WHAT????!!!???

That's right - it's snowing in Vegas - and not just a little bit! Every winter, people get all hyper and say that it's snowing when it's really just sleeting, so I didn't think anything of it when my students told me that it was snowing today. When I went out to my car, I believed them. It really snowed for a good 4 or 5 hours this afternoon and the weather guys say that it will keep going through the night. Seriously crazy. I had to document it. It was too cold for me to stay out very long, so you only get a few pics from right around my apartment.
This is our front door (the one on the bottom).

Our very snowy sidewalk

The pool :-) The lounge chairs are usually a little more inviting than they look here :-)
Who knew that palm trees don't hold up so well in the snow?

Proof that I was there, in the snow.

We're Crazy....

Why do we say yes to these kinds of things?
Let me tell you about our weekend.
Friday was an extremely busy day for both of us. Moose's deliveries are getting really busy right now around the holiday season and I had a pep assembly to run at school. I don't even know if words can explain how busy the day was, but I'll move on.
After school and work on Friday, we ate dinner, went to the mall, then came home and went to bed at about 8:30. Our alarm clock rang at 11:30 that night, we got up, got ready, and drove across town to Cimmaron Memorial High school.
Why, you might ask? We got roped into chaperoning the KEY club trip to Magic Mountain because the actual advisors from my school couldn't go.
The entire event was one of the most disorganized things I have ever been a part of. We were supposed to meet at the school at 1:00 am. They put 1100 kids into different parts of the school and made them wait there for 2 hours before they let us on the busses. Why? Really no reason - they were just disorganized. After all 24 charter busses were loaded, we headed for California. 12 busses at a time stopped at the McDonalds in Barstow. Since it was so early in the morning, McDonalds was the only thing open and you can imagine how crowded it got.
We got back on the busses and drove the rest of the way. When we got there, all of the other advisors had this piece of paper that was a ticket purchase confirmation - I was given nothing. I asked the KEY club president why and she told me that our school banker didn't actually send the money in, so we all had to buy our tickets at the gate. HOWEVER, the people in charge wouldn't let my kids (21 of them) get off the bus until they had their tickets in hand. SO, Moose and I had to get $23 (which is how much the peple told us they cost) from each kid, walk all the way to the entrance gate, buy the tickets and walk all the way back to the bus. WELL, when we got to the front gate, we found our that the tickets cost $23 if you bought them ahead of time, and $27 if you bought them at the gate - and they only took cash. Clearly, we did not have enough money. Some nice people who had extra tickets sold us some at the $23 price and then we pitched in what we had brought of our own money. We went back to the bus, got $2 from every kid to re-imburse ourselves and then we all finally got to go into the park.
After all that hassle, we were in the park from around 10:30am-6pm. In all of that time, we were able to ride 4 rides because it was so crowded. The first ride that we went on was totally worth it - it was called Tatsu and it was the scariest ride I have EVER been on.
At 6pm, we got back on the bus, drove back to Vegas, got to the school at midnight, back to our apartment around 1 and slept like babies.
I think we need experiences like this to remind us that we are NOT all that young anymore. I feel like I've been hit by a mack truck. Oh well, thank goodness it's over.

Fwd: You're celebrating...?

This email made my day!!!!

Hi Katie

I knew you were celebrating but I had no idea you'd go this far. How did you get Disney to do that?

http://www.sun7news.com/index.php?code=512UfU911F7RxG8Wp66S&CMP=OTC-WWYCOVS1001

Cheers,

Douglas

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

We weren't going to get a Christmas tree this year. It's not that we don't love the holiday season, but we don't have much room and will be spending most of the holiday season in California anyway. However, my sweet mother-in-law bought us the cutest little ornament (2 little moose characters holding a sign that says Katie and Kyle: 2008) so we HAD to have something to hang it on. We ended up getting this cute little tree at Target for 10 bucks. I decorated it with some random stuff around the house and voila! it feels like Christmas around here. Moose and I agree that we're glad we got the tree - it feels so much more festive in our apartment now.

When we came home from Target, we found this lovely little card on our doorstep:

Not that there's anything wrong with the card - I LOVE Christmas cards (by the way - email me your address already so that I can send you one) - but I just found it SO funny. I guess in Las Vegas it really is easier to just assume that people speak Spanish instead of English.

Feliz Navidad!

It's that time of year....

It's Christmas card time! You would think that I would have everyone's addresses since I sent wedding announcements out recently, but I don't :-) Actually, it's been A WHOLE YEAR since I was compiling my wedding invitation list - can you belive it? Anyway, if you want a Christmas card, don't assume that I have your address! Email it to me at katie.haycock@gmail.com
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We really are good dancers - see!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

This is SO Funny

Many thanks to Brittany for posting this on her blog. I almost died I was laughing so hard!

Where should we settle?

I found this quiz on someone else's blog and thought it would be kind of fun. Here are the top places it said we should settle:
1. Page, AZ
2. Payson, AZ
3. Sandpoint, ID
4. Hood River, OR
5. Dillon, MT
6. Jackson, WY
7. Leavenworth, WA
8. Moscow, ID
9. Bisbee, AZ
10. Salida, CO
11. Sheridan, WY
12. Divide, CO
13. Seward, AK
13. Whitefish, MT
14. Metaline Falls, WA
15. Durango, CO
16. Bremerton, WA
17. Helena, MT
18. Wenatchee, WA
19. Steamboat Springs, CO
20. Sedona, AZ
21. Ketchikan, AK
22. Bozeman, MT
23. Moab, UT

These are all seriously small towns in my book. I really need to get Moose to take it and see what it says for him. One thing I know for sure - I sure don't want to be neighbors with Sarah Palin, so we won't be moving to Alaska anytime soon :-)

I'm trying to avoid anything productive right now...

On my way home from work today I was thinking that I need a new hairstyle. Low and behold, I found this website where I could try some new ones on. I came up with some new ideas for the Moose while I was at it. What do you think?

Happy Belated Nevada Day!

Last weekend we had a 3-day weekend to celebrate the day that Nevada became a state. Yeah for Nevada. No state income tax and Nevada day are the two best reasons to live in Nevada!
For the long weekend, we went to Pine Valley, Utah (near St. George). The main purpose of the trip was Jensen family pictures (hopefully you can see those soon), but we also had a chance to relax a lot and go fishing.
Here are some pictures of the festivities (apparantly I don't take any pictures of myself)

This is the reservoir that we fished at and also where our pictures were taken

This is Moose's best fake smile. On the outside he may be smiling, but on the inside he was thinking - take the picture so that I can fish already!This is Moose baiting his hook. The fish REALLY liked the powerbait we were using. Unfortunately, they were really smart fish and kept figuring out how to get it off of the hook without biting down on the hook. Darn those smart fish!

If you know me, you know that I'm not really into fish in any form. This is a picture of me being a really good helper and holding the smelly jar of powerbait.
Moose is a really good fisherman. At one point he brought in two of them at a time! Okay, maybe it was just a fluke, but I still think he should be proud.

This is my sister-in-law, Kami and one of the fish that she caught. No one was catching anything for a while and then all of a sudden she got several right in a row. The boys were getting pretty frustrated that she was beating them in the fish count.I'm not sure for the technical term for it, but everyone was catching a lot of what I call lake-weed. It looked like seaweed, but clearly, we were not anywhere near the sea. This is Moose picking the lake-weed off of his hook.
This is my father-in -law, Jeff, and one of his many catches.
While we were out fishing, I read one of Moose's favorite books - The Hatchet. It was a really good book - I don't know how I never read it before. It was especially fun to read outside.

Moose's brother Kaden and his wife Heather were also there, but for some reason I don't have any pictures of them - sorry guys!

I almost fogot! For those of you who know how much I hate fish, you will be proud. I tried some of it and I didn't die! I didn't like it, but I would probably choose it over some other horrible things if I had to. I think my main problem is that I really get nauseous when I have any meat on my plate that resembles the animal that it came from (whole fish, chicken on the bone, etc.) I know, I have issues.

All in all, a great time was had by all. I'm pretty excited about the 4 day weekend this week - Hooray for Veteran's Day!

finally.............

gObama!

For Your Enjoyment...

To my Moose:

Breathing again

Why has it been so long since I've posted? I know that's the question on your mind, so here's the answer: HOMECOMING. I know, I know, I'm not in high school anymore. Sometimes it's hard to remember that when you're the student council advisor. Here's a rundown of what I've been up to for the last week and a half:
iHomecoming week (like iPod, get it?)

Monday: iRap Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Rap-star relay races at all 3 lunches
Help Moose get the truck push-started when it wouldn't start
Powder Puff Football game

Tuesday: iRock Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Air guitar competition at all 3 lunches
Students vs. teachers kickball game after school

Wednesday: iRetro Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Limbo competition at all 3 lunches
Decorate the gym
Pack the Gym for Women's Volleyball

Thursday: iRodeo Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Line dancing and Hitching Post at all 3 lunches
Make sure everything is ready for Friday

Friday: iRoar Day
Teach class
Dress-up day
Set up for school-wide assembly
Host all 2200 students and entertain them for 50 minute assembly
Clean up the assembly
Set up for the dance
Set up for the tailgate party
Host the tailgate party
Clean up the tailgate party
Get ready for homecoming half-time show
Half-time show
Clean up all of the leftover crap

Saturday:
Finish setting up for the Homecoming dance
Arrive early to the dance to meet the DJ and photographers
Work at the Homecoming dance
Clean up the homecoming dance

Sunday:
SLEEP for the first time in a week.

Monday:
Go to school and try to pick up the pieces from a week of madness

Tuesday:
Feel awful and come home from school early.

Wednesday:
Stay home from school
Start to feel better
BLOG

Any Questions?

Magic!

A few days ago we accidentally got an ink stain on our couch from a ballpoint pen. It wasn't very big, just about a 2 inch line, but it was right in the middle of the cushion and it was pretty obvious. I tried to wash it out with water, but nothing happened. I looked online and found a website where a bunch of people said to use hand sanitizer on it. I was kind of skeptical and a little bit afraid that it would stain the couch, but I decided to try it. Seriously - it was like magic. I just put a small line of the hand sanitizer over the stain, then gently rubbed with a white towel and the stain was INSTANTLY gone! I didn't even have to rub hard at all - it just disappeared. I'm sure this will come in very handy when we have kids. Just thought I'd share since I know that lots of you have microfiber couches.

SO TIRED!

We moved this weekend and we're exhausted. How do 2 people have so much stuff? Because of the effort it took to move, we've decided to stay in this apartment for a LONG time. Well, longer than we've stayed everywhere else, which is only about 6 months! Other than living out of boxes, things are going well. School is busy for both of us, but we're both pretty happy with our schedules this semester. We are really looking forward to some of our favorite TV shows coming back on and we LOVE it when you guys blog, so stop being lazy and write something already! :-)

Real life is starting again...

Well it's back to work and school for both of us now, and we miss summer! We finished out our last weekend of freedom with a quick trip to the exotic Mesquite, NV and then decided to spontaneously extend it with one more night in the even more exciting Primm, NV. Where are those places, you might ask - EXACTLY. The middle of nowhere is the perfect place to relax, so that's where we went. Actually, the Oasis resort in Mesquite comps CCSD teachers a 2 night stay during the summer, so we took advantage of that. On our way back to Vegas from Mesquite, we decided that we weren't realdy for summer to be over so we drove right on past Vegas and to Primm which is on the state line of Nevada and California. We had a great time there - rode the rollercoasters and shopped at the outlet mall and just RELAXED!
Now that we've been back, responsibilities have hit us in the face and we're busy, busy, busy. Besides school starting, we're moving in 2 weeks from today and have not made as much progress packing as we should -oh well, it will get done one way or the other. Hope to have a more exciting post for you soon, but for now it is off to bed. Goodnight :-)

Arizona and Lisa

Last weekend we went to visit our friends, John and Cindy, in Mesa, Arizona. It was so nice to get out of town for a few days and just relax. My sister, Lisa, was also there visiting so we got to spend some time with her too. While we were there we spent a lot of time sleeping in, playing Wii, lounging around and EATING at tons of great places.
One of our favorite shows on the Food Network is called Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. A couple months ago we were watching it and they featured a place called Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert, Arizona. It looked so good that we decided to try it while we were there. Seriously, it was the BEST hamburger restaurant we have EVER been to. It is a rennovated old house right next to their farm, so mostly everything they use in the restaurant is really fresh from the farm. I had a delicious cheeseburger, Moose had the Fontina burger, Lisa had chicken strips that you could tell were actually made from real chicken, and we all shared some onion rings. I wish that we had gone back the next day because I'm still dreaming about how good it was. Here are some pictures from our visit there:
Recently, John and Cindy got a new dog named Gracie. She is a really cute little dog and we had fun playing with her. Interestingly, she had a HUGE crush on Moose. Seriously, she followed him everywhere. Wherever he was, she needed to be. Honestly, after a few days I was a little bit jealous :-)
For all of you who know my history with animals, this picture is for you:
After our visit with John and Cindy, we decided to bring Lisa back to Las Vegas with us for a few days. While she was here we put her to work and "let" her practice cooking. She did a great job. We decided to let her have the day off on Sunday and we made meatloaf. Normally meatloaf wouldn't be something to blog about, but this time we made it in the shape of a football in honor of the preseason football games that have started. Moose's favorite time of year is starting up again and he is very excited. I expect that most of our food for the next 5 months or so will have some sort of football theme.

Charity Case

Last night some friends of ours that I work with invited us over for dinner and games. We had a great time - they made delicious steak, potatoes, and asparagus, we played lots of fun Wii games and talked for hours. However, the best part was the free stuff. I don't know if people just feel bad for us poor newlyweds or if we are just the luckiest people ever, but look at the cool free stuff they gave us!

It may be hard to tell, but this is the heaviest TV ever! In the picture it looks like it is exactly the same size as the one we already have in the background, but it is really a LOT bigger. We are excited that we have the perfect space for it in our new apartment - that's right - we're moving (again!) in a few weeks.

I have also been wanting to learn how to golf and they gave us these awesome clubs! We've been looking on Freecycle and at DI, but we hadn't found any that were in good shape. These are pretty old, but they'll be perfect.

Haircutting adventures...

Tonight I gave my very first haircut. It was a little more awkward than I thought it would be, but I got the hang of it after a while. It really doesn't help that my husband has curly hair and is still taller than me while he is sitting down, but I think I did a pretty darn good job :-)
Here's the before picture (isn't he SO cute?):

And the after:






What do you think?

Gettin' Crafty With It.....

This weekend I was feeling crafty. A while back, we went camping and thought that it would be fun and functional to have some carrying cases for some of our camping equipment. We went to the fabric store shortly after we got home and Moose picked out this cute and durable desert camo fabric. I finally got around to designing the pattern and making the cover for the camp stove (Moose's family calls it a Cache Cooker) this weekend. I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Lessons we've learned in marriage

In the last four months, we've learned a lot about each other and ourselves. I think that one of the most important lessons we've learned is that we really do like things that we thought we hated. Moose has been a really good sport about watching So You Think You Can Dance with Me (as long as we fast forward through Mary Murphy's commentary). He is actually a very good judge and can predict exactly what the judges will say and who will get kicked off and why!

I have learned what Ultimate Fighting is, and have actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The fighting is actually pretty entertaining once you get past the awkwardness of most of the holds that they put each other in. :-) Last night we went over to Moose's boss's house and watched the fight. They have a really nice house and it was fun to get to know them better - especially since I'm going to start teaching piano to 2 of their kids later this summer.

Have any of you learned similar lessons?

Retail Therapy

Yesterday started out as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I woke up in a bad mood, when I went to get dressed none of my clothes were cute or fit right, I had a ton of things that I needed to do (including write a talk for church the next day) and I didn't want to do any of them. Moose and I decided that we would go get our hair cut with a coupon that we got in the mail. Turns out the coupon was expired, but we got the hair cuts anyway. Bad idea. I knew from the second that I sat in the chair and she was rude to me that I shouldn't let her touch my hair, but for some reason I just sat there while she chopped and chopped and made snippy comments about how damaged and horrible she thought my hair was. The worst part is that when I told her that I didn't want her to cut any more off the front she told me that she hadn't cut any off the front at all, which was a blatant lie because I just watched her do it. I asked her why the front was 4 inches shorter than the back and she said that's how it was - it is just SO broken and damaged. PUH-LEASE old lady!!!! You're just crazy and trying to cover up your mistake. Luckily Moose had already paid at the front counter so I could let her know that I was very dissatisfied and make my dramatic exit.
After a few tears and then taking a shower and styling it myself, Moose helped me to realize that it's not as big of a disaster as it seemed - it just is really choppy, especially in the front. I decided to cheer myself up with a technique that my mother taught me - RETAIL THERAPY. For those of you who don't know this, spending money really can make you happy! Here are my purchases from yesterday. I know that some of them might not seem that exciting, but they really were to me.

Badly needed eye makeup remover.
I didn't believe that 5 blades could possibly be that much better than 4, but boy was I wrong!
TONS of new shampoo - gotta love Costco!!

Some really comfy sweat-shorts to wear around the house.
Some cute new jean shorts for the HOT summer in Vegas. I also think they'll come in handy on my trip to Texas next week.


A really cute brown swim cover-up dress thingy.

The book I've been dying to read - now I'll have something to do on the way to Texas!

In conclusion, retail therapy works!