We've got Internet!

  After moving to Charlotte, NC we decided to keep things simple and not get internet at our place.  Well we finally cracked and I must say I am happy that I will be able to update our blog more often now, of course this means I no longer have an excuse for not updating.  So what has the Joyce household been up to?  Well there is not too much excitement going on here.  We have decorated for Christmas which is fun.  I definitely love this time of year.  We'll be spending Christmas here with each other. Although we'll miss family, it'll be nice to have each other's company the whole day.

This would be the ole Christmas tree.

Sophie found her new favorite spot to nap.

The mantle place, Daniel and I are sharing a stocking, the doggies have their own.

The wreath I bought, I added the ribbon :)

  Last night I woke up to the sound of Sophie whining in her kennel.  I looked at the time and knew that at 3 AM that something must be wrong.  I got out of bed and braced myself for the worst,  As I opened the door a strong pungent smell crept into my nose.  She got sick in her kennel.  Poor Sophie was up against the back of her kennel trying her best not to step in the mess.  I spent the next hour bathing her then cleaning out her kennel. Needless to say I didn't get a very good nights rest last night. As the day has gone on she seems to be feeling better.  She's quarantined in the kitchen right now so that she doesn't have any accidents on my carpet. Keif is enjoying the break from Sophie chewing on his face.   

Cute little Sophie from the day we adopted her.  She was 17 lbs when we got her and almost 3 months old.  She is now almost 7 months and 35 lbs.  Any predictions on how big she'll get?

Keif can't even escape her in his own kennel.

They like to snuggle

             
     This would be my picture from when we went to watch BYU play at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.  It was a nice day trip and I had a lot of fun with Daniel's family.  It was a great gift from my in laws.  I'm proud to say that I still know the fight song and that I was able to sing it many times at the game.  The final score was 41-17.  I'm sad that I work when they play their bowl game, but I will be rooting them on.

 

North Carolina Living

  Moving to North Carolina in the height of summer is not recommended by no means.  I've been in heat before, but humidity makes for a hot, sticky time and not in a good way.  Our second week in Charlotte there were record highs for heat not just here, but all over the country, while San Diego stayed a comfortable 70 degree average.  The humidity did not help with the move adjustment, but it was expected so I was not surprised to be experiencing it.  Living in North Carolina so far has been good.  Our apartment is nice and in a pretty good location.  Plus it is our own place and our own space, something we hadn't had in a while.  The people here are very friendly and I do really like that.
  Work is going well, Daniel has been working hard at his job cleaning carpets for Prestige Chem Dry, while I have been serving at Maggianos and trying to get some kind of system down when it's busy so as to be more efficient and a better server for my guests.  I'm still learning the menu, but I know it takes time to really get it down.  The money has been a lot better at Maggianos vs Chili's and I'm very grateful for that.
  While living here I have already been to a Carolina Panthers' football game as well as a Charlottes Knight's minor league baseball game.  Daniel's family came to visit for a Reunion for Randy (Daniel's step dad) and we got to spend a nice weekend with them.  We've also been visited by Daniel's friend Chris Gearheart, wife Shelly, and son Salem, and even my brother-in-law was in town on business so we got to meet up with him too.
  So far my favorite outing was a trip we took to Charleston, SC.  It is such a pretty city with so many old buildings.  We had Keif with us and so we did a lot of walking and even went to a dog park that had a lake for the dogs to play in.  It's so great to see so much history, to see where the history started in our country from when it was settled.
  Now going into our third month of being here we have introduced a sweet little puppy into our family.  Her name is Sophie and she is so sweet and loves to play.  So far it's been a bit of an adjustment for everyone.  Our home feels a bit more crowded and we have to train her non stop.  Keif is a bit jealous of her to, he looks really grumpy when we play with her, we're trying to work on giving them both lots of attention.  Can't imagine how much harder that will be with kids someday, but the doggies will give us a lot of practice.

 These were from hiking Crowder's Mountain on the 4th of July!

(Top and Bottom photo)

 Below are all pictures from our visit to Charleston, SC.  

Although it looks gloomy, it was still pretty hot and humid

 Top and Bottom picture were from a very nice dog park in Charleston.

 I liked seeing the old cemetery while visiting.

Change of plans

These blog posts are starting to look similar to my journal entries, in that I don't post as often as I should or would like to.  But I promise I thought that I had posted since January.  Alas, the dates on my blog do not lie so here I am left updating our last few months quickly and in a way as to not bore the reader.  To celebrate Daniel's mom's 50th birthday we went out to visit her in D.C.  It was nice to be able to spend time with Daniel's family especially since I haven't really spent more than a couple of days with them.  Both of Daniel's parents are so kind and friendly, I was so glad to be able to spend time with them.  Daniel's sister Amanda was so much fun to be around.  She was such a sweetheart and hilarious to be around.  She called me "Taffany" and "girlfriend" constantly.  She shared her MP3 player with me while riding in the car and even showed off some of her awesome dance moves.  I'm excited to be able to live closer to Daniel's family to get to hang out with Amanda more.  Which brings me to my next topic...

With Daniel's Family.  From L-R: Randy, Tania, Amanda, Tiffany and Daniel.

Posing by a cannon at Gettysburg. 

By the sheep at Mount Vernon.

We are moving to Charlotte, NC at the end of this month, as in May 28, 2012.  Now you may be wondering is this was just some random thought that popped into our heads, but there was actually a quite of bit of thought that went into this decision.  After our trip out to Charlotte last year, I decided that it was a nice place and that I could definitely live there.  We were a little back and forth between wanting to move to Charlotte or staying in CA.  Then we finally decided this would be the best time to go, before we have kids to try and move and before we accumulate a lot of things to move.  I know it will be hard at first to be so far away from everyone, but like a coworker of mine said there's skype and facebook to keep up with everyone.  And this blog as well...assuming I can get better at updating my info.

For work Daniel eventually wants to start his own business and for now I'll be working either at Maggianos, if they'll take me, or even another restaurant with all the experience I have.  When I was on craigslist I did see a few posts for employment at preschools which I would also enjoy doing.  We're both really excited about our decision and can't wait to get things  started.  Daniel just left for Charlotte today via my Saturn which he has packed with his clothes and few other items.  He'll be gone til the 24th.  Til then he is in charge of finding us an apartment and my job is to go through our things and get rid of things that we don't need so we have less to move.  I'm worse at saving things than Daniel is so this task will be especially tricky for me.

The delicious cake Allison made.

Oh by the way, I did have a birthday and a lady never reveals her age, but lets just say that I have been out of high school for ten years now.  I'll let you do the math.  We kept it simple and lucky for me my amazing friend Allison allowed me to spend my birthday with her.  She also put together a little barbecue.  It was just what I needed, a relaxing evening with my husband and great friends.

Great friends since '02.

My lovely Traci on her wedding day!

Also...my wonderful friend Traci got married!!!  Daniel and I were able to attend her sealing at the San Diego temple.  I am so happy for my friend Traci.  I've known her since we were little kids in Primary at church and she would volunteer to say the prayer.  We became even closer our last couple of years in Utah while going to BYU.  She's dated some guys who didn't deserve her and I'm just so happy she found one who was worthy of her love.  Congratulations again Traci,  I love you so much!!

Random thoughts from our day to day lives.

We are the most exciting people out there. We don't take exotic trips, we have regular jobs, and we have no kids to share silly stories about. Our conversations are probably not all that interesting. We talk a lot about politics, mostly what we've read about and how we feel. Prior to getting married, politics were the last thing I wanted to have a conversation about. In fact when I started dating Daniel I went on one date with another guy before we decided to become exclusive. This guy was very nice and we had a lot of fun on our date, however the turn off was when he told me how much he loves politics and that he could discuss it all day. Enough said. I knew we would not be a good match. I think what scared me

so much about politics was that I was unaware and not up to date. I never read the news and had little knowledge on the current events. I don't like to argue about points so my conversations about politics usually resulted in me nodding my head in agreement with someones perspective on things. Daniel luckily never cared about politics and now as we discuss them, we have found that we are pretty much on the same page about most issues. Every once in a while he makes me angry because he will disagree with something that I have a strong stance on, and he makes me mad that I can't persuade him to agree with what I think. The conversation usually ends in him telling me he can see both sides to the situation which usually still isn't what I want to hear.

Many times our conversations involve how long it takes me to get ready everyday. For me to feel and look my best for the day, I need at least an hour to get ready. That all includes shower, makeup, and hair. If I want to curl my hair I would have to add on another 30 to 45 minutes. Daniel needs 20 minutes. He constantly reminds me of all the things I miss out on because of how long it takes me to get ready. I tell him that it used to take me an extra half hour to get ready in the mornings and that I was proud of myself for being able to shave off so much time. One day while driving in the car we decided to calculate how much time I have invested (wasted according to Daniel) on getting ready. We started with the age 16 since that is probably when I started the beauty routine that I have now. We came up with about 280 days that I have spent getting ready

since I was 16. My response was "that's all?". Daniel's response was "that much?". It's funny how different our perspectives were on that one.

Now most people know we have no kids, but we have a dog who is our pride and joy and we pretty much treat him as if he were our child. Keif Joyce is his name. We've had him for a year and a half. He is one of the best running partners you can have. He carries most of my weight when running up hills and he makes me feel safe. However sometimes when I am using so much energy running up a hill and I'm almost to the top, Keif decides something along the way needs to be investigated and he yanks me to the side messing up my momentum. At this point I must either pull him along so we can keep running or just end my run there and walk the rest of the way to the top. Having a dog has helped me realize that it's a lot easier going running when you have someone who relies on you to take them out for the exercise. I hate running, but I love Keif and want him to be a healthy dog.