A Week to Be Thankful For

Last week we were able to spend with almost my whole entire extended family. It was such a great week, not only celebrating Thanksgiving, but my brother and his wife were able to be sealed in the San Diego Temple. We had a great time catching up with so many aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, mom, dad, brothers and sisters. I really am greatful for my family. I love that we can not see each other for months (maybe some even years) but the moment we are reunited it feels like no time has passed. That is the wonderful thing about family, is the bond that you have with one another.

We stayed the night at my parents house one night along with 23 others! Yep thats right! There were bodies everywhere, it was pretty fun! At about midnight Meggan (my SIL) noticed my uncle Shawn went outside to his car because there was no more room left in the house. She ended up going outside and brought him inside, creating just enough room that he would have a place to sleep on the ground, I'm not kidding there was literally no extra space.! I wish i would have taken a picture of the house when everyone was sleeping. But here are a few pictures from our week. Thanks family for making this a very memorable week!

All but one of my cousins on my mom's side of the family. Cousin Matt is on his mission in Tonga.

Girl Cousins!

Sisters

Me and my hubby! We always enjoy being at the San Diego temple, reminds me of our wedding day Love this guy.

The End.

Im Back!!!!

I have attempted to blog many times but my computer takes so long to download pictures from my camera, and then to upload it just seemed like too much work, but I am finally doing it. I feel like not too much has changed with us (maybe thats also why I haven't been motivated to blog). But here are the few things taht we have done.

1. We went on a trip up the coast (back in September). Along the way we stopped in Pismo, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Davenport (see pic below), San Fransisco and then to Chad's grandparents that live in Castro Valley. We love going up to San Fran riding the trolley, eating at Boudin's bakery, doing some shopping, and walking around Fisherman's Wharf.

2. We got invited to our first Murder Mystery dinner. It was at a gorgeous home in Palos Verdes, Chad's character was Hamlet and I was Rapunzel. We threw together costumes at the last minute, and tried to get into character as best we could.

3. On Saturday Chad played in the last beach tournament of the year, he played great. If only the weather would have stayed as sunny as it is in this picture it would have been a perfect day.

I passed my insurance test and got my license so now I am working full time with my Insurance job. I went super part time @ Cheesecake Factory just working 2 days a week, so needless to say I have been staying busy. (Another reason why I haven't been blogging).

The house that we are living in just sold so we will be moving by December 1st, not sure where yet but somewhere close by.

Wow I feel like I am laundry listing all the things we have been up to; kind of like I used to do when my mom would tell me I needed to write in my journal because someday I would look back and want to know what I was doing at that time. I hope I have not put you to sleep, speaking of sleep I could use some right now. Tonight is the first night of the time change and I am all thrown off. Goodnight.

I love weddings...

...they make me remember the day that I married Chad, and remind me of how special of a day that we had. One of my best friends from High School was married on Friday, September 3rd and it was a beautiful wedding. Ashlee and her husband Chris are an amazing couple who have been together since our Sophmore year of high school. They both are such positive people and truly are a perfect match. I am so glad we were able to be apart of their Wedding Day. I was able to see SO many good friends. I love being able to reunite with my friends from high school, it feels like we were all just hanging out in ASB or going to school dances. Chad likes to tease me about high school because I loved it and when he met me I had just graduated and thought that high school was still a really big deal, so now whenever I talk about it he gets overly enthusiastic.

Me and the bride

High school girlfriends

Me and Chad

The group I hung out with in High School, with our ASB teacher

It's been a while

SO I haven't blogged in a while, and I just wrote an update on what we have been doing but somehow it got lost so now I am frustrated and will have to write a Readers Digest version of what I just wrote.

In July Chad and I both celebrated our birthdays, we went to Las Vegas for our birthdays and we also met up with my family in Huntington Beach to celebrate at BJs. We also had our 3-year Anniversery, I cant believe that we have been married for 3 years already. I don't even really remember what life was like not being married to Chad. He has been such a great support to me. Lately I have been really stressed out with working two jobs, and he is so good at listening to me and my complaints. I love this guy!

One of my best friends from High School is getting married and so we went to Palm Springs for a girls weekend. It was so much fun to spend the weekend with some of my best friends from high school. We decided this needs to be an annual occurrence.

My sisters have been home for the summer and I LOVE having them around. I cannot wait until they are done with school, and hopefully they will move back to California. I always tell them they have to marry someone from CA or someone that wants to live here otherwise I won't approve.

So that's a little bit of what we have been up to this summer. We have been back in California for a year now and love being here. I got a part time job at the beginning of the summer that is turning in to full time position in two weeks. I absolutely love this job, it is for a company called New Empire Entertainment, we provide insurance for the anything that deals with entertainment, like Movies, Recording Studios, Actors, the film equipment, etc. I have an amazing boss, I work right one the beach, I really couldn't ask for more. I am cutting down my hours at Cheesecake Factory which I am really excited about!

The house we are living in has sold and will be closing in the middle of September so we are moving out, but not far...next door! This works out great because we love the area we are in and it will be nice to stay in the same ward.

Our New Home!!

Well we finally did it, we got our own place to stay. After a year of moving frmo Utah we finally found a place to stay. Chad's parents made it hard to leave their home but we found a good place to rent and we both felt it was the right place to move into. Here are the details: Location-Redondo Beach, Sq. Ft: 1900, Year built: 1982, Bedrooms: 3, Bathrooms: 2 1/2, 2 car garage and small backyard. This home is for sale so we could be moving out soon but it is worth having a bigger place. I took some quick pics, we are still putting things together but this is what we have so far:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Dining Room:

Stairs leading to the upstairs:
2nd Bathroom (the bathrooms are very dated)

My favorite room-The Master, I love having a king size bed, and I am obessesd with these pillows)

Master Bath

Cute little backyard.

July has been a very busy month so far. It was a lot of work getting moved in and we couldn't have done it w/o some members of our ward, Brent and Janice, and my mom! Thanks to all of you who helped.

I need to get caught up in blogging, and will do so once we get internet in our new place. For now I am still coming to Chads parents to use their internet!

Date Nights

We have to take our date nights midweek now since I never get the weekends off, but I am so glad that Chad still makes an effort to take me out, hes great! On Tuesday night we went out to watch the Laker game-Go Lakers! I am so happy they won, not only because I love the Lakers but because I had a SUPER happy hubby!

On Wednesday we went to the temple, unfortunately I couldn't find my recommend, so we ended up just walking outside and talking, enjoying the Spirit at temple. We both loved how peaceful it was, even though its in busy Santa Monica it felt as if we were away from the crazy-ness of the city.

-The End.

Yay for visitors!

Yesterday a few of my good friends from back home came up to Hermosa Beach and we spent the day playing volleyball, catching up, the boys were doing flips in the water, and watched the Laker game. It was so fun to have them come out and see where I live now. I had such a close group of friends in high school and I am so glad that we are still good friends!

Erica, Me, Cambria


David, Dale, and Nick

I had to throw this picture in, Chad brought me flowers the other day, I LOVE flowers! I have such a great husband!

Tournament Time

Last Saturday Chad played in a beach volleyball tournament with his friend and former roommate Jon. Jon and his wife Meggan and daughter Macy were in town from Colorado for Memorial Weekend so it worked out great that they could play together. It was a great day, the weather was perfect, we had our families there and some of Chads friends came down as well. I feel so lucky to finally be close to the beach after living out of California for so long, Chad and I both try and take advantage of it as much as possible. Here are some pictures of the day.

The Help

I just spent the last few days reading this book nonstop (I even missed part of the Laker game to finish the book). It is about three woman in the late 1950s or early 60s who live in Jackson Mississippi who work together to make a difference in racial issues. Two of the women are maids, who work for very little pay and are treated "seperate but equal" and the third woman is a white 23-yearl old whos desires are much different than the typical young southern woman; she desires to be a writer, instead of focusing on getting married. I loved the way Kathryn Stockett wrote this book and highly recommend it. I am now taking a break from reading for a few days before I start the Hunger Games!

Job Update

Here is where I work, the view doesn't get much better than this.

That is my first thought about my new job serving at Cheesecake Factory, is that I love the location, being right on the water is so nice!

10 things I have learned thus far:
1. Don't get stressed out
2. If that doesn't work don't let others see that stress is getting to you
3. I have become a GREAT multi-tasker
4. Treat everyone as though they are the most important people (hopefully it will be rewarded :) 5. Don't judge
6. Coming home with cash is awesome
7. Take responsibility for mistakes
8. Don't be sensitive, (develop TOUGH SKIN)
9. I miss my weekends spending time with my husband
10. Teamwork

I really like serving (minus the sidework ex. refilling all the salt and pepper shakers, sugar caddies, ketchups, restocking), it is such a fast paced environment and the time while I am there goes by SO fast. I enjoy being able to talk with so many different types of people, and hopefully make them happier than when they walked in the restaurant. I do however come home EXHAUSTED, and have nightmares that I forgot to ring something in right, or bring someone the wrong meal, weird I know. I am grateful though to be working. I know that it won't be forever, and am glad that I can help our little family progress.