New Time Zone, New Jobs, New School, New Apartment!

I can't really think of a better time or situation to start a blog! Some of you might remember a couple years ago when I used to send my "sunday updates" and it gradually faded out after about 6 months or so because I got really busy with school, and Fresno's true lameness probably started shining through...

Well...I'm back! As long as you guys are still interested in what the heck we've got going on, this probably won't fade out too quickly because for the next few years there is going to be a LOT going on in our lives...everything from finding and starting new jobs, starting grad school, planning our wedding, getting married, buying a house, and that should carry us into starting a family...but WHOA! One thing at a time!

Let's back up to May 19th, 2007. That was the day I graduated from Fresno State with my Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology-Athletic Training. It was a great day!
Some of the athletic trainer crew - a few were MIA. From L-R: me, Tommy, Angie, JoAnna, Travis, Sarah. MIA: Kevin (searching for his parents), Danine, Reshmi, and Kayo.A lot of people at graduation put fancy decorations on their caps, so we put AT in big letters with...you guessed it...tape :) We're low-key like that.

My mom and Tim and Alexis and Bailey came up from San Marcos, and Brecken (one of my best friends) came all the way from Texas! It was fun to have everyone in the same place, and although we didn't go do anything big and exciting together, we did have a great time at mom and Tim's hotel pool the night before:


It was great to have them all there - although kind of strange to have people come to Fresno of all places just for me. Not everyone who wanted to be there could be there, unfortunately. Wednesday, May 16th we lost my grandfather, Roger Pardue (my dad's step-dad) to a massive heart attack. It caught everyone off guard, and my thoughts and prayers were with my family in Oregon throughout the week. My mom and dad actually knew him before my grandma Elaine did, because they were good friends with his kids in junior high and high school. We all have lots of fond memories of his loud, happy personality, giant smile, and bright blue eyes and he will be missed by all who knew him. I will try to find my favorite picture of him and I together and post it soon - once I get my scanner up and running.

On May 20th we met some people for what we called "The Last Supper" at our favorite place in Fresno to drink - Logan's Roadhouse. Travis, Angie, Caroline, Sabrina, and of course April, Kevin, Corey, and I hung out for the last time and had a few drinks. It was fun and mellow, but kind of sad and weird - after 2 years of seeing each other day in and day out, it was all over! Here is a pic from that night - one of the few that came out light enough.

On May 21st, Corey and I finished getting all of our stuff out of the house we shared with Pat, Rose, Charlotte, and Jason and out in to the garage to store until June 4th, which is when our shipping space in the ABF u-pack truck would be available. That night we headed down to San Marcos to spend almost 2 weeks at my mom's house to spend time with them while enjoying the life of lazy, unemployed, ex-college students. It was great to get to stay for so long, and probably some much needed rest from the previous few months and the weeks that would follow! While we were there we got to see my other best friend, Melissa, who was back in town for a short visit from her year and a half long adventure of living in Australia and New Zealand! Her little sister Cassie, who is also a friend of mine, got married on May 26th. It was great to see Melissa, Cassie, and their family again - the wedding was beautiful and we had a great time! I got to get quite a bit of Melissa and Cassie time in at Cassie's bachelorette party a few days before too!




For those of you who don't know, Cassie is also a wedding photographer and did a wonderful job on our engagement pictures and will also be doing our wedding - I'm really excited about that! She does a great job, plus I think it will help that we have known her for a long time so it won't feel like there is a stranger running around taking all these pictures :)

On June 3rd, we packed up the cats and headed back up to Fresno so we could haul our stuff over to load it into the ABF truck on the 4th. Let me tell you how much fun that was! The night of the third their cats and our cats hissed and growled at each other all night, and neither of us slept very well. We could have slept in a bed that night but the cats couldn't come to the back room and I didn't want them to kill each other. The 4th was a long hot sweaty day - duh, it's Fresno - but moving a ton of heavy crap definitely didn't help! If it wasn't for Kevin letting us use his truck that day, we would have been in bad shape!

We loaded up the cats, our stuff, and my stuck my car on a towing dolly and hit the road Tuesday morning, June 5th, at about 11:30 am, pacific time. We drove all day and night (with a 2 hour nap at a VERY windy truck stop in the middle of nowhere Utah) and the next night we slept somewhere near the edge of Nebraska. It was quite nice to stretch out on a bed and get a full night of sleep by that point. The next night (the 7th)we pulled in to Corey's dad's driveway at about 8pm central time. It ended up being about 41 hours on the road including food/pee/gas stops - not counting naptime. If you haven't seen the most boring slideshow in the world, hopefully this link to it will work: Road Trip Pics

Fast forward a few days (and a few trips to Milwaukee) later, to one week ago today - we finally found an apartment that we love! We really wanted to live in the Shorewood area, but we really couldn't beat the move-in special here for our current financial situation (we were only able to save so much). Hopefully a year from now, when the lease is up, we will be in a situation where we can buy a house. You can get a very nice house in Milwaukee for much cheaper than you can rent a nice apartment most of the time. I suggest you all move here! The entire property our apartments are on is very secluded and off of the street and feels like it is surrounded by woods. Our particular apartment is in what I think is the best spot on the property. We can't see any other apartments from our windows or balcony - just a big lawn, woods, a small road, bunnies, deer, lightning bugs, and part of the clubhouse. Once we get everything put away, maybe I'll post some pictures of the inside.

Corey's job search seems to be going well. A few weeks ago while we were in San Marcos, Corey had a phone interview for the position of RF Technician, which turned out to be the same company and position my friend Nick works at in Seattle. Last week they called him back for a second interview and showed him around and from what I hear, it went pretty well. A couple days later they called and asked for some references, and they called all 3 of them on Friday. So far it is looking VERY promising! He should be hearing something from them later this week. According to Nick, it is a very good and very easy job...plus it pays well from the beginning, starts out with 10 days of vacation, has full benefits, and he'd have a company truck, gas card, laptop, and work on his own.

Today he also had an interview with Dish Network, which wouldn't be all that great, but it would be an income. Apparently that one went ok too, they called at least one of his references today (Brecken) and also sent him to have a urinalysis. I will keep you all posted.

As for me, I meet with the Concordia folks on Friday to meet them and get the grand tour. I'm excited to meet some new people! Once we leave there they will take me out to the PT Clinic and to the high school I'll be working at to introduce me to people and show me where I will be working, so that should be a pretty good day.

Now that I have written a blog that is probably longer than any paper I wrote in college, I will put an end to this madness. Hopefully you aren't all bored out of your mind with information you aleady knew and pictures you've already seen. I promise in the future it won't be this long. If you aren't totally annoyed by this, save it to your favorites and check back often, stuff is about to start happening! At least I hope...