Things are happening!

Well, a lot of exciting things have been happening around here in the past week!

SISTER TIME

Calli came and spent the weekend with us!!!!! It was so great to have some much needed sister time! We went to a chili cook off at our church, took her to the beach for the first time in CA, watched Matt Bowman's team play a football game in Valencia, ate some delish food, and got to spend quality time together! What more could a sister ask for?! Bo and I will be headed to APU on Saturday for Homecoming, and then we'll head back down the next weekend for the full weekend. Let's just say, I like being close to my sister and friends at APU. :)

EMPLOYED WOMAN

I got a JOB!!!! That's right....an actual paid JOB! It's part time, but ya gotta start somewhere! Starting November 1st, I will be a Membership Counselor at 24 Hour Fitness in Oxnard, CA on the Channel Islands harbor! 

I'll tell you more about the details of the job once I actually start doing it. The crew of employees there seem really awesome, so I'm looking forward to getting to work with them! The timing of this job was perfect! Thank you God! I am currently looking to pick up another part time job in the afternoons/evenings in order to bring in a little extra dough to cover student loans...yippee....NOT. Student loans are great when they're getting you through college, but when it comes time to pay them off it can be a bummer. If it weren't for APU, I would have never met Bo, so I keep telling myself, "You can't put a price on LOVE!" ;) hehe

HOLIDAY DESIGNING

As the holiday season rapidly approaches, Bo and I are EAGERLY waiting for Christmas season to be here!!! We are both Christmas freaks, and we just discovered that our neighbors are too! Yes! (I knew we moved into a good area) haha Anyway, I have designed a couple Christmas cards that can be personalized. I am going to continue designing some cards, and I will be putting them up for sale on Etsy.com. I will post the link once I put all the designs up on there. Here is a little sneak preview of one design with my FAVORITE ADORABLE niece, Brooklynn, as my model picture. She is the cutest thing ever! Ok, I better not get off on that tangent....

Anyway, just wanted to spread the word about my Christmas cards. I haven't set a price yet, but it will be super cheap to pay for the design. Then you would take the personalized design and get it printed at Costco, Sams Club, Walmart, Vistaprint, or wherever you like to do your printing. If you are interested in using one of my designs or create something specific that you had in mind, just shoot me a message on facebook or email me if you want more information. I would be happy to do it for you! AND you get a personalized, super cute Christmas card that NOBODY else will have! 

On that note....enjoy the season of fall and get excited because Christmas is just around the corner!!!!

Love,

Newly Employed Wife ;)

Hangin' with the Bowmans

I decided that it's been too long since my last post. I'm definitely still working on the whole "consistency" thing with blogging! Bear with me!

Here is a little update of this past month. Sorry for the lack of pictures...i'll make up for it next time :)

We had some friends from APU (Josh, Brad, and Paige) come spend the weekend with us! It was so great to be able to see them again and just spend some good ol' quality time together. We hung out, laughed, watched Dispicable Me, laughed some more, ate a lot of food, spent an afternoon at the beach (football, frisbee, volleyball, and chatting on the lifeguard stand), and spent a few hours getting bargains at the Camarillo Premium Outlet! All in all, it was some much need quality time with 3 of our best friends!

The following weekend we headed to APU for the day, so we started it off with breakfast at Flappy Jacks (just like any APU student would). It was the five of us again plus Calli (my sister) too! We got to spend the day spending some more time with each other and watching the APU women's volleyball team. It was great sitting beside Calli who was going, "whoaa...nice dig libero", "oh yeah she got there", "i like watching her", "aw man, i really wanna play now"! hahaha We were both having the same thoughts and feelings about missing that sport that is a crucial part of our being now. ;) Volleyball will forever run in the McLellan blood and be a part of our lives! I LOVE IT!

Our weekends are usually pretty full with people coming to visit us, or us going to visit someone else. HOWEVER, we finally made friends with our neighbors a couple weeks ago!!!! Seriously, you have no idea how ecstatic we were! We all did taco Tuesday and had dinner together out in the common area of our apartment. It was so refreshing to meet 2 couples who are just a couple years older than we are. We're planning to do some other fun fall outings together, but ultimately it is just so nice to know that we have a few friends where we live! We also found a church that we have started to go to. They have a few young married couples small groups that we really want to get connected with as well. I'll keep you posted on our social life and friend status. ;)

Earl and Cindy (Bo's parents) came to visit us a couple weekends ago for the day! Bo and I went on a short hike to a dried up waterfall about 15 min from our place, which was pretty fun, and then we spend the afternoon as the 4 Bowmans. Once again we hit up the outlet mall. It's quite the legit place to check out, so if you ever come to visit us, we can take you there too! After they left, Bo and I were talking about how great it is to spend time with family! We both love our families so much and cherish each moment we get to spend with them all!

Speaking of family, last weekend we got to have Brad and Shellie Bowman to our place for the first time. We all went to the David Crowder concert in Hollywood on Saturday night. They are on their final tour, so we couldn't miss it. The concert was phenominal, including the 3 opening acts (John Mark McMillan, Chris August, and Gungor)! The ONLY downside was that we were standing for a total of somewhere between 5 and 6 hours!!!! UUUggghhh! It was general admission standing room only. It was a great spot because we were close to the stage, but man were we all feeling five times our age when our knees kept screaming at us to give them one little break! haha None the less, it was a super fun night and we only wish that we all could have hung out more.

In case you haven't realized it yet....hanging out with us can be pretty sweet! ;) hahaha just kidding! Well, hopefully it is enjoyable for people, so let us know if you're ever in the area and we'll be glad to show you around!

Thankful wife,

Abby

Creativity on the loose!

Not too much has changed in regards to my daily schedule, but I have a couple leads on jobs, which is slight progress. This morning I found another job to apply for...only to realize half way through the application process that it was the same job I applied for a couple weeks ago and got turned down for. That would have been an unfortunate waste of my time. haha Too many job things in my head and I can't keep track of them all!

So after that rather depressing situation I decided to update my blog. This led to hours...guilty...HOURS of playing around looking for a blog template and then editing the html code for it. My second confession is that I am a true tech nerd at heart because I was giddy with the fact that I was writing html code to personalize my blog. Yup, it's official...NERD! haha Hopefully my nerdiness has created an aesthetically pleasing site for you to look at. :)

I think I'm just constantly obssessed with design in life. I love to do graphic designing. I scrap-booked all the time growing up as a kid. I love to edit pictures and make them look all pretty. Now, I'm constantly wanting to decorate our apartment: "let's get this vase for on that shelf", "oooo and we can put this frame over there", "that corner will be the perfect spot for this lamp surrounded my that decor", etc. (that's what Bo has to listen to every day) None the less, I am still enjoying nesting into our apartment. It's all these little touches that make it feel like US and like our HOME.  :)  After I make a few more "enhancements" around our place, I'll put some pictures up for you all to see!

Until then, if you need a picture fix....check out our AMAZING wedding pictures by r.stephenson photography!! Here's a couple to wet your taste buds.

You can see the albums posted on facebook or checkout some highlighted photos in Rebekah's blog at http://www.rebekahstephenson.com/blog/?p=1117

She is the sweetest woman you'll ever meet, and her and her husband do amazing photography! All you midwest brides-to-be, check her out!

Design Crazed Lady,

Abby

Teetering on the brink of insanity

Let me first just say that married life has been great! It's the unemployed life that is extremely relaxing OR it can drive you to your bitter end. Here are some of the pros and cons of being an unemployed wife at home without friends nearby.

PRO : Pajamas are acceptable daily attire

CON : Forgoing showers as a result of being "comfy"

PRO : The apartment stays fairly clean

CON :  I spend time making our home cute and cozy rather than searching for a job to pay for it all

PRO : Frantically rushing is virtually non-existent

CON : Motivation can be hard to find

PRO : I get to enjoy quiet alone time

CON : the characters in the TV show Friday Night Lights have become my friends

PRO: Cooking is feasible with plenty of time to prepare food

CON : The cookie dough, ice cream, and popcorn get consumed far too often

    (Bo had to prevent me from buying the 5lb tub of cookie dough at Costco yesterday)

All in all...it's not TOO bad. ;) Poor Bo just has to put up with me following him around everywhere the second he gets home and never wanting to leave his side but do everything together. I'm like a little puppy that won't leave him alone. Can you tell I'm people deprived?! haha

However, I do enjoy this stage in life because I will most likely never have this much time on my hands again, and there are a lot of benefits to slowing down in life. I hope that in reading this you were able to take a minute or two to slow down and just read and hopefully chuckle a little bit. Even though I may do it A LOT...we all need to take time to slow down a little bit.

Socially deprived wife,

Abby