Orientation Week!

It has been almost a week since we posted. Last Saturday Makayla and I made some lunch and went up to the look out at East Rock Summit park and had a picnic and played some frisby. It was a fun afternoon and it was good to get out and do something. It was a beautiful day. That night we decided to kick off our last day of freedom before school starts by going out to dinner. We went to a Thai restaurant called Thai Taste. It was delicious and actually not very expensive :) We were glad for that! Then we went over to the home of Clay and Jessica Shorter, one of our neighbor families and played the Wii with them. It was a fun evening and a great day that helped to get our mind off of things.

On Sunday we got the wonderful opportunity of substituting for the 5-year-old primary class! Let's just say that it was an experience we will remember! There were like 10 of these little sweet spirits! Good times! nuff said!

Makayla has worked every day this week and is doing an awesome job. She is a hard worker and I have been so impressed by her willingness to support me in my goals. I am so grateful that we found each other. She is so wonderful and means the world to me. I can't imagine life without her. I must be the luckiest man in the whole world to have such a beautiful companion!

She is enjoying her new job and is getting along well with her co-workers. Her boss even offered to loan us a TV!

My orientation started this week. All in all it was a good week and it was nice to finally meet my classmates and figure out who we'd be stuck in classes with for the next year. It seems like a pretty good group. Some of the highlights of the week I'll just quickly mention were: Welcome, PA program reception with the Dean of the School of Medicine, various presentations by computer support, Yale Health Plan, Security, disability insurance, a PA panel discussion and Q&A period, meeting our donor for anatomy (we do a full body dissection), and a ropes course yesterday. This was just a bunch of team building games and excercises out in the woods. It was pretty fun.

One thing I'll say about the PA reception was that Makayla was talking to a man for about 15 minutes and he was asking her all kinds of questions about her life such as if she'll be going to school, about her job she got and where she was from and really seemed to have a genuine interest in her life. After he walked away I asked if she knew who he was, she said, "No." So I told her she was just talking with the Deputy Dean for Education for the Yale School of Medicine. She was pretty impressed and excited that he was interested in her life and well-being. I am happy about that too. The faculty here is just amazing and are willing to help with anything they possibly can. The Dean of the PA program offered to let us borrow some of her cooking things or whatever we need while we are waiting for our things to come. She even said she would write Makayla a letter for school or work or anything that she needs. She also made sure we were able to find our meeting house for church on Sunday! What a wonderful person she is! Her name is Mary Warner.

This is a really great program and I am excited to get started into the course work on Monday, although I am a little nervous. But with the great support from the faculty and Makayla, I know I'll be able to get through it. I didn't have any school business today so I am at home and Makayla is at work so I thought I'd give y'all an update on what's been going on. We hope everyone is doing well and that school is going well for those who have started again! We love you all!

The Lookout

So Kyle and I decided to do something fun yesterday, well more blogworthy than fun. So I hurried to get done with work so I could come home and hang out with Kyle. So once I got home he was ancy to go and do something. I don't blame him, he's been so good sitting in this house for 2 weeks straight. So we've heard about this drive that is just up this little hill behind our house. So after wandering around a while, we finally found what everyone was talking about. Really its a beautiful drive, trees everywhere, and looking out over the city and New Haven Harbor. There's this really cool war memorial statue upon the top of it. You guys should come visit us and we'll find some places to take you! We stayed up there for a little while and then went to Wal-mart, which we are sick of going there for all the little things, and bought some playing cards, a lamp to light our house, a frame to put our puzzle in, and a shirt for Kyle's first day of school. We've pretty much given up on our things coming all together. Broken promises and things are a little disheartening. Now that no one is even answering the company's phone, we have become discouraged. So we've been trying to do things to keep our minds off of it. Enjoy the photos!

We've Survived 2 Weeks!

Well, Makayla and I have been in New Haven for almost two weeks now and we're still alive! I decided to update our blog while Makayla is at work and I'm still free. So we finally posted a run-down of our trip to Hawaii, its a couple posts down to keep somewhat of a chronological order to this, so scroll down and check it out.

Well, we still aren't sure when our things are coming. We called the movers on monday and they said they would be leaving Las Vegas with our things on Monday or Tuesday and it should be here by this weekend! But they also told us they would call as soon as they leave and we haven't heard anything yet so I guess we'll try calling them back again today. We just hope it comes this weekend because my orientation starts on Monday and there is a dress code for orientation and all the clothes I have for that aren't here yet. I don't think they'll like me wearing shorts and a T-shirt! Oh, well.

Makayla is almost finished with her second week of training at her new job as a teller at New Alliance Bank! I think she'll be glad to finish up her training. She will be working part time but with the option to work extra hours if she needs to. She also is wanting to take a few classes to get her associates degree while we're out here so she has been looking into an accounting program at one of the community colleges out here. Her employer offers tuition assistance so why not? She hopes to then transfer to a university to finish up her bachelors degree when we come back home.

We have awesome neighbors and friends here in our apartment complex so that has been nice. They have helped us a lot with things that we need while we're waiting for our things to arrive. Even last night, one of the couples in the ward who lives in our apartment complex, Geoff and Emily, invited us over to chat and watch some of the olympics because they know we have been watching them on our computer. The computer is fine, but it's usually at least a day or two old, so not as exciting. Anyways, it was nice of them to have us over. Our neighbors across the hall, Brady and Whitney Pope have been awesome. They have loaned us a ton of stuff and made us breakfast one morning. They have been life savers. So we made them dinner and brownies the other day.

Every Sunday, I think mainly in the Summer, the members of our ward who live in Whitehall (our apartment complex) get together in the courtyard for a barbeque. It is really neat to visit with each other and get to know them. We have really enjoyed that.

It's hard to get settled into a new apartment when you don't have anything to settle in. We were able to pick up some living room furniture from craig's list so that has helped. We're just glad we brought our air matress in the car with us, although I can't wait for our bed to come! Our apartment is actually a lot better than we had expected. It is plenty roomy and in pretty good shape and in a good location. The laundry room is right below our apartment in the basement so that is really nice.

We've been trying to find things to do in the area before school starts. Last week we just worked on a puzzle all week, which was a fun thing to do together. Then on Saturday we went to the park and saw Shakespeare's Hamlet, put on by a local theatre group. They call it Shakespeare int the Park. We went with the Popes and sat on a blanket on the grass. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun. We are going to try to go see The Matchmaker next week for family home evening. We'll take some lawn chairs this time if our stuff comes!

Well, I am supposed to be studying medical terminology before classes start, so I guess I'd better wrap this up. As we get settled in we are going to try to keep this updated better and post more often so our posts aren't so long! Anyways, we're doing okay and we hope everyone is enjoying what's left of your summer!

We're finally here!

Well we all made it to Yale ok! Well.... Kyle and I did, we're not sure when our things will be here but we're here and we have enough to get us through. The first day we were lucky to have my Dad, Cindy, Korahle, and Casey to be coming with us. They drove all the way to Cheyenne with us, and then headed down south to go pick up a Harley! We ended the first night in North Platte, NE. We really didn't feel like we accomplished much, but I think that that's the farthest we drove of all the days. The second day we drove by ourselves to Princeton, IL. That was a blessing because my mom got us a nice hotel room for a senior citizen discount, either that or the girl was on something because my mom didn't recall getting it for that cheap. We didn't care! But we did notice on the side of our car was a small dent and a really funny thing happened. I was driving down the road, trying to give Kyle a break and a coyote ran out of nowhere and hit US! It ran into the side of us! The dent isn't big enough to report to the insurance company, but it does have a good story behind it. So the third day we were driving and we stopped and the college football hall of fame in South Bend, IN. We were there for a couple hours and once we got on the road we realized we weren't going to make it to our goal town tonight so we were looking at the map deciding if we wanted to stop at 9:00 or at 10:00 that night. We originally said every night at 9:00 we would make sure we are stopped, but something keep telling me to go a little further that night, and this is one of the rare times I listen to my gut! So we drove until late that night and pulled up to the "Traveler's Delite" hotel that we were planning on staying at, luckily we didn't give them a reservation, because when we got there it was a bar with three rooms on the back of it. So for $20 more, we stayed at the Comfort Inn which was a really nice hotel and the lady there gave us a discount as well. Well following my gut paid off, because as we started driving, Banks that I applied to months ago started calling me. New Alliance bank called me and set up an interview for Monday and Bank of America set up a phone interview for Friday. So I was getting really excited because the things I've been worrying about for the last couple months were getting close and I almost had a job. However, New Alliance Bank called back about 15 minutes later asking if I could possibly come in today, because if they would offer me the position, I would be starting on Monday! So Kyle stepped on the gas and we didn't stop the whole day. We got to New Haven and picked up our apartment key and went straight to my interview. Everything went well and thankfully my mom gave me some clothes before I left that had some slacks in there. So I had some clothes to look good and then they were doing some research on me and kept calling me on Friday, then they offered me the job! So I actually have a job where I can bring in some income, and take one class at Yale! Well audit one class, I get to sit in on it, but I don't get credit, just a good way to keep up my French. So I'll be working 27 hours a week and because they feel bad for me because I'm putting Kyle through school, they will let me work as much as I can and after six months, they will promote me either to a full time teller or work out on the floor oopening new accounts and doing loans! Well that's what's new in our life!