We are still alive!!

I haven't blogged at all since I started school as I'm sure you have noticed. I have been taking pictures but haven't had a spare minute to put them up. So this will be another mega post that is super long! SORRY

Josh is doing well in school. Things are very busy and fast paced and they pack A TON of information into a short amount of time so he has been pretty stressed lately. I am doing really well in school right now as well. It is a lot of work with studying and practicing with the instruments and trying to remember all the steps to go through with patients and the stuff from class for the exams. We have finally learned how to use all the tools we will be using next term in clinic. We start seeing patients right before christmas to do x-rays and then at the first of february we will start seeing patients and doing actual cleanings!! We work on each other every week in the clinic and practice the new instrument from that week. We have clinic 2 days and one day we were the clinician and the next day the patient. Both days are equally scary! It's been very time consuming and very stressful trying to keep up with it all. I just got voted in as the class Vice President so I'm excited and nervous about that added responsibility but it will be a fun challenge I'm sure. Josh is also in the student government at his school, he is the technology rep. so he just makes sure all the computer stuff is working right. He is pretty settled and has made some great friends.

We are starting to feel more and more comfortable here in California. It is beginning to feel like home. It is still hard to not see our families at least once a week but we are hangin in there. They have actually been down to visit us several times so it has been nice. We are going home forChristmas too and I'm so excited!!! We have almost all of our Christmas shopping done and have been finding some great gifts for killer prices.

Our ward is very friendly and we are getting more involved there as well. We were just called to the activities committee together so it will be fun to work with each other. I've been trying to do as much as I can to get familiar with the members and start to really feel like they are family. Right now a lot of young couples are moving in because of school so it is great for us! It is a little far away but not to bad. There are 2 other LDS churches way closer but for some reason we are in a building on the other side of town. Our last to wards were so close we could walk so it is a bit of a change.

We have tried a lot of new food and are loving the diversity. It is kind of cool to have every store you could possibly think of and every type of food you could ever want just blocks away. In any direction we go we will run into pretty much anything that we want. I hate the traffic but i'm totally used to it now. I feel fine driving in it and I'm not scared anymore so that is a big bonus!

So here is a summary of some of the fun things we have done since I last posted. Pictures to follow shortly!

September: I went to the LA county fair with a friend right before school started. Josh and some guys from school joined a city basketball league and played every Thursday for a few months.

October: I started Hygiene school on the 5^th! Halloween we went to the Sushi Cruise for all you can eat sushi with a group of friends. Josh's mom and sister came to visit for a few days and then after they left my parents stopped by on their way home from palm springs. It was really nice to see both of our families! its nice that we are so close.

November: Darci and Colby came with the Bullochs to go to Disneyland so we were able to go have dinner with them and catch up for a while. I went to Twilight with a friend from school, tried Indian food for the first time, and then went out for ice cream. For thanksgiving, Rick and Stephanie came and we made our first Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves! It turned out great, everything was delicious and nothing burnt. My family sent us some goodies to remind us of home. Then we went to lake arrowhead to see some of Josh's cousins and that night went to Mission Viejo for some ice cream. We met up with one of Rick's cousins and her family and ordered the zoo from a place called Farrel's. It was 30 scoops of ice cream with all the fixins and it was like 8 pounds. there were 9 of us and we finished it off no problem haha.

My little sister just turned 11! I can't believe how fast she is growing up. She is such a sweet heart and she is a special young lady. She just got rid of all her toys and her little kid bed and moved into my old room. She got a big queen size "big girl bed" for her birthday since she is so mature now. It will be fun to see how she decorates it and makes it her own.

MMMM sushi!!!

Me and Josh with Darci and Colby at cheesecake factory!!

first day of hygiene school! Scary! our class is the Emeralds, because of our pretty green scrubs that we all wear every day!!

LA County Fair

Ice cream a the fair, If you think I look really tired its cuz I was. I didn't realize my eyes looked so weird until now haha.

Alex and I. (Josh and her BF Mike go to dental school together and she is going to school to be a hygienist too!)

Josh made Turkey and Dumpling soup with the left over turkey. It was as good as it looks. He is an amazing cook!

Josh played in the annual Turkey Bowl with our ward. My camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get any of thanksgiving weekend with his parents. Stephanie took a lot of pictures and I need to steal them from her!

Alex and I at girls night out.

In the theater waiting for Twilight to start. TEAM JACOB!! haha

Me, Cindy's friend, Cindy. She is my good friend from school. We have a lot in common and have grown really close since we met at orientation. She is a sweetie. Her friend was very nice too but I'm terrible with names. Oops!

So I know the pictures were all backwards but I'm to lazy to change it around. Hope you enjoyed them update and that everyone is doing well and is happy and healthy! Love you all. Have a wonderful Holiday season.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (Truck)

These are the pictures to supplement my last post about hitting the fire hydrant with Josh's truck. I'm really sorry babe, thanks for being so sweet and nice to me even though I'm sure you were REALLY MAD!

this is the good side of the truck. Not even a scratch!

This is the bad side, Little dings and scratches from trying to get it out of the snow (Jake and Heather were there to witness the big scratch right in the middle haha)

The big OOPS!!! Dang fire hydrant! came out of nowhere!

The ugly side of the truck :(

Josh helped!! This is the dent he put in it coming down the face of the mountain in the snow 3 days after he got it. This poor truck has been through a lot and we have unintentionally beat it up. But luckily, it still runs great and gets us where we need to go. Not to mention, it has an amazing air conditioner that keeps us cool in this HOT California weather. So, I think we will be keeping this good ol' truck around for a very long time. Lets just hope that was the last of our little mishaps.

A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place!!

Small view of the mountains from our balcony. They do remind me a little of home :)

Table and chairs out on the patio.

Dining room table. I just love this table cloth!

Guest Bathroom, The blue bucket was in my grandma's garage and I asked her for it and now it was the inspiration behind the whole bathroom! Thanks grandma

The star Josh bought me for my birthday because he knew how much I loved it when I saw it in the window of the store. What a cutie pie huh?

Guest bathroom.

living room

Shelf in the living room

Living room

Kitchen

Dining Room

Laundry room

Guest Bedroom! This bed is sooo soft and comfy. You should all come visit really soon!!

Office /guest bedroom

Hall way. These are wedding pictures from my mom's parents (top left) My dad's parents, (top right), my parents, bottom left, and Josh's parents(bottom right)

Master Bathroom

Faith in God includes Faith in his timing... in master bath

Master bedroom. Our new king size bed I got an awesome deal on thanks to Craigs list and the new Bedspread I bought at Ross for $34. Same one at walmart was $99. I was excited.

more master Bedroom. Gotta love the hampers.

Since we moved to Cali back at the end of July we have been living in a small one bedroom apartment with most of our things still in boxes stacked from floor to ceiling in the dining room. We had all our furniture crammed into it and it felt like we were living in a storage unit. It was actually a very nice apartment for the price and the location. We lucked out. It had a great master walk in closet that I loved and will miss and also a huge tub in the bathroom that was very cool. It was nice for a temporary thing but was not working very well because we have WAY to much stuff! I am a neat freak and my OCD was getting the best of me. Josh told me to take pictures of it but I was to stubborn and said I didn't want to remember it. So you will just have to take my word for it and use your imagination to visualize how uncomfortable I felt there. So now that the house fell through and we found this other apartment I feel much better that I know where I will be living for the next 4 years and don't have to stress anymore. We decided that renting, although its more expensive, makes more sense right now.

I am sooo happy to finally have a place to call home. We got all moved into our new apartment, unpacked, and even decorated!! My mom and grandma came to help me and we went shopping for a big cupboard to put in the dining room for more storage because the kitchen had hardly any. I had no where to put half of my dishes and forget about the food storage! So we found a really nice one at home depot that matched the kitchen really well and was a great price and exactly what we needed. My mom and I put it all together and then my grandma helped me put everything away in it. It worked out just perfectly! My grandma also bought us a little butcher block for some added counter space so we have more room to work. We made the not so great kitchen work for us. Then they helped me get a few little things like curtains and towels and stuff so that we had everything we needed and the house would feel like a home. My mom decided to just do an early Christmas since we needed the help now. After they left, I was able to get the last of our things unpacked and put away and now this apartment feels like home.

Some little things to update about....

The day after we moved in, we were going to take the uhaul back and had brought down a load of empty boxes to throw away. Josh had backed the truck in for me because he knows how bad I am at it and told me to just put the boxes in the truck and follow him to the uhaul place. So meanwhile, I'm thinking about what mess the apartment is and how there isn't enough storage to put all our things away and am completely overwhelmed. I had no clue where the dumpsters were and was trying to look around for some so I could stop and empty the truck out and just started driving and turning towards what I thought was the trash. All of a sudden there is this awful sound and the truck is bumping around so I assumed I had hit the curb like I usually do and just kept going. Well then I snapped out of my funk and realized that wasn't a normal "curb" sound so I stopped and backed up. I looked over at Josh who had a horrified look on his face. I started driving towards him and he looked at the side of the truck and threw his hands in the air and turned away. I threw the truck into park and jumped out and ran around to see what had happened. The passenger door s were all mashed in and there was a big yellow mark all the way down. I had hit a huge yellow fire hydrant :( Thats what I get for not paying attention to what I was doing. I felt so bad I just couldn't stop crying. I was all worried about the truck, the apartment, money, school.... that I just couldn't control my emotions any more. I called my mom and was hysterical. That is when she decided to call my grandma and drive down right away. She is such a sweet heart. I am so blessed to have such a kind, thoughtful mom. She is such a good example to me and is so beautiful and strong and loving. I appreciate her so much and am just so lucky to have such a close relationship with her.

Change of Plans

This whole home buying experience has turned into a huge nightmare. It was just one thing after another going wrong. We have been dragged through the mud and back and have jumped through many hoops getting the lender all the information they wanted and then when that wasn't enough we did more. It has been pretty much out of our hands and in the hands of the title company. They have had a MONTH and still haven't found the people they need to sign off so that they can clear the title. Obviously, if the title isn't clear, we can't go forward and they still haven't shown us that they are even capable of clearing it. So after much debate, stress, prayers and careful consideration we decided to give them 24 hours to perform or cancel escrow. That was last thursday night. Friday the title company said they would drive to the people and have them sign it and have it done by Monday so we gave them until Monday and still nothing....Today they hadn't even found the people yet, let alone finished the paperwork so it could be submitted to the lender. We told the mortgage broker and the real estate broker that we wanted to back out and cancel escrow. Hopefully the seller will sign the paper quickly so we can get our $2000 back ASAP. We searched for apartments on line and looked at some where Josh's friends live. We liked a few of them but narrowed it down to 2 and finally decided on an apartment in upland. It is in a new community that is "luxury apartments" it is like a resort. There is an amazing property with great landscaping and a huge pool and spa, a big fitness center, and a club house with a gourmet kitchen and a theater room available. We are bummed that we spent all this time and effort on the house just to find out it wasn't going to work but we know that it wasn't meant to be. We did everything in our power and it just didn't happen so we feel comfortable knowing that it was just not supposed to be. Thank you all for you love, support, and prayers on our behalf. We still have a guest bedroom available when yall want to come visit! We would love to have you.

Love,

Sara and Josh

Family Vacation

The Macklin Family came over labor day weekend to bring our washer and dryer and BBQ to us and to bring my Grandma. They left on labor day and my grandma stayed with me to keep me company while Josh studied for a big test. Her and I had lots of fun just the two of us shopping, playing games, and eating! It was great bonding time for us that we haven't had since I was little. My parents and my little sister came back that Sunday and all but poor Joshy drove to Anaheim to stay in our condo down the street from Disneyland!! We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at Disneyland. My aunt Cookie and uncle Donny were able to surprise my grandma by coming all the way from Salt Lake to spend the 3 days with us at Disney. Josh came to go to dinner and spend some time with the fam on Tuesday night after school. He had his test that Monday and then helped a friend from school move. It was my dad's birthday on Wednesday and we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Casa Garcia's on Chapman ave in Anaheim, just down from Disneyland. Thursday we spent most the day at Knott's Berry Farm. A lot of the rides were closed but it was still fun. There was hardly anyone there so we went on all the rides as many times as we wanted with out even having to get back in line. Friday we headed out to Oceanside to spend the weekend in another condo on the beach. It was harbor days there with local businesses booths and stuff on the pier. There were live bands and all sorts of yummy food and cool things to look at, not to mention some free stuff. Josh hitched a ride with a classmate who lives near oceanside and spent the weekend with my family. They crammed us into the van and took us home on Sunday and then headed back to Utah. It was so much fun getting to spend time with them and to get a little bit of a get-away. I am so glad that we decided to move to California so that we are close enough they can come over so much and spend time with me. They have done so much for us and we are very lucky to have such wonderful family. I miss them so much but i'm grateful for the time that I was able to spend with them this month. Thanks a ton guys for all you do for us!! We love you!

Me and my grandma (dad's mom) outside a Basque restaurnt. Embracing our heritage ;)\

Grandma's first time EVER on Splash Mountain at Disneyland out of the 50 years she has been going there.

me, grandma, mom, dad, tess, aunt cookie (dad's sister), Uncle Donny

Uncle Donny and Aunt Cookie! Such a fun surprise, I'm so glad they came. I wish that their kids and my dad's other sister, sandra and her family could have come too.

Saloon show at Knott's Berry Farm.

Whirl Winds!

Well Yesterday was supposed to be our closing date.... yet we are still waiting for the loan underwriters to finish reviewing our information. I called the mortgage broker EVERY day and asked how things were going and if I needed to get her any information. Every day she would assure me we were fine and on track and that it would all happen fast. Well we submitted our papers 2 weeks ago and she calls and says we need letters saying our student loans are in deferrment. But josh's school had just started and they hadn't sent out the letters yet and I was just barely accepted into a program so we had to scramble to figure something out. Well it ended up taking us an entire week! So that put us just right on schedule but we needed everything else to go fast or we wouldn't be able to close. Well then after another week with the underwriters, they decided the papers we gave them on the student loans weren't good enough and they wanted something straight from UHEAA on Josh's loans. So he and the broker called back and forth all day trying to get it figured out. So now we are thinking that was the last of it and after we turned that in they would give us final loan approval and we could order the documents and sign this week still. NOT A CHANCE!! Today I called first thing in the morning to make sure they got the paper they needed. Well all Hell had broken loose over the title. The title report that our real estate agent and broker received was clean but the report the Mortgage broker/underwriters got from another source was not clean. The house has sold so many times in the last 6 months it sent up red flags. But the wierd thing was it just kept switching between 2 people back and forth. Then the bank forclosed on it when they only owed like 20,000 and then 3 months later is was back in the same name as before the foreclosure! So bizzare! So no one could understand what was going on and they suspect some fraud so they have people from all sides of this thing trying to get it worked out. I have been waiting patiently all day to hear whats going on... So if the title is not clean like we thought, we won't get the house because its to much of a risk. So everyone please cross your fingers and keep us in your prayers that it will work out this time!! I keep trying to remember the saying "Faith in God includes faith in his timing". But I am getting so stressed out. Not to mention that we don't know yet how we will pay for my hygiene school and I have to pay $16,000 in 1 month.

the army has not paid us yet either. We have been calling and trying to get things figured out and now everything has gone through and is good to go. The school has sent the army and invoice and we should be reimbursed by the 15th. We are hoping we will get his sign on bonus and the stipend for august and september. What a nightmare right?

On top of all of that we are still trying to get buy on our savings and they are dwindling rapidly. Josh is very buys with school and studies all the time! We have been trying to do fun things on the weekends and get to know more people. We are making friends and getting more comfortable living here. We know things will all work out how they are supposed to and we will be fine but it is sure scary waiting for them to fall into place!

My family is so sweet and they are coming down this weekend, even though we aren't closed on the house as planned. They are bring their old washer and dryer for us which will save us so much money! They are also bringing our BBQ ( Josh is having withdrawls, the george forman just isn't cutting it). Then my Grandma is going to stay with us for a week and next week my family is coming back down for a week long vacation to celebrate my Dad's birthday. We are going to Disneyland for 3 days and then to Oceanside for the weekend on the beach! I can't wait to see them! This has been the longest we have been away from our families ever!

I found a sweet deal on craigslist to buy everything in a storage unit for $700. It has a king size bed and box springs with the frame, an executive desk, 2 executive chairs, filing cabnits, a table and 4 chairs, and a bunch of other little things. I am so excited! I am supposed to be going to look at it soon and hopefully we can move it right on in to our new house!

Sorry for such a long post but just thought you might like to know whats been going on.!

Disneyland!

White Coat Ceremony

Saturday August 8^th was Josh’s white coat ceremony for dental school. In the morning there was a combined convocation for a few of the colleges where the deans of those schools spoke and the president spoke and they gave some encouraging words to the students. It was so cool to hear them talk about the future of health care and the wonderful providers that this class will become. Josh is going to be part of something huge and it is very exciting to see the beginnings of that. Then at 11:00 the individual colleges broke off and did their own white coat ceremony. This is a tradition that medical schools/dental schools do to give the students their sense of belonging so to speak in the health care community. The white lab coat is a reminder of their responsibility to the thousands of patients they will serve throughout their careers. Josh’s class has 12 different countries represented and over 14 different states. They are an extremely diverse group and I think that it is going to be a very interesting 4 years and will help us gain a tremendous amount of life experience. Doctor Bill Tenpaz was the key note speaker. He was the president of the ADA and also was part of many dental organizations including his own successful practice. He gave a very inspiring speech about being the right kind of dentist. He said that the oppurtuntity to have this quality education is one thing, but it is the responsibility of the students to get the most out of their educations and to make it mean something. He also said that how you handle dental school is a blue print of how you will handle your career. Tenpaz talked about how important the dental field is in the overall medical community. There are many diseases that manifest themselves in the mouth that a dentist can recognize and make arrangements for it to be dealt with further. It really gave us a sense of responsibility and pride for our career choice. He also urged the students to get involved in their communities and to share their abilities and talents with those around them. He gave them a word of advice to apply to their careers “ Don’t be the first and don’t be the last”. Also, he said to remember that what really matters is your family and your reputation and that it is a privelage to practice, not a right so they should be respectful of that. Where much is given, much is expected. He urged to have goals and to dream big but also to enjoy the journey. “If you have a lot in the bank but nothing in your heart, you have nothing.” I was so proud of Josh, to see him receive his White lab coat with his pin and everything was just so emotional. He has worked so hard to get to this point and I know that he is going to be a wonderful Dentist. He is already a wonderful husband and a great friend, and a good person. This is going to be a lot of hard work and require a lot of sacrifice and dedication but I know that he can and will do amazing things. I love you Josh, keep up the good work babe!!

This is Colby, Josh, and Jeff. 3 of the 4 LDS dental students at western

President Pumerantz

Dean Koelbl of the college of dental medicine

Dr. Joshua Carpenter

Dr. and Mrs Carpenter

The Down Low....

Santa Monica

Our friends Matt and Crysta came last weekend for her brothers little legue tournament. We got to play with them one day and we had so much fun. We went to santa monica beach and played in the waves. Then we went to dinner at In-n-Out Burger and ate it at our apartment. After we went to the hot tub for a while and visited. It was so nice to have them over. It makes us feel less homesick when we have company! So if anyone comes to So Cal you better give us a call!!

This is me with the Santa Monica Pierd behind me.

House Update

Everything is going really Well with our house. We got the appraisal done on time and it came in for $5,000 less than we offered but the sellers just accepted the new price no problem. Then we had the inspection done and there wasn't anything to major so that was a relief. Things are just moving along really well and I think we are on track. We are set to close on September 2. There was a lot of bugs so I am definately going to have it sprayed very well before I even start to clean! My mom and dad are so wonderful and they are nice enough to come back to help us move AGAIN. I dont' know what we would do with out them. They have been such a help to us through this move. I'm so grateful to have sunch great family. Our new ward is amazing! The people are all very very friendly and welcoming. I think every single member introduced themselves personally to us before sacrament meeting even started!!! There were several young couples in the ward and they were all so nice! There were also a few students that are going to the same school as josh so that was cool!. We are so blessed and are just overwhelmed with how perfect things are for us. All of our dreams are coming true and we are just excited to reach our next goals and see what the future has to hold for us.

This is the main Bathroom

From the side ard looking towards the back yard to the gate. Our property is the one on the right.

This is the hall closet right outside of the bathroom and this picture is from inside the 2nd bedroom. There is also one more room but it doesn't have a closet so it isn't technically a bedroom. We will use it as our office.

stairs from Kitchen to the hall. ( the laundry room is to the left of this picture and so is the 3/4 bath)

This is part of the kitchen. The purple cupboards will be painted white before I even put my stuff in them FYI. all the cupboards and appliances except the fridge go on this same wall. There is a dishwasher, a drop in stove, and a built in oven all included and we got a free fridge from Josh's army recruiter when we moved to Cali so we are all set. On the same wall as the stairs there is nothing so eventuall we will add some more cupboards and maybe some counter space.

This is the master bedroom. Both bedrooms have 1 normal door and then a small door that only has a handle on the inside. Really strange but whatever! They have pretty good size closets too so that will be nice.

This is the other bedroom.

LUCKY!!! :)

Josh has got to be one of the luckiest people alive. He is always winning prizes, giveaways, drawings, raffles, and lots of other stuff. He was listening to the radio on the way to school and they said to call in to win a prize. He called and of course got on the air with Ryan Seacrest!! Ryan sang a song and Josh had to finish the line. He didn't know the song so he just guessed a word that rhymed and it was right!!! He won 4, three day park hopper tickets to DISNELAND!!! I was soooo excited I couldn't even breath!! we have been wanting to come for so long. Every time we came to disneyland it would get worse. Now that we live here we have been itching so bad to go but just couldn't afford to buy tickets with both of our schools and the house and everything else that goes along with just living!! We are going to go tomorrow for the day. I will post lots of pictures when we get back.