Elko Trip, Family Visit, House Updates, and My 23rd Birthday

Thomas likes to wear Mommy's shoes!

Well, hello! It's been a few weeks and time for a new update! Quite a bit has happened recently...life is just moving right along!



Sweet Smiles



John has had several work meetings in Elko lately (about 1 hour and 45 minutes' drive, also where we spent last summer for John's internship). When he found out he would have a meeting Monday (19th) through Wednesday (21st), we decided we'd all go and make a trip of it! The company paid for the hotel, most of our food, and will even reimburse us for miles put on our car. It was a chance for us to visit with our friends, Zach and Dixie Hessing (and their daughter Mel, who's just older than Thomas!) and Edgar and Laura Vargas (and their son Markus, just younger than Thomas!). However, somehow we all got sick with the "Nevada Flu" that's been going around and felt terrible...luckily it only lasted around 24 hours.



Thomas hanging for dear life onto the edge of the bed!




Thomas gives lots of sweet kisses!

It was a fun trip! (Minus getting sick...)

Then on Thursday, John's parents drove the 5 1/2-hour trip from Layton, UT to come visit us for the weekend! They were able to use their shnazzy new car for the trip. The house we're renting has plenty of room for company (hint, hint, wink, wink!), so we were able to host them easily. While they were here, we spent time playing, talking, putting offers on the house (more on that to come!), visiting Lovelock and having a picnic, hiking to Lovelock Cave, eating good food at Ormachea's (a Basque restaurant in town) and the Winnemucca Pizzeria, going to church with our ward, and visiting the Winnemucca museum. Thomas (and both John and I!) really enjoyed having them here!



Grandma and Grandpa Kimball

 Now for those house updates I promised! John and I have been looking at a lot of houses out here. The housing market here (unlike Utah and almost everywhere else) is actually still booming (due to high gold prices) and there is not nearly enough housing for everyone. Houses get bought up really fast (as we painfully experienced) and the prices are a lot higher.

In all of our house-viewing, we really liked one we didn't think we would. It's 1632 sq. ft. (smaller than what we were hoping for) but really utilizes the space well. It's all on one level, has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, 2-car garage, and a .35 acre lot. The backyard is completely undeveloped besides the 10'x10' patch of grass with a tree that they oh-so-conveniently took a picture of for the listing. (As my parents said, it's "accentuating the positives!") Although it's sloped and will require a LOT of work, we like that we can do our own landscaping/gardening/etc. We're bummed that it's just BARELY over the line splittng the town into two wards, so we'll be in the other ward. :S Here's the real estate listing with more pics and info:

http://visionwestrealty.com/property-search/residential?view=property&id=1371



Our own picture of the front of the house



So we put an offer in Friday morning, quite a bit lower than the asking price (considering all the work to be done in the backyard and what we found the sale price to be 2 years ago according to public records....oh yeah, we're stalkers). The seller (also a real estate agent) countered, we countered again, the seller countered back with almost the same offer as before...but we finally accepted. (This process took all day with lots of discussing and thinking in between! You get the shortened version). We still think we're getting a reasonable price for around here. So that's where we are! We've signed the papers so it's official, but contingent upon the house inspection which is scheduled for Friday. We get to be there for that and will do some serious sniffing around. We'll also take more pictures to post for you! (Including pics of the PURPLE master bathroom) :)

On another note....Monday was my 23rd birthday! John's parents and Thomas and I went to see the museum in town before they left for home at about noon. It was fun having them here--Carol and I actually share birthdays! (As well as John's oldest sister Amy!) The rest of the day, I cleaned up, did laundry, and cooked dinner. Sounds like a birthday, huh? :) Well John came home from work and relaxed for a while, then headed out to get my gifts. He did his best to try to get me Hunger Games movie tickets (too bad our local 2-screen theater requires cash payment and won't let you buy tickets in advance!). He also got me a rice cooker (really--I've been wanting one!), a bag of Kit-Kats (yum!), and this yummy Reese's pie. I also kind of bought myself tickets to see Wicked in SLC in July (during a pre-sale in December), so that kinda counts as the rest of my present. :) I'm excited for that!



Yep, it was yummy!



I also got phone calls from my Dad, Mom & little bros, and sister Candace! It was fun chatting and it brightened my day. I got cards from my Grandma Whatcott (promising her amazing hand-embroidered pillowcases!), Opa (in Virginia!) with a generous check, Mom and Dad also with a generous check (and graduation gift, woohoo!), and Mom- and Dad-in-law with a generous cash bill. :) I look forward to getting some fun things I've wanted for a while in the form of kitchen tools, jewelry/accessories, and things for the new house we'll hopefully have in about a month!! (I also got about a million birthday wishes on facebook, haha). Thanks everyone!

Thanks to all of you for your love and support! We are excited for the big life changes coming up! Here are a few videos of cute Thomas that I have to share. Enjoy!!

Settling In, Family Visit, Church Talks, House Hunting

Time to update! Since I last posted a month ago, we've had some fun things going on.

We made a trip to Boise, ID (well, actually Caldwell) to visit John's 2 siblings, Karalee and Vaughn, and their families and to go to the temple. Turns out the Boise temple is closed for renovations, but we were able to drive to Twin Falls with Vaughn and Tavia and their friend to attend. It was a great day, though it was a long one with all the driving! We stayed with Mike and Karalee and fun with nieces and nephews. It ended up being sort of a short trip though, since we were asked to speak in a small branch about 45 minutes from Winnemucca.

We'd spoken in church a few weeks before in our new ward and they sent us to Orovada to give our talks there. It was a small group in a double-wide, but they were very friendly and it was a fun experience. They even had a delicious Italian-themed potluck after the 2 1/2-hr block in our honor! (Yum!)

The next weekend (President's Day weekend), my parents and little brothers Daniel and Matthew came to visit us in Winnemucca! I had been looking forward to it all week. :) It was quite the drive for them from Mesquite (8+ hours!). It turned out to be cold and blustery (unlike the rest of our time here!), but we did our best to show them the "sites" of Winnemucca!

We went to the small museum in town, ate at The Pig BBQ, played games, talked, ate good food, went to Unionville and saw where Mark Twain supposedly stayed and had a picnic, took a tour of the Safe Haven Rescue Zoo that has Siberian tigers and other exotic animals, went to the stinky hot springs, showed them a couple of houses we've had our eye on, and just had a great time.

Says: MARK TWAIN LIVED HERE 1860 OR 1861

Other weekends, we have looked at houses and gotten errands done and continued to settle in. It's been difficult adjusting to the new life in some ways. John as a full-time employee and me as a full-time stay-at-home wife and mom. We've been going through some tough adjustments and have really needed to be patient with each other. We'd appreciate any prayers you happen to want to send our way. :)

We're slowly making friends in the ward and around town and we both got callings in the ward. John is secretary in the Elders' quorum and I'm the CTR 4 & 5 primary teacher. I try to be involved by attending R.S. meetings, baby reading time at the library, and I will soon have all of the paperwork in for being a substitute teacher in the elementary schools.

We're excited to find a home to move into and make our own. Finally a place to call our own and to paint and plant a garden! If only we could find a place... The market here is limited and since the economy here in Winnemucca (based on gold) is thriving, the house prices reflect that. It's a little discouraging to have so few options of what we want in our price range. Just today we had our first offer on a house beaten out by one submitted just before it. We're hoping to find something that we could move into by the first of June, since the couple we're renting this house from returns from their mission mid-June.

Thomas is in a tough phase--he can be so silly, animated, and cute, but he can also be so difficult. He is nigh impossible to contain at church (thankfully, we can now start taking him to nursery since we both got callings and he's only a few weeks away from being 18 months). He has seemed to go backwards in some ways, yelling and screaming when he wants something instead of using the signs and words that he knows. I've tried everything I can to reinforce good behaviors and either ignore or punish bad ones, but to no avail. I hope this is just a phase and that it will end soon. On the other hand, he is trying to say more and more words and copies what we do. He likes to dance and even tries to since along when we sing (like during the hymns at church!).

Lately he likes to put on daddy's boots

Just relaxin'!

Cheesy grin

Well, there's your update. Hopefully we'll have good news about a happy Thomas and a new house soon!

Fresh Start!

Ok, I'm notoriously bad at keeping up with journaling and in this case, blogging....but with the new year comes new goals! I have more time to myself now and aim to keep up with our blog.

As Inigo Montoya once said when trying to explain to Wesley what had happened, "There is too much. Let me sum up." And so, since there is too much to go into much detail, I will "sum up" the last year or so since I last posted. :)

John and I made it through Spring 2011 semester with a lot of work and a lot of help from neighbors helping to watch Thomas. (He was just over 3 months old when I went back to school!) It was a very tough several months, but worth it. He wasn't sleeping through the night yet and still breastfeeding, so it took a lot of work...but we made it. :)

We then ventured off to Elko, NV for the summer for John's internship with an underground gold mine as an industrial hygienist. We were blessed in finding somewhere to live (it's really difficult finding rentals out there, especially short-term ones!). First we lived with a great couple named Edgar and Laura. I was able to help her get to dr. appointments (she was pregnant), etc. since she didn't have a license. After their new landlord wanted us out, we were able to stay with another great couple, Zach and Dixie, and their adorable little girl, Mel. We met them in the ward and they generously offered for us to stay in the basement of their house for the remainder of the summer. It was a great experience and a fun summer with lots of exploring and adventures! I know the Lord truly blessed us and our experience there prepared us for where we are now....

After the summer was over, we returned to our place in Logan and began the new semester, the LAST one for BOTH of us! John had 21 credits (really 18 since 3 were his internship) and I was student teaching. We knew we were in for a long ride! Unfortunately, our schedules didn't align very well. We also had just one car and needed to go in opposite directions! (Thank goodness for the free city bus) We were blessed to have a couple that we are good friends with watch our little Thomas for the long days we had to be away. They even have a little girl several months older than Thomas for him to play with! :) It was such a blessing to not have to worry about him and to have such a great place for him to be. They even lived close to where I did my student teaching! (Smithfield)

This was a difficult semester. I mean, a REALLY difficult semester. It was hard to leave my sweet Thomas when he cried (he didn't cry much and was a great sport, but still). It was hard to pick him up after a long day and have him want to be held and play all evening when I had lessons to plan and just wanted to rest. It was hard not seeing John very much. It was hard to deal with the issues that came up with my cooperating teacher and having to go back day after day and put on a happy face and put in 115%. (Some of you know that story...) But we stuck it out, and finally we reached the end of the semester. John finished out his finals and presentations and papers, etc. and I finished all my paperwork associated with student teaching and we were done. Just done. It felt good, but surreal. I'm still not sure if it's quite sunk in...

There wasn't graduation since it was winter semester (I know, rip off), but John had his commissioning ceremony. (Like graduation from R.O.T.C. and officially becoming an officer) It was a neat ceremony and very personal (only 3 guys!). He looked preeeetty spiffy in his dress blues! (Even though I HATE the mismatched colors....) We had several people there to support him and were able to eat out afterwards. It was a great night. John is now a 2nd lieutenant!

During the semester, John put in many applications for jobs. We both drove out mid-week mid-semester to Winnemucca, NV for an interview with another gold mine (a 6-hour drive!). That was a tough trip, but ended up being worth it... He got the job offer about a week or so later! Though he had an offer for another internship, we took the more permanent job. It's just what we'd wanted! (Though we were hoping to be located in Elko again.)

So we made plans to move out to Winnemucca after graduation. We had to postpone moving though since we once again had trouble finding somewhere to live! (Darn those small mining towns!) Luckily we made contact to several people and found a large home to rent for the next 5-6 months while the couple that owns it is on a mission. It's beautiful and HUGE! :) Thomas loves having the space (and the fenced backyard!).

We spent a nice Christmastime with John's parents and family. It was fun. :) John got a shotgun and I got a Kindle Fire (both items we both love and have used!). Thomas got a train set, jammies, a truck, book, an outfit, and several toys.

We've enjoyed getting settled here in Winnemucca and have already been on some great adventures in the area! More about those adventures to come... We have a GREAT ward who has really reached out to us and John got a calling as 2nd counselor in the Elder's Quorum while (so far) I've been called as a visiting teacher. We spoke in church a week ago Sunday and survived to tell about the experience. :)

As an update on Thomas, he is 16 months old and walking, talking, dancing, and copying everything we do! We sure love him. :)

P.S. I'm hoping to add pictures and videos to catch up from the last year or so, bit by bit, so bear with me. :)