New Job!!!

Well, after over 5 long months of job hunting, we finally found one!!! Today I was officially offered a position as a computer operator out at the air force base:) It will definitely be a whole different experience from my past jobs, but I am excited about it:) I have always liked learning new things, and this will definitely be a learning experience:) Who knew there was such thing as a job that I would qualify for, but would also learn a lot from?!:) I will be starting work there on June 16th. I'm gearing myself up for near insanity the previous week though, haha. We'll be moving from LA to Lancaster on the 15th, and starting school and work on the 16th. Throw in finals, graduation and Kyle's CBEST test, and it's going to be quite a hectic week. Pray that we get through it with enough energy left over to start school and work with fresh enthusiasm!:)

Kyle's Birthday:)

Well, last Wednesday was Kyle's 23rd birthday:) He sort of got an extended birthday this year:) On Tuesday, we went out to BJ's for dinner, and thoroughly enjoyed dinner and a pazooki:) (If anyone doesn't know what a pazooki is, they're missing out on one of life's greatest joys;). On Wednesday Kyle got woken up by a birthday card, and got a specially made breakfast that actually took some effort to fix, as opposed to the typical fried or scrambled eggs, and he seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, birthdays aren't excuses to skip school or work, so he still had to go about most of his normal day. After I dropped him off, I went and hung out at the fraternity house and the UCLA store until he got out of class. Then I met up with him on his lunch break:) I took him to work, then headed for home. While he was at work, I got all "cutesied up" in a springy dress, then went to pick him up. The rest of the evening was hardly the dream birthday of a 23-year-old married man, lol. Traffic was lousy, so it took awhile to get home. When we got home, we were both really hungry, so he opted for leftovers instead of waiting for dinner to be cooked. Then we watched 'Enchanted' (y'know, the latest Disney princess movie..?). When the movie was over around 10:00pm, we were both really tired, and went straight to sleep...well, in the sense that a group of 3rd grade girls at a sleepover "go to sleep"...we actually stayed up talking and laughing for another 45 minutes or so. But after that we fell asleep. It must have been the girliest birthday either of us have experienced, but we both had fun:) Apparently Kyle was in a "let's do whatever" type mood, and a princess movie just happened to be our next NetFlix rental, lol, so we watched it! It was a really good movie though, and we both enjoyed it:) Anyway, on Friday, we had planned a lovely hike up in the San Gabriel Mountains. The trail followed a creek, and was up in the foresty part of the mountains. Unfortunately, it was POURING rain up in the mountains on Friday. It was sprinkling down in LA, but we figured we'd actually enjoy hiking in the cool overcast, slightly drizzly weather. But by the time we got to the trailhead, the drizzle had developed into a heavy downpour:-\ At this point, we were just about at the top of the mountains, so rather than turn around and go back, we just continued over the mountain, and took the scenic route down to Lancaster:) We ate our picnic lunch in the car, took a few pictures through the car windows, and continued on. It was actually a really pleasant drive, and we both enjoyed it.
We had a nice weekend in Lancaster, and celebrated Kyle's birthday with both families:) Kyle got to go to the driving range for a bit of golf practice with his dad, and they played a game of pool:) (who won??) We ate pizza and played Cranium and watched a movie with his parents, and he opened several great gifts from them:) His mom made Rocky Road (not the ice cream, but something SO much better;), and of course we enjoyed that! We went out for dinner and ate Ben&Jerry's ice cream with my parents, and Kyle got a few more neat presents from them:) It was a really fun weekend, and...oh! and yes, I got him something for his birthday too. But I bought the wrong kind of See's candies:( During a "we're broke, why are we window shopping?" trip, I'd told Kyle, that he'd get a box of his favorite See's chocolates (which we were drooling over at the See's store) for his birthday, and then I bought the wrong kind:( Guess I'll just have to go get the right kind when these ones are gone, huh?;) Anyway, Kyle had a good birthday, and is now looking forward to his up-coming graduation! (Maybe that'll be my excuse for buying more See's chocolates, to get the right kind;)

Mount Hollywood Hike

Friday afternoon, Kyle and I were able to get out for a bit of adventure in the great outdoors:) Well, adventure in the sense of getting exhausted and a little bit sunburned;) Nothing REALLY adventurous happened, but it was really nice to get out and hike around:) We hiked up Mount Hollywood, which is the ridge next to where the Hollywood sign sits. It was a pretty steep climb, and showed me just how out of shape I really am, but it was a fun way to get out and about:) Here are a few pictures from the hike!

And The Count-Down Begins!

Well, the Count-Down to our move has officially begun! The "official-ness" is only signified by the presence of a count-down on my MySpace page, but hey, it gets me excited:) It's like an advent calendar;) Actually, it is very much like an advent calendar, in the sense that it gets half of me excited, and makes half of me think, "Oh no! I have way too much to do between now and then!" This move is going to be quite a crazy transition. Kyle has his last final exam on June 11th, graduates on June 13th, takes the CBEST test (so he can substitute teach while working on his credential) on June 14th, and (hopefully) begins summer classes at CSUB on June 16th. Needless to say, that is going to be a busy week! I'm glad we found out how crazy the weekend is going to be, ahead of time. If I know it's going to be crazy, I can prepare for it;) So, as of yesterday I have started packing up thing that we won't be needing between now and the move. I have also started to deep clean our apartment, so that when we move out, the final cleaning will be easier. I recently discovered the amazing-ness of bleach, and am pretty sure that by the time we are out of here, this apartment will look like new;) Bleach pens for dirty grout, bleach water to soak the sinks, bleach powder to scrub the toilets...I love now they put in all white tile, toilets, shelves, etc;) Unfortunately I can't do all that until the last minute. I'm sure anyone who has a kitchen knows how quickly grout can turn grungy again. Another thing I love about bleach is that the bugs who generally invade our place on a daily basis have taken to hiding. Apparently they don't like extreme cleanliness. Aside from wishing I could actually exterminate them, I don't mind if they just hide until we're gone. Anyway, the move is slowly, and quickly, approaching and we're anxious, in both senses. In the mean time, we're keeping busy trying to prepare for all the craziness ahead. Pray that it goes smoothly!

Upgrade and Jury Duty

Well, we received our stimulus package money from the government, and though we think it was a somewhat silly thing for the government to do, we accepted it, and Kyle was able to get his long awaited computer upgrade:) Friday after he got off school, we drove to Fry's Electronics, and he wandered the isles wide-eyed like a kid in a candy store...Well, okay, so not really, but I'm sure if he had a little less restraint, he would have. If you've seen Kyle's "cookie face" I'm sure you get the idea. Anyhow, he carefully selected a few new computer parts, and...Well, we were on our way to Lancaster, so he anxiously waited all weekend before he was able to put the new parts in his computer. Poor guy, lol. Sunday night when we drove back to LA, he immediately pulled out his computer case and began what seemed like surgically removing computer pieces, lol. I don't know what on earth half of them do, but he knew what he was doing, so I sat back and watched, compressed air can in hand. That was my job...air dusting. In the end, to be honest, I can't tell that the upgrade did anything at all to his computer, but apparently now it can run computer games that it previously would have had some major struggles with. Kyle can see the difference, whatever it is, and he is excited, so I'm glad:) It's a good thing we only have a studio apartment right now, because I'm sure that if he had a computer room, I would never see him again, lol. Okay, not really;) Anyway, that has been the highlight of his week:)
The highlight of my week...or perhaps the low-light, I'm not sure which...was *sigh* jury duty. I've never been summoned for jury duty before, so this was a whole new experience to me. Or so I thought. Driving to the courthouse and finding the place was new. Waiting all day was...well, it was kind of like I imagine going to the dentist for a root canal is...you wait in a stuffy waiting room, waiting for the fateful moment they call your name and send you to your doom...At least that's what everyone there made it seem like at first. I began to wonder if jury duty was run by the devil himself, the way most of the people there talked about it. After awhile though, I actually kind of enjoyed it. Everybody there was "suffering" through the same thing, so people ended up being far more friendly to each other than I imagine they would be if they met, say, on the freeway, or in a crowded grocery store. From about 7:45 a.m. onward, I waited and waited and waited and waited and...well, waited some more. Pretty soon, complete strangers were conversing jovially, many using humor as their means of surviving the day. Around 11:00, they called out names for the first panel of people. My name wasn't called. About 11:45 they called for another panel. My name wasn't called. About noon, they let us go for lunch. The only food nearby that didn't require cash (which I had none of), was Starbucks, so I reluctantly gave them a bit of traitorious (new word?) business, and went back to the jury pooling room. At this point I had probably written about four pages of a letter to my pen-pal. When I got back, I waited and wrote some more...and some more...Around 2:00 they called another panel. My name wasn't called. I waited some more. Around 3:00 they called another panel. My name wasn't called. After calling that panel, there was only me and two other people in the room. I was pretty sure they were not going to call a panel of three...They noticed there were still people waiting and said, "That should have been everyone. If your name has not been called, come to the window, and we'll figure out where you should go." The three of us went to the window. They scanned our juror badges and told us to join the last group. Gee, that was difficult:-p lol. We joined the next group and waited outside the court room. Me and the other lady who hadn't been called to panel ended up talking with a few other ladies while we waited. One of them was hilariously obnoxiously funny, and I wasn't sure if I wanted her to stick around so I could laugh at her, or to leave so I didn't have to listen to her, lol. But the five of us at least passed the time together. Around 3:40, a lady stepped out of the court room and said, "Our case has been settled, so you are not needed. Return to the jury pooling room for further instructions." When we got back to the jury pooling room, they told us we were done for the day, which meant that we were done for the year. I'd started out with mixed feelings about jury duty. Part of me didn't want to be assigned a case, and hoped I would be excused or not wanted, or apparently biased or something. Part of me thought it would at least be interesting, and/or a learning experience to actually be a part of a jury. Part of me wanted to get out of it so that it didn't interfere with our plans for the next weeks. Part of me wanted to do it, so that I had something to do! In the end, I figured it was a win win situation, and I would be fine with whatever happened. So of course, in the end I was fine with not having to come back! It was kind of a bummer to have wasted a day waiting, and it's kind of disappointing to meet neat people and leave knowing I'll probably never see them again...but it was...and interesting boring day, if that makes any sense. In the end, I got an excuse to sit around doing nothing all day, Holly will get a book sized letter, and I drew a rough sketch of a squirrel...I'll claim that it wasn't a complete waste of a day...even though it pretty much was.
Anyhow...here are a few pictures of Kyle and "his baby" as his mom and I call it;)

Update / A Fun Weekend :)

Wow, I'm really slacking on this blogging thing...time for another update!
Well, we're in the middle of Kyle's last quarter at UCLA. In June, he will officially be a UCLA Alumni (alumn? alumnus? alumni??)! We're very excited for him to finish school:) On the other hand, he'll be back to the grindstone, working on his masters degree and teaching credential this fall. So, in June we'll be moving back to Lancaster, so that Kyle can go to the Cal State Bakersfield extension. We're heading into a time of transition, which will mean a lot of packing and cleaning and planning and changing plans, but we're excited about it:) In the meantime, Kyle's working hard on school and bringing home the bacon (well, the pay checks and coffee;). I am currently still job hunting, but God has been providing for us in some creative and exciting ways, and we are doing alright financially.
One thing that being jobless has not interfered with is our ability to have fun:) This past weekend we drove up to Lancaster to visit our parents and get out of the city. Friday was a beautiful day and we spent the afternoon washing cars and playing with Sadie, Kyle's parent's yellow lab:) Saturday continued in the lovely weather pattern, so we took advantage of it! Kyle's parents are considering getting another dog, so we all went down to the animal shelter to see if there were any good options to adopt. I have to admit, the animal shelter is a kind of sobering place, but we did find a couple of really sweet dogs there. Unfortunately neither of them could be adopted immediately, but if they are still there, hopefully one will be coming home with Kyle's family soon:)
After visiting the animal shelter, we all went to see the movie/documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed". It was really interesting, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in science, education, intelligent design, or just anyone who's willing to think:)

The weather continued on beautifully, so of course we had to continue taking advantage of it. So, Kyle and I drove out to the A.V. Poppy Reserve just outside of town. The hills out to the west of Lancaster were just rolling with the orange brilliance of wild poppies:) It was really beautiful, and from what I hear, there were even MORE poppies a few weeks ago! But there were plenty of poppies to enjoy:) We hiked one of the loops, and took pictures of poppies, bugs, lizards, other plants, each other...anything that looked interesting! It was great to get out and enjoy nature:) Living in the middle of Los Angeles, we don't get to do that very often, so it was a big treat:) Here are some pictures from the Poppy Reserve:)