Christmas!

Christmas in Idaho!

Christmas was wonderful this year. I spent over a week with my mom, dad, sister, grandpa, aunt, uncle and 6 dogs up at my parent's house in Twin Falls. We were blessed with beautiful scenery and wildlife the whole time. We got snow several different times, a big rainstorm with a rainbow, and we did end up having a white Christmas! There are pictures below.

Family was a lot of fun. We spent time playing games, running in the snow, and of course eating lots of super great food. I was blessed with lots of wonderful presents from everyone as well. Everyone was so thoughtful with their gifts, but of course, we all spent too much!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is ready for the New Year. I'm expecting great things from this year - it's time for new beginnings and good changes!

Tomorrow's the Day

I leave for Idaho tomorrow to start my Christmas Vacation! I am so excited! I am ready to have some fun with my family and see some snow. I'll take pictures and post them when I get a chance. I wish you all a wonderful and beautiful Christmas. Remember Jesus as you celebrate and try to keep joy in your heart!

Please pray for a safe trip and a peaceful time!

T-6 Days and Counting

This was another long week. Everyday at work was busy, but fortunately not too stressful. There are only 6 days left before Jenny and I leave for Idaho!

Over the weekend, Jenny and I saw August Rush. It's a nice feel-good movie with a really good soundtrack. I'd recommend it.

Monday night, I went to a Christmas Candy Party with my Book Club. I ate way too much candy, but it was all very yummy.

Tuesday night, I went to a Christmas Party with my Bible Study. We had a gift exchange, which turned out to be pretty funny. You can "trade" gifts with other people (really, it's more like stealing) if you see something you would like to have. It makes for a really fun time. We even had one gift resurface from last year....a fairly ugly 2 ft tall Nutcracker. I got a really pretty Lenox Cross Keepsake Box.

All my Christmas shopping is done and all the presents got wrapped Thursday night.

Yesterday, Molly, Mulder & Scully, and I all got groomed, so we're ready for Christmas as well.

Today, I went to help out at the Church for "Daddy Day Care." A bunch of men from the church volunteered to help out with watching kids for a couple hours so single parents could go shopping without the kids. They asked me to come to help take kids to the bathroom and stuff like that. I had to apply 2 Band-aids, but it was no big deal. The guys did great. We don't normally play tackle football or hide and seek in the Sanctuary with the lights off on Sunday mornings, but they had fun today!

Tomorrow, the kids will be singing Christmas songs at all 3 morning services and I am supposed to help out there. Hope they all know their songs!

This week should be a slow one at work. I'm looking forward to getting all packed and ready to leave on Friday! Hope everyone is gearing up for Christmas....it's only 9 days away! Pray for good traveling weather!

Big Sisters!

Last night, I took my little sister Erin to the Big Brothers Big Sisters Holiday Party at Lazerstar. What an event! Wow, there were a lot of people there! It was a fun time though and Erin enjoyed it. Erin's little sister, Michelle, has a Big Sister too, Heather. It was so great to meet Heather because she is experiencing exactly the same things I am as a Big. We hope to get together soon and do a double outing with Erin and Michelle.

This Saturday is the Women's Christmas Brunch at my church. I am really looking forward to it. I am going to be a greeter. I've never been before, but everyone tells me it's a wonderful event, so I'm really looking forward to it - and after the week I've had, I could use a good time!

It's December!

It's finally December! Is it just me, or did it feel like November took forever to end? Well anyway, I'm excited that it's finally Christmas' month and in less than 3 weeks, I'll be up in the cold snowy north to celebrate Christmas with my family. I'm about halfway done with shopping, but I intend to get the rest of it done this week. I did get the lights up on my balcony finally. Last Thursday, I also helped decorate the classrooms at church. We even have lights up here at work! It's so festive!

For my book club this month, we are reading a Christmas Devotional called the The Miraculous Journey. It's a wonderful look at the Christmas Story and what a journey it took to make everything happen just the way God planned. May you all be blessed this season as you remember why we celebrate. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Quick Note

Just a quick note to tell you to check out http://www.anthony-evans.com/. He's the son of pastor Dr. Tony Evans (maybe you've heard him on Christian radio) and he sang at my church on Sunday! He's awesome! Just take a listen!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Jenny and I celebrated a very laid back Thanksgiving thanks to Dream Dinners. They made it so easy and yummy. We even got bored waiting for the turkey to cook because everything was done already! There were hardly any dishes to do and everything turned out so well. We ended up with a lot of leftovers. I think I've had about 4 Thanksgiving dinners since and I'll still be eating turkey for a while.

I have so much to be thankful for this year too. I really took a look at what God has done for me this year, and through all the ups and downs, I am so thankful to have His Love and guidance with me through everything. He has given me incredible loving friendships to help me through my loneliness and tough times. He's provided absolutely anything I could possibly want and helped me financially throughout the year. He's given me a wonderful opportunity to teach children at church and continues to grow that ministry. And He continues to reveal Himself to me and show me His Love in new ways all the time, allowing me to grow in Him and receive the gifts He has for me. What a wonderful Father we have!

Friday, I avoided any type of retail store around. The sales just weren't worth it to me. Friday night, Jenny and I drove down to Santa Monica to meet with my friend Jenn from Monterey and two of her friends. We had a fun girl's night out at The Border Grill. The food was pretty good, especially the dessert.

Today, I helped Jenny hang lights on her house and we both put our Christmas trees up. This picture doesn't really do mine justice. It's much prettier in person. Tomorrow, I'll put up some lights on my balcony and put the rest of the decorations out. I suppose now that Christmas is just a month away, it's not too early! Hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season so far!

Christmas Trees!

So, this weekend Jenny and I bought Christmas trees for our homes, artificial ones. This picture is from the actual add for my tree. I think it's pretty and can't wait to put it up, but not until after Thanksgiving, mind you. Those of you who know us, know that it's only been recently that we would even consider buying a fake tree. Growing up, we would always drive to Utah to cut our own trees on the day after Thanksgiving, fresh from the forest. It was a big event with Grandma trying to steal everyone else's tree, the 2WD truck getting stuck, and a good time had by all. However, as time has gone on, it just made sense to get a fake one for now. Plus, the fake ones look much better than they did when we were growing up. And they even come with lights on them already! Now if they would only make them smell real - of course, I'm sure some of them do! At least we'll have a real one to smell at Mom and Dad's house, even if it did come from a lot instead of the Utah forest.

Holidays are Coming!

Now is the time of year when the weeks of work start getting shorter because of all the holidays. I had yesterday off because of Veteran's Day. Thank you all you Veterans out there! I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving already. Where has this year gone?

This weekend was a nice long one. I got a lot done around the house (like going through my downstairs closet, washing my car, taking stuff to goodwill, and laundry), had a girl's night in at Jenny's house with our friends Kenna and Stephanie, and even went clothes shopping. For those of you who know me well, you know I'm not a big shopper. But I figured with all the sales going on, it was a good time to go, so I just did it, and I was somewhat successful. Now, if I could only figure out what to get people for Christmas....only 42 shopping days left...help!

Lisa's Videos Worth Watching

You know how you get all kinds of emails with videos that are just hilarious or so touching that you just really need to share them? Well, I'll try and post some of those here as I get them. I've passed some of them along already, but some of these are worth repeating.

Here's one of a video shot in a game park in South Africa. It's hard to watch at first, but it is amazing - just keep watching until the end.
http://www.youtube.com/v/LU8DDYz68kM

This one is a little girl who reads Psalm 23. She's really cute.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9e7c4b40cf5a13cea6ca

This one is a video from a Lifehouse concert. It's pretty emotional, but a wonderful display of how much Christ loves us.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

This one is a Blue Angel during fleet week in San Francisco.
http://jumpcut.com/view?id=C009AF72755211DC9F89000423CF037A

This is a link to a site that you just have to see to believe.
www.willitblend.com

And this one will just keep you laughing because we all know it's true....
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/412867/how_to_shower_men_women/

Caden is finally here!

As some of you know, I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my good friends' first child. Jon and Katy welcomed Caden Chapman to the world last night and mom and baby are doing well. See their blog for more info!

<http://web.mac.com/louisvillechapmans/iWeb/Louisville%20Chapmns>

Monterey with Jenn

Jenn and me, hanging out by the beach in beautiful Monterey.

I spent the weekend in Monterey with my old college roommate Jenn. She works for a civil engineering company up there and recently bought a house so it was time to go visit and see what she's been up to. I got there Friday afternoon and hung out with her German family next door until she got home from work. They had two little boys who liked Molly. When she got home, she showed me around her house. She's done a lot of work on it and it's coming together nicely. We walked Molly around her neighborhood and decided to go eat. We went to dinner at a Hawaiian place that night and we told each other about all our adventures lately. When we got home, we pulled out our old college RA pictures and laughed at those and reminisced about old Cal Poly days with the other RAs. I need to google those guys and find out where they are.

Saturday, we got up and took Molly for a walk along their Rec Trail which goes by the pier and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We ate breakfast at a place outside so Molly could sit with us. Molly was so tired from walking. We took her home, then we went back to the Aquarium. Jenn is a volunteer there, so she got me in for free and showed me around. Here are pictures of jellyfish and sea otters. The sea otters are so cute. There was one in the blue tub, and then the other one decided she wanted to be in the tub too, so they were both in the tub. Then we drove up to Big Sur and found the campground where we stayed as RAs. Then we got dinner and saw the new John Cusack film, Martian Child. It's a pretty cute movie. I recommend it.

Yesterday, we had breakfast at this old fashioned place in Carmel Valley and then walked up and down the streets with Molly through old town Carmel. I can't believe the money people have there. All in all, it was a really fun visit. It'll be great to go back soon!

NO!!!

My weekend was pretty lazy, but one thing I did do was go to a self-defense class with Jenny. It was a pretty good one too. The teacher focused a lot on how to not get into trouble, but if trouble happens, she gave us the tools to get out of it. I now know how to break an attackers nose, foot, kneecaps, how to knock the wind out of him and how to severely injure his most um...well you get the idea. We're supposed to yell "NO!!" really loud to get attention while doing it. I must say, it feels pretty good to hit stuff (in a healthy environment where you're supposed to, of course).

Yesterday was a good message about husbands and wives from 1 Peter at church, and I taught the kids first service. We combined the 2&3 and 4&5 yr olds, so I had 10 little kids. Some of them are so wonderful and all of them were really well behaved yesterday. They'll come over and hug you or lean on you when they are sleepy. They're really a joy to be around (and I'm not just saying that because they're not my kids!)

October Sky

You know it's October around here when you see smoke in the air. It's something about this area of California that causes fires this time of year, and this year is especially dry. This picture is pretty much what we saw yesterday around 3:00 in the afternoon. It was really bizarre, with the sky all dark and people driving with their lights on. Hopefully the wind will die down today and it won't be as smoky and ashy outside.

My weekend was good. Here are some highlights: got my hair done (with highlights literally), had my good friend Kenna over Friday night to eat one of my Dream Dinners (www.dreamdinners.com), bought a freezer from Costco to house the Dream Dinners, did a little shopping with Jenny at Costco, bought Molly a new collar and leash, served at the church with lots of little kids, had a guest worship leader at church who was excellent (check him out at www.brentonbrown.com), and had lunch with my friend Barb.

Since it's been a while since I updated this blog, I'll mention the highlights of last weekend too. Mainly, it was a visit from my parents as they traveled through here on their way to and from San Diego to celebrate their 35th Anniversary! Yay Mom and Dad!

Rocky Mountain High

I spent the weekend in Colorado with my good college friend Jon and his glowing pregnant wife Katy. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. They are so much fun! See the Chapman's Blog link on the left for all their news.

Friday night, we went to another college friend's house. Dave, from the college Aero group, and his wife Elizabeth, have a baby girl named Elodie so we went over there to visit the new family. We had a nice dinner and visit. See the House's Blog link on the left for all cute pictures of Elodie. That night, we went home to watch "Music and Lyrics." If you've seen it, then you can understand how the songs from it will get stuck in your head. Especially since Katy bought the soundtrack and played it over and over....


Saturday morning, Jon, Katy and I decided to skip the gym and walk the dog instead. Then we went to Katy's niece's soccer game. After the game, we had lunch, talked about going shopping at Babies 'R Us, thought better of it, then drove up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful up there with the fall colors. In this picture, if you squint, you can see elk. We didn't hear any elk bugles, but apparently, now is the season. Along the way, we had to listen to a little of John Denver and his "Rocky Mountain High." Later that night, we went out to eat some yummy Mexican food and went home to watch tv.

Sunday, Katy and I went to church, then Jon and Katy got up the courage to go shopping at Babies 'R Us. They aren't very fond of it these days as the novelty has worn off and the idea of having to buy all that stuff for a baby is just too overwhelming and annoying, especially from that store. Then to help Jon feel better, we went to Home Depot where Jon tricked Katy into buying "a couple things" for the bathroom remodel. Actually, they bought almost a whole new bathroom. (And from what I hear now, Jon did the demolition part last night...glad I left before that.)

It was a great visit with wonderful friends. They have a fun life filled with normal everyday family stuff, which in about a month, is about to get a lot more fun with a baby! I was glad I got to be a part of it for the weekend.

Shine Like Stars

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." Philippians 2:14-15

My weekend was wonderful. My Grandpa and Aunt Joyce came into town Friday night. We had a nice dinner out that night. I also got to meet Joyce's new puppy, Zoie. Wow, what a puppy! She is everywhere, bouncing up and down all over the place. She took a liking to Molly and would paw at her face to get her play. Molly tolerated her quite well and I was proud that she didn't take a bite out of her.

Saturday morning, I took my little sister, Erin, and her little sister, Michelle, to the United Way/Big Brothers Big Sisters Day of Caring in the Park. They had all kinds of activities set up for the kids. They built a birdhouse, made ice cream in a Ziploc, made eclaires over an open fire, made keychains and bracelets, played frisbee golf, had lunch and got their faces painted (see below for the "Stars" of the day). They had a great time.

Saturday afternoon, we took my aunt and grandpa to the Reagan Library. They really enjoyed it. We were able to see almost everything there. I realized that I see something new every time I go. Afterwards, we were looking for someplace to eat. We ended up at Sizzler, which was yummy for all.

Sunday morning, I taught the kids at the first service at church. Then my grandpa and aunt came to second service with me. They got to meet my pastor and a couple of the people from my Bible Study. They liked the service and thought the message was good.

After church, we went to Ventura Harbor to eat at Andrea's. They all got overloaded with fish and chips, which is apparently easy to do there. Then we wandered down the harbor and got some ice cream. We also stopped to take some silly pictures. On the drive home, we stopped at the cross on the hill in Grant Park because it was such a beautiful day. In the picture, you can see the Channel Islands off in the distance. All in all, we had a great visit with Grandpa and Joyce.

Weekend Celebrations!

Ok - here's my weekend in a very large nutshell.

Thursday night - Took Jenny out to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday. We ate way too much and she ended up taking both of our dinners home for meals later. So yummy.

Friday - I got Jenny's present of chocolate covered strawberries and a gift card and decorated her kitchen with birthday stuff when I dropped Molly off at her house. She was excited to see all that stuff!

Friday afternoon - Drove down to Pasadena in record time with my friends Debbie and Kim H. from church. We checked into our hotel, then we met up with 4 other women from church, Kim B., Tamera, Heather and Angie for dinner at this fancy Italian restaurant called Il Fornaio.

Friday evening - GodChicks Conference! It was held at the First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena (Paz Naz). We were greeted by men in suits and tuxes with chocolate kisses on silver platters while we waited in line to go in. That right there told us it was going to be a great conference. While waiting in line, my group got interviewed for their DVD, so we may be GodChicks celebrities!

When they let us in to the sanctuary, there were about 20 women on stage in different time period costumes who stood there like manequins until the show started. They would move when the music would change. Finally, the show started and there was wonderful worship music and singing and dancing and fun! Then Holly Wagner (the author of GodChicks and the one who created the whole thing) got on stage and spoke to us. The theme for the conference was "To Everything There is a Season." We are supposed to live in this season and live every moment to its fullest. She was really awesome and inspiring. She handed out watches (not cheap ones either) to remind us to live in the moment. After the evening session, we were invited to the Patio Party outside where she had the different seasons displayed. For winter, she even had snow brought in! Complete with a snowman and sledding! It was incredible.

Saturday morning, we woke up to rain, a lot of rain, but that was great too. The Kims, Debbie and I all had breakfast at Denny's in the morning and then went to the conference. Again, it was wonderful. There were three guest speakers, Betty Price (who pastors a large church in LA) and Bobbie Houston (who pastors a large church in Australia), along with Holly's husband, Phillip. All of them were wonderful and inspiring with the message of living in the moment and knowing that God has placed us in this time for a reason, so make the best of it. We were truly lavished through the whole conference with gifts (lip gloss, cds), beautiful and fun music (both Christian and contemporary - including the grand finale from High School Musical) and just a wonderful time of learning and growing. I definitely want to go back next year. Here's Kim B., Debbie, Kim H. and me.

We got home in record time with no traffic. I went to Jenny's to take her Chick-fil-A and eat some chocolate covered strawberries and took Molly home.

Sunday - I went to church early to teach the kids during the early service, then went to second service. After service, I had two parties to go to. The first was a surprise 70th birthday party for the wife in the couple who hosts my bible study. She had no idea we were going to do anything and we totally invaded her house. She is such a sweet lady, but she hates to be the center of attention so it really caught her off guard. She was very grateful, but also happy to see us get out of her house.

While at church, my friends Marc and Nikki invited me to their house for a BBQ with a couple of their other friends. So after party #1, I went over there. I guess party #2 wasn't really a party, it was just a get together, but it was still fun.

I got home reasonably early last night and thought I'd try a new workout DVD….now I'm sore, but in a good way. So I guess that was my whole weekend in a pretty big nutshell!

ARRRGGHHH!

It's talk like a Pirate Day! Thanks to Dave Barry. You too should talk like a pirate today. See this link to find out about the day. Down on the bottom, you can get your pirate name too!
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=77573

Mine is Dirty Bess Rackham!
Here is my description -
You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Anyway - it's been a busy week at work, sorta. We have had a lot of things scheduled, but lots of things have canceled too. That's just how things go around here. I had a wonderful Miracle Monday with some church friends. We were able to pray for people who needed healing. I am really looking forward to tomorrow night. I am taking Jenny to The Cheesecake Factory for her birthday. Then on Friday, it's off to the GodChicks Conference down in Pasadena! I can't wait.

Weekend News

Saturday - My little sister, Erin, and I had fun doing a stained glass project. We also had a birthday lunch at TGI Friday's. She'll be 12 on September 18. Then Jenny and I went to Black Angus for dinner. We were going to go to the comedy show, but we ended up shopping instead.

Sunday - I taught the kids at first service for church. During church, we had a guest worship group. Two Or More (www.twoormore.org) rocked the place. They're a Latin/salsa type worship group and they were awesome.

Now back to my normal Sunday routine...

Long Week

This week started out pretty well. Monday night, we had our first book club of the new season. We are reading Warrior Chicks by Holly Wagner. It is about being a strong, beautiful and confident woman who rises in the midst of hard times. I think it'll be a good book for me. Kim, our fearless book club leader, is so wonderful. She gave us prayer partners for the month and she also gave us each a pretty windchime! I had been looking for a new one, but just never got around to buying one. She is so thoughtful. I hear it now as I type.

This week was a long one with lots of overtime and strange hours at work too. I am glad it's over. Staying at work until 9:00 at night or going in at 5:00 am is not all that fun, but at least it's work and I won't complain. Plus, it's some extra cash, which is always good.

So since I worked most of the week, there wasn't much time for anything else, but it was a good week anyway. I'm looking forward to going to a comedy show with Jenny tomorrow. When we went a couple weeks ago, she put her business card in a bowl for a drawing and won 2 tickets. I will also spend some time with my little sister, Erin, tomorrow. It is her 12th birthday on September 18th. I'll fill you in on the details later!

Church Birthday

Today was my church's 10th birthday party. They held 1 service (instead of the usual 4) in a local high school gym. They really outdid themselves. It was a huge party. I helped check the little kids into the Children's Ministry before the service. I imagine there were 1500 people there or so. Their theme was "It's A New Day." God is doing new things all the time and he gives us a new start everyday. Boy, that's so true, especially in my life lately. Afterwards, they had a huge BBQ and games for everyone. I hung out with my friends Jennifer and Stephanie and we enjoyed the nice 75 degree weather. Stephanie is 8 days away from having her baby boy, Trenton. It was a wonderful time and I am so happy to have found such a great church.

Bye Bye Truck

Today I sold my truck. It went to a really nice family whose son will take it with him to college. It was truly a God thing that happened. I prayed that if I was to sell it, that God would provide the right people. This was the only call I got on the truck and they were very ready to take it for a good price. Their son was so excited. He also just recently got baptized and they were happy to see the Jesus fish on the back. I was so glad I didn't have to take that off. I didn't want to! I am sad to see the truck go. It's been with me through a lot - at least 7 states on lots of roadtrips and lots of memories at college, but I am happy that someone else can have some fun with it. So bye bye Old Ranger, I'll miss you.

Fun Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was a fun-filled one. My parents came into town on Friday to spend the whole weekend with us.

Saturday night, Jenny got invited to a party...but not just any party, the first annual Guac-Off for these people. The owners of the house she is helping to remodel decided to have a party at their avocado ranch in Carpinteria. First of all, you have to check in with security at the gate. Then you drive up the hill to the main house. If you've ever taken the tour at Hearst's Castle where you drive up the hill to see the view of the Pacific Ocean, then that's what it's like. So you get to the main house, passing the horse barns and the small animal petting zoo (brought in especially for the kids at the party) where they valet park your car. We wandered into the party and saw the Guac-off table where people brought all the supplies to make guacamole. Of course the avocados were provided by the hosts. The view from their home was pretty incredible. The food was very yummy. The drinks were free (not that I had any). They had a fancy scavenger hunt too. Oh and did I mention that there were several celebrities there? Yeah, Robert Zemeckis (director of Castaway and Forrest Gump among others), Jim Belushi and Elle Woods herself, Reese Witherspoon. Pretty cool stuff.

So on Sunday, the family went to Disneyland. My parents hadn't been there in a long time, so it was fun to see them experience the new stuff there. We did a lot of the regular rides in the main park, but didn't do the new Nemo Sub because the lines were too long. We were on Pirates of the Caribbean when they shut down all the rides because of an earthquake. It wasn't much longer though and everything reopened. It was pretty hot out there on Sunday too, like in the 90+ range. After lunch, we went over to California Adventure. The hit there was the Soarin' ride, twice. Here's a picture of us waiting inside. We also rode the Grizzly water ride to cool off, and we did - soaking wet is what actually happened, but at least we were cool.

We took yesterday to recover, just sitting around watching movies and playing games. All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend.

Molly's a Big Chicken

Here is Molly - being very timid of the neighbor's cat, Johnny Mew. She doesn't really know what to do with a cat.

More giggles

So yesterday was a slow day at work...how do I know this? You mean other than the fact that I checked foxnews.com 17 times, looked at the same blogs of about 5 people 12 times to see if they updated them, played sudoku, a crossword puzzle, and solved a jigsaw puzzle all before 10:00 am? Well, I know this because as we were sitting around doing not much in the afternoon, our resident laser safety genius (yeah you read that right) comes over to our cubes and says his computer screen is rotated. He was just doing some calculations in Excel and all of the sudden, his screen is rotated so you can only read it if you rotate your head to the right. After several unsuccessful attempts, we finally looked up "fix rotated screen" on yahoo and came up with the solution. If you press CTL-ALT-(arrow key), then your screen will rotate. Don't ask me why Microsoft thinks this feature is necessary, but it works. Anyway, we thought about all the people we could get who leave their computers sitting there unattended and did a test run on the resident prankster in the office by flipping his upside down. His answer was to just turn his whole monitor upside down, which would have worked for a little while, but I don't think his monitor liked it much. It's a pretty harmless trick and we may get someone pretty good with it one of these days. I'd really like to hear what our tech hotline people would say about that one...

My car is back in the shop because the windows are still creaking. No idea why this is happening, but it's annoying me, so they said they'll try to fix it again. As long as they're doing it for free, I'll keep taking it back. In the meantime, I get to drive a brand new 2007 G35. Pretty sweet!

Time to Laugh

This weekend - I did several really fun things. My little sister, Erin (through Big Bros, Big Siss) and I went to Golf-N-Stuff. Mini golf is always good for a laugh. We actually tied. Can you believe that?

Saturday, I went to visit a couple from church, Jim and Debbie, at their campsite on the beach in Carpinteria. Little did I know that another church family, the Stevensons, was camped in the spot next to them with their 3 little girls and some extended family. We all had fun and had a nice lunch of chicken salad and egg salad sandwiches. We got to walk along the beach and play with their grey parrot named Greycie. The parrot was a lot of fun. I got to hold her and feed her chips and watermelon. Then they put her in a tree. She'd never been in a tree before. She looked right at home.

Saturday night, my friend and coworker, Rafael, invited my sister and me to a comedy show. It was supposed to be a Christian comedy night, so we went. It was a lot of fun. The headline was a guy named Ron who was on the second season of Last Comic Standing. His website is http://www.funnyron.com/ and he's pretty funny.

Sunday was my day to help out at Children's Ministry at church. Usually, that means a quiet morning during the early service with about six 4-5 yr olds. I volunteered to help out second service in the 2-3 yr old room....wow! There were 16 of them! And they were all over the place! What fun!

Hope you got a laugh out of my funny weekend.

Last night, I was sitting at home wondering what to watch on tv. As I flipped through the digital tv guide, I saw that the film Moses with Ben Kingsley was going to be on TBN. I haven't seen it, so I thought I'd watch it. Well I turned to TBN, but instead of Moses, they were playing this movie called The Perfect Stranger. It was about this woman who got a dinner invitation from Jesus. They sat and had dinner and she got to ask him important questions. It was a wonderful movie showing how God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us and if he could have dinner with each of us, he really would. It was a simple movie, but a very delightful way of explaining the tough questions about Jesus.

Uggg...

The circus tent has come down and the hospital is beginning to look normal again. I guess it's mold free now so that is good news. Maybe things will quiet down around there.

Last night, I had my sister, Jennifer, and a bunch of ladies from church (Jennifer, Stephanie, Lisa, Carina and Debbie) over to my place (plus Mulder and Scully). We had a great time eating and chatting and having fun. We had so much food too! It was a lot of fun to just get together and be silly!

In the middle of all our fun last night, my back started hurting again. It's the same pain I had last week, which eventually went away over the weekend. But now it's back with a vengeance, cutting into my sleep. Oh well...I guess I will just take it easy for a while. That's about it for now....

It's a Circus!

So the hospital across the street from my apartment looks like a circus tent, minus the stripes and the pointy top. It's covered in plastic. Apparently, the hospital is full of mold and they have to treat it with some chemical. But I am not to worry. People from the EPA will be on site, monitoring the amount of escape chemicals...gee, I feel better.

Thanks to Julie Carobini's blog, I have this silly quiz for you to take. There's lots of them, but I'll just share one for now...Find out what kind of sandwich you are here: http://blogthings.com/whatkindofsandwichareyouquiz/

I am a Ham Sandwich

You are quiet, understated, and a great comfort to all of your friends. Over time, you have proven yourself as loyal and steadfast. And you are by no means boring. You do well in any situation - from fancy to laid back.

Your best friend: The Turkey Sandwich

Your mortal enemy: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Book Club, Bible Study, Food and Trucks

Ok, it's been a little while, so it's time to update the blog. Still haven't taken a picture of Marcus' truck yet, but it's looking good with the new wheels, tires and running boards. He also got a bed extender and a 6-disc cd changer and right now, it's at the upholstery shop getting leather seats. It's pretty sweet.

By the way, the Ranger is for sale...if you know anyone who wants a new truck, let me know. It's been good to me, just time to let someone else enjoy it.

Last Thursday night, Jenny and I went to Dream Dinners (www.dreamdinners.com) and made a bunch of dinners. It's one of those places where all the ingredients are there, you just put them all together in a baggie and then you can make the dinners at home. It was a lot of fun and now my freezer is full of good food, just waiting to be eaten. I'm going to make another dinner tonight. So far, the ham and potato strata is pretty good.

Monday night, I had my Book Club meeting. It was so fun. We had the author join us for the get-together. We read Chocolate Beach, by Julie Carobini. It's a Christian Chick-lit set in Ventura. You can check her out at www.juliecarobini.com. She has another book coming out in early 2008. We had a little beach party in a backyard and ate all kinds of good food. We had brownies, salad, chicken, bread and of course, chocolate chili! If you read the book, you'll know all about the chocolate chili!

Last night, we had our Bible Study. We talked about the 7 Pillars of our Faith - Salvation in Christ Jesus, the Integrity of God and His Word, the Force of Love, Our Authority in Christ Jesus, the Force of Faith, the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the Power of Prayer. It was quite an evening of faith with lots of prayer for healing and Spiritual growth. We start the book of Romans in September.

That's it for now...more later!

New Truck

Last night, Marcus and I drove down to Torrance to pick up his new truck. He bought a 4-dr 2005 Toyota Tacoma. It's silver with a light grey interior. I'll post pictures later...

Trip to the Sierras

So here's my first attempt at this blogging thing. Let's see how it goes...

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Marcus and I just got back from our trip to Kernville in the Sierras. We had a great time hiking and visiting nature. We hiked over 10 miles on Saturday. Our legs are so tired! We saw so much wildlife though. We saw deer, squirrels, a fox, lizards and the highlight - a bear! A big bear! Here we are standing in front of the bridge over the Little Kern River. It was the turn-around point for the hike. We took a much needed dip in the river when we got there. Of course, it was all down-hill for the first half of the hike, and all up-hill on the way back, but the river cooled us off.

Sunday, we took a nature walk through the Trail of 100 Giants. The walk goes through giant Sequoia redwood trees. It was beautiful. Here's a picture of us standing in front of one that is probably over 1000 years old!

The Sierras are beautiful. Here are a couple more shots from the hike and the walk through the trees.