A Little Bit of Joey

Sick of Sick

2011-01-13T21:21:00.004-05:00

When I was in junior high, I remember my parents saying that they had bought my orthodontist that fancy Corvette he drove. Even at that age, I totally got the joke. My parents paid for braces for all 3 of their daughters, and so every time we saw that shiny car parked in front of his office, my parents were reminded of how much they were shelling out for our pretty teeth.

Fast forward 25 years, and now I feel the same way about my kids' pediatric office! It seems like we're in that office a ridiculous number of times each month. It goes something like this: ear infection for Westin, routine appointment for Camden, then ear infection for Camden, then strep throat for Westin, then routine appointment for Camden, then ear infection for Westin, then routine appointment for Westin, then strep throat for Camden, then ear infections again....... and so on and so on. Sheesh! Certainly between our co-pays and what the insurance company dishes out, we've at least paid for a semester at a ritzy private college that surely one of my pediatrician's kids will go to one day.

And while I'm whining about the time and money spent in a doctor's office, my poor little kiddos are the ones that are suffering. Oops... I forgot this wasn't all about me! I hate seeing my kids sick. It breaks my heart. You should see Westin right now. He looks like he's been hit by a truck. He has strep throat and the nastiest cold and chunky cough. His eyes are so droopy and he looks just pitiful. One of the ONLY good things to come from him being sick is that I get extra snuggles and cuddle time, and that is absolutely priceless. Westin loves to be held when he's sick (heck, so do I!), and if I have to pay someone else's college tuition in order to hold my son for extended periods of time, then so be it. You're welcome, Dr. Rick and Dr. Bray.

A Fresh New Year

2011-01-08T16:05:00.003-05:00

It's 2011, and I thought, hey, what the heck...... why not blog again? It has been nearly 5 months since my last post. Crazy.

In that time, LOTS has happened, but the biggest thing is that my mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. She had a very large tumor on the lower lobe of her right lung. I learned about it in September, just a few days after returning from a wonderful trip to Oregon to visit Jeremy's family. To be honest, it kind of turned my world a little upside down, and I just didn't feel like blogging much after that. She's now about 3/4 of the way through her treatment, which consists of radiation and chemotherapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. So far, she's responding well, although she is extremely weak and tired. She has some soreness when she swallows from the radiation being aimed in that area, and her voice is a little hoarse, and her appetite has significantly decreased, but she hasn't lost her hair, and she hasn't any major side effects. The doctors are saying that she is holding up very well, and they are encouraged by what they're seeing so far. I know she is SO ready to feel better and to get some energy back. I absolutely hate seeing my mom not feeling well. Truthfully, she hasn't felt well in years, and I've hated it for her for years. I guess now we know why.

Other than that, our family is doing quite well. Our boys are growing like weeds. Westin is 2, Camden is 10 months, and Jeremy and I are starting to get little glimpses here and there of what normalcy might look like. I feel like I am finally, FINALLY coming out of the fog of having 2 kids just 15 months apart, and I am rediscovering ME again. I didn't even realize that I wasn't "me", until I started feeling like "me" again. Does that make sense?

We'll see what this year holds for blogging. I really do have a desire to document the journeys of The Hansen Family, and I'm constantly writing little blog posts in my head, but they just don't seem to make it to my fingers and onto the computer. But hey, if normalcy really and truly does return, you never know.

Happy New Year!

No tubes!

2010-08-13T11:40:00.003-04:00

We took Westin to an ENT yesterday in San Antonio. Fortunately, he did not recommend tubes right now. He said that because he's only had one ear infection this summer that he'd like to just wait and see if he gets more infections this fall and winter. We were very happy with that news!

Lately I've been catching small glimpses of the buddies that Westin and Camden will become. Just this morning the two of them were laughing out loud at each other. I think Westin was amusing Camden, and Camden was amusing Westin! It was a precious moment. And then.... just one minute later I caught a glimpse of the battles that lie ahead as well. Westin had given Camden a little toy to play with, and then decided a moment later that he wanted it back. Camden had a death grip on it and wasn't giving it up, and Westin got quite huffy! It cracked me up that little 5 month old Camden is already giving his big brother a run for his money! Gotta love it.

Tubes?

2010-08-04T15:39:00.007-04:00

I had to take Westin to the doctor this morning (both kids went, which is always interesting trying to keep 2 children occupied while we wait for the doc to come in the room... but I digress). We suspected yet another ear infection. Poor guy has been tugging and scratching his ears. He scratched his right ear so much that he drew blood! And... we were right. "Terrible" infections in both ears, said the doc. Again. For the 5th or 6th time since December (I've lost count now....). Apparently the "ear infection season" is from October to May, so the fact that it's August and he is still getting them is indicative that he may need some extra help with those ears. The doc gave us a few recommendations for pediatric ENTs, and we'll be headed to see them very soon. We're fairly certain he'll have to have tubes put in his ears. I know this really isn't a big deal, but still.... it's surgery! And as my RN husband reminds me, any time you're dealing with anesthesia and surgery, there are risks. I'll be glad for our little man to feel better and stop getting these pesky ear infections, but I'm not thrilled that he has to have minor surgery to relieve the infections.

I'm so grateful that he's healthy other than this. It could be so much worse. And if the tubes will help, then I guess bring it on! We'll know more in the next couple of weeks.

Thank You Uncle Sam

2010-07-28T08:25:00.004-04:00

There were some very attractive tax credits for home buyers over the past year and a half or so, and The Hansens took full advantage. Late last year, The Homebuyer Tax Credit was extended and expanded to also include "repeat" home buyers who met certain criteria. One of the criteria was that you had to have owned a home for at least 5 consecutive years out of the past 8 years. And fortunately for us, we owned our home in NC for a little over 5 and a half years! The maximum credit for repeat buyers was $6,500, and the law stated that you had to be under contract for a house by April 30th, 2010, and close on the home by June 30th, 2010 (although the June date has since been extended to September 2010 because of the bog-down with loans being underwritten in a timely manner).

When the expanded tax credit was announced late last fall, Jeremy and I had just signed a 9 month lease on a rental house. Our lease was set to expire July 31st, 2010. The lease expiration put us beyond the expiration for the tax credit, so this put us in a bit of a pickle: Do we go ahead and buy a home and just know that we'd have to pay a month or two in rent for a home we were no longer living in (at $1375 a month, that would be giving up a good chunk of cash!)? Or do we wait until our lease expired and then buy a home at that point, and forego the tax credit of $6,500?

Fortunately there was a happy ending for all. We talked to the property management company that handled our lease, and they were able to negotiate with our landlord to amend our rental contract to get out of it by the end of April and pay no penalties! (It didn't hurt that the property management company was also the realtor we used for the purchase of our house, so they certainly had a financial interest in helping us get out of the lease.)

I had already filed our 2009 tax returns long before we closed on the house in April, so my options were to wait and claim the credit on my 2010 returns, or to amend my 2009 tax returns. I chose the latter... I'm all about instant gratification when it comes to money owed to me! You cannot file an amended return electronically, so I mailed it in at the beginning of June, and we got a nice fat check in the mail a couple of weeks ago!

The money is already earmarked for several things. A portion of it will go towards installing granite counter tops in our kitchen (I'm in the process of researching what company we want to use for the installation). YAY! Another portion will go towards paying our $2,000 deductible for our homeowner's insurance claim from the hail storm back in May that damaged our roof. BOO. And the rest will go in savings. YAY!

So the question that many economists and pundits are asking is.... did the tax credit get us off the fence and into a home? My answer is - we still would have purchased a home, but it might not have been so soon. So, simply put: the tax credit got us into a house sooner, but didn't otherwise influence us. Is that considered a success by the economists' and pundits' standards? Who knows. In the end, we have 6500 smackers and we're in a home we love. Thank you Uncle Sam.

Boys

2010-07-23T12:02:00.007-04:00

Camden just had his 4 month "well check" appointment, and he's a healthy boy.

He's still a good bit smaller than Westin was at the same age. Here are there stats:

4 months old:

Westin

18 lbs 2 oz (96th percentile)

26 inches long (85th percentile)

Camden

16 lbs 3 oz (67th percentile)

24 and 3/4 inches long (32nd percentile)

I'm so glad I've got two happy, healthy, growing boys.

Spotlight on Westin

2010-07-08T13:41:00.010-04:00

Westin is 19 months old. It's pretty amazing that he's already on his way to being 2. Where does the time go?

I really feel like he's on the cusp of exploding verbally, and it produces a very weird reaction in me. He is SO funny with the way he jibber-jabbers in his own little Westin language. He is an extremely verbal little boy and so social. I wish I could capture on video how funny he is when he walks around the house having a conversation with himself and with us. Unfortunately, every time I break out the video camera, he becomes fascinated with the camera and shuts down the talking. Just in the past two weeks, he has started saying more words and phrases that are true English. And this is where the weird reaction from me comes in: part of me is so excited for him to talk so that we can all understand each other (and to know that he is developing normally), but another part of me doesn't want that to happen because we will NEVER get back the precious jibberish that he currently speaks. It's like the end of an era, and it makes me both happy and sad. Odd, isn't it? It's like I'm already grieving the loss of my little toddler that is turning into a little boy before my very eyes. I'm such a sap!

Westin is both a bull and a teddy bear - and sometimes both in the same minute! He has been nicknamed "Bruiser" by some friends here, because he's such a stocky boy that plows his way through a playground. And yet, he can be sweeter than sugar too. He is so precious with Camden. For the most part, he really gets that Camden is to be treated gently, and he loves to hug and kiss him. There is an indescribable joy that Jeremy and I experience when the 4 of us are playing together and Westin loves on Camden. Again, I wish I could capture this on video, but it never seems to work out (for the aforementioned fascination with the camera).

He is very much into mimicking these days. For example, he'll occasionally shake his finger and say "no no" to various things, and we have wondered where in the world he learned to shake his finger like that! Well, come to find out... I caught myself doing it recently! Case solved. We must be very careful what we do around him!

Westin LOVES music. If some kind of song comes on the tv, he drops whatever he is doing and stands in front of the tv and shakes his booty. Literally. It's awesome. Or - he'll just stand there, mesmerized. I can't wait to see how that develops as he grows.

My little man also has a crazy strong throwing arm! Seriously, I'm not trying to toot my own son's horn, but toot toot! The boy can throw. We are often shocked at the accuracy and distance when he throws a ball (or a toy, or a stuffed animal, or a sippy cup.... but mostly balls!). Now, put a golf club in his hand (which we have done... we have a little plastic toddler set) and, well, he's not so gifted. :-) The club ends up getting banged on anything and everything that he comes in contact with. But let's get back to the throwing: he's a natural!

Westin is a great sleeper, and he has begun to get in his crib, look at me, wave and say "night night mama", and them promptly go to sleep. We feel very blessed in this way! He sleeps for 11 or 12 hours at night and then takes about 3 hours worth of naps during the day. You can DEFINITELY tell when he has not gotten enough sleep (cranky, crying, irritable, etc.).

He's a social boy, like his mama, and as my father has said, "a stranger is simply a friend I haven't met yet". In general, he loves people and doesn't like being alone. It's a wonderful quality, but makes for some very long days when all he wants to do is to play with me! I look forward to Camden getting older so the two of them can entertain each other.

I'm sure my husband would add a lot to this post regarding Westin's personality, but unfortunately he's not around right now. We love our little boy so much, and he makes us laugh so much (and also frustrates the snot out of us too!).

What a journey this parenting thing is!

New Roof

2010-06-22T09:27:00.010-04:00

On May 15th, 2010 we had a rather intense hail storm here in Fredericksburg. It wasn't huge hail, maybe dime to nickel sized, but it was powerful. We watched it pour down, and Westin was quite intrigued by that weird icy stuff that was falling from the sky!

Here are some pictures:

Unfortunately, that "fun" little hail storm damaged our roof. In the days and weeks that followed the storm, the roofing vultures descended on our neighborhood. If I had a dollar for every flyer that found its way to our doorstep and every roofer that rang our doorbell (always during the boys' naptimes, of course!) I'd be on my way to being a wealthy woman (or to at least buying myself a nice meal).

So... we're in the midst of our first ever homeowner's insurance claim, and we've only owned the home for 2 months! The bummer is that our deductible is $2,000 (very standard in Texas to have the deductible be 1% of the replacement cost coverage). The nice part is that we'll get a brand new roof, AND if we choose a certain energy-efficient kind, we can get a tax credit up to $1500.

It's still early in the process, so I don't yet know how much our insurance company is going to give us. Once we get that figure, we'll start shopping around for the best deal with a local, reputable roofer.

Here's our house (pre-storm). We'll see how this all turns out!

More blogging, please

2010-06-15T10:46:00.002-04:00

I was recently told that I don't blog enough. I readily agreed, but it was also nice to hear that someone actually WANTS to read what I write! So... I'm determined to blog more. Not only for friends and family to keep up with us, but also because this serves as a journal/diary of sorts, and years from now I'd like to remember what we were up to during these foggy baby-raising years!

I got busted a couple of nights ago. It was around 7:15pm, and we were winding Westin down for bed. The tv is often on in the evenings, and it's almost always tuned to Nick Jr. Westin has this bad habbit of pushing the power, channel, and volume buttons on our tv. It drives us crazy. Well... on this night Westin did his normal thing, and he turned the tv off. I impulsively shouted "Westin - turn that back on! Mommy was watching that!!!" Um... the tv show was The Backyardigans, a cute cartoon on Nick Jr. And I really and truly was into it! Busted.

Hello... is this thing on???

2010-04-25T08:01:00.008-04:00

I won't even begin to make excuses for why this blog has been silent for 3 months. I blog in my head all the time, mentally writing posts that I'd like to publish. But somehow that never translates into actually sitting down to do it. Such is life these days!

We welcomed Camden Daly Hansen into the world on March 12, 2010 at 12:47am. He was 7 lbs, 5 oz and 19.5 inches long. My labor lasted only 5.5 hours long, and I had to push for just a few minutes. It was a completely different experience the second time around! Everything was faster and easier. I am grateful!

Camden is a joy. He is a very mellow baby and rarely cries unless he's hungry or uncomfortable. He loves to snuggle and has no problem being passed around from person to person to sleep in the next willing arms!

Big brother Westin is doing great, and loves to kiss and hug Camden(and sometimes smother him in the process!). In general, he is very sweet and "mostly" tender towards him. I won't lie, though... there have been a few sippy cups intentionally aimed Camden's way. But for the grand majority of the time, he seems to really like his little bro. It has been an easier transition for him than we thought it would be.

Here's our family!

PARENTING.....

2010-01-12T22:49:00.002-05:00

..... is hard.

Rewarding, refining, joyful (mostly), and SO worth it. But still, HARD.

I'm just saying.

Okay, that's all.

:-)

The baby in my....

2010-01-09T08:32:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I went to a MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) play-date at one of those "bounce-houses". It's a big warehouse-type place with a bunch of inflatables that kids can jump on and play in. Fortunately they had a special 3-and-under section so Westin could play without getting crushed by older kids. He had an absolute blast.

So... there were these twin 3-year old girls there. And they were cute as could be. But let me tell you, they were b-o-s-s-y. You'd have thought they were Westin's mother. They watched him like a hawk and kept trying to tell me what he could and couldn't do ("He can't play with that... it's for big kids." Not true. "He can't touch that." Not true either.) It cracked me up, but at the same time, I was thinking WOW... this stuff starts early!

Little girls in particular, once they really notice that I'm pregnant, get instantly fascinated. One of the twins just wanted to talk about it a lot and asked all kinds of questions, including what the baby's name was, etc. I really don't think a little boy would have been so interested. So I had a rather lengthy conversation with a 3 year old about "the baby in my boobies". Yep, that's what she kept saying. A little confused, clearly, but I didn't have the heart to correct her because she was so earnest in her little demeanor.

Nice. In just 9 more weeks I can finally get that baby out of my boobies!

Hello 2010

2010-01-07T10:24:00.012-05:00

Hard to believe it's a new decade.... and that we're into double-digits in the new millennium.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's! We enjoyed having my parents stay with us over Christmas, and I also got to see my sister Jennie and her family the day after Christmas. Westin was a lot of fun this year. Quite different than last Christmas, when we were adjusting to being brand new parents and were so sleep deprived yet so happy. This year we weren't quite a sleep deprived, but just as happy!

In fact, here is a picture from last year's Christmas and this year's:

Westin loved opening presents, and he loved playing with what he got. Here are a few more shots of our Christmas morning. You'll notice that our Christmas tree is on top of an end table... this was Jeremy's idea and was the perfect solution to keep our busy little boy away from ornaments and from tearing down the tree. Jeremy secured the whole thing, including the tree skirt, so that if Westin tugged on anything it wouldn't budge! Good work, honey.

Only in Texas.....

2009-12-13T17:28:00.001-05:00

Who doesn't love a Texas-shaped fire pit??!?

Westin is ONE

2009-12-08T09:49:00.010-05:00

Where do you begin when your blog has been silent for two months?

Instead of playing "catch up", I'm just gonna start fresh. First off, Happy Birthday (yesterday) to Westin who turned ONE! I think this was the fastest year of my life. It's truly hard to believe that one year ago I was in the hospital, terribly sore and exhausted, but amazed at the little life that was out of my belly and in my arms. I can honestly say that being a parent has brought the greatest joy to our lives. There is not one day that goes by that my heart is not so full of love for this little boy.

One is a very fun age. He's not quite walking, but that should happen literally any day now. Westin is a little sponge and he learns new things every day. He will try to mimic most things we do. He loves to give "high-5s", blow kisses, and will even lean in and give you a big wet kiss (with tongue, if you're lucky!). He has 8 teeth and is finally getting some hair, though he's still fairly bald. He's independent one minute, and the next minute will crawl back into whatever room I'm in and into my lap. I love it. He has the biggest laugh that is absolutely contagious. He can also be a little stinker.... our current challenge is keeping him away from the trash can. He knows he's not supposed to play with the trash, so he'll crawl to the trash can, turn around to see if we're watching, and then will giggle and dive in.

He has a doctor's appointment this afternoon for his one year checkup, so we'll see how big he is and how much he weighs. I think he's still in the upper percentile of everything.

Here's to many, many more wonderful years with our son, and our other son that's still in my belly!

Howdy Y'all!

2009-10-12T09:04:00.008-04:00

I promise I've never said "howdy y'all" in my entire life, nor has any of my family or Texas friends (that I know of). But hey... I'm a Texan once again, so I'd better brush up on the colloquialisms. I think my favorite is "I'm fixin' to....". I know I used to say this when I lived in Texas 10 years ago, but somewhere along the way it dropped out of my vocabulary. On Friday, I heard it again for the first time and couldn't help but smile. I was setting up a bank account here in Fredericksburg, and one of the bankers told her colleagues she was fixin' to leave for the day. Gotta love it!

So... we're here. The past month has been somewhat of a blur. When Westin and I landed in Houston on September 23rd, I think I was as tired as I've ever been - INCLUDING just after giving birth to Westin! I was out of it for about 2 days. And somewhat emotional. My sweet sisters got the brunt of it. I was near tears for the first 4 or 5 days I was in Texas. At my sister Julie's church the first Sunday I was here, I literally had to leave the worship service because I was crying so hard. I was just sad that I wasn't at my own church, and sad that I might not ever be there again. And I'm sure being pregnant, tired, and hormonal didn't help things either. :-)

I got to spend about 5 days with my sisters and their kids in Houston. Jennie drove down from Dallas with her 2 boys, and all the cousins were together for a full 4 days. It was quite a zoo, and not for the faint-hearted, but it was wonderful. 6 boys under the age of 5 is exhausting, not to mention LOUD. But so many fun memories were made, and I caught a glimpse of the good times to come. Unfortunately, at least half of the boys got sick, my son included. I've never seen poor little Westin so puny and snotty. Jeremy showed up 5 days after I arrived in Houston, and it was great to see him. Life is just better with my husband around me! Julie and Daron were saints and let Jeremy and I escape for one night without Westin. We got a hotel in downtown Houston, and I spent my first night away from our little guy. It was SO needed.

Left to right: Back row - Reid (3), Cade (5). Middle row - Cooper (21 months), Landry (2). Back row - Luke (5 months), Westin (10 months).

And in March, we're adding yet another BOY to the mix! I found out the gender of our baby just a few days ago. What fun these cousins will have as they grow up together.

After leaving Houston, we made the 3 and a half hour trip down to my parents' house in Rockport, where we spent one full week with them. Westin got to know his grandparents, and we had a great time with them.

And finally, 2 weeks after I arrived in Texas, we made our way to our new hometown of Frederickburg. I honestly can't believe we get to live here. It is such a quaint, scenic, and very friendly town. It's in the heart of what's called the Texas Hill Country, and it is gorgeous. We've been to 3 restaurants to far, and they've all been fantastic. There are a dozen or so wineries within a few miles of us, hiking and rock climbing within 20 minutes, and it's clear that this is a cycling mecca in Texas. Does that sound like us or what???

This morning Westin and I kissed Jeremy goodbye and sent him off to his first official day of work as an RN. Our new lives have begun.

Loading Day

2009-09-22T07:22:00.004-04:00

Today is THE day... the day we load up our worldly belongings and put them on a trailer. We're beginning to say goodbye to North Carolina.

Sunday was a surprisingly emotional day for me. I honestly didn't see it coming, but I wept at church. It all started during the very last song before the service ended (gee thanks, Stephen!). It was a very powerful song, and I just started to be overwhelmed and sad that we are leaving this amazing church community. I have never been part of such a Jesus-seeking, down-to-earth, people-loving community of people before. It's powerful stuff. We had decided at the start of the service to seek out the pastors to say goodbye, but at the end of the service when my emotions were so raw, I sort of just wanted to run out of the building and not come back. I knew that I'd be a mess saying goodbye, and indeed I was. Fortunately, everyone was very gracious and sweet with my tears.

Now we're just tired and ready to have this over with. Westin has woken up at 5am the past 3 mornings... not sure what that's about, but we haven't enjoyed it. Oh well. Maybe it was a good thing today, as it got us up and at 'em earlier than we would have thought (hence, blogging at 7am while he's down for his first nap and before I get heavy into the crazy day ahead).

My next post will most likely be from Texas!

Goodbye, North Carolina. We have loved you, and we will miss you.

Packing

2009-09-20T09:03:00.004-04:00

It's Sunday morning and we are t-i-r-e-d (it doesn't help that Westin decided to wake up at 5:30am this morning - what the heck???). We've been neck deep in packing since Tuesday morning. Fortunately, we got off to a great start when 3 angels named Christine, Becky, and Pat graced our home and spent 3 hours kicking some serious packing butt. They helped a TON, and they got me motivated to continue on. Then, yesterday (Saturday) my dear friend Stephanie came over and we knocked out a whole bunch more. She is a workhorse which is so good for me! So really, all that's left is the garage (Jeremy's job), Westin's room (my job) and some last minute things. We are very pleased with the position we're in. The moving trailer gets here Tuesday morning. We hope to start loading shortly after lunch on Tuesday.

(AND WE HOPE TO HAVE LOTS OF HELP, FOR THOSE LOCAL FRIENDS WHO ARE READING THIS!) :-)

Westin did his best to help us pack, as you can tell from the pictures below.

Uh-oh

2009-09-16T22:17:00.003-04:00

This was the sight Jeremy and I beheld as we entered Westin's room after his nap 2 days ago:

That's the first time he's ever stood up in his crib (that we know of, I guess!). We're in for it now, huh?

Texas bound

2009-09-15T07:46:00.003-04:00

Man, oh man have we been busy.

Lots to be grateful for:
- We sold our house, and are closing October 6th.
- Jeremy got an RN position at Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, TX and starts October 12.
- We sold a car and bought another one in a week's time, and were able to get an older but very nice SUV that we paid cash for.
- We have a healthy baby growing inside me that is due March 14th.
- Westin is 9 months old and is the most precious thing.
- We got to spend a week in Oregon with Jeremy's family.
- We'll get to spend a week and a half in Texas with my family before Jeremy starts his job.
- We had a going-away party given in our honor last weekend with a lot of our church friends that was very sweet.

Now it's all about packing. Yuck. My least favorite part of moving.

I haven't spent a lot of time dwelling on the fact that we're moving away from a place we'd grown to love over the past 6 years. There are so many memories here... of friends, of adventures, of milestones, of growth. I'm sure when I allow myself to really stop and feel all of it there will be some tears, but not right now. I'm all business at the moment.

We're out of here on September 23rd. That's a mere 8 days away. I better go pack......

Lots

2009-08-20T07:46:00.003-04:00

What a difference a week can make!

Since last Friday, we've had 4 showings, and 2 more are scheduled for today and Saturday. One of them is a second showing, which is encouraging! From our feedback, at least 2 buyers are interested in the property. I think we finally have found the right price range, which is exciting.

But wait... there's more! As I type this, Jeremy is on an airplane, flying to San Antonio, Texas. Last Friday he applied to several hospitals, one of them being Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, Texas. Fredericksburg is a little town of about 10,000 people, sort of equi-distant from both San Antonio and Austin. It's in a beautiful part of the state, and is just a really neat area. Well... on Friday afternoon, he got a call from them, and they asked if they could fly him out for an interview today! (He said yes, in case you're wondering.) So, he's on the plane now and will interview this afternoon and fly back tomorrow evening. So exciting!

But wait... there's still more! Within the past 2 weeks, we sold my car (the Mitsubishi Galant) and bought a new one (an Infiniti Qx4). Gotta love Craigslist. We sold our car and found our next car on that site. We needed something bigger, so we bought a 2001 SUV with only 62,000 miles on it. I love it, even though I labored over the color. (If you're on Facebook and want some entertainment, go to my page and read all the comments regarding the survey I took about whether or not to buy it even if I didn't love the color.) It has worked out beautifully, and I really do love it now, color and all!

But wait... there's EVEN more! One of the main reasons we got a bigger car is because Baby #2 is on the way! I'm due March 14th, and I am very happy and excited. So far I'm feeling just fine. I've been pretty tired, but that's really the only symptom I have. We've had 2 doctor's appointments so far, and things are looking great. I'll have another ultrasound on September 14th. Westin and Baby #2 will be 15 months apart. My sisters and I are really close in age too, and they are my best friends, so I'm hoping that will be the case with these two as well.

Lots going on... and lots to pray for if you're so inclined. Thanks!

Praise

2009-08-14T06:40:00.002-04:00

Most of you already know this, but Jeremy took the NCLEX on August 10th, which is the national boards exam for his RN license, and PASSED!

After you take the test, you have to wait 48 hours and then go online and pay $7.95 to get the results. He could check it around 10am on the 12th. That morning, we went out to breakfast so Jeremy wouldn't have to be sitting there thinking about it. It was a nice distraction. Once we got home, Westin immediately went down for a nap. Then Jeremy got nervous and didn't want to check the results himself, so I checked it for him while he sat on the floor with his back to the wall and his head between his knees. I saw the result and said "Congratulations, Jeremy Hansen, RN!". And the dam opened! We both cried... it was a moment of beautiful release. Jeremy has spent 4 long years getting to this point, and now it's official. We praised God, hugged, cried for a bit, and then Jeremy was exhausted the rest of the day (understandably so!).

I couldn't be prouder of my husband. Now the house selling and job searching intensity has been raised, and we're going to get very serious about both. We already dropped the price on our house a significant amount, so we hope that will draw in some lookers (and a buyer). Thanks for your continued prayers!

Waiting...

2009-08-08T06:49:00.006-04:00

Our house has been on the market for almost 7 weeks now. In those 7 weeks, we've had 8 showings. Of the 8 showings, 5 gave feedback afterward. Of those 5, 4 said the exact same thing: they didn't like our floor plan. Ouch. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that, but it's what I feared would be the trouble with selling our home. We have a split level home, which means when you walk in the front door, you step onto a landing and you either go upstairs to the living room, dining, room, kitchen, laundry, and master bedroom, or you go downstairs to the additional bedrooms and bathroom. We've come to really appreciate the floor plan, but of course not everyone is like us. So, we're waiting for just the right buyers, and in the meantime, we're going to do some painting and change up some colors to see if that helps. Oh, and we'll drop the price a good bit too.

In light of all the uncertainty about our house selling, I thought I'd answer some of the most common questions we're getting asked and clear up any confusion.

Question: When do you plan on moving to Texas?
Answer: We don't know.

Question: What will you do if Jeremy gets a job in Texas but your house hasn't sold yet?
Answer: We don't know.

Question: If your house doesn't sell, will you just decide to stay here in NC for a while longer?
Answer: We don't know.

Question: Would you consider renting out your house?
Answer: We don't know.

Hopefully that helps you understand exactly where we are with our move. Clear as mud, right? :-)

Just a normal morning...

2009-07-22T15:47:00.003-04:00

Since many of our family and friends live far away, I thought I'd post a video of "regular Westin". This is a pretty good sampling of his personality and his little babblings. This was taken just yesterday morning. He's very camera-aware, so he tones it down a little bit, but it will still give you an idea of what he's up to these days. Enjoy!

Beach!

2009-07-21T09:57:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Jeremy's sister Angie and her family recently drove (yes, DROVE!) here from Oregon. They're in the midst of a 6 week cross country road trip with Angie and Chris and their 3 kids, Maddie (10), Levi (7) and Lucas (6). They spent over a week and half with us, and we had a wonderful visit. We spent a full week at the beach, at Pine Knoll Shores. We rented a condo with a pool right outside our door, and the beach was less than a minute's walk away. It was a fantastic way to spend a week, and everyone had a great time.

Westin got to spend time with his cousins, who totally doted on him. He LOVED having so much attention, and Angie's kids were very sweet with him. Westin also really loved the water - both the pool and the ocean. He did so great, and we'll be taking him to the pool a lot more often over the summer.

Here are a bunch of pictures. I'll post even more on Facebook, since most of my blog readers are also on there.