A Vacation Much Needed

An interesting perk of Jeff's new job is that there is a bit of travel involved. The bad news: he was gone for almost the entire first half of November.

Jeff's first work trip took him to Boston and New Hampshire for training. That was fine, and he was gone for a few days and back by Saturday. The only problem was he had ANOTHER training the following week, and was gone in less than 48 hours, this time to Maryland. After he returned from both trips, he found out that there was yet ANOTHER trip the first week of December and he wouldn't be done until December 4th. The problem: That was when we planned on leaving for our anniversary trip to Chicago. So, why not make a long trip?

We both traveled to Washington DC on December 1st and settled into our hotel in Maryland. While Jeff was working, Jen was able to sight-see without him. She went to the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress, then went with Jeff at night to see a few of the monuments at night. Day two took Jen to Virginia to see Mount Vernon and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, and again at night we hit the city to see more monuments and walked around the city while they televised the Christmas tree lighting at the Capitol. Friday was our first day off, so after checking out of the hotel, we went to look around the Smithsonian and then the Holocaust Museum, one of the most moving experiences we had. We had to cut our day short and took a late flight to Chicago that evening.

Chicago was a lot of fun as well. We went to the Art Institute of Chicago and looked at all of the paintings, which Jen enjoyed being a huge fan of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. We also enjoyed trying authentic Chicago-style pizza and driving around the city and outskirts. We even found a small burger chain that Jen loved because their mascot was a penguin! We packed as much as we could in two days, and then spent a lot of time in the airport on Monday. We were fogged in, and our original 9 AM flight was supposed to take us to Denver for a layover and then take us home to California. The fog changed that for us, though, and we ended up leaving to Las Vegas around noon. Originally we were in a puddle jumper, which is a Southwest flight where you'll land in a city, but instead of getting off and switching planes, you stay seated for a few minutes, more people get on, and you continue on your flight. However, just before we landed, Southwest decided to change us to another plane, so we had to sprint through the Las Vegas airport to get to the plane. When we got home, because of all the switched flights, our luggage came much later and, while we got back to Newark at 6, our luggage arrived sometime around 1:30 in the morning! It was a great trip overall, despite the extra confusion at the end, and we are hoping to go back to both cities soon!

Washington Monument

Mount Vernon

The LDS Temple. It was COVERED in Christmas lights and so pretty!

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington, VA

A photo wall at the Holocaust Museum. This is actually from the top floor and we are standing on a walkway; it was 3+ stories of pictures.

The famous bean in Chicago

Willis Tower. Yeah, it's pretty big

Outside of the Art Institute of Chicago

As The (Work)World Turns

So there have been two major changes in the Perry household: Both of us changed jobs!

After being with AT&T for over a year, Jeff was offered a new position at Comcast. It was a surprise, as he accidentally applied for the position, and technically he didn't meet all of the desired qualifications. But, Jeff being as awesome as he is, he really impressed the higher ups in the company and they offered him the positions. He is now an Accounts Executive, which means he signs up apartments and communities to get them good rates for promoting Comcast. The best part is he works from home most of the time! He has to go to Sacramento once a month, and Livermore once or twice a month, but the rest of the time, he works from home. We even cleaned out the office so it's a little more functional for work. Let's see how long it stays clean though!

Jen also was offered another job. After being with Easter Seals for 3.5 years, she left to be a paraeducator at a local elementary school. While she misses her clients (some she had been with since she started ESBA) she is excited to be in a classroom setting. Also, the hours are shorter, and her drive time is significantly shorter, and she is done by 3 PM every day. Plus, she won't have to deal with paperwork!

We are both excited to start these new phases in our careers. Wish us luck!

Foodstuffs

We have been trying really hard to not only make more food at home, but to change up our meals as well. One of us in particular (Okay, it's Jen) is admittedly finicky with trying new food, so we started to cook more things at home. So far, we've managed to create a new soup that we both love, and we have been working on more slow cooker meals since they are much easier to do. The food has turned out pretty good, and we hope to keep cooking together more!

The wild Ichabod waiting for the grill to provide sustenance...

Pot Roast

Chicken, potato and broccoli soup. Jen's idea, and it was so good!

Another roast, this time with purple potatoes. They didn't taste different but it was weird eating a purple potato!

The Birthday Boy

September 5th is a big deal here. It's National Bacon Day. It's National Cheese Day. Oh, yeah, it's also Jeff's birthday :-)

We had a pretty good day overall, ate a lot of food and just relaxed. First we went and got a bacon cheeseburger (remember that part about bacon and cheese day) just for a snack, and then went to go have lunch at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian restaurant we both enjoy. It was really good food and we enjoyed having a great lunch.We also went to the mall and went shopping, where we got a few Lego sets to play with, some clothes, and just hung out. Later that night, Jen's sister, Bertha, took us to go get gelato at a little place down the street from us.

Overall a great day for the birthday boy!

Pixar Day

One of our bucket list items this summer was to go to a baseball game, so we got to go to Pixar day in San Francisco. We went along with Myra, Jen's dad and William, her nephew. Yeah, they didn't win, but it was a good game. Plus, we got to get T-Shirts and watched Up! on the big screen sitting on the field.

We were pretty far back, but it was still a good view, good food and good company!

Cal Academy

We had a great adventure and went out to San Francisco to the California Academy of Sciences. We have not been to this place since we were children, so we never went as a married couple, and thought we could take a day off to go sightseeing! Jeff took a Monday off, which worked out since it was Jen's regular day off, and we headed out to see the museum. It was a lot of fun. Most of our photos are on Facebook, but here are a few that came out nice. One of Jen's dreams is to do the sleepover with the penguins, an overnight event that they do occasionally, so maybe we will do that on our next visit!

The Legacy of the "Coffee Table"

When we moved into our first apartment in California, we bought a brand new set of furniture, including a dining table, bedroom set, couches and tables for the living room. They were definitely not the most high-end furniture, but surprisingly, they've held up well.

A while back, our glass coffee table broke in the corner, so we merely taped it up so no one would get cut. Over time, the crack expanded, going across the entire length of the table. Recognizing it was a hazard, we decided it was time to find a new table.

The original break

The rest of the table

We searched for months, wanting to find a good bargain for our table and hopefully finding something that would match. We were also thinking about getting new couches since ours were small and great to sit on, but not the best for lounging around, and neither one of us can lie down on the couch (at 5'7" and 5'9", we were both too tall!). But we didn't want to spend a lot of money.

That's when Jen came up with an idea. When we moved into the house, we bought a LoveSac, a HUGE bean bag chair that is large enough for two people (and takes up a good chunk of the living room). The company also makes "sactionals", pieces that can either be used as an ottoman or, when you add sides, can be a chair, and can be configured into so many different shapes and sizes (go play on their site, http://www.lovesac.com/sactionals/learn.html to see what we mean).

This ended up solving both problems: we can use the ottomans as a "table top", perfect for snacks and board games, and if we push them together, we can recline on the couch. Plus, later on if/when we move, we can buy more sactionals to make new furniture, or buy new covers to match however we decorate the house. I'd say that's a very comfy win!

As you can see, we might have been fine with one. It came before the second one.

Both put together. Jen described the color as "what our couches were when they were still new." (Don't worry; they really weren't that light and we aren't that gross!)

We've already played board games, including Jen's new purchase, Exploding Kittens!

Droppin' the Mic

As of this past Thursday, Jen finished her externship!! She worked really hard this last term, wrote a lot of different reports and had to be flexible with everything else, and finally has (sort of) a break. Her schedule opened up, so now she'll have an actual 2-day weekend, and won't have to wake up super early every day to go work a full day, then go to her actual job.

The downside is that school started the same week, and two classes started three days before, so she had NO break before starting more school. So far the first two classes haven't been that difficult, but they will soon ramp up, and a third course will start in July. BUT to help make things easier, we have a 4-day "staycation" planned for the 4th of July weekend, where we can just unwind and relax a bit. Plus, we hope to have a real vacation, even if it's just a day trip somewhere.

A lot of studying and work in her future, as you can tell by the view.

Updates

Everything is incredibly busy here, but we thought we'd post that, yes, we are still alive!

Jen has been working through her externship. Despite the migraines, she's managed to stick with it. Starting tomorrow, she will be on week 9 of 11. If all goes well, she will be done on May 28th, just in time to start her summer school term on June 1st. Fortunately, she will have her mornings free to study, because she's supposed to enroll in three courses this summer, including one with a teacher she doesn't get along with. She's done a lot while in the clinic, and has been working on giving assessments to the clients. Before she leaves, she will be working on some more reports, hopefully completing a few more assessments, and writing a blog post for the company's website, which we will gladly share on here. She's getting closer to her degree, and only has one year left to finish. She'll have two more terms of "academic" courses, this summer and fall, and two more externships, including one working with adults. She has to complete 400 hours before she graduates, and she'll get about 250 by the end of this term.

Jeff has also been insanely busy. AT&T has recognized him as one of the top salespeople in the nation, and they are starting to look at advancing him further in the company. He may be selected to go to their annual conference this year if his numbers continue to stay high, which includes a trip they will pay for the both of us to attend! He is also trying to finalize his schooling and is figuring out where to finish his degree, hopefully starting this fall.

With everything being so crazy-busy, we are trying to plan on some fun things this summer. So far on our summer bucket list, we are thinking:

1) A day at a museum.
2) A Giants game (Jen is pushing for the Pixar game in August).
3) A weekend getaway.
4) Going to see a play/musical.

If you have any other suggestions for us, please let us know. We want to have some fun this summer before Jen has to do more volunteer hours to finish her degree and Jeff starts school again.

 Wish us luck!

Green Stuff In Our Front Yard

Last year, we stuck to a garden in the backyard. This year, however, we have WAY too many seeds and plants to stick to one area, so this year, we're taking over both yards.

Phase 1 is our front yard. So far, we've planted a bunch of tomato plants, but we also started a small herb garden in the planter box, plus a bunch of peppers and watermelon plants. Jeff has been working on clearing out the backyard so that we can plant more there but that has to be done in shifts because 1) there's just so much to do and 2) we had to plan out what goes where. But eventually the yard will have corn, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, and some other stuff!

So here's just a glimpse of our front yard garden:

Here are 11 tomato plants (#12 died) and our little clementine tree.

Pepper plants, and some other plants our friends gave us.

So far we only have mint and two other herbs. Need ideas for what else to go into it!

Easter = Books

This Easter was unique to say the least. We discovered that there was a huge book sale put on by the San Francisco Public Library. They put on a huge sale and rent out space at Fort Mason to sell their older books. Generally things are either $3, $2, or $1, but on Easter Sunday, everything was marked down for $1. As you can see, we got a good deal...

Fort Mason

I was trying hard to get a picture to show just how large this place is!

Our haul!

Afterwards, we started to get hungry, so we pulled over and had burgers at Fog City Diner, down near the Embarcadero. It was one of the best gourmet burgers we've ever had, and we'll likely go again!

Fog City Diner

We've never seen a cruise ship "in person", so maybe now that it's so big Jen might go on one!

Overall we had a fun (albeit unconventional) Easter, with some good memories and fun mementos!

Our new books at home. Don't they look pretty??

Finally Able To Stop

So it has been an insane time at the Perry household. Why, you ask? School. Work. Life. All of these things get in the way of just vegetating and updating the blog.

We can't complain, though. All has been going very well overall. Just incredibly busy.

Jen started her semester in January, and tonight is her last day with her "book" class (something she is over the moon about). But before she finished this class, she began her externship through the Center for Speech, Language, and Occupational Therapy (CSLOT). She has to work there three times a week, and usually before her sessions with Easter Seals. This makes for some very tiring times, as she is working roughly 8-7 Monday - Friday, and 9-5 Saturday. Sunday is her only "day off" and that is usually filled with church stuff, catching up on paperwork for school and work, and everyday things. Thankfully this is only temporary, and she will be done at the end of May, and now that her class is over, her paperwork will significantly decrease!

Thankfully, Jeff has been stepping up a lot with the house, making sure that we don't starve and helping out wherever he can. He's doing this while starting the process of going back to school and continuing to work for AT&T. He has done well, and has been consistently exceeding his sales goals. He even has received several commendations for his sales, and has been recognized frequently for being the top salesperson not only in his office, but has even received national recognition.

Sorry for such a short post, but you get how it is. Life is incredibly crazy right now. Hopefully it'll slow down soon so we can add more updates!

Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho! It's (Back) To Work We Go... *whistles*

So, after the plague hit our family, it was back to work for us both. Jeff is continuing to work on getting his paperwork done to become a broker with another firm, and in the meantime he's continuing as an account manager for AT&T. So far, this has been very successful for him, and his boss has encouraged him to look into other more "9-5" positions within the company. Apparently, he has made some great progress and made some good contacts, so here's hoping there's more growth in the future!

Jen is continuing her work as well. She started school again this semester. She has a teacher she is, let's say, not the fondest of again for her current class. The one positive is that it's only a 10-week course! She also has to complete another externship and has signed up for that as well. She will start that at the beginning of March, meaning there will be a 2-week overlap between her book coursework and her externship, then she will continue to extern until the end of April. The site she picked is one local to Fremont and now she has to set up schedules for her and her supervisor. They shouldn't conflict with work and hopefully she can get a lot of extra hours.

We are also trying to work on New Year's resolutions. We have the usual: work out, lose weight, etc. But this year, we've both added a reading challenge. There was an article on a 52-book challenge that Jen came across and she thought she'd be crazy enough to try it. So far, she has read 6 books required and it's only 3 weeks into the year. Once school really picks up (and that two weeks of overlap kick in) she may fall behind, but in the meantime she's reading as much as she can. This link will take you to the PopSugar Reading Challenge that she's trying.

Jeff wanted to do one as well, but his is a little shorter. His is a Bingo-card challenge, based off of the original one Jen is doing. This one is only 24 books on a card (the middle card is a free square) and he's trying to keep up! Below is his Bingo card. If you decide to join, let us know and we can compare books! Happy reading!!

Napa

Last weekend, Jen got to go to Napa to celebrate our niece's 21st birthday. Most of the family went up on Friday, but because Jen had to work, she went up Saturday instead with her sister, Myra. It was a pretty area, and even though she didn't drink, she still had a nice time getting  away for a day amd just relaxing with her family. They stayed at a nice little resort, ate good food, toured the Andretti Winery and had manicures and pedicures. We may have to go there again to visit sometime soon!

The Family

A panoramic shot of the vineyard

The Vino Bello Resort's outdoor fireplace

That's a LOT of wine!

The archway to the winery

Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra...

The Christmas season has come and gone, and this has to be one of the craziest ones yet. We started out the holiday on Sunday the 21st, when we went with Jen's sister Myra to the San Francisco Symphony. They had a live version of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and it was so much fun. During the sing-along portion, the three of us sang Deck the Halls, but the way they sing it on A Christmas Story (the movie with Ralphie and the BB gun. Google it) even though we got some weird looks. A good start to the holiday season!

The 22nd was Jen's brother's birthday, so she drove her sister's down to have lunch with him in San Jose. When she got home she didn't think she felt well. And that's when the chaos started.

Jen canceled her sessions on the 23rd because she was running a fever. We suspect one of her clients got her sick, because we found out they had the flu AND bronchitis. This made an already-tricky Christmas (more on that later) ever more so, and she didn't get to go to either her parents' house for their celebration, or come out of the room on the 25th when the Perry side got together in the living room. It was interesting, though. We decided to give her an iPad so we could Skype and open presents "together" without getting anyone sick. Kind of lame, but it worked.

Now Jeff had to take care of our food preparations not only without Jen, but without power! Around 2 PM most of Newark had a power out that lasted several hours. This made it necessary to take the half-cooked turkey to Jen's sister's house in Fremont, and pushed back dinner about 2 hours. Dinner was still good, and we got a lot of nice things from family. Jeff got a Samsung Gear Fit (kind of like a FitBit, but it links to the phone and does a lot more cool stuff), and Jen got a lot of clothes and books. We enjoyed as much holiday as we could, considering Jen was so sick. She stayed in bed until New Year's and even then, we kept it quiet. Her cough is still horrible, and apparently she wasn't the only one to get sick. One of her clients also has the flu, so she only worked two days so far. We will have to see what the new year brings; she may be off until the 6th!

We will have to post the Year In Review in it's own separate post, so stay tuned...