Last year until now

Do you like root beer floats? Our Elder’s Quorum has occasional ice cream socials for fellowshipping and good times. Today someone asked if they could bring root beer. I let slip my feelings that root beer floats are a waste of ice cream. It was a funny comment in my head, but it came out differently. Oh well. Hopefully no one leaves the church.

Since we last talked, we had Christmas and New Year’s. We had Merilee’s sister’s family over for 5 days before Christmas, and three of her single siblings stayed an additional week. We also adopted a member of the single’s ward that we met at church (their own church doesn’t meet over the holidays). Her family was in Mexico so she spent most of the holidays with us. We had a total of 10 people and a baby in our one bedroom apartment. Everyone fit during the day, and at night we took advantage of our neighbor’s empty apartment that they let us use so the baby could sleep while the adults continued with the party.

It was an eye opener having to buy/prepare food for 10 people. I guess Mer and I are ready for when she has two sets of quintuplets. Thankfully, we had multiple people helping out with getting and preparing food, so it wasn’t stressful. We ate well and enjoyed lots of quality time. We took a tour at Hearst Castle, saw some sea lions, spotted a zebra, walked on the beach, saw the 3rd hobbit movie, saw many other movies, had bacon waffles, ate lasagna, chilled in the hot tub, skyped with people and a missionary, discovered our garbage garbage disposal was leaking, had a money run (Canute won), slathered fresh homemade bread with butter and homemade lemon curd, made gingerbread houses, hosted a talent show, played soccer, tossed a frisbee, returned a defective piece of furniture, took a tour of our neighbor's doll collection, saw butterflies, and took naps. If I left anything out, let me know.

On New Year's Eve, we left SLO and went to visit my brother's family in Irvine. They were super great to visit. We also got to spend some time with Merilee's cousins and their families. Everyone got homemade toffee (you're welcome). During our time there, we visited an awesome aquarium. Seeing all those amazing creatures just reminds me of what a wonderfully amazing world we live in. We also got to go to Griffiths's Observatory, a place I had only been to previously in GTA San Andreas. We got to celebrate a birthday, visit with friends, checkout downtown Disney, stop by the Lego store, play games, and get our hair done in our nephew's California Hair Salon. It was lots of fun, plus we got to do free laundry.

We had to recover from Christmas pretty fast. Work and school started back up at 8 AM the morning after we drove back. We arrived late Sunday night but luckily had already put most things back in order before we left. This quarter I'm taking 13 units. I have class every morning at 8 this quarter, which sounds horrible every day before I go to bed. But I really don't get up much earlier than last quarter since I used to see Merilee off to work every morning anyways. It's also nice being done Tuesdays and Thursdays by 11 AM. I'm taking Introduction to Aerospace Design, a fun class where we use computers to analyze aerospace problems (my teacher looks kind of like Orlando Bloom). My morning class is Technical Writing for Engineers, a class about writing memos and technical reports and that kind of thing (my teacher is Kiefer Sutherland). I also have Statistical Methods for Engineers, a class about... (Jon Voight).

 My fourth class is the second half of Mechanics of Materials. The teacher is actually my Stake President, Eric Kasper. We've so far only had one stake conference here, and I didn't remember his name but recognized him when he walked into the classroom. I checked the LDS tools app and it was him. So far, all my classes have been really fun. My teachers, especially President Kasper and Jon Voight are pretty energetic and funny lecturers, something that I'm not used to.

Not much else has been going on yet. Mer's birthday is on Tuesday. You should call her or send her a message (but not like the random ones she gets from weird people). Church starts at 11 AM now. We went on a hike yesterday on the Irish Hills (3 minutes' walk away from our apartment). We told ourselves back on labor day that we'd do the hike (but never did), and have been telling ourselves the same thing every Saturday since, so it was good to finally do it.  It was only like 2 miles but we are still sleeping to recover. I was pretty dizzy for some of it but it was still beautiful. I got Bell's Palsy almost a month ago and not all the symptoms have gone away yet. I'm still praying for full recovery, but really I'm still grateful it was this and not a stroke or something. I have double vision when looking left or right, but have learned to close one eye when backing up. The dizziness is more annoying than anything. It hasn't caused me to fall down yet, I just feel clumsy.

Sunday Games

Thank goodness someone brought their table!

In search of the sea lions. They were supposed to be underneath the dock.

Found the sea lions.

Watching sea lions from a distant.

Getting close.

Even closer.

Beautiful sights in the castle.

They decorated for Christmas.

By the pool 

Playing heads up seven up after the tour.

Canute's Stocking bag (Merilee made them out of shirts).

My stocking.

Mer's stocking.

Christian's stocking.

Bonnie's stocking.

Christmas Eve, everything is ready.

Everyone  picked up a bowl to collect their money. There were snowballs for a fight.

The tunnel to the money run.

View from inside the tunnel.

The pre-chaos lineup

The cardboard part of the tunnel lasted 2 seconds. 

Inside the tunnel.

Something that got missed. I spotted it a few days ago.

Hiking in the Irish Hills

We found a bridge

Cat Astrophe

Winter calls rain falls
Cold hands destroy marriages
Frozen toes need warmth

You're welcome.

(Is he going to go on acting like it hasn't been three months since his last post?)

Yes.

Merry Christmas everyone! This is doubling as my Christmas letter. You can stop checking the mail now. I've been off school for a about a week now since my last final was on the 10th. 4.0 this quarter (w00t!). It was a very busy quarter, especially with all the blogging I was doing.

Anyways, it was good that I was able to do so well my first quarter at Cal Poly. What's funny is that my cumulative GPA is pretty much already set in stone. Getting a 4.0 this quarter raised it from 3.535 to 3.564. Dang you BYU Idaho! Dang myself for screwing it up all those years ago. Whatever.

I had several projects that were fun. My favorite class of the quarter was IME 144, Introduction to Design and Manufacturing. I feel like I learned more about engineering from that class than any other. We got hands on experience with Lathes, Mills, CNC machining, etc. I'd make my machinist cousin Chris proud. Maybe.

We had several projects, the coolest was the air motor project. Here's one in action:

In my aerospace fundamentals class, we made a rocket and a glider, the latter we haven't seen in action yet because of the poor weather around launch day. We called the rocket Mustang Heavy, after SpaceX's Falcon Heavy (mainly because our rocket was the heaviest in the competition). Our thrust didn't quite compare to SpaceX's rocket, though. Check it out:

We're hoping the glider will perform much better. Here's a picture to tide you over until we fly it next quarter:

It's supposed to hold as many as 400 pennies, and fly as long as possible. Our wing profile was a little slim for 400 so we did 300 instead. We still have to install the servos for the control surfaces (elevators and rudder, but no ailerons) and their power supply and receiver, but it's otherwise ready for flight.

I was involved in a club, but we haven't really done too much yet so I don't have any pictures to post. We've been learning how use carbon composite materials in preparation for a competition in the Spring. I'll have more to share later. I'll just say for now that it's pretty cool getting to work with stuff that would usually cost thousands of dollars just so you can learn how to use it.

Halloween Pictures

This week, in addition to getting ready for Christmas, I'm also poking around looking for some internship possibilities for the Summer. There was a career fair this quarter. I checked it out but have been so busy with classes that I haven't done much else. At the fair I talked to some of the reps at SpaceX. It totes seems like company with some fun projects to work on. They're definitely a company I'm looking at.

What are your Christmas plans? We have lots of family coming over actually. I guess SLO attracts lots of visitors. We have three single Peterson siblings visiting, and one married with family as well. The family has three kids, so 8 visiting in total. Our one bedroom apartment is a bit small for everyone to sleep over, but we have some neighbors that will be out of town and offered us their place. That was kind.

We've been brainstorming ideas to make it fun, and foods we want to eat. We have a gluten-intolerant person so we're trying to accommodate that too. It should be fun. I'm just hoping that the weather improves. Heavenly Father has answered our prayers for rain so we haven't had the beach paradise that we advertised to the family back when they bought their airline tickets. Oh well. At least everything is green and you can watch movies no matter what weather you have.

We should be able to make it out to Hearst Castle, thanks to my mother-in-law. She's also given everyone the green light to get Legos (they had tons of Legos that burned in the fire). We're going to have some sort of competition with them on Christmas day I think. I'll post the pictures

Have you heard of my amazing wife's Fancy Animal talent? She's finally on Etsy. You should check out her shop here.

Did I tell you about our garden? I should have taken a picture of it at its prime. We do not get enough sun, so the one spot that does get the most sun had some promising looking plants. That was until the bugs came, ate every leaf, and then winter came and withdrew the sun. Oh well. At least we have the dirt for when we move some day.

We're having fun in our Ward as the Wolf Den Leaders. It's cool because we can prepare lessons together, and reconsider having children. I'm just kidding, but we have 9 wolves. That's just a lot I feel even for two people to control. They are all cute kids, even if they do get a bit loud and crazy.

 Hoping everyone has a great Christmas and a happy new year!

Dang Kids

I hope everyone had a great labor day. Mer and I had some guests in town and we bad a blast. On Saturday, we went to Avila Beach. I can't remember the last time I went swimming in the ocean. The water was really cold when you first got in, but it felt great once you started treading water and riding the waves. We tried to celebrate their birthdays (one last Tuesday, and the other this Monday), but the cake mix we used was probably way expired because it didn't rise much like you would expect, and it was nasty. I ate the frosting though, don't worry.

Also, I have some advice for those of you who could use help making cookies.

Before going to the beach, we made waffles and I went to help with a move. I thought it was the same people we helped move the week before, but it was a sister who was moving stuff from her storage unit. Part of it included moving a king size mattress up two flights of stairs that were so small they reminded me of the apartments in Spain. It was like pushing a giant sponge through a birth canal. Happy birthday, Mattress.

Along for the ride to the move, I met the EQP's son. I think he's two or something. A cute kid for sure, but he had a cold. On Sunday, he and his family sat in front of us at church, and now Mer and I both have colds. I haven't decided on how to exact our revenge yet, but it will come, perhaps years later, when he least expects it.

School doesn't start for another couple weeks. I'm pretty much going crazy without any math/physics/engineering problems to solve. I've resorted to watching MIT lectures on dynamics, since people seem to agree that it's the hardest class on campus (or any other campus) and I'm taking it this quarter. My books should be here in the next couple days, and that should help too. Did I tell you my design and manufacturing class uses pro-engineer, and not solidworks? Well, it uses creo parametric 2.0 (judging by the book for the class), which from what I've been able to gather from the internet is basically the new pro-engineer. Anyways...

I'm only taking 12 units this quarter. I'm taking Engineering Dynamics (ME 212, 3 units), Intro to Design and Manufacturing (IME 144, 4 units), Mechanics of Materials I (CE 204, 3 units), and Aerospace Fundamentals (AERO 121, 2 units).

For Labor day, we had a ward breakfast. It was delicious. We were going to go on a hike later, but it was pretty warm and I was still a little red from Saturday (not hurting though) so we decided we'd go this next Saturday in the morning before it got hot. The trail for the Irish Hills by our place is literally a 15 minute walk away.

These pictures are from a while ago. I got some power tools from the Peterson Fire Relief fund and helped America with some gardening stuff. It was nice to be working outside.

Mer and I are still running. We're probably doing like 3.5 miles or so three times a week. Monday we did part of Ab Ripper X before going out. Today I'm really glad we only did part of it. Treats have been disappearing much slower than before with our new system. Sometimes I open the desert tray and think "it sure has been a while." "A while" is probably like "24 hours." I'm still weighing in between 190 and 195. It's all that darn muscle.

I've been working on solving my Rubik's cube faster (it was a birthday gift from Mer). I did it in one minute and 40 seconds today. I don't know what my best time was on the mission, but I feel like it was faster. I'll keep working on it.

Mer is on week two of work. She says it's pretty boring and is hoping they can get some projects for her. We'll be getting insurance benefits in about a month, which will be nice. I tried signing up for obamacare when we moved down and were out of work, but coveredcalifornia rejected us said we'd be getting medical information or something "soon." I just love our current health system.

So it turns out that this place isn't as quiet as we thought it would be. We don't have nearly as many sirens as we did in Hayward, but some of our neighbors have loud voices. It doesn't help that we have gaping windows on three of the four sides of our unit. The living room has the largest window that opens out to a path that goes from the street to the parking lot on the other side of our unit, passing a few units and their porches or balconies. We've had people singing and playing their guitar after 10 pm, some people just chatting on their porch with really loud voices, and of course, children screaming bloody murder in their game of hide and seek. Yesterday during dinner, we were pleased to hear a man's entire phone conversation as he walked back and forth again and again from in front of his unit to the parking lot, passing both our living room window and our patio area which features a large sliding glass door.

The best was this morning at 2:30 when I wake up to hear two men outside our bedroom window in a somewhat emotional conversation. From the voices, it sounded like an older brother trying to help his younger brother get back on the right track. It sounded a lot like the conversation Paul had with me when I was close to joining that biker gang in Dublin. Anyways, I know they had important things to talk about, but Merilee works at 8 am and we both have colds (and it's like 2:30 in the morning people!). I turned the light on, hoping they would notice it and leave. They didn't, so I went out and politely let them know that we were trying to sleep. Luckily, they weren't drunk and didn't get offended and promptly left. We usually hear people talking by that window since the parking lot is right outside, but most people aren't so loud and they usually don't linger. In this rant, I probably sound like a grumpy grandpa but sometimes you just have to stick your head out the window and shout back.

Since we've been meal planning, I've been making lots of food for Merilee when she comes home. It's a lot of work do cook every day. I'm glad I know how to follow a recipe (don't forget the advice on making cookies). You should have been there when I made Merilee 16 of these burritos. Goats love burritos.

Some Beach

For those of you who frequent my blog, you must be surprised by this post since it has only been a week since my last one. Well, I thought both of you would be interested since a few big things are finally happening/have happened recently. Yes, we're having a baby. It should arrive sometime in the next 20 years. Also, we found a Safeway here, but it says VONS on the outside of the store. Weird.

Safeway Website

VONS Website

Merilee had a few job interviews, both in person and over the phone. She got an offer this morning from a seed company called Bejo and later another offer by one called SMS Mastermind. The latter is some sort of mobile marketing company. We have until Monday to decide on one or none. I think I've said before that pay is less here than in the bay area, but at least most if not all the jobs she's been getting attention from give full employee benefits and partial family benefits.

Quick question, is it illegal to take a few buckets of sand from the beach? Mer and I are getting close to planting our patio garden, getting most of our information from a square-foot gardening book we are borrowing from America. We went to Home Depot, got some seeds and garden-box materials, and I decided it was time we got a power drill (though we haven't bought one yet). Anyways, we are also utilizing our broken pantry cabinet (one of the two had a busted bottom shelf from the weight of all the cans we put on it and it just fell apart even more during the move) as one of our garden boxes, and it's deep enough that we were going to fill some of it with sand before putting soil in. We tried to see how much sand we could fit in a bucket and a plastic trash bin, and borrowed some from Avila Beach. It wasn't really worth the effort and the shame so we will probably just buy the rest of our sand.

Monday was a big day because I had orientation and was able to register for classes and meet with advisors and department heads about my academic planning. I was also able to rearrange how my GE courses were articulated (which was super-weird, bee tea dubs) so I have no more lower-division GE requirements to fulfill. I might even be able to get out of a bio-engineering class they make people take (though it's a long shot and I have to wait two weeks before I hear back). 

I had wrestled with the decision of whether or not to switch to mechanical engineering and try to graduate faster. I would still get my master's degree in aerospace engineering, and it would take me four years total. Another advantage of majoring in ME as an undergrad is that ME is a more general major. Aerospace industry employers need more than just aerospace engineers, and having a background in ME probably would have had better career opportunities.

The disadvantage of that would be that my undergrad would not be in something that I was truly interested in (though it still probably would have been a fun major). Also, for me to possibly save time, I'd have to be taking an average of about 17.5 units per semester, make sure that the right courses were offered over the Summer, and with all of that, maintain a GPA high enough to get into their grad program (or that of any other school at that point). I haven't yet experienced the rigor of a Cal Poly workload, but a one like that sounds like a lot of stress for me and for Merilee.

It turns out that almost all the aerospace courses are offered once a year. Only accounting for prerequisites, I could graduate with a bachelor's in a little over two years. However, it will take me three years to finish undergraduate coursework. It sounds like the blended program truly takes only one year as long as the student is on top of his or her thesis. So if all goes accordingly, I will graduate in the Spring of 2018 with a master's degree in aerospace engineering. It sounds like forever to me with how slow Summer is going, but once classes start, it will fly by. At least I hope so. I'll be very light on units each semester because I have pretty much everything done except aerospace classes. Hopefully that means more time for internships/work/Merilee and I'll have a high GPA.

Previously I thought that VA benefits were one or the other. I could either have a fee waiver, or chapter 35 (which awards about $1,000 every month that I'm in school). In going through the process for the fee waiver, however, I discovered that that isn't always the case. Under plan B of the cal vet fee waiver, chapter 35 could still be used. My intention was to apply for plan A since plan B had an income restriction, and I had qualified for plan A since Dad died. I learned that the only income that mattered for plan B was the amount on the W-2 forms, not the AGI (as it says on the application). When I was told that, I felt like I had struck gold. An extra seven or eight thousand dollars a year would be great considering Merilee will be making less and I don't know if I'll be working at all. I was somewhat disappointed, however, when I talked to Cal Poly about paying my fees.

It seems like the fee waiver covers about 60% of my total registration costs (which I'm very grateful for, thanks Dad). The waiver covers state fees, not school specific ones. Many of them are ambiguous, and some of them sound pretty lame ("Student Success Fee"?), but I suppose those college resources that make a school desirable come at a cost.

After the 60%, these fees make up about 38%, and the remaining 2% is for class-specific lab fees. The total before the waiver is just over $3,000, meaning that I'll still have to pay about $1,200 each quarter, making me very glad that I am receiving both benefits instead of just getting the fee waiver (I had calculated the difference in value of the two benefits assuming that the fee waiver covered about $9,000 a year, not $5,500). Basically, I'm paying about $1,200 for each quarter, but then I get about $3,000 from the VA from chapter 35.

Have I mentioned that there's a lot of PT Cruisers in San Luis Obispo? I see at least 5 every day.

I'm almost done with the Summer reading program. Merilee is leaving on a trip next week so we are driving up to the Bay Area where her flight is leaving from. I'll sure miss her.

Keep Kids Alive, Drive

I had no idea how dangerous eagles were. I wish I had one that was loyal to me. A whole convocation of giant ones would probably solve all my problems.

I'm probably blogging right now because Merilee is at a Relief Society activity making/eating things made with lemon. I've been getting used to being around her all day now, whereas before, I was used to being productive by myself. Maybe I could finish filing some papers away, or finish reading a magazine I checked out from the library. I'm a few steps away from completing the summer adult reading program at the SLO library. I decided to try and start reading leisurely and figured it was a good place to start. Plus, the theme seems to be centered around science.

The last couple days, I've been organizing and doing some other random odd jobs, as well as cooking food while Mer looks for jobs. She's been a real champ and has applied to quite a few places by now. There seems to be a big gap between cost of living and salaries here, so it's hard to find something that seems reasonable to us (not that we're getting job offers either).

Since we moved here we've had two visits from ward leadership. The first was a counselor in the bishopric, who asked us to speak on the 24th. You should come. We also were visited last night by the EQP, who just got to know us a little. So far, we're feeling the love pretty strong. It's nice. Our apartment is pretty cool. I baked cookies yesterday or something.

In other news: I've been doing a pull-up every time I go in or out of the bedroom. Merilee and I ran Monday and today and I did half of an insanity CD yesterday. I've rededicated myself to fitness after I, with a Herculean effort, put my church pants on last Sunday. I was 190 when we got back Sunday night and I'm going to try and get down to 170. Weight isn't the most important thing but I am pretty chubby right now, so even if I get some more muscle, I can reach that weight without too much of a problem I think. So far I think I've been transitioning into it pretty well. Running with Merilee stops me from over-working my calves, and this week I'm only doing half of the insanity workouts so I can walk (and even run) the next day with Merilee. Hopefully, with consistency we'll be able to build up together and get some more serious running going. Maybe I'll even be able to fit into my suit for my talk.

I've also been trying to eat better and more regularly since we're home almost all day and have no excuse. I heard eating something small every few hours was good for you. Merilee got me a bag of Reese's minis for my birthday, so that's been helping with that. I said before that I made cookies but we shared with our neighbor, visitors, and I took a picture of them. That removes at least some of the calories, doesn't it? I should probably just accept the fact that I'm doomed and will never be as "skinny" as I was when we first got married.

Oh so I had my birthday. Thanks for calling. I almost ruined my step-father's 80 birthday surprise party that had been so carefully orchestrated by my mother. This included getting all his, and some of our, family together and planning activities. They called me when they were all together, sometime around 10 in the morning. They being my sister and her family, my brother, my mom, and Bob. Assuming the surprise had already been dealt that day (it felt later to me), I wished him a happy birthday and later asked if he liked his surprise. During the call, I was informed via text that he didn't know anything about it. You people. Luckily, it went right over his head. I also got to see Guardians of the Galaxy (awesome) and got a really cool photo-book from Merilee (thanks Bonnie for putting it together and for everyone who contributed to it. It was awesome!). I remind myself of a toddler with how pleased I am to read peoples' positive thoughts of me next to my face, some photos of which I never knew existed.

The New Jetsons Have Arrived in San Luis Obispo

If you're reading this, then you know that Mer and I survived the move. Though we've hauled all of our stuff down to SLO, we haven't completely disappeared from the bay area. In fact, we'll probably be seeing members of our old ward almost as much as our new ward until the quarter starts. Then goodbye until Thanksgiving. You're welcome.

We loaded up the u-haul Friday morning. It was really a Budget moving truck, but people call any moving truck a u-haul. We had tons of support from the ward, from movers to cleaners; it went super well. We have such great friends in Hayward. Merilee headed down before our friend Andrew and I did. She was driving the new car that we bought. Excuse me, did I say car? I meant spaceship. At least, it feels like a spaceship when you drive it. Needless to say, it was a great Fit.

She got there around 3 to sign some paperwork so we could actually move in when the truck arrived. Andrew and I pulled in with the truck around 4:00 pm and the three of us started unloading. I had told the Elder's Quorum to expect us there by 5:00 pm since I didn't know if it would be a slower drive in a 16' moving truck packed with belongings. It turns out I can go 80 in any vehicle, so we were a bit early. By probably around 5:30 pm, with some help from the Elder's Quorum, we had everything in the apartment and were able to drop off the truck the same night. It was a pretty smooth move if you ask me.

After that, we immediately started the drive back to the bay area. Some wonderful friends of ours were married on Saturday in the Sacramento Temple. Terry and Jennifer looked so great and so happy. We're so grateful that we were able to attend the ceremony. It reminded me of our sealing one year ago on this Saturday the 26th. They were amazing times, to say the least. But more importantly, every day since then has been even more of a blessing with Merilee.

I don't think marriage is anything like what people expect. It's like men trying to imagine the pain of birthing children, though hopefully marriage wouldn't be painful. I imagine Terry and Jennifer had hopes for happiness leading up to their wedding, but if it's anything like Merilee's and my experience, you don't know how happy your marriage can be until your in it. Satisfaction with most things wanes over time, but if the relationship is healthy, marital happiness only increases with time (says the man about to reach his first anniversary). There's not a lot of things that have that kind of satisfactory return.

Moving along... After the wedding we took pictures and went to dinner. There was a chance for people to speak and Merilee stood up and cried (naturally). We finally got back to Castro Valley around midnight to spend the night at Mer's sister America's place. We were pretty exhausted since we had left around 7:40 am to go on a YSA float trip that was 15 minutes from the temple. On Sunday we went to church in Hayward for the last time as members of that ward, got home-taught, said goodbye to America and her kids, then went on a double date with Andrew and a girl from the YSA ward named Morgan.

After all of that, our original plan was to drive back that night to SLO so we could maximize the amount of time I'd have to help unpack the apartment before having to drive back up to Hayward for my welding class on Tuesday. In the interests of safety, we decided to spend the night and leave Monday morning. We stayed that night at the same place that I'm staying while I'm wrapping up the class. I call it, the Hotel Monte, also known as Jonathan and Sarah's. They're such great hosts and the beds have no bugs!

So now I'm just in Hayward Tuesday through Thursday this week and next week. I might have to come back up again on the 5th of August for the final, but the instructor might have been mistaken when he said that. We'll both be up next week for Terry and Jennifer's reception on the 1st. Plus, we still have tickets to the Oakland Zoo that my mom gave us that we need to use, and then Merilee will be flying in and out of Oakland for a wedding in Utah later in August. Basically, you haven't gotten rid of us yet completely, bay area. With all this driving, it's a good thing that our spaceship gets like 45 miles per gallon.

Moving SLOly

First, this cat's face.

Auditioning for the role of Lord Voldemort.

Second, Merilee just told me that once she finishes her current book, she'll have nothing to read because all of the other books are packed up. We'll just have to make sure the fancy animal materials are still available.

We're getting things packed up for the big move on... the 18th or 19th? We're not sure. We were invited several months ago to a wedding towards the end of August but we just heard from some other friends that it was moved to the 19th of this month instead. We already have our move in/out date set but we could potentially be renting a moving truck for two days instead of one, since going down, unpacking, and making the trip back up and paying for gas will probably be as fun as it sounds.  I guess that is all assuming we're still invited to the wedding. That could be a potentially awkward conversation.

My welding class is pretty fun. There's a lot on the practical side of engineering that I guess I didn't/still don't know. We've been playing indoor soccer on Monday nights with the single's ward. It's my workout for the week since I've been lacking the motivation for the much needed exercise. I weighed in at 190 the other day. 

For the fourth, we had fun at the ward BBQ with some of our neighbors we invited. Then we made it to Bonnie's house to spend some time with her before we move away forever. It's been nice living close to friends and family and it will be sad once we leave. Despite missing people/being missed we're still pretty excited for the change. Everyone says that SLO is great, and I'm excited for school.