All the things I knew but I didn't know

If you haven't heard this song, you must! Whenever I am feeling less than inspired, I listen to "this"!

DARIUS RUCKER "THIS"

My new best friend

Mr. Keurig is my new best friend. Drew got us this wonderful coffee machine for Christmas! I've wanted one for a really long time...as most of you know, if left to sleep all day, I would! Now, I have a wonderful friend to wake me up in the morning! Hooray!

THANK YOU DREW!!

Holy presents Batman!

Christmas tree post huge package arrival from the Nielsens/Grindes.

Unfortunately, Drew won't let me shake or open any until Christmas day :) Thankfully, I've had my momma's cookies and caramels to distract me!

Wishing we could be spending Christmas with you all!!!!!

Wazzzzz uppppppp

I know that Drew has been doing a much better job than I have at staying in touch with everyone from home. Nevertheless, I am guessing you guys are wondering what we've been up to; since unlike you all, we are not confined to our apartment due to antartic-like temperatures :) So, here is a little summary...

Drew- has been working hard putting in long days at Sony. Unfortunately, he has a long drive back and forth so he spends most of his day away from home. Of course he has been doing his typical boy stuff- video games/sports fanatic. He is playing in his Sony Softball league and has also met some people to play volleyball with. He will be going home to Madison for a few days next week and then right when he comes back, he will head to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. Most importantly, he has been relaxing when he can which is probably less than he would like!

Jenny- I have been working at an Assisted Living facility as a CNA in a Dementia unit. I really like it (other than the long drive back and forth) and I have been given the opportunity to train as a Med Tech! I am very excited!!! It will be wonderful experience for nursing school. Training for that position starts January 1st and I will work on a Per-Diem basis. Other than work, I have been reading....A LOT, watching the Harry Potter movies on repeat (yes, I am still obsessed), and I started working out again (going on 2 days strong hehe) and I feel awesome. Right now, I am majorly stressing out about nursing school. I am trying not to put all my eggs in one basket so I have been looking into various programs, locations, ect. I have applied to 4 community colleges in the San Diego area and I won't hear back from them until March. I am planning on taking a couple classes this spring and then applying to a TON of schools throughout the US. We'll see what happens...and/or where I end up!


We are going to start looking for a new apartment eventually, as the lease is up in June. I think we will both be ready to find a new area to live in at that time. Pacific Beach is great but it will be fun to try to a new place. We are thinking either Downtown or further north to be closer to our jobs.

As for Christmas, we aren't really doing much of anything. I have been devouring the cookies and caramels that my mom sent. So far we have just been planning on going to mass the morning of Christmas Day. I work Xmas eve and day so it is difficult to make plans. Plus, it just isn't the same without family and friends. At least I know Rosanne will be taking my place as part of the family at home :)

The Countdown Begins...

I know it's still VERY far away but my plans are to come home APRIL 19-26 for Easter. I am submitting a request into work this week so that my boss can have more than plenty of time to approve it.

Sooooooooo, hopefully I will be seeing all my midwesties in a few months!!

STAGECOACH

This.looks.awesome. My 3 favorite country stars headlining??? Is this real?!?! I am pretty sure this is the We Fest of So Cal and couldn't be more thrilled about it.

Plus, Indio is near Palm Desert which is where we stayed with our friend Kristi at her aunt's house. We loved the area and it would be fun to go back and do more exploring.

I wish all my country fan-friends were out here to attend with me just like our good ol' We Fest days!!!

For now, I may have to see what Drew's schedule looks like on April 30 and May 1!!  

It's Christmas Once Again in San Diego

They have been playing this song here on the country radio station....I thought it was an interesting twist on the traditional Xmas music we are all used to.

CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN

At least Drew and I have Christmas in our hearts :)

December?

Me sitting by the pool with Drew on 12/12 enjoying some 80 degree weather.

Everyone in the Midwest....looks like you're snowed in for a while JB and Pam!

FAIL.

Sorry to rub it in guys but it has to be done so that you all come out and visit us :)

Stay Classy San Diego

Stayin' classy out here in San Diego with our new Christmas decorations. Drew was great and surprised me with a jazzed up apartment when I got home from work last night. I think its cute that the presents under the tree are larger than the tree itself! Ha!

Unfortunately, I won't be making it home for the second year in a row for Christmas. I will definitely miss seeing my parent's house decked out in my mom's beautiful decorations! This is also the ONE day of the year when I will be missing the snow.

At least our festive apartment will make it feel a little more like Christmas!

Drew says the pink one is his.

Ohhhh!

Ahhhh!

:)

Problems

Advice to myself:

Don't go to the grocery store on an empty stomach....or with a sweet tooth!

Don't go down the discounted bakery aisle...you WILL buy $1 extra large chocolate cupcakes.

Ughhh....I have definitely fallen off of the wagon and have been completely indulging myself in every junk food I can get my hands on. It is difficult because everyone has been bringing in goodies at work and I just cannot say no to sweets!! It is terrible.

Steps to gettin' it TOGETHER!
Step 1: Work out! (Which I have not done in some time...I have encountered this thing people call "laziness". Preeetttty bad.)
Step 2: Don't buy junk food at the grocery store. (Go shopping with Drew because he doesn't eat sweets!)
Step 3: Eat fruit instead of goodies at work. (I get all of the fruit that I want there!)

Sounds simple right? .....Yeahhhh not so much. We'll see how it goes! Wish me luck :)

December Nights

I told Drew that I was going to take him out on a surprise date night. A co-worker of mine told me about an event called "December Nights" that takes place at Balboa Park. It is supposed to be a giant Christmas kickoff celebration and attracts around 300,000 people between the two days that it is held each year. We went and it worked out great! We had a lot of fun and ate some delicious high calorie food. The park looked so beautiful decked out in all of the Christmas decorations!!

 Bought a funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream and a deep fried Snickers bar. HAD to get them as they were from a stand called "Pennsylvania Dutch"...had to support my heritage!

BEAUTIFUL :)

Happy Holidays!

Make.ItADouble

Tonight, I went to watch Drew's Sony Softball team play. Make.ItADouble crushed the other team and Drew did great. 2-3 at bat and he made a couple of great plays in the field. I'm not gonna lie, I was not expecting much when I went there. Much to my surprise, they were not playing video games on the bench or speaking in computer codes on the field. They actually have a pretty decent team and were fun to watch!

Here are a couple of pictures of #22 in action...

Evolution of California Hair

As many of you know, Drew thought it would be a fantastic idea for him to attempt to be a true California surfer boy by growing his hair out to girl-like lengths. Thankfully, I recently talked him into cutting off his "goldilocks" and now he is back to his very handsome boyish self  :)

Like the "Evolution of Dance" video that is on YouTube, I decided to name this "The Evolution of California Hair".

California Hair

Wisconsin Mullet

 5 pound weight loss

Success!

Visitors

I have had so much fun with all of the visitors that we have had out here! Most recently, for Thanksgiving, Drew's Mom,  Dad, Sister and Brother-in-law came out to visit! Unfortunately, I was sick/had to work for most of their visit BUT I was able to spend a wonderful fun-filled day with them going on what I like to call a "Winery Crawl". Post college, we have upgraded from pub crawls to winery crawls Cali style. We started out near Drew's work in Rancho Bernardo.

That was an interesting winery, it had a very old-fashioned.artsy.rustic feeling? It reminded me of the old days going to craft shows with mom.

After that, we went on a little jaunt to Temecula. Temecula is like the Water Street of Wineries. It was absolutely gorgeous there with literally one winery after another for what seemed like miles.

Here we went to three different wineries:
1. Thornton Winery
2. Stuart Cellars
3. Vindemia Vineyard

All were unique and lots of fun! As I am only a white wine drinker, it definitely narrowed down my samples a bit but I LOVED nearly everything that I tried.

My top recommendations:
Stuart Cellars: White Port (Drew got us a bottle but said we have to save it for a special occasion/that it will be delicious with Cookie Dough Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory)
Thornton : 2009 Moscato

Sweet Sippers Flight

Champagne Flight

Guess we are becoming "winos" living out here :)

New city, new blog!

Hey everyone! After various phone calls saying; "Hey Jen, just making sure you are still alive", I have decided to start a new blog. Because of the time change, my work schedule, and everyone having busy schedules in general, it has been difficult to stay in touch!

I promise that I will actually follow through with this one unlike my Costa Rica blog!!!

I'll try to keep you all updated and annoyed with pictures of Drew and I at the beach in December and all of our adventures in beautiful San Diego. I am also hoping that I can persuade you all to come out and visit us :)

So, here it goes! Thanks for reading, enjoy!