Shoot, a lot to catch up with now...

I hate when this happens. Whether it's my blog or my journal, catching up is always a pain in the buttocks, isn't it? Well, a lot has happened since my last post, but obviously I will have to skip on all of the details.

Eddie did not stay in Merced for work, shortly after I posted last he was told that he was being transferred to Oakland, CA. Our apartment hunt started soon after and we ended up in Walnut Creek, 20 miles from Oakland, 30 from San Francisco. We LOVE Walnut Creek. This little city is so charming and beautiful. We live close to downtown, just a short 5-10 minute walk to Main St. where the trees are lit all year round. It has some of the best restaurants and cafes too. No matter what day of the week, Walnut Creek is always active. I love that! Our new ward is amazing too!! We will be sad when it comes time to leave the bay area.

In August Eddie and I went to Brazil. We were there for 3.5 weeks, and I finally got to meet my in-laws. They were amazing! My sisters' in law are amazing! Nieces and nephews... amazing! We both put on a lot of weight down there, but I'm happy to say that it's gone now.

On October I had my birthday! Yay, 22! Eddie took me to Red Robin for lunch and Black Angus for dinner. I got a beautiful new handbag, and we went to the movies. It was a lot of fun. Mom and dad sent me some new straight-leg jeans from Diesel and a super cute yellow cardigan. It was a very well spent birthday!

On the end of October I went to Arizona for Cara's farewell. She got her mission call to the Montevideo-West, Uruguay mission and left in mid-November to the MTC in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was there for a week, and we had such a good time... from shopping, to going to the temple together, to making our own Halloween costumes together, and horseback riding... we did it all. I'm so glad that I got to spend that time with her before her mission, because I hadn't seen her since the wedding.

Late October we went up to the mountains with Corrin and Ryan Jones again. We stayed at Ryan's family cabin near Buck's lake, it was nice to hang out with them again. We all went fishing one of the days and were out in the water for at least a couple of hours... fish were literally all around us, we could see them in all directions; but, needless to say, we didn't catch ONE! --frustrating.

Just a few weeks ago, in November we went on our Cruise, and it was so much fun. We left from Long Beach and went to Ensenada, Mexico. It was a short, 3-day cruise, but we had a blast. We made some great new friends from Southern California, but originally from Bangladesh. The food was simply out of this world-- so good! I even ran into Kherington (love her!!!), who was on So You Think You Can Dance and the movie Fame, and got to take a picture with her.

So there-- very watered down version of what happened in the last few months, hope you enjoy the pictures.

What a Blessing...

As many of you know Eddie and I didn't know whether or not he was going to have a job after the hospital here in Merced was finished. A ton of people got laid off at the beginning of the year, and things just weren't looking very promising.

We have been praying and fasting for months that we would soon hear something, know what was going to happen, and be freed from worry. The answer FINALLY came!

A couple of weeks ago Eddie was told that he would be staying for an extension to the hospital and that he would roll right in to the next project. This new extension is small and is called a "Linear Accelerator" or as they call it.... the LINAC. They will build a structure next to the cancer center for a new, state of the art cancer killing machine. The project should only take about 9 months and then they'll move on to the UC-Merced project.

Yesterday was a hard day for Eddie. When he started the project there were about 20 people in his office. At the beginning of the year they laid off a few, then a few were transferred, then they laid off more people....and so on. As of yesterday there were 6 people left in the office and 4, and I mean FOUR people were laid off.....the last 4. All who were left were Eddie and his boss who sees great potential in him.

Mike, Eddie's new boss, chose him from all the engineers to stay. He said that Eddie is a great student, and a very dedicated worker. We couldn't feel more blessed and happy.

I am so grateful for the power of prayer. I have to express that I know without a doubt in my mind that God listens to our prayers, and if we are faithful and patient He will answer them. Thank you to all of those who joined us in prayer and fasting, you are great friends of whom we will never, ever, forget.

1 Year Anniversary!!!

I can't believe a whole year has gone by. Time really does fly when you're having fun huh? The best way I can try to describe this last year is...ADVENTUROUS. We went on so many trips, met so many people, and started our new life from scratch.

We have met wonderful people here in Merced, and even though we are excited to buy a house we will be sad to leave the people we love so much here. We made amazing friends whom we hope to keep forever; we will always hold the memories we created here dear to us.

We also traveled a lot this year. I love going places I've never been to before. We spend our honeymoon in Hawaii, then we went to San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Hollywood, Malibu, Recife & Porto de Galinhas (Brazil), Utah, Yosemite Nat'l Park, Napa Valley, and now Disneyland...

That's right, we celebrated our first year anniversary at Disneyland. It was great! I had been to Disney World in Florida, but Eddie hadn't been to any and I think he loved it. Everyone gets to be a kid there right? We even bought an autograph book to get some of the Disney characters' autographs! We spent the whole day between Disneyland and California Adventure. We had a great time. I hope you all enjoy the pictures!!

It's been a while...

Hello everybody!

I can't believe that it has been almost two months since my last post; I'm starting to procrastinate again, dang it! Here goes my attempt to catch up...

May 23 was Eddie's 30th birthday and it was celebrated well. On Saturday (22nd) we went out to eat at the Elephant Bar in Fresno...yumm, to get some ice cream for dessert, and then to the movies. We watched Iron Man II which neither of us really liked. As a tradition in my family the birthday boy/girl gets to choose what to eat for dinner on their special day. Eddie wanted chicken a parmegiana, and that's exactly what we had. For his birthday present I gave him a brand new electric guitar that he had been wanting for a long long time; he was thrilled. It was a very special day for us to celebrate!

Labor Day Weekend Eddie and I drove to Utah to visit my family. We left Merced at 3pm on Friday and surprised them at 3am Saturday. When I called my mom so she could open the door she sounded scared (middle of the night calls are usually bad news), but when I told her to go get the front door and let out a little squeal of excitement. They had absolutely no idea we were coming. We stayed at home a lot which was exactly what I wanted to do, just be with the family. Dad barbecued on Saturday and later we played games and watched a movie. Sunday we had another bbq (our favorite) and my cousin Marjie and her husband Gustavo came over to visit from Provo; we played games until late again. Monday it was time to come home already. It was a short but awesome visit, I love surprising people. It was also a needed visit since Eddie and I are planning on spending Christmas and New Years in Brazil. I don't have any pictures because Catherine has them...I'll post them later.

Those are some of the updates, but they're not all...I'll be back for more when I feel like typing again...heheh, sorry.

Camping in Yosemite National Park

Hello friends and family!

It has been a little while since the last time I posted, but I only have one thing to write about really...so it's not that bad.

Two weekends ago, Eddie and I went camping in Yosemite. We went with our best friends here in Merced, a couple from our ward...Corrin and Ryan. Corrin is in the Young Women's presidency with me and Ryan works with the Young Men and is our chiropractor.

We went to Yosemite on Friday (May 7th) and came back on Sunday. We got there pretty late Friday night because we couldn't leave until both Eddie and Ryan were off work and we were lost for about 45 minutes trying to find our campground. Friday night after setting up our tents and making a fire in the dark we just hung out. We had smores and talked around the campfire. I was afraid Eddie and I were going to be cold because up in Yosemite at night during this time of the year is normally under 30 degrees. I brought 7 blankets plus our air mattress so we wouldn't have to sleep straight on the ground, we were nice and warm. I felt bad for Corryan (is how we abbreviate their name, heheh) because their air mattress deflated completely throughout the night, and Corrin was freezing! Overall it was a good night...no bears! ;)

Saturday morning we started our day with a delicious breakfast. We brought our little camp stove which was nice and very convenient. Corrin made delicious pancakes, Eddie made the bacon, I made the eggs, and Ryan was in charge of the fire and hot chocolates! We were nice and full and ready to start exploring the park.

(The tent in the background are Mr. and Mrs. Flintstone...we will never forget them! Let's just say that the camps were extremely close to each other, the walls on a tent are very thin, and they were not shy AT ALL!!!!!)

Anyway...

First the boys went fishing...or tried to at least. They didn't catch anything...well, kind of...Eddie caught a nice stick, hahah.

Then we drove around the park just to admire the BEAUTIFUL views and all of the creations of Heavenly Father...it was an awesome trip. Yosemite is surrounded by beautiful mountains, tons of waterfalls, lots of trees, lakes, rivers, etc... I was in charge of pictures so here you go...

Beautiful huh? My favorite part of the whole trip was visiting Bridalveil Falls, we didn't feel like doing a super long hike, some of us don't like hiking very much so we did this one, and it was nice and paved and easy and GORGEOUS! When we were going up we noticed that everyone was coming back soaked! It didn't make sense though because it was cold outside, there was no way in heaven that these people were playing in the water. Well, not too long after we understood. At the base of the waterfall it was like it was pouring rain. Bridalveil Falls is tall, big, and is a straight fall (not through rocks) and consequently just by standing close to it you get soaked. It was so much fun!! The pictures are not very good because the camera got a little bit wet, but it's the best I could do under the circumstances :) ...

Very cool isn't it? Well, we went back to camp in the afternoon and had Nathan's hot dogs (the best) for appetizers, then cooked a delicious foil dinner (Corrin's idea), and later we had some peach cobbler. Three-course dinner, not bad for camping eh? We played some games around the fire and talked for a while after dinner and then went to bed.

It was a great trip and I recommend it to anyone who ever comes to visit this area of California. You are welcome to stay with us if we're still living here... :) I hope you liked the pictures!