It's been SO long since I last posted that we've had lots of changes happen in our lives! First of all, Anthony is now an officially licensed chiropractor in the state of California! He is working at Tustin Chronic Condition Center and is learning a lot. They focus on patients with chronic conditions such as celiac and hashimoto disease. He's been amazed to see the changes in his patients who come in for their first visit in constant pain and within a month they are like totally different people. His next step is taking the x-ray exam and getting licensed in that as well and then he will start focusing on certification courses to become certified to treat these conditions. Apparently a doctors education is NEVER complete! (I added a link to his office website at the bottom of this post if you want to check it out.)

I have also started a new job since my last post. I am still with Mercer, but am working as a Consulting Analyst in the Newport Beach office. The job is very different from my previous position, but I'm catching on pretty quickly. I work with a lot of great people so that definitely makes working more enjoyable! During my first week we had a team meeting during the workday that included beer and wine. I decided then and there that I was going to LOVE this place! :)

We also got a new car a few weeks ago. We had to get a second vehicle since I was getting a different job. We were really wanting to get a Jeep (Anthony was REALLY, REALLY wanting one), but we couldn't find one in our price range. So we decided if we couldn't get a Jeep, we at least wanted a convertible to enjoy in the amazing California weather. We ended up getting a Solstice, which neither of us ever even imagined owning, and we absolutely love it! The day after we bought it, we spent the whole entire day driving around through the mountains and along the ocean just taking in the amazing views and open air!

We have lots of friends/family visiting over the next couple months, so I will try to post lots of pictures of all the fun stuff we do!!

http://www.tustinchronicconditioncenter.com/

Visitors!

We had our first visitors the first week in February. On Saturday our friend Arnie was in town, so he stopped by for a night to hang out with us. It was great to see someone from home! Then on Thursday my parents arrived and stayed through Monday morning. While they were here we showed them around Irvine and our apartment complex, went shopping at the Spectrum, tried out lots of great restaurants, went on a whale watching boat ride (although we only saw dolphins and sea lions...no whales), and stopped by the grand opening of Tyler Marolf's Los Rios Rock School. It was so great to see them, and it was perfect timing because I was starting to get a little homesick. Seeing my parents helped a lot! Tears were shed when we took them to the airport Monday morning, but I know they will be back again soon! (Hint, hint!)

Anthony spent last week shadowing a chiropractor in Santa Ana. The doctor he worked with does treatment plans for a lot of MMA fighters and has a lot of interesting patients. Santa Ana is about 15 minutes from our apartment (traffic pending) so that isn't a bad drive. He is looking for someone to buy his practice, but at this point that isn't really what Anthony is looking for so this probably isn't going to turn into a long-term position. It was still a great experience for him to see how the office worked for a full week though.

More people are finally moving into our apartment complex, so hopefully we'll be able to meet some new people soon. We think someone is moving in directly above us today so it will be interesting to see if it's really loud in our apartment or if we don't hear them too much. I'm hoping we don't, but with hardwood floors I'm guessing we'll at least hear them a little.

We're definitely missing everyone back home, especially our families and those adorable nephews of ours! Thank goodness for Skype and Face Time!! We're looking forward to the weekend of St. Patty's Day because three of our friends will be in town visiting! That should be a FUN weekend! :-)

Our new place!!

We are finally all settled into our new place!! We got the keys Monday morning and then spent the day at furniture stores stocking up on the essentials. We got a new bed frame and mattress, two night stands and lamps, a desk and chair since I will be working from home, a couch and a loveseat, as well as a lot of smaller items. We still need quite a few things before we will be satisfied with our place like some wall decorations, curtains, a rug for the living room, end tables, a coffee table or ottoman, and a few smaller things so I think we have a few more shopping trips in our near future! Our place is kind of small, but for just me and Anthony it is really the perfect size! We love it and are so happy to be settled in so quickly! We definitely appreciate Tony and Jen letting us crash with them for the first week here while we searched for the perfect apartment! :)

 

We had our cable, internet, and phone hooked up yesterday. The phone still isn't working so someone is coming tonight to hopefully get it going. Our new home number will be 949-748-3837. We have unlimited long distance (and our cell phones don't get the best reception inside our apartment) so if I am calling you it will most likely be from that number. We can start using Skype and Face Time to chat with everyone back home now too so I'm very excited about that!! We are planning to Skype with my parents tonight so we'll see how that goes!

I took a bunch of pictures of our new apartment that you can see below. It's so weird moving into a new place and not having friends and family stop by to visit and check it out.  Just one more thing to get used to living across the country from everyone! Thank goodness we have Tony and Jen here or it would really be strange not knowing anyone at all!! Luckily our apartment complex is huge (basically the entire population of Wilton could live here) so I'm sure we will start meeting people soon in the common areas around our complex.  

 

It's 3:30 right now and the temperature is 82 degrees. We are absolutely LOVING the weather here!! Although it sounds like the temperatures haven't been too bad at home either, I still prefer the 80's to the 50's. :) We're hoping to go to L.A./Hollywood either this weekend or next to do some sightseeing, so we will definitely post pictures of that afterwards! We also have our first visitors booked to come see us!! My parents are coming February 2nd-6th so I am really looking forward to that!!!

 

Well, I guess that's it for now. We miss everyone a lot and love hearing from all of you so please keep in touch!!!