October Pedersen Update

Although it has been hard being away from our families and starting a new life where we had absolutely no one, we have really grown to love where we are.  There are thousands of people that wish they could be in our shoes so we are incredibly grateful to be here.  Kjarom has worked so hard and deserves every bit of this.

Kjarom has really gotten into the grind of school and has a pretty regular schedule now.  He is at school M-Th till about 8 and Fridays a little earlier.  He is very dedicated and much better about all this work than I could ever be.  Right after classes he goes to the library to study until dinner time.  He is trying as much as he can to leave school work at school so he can spend the evenings with me and give me all of his attention.  I'm not sure if this will be able to continue all three years, but he is definitely doing his best to remember family.

People are always asking me how Kjarom is handling the stress of law school and I have to say I've got a pretty incredible husband.  He is very good about holding things in and while I am 100% sure he is stressed about all the work he has to do, he doesn't use it to bring anyone else around him down.  Like I said, he has been doing a great job of leaving school at school.  It's a quality I really admire about him.

As for me, I have taken my California Law and Ethics examination and passed with flying colors! :)  My license should be in the mail within the next couple weeks and then it is time to start cleaning teeth again!  In the mean time I have been working at baby gap.  They seriously have the cutest little clothes in the world.  I love it there.  Plus the discount I get at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy is probably a little too good.

We have been to every single Stanford football game and we love that we won't ever have to stand in snow during a game here.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful.  With highs of about 80, it really doesn't get any better.  We have been going to a couple of Volleyball and Soccer games as well because for each event we go to, we earn what is called loyalty points.  Those with the most loyalty points have a better chance of getting in to both the Oregon and Cal football games this year.  I know what you're thinking... Cal?  They're awful.  But they're the big rivals here I guess.  Much like the BYU - Utah rivalry.  Speaking of...  we are clearly Utah's lucky charm.  Maybe Kjarom will transfer to Oregon and Utah will beat them too.  Ugh.  Kill me.

Anyway, all in all we love where we are.  We are still kind of in shock that we are at Stanford.  I'm so proud of Kjarom for working so hard.  I really admire his work ethic and dedication.  You can do anything with hard work and Kjarom is living proof of that.  I love him!

We want visitors!  Let us know if you're ever in the San Francisco area. We would love to see you! :)

Arriving at our new home!

Each post I seem to put on our blog starts off with me being disappointed about how awful I am at blogging.  Well, hopefully I really mean it this time that I'm going to start trying to keep this thing up to date.  With us now being far away from both of our families this will be a great way to keep both sides up to speed. 

The past couple weeks have kind of been a whirl wind.  It's still crazy to believe that we are where we are.  

As most of you are aware, Kjarom will be starting Law School at Stanford on Friday.  I am so incredibly proud of him.  He has worked so hard to get where he is.  While it will be a long and stressful three years, it will be an adventure that I wouldn't want to be taking anywhere else.  We had quite a few options to choose from including BYU, New York University, Notre Dame, Duke, Michigan, Cornell and many more... but none of those were Stanford.  Kjarom was really doing his research on each of the schools he was truly interested in. I don't have any doubt in my mind that Kjarom would have succeeded and gone above and beyond at any of these schools, but with his research and many prayers, we knew that Stanford was where we were supposed to go.

This was the collage we posted to Facebook when we made our decision.

We had originally planned on renting a U-haul to take out to Palo Alto, but thanks to my loving mom and brother Kurtis we were able to cancel those plans.  They took the Tahoe and when I say you couldn't have fit anything else in there, you really couldn't.  My poor mom and Kurtis felt suffocated with all our things starting to poor into the front seats.  Kjarom and I both had plenty of room with each of us driving our own car.  I'm so grateful that they were able to help us!  It sure would have been rough without them.  

The drive from Salt Lake to Palo Alto is a little long so we decided to stay a night in Reno and finish the drive the following day.  On our way into the bay area we made a little pit stop at the Oakland Temple.  I had been there before when my oldest brother Eric got married, but I really didn't take in or appreciate how gorgeous this temple is.  There are Palm trees all around and it sits up on a hill overlooking all of Oakland and San Francisco.  It is absolutely beautiful.

After the temple we drove south to Palo Alto and stayed in a hotel for a couple nights before we moved into our apartment.  Kjarom, Kurtis and I made another trip into San Francisco to go to Ghirdelli Square, Fisherman's Warf and to see a Giants game.  

Row 9 on the 1st base side line.  Pretty sweet seats!  But we did have to pay attention the WHOLE time since we were in prime foul ball area.

We then moved all of our things into our new apartment.  It is definitely a change from what we are used to.  No AC, dishwasher, washer/dryer, gas stove and the list could go on.  But we knew that no matter where we went from our last place it would be a down grade.  It is kind of hard to think about what we could get in Utah with how much we're paying in rent here.  BUT in all honesty, this is part of our little adventure in California.  Come what may and LOVE IT!  We're on the 6th floor so we've got a gorgeous view.  My next post will show you our cute little place.  :)  I am very pleased that I will still have room to do insanity!  I was worried there wasn't going to be near enough room.

Well, as you can guess -- Kjarom will be incredibly busy his first year of school.  His future is pretty much based on the first year grades so he will be in the library a ton.  As for me I have sent in my application for a Hygiene license and am waiting to hear back about when I can take California's Law and Ethics exam.  Then hopefully it won't take too long to receive my license so I can start doing what I love again!

I'll continue to update this for you family that care!  Also... let me know if you blog or if I have the wrong link off to the right.  I need to be better about following everyone else as well!  Love you and and just remember -- WE LOVE VISITORS!!! :)