Our move to Omaha

Tracy's client in Dallas was Washington Mutual and they went out of business and were purchased by Chase bank. So, without a client, Tracy wouldn't have a job, essentially. So as the account was coming to a close, Tracy was scoping out new accounts. With the economy the way it's been, we didn't feel like we could be picky or choosy. So the first one that came up was the one we took. Hello Omaha.
I was so sad to be leaving my sister in Dallas and all the friends that I had made there. But you gotta go where the job is.
We decided that it would be a good idea to rent once we got there so we could take our time getting to know the area and get a feel for where we would like to buy a house. So, I had this brilliant idea. I thought we should rent a loft downtown. It was an ideal time. We needed an apartment to rent, I always wanted to live in a loft, we didn't have a dog (which was always Tracy's excuse for not wanting to). So Tracy set out to find a loft. He found a great one right in the old Market. Unfortunately, the one he found was not the one that was available. He toured an upper level loft...the building has 6 floors. We got one on the ground level. The cherry hardwood floors apparently weren't on the first floor. We, instead, got industrial berber. With lots of gross stains. Lots of other perks came along with the first floor. We got people peeing on our windows, we got to go outside at 1am to break up fights that were right outside our bedroom window, we got to hear AND feel the front door to the building close every time someone went in or out. WHAT WAS I THINKING????? So, within the first week of living there we started looking for a house. At that point, we didn't care where we lived....as long as it wasn't on the first floor of the Joslyn Lofts!
Luckily, we found a great house in a great neighborhood in a great ward and it's close to Target. So, I'm happy! LOL
Here are some pictures of the new place. Of course, this is the sellers furniture but they show the house.

Here is the front of the house:



The entryway, looking back at the front door:




The entryway, looking in to the living room:


Living Room:


Dining area (it's an eat-in kitchen):


From dining area, looking into the living room:


Looking into the kitchen:


In the kitchen- yes, we will be making big changes in the kitchen soon:


There is a 1000 sq. ft. finished basement which we love:


There are a lot more pictures but I don't want to bore anyone. I think sometimes pictures that are of interest to us, are not so interesting to others. LOL

Sweet Callie Girl

OK, so I haven't updated our blog for a looooong while. Mostly it is because we have just been soooooo busy with selling our house and moving and then moving again and trying to settle into our new house. But part of it is because we lost our sweet Callie in April to Osteosarcoma (bone cancer). I wanted to blog about her as a tribute or memorial or something but I just couldn't bring myself to write about her...somehow it would make it more real. And I didn't want to update the blog until I did the post about Callie. So I just didn't update the blog....maybe to avoid bringing it all to the surface. I still can't believe she is gone. We miss her so much! So I wanted to post some pictures of her. This is my Callaway.

I am very thankful to my sister, Joy, for coming over to our house to take some pictures of Callie before we had to let her go. They are all so perfect.

Her sweet paws....


A close up....you can see her swollen wrist in this picture. That is the bone where the cancer was. She could barely walk.


A shot with Callie and Xander together. I told him to give her a kiss. My sweet babies.


Another close up. I love those eyes. They seem to know more than you would think a dog should know.


Just some random shots of Callie that make me smile:

Xander and Callie Christmas 2007


This is Callie on the couch when we lived in Chicago.


Callie with baby Xander.


One of our family pics for Christmas 2007.


Our Christmas picture in Chicago 2002.