We Had Cheesecake…

…and ate it too!

Teresa and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary this weekend. One whole year—has it been that long already?

Those of you who were able to make it to our reception know that we had cheesecake (made by Cindy, one of Teresa's bridesmaids) for our wedding cake. The cheesecake survived the year in excellent condition…and we’re not doing too bad ourselves.

After we got married, Teresa and I lived in a little appartment in Rancho Cordova. The living room there never recovered from its status as a storage area, but we enjoyed a large bedroom and a decent kitchen while we were there. We spent a weekend at home, then took a honeymoon trip to Lake Tahoe.

Just a few months after we got married, we moved to the San Luis Obispo area to attend Cal Poly. We found out what the housing market is like leading up to fall quarter (as soon as one bedroom apartments are advertised, they’re gone) and were very blessed to aquire our current home in Grover Beach. We live in a cozy studio apartment with the world’s best landlords! Mike & Christine are a wonderful LDS couple that took a chance on us newlyweds when all we knew was that Financial Aid would come and Teresa was looking for a job. We found an ad online on Wednesday, a week and a half before we were planning on moving, saw the place that Sunday and moved the following Friday. It felt like home right away, and became such really fast!

We were blessed right away with a good job opportunity for Teresa. She is working in the accounting department of Morris & Garritano Insurance Agency, the largest insurance agency on the central coast. She is one of three assistants working under the CFO, doing a variety of assignments that are both fulfilling and challenging. It is a great opportunity to learn and grow.

With all the stress of moving and looking for work, we were surpised to find we had a week to settle in before classes started at Cal Poly because they changed the calendar after we made our plans in the spring. David’s study of Architecture at Cal Poly continues—his second year coming to a close in just a few short weeks. He is working hard and designing beautiful pieces of work. Teresa’s favorite model so far was his “Mammal Mansion” in the fall quarter, where he designed and built a home for a Fresno Kangaroo Rat in the style of Fay Jones. It seemed an interesting assignment, even strange to some, but the end result was a beautiful wooden structure that only exists in memory…sadly it was too large to keep, so it got demolished when David moved out of his “second home” studio for the quarter break. While school is stressful, we’re hoping and praying for the best that this path leads to.

Oddly enough, David’s favorite class this quarter seems to be his Humanities class! “Values and Technology” currently involves the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and discussions about how social values are affected by new technology. We enjoy discussing the various class topics after class two nights a week on the way home, and reading the book together as well.

We have been taking the “Building an Eternal Marriage” institute class together on Tuesday nights with this year’s missionary couple, Elder and Sister Greenall. It is a learning and enriching experience that will be a strength to us for a long time to come.

Since last fall, school and work have occupied most of our time. As members of the Pismo Beach ward we have also been blessed with a few callings that we’re still trying to get under our belt, so to speak. We were called as the ward Music Chair early on, and are organizing ward choir which has been missed in this ward for a long time. We’re excited that so many ward members are looking forward to the opportunity! We’ve also been called to the Primary board and are teaching the Valient 9 class, with 6 active students. David is also an instructor in the Elders Quorum, assigned to the Teachings for Our Times lessons.

It’s hard to believe that we have been living here for almost eight months. We have been able to make a few trips away to visit our loved ones in California, in the Sacramento area and Los Angeles. Since moving down here we’ve attended the Sacramento, Los Angeles, Fresno, and San Diego temples and are so blessed to live so close to so many.

A typical week includes so much busyness that even our neighbors/landlords don’t see us. We used to look forward to going to church with them, but since Mike was called to be the Sunday School president and we then went to Primary, we’re lucky to wave in the hallways. They have become very good friends, and we will always cherish the time we’ve spent in their home.

We‘re sorry that we have been a little neglectful in thanking all the wonderful people that showed their love and support of our wonderful wedding experience last May. Knowing we would move from Rancho Cordova soon after we were married, we decided we’d send thank yous out with an address that would last a while. We appoligize for the delay in expressing our deep gratitude to you for your love and generosity in supporting us and loving us so much. We are still writing notes to thank each of you individually, so please don’t feel forgotten. We are so blessed by each of you and the love we feel from you.

We’ve had a wonderful anniversary weekend. On Saturday we attended the Los Angeles Temple to help fulfill our ward’s sealing assignment. We had a wonderful session in the beautiful sealing room doing proxy work for relatives of our wonderful ward organist and her husband. After the session, we had lunch then continued the temple work for some of Teresa’s mother’s line that her sister started with baptisms last March. The whole time at the temple was reminiscent and beautifully uplifting. We took the scenic route home…much as we did when we left the Oakland Temple a year ago, just enjoying being together on our way home. Our aniversary weekend is ending so we’ll say goodbye for now and eat some more of that cheesecake. We love you!

Love and hugs,
David and Teresa