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.

Latest updates

Yesterday Daniel clicked on the link for our blog, then proceeds to tell me that I need to update our blog. I've known this for a while now. It's been hard to find time when there are other things I should be doing like cleaning or working. Of course the excuse that I gave him was that whenever I have time to write a blog he is usually on the computer. So today I put all other responsibilities to the side and am updating our blog.

Looking through our pictures I came across a short trip we took to Julian, CA in late October. I thought it would be nice to just get away and be able to walk and talk with Daniel. We stopped at a place called Mom's and got a caramel apple crumb pie. It definitely demonstrated why Julian is known for their apple pies. We had fun splurging on some sweets and walking through such a little town.

Now just this last year I became a huge fan of the band America. They are a 1970's folk band with many hits such as "Ventura Highway" and "Horse With No Name" to name a couple. Last year I made a Pandora playlist for the band and discovered that they sang a lot of good songs that I already loved, but had no idea that they sang them. Since then I have been anxiously waiting for them to perform a show in San Diego so Daniel and I could go. On November 4th they came to the contemporary art museum in La Jolla so do an interview and then to play an acoustic set. I begged Daniel and he said we could go. It was such a great experience to hear how the band started, the inspiration behind their music, and how they have been making music for so long. Their set was amazing. I'm ma

d at myself for not recording more of their performance. They are great live performers and listening to them has re

minded me how people who make music now a days just don't do it the same. Here are a couple of men in their late 50's and they sound great! I can't wait to see them again when they come into town.

On November 22, 2011, Daniel's best friend Ben g

ot married to a wonderful woman named Maggie. We were able to witness their marriage in the Salt Lake City Temple. That was our first time inside that temple and what an inspiration it truly is knowing the time spent and the details that went into such a sacred place. We are very excited for Ben and Maggie to be starting their lives together and can't wait until we buy our house so that they can come visit us. The wedding gave us an excuse to take a trip to Utah. We were able to visit some friends and eat at a lot of places that we missed. Although we ran out of

time to go to the BYU Creamery, I was a little sad about that. Thanksgiving day we spent on the road to Vegas. We did eat at a sports bar, not our first choice. We wanted to eat at Cracker Barrel for some traditional Thanksgiving food, but the wait was an hour and fifteen minutes and our stomachs did not want to wait that long.

We made it to Vegas that night where we were able to stay at my Aunt's condo. In Vegas we had tickets to go to the Las Vegas Basketball tournament because guess who was going to be playing??? University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). The Tar Heels were the high light of the tournament and we were able to watch them play live for the first time. Daniel was so excited and I was glad to finally watch the team in person. The first game they played was against University of South Carolina which was an easy win. The next night was against UNLV which was basically a home game for them. The game had a great atmosphere, but UNC played weak. UNLV won 90-80. We did find out that UNLV fans are horrible drunks.

They threw things at the UNC fans and a few even tried to hurt Roy Williams (UNC's Coach). Although they weren't able to pull it through the second game it was still a lot of fun to watch them. The trip we had was exactly what we needed and I'm glad that Daniel and I could have some alone time!

Daniel's Birthday and our summer summary

So my sweet husband just turned 26 on Wednesday. We are now officially 1 year apart for the next 6 months. For his birthday he wanted to go to a basketball tournament in Vegas that the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) basketball will be playing in. For those of you who don't know Daniel very well, he is all about UNC sports.The tournament is not until Thanksgiving weekend so since I am a wonderful wife I surprised him with a couple of small gifts. First I had been putting money away for about a month to use on a present for him. With that money he bought a watch, something he has been wanting for a while. According to him, women have jewelry and men have watches. I had also found a t shirt online that said "property of the catahoula leopard dog", which would be the breed of dog we have.

I figured it would make a good workout shirt. We cooked dinner together, me making side dishes and Daniel grilling the steaks on the grill. For the cake he wanted German Chocolate Cake which my mom made for him with frosting from scratch. The day was great and filled with a Lord of the Rings marathon as per Daniel's request. We are excited to enjoy his main gift coming this November in Vegas. It will be a nice little vacation doing something that we enjoy.

Although the summer went by quickly I feel that we made the most of it. Thanks to the gift I got for my birthday (season passes to the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park) we made lots of trips to the Zoo.

We also spent a lot of Sundays at the beach, soaking up the sun and playing in the waves.

Since Daniel was very busy during the week we found Sunday to be the only day we could actually make plans to do something. We are both very grateful for having work, but we do look forward to the time that we can spend together.

Now that the summer is over it's football season, so every Saturday night that I am not working I am staying in with Daniel to watch multiple college football games. At least I get to spend time with him. And having to sit through hours of football has made me realize that I do enjoy watching football and the rivalry among different teams. I'm learning new terms and am happy to report that I know what a pick 6 is as well as what different flag calls mean. I still personally enjoy watching basketball more.

With Halloween around the corner I have been trying unsuccessfully to convince Daniel to dress up with me this year. I only want to dress up for when we meet at our church for trick or treating. I told him to be Peter Pan and that I could be Tiger Lily, even Keif could dress up as captain hook, but he won't go for it. We found the funniest dog costumes while browsing the internet. One of my personal favorites was a monkey that you strap onto your dogs back. There was also a headless horseman that strapped onto your dogs back that I got a kick out of.

They don't have one big enough for Keif, otherwise I would have ordered it for sure. If I end up winning the battle for dressing up this Halloween I will definitely post it on here.

The Colorado Vacation

We've been spending the last couple of days getting back into our routine of work, gym and, well, more work. Sounds depressing, but it is nice to get back to a schedule. Our trip was a great trip! A lot of traveling aka driving, I calculated it out to be about 38 hours of traveling in the car. No wonder why Keif slept the entire time in the car.

Our first stop was Gilbert, AZ. That was a 6 hour drive from my house in Valley Center, CA. We stayed with my Aunt Rose and her family there. I hadn't seen them in years so it was really nice to visit with her. We met my cousins' daughters ages 2 and 6. The two year old, Sariah, sang her ABC's for us and the 6 year old, Breanna, demonstrated how much better she could say her ABC's. Daniel got a kick out of how much Sariah talked, we couldn't understand her, but she was so expressive with her hand movements and facial expressions.

Next we drove 10.5 hours to Sanford, CO. Sanford is home to my mother's parents and siblings. Daniel has never met my maternal grandparents, so this was quite the treat for him. I'm sure the many stories I told him of my grandmother's little frame and spitfire attitude did not disappoint at the initial greeting. Daniel was surprised at how tall my grandpa was, probably because all of us are such shorties compared to him. He really enjoyed meeting them and only called them grandma and grandpa. My grandma was her usual self with trying to feed us all til we were stuffed; she made us breakfast the whole time we stayed there as well as dinner. Grandma was a bit intimidated by Keif, but he is an intimidating looking dog. Keif was able to hang out with my Aunt Regina's 6 year old dachshund Sugar. They did fight over his food, but other than that they enjoyed each other's company.

2.5 days are what we spent in the Valley. We filled those days with trips to the dunes, hiking Zappata falls, 4 wheeling and shooting in the mountains, and visiting lots of people. My cousin Nakayla gave us an exclusive tour of the Adam State College campus with the thanks of my Aunt Berna letting us borrow her key to see the rooms. I met a few new members of the family which made me wants kids even more, but that will happen someday. Daniel was impressed with how much he enjoyed being in the Valley and is definitely excited for the next time we go.

The third leg we drove 4 hours to Denver, CO. There we had a family reunion on the Martinez side. My dad had 5 siblings he hadn't seen since he was 8 so as you could imagine emotions were high. My mom and dad had already met up with everyone prior to the reunion, but now it was time for all the kids and grandkids to meet. What an amazing experience to meet people for the first time who are your blood relatives! There is definitely a lot of regret in not being able to have grown up knowing each other, but everyone was so happy to meet each other, so friendly and open. It made for an absolutely incredible journey. I look forward to getting to know more of my family from here on out. On this trip I was also able to meet my nephew Noah for the first time. He is so cute and was so easy going. I kept stealing him from people and he was good to go with me. I miss not being in closer range to where my sister lives. I love her family so much and enjoy the time I spend with them.

Next up, the drive to Provo, UT, the total time...7 hours...and a few minutes here and there. We missed a turn off on one point, but luckily we noticed it early on so it only delayed us about 20 minutes. I was able to have lunch with two of my favorite people, and it was much needed girl time, while Daniel spent time with Ben and his boo Maggie. After lunch we headed to the Creamery on 9th and got our stomachs full of delicious creamery ice cream! Too bad we couldn't travel with the icecream back to CA, we love that stuff. Our stay in UT was very brief. I wanted to see so many more people, but just didn't have enough time. We stayed at my cousin Branden's new house. It was very nice and made me more antsy to get our own place. His wife looked beautiful being pregnant and their son Ty is getting so big. Crazy how we grow up to start our own families.

Finally we drove 10 hours back to home sweet home. I probably will try to avoid a trip like that again for a long time, unless we had an RV to do it all in. The trip was wonderful and I already miss everyone we saw, but it's working hard that makes those vacations so much more sweet to go on.