internet peeps, i'm sorry

i was just taking a look at our blog's main page and thought to myself, "holy moly, i haven't added a new post in about a month."  

and for that, i apologize.  to our most adoring fans, i'm sure you've cursed the days where there were no updates on the VERY exciting happenings of mike and kirstin's life in san clemente.  and the thing is that so much has been going on! (well, not too much, but enough to write a few posts about).

i can't believe how much time has flown by.  thanksgiving has come and gone and we are well into the holiday season already.  we spent thanksgiving with my family and our family friends in san diego.  it was very relaxing and pleasant and i didn't over-stuff myself which is a pretty great accomplishment.  no turkey coma over here!  as with most families, we went around the table and listed the five things we were most thankful for this year.  here a the top five things i am thankful for this year.  

1. i have a wonderful husband, a loving family, and great friends that i know will be there for me when needed.

2. i have not been directly affected by the current state of the economy (yet...knock on wood)

3. i have a job and a boss that i actually like!

4. i live 5 minutes from the beach

5. and finally, i'm thankful for the internet so that i can watch two of my favorite shows--'the hills' and 'gossip girl' :)

after thanksgiving dinner, my sister and our friends aimee and erin went to see the new movie twilight.  i totally loved the movie and will return to this topic in a new post-to-come...

let's see what else.  a couple months ago, i wrote that i was going to train for the rock 'n roll marathon taking place in san diego this coming may 2009 here.  one of the reasons i was going to start training (or just working out for that matter) was that i finally have my own ipod to keep it interesting.  so i spent time making my own workout mix and loading everything onto my ipod, but still hadn't worked out. 

i went online and researched some marathon training schedules for beginners and found one with a 6 month schedule.  naturally, i counted back the days and found that in order to be ready in time, i had to start training by dec. 1st.  i changed the schedule that i found online into my OWN excel spreadsheet so that i could add in the dates for each workout.  (basically, i know that if i'm not organized about training, i'm never going to do it).  i put my schedule on the fridge so i could feel the accomplishment of crossing off each day as it passes.  mind you, i created this little calendar/schedule about a month ago and put off working out until my schedule told me that i absolutely had to start...so much for self-motivation.  

but either way, i started my workouts and they don't seem so bad on the piece of paper.  i start with short runs of 2-3 miles and then i slowly build up the length of the runs as time goes on.  the trouble is that where our apartment is situated, there are only hills around us.  if i go right out of the complex, i have to run up hill first and if i go left, i have to run up hill too.  running (or as i do it...slowly jogging) up a hill is not the best way to get your body warmed up.  i'm already wheezing by the time i've gone only a quarter mile.  but i've determined that i need to continue and that it will get easier.  i may end up having to drive closer to the beach to run along the boardwalk where it's a little flatter, and a lot more soothing.  i'm one week into my training and i' ll keep you posted on how everything is going as i try to make it through the next 25 weeks.  wish me luck!

and the other latest and greatest in our lives, is that mike is one short week away from completing his field training with costa mesa police department!  he can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  in his past few months of training, mike has certainly learned a lot and built upon the things he learned in the academy, but a person can only take so much of having someone constantly looking over your shoulder.  he'll soon be on his own in his own squad car and kickin' some butt in costa mesa.  i'm so proud of all that he's achieved so far in this new career path and when i look back on the past year, it's hard to believe all that he's gone through to get where he is now.  six months through the academy and four months of field training is plenty to wear you out (i know i could NEVER do it).  once mike is on his own, i know he'll enjoy helping out his fellow officers and making arrests, and i'm sure he will come back to each of you with plenty of stories to tell.  

until next time, find a way to get in the holiday spirit!!

welcome to the talent show

the grass is always greener on the other side, so they say.  do you ever think about the one or two things that you wish you could do, but can't (or at least can't do right now)?  of course you do.  and so do i.

mike's talent: comedy and impersonations.  there's something that's in him that allows him to read situations and people so well.  and he loves to make people laugh.  he can pull lines out of nowhere and get the crowd rolling.  i, on the other hand, am only funny sometimes and it's usually unintentional.  and i can't tell a story worth anything.  i may start telling a story and get halfway through and realize that no one will think it's funny or the story will just kind of drop off without a proper climactic ending--which reminds me of one of the best movie lines ever from dumb & dumber where lloyd is at the 7/11 and says to the guys standing outside, "cool, big gulps!.....(long pause)......well, see you later!"  this is exactly what i want to say at the end of most of my stories.  

but there are two things that i wish i could do, that i can't right now.  one, i'll never be able to do because it doesn't come naturally--and that's to sing (and sing well).  which is why i LOVE american idol.  when people have great voices i get goosebumps and it's just amazing how a song can move you like that.  i wish i could sing.  of course, i can still sing whenever i feel the inspiration!  it just won't be very pretty.

the other thing that i wish i could do was take cool photographs.  i never took a photography class (except for a short lesson in college where a columbian photographer came to help us work on a semester-long project...only problem, he only spoke spanish...it's difficult to figure out how to properly use the manual settings on a 35mm camera when your professor is using vocabulary like 'la apertura' and 'la exposicion' and speaking a million miles a minute).  i see so many great photos and wish that i could produce some myself using depth and light to create interesting images.  

i bring this up because on my drive home from work today, the moon was beginning to rise over the east and it was shining through some patchy clouds.  the moon looked bigger than i'd seen it in a while and the clouds gave the sky around it a very cool effect.  being the semi-aspiring photographer that i am, i wanted to take a cool photo of it when i got home.  and maybe it's the fact that i own a fairly standard point-and-shoot digital camera which doesn't allow me to create the effects that i want.  i played and played around with the camera's settings, but all i could come up with are the following photos.  all blurry and all look like there are multiple moons.  nice, kirstin.  

maybe one day, i'll actually take a class to relearn the basics and actually spend the money to get a nice camera.  but for now, you won't be seeing any of my images in any galleries selling for far too much money.  here's to hoping, though!

election on my mind

etiquette says: never ask someone their age, how much money they make, or what their political affiliation is.

and there's good reason for it too. it gets everyone all riled up and people end up with hurt spirits. i have never been huge into politics, but i still wanted to at least bring up the subject because this is such a major voting year. we may have the first black president and there are some very heated debates on both sides over certain ballot measures--specifically proposition 8.

(beginning of rant.)

if there is one thing i've learned since moving to san clemente, it's that orange county is much more conservative than i thought. overall i think of california as much more liberal than the rest of the country and there are reasons for that. even though the governator is republican, we still voted a former movie star to be our governor. i don't think many other states would do that (and two of my previous roommates in san francisco were from ohio and they said that everyone from their hometown was in awe and almost found it funny when we voted him into office).

anyway, i just have to say that i don't care what political party you are affiliated with or whether you voted for obama or mccain, there is no reason that prop 8 should have been on the ballot at all. but since it was on the ballot, i can't seem to see why someone would vote to limit the rights of a certain group of people. why shouldn't gay people be allowed to get married? it should be their right. end of story. over the past few weeks there have been innumerable amounts of 'yes on 8' signs propped up in the median as i drive the short 2 miles to work. i smile on days when i know someone has taken down many of the signs i saw the previous day. and i am frustrated the next day when i see 200 new ones that have been put up. and when i say 200 signs in 2 miles, i'm serious. those signs were posted within feet of each other--one right after the next. and i don't know where all this manpower is coming from to post all those signs.

i can understand that there is an older generation that is set in their ways and may never change their point of view, but it's so difficult for me to fathom that there are members of the younger generation who are out on the street corner holding up 'yes on 8' signs. the intolerance is just incredible. it just makes me wonder why they care so much. they say they are protecting the 'traditional' marriage, but i see it as hate. how is someone in their 20s really going to be affected by allowing gay people to get married? the younger generation is supposed to see the bigger picture. we read history books about the civil rights movement and were supposed to have learned from previous mistakes. but the same thing is happening all over again. prop 8 would limit the rights of gay people and we're supposed to be a nation based on equality? how does that work?

to me marriage is not about a man and a woman. marriage is about a partnership and commitment to another person. if people claim to be protecting marriage they should be out on the street corners of las vegas campaigning to stop all the drunk people from getting married via drive through. when i was living in san francisco and mayor gavin newsom allowed gay marriages, you would read about these stories of gay couples who have been together for 20, 30, 40 years. and they will still be together for years to come whether or not prop 8 passes. but these individuals are committed to each other and should be able to call themselves spouse and spouse.

if you can't already tell, i voted no on prop 8. i apologize for the ranting, but you probably won't hear it from me again for at least another 4 years. and that's only if there's another issue like this.

(end of rant.)

halloween

well.  halloween was fairly uneventful for these harveys.  there was debate about what we wanted to do to celebrate the festivities.  but truth be told, halloween is not as fun if you don't plan WAY in advance.  i think this is because i try to cut costs and make the costume myself because the prepackaged outfits are at least forty buck a pop!!  AND most of the ones for the girls are the "sexy" versions and i don't like to show off my legs that much.  so i end up with very little time to put together my outfit.

anyway, i ended up running around the few days before halloween to try to figure out what i was going to wear.  i had had this idea a couple years ago for mike and i to be 'thing 1 and thing 2' from the cat in the hat--super easy to make and kind of a his and hers ensemble.  the only problem is that mike wasn't sure that he wanted to be the other half of my outfit.  so i went ahead and made my own 'thing 1' costume and sewed the felt onto my red shirt.  mike tried looking for something else to be, but most of the halloween places around here were low on inventory.  he ended up with a grumpy old man mask and i ended up as 'thing 1 minus thing 2.'  

mike's on a new schedule for work that keeps him awake until the wee hours of the morning so he was pretty wiped out and didn't want to spend the energy going to a party.  so we chose the mellower version of halloween and ended up just going to my parents house to hand out candy, while mike had fun trying to scare the kids by jumping out from behind the door with his mask on.  

i guess we better start planning now for halloween 2009...

halloween at work.  it was one of those things that because i'm new there was going to be some sort of joke on the new girl where they convince her that everyone is going to dress up, but no one actually does.  luckily there were a few other that got dressed up.  this is our marketing manager laura (lead singer of weezer), our marketing director matt (scary clown), and me (thing 1).  

one year!

well we've been together for five years now and been married for one year!  hard to believe how fast the time has flown by, and certainly this year in particular.  in the single year we've been married, mike was hired by costa mesa police department, sent to the oc sheriff's academy, lived in irvine during the week and in temecula on weekends, graduated from the academy and started his field training, i finally quit the winery, found a new job at surfrider foundation, and we moved to san clemente.  whew!  

anyway, our anniversary fell on a monday, so it was a little difficult to do much to celebrate that day since i had to work.  but, when i  got home, mike was cooking dinner and had some beautiful roses waiting for me.  he made fajitas which were REALLY good and then we watched 'what happens in vegas' which was a bday gift from sammy.  it was a good night.

in order to continue the celebration, we decided that we would use a gift certificate we got as a wedding gift and go to ruth's chris steakhouse for dinner.  i know, i know, you're all wondering why i would want to go to a steakhouse, but i was sure they had other things on their menu.  we got dressed up last night and made the trek to irvine which is the closest location to us.  our table wasn't ready right away so we had a nice drink at their bar and watched some of the red sox/rays game.  i ordered myself a frou-frou drink a pear twist martini made similar to a lemon drop.  the drink was so good and very crisp and refreshing!  (its so not like me to order these kinds of drinks and i even had a pomegranate martini the night before with the harveys).  it's fun every once in awhile and i guess it really makes it feel like a night on the town!  

we were seated to our table and had plenty of time to search through their menu.  they actually have a pretty good special where you have a four course meal for two for only $89!  but since we had a gift certificate we thought we'd order straight from the menu.  we started off with some seared ahi tuna -- one of my favorite things!  we each ordered a salad and mike got a chop salad without the bleu cheese of course and i got their tomato, mozzarella salad.  everything there is ordered a la carte so we got two side dishes, potatoes au gratin (yum) and french fried onion rings (yum).  mike ordered their filet and i ordered their stuffed chicken -- both of those were served on piping hot plates drenched in butter.  so fattening, but sooo good.  my chicken ended up being a WAY bigger portion than i anticipated and i think i only ate 1/4 of it.  i could barely stuff any more food into my belly!  mike was full too and we had to bring at least half the meal home with us.  

and to finish off the evening, they gave us one of their desserts on the house!  and the even wrapped it up to go.  i went for the cheesecake, but i haven't had a chance to eat it yet.  it looks just delicious!  i'll let everyone know how it is.  so after our huge meal, we ended up only shelling out about $25 for close to a $200 dinner.  not to shabby -- thanks to mike's probation friends enrique and kip for that one!

until next year...

here are all the wonderful flowers mike got me and all the nice cards we received from everyone.  the askanas-graul family (my mom's best friend since 6th grade) was thoughtful enough to buy a bottle of wine at the bernardo winery when we were there for the wedding and then mailed us the bottle for our anniversary!

here is mike the chef.  fajitas. ole.

our timed photo before leaving for dinner

our close up photo before dinner

this photo is a little dark but from back to front you can see the huge onion rings, mike's perfectly pink filet, the potatoes, and my huge chicken portion.

mike was really hungry!

this is after the meal.  we left with our doggie bags and with a food coma.

more birthday fun!

well, it was another exciting night with the harveys.  when you get those twins together there's no telling how hard you're going to laugh or how many times you are going to roll your eyes at their silly antics.  mike's oldest, little brother marshal came home for the weekend from college and it was the perfect time for everyone to get together.  he's going to lindenwood university in missouri to play baseball and is having fun, but needed a little taste of home to get him through until the holidays.  

we went to macaroni grill which is always yummy.  lots of filling pastas.  whitney and i got two dishes to share, but i'm pretty sure we could have shared on entree and still been full!  oh well.  i guess all those carbs will help with all the marathon training that i'm not doing right now.  oh well again.  

after dinner, we went back to the harveys for a little belated bday cake for all the girls (me, whiney, and allie all had birthdays toward the end of september and beginning of october).  then we got into a nice game of 'apples to apples' which always turns out to be a good time and plenty of laughs.  whoever thought that gold chains might be considered glorious (or not-so-glorious)?  good times.  

here are a few pictures from the night...

the brothers

the brothers being silly (no surprise)

the yummy birthday cake

and finally allie, me, and whit with our cake! blowing out the candles was funny because i'm pretty sure allie blew all of them out for us!

it's starting to feel like fall

after a few weeks of wonderfully warm weather in san clemente, it was nice to have a little cooler weather for a change.  since our apartment is up in the hills a little bit, we definitely get a nice and chilly ocean breeze.  we invited two of our temecula friends, scott and julie, up to see our new place and they brought along their adorable (and i will say it again, adorable) little one, scotty.  now that i think about it, it should be a given that they brought little scotty along, since he's only two months old.  soooo, i guess what i'm trying to say is that we invited all three to visit.  it was great to catch up and see how our old stomping grounds are holding up, even though we've only been out here for a few weeks.

we took our first little walking tour of downtown san clemente.  the area is really cute, but i'm pretty sure you have to be super wealthy to shop down there.  i guess i need to find the closest target, and fast.  there are antique shops and cute little restaurants along the main walk.   you can even bring souvenirs back to all your friends from england and denmark without ever leaving the country.  there is a british shop and it looks like they will be putting in a danish shop so that you can buy danish things (but don't be confused, they won't be selling pastries).  we ended up walking all the way down to the pier, but that meant that we had to walk all the way back up the hill afterward.  we were tired, but it was fun anyway.  i had the honors of pushing scotty's stroller while we walked along the pier.  pushing something with wheels along a pier makes you realize how uneven piers are.  it felt like i needed some shocks on that bad boy and it reminded me of the second ace ventura movie where jim carey is bouncing around in his jeep and singing 'chitty chitty bang bang.' oh man, good times.  don't worry though, little scotty wasn't in his stroller.  he got to take a little ride with dad in his 'baby bjorn' a little contraption that keeps him close to his dad's heart (or just strapped to his chest).  here are a couple pictures from the afternoon.

(sorry i don't have julie in any of them.  i wanted to have someone take a picture of us at the end of the pier, but it was pretty nippy and we turned right around.  definitely next time.)

here are the two boys pushing little scotty.  don't they make such a cute couple.  vote no on 8.

here's big scott and little scotty (sorry about the gust of wind that blew through right as i took the picture...sweet do)

here's mike and i with the pier in the background

what a pretty day to be in san clemente...

welcome to our home!

i know everyone has been on the edge of their seats just waiting to see the glorious photos that capture the essence of our new home.  well here they are...

if you are standing in our doorway, the following five pictures show you what you are looking at from left to right.

this is our couch (the big boxy thing at the bottom of the picture is shelby's crate)

this is our tv, filing cabinet, and desk (thank goodness it all fit on one wall)

this is our hallway (i know it's the nicest one you've ever seen)

this is our counter, microwave, fridge, cabinets, and all the other stuff that belongs in a kitchen

this is our dining room (sorry the picture is a little dark)

this is our very small bedroom (what you are looking at is about all that fits in the room)

this is our very handy and convenient stackable washer/dryer

this is our closet (stuffed to very brim)

and the moment you've all been waiting for...

this is our lovely bathroom!

that's all for now...

bday fun!

with everything that has been going on, i kinda almost forgot that my birthday was coming.  we've been dealing with the move and our house in temecula and then all of a sudden...bam...september 30th was here!  i had to work of course, but it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day in san clemente.  i got to bring shelby into work with me and everyone at work signed a birthday card for me.  it was really sweet.  and my boss got me one of those 'lucky' bamboo deals to put on my desk.  i haven't really had a chance to make my desk my own yet, but this will be the start.  now i gotta bring in a few pix of the family and i'll be settled in.  

since my birthday was in the middle of the week, we didn't do to much to celebrate.  but my wonderful hubby did make me dinner (artichokes, cheese-stuffed chicken, and rice)!  it was really good and i was really full afterward.  that's a lot of food for two people!  i opened a couple gifts and got some really cool flameless candles and a personalized apron from my mother-in-law.  it really is 'kirstin's kitchen.'  i received a few cards with money...it always fits!  and mike got me my very first ipod!!!  we have the computer already and now i have my accessory.  

it's funny, because i've actually been putting off working out and/or running to train for the rock 'n roll marathon next june because i didn't have an ipod to listen to music.  excuses, excuses.  shame on me.  but now that i have my ipod, i guess i'll have to get on a training schedule.  whitney and i are still trying to figure out how to train together, but apart.  we'll see.  btw, if anyone has any marathon training schedules starting from...hmmm...oct, nov, dec, jan.....let's see....8 months before the race, let me know.  

thank you to everyone for all the bday wishes and i promise i will post pictures of our new place soon.  i need to take pictures during the day and i keep forgetting until it's too dark outside...sorry...:)

san clemente life

so much has been happening over the past few months that i don't even know where to begin...

we've been living together in temecula for a little over a year.  i was working in wine country (but hated my job) and mike was doing great things with his probation work.  then, mike kind of hit a ceiling in the probation department.  he wasn't really being challenged at his job everyday and it became kind of routine.  he decided that it was time for a change and wanted to become a police officer.  after a long, grueling application and interview process (they even came to the house to talk to me and they made mike take a lie detector test...scary!), mike was hired on by costa mesa police department in orange county.  they are one the best departments in california for two reasons (1) they pay isn't half bad, and (2) they provide some of the best training from the orange county sheriff's academy.  from february to august, mike was back in school again, but not like any other school we've been to.  he spent long days getting yelled at by the tactical staff, sitting in lectures, running, and just trying to survive.   but he made it out of the academy alive (with honors in communications skills and firearms proficiency i might add)!

so here we were living in temecula, with mike working in costa mesa.  (side note:  the drive from temecula to costa mesa without traffic is about an hour and fifteen minutes...don't even talk to me about the wasting gas and money there)  we decided that it was time for a move out to orange county to be closer to his new job and then i could spend some time looking for a job i actually liked.  so, i quit my job at the winery and spent my days searching as many corners of the internet as i could for appealing jobs.  but job hunting is time consuming and ultimately frustrating.  i didn't have any particular industry in mind even though i studied hospitality management.  but hospitality requires a lot of hours for not very much pay...one of those work your way up the food chain type industries.  i was spending a lot of time on malakye.com (a job posting site for the action sports industries--surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, motocross, etc.)  i even found a few job posting there that sounded interesting with companies like billabong and rip curl.  the only problem is that the companies are so big, that if you don't meet their specific criteria, you'll never get a call back.  i tried with some follow up calls, but to no avail.  

then, out of the sky, i decided to take another look at the surfrider foundation.  i had looked on their site before, but there were no job openings except for internships.  but i loved the organization anyway and we even made a donation to them instead of having favors at our wedding.  by some miracle, there happened to be a job posting for an office administrator position.  right up my alley!  you have to be friendly (check), personable (check), organized (check), reliable (check), computer saavy (check...mostly).   i quickly put together my cover letter and sent off my resume.  i didn't hear anything right away, and checked the website again and the job posting was gone.  i thought that they must have hired someone already.  i called the surfrider foundation and left a message.  wouldn't you know, i got a call back asking if i wanted to come in for an interview.  hell yeah i want to come in for an interveiw!  i did my research and nailed the uber casual interview.  a couple days later, i was hired!  yeah to me!

now, we're both in temecula with jobs out in orange county and still no place to live further west.  we ended up finding a great place in san clemente (well, rancho san clemente...east of the i-5 and up the hill a couple miles)!  we are about 10 mins. from the beach now!  i am loving every minute of our life out here in our extremely cozy apartment.  mike misses our house in temecula, but it is hard moving from a house to a one-bedroom apartment.  

it's time to find some renters...dun dun dun.  with the economy and the housing market as it is, we aren't willing to sell our house in temecula.  we are going to hang onto it for a while and try to rent it out.  this is a whole new process for us, so we'll see how it goes...any and all suggestions are appreciated.  

anyway, i better be getting back to the dog and cat to make sure they get dinner.  thanks for reading the latest update and i'll post some pictures of our new place soon!

welcome to our blog!

well it's official!  we have been sucked into the 21st century and have finally succumbed to the craze that is 'blogging.'  i'm sure you will notice as this blog continues, that there is one, and only  one, narrator.  yes, it is i, kirstin, who will keep you on the edge of your seats with the wonderfully amazing things that occur each and every day in our lives.  (well, maybe not everyday.  but we do try to keep it interesting.)

although mike just rolls his eyes at this kind of stuff, i think this will be a great way to keep all the many people in our lives updated on the latest and greatest.  for the fine few of you reading this, i hope you don't find the story of our lives too dull for reading.  enjoy!