Memorial Day in CA

Since John and I both had Monday the 25th off we decided to spend it exploring more of Orange County. I left work an hour early and hit the road heading to CA. This was the first time I've done a road trip on my own since college but I wasn't worried because I used to do the drive from Provo to Denver all the time. I will admit this was a little scary, though. It was a holiday weekend so there were a ton of people on the road, plus the normal California traffic, so it was pretty stressful for the last couple of hours driving in the dark. I was so relieved to reach my destination and so tired that we just went to sleep.

Saturday we ran some errands and got John set with more groceries and fresh produce. We had lunch at a pizzeria in Lake Forest called Empanada Man which turned out to be really good and decently priced after our Restaurant.com certificate. For our Saturday night date night we found the Irvine cheap theater and finally saw Taken - great movie by the way, and I love Liam.

Sunday we went to church and then had a very quiet day at home. Sometimes it's nice to be lazy.

Monday we went down to San Juan Capistrano mostly because John found a BBQ joint and got a certificate to eat there. But I'm glad he did because it is such a great place! We drove over to Dana Point, took some pictures by the Marriott resort there then walked down to Doheny State Park to stroll along the beach. It was a great time and John had fun taking pictures of the beach and the water. He's still really excited about the beaches out here. We headed over to Bad To The Bone BBQ in San Juan Capistrano for an early dinner and it was awesome. The picture is of the pulled pork nachos we got - awesome. And we came out with tons of leftovers - also awesome.

John went back to work on Tuesday and after sending him off I drove back to Phoenix. But it was a short week and now I'm back in Irvine! I feel like I have two different lives right now; one in Phoenix where I am a single woman working full time and one in California where I am always on vacation and have great weekends with my husband. And we have 10 weeks to go...

Welcome to Irvine, California!

That's right, John is living in the O.C. and I think he fits in great. In fact, I think we both would and would love to move there!

I took a furlough day last Friday to get everything ready and have one last BBQ with all the friends then we left on Saturday. We drove most of the afternoon and arrived in Irvine at about 5:30pm. The house where John's staying is beautiful and the people who are letting him live there are wonderful. We had a great time getting to know them and I feel really good about how it all worked out. John is only about a 10 minute drive from his office and their house is close to shopping, grocery, and Laguna Beach. We had a fun time Saturday evening driving around to find all the places John will need to know about for the next couple months.

His first day of work went well, I think. It's only been a couple of days so John's doing a lot of orientation and meeting new people. He's still getting the info on the project he'll be working on, so I guess we'll so how it goes. So far I think he's most excited about having a tv in his room that gets cable - he's already watched 3 baseball games and caught up on all the Fox News.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get used to living by myself. With 4 younger siblings and then always having roommates in college I have never lived by myself. Sometimes I don't mind, like last night when I decided I didn't want to do dishes and that I wouldn't feel guilty about it. But it's also really hard - the worst is waking up in the morning and getting ready in an empty apartment. It's going to be a long summer. Fortunately, I've got some great friends who are here alone this summer, too. I foresee some quality girl time going on!

If anything, I have a great excuse to go on vacation every weekend! I'm driving out this Friday for the long weekend since John and I both have Monday off and I was able to get furlough on Tuesday, too. It will be an amazing weekend, I'm sure, and it can't come soon enough!

Bittersweet Endings

John leaves for California next Saturday so this was his last weekend here in AZ with me until next fall. On Friday we went to a dinner organized by his school and got to see lots of friends. I took some pictures but none of them were very flattering so I won't post there here. And I forgot to take pictures of the Chinese food which was the most interesting. We had lots of new things and I have to admit not all of it was to my liking. John wanted to go get something else to eat after we left but when we got home I crashed. I was just going to lay down for a minute and next thing I new it was dark and the clock read almost midnight! I felt bad that I wasted so much time on our date night, but John didn't wake me up so he couldn't complain. We watched some Frasier together and went to bed late. Saturday was good - we got some things done and then had BBQ with friends. It was fun for all of us to get together before parting ways. We're hoping to do something this next weekend but we'll be driving to CA this Saturday so I'm not sure if we'll get to see everyone. We stayed up late again on Saturday night. I was reading a great book plus my stomach was pretty woozy and I had a headache. It still hadn't gone away by the next morning so we stayed home from church.

John was studying for finals off and on over the weekend but other than that it was pretty relaxing. He had a final this morning that he did well on and then he has a presentation this afternoon. Just a few more tests to go and he'll be done with his first year of Business School! And then he'll be gone to California. Bittersweet to say the least.

Free KFC 2-Piece Meal

By now everyone's probably heard about the free KFC coupon that Oprah somehow has been able to offer. A free 2-piece grilled chicken meal for every family in America. Well, John and I have redeemed our coupons and I have to say it was a very interesting experience. I almost wish I had taken pictures to post here.

There's a KFC right down the street from us and I had printed the coupons yesterday (see unthinkfc.com) so we drove over a little after 6 last night. The small restaurant was full but not over-crowded when we got there and we figured it was worth the wait. The wait ended up being 30 minutes, but I'm not complaining because it was free. And the people watching was prime!Not all the customers felt the way I did about complaining, however. There was one rather interesting gentleman, who I will call 'Mr. 74,' that was in quite a rush. When we ordered they were calling out orders in the 50's and we were #82. Mr. 74 couldn't stand still as he was just so excited to get his free chicken! He flitted from one side of the counter to the other, watching the employees in back carefully and constantly asking how much longer until order number 74. When it finally arrived Mr. 74 had to make sure that they had gotten his order right so he pulled everything out and examined it on the counter. John and I just smiled and shrugged - free offers bring all sorts of people out of the woodwork.

There were several families there as well as your standard poor college student crowd. And by the time we got our meals it really was a crowd. I felt bad for the people who hadn't heard about the offer and just came in for some good old traditional crispy fried chicken - they actually paid for their food but still had to wait just as long. But mostly I felt bad for the dear KFC employees, bless their hearts. Mr. 74 didn't help their stress levels one bit and I'm sure they're already sick at the sight of grilled chicken.

John and I walked out with a total of 4 very small grilled chicken pieces, two biscuits, mashed potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw, wedges, and two drinks. I was quite impressed with it on the whole - like I said, can't complain when it's free - but John was still hungry. All that standing in line made him hungry!

I think the deal is you can print 4 of the coupons before 9:59pm tonight so we might have another free KFC experience before the week is done. Next time, I'll take pictures, promise!

Tucson in May

I can't believe it's May already! Only a couple more weeks until John starts his internship - he's nervous and I'm a little sad because I'm going to miss him lots. Silver lining: I'll get to visit California a lot this summer! And maybe Sea World... still working on that.

John's parents were visiting Dave & Charity in Tucson for the last week so we drove down to participate in the fun both this last weekend and the Saturday before. It's a decent drive of about 2 hours (this coming from the person who slept in the passenger seat most of the way there and back) and well worth the trip both times. The thing I love about my in-laws is that we have the most fun just hanging out talking. We eat occasionally (thank you Charity for fantastic meals) and then we talk some more. And laugh - I love the laughter! It was a nice and relaxing weekend and John and I both came home feeling a little better about life. Isn't that what family is for, after all?

Work has been busy but good for me - we had a couple of events last week that went really well and I have another one this week. I still like it well enough and it definitely keeps me busy.

School has been stressful for John - he pulled another all-nighter last week working on a Real Estate project and he has another one, the last, due tomorrow. Then finals coming up and a big move and a new job. Poor guy - it's going to be a hectic couple of weeks! We found a lovely older couple in California who are letting John use an extra bedroom that's off their main house for the summer. We're lucky they had it available since the house is so close to John's office and they are charging a very reasonable rate, especially for California. We'll be driving out May 15th and he starts on the 18th.

So happy May, everyone! And, by the way, today is Star Wars day. Not sure why, but happy Star Wars day, too!