Where to begin?

Well we've gotten all moved in, just in time for a heat wave! In case you've seen the news, yes, there are wild fires near Los Angeles but don't worry they aren't super close to us. We can see the smoke bellowing into the sky, and really no one but us seems to be amazed by it, I guess eventually we'll get used to that sight too.

Our parents left today, it was very hard to see them go. We had so much fun while they were here it almost felt like we were just on vacation. But all things do end and now we are really officially out here on our own. This afternoon we drove to IKEA to return a few things and Justin and I both agreed it's the oddest thing to be so far away from anyone we know. Luckily, with Justin going to school, meeting new people won't be hard; we'll just be having a lot of together time until then. :)

Sooo much happened in the last week I'm not even sure where to start. Our things finally arrived on Tuesday, not quite the way we expected though. Our shipment had been moved so they could put two other shipments on the truck. A few of our things were damaged, I've included a before picture (the way we packed it) and an after (the way received it) above. After lots of anger and tears Justin and I both agreed that it could have been a lot worse and at least we learned a good lesson. Our new piece of advice, never use the company Move-X.

We went to Santa Catalina Island, CA (picture with the yachts) on Thursday to celebrate my 22nd birthday. It was a great time. We took a two hour kayak and snorkeling trip and that was a totally new experience, I loved it! While our parents were here we also went to Venice Beach, Santa Monica Beach (ferris wheel) and spent an afternoon on the Angeles Crest Highway (landscape pic) which is a curvy scenic highway that takes you out of the city and up above into the mountains.

Today we finally got the apartment in order. We hung pictures and unpacked the last of our boxes. After literally 10 hours of working, we popped a bottle of champage and celebrated the fact that our apartment finally looks like a home. These are some pictures of our finished product!

September begins with a lot of job interviews for me and lots of free time for Justin to log some serious hours in the "studio" aka the corner of the apartments with all the music stuff. It's almost too hot to sleep but my eyes are getting tired. We will talk to you all soon, love and miss you.

We're Here!!!!

Well, we made it. The drive was: intense. At one point (I think somewhere thru Utah) we got so aggravated with one another we decided to quit talking.; surprisingly, I think because we are both so hard-headed, we didn't speak for somewhere around 3 1/2 hours. Needless to say, that day was long. We occupied ourselves with some wonderful CD's our friend Emily made and listening to the Harry Potter book 7 on CD for the rest of the trip.

On Thursday we made it to Los Angeles and parked the car to run in and get our apartment keys and check out the new place. We came back out to unload the car only to find out an expired parking meter ticket in Los Angeles is quite a bit more than in good ole' St. Louis. Ah, well---you live and learn.

So we get here and as planned we had to sleep on an air mattress the first night. After the parking ticket fiasco and literally having to shell out $25 to park for the evening we decided to order pizza and call it an early night. So on Friday, also as planned my parents and Justin's parents arrived in the late afternoon. Unplanned however is the fact that our truck is late and still not scheduled to be here with all of our home furnishings until Monday. So tonight Mike, Becky, Cindy, Dennis, Justin and I are sitting around an IKEA table we just bought drinking Miller Lite and wine out of the bottle (all my wine glasses are on the truck and we had to buy a bottle opener at the liquor store). Actually, to be truthful even if my wine glasses were here I'd probably still drink out of the bottle---it seems to just go down easier. :) Tonight we are just happy to have towels to shower with and chairs to sit on. Our things will be here by Monday, we'll have lots of pictures of the place by then.

So having our parents here is awesome. It's great to have a group of people with which we can explore our new city. Both sets of parents found the boulevard interesting, after all Hollywood Blvd has a style all it's own. Mike had a little trouble sleeping the first night; as close as we are to the blvd we have a lot of outside noise and without a/c we sleep with the windows open (don't worry we are on the third floor). So after the first night I've gathered either I'm a harder sleeper or am quickly growing used to it because the sirens and the man screaming outside sure didn't interrupt my slumber.

Today Becky, Mom and I went to IKEA (a home-store with products specifically meant for decorating on a small budget) while the guys went to Lowe's and Hooters. Tomorrow we are going to go do some tourist-y type things around Hollywood and we are also going to clean the apartment really well before our stuff gets here. Well the guitar is being passed around the room and the beer's are sliding down too easy. Talk to you all soon. Love and miss you!