Finally Licensed and Beach Time!

Friday-October 7, 2011

Second best day of my life thus far! This is why...We have been waiting on Trav's NAPLEX and CPJE results. We found about a week ago that he passed the NAPLEX with plenty of room to spare, but we were really nervous to get his CPJE score because we know of people that haven't passed this on the first try. So I had read online from other people trying to get licensed as a pharmacist in CA that if the paper in the envelope you recieve with the CPJE score is green then you passed. If it is white, then you didn't pass.  I didn't tell Travis that because I wanted to make sure that was really the case. On Friday I came home to eat lunch and I anxiously checked the mail as I had been doing for 3 weeks.  The envelope was in there and it was GREEN! I started screaming with excitement and kept saying I can't believe it! He passed! and just freaking out! I was so happy. Trav was at work and he had told me that if it came and he was at work to not tell him because he didn't want to worry about it all day long. So I didn't say a word, which was SUPER hard. When he got home from work I was waiving the envelope out the garage door and smiling. He looked really nervous because he didn't know about the green paper thing. He opened and and then got a really big smile on his face, so I knew it must be true that he REALLY HAD PASSED! I asked him to hurry and read it and he only got through about the first word. Congratulations...before he was jumping up and down and we were shouting and hollering and smiling and hugging and I was crying and we couldn't have been more happy. STUDYING IS FINALLY AND COMPLETELY OVER!!! It is seriously one of the best days of my life. What an accomplishment for Trav and now he will be a Licensed Pharmacist and being living his dream. This has been his goal since high school and he made it. I couldn't be more proud of him!

For the past 3 1/2 years, he has been stressed constantly, studying constantly, and I felt widowed (ha ha), but now is the time to start enjoying ever minute of life together!

We thought we would celebrate by going to the beach. We took a 2 hour drive to Pismo Beach. The water is a little chilly, so we didn't swim because we need to get ourselves some wetsuits, but we enjoyed walking down the beach and feeling the breeze and feeling the sand and water beneath our feet.

We walked to the pier and there were several people fishing. It was nice that the beach wasn't super crowded.

The seagulls definitely were hanging out on the pier. trying to steal a bite of fish from the fisherman.

Looking over towards Pismo Beach. Such a beautiful view.

Then we headed to the beach just next door called Avila Beach.

Loved watching the waves crash in and make ripples.

Trav was checking out the "stuff with shells" that are living on the rocks.

We are definitely happy to be able to take a one day trip to the beach!! We are excited to start this new chapter of life, of just regular work. :)

Make A Difference Day

October 22, 2011

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has helped to start up "Make A Difference Day" in Visalia. It is a day where people serve doing different projects in the community. There were 13 different projects this year. We were assigned to help with one of the "Habitat for Humanity" houses in Visalia. We helped paint primer on front and back of large pieces of wood that we started to put up on the side of the house. Helping out at the project was the leader from Habitat for Humanity, two regular volunteers, four missionaries serving in Visalia, another man from our ward, and me and Trav. Trav and I worked on painting one large panel at a time. He would have the roller and I would have the brush. It was hard to get in all the cracks and there were rivets in the wood that were difficult to paint in. One set of missionaries were doing the same thing. It was funny because the leader said that we must be married because we knew how to work together and that the missionaries were struggling a bit. Ha ha. it just made me laugh a little, but the missionaries did a great job. After we got the boards painted, the men starting the cutting and getting it nailed on the house.

Evidence that I was there :)

Trav using the saw! It definitely made me nervous!

Getting the board ready to nail in.

The guys in the front are three of the missionaries. The one on the right is from Colorado, the middle one is from Mt. Pleasant, UT, and the one on the right is from Korea.

Needless to say, we didn't get the house completely finished, but we hopefully made a little difference in the lives of those who will one day live in this house.

It has been a day of service for us. That is for sure. We helped with this house, cleaned the church (just me and Trav. Sadly, no one else showed up at 7 am), and we have been preparing our lessons that we give tomorrow since we both got home. What a coincidence that our lessons are on "Finding Joy Through Loving Service". Maybe we are being taught what we need to do more of. ;)

Visit to Utah in August

August 8-16

I am a little late in posting this, but I did want to include this trip in my online picture journal. Back in August I had to make a last minute trip to Utah to collect some original signatures from the places Trav worked so we could keep Trav's License process going here in Californiaia. So we booked my flight to at midnight the right before I left the next morning. It made for a bit of a pricey ticket, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Since I didn't have a job yet, I decided to make a week trip out of it to visit family!

 I was so happy that I got to visit Megan and Baby Evan. He was such a cutie. I hadn't seen him since right before we moved so he had grown a lot, he was smiling, and he would look at me and interact with me. It was so much fun to hold Evan and visit with Megan. Unfortunately, Paul was gone, but I had a great time!! 

I stayed at my parents house for the length of my trip. We hung out a lot, and I just enjoyed eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with them. We did go see Captain America at the new Farmington Theater. We also had a girl's night out with my mom, sisters, grandma, aunt and cousins. We went to Red Robin for dinner. Of course we also fit it some fun shopping at Layton Hills Mall. I bought me a few things that I had to try to shove into my carry-on which was already overloaded to begin with, but it somehow made it home.

I got to see my parents new car. I love the smell of a brand new car.

I got to go visit Jaime, Keith, Colin, and Camden, along with my in-laws. We had a delicious dinner, compliments of Jaime and Marian. We had time to talk and catch up and the boys showed us how they had learned to ride their bikes.

Keith, Colin, and Camden hung out on the couch each listening to their iPods and mp3 players.

I spent a lot of time flying and hanging out at the airport to get to Utah and back, but it was definitely worth it because I got to spend time with family and catch up! I really wish Travis could have come with me. I sure missed him while I was there. Hopefully we can make a trip back to Utah together soon!

Working in the Lord's Vineyard

The first week of September Trav and I went up to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (I listened to General Conference :)) Vineyard in Madera, which is about an hour away from us. We picked grapes and laid that out to dry for two weeks, so that they would become raisins. Then we went back up on Saturday morning to roll the grapes into a "burrito" style roll, so that they could easily be picked up and thrown into a truck to go to be packaged. We were blessed with cloud cover for 1/2 the time we were there because it was a really hot day. Unfortunatly we didn't have the greatest turn out. There were about 10 adults and 5 kids/teenagers to do 4 rows. I was pretty proud of myself that I was the only woman in the ward to show up and help. I definitely appreciate the opportunity to serve and it is fun to see how you harvest grapes and make raisins. I'm glad Trav had his phone with him so we could get a couple of pictures.

I'm working on getting the raisins in the middle to roll them up. (Don't mind my no make-up face. I thought....why bother when you come home with dirt all over your face.)