Winter Wonderland!

Ahh, the smell of sugar cookies in the air, the sound of sidewalk Santa's ringing their bell, the hustle bustle of the crowds at the store, and the wonderful moment of the season. You know it guys, it's Christmas time!!! I, Ryan, am more of a Christmas fanatic than my lovely wife is. This year is a first for me because we are living at Gloria's house which means we have a home to decorate rather than an apartment. We realized the reality of this when Des got all of our decorations out and realized that when you have "too many" decorations for an apartment, they barely fill a room in a home. So off to Khol's and Michaels for more goodies. Des did a great job decorating the inside, especially the mantle in the family room, but since I am writing this blog entry, we are gonna focus more on the man's part of the home, the outside! Over a 3 day period, multiple runs to the store, sore hands, 4 main extension cords, about 10 smaller extension cords, more near ladder falls than I enjoy, and a countless number of light bulbs, the outside is finished!

For those of you that enjoy decorating the outsides of your homes for the holidays, you might enjoy laughing at my troubles. First off you have to sit and plan how you want everything to look. From which color goes where, whether you want straight lines or curved up this post, how low to hang the icicles, and so forth. But once that is done, the fun really begins. It's then time to unravel every strand and test them all out. After that task has been completed you get to extend that ladder, hop on the roof and get to work.

In our front yard we have a very very large tree. My eyes are a lot bigger than my brain and at the planning stage of my adventure I planned to go pretty high in that tree and out almost every limb. Then I extended my little giant as far as it would go, got up in that tree and realized how stupid i was! Once the tree was completed it was off to work on the icicle lights for the house.

If you have ever read the warning label on the box that holds the lights, it tells you to not hook up more than 2 strands together. I don't know about you but I can't see how you can decorate a home by only putting 2 strands together. After the house was finished I started working on the candy canes and then the bushes and then the border. If you know me you know that I am no electrician. I had fuses blowing on me left and right! After a process of taking section of the home and dividing them up onto different plugs, everything was working the way it should be. Now you may be looking at this picture and be saying to yourself, "But Ryan, there are no deer and where is Santa and a Nativity?" Well my friends, there are many more Christmas's to come and you can only spend so much each year!

Des and I finally found enough time together now that school is over for the semester to get our tree and decorate it. I of course wanted the $160 Noble Fir that was perfectly shaped at all angles and was 12 feet tall, but we found a good looking one that was cheaper and actually fits in the house that sits at about 7 feet. The tree is decorated in ornaments that Des and I have gotten together along with a few from her childhood that her mother gave us and it looks great, she did a good job in putting it all together. While she was hanging everything up I was playing with the lights yet again. Once i got to the top of the tree, all the lights on the tree would go out. So I'd replace the fuse then continue working and they would go out again. Eventually it got to the point where the fuse in the house would blow and all the lights in that part of the house, the garage, and all my outside lights would shut off.

Everything works fine now, you just can't open the garage and have the washing machine going while the Christmas lights are on.

Well I hope you enjoy our pictures and wish everyone a great Christmas!!

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!

SURPRISE SURPRISE WE ARE HAVING A BABY...


Well if you know all the important announcements that have taken place with Ryan and I... You know that they had not gone the way we would have liked such as:
1. Ryan and I telling his parents that he is moving to Nevada (us implying that we are getting married) with Rod leaving the restaurant, thinking that ryan was just dropping out of school.
2. Me throwing up 10 minutes before Ryan proposed to me
3. Locking our wedding clothes with the key in the trunk and being over an hour late to our own wedding.
Well you can see how important things kinda crash and burn with us. (well at least we will never forget exactly what happened and now we look back and laugh. Well, me telling Ryan that we are having a baby is another thing that we can add to our list.

Let the story begin...

I found out that I was pregnant on October 3rd. I decided that I wasn't going to tell Ryan till the following week because he was leaving in two days to fly to Tennessee to take his physical for the fire department. By the time he was getting back, I was already in California visiting Matilda and Gus. When I got home, I took Ryan down to Mandalay Bay to get a charactcher done for our Christmas Cards. Knowing that I was pregnant, I went early to ask the artist if he could draw me pregnant when I came back with Ryan. The artist agreed only under the condition that Ryan would be excited to find out. I said," of course he would be!!!"
Since Ryan hates talking to people, it was already awkward sitting there and we were minutes away from Ryan being late to work. The artists finishes the picture, turns it around with me throwing my arms in the air saying YEA!!!!!! Ryan stood up and said k lets go. So I ask Ryan," Do you get it?" and not taking a closer look he just said," Ya, let's go I'm going to be late."

Moments later I break out in tears while Ryan, completely lost of why I'm crying, tries to fix things. I tell him that I'm pregnant and learn that he only looked at the faces of the people on the picture. And out of courtesy to the artist, said yeah he got it, when really he was so focused on trying to figure out who the drawings of the people were suppose to be. In the midst of it all, I shout out, "Do you think I'd want them to draw me pregnant for fun?" Ryan being Ryan says, "well yeah."
All things put behind us, he was very excited!!

We've already had our first baby appointment and got pictures of little Raymond (that's Ryan's name for the baby that I hate) Everything looks great with the little guy. Although he does only have one arm at the time, but the other should be there by now! The next appointment is on December 6 and we will keep you all updated with all the news!!

Nashville Update!!

Remember how I went to Nashville and took the physical for the Fire Department there, well after passing that I moved on into the next phase of the selection process which was a comprehensive written exam that took 3 hours to complete. After waiting a few months to get my results back, they came in this past week. I GOT A PERFECT SCORE ON THE WRITTEN TEST and have been placed in the OUTSTANDING category within the hiring process. I have an interview with the department in January. Thanks for all the help and support guys!

Nashville Fire Department Test

A few weeks ago I flew to Nashville Tennessee to take the physical portion of the recruitment process to try and get on the Nashville Fire Department. I got up Monday morning and drove to the fire academy where I checked in to take the physical portion of the test. The experience started out by having us candidates stand around in the weight room where we put our turnouts and SCBA on. Then we all stand at the door and wait to have our name called to go out and run the course. The first station is an 85 foot ladder climb. This part of the test isn't timed, but they want you to do it under 5 minutes. After the ladder climb you head over to the burn tower. The next section is timed and you have to complete it all in under 6 minutes to pass the test. You start out by picking up a high rise pack and go up 3 flights of stairs and then back down, touching every step. Then you place the high rise pack back on the rack and head outside where you pick up a hose and pull it 200 feet. Then you go across the lot where you pick up an exhaust fan and place it on a platform 58 inches high and then back on the ground. Then your last station is the body drag. You pick up the harness and drag a body that weighs 185 pounds a total of 50 feet.
After running through all the stations, I completed the ladder climb in 2 minutes and 49 seconds and finished the timed course in 1 minute and 59 seconds !!
Here are a few pictures of what the course would have looked like if I would have taken pictures.

Minnesota Part 2

While we were in Minnesota we went to a Japanese festival, and here are some photos!





We also went on a boat ride on Lake Minnetonka. (Interesting fact..... "minne" stands for water, thats why everything there is "minne" something.) I haven't been on a boat in a long time so I was really looking forward to it. We boated to a little island where we had a picnic. Ryan and I wandered off and took a hike where we saw jumping frogs and a deer lol (I was excited minus the off-roading trail we took to get back).





Mall of America was BIG! That's all I really need to say about that :)

Rod and Carrie took us to this natural spring where you can go and fill up your water bottles. It was so cool. The picture with the half naked guy had all of those bottles plus his whole trunk full. Geez save some for the rest of us will ya.

Minnesota Part 1

Last week Ryan and I went to "The Land Of 10,000 Lakes"; if I wanted to get technical there are actually 11,842 lakes over 10 acres each. P.S. I'm talking about Minnesota if you didn't know. All I really have to say is I'm packin up my bags and moving wether Ryan comes with me or not lol jk, but no it's seriously beautiful there.

It was funny when we were planning the trip we figured 5 days would be plenty of time to get out of Vegas and see Rod and Carrie and their new place of living but after being there we realized we are going to have to come back because there is just so much to see there. We had such a wonderful time, it was nice to leave all our stress and worries (not that we have many) in Vegas and get out for a few days. Sometimes you just really have to get out of town for your own sanity.

When we landed we were waiting outside for Rod and Carrie to pick us up and while we were outside I notices some purple rocks. I thought that was so pretty and different at the same time but we realized as we got closer that they weren't actually rocks they were broken pieces of glass. Not that any of you should care I just thought it was cool and here is a picture of it.

While we were in Minnesota we went to a county fair and let me tell you this is what did it for me

What is different in these picture that makes clark county fair and this fair different....
da dada daaaa....
GRASS!!!
It was so funny there was this girl wearing white pants and I was thinking to myself... why is she wearing white, by the end of the day those are going to be brown. but..... then I realized that there was no dirt around just grass lol.

While we were at the fair we watched the crash dirby, basically bumper cars for adults. It was a lot of fun but where we were sitting I was really nervous that the cars were going to come over the barrier and hit us, so I asked Ryan if I could sit on the end of the bleachers just incase I had to make a run for it.

When I was looking at the photos I realized the cars had license plate with tags on them.... Do they seriously have to registure those pieces of junk to just smash them up????

This is what they looked like before they started...

And this is what they looked like after...




BOYS.....

So here are a few pictures of my future town.




Well since I am a Muir now I eat Japanese food thanks to Rod (Ryan's dad). Rod served his mission in Japan so I am guessing thats why they like Japanese food so much. I must say I don't think I would have ever tried any of it if it weren't for them. I LOVE edamami! Plus it's the only vegetable that Ryan will eat so we eat it a lot. The one thing that I will never eat that the Japanese has in their culture is fish.... blaaa I can't even stand the smell of it. Sometimes depending on what someone ordered I have to constantly have a piece of my food by my nose because the smell of the fish is just soooo strong that it makes me ill. Anyways on to what I was going to write about. While we were in Mineapolis we went to this little Japanese restaruant right outside downtown Mineapolis. It was so yummy I think I ate more off everyones plate than my own. I don't know what it is about me and ordering me something different but I just cant do it so I'll just try something from someone else plate and I end up loving it. We liked the place we went there twice!

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Never Play Games With Me

5. I am a sore loser
4. I quit while I'm ahead
3. I rub it in your face when I'm winning
2. I make sure you don't cheat
last but not least....
DRUM ROLLLLLL..................
1. I always cheat
ME KICKIN TRASH P.S. that shirt should say don't mess with Desi

Camryn and her BEAUTIFUL smile and grandma Gloria

***Whats that Ryan?!?!? You landed on my Time Square with two houses on it... Ummmm that will be 6 million dollars please***

Ryan always acts like he has no clue I'm taking a picture.


P.S.S Don't tell but I did cheat in this game.

I am sorry I always blog about Matilda and Gus but they are just so cute.
Matilda and Gus came down about a week ago and I took them to the water park at Town Square. They had so much fun! Matilda is such a little DIVA; I told her to smile and this what she started to do. All I can say is... Courtney and Jason... you better lock her up. lol.




Gus probably had the most fun, and I am sure you can tell by the look on his face in every picture.