Welcome 2009!!!!

Just a quick note to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!! 2008 has been a pretty good year for us, and I'm excited to see what this next year will bring!

I hope you all have a fantastic time celebrating and I hope 2009 brings lots and lots of great things for you all!

Happy New Year!

It's been a LOOONG time!

Well, it sure has been a little while. Ooops! There has been a lot going on since the middle of November though. One fabulous thing is that the week after Thanksgiving I moved into my parents house. Since then I (with some help) finished my house and it is now officially on the market!!!!!!! So I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that helped! And an especially HUGE thank you to my parents for allowing me to live with them and to my Grandparents for allowing Kade to continue to stay with them!! THANK YOU! WE LOVE YOU! When the weather is better we'll take you up on a helicopter ride so you can see what we're so excited about (as if you don't know already). ;) Anyway, here are some before and after pictures of our condo...

So that's how our condo's looking now. I'm hoping it'll sell faster than not. Anyway, now that I'm in my parents house I just have to go through the boxes that I brought over here a while ago and put them in storage. So as far as moving and storing and listing our house, it's all done and all we have to do now is wait....

Thanksgiving was pretty nice. We spent the holiday with Kade's family. It was nice to be together and just hang out. We took some family pictures. Here is one of Kade and me.

December was a pretty busy month with all the moving and Christmas and what not. We went to California to spend Christmas with my Mom. It was a nice Christmas! We visited with my step-dad's kids and grandkids and some friends. On the way home on the way home we had our very own adventure! :S The drive train in the jeep decided it didn't want to work anymore, so we pulled over to a gas station (thankfully we were near one) and had AAA come and tow us to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Mesquite. THANK YOU for letting us stay at your house! My dad and Ramona came to our rescue and drove to Mesquite. My dad removed the drive train with Kade and we drove home the next day. Quite the adventure!

Anyway, that's the quick catch up of our holidays. Sorry it's short, but I have limited use of Kade's laptop, and that's where all of our pictures are stored. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday full of fabulous family and friends! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

How cute is this???

So Kade and I are in the middle of the longest stretch apart we've ever had. I last saw him on November 3rd, and we won't be able to see each other again until Thanksgiving... AAAHHHHHHH!

Okay, I just had a quick break down. No worries. Anyway, Kade came down here for the first weekend of the month so that he could be here for a baby blessing. It was for his friend Calley who named his baby (get this!!!) KADE!!!!! How fun is that?!?!?! I think it's awesome that my husband is so well liked by his friends that they would want to name their kids after him. It helps that he has a cool name too. Here are the pics of big and little Kade...

I couldn't figure out how to rotate it. Sorry...

Big Kade looks a little out of his league with this baby thing... I think it's cute!

That's a little better! (wink wink)

In case you can't see the resemblance, this is Calley, Kade's dad.

And who else would have this kind of love emanating from her face, but Kade's mom Cassie!

So that's little baby Kade. I think he's adorable! I will admit though, I'm kinda partial to the other Kade... can't imagine why....

WAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is some GREAT news 18 months in the making..... Are you ready????? Drum roll please......................................................................

KADE IS NOW A CFII !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That stands for Certified Flight Instrument Instructor. This means that Kade is COMPLETELY done with training at Utah Helicopter!! He is now an instructor, and ONLY an instructor! Kade just passed a huge milestone in his career. Now once he is more full time we can finally start the year count down before he is able to go out and do what he really wants! Before you ask, I don't know what the ultimate goal is anymore... kind of exciting, right?! The plan was as follows: Alaska for a season, Louisianna for 3+ years, and eventually Life Flight. The plan is now as follows: Alaska for a season, somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico for a time (long story all to do with the company he was wanting to work for... I don't know the details...), and then...... no clue! He's changing his mind on the life flight thing because he's hearing too many stories of those choppers crashing. I have to admit, I'm ok with him not crashing!! But I LOVE this unknown stuff!! Honestly, I really do! It's nerve-racking to say the least that our future is completely uncharted, but it sure is exciting! As my Dad would say "it's an adventure!" What more can I ask from my husband than that he find a way to support his family doing something he loves, and truly giving me the traveling adventure I've been bugging him about for YEARS!

Anyway, thought I should let you all know. Thank you for loving us and supporting us. We're almost there!!!!

So many things to share, but where to start??? Is it sad that I had to make a list of things to talk about? Oh well... at least it will all get shared. By the way, this is another pic from my flight. So if you were wondering, no, I haven't been able to go up again.

I have to start off by answering a question for a friend. Yes, you use both your hands and feet to fly a chopper. Your hands control the cyclic (joystick thing) and the collective (a lever on the left side of the pilot) and there are pedals for your feet that control the tail rotor. So all 4 of your limbs are working when you fly. Pretty cool, huh?

The house is coming along. A little slower than I was hoping, but that's the way things work when life gets in the way, as it usually does. I'm at the point where I need to start getting things out of the way so we can paint the rest of the house. My parents are being so generous by allowing me to store my extra "junk" at their house. My dad has created a very comfortable room in the basement for me (with some inspiration from Ramona) and that is where I'm starting to haul my stuff to. Once I get all the extra stuff out of the way I'll hopefully be able to use Kade's brother's muscles to move all of my furniture to the center of each room thereby clearing up the walls for painting. After that I'm thinking all we will need to do is stage the place, and then we'll be able to list it! Cross your fingers and pray that it sells quickly and for a good amount! While I would like to save the majority of it for our future purchase of a house (we'll be renting for a while) I would like to use some of it to pay off part of our debt. We'll see what happens though. It's a tough market!

Part of the slow down we have experienced has to do with our little niece Mercydez. Most of the people that read this know Nic & Ashley (Kade's sister and husband) as well and already know what's been happening. I'll quickly catch up the ones that don't know. Nic & Ashley had Mercydez on Jan 3, 2008. After lots of tests and surgerys she was diagnosed with Charge syndrome. She has been asked to deal with a tremendous amount in the short time she has been on this earth. Mercydez has been a blessing and an inspiration to Kade's whole family and many others since day one. About a week and a half ago she got sick. With all of her other difficulties her immune system is not where it needs to be to deal with even the smallest illness. A week ago today we thought we were going to lose her. She's a fighter though and she rallied. But on Monday she really struggled again and we all got ready to say our goodbyes. It was the kind of experience that words can't do justice for, so I won't even try to explain. Little Mercy wasn't having it though! I have to wonder if she continues to do this just to show us how strong her little spirit really is. Poor uncle Kade though! With him in Idaho it's a little harder for him to be there when these things happen. I called him late Saturday afternoon and told him the situation. He was there that night ready for whatever happened. When she rallied on Sunday we thought it would be ok for him to go back on Monday. He left Monday morning and then at about noon we got a call saying that it looked really bad again. He was over half way back when he turned around. He sure does love that little girl! She is still with us today and from what her mom has told us, she's improving. It's slow, but it's there!

This is from the Saturday night right before Kade moved to Idaho.

With Kade going back and forth from Idaho, it has put him a little bit behind on his studies. Not much though. He was supposed to have a check ride for his CFII on Monday, but it's been pushed back to Wednesday. So It will be so nice when it's over! Then we will no longer be paying for Kade to fly! He's gonna get PAID!! He's paid now, but we still have to pay for the time that he's a student. What a great accomplishment for him!!! I couldn't be prouder of my amazing husband! He is a wonderful gift in my life!

I would like to take a second a thank my wonderful grandparents. First of all for living in the right city (seeing as how they've lived here for 55 years!) and secondly for being so willing to take him in! It is such a blessing and a comfort knowing that my husband is being taken care of by wonderful people that truly love him! So THANK YOU!!!!! We love you!

So apparently I've been "tagged" by Ashley. I had to find out what that was all about first, and now all I have to figure out is what I'm supposed to do with it. Hopefully I'll be able to do that soon! It looks pretty funny.

And last of all, I received some pretty sad news this afternoon. I found out that my dad and Ramona had to put Ramona's dog Chloe down today. I'm so sorry! She was always a lot of fun! Chloe was older, but that didn't stop her from anything. She would run around with my dog Dakota (who's only about a year and a half) as though she was a young spring chicken! If he ran, she ran. She didn't always get the point of the running, but she did it! Chloe would also guard her food as if it were pure gold if Dakota was around. She was a spunky little thing! And even though she didn't seem to always "get it", I think she was a LOT smarter than she let on. She learned how to climb the chainlink fence in the backyard! How cool is that?!?!?! While it was annoying to the loving owners that she constantly took herself for walks, she was pretty clever, that little one. Anyway, Chloe will be missed.

That pretty much covers all the news that I know of. I'm sorry this is so long, but that happens when I'm only able to blog every so often. Thanks again for reading!

Another couple of weeks

We've made it another couple of weeks! Whew! It has been a pretty productive couple of weeks too. My family came over last weekend and really helped me de-junk my house, get it clean, and painted my fabulous accent wall. It's really starting to look nice! Kade came down this weekend and got to see all the hard work we've been doing. It was really nice to be able to show him what has been going on, and be able to share it with him, even if it was for a short time. It's still his home, even though he's not able to be there much. He really liked the things we've done. We used to have polished brass everywhere, but we replaced it with a cast iron look. We bought a new chandelier for the dining room, ceiling fans for the front room and bedroom, and under the cabinet lights for the kitchen. So far we have painted the ceiling in the living room and kitchen and the accent wall. I also painted two patches on another wall to see what the lighter tone will be for the rest of the house. I'm still trying to decide that. Overall it's been a pretty good couple of weeks for me. Beyond stressful, but good!
Kade is doing pretty good too. We just got what I hope will be his last student loan, so as soon as that clears the bank he will be free to finish school and start working full time! Other than school and work, Kade stays busy with my grandparents. My grandpa has now taken him crawdad fishing a couple of times. They actually almost caught one! Kade said that his shadow crossed over the crawdad and it ran away. Kade is also beginning to experience what the other instructors call "stupid students". He has had a couple of students that have caused him to be a little scared for his life, and one that caused him to be scared for his job! There is a lot that goes in to flying a helicopter. You are using both hands and feet at all times, and you have to make sure that your focus is on your flight and nothing else. Well, in these particular cases the students made what seem like small errors, that turned into what could have been big problems! Thankfully Kade has been quick enough to keep these from becoming big problems.
So life has been pretty good so far! Kade and I are very blessed to both have jobs, to have families and friends that are so willing to help and support us, and most importantly, to have each other! We really are learning a lot about ourselves and about our relationship, and we only have more to learn!
Oh! Before I say good bye, I want to make a cool announcement. My dad is now an Ed.D!!! Thats like a Ph.D, but in his particular field. All he has to do now is go back out to Iowa in December and officially graduate. It's pretty exciting!!
Anyway, as always, thanks for reading!

Rough couple of weeks!

WOW!!! I have to admit, I got married for a reason!!!! I like being around Kade and I WANT to be around him. Not that anyone should be shocked by that, I was just saying it yet again! I went to see Kade over the weekend. We hadn't seen each other since my last posting. That was the longest span of time that Kade and I have been apart since we started dating 6 1/2 years ago. Tell you what! My brain turned to mush, and I could hardly remember the things I needed to do everyday. This is NOT my favorite experience with Kade, that's for sure!!!! There is good news though! It was an AWESOME weekend!! Kade is having a hard time without me too, and he wanted to spend every moment with me. Of course that wasn't possible with work, and needing to go potty and what not, but he sure did try to spend every moment with me! I felt pretty special, I admit it!
My sister and her husband came up that weekend too. It was pretty fun hanging out with them! We went to the Pharaoh's exhibit at the Idaho Falls Museum while Kade was working. It was pretty amazing that some of that stuff was centuries old!! Lydia and I got pretty tired though while walking through. Not that it wasn't exciting, it's just the lights had to be low, and we were reading small print. Kyle had no problem though, he grew up going to museums. So Lydia and I found the kids area and ran around there for a bit. Talk about a recharge!! It was a pretty cool exhibit though. I plan on going again with Kade when he's not working.
It was a pretty easy weekend for us. Kade and I went to lunch, then saw Ghost Town. I totally recommend it, it's pretty funny! All in all, pretty relaxing.
Now we're back to the daily grind.... not my favorite pastime! I'm still plugging away at work and the condo, and Kade is working and finishing school.
Anyway, I hope to get better at this blogging thing, and start posting more often. The biggest thing I want to do is get every one's blogs off to the side of mine that I want to follow. Still trying to figure that out. :S Any hints??? ;) Well, I have to get back to it, so until next time!