Hemet Dinner

Continuing a great tradition, Hay and I hosted the first Hemet Dinner of the year. We decided to do paninis and pasta salad. I am proud to say that I made homemade bread in our bread maker and it turned out SO well!! We had 2 panini makers going and people could customize their own sandwich. We had a great turnout, and had fun with our Hemet friends!

Nan and the Peacocks

So some of our friends are in a band. We love their stuff! They played at our reception in Hemet, and have begun to find their own new gigs to play at. We have been to an outdoor concert that they hosted, and then went to Open Mic at the Wilk where they performed again. We can't tell if we love them because of their music, humor, or because we know them. Maybe it is a combination of all three? Regardless, we love hearing them play, whether it be a jam sesh or an 'official' concert.

Check them out on Facebook and on iTunes. They have sweet shirts too!

Tucanos Birthday Bash

We had a great birthday lunch with Chelsea, Kalle, Hay and I at Tucanos!! I love that place. And I eat so much. Foodcoma?

Trip to Cincinnati!

After a few weeks of school, Hay and I made the trip out to Cincinnati for our second wedding reception. Because we don't have classes on Friday, we were able to leave on Thursday. We flew from SLC to Denver, and then were on the same flight as JJ and Dani (babies in tow) and Aunt Janeen to Dayton. We got in to Cincinnati around midnight and were ready for the party to begin!

On Friday, we went to the Reds game that was the same weekend as our reception. What a coincidence! It was a great game, and I loved being at GABP late in the season with the Reds in first place. We brought along our family members that came from out of town, and made Reds fans out of Hay's parents, Malcolm and Melanie. Success. It was a beautiful night for a game, but unfortunately the Reds lost. I did, however, snag a ball the Dodgers threw up into the crowd, so I went home a very happy boy.

Saturday was a stressful day as we set up everything for the reception. We were worried about the rain and wind that was threatening, and we were trying to figure out what to do. The parents had reserved the clubhouse, so that was an option. It just wasn't 'home.' We decided, after a prayer, multiple calls to the weatherman, and some pro/con thinking, that we would do it in our backyard as originally planned. The day before we had had some serious wind that knocked a tree into our backyard and blew open a door to the house, so we were hoping that we wouldn't have those same gusts on Saturday night. In the morning, we all helped as best we could. Then, around lunch time, Linda Wallis and Katie Strike showed up and Nan decided that everyone else should go to Skyline for lunch. We obliged. Turns out Linda and Katie > the rest of us combined.

The reception turned out perfect. We had a great turnout, great weather, and great food! We had a blast talking to all of our Cincinnati family and friends. When the sun went down and it got a bit chillier, people migrated inside and all was well.

Sunday we were able to go to church and see all of our good friends again, which is always so fun. After church and a quick lunch, some of the guests left. Hay and I got to stay an extra day and fly back on Monday, so we had time to hang out and do a bit of extra shopping in Cincinnati. We were so glad Camie, Matt, Adele, Amber, JJ & Dani were all able to come. We also recognize the hours and hours of work Mom and Dad put in -- thanks for making it a great weekend!

-T

Intramurals

A quick intramural update:
I am playing on 4 intramural teams-- Kickball, Soccer, Flag Football, and Ultimate Frisbee. We are having a blast, but it makes for a very busy week! Hay is on the kickball team with me and is a very loyal supporter of the other three. It has been fun seeing Hay get just as wrapped up in Intramurals as I am-- very often during Kickball and Soccer, she is having conversations with the refs about rules or their terrible calls. She gets just as fired up as I do! Thats my girl!

-T

She Did It!!!!!!!

HAYLEY GOT THE TARGET JOB!!!!!! That means several things for us. 1. We have both accepted and are Minneapolis-bound! 2. Senoritis is kicking in. 3. No more interviewing/resume work required! Hooray! We are so thrilled and excited to be going to Target. Our recruiter said that she did extremely well in her interviews and that one of the Directors that interviewed her sent our recruiter an email saying "I want her in my division!" We are so excited! Hooray Target!!!!!!

Big news for Hayley!

When Hay flew out to Minneapolis to drive with me to California, I arranged for her to be interviewed for a job at Target. She felt pretty good about that interview, and was told that they would get back to her soon. They did get back to her, and she was offered a second-round interview and flyback to Minneapolis! She went back this past weekend for her big interview. She flew out on Thursday and had her interviews on Friday. She had a full day at Target, ranging from orientations to shadowing. She also had two interviews with Directors within the company. She says she felt pretty good about them and that she was able to communicate pretty well with them. All the questions she was asked she felt really prepared for.

After her big day, she went and hung out with Camie and Matt. They put the finishing touches on selling her on Minneapolis. The next day, Hay went on a bus tour of downtown where they saw different areas and places to live. She then flew home and we began the anxious wait to hear if she got the job!

The Perks of my job

I am one lucky TA. Professor Daniels organized a trip to go wakeboarding on Utah Lake. He made a special invite to the foreign exchange students we have in our class so that they could have a good 'American' experience. It was a blast! The weather was perfect-- normally it is a bit windier, but we got a nice calm day on the lake. We had a Korean student, two German students, a Brazilian, and three Americans. It was a blast!

Taylor the handyman

As a wedding present for us, I bought 2 bikes from Target. They were delivered to Provo and were here waiting for us when we got back from the honeymoon. I got to show off my handyman skills and use my new toolkits right away!

We love having our bikes and being able to ride to and from school. It makes our commute a lot faster!

I also put together our nice little cubbies with my handyman skills. We love having them to organize our living room!

Starting School for the Last Time!

It feels strange to be seniors here at BYU. We both really love school and most of the things that come with it. Unfortunately, we don't have all 15 credits together this semester like we did last semester. We do have 2 classes together though, so that is fun. Our schedules are pretty nice, meaning we get some time to sleep in, especially on Mondays. That is a big bonus. All of our classes are in the Tanner Building, so we feel like we never see the rest of campus anymore. Our path to the Tanner excludes most of campus, so we don't run into people like we used to when we had other classes up on campus.

Along with school, we are both working part-time jobs. I am a TA for Brother Daniels, an excellent teacher who teaches International Business and International Marketing. I sit in on his classes each day and am in charge of the writing, administration, and grading of quizzes and tests. I also help grade other assignments that we have in those classes. Its a fun job, and I love sitting in on his classes as he shares his international experiences with the class.

Hay was kept on by HP to work part-time during the school year. She works a lot with the internship program and on special projects to make the internship/onboarding process better for next year. She has conference calls and does a lot of work on her HP laptop for them each week.

Provo is beautiful this time of year, and we are sad this is our last fall here!

-T

Moving in together!

We had a very busy time after we got back from our honeymoon. In the airport as we entered the states again, the immigration officer asked us if we had brought anything back with us from Mexico. I replied that we were boring and didn't bring a single thing. Hay chimed in and said that she had brought a tan. The officer then responded, 'What tan? Did you lose it already?' Such is life.

When we picked up our car from the airport, we still had all of our honeymoon paint on our windows and balloons filling the inside of our car. When we got in and started the car, I noticed something on the front window. I was nervous because this parking garage was SUPER narrow, even for my Corolla S (named ESPN 2 for future reference). I got out and plucked the item off the window-- it was a $1 bill with the word "CONGRATS!!!" written on it. That was a nice way to be welcomed back to America!

After driving back to Hemet, we opened all our presents from the reception in Hemet. We were thrilled to have so much of our own stuff to fill our apartment with! We felt very grateful for the generosity of all of our family and friends and for their support in our new married lives. It was quite the puzzle to pack all of our new stuff into the car the next morning, but I am proud to say that it was packed perfectly so that everything fit. We had the pleasure of driving the Greaves' dog, Roxi, with us up to Provo. She was a good little travel mate-- she slept a bit, watched out the windows for a bit, and was just cute the entire time.

We eventually got to Provo and began the long move-in process. Luckily, we had done our rounds before the wedding to pick up all the stuff we had stored at our old roommates' apartments for the summer. It was quite the process 'finding a home' for everything and figuring out how we wanted our apartment to look. It took us several weeks to be completely done, but we absolutely love our place and how it feels as our first home.

-T