The Hansens

The Hansens

Monday, April 20, 2009




Sweet little Piper (5 months)
In the pool in Mexico!

The newest addition to our family

Hello friends and family! I decided it was time to create a blog to keep people up to date with your favorite Hansens! :) People are always asking me, "What's new with you guys?" and usually my answer is: "Not much...we're pretty boring!" But the last few months have been pretty busy!

First of all, as most of you know, we added to our family. In December, we adopted our puppy Piper! She is a golden retriever/lab mix. She is now over 5 months old, and she's growing so fast! As the runt of the litter, she was tiny when we got her, and now she's 40 pounds! It has been a learning experience for all of us (especially me!) but it has been so much fun! I wasn't sure if I wanted a dog or not, but I can't imagine life without her now. She is so sweet and happy all the time. She is my little baby!

Work has kept Brent and me very busy! I have been working in the Emergency Department at Children's since September, and I love it! I think I have finally found my niche in nursing. I work 3 pm to 3 am (three shifts a week), which is actually better than it sounds...I love my shift! I love the variety and pace of my job, and I look forward to being challenged occasionally too. We are working on becoming a trauma center, and I can't wait until that happens! I also received my certification as a pediatric nurse (CPN) last fall. While I've been busy taking care of sick kids, Brent has been busy climbing the corporate ladder. He was recently promoted from a manager to Director at West Corporation! He is now the Director of the Spectrum division, and he is really excited about the new challenge. I am so proud of him!

As you all know, we've struggled to have a baby for almost two years now. We lost a baby last summer at 10 weeks, and we've had no success since then. We have been seeing a specialist, and we have done some fertility treatments. Unfortunately, at this point, we have had no luck. It has been very difficult and very frustrating (more than any of you will ever know), but we are not giving up easily! We would appreciate everyone's prayers and thoughts...and if you want to cross your fingers or toes too, that would be nice!

In an attempt to get away, relax, and not think about our fertility issues, we took a trip to Mexico at the beginning of March. It was amazing! We were gone for five nights, and it was just what we needed. It was great to get away from work, stress, and baby worries for a while...it was hard to come back! But we were glad to come home to Piper, who missed us! We soon found out we came home to a sick little puppy! Piper was having bloody diarrhea for weeks, and they kept telling us it was probably bacterial and putting her on different antibiotics. After no improvement and Piper getting more tired and weak, they finally agreed to do bloodwork and an x-ray and realized something more was going on. One of the vets (who is now OUR vet) decided he needed to do surgery to find out what was wrong. So, we had her spayed, and while he was in there, he "looked around" and found part of her bowel and some lymph nodes were swollen. They took biopsies, and we hoped for the best. We found out a week later that she basically has a severe food allergy...possibly to beef or wheat. So, she is now on a hypoallergenic diet, and she is doing so much better! It was quite a scare, but we are so grateful our sweet little girl is healthy and active again!

So...that is what's new with the Hansens in the last few months! With summer quickly approaching, we will be very busy. I am playing on a coed softball team with some coworkers...should be interesting, since I haven't played softball in 13 years! :) Brent will be busy as usual playing baseball for the Massena Red Sox, as well as playing for two slow pitch softball teams. On top of that, we will be spending all our free weekends at the lake of course! We are looking forward to a fun summer with Piper! Hope all is well with everyone!