for a Caramel Martini.

My schedule over the rest of the month is going to make it real hard to accomplish anything signifigant in the house. I only have two days off at a time after this, so it makes catching up on sleep and laundry priority over the hosue. I still need to install four more blinds and trim some others. I should have all four installed by Thursday. Trimming them can be done here and there. Otherwise, the living room is really starting to take shape. Beth got the Christmas tree up and decorated, and it looks real nice. We have realized that our 10 foot ceilings dwarf our six foot tree, so after Christmas, we hope to get a eight foot pre-lit tree on sale.

Otherwise, our big projects are getting the loft, office and guest room in order, as well as organizing our spacious walk-in pantry. We also need to get some decor on the walls. No pictures or decorations have been hung, and the white walls are starting to get to me. Hopefully we can make some progress on that in the next few days. Then, we need to get some decor, maybe some painting done in our bedroom. We want to paint the wall our bed is on a mustard yellow and build valances for the five windows in our bedroom. I know we can't move in overnight, but with my schedule, I really need to make use of the time I have at home.

I am sure the above mentioned will take us well into January, if not beyond. We'll just have to take one day at a time. Where's my magic wand? I swear I saw it somewhere around here.

Whew! A moment to sit and write an update, but just a moment! As you can imagine, Bethany and I have been very busy working on the house. Poor Beth is working during all this, too! I go back to work tonight. We have accomplished quite a bit, thanks to the help of Jenn, Carter and Dale. Without those three, Beth and I would be well behind. The move went real smooth, with no big hitches or problems. There was a little snafu getting a moving truck a day early, but we got it.

Our new sofa was delivered on Monday, so now the living room is pretty well set up, but there are still some boxes around so it doesn't look great, yet. The Christmas tree is standing, although not decorated. We realized our Christmas tree lights are still back at Dale and Carter's. Carter installed the garage door opener, and showed me how to put up the blinds. I have installed several blinds already, and will install several more today. Last night I installed the reverse osmosis system and new kitchen sink faucet. Today, I also will install the coach lamps and hang the curtain rod in the living room. All that aside, I hope to straighten up the loft and then get ready to leave for the Bay Area, since I must go back to work. Ugh! Although it's a lot of work, doing all this is kind of fun. Most of it is new territory for me, and I am glad I have people like Carter and my dad to turn to.

Jim Simpson also helped me out on Tuesday, showing me how to shorten the length of the blinds and helping me to install one. Cathy fethced us some lunch from Port of Subs and some drywall bits from Home Depot, along with a house warming gift card. Thank you! Jim and Cathy were here in town, getting away to warmer (although not by much) weather. It was nice to see them both, especially in our new home! My parents and brother are headed down for Christmas...I think this will be the first time we've ever celebrated Christmas (morning) somewhere other than my parent's house. It's kind of exciting though! However, my work shedule may have it so I am nowhere near my family on Christmas Eve or day. That prospect makes me sad ;-(

I hope to update the house website today, although I don't know if time will permit. Otherwise, there will be moving pictures on next week when I get home. Thanks again to Carter, Dale, Jenn, Jim, Cathy and my dad for all the help! Every ounce makes it that much easier!

Late breaking news...We just found a moving truck from U-Haul! Go U-Haul!

After going to bed about 2am, 8am came very early this morning. We picked Jenn up at the airport around 10 last night and headed out to the house with a carful of junk. We stopped by Sonic Burger last night for some yummy "We're moving and can eat anything we want!" stuff. Banana cream pie milkshakes, peanut butter fudge milkashakes and banana peanut butter milkshakes were the order for the eve, along with some tater tots, cheddar poppers, a foot long chili dog and a thousand island burger. Yum! When we got back to Dale and Carter's house, we stayed up and chatted almost until 2. We got a spiffy (Jenn's words) welcome basket at our house, complete with toilet paper, dish soap, plastic plates, cups, plastic silver wear, garbage bags, tissue, spiced apple body wash, dish towel, paper towels and Fab detergent; it all came in a big bucket which Beth has already claimed for her classroom, along with the cellophane, bow and shredded red, white and blue paper which wrapped the whole thing.

We still don't have a moving truck, and I am betting we don't get one at all today. Our reservation is for tomorrow, but since we got the keys early, we are ready to go. If we can't get a truck today, we'll go purchase our garage door opener, reverse osmosis system and some bedding from Macy's. So, the day will be productive in the end. And we're so thankful Jenn is with us! (She says, "I'm Stoked to be here!")