Christmas Tree Farm

Last Saturday, Brady and I went to get our Christmas tree at a tree farm out in Redlands. This was Brady's first experience with a tree farm, and being used to a $5 permit to cut down a tree from the woods, he was a bit in shock. Brady proceeded to tell me that the only tree we could get was the one shown in the picture on the right. (I am sure you all know this was due to the inflated prices at the tree farm.) As cute as it was, it wouldn't hold too many ornaments, so I talked him into one a bit larger. After searching for the perfect tree, we paid for our 7 1/2 foot tree and off we went. Only I thought I was going to have to revive him after he saw how much they cost when you don't cut them down from a forest. Needless to say we got our tree and it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas (no pun intended).

New Apartment!

For those of you who don’t know, we moved into our apartment last week. We have put most of our things away, and are starting to settle in. It is a bit bigger than our last apartment, so our family room is a bit sparse in the furniture area. The kitchen has a lot more cupboards than in our past apartment, and I am really enjoying that. We bought a kitchen table, so we no longer have to eat off of our laps. I am enjoying that the most. =) The best part of it all is that we are both so close to work that we meet at home for lunch every day. How many people do you know that have that luxury? We are also enjoying playing with Hallie. She is such a cute little thing. That’s all she wrote. Just wanted to update you all on our new place!

Utah Apartment problems

I am sure most of you can relate to the stress of moving across states. Most everything has gone smoothly so far, until this weekend that is. I ordered Brady’s birthday present online and it was scheduled to get here on Friday. Last week I received the tracking information and so I got online to track the package. I noticed that it had Murray, UT as the destination address. I immediately contacted the sender and asked why they had sent it there since I no longer lived there. Their response was that they go off of the address they had on the account from last time you ordered. Apparently they do not care what address you put in as your “mailing address” they just go off the account. They seem to think I should have deleted the address previously on the account (I didn’t even know I had an account by the way). They told me that I should contact someone in Utah and have them send it to me…as if I know someone to do that for me. So, I tried to call UPS. The were very understanding and said that on Friday after my old apt denied receipt of the package then I should call them back and they will re-direct it. Easy enough, right? WRONG! The apartment complex accepted my package. I haven’t lived there for 2 months now, and they accepted it! I called to speak with the manager of the apartment and she does not seem to think it is her responsibility to check if the resident lives there. WHAT? Isn’t it illegal to accept someone else’s mail for them? On top of that, they won’t mail it to me until they receive a money order for the price of the shipping to send it to me. As if it is my fault they accepted it. So needless to say they still have my package and today is Brady’s birthday. I am not even sure when it will reach us but hey, it’s the thought that counts, right? Other than that, everything is pretty much going well. We are still set to move into our apartment on Saturday, and I am looking forward to having such nice management!! The experience has already been great, and we sure need a good one after the awful complex we lived in before. Tonight we are going out for Brady’s birthday. We are going to Johnny Rebs, a Southern food place. It has great barbecued ribs, probably not as good as Amy’s dads, but they are pretty good. We will take some pictures and try to post some this week!

Random Drivel

So Jessica and I just tried to do a participatory post where each of us chose every other word. It immediately went down hill and included ad hominem attacks about how I was retarded and how Jessica smelled. I guess that technique will take a little bit of fine tuning before we release it to the general public. =) Nothing too exciting happened over the weekend other than the fact that we bought a dining table so we don't have to eat on our laps once we move next weekend. That should be nice. Off topic a little bit... this is my first year in California for Autumn and I must say it never really dawned on me that it gets dark at 5:00 here as well! It's kind of weird, and there isn't much beach time when you leave the office when it's dark!

Team Player...

So here is proof that I do get on everyone’s blog rather frequently just to see how everyone is doing. By the way, that includes our blog so that I can read what Brady is saying about me and make sure it is accurate information. =) After seeing a comment posted by Amy I decided to make a quick post and update you all on our lives (from my point of view that is). Unfortunately we do not have any pictures to share with you all since we have yet to own a camera. Some day we will give in and buy one, but until then you have to put up with Brady talking mostly about work and as Marissa puts it, “could you maybe post some normal stuff on your blog? Like maybe some stuff about your life outside the work place?” It is true. We do not have lives outside of work as of right now. We have both been at our jobs for a little over a month now and we are both settling in (Brady a little happier than I). As for our living situation, we are set to move into our apartment November 11th, which is in about a week and two days. We are very excited. Not that Mimi’s place hasn’t been great, but it will be nice to get our own space again. Speaking of space…due to the small room we are sharing with all our many necessities, I stubbed my toe on the bed leg while passing by and broke my toe last week. It is rather painful to wear high heels I have to say. Back to our new apartment… I just got a call yesterday from the lady at the apartment office. She was calling to tell me that they have already put in brand new appliances in the kitchen, and will be putting in new carpet and linoleum before we move in. So we are going to basically have a brand new apartment!!! The best part is that we will be able to hang out with Hallie (oh, I mean Sara and Matt=) all the time!Well, as exciting as this has been for all of you to read I am afraid I have to go. I have an appointment with the freeway for an hour. Oh that reminds me, I will be living about 6 miles from my work once we move!!!

New Car

So for the last 8 months or so we have been in quite a pickle. Our Saturn only runs if you also run the heater. Apparently Saturn wires their cars so that if the AC doesn't work the car overheats. So we have been sweating double time since the AC went out. When we lived in Utah and there was little traffic we made due. I only drove it to school 3 times a week and only in the morning and evening. Now we are in California and a trip to work almost always includes traffic. I also cannot drive it to work since I meet with clients so that leaves Jessica sweating it out. Back in Utah, I just figured it was part of my diet and just included time in the car as exercise time =) Just Kidding! So we are biting the bullet and buying another car. We have settled on a price with an individual seller and are finalizing everything tomorrow morning. Oh, it's a Mazda6. I'm pretty excited since I always loved the Madza Protege I drove in High School. For all you familiar with the case... I promise not to speed =) But I have to say that when I test drove the 6, I was driving 65 and it felt like 40mph! The good news is that AT&T pays the majority of the payment! Yeah!!! Oh, and AmyJane, sorry but I can't get Jessica to post!

Mergers and Aquisitions

This spring I took a business management course at BYU that focused a lot on organizational change. I must say that it has become extremely salient to me in the last month. I have come into a company that is still trying to normalize since its merger with SBC that is in the process of acquiring Bell South on the 4th of November if the FCC approves it. To make matters even more interesting I am part of the "market response group" at AT&T. This means that my team's goal is to "respond to the market" At any given time our entire focus can change. If the merger goes through then what we focus on could be completely different than it is today. With the complexity of T1's T3's, MIS products, DSL, VOIP, plain old telephone lines, video conferencing it's already confusing enough. After the merger it is quite probable that we will also be responsible for selling Cingular since the company would be completely owned by AT&T at that point... and will probably be called "at&t wireless" once again. Anyway... now that I have completely blown away any possibility of an entertaining post for anyone who decides to read this I am going to tell you a joke. So this blonde girl goes to this guys house and wants to do something to make money. He told her that he would pay her $150 dollars to paint his porch. She said she would. He thought he was getting such a good deal because the porch wrapped all around the house, and he figured she didn't know it. His wife asked what he was going to do if she did a bad job, and he said he just wouldn't pay her. He already had 3 gallons of paint for her to do the whole job. Well she came back and said she was all done. He looked at her and said, "you're already done?" She said, "yep, and there was even enough paint for 3 coats! But you were wrong mister, it's not a porch it's a Lexus." hehehe

A Place To Live

So today we found out that we are moving. It stinks to pay more for a one bedroom than your parents pay for their mortgage, but you do what you have to do. I guess it is the cheapest place in southern California that doesn't come complete with drug dealers and gangstas but it's still a lot of money! In reference to the graphic... All our generation can hope for is a housing market crash. I know I do! Does that make me a bad person? I realize that people on ARM mortgages, interest only loans, stated income loans and people who have used their homes as ATM's this whole time would suffer... but come on! This generation should be able to afford a home too. Home prices are over double what they have been for the last 110 years when adjusted for inflation... and so few people can actually AFFORD a home. I see no other end but a hard landing.

Dave and Busters

So today I went to Dave and Busters with everyone from work. My boss informed me that I could drink, but that I shouldn't get drunk. After carefully considering a recent report about how social drinking increases your salary.... well... um.... I decided against it. I must say that some very well paid people went home inebriated. It is a very interesting to watch the tension in a room where the majority of people drink and the extreme minority do not. It's not like there is any pressure to drink.. just a strange division between the have beers and the have nots.

New Jobs

So Jessica and I made the move to sunny southern California three weeks ago and have both started our new jobs. I am working as an account executive at AT&T. Jessica is working as a retirement specialist for the Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union. While we will both miss our previous roles in life, we are excited about the future. Jessica left her gig with Goldman Sachs and I left mine at BYU. ( You can probably guess which one of us was more heart broken.) But hey, she is just excited to avoid Winter '06 in such a blustery locale! In all actuality we have been very fortunate. After a few job hunting visits to California this summer with nothing but a few less desirable opportunities I was hired by a great boss at AT&T sight unseen. After a few rounds of phone interviews and me playing mildly hard to get I was offered the position and started two weeks later. It has turned out to be a great gig. Jessica came down for one day on the Monday I started work and had two interviews before returning to Utah to work for two more weeks. The first interview was with OCTFCU and was told an offer was being drawn up the same day. We are happy here and excited about the future. I am not really good at wrapping stuff up without saying anything cheesy. Later alligator.