California Art

Here are some artsy pictures that I have taken here in California.

Celebration Dinner & Afternoon Swim

Once we found out that Adam had a job offer we headed up to mom and Jim's house for a celebration dinner!

Mom and worked on preparing the meal as Jim, Doug, and Adam talked in the living room and caught up on football. For just moving in a week ago their home feel like it is completely put together.

Mom and Jim decided for our special occasion they would open a bottle of bubbly! Adam and I really enjoyed sharing this with them! What a treat!

Cheers! The night continued and we all had such a good time.

The next day Adam and I took the dogs swimming again! Dexter fell in a few times and it scared him, poor guy. He spent the afternoon in my lap!

Our other dog however could not get enough of the pool! He and Adam enjoyed swimming together and tossing the ball around. We have some very spoiled puppies on our hands!

Hello Kitty Charger

There's not much to say about this post so I'm not going into detail. I only hope that they were paid to make their Charger look like this...

I actually like the rims though. :)

Haha!

Adam Haz Job

YAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, now that is out of the way I can give you some specifics. I have been hired at TJ Cross in Bakersfield, CA as a mechanical engineer working under a couple of PEs (professional engineers). They have about 150 employees, 85% of them being technical (engineers and such). They have 33 PEs there so I'm sure I'll find someone to take me under their wing. Their work typically falls in the oil field category since that is a big part of Bakersfield's income. Basically I'll be doing most of the grunt work for some of the senior engineers there for a while. They are making me an offer on Monday and I'm so excited to accept! We have agreed with a starting date of Sept. 13th. So I'll have a couple weeks to get my vacationing in before I go to work. I'm just so pleased to have found a place like TJ Cross offer a position to me so quickly. Their business is one that I will be so pleased to work for. :)

http://www.tjcross.com/

Adventure, People, and New Experiences

Adam and I had a lovely day! We got the opportunity to sleep in a bit which is rare. . . Dexter being a young puppy needs out at all sort of unfathomable hours of the night. We got up and he had breakfast (Eggos his favorite) and I had a cup of coffee. He spent the mid-morning applying for jobs and touching base with engineers that he met at the API meeting last night. My mom is the chair of the API this year, she has been on the board for quite sometime and is finally the big boss! We are so proud of her. She looked so cute in her skirt suit at the podium directing the meeting. She introduced Adam to so many important business contacts. So Adam touched base with most of them today. In order to reward all of his hard work this morning we decided to catch a matinée! Despicable Me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhxqEzj0b6Y

The movie was so cute, we really enjoyed our mid-day treat! After the movie we went home and Adam continued so job hunting while I cleaned up the house a bit. Then Adam and I met my mom at one of my very favorite Italian restaurants in Bakersfield, Frugatti's! Good wine and food, Great company! We really enjoyed the evening.

This is mom and I and the next photo is outside the restaurant at the entrance! We had a lovely day and enjoyed the adventure, people, and new experiences!

Come see us in California!

Washing the Dogs

We have recently discovered there were a number of fleas on Starlyn's dogs here at the new house. We aren't 100% sure that ours didn't have them as well when we moved, but Bentley is protected and Dexter came straight from the adoption shelter to the Budget truck that took us to California basically. Anyway, once we had noticed we decided to take action. The pest control company that Starlyn uses for the house came out and sprayed the backyard for fleas among other things, and we gave the dogs baths using flea and tick shampoo. Cleaning them wasn't the funniest part since the fleas were falling off like they had a bad case of black dandruff, but we did manage to get some funny pictures out of the whole thing since Bam Bam is one of the stranger walks of life I have seen.

This is Bam Bam after the wash. He wanted no part of this from beginning to end.

Kirstie washing Bam Bam. (I helped too.) :)

Here is Kirstie and our fast-growing Dexter.

Dexter seems to enjoy wine as well. (He only had a lick or two.)

Keeping in Touch

Since Kirstie and I have moved here it has been a little heavy in the one on one time department. I'm all for QT, but from what I know about relationships, it's not healthy to only hang out with each other. So how do two people who know hardly anyone in a new place find friends to hang out with? I think once we get jobs, develop some connections and work friends we can start hanging out with people here, but until then really the only people we have met are my parents' ages or older. And let's face it, they just aren't suitable candidates for friends to hang out with on the weekend. :P With that being said, we have great family and friends, they are just 1500 miles (approximation :P) away from where we are which makes it hard to grab dinner or a movie and talk about life. So we decided to come up with a solution for our loneliness. It may be a tad selfish on our part, but I think that the willingness to try our solution will be reciprocated by our loved ones. :)

I've never really used Skype before until recently due to what I can describe as the equivalent of Kirstie and I being on the moon alone together with no one else to talk to in person. But I'm beginning to believe it is one of the better softwares ever created. It's used in many businesses to get deals hashed out and finalized, or just to talk to family or friends who are too far to see on a regular basis when you would like to keep in touch. We obviously use it for the latter, and hopefully soon we will be using it for the business approach at our new jobs. For now though, it is great seeing old faces and hearing old voices. Even if they are a little pixilated and choppy.

So if you have a Skype account and would like to

talk or video chat we are almost always willing to set time aside and have a convo with the people we know and love. We just got a webcam (Microsoft HD-5000) and we would like to break it in a little more. We have talked with a handful of people so far. It feels great for the both of us when we connect with the important people in our lives.

Adios Green Machine...

So I sold my truck. I've had the little truck for 10 years now and it has served me well. We only have one vehicle right now. The whole reason I sold it was because of smog tests in CA. It would have cost a good deal of the trucks' worth to smog it and make it emissions legal. Anyway, here is a picture of it. I will miss the ol' green machine.

P.S. I made Kirstie a pretty sweet Bloody Mary this evening. If any of you want one you are more than welcome to stroll over for a drink. :)

Thanks to Jim for the neat glasses.

Home Sweet Home

It occurred to me this morning that Adam and I have shared photos of our neighbor's back yard, and of mom and Jim's new home, but we have never posted a photo of our house. Well, the house my mom is letting us rent from her until we figure out where our jobs are going to be! So this is it for now, home sweet home. It is still full to the ceiling of my mom's things. They just got done cleaning out Jim's place and plan to take her things with her next week. We will be excited to have the house empty.

One thing that Adam and I really do enjoy about where we live right now is the fresh produce. Bakersfield is nestled at the very tip of the San Joaquin Valley. Since so much water flows through here there is an abundance of crops. When we go to the market almost everything is labeled locally grown. Following the guidelines of simple economics due to the large supply of fresh produce the demand is low making everything unexpectedly inexpensive. We were not expecting this because everyone talks about how expensive California living can be. We have decided that when people say this, they can't be talking about fresh fruits and vegetables. This is our dinner last night by the way! Adam had some spicy chicken sandwiches and I had a nice salad with vegetables and egg whites with a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. It was wonderful.

It's all who you know...

Yesterday in a meeting with API (American Petroleum Institute) I met a lot of high ranking workers in the oil field here in Bakersfield, CA. It was funny. The second that we stood up and explained ourselves, a select few of the meeting said to me, "I would like to talk to you after the meeting". At this point I'm thinking AWESOME!!! So we went through the meeting which was in short, a fundraiser for a scholarship involving college students. But at the end of it I had collected a number of business cards and a handful of promising connections that could lead me to my next job. I'm just so excited that everything happened so fast with the meeting.

I was thinking that work was going to be done with the events they had posted, and I would rub elbows with someone during the volunteering that might spark interest in some engineering position. But one of the main guys who was running the meeting for the "Fall Shoot" (Skeet competition) said something that really made me feel at ease towards the end of the night. He said, "Keep your phone on you. You'll get a call tomorrow... I have no doubt you will get a job in the month". Words like that coming from a business developer I'm sure don't come lightly. I'm just so excited with everything that has happened so far. Who knows what the next few weeks will hold for us! :)

One Happy Pup

So Dexter is getting bigger. No surprise there, but I had no idea how good a dog he would be. He knows his name and is potty trained at this point and we have had him for a week and some change now. We are just thrilled that we made the decision to get him, regardless whether it was a crazy one or not. I hate to say it, but he obeys better than Bentley. Maybe just because he is such a chill dog. More importantly him and Bentley are a dynamic duo and they don't go anywhere without each other. They cruise the same paths in the backyard and are doing very well with the transition into a new home. Anyway, I just wanted to express how happy we are with Dexter and we hope that the family and friends get to see him at least a couple times before he is all grown up and loses his super-cuteness. :) Here are some pics to melt your hearts...

Dexter and Kirstie getting some water on a hot walk.

After the first swimming episode. Not liking the water yet...

On the trip to CA. He was a tired puppy, which is good for how packed it was in the truck. :)

An Afternoon Dip

We are very fortunate to live next door to a very delightful neighbor. She has been our next door neighbor since we moved onto this street when I was in the 5th grade. She watches our dogs when we go out of town and keeps an eye on the house for us. She has a pool in her back yard and the rule has always been (no need to call just come jump in)! Adam and I were surprised when she told us yesterday that we were welcome to let Bentley and Dexter join us on our afternoon dips! Bentley loves the water and misses jumping in the lake back in Oklahoma. He was so excited to be swimming again. This was both of the dogs first pool experience. Dexter was really not sure about it. I tossed him in anyway and he quickly swam to the steps and got out. We enjoyed spending our afternoon in the sun by the pool and laughing at our pups.

Busy Busy

Today was unbelievably busy. We helped move Jim and Starlyn from sun up to sun down. Not to say it wasn't rewarding, we did get some awesome taco salads and a nice Italian dinner as a token of their gratitude.

Not much else to talk about really since moving seems to be the

theme for the last 2 weeks. Here are some pics of the pups that we have taken recently....

Here is Dexter chilling on the couch like he's not supposed to be. But he's too cute to get onto sometimes.

...and a pic of the "old dog" staying cool on the tile. :)

-Adam

Yet another move...

So my mom (Starlyn) asked if we would mind borrowing a trailer from her friend, packing up a few of her things (grand piano, couches, bed), and moving them to Tulare. Her and her husband Jim recently bought a new house and are moving in this weekend. Adam and I spent the morning loading up the trailer, packing boxes, and working out dog situations. Later we took the trailer and all of its contents and unloaded it into their huge 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom new home. We were only in Tulare for an hour before we left. Stopped by the market to grab some things for dinner and make some spicy veggie chili. Moving Jim from his home starts tomorrow at 9 so Adam and I will be getting up early to load up the trailer again with the second load of stuff to be in Tulare at 9.

We were talking about web cams

today and we're considering in investing in one. We were curious as to whom would be interested in Skyping/video chatting with us on a regular basis. We

are just trying to see if this investment would be worth while.

Love,

Kirstie

Pismo Beach

How cliche would it be to go to the beach on your first free day in California? Very. But we did it anyway.

We start off by winding through the foothills on approximately a two hour journey. But the landscape is pretty enough that you don't even notice the time go by. (Once you get past all of the oil fields and refineries.) When we were cruising through the foothills, just thankful that it wasn't in the cumbersome Budget van we rode in on, I realized that until we own a roadster or sports car of some sort the full pleasure of this cruise wouldn't be harvested. So we're putting that on the to-do list, or maybe just me. I don't know. :P

Upon reaching Pismo a cloudy haze greeted us. The town itself is pretty busy by the beach with plenty of great things to buy. One of the tastiest cinnamon rolls I have ever tried in my life is on that item list. I only wish I had my camera at the time to show you the gooey goodness, and it was only $3. That's hard to beat when it's so big you have to share it with someone. :) Our other highlight as far as great eats go was the edamame and 22 oz. Fat Tire (which we split) at Pier Side.

Honestly, taking our pups through the crowds at a busy lunch frenzy was excitement enough for the both of us. It's not easy keeping a 80lb. chocolate wrecking ball from knocking over small children and elderly people (no they don't all live in Florida).

When we made it to the beach it was quite

entertaining watching Bentley chase the tennis ball into the freezing surf with Dexter in tow stopping just short of the waves that would completely submerge him. That continued for quite some time before we noticed that Dexter was getting a little cold and running out of steam on this busy day.

It was a great first place to visit outside of Bakersfield. We had a great time and will return soon hopefully to see more of what Pismo has to offer.

Go West

This is our first post and we are quite excited about it. We have so much to say and well, I guess the typing could go on forever, but you all have things to do and places to be so we will just hit the highlights and call it good.

In a nut shell, we had a three day road trip in a three-seat

Budget van with the

two of us (Kirstie+Adam), Bentley, and our crazy new addition to the family, Dexter the Great Dane/German Shepard mix we rescued from the shelter just the day before we left. We understand "crazy" is the first word that pops into your head as you read this, but we believe if people say we're crazy we are on the right track. We seek spontaneous adventures, we pursue the road less traveled. It was once said in a movie, "if you're not living, you're dying" so here we are living life with two large hounds, too small

of a moving van, and 1500 miles between us and "home".

We aren't entirely sure what we are going to do when we get

there. No jobs waiting for us. One thing we do know, the first stop is the beach.