Vancouver 2010

As Paige's posts have made evident, we have spent the last week and a half in Canada. She has not, however, been entirely forthcoming about our reasons for visiting. Paige and I have been preparing for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

First, we thought we would try out for the ping pong team.

But we remembered that ping pong is a summer Olympic sport. So, next we tried hockey and figure skating.

But, the team:

went to a Calgary Flames game, to see how our skills measured up.

We found out pretty quickly that hockey wasn't the right sport for us to break into the Olympic scene. And those of you who follow hockey know that we weren't selected as part of the Canadian or American hockey teams. Though, as far as figure skating goes, I think Paige's dad has some real potential.

So, we decided our last attempt would be curling. Because, seriously, if you can't be a curler, then what can you do?

Well, it turns out curling is really hard. I don't think we would have made the team if we had tried out, because we got kicked out of the rink because our style of playing was a bit unconventional (apparently cracking the ice is a bad thing in curling).

Fortunately, through all this, we did find our place in the 2010 Olympics: fans.

(Canada and U.S. fans)

Old Friends

A few days ago, I got together with some old friends. Back in high school, we were all pretty much inseparable. A lot has happened since then: marriages, children (except me), university, jobs, moving, etc. However, when we can get the whole gang together again we jump at the chance. This Christmas, we had ALMOST everybody together (we missed you Lana!). It was enjoyable and I feel lucky to have such great life-long friends.

And, just for fun, here are some pictures of us back in the day.

Merry Christmas From....

We are here celebrating Christmas in Calgary. My family is big on traditions, especially at Christmastime. Since this is Steven's first official Peterson family Christmas, we did all of the traditional "Christmas" activities.

My heritage on my mom's side is German. One German tradition is hiding a pickle ornament in the tree and having a contest to see who can find it first. It is amazing how hard that is to find! Here are Steve and Steven looking.... Steve won the 2009 prize.

We went ice-skating around our community lake on Christmas Eve. I love ice-skating. Steven even learned how to skate backwards. I'll turn him into a Canadian yet.

Every year a different stake in Calgary puts on a live nativity and we always go on Christmas Eve. That is one of my favorite traditions and helps us to remember the real meaning and celebration of Christmas.

Enjoyed some of our Christmas loot...... We were definitely spoiled. I think that one of my favorite gifts is the car GPS system that my parents got for us. Now that we are moving to California, my mom is really afraid for her directionally-challenged daughter. She should be, and so I am grateful for the help.

In between all of the traditions, we have had time for some game-playing. Ping-pong and Rockband have been the favorites. Those drums are crazy hard.

And of course the best tradition... being with family. This is a picture of our Christmas dinner at my grandparents house. My grandma works so hard for days to cook a delicious turkey dinner. She is an AMAZING cook, and this dinner is something that I looked forward to for months. Thanks grandma :)

We are having a blast and I'm grateful that we have another week here. I love my home!

Licensed

So, I can now "officially" drive in Utah. You may ask, "Paige, haven't you already been living in Utah for over five years?" Yes, that is true.

While I was still a student, I figured that my Canadian license was just fine (since it is still good until 2011.) I felt a little guilty when I got married, and I even took the dreaded trip down to the DMV right after our wedding. That is where they told me that since I had a "foreign" driver's license, that I couldn't just transfer my license like everybody else. Instead, I had to take a written test, road test, the works. Well, that made me mad and so for the past two years, I have ignored it. However, legally I probably needed to get a license. It also made things hard because my Canadian license still said, "Peterson." A part of my stubborness I guess.

Well, now that I am officially working, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and get my Utah license. This is how the process went...

(1) Trip #1 to the DMV: wait in line for 45 minutes. Take the "written" test, which was ridiculously easy. 100%. Whew--Passed that. I was shocked though. The "test administrator" was giving out answers to other people, one lady was talking on her cell phone, and the guy next to me was eating a sandwich. And we wonder why Utah is a terrible place to drive?

(2) The road test: So, you know all those silly things that you learn when you are 16 in driver's ed, but never actually use? That is normally fine. Until you have to take another driver's test. I honestly felt 16 again. I was all nervous. Luckily, I passed. I lost points because I forgot to set the e-brake on my hill parking (one of those things I have not done since driver's ed), and I didn't "head check" on my u-turn. -5 total. But I passed.

(3) Trip #2 to the DMV: wait in line another 25 minutes, picture taken, print off temporary license, and I'm done.

Overall, it was NOT a pleasant experience. But, I'm glad to know that at 23 I can still pass a road test. I have new empathy for all the 16-year-olds out there, and a new understanding of why Utah is a scary place to drive.

FINAL(ly)

For the first time since my schooling began, this semester felt like it went slower than the previous semester. But, now I'm a new man. I have a new lease on life. I've experienced a renewal of sorts. I knew the day would come. On Wednesday I completed my last final. Below is a picture of one of my groups from the semester, and while I found no joy in saying goodbye, our parting meant the semester has ended, and that is great news. Things are looking up for next semester. Bring on the winter!

On a related side note, since I have a lot of spare time, I have become the "house husband." Cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. It's all mine. And no one can fold sheets like I can, I might add.

SnOw!*

Well, the cold and snow have officially hit Provo. Being from Canada, you would think that I am used to the cold, and that I love the snow. Nope. I am always freezing and honestly would prefer sunshine to snow almost any day.

However, I love my home and I am so excited to go home for Christmas. At Christmas, I even love the snow and the cold.

I once heard a quote that said something along the lines of "Because of the cold, most Canadians completely disregard fashion for warmth." I was always offended at that quote because I think that most Canadians are quite fashionable.

Last night when it was freezing and snowing, I managed to convince Steven that we should go on a walk and have a snow-ball fight. This is Steven in the snow....

Looking pretty darn good.

And... this is me in the snow....

Unfortunately, after I looked at these pictures, I realized that the above-said quote was 100% accurate.

Happy Snow Day :)

Random

So, we have taken a few fun pictures over the past couple of months that were not enough to warrant their own blog post. However, most of them make me laugh or at least smile, so I thought that I would share....

• Our Halloween Costumes: Halloween is honestly my least favorite holiday. I would even call myself a Halloween scrooge. However, since we had a young men/young woman activity that required dressing up, Steven and I were forced to oblige. We even actually enjoyed it :) After rummaging through DI for an evening, we came up with this:

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Foote in about 50 years from now. Since everybody is always telling us how young we look, we decided to dress up as a grandma and grandpa. I laugh every time that I look at how high up Steven's pants are.

What do you think?

• "Irish Golfer."

Steven came home from work a couple of weeks ago, looking like this. He proudly proclaimed, "look Paige, I'm like an Irish golfer." Since we only have one car, Steven pretty much rides his bike everywhere, which requires him to tuck in his pant legs so they don't get caught in the bike. He also happens to love wearing argyle socks. So if you ever see anybody riding around on a bike in Provo with argyle socks, it's probably Steven.

• My "Goodnight kiss:" And, to end on a sweet note, when Steven was out-of-town doing all of his interviews, I was sad and lonely. But, when I went to bed the first night, I found this:

It is a sticky note with "Mwah- goodnight kiss." I thought that was so sweet. I'm a lucky girl though because he is always doing things this thoughtful.

Holidays

This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving with our Foote Family! I love Thanksgiving, and we have so many things to be grateful for. I honestly wake up each day and wonder how I got so lucky. I have a wonderful husband and family. I have the gospel in my life, and we are blessed in so many other countless ways. Growing up in Canada with an American mother, I have always had TWO Thanksgiving celebrations (Thanksgiving is in October in Canada). I consider my double holidays another thing to be thankful for.

For this Thanksgiving, we had a big family dinner with all of Steven's mom's side of the family. Besides the traditional feast, the weekend was full of family dodgeball, BYU Football, shopping, games, and lots of fun. All in all, we had a great Thanksgiving...

We also wasted no time in setting up our house with all of our Christmas decorations. I absolutely love Christmas, but I am a firm believer in no Christmas until after Thanksgiving. So, all of my excitement is contained and gets fully let loose all at once.

Since we are still in the small apartment stage of life, decorating for Christmas definitely has its limitations. For example, "our stockings are hung by the TV with care" instead of the chimney.

I love this time of year, and we can't wait until we get to go home to Canada for a Peterson family Christmas!

Six Exams and Thousands of Dollars Later

To say that I'm proud is an understatement. This is the good kind of pride, though. A few weeks ago, Paige took her last CPA Exam, prerequisite to her becoming a Certified Public Accountant -- the very culmination of the education she has striven for the past five and a half years to obtain. Yesterday, Paige's grade for that last exam was posted. 94. Her scores on all the exams were in the 90s. On an unrelated side-note, these exams are pass-fail, and 75 is a passing grade. On another side- note, only about 10% of potential CPAs pass all four exams on their first try.

 Everyone else taking the exam. Good luck.

Paige doesn't want to brag, so I will. She's amazing! And, in January she will have completed the experience requirements (2000 hours working under a licensed CPA) to qualify her for the CPA license. Needless to say, we will be going out to celebrate tonight. New Moon here we come!

San Jose, California

Now that our news is "official" and Steven has accepted a job offer, I can finally announce that after Steven graduates we are moving to San Jose, California! He has been interviewing for jobs in San Jose at all of the big accounting firms, and he will be working at Ernst & Young.

In accounting, it is crazy, but you have to pick a place and interview for jobs a year before you graduate. I am so grateful that we know that Steven has a great job lined up, especially with jobs being scarce right now. I will brag a little bit about how amazing he is, because he got multiple job offers, and all of the firms told him that he was a top recruit. Here is a picture of Steven reading his E&Y offer with his "Paige, why are you taking a picture of this?" smile:

Now, I am genuinely thrilled and excited about our adventure. However, I never thought that I would live in California and this definitely wasn't in the plans. In fact, we had all of the applications submitted to apply for Calgary, so we could live by my family. However, we kept finding out difficult things about transferring our education across the border, and as much as my heart wanted to go, we both knew that it wasn't right (at least not now... I still have hopes for the future). So, with one day left before applications became final, we felt good about San Jose and switched all of the applications. I feel at peace and I know that it is the right thing for us, but it is definitely a scary unknown. I am moving to a place where I have never been, and I will know probably about three people. Some of the main things that I am so excited for are-

• Amazing weather. Not way hot, but sunny and warm almost year round. Yes!
• Tons of fun stuff to do really close: San Fransisco, the beach, amusement parks, everything.
• Great for Steven's career: He will be in auditing and E&Y does Google, Facebook, HP, Apple, pretty much all the big technology names.
• The church is strong and there are a lot of other young couples there.
• My sister will be living in LA and so we sorta have family close.
• 

Some things that I am way not excited for are-

• Not being really close to any family. I know that this will be hard. I love family!
• Expensive!!! We won't be improving our standard of living from the student life at all. Everything, especially housing is so expensive.

The good outweigh the bad and we are excited. Moving is still over a year away, but it does feel like the Provo student chapter of our lives is coming to a close. I love to plan ahead and so the saying, "Life happens when you are busy making other plans" has always been hard for me. This was not in the plans, but I am learning that life is definitely an adventure that you have to take as it comes!

The life of a sugar mama...

I have been thinking lately that I really need to update our blog and make it a little more interesting. But, we have been really busy lately and most of that has just been work and school. Honestly, not that interesting. But, since this is my life, here are a few tidbits of what I am up to every day:

Here is a pictures of the girls that I work with in the "basement." Our office has three floors. The auditors are on the top, the partners and support staff are in the middle, and the tax department is in the basement. I actually really like it. And not just because the break room is also in the basement and so when they bring in treats, we are the first to get them.

One of my favorite parts about what I do is really helping people. We have so many clients that do not understand money, taxes, or finances at all, and I get to help them. That makes all of the years of school and hard work worth it. I also love figuring out hard problems and feeling like a real professional.

One of my least favorite parts about my job is tracking time. Yes, we have to "bill" our time in 15 minute increments. Crazy, eh? I understand the purpose, because even my billable rate is $80/hour (I wish I made that...) and we need to make sure that we are being accurate with how much we charge. It is helpful to stay productive, but it drives me nuts!

And.. for some good news: I took my last CPA exam on October 29th and I finished the two state exams this last week. I don't know if I passed yet, but if I did, then I AM SO DONE!!!! It feels great to work so hard for something and to finally reach my goal.

Life is Good.

Barnes & Noble "Date"

Tonight for FHE, Steven and I had what we have come to call our "Barnes & Noble" date. After a stressful day at work and school, we actually really love to visit the bookstore. Now, we never buy anything. We pretty much consider the bookstore to be like the library with really cushy chairs, nice music, and the books have to stay. I think that this date tradition is pretty funny, because when we arrive it always goes something like this:

Paige- I head straight to the magazine rack and usually pick up a few of these....

Steven: Steven wanders around for awhile and usually ends up reading either some book on computer programming, or most often picks up one of these:

After we have looked at everything, I then usually proceed to spend the next 20 minutes trying to find Steven amongst the tall bookcases and throngs of people. Then, we go home. Our "date" doesn't involve much interaction with each other, but it is still a fun part of our life.

I think that one of my best memories of going to Barnes & Noble is when we accidentally showed up the night of the "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" release party. I've never seen Steven so uncomfortable. While he hid in the corner for a while, I saw the movie preview, gawked at all the teenagers dressed as vampires, and laughed at those of all ages wearing "Team Edward" t-shirts. I guess you never can know what will happen at Barnes & Noble....

Yummy Pasta & Fall Fun

We have started doing a weekly dinner switch with Jeremy and Kedra (we cook one week and they cook the next.) Last Friday we had delicious sweet potato burritos, and yesterday we made Pasta Fresca. I don't consider myself a top-notch chef, and so I don't usually share recipes, but this one was so good. Steven and I love to eat at Noodle & Company, and this recipe is taken from one of their dishes. It tastes really close too... so if you are looking for a crowd-pleaser, give it a try!

NOODLES & CO. PASTA FRESCA

Sauté Instructions:
In a very hot sauté pan, add:
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 cups pre-cooked farfalle (bow-tie pasta)
1/4 cup cubed roma tomatoes
1 tbs. diced red onions
2 shakes of kosher salt & cracked pepper

Sear noodles, stirring occasionally until steaming hot

Add:
1 oz. baby fresh spinach
1 oz. fresca sauce (recipe below)
Toss to combine, serve with freshly shaved parmesan cheese

FRESCA SAUCE:
(for 15 servings)
1/4 cup fresh garlic
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sweet white wine (we omitted the wine and it turned out just great)
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

On another note, we have really been enjoying Fall again in Provo. We were able to go hiking last weekend and see all of the pretty leaves. Steven also took an impressive picture of the sunrise on his way to work yesterday morning. We have a great view of the mountains from outside of our apartment.