Ch-Ch-Changes

So, this blog is suppose to be about Tyler and I, yet this entry is about Kellie and Chris. Although that being said a lot of my "Tyler and Caresse" stories/adventures/memories include Kellie and Chris, so I think its fitting.

About 5 years ago, I met my dear friend Kellie. It was friendship at first sight! Really, I think it was destiny for Kellie and I to meet. We ran around Orange Co. without a care in the world!

Then Tyler came along (well actually he was around before Kellie, but he moved to the OC after Kellie......well, you get the point) But as you can see we quickly became the "Three Musketeers".

In the crazy world of Ford Relocation, Kellie and I both managed to be transferred to Nor Cal within 4 months of each other (see it's destiny). Moving to Nor Cal was the best thing that could have happened. Kellie went from being a great friend of mine to becoming one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world! 

Oh and then Chris showed up (technically he was in the picture before I was, but he plays baseball and travels a lot)! But as you can see it didn't take long for Chris and I to become friends. In fact, I kinda like the guy ;)

So "Three Musketeers" became the "Four Amigos". 

Tyler and I like these two so much, we decided to move in next door! No, really we can see their house from our deck. So, what does all of this have to do with the title "Ch-Ch-Changes"? 

Well, as you can tell by the pics and timeline, my friendship with Kellie has and is continuing to change.  Tomorrow our dear friends are officially moving away from Dublin, starting a new chapter in their lives. A chapter filled with Spring Training, followed by heading to Seattle and then hopefully finding their new home in Reno. And while selfishly I want them to stay here and never leave, I started thinking about all of the changes that have taken place in the past 5 years. Clearly, Kellie and I can handle change, in fact life's changes have strengthened our friendship. So, while we won't be able to have dinner together on a random Wednesday night, I am looking forward to our future visits to Reno for long weekends! Kel, please make sure that you have the guest room finished ASAP!

So Good Luck to the Gimenezs and remember don't forget about us Dubliners!

What's next?

This is where this whole "blog thing" gets tricky, you actually have to think of something creative to blog about. Maybe it doesn't have to be creative, but it needs to be somewhat entertaining. So here is what I came up with...."Tylerisms".

Tyler is quite entertaining and not everyone has the pleasure of seeing this side of him, and because of that I thought I would share one of my favorite Tylerisms from the past couple of weeks.

My New Year's Resolution was to help Tyler out in the mornings by making him breakfast and lunch every day. It sounds a bit like the 1950s, but the guy works really hard and I wanted to be able to help him out a bit. Tyler liked this idea, but honestly I don't think he expected it to last too long! Here is how the first few days went:

Tyler on Day One: "Thanks for making me breakfast and lunch, that was nice"
Tyler on Day Two: "Oh you're making me lunch again?"
Tyler on Day Three: "Wow, I'm getting used to this"
Tyler on Day Four: "You know Caresse, I think I'll have an English Muffin with Nutella for breakfast this morning!"

He was so matter of fact about the whole "request", it made me laugh. I was surprised that some smart-aleck comment didn't come out of my mouth, but I just went ahead and made the breakfast he requested. I mean he doesn't ask for much!

Now let's fast forward to Week 2 of my NY resolution. I hopped in Tyler's car on Friday night and sitting on the seat is his lunch! I was shocked to see that my "hard work" had gone uneaten. Tyler immediately tells me, that it was the first time he hadn't eaten his lunch, but then I remember him telling me the day before that he had gone out to lunch with his boss....hmmm??? Who knows how many lunches he has actually eaten, but I'm still going to continue to make them :)

Round Two

So about a year ago I had a great idea of starting a blog. I know how much I enjoy reading about the lives of my dear friends; Lynn, Kellie, and Bryn and I thought, "Hmmm maybe they would like to read about my life?". Well, after one blog entry I was done. Although looking back on it, I think I spent too much time writing my first post and exhausted my writing "skills" for the year. That was until I read (on Lynn's blog) about 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly! The catch? I had to blog about their products. Being a sucker for a good deal, I went ahead and posted my second blog of the year! True, it was in November (8 months after my first post), but it took my blog from being an "annual blog" to a "bi-annual blog". What a milestone for www.tylerandcaresse.blogspot.com :)

All that being said, I have decided to give it another shot. Seeing that this year will be filled with many exciting milestones; Jess having a baby, Kellie moving to Seattle, Bryn's first year of wedded bliss, Lynn chasing a fully mobile toddler around, and oh the fact that Tyler and I are getting married, there should be MUCH to blog about!

Keep those fingers crossed and check back to see if I can update this bad boy once a week :)

Shutterfly Makes Holiday Cards Fun!

Last year I decided to use Shutterfly for our holiday cards. I had used Shutterfly in the past for prints and enlargements, but was new to their cards. As usual Shutterfly was quick and easy and I loved all of the different templates they had. 


I was very excited the day that our holiday cards arrived; even more so when I started getting feedback on our card....everyone LOVED it! 


It was an easy decision to choose Shutterfly once again for our holiday card. Here are a few of my favorites that I am considering for this year's card: 


http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/all-wrapped-up-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93496


http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/holiday-window-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93476


http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/glitter-glamour-joy-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93476




As I was getting ready to finalize our holiday card, I noticed a great promotion that Shutterfly was offering this year; 50 FREE Holiday Cards!!!! What's the catch? Not much all you need to do is blog about Shutterfly. Easy enough to do, especially when you know you are helping to promote a great product :)


If you have a blog and would like to participate in Shutterfly's promotion, see the link below.  !


http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/


Have fun creating your own holiday card at Shutterfly today!!!

Welcome to Our Blog!

Well after much contemplating on who would actually read this blog, Tyler and I decided to finally start this blog of ours!  After all , I stalk Lynn, Kellie, and Bryn to see when their blogs are updated, I mean who wouldn't want to hear about all the "adventures" Tyler and I have?

Looking back, we should have started this blog when we were house hunting, but now that our "home" is pretty much complete, we shall begin there!

We closed on our home on September 4th, 2009 and while it wasn't the HGTV moment I had pictured in my mind it was great to finally get the keys in our hands. Granted the keys were handed to me from a locksmith, (b/c the seller's realtor lost the keys) and not our realtor Theresa, but it was just great to finally know that the house hunting process was over!

Tyler and I spent the next couple of months doing some "rennovating". We replaced all of the floors and gave the interior a fresh coat of paint! The majority of the work is now done and while we are still thinking of re-tiling the fireplace, it seems to have been put on the back burner for now.

Most of our fall was spent inside, but it was worth it. We were able to have the place ready to go for our Christmas visitors...our families. It was great to be able to spend our First Christmas in our Fiirst house with the fam. Granted, we were short one family member (Aubrey couldn't make it), it was still a wonderful holiday season....one of my favorite Christmases for sure!

It has been almost 2 months since our families left, which is somewhat hard to believe. It was a busy January, spending as much time as possible with Kellie and Chris before they left for Spring Training. After all they are our new neighbors and we didn't want to be rude :)

We were able to squeeze in our 2nd Annual Pretzel Party. Funny thing, we just happened to have our Pretzel Party the same day my grandma was hosting her own Pretzel Party....what a great tradition to continue! I think she gets a kick out of it, just liked she did when she found out that we made pretzels in Big Rapids!

Speaking of my grandmother and roomies from Big Rapids, I am headed back to Michigan next week. While I assume it will be FREEZING cold, I can't wait to see my grandparents and roomies! Especially since, I will be meeting a new edition to my Roomie Family :) Nick and Lynn are the proud new parents of Gabrielle Sophia Taylor...aka my first and favorite niece! I am looking forward to spending the weekend with Gabrielle, Jess, Lynn, Tams, my MOM, and my grandparents! It will be a whirl wind trip and I'm thinking I will be pretty tired when I get back, but I can't wait to meet Miss Gabrielle and hold her in my arms.
The only downfall to this whole trip is the fact that Tyler won't be joining me. But someone has to stay and work....I mean cripes, we now have a mortgage payment! Although I think he is looking forward to his weekend of fast food and watching movies that I refuse to watch with him, but really who wants to watch Saw 20?? Really, who???