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.