Last Week in Utah

Honestly, it feels really weird writing this post. Utah has been my home since 2003 - the longest I've ever lived in one place!! I can't believe that next Monday I will be getting on a plane to Orlando - knowing that the next time I fly to Utah it will be just to visit. No more mountatins.. that will be sad. No more Sunday waffles and playing Sequence, no more stop-bys. It's a lot to digest for me right now. As it gets closer, it gets a little more real. Rach doesn't fly down for a few weeks so that will be tough as well - after the past few months of traveling I've definitely realized how much easier it is to go to sleep with her by my side!!! No cuddling kills me.. as much as I protest about it when she wants to keep cuddling when I'm ready to roll over.

I really love Rach - and even though we weren't together on our anniversary this year - SAD :( - I know there will be many more to come!

Anyway, I hope that you all can find a way to make it down to Orlando some day in the future. Know that our door is open for visitors!!

The Best Two Years

Two Years ago today, we were doing this
And tonight I'm here, in New Jersey.

and Tyler is in Dallas, Texas

~~~ what an anniversary~~~

(I'm traveling for an audit, I'll be in the Newark area all week, Tyler is in Plano, Texas training with his new company)

We still love each other though!! I've had the best two years since I married my best friend 2 years ago... here's to many more happy years!

Rach and Ty Visit Orlando

So... we spent the last week in Orlando, aka our future home! We fit quite a bit into the 5 days we were there together. We checked out neighborhoods, apartments, homes, banks, wards, shopping, the downtown scene, Universal's CityWalk, and even DisneyWorld!! I learned that there really are two parts of Orlando. There's the touristy part with Theme Parks galore, and then the rest of the city, which reminds me a lot of Phoenix (with a few more lakes and a few less mountains) When you're in the city you forget that just 10 minutes away is Mickey, Shamu and roller coaster heaven. Even though I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time at the tourist destinations, it was good to realize that it doesn't dominate the city.

We spent most of our time looking for houses in the city of Windemere, a suburb of Orlando. Windemere also happens to be where the temple is...

The crazy part is that I took this picture as we were driving past the temple, then we stayed on the same road for about 10 minutes, and we ran into this! We were able to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom for a private event last Friday night. They invited all the Orlando Magic season ticket holders for a "Meet the Magic" night. Well, we don't actually have season tickets, but our realtor does and she couldn't attend the event. She gave us her tickets so we got to go hang with the locals and Dwight Howard at DisneyWorld!

Tyler wanted to show Mickey and Minnie how to "look gangsta"

He thought that Rashard Lewis and Tony Battie looked stiff in all the other pictures, so we went for the classic TJ pose... I'm not sure what they thought about us two white kids, but at least they got a laugh.We played all the carnival games for free!

Probably the best part about me winning this prize from the horse race game behind me was the fact that Tyler (playing next to me) yelled NOOOOOOOO! When they announced the winner was me, lucky number 13!! hahaDwight Howard was hosting the dance party, and he was gettin way into it! We got a lot of videos of the night but below are a couple of our favorites!

Overall, it was a good trip, and I'm excited that we get to move to such a fun city. Tyler is moving March 2nd and I'll join him a couple weeks later. Hope to see all our Utah friends before we leave!!

San Fran Trip

So this last week has been busy! Tyler flew to San Jose last Saturday for WattStopper's National Sales Meeting. They had all the sales team fly in from across the country for a week-long conference in Santa Cruz. It was good for Ty to get to meet everyone from the company! They even flew me out this past weekend to meet everyone. The Company's theme this year is "The Race is On!" So the end-of-the-week party was held at at Go-Cart Racing Track in Livermore, California. It was pretty hard core! Tyler's the middle yellow guy below. They made us wear these racing suits and helmets to race. The guys were all way competitive and it was fun to see them all having a good time with Tyler. It should be a great group of people for Ty to work with.

You can probably tell by looking at our footware that we didn't come properly dressed, me in my boots and Tyler in his dress shoes, haha.

Well, it just so happened that this race track was 15 minutes away from the lovely Morley and Hatch family so we were able to meet up with them after the big race.

Friday morning we drove up to San Francisco and met up with Dan, Jamie and Bryson Cook. Little Bryson and Jamie were recovering from the flu, so we didn't really get any great pictures of us togeter ...but it was great to meet up and see where they've been living for the past year and a half! They are in such a fun area, right at the tip of the Bay. I felt so bad Jamie was sick and we couldn't all go out that night, but I'm glad they're feeling better now! We did go out to dinner with Dan that night and he showed us San Fran from a local's perspective.

After we went to the Cooks, we did the touristy San Fran schedule of events. Saw the Golden Gate, Pier 39, went to the amazing Nordstrom and mall with the "spiral escalator" and even went out to Alcatraz! It was actually very interesting and way cool to be out there on the island! The weather wasn't the greatest while we were there that day, but the overcast/misty rain actually just reminded me of London...which is never a bad thing...

Our hotel was right in Union Square, so Saturday we spent the day walking around that area, shopping, eating and going around China Town. It was a quick trip but we had a good time.

The Cooks picked us up from our hotel and took us to the airport (thanks again!) We stopped for some traditional Cali In-N-Out Burger on our way. Boy does Bryson love his french fries!

Probably one of the funniest part of the trip was when we were getting into the car at In-N-Out, heading to the airport. We were just getting ready to leave when a young guy approached our car. He came up to Tyler and said "Hey Don't I know you, you're Tyler right. Didn't you go to BYU?". Of course, classic Tyler -- no matter where we go, someone will always recognize Tyler :-)

So, other than the whole Orlando thing...

So other than this whole Orlando thing, we've had a pretty eventful month so far! On January 6th, Tyler's sister Kristi gave birth to Resse Taylor McDonald. Reese is the first grandchild for the Jennings family so we were all very excited to meet her! She is so adorable and we're all glad that she's healthy!

I was able to visit Kristi, Phil, and Reese in the hospital, but Tyler was in California training for the new job... but right when he got back to Utah he was so excited to see his new neice!! You can probably tell from the above picture that Tyler was thrilled to be an uncle! He probably wouldn't mind having one of those for himself... but we'll see about that.

On January 7th I had the lovely opportunity of taking my first SOLO BUSINESS TRIP. And lucky me, I was able to go to Minneapolis in the DEAD of Winter. I'll admit that I was a little nervous traveling by myself, but I managed out ok. I was only there for one night and when i was done with work, I just headed over to the Mall of America. And I thought Chandler Fashion Place Mall in Arizona was huge, boy was I wrong! This mall is crazy big ... I was there for 3 hours and I didn't even see the whole mall!

Then on January 13th the festivities for Nick and Jamie's wedding began. On Tuesday night we had a wedding dinner at the Sky Room @ BYU's Wilkinson Center. Nick surprised us all (especially Jamie) by bringing out this African Dance Group. Nick served his mission in Zimbabwe and the two of them traveled there this summer for some service opportunities. Nick fell in love with Jamie as Jamie fell in love with Africa and the people he served there. Africa means so much to them and it was awesome to have that special part of their lives a part of the wedding festivities.

The next morning was the wedding, and for January in SLC, the weather was great! 40 degrees and sunny, you couldn't ask for much better! The sealing was great, and it's now official -- presenting Nick and Jamie Hansen!!

The lovely and talented Ashley Swapp was the photographer at the temple and did an amazing job! She has some of the pictures on her blog http://ashleyswapp.blogspot.com/ (the above picture is one of hers, I took it from your Blog, Ash - hope that's ok)

The reception was a party of course - you know the Jennings and their dance parties! I didn't take any pictures, but I hope to get some soon!

This week Tyler is in California for a National Sales Meeting for his new company WattStopper. He's having a great time getting to know all the other sales managers and learning the products and company better. I miss Tyler a lot, but ... they're flying me out on Thusday to meet everyone and join them for their end of the week Party! I'm excited to get away for a few days and REALLY excited to get out of the snow storm that's approaching Utah... Oh and I'm also excited that we get to spend time with the lovely Cook family in San Francisco!

We'll update with some San Fran pics when we're back!!

407 Follow Up

I just wanted to let everyone know a little of how I saw everything happen. It's been great living here in Utah, the experiences - both socially and professionally have been amazing. I've learned so much working with Imperium and it has been such a blessing in my life. I learned a lot about not only sales, but all the inner workings of what it takes to run a business - and honestly, there's a lot more involved in it than I ever guessed. Good luck Phil, Branden, and all the team!

It has been amazing to be here in Utah to be with all our friends and family.. my sister Kristi recently had a baby (she is so beautiful!) and baby sister Jamie got married Wednesday! And for the first time since 2005 the Jennings family was reunited! It has been so much fun to be here -- living close to them. And if anyone misses Mama Jennings cookies let me know.. we're gonna be sending some out soon!

As we move forward, I'm excited to start our own life!! This will really be a time for Rach and I to continue to grow together. I went to Orlando back in December and loved it! Adam and Abbie gave me a great tour of Orlando! And Gio showed me the country side of Florida, it was beautiful - it will be fun to live in a tourist destination!

My new job will allow me to work from home most days, with some traveling to Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, etc. as new projects come on line or a presentation needs to be given. And they're going to facilitate my getting an MBA - hopefully I'll be a Gator in 2010! So I feel like we have really been blessed.

Please know how much we'd love all of you to come visit us, and with the real estate market the way it is in Florida we are going to be able to pick something up that will have a guest room so please make plans to come visit! I know quite a few people read this blog and I'd love to receive your comments! Has anyone been to Orlando? Does anyone wanna come to Orlando?

Hope everyone has a great 2009!

It's official - we're movin to the 407!!

Well, now that we've left you hanging for over a week I guess we'll fill you in about the pictures below. In March, 2009 (aka less than 2 months away) the Jennings family (aka Ty & Rach) will be relocating to...

ORLANDO, FLORIDA!!!!!

It's true, you've seen from earlier posts that we're sick of the cold!!! We're taking off to a place that has an average temperature of 75 and never gets below 50 degrees.

Well, actually it wasn't quite that simple...

Tyler and I have been thinking a lot over the past year about what we're going to do with our lives. Ty got a degree in Economics from BYU and he's always wanted to go back and get more education. Originally he thought he'd accomplish this goal my getting an MBA. Over the summer, however, he began considering the option of going to Law School. He studied for the LSAT, took the test, and even interviewed with some law schools. I wasn't quite sure what to think about going back to school for three years, and then being a "lawyer's wife" but I wanted to go along with whatever made Tyler happy. And for a few months, that's what I thought it would be....

But there's more to the story. In July (aka 6 months ago) Tyler got a call from his friend Jeff, who he'd met over a year prior. Jeff wanted to tell Tyler about this new company he'd been working for called Wattstopper. They make and sell energy efficient lighting controls for commercial building projects. Jeff is the district manager in Utah and he wanted Tyler to submit his resume and apply for some other manager jobs the company had available. Tyler was interested but didn't think too seriously about it.

(He probably won't admit it but, to be honest Tyler has several business contacts meet with him and want him to sell for them, come work for them, etc etc. He's just got such a good way of dealing with people and sales that he's naturally talented and sucessful. He gets calls like this alot, so we didn't think too much about it.)


But Tyler looked into the company researched them (http://www.wattstopper.com/) and realized this could be a really good opportunity. The company has been around for over 20 years but has been increasing sales dramatically the past few years. Its based out of San Jose but sells their products across the country and had opportunities in the midwest and southeast. He decided to submit his resume, just in case... But of course he kept on with his current job, and was also starting to study for the LSAT for Law School -- but he had this in the back of his mind.

And then the process began:

Late September - the VP of the company calls Tyler for a phone interview, it went well!

Halloween - While Tyler is interviewing at ASU law school the VP calls Tyler and wants to fly him out to San Jose for the next round of interviews

November - Tyler inverviews in California, does well and really feels good about the company and the ownership and leadership. But wondered about how going to get an advanced degree would fit in..

Later in November - Tyler flys to Texas for his last round of interviews and passes them too...

December - The company calls Tyler and offers him the job, and the opportunity would be to manage the Southeast District and be based out of Orlando.

This month, we've officially accepted the job and Tyler began training last week. Tyler also found out that the company will pay for 100% of an Executive MBA so he'll be able to get that done as well! We have been so blessed and have had many "tender mercies" from the Lord during this process, sometimes things just fall into place.

Orlando is going to be a lot of fun, we go out in a couple of weeks to check it out! We never would have guessed that we'd be moving to Florida, but we're really excited about it and the new adventure in our life together!