Zavoral Villa!

*** Things in quotes are comments that were actually said by TV reporters yesterday. TV Reporter: Good afternoon, America. Today is July 29. Only a few moments after lunch "We witnessed a torrential seismic event here in Los Angeles." I'm with SarahLynn Zavoral of Huntington Beach. Sarahlynn, did you feel the earthquake? Me: Yeah. I heard rumbling and thought that the people in the apt above me were going crazy, but then I remembered that we are on the top floor! Next, I thought that a large cart was being pushed down the hall. But then the furniture started tinkering and I felt motion right under me. I realized that I was in an earthquake! TV Reporter: What did you do? "When we felt the quake, we were terrified. I had to look around the newsroom to see what others were doing." Were you scared? Me: Well, I'm a teacher, and this past year I taught a science unit on plate tectonics and earthquakes. So I knew exactly what to do. I sprang from the couch and ...

I went to Washington DC this past week to be at Megan Mitchell's wedding!! (now Megan Bassatt) Megan, Janae and I lived in a college apt for two years after we became friends at the BYU dorms. I also got to see Kisha, who was my dorm RA and friend at BYU, too. Her son Nathaniel is so adorable!! Highlights of the trip: Civil War battlefield in Manassas--amazing what our country endured at that time Falling asleep with baby Nathaniel in my arms Seeing all the green, green, green!! No wonder people called this New World the Promised Land Laughing at all of Kisha's stories and impressions of people Realizing that grandma Sharon loves the baby cartoons more than Nathaniel Being in the temple with Megan for an endowment session--so neat to enjoy the sacred truths of the gospel with a close friend Dipping my feet in the water fountain at the sculpture garden Singing the preamble to the constitution while waiting to see the original constitution at the archive building Walking and walk...

Me: "Hi there I'm Jeremy with Hormel Foods. I got a chance to take a look at your store and I found a few opportunities for you on aisle three. Do you have a minute I can talk with you about it?" Grocery Manager: "Uh, uh, I donno, uh." Me: "Habla Ingles?" Grocery Manager: "No." Yeah that's my job. I drive around to small independent grocery stores all over Los Angeles and try to get more Hormel products in their stores. Since I'm the new guy they don't trust me to go to headquarters yet, so it's more about learning the products and how grocery stores work right now. Eventually I plan on ending up at the corporate offices in Minnesota doing brand management. But for now I struggle to communicate with Spanish speakers (I served my mission in the states, English speaking), and all sorts of Asian languages. I've got 153 stores to call on every six weeks so I get around pretty quickly. Where was I last week? I started out...

We made it so that anyone can make comments. Try making a comment about this post and we'll see if it works. We also added pictures of our apartment to "Our New Life Slideshow," so check it out! Huntington Beach ( HB ), and ultimately Orange County ( OC ), is pretty much one of the greatest places to live. Here's what we've done in OC to illustrate our reasoning. One Weds we enjoyed our evening sitting on the beach, watching the dolphins come to eat along the shore. That's right, DOLPHINS! Right along our public beach. It was the second time we've seen them. They are black and come right up to where the surfers wait for the best waves (which is only chest deep). We can't tell exactly how many there were in this pod, but we would see 7 or 8 pop up all at once. Every now and then, a few would jump out of the water or stay on the surface and slap their fins as if waving hello. It was the coolest. Check out the Video of Our Dolphins to see what they look ...

It is believed that a turtle currently under the care of SarahLynn and Jeremy Zavoral possesses alien super powers. After yesterday's supernatural display, we have found that this might be the case! Sergio is not the typical slow-poke turtle you've seen on Looney Toones and National Geographic. Sergio is one-of-a-kind. Only the size of an adult hand, he sprints across the room, climbs over boxes and up bodies, and he constantly maneuvers his filter from one side of his tank to the other. Sergio also devours live fish. "One time I bought 12 goldfish for his tank," said caretaker Jeremy. "Day by day, they have all disappeared." Sergio's eating habits are so interesting that 4 parties have been solely devoted to him. All of Sergio's caretakers have been mystified by his abilities. Sergio's captive life began more than 5 years ago when SarahLynn bought him for her best friend as a Christmas present. Since then he has lived in numerous apartments, the...

Jeremy and I realized that both of us have spent 4 th of July in a different place for the past 7 years! Highlights include Provo, Thailand, Colorado, Sacramento, middle of nowhere in Texas, Minnesota, and now Huntington Beach!! We were totally pimpn ' for this year's fourth. We rode with our new friends, Steve and Crystal, on beach cruisers all around town, including to the parade on Main Street. This main street is not the typical old fogey kind of main street with stores that have been the same since 1922. This main street is the hippest part of Surf City USA. Ritzy restaurants , cool clubs, and sheik shopping. And then there's the fancy, brand new beach houses to go with it. All the porches are in the front yard, and each house is 6 inches apart from the next one. Every yard and porch is adorned with palm trees, exotic flowers and 4 th decorations. It's a very social, patriotic, tropical feeling! We loved being able to call ourselves "locals." The f...

We played House Hunters once we got to CA. We researched beforehand several apartments and then chose three locations to actually look at. From the three that we toured, we made our decision. What do you think we chose? Apt #1 with the pool, new appliances, and large bedroom; Apt#2 with the pool, new appliances and large bedroom; or Apt #3 with the pool, new appliances and large bedroom? Stayed tuned to find out. It was a tough decision since all the apartments were very similar. Ultimately, We chose Apt#2 with the pool, new appliances and large bedroom!!! This one is the best choice because it is the closest to the beach and it actually has 2 pools, spa, workout room, party room with table tennis and billiard table, basketball court, beach volleyball, and great landscaping. We feel like we live in a resort! So we had our decision within ONE DAY!! Of course, we had to wait 6 days before we could move in. Not to mention that they wanted every kind of documental information you can ima...

What a crazy adventure we had just getting from Utah to CA. It began with the stress of the movers in Provo breaking all of our furniture that actually has monetary value, including our dresser, dining table and piano. Although he could have fumed over it all, Jeremy was very patient the entire time. Don't worry, we filed complaints, but Jeremy helped me to not freak out. We realized that Heavenly Father was probably trying to remind us that all of our things are just things. Another challenge arose as we began our second day of driving the Budget truck. We were leaving from Las Vegas with what we thought would be enough gas to take us to an easy fill-up somewhere out of the city a little. Well, the gas gage had a mind of its own. About 25 minutes into our trip, the gage suddenly plummeted below E. We followed the GPS lady's voice off the nearest exit to gas. She must have thought it was hilarious that there actually wasn't any gas station on this exit at all. In fact, t...