Europa!

Nolan and I leave for Europe in 4 days, so I thought this would be a good time for an update! Europe is pretty much the big news for us, and we cannot wait! We both desperately need a vacation, and 2 weeks in a place far away is exactly the key! We'll be visiting England, France, and Holland, and I'll try to post some pictures when we get back! I bought a couple of ponchos, since I plan on quite a bit of rain (but who knows!), and so we'll be looking super-attractive in those in all the photos.
In case you're wondering, Milo will also be well-taken care of. We have a short-term houseguest living with us until he finds an apartment, and he will be Milo's best friend while we're gone. They've already bonded while watching Pride & Prejudice on the loveseat together, and he seems to not even hear Milo's crying in the mornings, so I think it's a match made in heaven!
Nolan has been in Fresno for 6 weeks, on a mandatory rotation down there. Fresno is severly under-staffed, and so UCSF requires each third year to spend a rotation there helping out. This was Nolan's turn! He comes home today (woohoo!), and let me just say that from talking to him, there is less than a 0% chance we'll EVER live in Fresno. I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

That seems to be it for now--I'll post more after we return from Europe!
-A

the point

Since I obviously don't write in here as much as I should, I'm just going to go ahead and post my personal blog link on the top right corner of this blog (go see), and direct you there in between the months that I do actually write something in here. That one tends to be a little less family-oriented, but it will give you an insight into our lives still. If you can't find it on the sidebar for some reason, it's also here:

http://www.thatneighbour.blogspot.com

However, the point of having this site is to update on our sub-family, the San Francisco Caldwells, so here it is. Nolan's knee-deep into his third year of medical school. He's still trying to decide on a specialty, but he's loving each different rotation. So far he's done OB/GYN, Anesthesiology (a favourite!), and is halfway through his internal medicine rotation. Next up: Pediatrics in Fresno. So yes, he'll be gone in Fresno for about 6 weeks in August/September, but we'll be making roadtrips and such to pass the time apart. Fortunately, they provide housing and food, so we don't have to worry about that.

Something else that is still relatively new, is Nolan's new hog. We got our first motorcycle awhile ago, and we're loving it! Nolan takes it to the hospital every day, and he will have that down in Fresno to get around, as well. One of the hugest perks is the parking situation--a motorcycle can fit on any curb in the city! So now we can go to Bi-Rite for ice cream after work, and not worry about finding parking :)

As for me, I'm still at my job at McKesson and loving it! It's a really great place to be right now, and I love my coworkers and feeling challenged in my job :) I've gotten my adult learner for the literacy tutoring I am doing, and she is a really neat girl. She is super motivated, and we're loving working through Twilight together once a week.

N and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on July 21, and it occurred to me that time is going by way faster than I'd bargained for. I wrote a little bit about all that in my personal blog, which you can see here.

Right now we're busy planning a vacation trip to Europe (our present to ourselves for our anniversary!)in October, but of course there won't be much to write about that until we're there!

For now, that seems to be all I've got. I'll try to be more diligent about my posting in here.

-A

Hello again

Well, it's certainly been awhile, but you come to expect that now here, don't you? Here we are in (almost) May, I am almost 3 months into my newish job, Nolan is done with his boards and is officially a third year medical student, and Milo is learning to keep his mouth shut in the mornings so that we can sleep longer. There is certainly no huge news in our lives, and that is probably why I have been terrible at keeping this up, but if you are interested, we have been up to the usual: me singing at church, Nolan going on a motorcycle trip with my dad, me having jury duty, Nolan taking his huge test and now learning the hospital ropes...we got new furniture? We got iPhones? See what I mean? Nothing exciting, just the day-to-day stuff...I guess this will just have to be my update for now until there is more to say :)

A

newness

It's been awhile since I last updated, so here we are:

I'm officially almost done with my 4th week at my new job--I can't believe time has flown by like this! I love it so far, although I feel like I am definitely being challenged and still trying to wrap my head around learning everything. There is SO much to know here! But I definitely am loving being in a huge corporation as compared to a small business. Oddly enough, I feel more taken care of here, and like there is more room to breathe and more opportunity to grow. It's fantastic. I am extremely busy all the time now though, as a result, so that is why I have been writing less and less! I also have been hitting the gym hard to keep my energy levels up, and am even working with a personal trainer, who is great! I am exhausted after the gym, but after an hour I feel fabulous again and am already seeing results! I have also been perfecting another habit: getting up early to spend time with God. It's something I have never had the motivation to do before, but finally I decided I would just start committing to it, and so far it's going great. Nolan appreciates it too because it means there is already coffee for him by the time I wake him up for class. He is really hitting the books hard for his boards at the end of March, so I rarely see him home before 9:00. That last hour of the day and waking up with him are my two favourite parts of the day, and I cannot wait until he is done and has at least a little bit more time! He starts on the wards with his rotations in April!That is about all I have to update with us. Next week I start orientation for my volunteer work with Project Read and Bay Area Literacy. It is a program that has volunteer tutors teaching adults to read a few hours a week. Illiteracy is something I feel strongly about, and Nolan finally told me that if I care about something, I will ACT on it...and he is totally right. So, I'm going to! Milo is still kicking and wandering around the house, in case anyone is wondering. He gets into trouble almost daily and we recently decided we are going to try and toilet train him (almost as a joke), like in Meet the Parents! haha! My mom got us a kitty toilet training kit, so we're going to launch that sometime soon! Pictures to come :)
-A

an even NEWER adventure!

Well, that ride is over. I accepted an offer to work at the McKesson Corp. as an HR Admin./Project Coordinator, and will start in a week! What a huge blessing! It is SUCH a great opportunity, and I am thrilled to be a part of their team.

I am trying to live up my last week of freedom, and enjoy every moment in the january sunshine...which has been SO nice. I was biking around today getting a new passport wearing only flipflops and a t-shirt (and pants of course), and was still too warm! How nice!

Nolan is still busy studying for his boards in March. April is when he will start his full-time rotations, so until then he is finishing up classes and studying ALL the time. He is working really hard and so far his work is paying off--his practice test scores are coming back great!

Nothing else new here. Next week we'll be back to normal life, but until then, feel free to call or email me or leave comments and let us know how YOU are doing!

ps-we also love snail mail :)

-A

A New Adventure

Today I was laid off from my job. Yes, I will be sad to leave my wonderful coworkers and everything that is Magley & Associates, but I am trying to see this as a new adventure. I had a great run there and learned a TON, and am now ready to take the next step, whatever that may be. We laid off almost a third of our workers, and so those of us who left, went out at noon, ready to take on the world. I then spent the next hour of my life putting my business cards to good use with Nolan:

I then set about finally getting some Christmas pics on here...
This was what happened when Nolan was WAY too into Twilight and tried to "suck my blood" right over my vein -- can we say hematoma?

Here is my Opa reading up on the finer workings of the opposite sex:

And here are the men of the day, doing what I would assume to be man things outside.

And my lovely (matching) cousins!


~A

2009!

Happy New Year! Sorry about the lack of posts...I am still waiting for our christmas pictures to migrate from Nolan's camera to our computer so I can post them on here! Disclaimer: the following may all look familiar to some of you. Sorry I'm not more creative.

Last night we went to my aunt's house in Livermore to visit their family and Oma, who is still visiting from the East Coast. She made a delicious all-German dinner, complete with Knoedels and Gluehwein! Nolan was broken in to delicious German food and drink, and we fought over the last Knoedel, which is a sort of potato dumpling that you MUST eat with gravy or it's a little...well, look:

Apparently my dad calls them sinkers because they sink right to the bottom of your stomach, haha! And the Gluehwein was fantastic too! Hot mulled wine is a tradition at Christmas in Germany. Literally translated it means "glowing (as in heat) wine", and it is delicious!


I guess that is all for today. Still no pics. I actually HAD the camera in my hand this weekend while I was sitting AT the computer. But alas, no cable to be found. Sad, too, because we have an EXCELLENT video of my dad hula hooping on the wii fit. So close, yet so far...
Also, I am just about done with this cold weather. For Christmas, Nolan got a Brookstone alarm clock that does all sorts of things, from my dad, whose name is Bob. Normally that has nothing to do with anything, except the alarm clock is also called the "Bob". See for yourself here. His reasoning would be so that now, Nolan can take Bob everywhere with him. Bob will wake him up in the mornings. Bob will sit in his office with him. They both thought that was pretty hilarious. ANYway, so we check Bob every day to see how cold it is in our house. Yesterday when we woke up, it was 46 degrees INSIDE our house! There's something we need to fix...
~A

Santa Baby

Is it sad that I feel compelled to keep you all updated on us with photos of our pet?...and our little Charlie Brown tree which just so happened to be also a great deal.

We're getting ready for the holiday season here. We finished ALL of our Christmas shopping. Yes, secret santa schtuff included because we are THAT impressive. Also, it turns out that my mom is going to be working on THE Eve, which means that I will be making the traditional Akin cioppino this year. Mmm! Beware: there will be a lot of cooking and cleaning this year, and Nolan is not excluded from THOSE kinds of festivities ;)

Work is winding down, and we're going to be short-staffed the next three weeks, which means we can wear jeans, listen to blaring Josh Groban christmas cds (heh), and decorate our desks.

Nolan has his final this Friday (tomorrow), and then he is officially on break! This is also very good news because it means a few things:
a.) he will have time to read Twilight
b.) he won't be stressed out as much, and will have time to study for boards
c.) he can help with the laundry/entertain Milo

That's all the excitement in our world for now. Until next time!
~A

Tree time!

It's that season again, and we've just finished our decorating, gift buying, christmas card sending, and tree chopping! We got our tree this last weekend, but since Nolan was busy studying for his final this weekend, I flew solo. We still managed to photoshop him into the picture successfully though, you can barely tell! See:


Soon I will add some pictures of Milo in his spanking new Santa suit (hah!), and give more holiday updates! For now, we are both excited about Christmas with the WHOLE family in Placerville, and for the new year and the new Presidential administration. We'll see what happens with this country, because right now it kind of feels like it's drowning in a pool of its own spit. Blech.

december: 80 degrees

Apparently it's now around 80 degrees almost everywhere. Even up in Oregon, it was baking all day long. What do we think: global warming or plain old psychopathic December weather that may result in a drought? I love me my California weather, but seriously...what about my scarves and warm coffees and mittens? 'Tis the season, indeed.

Since I write in here only about once a week or so, here is a photo-update of how we're doing :)

Ducks game at Cal


Thanksgiving feast!


Playing croquet...kind of


Our Christmas 2008 picture :)


Hope you enjoyed! There will be more to come! This weekend we pick out our Christmas tree! Happy Holidays!
~A

Thanksgiving!

I can't believe the holidays are here again, but here we go again! Tomorrow we fly up to Oregon for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Sr. Caldwells (hehe) and Chelsey, and we both cannot wait! For a few reasons:
1.) Holidays with family are unbeatable, and we can't wait to spend time with those we love.
2.) Oregon is beautiful!
3.) For me personally, it will be SO wonderful to escape the turmoil of the city. I think if you don't live in a city or a big financial center, it is easy to forget what is going on in the national and global economy, and the work world in general. I was telling Nolan that I feel a sort of kinship with people I ride the Muni with now, because we're all worrying about the same things. Tensions are running high, and I'm not even going to try and explain it in here. Just trust me: it's a different world down here (especially in my staffing world, where we see the good and bad sides of almost every industry!).
4.) For Nolan, I think it will be good for him to escape the stresses of school for awhile. He loves it, but vacations are necessary and appreciated!

All that being said, Thanksgiving is looking to be a great one, and we're excited!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

~A

A New Day

Congratulations are flowing in from all over the world as we celebrate our new President-elect! It is truly a new day and a new chance for us as Americans. A chance for us to earn back trust, gain back respect, and change back our country into the nation it was meant to be!

We had guests down this weekend; both sets of parents (the Sr. Caldwells and the Akins), and went to the Oregon Ducks vs. Cal Bears game in the pouring rain on Saturday. Sadly, the Ducks lost, but they are still in fairly good standing! Here's to hoping their season only gets better! It was definitely fun to share those memories (and the great food!) with our families. Also, my dad helped us put up our sconce--finally!

My brother Nate, along with several friends are all coming down to the city in a couple weeks to see Twilight as it opens in theaters. It will be his first time driving all the way down here, so let's all cross our fingers that Ashely doesn't get him lost along the way (haha, just kidding Ash. Kind of.).

A

repeat

I guess if some of you read my personal blog then this will all come as a disappointment, but: here are our pumpkin carving pictures from last year! haha, sorry, we may or may not take pictures this year, and Milo was just so cute in these...
Milo and Nolan having boys time ;)


Finished product:


Milo inspecting his little pumpkin:


Nolan is at his conference in Boston as we speak, and I am here holding down the fort and awaiting his return. He said it's so pretty there and I am super jealous. Imagining things like walking down the streets of Boston admiring the fall colours, wearing a thick scarf and sipping a coffee. Of course I have all of those hear, except for the fall colours...(oh and my coffee today, I am avoiding that!)

This weekend our parents (all of them!) will be at our house for at least a little while, though his are actually staying the weekend and mine are only dropping by for dinner :) And we are all going to a Ducks game on Saturday, so that should be fun. Happy Halloween!
~A

October

It is maddening to try and think of something original to write in here after writing in my other blog. Not too much is new...Nolan is flying to Boston to present at Harvard, etc. this weekend for his summer research. If they pick up his project, he could possibly be flying to Turkey to present sometime soon! woohoo! I, on the other hand, am taking this solo weekend to go up to Placerville to visit and relax. I may go to a football game, I may stop by Davis, and I may bring Milo. All of this is up in the air, depending on whether I get Friday off or not. We shall see!

Nolan also had his big immunology test today, and now he has a 4 day break to relax! A much-needed and deserved break, too. So he will be puttering around, getting stuff done and actually having a life for a few days before he heads to Boston. We here at my work have been coping with the market downers, and trying to make sure our clients have their feet steadily on the ground. So far things are looking good! Magley is in good hands :) This means work has been alternately really slow and really stressful, but things are starting to even out a little bit. I am still loving my new position and the results I get to see from my daily work.

I guess that is all I can really say for now. Hopefully I will have more news/drivel to write about soon!
A

A few pictures... :)

Since I rarely post on here, I thought now would be a good time to update a few pics. We had a triple date with some of our friends a week ago, and here is the proof...
Nolan and I:


Me and the girls:


Nolan and the boys:


I'm not entirely adept at posting pictures...but I tried. We're going to have to improve our picture skills, apparently, since it is almost time to think about taking a picture for our Christmas card (okay so maybe we have another month or so), and we have to trump last year's...which I think was pretty good. Maybe we'll include Milo in this one; that earns points, doesn't it?

A month later...

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since this has been updated. I guess I have really been falling behind! So, here is a quick update on the SF Caldwells :)

We're still happily in our apartment, and have no plans of moving (as we continue to decorate more and more!). Yes, we still have Milo, too, and he's happy as a clam that Nolan is back and playing with him again. He missed his buddy :)

Nolan has been really busy studying and has already had his first final! He somehow finds time to make time not only for me, but for friends and himself along the way. He's an enigma. He's been spending hours on the wii perfecting his Mario Kart racing skills ;)

I've been busy in my new role as the Recruiting Coordinator here at Magley. It is an immensely fulfilling role, and I leave exhausted and feeling productive. I love seeing "results" of my work. Definitely a good move up! I've also been singing recently on the worship team at our church, and loving it! We really love our church and I can't imagine ever leaving it...we'll see what is in our future!

Until something more exciting happens, I suppose that is it on us for now.
~A

news, news

Nolan has finally returned from Uganda, and is finally starting to adjust to the time here I think. The first night he couldn't sleep past 3am, but he's slowly adjusting (which means I get to sleep past 3am!). We began the task of deciding where to live next/this year, and our conclusion is that we're actually going to stay in our place. It's a beautiful apartment, has an office for him to study in, and the price is definitely right. For anyone wondering, our address is, and will continue to be:
1254 24th Ave. #3
San Francisco, CA 94122

We're headed up to Oregon tonight for a little vacation, which I'm sure we both need before he starts school and I start in my new position at work. Yikes! More updates and hopefully pictures will be coming soon!
~A

T-2

2 more days until Nolan returns, and I can hardly wait! The next two weeks will be a little bit crazy for us, because we are in the process of looking for a new apartment. We're hoping to move, but we'll see what ends up happening with that. Either way, we have a potential move, vacation, my new job starting up soon, Nolan's second year of school, and a bunch of other stuff happening in the next two weeks, so I'm trying to catch my breath now and enjoy the down time while I can. Nolan will be leaving Uganda at 10pm tomorrow his time (12 noon Tuesday our time), and I'm hoping will be able to sleep nearly all the way here so he isn't beat when he gets home, though he is fully entitled to hours and hours of sleep as it is. He also is going to try and get in a doctor's appt about his foot, to see if he will need surgery or not (updates to come...I am still not entirely sure what even happened!). As for me, I am excited about moving into my new role here as a Recruiting Coordinator, and I also just found out that I am officially not only a participating member of our church (signed the paper on Sunday!), but also officially a member of the Worship Band, as a singer! My audition went really well, and I am super excited!!!

More updates to come after N returns!
~A

pensive?

Nothing much has been happening here. It's cool to hear about Nolan's life-changing experiences over the phone or via email or IM, and then realize that I too, have a duty to do something meaningful with my life. Of course, I still have to figure out what that is...but I guess that is what life is all about, right? The pursuit of God, love, and happiness (consequently, I think the first brings about the latter two), and that feeling at the end of the day of being able to go to bed knowing that you LIVED life. Ahhh. Here's to the adventure...

Nolan comes home in exactly 2 weeks from today, so, readers, hopefully we can start giving "family" updates then instead of continent-to-continent updates on where we each are individually...though that is important too (though not necessarily what this blog is about). Nolan was right to start his own, since this one is mostly, as the name implies, about "The Caldwells". I hope you are still reading it, though, because it truly is amazing to see a window into another world that I think we lose touch with, more than is healthy or beneficial.

News-wise: we are planning on moving into a new apartment (same area, though) before September 1. So keep your eyes peeled for a new address soon-ish.

~A

Nolan - Location Change

Greetings to all who desire to peel back my sheltered thoughts

I am not one to divulge personal thoughts, accounts of emotional situations, or anything that might cheapen the genuiness of those true moments in life. However I have found my recent journal writing to be both cathartic and enlightening in my review of life and self assessment of my role in it. I write for myself, not for the reading pleasure of others, so please do not expect a cursory or superficial description of daily activities nor the homie shout out you and your posse might be so accustomed to. If however you would like to continue in my life's narrative I invite you to join me at http://nolancaldwell.blogspot.com I will no longer be posting on this blog (http://acoupleofcaldwells.blogspot.com) as it seems to serve a different purpose then the ones in which I write for. I encourage you to still check this blog as it will be update with various minutia and issues concerning Anneliese and I, however my personal blog will contain the entry type you have grown accustomed to reading of me.

Sincerely,

Nolan J Caldwell