Well first of all Merry Belated Christmas to you all! I don't know about you but it was a wonderful Christmas and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing and being with family and friends. I hope you all felt the spirit of Christmas in your own homes and hearts. Well, today I want to blog about teddy bears. It just so happens that 4 years ago Andy got me a little nurse teddy bear from Build-A-Bear that I accidentally lost. He always accuses me of purposefully losing it which I emphatically deny! That being said, for Christmas this year he decided to relive the dream and get me a nurse teddy bear from Build-A-Bear. Now call me heartless but I really wasn't all that sad when the first one went missing and I really have no use for one now. Andy and I having been married for 5.5 years now and neither of us flinched or whined when I asked for the receipt. So I'm at the Build-A-Bear place and there are little girls all over the shop and they have a station for naming your bear along with a woman working at the stuffing machine in her cute littple apron talking to the kids about how their teddy bears will be with them always and there are signs everywhere for the "Teddy Bear Promise" which is they will always love you and look after you. So I'm standing in line feeling a little out-of-place and like a heel for returning mine when the woman in front of me with teddy bear outfits and teddy bears literally bursting from her arms turns to talk to me and asks me about my bear. When I tell her I am returning mine she looks shocked and a bit affronted and asks me why. I tell her I'm a little old for teddy bears to which she replies with slight indignation, "No one is too old for teddy bears!" I give a half-hearted chuckle and hope the line moves faster. Well, finally its my turn and they let me return my bear and I am $30 dollars richer and have no regrets!

We had an Ugly Christmas Sweater party at Tammy's house and Ty and Andy were the top rated for their ugly christmas sweaters! In the end we had a cat-walk to break the tie and Ty won as he had the better runway walk (and I think the better sweater as well!) I will let you be the judge.

Diary of a Wimpy Nurse

So we had the missionaries over for dinner and it was a rainy day so I figured I would make some nice warm beef stew in the crockpot. So I'm chopping carrots, celery potatoes and beef to throw in the pot and while chopping the onions I ended up dicing the tip of my thumb as well. My thumb starts to bleed profusely so I quickly run my thumb under some cold running water and grab a hand towel to try and stop the bleeding. Now, I am a nurse and in my career as a nurse I have seen some pretty nasty things. For example: in Ecuador an arm nearly coming off on a man who was robbed with a machete, a back wound with the spinal cord nearly exposed from the guy's neck to his butt, pressure ulcers that tunnel and go down to the bone, etc, etc. So I can hold my own when it comes to blood but apparently not my own. Thus after dicing my thumb I start to get a little woozy. Then it quickly progresses from being woozy to nauseas and I know I am going into shock. So what do I do? I call my mommy. After calling her I sit on a chair with my head between my knees. I soon realize that it's not working and that I am seconds away from passing out so I lie down on the floor. My whole body goes cold and that queezy feeling in my stomach won't go away and the world starts to go white. So with what little strength I have left in my legs I pull a chair over and lie on the floor with my legs above my head on the chair and wait for my mother. When she knocks I feebly call out for her to use her keys because I can't stand up. She does and opens up the door and finds me with a bloody dish towel and me lying on the floor with my feet on the chair still in my pajamas and robe. My mother is as calm as can be and when I tell her about my going into shock she just says, "yeah, your father does that too!" So we bandage my wound and all I can think is that I am such a wimpy nurse!

Adventures in Dog Ownership

So, we have a very smart, very determined dog! How do I know this? Well, let me tell you the story of our dog Molly. It all started one Satuday afternoon when Andy left for work and placed Molly behind our retractable gate in the garage (see pic below). We newly installed a doggy door in our garage door and were hoping Molly would take the hint and use it to relieve herself outside instead of inside the house. Well, three hours later Andy comes home to find Molly running out of the garage. He quickly grabbed her and put her back behind the gate. He had another quick errand to run and put her behind the gate again. He was only gone ten minutes when once again he opened the garage door and once again Molly came running out to meet him. At this point Andy scratched his head and was wondering how a dog half the height of the gate could be getting out. So he placed her behind the gate and started calling her. She whimpered a little bit and pranced nervously about when all of a sudden she took a running leap from the laundry room and laucnhed herself not over the gate but to the gate and proceeded to climb up and over and out to the open garage! You should know that we have discovered Molly has some form of separation anxiety as she hates to be left alone! Well, we put a big board over the portion of the gate where she was able to climb out and left for church on Sunday morning with Molly behind the gate. Well, I came back from church to find both my parents and Andy at our house. I wondered what was going on. As it turned out, Molly decided she just had to get out and find us so she climbed over the gate in the 12 inch portion that wasn't covered by the board, was diappointed when no one opened the garage door, climbed back over, went out to our backyard and proceeded to open up a chink in the loose wood plank in our backyard fence and escaped! When Andy got home and he didn't find Molly he got worried and called my parents and they went out looking for Molly. Luckily she was found one court down. Three girls had found her and were about to make missing dog posters for Molly. Andy gave them 20 bucks for finding her! So we are glad to have Molly safe and sound, but this isn't the end of the tale. Upon returning to the garage there were bloody paw prints everywhere. Apparently Molly broke a claw in the process of her escape and covered our garage floor with her bleeding paw. Well, the following day Molly started limping and then refused to bear weight on her paw; so today I took her to the vet where she got injectable antibiotics and hew paw cleaned and wrapped. I'm so grateful to have Molly now taken care of and am driving home with Molly on my lap when she starts gagging in my lap. "No Molly! No Molly! Don't!" My futile attempts to prevent dog vomit getting all over me and the car were in vain. So I hurriedly put her over to the next seat while I try to drive home by lifting myself over the seat so as not to sit and drive in her vomit when again she starts gagging! I look over to the seat and see several library books, my purse and phone right in the line of fire! So I swipe those off the seat just in the nick of time as more dog vomit comes my car's way. So, $100 vet bill later and with dog vmoit in my car and on me Molly arrives safely home. But how can you be mad with a face like this!

bleated pictures

Here are just some belated pics of my visit to my sister when she first had her baby (Chance)! I just realized some of you haven't seen my nephew yet! Heather if you are reading this I need some updated photos!

Here is Molly post being groomed. Andy had a hard time of it! He liked her "scrappy" looking. I admit she was cute with her long hair but for sanitary reasons she really needed to have her hair chopped. I think she still looks pretty cute! But I will let you be the judge.

New dog!

Here's Molly! Our newset addition. We think she's pretty cute. Just took her to the vet today. They say she is pretty healthy but has 10 pounds to gain! Just to give you an idea she weighs 11 lbs 8 oz now! You can feel her ribs and hip bones...we can't wait to fatten her up. She is part maltese and part shiz tzu (sp?) and who knows what else. I think she was previously owned as she already knows the sit command and can hold her bladder pretty well. Enjoy and hopefully we will send out more pics as she gets fatter and we're able to get her groomed (can't yet as she was just spayed).

Halloween

For our FHE before Halloween we had some couples over and carved pumkins. Now I want you to guess which one was Andy's and which one was mine....ok, mine was 3rd from the left and Andy's is the huge one on the chair.

Halloween

Andy was a cowboy and I was an indian. Andy did have a moustache but he couldn't stand wearing it as it made him itch! And this boy wants facial hair! Ha!

So here are some pretty pictures of some of our hikes at Lake Tahoe. Enjoy!

Here is how Andy felt about it!

Tahoe!

So our next day Andy decided we needed to do a 28 mile bike ride. The first picture is me and how I felt about it at the end.

Tahoe!

Here is a picture of a bear enjoying the salmon. She did have a cub with her but the cub wandered off before I could get a picture.

Tahoe!

Tahoe is one of our new favorite places. It was stunningly beautiful. Here are some photos from our trip. Above is a picture of our first day. It was raining and it was recommended we try out Taylor Creek where the salmon were spawning. You can't tell in the pictures but the river was FULL of spawning salmon. All you needed to do was put a hand in and pick one up. It was crazy!

Disneyland!

Here is our favorite Haunted Mansion ride. During Halloween Time they deck it out in a Halloween/Christmas theme that is truly an amazing sight to behold. It's too bad cameras just don't capture it properly but here was an attempt.

Disneyland!

So I decided I needed a break from work and we took a vacation to Disneyland and Tahoe! Just so you know, Disneyland is one of my favorite places to be and we caught it just in time for Halloween Time, Andy's favorite holiday. The above picture is Andy's favorite ride with Buz Lightyear.

This next one is of Jackson. He was a little cranky, he was woken up mid-nap and had a little cold!

Well as I am getting used to this whole blogging thing I just deleted a whole blog about Becca's visit. Live and learn I guess! Well, as some of you know my best bud came up to visit me in late August with her two yougnsters, Sam and Jackson. Sam was 4 months old and Jackson was a little past two. We had a blast! We went to the zoo, watched a bunch of movies (a lot of them Pixar courtesy of Jackson!), talked, gossiped, shopped, and had a ball pretending like it was old times when Becca just lived up the hill a ways! I surely got lucky having a friend like Becca. She has always been my Liahona and I am so grateful she made the drive up here to visit. This first picture is of Sam, the little butterball! I think he's already 20 pounds.

Welcome to KuhleKorner! Thought we'd get you started with a picture of how it all got started for us...on our golden wedding day! Andy and I celebrated our fifth year wedding anniversary this June on the 25th. Can you believe it! Five years! It's truly been a wonderful five years. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband and best friend. Currently I am sugar mama putting Andy through medical school while working as a Pediatric nurse at UCSF. So yes, I am a commuter. Well, welcome to our Blog and we'll hopefully keep you posted on our life!