Oh Christmas Tree!

What....Carli is actually posting something?!?!?! No we haven't died or just escaped from prison. Its called Kevin and Carli don't have cute kids to post pictures about. In the last couple of months its been a lot of working and then coming home and getting ready to work the next day. We've had fun but not really anything blog worthy. I'll have to save our Thanksgiving extravaganza for another day (something to make you want to come back and read more :-P). Today I thought I'd share our very first Christmas tree with you. I spent the last two weeks scoping out a tree worthy to be in our home and after many miles and hours we found it right up the street. That's usually how it works though isn't it. Kevin finally gave in and let me buy the tree before Thanksgiving (thank goodness). Kevin is very adamant about Thanksgiving being its own holiday and not being overshadowed by Christmas (needless to say he hated walking in stores at the beginning of October and hearing Christmas music already :-D). Anyway, no surprise what we were doing Friday when I got home from work. You know you're obsessed with Christmas when you save a few hundred dollars of your wedding money and dedicate it to Christmas decorations. Those cards have been sitting in my wallet for 1 1/2 years. But not anymore. We had a great time picking out decorations for our tree and even more fun setting it up. And don't worry, the Chipmunks were playing in true Richards style. We're still missing the skirt and the tree top but we are enjoying sitting in our front room with the lights off enjoying our beautiful tree.

Bunko anyone?

Last night we had a bunch of couples from the ward over for a big Bunko night. It was an absolute blast! Let me tell you, if you want a way to get a bunch of people who don't know each other feeling comfortable really fast, bunko is the way to do it. We have several people who are interested in getting together on a semi-regular basis now. I know many of you are reading this and saying to themselves...Kevin and Carli are being the social bees....trust me this is strange for us to think about as well. But we're loving every minute of it. Kevin even went so far as to invite all of the guys over for a big Wii tournament while the girls go and do "whatever it is that girls like to do". :) We caught a few pictures just for you toward the end of all of the fun. These occurred as we were doing the prizes. The coveted prize for the guys was feetsy dinosaur pajamas that glow in the dark.



Sean ended up grabbing them and was such a good sport to show them off to all of us despite the 100 degree weather. And in case you are wondering, 14 people in a one bedroom apartment in 100 degrees is very warm....totally worth it though.

The other convenient thing is Kevin managed to snap some pictures with Susan and Talmage in them. For those of you who don't know...they're practically our better half. We're at their place nearly as much as our own and I know San Jose wouldn't be nearly as great if they weren't here. Anyways, it's only a glimpse but you can kind of put a face to the name....Susan is the one in white with curly hair that is pinned up...and Talmage is the blond with a BYU cap on.




We're really grateful for the friends that we've been able to make and for all of the friends that we hope to get to know even better. Hopefully there will be many more bunko nights to come...

San Francisco...what a treat!

This last weekend we had a blast. And part of it had to do with why we are dressed this ridiculous. I know without context it looks like we are a couple of nerds who fear for our lives. Well, we are nerds but not because of how we're dressed.

Kevin's mom and sister came to visit this weekend. We love when family comes to visit (even if it takes a week to recover from all of the fun). It was worth it though. Kevin was able to take off a couple of days of work to spend time with them....I on the other hand was not so fortunate. So that meant I missed the beach and some shopping but I suppose someone has to make the money that Kevin spent. :P

Saturday we spent the day in San Francisco. As you can tell from the picture, San Francisco greeted us with some wonderful fog. Unfortunately, it was 90 degrees in San Jose so we dressed for 90 degrees. One of these days we'll learn. The saddest part of all was the fog completely covered the Golden Gate Bridge. I guess that just means Karen and Jannette will have to come again to see it firsthand. Despite the cold and the obstructed view, we had a blast.

We took a segway tour through the city. Let me say, quite the little adventure. As you can imagine, we had plenty to laugh about. I'm happy to report though that all four of us did a decent job. However, I think we were stuck in the handicapped group. 3 of the 10 of us crashed and burned.

The first occurred about 5 minutes into the tour. The poor lady bruised her pride more than anything else. She was unable to continue but convinced her husband to stay on the tour. Personally, I wished she hadn't (you will soon discover why).

Not more than 5 minutes later the guy in front of Karen wiped out. He was messing around and trying to be fancy. He was driving us nuts the entire time. It was probably a mean thing to say but we all thought he deserved it.

Our final wipe out was our favorite. There was a bit of traffic so our tour guide took us up a side street. Now remember, this is San Francisco....so we're talking hills. As long as you keep going you do just fine. Well this wipe out happened to be the husband of the lady who wiped out earlier. He claims his motor gave out but we think he freaked out because of the hill. (It turned on just fine when he stepped on it again.)

So the rest of us are going along just fine and the next thing we know this guy is right in front of us. Jannette with all of her amazing skill was able to avoid him. I, however, was not as fortunate. I thought I had gotten out of his way when he collapses back into my segway. This of course sent me sprawling. It really wasn't that bad of a fall however. A bruised behind and scrapped up elbow is a small price to pay for as much as we were laughing the rest of the afternoon.

We also were caught off by a large tour bus and I had a mini freak out when I couldn't get my segway to slow down going down one of the steeper hills. I'll never again forget to do the potty squat :)



Of course we hit the shopping (which I loved!) and the trolley and the usual sites. It was a real whirl wind of a day but we loved every minute of it. So thank you Karen and Jannette for coming to see us. We love you and hope you'll come again soon...after all you need to have the sourdough and crab. And to the rest of you, see what you're missing out on! :P

OH, and one last note....HAPPY SWEET 16 JANNETTE! I know you wont read this until later but I hope your birthday and party was the best ever. We love you!

PICTURES!

The moment you all have been waiting for....pictures of our new home! It's still not in its final state but almost all of the furniture is here and the boxes are gone. We love it and hope you enjoy the pictures!

New Job!

I know everyone has been waiting for an update for a while and I have something great to report.....today I accepted an offer! It's been a long process of putting out resumes everyday with no response. Two weeks ago I finally had an interview. While in that interview I received a voicemail from another company that was interested in me. No response for a month and in two days, two responses....go figure. So for the last two weeks I've been interviewing with both companies and weighing out my options. After trying to figure out what would be the best for me, for our situation, and for the future I accepted an offer with Bridge Bank. I'll be going through a training program where the end hope is that I can become a lender. I'll begin as a credit analyst. This will be a great foundation for me. And I'm so excited to actually be using my degree! Oh and I'm so thrilled to not be making Provo wages anymore :) So, if you can't tell....I'm pretty excited.

And yes....we are in our apartment now. Our furniture has finally arrived and the boxes are almost gone. I haven't forgotten about posting pictures, but I have a few more boxes to move out before I unveil our home. Plus, I'm just building the anticipation. :) Kevin and I really love it here and are so grateful that things have turned out so well for us. We have been very blessed and are excited to see what the future brings as having officially entered the adult and real world.

An update...

So some people ::cough, cough:: have been requesting an update. I wish there was something interesting to tell but life these days is pretty slow. Our days consist of Kevin going to work and Carli applying for jobs. We're down to less than a week until we can move into our new place which we are so excited about. The close quarters of the hotel room are wearing us down. It'll be amazing to live in a place where there are actually rooms and I can't see the door from the back corner of our place. But we're still happy and healthy. Since there isn't too much to report I have posted a comic we found last night for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.....

1 year down....eternity to go....

Yesterday was Kevin and my anniversary. It's hard to believe that a year has already passed. And yet, at the same time, it feels like it just happened. We had a great time reflecting on our wedding and all that we have accomplished in the last year. It has been a wonderful year and I know that things will just get better and better. Not that everything in life will run smoothly, but as long as we have each other, everything will be fine. I'm so grateful for Kevin and all he does for me. There is no one else I'd rather share my life with. I love you Kevin.

Greetings from California!

We survived! And Carli only had two melt downs! I think I'm finally learning how to deal with change.

Kevin and I left Provo on Wednesday. We decided to do the trip in two days so it wasn't so stressful. That meant we weren't in a huge rush to leave town. We checked out of our apartment at noon. Unfortunately, I realized half way through Nevada that I left my sourdough start and beef base in the fridge! Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time I've done it. Anyways, we stopped at Costa Vida so I could have one last pleasure, stopped to get Sensuous Sandwich so we could take a little of Provo with us, and hit the road. The wind was crazy, but other than that it was uneventful. We stopped for a relaxing night in Winnemucca.

Thursday brought In-N-Out. That was exciting and comforting. We finally arrived in San Jose and were excited to see how familiar things were. I think that helped a ton in making the transition easier. We also visited with our good friends from last summer. That also made things so much easier. I can't tell you how much it helps having some friends in a new area.

Friday brought apartment hunting. That was a shell shocker. Both Kevin and i came back pretty discouraged. Our attempt at trying to save money was completely thwarted. Several of the places I wouldn't even get out of the car, and a good majority brought back very real memories of walking around downtown Houston. We basically came back to the place we were staying and had to re-think our entire plans. We threw around many ideas and ended up with a game plan.

I'm pleased to report that this afternoon we signed a lease for our new apartment! Both of us felt really good about our choice and the more we were playing with the idea, the more sense it made. It puts us in the same ward we were in this summer, and the best part of all is we are in the same complex as our friends! Things do have a way of working themselves out.

So Kevin and I are happy and well and looking forward to starting this new chapter of our lives. We love you all and thank you for all of your help and prayers.

Welcome to Baby Wilson!!!!

Tonight Ashlee finally had her baby! She had been up since 1 in the morning and the latest addition to the Richards family finally decided to make his appearance to the world. He is 8 lbs 8 oz., 21 inches, and his head was 14.5 cm. Both mom and baby are doing great! Now if they could just decide on a name....

See I told you our blog would get more interesting. I'm currently in the middle of packing but I wanted to share our wonderful news with you all. I'll be posting more as soon as I can about Kevin's graduation, his family's stay, and of course our move. Crazy times, but so much fun!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

For those of you don't know, today is Kevin's Birthday! He's spent his birthday the same as most others....finals. But good news is, 3 finals are done only 2 to go. He's so great! But hopefully once he gets back from his last final we'll have a little more to celebrate. The Spice cake is in the oven now and then its on to presents. :)

As if there wasn't enough to celebrate, today was also my last day of work! I'm free! I'm really looking forward to the break. Anyways, that just means the roller coaster of the next few weeks has officially begun.

School's out... FOREVER!

Huh? Kevin's posting? Well, it's half my blog too, you know!

Yesterday I finished my last class of my last semester of my last year of school. It's crazy to think that I've been going to school for 16 years. But now I'm done! Carli asked me yesterday if it felt "surreal" that I'm never going to be in class ever again. Truthfully, it doesn't. I usually get that feeling of "oh, wow, I can't believe it's happened already", but this time, nada.

I think part of the reason why is related to what my dad said to me on Sunday. When he did his internship before his last year of college, he felt like the entire school year dragged on and had less meaning than it had before, since he knew that he was already competent and capable of going out into the field and working. I feel pretty much the same way, only I had two internships!

Of course, I don't feel like I've wasted my last year here at school. I've really learned a lot, and I think the things I've had to do and work on have helped "mature" my knowledge of various fields in computer science. And I still have the possibility of doing a Master's degree floating in the back of my head, because I've always felt the desire to specialize. Whether or not this becomes a reality depends on many things.

Now, all I have to do is finish my finals and walk (oh yeah, and pack... *sigh* ) and then it's off to (too) sunny California and Apple!

(Can't wait for mom, dad and Jannette to come down!)

DanceSport

As promised, I'm reporting on anything interesting that happens in the Perry home. Friday Kevin had DanceSport. It was our traditional 8:00 on Friday slot. This meant an early morning which I was not excited about. It was great watching Kevin though. I still wish I was the one on the floor dancing with him but I've gotten over the bitterness now. Kevin was competing Gold level Rumba which was so much fun to watch. Not to mention, he's just cute! Since it was such a high level Kevin didn't think he would make it past the first round. Boy was he wrong! He actually made it to the quarter finals. I was so proud of him and if I was the judge I would have put him through another round...not that I'm biased. :-) We were able to watch some of the evening dancing which was fun. As we were leaving we were talking about how we will never have this opportunity again. It's strange being at this point in our lives. It's always sad but kind of exciting to see where the next stage will take us. I do know one thing, dancing will always be a part of the picture for us even if it's not the same as what we currently enjoy.

The day they've all been waiting for

So today was the day. I lost my husband to Smash Bros. Brawl. Kevin has been waiting for this game for almost a year now so he was so excited. I'm glad he has his new toy. It'll just be interesting to see how many days I come home to him playing now. :) In Kevin's defense though he's really good about not letting it take up all of his time. As long as that is the case, I don't mind sharing....

I did have a triumph with the game however. Those of you who know me know that I can't play video games for the life of me. Well today I beat Kevin, Brandon, and Bryce! That's right. Brandon and Bryce of course blame it on the fact that it's new and they don't know the controllers yet.....riiight. They just can't admit that they can't play as well as they can boast. :)

Behind the Times

So I know the blogging world has been going for a while now, but I just never could bring myself to start blogging. Well, in the matter of a week, my sister-in-law, both sisters, and two friends all had me going to their blogs. I guess it's about time I got in with all the hype.

Now don't expect too much from us yet. Part of why I never started to post before was that there wasn't anything particularly interesting going on with Kevin or I. It's not like Whit who is getting married or Ash who is having a baby. Our life for the time being consists of 8 hours of trying to stay motivated at work and convincing Kevin to go to classes for a few more weeks. :) Not that we're complaining. Life is great and we wouldn't have it any other way for the time being.

Now, lest you think you shouldn't keep yourself tuned in.....it's not like our life will be boring forever. We do have the adventure of moving to San Jose in May. Oh the joys! The apartment hunting, the furniture buying, the job searching. Plus, you'll get to read about how Carli once again can't handle the stress of change. What's not to like. :)

So stay tuned, and Kevin and I promise to do our best not to be boring. :-P