Merry Christmas to All!

Under the tree the gifts enthrall,

But the nicest present of them all

Is filling our thoughts with those who care,

Wanting our Christmas joy to share.
To you, whom we're often thinking of,

We send our holiday joy and love.
By Joanna and Karl Fuchs

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Lars and Stephanie Barlow

Hooray!!

We offically own our 2001 Ford Focus!

Purdy Flower

This a beautiful flower that is all over our apartment grounds. It is called Birds of Paradise. It is gorgeous. Seeing it lets my imagination run wild about what else it could be.

Thanksgiving, Twilight, & UTAH

It is Thanksgiving week. There is a buzz in the air. A buzz of hooray FOOD and FAMILY! This year for Thanksgiving we traveled to Utah to be with our family and friends. We have been here since Saturday and we have done a lot. We have visited my old office, shopped for Christmas and for new clothes for Lars (we got him a new leather jacket and he is so HOT!! I will share pics as soon as I get them), spent time with both of our families, spent late nights with dear friends, and best of all slept inn. We also saw the movie Twilight. I liked it but did have some meh feelings about it at the same time. I loved the music and will see it again and probably buy it on DVD. They will make the next two books into movies and I am anxious to see how those turn out. Guess who took me to see the movie...LARS...he is so awesome and cute and I loved the comments he made throughout the movie. I love being back to see all our peeps but man is it cold here in Utah, burrrrrr. It has been an enjoyable vacation so far and it is not over yet.

Fire in the sky!

Yesterday there were a ton of fires in Southern California. We were 10 miles away from one of them. The wind was strong and did not help the situation. Because we were very close to one of them the air was very smokey. All day it smelled like a camp fire. In the first part of the morning the sun was clear and sunny, but by noon it was very hazy and there was a red-orange tint in the sky, the sun was not shining through as bright. We spent most of the day inside with the windows closed and the A/C on. But it was hard to breath and my eyes did not like the smoke. Occasionally we stepped out side to inspect our surroundings. It was like there was a volcano erupting from a distance, the sky was filled with floating ash. We night fell we step out on our balcony again and were greeted by a red moon. When things like this happen it makes you think about how prepared you are for the things that lie ahead of us. Our prayers go out to those who were affected by the fires.

Huntington Beach

Last weekend we went to explore Huntington Beach with some neighbores we met and are getting chummy with. It was a very lovely beach, but on this day it was windy so we ended up not staying long. However, we stayed long enough for me to play in the water. Enjoy these pictures from our exploration.

Our neighbores and Lars.

Drawing in the sand if fun and these words are true!

How to play in the beach water with Stephanie!

Step 1: See water and sand

Step 2: Step into water and sand

Step: 3:Watch water enter

Step 4: Enjoy water and feel the sand in between your toes

Step 5: Smile because it is fun and you just played with Stephanie on the beach ((HUG))

oxoxox

Quack! Quack!

A week and a half ago my work had left over tickets to the Ducks hockey game. They usually have season tickets on hand for clients from various sports, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Anaheim Angels, the Ducks, etc. Occasionally they don't get used up. When this happens they draw names and the winner gets the tickets. My name got drawn so Lars and I got to go to the game and let me tell you the seats were amazing. It was my first pro hockey game. We were 5 rows behind the penalty box. They have so many fans who were so into the game with cheering and booing. When we scored everyone jumped out of their seats with glee. They played the St Louis Blues. The Ducks were so graceful on the ice and with the puck. It seemed as if they were all as one. They would pass to each other when they weren't even looking at each other. It was all smooth and really cool to watch. There was even a fight. In the last 3 minutes of the game the St Louis Blues took their goalie out to have more man power to score. Big mistake because once the Ducks got the puck they hiked it the across the ice to score. The Ducks won 5-2. It was so much fun. I can't wait to try and go again. Thanks work.

This is Halloween!

I love Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays of the year because you can dress up and be someone or something else for a day. The thespian in me thrives on this day. However, I wasn't sure if I was going to dress up because we just moved and we don't know many people here and I usually ham up things more easily with an audience. I am still new in my work environment and was unsure how extreme of a costume I should do, if any. Plus I just haven't really been in the right mood. I also had costume ideas but couldn't make up my mind.

A few things changed my mind. 1) I got more comfortable and confident at work (I might explain this in more detail in another blog). 2) Myself and another employee were put in charge of decorating the pumpkin for the office. Every year the office enters a pumpkin into a contest for the whole building. The building provides the pumpkin so every suite participates. Being in charge of this got me into the holiday spirit a little more. SO come Halloween I did dress up. I am glad I did because it gave my coworkers an opportunity to get to know me more and it was a chance for myself to show my colors. The character I created was well received. It was a costume I had done in the past so it was easy to do. I was an old lady. I wore a silly dress and stuffed a pillow in my behind and socks in my bra to have a hanging effect. Then I wore an old wig and old age make up. I also walked around with a bag full of candy and lint to pass out. People got a kick out of it and I had fun.

For our pumpkin we had a Monty Python and the Holy Grail theme. It was "The Killer Rabbit-Run Away, Run Away!" We used a lot of fake blood from my make up kit and I made blood with 3 packs of drink mix to a small amount of water. My hand was stained with blood the rest of the day. We won an honorable mention award and got a lot of cool comments about it. See pictures.


One of the greatest things about Halloween is the candy. Lars and I usually don't buy candy before. We wait until the day after so we get the candy 50% off. And that is exactly what we did today, we got 10 bags of assorted candy for $15, hooray! Happy Halloween!

It tickles me that I live in CA!

I live in California now and each day something out of the ordinary happens to remind me where I live now. Usually it has something to do with the weather, traffic, stores, or the environment. When it happens I always chuckle to myself and smile and say I live in California and I love it.

The other day we had a practice fire drill in my office. Once out of the building we had to wait on a patch of grass away from the building. While waiting people were complaining about...and I quote..."It is the hottest day of the Fall." Why is this funny? Because the words 'hot' and 'Fall' are not usually used in the same sentence that way. The temperature that day was 95 degrees. Around this time of year I am used to 65 degrees so this warmer weather is a reminder that I now live in California. Hardy Har Har!

Another reminder that I live here is that there are no Fall colors on the trees. Palm trees don't change color. I miss the fall colors a lot. It is one of my favorite times of the year to walk around the trees and hear the leaves crunch under my feet.

Atlanta GA-Six Flags

SO last weekend we flew to Atlanta, GA. It was my companies 10 year anniversary and I won a trip for myself and a guest (Lars) to the 10 year celebration in Atlanta, GA. We flew there on Friday and took a tour of my corporate office and then had dinner with the President, VP, CEO, and other big wigs from the company. It was awesome. Everyone was very nice and I could tell they enjoy the work that we do. I work for a super awesome company. During dinner they had games and I took home $200 in one of them. Saturday morning the celebration continued at Six Flags. We had a DTI lunch buffet and visited more with tons of fellow employees and managers. Then the rest of the day was spent playing. We rode bumper cars, ate nachos, caught two shows they had in the park, laughed at people getting wet on some of the rides, and then we rode the Superman ride. I was scared while we waited in line and right before we got on it, but then it was pure enjoyment, like I was flying. One worth waiting in line for.

Then we went to dinner with my bosses boss and some other great people. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the hotel. Georgia is a very beautiful state, reminds me of Michigan a bit with all the trees. Sunday we had breakfast at the Waffle House, some of the best strawberry waffles and biscuits and gravy ever. And great service, we were called sweetheart and hun a lot.


Thank you DTI for a wonderful trip.

Our Exploration at The Beach!

Two weekends ago we decided to do some exploring. We are planning on exploring some new area each week so when we have visitors we will know the hot spots to see. So we decided to visit Venice Beach. We took a longer way to drive up there to see more things. We had a map but once we got to LA we purposely took different freeways to see more and to make our own way there. We ended up in Santa Monica coast and it was so beautiful. We drove up and then down the coast and admired the beauty of the sea and the homes next to it. Once at Venice we found a place to park for only $3 a day. Most of the other places were $8-12 a day. We walked to the beach. It was very windy, but warm. Once there we watched the surfers, boats, and birds. Then we walked along the coast where there are shops, food, and lots of entertainment in many different forms, musicians, street performers, people statues, and much more. It was a lot of fun and very entertaining to see all the performers try to capture our attention and get some money for their shows.




There were also lots of birds flying around. There presence was undoubtedly made know to me when they delivered a wet gift, poop! I believe there was only one bird guilty of this crime, but he got me on my shoulder, both arms, my stomach, and my nose. Luckily I was wearing a sweat shirt so all I had to do was pull it off, but it made me want to puke. My dear husband helped me clean off my face by getting napkins and wiping my nose for me. We neglected to take pictures of this experience. I laugh about it now, but at the time I was sick.




After this we made our way home and then found and In and Out for dinner. One of the best In and Outs I have been too, great service and good food. All in and all it was a great Saturday.

As you can see from my hair it was windy!

We are our own Lewis and Clark in California and I love it.

RECOVERED!

Hooray! We were able to recover the pics I lost on our memory card. We had to buy something to get it done, but it was worth it to me. If any of you need help recovering something we have the software for it! Here are some pics from Lars birthday. We will also post some pics of our farwell parties from UT on our picture website, http://picasaweb.google.com/lars.solunar

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Lars!!

To celebrate Lars' birthday I took a few hours off of work and came home early. Lars wasn't expecting me so it was a nice surprise. Then we went out to eat at Chevy's. The food and service was awesome. They sang happy birthday to Lars and made him wear a silly hat. I took pictures, but we had a problem with our memory card on our camera. We are working on restoring the pics. I am really bummed about that because we have pics from his birthday but also from my work in SLC from my last day. SO I am hoping we will be able to recover them. After dinner we walked to a game store near the restaurant and bought him the new Star Wars video game. He is very much enjoying it. Hooray Lars is older and we got to celebrate it. :)

My Job

So many of you may not know what I do. I will try to explain. I work for a company, Document Technologies, and we provide document services for Law Firms and Corporations. In short we are like a FedEx Kinkos within the law firm, but we do provide more services besides copying and scanning, we also provide supply and hospitality management and much more depending on the needs of the client. Since working for this company I have learned a lot about this business and how a law firm is ran. There is a lot that makes the office world go round.

I was promoted and transfered to CA to help open and manage a new site in the law firm. We will be respondsible for all reception, hospitality, supplies, and copy services. We open (start providing our services full time) on Monday the 29th. I started work immediately after moving here to start preparing for our companies install. Basically I had to get everything prepared and set up with installing new copy machines and transfering information from the old service provider to us through the firms vendors. I also needed to hire and train a new staff. It is a long process and we have to make sure the client remains happy through it all. SO I have been working long hours getting everything ready, then this last Friday, the old provider moved there stuff out and we moved in. We call it an "Hands On Weekend". Everyone in our crew helps get things cleaned up and installed and then trained. This starts Friday night and gets finished up Saturday afternoon. We do take a break and let everyone go home Friday night and then we just begin where we left off on Saturday. Once this is done we are ready to work and provide awesome service. Then we get into a good rythm and I cut my hours back to 40 a week, or at least that is the idea. So it has been busy getting ready, but things will settle down now that we are set up. The market here is growing for my company so I might help open more sites when we get them.

My theme song of the week..."She works hard for the money, so you better treat right!"

We Made It!

We are in California now! The trip down here was fun and we made it safely. The only close call we had was on a freeway in CA. Another truck hauling a back how shoved lost the shovel piece. The piece went flying off and almost hit a van following the truck. It was a 6 lane freeway and traffic was light enough and we were far enough back so we were able to slow down and dodge it. Now body was hurt thankfully. 

We left on Friday at noon. We spent the first part of Friday with my parents in Cedar Hills, then we got on the rode. We drove a 22ft truck and towed our car. It was fun, I have never been in a big truck for a long period at once. I felt like a truck driver travel the country. I kept singing songs like "On the Road Again" and "God Bless America" through out the trip. These songs made me feel like trucking I guess.  We got to St George in the afternoon and spent the night with Lars parents. It will be Lars birthday on the 30th so his Mom got him a cake to start off the celebration. 
Saturday we got up early to hit the rode. We left about 7:30 am and got to Anaheim at 2:00 pm. We did stop for a break every now and then. We leave in a beautiful world. God created many things to look at. Once here we filled out some paper work for the apartment and then started unloading the truck. We only had ourselves and two other people from our new ward helping us move. It took about 3 and 1/2 hours to unload. We downsized from a townhouse to a one bedroom. I thought we did good to get rid of some things, but it was apparent we didn't get rid of enough. We did get a small storage unit so that helped. The rest of the weekend was spent unpacking and getting settled in. I had to start work right away and have been working long hours (I will explain further in a future blog) so we still have some lingering boxes, but they will be gone by the end of conference weekend. :)
Our pictures of our trip and the apartment after we unloaded the truck are at the following site, http://picasaweb.google.com/lars.solunar/TripToAnaheim?authkey=sGOHHTxWVWM#

Today is the DAY!!!

Today we are moving. It is also my last day at work. We stayed up very late finalizing the packing and then woke up very early to finish that and I had to watch Next Top Model. :) I think I will sleep better once it is all over. It is tough to move and emotionally draining. I am very excited for this new adventure still, just anxious to get the tears over with too. I am sad, but also excited so I haven't really had a good cry yet. I have had private spurts, but nothing in front of the people I love. Though they see me physically being happy and excited, I am also sad to leave them and crying inside. But it will be okay. This is a good move and I know it is not a goodbye, just a see ya!!! I just want to cry in front of them so they will know that I will miss them too. I love you all. Thanks for all your help, love and support. See ya Utah!!

New Apartment

We found a new apartment in Anehiem. It is a perfect location, only 14 miles from my work and close to a lot of wonderful attractions. It is a one bedroom (smaller than we have now, but we will make due), we get two parking spots and the grounds are very lovely. The only thing we have to get is a fridge. If you know anyone wanting to rid themselves of one let us know. To check out pics of the new place go to http://picasaweb.google.com/lars.solunar/NewApartment#
We will put up new pics once we moved in and decorate.

Sunday the 14th Bon Voyage Open House

SO a lot of people want to see us and we want to see all of you before we take off. Because of the short time we have to get ready it is nearly impossible to get to everyone and pack up our stuff. SO on Sunday, the 14th we will be having an open house at our house, 1032 Downington Ave #4 SLC, UT. All are welcome to come whenever. We will be home all day long after 1:00pm. We will have some food, mostly anything that is left in our fridge/freezer/pantry that we need to eat up. So if you would like to bring something you may, but it is not required. We will be there for hugs, chatting, and Rock Band-The Final Salt Lake City Tour! Hope to see a lot of you there, but if not we hope to make arrangements to see you another time before or after we go. Thanks. Love ya!

We are moving!!!

Big changes are rolling in. We are moving to Southern CA!!! I got a job promotion through my employment, Document Technologies Inc. I will be working in Irvine, we will probably be living in between LA and Irvine. My feelings are mixed. I am excited because this is what we have wanted for a long time and it is finally here and it is a great oppourtunity with my job, a little scared to be in a new enviorment (especially the roads, I will need a GPS to get around), also very sad to leave our family and friends.
Many of you may know that Lars and I have very ambitious dreams. We want to be involved in the movie business. Anything to do with movies we love. LA is where it is at and we are finally doing it. We realize that it will be hard and a huge sacrafice. Currently we are both employed and working hard, but playing very hard too. We have a big beautiful townhouse, soon we will have a 1 bedroom apartment. Once we move we will have to buckle down and save and work even harder. We won't make the dream a reality over night, but this is a wonderful beginning in making our american dream happen.
By reading this blog you will be apart of our voyage. We will record the happenings of our lives. Please enjoy and feel free to comment. I am new at this blog thing so our page will be plain for a while. If any of you have an expertise in this please come by and spruce up the page. Thanks. Love ya!