Getting settled in San Diego!

Hello friends and family!

Since we last wrote when we decided to leave Bullhead City Arizona after graduation, we have spent the last month moving to San Diego.

Beautiful Bullhead City

Bullhead City has been a great place to live the last two years. There are many activities and beautiful scenery. Robert and I will be graduating with our Master's degrees in twenty days, unfortunately Bullhead City lacks a decent job economy.

Singing to my own private audience

Around a year ago a friend told me about this amazing app called Sing!Karaoke. Since then when the mood strikes I belt out a few songs which are recorded and shareable.

Transitioning my planner.

Hi, My name is  Kayla and I am a planner geek!

A few of my favorite things

Today I want to share a few things from this week that made my week a little brighter. For me it is the simple things. Below you will find a few items that I highly recommend you all try. I will start with food!

Day 1 in 7 Days to Die

During your first day on 7 Days to Die you will want to complete the tutorial in the upper right corner of your screen. If this is your very first experience with the game it is crucial to complete this series of quests.

Below you will find the video I created walking you through the process. If you follow my instructions you should be able to move through the steps quickly and then proceed with finding a safe base for your first night.

7 Days to Die Review Xbox One

We decided to try this game two weeks ago and since then have played little else with the exception of a few rounds of Battlefield 4. I decided to make a video review of the game and will be sharing a series of videos including a tutorial on the first day, a menu walk through, and my best game-play tips. In this video I share the pro's and con's of the game. Let me know what you think about it in the comments on the video or below this post!

Enjoy.

---------UPDATE---------------
As of 8/9/16 some of the cons on the list were addressed with a game update. The overheating issue has been resolved and the glitches/ lagging was improved by 90%. 

Gratitude

Today I am grateful for:
My loving husband.
My supportive family.
A good job.
A great community.
Awesome friends.
Silly cats.

Desert car washing

We have rarely washed our cars in the past...

Embarrassing? Yes. 

BuJo ESO #Nerd

In the real world being passionate about planners and video games makes you a #nerd. What would I be if I found a way to combine these passions?

BuJo: Bullet Journal.

After years of seeking the perfect planner I came across the planning method of Bullet Journaling. The best part is my BuJo can be my creativity outlet, shopping list, daily planner, and as you will see later my ESO tracker. I have three BuJo's going right now: My life, Work, and ESO.

Watch this video to learn more about bullet journaling.

ESO: Elder Scrolls Online

In my last post about adventuring with my husband I spoke about my current character Venspatra. In this amazing game there are several traits you have to research to improve your character. Researching happens when you find an item with a trait and destroy it to learn the trait. Clicking back and forth through the menus to figure out which items I needed to save for researching was time consuming so I decided to use a blank dot grid journal I had to make a BuJo just for our ESO information.

This BuJo has a fishing guide, armor set locations/ abilities, crafting information for all types of crafting, and a two spread character page for myself and my husband where we can use the handy chart I made to track our research. Here are a few photos showing the graph I made.

I may post more about this topic later, either BuJo or ESO. Then again I may not! ;)

Birthdays and Normalcy

Today is my 27th birthday. We went out with friends Saturday to a Hibachi grill, bought an ice cream cake last night, and spent the entire weekend in Tamriel adventuring together.

When people ask me what I am planning to do for my birthday or what I am getting I think of two responses.


1. I am an adult, birthdays are not that big of a deal anymore.
2. If we find something that we want we just purchase it, it doesn't matter if it is our birthday or not.

I feel as if the world expects us to have a huge celebration on our birthdays. Parents make a huge deal out of kid's birthdays and then the children grow up and expect a big deal to be made for the rest of their lives.

In our home a birthday is just another day. We celebrate life everyday. We budget money and save for items or vacations that we would like to have all throughout the year and when we have the extra money we do not wait for a holiday to get whatever "it" is that we desire.

I feel better about turning 27 than I did about 26.

Venspatra

Skyrim was one of my all time favorite games. My husband and I had two set ups in the same room so we could quest side by side. I remember multiple conversations with the topic of questing together in our game. 

Now we have two set ups again and Elder Scrolls Online. We can play in the same world's with characters who share quests, experience points, and loot! 

Venspatra is a high elf sorcerer who is a member of the Mages Guild and the Thieves Guild. She crafts light armor, potions, and dabbles in wood working. 

Fishing is a fun hobby of hers and she met a friend while fishing who happened to be a part of an awesome guild. Being a part of a members guild means you can go on quests in large groups and share resources.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this online universe. Questing at the side of my husband and best friend is amazing! Sure, the game developers are still working out some of the kinks but we are so happy with the game overall. 

Two perplexing problems we currently face.

Lately with our current state of affairs I find myself thinking of major societal problems and building
on the same solutions. This is my version of a daydream. I like to think of logical ways to execute plans and how they can be implemented on a massive scale.

Welcome to The Winter Times

The only constant in the universe.

Change. The first thing you should have noticed is that we have had a name change. We had to change after we let the domain name expire, and the price for winterstead.com went up beyond our means. The good news is that we were able to raise the value of our brand.

We chose The Winter Times because it is just about us. Not about our homestead. Not about our road trip. Just about what we are up to. Whatever that may be at the time.

Sometimes you just feel like writing

Hello friends and family, we miss you all back home!

Lately we have been terribly busy. I have taken a job as the Reservations Manager at Silver View RV Resort in beautiful Bullhead City. We are in our last class (whoop) of school, and... ... we have been apartment hunting.

Oatman Arizona: The land of wild donkeys and hogs.

Back in Kansas a friend of ours told us about a town in Arizona named Oatman. She said it was acute old mining town turned tourist trap. I love a bit of history and a tourist trap so I thought yeah I'll go. Then she tells us that the place is home to a bunch of wild burros. So I thought yeah I have to go.

Stuck in Bullhead City

After we paid the bill at the mechanic I thought that our plans were shot. We had hoped to get a lot of traveling and writing done with that money. I was thinking we would spend some time in Vegas, see SoCal, and tour the Grand Canyon. Now we don't have enough gas to get to any of those places. I have to admit I was kind of depressed. 

New years and time zones

On your way west from North Carolina to Arizona you change time zones twice. We arrived in Bullhead City on December 27th and had just enough time to get settled and meet a few locals before New Years Eve.

Milestones and Memories

We left Oklahoma refreshed and optimistic. Sure I did not win my millions at the Casino like I had wanted but there would be other chances in our future. Besides, you do not need to be a millionaire to enjoy the warm weather out west.

Free Casino Parking and Beginners Luck

I assume you all know by now we ran in to a little engine trouble. We had planed to head out west to warmer weather. We have a friend  we missed very much and who we were in a hurry to see. To top it all off by the time we left the rainforest we had saved up enough cash to do some repairs, get new tires, and take some time off.