All Packed Up and Ready to Go

As you can probably guess, it has been a crazy time for us, moving right after the holidays. But Christmas is over (I am hoping to blog that in the near future), our apartment is cleaned out, and the storage unit is packed to the brim. We are currently at the airport waiting for our flight to depart! Happy New Year!!

Christmas Card 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Lentz family! With the crazy couple of weeks we're going to have, we thought it best to send a digital Christmas card this year...

We had a wonderful 2010 and have great expectations for our next chapter as we move from Los Gatos to London in January. We’ll live in the beautiful Kensington area while Sam completes a six-month rotation with KPMG. Brittany is majoring in art (photography) at San Jose State University and will be doing a semester abroad at Roehampton University. Before we return to California in August, we’ll take a month off to do some traveling—be sure to check our blog for updates! Wishing you all the best in 2011!

Cheers,
Sam and Brittany Lentz

One Week 'til Christmas, Two Weeks 'til London

The countdown is officially on. Both of them, actually. This week is Christmas; next week we’ll fly out to London. We’ll literally be flying right into the face of the new year. Who knows, we may even be 30,000 feet over New York City when the ball drops in Times Square. Brittany sends her regards, as she’s battling a cold that has limited her opportunities to celebrate the end of her semester at San Jose State University (SJSU). I must say, I am SO proud of how hard she’s worked and how well she’s done. I think her GPA is going to be phenomenal this semester. More importantly, we’re discovering how talented she is as an artist. I always knew she was a great photographer, but some of her paintings were shockingly brilliant.


For one of her assignments (above), she was to paint something about herself that contained multiple elements. Although there’s no point putting more holes in the wall right now, this will be one of the first things I hang on our wall when we return to the states. The background, obviously, is the Union Jack—the flag of the United Kingdom. The figure at the bottom is a silhouette of the London skyline, including Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the London Eye. I love the twilight sky fading into the deep blue of the flag.

You can also see more of her artwork on her website she created for her digital media class:
http://dma.sjsu.edu/art74_1/09_bkl/

While we’re in London, she’ll be taking a semester of photography classes during a study abroad program at Roehampton University. We both get a kick out of the fact that this will her fifth college (West Valley College, Foothill College, BYU-Hawaii, SJSU, Roehampton). She’s very excited to explore London and around Europe for inspiration for her photography. When I’m not working, I’ll tag along with the camcorder Santa Claus is delivering later this week. Hopefully, I’ll be diligent in posting some of the videos so that you can share in the fun.

We also found out where we’ll be staying in London. We’ll be in a nice apartment in Kensington Square—a really beautiful, safe location. We’ll actually be just a few blocks from Prince William’s and Princess Kate’s palace after they get married in April. Brittany’s considering camping out to get a nice view of the wedding processional as they parade through town. We’ll also be close to Brittany’s friend Paige, who’s doing a semester abroad at the BYU London Centre. We’ll be able to walk just a few minutes to the tube (subway) station, lots of shops, restaurants, markets, etc.

Each of our daily commutes should only take about 30-40 minutes, which was tough to pull off. KPMG’s beautiful new office in Canary Wharf is on the east end of the city, while Roehampton University is on the southwest side, close to Wimbledon. Our Sunday commute to the Hyde Park Ward will be much shorter, though. The church building is only about a mile away, right next to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). One of the biggest reliefs will be to have a washer and dryer IN our apartment. It’s funny how you take that for granted, but for two years we’ve had to trudge up and down stairs and wait in line for our turn to use the shared laundry facilities. Now if we spill something on a shirt, we won’t have to wait two weeks until we’ve got a full load to wash.

It’s getting increasingly more difficult not to think about this next stage of our life. I've just got a few days of work left in the US, and craiglisters are quickly picking away at the furniture we don't want to put in storage. I even listed my car for sale to see if I can get any bites. We just figured the less we have to pack, move, and store, the better. We’re going to get a storage unit for our things, we just don’t know how big it needs to be yet. If things don’t sell, no biggie. Just means we’ll have to figure out what to do with it until we get back at the end of July.

Brittany should be done with most of her classes in early April, and my work assignment in London will wrap up at the end of June. In addition to taking some weekend trips throughout that time, we’re taking advantage of the opportunity to do some traveling free of work or school for the last month. Any suggestions on where we should go or what we should do/see during July?

Hi, I'm Sam. I'm a Mormon.

The LDS Church recently created a new way for members of the Church to share their faith with the world, and for those interested in the Church to get a better feel for who we are and why we are they way we are. I decided to take a closer look and was surprised at how much fun it was. You basically just create a profile that tells people about how you joined the Church, how you live your faith, and answer as many "frequently asked questions" as you like. You should try it out!

Here's a link to my profile:
http://mormon.org/me/2YR2-eng/Sam


If you'd like to get started on your own profile, here's the link:
http://mormon.org/create/

Utah Trip

Sam and I had the fantastic opportunity to go to Utah for Labor Day weekend. He had a recruiting event to attend at BYU. I wasn't planning on going (due to school and work) until I got an invitation to my sweet cousin Whitney's wedding that same weekend! What a co-in-ki-dink! I was so excited it worked out for us to go to the wedding and spend time with both of our families!

 

 Sam and me at the new Draper Temple

 Some of my Bowen cousins who were at the wedding

 Some of my beautiful girl cousins!

 Me and one of my closet cousins Lindsay (also the sister of the bride)!

 At the BYU football game! ....apparently I picked the wrong time to take a picture...

 Watching the game

 Much better time to take a picture...

 Hooray we won!!

 Sam with his dad and our nephew Hyrum

 Mmm a trip to Utah is not complete without Spoon Me! Definitely my favorite FroYo place!

 Sam and our niece Rachel. SUCH a cutie!

 Sam teaching Rachel about the joys of the iPhone... I think they were playing the popping bubble wrap game.

On Labor Day, Sam and I got to go up Provo Canyon a bit with Brendon, Stephanie, and Henry Holmes! Brendon is Sam's old roommate from college, and it was actually the first time I got to meet them after hearing about them for years! Such a fun day! We went to Bridal Veil Falls, played bocce ball, played Ticket To Ride (LOVE that game) and Monopoly Deal (I did not fare so well in this one...), went to University Mall, and played pool! Beautiful scenery, fun games, shopping, and good company?? That is my kind of day!

Their baby Henry is ADORABLE! Such a fun little boy to play with.

Ice Skating

Recently a few of my brothers and my dad have started a hockey team. Unfortunately, Sam only recently started ice skating, so he's not quite ready for the team. (Hopefully next year!) Everyone has been going ice skating more lately to practice, so Sam and I joined in one night. Good times with the fam!

This one doesn't really show how much better Sam has gotten at ice skating since he first went! But he has!

Daddio skating like a pro!

Look at how graceful my dear mother is out there!

Chillin' on the side

Love my man!

Precious!

Love my daddy!

Jeremy and Maria

Me, Maria and Mom

Sam and me after skating

Love my parents!

A Soccer Wife

So a lot of you probably didn't know me in middle school, which is pretty much the only time I have ever "played" soccer. Played should be used loosely because I would usually just be somewhere on the field making daisy chains, which was also my activity of choice during the baseball section of PE. Needless to say, I have never been a big fan of soccer. When Sam and I started dating, I would go to some of his games. I would play on his iPhone a bit, look up every once in awhile and kind of cheer him on... hey I was there right?!? Haha. As our relationship progressed, so did my relationship with soccer. I actually watch about 3/4 of his soccer games now and only on my phone for about 1/4 of it! haha. I also watched as many world cup games as possible this year! Crazy huh? It's amazing what love can do.

Sam plays soccer with his KPMG office team. It has been a great outlet for him, and a great way for me to get to know some people he works with. For the last few years, he has kind of been in charge of the team, which in turn makes me the team mom! haha. I have had a lot of fun cheering them on, bringing treats (orange slices!), and making sure everyone signs the roster and gets a jersey every week. It's good practice for me to prepare for our kids who will inevitably take after their father and be amazing soccer players! (Hopefully our girls will be volleyball players or cheerleaders though...haha). Here are a few pictures of him playing and of his team!

Go KPMG!

 Oh dear, I love that man!

 Strike a pose!

One of Sam's teammates, Jed.

LOVE Sam's expression in this one. hehe

Carol Hannah Whitfield

A few months back Sam and I got to meet Carol Hannah from Project Runway season 6 at a bridal shop. She has been far and away my favorite designer on all the seasons of the show. Seeing her ruffly, very feminine designs made me want to get into sewing. So fun to get to meet her. Here are a few of her designs: 

 She made this dress out of paper!! Isn't it INCREDIBLE??:

Me and Carol Hannah!!

Rambling thoughts from a cheap husband

Hello, blog. My name is Sam. It's great to meet you.

Kidding aside, I'm glad I have a wonderful wife that puts so much time and effort into our blog. I used to feel like I always had to the be the one at family events and trips to take all the pictures and do stuff like this. Brittany is a great photographer, though, and always seems to have her camera with her. So, I leave most of that to her now. I'm willing to sacrifice having a girly family blog (as in the brown & pink damask, ribbons, and polka dots surrounding this post) because I know I have no room to complain if she's doing all the work! With Brittany at the Relief Society broadcast and me wallowing in self-pity at home with a headache (mostly unrelated to yet another BYU football loss a few moments ago), I figured it would require much less physical energy to write a blog post than to start the laundry. So, here we are!

At some point in the not too distant future, Brittany and I would like to own a house. It will not be for at least another year, because we'll be living in London for the first half of 2011. (Yay!) I'll be on a long-term assignment for work with KPMG, and Brittany may end up doing a study abroad program or find a part-time job. Even though the economy indicates it's one of the best times ever to buy a house, we'd like to find a place that will last us for a while. We need some more time until we'll be ready financially to take on that kind of commitment. We don't need a mansion, but we'd like a place that can keep up with our family as it grows. (Brittany's not expecting or anything, so don't read too much into this.  :)

We really love living in the South Bay, but property definitely isn't cheap. I'm constantly thinking of ways we can work toward our financial goals, sometimes at the expense of being a cheapskate. Luckily Brittany is patient with me and does a great job herself making wise financial decisions. From a business perspective, saving money makes a ton of sense. Profit margins vary widely by industry, but let's say you own a business with a 10% profit margin after all your taxes and expenses. Passing up an opportunity to save $100 would mean you'd have to work to get $1,000 in sales to make up for it. If that was a monthly opportunity, that means you have to work $1,000 harder every month. While the numbers aren't usually as pronounced, this principle applies to individuals and families in a similar way. When you consider taxes and other expenses, it almost always requires much more work to make another $100 of disposable income than to save $100.

Our current position as resident managers at our apartment complex is a huge help, because it has allowed us to accelerate our savings plan so that home ownership does not seem like a hopeless, unattainable goal.  We've also tried several other things that have been helping us financially.

Netflix
I fought this one for the longest time. It just seemed wasteful to spend an extra $12 every month for something I thought we didn't really need. Here's the kicker, though... it's been saving us 4-5 times that in money we don't spend on movie tickets, DVDs/Blu-Rays, and other movie rentals. Knowing that we could put almost any movie at the top of our queue and have it in our mailbox within a couple days means we're a lot more disciplined with what movies we buy. We also used to go to the movies once or twice a month, with every trip to the theater costing us about $20. That's almost two months of Netflix for one movie!

Yes, going to the theater is fun for our favorite new movies--for Brittany, read "anything Twilight;" for Sam, read "expensive special effects." But now when see a movie that looks interesting, our standard response of "Hey, let's go see that!" has been replaced with, "Hey, let's add that to our Netflix queue." We can usually wait a few months to get the Blu-Ray in the mail or watch in online using the Wii, our laptops, or even our iPhones. Last night, we had a half hour until our table was ready at the restaurant. We actually took our buzzer with us out to the car in the parking lot, plugged Brittany's phone into my car stereo and watched an episode of "Better Off Ted" with surround sound. For a geek like me, it was one of life's finer moments.

Cheapest Cable Package
Almost all of the shows Brittany and I enjoy are available online somehow. With Netflix and Hulu, plus all of the networks' websites, the shows we can't watch anywhere, anytime are becoming few and far between. Our Comcast cable package is only about $18/month and provides us with all of the local channels, plus a few extras like Discovery and HGTV (which has been fun, as we contemplate home ownership in the next couple years). We don't have a DVR, but we get a lot of the channels in HD. I don't always get to watch the sporting events I'd like, but maybe that's a good thing. If watching TV isn't as convenient or there's "not a lot on right now," it motivates you to find something more productive to do.

Limiting Dining Out
During the first year of our marriage (two years this November!), there were times where we ate out 2-3 times per week. Eventually, we decided we wouldn't eat out more than once a week, and we generally eat at places where we won't spend more than $20-30. We used to heavily overestimate our appetites when we sat down and looked at the menu. We'd order way more food than we needed, and we'd sometimes end up being full before our main courses were brought out. Now we'll often share one appetizer and one entree. The shocking part is that we'll usually still have leftovers.

I also try to take lunch to work with me, rather than eating out, and Brittany's purse is usually like a clown car of snacks when she's at school to save her time and money. $10-20 doesn't sound like a lot of money, but if you multiply that by twice a day, 4-5 times a week, and 4 weeks a month, that can save you several hundred dollars a month. (i.e. perhaps $1,000 worth of gross income!)

"Just the Essentials" Month
Distinguishing needs from wants is often much simpler than we make it. Sometimes it's pretty funny how we rationalize purchases we really could have done without. Several months ago, we decided to have a month where we were each limited to only 3 "wants" for the entire month. I was shocked. It really worked. It was a lot easier than I expected it to be. We didn't even use up all of our allotment, and our "wants" were only $5-10 each. We saved a lot of money.

Even though our goal wasn't to start doing that on a sustainable basis, I think it really taught us both a lot about what we could do without. Brittany and I laugh about that fact that the longer I spend thinking about buying something, the less likely I am to buy it. It's convenient, too, when we divide and conquer a store like Ross or TJ Maxx. I'm generally done looking through my section pretty quickly. After adding a few things to the cart and then following Brittany around for a while, most of the things I picked out usually vacate the cart before we make it to the checkout lane. While that new shirt might be nice, I really don't need it right now. Just gotta keep thinking about making that down payment on a house!

Public Libraries
If you know me at all, you probably know that I don't like to read books. I really enjoy reading news articles, and I think I do a fair job of staying informed of what's going on in the world. Maybe it's an attention span thing, but I just get really bored staring at a book for extended periods of time. I also find it difficult breaking it into pieces, picking it up and putting it down. So, this one wasn't really an issue for me.

It's a sacrifice Brittany has made over the last couple years, though--using the public library to find most of her reading material. A lot of the books she reads are volumes in a series, so once you ready one, you want to read them all. Even finding bargains on Amazon.com, bills can still rack up. Using the library, she doesn't have to worry about spending money on a lemon, and we avoid the issue of finding more space to store a rapidly expanding library. Between the Los Gatos library and the Santa Clara County library, she usually has pretty good access to most of the things that perk her interest.

Well, I guess I'll step down off of my soapbox for now. Hopefully, this won't be the last time you hear from me. My online presence typically just consists of brief comments on current events on Twitter and Facebook. This was kind of nice to have more than 140 characters to express myself.

Hanging out with some nieces and nephews

I think I can speak for Sam, too, when I say that hanging out with our sweet nieces and nephews is absolutely one of our favorite things! We are so blessed to have the cutest/most awesome nieces and nephews!! We have gotten to see a lot of them lately, and a few more to come in the next few weeks! So fun!

My parents live next door to my brother and sister-in-law, Chris and Jamie. We live just a couple miles away, so we get to see them at least once a week since we are all in the same ward. We have so much fun playing with them! They are all such sweet kids. A few weeks ago my sister-in-law Melissa and their 3 awesome kiddos came to play too! We had so much fun getting to see them all. They are growing up so fast! It is crazy! Here are a few pics of all the cute kids!

Mom with some of her grandchildren (minus Beck and Gibson)

Dad Carrying Sean-O

Oh man we were laughing so hard! Sean seemed to be really enjoying it too!

Sean is proud to be a real live nephew of his Uncle Sam

Sean giving his sister Kate kisses!

So sad we missed seeing Scott, Emily, Beck and Gibson in Utah a couple weeks ago! We miss you guys!!

We also got to see Sam's brother Derek and his wife Tanya and their 4 kiddos last week. I can't believe I didn't take any photos!! I guess I was a little too lazy that weekend! I think I only got a couple pictures of the whole trip. Eek!

Can't wait to see the Spendloves in a few weeks!!!

Youth Temple Trips

Sam and I have had quite a few incredible trips to the temple this year with the youth! I love going and helping with the baptisms. You can really tell that these kids are feeling the spirit, and it is so special to be a part of. Last time we went (these pictures are actually from the trip in July, but we just went again about 2 weeks ago) I was talking to the temple matron, Sister Hunter about youth baptisms. And she was saying that watching the youth get baptized and confirmed is her favorite ordinance to watch in the temple. This conversation had me looking at these ordinances in a very special light, and I am so grateful for the spirit we feel at the temple and for the opportunity we have to work with our wonderful youth!